Identifier: menmannersofoldf00biag (find matches)
Title: Men and manners of old Florence
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Biagi, Guido, 1855-1925
Subjects:
Publisher: Chicago, A. C. McClurg and co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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rote down the name of the victor on thetablets in his hand and flung them among thecrowd. In the evening grand spettacolo di gala atthe Theatre in Via della Pergola, with grand illu-mination and free entrance for the people, as wellas an open-air festa in the gardens of the TeatroSanta Maria on the other side of the Arno (nowcalled the Teatro Goldoni). But let us not forgetthe salvoes of artillery and of musketry, on thePiazza del Duomo and from the Forte di Belvederewhile the Court was present at High Mass.At the order Present arms! called out by themounted officers in command, the fusileers executedthe twenty-four prescribed movements; the ramrodsgleaming in the sun were drawn quickly from theirrests, whirled skilfully around in the active fingersof the soldiers, dropped all together with a greatclang into the barrels of the muskets, to be drawnout again, once more whirled rapidly about, andreturned to their rests. The muskets were broughtto the shoulder, then dropped ringing on the
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THE TWILIGHT OF THE PAST 275 ground, raised once more, and from those thousandsmouths of fire broke forth the salute with a noiselike thunder, while a dense white cloud of smokeenveloped all the scene. The women and childrenscreamed at the report and stopped their ears,and after the echo died away the soldiers wereseen once more as immovable as if they had beenmade of wood. For every salute, twenty-four move-ments, and three minutes to manoeuvre ! Just timeto get out of reach of the shot. Ill A LL these amusements and functions, even the-^^ cricket-hunting in the Cascine in the early morn-ing of Ascension Day, were participated in by the Courtand the fashionable world—who, as Stendahl says, putinto practice the art of being happy without stopping tothink how difficult it is to attain happiness. The finestpeople in society, the nobility and the richest citizenswere not afraid to spend the greater part of the yearin Florence. To the country, to villeggiare as theycalled it, they went

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