The morning journal-courier., 1908-09-10

of these immortal names are grouped together in one church in Florence The tombs of Angelo and Calico and the ashes of Dante are in the Church of the Holy Cross Florence, The chief at- fractions in Florence are splendid church edIhces and art galleries, How ever, the city is noted for the manu- fracture of lace and fine mosalcs,
 Venice-rI have heard Dublin, Ire- land, referred 10 as Dear Dirty Dub lin" ] think the description does that city Injustice, In the natter Of sanitary cleanliness Dublin will com- pare favorably With any city in the world, But l do think that the one who 1t ls said described Dublin In the way referred to may have had Venice in his mind, Venice Is fairly im- merscd in water, but it Is dirty water. Venice has 2O,OO0 houses set upon piles driven down In the sand of 25 islands which are intersected by 1SI canals, Those canals are crossed by $50 bridges, There are narrow lanes running between rows of houses, but the streets of the city are Its canals. The main entrances to the buildings are facing on the canals. Horses and wheeled vehicles are unknown In Ven- ice.
 Those canals receive the sewage of the city and ara really filthy, except perhaps, the one known as the grand canal, which fig quite wide and long The only way of getting about and carrying loads in Venice is in peculiar shaped boats called gondolas, There were at one time in use S7,000 gon- dolas. A local law prescrlhes that those gondolas shall be all painted black, They are operated by one man who uses only one oar. An interest ing feature of life in Venice Is to get into gondolas and go out onto the Grand canal on moonlight nights and listen to musical strains and see Ven ice by moonlight, There are usually several bands of musicians on tho Grand canal in large gondolas which thye have lighted up by Chinese lan- terns. They are surrounded by gon- dolas which arc constructed to accom- modate four persons.
 \ party of Americans loft our hotel in five gondolas and were conveyed to the Grand canal. where we edged our way through a notIlla of at least one hundred gondolas that gathered around floating band stand which discoursed sweet music for the enjoy ment of listeners who were assembled | under those peculiar circumstances from perhaps all parts of the world. It has heen said that music hath It's charms.' Tom Moore says in Lalah Rookh And music too. dear music that can touch beyond all else the heart that loves it much" Inn agine, then If you can, the thrilling effect of sweet strains of music pro duced upon such a congregation of people surrounded as they were by scenes and conditions that would put the inhabitants of dear fairy land to their wits ends to outdo.
 Every now and then collector emerged from the band stand. hat in hand. He stepped from one gondo- la to another until he did the honors to all present, The gondolas were so closely packed together, he found it less difficult to move about from one to another than 1t would have been to move about on the slippery floors of the Doges palace St Mark is the patron saint of Venice One hears so much about St. Mark while in Venice that the conclusion is easily arrived at that the republic in it's best days must have belonged to him. St Mark's 8 square is great feature of Venetian life. The square is surrounded hy grand edifces including st. Marks cathedral and the Palace of tho