The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-21
VENICE AND VIENNA.
Continued from Page 81

Venice into full and fair consideration.
The great picture of Venice is TItian's
assumption, and after him comes, first,
Tlntoretto, and second. Paul Veronese
The Palace of Doges surpaSses the aver
age anticipation. There is no point from
which 1t can be viewed that it is not
grand, gloomy and peculiar" Let us
consider that Venice was inviolate for
thousand years; that the Genoese admiral
who told the Venetians he would treat
with them when he had bridled the
bronze horses at St. Marks, was blockaded
and forced to surrender his fleet at Chiog-
gia; that through all her vicissitudes Ven
ice never was taken until Napoleon came
down upon her after the first of his mar
vicious Italian campaigns; that she con-
nected with splendor all her own an
Gent and modern civilization and the de-
velopment of Europe with the decay of
Asia.
Just how Lord Byron managed to do as
he says he did IN Venice | have not been
able to make out with mechanical and
mathematical accuracy. He remarks
stood in Venice on the Bridge of Signs,
A palace and prison on either hand;
And saw from out the wave vast structures rise,
AS from the stroke of an enehanters wand
A thousand years their cloudy wings expand.
But could not manage to get more
than one foot on the Bridge of Signs.
IN Venice, though not connecting palaces
and prisons. The actual passage from the
palace, still palace, though not a royal
one, to the prison-still prison,
and gloomy one, with iron-barred
windows of horrid aspect, and a hideous
prison boat at the steps under the
famous bridge-the actual walk of the
prisoners from the hall of condemnation
to the cells of imprisonment was not
through the bridge that the novel
ist Howells, in his capacity of his
torian, calls pathetic swindle." The
worst of the dungeons, the vaults in
which the prisoners were bestowed in
darkness, removed from every sight and
sound, the living toombs, each with its
history of baffied ambition and blood
shed, and the den for private executions,
looking like good place to put few tons
of coal, are in the palace itself. The guides
are instructed artists They introduce you
to the Giants stairway, so called from gil
gantic statuary that stand on either side;
then you ascend the stairs of gold-''Scala
d'Oro"-not the golden stairs that lead to
Jerusalem the golden, but those used only
by citizens of high degree, whose names
were written in the golden book as mo
bill" Then you see the halls where his
tory was made and where it was painted;
you see the library and the museum, long
rows of august doges, acres of heroes, the
Venetians aiding the pope to bring the
aggressive Barbarossa to terms, and Bar
barossa as he was brought to kneel before
the pope at the portal of st. Marks, and
the long procession of the departed glories
of Venice. There is narrow hall
leading, you are kindly informed,
to the Bridge of Signs. upon which
you can place your foot, but may
not cross, because there are repairs and
other excuses. There is a smiling priest
door opens, and your feet are upon the
stairs and there is nothing to be seen save
rusty walls and Uttered water. Now you
are turned away to the dungeons, w1sp
OF candle in your hand, the guide chant
ing, "Gentleman, please give your atten-
ton; there are steps here, and do not spoil
your hat" These dungeons were for the
critics and opponents of the government;
those for the traitors, and the easiest way
to answer them was to cut their heads
off. Here is where it was done. Let the
boss live long, and put the printers to
work to tell his deeds in living colors!
But can you not see the Bridge of Signs?
Oh, yes, you can, and here is the place-a
low, solid marble arch, on which you may
truly stand, "a palace and prison on
either hand" and all the rest. and there is
the Bridge of Signs swathed in reeds,
while the workmen are doing something
unexplained, but probably restorative-at
least preservative. There is good deal of
painstaking braclng going on around the
old buildings.
1t is not long since the intense hatred of
Austria was prevalent italian sentiment,
and it was both personal and political.
Now there are reasons to believe that the
Austrians share with the Northern Ger
mans in the goodwill Italy bears those
ST. -
freedom.
The cars of the train on which I left
Venice were unfortunately not manned
simply with hot water vessels, an admir-
able style of preserving the health and
comfort of the passengers, but had steam
heating, and in each compartment is
brake by which steam may be
turned on and the coach given the true
American temperature. Anybody can
turn the steam on or off his car, and the
result is the mercury stands high. 1
much prefer the old way of placing in the
cars copper vessels, long and heavy and
tight, filled with warm water. They keep
the feet warm, and overcoats and rugs do
the rest. As soon as | saw the prepara-
tons for high-heating the cars from
Venice to Vienna l knew l was bound to
catch heavy cold, and Gid so. We shall
soon have nowhere any peace or safety
from steam-heahng devilment, and must
take our chances in the general stew.
The mountain scenery was full of inter
est while the light lasted, and l regretted
not to have longer enjoyment of it; but I
had seen mountains in abundance, and
wanted. TO have look at Vienna and the
Danube. The Austrians were polite at
the custom-house that marked their juris-
diction. The proceedings were not
troublesome or immensely vexatious The
opening of trunks was form. There was
no anxiety about dynamite, or even
touching cigars.
Vienna at once asserts itself as a vast
city. Everything is on grand scale, es-
pecially the Ring Strasse. You need not
go to look TOR the Ring Strasse-you can
not escape it for q single hour. The CITY
is consecutive, too. Much precious time
is occupied in ascending elevators, built
on the Italian plan, and conducted with
the profoundest and most dangerous eau
ton. Mr.. Cook, who personally conducts
so many people, is now responsible for
the elevator on Mount Vesuyius, and it is
to be hoped he is not so long IN sending
up load of passengers and dumping them
convenient TO the crater as il takes to ele-
waite passenger TO one of the upper floors
of Vienna hotel. The great and
thrilling precaution is that the con-
ductor must not ride with you, but