Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-03-01

DuIH lHG JuhllkltsS Oll VI MS IuluIo
calling; in porting over the Petrarch
manuscripts in the library in the great
hall of the Grand Council of the Doges,
which he could no more decipher than
could saltwater Stipples; or in standing
upon ST. Mark scampanile and ANNOUNCE
ing in tones loud enough to still the tut-
tering doves around him "Here stand
where once Calico stood" But these
were not altogether vicious occupations.
They employed the young mans time
fully. And they gave the yeasty, college
befuddled gray matter of one member
of the Stipples family in Venice GER
tain grade Of activity far better than
none at all.
Miss Venetia Stipples-Venetia, she
had rechristened herself long ago within
the dim cloisters of Vassar-was for
time as crushed lily, crushed and
swirled by the pitt ess eddies of spring
time freshet of Unappreciative lgnor.
ance. To be deprived the tyranny of
raving about Art and Medievalism and
Mold to enchanted sufferers around one,
robs dilettanteism of its supremest zest.
Bitter, if tiny and trickling and few,
were the tears she shed, as with guide
book in one hand, Ruskin's "Stonies of
Venice" in another, and delicate lace
handkerchief between, she sat before
her shrines, bathing her rapt soul in
Venetian shafts of Byzantine light. In
time she regained her spirits; for there
is martyr like exaltation which may
come to all esthetic spirits from self
consciousness of silent communion
with the gods, transcending far those
thrills of triumph from the temporary
badgering of mankind with the bulls
and bans of books. So, to Venetia Slip
pies, the crumbling fountains whispered
their secrets; every defaced gargoyle,
satyr or faun leered pagan lore; the daz-
zling mosaics of st. Marks had to her
more precious setting than their own
beaten ground Of gold; while the color
tlamings of Paul Veronese, the gorgeous
composites of Tintoretto, or the stupen-
deus canvases and frescoes of Titan
were her painting fancy's mounting
wings to her own Venetian heaven.
Olive Supples-common, coarse, bar
barian, hoydGn, gurgling, giggling, sun
shine-bringing Olive Stipples !-setting
AL Venetian precedent at sacIilegious
defiance, the loggia in disorder, the gon-
doliers at war, the lazzaroni in laughter,
the kitchen in a whrlwind and grin
ming Elena into housekeeping trenzies of
impotence and delight, never, never had
SO jolly time in all her merry life.
1t began the very day, indeed the very
hour, when saltwater Stlpples had fin
ished Strengthening things out" and
Dennis McCann, laying aside his robes
of imperial guidance of the Stipples
family, had been rushed by Olive aud
Rose to the shadowy kitchen depths,
and there "Poor Dennised p and Dear
Dennised y until lilarlously proud of
his fallen state.
1t began, too, with conspiracy; con
spiracy us deft and deep against the
doing Mr.. Stipples in the balcony
above as ever was Matched in Venice
against doing Doge; a conspiracy in
elusive of brazen bribery, of ridiculous
protests, of mortified ejaculation, Of
peals of laughter, of chattering Condo
liers, Of the easily-purchased conscience
of Elena; drawing into its subtle folds
the poverini from outlying .campos,
urchins from the traghetti, pawn
brokers' agents from the Rialto grin.
ming boatmakers from the Squeri Of
SAINT Royaso old women with stains like
henna paste; until tine kitchen OF Casa
Patrlce swarmed with going and coming
conspirators, each entering with ire
mendous gravity; all leaving as though
| filled with the side.shaking elixir of
mlrth; and Olive Stipples, arch con-
| spirator and queen of misrule, superin-
tending its minutest detail and becom-
ing so filled with its ccstatic Importance,
that she now never left off giggling and
gurgling by day and hardly by night.
So grave was its nature that Still.
water Stipples begun to feel its secret
hand. 1t set him. to quarreling with
the gondoliers. II haunted him with
their half threatening appeals for in
creased hire and added gratuities. 1t
stopped his gondola silent in the stream
at exasperating moments OF haste. II
embroiled gondollcrs in quarrels over
his own and his good wife's head. 1t
| pitched the voice of his beatmen to
unearthly key in endless and irritating
songs. 1t took him to wrong landings.
| 1t provoked collisions. 1t despatched
him with brine and befouled him with
vegetables and bark and fish and lime
1t finally nearly upset him at his own
traghetto, when his patience ceased en-
tirely and, removing his coat, he invited
the "hull internal crew Of Venus
gondolers" to that precise spot to get
clicked" instead Of which they Aoated
tauntingly and grlmacingly away;
whereupon blue-eyed Rose, hig-eyed
Elena and laughing-eyed Olive sooth-
ingly lured him to the restrul balcony,
and there told him Of gondolier they
had found; gentle, careful, kindly
gondolior; one who could read and hear
the English tongue, but who, more Won
derful and blessed than all else to the
exhausted Mr.. Stipples and his patient
wife--was dumb .
And with such strange resemblance
to Dennis, too; so stalwart, agile, fine;
more curious than all, his name was
DEMO, and La Rosa his fairy, feathery
| Venetian craft.
So DEMO and La Rosa came TO their
new paron with the morn; the one
grave.f faced and mute, with as black
and curly beard and hair, blue eyes and
| glistening teeth, as ever graced u Galway
poacher's head with brown, bare arms
and neck and chest and feet; with the
red cap and sash OF the Castellani race;
the otner, with prov and ferri shining
like FURNISHED silver; with the prettiest
and snuggest fclze in Venice, bright
with gay colored awnings, softcushions
and gleamings of brass; and with a
second gondolier, as helper to the
brawny DEMO, picturesque as the latter,
but given to startling facial changes, as
he gazed upon the Stipples family,
which played over his swarthy counten-
ance every mask of fleeing expression
from fearful fright to bubOling, explo-
sive mirth.
Then came the perfect days; days on