TIIK OMATTA SUNDAY BEE: MAKCII 15. 1
n
Palaces, Churches and Other
OME, March 13. Many lung
years will pirns txfure the hls
torlo belli that sang the glories
nil mourned the sorrows of
the Republic of Venice will be
iieaid again echoing over the
ablux with, the red alow i.I tho
setting mn. The fallen Campanile of St.
kiaik will take at leasl a quarter of a cen
tury to rebuild.
Meanwhile the great plana, the heart of
Verilcu, remains desolate without the. loner
thai constitute Its characttrlulo feature.
Now that the Campaniles mobiiko u feit
by the new crowds of signiaeers who visit
Venice today, judging uy the photographs
specially taken to niuet the demand of the
huiried tourists and from which every
trace of the tower as well as the few stones
left standing as lis base has been carefully
obliterated.
"Hut this Is rot tho square of Bt. Mark
as I have always seen It," some lever an!
old visitor of Venice may object.
'No, It Is not, sir," answeis the photos
rapher. "it lepreseiits the square us it is.
We sell no others."
The Intending purchaser turns around,
and looking at the square sees the site
where the old Cumpamlo once stood and
Where tho new one la to rise.. The spot
is surrounded by hlgu acafiuidlug, and lie
may ever hear thu bound ol the builders
I Work. Besides, his guide will hasten to
assure him that the government is deter
mined to rebuild the tower, and eo the
tourist, ignoring or forgetting how things
are done tn Italy and how many towers,
churches and historical buildings de
stroyed by fire, flood, earthquakes or the
hand of man aru wultlng to he rebuilt,
puts off buying the photograph until his
next visit to the queen of the Adriatic
when, he is convinced, the square of bt
Mark will again have Its tower.
The loss of the Campanile Is not Irre
parable; time demolished It, but man will
rebuilt It Italians suy with conviction,
and there Is nothing to do but to wait and
hope that they are right. But the very
men who appear determined to repair the
injuries , of time, are, unconsciously per
haps, causing a great deal of damage to
Venice, as the are bent on Improving by
means of new buildings a city that Is re
garded throughout the entire world as
unique and perfect.
There is a project about a bridge that is
to Join the lagoons with the mainland so
s to enable carriages to drive to Venice
and there are plans for new tenement
houses and hotels. A brand new pescheria
or fish market has been built close to the
Ponte dl Rlalto and a huge palace It is
called a palace because all the houses on
the Grand canal are palaces, but this latest
addition resembles more a barrack than a
palatial residence now rises close to the
Church della Salute and hides Its view from
several points on tho canal.
On Easter day, 1172, the Doge Vltale
Mlchlel II was murdered and the assassins
after committing the crime found refuse in
the houses and narrow alleys on the Riva
Few people know that Champ Clark, the
celebrated congressman from Missouri, and
also known as a lecturer, once practiced
law, or tried to do so, in Wichita, Kan.
But he did. In 1876, relates the Topeka
Capital, Champ dark opened an office
where the Pacific Express company now is
located. There was not a great deal of
business for young attorneys at that time,
and Champ Clark did the best he could to
make a living, but he became discouraged
and In time left the state and returned to
Missouri, where he was afterward elected
to congress. He met Kos Harris on the
street one day and told him that he In
tended to stay In Wichita until he had
made some money, no matter how much
R
Iiaooii
I When Clark Left Town
An Odd Tribe of East African Savages
Copyright 1908 by Frank O. Carpenter.
ORT FLORENCE. (Special Cor-
F respondent of the Bee.) Unfurl
I your fans and take out your
Kcrcmuis 10 niae your piusnes.
We are about to have a stroll
among the Kavlrondo. who In
habit the eastern shores of Lake Victoria
on the western edge of British East Africa.
These people are all more or less naked, and
some of the sights we dare not describe.
We have our cameras with us, but Post
master General Meyer will not allow our
films to go through the mails, and no news
paper would publish all the pictures we
take.
We are in the heart of the continent,, so
near the equator that a day's march to the
north would enable us to straddle It. but
so high above the sea that the weather Is
by no means unpleasant We are on the
wide Gulf of Kavlrondo and on the eastern
edge of the greatest fresh water lake of
th world. That Island-studded sea In front
of us Is Victoria Nyansa; and over there
at the northwest less than a week's march
on foot and lets than two days by the small
steamers which ply on the lake, is Na
poleon gulf, out of which flows the great
river Nile. With the glass you may see
the hippopotamuses swimming near the
hor of Kavlrondo bay, and behind us are
plains covered with pastures and spotted
with droves of cattle, antelope, and gnu.
and also the queerly thatched huts of the
stark-naked natives.
Th plains have a sparse growth of trop
ical trees, and looking over them we can
Cutch eight of the hills which steadily rise
to the Mau Escarpment, beyond which !s
the great Rift volley, and still farther east
are the level highlands of British Eust
Africa, the whole extending on and on to
Mombosa, a distance, as great as that be
tween New York and Cleveland to the
Indian ocean. It was at that point that I
entered the continent, and I have been
traveling for days In copying the iSl n,:i,
which He between us and th ocean.
Fatare Metropolis.
Port Florence is tha terminus of the
Vnganda railroad, and It is destined to be
one of th great cities of Eust Central
Africa. When the Cape of Culro trunk line
Is complete there will probably be a branch
running from here through I'gamla to con
nect with it, and all the commerce of the
vast region about Lake Victoria will flow
by steamer to this point and down, the
Vganda railway to the sea. As it Is now,
the trade Is greatly Increasing, and ivory,
hides, grain and rubber from German Eaut
Africa, the Upper Corgo and the lands to
the north of the lake are shipped through
here to the coast. The cars come right
down to a wood ri wharf which extends well
out Into the Kavlrondo gulf. On tho lake
are several small steamers, which have
been brought up here In pieces and put to
gther. and they are now bringing In freight
from all parta of this big Inland sea.
As to Port Florence its.-lf. It is a llt;le
tin town with practically no accommoda
tions for travelers. The only place to stop
is a dark bungalow, or rest house, put up
by the government, and the only stores
are those of a few Hindoo traders. The
tturopeaas consist of soma soldier be
dfgll Snhlavonl, close to the prisons. Some
time paused before they could ho found and
arrested, and the government of th re
public, suspecting that the houses that
harbored them belonged to accomplices, or
dered their demolition and decreed that In
futuro only wooden houses could be built
on the spot and that the new buildings
should not exceed a certain height The
crime Is now forgotten, but the houses
built In the place of those demolished in
1172 are still mostly of wood and so low
and modest that the great mass of the
ducal palace and prisons tower monu
mentally above them unmarred by com
parisons and unoffended by nearby cjn
t rants.
But a project ha been presented and fa
vorably received by the municipality to
.build a hotel larger than the nelghbor.ng
Danlell and reproducing the architecture
r ' fa.
, rif ' . lit
T, t, r r t
I i fc' if
ft-1-
or how It was made. Several days later ha
was seen on the streets and he had a beau
tiful bronre on his hands and face. It was
the dark brown color that tells of honest
toll in the cornfield.
"Where did you get that color?" asked
one of his friends.
"I got It from cutting corn up. in the
country," was the reply.
''Got anything else?" asked the friend,
who looked at the then attenuated form of
the now fleshy and prominent statesman.
"Sure," replied Clark. "I got this dollar
for the day's work. And I want to tell you
I am going to leave this town. I said I
would not leave until I had made some
money, and now that I have made It I am
ready to leave." He left
longing to the king African Rifles, of the
government officials and of some employes
of the railroad.
The officials put on great airs. Among
the passengers who came In with me yes
terday was a Judge, who will settle the
disputes among these half-naked natives.
He was met at the cars by some soldiers
and a gang of convlots In chains. The lat
ter had com to carry his baggage and
other belongings to his tin house on the
hill and each was dressed tn a heavy Iron
collar with Iron chains extending from It
to bl wrists and ankles. Nevertheless he
was able to aid In lifting the boxes and
In pushing them off on trucks, prodded up
to his work all the while by th soldiers
on guard.
A NaUdNatlon.
But let us take our feet In our hands and
tramp about through Port Florence. Later
on we may march off Into the country
through which I traveled for about fifty
miles on my way here. In Port Florence
Itself we may now and then see a man
with a blanket wrapped around him and
the men frequently wear waist cloths be
hind or tn front. Outside of this they are
stark naked, many of them wearing abso
lutely nothing except plugs In their ears,
strings of beads about their waists and
rough wire rings on their wrists and ankles.
All have skins of a dark, chocolate brown.
They have rather intelligent features,
woolly hair and lips and noses like those
of a negro. They belong to the Bantu race
family and are among the best f jrined of
the peoples of Africa. Someone has said
that traveling through their country is l'ke
walk'.ii.f thr-Migh miles of llvlnj s utuary,
and I have seen thousand) of s ic'.i statues
on my way here.
Kavlrondo Men.
Take these Kavlrond men who have
cathered about me Just now as I write.
Their figures are ebony, and some of them
look as thoi-,Th they m'ght have been rut
from Mack marble by the hand of a sculp
tor. Look at those three brown bucks at
my left. They are as strulght as Mlchael
angelo's famed statue of David and about
aa well formed. See how firmly they stand
on their b.ack feet. Their heads are thrown
back and two have burst out laughing as I
turn my camera toward them. They are
stark naktd, with the exception of thosa
bands of beads about the waist and their
anklets and bracelets. I can follow every
muscle with my eye, and they seem the
perfection of physical manhood. That nuda
fellow next me has a coil of wire about his
biceps and there Is a pound of wire on his
right wrist. He Is smoking a pipe, but It
Just hangs between his teeth, which shine
out bright and white as he smiles.
The man next him has two brass rings
on each of his black thumbs, bands of
telegraph, wire around his wrists and two
wide coils of wire above and below the
biceps of his left arm. He has five wlr
bands about his neck, circles of wire under
each knee and great anklets of tw'nted
wire resting on -each cf his feet. Aa I look
I can see the rallrmaed p!nes whers the
wire has worn Into his Instep, and this is
worse on that third man, whose ankles ar
loaded with twisted wlr. The latter must
have several pounds on each leg, and the
wire on th right leg extends from th foot
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to the middle of the calf.
Now look at their heads. The first man
has Bhort wool which hugs the scalp and
the other two have twisted their hair so
that It hangs down about the head like the
snakes of the Medusa.
Deerskin Aprons.
I stop for a moment and ask the men to
turn around In order thut I may get a view
from the rear. They are not quite so
naked as I had supposed. Each has an
apron of deerskin as big as a woman's
pocket handkerchief fastened to his waist
band behind. The aprons are tanned with
the fur on and are tied to the belts with
deerskin straps. As far as decency goes,
they are of no value at all, and they seem
to be used more for ornament than any
thing else.
Turning now to other men In the party
about me, I see that almost all are simi
larly clad, although a few have skins
thrown around their shoulders and some
have more jewelry. One or two wear a
piece of cotton cloth and a very few hav
wat cloths. I have no trouble in getting
the men to pose. They have gone without
clothes from time immemorial and think
that the use of them is decidedly foolish.
Where the Women Wear Talis.
Let us turn our cameras now on the
women. They are by no means so fine
looking as the men. They are shorter and
not so well formed. Still they are all
there. The younger girls are clad In bead
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Buildings
WHEnK THE WEW
waist belts and the older ones have each a
tassel of fiber tied to a girdle about the
waist This tassel Is fastened Just at th
small of the back and it hangs down be
hind. At a short distance it looks like a
cow's tall. I am told that it is an in
dispensable article of dress for every mar
ried woman, and that it Is improper for
a stranger to touch it. Sir Harry John
ston, who governed these people, says that
even a husband dares not touch this caudal
appendage when worn by his wife, and If,
by mistake. It Is touched, a goat must be
sacrificed or th woman will die from the
insult.
Bom of the native women here in Port
Florence wear little aprons of fiber about
six inches long, extending down at the
front I can see dosens of them so clad
all about me and for a penny can get any
of them to pose for my camera. The young
girls have no clothes at all and this Is the
custom throughout the country. Indeed,
farther back In th Interior th fringe
aprons are removed and both sexes are
clad chiefly In Jewelry of wire of various
kinds.
The strangest thing about the nudity of
these savages Is that they are absolutely
unconscious of any wrong In It. Such of
them as have not met Europeans do not
know they are naked, and a married wo
man with her tall of palm fiber Is fully
dressed. A traveler tells how he tried to
educate a gang of naked young women
whom be met out in the country by cut
MARKET BCENB AT PORT FLORENCE.
of Old Venice Disappearing
BEAf IB IS 12. T,
of the Lake Victoria District
ting up some American sheeting and giving
each a piece. The girls looked at th
cloths with Interest but evidently did not
know what to do with them. Thereupon
the white man took a strip and tied it
about the waist of one of the party. Upon
this the other girls wrapped their pieces
about their waists, but a moment later,
they took them off, saying: "These are
foreign customs and we do not want them."
Queer Marrlaxe customs.
During my stay in the Kavlrondo country
I hav gone out among the villages and
have seen the natives In their homes and
at' work. The land is thickly populated
and tha people ar good-natured and quiet
One can go anywhere without danger, and
there Is no trouble In getting photographs
of whatever one wants.
I Am surprised at the great number of
married women. This rule as to married
women wearing tails gives one a knowledge
of tha condition of every woman he meet.
If the tail la on one knows the woman is
married and if not that she is single.
Th Kavirondo girls marry very early.
I am told they are often betrothed at the
age of 6 years, but that In such case th
girl stays with her parents for five or six
years aft ward. All marriages are mat
of bargain and sale. The parents sell their
girls for a price, and a good wife can be
purchased for forty hoes, twenty goaU and
a cow. In the early betrothals the suitor
pays part of the fixed sum down and the
rest in installments until all la paid. If
1 .
ef the ducal palace In place of the old
wooden houses of the twelfth century.
Bt III another hotel, large end several storlrg
high, as the "Industrie del forastlero" or
foreigners' trade Is highly remunerative In
Venice, Is to be built Instead of the beauti
ful cloister of Ban Oregorlo, which evi
dently la doomed lo disappear.
All these new buildings and hotel are
built very quietly,, almost on the sly. One
stone is placed on the other until a wall
la raised; then the ancient or historical
house behind It Is removed; the wall rises
higher and higher until some day the new
takes the place of the old. A protest In
one of the newspapers, a letter to the fine
arts department, perhaps a few words of
regret by a member of Parliament, and
there the matter ends.
The cloister or the low wooden house of
1172 Is not rebuilt, as they say the Campa
nile will be, because the old doea not take
The Ruling Passion
Don Marino Torlonla of the ducal family
of Torlonla of Rome said at a dinner party
In New York that a certain American mil
lionaire reminded him of the famous Ro
man miser, Arpagnlo.
"Let me," said the tall young man, smil
ing, "show you what a tremendous miser
Arpagnlo was. As he lay dying in his cold,
dark, bare palace of stone on the Corso
his one thought was that since he was too
ill to eat, a full lire a day was being saved
on the food bill. The doctor was announced.
The doctor, after feeling Arpagnlo' pulse,
looked grave.
" 'Well,' said the miser, 'how much longer
have I to live?'
" 'Only half an hour,' was the reply.
"Arpagnio's eyes flashed fire.
the father refuses to give up the girl when
the time comes for marriage, the payments
having been made, th suitor organises a
band of his friends and captures her and
carries her home. A man usually takes his
wife from a different village from that In
which he lives and when he comes with his
band to the bride's village her gentlemen
friends often resist the invasion and fight
the suitor's party with sticks. At -such
times the girl screams, but I am told she
usually allows herself to be captured.
I am told that old maids are not popular
and that the average Kavlrondo girl la
Just as anxious to be married as are our
maidens at home. Indeed, she is usually
very anxious; that If she does not get a
bid In the ordinary way she will pick out
a man for herself and arrange to have
herself offered to him at a reduced rata.
I understand there ar plenty of plump
maidens now on the bargain counter.
Another queer marriage custom here Is
as to one's wife's sister. The man who
gets tha first girl In a family Is supposed
to hava the say as to all th younger ones
as they come to marriageable age. Polyg
amy is common here and a man may thus
have several slaters among his wives.
They Ar Good Girls.
One would suppose that these Kavirondo
girls might be rather loose In their morals.
I am told that they are not so, and that
they rank much bettor In this regard than
the maiden of Uganda the province ad
joining, nearly all of whom wear clothing.
Virtue 'stands high here, and infractions
of the law regarding it as severely punished.
This Is less so now than In the past. Di
vorces are not common, but a man can
divorce hla wives if he will. One curious
custom Is that if a husband and wife have
a quarrel, and she leaves the hut and he
shuts the door after her, that action alone
Is considered equivalent to a divorce and
the woman goes back to her own peopl
at once.
Kavlrondo Villages.
But let us go out Into the country and
look at some of the Kavlrondo villages. I
hav visited many and have had no
trouble whatever In going Into the houses.
There are many little scttlemyits scat
tered over the plains between Wre and
the hills, with footpaths running from vil
lage to village. The most of the settle
ments are small, a dosen huts or so form
ing a good-sized one. The houses hav
walls of mud with cone-shaped roofs,
thatched with grass. The doors are so
low that one has to orawl Into them;
and many a house Is not more than seven
feet high from the mud floor to the top
of the cone.
Th roof usually extend out beyond the
walls of the hut, covering a sort of
veranda, a part of whic h Is enclosed and
a part open. There are poles outs-lde which
support the roof of the veranda.
The huts are usually built around an
open space and are Joined by fences of
rough limbs and roots, so that each col
lection of huts forms s stockade In which
the animals belonging to the village can
be kept at night. Sometimes a village may
be mad of a number of such circles, each
collection of huts belonging to one family.
On of th huts Is for th polygamous
tha plac-e of the new. Italy la progressiva
and dally Improving and disappearing old
stones makes It look still more modern.
Besides it I well known tact that "IjS
antlchlta son per I forasth rt" antiquities
ar for the foreigners, and there are so
many of them, especially In Venice, that
the removal of a few will not be missed,
the more so as the new buildings that sup
plant the old are purposely dark In color,
and modern architects strive to reproduc
Bysantlne architecture known as Llago.
which formerly were to be seen In many
side streets and wl.lcji illustrated the earli
est style of Vei rtlan building, have almost
all disappeared and their d H.rs. windows,
ironwork, painted beams and pavements
hava enriched dealers of antiques.
Another type of houses, those with Jutting
roofs supported on barblcana, having only
on story and a shop on the ground floor,
house similar to the ons that Shylook is
supposed to have Inhabited. Is also becom
ing very rare. There are still a few left, at
Santa Glustina, Bt. Btae and Ban Flllppo a
Olacomo, but hidden by new constructions
and oft repeated repairs and alterations,
and scarcely to be rocognliod.
A short dlstanca from Venice Is tho Island
of Torcello, one of the sights tourists ar
expected to see. Once it was a flourishing
city rich in villas and churohos; today it Is
only a ruin. Ther i till the publlo palace,
the church of Santa Maria, built In 1008.
and the temple of Santa rosea, dating back
to the ninth century, but all are In ruins,
their walls cracked, their .rches broken
and tholr frescoes covered undor whlte
waBh. When the tide I high the whol
Island 1 under water. Nothing haa been
done to avert the entire collate and dis
appearance of these monumonts.
Funds are lacking and as Torcello Is
under the Jurisdiction of the municipality
of Burano, the proceeds of the entrance
fees charged to visit the palac of tha
Dodges, tho only money that Is ever applied
toward the restoration and reparation of
national monuments, cannot be employed
to save the Island from ruin. Some day
In the near future a wall will slowly rise
around the Island until every vostlga of
church and ralac Is hidden; then when the
wall Is roofed over a sign will b put up
with "Hotel Torcello" written In large
letters; windows, balconies and doors will
be oponod and gradually the island will be
come a hotel.
The tower of St. Mark Is to b rebuilt,
we are told, and perhaps it will be, but the
old churches, palaces, cloisters and houses
that have made place for new buildings are
lost forever, and In the near future one will
have to be satisfied to see Venice in the
paintings of Bellini and Carpacclo, that is
unless these too ar doomed to disappear.
'You scoundrel" he cried. 'Why do you
let things run on to the last minute like
this? Do you want to ruin me? Send for
the barber at once.'
"The barber arrived post haste.
" "You charge,' said Arpagnlo, '20 centes
lml for shaving?'
" 'Yes, signer.'
" 'And for shaving a corps i lire?'
" 'Yes.'
"Arpagnlo glanced at th clock. Seven or
the thirty minutes left him still remained.
" "Then shav me quickly,' h gasped.
"As the operation finished Arpagnlo died.
But with his last breath, smiling happily,
hs murmured, while the barber dried his ,
cold, pale cheeks: 4
" 'How splendid! Four lire snd 80 contes
iml saved I' "-Washington Star.
husband and one for each of his wives.
But let us go Inside one of th houses
and see how It looks. Wa stoop low as
we enter. Th floor is of mud. with a
few skins scattered over It. The skins ar
the sleeping places. Notice that little pen
at the back, littered with dirt? That Is
where the goats sleep. Th chicken ar
put in that tall basket over ther in tha
corner and are covered up until morning.
There is practically no furniture except a
few pots. The cooking is don In clay
vessels over that fir In th center of th
hut and the food Is served in small baskets,
the men eating first and the women taking
what is left.
Outside each hut, under the veranda, la
th mill of th family. It consists of a
great stone, with a hole chipped out of
the center. The women grind Indian com
or sorghum seed In such mills, pounding
or rubbing th grain with a second stone,
Just a little smaller than the hole. In th
grinding bits of tha stone come off and
ar mixed with ths meal, causing- diseases
of chronic Indigestion.
Towns of tho Dead.
I understand some of the older Kavlr
ondo villages ar nothing but cemeteries
and that there are little towns each hut
of which contains one or more dead bodlos
and nothing else. Th peopl ar super
stitious and want to be burled In th asm
places in which they have lived. When a
chief dies his body is interred in th center
of his but. He is placed in th grav In a
sitting posture, just deep enough to allow
his head and neck to be abov ground.
The head is then covered with an earthen
pot and this is left ther until th an
get In and clean off the skull. After t'
the skull is burled close to the hut or
within It and the skeleton Is taken out
and reburlbd on some hilltop or other
sacred place.
Ordinary people are burled In their own
huts lying on their right sides with legs
doubled up under the rhln. Such a hut Is
then left and forms a monument to th dear i
departed. I understand that where therizv
have been epidemic diseases one may some
times find a wholo village of such hutsv
occupied only by the dead. Tha building's
ar left until they fall to pieces.
Kavlrondo Cattle
These Kavirondo are a stock-rearing peo
ple. I see their little flock of sheep and
goats everywhere, and frequently pass
droves of humM-d cattle. The animals ar
fat. They grase everywhere over th
plains, being usually herded. Every drove
has a flock of while birds about It. Some
of the birds are on the ground, and some
are perched on the bachs cf the rattle eat
ing tho Insects anfT vermin they find there.
They are. the rhlnocerous birds, which feed
on the files and other impels which attack
thosa great btaatJ, anj which by thuy flying
warn them of the approach of danger.
The cattle are driven Into the villages at
night or Into small Imiosures outside.
The women do the milk inc. but I arn told
they are not allowed to drink th milk,
although they may mix it with flour Into
a soup.
FRANK a CARPENTER.
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