The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-02-20
Venetiqns, Their City Threatened
With InUQSiOn, Close SHOP and Flee

head his people in retreating by boat
TO Chioggia, leaving one old priest
to care for the sick, feeble and dy-
ing in some home.
That last is a touch which might
have its more colorful application in
the greater community. There are
about 400 gondoliers in Venice, stu
organized in their medieval guilds,
called tragettos. The members have
certain privileges, such as the right
to stand at important ferries. Then
there are the sandoliers, who row
the smaller boats without the curved
mace-like prows and the barcas, who
manage the large barges. These
water crafts men were not excluded
from the scheme of communal
exodus, as Consul Carroll viewed it.
"The gondoliers ought to be the last
ones to go from Venice" he said,
taking their boats with them"
Venice in December.
To judge by reports, the popula-
ton of Venice may be said to have
remained stationary from the time
Of our visit in mid-November till
the end of December, the time this is
written; that is, at approximately
sixty thousand people. Several thou
sand Of the better to do people, VINO
had gone out Of their own volition In
the first rush, returned, presumably
to wind up business and remove
property, although there was clear
ly division of sentiment as to the
course for the city and its people to
pursue. My information Is that a
few stores reopened; others pre-
pared to close. Practically no mer-
chant was restocking with goods;
many were making every effort to
dispose of their stocks as a prelimin
airy to seeking other locations.
So far as the poorer folk were
concerned, they may be presumed
to have continued Of the same mind
that they had from the beginning.
Few of them had ever gone because
were afraid; they had gone because
the bottom had dropped out Of
their existence, and that was the
only thing open to them. The very
home loving quality that will he an
asset in the period of resumption Of
normal life and bring her people
back to Venice, made ii difficult to
temporarily uprOot them. No migra-
tiQns in large companies were at
in December, although plans
for mass movements of the tobacco
workers and glass workers were
under active discussion, and a pretty
constant stream of small groups, of
twenty-five or less at . time, join
ed the earlier colonists on the Adri
attic coast,
American Red Gross at Work.
Meanwhile, Consul Carroll, acting
In behalf Of the American Red Cross
commission in Rome.
carried forward such inspections OF
conditions as those cited; opened
Red Cross kitchen in Venice which
a. fHNv
people a day; distributed relief
through parish priests; gathered Red
Cross supplies at the Chioggia can
teen to serve the orderly migration
whenever it was resumed, or to meet
any emergency;~ and co-operated
with the Comitate Civilian every
hing from purchasing machines and
stoves wholesale for the Adriatic
,olonists, to looking up sites for
new colonies in Liguria.
At the same time the municipal,
federal and provincial authorities
cooperating, buildings had been
and other prepare
ions made for the absorption OF an
additional twenty thousand refugees
n the neighborhood of Rimini. And
he Comitato Civile had gone ahead
n organizing the economic life OF
he 10000 colonists already along the
.Oast, installed equipment gotten
materials and opened its work
'ooms; and the American Red Cross
lad joined in this industrial work,
opened district headquarters at
2imini and was already caring for
PATIENTS in its hospital. But these
hings have to do with the new
Venice" rather than the old.
A Midnight War Time Picture.
We left Venice on an admiralty
aunch, steering into a gorgeous sun
et. Yet neither that nor the crowd
d impressions of two days which I
ave tried to set down, left so last
ne a picture as the st. Marks Place
s had seen il the night before. We
lad been in conference all the even
ng and had climbed lofty staircases,
tripped of rugs and hangings. Tho
urtains were drawn, Venetian blinds
nd shutters closed. Venice means
O be dark these nights. ! fumbled
With them in the dark until l could
ook out across the water The moon,
n its first quarter, was on a level
With the roofs at my right. Here
nd there green lights showed dim
long the quay. The island churches
TODD in gray outline, their details
rashed out, but all the more unreal
nd oriental. 1T was too wonderful
D turn in. / clattered down the
mpty stair-well of the old palace
lrned hotel, and the ancient night
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