The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-09-22
OUR FOREIGN LETTER.
Special Correspondence Of the PREss.)
UFNJCE

den sceptre over the sea. We think she must
hold out the longest of all the ancient cities
| against the forces which are everywhere al
work to reduce all people to one level and tt
shape all cities after one pattern. We hope
never to dispel from our memories our first
impression of Venice, as we left the train in
the blackness of midnight and CROPPED oul
way cautiously in the midst of a crowd of
jabbering foreigners to the edge of a quay
where we could just descry long line Of flu
nereal barges. With ehildlike obedience
and faith we dropped our feet where we
were told, and were thankful when they
were planted on substantial boards and We
were safely seated ON something, we could
hardly tell what. Presently we found our
selves gliding noiselessly over the surface
| of black water. As we twisted around darl
corners and were lost in the deep shadows o.
the grim walls, the occasional cry of oul
gondoliers and the fitting to and fro of rec
and green lights were the only signs of life
| in this weird, nocturnal city. When we
walked the next day we found the aspect was
| changed, but the charm had not fled with
| the shades of night, and during our stay
Venice never fell short of the ideal we had
brought with us. This ideal was born out Of
the memory of the paintings of R. S. Clifford
| who has transmitted Venice to canvass in
| every conceivable atmospheric effect. He
| was especially fond of painting it under the
| golden light of the setting sun, when every
sail and turret and minaret would be reflect
| ed in rainbow tints upon the CLASSY mirror
| of the Laguna. Like all things earthly Ven
- ~ oh IL. w. -
to see it when the dismal fog or the pelting
rain settles hopelessly over the city and
washes out the poetry here as everywhere.
1t is the very quintessence of luxury to re-
cline upon the softest of cushions in a Condo
la and be rowed lazily about the canals
alighting now and then on Fundamental to
visit a gorgeous palace, or to roam while in
a picture gallery. When you are weary you
have no racing for tramcars or wrangling
| with cabmen, but you have only to step from
| your door into your gondola, and without
| jar of wheels, the cracking of whips or the
beating of balky horses you are swept
| smoothly ON to your next hating place. 1t
| is so refreshing to mind and body that you
| can do four times as much work here as you
are able in any ordinary city Like Rome
Venice is overlooking with pictures and pal
aces and abounds in objects of historic inter
est: but unlike Rome it has no barren or
waste places Every nook and corner teens
with life and gayety. 1t would take week
to see all the attractions centered in the
square of st. Mark Starting from the col
umn, from whose top, the Winged Lion of
st. Mark, with sleepless eye keeps watch
al o{ horr
point of time, and entered the portal of the
Doge's Palace
AS the tyrant Doges are all gone and
would be forgotten but for their inhuman
cruelties, there was no one to hinder our
climbing the golden staircase. When these
despots were in their glory these stairs were
too good to be trodden by plebeian feet; and
none but kings and mobiles, and the few ia
vorites to whom for brief space the naughty
Doge might extend his sceptre, could pass
this way and enter the lordly apartments.
Bye and bye the cost of this regal mockery
of power drained SO heavily upon their
purses that the Doges were forced to disburse
their titles more freely. This sham gener-
osity was received joyfully by the silly ones,
who counted three hundred ducats tribute
money cheap price for the privilege of
speaking face to face with Doge. Thus
the favored few soon increased to a good
ly company, who were permitted to mount
the golden stairs. This palace contains over
hundred rooms. One reception hall is
lined with paintings, the walls of another
are covered with tapestries, which are
wrought with historic scenes, and indeed the
whole place in the pristine glory of its vari-
Gus appointments must have been superb !;
but the memory of the dark deeds, and the
wrongs perpetrated here by man against his
fellow man enshroud the palace with gloom.
As you go from room to room you become
more and more oppressed, until you fairly
dread to open the door of the Black room
lest you disturb the unhappy ghosts, which
would haunt this hall if ever spirits were
permitted to revisit the scenes of their earth
ly lives. In this room sat the council of
three, and from it emanated the power that
crushed so many hopes and tortured so many
innocents. At the top of the stairs, in the
corridor, we noticed the lions mouth which
was carved in marble, and through it was an
opening into the Council chamber of the ten.
Into this anyone could slip an anonymous
charge against rival, which would be taken
to court, the accused would be summoned,
and as natural as cause and effect ne was put
through the trial Of the council of ten, and
then Ethe council of three, from which
there was no appeal. After criminal had
been condemned in the council of ten the
three judges before whom the case was
placed for final condemnation or acquittal of
the accused, retired to assume Mosques and
robe themselves in black. In this garb they
secreted themselves in the sepulchral coun-
Gil chamber of three, which was furnished
with black carpet, black chairs and black
table-in short, with everything dark and
dismal. Here they sat in darkness, pre-
tending they wished to hear the naked
truth As if despising to do injustice they
blinded their eyes, that if by chance one ray
of pity should flash across the face of
judge another might not catch the contagion
of brotherly love, by which his judgment
could unconsciously be distorted from the
sternest rectitude. This was all very fair
externally; but beneath this sanctimonious
hypocrisy some awfully wicked judgments
were pronounced. This gorgeous palace
where the,lords held bacchan allan feastS was
held up by the walls of dungeons, and sur
mounted, beneath its roof, with a tier of
rooms of torture. We stood on the Bridge
of Signs which connects the two sections of
the palace. On this were ten walks, one
each flor criminal land spolitical prisoners,
whoFpassed to the, torturing rooms, and
thence to their final dungeons. These
dungeons are narrow closets walled in by
solid masses of masonry two feet thick.
A little gap in the wall opening into gloomy
passage let in light enough for an owl or
bat through this the poor prisoner received
both the air he breathed and the bread he
ate, which only prolonged his misery Day
and night must have been alike to him, and
when he grew weary of pacing his narrow
cell he could lie upon plank bed, which was
raised just high enough to escape the flood
ing of the cell by full tide. His only guests
were the rats who crouched in the corner to
watch their chance to share his scanty meal
Just outside his door he could hear the exc
cutioner swing his axe as he ended the earth