The Washington herald., 1909-08-26

letters 10 his newspaper IN Emporia.
Kans.. telling the home folks what he
sees. In a recent issue OF the Gazette he
has one on Venice. Here are some OF the
things he says about It:
With ell the water traffic and with not
a horse or cab or a wagon TO wake the
echoes, the utter silence OF Venice IS the
thing that first impresses the traveller.
Yet because there is no undertone OK city
noises IN which occasional noises may
merge. the Grand Canal az Venice seems
% the sleeper at night the noisest place
in the world. For every little noise
crashes into ones sleep. and the most
wakeful hours OF our six weeks in Italy
were spent on the Grand Canal in Ven
ice. The bells OF the churches probably
dc not ring louder nor more frequently
than they ring in other cities let be-
cause Venice IS so stiu these bells clang
through the night Ike the alarm OF q
continuous and ever-increasing FIRE. The
bawl OF a love-lorn human calf carrying
home three drinks and throbbing heart,
a noise that may be heard by the atten-
tive listener any place on earth after II
o'clock. IN Venice becomes insistenJ and
demoniacal. The common quarrel in the
street enters the bedroom a. night with
nerve-wracldng distiActness, and the
morning song OF the market gardener
bringing his wares 20 town In his silent
beat smites the sleepers ears like call
10 arms. II Macbeth really did murder
sleep, the crime was done in Venice
Has Some Paved Streets.
There are, Of course. considerable acres
in venice-islands-whe the streets are
paved. and where commerce goes on in
the ordinary way. except that there are
no horses or carriages IN the narrow
ways. On these islands are the hundreds
Of little shops which make Venice q de-
light 10 the tourist almost as keen as
Florence. These shops have two distinc-
tive things not found elsewhere In Italy
except sparseiy. They are Venetian glass
beads. tableware. bric-a-brac-and We
netian lace. Every town in Italy, and n
the world. for that matter, has its dis
tirctIve thing. In EmDOria II Is white
face cattle and the normal school; in
Florence Il IS jewelry; IN Kansas City It
is the pacldng-houses and the Kansas
City Star: IN Rome Il Is marble and
bronze; in Eldorado II IS Bent Murdock;
IN Venice Il Is glass and lace. And they
are ali beautiful after their kind.
But the glass and lace Of Venice are es-
pecially beautiful and astonishingly cheap.
And the shops-little affairs not much
larger than a cigar store IN a hotel lob
by-are enticing beyond telling One Won
ders how so much may be kept and dis
played in such a little space For. In
addition TO the beads and tumblers and
Iaces Of the town. these shops have mar
bles and bronzes from Rome. corals and
tortoise-shell work from Naples. silver
ware from Florence. and antiques from
all over Europe. But these are the bait
for tourists.
Stores Not Well Managed.
The stores for the home trade are not.
as rule. so well managed. These things
go more hit-or-miss, after the Italian way
in storekeeping. We saw feather fans
and natirons displayed IN the same win
dow, and In the same store were clocks
and candy-and Il was a store no bigger
than Tibbals' jewerly store in Emporia.
not a big department store. In mems
ware the stock was bad. Never before
were so many paper collars and made-up
ties and cheap shirts displayed in fash
ionable streets There is not a store in
Venice as large as Rorabaugh's in En-
poria, no one that carries an assortment
IN its own line so wide and 50 wisely Sc
lected.
The grocey store. as Jones & Stone and
Frank Kenney and Ireland run II, Is IN
known in Italy. The cheese shop IS one
kind OF shop. The canned goods shop
is another. The green grocery IS a side
walk stand. and very little else, and rare
ly does the vegetable dealer carry fruit
also. The meat-seller handles no FISH and
the fsh-moEger carries no game. And 10
Us the most interesting place in Venice
was the fish market The time we might
have spent IN the galleries improving our
minds we put in at the fish market,
great block where sea food OF most varied
and tempting kinds, mostly new to US
was sold. The man and woman there
were infinitely more interesting TO US
than the stifr old painted figures on the
cRnvases in the art galleries.
As for the churches, the town was full
OF them. But we only went into one, St
Marks, on a hot day to cool of. Il looked
like a great secondhand store filed with
brass lamps and with faded pictures OF
rascally-looking saints and with hideous
martyrs, who, though doubtless dying in
worthy cause. did 1t so unbecomingly
and withal so unmartyr-like that we
chilled sooner than we expected and hur-
ried out into the sunlight.
"OmRha" at Play.
We ordered an ice at Florian's, a res
taurant perhaps a hundred years old.
And as we sat absorbing the ice we were
conscious OF something unusual in the
square There was a great huttering OF
pigeon wings and a great clamor Of joy
ful little voices. Also. there was a rain
man with his back to us scattering corn
from two handfuls OF cones. while the
children and the pigeons danced about
gleefully. Then we heard the great, jolly
roar of Omaha" and knew that he was
enjoying life. When the corn Of the ven
dor was all gone. Omaha with a child 8
ifff1a hand IN cach ~ oroe ,.-o~,t