But the scene may change, and the same Roman is called upon to go forth into the campagna with the beneficent _confraternita dell' Orazione e Morte_ in search of the body of some victim of violence. He is found _pancia all' aria_ and brought back to his family; but amidst the keen observation of all that happens, of the situation, there is not a pitiful or generous sentiment; the scenes suggest nothing of interest but the faithful gross record of purely external impressions. Yet these men have trudged along the heavy roads, up and down, stumbling and struggling through the dark night to perform the act of pity which teaches them, apparently, so little. Tragedy, comedy, a funeral, a marriage, the visit to your dead, the game of hazard, the incidents of an assassination, all these things come under the same clear, coarse, unintimate, unloving observation of a people who hold, wisely enough, that "L'occhi so' fatti pe' guarda"--the eyes are made for looking--but who care as little how they look as they trouble to select what shall be looked upon. "_Che bella giornata; che peccato che non s' impicchi nessuno_" is the traditional greeting to a fine day, repeated even now with a modern humorous sense of its ghastliness. "What a fine day! what a pity no one is going to be hanged!" And the Roman's liking for distraction and noise is not sated even when he goes to bed. Before 1870 serenaders waked, and charmed, the sleeping city; but the Roman who is supposed to have been "killed between a policeman and official red tape," still reminds us that he is not so very dead after all, or that the _guardia "non s' e fatto viva,"_ for he now roars down the thoroughfares in the small hours of the night, thus procuring for himself the pleasure of disturbing you--a form of recreation with which even the police have too much sympathy to interfere. For the Roman tolerates other men's lawlessness but has no respect for their liberty. _The "Coltello" and Crime_