The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-10-20
.":.At-.AssA
NARDo'S GHOST
1t ~ nat Safe to Speak Dis |!
~ &AS respectfully of Wan :
q 5MASs dering Spirits. i
BY ". I. ALDEN.
Gopyrfgst, 1893, bu Eruin Warumon.

n v:ssy view
When Idssandro had the misfortune
to kill Nardo, there was scarcely a
gondolier in Venice who did not SYM
pathize with him. Lissandro was a
good tempered, jovial young fellow,
without q single fault, unless it was
that heSWasa free thinker. OF course
1t is very bad to be a free thinker,
though, after ALL it is a matter which
does not greatly concern any one ex-
cept the free thinker himself, and then
he a a~lwayschange his opinion when
he domestic diesand confess and be abb
solved like any other Christian unless
he has thesilI luck to be drowned where
there is no priest at hand. Sandro was
always ready to help a 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
ktarif fare and collect it without max
ing them suspicious. That so good a
fellow anafscieyer a gondolier should.
have beeIiMcompelled to stab a man
was ce~rtatnlya great pity, and the day
that SanSlro went to prison more than
n friendly gondolier shed tears and
cursed the meddling of the police in
the strongest possible language.
Sandroa did not stay in prison longer
than about foIr months. Although ev-
erybody knew that be had stabbed
-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 al not sufficient proof that Mar
do was dead and that Sandro must be
released with a solemn warning never
to stab another man.
~ While people were glad that Sandro
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
lobliged to kill Nardo because the latter
lopenly 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?
It 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
iwhy they are magistrates and send
poor men to prison for next to nothing.
When Lissandro came out of jail, IL
gondoliers belonging to his traghetto
gave him a dinner at the Osteria della
Pace, in the Gale Lunga s. Barnabo.
1t was a capital dinner, consisting Of
fried fish and polenta and all the wine
that any n cared to call for. The
fish were beautifully cooked; the po-
lenta was of the best, golden in color
and as light as a feather; two slices Of
1t were all that a man wanted to eat,
. 80 generously thick did the landlord
I 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-
W ueuL WGl1. liz was u IIILC LII
Than formerly, but he was in excellent
jhealth 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.
~ Hts comrades unanimously agreed
Ethat he could not have acted more no.
I bly, than he had acted and that there
were no terms strong enough to char
acterize the conduct of the police in
arresting him fof a matter which was
none of their business. Suddenly a
grave old gondolier, who was regarded
rs the father of the traghetto and who
had been absorbing his wine in COM
%tparative silence, asked Sandro if he
not fear that the ghost of Nardo
( would appear to him.
'Thou knowest," said the old Condo