The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2 No 4, October, 1862

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Various. The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2 No 4, October, 1862

'THE CONSTITUTION AS IT IS—THE UNION AS IT WAS.'

MACCARONI AND CANVAS

VIII. A ROMAN VETTURA

SUNDAY IN THE CAMPAGNA

SMALL-HOG GAME

GIOSTRA DEL PORCHETTO

LA TRIGLIA

PAINTING A DONKEY

SIR JOHN SUCKLING

TO JOHN BULL

LONDON FOGS AND LONDON POOR

A MILITARY NATION

TOM WINTERS' STORY

THE WHITE HILLS IN OCTOBER

THE LAST TOAST

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-TWO

FLOWER-ARRANGING

SOUTHERN HATE OF THE NORTH

A MERCHANT'S STORY

CHAPTER IV

THE UNION

OUR WOUNDED

A SOUTHERN REVIEW

EXTENT OF THE CONFEDERACY

EAST AND WEST

WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?

CHAPTER VIII. HOW HIRAM MEEKER FLOURISHED AT BURNSVILLE

KENTUCKY

LITERARY NOTICES

EDITOR'S TABLE

'TRELAWNEY.'

DE-CAMPING SONG

GONE

IS SMOKING BENEFICIAL?

'SHODDY.'

MY MOCKING-BIRD

TOM JOHNSON'S BEAR. A STORY WITH A MORAL

ONCE

THE COMPROMISER

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If a man's mind and purse were in such state that he didn't care where he went, and was able to go there; if the weather was fine, and the aforesaid man could eat, drink, and sleep rough, and really loved picturesqueness in all his surroundings for its own sake—that man should travel by vettura. Not one of the vetture advertised by a Roman 'to go to all parts of the world;' not one of those traveling carriages with a seat for milady's maid and milord's man, with courier beside the driver and a vettura dog on top of the baggage, at the very sight of which, beggars spring from the ground as if by magic, and the customhouse officers assume airs of state. No, no, NO! What is meant by a vettura is a broken-down carriage, seats inside for four English or six Italians, a seat outside along with the driver for one American or three Italians, and places to hold on to, for two or three more, Italians. The harness of the horses consists of an originally leather harness, with rope commentaries, string emendations, twine notes, and ragged explanations of the primary work; in plain English, it's an edition of harness with nearly all the original leather expurgated.

Well, you enter into agreement with the compeller of horses, alias vetturino, to go to a certain town a certain distance from Rome. The vehicle he drives is popularly reported to leave regularly for that town; you know that regularly means regularly-uncertainly. You go and see the vetturino, say in that classic spot, the piazza Pollajuólo; you find him, after endless inquiries, in a short jacket, in a wine-shop, smoking a throat-scorcher of a short pipe, and you arrange with him as regards the fare, for he has different prices for different people. Little children and soldiers pay half-price, as you will read on your railroad ticket to Frascati, and priests pay what they please, foreigners all that can be squeezed out of them, and Italians at fixed price.

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What this might be, our artists had yet to learn; it sounded slightly sensual for a Sunday amusement, but as there was a bishop in the town, and nothing could consequently be permitted that would shock, etc., etc., Caper, Rocjean, and Dexter at once agreed to assist the heads of the church in their pious endeavors to celebrate the day—as the Romans do. Not far from where they were standing, at the foot of wild rocks and the ruins of an old Roman watchtower, was a curious basin cut in the solid rock, its sides lined with large blocks, and its circular form preserved entire; its depth was from five to seven feet, and its bottom was like the sides, paved with smooth blocks. It was popularly said to have been anciently a cistern, a fish-tank, etc., but nothing was known definitely as to its original purpose; it now served for the circus, where the Small-Hog Game was annually indulged in.

About twenty-two o'clock, (that is, six in the afternoon,) the audience and spectators—for it was an audible as well as visible entertainment—being assembled and desirous for the performance to commence, whistled and shouted slightly, but not indecorously; for the grand army of the town—seven gendarmes—were around. Our three artists mounted up the rocks overhanging the cistern, and looked down on the heads of the people. They saw a thousand or two female heads, mostly with light hair, all pulled directly back from the forehead, twisted into a knot behind, and tied with a piece of string, while a silver bodkin a foot in length, run in sideways, held it tight. The heads of these silver hair-pins indicated the married or unmarried state of the wearers; the former were fashioned as acorns or flower-buds, while the latter were full-blown flowers with expanded petals. The faces of these women were tanned, but ruddy health was there and robust forms; and you saw among them all a very happy, contented, ignorant look, showing a satisfied condition of heart, without endless longings for the unattainable and dim—they always had 'the dim' about them in the shape of the one-horse lamps of the country, a saucer of oil with a piece of twine hanging over the edge for a wick. By the way, the Acadiens on Bayou La Fourche in Louisiana have the same 'lampion' light!

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