page62

Original Source Document
 * Frederick Douglass Diary - page 62 of 72**

Venice as it is with the marks of decay upon it, though still in many respects the most beautiful of cities, but we easily think of what it must have been in the days of its, when it was the city of merchant Princes and had control of the rich commerce of all the East - when it was a free Republic. I saw its Biblotyc containing acres of volumes and precious manuscripts among these I saw letters from three great Americans - John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. On the great canal, I saw the house where Desdemona resided when wooed by Othelo. Nowhere else than in Venice is glass manufactured into more perfect forms of beauty. Where climate, sea and sky are so beautiful - it is not strange that they should suggest beauty to the artificers in all kinds of works. Milan: aside from its splendid cathedral, is not remarkable. It is simply a fine city with fine houses, stores, squares - like any other fine city.
 * Transcribed Text**