The Republican journal., 1915-02-04
Beside the top of the front door of

out iadderwise-a curious looking thing.
and one wonders-perhaps it is for chill
dren? But the mystery is solved as
evening comes on-gayly tripping up
from round to round the family chickens
run home to roost There are houses
where wealth of pewter is preserved
in deep old chests-the grotto whose
iron crown cures headaches, and at Vi
anden, beloved by Victor Hugo, is an
old church around which girls try to
dance three times upon one foot, and
then to throw stone into the stream
which goes twinkling through the valley,
for she who succeeds will be married
within the year. The iron feet of Rome
left deep foot prints here, and great Ro-
man Camps are preserved, and Roman
monun ents. And the people of Luxem-
bourg are proud of many things beside
their Independence, they are proud of
their free press, and free speech, and of
their schools, of which the government
conducts not alone those for general ed
ucation, but others for commerce, phil
osophy, gardening and farming and man
ual training, and still others for instruct
ing girls IN cooking and housekeeping.
But back of all this bright picture lies the
haunting fear and dread of Germany
IL EIp
This was Luxembourg six months ago.
| What can we say today of the beautiful
little byway, which has become high
way for an invading host? With only
it's pitiful little army of three hundred,
Luxembourg, with it's neutrality as
sured, became a gateway to Belgium
and so to France. Trampled under the
feet of thousands of marching men,
crushed under the wheels of such cruel
fighting machines as no war has ever
known. battered beneath the relentless
iron hoofs of the Imperial cavalry, deep
buried in mud and slime, lies the sacred
promise of an Emperor! No page in ali
history is blacker than that which tells
the story of Germany's treatment of a
friendly nation whose neutrality, lnteg
rity and sovereignty the Kaiser and his
government were solemnly pledged to
respect.
1t is far cry from desolate, tortured
Luxembourg to Italy, and l wonder if the
story of the river Brenta will be as new
and as interesting to you as it is to me.
At the very edge of Venice is long and
once glorious line of villas where the old
Venetians revelled in splendor. Villas
built upon the mainland, along the course
of the river Brenta-vllas before whose
doors ran the landway and the water
way, the double highway between Pad
VA and Venice, which was for many cen
turtles the main approach to the splendid
city of the sea, ''Venice, the beautiful"
as one writer expressed it, IS God be-
side the domes of St. Mark, but the jew
elled train of her mantle stretched along
the shores of the Brenta. The villas,
near to Venice though they are, and
readily accessible, are now seen by few,
for the coming of the railroad, over SIX
ty years ago, made new approach to
the city, and visitors long ago forgot
their existence. When the power of the
city Waned, and her riches passed away,
then came to an end the golden robed
and slken shod luxury that had loved to
display itself in this suburban life. Many
of the villas long ago fell into utter ruin,
others vanished, and still others, their
glory departed, and now shabby and de-
faced, give corners of their spaciousness
to peasants, and only a few are well
maintained; one, literally a palace, be-
cause the government preserves it as
national monument, and two or three
because they have rich and liberal own
ers. For hundreds of years the Brenta
was glorious, but the sixteenth century
was the period of greatest splendor.
Often has the Brenra been enthusiastic
cdlly quoted-Evelyn wlote in his ia
nous diary of the river $50 dellciOusly
adorned with villas and gardens. Two
hundred years later Disraeh wrote of the
number, variety and splendor of the
houses, already beginning to decay, and
D'Annunzio has been inspired by their
beauty. The conquest of and the building
on the mainland seemed to mark the be-
ginning of the end of Venetian power.
She conquered Bellunno, and she conquer
ed Pauda, and her warriors loved to ride
on horses as we'll as on vessels OF war
and gondolas, and strange as it may
seem, it almost appears as II the Nene-
tian love for horses lay at the root OF
their desire to be the masters OF land.
For Venice is an absolutely horseless city,
and its people must 60 on loot or by
water. 1t was the world old desire for
what they couldn' have, and so the We
netians took way to put themselves on
horseback One of the best of all the
statues of Venice is an equestrian: that
is Colleoni by Verrocchio, replica of
which has been placed in the Metropo-
Titan Museum of Art in New York. And
the huge columned church, that of Saints
Giovanni and PaoIo, has within it state
ly monuments of old-time doges, bestrid-
ing caparisoned steeds. And some of
the ancient prints showing the Brenta
villas in their glory, loved to place be-
fore them cavaliers upon curvetting
horses. For these cavaliers, crossing
the lagoon from the city, loved to gallop
along the road to Padua, past barges fill
ed with travellers slowly floating TO the
wonderful city. For centuries the Bren-
ia was fiercely fought for by Padua and
Venice, for centuries its stream has been
confined as canal, for its uncontrolled
meanderings led it changefully across
the plain between the rival cities, For
centuries it was great artery of com
nerce, and the interests of Padua and
Venice were so diverse as to its course
that battles were fought for the mere
object Of demolishing an old dixie, or con-
structing new one Not until Padua
itself was taken and held by Venice were
bounds finally set to the river, and then,
at its mouth was built a contrivance of
pulleys and inclined planes, long since
vanished, for the lifting of river craft
over the bar which was always forming.
The Brenta finally being firmly secured,
the great advantages of its banks as
dwelling place for wealthy Venetians be-
came apparent, and patrician after pa
trician chose his locality and built his
home.
VENICE" wrote Froissart, five and
half centuries ago, sis one of the dear