The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-08-08
E' VISITING VENICE.
The Wild Tourist Who Moves About Witt
u. Rush.

Rush.
Nine people out Of ten on their first
visit to Venice never take time to feel
the calm that is inseperable from 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 81 and anon shot out of their
gondolas at the command of BaedelSer
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 . few brief
moments they imagine they have seen
whole galaxy of chg deucres by Ii
tian, Tinsoretto, or Bellini, or think
| they have impressed on their memories
acres of. marvellous mosaics and count
less treasures in sculpture, ironwork,
silverwork, woodwork, friezes and
frescoes.
In lucid intervals snatched from this
memorable treadmill, they devour hasty
J meals. feed the pigeons in st. Mark S
Square, pant up to the top of the Cam
panile and down again. buy Venitian
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 inanimate,
within range, hear three separate par
ties of serenaders all bawling different
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 bewildering 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 Anglo-Saxon, transatlantic or leu
tonic bred does so often escape uuin-
jured is q marvel, considering his hast
ily bolted meals taken without refer
ence TO climatic conditions, and his I'M
interrupted exertions alternately in
the boiling sun and in cold buildings at
hours of the day when none but dogs
and Englishmen." as the Italians say.
venture abroad" II there he added
to this his persistent bathing at Lido
when in a state of great heat and ex-
haustion, there is hardly anything left
20 complete the catalogue OF hygienic
crimes boldly committed by John, JON
athan and Hans, their wives, sons and
daughters.
As to the natural unwholesornsness
Of Venice. it seems to be generally for
gotten that the tide rises and falls
twice in the tventy-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 precorceived notions as 70
when il is safe 20 live here. and when
not, the regular inhabitants, whether
native-born or foreign. only regard July
Of the extreme heat; and those who
can afford IL go 20 the hills az Asole,
tina: Browning loved. for a few weeks
20 return IN August for the ses-hathing
at Lido. The tirnid sanitarian viii GER
tainly find al ali times odd Little cor
ners, beautiful and unsAvory, which
will FL him with mingled emotions.
but one has never 10 20 far for a breath
OF fresh sea air. Once a few minutes
Journey ont % the town. and there Is
borne IN upon one that inirnitanle vista
Of sea and island island and ses. melt
ing away into the f3r horizon. which
gives a feeling % breadth and grandeur
TO onpensatss for The Christening effect
produced on the mind by faded palaces
and half-SIeaerfe4 water-wsyx--- 81