Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-21
GLIDING IN VENICE
Between Historic Palaces and
Listening TO Garrulous
Gondoliers
PLEASES MURATHALSTEAD
BE Missed Most the Rattle Of Wheels
Upon Stony Streets.
ST, MARKS AND BRIDGE OF SIGHS.
Refreshing Visit to the Home Of Minister
Grant at Vienna
PLEASES MURATHALSTEAD
ST. MARKS AND BRIDGE OF sIGHS.
LITTLE POETRY IN The BLUE DANUBE
rvRrrTrx FOR THE DIspArcH.l


portlv volumes, and he knew what he was
writing about, and did not exhaust the sub
ject. 1 have the purpose to set down with
simplicity what a traveller sees whose time
is disposed of for him until but few pre-
cious hours are at his command.
The train, leaving long trail of steam
and smoke, spun along, with the hazy sky
of the Adriatic on the right, the snowy
masses of the Alps on the left, through
plain dotted with mulberry trees, occasion
allv chimney in the villages, tall as the
campaniles, until, with a sweeping turn TO
the right, we run into a country very low
and level Quickly there was change in
the voice of the car wheels, and we were
running along line of earth with Just room
for two railway tracks, and stone wall
breast high on either side. 1t was an en-
bankment two miles long, narrow span;
this was the invasion of the city of the sea
by the all-conquering railroad. 1 had not
been quite satisfied in my mind whether L
should undertake to &C to my hotel in cab,
and was prepared for anything excep.
long swim.
The Tip System In Europe.
lQe 1OnNDllGIS HSIC vi udilh AZ lolSC1
the front rank facing the passengers was
formed bv the agents of the many hotels,
each with his badge around his hat, and
they far outnumbered the passengers The
scramble was about the regular thing. My
Grand Hotel man was not remote, and
seized nv handbag, umbrella and shawl, and
the slip of green paper that called for my
trunk. Speaking OF that particular slip of
paper and its color, was told in Rome that
the servants about the hotels have ways of
making known by marks on the luggage to
their fellows whether the trunks are the
property OF people who do well in the mat
ter Of tips, SO that travellers are sized up be-
fore they get their rooms, and can by no
means escape their duty and go to the next
town with an Unspotted character
was led gently but firmly TO a marble
step washed b. green water, and handed
into a very black boat. Two volunteer
Venetians. a gondolier and an assistant
porter, saw that 1 did not fall or stumble,
and 4 venerable citizen stood with hook
and held the boat so that it rocked under
nv footsteps very slightly. Promptly nv
trunk was aboard, the porter and assistant
and the old man received a few coppers-
for one had to assume grandeur-and /
leaned back in the gondola which was un-
steady as an average skiff I had hardly
been sure that the streets of Venice were
water like Joe Jeferson's sons stage sup
ply, but there it was, plenty of it, and the
wind blew bitterly down the Grand Canal.
NY gondolier was master of the situation,
and indicated a desire to impart in
formation.
Thu Yell of the Gondolier.
He named the palaces as long, as we pur-
sued the broad canal, then with yell
turned into a side street-that is TO say,
ditch. The cry was to warn other boatmen
that he was coming: the ditch was q short
cut. The Condoliers have cries that are
called peculisr, and they are so. If the
word peculiar were not overworked, it
would do very we'll for this case. The merry
gondolier does not, in fact, seem in per-
feet good Eumor. He may be soured by the
steamboats, in Venice-and it does seem
hard on him-but he is merely mad because
he cannot be monopolist. The people at
large go in the steamboats,; the gondola
method of getting about is expensive. The
gondolier's crv is like in Italian that of an
Irishman driving a iaunting car only not
SO loud and imperious What he SAYS is
If one may reduce it to English, or Ameri-
crn-''Y ere-me-hI-oo-vou-no-we. 1t means,
"Here l am-look out,'
In 45 minutes from the time 1 got out of
the cars L saw great many of the stones of
of garden vegetables, in particular cabbage
litter. The mixture in places of seaweed
and the outer leaves OF cabbages was also
peculiar. was pulled to the Grand Hotel,
itself an old palace, second door west of the
Desdemona House. / was not aware Desde-
mona had been so carefully hunted up, but
it seems that her late residence is nearly as
well authenticated at Venice as that of
Christopher Columbus at Genoa, and it is
much more conspicuous.
Quiet of s.reeis Paved With Water.
There was room on the ground floor at
the Grand Hotel-that is to mention two or
three feet above the level of the water
Presently the astonishing stiffness of the
place impressed and oppressed me, and in
the night the silence deepened. 1t is no
wonder Wagner came here to die. Talk of
wooden pavements! They are quiet, in a
sense; but the quiet of the Grand Canal at
midnight, without even the distant creak
and splash of an car has depth have not
been able to measure.
The monotony was varied a little by a
boatload of singers, with lanterns red, white
and green, and the music was not bad The
musicians were mercenary, and soon de-
parted, discouraged. The fact is, even
opera singers prefer to be paid for their e1-
ercise, and the blowers of horns in the Alps
expect cenTimes for the echoes.
1t is dutiful in Venice to go first to St
Marks square, and the grand old campanile
shocked me. had no idea its noble pro-
portions were of brick, but it is raw brick
tower with a marble top, surmounted by q
very much gilt angel; and 1 am indebted to
guide book for the intelligence that this
angel is 19 feet high As religious exer-
else, climbed the tower, and was cheered
by the guide with the story that Napoleon
rode up it on horseback, but he did not be-
lieve everything, or even very much, and
said Napoleon really bestrode donkey in
his ascent 1t is not impossible that he
performed this feat-not from the slightest
sense OF humor, but tosaye his strength.
4 View From the Campanilc.
When Napoleon conquered Venice and
dethroned the last of the Doges, he was %
years old, and very slender The tower is
sscended bv few broad steps at first, and
then 50 inclined planes, each with one step
to start, and there are a few steps at the
bellroom, which is as far as visitors are al
lowed TO 90 The ascent is q steep walk
but net n trying climb. and tine view could
hardly be more interesting. The whole
city is In view 1t does not seem from the
campanile that Venice is 'throned on a
hundred isles," for the smaller canals are
too narrow TO be visible in the midst of the
mass Of roofs Those canals are not obstruc-
tlons to walking about town, for the streets
pass them BY solid marble bridges, under
which the gondolas glide, their marked
prows always telling what the height of the
arch must be for safety in passage. The cur
rent Of the sea is not strong in the smaller
canals, and they are not strongly recon-
mended in hot weather to those particular
about odors. Still, they are not poisonous,