They Dictate to Dictators

Title

Language

English

Year

1939

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

'!iThe hands that rock the cradleTHEY DICTATE TO DICTATORS BENITO MUSSOLINI took the Italian people and trained them to his wishes. The proud King of Italy behaves like an office boy in his presence. But II Duce has either been unable or unwilling to inspire Donna Rachele Mussolini to quake or to pose. Donna Rachele's habit of life has not changed since the days when she polished glasses in the bar Mussolini's father ran adjacent to his blacksmith shop. "Donna" is a title which may be used only by the wife of a man who is entitled to wear the golden collar of the Annunziata Order. Mussolini installed his wife in the spacious Villa Torlonia, in the outskirts of Rome. It did not appeal to her, so she selected the simple entrance lodge for her living quarters. Here she keeps house for her "tiger" when he returns at night from his day's foray. Only one Rome journalist has been fortunate enough to get an interview with Donna Rachele. In that interview she definitely stated that her husband may walk like a tiger all day long but he must return home to his supper at eightthirty like a well-behaved cat. MARCH, 1939 Mussolini is said to have told the author of that interview: "If that is the wish of Donna Rachele I must certainly return home like a tame cat." Benito was twenty-five when he wooed Rachele, who was nineteen, with his violin. Once Rome newspapers took liberties with his power with the fiddle. Now all Italy considers he is a great player. But Donna Rachele has laid the law down, that the "mighty man" must leave his sword, his violin, and h-is speech-making in the office. Donna Rachele has no desire to influence her husband's politics. But she will brook no rival in her home, which she runs. After feeding the chickens early in the morning she takes a basket, goes through the back streets and almost sneaks into a market, where no one makes a fuss over her. The marketmen know she is a frugal bargainer. Donna Rachele never appears in public with her husband. But her old time friends visit her as though nothing had happened to her. And she returns the visits unannounced. Except in grave emergencies Mussolini comes home to his 43 supper at eight-thirty and spends his evenings at home. Even his enemies admit his wife never attempts to pull strings on behalf of her friends. She 1s known to have helped humble "comrades" of old, but not once has she asked her husband to do favors for them. She secretly assists them out of her own allowance.-Condenaed f1:.om The Toronto Star Weekly. 44 UNLESS you read the best-seller novels, or the so-called fiction in the magazines, you can never know the great number of stunts the human eye is capable of doing. Here are a few specimens: "Her eyes roamed carelessly around the room." "With her eyes she riveted him to the spot." "He withdrew his eyes from her face and they fell to the floor at her tiny feet." "He drank her in with livid, dancing eyes." "Their eyes met for a long breathless moment and then swam together." "Marjorie would often remove her eyes from the deck and cast them far out to sea." "He dropped his eyes, and a look of intense pain came to his face." "His eyes met hers, and then fell."-Visual Digest. LADY: ''What can I do to have soft, beautiful hands?" SPEOIALIST: "Nothing, madame, and do it all day long." -Parade. PANORAMA

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