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

comrades.
'
THE CHOLERA OF 1867. 399
Will you stop ? What a shame to laugh behind
the back of a man who is
going to perform a work
of charity.' And then he departed while a prolonged laugh
broke out in the room. The sergeant met me on the stairs,
and fancying that I was going up, said in a voice full of emotion
:
'
Oh, Mr. Lieutenant ! what a good
have in our company ! ' '
set of fellows we
This narrative, I heard from an officer of the 54th. And
what the soldiers did in that district, the others belonging to the
54th did in the city of
real providence.
Caltanisetta, so that this regiment was a
This was done by the iSth infantry at Terrasini,
for the two families who took care of the poor sub-lieutenant,
Viale, and the sergeant, Imberti ;
the 6th battalion of
sharp-shooters and the loth regiment of infantry worked in
the same way at Messina ;
as did also the 58th at Petralia Sottana
; the 38th battalion of sharp-shooters at Monreale ;
the
6;th infantry and the i5th battalion of sharp-shooters at Longobucco
;
the 68th infantry at Reggiodi Calabria ;
the lancers of
Foggia at Misilmeri ; the 25th battalion of sharp-shooters at
Rocca d' Anfo ;
the 7th infantry at Mantua, together with
those at the fort in Bard, and the free lancers of Aosta ;
and
who knows how many other corps did as much, without any
notice being taken of it, simply because none of the benefactors
wished to speaker write of Yet it.
just at that time there were
some people who asked severely of the government
for what
reason it maintained such a " colossal " army, if it expected to
" civilize the country with bayonets,"
if it would not be better
to turn so many " lazy " barracks iiito as many hospitals, and
if the money spent in such high pay
would not be better employed
in alleviating so much misery, etc.
These things were