best are those in the neighbourhood
of the hotels upon the Grand Canal. At any one of these a gondolier
during the season is sure of picking up some foreigner or other who will
pay him handsomely for comparatively light service. A _traghetto_ on the
Giudecca, on the contrary, depends upon Venetian traffic. The work is
more monotonous, and the pay is reduced to its tariffed minimum. So far
as I can gather, an industrious gondolier, with a good boat, belonging
to a good _traghetto_, may make as much as ten or fifteen francs in a
single day. But this cannot be relied on. They therefore prefer a fixed
appointment with a private family, for which they receive by tariff five
francs a day, or by arrangement for long periods perhaps four francs a
day, with certain perquisites and small advantages. It is great luck to
get such an engagement for the winter. The heaviest anxieties which
beset a gondolier are then disposed of. Having entered private service,
they are not allowed to ply their trade on the _traghetto_, except by
stipulation with their masters. Then they may take their place one night
out of every six in the rank and file. The gondoliers have two proverbs,
which show how desirable it is, while taking a fixed engagement, to keep
their hold on the _traghetto_. One is to this effect: _il traghetto e un
buon padrone_. The other satirises the meanness of the poverty-stricken
Venetian nobility: _pompa di servitu, misera insegna_. When they combine
the _traghetto_ with private service, the municipality insists on their
retaining the number painted on their gondola; and against this their
employers frequently object. It is, therefore, a great point for a
gondolier to make such an arrangement with his master as will leave him
free to show his number. The reason for this regulation is obvious.
Gondoliers are known more by their numbers and their _traghetti_ than
their names. They tell me that though there are upwards of a thousand
registered in Venice, each man of the trade knows the whole
confraternity by face and number. Taking all things into consideration,
I think four francs a day the whole year round are very good earnings
for a gondolier. On this he will marry and rear a family, and put a
little money by. A young unmarried man, working at two and a half or
three francs a day, is proportionately well-to-do. If he is economical,
he ought upon these wages to save enough in two or three years to buy
himself a gondola. A boy fr