the climate in winter, and if any reliance can be placed in books of sanitary science, Venice is not the healthiest city in the world. But now in full spring the climate was delicious. As to the people, they seemed to us to be the most lighthearted we had yet met with, and a singularly handsome race, apparently proud of their newly acquired liberty, and certainly

having all the

regaining their

former high position in Europe. Their language

even to our untutored ears was melodious to a

degree, for the Venetians in their common dialect have a way of dropping the consonants, and indulging only the vowels, which is strangely musical.

The commerce of Venice, though hardly as yet improving, must in time sympathize with

its manufactures. There are certainly revivals in taste, and the rediscovery of what are called the lost arts. Some of us visited the glass-works of Murano. Now in times past, say three or four centuries, it was to Italy that the world was indebted for all the refinements of art, and when Queen Elizabeth and her courtiers supped on common platters, and

drank from coarse cups, it was Italy which made divine majolica and Venetian glass. The art of making this delicate glass has been reinvented at Murano, and to-day the same delicate conceptions, the inspirations of the glass-blower, are turned out in Venice. Venice has always been famous for her beads, and she produces them still in untold quantity.

It was on the 26th of April that we left Venice for Milan, and as usual on our departure, the General was the recipient of the well-wishes of all the Americans, who had assembled to bid. him good-by.

On the road from Venice to Milan we skirted through portions of a country, where the culture of the lands was familiar to some of the party. As April was closing, and May with full spring was beginning, the famous rice fields of Upper Lombardy were being clothed with their emerald green. We arrived at Milan on the 27th of April, and the Ex-President was received by the prefect, syndic, and other notabilities of the city, who paid most flattering compliments to our chief. In fact we find that nowhere in Europe is the distinguished part performed by General Grant in the history of the United States better known or more fully appreciated than in the kingdom of Italy. Innumerable Italian officers and soldiers were in the service of the United States during the civil strife, and many claim the distinction of having been the General's comrades in

arms.

If we had been impressed with the grandeur of St. Peter's, we were amazed with the beauty of the Duomo. Up and up sprang the pinnacles of pure white marble, all cut and carved, the immense structure seeming as light as a poetical conception, surmounted by innumerable statues. To count these statues has been the task of many a traveler, but their number is bewildering. Some put it at eight thousand, others at five thousand; but a happy mean may be struck somewhere between the two. If one wonders at the lofty structure which rises in the purity of chaste white stone to the heavens, below there is still another church. Here are the remains of the pious St. Charles Borromeo. The Duomo of Milan is a place of relics, for here

the true believer may see nails from the cross, and a fragment from the rod of Moses, besides many teeth which once belonged to biblical worthies. Returning to this cathedral, he who has not seen it can have no conception of what is Gothic tempered by Italian feeling in its most graceful manner. At the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie there is that object of the greatest interest, the fresco of the "Last Supper," by Da Vinci. Alas! this work, imbued with the truest essence of piety, is fast vanishing through the dampness of the place. It is true the

world has made a million of copies of this work, and all know the divine simplicity of the "Last Supper," as far as paper and engraving will permit, but none but those who have seen with their own eyes Leonardo da Vinci's fresco on the dingy wall, with the fast-fleeting colors, can ever appreciate the imposing holiness of this creation.

Milan is a bright, cheerful city, and certainly the most prosperous in Italy. It has a great reputation for wealth and for the possibility of obtaining all the comforts of life. Besides being an artistic center, as far as painting and sculpture is con

377 cerned, as a musical school it is very well known in the United States. Here the incipient prima donna, who has made her début at some small village church choir in the far West, comes to learn how to breathe correctly, to improve her notes, and to turn her trills into gold.

The great temple of music in Italy, after the Fenice of Naples, is the Teatro della Scala of Milan. It is there that all the great singers have gained their reputations, and operas have been first played. Some of us witnessed an operatic performance at La Scala. The instrumentation was good, but as to the singers, why, they had flown. New York offers now greater inducements to great vocalists, and though Italy creates the singers, they find their plaudits and their money in the United States.

Milan is so conveniently situated between Italy and Switzerland, so near to France, has so many advantages, that it is the favorite halting-place of Americans. In Milan, the Ex-President had a constant round of American callers, and what with paying and receiving visits, seeing churches and monuments, the few days the General had to pass in the city sped rapidly. But Paris was an objective point, and the Paris Exhibition; so our flying column had its instructions given it, and by the end of the week our leader bid us on once more to the gayest capital of all Europe.

ROM Italy to France our journey was both pleasant and speedy. Everywhere along the route the usual civilities were offered us, and we had all the advantages of the best carriages on the railroads, and at the stations the functionaries of the various companies were all desirous of paying attention to General Grant. It was on the 7th of May that we once more arrived in Paris. On the 3d of the month Marshal MacMahon had opened the Paris Exhibition, and Paris was now talking of nothing else than this Exhibition. The American Centennial has been such a recent event, that I need not trouble my readers with any description of the French Exhibition. In fact, the accounts which have been sent home have been undoubtedly ample. On arriving in Paris, the American colony again paid their respects to the