Durango semi-weekly herald., 1902-01-09
SWEET TO DO NOTHING.
Mendicants and Besgars Prosper in
Central and Southern Italy.


ROME, Jan. 8.-Laziness and nov
erty are standing complaints in cen
tral and southern Italy, driving the
unwashed section Of the people, con
stitutionally abhorrent of labor, to the
easy occupation of mendicity. In pa
pal Rome, the city of converts and
charitable asylums, living from hand
to mouth was an institution No
idler. no more or less authentic Grip
pie missed in the morning a modi.
cum of lies" at the church doors. a
midday outside the gates of the mo..-
asteries and comfortable rest in
some night refuge.
Early improvident marriages were
encouraged to check immortality;
thrift was discountenanced by the Ger
tainty of ample government provis-
ion in case of illness or old age pa
geants and music of superior order
were provided gratis almost daily in
the basilicas, and cheap wine shops
helped to while away the evenings dis
cussing the cabala for the next public
lottery
Why drudge and toll when the
dolce far niente-sweet to do moth
ing" met with such an inducement
from paternal government and
from aims given by Dives intent on
covering by indiscriminate charity a
multitude of sins.
The palmy days of mendicity ended
when the Italians came to Rome.
But if street begging was repressed
the Roman stock of vagabonds was
increased by idlers from the prov
inces gravitating toward the new seat
of government. and owing to police
difficulties and provincial competi.
tion mendicity entered into new
phase.
The appeal direct is now rarely re-
sorted to, and only when constables
are out of the way, but the itinerant
vendor of matches, the guitar strum-
mer in the wineshops. the old woman
offering you a chair in church. the
mother" with long string of farmed
| children, and the young man leading
his blind grandfather" for an air
ing are mendicants in disguise.
Italian ingenuity is always finding
new paths in the begging line, of
| which take the following instances:
On raw morning at dawn. old Ia
| dies warmly wrapped and going to
early mass see sitting on a doorstep
fast asleep an interesting-looking lad
| with tray near him Of antiquated
gingerbread They stop and pity
The poor boy evidently roamed all
night in the cold to turn a few sous
and fell asleep in utter exhaustion.
They tumble in their reticule, and
nickles, sometimes small silver coins.
go into the gingerbread tray. The
young scamp had spent his night in
bed and only sailed forth when the
the church bells rang for mass. When
all the devout ladies have passed he
counts the money in the tray and at
once scampers home,
Another youngster artistically in
clined, selects good even pavement
in not much frequented street.
squats down there at midnight when
the theaters are about closing and de.
lineates with a piece Of charcoal or
chalk the well known features of Gar
ibaldi, the elder Victor Emanuel or
the pope. People on their way home
stop to look. All the great painters
rose from small beginnings and they
drop cent or two to encourage the
embryo artist.
The two young loafers, he of the
gingerbread tray and the future artist
are typical of class, the numerous
class of the Roman and Neapolitan
gamin, precociously wicked, spending
their days in idleness, developing into
pickpockets, learning the use of the
stiletto and eventually swelling the
number OF thieves and murderers, al
ready too large in Italy.