Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/415

Rh people at work, and in the very poorest dwellings—the doors of which generally stood open—comfortable beds and clean linen; sometimes the families were at their meals, when everything looked nice and orderly. The city overflows with articles of food, especially vegetables and fruit. Immense pumpkins with golden insides, masses of pomi-d'oro, bright figs in ornamental pyramids with yellow and red flowers between the rows, oranges, pears, plums, apples, walnuts, and many more, fill the fruit-stands, tables or benches, or are carried about in large baskets on asses. One sees most people occupied in eating. Of noise and crowding there is always enough, especially in the narrower streets; but quarrels I have neither heard nor seen. The greater number of the more indigent population seem to me well-dressed and industrious. It is true that one now and then sees, even in the Toledo street—the principal trading street in Naples—women and children lying near some house or before some gate, with countenances that indicate wretchedness, and savage eyes. In other places, men or women who exhibit diseased or imperfect limbs and call upon the passers-by—who generally pay no attention at all—and, indeed, it is asserted, that these lying or sitting figures get up at night, and become dangerous to the wealthy foot-passengers,—but, upon the whole, I have not seen in Naples more misery than in London, Paris, or New York. The beggars are more unabashed, that is all; and one sees them most numerously in the great squares and wealthy parts of the city. They are so pertinacious, and they generally look so evil, as to awaken more disgust than compassion. One comes to