Chariton courier. (Keytesville, Chariton County, Mo.) 1878-current, 1885-01-30
NUMBER 48.
Venice.

We arrived in Venice last evening,
latitude 40 deg. % min. N, longitude,
II deg. 10 min. E.
Venice is the home of the Venetian,
and also where the gondola has its nest
and rears its young. 1t is also thehead-
quarters for. the paint known as Vene-
tian red. They use it in painting the
town on festive occasions. This is the
town where the Merchant of Venice
used to do business, and the home of
Shylock, a broker, who sheared the
Venetian lamb at the corner of the Ri
alto and the Grand canal. He is now
no more. / couldn't even find an old
neighbor near the Rialto who remem-
bered Shylock. From what can learn
of him, however, / am led to believe
that he was pretty close in his deals,
and liked to catch man in a tight
place and then make him squirm. Shy
lock, during the great panic in Venice
many years ago, it is said. had chat
tel mortgage on more lives than you
could shake stick at. He would loan
8 small amount to merchant at three
per cent. month, and secure it on a
pound of the merchants liver, or by a
cut-throat mortgage on his respiratory
apparatus. Then. when the paper ma
tured, he would go up to the house
with pair of scales and a pie knife
and demand foreclosure.
Venice is one of the best watered
towns in Europe. You can hardly walk
block without getting your feet wet,
unless you ride in gondola.
The gondola is long, slim hack
without wheels and is worked around
through the damp streets by brunette
man whose breath should be a sad
warning to us all. He is called the
gondolier. Sometimes he sings in q
, low tone of voice and in a foreign
tongue. I do not know where I have
met so many foreigners as have here
in Europe, unless It was in New York
at the polls. WhereverI go, hear a
foreign tongue. l do not know wheth-
er these people talk in the Italian lam
guage just to show off or not. Perhaps
they prefer it. London is the only
place have visited where the Boston
dialect is used. London was originally
settled by adventures from Boston.
The blood of some of the royal families
of Massachusetts may be found in the
veins of London people.
Wealthy young ladies in Venice do
not run away with the coachman.
There are no coaches, no coachmen and
no horses in Venice. There are only
four horses in Venice and they are
made of copper and exhibited at st.
Mark as curiosities.
The Academia dele Belle Arti of
Venice is a large picture store wherc /
went yesterday to buy a few pictures
for Christmas presents. A painting By
Titan, the Italian Prang. pleased me
very much, but couldn't beat down
the price to where it would be any OBJ
ject for me to buy it. Besides, itwould
be nuisance TO carry such picture
around with me all over the Alps, up
the Rhine and through st. Lawrence
county.
The Italians are quite proud of their
smoky old paintings. I have often
thought that If Venice would run less to
art and more to soap, she would be
more apt to win my respect. Art Is
all right to certain extent, but it can
be run in the ground. 1t breaks my
heart to know how lavish nature has
been with water here, and yet how the
Venetians scorn to investigate its bene-
fits. When gondolier gets drop of
water on him, he swoons. Then he
lies in kind of coma till another gon-
dolieF comes along to breath in his face
and revive him.-BM Nye iD NJ r
Mercury.