The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-01-16
VENICE NEARLY
| UNINHABITED
Out Of City's Normal Popu-
lation of 10000 Only
1000 Remain
ART TREASURES
ARE COVERED UP
Great Efforts Have Been
Made to Save Treasures
from Huns Guns

With the French Army in Italy, Jan
ll6-( Correspondence of the Associated
Press Before the menace of the mod
ern Hum Venice, whose lagoons centur
les ago, furnished an asylum of safety
for refugees fleeing from Attila, is to
day almost emptied. OF the 100000 per
sons who ordinarily inhabit the city, only
about 900 remain. But this is not be-
cause Venice fears for her own protec-
ton. Across the battlefields of the reeds
lit is believed that no invader will pene-
trate to the islands of the Venetian la
COON. The city puts her trust in the la
goons as confidently as she trusted TO
the sea in olden times.
To the visitor in Venice in these days
when the invading army lies only short
march distant, one of the odd memories
of the war will be that of the music of
the great guns bombing from the Lidi
and the nests of reedy islets in the
northern lagoon. That music accompa-
MES you all day in Venice.
The queen of the Adratic has her face
to the foe. She has shut her shops and
sent her merchandise away. The army
or the navy have taken her young men.
Those that remain have bricked up or
sand .bagged her churches and nonu-
ments and now await the issue in entire
calm, confident that although the enemy
is no more than long gun shot away,
it is not at her own gates that Venice
is menaced.
From Burano, a motor boat takes you
through maze of channels into the
canal Silone where You thread your way
between reed covered banks toward the
mainland. You can see nothing but the
and the reeds. There is not a
roof nor spire in sight. We are get
tiIlery defense line OF Venice On the
way we passed British monitor with
her big guns pointed inland. The coast |
and big gun monitors consti- |
tute another defense line. Here in the |
salt channel between the islands we
,ome suddenly upon a floating battery or
Dontoon, as the Italians call them. 1t
S big steel barge mounting a gun
which has been steadily pounding the
iustrians on the Pave Vecchia all night.
She is manned by sailors for the artillery
lefense of Venice is entirely in the hands
II the navy.
From Porte Grandi, as far as the eye
an see the land is covered with a waste
# muddy water wee rows OF half
merged willows marking out the fields
which it covers and here and there an
solate clump of farm buildings emerging
rom the floods. We are here on the
dye of the Pave foundations and in /
mother naval artillery defense belt. High II
anked roads, bikes and farm houses
re all that remain above water, Some /
t these farm house islands are held by I
and some by Italians and it ]
the aim of Both sides to destroy the t
arms held by the enemy. A few nights 5
go some Italian sailors undertook a q
ltting out expedition against one of Q
ne Austrian islands, captured and {
urned the buildings and came back with
ustrian prisoners. X
Nothing more dismal can be imagined | n
ian this battlefield among the reeds ex- o
,pt the awful desolation of the Elan h
ers front. Intending water, half drowned G
flows and farm houses under bitter Il
inter sky compose about as melancholy
picture as even war presents. On many
the islands formed by the release of
lie floods to protect Venice are brave
milies clinging to their homes in the la
,pe that 1918 will see the invaders 5,
rown back. ii
On this sector the Italians have a SUI
Priority of artillery. 1t is al night that q
e Italian guns do their hardest work. G,
t night the Austrians always attempt @,
construct field works or to lay bridges o,
boats across the Pave Vecchia to the ca
mails. They. take a number of boats OF
! them together and swing them out te
ON one bank trusting to the current o,
float them into place on the other ~
lie. 1t is the business of the Italian
ating batteries to drive away these ca
idge- builders and to destroy the fruits in
their labors and this they do with tv
rprising success. ~
In Venice. herself, / have seen no sign al
actual damage, except hole torn in to
e roof of San Giovanni and San Paolo fir
an Austrian airplane bomb. The m
mt of San Marco and the pillars of br
e Doge's palace have been bricked up bo
that nothing of them remains visible NJ
e same precautions have been taken
tn the famous statue of Colleoni and, bl
fact, with all the monuments of the te
gn that can be so protected. In the ha
szza di San Marco almost all the shops sa
, closed, but a number are still open 70
the Merceria, and, although almost all on
gondolas have vanished, it is still
'sible to find one to take you up the 81
and canal. IN,