Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-11-25
Il. WHITMORE,
Publisher and Proprietor,
A STORY OF A GREAT PAINTER.

One evening in the year 1900 a woman
enveloped in a long black mantle was
walking towards the bridge Of the Rialto
in Venice. Her steps were weak and
uneven. and at intervals she looked
around with a hurried, frightened glance.
She paused on the center of the bridge
and looked down with shudder on the
clear blue waters of the Adriatic, then
closing her eyes and murmuring family,
" Antoniol my Antonio adieuI she
prepared to throw herself over the para
pet. Just as she was falling man
rushed forward, seized her with q pow
erful grasp, and drawing her back, said: h:
"Girl, destroy not the life which Provi-
dence has given thee. If you are un-
happy, enter your church, kneel on its
hailowed pavement, pour out your sor-
row, and thank your maker that you
have been preserved from crime-trom
rushing uncalled into his presence
The girl impatiently tried to shake of
the strong hand that held her, and said,
Let me gol must diel
In another moment she tottered and
fell to the ground, where she lay without
sense or motion. Her preserver raised
her head, and, in order to give her air,
drew back the veil which concealed her
features. They were very lovely, and
the man gazed on her with wonder and
admiration as she was gradually re-
stored.
By degrees she told him who she was
and where she lived. Her history might
be summed up in a few words: An ava
rcious father poor lover, mutual but
unhappy love,
Vainly did Maria plead with her father,
rich inn.keeper OF Venice, the cause
of her lover, Antonio Barbarigo, the
handsome gondelier plying beneath the
Bridge of Sighs. At length, this even
ing. her father, Gianettini, forget him
self so far as to strike his daughter with
some violence; and she, with far more
culpable neglect of her duty, ran wildly
from home, and, as we have seen, was
arrested just on the verge of committing
suicide.
The person who had saved her led
her gently to her home, and having given
her Ip to her father, seated himself in an
obscure corner of the hosiery. Clan
ettini received his child with rude re-
proaches, and bidding her retire to her
own apartment and betake herself to her
spinning, he cast suspicious glance at
the person who had brought her home,
whose stout, manly figure and firm
countenance, however, deferred the inn
keeper from addressing him in hostile
manner.
As Maria turned to depart a young
aOadclier appeared Rt the door, and iur-,
t,'veiy approaching her, said, pearest'
dea. 'esttp -, ..on.,no
" Ont Of hist out of my house, fellow
The vounx man did not stir.
aHoye Won haished7P he said, In a
GOOD. .bnm6red tone. " Wherefore thsste
6ord wordsP Havs you never loved
Signor Gianettini? hSye you totally
forgotten the feeling of your yontnf
Know you not that, since 4 was Sousd "a
years old and Maria five, we have 'gyeu
each other fondly2 Will you not, then,
allow us to hallow your old age with our
tears2" =
Il don't want to have parcel OF
beggars for my children, said Glanet-
TIM roughly.
" "Beggafs said the young man.
a" You surely forget yourself.
Not |, indeed" returned the father.
al refuse my consent. Therefore, get
you gone.
But hear me for one moment,
pleaded the gondolier.
1T is useless. again repeat that
such as you shall never wed my dsugh-
ter Your position is too mean.
Certainly, you are rich, replied the
young man, but whet hinders that l
should become so, tOo2 A stout arm, Q
brave heart, an honest soul, will, with
the help of heaven, do much.
"A FOOLS dreaml
NAY" said Antonio, 1T is sober
sense. Prince Lorenz de Mediei was a
merchant; Duke Giaeamo Sforza, a
coward.
The man in the corner harkened at.
tentively to this dialogue. He rose, and
touching Barbarigo's shoulder, said:
" Well spoken, gondolierl Courage
brings success aHd struggles conquer.
Maria shall be thy wife"
"Neverp cried Gianettini.
master jew said the unknown,
farming disdainfully toward him, If
this youth could lay down six hundred
pistoles, Eonld you object to the mar
riagef'
IFBe that as It may, you must remem-
Der that he is now little better than q
paupsr. ~
"Pshawi" ssid the unknown, bah
blers are more hresome than thieves.
Before tomorrow you shall handle that
sum"
So saying be drew from bis pocket I,
piece Of parchment aud a crayon, ana
turning toward a table, began rapidly 70
I akefch a mans hand IL was repre-