Punch (93.1887)

9S

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[SsFiEMBEa 3, 1887.

VENICE UNPRESERVED.

" The modern Venetian takes pleasure not only in neglecting but in perse-
cuting the palace and the gondola . . .As to the gondola, the mass of Venetians
possess none, and rarely go in them . . . They forget that the much-desired
foreigner does not come to Venice to read signboards from a steamboat up and
down the Grand Canal; and, by handing over this magnificent waterway to
a company of foreign speculators, they have well-nigh reduced the ancient
b'-jdy of gondoliers to beggary. The steamers are numerous and noisy ... If

one contrasts the passengers of these rival craft, the gondola and the vcpo-
retjo, one asks which, as a body, most contribute to the prosperity of Venice,
and so merits most consideration . . . The penny steamer and the gondola
are irreconcileable, and cannot exist long together, for the simple reason that
the gondoliers cannot earn a support, and must take to other avocations."

" Exsul's " Letter to the Times on " The Venice of To-day."

Shade of Childe Hakold sings:—
Yes, this is Venice; yon's the Bridge of Sighs;
The palace and the prison, still they stand:
But 'midst the maze foul funnel fumes arise.
As hy the touch of an enchanter's hand,
A hundred such their smoky wings expand,
Around me, and a dying glory smiles
On what was once the poet's, artist's land,
Soot smears the winged Lion's marble piles,
And Venice reeks like Hull, throned on her hundred isles.
She_ looks a swart sea Cyclops, from the ocean,
Rising with smutted walls and blackened towers;
The vaporetto, with erratic motion,
Muddies the waters with its carbon-showers.
And such she is ! Progress's dismal dowers
Have spoilt the picture ; now the eye may feast
On garish signs and posters. Gracious powers !
Sewing-machines and hair-washes at least
Might spare the Grand Canal. Trade is an ogre-ish beast!