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At this period the poorer quarters of the city--a network of narrow streets with high houses built of inflammable materials--had been again and again devastated by fire. At night the densest darkness descended upon the city, street lighting was unknown, shop doors were shut and barred, and it was unsafe to walk abroad; those who ventured carried lights, or were preceded by servants with staves and torches. The ubiquitous beggars haunted the byways, and brigands raided the outskirts of the town.

Until the racing of riderless horses down the Corso was forbidden, each region entered a horse for the race which was decked in the regional colour, and its success or failure aroused a perfect passion of rivalry between region and region--an antagonism as old as the age of Plutarch, who relates that in the month of October chariot races were run in the Campus Martius; the victorious horse was sacrificed to the god Mars, but its head was borne in procession to the Forum, all the regions fighting for possession of the trophy until nothing was left of it, and the combatants themselves were wounded and disabled.

The passage of time has not wholly wiped out the fierce and hereditary enmity between the inhabitants of one portion of the city and another, which has been always fostered and encouraged, though unintentionally, by the regional system.

Campo Vaccino Luogo dove s'impara a fare a sassi.

Field of cows The place where one learns to throw stones.

The movement towards association between members of a craft or of persons of identical interests, seems to be, as we have seen, as old as Rome herself. Whether or no King Numa gave it its first impulse, it is certain that throughout the first years of the Republic trade corporations were multiplied in the city without let or hindrance, and only when their number and importance seemed to menace the tranquillity of the State were measures taken for their control.

Every young community sought a rich patron willing to give a plot of land or the funds necessary for the building of a club-room, promising in return certain anniversary banquets in his honour, or commemorative reunions to keep his memory green after death. Each corporation placed itself under the protection of a god whose name it adopted, and as its wealth and importance increased, by members' testamentary bequests or by gifts from patrons, the club premises were increased, and shrines and chapels were built in honour of the titular deity. Some of the corporations rose to such a position of importance that senatorial and consular families sprang from them; they supported colleges of doctors sculptors and painters of their own, they contributed to the building of public monuments and made loans to the State, while on special occasions the emperor's retinue was increased by a hundred standards and five hundred lances contributed by the trade colleges of Rome from amongst their own retainers.

Although democratic in constitution, in so far as every member, however humble, could serve as one of its officers, the college was founded on the civic pattern, with president, curators, fiscal officer and all the grades of rank down to its slave members. Thus each unit represented in miniature the Roman commune and contributed to its consolidation. Unlike some of the guilds of the North however which became the nurseries of civic freedom, the Roman Colleges were too ready to subject their individuality to the spirit of civil discipline which was characteristic of Roman organisations and we find them submitting to one Imperial decree after another, losing one after another of their rights until they fell altogether under State patronage and became a mere portion of State machinery, a petrifying slavery being thus imposed upon their members whose liberties they were founded to safeguard.

As an integral portion of the administrative life of the State, they proved of the greatest use, not only as adding to its stability and prosperity but as affording a sort of scaffolding upon which to build its complicated daily life. To them was given the collection of taxes, the superintendence of public buildings, the development of the military system, the clothing of the militia, the provisioning of the citizens and the supplying of all their daily necessities.

In return for these services they were exempt from all other obligations to the State. The livelihood and wellbeing of members of colleges were thus ensured but at the cost of their liberty. Every member was obliged to sink a portion of his estate in the funds of the college, and to contribute another to its expenses. He was forbidden to will away the remainder except to his sons or nephews who in their turn were bound to enter the same trade; no member could change his own trade for any other, the priesthood alone excepted, in which case he must furnish a substitute. The goods of the corporations were thus inalienable, and whole families were bound to the same occupation in perpetuity.

The confraternity of blacksmiths had the privilege of blessing animals on S. Antony's day and the space before their church of S. Eligio, patron of blacksmiths, used to be crowded with horses, mules, dogs, sheep and oxen brought for the purpose. The owners paid large sums to the confraternity, and the Pope's horses and the equipages of Roman patricians arrived decked in flowers, the Piombino and Doria coachmen driving eighteen pairs in hand to the admiration of the crowds.

Since 1870 the confraternities have lost their importance and much of their amassed wealth, while such of the trade guilds as have not become purely religious confraternities, have resolved themselves into the modern trades unions and beneficent clubs.

THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA

Italy has always been the land of Saturn, the nature god. Her festivals were the festivals of the doings and events of nature, the Lupercalia of Lupercus, the Palilia of Pales; she was and she remains pagan, if pagan is to mean the natural as opposed to the supernatural attitude towards life--natural and humanistic as opposed to mystic and ideal. Under the new names lie concealed the old gods. The true Latin goddess is Pales, the earth mother, the source of grace, the real giver of gifts to her devotees--enshrined, dedicated to the gospel under a hundred aspects of what Bonghi has happily called that "gentilissimo fiore del cattolicismo," the cult of the Madonna. Some unseemly tracts and pictures have represented Christ as turning away from the leprosy of the sinner's sin, and it is Mary whose compassion for the prodigal never wavers, who persuades the Christ to have pity. That, though false enough as theology, accurately represents the Italian mind. The nature goddess, the mother, the earth and its fulness, will console, recreate, and speak to the soul of the Latin on his native soil when religion has no language which reaches him. From the heart of that soil the Latin learnt his religion, and he has never parted with it.

It is the hour of the god Pan, that midday hour which Pan alone can withstand. The sun is high in the heavens, the earth exhales heat, round about are the great silences. Nothing else stirs, nothing moves, nothing breathes. The great repose is indeed tense with a great activity, but a hush of nature greets this supreme hour of the sun in its glory--the world lies dead at the feet of the giver of life. The hour of the god Pan is the mystery which is daily renewed for the Italian; what has remained constant amid all changes is the nature-myth, and the secrets it is always whispering to the children of its soil.

THE ROMAN M?NAGE

As in other European towns, the custom in Rome is to live in flats. The houses are high, of no particular style of architecture, and in the older portions of the city they overshadow a labyrinth of narrow streets paved with large uneven slabs of stone. Here are no side walks for pedestrians who with an indifference born of long practice walk habitually in the middle of the roadway, moving leisurely to one side in obedience to the warning cries of the drivers, or patiently waiting and flattening themselves against the shop doors if two vehicles desire to pass one another. Long ragged grooves scraped along the house walls and at street corners by the hubs of heavy cart-wheels, testify to centuries of clumsy driving.

There have always existed in Rome, however, a certain number of villas within the walls, and their timbered parks and terraced gardens ornamented with fountains and statues, have been one of the characteristic features of the city. Their wealthy owners probably possessed a sombre palace as well along the Corso, but the villas were pleasant in the warm weather, and two centuries ago wonderful Arcadian entertainments were given beneath the shade of their ilex groves. Some of these villas still exist in their original state or as public property, many have been crowded out and demolished and their gardens have been cut up into building plots. The taste for villa-building is, however, not yet dead, and of late years small dwellings in a Baroque style have been springing up like mushrooms in the new quarters, and immense rents are asked for them.

Roman flats or apartments as they are called, vary from magnificent suites of thirty or forty rooms to a small domain of three or four. They can be leased even in the most princely of palaces which are so much too large for the requirements of modern life that their owners are glad to let what they cannot use.

The single entrance-gateway, which is locked at night, is under the charge of a porter whose appearance varies according to the social standing of his employer from an imposing figure in gold lace and a cocked hat, to a surly fellow out at heels and elbows who ekes out a precarious livelihood by cobbling or carpentering while he keeps a vigilant but no friendly eye upon the incomings and outgoings of the inhabitants of the wretched tenement under his care. Often, even in good houses, a single room by the side of the gateway serves the porter with his wife and family for bedroom, kitchen, living room, and workshop, and sometimes the same number of human beings are stowed away at night in a mere hole, windowless and doorless, under the stairs. Yet this employment is so sought after that a cabinet minister's portfolio is said to be easier to obtain than a position as house-porter.

One or more public staircases lead up from the central courtyard. Before 1870 it was not obligatory to light these, and many a crime has been committed on a long dark flight, the only witness the dwindling oil-lamp before an image of the Madonna.

Like cats, they have a constitutional horror of rain, and will prefer to remain indoors than risk a wetting in search of some place of amusement, or to keep an engagement. Every carter, every beggar, every peasant carries an umbrella; horses and draught oxen are swathed in flannel and mackintosh in the wet, and the drivers of the little open cabs cower beneath leathern aprons and enormous umbrellas, under the dripping edges of which their "fares" creep in and out as best they can. Brigands only, so it is popularly believed, carry no umbrellas, and by this you may know them.

The Romans' cheerful acquiescence in what we should consider considerable hardship is nothing less than admirable. After long working hours spent in government offices for example, which are for the most part despoiled monasteries and always bitterly cold, they return to their homes where creature comforts as we understand them are unknown, not because they cannot be afforded, but because they are not desired or missed; and their gaiety or their enjoyment of one another's society is in nowise diminished because they spend the evening sitting at a dining-room table on straight-backed chairs.

It is a perpetual wonder to the foreigner what elaborate and excellently cooked dinners can be produced in the unpromising Roman kitchens. Larders and sculleries are almost unknown. A white marble sink--marble fills the lowliest offices in Rome--and a tap in a corner do duty for the latter. The kitchen is often a slip of a room, and the "range" is little more than a table of brick and tiles fitted with small holes for holding charcoal, and with a shaft above for carrying away the unwholesome fumes. Upon these small holes all the cooking is done; the charcoal is fanned into a glow with a feather fan, and if there are many pots and saucepans they must take their turn upon the tiny fires. Scuttles do not exist, and the stock of charcoal for use is kept on the floor beneath the range.

Italians of all classes are very fastidious about the cleanliness of their beds, and in this particular their habits contrast favourably with the antediluvian practices prevalent in England, for not only is every article of bedding aired at the window daily, but all the mattresses are picked to pieces and the wool pulled out and beaten every year. This process is carried on generally on the flat house-roofs when the weather is sunny; a mattress-maker with his assistant, his bench and his combs, coming round to do it for you for the modest fee of one lira and a half the mattress.

Beyond this the Roman's standard of cleanliness fails altogether. Floors are never washed; they serve to tramp about on in thick boots, to spit upon, and to receive matches and cigar-ash. Doors, painted woodwork, walls, are always soiled; if there is a terrace it becomes at once unsightly and the receptacle for hideous refuse. There is complete indifference to cleanliness as a first condition of hygiene, and it is not unusual to find fowls kept in the kitchen of a good bourgeois house, which take their walks abroad on the balcony and pick up their living under the table.

Even in the houses of the great, where many servants are kept, there is often the same Spartan indifference to comfort. Great halls are kept unwarmed except for a brazier of glowing wood-ash, and fireplaces, if they exist, are only sparingly used in the sitting-rooms. Bathrooms are rare, and the habit of the daily bath is almost unknown in a city which once boasted the finest baths the world has seen.

Out-of-door pleasures appeal no less to the better classes. Fashionable Rome drives daily in the afternoon along the Corso and round the Pincio, the carriages drawing up at intervals near the bandstand. So dear to the Roman heart is the possession of smart clothes and a showy carriage and horses, that entire families will live with parsimony within doors that they may afford these luxuries. During long afternoon hours men will congregate outside the Parliament House and along the Corso to meet and chat with their friends, and chairs and tables with their fashionable occupants block the pavements outside the caf?s and restaurants, obliging the passer-by to step out into the roadway.

The Roman of the poorer class carries on as much of his domestic life also as he can in the open air. Chairs, kitchen tables, and wash-tubs are dragged out into the streets. Food is prepared and eaten, clothes are washed, and the occupations of sewing, knitting, cobbling, and carpentering are conducted in the open, subject to a lively attention to what is going on in the street.

The fashion of open-air washing tanks, once universal, is gradually passing away. Outside the walls, the women wash their clothes in the streams and rivers, and inside the city, by the new Ponte Margherita, one of the old public washing-places may still be seen, protected only by a roof and surrounded by a crowd of women in bright-coloured cotton bodices and skirts, washing clothes in the cold turbid water and scrubbing them vigorously on the stone slabs in order that what is left of them after this heroic treatment may at least be clean.

Owing tona ja halusivat olla yksin??n. Min? siis l?hdin pit?m??n hauskaa autettuani heit? niin paljon kuin voin. Miten ihanaa oli k?vell? kannella -- ja ne auringonlaskut, hieno ilma ja aallot sitten! Oli melkein yht? j?nnitt?v?? kuin ratsastaa nopealla hevosella, kun kiidimme eteenp?in sellaista vauhtia. Kunpa Beth olisi p??ssyt mukaan, matka olisi tehnyt h?nelle hyv??; Jo olisi varmasti kiivennyt innoissaan raakapuulle istumaan, tehnyt tuttavuutta konemiesten kanssa ja puhunut kapteenin komentotorveen.

Matka oli todella taivaallinen, mutta tuntui hauskalta, kun Irlannin rannikko tuli n?kyviin. Minusta se n?ytti herttaiselta: siell? oli vihre?? ja aurinkoista, pieni? ruskeita m?kkej?, joillakin kukkuloilla n?kyi raunioita ja laaksoissa herraskartanoita, joitten puistoissa saksanhirvet k?viv?t laitumella. Saavuimme sinne aikaisin aamulla, enk? tosiaan kadu, ett? nousin katsomaan. Lahti oli t?ynn? pieni? veneit?, rannikko maalauksellinen ja taivas rusotti kaiken yll?. En ikin? unohda sit?.

Queenstownissa erosimme herra Lennoxista -- h?n on er?s uusi tuttavani -- ja kun mainitsin Killarneyn j?rvist?, h?n huokasi ja lauloi katsoen minuun:

Ah, tokkopa tunnet Kate Kearneyn? H?n rannoilla kulkee Killarneyn. H?nen silm?ns? hurma on vaara ja turma, sill? kumma on katse Kate Kearneyn. Typer??, vai mit??

Liverpoolissa viivyimme vain pari tuntia. Siell? on likaista ja meluisaa ja l?hdin sielt? mielell?ni. Set? rynt?si kaupungille, osti koirannahkak?sineet, rumat paksupohjaiset keng?t, sateenvarjon ja ennen kaikkea ajatti itselleen poskiparran, mink? tehty??n h?n uskoi n?ytt?v?ns? aidolta britilt?. Mutta jo ensimm?inen pieni keng?nkiillottaja, joka sai puhdistaa h?nen kenk?ns?, huomasi niiden kuuluvan amerikkalaiselle ja sanoi virnistellen:

-- Kas niin, sir, nyt ne ovat siistit. Olen kiillottanut ne jenkkien parhaalla voiteella.

Se huvitti set?? sanomattomasti. Voi, minun t?ytyy kertoa, mit? se hassu Lennox teki! H?n k?ski yst?v?ns? Wardin, joka jatkoi matkaa meid?n kanssamme, tilata kukkia minulle, ja kun tulin huoneeseeni, n?in ensimm?iseksi kauniin kukkakimpun ja kortissa luki "Parhain terveisin Robert Lennoxilta". Eik? se ollut hupsua, tyt?t? Min? pid?n matkustamisesta.

En enn?t? lainkaan Lontooseen, jollen pid? kiirett?. Matka sinne kulki kuin suuren taidemuseon halki, joka on t?ynn? ihania maisemamaalauksia. Pidin eniten maalaistaloista; niiss? oli olkikatot, murattia r?yst??seen saakka, ristikkoikkunat, ja oviaukoissa seisoskeli pulskia em?nti? punaposkiset lapset helmoissaan. Karjakin n?ytti lauhkeammalta kuin meik?l?inen seisoessaan puolis??rt? my?ten apilassa, ja kanat kotkottivat tyytyv?isin?. En ole milloinkaan n?hnyt yht? puhtaita v?rej? -- ruoho oli helakan vihre??, taivas kovin sininen, vilja keltaista ja mets? syv?n tumma -- koko matkan olin ihastuksissani ja samoin oli Flokin. Juoksimme ikkunan ??rest? toiseen ja yritimme n?hd? kaiken junan kiit?ess? sadan kilometrin tuntivauhtia. T?ti oli v?synyt ja k?vi nukkumaan, mutta set? tutki opaskirjaansa eik? mik??n saanut h?nt? h?mm?stym??n.

T?h?n tapaan kului matka: Amy hyp?ht?? seisomaan:

-- Oi tuolla on varmasti Kenilworth, tuo harmaa tuolla puiden keskell?!

Flo sy?ksyy minun ikkunani ??reen. -- Miten siev? se on! Menn??n sinne joskus, eik? niin is??

Set? ihailee kaikessa rauhassa saappaitaan. -- Emme, kultaseni, jollet tahdo olutta. Se on panimo.

??nett?myys -- sitten Flo huudahtaa: -- Hirve?t?, tuolla on hirsipuu ja siihen ripustetaan parhaillaan miest?.

-- Miss?, miss?? huutaa Amy ja saa n?kyviins? kaksi korkeaa pylv?st?, joiden v?lill? on poikkipuu ja siit? riippumassa rautaketjuja.

-- Kivihiilikaivos, huomauttaa set? silm?? iskien.

-- Tuolla makaa siev? lammaslauma nurmella, sanoo Amy.

-- Katso is?, eiv?tk? ne ole herttaisia! lis?? Flo tunteellisesta.

-- Ne ovat hanhia, arvoisat neidit, vastaa set? ??nell?, joka saa meid?t olemaan hiljaa, kunnes Flo rupeaa lukemaan "Kapteeni Cavendishin lemmenseikkailuja" ja min? saan yksin nauttia maisemasta.

Kun tulimme Lontooseen, satoi tietenkin, emmek? n?hneet muuta kuin sumua ja sateenvarjoja. Me lep?simme, purimme matkalaukut ja teimme v?h?n ostoksia sadekuurojen lomassa. Mary-t?ti osti minulle uusia vaatteita, sill? l?hdin matkalle niin kiireesti, etten ehtinyt l?hesk??n valmiiksi. Sain valkoisen hatun, jossa on sininen sulka, siihen sopivan musliinipuvun ja mit? ihanimman viitan. On todella hauskaa k?yd? ostoksilla Regent Streetill?: tavarat vaikuttavat huokeilta -- kauniit silkkinauhatkin maksavat vain kuusi penny? metri. Ker?sin varastoon kaikenlaista, mutta hansikkaat ostan vasta Pariisista. Eik? se kuulosta rikkaalta ja hienolta?

Flo ja min? tilasimme huviksemme vaunut sill? aikaa kun t?ti ja set? olivat kaupungilla ja l?hdimme ajelemaan. Sittemmin kuulimme, ettei ole sopivaa nuorten neitosten l?hte? yksin??n ajelemaan. Se oli sitten hullua! Kun olimme p??sseet puisen vaununkatoksen alle, l?hti mies ajamaan sellaista vauhtia, ett? Flo pel?styi ja pyysi minua varoittamaan ajuria. Mutta mies istui jossakin takana ulkopuolella enk? n?hnyt h?nt?. H?n ei kuullut huutoani eik? huomannut, kun hosuin p?iv?nvarjolla, ja siin? me istuimme neuvottomina ja vaunut kolisivat eteenp?in ja kaarsivat kadunkulmissa suorastaan hengenvaarallista vauhtia. Lopulta keksin ep?toivoissani pienen luukun katossa, ja kun ty?nsin sen auki, ilmestyi siihen punainen silm? ja samea ??ni kysyi:

-- No, mit? nyt, neiti?

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