New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-03-12
THE BEGGARS OF FIESOLE.
No Visitor Can Escape Their I'm
portumties for Aims.


groans turns into FfesoIe with final wall.
as II Il would say that power earth could
mako II climb another dozen feet. stands quiv-
ering under the plane trees in front of the Cafe
Aurora, and pours from its interior a
crop Of tourists
The British are the strongest in numbers.
There complacent British matrons in all
the edor Of sanctity, acerb spinsters, reversible
as to figures. most OF them, and many Germans,
fat tnvertebrate and heavy footed Americans
there are, of course. They are eager and tired,
but mOrbidly afraid of missing something"
When they go home they will many of them re-
tire to rest cure They have all come up the
hill to the old Etruscan town, because their
several guidebooks have told them to- Fiesoe,
the guidebooks inform one. owns wonderful
view of Florence a cathedral and a Roman
arena-they say nothing Of the beggars of F'ie-
soia
These tourists find the beggars more promi-
nent than cathedral Roman ruins. They lie
I'm wait for Anglo Saxon and Teuton alike, and
as tke sightseers alight a mob of halt and
MANNED surrounds them. One old man, dumb,
with hleary eyes which hold perpetual tears,
wa&gies his voiceless Jaw from which
faint squeak, full of effort, agonizing, If the
man I'm a last struggle with dumbness was try
ing desperately to voice his miserable poverty;
wftehAks crones implore pity in faint eerie
whtnea. whines attenuated that 1t seems
II thay. too, were In danger of being stricken
dumb. Some of these DID, so
amazingly old, that one imagines them to have
been there always, that they were old and with
cred and poor even In the days when the Etrus-
cans descended from their hills to trade by the
Arne; enc imagines that these sad old women
may have held out their clawIike hands, asking
charity Of the soldiers of Caesar. Elbowing them
away are younger women, old enough these are.
IN al conscience, but of an age that can be reck-
oned fn years. They thrust out monstrosities in
straw work little baskets, boxes, fans all of
straw. belts Of straw straw ornaments, each
0ne mere Infamous in its ugliness than the last,
and at last to stop their clamors one buys
h0EzEble fan Of straw. The Germans like these
things, and buy ignoble ornaments with Ri
vpEte di Ffesole'' worked them in pink or
efua. When one has with difficulty torn away
from the straw workers loutish Lad with pho
tograBhs bars the path Dodging him, one pro-
eeeds across the square, while with
shoekingiy dislocated back and one leg bitches
ksxnseaf along.
Having pensioned him off and started on the
way to the narrow, charming street which
climbs the hill to San Francesca and the famous
view. IT is only to find lurking there two un-
happy toothless hays, more revolving in their
premature old age than the withered creatures
leff behind under the plane trees. One turns
from them only to meet the beseeching eyes of a
lesiszs man who is placed Zone can hardly call
IT seated under the shelter of the wall. Mean
time not for second has one been free from
the Fostering of children each one with a flower
which 1t wishes to exchange for "sodo."
Several children, apparently dumb. follow
gruntfng. Others dance like little sprites and
AZ one set becomes discouraged or leaves for
other prey. more children dart forth from cot
tage doors One brushes them of and scales the
crest Of the HILL and there sees the city of Flor
encs stretched on the plain beneath, through
which the Arno winds like metal snake Be-
meath are terraces OF olives and fruit trees and
oveR the monastery walls the black expresses
rear their stern heads-and there are also there
mere powerful" a and more insistent flock
Of children. a with a telescope two rival
vendors of picture postal cards and a man
with chest full of Mosaic pins. That man
with his Mosaic pins and trinkets of coral and
turquoise is laying in wait In the most remote
corner of Italy.
Az one descends the hill the gantlet has to
be run again, and goes into the Cathe-
dra1 two more cripples will be encountered
while man with lame leg opens the door of
the Cathedral with one hand and with the other
removes his hat with a noble and suggestive
gesture. One will have barely got past the pa
thetic sign which says, 1T Is begged through
respect not to spit in the House OF the Lord"
~h.onx@ old