“So strange and so strong is the power of fiction over truth, in Venice, as everywhere else, that Portia and Emilia, Cassio, Antonio, and Iago appear to have been more real here than are the women and men in real life. We see, on the Rialto, Shylock first, and then its history and associations; and the Council Chamber of the Palace of the Doges is chiefly interesting as being the scene of Othello’s eloquent defense of himself.” PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 27, SERIAL No. 27 [Illustration: A TYPICAL VENETIAN CANAL, VENICE] _VENICE_ _A Typical Venetian Canal_ SIX In Venice one takes a gondola as in America he takes a taxicab: with one difference,--after the gondola ride he still has some money left. A gondola is a long black skiff, with graceful lines and a swanlike prow sweeping up from the water. It is typically Venetian. It is admirably adapted to the work it has to do. There are only two points in all Venice where a gondola may not go even at low water,--one near the great theater of the Fenice, and the other near the Palazza Mocenigo at San Stae. Two is the best number of passengers for a gondola. The rower is out of sight, behind. All is ideal. There is no noise, no dust, not even the feeling of motion, except the ripple of water past the bow. The wood of which a gondola is built must be well seasoned and without knots. All gondolas turned out of one workshop are the same length. A new gondola is left unpainted for the first year. This is to prove its newness to any possible buyer. An unpainted gondola can easily be examined for knots. As soon as it is painted its value decreases. The gondoliers become very attached to their own boats. They learn their peculiarities; for a gondola, like a person, has a character of its own. Since the earliest days of Venice gondolas have been in use. Their present form has resulted from gradual development. The earliest authentic document relating to Venice mentions the light boats that were to the Venetians “as horses tied to the doors of their houses.” At first these boats were simple in construction; but in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the gondolas became very sumptuous. Finally, so luxurious did they become that they had to be regulated by law. Now they are longer and speedier, and are usually painted black. There are about twenty ferries operating across the Grand Canal and the Giudecca. They resemble our cab service. The gondoliers also have guilds or unions. The police license the gondolas; but the real laws of the gondolier are those of his guild. Each guild has its own meeting place, where all questions of hours of work and choice of station are settled. If one member of the union becomes sick, he is cared for out of the public purse, and if he dies he is carried to the grave by his fellow members. These guilds are probably the last survivors of the old medieval crafts of Venice.