The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-11-29
Venice.

Venice is a collection of III islets,
divided by 149 canals, connected by $50
bridges, and pierced by 2,O5O infinitely
narrow and labrinthine streets. Al
most every foot of the city is built upon
piles. Each of its $1,000 houses is
washed by the sea water, and of its
l30, 900 people not one ever rode upon
wheels down the mainland of his city.
Making broad spiral ribbon of blue
sea- three as wide as Broadway, through
the longest diameter of Venice, passes
the Grand Canal, the most wonderful
water panorama in the world-in no
degree like the dull brick facing of the
Flemish and Dutch city canals, but n
highway to palaces, into which are
burned the dyes Of n southern sun, and
all the flOridness Of the Goth blossoms
in their architecture. Three bridges
only cross this grand canal, two of them
practical and modern; the middle
bridge, famed in all lands, is the Rialto,
a high archway of shops and multi
tudes. under which, like dOcile crOco-
dies, gondOlas shoot their beaks of steel.
Upon the surface of this peopled archi-
pelago there are 294 open places or
Cdmpi. Most of them were spaces TO
give some church perspective; but two
thirds of the way down the city, where
it narrOws to almost its smallest giTth,
lies he only square of greater length
than a sings throw, the wOndrous
Piazza of San Marco. This piazza is
like nothing in America. From the days
of Petrarch, who loved it, it has been
marvel. IL is n great oblong square,
coo feet long by go feet wide, paved
with hewu blocks Of marble, bordered
on three sides by a marble palace, faced
with long arcades, which show gilded
cafes and splendid shops of jewelry be-
meath them; and on the third side, or,
rather, ut the head of it, the Cathedral
of st. Mark, the patron of Venice, rises,
venerable and plentiful of dOmes, the
richest, if not the purest, religious edi-
fee in the world.
MBefoTe its career the bronze horses of
st. Mark, part of the plumber Of the Cru
sades, and from the paved space before
them, set aside, so as not to mar the per-
spective, rises the great CompdHi!e or
bell-tower, nearly thousand years old
and to the height Of three hundred and
fifty feet-abOut twice that, if / do not
mistake, of Trinity Church on Broad
way. A second tower near by holds
zodical clock, rung by Moorish giants,
and facing it from the opposite corner
of the piazza, reaches at right angles
quite down to the harbor side, the piaz-
eta of st. Mark, a smaller area,
fianked with the Doge's Palace, a
grand edifce, many-hned, built
on pointed arches and reaching on its
further end along the splendid quay.
This piazetta is closed, almost at tke
waters edge, by two granite columns.
each of single stone, crested, the one
with a state of St. George, the other
with winged lion. Going down be-
tween them, in past times, the hOary
Admirals have been escorted to their
gondolas, followed by the anxious DOge.
and sailed from the very shadows ofthese
columns to fight ont the quarrel Of the re-
public on distant seas Behind the
ducal palace are the prisoners of State,
whose outlet is the famed Bridge Of
Sighs, of late the sepulchers of the ltal-
ian patriots. From this M0i0, or State |
quay, the view is wonderful Of the
do1nes and campaniles on three OppO-
site islands, and the broad blue paths /
of the canals, plOwed with swift gon-
dolas. Far down the island is the arsenal
where the Venetians fitted out their |
fleets, as Dante describes them.
This is Venice, labyrinth of islands,
palaces, churches, founded by fugitiVes
who grew up sea-dogs, and are now to
be ushered into the first day ofindepeDd-
ence.