I Decided That His Admirable Drama Had Been Studied
From The Histrionics Of His Mother In Domestic Scenes; And, If I Had
Been One Of Those Other Boys, I Should Have Come Over To His Side
Instantly.
The Roman manners vary from Roman to Roman, just as our own manners, if
we had any, would vary from New-Yorker to New-Yorker.
Zola thinks the
whole population is more or less spoiled with the conceit of Rome's
ancient greatness, and shows it. One could hardly blame them if this
were so; but I did not see any strong proof of it, though I could have
imagined it on occasion. I should say rather that they had a republican
simplicity of manner, and I liked this better in the shop people and
work people than the civility overflowing into servility which one finds
among the like folk, for instance, in England. I heard complaints from
foreigners that the old-time deference of the lower classes was gone,
but I did not miss it. Once in a cafe, indeed, the waiter spoke to me in
_Voi_ (you) instead of _Lei_ (lordship), but the Neapolitans often do
this, and I took it for a friendly effort to put me at my ease in a
strange tongue with a more accustomed form. We were trying to come
together on the kind of tea I wanted, but we failed, if I wanted it
strong, for I got it very weak and tepid. I thought another day that it
would be stronger if I could get it brought hotter, but it was not, and
so I went no more to a place where I was liable to be called You instead
of Lordship and still get weak tea. I think this was a mistake of mine
and a loss, for at that cafe I saw some old-fashioned Italian types
drinking their black coffee at afternoon tea-time out of tumblers, and
others calling for pen and ink and writing letters, and ladies sweetly
asking for newspapers and reading them there; and I ought to have
continued coming to study them.
As to my conjectures of republican quality in the Romans, I had explicit
confirmation from a very intelligent Italian who said of the anomalous
social and political situation in Rome: "We Italians are naturally
republicans, and, if it were a question of any other reigning family, we
should have the republic. But we feel that we owe everything, the very
existence of the nation, to the house of Savoy, and we are loyal to it
in our gratitude. Especially we are true to the present king." It is
known, of course, that Menotti Garibaldi continues the republican that
his father always was, but I heard of his saying that, if a republic
were established, Victor Emmanuel III. would be overwhelmingly chosen
the first president. It is the Socialists who hold off unrelentingly
from the monarchy, and not the republicans, as they can be differenced
from them. One of the well-known Roman anomalies is that some members of
the oldest families are or have been Socialists; and such a noble was
reproached because he would not go to thank the king in recognition of
some signal proof of his public spirit and unselfish patriotism. He
owned the generosity of the king's behavior and his claim upon popular
acknowledgment, but he said that he had taught the young men of his
party the duty of ignoring the monarchy, and he could not go counter to
the doctrine he had preached.
If I venture to speak now of a very extraordinary trait of the municipal
situation at Rome, it must be without the least pretence to authority or
to more than such superficial knowledge as the most incurious visitor to
Rome can hardly help having. In the capital of Christendom, where the
head of the Church dwells in a tradition of supremacy hardly less
Italian than Christian, the syndic, or mayor, is a Jew, and not merely a
Jew, but an alien Jew, English by birth and education, a Londoner and an
Oxford man. More yet, he is a Freemason, which in Italy means things
anathema to the Church, and he is a very prominent Freemason. With
reference to the State, his official existence, though not inimical, is
through the fusion of the political parties which elected him hardly
less anomalous. This combination overthrew the late Clerical city
government, and it included Liberals, Republicans, Socialists, and all
the other anti-Clericals. Whatever liberalism or republicanism means,
socialism cannot mean less than the economic solution of regality and
aristocracy in Europe, and in Italy as elsewhere. It does not mean the
old-fashioned revolution; it means simply the effacement of all social
differences by equal industrial obligations. So far as the Socialists
can characterize it, therefore, the actual municipal government of Rome
is as antimonarchical as it is antipapal. But the syndic of Rome is a
man of education, of culture, of intelligence, and he is evidently a man
of consummate tact. He has known how to reconcile the warring elements,
which made peace in his election, to one another and to their outside
antagonists, to the Church and to the State, as well as to himself, in
the course he holds over a very rugged way. His opportunities of
downfall are pretty constant, it will be seen, when it is explained that
if a measure with which he is identified fails in the city council it
becomes his duty to resign, like the prime-minister of England in the
like case with Parliament, But Mr. Nathan, who is as alien in his name
as in his race and religion, and is known orally to the Romans as Signor
Nahtahn, has not yet been obliged to resign. He has felt his way through
every difficulty, and has not yet been identified with any fatally
compromising measure. In such an extremely embarrassing predicament as
that created by the conflict between the labor unions and the police
early in April, and eventuating in the two days' strike, he knew how to
do the wise thing and the right thing.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 60 of 95
Words from 60506 to 61534
of 97259
