DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67375#0274
220 NAPLES AND ITS ENVIRONS.
Varelli superintended its arrangement here; and it is
interesting as illustrating a custom of the fifteenth cen-
tury, when in all churches and many private houses a pre-
sepe was erected at Christmas time. It represents the
infant Jesus in the manger and the adoration of the Magi,
as well as scenes of Neapolitan life in addition. All Nea-
politans are fond of this realistic representation of the Na-
tivity ; and a really old presepe, like this one, is well worth
seeing on account of the curious historical costumes.
As yet the Galleria has not been successfully rented. In
fact, the Neapolitans love a more open place in which to
buy and sell; and this Galleria, like that of the Principe di
Napoli, opposite the Museo Nazionale, is little frequented.
There are two hundred edifices in Naples devoted to
charitable institutions, having an annual income of eight
or ten millions of francs ; but abuses have crept into the
management of these charities which give the benefit of a
large part of this money to governors, deputies, councillors,
and priests.
The Albergo dei Poveri, before mentioned, has a family
of but two thousand poor, for the care of whom more than
seven hundred persons are employed, while the children
have scarcely a change of clothing. The schools of the
institution have been sadly neglected, and one well-informed
writer says: —
“One governor succeeds another; one sells five thousand
square metres of land to a building society for eleven lire per
metre, at a time when in certain portions of the city land is
worth three or four hundred lire. His successor brings an
action against the purchaser, and the costs are enormous. An-
other has farmed out the rents to some collector at far too low
a price ; another action is brought. The chemist is proved to
have substituted flour for quinine, Dover’s powders without
opium, and is suspended. But the corpo delicto, i. e., the
analyzed medicines have disappeared; the chemist will come
Varelli superintended its arrangement here; and it is
interesting as illustrating a custom of the fifteenth cen-
tury, when in all churches and many private houses a pre-
sepe was erected at Christmas time. It represents the
infant Jesus in the manger and the adoration of the Magi,
as well as scenes of Neapolitan life in addition. All Nea-
politans are fond of this realistic representation of the Na-
tivity ; and a really old presepe, like this one, is well worth
seeing on account of the curious historical costumes.
As yet the Galleria has not been successfully rented. In
fact, the Neapolitans love a more open place in which to
buy and sell; and this Galleria, like that of the Principe di
Napoli, opposite the Museo Nazionale, is little frequented.
There are two hundred edifices in Naples devoted to
charitable institutions, having an annual income of eight
or ten millions of francs ; but abuses have crept into the
management of these charities which give the benefit of a
large part of this money to governors, deputies, councillors,
and priests.
The Albergo dei Poveri, before mentioned, has a family
of but two thousand poor, for the care of whom more than
seven hundred persons are employed, while the children
have scarcely a change of clothing. The schools of the
institution have been sadly neglected, and one well-informed
writer says: —
“One governor succeeds another; one sells five thousand
square metres of land to a building society for eleven lire per
metre, at a time when in certain portions of the city land is
worth three or four hundred lire. His successor brings an
action against the purchaser, and the costs are enormous. An-
other has farmed out the rents to some collector at far too low
a price ; another action is brought. The chemist is proved to
have substituted flour for quinine, Dover’s powders without
opium, and is suspended. But the corpo delicto, i. e., the
analyzed medicines have disappeared; the chemist will come