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i so the miracles of* antichrist
it, and she complained that life should be made so
hard. She asked why the people should be compelled
to pay such heavy taxes. Why should there be a salt
tax so that a poor woman was not allowed to go down
to the shore and get a pail full of salt water, but had to
buy dear salt at the government stores ? And why
should there be a tax on the palm-trees ? With anger
in his heart the peasant now felled the old trees,
which long had waved over the beautiful isle. And
why should a tax be levied on windows ? What was
the meaning of that ? That poor people should take
away their windows, move out of their rooms and live
in the cellars?
In the sulphur mines there were strikes and riots,
and the government sent troops to force the people
back to work. Donna Micaela wondered if the
government did not know that there were no machines
in those mines. It then had never heard that
children dragged the ore from the deep pits. It did not
know that these children were slaves, it could not
imagine that their parents had sold them to the
employers. Or if the government knew it, why did it
wish to help the mine owners ?
All at once she heard about a great number of crimes.
And again she began with her questions. Why were
the people allowed to become so malignant ? Why
were they allowed to be so poor and ragged ? Why
should they all be so ragged? She knew that he
who lived in Palermo or Catania, need not ask thus.
But he who lived in Diamante could not but fear and
ask. Why did the people become so poor that they
died of hunger?
The summer was hardly at an end, it was only to-
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