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[499] told us distinctly that he would take us for the price over to the shore and back, for our steamer was bound for Alexandria and we were to be allowed so many hours ashore. As we were being rowed across the harbor I looked up and down the coast and said to my son, “How like our Seattle are the shores and approaches to the city of Naples and the city itself.” I was not disappointed in any view that we obtained that day — the clearness of the cloudless skies, the softness of the atmosphere, and the singular beauty and charm of all things that the sunlight of Italy touched. As in Marseilles, there was every evidence of modern civilization-streets that were broad and well kept, houses that were of every variety, from the neat homelike cottage to the palatial residence; but not far from the main thoroughfare you struck throngs of the poor people and streets so narrow that the buildings almost touched across them in their juttings. Along with all the poverty that comes with the poor tenement structures, there was no cleanliness observable, and I do not wonder that contagious diseases have often decimated the population. I said to myself as we turned back to the quay: “It does not do to go too near to those places which appear so beautiful at a distance.” As we undertook to reembark, a boat, entirely different from that in which we came, was at the dock for our accommodation. The man in charge cried out that the boats all belonged to the same company. We stepped in and were rowed halfway to our steamer, when the same man stopped the oarsmen and demanded of us another fare. Of course I understood the swindle and naturally made objection. The man talked to me angrily in a language I could not interpret. With some of my old impatience of spirit which

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