Moreover the poor in
Rome, as I have mentioned elsewhere, are not afraid of actual starvation.
"Well-disposed" persons, with a good word from the priests, can obtain
food at the convents of the mendicant friars. I am not saying there is
no good in this custom; in fact, it is almost the one good feature I know
of connected with the priestly system of government; but still, on an
indolent and demoralised population like that of Rome, the benefit of
this sort of charity, which destroys the last and the strongest motive
for exertion, is by no means an unmixed one.
The amusements of the people are much what might be expected from their
occupations. To do them justice, they drink but moderately; but whenever
they can spare the time and money, they crowd out into the roadside
"Osterias," and spend hours, smoking and sipping the red wine lazily.
Walking is especially distasteful to them; and on a Sunday and festa-day
you will see hundreds of carriages filled with working people, though the
fares are by no means cheap. Whole families will starve themselves for
weeks before the Carnival, and leave themselves penniless at the end, to
get costumes and carriages to drive down the "Corso" with on the gala
days. The Romans, too, are a nation of gamblers. Their chief amusement,
not to say their chief occupation, is gambling.
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