The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-03-16

the old days Of Nenlce. we Sllde QulCk- ly by many palaces and cannot but ad'
 mire their beautiful facades, rich and glorious, with painted arches and deli
 cate tracery of the fourteenth century
 with great battlements towering far up
 ward like fortresses.
 Palace "Rezzonigo" the property oi
 the late Robert Browning, is a very
 large and majestic building. I was told
 that this palace was bought for $2O,000,
 only a few years since. The palaces
 ''F'oscari," "Grimani," "Pisani," are es- pecially noticeable. Palace "Mocenigo,'
 three palaces in one was occupied by
 Lord Byron in 1918, and from one of its
 great basket-like balconies one dark
 night, one of his mistresses threw her
 self into the waters of the Grand canal.
 We continue to row by numberless pal
 aces and what a delightful experience it
 is to view them from our snug little
 gondola. The palace Ca Capello" was
 owned by the late Sir Henry Layard,
 the great traveller and there is very
 wonderful collection there of interest,"
 ing objects gathered from many coun-
 tries. Near by is the palace "Bernards," ,"
 the very oldest Gothic edifice in Venice.
 The palace "Grimani' is noticeable for
 it's very beautiful architecture. We now
 pass the historic palace "Loredan," the
 home of Catherine Cornaro, whose ar
 morial bearings are still to be seen on
 the imposing front; this is the most
 beautiful palace on the Grand canal
 Which is saying good deal. As we pass under the great single span of the
 "Rialto" (Rtvo Alto) we must stop be- heath it's cool shadows and take a good view of this grand historic bridge.
 We may fancy Shylock the Jew in his anger crying out to Antonio, "In the Rialto you have rated me about my monies"-and the Rialto with its sur roundings smack strongly of Shylock
 and fellows of his nation. In 11S0 wooden bridge was built at this point, and this old bridge is plainly seen in Carpaccio's picture in the academy. The present Rialto bridge was built in 1590; 1t is 160 feet long and 90 feet wide, single marble arch of "A feet span, and 32 feet wide, resting upon 12,0Q0 piles. It is singularly busy place, and one of the most historic localities in this wcn- derfully historic city Rows of quaint shops seem to chase one another over the top of the bridge, and look down upon the canal and view the palaces of bygone times, calling to mind the events or the past thousand years and longer IS something to make one reminiscent, and old characters of history seem to flt by us like shadows of the dead past
 After we pass the Rialto we note the Palaces ''Pesaro" and Ca D'Oro," the latter originally gilded and one of the most brilliant of all the palaces in Ven ice. The Palace "Calergi," with it's carved motto Mon Nobis." is simply superb and of grand proportions; here Richard Wagner died in 1883. The pal aces of Venice must have been gor- geous and magnificent in the olden days, but to me there is a feeling of sadness associated with them. The men who built them have passed away and their wealth has vanished Their old homes, with many marks of age re- main, owned chiefly by Jews, and the waters of the Adriatic ebb and flow 1t their door steps, as of yore, while the shiny sea weed clings to the founda- tions. There is an imposing building which was built in the thirteenth cen tury, and it is a familiar object down near the Rialto. It was destroyed by fire in 1050 and rebuilt by the state and let to the Germans as warehouse.
 This building was decorated on the outside by splendid frescoes by Gior- gione and Titan; those bright represen- .ations have faded and disappeared, | put as you cross over the Rialto if you | ook for a moment at the side of the | building which faces the Grand canal | you will see the vestiges of a magnif- | 'ent figure near the top of the oornice md over the door in the alley is a fine igure of Justice painted by Titan. In hose old days the artists made their ,wn paints and this is one reason why heir pictures have endured for centu- 'ies Down towards the railway sta ion a canal branches off from the Brand canal and is called the Canareg- ;io, and at the point of divergence tands the old Church of St Geremia: eaYing this on our left we row along passing the Palace Labia, where are to 'e seen the brilliant frescoes of Tiepolo; ust beyond is the Palace Maufrin, where we visit a fine picture gallery;
 irectly opposite, on the other side of he canal, is the Ghetto.
 The Ghetto IS one of the lions of Ven oe in an historical point of view not a
 ion of heroic nature bold, brave and oble, but a hideous, emaciated, cow rdly creature, which fattens upon the cad past and keeps alive and fresh he memory of dreadful scenes and hor- ible deeds, a creature of the fourteenth entury, as it were endeavoring to palm self off as possessing the bold noble alities of our nineteenth century. An SIS in a lions skin; as one enters the -hetto he seems to drop backward and ownwards five hundred years; a grue- 0me, horrible place is this home of the Id Jews. Tn this place they were op- ressed with an oppression equal to 1 nat of the old Pharonic days Here ley swarmed and festered like mag i cts; here for generations they were ( orn, they lived and waxed here to tot ,ring old age and in this same Ghetto ley passed away to the future life, ( osing their weary eyes upon scenes of { Ith and misery, as they looked be- z 1nd hoping to find rewards and de- { ghtful homes in the realm of the God l their father Abraham, beyond the ' visible river of death. Ghetto in He ' 'ew signifies a congregation, a fit { 1m, for the Jews congregated here by I