Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1907-02-21
THE MI RR( II OF ia TIE


VA VENETIAN LEG END or THE DAYS
OF THE DoGEs.
story 81 the Beauty Who Was Intoxi-.
Gated with the Vision of Her own
Loyeliness and the Statne In Tie
Church OF San Giorgis Masgiore.
Here Is a legend which | heard in
Venice. / Offer8it to all among you
\. who are fond of solitude and silence.
III offer 1t to You as would offer
flower which has blossomed amid SOM
d Der shadows on il sleeping lagoon:
Ghita Gherardini was the niece of the
doge. Poets whose names we have for
& gotten, but who We're renowned at that
time, had composed innumerable songs
! In her honor. They praised in them the
tresses of the young girl, black as night,
y In which pearls cleaned like milk
white stars They also sang about the
radiance of her dark violet eyes and
about the two roses which formed her
lips In truth, Gflita Gherardini was
very beautiful. She had, however, lis
tened too earnestly to the passionate
words Of the singers, and an immense
pride took possession Of her young soul.
One night she heard beneath her win
dow the yearning sob Of a lutte. Stand
Ing In a motionless gondola, lovesick
page was singing to her. Tender was
the music, and the water and the dark
ness added something to the sweetness
of the strains and to the passion in the
voice Of the singer. The young page
was clarifying her as the most radiant
among all women.
Ghita heard him, and a delightful
! henlor ran through her. Without wait
Y dng to light the torches. which had gone
out, she took her mirror and ran to the
window, through which the moonlight.
shone into her room. Thereupon in this
mysterious light she saw that she was
strangely beautiful; that her beauty
!. was indeed almost supernatural. The
moonlight revealed her pale and trans
parent, like the princess of a poem.
Intoxicated with her charms, she let
the seductive mirror slip from her
hand, and sigh of admiration and of
ecstasy escaped her as she cried:
443a#R.sI am beautiful! Lam beautiful"
Thenceforth Ghita Gherardini spent
all her time marveling at her own beau
4 ty. She did not desire to fall in love,
4 for she fancied that there was no man
living who was worthy of her. Those
songs which had no words of praise for
her eyes and her hair she treated with
contempt aud to the mysteries of reli-
gion she never gave a thought
She went to high mass solely for the
purpose of being seen by the people
and of being fnttered by them as they
whispered to one another about her.
The restless eyes We're never turned
toward the altar.
She thought of nothing save her own
triumphant beauty and of the Jewels
{ which set it off in sumptuous fashion.
One day Ghiia Gherardini slipped a
d little mirror beside the first page of
her mass book, which had been deli
cately Illuminated by pious artist.
And while her attitude of devotion edi-
ded the multitude she studied her face
enshrined in the book Of prayer:
The doge's niece had forgotten that
the Creator alone is worthy of wor.
tship and not any Of his creatures. She
had also forgotten that pride is an
abominable sin--a,ye, perhaps the most
perilous of all sins since 1t was the
cause Of the rebellion Of the archan.
gels and the downfall Of Lueifer.
One day Ghita Gherardini was in.
& tently studying her face in the little
mirror between the holy leaves of hel
mass book, and suddenly she uttered q
loud cry OF terror. Through the large
building 1T rang, drowning the solemn
voice of the priest. the responses of the
congregation and the sonorous muir
muir Of the organ And stsaightway
& the doge's niece fell to the ground ii
q faint. She had seen reflected in The
guilty mirror, the sacrilegiolIs mirror
not her own countenance, but that Of
VI Death.
There is today Ia the Church of Sal
Giorgis Magg,5re. where this miracle
was accomplished, the statue of a wo
man, who is seated and looking at her
self il, mirror Very beautiful: i.
THIS NV oman, as DeauIlIut & as emit:
tsilcfartlini was formerly The stor,
gees thslt this statue is the work of ,
famous sculptor, but the people be
lieve--and their legends contain /,
@ good deal of trnth--that it was one,
Ghita Giierartiini herself and tllat he
body was turned into stone by the ter
rible vision,
.5ss To Ell those who lore the silence 0
dead cities I offer this legend. foun,
# t Venice as one caaicnally finds
Hover which has hlossomed amid son,
Der shadows on d sleeping lagoon
Helene de Huylen de Nyevelt IN Euro
pean Edition New York Herald.
The Onion.
The value of the onion In the dietar.
has been made the subject of nllc
doggerel verse, All a gree that healtl
and beauty wait on the fragrant yege
table ssg s5is 4
Eat onions In May,