Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-01-14
ITALIANS FEEL COLD MOST.
But Even the Winter Blast Do Not
Cure Them of the Outdoor
Habit.

Cold weather in New York is felt no.
where more severely than among the
Italians. When the mercury gets 10
or Is degrees below the freezing point
the little bucket shaped braziers, famil-
lar in all Italian cities in winter time,
but scarcely seen in New York outside
the Italian quarters, are brought out
to the sidewalk, and men, women and
children crowd around them warming
their hands and lowering over the Goals
with eager anxiety, relates the Sun.
Every pushcart man swings his arms
about his body, and from the crowd in
the street market come loud complaints
of the cold. Men and boys sun them
selves all morning against the wall of
the shelter pavilion in Mulberry Bend
park, and have to be driven from the
heated basement of the pavilion.
The Italians are almost the only peo-
pie in New York who muff1e their
Threats in cold weather. Professors of
hygiene talked the American people out
of this habit a generation ago, and the
old-fashioned wooden necklace" al
most disappeared. The Italians also
encase themselves in many layers of
cheap undergarments. Wooden under
clothing is too costly for the Italian
workingman, but he buys much cheap
thin material and tries to make up for
quality by quantity. Sometimes he
draws heavy stockings over his shoes.
But not wen the coolest weather can
brighten the Italians from their out
door habits. The streets of the quar-
tiers are dense with people, and the shop
doors are open when native New York
ers run shivering to cover. Old Italian
women sit all day long behind their lit
tie street stands, keeping warm as best
they may by the aid of their braziers
as they sell half frozen vegetables to
half frozen customers. Sometimes a
man is seen warming his hands under
the blanket of a horse standing in the
street.
Boys in the Italian quarters surrep-
~titiously make little fires of refuse ma
terial in the streets. Up in the suburbs,
where there are large Italian colonies,
they amuse and warm themselves with
little frepots, made of discarded tomato
cans swung at the end of a stout wire.
A few holes are made zeal the bottom
Of the can, and when the Goals need
lvening the boy swings the can about
his head. Almost daily the italian boys
start fires in the Bathgate woods at
Wakefield, and keep the police and the
1remen on a sharp lookout.
Suburban Italians have a rooted OBJ
lection to buying coal at present prices,
but they are industrious wood gatherers.
No fallen tree long escapes their hands,
and the dead limbs of the woods in the
Bronx are gathered clean by Italian
women, children and superannuated
men
The younger Italian immigrants take
naturally to American winter sports,
and soon learn to endure the cold when
there is skating or coasting, but one
seldom sees a full grown Italian youth
on skates, and the grown up Italian
girls leave skating out of their list of
accomplishments.
Valuable Find in War Saddle,
A pork butcher named Bidaine. VINO
lied at Arbois recently, bequeathed two
sets of harness which he had acquired
after the war of 1870 to the local
museum. The curator was going over
the new acquisition yesterday, when
he discovered a secret pouch in one of
the saddles, and inside it were bank
notes to the value of IS 5000 francs, in
an excellent state of preservation.
The money has been placed at the dis
position of the heirs of the pork butch
er, who had only lately reached COM
Portable circumstances, and evidently
had had an idea of the large
SUI of money hidden away in the old
saddle he had used for so many years.
Westminster Gazette.