VENICE.

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 63, 11 September 1915, Page 14

VENICE.

Venice is the most colossal edifice upon piles that the world has ever seen. Its ho&ses and palaces have arisen oufc of the sea. So enormons was the weight put upon the countless thousands of piles used, it was necessary to choose the mightiest trunks and finest, sorts of wood, which were brought from foreign lands by the enormous sea- commerce of Venice ; and it happened in the last century that a noble family resolved to pull down their splendid palace oh the Canal -Grande in order to get at the precious cedar stems on which it is built (says the National Geographic Magazine), and thus rescue themselves from a slough of debt ; but the republic , forbade this desperate measure. . . Rich as Venice is in beauty, Jiowever, one thing is wanting to her — Nature. Whosoever wishes to enjoy nature must take refuge in the Giardini Pubblici, on the Lido, or on the little islands of Chioggia and Torcello, where the Fishermen's hutj stand, built out of the beams of wrecked ships. The public gardens of Venice are the creation of Napoleon, who pulled down hundreds of buildings, even consecrated buildings in order to give this space for recreation to the Vene' tians ; making them thus the most ran and singular of presents — a solid piec« of dry land, a promenade among trees I