Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-22

stand in the doors like spiders waiting to entrap
the unwary flies. Here is Naya's. where the nne
colored views are to be had and Flor1an's, where
everybody goes at noon to get an Ice. All
Venice saunters about the piazza, seeking
shady places. during the day; and all Venice
come back again after dinner and listens to
the music of the military band in the evening.
In Europe and in Venice especially, people
live out of doors. There are canals IN venice.
It is true where we woud h nave ssTee'S, r nlaca
In the whole town which cannot be reached on
foot. And as you wander through these narrow
streets, which turn at all sorts of angles and in
all directions. you see the whole population of
the city in the streets. The buying and the SELL
ing, the eating and the drinking, go, on under
the sky.
The Venetians are not beautiful people.
Some of the ugliest faces which we have seen
in Europe we saw in Venice. In the Ghetto,
which we visited in memory Of Shylock: we saw
the raggedest and dirtiest and homliest OF
mankind and womankind. One morning
in the Church of the Frari. where
Titian's fine "Holy Family" is and one
of Bellinis charming Madonnas they
and the men who were to take part were pub
licly donning their red gowns. The gowns
were dirty enough. but they were not half SO
dirty as the suspicious looking pirates who
were putting them on. Venice, with all its
Incompatible and indescribable lovellness, Is
the saddest city in the world. Everything is of
the past here. All the glory, as in the mosalcs
palaces are deserted of their noble and courtly
inhabitants. Many of them are let for lodgings.
Some are converted into shops and ware
houses. They are still surprisingly Deautltul
the colors still glow as reds and blues and
yellOws glow in Venice. The pictures tell the
truth; and the interest of history and romance
gathers about the stately buildings; but sail
their glory is of yesterday. The beauty is the
pathetic beauty of the sunset, or OF autumn
leaves. There is nobody here to take the
places of the fine old doges of the past. Venice
has played her part, and nothing seems
n
die of isnoble poverty. At any rate, the town
is poor, and beggars are many: Men by tne
score saunter about with their hands IN thelr
idle pockets. There seems to be nothing now
for anybody to do. Even the priests nave pus
a pittance day, and their cassocks are thread
bare and their big black hats are rusty.
A Paradise for IdIers.
VENICE is the city of Incidence. 1t is the
capital and metropolis of the land of the
lotus eaters. One cannot well be SO ignorant
of Italian as not to be able to translate here in
Venice the meaning of ''dolce far niente."
Even the American tourist who has been
doing" the continent at a double quick rate,
seeing town or two day and never sleeping
two nights in the same place, falls under the
spell of Venice and makes experiment OF
sweet doing nothing" Nobody walks ,iaI tast IN
looks into shop windows, sits down in shady
places and falls into dreams and dozings The
very doves which congregate In the PIAZZA are
lazy and move reluctantly to make room
for the passerby. The goEdola is the fitting
symbol of Venice. 1t is the cradle of absolute
rest. it is the throne of Incidence. On you
glide, softly, silently, between the rows OF
glowing palaces, into Nirvana. Day by day the
spirit of enervation. of aimlessness, of perfect
content of absolutely serene idleness, more
and more steals into the soul, till one departs
in wholesome dread, lest the power of effort
should be driven out of life, and all work be
henceforth impossible.
We visit the Academy, where T1tian's "As-
sumption" outshines everything else, and 3.
Maria Formosa for Palmas stately St Bar
bara We go by gondolo to San Lazzaro where
the Armenian monks live in their quiet monas-
terry. We spend an afternoon at the Lido,
where we see the red and yellow sails OF the
fishing boats on the blue surface of the
Adriatic. And then along the Grand Canal,
past the stranded palaces. We take our way
toward the door which opens into the common
world again. We board the train and leave the
most beautiful and the most pathetic city in
the world behind us. u. ID.