Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-10-06
VENICE LOSING IT'S CHARMS.

Civilization is rapidly reducing Venice
to the dead level of the unpicturesque, but
as yet its influence is telling more on the
class of men who illustrate the most char
acteristic bits of Venetian life than on the
institutions themselves. The race of gon-
doliers is dwindling away, while the gon-
dolas are improving ard becoming more
select. A few years ago French COM
pany started a service of steam launches
up and down the Grand canal. Great cap
ital was made of the occasion by the critics
who hold on to Venice as the last nook Of
old romance life in Europe. Dreadful
prophecies were loudly put forth about the
shrieking of steam whistles heard along
those silent highways where hitherto the
stiffness was only interrupted by the " gia"
end "preme" and "stali' of the goudo
Tiers. 1t seemed as if the poetry Of the
Old World was in a moment destroyed by
this brand new company. Nature had
hitherto in some way kept the faint of the
railway out of Venice. The canals were
silent, the water smooth, grit and smoke
and railway guards and timetables bad
scarcely an entrance into the city. The
traveller came in by some kind Of back en-
trance, and soon forgot railway life in the
comfort and poetry of his gondola. He
had left the age OF clocks and come back
into the age of sundials.
And now all this was to be upset, and
the Grand canal was to be as vulgar as the
Thames. The cutlery was not without it's
good effect. It wonderfully minimized q
great and necessary evil. The Venetian
authorities were warned in time, and took
the warning Very stringent regulations
were to govern the construction OF the new
steam launches their whistle was to be,
il not melodious, at least as little agrees
sive to the ear as possible. The screw that
propelled the boat was to be constructed
on a new pril ciple, which should give the
required motion, and yet at the same time
stir the surface not very perceptibly. The
nromise was kept. The new boats appeared
on the canal, and the comfort was great,
and the establishment not so complete as
had been feared. They were conveyed from
one end of the canal to the other for a
penny. Venice stlll remained almost as
silent as before, and the stiffness of the
waters was not much disturbed. The gon-
doliers, as a Glaze, were nearly ruined, and
the gain was reaped almost entirely by the
visitors.
But the thin edge OF the wedge was
inserted, and the broader body soon fol-
lowed. Now the ahciek of the whistle is
quite equal to the Thames level of distract
inpness, and it is said that already the
foundations of some rickety old places
are beginning to give. The new boats
that succeeded the sample specimens were
built cheaper, with the most virulent
whistles, and a power of splashing quite
up to English models, and the poetry of
Venice, like the piles of its ruinous and
picturesque old houses, is gradually being
Slapped away. This may be a matter of
sentiment. The comfort to strong. nerved,
practical and busy travellers is, however,
immense, and the poverty of the gondoliers
is a matter of statistics. Everything else
in the city has gone up in price. Hotels
are dearer, guides more pertlnaclous, the
Venetian wares more highly priced, the
English fve-pound note less productive
of lire. Gondolas alone retain the old
tariff. and you can nave man and his boat
for five hours for half crown. The gon-
dolas are much better, and the gondoliers
are nearly all starving. This is the result
partly of the Steam Launch Company, but
partly, dlSOs vi GnO iAtSl HShtiOh VI viz
Government.
As a rule the gondoliers own their own
boats. But the hire system is largely re-
sorted to. a gondola would be worth
about 200 francs, and capitalist with a
stock of 100 francs could easily induce
boat. builder TO take small payments from
time to time, At the hotel twenty francs
are charged for gondola by the day; but
the natives can hire them for three francs
day, or even less. There is a usage for
private families to have a special man, who
Is their gondolier, and is paid twelve francs
a week, and is in effect their servant. His
boat is at their disposal but, when not in
actual employ, the gondolier takes his
place at any of the stations and runs his
chance of occasional hiring. Thus large,
strong contingent is added TO The regular
force of the Venetian pleasure navy. Two
hundred francs would represent the value
of the poorest kind of boat that the police
would license.
Many of the gondolas on the Piazzetta-
where the best are to be found-are worth
5OOf. or 600f. Indeed, as is well known, a
sumptuary law was passed centuries ago
which still gives the gondola its black color
and rather funeral upholstery and fittings.
The Venetian mobiles of the Middle Ages
so extravagantly decorated their galleys
that the law still in force forbade the uae
of color, and restricted the magnificence of
the fittings to their present sombre and
soanty but comfortable pattern. Indeed,
it is strange to see how what was planned
and built merely with a view to convent
ence and utility should be artistically SO
extremely beautiful the black gondola,
with its lifted Prov, might have been de-
signed by a painter, and not by ferry
man. There is popular belief among the
Venetians that much of the noble blood of
the republic is to be found among the race
of the gondoliers, and this is said to be at
tested by the suavity and politeness of
their manners. Most travellers will admit
the fact, though they may question the
inference. The woInout gondoliers-the
veterans who have survived their 60 years
and are in consequence discharged re.
duced to the miserable service of helping
the stranger from his boat, and receiving
for his rather infrm assistance an occa.
sional half.penny. Pail Mall Gazstte.