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diff --git a/13636-0.txt b/13636-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc155c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/13636-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7958 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13636 *** + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE + +OF + +_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE_. + + + + +FEBRUARY, 1873. + +Vol. XI., No. 23. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + +SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. + Concluding Paper. + +A GLANCE AT THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS By J.L.T. PHILLIPS. + +COMMONPLACE By CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON. + +PROBATIONER LEONHARD; OR, THREE NIGHTS IN THE HAPPY VALLEY + By CAROLINE CHESEBRO. + + Chapter IV.--The Test--With Mental Reservations. + + Chapter V.--Sister Benigna. + + Chapter VI.--The Men Of Spenersberg. + + Chapter VII.--The Book. + + Chapter VIII.--Conference Meeting. + + Chapter IX.--Will The Architect Have Employment? + +COUNTRY-HOUSE LIFE IN ENGLAND By REGINALD WYNFORD. + +THE FOREST OF ARDEN By ITA ANIOL PROKOP. + +JACK, THE REGULAR By THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH. + +OBSERVATIONS AND ADVENTURES IN SUBMARINE DIVING By WILL WALLACE HARNEY. + +CONFIDENTIAL. + +GLIMPSES OF JOHN CHINAMAN By PRENTICE MULFORD. + +A WINTER REVERIE By MILLIE W. CARPENTER. + +"PASSPORTS, GENTLEMEN!" By A.H. + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + + The Cornwallis Family. + + Novelties In Ethnology. + + The Steam-whistle. + + Siamese News. + + Madison As A Temperance Man. + +NOTES. + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + +Books Received. + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +The Cones of Patabamba. + +"Pepe Garcia, Who Marched Ahead, Announced the Print Of A South + American Tiger." + +"Napoleon-like, They Washed Their Dirty Linen in The Family" + +"Aragon and his Men Fell Upon the Deserters Without Mercy." + +"They Greeted These Indian Relics As Crusoe Did The Footprints of the + Savages." + +"Another Savage Had Found a Pair of Linen Pantaloons." + +View of the Acropolis and The Columns Of The Temple Of Jupiter Olympus. + +Theatre of Dionysus (Bacchus). + +Victory Untying Her Sandals. + +Temple of Victory. + +The Parthenon. + +Bas Relief of the Gods (Frieze Of The Parthenon). + +Porch of the Caryatides. + +Monument of Lysicrates. + + + + + + +SEARCHING FOR THE QUININE-PLANT IN PERU. + +CONCLUDING PAPER. + + +Early on a brilliant morning, with baggage repacked, and the lessening +amount of provisions more firmly strapped on the shoulders of the +Indians, the explorers left their pleasant site on the banks of the +Maniri. The repose allowed to the bulk of the party during the absence +of their Bolivian companions had been wholesome and refreshing. The +success of the bark-hunters in their search for cinchonas had cheered +all hearts, and the luxurious supper of dried mutton and chuno +arranged for them on their return gave a reminiscence of splendor to +the thatched hut on the banks of the stream. This edifice, the last of +civilized construction they expected to see, had the effect of a home +in the wilderness. The bivouac there had been enjoyed with a sentiment +of tranquil carelessness. Little did the travelers think that savage +eyes had been peeping through the forest upon their fancied security, +and that the wild people of the valleys who were to work them all +kinds of mischief were upon their track from this station forth. + +The enormous fire kindled for breakfast mingled with the stain of +sunrise to cast a glow upon their departure. Across the vale of the +Cconi, as though a pair of sturdy porters had arisen to celebrate +their leavetaking, the cones of Patabamba caught the first rays of +the sun and held them aloft like hospitable torches. These huge forms, +soldered together at the waist like Chang and Eng, and clothed with +shaggy woods up to the top, had been the guardian watchers over their +days in the ajoupa at Maniri. The sun just rising empurpled their +double cones, while the base and the surrounding landscape were washed +with the neutral tints of twilight. + +After passing the narrow affluent after which the camping-ground of +Maniri was named, the party pursued the course of the Cconi through +a more level tract of country. The stones and precipices became more +rare, but in revenge the sandy banks soon began to reflect a heat that +was hardly bearable. As the implacable sun neared its zenith the party +walked with bent heads and blinded eyes, now dashing through great +plains of bamboos, now following the hatchets of the peons through +thickets of heated shrubbery. + +Whenever the country became more wooded in its character, the +bark-hunters, whose quest obliged them to stray in short flights +around the wings of the column, redoubled their mazes. The careless +air of these Bolivian retrievers, their voluntary doublings through +the most difficult jungles, and their easy way of walking over +everything with their noses in the air, proved well their indifference +to the obstacles which were almost insurmountable to the rest. + +[Illustration: THE CONES OF PATABAMBA.] + +Nothing could be more singular and interesting than to see them +consulting one by one the indications scattered around them, and +deciding on their probabilities or promises. Where the height and +thickness of the foliage prevented them from seeing the sky, or +even the shade of the surrounding green, they walked bent toward the +ground, stirring up the rubbish, and choosing among the dead foliage +certain leaves, of which they carefully examined the two sides and the +stem. When by accident they found themselves near enough to speak to +each other--a rare chance, for each peon undertook a separate line of +search--they asked their friends, showing the leaves they had found, +whether their discoveries appertained to the neighboring trees or +whether the wind had brought the pieces from a distance. This kind +of investigation, pursued by men who had prowled through forests +all their lives, might seem slightly puerile if the reader does +not understand that it is often difficult, or even impossible, to +recognize the growing tree by its bark, covered as it is from base +to branches with parasitic vegetation of every sort. In those forests +whatever has a stout stem is used without scruple by the bignonias and +air-plants, which race over the trunk, plant their root-claws in the +cracks, leap over the whole tree at a single jet, or strangle it with +multiplied knots, all the while adorning it with a superb mantle of +leaves and blossoms. This is a difficulty which the most experienced +_cascarilleros_ are not able to overcome. As an instance, the history +is cited of a _practico_ or speculator who led an exploration for +these trees in the valley of Apolobamba. After having caused to be +felled, barked, measured, dried and trimmed all the cinchonas of one +of those natural thickets called _manchas_--an operation which had +occupied four months--he was about to abandon the spot and pursue +the exploration elsewhere, when accident led him to discover, in +the enormous trunk buried in creepers against which he had built his +cabin, a _Cinchona nitida_, the forefather of all the trees he had +stripped. + +In this kind of search the caravan pursued the borders of the +river, sometimes on this side and sometimes on that, now passing the +two-headed mountain Camanti, now sighting the tufted peak of Basiri, +now crossing the torrent called the Garote. In the latter, where +the dam and hydraulic works of an old Spanish gold-hunter were still +visible in a state of ruin, the sacred golden thirst of Colonel Perez +once more attacked him. Two or three pins' heads of the insane metal +were actually unearthed by the colonel and displayed in a pie-dish; +but the business of the party was one which made even the finding of +gold insignificant, and they pursued their way. + +The flanks of these mountains, however, were really of importance to +the botanical motive of the expedition. Along the side of the Camanti, +where the yellow Garote leaked downward in a rocky ravine, the +Bolivians were again successful. They brought to Marcoy specimens of +half a dozen cinchonas, for him to sketch, analyze and decorate with +Latin names. The colors of two or three of these barks promised +well, but the pearl of the collection was a specimen of the genuine +_Calisaya_, with its silver-gray envelope and leaf ribbed with +carmine. This proud discovery was a boon for science and for commerce. +It threw a new light upon the geographical locality of the most +precious species of cinchona. It was incontestably the plant, and +the Bolivians appeared amazed rather than pleased to have discovered +outside of their own country a kind of bark proper only to Bolivia, +and hardly known to overpass the northern extremity of the valley of +Apolobamba. This discovery would rehabilitate, in the European market, +the quinine-plants of Lower Peru, heretofore considered as inferior to +those of Upper Peru and Bolivia. The latter country has for some time +secured the most favorable reputation for its barks--a reputation +ably sustained by the efforts of the company De la Paz, to whom the +government has long granted a monopoly. This reputation is based on +the abundance in that country of two species, the _Cinchona calisaya_ +and _Boliviana,_ the best known and most valued in the market. But +for two valuable cinchonas possessed by Bolivia, Peru can show twenty, +many of them excellent in quality, and awaiting only the enterprise of +the government and the natural exhaustion of the forests to the south. + +This magnificent bit of luck, the finding of the calisaya, awakened +in the susceptible bosom of Mr. Marcoy an ardent desire to explore +for himself the site of its discovery. But Eusebio, the chief of the +cascarilleros, assuming a mysterious and warning expression, informed +the traveler that the place was quite inaccessible for a white man, +and that he had risked his own neck a score of times in descending the +ravine which separated the route from the hillside where the fortunate +plants were growing. He promised, however, to point out the locality +from afar, and to show, by a certain changeable gloss proper to the +leaf, the precise stratum of the calisaya amongst the belts of the +forest. This promise he forgot to execute more particularly, but it +appeared that the locality would never be excessively hard to find, +marked as it was by Nature with the gigantic finger-post of Mount +Camanti. Placing, then, in security these precious specimens among +their baggage, the explorers continued their advance along the valley. + +The footing was level and easy. Rocks and precipices were left behind, +and were displaced by a soft, slippery sort of sand, where from space +to space were planted, like so many oases in a desert, clumps of giant +reeds. By a strange but natural caprice these beds of rustling verdure +were cut in an infinity of well-defined geometric forms. Seen from an +eminence and at a distance, this arrangement gave a singular effect. +In the midst of these native garden-beds were cut distinct and narrow +alleys, where the drifting sands were packed like artificial paths. +It is unnecessary to add that the soft footways, notwithstanding +their advertisement of verdure and shade, proved to be of African +temperature. + +The last hours of daylight surprised the travelers among the +labyrinths of these strange gardens. A suitable spot was chosen for +the halt. As the porters were preparing to throw down their packs, +Pepe Garcia, who marched ahead, announced the print of a South +American tiger. The first care of the Indians, on hearing this news, +was to send forth a horrible cry and to throng around the marks. The +footprints disappeared at the thickest part of the jungle. After +an examination of the traces, which resembled a large trefoil, they +precipitated themselves on the interpreter-in-chief, representing +how impossible it was to camp out in the neighborhood of the dreaded +animal. But Pepe Garcia, accustomed as he was by profession to try his +strength with the ferocious bear and the wily boar, was not the man to +be afraid of a tiger, even of a genuine tiger from Bengal. To prove +to the porters how slight was the estimation he placed on the supposed +enemy, and also to drill them in the case of similar rencounters, he +pushed the whole troop pellmell into the thickest part of the reeds, +with the surly order to cut down the canes for sheds. Drawing his own +knife, he slashed right and left among the stems, which the Indians, +trembling with fear, were obliged to make into sheaves on the spot and +transport to the beach selected for the bivouac. Double rows of these +_arundos_, driven into the sand, formed the partitions of the cabins, +for which their interwoven leaves made an appropriate thatch. The +green halls with matted vaults were picturesque enough; each peon, +seeing how easily they were constructed, chose to have a house for +himself; and the Tiger's Beach quickly presented the appearance of a +camp disposed in a long straight line, of which the timorous Indians +occupied the extremity nearest the river. + +No "tiger" appeared to justify the apprehensions of the porters; but +what was lacking to their fears from beasts with four feet was made +up to them by beasts with wings. The night closed in dry and serene. +Since leaving Maniri, whether because of the broadening of the valley, +the rarity of the water-courses or the decreasing altitude of the +hills, the adventurers had been little troubled with fogs at night. +The fauna of the region, too, had offered nothing of an alarming +complexion, except the footprints of the tiger in question: an +occasional tapir or peccary from the woods, and otters and fish from +the streams, had attracted the shots of the party, but merely as +welcome additions to their game-bags, not as food for their fears. +To-night, however, the veritable bugbear of the tropical forest paid +them a visit, and left a real souvenir of his presence. As the Indian +servants stretched themselves out in slumber under the bright stars +and in the partial shelter of their ajoupas, a bat of the vampire +species, attracted by the emanations of their bodies, came sailing +over them, and emboldened by the silence reigning everywhere, selected +a victim for attack. Hovering over the fellow's exposed foot, he bit +the great toe, and fanning his prey in the traditional yet inevitable +manner by the natural movement of his wings, he gorged himself with +blood without disturbing the mozo. The latter, on awakening in the +morning, observed a slight swelling in the perforated part, and on +examination discovered a round hole large enough to admit a pea. +Without rising, the man summoned his companions, who formed a group +around him for the purpose of furnishing a certain natural remedy in +the shape of a secretion which each one drew out of his ears. With +this the patient made himself a plaster for his wound, and appeared to +think but little of it. Questioned as to his sensations by the white +travelers, who found themselves a good deal more disturbed with the +idea of the vampire than they had been by any indications of tigers or +wild-boars, the fellow explained that he had felt no sensation, unless +it might have been an agreeable coolness of his sand-baked feet. +The incident seemed so disagreeable and so likely of recurrence +that Colonel Perez ever afterward slept with his feet rolled up in a +variety of fantastic draperies, while Mr. Marcoy for several nights +retained his boots. + +[Illustration: "PEPE GARCIA, WHO MARCHED AHEAD, ANNOUNCED THE PRINT OF +A SOUTH AMERICAN TIGER."--P. 132.] + +The path along the river-sands would have been voluntarily followed by +all the more irresponsible portion of the party, notwithstanding the +blinding heats, on account of its smoother footing. The cascarilleros, +however, objected that its tufts of canes and passifloras offered no +promise for their researches. A compromise was effected. The porters, +under the command of Juan of Aragon, were allowed to follow the shore, +and were armed with a supply of fish-hooks to induce them to add from +time to time to the alarmingly diminished supply of provisions. The +grandees of the party followed the Bolivians, whose specialty entitled +them to control practically the direction of the route, and plunged +into the woods to botanize, to explore and to search for game. +A system of conversation by means of shouts and pistol-shots was +established between the two divisions. The next night proved the +wisdom of this bifurcation. The united booty of earth, air and water, +under the form of a squirrel, a pair of toucans and a variety of fish, +afforded a meal which the porters described as _comida opipara_ or +a sumptuous festival. Lulled and comforted by the sensation which a +contented stomach wafts toward the brain, the explorers, after +washing their hands and rinsing their mouths at the riverside, betook +themselves to a cheerful repose _sub jove_, the locality offering no +reeds of the articulated species with which to construct a shelter. + +The party, then, betook themselves to slumber with unusual +contentment, repeating the splendid supper in their dreams, with the +addition of every famous wine that Oporto and Rheims could dispense, +when they were awakened by a sudden and terrible storm. A waterspout +stooped over the forest and sucked up a mass of crackling branches. +The camp-fire hissed and went out in a fume of smoke. A continuity of +thunder, far off at first, but approaching nearer and nearer, kept up +a constant and increasing fusillade, to whose reports was soon added +the voice of the Cconi, lashed in its bed and bellowing like the sea. +The surprising tumult went on in a _crescendo_. The hardly-interrupted +charges of the lightning gave to the eye a strange vision of flying +woods and soaring branches. Startled, trembling and sitting bolt +upright, the adventurers asked if their last hour were come. The rain +undertook to answer in spinning down upon their heads drops that were +like bullets, and which for some time were taken for hail. Fearing to +be maimed or blinded as they sat, the party crowded together, placing +themselves back to back; and, unable to lay their heads under their +wings like the birds, sheltered them upon their knees under the +protection of their crossed arms. The fearful deluge of heated shot +lasted until morning. Then, as if in laughter, the sun came radiantly +out, the landscape readjusted its disheveled beauties, and the ground, +covered with boughs distributed by the whirlwind, greedily drank in +the waters from heaven. Soon there remained nothing of the memorable +tempest but the diamonds falling in measured cadence from the +refreshed and stiffened leaves. + +Up to sunrise the unfortunates rested stoically silent, their knees in +their mouths, and receiving the visitation like a group of statuary. +The rain ceasing with the same promptitude with which it had risen, +they raised their heads and looked each other in the face, like the +enemies over the fire in Byron's _Dream_. Each countenance was blue, +and decorated with long flat locks of adhesive hair. The teeth of the +whole party were chattering like a concert of castanets. The sun, like +a practical joker, laughed ironically at the general picture. + +The first hours of morning were consecrated to a general examination +of the stores, especially the precious specimens of cinchona. Bundles +were restrapped, the damp provisions laid out in the sun, and the +clothing of the party, even to the most intimate garment, was taken +down to the river to be refreshed and furbished up. A common disaster +had created a common cause amongst the whole troop, and with one +accord everybody--peons, mozos, interpreters, bark-strippers and +gentlemen--set in motion a grand cleaning-up day. Napoleon-like, they +washed their dirty linen in the family. Whoever had seen the strangers +coming and going from the beach to the woods, clothed in most +abbreviated fashion, and seeming as familiar to the uniform as if they +had always worn it under the charitable mantle of the woods, would +have taken them for a savage tribe in the midst of its encampment. It +is probable they were so seen. + +Thanks to the intense heat of the sun-shine, the garments and baggage +of the expedition were quickly dried. The first were donned, the last +was loaded on the porters, and the line of march was taken up. Up to +noon the road lay along the blazing sands under a sun of fire. All the +members of the party felt fresh and hardy after the involuntary bath, +except one of the Indians, who was affected with a kind of ophthalmia. +This attack, which Mr. Marcoy attributed partly to the glare, partly +to the wet, and partly to a singular hobby peculiar to the individual +of sleeping with his eyes wide open, was of no long duration. The pain +which he complained of disappeared with a few hours of exercise and +with the determination he showed in staring straight at the god of +day, who, as if in memory of the worship formerly extended toward him +in the country, deigned to serve as oculist for the sufferer. A little +before sunset halt was made for the night-camp in the centre of a +beach protected by clumps of reeds in three quarters of the wind. The +Indian porters, despatched for fish and firewood, returned suddenly +with a frightened mien to say that they had fallen into the midst of +a camp of savages. The white men quickly rejoined them at the spot +indicated, where they found a single hut in ruins, made of reeds which +appeared to have been cut for the construction some fortnight before, +and strewn with fire-brands, banana skins and the tail of a large +fish. Pepe Garcia, consulted on these indications, explained that it +was in reality the camping-place of some of the savage Siriniris, but +that the narrowness of the hut seemed to indicate that not more than +two of the Indians, probably a man and woman, had resided there during +a short fishing-excursion. + +This discovery cast a shade over the countenances of the porters. +After having collected the provisions necessary for a slender supper, +they drew apart, and, while cooking was going on, began to converse +with each other in a low voice. No notice was taken of their behavior, +however, though it would have required little imagination to guess +the subject of their parliament. The tired eyes of the explorers were +already closed, while their ears, more alert, could hear the confused +murmur proceeding from the Indians' quarter, where the disposition +seemed to be to prolong the watch indefinitely. + +[Illustration: "NAPOLEON-LIKE, THEY WASHED THEIR DIRTY LINEN IN THE +FAMILY"--P. 135.] + +The dark hours filed past, and jocund day, according to Shakespeare +and Romeo, stood tiptoe on the mountain-tops of Camanti and Basiri, +when the travelers were awakened by a fierce and terrible cry. Lifting +their heads in astonishment, they perceived the faithful Pepe Garcia, +his face disfigured with rage, and his fist shaking vigorously in the +direction of the Indians, who sat lowering and sullen in their places. +Aragon and the cascarilleros, collected around the chief interpreter, +far from trying to calm his anger, appeared to feed it by their +suggestions. An explanation of the scene was demanded. Eight of the +bearers, it appeared, had deserted, leaving to their comrades the +pleasure of watching over the packages of cinchona, but assuming for +their part the charge of a good fraction of the provisions, which +they had disappeared with for the relief of their fellow-porters. +This copious bleeding of the larder drew from Colonel Perez a terrible +oath, and occasioned a more vivid sentiment in the entrails of Marcoy +than the defection of the men. If the evil was grand, the remedy was +correspondingly difficult. Indolent or mercurial at pleasure, the +Indians had doubtless threaded the woods with winged feet, and were +now far away. Mr. Marcoy proposed therefore to continue the march +without them, but to set down a heavy account of bastinadoes to their +credit when they should turn up again at Marcapata. This proposition, +as it erred on the side of mercy, was unanimously rejected, and a +scouting-party was ordered in pursuit, consisting of the bark-hunters +and Juan of Aragon, to whom for the occasion Pepe Garcia confided his +remarkable fowling-piece. + +[Illustration: "ARAGON AND HIS MEN FELL UPON THE DESERTERS WITHOUT +MERCY."--P. 138.] + +In the afternoon the extemporized police reappeared. The fugitives had +been found tranquilly sitting on the banks of the river, distending +their abdomens with the stolen preserves and chocolate. Aragon and his +men fell upon the deserters without mercy. The former, battering away +at them with the stock of his gun, and the latter, exercising upon +their shoulders whatever they possessed in the way of lassoes, +axe-handles and sabre-blades, maintained the argument effectually for +some time in this way, and did not descend to questions until muscular +fatigue caused them to desist. The catechism subsequently put to the +porters elicited the reply, from the spokesman of the recusants, +that they were tired of being afraid of the wild Indians; that they +objected to marching into the dens of tigers; that, perceiving their +rations diminished from day to day, they had imagined the time not far +distant when the same would be withdrawn altogether. It was curious, +as it seemed to Marcoy when the argument was rehearsed to him +presently, that the fellows made no complaint of being footsore, +overcharged with burdens or conducted into paths too difficult for +them. A lurking admiration for the vigor with which, after all, they +played their crushing part of beasts of burden, procured them immunity +from further punishment after their return. Their bivouacs were simply +watched on the succeeding nights by Bolivian sentinels. + +After a few minutes allowed the strayed sheep to rub their bruises, +the march was continued. The afternoon afforded a succession of the +same sandy riverbanks, dressed with reeds, false maize, calceolarias +and purple passion-flowers, and yielding for sole booty a brace of +wild black ducks, and an opossum holding in her pouch five saucy and +scolding little ones. The natural civet employed as a cosmetic by this +animal forbade the notion of using it for food, and it was thrown with +its family into the river, after being deprived of its glossy skin. + +As evening approached, and as all eyes were exploring the banks for a +suitable camping-ground, a spacious and even beach was fixed upon as +offering all the requisite conveniences. It was agreed to halt there. +Attaining the locality, however, they were amazed to find all the +traces of a previous occupation. Several sheds, formed of bamboo +hurdles set up against the ground with sticks, like traps, were +grouped together. Under each was a hearth, a simple excavation, +two feet across and a few inches deep, and filled with ashes. A few +arrows, feathers and rude pieces of pottery were scattered around. +They greeted these Indian relics as Crusoe did the footprints of the +savages. Nor was it more reassuring to observe, among other callers +like themselves who had left their visiting-cards at the doors since +the departure of the proprietors, the sign-manual of jaguars and +tapirs, whose footprints were plainly visible on the gravel. + +A close examination was made of every detail pertaining to the huts +and their accessories, and the interpreters were asked if it would be +prudent to encamp in a spot thus leased in advance. Pepe Garcia and +Aragon were of opinion that it would be better to pass the night +there, assuring their employers that there would be no danger in +sleeping among the teraphim of the savages, provided that nothing was +touched or displaced. Their motion was promptly adopted, to the great +discomfiture of the porters, who were poised on one foot ready for +flight. A salute of five shots was fired, with a vague intention +of giving any listeners the highest possible opinion of the white +explorers as a military power. An enormous fire was kindled, sentinels +were posted, and the party turned in, taking care, however, during the +whole night to close but one eye at a time. + +[Illustration: "THEY GREETED THESE INDIAN RELICS AS CRUSOE DID THE +FOOTPRINTS OF THE SAVAGES."--P. 138.] + +Day commenced to blush, when all ears were assaulted by a concerted +howl, proceeding from behind a bed of canes on the other side of the +river. "_Alerta! los Chunchos!_" cried the sentinel. The three words +produced a startling effect: the porters sprang up like frightened +deer; Mr. Marcoy grasped a sheaf of pencils and a box of water-colors +with a warlike air, and the colonel's lips were crisped into a +singular smile, indicative of lively emotions. Hardly were the +travelers clothed and armed when the reeds parted with a rattling +noise, and three nude Indians, sepia-colored and crowned with tufts of +hair like horses' tails, leaped out like jacks-in-the-box. At sight of +the party standing to receive them they redoubled their clamor, then, +flourishing their arms and legs and turning continually round, they +gradually revolved into the presence of the explorers. They selected +as chiefs and sachems of the party such as bore weapons, being the +colonel, Marcoy and the two interpreters. These they clasped in a +warm, fulsome embrace: they were smeared from head to foot with rocoa +(crude arnotta), and their passage through the river having dissolved +this pigment, they printed themselves off, in this act of amity, upon +the persons and clothing of their hosts. While the white men, with a +very bad grace, were cleaning off these tokens of natural affection, +the new-comers went on to present their civilities all around. Two of +the porters they recognized at once, with their eagle eyesight, from +having relieved them of their shirts while the latter were working +out some penalty at the governor's farm of Sausipata, and proceeded to +claim a warm acquaintance on that basis; but the bearers, with equally +lively memories of the affront, responded simply with a frown and the +epithet of _Sua-sua_--double thief. + +Pepe Garcia undertook a colloquy, and Aragon, not to be behindhand, +flashed a few words across the conversation, right and left as it +were, his expressions appearing to be in a different tongue from those +used by the chief interpreter, and both utterly without perceptible +resemblance to the rolling consonants and gutturals of the savages. +Marcoy imbibed a strong impression that the only terms understood in +common were the words of Spanish with which the palaver was thickly +interlarded. This was the first time the interpreters were put on +their mettle in a strictly professional sense, and the test was not +altogether triumphant. However, by a careful raising of the voice +in all difficult passages, and a wild, expressive pantomime, an +understanding was arrived at. + +The visitors belonged to the tribe of Siriniris, inhabiting the space +comprised between the valleys of Ocongate and Ollachea, and extending +eastwardly as far as the twelfth degree. They lived at peace with +their neighbors, the Huat-chipayris and the Pukiris. For several days +the reports of the Christian guns (_tasa-tasa_) had advertised them +of the presence of white men in the valley, and, curious to judge of +their numbers, they had approached. They had formed a cunning escort +to the party, always faithful but never seen, since the encampment +at Maniri: every camping-ground since that particular bivouac they +faithfully described. They were, of course, in particular and direful +need of _sirutas_ and _bambas_ (knives and hatchets), but their fears +of the _tasa-tasa_, or guns, was still stronger than their desires, +and their courage had not, until they saw the strangers domiciled as +guests in their own habitations, attained the firmness and consistency +necessary for a personal approach. The three dancing ambassadors were +ministers plenipotentiary on the part of their tribe, located in a +bamboo metropolis five miles off. + +The white men could not well avoid laying down their _tasa-tasa_ and +disbursing _sirutas_ and _bambas_. The savages, after this triumph +of diplomacy, suddenly turned, and, thrusting their fingers in their +mouths, emitted a shrill note, which had the effect of enchanting the +forest of rushes across the river, and causing it to give birth to a +whole ballet of naked coryphei. Nine men, seven women and three dogs +composed the spectacle, of which the masculine part, the human and +the canine, proceeded to swim the stream and fraternize with the +strangers. The women rested on the bank like river-nymphs: their +costume was somewhat less prudish than that of the men, the coat of +rocoa being confined to their faces, which were further decorated with +joints of reed thrust through the nose and ears. A glance of curiosity +darted across the water by the colonel was surprised in its flight by +the ambassadors, who addressed a hasty word or two to their ladies: +the latter, with one quick and cat-like gesture, whipped off each a +branch of the nearest foliage, and were dressed in a single instant. + +To reward all these vociferous mendicants with the invaluable cutlery +was hardly prudent. Seeing the hesitation of their visitors, the +savages adopted other tactics. Hurling themselves across the river, +they quickly reappeared, armed with all the temptations they could +think of to induce the strangers to barter. The scene of these savages +coming to market was a picturesque one. Entering the water, provided +with their objects of exchange, which they held high above their +heads, and swimming with the right arm only, they began to cut the +river diagonally. The lifting of the waves and the dash of spray +almost concealed the file of dusky heads. Nothing could be plainly +seen but the left arms, standing out of the water as stiff and +inflexible as so many bars of bronze, relieved against the silvery +brightness of the water. These advancing arms were adorned with the +material of traffic--bird-skins of variegated colors, bows and arrows, +and live tamed parrots standing upon perches of bamboo. The white +spectators could not but admire the native vigor, elegance and +promptitude of their motions as they rose from the water like Tritons, +and, throwing their treasures down in a heap, bounded forward to give +their visitors the conventional signals of friendship. A rapid +bargain was concluded, in which the sylvan booty of the wild men (not +forgetting the prudent exaction of their weapons) was entirely made +over to the custody of the explorers in exchange for a few Birmingham +knives worth fourpence each. + +However curious and amicable might be their new relations with the +savages, the party were desirous to put an end to them as soon as +possible. Pepe Garcia announced that the pale chiefs, wishing to +resume their march, were about to separate from them. This decision +appeared to be unpleasant or distressful in their estimation, and +they tried to reverse it by all sorts of arguments. No answer being +volunteered, they shouted to their women to await them, and betook +themselves to walking with the party. One of the three ambassadors, a +graceful rogue of twenty-five, marked all over with rocoa and lote, +so as to earn for himself the nickname of "the Panther," gamboled +and caracoled in front of the procession as if to give it an +entertainment. His two comrades had garroted with their arms the neck +of the chief interpreter: another held Juan of Aragon by the skirt of +his blouse, and regulated his steps by those of the youth. This accord +of barbarism and civilization had in it something decidedly graceful, +and rather pathetic: if ever the language natural to man was found, +the medium in circulation before our sickly machinery of speech came +to be invented, it was in this concert of persuasive action and tender +cooing notes. The main body of the Siriniris marched pellmell along +with the porters, whom this vicinage made exceedingly uncomfortable, +and who were perspiring in great drops. + +At the commencement of a wood the whites embraced the occasion to take +formal leave of their new acquaintances. As they endeavored to turn +their backs upon them they were at once surrounded by the whole band, +crying and gesticulating, and opposing their departure with a sort of +determined playfulness. + +At the same time a word often repeated, the word _Huatinmio_, began to +enter largely into their conversation, and piqued the curiosity of +the historiographer. Marcoy begged the interpreter to procure him the +explanation of this perpetual shibboleth. Half by signs, half in the +polyglot jargon which he had been employing with the Siriniris, Garcia +managed to understand that the word in question was the name of their +village, situated at a small distance and in a direction which they +indicated. In this retreat, they said, no inhabitants remained but +women, children and old men, the rest of the braves being absent on +a chase. They proposed a visit to their capital, where the strangers, +they said, honored and cherished by the tribe, might pass many +enviable days. + +The proposed excursion, which would cause a loss of considerable time +and a deflection from the intended route, was declined in courteous +terms by Marcoy through the interpretation of Pepe Garcia. Among +civilized folk this urbane refusal would have sufficed, but the +savages, taking such a reply as a challenge to verbal warfare, +returned to the charge with increased tenacity. It were hard to say +what natural logic they put in practice or what sylvan persuasions +they wrought by, but their peculiar mode of stroking the white men's +backs with their hands, and the softer and still softer inflections +which they introduced into their voices, would have melted hearts of +marble. In brief, the civilized portion adopted the more weakly part +and allowed themselves to be led by the savage portion. + +The colonel and Pepe Garcia were still more easily persuaded than Mr. +Marcoy, and only awaited his adhesion. When it was finally announced +the Siriniris renewed their gambols and uttered shouts of delight. +They then took the head of the excursion. A singularity in their +guides, which quickly attracted the notice of the explorers, was the +perfect indifference with which they took either the clearings or the +thickets in their path. Where the strangers were afraid of tearing +their garments, these unprotected savages had no care whatever for +their skins. It is true that their ingenuity in gliding through the +labyrinth resembled magic. However the forest might bristle with +undergrowth, they never thought of breaking down obstacles or of +cutting them, as the equally practiced Bolivians did, with a knife. +They contented themselves with putting aside with one hand the tufts +of foliage as if they had been curtains or draperies, and that with an +easy decision of gesture and an elegance of attitude which are hardly +found outside of certain natural tribes. + +The city of Huatinmio proved to be a group of seven large sheds +perched among plaintains and bananas, divided into stalls, and +affording shelter for a hundred individuals. The most sordid +destitution--if ignorance of comfort can be called +destitution--reigned everywhere around. The women were especially +hideous, and on receipt of presents of small bells and large needles +became additionally disagreeable in their antics of gratitude. The +bells were quickly inserted in their ears, and soon the whole village +was in tintinnabulation. + +A night was passed in the hospitality of these barbarians, who vacated +their largest cabin for their guests. A repast was served, consisting +of stewed monkey: no salt was used in the cookery, but on the other +hand a dose of pimento was thrown in, which brought tears to the eyes +of the strangers and made them run to the water-jar as if to save +their lives. The evening was spent in a general conversation with the +Siriniris, who were completely mystified by the form and properties of +a candle which Mr. Marcoy drew from his baggage and ignited. The wild +men passed it from hand to hand, examining it, and singeing themselves +in turn. Still another marvel was the sheet of paper on which the +artist essayed a portrait of one of his hosts. The finished sketch +did not appear to attract them at all, or to raise in their minds +the faintest association with the human form, but the texture and +whiteness of the sheet excited their lively admiration, and they +passed it from one to another with many exclamations of wonder. +Meantime, a number of questions were suggested and proposed through +the interpreter. + +The formality of marriage among the Siriniris was found to be quite +unknown; the most rudimentary idea of divine worship could not be +discovered; the treatment of the aged was shown to be contemptuous +and neglectful in the extreme; and the lines of demarcation with the +beasts seemed to be but feebly traced. Finally, Mr. Marcoy begged the +interpreter to propound the delicate inquiry whether, among the viands +with which they nourished or had formerly nourished themselves, human +flesh had found a place. Garcia hesitated, and at first declined +to push the interrogation, but after some persuasion consented. The +Siriniris were not in the least shocked at the question, and answered +that the flesh of man, especially in infancy, was a delicious food, +far better than the monkey, the tapir or the peccary; that their +nation, in the days of its power, frequently used it at the great +feasts; but that the difficulty of procuring such a rarity had +increased until they were now forced to strike it from their bill of +fare. + +The night passed without disturbance, and the next day's parting was +accompanied by reiterated requests for a repetition of the visit. The +Panther, who since their arrival had oppressed the travelers with a +multitude of officious attentions, escorted them into the woods, and +there took leave of them with a gesture of his hand, relieving their +eyes of his slippery, snake-like robe of spots. A knife from their +stores, slung round his neck like a locket, smote his breast at each +step as he danced backward, and a couple of large fish-hooks glanced +in his ears. + +With a feeling of relief and satisfied curiosity the exploring party +left behind them the traces of these children of Nature, and returned +toward the river. The cascarilleros, all for their business, +had regretted the waste of time, and now betook themselves to an +examination of the woods with all their energy. After several hours +of march their efforts were crowned with success. Eusebio presently +rejoined his employers, showing leaves and berries of the _Cinchona +scrobiculata_ and _pubescens_: the peons, on their side, had +discovered isolated specimens of the _Calisaya_, which, joined with +those found on Mount Camanti, indicated an extended belt of that +precious species. This was not the best. A veritable treasure which +they had unearthed, worth all the others put together, was a line of +those violet cinchonas which the native exporters call _Cascarilla +morada_, and the botanists _Cinchona Boliviana_. The trees of this +kind were grouped in threes and fours, and extended for half a mile. +This repeated proof that the most valuable of all the cinchonas, +together with nearly every one of the others, were to be discovered +in a small radius along the valley of the Cconi, filled the explorers +with triumph, and demonstrated beyond a doubt the sagacity of Don +Santo Domingo in organizing the expedition. + +The purpose and intention of the journey was now abundantly fulfilled. +Had the travelers rested satisfied with the liberal indications they +had found, and consented to place themselves between the haunts of +the savages and the abodes of civilization, with a tendency and +determination toward the latter, they might have returned with safety +as with glory. The estimate made by Eusebio, however, of the trend or +direction of the calisaya groves, induced him to forsake the bed of +the Cconi, and strike south-eastwardly, so as to cross the Ollachea +and the Ayapata. + +"But the mountains are disappearing," hazarded Mr. Marcoy. "Will not +the cinchonas disappear with them?" + +"Oh," answered the majordomo, like a pedagogue to a confident +school-boy, "the señor knows better how to put ink or color on a sheet +of paper than how to judge of these things. The plain, the _campo +llano_, is far enough to the east. Before we should see the +disappearance of the mountains, we should have to cross as many hills +and ravines as we have left behind us." + +"What do you think of doing, then?" naturally demanded Marcoy, who had +long since begun to feel that the expedition had but one chief, and +that was the sepia-colored cascarillero from Bolivia, + +"Everything and nothing," answered Eusebio. + +These enigmas always carry the day. The apparatus of march was +once more set in motion toward the adjacent water-sheds. After a +considerable journey--rewarded, it must be said, with a succession of +cinchona discoveries--they halted near a clearing in the forest, where +large heaps of stones and pebbles, arranged in semicircles, attracted +their attention. The cascarilleros explained this appearance as due +to former arrangements for gold-washing in an old river-bed, the San +Gavan or the Ayapata, that had now changed its locality. + +While examining the unusual appearance an abominable clamor burst from +the woods around, and a band of Siriniris appeared, led by a lusty +ruffian crowned with oriole feathers, whom the travelers recognized as +having been among their previous acquaintances. + +The encounter was very disagreeable, but the strangers determined to +make the best of it. The manner of this band of Indians was somewhat +different from that of the others. They brought nothing for barter, +and had an indescribably coarse and hardy style of behavior. + +The travelers determined to buy a little information, if nothing +better, with their knives and fish-hooks. Garcia was accordingly +instructed to demand the meaning of the heaps and causeways of stones. +The savages laughed at first, but finally informed the visitors that +the constructions which puzzled them so had been made by people of +their own race many years ago, for the purpose of gathering gold from +the river which used to run along there, but which now flowed seven +miles off. + +This information was dear to the historic instinct of Marcoy. He +spoke, by his usual proxy, to the Indian of the oriole, commanding him +not to begin every explanation by laughing, as he had been doing, but +to answer intelligently, promising a reward of several knives. The +savage exchanged a rapid glance with his fellows, and then he and they +stood up as stiff and mute as the trees. Marcoy then asked him if he +had never heard his father or his grandfather speak of the great city +of San Gavan, built hereabouts formerly by the Spanish chevaliers, and +which the Caranga and Suchimani Indians from the Inambari River had +destroyed by fire. + +The evident recognition of this legend by the savages, and their +rapid exchange among themselves of the words _sacapa huayris Ipaños_, +induced Marcoy to ask if they could guide them to the site of the +former city. They answered that a day's march would be sufficient, and +pointed with their arms in the direction of north-north-west. + +The temptation to see the place whose golden renown, after having made +the tour of the American continent, had reached Spain and the world at +large, was too strong to be resisted. Colonel Perez, besides the magic +attraction which the mention of gold had for him, felt his national +pride touched by the idea of a place where his compatriots had added +such magnificence to the Spanish name, and gained so many ingots of +gold by paddling in the streams. The cascarilleros were delighted to +extend their journey, in hopes of yet larger discoveries. As for the +porters, since the manifestations of the savages they clung to the +party with as much anxiety as they had ever shown to escape from it. + +In 1767 the city of San Gavan, remaining intact amid the ruin of all +its neighbors, was the sole disburser of the riches of the Caravaya +Valley. The gold-dust, collected throughout the whole territory on a +government monopoly, was brought thither upon the backs of Indians, +melted into ingots, and distributed to Lima and the world at large. +On the night of the 15th and 16th of December in that year the +wealthy city was fired by the Carangas and the Suchimanis, and all the +inhabitants slain with arrows or clubs. The first lords of the soil +had resumed their rights. + +When the news of the event was brought to Lima, the viceroy of +the period, Antonio Amat, swore on a piece of the true cross to +exterminate every Indian in Peru. It is to the persuasions of his +favorite, Mariquita Gallegas, that the preservation of the native +tribes from a bloody extirpation is due. This woman, _La Perichola_, +whose caricatured likeness we see in the most agreeable of Offenbach's +operas, and whose deeds of mercy and edifying end in a convent entitle +her to some charitable consideration, persuaded her royal lover to +operate on the natives with missionaries and teachers rather than with +fire and sword. Antonio Amat yielded, and the Indians have survived. + +[Illustration: "ANOTHER SAVAGE HAD FOUND A PAIR OF LINEN +PANTALOONS."--P. 146.] + +Let no traveler go to South America and cross the Andes with the idea +of unearthing a Nineveh or a Babylon on the site of San Gavan. The +emissaries of Don Santo Domingo were quickly standing, among the +grinning and amused Indians, on the locality of the Golden Depot of +San Gavan. But Nature had thoroughly reclaimed her own, and the place, +indicated again and again by the savages with absolute unanimity, +showed nothing but mounds of fern and moss under canopies of forest +trees. + +A day's rest and a sketch or two were consecrated by Marcoy to this +historic spot, the grave of a civilization. It had been well if he +had restrained his feelings of romance, and betaken himself with his +companions to the homeward track. + +As the explorers were breakfasting in the morning on a squirrel and +a couple of birds shot among the vanished streets of San Gavan, a +disagreeable incident supervened. The wild Indians had disappeared +over-night. But now, seemingly born instantaneously from the trees, a +throng of Siriniris burst upon the scene, rushing up to the travelers, +straining them repeatedly in a rude embrace, then leaving them, then +assaulting them again, and accompanying every contact with the eternal +cry, _Siruta inta menea_--"Give me a knife." Each member of the troop +had now six savages at his heels, and they were not those of the day +before, but a new and rougher band. The chiefs of the party rushed +together and brandished their muskets. This forced the savages +to retire, but gave to the rencounter that hostile air which, in +consideration of the disparity of numbers, ought at all hazards to +have been avoided. The wild men quickly formed a circle around the +artillery. The latter, fearing for their porters and the precious +baggage, leaped through this circle and joined their servants, making +believe to cock their fire-arms. Upon this the Indians, half afraid of +the guns, vanished into the woods, first picking up whatever clothing +and utensils they could lay their hands on. In an instant they were +showing these trophies to their rightful owners from a safe distance, +laughing as if they would split their sides. One of the naked rascals +had seized a flannel undershirt of the colonel's, which was drying +on a branch. His efforts to introduce his great feet into the +sleeves were excruciating. Another savage had found a pair of linen +pantaloons, which he was endeavoring to put on like a coat, appearing +much embarrassed with the posterior portion, which completely masked +his face. Aragon had seen a young reprobate of his own age make off +with a pair of socks of his property. Detecting the rogue half hidden +by a tree, the mozo made a sortie, seized the Indian, and by a +violent shake brought the property out of his mouth, where it had been +concealed as in a natural pocket. + +The travelers immediately threw themselves into marching order and +took up their line of route. The savages followed. At the first +obstacle, a mass of matted trees, they easily rejoined the party of +whites. + +Then, for the first time, the idea of their power seemed to strike +them, and they precipitated themselves upon the porters, who took to +flight, rolling from under their packs like animals of burden. In a +moment every article of baggage, every knife and weapon, was seized, +and the red-skins, singing and howling, were making off through the +woods. Among them was now seen the Siriniri with orioles' feathers, +who must have guided them to their prey. + +The expedition was pillaged, and pillaged as a joke. The thieves were +heard laughing as they scampered off like deer through the woods. + +It was hard to realize at once the gravity of the misfortune. No one +was hurt, no one was insulted. But provisions, clothing, articles of +exchange and weapons were all gone, except such arms and ammunition as +the travelers carried on their persons. A collection of cinchonas was +in possession of one of the Bolivians, though it represented but +a fraction of the species discovered. The besiegers, however, had +disappeared, and a westerly march was taken up. Good time was made +that day, and a heavy night's sleep was the consequence. With the +morning light came the well-remembered and hateful cry, and the little +army found itself surrounded by a throng of merry naked demons, among +whom were some who had not profited by the distribution of the spoils. +At the magic word _siruta_ all these new-comers rushed in a mass upon +the white men. Marcoy managed to slip his fine ivory-handled machete +within his trowser leg, but every other cutting tool disappeared as if +by magic from the possession of the explorers. The shooting-utensils +the savages, believing them haunted, would not touch. Then, half +irritated at the exhaustion of the booty, the amiable children of +Nature burst out into open derision. The artists of the tribe, filling +their palms with rocoa, and moistening the same with saliva, went up +to their late patrons and began to decorate their faces. The latter, +judging patience their best policy, sat in silence while the delicate +fancy of the savages expended itself in arabesques and flourishes. +Perez and Aragon had their eyes surrounded with red spectacles. The +face of Marcoy, covered with a heavy beard, only allowed room for +a "W" on the forehead, and Pepe Garcia was quit for a set of +interfacings like a checkerboard. Having thus signed their marks upon +their visitors, the aborigines retired, catching up here and there +a stray ball of cord or a strip of beef, saluting with the hand, and +vanishing into the woods with the repeated compliment, _Eminiki_--"I +am off." + +The victims rested motionless for fifteen minutes: then pellmell, +through the thickest of the brush and down the steepest of the hill, +blotted out under gigantic ferns and covered by umbrageous vines, +stealing along water-courses and skirting the sides of the mountains, +they rushed precipitately westward. + +Two months after the priest of Marcapata had dismissed with his +benediction the party of confident and enthusiastic explorers, he +received again his strayed flock, but this time in rags, armed with +ammunitionless guns and one poor knife, wasted by hunger, baked by the +sun, and tattooed like Polynesians by the briers and insects. The +good man could not repress a tear. "Ah, my son," said he as he clasped +Marcoy's hand, "see what it costs to go hunting the cascarilla in the +land of the infidels!" + +The explorations started by Don Juan Sanz de Santo Domingo came to +profitable result, but not to his advantage. Three weeks after the +pioneers arrived again in Cuzco, Don Juan started another expedition, +on a much larger scale, to accomplish the working of the cinchona +valleys, under charge of the same Bolivians, who could make like a bee +for every tree they had discovered. A detachment of soldiers was +to protect the party, and the working force was more than double. +Finally, the night before the intended start, the Bolivian +cascarilleros, with their examinador, disappeared together. It is +probable that Don Juan's scheme, nursed, according to custom, with too +much publicity, had attracted the attention of the merchants of Cuzco, +who had found it profitable to buy off the bark-searchers for their +own interest. + +The crash of this immense enterprise was too much for Don Juan. +Threatened with creditors, Jews, _escribanos_ and the police, he +retired to a silver-mine he was opening in the province of Abancay. +This mine, in successful operation, he depended on for satisfying his +creditors. He found it choked up, destroyed with a blast of powder by +some enemy. Unable to bear the disappointment, Don Juan blew out his +brains in the office belonging to his mine. A month afterward, Don +Eugenic Mendoza y Jara, the bishop of Cuzco, sent a couple of Indians +for the body, with instructions to throw it into a ditch: the men +attached a rope to the feet and dragged it to a ravine, where dogs and +vultures disposed of the unhallowed remains. + + + + +A GLANCE AT THE SITE AND ANTIQUITIES OF ATHENS. + + +The day is a happy one to the student-traveler from the Western World +in which he first looks upon the lovely plain of Athens. Rounding the +point where Hymettus thrusts his huge length into the sea, the long, +featureless mountain-wall of Southern Attica suddenly breaks down, and +gives place to a broad expanse of fertile, and well-cultivated soil, +sloping gently back with ever-narrowing bounds until it reaches the +foot-hills of lofty Pentelicus. The wooded heights of Parnes enclose +it on the north, while bald Hymettus rears an impassable barrier along +the south. In front of the gently recurved shore stretch the smooth +waters of the Gulf of Salamis, while beyond rises range upon range of +lofty mountain-peaks with strikingly varied outline, terminating on +the one hand in the towering cone of Egina, and on the other in +the pyramidal, fir-clad summit of Cithaeron. Upon the plain, at the +distance of three or four miles from the sea, are several small rocky +hills of picturesque appearance, isolated and seemingly independent, +but really parts of a low range parallel to Hymettus. Upon one of the +most considerable of these, whose precipitous sides make it a natural +fortress, stood the Acropolis, and upon the group of lesser heights +around and in the valleys between clustered the dwellings of ancient +Athens. + +[Illustration: VIEW OF THE ACROPOLIS AND THE COLUMNS OF THE TEMPLE OF +JUPITER OLYMPUS.] + +It was a fitting site for the capital of a people keenly sensitive to +beauty, and destined to become the leaders of the world in matters +of taste, especially in the important department of the Fine Arts. +Nowhere are there more charming contrasts of mountain, sea and +plain--nowhere a more perfect harmony of picturesque effect. The sea +is not a dreary waste of waters without bounds, but a smiling gulf +mirroring its mountain-walls and winding about embosomed isles, yet +ever broadening as it recedes, and suggesting the mighty flood beyond +from which it springs. The plain is not an illimitable expanse over +which the weary eye ranges in vain in quest of some resting-place, but +is so small as to be embraced in its whole contour in a single view, +while its separate features--the broad, dense belt of olives which +marks the bed of its principal stream, the ancient Cephissus, the +vineyards, the grain-fields and the sunny hillside pastures--are made +to produce their full impression. The mountains are not near enough to +be obtrusive, much less oppressive; neither are they so distant as to +be indistinct or to seem insignificant. Seen through the clear air, +their naked summits are so sharply defined and so individual in +appearance as to seem almost like sculptured forms chiseled out of the +hard rock. + +The city which rose upon this favored spot was worthy of its +surroundings. The home of a free and enterprising race endowed with +rare gifts of intellect and sensibility, and ever on the alert for +improvement, it became the nurse of letters and of arts, while the +luxury begotten of prosperity awakened a taste for adornment, and +the wealth acquired by an extended commerce furnished the means of +gratifying it. The age of Pericles was the period of the highest +national development. At that time were reared the celebrated +structures in honor of the virgin-goddess who was the patron of +Athens--the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheum--which crowned +the Acropolis, and were the glory of the city as they were the +masterpieces of Grecian architecture. During the preceding half +century many works of utility and of splendor had been constructed, +and the city now became renowned not only in Greece, but throughout +the ancient world, for the magnificence of its public buildings. +Thucydides, writing about this time, says that should Athens be +destroyed, posterity would infer from its ruins that the city had +been twice as populous as it actually was. Demosthenes speaks of +the strangers who came to visit its attractions. But the changes of +twenty-three centuries have passed upon this splendor--a sad story +of violence and neglect--and the queenly city has long been in the +condition of ruin imagined by Thucydides. Still, the spell of her +influence is not broken, and the charm which once drew so many +visitors to her shrines still acts powerfully on the hearts of +scholars in all lands, who, having looked up to her poets, orators +and philosophers as teachers and loved them as friends, long to visit +their haunts, to stand where they stood, to behold the scenes which +they were wont to view, and to gaze upon what may remain of the great +works of art upon which their admiration was bestowed. + +So the student-pilgrim from the Western World with native ardor +strains his sight to catch the first glimpse of the Athenian plain and +city. He is fresh from his studies, and familiar with what books teach +of the geography of Greece and the topography of Athens. He needs +not to be informed which mountain-range is Parnes, and which +Pentelicus--which island is Salamis, and which Egina. Yet much of what +he sees is a revelation to him. The mountains are higher, more varied +and more beautiful than he had supposed, Lycabettus and the Acropolis +more imposing, Pentelicus farther away, and the plain larger, the gulf +narrower, and Egina nearer and more mountainous, than he had fancied. +He is astonished at the smallness of the harbor at Peiraeus, having +insensibly formed his conception of its size from the notices of the +mighty fleets which sailed from it in the palmy days when Athens was +mistress of the seas. He is not prepared to see the southern shore +of Salamis so near to the Peiraeus, though it explains the close +connection between that island and Athens, and throws some light upon +the great naval defeat of the Persians. In short, while every object +is recognized as it presents itself, yet a more correct conception is +formed of its relative position and aspect from a single glance of the +eye than had been acquired from books during years of study. + +Arrived at the city, his experience is the same. He needs no guide to +conduct him to its antiquities, nor cicerone to explain in bad +French or worse English their names and history. Still, unexpected +appearances present themselves not unfrequently. Hastening toward the +Acropolis, he will first inspect the remains of the great theatre of +Dionysus, so familiar to him as the place where, in the presence +of all the people and many strangers, were acted the plays of his +favorite poets, Eschylus and Sophocles, and where they won many +prizes. Hurrying over the eastern brow of the hill, he comes suddenly +upon the spot, enters at the summit, as many an Athenian did in the +olden time, and is smitten with amazement at the first glance, and led +to question whether this be indeed the site of the ancient theatre. He +finds, it is true, the topmost seats cut in the solid rock, row above +row, stripped now of their marble lining and weather-worn, but yet the +genuine ancient seats of the upper tier. These he expected to find. +But whence are those fresh seats which fill the lower part of the +hollow, arranged as neatly as if intended for immediate use? and +whence the massive stage beyond? He bethinks himself that he has +heard of recent excavations under the patronage of the government, and +closer inspection shows that these are actually the lower seats of the +theatre in the time of the emperor Hadrian, whose favorite residence +was Athens, and who did so much to embellish the city. The front seats +consist of massive stone chairs, each inscribed with the name of its +occupant, generally the priestess of some one of the numerous gods +worshiped by that people so given to idolatry. In the centre of the +second row is an elevated throne inscribed with the name of Hadrian. +The stage is seen to be the ancient Greek stage enlarged to the +Roman size to suit the demands of a later style of theatrical +representation. + +[Illustration: THEATRE OF DIONYSUS (BACCHUS).] + +After looking in vain for the seat occupied by the priestess of the +Unknown God, our traveler passes on and enters with a beating heart +the charmed precincts of the Acropolis itself. The Propylaea, which he +has been accustomed to regard too exclusively as a mere entrance-gate +to the glories beyond, impresses him with its size and grandeur, and +the little temple of Victory by its side with its elegance.[A] But +the steepness of the ascent perplexes him. It seems impracticable for +horses, yet he knows by unexceptionable testimony that the Athenian +youth prided themselves upon driving their matched steeds in the great +Panathenaic procession which once every four years wound up the hill, +bearing the sacred peplus to the temple of the goddess. A closer +examination reveals the transverse creases of the pavement designed +to give a footing to the beasts, as well as the marks of the +chariot-wheels. Nevertheless, the ascent (and much more the descent) +must have been a perilous undertaking, unless the teams were better +broken than the various accounts of chariot-races furnished by the +poets would indicate. Entering beneath the great gate, a little +distance forward to the left may readily be found the site of the +colossal bronze statue of the warrior-goddess in complete armor, +formed by Phidias out of the spoils taken at Marathon. The square +base, partly sunk in the uneven rock, is as perfect as if just put in +readiness to receive the pedestal of that famous work. A road bending +to the right and slightly hollowed out of the rock leads to the +Parthenon. The outer platform which sustains this celebrated temple +is partly cut from the rock of the hill and partly built up of common +limestone. The inner one of three courses, as well as the whole +superstructure, is formed of Pentelic marble of a compact crystalline +structure and of dazzling whiteness. Long exposure has not availed to +destroy its lustre, but only to soften its tone. The visitor, planting +himself at the western front, is in a position to gain some adequate +idea of the perfection of the noble building. The interior and central +parts suffered the principal injury from the explosion of the Turkish +powder magazine in 1687. The western front remains nearly entire. +It has been despoiled, indeed, of its movable ornaments. The statues +which filled the pediment are gone, with the exception of a fragment +or two. The sculptured slabs have been removed from the spaces between +the triglyphs, and the gilded shields which hung beneath have been +taken down. Of the magnificent frieze, representing the procession +of the great quadrennial festival, only the portion surrounding the +western vestibule is still in place.[B] + +[Footnote A: The latter contains, among other relics of a balustrade +which protected and adorned the platform of the temple, the +exquisitely graceful torso of Victory untying her sandals, of which +casts are to be seen in most of the museums of Europe.] + +[Footnote B: Among the figures of this bas-relief, twelve are +recognized by their lofty stature and sitting posture as those of +divinities. One group is represented in the engraving.] + +[Illustration: VICTORY UNTYING HER SANDALS.] + +[Illustration: TEMPLE OF VICTORY] + +[Illustration: THE PARTHENON.] + +Still, as these were strictly decorations, and wholly subordinate to +the organic parts of the structure, their presence, while it would +doubtless greatly enhance the effect of the whole, is not felt to be +essential to its completeness. The whole Doric columns still bear +the massive entablature sheltered by the covering roof. The simple +greatness of the conception, the just proportion of the several parts, +together with the elaborate finishing of the whole work, invest it +with a charm such as the works of man seldom possess--the pure and +lasting pleasure which flows from apparent perfection Entering the +principal apartment of the building, traces are seen of the stucco and +pictures with which the walls were covered when it was fitted up as +a Christian church in the Byzantine period. Near the centre of the +marble pavement is a rectangular space laid with dark stone from the +Peirseus or from Eleusis. It marks the probable site of the colossal +precious statue of the goddess in gold and ivory--one of the most +celebrated works of Phidias. The smaller apartment beyond, accessible +only from the opposite front of the temple, was used by the state as +a place of deposit and safekeeping for bullion and other valuables in +the care of the state treasurer. + +[Illustration: BAS RELIEF OF THE GODS (FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON).] + +Having examined the great temple, and tested the curvature of +its seemingly horizontal lines by sighting along the unencumbered +platform, and having stopped at several points of the grand portico +to admire the fine views of the city and surrounding country, the +traveler picks his way northward, across a thick layer of fragments +of columns, statues and blocks of marble, toward the low-placed, +irregular but elegant Erechtheum, the temple of the most ancient +worship and statue of the patron-goddess of the city. This building +sits close by the northern as the Parthenon does by the southern wall +of the enclosure. It has suffered equally with the other from the +ravages of time, and its ruins, though less grand, are more beautiful. +Most of the graceful Ionic columns are still standing, but large +portions of the roof and entablature have fallen. Fragments of +decorated cornice strew the ground, some of them of considerable +length, and afford a near view of that delicate ornamentation and +exquisite finish so rare outside the limits of Greece. The elevated +porch of the Caryatides, lately restored by the substitution of a +new figure in place of the missing statue now in the British Museum, +attracts attention as a unique specimen of Greek art, and also as +showing how far a skillful treatment will overcome the inherent +difficulties of a subject. The row of fair maidens looking out toward +the Parthenon do not seem much oppressed by the burden which rests +upon them, while their graceful forms lend a pleasing variety to the +scene. Passing out by the northern wing of the Propylaea, a survey is +had of the numerous fragments of sculpture discovered among the ruins +upon the hill, and temporarily placed in the ancient Pinacotheca. +The eye rests upon sweet infant faces and upon rugged manly ones. +Sometimes a single feature only remains, which, touched by the finger +of genius, awakens admiration. A naked arm severed from the trunk, of +feminine cast, but with muscles tightly strained and hand clenched as +in agony, will arrest attention and dwell in the memory. + +North-west of the Acropolis, across a narrow chasm, lies the low, +rocky height of the Areopagus, accessible at the southeast angle by +a narrow flight of sixteen rudely-cut steps, which lead to a small +rectangular excavation on the summit, which faces the Acropolis, and +is surrounded upon three sides by a double tier of benches hewn out +of the rock. Here undoubtedly the most venerable court of justice at +Athens had its seat and tried its cases in the open air. Here too, +without doubt, stood the great apostle when, with bold spirit and +weighty words, he declared unto the men of Athens that God of whom +they confessed their ignorance; who was not to be represented by gold +or silver or stone graven by art and man's device; who dwelt not in +temples made with hands, and needed not to be worshiped with men's +hands. In no other place can one feel so sure that he comes upon the +very footsteps of the apostle, and on no other spot can one better +appreciate his high gifts as an orator or the noble devotion of his +whole soul to the work of the Master. How poor in comparison with +his life-work appear the performances of the greatest of the Athenian +thinkers or doers! + +A little more than a quarter of a mile west of the Acropolis is +another rocky hill--the Pnyx--celebrated as the place where the +assembly of all the citizens met to transact the business of the +state. A large semicircular area was formed, partly by excavation, +partly by building up from beneath, the bounds of which can be +distinctly traced. Considerable remains of the terrace-wall at the +foot of the slope exist--huge stones twelve or fourteen feet in length +by eight or ten in breadth. The chord of the semicircle is near the +top of the hill, formed by the perpendicular face of the excavated +rock, and is about four hundred feet in length by twenty in depth. +Projecting from it at the centre, and hewn out of the same rock, is +the bema or stone platform from which the great orators from the time +of Themistocles and Aristides, and perhaps of Solon, down to the +age of Demosthenes and the Attic Ten, addressed the mass of their +fellow-citizens. It is a massive cubic block, with a linear edge of +eleven feet, standing upon a graduated base of nearly equal height, +and is mounted on either side by a flight of nine stone steps. +From its connection with the most celebrated efforts of some of +the greatest orators our race has yet seen, it is one of the most +interesting relics in the world, and its solid structure will cause it +to endure as long as the world itself shall stand, unless, as there is +some reason to apprehend will be the case, it is knocked to pieces and +carried off in the carpet-bags of travelers. No traces of the Agora, +which occupied the shallow valley between the Pnyx and the Acropolis, +remain. It was the heart of the city, and was adorned with numerous +public buildings, porticoes, temples and statues. It was often +thronged with citizens gathered for purposes of trade, discussion, or +to hear and tell some new thing. + +[Illustration: PORCH OF THE CARYATIDES.] + +Half a mile or more to the south-east, on the banks of the Ilissus, +stood a magnificent structure dedicated to Olympian Zeus--one of +the four largest temples of Greece, ranking with that of Demeter at +Eleusis and that of Diana at Ephesus. Its foundations remain, and +sixteen of the huge Corinthian columns belonging to its majestic +triple colonnade. One of these is fallen. Breaking up into the +numerous disks of which it was composed--six and a half feet in +diameter by two or more in thickness--and stretching out to a length +of over sixty feet, it gives an impressive conception of the size of +these columns, said to be the largest standing in Europe. The level +area of the temple is now used as a training-ground for soldiers. +Close by, and almost in the bed of the stream, which is dry the larger +part of the year, issues from beneath a ledge of rock the copious +fountain of sweet waters known to the ancients as Calirrhoe. It +furnished the only good drinking-water of the city, and was used in +all the sacrifices to the gods. A little way above, on the opposite +bank of the Ilissus, is the site of the Panathenaic stadium, whose +shape is perfectly preserved in the smooth grass-grown hollow with +semicircular extremity which here lies at right angles to the stream, +between parallel ridges partly artificial. + +Northward from the Acropolis, on a slight elevation, is the +best-preserved and one of the most ancient structures of Athens--the +temple of Theseus, built under the administration of Cimon by the +generation preceding Pericles and the Parthenon. It is of the Doric +order, and shaped like the Parthenon, but considerably inferior to +it in size as well as in execution. It has been roofed with wood in +modern times, and was long used as a church, but is now a place of +deposit for the numerous statues and sculptured stones of various +kinds--mostly sepulchral monuments--which have been recently +discovered in and about the city. They are for the most part +unimportant as works of art, though many are interesting from their +antiquity or historic associations. Among these is the stone which +once crowned the burial-mound on the plain of Marathon. It bears a +single figure, said to represent the messenger who brought the tidings +of victory to his countrymen. + +Near the Theseium was the double gate (Dipylum) in the ancient wall +of the city whence issued the Sacred Way leading to Eleusis, and +bordered, like the Appian Way at Rome, with tombs, many of them +cenotaphs of persons who died in the public service and were deemed +worthy of a monument in the public burying-ground. Within a few years +an excavation has been made through an artificial mound of ashes, +pottery and other refuse emptied out of the city, and a section of a +few rods of this celebrated road has been laid bare. The sepulchral +monuments are ranged on one side rather thickly, and crowd somewhat +closely upon the narrow pavement. They are, for the most part, simple, +thick slabs of white marble, with a triangular or pediment-shaped top, +beneath which is sculptured in low relief the closing scene of the +person commemorated, followed by a short inscription. The work is done +in an artistic style worthy of the publicity its location gave it. On +one of these slabs you recognize the familiar full-length figure of +Demosthenes, standing with two companions and clasping in a parting +grasp the hand of a woman, who is reclining upon her deathbed. The +inscription is, _Collyrion, wife of Agathon_. On another stone of +larger size is a more imposing piece of sculpture. A horseman fully +armed is thrusting his spear into the body of his fallen foe--a +hoplite. The inscription relates that the unhappy foot-soldier fell at +Corinth _by reason of those five words of his_!--a record intelligible +enough, doubtless, to his contemporaries, but sufficiently obscure and +provocative of curiosity to later generations. + +There are other noted structures at Athens, such as the Choragic +Monument of Lysicrates--the highest type of the Corinthian order of +architecture, as the Erechtheum is of the Ionic and the Parthenon of +the Doric--but want of space forbids any further description of them. +Let the American traveler visit Athens with the expectation of finding +a city occupying the most charming of sites, and containing by far +the most interesting and important monuments of antiquity, in their +original position, to be found in the whole world. + +J.L.T. PHILLIPS. + +[Illustration: MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES.] + + + + +COMMONPLACE. + + + My little girl is commonplace, you say? + Well, well, I grant it, as you use the phrase + Concede the whole; although there was a day + When I too questioned words, and from a maze + Of hairsplit meanings, cut with close-drawn line, + Sought to draw out a language superfine, + Above the common, scarify with words and scintillate with pen; + But that time's over--now I am content to stand with other men. + + It's the best place, fair youth. I see your smile-- + The scornful smile of that ambitious age + That thinks it all things knows, and all the while + It nothing knows. And yet those smiles presage + Some future fame, because your aim is high; + As when one tries to shoot into the sky, + If his rash arrow at the moon he aims, a bolder flight we see, + Though vain, than if with level poise it safely reached the nearest tree. + + A common proverb that! Does it disjoint + Your graceful terms? One more you'll understand: + Cut down a pencil to too fine a point, + Lo, it breaks off, all useless, in your hand! + The child is fitted for her present sphere: + Let her live out her life, without the fear + That comes when souls, daring the heights of dread infinity, are tost, + Now up, now down, by the great winds, their little home for ever lost. + + My little girl seems to you commonplace + Because she loves the daisies, common flowers; + Because she finds in common pictures grace, + And nothing knows of classic music's powers: + She reads her romance, but the mystic's creed + Is something far beyond her simple need. + She goes to church, but the mixed doubts and theories that thinkers find + In all religious truth can never enter her undoubting mind. + + A daisy's earth's own blossom--better far + Than city gardener's costly hybrid prize: + When you're found worthy of a higher star, + 'Twill then be time earth's daisies to despise; + But not till then. And if the child can sing + Sweet songs like "Robin Gray," why should I fling + A cloud over her music's joy, and set for her the heavy task + Of learning what Bach knew, or finding sense under mad Chopin's mask? + + Then as to pictures: if her taste prefers + That common picture of the "Huguenots," + Where the girl's heart--a tender heart like hers-- + Strives to defeat earth's greatest powers' great plots + With her poor little kerchief, shall I change + The print for Turner's riddles wild and strange? + Or take her stories--simple tales which her few leisure hours beguile-- + And give her Browning's _Sordello_, a Herbert Spencer, a Carlyle? + + Her creed, too, in your eyes is commonplace, + Because she does not doubt the Bible's truth + Because she does not doubt the saving grace + Of fervent prayer, but from her rosy youth, + So full of life, to gray old age's time, + Prays on with faith half ignorant, half sublime. + Yes, commonplace! But if I spoil this common faith, when all is done + Can deist, pantheist or atheist invent a better one? + + Climb to the highest mountain's highest verge, + Step off: you've lost the petty height you had; + Up to the highest point poor reason urge, + Step off: the sense is gone, the mind is mad. + "Thus far, and yet no farther, shalt thou go," + Was said of old, and I have found it so: + This planet's ours, 'tis all we have; here we belong, and those are wise + Who make the best of it, nor vainly try above its plane to rise. + + Nay, nay: I know already your reply; + I have been through the whole long years ago; + I have soared up as far as soul can fly, + I have dug down as far as mind can go; + But always found, at certain depth or height, + The bar that separates the infinite + From finite powers, against whose strength immutable we beat in vain, + Or circle round only to find ourselves at starting-point again. + + If you must for yourself find out this truth, + I bid you go, proud heart, with blessings free: + 'Tis the old fruitless quest of ardent youth, + And soon or late you will come back to me. + You'll learn there's naught so common as the breath + Of life, unless it be the calm of death: + You'll learn that with the Lord Omnipotent there's nothing commonplace, + And with such souls as that poor child's, humbled, abashed, you'll + hide your face. + +CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON. + + + + +PROBATIONER LEONHARD; + +OR, THREE NIGHTS IN THE HAPPY VALLEY. + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE TEST--WITH MENTAL RESERVATIONS. + + +Elise went out to gather willow-twigs, as her mother had said when her +father asked for her. + +A little later in the afternoon, Mr. Albert Spener walked swiftly down +the street toward the house occupied by the Rev. Mr. Wenck. While +he was yet at a distance Elise saw him approaching, and possibly she +thought, "He has seen me and comes to meet me;" and many a pleasant +stroll on many an afternoon would have justified the thought. + +But it was not until he had, as it were, stumbled upon Elise that he +noticed her. He carried in his hand a letter, and when suddenly he +stopped upon the sidewalk and looked at her, the changeful aspects of +his face were marvelous to behold. + +"Where are you going?" he asked. + +"I was going home," she answered, not a little surprised by the abrupt +and authoritative manner of his address. + +"I want to talk with you," said he. "Is it to-day that I am to begin +to leave off loving you, Elise?" + +"That you are--What do you say, Albert?" she asked. + +"Have you not seen Brother Wenck's letter to your father, Elise?" + +She shook her head. + +"The lot--the lot--" he repeated, but his voice refused to help him +tell the tale. + +"Albert, may I see the letter?" Father and Mother Loretz might have +rejoiced in their daughter could they have seen and heard her in those +trying moments. Her gentleness and her serene dignity said for her +that she would not be over-thrown by the storm which had burst upon +her in a moment, unlocked for as tempest and whirlwind out of a clear +sky. + +Spener thrust into her hands the letter addressed to him that morning +by the minister. It contained an announcement of the decision rendered +by the lot, couched in terms more brief, perhaps, than those which +conveyed the same intelligence to the father of Elise. + +She gave it back to him without a word. + +"If Brother Wenck is going to stand by it," said he, "there'll be no +room for him in this place. I was just going to his house to tell him +so. Will you go with me? I should like to have a witness. I'll make +short work of it." + +"No," said Elise, shrinking back amazed from her companion. "I will +not go with you to insult that good man." + +"You will go with me--_not_ to his house, then! Come, Elise, we must +talk about this. You must help me untie this knot. I cannot imagine +how I ever permitted things to take their chance. I have never heard +of a sillier superstition than I seem to have encouraged. Talk about +faith! Let a man act up to light and take the consequences. I can see +clear enough now. _You_ never looked for this to happen, Elise?" + +She shook her head. Indeed, she never had--no, not for a moment. + +"To think I should have permitted it to go on!" + +"But you did let it go on--and I--consented. Do not let me forget +that," she exclaimed. "I will go home, Albert." + +"Ha, Elise! I wish I could feel more confidence in your teachers when +you get there." + +"I need no one to tell me what my duty is just here," she answered. + +"Have you ever loved me, child? _Child_! I am talking to a rock. You +do not yield to this?" He waved the letter aloft, and as if he would +dash it from him. Elise looked at him, and did not speak. "Sister +Benigna will of course feel called upon to bless the Lord," said he. +"But Wenck shall find a way out of this difficulty. Then we will have +done with them both, my own." + +"Am I to have no voice in this matter?" she asked. "What if I say--" + +Spener grasped her hand so suddenly that, as if in her surprise she +had forgotten what she was about to say, Elise added, "Sister Benigna +is my best friend. She knows nothing about the lot." + +"Does not?" + +"I told you, Albert, that it was to be so. And--you do not mean to +threaten Mr. Wenck?" + +"I mean to have him find a way out of this difficulty. He ought to +have said to your father that this lot business belongs to a period +gone by. He did hint at it. I supposed, of course, that he would see +the thing came out right, since he let it go on." + +"Did you then believe it was only a play or a trick?" exclaimed Elise +indignantly. + +"Not quite, but I did not suppose that we were a company who would +stand by an adverse decision. You know, if you are the Elise I have +loved so long, that I must love you always--that I am not going to +give you up. Your father was bent on the test, but look at him and +tell me if he expected this turn. He is twenty years older than he +was yesterday. Folks used to resort to the lot in deciding about +marriages, and it was all well enough if they didn't care how it +turned out, or hadn't faith to believe in their own ability to choose. +A pretty way of doing business, though! Suppose I had tried it on this +place! I have always asked for God's blessing, and tried to act so +that I need not blush when I asked it; but a man must know his own +mind, he must act with decision. I say again, I don't like your +teachers, Elise. Between Sister Benigna and Mr. Wenck, now, what would +be my chances if I could submit to such a pair?" + +"You and I have no quarrel," said Elise gently. "I suppose that you +acted in good faith. You know how much I care--how humiliated I shall +feel if you attack in any way a man so good as Mr. Wenck. You do not +understand Sister Benigna." + +It was well that she had these to speak of, and that she need not +confine herself to the main thought before them, for Albert could do +anything he attempted. Had not her father always said, "Let Spener +alone for getting what he wants: he'll have it, but he's above-board +and honest;" and what hopes, heaven-cleaving, had spread wing the +instant her eyes met his! + +"It is easy to say that I do not understand," said he. "One has only +to assume that another is so excellent and virtuous a character as to +be beyond your comprehension, and then your mouth is stopped." + +"Ah, how bitter you are!" exclaimed Elise. Her voice was full of pain. + +Spener silently reproached himself, and said, with a tenderness that +was irresistible, "You don't know what temptations beset a man in +business and everywhere, Elise. It would be easier far to lie down +and die, I have thought sometimes, than to stand up and meet the enemy +like a man. You will never convince me that my duty is to let you go, +to give you up. I can think of nothing so wicked." + +These words, which had a joyful sound to which she could not seal her +ears, made Elise stop suddenly, afraid of Albert, afraid of herself. +"I think," she said after a moment, "we had best not walk together +any longer. There is nothing we can say that will satisfy ourselves or +ought to satisfy each other." + +"Do you mean that you accept this decision?" said he. + +"I promised, Albert. So did you." + +"We will not talk about it. But we can at least walk together, Elise. +You need not speak. What you confessed just now is true--you cannot +say anything to the purpose." + +So they walked on together. Silently, past all Spenersberg's +dwelling-places they walked, till they came to the cemetery, and +ascending the hill they strolled about that pleasant place among the +graves, and thought, perhaps, How blessed are the dead! and oh to be +lying there in a dreamless sleep beneath the blooming wild roses, and +where dirges were sounding through the cedars day and night! Elise +might have thought thus, but not her companion. He was the last man +to wish to pass from the scene of his successes merely because a great +failure threatened him. Looking upon the slight young figure beside +him and her grave sweet face, a wrathful contempt was aroused within +him that he should have allowed himself to be placed in a situation so +absurd. As they walked down the hill again, he startled his companion +by a merry outbreak. "Tell me you are not mine!" he said: "there never +was a joke like it!" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +SISTER BENIGNA. + + +On her return home Elise found Sister Benigna seated at the piano, +attuning herself, as she said, after her work among the restive +children of her school. + +When she looked upon her friend and recalled the bitter words Albert +had spoken against her, Elise felt their injustice. It was true, as +she had told him, he did not understand Sister Benigna. + +Sitting down beside the window, Elise began to busy herself over the +dainty basket she was elaborately decorating. After a few moments +Sister Benigna left the piano and stood looking at Elise and her work. +She had something to say, but how should she say it? how approach the +heart which had wrapped itself up in sorrow and surrounded itself with +the guards of silence? + +Presently Elise looked at her, but not until she had so long resisted +the inclination to do so that there was something like violence in the +effort. When her eyes met the gaze of Sister Benigna the warm blood +rushed to her cheeks, and she looked quickly down again. Did Sister +Benigna know yet about the letter Mr. Wenck had written? + +A sad smile appeared on Benigna's face. She shook her head. If she did +not know what had happened, she no doubt understood that some kind of +trouble had entered the house. + +Drawing a roll of needlework from her pocket, she quietly occupied +herself with it until Elise, unable to endure the silence longer, +said, "Oh, Sister Benigna, is it not time we did something about the +Sisters' House? I have been reading about one: I forget where it is. +What a beautiful Home you and I could make for poor people, and sick +girls not able to work, and old women! We ought to have such a Home in +Spenersberg. I have been thinking all day it is what we must have, and +it is time we set about it." + +"I do not agree with you," was the quiet answer. "There is no real +need for it here, and perhaps there never will be. Work that is so +unnecessary might better be avoided. In Spenersberg it is better that +the poor and the old and the sick should be cared for in their homes, +by their own households: there is no want here." + +"Will you read what I have been reading?" said Elise, hesitating, not +willing yet to give up the project which looked so full of promise. + +"I know all about Sisters' Houses, and they are excellent +institutions, but if you will go from house to house here you will +find that you would probably keep house by yourself a long time if you +opened such an establishment. No, no: you have your work all prepared +for you, and I certainly have mine. There is a good deal to be done +yet for the festival. Tomorrow, after five, come to the school-room and +we will practice a while. And we might do something here to-night. The +children surprise me: I seem to be surrounded by a little company of +angels while they sing." + +"Oh, Sister Benigna," exclaimed Elise throwing down her work in +despair, "I don't in the least care about the festival. I should be +glad to know it was all given up. I cannot sing at it. I think I have +lost my voice: I do, indeed. I tried it this afternoon, and I croaked +worse than anything you ever heard." + +"Croaked? We must see to that," said Sister Benigna; but, though her +voice was so cheerful, she closed her eyes as she spoke, and passed +her hands over them, and in spite of herself a look of pain was for an +instant visible on her always pale face. She rose quickly and walked +across the room, and crossed it twice before she came again to the +window. + +"You don't understand me to-day," said Elise impetuously; "and I don't +want you to." But Elise would not have spoken at all had she looked at +Sister Benigna. + +A silence of many seconds, which seemed much longer to Elise, +followed her words. She did not dare to go on. What was Sister Benigna +thinking? Would she never speak? Had she nothing to say? Elise was +about to rise also, because to sit still in that silence or to break +it by words had become equally impossible, when Sister Benigna, +approaching gently, laid her hand upon her and said, "Wait one moment: +I have something to tell you, Elise." + +And so Elise sat down. She could not summon the strength to go with +that voice in her ear and the touch of that hand arresting her. + +"I once had a friend as young as you are, of whom you often remind +me," said Benigna. "She had a lover, and their faith led them to +seek a knowledge of the Lord's will concerning their marriage. It +was inquired for them, and it was found against the union. You often +remind me of her, I said, but your fortunes are not at all like hers." + +"Sister Benigna, why do you tell me this?" asked Elise quickly, in a +voice hardly audible. She was afraid to listen. She recalled Albert's +words. She did not know if she might trust the friendly voice that +spoke. + +"Because I have always thought that some time it would be well for you +to hear it; but if you do not wish to hear it, I will go no farther." + +Elise looked at Benigna--not trust her! "Please go on," she said. + +"I knew the poor child very well. She had grown up in an unhappy +home, and had never known what it was to have comfort and peace in the +house, or even plenty to eat and to wear. She was expected to go out +and earn her living as soon as she had learned the use of her hands +and feet. Poor child! she felt her fortune was a hard one, but God +always cared for her. In one way and another she in time picked up +enough knowledge of music to teach beginners. The first real friend +she had was the friend who became so dear to her that--I need not try +to find words to tell you how dear he was. + +"She was soon skilled enough to be able to take more intelligent and +advanced pupils, and in the church-music she had the leading parts. +By and by the music was put into her hands for festivals and the +great days, Christmas and Easter, as it has been put into mine here in +Spenersberg. One day _he_ said to her, 'It seems to us the best thing +in life to be near each other. Would it might be God's will that we +should never part!' She responded to that prayer from the depths of +her heart, and a great gulf seemed to open before her, for she thought +what would her life be worth if they were destined to part? Then he +said, 'Let us inquire the will of our Lord;' and she said, 'Let it +be so;' and they had faith that would enable them to abide by the +decision. The lot pronounced against them. I do not believe that it +had entered the heart of either of them to understand how necessary +they had become to each other, and when they saw that all was over it +was a sad awaking. For a little while it was with both as if they had +madly thrown a birthright away; for, though they had faith, they were +not yet perfect in it. Not soon did either see that this life had +a blessing for them every day--new every morning, fresh every +evening--and that from everlasting to everlasting are the mercies of +God. But at last he said, 'I am afraid, my darling'" (Elise started at +this word of endearment. It was like a revelation to think that there +had been lovers in the world before her time), "'it will go harder +with me than with you. I cannot stay here and go on with my work. I +must go among new people, and begin again.' And so he went away, and +at last, when by the grace of God they met again--surely, surely by no +seeking of their own--they were no less true friends because they had +for their lifetime been led into separate paths. Their faith saved +them." + +Low though the voice was in which these last words were spoken, there +was a strength and inspiration in them which Elise felt. She looked +at Sister Benigna with steady, wondering eyes. Such a story from her +lips, and told so, and told now! And her countenance! what divine +beauty glowed in it! The moment had a vision that could never be +forgotten. + +Elise did not speak, but neither, having heard this tale, did she now +rise to depart. She folded her hands and bowed her head upon them, and +so they sat silent until the first chords of the "Pastoral Symphony" +drew the souls of both away up into a realm which is entered only by +the pure in heart. + +About this time it was that Leonhard Marten, while passing, heard that +recitative of a soprano voice which so amazed him. Dropping quickly +into the shade of the trees opposite Loretz's house, he listened to +the announcement, "There were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping +watch over their flocks by night," and there remained until he saw two +men advancing toward the house, one of them evidently approaching his +home. + +Through the sleepless night Elise's thoughts were constantly going +over the simple incidents of the story Sister Benigna had told her. +But they had not by morning yielded all the consolations which the +teller of the tale perceived among their possibilities, for the +reason, perhaps, that Elise's sympathies had been more powerfully +excited by the tale than her faith. It was not upon the final result +of the severance effected by the lot that her mind rested dismayed: +her heart was full of pain, thinking of that poor girl's early life, +and that at last, when all the recollection of it was put far from her +by the joy which shone upon her as the sun out of darkness, she +must look forward and by its light behold a future so dreary. "How +fearful!" she moaned once; and her closed eyes did not see the face +that turned toward her full of pain, full of love. + +Of all doubts that could afflict the soul of Sister Benigna, none +more distracting than this was conceivable: Had she proved the best +instructor to this child of her spirit? Had she even been _capable_ of +teaching her truest truth? Was it the truth or herself to which Elise +was always deferring? Was obedience a duty when not impelled and +sanctified by faith? In what did the prime virtue of resignation +consist? Would not obedience without faith be merely a debasing +superstitious submission to the will of the believing? Her reflections +were not suggested by a shrewd guess. She knew that the lot had been +resorted to, and that the letters had been written to Elise and Albert +which acquainted them with the result; and the peace of her prayerful +soul was rent by the thought that a joyless surrender of human will +to a higher was, perhaps, no better than the poor helpless slave's +extorted sacrifice. The happiness of the household seemed to Benigna +in her keeping. If they had gone lightly seeking the oracle of God, +as they would have sought a fortune-teller, was not the Most High +dishonored? She could not say this to Elise, but could she say it to +Albert Spener? Ought she not to say it to him? There was no other to +whom it could be said. Had the coming day any duty so imperative as +this? She arose to perform it, but Spener, as we know, had gone away +the day before. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE MEN OF SPENERSBERG. + + +This Spenersberg, about which Leonhard was not a little eager to know +more when he shut the door of the apartment into which his host had +ushered him--for he must remain all night--what was it? + +A colony, or a brotherhood, or a community, six years old. Such a fact +does not lie ready for observation every day--such a place does not +lie in the hand of a man at his bidding. What, then, was its history? +We need not wait to find out until morning, when Leonhard will proceed +to discover. He is satisfied when he lies down upon the bed, which +awaited him, it seems, as he came hither on the way-train--quite +satisfied that Spener of Spenersberg must be a man worth seeing. +Breathing beings possessed of ideas and homes here must have been +handled with power by a master mind to have brought about this +community, if so it is to be called, in six short years, thinks +Leonhard. He recalls his own past six years, and turns uneasily on his +bed, and finds no rest until he reminds himself of the criticism +he has been enabled to pass on Miss Elise's rendering of "He is a +righteous Saviour," and the suggestion he made concerning the pitch +of "Ye shall find rest for your souls." The recollection acts upon him +somewhat as the advancing wave acts on the sand-line made by the wave +preceding. When he made the first suggestion, Sister Benigna stood +for a moment looking at him, surprised by his remark; but, less than a +second taken up with a thought of him, she had passed instantly on to +say, "Try it so, Elise: 'He is a righteous Saviour.' We will make it +a slower movement. Ah! how impressive! how beautiful! It is the +composer's very thought! Again--slow: it is perfect!" + +Was this kind of praise worth the taking? a source of praise worth +the seeking? Leonhard had said ungrateful things about his +prize-credentials to Miss Marion Ayres, and I do believe that these +very prizes, awarded for his various drawings, were never so valued +by him as the look with which priestly Benigna seemed to admit him at +least so far as into the fellowship of the Gentiles' Court. + +He would have fallen asleep just here with a pleasant thought but for +the recollection of Wilberforce's letter, which startled him hardly +less than the apparition of his friend in the moonlight streaming +through his half-curtained window would have done. Is it always so +pleasant a thought that for ever and ever a man shall bear his own +company? + +But this Spenersberg? Seven years ago, on the day when he came of age, +Albert Spener, then a young clerk in a fancy-goods store, went to look +at the estate which his grandfather had bequeathed to him the year +preceding. Not ten years ago the old man made his will and gave the +property, on which he had not quite starved, to his only grandson, and +here was this worthless gorge which stretched between the fields more +productive than many a famous gold-mine. + +The youth had seen at once that if he should deal with the land as +his predecessors had done, he would be able to draw no more from the +stingy acres than they. He had shown the bent of his mind and the +nature of his talent by the promptness with which he put things remote +together, and by the directness with which he reached his conclusions. + +He had left his town-lodgings, having obtained of his employer leave +of absence for one week, and within twenty-four hours had come to +his conclusion and returned to his post. Of that estate which he had +inherited but a portion, and a very small portion, offered to the +cultivator the least encouragement. The land had long ago been +stripped of its forest trees, and, thus defrauded of its natural +fertilizers, lay now, after successive seasons of drain and waste, as +barren as a desert, with the exception of that narrow strip between +the hills which apparently bent low that inland might look upon river. + +Along the banks of the stream, which flowed, a current of considerable +depth and swiftness, toward its outlet, the river, willows were +growing. Albert's employer was an importer to a small extent, +and fancy willow-ware formed a very considerable share of his +importations. The conclusion he had reached while surveying his land +was an answer to the question he had asked himself: Why should +not this land be made to bring forth the kind of willow used by +basket-weavers, and why should not basket-weavers be induced to gather +into a community of some sort, and so importers be beaten in the +market by domestic productions? The aim thus clearly defined Spener +had accomplished. His Moravians furnished him with a willow-ware +which was always quoted at a high figure, and the patriotic pride +the manufacturer felt in the enterprise was abundantly rewarded: no +foreign mark was ever found on his home-made goods. + +But _his_ Moravians: where did these people come from, and how came +they to be known as his? + +The question brings us to Frederick Loretz. In those days he was a +porter in the establishment where Spener was a clerk. He had filled +this situation only one month, however, when he was attacked with a +fever which was scourging the neighborhood, and taken to the hospital. +Albert followed him thither with kindly words and care, for the poor +fellow was a stranger in the town, and he had already told Spener his +dismal story. Afar from wife and child, among strangers and a pauper, +his doom, he believed, was to die. How he bemoaned his wasted life +then, and the husks which he had eaten! + +In his delirium Loretz would have put an end to his life. Spener +talked him out of this horror of himself, and showed him that there +was always opportunity, while life lasted, for wanderers to seek again +the fold they had strayed from; for when the delirium passed the man's +conscience remained, and he confessed that he had lived away from +the brethren of his faith, and was an outcast. Oh, if he could but +be transported to Herrnhut and set down there a well man in that +sanctuary of Moravianism, how devoutly would he return to the faith +and practice of his fathers! + +When Spener returned from his trip of investigation he hastened +immediately to the hospital, sought out poor half-dead Loretz, laid +his hand on his shoulder, and said, "Come, get up: I want you." And +he explained his project: "I will build a house for you, send for +your wife and child, put you all together, and start you in life. I +am going into the basket business, and I want you to look after +my willows. After they are pretty well grown you shall get in some +families--Simon-Pure Moravians, you know--and we will have a village +of our own. D'ye hear me?" + +The poor fellow did hear: he struggled up in his bed, threw his arms +around Spener's neck, tried to kiss him, and fainted. + +"This is a good beginning," said Spener to himself as he laid the +senseless head upon the pillow and felt for the beating heart. The +beating heart was there. In a few moments Loretz was looking, with +eyes that shone with loving gratitude and wondering admiration, on the +young man who had saved his life. + +"I have no money," said this youth in further explanation of his +project--for he wanted his companion to understand his circumstances +from the outset--"but I shall borrow five thousand dollars. I can pay +the interest on that sum out of my salary. Perhaps I shall sell a few +lots on the river, if I can turn attention to the region. It will all +come out right, anyhow. Now, how soon can you be ready? I will write +to your wife to-day if you say so, and tell her to come on with the +little girl." + +"Wait a week," said Loretz in a whisper; and all that night and the +following day his chances for this world and the next seemed about +equal. + +But after that he rallied, and his recovery was certain. It was slow, +however, hastened though it was by the hope and expectation which +had opened to him when he had reached the lowest depth of despair and +covered himself with the ashes of repentance. + +The letter for the wife and little girl was written, and money sent to +bring them from the place where Loretz had left them when he set +out in search of occupation, to find employment as a porter, and the +fever, and Albert Spener. + +During the first year of co-working Loretz devoted himself to the +culture of the willow, and then, as time passed on and hands were +needed, he brought one family after another to the place--Moravians +all--until now there were at least five hundred inhabitants in +Spenersberg, a large factory and a church, whereof Spener himself was +a member "in good and regular standing." + +Seven years of incessant labor, directed by a wise foresight, which +looked almost like inspiration and miracle, had resulted in all this +real prosperity. Loretz never stopped wondering at it, and yet he +could have told you every step of the process. All that had been +_done_ he had had a hand in, but the devising brain was Spener's; +and no wonder that, in spite of his familiarity with the details, +the sum-total of the activities put forth in that valley should have +seemed to Loretz marvelous, magical. + +He had many things to rejoice over besides his own prosperity. His +daughter was in all respects a perfect being, to his thinking. For six +years now she had been under the instruction of Sister Benigna, +not only in music, but in all things that Sister Benigna, a +well-instructed woman, could teach. She sang, as Leonhard Marten would +have told you, "divinely," she was beautiful to look upon, and Albert +Spener desired to marry her. + +Surely the Lord had blessed him, and remembered no more those years +of wanderings when, alienated from the brethren, he sought out his +own ways and came close upon destruction. What should he return to the +beneficent Giver for all these benefits? + +Poor Loretz! In his prosperity he thought that he should never be +moved, but he would not basely use that conviction and forget the +source of all his satisfaction. He remembered that it was when he +repented of his misdeeds that Spener came to him and drew him from the +pit. He could never look upon Albert as other than a divine agent; +and when Spener joined himself to the Moravians, led partly by his +admiration of them, partly by religious impulse, and partly because +of his conviction that to be wholly successful he and his people must +form a unit, his joy was complete. + +The proposal for Elise's hand had an effect upon her father which any +one who knew him well might have looked for and directed. The pride of +his life was satisfied. He remembered that he and his Anna, in seeking +to know the will of the Lord in respect to their marriage, had been +answered favorably by the lot. He desired the signal demonstration of +heavenly will in regard to the nuptials proposed. Not a shadow of +a doubt visited his mind as to the result, and the influence of his +faith upon Spener was such that he acquiesced in the measure, though +not without remonstrance and misgiving and mental reservation. + +To find his way up into the region of faith, and quiet himself there +when the result of the seeking was known, was almost impossible for +Loretz. He could fear the Judge who had decreed, but could he trust in +Him? He began to grope back among his follies of the past, seeking a +crime he had not repented, as the cause of this domestic calamity. But +ah! to reap such a harvest as this for any youthful folly! Poor soul! +little he knew of vengeance and retribution. He was at his wit's end, +incapable alike of advancing, retreating or of peaceful surrender. + +It was pleasant to him to think, in the night-watches, of the young +man who occupied the room next to his. He did not see--at least had +not yet seen--in Leonhard a messenger sent to the house, as did his +wife; but the presence of the young stranger spoke favorable things in +his behalf; and then, as there was really nothing to be _done_ about +this decision, anything that gave a diversion to sombre thoughts was +welcome. Sister Benigna had spoken very kindly to Leonhard in the +evening, and he had pointed out a place in one of Elise's solos where +by taking a higher key in a single passage a marvelous effect could be +produced. That showed knowledge; and he said that he had taught music. +Perhaps he would like to remain until after the congregation festival +had taken place. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE BOOK. + + +In the morning the master of the house rapped on Leonhard's door and +said: "When you come down I have something to show you." The voice +of Mr. Loretz had almost its accustomed cheerfulness of tone, and he +ended his remark with a brief "Ha! ha!" peculiar to him, which not +only expressed his own good-humor, but also invited good-humored +response. + +Leonhard answered cheerily, and in a few moments he had descended the +steep uncovered stair to the music-room. + +"Now for the book," Loretz called out as Leonhard entered. + +How handsome our young friend looked as he stood there shaking hands +with the elderly man, whose broad, florid face now actually shone with +hospitable feeling! + +"Is father going to claim you as one of us, Mr. Marten?" asked the +wife of Loretz, who answered her husband's call by coming into the +room and bringing with her a large volume wrapped in chamois skin. + +"What shall I be, then?" asked Leonhard. "A wiser and a better man, I +do not doubt." + +"What! you do not know?" the good woman stayed to say. "Has nobody +told you where you are, my young friend?" + +"I never before found myself in a place I should like to stay in +always; so what does the rest signify?" answered Leonhard. "What's in +a name?" + +"Not much perhaps, yet something," said Loretz. "We are all Moravians +here. I was going to look in this book here for the names of your +ancestors. I thought perhaps you knew about Spenersberg." + +"I am as new to it all as Christopher Columbus was to the West India +islands. If you find the names of my kinsmen down in your book, sir, +it--it will be a marvelous, happy sight for me," said Leonhard. + +"I'll try my hand at it," said Loretz. "Ha! ha!" and he opened the +volume, which was bound in black leather, the leaves yellowed with +years. "This book," he continued, "is one hundred and fifty years +old. You will find recorded in it the names of all my grandfather's +friends, and all my father's. See, it is our way. There are all the +dates. Where they lived, see, and where they died. It is all down. +A man cannot feel himself cut off from his kind as long as he has a +volume like that in his library. I have added a few names of my own +friends, and their birthdays. Here, you see, is Sister Benigna's, +written with her own hand. A most remarkable woman, sir. True as +steel--always the same. But"--he paused a moment and looked at +Leonhard with his head inclined to one side, and an expression of +perplexity upon his face--"there's something out of the way here in +this country. I have not more than one name down to a dozen in my +father's record, and twenty in my grandfather's. We do not make +friends, and we do not keep them, as they did in old time. We don't +trust each other as men ought to. Half the time we find ourselves +wondering whether the folks we're dealing with are _honest_. Now think +of that!" + +"Are men any worse than they were in the old time?" asked Leonhard, +evidently not entering into the conversation with the keenest +enjoyment. + +"I do not know how it is," said Loretz with a sigh, continuing to turn +the leaves of the book as he spoke. + +"Perhaps we have less imagination, and don't look at every new-comer +as a friend until we have tried him," suggested Leonhard. "We decide +that everybody shall be tested before we accept him. And isn't it the +best way? Better than to be disappointed, when we have set our heart +on a man--or a woman." + +"I do not know--I cannot account for it," said Mr. Loretz. Then with a +sudden start he laid his right hand on the page before him, and with a +great pleased smile in his deep-set, small blue eyes he said: "Here is +your name. I felt sure I should find it: I felt certain it was down. +See here, on my grandfather's page--_Leonhard Marten, Herrnhut_, 1770. +How do you like that?" + +"I like it well," said Leonhard, bending over the book and examining +the close-fisted autograph set down strongly in unfading ink. Had he +found an ancestor at last? What could have amazed him as much? + +"What have you found?" asked Mrs. Loretz, who had heard these remarks +in the next room, where she was actively making preparations for the +breakfast, which already sent forth its odorous invitations. + +"We have found the name," answered her husband. "Come and see. I have +read it, I dare say, a hundred times: that was what made me feel that +an old friend had come." + +"That means," said the good woman, hastening in at her husband's call, +and reading the name with a pleased smile--"that means that you belong +to us. I thought you did. I am glad." + +Were these folk so intent on securing a convert that in these various +ways they made the young stranger feel that he was not among strangers +in this unknown Spenersberg? Nothing was farther from their thought: +they only gave to their kindly feeling hearty utterance, and perhaps +spoke with a little extra emphasis because the constraint they +secretly felt in consequence of their household trouble made them +unanimous in the effort to put it out of sight--not out of this +stranger's sight, but out of their own. + +"Perhaps you will stop with us a while, and maybe write your name on +my page before you go," said Loretz, afraid that his wife had gone a +little too far. + +"Without a single test?" Leonhard answered. "Haven't we just agreed +that we wise men don't take each other on trust, as they did in our +grandfathers' day?" + +"A man living in Herrnhut in 1770 would not have for a descendant a--a +man I could not trust," said Loretz, closing the book and placing it +in its chamois covering again. "Breakfast, mother, did you say?" + +"Have you wanted ink?" asked Sister Benigna, entering at that instant. +"Are we writing in the sacred birthday book?" + +"Not yet," said Leonhard hastily, the color rising to his face in a +way to suggest forked lightning somewhere beyond sight. + +"You have wanted ink, and are too kind to let me know," she said. "I +emptied the bottle copying music for the children yesterday." + +"The ink was put to a better use then than I could have found for it +this morning," said Leonhard. + +And Mrs. Loretz, who looked into the room just then, said to herself, +as her eyes fell on him, "Poor soul! he is in trouble." + +In fact, this thought was in Leonhard's mind as he went into breakfast +with the family: "A deuced good friend I have proved--to Wilberforce! +Isn't there anybody here clear-eyed enough to see that it would be +like forgery to write my name down in a book of friendship?" + +The morning meal was enlivened by much more than the usual amount of +talk. Leonhard was curious to know about Herrnhut, that old home +of Moravianism, and the interest which he manifested in the history +Loretz was so eager to communicate made him in turn an object of +almost affectionate attention. That he had no facts of private +biography to communicate in turn did net attract notice, because, +however many such facts he might have ready to produce, by the time +Loretz had done talking it was necessary that the day's work should +begin. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +CONFERENCE MEETING. + + +The school-room was a large apartment in the basement of the factory +which had been used as a drying-room until it became necessary to +find for the increasing numbers of the little flock more spacious +accommodations. The basement was entered by a door at the end of the +building opposite that by which the operatives entered the factory, +and the hours were so timed that the children went and came without +disturbance to themselves or others. The path that led to the basement +door was neatly bordered with flowering plants and bushes, and +sunlight was always to be found there, if anywhere in the valley, from +eight o'clock till two. + +Leonhard walked to the factory with Sister Benigna, to whose conduct +Loretz had consigned him when called away by the tower bell. + +At the door of the basement Mr. Wenck was standing with a printed copy +of Handel's sacred oratorio of _The Messiah_ in his hand. Evidently he +was waiting for Sister Benigna. + +But when she had said to Leonhard, "Pass on to the other end of the +building and you will find the entrance, and Mr. Spener's office in +the corner as you enter," and Leonhard had thanked her, and bowed and +passed on, and she turned to Mr. Wenck, it was very little indeed that +he said or had to say about the music which he held in his hand. + +"I have no doubt that all the preparation necessary for to-morrow +evening is being made," he said. "You may need this book. But I +did not come to talk about it. Sister Benigna," he continued in a +different tone, and a voice not quite under his control, "is it not +unreasonable to have passed a sleepless night thinking of Albert and +Elise?" + +"Very unreasonable." But he had not charged her, as she supposed, with +that folly, as his next words showed. + +"It is, and yet I have done it--only because all this might have been +so easily avoided." + +"And yet it was unavoidable," said she, looking toward the school-room +door as one who had no time to waste in idle talk. + +"Not that I question the wisdom of the resort if all were of one +mind," said Mr. Wenck, who had the dreary all-day before him, and was +not in the least pressed for time. "But I can see that even on the +part of Brother Loretz the act was not a genuine act of faith." + +Startled by the expression the minister was giving to her secret +thoughts, Benigna exclaimed, "And yet what can be done?" + +"Nothing," he answered. "If Loretz should yield to Spener, and if I +should--do you not see he has had everything his own way here?--he +would feel that nothing could stand in opposition to him. If he were a +different man! And they are both so young!" + +"I know that Elise has a conscience that will hold her fast to duty," +said Benigna, but she did not speak hopefully: she spoke deliberately, +however, thinking that these words _conscience_ and _duty_ might +arrest the minister's attention, and that he would perhaps, by some +means, throw light upon questions which were constantly becoming more +perplexing to her. Was conscience an unfailing guide? Was one person's +duty to be pronounced upon by another without scruple, and defined +with unfaltering exactness? But the words had not arrested the +minister's attention. + +"If they could only see that there is nothing to be done!" said he. +"Oh, they will, Benigna! Had they only the faith, Benigna!" + +"Yet how vain their sacrifice, for they have it not!" said she. And +as if she would not prolong an interview which must be full of pain, +because no light could proceed from any words that would be given them +to speak, Sister Benigna turned abruptly toward the basement door when +she had said this, and entered it without bestowing a parting glance +even on the minister. + +He walked away after an instant's hesitation: indeed there was nothing +further to be said, and she did well to go. + +Going homeward by a path which led along the hillside above the +village street, he must pass the small house separated from all +others--the house which was the appointed resting-place of all who +lived in Spenersberg to die there--known as the Corpse-house. To it +the bodies of deceased persons were always taken after death, and +there they remained until the hour when they were carried forth for +burial. + +As Mr. Wenck approached he saw that the door stood open: a few steps +farther, and this fact was accounted for. A bent and wrinkled old +woman stood there with a broom in her hand, which she had been using +in a plain, straight-forward manner. + +"Ah, Mary," he said, "what does this mean, my good woman?" + +"It is the minister," she answered in a low voice, curtseying. "I was +moved to come here this morning, sir, and see to things. It was time +to be brushing up a little, I thought. It is a month now since the +last." + +"I will take down the old boughs then, and garnish the walls with new +ones. And have you looked at the lamp too, Mary?" + +"It is trimmed, sir," said the woman; and the minister's readiness to +assist her drew forth the confession: "I was thinking on my bed in the +night-watches that it must be done. There will one be going home soon. +And it may be myself, sir. I could not have been easy if I had not +come up to tidy the house." + +Having finished her task, which was a short one and easily performed, +the woman now waited to watch the minister as he selected cedar boughs +and wove them into wreaths, and suspended them from the walls and +rafters of the little room; and it comforted the simple soul when, +standing in the doorway, the good man lifted his eyes toward heaven +and said in the words of the church litany: + + From error and misunderstanding, + From the loss of our glory in Thee, + From self-complacency, + From untimely projects, + From needless perplexity, + From the murdering spirit and devices of Satan, + From the influence of the spirit of this world, + From hypocrisy and fanaticism, + From the deceitfulness of sin, + From all sin, + _Preserve us, gracious Lord and God_-- + +and devoutly she joined in with him in the solemn responsive cry. + +It was very evident that the minister's work that day was not to be +performed in his silent home among his books. + +On the brightest day let the sun become eclipsed, and how the earth +will pine! What melancholy will pervade the busy streets, the pleasant +fields and woods! How disconsolately the birds will seek their mates +and their nests! + +The children came together, but many a half hour passed during +which the shadow of an Unknown seemed to come between them and their +teacher. The bright soul, was she too suffering from an eclipse? Does +it happen that all souls, even the most valiant, most loving, least +selfish, come in time to passes so difficult that, shrinking back, +they say, "Why should I struggle to gain the other side? What is +there worth seeking? Better to end all here. This life is not worth +enduring"? And yet, does it also come to pass as certainly that these +valiant, unselfish, loving ones will struggle, fight, climb, wade, +creep on, on while the breath of life remains in them, and never +surrender? It seemed as if Sister Benigna had arrived at a place where +her baffled spirit stood still and felt its helplessness. Could she +do nothing for Elise, the dear child for whose happiness she would +cheerfully give her life, and not think the price too dear? + +By and by the children were aware that Sister Benigna had come again +among them: the humblest little flower lifted up its head, and the +smallest bird began to chirp and move about and smooth its wings. + +Sister Benigna! what had she recollected?--that but a single day +perhaps was hers to live, and here were all these children! As she +turned with ardent zeal to her work--which indeed had not failed of +accustomed conduct so far as routine went--tell me what do you find in +those lovely eyes if not the heavenliest assurances? Let who will +call the scene of this life's operations a vale of tears, a world of +misery, a prison-house of the spirit, here is one who asks for herself +nothing of honors or riches or pleasures, and who can bless the +Lord God for the glory of the earth he has created, and for those +everlasting purposes of his which mortals can but trust in, and which +are past finding out. Children, let us do our best to-day, and wait +until to-morrow for to-morrow's gifts. This exhortation was in the +eyes, mien, conduct of the teacher, and so she led them on until, when +they came to practice their hymns for the festival, every little heart +and voice was in tune, and she praised them with voice so cheerful, +how should they guess that it had ever been choked by anguish or had +ever fainted in despair? + +O young eyes saddening over what is to you a painful, insoluble +problem! yet a little while and you shall see the mists of morning +breaking everywhere, and the great conquering sun will enfold you too +in its warm embrace: the humble laurels of the mountain's side, even +as the great pines and cedars of the mountain's crest, have but to +receive and use what the sterile rock and the blinding cloud, the +wintry tempest and the rain and the summer's heat bestow, and lo! the +heights are alive with glory. But it is not in a day. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +WILL THE ARCHITECT HAVE EMPLOYMENT? + + +On entering the factory, Leonhard met Loretz near the door talking +with Albert Spener. When he saw Leonhard, Loretz said, "I was just +saying to Mr. Spener that I expected you, sir, and how he might +recognize you; but you shall speak for yourself. If you will spend a +little time looking about, I shall be back soon: perhaps Mr. Spener--" + +"Mr. Leonhard Marten, I believe," said Mr. Albert Spener with a little +exaggeration of his natural stiffness. Perhaps he did not suspect that +all the morning he had been manifesting considerable loftiness toward +Loretz, and that he spoke in a way that made Leonhard feel that his +departure from Spenersberg would probably take place within something +less than twenty-four hours. + +Yet within half an hour the young men were walking up and down the +factory, examining machinery and work, and talking as freely as if +they had known each other six months. They were not in everything +as unlike as they were in person. Spener was a tall, spare man, who +conveyed an impression of mental strength and physical activity. He +could turn his hand to anything, and _attempt_ anything that was to be +done by skillful handicraft; and whether he could use his wits well +in shaping men, let Spenersberg answer. His square-shaped head was +covered with bright brown hair, which had a reddish tinge, and his +moustache was of no stinted growth: his black eyes penetrated and +flashed, and could glow and glare in a way to make weakness and +feebleness tremble. His quick speech did not spare: right and left he +used his swords of thought and will. Fall in! or, Out of the way! were +the commands laid down by him since the foundations of Spenersberg +were laid. In the fancy-goods line he might have made of himself a +spectacle, supposing he could have remained in the trade; but set +apart here in this vale, the centre of a sphere of his own creation, +where there was something at stake vast enough to justify the exercise +of energy and authority, he had a field for the fair play of all that +was within him--the worst and the best. The worst that he could be he +was--a tyrant; and the best that he could be he was--a lover. Hitherto +his tyrannies had brought about good results only, but it was well +that the girl he loved had not only spirit and courage enough to love +him, but also faith enough to remove mountains. + +If Leonhard had determined that he would make a friend of Spener +before he entered the factory, he could not have proceeded more wisely +than he did. First, he was interested in the works, and intent on +being told about the manufacture of articles of furniture from a +product ostensibly of such small account as the willow; then he was +interested in the designs and surprised at the ingenious variety, and +curious to learn their source, and amazed to hear that Mr. Spener had +himself originated more than half of them. Then presently he began to +suggest designs, and at the end of an hour he found himself at a table +in Spener's office drawing shapes for baskets and chairs and tables +and ornamental devices, and making Spener laugh so at some remark as +to be heard all over the building. + +"You say you are an architect," he said after Leonhard had covered a +sheet of paper with suggestions written and outlined for him, which he +looked at with swiftly-comprehending and satisfied eyes. "What do you +say to doing a job for me?" + +"With all my heart," answered Leonhard, "if it can be done at once." + +These words were in the highest degree satisfactory. Here was a man +who knew the worth of a minute. He was the man for Spener. "Come with +me," he said, "and I'll show you a building-site or two worth putting +money on;" and so they walked together out of the factory, crossed a +rustic foot-bridge to the opposite side, ascended a sunny half-cleared +slope and passed across a field; and there beneath them, far below, +rolled the grand river which had among its notable ports this little +Spenersberg. + +"What do you think of a house on this site, sir?" asked Spener, +looking with no small degree of satisfaction around him and down the +rocky steep. + +"I think I should like to be commissioned to build a castle with +towers and gates of this very granite which you could hew out by +the thousand cord from the quarry yonder. What a perfect gray for +building!" + +"I have always thought I would use the material on the ground--the +best compliment I could pay this place which I have raised my fortune +out of," said Spener. + +"There's no better material on the earth," said Leonhard. + +"But I don't want a castle: I want a house with room enough in +it--high ceilings, wide halls, and a piazza fifteen or twenty feet +wide all around it." + +"Must I give up the castle? There isn't a better site on the Rhine +than this." + +"But I'm not a baron, and I live at peace with my neighbors--at least +with outsiders." That last remark was an unfortunate one, for it +brought the speaker back consciously to confront the images which were +constantly lurking round him--only hid when he commanded them out of +sight in the manfulness of a spirit that would not be interfered +with in its work. He sat looking at Leonhard opposite to him, who had +already taken a note-book and pencil from his pocket, and, planting +his left foot firmly against one of the great rocks of the cliff, he +said, "Loretz tells me you stayed all night at his house." + +"Yes, he invited me in when I inquired my way to the inn." + +"Sister Benigna was there?" + +"She wasn't anywhere else," said Leonhard, looking up and smiling. +"Excuse the slang. If you are where she is, you may feel very certain +about her being there." + +"Not at all," said Albert, evidently nettled into argument by the +theme he had introduced. "She is one of those persons who can be in +several places at the same time. You heard them sing, I suppose. They +are preparing for the congregation festival. It is six years since +we started here, but we only built our church last year: this year +we have the first celebration in the edifice, and of course there is +great preparation." + +"I have been wondering how I could go away before it takes place ever +since I heard of it." + +"If you wonder less how you can stay, remain of course," said Spener +with no great cordiality: he owed this stranger nothing, after all. + +"It will only be to prove that I am really music-mad, as they have +been telling me ever since I was born. If that is the case, from the +evidences I have had since I came here I think I shall recover." + +"What do you mean?" asked Spener. + +"I mean that I see how little I really know about the science. I +never heard anything to equal the musical knowledge and execution of +Loretz's daughter and this Sister Benigna you speak of." + +"Ah! I am not a musician. I tried the trombone, but lacked the +patience. I am satisfied to admire. And so you liked the singers? +Which best?" + +"Both." + +"Come, come--what was the difference?" + +"The difference?" repeated Leonhard reflecting. + +Spener also seemed to reflect on his question, and was so absorbed +in his thinking that he seemed to be startled when Leonhard, from his +studies of the square house with the wide halls and the large rooms +with high ceilings, turned to him and said, "The difference, sir, is +between two women." + +"No difference at all, do you mean? Do you mean they are alike? They +are not alike." + +"Not so alike that I have seen anything like either of them." + +"Ah! neither have I. For that reason I shall marry one of them, while +the other I would not marry--no, not if she were the only woman on the +continent." + +"You are a fortunate man," said Leonhard. + +"I intend to prove that. Nothing more is necessary than the girl's +consent--is there?--if you have made up your mind that you must have +her." + +"I should think you might say that, sir." + +"But you don't hazard an opinion as to which, sir." + +"Not I." + +"Why not?" + +"It might be Miss Elise, if--" + +"If what?" + +"I am not accustomed to see young ladies in their homes. I have only +fancied sometimes what a pretty girl might be in her father's house." + +"Well, sir?" said Spener impatiently. + +"A young lady like Miss Elise would have a great deal to say, I should +suppose." + +"Is she dumb? I thought she could talk. I should have said so." + +"I should have guessed, too, that she would always be singing about +the house." + +"And if not--what then?" + +"Something must be going wrong somewhere. So you see it can't be Miss +Elise, according to my judgment." + +Spener laughed when this conclusion was reached. + +"Come here again within a month and see if she can talk and sing," +said he with eyes flashing. "Perhaps you have found that it is as easy +to frighten a bugbear out of the way as to be frightened by one. I +never found, sir, that I couldn't put a stumbling-block out of my +path. We have one little man here who is going to prove himself a +nuisance, I'm afraid. He is a good little fellow, too. I always liked +him until he undertook to manage my affairs. I don't propose to give +up the reins yet a while, and until I do, you see, he has no chance. +I am sorry about it, for I considered him quite like a friend; but a +friend, sir, with a flaw in him is worse than an enemy. I know where +to find my enemies, but I can't keep track of a man who pretends to be +a friend and serves me ill. But pshaw! let me see what you are doing." + +Leonhard was glad when the man ceased from discoursing on +friendship--a favorite theme among Spenersbergers, he began to +think--and glad to break away from his work, for he held his pencil +less firmly than he should have done. + +Spener studied the portion completed, and seemed surprised as well as +pleased. "You know your business," said he. "Be so good as to finish +the design." + +Then returning the book to Leonhard, he looked at his watch. "It is +time I went to dinner," he said. "Come with me. Loretz knows you are +with me, and will expect you to be my guest to-day." So they walked +across the field, but did not descend by the path along which they had +ascended. They went farther to the east, and Spener led the way down +the rough hillside until he came to a point whence the descent was +less steep and difficult. There he paused. A beautiful view was spread +before them. Little Spenersberg lay on the slope opposite: between ran +the stream, which widened farther toward the east and narrowed toward +the west, where it emptied into the river. Eastward the valley also +widened, and there the willows grew, and looked like a great garden, +beautiful in every shade of green. + +"I should not have the river from this point," said Spener, "but I +should have a great deal more, and be nearer the people: I do not +think it would be the thing to appear even to separate myself from +them. I have done a great deal not so agreeable to me, I assure you, +in order to bring myself near to them. One must make sacrifices to +obtain his ends: it is only to count the cost and then be ready to put +down the money. Suppose you plant a house just here." + +"How could it be done?" + +"You an architect and ask me!" + +"Things can be planted anywhere," answered Leonhard, "but whether the +cost of production will not be greater than the fruit is worth, is +the question. You can have a platform built here as broad as that the +temple stood on if you are willing to pay for the foundations." + +"That is the talk!" said Spener. "Take a square look, and let me know +what you can do toward a house on the hillside. You see there is no +end of raw material for building, and it is a perfect prospect. But +come now to dinner." + +CAROLINE CHESEBRO. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +COUNTRY-HOUSE LIFE IN ENGLAND. + + +The love for country life is, if possible, stronger in England now +than at any previous period in her history. There is no other country +where this taste has prevailed to the same extent. It arose originally +from causes mainly political. In France a similar condition of things +existed down to the sixteenth century, and was mainly brought to an +end by the policy of ministers, who dreaded the increasing power of +petty princes in remote provinces becoming in combination formidable +to the central power. It was specially the object of Richelieu and +Mazarin to check this sort of baronial _imperium in imperio_, and +it became in the time of Louis XIV the keystone of that monarch's +domestic policy. This tended to encourage the "hanging on" of _grands +seigneurs_ about the court, where many of the chief of them, after +having exhausted their resources in gambling or riotous living, became +dependent for place or pension on the Crown, and were in fact the +creatures of the king and his minister. Of course this did not apply +to all. Here and there in the broad area of France were to be found +magnificent châteaux--a few of which, especially in Central France, +still survive--where the marquis or count reigned over his people an +almost absolute monarch. + +There is a passage in one of Horace Walpole's letters in which that +virtuoso expresses his regret, after a visit to the ancestral "hôtels" +of Paris, whose contents had afforded him such intense gratification, +that the nobility of England, like that of France, had not +concentrated their treasures of art, etc. in London houses. Had he +lived a few years longer he would probably have altered his views, +which were such as his sagacious and manly father, who dearly loved +his Norfolk home, Houghton, would never have held. + +In England, from the time that anything like social life, as we +understand the phrase, became known, the power of the Crown was so +well established that no necessity for resorting to a policy such as +Richelieu's for diminishing the influence of the noblesse existed. + +In fact, a course distinctly the reverse came to be adopted from +the time of Elizabeth down to even a later period than the reign of +Charles II. + +In the reign of Elizabeth an act was passed, which is to this hour +probably on the statute book, restricting building in or near the +metropolis. James I appears to have been in a chronic panic on this +subject, and never lost an opportunity of dilating upon it. In one of +his proclamations he refers to those swarms of gentry "who, through +the instigation of their wives, or to new model and fashion their +daughters who, if they were unmarried, marred their reputations, +and if married, lost them--did neglect their country hospitality and +cumber the city, a general nuisance to the kingdom." He desired the +Star Chamber "to regulate the exorbitancy of the new buildings about +the city, which were but a shelter for those who, when they had spent +their estates in coaches, lacqueys and fine clothes like Frenchmen, +lived miserably in their houses like Italians; but the honor of the +English nobility and gentry is to be hospitable among their tenants. + +"Gentlemen resident on their estates," said he, very sensibly, +"were like ships in port: their value and magnitude were felt +and acknowledged; but when at a distance, as their size seemed +insignificant, so their worth and importance were not duly estimated." + +Charles I., with characteristic arbitrariness, carried matters with +a still higher hand. His Star Chamber caused buildings to be actually +razed, and fined truants heavily. One case which is reported displays +the grim and costly humor of the illegal tribunal which dealt with +such cases. Poor Mr. Palmer of Sussex, a gay bachelor, being called +upon to show cause why he had been residing in London, pleaded in +extenuation that he had no house, his mansion having been destroyed by +fire two years before. This, however, was held rather an aggravation +of the offence, inasmuch as he had failed to rebuild it; and Mr. +Palmer paid a penalty of one thousand pounds--equivalent to at least +twenty thousand dollars now. + +A document which especially serves to show the manner of life of the +ancient noblesse is the earl of Northumberland's "Household Book" +in the early part of the sixteenth century. By this we see the great +magnificence of the old nobility, who, seated in their castles, lived +in a state of splendor scarcely inferior to that of the court. As +the king had his privy council, so the earl of Northumberland had +his council, composed of his principal officers, by whose advice and +assistance he established his code of economic laws. As the king had +his lords and grooms of the chamber, who waited in their respective +turns, so the earl was attended by the constables of his several +castles, who entered into waiting in regular succession. Among other +instances of magnificence it may be remarked that not fewer than +eleven priests were kept in the household, presided over by a doctor +or bachelor of divinity as dean of the chapel. + +An account of how the earl of Worcester lived at Ragland Castle before +the civil wars which began in 1641 also exhibits his manner of life +in great detail: "At eleven o'clock the Castle Gates were shut and the +tables laid: two in the dining-room; three in the hall; one in Mrs. +Watson's appartment, where the chaplains eat; two in the housekeeper's +room for my ladie's women. The Earl came into the Dining Room attended +by his gentlemen. As soon as he was seated, Sir Ralph Blackstone, +Steward of the House, retired. The Comptroller, Mr. Holland, attended +with his staff; as did the Sewer, Mr. Blackburn, and the daily waiters +with many gentlemen's sons, from two to seven hundred pounds a year, +bred up in the Castle; my ladie's Gentleman Usher, Mr. Harcourt; my +lord's Gentlemen of the Chamber, Mr. Morgan and Mr. Fox. + +"At the first table sat the noble family and such of the nobility as +came there. At the second table in the Dining-room sat Knights and +honorable gentlemen attended by footmen. + +"In the hall at the first table sat Sir R. Blackstone, Steward, the +Comptroller, Secretary, Master of the Horse, Master of the Fishponds, +my Lord Herbert's Preceptor, with such gentlemen as came there under +the degree of knight, attended by footmen and plentifully served with +wine. + +"At the third table in the hall sate the Clerk of the Kitchen, with +the Yeomen, officers of the House, two Grooms of the Chamber, etc. + +"Other officers of the Household were the Chief Auditor, Clerk of +Accounts, Purveyor of the Castle, Usher of the Hall, Closet Keeper, +Gentleman of the Chapel, Keeper of the Records, Master of the +Wardrobe, Master of the Armoury, Master Groom of the Stable for the 12 +War-horses, Master of the Hounds, Master Falconer, Porter and his men, +two Butchers, two Keepers of the Home Park, two Keepers of the Red +Deer Park, Footmen, Grooms and other Menial Servants to the number of +150. Some of the footmen were Brewers and Bakers. + +"_Out offices_.--Steward of Ragland, Governor of Chepstow Castle, +Housekeeper of Worcester House in London, thirteen Bailiffs, two +Counsel for the Bailiffs--who looked after the estate--to have +recourse to, and a Solicitor." + +In a delicious old volume now rarely to be met with, called _The +Olio_, published eighty years ago, Francis Grose the antiquary thus +describes certain characters typical of the country life of the +earlier half of the seventeenth century: "When I was a young man there +existed in the families of most unmarried men or widowers of the rank +of gentlemen, resident in the country, a certain antiquated female, +either maiden or widow, commonly an aunt or cousin. Her dress I have +now before me: it consisted of a stiff-starched cap and hood, a little +hoop, a rich silk damask gown with large flowers. She leant on an +ivory-headed crutch-cane, and was followed by a fat phthisicky dog +of the pug kind, who commonly reposed on a cushion, and enjoyed the +privilege of snarling at the servants, and occasionally biting their +heels, with impunity. By the side of this old lady jingled a bunch of +keys, securing in different closets and corner-cupboards all sorts +of cordial waters, cherry and raspberry brandy, washes for the +complexion, Daffy's elixir, a rich seed-cake, a number of pots of +currant jelly and raspberry jam, with a range of gallipots and phials +and purges for the use of poorer neighbors. The daily business of this +good lady was to scold the maids, collect eggs, feed the turkeys and +assist at all lyings-in that happened within the parish. Alas! this +being is no more seen, and the race is, like that of her pug dog and +the black rat, totally extinct. + +"Another character, now worn out and gone, was the country squire: +I mean the little, independent country gentleman of three hundred +pounds a year, who commonly appeared in a plain drab or plush coat, +large silver buttons, a jockey cap, and rarely without boots. His travels +never exceeded the distance to the county-town, and that only at +assize-and session-time, or to attend an election. Once a week +he commonly dined at the next market-town with the attorneys and +justices. This man went to church regularly, read the weekly journal, +settled the parochial disputes between the parish officers at the vestry, +and afterward adjourned to the neighboring ale-house, where he +usually got drunk for the good of his country. He never played at cards +but at Christmas, when a family pack was produced from the mantelpiece. +He was commonly followed by a couple of greyhounds and a pointer, +and announced his arrival at a friend's house by cracking his whip or +giving the view-halloo. His drink was generally ale, except on Christmas, +the Fifth of November or some other gala-day, when he would make +a bowl of strong brandy punch, garnished with a toast and nutmeg. +A journey to London was by one of these men reckoned as great an +undertaking as is at present a voyage to the East Indies, and +undertaken with scarcely less precaution and preparation. The mansion +of one of these squires was of plaster striped with timber, not unaptly +called calimanco-work, or of red brick; large casemented bow-windows, +a porch with seats in it, and over it a study, the eaves of the house well +inhabited by swallows, and the court set round with hollyhocks. The +hall was furnished with flitches of bacon, and the mantelpiece with guns +and fishing-rods of different dimensions, accompanied by the broadsword, +partisan and dagger borne by his ancestors in the Civil Wars. The +vacant spaces were occupied by stags' horns. Against the wall was +posted King Charles's _Golden Rules_, Vincent Wing's _Almanack_ +and a portrait of the duke of Marlborough: in his window lay Baker's +_Chronicle_, Fox's _Book of Martyrs_, Glanvil on _Apparitions_, +Quincey's _Dispensatory_, the _Complete Justice_ and a _Book of +Farriery_. In the corner, by the fireside, stood a large wooden +two-armed chair with a cushion; and within the chimney-corner were +a couple of seats. Here, at Christmas, he entertained his tenants +assembled round a glowing fire made of the roots of trees and other +great logs, and told and heard the traditionary tales of the village +respecting ghosts and witches till fear made them afraid to move. +In the mean time the jorum of ale was in continual circulation. +The best parlor, which was never opened but on particular occasions, +was furnished with Turk-worked chairs, and hung round with portraits +of his ancestors--the men, some in the character of shepherds with +their crooks, dressed in full suits and huge full-bottomed perukes, +and others in complete armor or buff-coats; the females, likewise +as shepherdesses with the lamb and crook, all habited in high heads +and flowing robes. Alas! these men and these houses are no more! +The luxury of the times has obliged them to quit the country and +become humble dependants on great men, to solicit a place or +commission, to live in London, to rack their tenants and draw their +rents before due. The venerable mansion is in the mean time +suffered to tumble down or is partly upheld as a farm-house, +till after a few years the estate is conveyed to the steward of the + neighboring lord, or else to some nabob, contractor or limb of the law." + +It is unquestionably owing to the love of country life amongst the +higher classes that England so early attained in many respects what +may be termed an even civilization. In almost all other countries the +traveler beyond the confines of a few great cities finds himself in a +region of comparative semi-barbarism. But no one familiar with English +country life can say that this is the case in the rural districts +of England, whilst it is most unquestionably so in Ireland, simply +because she has through absenteeism been deprived of those influences +which have done so much for her wealthy sister. Go where you will +in England to-day, and you will find within five miles of you a good +turnpike road, leading to an inn hard by, where you may get a clean +and comfortable though simple dinner, good bread, good butter, and +a carriage--"fly" is the term now, as in the days of Mr. Jonathan +Oldbuck--to convey you where you will. And this was the case long +before railways came into vogue. + +The influence of the great house has very wide ramifications, and +extends far beyond the radius of park, village and estate. It greatly +affects the prosperity of the country and county towns. Go into Exeter +or Shrewsbury on a market-day in the autumn months, and you will find +the streets crowded with carriages. If a local herald be with you, he +will tell you all about their owners by glancing at the liveries and +panels. They belong, half of them, to the old county gentry, who have +shopped here--always at the same shops, according as their proprietors +are Whigs or Tories--for generations. It may well be imagined what +a difference the custom of twenty gentlemen spending on an average +twenty-five thousand dollars a year makes to a grocer or draper. +Besides, this class of customer demands a first-rate article, and +consequently it is worth while to keep it in stock. The fishmonger +knows that twenty great houses within ten miles require their handsome +dish of fish for dinner as regularly as their bread and butter. It +becomes worth his while therefore to secure a steady supply. In this +way smaller people profit, and country life becomes pleasant to them +too, inasmuch as the demands of the rich contribute to the comfort of +those in moderate circumstances. + +Let us pass to the daily routine of an affluent country home. The +breakfast hour is from nine to eleven, except where hunting-men or +enthusiasts in shooting are concerned. The former are often in the +saddle before six, and young partridge-slayers may, during the first +fortnight of September--after that their ardor abates a bit--be found +in the stubbles at any hour after sunrise. + +A country-house breakfast in the house of a gentlemen with from three +thousand a year upward, when several guests are in the house, is a +very attractive meal. Of course its degree of excellence varies, but +we will take an average case in the house of a squire living on his +paternal acres with five thousand pounds a year and knowing how to +live. + +It is 10 A.M. in October: family prayers, usual in nine country-houses +out of ten, which a guest can attend or not as he pleases, are over. +The company is gradually gathering in the breakfast-room. It is an +ample apartment, paneled with oak and hung with family pictures. If +you have any appreciation for fine plate--and you are to be pitied if +you have not--you will mark the charming shape and exquisite +chasing of the antique urn and other silver vessels, which shine as +brilliantly as on the day they left the silversmiths to Her Majesty, +Queen Anne. No "Brummagem" patterns will you find here. + +On the table at equidistant points stand two tiny tables or +dumb-waiters, which are made to revolve. On these are placed sugar, +cream, butter, preserves, salt, pepper, mustard, etc., so that every +one can help himself without troubling others--a great desideratum, +for many people are of the same mind on this point as a well-known +English family, of whom it was once observed that they were very nice +people, but didn't like being bored to pass the mustard. + +On the sideboard are three beautiful silver dishes with spirit-lamps +beneath them. Let us look under their covers. Broiled chicken, fresh +mushrooms on toast, and stewed kidney. On a larger dish is fish, and +ranged behind these hot viands are cold ham, tongue, pheasant and +game-pie. On huge platters of wood, with knives to correspond, are +farm-house brown bread and white bread, whilst on the breakfast-table +itself you will find hot rolls, toast--of which two or three fresh +relays are brought in during breakfast--buttered toast, muffins and +the freshest of eggs. The hot dishes at breakfast are varied almost +every morning, and where there is a good cook a variety of some twenty +dishes is made. + +Marmalade (Marie Malade) of oranges--said to have been originally +prepared for Mary queen of Scots when ill, and introduced by her into +Scotland--and "jams" of apricot and other fruit always form a part +of an English or Scotch breakfast. The living is just as good--often +better--among the five-thousand-pounds-a-year gentry as among the +very wealthy: the only difference lies in the number of servants and +guests. + +The luncheon-hour is from one to two. At luncheon there will be a +roast leg of mutton or some such _pièce de résistance_, and a +made dish, such as minced veal--a dish, by the way, not the least +understood in this country, where it is horribly mangled--two hot +dishes of meat and several cold, and various sorts of pastry. These, +with bread, butter, fruit, cheese, sherry, port, claret and beer, +complete the meal. + +Few of the men of the party are present at this meal, and those who +are eat but little, reserving their forces until dinner. All is placed +on the table at once, and not, as at dinner, in courses. The servants +leave the room when they have placed everything on the table, and +people wait on themselves. Dumb-waiters with clean plates, glasses, +etc. stand at each corner of the table, so that there is very little +need to get up for what you want. + +The afternoon is usually passed by the ladies alone or with only +one or two gentlemen who don't care to shoot, etc., and is spent in +riding, driving and walking. Englishwomen are great walkers. With +their skirts conveniently looped up, and boots well adapted to defy +the mud, they brave all sorts of weather. "Oh it rains! what a bore! +We can't go out," said a young lady, standing at the breakfast-room +window at a house in Ireland; to which her host rejoined, "If you +don't go out here when it rains, you don't go out at all;" which is +pretty much the truth. + +About five o'clock, as you sit over your book in the library, you +hear a rapid firing off of guns, which apprises you that the men have +returned from shooting. They linger a while in the gun-room talking +over their sport and seeing the record of the killed entered in the +game-book. Then some, doffing the shooting-gear for a free-and-easy +but scrupulously neat attire, repair to the ladies' sitting-room or +the library for "kettledrum." + +On a low table is placed the tea equipage, and tea in beautiful little +cups is being dispensed by fair hands. This is a very pleasant time +in many houses, and particularly favorable to fun and flirtation. In +houses where there are children, the cousins of the house and others +very intimate adjourn to the school-room, where, when the party is +further reinforced by three or four boys home for the holidays, a +scene of fun and frolic, which it requires all the energies of the +staid governess to prevent going too far, ensues. + +So time speeds on until the dressing-bell rings at seven o'clock, +summoning all to prepare for the great event of the day--dinner. Every +one dons evening-attire for this meal; and so strong a feeling obtains +on this point that if, in case of his luggage going wrong or other +accident, a man is compelled to join the party in morning-clothes, he +feels painfully "fish-out-of-waterish." We know, indeed, of a case in +which a guest absurdly sensitive would not come down to dinner until +the arrival of his things, which did not make their appearance for a +week. + +Ladies' dress in country-houses depends altogether upon the occasion. +If it be a quiet party of intimate friends, their attire is of the +simplest, but in many fashionable houses the amount of dressing is +fully as great as in London. English ladies do not dress nearly as +expensively or with so much taste as Americans, but, on the other +hand, they have the subject much less in their thoughts; which is +perhaps even more desirable. + +There is a degree of pomp and ceremony, which, however, is far from +being unpleasant, at dinner in a large country-house. The party is +frequently joined by the rector and his wife, a neighboring squire +or two, and a stray parson, so that it frequently reaches twenty. Of +course in this case the pleasantness of the prandial period depends +largely upon whom you have the luck to get next to; but there's this +advantage in the situation over a similar one in London--that you +have, at all events, a something of local topics in common, having +picked up a little knowledge of places and people during your stay, or +if you are quite a new-comer, you can easily set your neighbor a-going +by questions about surroundings. Generally there is some acquaintance +between most of the people staying in a house, as hosts make up their +parties with the view of accommodating persons wishing to meet others +whom they like. Young men will thus frequently get a good-natured +hostess to ask some young lady whose society they especially affect, +and thus country-houses become proverbially adapted for match-making. + +There are few houses now-a-days in which the gentlemen linger in +the dining-room long after the ladies have left it. Habits of hard +drinking are now almost entirely confined to young men in the army +and the lower classes. The evenings are spent chiefly in conversation: +sometimes a rubber of whist is made up, or, if there are a number of +young people, there is dancing. + +A rather surprising step which occasioned something of a scandalous +sensation in the social world was resorted to some years ago at a +country-house in Devonshire. Two or three fast young ladies, finding +the evening somewhat heavy, and lamenting a dearth of dancing men, +rang the bell, and in five minutes the lady of the house, who was +in another room, was aghast at seeing them whirling round in +their Jeames's arms. It was understood that the ringleader in this +enterprise, the daughter of an Irish earl, was not likely to be asked +to repeat her visit. + +About eleven wine and water and biscuits are brought into the +drawing-room, and a few minutes later the ladies retire. The wine and +water, with the addition of other stimulants, are then transferred +to the billiard- and smoking-rooms, to which the gentlemen adjourn +so soon as they have changed their black coats for dressing-gowns or +lounging suits, in which great latitude is given to the caprice of +individual fancy. + +The sittings in these apartments are protracted until any hour, as the +servants usually go to bed when they have provided every one with +his flat candle-stick--that emblem of gentility which always so +prominently recurred to the mind of Mrs. Micawber when recalling the +happy days when she "lived at home with papa and mamma." In some fast +houses pretty high play takes place at such times. + +It not unfrequently happens that the master of the house takes but +a very limited share in the recreations of his guests, being much +engrossed by the various avocations which fall to the lot of a +country proprietor. After breakfast in the morning he will make it his +business to see that each gentleman is provided with such recreation +as he likes for the day. This man will shoot, that one will fish; +Brown will like to have a horse and go over to see some London friends +who are staying ten miles off; Jones has heaps of letters which +must be written in the morning, but will ride with the ladies in the +afternoon; and when all these arrangements are completed the squire +will drive off with his old confidential groom in the dog-cart, with +that fast-trotting bay, to attend the county meeting in the nearest +cathedral town or dispense justice from the bench at Pottleton; +and when eight o'clock brings all together at dinner an agreeable +diversity is given to conversation by each man's varied experiences +during the day. + +Of course some houses are desperately dull, whilst others are always +agreeable. Haddo House, during the lifetime of Lord Aberdeen, the +prime minister, had an exceptional reputation for the former quality. +It was said to be the most silent house in England; and silence in +this instance was regarded as quite the reverse of golden. The family +scarcely ever spoke, and the guest, finding that his efforts brought +no response, became alarmed at the echoes of his own voice. Lord +Aberdeen and his son, Lord Haddo--an amiable but weak and eccentric +man, father of the young earl who dropped his title and was drowned +whilst working as mate of a merchantman--did not get on well together, +and saw very little of each other for some years. At length a +reconciliation was effected, and the son was invited to Haddo. Anxious +to be pleasant and conciliatory, he faltered out admiringly, "The +place looks nice, the trees are very green." "Did you expect to see +'em blue, then?" was the encouraging paternal rejoinder. + +The degree of luxury in many of these great houses is less remarkable +than its completeness. Everything is in keeping, thus presenting a +remarkable contrast to most of our rich men's attempts at the same. +The dinner, cooked by a _cordon bleu_ of the cuisine [A]--whose +resources in the way of "hot plates" and other accessories for +furnishing a superlative dinner are unrivaled--is often served on +glittering plate, or china almost equally valuable, by men six +feet high, of splendid figure, and dressed with the most scrupulous +neatness and cleanliness. Gloves are never worn by servants in +first-rate English houses, but they carry a tiny napkin in their hands +which they place between their fingers and the plates. Nearly all +country gentlemen are hospitable, and it very rarely happens that +guests are not staying in the house. A county ball or some other such +gathering fills it from garret to cellar. + +[Footnote A: Frenchmen say that the best English dinners are now the +best in the world, because they combine the finest French _entrées_ +and _entremets_ with _pièces de résistance_ of unrivaled excellence.] + +The best guest-rooms are always reserved for the married: bachelors +are stowed away comparatively "anywhere." In winter fires are always +lit in the bedrooms about five o'clock, so that they may be warm at +dressing-time; and shortly before the dressing-bell rings the servant +deputed to attend upon a guest who does not bring a valet with him +goes to his room, lays out his evening-toilette, puts shirt, socks, +etc. to air before the fire, places a capacious pitcher of boiling +water on the washing-stand, and having lit the candles, drawn the +easy-chair to the fire, just ready on provocation to burst into a +blaze, lights the wax candles on the dressing-table and withdraws. + +In winter the guest is asked whether he likes a fire to get up by, +and in that event a housemaid enters early with as little noise as +possible and lights it. On rising in the morning you find all your +clothes carefully brushed and put in order, and every appliance for +ample ablutions at hand. + +A guest gives the servant who attends him a tip of from a dollar and +a quarter to five dollars, according to the length of his stay. If he +shoots, a couple of sovereigns for a week's sport is a usual fee to a +keeper. Some people give absurdly large sums, but the habit of giving +them has long been on the decline. The keeper supplies powder and +shot, and sends in an account for them. Immense expense is involved +in these shooting establishments. The late Sir Richard Sutton, a +great celebrity in the sporting world, who had the finest shooting in +England, and therefore probably in the world, used to say that every +pheasant he killed cost him a guinea. On some estates the sale of the +game is in some degree a set-off to the cost of maintaining it, just +as the sale of the fruit decreases the cost of pineries, etc. Nothing +but the fact that the possession of land becomes more and more vested +in those who regard it as luxury could have enabled this sacrifice of +farming to sport to continue so long. It is the source of continual +complaint and resentment on the part of the farmers, who are only +pacified by allowance being made to them out of their rent for damage +done by game. + +The expense of keeping up large places becomes heavier every year, +owing to the constantly-increasing rates of wages, etc., and in +some cases imposes a grievous burden, eating heavily into income +and leaving men with thousands of acres very poor balances at their +bankers to meet the Christmas bills. Those who have large families +to provide for, and get seriously behindhand, usually shut up or let +their places--which latter is easily done if they be near London or +in a good shooting country--and recoup on the Continent; but of +late years prices there have risen so enormously that this plan of +restoring the equilibrium between income and expenditure is far less +satisfactory than it was forty years ago. The encumbrances on many +estates are very heavy. A nobleman who twenty years ago succeeded to +an entailed estate, with a house almost gutted, through having had +an execution put in it, and a heavy debt--some of which, though not +legally bound to liquidate, he thought it his duty to settle--acted +in a very spirited manner which few of his order have the courage to +imitate. He dropped his title, went abroad and lived for some years +on about three thousand dollars a year. He has now paid off all +his encumbrances, and has a clear income, steadily increasing, of +a hundred thousand dollars a year. In another case a gentleman +accomplished a similar feat by living in a corner of his vast mansion +and maintaining only a couple of servants. + +In Ireland, owing to the lower rates of wages and far greater--in the +remoter parts--cheapness of provisions, large places can be maintained +at considerably less cost, but they are usually far less well kept, +partly owing to their being on an absurdly large scale as compared +with the means of the proprietors, and partly from the slovenly habits +of the country. And in some cases people who could afford it will not +spend the money. There are, however, notable exceptions. Powerscourt +in Wicklow, the seat of Viscount Powerscourt, and Woodstock in +Kilkenny, the beautiful demesne of Mr. Tighe, are probably in as +perfect order as any seats in England. A countryman was sent over to +the latter one day with a message from another county. "Well, Jerry," +said the master on his return, "what did you think of Woodstock?" +"Shure, your honor," was the reply, "I niver seed such a power of +girls a-swaping up the leaves." + +Country-house life in Ireland and Scotland is almost identical with +that in England, except that, in the former especially, there is +generally less money. Scotland has of late years become so much the +fashion, land has risen so enormously in value, and properties are +so very large, that some of the establishments, such as those at +Drumlanrig, Dunrobin, Gordon Castle and Floors, the seats respectively +of the dukes of Buccleuch, Sutherland, Richmond and Roxburghe, are on +a princely scale. The number of wealthy squires is far fewer than +in England. It is a curious feature in the Scottish character that +notwithstanding the radical politics of the country--for scarcely +a Conservative is returned by it--the people cling fondly to +primogeniture and their great lords, who, probably to a far greater +extent than in England, hold the soil. The duke of Sutherland +possesses nearly the whole of the county from which he derives his +title, whilst the duke of Buccleuch owns the greater part of four. + +Horses are such a very expensive item that a large stable is seldom +found unless there is a very large income, for otherwise the rest +of the establishment must be cut down to a low figure. Hunting +millionaires keep from ten to twenty, or even thirty, hacks and +hunters, besides four or five carriage-horses. Three or four +riding-horses, three carriage-horses and a pony or two is about the +usual number in the stable of a country gentleman with from five to +six thousand pounds a year. The stable-staff would be coachman, groom +and two helpers. The number of servants in country-houses varies from +seven or eight to eighty, but probably there are not ten houses in the +country where it reaches so high a figure as the last: from fifteen to +twenty would be a common number. + +There are many popular bachelors and old maids who live about half the +year in the country-houses of their friends. A gentleman of this sort +will have his chambers in London and his valet, whilst the lady will +have her lodgings and maid. In London they will live cheaply and +comfortably, he at his club and dining out with rich friends, she in +her snug little room and passing half her time in friends' houses. +There is not the slightest surrender of independence about these +people. They would not stay a day in a house which they did not like, +but their pleasant manners and company make them acceptable, and +friends are charmed to have them. + +One of the special recommendations of a great country-house is that +you need not see too much of any one. There is no necessary meeting +except at meals--in many houses then even only at dinner--and in the +evening. Many sit a great deal in their own rooms if they have writing +or work to do; some will be in the billiard-room, others in the +library, others in the drawing-room: the host's great friend will be +with him in his own private room, whilst the hostess's will pass most +of the time in that lady's boudoir.[A] + +[Footnote A: Perhaps the most charming idea of a country-house was +that conceived by Mr. Mathew of Thomastown--a huge mansion still +extant, now the property of the count de Jarnac, to whom it descended. +This gentleman, who was an ancestor of the celebrated Temperance +leader, probably had as much claret drunk in his house as any one in +his country; which is saying a good deal. + +He had an income which would be equivalent to one hundred and +twenty-five thousand dollars a year in our money, and for several +years traveled abroad and spent very little. On his return with an +ample sum of ready money, he carried into execution a long-cherished +scheme of country life. + +He arranged his immense mansion after the fashion of an inn. The +guests arrived, were shown to their rooms, and treated as though they +were in the most perfectly-appointed hotel. They ordered dinner when +they pleased, dined together or alone as suited them, hunted, shot, +played billiards, cards, etc. at will, and kept their own horses. +There was a regular bar, where drinks of the finest quality were +always served. The host never appeared in that character: he was just +like any other gentleman in the house. + +The only difference from a hotel lay in the choice character of the +company, and the fact that not a farthing might be disbursed. The +servants were all paid extra, with the strict understanding that they +did not accept a farthing, and that any dereliction from this rule +would be punished by instant dismissal. + +Unlike most Irish establishments, especially at that date (about the +middle of the last century), this was managed with the greatest order, +method and economy. + +Among the notable guests was Dean Swift, whose astonishment at the +magnitude of the place, with the lights in hundreds of windows at +night, is mentioned by Dr. Sheridan. + +It is pleasant to add in this connection that the count and countess +de Jarnac worthily sustain the high character earned a century +since by their remarkable ancestor, who was one of the best and most +benevolent men of his day.] + +In some respects railroads have had a very injurious effect on the +sociability of English country life. They have rendered people in +great houses too apt to draw their supplies of society exclusively +from town. English trains run so fast that this can even be done in +places quite remote from London. The journey from London to Rugby, +for instance, eighty miles, is almost invariably accomplished in two +hours. Leaving at five in the afternoon, a man reaches that station at +7.10: his friend's well-appointed dog-cart is there to meet him, and +that exquisitely neat young groom, with his immaculate buckskins and +boots in which you may see yourself, will make the thoroughbred do the +four miles to the hall in time to enable you to dress for dinner +by 7.45. Returning on Tuesday morning--and all the lines are most +accommodating about return tickets--the barrister, guardsman, +government clerk can easily be at his post in town by eleven o'clock. +Thus the actual "country people" get to be held rather cheap, and come +off badly, because Londoners, being more in the way of hearing, +seeing and observing what is going on in society, are naturally more +congenial to fine people in country-houses who live in the metropolis +half the year. + +It is evident from the following amusing squib, which appeared in one +of the Annuals for 1832, how far more dependent the country gentleman +was upon his country neighbors in those days, when only idle men could +run down from town: + +"Mr. J., having frequently witnessed with regret country gentlemen, +in their country-houses, reduced to the dullness of a domestic circle, +and nearly led to commit suicide in the month of November, or, what is +more melancholy, to invite the ancient and neighboring families of +the Tags, the Rags and the Bobtails, has opened an office in Spring +Gardens for the purpose of furnishing country gentlemen in their +country-houses with company and guests on the most moderate terms. It +will appear from the catalogue that Mr. J. has a choice and elegant +assortment of six hundred and seventeen guests, ready to start at a +moment's warning to any country gentleman at any house. Among them +will be found three Scotch peers, several ditto Irish, fifteen decayed +baronets, eight yellow admirals, forty-seven major-generals on half +pay (who narrate the whole Peninsular War), twenty-seven dowagers, +one hundred and eighty-seven old maids on small annuities, and several +unbeneficed clergymen, who play a little on the fiddle. All the above +play at cards, and usually with success if partners. No objection to +cards on Sunday evenings or rainy mornings. The country gentleman to +allow the guests four feeds a day, and to produce claret if a Scotch +or Irish peer be present." + +A country village very often has no inhabitants except the parson +holding the rank of gentry. The majority of ladies in moderate or +narrow circumstances live in county-towns, such as Exeter, Salisbury, +etc., or in watering-places, which abound and are of all degrees of +fashion and expense. County-town and watering-place society is a thing +_per se_, and has very little to do with "county" society, which +means that of the landed gentry living in their country-houses. +Thus, noblemen and gentlemen within a radius of five miles of such +watering-places as Bath, Tonbridge Wells and Weymouth would not have a +dozen visiting acquaintances resident in those towns. + +To get into "county" society is by no means easy to persons without +advantages of position or connection, even with ample means, and to +the wealthy manufacturer or merchant is often a business of years. The +upper class of Englishmen, and more especially women, are accustomed +to find throughout their acquaintance an almost identical style and +set of manners. Anything which differs from this they are apt to +regard as "ungentlemanlike or unladylike," and shun accordingly. The +dislike to traders and manufacturers, which is very strong in those +counties, such as Cheshire and Warwickshire, which environ great +commercial centres, arises not from the folly of thinking commerce a +low occupation, but because the county gentry have different tastes, +habits and modes of thought from men who have worked their way up from +the counting-room, and do not, as the phrase goes, "get on" with +them, any more than a Wall street broker ordinarily gets on with a +well-read, accomplished member of the Bar. + +A result of this is that a large number of wealthy commercial men, in +despair of ever entering the charmed circle of county society, take up +their abode in or near the fashionable watering-places, where, +after the manner of those at our own Newport, they build palaces in +paddocks, have acres of glass, rear the most marvelous of pines and +peaches, and have model farms which cost them thousands of pounds +a year. To this class is owing in a great degree the extraordinary +increase of Leamington, Torquay, Tonbridge Wells, etc.--places which +have made the fortunes of the lucky people who chanced to own them. + +English ladies, as a rule, take a great deal of interest in the poor +around them, and really know a great deal of them. The village near +the hall is almost always well attended to, but it unfortunately +happens that outlying properties sometimes come off far less well. The +classes which see nothing of each other in English rural life are the +wives and daughters of the gentry and those of the wealthier farmers +and tradesmen: between these sections a huge gulf intervenes, which +has not as yet been in the least degree bridged over. In former days +very great people used to have once or twice in the year what were +called "public days," when it was open house for all who chose to +come, with a sort of tacit understanding that none below the class +of substantial yeomen or tradesmen would make their appearance. This +custom has now fallen into disuse, but was maintained to the last by +the Hon. Doctor Vernon-Harcourt, who was for more than half a century +archbishop of York, and is yet retained by Earl Fitzwilliam at +Wentworth House, his princely seat in Yorkshire. There, once or twice +a year, a great gathering takes place. Dinner is provided for hundreds +of guests, and care is taken to place a member of the family at every +table to do his or her part toward dispensing hospitality to high and +low. + +During the summer and early autumn croquet and archery offer good +excuses for bringing young people together, and reunions of this kind +palliate the miseries of those who cannot afford to partake of the +expensive gayeties of the London season. The archery meetings are +often exceedingly pretty fêtes. Somtimes they are held in grounds +specially devoted to the purpose, as is the case at St. Leonard's, +near Hastings, where the archery-ground will well repay a visit. The +shooting takes place in a deep and vast excavation covered with the +smoothest turf, and from the high ground above is a glorious view of +the old castle of Hastings and the ocean. In Devonshire these meetings +have an exceptional interest from the fact that they are held in the +park of Powderham Castle, the ancestral seat of the celebrated family +of Courtenay. All the county flocks to them, some persons coming fifty +miles for this purpose. Apropos of one of these meetings, we shall +venture to interpolate an anecdote which deserves to be recorded for +the sublimity of impudence which it displays. The railway from London +to Plymouth skirts the park of Powderham, running so close beside +it that each train sends a herd of deer scampering down the velvety +glades. One afternoon a bouncing young lady, who belonged to a family +which had lately emerged from the class of yeoman into that of gentry, +and whose "manners had not the repose which stamps the caste of Vere +de Vere," found herself in a carriage with two fashionably-attired +persons of her own sex. As the train ran by the park, one of these +latter exclaimed to her companion, "Oh look, there's Powderham! Don't +you remember that archery-party we went to there two years ago?" "To +be sure," was the rejoinder. "I'm not likely to forget it, there were +some such queer people. Who were those vulgarians whom we thought so +particularly objectionable? I can't remember." "Oh, H----: H---- +of P----! That was the name." Upon this the other young lady in the +carriage bounced to her feet with the words, "Allow me to tell you, +madam, that I am Miss H---- of P----!" Neither of those she addressed +deigned to utter a word in reply to this announcement, nor did it +appear in the least to disconcert them. One slowly drew out a gold +double eye-glass, leisurely surveyed Miss H---- of P---- from head to +foot, and then proceeded to talk to her companion in French. Perhaps +the best part of the joke was that Miss H---- made a round of visits +in the course of the week, and detailed the disgusting treatment to +which she had been subjected to a numerous acquaintance, who, it +is needless to say, appeared during the narration as indignant and +sympathetic as she could have wished, but who are declared by some +ill-natured persons to have been precisely those who in secret +chuckled over the insult with the greatest glee. + +English gentlemen experience an almost painful sensation as they +journey through our land and observe the utter indifference of its +wealthier classes to the charms of such a magnificent country. "Pearls +before swine," they say in their hearts. "God made the country and man +made the town." "Yes, and how obviously the American prefers the work +of man to the work of the Almighty!" These and similar reflections +no doubt fill the minds of many a thoughtful English traveler as the +train speeds over hill and dale, field and forest. What sites are +here! he thinks. What a perfect park might be made out of that wild +ground! what cover-shooting there ought to be in that woodland! what +fishing and boating on that lake! And then he groans in spirit as the +cars enter a forest where tree leans against tree, and neglect reigns +on all sides, and he thinks of the glorious oaks and beeches so +carefully cared for in his own country, where trees and flowery are +loved and petted as much as dogs and horses. And if anything can +increase the contempt he feels for those who "don't care a rap" for +country and country life, it is a visit to such resorts as Newport and +Saratoga. There he finds men whose only notion of country life is what +he would hold to be utterly destitute of all its ingredients. They +build palaces in paddocks, take actually no exercise, play at cards +for three hours in the forenoon, dine, and then drive out "just like +ladies," we heard a young Oxonian exclaim--"got up" in the style that +an Englishman adopts only in Hyde Park or Piccadilly. + +When an American went to stay with Lord Palmerston at Broadlands, the +great minister ordered horses for a ride in the delicious glades of +the New Forest. When they came to the door his guest was obliged to +confess himself no horseman. The premier, with ready courtesy, said, +"Oh, then, we'll walk: it's all the same to me;" but it wasn't quite +the same. The incident was just one of those which separate the +Englishman of a certain rank from the American. + +There is of course a certain class of Americans, more especially among +the _jeunesse dorée_ of New York, who greatly affect sport: they +"run" horses and shoot pigeons, but these are not persons who commend +themselves to real gentlemen, English or American. They belong to +the bad style of "fast men," and are as thoroughly distasteful to +a Devonshire or Cheshire squire as to one who merits "the grand old +name"--which they conspicuously defame--in their own country. + +The English country-loving gentleman to whom we have been referring +is, for the most part, of a widely different mould--a man of +first-rate education, frequently of high attainments, and often one +whose ends and aims in life are for far higher things than pleasure, +even of the most innocent kind, but who, when he takes it, derives it +chiefly from the country. Many of this kind will instantly occur to +those acquainted with English worthies: to mention two--John Evelyn +and Sir Fowell Buxton. + +REGINALD WYNFORD. + + + + +THE FOREST OF ARDEN. + + +A girl of seventeen--a girl with a "missish" name, with a "missish" +face as well, soft skin, bright eyes, dark hair, medium height and a +certain amount of coquetry in her attire. This completes the "visible" +of Nellie Archer. And the invisible? With an exterior such as this, +what thoughts or ideas are possible within? Surely none worth the +trouble of searching after. It is a case of the rind being the better +part of the fruit, the shell excelling the kernel; and with a slight +effort we can imagine her acquirements. Some scraps of geography, +mixed up with the topography of an embroidery pattern; some grammar, +of much use in parsing the imperfect phrases of celebrated authors, +to the neglect of her own; some romanticism, finding expression in the +arrangement of a spray of artificial flowers on a spring bonnet; some +idea of duty, resulting in the manufacture of sweet cake or "seeing +after" the dessert for dinner; and a conception of "woman's mission" +gained from Tennyson-- + + Oh teach the orphan-boy to read, + Or teach the orphan-girl to sew. + +No! no! no! not so fast, please. In spite of Nellie's name, of her +face, of her attire, that little head is filled quite otherwise. It is +not her fault that this is so: is it her misfortune? But to give the +history of this being entire, it is necessary to begin seventeen years +back, at the very beginning of her life, for in our human nature, as +in the inanimate world, a phenomenon is better understood when we know +its producing causes. + +Nellie's father was a business-man of a type common in America--one +whose affairs led him here, there and everywhere. Never quiet while +awake, and scarcely at rest during slumber, he resembled Bedreddin +Hassan in frequently going to sleep in one town, to awake in another +far distant, but without the benighted Oriental's surprise at the +transfer, the afrit who performed this prodigy being a steam-engine, +and the magician it obeyed the human mind. + +In these rapid peregrinations it would not have been easy for Mr. +Archer to carry an infant with him; so, when his wife died and left +Nellie to his sole care at six months old, he speedily cast about in +his mind to rid himself of the encumbrance. + +Having heard that country air is good for children, he sent the little +one to the interior, and quite admired himself for giving her such an +advantage: then, too, the house in the city could be sold. + +But to whom did he entrust his child? For a while this had been the +great difficulty. In vain he thought over the years he had lived, to +find a friend: he had been too busy to make friends. For an honest +person he had traversed the world too hurriedly to perceive the +deeper, better part of mankind; he had floated on the surface with the +scum and froth, and could recall no one whom he could trust. At last, +away back in the years of his childhood, he saw a face--that of a +young but motherly Irishwoman, who had lived in his father's family as +a faithful servant, and had been a fond partisan of his in his fickle +troubles when a boy. + +He sought and found her in his need. She had married, borne children +and grown old: her offspring, after much struggling and little help +from the parent birds, had learned to fly alone, and had left the +home-nest to try their own fortunes. It was not hard for Mr. Archer +to persuade Nurse Bridget and her husband to inhabit his house in the +country and take charge of the baby. In a short time the arrangements +were complete, and the three were installed in comfort, for the busy +man did not grudge money. + +If in the long years that followed a thought of the neglected little +one did at times reproach him, he dismissed it with the resolution of +doing something for her when she should be grown up; but at what date +this event was to take place, or what it was that he intended to do, +he did not definitely settle. + +The mansion in the country was an old rambling house, in which +there were enough deserted rooms to furnish half a dozen ghosts with +desirable lodgings, without inconvenience to the living dwellers. The +front approach was through an avenue of hemlocks, dark and untrimmed. +Under the closed windows lay a tangled garden, where flowers grew +rank, shadowed by high ash and leafy oak, outposts of the forest +behind--a forest jealous of cultivation, stealthily drawing nearer +each year, and threatening to reconquer its own. + +There was an unused well in a corner that looked like the habitation +of a fairy--of a good fairy, I am sure, because the grass grew +greenest and best about the worn curb, and the tender mosses and +little plants that could not support the heat in summer found a refuge +within its cool circle and flourished there. + +On the other side of the house, and dividing it from level fields, +were the kitchen-garden and orchard. In springtime you might have +imagined the latter to be a grove of singing trees, bearing song +for fruit: in autumn, had you seen it when the sun was low, glinting +through leaves and gilding apples and stem, you would have been +reminded of the garden of the Hesperides. + +Below the fields lay a broad river--in summer, languid and clear; +in winter, turbid and full. The child often wondered (as soon as +she could wonder) if, when it was lying so tranquil under the summer +clouds, it was thinking of the frolic it would have with the great +blocks of ice in the winter; whether it loved best the rush and +struggle of the floods or the quiet of low water; and, above all, +whither it was going. + +The homely faces and bent, ungainly forms of the old nurse and her +husband harmonized well with the mellow gloom about them; and the +infant Nellie completed the scene, like the spot of sunlight in the +foreground of a picture by Rembrandt. + +Now, Nellie inherited her father's active disposition, and, left to +her own amusement, her occupations were many and various. At three +years of age she was turned loose in the orchard, with three blind +puppies in lieu of toys. Day by day she augmented her store, until she +had two kittens, one little white pig with a curly tail, half a dozen +soft piepies, one kid, and many inanimate articles, such as broken +bottles, dishes, looking-glass and gay bits of calico. When the little +thing became sleepy she would toddle through the long grass to a +corner, whence the river could be heard fretting against its banks, +and lie there: she said the water sang to her. Finding that this was +her favorite spot, the old nurse placed there a bright quilt for her +to rest on, and in case she should awake hungry there stood a tin +of milk hard by. This was all the attention she received, unless the +fairy of the well took her under her protection, but for that I cannot +vouch. Sometimes the puppies drank her milk before she awoke; then she +went contentedly and ate green apples or ripe cherries. Thus she lived +and grew. + +By the time Nellie was seven she had seen whole generations of pets +pass away. It was wonderful what knowledge she gained in this golden +orchard. She knew that piepies became chickens--that they were killed +and eaten; so death came into her world. She knew that the kid grew +into a big goat, and became very wicked, for he ran at her one day, +throwing her to the ground and hurting her severely; so sin came into +her world. She saw innate depravity exemplified in the conduct of her +innocent white pig, that would take to puddles and filth in spite of +her gentle endeavors to restrain its wayward impulses. Her puppies +too bit each other, would quarrel over a bone, growl and get generally +unmanageable. None of her animals fulfilled the promise of their +youth, and her care was returned with base ingratitude. Even +the little wrens bickered with the blue-birds, and showed their +selfishness and jealousy in chasing them from the crumbs she +impartially spread for all in common. + +So at seven she was a wise little woman, and said to her nurse one +day, "I do not care for pets any more: they all grow up nasty." + +Was Solomon's "All is vanity" truer? + +With so much experience Nellie felt old, for life is not counted by +years alone: it is the loss of hope, the mistrust of appearance, the +vanishing of illusion, that brings age. A hopeful heart is young at +seventy, and youth is past when hope is dead. But, in spite of all, +hope was not dead in the heart of the little maid, and though deceived +she was quite ready to be deceived a second time, as was Solomon, and +as we are all. + +It was now that the girl began to be fond of flowers. She made +herself a bed for them in a sunny corner of the kitchen-garden, and +transplanted daisy roots and spring-beauties, with other wood- and +field-plants as they blossomed. She watched the ferns unroll their +worm-like fronds, made plays with the nodding violets, and ornamented +her head with dandelion curls. This was indeed a happy summer. +Her rambles were unlimited, and each day she was rewarded by new +discoveries and delightful secrets--how the May-apple is good to eat, +that sassafras root makes tea, that birch bark is very like candy, +though not so sweet, and slippery elm a feast. + +Her new playmates were as lovely and perfect as she could desire. +_They_ did not "grow up nasty," but in the autumn, alas! they died. + +One day at the end of the Indian summer, after having wandered for +hours searching for her favorites, she found them all withered. The +trees also looked forlorn, shivering in the chill air, with scarce a +leaf to cover them: the wind moaned, and the sky was gray instead +of the bright summer blue. The little one, tired and disappointed, +touched by this mighty lesson of decay, threw herself on a friendly +bank and wept. + +It is true the beautiful face of Nature had grown sad each winter, and +her flowers and lovely things had yearly passed away, but Nellie had +not then loved them. + +Here she was found by a boy rosy-cheeked and bright, who all his life +had been loved and caressed to the same extent that Nellie had been +neglected. He lived beyond the forest, and had come this afternoon +to look for walnuts. Seeing the girl unhappy, he essayed some of the +blandishing arts his mother had often lavished on him, speaking to her +in a kindly tone and asking her why she cried. + +The child looked up at the sound of this new voice, and her +astonishment stopped her tears. After gazing at him for some time with +her eyes wide open, she remarked, wonderingly, "You are little, like +me." + +"I am not very small," replied the boy, straightening himself. + +"Oh, but you _are_ young and little," she insisted. + +"I am young, but not little. Come stand up beside me. See! you don't +more than reach my shoulder." + +"Shall you ever get bigger?" + +"Of course I shall." + +"Shall you grow up nasty?" she continued, trying to bring her stock of +experience to bear on this new phenomenon. + +"No, I sha'n't!" he answered very decidedly. + +"Shall you die?" + +"No, not until I am old, old, old." + +"I am very glad: I will take you for a pet, All my little animals get +nasty, and my flowers have died, but I don't care, now that you have +come: I think I shall like you best." + +"But I won't be your pet," said the boy, offended. + +"Why not?" she asked, looking at him beseechingly. "I should be very +good to you;" and she smoothed his sleeve with her brown hand as if it +were the fur of one of her late darlings. + +"Who are you?" he demanded inquisitively. + +"I am myself," she innocently replied. + +"What is your name?" + +"I am Nellie. Have you a name?" she eagerly went on. "If you haven't, +I'll give you a pretty one. Let me see: I will call you--" + +"You need not trouble yourself, thank you: I have a name of my own, +Miss Nellie. I am Danby Overbeck." + +"Dan--by--o--ver--beck!" she repeated slowly. "Why, you have an awful +long name, Beck, for such a little fellow." + +"I am not little, and I will not have you call me Beck: that is no +name." + +"I forgot all but the last. Don't get nasty, please;" and she patted +his arm soothingly. "What does your nurse call you?" + +"I am no baby to have a nurse," he said disdainfully. + +"You have no nurse? Poor thing! What do you do? who feeds you?" + +"I feed myself." + +"Where do you live," she asked, looking about curiously, as if she +thought he had some kind of a nest near at hand. + +"Oh, far away--at the other side of the woods." + +"Won't you come and live with me? Do!" + +"No indeed, gypsy: I must go home. See, the sun is almost down. You +had better go too: your mother will be anxious." + +"I have no mother, and my flowers are all dead. I wish you would be my +pet--I wish you would come with me;" and her lip trembled. + +"My gracious, child! what would the old lady at home say? Why, there +would be an awful row." + +"Never mind, come," she answered coaxingly, rubbing her head against +his sleeve like a kitten. "Come, I will love you so much." + +"You go home," he said, patting her head, "and I will come again some +day, and will bring you flowers." + +"The flowers are all dead," she replied, shaking her head. + +"I can make some grow. Go now, run away: let me see you off." + +She looked for a moment at this superior being, who could make flowers +grow and could live without the care of a nurse, and then, obeying the +stronger intelligence, she trotted off toward home. + +And now life contained new pleasure for Nellie, for the boy was +large-hearted and kind, coming almost daily to take her with him on +his excursions. Indeed, he was as lonely as the child, companions +being difficult to find in that out-of-the-way neighborhood, and the +odd little thing amused him. She would trudge bravely by his side +when he went to fish, or carry his bag when he went gunning; and his +promise of flowers was redeemed with gifts from the conservatory, +which enhanced her opinion of this divinity, seeing that they were +even more beautiful than those of her own fields. Often, when tired of +sport, Danby would read to her, sitting in the shade of forest trees, +stories of pirates and robbers or of wonderful adventures: these were +the afternoons she enjoyed the most. + +One day, seeing her lips grow bright and her eyes dark from her +intense interest in the story, he offered her the book as he was +preparing to go, saying, "Take it home, Nellie, and read it." + +She took the volume in her hand eagerly, looked at the page a little +while, a puzzled expression gradually passing over her face, until +finally she turned to him open-eyed and disappointed, saying simply, +"I can't." + +"Oh try!" + +"How shall I try?" + +"It begins _there_: now go on, it is easy. _There_" he repeated, +pointing to the word, "go on," he added impatiently. + +"Where shall I go?" + +"Why read, Stupid! Look at it." + +She bent over and gazed earnestly where the end of his finger touched +the book. "I look and look," she said, shaking her head, "but I do +not see the pretty stories that you do. They seem quite gone away, and +nothing is left but little crooked marks." + +"I do believe you can't read." + +"I do believe it too," said Nellie. + +"But you must try; such a big girl as you are getting to be!" + +"I try and I look, but it don't come to me." + +"You must learn." + +"Yes." + +"Do you intend to do it?" + +"Why should I? You can read to me." + +"You will never know anything," exclaimed the boy severely. "How do +you spend your time in the morning, when I am not here?" + +"I do nothing." + +"Nothing?" + +"That is, I wait until you come," in an explanatory tone. + +"What do you do while you are waiting?" + +"I think about you, and wonder how soon you will be here; and I walk +about, or lie on the grass and look at the clouds." + +"Well, did I ever hear of such an idle girl? I shall not come again +if you don't learn to read." Nellie was not much given to laughter +or tears. She had lived too much alone for such outward appeals for +sympathy. Why laugh when there is no one near to smile in return? Why +weep when there is no one to give comfort? She only regarded him with +a world of reproach in her large eyes. + +"Nellie," he said, in reply to her eyes, "you ought to learn to read, +and you _must_. Did no one ever try to teach you?" + +She shook her head. + +"Have you no books?" + +Again a negative shake. + +"Just come along with me to the house. I'll see about this thing: it +must be stopped." And Danby rose and walked off with a determined air, +while the girl, abashed and wondering, followed him. When they arrived +he plunged into the subject at once: "Nurse Bridget, can you read?" + +"An' I raly don't know, as I niver tried." + +"Fiddlesticks! Of course Maurice is too blind, and very likely he +never tried either. Are there no books in the house?" + +"An' there is, then--a whole room full of them, Master Danby. We are +not people of no larnin' here, I can tell you. There is big books, +an' little books, an' some awful purty books, an' some," she added +doubtfully, "as is not so purty." + +"You know a great deal about books!" said the boy sarcastically. + +"An' sure I do. Haven't I dusted them once ivery year since I came to +this blessed place? And tired enough they made me, too. I ain't likely +to forgit them." + +"Well, let us see them." + +"Sure they're locked." + +"Open them," said the impatient boy. + +"Do open them," added Nellie timidly. + +But it required much coaxing to accomplish their design, and after +nurse did consent time was lost in looking for the keys, which were at +last found under a china bowl in the cupboard. Then the old woman led +the way with much importance, opening door after door of the unused +part of the house, until she came to the library. It was a large, +sober-looking room, with worn furniture and carpet, but rich in +literature, and even art, for several fine pictures hung on the +walls. The ancestor from whom the house had descended must have been +a learned man in his day, and a wise, for he had gathered about him +treasures. Danby shouted with delight, and Nellie's eyes sparkled as +she saw his pleasure. + +"Open all the windows, nurse, please, and then leave us. Why, Nellie, +there is enough learning here to make you the most wonderful woman in +the world! Do you think you can get all these books into your head?" +he asked mischievously, "because that is what I expect of you. We will +take a big one to begin with." The girl looked on while he, with mock +ceremony, took down the largest volume within reach and laid it open +on a reading-desk near. "Now sit;" and he drew a chair for her before +the open book, and another for himself. "It is nice big print. Do you +see this word?" and he pointed to one of the first at the top of the +page. + +She nodded her head gravely. + +"It is _love_: say it." + +She repeated the word after him. + +"Now find it all over the page whereever it occurs." + +With some mistakes she finally succeeded in recognizing the word +again. + +"Don't you forget it." + +"Yes." + +"No, you must _not_." + +"I mean I won't." + +"All right! Here is another: it is called _the_. Now find it." + +Many times she went through the same process. In his pride of teaching +Danby did not let his pupil flag. When he was going she asked timidly, +"Shall you come again?" + +"Of course I shall, Ignoramus, but don't you forget your lesson." + +"No, no," she answered brightening. "I will think of it all the time I +am asleep." + +"That is a good girl," he said patronizingly, and bade her good-bye. + +It was thus she learned to read, not remarkably well, but well enough +to content Danby, which was sufficient to content Nellie also; and the +ambitious boy was not satisfied until she could write as well. + +An end came to this peaceful life when the youth left home for +college. The girl's eyes seemed to grow larger from intense gazing at +him during the last few weeks that preceded his departure, but that +was her only expression of feeling. The morning after he left, the +nurse, not finding her appear at her usual time, went to her chamber +to look for her. She lay on the bed, as she had been lying all the +night, sleepless, with pale face and red lips. Nurse asked her what +was the matter. + +"Nothing," was the reply. + +"Come get up, Beauty," coaxed the nurse. + +But Nellie turned her face to the wall and did not answer. She lay +thus for a week, scarcely eating or sleeping, sick in mind and body, +struggling with a grief that she hardly knew was grief. At the end +of that time she tottered from the bed, and, clothing herself with +difficulty, crept to the library. + +The instinct that sends a sick animal to the plant that will cure +it seemed to teach Nellie where to find comfort. Danby was gone, but +memory remained, and the place where he had been was to her made +holy and possessed healing power, as does the shrine of a saint for a +believer. Her shrine was the reading-desk, and the chair on which he +had sat during those happy lessons. To make all complete, she lifted +the heavy book from the shelf and opened it at the page from which she +had first learned. She put herself in his chair and caressed the words +with her thin hand, her fingers trembling over the place that his had +touched, then dropping her head on the desk where his arm had lain, +she smiling slept. + +She awoke with the nurse looking down on her, saying, "Beauty, you are +better." + +And so she was: she drank the broth and ate the bread and grapes that +had been brought her, and from that day grew stronger. But the shadow +in her eyes was deeper now, and the veins in her temples were bluer, +as if the blood had throbbed and pained there. Every morning found +her at her post: she had no need to roam the woods and fields now--her +world lay within her. It was sad for one so young to live on memory. + +For many days her page and these few words were sufficient to content +her, and to recall them one after another, as Danby had taught, was +her only occupation. But by and by the words themselves began to +interest her, then the context, and finally the sense dawned upon +her--dawned not less surely that it came slowly, and that she was now +and then compelled to stop and think out a word. + +And what did she learn? Near the top of the large page the first +word, "love." It ended a sentence and stood conspicuous, which was the +reason it had caught the eye of the eager boy when he began to teach. +What did it mean? What went before? What after? It was a long time +before she asked herself these questions, for her understanding had +not formed the habit of being curious. Previously her eyes alone had +sight, now her intellect commenced seeing. What was the web of which +this word was the woof, knitting together, underlying, now appearing, +now hidden, but always there? She turned the leaves and counted where +it recurred again and again, like a bird repeating one sweet note, of +which it never tires. Then the larger type in the middle of each page +drew her attention: she read, _As You Like It_. "What do I like? This +story is perhaps as I like it. I wonder what it is about? I don't care +now for pirates and robbers: I liked them when _he_ read to me, but +not now." Her thoughts then wandered off to Danby, and she read no +more that day. + +However, Nellie had plenty of time before her, and when her thinking +was ended she would return to her text. I do not know how long a time +it required for her to connect the sentence that followed the word +"love;" but it became clear to her finally, just as a difficult puzzle +will sometimes resolve itself as you are idly regarding it. And this +is what she saw: "Love! But it cannot be sounded: my affection hath an +unknown bottom, like the bay of Portugal." The phrase struck her as +if it was her own, and for the first time in her life she blushed. +She did not know much about the bay of Portugal, it is true, but she +understood the rest. From that time forth the book possessed a strange +interest for her. Much that she did not comprehend she passed by. +Often for several days she would not find a passage that pleased her, +but when such a one was discovered her slow perusal of it and long +dwelling on it gave a beauty and power to the sentiment that more +expert students might have lost. I cannot describe the almost feverish +effect upon her of that poetical quartette beginning with-- + + Good shepherd, tell this youth what 'tis to love. + +How she hung over it, smiled at it, brightening into delight at the +echo of her own feelings! In the raillery of Rosalind her heart found +words to speak; and her sense and wit were awakened by the sarcasm of +the same character. "Pray you, no more of this: 'tis like the howling +of Irish wolves against the moon," came like a healthy tonic after a +week of ecstasy spent over the preceding lines. + +Her mind grew in such companionship. She lived no more alone: she +had found friends who sympathized with her. Smiles and tears became +frequent on her face, making it more beautiful. _As You Like It_ was +just as she liked it. The forest of Arden was her forest. Rosalind's +banished father was her father: that busy man she had never seen. With +the book for interpreter she fell in love with her world over again. +Sunset and dawn possessed new charms; the little flowers seemed +dignified; moonlight and fairy-land unveiled their mysteries; nothing +was forgotten. It appeared as if all the knowledge of the world was +contained in those magic pages, and the master-key to this treasure, +the dominant of this harmony, was _love_--the word that Danby +had taught her. The word? The feeling as well, and with the +feeling--_all_. + +Circling from this passion as from a pole-star, all those great +constellations of thought revolved. With Lear's madness was Cordelia's +affection; with the inhumanity of Shylock was Jessica's trust; with +the Moor's jealousy was Desdemona's devotion. The sweet and bitter +of life, religion, poetry and philosophy, ambition, revenge and +superstition, controlled, created or destroyed by that little word. +And _how_ they loved--Perdita, Juliet, Miranda--quickly and entirely, +without shame, as she had loved Danby--as buds bloom and birds warble. +Oh it was sweet, sweet, sweet! Amid friends like these she became gay, +moved briskly, grew rosy and sang. This was her favorite song, to a +melody she had caught from the river: + + Under the greenwood tree + Who loves to lie with me, + And turn his merry note + Unto the sweet bird's throat, + Come hither, come hither, come hither: + Here shall he see + No enemy + But winter and rough weather. + +Four years passed by--not all spent with one book, however. Nellie's +desire for study grew with what it fed on. This book opened the way +for many. Reading led to reflection; reflection, to observation; +observation, to Nature; and thus in an endless round. + +About this time her busy father remembered he possessed a "baby," laid +away somewhere, like an old parchment, and he concluded he would "look +her up." His surprise was great when he saw the child a woman--still +greater when he observed her self-possession, her intelligence, and a +certain quaint way she had of expressing herself that was charming in +connection with her fresh young face. She was neither diffident nor +awkward, knowing too little of the world to fear, and having naturally +that simplicity of manner which touches nearly upon high breeding. +But Mr. Archer being one of those men who think that "beauty should +go beautifully," her toilette shocked him. Under the influence of her +presence he felt that he had neglected her. The whole house reproached +him: the few rooms that had been furnished were dilapidated and worn. + +"I did not know things looked so badly down here," he said +apologetically. "I am sure I must have had everything properly +arranged when Nurse Bridget came. Your cradle was comfortable, was it +not?" + +"I scarcely remember," answered his daughter demurely. + +"Oh! ah! yes! It is some time ago, I believe?" + +"Seventeen years." + +"Y-e-s: I had forgotten." + +He had an idea, this man of a hundred schemes, that his "baby" +was laughing at him, and, singularly enough, it raised her in his +estimation. He even asked her to come and live with him in the city, +but she refused, and he did not insist. + +Then he set about making a change, which was soon accomplished. He +sent for furniture and carpets, and cleared the rubbish from without +and within. Under his decided orders a complete outfit "suitable for +his daughter" soon arrived, and with it a maid. Nellie, whose ideas +of maids were taken from Lucetta, was much disappointed in the actual +being, and the modern Lucetta was also disappointed when she saw +the "howling wilderness" to which she had been inveigled; so the two +parted speedily. But Mr. Archer remained: he was one of those men +who do things thoroughly which they have once undertaken. When he +was satisfied with Nellie's appearance he took her to call on all the +neighboring families within reach. + +Among others, they went to see Mrs. Overbeck, Danby's mother, whom +Mr. Archer had known in his youth. Nellie wore her brave trappings +bravely, and acted her part nicely until Mrs. Overbeck gave her a +motherly kiss at parting, when she grew pale and trembled. Why should +she? Her hostess thought it was from the heat, and insisted on her +taking a glass of wine. + +In the autumn of this year Danby graduated and returned home. Nellie +had not seen him during all this interval: he had spent his vacations +abroad, and had become quite a traveled man. While she retained her +affection for him unchanged, he scarcely remembered the funny little +girl who had been so devoted to him in the years gone by. A few days +after he arrived, his mother, in giving him the local news, mentioned +the charming acquaintance she had made of a young lady who lived in +the neighborhood. On hearing her name the young man exclaimed, "Why, +that must be Nellie!" + +"Do you know her?" asked his mother in surprise. + +"Of course I do, and many a jolly time I have had with her. Odd little +thing, ain't she?" + +"I should not call her odd," remarked his mother. + +"You do not know her as I do." + +"Perhaps not. I suppose you will go with me when I return her visit." + +"Certainly I will--just in for that sort of thing. A man feels the +need of some relaxation after a four years' bore, and there is nothing +like the society of the weaker sex to give the mind repose." + +"Shocking boy!" said the fond mother with a smile. + +In a short time the projected call was made. + +"You will frighten her with all that finery, my handsome mother," +remarked Danby as they walked to the carriage. + +"I think she will survive it, but I shall not answer for the effect of +those brilliant kids of yours." + +"The feminine eye is caught by display," said her son sententiously. + +They chatted as they drove rapidly through the forest to the old +house, entered the front gate and rolled up the broad avenue. + +"I had no idea the place looked so well," remarked Danby, _en +connaisseur_, as they approached. "I always entered by the back way;" +and he gave his moustache a final twirl. + +After a loud knock from a vigorous hand the door was opened by a small +servant, much resembling Nellie some four years before. Danby was +going to speak to her, but recalling the time that had elapsed, he +knew it could not be she. All within was altered. Three rooms +_en suite_, the last of which was the library, had been carefully +refurnished. He looked about him. Could this be the place in which he +had passed so many days? But he forgot all in the figure that advanced +to receive them. With a pretty grace she gave her hand to his mother +and welcomed "Mr. Overbeck." How she talked--talked like a babbling +brook! It was now his turn to open big eyes and be silent. He tried +to recall the girl he had left. Vain endeavor! This bright creature, +grave and gay, silent but ready, respectful yet confident, how could +he follow her? The visit came to an end, but was repeated again and +again by Danby, and each time with new astonishment, new delight. She +had the coquetry of a dozen women, yet her eyes looked so true. She +was a perfect elf for pranks and jokes, yet demure as a nun. When he +tried to awe her with his learning, she was saucy; if he was serious, +she was gay; if he wished to teach, she rebelled. She was self-willed +as a changeling, refractory yet gentle, seditious but just,--only +waiting to strike her colors and proclaim him conqueror; but this he +did not know, for she kept well hid in her heart what "woman's fear" +she had. She was all her favorite heroines in turn, with herself added +to the galaxy. + +One day he penetrated into the library, notwithstanding some very +serious efforts on her part to prevent him: by this time he would +occasionally assert himself. The furniture there was not much altered. +A few worn things had been replaced, but the room looked so much the +same that the scene of that first reading-lesson came vividly to his +mind. He turned to the side where the desk had stood. It was still +there, with the two chairs before it, and on it was the book. She +would not for the world have had it moved, but it was, as it were, +glorified. Mr. Archer had wished "these old things cleared away," but +Nellie had besought him so earnestly that he allowed them to stay, +stipulating, however, that they should be upholstered anew. To this +she assented, saying, "Send me the best of everything and _I_ will +cover them--the very best, mind;" and her father, willing to please +her, did as she desired. + +So the old desk became smart in brocade and gold-lace, the book +received a cushion all bullion and embroidery, and the chairs emulated +the splendor. It required a poet or a girl in love to clothe a fancy +so beautifully, and Nellie was both. It was her shrine: why should she +not adorn it? + +I cannot follow the process of thought in Danby's mind as he looked +at this and at Nellie--Nellie blushing with the sudden guiltiness that +even the discovery of a harmless action will bring when we wish to +conceal it. Sometimes a moment reveals much. + +"Nellie"--it was the first time he had called her so since his +return--"I must give you a reading-lesson: come, sit here." + +Mechanically she obeyed him, all the rebel fading away: she looked +like the Nellie of other days. She felt she had laid bare her soul, +but in proportion as her confusion overcame her did he become decided. +It is the slaves that make tyrants, it is said. + +Under the impulse of his hand the book opened at the well-worn page. + +"Read!" + +For a little while she sat with downcast eyes. Well she knew the +passage to which he was pointing: "Love! But it cannot be sounded: my +affection hath an unknown bottom, like the bay of Portugal." + +The sentence seemed to dance and grow till it covered the page--grow +till in her sight it assumed the size of a placard, and then it took +life and became her accuser--told in big letters the story of her +devotion to the mocking boy beside her. + +"There is good advice on the preceding page," he whispered smiling. +"Orlando says he would kiss before he spoke: may I?" + +She started up and looked at his triumphant face a moment, her mouth +quivering, her eyes full of tears. "How can you--" she began. + +But before she could finish he was by her side: "Because I love +you--love you, all that the book says, and a thousand times more. +Because if you love me we will live our own romance, and I doubt if we +cannot make our old woods as romantic as the forest of Arden. Will you +not say," he asked tenderly, "that there will be at least one pair of +true lovers there?" + +I could not hear Nellie's answer: her head was so near his--on his +shoulder, in fact--that she whispered it in his ear. But a moment +after, pushing him from her with the old mischief sparkling from her +eyes, she said, "'Til frown and be perverse, and say thee nay, so thou +wilt woo,'" and looked a saucy challenge in his face. + +"Naughty sprite!" he exclaimed, catching her in his arms and shutting +her mouth with kisses. + +It was not long after, perhaps a year, that a happy bride and groom +might have been seen walking up the hemlock avenue arm in arm. + +"Do you remember," she asked, smiling thoughtfully--"do you remember +the time I begged you to come home with me and be my pet?" + +The young husband leaned down and said something the narrator did +not catch, but from the expression of his face it must have been very +spoony: with a bride such as that charming Nellie, how could he help +it? + +Yes, she had brought him home. Mr. Archer had given the house with its +broad acres as a dowry to his daughter, and Nellie had desired that +the honeymoon should be spent in her "forest of Arden." + +ITA ANIOL PROKOP. + + + + +JACK, THE REGULAR. + + + In the Bergen winter night, when the hickory fire is roaring, + Flickering streams of ruddy light on the folk before it pouring-- + When the apples pass around, and the cider follows after, + And the well-worn jest is crowned by the hearers' hearty laughter-- + When the cat is purring there, and the dog beside her dozing, + And within his easy-chair sits the grandsire old, reposing,-- + Then they tell the story true to the children, hushed and eager, + How the two Van Valens slew, on a time, the Tory leaguer, + Jack, the Regular. + + Near a hundred years ago, when the maddest of the Georges + Sent his troops to scatter woe on our hills and in our gorges, + Less we hated, less we feared, those he sent here to invade us + Than the neighbors with us reared who opposed us or betrayed us; + And amid those loyal knaves who rejoiced in our disasters, + As became the willing slaves of the worst of royal masters, + Stood John Berry, and he said that a regular commission + Set him at his comrades' head; so we called him, in derision, + "Jack, the Regular." + + When he heard it--"Let them fling! Let the traitors make them merry + With the fact my gracious king deigns to make me Captain Berry. + I will scourge them for the sneer, for the venom that they carry; + I will shake their hearts with fear as the land around I harry: + They shall find the midnight raid waking them from fitful slumbers; + They shall find the ball and blade daily thinning out their numbers: + Barn in ashes, cattle slain, hearth on which there glows no ember, + Neatless plough and horseless wain; thus the rebels shall remember + Jack, the Regular!" + + Well he kept his promise then with a fierce, relentless daring, + Fire to rooftrees, death to men, through the Bergen valleys bearing: + In the midnight deep and dark came his vengeance darker, deeper-- + At the watch-dog's sudden bark woke in terror every sleeper; + Till at length the farmers brown, wasting time no more on tillage, + Swore those ruffians of the Crown, fiends of murder, fire and pillage, + Should be chased by every path to the dens where they had banded, + And no prayers should soften wrath when they caught the bloody-handed + Jack, the Regular. + + One by one they slew his men: still the chief their chase evaded. + He had vanished from their ken, by the Fiend or Fortune aided-- + Either fled to Powles Hoek, where the Briton yet commanded, + Or his stamping-ground forsook, waiting till the hunt disbanded; + So they checked pursuit at length, and returned to toil securely: + It was useless wasting strength on a purpose baffled surely. + But the two Van Valens swore, in a patriotic rapture, + _They_ would never give it o'er till they'd either kill or capture + Jack, the Regular. + + Long they hunted through the wood, long they slept upon the hillside; + In the forest sought their food, drank when thirsty at the rill-side; + No exposure counted hard--theirs was hunting border-fashion: + They grew bearded like the pard, and their chase became a passion: + Even friends esteemed them mad, said their minds were out of balance, + Mourned the cruel fate and sad fallen on the poor Van Valens; + But they answered to it all, "Only wait our loud view-holloa + When the prey shall to us fall, for to death we mean to follow + Jack, the Regular." + + Hunted they from Tenavlieon to where the Hudson presses + To the base of traprocks high; through Moonachie's damp recesses; + Down as far as Bergen Hill; by the Ramapo and Drochy, + Overproek and Pellum Kill--meadows flat and hilltops rocky-- + Till at last the brothers stood where the road from New Barbadoes, + At the English Neighborhood, slants toward the Palisadoes; + Still to find the prey they sought left no sign for hunter eager: + Followed steady, not yet caught, was the skulking, fox-like leaguer + Jack, the Regular. + + Who are they that yonder creep by those bleak rocks in the distance, + Like the figures born in sleep, called by slumber to existence?-- + Tories doubtless from below, from the Hoek, sent out for spying. + "No! the foremost is our foe--he so long before us flying! + Now he spies us! see him start! wave his kerchief like a banner! + Lay his left hand on his heart in a proud, insulting manner. + Well he knows that distant spot's past our ball, his low scorn flinging. + If you cannot feel the shot, you shall hear the firelock's ringing, + Jack, the Regular!" + + Ha! he falls! An ambuscade? 'Twas impossible to strike him! + Are there Tories in the glade? Such a trick is very like him. + See! his comrade by him kneels, turning him in terror over, + Then takes nimbly to his heels. Have they really slain the rover? + It is worth some risk to know; so, with firelocks poised and ready, + Up the sloping hills they go, with a quick lookout and steady. + Dead! The random shot had struck, to the heart had pierced the Tory-- + Vengeance seconded by luck! Lies there, cold and stiff and gory, + Jack, the Regular. + + "Jack, the Regular, is dead! Honor to the man who slew him!" + So the Bergen farmers said as they crowded round to view him; + For the wretch that lay there slain had with wickedness unbending + To their roofs brought fiery rain, to their kinsfolk woeful ending. + Not a mother but had prest, in a sudden pang of fearing, + Sobbing darlings to her breast when his name had smote her hearing; + Not a wife that did not feel terror when the words were uttered; + Not a man but chilled to steel when the hated sounds he muttered-- + Jack, the Regular. + + Bloody in his work was he, in his purpose iron-hearted-- + Gentle pity could not be when the pitiless had parted. + So, the corse in wagon thrown, with no decent cover o'er it-- + Jeers its funeral rites alone--into Hackensack they bore it, + 'Mid the clanging of the bells in the old Brick Church's steeple, + And the hooting and the yells of the gladdened, maddened people. + Some they rode and some they ran by the wagon where it rumbled, + Scoffing at the lifeless man, all elate that death had humbled + Jack, the Regular. + + Thus within the winter night, when the hickory fire is roaring, + Flickering streams of ruddy light on the folk before it pouring-- + When the apples pass around, and the cider follows after, + And the well-worn jest is crowned by the hearers' hearty laughter-- + When the cat is purring there, and the dog beside her dozing, + And within his easy-chair sits the grandsire old, reposing,-- + Then they tell the story true to the children, hushed and eager, + the two Van Valens slew, on a time, the Tory leaguer, + Jack, the Regular. + +THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH. + + + + +OBSERVATIONS AND ADVENTURES IN SUBMARINE DIVING. + + + [Greek: --liphon + eponumon te reuma kai petraerephae + autoktit' antra.]--AESCHYLUS: _Prometheus Bound_. + +Did you ever pause before a calm, bright little pool in the woods, and +look steadily at the picture it presents, without feeling as if you +had peeped into another world? Every outline is preserved, every tint +is freshened and purified, in the cool, glimmering reflection. There +is a grace and a softness in the prismatic lymph that give a new form +and color to the common and familiar objects it has printed in its +still, pellucid depths. Every little basin of clear water by the +roadside is a magic mirror, and transforms all that it encloses. There +is a vastness of depth, too, in that concave hemisphere, through +which the vision sinks like a falling star, that excites and fills the +imagination. What it shows is only a shadow, but all things seen are +mere shadows painted on the retina, and you have, at such times, +a realistic sense of the beautiful and bold imagery which calls a +favorite fountain of the East the Eye of the Desert. + +The alluring softness of this mimic world increases to sublimity when, +instead of some rocky basin, dripping with mossy emeralds and coral +berries, you look upon the deep crystalline sea. Each mates to its +kind. This does not gather its imagery from gray, mossy rock or +pendent leaf or flower, but draws into its enfolding arms the wide +vault of the cerulean sky. The richness of the majestic azure is +deepened by that magnificent marriage. The pale blue is darkened to +violet. Far through the ever-varying surface of the curious gelatinous +liquid breaks the phosphorescence, sprinkled into innumerable lights +and cross-lights. As you look upon those endless pastures thought is +quickened with the conception of their innumerable phases of vitality. +The floating weed, whose meshes measure the spaces of continents and +archipelagoes, is everywhere instinct with animal and vegetable life. +The builder coral, glimmering in its softer parts with delicate hues +and tints, throws up its stony barrier through a thousand miles of +length and a third as much in breadth, fringing the continents with +bays and sounds and atoll islands like fairy rings of the sea. +Animate flowers--sea-nettles, sea anemones, plumularia, campanularia, +hydropores, confervae, oscillatoria, bryozoa--people the great waters. +Sea-urchins, star-fish, sea-eggs, combative gymnoti, polypes, struggle +and thrive with ever-renewing change of color; gelatinous worms +that shine like stars cling to every weed; glimmering animalcules, +phosphorescent medusae, the very deep itself is vivid with sparkle +and corruscation of electric fire. So through every scale, from the +zoophyte to the warm-blooded whale, the sea teems with life, out of +which fewer links have been dropped than from sub-aërial life. It is a +matter for curious speculation that the missing species belong not to +the lower subsidiary genera, as in terrene animals, but to the +highest types of marine life. In the quarries of Lyme Regis, among the +accumulations of a sea of the Liassic period, lay the huge skeleton of +the Ichthyosaurus, a warm-blooded marine existence, with huge saucer +eyes of singular telescopic power, that gleamed radiant "with the +eyelids of the morning," "by whose neesings alight doth shine"--the +true leviathan of Job. In the same extinct sea is found the skeleton +of the Plesiosaurus, a marine lizard of equal size, and warm-blooded, +whose swan-like neck and body graced the serene seas of the +pre-adamite world. Another was that of the Pterodactyl, the antique +aragon, a winged fish. The task of sustaining these existences was too +great for old Ocean, and the monsters dropped from the upper end of +the chain into the encrusting mud, the petrified symbols of failure. +So one day man may drop into the limbo of vanities, among the +abandoned tools in the Creator's workshop. + +But, however high or low the degree in the scale, one distinguishing +feature marks the vital creation in vegetable or animal--an +intelligence capable of adjusting itself to the elements about it, and +electing its food. The sunflower, even, does not follow the sun by a +mechanical law, but, growing by a fair, bright sheet of water, looks +as constantly at that shining surface for the beloved light as +ever did the fabled Greek boy at his own image in the fountain. +The tendrils of the vine seek and choose their own support, and the +thirsty spongioles of the root find the nourishing veins of water. +Growth, says a naturalist, is the conscious motion of vegetable life. +But this theory of kinship, imperfect in the plant, becomes plain +and distinct in the animate creation. However far removed, the wild +dolphin at play and the painted bird in the air are cousins of man, +with a responsive chord of sympathy connecting them. + +It is this feeling that sends an exhilarating thrill through the +submarine explorer when a school of porpoises frisk by with undulating +grace, the marine type of a group of frolicking children. It is the +instinctive perception that it is a pure enjoyment to the fish, the +healthy glow and laugh of submarine existence. But for that sense of +sympathetic nature the flying-fish, reeling porpoise and dolphin would +be no more to him than the skipping shuttle in a weaver's loom, the +dull impetus of senseless machinery. Self-generated motion is the +outward and visible sign of vitality--its wanton exercise the symbol +and expression of enjoyment. The poor philosopher who distinguished +humanity as singular in the exhibition of humor had surely never heard +a mocking-bird sing, watched a roguish crow or admired a school of +fish. + +This keen appreciation of a kindred life in the sea has thrown its +charm over the poetry and religion of all races. Ocean us leaves the +o'erarching floods and rocky grottoes at the call of bound Prometheus; +Cyrene, with her nymphs, sits in the cool Peneus, where comes +Aristaeus mourning for his stolen bees; the Druid washed his +hedge-hyssop in the sacred water, and priestesses lived on coral reefs +visited by remote lovers in their sundown seas; Schiller's diver +goes into the purpling deep and sees the Sea-Horror reaching out its +hundred arms; the beautiful Undine is the vivid poetry of the sea. +Every fountain has its guardian saint or nymph, and to this day not +only the German peasant and benighted English boor thrill at the sight +of some nymph-guarded well, but the New Mexican Indian offers his rude +pottery in propitiation of the animate existence, the deity of the +purling spring. + + * * * * * + +"Der Taucher," for all the rhythm and music that clothes his luckless +plunge, was but a caitiff knight to some of our submarine adventurers. +A diver during the bay-fight in Mobile harbor had reason to apprehend +a more desperate encounter. A huge cuttle-fish, the marine monster of +Pliny and Victor Hugo, had been seen in the water. His tough, +sinuous, spidery arms, five fathoms long, wavered visibly in the blue +transparent gulf, + + Und schaudernd dacht ich's--da kroch's heran, + Regte hundert Gelenke zugleich, + Will schnappen nach mir. + +A harpoon was driven into the leathery, pulpy body of the monster, but +with no other effect than the sudden snapping of the inch line like +thread. It was subsequent to this that, as the diver stayed his steps +in the unsteady current, his staff was seized below. The water was +murky with the river-silt above the salt brine, and he could see +nothing, but after an effort the staff was rescued or released. +Curious to know what it was, he probed again, and the stick was +wrenched from his hand. With a thrill he recognized in such power the +monster of the sea, the devil-fish. He returned anxious, doubtful, but +resolute. Few like to be driven from a duty by brute force. He armed +himself, and descended to renew the hazardous encounter in the gloomy +solitude of the sea-bottom. I would I had the wit to describe that +tournament beneath the sea; the stab, thrust, curvet, plunge--the +conquest and capture of the unknown combatant. A special chance +preserves the mediaeval character of the contest, saving it from the +sulphurous associations of modern warfare that might be suggested by +the name of devil-fish. No: the antagonist wore a coat-of-mail and +arms of proof, as became a good knight of the sea, and was besides +succulent, digestible--a veritable prize for the conqueror. It was a +monstrous crab. + +The constant encounter of strange and unforeseen perils enables the +professional diver to meet them with the same coolness with which +ordinary and familiar dangers are confronted on land. On one occasion +a party of such men were driven out into the Gulf by a fierce +"norther," were tossed about like chips for three days in the vexed +element, scant of food, their compass out of order, and the horizon +darkened with prevailing storm. At another time a party wandered out +in the shallows of one of the keys that fringe the Gulf coast. They +amused themselves with wading into the water, broken into dazzling +brilliance. A few sharks were seen occasionally, which gradually and +unobserved increased to, a squadron. The waders meanwhile continued +their sport until the evening waned away. Far over the dusk violet +Night spread her vaporous shadows: + + The blinding mist came up and hid the land, + And round and round the land, + And o'er and o'er the land, + As far as eye could see. + +At last they turned their steps homeward, crossing the little sandy +key, between which and the beach lay a channel shoulder-deep, its +translucent waves now glimmering with phosphorescence. But here +they were met by an unexpected obstacle. The fleet of sharks, with +a strategical cunning worthy of admiration, had flanked the little +island, and now in the deeper water formed in ranks and squadrons, +and, with their great goggle eyes like port-fires burning, lay ready +to dispute the passage. Armed with such weapons as they could clutch, +the men dashed into the water with paeans and shouts and the broken +pitchers of fallen Jericho. The violet phosphorescence lighted them on +their way, and tracked with luminous curve and star every move of the +enemy. The gashed water at every stroke of club or swish of tail or +fin bled in blue and red fire, as if the very sea was wounded. The +enemy's line of battle was broken and scattered, but not until more +than one of the assailants had looked point-blank into the angry eyes +of a shark and beaten it off with actual blows. It was the Thermopylae +of sharkdom, with numbers reversed--a Red Sea passage resonant with +psalms of victory. + +There are novel difficulties as well as dangers to be encountered. The +native courage of the man must be tempered, ground and polished. On +land it is the massing of numbers that accomplishes the result--the +accumulation of vital forces and intelligence upon the objective +point. The innumerable threads of individual enterprise, like the +twist of a Manton barrel, give the toughest tensile power. Under the +sea, however, it is often the strength of the single thread, the +wit of the individual pitted against the solid impregnability of the +elements, the _vis inertiae_ of the sea. It looks as if uneducated +Nature built her rude fastnesses and rocky battlements with a special +view to resistance, making the fickle and unstable her strongest +barricade. An example of the skill and address necessary to conquer +obstacles of the latter kind was illustrated in Mobile Bay. There lay +about a sunken vessel an impenetrable mail of quicksand. It became +necessary to sink piles into this material. The obstacle does not +lie in its fickle, unstable character, but its elastic tension. It +swallows a nail or a beam by slow, serpent-like deglutition. It is +hungry, insatiable, impenetrable. Try to force it, to drive down +a pile by direct force: it resists. The mallet is struck back by +reverberating elasticity with an equal force, and the huge pointed +stake rebounds. Brute force beats and beats in vain. The fickle sand +will not be driven--no, not an inch. + +Wit comes in where weight breaks down. A force-pump, a common +old-style fire-engine, was rigged up, the nozzle and hose bound to a +huge pile, + + to equal which the tallest pine + Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast + Of some great ammiral, were but a wand. + +The pump was set to work. The water tore through the nostril-pipe, +boring a hole with such rapidity that the tall beam dropped into the +socket with startling suddenness. Still breathing torrents, the pipe +was withdrawn: the clutching sand seized, grappled the stake. It is +cemented in. + + You may break, you may shatter the _stake_, if you will, + +but--you can never pull it out. + +Perhaps the most singular and venturesome exploit ever performed in +submarine diving was that of searching the sunken monitor Milwaukee +during the bay-fight in Mobile harbor. This sea-going fortress was a +huge double-turreted monitor, with a ponderous, crushing projectile +force in her. Her battery of four fifteen-inch guns, and the tough, +insensible solidity of her huge wrought-iron turrets and heavy plated +hulk, burdened the sleepy waters of the bay. Upon a time she braced +her iron jacket about her, girded her huge sides with fifteen-inch +pistolry, and went rolling her clumsy volume down the bay to mash Fort +Taylor to rubbish and débacle. The sea staggered under her ponderous +gliding and groaned about her massive bulk as she wended her awkward +course toward the bay-shore over against the fort. She sighted her +blunderbusses, and, rolling, grunting, wheezing in her revolving +towers like a Falstaff ill at ease, spat her gobbets of flame and +death. The poor little water-spaniel fort ran down to the shore and +barked at her of course. _Cui bono_ or _malo?_ Why, like Job's mates, +fill its poor belly with the east wind, or try to draw out leviathan +with a hook, or his tongue with a cord thou lettest down? Yet who +treads of the fight between invulnerable Achilles and heroic Hector, +and admires Achilles? The admiral of the American fleet, sick of the +premature pother, signaled the lazy solidity to return. The loathly +monster, slowly, like a bull-dog wrenched from his victim, rolled +snarling, lazily, leisurely down the bay, not obeying and yet not +disobeying the signal. + +All along the sunny coast, like flowers springing up in a +battle-field, were rows of little white cottages, tenanted by women +and children--love, life and peace in the midst of ruin and sudden +death. At the offending spectacle of homely peace among its enemies +the unglutted monster eased its huge wrath. Tumbling and bursting +among the poor little pasteboard shells of cottages, where children +played and women gossiped of the war, and prayed for its end, no +matter how, fell the huge globes and cones of murder. Shrieks and +cries, slain babes and wounded women on shore; surly, half-mutinous +officers and crew on that iron hulk, shocked at the fell work they +were set to do; and the glimmer and wash of the bay-water below--that +sweet, tranquil, half-transparent liquid, with idle weeds and chips +upon it, empty crates and boxes of dead merchandise, sacked of their +life and substance by the war, as one might swallow an oyster; the +soft veils of shadowy ships and the distant city spires; umbrageous +fires and slips of shining sand all mirrored in the soft and quiet +sea, while this devilish pother went on. There is a buoy adrift! No, +it is a sodden cask, perhaps of spoiling meat, while the people in the +town yonder are starving; and still the huge iron, gluttonous monster +bursts its foam of blood and death, while the surly crew curse and +think of mothers and babes at home. Better to look at the bay, the +idle, pleasing summer water, with chips and corks and weeds upon it; +better to look at the bubbling cask yonder--much better, captain, +if you only knew it! But the reluctant, heavy iron turret groans and +wheezes on its pivotal round, and it will be a minute or half a minute +before the throated hell speaks again. But it _will_ speak: machinery +is fatally accurate to time and place. Can nothing stay it, or +stop the trembling of those bursting iron spheres among yon pretty +print-like homes? No: look at the buoy, wish-wash, rolling lazily, +bobbing in the water, a lazy, idle cask, with nothing in the world +to do on this day of busy mischief. What hands coopered it in the new +West? what farmer filled it? There is the grunting of swine, lowing of +cattle, in the look of the staves. But the turret groans and wheezes +and goes around, whether you look at it or not. What cottage this +time? The soft lap-lap of the water goes on, and the tedious cask gets +nearer: it will slide by the counter. You have a curious interest in +that. No: it grates under the bow; it--Thunder and wreck and ruin! +Has the bay burst open and swallowed us? The huge, invulnerable iron +monster--not invulnerable after all--has met its master in the idle +cask. It is blind, imprisoned Samson pulling down the pillars of the +temple. The tough iron plates at the bow are rent and torn and twisted +like wet paper. A terrible hole is gashed in the hull. The monster +wobbles, rolls, gasps, and drinks huge gulps of water like a wounded +man--desperately wounded, and dying in his thirsty veins and arteries. +The swallowed torrent rushes aft, hissing and quenching the fires; +beats against the stern, and comes forward with the rush of that +repulse to meet the incoming wave. Into the boats, the water--anywhere +but here. She reels again and groans; and then, as a desperate hero +dies, she slopes her huge warlike beak at the hostile water and rushes +to her own ruin with a surge and convulsion. The victorious sea sweeps +over it and hides it, laughing at her work. She will keep it safely. +That is the unsung epic of the Milwaukee, without which I should have +little to say of the submarine diving during the bay-fight. + +The harbor of Mobile is shaped like a rude Innuit boot. At the top, +Tensaw and Mobile Rivers, in their deltas, make, respectively, two +and three looplike bands, like the straps. The toe is Bonsecour +Bay, pointing east. The heel rests on Dauphin Island, while the main +channel flows into the hollow of the foot between Fort Morgan and +Dauphin Island. In the north-west angle, obscured by the foliage, +lay the devoted city, suffering no less from artificial famine, made +unnecessarily, than the ligatures that stopped the vital current of +trade. Tons of meat were found putrefying while the citizens, and +even the garrison, had been starving on scanty rations. Food could +be purchased, but at exorbitant rates, and the medium of exchange, +Confederate notes, all gone to water and waste paper. The true story +of the Lost Cause has yet to be written. North of Mobile, in the +Trans-Mississippi department, thousands whose every throb was devoted +to the enterprise, welcomed the Northern invaders, not as destroyers +of a hope already dead by the act of a few entrusted with its defence, +but as something better than the anarchy that was not Southern +independence or anything else human. + +Such were the condition, period and place--the people crushed +between the upper and nether millstones of two hostile and contending +civilizations--when native thrift evoked a new element, that set +in sharp contrast the heroism of life and the heroism of death, the +courage that incurs danger to save against the courage that +accepts danger to destroy. The work was the saving of the valuable +arms--costing the government thirty thousand dollars per gun--and the +machinery of the sunken Milwaukee.[A] By a curious circumstance this +party of divers was composed partly, if not principally or entirely, +of mechanics and engineers who were exempt from military service +under the economic laws of the Confederacy, yet who in heart and soul +sympathized with the rebellion. They had worked to save for the South: +now they were to work and save for the North. It was a service of +superadded danger. All the peril incurred from missile weapons +was increased by the hidden danger of the secret under-sea and the +presence of the terrible torpedoes. These floated everywhere, in all +innocent, unsuspicious shapes. One monster, made of boiler iron, a +huge cross, is popularly believed to be still hidden in the bay. The +person possessing the chart wherein the masked battery's place was set +down is said to have destroyed it and fled. Let us hope, however, that +this is an error. + +[Footnote A: The Milwaukee was sunk nearly due east of the city: the +Osage, Tecumseh, several despatch-boats and steamers, besides the +three monitors, were sunk by torpedoes in the bay.] + +Keep in mind, in reading this account, the contrasted picture of peace +in Nature and war in man--the calm blue sky; the soft hazy outlines +of woods and bay-shore dropping their soft veils in the water; the +cottages, suggesting industry and love; the distant city; the delicate +and graceful spars of the Hartford; the busy despatch-steamers plying +to and fro; the bursting forts and huge ugly monitors; the starry +arches of flying shells by night and flying cloud by day; the soft lap +of the water; the sensuous, sweet beauty of that latitude of eternal +spring; and the soft dark violet of the outer sea, glassing itself in +calm or broken into millioned frets of blue, red and starry fire; the +danger above and the danger below; the dark mysterious caverns of the +sea, rich with coral grots and grove and abounding marine life; the +impenetrable gloom of the ship's hold, whose unimaginable darkness and +labyrinthine intricacy of machinery set obstacles at every turn and +move and step; the darkness; the fury; the hues and shape, all that +art can make or Nature fashion, gild or color wrought into one grand +tablature of splendor and magnificence. War and peaceful industry met +there in novel rivalry, and each claimed its privileges. The captain +of the Search said to the officers, while crowding his men behind the +turret, with sly, dry humor, "Come, you are all _paid_ to be shot at: +my men are not." + +More than once the accuracy of the enemy's fire drove the little party +to shelter. Though the diver was shielded by the impenetrable fickle +element that gave Achilles invulnerability, the air-pump above was +exposed, and thus the diver might be slain by indirection. There +lay Achilles' heel, the exposed vulnerable part that Mother Thetis's +baptism neglected. + +The work below was arduous: the hulk crowded with the entangling +machinery of sixteen engines, cuddies, ports, spars, levers, hatches, +stancheons, floating trunks, bibulous boxes heavy with drink, and the +awful, mysterious gloom of the water, which is not night or darkness, +but the absence of any ray to touch the sensitive optic nerve. The +sense of touch the only reliance, and the life-line his guide. + +But the peril incurred can be better understood through an +illustrative example of a perilous adventure and a poor return. +Officers and men of the unfortunate monitor asked for the rescue of +their property, allowing a stipulated sum in lieu of salvage. Among +these was a petty officer, anxious for the recovery of his chest. +It involved peculiar hazards, since it carried the diver below +the familiar turret-chamber, through the _inextricabilis error_ of +entangling machinery in the engine-room, groping among floating and +sunken objects, into a remote state-room, the Acheron of the cavernous +hold. He was to find by touch a seaman's chest; handle it in that +thickening gloom; carry it, push it, move it through that labyrinthine +obscurity to a point from which it could be raised. To add +immeasurably to the intricacy of this undertaking, there was the need +of carrying his life-line and air-hose through all that entanglement +and obscurity. Three times in that horror of thick darkness like wool +the line tangled in the web of machinery, and three times he had, by +tedious endeavor, to follow it up, find the knot and release it. Then +the door of the little state-room, the throat of exit, was shut to, +and around and around the dense chamber he groped as if in a dream, +and could find no vent. All was alike--a smooth, slimy wall, glutinous +with that gelatinous liquid, the sea-water. The tangled line became a +blind guide and fruitful source of error; the hours were ebbing away, +drowning life and vital air in that horrible watery pit; + + Aut hoc inclusi ligno occultantur Achivi, + +or, a worse enemy than the subtle Greek's, death from the suspended +air-current. Speed, nimbleness, strength and activity were worthless: +with tedious fingers he must follow the life-line, find its +entanglements and slowly loosen them, carefully taking up the slack, +and so follow the straightened cord to the door. Then the chest: he +must not forget that. Slowly he heaves and pushes, now at this, now +at the life-line hitching on knob, handle, lever or projecting peg--on +anything or nothing in that maze of machinery; by involution and +evolution, like the unknown quantity in a cubic equation, through all +the twists, turns, assumptions and substitutions, and always with that +unmanageable, indivisible coefficient the box, until he reaches the +upper air. + +In Aesop's fable, when the crane claimed the reward of the wolf for +using his long neck and bill as a forceps in extracting a bone from +the latter's oesophagus, Lupus suggests that for the crane to have had +his head down in the lupine throat and _not_ get it snapped off +was reward enough for any reasonable fowl. The petty officer was +sufficiently learned in the Lyceum to administer a like return. The +stipulated salvage was never paid or offered.[A] + +[Footnote A: It was a warrant-officer of the Milwaukee: I do not wish +to be more definite; but the money (fifty dollars) may be sent to the +editor of this Magazine, who will forward it to the diver.] + +The monitors had small square hatches or man-ports let into the deck, +admitting one person conveniently. + + Hinc via, Tartanii quae fert Acherontis ad undas. + +A swinging ladder, whose foot was clear of the floor, led down +into the recesses. A diver, having completed his task, ascended the +treacherous staircase to escape, and found the hatch blocked up. +A floating chest or box had drifted into the opening, and, fitting +closely, had firmly corked the man up in that dungeon, tight as a fly +in a bottle. From his doubtful perch on the ladder he endeavored to +push the obstacle from its insertion. Two or more equal difficulties +made this impossible. The box had no handle, and it was slippery with +the ooze and mucus of the sea. The leverage of pushing only wedged +it faster in the orifice. The inconstant ladder swayed from it as +a fulcrum. Again and again by art and endeavor and angle of push he +essayed, and the ladder made sport of it. It was deadly sport, that +swing and seesaw on the slippery rungs in the immeasurable loneliness +of the silent, shrouded cabin. It was no rush of air, sending life +tingling in the blood made brilliant with carmine of oxidation, but +the dense, mephitic sough of the thick wool of water. He descended +and sat upon the floor to think. Feasible methods had failed, and the +sands of his life were running out like the old physician's. Now to +try the impracticable. There are heaps of wisdom in the wrong way +sometimes, which, I suppose, is the reason some of us like it. The +box was out of his reach, choked in the gullet of that life-hole. No +spring or leap from floor or ladder could reach its slippery side +or bear it from its fixture. The sea had caught him prowling in its +mysteries, and blocked him up, as cruel lords of ancient days walled +up the intruder on their domestic privacy. Wit after brute force: +man and Nature were pitted against each other in the uncongenial +gloom--life the stake. + +He groped about his prison, glutinous with infusoriae and the oily +consistence of the sea. Here a nail, there a block or lever, shaped +out mentally by the touch, theorized, studied upon and thrown down. +Now a hatchet, monkey-wrench, monkey's-tail, or gliding fish or +wriggling eel, companions of his imprisonment. At last the cold +touch of iron: the hand encloses and lifts it; its weight betrays its +length; he feels it to the end--blunt, square, useless. He tries the +other end--an edge or spike. That will do. Standing under the hatch, +guided by the ladder to the position, and with a strong swinging, +upward blow, the new tool is driven into the soft, fibrous and +adhesive pine bottom of the box. On the principle on which your +butler's practiced elbow draws the twisted screw sunk into the +cobwebbed seal of your '48 port, he uncorks himself. The box pulled +out of the hatch, the sea-gods threw up the sponge, that zoophyte +being handy. + +These few incidents, strung together at random, and embracing only +limited experiences out of many in one enterprise, are illustrative, +in their variety and character, of this hardy pursuit, and the +fascination of danger which is the school of native hardihood. +But they give the reader a very imperfect idea of the nature and +appearance of the new element into which man has pushed his industry. +The havoc and spoil, the continued danger and contention, darken the +gloom of the submarine world as a flash of lightning leaves blacker +the shadow of the night and storm. + +The first invention to promote subaqueous search was the diving-bell, +a clumsy vessel which isolates the diver. It is embarrassing, if not +dangerous, where there is a strong current or if it rests upon a slant +deck. It limits the vision, and in one instance it is supposed the +wretched diver was taken from the bell by a shark. It permits an +assistant, however, and a bold diver will plunge from the deck above +and ascend in the vessel, to the invariable surprise of his companion. +An example of one of its perils, settling in the mud, occurred, I +think, in the port of New York. A party of amateurs, supported by +champagne flasks and a reporter, went down. The bell settled and stuck +like a boy's sucker. One of the party proposed shaking or rocking the +bell, and doing so, the water was forced under and the bell lifted +from the ooze. + +But a descent in submarine armor is the true way to visit the world +under water. The first sensation in descending is the sudden bursting +roar of furious, Niagarac cascades in the ears. It thunders and booms +upon the startled nerve with the rush and storm of an avalanche. The +sense quivers with it. But it is not air shaken by reflected blows: it +is the cascades driven into the enclosing helmet by the force-pump. +As the flexile hose has to be stiffly distended to bear an aqueous +gravity of twenty-five to fifty pounds to the square inch, the force +of the current can be estimated. The tympanum of the ear yields to +the fierce external pressure. The brain feels and multiplies the +intolerable tension as if the interior was clamped in a vice, and +that tumultuous, thunderous torrent pours on. Involuntarily the mouth +opens: the air rushes in the Eustachian tube, and with sudden velocity +strikes the intruded tension of the drum, which snaps back to its +normal state with a sharp, pistol-like crack. The strain is momently +relieved to be renewed again, and again relieved by the same attending +salutes. + +In your curious dress you must appear monstrous, even to that marine +world, familiar with abnormal creations. The whale looks from eyes on +the top of his head; the flat-fish, sole, halibut have both eyes on +the same side; and certain Crustacea place the organ on a foot-stalk, +as if one were to hold up his eye in his hand to include a wider +horizon. But the monster which the fish now sees differs from all +these. It has four great goggle eyes arranged symmetrically around +its head. Peering through these plate-glass optics, the diver sees +the curious, strange beauty of the world around him, not as the bather +sees it, blurred and indistinct, but in the calm splendor of its own +thallassphere. The first thought is one of unspeakable admiration of +the miraculous beauty of everything around him--a glory and a splendor +of refraction, interference and reflection that puts to shame the +Arabian story of the kingdom of the Blue Fish. Above him is that pure +golden canopy with its rare glimmering lustrousness--something like +the soft, dewy effulgence that comes with sun-breaks through showery +afternoons. The soft delicacy of that pure straw-yellow that prevails +everywhere is crossed and lighted by tints and glimmering hues of +accidental and complementary color indescribably elegant. The floor of +the sea rises like a golden carpet in gentle incline to the surface; +but this incline, experience soon teaches, is an ocular deception, +the effect of refraction, such as a tumbler of water and a spoon can +exhibit in petty. It is perhaps the first observable warning that you +are in a new medium, and that your familiar friend, the light, comes +to you altered in its nature; and it is as well to remember this and +"make a note on it." + +Raising your eyes to the horizontal and looking straight forward, +a new and beautiful wealth of color is developed. It is at first a +delicate blue, as if an accidental color of the prevailing yellow. +But soon it deepens into a rich violet. You feel as if you had never +before appreciated the loveliness of that rich tint. As your eye +dwells upon it the rich lustrous violet darkens to indigo, and sinking +into deeper hues becomes a majestic threat of color. It is ominous, +vivid blue-black--solid, adamantine, a crystal wall of amethyst. It is +all around you. You are cased, dungeoned in the solid masonry of the +waters. It is beauty indeed, but the sombre and awful beauty of the +night and storm. The eye turns for relief and reassurance to the +paly-golden lustrous roof, and watches that tender penciling which +brightens every object it touches. The hull of the sunken ship, +lying slant and open to the sun, has been long enough submerged to +be crusted with barnacles, hydropores, crustacea and the labored +constructions of the microscopic existences and vegetation that fill +the sea. The song of Ariel becomes vivid and realistic in its rich +word-power: + + Full fathom five thy father lies; + Of his bones are coral made; + Those are pearls that were his eyes: + Nothing of him that doth fade + But doth suffer a sea-change + Into something rich and strange. + +The transfiguration of familiar objects is indeed curious and +wonderful. The hulk, once gaudy with paint and gilding, has come under +the skill of the lapidary and sea-artist. It is crusted with emerald +and flossy mosses, and glimmers with diamond, jacinth, ruby, topaz, +sapphire and gold. Every jewel-shape in leaf, spore, coral or plume, +lying on a greenish crystalline ground, is fringed with a soft +radiance of silver fire, and every point is tipped in minute ciliate +flames of faint steely purple. It is spotted with soft velvety black +wherever a shadow falls, that mingles and varies the wonderful display +of color. It is brilliant, vivid, changeable with the interferences +of light from the fluctuating surface above, which transmogrifies +everything--touches the coarsest objects with its pencil, and they +become radiant and spiritual. A pile of brick, dumped carelessly +on the deck, has become a huge hill of crystal jewelry, lively with +brilliant prismatic radiance. Where the light falls on the steps of +the staircase it shows a ladder of silver crusted with emeralds. The +round-house, spars, masts, every spot where a peak or angle catches +the light, have flushed into liquid, jeweled beauty; and each point, a +prism and mirror, catches, multiplies and reflects the other splendor. +A rainbow, a fleecy mist over the lake, made prismal by the sunlight, +a bunch of sub-aqueous moss, a soap-bubble, are all examples in our +daily experience of that transforming power of water in the display of +color. The prevailing tone is that soft, golden effulgence which, +like the grace of a cheerful and loving heart, blends all into one +harmonious whole. + +But observation warns the spectator of the delusive character of all +that splendor of color. He lifts a box from the ooze: he appears +to have uncorked the world. The hold is a bottomless chasm. Every +indentation, every acclivity that casts a shadow, gives the impression +of that soundless depth. The bottom of the sea seems loopholed with +cavities that pierce the solid globe and the dark abysses of space +beyond. The diver is surrounded by pitfalls, real and imaginary. There +is no graduation. The shallow concave of a hand-basin is as the shadow +of the bottomless well. + +If the exploration takes place in the delta of a great river, the +light is affected by the various densities of the double refracting +media. At the proper depth one can see clearly the line where these +two meet, clean cut and as sharply defined as the bottom of a green +glass tumbler through the pure water it contains. The salt brine or +gelatinous sea-water sinks weighted to the bottom, and over it flows +the fresh river-water. If the latter is darkened with sediment, it +obscures the silent depths with a heavy, gloomy cloud. In seasons of +freshet this becomes a total darkness. + +But even on a bright, sunshiny day, under clear water, the shadow of +any object in the sea is unlike any shade in the upper atmosphere. It +draws a black curtain over everything under it, completely obscuring +it. Nor is this peculiarity lost when the explorer enters the shadow; +but, as one looking into a tunnel from without can see nothing +therein, though the open country beyond is plainly visible, so, +standing in that submarine shadow, all around is dark, though beyond +the sable curtain of the shadow the view is clear. Apply this optical +fact to the ghastly story of a diver's alleged experience in the +cabin of a sunken ship. It is narrated that there was revealed to +his appalled sight the spectacle of the drowned passengers in various +attitudes of alarm or devotion when the dreadful suffocation came. +The story is told with great effect and power, but unless a voltaic +lantern is included in the stage furniture, the ghastly tableaux must +sink into the limbo of incredibilities. + +The cabin of a sunken vessel is dark beyond any supernal conception of +darkness. Even a cabin window does not alter this law, though it +may be itself visible, with objects on its surface, as in a child's +magic-lantern. As the rays of light pass through an object flatwise, +like the blade of a knife through the leaves of a book, and may be +admitted through another of like character in the plane of the first, +so a ray of light can penetrate with deflection through air and water. +But becoming polarized, the interposition of a third medium ordinarily +transparent will stop it altogether. Hence the plate-glass window +under water admits no light into the interior of a cabin. The distrust +of sight grows with the diver's experience. The eye brings its habit +of estimating proportion and distance from an attenuated atmosphere +into another and denser medium, and the seer is continually deceived +by the change. He hesitates, halts, and is observant of the pitfalls +about him. A gang-plank slightly above the surface of the deck is +bordered, where its shadow falls, by dismal trenches. There is a range +of hills crossing the deck before him. As he approaches he estimates +the difficulty of the ascent. At its apparent foot he reaches to +clamber the steep sides, and the sierra is still a step beyond his +reach. Drawing still nearer, he prepares to crawl up; his hand touches +the top; it is less than shoulder-high. + +But perhaps the strongest illustration of the differing densities +of these two media is furnished by an attempt to drive a nail +under water. By an absolute law such an effort, if guided by sight +independent of calculation, must fail. Habit and experience, tested +in atmospheric light, will control the muscles, and direct the blow +at the very point where the nail-head is not. For this reason the +ingenious expedient of a voltaic lantern under water has proved to +be impracticable. It is not the light alone which is wanted, but that +sweet familiar atmosphere through which we are habituated to look. The +submarine diver learns to rely wholly on the truer sense of touch, and +guided by that he engages in tasks requiring labor and skill with the +easy assurance of a blind man in the crowded street. + +The conveyance of sound through the inelastic medium of water is so +difficult that it has been called the world of silence. This is only +comparatively true. The fish has an auditory cavity, which, though +simple in itself, certifies the ordinary conviction of sound, but it +is dull and imperfect; and perhaps all marine creatures have other +means of communication. There is an instance, however, of musical +sounds produced by marine animals, which seems to show an appreciation +of harmony. In one of the lakes of Ceylon, Sir Emerson Tennent heard +soft musical sounds, like the first faint notes of the aeolian harp +or the faint vibrations of a wineglass when its rim is rubbed by a wet +finger. This curious harmony is supposed to be produced by a species +of testaceous mollusk. A similar intonation is heard at times along +the Florida coast. + +Interesting as this may be, as indicating an appreciation of that +systematic order in arrangement which in music is harmony, it does not +alter the fact that to the ears of the diver, save the cascade of the +air through the life-hose, it is a sea of silence. No shout or spoken +word reaches him. Even a cannon-shot comes to him dull and muffled, +or if distant it is unheard. But a sharp, quick sound, that appears to +break the air, like ice, into sharp radii, can be heard, especially if +struck against anything on the water. The sound of driving a nail on +the ship above, for example, or a sharp tap on the diving-bell below, +is distinctly and reciprocally audible. Conversation below the surface +by ordinary methods is out of the question, but it can be sustained +by placing the metal helmets of the interlocutors together, thus +providing a medium of conveyance. + +The effort to clothe with intelligence subaqueous life must have been +greatly strengthened among primitive nations by the musical sounds +to which I have referred. Those mysterious breathings were associated +with a human will, and gave forebodings from their very sweetness. +Everywhere they are associated with a passionate or pathetic mystery, +and the widely-spread area over which their island home is portrayed +as existing strengthens the conclusion that the strange music of the +sea belongs not to Ceylon or Florida or the Mediterranean alone. It +affords us another instance, by that common enjoyment of sweet sounds, +of the chain of sympathy between all intelligent creatures, and better +prepares us for familiar acquaintance with the beings which people the +sea. We have prejudices and preconceived ideas to get rid of, whose +strength has crystallized into aphorisms. "Cold as a fish" and +"fish-eyed" are ordinary expressions. Then the touch of a fish, cold, +slippery, serpent-like, causes an involuntary shrinking. + +But the submarine diver has a new revelation of piscine character and +beauty, and perhaps can better understand the enticings of a siren or +fantastic Lurlei than the classical scholar. In the flush of aureal +light tinging their pearly glimmering armor are the radiant, graceful, +frolicsome inhabitants of the sea. The glutinous or oily exudation +that covers them is a brilliant varnish. Their lustrous colors, +variety of crystalline tints and beautiful markings and spots, attract +the eye of the artist even in the fish-market; but when glowing with +full life, lively, nimble, playful, surely the most graceful living +creatures of earth, air or sea, the soul must be blind indeed that can +look upon them unmoved. + +The dull optic seen glazing in the death-throes upon the market-stall, +with coarse vulgar surroundings, becomes, in its native element, +full of intelligence and light. In even the smaller fry the round orb +glitters like a diamond star. One cannot see the fish without seeing +its eye. It is positive, persistent, prevalent, the whole animate +existence expressed in it. As far as the fish can be seen its eye is +visible. The glimmer of scales, the grace of perfect motion, the rare +golden pavilion with its jeweled floor and heavy violet curtains, +complete a scene whose harmony of color, radiance and animal life is +perfect. The minnow and sun-perch are the pages of the tourney on the +cloth of gold. There is a fearless familiarity in these playful +little things, a social, frank intimacy with their novel visitor, that +astonishes while it pleases. They crowd about him, curiously touch +him, and regard all his movements with a frank, lively interest. +Nor are the larger fish shy. The sheeps-head, red and black groper, +sea-trout and other, familiar fish of the sportsman, receive him with +frank bonhommie or fearless curiosity. In their large round beautiful +eyes the diver reads evidence of intelligence and curious wonder that +sometimes startles him with its entirely human expression. There is +a look of interest mixed with curiosity, leading to the irresistible +conclusion of a kindred nature. No faithful hound or pet doe could +express a franker interest in its eyes. Curiosity, which I take to +be expressly destructive of the now-exploded theory of instinct, is +expressed not only by the eye, but by the movements. As in man there +is an eager passion to handle that which is novel, so these curious +denizens of the sea are persistent in their efforts to touch the +diver. An instance of this occurred, attended with disagreeable +results to one of the parties, and that not the fish. The Eve of this +investigation was a large catfish. These fish are the true rovers of +the water. They have a large round black eye, full of intelligence +and fire: their warlike spines and gaff-topsails give them the true +buccaneer build. One of these, while the diver was engaged, incited by +its fearless curiosity, slipped up and touched him with its cold nose. +The man involuntarily threw back his hand, and the soft palm striking +the sharp gaff, it was driven into the flesh. There was an instant's +struggle before the fish wrenched itself loose from the bleeding +member, and then it only swung off a little, staring with its bold +black eyes at the intruder, as if it wished to stay for further +question. It is hard to translate the expression of that look of +curious wonder and surprise without appearing to exaggerate, but the +impression produced was that if the fish did not speak to him, it was +from no lack of intelligent emotions to be expressed in language. + +A prolonged stay in one place gave a diver an opportunity to test this +intelligence further, and to observe the trustful familiarity of this +variety of marine life. He was continually surrounded at his work by +a school of gropers, averaging a foot in length. An accident having +identified one of them, he observed it was a daily visitor. After the +first curiosity the gropers apparently settled into the belief that +the novel monster was harmless and clumsy, but useful in assisting +them to their food. The species feed on Crustacea and marine +worms, which shelter under rocks, mosses and sunken objects at the +sea-bottom. In raising anything out of the ooze a dozen of these fish +would thrust their heads into the hollow for their food before the +diver's hand was removed. They would follow him about, eyeing his +motions, dashing in advance or around in sport, and evidently with +a liking for their new-found friend. Pleased with such an unexpected +familiarity, the man would bring them food and feed them from his +hand, as one feeds a flock of chickens. The resemblance, in their +familiarity and some of their ways, to poultry was, in fact, very +striking. As a little chick will sometimes seize a large crumb and +scurry off, followed by the flock, so a fish would sometimes snatch a +morsel and fly, followed by the school. If he dropped it or stopped to +enjoy his _bonne bouche_, his mates would be upon him. Sometimes two +would get the same morsel, and there would be a trial of strength, +accompanied with much flash and glitter of shining scales. But no +matter how called off, their interest and curiosity remained with the +diver. They would return, pushing their noses about him, caressingly +in appearance if not intent, and bob into the treasures of worm and +shellfish his labor exposed. He became convinced that they were +sportive, indulging in dash and play for the fun of it, rather than +for any grosser object to be attained. + +This curious intimacy was continued for weeks: the fish, unless driven +away by some rover of prey of their kind, were in regular attendance +during his hours of work. Perhaps the solitude and silence of that +curious submarine world strengthened the impression of recognition +and intimacy, but by every criterion we usually accept in terrestrial +creation these little creatures had an interest and a friendly feeling +for one who furnished them food, and who was always careful to avoid +injuring them or giving them any unnecessary alarm. He could not, +of course, take up a fish in his hand, any more than a chicken will +submit to handling; but as to the comparative tameness of the two, +the fish is more approachable than the chicken. That they knew and +expected the diver at the usual hour was a conclusion impossible +to deny, as also that they grew into familiarity with him, and were +actuated by an intelligent recognition of his service to them. It +would be hard to convince this gentleman that a school of fish cannot +be as readily and completely tamed as a flock of chickens. + +Why not? The fear of man is no instinctive feeling in the invertebrate +creation. The pioneer who penetrates into the uninhabited wilds of +our Western frontier finds bird and beast fearless and familiar. Man's +cruelty is a lesson of experience. The timid and fearful of the lower +creation belong to creatures of prey. The shark, for example, is as +cowardly as the wolf. + +I thought to speak of other marine creations with which the diver +grows acquainted, finding in them only a repetition of the same degree +of life he has seen in the upper world. But let it be enough to state +the conclusion--as yet only an impression, and perhaps never to be +more--that in marine existence there is to be found the counterpart +always of some animate existence on earth, invertebrate or radiate, +in corresponding animals or insects, between whose habits and modes +of existence strong analogies are found. The shrimps that hang in +clusters on your hand under the water are but winged insects of the +air in another frame that have annoyed you on the land. + +Let me dismiss the subject with the brief account of a diver caught in +a trap. + +In the passion of blind destruction that followed and attended the +breaking out of hostilities between the North and the South, as a +child breaks his rival's playthings, the barbarism of war destroyed +the useful improvements of civilization. Among the things destroyed by +this iconoclastic fury was the valuable dry-dock in Pensacola Bay. It +was burned to the water's edge, and sunk. A company was subsequently +organized to rescue the wreck, and in the course of the submarine +labor occurred the incident to which I refer. + +The dry-dock was built in compartments, to ensure it against sinking, +but the ingenuity which was to keep it above water now served +effectually to keep it down. Each one of these small water-tight +compartments held the vessel fast to the bottom, as Gulliver was bound +by innumerable threads to the ground of Lilliput. It was necessary +to break severally into the lower side of each of these chambers, and +allow the water to flow evenly in all. The interior of the hull was +checkered by these boxes. Huge beams and cross-ties intersected +each other at right angles, forming the frame for this honeycombed +interior, pigeon-holed like a merchant's desk. It was necessary to +tear off the skin and penetrate from one to the other in order to +effect this. + +It was a difficult and tedious job under water. The net of +intersecting beams lay so close together that the passage between was +exceedingly narrow and compressed, barely admitting the diver's +body. The pens, so framed by intersecting beams, were narrowed and +straitened, embarrassing attempts at labor in them, which the cold, +slippery, serpent-like touch of the sea-water was not likely to make +pleasanter. It folded the shuddering body in its coils, and a most +ancient and fish-like smell did not improve the situation. The toil +was multiplied by the innumerable pigeon-holes, as if they fitted +into one another like a Chinese puzzle, with the unlucky diver in the +middle box. It was a nightmare of the sea, the furniture of a dream +solidified in woody fibre. + +Into one of these crowding holes the diver crawled. There was the +tedious work of tearing off the casing to occupy an hour or more, and +when it was accomplished he endeavored to back out of his situation. +He was stopped fast and tight in his regression. The arrangement of +the armor about the head and shoulders, making a cone whose apex was +the helmet, prevented his exit. It was like the barb of a harpoon, +and caught him fast in the wood. Such a danger is not sudden in its +revelation. There is at first only a feeling of impatience at the +embarrassment, a disposition to "tear things." In vain attempts at +doubling and other gymnastic feats the diver wasted several hours, +until his companions above became alarmed at the delay. They renewed +and increased their labors at the force-pump, and the impetuous +torrent came surging about the diver's ears. It served to complete +his danger. It sprung the trap in which he lay enclosed. The inflated +armor swelled and filled up the crowded spaces. It stiffened out the +casing of the helmet to equal the burden of fifty pounds to the square +inch, and made it as hard as iron. He was caught like the gluttonous +fox. The bulky volume of included air made exit impossible. It was no +longer a labyrinth as before, where freedom of motion incited courage: +he was in the fetters of wind and water, bound fast to the floor of +his dungeon den. He signaled for the pump to stop. It was the only +alternative. He might die without that life-giving air, but he would +certainly die if its volume was not reduced. The cock at the back +of the helmet for discharging the vessel was out of his reach. The +invention never contemplated a case in which the diver would perish +from the presence of air. + +As the armor worn was made tight at the sleeves with elastic +wristbands, his remedy was to insert his fingers under it, and slowly +and tediously allow the bubbling air to escape. In this he persevered +steadily, encouraged by the prospect of escape. The way was long and +difficult, but release certain with the reduction of that huge bulk. + +But a new and subtler danger attacked him--the very wit of Nature +brought to bear upon his force and ingenuity. It was as if the +mysterious sirens of the sea saw in that intellectual force the real +strength of their prisoner, and sought to steal it from him while they +lulled him to indifference. Inhaling and reinhaling the reduced volume +of air, it became carbonized and foul, not with the warning of sudden +oppression, but + + Sly as April melts to May, + And May slips into June. + +The senses, intoxicated by the new companion sent them by the lungs, +began to sport with it, as ignorant children with a loaded shell, +forgetful of duty and the critical condition of the man. They began to +wander in vagaries and delusions. A soft chime of distant bells rang +in his ears with the sweet sleepy service of a Sabbath afternoon; the +sound of hymns and the organ mingled with the melody and the chant of +the sirens of the sea. + + There is sweet music here that softer falls + Than petals from blown roses on the grass, + Or night-dew on still waters, between walls + Of shadowy granite in a gleaming pass-- + Music that gentler on the spirit lies + Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes. + Here are cool mosses deep, + And through the moss the ivies creep, + And in the stream the long-leaved flowers weep, + And from the craggy ledge the poppy hangs in sleep. + +The sensuous beauty, the infinite luxury of repose sung by the poet, +filled and steeped his senses. The desire to sleep was intoxicating, +delicious, irresistible; and with it ran delicious, restful thrills +through all his limbs, the narcotism of the blood. It was partly, +no doubt, the effect of inhaling that pernicious air; partly +that hibernation of the bear which in the freezing man precedes +dissolution; and possibly more than that, something more than any mere +physical cause--life perhaps preparing to lay this tired body down, +its future usefulness destroyed. + +This delicious enervation had to be constantly resisted and dominated +by a superior will. One more strenuous effort to relieve that +straitened garrison, to release that imprisoned and fettered body, +and then, if that failed, an unconditional surrender to the armies of +eternal steep. But it did not fail. That constant, persevering tugging +of the fingers at the wristbands, pursued mechanically in that strange +condition of pleasing stupor, had reduced the exaggerated distensions +of the bulbous head-gear. A stout, energetic push set the diver free, +and he was drawn to the surface dazed, drowsy, and only half conscious +of the peril undergone. But with the rush of fresh, untainted air to +the lungs came an emotion of gratitude to the Giver of life and the +full consciousness of escape. + +And this sums up my sketch illustrative of the peculiar character of +marine life, and the hazards of submarine adventure, hitherto known to +few, for--well, for _divers_ reasons. + +WILL WALLACE HARNEY. + + + + +CONFIDENTIAL. + + +My ear has ever been considered public property for private usage. I +cannot call to mind the time when I was not somebody's confidante, +the business beginning as far back as the winter I ran down to Aunt +Rally's to receive my birthday-party of sweet or bitter sixteen, as +will appear. + +Ralph Romer was the first to spread the news of my arrival in the +village among the girls of my own age. Ralph Romer it was who had +braved the dangers of "brier and brake" to find the bright holly +berries with which Aunt Hally had decorated the cheery little parlor +for the occasion; and it was with Ralph Romer I danced the oftenest on +that famous night. + +"Wouldn't I just step out on the porch a short little minute," he +whispered as he came around in the rear of Aunt Hally to bid me +good-night, ending the whisper, according to the style of all +boy-lovers, "I've got something to tell you." + +The door stood open and conveniently near, and I suppose I wanted to +see how high the snow had drifted since dark; and, a better reason +still, I couldn't afford to let Ralph take my hand off with him; and +so I had to go out on the porch just long enough to get it back, +while he said: "Ettie Moore says she loves me, and we are going to +correspond when I go back to college; and as you know all lovers +and their sweethearts must have a confidante to smuggle letters and +valentines across the lines, we have both chosen you for ours. Oh, I +was so afraid you wouldn't come!" + +I found the snow had drifted--well, I don't believe I knew how many +inches. + +I have not promised a recital of all my auricular experiences. Enough +to say, that in time I settled down into the conviction that it was +my special mission to be the receptacle of other people's secrets; and +they seemed determined to convince me that they thought so too. + +So, when Mr. Tennent Tremont happened along and became a candidate for +auricular favors, like a tradesman who has gained the self-sustaining +ground which has made him indifferent as to custom-seeking, I could +afford to be entirely independent about giving a previous promise to +keep his secrets for him; and so, dear reader, they are as much yours +as mine. + +When my brother introduced him into our family circle we took him +to be a Northern college-chum, met with during his +just-returned-from-trip to Washington; for it was in those days when +Southern hospitality was as much appreciated as it was liberally +bestowed. It was a good time for a modest stranger to come among new +faces. We were in the flutter and bustle which a wedding in the family +makes, and it gave him an opportunity to get used to us, and left us +none to observe him unpleasantly much. + +But when the wedding was over, and I had made up my week of lost +sleep, and he and my brother had kept themselves out of the way on a +camp-hunt, for my mother to do up her week of house-cleaning,--it is +here that our story proper begins. + +As we were leaving the breakfast-table one morning my brother caught +my dress-sleeve, and, dropping in the rear of Mr. Tennent Tremont, +allowed him to find the verandah: "Really, sis, I don't think you are +doing the clever thing, quite." + +"How?" + +"Why, in not helping me to entertain my friend." + +"Getting tired of him?" + +"No, he isn't one of that kind; but, to tell the truth, I am too busy +just now to give him the whole of my time." + +"Too busy turning your own cakes. Yes, I see." + +"Which is no more than my sister is doing; which reminds me to say +that J.B. will call this morning, he desired me to inform you. But, +dear sis, we must not be so absorbed in our own love-matters as to +give my friend only a moiety of our attention, for, poor fellow! he +has one of his own." + +"So I am to bore him for the sake of relieving you? Is that my role?" + +"Now stop! He simply wants a lady confidante." + +I broke away from my brother's hold, and ran up to my room to see if +all was right for my expected caller, giving my right ear a pull, by +way of saying to that victimized organ, "You are needed." + +And what think you I did next? Got out my embroidery-material bag, and +put it in order for action at a moment's warning. I was prepared for a +reasonable amount of martyrdom pertaining to my profession, but I was +always an economist of time, and not another unemployed hour would I +yield to the selfish demands of my forthcoming job. + +The next day was one of November drizzle, the house confinement of +which, my adroit brother declared, could only be mitigated by my +presence in the sitting-room until the improved state of the weather +allowed their escape from it. + +I was in the habit of appropriating such weather to my piano, and I +had not touched it for a month. Whether Mr. Tennent Tremont's nerves +were in a sound state or not, I was determined to practice until +twelve. But when he came in from the library and assisted me in +opening the instrument, I was obliged to ask him what he would have. +They were my first direct words to him, our three weeks' guest. + +"Oh, 'Summer Night' is a favorite," he said. + +I gave him the song, and then executed the long variations; then, +dropping my tired hands in my lap, inquired whether he liked vocal or +instrumental best. + +"Not any more of either, just now, thanking you kindly for what you +have given me," he said. "Have you ever been a confidante, Miss ----?" + +"That is my vocation, Mr. Tremont," I replied, grasping my bag. + +"Which? your embroidery or--" + +"Both combined," I tried to say pleasantly, "as on this occasion. I am +at Mr. Tremont's service;" and I threaded my tapestry-needle. + +Without a prefatory word he began: "Years before your young heart was +awakened to 'the sweetest joy, the wildest woe,' I loved." + +"And single yet!" I exclaimed as I let my hands drop and glanced up +at his brown hair, to see if all those years had left their silver +footprints there. + +"And single yet," he repeated slowly, "and still worshiping at the +same shrine; and to no other will I ever bow until this head is +silvered o'er, and this strong arm palsied with the infirmities of +age--if a long life is indeed to be mine." + +His ardor startled me, but I managed to stitch away composedly, and he +went on: + +"I know it is in the highest degree selfish to inflict on you a +recital of what may not interest you; but I have tried to keep my +secret buried from human eyes, from all but _hers_, and you are now +the only being on earth to whom I have ever _said_, 'I love.' As +intimate as I have been with your brother, if he knows it, it is by +his penetration, for no word of acknowledgment has ever passed my lips +before. May I go on?" he asked. + +"Oh yes," I answered, taken by surprise. "I suppose so. It is a relief +to talk, and to listen, I have told you, is my vocation." + +"How long can you listen?" he questioned in delighted eagerness. + +I fancied he would have to be allowanced, and I held up my paper +pattern before me: "This bouquet of flowers is to be transferred. +I will give you all the time it will take to do it. Remember, the +catastrophe must be reached by that time. Some one else will probably +want my ear." + +"But," said he, "listening is not the only duty of a confidante: you +must aid me by your counsel. Only a woman may say how a woman may be +won." + +"You have my sympathies, Mr. Tremont, on the score of your being a +very dear brother's friend. I know nothing of her--next to nothing of +you. I can neither counsel nor aid you." + +"That brother is familiar with every page of my outward life-history. +It was in our family he spent his vacation, while you and your father +were traveling in Europe." + +"Well, then, that will do about yourself. Now about her?" + +The door-bell was rung: the waiter announced--well, my obliging +brother has already given enough of his name--"Mr. J.B." My confessor +withdrew. + +The next morning, as I was bringing the freshened flower-vases into +the sitting-room, he brought me my bag, saying, "Now about her." + +I opened the piano, repeated his favorite, kept my seat and cultivated +my roses vigorously. + +"Miss ----," he began, "I would not knowingly give pain to a human +creature. Yesterday, when your visitor found me by your side, I +observed a frown on his face. I detest obtrusiveness, but if there is +anything in the relation in which you stand to each other which will +make my attentions objectionable to either of you, they shall cease +this moment. You are at perfect liberty to repeat to him every word I +have said to you." + +"I thank you sincerely for your considerateness," I said. "I am under +no obligations of the kind to him or any other gentleman." + +He introduced his topic by saying: "I am glad that I shall have to +say little more of myself. Oh, what a strange joy it is to be able to +speak unreservedly of her, and of the long pent-up hopes and fears +of the past years! And now, if you will assist me in interpreting +her conduct toward me--if you will inspire me with even faint hope +of success--if you will advise me as you would a brother how to +proceed,--gratitude will be too weak a word for my feeling toward you +for the remainder of my life." + +"I have not yet sufficient light on her part of the affair to aid you +by advice," I answered. "In these slowly-developing love-affairs +there is usually but one great hindering cause. Do you know," I said, +laughing as much as I dared, looking into his woebegone face, "that +you have not told me what has passed between you?" + +His moment or two of death silence made me almost regret my last +words. + +"In the first of our acquaintance I was ever tortured by her +indifference. My first attentions were quietly received, never +encouraged. Then came the still more torturing fear--agony let me call +it--lest she was pre-engaged. Thank God! that burden was lifted from +my poor heart, but only, it seemed, to make room for the very one of +all in the catalogue of causes by which a lover's hope dies beyond the +possibility of a resurrection. It is the rock--no, I fear the +placid waters of friendship into which my freighted bark is now +drifting--which may lie between it and the bright isle of love, the +safe harbor" (he shuddered), "not the blissful possession." + +Reader, the roses were not growing under my needle: my sympathies were +at last fully enlisted. + +"You have well said," I answered. "Friendship is the 'nine notch' +in which a lover makes 'no count' in the game of hearts. But steer +bravely past these dark gulfs of despair. Have you ever had recourse +to jealousy in your desperation?" I queried. + +"I scorn such a base ally. Your brother can tell you I am here partly +because I would avoid increasing an affection in another which I +cannot return." + +"Does she know of that?" I asked, not at all prepared in my own mind +to yield the potency of the ally in my sincere desire to aid him by +this test of a woman's affection. + +"Yes: I have no reason, however, for thinking that the fact has raised +her estimate of the article," he said, making a poor attempt to smile. + +I felt ashamed of my suggestion, and said quickly, "You correspond, +of course: how are her letters?" Now I was sure of my safest clue in +finding her out. + +"It was through the medium of her letters that I first obtained my +knowledge of her mind, her temperament, her disposition, her admirable +domestic virtues; for they were written without reserve. They excited +my highest admiration; they stimulated my desire to know more of her; +but they contain no word of love for me." + +His want of boldness almost excited my contempt. My skill was baffled +on every side, and, not caring much to conceal my impatience, I said, +"You have asked me to advise you as I would my brother. She is cold +and selfish: give her up." + +"Give her up!" he said with measured and emphatic slowness--"give +her up, when I have sought her beneath every clime on which the sun +shines--not for months, but for years? Give her up, when her presence +gives me all I have ever known of happiness? Give her up!" and he +leaned his head on the back of his chair and closed his eyes. + +I had imagined him gifted with wonderful self-control, but when I +looked up from my work all color had faded from his cheeks, the lips +seemed ready to yield the little blood left there by the clinch of the +white-teeth upon them, while every muscle of the face quivered with +spasmodic effort to control emotion. When the eyes were opened and +fixed on the ceiling, I saw no trace in them of anger, revenge, or +even of wounded pride. They were full of tears, ready to gush in one +last flood-tide of feeling over a subdued, chastened, but breaking +heart. + +It was very evident that my treatment was not adding much comfort to +my patient, however salutary it might prove in the end. I knew of his +intention to leave the next day: there was little time left me to aid +him, and I had come to regard the unknown woman's mysterious nature or +strategic warfare as pitted against my superior penetration. That +he might be victorious she must be vanquished. _She_ was, then, my +antagonist. + +The deepening twilight was producing chilliness. I flooded the room +with brilliant light, stirred the grate into glowing warmth, and +invited him to a seat near the fire. + +"You will not leave me, will you? This may be--_it will be_--my last +demand on you as a confidante. How is the bouquet progressing?" he +asked. + +"See," I said, holding my embroidery up before me: "we must hurry. I +have but one more tendril to add." + +"Tendrils are clinging things, like hope, are they not?" he said +pensively. + +But sentimentalizing was not the business of the hour, and I intimated +as much to him. "Yes," I replied, "but hope must now give place to +effort. I see you are not going to take my 'give-her-up' advice." + +"No--only from her who has the right to give it." + +I now considered my patient out of danger. + +"Then why do you torture yourself longer with doubts? Perhaps your +irresolution has caused a want of confidence in the strength of +your affection. At least give her an opportunity to define her true +position toward you. Beard the lions of indifference and friendship in +their dens, and do not yield to unmanly cowardice. Strange that I have +given you the counsel last which should have been given first! But do +not, I beseech you, lose any time in seeking her. Assure her of your +long and unwavering devotion. Constancy is the most valued word in a +true woman's vocabulary. You have staked too much happiness to lose: +you _must_ win." + +"And if I lose," he said--holding up something before him which I +took to be a picture, though it was in the shape of a heart--"and if +I lose, then perish all of earth to me. But leave me only this, and +should I hold you thus, and gaze on what I have first and last and +only loved until this perishable material on which I have placed you +turn to dust, still will you be graven on a heart whose deathless love +can know no death; for a thing so holy as the love I bear you was not +made to die." + +My work--now my completed work--dropped beneath my fingers, for the +last stitch was taken. + +If I could not prevent his self-torture, he should not, at least, +torture me longer; and snatching the thing from his grasp, I exclaimed +as I closed my hands over it, "Now, before I return it, you must, you +_shall_, promise me that you will take the last advice I gave you; or +will you allow me to look at it, and then unseal the silent lips +and give you the prophetic little 'yes' or 'no' which a professed +physiognomist like your confidante can always read in the eye?" + +"I would rather you did the last," he said; and I rose, leaned my +elbow on the corner of the mantel nearest the gaslight, rested my head +on my empty hand, so as to shade my eyes from the intensity of the +brilliant burner near me, and with the awe creeping over me with +which the old astrologers read the horoscope of the midnight stars, +I looked, and saw--only a wonderfully faithful copy of the portrait +hanging just over me, of which Mr. Tennent Tremont's confidante was +the original. I threw it from me, and burst into tears. He stood quite +near me. I thought I hated him, but my obtuse, blundering, idiotic +self more than him. I waved my hand in token either of his silence or +withdrawal, for in all my life long I, with a whole dictionary in +my mind of abusive epithets, was never more at a loss for a word. My +token was unheeded. + +He only murmured softly, + + I had never seen thee weeping: + I cannot leave thee now. + +When you snatched my picture from me a moment ago I saw a glistening +tear of sympathy in your eye; but what are these?" + +"So cruel! so ungenerous! so unfair!" I said, still pressing my hands +tightly over my eyes. "How can I ever forgive you?" + +With softer murmur than the last he repeated the words, + + "'Tis sweet to let the pardoned in." + +"Astounding presumption that!" I said, now giving him the benefit of +my full gaze--"to speak of pardon before making a confession of +your guilt! But before I give you time even for that, the remaining +mysteries which still hang around your tale of woe shall be cleared +up. Please to inform the court how the original of your purloined +sketch could have been the object of years of devotion, when it has +been only four weeks to-day since you laid your mortal eyes on her?" + +"Ah! you may well say mortal; but you know the soul too has its visual +organs. I saw and loved and worshiped my ideal in those years, and +sought her too--how unceasingly!--and I said, + + Only for the real will I with the ideal part: + Another shall not even tempt my heart. + +When I saw her just four weeks since, I knew her, + + And my heart responded as, with unseen wings, + An angel touched its unswept strings, + And whispers in its song, + Where hast thou strayed so long?" + +But the avenging demon of curiosity was not to be exorcised by +sentimental evasion: "Those letters, sir, of which you spoke, _they_ +must have been of a real, tangible form--not a part of the mythical +phantasmagoria of your idealistic vision." + +He laughed as a light-hearted child would, but knitted his brow with +a perplexed air as he said, "Why don't the British government send +a woman to find the source of the Nile? I must thank your +unsophisticated brother's pride in his sister's epistolary +accomplishments for my privilege of perusal. What next?" + +I thought a moment. Before, I had fifty other queries to propound, but +now as I looked into the glowing anthracite before me which gave us +those pleasant Reveries, they very naturally all resolved themselves +into explained mysteries without his aid. + +He insists that the "prophetic little yes or no" never came. + +Upon my honor, dear reader, as a confidante, I still think it the +most unfair procedure which ever "disgraced the annals of civilized +warfare;" but I shall have abundant opportunity for revenge, for we +are to make the journey of life together. + + + + +GLIMPSES OF JOHN CHINAMAN. + + +When John Marshall picked up the first golden nugget in California, +a call was sounded for the gathering of an immense gold-seeking +army made up of many nationalities; and among the rest China sent a +battalion some fifty thousand strong. + +John Chinaman has remained with us ever since, despised and abused, +being neither a co-worshiper nor a co-sympathizer in aught save +the getting of gold. In dress, custom and language his is still a +nationality as distinct from ours as are the waters of the Gulf Stream +from those of the ocean. + +It is possible that this may be but the second migration of Tartars to +the American shore. It is possible that the North American Indian and +the Chinaman may be identical in origin and race. Close observers find +among the aboriginal tribes resident far up on the north-west American +coast peculiar habits and customs, having closely-allied types among +the Chinese. The features of the Aleuts, the natives of the Aleutian +Islands, are said to approximate closely to those of the Mongolians. +The unvarying long black hair, variously-shaded brown skin, beardless +face and shaven head are points, natural and artificial, common to +the Indian and Mongolian. There is a hint of common custom between the +Indian scalplock and Chinese cue. + +"John" has been a thorough gleaner of the mines. The "superior race" +allowed him to make no valuable discoveries. He could buy their +half-worked-out placers. The "river-bed" they sold him when its +chances of yielding were deemed desperate. When the golden fruitage +of the banks was reduced to a dollar per day, they became "China +diggings." But wherever "John" settled he worked steadily, patiently +and systematically, no matter whether his ten or twelve hours' labor +brought fifty cents or fifty dollars; for his industry is of an +untiring mechanical character. In the earlier and flusher days of +California's gold-harvest the white man worked spasmodically. He +was ever leaving the five-dollar diggings in hand for the fifty- or +hundred-dollar-per-day claims afar off in some imaginary bush. These +golden rumors were always on the wing. The country was but half +explored, and many localities were rich in mystery. The white vanguard +pushed north, south and east, frequently enduring privation and +suffering. "John," in comparative comfort, trotted patiently after, +carrying his snugly made-up bundle of provisions and blankets at one +end of a bamboo pole, his pick, shovel, pan and rocker at the other, +to work over the leavings. The leavings sometimes turned out more gold +than "new ground," much to the chagrin of the impatient Caucasian. But +John, according to his own testimony, never owned a rich claim. Ask +him how much it yielded per day, and he would tell you, "sometimes +four, sometimes six bittee" (four or six shillings). He had many +inducements for prevarication. Nearly every white man's hand was +against him. If he found a bit of rich ground, "jumpers" were ready to +drive him from it: Mexicans waylaid him and robbed him of his dust. In +remote localities he enclosed his camp by strong stockades: even these +were sometimes forced and carried at night by bands of desperadoes. +Lastly came the foreign miner's tax-collector, with his demand of four +dollars monthly per man for the privilege of digging gold. There +were hundreds and thousands of other foreign laborers in the +mines--English, German, French, Italian and Portuguese--but they paid +little or none of this tax, for they might soon be entitled to a vote, +and the tax-collector was appointed by the sheriff of the county, and +the sheriff, like other officials, craved a re-election. But John was +never to be a voter, and so he shouldered the whole of this load, and +when he could not pay, the official beat him and took away his tools. +John often fought this persecutor by strategy. In localities where no +white men would betray him he signalized his coming from afar. From +the crags of Red Mountain on the Tuolumne River I have often seen the +white flag waved as the dreaded collector came down the steep trail +to collect his monthly dues. That signal or a puff of smoke told the +Chinese for miles along the river-valley to conceal themselves from +the "license-man." Rockers, picks and shovels were hastily thrust into +clumps of chapparal, and their owners clambered up the hillsides +into artificial caves or leafy coverts. Out of companies of fifty +the collector finds but twenty men at work. These pay their tax, the +official rides on down the river, the hidden thirty Mongolians emerge +from cover; and more than once has a keen collector "doubled on them" +by coming back unexpectedly and detecting the entire gang on their +claim. + +John has been invaluable to the California demagogue, furnishing +for him a sop of hatred and prejudice to throw before "enlightened +constituencies." It needs but to mention the "filthy Chinaman" to +provoke an angry roar from the mass-meeting. Yet the Chinaman is +not entirely filthy. He washes his entire person every day when +practicable; he loves clean clothes; his kitchen-utensils will bear +inspection. When the smallpox raged so severely in San Francisco a few +years since, there were very few deaths among his race. But John +_is_ not nice about his house. He seems to have none of our ideas +concerning home comfort. Smoke has no terror for him; soap he keeps +entirely for his clothes and person; floor-and wall-washing are things +never hinted at; and the refuse of his table is scarcely thrown out +of doors. Privacy is not one of his luxuries--he wants a house full: +where there is room for a bunk, there is room for a man. An anthill, +a beehive, a rabbit-warren are his models of domestic comfort: what is +stinted room for two Americans is spaciousness for a dozen Chinese. +Go into one of their cabins at night, and you are in an oven full of +opium- and lamp-smoke. Recumbent forms are dimly seen lying on bunks +above and below. The chattering is incessant. Stay there ten minutes, +and as your eye becomes accustomed to the smoke you will dimly see +blue bundles lying on shelves aloft. Anon the bundles stir, talk and +puff smoke. Above is a loft six feet square: a ladder brings it in +communication with the ground floor. Mongolians are ever coming down, +but the gabble of tongues above shows that a host is still left. Like +an omnibus, a Chinese house is never full. Nor is it ever quiet. At +all hours of the night may be heard their talk and the clatter of +their wooden shoes. A Chinaman does not retire like an American, +intending to make a serious business of his night's sleeping. He +merely "lops down" half dressed, and is ready to arise at the least +call of business or pleasure. + +While at work in his claim his fire is always kindled near by, and +over it a tea-pot. This is his beverage every half hour. His tea must +be hot, strong and without milk or sugar. He also consumes a terrible +mixture sold him by white traders, called indiscriminately brandy, gin +or whisky, yet an intoxicated Chinaman is the rarest of rare sights. +Rice he can cook elegantly, every grain being steamed to its utmost +degree of distension. Soup he makes of no other meat than pork. The +poorest among his hordes must have a chicken or duck for his holiday. +He eats it merely parboiled. He will eat dog also, providing it is not +long past maturity. + +The Chinese grocery-stores are museums to the American. There are +strange dried roots, strange dried fish, strange dried land and marine +plants, ducks and chickens, split, pressed thin and smoked; dried +shellfish; cakes newly made, yellow, glutinous and fatty, stamped with +tea-box characters; and great earthen jars filled with rottenness. I +speak correctly if perhaps too forcibly, for when those imposing jars +are opened to serve a customer with some manner of vegetable cut in +long strips, the native-born American finds it expedient to hold +his nose. American storekeepers in the mines deal largely in Chinese +goods. They know the Mongolian names of the articles inquired for, +but of their character, their composition, how they are cooked or +how eaten, they can give no information. It is heathenish "truck," by +whose sale they make a profit. Only that and nothing more. + +A Chinese miner's house is generally a conglomeration of old boards, +mats, brush, canvas and stones. Rusty sheets of tin sometimes help to +form the edifice. Anything lying about loose in the neighborhood is +certain in time to form a part of the Mongolian mansion. + +When the white man abandons mining-ground he often leaves behind very +serviceable frame houses. John comes along to glean the gold left by +the Caucasian. He builds a cluster of shapeless huts. The deserted +white man's house gradually disappears. A clapboard is gone, and then +another, and finally all. The skeleton of the frame remains: months +pass away; piece by piece the joists disappear; some morning they are +found tumbled in a heap, and at last nothing is left save the cellar +and chimneys. Meantime, John's clusters of huts swell their rude +proportions, but you must examine them narrowly to detect any traces +of your vanished house, for he revels in smoke, and everything about +him is soon colored to a hue much resembling his own brownish-yellow +countenance. Thus he picks the domiciliary skeleton bare, and then +carries off the bones. He is a quiet but skillful plunderer. John No. +1 on his way home from his mining-claim rips off a board; John No. +2 next day drags it a few yards from the house. John No. 3 a week +afterward drags it home. In this manner the dissolution of your +house is protracted for months. In this manner he distributes the +responsibility of the theft over his entire community. I have seen a +large boarding-house disappear in this way, and when the owner, after +a year's absence, revisited the spot to look after his property, he +found his real estate reduced to a cellar. + +John himself is a sort of museum in his character and habits. We must +be pardoned for giving details of these, mingled promiscuously, +rather after the museum style. His New Year comes in February. For +the Chinaman of limited means it lasts a week, for the wealthy it may +endure three. His consumption of fire-crackers during that period is +immense. He burns strings a yard in length suspended from poles over +his balconies. The uproar and sputtering consequent on this festivity +in the Chinese quarter at San Francisco is tremendous. The city +authorities limit this Celestial Pandemonium to a week. + +He does not forsake the amusement of kite-flying even when arrived at +maturity. His artistic imitations of birds and dragons float over +our housetops. To these are often affixed contrivances for producing +hollow, mournful, buzzing sounds, mystifying whole neighborhoods. +His game of shuttlecock is to keep a cork, one end being stuck with +feathers, flying in the air as long as possible, the impelling member +being the foot, the players standing in a circle and numbering from +four to twenty. Some show great dexterity in kicking with the heel. +His vocal music to our ears seems a monotonous caterwaul. His violin +has but one string: his execution is merely a modified species of +saw-filing. + +He loves to gamble, especially in lotteries. He is a diligent student +of his own comfort. Traveling on foot during a hot day, he protects +himself with an umbrella and refreshes himself with a fan. In place of +prosaic signs on his store-fronts, he often inscribes quotations from +his favorite authors. + +He is a lover of flowers. His balconies and window-sills are often +thickly packed with shrubs and creepers in pots. He is not a speedy +and taciturn eater. His tea-table talks are full of noisy jollity, and +are often prolonged far into the night. + +He is a lover of the drama. A single play sometimes requires months +for representation, being, like a serial story, "continued" night +after night. He never dances. There is no melody in the Mongolian +foot. Dancing he regards as a species of Caucasian insanity. + +To make an oath binding he must swear by the head of a cock cut off +before him in open court. Chinese testimony is not admissible in +American courts. It is a legal California axiom that a Chinaman +cannot speak the truth. But cases have occurred wherein, he being an +eye-witness, the desire to hear what he _might_ tell as to what he had +seen has proved stronger than the prejudice against him; and the more +effectually to clinch the chances of his telling the truth, the above, +his national form of oath, has been resorted to. He has among us some +secret government of his own. Before his secret tribunals more than +one Mongolian has been hurried in Star-Chamber fashion, and never +seen afterward. The nature of the offences thus visited by secret and +bloody punishment is scarcely known to Americans. He has two chief +deities--a god and a devil. Most of his prayers are offered to his +devil. His god, he says, being good and well-disposed, it is not +necessary to propitiate him. But his devil is ugly, and must be won +over by offering and petition. Once a year, wherever collected in any +number, he builds a flimsy sort of temple, decorates it with ornaments +of tinsel, lays piles of fruit, meats and sugared delicacies on an +altar, keeps up night and day a steady crash of gongs, and installs +therein some great, uncouth wooden idols. When this period of worship +is over the "josh-house" disappears, and the idols are unceremoniously +stowed away among other useless lumber. + +He shaves with an instrument resembling a butcher's cleaver in +miniature. Nature generally denies him beard, so he shaves what a +sailor would term the fore and after part of his head. He reaps his +hirsute crop dry, using no lather. His cue is pieced out by silken +braid, so interwoven as gradually to taper into a slim tassel, +something like a Missouri mule-driver's "black snake" whip-lash. To +lose this cue is to lose caste and standing among his fellows. No +misfortune for him can be greater. + +Coarse cowhide boots are the only articles of American wear that he +favors. He inclines to buy the largest sizes, thinking he thereby gets +the most for his money, and when his No. 7 feet wobble and chafe in +No. 12 boots he complains that they "fit too much." + +He cultivates the vegetables of his native land in California. They +are curiosities like himself. One resembles our string-bean, but is +circular in shape and from two to three feet in length. It is not +in the least stringy, breaks off short and crisp, boils tender very +quickly and affords excellent eating. He is a very careful cultivator, +and will spend hours picking off dead leaves and insects from the +young plants. When he finds a dead cat, rat, dog or chicken, he throws +it into a small vat of water, allows it to decompose, and sprinkles +the liquid fertilizer thus obtained over his plantation. Watermelon +and pumpkin seeds are for him dessert delicacies. He consumes his +garden products about half cooked in an American culinary point of +view, merely wilting them by an immersion in boiling water. + +There are about fifteen English words to be learned by a Chinaman on +arriving in California, and no more. With these he expresses all his +wants, and with this limited stock you must learn to convey all that +is needful to him. The practice thus forced upon one in employing +a Chinese servant is useful in preventing a circumlocutory habit of +speech. Many of our letters the Mongolian mouth has no capacity for +sounding. _R_ he invariably sounds like _l_, so that the word "rice" +he pronounces "lice"--a bit of information which may prevent an +unpleasant apprehension when you come to employ a Chinese cook. He +rejects the English personal pronoun I, and uses the possessive "my" +in its place; thus, "My go home," in place of "I go home." + +When he buries a countryman he throws from the hearse into the +air handfuls of brown tissue-paper slips, punctured with Chinese +characters. Sometimes, at his burial-processions, he gives a small +piece of money to every person met on the road. Over the grave he +beats gongs and sets off packs of fire-crackers. On it he leaves +cooked meats, drink, delicacies and lighted wax tapers. Eventually the +bones are disinterred and shipped to his native land. In the remotest +mining-districts of California are found Chinese graves thus opened +and emptied of their inmates. I have in one instance seen him, so +far as he was permitted, render some of these funeral honors to an +American. The deceased had gained this honor by treating the Chinese +as though they were partners in our common humanity. "Missa Tom," as +he was termed by them, they knew they could trust. He acquired among +them a reputation as the one righteous American in their California +Gomorrah. Chinamen would come to him from distant localities, that +he might overlook their bills of sale and other documents used in +business intercourse with the white man. Their need of such, an honest +adviser was great. The descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers often took +advantage of their ignorance of the English language, written or +spoken. "Missa Tom" suddenly died. I had occasion to visit his farm a +few days after his death, and on the first night of my stay there saw +the array of meats, fruit, wine and burning tapers on a table in front +of the house, which his Chinese friends told me was intended as an +offering to "Missa Tom's" spirit. + +We will dive for a moment into a Chinese wash-cellar. "John" does +three-fourths of the washing of California. His lavatories are on +every street. "Hip Tee, Washing and Ironing," says the sign, evidently +the first production of an amateur in lettering. Two doors above is +the establishment of Tong Wash--two below, that of Hi Sing. Hip Tee +and five assistants are busy ironing. The odor is a trinity of steam, +damp clothes and opium. More Mongolian tongues are heard from smoky +recesses in the rear. As we enter, Hip Tee is blowing a shower of +moisture from his mouth, "very like a whale." This is his method +of dampening the linen preparatory to ironing. It is a skilled +performance. The fluid leaves his lips as fine as mist. If we are on +business we leave our bundles, and in return receive a ticket covered +with hieroglyphics. These indicate the kind and number of the garments +left to be cleansed, and some distinguishing mark (supposing this +to be our first patronage of Hip Tee) by which we may be again +identified. It may be by a pug nose, a hare lip, red hair, no hair or +squint eyes. They never ask one's name, for they can neither pronounce +nor write it when it is given. The ticket is an unintelligible tracery +of lines, curves, dots and dashes, made by a brush dipped in India +ink on a shred of flimsy Chinese paper. It may teem with abuse and +ridicule, but you must pocket all that, and produce it on calling +again, or your shirts and collars go into the Chinese Circumlocution +Wash-house Office. It is very difficult getting one's clothes back if +the ticket be lost--very. Hip Tee now dabs a duplicate of your ticket +in a long book, and all is over. You will call on Saturday night for +your linen. You do so. There is apparently the same cellar, the same +smell of steam, damp clothes and opium, the same sputter of sprinkling +water, and apparently the same Hip Tee and assistants with brown +shaven foreheads and long cues hanging straight down behind or coiled +in snake-like fashion about their craniums. You present your ticket. +Hip Tee examines it and shakes his head. "No good--oder man," he says, +and points up the street. You are now perplexed and somewhat alarmed. +You say: "John, I want my clothes. I left them here last Monday. You +gave me that ticket." "No," replies Hip Tee very decidedly, "oder +man;" and again he waves his arm upward. Then you are wroth. You +abuse, expostulate, entreat, and talk a great deal of English, and +some of it very strong English, which Hip Tee does not understand; +and Hip Tee talks a great deal of Chinese, and perhaps strong Chinese, +which you do not understand. You commence sentences in broken Chinese +and terminate them in unbroken English. Hip Tee commences sentences +in broken English and terminates them in pure Chinese, from a like +inability to express his indignation in a foreign tongue. "What for +you no go oder man? No my ticket--tung sung lung, ya hip kee--_ping!"_ +he cries; and all this time the assistants are industriously ironing +and spouting mist, and leisurely making remarks in their sing-song +unintelligibility which you feel have uncomplimentary reference to +yourself. Suddenly a light breaks upon you. This is not Hip Tee's +cellar, this is not Hip Tee. It is the establishment of Hi Sing. This +is Hi Sing himself who for the last half hour has been endeavoring +with his stock of fifteen English words to make you understand that +you are in the wrong house. But these Chinese, as to faces and their +wash-houses, and all the paraphernalia of their wash-houses, are so +much alike that this is an easy mistake to make. You find the lavatory +of Hip Tee, who pronounces the hieroglyphics all correct, and delivers +you your lost and found shirts clean, with half the buttons broken, +and the bosoms pounded, scrubbed and frayed into an irregular sort of +embroidery. + +"He can only dig, cook and wash," said the American miner +contemptuously years ago: "he can't work rock." To work rock in mining +parlance is to be skillful in boring Earth's stony husk after mineral. +It is to be proficient in sledging, drilling and blasting. The +Chinaman seemed to have no aptitude for this labor. He was content to +use his pick and shovel in the gravel-banks: metallic veins of gold, +silver or copper he left entirely to the white man. + +Yet it was a great mistake to suppose he could not "work rock," or +do anything else required of him. John is a most apt and intelligent +labor-machine. Show him once your tactics in any operation, and ever +after he imitates them as accurately as does the parrot its memorized +sentences. So when the Pacific Railroad was being bored through the +hard granite of the Sierras it was John who handled the drill and +sledge as well as the white laborer. He was hurled by thousands on +that immense work, and it was the tawny hand of China that hewed out +hundreds of miles for the transcontinental pathway. Nor is this +all. He is crowding into one avenue of employment after another in +California. He fills our woolen- and silk-mills; he makes slippers and +binds shoes; he is skilled in the use of the sewing-machine; cellar +after cellar in San Francisco is filled with these Celestial brownies +rolling cigars; his fishing-nets are in every bay and inlet; he is +employed in scores of the lesser establishments for preserving fruit, +grinding salt, making matches, etc. He would quickly jump into the +places of the carpenter, mason and blacksmith were he allowed, for +there are numbers of them whose knowledge of these and other trades is +sufficient at least to render them useful as assistants. He is handy +on shipboard: the Panama steamers carry Chinese foremast hands. He is +preferred as a house-servant: the Chinese boy of fourteen or sixteen +learns quickly to cook and wash in American fashion. He is neat +in person, can be easily ruled, does not set up an independent +sovereignty in the kitchen, has no followers, will not outshine +his mistress in attire; and, although not perfect, yet affords a +refreshing change from our Milesian tyrants of the roast and wash-tub. +But when you catch this Celestial domestic treasure, be sure that the +first culinary operations performed for his instruction are correctly +manipulated, for his imitativeness is of a cast-iron rigidity. Once +in the mould, it can only with great difficulty be altered. Burn your +toast or your pudding, and he is apt to regard the accident as the +rule. + +The young Chinese, especially in San Francisco, are anxious to acquire +an English education. They may not attend the public schools. A few +years since certain Chinese mission-schools were established by the +joint efforts of several religious denominations. Young ladies and +gentlemen volunteered their services on Sunday to teach these Chinese +children to read. They make eager, apt and docile pupils. Great is +their pride on mastering a few lines of English text. They become much +attached to their teachers, and it is possible, if the vote of the +latter were taken, it would evidence more liking for their yellow, +long-cued pupils than for any class of white children. But while so +assiduous to learn, it is rather doubtful whether much real religious +impression is made upon them. It is possible that their home-training +negatives that. + +We have spoken entirely of the Chinaman. What of the Chinawoman in +America? In California the word "Chinawoman" is synonymous with what +is most vile and disgusting. Few, very few, of a respectable class +are in the State. The slums of London and New York are as respectable +thoroughfares compared with the rows of "China alleys" in the heart of +San Francisco. These can hardly be termed "abandoned women." They +have had no sense of virtue, propriety or decency to abandon. They are +ignorant of the disgrace of their calling: if the term may be allowed, +they pursue it innocently. Many are scarcely more than children. They +are mere commodities, being by their own countrymen bought in China, +shipped and consigned to factors in California, and there sold for a +term of years. + +The Chinaman has bitter enemies in San Francisco: they thirst to +annihilate him. He is accustomed to blows and brickbats; he is +legitimate game for rowdies, both grown and juvenile; and children +supposed to be better trained can scarce resist the temptation of +snatching at his pig-tail as he passes through their groups in front +of the public schools. Even on Sundays nice little boys coming from +Sabbath-school, with their catechisms tucked under their jackets, +and texts enjoining mercy and gentleness fresh upon their lips, will +sometimes salute the benighted heathen as he passes by with a volley +of stones. If he turns on his small assailants, he is apt to meet +larger ones. Men are not wanting, ready and panting, to take up the +quarrel thus wantonly commenced by the offspring of the "superior +race." There are hundreds of families, who came over the sea to seek +in America the comfort and prosperity denied them in the land of their +birth, whose children from earliest infancy are inculcated with the +sentiment that the Chinaman is a dog, a pest and a curse. On the +occasion of William H. Seward's visit to a San Francisco theatre, two +Chinese merchants were hissed and hooted by the gallery mob from a +box which they had ventured to occupy. This assumption of style and +exclusiveness proved very offensive to the shirt-sleeved, upper-tier +representatives of the "superior race," who had assembled in large +numbers to catch a glimpse of one of the black man's great champions. +Ethiopia could have sat in that box in perfect safety, but China in +such a place was the red rag rousing the ire of the Democratic bull. +John has a story of his own to carry back home from a Christian land. + +For this prejudice and hostility there are provocative causes, +although they may not be urged in extenuation. The Chinaman is a +dangerous competitor for the white laborer; and when the latter, with +other and smaller mouths to feed, once gets the idea implanted in +his mind that the bread is being taken from them by what he deems a +semi-human heathen, whose beliefs, habits, appearance and customs are +distasteful to him, there are all the conditions ready for a state +of mind toward the almond-eyed Oriental which leans far away from +brotherly love. + +Brotherly love sometimes depends on circumstances. "Am I not a man and +brother?" cries John from his native shore. "Certainly," we respond. +Pass round the hat--let us take up a contribution for the conversion +of the poor heathen. The coins clink thickly in the bottom of the +charitable chapeau. We return home, feeling ourselves raised an inch +higher heavenward. + +"Am I not a man and brother?" cries John in our midst, digging our +gold, setting up opposition laundries and wheeling sand at half a +dollar per day less wages. "No. Get out, ye long-tailed baste! An' wad +ye put me on a livil with that--that baboon?" Pass round the hat. +The coins mass themselves more thickly than ever. For what? To buy +muskets, powder and ball. Wherefore? Wait! More than once has the +demagogue cried, "Drive them into the sea!" + +PRENTICE MULFORD. + + + + +A WINTER REVERIE. + + + We stood amid the rustling gloom alone + That night, while from the blue plains overhead, + With golden kisses thickly overblown, + A shooting star into the darkness sped. + "'Twas like Persephone, who ran," we said, + "Away from Love." The grass sprang round our feet, + The purple lilacs in the dusk smelled sweet, + And the black demon of the train sped by, + Rousing the still air with his long, loud cry. + + The slender rim of a young rising moon + Hung in the west as you leaned on the bar + And spun a thread of some sweet April tune, + And wished a wish and named the falling star. + We heard a brook trill in the fields afar; + The air wrapped round us that entrancing fold + Of vanishing sweet stuff that mortal hold + Can never grasp--the mist of dreams--as down + The street we went in that fair foreign town. + + I might have whispered of my love that night, + But something wrapped you as a shield around, + And held me back: your quiver of affright, + Your startled movement at some sudden sound-- + A night-bird rustling on the leafy ground-- + Your hushed and tremulous whisper of alarm, + Your beating heart pressed close against my arm,-- + All, all were sweet; and yet _my_ heart beat true, + Nor shrined one wish I might not breathe to you. + + So when we parted little had been said: + I left you standing just within the door, + With the dim moonlight streaming on your head + And rippling softly on the checkered floor. + I can remember even the dress you wore-- + Some dainty white Swiss stuff that floated round + Your supple form and trailed upon the ground, + While bands of coral bound each slender wrist, + Studded with one great purple amethyst. + + * * * * * + + My story is not much--is it?--to tell: + It seems a wandering line of music, faint, + Whose sweet pathetic measures rise and swell, + Then, strangled, fall with curious restraint. + 'Tis like the pictures that the artists paint, + With shadows forward thrown into the light + From the real figures hidden out of sight. + And is not life crossed in this strange, sad way + With dreams whose shadows lengthen day by day? + + But you, dear heart--sweet heart loved all these years-- + Will recognize the passion of the strain: + Who eats the lotos-flower of Love with tears, + Will know the rapture of that numb, vague pain + Which thrills the heart and stirs the languid brain. + All day amid the toiling throng we strive, + While in our heart these sacred, sweet loves thrive, + And in choice hours we show them, white and cool + Like lilies floating on a troubled pool. + +MILLIE W. CARPENTER. + + + + +"PASSPORTS, GENTLEMEN!" + + +The close of July, 1870, found our party tarrying for a few days at +Geneva. We had left home with the intention of "doing" Europe in less +than four months. June and July were already gone, but in that time, +traveling as only Americans can, Great Britain, Belgium, the Rhine +country and portions of Switzerland had been visited and admired. We +were now pausing for a few days to take breath and prepare for yet +wider flights. Our proposed route from Geneva would lead us through +Northern Germany, returning by way of Paris to London and Liverpool. + +We had intentionally left Paris for the last, hoping that the +Communist disturbances would be completely quieted before September. +At this time their forces had been recently routed, and the Versailles +troops were occupying the capital. The leaders of the Commune were +scattered in every direction, and, if newspaper accounts were to be +believed, were being captured in every city of France. Especially was +this true of the custom-house upon the Swiss frontier, where report +said that more than one leading Communist had been stopped by the +lynx-eyed officials, who would accept no substitute for the signed and +countersigned passport, and hold no parley until such a passport had +been presented. + +In view of these facts, the American minister in Paris had issued a +circular letter to citizens of the United States traveling abroad, +requesting them to see that their passports had the official visé +before attempting to enter France, thus saving themselves and friends +a large amount of unnecessary trouble and delay. Nothing was said +of those who might think proper to attempt an entrance _without_ a +passport, such temerity being in official eyes beyond all advice or +protection. Influenced by this letter and several facts which had come +under our notice proving the uncertainty of all things, and especially +of travel in France, we saw that our passports were made officially +correct. + +While at Geneva our party separated for a few days. My friends +proposed making an expedition up the lake, while I arranged to spend +a day and night at Aix-les-Bains, a small town in the south of France. +My object in visiting it was not to enjoy the sulphur-baths for which +it is famous, but to see some friends who were spending the summer +there. I had written, telling them to expect me by the five o'clock +train on Wednesday afternoon. As my stay was to be so brief, I left +my valise at the hotel in Geneva, and found myself now, for the first +time, separated from that trusty sable friend which had until this +hour been my constant companion by day and night. + +The train was just leaving the station when a lady sitting opposite to +me, with her back to the locomotive, asked, in French, if I would be +willing to change seats. Catching her meaning rather by her gestures +than words, I inquired in English if she would like my seat, and found +by her reply that I was traveling with an English lady. + +I should here explain that although I had studied the French language +as part of my education, I found it impossible to speak French with +any fluency or understand it when spoken. My newly-made friend, +however (for friend she proved herself), spoke French and English with +equal fluency. + +In the process of comparing notes (so familiar to all travelers) +mention was made of the recent war and the unwonted strictness and +severity of the custom-house officials. In an instant my hand was upon +my pocket-book, only to find that I had neglected to take my passport +from my valise. + +The embarrassment of the situation flashed upon me, and my troubled +countenance revealed to my companion that something unusual had +occurred. I answered her inquiring look by saying that I had left my +passport in Geneva. Her immediate sympathy was only equaled by her +evident alarm. She said there was but one thing to be done--return +instantly for it. I fully agreed with her, but found, to my dismay, +upon consulting a guide-book, that our train was an express, which did +not stop before reaching Belgarde, the frontier-town. + +I would willingly have pulled the bell-rope had there been any, and +stopped the train at any cost, but it was impossible, and nothing +remained but to sit quietly while I was relentlessly hurried into the +very jaws of the French officials. The misery of the situation was +aggravated by the fact that I could not command enough French to +explain how I came to be traveling without a passport. As a last +resort, I applied to my friend, begging her to explain to the officer +at the custom-house that I was a citizen of the United States, and had +left my passport in Geneva. This she readily promised to do, although +I could see that she had but little faith in the result. After a ride +of an hour, during which my reflections were none of the pleasantest, +we arrived at Belgarde. Here the doors of the railway carriages were +thrown open, and we were politely requested to alight. We stepped +out upon a platform swarming with fierce gendarmes, whom I regarded +attentively, wondering which of them was destined to become my +protector. From the platform we were ushered into a large room +communicating by a narrow passage with a second room, into which our +baggage was being carried. One by one my fellow-passengers approached +the narrow and (to me) gloomy passage and presented their passports. +These were closely scanned by the officer in charge, handed to an +assistant to be countersigned, and the holder, all being right, was +passed into the second room. Our turn soon came, and, accompanied by +the English lady, I approached my fate. + +Her passport was declared to be official, and handing it back +the officer looked inquiringly at me. My friend then began her +explanation. As I stood attentively regarding the officer's face, I +could see his puzzled look change into one of comprehension, and +then of amusement. To her inquiry he replied that there would be +no objection under the circumstances to my returning to Geneva and +procuring my passport. Encouraged by the favorable turn my fortunes +had taken, I asked, through my friend, if it would be possible for me +to go on without a passport. An instantaneous change passed over his +countenance, and, shrugging his shoulders, he replied that it was +impossible: there was a second custom-house at Culoz, where I should +certainly be stopped, forced to explain how I had passed Belgarde, and +severely punished for attempting to enter without a passport. I did +not, however, wait for him to finish his angry harangue, but passed on +to the second room, where I was soon joined by my interpreting friend, +who explained to me in full what I had already learned from the +officer's countenance and gesture. She thought that I was fortunate in +escaping so easily, and advised an immediate return to Geneva. I again +consulted my guide-book, and found that there was no return train for +several hours, and consequently that I should arrive in Geneva too +late to start for Aix-les-Bains that night. This would necessitate +waiting until Thursday, and perhaps force me to give up the trip, for +our seats were engaged in the Chamouni coach for Friday morning. I +imagined my friends in vain awaiting my arrival at Aix, and the smiles +of our party when they found me in Geneva upon their return from the +lake. But, more than all, the possibility of not reaching Aix at all +troubled me, for I was very anxious to see my friends there, and had +written home that I intended to see them. + +I found by my guide-book that our train reached Culoz before the +Geneva return train; so on the instant I formed the desperate resolve +of running the blockade at Belgarde, and if I found it impossible to +pass the custom-house at Culoz, _there_ to take the return train for +Geneva. I walked to the platform as if merely accompanying my friend, +stood for a moment at the door of the carriage conversing with her, +and then, as the train started for Culoz, quickly stepped in and shut +the door. Her dismay was really pitiable: had I not been somewhat +troubled in mind myself, I should have laughed outright. She saw +nothing before me but certain destruction, and I am free to confess +that the prospect of a telegram flashing over the wires at that moment +from Belgarde to Culoz was not reassuring. The die, however, had +been cast, and now nothing remained but to endure in silence the +interminable hour which must elapse ere we should reach Culoz. There +we were to change cars, the Geneva train going on to Paris, while +we took the train on the opposite platform for Aix-les-Bains. This +necessitated passing through the dépôt, and passing through the dépôt +was passing through the custom-house. As our train stopped in front of +the fatal door, and one by one the passengers filed into it and were +lost to sight, I seemed to see written above the door, "All hope +abandon, ye who enter here!" It was simply rushing into the jaws of +fate: there was not the slightest possibility of my being able to pass +through that dépôt unchallenged. I should be carried on to Paris if +I remained in the train; I should be arrested if I remained on the +platform; I was discovered if I entered the custom-house. Eagerly I +glanced around for some means of escape. Every instant the number of +passengers on the platform was decreasing, the danger of discovery +rapidly increasing. + +I had feared lest some benevolent French officer, anxious for my +safety, would be found waiting to assist me in alighting: I was +thankful to find that I should be allowed to assist myself, and +that no one paid any particular attention to me. As I stood there +hesitating what course to pursue, and feeling how much easier my mind +at this moment would be were I waiting on the Belgarde platform, I +noticed a door standing open a few steps to the left. Without any +further hesitation I walked directly in, to find myself in a railroad +restaurant. It proved to be a tower of refuge. + +No one had noticed me. There were other passengers in the room, +waiting for the Paris train; so, joining myself to them, I remained +there until the custom-house doors were closed and the guards had left +the platform. The question now arose, How should I reach the opposite +platform? The train might start at any moment: the only legitimate +passage was closed. I knew that the attempt would be fraught with +danger, yet I felt that it was now too late to draw back. If I +remained any length of time in the restaurant, I should be suspected +and discovered; and as I thought of that moment a terrific scene arose +before my mind in which an excited French official thundered at me +in his choicest French, while I stood silent, unable to explain who +I was, how I came there, whither I was going; I imagined myself being +searched for treasonable documents and none being found; I seemed to +see my captors consulting how they could best compel me to tell what +I knew. These scenes and others of like nature entertained me while +I waited for the coast--or rather platform--to be cleared. When at +length all the immediate guards were gone, I started out to find +my way, if possible, to the train for Aix. I have read of travelers +cutting their way through trackless forests, of ice-bound mariners +anxiously seeking the North-west passage, and, worse than all, of +luckless countrymen wandering bewildered through the streets of +Boston; but I am confident that no traveler, mariner or countryman +ever sought his way with more circumspection and diligence than I in +my search for a passage between those two platforms. + +As I glanced cautiously up and down I saw a door standing open at +some little distance. Around that door all my hopes were immediately +centred. It might lead directly to the custom-house; it might be the +entrance to the barracks of the guards; it might be--I knew not what; +but it might afford a passage to the other platform. + +I walked quickly to the door, glanced in, saw no one and entered. The +room was a baggage-room, and at that moment unoccupied. It instantly +occurred to me that a baggage-room _ought_ to open on both platforms. +I felt as though I could have shouted "Eureka!" and I am confident +that the joy of Archimedes as he rushed through the streets of +Syracuse was no greater than mine as I felt that I had so unexpectedly +discovered the passage I was seeking. Passing through this room, I +found myself in a second, like the former unoccupied. It had occurred +to me that all the doors might be closed, and the thought had +considerably abated my rejoicing; but no! I saw a door which stood +invitingly open. + +No guards were stationed on the platform; so I stepped out, and before +me stood the train for Aix, into which my fellow-passengers were +entering, some of them still holding their passports in their hands. +Taking my seat in one of the carriages, in a few moments the train +started and I was on my way to Aix. The relief was unspeakably great. +An instant before it seemed as if nothing short of a miracle +could save me from a French guard-house, and now, by the simplest +combination of circumstances, in which a restaurant and baggage-room +bore an important part, I had passed unchallenged. I remember that I +enjoyed the scenery and views along the route from Culoz to Aix more +than while passing from Belgarde to Culoz. + +My friends were found expecting me upon my arrival, and joined in +congratulating me upon my happy escape. A night and day were passed +very pleasantly, and then arose the question of return. + +I suggested telegraphing to Geneva for my passport, but that +was vetoed, and it was decided that I should return as I had +come--passportless. I confess that the attempt seemed somewhat +hazardous. If it was dangerous to attempt an entrance into France, +how much more so to attempt an exit, especially when the custom-house +force had been doubled with the sole object that all possibility of +escape might be precluded, and that any one passing Culoz might be +stopped at Belgarde! It was urged, however, that our seats had been +engaged in the diligence for Friday morning, and to send for the +passport would consume considerable time--would certainly delay the +party until Saturday, and perhaps until Monday, which delay would +seriously affect all their plans, time being so limited and so many +places remaining to be visited. I had passed once, why not again? +Influenced by these facts, and thinking what a triumph it would be +once more to baffle French vigilance, I determined to attempt the +return. There was a train leaving Aix about eight P.M., reaching +Geneva at eleven: it was decided that I should take this train. I had +arranged a vague plan of action, although I expected to depend rather +upon the suggestion of the moment. + +It was quite dark when we reached Culoz. As the train arrived at the +platform, and we were obliged again to change cars, I thought of the +friendly restaurant; but no! the restaurant was closed, and moreover +a company of gendarmes was present to see that every one entered the +door leading to the custom-house. There was no room for hesitation or +delay. I entered under protest, but still I entered. + +In a moment I perceived the desperate situation. The room had two +doors--one opening upon the platform from which we had just come, and +now guarded by an officer; the other leading to the opposite platform, +and there stood the custom-house officer receiving and inspecting the +passports. It was indeed Scylla and Charybdis. If I attempted to pass +the officer without a passport, I was undone; if I remained until all +the other passengers had passed out, I was undone. For an instant I +felt as if I had better give up the unequal contest. The forces of the +enemy were too many for me. I saw that I had been captured: why fight +against Fate? A moment's reflection, however, restored my courage. It +was evident that one thing alone remained to be done: that was to find +my way out of the door by which I had just entered, as speedily as +possible. But there stood the guard. + +The train by which we had come was still before the platform: an idea +suggested itself. Acting as if I had left some article in the train, I +stepped hurriedly up to the guard, who, catching my meaning, made way +for me without a word. Once upon the platform, I resolved never again +to enter that door except as a prisoner. The guard followed me with +his eyes for a moment, and then, seeing me open one of the carriage +doors, turned back to his post. As soon as I perceived that I was +no longer watched I glided off in the opposite direction under the +shadows of the platform. I was looking for a certain door which I +remembered well as a friend in need. I knew not in which direction it +lay, nor could I have recognized it if shut; but hardly had I gone ten +steps when the same door stood open before me. It was the act of an +instant to spring through it, out of sight of the guard. Why this door +and baggage-room should have been left thus open and unguarded when +such evident and scrutinizing care was taken in every other quarter, I +have to this day been unable to understand. But for that fact I should +have found it utterly impossible to pass that custom-house going or +coming. + +Once in the baggage-room, the way was familiar, and, passing into the +second room, I found the door open as on the day previous, and in +a moment stood undiscovered upon the platform. Entering the waiting +train, I was soon on the way to Belgarde. + +My only thought during the ride was, What shall I do when we arrive at +Belgarde? I expected to see the doors thrown open as before, and hear +again the polite invitation to enter the custom-house. Was it not +certain detection to refuse? was it not equally dangerous to obey? The +officer at Belgarde had seen me the day before, and warned me not to +go to Culoz. What reception would he give me when he saw me attempting +to return? Or it might be he would not remember me, and then in +the darkness and confusion I should surely be taken for an escaping +Communist. That I had passed Culoz was no comfort when I remembered +that this would only aggravate my guilt in their eyes. + +The case did indeed seem desperate. Willingly would I have jumped out +and walked the entire distance to Geneva, if I might only thus +escape that terrible custom-house, which every moment loomed up more +terrifically. At length this troubled hour was passed: we had arrived +at Belgarde, and the moment for action had come. I had determined to +avoid the custom-house at all hazards. When the doors were thrown +open I expected to alight, but not to enter. My plan was to find some +sheltering door, or even corner, where I could remain until the others +had presented their passports and were beginning to return, then join +them and take my seat as before. The dépôt at Belgarde was brilliantly +lighted, and the gendarmes pacing to and fro in the gaslight seemed +not only to have increased in numbers, but to have acquired an +additional ferocity since the day previous. + +As I looked but my spirit sank within me. I could only brace myself +for the coming crisis. For several moments nothing was said or done. +The doors remained shut, and no one seemed at all concerned about +our presence. Each minute appeared an hour as I sat there awaiting +my fate. The suspense was becoming too great: I felt that my stock of +self-possession was entirely deserting me. At length I began to hope +that they were satisfied with the examination at Culoz, and would +allow us to pass unchallenged. Just at that moment, as hope was +dawning into certainty, the door opened and the custom-house officer +entered with a polite bow, while a body of gendarmes drew up behind +him upon the platform. He uttered two French words, and I needed no +interpreter to tell me that they were "Passports, gentlemen!" + +I shuddered as I saw him standing so near, within reach of my arm. +There were six persons besides myself in the carriage, and I was +occupying a seat beside the door farthest from the platform. Any one +who has seen a European railway-carriage will understand me when I say +that I sat next to the right-hand door, while he had entered by the +left. One by one the passports were handed up to him until he held six +in his hand. + +With the rest of the passengers I had taken out my pocket-book and +searched as if for my passport, but had handed none to him, and now I +sat awaiting developments. I saw that he would read the six passports, +and then turn to me for the seventh. + +The desperate thought flashed upon me of opening the door and escaping +into the darkness. The carriage itself was so dimly lighted that I +could barely see the face of my opposite neighbor, and I therefore +hoped to be able to slip out without any one perceiving it. The +attempt was desperate, but so was the situation. The officer was +buried in the passports, holding them near his face to catch the dim +light. The door was fastened upon the outside, and so, watching him, +I leaned far out of the window until I was able to reach the catch +and unfasten the door. A slight push, and it swung noiselessly open. I +glanced at the officer: he was intently reading the _last_ passport. I +had placed one foot upon the outside step, and was about to glide out +into the darkness, when he laid the paper down and looked directly at +me. + +It would have been madness to attempt an escape with his eyes upon me; +so, assuming as nonchalant a look as my present feelings would allow, +I answered his inquiring glance with one of confident assurance. + +He saw my nonchalant expression. He saw the open pocket-book in my +hand. He had _not_ counted the number of passports. All the passengers +were settling themselves to sleep. It must be all right; so, with +a polite "Bon soir, messieurs!" he bowed and left the carriage. My +sensation of relief may be better imagined than described. Hardly had +he left our carriage when we heard the sound of voices and hurrying +feet upon the platform, and looking out saw some unfortunate +individual carried off under guard. I trembled as I thought how +narrowly I had escaped his fate. In a few moments, however, we were +safely on our way to Geneva, and as we sped on into the darkness, +while congratulating myself upon my fortunate escape, I firmly +resolved to be better prepared for the emergency the next time I +should hear those memorable words, "Passports, gentlemen!" + +A.H. + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + +THE CORNWALLIS FAMILY. + + +The death was lately announced of two of the last survivors--only +one of the name is now left--of a family whose chief played a very +conspicuous, and for himself unfortunate, part in this country a +century ago--the marquis Cornwallis. His only son, who married a +daughter of the celebrated match-making duchess of Gordon, left no +male issue, but five daughters. Two of them, the countess of St. +Germans--wife of the earl who accompanied the prince of Wales on his +visit here--and Lady Braybrook, died some years ago; and recently +Lady Mary Ross, whose husband edited the correspondence of the first +marquis, and Lady Louisa, who never married, have also gone to their +graves. + +The family of Cornwallis is very ancient, and can point to many +distinguished members. Its ancestral seat is at Brome, in Suffolk. +This is a fine old mansion, and the hall, which is very lofty and open +to the roof, is an excellent specimen of the work of other days. The +chapel contains capital oak carving. In the village church there are +monuments worth notice of the family. + +Following the fate of so many other places, Brome passed after the +death of the second marquis to a _novus homo_, one Matthias Kerrison, +who, having begun life as a carpenter, contrived in various ways to +acquire a colossal fortune. His son rose to distinction in the army, +obtained a seat in Parliament, which he held for thirty years, and was +created a baronet. + +He left at his death a son and three daughters. The former, long +married, is childless. The sisters are respectively the wives of Earl +Stanhope, the well-known historian; Lord Henniker, a wealthy Suffolk +proprietor; and Lord Bateman. It is understood that under the late +baronet's will the son of the last will, in the event of the present +baronet dying childless, succeed to the property. It will thus be +observed that Brome, after having been for four centuries in one +family, is destined to change hands repeatedly in a few years. + +When the second Marquis Cornwallis died sonless, the marquisate became +extinct, but the earldom passed to his first cousin. This nobleman, +by no means an able or admirable person, married twice. By his first +marriage he had a daughter, who married Charles Wykeham-Martin, Esq., +M.P., whose father, by a concatenation of chances, became the owner +of Leeds Castle, near Maidstone, in Kent--a splendid moated baronial +pile, dating from the thirteenth century, but added to and improved +in admirable taste. Leeds was formerly the property of the Fairfax +family, whose chief, the present lord, resides near Washington. It +came to them from the once famous family of Colepepper. + +Earl Cornwallis married a second time late in life, and had an only +daughter, Lady Julia. From that time his one idea seemed to be to +accumulate for this child, and accordingly at his death she was +the greatest heiress in England, her long minority serving to add +immensely to her father's hoards. Of course, when the time approached +for her entering society under the chaperonage of her cousins, the +marquis's daughters, speculation was very rife in the London world as +to whom she would marry, and many a mamma of high degree cast sheep's +eyes at the heiress, and thought how charmingly her accumulations +would serve to clear the encumbrances on certain acres. But they were +not kept long in suspense. One night during the London season, when +the ladies Cornwallis gave a grand ball, a damper was cast over the +proceedings, so far at least as aspirants to the heiress's money-bags +were concerned, by the announcement of her engagement. Said a lady to +a gentleman in the course of that evening, "Most extraordinary! There +seem to be no men in the room to-night." "Why, of course not," was the +rejoinder, "after this fatal news." Lady Julia's choice fell upon a +young officer in the Guards, Viscount Holmesdale, eldest son of Earl +Amherst. Lord Holmesdale was unexceptionable in point of position, +but his pecuniary position was such as to make one hundred and fifty +thousand dollars a year a very agreeable addition to his income. It +may, however, be a satisfaction to those less richly endowed with this +world's goods than Lady Holmesdale to reflect that being an heiress +generally proves rather the reverse of a passport to matrimonial +bliss; and by all accounts she is no exception to the usual fate in +this respect. We can't have everything in this world. + +Lady Holmesdale's property was tied up by her old father (whose whole +thoughts were given to this end, and who was in the habit of carrying +his will on his person) to such a degree that in the event of her +death her husband can only derive a very slight benefit from his +wife's property beyond the insurances which may have been effected +on her life. She is childless, and has very precarious health. Her +principal seat is Linton Park, near Maidstone, Kent, in which county +she is the largest landowner. In the event of her dying without issue, +her estates pass to the son of Major Fiennes Cornwallis, who was +second son of the late Mr. Wykeham-Martin by Lady Holmesdale's elder +half-sister. + +A cousin of Lady Holmesdale, Miss Cornwallis, the last representative +of a third branch, died some years ago. This lady, who possessed rare +literary and social acquirements, bequeathed her property to Major +Wykeham-Martin, who thereupon changed his name to Cornwallis. The +major, a gallant officer, one of those of whom Tennyson says, + + Into the jaws of death + Rode the six hundred, + +only survived the Balaklava charge to die a few years later through +an accident in the hunting-field. "A fine, modest young officer," was +Thackeray's verdict about him, when, after dinner at "Tom Phinn's," a +noted bachelor barrister of eminence whose little dinners were not +the least agreeable in London, the story of that famous ride had been +coaxed out of the young _militaire_, who, if left to himself, would +never have let you have a notion that he had seen such splendid +service. The only Cornwallis now left is Lady Elizabeth, granddaughter +of the first marquis. + + + + +NOVELTIES IN ETHNOLOGY. + + +Two savants of high reputation have lately undertaken to seek out the +origin of that German race which has just put itself at the head of +military Europe. One is Wilhelm Obermüller, a German ethnologist, +member of the Vienna Geographical Society, whose startling theory +nevertheless is that the Germans are the direct descendants of Cain! +The other scholar, M. Quatrefages, a man of still greater reputation, +devotes himself to a proposition almost as extraordinary--namely, that +the Prussian pedigree is Finn and Slav, with only a small pinch of +Teuton, and hence, in an ethnographical view, is anti-German! + +That M. Quatrefages should maintain such a postulate, his patriotism +if not his scientific reputation might lead us to expect; but that +Obermüller should be so eager to trace German origin back to the first +murderer is rather more suprising. Obermüller's work embraces in +its general scope the origin of all European nations, but the most +striking part is that relating to Germany. He holds that, from +the remotest era, the Celto-Aryan race, starting from the plain +of Tartary, the probable cradle of mankind, split into two great +branches--one the Oriental Aryans, and the other the Western Aryans, +or Celts. The former--who, as he proceeds to show, were no other than +the descendants of Cain--betook themselves to China, which land they +found inhabited by the Mongolians, another great primordial race; and +we are told that the Mongolians are indicated when mention is made in +Scripture of Cain's marriage in the land of Nod. The intermixture of +Cainists and Mongolians produced the Turks, while the pure Cainist +tribes formed the German people, under the name of Swabians (Chinese, +_Siampi_), Goths (_Yeuten_ in Chinese) and Ases (_Sachsons_). Such, in +brief, is the curious theory of Obermüller. + +The question next arises, How is it that we find the Germans +transplanted from the Hoang-Ho to the Rhine? We are told that, being +driven out of China by the Turks, they poured into the European +countries which the Celts or Western Aryans had already occupied. +These latter had in the mean time gone out from the Asiatic cradle +of the race, and following the course of the Indus to Hindostan and +Persia, had, under the name of Chaldeans, overrun Armenia, Syria, +Arabia, Egypt and North Africa, which latter they found inhabited by +certain negro races, whereas in Egypt they discovered red-skins or +Atlantides; which latter, by the way, form also our own aborigines. +The intermixture of the Celts with these primitive races just named +produced the Jews and Semitic people. At the time of the Celtic +invasion Western Europe and Northern Africa were occupied by the race +of the Atlantides, while the Mongolians, including also the Lapps, +Finns and Huns, peopled the north of Europe and of Asia. The Celts +pushed in between these two races, and only very much later the German +people, driven out of China by the Turks, as we have said, arrived in +Europe. + +When, therefore, did these Cainist invasions of Germany take place? +Obermüller says that the date must have been toward the epoch of +the Roman conquests. Gallia was then inhabited in the south by the +primitive Atlantid race of Ligurians and by the Greek colony of +Massilia; in the centre by the Gaelags (Celts) or Gauls, who, pouring +northward from Spain, had conquered it fifteen hundred years before +the Christian era; and in the north by the Belgic Cimbrians, who had +come from Germany, and who were designated under the name of Germans +(_Ghermann_) or border-men, and who, though called _Germani_ by Caesar +and Tacitus, were yet not of the Cainist stock, but Celts. However, +these Germans, whom the Romans encountered to their cost on the Rhine +and Danube, were of the genuine Oriental Cainist stock, and these, +after centuries of fierce struggle, they failed to conquer, though the +Celts of Britain, Gaul and Spain, as well as all the old empires of +the East, had fallen an easy prey to their victorious eagles. + +It only remains to add that this invasion of Germany by Cain's progeny +was accomplished in three streams. The Ases (Sachsons) directed +themselves to the Elbe and Danube, and thence to the north; the Suevi, +or Swabians, chose the centre and south of Germany; while the Goths +did not rest till they had overrun Italy, Southern France and Spain. +But each of these three main streams was composed of many tribes, +whom the old writers catalogue without system, mixing both Celtic and +Teutonic tribes under the general name of Germans; and it is only in +modern days that the careless enumeration of the classic writers has +been rejected, and a more scientific method substituted. It will +be seen, in fine, that in the main Obermüller does not differ from +accepted theories in German ethnology, which have long carefully +dissevered the Celts from the Teutons, and assigned to each tribe with +approximate accuracy its earliest fixed abode in Europe. It is the +tracing back of the German race proper to the first-born of Adam, +according to scriptural genealogy, which makes this theory curious and +amusing. + +To the work of M. Quatrefages we have only space to devote a +paragraph. Originally contributed to the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, +it bears the marks in its inferences, if not in its facts, of being +composed for an audience of sympathizing countrymen, rather than for +the world of science at large. M. Quatrefages says that the first +dwellers in Prussia were Finns, who founded the stock, and were in +turn overpowered by the Slavs, who imposed their language and customs +on the whole of the Baltic region. The consequent mixture of Finns and +Slavs created a population wholly un-German; and what dash of genuine +Germanism Prussia now has was subsequently acquired in the persons of +sundry traders from Bremen, followed by a class of roving nobility, +who entered the half-civilized country with their retainers in quest +of spoils. Besides these elements, Prussia, like England and America, +received in modern times an influx of French Huguenots; which M. +Quatrefages naturally considers a piece of great good fortune for +Prussia. Briefly, then, the French savant regards Prussia as German +only in her nobility and upper-middle classes, while the substratum +of population is a composition of Slav and Finn, and hence thoroughly +anti-German. As, according to the old saying, if you scratch a Russian +you will find a Tartar beneath, so, according to M. Ouatrefages, +we may suppose that scraping a Prussian would disclose a Finn. The +political inferences which he draws are very fanciful. He traces +shadowy analogies between the tactics of Von Moltke's veterans and +the warlike customs of the ancient Slavs, and suggests that the basic +origin of the Prussian population may lead it to cultivate a Russian +alliance rather than an Austrian, forgetting, apparently, that by +his own admission the ruling-classes of Prussia are German in origin, +ideas and sympathies. + +L.S. + + + + +THE STEAM-WHISTLE. + + +While Mr. Ruskin was lately bewailing the bell-ringing propensity of +mankind, the English Parliament and several American legislatures, +city or State, were assaulting the greater nuisance of the +steam-whistle, and trying to substitute bell-ringing for it. Mr. +Ruskin's particular grievance was, that his own nerves were _crispé_ +by the incessant ding-dong of the church-bells of Florence summoning +the devout to prayer, but he generalized his wrath. Possibly, he +would have been less sensitive and fastidious regarding the musical +carillons of the Italian city were he wont to dwell within ear-shot of +an American factory or railroad-station. Not that Mr. Ruskin fails to +appreciate--or, rather, to depreciate--railways in their connection +with Italian landscapes; for, besides his series of complaints +regarding the Florence bells, he denounces the railway from Rome to +Naples, and the railway-tunnels under Monts Cenis and St. Gothard, and +the railway-bridge leading into Venice, as enemies of the beautiful +and picturesque in Nature. But it is the locomotive, independent of +the shriek, that is his abomination; whereas a man less sensitive to +sights, and (if possible) more sensitive to sounds, might pardon the +cutting up of the landscape were his ear-drum spared from splitting. + +Emerson asks, "What is so odious as noise?" But a _Saturday Reviewer_ +once devoted an elaborate essay to the eulogy of unmitigated noise, or +rather to the keen enjoyment of it by children. People with enviable +nerves and unenviable tastes often enjoy sounds in the ratio of their +lack of melody--say, such everyday thoroughfare music as the slap and +bang of coach-wheels on the cobble-stones; the creaking of street-cars +round a sharp curve, like Milton's infernal doors "grating harsh +thunder;" the squeaking falsettos of the cries by old-clothes' men, +itinerant glaziers, fishmongers, fruiterers, tinkers and what not; the +yells of rival coachmen at the railway-stations, giving one an idea +of Bedlam; the street-fiddlers and violinists with horribly untuned +instruments; the Italian open-air singers hoarsely shouting, +"Shoo Fly" or "Viva Garibaldi! viva l'Italia!" the gongs beaten on +steamboats and by hotel-runners at stations on the arrival of trains; +the unearthly squeals and shrieks of new "musical instruments" sold +cheap by street-peddlers; the horrible noise-producers which boys +invent for the torture of nervous people--such, for example, as this +present season's, which is happily styled "the devil's fiddle," or +"the chicken-box," whose simplest form is an emptied tomato-can, with +a string passed through the end and pulled with the rosined fingers. +Now, that a man may be pleased with a rattle, even if it be only a +car-rattle, is conceivable, but it is hard to understand how he can +retain a relish for the squeal of a locomotive-whistle. The practice +of summoning workmen to factories by this shrill monitor, of using +it to announce the dinner-hour, the hour of resuming work after the +nooning, and the hour of quitting work for the night, ought to be +abolished everywhere. There is not the faintest excuse for it, because +clocks and bells will do the same work exactly as well. On the other +hand, the whistle causes perpetual irritation to the nervous, feeble +and sick, and frequent cases of horses running away with fright at the +sudden shriek, smashing property or destroying life. + +Let us give moral aid and comfort to the campaign, Cisatlantic and +Transatlantic, against the steam-whistle. In the local councils of +Philadelphia, Camden and other cities it has been well opened in our +country; in the House of Commons has been introduced a bill providing +that "no person shall use or employ in any manufactory or any other +place any steam-whistle or steam-trumpet for the purpose of summoning +or dismissing workmen or persons employed, without the sanction of the +sanitary authorities." They call this whistle, by the way, it +would seem, the "American devil," for the Manchester _Examiner_ +congratulates its readers that the "American devil" has been taken by +the throat, and ere long his yells will be heard no more. + +John Leech, it is said, was actually driven from house to house in +a vain effort to escape the nuisance of organ-grinders, whom he has +immortalized in Punch by many exquisite sketches, showing that they +know "the vally of peace and quietness." Some of his friends declare +that this nuisance so worked on his nerves that he may be said to +have died of organ-grinders. Holmes has immortalized the same guild of +wandering minstrels as a sort of "crusaders sent from infernal clime +to dock the ears of melody and break the legs of time." And yet the +hand-organ, so often the subject of municipal legislation, is dulcet +music compared with the steam-whistle, even when the latter instrument +takes its most ambitiously artistic form of the "Calliope." + + + + +SIAMESE NEWS. + + +Letters recently received from Bangkok, Siam, bearing date July 25, +1872, give the following interesting items. + +His Majesty has just appointed an English tutor to his royal brothers, +associating with them some of the sons of the higher nobles to the +number of twenty. This certainly indicates progress in liberal and +enlarged views in a land where hitherto no noble, however exalted his +rank or worthy his character, was considered a fit associate for the +princes of the royal family, who have always been trained to hold +themselves entirely aloof from those about them. The young king now on +the throne has changed all this, and says he wishes not only that his +brothers shall have the advantage of studying with others of their own +age, but that they should thus learn to know their people better, and +by mingling with them freely in their studies and sports acquire more +liberal views of men and things than their ancestors had. He insists +that his young brothers and their classmates shall stand on precisely +the same footing, and each be treated by the teacher according to his +merits. The king intends to appoint yet other teachers in his family +for both boys and girls; and though perhaps the time may not yet have +come, it is certainly not far distant, when Siam will sustain high +schools and colleges, both literary and scientific. + +The religious aspect of the nation is somewhat less promising. Though +the royal edict gives protection to all religions, and permits every +man to choose for himself in matters of conscience, it can scarcely be +said that the two kings take any real interest in Christianity. They +think less of Booddhism, its mystic creed and imposing ceremonies, and +have made very many changes in the form of worship; but, apparently, +they are no more Christians than were their respective fathers, the +late first and second kings. They treat Christianity with outward +respect, because they esteem it decorous to do so; and the same is +true of the regent and prime minister; but none of them even profess +any real regard for the worship of the true God. The concessions made +thus far indicate progress in civilization, not in piety; and while +the kings and their subjects are assuredly loosing their grasp on +Booddhism, they are not reaching out to lay hold on Christianity. It +seems rather as if the whole nation were swaying off into the frigid +regions of skepticism, and, influenced by the example of many unworthy +representatives of Christian countries, they live only for the +luxuries and laxities of the present life. Priestly robes are much +less frequently seen on the river and in the streets than formerly; +and many of the clergy no longer reside at the temples, but with their +families in their own houses; thus relinquishing even the pretence of +celibacy, which has hitherto been one of the very strongest points +of Booddhism, giving it an appearance of sanctity and a hold on +the affections of the people that nothing else can do. With this +rapidly-increasing renunciation of priestly celibacy and the +daily-diminishing ranks of the clergy, Booddhism, the mammoth religion +of the world, seems tottering to ruin, and even the present generation +may see its utter demolition, at least so far as Siam is concerned. +Services at the temples are now held in imitation of English morning +and evening prayers; a moral essay is read, at which the body-guards +of the kings and the government officers are generally required to +be present, and the remainder of the day they are excused from duty, +instead of being kept, as formerly, Sundays and week-days, in almost +perpetual attendance on His Majesty. + +The supreme king is now in his twentieth year, and will take the +reins of government this year. He is tall and slight in person, +gentlemanlike in manners, perfectly well bred, and always courteous to +strangers, though even more modest and unassuming than was his father, +the priest-king, whose praises are still fresh in every heart. His +Majesty speaks English quite creditably, wears the English dress most +of the time, and keeps himself well informed as to matters and things +generally. His reign, thus far, promises well for himself and his +kingdom. + +The second king, still called King _George Washington_, is now about +thirty, and a most noble specimen of the courtly Oriental gentleman. +His tall, compact figure is admirably developed both for strength and +beauty, his face is full and pleasing, and his head finely formed. +He is affable in manner, converses readily in English, and is fond +of Europeans and their customs. He keeps his father's palace and +steamboats in excellent condition, and his body-guard under thorough +drill. On a recent visit of the American steamer Moreton he came out +on the battlements of his palace, and after watching her progress for +some time, he signaled her to lay to, which she did just opposite his +palace. He immediately went aboard, and remained for an hour or so, +chatting merrily with both ladies and gentlemen, while the steamer +puffed up the river a few miles, and then returned for His Majesty to +disembark at his own palace. King George occasionally wears the _full_ +English dress, either civil or military, but generally only the +hat, coat, linen and shoes, with the Siamese _pàh-nûng_ in lieu of +pantaloons. The regent, the minister of foreign affairs and many of +the princes and nobles have adopted this mongrel costume, and, to a +greater or less extent, our language, manner of living and forms +of etiquette. Visitors to the kings now sit on chairs, instead of +crouching on cushions before the throne, as formerly; while native +princes and ministers of state no longer prostrate themselves with +their faces in the dust in the royal presence, but stand at the foot +of the throne while holding an audience with their Majesties, each +being allowed full opportunity to state his case or present any +petition he may desire. The sovereigns are no longer unknown, +mysterious personages, whose features their people have never been +permitted to look upon; but they may be seen any fine day taking their +drives in their own coaches or phaetons, and lifting their hats to +passing friends. Nor do they on ordinary occasions deem it necessary +to be surrounded by armed soldiers for protection, but go where they +list, with only their liveried coachmen and footmen, and perhaps a +single companion or secretary inside. + +The city itself has correspondingly improved. Within the walls have +just been completed two new streets, meeting at right angles near +the mayor's office, where is a public park of circular form very +handsomely laid out. The streets radiating from this centre are broad, +and lined with new brick houses of two stories and tiled roofs. These +are mostly private dwellings, uniformly built; and with their broad +sidewalks and shade trees of luxuriant tropical growth present a +very picturesque appearance. One wide street, commencing at the royal +palace, extends six or seven miles through the city, reaching +the river near a little village called Pak-lat-bon. This is the +fashionable _drive_, where may be seen not only their Majesties, the +regent, the prime minister and other high dignitaries lounging in +stately equipages drawn by two or four prancing steeds, but many +private citizens of different nations in their light pony-carriages, +palanquins, etc., instead of the invariable barges and _sampans_ of a +few years ago, when the river was the "Broadway" of the city and the +canals its cross-streets. Steamers of various dimensions now +busily ply the river: the kings own several, which they use for +pleasure-boats; eight or ten are fitted up as war-steamers, and others +are packets to Singapore, China and elsewhere, carrying passengers and +merchandise. + +The regent, _Pra-Nai-Wai,_ is a sedate, dignified, courteous gentleman +of sixty-five, who walks erect with firm step and manly form, and with +mental and physical powers still unimpaired. His half-brother, who +filled the post of minister of foreign affairs at the commencement +of the present reign, died blind some little time back, after twice +paying ten thousand dollars to a Dutch oculist from Batavia to operate +on his eyes for cataract. His successor, the present minister, is one +of the finest specimens of a Siamese gentleman in the country. He +was first a provincial governor; then went on a special embassy to +England; last year attended the supreme king on his visit to Singapore +and Batavia; and recently accompanied him again to India, whence the +royal party have but just returned. The regal convoy consisted of five +or six war-steamers, and His Majesty, besides his own officers, was +escorted also by the English consul at Bangkok, the harbor-master and +several European officers in the Siamese service. The royal tourist +visited Rangoon, Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Allahabad and Ceylon; +and entered with great gusto into the spirit of his travels, seeing +everything, asking questions and taking notes as he passed from point +to point. The regent, in conjunction with the second king, held the +reins of government during the absence of the first king; and in truth +the regent has for the most part governed the country since the death +of the late king, in 1868, the young heir being then but fifteen years +of age. The regent is decidedly a favorite with both kings and people, +and his rule has been popular and prosperous. + + + + +MADISON AS A TEMPERANCE MAN. + + +Many years ago, when the temperance movement began in Virginia, +ex-President Madison lent the weight of his influence to the +cause. Case-bottles and decanters disappeared from the sideboard at +Montpelier--wine was no longer dispensed to the many visitors at that +hospitable mansion. Nor was this all. Harvest began, but the customary +barrel of whisky was not purchased, and the song of the scythemen in +the wheatfield languished. In lieu of whisky, there was a beverage +most innocuous, unstimulating and unpalatable to the army of dusky +laborers. + +The following morning, Mr. Madison called in his head-man to make the +usual inquiry, "Nelson, how comes on the crop?" + +"Po'ly, Mars' Jeems--monsus po'ly." + +"Why, what's the matter?" + +"Things is seyus." + +"What do you mean by serious?" + +"We gwine los' dat crap." + +"Lose the crop! Why should we lose it?" + +"'Cause dat ar crap ar heap too big a crap to be gethered 'thout +whisky. 'Lasses-and-water nuver gethered no crap sence de woil' war' +made, ner 'taint gwine to." + +Mr. Madison succumbed: the whisky was procured, the "crap" was +"gethered," case-bottles and decanters reappeared, and the ancient +order was restored at Montpelier, never again to be disturbed. + + + + +NOTES. + + +Amidst the recent hurly-burly of politics in France, involving the +fate of the Thiers government, if not of the republic itself, a minor +grievance of the artists has probably been little noticed by the +general public. Yet a grievance it was, and one which caused men of +taste and sentiment to cry out loudly. The threatened act of vandalism +against which they protested was a proposal to fell part of the Forest +of Fontainebleau. The castle and forest have long belonged to the +state, but why the woods should now be cut down by the government is +not clear. The motive is probably to turn the fine timber into +cash, though a Paris wit, in pretended despair of other explanation, +jokingly alleged, at the time of Prince Napoleon's late expulsion from +France, that the government was afraid the prince, taking refuge in +its dense recesses, might there conceal himself (_à la_ Charles II., +we presume) in one of its venerable oaks. At any rate, it was arranged +to level a part of the timber, and on hearing of this threatened +mutilation of a favorite resort the French artists rallied to beg M. +Thiers, like the character in General Morris's ballad, to "spare those +trees." And well may they petition, for the forest contains nearly +thirty-five thousand acres, abounding in beautiful and picturesque +scenery. It can boast finer trees than any other French forest, while +its meadows, lawns and cliffs furnish specimens of almost every plant +and flower to be found in France. Now, when we add that its views are +exceedingly varied, its rocks, ravines, plateaus and thickets +each offering some entirely different and admirable study to the +landscape-painters who frequent it in great numbers during the spring +and autumn months (for it is only fourteen or fifteen leagues out of +Paris, on the high road to Lyons), we have shown reason enough for the +consentaneous action on the part of the men and women of the brush and +pencil. + +The traveled reader will hardly need to be told that good judges +consider the forest and castle to compose the finest domain in France. +But there are also numberless historic reminiscences intertwined with +Fontainebleau. And, by the way, it was originally known as the +Forêt de Bierre, until some thirsty huntsmen, who found its spring +deliciously refreshing, rebaptized it as Fontaine Belle Eau. Such, at +least, is the old story. The first founding of a royal residence there +dates at least as far back as the twelfth century, and possibly much +farther, while the present château was begun by Francis I. in the +sixteenth. So many famous historic events, indeed, have taken place +within the precincts of the forest that the committee of "Protection +Artistique" is pardonable in claiming that "Fontainebleau Forest ought +to be ranked with those national historic monuments which must at all +hazards be preserved for the admiration of artists and tourists," as +well as of patriotic Frenchmen. What illustrations shall we select +from among the events connected with it, about which a thousand +volumes of history, poetry, art, science and romance have been +composed? At Fontainebleau, Charles V. was royally feasted by Francis; +there the Edict of Nantes was revoked; there Condé died; there the +decree of divorce between Napoleon and Josephine was pronounced; and +there the emperor afterward signed his own abdication. It is true +that nobody proposes to demolish the castle, and that is the historic +centre; but the petitioners claim that it is difficult and dangerous +to attempt to divide the domain into historic and non-historic, +artistic and non-artistic parts, with a view to its mutilation. There +is ground for hoping that a favorable response will be given to the +eloquent appeal of the artists and amateurs. + +The vanity of Victor Hugo, though always "Olympian," perhaps never +mounted to a sublimer height than in the reply he sent to M. Catulle +Mendes on receiving from him the news of Gautier's death. It contained +but half a dozen lines, yet found space to declare, "Of the men of +1830, _I alone am left_. It is now my turn." The profound egotism of +"_il ne reste plus que moi_" could not escape being vigorously lashed +by V. Hugo's old comrades of the quill, dating back with him to 1830, +and now so loftily ignored. "See, even in his epistles of condolence," +they cry, "the omnipresent _moi_ of Hugo must appear, to overshadow +everything else!" One indignant writer declares the poet to be a mere +walking personal pronoun. Another humorously pities those still extant +contemporaries of 1830 who, after having for forty years dedicated +their songs and romances and dramas to Hugo, now learn from the +selfsame maw which has greedily gulped their praises that they +themselves do not exist, never did exist. One man of genius +slyly writes: "Some of us veterans will find ourselves +embarrassed--Michelet, G. Sand, Janin, Sandeau _et un pen moi_. Is it +possible that we died a long time ago, one after the other, without +knowing it? Was it a delusion on our part to fancy ourselves existing, +or was our existence only a bad dream?" But to Victor Hugo even these +complaints will perhaps seem to smoke like fresh incense on the altar +of self-adulation which this great genius keeps ever lighted. + +The reader may remember the story of that non-committal editor who +during the late canvass, desiring to propitiate all his subscribers of +both parties, hoisted the ticket of "Gr---- and ----n" at the top +of his column, thus giving those who took the paper their choice of +interpretations between "Grant and Wilson" and "Greeley and Brown." +A story turning on the same style of point (and probably quite as +apocryphal, though the author labels it "_historique_") is told of an +army officers' mess in France. A brother-soldier from a neighboring +detachment having come in, and a _champenoise_ having been uncorked in +his honor, "Gentlemen," said the guest, raising his glass, "I am about +to propose a toast at once patriotic and political." A chorus of hasty +ejaculations and of murmurs at once greeted him. "Yes, gentlemen," +coolly proceeded the orator, "I drink to a thing which--an object +that--Bah! I will out with it at once. It begins with an _R_ and ends +with an _e_." + +"Capital!" whispers a young lieutenant of Bordeaux promotion. "He +proposes the _Republique_, without offending the old fogies by saying +the word." + +"Nonsense! He means the _Radicale_," replies the other, an old captain +from Cassel. + +"Upon my word," says a third as he lifts his glass, "our friend must +mean _la Royaute_." + +"I see!" cries a one-legged veteran of Froschweiler: "we drink to _la +Revanche_." + +In fact, the whole party drank the toast heartily, each interpreting +it to his liking. + +In the hands of a Swift even so trivial an incident might be made +to point a moral on the facility with which alike in theology +and politics--from Athanasian Creed to Cincinnati or Philadelphia +Platform--men comfortably interpret to their own diverse likings some +doctrine that "begins with an _R_ and ends with an _e_," and swallow +it with great unanimity and enthusiasm. + +Possibly the death of Mr. Greeley, after a prolonged delirium induced +in part by political excitement, may add for Americans some fresh +interest to the theory of a paper which just previous to that pathetic +event M. Lunier had read before the Paris Academy of Medicine. The +author confessed his statistics to be incomplete, but regarded them +as ample for the decisive formulation of the proposition that great +political crises tend to increase the number of cases of mental +alienation. The leading point of his elaborate argument appears to +be the classification of fresh cases of insanity developed since the +beginning of the late French war. The strongest comparison is one +indicating an excess of seven per cent, in the number of such cases, +proportioned to the population in the departments conquered and +occupied by the Germans, over those which they did not invade. +Finally, M. Lunier reckons the cases of mental alienation induced +by the late political and military events in France at from +twelve hundred to fifteen hundred. Politics without war may, it is +considered, produce the same results--results not at all surprising, +of course, except as to their extent. As to this last, if M. Lunier's +figures and deductions be correct, the mental strain of exciting +politics is even more destructive than has been generally supposed. + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + +Gareth and Lynette. By Alfred Tennyson, D.C.L., Poet-Laureate. Boston: +J.R. Osgood & Co. + +"With this poem the author concludes the Idyls of the King." The +occasion is a tempting one to review the long series of Arthurian lays +written by Tennyson, from the _Mort d' Arthur_, and the pretty song +about Lancelot and Guinevere, and the first casting of "Elaine's" +legend in the form of _The Lady of Shallot_, down to the present tale, +flung like a capricious field flower into a wreath complete enough +without it. The poet's first adventure into the subject--the +mysterious, shadowy and elevated performance called the _Mort d' +Arthur_--will probably be always thought the best. Tennyson, when +he wrote it, was just trying the peculiarities of his style: he was +testing the quality of his cadences, the ring of his long sententious +lines repeated continually as refrains, and the trustworthiness of his +artful, much-sacrificing simplicity. He put as it were a spot or two +of pigment on the end of his painting-knife, and held it up into the +air of the vaporous traditions of the Round Table. It stood the test, +it had the color; but the artist, uncertain of his style, his public +and his own liking, made a number of other tentatives before he +could decide to go on in the manner he commenced with. He tried the +_Guinevere_, laughing and galloping in its ballad-movement; he tried +the _Shallot_, with a triple rhyme and a short positive refrain, like +a bell rung in an incantation, and brought up every minute by a finger +pressed upon the edge. Either of these three--although the metre of +the first was the only one endurable by the ear in the case of a long +series of poems--either of these had, it may be positively said, a +general tone more suitable to the ancient feeling, and more consistent +with the duty of a modern poet arranging for new ears the legends +collected by Sir Thomas Malory, than the general tone of the present +Idyls. Those first experiments, charged like a full sponge with the +essence and volume of primitive legend, went to their purpose without +retrospection or vacillation: each short tale, whether it laughed or +moaned, promulgated itself like an oracle. The teller seemed to have +been listening to the voice of Fate, and whether, Guinevere swayed the +bridle-rein, or Elaine's web flew out and floated wide, or Lancelot +sang tirra-lirra by the river, it was asserted with the positiveness +of a Hebrew chronicle, which we do not question because it is history. +But we hardly have such an illusion in reading the late Idyls. We +seem to be in the presence of a constructor who arranges things, of a +moralist turning ancient stories with a latent purpose of decorum, of +an official Englishman looking about for old confirmations of modern +sociology, of a salaried laureate inventing a prototype of Prince +Albert. The singleness of a story-teller who has convinced himself +that he tells a true story is gone. That this diversion into the +region of didactics is accompanied, on our poet's part, with every +ingenuity of ornament, and every grace of a style which people have +learned to like and which he has made his own, need not be said. +The Tennysonian beauties are all there. The work takes its place +in literature, obscuring the Arthurian work of Dryden, as Milton's +achievement of _Paradise Lost_ obscured the Italian work on the same +subject which preceded it. The story is told, and the things of the +Round Table can hardly be related again in English, any more than the +tale of Troy could be sung again in Greek after the poem of Homer. +But beauties do not necessarily compose into perfect Beauty, and +the achievement of a task neatly done does not prevent the eye from +wandering over the work to see if the material has been used to the +best advantage. So, the reader who has allowed himself to rest long +in the simple magic evoked by Malory or in the Celtic air of +Villemarque's legends, will be fain to ask whether a man of Tennyson's +force could not have given to his century a recasting which would have +satisfied primitive credulity as well as modern subtility. There is +an antique bronze at Naples that has been cleaned and set up in a +splendid museum, and perhaps looks more graceful than ever; but the +pipe that used to lead to the lips, and the passage that used to +communicate with the priest-chamber, are gone, and nothing can +compensate for them: it used to be a form and a voice, and now it is +nothing but a form. + +We have just observed that in our opinion the first essays made by the +Laureate with his Arthurian material had the best ring, or at least +had some excellences lost to the later work. _Gareth and Lynette_, +however, by its fluency and simplicity, and by not being overcharged +with meaning, seems to part company with some of this overweighted +later performance, and to attempt a recovery of the directness and +spring of the start. It is, however, far behind all of them in a +momentous particular; for in narrating _them_, the poet, while able to +keep up his immediate connection with the source of tradition, and to +narrate with the directness of belief, had still some undercurrent of +thought which he meant to convey, and which he succeeded in keeping +track of: Arthur and Guinevere, in the little song, ride along like +primeval beings of the world--the situation seems the type of all +seduction; the Lady of Shallot is not alone the recluse who sees life +in a mirror, she is the cloistered Middle Age itself, and when her +mirror breaks we feel that a thousand glasses are bursting, a thousand +webs are parting, and that the times are coming eye to eye with the +actual. In those younger days, Tennyson, possessed with a subject, and +as it were floating in it, could pour out a legend with the credulity +of a child and the clear convincing insight of a teacher: when he came +in mature life to apply himself to the rounded work, he had more of a +disposition to teach, and less of that imaginative reach which is +like belief; and _now_ he is telling a story again for the sake of +the story, but without the deeper meaning. Lynette is a supercilious +damsel who asks redress of the knights of the Round Table: Gareth, +a male Cinderella, starts from the kitchen to defend her, and after +conquering her prejudices by his bravery, assumes his place as a +disguised prince. It is a plain little comedy, not much in Tennyson's +line: there are places where he tries to imitate the artless +disconnected speech of youth; and here, as with the little nun's +babble in _Guinevere_, and with some other passages of factitious +simplicity, the poet makes rather queer work: + + Gold? said I gold?--ay then, why he, or she, + Or whosoe'er it was, or half the world, + Had ventured--_had_ the thing I spake of been + Mere gold--but this was all of that true steel + Whereof they forged the brand Excalibur, + And lightnings played about it in the storm, etc. + +It may be questioned whether hap-hazard talk ever, in any age of human +speech, took a form like that, though it is just like Tennyson in many +a weary part of his poetry. The blank verse, for its part, is broken +with all the old skill, and there are lines of beautiful license, like +this: + + Camelot, a city of shadowy palaces, + +or strengthened with the extra quantity, like this: + + Stay, felon knight, I avenge me for my friend! + +or imitating the motion described, as these: + + The hoof of his horse slept in the stream, the stream + Descended, and the Sun was washed away; + +but occasionally the effort to give variety leads into mere puzzles +and disagreeable fractures of metre, such as the following quatrain: + + Courteous or bestial from the moment, + Such as have nor law nor king; and three of these + Proud in their fantasy, call themselves the Day, + Morning-Star, and Noon-Sun, and Evening-Star. + +The first line in this quotation, if it be not a misprint of the +American edition, can only be brought to any kind of rule by accenting +each polysyllable on the last, and is not, when even that is done, a +pleasant piece of caprice. There are plenty of phrases that shock +the attention sufficiently to keep it from stagnating on the smooth +surface of the verse; such are--"ever-highering eagle-circles," "there +were none but few goodlier than he," "tipt with trenchant steel," and +the expression, already famous, of "tip-tilted" for Lynette's nose; to +which may be added the object of Gareth's attention, mentioned in the +third line of the poem, when he "stared at the _spate_." But in the +matter of descriptive power we do not know that the Laureate +has succeeded better for a long time past in his touches of +landscape-painting: the pictures of halls, castles, rivers and +woods are all felicitous. For example, this in five lines, where the +travelers saw + + Bowl-shaped, through tops of many thousand pines, + A gloomy-gladed hollow slowly sink + To westward; in the deeps whereof a mere, + Round as the red eye of an eagle-owl, + Under the half-dead sunset glared; and cries + Ascended. + +Or this simple and beautiful sketch of crescent moonlight: + + Silent the silent field + They traversed. Arthur's harp tho' summer-wan, + In counter motion to the clouds, allured + The glance of Gareth dreaming on his liege. + A star shot. + +It is still, perfect, and utterly simple sketches like these, thrown +off in the repose of power, that form the best setting for a heroic +or poetical action: what better device was ever invented, even by +Tennyson himself, for striking just the right note in the reader's +mind while thinking of a noble primitive knight, than that in another +Idyl, where Lancelot went along, looking at a star, "_and wondered +what it was"?_ Of a more imaginative kind of beauty are the +descriptions of the walls of rock near Castle Dangerous, decked by the +hermit with tinted bas-reliefs, and the fine one of Camelot, looking +as if "built by fairy kings," with its city gate surmounted by the +figures of the three mystic queens, "the friends of Arthur," and +decked upon the keystone with the image of the Lady, whose form is +set in ripples of stone and crossed by mystic fish, while her drapery +weeps from her sides as water flowing away. The most charming part of +the character-painting is where the shrewish Lynette, as her estimate +of the scullion-knight gradually rises in view of his mighty deeds, +evinces her kindlier mood, not directly in speech, but by catches of +love-songs breaking out of the midst of her scornful gibes: this is +a very subtle and suitable and poetical way of eliciting the +under-workings of the damsel's mind, and it is continued through five +or six pages in an interrupted carol, until at last the maiden, wholly +won, bids him ride by her side, and finishes her lay: + + O trefoil, sparkling on the rainy plain, + O rainbow, with three colors after rain, + Shine sweetly: thrice my love hath smiled on me. + +The allegory by which Gareth's four opponents are made to form a sort +of stumbling succession representing Morn, Noon, Evening, and Night or +Death, is hardly worth the introduction, but it is not insisted +upon: the last of these knights, besieging Castle Perilous in a skull +helmet, and clamoring for marriage with Lynette's sister Lyonors, +turns out to be a large-sized, fresh-faced and foolish boy, who issues +from the skull "as a flower new blown," and fatuously explains that +his brothers have dressed him out in burlesque and deposited him as a +bugbear at the gate. This is not very salutary allegorizing, but it +is soon over, and the poem closed, leaving a pleasant perfume in the +reader's mind of chivalry, errantry and the delicious days before the +invention of civilization. + + + +Handbook of the History of Philosophy. By Dr. Albert Schwegler. +Translated arid annotated by James Hutchison Stirling, LL.D. New York: +Putnam. + +Spinoza teaches that "substance is God;" but, says Mr. Matthew Arnold, +"propositions about substance pass by mankind at large like the idle +wind, which mankind at large regards not: it will not even listen to +a word about these propositions, unless it first learns what their +author was driving at with them, and finds that this object of his +is one with which it sympathizes." There is no way of getting the +multitude to listen to Spinoza's _Ethics_ or Plato's _Dialectics_ but +something is gained when a man of science like Dr. Schwegler happens +to possess the gift of fluent and easy statement, and can pour into a +work like the present, which is the expansion of a hasty encyclopaedia +article, the vivacity of current speech, and the impulse which gives +unity to a long history while it excludes crabbed digressions. It +happens that the American world received the first translation of +Schwegler's _History_ _of Philosophy_; and it may be asked, What need +have Americans of a subsequent version by a Scotch doctor of laws? The +answer is, that Mr. Seelye's earlier rendering was taken from a first +edition, and that the present one includes the variations made in five +editions which have now been issued. Even on British ground the work +thus translated has reached three editions, and the multitude of +"mankind at large," hearing of these repeated editions in Edinburgh +and of twenty thousand copies sold in Germany, may begin to prick +up its ears, and to think that this is one of the easily-read +philosophies of modern times, of which Taine and Michelet have the +secret. It is not so: abstractions stated with scientific precision in +their elliptic slang or technicality are not and cannot be made easy +reading: the strong hands of condensation which Schwegler pressed down +upon the material he controlled so perfectly have not left it lighter +or more digestible. The reader of this manual, for instance, will be +invited to consider the Eleatic argumentation that nothing exists but +Identity, "which is the beënt, and that Difference, the non-beënt, +does not exist; and therefore that he must not only not go on talking +about difference, but that he must not allude to difference as being +anything but the non-beënt; for if he casts about for a synonym, and +arrives at the notion that he may say non-existent for non-beënt, he +is abjectly wrong, for beënt does not mean existent, and non-beënt +non-existent, but it must be considered that the beënt is strictly the +non-existent, and the existent the non-beënt." Such are the amenities +of expression into which an eloquent metaphysician, trying his best +to speak popularly, is led. Yet the book is readable to that orderly +application of the mind which such studies exact, and is the firmest +and strictest guide now speaking our English tongue. Its steady +attention to the business in hand, from the pre-Socratic philosphies +down through the great age of the Greek revival, to Germany and Hegel +at last, is most sustained and admirable. Indeed, few thinkers of +Anglo-Saxon birth are able even to praise such a book as it deserves. +The only real impediment to its acceptance by scholars of our race is +that its attention to modern philosophy is rather partial, the French +and the Germans getting most of the story, and English philosophers +like Locke and Hume receiving scant attention, while Paley is not +recognized. This class of omissions is attended to by the Scotch +translator in a mass of annotations which lead him into a broad and +interesting view of British philosophy, in the course of which he has +some severe reflections on the ignorance of Mr. Lewes and Mr. Mill. On +account of these valuable notes, and also for the alterations made +by Schwegler himself, we feel that we must invite American scholars +possessing the Seelye translation to replace it or accompany it by +this present version, which is a cheap and compassable volume. + + + +Joseph Noirel's Revenge. By Victor Cherbuliez. Translated from the +French by Wm. F. West, A.M. New York: Holt & Williams. + +M. Victor Cherbuliez belongs to a Genevese family long and honorably +connected with literature in the capacity of publishers both at Paris +and Geneva. It is in the latter town and the adjacent region that the +scene of the present story--the first, we believe, of the author's +works which has found its way into English--is laid; and much of +its charm is derived from the local coloring with which many of the +characters and incidents are invested. Even the quiet home-life of +so beautiful and renowned a place cannot but be tinted by reflections +from the incomparable beauties of its surroundings, and from the +grand and vivid passages of its singularly picturesque history. The +subordinate figures on the canvas have accordingly an interest greater +than what arises from their commonplace individualities and their +meagre part in the action--like barndoor fowls pecking and clucking +beside larger bipeds in a walled yard steeped in sunlight. But the +sunlight which gives a delicious warmth and brightness to the earlier +chapters of the novel is soon succeeded by gloom and tempest. The +interest is more and more concentrated on the few principal persons; +and the action, which at the outset promised to be light and amusing, +with merely so much of tenderness and pathos as may belong to the +higher comedy, becomes by degrees deeply tragical, and ends in a +catastrophe which is saved from being horrible and revolting only by +the shadows that forecast and the softening strains that attend it. In +point of construction and skillful handling the story is as effective +as French art alone could have made it, while it has an under-meaning +rendered all the more suggestive by being left to find its way into +the reader's reflections without any obvious prompting. The heroine, +sole child of a prosperous bourgeois couple, stands between two +lovers--one the last relic of a noble Burgundian family; the other a +workman with socialist tendencies. Marguerite Mirion is invested with +all the fascination which beauty of face, simplicity of mind, purity +of soul, sweetness of disposition and joyousness of spirit can impart. +Yet she is, and feels herself to be, entirely _bourgeoise,_ longing +for no ideal heights, worldly or spiritual, ready for all ordinary +duties, content with simple and innocent pleasures, rinding in the +life, the thoughts, the occupations and enjoyments of her class all +that is needed to make the current of her life run smoothly and to +satisfy the cravings of her bright but gentle nature. It is in simple +obedience to the will of her parents that she marries Count Roger +d'Ornis, and is carried from her happy home at Mon-Plaisir to a +dilapidated castle in the Jura, where there are no smiling faces or +loving hearts to make her welcome--where, on the contrary, she meets +only with haughty, spiteful or morose looks and a chilling and gloomy +atmosphere. It is from sheer necessity that she accepts the aid +of Joseph Noirel, her father's head-workman, whose ardent spirit, +quickened by the consciousness of talent, but rendered morbid by the +slights which his birth and position have entailed, has been plunged +into blackest night by the loss of the single star that had illumined +its firmament. Count Roger is not wholly devoid of honor and +generosity; but he has no true appreciation of his wife, and will +sacrifice her without remorse to save his own reputation. Joseph, on +the other hand, is ready to dare all things to protect her from +harm; but he cannot forego the reward which entails upon her a deeper +misery. It is Marguerite alone who, in the terrible struggle of fate +and of clashing interests and desires, rises to the height of absolute +self-abnegation; and this not through any sudden development of +qualities or intuitions foreign to her previous modes of thought, +but by the simple application of these to the hard and complicated +problems which have suddenly confronted her. Herein lies the novelty +of the conception and the lesson which the author has apparently +intended to convey. See, he seems to say, how the bourgeois nature, +equally scorned by the classes above and below it as the embodiment of +vulgar ease and selfishness, contains precisely the elements of true +heroism which are wanting alike in those who set conventional rules +above moral laws and in those who revolt against all restrictions. The +book is thus an apology for a class which is no favorite with poets +or romancers; but, as we have said, the design is only to be inferred +from the story, and may easily pass unnoticed, at least with American +readers. The character of Noirel is powerfully drawn, but it is less +original than that of the heroine, belonging, for example, to the +same type as the hero of _Le Rouge et le Noir_--"ce Robespierre de +village," as Sainte-Beuve, we believe, calls him. + + + +Homes and Hospitals; or, Two Phases of Woman's Work, as exhibited in +the Labors of Amy Button and Agnes E. Jones. Boston: American Tract +Society; New York: Hurd & Houghton. + +Doubtless we should not, though most of us do, feel a tenderness for +the Dorcas who proves to be a lady of culture and distinction, rather +different from the careless respect we accord to the Dorcas who has +large feet and hands, and mismanages her _h_'s. In this elegant little +book "Amy" is the descendant of influential patrons and patronesses, +and "Agnes" is the lovely saint whom Miss Nightingale calls "Una," +though her high-bred purity and lowly self-dedication rather recall +the character of Elizabeth of Hungary. Agnes, in Crook lane and +Abbot's street, encounters old paupers who have already enjoyed the +bounty of her ancestress's (Dame Dutton) legacy. When she becomes +interested in the old Indian campaigner, Miles, she is able to procure +his admission to Chelsea through the influence of "my brother, Colonel +Dutton." She lightens her watches by reading Manzoni's novel, +_I Promessi Sposi,_ she quotes Lord Bacon, and compares the +hospital-nurses to the witches in _Macbeth_. These mental and +social graces do not, perhaps, assist the practical part of her +ministrations, but they undoubtedly chasten the influence of +her ministrations on her own character. It is as a purist and an +aristocrat of the best kind that Miss Dutton forms within her own mind +this resolution: "If the details of evil are unavoidably brought under +your eye, let not your thoughts rest upon them a moment longer than is +absolutely needful. Dismiss them with a vigorous effort as soon as you +have done your best to apply a remedy: commit the matter into higher +Hands, then turn to your book, your music, your wood-carving, your pet +recreation, whatever it is. This is one way, at least, of keeping the +mind elastic and pure." And with the discretion of rare breeding she +carries into the haunts of vice and miserable intrigue the Italian +byword: _Orecchie spalancate, e bocca stretta_. A similar elevation, +but also a sense that responsibility to her caste requires the most +tender humility, may be found in "Una." When about to associate with +coarse hired London nurses at St. Thomas's Hospital, she asks herself, +"Are you more above those with whom you will have to mix than our +Saviour was in every thought and sensitive refinement?" It was by +such self-teaching that these high-spirited girls made their life-toil +redound to their own purification, as it did to the cause of humanity. +The purpose served by binding in one volume the district experiences +of Miss Dutton and the hospital record of Miss Jones is that of +indicating to the average young lady of our period a diversity of ways +in which she may serve our Master and His poor. With "Amy" she may +retain her connection with society, and adorn her home and her circle, +all the while that she reads the Litany with the decayed governess or +_Golden Deeds_ to the dying burglar. With "Agnes" she may plunge into +more heroic self-abnegation. Leaving the fair attractions of the world +as utterly as the diver leaves the foam and surface of the sea, she +may grope for moral pearls in the workhouse of Liverpool or train +for her sombre avocation in the asylum at Kaiserwerth. Such absolute +dedication will probably have some effect on her "tone" as a lady. She +can no longer keep up with the current interests of society. Instead +of Shakespeare and Italian literature, which we have seen coloring +the career of the district visitor, her life will take on a sort of +submarine pallor. The sordid surroundings will press too close for any +gleam from the outer world to penetrate. The things of interest will +be the wretched things of pauperdom and hospital service--the slight +improvement of Gaffer, the spiritual needs of Gammer, the harsh +tyranny of upper nurses. "To-day when out walking," says the brave +young lady, as superintendent of a boys' hospital, "I could only keep +from crying by running races with my boys." The effect of a training +so rigid--training which sometimes includes stove-blacking and +floor-washing--is to try the pure metal, to eject the merely +ornamental young lady whose nature is dross, and to consolidate +the valuable nature that is sterling. Miss Agnes, plunged in hard +practical work, and unconsciously acquiring a little workmen's slang, +gives the final judgment on the utility of such discipline: "Without +a regular hard London training I should have been nowhere." Both the +saints of the century are now dead, and these memoirs conserve the +perfume of their lives. + + + +Songs from the Old Dramatists. Collected and Edited by Abby Sage +Richardson, New York: Hurd & Houghton. + +Any anthology of old English lyrics is a treasure if one can depend +upon the correctness of printing and punctuating. Mrs. Richardson has +found a quantity of rather recondite ones, and most of the favorites +are given too. Only to read her long index of first lines is to catch +a succession of dainty fancies and of exquisite rhythms, arranged when +the language was crystallizing into beauty under the fanning wings of +song. That some of our pet jewels are omitted was to be expected. +The compiler does not find space for Rochester's most sincere-seeming +stanzas, beginning, "I cannot change as others do"--among the sweetest +and most lyrical utterances which could set the stay-imprisoned hearts +of Charles II.'s beauties to bounding with a touch of emotion. Perhaps +Rochester was not exactly a dramatist, though that point is wisely +strained in other cases. We do not get the "Nay, dearest, think me +not unkind," nor do we get the "To all you ladies now on land," though +sailors' lyrics, among the finest legacies of the time when gallant +England ruled the waves, are not wanting. We have Sir Charles Sedley's + + "Love still hath something of the sea + From which his mother rose," + +and the siren's song, fit for the loveliest of Parthenopes, from +Browne's _Masque of the Inner Temple_, beginning, + + "Steer, hither steer your winged pines, + All beaten mariners!"-- + +songs which severally repeat the fatigue of the sea or that daring +energy of its Elizabethan followers which by a false etymology we term +chivalrous. We do not find the superb lunacy of "Mad Tom of Bedlam" in +the catch beginning, "I know more than Apollo," but we have something +almost as spirited, where John Ford sings, in _The Sun's Darling_, + + "The dogs have the stag in chase! + 'Tis a sport to content a king. + So-ho! ho! through the skies + How the proud bird flies, + And swooping, kills with a grace! + Now the deer falls! hark! how they ring." + +For what is pensive and retrospective in tone we are given a song +of "The Aged Courtier," which once in a pageant touched the finer +consciousness of Queen Elizabeth. The unemployed warrior, whose +"helmet now shall make a hive for bees," treats the virgin sovereign +as his saint and divinity, promising, + + "And when he saddest sits in holy cell, + He'll teach his swains this carol for a song: + Blest be the hearts that wish my sovereign well! + Cursed be the souls that think her any wrong! + Goddess! allow this aged man his right + To be your beadsman now, that was your knight." + +The feudal feeling can hardly be more beautifully expressed. + +From the devotion that was low and lifelong we may turn to the +devotion that was loud and fleeting. The love-songs are many and well +picked: one is the madrigal from Thomas Lodge's _Eitphues' Golden +Legacy,_ which "he wrote," he says, "on the ocean, when every line +was wet with a surge, and every humorous passion counterchecked with +a storm;" and which (the madrigal) had the good fortune to suggest and +name Shakespeare's archest character, Rosalind. We cannot dwell +upon this perfumed chaplet of love-ditties. Mrs. Richardson is here +doubtless in her element, but she does not always lighten counsel +with the wisdom of her words; for instance, when, in Beaumont and +Fletcher's "Beauty clear and fair," she makes an attempted emendation +in the lines-- + + "Where to live near, + And planted there, + Is still to live and still live new; + Where to gain a favor is + More than light perpetual bliss; + Oh make me live by serving you." + +On this the editress says: "I have always been inclined to believe +that this line should read: 'More than _life_, perpetual bliss.'" The +image here, where the whole figure is taken from flowers, is of being +planted and growing in the glow of the mistress's beauty, whose favor +is more fructifying than the sun, and to which he immediately begs +to be recalled, "back again, to this _light_." To say that living +anywhere is "more than life" is a forced bombastic notion not in +the way of Beaumont and Fletcher, but coming later, and rather +characteristic of Poe, with his rant about + + "that infinity with which my wife + Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life." + +Mrs. Richardson's notes, in fact, contradict the impression of +thoroughness which her selecting, we are glad to say, leaves on the +mind. She is aware that the "Ode to Melancholy" in _The Nice Valour_ +begins in the same way as Milton's "Pensieroso," but she does not seem +to know that the latter is also closely imitated from Burton's poem in +his _Anatomy of Melancholy_. And she quotes John Still's "Jolly Good +Ale and Old" as a "panegyric on old sack," sack being sweet wine. + +The publishers have done their part, and made of these drops of oozed +gold what is called "an elegant trifle" for the holidays. Mr. John La +Farge, a very "advanced" sort of artist and illustrator, has furnished +some embellishments which will be better liked by people of broad +culture, and especially by enthusiasts for Japanese art, than they +will be by ordinary Christmas-shoppers, though the frontispiece to +"Songs of Fairies," representing Psyche floating among water-lilies, +is beautiful enough and obvious enough for anybody. + + + + + +_Books Received._ + + +A Concordance to the Constitution of the United States of America. By +Charles W. Stearns, M.D. New York: Mason, Baker & Pratt. + +The Standard: A Collection of Sacred and Secular Music. By L.O. +Emerson and H. R. Palmer. Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co. + +Gems of Strauss: A Collection of Dance Music for the Piano. By Johann +Strauss. Boston: Oliver Ditson & Co. + +The Greeks of To-Day. By Charles K. Tuckerman. New York: G.P. Putnam & +Sons. + +The Eustace Diamonds. By Anthony Trollope. New York: Harper & +Brothers. + +How to Paint. By F.B. Gardner. New York: Samuel R. Wells. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular +Literature And Science, No. 23, February, 1873, Vol. XI., by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13636 *** |