"Blimey, it was the riding wot did it"

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The great Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi, by profession an ocean-going shipmaster and self-taught both as a general and as a political leader, had one major fault: a complete lack of good taste. He wrote a few execrable novels (at least, I think they are execrable; I could never get beyond their first terrible few pages) and had a song written for his volunteers which, until now, I had found just as uninspired. However, I have now heard it sung by Enrico Caruso. It may be that this recording was made in the dark days of 1917 as Caruso's native country was fighting to survive against Austrian invaders (the flip side is George M.Cohan's Over there!, in English and French), but mostly it is just incredible musicality that can really turn lead into gold, and a voice that, even through the inadequate medium, comes through like the thunder of the gods. Have a listen:

This really gave me goosebumps. I once heard a story about a jockey condemned for murder on very thin evidence, who, referring to the formidable advocacy of the prosecuting attorney, said: "Blimey! It was the riding wot did it." In this case, it really is.

Comments

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I am going to sleep, so this is the final response. From now on this thread is closed.

You insist on not mentioning the original Austro-German aggression. Italy, like America, like Brazil, Portugal, Roumania, China, Japan, went to war against an alliance that everyone regarded as an aggressor and a warmonger, and that had earned that reputation. It is as if you wanted to argue that France and Britain assaulted Germany in 1939 - neglecting the small matter of German aggression against Poland and of years of previous German aggressions. But sure, if it makes you feel better, do ignore that little fact. Wars are not provoked; they are not pursued by an aggressor, no, sir, wars are mysterious matters that just appear at the whim of invisible fates. And I am Chinese.

Austria had coal, iron, and other minerals aplenty. Italy had and has no mineral resources at all (except for mercury and sulphur). Her population was larger, her arable land far larger. That they did not know how to make use of their resources does not excuse them; as I said, being an incompetent bandit does not excuse a bandit.

Personally, I would be glad to tie a gold ribbon around the whole South Tyroler rabble and leave it under Austria's Christmas tree one fine December morning. The fact is that Austria does not want them all that much. As one Viennese lady told me, we have all the Tyrolers we need, thank you very much. She also called them "the South Prussians" - to Austrians and south Germans, the ultimate insult. Dalmatia, on the other hand, had been Venetian - and hence Italian - since the late Roman Empire. It is true that in the country they spoke Serbo-Croat, but as soon as they inurbated themselves and rose socially, they learned Italian or at least Venetian. Admiral Tegethoff addressed his ships' crews in Italian, because that was the common language of the eastern Adriatic all the way down to Corfu. It was only in 1945 that Italian ceased to be the language of the elites of Dalmatia. And nothing of this makes Salandra's claim "overbearing".

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I suppose that it really is for the best, to close this thread. You and I live in very, very different worlds, and - sadly - it is not to be expected that we would reach some sort of understanding, even if we went on for a long time with this.