The skill of the average Venetian gondolier is marvelous. Rare indeed are collisions. These gondoliers are not the romantic heroes one may imagine them to be. They do not float in the moonlight singing serenades beneath their sweethearts’ windows. They are hardy fellows, thrifty, sober, and laborious, good husbands and fathers, matter-of-fact money makers.
One dollar and forty cents a day is the charge for a gondola and its gondolier in the season; at other times the price is forty cents less. A gondolier earns on an average sixty cents a day. This does not seem very much; but the gondoliers live fairly well, and even put money into the bank.
All the gondoliers of Venice are divided into two factions, the Nicolotti and the Castellani. The rivalry between these two is intense, and the question of supremacy was formerly settled by the knife. Nowadays, however, more peaceable but exciting races are the means. The Nicolotti wear a black sash and cap, and the Castellani wear red. There are four principal races a year. The first is rowed in May for a banner of red and gold; in August two pennons are rowed for, the white and gold, and the green; the blue banner is the prize in October.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 27, SERIAL No. 27