Cañon City record., 1909-10-14

millinery on his head and breast; but
he was so high-bred that he had lost
his voice and was clearly a pet; SC
we did not try to catch him. Probably
he was owned by some of the bic
hotels and kept as a curiosity.
1t was not until our last night In
Venice that we came to see at close
hand one of these exotic birds. Sc
for the most part we know only the
common or cooking variety of gon-
dolier and enjoyed him to the utmost
| He took us up dark canals and
we imagined contained lovers spoon
ing, but which probably contained
only Americans seeing the sights.
But lovers or sight-seers, they
slipped by us in the dark and oniy
the profanity of the gondoliers sa-
luting one another in the gloom broke
the silence of our meeting. Those lit
tie by-ways of water were most in
teresting and because they show only
barren walls, high windows and un-
Ineligible doors, we peopled them in
fancy with most marvellous beings
grandees and nobility and all sorts
of unusual folks, when probably the
dull walls hid as dull people as are
behind most walls the world
round.
But it was night when we went up
these by-ways, and at night-who is
responsible for what he thinks or says
or does in the dark? But out in the
Grand Canal-the only street on the
earth so far as affiant knows that is
wider than Kansas avenue, Topeka
out in the Grand Canal by night there
are lights and the murmur of a score
of voices all around one always, and
from far up the canal. where one sees
sort of cockade of colored lanterns,
there is singing.
Thetgondolier makes for the colored
lights as the sparks fly upward For
there, around the boat containing the
lights and the singers, is a great flock
of gondolas resting while the occu-
pants enjoy the singing and the gon-
doliers stick their heads under their
wings. poor things. nestle and rest
while their pay by the hour goes
on.
We fancied that the boat-load of
singers was maintained by Gondolier's
Union 413 for obviously Interior mo-
tives. 1t saves the gondolier's voice.
his arms and his facet Moreover. af-
ter every song or two. a man bearing
a collection box leaves the singers
boat and jumps from gondola to gon-
dola in the crowded block. gathering
coppers. The singers have guitars.
mandolins, vIolins and viols.
But they have a limited repertoir
1t is the same songs they sing in
Naples and repeat in Florence. Santa
Lucia" "Soli Moi" "EspagnoIa,"
'Finiculi Finiculi." and one other
whose name we could never get. One
would think, that, with all the love
of music which possesses the italian,
they would get some new songs. I'm
agine Amerisan still singing Annie
Rooney" Sweet Marie" and "A BIZ
cycle Built for Two" for twenty years.
Yet most of these Italian tunes are
twice that old. Also they are better
tunes and last longer, perhaps. "a
thing of beauty is Joy forever. long
may its loveliness increased" And
maybe that is why Santa Lucia" and
Soil Mic" never grows old in the
Grand Canal of Venice.
With all the water traffic and with
not a horse or a cab or a wagon TO
wake the echoes, the utter silence OF
Venice is the thing that first i'm
presses the traveller. Yet because
there is no undertone of city noises
in which occasional noises may merge
the Grand Canal at Venice seems to
the sleeper at night the noisiest 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 Venice.
ly do not ring louder nor more fire.
quently than they ring in other cities.
Yet because Venice is so still these
bells clang through the night like the
alarm of a continuous and ever in
creasing fire.
The bawl of a lovelorn human calf
carrying home three drinks and a
throbbing heart, a noise that may be
heard by the attentive listener any