New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-08


AIr- Crawford:
tbP5 sTe tgs hsgPsns 6 n as ii have told
to the year the differences between their dates are
memorated down to the last days of the republic.
For it appears that a great number of those
who so oraVely pursued the pirates box
makers. 'casseleri" of the parish of Santa Maria
Doge asked them what reward they desired But
they. being simple men, asked only that the Doge
on the second day of February, which is the Feast
The Doge, for that is the rainy season. I'VE viii
give y9Q a nat to cover you they answered And
viii give you drink" said the boxmalers So it
was agreed and so It was done ana the feast that
was. kept thereafter was called the Feast of the
Maries' and it was of the most graceful fes-
ivities of the many that the Venetian imagination
invented and kept The Doge came TO Santa
and n emery year e +S on the appointed day
Of that quarter made him each year a present OF
public homage to the women Of Venice until the
war OF Chioggia, toward the end of the fourteenth
objects Of such splendid tribute did much 10 de-
changed, and there remained of the beautiful Feast
OF the Maries nothing more than the Doges an
diano III.
An historical narrative enriched with material
Of this sort is bound to make interesting read
ing, and Mr.. Crawford never loses an oppor-
tunity to heighten the vitality Of his pages by
bringing into the latter the actions of every
day men and women, representative of Venetian
life in its normal phases throughout the cen
turtles. His task has been rendered the easier
by the fact that the Venetians have always
given free play to their emotions: have lived.
with certain clearly defined limitations. very
much in the open. Husbands kept their wives
almost under lock and key, yet men and women
both were given to very candid behavior in most
circumstances. With one hand parents pushed
their new born infants out Of doors, following in
this brutality, as Mr.. Crawford notes, the caIous
practice Of the Chinese: but with the other they
gave freely to the monks who undertook to care
for these unhappy foundings. The history Of
Venice is a tumble OF these strange contrasts of
tyranny and generosity, of cruelty and good will
Hate with its deadly fruits was constantly
active force in the social life of the old city, but
the Venetians loved lover if ever Southerners
did, and one of the romantic stories told by M.
Crawford is so characteristic that we must
produce It in full. It related to the ancient
house Of Candiano. which gave more than
Doge to Venice and it runs in this wise:
Elena the lovely s. daughter Of Pistro. we knoE
No. MN Lar ZTes "a gres Sra fr he u.s. u.s.
neither rich nor noble and had small hope of be-
always Intriguing to make brilliant marriages for
his family: But Elena had nurse who loved her
dearly and pitied the pair, and helped them to
meet again and again, till at last they We're
ried, and but the cid nurse knew It, Now,
therefore Gherardo sought fortune and set out
on q voyage TO the East; and while he was away
betroth her to Vftror Belegno. IN her terror the
girls heart stood still, and she fell trance
so deathlike that 1t mistaken for death itself,
and on the day. according to the immemortal
custom Of Italy she lay in her coffin IN the ea{he.
9gq have Gh s s59s u9s s SaS Ta4 P srs
he rushed TO the cathedral and by prayers: en-
to open the tomb, and help him to wrench off the
lid Of the coffin. When he saw her face his pas,
Rsd he 5fe the h color to her eheek FOR se was
not dead, and he held her in his arms and she
grew warm and he took her alive out Of the place
PietTo the Doge saw that his daughter was alive
again he was glad and fTgays them them both and
In point of age think this is the oldest version
from which all the other forms Of the legend vera
afterward derived.
Though the author is. on the whole, more
keenly interested IN memories like the foregoing.
he is alive to practical matters and occasionally
shows individual judgment in the treatment of
points usually left for debate among graver his
torians. Thus find him explaining how the
beautiful Venetian pavement" came to be de-
veIoped, or he chances with disapproval at the
assertion that Venice grew rich by usury and
the slave trade He says, reasonably enough,
as regards the latter question. that though the
Venetians undoubtedly supplied themselves and
one part Of Italy with white slaves from the
East, and although the Republic at times lent
money at interest 10 poorer governments In dis
+ress vet 7 do not think that these sources OF
income were ever to be compared with that de-
dived from a great and legitimate commerce.
and from less justifiabe but not less lucrative
conquest" He is careful to point out that the
aristocracy was slow in assuming position of
harmful domination. while the people looked
I'D to the mobiles as their intellectual and social
betters" he says. they did not cease for a. long
time to regard them as their allies and helpers
He points out that while the mobiles dominated
the people they did not really abuse their power
until the fifteenth century; and he judiclously
adds that "the privileges they kept for them
selves involved the heaviest responsibilities.
We are glad to see that when he comes to the
grim ministrations OF the Ten, he avoids that
tendency to melodrama which overtakes so
MANY writer's on the subject There is shadow
enough in his picture, but not too much NO
one could complain Of Mr.. Crawford's mlnimiz-
tho the evil in the record of that extraordinary
+rF7,unal From Romanin he borrows list
showing that from 1851 to 1904, period oil
fftv-three years, there were two hundred ana
three official drownings IN Venice and ne gives
some other CHASTITY data But it Is well TO De
reminded that the Ten, whom the modern reaoer
&c ant to see as though bathed in blood, were
men like their fellow Venetians, and carried on
their proceedings not always like mere mon
sters. . ~,
C,,,,ford shows the same restraint, though we
o,5e- If he is altogether ingenious in choosing
e. his chief Illustrations the trials of Giordano
r3r,,,o and Paolo Veronese. In The one case the
non tried had done much to Justify criticism
ond in the other the painter went, as we KNOW
80 free But doubtless partsans Of Bruno
roigbt bring forward arguments in his favor
which Mr. Crawford has neglected and in any