DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67375#0266
216
NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS.
and a part of the old fondaci being gone, those that re-
mained were crowded in an inconceivable manner.
In 1884, when the cholera raged furiously in Naples, and
many thousand of the wretched funnachere died, King
Humbert went himself to visit them, and saw such horrors
as he had never imagined. He stood beside the stricken
wretches in their awful abodes, and promised that the poor
should be better housed in future. But even monarchs
cannot work their will; and these miserables now complain
that, though the king tried to keep his promises, as he
certainly did, the signori have kept the new houses for
themselves. The truth seems to be that officials and con-
tractors are much the same the world over, that red tape
abounds everywhere, and that there are many ways of find-
ing how not to do what straightforward honesty requires.
Thus, although the king put his seal to a decree for the
better housing of the poor in Naples in 1885, and a gift
of fifty million francs and a loan of the same amount were
made for this purpose, in the autumn of 1892 very little
had been accomplished, and the greater crowding of the
fewer fondaci even made matters worse than ever.
Meantime the Serino water has been given freely to all
the people of Naples, and some improvements have been
made in the sewers. A more decent method of burial for
the poor has also been inaugurated in the new cemetery,
where each one can now have a coffin and a grave for
eighteen months at least; but even this cemetery, but three
years in use, is already very full, so great is the mortality
among these wretched creatures. The Royal Commissary,
in his report in the autumn of 1892, says : —
“ For six months a famished mob, turba famelica, have
thronged the stairs of the municipality, — children of both sexes,
utterly destitute, who must of necessity go to the bad ; mothers
clasping dying babies to their milkless breasts ; widows fol-
lowed by a tribe of almost naked children ; aged and infirm of
NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS.
and a part of the old fondaci being gone, those that re-
mained were crowded in an inconceivable manner.
In 1884, when the cholera raged furiously in Naples, and
many thousand of the wretched funnachere died, King
Humbert went himself to visit them, and saw such horrors
as he had never imagined. He stood beside the stricken
wretches in their awful abodes, and promised that the poor
should be better housed in future. But even monarchs
cannot work their will; and these miserables now complain
that, though the king tried to keep his promises, as he
certainly did, the signori have kept the new houses for
themselves. The truth seems to be that officials and con-
tractors are much the same the world over, that red tape
abounds everywhere, and that there are many ways of find-
ing how not to do what straightforward honesty requires.
Thus, although the king put his seal to a decree for the
better housing of the poor in Naples in 1885, and a gift
of fifty million francs and a loan of the same amount were
made for this purpose, in the autumn of 1892 very little
had been accomplished, and the greater crowding of the
fewer fondaci even made matters worse than ever.
Meantime the Serino water has been given freely to all
the people of Naples, and some improvements have been
made in the sewers. A more decent method of burial for
the poor has also been inaugurated in the new cemetery,
where each one can now have a coffin and a grave for
eighteen months at least; but even this cemetery, but three
years in use, is already very full, so great is the mortality
among these wretched creatures. The Royal Commissary,
in his report in the autumn of 1892, says : —
“ For six months a famished mob, turba famelica, have
thronged the stairs of the municipality, — children of both sexes,
utterly destitute, who must of necessity go to the bad ; mothers
clasping dying babies to their milkless breasts ; widows fol-
lowed by a tribe of almost naked children ; aged and infirm of