Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-19
VENICE IN DECAY
PRIDE OF PLACE PREVENTS THE
REPAIR OF PALACES
Ancient City Slowly Crumbling, bun
Inhabitants Refuse to Believe
Local Conceit.

Correspondence London Express
| II you tell Venetian that his old town fs
crumoling he will grow blue In the face.
Then he will sputter and gesticulate and
make grimaces such as only a terribly ex-
| cited foreigner can make; after which he
| Will regard you with pair Of eyes over
| flowing with commiseration. The Venetian
Is the most inexorably civic-proud person
| on the face Of the earth. The Chicagoan
who swells to a bursting point in speaking
| of his stockyards and his skyscraper build
| ings is a mere amateur boaster compared
| to the son Of Venice.
For the Venetian there is only one spot
worth seeing, one place worth promenading
| and being seen in, and one haunt for day
and night, and that is the pigeon-strewn
Piazza, which only recently echoed the mel
| ancholy sounds of the falling Campanile.
Naturally, therefore. the Venetian feels hurt
| at the suggestion that within a century or
so there will be nothing left Of his beloved
and beautiful city of the sea save rubb.shy
heaps of Byzantine bricks and broken stat
uary.
He waves you away " lth the words-after
he has Gained down enough to speak them
| that Venice was reported to be crumblins in
the days when Petrarch made stump
speeches on the steps of the Doge's palace.
ana that nothing save the Campanile has
come down since then.
1ue huuug EaSS1o0-
Nevertheless l am constrained to record
| the prophecy that IL Venice does not soon
| put its houses in order good many of them
will go the way of the Campanile. The cult
Of Venice is to give itself an air Of antiquity,
no matter how modern. Newness, exterior
cleanliness of buildings, repairs urgently
needed, and paint pots are tabooed No self
respecting Venetian would ever dream of
putting coat of paint on the outside of his
| casa or his palazzo; nor would he dream
of replacing a broken or strayed brick a
crumblng stairway or a rotting door
The word sacrilege is writ large on those
places where some hardy, unromantic, mod
ern owner has dared to provide against the
natural encroachments of time and weather
by making ordinary repairs. There Is not
a single palace along the entire length of
the Grand canal whose lower story is not
In state Of dire misery, rotten, moldy,
crumbling and bare to the bone. The mar
BILE and plaster Of the outer castings has dis
appeared In the course of ages, and through
the great gaps thus left you see the rubble
and crumbling brickwork Yet this is the
very hing upon which Venice prides itself
and swels its civic chest
What! cries the outraged dwelleF Of
the fairest spot on earth, replace those
stones? Plaster up those cracks and holes?
Never! Why. you will ask US to fill up the
Grand canal next"
Lost in Admiration.
And SO Venice goes on admiring its time
worn palaces, beautiful still IN their de.
| generacy, without lifting a finger to prevent
what must be apparent to the merest tyro
in the art Of construction OF buildings. In
side, however, things are different There
the spirit Of renovation. repair. polishing
and cleansing Is virulent IN the extreme
Go into any Of the old Venetian palaces
which look as II they were about to tun-
BILE down. those houses which to the etran-
ger seem At only for the ak and hammer Of
the housebreaker, and IL you are fortunate
enough to gain admission, you will find the
most remarkable change imaginable.
| There you will see marble floors, painted
ceilings, gorgeous tapestries, priceless fur
niture and rugs on all sides, maintained IN
the most exacting state of cleanliness and
order. If Venice is beautiful on the outside
what then Is it inside, with its wealth Of art
| treasures hidden behind swaying walls and
| rickety roofs?
| Somehow other, the thing reminds me
| Of a man who has his pockets crammed with
| precious jewels, while his legs are incased
| in ragged trousers and his boots look as IL
| they had just been picked off a scrap heap.
| But it will probably be long time before
Venice witnesses the spectacle of its grand
| old palaces topping into the adjacent
canals. The present occupants are COM
paratively safe from drowning by this
| method, while the present generation the
next, and the next will probably live to en-
| joy the gorgeous place with it's sunsets, its
gondolas, and its glass-work hawkers with
out endangering their lives.