. Italy. and good pictures, placed in the midst of afilthy village of the most miserable hovels, in whichmen, women, and children live and starve together withpigs and cattle. All this contributes to embitter thefeelings of the poor towards their masters, which oftendegenerates into unforgiving hatred, and the landlordshave only their armed retainers, who are little betterthan bravos, to depend on for their personal safety. People of the middle classes live either in smallhouses or in a flat of some great house let ofr in blocksof apartments. One room, the drawing-room, is verygaudy, the rest
. Italy. and good pictures, placed in the midst of afilthy village of the most miserable hovels, in whichmen, women, and children live and starve together withpigs and cattle. All this contributes to embitter thefeelings of the poor towards their masters, which oftendegenerates into unforgiving hatred, and the landlordshave only their armed retainers, who are little betterthan bravos, to depend on for their personal safety. People of the middle classes live either in smallhouses or in a flat of some great house let ofr in blocksof apartments. One room, the drawing-room, is verygaudy, the rest are carelessly furnished, and, to Englisheyes, rather untidy. This is often caused by the lackof domestic help, for servants are few, because there isno money to pay for them. The salaries of professionalmen are much smaller in Italy than in England. Aman who makes from £200 to £300 a year is lookedupon as very well oft* A country doctor makes lessthan j£ioo per annum. A town doctor in good practice 80. A STREET IN POMPEII. Page 64. Home Life in Italy will run up to ^300. A fairly successful barristermakes about the same. But in both professions thereare vast numbers who live from hand to mouth, andearn very little in a twelvemonth. Government officialsare also poorly paid, but there is great competition foran official post, as the work is light and the moneysure. To put the matter in a nutshell, the averageincomes of the two countries may be contrasted : theaverage income of an Englishman is ^31 ; the averageincome of an Italian is £7 i6s. 8d.—about Italian of the middle class never eats more thantwo real meals a day. When he awakes he drinks acup of coffee and milk, perhaps with a piece of bread-and-butter, perhaps not. His first meal comes betweenten and twelve, and is a substantial luncheon, when heeats eggs and macaroni, a dish of meat served withvegetables, and ends with cheese and fruit. With this O meal he drinks wine, which is, of course, the natio
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