W. L. Alden

“ I remarked.
"They make Brussels carpets here, don't they?" asked the American. "I always thought that Brussels carpets came from Brussels, and having a brother in the carpet trade, I felt some interested in the matter."
"But this isn't Brussels," said I. "It is Brescia."
"My friend told me this was Brussels, only the natives called it Brushia, just as they miscall all their towns. A nation that don't know the proper names of its towns don't amount to much, in my opinion. My friend knows Europe down to the ground. ”

“ Such is the excellence of the materials of which the cat is made that he can elongate himself and shrink back again to his normal length almost any number of times without permanently weakening his springs. ”

“ That Haynau suppressed an insurrection in Brescia with stern severity is true. It was his duty as an Austrian general to suppress it, and he can hardly be blamed for so doing, no matter how warmly we may sympathize with the patriotic impulse which spurred the Brescians into revolt against their Austrian masters. Haynau shot men freely, but men who engage in an insurrection that fails must expect to pay the penalty. That he ever flogged women there is no sufficient evidence. ”

“ No matter how tired they may be, the Brescians scorn to rest, but they work at wearing cloaks and general conversation with an indefatigable earnestness that does them infinite credit. In the chemists' shops the local doctors are hard at work from morning to night, sitting on chairs and discussing politics with one another and with the chemist and his assistants. ”

“ Brescia is a busy town. The inhabitants are, as a rule, tall and robust, and they are always hard at work. The main streets are full of men employed in wearing large cloaks and talking to other men with the utmost energy. ”

“ My companion did not admire the cats, and the sentiment was reciprocated with much warmth. In every Italian church there are one or more cats, who have sought refuge from the cares of mice, and the temptations of the back fence, and have chosen a life of meditation and asceticism. ”

“ This country would make the best wheat-growing country in the world—that is, for its size. What the Italians want to do is to pull down all those miserable dirty little towns that they call cities, and to put all the inhabitants into one decent-sized city. ”

“ Then they could grow wheat all over the country, and make big money. But you can't get any sense into an Italian. I know them all the way through, for we had gangs of them working on our new railroad last year."
I bade good-by to my acquaintance at the railway station. He was going on to Milan, and I was bound for Cremona. We parted in the most friendly way, and he thanked me warmly for having shown him Brescia, and said that if ever I came to Cyrusville he would show me a town worth seeing. ”

“ It may possibly have something to do with the fierce com- petition for food which must prevail where cats are so abundant. Most people who are familiar with cats, and have not had their minds warped by the study of text-books of natural history, know that the cat is elastic to a high degree. When he desires to reach some article cf food, or some new and possibly dangerous object, without approaching any nearer to it than is absolutely necessary, he stretches out his body until it is about a fifth longer than usual. ”