A REVOLUTION IN TICINO.
All things come to those who wait. I have waited nearly a fortnight in
Ticino for a revolution, and I have seen it at last. I have seen the
soldiers charge the mob, and I have seen the mob stone the soldiers. I
have seen the soldiers retire with cracked skulls, and I have seen the
citizens flying to the chemists and the doctors to have their bayonet
wounds dressed. I have seen a town suddenly seized with panic, the
streets cleared, the shops shut, and the cafés barred and bolted. And it
all happened in a minute, without the slightest warning. It all happened
just when I had packed my portmanteau and was going to leave Ticino
because the excitement was over and everything was getting insufferably
dull, and the weather was giving the Ticinese a seasonable hint to keep
indoors by their wood fires and to abandon politics as an outdoor
amusement.
Last Sunday was the day of the general election all over Switzerland for
members of the National Council, which sits at Berne. In Ticino the
greatest interest attached to the election, because of recent
unfortunate events and the terrible pitch which the enmity long existing
between the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party had reached.
On Sunday in Ticino things went off pretty quietly. I was in Lugano, and
spent the morning watching the voters as they went to the poll and the
populace that stood about the public squares and discussed the
situation. The Liberals made a big show in Lugano. The trees of liberty,
surmounted by the hat of William Tell, were everywhere decorated with
the red flag of Radicalism. To some of them were affixed wreaths of
laurel ‘offered by the Liberal ladies of Lugano'; others were ornamented
with Liberal inscriptions couched in language that, to say the least of
it, was thorough. The Italian--I beg pardon, the Ticinese--politician is
given to discuss matters as much with his hands as with his tongue, and
all day long an energetic crowd indulged in vehement finger-wagging and
hand-elevating, which would have given a stranger not used to the wealth
of Italian gesture an idea that St. Vitus’s dance was a national
disease.
The Liberals were easily distinguished from the Conservatives by red
ties, by red feathers worn bravely in enormous brigand hats, and by red
flowers in their buttonholes. Every Liberal sported a little red, and
even the Liberal ladies had arrayed themselves in accordance with their
political sympathies.
Apart from the idea that the election of October 26 might lead to a
little revolution, I was interested in it for another reason. Was not my
old friend Agostino Gatti, of the Adelaide Gallery and of the Adelphi
Theatre, a Consigliere di Stato? and was not Agostino Gatti up for
re-election as one of the six members for Ticino in the National Council
of Switzerland?
It was a great day for all Ticino. Every man was expected to vote, and
nearly every man did. Some of them travelled miles and miles to fulfil
the duty of citizenship. I soon found out how seriously the Ticinese
take politics. Very early on Sunday morning my waiter hurried me over my
breakfast with a thousand apologies; he was going to vote, and his
native place was in a valley across the lake ten miles away. The porter
brought me a day’s supply of wood to my room before I was up; a thousand
pardons, but he had to catch an early train that he might go home to
vote. There was not a flyman outside my hotel when I went out; they had
all gone to vote. The boats upon the lake lay floating empty on the
wave; the boatmen had all gone to vote. When I went into the
_salle-à-manger_ I quite expected to see a note to the effect that, ‘In
consequence of all the waiters having gone home to vote, there will be
no _table d’hôte_.’
Giuseppe, my sitting-room waiter, is a Conservative; Napoléon, the
_salle-à-manger_ waiter, is a fierce Radical. Between them I endeavoured
to arrive at the truth of the various incidents which they narrated for
my benefit. Giuseppe hails from the village to which poor Rossi
belonged--Rossi, the unfortunate victim of the brutal outrage of
September 11. Rossi was a young man universally beloved and respected.
He had only joined the Government a few months. He had never done any
man harm; he was only recently married, and he was assassinated in cold
blood in the name of civil and religious liberty. Giuseppe trembles so
violently with rage when he tells me of Rossi, his fellow-townsman, that
I expect him to drop the tray every moment; but Napoléon talks of it
calmly, says it was a pity, but won’t have it that the Radicals are to
blame for it. But I am digressing. Of Giuseppe and Napoléon more anon.
I wait patiently opposite the Municipio all day expecting a
demonstration, and none comes. So I fill up my time by noting one or two
minor matters. A gentleman selling fowls wrings their necks one by one
_coram populo_, and I watch the process till I feel sick. A Conservative
dog creates a diversion by having a furious fight with a Radical dog.
The dogs are arrayed in their masters’ colours, and the red dog walks up
to the blue dog in a most insulting manner. Then the row begins, and all
the dogs of Lugano rush to the square and take sides. Heaven only knows
if it would not have ended in a dog revolution had the Federal troops
not interfered. Two soldiers separated the combatants, and once more,
thanks to the Federal bayonets, peace is restored.
In the evening we get the news. The Conservatives have gained a majority
all over Ticino. The Liberals are glum, and, after a night spent in the
cafés, I walk home with Albert Edward, and we both prophesy trouble on
the morrow. We have heard what we have heard, and we have seen what we
have seen.
On Monday there was general Conservative jubilation. The church bells
rang violently; from the mountain-tops guns were fired and bonfires were
lighted. The little boys formed themselves into processions, and waved
flags and shouted through the villages, and dogs, decked out in
Conservative colours, followed proudly at the heels of their little
Conservative masters. And here, on the eve of the lamentable outbreak
which took place at Lugano on Monday evening, let me give you a few
particulars of the first revolution which led up to all the recent
trouble and excitement.
The revolution was a prearranged affair. In Lugano they managed it this
way. Some men went into a field and made a bonfire, which caused a great
smoke. Then some of their confederates suddenly rang the fire-alarm from
the church belfry. Out rushed the officers from the Municipio to see
what was the matter, and in rushed the revolutionists and took
possession of the building. The Government officers were seized and
dragged to prison. The mob rushed into the cafés and laid violent hands
on prominent Conservatives, yelling, ‘To prison! to prison!’ It was
Bedlam broken loose, for surely there was nothing but madness in what
followed.
Every Conservative was threatened by the Liberals--the active
Conservatives were actually seized and put in prison--an instance of the
height of absurdity to which this so-called ‘revolution’ was carried.
The man on duty at one of the little piers where the steamers embark
passengers was known to be a Conservative. He was seized and threatened
with imprisonment. ‘What for?’ he exclaimed. ‘You are a Conservative!’
yelled his Liberal aggressors. The same thing happened to shopkeepers,
to boatmen, to fly-drivers; the one cry was, ‘To prison with the
Conservatives!'--and all this was done in the sacred name of Liberty,
Equality, and Fraternity.
It is really worth pausing for a moment to reflect that these things
were actually done in a Republic, and by a party whose watchword was
‘Liberty.’ It is difficult to treat the thing as anything but a huge
burlesque. ‘In the name of Liberty I put you in prison because your
political views are not mine.’ Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest
it--reflect on it! Here is a Republic which claims to be the government
of the free by the free, and in this Republic there is a party which
calls itself the party of freedom, and its first act, when by force or
by stratagem it has snatched temporary power, is to seize and imprison
every fellow-citizen whose views upon politics and religion are at
variance with its own.
My own belief is that the Liberals of Ticino in their discontent allowed
themselves to be the dupes and the tools of a party of disorder, a party
which has its headquarters over the frontier. I have seen upon the walls
of Bellinzona a proclamation issued by a society which has its
headquarters in Italy, and, putting two and two together, I look a
little below the surface of what is generally called politics for the
origin of the Ticino revolt against law and order. These things might
perhaps be left for the Ticinese to settle among themselves, but
unfortunately they have been done in the name of ‘the Liberal party,’
and Liberalism generally all over the world is injured and discredited
by such a display of intolerance and persecution on the part of a
section of those who profess it and make it their watchword.
But, after all, but for the brutal murder of Rossi, and some subsequent
bloodshed, the whole affair might perhaps have been charitably dismissed
as a display of what the German calls ‘Kinderei.’ The remark of a
Cockney tourist who was in Lugano with me, that it was ‘like a lot of
kids playing at revolution,’ is a fair translation of the German
expression. The utter childishness of some of the proceedings which are
now agitating the Swiss Republic is beyond dispute. The Ticinese have
given us a revolution _pour rire_, and the whole thing, the murder of
Rossi apart, is a cyclone in a coffee-cup, a hurricane in a half-pint
pot.
So much for the revolution of September 11; now for the revolution of
October 27. I have told you that the Conservatives of Lugano rang the
church bells in their joy. On Monday afternoon the Liberals, having had
enough of the Conservative rejoicings, thought they would have a turn.
So they brought a cannon on the public square and began to discharge it.
Now, cannon-firing in a public square is not exactly a parlour pastime,
and an officer who was in charge of a small body of soldiers ordered the
gay Liberal youths to ‘cease firing.’ They argued the point; the officer
insisted, and then--well, nobody knows how it began. The Conservatives
say the mob threw stones at the officer; the Liberals say the soldiers
attacked the crowd; at any rate, stones were thrown and the mob was
charged, and presently the soldiers were prodding the people and blood
was flowing and stones were flying, and Lugano had another little
revolution in miniature all to itself. I was with Albert Edward, and in
the middle of it, and I am not ashamed to confess that we executed a
strategic movement to the rear and sought the friendly shelter of the
Farmacia Internazionale.
Half an hour afterwards the streets were cleared. Every shop and every
café was shut, and only groups of excited men gathered under the arcades
and discussed the situation. It had been severe while it lasted. I saw
plenty of blood--less would have satisfied me--and unfortunately a
number of women and children in the crowd were seriously frightened, and
I believe a few of them hurt, in the absurd proceedings. A number of
wounds were dressed by the chemists of the town that evening, and
several of the soldiers were taken to the hospital.
All the troops in Ticino are from the German cantons. Between the German
Swiss and the Italian Swiss there is no love lost. The troops have been
attacked, and some of the soldiers injured by the people. Relations are
now naturally more strained than ever. Some unlucky day something may
happen, and then---- Well, let us hope for the best.
The journals of the rival parties and the placards of the rival parties
are not going the way to mend matters. _Il Credente Cattolico_ comes out
every day with a black band round it, and it prints on its title-page
‘Il Sangue di Rossi invoca Giustizia'--the blood of Rossi calls for
justice. It also pleasantly describes the Liberals as the ‘congrega di
Satana'--the congregation of Satan. _La Liberta_, after a terrific
onslaught, calls attention ‘alle infami manovre Radicali,’ and I count
the words ‘infamy’ and ‘infamous’ fourteen times on one page. _Il
Dovere_, a Radical sheet, hurls every awful adjective in the Italian
language at the Conservative party, and finishes up with a fit of
violent hysterics. The _Gazette Ticinese_ can find no heading to its
fierce wrath at the result of Sunday’s election, and so contents itself
with an inarticulate ‘!?!’ while another journal declares the vote to be
valueless, and writes in huge letters that the Conservative majority is
an iniquity, and cries aloud in mighty wrath that 12,066 Liberals return
only 35 Deputies to the Grand Council, while 12,833 Ultramontanes return
77. Both sides call each other assassins, and both sides call each other
thieves, and the Conservative journals always speak of the Liberals as
‘the party of brigands,’ and it is evident that in Ticino a Republican
form of government has not been productive of liberty or equality, and
most decidedly not of fraternity.
The placards on the walls are all couched in fiery language, with the
exception of Colonel Kunzli’s proclamation, which simply forbids any
public meeting to be held in any place in Ticino. ‘Proibisco ogni
assemblia populare in tutto il Cantone Ticino.’ (What do you think of
that in a Republic, my Trafalgar Square friends?) The Liberal addresses
al Popolo Ticinese denounce the Conservatives as ruffians, liars,
slanderers, thieves, and oppressors; and a proclamation which is posted
up all over the walls of Bellinzona itself, within a few feet of the
Government House, and signed by ‘The Liberal Committee _in Milan_,’
calls upon the people to drive out a Government which for years has
tyrannized over the country and been guilty of intolerance,
assassination, the liberation of the guilty, the condemnation of the
innocent, persecution, swindling, extortion, robbery, ‘and all possible
subdivisions of these and other iniquities.’ I have never read as much
strong language in my whole life as I have been compelled to peruse
during the last fortnight in Ticino.
To-day (Wednesday) we have had another ‘incident’ in Lugano. This
morning a great hulking fellow told a little boy of twelve to go and
insult the sentries on duty at the Municipio. The lad, nothing loath,
trotted off and called the sentries all the bad names he knew. One
sentry ordered him off. The boy, encouraged by some roughs, refused to
go, whereupon the sentry, like an idiot, prodded him playfully in the
arm with his bayonet.
Soldiers and populace alike seem to have lost their heads, and now are
thirsting for each other’s gore. A man in a café told me that if it went
on they would fire at the soldiers from the windows. Good business this.
O Liberty! Liberty! what crimes, etc.
That the military fear a rising is certain. When the train came in from
Milan on Tuesday a guard of soldiers with fixed bayonets was posted at
every entrance. A number of agitators from Milan were expected to come
to the aid of the Luganese. ‘My God!’ exclaimed the station-master, when
I asked him what the armed force at the station meant, ‘one would think
we were all murderers here.’
The Lucerne and Berne soldiers will be heartily glad to get back home.
They have been badly treated in Ticino, where, although Swiss, and the
real Swiss, they are looked upon as foreigners. The arrangements made
for their accommodation have not increased the pleasure of their stay.
Some of them have had to sleep and live in a church, lying down at night
on straw spread about on the floor. The accommodation provided for the
others is even worse, being at a disused seminary, where they have
absolutely had no water-supply at all, and have had to go down to the
lake to wash.
Let us turn from the revolution to more pleasant matters. To-day is
market-day in Lugano. The greatest crowd is round a man who is
displaying on a pole an enormous and highly-coloured picture of a man
dripping with blood, who is stabbing a very _décolletée_ lady in blue
silk. The banner is labelled in huge letters, ‘Jack, l’Assassino di
Londra! Lo Sventratore di Donne!’ The man is doing a roaring trade in a
penny book which is no less than the life and adventures of our old
friend Jack the Ripper.
The country people who have come from the mountains and the valleys are
positively trampling each other down in their eagerness to purchase
copies, and presently the vendor raises his price from a penny to
twopence. What a reputation has Jack made for himself! All over the
world he is famous. Gladstone is not in the same street with him as a
European celebrity. Such is fame!
The women of Ticino are surely the hardest worked women in the world. In
the lower classes they are simply beasts of burden. The little girl of
twelve and the old woman of eighty carry huge loads everywhere, while
the boys and the men carry nothing. I meet old women toiling up the
great mountains with huge baskets on their backs. In these baskets they
carry not only goods, but animals. I have seen a woman toiling along
with a big calf in the basket on her back and a great bundle of faggots
under her arm. In the town it is the same. All the heavy porterage is
done by the women. At one of the steamboat piers yesterday it was a
woman who came for the luggage, and she positively reeled under the
weight of a Saratoga trunk, while the men sat with their hands in their
pockets and smoked cigars.
From this same steamer there landed a couple of men of the peasant
class. Their wives, with baskets on their backs, were waiting for them.
The men had a number of packages with them. These they instantly loaded
on to their wives, and then, lighting their cigars, strolled off up the
mountain path that led to their village. And behind them at a long
distance, heavily laden, toiled their beasts of burden--their wives.