The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-11-02

least as much as in America; and then
comes in this pathetic sarta and makes
YOU up the one for 8 francs, instead OF
So and the other for Dor Y franc. instead
CT Si5 to SIS. And after growing rich
once by this means. you grow rich sec
end time by virtue of the fact that ia
italy it is not your clothes that assert
your rank, but you who make any clothes
respectable by wearing them.
True, there exists little foxes in the
shape of fees and festas. 1t does mott seem
Of any moment the first time you hand
your cabman or waiter two or three cents
or the boy who brings the package or the
woman with the washing; but enough
there are after all but twenty cents in c.
franc. The wisest way is TO forget ones
fees. since by no possibility one can es-
cape them.
defy. however. any one 10 forget the
festas. Setting out gayly for pleasure Of
hurriedly for business, you are brought
up short by the closed doors and shut
tered windows of shops
1T appears to be a festa2" you remark
TO Ginevra.
Surely" she replies. with an air OF
mild establishment, as one who sees a
heather for the first time. The feast OF
the Madonna"
oh, indeed" you say meekly.
A few days later you again find your
liberty OF action restrained in the matter
Of purchasing paper.
1t appears to be another fiesta. you
say severely, still to Ginevra.
But We have just had it."
The assumption" explains Ginevra pa
tiently. But this is the feast of the ma
tivity OF TIE Madonna"
And now" you cry Indignantly. when
yet q few days more have passed, here
is another feast"
'Of the Madonna? truly yes; the feast
Of the name of Mary"
Eight days more.
What do you call this feast, Ginevra?"
"Of the most holy name of Mary"
we have had it. triumphantly.
The feast. but this is the octave of
the most holy name of Mary
How is a poor, and Protestant, foreigner
to keep track of all these Sundays in
week? Nevertheless, we tried, and, having
been bred TO respect scrupleS not our own.
we let the typewriter rest on Sunday
with such a beautiful possibility calling
out from the keys to u.s.. dressed eIabor-
ately for dinner at the restaurant. and
went to hear vespers at st. Peters, which
seemed somehow not up TO the mark.
Having done all this it was little trying
to sally forth the next morning, after
hard forenoons work and find shops clos
60 and a general air of unmistakable fiesta.
abroad. "Tombola" lottery stands stood
here and there, and people were busy
buying tickets.
This is little too much," said we.
Religious festivals one can put up with,
but if they shut up the capital city OF the
kingdom for rombola it passes endur-
ance"
Why are all the shops closed?' we ask
ed the nearest tombola- man, with the Sc
verify the occasion warranted.
"Eh; it is a fiesta; his expression show
ed some wonder.
80 it appears; we think there are too
many; why should they shut everything
up?"
"Eh; it is a custom here. on festas."
And what fiesta is it,"
We waited to hear him say. 1.-The Ma
donna s."
The mans wondering expression deep
ened. He looked at US as if we were
curiosities.
'.Eh; the fiesta of Sunday he said.
We turned away speechless.
All these. however, were festas which
merely impoverish Italy. There are those
which impoverish the stranger within her
as a couple Of Christmases a
year, one at its due season, and the other
in mid-August, on that same nativity of
the Madonna" You may feel conscien-
tiously unable to make gifts to friends or
family. but your conscience viii not help
you in the matter OF the postman. the
porter. the walters, the washerwoman's
girl, and the millIman boy, the facchino
who carried up a dog for you last year,
or the lad who summoned the facchino
to 90 it. You may give; or you may pack
up and go And, on the whole. it is better
to give: for at the base Of every one of
these little extortions lies some pathetic
chapter of that poverty which makes the
poorest of US so comparatively rich in
Italy; and even when we have given till
our centesimi and soldi swell into francs
reckoning the loss By all the little foxes
still the vines yield richly, and Italy re-
mains the cheapest. easiest paradise for
the impecunious foreigner. His dream has
not misled him, He may safely, Winter
in Italy."-Grace Elery Claiming in The
New York Evening Post