Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1905-05-27
a VOICE FROM ROME.
Rome Italy, April oath, 1905.


pt,er co hard. still he will be done. We
have vet to learn of one American
Who has been able to do the Romans
as they do him. The business methods
Of this country or to be more precise,
the lack of business methods, are very
troublesome. For example, prices OF
goods even in the best stores with few
evceptions) are not established. They
"size you up" make guess at how
anxious you are to get the article, and
then state price accordingly. If you
nay that price, you are beaten.
honght a cane in a first-class store. The
proprietors asked % francs for it.
bprgained with him three minutes and
paid IL francs for it ($2.40). He said
il cost him Is francs. He told me that
.yice-that was the customary lie.
They will positively lie over and over
again in Csc deal, and not blush when
YOU catch them at it. Short-changing
a customer is continuous everywhere.
Our hotels, five weeks in succession,
have overcharged in their bills, and
when | show them their error" CD
they scratch it off, and don't blush or
give a word of excuse. Such expert
ence is continuous everywhere. When
you go out on the street, Immediately,
on opening the door half dozen or
more cabbies cracking their whips and
yelling, drive up alongside you so close
that you are afraid they will run over
you (the walks being narrow. You
say mo" and shake your head over and
over again. They urge and try to in
duce you to get in their cab; they get
off and walk beside you. Presently
street fakir interrupts, trying to sell
you cheap jewelry, tortoise shell
combs, canoes, etc. He escorts you
merrily for half a block. Then a beg
gar or more likely two or three of
them have already accosted you. A
pretty flower girl runs up, sticks bou
quet in your coat, and kisses your
hand but you only give her a cent for
all this). All this time you are walk
ing along, trying to attend to your
own business. For moment you are
free, and you take out your red-cov-
cred "Baedeker" on Italy. Well you
are again the center of attraction for
all the cabbies, fakirs, beggars, flower
girls, etc. What rush there is. The
book is termed "a guide" 1t certainly
is. 1t guides everyone to you, and
thieves and pickpockets are thick,
nearly every tourist we have met has
lost something in Italy. Naples is con-
sidered worse than Rome in this re-
spect. But the life of the people is
practically the same. The streets are
lined with priests, monks and soldiers
and students for priesthood. An intel
ligent Italian informed me that there
are $4,000 priests and monks in Rome.
And judging from the number of
churches, monasteries and palaces oc-
cupied by them, we don't doubt his
statement.
The ride from Naples to Rome, over
the Roman Campagnia is charming at
this time of year. The country is
green, with no trees to hide the view,
and almost every hill or little noun
tain is capped with some old palace or
monastery, long since deserted, but
here and there some favored hill on
the very crest of which is very large
medieval palace, surrounded by vii
lage, the houses all of the middle ages,
but still occupied. The wonder is
what the inhabitants live on. No man
ufacturing, possibly grazing, some cat
tie and gardening, for the soil is rich
and the pasturage good. Their lives
must be peaceful and quiet, generation
after generation, only lacking the lit
the fineries of the goth century and pos