They Are Supposed To
Be Respectable And Honest Men, But It Is Difficult To See How A Family
Can Be Supported On That Wage, When One Knows How High The Rents Are,
And How Severely The Most Ordinary Commodities Of Life Are Taxed.
I endeavoured to obtain photographs of the land as it looked ere it was
covered by the arsenal quarter, but in vain.
Nobody seems to have
thought it worth while preserving what would surely be a notable
economic document for future generations. Out of sheer curiosity I also
tried to procure a plan of the old quarter, that labyrinth of
thick-clustering humanity, where the Streets are often so narrow that
two persons can barely squeeze past each other. I was informed that no
such plan had ever been drawn up; it was agreed that a map of this kind
might be interesting, and suggested, furthermore, that I might undertake
the task myself; the authorities would doubtless appreciate my labours.
We foreigners, be it understood, have ample means and unlimited leisure,
and like nothing better than doing unprofitable jobs of this kind.
[Footnote: here is a map of old Taranto in Lasor a Varea (Savonarola)
Universus terrarum etc., Vol. II, p. 552, and another in J. Blaev's
Theatrum Civitatum (1663). He talks of the "rude houses" of this
town.]
One is glad to leave the scintillating desert of this arsenal quarter,
and enter the cool stone-paved streets of the other, which remind one
somewhat of Malta.
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