Show gondola gond 0 ia in in fight fo for r its existence use of motor boat is causing ing much trouble washington D dl C A recent demonstration by gondoliers gondo liers in venice because of the increasing use ot of motor boats on the canals tit if the city may have the most elemen elementary fary economic consideration at af its r roots ts the fight to hold ones job but bui there Is much at the bottom ot of it all as well warding to a bulletin from the washington D C headquarters of the national geographic society Ve nices environment evoked the gondola almost as truly as an aquatic life alfan changed ed legs into flipp appers for seals or put web feet on ducks says tile the bulletin venice not nor only has water avenues avenues large canals in which motor boats can operate but also many scores of narrow and shallow water lanes and water alleys where the use of mechanically propelled craft would be out of the question probably no other boat as large a S a gondola even though ifill driven ven by oar or pole could navigate these small channels successfully gliding gilding over surface this distinctive craft Is s more like a skate gliding gilding over a surface than a boat plowing inep it both ends are curved up arid ADA the bottom Is flattened battened the weight of the goil gondolier dolier in the stern tends to raise th the pro and the boat seems eliberto eliger eager to climb out of tile the water at every stroke although a few motor boats have operated satisfactorily Y for years on the broad i tirina rind canal one can imagine their troubles bles in a traffic jam on even the medium sized waterways to be not unlike those of a farm set down among dodging taxicabs ol 01 fifth avenue even lf it it were not surely protected by the existence of the smaller canals sentiment N would light fight ably with gon dollers for the life of their institution ution for it Is little less one can cad hardly imagine venice without gondolas and the gondoliers gondo liers them seles are nn an important factor in venetian life henry james called these sturdy sunburned water loving men the true children of venice they typify much more closely than the merchants and artisans aej gentry on their pile made ground the spirit of tile the founders of venice who built up among the waters the unequaled maritime world power of its day the visitor to venice for the first time Is sure to be disappointed in the appearance of them the gondola so much that Is romantic has been associated with these boats that the ct stranger ranger unconsciously expects them to be gayl decorated de orated but each is like all the rest a somber unrelieved black the powerful pou erful council of the old venetian republic provided for this dusky line hue ba back k in the sixteenth century and the alie requirement has been followed as faithfully ever since as it if the mighty ten still held unquestioned powers of life and death over all the citizenry one explanation of the queer law Is that venetians were squandering tto too mud much money elioney vying with one another in decking their gondolas with costly trappings another Is that it was to 0 o tend fend prestige presta e to authority at any rate the edict excepted the gondolas of the doge and the foreign ambassadors which were richly embellished in goo gold measure of wealth at the height of venetian prosperity the wealth of certain individuals might be measured by the number dumber of goh gondolas dolas they maintained as in america today ones bank account ma sometimes be inferred from the auto lie he owns at the present time there are relatively few privately owned gondolas they serve as taxi basl cabs with stands at prominent points along the canal banks some vene alan families hibrea hire a gondolier and his boat from month month to month and as Is trued true of chauffeurs in some modera moderately iely ell to do families in the united sta Stat ftc esthe the gondolier when not rowing inglis his boat may act as butler or gen arat rat man about the house the gondola Is first mentioned in manuscripts inu serf apts of 1094 A D but had bad probably been evolving from forms not grantly ire atly different since the first vene bialis took up their abode on the lagoon mud bunks banks several centuries earlier th thi unusual cruff lias has flourished only where it was hiis born an and d is hardly known in other parts of the world save as a curiosity or to tb give a breath of venice to the ornamental lattes lakes of world fairs one of the fea transplant transplantations trans tran plantations lations of the gondola that thai ha has elleen been attempted aas as to the grand canal that ant loula louis XIV built at ver sill lles in 1674 these boats a gift of venice unlike their patterns were brilliantly decorated A colony of ital lan ian gondoliers gondo liers and their families was wad established in the parisian suburb and remil remained ned until the french revolution |