Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1901-08-15
VENICE A QUIET CITY.
thns. A. Wagner Writes From
London.-Will Sail For
Home Aug. cath.

Home Aug. cath.
EDITOR BANNER:-After two
months of sightseeing on the conti-
nent it seemed almost as if we were
back in America, when we reached
London and were again among Eng
lish-speaking people. We have been
here three days and are getting some
what acquainted with the city.
There is much to see i'm London and
its surroundings and will take a num-
ber of days TO ''do" the town well.
OF course we have found many in
teresting places during our hurried
trip but the most unique and pictur-
esque city we visited was Venice.
The city is built on III small islands
about miles from the mainland.
Most of the houses are built on piles.
Venice has about 200,000 inhabitants
and there isn't horse nor a vehicle
of any description in the city. About
the first thing that impresses visitor
stiffness that pervades the entire city.
At first it is really oppressive, espec-
tally when coming directly from a
noisy city, as we did. We arrived in
Venice at eleven o'clock at night and
it was quite a relief not to have a lot
of noisy cabmen shouting at us, but
to be quietly shown to gondola and
with scarcely a sound, other than the
ripple of the water we were carried
to our hotel on the Grand Canal, the
principal thoroughfare of the city.
There are no regular streets, but a
person can reach every part of the
city by walking through little narrow
alleyways between the buildings or
by walks along some of the canals.
There are 37S foot bridges crossing
the numerous canals. Many of these
alleyways are lined with curious little
shops which are very interesting to
visit. There are no large stores in
Venice and usually there is but one
kind of ware sold in place In the
poorer part of the city the visitor
finds a regular labyrinth of little
alleys running in every direction and
at every angle.
1t is one of the interesting expert
ences of tourists to wander around
aimlessly through this section of the
cty till they lose their direction en-
tirely, then hire some little boy or
girl to conduct them to their hotel.
A trip TO Venice is hardly complete
without taking the "getting lost trip"
1t is an excellent way to study the
habits of the people and there is
plenty of opportunity, as the Vene-
tians spend most of their time in the
alleyways or out on the canals if they
can afford a gondola.
The principal interest, though, cen
ters around st. Marks church. The
church itself is full of historical in
terest, and while not as imposing as
some it is the most beautiful church
we have yet visited and probably con-
tains more of beauty than any other
church building in the World. The
coloring of both the exterior and the
interior, with its 5000 square yards Of
mosaics is exquisite. 1t is hard to
conceive of its beauty without seeing
il.
Adjoining ST. Marks is the old opal
ace of the Doge's," which is at pres
ent used as a gallery and museum.
The Bridge of Sighs," connecting
the palace with the old prison, still
remains as it did four centuries or
more ago. The prison is in use to-
day, but has been restored.
We were in Venice on the Fourth
of July, and all day the Stars and
Stripes foated proudly from the prov
of our gondola. In the afternoon we
were caught in very severe thunder
storm and we were obliged to take
refuge under the famous "Iiialto
Bridge" The bridge is a wide affair
and afforded plenty of protection and
we rather enjoyed the novelty of the
situation.
We have been fortunate enough TO
escape the hot weather. We were in
Switzerland during your hottest spell.
don't suppose it would be much con-
ISOLATION to tell you that while you
were sweltering away in Belding, we
were wading through banks of snow
and climbing over glaciers.
We sail from Glasgow on the "City
of Rome," Aug. oath and will proba-
bly, reach home about Sept. 10th.
CHAS. A. WAGNER.