{"product_id":"2940012773395","title":"INNOCENTS ABROAD Volume III","description":"We voyaged by steamer down the Lago di Lecco, through wild mountain\u003cbr\u003escenery, and by hamlets and villas, and disembarked at the town of Lecco.\u003cbr\u003eThey said it was two hours, by carriage to the ancient city of Bergamo,\u003cbr\u003eand that we would arrive there in good season for the railway train.  We\u003cbr\u003egot an open barouche and a wild, boisterous driver, and set out.  It was\u003cbr\u003edelightful.  We had a fast team and a perfectly smooth road.  There were\u003cbr\u003etowering cliffs on our left, and the pretty Lago di Lecco on our right,\u003cbr\u003eand every now and then it rained on us.  Just before starting, the driver\u003cbr\u003epicked up, in the street, a stump of a cigar an inch long, and put it in\u003cbr\u003ehis mouth.  When he had carried it thus about an hour, I thought it would\u003cbr\u003ebe only Christian charity to give him a light.  I handed him my cigar,\u003cbr\u003ewhich I had just lit, and he put it in his mouth and returned his stump\u003cbr\u003eto his pocket!  I never saw a more sociable man.  At least I never saw a\u003cbr\u003eman who was more sociable on a short acquaintance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe saw interior Italy, now.  The houses were of solid stone, and not\u003cbr\u003eoften in good repair.  The peasants and their children were idle, as a\u003cbr\u003egeneral thing, and the donkeys and chickens made themselves at home in\u003cbr\u003edrawing-room and bed-chamber and were not molested.  The drivers of each\u003cbr\u003eand every one of the slow-moving market-carts we met were stretched in\u003cbr\u003ethe sun upon their merchandise, sound a sleep.  Every three or four\u003cbr\u003ehundred yards, it seemed to me, we came upon the shrine of some saint or\u003cbr\u003eother--a rude picture of him built into a huge cross or a stone pillar by\u003cbr\u003ethe road-side.--Some of the pictures of the Saviour were curiosities in\u003cbr\u003etheir way.  They represented him stretched upon the cross, his\u003cbr\u003ecountenance distorted with agony.  From the wounds of the crown of\u003cbr\u003ethorns; from the pierced side; from the mutilated hands and feet; from\u003cbr\u003ethe scourged body--from every hand-breadth of his person streams of blood\u003cbr\u003ewere flowing!  Such a gory, ghastly spectacle would frighten the children\u003cbr\u003eout of their senses, I should think.  There were some unique auxiliaries\u003cbr\u003eto the painting which added to its spirited effect.  These were genuine\u003cbr\u003ewooden and iron implements, and were prominently disposed round about the\u003cbr\u003efigure: a bundle of nails; the hammer to drive them; the sponge; the reed\u003cbr\u003ethat supported it; the cup of vinegar; the ladder for the ascent of the\u003cbr\u003ecross; the spear that pierced the Saviour's side.  The crown of thorns\u003cbr\u003ewas made of real thorns, and was nailed to the sacred head.  In some\u003cbr\u003eItalian church-paintings, even by the old masters, the Saviour and the\u003cbr\u003eVirgin wear silver or gilded crowns that are fastened to the pictured\u003cbr\u003ehead with nails.  The effect is as grotesque as it is incongruous.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHere and there, on the fronts of roadside inns, we found huge, coarse\u003cbr\u003efrescoes of suffering martyrs like those in the shrines.  It could not\u003cbr\u003ehave diminished their sufferings any to be so uncouthly represented.\u003cbr\u003eWe were in the heart and home of priest craft--of a happy, cheerful,\u003cbr\u003econtented ignorance, superstition, degradation, poverty, indolence, and\u003cbr\u003eeverlasting unaspiring worthlessness.  And we said fervently: it suits\u003cbr\u003ethese people precisely; let them enjoy it, along with the other animals,\u003cbr\u003eand Heaven forbid that they be molested.  We feel no malice toward these\u003cbr\u003efumigators.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47161276498160,"sku":"2940012773395","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012773395_p0.jpg?v=1763572410","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012773395","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}