Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-05-15
Written for the Herald
What a Merchant Saw in Europe.
mo. 81


what IA Merchant Saw in Europe.
mo. 81
VENICE, Italy, May 8, 1872.
We left FLORENCE in the morning by
railway, and during four hours ride
passed through forty-five tunnels, many
of them extremely long, of midnight
blackness and subterranean dampness.
We had an occasional disjointed scrap of
wild mountain scenery with its deep
gorges and lovely wales, but tunnels, we
are sick, heartily sick of them, and this
ride has fully committed US to avoid that
greatest piece of modern engineering,
the Mt. Gents tunnel through the Alps.
We found Bologna city of rare an
tiquity and much natural beauty. The
sausage which has made Bologna famous,
may be had at any hotel of Italy, but
we find no evidence here of the boon
Bologna has conferred upon boarding
house keepers the world over As sun
set hour approached, Vesper hour l
should have said, we coursed country
beautiful as the eye might covet. For a
time it seemed one vast orchard with
vines in full bloom clambering from tree
to tree, garlanding them as if in the
vegetable world each tree had been
crowned Queen of the May.
We supped at Padua, and off again at
eight o'clock. Smaller, with his ire
pressible love for children, takes little
Italian boy on his knee and fondles the
dusky cherub. What better charm for
a mothers heart than to fondle her child
Smaller unintentionally attracted not only
the boys mother, but her daughter as
well. The daughter happily proved to
be a madonna of pleasing face and spark
ling bright eye. But what shame to her
sex, twas only too evident she was I'M
der the influence of the ''mOcber, for
she acted in a manner more demonstra-
lady-like. She could not understand our
English, nor we her Italian only enough
that she gave unreserved consent to go
with Smaller to America, that dream
land of the poor foreigner. Her intoxi-
Gated papa took her severely to task,
and she abandoned all hopes of a future
with my companion but what the shak-
ing Smaller gave that little cherub to
keep him awake was wasted strength
betitting a ac0rthy cause. Ten o. clock at
night found US in a sable water-hearse,
rowed by two brawny gondoliers over
the liquid streets Of Venice, queen of the
Adriatic. Twas so painfully still that
/ first night in Venice, with all the luxury
of Voscari Palace, vainly courted sleep
| two weary hours.
Long after midnight sweetly sad came
the gentle strains from a gondolier's guitar
through my laticed window, and with
them flood of moonbeams. Turning
to Shailer said, ''6rtny on yoatr fair
les, but his only response was a long
drawn sigh, which spoke too plainly of
the far off ''GoJden Hujr." Yesterday
four of us contracted with gondolier
| for ten hours service, at eight cents
| per hour. We made the circuit of ST.
Marks, through the Grand canal, and a
fair share of the one hundred and forty
six lesser canals, spanned by three hun
! dred and six bridges. No Fostering cab
men, neither horse nor donkey, but all
traffic and travel in these wheelless wa
ter hearses. A gondola is from four to
! six feet wide and from twenty to thirty
feet long, painted black and generally a
| fanciful shaped covering, draped in
! deepest black, with coffin fringe at eth
er side They are generally infested
with tleas, gOnGcj0etS tedS, and one can
not recline with delightful ease for long
hours, and float gently here and there.
every rose has its thorn" and these
black floating roses have many a prick
! ling thorn. The stories we heard of
Italian beggary have more than been
fulfilled, but of Italian fleas, trebly over
If purely clean, the .ondola would
hardly be ltalys own, as it assuredly
is. We have grumbled little and
scratched much.
Byron, in his Childe Harold, says:
s'Dids't ever see gondola? For fear
You should not, Pll describe it you ex
actY;
IT'S u, loag, covered boat, that's common
Curve at the PROV, built lightly but com
| pactly.
Rowed by two rowers, each called a gon-
1t glides along the water, looking IL tckly,
Jus like coffin clapped in Il canoe,
| Where none can make out what you say
ordo.
!" And up and down the long canals they
And under the Rialto shoot away,
BY night and day, all PAGES, swift or slow
! And round the thtaters a sab e throng,
They wait in their dusky livery of woe;
| But not q them do WnpfIlf fhjl.O he'll
| For sometimes they contain a deal of tun
Like mourning coaches when the funerals
done.
St. Marks, with 600 ponderous gothic
pillars-its pavements of marble, Jasper
and agate-proves of great interest. The
church is not without its relics A gran
| lite slab, upon which the Saviour stood
to preach to the Tyrians, is held
with superstitious veneration Strange
that it has no miraculous foot
prints. The old clock in the plaza
strikes two, and pigeons in great fiocks
darken the air, converging to a spot
where at this hour they are daily fed
Thousands of these birds with surpris-
ing tameness scramble one over another,
greedy for the repast, and fiuttering
with a 0Ai1T' that resounds through st.
Marks Square. We have been the round
of the churches and see Tintoretta's
marriage feast of Cana, at Santa Maria
I Della Salute, how's that for name !?
The pictue was one of the most impress
sive | have seen in Italy. 1t is very
large and the colors well preserved At
the farther end of the table sits Jesus
addressing his mother and nine guests on
each side of the table with wine ocean
tiers, champagne glasses, grapes, ETC., be-
fore them. The servants are busted in
filling the water pots and making ready
for our Savior's first miracles. Sheldon
is so sick of churches that he promises