The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-03-12

SS6, and in l5l7 an angel sixteen feet In
 height was placed upon the top; the
 angel is still there and can be seen
 from afar; it is the guardian angel of
 Venice The view from the top of this
 tower is superb.
 The "Lagune,' the Alps and Adriatic
 are visible, and at times the Istrian mountains can be seen rising above the Adriatic. The view taken at sunset is
 a thing which once enjoyed can never
 be forgotten in this world nor in the
 world to come.
 Our world is very beautiful after all,
 and if there is any portion of it's sur
 face which at all resembles the celes-
 tial fields of paradise, it must be sought
 in sunny Italy, where to live is an in- spiration, which is born of blue skies,
 bright sunlight and delightful land
 scapes; it is no wonder to me that Italy
 is, and always has been, the congenial home and abode of art and poetry. I Just beyond the Campanille stands 1 the majestic facade of San Marco.
 The Venetian fleet in the year BPS
 brought the bones of Saint Mark from Alexandria; they were deposited here
 and in the tenth century the basilica was erected over them The church
 has been added to and improved many times from the eleventh to the fifteenth | century, and is decorated with lavish and Oriental magnificence.
 This edifice is two hundred and fifty feet long and one hundred and sixty
 eight feet wide, and is in the form of a | Greek cross. On the inside and out side are no less than five hundred col umns of marble from Oriental coun- tries. Some of the mosaics are more than one thousand years old and cover an area of one hundred and thirty eight thousand square feet.
 The decorations of agate alabaster, marble, glass, mosaics, bronze, brass, gold, silver and carved wood are of great antiquity and of unrivalled beau ty.
 No person who has visited San Marco and carefully inspected the church in all it's parts can give the faintest idea of it's glory.
 It can neither be portrayed upon can vas nor described upon paper. Over the central entrance doors are four horses of gilded bronze; they date back to the days of the Roman emperor Nero, and are truly magnificent, These horses were sent from Rome to Constantinople in the fifth century; they were brought to Venice in 1904; Napoleon sent them to Paris in 1797; they were returned to Venice in 1915. They are among the finest of ancient bronzes. The interior of San Marco is very beautiful; better still, it is grand and majestic and seems to foreshadow the loveliness of heaven itself.
 The columns to be seen in the wide Vestibule with the Corinthian capitals surmounting them, are among the finest in the world, and the large red marble slab in the pavement is very interesting, for upon this very piece of red marble stood the Pope Alexander III. in 1177 with his right foot placed upon the neck of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa at the time of the great re- conciliation. Let us enter the church itself; beautiful candelabra, finely exe- cuted marbles and rare old twelfth cen- tury Madonnas are to be seen all about us, while the splendid service of the Church of Rome is conducted at the high altar; the strains of exquisite mu- sic with the smoke of rising incense make a most impressive scene. Beg gars and princes. rich and poor wor- ship God side by side, which is as it | ought to be, and therein consists a | charming feature in the worship of the | Roman Catholic service; all sorts and | conditions come together in their | churches and worship God on a perfect equality. The "Pala D'oro," an ena- melled work with jewels set in plates of gold and silver forms the altar piece; this was made in Constantinople in the year 1105, Its cost was over two million dollars. The treasury of the church contains valuables, money and jewels to the amount of two million dollars; so there is no debt in that quarter Behind the Pala D'oro are four spiral columns of transparent ala baster; these came from Solomons temple at Jerusalem. There are five immense domes in the roof, which are lined with magnificent mosaics of the tenth and twelfth centuries. A tour through the saeristy, baptistry, crypt and singular stone galleries and out on the roof, going beneath the bronze horses, is a thing of great interest In One of the chapels in San Marco is a piece of hewn agate said to be the argest specimen of agate in the world, l stone of very great value. Beautiful church lamps in great numbers and of great antiquity depend from the cell ng and altogether the interior of this ,hurch is one of the loveliest places rave ever seen. For nearly a month yisited San Marco twice or thrice each lay, and could never weary of the love- y place. l have seen Protestants en- CT this church and become so i'm ( pressed with its majestic surroundings hat they at once fell upon their knees $ n prayer. The thought never occurred ( o them whether they were Romanists s r Protestants. There is an inspiration I 'orn of past ages as we'll as of present ' ines connected with the whole atnos- I here of San Marco, and countless z rayers ascend from countless hearts ( s the people come and go. Although I ave written at length concerning San 2 Tarco, I feel that I can convey no ade- i uate idea of the charming spot; so let V s pass out of the front portal, and r lrning to the left enter the Ducal pal V ce. t We pass two square pilasters of eautifully carved marble; they were