Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-01-23
VENICE.
Bill Nye Tells of His Experiences In the
Best Watered Town i'll Europe.

Bill Nye Tells of His Experiences in the
Best Watered Town i'll Europe.
We arrived in Venice last evening,
latitude 45 deg. 25 min. N, longitude,
13 deg. 10 min. i.
Venice is the home Of the Venetian,
and also where the gondola has its
nest and rears its young. It is also tho
headquarters for the paint known as
Venetian 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 cor
ner of the Rialto and the Grand Canal.
He is now no more. l couldn't even
find an old neighbor neal the Rialto
who remembered Shylock. From what
I a learn of him. however, 1 am led
to believe that he was pretty close in
his deals, and liked to catch a man in a
tight place and then make him squirm.
Shylock, during the greet panic in Ven
ice many years ago, it is said, had y
chattel mortgage on more lives than
you could shake a stick at. He would
loan a small amount to a merchant at
three per cent. a month, and secure it
on a pound of merchants liver, or by
q cut-throat mortgage on his rcspira-
tory apparatus. Then, when the paper
matured he would go up to the house
with a pair of scales and a pie knife
and demand a foreclosure.
Venice is ore Of the best watered
towns in Europe. You can hardly walk
a block without getting your feet wet,
unless you ride in a gondola.
The gondola is a long, slim hack
without wheels and is worked around
through the damp streets by 4 bru-
nette man whose breath should be a sad
warning to us all. He is called the gon-
dolier. Sometimes he sings in a low
tone Of voice and in a foreign tongue.
l do not know where l have met so
many foreigners as l have here in Eu-
rope. Wherever l 60 l hear a foreign
tongue. l do not know whether these
people talk in the Italian language just
to show it off or not. Perhaps they pre-
fer it. London is the only place l have
visited where the Boston dialect is used.
London was originally settled by adj
venturers from Boston. The blood of
some of the royal families CT Massa-
chusetts may be found in the veins of
London people.
Wealthy young ladies in Venice do
not run away with the coachmen.
There are no coaches, nocoachmen and
no horses in Venice. There are only
four horses in Venice, and they are
made Of copper and exhibited at St.
Marks as curiosities.
The Academia dele Belle Arti of
Venice is a large picture store where I
went yesterday to buy a few pictures
for Christmas presents. A painting by
Titan, the Italian Prang, pleased me
very much, but l couldn'nt beat down
the price to where it would be any OBJ
ject for me to buy it. Besides, it would
be a nuisance to carry such a picture
around with me all over the Alps, up
the Rhide and through St. Lawrence
County. l finally decided to leave it
and secure something less awkward to
carry and pay for.
The Italians are quite proud of their
smoky old paintings. l 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 q 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 We.
netians scorn to investigate its benefits.
When a gondolicr gets a drop of water
on him, he swoons. Then he lies in a
kind Of coma till another gondolier
comes along to breathe in his face and
revive kim.-N. y. Mirror.