The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-07-26
The FALL OF VENICE.

Venice is again in mourning There was
an hour when she held the east in fee.
II has gone There was an hour when
her e-gosies ruled the water X has
gone. There was an hour when the glory
OF her art dazzled the world. I. has
gone There was an hour WHEN 10 pesSes
disputed her marts and might IL has
gone. There was an hour when OF all
cities. she was the cruelest. perhaps the
richest. iadubitably the fairest anI GER
tainly the worst Il fas saas. There
was an hour when. from hcr Camianlle.
Calico disCeraed thai the Aartn WIS noJ
motionless. bur moving. The earth has
spun SO swiftly since thar the spic1jors
Of Venice, like her sins. are dim today
Even the Campanile has crsimbled.
The Camnanile is so old that, as IS the
case with other masterpieces. il has been
fancied immortal When Il was built The
Straits OF GibFaltar-the Pillars of Her
| cules. as they were then calIsd-represent-
eG the limits Of the earth. IL was centur-
les later that this continent was dis
| covered.
The circumstance is significant. Il was
the discovery OF the new world that the
decline OF Venice began. Yet the CIR
eUmstance. though significant. is natural.
The fate of cities and OF Companies IS
decay. II is the fate Of Venice. There
was al hour when she was said TO float
or the Adriatic Ike fleet at anchor. That
hour is not gone, but going Venice. who
/ from her a<gosies ruled the waters, IS
Rome. from her hills, once ruled the world
/ is rotting away.
After ali. why not? Such is the doom OF
empires. Tn edecay OF our own overload
ship ia tolerably remote. but it win over
take US as surely as il has Venice
Meanwhile as there is always some
thing TO be thankful for. We may be
thankful that Venice still sU9sists.
Though her sins and her splendors have
departed. her charm endures.
That charm is such that il catches you
as wonder does, as disease does also. de-
tanning you. whether you win or VIII not.
y tourist went there 10 stop over night.
That is thirty years ago. lie il stopping
there yet. When We learned OF the So1Ourn
we could have assaulted him for sheer
envy.
For in and about the S in water that
is called the Grand Canalh and in and
about the stiT lagoons. there are ghosts
an enchantments. and with them colors
and silences which, by comparison with
the fuss and hurry and noise Of local life
lift you to the uplands of dream
For Venice has long ceased to be pro-
gressive. She is a lady with past, past
at once admirable and abominable. with
the memories of which she has been con-
tent, as. ages hence. perhaps, New York
and Chicago viii be content with their
own.
f they are. which is pro5lematic, it re-
quires TO gift of prophecy TO predict that
in the decay OF these cities the charm
which shall detain a tourist, even over
night, is. at present. undeveloped. For
that matter what shall detain the future
tourist The objects OF interest which
for us Mr. Baedeker catalogues and to
which Mr.. Cook conducts viii have van
ished.
Today. however. imaginative q tourist
may be, no longer can he hear the music
of archaic hymns rustling through the
PUSHES of the Nile. Tn eshriek OF steam
has hushed it. However sonnambulistic
he may be- no longer may he behold the
gladiatOrs saluting Caesar from the arena
Telegraph poles prevent him
The course of the Nile is unchanged. IS
yet the Coliseum has not fallen. But
Egypt is quite m0dernized and Rome is
up TO date. Wherever else decay has not
set in. the exigencies OF contemporary life
are replacing the poetry Of the past with
the prose of the present Presently to-
morrow, a century hence. and there win
be but memory To tend the dead and prune
the ivy where the lily grew.
1t is in Venice that such rhymes as lin
ger have been best preserved. Those
whom the rhythm enchants should jour
ney there before il falls with the city into
the quiet Of her still Ia gcOns. before il Is
dissipated with her splendoTs and her sins
before it gees the way OF all things earth
ly.-Edgar Caltus. in the New York
Journal