Morning journal and courier., 1890-05-31

Upon the visItor-The Grand Canal
-G0ndolas-A Chapter on Tramps-
The Lazzaroni and BandittI-Up the
Valley of the AEno.
vA1LoMBhosA, Italy, May 6.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
The human interest of Venice is after all
its chief enchantment. If one can fling off
the enslavcment of the fiction woven about
1t there is still enough to know and enjoy.
In endesvoring to analyzs oaasss for the cre-
alton of the universally false sentiment ex-
listing concerning it, the best excuse I can
find is in .he popularity Of its situation. 1t
has always impressed travellers strangely. A
city without horse OF other beast Of bur-
den strikes one as a curious anomaly. This
ureeasing seeming of strange and renarka-
Bile phases has easily been distorted into the
wonderful, the marvellous. The vivid fancy
with the opulsnt Imagination and poetic
sense have done the rest. Each succeeding
traveller has seraped the empyrian Of imagery
and matchless simile. Coming from the
mountains of Italy at once across what
seems to be an arm of the sea, but which in
fact is SO shallow lagoon that school boy
might wade 1t in many places at ebb tide, TO
O city built so that the earth 1t really stands
upon, and the piling, forming the perfectly
secure foundation for other structures and
strset-sides, is wholly hidden from view, the
feeling Of actually being at sea is difficult to
overcome. Indeed this one fact about ones
almoat ineradicable first Impressions has had
more to do than all else in giving poet trav-
kbair vi
the constant intensi6cation of this impress
sion further unhinges the average mind. In
no other city can one avoid the roar and
thunder of battling tides of humans and
conveyanees upon the streets. There Ia not
a sound of this sort in Venice. Then, wher-
ever one secures a vista towards the horizon
the waters of the Adriatic are first seen, and
tho impression of being upon the sea IL fur
thsr emphasized. Again, the quaint. strange
there the land, are in view whenever glimpses
towards the outer world are had. One must
be at sea, Ia the impulse Of mental coaclu-
sion. And more mystifying than all, you
who have always looked from your window
into street, where the solid earth Is below,
must here perforce see nothing but water,
moving craft upon water, and, as though
you looked from the port hols of some mys-
tic craft, you sea through this nautical sense
opposite your window, other fancIful craft
which must be floating alongside your own.
have passed over the Bahama banks, In a
sailing vessel, where, for one hundred and
twenty-five miles, bed of coral more than
one thousand feet high was often less than
twelve, and never more than eighteen, feet
from the seas level. If that bank stood
against the Florida, instead of the Bahama,
shore the capitalists would have a winter re-
o;k cto hn yyh oprQ1
inside of quarter Of century, ana would
regard the expenditure of two or three hun
drsd millions of dollars to make an Ameri-
can Venice, a very trihipg incident in Amer
lean development. One must come to think
of Venice in some such way as this In order
to measure it in justice and truth.
1t Is probable that the sanity of one who
should visit Venice without making a study
Of the gondolier would be doubted. I en-
all, that he is o very ordinary sort of fell
low. He is better than the American hack
man because he robs you with some slight
susvity and grace. In but one other respect
is he In any degree remarkable. He is tall,
1.-the and slender. All his limbs show fine
development from rowing upright, every
muscle coming into play at every stroke of
the oar. This gives the gondoliers sinewy
development most admirable. There are
gondoliers; twenty cents an hour is the legal
rate for the services of boat and boatman,
this tariff being doubled for every extra gon-
dolier you hire and the gondolier's costume
In summer comprises linen trousers, linen
shirt open at the throat, exposing black
and hairy chest, a greasy, colored sash, and
dirty straw hat with jauntily rolled rim.
He works as little as he can and live. he
sleeps and eats and smokes and guzzles when
not at work. He is the veriest coward about
the water, used as he is to 1t, and never per-
mits his clumsy craft to approach the region
of "choppy" waves. He is, briefly, a vain,
offensive animal whom poets have spoiled
and amateur photographers have developed
into an insufferable bully of these winding,
watery streets. For real manhood, bravery,
hardihood, sunuiness of heart and manner,
bearing, the guadanero of Havana harbor ia
incomparably the more interesting man and
character.
To my mind q scene in. early morning on
Grand canal in Venice is far more interesting
than one in the early evening, when the faded
aristocracy of the city are moving about with
apparent listlessness in their private black
gondolas, decorated with their owners coats
Of arms, propelled by private gondoliers In
ridiculous liveries, or at night when the ca
nal in general is wholly and Extensively a
show object to open mouthed strangers. 10
the very early morning, while the gray Is yet
upon the water, and the gurgling Of the tides
is like the chuckling of night imps in the
dark retreats of the lowest arches and an.
giles, then it is that the oldest and most fas-
einating procession pass and repass away
down there in the shadows beneath your
window. Scores of little, long barges load
ed with vegetables from the fiat, outlying
islands are on their way to the market at the
Rialto. Their sails are red, with blue tips
and yellow center pieces, and most grotesque
figures Of Madonnas are painted somewhere
on their gaudily colored sterns. These
barges are propelled by poles in the hands OF
men in purple, pink, blue and orange gar
ments, and very often bare headed peasant