Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-01-28
Venice. queen of the Sea.

The traveller who has not seen the !
city Of the lagoons during the hottest
OF the summer months, fails to realize
how completely amphibious it is. At
other tines there is a pensive melan-
cho!y tempered by mediDyal romance,
which envelopes the queen Of the Adri-
attic in ii poetical halo that puts the
mind il complete accord with its soft,
dreamy repose. Lulled by the soothing
splash Of the gonaolier's oar, and his
musical cry Of warning at every sharp
turn in the labyrinth Of narrow canals,
drifting and floating, now lazily, now
quickly in the cool shadows,
under the curved balconies OF its famed
palaces and arching bridges, reclining
luxuriously On the soft, dark.fringed
cushions OF the nigEt-hued gondola, life
and sightseeing take an altogether diff
fercnt aspect from any other point of
view elsewhere. The feeling that it is
good to be here steals over the senses
as delciously as by magician's en-
chaItmeHt. Existence becomes never
ceasing, varying dream of dissolving
and reshapins views that come and go
like beauteous phantoms in the border
land OF the material and spiritual
worlds. Nature and art are here ever
in friendly rivalry to adorn their cher
ished city with their most subtle and
delicate graces; weaving them together
in a web of material fascination as irre-
sistible as tho girdles of Venus, yet
limiting without measure at still more
delicious joys unseen. Venice is
Venice; and this alone describes it
satisfactorily On the whole.
But l wish to speak of Venice Of a hot
summers early eve, when the leDgthen-
lug shadows cross its net work of green
waters, and, climbing fast up its marble
facades, give quaint gloom and sug-
gestive my stery TO the many picturesque
portals with their medieval sculptures
and inv iting cooluess, sometimes lead
ing the eye to iaviting patches OF bril-
liant green and verdalt court yards,
but oitener into passages and halls,
, dark and grim with the stains Of many
J humid centuries in deep-tinted piotur-
, eeque decay. At this hour Venice be-
cones doub!y umphibious. Her canals
are alive with her male population, men
% boys and very many little maidens, too
in cloth Zig leaves, sporting in the waters
like 80 many dark skinned Polynesians
, They dive, gambol, they shout, they
splash, they make the old walls and
Shiny waters merry with their cries and
laughter, while their nude, white bodie:
come out against them in shiny, drip
{ ping relief, like SO many figures Of @
. far away primitive world where limo
: cence still rules supreme. Mothers 81
: knee deep in the water on their house
| steps, either holding their six.months
old babies, while they kick and splasl
; ana COO, delighted on their own accoun
s and finding themselves thus early il
+ life in their native element, or else the.
:, let the older ones loose, with rope
/. around their waists, securely fastened
: either to themselves or the door ring, t
= be hauled in quickly in case of o!
5 emergency. To aid them still further il
5 their nautical exploits, these infants ar,
& supplied with breast boards on which
= 10 float until they learn to swim, wnicl
S feat is soon accomplished. For at TIL
g season Venetian parents take their ba
: bies into the canals for this purpose a
& systematically as tho lands peopl
5, theirs into the parks to learn to walk
G And it is surprising and amusing to Sc
u how Familiarity and eagerly they take t
Il the treaclerous waters, which are t
e them what green sward and sidewalk
: are to terra tirma children. Indeed, &
IS this time of day it requires some extr
# skill on The part Of tie goniclier t
= pick his way through tue swimming
II h0n,iue, p.unging population, rs the
IS il spots as shoals Ui macktrel Ii thcl
If season, screaming and hustling on
o another in the brine as vigorously al
n sporting on shore. Where there Is s
a. much rollicking nakedness about, sta
lc wart models of men as nude, sayln
II their waist-cloths. as the classical god
c. and little girls and boys ragless, or ne,
ar to it, at first blush on encounterin
r. them in these watery streets Of a larg
ii city IL bread daylight, just as one doc
" Droadw way pedestrians as the leisul
u hours Of day come on, the inexper
or enced eye is somewhat started, but 500
V. gets accustomed to regard the sight
1t u very novel and amusing episode (
or Venetian life. On one occasion havir
70 to enter palace on the Grand cana
l. there were SO many bathing from i
TO steps that the gondolier had to pau
awhile, before he could approach, fl
them to clear the way, and we made
90 triumphal entry between the drippir
40 40 files OF bathers as if it were the prope
a t1 est thing in the world to do, and n
~ body felt ashamed on one side,
sni am certain. Salt water everywhere is
no great leveler of conventional ideas
us us modesty, we all know, but with Il
ul.o background of Venice it gets an ext
AZ; redaisant touch. Imagination can east
IL. transform these warm living bodi
~ into the stone cupids, armoral satyi
AZ. gods and godesses, and all the 9th
o au heather classical population carved
on the long streets of palaces as havil
us us Just stepped down from their pedesta
l laI inches, and entablatures for q momen
a wash and not to lose the bathing sease
~, ,ut Some of the canals might be sweerer
'us is true, but there is none the less Fl
we for that. And it is not always fu
'ei either. Not season passes but sol
of the children either slip from tn
=, boards or get entapgled in their ror
'ill and are drowned. Almost in my sig
NC the parents OF one boy, having haul