The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-09-18

aune, shallow bay of the Adria: q
about 25 miles in length and 0 mil Is
In breadth. Its 5000 houses and
palaces, chiefly built on piles, and
about 81 miles In circumference stand
on III small islands, formed by $50
canals and connected by 37S bridges.
The population, which had dwindled
from 20O, 600 to $1,000 after its dissolu-
ton as an independent State, (1791),
! amounted in 1881 to 10, 400, of whom
one fourth are paupers. The lagoons
are protected from the open sea by
long sand hills, strengthened by bull
warks of solid masonry 80 feet i'm
height and 80 to 40 feet i'm width. The
city is intersected by innumerable
canals, from which most of the houses
rise direct, though some of them are
these houses extends labyrinth of
lanes, paved with stone, brick or asp
halt, and alive with picturesque and
busy throrgs.
There are the cold facts. From
them can your imagination picture o
city which looks as If 1t were In a
state of chronic inundation, with wa
ter flowing in all the STREETS; covering
the lower steps and tapping against
the walls of the houses; where if you
want to go block or two you step in
to steam boat or a gondola instead
of into q street car or an omnibus;
where all the freighting, the fetching
and carrying is done in long, narrow
black boats, handled with marvellous
skill by one man with a single oar
which he uses standing; where, when
the children want to go out to play,
the mother strips them and ties a rope
to them and throws them in the water;
where among 200, 900 people there is
not single horse, nor cart of any
kind, nor even a baby carriage? If
your imagination is vivid enough to
picture these things, then you can gee
in your minds eye the things in Ven-
ice that distinguish it from every 9TH
er city in the world.
Aside from its peculiar and distin-
gushing features, Venice of course
holds many beautiful things and much
that is of historical and sentimental
interest. Next door to my hotel is
Desdemona's house, distinguished
from its neighbors by two or three
very pretty, carved stone balconies,
where it is easy to imagine that 9th
clio might have sat during the long
summer evenings, smoking his cigar
cite and spinning the tales of chair
breadth 'scapes," of knowing acct
dents by flood and field" that caught
the young girls fancy. A little dis
lance away, down the Grand Canal,
the house where Mrs. Browning lived,
and the house where Byron lived are
still pointed out. And on the oppo-
site side of the island, spanning the
Grand Canal, is the Rialto, where An
tonic used to call Shylock names
when lie was flush, anb borrow money
of him when he was hard up. The
largest open space in Venice is the
Piazza of st. Mark, an irregular par
allelogram 200 yards long, 60 yard.
wide at one end and 90 yards at the
other, paved with trachyte and mar
BILE. Imposing buildings, that were
once palaces but are now shops, the
Library, the Mint, etc., enclose it OH
three sides, and at the other end
stands the church of st. Marks. This
square is the heart of Venice, the cen
ter of its trade by day and the focus
of its social activity by night. I was
there last night and it was filled with
people of all classes, strolling about
Or sitting at tables eating ices and
what pleased them. The
band was playing-at public expense
and the place was flooded with light
and music and gaiety, sight long to
be remembered. The pigeons of st.
Marks, that are known wherever Ven
ice is known, are here yet. For many
years they were fed at the public eX-
pense, but now they are dependent on
private charity for support, and they
ire as impertinent and importunate
N their appeals as are the other beg
yars of Venice. The church of st.
Marks is famed the world over for its
beauty, and whole volumes of extrav-
lgant praises of it have been written.
It is picturesque, with its round arch
g and its pointed pinnacles, and its
our swelling domes and its winged
ion and its four bronze horses, which
tarted from Nero's arch at Rome and
vent to Constantinople and thence to
Ienice and thence to Paris and at last ,
o Venice again. But to my poor pie ,
'eian taste it is far from beautiful on !
he outside, with its grotesque mix ,
ure Of architectural styles, and it is .
ositively ugly on the inside, with its q
ingy columns and gaudy mosaic. 1t ;
ontains an altar piece of marble and =
old and precious stones which is said :
D be very beautiful; but it is covered
18th curtain and the emissary of the q
atholic church who held the strings
eclined to draw them for less than
vo dollars-and declined to Invest. :
lie would probably have come down =
, % cents but didn't have time to =
Jew" him. 1 simply took it out in ;,
.lIing him that when / Ont ready To Z