Evening star., 1925-12-13
AROUND THE CITY
BY MAMIE LANCASTER.

LANCASTER.
scoop in the universe, regardless or
sex, age or racial condition, just to
let everybody have share in your en-
joyment. 1t isn't tnat romantic emo
ton that calls for the time, the place
and the girl, but just the outbreakins
of something inside of you that wants
to divide a pleasure that may never
come again--the same way you feel
at some sunsets, and on top of nigh
hills and way, way out on the ocean
at night, provided the water is smooth
enough to let the moon make a goldy-
Silyery highway across its silent vast
neSS--a rough ocean, of course, makes
you afraid and fear is always selfish
a fear that may have been in
herited from some piraucal ancestor
who had TO walk a plink-or might
be just common nerves, but anyhow:
You wanted your universe TO be your
guest at breakfast under palms grow
ing in huge tubs screened by Towering
vines-at an orange-agate little table
with poSieS on a Scalloped mat to
match your napkin, and snowy
Jacketed waiter to pour YOUR Coree
and milk together in your cup, and
give YOU your choice between orange.
marmalade and deep crimson plum
jam. The rest of the menu Will be
half-moon rolls. And while you are 80
grateful for your sunbeam that you
catch yourself saying your. grace for
the third time, you lean on YOUR haluS-
trade and watch the gondolas 20 by
business men on their way to banks
and shops and factories; earlybird
tourists, going or coming trainward:
truck -gonlOdaS from mainland, cargoed
with fruits and vegetables and poul
try for the feeding of Venice for the
day--every boat as clean as a brides
fiat-when bride keeps a clean flat
and from first to last as dry as des-
ert in the sun; the one man with his
one oar keeps his gondola going so
glidingly free of the crabs that anna
teur oars catch now and then that no
drop of water ever shows either inside
his boat or on its outer sides. Nobody
ever stumbleS getting in or out, and
though every one likes exciting news,
there was never the first hint of any
accident ever happening any day
which, it must be admitted, is hard on
tourists whose dispositions call for
ragedies-provided they don't happen
to themselves.
Having no universe for breakfast
guest, you leave your fairy plaza for
a wide marble corridor which passes
the side entrance where you landed
and leads through another imposing
portal to-land. 1t begins with huge
court near, occupied by an ancient
church, enriched with sculpture and
mosaiCS, and with dim shadows that
mt in with prayers-and then-then a
street of shops-jewels, books, embroi-
deries, lace, mantillas, ,fans-everything
only you can't stop, because you
want to get to st. Marks In time to
hrnnZa in
tower hammer out the hour, and which
tourists flock to in apparent thousands.
After that you might take turn with
the countless pigeons, but being used
to pigeons in your home town, you go
in the cathedral that was first started
in S28 and rebuilt a number of times,
each structure more splendid than the
one before.
That seems quite a way back,
counting by the calendar, but Venice
had already celebrated a couple of
hundred birthday anniversaries, hav-
ing fled from the worlds champion
tyrant, Attila the Hun, and elected
her first doge in 697.
The first church of St Marks shell
tered the relics of st. Mark which had
been brought from Alexandria, when
the Moslems plundered the city. and
the body of that saint now rests be-
meath the high altar. In the matter of
gold and jewels, the altar is admitted
to be one of the greatest treasures in
all the world, but, somehow, when you
kneel there, it is only st. Mark that
counts. You know, within yourself.
that the next time you come to the
cathedral you will want to see mo-
saics and sculptures and world-famed
contributions that have made a literal
museum of the church, but, having
made your pilgrimage to st. Paul
who lies under an altar on the site
where he was beheaded-in the
eternal city-you feel. somehow. that
you owe a personal vigil to the writer
who stands next to Matthew of the
four who wrote the gospels. And
while you are kneeling, young voice
laughs out in comic confidence to the
other girl along:
I'm as honest as the next but II
I could lay my hands on these dia-
monds and rubies without being
caught-I'd go home loaded"