Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-03-15
WAY TO VESUVIUS.
The Beggars Who Continually
Beset the Tourist.
People of Naples Are Very Dirty and
Unconventional.
A Trip From the City to the Far
Famed Crater.

IL is q long drive from Naples to
Vesuvius but an interesting one. You
hire a carriage at the hotel or at the
AGENCY of Cock e Sons, who control
tie road to the crater, and the cable
railway, end start at . o'clock in the
morning, writes William Z. Curtis in
the Chicago Record-Herald. The route
passes through the manufacturing part
of the city, which is neither beautiful
nor picturesque, and follows the coast
line of the gulf for six or eight miles
between tall buildings occupied both as
teaements and factories. The people of
Naples live chiefly in the streets, and
the sidewalks are occupied not only by
workmen and artisans as shops and
stores, but by the members of their
families, who engage in occupations
which are usually performed in the
back part of the house. There is great
er freedom and more careless indiffer-
ence to observation than you can see
anywhere else, and the native popula
ton is so accustomed to it that they
never show curiosity or interest.
One of the c0mmonest sights to be
witnessed is one woman doing up the
hair of another on the sidewalk in front
of their dwelling. Men and women are
frequently seen washing their feet and
bathing their bodies as low as the waist
line; all the laundry work is done on
the sidewalk, and much of the cooking,
while many families use it as a dining
and dressing room. Some other things
are to be seen which 1 am not per-
nitted to describe, but people who have
them. The behavior of the entire
population, men, women and children,
is exceedingly informal, not to say in
| delicate.
All this passes under your observa-
| ton as if it were panorama while you
drive along through the streets toward
| Vesuvius, and occasionally the car
| riage passes through long lines of
racks hung with macaroni drying in
| the sun. Naples is the principal point
for that industry.
There are beggars on every block,
| who run along beside the carriage and
exhibit manned limbs, repulsive sores,
and use other disagreeable methods to
They throng this thoroughfare because
every foreigner who comes to Naples
visits Vesuvius and must go this way.
| 1t is difficult to resist their importuni-
| ties. IT is no use to turn away the
head, because they will scream at you
all the louder, and when they are tired
| chasing the carriage they will stop and
| curse you with as much energy as they
have shown IN their appeals.
After awhile the carriage leaves the
| city and turns into the country, COM
mCncing to ascend the mountain by an
easy grade. The roadway is hemmed
| in by high walls on either side, which
| shut off the view and remind you that
Italy is not a safe country to live in.
They are not SO necessary as they were
years ago, and many of them are al
lowed to crumble. Some show wide
breaches which are now protected by
barbed wire, but prudent farmers still
keep up these defenses for fear of hav-
ing their vineyards stripped of fruits
and their grain harvested for them dur
ing the night by thieves. After awhile
you turn a corner and see band of
musicians awaiting you-five or six
men with mandolins, violins and
guitars, who walk beside the carriage
as it slowly winds it way up the hill
and give Il peripatetic concert, never
failing to play and sing Santa Lucia"
and always closing their pragram with
God Save the King" which is the
same as our America" This appeal
to the patriotism of the occupants of
the carriage is varied by the MAR
selllaise" or the Watch on the Rhine"
if the tourists are French or German,
for the musicians show keenness of
perception in detecting the nationality
of people who pass them. Then one of
them passes his hat. If you contribute
literally he bows with great courtesy;
if not, he makes no acknowledgment
whatever.
A little farther along you will be met
by hand organ perched upon little
cart and drawn by two peasant girls.
while an old woman turns the crank.
You infer that all the blind people in
Naples have been brought out for an
airing. because the roadway is usually
lined with them. and the cripples are
beyond enumeration. Toward the top
Of the volcano is hut made of stone,
which was inhabited for many years
by an old beggar. He built it himself,
and lived there summer and winter
through many snow storm and
through several eruptions. At one time
his hut was almost buried in liquid
lava, and the roadway which reached
it was entirely covered. He could not
leave his hermitage for several days,
because the ground was so hot, and
must have suffered intensely from the
heat while he was penned up there. He
was well rewarded. however, because
his experience made him an object of
great interest, and thereafter he had
merely to sit at the door of his den and
let people look at him. He died two
years ago, and left considerable sum
of money. You frequently hear stories
of rich beggars in Naples, because
hundreds of people make it business,
and it is more highly developed here
than anywhere else.
The roadway, which. as l told you, is
owned by the Cook Tourist Company, is
a monopoly. and the government per-
mits it to charge a high toll for every