The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1884-03-15
WANDERINGs IN VENICE.
nals---The Charm OF the GOndolas
---venice's Picturesque Beauty.

EtFSt AMpFesSAOUB-.- 0FfUkeS anu ia.
nals---The Charm OF the Gondolas
---venice's Picturesque beauty.
TSan Francisco Chronicle.l
It takes good many days to get ac-
customed to Venice and many more to
appreciate it. First impressions are
not always agreeable ones. It is damp
and chilly, and the canals are full of
none too clear water, and the hotel is
too quiet and large, and you lose all
identity in its vaulted salons and inter-
minable corridors. At first you do not
know of any place you can walk to, and
gondola riding is for a few days monot-
onous You came perhaps for rest and
quiet, but there is too much stiffness.
The buildings are soiled the posts In
front of the houses are clammy and
wet; the windows are vacant; the guides
are too loquacious and too preserving,
as they offer to show you the treasures
of the city. You have heard so much
of Venice, and you see SO little of it at
first that you are disappointed, and al
most feel ready to vote the place
fraud. The interior of ST. Marks is
dark, the galleries in the ducal palace
are dark, the pictures by the masters
are faded and blackened.
Beggars are as numerous as the
pigeons that fly about the piazza, there
is too much listlessness and too little
activity. You cannot throw off all ami
nation and life at first and you feel
cramped, and the water makes you feel
cold. Altogether one gets impatient
and is inclined to pay his bill at the
hotel and get away. He begins TO feel
that Ruskin, Byron and Howells are
rash enthusiasts and that they have
overrated the beauties of Venice. But
one does not go away The inclination
to do so grows less and less as the
weather begins to brighten and the sun
the lagoon. We had wished to leave on
our second day and now regret going
for weeks to come. The silence OPP
presses us no longer. We like it be-
cause it let's us hear the bells Of the city
and the songs of the gondoliers. who
sing every evening in front of the hotel.
We have found, too, succession of
narrow alleys leading from the hotel to
ST. Marks square, and when we do not
wish to be rowed over there we walk.
It is quaint stroll this, and the way
leads in and out between long rows of
high houses and aFross half a dozen
little bridges which span the side
canals. The path is narrow, to be sure,
but there is always q doorway to get
into when a vegetable seller comes
toward us with his goods, and at the
bridges there are always boats to be
seen coming and going up the twisting
roads. have grown immensely fond
of these Venetian bypaths, which are
so narrow and so quiet, and where
there are no horses or heavy
teams. You see the real life
of the city in them, too, for
here are the shops and the people who
work In some of the stores I have
found choice bits of woodwork and old
brass goods, and odds and ends of every
description Here I meet the dark
eyed women and the men who wear
rings in their ears, and slouch hat
and knee-breeches. Here Ve ice is
natural and not on exhibition, as she is
in the better known places, and there
are no guides to trouble you. wander
where please and take as much time
as 1 wish, and linger on the bridges
and ask questions of the traders. In
some of my walks I have been led into
walled gardens where there were
flowers, and where the sunlight was
warm and delightful, and where
fountain played.
There is a deal of hospitality in
watery Venice when once you know the
| town. have found it an easy matter
to gain entrance to the houses know
and to the balconies that look out upon
the canals or into secluded gardens.
Some of these places are owned or oc-
eupied for the season by American
artists or men of leisure, or writer's,
and they form little colony of their
own, and enjoy Venice every day of
their stay. I should think they would,
and envy them. I am ready even now
to defend the city in it's claim of being
attractive, picturesque and be-. ttifu1.
It has been in existence for nearly
eighteen centuries, and why should it
not be richly stored with attractions
It was,a rich metropolis years ago, and
for centuries its merchants ruled the
commerce of the world. We're not the
Doges, the grand dukes who ruled the
city from 697 to nearly 1000, the most
fastidious and richest men who ever
held the sceptre of power? Why
shouldn't they have the best of every
thing?
In the days of the Doges the condo.
las were brilliant with the work of dec.
oration 1avished on them; and to-day,
robbed as they are of all their finery
and having uniform blackness, they
are the treasured carriers of the people.
They fill the grand canal as thickly as
wagons do Broadway; they swing grace
fully around sharp corners. dart up
narrow but still watery ways, plunge
under bridges and are rowed over the
lagoon and across to neighboring ISL
ands. And these strange boats, gliding
up streets OF water, these curious car
riages without horses that meet yol at
your doorsteps, that are hired to go or
errands with, that are so comfortable
SO easily managed, SO feet, so silent, sc
well rowed, constitute one great charm
of Venice.
No other city has them; no other evel
will They are purely local; as much {
part of the city as the churches are, Of
as the ducal palaceis.. They meet yor
on arrival at the station and carry 70,
to your hotel, and they never leave you
By their aid you see the city. Lazil,
settled back in their embrace you be
hold the sunsets from near San Giorgi
Maggiore, or see the tall Campanil
rising beyond the water out + ST
Marks square. They carry you t
the Lido and to Della Salute
and under the Rialto. Seate
in them and noiselessly darting her
and there and everywhere, one need
not the presence of Gothic columns an
Byzantine architecture. and the fins