New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-09-16
VENICE.
Like Fabrics of Enchantment
Piled to HeaUen.


IN AND AROUND yENIcE Ry HoFa sEat6 F.
of the Republic and Life on the Lagoons.
12mo. pp. 3S3, Charles scribners sons.
Venice! The very name is incantation 1t
is only just to say that the author Of this little
book realizing for himself the fascination Of the
wonderful city, has known how to evoke a
kindling sympathy in his reader. He tells US
that no one is quite satisfied with what others
write or say about Venice-that one is not satls-
fed with what he says himself. We may not
doubt this assertion, but we gratefully acknoW4-
edge the deep growing pleasure with which
these sketches of Venice and her surroundings
have been read.
Infinite variety, our author holds. is the quail
ttv wherein abides the charm Of this flower or
the Adriatic"-a variety which is not to be COM
passed by artist or poet. Venice is TO be felt
not reproduced; to live there is TO live poem
TO be daily surfeited with wealth OF beauty
enough to madden artist with despair.
Those who delight in the descriptive passages
of Julian and Maddalo'' will agree with him
that Shelley. better than any one else, has
caught and expressed the general spirit OF the
lagoon landscape. Venice in any mood Is
blissful possession to those born to be her low
ers-others may content themselves with OBJ
servatfon of her singularity. For these the
suthor describes the lagoon which lis not a
lake still less is it a swamp. nor is it like the
open sea"
Its internal economy piece Of most singular aae
hundred and eghty-four square miles, which az
high tide seems to nclose one Gn1IQB.5 81 esfens
with separate watersheds. main arteries ana con
fluent streams by which the sea, twice a day as
from great heart comes pulsng in throHgh me me
four breaks in the Lido barrier perICTd11lS en5
bearing away with il, its outgoing me reIss
of the city At low tide these chaneiS ana between
the COW hanks of mud. which in spring are sIeEn
with long d 'f baSe u taking the rejection of color
from the sky: But at hlgh Iioe [ i+r er adjacent
isetssan Servolo San Cemente. Povegfa-set
like gems upon a silver large
Tho necessities Of modern life, modern onsl-
ness. have done something TO mar the plctul-
esuueness of the CITY, yet not so much as iiileii'
ba since the salt winds of the Adriatc ana the
burning sun are nightly effective upon ne"
stone Much mourning has been wasted upon
the little steamboats, plying on the Graho Caii0.
They do not, after all, destroy the poetry u
the scene Venice rises triumphanuS apoNe
their communicable slender black gondola
still dominates those enchanting waterways sno
one grows as oblivious of the low, squat dartlng
boat as Of the numbering work barge. Ana not
all that is prosaic in modern business has been
able m dim the romantic charm Of the labyrinth
of old streets with their shining palaces, their
unexpected bridges, their vine hung corners and
the rich coloring of the vegetables grouped IN
the doorways of tumbledown shops. When the
Campanile of st. Mark again rears its heao
above the Piazza Venice will seem little changed
to those who first felt her magic half lifetime
ago MI Brown, by the way, in his chapter on
the catastrophe, dwells on the extraordinary
fact that the tower in it's fall did so little harm.
IN he
Piazza at least ten minutes warning. Hes al
ways been a gentleman" said the people OF
their beloved Campanile; he spoke, he warned
US: Away with you for I'm coming down. "
But if Venice herself does not greatly, griev
ously change the same may not be said Of her
historic families. Many of those who are left
stay there a little while every year for the
sake Of amusement but they are chiefly inter
ested now in their country estates. There they
devote "all their great and heredity capacity
for commerce TO the rearing of cattle, the
growth of crops. the making Of Wine"
They are interested in experiments in silk grow
ing or ensilage. and spend their money freely on
movement by offering agricultural prizes, and the
economy of these Venetian farms Is admirable.
no longer centre there; they shrink from support
Ing commercial ventures: and the wealth and traf-
&c Of the city passing into the hands of Jews
The best of the Venetian nobemen have carried
country. It is a pleasure TO see them there. The
portrait Of the ideal nobeman of to-day is a finer
picture than those of his Senatorial ancestors in
crimson robes. that look you with heavy sensu-
Gus faces of Titian's and TintOrettos canvaSes
The habit and character of the modern is
than the habit and character of his elder ancestor
The paper dealing with "villeggiatura" along
the River Brenta that on Venetian proverbs
proverbs OF amazing pithiness; and that on
Venetian festas are specially delightful An
other, on the roots of Venice-its piles to wit
reproduces for us some of the ancient chants Of
the pile drivers-the workers who not long
hence will their industry disappearing be-
fore the advent of machinery. Up to this year
only one steam pie-driver had ventured into
these waterways-and pile-driving. neverthe-
less, still goes as vigorously as in the early
days of the republic. The piles are not all, by
any means of hard wood; even soft wood, when
completely buried in the clay bed underneath
the lagoon, becomes black and hard and thor
oughy preserved. The author has seen Iarch
piles, he declares, that cannot have been driven
later than the fourteenth century that retained
their fibre and resisting power. Aye let 1t go
now chant the pic-drivers:
Down 10 the deep DEPTHS
Depths OF ocean.
Down till il finds there
All It's companions.
Down IN the CaNerns