FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80  
81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   >>   >|  
at the end of October he again met Mr. [vS]ojat, just as he was going up to that interview in the Governor's Palace. "Jesam li ja onda imao pravo, jesi li sada zadovoljan?" he said. ("Was I not right that time? Are you satisfied now?") Joyfully he pressed Mr. [vS]ojat's hand and greeted the two other persons who were with him. And Mr. [vS]ojat was pleased to think that Vio would now be a good Croat, as of old. But on the following day he was an Italian. HIS FERVOUR When I went up to see this variegated gentleman--whose personal appearance is that of a bright yellow cat--he purred awhile upon the sofa and then started striding up and down the room. As he sketched the history of the town, which, he said, had always been Italian and would insist on being so, he spoke with horror of the days when Jella[vc]i['c] was in control, and then, remembering another trouble, he raised both his hands above his head and brought them down with such a crash upon the desk where I was writing his remarks that--but nobody burst in; the municipal officials were accustomed to his conversation. He was reviling at that moment certain Allied officers who had not seen fit to visit him. "I care not!" he yelled. "We are Italian! I tell you we are Italianissimi!" (He was glad enough, however, when his brother Hamlet, who had remained a Yugoslav and was on friendly terms with the chief of the carabinieri, managed to obtain for the mayor a passport to Italy, concerning which the carabinieri had said that they must first of all apply to Rome.) The doctor was sure that Yugoslavia would not live, for it had two religions; and another notable defect of the Croats--"I speak their language quite well," he said--was that in the whole of Rieka not one ancient document was in Croatian. I was going to mention that everywhere in Croatia until 1848 they were in Latin--but he saw what I was on the point of saying and--"Look here! look here!" he cried, "now look at this!" It was a type-written sheet in English, whereon was recounted how the mayor had offered to four Admirals, who came to Rieka on behalf of their four nations, how he had, in order to meet them in every way--"They asked me," he said, with blankness and indignation and forgiveness all joined in his expression--it was beautifully done--"they asked me, the Italian mayor of this Italian town, whether it was truly an Italian town!"--well, he had offered to take a real plebiscite, on the basis of the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80  
81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Italian
 

offered

 

carabinieri

 
Yugoslavia
 
defect
 
doctor
 

notable

 

yelled

 

religions

 

Italianissimi


friendly
 
Yugoslav
 

passport

 

obtain

 

Croats

 

managed

 

remained

 

Hamlet

 

brother

 

blankness


nations
 

recounted

 

Admirals

 
behalf
 

indignation

 
forgiveness
 
plebiscite
 

joined

 

expression

 

beautifully


whereon

 

English

 
mention
 
Croatian
 

Croatia

 
document
 

ancient

 

language

 

written

 

persons


pleased

 

gentleman

 
personal
 

appearance

 
variegated
 
FERVOUR
 

greeted

 

Palace

 
Governor
 

interview