The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-07-24


this because it fits into The surround
ings, and because I am perfectly con-
scious of the fact that yonder grace
full dark-eyed, curly-het-ded, statues
que melon-eating, fea-infested son of
Italy, who stood waiting, hat in hand,
for five minutes to open our cab door,
and smiled so sweetly when I told him
apologetica1ly that 1 had no small
change, would-the smile notwithstand-
ing-cheerfully annihilate me and my
chiIdren's children for five generations
for a satisfactory consideration.
AAA
Nearly forty years ago L stood upon
the crowded balcony of the St. George
Hotel in Sacramento. California, and
looked out upon a scene similar in as
pect to that which here surrounds me
in Venice. A native Californian-a
member of the State Senate-captured
a skiff, donned gaily decked SOM
brero. and between the puffs of his
cigarette, sounded the gondoliers cry
along the main street. Another legis-
lator balanced himself on half a dozen
scantling dashed together, and with a
gaS-Iighter for a pike-pOle, revived
the achievements of his boyhood amid
the forests and torrents of Maine by
running the rapids in front of the
State House. The principal newspaper
proprietor could have been seen look
ing out of the second story window of
his office, piously meditating upon
ways and means for the issuance of
next mornings journal, with ten feet
of water in the engine room, and the
compositors' department effectually
ratified Nobody dared TO die, for.
there was no eligible tombstone loca-
ton from the Sierras to the sea.
Six thousand miles and more from
the Sacramento Valley 1 look from my
bedroom window out over the lagoon
and marshes which stretch to the feet
of snow-crowned mountains. [ gaze
along the front of the age-scarred and
wave-washed palaces which line the
banks of the Grand Canal, and almost
wonder whether it be the Sierras or the
Alps the Sacramento or the Adriatie
which I see, and whether these little
singing, singing strangers are 'su-
persubtle Venetians," ready to draw
their rapiers when they cease their SER
enade, or the American river brood OF
mosquitoes who sup on tired miners at
the What Cheer House, and breakfast
off the late risers at the Orleans Hotel.
in our gondolier. In Sacramento he
was called Mike here he claims the full
title of Michael; there he came from
the south of Ireland, here he is from
the south of Italy; there he wore a
red woollen shirt, here he sports a req
cotton sash; there he claimed ten dol
lars an hour for the use of his skiff,
here he is content with ten cents an
hour-I have endeavored to manufac-
ture a joke here out of the word scull.
A gondolier, you understand, SOULS his
boat; q man who overcharges you uses
his skull. I cannot work it out, but l
am satisfied that the materials are
here for frst-class Witticism.
The old stone houses here have had
their foundations washed for centuries
by the sad sea wave,' but they stand
apparently as enduring as upon the |
day when the flag of Venice duttered |
from Dalmatio to the pillars of Her |
cules. Eight hundred years ago the |
church of San Marco was rebuilt and |
consecrated, it having been destroyed |
by fire nearly a century before. Among |
other treasures brought from the east |
by the Crusaders were the bones of |
Saint Mark the Evangelist. These |
were buried in this edifice, whose archi- |
lecture belongs to no order on earth, |
ancient or modern. The building is as |
heterogeneous as a Florentine mosaic, |
and it's general effect is as harmonious
and beautiful. There are Gothic |
needles. and Greek pillars, and Sara
Genie cupolas, but the result is mag |
nffcence, and whether you criticise the /
detail or not you must admire the edi-
flee. Outside the portico of the church |
four beautiful bronze horses paw the
air. Lysippus, the Corinthian, nodded |
them and presented them to Nero.
That historical fddling incendiary har-
messed them to the chariot of the sun,
which crowned his triumphal arch In
Rome Constantine had them trans
ported to Constantinople when that
city was made the capital of the en-
pire of the East. Then, after many
years Of association with the followers
of Mahomet, they We're captured by the
Crusaders, and in the distribution of
the spoils they fell to the lot of Venice
Back again to Italy went these equine
Adventures, and there they shifted the !
salt of the Adriatic for centuries, until |
Bonaparte captured Venice, and har-
messed them to his chariot of the sun,
and drove them up to Paris. When
Napoleon fell, the bronze steeds were
to the bride of the sea" They
look none the worse for their travels,
and eighteen centuries have not dimmed
the fire of their cast metal eyes, or in
hicted blemish upon their bronze legs.
Probably the most remuneratiye bust
ness in the world-for the capital in
vested-is that of governing people, and
the old rulers of Venice, who for many
years enjoyed monopoly Of their
trade, undoubtedly did well at it. Their
facilities for accommodating wealth were
by those exigencies which
exist in other cities. There We're no
streets to sewer, pave, or sweep; no
grading or parking of avenues; no ex- !