Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-03-23
THE CONDITION OF ITALIAN WOMEN.
No One Questions Their Right to Do the
Work of Man.

III SOiNEl WV Vt ~ HEHNN W
No One Questions Their Right to Do the
Work of Man.
Nine. Dario Papa, the American
widow of an italian Republican editor,
recently spoke on "The Condition OF
Women in Italy" before a Boston
woman's club. Italy, she said, is
noted for its beautiful climate and its
haggard women. The reason the
women look old so early is because
they are so ill-nourished. They begin
to loose their teeth when their
first child is born, and are generally
toothless by the time they are thirty.
In Italy no one questions the right of
a women to do the work of man, or
of horse, OF of derrick. Women
carry pianos on their heads. 1t is not
uncommon to see group of women
struggling under a great block or
stone for building, the muscles of
their necks standing out, their faces
purple with effort, and their eyes al
most starting from the sockets.
In spite of their hardships, they
sometimes show courage. After the
defeat of the italian troops in Africa,
when more soldiers were called for,
the women of Pavia took the trains
from the tracks to prevent any more
of their sons from being sent to be
sacrificed uselessly, the indignant
women disarmed the soldiers, and with
their own swords gave them whip
ping i" in the good old mother fash
ion" The women straw-weavers, who
worked long hours for three cents a
day, made up their minds that they
would rather not live than
live in this way; and a multitude
of them lay down on the railroad track
in the path of the engine and refused
to stir. They succeeded in getting
their wages raised to ten ceuts day.
At the time of the bread riots, the
women displayed much courage and
compassion, caring for the wounded
while the bullets were flying in the
streets. They tore up red handker-
chiefs and fastened them to their
white aprons in the shape of cross,
to show the soldiers that they were
only looking after the injured, but the
officers cried, ga rinferno with the
Red Crossl" Nine. Papa said that
about twenty women of her acquaint-
ance were condemned by court-martial
to terms of imprisonment. They had
been very brave during the fighting,
but cried at the trial, which was COM
mented upon as odd. She thought it
very natural.
Women's opportunities for the
higher education are good i'll Italy. A
young lady, a graduate Of the univer-
sity of Pavia, wrote for Dario Papa s
journal an article criticising the
Crispi ministry, which caused the
paper to be suppressed, BUTT started
the agitation that led to the downfall
of the ministry. A rich woman, a
graduate of the University of Naples,
who has for years devoted herself to
nursing and caring for the poor and
organizing the women into clubs, was
condemned after the bread riots to q
u tGnH H.. Though likely to die q
consumption, she asked that no plea
for her release on the ground of her
health might be made by any one, not
even by her daughter; she preferred
to share the same fate as the other
prisoners. Italian prisons are hor-
rible, and the prisoners are allowed
to communicate with their friends only
once in six months.
In the north of Italy the working
women are pretty well organized, or
were until last May, when all the wom-
ans societies were suppressed. The
women take great interest in these
organizations. The president of the
Woman's league in italy believes in
woman suffrage, and the italian Re
publican party has made it plank il
its platform, but the prospect of it is
as yet so remote as to seem like 6
dream.
The people are constantly on the
verge of starvation, owing to the
heavy tax imposed by the government
on all necessaries of life, for the sake
of keeping up the large army ant
navy. The condition is like that il
France before the revolution; and a
almost any time, especially in spring
when all the winter provisions are
gone, and the new crop not yet come
there is danger of some appalling out
break. Woman s Journal.