Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-24

of brick, marble and meaningless mossics
and its faded daubs on canvas and in frescO
as the ultimate in all art, born out of the
highest and purest aspiration of time anG
genius nurtured in the grandest epochs of ar
enlightened liberty and exalted civilization
With this sort of minds light upon all
Venice has to display, one can see, as
Qui1ote saw in every reeking country wench
of Spain a female of noble birth and divine
beauty, that ideal city of consummate
beauty and witchery with which historic
romance, romantic history and the magic
dream builders in verse have for ten cen.
turies been deluding the fond and willing
imagination of men.
SOME VERY COLD FACTS.
Then, if you have an iota of the sense of
things absurd about you, Venice, divested
of false history and false sentiment, while
possessing ample that is worthy in art,
architecture, associations and human inter-
est, seems filled with contemplate travesties
upon the ineIpressibly superlative claimed
from time immemorial from: the "Adriatic
Queen" There is not city of $4,000 in
habitants in continental Europe which does
not own, and without endless bravado and
tiresome self-pralse about it, equal stores of
ecclesiastical treasure, and equal if not supe-
rior treasure in painting and sculpture.
This is simply a statement of fact, the exact
truth of which any observant, and well-in-
formed European traveller will admit. The
enthusiastically famous cathedral of st.
Mark is exceeded in beauty, proportion,
stateliness and majesty by 500 religious
structures in the United States. The
crumbling, tumbling, rumbling City Hall
OF Chicago, that architectural laughing
stock OF the West, is better building in
every respect, and with its mammoth Carya-
tides and tremendous polished granite
columns, presents a more imposing facade
than the restored" Ducal Palace of
Venice. There are a thousand stone
and marble bridges in private gardens
and grounds, and within the public parks,
of the United States, more expensive, beau
tiful, and more chaste expressions OF ideas
in stone art, than can be found in the most
raved over canal bridge here. Senator Far
we'll, OF illinois, built State House for
Texas that grand, great Commonwealth of
the maverick gresser and Tom Ochil-
tire, infinitely vasler, statelier, more SYM
metric and a better expression of true archi-
tectural opulence and magnifcence than any
onel who ever lived in Venice ever saw.
And when it comes to the matter Of pal
aces" who that has ever read has not been
fired with glowing descriptions of "the
countless trsnscendent palaces of the queen
city by the sea-" tell you there has never
been a more cruel or infamous imposition in
the history of cities and the literature of
travel. San Francisco, Denver. even Kan
sas City, st. Louis, Minneapolis and st.
Paul, Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Phil
adelphia, Washington, Baltimore, New
York or Boston, each possess more palatial
residences, which never even got into the
papers, than this pretentious, water-soaked
old fishing and piratical port ever con-
tanned.
POOR OLD RELICS.
She has been repeatedly Hkened to a
Palmyra of the sea-" The voiceless dead
never SO suffered by impudent comparison.
Where now stand the huts of the Thadmor
shepherds, 500 years before Venice was
known stood tine most majestic monuments
OF architectural perfection ever known to
man. No structure that ever added luster
to the "fame and magnifce nee" Of Venice
is hidden by the sands of time or engulfed
by the waves of the sea. Every one. dilap-
idated or restored" occupied as rat
swarming hotel or let to modern nouveaux
riches who strut and cackle to attract notice
to their modern rookeries, or whether util-
lied as barracks for gsrlic-eating, spider
wasted soldiery, or still, deserted, moldy
and silent, echoing only to the carnivals Of
the ghosts of desolate past, are here for
your inspection to-day. Come and look at
them. See them and observe how they
shrink and dwindle, as though you
looked from the wrong lenses OF
your glass. See them and reflect how
drunken with the wine Of hyperbole and
how blinded by the glamor of this zephyr
blown region of romance have been all that
myriad host who have come and written and
gone, we will trust to do secret penance.
Then, what a dreary old mess of decay it
is to US who come with our eyes open and
our senses keen and alert from endless con-
tact with and healthy love for all things
clean, good and new! True the landward
Oreezes bring the balm and thyme of South
srn spring. Where in our own loved land |
10 the meadows, the forests and the hedge |
-ows fail with their subtle, tender affairs of |
he awakening outer world? True, as you |
stand on the campanile of St. Marks, or idly |
ioat on your gondola upon the outer la |
yoons, pal alpitating breaths of tremulous air |
Kiss your face lovingly alter tender voyages |
rom across fair waters. So they do when in |
your yacht along the glowing Pacific coast,
n a score of bayous along the dreamy Gull, |
wen in your old ramshackle row-boat off the |
chicago breakwater, when "crabbing" on
ish along Long Island shores, in your cat
'oat at Newport, or floating in the veriest
ub OF dory anywhere from Cape Cod TO
irand Manan.
BILGE-wATER MEMORIES.
But still it is true that you have never be-
ore seen, and will never again see, the wave
-ashed spot where the very teeth of the sea
eem so relentlessly gnawing and eating that
'hich, being consumed, SO pollutes its ro-
lorseless destroyer. In port, mole, basin,
anal; on quays, campi, rive. fondamenti;
q every article of clothing you wear; and in
very article of food you eat; there is an end
ess odor and taste OF that omnipresent and
tyrant of the sea-bilge
7ater Ride in a gondola and your pores
ecome its clammy matrices. Lean upon the
Marble tables in the gaudy cafes and its te-
i'd breath is in the very stone. Grope your
ray to your camera de letro for sleep, the
cry walls are mildewed with its rime; you
asp and wheeze all night, as though in an
Id ships hold, from its vspors; and you
waken in the morning limp as a mold of
ough f:om its stealthv saturation and fl
ration through sheets and blankets into
our enervated body. 1t oozes and shines
yer marble steps and under marble arches;
perspires through the compilations of Ve-
opese portraits; trickles among the allego-
les of Giorgione; exudes from the frescoes OF
titan; and stands like gummy dew upon
ne entablatures of Tintoretto
EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.
Catalogue of Kenyon Military Academy.