ordinary grocery, near the Ghetto. He has a pack on his back and a staff
in his hand; his face is painted, and is habitually dishonored with dirt
thrown upon it by boys. On the wall near him is painted a bell-pull, with
the legend, _Sior Antonio Rioba_. Rustics, raw apprentices, and
honest Germans new to the city, are furnished with packages to be carried
to Sior Antonio Rioba, who is very hard to find, and not able to receive
the messages when found, though there is always a crowd of loafers near to
receive the unlucky simpleton who brings them. _"E poi, che commedia
vederli arrabiarsi! Che ridere_!" That is the Venetian notion of fun,
and no doubt the scene is amusing. I was curious to see Sior Antonio,
because a comic journal bearing his name had been published during the
time of the Republic of 1848, and from the fact that he was then a sort of
Venetian Pasquino. But I question now if he was worth seeing, except as
something that brought me into the neighborhood of the Ghetto, and
suggested to me the idea of visiting that quarter.

As we left him and passed up the canal in our gondola, we came unawares
upon the church of Santa Maria dell' Orto, one of the most graceful Gothic
churches in the city. The facade is exquisite, and has two Gothic windows
of that religious and heavenly beauty which pains the heart with its
inexhaustible richness. One longed to fall down on the space of green turf
before the church, now bathed in the soft golden October sunshine, and
recant these happy, commonplace centuries of heresy, and have back again
the good old believing days of bigotry, and superstition, and roasting,
and racking, if only to have once more the men who dreamed those windows
out of their faith and piety (if they did, which I doubt), and made them
with their patient, reverent hands (if their hands _were_ reverent,
which I doubt). The church is called Santa Maria dell' Orto, from the
miraculous image of Our Lady which was found in an orchard where the
temple now stands. We saw this miraculous sculpture, and thought it