In
many ways these mountaineers bear a decided resemblance to the swarms of
Irish labourers who come across to England in harvest-time. They are
frugal, good-humoured, and, compared to the native Romans, honest and
hard-working. A very small proportion too of the working-men in Rome
itself are Romans. Certain trades, as that of the cooks for instance,
are almost confined to the inhabitants of particular outlying districts.
The masons, carpenters, carvers, and other mechanical trades, are filled
by men who do not belong to the city, and who are called and considered
foreigners. Of course the rule is not without exceptions, and you will
find genuine Romans amongst the common workmen, but amongst the skilled
workmen hardly ever. There is a very large, poor, I might almost say,
pauper population in Rome, and in some form or other these poor must work
for their living, but their principle is to do as little work as
possible. There still exists amongst the Romans a sort of debased,
imperial pride, a belief that a Roman is _per se_ superior to all other
Italians. For manual work, or labour under others, they have an equal
contempt and dislike. All the semi-independent trades, like those of cab-
drivers, street-vendors, petty shopkeepers, &c. are eagerly sought after
and monopolized by Romans. The extent to which small trades are carried
on by persons utterly without capital and inevitably embarrassed with
debt, is one of the chief evils in the social system which prevails here.
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