tasteless, the altars ornamented on high
days and holidays with innumerable wax candles, festoons of red, white
and blue drapery, and huge pyramids of paper roses with gold foliage.
Ecclesiastical affairs are presided over by Monsignor Pietro Sola, a
charming old bishop, who is the essence of kindliness and charity. He
was formerly one of the spiritual directors of Queen Adelaide of
Austria, the late wife of Victor Emmanuel. The number of priests, monks
and nuns is very considerable. There is a very large Franciscan
monastery up at Cimiez on the hill, and a rambling old Capuchin convent
at St. Bartolome. The Nice Capuchins are a splendid body of men, and a
goodly sight to see marching in a procession with their
chocolate-colored hooded robes and long, flowing beards. Their present
prior is a marquis Raggi of Genoa, a man of high family and rank, who
some years since abandoned a world he had known only too well, gave all
his fortune to the poor, and turned monk.

There is a street in the old part of Nice which is perfectly unique. It
is nearly a mile and a half long, runs parallel with the sea, and
consists of a double row of low, one-storied houses having a paved
terrace on their roofs, to which you ascend by several handsome
staircases. The terrace forms a very popular promenade of an evening,
and from it are enjoyed lovely views of the bay and mountains. Between
these two rows of houses is the fish-market, where are frequently seen
displayed monsters like Victor Hugo's famous _pieuve_ sprawling out
their dozen glutinous legs fringed with eyes and deadly weapons in
almost supernatural hideousness, to the admiration of a group of English
or American tourists. Hard by the fish-market is the Corso, a shady
promenade round which the gala carriages drive in Carnival time, while
the masked inmates pelt and get pelted in turn with comfits made of
painted clay. The Corso is also the scene of numerous religious
processions, some of which are quaint and picturesque. There are a
number of ancient confraternities established amongst the trades-people
of Nice, who wear costumes of, red, white, black and blue serge,
according to the guild they belong to. This sack-like garment covers
them from head to foot, face and all, there being only two eyeholes slit
in the mask to permit the wearer to see out. These brotherhoods attend
the sick, bury the dead and take care of the widows and orphans, and in
Holy Week make the narrow streets of