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Show TOMB OF A ROMANTIC PAST. Venice No I. !,,: :t I.ivlni; Clly, Hut Venetian life in the Jaryv old sense has since eome to an end. and the essential es-sential present character of the most melancholy of cities resides simple iu itsbein.LT the nm,t beautiful of tombs, says Scribners. Xowiure. cb.e has the past been laid to rest with smh tenderness, tender-ness, such a sadness oi resii'nation and remembrance. Nowheae else is the present so alien, so discontinuous, so like a crowd in a caneterv without E-arhnals for the craves'. It lias no flowers in its hands, but as a compensation, compensa-tion, perhaps-nnd the thing is doubtless doubt-less more to the point if has monev andli!'.!e red boohs. The everlasting shuttle, in the p.ia..a. of these irrespon-sibk' irrespon-sibk' va-itoi's i- coin, mporary Venetian ber.itioii of that.' The vast mausoleum has a turnstile at the door, and a functionary func-tionary in a shabby uniform lets von in. as per tarin. to sec how dead it is. From this eon: 'atation. this cold curiosity, curi-osity, proceed ail the industry, the pvosperilv. the vitality of the place. The shopkeepers and trondoliers. the beire'av-. and -the models, depend upon it for a living: they are the custodians an.l the ushers of the great museum they are even thcne!ves to a certain extent the objects on exhibition, ft is in the wide vestibule of the square that the polyglot pilgrims gather most densely: Piazza .San .Marco is like the lobby of the opera in the in ievvals of the performance. The present fortune of Venice, the lamentable difference, is most easily measured there, and that is why. in th.e effort to resist onr pessiui-l.an. pessiui-l.an. we must turn a way both from the purchasers and fr..m the venders of |
