The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-19

of the notorious southern brigand Muse
limo, who was finally rounded up. Only a
while back a well-known captain of the
Royal Carbineers, who has recently
achieved a reputation by detective service
against other members of Musolinos
band. was testifying on the witness
stand His precise words are enough to
give some notion of the conditions that
prevail in parts at least of the interior of
Calabria.
In all my service. in Sicily. in Sardinia,
in Calabria itself. / have never seen so
wretched a region as this where l have
recently been. There are no roads, no
means of communication with the outer
world, no resources of any kind; nothing
but the most debasing poverty. There
are human beings who herd with their
cattle, in roofless pens. muddy and pesti-
lent The bread they eat is made of
vetches. They never taste meat unless
they manage to steal bit. The utmost
that a workman can earn in a day is forty
centesmi eight cents. Civilization has
not yet reached those regions. Life is in
its primitive stage, and morality as lit
tie developed. When l went to one place
Il
all. The bodies of their dead they wrap
ped in a sheet and threw into the cellar
of an old ruined ohurch-a, sort of a flesh
pit of rottenness-where the hogs used TO
go TO feed on the corpses. 1t is a torture
for officials to serve in such a region, and
it is well known that brigadier of Royal
Carbineers committed suicide because he
had been assigned duty there"
There is indeed much poverty in south
ern Italy, especially in the towns, but in
general nothing like such horrors as have
just been mentioned. AS in ancient times.
people have drifted into the-towns. and il
is difficult to devise any scheme for set
Ting them elsewhere. In our little neigh
boring city of Tore Annunziata- for ex-
emple. there are said to be many hun
dreds of men (some say thousands) alb
solutely unable 10 find a stroke of work
10 do. And Italy is VIGOROUSLY prolific
country. Most of these men have large
families OF small children. How do they
manage to live?'' / inquired of native
"Oh. simply and solely on charity. on the
little sums that their children can beg
for them. And il Is surprising on how
small sum they can manage TO subsist.'
And so southern Italy is raising up a
generation of beggars- At present how
ever things are improving a triae. South
ern Italy iags about fifty years beh'n1
Piedmont and Lombaudy. but even here
one begins to see more and more the
chimneys Of factories uniovely to the eye
OF the sightseer. but pleasing to that OF
the philantrophist and so the problem OF
work for the unemployed in the towns
is gradually being solved
In the country. the condition Of the
peasants is relatively better. They are
a hard-workins class Men, women and
children OF a family work together on
their very small holdings OF land. and al
most OF the WORK appears 10 be do-e b.
hand with primitive but effective tools.
except the carrying Of produce to market
Then the sturdy little donkeys and al
most equally diminutive horses are press
ed into service Frequently the donkey
and the family COW are harnessed to
gether. ! have seen no pseDghs in Use
short OF the region OF the Silarus. in the
neighborhood OF ancient Psesium. VII Re
the other day yokes OF sturdy white car
tie were dragging through the rich s-n
wooden rioushs rot very different N
shape from tacse in use two thousand
years ago. II was at Paatun also that
saw. a few years ago. lofty sirculs-
threshins-floor spread with sheaves from
which the farmer was beating the grain
by driving q yoke Of rnuzzled cattle round
and round upon &C. And . short dis