The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-04-17
Special 10 The Union.
LETTER FROM ABROAD.
No Signs Of Progress In Southern Italy
Present State of the People-The In
famous Ferdinand III-Poor OPP
portunities for Education
Strange Superstitions
Still Exist, ETC., etc.

this part of the peninsula, ethncally different
from that Of northern Italy, appears to be out
of touch with modern influences, degraded,
superstitious and iliterate, still cropping in the
darkness of the middle ages, though the fact is
incontestible that the race is physically one of
the finest In Europe.
The Calabrian mountaineers, the contadini of
the Basilicate. are endowed with figure so well
proportioned, body so marvelously poised. and
with such supple grace, that one can easily for
give them their smallness of stature as compared
with the northern races. The physiognomy of
the women, irregular but pleasing, is mobile
but full of expression. The faces of the chill
dren, with their great black eyes and delicately
chiselled mouths, are often lighted by wistful
fitting CLEAN, apparently full of intelligence.
but the sordid life to which the majority con-
demned usually ends by extnguishing the flame
and coarsening the features.
The history of these people partially explains
their present state. In the epoch of the free
cities and republics, which formerly fourished
in certain parts of Italy, the country which COM
posed the kingdom Of Naples never enjoyed a
moment of real liberty; it simply changed one
master for another. Every new conqueror, turn
by turn, either pillaged or methodically OPP
pressed the unhappy people. With the excep-
ton of Amalf no Neapolitan city was ever
blessed with the privilege of administering its
own affairs. The geographical position of the
country particularly exposed it to degradation.
Occupying central point in the Mediterranean
it was visited by all the pirates and most of the
invaders whose fleets from time to time coursed
that sea, by Saracens, Orientals Spanish, French,
and even their brethren of the Piedmont. The
absence of all natural cohesion between the d.
verse regions of the country prevented its popu-
tial to effective existence Southern Italy has
no great river basin like those of Umbria, Tus-
cany, Lombardy and Rome. That is to say it has
no center Of gravity" and its population, like
its streams, scatters and flows pell-mell in
thousand directions. It this lack of geographic
cal unity that has deprived the country of his
toric unity and retarded its progress.
The political regime under which the subjects
of the kingdom of Naples lived, not only a CEN
fury ago. but right up to the moment they were
delivered by Victor Emanuel II, was little bet
ter than slavery All desire for progress, all per-
sonal initiative was systematically stified.
mon peuple ma pas besoin de penser J" my
people have no need to think), wrote in French
the infamous king of Naples, Ferdinand II, and
the utterance of an idea or even a single word,
which the royal censors had forbidden through
fear or ignorance, was treated as a crime and
punished with cruel severity.
Schools were scarcely known, with the excep-
ton of the subsidized university, and the few
other institutions of learning were under the
constant surveillance of suspicious and ignor-
ant police. This is in no sense ancient history.
It is a true portrayal of conditions remembered
by men living. Only forty years ago persons
who could read and write were looked upon
with disfavor, and in order not to be accused of
belonging to some secret society-a capital crime
were compelled to conceal their knowledge.
No wonder the masses Of the common peopleare
illiterate today No wonder medieval super
stition has retained its hold upon the public
mind! No wonder they believe, as did their an
cestors, in spells and evil spirits and all
of miraclesl And they are, indeed, literally
stepped in superstition. All the world knows
with what abominable idolatry the Neapolitan
population every year precipitates itself at the
feet of st. January's silver efigy, and what in
suits they heap upon his aureoled head when he
is little tardy in liquefying his miraculous
blood. Parallel scenes are constantly occurring
in the little churches Of the Campania. Each
village has its patron saint, or rather its local
god, or still more properly speaking, its idol.
This effigy, usually of glded wood, is ordinarily
held in fearsome reverence, but if, perchance,
the god fails to protect his people, he is sub
jected to rude indignities.
Not long ago the villagers of little commu-
nifty south of Naples, irritated by long drought.
tore their venerated saints from their shrines,
imprisoned some of them, hanged some of them,
drowned" and tortured" others. Verify, if
one happens to be an Italian saint there are
certain advantages in having wooden body.
But these savage Cantadini are not always con-
tent to wreak their vengeance on inanimate OBJ
jects, and Barletta has the ignominious distinc-
tion of being the last city in Europe to burn
martyr at the stake because of his religious
belief
One of the most remarkable local superst-
tions is that of the "evil eye," and the unhappy
Italian who happens to have an aquiline nose
and a piercing glance is held in horror as jet
tatore," a caster of spells, and no matter how
honest, how gentle the poor fellow may be, heis
Stunned like leper If by chance native is
exposed to the terrible influence of his eyes it
is necessary to cross the fingers or touch some
sacred charm or amulet, usually having the
same form as the ancient "fascinum." Those
in coral are the most in vogue, and l have been
surprised to learn that many educated persons
who pretend to laugh at the superstition, always
keep on the safe side by having a tiny charm
secretly suspended around the neck. AS for
the peasants, they not only carry these amulets
constantly upon their bodies, but often wear
them upon the breast beneath the shirt, litho-
graphed picture of some saint to protect them
from knife blades and bullets. Their houses
and even their stables are defended by "lares,"
small images like those which Virgil describes
Aeneas as bearing away from the burning walls
of Troy. The dwellings are further protected
against evil spirits by a species of cactus planted
just outside the door or in amphora upon the
balcony, and throughout all southern Italy the
plant is known only by the name "albero del
anal occhio," (the tree of the evil eye)
Next to ignorance and superstition the great
est curse of southern Italy is brigandage. The
very word "Calabria." no matter where or in
what language it is pronounced, invokes inva-
riably the thought of fierce, picturesque robber
bands, roaming the mountains, with plumed
hat. rifle and stietto. Unhappily the proven
bal Calabrian bandit is not merely dramatic
myth or comic opera hero. He is a fact. He is
not so numerous as in I'VE olden tyme," but
neither changes of governments nor severity of
law, neither promises of forgiveness nor grim
man. hunts Cegalized lynching parties), not even
the mounted police armed with Krag Jorgen-
sens and soft nosed bullets no. not even the
railroads, which are the most undermining of all
influences. have been able to make him disap-
numerous guerrilla battles the Neapolitan daily
newspapers announce in faring headlines that
the complete determination of brigandage has
been accomplished and the brave police receive
the official Fluctuations of the king, but next
week the murders and robberies break out with
renewed vigor in another section of the Campa-
mia. The trouble IS that when the soldiers and
police are in the field the very widest of the
bandits sit peacefully before their huts in the
sunshine. or pursue for the moment some peace
full occupation as blind"
IL is not always the vendetta, not always the
mere love of rapine and blOodshed that cause
the Calabrian peasants to become outlaws. More
frequently it is poverty. In this country, where
feudal land tenure long age abolished in name,
still exists in fact the tillaole land is practically
all in the hands of few proprietors, many of
whom are hard and INSCRIPTIONS, and the re-
suit is that the honest laboring peasant is little
better off than serf. In the years of abundance,
ri ami grass," which literally means 1.-THE fat
years, - when the grain and the wine suffice to
keep him and his family from actual want, he
labors without complaint. but when hunger
drives him to desperation he becomes bandit.
Uniting first against their common enemy, the
landholder (gualan0l, the peasants sometimes
burn his villa, stampede his cattle, and, if posi-
ble seize the man himself to hold him for ran
SON. Taking this first step in revenge and de-
spair, they find themselves without the pale of
the law, and naturally take to robbery a
trade. Some of them. crazed by the sight of
blood, become vertable demons, but rs long as
they confne their depradations within the origi-
nally interested limits and rob only the rich.
AtA al and IS