It Was A Singular Bit Of Advanced
Civilization, Curiously Out Of Keeping With The Thoughts Which Had
Occupied Me On My Walk.
Why, I wonder, has Reggio paid such
exceptional attention to this department of its daily life?
One did
not quite know whether to approve this frank exhibition of
carnivorous zeal; obviously something can be said in its favour,
yet, on the other hand, a man who troubles himself with finer
scruples would perhaps choose not to be reminded of pole-axe and
butcher's knife, preferring that such things should shun the light
of day. It gave me, for the moment, an odd sense of having strayed
into the world of those romancers who forecast the future; a
slaughter-house of tasteful architecture, set in a grove of lemon
trees and date palms, suggested the dreamy ideal of some reformer
whose palate shrinks from vegetarianism. To my mind this had no
place amid the landscape which spread about me. It checked my
progress; I turned abruptly, to lose the impression as soon as
possible.
No such trouble has been taken to provide comely housing for the
collection of antiquities which the town possesses. The curator who
led me through the museum (of course I was the sole visitor)
lamented that it was only communal, the Italian Government not
having yet cared to take it under control; he was an enthusiast, and
spoke with feeling of the time and care he had spent upon these
precious relics - sedici anni di vita - sixteen years of life,
and, after all, who cared for them?
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