Page:Cesare Battisti and the Trentino.djvu/11

 anthropo-geographic essay, conceived and written after the method and classical style of the great Elisée Reclus.

Battisti never wasted a moment of his time; he studied when traveling, and when serving various short terms of imprisonment imposed by the Austrian Government because of his political activities. In the evenings, instead of resting or frequenting cafes (where he was never seen), he visited the laborers and workingmen in their meetings in order to explain his ideas to them, do propaganda work and educate them.

Alone he managed the daily newspaper he had founded, "Il Popolo." At the same time he was editor of a scientific review on Trentino studies, called "Tridentum," and also of an illustrated weekly review, "Vita Trentina." Thus his journalistic activities alternated with his scientific work and the management of his printing establishment, which issued not only the abovementioned magazines, but also other publications, some of them quite voluminous; among them we may mention his Guides to Trentino, written in three languages, which Battisti compiled himself for the Society Encouraging Foreign Tourists.

Sundays, summer and winter, he left the city to hold conferences in the valleys, or to make some geographic or geologic investigations in the mountains. He used a bicycle as often as possible, eating his frugal repast in the shadow of some tree along the way.

His greatest pleasure was to betake himself to the high mountains, preferably alone; alone he climbed over the rocks or ventured on the treacherous glaciers. But the pure sport of such mountain wanderings was almost always combined with some practical object — toponymic, geological, cartographical, or even military investigations, which he placed at the disposal of the Italian Government in this war.

He was a man of few words — also in this respect a true mountaineer. To him words were actions. He did not like to speak except before a large public or in the closest intimacy. The distinguished woman who became his wife soon after they both received their Doctor's Degree in the same university, told me that even in the privacy of his family he was not loquacious. She recounted, however, that on quiet summer evenings he Page nine