Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-07-11
A VENETIAN PALACE.
ROBERT BARRETT eRoWNlNG IS BEAU
 TIFUL HOUSE.


 Relics of Two Poets Dear to Thousands.
 The Owner Regards All Visitors as His
 Guests and Is Unusually Kind.
 On tho Grand canal at Venice there is a singularly interesting group of build ings. First, at the corner of the small canal which every tourist traverses on his way to and from the station is the great red pile known as the Palazzo Eos college, and young Venetians learn bookkeeping i'll the banquet halls of the old doge. Next to it are two gray and ancient buildings, leaning against each other and the Foscari for support. They form one of the Gustiniani palaces and harbor a mosaic factory Beyond is a solid and rather gloomy looking build ing somewhat aloof from the neighbors and with broad Senicircular flight of steps leading from the pillared entrance down into the water of the Grand canal The posts outside for the convenience of the gondolas arc painted dull brown in contrast with the blue and white posts of the other palaces. High iron gates close tine entrance.
 The first trip you make on the watery highway of Venice your curiosity will be satisfied ill regard to this palace, if on no other point, for every gondolier knows the Browning palace. Get him to poke the nose of his gOndolas between those brown posts, and if the custodian is not ill sight ring the bell beside the iron gates. A rather grabbed looking man will let you in, and with gruff ness which is only, as it were, skin deep tell you to go through the court and up the broad staircase at the rear
 Ill the court you will find q bronze statue of d beautiful woman, about whose nude body q serpent has cOiled its folds. She holds its head to her bosom and looks at it with a strange fundness. If you like speculation, you will begin to wonder what manner of man it is who modelled this figure, and you will climb the staircase with more than ever of anticipation for the sculptor is Rob ert Barrett Browning, the sole heir to the names of two great poets and the master of the house you have come to see.
 At the top of the broad stairs the GUS todian will be waiting for you at the doors leading into great hall with d high freScucd ceiling by TiCpolu and a polished wood floor. If you are as young as it Is to he hoped yuu are, you will take an experimental Whirl across this shining cXTunSp while the custodian s back is turned. Result, an cnviouS sigh when he ,lunuunCeS that this iS the sale  du bal Gou sigh again even more wl>t- fully when he tells yuu that few years ago Emma EaIuCS spent a month as a guest ill this palace, and that every even ing she sang to her host and his friends aS they sat ill the great c;,>y chairs you see on that island of rugs at the other end of the hall. As if it were not enough tu have this delightful old pal ace without also having one of the great singers If the world come and fill it with music! Nuu become more than ever urthuduX on tue subject of ito whom that hath shall be given.
 The custodian mwittiugly helps to ground yuu ill the faith ivy leading you through on" apartment after another filled with beautiful old wood carving. | old frcScurS. inlaid cabinets and pie lures and statues by the owner of 1t all More interesting than the works {: :rt, | however, are the reminders of the two poets whose personalities are so dear to l thousands of people. Here is a bust of | Elizabeth Barrett Browning, modelled l by her son. and her portrait by the same | careful hand, and there is an earlier | portrait of her, more beautiful than those one generally secs, and a bust of her as Il young girl, with the curlS ln | the same way that s',c wore them all l her life Ill Cne corner is the small writ l ing desk she uScd and near it Is the l bust of her husband In a small alcove is reproduction of memorial tablet | ill Florence.
 | One is surprised to find how lvable this big palace has been made. In the first place. the owner in addition to the kind ness of permitting people to visit the house has added the courtesy of regard ing them as probably honest Most "show" houses arc scrupulously swept l and garnishcd of everything which makes them homelikc and real. They contain d barren array of chairs, tables, and so on. but that is all. Mir. Brown | ing has been kinder to the visitors, whom he evidently regards as i'll way | his guests. There are books on the table, | there iS music on the rack i'll the music room. and there are interesting photo graphs of his father and mother. He makes you feel as if he understood why you came and Was glad. You look at his own photograph with a kindly interest and arc not sorry. after all, that he has | and that Emma Flames Camf and sang to him.
 He is, as shown by this photograph, [ man of 80 or g., with dark hair, which ill your present kindly mood you regret to see so thin on top. He has darE mustuche and seems well built fellow
 quite n5 capable of riding across country as of painting the pictures and model
 ing the statues with which the adjoin
 ing hall is filled.
 The dining room, looking out on the canal, has fine big fireplace, lined
 with polished brass. You long to set
 how the light would dance ill it. The
 buffers pantry adjoining is as large a:
 the dining room itself, and the walls
 arc covered with row after TOW of polish
 ed china and glass The library is being
 made over to suit this fastidious young
 man and will be most attractive witt
 the old carved pillars and woodwork he
 has picked up, he knows where. The
 floor above is occupied by bedrooms
 while the ground floor is the home oi
 the custodian, the "boathouse, anG
 general storeroom. Venice Cor. New
 York Sun.