The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1898-03-23
THE PIGEONS OF VENICE.
After Persecution the Birds Have
Been Adopted by the City.

Been Adopted by the City.
1t is satisfactory to learn that the
pigeons of the Piazzi di San Marco have
at length secured civic and social
status of the utmost responsibility in
their native city. Hitherto their rights
and privileges, though unreservedly
recognized and acGuiesced in by towns
men and tourists alike, were not firmly
established upon any indisputable legal
basis and had nothing more solid to
stand upon than the unwritten statutes
of ancient usages. The drawbacks of
questionable tenure" such as that
which these interesting birds have ex-
ercised in the purlieus of ST. Marks ca
thedral from time inmemorial, in yir-
tue of tradition and sentiment, have
now been finally swept away at the cost
of a few innocent lives. the sacrifice of
which recently gave rise to judicial in
designations of curiously elaborate
and protracted character. Figurative-
ly speaking. the pigeons of Venice have
been to law in sheer self-defense, have
carried their case-with the aid of their
best friends, the Venetian municipal
councilors-through the Italian courts
of three instances" and are now legal
~ guaranteed against nolestation and
want by conclusive decision of the
royal tribune of appeal, which virtually
acknowledges them as the adopted chill
dren of the local mayor and corpora
ton, and entities them for evermore tc
the protection of the authorities, who
will henceforth stand to them in loco
PARENTS"
One can scarcely conceive that such
pretty. harmless, confding creatures
as the public pests of Venice should
have been constrained by cruel per-
secution to set the clumsy machinery
of Italian law in motion in order tc
formally regulate their physical posi-.
ton. To such straits as these, how
ever. the pigeons of st. Mark were re-
duced by the savagery of the demon
street boy. whose ferocious vagaries
are the terror of tame animals, as well
as of law-abiding citizens, in every great
city of Christendom. Not long age
some of these truculent little gamins
were caught redhanded in the very act
of Staying the unsuspicious birds that
strut about the huge tagged square
all day long. preening themselves in the
sunlight, keeping bright eye on the
main chance and briskly expectant of
the goods the gods provide" which,
indeed. seldom fail to satisfy their ex-
pectations. The Juvenile miscreants
were promptly seized and hauled away
by the executive TO answer for their
crimes before q Venetian tribunal 1t
may be hoped that while they were in
custody awaiting arraignment they
were haunted by dread visions of Casa
nova and Silvio -Pellico. shivering or
sweltering ,''sotto piombi." or of the
damp dungeons far beneath the water
level that are still accessible from the
back of the ducal palace by the dismal
Bridge of Signs.
Before they could be tried and SEN
fenced. however, it was indispensable
that they should be prosecuted, and the
question arose how could an indictment
be legally framed against them for kill
ing pigeons which belonged to no one
in particular, and were only public
property in the sense that they sub
sisted upon voluntary contributions of
miscellaneous food? This question was
satisfactorily answered. after the cul-
prits had been subjected to certain
amount of preventive detention" by
the municipality of Venice, which came
to the front ''as one man." and claimed
the feathered occupants of the piazzi as
the property of the amphibious queen
of the Adriatic. The court of first in
stance allowed the claim of the Vene-
tan common council. and the ragamuf-
fins were duly fined and imprisoned;
but. as we have already stated, the
pigeons case was reconsidered by tri- ,
bunals of still higher rank, and has
only just been definitely decided in
their favor by the supreme court of APP
peal.-London Telegraph.