The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-04-13
MISERICOROIA IN TUSCANY

Rome Cor. of the London lancet
When the Romance of Outdoor Re
lief comes to be written it will owe
some of it's most touching, most PIC
turesque chapters to the Miserlcordla-
a brotherhood peculiar to Tuscany, seen
at it's best in Florence, though also ad-
mirably in evidence at Siena, Pisa, Leg
horn and Lucca, and not unWorthlly
represented in the minor provincial
towns, inland or maritime. Eccles1astl-
cal in origin, it was founded In 1244
by Pietro di Luca Borsi, and its per
sonnet is drawn from every social rank
all and individually bound to serve
whenever summoned, without fee or re-
ward. The grand duke himself, when
presiding at a state banquet in the Pitt1
Palace, has had to rise and leave MS
guests when his turn came, and to pear
a hand with tradeSmen, mobiles, me-
chanics, professional men-with the
company, in fact, promiscuously impro-
vised to transport to hospital some vic
tim of an accident or to carry a patient
from the sick bed to the suburban lodg-
ing indicated by the physician.
The service is not one of "unskilled
labor The members of the brother
hood have all been previously trained
to lift the sufferer from the street. to
turn the patient in bed, and put him
on the ''bara" or stretcher with the
minimum of pain or of risk to compro-
missed limbs or organs, and thereafter
to beap him through the thoroughfares
to his destination with the least possible
vibration, friction or disturbance. AS
often happens, the particular company
told off on sudden duty is composed of
men as various in altitude as they are
in social position, so that in carrying
the 'bara" shoulder high they employ
for the first part of the journey those
of them who are as nearly as possible
of the same height, and when these are
tired they lower their burden to the
less tall without interruption of move
ment or alteration of pace, and so con-
tinue the shifting process until the suf-
ferer is at his journeys end and laid
down in bed with scarcely the con-
seriousness OF having been transported
at all.
Few sights or sounds are more i'm
presSiVe in the Florence of today than
the measured march" of the Miser1-
cordia through it's crowded street, as,
robed in black gowns and hooded in
black cowls, with openings for the eyes,
the brotherhood wends its way with it's
burden, the bystander lifting his hat
sympathetically, the traffic reverently
falling aside, and the street noises sub
dued to momentary hush in the pres
ence of 1.-The still, sad music of humani-
ty.'' Queen Victoria, it is well known,
took profound interest in the Miseri-
cordia during her successive sojourns
in Florence, and one of its highest office
bearers, the late Cavaliere Cesare Barsi,
was deputed by the rci-Confraternita
to visit the Villa Palmieri, there to set
forth to her majesty it's origin, and con-
stitution, the nature of its service. the
d
more striking incidents in its exper-
fence.
AS I have said, the brotherhood is
peculiar to Tuscany. though other places
have their equivalents, each in it's own
way rendering similar service; few, if
any, of them, however, being able to
point to the same antiquity of origin, to
the same large resources, to the
same admirable discipline and organic
alton. I have been led to give this
brief notice of the Misericordia from
the funeral obsequies just celebrated in
Florence of the provvediture Cor gener-
al provider and administrator of the
brotherhood, Signor Giuseppe Bron-
zuoli-a singularly imposing and pic
turesque pageant composed of three
hundred members of the Arci-Confra-
ternita, fifty 'capi di guardia" (chiefs
of the guard), and thirty-five priests.
The procession included many citizens,
among whom were not a few surgeons
and physicians, those of them who i'm
mediately followed the hearse bearing
lighted torches.