The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-08-05
Thibodaux Sfntinel.
VISITING VENICE.
The Wild Tourist Who Moves About With
q Rush.


The wild Tourist who Moves About with
a Rush.
Nine people out of ten on their first
visit to Venice never take time to feel
the calm that is inseperable from a true
appreciation of the genus loci. They
betake themselves to gondolas instead
of cabs, and are to be seen darting
about, guide-book in hand, like fretful
midgets, from morn till night. They
are ever and anon shot out of their
gondolas at the command of Baedeker
or Bradshaw, or that more awfully pal
pable demon, the local guide, and driv-
en- up the steps of church after church,
palace after palace, where in a few brief
moments they imagine they have seen
a whole galaxy of chef d0urres by Ii
tian, Tintoretto, or Bellini, or think
they have impressed on their memories
j acres of marvellous mosaics and count
less treasures in sculpture, ironwork,
silverwork, woodwork, friezes and
frescoes.
In lucid intervals snatched from this
memorable t%readmill, they devour hasty
meals. feed the pigeons in. st. Marks
Square, pant up to the top of the Cam
panile and down again, buy Nenitian
glass from Salviati. which can be bought
at his branch establishment in Regent
street or from the Venice Murano Co.
{who also dwell in st. James street,,
discharge the almost universal kodak
at every thing, animate and inaniinate,
within range, hear three separate par
49, - --a-aI~-. III l---- lsT
tunes at the same time on the Grand
canal in the evening; and then, having
had no more time to take breath than
this poor sentence of mine. they are
hurried off once more to the railroad
station, hurried into the train, and
whirled away into space, overcome with
a tumultuous conviction that Venice is
a b~ewildering museum of antiquities
built on piles (for SO the guide-books
say along the banks of great, nasty.
unwholesome little canals into which
the drainage of the city falls. They con-
slider themselves lucky to have escaped
without typhoid, cholera, or at least a
virulent form of dysentery. And they
are right: for how the ordinary tourist
or A~nglO-Saxon, transatlantic or leu
tonic bred does SO often escape unin-
jured is a marvel, considering his hast
lily bolted meals taken without refer
ence to climatic conditions. and his un-
interrupted exertions alternately in
the boiling sun and in cold buildings at
hours of the day when none but dogs
and E~nglishmen," as the Italians say,
venture abroad" If there be added
to this his persistent bathing at Lido
when in a state of great heat and ex-
haustion, there is hardly anything left
to complete the catalogue of hygienic
crimes boldly committed by John, Jon
athan and Hans, their wives, sons and
daughters.
AS to the natural EMBELLISHMENTS
of Venice, it seems to be generally for
gotten that the tide rises and falls
vice in the tw~enty-four hours, and
that there is no greater purifier than
the salt sea which surrounds. and inter-
sects every part of the town. Though
foreigners who visit the Adriatic have
their own preconceived notions as to
when it is safe to live here and Nhen
not. the regular inhabitants, whether
vi AolSiSh. oLllt ISSdlu oulV
as the one month to be avoided because
of the extreme heat: and those who
can afford it GO to the hills OF Asole,
that Browning loved, for a few weeks,
to return in August for the sea-bathing
at Lido. The timid sanitarian will GER
tainly find at all times odd little cor
ners, beautiful and u~nsavory, which
will fill him with mingled emotions;
but n has to go far for a breath
of fresh sea air. Once a few minutes
journey out of the town, and there is
borne in upon n that illimitable vista
of sea and island, island and sea, melt
ing away into the far horizon, which
gives u feeling of breadth and grandeur
to compensate for the Christening effect
produced on the mind by faded palaces
and half-deserted water-ways.-S st.
James Gazette.