The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-29
TOURISTS PEST
10 ALL EUROPE
Encourage That Against Coun-
try Is Fighting.
ITALY AS AN EXAMPLE
Authorities Entreat but 1t Is to
No Purpose.
ITALY AS AN EXAMPLE

|
the benefit of his criticisms. Towards
his own country he has conscience; to-
wards others, at most sentiment which
it is part of his holiday-rejo.cing spirit
to exercise without restraint and regard
| less of consequences. Hence the benevo-
lent tourist contrives TO more mischief
than any. The kinder hearted he is, the
/ worse ii is, until one wonders if the ben
efits OF his dollars and his value as an
| object lesson from the most prosres-
sive country in the world compensates
for the injury his thoughtlessness in
fiicts.
1t is against thhe law to beg in Italy.
| Especially Italy is making a great fight
against child mendicancy But those
darling beGgars dressed up in brand new
artistically patched velvet rags how
sweet they are. That bambino turning
handsprinss beside your carriage; what
a dear he is. In goes the American or
English hand to the national pocket and
half franc, perhaps fair days wage
Tor strong man-rewards the clever
| baby ''Ho fame; IIo fame" Il have
| hunger; l have hunger" chants the rud-
| dy urchin running at your side with
| pleading hand His cheeks stick out with
| fairness. but just look at his lovely eyes
| and those dimples, cheap at another half
| franc In vain do the authorities i'm
plore, demand, entreat: in vain do So
! cletles organize whose business il is to
investigate cases and In vain do they
| beseech the tourist from every drugstore
counter in Italy, to purchase and besto
tickets emitting the holder to investiga-
ton rather than aims.
This is in line with his conduct i'm other
particulars. Everywhere you hear him
complaining in English or American ac-
cent, with Scotch or Irish brogue, of the
ruin of the picturesque" in Italy. Italy
is being destroyed; they are putting in
electric trans. they are widening the
streets, they are tearing down the Ghet-
tos they are banking up the Tiber. they
have built a subway. There is no end
to the wickedness they have done or
mediate doing. They tear down palaces
and erect model tenement houses: they
cut up princely gardens and make public
parks; they are educating the peasantrv.
Briefly. Italy is going to the dogs II IS
true that in the next breath he tells YOU
with an even superior scorn that Italy is
utterly unprogressive, POOR in bath tubs,
devoid of an elevator that can be trusted
to run above the fourth story, and for
the most part you risk sticking between
the third and fourth that the streets
are disgustingIy dirty. the Italian a revel-
Ter in filth and the Latin always and ev-
erywhere degenerate.
What does he want?" demands an in
dignant patriot" that we should walow
in filth forever. in order that he may
enjoy the luxury of abusing us for that
lack of progress whose first symptoms
move him to mingled rage and bathos?"
Evidently Italy cannot please the tour
ist, do what Italy will. She has wisely.
therefore. decided to please herself. and is
cleaning up, pulling down. widening out.
trolleying. as fsat as her finances admit.
but not half so fast as her inclination
prompts
one little work, however. ii would seem
that even the captions tourist might ap-
plaud and join hands in. II emay de-
rive an ethical satisfaction from pretty
pretenders in velvet and heaped up fever
nests. which mean merely the moral or
physical debasement OF his kind but he
ing animal-kind. Cruelty to animals in
Italy proceeds in geometrical ratio to the
ignorance of the people-that is to say
geographically. The Italian IS not cruel
by nature: the north Italian. the gentle
Tuscan, is not cruel. but the childlike
Italian of the south is cruel precisely
as the childlike child is cruel through
ignorance-and also a little because life
has been cruel to him
The society with the long name jshsrt-
ened here to the Protezione Animals So
ciety) has accomplished a great work at
Naples. In Rome. the reorganized asso-
citation. founded by an Englishman. Mr. |
Leonard Hawksley. and largely supported
by English and American subscriptions
has already done much For my sins.
perhaps. I live above a piazza with q
cab stand. in the immediate vicinity Of
the great tourist hotels and from this
eminence the problem Of the tourist ha.
been deeply borne in upon me. He is OF
so many kinds. There IS the careless
tourist who drops into the first cab with
out considering whether the horse has
three feet or four: there is the heartIcss
tourist who hurries his driver (work Of
superiority! land encourages him. silent
~ or otherwise. to lash his animal up The
steep Roman hill Out Of forty cabnen |
on THIS stand. some twenty are good.
excellent fellows far kinder 10 their
beasts than ever life has been to them; !
ten more are reasonably humane. Eve are 1
stupid and five are hrutes Obviously. /
the tourist cannot be expected to know /
them as I co. who have made the tribe /
a study. 10. these twelve years Z do not 1
ask that he should even guess which one 1
reads his '-Gerusalemme I.iberata. which 1
drinks too much Genzano wine and which F.
shares his meagre daily loaf with his 4
horse. which is for the QQeen and which 4
for the oueenmother. zone would ike /
to say the Pope and the King but 4
none is for the Pope. while in Queens 3
there are nice Determinations
These are refnements OF knowledge
which come by study, but any one may
tell at a glance what horse j. fairly feI.
and any one 1--WE are al agreed upon
thisl. any one might see that the Por-
very fat man with the very
horse-iS as UNIT 70 drive
as his horse Is u carry Yet tourist after I
tourist win PASS down the whole line %
sleep. plump. unused horses 20 elect The
Porpoise who has that moment returned
from carrying six people and loa1 o.
trunks 10 ore station All the large
parties and heavy loads fax 70 him hv
natural s-avitation. The cab stands fo-
TX months Of the year exist largely Upon
he tourist trsffic-the least process o:
selection exercised therefore b. the tour
81 would establish standard Have Il