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- &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="p3.htm">Previous Part</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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-&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="2895-h.htm">Main Index</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
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-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<center>
-
-
- <h1>FOLLOWING</h1>
- <h1>THE EQUATOR</h1>
- <br><br><br>
- <h3>Part 4.</h3>
- <br><br><br>
- <h2>A JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD</h2>
- <h2>BY</h2>
- <h2>MARK TWAIN</h2>
- <br><br><br>
- <h3>SAMUEL L. CLEMENS</h3>
- <h3>HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT</h3>
-
-
-</center>
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="bookcover.jpg (131K)" src="images/bookcover.jpg" height="918" width="650">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<center><img alt="bookspine.jpg (70K)" src="images/bookspine.jpg" height="918" width="265">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<center><img alt="booktitle.jpg (53K)" src="images/booktitle.jpg" height="1051" width="619">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<center><img alt="bookfront.jpg (50K)" src="images/bookfront.jpg" height="978" width="650">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<center><img alt="bookdedicate.jpg (13K)" src="images/bookdedicate.jpg" height="329" width="575">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<center><img alt="bookmaxim.jpg (16K)" src="images/bookmaxim.jpg" height="367" width="627">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-
- <center><h2>CONTENTS &nbsp;OF &nbsp; PART 4.</h2></center>
-
-<blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote>
-<br><br><br>
-<h3><a href="#ch30">CHAPTER XXX.</a></h3>
-<p>
-Arrival at Bluff, N. Z.&mdash;Where the Rabbit Plague Began&mdash;The Natural Enemy
-of the Rabbit&mdash;Dunedin&mdash;A Lovely Town&mdash;Visit to Dr. Hockin&mdash;His
-Museum&mdash;A Liquified Caterpillar&mdash;The Unperfected Tape Worm&mdash;The Public Museum and
-Picture Gallery
-
-<br><br><br>
-<h3><a href="#ch31">CHAPTER XXXI.</a></h3>
-<p>
-The Express Train&mdash;"A Hell of a Hotel at
-Maryborough"&mdash;Clocks and Bells&mdash;Railroad Service.
-
-<br><br><br>
-<h3><a href="#ch32">CHAPTER XXXII.</a></h3>
-<p>
-Description of the Town of Christ Church&mdash;A Fine Museum&mdash;Jade-stone
-Trinkets&mdash;The Great Moa&mdash;The First Maori in New Zealand&mdash;Women
-Voters&mdash;"Person" in New Zealand Law Includes Woman&mdash;Taming an
-Ornithorhynchus&mdash;A Voyage in the 'Flora' from Lyttelton&mdash;Cattle Stalls for
-Everybody&mdash;A Wonderful Time.
-
-<br><br><br>
-<h3><a href="#ch33">CHAPTER XXXIII.</a></h3>
-<p>
-The Town of Nelson&mdash;"The Mongatapu Murders," the Great Event of the
-Town&mdash;Burgess' Confession&mdash;Summit of Mount Eden&mdash;Rotorua and the Hot Lakes
-and Geysers&mdash;Thermal Springs District&mdash;Kauri Gum&mdash;Tangariwa Mountains
-
-<br><br><br>
-<h3><a href="#ch34">CHAPTER XXXIV.</a></h3>
-<p>
-The Bay of Gisborne&mdash;Taking in Passengers by the Yard Arm&mdash;The Green
-Ballarat Fly&mdash;False Teeth&mdash;From Napier to Hastings by the Ballarat Fly
-Train&mdash;Kauri Trees&mdash;A Case of Mental Telegraphy
-
-<br><br><br>
-<h3><a href="#ch35">CHAPTER XXXV.</a></h3>
-<p>
-Fifty Miles in Four Hours&mdash;Comfortable Cars&mdash;Town of Wauganui&mdash;Plenty of
-Maoris&mdash;On the Increase&mdash;Compliments to the Maoris&mdash;The Missionary Ways
-all Wrong&mdash;The Tabu among the Maoris&mdash;A Mysterious Sign&mdash;Curious
-War-monuments&mdash;Wellington
-
-<br><br><br>
-<h3><a href="#ch36">CHAPTER XXXVI.</a></h3>
-<p>
-The Poems of Mrs. Moore&mdash;The Sad Fate of William Upson&mdash;A Fellow Traveler
-Imitating the Prince of Wales&mdash;A Would-be Dude&mdash;Arrival at
-Sydney&mdash;Curious Town Names with Poem
-
-<br><br><br>
-<h3><a href="#ch37">CHAPTER XXXVII.</a></h3>
-<p>
-From Sydney for Ceylon&mdash;A Lascar Crew&mdash;A Fine Ship&mdash;Three Cats and a
-Basket of Kittens&mdash;Dinner Conversations&mdash;Veuve Cliquot Wine&mdash;At Anchor in
-King George's Sound Albany Harbor&mdash;More Cats&mdash;A Vulture on Board&mdash;Nearing
-the Equator again&mdash;Dressing for Dinner&mdash;Ceylon, Hotel Bristol&mdash;Servant
-Brampy&mdash;A Feminine Man&mdash;Japanese Jinriksha or Cart&mdash;Scenes in Ceylon&mdash;A
-Missionary School&mdash;Insincerity of Clothes
-
-<br><br><br>
-<h3><a href="#ch38">CHAPTER XXXVIII.</a></h3>
-<p>
-Steamer Rosetta to Bombay&mdash;Limes 14 cents a Barrel&mdash;Bombay, a Bewitching
-City&mdash;Descriptions of People and Dress&mdash;Woman as a Road
-Decoration&mdash;India, the Land of Dreams and Romance&mdash;Fourteen Porters to Carry
-Baggage&mdash;Correcting a Servant&mdash;Killing a Slave&mdash;Arranging a Bedroom&mdash;Three Hours'
-Work and a Terrible Racket&mdash;The Bird of Birds, the Indian Crow
-
-
-</blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote>
-
-<br>
-<hr>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<h2><a name="ch30"></a><br><br>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
-
-<p><i>Nature makes the locust with an appetite for crops; man would have made
-him with an appetite for sand.</i>
- <center>&mdash;Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center>
-
-<p>We spent part of an afternoon and a night at sea, and reached Bluff, in
-New Zealand, early in the morning. Bluff is at the bottom of the middle
-island, and is away down south, nearly forty-seven degrees below the
-equator. It lies as far south of the line as Quebec lies north of it,
-and the climates of the two should be alike; but for some reason or other
-it has not been so arranged. Quebec is hot in the summer and cold in the
-winter, but Bluff's climate is less intense; the cold weather is not very
-cold, the hot weather is not very hot; and the difference between the
-hottest month and the coldest is but 17 degrees Fahrenheit.
-
-<p>In New Zealand the rabbit plague began at Bluff. The man who introduced
-the rabbit there was banqueted and lauded; but they would hang him, now,
-if they could get him. In England the natural enemy of the rabbit is
-detested and persecuted; in the Bluff region the natural enemy of the
-rabbit is honored, and his person is sacred. The rabbit's natural enemy
-in England is the poacher, in Bluff its natural enemy is the stoat, the
-weasel, the ferret, the cat, and the mongoose. In England any person
-below the Heir who is caught with a rabbit in his possession must
-satisfactorily explain how it got there, or he will suffer fine and
-imprisonment, together with extinction of his peerage; in Bluff, the cat
-found with a rabbit in its possession does not have to explain&mdash;everybody
-looks the other way; the person caught noticing would suffer fine and
-imprisonment, with extinction of peerage. This is a sure way to
-undermine the moral fabric of a cat. Thirty years from now there will
-not be a moral cat in New Zealand. Some think there is none there now.
-In England the poacher is watched, tracked, hunted&mdash;he dare not show his
-face; in Bluff the cat, the weasel, the stoat, and the mongoose go up and
-down, whither they will, unmolested. By a law of the legislature, posted
-where all may read, it is decreed that any person found in possession of
-one of these creatures (dead) must satisfactorily explain the
-circumstances or pay a fine of not less than L5, nor more than L20. The
-revenue from this source is not large. Persons who want to pay a hundred
-dollars for a dead cat are getting rarer and rarer every day. This is
-bad, for the revenue was to go to the endowment of a University. All
-governments are more or less short-sighted: in England they fine the
-poacher, whereas he ought to be banished to New Zealand. New Zealand
-would pay his way, and give him wages.
-
-<p>It was from Bluff that we ought to have cut across to the west coast and
-visited the New Zealand Switzerland, a land of superb scenery, made up of
-snowy grandeurs, and mighty glaciers, and beautiful lakes; and over
-there, also, are the wonderful rivals of the Norwegian and Alaskan
-fiords; and for neighbor, a waterfall of 1,900 feet; but we were obliged
-to postpone the trip to some later and indefinite time.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p286.jpg (11K)" src="images/p286.jpg" height="229" width="553">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>November 6. A lovely summer morning; brilliant blue sky. A few miles
-out from Invercargill, passed through vast level green expanses snowed
-over with sheep. Fine to see. The green, deep and very vivid sometimes;
-at other times less so, but delicate and lovely. A passenger reminds me
-that I am in "the England of the Far South."
-
-<p>Dunedin, same date. The town justifies Michael Davitt's praises. The
-people are Scotch. They stopped here on their way from home to
-heaven&mdash;thinking they had arrived. The population is stated at 40,000, by
-Malcolm Ross, journalist; stated by an M. P. at 60,000. A journalist
-cannot lie.
-
-<p>To the residence of Dr. Hockin. He has a fine collection of books
-relating to New Zealand; and his house is a museum of Maori art and
-antiquities. He has pictures and prints in color of many native chiefs
-of the past&mdash;some of them of note in history. There is nothing of the
-savage in the faces; nothing could be finer than these men's features,
-nothing more intellectual than these faces, nothing more masculine,
-nothing nobler than their aspect. The aboriginals of Australia and
-Tasmania looked the savage, but these chiefs looked like Roman
-patricians. The tattooing in these portraits ought to suggest the
-savage, of course, but it does not. The designs are so flowing and
-graceful and beautiful that they are a most satisfactory decoration. It
-takes but fifteen minutes to get reconciled to the tattooing, and but
-fifteen more to perceive that it is just the thing. After that, the
-undecorated European face is unpleasant and ignoble.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p287.jpg (27K)" src="images/p287.jpg" height="688" width="266">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>Dr. Hockiun gave us a ghastly curiosity&mdash;a lignified caterpillar with a
-plant growing out of the back of its neck&mdash;a plant with a slender stem 4
-inches high. It happened not by accident, but by design&mdash;Nature's
-design. This caterpillar was in the act of loyally carrying out a law
-inflicted upon him by Nature&mdash;a law purposely inflicted upon him to get
-him into trouble&mdash;a law which was a trap; in pursuance of this law he
-made the proper preparations for turning himself into a night-moth; that
-is to say, he dug a little trench, a little grave, and then stretched
-himself out in it on his stomach and partially buried himself&mdash;then
-Nature was ready for him. She blew the spores of a peculiar fungus
-through the air with a purpose. Some of them fell into a crease in the
-back of the caterpillar's neck, and began to sprout and grow&mdash;for there
-was soil there&mdash;he had not washed his neck. The roots forced themselves
-down into the worm's person, and rearward along through its body, sucking
-up the creature's juices for sap; the worm slowly died, and turned to
-wood. And here he was now, a wooden caterpillar, with every detail of
-his former physique delicately and exactly preserved and perpetuated, and
-with that stem standing up out of him for his monument&mdash;monument
-commemorative of his own loyalty and of Nature's unfair return for it.
-
-<p>Nature is always acting like that. Mrs. X. said (of course) that the
-caterpillar was not conscious and didn't suffer. She should have known
-better. No caterpillar can deceive Nature. If this one couldn't suffer,
-Nature would have known it and would have hunted up another caterpillar.
-Not that she would have let this one go, merely because it was defective.
-No. She would have waited and let him turn into a night-moth; and then
-fried him in the candle.
-
-<p>Nature cakes a fish's eyes over with parasites, so that it shan't be able
-to avoid its enemies or find its food. She sends parasites into a
-star-fish's system, which clog up its prongs and swell them and make them so
-uncomfortable that the poor creature delivers itself from the prong to
-ease its misery; and presently it has to part with another prong for the
-sake of comfort, and finally with a third. If it re-grows the prongs,
-the parasite returns and the same thing is repeated. And finally, when
-the ability to reproduce prongs is lost through age, that poor old
-star-fish can't get around any more, and so it dies of starvation.
-
-<p>In Australia is prevalent a horrible disease due to an "unperfected
-tapeworm." Unperfected&mdash;that is what they call it, I do not know why,
-for it transacts business just as well as if it were finished and
-frescoed and gilded, and all that.
-
-<p>November 9. To the museum and public picture gallery with the president
-of the Society of Artists. Some fine pictures there, lent by the S. of
-A. several of them they bought, the others came to them by gift. Next,
-to the gallery of the S. of A.&mdash;annual exhibition&mdash;just opened. Fine.
-Think of a town like this having two such collections as this, and a
-Society of Artists. It is so all over Australasia. If it were a
-monarchy one might understand it. I mean an absolute monarchy, where it
-isn't necessary to vote money, but take it. Then art flourishes. But
-these colonies are republics&mdash;republics with a wide suffrage; voters of
-both sexes, this one of New Zealand. In republics, neither the
-government nor the rich private citizen is much given to propagating art.
-All over Australasia pictures by famous European artists are bought for
-the public galleries by the State and by societies of citizens. Living
-citizens&mdash;not dead ones. They rob themselves to give, not their heirs.
-This S. of A. here owns its building built it by subscription.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<h2><a name="ch31"></a><br><br>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
-
-<p><i>The spirit of wrath&mdash;not the words&mdash;is the sin; and the spirit of wrath
-is cursing. We begin to swear before we can talk.</i>
- <center> &mdash;Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center>
-
-<p>November 11. On the road. This train-express goes twenty and one-half
-miles an hour, schedule time; but it is fast enough, the outlook upon sea
-and land is so interesting, and the cars so comfortable. They are not
-English, and not American; they are the Swiss combination of the two. A
-narrow and railed porch along the side, where a person can walk up and
-down. A lavatory in each car. This is progress; this is
-nineteenth-century spirit. In New Zealand, these fast expresses run twice a week.
-It is well to know this if you want to be a bird and fly through the
-country at a 20-mile gait; otherwise you may start on one of the five
-wrong days, and then you will get a train that can't overtake its own
-shadow.
-
-<p>By contrast, these pleasant cars call to mind the branch-road cars at
-Maryborough, Australia, and the passengers' talk about the branch-road
-and the hotel.
-
-<p>Somewhere on the road to Maryborough I changed for a while to a
-smoking-carriage. There were two gentlemen there; both riding backward, one at
-each end of the compartment. They were acquaintances of each other. I
-sat down facing the one that sat at the starboard window. He had a good
-face, and a friendly look, and I judged from his dress that he was a
-dissenting minister. He was along toward fifty. Of his own motion he
-struck a match, and shaded it with his hand for me to light my cigar. I
-take the rest from my diary:
-
-<p>In order to start conversation I asked him something about Maryborough.
-He said, in a most pleasant&mdash;even musical voice, but with quiet and
-cultured decision:
-
-<p>"It's a charming town, with a hell of a hotel."
-
-<p>I was astonished. It seemed so odd to hear a minister swear out loud.
-He went placidly on:
-
-<p>"It's the worst hotel in Australia. Well, one may go further, and say in
-Australasia."
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p292.jpg (66K)" src="images/p292.jpg" height="1037" width="627">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>"Bad beds?"
-
-<p>"No&mdash;none at all. Just sand-bags."
-
-<p>"The pillows, too?"
-
-<p>"Yes, the pillows, too. Just sand. And not a good quality of sand. It
-packs too hard, and has never been screened. There is too much gravel in
-it. It is like sleeping on nuts."
-
-<p>"Isn't there any good sand?"
-
-<p>"Plenty of it. There is as good bed-sand in this region as the world can
-furnish. Aerated sand&mdash;and loose; but they won't buy it. They want
-something that will pack solid, and petrify."
-
-<p>"How are the rooms?"
-
-<p>"Eight feet square; and a sheet of iced oil-cloth to step on in the
-morning when you get out of the sand-quarry."
-
-<p>"As to lights?"
-
-<p>"Coal-oil lamp."
-
-<p>"A good one?"
-
-<p>"No. It's the kind that sheds a gloom."
-
-<p>"I like a lamp that burns all night."
-
-<p>"This one won't. You must blow it out early."
-
-<p>"That is bad. One might want it again in the night. Can't find it in
-the dark."
-
-<p>"There's no trouble; you can find it by the stench."
-
-<p>"Wardrobe?"
-
-<p>"Two nails on the door to hang seven suits of clothes on if you've got
-them."
-
-<p>"Bells?"
-
-<p>"There aren't any."
-
-<p>"What do you do when you want service?"
-
-<p>"Shout. But it won't fetch anybody."
-
-<p>"Suppose you want the chambermaid to empty the slopjar?"
-
-<p>"There isn't any slop-jar. The hotels don't keep them. That is, outside
-of Sydney and Melbourne."
-
-<p>"Yes, I knew that. I was only talking. It's the oddest thing in
-Australia. Another thing: I've got to get up in the dark, in the
-morning, to take the 5 o'clock train. Now if the boots&mdash;&mdash;"
-
-<p>"There isn't any."
-
-<p>"Well, the porter."
-
-<p>"There isn't any."
-
-<p>"But who will call me?"
-
-<p>"Nobody. You'll call yourself. And you'll light yourself, too.
-There'll not be a light burning in the halls or anywhere. And if you
-don't carry a light, you'll break your neck."
-
-<p>"But who will help me down with my baggage?"
-
-<p>"Nobody. However, I will tell you what to do. In Maryborough there's an
-American who has lived there half a lifetime; a fine man, and prosperous
-and popular. He will be on the lookout for you; you won't have any
-trouble. Sleep in peace; he will rout you out, and you will make your
-train. Where is your manager?"
-
-<p>"I left him at Ballarat, studying the language. And besides, he had to
-go to Melbourne and get us ready for New Zealand. I've not tried to
-pilot myself before, and it doesn't look easy."
-
-<p>"Easy! You've selected the very most difficult piece of railroad in
-Australia for your experiment. There are twelve miles of this road which
-no man without good executive ability can ever hope&mdash;tell me, have you
-good executive ability? first-rate executive ability?"
-
-<p>"I&mdash;well, I think so, but&mdash;&mdash;"
-
-<p>"That settles it. The tone of&mdash;&mdash;oh, you wouldn't ever make it in the
-world. However, that American will point you right, and you'll go.
-You've got tickets?"
-
-<p>"Yes&mdash;round trip; all the way to Sydney."
-
-<p>"Ah, there it is, you see! You are going in the 5 o'clock by
-Castlemaine&mdash;twelve miles&mdash;instead of the 7.15 by Ballarat&mdash;in order to
-save two hours of fooling along the road. Now then, don't interrupt&mdash;let
-me have the floor. You're going to save the government a deal of
-hauling, but that's nothing; your ticket is by Ballarat, and it isn't
-good over that twelve miles, and so&mdash;&mdash;"
-
-<p>"But why should the government care which way I go?"
-
-<p>"Goodness knows! Ask of the winds that far away with fragments strewed
-the sea, as the boy that stood on the burning deck used to say. The
-government chooses to do its railway business in its own way, and it
-doesn't know as much about it as the French. In the beginning they tried
-idiots; then they imported the French&mdash;which was going backwards, you
-see; now it runs the roads itself&mdash;which is going backwards again, you
-see. Why, do you know, in order to curry favor with the voters, the
-government puts down a road wherever anybody wants it&mdash;anybody that owns
-two sheep and a dog; and by consequence we've got, in the colony of
-Victoria, 800 railway stations, and the business done at eighty of them
-doesn't foot up twenty shillings a week."
-
-<p>"Five dollars? Oh, come!"
-
-<p>"It's true. It's the absolute truth."
-
-<p>"Why, there are three or four men on wages at every station."
-
-<p>"I know it. And the station-business doesn't pay for the sheep-dip to
-sanctify their coffee with. It's just as I say. And accommodating?
-Why, if you shake a rag the train will stop in the midst of the
-wilderness to pick you up. All that kind of politics costs, you see.
-And then, besides, any town that has a good many votes and wants a fine
-station, gets it. Don't you overlook that Maryborough station, if you
-take an interest in governmental curiosities. Why, you can put the whole
-population of Maryborough into it, and give them a sofa apiece, and have
-room for more. You haven't fifteen stations in America that are as big,
-and you probably haven't five that are half as fine. Why, it's
-perfectly elegant. And the clock! Everybody will show you the clock.
-There isn't a station in Europe that's got such a clock. It doesn't
-strike&mdash;and that's one mercy. It hasn't any bell; and as you'll have
-cause to remember, if you keep your reason, all Australia is simply
-bedamned with bells.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p295.jpg (70K)" src="images/p295.jpg" height="1070" width="650">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>On every quarter-hour, night and day, they jingle a
-tiresome chime of half a dozen notes&mdash;all the clocks in town at once, all
-the clocks in Australasia at once, and all the very same notes; first,
-downward scale: mi, re, do, sol&mdash;then upward scale: sol, si, re, do&mdash;down
-again: mi, re, do, sol&mdash;up again: sol, si, re, do&mdash;then the clock&mdash;say at
-midnight clang&mdash;clang&mdash;clang&mdash;clang&mdash;clang&mdash;clang&mdash;clang&mdash;clang&mdash;clang&mdash;
-clang&mdash;&mdash;and, by that time you're&mdash;hello, what's all this excitement
-about? Oh I see&mdash;a runaway&mdash;scared by the train; why, you wouldn't think this train could
-scare anything. Well, of cours, when they build and run eighty stations at a loss and a
-lot of palace-stations and clocks like Maryborough's at another loss, the
-government has got to economize somewhere hasn't it? Very well look at
-the rolling stock. That's where they save the money. Why, that train
-from Maryborough will consist of eighteen freight-cars and two
-passenger-kennels; cheap, poor, shabby, slovenly; no drinking water, no sanitary
-arrangements, every imaginable inconvenience; and slow?&mdash;oh, the gait of
-cold molasses; no air-brake, no springs, and they'll jolt your head off
-every time they start or stop. That's where they make their little
-economies, you see. They spend tons of money to house you palatially
-while you wait fifteen minutes for a train, then degrade you to six
-hours' convict-transportation to get the foolish outlay back. What a
-rational man really needs is discomfort while he's waiting, then his
-journey in a nice train would be a grateful change. But no, that would
-be common sense&mdash;and out of place in a government. And then, besides,
-they save in that other little detail, you know&mdash;repudiate their own
-tickets, and collect a poor little illegitimate extra shilling out of you
-for that twelve miles, and&mdash;&mdash;"
-
-<p>"Well, in any case&mdash;&mdash;"
-
-<p>"Wait&mdash;there's more. Leave that American out of the account and see what
-would happen. There's nobody on hand to examine your ticket when you
-arrive. But the conductor will come and examine it when the train is
-ready to start. It is too late to buy your extra ticket now; the train
-can't wait, and won't. You must climb out."
-
-<p>"But can't I pay the conductor?"
-
-<p>"No, he is not authorized to receive the money, and he won't. You must
-climb out. There's no other way. I tell you, the railway management is
-about the only thoroughly European thing here&mdash;continentally European I
-mean, not English. It's the continental business in perfection; down
-fine. Oh, yes, even to the peanut-commerce of weighing baggage."
-
-<p>The train slowed up at his place. As he stepped out he said:
-
-<p>"Yes, you'll like Maryborough. Plenty of intelligence there. It's a
-charming place&mdash;with a hell of a hotel."
-
-<p>Then he was gone. I turned to the other gentleman:
-
-<p>"Is your friend in the ministry?"
-
-<p>"No&mdash;studying for it."
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<h2><a name="ch32"></a><br><br>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
-
-<p><i>The man with a new idea is a Crank until the idea succeeds.</i>
- <center> &mdash;Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center>
-
-<p>It was Junior England all the way to Christchurch&mdash;in fact, just a
-garden. And Christchurch is an English town, with an English-park annex,
-and a winding English brook just like the Avon&mdash;and named the Avon; but
-from a man, not from Shakespeare's river. Its grassy banks are bordered
-by the stateliest and most impressive weeping willows to be found in the
-world, I suppose. They continue the line of a great ancestor; they were
-grown from sprouts of the willow that sheltered Napoleon's grave in St.
-Helena. It is a settled old community, with all the serenities, the
-graces, the conveniences, and the comforts of the ideal home-life. If it
-had an established Church and social inequality it would be England over
-again with hardly a lack.
-
-<p>In the museum we saw many curious and interesting things; among others a
-fine native house of the olden time, with all the details true to the
-facts, and the showy colors right and in their proper places. All the
-details: the fine mats and rugs and things; the elaborate and wonderful
-wood carvings&mdash;wonderful, surely, considering who did them&mdash;wonderful in
-design and particularly in execution, for they were done with admirable
-sharpness and exactness, and yet with no better tools than flint and jade
-and shell could furnish; and the totem-posts were there, ancestor above
-ancestor, with tongues protruded and hands clasped comfortably over
-bellies containing other people's ancestors&mdash;grotesque and ugly devils,
-every one, but lovingly carved, and ably; and the stuffed natives were
-present, in their proper places, and looking as natural as life; and the
-housekeeping utensils were there, too, and close at hand the carved and
-finely ornamented war canoe.
-
-<p>And we saw little jade gods, to hang around the neck&mdash;not everybody's,
-but sacred to the necks of natives of rank. Also jade weapons, and many
-kinds of jade trinkets&mdash;all made out of that excessively hard stone
-without the help of any tool of iron. And some of these things had small
-round holes bored through them&mdash;nobody knows how it was done; a mystery,
-a lost art. I think it was said that if you want such a hole bored in a
-piece of jade now, you must send it to London or Amsterdam where the
-lapidaries are.
-
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p298.jpg (52K)" src="images/p298.jpg" height="659" width="623">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>Also we saw a complete skeleton of the giant Moa. It stood ten feet
-high, and must have been a sight to look at when it was a living bird.
-It was a kicker, like the ostrich; in fight it did not use its beak, but
-its foot. It must have been a convincing kind of kick. If a person had
-his back to the bird and did not see who it was that did it, he would
-think he had been kicked by a wind-mill.
-
-<p>There must have been a sufficiency of moas in the old forgotten days when
-his breed walked the earth. His bones are found in vast masses, all
-crammed together in huge graves. They are not in caves, but in the
-ground. Nobody knows how they happened to get concentrated there. Mind,
-they are bones, not fossils. This means that the moa has not been
-extinct very long. Still, this is the only New Zealand creature which
-has no mention in that otherwise comprehensive literature, the native
-legends. This is a significant detail, and is good circumstantial
-evidence that the moa has been extinct 500 years, since the Maori has
-himself&mdash;by tradition&mdash;been in New Zealand since the end of the fifteenth
-century. He came from an unknown land&mdash;the first Maori did&mdash;then sailed
-back in his canoe and brought his tribe, and they removed the aboriginal
-peoples into the sea and into the ground and took the land. That is the
-tradition. That that first Maori could come, is understandable, for
-anybody can come to a place when he isn't trying to; but how that
-discoverer found his way back home again without a compass is his secret,
-and he died with it in him. His language indicates that he came from
-Polynesia. He told where he came from, but he couldn't spell well, so
-one can't find the place on the map, because people who could spell
-better than he could, spelt the resemblance all out of it when they made
-the map. However, it is better to have a map that is spelt right than
-one that has information in it.
-
-<p>In New Zealand women have the right to vote for members of the
-legislature, but they cannot be members themselves. The law extending
-the suffrage to them went into effect in 1893. The population of
-Christchurch (census of 1891) was 31,454. The first election under the
-law was held in November of that year. Number of men who voted, 6,313;
-number of women who voted, 5,989. These figures ought to convince us
-that women are not as indifferent about politics as some people would
-have us believe. In New Zealand as a whole, the estimated adult female
-population was 139,915; of these 109,461 qualified and registered their
-names on the rolls 78.23 per cent. of the whole. Of these, 90,290 went
-to the polls and voted&mdash;85.18 per cent. Do men ever turn out better than
-that&mdash;in America or elsewhere? Here is a remark to the other sex's
-credit, too&mdash;I take it from the official report:
-
-<p>"A feature of the election was the orderliness and sobriety of the
-people. Women were in no way molested."
-
-<p>At home, a standing argument against woman suffrage has always been that
-women could not go to the polls without being insulted. The arguments
-against woman suffrage have always taken the easy form of prophecy. The
-prophets have been prophesying ever since the woman's rights movement
-began in 1848&mdash;and in forty-seven years they have never scored a hit.
-
-<p>Men ought to begin to feel a sort of respect for their mothers and wives
-and sisters by this time. The women deserve a change of attitude like
-that, for they have wrought well. In forty-seven years they have swept
-an imposingly large number of unfair laws from the statute books of
-America. In that brief time these serfs have set themselves free&mdash;essentially. Men could not have done so much for themselves in that time
-without bloodshed&mdash;at least they never have; and that is argument that
-they didn't know how. The women have accomplished a peaceful revolution,
-and a very beneficent one; and yet that has not convinced the average man
-that they are intelligent, and have courage and energy and perseverance
-and fortitude. It takes much to convince the average man of anything;
-and perhaps nothing can ever make him realize that he is the average
-woman's inferior&mdash;yet in several important details the evidence seems to
-show that that is what he is. Man has ruled the human race from the
-beginning&mdash;but he should remember that up to the middle of the present
-century it was a dull world, and ignorant and stupid; but it is not such
-a dull world now, and is growing less and less dull all the time. This
-is woman's opportunity&mdash;she has had none before. I wonder where man will
-be in another forty-seven years?
-
-<p>In the New Zealand law occurs this: "The word person wherever it occurs
-throughout the Act includes woman."
-
-<p>That is promotion, you see. By that enlargement of the word, the matron
-with the garnered wisdom and experience of fifty years becomes at one
-jump the political equal of her callow kid of twenty-one. The white
-population of the colony is 626,000, the Maori population is 42,000. The
-whites elect seventy members of the House of Representatives, the Maoris
-four. The Maori women vote for their four members.
-
-<p>November 16. After four pleasant days in Christchurch, we are to leave
-at midnight to-night. Mr. Kinsey gave me an ornithorhynchus, and I am
-taming it.
-
-<p>Sunday, 17th. Sailed last night in the Flora, from Lyttelton.
-
-<p>So we did. I remember it yet. The people who sailed in the Flora that
-night may forget some other things if they live a good while, but they
-will not live long enough to forget that. The Flora is about the
-equivalent of a cattle-scow; but when the Union Company find it
-inconvenient to keep a contract and lucrative to break it, they smuggle
-her into passenger service, and "keep the change."
-
-<p>They give no notice of their projected depredation; you innocently buy
-tickets for the advertised passenger boat, and when you get down to
-Lyttelton at midnight, you find that they have substituted the scow.
-They have plenty of good boats, but no competition&mdash;and that is the
-trouble. It is too late now to make other arrangements if you have
-engagements ahead.
-
-<p>It is a powerful company, it has a monopoly, and everybody is afraid of
-it&mdash;including the government's representative, who stands at the end of
-the stage-plank to tally the passengers and see that no boat receives a
-greater number than the law allows her to carry. This conveniently-blind
-representative saw the scow receive a number which was far in excess of
-its privilege, and winked a politic wink and said nothing. The
-passengers bore with meekness the cheat which had been put upon them, and
-made no complaint.
-
-<p>It was like being at home in America, where abused passengers act in just
-the same way. A few days before, the Union Company had discharged a
-captain for getting a boat into danger, and had advertised this act as
-evidence of its vigilance in looking after the safety of the
-passengers&mdash;for thugging a captain costs the company nothing, but when opportunity
-offered to send this dangerously overcrowded tub to sea and save a little
-trouble and a tidy penny by it, it forgot to worry about the passenger's
-safety.
-
-<p>The first officer told me that the Flora was privileged to carry 125
-passengers. She must have had all of 200 on board. All the cabins were
-full, all the cattle-stalls in the main stable were full, the spaces at
-the heads of companionways were full, every inch of floor and table in
-the swill-room was packed with sleeping men and remained so until the
-place was required for breakfast, all the chairs and benches on the
-hurricane deck were occupied, and still there were people who had to walk
-about all night!
-
-<p>If the Flora had gone down that night, half of the people on board would
-have been wholly without means of escape.
-
-<p>The owners of that boat were not technically guilty of conspiracy to
-commit murder, but they were morally guilty of it.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p303.jpg (52K)" src="images/p303.jpg" height="805" width="641">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>I had a cattle-stall in the main stable&mdash;a cavern fitted up with a long
-double file of two-storied bunks, the files separated by a calico
-partition&mdash;twenty men and boys on one side of it, twenty women and girls
-on the other. The place was as dark as the soul of the Union Company,
-and smelt like a kennel. When the vessel got out into the heavy seas and
-began to pitch and wallow, the cavern prisoners became immediately
-seasick, and then the peculiar results that ensued laid all my previous
-experiences of the kind well away in the shade. And the wails, the
-groans, the cries, the shrieks, the strange ejaculations&mdash;it was
-wonderful.
-
-<p>The women and children and some of the men and boys spent the night in
-that place, for they were too ill to leave it; but the rest of us got up,
-by and by, and finished the night on the hurricane-deck.
-
-<p>That boat was the foulest I was ever in; and the smell of the breakfast
-saloon when we threaded our way among the layers of steaming passengers
-stretched upon its floor and its tables was incomparable for efficiency.
-
-<p>A good many of us got ashore at the first way-port to seek another ship.
-After a wait of three hours we got good rooms in the Mahinapua, a wee
-little bridal-parlor of a boat&mdash;only 205 tons burthen; clean and
-comfortable; good service; good beds; good table, and no crowding. The
-seas danced her about like a duck, but she was safe and capable.
-
-<p>Next morning early she went through the French Pass&mdash;a narrow gateway of
-rock, between bold headlands&mdash;so narrow, in fact, that it seemed no wider
-than a street. The current tore through there like a mill-race, and the
-boat darted through like a telegram. The passage was made in half a
-minute; then we were in a wide place where noble vast eddies swept
-grandly round and round in shoal water, and I wondered what they would do
-with the little boat. They did as they pleased with her. They picked
-her up and flung her around like nothing and landed her gently on the
-solid, smooth bottom of sand&mdash;so gently, indeed, that we barely felt her
-touch it, barely felt her quiver when she came to a standstill. The
-water was as clear as glass, the sand on the bottom was vividly distinct,
-and the fishes seemed to be swimming about in nothing. Fishing lines
-were brought out, but before we could bait the hooks the boat was off and
-away again.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p304.jpg (14K)" src="images/p304.jpg" height="405" width="507">
-</center>
-
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<h2><a name="ch33"></a><br><br>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2>
-
-<p><i>Let us be grateful to Adam our benefactor. He cut us out of the
-"blessing of idleness," and won for us the "curse of labor."</i>
- <center>&mdash;Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center>
-
-<p>We soon reached the town of Nelson, and spent the most of the day there,
-visiting acquaintances and driving with them about the garden&mdash;the whole
-region is a garden, excepting the scene of the "Maungatapu Murders," of
-thirty years ago. That is a wild place&mdash;wild and lonely; an ideal place
-for a murder. It is at the base of a vast, rugged, densely timbered
-mountain. In the deep twilight of that forest solitude four desperate
-rascals&mdash;Burgess, Sullivan, Levy, and Kelley&mdash;ambushed themselves beside
-the mountain-trail to murder and rob four travelers&mdash;Kempthorne, Mathieu,
-Dudley, and De Pontius, the latter a New Yorker. A harmless old laboring
-man came wandering along, and as his presence was an embarrassment, they
-choked him, hid him, and then resumed their watch for the four. They had
-to wait a while, but eventually everything turned out as they desired.
-
-<p>That dark episode is the one large event in the history of Nelson. The
-fame of it traveled far. Burgess made a confession. It is a remarkable
-paper. For brevity, succinctness, and concentration, it is perhaps
-without its peer in the literature of murder. There are no waste words
-in it; there is no obtrusion of matter not pertinent to the occasion, nor
-any departure from the dispassionate tone proper to a formal business
-statement&mdash;for that is what it is: a business statement of a murder, by
-the chief engineer of it, or superintendent, or foreman, or whatever one
-may prefer to call him.
-
-<blockquote><blockquote>
-<p> "We were getting impatient, when we saw four men and a pack-horse
- coming. I left my cover and had a look at the men, for Levy had
- told me that Mathieu was a small man and wore a large beard, and
- that it was a chestnut horse. I said, 'Here they come.' They were
- then a good distance away; I took the caps off my gun, and put fresh
- ones on. I said, 'You keep where you are, I'll put them up, and you
- give me your gun while you tie them.' It was arranged as I have
- described. The men came; they arrived within about fifteen yards
- when I stepped up and said, 'Stand! bail up!' That means all of
- them to get together. I made them fall back on the upper side of
- the road with their faces up the range, and Sullivan brought me his
- gun, and then tied their hands behind them. The horse was very
- quiet all the time, he did not move. When they were all tied,
- Sullivan took the horse up the hill, and put him in the bush; he cut
- the rope and let the swags&mdash;[A "swag" is a kit, a pack, small
- baggage.]&mdash;fall on the ground, and then came to me. We then marched
- the men down the incline to the creek; the water at this time barely
- running. Up this creek we took the men; we went, I daresay, five or
- six hundred yards up it, which took us nearly half-an-hour to
- accomplish. Then we turned to the right up the range; we went, I
- daresay, one hundred and fifty yards from the creek, and there we
- sat down with the men. I said to Sullivan, 'Put down your gun and
- search these men,' which he did. I asked them their several names;
- they told me. I asked them if they were expected at Nelson. They
- said, 'No.' If such their lives would have been spared. In money
- we took L60 odd. I said, 'Is this all you have? You had better
- tell me.' Sullivan said, 'Here is a bag of gold.' I said, 'What's on
- that pack-horse? Is there any gold?' when Kempthorne said, 'Yes,
- my gold is in the portmanteau, and I trust you will not take it
- all.' 'Well,' I said, 'we must take you away one at a time, because
- the range is steep just here, and then we will let you go.' They
- said, 'All right,' most cheerfully. We tied their feet, and took
- Dudley with us; we went about sixty yards with him. This was
- through a scrub. It was arranged the night previously that it would
- be best to choke them, in case the report of the arms might be heard
- from the road, and if they were missed they never would be found.
- So we tied a handkerchief over his eyes, when Sullivan took the sash
- off his waist, put it round his neck, and so strangled him.
- Sullivan, after I had killed the old laboring man, found fault with
- the way he was choked. He said, 'The next we do I'll show you my
- way.' I said, 'I have never done such a thing before. I have shot
- a man, but never choked one.' We returned to the others, when
- Kempthorne said, 'What noise was that?' I said it was caused by
- breaking through the scrub. This was taking too much time, so it
- was agreed to shoot them. With that I said, 'We'll take you no
- further, but separate you, and then loose one of you, and he can
- relieve the others.' So with that, Sullivan took De Pontius to the
- left of where Kempthorne was sitting. I took Mathieu to the right.
- I tied a strap round his legs, and shot him with a revolver. He
- yelled, I ran from him with my gun in my hand, I sighted Kempthorne,
- who had risen to his feet. I presented the gun, and shot him behind
- the right ear; his life's blood welled from him, and he died
- instantaneously. Sullivan had shot De Pontius in the meantime,
- and then came to me. I said, 'Look to Mathieu,' indicating the spot
- where he lay. He shortly returned and said, 'I had to "chiv" that
- fellow, he was not dead,' a cant word, meaning that he had to stab
- him. Returning to the road we passed where De Pontius lay and was
- dead. Sullivan said, 'This is the digger, the others were all
- storekeepers; this is the digger, let's cover him up, for should the
- others be found, they'll think he done it and sloped,' meaning he
- had gone. So with that we threw all the stones on him, and then
- left him. This bloody work took nearly an hour and a half from the
- time we stopped the men."
-</blockquote></blockquote>
-
-<p>Anyone who reads that confession will think that the man who wrote it was
-destitute of emotions, destitute of feeling. That is partly true. As
-regarded others he was plainly without feeling&mdash;utterly cold and
-pitiless; but as regarded himself the case was different. While he cared
-nothing for the future of the murdered men, he cared a great deal for his
-own. It makes one's flesh creep to read the introduction to his
-confession. The judge on the bench characterized it as "scandalously
-blasphemous," and it certainly reads so, but Burgess meant no blasphemy.
-He was merely a brute, and whatever he said or wrote was sure to expose
-the fact. His redemption was a very real thing to him, and he was as
-jubilantly happy on the gallows as ever was Christian martyr at the
-stake. We dwellers in this world are strangely made, and mysteriously
-circumstanced. We have to suppose that the murdered men are lost, and
-that Burgess is saved; but we cannot suppress our natural regrets.
-
-<blockquote><blockquote>
-<p> "Written in my dungeon drear this 7th of August, in the year of
- Grace, 1866. To God be ascribed all power and glory in subduing the
- rebellious spirit of a most guilty wretch, who has been brought,
- through the instrumentality of a faithful follower of Christ, to see
- his wretched and guilty state, inasmuch as hitherto he has led an
- awful and wretched life, and through the assurance of this faithful
- soldier of Christ, he has been led and also believes that Christ
- will yet receive and cleanse him from all his deep-dyed and bloody
- sins. I lie under the imputation which says, 'Come now and let us
- reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet,
- they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson,
- they shall be as wool.' On this promise I rely."
-</blockquote></blockquote>
-
-<p>We sailed in the afternoon late, spent a few hours at New Plymouth, then
-sailed again and reached Auckland the next day, November 20th, and
-remained in that fine city several days. Its situation is commanding,
-and the sea-view is superb. There are charming drives all about, and by
-courtesy of friends we had opportunity to enjoy them. From the grassy
-crater-summit of Mount Eden one's eye ranges over a grand sweep and
-variety of scenery&mdash;forests clothed in luxuriant foliage, rolling green
-fields, conflagrations of flowers, receding and dimming stretches of
-green plain, broken by lofty and symmetrical old craters&mdash;then the blue
-bays twinkling and sparkling away into the dreamy distances where the
-mountains loom spiritual in their veils of haze.
-
-<p>It is from Auckland that one goes to Rotorua, the region of the renowned
-hot lakes and geysers&mdash;one of the chief wonders of New Zealand; but I was
-not well enough to make the trip. The government has a sanitorium there,
-and everything is comfortable for the tourist and the invalid. The
-government's official physician is almost over-cautious in his estimates
-of the efficacy of the baths, when he is talking about rheumatism, gout,
-paralysis, and such things; but when he is talking about the
-effectiveness of the waters in eradicating the whisky-habit, he seems to
-have no reserves. The baths will cure the drinking-habit no matter how
-chronic it is&mdash;and cure it so effectually that even the desire to drink
-intoxicants will come no more. There should be a rush from Europe and
-America to that place; and when the victims of alcoholism find out what
-they can get by going there, the rush will begin.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p309.jpg (54K)" src="images/p309.jpg" height="973" width="611">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>The Thermal-springs District of New Zealand comprises an area of upwards
-of 600,000 acres, or close on 1,000 square miles. Rotorua is the
-favorite place. It is the center of a rich field of lake and mountain
-scenery; from Rotorua as a base the pleasure-seeker makes excursions.
-The crowd of sick people is great, and growing. Rotorua is the Carlsbad
-of Australasia.
-
-<p>It is from Auckland that the Kauri gum is shipped. For a long time now
-about 8,000 tons of it have been brought into the town per year. It is
-worth about $300 per ton, unassorted; assorted, the finest grades are
-worth about $1,000. It goes to America, chiefly. It is in lumps, and is
-hard and smooth, and looks like amber&mdash;the light-colored like new amber,
-and the dark brown like rich old amber. And it has the pleasant feel of
-amber, too. Some of the light-colored samples were a tolerably fair
-counterfeit of uncut South African diamonds, they were so perfectly
-smooth and polished and transparent. It is manufactured into varnish; a
-varnish which answers for copal varnish and is cheaper.
-
-<p>The gum is dug up out of the ground; it has been there for ages. It is
-the sap of the Kauri tree. Dr. Campbell of Auckland told me he sent a
-cargo of it to England fifty years ago, but nothing came of the venture.
-Nobody knew what to do with it; so it was sold at L5 a ton, to light
-fires with.
-
-<p>November 26&mdash;3 P.M., sailed. Vast and beautiful harbor. Land all about
-for hours. Tangariwa, the mountain that "has the same shape from every
-point of view." That is the common belief in Auckland. And so it
-has&mdash;from every point of view except thirteen. Perfect summer weather. Large
-school of whales in the distance. Nothing could be daintier than the
-puffs of vapor they spout up, when seen against the pink glory of the
-sinking sun, or against the dark mass of an island reposing in the deep
-blue shadow of a storm cloud . . . . Great Barrier rock standing up
-out of the sea away to the left. Sometime ago a ship hit it full speed
-in a fog&mdash;20 miles out of her course&mdash;140 lives lost; the captain
-committed suicide without waiting a moment. He knew that, whether he was
-to blame or not, the company owning the vessel would discharge him and
-make a devotion&mdash;to&mdash;passengers' safety advertisement out of it, and his
-chance to make a livelihood would be permanently gone.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<h2><a name="ch34"></a>XXXIV.</h2>
-
-<p>Let us not be too particular. It is better to have old second-hand
-diamonds than none at all.
- <center>&mdash;Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center>
-
-<p>November 27. To-day we reached Gisborne, and anchored in a big bay;
-there was a heavy sea on, so we remained on board.
-
-<p>We were a mile from shore; a little steam-tug put out from the land; she
-was an object of thrilling interest; she would climb to the summit of a
-billow, reel drunkenly there a moment, dim and gray in the driving storm
-of spindrift, then make a plunge like a diver and remain out of sight
-until one had given her up, then up she would dart again, on a steep
-slant toward the sky, shedding Niagaras of water from her forecastle&mdash;and
-this she kept up, all the way out to us. She brought twenty-five
-passengers in her stomach&mdash;men and women&mdash;mainly a traveling dramatic
-company. In sight on deck were the crew, in sou'westers, yellow
-waterproof canvas suits, and boots to the thigh. The deck was never
-quiet for a moment, and seldom nearer level than a ladder, and noble were
-the seas which leapt aboard and went flooding aft. We rove a long line
-to the yard-arm, hung a most primitive basketchair to it and swung it out
-into the spacious air of heaven, and there it swayed, pendulum-fashion,
-waiting for its chance&mdash;then down it shot, skillfully aimed, and was
-grabbed by the two men on the forecastle.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p313.jpg (56K)" src="images/p313.jpg" height="1009" width="541">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>A young fellow belonging to
-our crew was in the chair, to be a protection to the lady-comers. At
-once a couple of ladies appeared from below, took seats in his lap, we
-hoisted them into the sky, waited a moment till the roll of the ship
-brought them in overhead, then we lowered suddenly away, and seized the
-chair as it struck the deck. We took the twenty-five aboard, and
-delivered twenty-five into the tug&mdash;among them several aged ladies, and
-one blind one&mdash;and all without accident. It was a fine piece of work.
-
-<p>Ours is a nice ship, roomy, comfortable, well-ordered, and satisfactory.
-Now and then we step on a rat in a hotel, but we have had no rats on
-shipboard lately; unless, perhaps in the Flora; we had more serious
-things to think of there, and did not notice. I have noticed that it is
-only in ships and hotels which still employ the odious Chinese gong, that
-you find rats. The reason would seem to be, that as a rat cannot tell
-the time of day by a clock, he won't stay where he cannot find out when
-dinner is ready.
-
-<p>November 29. The doctor tells me of several old drunkards, one
-spiritless loafer, and several far-gone moral wrecks who have been
-reclaimed by the Salvation Army and have remained staunch people and hard
-workers these two years. Wherever one goes, these testimonials to the
-Army's efficiency are forthcoming . . . . This morning we had one of
-those whizzing green Ballarat flies in the room, with his stunning
-buzz-saw noise&mdash;the swiftest creature in the world except the lightning-flash.
-It is a stupendous force that is stored up in that little body. If we
-had it in a ship in the same proportion, we could spin from Liverpool to
-New York in the space of an hour&mdash;the time it takes to eat luncheon. The
-New Zealand express train is called the Ballarat Fly . . . . Bad
-teeth in the colonies. A citizen told me they don't have teeth filled,
-but pull them out and put in false ones, and that now and then one sees a
-young lady with a full set. She is fortunate. I wish I had been born
-with false teeth and a false liver and false carbuncles. I should get
-along better.
-
-<p>December 2. Monday. Left Napier in the Ballarat Fly the one that goes
-twice a week. From Napier to Hastings, twelve miles; time, fifty-five
-minutes&mdash;not so far short of thirteen miles an hour . . . . A perfect
-summer day; cool breeze, brilliant sky, rich vegetation. Two or three
-times during the afternoon we saw wonderfully dense and beautiful
-forests, tumultuously piled skyward on the broken highlands&mdash;not the
-customary roof-like slant of a hillside, where the trees are all the same
-height. The noblest of these trees were of the Kauri breed, we were told&mdash;the timber that is now furnishing the wood-paving for Europe, and is the
-best of all wood for that purpose. Sometimes these towering upheavals of
-forestry were festooned and garlanded with vine-cables, and sometimes the
-masses of undergrowth were cocooned in another sort of vine of a delicate
-cobwebby texture&mdash;they call it the "supplejack," I think. Tree ferns
-everywhere&mdash;a stem fifteen feet high, with a graceful chalice of
-fern-fronds sprouting from its top&mdash;a lovely forest ornament. And there was a
-ten-foot reed with a flowing suit of what looked like yellow hair hanging
-from its upper end. I do not know its name, but if there is such a thing
-as a scalp-plant, this is it. A romantic gorge, with a brook flowing in
-its bottom, approaching Palmerston North.
-
-<p>Waitukurau. Twenty minutes for luncheon. With me sat my wife and
-daughter, and my manager, Mr. Carlyle Smythe. I sat at the head of the
-table, and could see the right-hand wall; the others had their backs to
-it. On that wall, at a good distance away, were a couple of framed
-pictures. I could not see them clearly, but from the groupings of the
-figures I fancied that they represented the killing of Napoleon III's son
-by the Zulus in South Africa. I broke into the conversation, which was
-about poetry and cabbage and art, and said to my wife&mdash;
-
-<p>"Do you remember when the news came to Paris&mdash;&mdash;"
-
-<p>"Of the killing of the Prince?"
-
-<p>(Those were the very words I had in my mind.) "Yes, but what Prince?"
-
-<p>"Napoleon. Lulu."
-
-<p>"What made you think of that?"
-
-<p>"I don't know."
-
-<p>There was no collusion. She had not seen the pictures, and they had not
-been mentioned. She ought to have thought of some recent news that came
-to Paris, for we were but seven months from there and had been living
-there a couple of years when we started on this trip; but instead of that
-she thought of an incident of our brief sojourn in Paris of sixteen years
-before.
-
-<p>Here was a clear case of mental telegraphy; of mind-transference; of my
-mind telegraphing a thought into hers. How do I know? Because I
-telegraphed an error. For it turned out that the pictures did not
-represent the killing of Lulu at all, nor anything connected with Lulu.
-She had to get the error from my head&mdash;it existed nowhere else.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<h2><a name="ch35"></a><br><br>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2>
-
-<p><i>The Autocrat of Russia possesses more power than any other man in the
-earth; but he cannot stop a sneeze.</i>
- <center>&mdash;Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center>
-
-<p>WAUGANUI, December 3. A pleasant trip, yesterday, per Ballarat Fly.
-Four hours. I do not know the distance, but it must have been well along
-toward fifty miles. The Fly could have spun it out to eight hours and
-not discommoded me; for where there is comfort, and no need for hurry,
-speed is of no value&mdash;at least to me; and nothing that goes on wheels can
-be more comfortable, more satisfactory, than the New Zealand trains.
-Outside of America there are no cars that are so rationally devised.
-When you add the constant presence of charming scenery and the nearly
-constant absence of dust&mdash;well, if one is not content then, he ought to
-get out and walk. That would change his spirit, perhaps? I think so.
-At the end of an hour you would find him waiting humbly beside the track,
-and glad to be taken aboard again.
-
-<p>Much horseback riding, in and around this town; many comely girls in cool
-and pretty summer gowns; much Salvation Army; lots of Maoris; the faces
-and bodies of some of the old ones very tastefully frescoed. Maori
-Council House over the river&mdash;large, strong, carpeted from end to end with
-matting, and decorated with elaborate wood carvings, artistically
-executed. The Maoris were very polite.
-
-<p>I was assured by a member of the House of Representatives that the native
-race is not decreasing, but actually increasing slightly. It is another
-evidence that they are a superior breed of savages. I do not call to
-mind any savage race that built such good houses, or such strong and
-ingenious and scientific fortresses, or gave so much attention to
-agriculture, or had military arts and devices which so nearly approached
-the white man's. These, taken together with their high abilities in
-boat-building, and their tastes and capacities in the ornamental arts
-modify their savagery to a semi-civilization&mdash;or at least to, a
-quarter-civilization.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p319.jpg (16K)" src="images/p319.jpg" height="333" width="399">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>It is a compliment to them that the British did not exterminate them, as
-they did the Australians and the Tasmanians, but were content with
-subduing them, and showed no desire to go further. And it is another
-compliment to them that the British did not take the whole of their
-choicest lands, but left them a considerable part, and then went further
-and protected them from the rapacities of landsharks&mdash;a protection which
-the New Zealand Government still extends to them. And it is still
-another compliment to the Maoris that the Government allows native
-representation&mdash;in both the legislature and the cabinet, and gives both
-sexes the vote. And in doing these things the Government also
-compliments itself; it has not been the custom of the world for
-conquerors to act in this large spirit toward the conquered.
-
-<p>The highest class white men who lived among the Maoris in the earliest
-time had a high opinion of them and a strong affection for them. Among
-the whites of this sort was the author of "Old New Zealand;" and Dr.
-Campbell of Auckland was another. Dr. Campbell was a close friend of
-several chiefs, and has many pleasant things to say of their fidelity,
-their magnanimity, and their generosity. Also of their quaint notions
-about the white man's queer civilization, and their equally quaint
-comments upon it. One of them thought the missionary had got everything
-wrong end first and upside down. "Why, he wants us to stop worshiping
-and supplicating the evil gods, and go to worshiping and supplicating the
-Good One! There is no sense in that. A good god is not going to do us
-any harm."
-
-<p>The Maoris had the tabu; and had it on a Polynesian scale of
-comprehensiveness and elaboration. Some of its features could have been
-importations from India and Judea. Neither the Maori nor the Hindoo of
-common degree could cook by a fire that a person of higher caste had
-used, nor could the high Maori or high Hindoo employ fire that had served
-a man of low grade; if a low-grade Maori or Hindoo drank from a vessel
-belonging to a high-grade man, the vessel was defiled, and had to be
-destroyed. There were other resemblances between Maori tabu and Hindoo
-caste-custom.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p320.jpg (16K)" src="images/p320.jpg" height="413" width="365">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>Yesterday a lunatic burst into my quarters and warned me that the Jesuits
-were going to "cook" (poison) me in my food, or kill me on the stage at
-night. He said a mysterious sign was visible upon my posters and meant
-my death. He said he saved Rev. Mr. Haweis's life by warning him that
-there were three men on his platform who would kill him if he took his
-eyes off them for a moment during his lecture. The same men were in my
-audience last night, but they saw that he was there. "Will they be there
-again to-night?" He hesitated; then said no, he thought they would
-rather take a rest and chance the poison. This lunatic has no delicacy.
-But he was not uninteresting. He told me a lot of things. He said he
-had "saved so many lecturers in twenty years, that they put him in the
-asylum." I think he has less refinement than any lunatic I have met.
-
-<p>December 8. A couple of curious war-monuments here at Wanganui. One is
-in honor of white men "who fell in defence of law and order against
-fanaticism and barbarism." Fanaticism. We Americans are English in
-blood, English in speech, English in religion, English in the essentials
-of our governmental system, English in the essentials of our
-civilization; and so, let us hope, for the honor of the blend, for the
-honor of the blood, for the honor of the race, that that word got there
-through lack of heedfulness, and will not be suffered to remain. If you
-carve it at Thermopylae, or where Winkelried died, or upon Bunker Hill
-monument, and read it again "who fell in defence of law and order against
-fanaticism" you will perceive what the word means, and how mischosen it
-is. Patriotism is Patriotism. Calling it Fanaticism cannot degrade it;
-nothing can degrade it. Even though it be a political mistake, and a
-thousand times a political mistake, that does not affect it; it is
-honorable&mdash;always honorable, always noble&mdash;and privileged to hold its head
-up and look the nations in the face. It is right to praise these brave
-white men who fell in the Maori war&mdash;they deserve it; but the presence of
-that word detracts from the dignity of their cause and their deeds, and
-makes them appear to have spilt their blood in a conflict with ignoble
-men, men not worthy of that costly sacrifice. But the men were worthy.
-It was no shame to fight them. They fought for their homes, they fought
-for their country; they bravely fought and bravely fell; and it would
-take nothing from the honor of the brave Englishmen who lie under the
-monument, but add to it, to say that they died in defense of English laws
-and English homes against men worthy of the sacrifice&mdash;the Maori
-patriots.
-
-<p>The other monument cannot be rectified. Except with dynamite. It is a
-mistake all through, and a strangely thoughtless one. It is a monument
-erected by white men to Maoris who fell fighting with the whites and
-against their own people, in the Maori war. "Sacred to the memory of the
-brave men who fell on the 14th of May, 1864," etc. On one side are the
-names of about twenty Maoris. It is not a fancy of mine; the monument
-exists. I saw it. It is an object-lesson to the rising generation. It
-invites to treachery, disloyalty, unpatriotism. Its lesson, in frank
-terms is, "Desert your flag, slay your people, burn their homes, shame
-your nationality&mdash;we honor such."
-
-<p>December 9. Wellington. Ten hours from Wanganui by the Fly.
-December 12. It is a fine city and nobly situated. A busy place, and
-full of life and movement. Have spent the three days partly in walking
-about, partly in enjoying social privileges, and largely in idling around
-the magnificent garden at Hutt, a little distance away, around the shore.
-I suppose we shall not see such another one soon.
-
-<p>We are packing to-night for the return-voyage to Australia. Our stay in
-New Zealand has been too brief; still, we are not unthankful for the
-glimpse which we have had of it.
-
-<p>The sturdy Maoris made the settlement of the country by the whites rather
-difficult. Not at first&mdash;but later. At first they welcomed the whites,
-and were eager to trade with them&mdash;particularly for muskets; for their
-pastime was internecine war, and they greatly preferred the white man's
-weapons to their own. War was their pastime&mdash;I use the word advisedly.
-They often met and slaughtered each other just for a lark, and when there
-was no quarrel. The author of "Old New Zealand" mentions a case where a
-victorious army could have followed up its advantage and exterminated the
-opposing army, but declined to do it; explaining naively that "if we did
-that, there couldn't be any more fighting." In another battle one army
-sent word that it was out of ammunition, and would be obliged to stop
-unless the opposing army would send some. It was sent, and the fight
-went on.
-
-<p>In the early days things went well enough. The natives sold land without
-clearly understanding the terms of exchange, and the whites bought it
-without being much disturbed about the native's confusion of mind. But
-by and by the Maori began to comprehend that he was being wronged; then
-there was trouble, for he was not the man to swallow a wrong and go aside
-and cry about it. He had the Tasmanian's spirit and endurance, and a
-notable share of military science besides; and so he rose against the
-oppressor, did this gallant "fanatic," and started a war that was not
-brought to a definite end until more than a generation had sped.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<h2><a name="ch36"></a><br><br>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2>
-
-<p><i>There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is
-cowardice.</i>
- <center>&mdash;Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center>
-
-<p><i>Names are not always what they seem. The common Welsh name Bzjxxllwep is
-pronounced Jackson.</i>
- <center>&mdash;Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center>
-
-<p>Friday, December 13. Sailed, at 3 p.m., in the 'Mararoa'. Summer seas
-and a good ship&mdash;life has nothing better.
-
-<p>Monday. Three days of paradise. Warm and sunny and smooth; the sea a
-luminous Mediterranean blue . . . . One lolls in a long chair all day
-under deck-awnings, and reads and smokes, in measureless content. One
-does not read prose at such a time, but poetry. I have been reading the
-poems of Mrs. Julia A. Moore, again, and I find in them the same grace
-and melody that attracted me when they were first published, twenty years
-ago, and have held me in happy bonds ever since.
-
-<p>"The Sentimental Song Book" has long been out of print, and has been
-forgotten by the world in general, but not by me. I carry it with me
-always&mdash;it and Goldsmith's deathless story.
-
-<p>Indeed, it has the same deep charm for me that the Vicar of Wakefield
-has, and I find in it the same subtle touch&mdash;the touch that makes an
-intentionally humorous episode pathetic and an intentionally pathetic one
-funny. In her time Mrs. Moore was called "the Sweet Singer of Michigan,"
-and was best known by that name. I have read her book through twice
-today, with the purpose of determining which of her pieces has most
-merit, and I am persuaded that for wide grasp and sustained power,
-"William Upson" may claim first place&mdash;
-
-
-
-<h3>WILLIAM UPSON.</h3>
-
-<center>
-<table summary="">
-<tr><td>
-
-
-<br>
-<br>Air&mdash;"The Major's Only Son."
-<br>Come all good people far and near,
-<br>Oh, come and see what you can hear,
-<br>It's of a young man true and brave,
-<br>That is now sleeping in his grave.
-<br>
-<br>Now, William Upson was his name
-<br>If it's not that, it's all the same
-<br>He did enlist in a cruel strife,
-<br>And it caused him to lose his life.
-<br>
-<br>He was Perry Upson's eldest son,
-<br>His father loved his noble son,
-<br>This son was nineteen years of age
-<br>When first in the rebellion he engaged.
-<br>
-<br>His father said that he might go,
-<br>But his dear mother she said no,
-<br>"Oh! stay at home, dear Billy," she said,
-<br>But she could not turn his head.
-<br>
-<br>He went to Nashville, in Tennessee,
-<br>There his kind friends he could not see;
-<br>He died among strangers, so far away,
-<br>They did not know where his body lay.
-<br>
-<br>He was taken sick and lived four weeks,
-<br>And Oh! how his parents weep,
-<br>But now they must in sorrow mourn,
-<br>For Billy has gone to his heavenly home.
-<br>
-<br>Oh! if his mother could have seen her son,
-<br>For she loved him, her darling son;
-<br>If she could heard his dying prayer,
-<br>It would ease her heart till she met him there.
-<br>
-<br>How it would relieve his mother's heart
-<br>To see her son from this world depart,
-<br>And hear his noble words of love,
-<br>As he left this world for that above.
-<br>
-<br>Now it will relieve his mother's heart,
-<br>For her son is laid in our graveyard;
-<br>For now she knows that his grave is near,
-<br>She will not shed so many tears.
-<br>
-<br>Although she knows not that it was her son,
-<br>For his coffin could not be opened
-<br>It might be someone in his place,
-<br>For she could not see his noble face.
-<br>
-
-
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</center>
-<p>
-December, 17. Reached Sydney.
-
-<p>December, 19. In the train. Fellow of 30 with four valises; a slim
-creature, with teeth which made his mouth look like a neglected
-churchyard. He had solidified hair&mdash;solidified with pomatum; it was all
-one shell. He smoked the most extraordinary cigarettes&mdash;made of some
-kind of manure, apparently. These and his hair made him smell like the
-very nation. He had a low-cut vest on, which exposed a deal of frayed
-and broken and unclean shirtfront. Showy studs, of imitation gold&mdash;they
-had made black disks on the linen. Oversized sleeve buttons of imitation
-gold, the copper base showing through. Ponderous watch-chain of
-imitation gold. I judge that he couldn't tell the time by it, for he
-asked Smythe what time it was, once. He wore a coat which had been gay
-when it was young; 5-o'clock-tea-trousers of a light tint, and
-marvelously soiled; yellow mustache with a dashing upward whirl at the
-ends; foxy shoes, imitation patent leather. He was a novelty&mdash;an
-imitation dude. He would have been a real one if he could have afforded
-it. But he was satisfied with himself. You could see it in his
-expression, and in all his attitudes and movements. He was living in a
-dude dreamland where all his squalid shams were genuine, and himself a
-sincerity. It disarmed criticism, it mollified spite, to see him so
-enjoy his imitation languors, and arts, and airs, and his studied
-daintinesses of gesture and misbegotten refinements. It was plain to me
-that he was imagining himself the Prince of Wales, and was doing
-everything the way he thought the Prince would do it. For bringing his
-four valises aboard and stowing them in the nettings, he gave his porter
-four cents, and lightly apologized for the smallness of the
-gratuity&mdash;just with the condescendingest little royal air in the world. He
-stretched himself out on the front seat and rested his pomatum-cake on
-the middle arm, and stuck his feet out of the window, and began to pose
-as the Prince and work his dreams and languors for exhibition; and he
-would indolently watch the blue films curling up from his cigarette, and
-inhale the stench, and look so grateful; and would flip the ash away with
-the daintiest gesture, unintentionally displaying his brass ring in the
-most intentional way; why, it was as good as being in Marlborough House
-itself to see him do it so like.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p327.jpg (17K)" src="images/p327.jpg" height="437" width="377">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>There was other scenery in the trip. That of the Hawksbury river, in the
-National Park region, fine&mdash;extraordinarily fine, with spacious views of
-stream and lake imposingly framed in woody hills; and every now and then
-the noblest groupings of mountains, and the most enchanting
-rearrangements of the water effects. Further along, green flats, thinly
-covered with gum forests, with here and there the huts and cabins of
-small farmers engaged in raising children. Still further along, arid
-stretches, lifeless and melancholy. Then Newcastle, a rushing town,
-capital of the rich coal regions. Approaching Scone, wide farming and
-grazing levels, with pretty frequent glimpses of a troublesome plant&mdash;a
-particularly devilish little prickly pear, daily damned in the orisons of
-the agriculturist; imported by a lady of sentiment, and contributed
-gratis to the colony. Blazing hot, all day.
-
-<p>December 20. Back to Sydney. Blazing hot again. From the newspaper,
-and from the map, I have made a collection of curious names of
-Australasian towns, with the idea of making a poem out of them:
-
-<center>
-<table summary="">
-<tr><td>
-
-
-<br>
-<br>Tumut<br>Takee<br>Murriwillumba<br>Bowral<br>Ballarat<br>Mullengudgery<br>Murrurundi
-<br>Wagga-Wagga<br>Wyalong<br>Murrumbidgee<br>Goomeroo<br>Wolloway<br>Wangary<br>Wanilla
-<br>Worrow<br>Koppio<br>Yankalilla<br>Yaranyacka<br>Yackamoorundie<br>Kaiwaka<br>Coomooroo
-<br>Tauranga<br>Geelong<br>Tongariro<br>Kaikoura<br>Wakatipu<br>Oohipara<br>Waitpinga
-<br>Goelwa<br>Munno Para<br>Nangkita<br>Myponga<br>Kapunda<br>Kooringa<br>Penola
-<br>Nangwarry<br>Kongorong<br>Comaum<br>Koolywurtie<br>Killanoola<br>Naracoorte
-<br>Muloowurtie<br>Binnum<br>Wallaroo<br>Wirrega<br>Mundoora<br>Hauraki<br>Rangiriri
-<br>Teawamute<br>Taranaki<br>Toowoomba<br>Goondiwindi<br>Jerrilderie<br>Whangaroa
-<br>Wollongong<br>Woolloomooloo<br>Bombola<br>Coolgardie<br>Bendigo<br>Coonamble
-<br>Cootamundra<br>Woolgoolga<br>Mittagong<br>Jamberoo<br>Kondoparinga<br>Kuitpo
-<br>Tungkillo<br>Oukaparinga<br>Talunga<br>Yatala<br>Parawirra<br>Moorooroo
-<br>Whangarei<br>Woolundunga<br>Booleroo<br>Pernatty<br>Parramatta<br>Taroom
-<br>Narrandera<br>Deniliquin<br>Kawakawa.
-<br>
-
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</center>
-
-<p>It may be best to build the poem now, and make the weather help
-
-
- <h3>A SWELTERING DAY IN AUSTRALIA.</h3>
-
-<center>
-<table summary="">
-<tr><td>
-
-
-<br>
-<br> (To be read soft and low, with the lights turned down.)
-<br>
-<br> The Bombola faints in the hot Bowral tree,
-<br> Where fierce Mullengudgery's smothering fires
-<br> Far from the breezes of Coolgardie
-<br> Burn ghastly and blue as the day expires;
-<br>
-<br> And Murriwillumba complaineth in song
-<br> For the garlanded bowers of Woolloomooloo,
-<br> And the Ballarat Fly and the lone Wollongong
-<br> They dream of the gardens of Jamberoo;
-<br>
-<br> The wallabi sighs for the Murrubidgee,
-<br> For the velvety sod of the Munno Parah,
-<br> Where the waters of healing from Muloowurtie
-<br> Flow dim in the gloaming by Yaranyackah;
-<br>
-<br> The Koppio sorrows for lost Wolloway,
-<br> And sigheth in secret for Murrurundi,
-<br> The Whangeroo wombat lamenteth the day
-<br> That made him an exile from Jerrilderie;
-<br>
-<br> The Teawamute Tumut from Wirrega's glade,
-<br> The Nangkita swallow, the Wallaroo swan,
-<br> They long for the peace of the Timaru shade
-<br> And thy balmy soft airs, O sweet Mittagong!
-<br>
-<br> The Kooringa buffalo pants in the sun,
-<br> The Kondoparinga lies gaping for breath,
-<br> The Kongorong Camaum to the shadow has won,
-<br> But the Goomeroo sinks in the slumber of death;
-<br>
-<br> In the weltering hell of the Moorooroo plain
-<br> The Yatala Wangary withers and dies,
-<br> And the Worrow Wanilla, demented with pain,
-<br> To the Woolgoolga woodlands despairingly flies;
-<br>
-<br> Sweet Nangwarry's desolate, Coonamble wails,
-<br> And Tungkillo Kuito in sables is drest,
-<br> For the Whangerei winds fall asleep in the sails
-<br> And the Booleroo life-breeze is dead in the west.
-<br>
-<br> Mypongo, Kapunda, O slumber no more
-<br> Yankalilla, Parawirra, be warned
-<br> There's death in the air!
-<br> Killanoola, wherefore
-<br> Shall the prayer of Penola be scorned?
-<br>
-<br> Cootamundra, and Takee, and Wakatipu,
-<br> Toowoomba, Kaikoura are lost
-<br> From Onkaparinga to far Oamaru
-<br> All burn in this hell's holocaust!
-<br>
-<br> Paramatta and Binnum are gone to their rest
-<br> In the vale of Tapanni Taroom,
-<br> Kawakawa, Deniliquin&mdash;all that was best
-<br> In the earth are but graves and a tomb!
-<br>
-<br> Narrandera mourns, Cameron answers not
-<br> When the roll of the scathless we cry
-<br> Tongariro, Goondiwindi, Woolundunga, the spot
-<br> Is mute and forlorn where ye lie.
-
-</td></tr>
-</table>
-</center>
-
-
-<p>Those are good words for poetry. Among the best I have ever seen.
-There are 81 in the list. I did not need them all, but I have knocked
-down 66 of them; which is a good bag, it seems to me, for a person not in
-the business. Perhaps a poet laureate could do better, but a poet
-laureate gets wages, and that is different. When I write poetry I do not
-get any wages; often I lose money by it. The best word in that list, and
-the most musical and gurgly, is Woolloomoolloo. It is a place near
-Sydney, and is a favorite pleasure-resort. It has eight O's in it.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p330.jpg (4K)" src="images/p330.jpg" height="194" width="199">
-</center>
-<br><br>
-
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<h2><a name="ch37"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2>
-
-<p><i>To succeed in the other trades, capacity must be shown; in the law,
-concealment of it will do.</i>
- <center>&mdash;Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center>
-
-<p>MONDAY,&mdash;December 23, 1895. Sailed from Sydney for Ceylon in the P. &amp; O.
-steamer 'Oceana'. A Lascar crew mans this ship&mdash;the first I have seen.
-White cotton petticoat and pants; barefoot; red shawl for belt; straw
-cap, brimless, on head, with red scarf wound around it; complexion a rich
-dark brown; short straight black hair; whiskers fine and silky; lustrous
-and intensely black. Mild, good faces; willing and obedient people;
-capable, too; but are said to go into hopeless panics when there is
-danger. They are from Bombay and the coast thereabouts. Left some of
-the trunks in Sydney, to be shipped to South Africa by a vessel
-advertised to sail three months hence. The proverb says: "Separate not
-yourself from your baggage."
-
-<p>This 'Oceana' is a stately big ship, luxuriously appointed. She has
-spacious promenade decks. Large rooms; a surpassingly comfortable ship.
-The officers' library is well selected; a ship's library is not usually
-that . . . . For meals, the bugle call, man-of-war fashion; a
-pleasant change from the terrible gong . . . . Three big cats&mdash;very
-friendly loafers; they wander all over the ship; the white one follows
-the chief steward around like a dog. There is also a basket of kittens.
-One of these cats goes ashore, in port, in England, Australia, and India,
-to see how his various families are getting along, and is seen no more
-till the ship is ready to sail. No one knows how he finds out the
-sailing date, but no doubt he comes down to the dock every day and takes
-a look, and when he sees baggage and passengers flocking in, recognizes
-that it is time to get aboard. This is what the sailors believe. . . .
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p332.jpg (24K)" src="images/p332.jpg" height="431" width="565">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>The
-Chief Engineer has been in the China and India trade thirty three years,
-and has had but three Christmases at home in that time . . . .
-Conversational items at dinner, "Mocha! sold all over the world! It is
-not true. In fact, very few foreigners except the Emperor of Russia have
-ever seen a grain of it, or ever will, while they live." Another man
-said: "There is no sale in Australia for Australian wine. But it goes to
-France and comes back with a French label on it, and then they buy it."
-I have heard that the most of the French-labeled claret in New York is
-made in California. And I remember what Professor S. told me once about
-Veuve Cliquot&mdash;if that was the wine, and I think it was. He was the
-guest of a great wine merchant whose town was quite near that vineyard,
-and this merchant asked him if very much V. C. was drunk in America.
-
-<p>"Oh, yes," said S., "a great abundance of it."
-
-<p>"Is it easy to be had?"
-
-<p>"Oh, yes&mdash;easy as water. All first and second-class hotels have it."
-
-<p>"What do you pay for it?"
-
-<p>"It depends on the style of the hotel&mdash;from fifteen to twenty-five francs
-a bottle."
-
-<p>"Oh, fortunate country! Why, it's worth 100 francs right here on the
-ground."
-
-<p>"No!"
-
-<p>"Yes!"
-
-<p>"Do you mean that we are drinking a bogus Veuve-Cliquot over there?"
-
-<p>"Yes&mdash;and there was never a bottle of the genuine in America since
-Columbus's time. That wine all comes from a little bit of a patch of
-ground which isn't big enough to raise many bottles; and all of it that
-is produced goes every year to one person&mdash;the Emperor of Russia. He
-takes the whole crop in advance, be it big or little."
-
-<p>January 4, 1896. Christmas in Melbourne, New Year's Day in Adelaide,
-and saw most of the friends again in both places . . . . Lying here
-at anchor all day&mdash;Albany (King George's Sound), Western Australia. It
-is a perfectly landlocked harbor, or roadstead&mdash;spacious to look at, but
-not deep water. Desolate-looking rocks and scarred hills. Plenty of
-ships arriving now, rushing to the new gold-fields. The papers are full
-of wonderful tales of the sort always to be heard in connection with new
-gold diggings. A sample: a youth staked out a claim and tried to sell
-half for L5; no takers; he stuck to it fourteen days, starving, then
-struck it rich and sold out for L10,000. . . About sunset, strong
-breeze blowing, got up the anchor. We were in a small deep puddle, with
-a narrow channel leading out of it, minutely buoyed, to the sea.
-
-<p>I stayed on deck to see how we were going to manage it with such a big
-ship and such a strong wind. On the bridge our giant captain, in
-uniform; at his side a little pilot in elaborately gold-laced uniform; on
-the forecastle a white mate and quartermaster or two, and a brilliant
-crowd of lascars standing by for business. Our stern was pointing
-straight at the head of the channel; so we must turn entirely around in
-the puddle&mdash;and the wind blowing as described. It was done, and
-beautifully. It was done by help of a jib. We stirred up much mud, but
-did not touch the bottom. We turned right around in our tracks&mdash;a
-seeming impossibility. We had several casts of quarter-less 5, and one
-cast of half 4&mdash;27 feet; we were drawing 26 astern. By the time we were
-entirely around and pointed, the first buoy was not more than a hundred
-yards in front of us. It was a fine piece of work, and I was the only
-passenger that saw it. However, the others got their dinner; the P. &amp; O.
-Company got mine . . . . More cats developed. Smythe says it is a
-British law that they must be carried; and he instanced a case of a ship
-not allowed to sail till she sent for a couple. The bill came, too:
-"Debtor, to 2 cats, 20 shillings." . . . News comes that within this
-week Siam has acknowledged herself to be, in effect, a French province.
-It seems plain that all savage and semi-civilized countries are going to
-be grabbed . . . . A vulture on board; bald, red, queer-shaped head,
-featherless red places here and there on his body, intense great black
-eyes set in featherless rims of inflamed flesh; dissipated look; a
-businesslike style, a selfish, conscienceless, murderous aspect&mdash;the very
-look of a professional assassin, and yet a bird which does no murder.
-What was the use of getting him up in that tragic style for so innocent a
-trade as his? For this one isn't the sort that wars upon the living, his
-diet is offal&mdash;and the more out of date it is the better he likes it.
-Nature should give him a suit of rusty black; then he would be all right,
-for he would look like an undertaker and would harmonize with his
-business; whereas the way he is now he is horribly out of true.
-
-<p>January 5. At 9 this morning we passed Cape Leeuwin (lioness) and
-ceased from our long due-west course along the southern shore of
-Australia. Turning this extreme southwestern corner, we now take a long
-straight slant nearly N. W., without a break, for Ceylon. As we speed
-northward it will grow hotter very fast&mdash;but it isn't chilly, now. . . .
-The vulture is from the public menagerie at Adelaide&mdash;a great and
-interesting collection. It was there that we saw the baby tiger solemnly
-spreading its mouth and trying to roar like its majestic mother. It
-swaggered, scowling, back and forth on its short legs just as it had seen
-her do on her long ones, and now and then snarling viciously, exposing
-its teeth, with a threatening lift of its upper lip and bristling
-moustache; and when it thought it was impressing the visitors, it would
-spread its mouth wide and do that screechy cry which it meant for a roar,
-but which did not deceive. It took itself quite seriously, and was
-lovably comical. And there was a hyena&mdash;an ugly creature; as ugly as the
-tiger-kitty was pretty. It repeatedly arched its back and delivered
-itself of such a human cry; a startling resemblance; a cry which was just
-that of a grown person badly hurt. In the dark one would assuredly go to
-its assistance&mdash;and be disappointed . . . . Many friends of
-Australasian Federation on board. They feel sure that the good day is
-not far off, now. But there seems to be a party that would go
-further&mdash;have Australasia cut loose from the British Empire and set up
-housekeeping on her own hook. It seems an unwise idea. They point to
-the United States, but it seems to me that the cases lack a good deal of
-being alike. Australasia governs herself wholly&mdash;there is no
-interference; and her commerce and manufactures are not oppressed in any
-way. If our case had been the same we should not have gone out when we
-did.
-
-<p>
-January 13. Unspeakably hot. The equator is arriving again. We are
-within eight degrees of it. Ceylon present. Dear me, it is beautiful!
-And most sumptuously tropical, as to character of foliage and opulence of
-it. "What though the spicy breezes blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle"&mdash;an
-eloquent line, an incomparable line; it says little, but conveys whole
-libraries of sentiment, and Oriental charm and mystery, and tropic
-deliciousness&mdash;a line that quivers and tingles with a thousand
-unexpressed and inexpressible things, things that haunt one and find no
-articulate voice . . . . Colombo, the capital. An Oriental town,
-most manifestly; and fascinating.
-
-<p>In this palatial ship the passengers dress for dinner. The ladies'
-toilettes make a fine display of color, and this is in keeping with the
-elegance of the vessel's furnishings and the flooding brilliancies of the
-electric light. On the stormy Atlantic one never sees a man in evening
-dress, except at the rarest intervals; and then there is only one, not
-two; and he shows up but once on the voyage&mdash;the night before the ship
-makes port&mdash;the night when they have the "concert" and do the amateur
-wailings and recitations. He is the tenor, as a rule . . . . There
-has been a deal of cricket-playing on board; it seems a queer game for a
-ship, but they enclose the promenade deck with nettings and keep the ball
-from flying overboard, and the sport goes very well, and is properly
-violent and exciting . . . . We must part from this vessel here.
-
-<p>January 14. Hotel Bristol. Servant Brompy. Alert, gentle, smiling,
-winning young brown creature as ever was. Beautiful shining black hair
-combed back like a woman's, and knotted at the back of his
-head&mdash;tortoise-shell comb in it, sign that he is a Singhalese; slender, shapely
-form; jacket; under it is a beltless and flowing white cotton gown&mdash;from
-neck straight to heel; he and his outfit quite unmasculine. It was an
-embarrassment to undress before him.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p338.jpg (51K)" src="images/p338.jpg" height="346" width="650">
-</center>
-<a href="images/p338.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Full Size" src="images/enlarge.jpg">
-</a>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>We drove to the market, using the Japanese jinriksha&mdash;our first
-acquaintanceship with it. It is a light cart, with a native to draw it.
-He makes good speed for half-an-hour, but it is hard work for him; he is
-too slight for it. After the half-hour there is no more pleasure for
-you; your attention is all on the man, just as it would be on a tired
-horse, and necessarily your sympathy is there too. There's a plenty of
-these 'rickshas, and the tariff is incredibly cheap.
-
-<p>I was in Cairo years ago. That was Oriental, but there was a lack. When
-you are in Florida or New Orleans you are in the South&mdash;that is granted;
-but you are not in the South; you are in a modified South, a tempered
-South. Cairo was a tempered Orient&mdash;an Orient with an indefinite
-something wanting. That feeling was not present in Ceylon. Ceylon was
-Oriental in the last measure of completeness&mdash;utterly Oriental; also
-utterly tropical; and indeed to one's unreasoning spiritual sense the two
-things belong together. All the requisites were present. The costumes
-were right; the black and brown exposures, unconscious of immodesty, were
-right; the juggler was there, with his basket, his snakes, his mongoose,
-and his arrangements for growing a tree from seed to foliage and ripe
-fruitage before one's eyes; in sight were plants and flowers familiar to
-one on books but in no other way&mdash;celebrated, desirable, strange, but in
-production restricted to the hot belt of the equator; and out a little
-way in the country were the proper deadly snakes, and fierce beasts of
-prey, and the wild elephant and the monkey. And there was that swoon in
-the air which one associates with the tropics, and that smother of heat,
-heavy with odors of unknown flowers, and that sudden invasion of purple
-gloom fissured with lightnings,&mdash;then the tumult of crashing thunder and
-the downpour and presently all sunny and smiling again; all these things
-were there; the conditions were complete, nothing was lacking. And away
-off in the deeps of the jungle and in the remotenesses of the mountains
-were the ruined cities and mouldering temples, mysterious relics of the
-pomps of a forgotten time and a vanished race&mdash;and this was as it should
-be, also, for nothing is quite satisfyingly Oriental that lacks the
-somber and impressive qualities of mystery and antiquity.
-
-<p>The drive through the town and out to the Galle Face by the seashore,
-what a dream it was of tropical splendors of bloom and blossom, and
-Oriental conflagrations of costume! The walking groups of men, women,
-boys, girls, babies&mdash;each individual was a flame, each group a house
-afire for color. And such stunning colors, such intensely vivid colors,
-such rich and exquisite minglings and fusings of rainbows and lightnings!
-And all harmonious, all in perfect taste; never a discordant note; never
-a color on any person swearing at another color on him or failing to
-harmonize faultlessly with the colors of any group the wearer might join.
-The stuffs were silk&mdash;thin, soft, delicate, clinging; and, as a rule, each
-piece a solid color: a splendid green, a splendid blue, a splendid
-yellow, a splendid purple, a splendid ruby, deep, and rich with
-smouldering fires&mdash;they swept continuously by in crowds and legions and
-multitudes, glowing, flashing, burning, radiant; and every five seconds
-came a burst of blinding red that made a body catch his breath, and
-filled his heart with joy. And then, the unimaginable grace of those
-costumes! Sometimes a woman's whole dress was but a scarf wound about
-her person and her head, sometimes a man's was but a turban and a
-careless rag or two&mdash;in both cases generous areas of polished dark skin
-showing&mdash;but always the arrangement compelled the homage of the eye and
-made the heart sing for gladness.
-
-<p>I can see it to this day, that radiant panorama, that wilderness of rich
-color, that incomparable dissolving-view of harmonious tints, and lithe
-half-covered forms, and beautiful brown faces, and gracious and graceful
-gestures and attitudes and movements, free, unstudied, barren of
-stiffness and restraint, and&mdash;
-
-<p>Just then, into this dream of fairyland and paradise a grating dissonance
-was injected.
-
-<p>Out of a missionary school came marching, two and two, sixteen prim and
-pious little Christian black girls, Europeanly clothed&mdash;dressed, to the
-last detail, as they would have been dressed on a summer Sunday in an
-English or American village. Those clothes&mdash;oh, they were unspeakably
-ugly! Ugly, barbarous, destitute of taste, destitute of grace, repulsive
-as a shroud. I looked at my womenfolk's clothes&mdash;just full-grown
-duplicates of the outrages disguising those poor little abused
-creatures&mdash;and was ashamed to be seen in the street with them. Then I looked at
-my own clothes, and was ashamed to be seen in the street with myself.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p343.jpg (47K)" src="images/p343.jpg" height="991" width="535">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>However, we must put up with our clothes as they are&mdash;they have their
-reason for existing. They are on us to expose us&mdash;to advertise what we
-wear them to conceal. They are a sign; a sign of insincerity; a sign of
-suppressed vanity; a pretense that we despise gorgeous colors and the
-graces of harmony and form; and we put them on to propagate that lie and
-back it up. But we do not deceive our neighbor; and when we step into
-Ceylon we realize that we have not even deceived ourselves. We do love
-brilliant colors and graceful costumes; and at home we will turn out in a
-storm to see them when the procession goes by&mdash;and envy the wearers. We
-go to the theater to look at them and grieve that we can't be clothed
-like that. We go to the King's ball, when we get a chance, and are glad
-of a sight of the splendid uniforms and the glittering orders. When we
-are granted permission to attend an imperial drawing-room we shut
-ourselves up in private and parade around in the theatrical court-dress
-by the hour, and admire ourselves in the glass, and are utterly happy;
-and every member of every governor's staff in democratic America does the
-same with his grand new uniform&mdash;and if he is not watched he will get
-himself photographed in it, too. When I see the Lord Mayor's footman I
-am dissatisfied with my lot. Yes, our clothes are a lie, and have been
-nothing short of that these hundred years. They are insincere, they are
-the ugly and appropriate outward exposure of an inward sham and a moral
-decay.
-
-<p>The last little brown boy I chanced to notice in the crowds and swarms of
-Colombo had nothing on but a twine string around his waist, but in my
-memory the frank honesty of his costume still stands out in pleasant
-contrast with the odious flummery in which the little Sunday-school
-dowdies were masquerading.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p344.jpg (8K)" src="images/p344.jpg" height="181" width="447">
-</center>
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<h2><a name="ch38"></a><br><br>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2>
-
-<p><i>Prosperity is the best protector of principle.</i>
- <center>&mdash;Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.</center>
-
-<p>EVENING&mdash;14th. Sailed in the Rosetta. This is a poor old ship, and
-ought to be insured and sunk. As in the 'Oceana', just so here:
-everybody dresses for dinner; they make it a sort of pious duty. These
-fine and formal costumes are a rather conspicuous contrast to the poverty
-and shabbiness of the surroundings . . . . If you want a slice of a
-lime at four o'clock tea, you must sign an order on the bar. Limes cost
-14 cents a barrel.
-
-<p>January 18th. We have been running up the Arabian Sea, latterly.
-Closing up on Bombay now, and due to arrive this evening.
-
-<p>January 20th. Bombay! A bewitching place, a bewildering place, an
-enchanting place&mdash;the Arabian Nights come again? It is a vast city;
-contains about a million inhabitants. Natives, they are, with a slight
-sprinkling of white people&mdash;not enough to have the slightest modifying
-effect upon the massed dark complexion of the public. It is winter here,
-yet the weather is the divine weather of June, and the foliage is the
-fresh and heavenly foliage of June. There is a rank of noble great shade
-trees across the way from the hotel, and under them sit groups of
-picturesque natives of both sexes; and the juggler in his turban is there
-with his snakes and his magic; and all day long the cabs and the
-multitudinous varieties of costumes flock by. It does not seem as if one
-could ever get tired of watching this moving show, this shining and
-shifting spectacle . . . . In the great bazar the pack and jam of
-natives was marvelous, the sea of rich-colored turbans and draperies an
-inspiring sight, and the quaint and showy Indian architecture was just
-the right setting for it. Toward sunset another show; this is the drive
-around the sea-shore to Malabar Point, where Lord Sandhurst, the Governor
-of the Bombay Presidency, lives. Parsee palaces all along the first part
-of the drive; and past them all the world is driving; the private
-carriages of wealthy Englishmen and natives of rank are manned by a
-driver and three footmen in stunning oriental liveries&mdash;two of these
-turbaned statues standing up behind, as fine as monuments. Sometimes
-even the public carriages have this superabundant crew, slightly
-modified&mdash;one to drive, one to sit by and see it done, and one to stand
-up behind and yell&mdash;yell when there is anybody in the way, and for
-practice when there isn't. It all helps to keep up the liveliness and
-augment the general sense of swiftness and energy and confusion and
-pow-wow.
-
-<p>In the region of Scandal Point&mdash;felicitous name&mdash;where there are handy
-rocks to sit on and a noble view of the sea on the one hand, and on the
-other the passing and repassing whirl and tumult of gay carriages, are
-great groups of comfortably-off Parsee women&mdash;perfect flower-beds of
-brilliant color, a fascinating spectacle. Tramp, tramp, tramping along
-the road, in singles, couples, groups, and gangs, you have the
-working-man and the working-woman&mdash;but not clothed like ours. Usually the man is
-a nobly-built great athlete, with not a rag on but his loin-handkerchief;
-his color a deep dark brown, his skin satin, his rounded muscles knobbing
-it as if it had eggs under it. Usually the woman is a slender and
-shapely creature, as erect as a lightning-rod, and she has but one thing
-on&mdash;a bright-colored piece of stuff which is wound about her head and her
-body down nearly half-way to her knees, and which clings like her own
-skin. Her legs and feet are bare, and so are her arms, except for her
-fanciful bunches of loose silver rings on her ankles and on her arms.
-She has jewelry bunched on the side of her nose also, and showy
-cluster-rings on her toes. When she undresses for bed she takes off her
-jewelry, I suppose. If she took off anything more she would catch cold.
-As a rule she has a large shiney brass water jar of graceful shape on her
-head, and one of her naked arms curves up and the hand holds it there.
-She is so straight, so erect, and she steps with such style, and such
-easy grace and dignity; and her curved arm and her brazen jar are such a
-help to the picture&mdash;indeed, our working-women cannot begin with her as a
-road-decoration.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p347.jpg (18K)" src="images/p347.jpg" height="537" width="365">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>It is all color, bewitching color, enchanting color&mdash;everywhere all
-around&mdash;all the way around the curving great opaline bay clear to
-Government House, where the turbaned big native 'chuprassies' stand
-grouped in state at the door in their robes of fiery red, and do most
-properly and stunningly finish up the splendid show and make it
-theatrically complete. I wish I were a 'chuprassy'.
-
-<p>This is indeed India! the land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth
-and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of
-famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers
-and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of a hundred nations
-and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods,
-cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history,
-grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of tradition, whose yesterdays
-bear date with the mouldering antiquities of the rest of the nations&mdash;the
-one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable
-interest for alien prince and alien peasant, for lettered and ignorant,
-wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land that all men
-desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give
-that glimpse for the shows of all the rest of the globe combined.
-Even now, after the lapse of a year, the delirium of those days in Bombay
-has not left me, and I hope never will. It was all new, no detail of it
-hackneyed. And India did not wait for morning, it began at the
-hotel&mdash;straight away. The lobbies and halls were full of turbaned, and fez'd
-and embroidered, cap'd, and barefooted, and cotton-clad dark natives,
-some of them rushing about, others at rest squatting, or sitting on the
-ground; some of them chattering with energy, others still and dreamy; in
-the dining-room every man's own private native servant standing behind
-his chair, and dressed for a part in the Arabian Nights.
-
-<p>Our rooms were high up, on the front. A white man&mdash;he was a burly
-German&mdash;went up with us, and brought three natives along to see to arranging
-things. About fourteen others followed in procession, with the
-hand-baggage; each carried an article&mdash;and only one; a bag, in some cases, in
-other cases less. One strong native carried my overcoat, another a
-parasol, another a box of cigars, another a novel, and the last man in
-the procession had no load but a fan. It was all done with earnestness
-and sincerity, there was not a smile in the procession from the head of
-it to the tail of it. Each man waited patiently, tranquilly, in no sort
-of hurry, till one of us found time to give him a copper, then he bent
-his head reverently, touched his forehead with his fingers, and went his
-way. They seemed a soft and gentle race, and there was something both
-winning and touching about their demeanor.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p349.jpg (28K)" src="images/p349.jpg" height="965" width="405">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>There was a vast glazed door which opened upon the balcony. It needed
-closing, or cleaning, or something, and a native got down on his knees
-and went to work at it. He seemed to be doing it well enough, but
-perhaps he wasn't, for the burly German put on a look that betrayed
-dissatisfaction, then without explaining what was wrong, gave the native
-a brisk cuff on the jaw and then told him where the defect was. It
-seemed such a shame to do that before us all. The native took it with
-meekness, saying nothing, and not showing in his face or manner any
-resentment. I had not seen the like of this for fifty years. It carried
-me back to my boyhood, and flashed upon me the forgotten fact that this
-was the usual way of explaining one's desires to a slave. I was able to
-remember that the method seemed right and natural to me in those days, I
-being born to it and unaware that elsewhere there were other methods; but
-I was also able to remember that those unresented cuffings made me sorry
-for the victim and ashamed for the punisher. My father was a refined and
-kindly gentleman, very grave, rather austere, of rigid probity, a sternly
-just and upright man, albeit he attended no church and never spoke of
-religious matters, and had no part nor lot in the pious joys of his
-Presbyterian family, nor ever seemed to suffer from this deprivation. He
-laid his hand upon me in punishment only twice in his life, and then not
-heavily; once for telling him a lie&mdash;which surprised me, and showed me
-how unsuspicious he was, for that was not my maiden effort. He punished
-me those two times only, and never any other member of the family at all;
-yet every now and then he cuffed our harmless slave boy, Lewis, for
-trifling little blunders and awkwardnesses. My father had passed his life
-among the slaves from his cradle up, and his cuffings proceeded from the
-custom of the time, not from his nature. When I was ten years old I saw
-a man fling a lump of iron-ore at a slaveman in anger, for merely doing
-something awkwardly&mdash;as if that were a crime. It bounded from the man's
-skull, and the man fell and never spoke again. He was dead in an hour.
-I knew the man had a right to kill his slave if he wanted to, and yet it
-seemed a pitiful thing and somehow wrong, though why wrong I was not deep
-enough to explain if I had been asked to do it. Nobody in the village
-approved of that murder, but of course no one said much about it.
-
-<p>It is curious&mdash;the space-annihilating power of thought. For just one
-second, all that goes to make the me in me was in a Missourian village,
-on the other side of the globe, vividly seeing again these forgotten
-pictures of fifty years ago, and wholly unconscious of all things but
-just those; and in the next second I was back in Bombay, and that
-kneeling native's smitten cheek was not done tingling yet! Back to
-boyhood&mdash;fifty years; back to age again, another fifty; and a flight
-equal to the circumference of the globe-all in two seconds by the watch!
-
-<p>Some natives&mdash;I don't remember how many&mdash;went into my bedroom, now, and
-put things to rights and arranged the mosquito-bar, and I went to bed to
-nurse my cough. It was about nine in the evening. What a state of
-things! For three hours the yelling and shouting of natives in the hall
-continued, along with the velvety patter of their swift bare feet&mdash;what a
-racket it was! They were yelling orders and messages down three flights.
-Why, in the matter of noise it amounted to a riot, an insurrection, a
-revolution. And then there were other noises mixed up with these and at
-intervals tremendously accenting them&mdash;roofs falling in, I judged,
-windows smashing, persons being murdered, crows squawking, and deriding,
-and cursing, canaries screeching, monkeys jabbering, macaws blaspheming,
-and every now and then fiendish bursts of laughter and explosions of
-dynamite. By midnight I had suffered all the different kinds of shocks
-there are, and knew that I could never more be disturbed by them, either
-isolated or in combination. Then came peace&mdash;stillness deep and solemn
-and lasted till five.
-
-<p>Then it all broke loose again. And who re-started it? The Bird of Birds
-the Indian crow. I came to know him well, by and by, and be infatuated
-with him. I suppose he is the hardest lot that wears feathers. Yes, and
-the cheerfulest, and the best satisfied with himself. He never arrived
-at what he is by any careless process, or any sudden one; he is a work of
-art, and "art is long"; he is the product of immemorial ages, and of deep
-calculation; one can't make a bird like that in a day. He has been
-reincarnated more times than Shiva; and he has kept a sample of each
-incarnation, and fused it into his constitution. In the course of his
-evolutionary promotions, his sublime march toward ultimate perfection, he
-has been a gambler, a low comedian, a dissolute priest, a fussy woman, a
-blackguard, a scoffer, a liar, a thief, a spy, an informer, a trading
-politician, a swindler, a professional hypocrite, a patriot for cash, a
-reformer, a lecturer, a lawyer, a conspirator, a rebel, a royalist, a
-democrat, a practicer and propagator of irreverence, a meddler, an
-intruder, a busybody, an infidel, and a wallower in sin for the mere love
-of it. The strange result, the incredible result, of this patient
-accumulation of all damnable traits is, that he does not know what care
-is, he does not know what sorrow is, he does not know what remorse is,
-his life is one long thundering ecstasy of happiness, and he will go to
-his death untroubled, knowing that he will soon turn up again as an
-author or something, and be even more intolerably capable and comfortable
-than ever he was before.
-
-<p>In his straddling wide forward-step, and his springy side-wise series of
-hops, and his impudent air, and his cunning way of canting his head to
-one side upon occasion, he reminds one of the American blackbird. But
-the sharp resemblances stop there. He is much bigger than the blackbird;
-and he lacks the blackbird's trim and slender and beautiful build and
-shapely beak; and of course his sober garb of gray and rusty black is a
-poor and humble thing compared with the splendid lustre of the
-blackbird's metallic sables and shifting and flashing bronze glories.
-The blackbird is a perfect gentleman, in deportment and attire, and is
-not noisy, I believe, except when holding religious services and
-political conventions in a tree; but this Indian sham Quaker is just a
-rowdy, and is always noisy when awake&mdash;always chaffing, scolding,
-scoffing, laughing, ripping, and cursing, and carrying on about something
-or other. I never saw such a bird for delivering opinions. Nothing
-escapes him; he notices everything that happens, and brings out his
-opinion about it, particularly if it is a matter that is none of his
-business. And it is never a mild opinion, but always violent&mdash;violent
-and profane&mdash;the presence of ladies does not affect him. His opinions
-are not the outcome of reflection, for he never thinks about anything,
-but heaves out the opinion that is on top in his mind, and which is often
-an opinion about some quite different thing and does not fit the case.
-But that is his way; his main idea is to get out an opinion, and if he
-stopped to think he would lose chances.
-
-<p>I suppose he has no enemies among men. The whites and Mohammedans never
-seemed to molest him; and the Hindoos, because of their religion, never
-take the life of any creature, but spare even the snakes and tigers and
-fleas and rats.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p355.jpg (63K)" src="images/p355.jpg" height="1041" width="637">
-</center>
-<br><br><br><br>
-
-<p>If I sat on one end of the balcony, the crows would
-gather on the railing at the other end and talk about me; and edge
-closer, little by little, till I could almost reach them; and they would
-sit there, in the most unabashed way, and talk about my clothes, and my
-hair, and my complexion, and probable character and vocation and
-politics, and how I came to be in India, and what I had been doing, and
-how many days I had got for it, and how I had happened to go unhanged
-so long, and when would it probably come off, and might there be more of
-my sort where I came from, and when would they be hanged,&mdash;and so on, and
-so on, until I could not longer endure the embarrassment of it; then I
-would shoo them away, and they would circle around in the air a little
-while, laughing and deriding and mocking, and presently settle on the
-rail and do it all over again.
-
-<p>They were very sociable when there was anything to eat&mdash;oppressively so.
-With a little encouragement they would come in and light on the table and
-help me eat my breakfast; and once when I was in the other room and they
-found themselves alone, they carried off everything they could lift; and
-they were particular to choose things which they could make no use of
-after they got them. In India their number is beyond estimate, and their
-noise is in proportion. I suppose they cost the country more than the
-government does; yet that is not a light matter. Still, they pay; their
-company pays; it would sadden the land to take their cheerful voice out
-of it.
-
-<br><br><br><br>
-<center><img alt="p356.jpg (13K)" src="images/p356.jpg" height="411" width="401">
-</center>
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