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SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF ALL NATIONS
#12 - ITALY
Size: 3" x 5"
Copyrighted: 1893
Lithographer: Kaufmann & Strauss
  
| Reverse - Text |
Left section:
GRIND
YOUR COFFEE AT HOME
Right section: |
| ITALY. |
| ITALY
the sunny, the land of blue skies
and genial warmth, possesses a
picturesque people. They are poor
but happy, careless,
light-hearted, impulsive,
impetuous, affectionate,
sanguine, emotional, langorous
and generous. Pomp and
circumstance dazzle them.
Ribbons, gewgaws and bright
colors enslave their fancy. |
| Numerous
pageants and mimes are celebrated
throughout the year by the
Italians and into the vortex of
this innocent dissipation the
children of Italy throw
themselves heart and soul. The
greatest of these is Carnival
Week. For six days the people
masquerade and jollity free and
unrestrained rules. There are
races, games of all kinds,
mummeries and horse play. Every
point of vantage is decked with
flowers and all means employed
which fancy can suggest Business
is suspended and on the last
three days vehicles may not
traverse the streets. For the
nonce noble and clown, dowager
and peasant-maid meet on a level.
The gondola, the most graceful of
all boats, glides over the
lagoons and canals of Venice. The
gondoliers who propel them excel
all other boatmen. Wondrous is
their skill and dexterity and
their boats thread the waters as
though they were endowed with
life itself. |
| Music
is to the Italians as the breath
of their nostrils, even their
children evoke from the violin,
the harp and the flute melody to
thrill the most unsentimental,
and their voices in song are
pathetic and sweet. Who could
believe, yet such was a fact,
that owing to this wonderful
susceptibility to music by
Italian children, a society was
formed, known as the Padrone, for
the purpose of teaching children
music and then making mendicants
of them. |
| Gambling
is a universal Italian
propensity. Go where you will, in
every street and square of every
city and village, you may see the
devotees of gambling throwing
dice or playing cards. Indeed
dice are of Italian origin as
cards are claimed to be. |
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NOTE: To see non-Arbuckle usage of this
supposedly copyrighted Arbuckle illustration,
click  here.
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