The Brinkley argus., 1907-06-07
IN TAX AWAY ITALY.
An Arkansian Sees Rome. Her Ruins, Relics @ Rub- biSh. Queer Ways of
 Italian People.


 3S4 Catholic churches.
 10 Pr testant churches.
 100000 dirty unkempt bsgears.
 40.O0O priests. monks, friars, nun and novitiates.
 This is Rome, in round numbers. My guide. an intelligent man, says 9 per cent. of the begsars are sFurious.- that Is unworthy of attention at the hani5 of the cha-itablJ inclined. His opinion is that fl they each had hun, dred francs given them today they wou s,end t before sunset of to- monov in frivolous plea sures. That may be. At Ieas. it is not for me to deny ths stat ement. know this how ever, that they are truly needy people They neei eilcltio1 they nesi profit able employ 3lt. they n;ei lifting up, and above all things they need clean ing, the kind of cleaning that involves the employment Of rivers of witef an1 tons of soap, for beyo1i any sort of question they are tn, dirtis5t people l ever saw. Why, down the Ap?ia1 W. very much overadyertised blythe way, and dismal and dirty lending out to cheerless, mai arial, arid plain.-there are beggars that have not been ia close contact with cleanliness since they w6ra born. They were bred i7 an atmosphere Of filth and they have known nothing else, except lying and deceit, ever since. l saw old women, toothlesS, hairless. sunken in every depth of rayless igno- rance and superstition and poverty. fighting off with sticks the aggressive young beggars who presumed to ask alns of strangers within the p;ecints where they nave mapped off their own small principalitIes. which they have long appropriated as their very own, and where trey cringe and bow and pray ana matter benedictions the long days and years through. and finally die and rot. to give place 10 horde of others like them. Especially are the y numerous, and aggressivcly and per tinacousy solicitcus about the en- trance 10 churches. where they lie in wait in hidde en corners only to rise up in leaons and swoop down upon the stranger, fer 1t is the stranger that they especially prey upon. And then the boys. many of them clad in only a pair of ragged trousers, heads and backs being bare, and dirty, and brown will follow you for squares, turning somersaults, at which they are so ex pert. some of them, that they resemble gfctesque wheels pirouetting through space propelled by some canny power.
 crying "multa familee. multa familee signor,' only desisting when threat e1ed with the whip of the driver. who has no patience with them. What is the remedy? Is there any remedy9 Who should move in their interest," The state2 The municipality The church which which claims their aifegiance7 Who shall saye saw on Sunday. as | went out to the American Episcopal church. a priest. man with a good face. strong face. trying to rid him. self Of two young girls who cluns. one on either side of his cab as he bowled along. asking aims. Possibly they were hungry.--they looked it. Is il any wonder. the conditions of life be- ing So hari as to produce all this null titude of idle ones wh0 eve1tltate into begyars that the marriage relation is entered into more and more reluctantly with the passing years. and that there IS, in conse lueace. very large pro- DOT ion Of men and women whose par ent Ige. esy ecially upon the parental sid,. is inl olved in so much doubt