Weekly journal-miner., 1917-03-07
CRTPPLES OCCUPY THE
 PALACE OF BOURBON KINGS

NAPLES, Italy. March 3-Thc war has turned the palace of the Bourbon kings of Naples into a home for mu- tilated soldiers. Around the exquisite marble table where the guests of the "Roi Solcil'' of Naples dincd in the garden on hot Summer nights-the ladies in powdered head dress and panicr skirts, the men with lace at their sleeves and embroidered coats today are gathered the pitiablc frag- mcuts Of humanity that war has left
 in its wake. There are neither cand- les nor massive silver, neither sweet meats nor rare wines. The Italian government allows 70 cents per day for their lodging and maintenance, ard food it high in Naples.
 The marble table on warm days in the garden is the recreation center oi he mutilatcd, in their worn and fad ed uniforms. Before each IS an ob- long cardboard placard, some of whose spaces are numbered. One Of the men Che must be one Of those who have lost leg. for the one armed cannot do the trick shakes . baskct-bottlc and turns out num- bcrcd counter. In the sing-song Ne apolitan dialect, he cries the number. The one whose placard bears it, coy CTS the space with bit of glass. Who ! ever covers all his spaces first wins a cent from each Of the others.
 Those who have no hands at all have grown wondcrous skillful al
 Tipping their bits of glass onto the placard by means of bent pin stuck in the empty sleeve.
 This is recreation. There are also hours of work. Once sumptuous chambers of the royal palace have been turned into school rooms, in the month that the hospital has been rum ming. In one. those who wish are taught tailoring. in another shoe making-thc leglcss naturally, for one must have two hands to make shoes or clothes. Those who have lost an arm arc taught tclcgraphy or type writing But many of the latter must begin farther back than that, and learn to read and write first. For reading and writing in Southern Italy are not common accomplishments, So there is Schooi-room - d primary school-room. where the alphabet and multiplication table figure on the blackboard in front of these grown children who have known only to give an arm or leg 10 their country. And ! one arm or a leg to these simple peas --'= is livelihood - their own and iacir families.
 ! Which k why some do not study. Th.y a~r suspicious Nutilatcd. they are entitled 10 a government pension, and they are afraid that when they 'a.c learned new trade by which
 lhyy can live. the government will say: You no longer need help make your own living" So they sit
 all day in the sunlit, royal garden.
 with it's faicncc howcr-pots marked with hcurs de lys. and watch the
 changing lights on the bay of Naples, and think oi what life used to hold
 for them before the war came to
 change it utterly.
 The sea once came to the very wall
 of the garden where they sit. Below
 the balustradc, was a Scapool. where
 the courticrs of Carlo III. iShcd from the terrace. Later, when the people
 of Naples voted the Bourbons out and the House of Savoy in as rulers
 Of United italy, Garribaldi gave the palace to Alexander Dumas. And the
 government of Italy had no end of
 trouble io get it back from the fam
 ouS author But the soldiers who wander through the spacious rooms ioi the palace today know none of
 'hcsc things The, Know only what lthcy have given to their country. They merely wait the issue of war.