l but food and clothing were also low.

We would gladly have remained longer in Florence if my plan of
travel would have allowed it. Not only was the city and all the
treasures of art interesting, but the country around was picturesque
and highly cultivated. We could ride in any direction over admirable
roads and almost every place had an historical interest. I witnessed
there a review of several thousand troops, but was especially
interested in a body of small men well drilled for rapid movements.
The parade was on Sunday and the ladies objected to a parade on
that day. I observed that in the Latin states I visited, Sunday
was generally selected for such displays. I purchased two works
of art from American artists. I commend the wisdom of their choice
of location, for in Florence the love of art, especially of sculpture,
is more highly appreciated than in any other city of Europe that
I have visited.

Our next stopping place was Venice. The chief attraction of this
city is that it is unlike any other city in the world in its
location, its architecture, its history and in the habits and
occupation of its people. It is literally located in the sea; its
streets are canals; its carriages are gondolas and they are peculiar
and unlike any other vessel afloat. Magnificent stone palaces rise
from the waters, and the traveler wonders how, upon such foundations,
these buildings could rest for centuries. Its strange history has
been the basis of novels, romances, dramas and poetry, by writers
in every country and clime. Its form of government was, in the
days of the Doges, a republic governed by an aristocracy, and its
wealth was the product of commerce conducted by great merchants
whose enterprise extended to every part of the known habitable
globe.

We visited St. Mark's cathedral, the palace of the Doges, and the
numerous places noted in history or tradition. We chartered a
gondola and rode by moonlight through the Grand Canal and followed
the traditional course of visitors. The glory of Venice is gone
forever. We saw nothing of the pomp and panoply of the ancient
city. The people were poor and the palaces were reduced to tenement
houses. Venice may entice strangers by its peculiar situation and
past history, but in the eye of an American traveler it is but a
great ruin. The wages paid for labor were not sufficient to supply
absolute necessities.

The construction of the railroad to Vienna is a remarkabl