CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
BIANCONI.
HELENA, LADY HARROGATE.
OUR VOLUNTEERS.
MONSIEUR DE BOCHER.
FACTS WORTH KNOWING.
A CURIOUS ANTIQUARIAN HOAX.
VILLAGE VETERANS.
No. 753.
Price 1½d.
SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1878.
BIANCONI.
Charles Bianconi was altogether a very remarkableperson, and not less for his energy and perseverancethan for his public services, ought to bekept in remembrance. He was by birth an Italian—not,however, an Italian of the lethargic south,but of the northern mountainous district borderingon the Lake of Como. We might call himan Italian highlander. Belonging to a respectablethough not affluent family, he was born on the24th September 1786. At school he made so littleprogress as to be thought little better than adunce. People did not quite understand his character.His impulse was to work, not to study.He wanted to have something to do, and if put ona fair track, was not afraid of being left behind inthe ordinary business of life. With this adventurousdisposition, and with a good physicalstamina, he was bound for eighteen months toAndrea Faroni, who was to take him to London,and there learn the business of a dealer in prints,barometers, and small telescopes. Faroni did notstrictly fulfil his part of the contract. Instead ofproceeding to London, he took the boy to Dublin,at which he arrived in 1802; so there he wasstarted in a business career in Ireland when sixteenyears of age. Helpless, friendless, withoutmoney, and ignorant of the English language, hisfate was rather hard; but his privations onlyserved to strengthen his powers of self-reliance.Like a hero, he determined to overcome alldifficulties.
Faroni, his master, seems to have made a tradeof getting Italian boys into his clutches. BesidesBianconi, he had several others, whom he dailyturned out to the streets to sell prints in a poorkind of frames, always making a point that theyshould set off on their travels without any money,and bring home to him the proceeds of theirindustry. At first, Bianconi was at a loss how tocarry on his dealings. The only English word hewas made acquainted with was ‘buy, buy;’ andwhen asked the price of his prints, he could onlycount on his fingers the number of pence hedemanded. In a short time, he picked up otherwords; and gave so much satisfaction to his employer,that he was sent off to the country everyMonday morning with two pounds worth ofpictures, and a munificent allowance of fourpencein his pocket as