Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-25
AS THE ROMAN DOES
Things That Happen on the
Field Of Flowers.
SALE OF ANTIQUITIES
DUBBED THE RAG FAIR BY THE
ENGLISH.
Where Willy Italians Sacrifice Homo
and Family on Altar Of
Commercialism.
Special Correspondence of The Star.

Special Correspondence of The Star.
ROME, November Is, 1905.
There is in Rome little square. lying
south of the busy Corso Vittorio Emanuele,
which every Wednesday morning wakens
from its usual state of sleepy desertion into
turbulent and clamorous activity. Booths
spring up mushroomlike, picturesque peas
ants and vendors of antiquities from the
Borgo throng the place with their mer-
chandfse, and the astonshed tourist who
has penetrated to its center finds tempting
ly displayed before his eyes every object
for which he could have need or desire.
from a suit Of secondhand clothes to d
ring warranted to be at least three GEN.
turtles old The Campo del Fiori, or Field
of Flowers the Romans have christened
the spot; but the less poetic English resi-
dents Of the Eternal City, who make of it
favorite hunting ground for antiques, are
accustomed to designate it as the scene OF
1.-The Rag Fair"
By whichever name 1t may be called 1t
presents bright and animated sight on
clear Wednesday morning, when the sky
overhead is LUMINOSITY blue and the sun
warns the yellow walls of the Palazzo della
Cancellerfa alongside. glints on strangely
shaped bronze utensils, and picks out the
gold and silver threads of rich brocades,
sets the heads of gay flowers nodding. On
one side of the square congregate the VEN
doris OF bronze and stsne ware, OF lamps
and old jewelry. A few planks set upon
rude supports, with perhaps an upright
beam at each of the four corners, form the
booths; the small articles-rings, bracelets,
brooches and such knickknacks-are laid out
on the boards, while from the cornerposts
dangle lamps, bowls and the like larger
pieces On the other side of the narrow pas
sage that cuts the square in half and is left
clear for the endless procession of carriages
and carts that pass through, the dealers In
brocades, laces, old clothing. and notions
may be found; and everywhere, clustered
about the booths and packing the narrow
spaces between them, Is a moving, gesticu-
lating, chattering crowd of men, women
and children of natives and forestieri.
The Wiles Of the Vendors
Real finds have been made by discrimi
mating buyers at the Field Of Flowers; and
indeed there can almost always be found
some odd or dainty souvenir out of the het-
erogeneous display If the buyer is but armed
with the requisite amount of patience and
italian. For instance. the fancy of the
prospective purchaser is taken with a
quantity shaped church lamp, perhaps, or
a bit of brocade whose coiors have been
toned by time to soft harmony. She APP
proaches the booth wherein 1t is displayed
with an deliberately prepared expression of
detached carelessness. The vendor Is in
stantly at her elbow:
How, then, may the excellency be served
this morning? Some lace marvellous lace
bought from most ancient and noble fam
iiy Brocades?-will the excellency SO far
trouble herself as to look upon this bro
cade in the sunlightT
The excelency looks with unmoved coun-
tenance; asks the price of half a dozen diff
ferent articles; comes finally to the lamp
over which her heart secretly yearns.
THAT lamp?-ah 1t is to be seen that the
excellency has the art soul; there is not an
other one like it in the Campo for beauty
and chastity of design: And antiauity,maF
"a shrug indicative of the aeons of history
represented by the lamp and quite inexpres-
sible by mere words.) "The prfce-a trif1e,
nothing, excellency: 90 francs"
Here you start back, with a look of
amazed incredulity Fifty francs? Che!
The lamp Is not worth the half, the quar-
ter of that sum; we have seen hundreds
much finer, ct cetera, ct cetera. the deal
er protests that is impossible; swears by
all the saints the lamp cost him forty
francs: addresses her in melting tones as
''fglia mia daughter mine), gesticulates,
swings the lamp seductively under her,
ewes. She opposes stony front to his
flood of rhetoric and makes as If she would
turn away He follows, seizes her by the
arm:
Met Craft With Diplomacy.
LET the excellency then name the just
price. What will the excelleney give2'
The excellency might perhaps be induced
to give 10 francs. The outraged proprietor
Of the lamp falls back with sardonic
laugh.
"Fifteen francs? For such a lamp. of such
an antiquity, of such a beautifulneSs7 Fig
liza mia. 1t is a madness.
Then he subsidies into pathos. The lamp
cost him more, much more, than what she
Offers He is a poor man. 1t is to utter
restitution, then. she would reduce him?
But the times are bad, and for the sake of
making an affair-the excelency may have
it for As francs, coco! Impossible, she re-
iterates, such price is out OF all reason.
Why not make little combination, say 20
francs? More protests, more references to
the depth Of ruin to which she is reducing
his already poverty-strieken family.
.And an excellency, too, who speaks so
well the beautiful Italian. Giovanni (tfis
to his partner in trade). SIS it not true that
she speaks superlatively, like an Italian, the
excellency?''
Unshaken even by such tribute, hope
fully brought out by the vendor as his
trump card. she shakes her head, and the.
price of the lamp finally drops francs.
This process is repeated until 1t is within
fran. OF the amount she has fixed as her
liltimatu m-and over that single franc She
spends as much time and as many argu-
ments as over the whole preceding thirty.
The vendor works himself into passion of
dramatic elequence. calls on the Madonna
to be witness OF the cxcellency's cruelty.
Appeals to her Justice. to her charity; but
at length. ii she succeeds in preserving that
quiet and unexcited demeaner which
ing with natives. and has sufi1eient self
command to turn her back and stroll away.
she will ind herself pursued and the lamp
thrust into your hands
aEccol Il - here give 4, that may