Stetson Weekly Collegiate

*■*"*■*'"" . o . s- University STITSSN*EpErC2UI«|>TE STUDENTS' PUBLICATION OF STETSON UNIVERSITY. VOL. XXII1 DE LAND, FLA., THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 1011. No. 18 xjexjtxjtxjtxjt xjt xjt xjt xjt xjt xjt xjt xjtxjtxjtxjtxjt AAAiniifV >rVjourV>rV>rV>rV>Ai /\it*joc>rVirx X X X X X GEOVANNI VITI OF VENICE By Edgar W. Waybright. X X X X X xjtxjtxjtxjtxjt xjt xjt xjt xjt xjt xjt xjt xjtxjtxjtxjtxjt xnt jfV >rV >rV >ot »rV>ft<>fV>otjrV>o«>o( >o« >rV jftt >ftt >oi It was late in the afternoon when we arrived at Venice and so I decided to go to the Palace Casa Falier and present my card at once to Guissepe Boldini who, according to previous arrangements was to direct my study. The speed of the gondola was so greatly accelerated by the addition of an extra Florin that I hardly had time to drink in that most beautiful sight in the world, a Venetian sunset. The lagoons reflecting back in gold and purple tints the image as of a great wounded dragon of fire crawling across the sky and leaving behind a trail of blood, before our gondola suddenly stopped in front of a large somber palace enrobbed in a green and purple vine and holding out before its face an antique lamp. I was anxious to meet my new host because if my friend's description were true he must indeed be a very peculiar gentleman, so I hastened to announce my arrival. A dark eyed, freshly painted serving woman appeared at the upper window with the customary Venetian "Chi Xe?"—(Who is it?) Upon being informed she hastily opened the latch and directed me up a marble pillared stairs here and there decorated with small lion heads, to Boldini's parlor on the second floor. In this typical Venetian room of stone floor inlaid with rich mosaics and artistically balanced with worn statues of Cupid, Minerva and Venus, I was compelled to wait for several hours meanwhile contenting myself by listening to loud rappings of the serving woman on the door of a room above, which from the information of my friend, I concluded was the room in which I had been told Boldini spent, in his later years, almost all of his time and into which he always retired before deciding upon any question or taking a decisive action of any nature. And into which with iron barred doors he had farbidden any one to see—indeed as might be expected the common folk and servants told many strange tales about this room. Of times odors as of strange drugs came out of it. Strange light appeared through the closely shuttered windows. While in this room the old man was many times heard to be talking for hours at a time in a monotone and to whom indeed could he be speaking bixt evil spirits. Several years ago a nefarious servant thinking the room filled with treasures attempted, in the old mans absence, to saw open the door, but during the very act he was taken ill and narrowly escaped death, and so this mysterious room where the old man was said to conjure up and commune with the spirits of the lower world and indeed the old man himself was avoided as much as possible by the servants and simple pe isant folk. If I had been permitted to look through the stone floor above I might have seen the humorous spectacle of the serving woman pounding on the door with one hand while with the other she was going through the sign on the Holy Catholic Church. At last Boldini appeared, a short white haired gentleman, with long protruding cheek bones, sharp black twinkling eyes with a suggestion of a keen penetration. His features were covered with that yellow, uncanny tomb like tinge and he seemed to have lost all individuality. A shadow from eternity. An effigy controlled by some external motive power. You felt that you were in the presence of something less than a man and yet something vastly greater. The infinite forces of eternity which are synono- mous with the unknown, the mysterious seemed to have been manifested in human incarnation. A body ruled through mysterious chords by the hand of the unknown, a shadow reflected from the depths of mystery. You did not feel abashed for you had a sense of superiority and yet you seemed to feel that he was absolute master of you. You were controlled by that mysterious, unpleasant magnetism, mingled with an uncanny keenness and cunning which is drawn forth and stimulated by some external, unknown force. You felt that back of his life there must be some great dynamic mystery and were almost prepared to accept the peasants tales. If not he, then who could commune with the spirits of eternity? Our interview was short, for after his first hearty but evidently disinterested and indifferent reception, he settled back into his chair with an air of perfect resignation and never ventured a word unless it were the answer to some question of mine, when he would look up with a surprised air af if calling his thoughts back from the depths of eternity and having answered in the briefest way possible would fall back again into his meditation. I took my leave anything but favorably impressed with my new director and the only person whom I knew in Venice. While wandering down the great hall I stopped foi a moment before the open window and there I watched in the strength of numerous palace lights a large wooden barge common to the river Po, softly floating down the lagoon. In its stern was the picturesque guide with his red cap, blue tassel and ever present cigar, who suddenly as he recognized in the gloom the somber palace of Casa Falier turned away crossing himself, and if the light had been strong enough I might have seen him give a slight shudder as he thought of a memorable night in his youth in which he discerned dimly intermingled a large hole, three gondolas linked closely together, a dark box and remembered a solemn pledge of secrecy and then, three hundred Flor- i*s. In the next few months I spent many hours every day going about the city and studying her beautiful sights but yet I found time to make almost daily visits to Boldini, at first because he was to direct me how to manage my study of Venice (of which he did very little, however). But as time went on we became quite intimate friends and often times I found him quite willing to enter into conversation, and was often surprised by the absence of that mysterious reserve. During these times faint suggestions of his youth, before he retired from society and hid himself in his Continued on page 4