The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1878-03-07
The Carnival Of Venice.

| 4nC NoA 1AtoA " VCDAVCs
| There comes time to the sea city
when the heaviness of mid-winter van
ishes from the hearts of the people, and
in its stead appears budding hope
like dim intuition of the approach Of
spring. The impressionable Venetian
nature reveals in its external shows the
emotions that are at work under the
surface of the city's life. Thus the
burst of triumph at the departure Of
winter, which has not yet given place to
the tender silence of spring, finds its
symbol in the mirth and riot of the car.
nival
The fishermen who toll in storm and
wind out upon the treacherous lagoons
deny themselves their daily share Of po-
lenta in order that they may spend more
freely at carnival. The women, string
ing beads in the doorways, work faster
as the merry time approaches, that the
children may have at least one treat of
parma and trittole. The girls, sewing
in dark back-roOms, toll for weeks far
into the night for the sake of the one
days masking with their lovers. The
CHuuItu III Inc stiCcts CoNCh thCi iaSCS
with paper masks and cry out to pass
ers-by in hoarsc voice that the city's
traditions have cOnsecrated to the mad
season. In the narrow by-ways hang
worn garments of silk and satin covered
with gold and lace. They flash together
in the sunlight that steals down be-
tween the houses-the brOcaded coat of
the old noble-the threadbare velvet
trains of the dead and gone great ladies
the torn gauze skirt Of some poor
dancing-girl.
As the time of the carnival draws
near, the faces of the people color with
hope and excitement. The women
leave their households and pour into the
sun-warmed streets, brave in scarlet
and-yellow shawls, with heavy braids
coiled about their heads. On their
necks and wrists are the long, slender
gold chains that have come down
through generations of toiling woman
hood. The young girls stroll in groups
along the rira, CHANGING from under
their powdered lashes at the stalwart
gondoliers. Their trains sweep far be-
hind them, and large fans protect them
from the western sun.
The boatmen don their fiesta shirts
and deck their worn, broad hats with
Gathers The fishers patch afresh their
old blue coats, and mend the rents in
their red Greek caps. The peasants
leave their low cabins among the dead
vines and press into the town with bas-
kets of eggs and fowls, that are to be
traded for their lodging in the days Of
the carnival.
From the sleepy old towns of the in
terror come the pale citizens. They
have dispirited, listless look, as though
they had dwelt all their lives under
the shadow of a past that had
weighed oppressively upon them. They
are haggard and pinched and wistful-
eyed There is shabbiness in the
thin, well-kept silks of the women, their
oyer-large, well-cleaned gloves, and
their fashions of 20 years back; in the
thread-bare cloaks and rusty, once ele-
CANT bats of the men; in the rude, home
made Jackets and trousers of the gray
eyed little boys. They are courteous
and dignified. They gaze at the merry
shows of the carnival rs though they
felt that naught could dissipate the
gloom of the past. For them life is
less real than the dreams of the old
market-places and cathedrals of their
homes. The Venctians jostle them in
the crowds and laugh at their poor fine
ry; and they, all unconscious, smile in
forlorn, lost fashion, and wander on
as those who feel that the world has left
them behind forever.
The crowd strolls on, day after day.
along the broad path by the side of the
lagoon, where wooden booths have been
erected, with gay flags streaming from
their roofs. Flaring pictures lean
against the boarded fronts; saints per-
forming miraculous cures; wild beasts
devouring their keepers. On the
thresholds stand weather-beaten men
and women in fanciful garments, who
call out to the wondering people to en-
ter and behold the greatest marvels of
the latter world for ten centimes.
Wherever there is an open space in
the crowd the people stop and gather
about the jugglers and charlatans, who
shout themselves hOarse over the eliXirs
in which they deal. Sometimes in the
tHlth VI tuC ehViC 10 a SiVohi Va
bright satin, and confusion of brawny
limbs in coarse cotton coverings. 1t is
family of acrobats. tumbling in the
sunlight to earn their scanty supper.
They twist their supple bodies into
strange shapes as long as the crowds of
laughing sailor-lads and gondoliers en-
courage them with kindly cries. Then
they gather up the coins that fall upon
the pavement, and wrap their shabby
cloaks loosely about their dingy finery.
The women lift their babies from the
ground, the men shoulder the imple-
ments of the profession, and the poor
souls move off, followed by the strag-
Cling crowd to another open space,
where the fishers are waiting to be
aroused from their sun-watched slum-
bers -ippieton'S Journal.