Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-12


tiOn Army at home, and, lastly, the bells
every hour and filing the air with Christ
mas chimes which, it seems to me, might be
heard in America if one we're only listening
MUSIC MOST DIVINE.
Such are some of the sights of Venice
which we have seen daily since the night
before last when we attended high mass at
San Salvatore, where the great unwasned
stood so thickly around us, and the odors
were so much stronger than the powerful IN
cense from the altar could dissipate, that
camphor became a necessity, while one
woman fai nted from the heat and poionous
air. The music of that organ was some
thing wonderful and never to be forgotten.
Sad and mourniul at first, like the moan OF
woman in pain. then low and plaintlve.
like the cry of little child; then loud and
iubilant and so rapid that partners in a
quadrille might have danced alter 1t, or
walters might have whirled in giddy
circles to its measures; then swelling higher
and higher, until the church was full Of one
mighty halleluiah and joyful thanksgiving.
1t was O'Clock in the morning when we at
last threaded our way homeward through
the narrow, winding streets near the
Rialto, where one could easily imagine
brigand hidden under the long cloaks and
slouched hats which occasionally glided
by us.
ST. Marks is also the center of attraction
for tourists, for there is generally high mass,
and the music is finer even than that at San
Salvatore and the ceremonies more gorgeous.
Thousands OF people on the day of our visit
knelt or stood on the cold, uneven floor OF
the grand old church, where the high altar
of solid gold, studded with precious stones
rIokfv r.. Al
covered to view, and blazing in the light OF
the hundreds of candles burning around and
near it. Besides the immense organ there
was an orchestra OF brass and stringed in
struments, which accompanied the choir,
above which one boys voice rose clear and
distinct, without jar or discord, and in per-
feet harmony with the other voices, which it
controlled and took along with it. How the
grand music of Beethoven rolled through
the aisles and filed the domes of the church
until even the IL Apostles upon the screen
seemed imbued with life and listening to 1t.
HISTORIC BUT THREADBARE.
A letter from Venice is scarcely complete
with no mention of the Doge's Palace and
Tintoretto's great picture, 81 feet long and
SO feet high, the largest in the world. Or of
the dark, damp dungeons, the thresholds OF
death, where only "a hours were ever spent,
and from which no one ever passed except
to his execution in the Shiny corridor where
you see the round holes in the floor through
which the blood of the tortured victims ran
down to the canal below. 1t is too horrid to
think about, but we saw it all and more, and
were glad to escape from that haunted
prisen into the sunlight above, and to hear
the bells ringing their merry chimes.
We were fortunate to see funeral in st.
Marks. The coffin was borne by four lackeys
in red and followed by IL men in black,
each bearing an immense candle around
which was tied wisp of Grape. AproPos of
candles, there are thousands of them in the
churches all very long and some six inches
in circumference and costing 6 francs and
upward apiece. But the rich pay for them,
and so it does not matter
OF palaces can say but little. The
Kings palace is always open to open to Wis
itors, but it is much like all other royal
palaces which the monarch seldom visits.
A succession of rooms, with massive furni-
ture and a marble bathtub and few good
pictures is all, if I except the franc paid for
going through them. Many of the palaces
of the old Venetians in the days of the Re
public are either hotels or belong to the
Government, while those owned by the no.
bility of to-day are just now occupied, so
that to see them is impossible. We have,
however, had access to one,
THE GRAzzI PALACE,
now the property of German baron. Some
of the paintings and frescoes here are good,
and the tapestry upon the walls heavy and
rich but, aside from this, the rooms are
plainly and stiffly furnished, especially the
sleeping apartments, and bear no compar-
ison to similar rooms in the handsome
houses in America. One of these palaces
has recently been bought by an English
man, son of the poet Browning, who, with
his American wife, is stopping at our hotel.
She tells me they are fitting it up after their
American and English ideas, and it looks
very attractive and homelike with its coat
of fresh paint, its pretty conservatory and
its vines hanging from boxes in the win
dows. All the old palaces look dingy and
time-worn and water-soaked, and the won-
der is that that they do not
tumble down. But the piles on
which they stand are 40 feet long, and am
told that at that depth hard bottom is
struck. Just how many piles they stand
upon do not know. The church of the
Santa Maria della Salute is said to rest on
1 200, 900. But this should be taken with
allowance, like the stone Of John the Bap-
tist and the bones of the Apostles.
Venice is full of beautiful pictures, and
everyone is Titan or Tintoretto, or q
Paul Veronese, and we have seen nearly all.
painters, and stood breathless before
Canova's tomb, designed by him for Titan,
and visited scores Of churches and seen the
entire population in Venice In what was
better than carnival.