La Junta tribune., 1908-08-15
|FRoa FOREIGN cL'.Es
BY R. W. PATTERSON
QUE SPECIAL Evse'

Twill give YOU some of the street
scenes and common customs as l
have seen them in Italy. When you
meet on the street. whether riding
or walking. you must turn to the
left and not to the right as in our
own country. The streets are often
so narrow that there is barely room
for two vehicles to pass. and as
there are seldom sidewalks, the
people walk in the streets, so that
there is peIl nell mixture in the
street of cabs, carriages, carts, bi-
cycles and people walking. Some
times when one vehicle passes an
other, the people have to crowd
against the wall or dodge into
shop door in order to let the vehicle
90 by. The streets are all paved
and clean, and where there is pre-
tence of a sidewalk. the streets are
as smooth as the sidewalks. Shops
and stalls often have their fronts
filed with their wares displayed for
sale and wine shops and restaurants
and even some hotels have the side
walks filled for q long distance with
little tables and chairs which are
filled with customers, SO that there
is no place to walk but out in the
street. In the sections of the city
where the common people live. the
sidewalks are often filled with
women and children. while the men
and women sit on the sidewalks or
on the steps while the children play,
while the throng Of people. riding
and afoot, pass by. The streets are
so crowded that our cabman is con-
stantly telling to the people to look
out or get out Of our way. In such
confused mass have often won
dered why there were not more ac-
cidents. In fact. have seen no ac-
cidents, while it looked all the time
as though some child or even grown
person would be run over. The
street cars also run on these crowd
ed streets. AT Naples and in the
south of Italy. there are first and
second class passengers. generally
riding in the same cars. the seats
mixed up without discrimination.
the only difference being that the
first class sit on seats with cushions
while the second sit on bare seats.
There is difference of about one
half more charged for first-class.
We pay according to the distance
and not auniform price, as in Amerl'
ca, two cents for a short distance
and three cents for longer. four for
still longer ride. and so on. The
street cars are run bv electricity,
are comfortable and clean, but they
run slow, do not stop at all at the
street crossings. but only at certain
places. There is one peculiar thing
about street names. Often the name
of a street will change several times
as you pass along. walked on a
street yesterday where the name
changed four times in the course OF
quarter of a mile. 1t makes it
more difficult for stranger. but |
have no trouble getting about. or l
might better say have trouble as
the streets are all crooked. running
in every direction. making sharp
turns, half dozen streets meeting
Aand crossing. and streets winding
and turning. first in one direction
Dthen in another. so that it is impos-
sible for one to remember either the
street or how to reach a certain
place until re has been long time
in the city, still what meant to say
was never got lost and can always
90 where l want to 60. have al
ways had a good faculty for loca-
tion and can find my way in any
part of new city and back again.
But few Of our party dare go any
distance alone. When l rode the
range did the outside riding. l
could run bunch Of horses in q
country never saw before. turning
here and there and riding for hours.
and then turn directly to camp. !
seldom followed roads or trails when
could make I shorter cut. Along
the streets. the most public streets.
everywhere. are urinals. where men
in full view Of the passing crowd.
simply turn their backs. At first