The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1869-06-25

Velsetfdn Sketches.

The Rev. Matthew Hale Smith, now
travelling in Europe, writes in the Boston
Journal a graphic description of the won
derful insular city of the Adriatic, from
which we quote:
Venice is certainly a unique city. 1t is
by no means the City of Silence. 1t is the
noisiest city ever visited. The gondolas
are convenience in getting around
Venice; they are by no means a necessity
If you ride they afford only conveyance
But you can go over the whole city on foot
as readily as you can over Boston or New
York. The palaces on the Grand Canal
have water entrance, but they have also
one to be approached on foot.
The shops, the markets. the churches, the
theatres can all be reached without med
ding with the canals. There are no teams,
no horses, mules or carts in Venice. The
bridges are crossed by steps, and everything
that does not go by boat is carried on the
head or shoulders. The gondolas are the
cabmen, omnibus Drivers and stevedores
Of other cities. Their voices are hoarse as
ravens, and they fill the air with their loud
calls from one to the other. The streets,
as they are called, are mere lanes
from to 10 feet wide, through which the
busy throng tramp all day long. The
grand promenades are crowded with idlers,
coarse women, untidy girls, unwashed
men, and the unemployed, who are counted
there by thousands The band plays every
day at two o'clock on the Grand Square,
and around it gathers group of as indo-
lent, illclothed and forlorn set of human
beings as ever saw on the face ofthe earth.
Monks go in platoons from church to
church, and beggars meet one everywhere.
The poor in the city are very numerous,
and are very poor. Their tattered clothes
are pieced with every variety ofcolor; they
wear large wooden slippers; their sallow
and wan compilations, their untidy appear
ance, disgusts, while it excites sympathy.
The Rialto, which is the Exchange of Ven
ice,-where the markets are, the stories,
and where the unemployed crowd meet
is sight on morning. The rude break
fast eaten out doors, poor fare, unwhole-
some soup, and handful ofsnails and food
that turns the. stomach to look at, with the
crowd partaking of it, takes much of the
poetry of the canals and gondolas away
In cool weather Venice is quite tolerable
but in warm weather the smells from the
unwholesome canals, with the vermin that
abounds, takes much OF the romance of a
visit to this place away. Little patches OF
green are seen in all parts of the CITY,
Trees planted in boxes are placed on the
marble pavements; window gardens are
common, and plants aud flowers are cult
waited on the housetops.
The city is built on III islands. The
Grand Canal is cut over the flats and makes
the Corso of the city, or the grand Boule.
ward of Venice. 1t cuts the city into two
unequal parts and is serpentine in its course
From these start out great number Of
smaller canals which correspond to streets
in other cities. There are $50 small can
ais; add to these small roads or streets oil
the city, and the whole amounts to 2,4S0
Religious, Venice is divided into 80 par
ishes, with 100 churches. There are over
200 squares. The churches and palaces
are built on piles which number many
millions. The canals are crossed by 40C
bridges. u d
The Bridge of Signs is little off from
the Grand Canal. 1t connects the Inperi.
al palaces with the fearful prison so re.
moved in the history of Venice. The in.
genuity of man can devise nothing worse
than the cells preserved for political pris
oners After the judgment pronounced
by the Council of Three, the prisoner pass
ed to his tomb over the Bridge of Sighs.-