As They Were Then
Paved The Streets Must Have Been The Noisiest In The World, On Account
Of The Immense Numbers Of Big Springless Carts In Them.
Imagine the
thunderous racket made by a long procession of these carts, when they
were returning empty, and the drivers, as was often the case, urged
their horses to a gallop, and they bumped and thundered over the big
round stones!
Just opposite the house we stayed at there was a large church, one of
the largest of the numerous churches of the city, and one of my most
vivid memories relates to a great annual festival at the church - that
of the patron saint's day. It had been open to worshippers all day,
but the chief service was held about three o'clock in the afternoon;
at all events it was at that hour when a great attendance of
fashionable people took place. I watched them as they came in couples,
families and small groups, in every case the ladies, beautifully
dressed, attended by their cavaliers. At the door of the church the
gentleman would make his bow and withdraw to the street before the
building, where a sort of outdoor gathering was formed of all those
who had come as escorts to the ladies, and where they would remain
until the service was over. The crowd in the street grew and grew
until there were about four or five hundred gentlemen, mostly young,
in the gathering, all standing in small groups, conversing in an
animated way, so that the street was filled with the loud humming
sound of their blended voices. These men were all natives, all of the
good or upper class of the native society, and all dressed exactly
alike in the fashion of that time. It was their dress and the uniform
appearance of so large a number of persons, most of them with young,
handsome, animated faces, that fascinated me and kept me on the spot
gazing at them until the big bells began to thunder at the conclusion
of the service and the immense concourse of gaily-dressed ladies
swarmed out, and immediately the meeting broke up, the gentlemen
hurrying back to meet them.
They all wore silk hats and the glossiest black broadcloth, not even a
pair of trousers of any other shade was seen; and all wore the scarlet
silk or fine cloth waistcoat which, at that period, was considered the
right thing for every citizen of the republic to wear; also, in lieu
of buttonhole, a scarlet ribbon pinned to the lapel of the coat. It
was a pretty sight, and the concourse reminded me of a flock of
military starlings, a black or dark-plumaged bird with a scarlet
breast, one of my feathered favourites.
My rambles were almost always on the front, since I could walk there a
mile or two from home, north or south, without getting lost, always
with the vast expanse of water on one hand, with many big ships
looking dim in the distance, and numerous lighters or belanders coming
from them with cargoes of merchandise which they unloaded into carts,
these going out a quarter of a mile in the shallow water to meet them.
Then there were the water-carts going and coming in scores and
hundreds, for at that period there was no water supply to the houses,
and every house-holder had to buy muddy water by the bucket at his own
door from the watermen.
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