Smyrna times., 1896-11-25
THE BEAUTIES OF VENICE.
Letter from Roland W. Bell Incident to
his Cruise abroad


scriptiOn which was written in letter
from Roland w. Bell, of the United
States Navy, to his mother Mrs. w.
NJ. Bell of this town:
U. S. ''MARBLEHEAD" VENICE, ITALY,
July 8, 1896 Since my last letter to
you, have visited nearly every place of
interest Ill Venice. The two principal
buildings are st. Marks Cathedral and
the Dage's Palace. Immediately in
front of the Cathedral is ST Marks
Square surpassed by no other in the
world" as the Venetians say. 1t surely
is very pretty and especially so at night
with its many lights and gay throngs
1t seems as if all the people nearly in
| the city cOngregate in the evening to
walk around the square and listen to
the music. The stand is in the center
and it is claimed to be the finest band
in Italy. 1t numbers about one hun
dred and twenty. Over the three
! entrances to the Cathedral there is
splendid glass mosaic work.
Inside the Cathedral nearly every
thing is mosaic The main chancel is
grand and in front of it, separating it
from the main body of the church, is a
parapet of variageted marbles support
ing eight small columns, surmounted
by cOrnice, on which stand fourteen
marble statues, the Virgin, st. Mark
and the twelve Apostles. In the center
is magnificent silver crucifx. The
| dull tints cast on the mOsaics of the
uneven floor and ON the walls, make
the general effect of the interior what
| 1t is. The sarcOphagus which contains
the supposed remains of st. Mark is in
the center of the main chancel. The
original body of St. Mark was brought
from Alexandria by two Venetian sea
captains. The body was wrapped in
pork (Which the Mussulmen hold in
horror and in this way it was taken
to the vessel. The body was then
wrapped in a sail and suspended to the
mainmast and was kept there until the
time of departure for it was necessary
to keep the precious booty from those
that might come to clear the ship.
The body was brought to Venice and
was destroyed by fire in 976.
Immediately in front of St Marks is
the great Campanile which contains
the chimes of the Cathedral. 1t has
winding, easy foOtpath (no steps
which leads to the summit. 1t was
started in 88S but not entirely COM
pleted until 1911. The view from the
top is grand and is the only way of
understanding the plan of the city.
Toward the nOrthward we can quite
plainly see the Alps. A great peculi-
arity in the view is that the canals are
not visible, only the closely packed
houses. Should Judge the tower to be
about two hundred and fifty feet high.
The ''Palazzo Ducale" or the Dages
Palace was built in $50 and has been
added to, damaged and restored and
nearly entirely rebuilt, several times.
In most buildings the basement story
is heaviest and each succeeding story
increases in lightness, but in the
Ducal Palace this is reversed. making
1t very odd among the architectural
specimens. The lower story is sup
ported by thirty-six columns, the
second story by about double that
number and above that is solid wall re-
lieved only by several arched windows.
Some of the pictures in the Ducal Palace
are the best [ have ever seen. One bv
Paul VerOnese entitled ''Venice
Throned" struck me more than all of
the sOthers. We saw several of Titan.
TintOrettO and Giorane. We crossed
over that pathetic swindle" (HowelD.
the Bridge of Sighs and into the Prison
on the other side. The prison is still
in use and about the only thing of real
interest was some of the confessional
cells where the prisoner was made to
confess whether he was guilty or not
We next visited some of the larger
churches including S. Maria del
Gesultl, La Madonna DELI Orto, the
Frari, Scuola di S. Rocco and MANY
others. The latter has the most i'm
portant works of Tintorette and Titan,
white the Frari church has very
pretty statue of Canora, the celebrated
sculptor. On one evening we made
tour of the Grand Canal by moonlight.
Life In gOndola is charming and as a
mode OF conveyance it is slower but
much easier than the carriage for YOU
have no street car tracks. cobble.
stones ETC., to ride over. The only
thing is the small swell from the pas
sing steamer at times.
L went all over the city several times
In the gondolas to see the different
quarters. One day at noon went over
to the Square to feed the pigeons of
st. Mark There are thousands of |
them and as tame as can be. Every |
noon they light ON the pavement to be |
fed There was an amusing incident |
occurred on that day, little child was
walking along the square with piece
of fresh cake in his hand and as soon
as the pigeons noticed it they COM
menced to light on his shoulders, arms
and every available spot. Finally the
youngster had to give it up and he sat
down ON the pavement and commenced
to cry. The pigeons know exactly
when it is twelve o'clock and ON several
occasions the chimes which ring at
noon we're delayed for some time to see
if the pigeons would notice the diff
ference They did and commenced to
flock around the belfrey. We have
had very pleasant stay here and leave
to night for Triest, Austria.
RoLNND w, BELL.