as the esteem of the great sculptor Canova for him,
that when Florian was overtaken by gout, he made a model of his
leg, that the poor fellow might be spared the anguish of fitting
himself with boots. The friendship had begun when Canova was
entering on his career, and he never forgot the substantial
services which had been rendered to him in the hour of need.

In later days, the Caffe Florian was under the superintendence of a
female chef, and the waitresses used, in the case of certain
visitors, to fasten a flower in the button-hole, perhaps allusively
to the name. In the Piazza itself girls would do the same thing. A
good deal of hospitality is, and has ever been, dispensed at Venice
in the cafes and restaurants, which do service for the domestic
hearth.

There were many other establishments devoted, more especially in
the latest period of Venetian independence, to the requirements of
those who desired such resorts for purposes of conversation and
gossip. These houses were frequented by various classes of
patrons--the patrician, the politician, the soldier, the artist,
the old and the young--all had their special haunts where the
company and the tariff were in accordance with the guests. The
upper circles of male society--all above the actually
poor--gravitated hither to a man.

For the Venetian of all ranks the coffee house was almost the last
place visited on departure from the city, and the first visited on
his return. His domicile was the residence of his wife and the
repository of his possessions; but only on exceptional occasions
was it the scene of domestic hospitality, and rare were the
instances when the husband and wife might be seen abroad together,
and when the former would invite the lady to enter a cafe or a
confectioner's shop to partake of an ice.

[Illustration: FLORIAN'S FAMOUS CAFFE IN THE PIAZZA DI SAN MARCO,
VENICE, NINETEENTH CENTURY]

The Caffe Florian has undergone many changes, but it still survives as
one of the favorite _caffe_ in the Piazza San Marco.

By 1775 coffee-house history had begun to repeat itself in Venice.
Charges of immorality, vice, and corruption, were preferred against the
_caffe_; and the Council of Ten in 1775, and again in 1776, directed the
Inquisitors of State to eradicate these "social cankers." However, they
survived