The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-11-14
.
! NARDo'S GHOST
4 Gondolier Found to His Cost That
1t Is Not Safe to Speak Dis
!. respectfully of Wan
dsring Spirits.
BY W. L. ALDEN.
Copyright, 1899, bu Erpin 1Yardmon.


When Lissandro had the misfortune
TO kill Nardo, there was scarcely q
gondOlier in Venice who did not SYM
pathize with him. Lissandro was q
good tempered, jovial young fellow,
without a single. fault, unless 1t was
that he was a free thinker. OF course
1t is very bad to be a free thinker,
though, after all, it is matter which
does not greatly concern any one ex-
cept the free thinker himself, and then
he can always change his opinion when
he comes to die and confess and be alb
solved 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 friend In dis
tress, and he nearly always had money
In his pocket, for he was so frank and
honest in his ways with the foreigners
whom he rowed that he could nearly
always charge them at least double the
tariff fare and collect it without max
Ing them suspicious. That SO good q
fellow and clever gondolier should
have been compelled to stab man
was certasnly 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 about four months. Although ev-
s erybody knew that he had stabbed
s Nardo and thrown his body into the
basin at the farther end of the Riva
Degli Schiavoni, the body was never
found, and so the magistrate said that
there was not sufficient proof that Mar
do was dead and that Sandro must be
released with solemn warning never
to stab another man.
While people were glad that Sandro
was released, there was a general feel
Ing 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 grand
father did not win the regatta in 1893.
whereas the flag that the grandfather
won is still hanging in Sandro's house?
1t was certainly not polite in the mag
istrate to pay no attention to what
sandro said and to decide that there
was no proof Of Nardo's death. But
magistrates have no regard for other
peoples feelings and that is the reason
why they are magistrates and send
Door men to prison for next to nothing.
When Lissandro came out of jail, IL
gondoliers belonging to his traghetto
IL H-ko = III
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 beautifully cooked; the po-
lenta was of the best, golden in color
and as light as feather; two slices of
1t were all that a man wanted to eat,
90 generously thick did the landlord
serve it. AS for the wine, it was last
years Verona, reasonably pure, and
good and strong. When the dinner
was finished, the guests lit genuine
Tuscan cigars that the landlord fur.
nished without charge, and each man
began to drink in earnest.
Lissandro had borne his imprison-
IQeuL wen. lc WIS u JTlue IQlQQer
than formerly, 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 tended 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 no.
bly, than he had acted and that there
were no terms strong enough to char.
acterize the conduct of the police In
arresting him for matter which was
none of their business. Suddenly a
grave old gondolier, who was regarded
af the father of the traghetto and who
had been absorbing his wine In com.
parative silence, asked Sandro IL he
did not fear that the ghost Of Nardo
would appear to him.
"Thou hnowest," said the old CONDO.