Military life in Italy : sketches - Societa italiana di storia militare

AN ORIGINAL ORDERLY.
OF all the original beings under the vault of heaven and I
can boast I have known many there certainly is none who can
compare with this one.
He was from Sardinia, a peasant of twenty, ignorant of the
alphabet, and a soldier in the infantry.
The first time he appeared before me, at Florence, in the
office of a military journal, he inspired me with sympathy.
His appearance, however, and several of his replies, showed me
instantly that he was indeed an original.
Seen in front, he was
himself; seen in profile, he was quite another. One would
have said that his features changed in turning. From the front
view there was nothing to say ;
the face was like many others ;
but his profile made one laugh.
The point of the chin and the
end of the nose tried to touch and did not succeed, impeded
by two enormous lips that were always open, and which allowed
one to see two rows of teeth scattered like a platoon of national
guards. The eyes resembled pin-heads, so small were they,
and they almost disappeared between the wrinkles when he
laughed. The eyebrows formed two circumflex accents, and
the forehead was only high enough to separate the hair from
the eyes. A friend said to me that he seemed like a man made
for a joke. He had, however, a face that expressed intelligence
and goodness ;
but an intelligence, if one may so express
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