Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1875 — Gondolas in Venice. [ARTICLE]

Gondolas in Venice.

Col. Forney writes of gondolas in Venice: “ The plain truth is, there is no such thing as a horse, cab, carriage or road conveyance of any kind in Yenioe; the gondola does the work done with us by all these conveniences, reven to the wheelbarrow and the hearse. It is a strange sight to see large companies going to the theaters or churches, the gondolas taking up and sewing down one after the other, just as they doonpublic occasions in our great cities. We were met by gondolas laden some with wood, some with coal, some with iron, and 'others evidently paying visits, and not a few of the aristocracy, their dark cabins closed and their dark curtains’down: There was one gondola loaded with cotton from Smyrna, with a red-turbaned Turk on the top smoking his long pipe. It shows the force of custom that all these gondolas are painted black by an edict of the fifteenth century. The excuse was that this uniform color stopped undue competition and extravagance in decoration, but the real reason w as undoubtedly that anyone might travel without detection. *lt marks the decay of this old worid that a custom in the last degree depressing should be permitted in the face of universal criticism and complaint.” —The boss nags of the American turf this summer will be Occident, American Girl, Judge Fullerton and Goldsmith Maid. . ,