The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-10-19
...NAlDO'S GHOST =.
BY w. l.. Alden.
(From the Boston Journal.)

We'll AlSSanOrO naQ the misfortune u
Kill Nardo there was scarcely gondoliel
IN Venice who did not sympathiZe with
him. Lissandro was a good-tempered
jovial young fellow, without single fault
unless it was that he was freethinker. Oh
course, it is very bad to be freethinker
though, after all, it is a matter which does
not greatly concern any one except the free.
thinker himself; and then he can always
change his opinions when he comes to die
and can confess and be absolved like any
other Christian, unless he has the ill-luch
to be drowned where there is no priest al
hand Sandro was always ready to heir
friend In distress, and he nearly always
had money in his pocket, for he was SC
frank and honest in his ways with the for
e1gners whom he rowed that he could near
ly always charge them at least double the
tarlf fare and collect it without making
them suspicious That so good a fellow and
clever gondolier should have been COM
PEELED to stab man was certainly a great
pity, and the day that Sandro went to
prison more than one friendly gondolier
shed tears and cursed the meddling of the
police in the strongest possible language.
Sander did not stay in prison longer than
about four months. Although everybody
knew that he had stabbed Nardo and thrown
his body into the basin at the further end
OF the Riva degli Schiavoni, the body was
never found, and so the magistrate said that
there no sufficient Sroof that Nardo was
dead, and than Sandro must be released,
with solemn warning never to stab an
other man. While people were glad that
Sandro was released, there was a general
feeling that the magistrate had no right to
dispute Sandros word Had he not said
dozens of times that he had been obliged
to kill Nardo because the latter openly as
serted that Sandro's grandfather did not win
the regatta in 1898. whereas the very flag
that the grandfather won is still hanging
In Sandros house? 1t was certainly not
polite in the magistrate to pay no atten-
ton to what Sandro said, and to decide that
there was no proof Of Nardo's death But
magistrates have no regard for other peo-
pies feelings, and that is the reason why
they are magistrates and send poor men to
prison for next to nothing. When Lissan-
dro came out of Jail, IL gondoliers belonging
to his traghetto gave him dinner at the
Osteria della Pace, in the Gale Lunga S.
barnabo. 1t was a capital dinner, consist
Ing OF fresh fish and polenta and all the
wine that any one cared to call for. The
hsh were beautifully cooked, the polenta
was of the very best, golden in color and
as light as feather: two slices of it were
all that man wanted to eat, SO generously
th1ck dld the landlord serve it. AS for the
wine, it was last years Verona, reasonably
pure, and good and strong. When the din
ner was finished the guests, lit genuine Tus-
can cigars that the landlord furnished with
out charge, and each man began to drink
in earnest.
Lissandro had borne his Imprisonment
we'll He a trfle thinner than former
ly, but he was in excellent health and
spirits He told once more the familiar
story of his dispute with Nardo introducing
several entirely new variations, which tend
ed to show his great forbearance when the
quarrel began, and the tremendous strength
and activity which he exercised when the
fatal struggle eliminated. His comrades
unanimously agreed that he could not have
acted more nobly than he had acted, and
that there were no terms strong enough
to characterize the conduct of the police in
him for a matter which was none
of their business. Suddenly grave old
gondoier, who was regarded as the father
OF the traghetto, and who had been abb
sorbng his wine in comparative silence
asked Sandro if he did not fear that the
ghost of Nardo would appear to him.
Thou knowest," said the old gondolier,
Cudt wien d Ildu mas not naO Christian
burial his ghost will wander everywhere,
trying to find some one who will give him
grave. Now Nardo must have
been carried out to sea, and 1T is my opin-
ion that some night he will come back and
haunt YOU
Go away, Bartolo!" cried sandro There
are no such things as ghosts. When man
dies, either that is an end Of him, or else
he goes so far away that he can never find
his way back. Besides, should not be
in the least afraid Of ghost, even if there
was one who came to see me- If l am not
afraid of live men / need not be afraid of
dead Ones"
when you say there are no ghosts" re-
piled Bratolo, you forget the picture in
The Academy, which proves that the blessed
saints Mark and Nicholas and George ap-
oeared to a fisherman and made him row
hem over to s. Andrea. If there are
ghosts of saints there must be ghosts OF
Sinners"
Not at all! said Sandro 1.-The saints,
md l don't deny that there may be saints
though l have never seen one, can, of
course, work miracles, and consequently
hey can make ghosts of themselves if they
want to. But Nardo was not saint, as
every one will agree. So whatever Saint
Mark and his comrades may have done has
nothing to do with what Nardo can or can
lot do. Besides, l am not so sure about
hat story of the saints and the fisherman.
True. there is the picture, but any one could
lave painted it. What 1 want to know is,
where is the RUG that the ghost of Saint
Mark gave to the fisherman. Show me that |
ing and perhaps l may believe the story" |
Just then loud clap of thunder shook |
he wall of the Osteria, and two of the |
younger gondoliers crossed themselves |
You see, Sandro, said the old gondolier.
lit does not do to say blasphe-
nous things about Saint Mark There is |
,oing to be a storm, and who knows that |
is not sent to rebuke thee. There was
man whom l knew, a man much of thy
&c and appearance: he, too, was an unbe-
lever, and he said one night at the traghet-
o of S. Toma, in the presence Of four or
i've of us, that he didn't consider Saint
lark fit to be a patron saint, because he
i'd not send German travellers to Venice
kept in the spring. Ten days later that
1an played eight soldi in the lottery, put
Ing two soldi on each of four numbers.
What happened? Why, every one of those
umbers won, and the man was fit to kill
hmself because he had not played on the
uaterno. Instead Of winning few lire
e might have won a fortune. That shows
nat 1t is dangerous to speak lightly of the
lessed saints
i nave nothing to say against the saints"
eturned Sandro. who did not seem very
ouch impressed by the others narrative.
l let them alone, and I expect them to let
he alone. But ghosts are different thing.
low l don't care centismo for all the