structed in the Byzantine style. The church is in the form of a Greek cross, crowned with five domes. The building is lavishly enriched with more than 500 marble columns, chiefly Oriental, and with mosaics,

many of them dating back to the tenth century. Over the

chief portal are four horses in gilded bronze, five feet in height, the only horses, by the way, in Venice.

The slender Campanile, which seemed to Thomas Bailey Aldrich like a "falling shaft of silver," actually fell in 1902, after standing in front of St. Mark's for more than a thousand years; it is

now

being built on lines as closely as possible resembling the old ones.

The art of Venice bears an Oriental stamp not only in the Church of St. Mark and its mosaics, but also in the palaces of the Gothic period, the splendor of which

IN A GONDOLA ON THE CANAL 243

was enhanced by external decorations in gold and color. The Piazza of St. Mark, without a rival in Italy, affords the most striking evidence of the ancient glory of Venice. It is bounded by the Church of St. Mark, the so-called Procuratie, now the residence of the nine Procurators, the chief

officials of the Re

public, and the Atrio. The ground floors of these buildings are occupied by cafés and shops. Of course we fed the pigeons in Venice; every one feeds the pigeons in front of the Cathedral and has his photograph taken with the doves resting on his arms and shoulders. Venice has a museum and

picture gallery and bridges, any one of which is well worthy of a visit, especially the one over the Mole, facing the Bridge of Sighs between the Palace of the Doges and the Criminal Prison.

And what shall be said of the ride in a gondola on the Grand Canal, under a full moon and a starlit sky?

A concert was in progress, the music being on two gondolas locked together; from every direction gondolas

were seen slowly but gradually veering toward those from

which the music

ON THE GRAND CANAL

came. In а few moments we found our gondolas in the center of the small fleet, all apparently drifting toward a

common center.

The fascinating music, the bewitching moonlight and the delightful company-what a combination, and Venice too!

in

One can understand Mrs. Browning's letters upon Venice better after being in the city where she wrote them. Her words are worth repeating: "The beauty of the architecture, the silver trails of water up between all that gorgeous color and carving, the enchanting silence, the music, the gondolas-I mix it all up together and maintain that nothing is like it, nothing equal to it, no second Venice in the world."

CHAPTER XVII

THE CRUISE OF THE ARABIC

"TRA

AND when, in other climes, we meet,

Some isle or vale enchanting,

Where all looks flowery, wild and sweet,
And naught but love is wanting;
We think how great had been our bliss
If Heaven had but assigned us
To live and die in scenes like this

With some we've left behind us.

-THOMAS MOORE.

RAVEL," says a Boston preacher, "is good for the soul-when it is of the proper kind and pursued in company with the right sort of people." Such a company sailed out of New York Harbor on a cold January morning on the steamship Arabic of the White Star Line bound for a cruise of seventy-three days in the Mediterranean. "The ripe culture of a wise old world," predicted the preacher, “will be under tribute to the travelers on the cruise. The prophecy became history in the weeks which followed. Clergy

men, college and seminary presidents and professors, Sunday-school superintendents and teachers, Christian Association leaders-men and women-all of these

classes and many more were among the passengers. It was a party considerably above the average steamer company in point of intelligence.

While there was no expressed principle actuating the conduct of the members of the party, the following illustrates the spirit manifested: “From each according to his ability; to each according to his need.”

In addition to the round of sightseeing at every landing, there were receptions, lectures, entertainments, musicales, promenades and dances and concerts on board the ship. Nearly every night the main saloon was filled with several hundred people gathered to be instructed or amused. On Sundays, morning and evening, there were sermons and addresses. The writer had been invited to serve as chairman at the entertainments and lectures and to arrange for the Sunday services. The Church of England service was used on Sunday morning, in accordance with the custom on an English ship, but Methodist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian and Protestant Episcopal clergymen were heard with equal pleasure; the federation, if not the unity, of Christendom seemed near at hand. Special services were held for the Roman Catholic brethren at which several priests officiated during the voyage. The Lord Bishop of Ontario; the Rev. William Allen Knight, D.D., of Boston; the Rev. Joel Leonard, D.D., of Melrose, Mass.; the Rev. Orville Reed, Ph.D., of Montclair, N. J.; the Rev. J. O. Knott, Ph.D., of Covington, Va.; the Rev. E. E. Madeira, of Titusville, Penn.; the Rev. H. M. Tyndall, D. D., of New York; the Rev. George Maxwell, of California; Principal George E. Fox, of New Haven, Conn., and the writer were