The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-20

l Venice, Italy, Dec 2O-An oppor- ktunity to see the destructive errect of I the bomb raids on Venice was given | today to The Associated Press, when an inspection under \ official escort
 was made of the havoc and ruin in j the famous cd church of the ScaIzi,
 one of the art monuments of the 1 world, now a wreck with it's roof l blown off, it's massive walls tottertng,
 and the famous ceiling freseo by Tie i polo, valued at a million francs lying I in heaps of rubbish in the ruins of the building. There have been three bomb raids Venice, but this was the worst, and the historic church
 bore the full brunt of it.
 Approaching the massive edifice one sees a gaping hole in the roof, cade, fronting the Grand Canal, is in
 tact, and three sculptured figures standing along the cornice remain un-
 touched. But back to the figures
 the roof sags away in a curved line
 downward and then up again to the
 rear wall, as though some giant hand
 had reached down and torn out the
 whole top of the church, leaving only
 the front and the rickety side walls
 still intact Workmen can be seen
 high above beginning the work of, sal wage and repair, and heavy timbers
 are being laced across the gaping hole left by the bomb.
 Entering the historic church a. scene of havoc and ruin is presented twisted beams and arches, panels and columns of alabaster/ crushed into bits and lying around in heaps, the rich
 lY, carved pulpit blown to pieces with only a faint outline of it's former won
 ders remaining, and above, the roof wide open to the sky, with the won rderfu1 frescoss of TepoIo dumped in
 huge masses of debris on the stone
 pavement. Faint edges of the grand old frescos still cling to the side walls,
 giving some 4ideae of. the beauties of the work torn away Six enormous tn he middle and giving an intervening space for these frescos. Not a vestige remains of the main subjects, the visit
 of the Virgin to -Loretto, containing figures, the ragged edges. showing only
 cloud effects and the background
 with a few figures. The high altar,
 with spiral a1abaster columns and rich
 decorations, is not touched, and an
 other curious feature is that the cleo tric candles circling the church are undisturbed, the electric bulbs shining as brightly as ever. But with these two exceptions high altar far in the rear, and the circling candies everything is ruin, freScoed cell ing, inlaid marble sidewalks, sculp lures, oonfessi onals,' memorial tablets, ba pfistry, and marble emO OSaic pave rnent-an lying about in fragments.
 It was about eleven o'clock in the morning when the explosion occurred.
 This was the busy hour, when the gondo1as were croWding the Grand Canal, and the Venetians were shop hing and marketing. Suddenly sin gle monopolane was seen in the north ern sky, coming from the direction of the Austrian frontier It was flying very high-about 2,500 meters. Peo- pie at first did not recognize this speck as an enemy bent on destruc- ton. Soon however, the steam syren at the Arsenal gave a long wail--the signal of warning-and the people scattered to cellars and any available cover. The aeroplane was now in full view, heading straight for the big 1 railway station of Venice, the center of 1 a network of railway connections. l Just above the station the aeroplane l began to circle round and round ! Clearly it was going to bomb the sta | ton. But at 2,60O meters height the | aim is not good, and besides there was mist adding to the difficulties of [ a. sure shot Down came the bomb people could see it fall-but instead | of the station it struck square on top I of the famous old church. It did | not explode immediately as it struck