The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1878-12-26

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He is standing on the back of croco-
die, holding sword in his left hand
and a shield in his right, and is the only
known instance Of left-handed saint.
The royal palace and mint, both fine
buildings, are on one side Of the open
square. At the time Of our visit the
young king and queen were in the city,
and We saw them several times on the
balcony of the palace.
On the opposite side Of the square is
the Doges' palace, which, founded little
more than thousand years ago, has
been five times destroyed and rebuilt.
Il is at the present time fine building.
literally filled with pictures and me-
mentoes Of the long aud eventful history
OF the republic. The hall Of the Grand
Council, a magnificent room, is COM
pletely covered with historical aud other
pictures. Tintoretto's "The Glory Of
Paradise" said to be the largest picture
ever painted on canvas. eighty four by
thirty-four feet, covers one entire end of
the hall.
We are shown through rooms fitted up
for various state purposes, and along
dark and MYSTERIOUS passages which
lead TO the still darker dungeons where
prisoners were confined. The Ignorant
sentimeDtalism of poets, and partieu-
larly Of Byron, has clothed everything
about the palace and prisons with an
interest Of which the places themselves
are entirely unworthy.
From the upper story Of the palace
we cross the canal TO the prison on the
famous "Bridge Of Sighs," which Byron
has immortalized by the lines begin
Mug,
81 stood in Venice, on the Bridge Of signs,
a palace and a prison ON each hand"
The keen-sighted Howells, in his ave
netisn Life" refers to the Bridge Of
Signs rs "that pathetic swindle," and
indeed one might pass it a dozen times
and never suspect anything Of its great
ness unless it were pointed out to him.
To hear the story Of horror which the
guide tells-and, by the way, Antonio's
English is funny enough to start the
vest button on u mummy-Oue would
think the building was planned and
built entirely for the purpose Of seeing
how many criminals it would be possi-
ble to put through it in one day. 1t is
generally conceded now that the horror
Of the punishment inflicted by the
Doges consisted largely in the fact of
their secresy, the accused man being
suddenly arrested aud never more seen
or heard Of after he entered the gates Of
the palace.
The city has a large number OF
churches, many Of them very fine. OF
which we only visited few; one for
Tintoretto's masterpiece, the Marriage
of Cana, ,"auother for the striking mouu-
ments Of Titan, who died in Venice Of
the plague, aud Carnova, the greatest of
modern seulptors, third for the vast
literary archives in an adjoining monas-
terry, one Of the largest collections in the
world. IL fills three hundred rooms and
is said to have the almost incredible
number Of fourteen million documents,
some Of them dating back thousand
years.
IN one Of the numerous palaces Of the
city are the two gigantic figures 10y Car
nova, Ajax aud Hector, which to my
unprofessionaI eye, are the finest pieces
OF statuary in Europe. Our country
man, A. r. Stewart, in vain offered
$500, 600 for them.
/ One of the most interesting places in
the city, and the last building to which
we shall take the reader, is the old Ar
senel, which at one time employed six
teen thousand men. On each side ol
the imposing entrance are two granite
/ lions brought from Athens, Que believed
to have been from the battlefield o
Marathon. II is said that when Napo-
leon 1. conquered Venice, he broke the
heads from the lions aud cast them into
the canal. Three Of them were after,
ward recovered aud replaced, but tn,
fourth one was not found, and the othel
lion was furnished with new head.
The various rooms Of the arsenal ar,
filled with models of galleys, instru
ments Of torture, ancient weapons, ar
NOR, aud various mementoes of tht
greatness and superiority Of the repub
lie. There is a model Of the DOgesi stat,
galley broken up by Napoleon, for th'
gold with which il was richly orua
mented. IL had crew Of one hundre,
and tweuty-eight rowers, and was use,
on all state occasions, particularly wher
the Doge performed the ceremony o
wedding the sea. The first mortar eve
used, in 1865, made Of coiled rope spike,
together, which threw a stone ball o
one hundred pounds weight, is preserve,
in the arsenal.
The Nenetians were the earliest Euro
pean nation to use firearms, aud th,
arsenal has from the sixteenth century
a five-shOt revolver, which would maxi
Colonel Colt blush for his reputation a
an inventor, breech-loadiHg guns an,
cannon, gatling guns Of twenty shots
and two mile range gun made Of clever
parts screwed together. Among notabl
things are the iron hemlet of Attila
king of the Huns, and OtbelIo's armor
7 The Othello of Shakespeare's moor o
Venice" was not a Moor at ali, but
Venetian, Carlo Moro, governor Of th
island Of MOrea.