New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-07-28
OUR GONDOLIER.

Although at Rome and other Euro
pean capitals, for ones personal con-
venience and comfort, it is advisable
10 do as Rome and the other capitals
do, one is not bound to it by any ne
cessity OF circumstances and surround
angs. But at Venice it is otherwise.
One must do as Venice does or simply
exist without moving, seeing or learn
ing by which we mean that it is alb
solutely necessary for every one who
wishes to get about the city to use
the gondola.
OF course one may walk if he choos-
es-that is to say, if he prefers the
crowd, and the heat, and the noise Of
the narrow lanes, called by courtesy
streets, to the swift, easy motion of
the gondola; but after one or two
walks the visitor gets surfeit of We
snetian land progression, unless hecon-
fines himself to the immediate neigh
borhood of St. Marks, and gladly
enough halls the friendly craft with
the steel-barbed prov.
AS a rule it is the best plan to en-
gage a man at so much a day-fve
francs is not out of the way-and is
entirely at the hirer's disposition at
any time. The Venetian gondoliers
are, generally, civil, honest and in
telligent race, and in choosing among
them one is not running such a risk
as il one were to hire a London cabby
on the same principle.
Well, nearly twenty years ago we
found ourselves in Venice for the first
time.
The city was then under the Austri-
an dominion, so that we saw it under
somewhat peculiar circumstances. A
physically degenerate people imbued
with a great deal OF their ancient
pride and patriotism, goaded to silent
fury by the continual presence and
sswagger of an invader, who showed
himself as aggressive and insulting an
,occupier as he had been brutal and
scallous enemy; while uniforms and
blue legs everywhere; the harsh gut
turals OF the Teuton bursting in at
every moment, like sullen thunder,
amid the soft liquid patter OF the ma
tive italian. Here the victor-gay,
.jubilant, supreme; there the vanquish-
-ed-morose, depressed, sullen and
scrowling; and the gayety which long
survived the setting of the sun Of
Venice had fled under the iron rule OF
the double-headed eagle. The military
band played on soft summer nights in
the square OF St. Marks, but no ma
tive would be seen listening to it; half
the curio shops in the Piazetta were
shut up; people moved secretly and
moved silently; Austrian officers mo-
snopolized the little tables in front OF
their Florina, the Aurora and the
'Quadri; Austrian soldiers hung out
the linen over curiously carved bal
comics which could speak of many a
scene OF romance and chivalry, and
smoked their long pipes in gilded sa-
icons hung with the portraits OF the
greatest and noblest names in Vene-
tian history. One did not live in dy-
ing city, as is usually the impression
produced by Venice, but in city that
was dead.
Still we resolved to make the most
<of the few days at our disposal, and
our first duty was to secure a good
sgondolier for the period of our stay.
Beppo was presented to us, and we
took him chiefly, l verify believe, for
his personal appearance. Visitors
without number have remarked how
much more frequently the noble type
of Italian face and fgure-that is, the
type Of the grand old pictures-is
found among the lower classes than
among the higher Beppo's was an
ideal Italian face-a face that might
have pressed the cold lips of Julie in
the lonely Verona tomb; the face we
+see in those Litians and Tintorettos
TOO often hidden behind curtains in
.dusky Italian churches regular
tzfeatured, oval-shaped, the face of a
Rhero, not OF humble gondolier. AS
she stood poised on the slope OF the
sSClluOltt UtIllu us, Ills long tnalr
streaming in the breeze, his limbs
working gracefully and tremendously
in the most poetic of motions, he
might have posed for a ,lemi-god. Nor
were we disappointed when we became
better acquainted with the man him
;self. He was very quiet-sadly quiet,
we thought, for he never smiled during
'our ten days acquaintance with him.
He was respectful without beeing in
the smallest degree servlle; and, what
was valuable to us, he spoke little
English, and apparently had the his
tory and romance OF Venice by heart
not by heart in the orthodox licensed
sguide style, but thoroughly, as man
who loves his subject. Sometimes, as
The alluded to some glorious bit OF old
Venetian history, such as the war of
Chioggia or the deeds of Vittorio Pr
SAM and Carlo Zeno, his eyes would
flash, his barred chest heave; he would
raise one hand from the oar and
shake the fist with fierce energy at
the distant white uniforms, suddenly
to drop it and to shake his head sad
H~r y 4 I'M