The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-03-27
NAPLES. ITALY, March 10th, 1909.

ue1lcflLy luCFedStS. 1ucy uoudHy OpcIdIc III
front of the crowded cafes of the Galleria EN-
berto Primo, where the tables are placed in the
open air. upon the border of the promenades.
Having encountered an acquaintance while
strolling one evening in the gallery. accepted
his invitation to sit down for a chat over cup
of coffee. The waiter brought the coffee service
upon tray, with two or three Jumps of sugar
laid in the saucers at the side of each empty
cup and then withdrew, leaving us to serve our
selves. At that moment my companion was
calling my attention to newspaper dispatch
announcing the tragic death of M. Catulle Men
des, the French playwright, and we were
both bent over the journal, ragged urchin of 8
or 10 years, who had evidently been crouchiDg
beneath the very table at which we were seated.
bobbed up like jack in-the-b box, darted forward
grimy paw with lightning rapidity, and before
we could recover from our establishment had
disappeared with the sugar from both saucers!
When we called the waiter he uttered patient
sigh of comprehension and brought second
supply of sugar. He was pestered night and day
by the little vagabonds. he said. Occasionally
one of them was caught and fiogged or sent to
the reformatory, but these measures had not
put stop to the nuisance. Every big cafe in
Naples, he declared, was subjected to the same
kind of pillage.
1t seems that the pilfering of sugar is a regu-
lar trade, means of livelihood for hundreds of
street gamins, who hoard away their booty lump
by lump. and after collecting half pound or
more dispose of it to the lower class restaurants
along the waterfront, sometimes selling it, some
times bartering it for food. The price of sugar
land of salt is excessively high inlItaly because
of special taxes, and the proprietors of small
eating houses naturally encourage the young
rascals, who supply them at reduced rates.
These details l learned from the exasperated
waiter. The little thieves are SO stealthy and
move so silently on their bare feet that they
sometimes manage to creep under table, fitch
the sugar and escape without being seen at all
a sleight of hand performance which occasion
ally gives rise to amusing situations when the
victim is a stranger, unacquainted with the
practice. The ragamufins nearly always pick
out tourists and foreigners knowing from ex-
perienee that they are the easiest marks.
But such tricks are not confined exclusively
to street gamins. even to the poor, lower
classes. One of the most aggravating and most
characteristic qualities of the typical Neapoli-
tan, even the well-to-do tradesman, is his pas
sion for petty thievery, his constant planning of
mean little schemes to gain one two dishon-
est pennies. can pity the wretch whom hun
ger drives to theft. 1 can feel a certain admira-
ton for the bold highway robber, who shoves
gun barrel in my face. and even for the crooked
f1nancier, whose shady transactions involve
fortunes, but these thriving, prosperous Nea
politan merchants who ever ready to sell
their souls for miserable copper soldo. fill me
with contempt. want to relate case or two
in point.
The other morning, while purchasing provi-
sions for a tramping excursion in the country,
entered an establishment on the Via Toledo-a
big store, Respondent with plateglass and mar
BILE furnishings-and asked clerk for ten cents
worth of black olives. It happened that one of
the proprietors heard my modest request. Fear
ing that his employee might so far forget him
self as to treat a stranger honestly. and judging
from my imperfect accent that would not I'M
derstand his words. he edged up to the clerk and
whispered, "Give him only nine cents worth"
HOW STRANGERS ARE vICTIMIzED.
On another occasion it was tobacconist who
gave me in change for five lire handful of
nickel pieces, each representing five soldi. 1t
was the first money of that kind had encoun-
tered in Italy, but saw that it was bona fide.
uncounterfeted coin, so I accepted it without
protest. When got back to the hotel learned
that the coins were of an old mintage that had
been withdrawn from circulation long ago.
and were consequently without value. OF course
1t was useless to return to the tobacco merchant,
but went back to see him, prompted simply by
curiosity to know what kind of face he would
put upon the matter. Only ten minutes had
elapsed but he was not at all embarrassed and
swore by st. January, by the Blessed Virgin, by
his fathers bones and his mothers honor, that
he had never laid eyes on me before.
Every day meet Americans who have suffer-
ed alike of worse impositions. One of them, as
sharp New England drummer" as have ever
met, had been short-changed out of twenty lire
by postofice clerk. A New Yorker, who had
bought diamond from a jewelry firm recon-
mended in all the guide-books. lost forty odd
dollars by the transaction. The diamond was o.
K, but in making change the clerk had unloaded
upon him number of counterfeit gold coin.
Another of my compatriots wanted to have a
suit cleaned and confded the commission to a
hotel porter. Next morning the suit came back,
the bill was $150, and the porter required tip
in addition. week afterward the American
carried another suit directly to the cleaner, was
charged only fifty cents. and learned that the
same charge had been made for the first suit.
The porter had presented forged bill. 1t is
the same old story here, season in and season
out. During almost half year spent ia France,
including an extended sojourn in Paris, recol-
lect having dealt with only two or three dishon-
est people, but in Italy not a single day passes
that do not encounter score. believe there
are plenty of honest and noble Italians in Tus-
cany and Piedmont, but there seems TO be
few here in the South.
AN OFF YEAR FOR TOURISTS
am told this is an of year for tourists-cer-
tainly there are not so many of them at Naples
at Nice and Monte Carlo. Thousands of Eng
fish and Germans have been deferred from their
annual visits by the Sicilan catastrophe. not
that they fear earthquakes or infections away
off up here in Naples, but most of the habitual
travellers have become accustomed to include
Sicily in their italian itinerary, and seeing half
their trip spoiled have decided to give it I'D en-
tirely, many of them packing off to Egypt in
stead.
The inactivity of Vesuvius, which amounts al
most to temporary extinction, has also hurt
Naples as a tourist city. The rcd flames formerly
visible by night, and che wreathing clouds of
smoke by day made the volcano the chief attrac-
ton of Naples in the eyes of the average stran-
ger, and every season the desire to see the phe-
nomenon drew southwark many voyagers. whose
itinerary would otherwise have ended at Rome
But since the eruption which occurred four
years ago, not single glimmer of fire is to be
seen even on the clearest night, and only a thin,
ill-defined wisp of smoke by day. OF course it is
still Vesuvus, still the mountain which destroy
ed Pompeii, still the most famous volcano in the
world but it has lost at least for the time being,
more than half its grandeur.
The attitude of the Neapolitan population to-
ward Vesuvius is curious. With the ruins of
Herculaneum and Pompeii always beneath their
eyes, like a skeleton at the feast, a lugubrious
reminder of the subterranean forces which
slumber for centuries and then awaken to spread
death and destruction. With the recent Gala
brian cataclym to warn them of the instability
of the earth in all the volcanic belt of southern
Italy, one might suppose that the Neapoli:ans
would fear Vesuvius as dying sinner fears the
devil would rejoice in the extinction of its fires
and become half crazed with anxiety every time
the volcano began to show signs of renewed ac-
tivity. No notion, however. could be wider of
the mark. They look upon Vesuvius as a sort
of gigantic milk-cow. When 'sure enough"
COW gives lots of milk the dairyman's pals are
well-filled and he is happy. When this vesuvius
COW gives lots of fire and smoke the tourists
flock from all lands to see the marvel. and the
Neapolitans' cash drawers are filled to overflow
ing by a stream of gold. Now the milk COW has
gone dry and Naples mourns
hoko