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leaves and burrs. These they use much as we do straw, and every
spot was raked as carefully as though it had been to secure the most
valuable crop.
Life in Italy, with all except the wealthy, is a hard battle. Judging
from the expression which we saw upon the countenances of many, the
last ray of hope had died out of their souls, their ambition was gone,
and as long as life should last they expected only hunger, toil, and
misery. The children are taught to work almost from infancy. We met
little ones not more than six years old walking and knitting as busily
and intelligently as women of sixty. And many at the tender age of
seven or eight are placed in factories, or set to work in stone quarries.
This seemed at first almost cruel; but when we learned that the most
experienced workmen in the factories received only fifty cents for
sixteen hours’ work, and those less experienced only twenty-five cents,
and that from this meager pittance some were obliged to support a
family of from eight to twelve, we felt less like judging them harshly
for allowing their children to work rather than to starve. As the result,
however, of standing on their feet so many hours, and working so
hard in childhood, many never attain their full growth. We saw many
remarkably short men and women, also many who were bow-legged
and crippled. And yet all who had had a fair chance for their lives
looked healthy and rosy-cheeked.
The manner in which the people live is of course the most inex-
pensive. Their principal articles of diet are bread and a cheap coffee.
All patronize the bakeshops, as it would cost more to buy wood to
bake with than to buy bread. The natural order of things seems to be
somewhat reversed here. Wood sells by the pound, and bread, so the
saying runs, by the yard. This, however, refers to bread that is baked
in rolls a little larger than a pipe stem, and about a yard long. This is a
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kind of bread peculiar to the Piedmont valleys. Repeated efforts have
been put forth to make it in other places, but without success. It is as
light and sweet as it is possible for bread to be, but is too expensive
for the poorer classes. These buy a cheap, black-looking quality, made
in long loaves; and, whenever they can get money enough ahead to
do so, they buy it in quantity, and stack it up to dry, so that it will “go
farther.”
The dress of the people is of the most substantial kind, and is made
in the most simple style. Their shoes are mostly made of wood. The