The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-04-27

pensiveness of living in France and In Italy,
are always TO be taken into account in
judging both countries. IL one should try
20 live as we do at home, IL would cost al
most twice as much, l should say. Goa Is
SO 10 SIC per ton. For my kerosene l pay
60 cents for a can of a gallon and a half.
salt. coarse, costs 8 cents z pound; sugar,
II cents a pound; inert. up to so cents a
pound for good steak; bread. a cent for q
fairly large roll.
When salaries are so low. and the COM
petition is so keen, and house-rents are so
high as here, one doesn't have to go out
of the way to account for immortality and
Latin decadence," and to find an explana-
ton for the few marriages and the few
births in France. 1t costs too much TO Sup
port a family. That is all there is to it.
The situation is much more striking In
France than in Italy, because standards
are much higher and requirements much
greater here than there. There is no such
body of illiterates here as there is in Italy.
where the rate increases from only 4 per
cent. in Turin and 10 or u in Milan TO near
ly so in Rome, over so in Naples, and IN
average of two-thirdS or three-fourths of
the population in the heel and toe and In
Sicily, who can neither read nor write,
analfabetici. as the Italians call them.
Moreover, the Frenchman has no relief in
emigration. He is sure that France is the
most civilized, the most prosperous, the
most delightful and the happiest country
in the world, and that outside of its Dor
ders there are only barbarians, who speak
Russian, German, English, Spanish and
various other difficult and quite unneces-
sary languages. Therefore he stays at
home and plans longingly for a journey in
the distant future to Paris, the capital of
the universe; while the French who are
already In Paris shudder at the idea Of GO
ing into the provinces, and are aghaSt at
the thought of crossing the frontier. But
the Italians overrun every surrounding
country, as well as North and South Amer
lea. If they only had the French colonies
L think they could make a success of them.
| The most notable features of the Italian
situation are the schism between church
and state: the oppressive taxes. for the
support of the army and navy; the alb
sence, in a large degree, of real patriot
ism Qor an Italian Is a Piedmontese, or a
Venetian, or a Sicilian; he thinks in Mi
lanese, or Emilian, or Tuscan, or Neapo-
Titan, even if he can speak real Italian);
the complete absence of any religious sem
timent (the Italian is a thorough mate
rialist, therein being profoundly different
from the Frenchman, who is carried right
off his feet by an idea, and does have an
ideaD. 1 believe MachiavelI is a type of
the Italian. So do the French, who have
not forgotten how the Italians repaid Ma
poleon III in 1870 for helping them to free
themselves a few years before.
The two nationalities cannot understand
each other. The Italian hates the French
man. and the Frenchman dislikes the ItaI-
ian. He is not only an inferior sort of
real nuisance. The Italians have not for
gotten the loss of Savoy, Nice, and Cor
sica. They pride themselves on Napoleone
Buonaparte. and they teach in the schools
that the real limits of Italy include Nice
n Corsica, though they do belong polit-
ically to France. italia irredenta." 'un-
redeemed Italy'-the idea that Nice, Cor
sica, Trent, Trieste, Fiume. and even Sa-
voy. Malta and Tripoli, are really Italian,
and must eventually become Italian poll
tically, is an article of faith in Italy, and
| will make trouble some time.
| For us who speak English the Italian has
a liking that seems to be real. Therein he
differs greatly from the other continental
peoples, who hate us more or less opaply,
and consider us absolutely soulless and hyp-
ocritical. That makes no difference to the
Italian.