Figure 1.- This late-19th century photograph shows Naoles boys hawking garlic. We do not know who the photographer was. It is a much beloved photograph in Italy and was used for postcards as early as 1899.

We note large numbers of Italian boys selling all kinds of things on the streets which is called hawking. Most of the hawkers were boys. They are seen carrying things, sometimes carefully packaged by their parents. A good exanple are garlic sellers. Other items were sold similarly. We are not entirely sure how this worked. Some of the boys may be rural boys who have come into the towns to sell produce. Or they may be city boys selling for a wholeseller. Perhaps readers will know more about this. Most Italian cities because of poverty until after World War II had many street children. Some were called basket children/piccioccus de crobi. Some photographs show the street children of Cagliari, the bigger Sardinian town, in late 19th or early 20th century. In those times there were street children in many Italian towns. Perhaps the most famous were the Neapolitans, called "scugnizzi". In Cagliari they were called "piccioccus de crobi" (in Sardinian dialect "boys of basket") because these boys had always a basket. They went to the port or to the market and brought little merchandise for gain some money. However they were also little thieves. They wore old clothing and were barefoot. The first photo [Alinari photos] seems taken in late 19th century; the second one could be taken in early 20th century.

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Created: 12:53 AM 6/6/2010
Last updated: 4:34 AM 6/7/2010