The times., 1899-09-17

| ed, joyial young fellow, without single
| fault, unless it was that he was a free
| thinker. OF course, it is very bad to be
freethinker, though, after all, it is a
matter which does not greatly concern
] anyone except the freethinker himself;
and then he can always change his opin-
| ions when he comes to die and can con-
fess and be absolved like any other
Christian. unless he has the ill-luck to
be drowned where there is no priest at
hand. Sandro was always ready TO help
a friend in distress, and he nearly al
ways bad money in his pocket; for he
was SO franz, and honest in mis- ways
| with the foreigners whom he rowed that
he could nearly always charge them at
least double the tariff fare, and collect it
without making them suspicious. That
| so good a fellow and clever a gondolier
| should have been compelled to stab a,
man was certainly 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.
| Sandro did not stay in prison longer than
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 Nardo was dead, and that Sandro must
! be released with a solemn warning never
/ TO stab another man. While people were
/ glad that Sandro was released, there was a
| general feeling that the magistrate had no
| right to dispute Sandro's word Had he
not said dozens of times that he had been
! obliged to kill Nardo because the latter
/ openly asserted that Sandro's grandfather
! did not win the regatta in 1898, whereas
/ the very flag that the grandfather won is
/ still hanging in Sandro's house? 1t was
/ certainly not polite in the magistrate to
/ pay no attention to what Sandro said and
| to decide that there was no proof of Mar
dos death. But magistrates have no re-
gard for other peoples feelings, and that is
the reason why they are magistrates and
send poor men to prison for next to moth
ing. When Lissandro came out of jail
eleven gondoliers belonging to his traghet-
TO gave him dinner at the Osteria della
Pace, in the Gale Lunga S. Barnabo 1t
was capital dinner, consisting of fried
fish and polenta and all the wine that any
one cared to call for. The fish were Aeau-
tifully cooked, the polenta was of the very
best, golden in color, and as light as a
feather; two slices of it were all that a
man wanted to eat, so generously thick
did the landlord serve it. AS for the wine
ii was last years Verona reasonably pure.
and good and strong When the dinner
was finished the guests lit genuine Tuscan
cigars that the landlord furnished without
charge, and each man began TO drink in
earnest
Lissandro had borne his punishment
well He was trifie thinner than form
erly, but he was in excellent health and
spirits. He told once more the familiar
story of his dispute with Nardo, introduc-
ing several entirely new variations, which
tended TO show his great forbearance
when the quarrel began, and the tremen-
dous strength and activity which he
exercised when the fatal struggle cul-
minated 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 char
acterize the conduct of the police in ar
resting him for a matter which was none
of their business. Suddenly a grave old
gondolier, who was regarded as the
father of the traghetto and who had been
absorbing his wine in comparative silence
asked Sandro il he did not fear that the
ghost of Nardo would appear to him.
Thou knowest," said the old gon6olier.
that when a man has not had Chris
tian burial his ghost will wander every
where, trying to find some one who will
give him a comfortable grave. Now
Nardo must have been carried out to sea,
and 1T is my opinion that some night he
will come back and haunt you
Go away, Bartolo!' cried Sandro
There are no such things as ghosts.
When a 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,
l should not be in the least afraid of a
ghost, even If there was one who came
to see me. If ! am not afraid OF live
men l need not be afraid of dead ones"
When you say there are no ghosts
| replied Bartolo, you forget the picture
in the academy, which proves that the
blessed Saints Mark and Nicholas and
George appeared to fisherman, and made
him row them over to s. Andrea. If there
are ghosts Of saints there must be ghosts
of Sinners"
Not at all, said Sandro. '"The saints
and don't deny that there may be
| saints, though ] have never seen one of
course, work miracles and consequently
they can make ghosts of themselves if
they want to. But Nardo was Lo. a saint,
| as every one will agree. So whatever
done has nothing to do with what Nardo
can or cannot do Besides i am not so
sure about that story of the saints and the
fisherman. True, there is the picture. but
anyone could have painted it. What 1
want to know is where is the ring that
the ghost of Saint Mark gave TO the fish
erman. Show me that ring and perhaps
I may believe the story
Just then loud clap of thunder shook
the wall of the Osteria, and two of the
younger gondoliers crossed themselves
You see, Sandro," said the older gondo-
| lier, solemnly, "it does not do to say bias
| phemous things about St Mark. There is
! going to be storm, and who knows that
/ ii is not sent to rebuke thee? There was a
man whom ! knew-a man much of thy
I age and appearance. He too, was an In
believer. and he said one night at the ira
4 ghetto of S. Toma in the presence of four
| or five of US, that he didn't consider st.
| Mark fit to be a patron saint, because he
did not send German travellers to Venice
| except in the spring. Ten days later that
man played eight soldi in the lottery, put
ting two solid on each of four numbers.
! What happened? Why, every one of those
numbers won; and the man was fit TO kill
himself because he had not played on the
| quaterno. Instead of winning a few lire
he might have won fortune. That shows
| that II is dangerous TO speak lightly of the
/ blessed saints
I have nothing to say against the
| saints, returned Sandro, who did not seem
very much impressed by the others narra-
! tive. j let them alone, and / expect them
to let me alone. But ghosts are a different
thing. Now, / don't care a centesimo for
all the ghosts in purgatory: in the second
place, there are no ghosts. and in the third
place, if Nardo has ghost looking for me-
/ shall be glad to see him here or anywhere
else, and viii agree to offer him a bottle
of wine and to share it with him.
For heavens sake, Sandroi" cried
young gondolier-Antonio the Foolish
don't speak such wild and wicked