 Chapter 18 of The Mentor 2 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by JimsVox4 The Mentor 2 by Various Chapter 18 The Mentor 2 Early German Painters Volume 1, No. 48, Serial No. 48 by Frank-Dewitt-Mathur Durer and Holbein by Frank-Dewitt-Mathur, Jr. Marquand, Professor of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University. Albrecht Durer A great painter gives us much more than skillfully arranged lines and colors. These are only the symbols by which we may share his vision of the world. What we must try to find in any work of art is the soul of a great man. This is particularly true of so serious an artist as Albrecht Durer of Nuremberg, who was born in 1471, a little before the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation. In that movement he shared heartily, but without bitterness for the Catholic Church in which he had been bred. He was a broad-minded Christian, a thoughtful and thorough craftsman. In the little drawing he did of himself at 13, we see the serious worried lad, already a competent draftsman. We may see him again in the Madrid portrait, the confident young painter of 27. At Munich, the mature and dignified artist of 36. And finally, in the haggard woodcut profile as a man grown old with unabated ardor of spirit. The accent of study and concentration is present at every stage. He painted so carefully that such work did not pay him. The engravings of which he did about a hundred with his own hand brought him in a comfortable fortune. They are marvels of faithful observation and of minute execution. When old age and illness made painting and engraving difficult, he wrote books on the proportions of the human body and the art of fortification. We must not expect a man of such stern and high ideals to be charming. He may, however, have many true things to tell about life and character that it behoves us to know. The Engravings At 15, Dürer was apprenticed to the painter and woodcutter Michael Volgamut. The lads saw the advantages of the new process of woodcutting and copperplate engraving by which a design might be multiplied. Then the good wife Agnes, whom he married by parental arrangement at 23, came to be a thrifty saleswoman for the prints. The work was of the most taxing kind being all done under a magnifying lens. When the firm lines had been graven in the copper, they were filled with ink, which, under heavy pressure from a roller press, was transferred to paper. The lines of Dürer were so fine and closely spaced that the whole print got a charming, pearly quality, which is well represented in our reproductions. Bible stories, the life of Christ and the Virgin, popular customs, portraits of his learned friends, and a strange series of plates having a moral meaning may be specially noted. In 1513 and 1514 he engraved what are called the Four Masterplates, two of which are reproduced. The Knight, Death and the Devil. Upon a splendid steed an armoured knight rides through a rocky defile high above which is seen his goal, an imposing castle. Forms of horror beset the traveller. The horse sniffs impatiently at a skull in the road. King Death himself, mounted on a jaded nag, holds up an hourglass. The Knight's hours are measured. Behind the horse stalks a swine-like form, which may represent the lower temptations that assail a warrior of the Lord. Regardless of these nightmare shapes, the Knight holds his restive horse in the road. Fortitude has overcome sin and fear of death. Such seems the large informing idea of a picture which would be exquisite if regarded merely as minute delineations of forms of rocks and trees and textures of hair and armour. Saint Jerome in his study. In depicting the Cardinal Saint, who in the late fourth century translated the Holy Scriptures into eloquent Latin, Durer may well have wished to emphasise the enviable serenity of the scholar's lot in contrast with the perilous course of the night. Everything in this study speaks of peace and steady, satisfactory endeavour. The light shimmers on wall, floor and ceiling like a blessing. It seems as if no sight or sound of troubleous or unworthy sort could enter this scholar's sanctuary. The skull and hourglass are no longer symbols of dread. The saint is oblivious of the passage of time and looks forward to death as the opening of fuller knowledge. The elaborate and beautiful details of the room assure us that this is no mere dream of an idealist, but an actual place that a student of the divine mysteries might inhabit. A different kind of peacefulness pervades the small engraving of the hermit saint, Saint Anthony of Egypt, behind whom rise the picturesque walls and roofs of Durer's own Nuremberg. The woodcuts. The engravings are by Durer's own hand. The woodcuts are copies of his designs by capable assistants. As early as 1499, he had published the impressive illustrations for the revelation of Saint John. For terror and ferocity, the print representing the four riders who begin the destruction of mankind before the last day has never been equaled. For twelve years he worked at the designs for the life of the Virgin and a large and small series of the Passion of Christ. One woodcut from the Little Passion, Christ in Gethsemane with the Sleeping Apostles, is reproduced. He has used the small scale of the plate to indicate a peculiar heartlessness in the disciples, calmly sleeping so near their agonized Lord. The postures of vehement prayer and of complete exhaustion are effectively truthful. The basis of such designs is the artist's own pen drawing, which is pasted or traced on a pear wood plank. As the blank spaces are cut away with a knife, leaving the lines in relief, the woodblock may be set up with type pages and printed on an ordinary press. It is thus better adapted to book illustration than engraving, which requires special printing. About 1511 Durer reprinted the revelation and published the three new books. They were justly popular and from that time he painted only when he pleased. The woodcuts, which faithfully represent drawings made with a coarse quill pen, will look rude to eyes accustomed to the often meaningless finish of modern illustrations. It will require patience to see how direct, sincere and vigorous is the expression. With so coarse a tool, nothing can be left to chance or smooth down. Every line must tell and every line in the Durer woodcut does tell its story of structure and feeling. Durer's woodcuts are as fine in their way as his more popular engravings. The painted portraits. From the first, Durer revealed in portraiture an inflexible curiosity as to form and insight as to character. The earlier portraits, those of his master, Volgamut and of his own father, have a speaking lifelike-ness. But the very endeavour to omit nothing and say everything with resolute truthfulness makes some of the early portraits stiff and forbidding. This defect is hardly noticeable in the three admirable portraits of his maturity, which are our special theme. They were all painted after his Venetian visit of 1506. There he saw portraiture as faithful as his own, but softer and more agreeable. Open-minded student that he always was, he readily learned the lesson. The charming head of a young woman represents the fruits of this new experience. With a calmliness that is by no means merely pretty, one gets the sense also of character and of capacity, the tightly drawn hair. The head held alertly a little forward, tell of aggressiveness with self-control, of perfect physical and mental well-being. It was such strong mothers as this that bore the men who, in finance, manufactures, commerce and scholarship, made the little city of Nuremberg famous. Initials on the bodice suggest that this may be the wife Agnes, who was an efficient business partner, and a terror to certain easygoing friends. Firm yet minutely varied lines, modelling soft and lifelike, but also decisive. Such are the technical merits of this masterpiece. Among Durer's portraits of himself, the head in which the master gave himself the aspect of a Christ is the favourite of many people. The workmanship is of extraordinary carefulness and beauty. Every detail of the fur, of the flowing hair, of the powerful slender hand is there, but the effect remains large. There is, in the face, a sense of dignity, reserve, decision and sympathy. Other portraits are probably much more like Durer as Nuremberg saw him. This presents his own ideal of himself as a creative artist, exemplifying a spiritual beauty that he ever strove to attain. Despite an old inscription reading 1500, we must date this portrait after that Venetian visit, which brought to Durer new power and self-confidence. Efficiency was the trait Durer most admired. His merchant friend, Uralamas Holtshua, possessed this quality in a high degree as his portrait shows. He still directs toward an admiring world, the bluest, brightest, steadiest eyes ever painted. The silvery hair and beard glisten like a halo before a blue sky. The firm, thin lips under the scant, well-kept moustache still tell of the sagacity and persistence that won for Euronymous a fortune and the mayorality of a proud city. Nure is this power and rectitude without kindness. One feels one feels the living presence of a man absolutely just, but also quick to see another man's side, and with all, humorous. Of an old age not too frosty and wholly vigorous, this picture is a most remarkable embodiment, that Durer's genius is as marked in a slight sketch as in elaborately executed works, witnessed the charcoal study which he did of his old mother just before her death, have a few lines ever told more piteously of resigned decrepitude. The Four Apostles In his last years, Durer painted as a legacy to his native town the stately figures of the Apostles, Paul, Mark, Peter and John. Already the Protestant movement which he held so dear was breaking up into wrangling sects. Durer wished to recall men to the founts of Christian wisdom and unity. The Apostles wear their grand robes with Roman dignity. The heads are sharply distinguished by temperament. The burning determination of Saint Paul is very unlike the excitability of Saint Mark. The inward serenity of Saint John, most unlike the care-worn pensiveness of Saint Peter. These are men to move a world. On the 6th of April 1528, he passed away, only 57 years old, but exhausted by constant effort. The great bankers, merchants, scholars and craftsmen of Nuremberg knew that a notable citizen had gone. He had known familiarly Melanchthon and Luther. Raphael had been glad to exchange drawings with him. His engravings and woodcuts were admired throughout Europe. After four centuries, he remains the finest exemplar in art of the peculiar steadfastness and thoroughness of the German race. Goethe, the greatest of German poets, has written the finest tribute to Germany's greatest artist. Holy, unsophoned and unquibbled, nor prettified or vainly scribbled, the very world thou shalt describe, as seen by Albrecht Dürer's eye. Her sturdy life and manhood strong, her inward might enduring long, Hans Holbein. Whoever understands the art of Dürer needs little introduction to that of Holbein. Hans Holbein was born in 1497, when Dürer was just beginning to be famous at the imperial city of Augsburg, which was merely a larger Nuremberg. Holbein's father was a painter, and the lad was early perfected in the craft. By his seventeenth year, he was working at Basel, where for some ten years he practiced book illustration, designing for metal and glass, religious subjects, wall painting. Such versatility he renounced later for the better paying branch of portraiture. In 1526 some German merchants called him over to London. There he soon became court painter to King Henry VIII, and there he remained for the most part until his death by plague in 1543. He was one of the first of those cosmopolitan portrait painters who follow their market. A homeless man separated from wife and children, a completely detached person, that he was fitted for the part the sturdy, confident portrait of himself shows. As a painter, Holbein was Dürer's superior, though inferior to him as a man. Where Dürer set his bright colors in rather harsh combinations, Holbein worked out arrangements of mosaic-like depth and brilliance. Usually the background is pale blue, green, or other solid tone, against which the pale flesh tints, the crimson, green, or black of the rich costumes glow like some precious enamel. He is as accurate in his drawing as Dürer with less sense of effort. Holbein painted the profile portrait of the scholar Erasmus about 1523. Erasmus was not merely very learned, but also a wit, and Holbein has combined with the self-control and concentration of the face a sense of astuteness. The set lips would readily break into a smile. The gentle and careful pose of the hands is noteworthy. It is as if the great stylist caressed the paper to invite a happy phrase. Very effective too is the setting of the figure in the frame. Everything forms a beautiful pattern. Cut off the margin ever so little, and the figure will seem out of balance. Finally composed again is the famous Madonna of the Maya family. The kneeling figures make the base of a pyramid, the lines of which are carried up by the Madonna's cloak and the Christ child's outstretched hand. Perhaps the formal arrangement and the stately niche are a little out of keeping with the evident simplicity of all the people. In fact, the greatness of the picture lies mainly in its vitality, in the sense of strength and devotion it conveys. Holbein, like Dürer, conceives the Virgin simply as a German mother, none too intelligent and rather ungraceful, but wholly wrapped up in the divine child who is, after all, much like an ordinary German baby. The gentleness of Mary's class pans is one of the many beautifully studied details. A consummate example of his work is the Jane Seymour of 1536. In the Third Wife of Henry VIII, Holbein had only a moderately good subject. She seems a stolid person, yet a certain shrewdness is also in the face. The setting in the frame is perfect, and the gold embroidered robes and jewellery are done with a quiet dexterity that simply takes one's breath away. The sketch for the portrait is preserved. Holbein always made a careful crayon drawing for every portrait, introducing slight tints or even writing down the colour of hair, eyes and so on. From such a study, which was made in a few hours, the picture was painted. We have then the most lifelike portraits known to art painted with the model Absent. Today, artists plague themselves and the sitter to poorer purpose. By utmost concentration upon the original drawing, Holbein seems to have omitted all unimportant or merely general traits of his subject, fixing upon the few that were really characteristic. Moreover, he stood upon his first reading of the character. At any rate, these splendid sketches are the finest flower of Holbein's genius. Scores of them are preserved at Windsor Castle. I reproduce only the rather vain and weak face of the poet, warrior and dandy, the Earl of Surrey. I must repeat that Holbein was less of a man, but in some ways more of an artist than Durer, unqualifiably superior as a mere painter. Durer was full of profound ideas about religion and life. His work is truly a criticism of the life of his age and genuinely accepted his world as very good to live and paint in. He brought not a great mind to his art, but a tolerant temper, a most discerning eye, and a magnificently sure hand. Durer and Holbein, the young artist, won. Albrecht Durer was born on May 21st 1471 at Nuremberg, Germany. His father was named Albrecht Durer also. He was a goldsmith who at the age of 40 married his master's daughter, who was only 15 years old. In spite of the difference in their ages, the marriage was a happy one and was blessed with 18 children, of whom Albrecht was the second. As a boy, he showed himself more worthy of an education than any of his many brothers and was apprenticed to a goldsmith, but he wanted to become an artist and being his father's favourite son, his wish was granted. So at the age of 15, he was apprenticed to the principal painter of Nuremberg, Michael Volgamut. Here, as one of the artist's assistants, he turned out little sketches of religious subjects and some woodcuts for book illustrations. He had a hard time, as his companion apprentices were a rough crowd and took great delight in making young Durer suffer. In 1490, he finished his apprenticeship and began his years of travel. These lasted until 1494. He visited Colmar, Basel, Strasbourg and other German cities. Shortly after his return in July 1494, he married Agnes Frey, who was a good wife for him. She was an excellent housekeeper and a shrewd businesswoman. They had no children, but Durer had not been married more than a few months when he decided to make a journey to Northern Italy to complete his artistic education. He was very poor and the great expense of such a trip made it necessary for him to leave his wife behind. He didn't stay away long. Sometime in 1495, he returned to Nuremberg, where he lived without change for the next ten years. Like many another artist, Durer had his early struggles against poverty and indifference. Painting did not pay, so he turned to wood and copper engraving and in this way made a fair living. The Middle Years II Durer visited Venice in the fall of 1505 and stayed there until the spring of 1507. The main reason for this journey was the commission to paint a picture for the Germans living at Venice. His fame had spread greatly and, as his countrymen wanted to dedicate a picture in the Church of St Bartholomew, they chose him to paint it. The picture that Durer did for them was the Adoration of the Virgin, better known as the Feast of the Rose Garlands. Emperor Rudolph II later got hold of it. It was carried to Vienna upon men's shoulders as a thing of great value. It is now greatly injured in the monastery of Strahov at Prague. At Venice, Durer was treated with great respect and admiration. He held a high position there, although most of the Italian artists were jealous of him. But in spite of his desire to remain in Italy for the rest of his life, he returned to Nuremberg in 1507. All over Europe, Durer was now recognised as a great painter. All the living master artists of the age were his friends or acquaintances. The great Raphael felt honoured to exchange drawings with him, but his intimate life was not so happy. It's been said that his wife played him to death with her meanness. It's undoubtedly true that although Agnes was a good housewife and manager, she made the artist overwork himself for money. For years, her name was held up among Germans as an example of an unworthy wife. In none of his letters does Durer speak of her with tenderness or affection. Beyond this, the artist's life was uneventful. The years from 1507 to 1511 he spent in painting. The three following he devoted mostly to engraving on both wood and copper. Copper engraving especially took up much of his time. At the same time, he resumed etching. He was interested in mathematical and anatomical studies on the proportions and structure of the human frame. Last Days 3 The last period of Durer's life began in 1520. Emperor Maximilian was his friend and patron, but his death in 1519 stopped all the things that Durer was doing for him. So in July 1520, the artist, with his wife and her maid, set out for the Netherlands to secure a continuance of the patronage and privileges granted during the lifetime of Maximilian. Everywhere he was handsomely received. Throughout all his travels, which lasted a year, he was entertained by the best and most intellectual society of his time. On July 12, 1521, Durer reached home again. His mind was now filled with schemes for religious pictures, but he produced comparatively little. One reason for this was the bad state of his health. Another was that he gave more and more of his time to mathematical study, which he considered important. His most famous picture of this time is the portrait of Euronymous Holtschuhr at Berlin. At Nuremberg in 1525 was published his book on geometry, and in 1527 appeared a work on fortification, but his health was failing. He had caught a fever in the Low Countries, from which he never fully recovered. On the night of April 6, 1528, he died. So suddenly that there was not even time to call his dearest friends to his side. He was buried in a vault belonging to his wife's family in the cemetery of Saint John at Nuremberg. Luther, the great reformer, said of the famous artist in a letter, As for Durer, assuredly, affection bids us mourn for one who was the best of men. Yet you may well hold him happy that he has made so good an end, and that Christ has taken him from the midst of this time of trouble, and from greater troubles in store lest he that deserved nothing but the best should be compelled to behold the worst. Therefore, may he rest in peace with his fathers. Amen. Prepared by the editorial staff of the Mentor Association, illustration for the Mentor, Vol. 1, No. 48, Serial No. 48, Copyright 1914, by the Mentor Association, Inc. The Young Artist, 4. Hans Holbein came from an artistic family. Indeed, he is usually known as Holbein the Younger, for his father, Hans Holbein the Elder, was a painter of great ability himself. His uncle also, his mother's father, and most of his family were painters and decorators in the city of Augsburg, Germany, where Holbein the Younger was born, sometime toward the end of the 15th century. No one knows exactly the year in which Holbein first opened his eyes. In those times, they did not keep such an accurate record of births and deaths as they do nowadays. So, unless a man was the son of a king or some other important person, it didn't matter much when he was born. Still, we are probably right when we say that Hans Holbein was born in 1497. Those were the days of Augsburg's prosperity. All its magnificence is gone now, but then it boasted of many merchant princes, men of distinction, and patrons of the fine arts. It was a favorite city of Emperor Maximilian himself. Though it was less travel at that time than now, and consequently, the citizens of each town were much more closely bound together. Civic pride ran high. It was the period of the Renaissance, that great period of awakening to the appreciation of fine things in art and literature. So, of course, Augsburg had its guild of painters, and Holbein the Elder was a member of it. Hans was the favorite son, and both he and his brother Ambrose were educated to be artists in their father's studio. There they worked until 1515, when Hans and Ambrose journeyed to Basel, at that time a center of learning and art. There, Holbein's chief occupation was the drawing of title pages for books. Erasmus, the great scholar, is said to have been his patron, and helped him in many ways. Another powerful patron was Jakob Maier, the first commoner who ever held the office of Burgermeister of Basel, and under whose rule the reformation of the city laws was peaceably carried out. He was the original of Holbein's first portrait painted in Basel, and for him, eight or nine years later, was painted the famous Maier Madonna. The Middle Years. Five. In 1517, Holbein left Basel on a journey of two years. No one knows exactly where he traveled. It's said that he didn't go to Italy, but others maintain that he must have spent some time there. Anyway, in 1519, he returned to Basel, and in the same year, his brother Ambrose died. The next year, 1520, was an important one in the artist's life. Erasmus returned to Basel, and Holbein became a citizen of the town, and was admitted to the Guild of Painters. Also at this time, he married. His wife was a widow with two children. She was some years older than the artist, and seems to have been somewhat of a shrew. It is said that it was her tongue that drove Holbein to England in the summer of 1526. More probably, it was the usual desire to make more money than he was earning at Basel. At that time, art was having a hard time in Germany. The Reformation, when Luther and his followers broke away from the Roman church, forced painters to do almost anything for a living. Stained glass designing, furniture decoration, and book illustration made up most of Holbein's commissions. It was at this time also that he drew his famous Dance of Death series. These drawings are not dated, but they must have been made some time before 1527, for in that year, the engraver, Hans Lützelberger, who was doing that part of the work, died, leaving his work unfinished. Another wood engraver, able to render the action and expression of the little faces, could not be found, so for 10 years their publication was delayed. The Dance of Death is a highly moral set of pictures depicting the work of the great reaper in all fields of life. In the various pictures, death is shown taking grim satisfaction in the consternation of his victims. Pope, emperor, preacher, nun, rich and poor, young and old, all are unready for his coming. All vainly resist. The artist must have worked hard and carefully over these engravings. Last Days 6 Holbein arrived in London toward the end of 1526. It is said that the English called him colloquially Master Hans. He went immediately to Chelsea, where Sir Thomas Moore lived. Erasmus had given him a letter of introduction to this famous statesman and author, and the artist was made welcome and given many commissions for his portraits. Holbein remained at Chelsea throughout his first visit to England. Sir Thomas Moore introduced him to many of the greatest men of the day. At this time England was just beginning to feel the first influence of the Renaissance. London was still a dirty, noisy town of the Middle Ages. The houses were made of wood and mud and built with the earth as a flooring. The streets were narrow and crowded and the houses and little shops set close together. From the highest to the lowest London was far from being the centre of fashion it was to become not many years later. Consequently, when the dreaded plague broke out in 1528, London was just the kind of city in which it would spread most rapidly. So, Holbein gave up his work in England and returned to Basel. There he finished the decorations at the town hall which he had begun in 1521. But he was not happy there. All his friends were either dead or had left the city, so about 1531 he returned to London. This time he needed no introduction. His reputation was established in England. The merchants of the Steelyard, the great German trading company established on the banks of the Thames gave him plenty of work to do and he did it well. These portraits contain some of Holbein's most careful work. In 1537 he painted the great portrait of Henry VII with Elizabeth of York and Henry VIII with Jane Seymour for the privy chamber of the Palace of Westminster. This picture was destroyed in the fire that burned the palace in 1698. In 1543 the plague broke out again in England. A will, presumably made in October 1543 by Holbein, was found in London some years ago and not long after making this, in November the great artist died, probably of the plague. His death was surrounded by mystery. Not even the place of his burial is known for certain. It was either in the Church of St Andrew Undershaft or St Catherine Crane. His death in the prime of his active life was a great loss to the world, but his work survives and will live forever. End of Chapter 18, Recording by JimsVox4 Chapter 19 of The Mentor II This is a LibraVox recording. Well LibraVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibraVox.org. The Mentor II by Various Chapter 19 Italy Under War Conditions by E. M. Newman January 15, 1919 Serial No. 171 by E. M. Newman Lecturer and Traveller Department of Travel, Vol. 6, No. 23 To Italy You had to choose twist liberty and guilt. There is no halfway house for humankind. If humankind is still to breathe God's air, and so you placed your lips upon the hilt, a freedom sword devoted soul with mind, to this great task which frees sad Europe from despair. Hence, we who loved and love you, Italy, send winged words of greeting. You are free. Suns smitten the cloud that hid the soaring dome of liberty, your palace, and your home. We who are free greet you from sea to sea. Mazzini Ghiribaldi Great Kevur Watch now and greet you from their timeless place whence they behold the growth of your great race, which so they knit that long it should endure. Spectators of eternity whose pure, untarnished brows recall their ancient grace, behold them once again and in them trace the solar freedom splendid patient shore. J. E. G. Demontmorency in the Contemporary Review Italy Under War Conditions The Business of War 1. None of the Allied nations has had more or greater problems confronting it than Italy has. Manpower has not been lacking, but the want of raw materials for the making of munitions has been a serious handicap and one that has been most difficult to overcome. Italy has been absolutely dependent upon her allies for steel and coal. After her declaration of war against Germany she was left helpless. Badly as France and England needed these raw materials they had to come to the assistance of their ally. For a long time the quantities received were insufficient and a sustained offensive against Austria was impossible for want of ammunition. This condition was greatly improved when the United States entered the war and Italy received from us vast quantities of steel and sufficient coal came from England to supply her needs. It must be borne in mind that when war was declared, August 1, 1914, practically all the industrial and commercial organizations in Italy were controlled by Germany. The largest banks and financial houses were German owned. One of the most prolific sources of income, the electric and other plants operated by water power, were in German hands. Germany had a firm grip on the resources of the country. Her agents carried on a propaganda which required the utmost courage of the Italians to overcome and let it be said to the credit of the Italian people they risked financial ruin when they decided to enter the war on the sides of the Allies. The first result of their entry into the World War was to demoralize their securities and almost to destroy the value of their money. The lira, a coin which before the war was worth about 19 cents, decreased in buying power to about 11 cents. Bonds dropped alarmingly. With the United States as an ally, loans have been made to Italy. Her credit has been re-established, the lira has gradually increased in value, and with steel and coal and sufficient quantities for all purposes, prosperity is returning. It was the shrewd Bismarck who arranged the senior crispy twice premier to come to the assistance of Italy. A loan was made and the best Italian securities were obtained for a song. Ever since, the German grip has tightened. As a result of the war, Italy will be restored to commercial freedom and she will have a new and much needed opportunity to expand. The Ensaldo Company, a new and gigantic corporation, is now one of the largest munition plants in the world. Italy has tremendous resources in her water power which is now being developed. Like her allies, she will be able to manufacture many of the things she needs. Her airplanes are among the best that are made. Her engines are wonders of mechanical perfection. Her motocars are unexcelled. Italy, prepared as she never was, is ready for the future. The food problem and how it is met. Two. How to keep the soldiers supplied with sufficient nourishing food was one of the first and most serious matters the Italian government had to consider. As everyone knows, the principal articles of food consumption among Italians of every station, rich or poor, are macaroni and spaghetti. The staff of life of the Italian people, they are made almost entirely of flour. Italy never has grown enough wheat to supply her needs. Under war conditions her imports fell to such an extent that little or no wheat could be obtained. Hence the country faced a critical situation. The first step was conservation. It was ruled that macaroni and spaghetti should be served only on certain days. Manufacturers were restricted in the amount they could make. Then, flowers or mixed cereals were used. Italians are great lovers of bread. To meet a shortage, every available acre of ground where wheat could grow was cultivated. If the men on the farm had to go to war, the women took their places. The government encouraged and aided the farmers in every possible way, and then when aid came from the United States, in addition to sacrifices and restrictions in Italy, the situation improved. Fruits and vegetables are plentiful, and for these times reasonably cheap. Italians are not great meat-eaters. They have sufficient meat for their needs, and by adhering rigidly to the regulations they have been able to keep the army fully supplied. The Adriatic and Mediterranean abound with fish of almost every variety. Fishermen are therefore able to meet the country's needs. Next to macaroni and spaghetti, the Italians like fish, and it is far cheaper than meat. For the poorer classes, it forms a food which they can afford to buy. Olive oil, formerly used in great quantities, many of the people even drinking it, is now on the restricted list, and can be obtained only in limited quantities. Bread, as in America, is mixed with other cereals, and for civilians, practically no white bread can be obtained. In the army there are no restrictions. The best of food is given to the soldiers. They obtain meat, butter, milk, sugar, and other edibles denied wholly or in part to civilians. As in France, wine is a part of the regular rations. Various welfare organizations see that the people do not suffer for want of food. Irrigation and intensive farming, in which representatives of all classes are now helping, is eating in the solution of the food problem. Educational Conditions 3. War did not seriously interfere with the grammar in high schools throughout Italy. It is in the higher schools, such as the universities, the medical colleges, and in the technical schools that a changed condition is seen. Women came to the aid of the country in the crisis, which called so many men to the colors. Many of the teachers in the elementary schools are women and girls, who are ably taking the places of men whose positions were made vacant. For the schools where higher education is taught, it is quite a different and more complex problem. To teach in a university or in a medical college, certain qualifications are absolutely essential. Years of study and preparation are needed, and for this work but a limited number of women were available. On the other hand, the necessities of war call to action thousands of young men who otherwise would have attended the various schools for higher education. As a result, the number of students in practically all of these schools had fallen off materially, and there has not been the need for so many professors. The government is anxious not to discourage higher education. In fact, it is doing all it can to maintain it, as was evident in the establishment of the camp universities. It was inevitable that the attendance at the higher schools could not be maintained as in peacetime, and the reduction in the number of pupils fortunately made possible a corresponding diminution of teachers. By a system which permitted the return of professors in service at the front, although only for a limited period, the efficiency of the various universities and colleges was continued through the war. Students cooperated with the government, some even giving up their furloughs to attend school. Education for the youth of the land is still compulsory. The standard of wages among teachers remains very low, an out of proportion to the increased cost of living, but the recipients seem willing to sacrifice comfort for the general good. Old men who in their youth taught school volunteered to return to a labor of love. It was this spirit which made possible the maintenance of education. Italy is a poor country, but her sons and daughters are eager to learn, and poor as they are, they are willing to make sacrifices rather than give up attending school. Many of the art students are gone, and some of the schools are closed. Beppo, the model, is no longer to be found on the steps of the Piazza Espana, but the love of art has sufficed to keep some of the art schools going, no matter how rigorous the conditions. Music is in the soul of the Italian, and the conservatories will continue in session as long as there is a pupil left. On the whole, educational conditions are as good as present-day circumstances will permit. Protection of artwork. Four. When Italy entered the war, the commission was immediately appointed by the government to consider measures for the protection of the country's art treasuries. Under the direction of the curators of galleries and museums, a civil engineer or architect was placed in charge of each principal building in all the art centers of northern Italy. The persons so appointed set about devising individual means adapted to the shielding of walls, towers, statues, and pictures from attack by air and water from shell and fire. In Venice, the chief works and structures selected for protection were the Doge's Palace, with its rich arcades, sculpted façade, and splendid halls, the superb Church of St. Mark, the medieval L'Oguetta, or vestibule on the east side of the Campanile, the Church of St. John and St. Paul, the San Rocco School, the noble equestrian statue known as the Colione Monument, and the Academy of Fine Arts with its canvases by Bellini, Garpaccio, Palma Vecchio, Tintoretto, and Titian. At Padua, Donatello's equestrian monument of Gattamalata erected in 1453, and the subcultural church of St. Anthony of Padua, received special care. Likewise, the Gate of Scalgieri, Verona, the early Renaissance Colione Chapel, and some precious frescoes at Bergamo, Leonardo da Vinci's Immortal Canvas, the last supper in the refectory of the Abbey Church of Santa Maria della Grazia at Milan, the Fountain of Neptune and the Church of San Petrone at Bologna, the first Christian edifice of San Vitale, the Mausoleum of Gala Placidia, the Queen of the 5th Century, and the Tomb of Dante in the deserted old city of Ravenna, and at Cremona in the Church of St. Augustino, the famously beautiful altarpiece of the Madonna and Toussaint's by Perogino. The most renowned works of art in Rome, including the Statue of Caesar in the Capitoline Museum, were padded and boarded up, and from forensic naples, rare examples of Italian craftsmanship guarded through the centuries, manuscripts, statuary, paintings, tapestries, metalware, mosaics, glass, were carried away to safety, some of them to the vaults of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Titian's masterpiece, The Assumption of the Virgin, was lorboriously removed from the Academy of Fine Arts at Venice and transported by boat and wagon to a place of security against attack by the vandals. Tintoretto's paradise, the largest oil painting in the world, 72 feet by 23 feet, was unframed and removed from the wall of the Hall of the Great Council in the Palace of the Doge's. Ceiling paintings were taken down, rolled around great sticks 30 inches in diameter, hermetically sealed in copper cylinders, and stored in crypts to rest until the joyous days of their unrolling. Altogether 7,000 square yards of canvas were thus protected from attack and pillage. Statues were wrapped in mattresses and covered by brick flooring. The beloved horses above the doorway of St. Mark's were lowered and taken away. Dome's were roofed at an angle of 60 degrees so that aerial bombs would glance harmlessly off. In the defense of Venetian art treasures alone, 60 men worked for three months to wall in everything delicate and beautiful. Even Rhymes and Luvian could not offer such tempting morsels to the vandal wrecker as Venice and Rome writes Herbert Vivian in Italy at War. Venice, mistress of medieval art as well as Queen of the Sea, girded her armor on, like the army, donned a vesture of grey-green. Just as in Holy Week, the more signal emblems veil themselves in respectful mourning for the passion, so in wartime, the monuments of Venice hide in their hoods as though to proclaim sympathy with the nation's anxiety. At St. Mark's, the venerated mosaics on the lunettes are blotted out by modern masonry. The golden cupolas are shapeless bags, the pillars and arches have become a brick fortress that goes on to engulf all that fairy portico of the Doge's palace hard by. Where are the four famous horses of Golden Bronze brought from Constantinople to defy the world through seven centuries of the portals of St. Mark's? It was a sad scene when on May 27, 1915, a silent crowd watched their descent for conveyance to a safer stable. In the interior of the Holy House, heaps and heaps of heavy sandbags huddle against the porphyries in Malachites and alabasters, throttle the carved columns, scale walls, bury pulpit, choir, altars, and bapistery. Such are the bulwarks, which Italian foresight provided against probable forays of the Hun. Venice in wartime. Five. In time of peace, all the world flocked to Venice. In wartime, many changes were necessary. Many of the people who make up the inhabitants of the earth were barred from the city, not only by regulations, but by cannon and walls of steel. It required influence, even for an Italian to get into Venice. For an American to enter the city it was necessary to get special permission from the Minister of Marine, and he had to present the best of reasons before that permission was granted. Several times the city was menaced by the Austrians, and once it was near capture. Time and again, fleets of airplanes dropped bombs, destroying churches, hospitals, and other property, as well as killing non-combatants. The strain was more than many of the inhabitants could bear, and they sought safety in flight. The result was almost to drain the city of its normal population, which was evident in its almost deserted canalism streets. The soft musical voices of the gondoliers were occasionally heard, a few gondolas were left, but very few, and there was no longer any singing. The beautiful hotels where so many of us had lived in comfort and luxury were either closed or converted into hospitals. Many of the shops around St. Mark's Square closed. The famous glass and lace factories shut their doors. Picture postcards and photographs were taboo. The government did not permit them to be mailed. No damage has been done to the Basilica of St. Mark. A bomb dropped in front of it, but did not hit it. During the war this famous temple was, however, but a shadow of its former glory. It no longer glistened with Byzantine mosaic. Its golden covering was removed, or covered with sandbags. Besides the Doge's Palace was a thing of brick supports destroying its beauty. The ugliness of boarding in sandbags saddened the visitor, who recalled the Venice of former days. Motor and passenger boats, plying along the Grand Canal, were discontinued. There were no passengers. A few ferries remained for those who still lived in the city. Venice has not been seriously marred. Much damage has been done to churches and hospitals, but most of this can be repaired. Only a careful search of the city would reveal the damage done by bombardment. Within a few churches and buildings, art objects have been destroyed that can never be replaced. It should comfort the lovers of Venice to know that the city gives no outward evidence of destruction. The inhabitants will soon return. The hotels will reopen. St. Mark's and the Doge's Palace will be restored to their former appearance, and Venice will once again reign in splendor as the Queen of the Adriatic. Rome in wartime. Six. Rome still sits proudly on her seven hills, undismayed, undisturbed by the ravages of war. There is little real difference to be seen in the Italian capital, as it is and as it was before the war. In the evening hours when all Rome goes for a promenade or a drive, the corso is as crowded as ever. One sees more uniforms, but otherwise the scene is similar to that of peacetimes. Romans still love to dine on the sidewalks, partake of their ices, and sip their wine and coffee at little tables placed where pedestrians are supposed to pass. They attend the theater, the opera, and various other places of amusement of which they are so fond. The main difference in the city's aspect is in the dress of the people. Officers are seen only in field uniform, privates in the gray of the battlefield. Women no longer attempt display only the simplest effects are seen. All ostentation in the wearing of gowns and jewelry is frowned upon. None has suffered more than the nobility, most of them being of moderate means. The war brought many sacrifices, endangering slender purses and curtailing most needed comforts. A number have had to sell their prized art treasures to keep from actual want. The beautiful palace on the Quirinau is now a hospital. Many of its nurses are the noble women of Italy. The city is filled with welfare organizations. Buried in the heart of Rome, its ruins telling us the story of the birth of civilization lies the forum, unchanged, unaffected by the world's struggle. It speaks of days that were, of other wars, of Caesar, who like the Kaiser was ambitious, of Mark Antony, who sacrificed everything for the love of a woman, of Cicero and others whose deeds and words have made history. Above the ruins of the forum is the Pelletina, here once lived the Caesars, their palaces once covered the hill from which they looked down upon Rome. The Golden Palace of Nero has been obliterated by time, just as the chateaus and beautiful structures of northern France have been leveled by the invading Germans. Fortune it is the world that the treasures of Rome are intact. St. Peter's and all the wonderful churches still stand unharmed. The Vatican, with its storehouse of treasures, remains as it was. Art galleries containing the world's masterpieces are preserved for posterity. Rome is still the Rome familiar to travelers. Its hotels are filled not with tourists, but with officers and their families. Its streets are still throbbing with life. It remains one of the most interesting cities on this spinning globe. Italy under war conditions by E. M. Newman, traveler and lecturer. Italy has played a far more important part in the world war than is apparent to one who has not given the subject special consideration. The neutral nations have directed most of their thoughts to England and France. To do Italy full justice the fact must be emphasized that she came into the war at a time when the Allies were in great need of her. The outlook for England and France was most serious when the Italian people, roused by love of liberty and democracy, demanded that their government cast its lot with the Allies and declare war. As a result Austria was compelled to mobilize and mass reform on the Italian frontier and she was no longer able to give aid and support to Germans on the western front. The entire course of the war was then materially changed. What happened in the fall of 1917 will always be more or less of a mystery. After two years of the hardest kind of fighting, during which time the Austrians were being gradually pushed back until Vienna itself was threatened, there came a retreat, one of the most disastrous in the annals of war. The Italians lost in two weeks all that they had gained in two years. Worse still Italy was invaded in a considerable area occupied by the Austrian army. Consternation ensued, the Italian people were dazed, something had gone wrong. No one could understand it, but one thing every Italian knew and that was that no braver soldiers were to be found in any country and that when Italy had time to recover from her surprise Austria would pay the price. How the Italian army came back The retreat of the Italian army was followed by a wave of patriotism that swept from one end of Italy to the other. If there were some that were lukewarm before, they were roused to the highest pitch of enthusiasm for the prosecution of the war. Italy had been invaded. That was sufficient to stir the blood of every Italian. When in the spring of 1918 Austria launched her great offensive, she faced an army wholly changed. Indifference had vanished. Every man thirsted for revenge. No Italian would breathe freely until the stain of the retreat was wiped out. Not an Austrian must remain on Italian soil. The Austrians were bewildered. When instead of encountering the moralized and beaten army, they found themselves face to face with a new and rejuvenated force. Instead of advancing, the Austrians were swept off their feet. Instead of a crumbling line, they met a wall of steel against which their onslaughts were of no avail. On came the infuriated Italians crushing the Austrian offensive and forcing them to beat a hasty retreat. Austria will never forget the punishment she received on the Piazza, along the Asiago Plateau and in the vicinity of Montegrappa. Fields were strewn with Austrian dead. So precipitate had been their flight, that they had to abandon guns, ammunition, supplies, in fact everything they possessed. When a few days later I crossed the delta of the Piazza, I saw thousands of Austrian helmets, overcoats and supplies of every description covering the ground that extended for many miles to the little Piazza across which the Austrian army had been driven. It had been impossible in their retreat to bury their dead. Heaps of bodies still lay where they fell. Every ditch was filled with slain Austrians. The roadways were lined with them. It was a gruesome sight. But it told the story of a changed Italy, of a new army that meant to retrieve the honour of the country and bring to the Italian arms the glory to which they were entitled. Italy needed coal. She wanted steel for ammunition, and these deficiencies threatened her effort. Her allies came to her assistance and equipped and replenished her for the prosecution of the war to a successful conclusion. His voice was never for war. In relief work the Italians are particularly efficient. The central organisation of the Italian Red Cross has naturally assumed the responsibility and direction of all relief work, both for soldiers and civilians. Numerous other organisations have sprung into existence. Chief among them is Lissa Maritain, which is under the presidency of Her Majesty Queen Helena of Italy. In this organisation are thousands of women who are members of the best Italian society, and they have rendered effective and generous assistance in many ways, relieving distress where they find it. A hospital for wounded soldiers has been established at the Royal Palace of the Query now, which is under the direct supervision of the Queen. The Duchess of Iasta, wife of the King's cousin, is General Inspector of the Red Cross nurses. Both of these noble ladies give actual effective and intelligent service to the various relief organisations to which their names are attached. Italian women have proved themselves or the mates and daughters of the heroic sons and soldiers of Italy. To them is due the initiative informing of several patriotic organisations, such as the White Cross, the protection of little children, the sowers of courage, and the smile to the strong, formed for helping and encouraging the fighting sons of Italy. Soldiers' huts have been erected and put in charge of the members of an association known as Soldiers' Mamas. The members are women that have sons at the front, and may therefore be expected to give affectionate and maternal care to the young soldiers. There are other organisations, such as the Mothers of Fallen Soldiers, and the Widows of the War, whose object is mutual help among the women that have suffered the loss of son or husband. Men, who because of advanced age have been compelled to remain at home, have not failed to take up the burden of assistance and relief. Local communities have everywhere been formed under the name of Assistenza Sevilla. There is also the Segretorietto del Popolo, besides many others. All these societies are banded together to assist their families of soldiers to care for them mutilated and to aid wherever help is needed. The Italian government has enacted special laws for the benefit of those stricken by the war. For instance, the government furnishes shoes below cost, to government employees earning less than four thousand lira per year, about a hundred dollars. Education. School life continues practically as in normal times, with the exception that in the elementary schools and in the grades of the grammar in high schools there is a larger proportion of women teachers. Many instructors who had been retired have asked to re-enter service, thus relieving the young men, called to the colors. In the universities, a few distinguished professors of military age have been permitted to retain their chairs, but a considerable number have gone to the front. Naturally, the number of students has been greatly reduced. Special dispensations have been made for the schools of medicine so that the services of the more advanced students may be utilized while at the same time they are enabled to continue their studies. This has been made possible by the establishment of the so-called Universitacastrenza, or Camp University, situated in the war zone. We are distinguished physicians who are also university professors teach the young students, while teachers and pupils alternate the hours of class with those of service in the camp hospitals. The change caused by the war and the condition of women has probably been more profound and more keenly felt in Italy than in other countries, such as England and France, where women have for many years been engaged in various useful pursuits. In Italy, the women of the middle class, with rare exceptions, remained at home. Those of the lower class, when they worked at all, generally chose some occupation such as teaching. Most women had no economic independence. Unmarried girls usually lived with their parents or some married brother or sister. An ardent group of Italian women prepared the ground and labored for years to convince their sisters that they were wrong in the belief that under all conditions a woman's place is in her home. This belief was almost a religion in the southern provinces of Italy. The prejudice there was so strong that it required the utmost courage of the women to combat it. Intelligent, progressive and cultured Italian girls are now to be found in almost every occupation in which their English, French and American sisters are engaged. This revolution and the attitude of Italian women is accepted not as a temporary war necessity, but as a permanent change that cannot fail to have a deep and, on the whole, beneficent effect upon social conditions in Italy. Food regulations. Conditions in civil life are comparatively good. Of course, there are many restrictions above all in food, conservation and supply. Prices have increased, but so have salaries. There are no unemployed, and the working classes generally are prosperous. War conditions required three meatless days per week, as in the other countries of the allies. Cards were given for bread, sugar, coal, olive oil, macaroni and rice. That the quantity allowed to each individual was sufficient was proved by the fact that the authorities often received offers to diminish the rations of some families who found that they had more than they needed. The use of gas was limited to meal hours for heating and for illumination until ten o'clock at night. No restrictions were placed on the use of electricity in most city homes, although street illumination was diminished, and in certain cities in the advanced zone was abolished entirely as a defensive measure. The abundance of electricity is explained by the fact that it is very often generated by water power, as for instance in Rome. Restaurants must send to the authorities a list of food furnished, with prices charged for each portion, or for the whole meal, or for the week. They must indicate also any extra charges and the reason for such charges. The authorities will approve the menu only if it corresponds with normal or prescribed prices, and a copy, stamped and signed by an authorized person, must be exposed to the public where it can be easily seen. No food can be served unless it is on the approved list. In large cities there is a committee of control composed of five citizens appointed by the mayor, whose duty it is to see that the restrictions are rigidly observed. If the police authorities do not approve of a certain menu, it is submitted to the committee, and unless they put their okay upon it, the restaurant is not permitted to use it. Two factors combine to keep prices of necessities, and even luxuries, down to a reasonable level. One is the so-called calmiere, or government regulation, that certain products may not be sold at a higher price than that fixed by the regular constituted authorities. The other factor is the prevalence of cooperative societies that sell to their members at cost or almost at cost. Retailers have to compete with these societies, and there is a consequent curb on profiteering. Nearly every trade or profession has its own cooperative stores. The entrance fee, which must be paid to join a cooperative society, is very moderate, in some instances as low as five lira, about one dollar. Amusements and sports. Theaters, cinematograph theaters, and other places of amusement had to close at midnight. Restaurants and cafes closed an hour earlier. This did not apply to the war zone, where the military authorities made their own regulations and imposed all kinds of restrictions for defensive purposes. In general, theaters and motion picture shows in Italy are well patronized. Opera is still popular, and performances are given in various cities. Society does not consider it good form to wear evening dress. It would not be in taste for women to be elaborately gowned, or attempt to give dances or house parties. Officers do not wear their dress uniforms, no matter what may be the function they attend. Ladies avoid the use of jewels, and there is generally speaking a soberness in the dressing of both men and women. Italy, however, is not gloomy nor depressed. On the contrary, the Italians are vivacious, and their sunny dispositions are manifested throughout the troublesome times. Sports generally have been abolished. There is no horse racing, but for the purpose of breeding fine animals, horses are still being trained. Travel is freely permitted, though of course the war zone has been carefully guarded. In the restricted area, a pass was necessary, and vital reasons had to be given for permission to travel. On account of the shortage of coal, the number of trains have been reduced, as well as the number of cars in each train. Travel is therefore lacking in comfort, and it is not uncommon to see people standing even in first class compartments throughout journeys lasting six or seven hours. The discomforts are accepted good-naturedly, and there is far less grumbling than one would expect. Conditions in Venice. The morale of the Italians has never been better. Caporetto has been avenged. The Austrians were thrown back across the little piazza and brought to their knees. Venice has been saved. The city by the sea has had its trials. Severe indeed have been some of the air raids and three-fourths of the population fled. About fifty thousand of the inhabitants remained, but this represents but one-fourth of the people that lived along the canals of Venice before the war. Many hotels are closed. Tourists come no more. No Italian city has suffered from the effects of war so much as Venice. Industries have been ruined. Its commerce depleted. Its churches and hospitals have again and again been bombed from the air. Frescos have been obliterated that can never be replaced, though much of the damage done will soon be repaired. All about the populous square of St. Mark. Heaps of sandbags were piled to protect the arcades. The beautiful façade of St. Mark's Cathedral has been, for some time, hidden from view. The famous horses were taken down, the wonderful Byzantine mosaics were removed, and the entire front of the building covered with sandbags and protected by huge timbers. The Doge's Ducal Palace was supported by columns of bricks. Everywhere evidence could be seen of the attempt of the Italians to save the most remarkable city in the world. Inside the sumptuous Cathedral of St. Mark's, the effect was startling. All the works of art gone. The altar covered beyond recognition. Mounds upon mounds of sandbags heaped around the columns. It is more like a cave than the interior of one of the most beautiful of churches. Along the Grand Canal, the large hotels have been converted into hospitals. Vast palaces have been closed and deserted. Life on the canal so quiet that it is almost painful. It is not the same Venice so many travelers recall. Only one good-class hotel is open. There are a few boarding houses, but all the magnificent hotels are either closed or filled with wounded men. It was difficult in wartimes to get into Venice, and more difficult to get out. Everyone was looked upon as a spy until he proved that he was not. Officials inquired into your life history, traced your every movement, watched every step you took, and if finally you passed muster and got away without a long delay, you knew that there was not a suspicion of your ever having even dreamed of being a spy. It was of course more difficult in the war zone. Once inside the restricted area, one became a suspect, and it sometimes took weeks to obtain police and military permission to leave Italy. The Italians were in earnest. They have had a severe lesson, and they did not intend to be caught napping. An allied victory was the one subject, and Italy was ready to pay her share of the price. No braver men ever faced an enemy than the Arditi, and no enemy army ever forgotten encounter with these shock troops of the Italian army. These men were born and brought up in an atmosphere that has taught them how to fight. They are as hard as nails, as fearless as lions, the pick of Italy's best troops. Italy, though needing food, is not starving, nor is she depressed. She has recovered from the shock of 1917, and there is no disaffection among her people. All are united. Socialists cannot overturn the conditions of the nation. As for their military stamina, Austrians can testify to the fact that the Italian army is a foe worthy to engage itself at any time against any hostile power. The Spirit of Italy We cannot close more fittingly than by quoting Mr. Sidney Lowe's highly informing comments on the Spirit of Italy. Of all the belligerent nations I have seen, Italy seems to me the most tranquil, contented, and serenely confident. She has endured heavy losses and is called upon to make great sacrifices, but her people have counted the cost and they pay it resolutely, cheerfully, almost one would say gaily. They have no love for war, and on this one they entered with hesitating and doubtful steps, but now I think they feel not only that it was necessary and right, but that it will give them some things which were wanting in the years of peace. War is a monstrous evil, but from its furnace of pain and suffering, Italy, with other nations, may emerge hardened and tempered. She will gain a large unity in that not merely by annexing the unredeemed territory. The war has gone far to obliterate that division of classes and localities, which was the inheritance of her troubled past. The common effort and the common burden have crowned the edifice which the markers of Italy built up in the 19th century, at the Italian front behind the war zone. What Italy needs is security, sufficient to develop to the full her economic resources and her national individuality, and that she intends to obtain. She is resolved to be independent of external patronage, protection and supervision of any kind, and to enjoy all the rights, privileges, ambitions which belong to the greater nations of the earth. She believes herself capable of excelling not merely in art, science, letters, philosophy, laws, but in production, manufacturing, commerce, the exploitation of waste and backward lands. She is not content that her people, so intelligent, so industrious, so capable, should be packed off year by year in shoals to form the ill-paid labor hell-outs of wealthier communities. She prefers that they should be kept at home, to develop the riches and intensified vitality of their own land. She has watched the rise of Germany from poverty and weakness to strength and industrial magnificence, and she believes that the Latin capacity for organization, invention, scientific adaptation and enterprise is not inferior to the Teutonic. She thinks she can do many of the things that Germany has done, and some things which Germany will never do, and she needs to try. It is for the great free nations, with which she is now associated, to survey her effort with sympathetic eyes, and extend to it all the aid and encouragement in their power. The Open Letter In the coming months of construction and restoration in Europe, Italy will have special problems of her own to solve. Victory in the World War means for Italy five million additional mouths to feed in her redeemed territory. Close rationing will therefore be necessary for a long time, and a liberal food allotment from outside relief sources must be made. Italy cannot be accused of having neglected her land. The total area of the country comprises seventy million, 820,197 acres, only a little over seven percent of which is unproductive land. In her agricultural production, however, cereals do not play an important part. Her wheat product did not meet her domestic demands even before the war, and annual importations of grain were always necessary. The situation therefore today, after the terrible toll that war has taken, is acute and distressing, as far as the main staff of life is concerned. Italy produces fruits in quantity, but a starving nation cannot live by fruit alone. The traveller in Italy today may feast his eyes on 12 million acres of vine-covered slopes, but the children of the land are crying for milk and bread. The wines of Italy are famous for their flavor and quality, and her olives and lemons are known throughout the world, but the people cannot survive on wine and olives. They need more substantial food, and under the present strict rationing, each person receives only seventeen pounds of bread a month. Italy's exports have been chiefly olives, lemons, and cheese, Gorgonzola and Parmesan being among the famous brands. These fine Italian cheeses are made from goat's milk, and as there is little enough of that now to feed wounded soldiers and children, the exportation of cheese has been stopped. Before the war, olives and olive oil were shipped in huge quantities. There are miles and miles of olive trees to be seen from train windows when traveling through Italy. Today, just as many olives are grown, and as much olive oil is obtained, but it is needed at home and is carefully guarded there. The Italian government practically controls the output, and very little is permitted for export. Lemons are grown in great quantities and are still exported to some extent. The difficulty in obtaining boats, however, has made it impossible to ship any considerable quantity of lemons, and so this source of income has been virtually eliminated. Italy has found it necessary, therefore, to cultivate her products exclusively for home consumption, and in this cultivation thought is given only to the supply of things necessary for the maintenance of the Italian people. Things that are most needed, that give most sustenance, are being cultivated to the exclusion of things that brought income from outside, but did not fill the hungry mouths of the people. Also, food products that formerly had to be imported are now being homegrown. Fortunately, this is made easy by the fact that Italy is a climb where every season smiles. It is favored by climatic conditions to a degree comparable to those of Southern California, and accordingly a great range of crops, both of temperate zone and of tropical kind, can be grown readily. In the southern part of Italy, the climate is semi-tropical, the soil is fertile, and garden truck grows in abundance, and many kinds of fruits, including oranges, lemons, grapes, apples, plums, and pears. In the fertile plains of the north are fields where cereals are growing, and these are being extended and prepared for intensified cultivation. The delta of the Piazza, captured and held for a short time by the Austrians, is again in possession of Italy, comprising some of the richest soil in the world. It will soon be flourishing with growing crops, and its fields will contribute substantially to the solution of Italy's food problem. We may be sure, then, that Italy, plucky and staunch, will carry on through hardship to renewed prosperity. With the sympathetic assistance that is due her from the United States, there can be no question of the future. Italy's firmly booted leg will continue to kick its sturdy way down into the warm waters that Germany so desired. Her fair domains will continue to enjoy that place in the sun, that Prussia so imperiously demanded. With all her advantages of land and sea, Italy must come through and find plenty in the wake of peace. End of section 19