The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-12-28

oSioSS tue DeSerC OF Sahara
From this degradation of her noblest
cltlzens, turn, In my mind,
To Historic Venice
to those noble children of her ancient
household who conquered fatality, and
saving themselves in the lagunes from the
lrruptions of Attila and his ferocious
Huns, preserved the liberties of the race
through the whole of the middle ages;
who struggled with the waves and awak-
ened the energies of commerce when So
clety was uselessly hiding itself in clois-
ters; who terrified the Turks with their
standards, and drove back fatalism in its
deveuring career; who had the imperial
crown OF Byzantium so often in their
hands but repelled it by the Phrygian
cap OF the old Republic; who chiselled
palaces OF marvellous sculpture; who
painted pictures with palettes to which
the rainbow had lent its colors; who
decorated monuments of singular beauty
and majesty; In fine, who built a city
which modern Venetians are incompetent
even to lnhabit-a city in whose bronze
and marble are preserved the finest re-
mains of the three ancient civilizations
the Asiatic, the Greek, and the Roman
lost everywhere else in complicate
series OF shlpwrecks. With such grand
past and ignoble present, we oft think it
mad been better If Venice had not been
endowed with Immortality, but had in
the beginning of her decay flung herself
like Ophella into her lagunes and had
disappeared under her own waters for
ever. & tragic ending, with a curse upon
her lips, had been nobler far, than this
lie OF mendicant, showing contentedly
to the world the bones of her former
prosperity, which are covered with
naught now, save the silken tatters of
pride
Commercially, the town has not pro-
gressed since the Austrian occupation.
Something has been done recently, how
ever, to create occupation for its teeming
population
The Production of Mosaics
employs large number of the people.
AS Venice is the centre for this art, illus
tratlons of which are constantly recurring
to the traveller in every city of Italy, it
will not be amiss to describe the nature
OF mosaic painting. This art was dis
covered by an artist whose industry Pliny
qualities with the term of inaportaIn,l1,a
engenaMna. The invention is most pro-
baby due to the Persians, from whom it
passed to the Greeks, and thence to Rome
In the latter years of the Republic. 1t
was patronized more or less by the vari-
Gus Popes until the 18th century, when
Venice became the true school of the art.
st. Sophia at Constantinople, and st.
Peter at Rome, present famous specimens
OF mosaic painting. But it was Titan
who perfected the art when he had the
direction of the mosaic decoration of st.
Marc, and caused limitations of his own
immortal paintings to be executed. The
mechanical part Of the art consists in
uniting small pieces of various colored
marbles, so that the surface may have the
effect OF a painting. The fragments of
marble, colored glass, or stones which are
made use OF, vary In size. They take
every angular form which will suit the
purposes of the artist in the contour of
the design, and at the same time enable
him to join them without leaving the
least interval. The artist prepares a
ground ofplaster formed of chalk and mar
ble-powder mixed with gum-tragacouth
The stucco thus prepared is spread upon
the surface intended, whether it be
church wall or piece of jewelry. On
this plaster the artist sketches the out
line OF his design, then with pair of fine
pincers he takes the small bits Of marble
and inserts them in the stucco, arrang
ing them one with the other SO as to give
the light and shade and the various tints.
at the conclusion of the process the
whole surface is polished with very fine
sand and water, and the artists labor is
complete.
Another industry of modern Venice is
The Manufacture of Glass.
There are now about a dozen glass works,
and there is little difference in the excel
lence of their products. The great fault,
however, of Venetian glass is that it is
exceedingly brittle because it is so thin.
and we are surprised that an effort is not
made to remedy this by adopting the
method of toughening glass, which was
discovered few years ago by Pied
montese Baron who lived in an ancient
castle and amused himself with making
glass, and then hurting it against the
bastlons Of his ancestral home. Tmita-
tions Of the antique lace are also pro.
duced here. But the cost of copyin6 an
old piece Of lace is greater in many in.
stances than the price for which the orig
inal can be purchased, 50 that the indus