A GARDEN IN VENICE 



with, and they are not badly paid in this part of 

 Italy. My head man, aged twenty-five, gets a 

 hundred francs a month, and the others various 

 sums going down to sixty. Those that like get 

 house and fuel in the garden, others prefer to 

 live with their families outside, and their living, 

 as I know, is cheap, for I was once asked to act 

 as arbitrator in a dispute they had with their 

 caterer; the question submitted being whether 

 they should pay him fifteen or sixteen lire the 

 month for their whole food. So the remainder 

 of their wages gives them a larger amount of 

 pocket money than is probably at the disposal of 

 any other people of their class. 



This remainder is rarely badly spent; some- 

 thing to tobacco, something to wine, which is 

 not dear at forty to fifty centimes a quart, and 

 this year as low as fifteen centimes ; something 

 for clothes, also not dear in this climate, where, 

 for say eight months in the year, a cotton shirt 

 and trousers are sufficient dress; and a good deal 

 to their families, for the young fellows about 

 here, as far as I can see, spend the greater part 



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