Part 37

FRIDAY, MAY 2.—It has been said a good many times that Italy has too many churches and royal palaces. Naples has two royal palaces, although the king lives at Rome. One is in town, and the other in the country, near the sea. We visited the king’s town palace, as it is open to the public two days of the week. There are eight hundred rooms in the place, and twelve hundred servants care for it.... A room in a king’s palace is usually a huge affair, probably 100x50 feet, with an oval ceiling, and great chandeliers containing candles specially manufactured for royalty. The furniture in each room is of a different pattern; fancy chairs and divans made of gilt and brocade. No palace seems to have been made as a place of residence for a family, but for show, and intrigue, and murder, and dancing, and alarms, and riots. Most of the famous murders in history have taken place in palaces. Not far from the king’s town palace in Naples is an old palace now occupied by soldiers as a barracks. It is a dirty place, but we were taken to the upper rooms where are preserved relics of royalty nearly a thousand years old. These include a chapel, decorated by artists of great fame. Then we were taken down a winding stairway into a terrible place where dead bodies were displayed in coffins. The dead bodies in the coffins were those of princes, and cardinals, and all of them had died violent deaths. One cardinal had an expression of agony on his face which will haunt me for months; he had been smothered in the most inhuman way. The bodies we saw were dressed in the magnificent clothing they wore when they were murdered. This sight was seen in a noisome hole underground, and was so terrible that Adelaide almost cried when she begged me to take her out. We had a guide with us, and a warder from the castle, but neither of them could tell us much about the place, except that it is a relic of Spanish occupation in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.... In thinking of the magnificence of palaces and castles, always remember the terrible murders that have disgraced them. A king fills us common people with awe, but he always has a brother, an uncle, a cousin, or some other near relative who knows that he deserves death. I think I have longed for nearly everything else, but I never longed to be a king, nor would I care to live in a palace with twelve hundred servants, any one of whom would poison me for two dollars and promise of a postoffice.... On the way to the king’s town palace we passed through the old part of Naples; a district of tall houses, all of them crowded with poor people. The street was very narrow, and the sun was almost obscured by clothes newly washed, and drying in the sunlight. The wash-lines ran across the streets, and were so thick that I thought the sight the most curious I had ever seen. The streets were so crowded with children that we got through them with difficulty, and every little while some one who had been to America, hailed us in bad English. The lower floor of every house was nearly always occupied with a little shop, in which a family also lived. In one of these places, a little child was lying dead. The body was surrounded with candles, and five women sat in the room. For some reason, the mother of the child wanted us to look at it; she came out into the street, weeping, and made motions indicating that she wanted us to go in, which we did. The guide said the woman’s husband was in America, and that she felt a friendly interest in us on that account.... The street was a steep one; so steep that we went down it by means of broad steps. I have seen a street almost exactly like it in Jerusalem. The cross-streets were narrower and steeper than the main street we traveled, and I was almost disposed to agree with Adelaide that Naples is the most interesting place we have visited.... James Gordon Bennett, of the New York _Herald_, issues an edition of his paper in Paris, and it is sold all over Europe by street peddlers. Twenty times a minute we were offered a copy of the _Herald_; the peddlers knew we were Americans, and were so insistent that I always carried a copy of the paper in my pocket, to show them I had one. They also sold the New York _Times_, and I carried a copy of that paper, too.... Flowers grow in great profusion in Italy, and are sold by street peddlers who are hanging onto your carriage half the time. I bought fifteen very fine roses, on one occasion, for ten cents.... The Italian lire and the French franc are of the same value, twenty cents, and the franc circulates everywhere in Italy, as the lire circulates everywhere in France. If you ask for Italian money in Italy, you are as apt to get francs as lires.... Prices may have advanced abroad, as at home, but I doubt if the advance has been as great. Adelaide needed a pair of gloves, and the price at one of the best shops in Naples was fifty cents a pair. The same gloves would cost $1.50 at home.... You hear a great deal about tips abroad: how the servants mob you at hotels, etc. The tip nuisance is worse in New York than it is in Naples; besides, larger tips are exacted in New York. Carriage-hire here is less than half what it is in New York, and when I land in that American city I shall pay for rooms at the Waldorf-Astoria more than I paid for rooms and meals at the Hotel Vesuve. And Naples is one of the greatest resorts in Europe, and the Hotel Vesuve is one of the best hotels in Naples.... We expressed a desire to see the San Carlos theatre, one of the most famous in the world, and the guide promptly took us there, and had it lighted up for our special benefit. I was willing to give the theatre man forty cents, but our man said twenty cents was enough, and that was what we paid. The cathedral in Naples is also a famous place, built in imitation of St. Peters, in Rome. And it is a very good imitation. The guide took us through this church, and never gave the priest guides more than half a franc, or ten cents each. I suppose he robbed us a good deal, but I never caught him at it. You are always hearing that when you shop in Naples, the shopkeeper is compelled to add something to the price for the guide. One day the guide left us for a few minutes, in a famous arcade, and we found prices the same as when the guide was along. English is spoken nearly everywhere in Naples and throughout Italy, because so many of its citizens have been to the United States.... The Italian girls are nearly all good-looking when young, but after they are married and have children, most of them become too fat. I have always thought it a good joke on a man to marry a girl weighing a hundred pounds, and have her increase her weight to two hundred, or two hundred and fifty. And the joke on the man is particularly good if his daughters, on reaching fifteen or sixteen, are also very fat.

SATURDAY, MAY 3.—I had intended sailing from Naples on the North German-Lloyd ship “Princess Irene,” a favorite, but when I reached Cook’s office I found the ship crowded. I was offered the second officer’s room, if I paid $60 extra, but in pursuance of my vow to avoid favorites in future, I concluded to travel to New York on the French ship “Canada.” This ship is new, and has not yet had time to become a favorite, so I secured very much better accommodations at a lower price than was demanded for the German boat.... In Cairo, Egypt, is a famous hotel known as Shepherd’s. There are at least four hotels in Cairo better than Shepherd’s; there are half a dozen just as good, and another half-dozen where you may secure satisfactory accommodations. Avoid favorites of every kind, if you wish fair treatment.... Wherever a traveler goes, he encounters free advertising for the United States, but I saw a stars-and-stripes sight in Naples this afternoon that greatly impressed me. The “Canada” and “Princess Irene” were docked side by side, and as both were to sail at 6 P. M. for New York, both displayed the American flag. When I went to the dock at 4 P. M., the decks of both ships were black with emigrants, and they were still going up the gangways as thick as ants. When Adelaide and I went aboard the “Canada,” the sailors were compelled to clear a way for us to the first-class decks, where there were fifty passengers, as compared with three or four hundred in the second-cabin, and nearly two thousand in the steerage. Once on the upper decks of the “Canada,” we could see a similar crowd of emigrants on the “Princess Irene,” which lay alongside, and the emigrants kept coming until six o’clock, when the big whistle blew, and the gang-plank was drawn in. Three ships left Naples for New York today, and all of them were crowded with emigrants. And this doesn’t happen occasionally; it is of daily occurrence—not only here, but in many other ports. In every part of the world the people know about the United States, and go there in constantly increasing crowds, although South Africa, and Australia, and South America, and New Zealand, and Canada, and many other countries, are offering inducements to immigrants.... We got away a little after 6:30 o’clock, and found the sea kind again; this is our twenty-fifth day at sea without discomfort. There was a shower of rain just before we left Naples, which drove to cover the thousands of weeping women who had come to the dock to see friends depart, but outside the bay the sea was calm. Ten or fifteen poor children were on the dock, begging the passengers for pennies, but the rain didn’t bother them. There was one boy who could turn handsprings, but while he was showing off his accomplishment, the other children got the pennies. The moral is, attend to business, and don’t show off.

SUNDAY, MAY 4.—When we awoke this morning, the “Canada” was lying in the harbor of Palermo, in Sicily, where it spent the day in taking on more emigrants. As the ship was to remain until evening, we went ashore at 8:30 for the day, accompanied by an old gentleman of seventy-six, who acted as guide.... I have neglected Palermo in my reading; I knew almost nothing about it. I didn’t know it contained another palace belonging to the king of Italy, and about four hundred thousand people.... A few men are natural-born gentlemen. Our old guide was such a man. He lived in the United States, as a young man, and we were much pleased with him.... In Italian and Sicilian towns, nearly every family owns a milk goat. These goats are sent to the country, to graze, and are brought in every night and morning to be milked. We drove up-town in Palermo just as the milk goats were being collected by the herd boys. The goats know where they belong, and often climb two or three flights of stairs, to be milked. Milch cows are also driven into town, and milked in the streets. The calves accompany their mothers, and to insure that they will not get lost, are tied to their mother’s tail. There is a certain brand of Italian cattle, and they have not changed since the days of the Romans; every section of the Old World has its particular kind of cattle. In South Africa we saw a good many queer-looking cattle from Madagascar, imported after the rinderpest had killed nearly everything in Africa. In Egypt we saw another kind. India has another variety, and the Scotch and Irish also have varieties of their own. In the United States we are constantly improving cattle, and have no favorite except the best.... Although we visited Palermo on Sunday, the public market was in full blast. One man was making a tremendous outcry to attract attention to his beef. He said it was very cheap; the price was thirty-two cents a pound. Beef is very high-priced in Sicily, and so are fish, but poultry is quite cheap.... Palermo has a wonderful cathedral, and the guide took us there, during a mass. There was a large choir of men and boys, and an archbishop conducted the service. The old guide was a devout Catholic, and frequently crossed himself while in the cathedral, but he took us through the worshipers, to look at the different wonders, and the worshipers didn’t seem to mind it, or pay any attention to us. Occasionally we stopped, afraid to go on, but the old guide motioned for us to come on, and we walked among kneeling women to join our conductor. There were several chapels in the place, all of which were shown us, but the big service finally became so interesting that we spent a quarter of an hour in witnessing it. We saw many very old priests in the enormous building, and our guide seemed to know all of them; indeed, he seemed to know everybody everywhere, and to be universally respected. There were certain valuable relics and jewels belonging to the cathedral. In order to see these the guide conducted us into apartments which seemed to be private, and occupied by a considerable number of clericals. The guide knew all these men, and they bowed to him respectfully.... Then he took us to the private grounds of a count. The gatekeeper saluted our old guide with great respect, and, as we strolled about the grounds, the guide was at liberty to pick fruits and flowers for Adelaide. He next took us to a very old church, where we saw a quaint lot of monks. These queer men knew our guide, too, and he took snuff with one of them who opened a door to what seemed to be subterranean vaults of some kind. We walked down several long flights of steps, and entered a place where thousands of dead bodies were displayed. Many of the bodies were in coffins with glass tops or sides, but most of them were fastened against the stone walls. The guide said the bodies were buried for a year or two, and then taken up, and displayed in this queer way. There was nothing offensive about the place, except as thousands of grinning skulls are offensive. The guide did not know how many bodies were displayed in the place, but I should say the number was far above ten thousand. Some of the bodies were of infants, some of old men, some of young girls, some of priests. I had never before seen anything like it, nor did I know any such thing existed in Palermo or elsewhere.... Then we went to the royal palace, built in 1132, and which is occupied once or twice in a decade by the King of Italy and his family. We went into the private rooms of the king and queen, and saw their beds, and their baths; we saw the kitchen, and dining-room, as well as the state apartments. And all the palace attendants were very respectful to our old guide; he was permitted to roam about with us without restraint. Once, when he wanted to show us a certain apartment, he took a key out of a private drawer, and we walked a long way down one of the battlements to a tower where the room was.... But the best thing we saw during the day was the chapel of the old palace. It was a wonderful piece of art work, the entire interior being covered with valuable paintings and more valuable mosaic work. This chapel was in the class of the wonders to be seen in India. We visited it twice, and both times services were in progress. As we had done at the cathedral, the guide conducted us among the kneeling worshipers, and he knew every priest and monk he encountered, and they all spoke to him respectfully. I don’t believe I have ever seen anything that attracted me more than this chapel, built in the eleventh century. The interior is of marble, and the decorations of mosaic work laid in designs cut in the marble.... At 1 P. M. we rested at a little hotel on the side of the mountain overlooking Palermo. The old guide knew the proprietor, who waited on us himself, and tried hard to give satisfaction. We had macaroni cooked in Italian style, fish, wine, and quite a hearty lunch, but the charge for four of us—including the guide and driver—was a little less than $1.40. Then we went on up the mountain to a wonderful old church in a wonderful old town, the name of which I have forgotten. It was a feast day of some kind, and a great celebration was being held in the wonderful old town. The streets were packed with the merrymakers, and all sorts of hawkers were selling all sorts of articles that were queer to us. On our way down the mountain we saw a wonderful valley devoted to lemon orchards. The owner of one of these orchards lived several years in St. Louis, and, knowing we were Americans, invited us to see his lemon crop. The lemons were just ready to pick, and the yield was very good, apparently. The proprietor told me he had twelve acres; that the land was worth $1,000 an acre; and that all of his lemons were shipped to the United States. He was much interested in a rumor that the new president, Mr. Wilson, would remove the duty on lemons, but I was compelled to confess I did not know anything about it. As it was Sunday, all of the farmer’s family, including his wife and children, and hired men followed us about. There were two boys in the family, and they climbed trees, and loaded Adelaide down with various kinds of fruit. The lemon orchard, I noticed, is irrigated, but neither the proprietor nor the guide could tell me where the water came from. Usually it comes from wells, and is raised with sweeps turned by donkeys and horses.... We returned to the docks at 5:10 P. M., after eight very delightful hours in Palermo. The boatman was waiting, and the old guide went aboard with us, carrying Adelaide’s great collection of fruits and flowers. During our absence we had taken on six hundred more steerage passengers, and their friends surrounded the ship, in boats. In half an hour the big ship backed out of the harbor, and pointed its nose for New York.