Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1901 — TRAVELING MENDER NEAR NAPLES, [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TRAVELING MENDER NEAR NAPLES,

Pots and pans in any country need to be mended at some time, as they will wear out, no matter how careful the housewife is, and bo they give work to the traveling mender. Here we have a picture of such a workman in southern Italy. He takes his whale ■hop along as he goes from one fishing Tillage to another. He gets in the shadow of some large boat, sets up his bellows and then goes to work. The news that he has arrived soon spreads through the small towns and the housewives are not long in taking to him their tin and copper ware to be mended. He sometimes has work for a week in a village, as fie is very slow and tinkers with great care. The work must be done well for the fisherfolk, ■0 it will last until he returns. The tinkering man is always interesting to the children and to the women of .flbe village, as he is the gossip who

carries the news from place to place, and he is always liked and treated well when he comes. In this picture he is shown working on the island of Capri, near Naples.