Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1912-10-12

the worm-and 1t Is Naples
that usually first catches the
tourist from the States;
when he Is fresh, when he
is bulging-as the case may be some
times-with the fat of many American
dollars. Milan, to be sure, swapping
at the tourist from the north. displays
to much lesser degree somewhat
similar characteristic; but as the vic
tim has already had his first lesson
his fall having been broken, so to
speak, by more or less gradual de-
scent through France, with its own
army of "pay-pay-pays," there is real
ly no comparison.
Having contemplated with rapture
from aboard your ship the really mag
nificent harbor; the picturesque ships,
their sails and rigging enveloped in
rose-colored vapors that have caught
the rays of the sum- the not far-dis-
tant Vesuyius bathed In resplendent
morning mists, and forming part of
all this riot of atmospheric glamor;
everything around you suggesting the
presence of life and human animation
and stirring something way down in
the depths OF you-you are suddenly
and rudely awakened to the exigent
realities of the situation. once you are
on shore; having ignored Fremont
ton in the naked boy diving for PEN
nies In your wrapt admiration of his
astonishing skill.
If you are prospective traveller of
the male persuasion. not overbur-
dened with money take warning. leave
your trunk behind and If possible
your padded shoulders; they will both
prove a drain on the purse. Be sure
and take a Baedeker; 1t is indis
pensable-but do not flaunt 1t in pub
lie places; you are recognized with
out 1t, and to expose its red covers to
the air is to throw out challenge
which the street merchant, the, shop
keeper, the restaurant man and the
street gamin are not slow to accept
1t is interpreted as symbol, a proof
of your being a stranger and green;
proof of your being able to afford a
Baedeker--and therefore other things;
proof also of your curiosity, and
hence suggesting your susceptibility
to temptations
Having passed the customs. the
cabby is the first to take peek at
you-and If you have that trunk. the
Lord help youl To be sure, you are
In a taxi; and the tariff" dial stares
you openly in the face; but somehow
or other the cabby manages to con-
vince you that It is there only as an
ornament--anyway there's the trunkl
Ten to one the rascally chap does
not depart without extorting from you
employing no violence--a fare three
times over. and will not refrain from
suggesting that you owe him a tip!
You Arrive.
You are landed. at the recommends
ton of a friend, in one of those curl.
GUS arched Railways, where the cabby,
winling his left eye when you are not
looking, passes you on to the porter,
who emerges from little dark room.
so dark that 1t is only after hearing
voices within that you peer in and dis
cern the paleness Of face here and
there and begin to wonder how people
,ould live in the dark, like rats, and
the sun shining in the street! While
waiting for the landlady you take a
ioolx about
You are on Via vardones, and you
look up and down the picturesque
street, famous for Donizetti's resi-
dence here, and Infamous for one OF
the assassinations which figured In
the recent Cammorra trials. Dirty,
but picturequei Unevenly stretches
this thoroughfare of tall old tene-
ments, down grade, toward Piezza
Ferdinando. where several streets con.
verge, like the spokes of wheel. On
some OF the larger streets of Naples
the sidewalks are large enough to let
two persons walk abreast, II they are
lovers, but Via vardones has no side
walks at all. Where sidewalks should
be women sit around and perform
their household duties; some are
shelling peas, others are washing
clothes: young mother is rebindlng
her baby, who moment before lay
In his crib as naked as a cherub. Here
you see pail lowered on a rope from
the fourth story; the hawltey fills II
with vegetables, and then the pail