In Troubador-Land | Page 8

"Appunto!"
"The clock is striking. I am done for."
"Appunto!" and he lighted a cigarette.
So I had to travel by night, instead of by day.

CHAPTER II.
THE RIVIERA.
No ill without a counterbalancing advantage--An industry peculiar to
Italy--Italian honesty--Buffalo Bill at Naples--The Prince and the
straw-coloured gloves--The Riviera--A tapestry--Nice--Its
flowers--Notre Dame--The château--My gardener--A pension of ugly
women--Horses and their hats--Antibes--Meeting of Honoré IV. and
Napoleon--The Grimaldis--Lérins, an Isle of Saints--A family
jar--Healed.
That was not all. The dawdling of the tailor not only made me lose the
mid-day train, but delayed my arrival in Nice for twenty-four hours. I
took the night train to Pisa, where I purposed catching the express from
Rome. But the express came slouching along in a hands-in-the-pocket
sort of way, and was over half-an-hour late, and would not bestir itself
to pick up the misspent, lost moments between Pisa and Genoa, the
consequence of which was that the train for Nice had gone on without
waiting, and accordingly those who desired to prosecute their journey
in that direction were obliged to loiter about in the small hours of the
morning between a restaurant, half asleep, and a waiting-room where
the electric light had gone out, till the hour of seven.
Before leaving Italy, I may mention an industry which I found
cultivated there, original, and I believe unique. When I procured
postage stamps at the post-offices, I was surprised, if I took them home
with me, to find that their adhesive power had failed. I also received
indignant letters from correspondents in England remonstrating with
me for posting my communications to them unstamped. This surprised
me, and at Rome, where I had been accustomed to purchase
_franco-bolli_ at the head office, I took them home and regummed
them. But the remarkable phenomenon was, that such stamps as were
purchased at tobacconists' shops had gum on them--only those acquired
at the post-offices were without. I learned that the same peculiarity
existed at Florence, and indeed elsewhere in Italy, and finally the

explanation was vouchsafed to me. The functionary at the post-office
passes a wet sponge over the back of the sheets of _franco-bolli_
supplied to him, thus removing the adhesive matter. When he sells
stamps at the window, he hopes that those who purchase will proceed
at once to apply them to their letters, without perceiving their
deficiencies. As soon as the stamp becomes dry it falls off, and quite a
collection of stamps of sundry values can thus be gathered at every
clearing of the box, and the postal clerk reaps thence a daily harvest
that goes a long way towards the eking out the small pittance paid him
by Government. It is interesting to see the directions taken by human
enterprise.
Whilst I was in Rome, Buffalo Bill was in Naples exhibiting his troupe
of horses and gang of Indians. The Italian papers informed the public of
a remarkable exploit achieved by the Neapolitans. They had done
Buffalo Bill out of two thousand francs. It had been effected in this
wise. His reserved seats were charged five francs. Four hundred forged
five-franc notes were passed at the door of his show by well-dressed
Neapolitans, indeed, the _élite_ of Neapolitan society; and the trick
played on him was not discovered till too late. Now consider what this
implies. It implies that some hundreds of the best people, princes,
counts, marquesses at Naples lent themselves to see Buffalo Bill's
exhibition by a fraud. They wanted to see and be seen there, but not to
pay five francs for a seat. There must have been combination, and that
among the members of the aristocracy of Naples. The Italian papers did
not mention this in a tone of disgust, but rather in one of surprise that
Italians should have been able to overreach a Yankee. But I do not
believe such a fraud would have been perpetrated at Rome, Florence, or
Milan. It was considered quite in its place at Naples.
A lady of my acquaintance was staying in a pension at Naples. There
resided at the time, in the same pension, a prince--Neapolitan, be it
understood. One day, just before she left, she brought in a packet of kid
gloves she had purchased, among them one pair, straw-coloured. She
laid them on the table, went out for two minutes, leaving the prince in
the room with the gloves. On her return, the prince and the
straw-coloured gloves were gone. She made inquiries of the landlady,

who, when told that the prince had been in the room, laughed and said:
"But of course he has them. You should never leave anything in the
room unguarded where there is a prince." Two days after the departure
of this lady, the straw-coloured gloves were produced by his highness
and presented by