LIFE IN NAPLES.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume VI, Issue 36, 6 September 1890, Page 3

LIFE IN NAPLES.

TH the exception of Cairo there is no city V M where one can see so much of actual outdoor M > jfe(! life, with utter indifference to publicity, as in Naples, where the public promenades, RKghsKMjn' streets and lanes literally swarm with people luyjSwnSfßj!, from early morning until late at night, and lllißgfflSffiMi often from late at night until early in the morning. Especially is this true when the liMsßajrigaA!. weather is tine and the moon is shining on the bay, dotted with sails and Hags ami the tall masts which repeat themselves in the water, until they look like a city reHected from the depths of the sea. Low in the social scale as a Neapolitan may be, lie has in his nature a strong love for the beautiful and picturesque, and would much rather spend his nights beneath the soft moonlight, looking out upon the sea ami listening to the plaintive songs his fellow-watchers sometimes sing, than to spend them in the close, dark quarters he calls his home, and which is often little better than a cave scooped in the hillside. In these dens or holes lam told that men, women and children frequently crawl promiscuously with their dogs and donkeys, if they hold such property, just as the wild Arabs of the Upper Nile crowd into the tombs which they have plundered ami made their habitations. And from these and similar places they emerge in the morning, unwashed and uncombed, and it would seem at times undressed, but quite ready for the business of the day. A STRANGE MEDLEY. In the Toledo, or Via Roma, which intersects the city from north to south, a strange medley of people.is seen, which increases in size and strangeness as the day goes on, and reaches its climax near midnight. Here, and in the side streets, pedlers of all kinds are found, thrusting upon your notice their wares, and asking three or four times as much as they expect to get. Coral ornaments of a very inferior quality ; bits of Java which Vesuvius never saw; shell combs, which are not shell at all, and which, if you are foolish enough to buy them, either break the first time you use them or cling to your hair with a pertinacity of which shell is never guilty ; fans and baskets for which they ask five francs and are glad to get one; horns and canes and photographs, with every kind of fruit which grows in that tropical climate. Then come the newsboys with their tattered trousers, their bare feet, and I right, shrewd faces, which stamp them as experts in their business. And when the day’s traffic is over and darkness has settled in the corners of the streets, you will see, moving here and there, like great fire-flies, the lanterns of the Trovatori.who are out on their night mission, hunting for ends of cigars or whatever else may have been thrown away or dropped accidentally, and with which, when arranged upon a tray or board, they expect to drive a flourishing trade the following day, and earn, perhaps, a franc, which makes them for the time persons of wealth and importance. A STRANGE LIFE. It is a strange life tire Neapolitans lead, and you are never tired of watching it, or them, in their fanciful costumes, their red kerchiefs around their head, their blue bodices and white sleeves, their gaily striped skirtsand scarlet stockings, the whole making a picture which yon leave rather unwillingly for the newer portion of the town, with its hotels and gardens and broad promenades and streets, and handsome villas which overlook the sea. Here the upper classes spend their days, and sometimes their nights, on the Hat roofs of their houses, which are covered with awnings and Idled withrare shrubs and flowers, making a delightful resort for the family when the sun overhead is hot and the breeze comes cool from the bay. The ladies, who are proud and haughty, seldom walk in public, but on fine afternoons, and especially on Sundays, the Chiaja and the broad quay which stretches westward along the coast are filled with the splendid turnouts of the nobility ; the men dignified and grand, and the women exceedingly beautiful in their elegant toilettes and diamonds, scarcely brighter than their eyes, which they know so well how to use. When she is in the city the lovely Queen Margharitta is often out with her red liveries, her face wreathed in smiles which seem to be genuine, as she bows alike to the prince and the beggar, all of whom greet her with demonstrations of loyalty, for, with her husband, King Humbert, she is favourite. ALWAYS ON THE STREETS. An<l so, in far-away Naples, the busy, active outdoor life goes on from year’s end to year’s end, with little or no change except in midsummer, when the heat drives the people from the streets and quays to any shelter they can find, or in the winter, when the wind blows cold from both hillside and sea. And even then you will in the evening often come upon crowds of people in the outskirts of the city sitting around a fire in some retired spot, telling stories, repeating poetry, singing songs and sometimes improvising a dance to the sound of two or three cracked violins, while the firelight, which falls upon their faces and brings out more distinctly the quaintness of their manycoloured costumes, makes a tableau which once seei cannot be easily forgotten.