The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-12-22
PROFESSIONAL L1FB IN ITALY.
How the Average worker Lives; Wha
 He Earns and Saves.

 
 How the Average Worker Lives; What | He Earns and Saves.
 The typical Italian professional man has an income of I0.0O0 lire. or about
 e4O0, a year with which to get along
 and bring up four children. At the out
 set he makes a great saving by avoid 1 ing the extravagances and the company of smart society. With some exceptions, the Italian | professional classes do not mix with the smart society, where alone entertaining on large scale is done, and even in their own circle they hardly ever give regular dinner party or even large reception. They occasionally ask a ] friend or two in to meal, the wife has an tat home day, and on certain festi-
 vals there is a large family gathering; but everything is done in the simplest
 manner.
 Flats are common in the Italian towns, detached and self-eentained
 houses are there comparatively new. They are far more costly than flats, while the accommodation is not so good. Taxes are higher and there are many additional expenses. A flat of ten or twelve rooms, in which the hall, the kitchen and other ofiees-aF are in- cluded, will cost 1900 lire (E4S) a year
 on the third or fourth floor of large
 house or the ground floor, first or second of a smaller one. A ground floor flat sometimes includes a bit of
 garden, The rooms are larger and
 airfer than those of a London house costing e150 year, and far larger than those of a flat at e200 or e250 in a mod erately good situation.
 On the other hand, such apartments are usually unprovlded with modern conveniences. There is no bathroom, there are no hot water taps, except in the kitchen. The stairs are badly kept and i'll lighted. and there is little at tempt at tasteful decorations, unless the
 house happens to be an old one with frsscoed walls. Electric light is, how
 ever, coming into use and electric bells are almost universal. Lifts are very rare and only found in large and ex- pensive flats. In Florence there are hardly any except in public buildings and hotels. The rent includes water and all repairs; the amount of the lat
 ter of course, depends q good deal on the virtues of the landlord.
 Good Italian servants are the best in
 the world, for no other show so much
 consideration for their master, for
 whom they often entertain genuine affection. They have no high and
 mighty airs; they do not give notice" l if they are requested to do some work
 not quite strictly within their province,
 no do they change their situations ev-
 cry three months. One family will
 keep one resident servant, who cooks and attends to most of the housework, and mezzo serYizio, or charwoman, who cofnes in for a few hours every day
 or two or three times a week. The sgen- eral' receives from 15 to 25 lir tl2s, to e1) month, and the charwoman about
 10 lire (Ssl. Then there is food and an allowance for wine-Awhich in Italy Is a an expensive item. The total cost per trastannuln for servants amounts in this case to 40 lire lR1s),
 A frugality in contrast to our lnxu- rious living marks the Italian board. They have sufficient, but make no dis play. Climate naturally has much to do with the character of the daily menu
 Breakfast is reduced to vanishing point, and consists of a cup of coffee and milk with or without bread and butter. Lunch at midday includes a light dish, meat course, and fruit and cheese. Dinner, at 6 or T P. M, consists of soup, xxxyf1 at,h Iltt1E
 ding is eaten at dinner once or twice a week, or when guests are invited. Wine, usually red chianti or Tuscany, is drank with both meals, and black cof- fee follows after. Afternoon tea Is only taken in the highest families with Eng fish connections, but stray visitors are regaled with sweet wine and biscuits. Good wine costs from Sd to Is 3d flask containing nearly five pints. As sugar is very heavily taxed, jam, pudding and cakes are ltixuries. The total thus spent on food and drink may be set down at a112 a year.
 Nor have Italian husbands very much
 to complain of in the way of the grove ing handicap of marriage" on the score of feminine extravaganza. The amount. spent on clothes, however, does seem large. In the case in point 1t is not so very far from one-quarter of the entire income.
 Education, being largely under the
 State control, is fairly cheap In the primary schools there are no fees, and in the secondary ones they range from s4 to &6 a year. At the university they are comparatively higher but are still remarkably low, four or six years course costing from g18 to RS4. The public schools those, that is mn-
 der State control are the most popular. About eS0 is the amount which the professional man may hope to put by
 yearly out of his e4OO-C -Cornhill Maga-
 zine
 4 s 7 z