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diff --git a/33771.txt b/33771.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8321b75 --- /dev/null +++ b/33771.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5161 @@ +Project Gutenberg's McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2, July, 1893, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2, July, 1893 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: September 20, 2010 [EBook #33771] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE, JULY, 1893 *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Katherine Ward, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +McCLURE'S MAGAZINE + +VOL. I JULY, 1893 No. 2 + + +_Copyright, 1893, by S. S. McClure, Limited. All rights reserved._ + + + + +Table of Contents + + PAGE + An Afternoon with Oliver Wendell Holmes. By Edward E. Hale. 99 + In the Name of the Law! By Stanley J. Weyman. 110 + "Human Documents." 119 + Wild Beasts. By Raymond Blathwayt. 126 + John Horseleigh, Knyght. By Thomas Hardy. 136 + The Race to the North Pole. By Hugh Robert Mill, D.Sc. 147 + Lieutenant Peary's Expedition. By Cleveland Moffett. 156 + An Expedition to the North Magnetic Pole. By W. H. Gilder. 159 + The Merchantmen. By Rudyard Kipling. 163 + Monsieur de Blowitz. By W. Morton Fullerton. 166 + On the Track of the Reviewer. By Doctor William Wright. 174 + Romantic Stories from the Family History of the Brontes. 181 + A Strange Story: The Lost Years. By Lizzie Hyer Neff. 182 + + + + +Illustrations + + PAGE + Oliver Wendell Holmes 99 + O. W. Holmes's Birth-Place at Cambridge, Mass. 100 + Garden Door of the Cambridge House. 100 + House in Rue Monsieur le Prince. 101 + Residence in Beacon Street, Boston. 102 + The Bay Window in Doctor Holmes's Study. 103 + A Corner in Doctor Holmes's Study. 103 + Dorothy Q. 104 + Dorothy Q's House in Quincy, Mass. 105 + Holmes Delivering His Farewell Address, Harvard. 105 + Summer Residence at Beverly Farms. 107 + O. W. Holmes and E. E. Hale. 108 + O. W. Holmes in His Favorite Seat at Beverly. 109 + Edward Everett Hale. 120 + M. de Blowitz. 122 + Thomas Alva Edison. 124 + Karl Hagenbeck. 127 + Fridtjof Nansen. 151 + Robert E. Peary. 156 + Colonel W. H. Gilder. 159 + General A. W. Greely. 160 + Professor T. C. Mendenhall. 160 + Diagram of the North Magnetic Pole Region. 161 + Professor C. A. Schott. 162 + The Dining-Room in M. De Blowitz's Paris Home. 167 + M. De Blowitz in His Study. 169 + The Lampottes; The Country House of M. De Blowitz. 171 + Charlotte Bronte. 180 + + + + +AN AFTERNOON WITH OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. + +BY EDWARD E. HALE. + + +My first recollection of Doctor Holmes is seeing him standing on a +bench at a college dinner when I was a boy, in the year 1836. He was +full of life and fun, and was delivering--I do not say reading--one of +his little college poems. He always writes them with joy, and recites +them--if that is the word--with a spirit not to be described. For he +is a born orator, with what people call a sympathetic voice, wholly +under his own command, and entirely free from any of the tricks of +elocution. It seems to me that no one really knows his poems to the +very best, who has not had the good fortune to hear him read some of +them. + +[Illustration: Oliver Wendell Holmes Boston, May 24th, 1893.] + +But I had known all about him before that. As little boys, we had by +heart, in those days, the song which saved "Old Ironsides" from +destruction. That was the pet name of the frigate "Constitution," +which was a pet Boston ship, because she had been built at a Boston +shipyard, had been sailed with Yankee crews, and, more than once, had +brought her prizes into Boston Harbor. + +We used to spout at school: + + "Nail to the mast her holy flag, + Spread every threadbare sail, + And give her to the god of storms, + The lightning and the gale!" + +Ah me! There had been a Phi Beta anniversary not long before, where +Holmes had delivered a poem. You may read "Poetry, a Metrical Essay," +in the volumes now. But you will look in vain for the covert allusions +to Julia and Susan and Elizabeth and the rest, which, to those who +knew, meant the choicest belles of our little company. Have the queens +of to-day any such honors? + +Nobody is more accessible than Doctor Holmes. I doubt if any doorbell +in Boston is more rung than his. And nowhere is the visitor made more +kindly at home. His own work-room takes in all the width of a large +house in Beacon Street; a wide window commands the sweep of the mouth +of Charles River; in summer the gulls are hovering above it, in winter +you may see them chaffing together on bits of floating ice, which is +on its way to the sea. Across that water, by stealthy rowing, the +boats of the English squadron carried the men who were to die at +Concord the next day, at Concord Bridge. Beyond is Bunker Hill +Monument; and just this side of the monument Paul Revere crossed the +same river to say that that English army was coming. + +[Illustration: O. W. HOLMES'S BIRTH-PLACE AT CAMBRIDGE, MASS., ERECTED IN +1725, A.D. FROM PHOTO BY WILFRID A. FRENCH.] + +For me, I had to deliver on Emerson's ninetieth birthday an address on +my memories of him and his life. Holmes used to meet him, from college +days down, in a thousand ways, and has written a charming memoir of +his life. I went round there one day, therefore, to ask some +questions, which might put my own memories of Emerson in better light, +and afterwards I obtained his leave to make this sketch of the talk of +half an hour. When we think of it here, if we ever fall to talking +about such things, every one would say that Holmes is the best talker +we have or know. But when you are with him, you do not think whether +he is or is not. You are under the spell of his kindness and genius. +Still no minute passes in which you do not say to yourself: "I hope I +shall remember those very words always." + +[Illustration: GARDEN DOOR OF THE CAMBRIDGE HOUSE.] + +Thinking of it after I come home, I am reminded of the flow and fun of +the Autocrat. But you never say so to yourself when you are sitting in +his room. + +I had arranged with my friend Mr. Sample that he should carry his +camera to the house, and it was in gaps in this very conversation that +the picture of both of us was taken. I told Doctor Holmes how pleased +I was at this chance of going to posterity under his escort. + +I told him of the paper on Emerson which I had in hand, and thanked +him, as well as I could, in a few words, for his really marvellous +study of Emerson in the series of American authors. I said I really +wanted to bring him my paper to read. What I was trying to do, was to +show that the great idealist was always in touch with his time, and +eager to know what, at the moment, were the real facts of American +life. + +_I._ I remember where Emerson stopped me on State Street once, to +cross-question me about some details of Irish emigration. + +_Holmes._ Yes, he was eager for all practical information. I used to +meet him very often on Saturday evenings at the Saturday Club; and I +can see him now, as he bent forward eagerly at the table, if any one +were making an interesting observation, with his face like a hawk as +he took in what was said. You felt how the hawk would be flying +overhead and looking down on your thought at the next minute. I +remember that I once spoke of "the three great prefaces," and quick as +light Emerson said, "What are the three great prefaces?" and I had to +tell him. + +_I._ I am sure I do not know what they are. What are they? + +_Holmes._ They are Calvin's to his "Institutes," Thuanus's to his +history, and Polybius's to his. + +_I._ And I have never read one of them! + +[Illustration: THE HOUSE IN RUE MONSIEUR LE PRINCE WHERE DOCTOR HOLMES +LIVED FOR TWO YEARS WHEN STUDYING MEDICINE IN PARIS.] + +_Holmes._ And I had then never read but one of them. It was a mere +piece of encyclopaedia learning of mine. + +_I._ What I shall try to do in my address is to show that Emerson +would not have touched all sorts of people as he did, but for this +matter-of-fact interest in his daily surroundings--if he had not gone +to town-meetings, for instance. Was it you or Lowell who called him +the Yankee Plato? + +_Holmes._ Not I. It was probably Lowell, in the "Fable for Critics." I +called him "a winged Franklin," and I stand by that. Matthew Arnold +quoted that afterwards, and I was glad I had said it. + +_I._ I do not remember where you said it. How was it? + +Doctor Holmes at once rose, went to the turning book-stand, and took +down volume three of his own poems, and read me with great spirit the +passage. I do not know how I had forgotten it. + + "Where in the realm of thought, whose air is song, + Does he, the Buddha of the West, belong? + He seems a winged Franklin, sweetly wise, + Born to unlock the secrets of the skies; + And which the nobler calling,--if 'tis fair + Terrestrial with celestial to compare,-- + To guide the storm-cloud's elemental flame, + Or walk the chambers whence the lightning came, + Amidst the sources of its subtile fire, + And steal their effluence for his lips and lyre?" + +Here he said, with great fun, "One great good of writing poetry is to +furnish you with your own quotations." And afterwards, when I had made +him read to me some other verses from his own poems, he said, "Oh, +yes, as a reservoir of the best quotations in the language, there is +nothing like a book of your own poems." + +[Illustration: O. W. HOLMES'S RESIDENCE IN BEACON STREET, BOSTON.] + +I said that there was no greater nonsense than the talk of Emerson's +time, that he introduced German philosophy here, and I asked Holmes if +he thought that Emerson had borrowed anything in the philosophical +line from the German. He agreed with me that his philosophy was +thoroughly home-bred, and wrought out in the experience of his own +home-life. He said that he was disposed to believe that that would be +true of Emerson which he knew was true of himself. He knew Emerson +went over a great many books, but he did not really believe that he +often really read a book through. I remember one of his phrases was, +that he thought that Emerson "tasted books;" and he cited a bright +lady from Philadelphia, whom he had met the day before, who had said +that she thought men of genius did not rely much upon their reading, +and had complimented him by asking if he did so. Holmes said: + +"I told her--I had to tell her--that in reading my mind is always +active. I do not follow the author steadily or implicitly, but my +thought runs off to right and left. It runs off in every direction, +and I find I am not so much taking his book as I am thinking my own +thoughts upon his subject." + +_I._ I want to thank you for your contrast between Emerson and +Carlyle: "The hatred of unreality was uppermost in Carlyle; the love +of what is real and genuine, with Emerson." Is it not perhaps possible +that Carlyle would not have been Carlyle but for Emerson? Emerson +found him discouraged, and as he supposed alone, and at the very +beginning led him out of his darkest places. + +I think it was on this that Doctor Holmes spoke with a good deal of +feeling about the value of appreciation. He was ready to go back to +tell of the pleasure he had received from persons who had written to +him, even though he did not know them, to say of how much use some +particular line of his had been. Among others he said that Lothrop +Motley had told him that, when he was all worn out in his work in a +country where he had not many friends, and among stupid old manuscript +archives, two lines of Holmes's braced him up and helped him through: + + "Stick to your aim: the mongrel's hold will slip, + But only crowbars loose the bulldog's grip." + +He was very funny about flattery. "That is the trouble of having so +many friends, everybody flatters you. I do not mean to let them hurt +me if I can help it, and flattery is not necessarily untrue. But you +have to be on your guard when everybody is as kind to you as everybody +is to me." + +[Illustration: THE BAY WINDOW IN DOCTOR HOLMES'S STUDY.] + +He said, in passing, that Emerson once quoted two lines of his, and +quoted them horribly. They are from the poem called "The Steamboat:" + + "The beating of her restless heart, + Still sounding through the storm." + +Emerson quoted them thus: + + "The pulses of her iron heart + Go beating through the storm." + +[Illustration: A CORNER IN DOCTOR HOLMES'S STUDY.] + +I was curious to know about Doctor Holmes's experience of country +life, he knows all nature's processes so well. So he told me how it +happened that he went to Pittsfield. It seems that, a century and a +half ago, his ancestor, Jacob Wendell, had a royal grant for the whole +township there, with some small exception, perhaps. The place was at +first called Pontoosoc, then Wendelltown, and only afterward got the +name of Pittsfield from William Pitt. One part of the Wendell property +descended to Doctor Holmes's mother. When he had once seen it he was +struck with its beauty and fitness for a country home, and asked her +that he might have it for his own. It was there that he built a house +in which he lived for eight or nine years. He said that the Housatonic +winds backwards and forwards through it, so that to go from one end of +his estate to the other in a straight line required the crossing it +seven times. Here his children grew up, and he and they were enlivened +anew every year by long summer days there. + +He was most interesting and animated as he spoke of the vigor of life +and work and poetical composition which come from being in the open +air and living in the country. He wrote, at the request of the +neighborhood, his poem of "The Ploughman," to be read at a cattle-show +in Pittsfield. "And when I came to read it afterwards I said, 'Here it +is! Here is open air life, here is what breathing the mountain air and +living in the midst of nature does for a man!' And I want to read you +now a piece of that poem, because it contained a prophecy." And while +he was looking for the verses, he said, in the vein of the Autocrat, +"Nobody knows but a man's self how many good things he has done." + +So we found the first volume of the poems, and there is "The +Ploughman," written, observe, as early as 1849. + + "O gracious Mother, whose benignant breast + Wakes us to life, and lulls us all to rest, + How thy sweet features, kind to every clime, + Mock with their smile the wrinkled front of time! + We stain thy flowers,--they blossom o'er the dead; + We rend thy bosom, and it gives us bread; + O'er the red field that trampling strife has torn, + Waves the green plumage of thy tasselled corn; + Our maddening conflicts sear thy fairest plain, + Still thy soft answer is the growing grain. + Yet, O our Mother, while uncounted charms + Steal round our hearts in thine embracing arms, + Let not our virtues in thy love decay, + And thy fond sweetness waste our strength away. + + No! by these hills, whose banners now displayed + In blazing cohorts Autumn has arrayed; + By yon twin summits, on whose splintery crests + The tossing hemlocks hold the eagles' nests; + By these fair plains the mountain circle screens, + And feeds with streamlets from its dark ravines,-- + True to their home, these faithful arms shall toil + To crown with peace their own untainted soil; + And, true to God, to freedom, to mankind, + If her chained bandogs Faction shall unbind, + These stately forms, that bending even now + Bowed their strong manhood to the humble plough, + Shall rise erect, the guardians of the land, + The same stern iron in the same right hand, + Till o'er the hills the shouts of triumph run, + The sword has rescued what the ploughshare won!" + +Now, in 1849, I, who remember, can tell you, every-day people did not +much think that Faction was going to unbind her bandogs and set the +country at war; and it was only a prophet-poet who saw that there was +a chance that men might forge their ploughshares into swords again. +But you see from the poem that Holmes was such a prophet-poet, and +now, forty-four years after, it was a pleasure to hear him read these +lines. + +[Illustration: DOROTHY Q. FROM THE PORTRAIT IN DOCTOR HOLMES'S STUDY.] + +I asked him of his reminiscences of Emerson's famous Phi Beta Kappa +oration at Cambridge, which he has described, as so many others have, +as the era of independence in American literature. We both talked of +the day, which we remembered, and of the Phi Beta dinner which +followed it, when Mr. Everett presided, and bore touching tribute to +Charles Emerson, who had just died. Holmes said: "You cannot make the +people of this generation understand the effect of Everett's oratory. +I have never felt the fascination of speech as I did in hearing him. +Did it ever occur to you,--did I say to you the other day,--that when +a man has such a voice as he had, our slight nasal resonance is an +advantage and not a disadvantage?" + +I was fresher than he from his own book on Emerson, and remembered +that he had said there somewhat the same thing. His words are: "It is +with delight that one who remembers Everett in his robes of rhetorical +splendor; who recalls his full-blown, high-colored, double-flowered +periods; the rich, resonant, grave, far-reaching music of his speech, +with just enough of nasal vibration to give the vocal sounding-board +its proper value in the harmonies of utterance,--it is with delight +that such a one recalls the glowing words of Emerson whenever he +refers to Edward Everett. It is enough if he himself caught enthusiasm +from those eloquent lips. But many a listener has had his youthful +enthusiasm fired by that great master of academic oratory." I knew, +when I read this, that Holmes referred to himself as the "youthful +listener," and was glad that within twenty-four hours he should say so +to me. + +[Illustration: DOROTHY Q'S HOUSE IN QUINCY, MASS.[1]] + +So we fell to talking of his own Phi Beta poem. A good Phi Beta poem +is an impossibility; but it is the business of genius to work the +miracles, and Holmes's is one of the few successful Phi Beta poems in +the dreary catalogue of more than a century. The custom of having +"_the_ poem," as people used to say, as if it were always the same, is +now almost abandoned. + +[Illustration: DOCTOR O. W. HOLMES DELIVERING HIS FAREWELL ADDRESS AS +PARKMAN PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY IN THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY, +NOVEMBER 28, 1882. FROM A PROOF PRINT IN THE POSSESSION OF DOCTOR JAMES +R. CHADWICK.] + +Fortunately for us both, a tap was heard at the door, and Mr. John +Holmes appeared, his brother. Mr. John Holmes has not chosen to +publish the bright things which he has undoubtedly written, but in all +circles where he favors people with his presence he is known as one of +the most agreeable of men. Everybody is glad to set him on the lines +of reminiscences. The two brothers, with great good humor, began +telling of a dinner party which Doctor Holmes had given, within a few +days, to a number of gentlemen whose average ages, according to them, +exceeded eighty. One has to make allowance for the exaggeration of +their fun, but I think, from the facts which they dropped, that the +average must have been maintained. One would have given a good deal to +be old enough to be permitted to be at that dinner. This led to talk +of the Harvard class of 1829, for whose meetings Holmes has written so +many of his charming poems. He said that they are now to have a dinner +within a few days, and named the gentlemen who were to be there. Among +them, of course, is Doctor Samuel F. Smith, the author of "America." I +noticed that Doctor Holmes always called him "My country 'tis of +thee," and so did all of us. And then these two critics began +analyzing that magnificent song. "It will not do to laugh at it. +People show that they do not know what they are talking about when +they speak lightly of it. Did you ever think how much is gained by +making the first verse begin with the singular number? Not _our_ +country, but '_My_ country,' '_I_ sing of thee'? There is not an +American citizen but can make it his own, and does make it his own, as +he sings it. And it rises to a Psalm-like grandeur at the end." "It is +a magnificent hold to have upon fame to have sixty million people sing +the verses that you have written." John Holmes said: "How good +'templed hills' is, and that is not alone in the poem." Both John +Holmes and I plead to be permitted to come to the class dinner, but +Doctor Holmes was very funny. He pooh-poohed us both; we were only +children, and we were not to be present at so rare a solemnity. For +me, I already felt that I had been wicked in wasting so much of his +time. But he has the gift of making you think that you are the only +person in the world, and that he is only living for your pleasure. +Still I knew, as a matter of fact, that this was not so, and very +unwillingly I took myself away. + + * * * * * + +As I walked home I meditated on the fate of a first-rate book in our +time. Holmes had expressed unaffected surprise that I spoke with the +gratitude which I felt about his "Life of Emerson." The book must have +cost him the hard work of a year. It is as remarkable a study as one +poet ever made of another. Yet I think he said to me that no one had +seemed to understand the care and effort which he had given to it. + +Here is the position in the United States now about the criticism of +such work. At about the time that the "North American Review" ceased +to review books, there came, as if by general consent, an end to all +elaborate criticism of new books here. + +I think myself that this is a thing very much to be regretted. In old +times, whoever wrote a good book was tolerably sure that at least one +competent person would study it and write down what he thought about +it; and, from at least one point of view, an author had a prospect of +knowing how his book struck other people. Now we have nothing but the +hasty sketches, sometimes very good, which are written for the daily +or weekly press. + +[Illustration: O. W. HOLMES'S SUMMER RESIDENCE AT BEVERLY FARMS.] + +So it happens that I, for one, have never seen any fit recognition of +the gift which Doctor Holmes made to our time and to the next +generation when he made his study of Emerson's life for the "American +Men of Letters" series. Apparently he had not. Just think of it! Here +is a poet, the head of our "Academy," so far as there is any such +Academy, who is willing to devote a year of his life to telling you +and me what Emerson was, from his own personal recollections of a near +friend, whom he met as often as once a week, and talked with perhaps +for hours at a time, and with whom he talked on literary and +philosophical subjects. More than this, this poet has been willing to +go through Emerson's books again, to re-read them as he had originally +read them when they came out, and to make for you and me a careful +analysis of all these books. He is one of five people in the country +who are competent to tell what effect these books produced on the +country as they appeared from time to time. And, being competent, he +makes the time to tell us this thing. That is a sort of good fortune +which, so far as I remember, has happened to nobody excepting Emerson. +When John Milton died, there was nobody left who could have done such +a thing; certainly nobody did do it, or tried to do it. I must say, I +think it is rather hard that when such a gift as that has been given +to the people of any country, that people, while boasting of its +seventy millions of numbers, and its thousands of billions of acres, +should not have one critical journal of which it is the business to +say at length, and in detail, whether Doctor Holmes has done his duty +well by the prophet, or whether, indeed, he has done it at all. + +[Illustration: O. W. HOLMES AND E. E. HALE. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN +DOCTOR HOLMES'S STUDY, MAY 22, 1893.] + +When we left Doctor Holmes, he and his household were looking forward +to the annual escape to Beverly. Somebody once wrote him a letter +dated from "Manchester-by-the-Sea," and Holmes wrote his reply under +the date "Beverly-by-the-Depot." And here let me stop to tell one of +those jokes for which the English language and Doctor Holmes were +made. A few years ago, in a fit of economy, our famous Massachusetts +Historical Society screwed up its library and other offices by some +fifteen feet, built in the space underneath, and rented it to the city +of Boston. This was all very well for the treasurer; but for those of +us who had passed sixty years, and had to climb up some twenty more +iron stairs whenever we wanted to look at an old pamphlet in the +library, it was not so great a benefaction. When Holmes went up, for +the first time, to see the new quarters of the Society, he left his +card with the words, "O. W. Holmes. High-story-call Society." We +understood then why the councils of the Society had been over-ruled by +the powers which manage this world, to take this flight towards +heaven. + +I ought to have given a hint above of his connection and mine with the +society of "People who Think we are Going to Know More about Some +Things By and By." This society was really formed by my mother, who +for some time, I think, was the only member. But one day Doctor Holmes +and I met in the "Old Corner Bookstore," when the Corner had been +moved to the corner of Hamilton Place, and he was telling me one of +the extraordinary coincidences which he collects with such zeal. I +ventured to trump his story with another; and, in the language of the +ungodly, I thought I went one better than he. This led to a talk about +coincidences, and I said that my mother had long since said that she +meant to have a society of the people who believed that sometime we +should know more about such curious coincidences. Doctor Holmes was +delighted with the idea, and we "organized" the society then and +there; he was to be president, I was to be secretary, and my mother +was to be treasurer. There were to be no other members, no entrance +fees, no constitution, and no assessments. We seldom meet now that we +do not authorize a meeting of this society and challenge each other to +produce the remarkable coincidences which have passed since we met +before. + +There is an awful story of his about the last time a glove was thrown +down in an English court-room. It is a story in which Holmes is all +mixed up with a marvellous series of impossibilities, such as would +make Mr. Clemens's hair grow gray, and add a new chapter to his +studies of telepathy. I will not enter on it now, with the detail of +the book that fell from the ninth shelf of a book-case, and opened at +the exact passage where the challenge story was to be described. No, I +will not tell another word of it; for if I am started upon it, it will +take up the whole of this number of Mr. McClure's Magazine. But +sometime, when Mr. McClure wants to make the whole magazine thrill +with excitement, he will write to Doctor Holmes, and ask him for that +story of the "challenge of battle." + +[Illustration: O. W. HOLMES IN HIS FAVORITE SEAT AT BEVERLY.] + +As for the story of his hearing Doctor Phinney at Rome, and the other +story of Mr. Emerson's hearing Doctor Phinney at Rome, I never tell +that excepting to confidential friends who know that I cannot tell a +lie. For if I tell it to any one else, he looks at me with a quizzical +air, as much as to say, "This is as bad as the story of the 'Man +Without a Country;' and I do not know how much to believe, and how +much to disbelieve." + + [1] Also called the Peter Butler house. Sewall in his diary speaks of + it as Mr. Quincy's new house (1680-85). There Dorothy was born + and married. + + + + +IN THE NAME OF THE LAW! + +BY STANLEY J. WEYMAN. + + +On the moorland above the old gray village of Carbaix, in +Finistere--Finistere, the most westerly province of Brittany--stands a +cottage, built, as all the cottages in that country are, of rough-hewn +stones. It is a poor, rude place to-day, but it wore an aspect far +more rude and primitive a hundred years ago--say on an August day in +the year 1793, when a man issued from the doorway, and, shading his +eyes from the noonday sun, gazed long and fixedly in the direction of +a narrow rift which a few score paces away breaks the monotony of the +upland level. This man was tall and thin and unkempt, his features +expressing a mixture of cunning and simplicity. He gazed a while in +silence, but at length uttered a grunt of satisfaction as the figure +of a woman rose gradually into sight. She came on slowly, in a +stooping posture, dragging behind her a great load of straw, which +completely hid the little sledge on which it rested, and which was +attached to her waist by a rope of twisted hay. + +The figure of a woman--rather of a girl. As she drew nearer it could +be seen that her cheeks, though brown and sunburned, were as smooth as +a child's. She looked scarcely eighteen. Her head was bare, and her +short petticoats, of some coarse stuff, left visible bare feet thrust +into wooden shoes. She advanced with her head bent and her shoulders +strained forward, her face dull and patient. Once, and once only, when +the man's eyes left her for a moment, she shot at him a look of scared +apprehension; and later, when she came abreast of him, her breath +coming and going with her exertions, he might have seen, had he looked +closely, that her strong brown limbs were trembling under her. + +But the man noticed nothing in his impatience, and only chid her for +her slowness. "Where have you been dawdling, lazy-bones?" he cried. + +She murmured, without halting, that the sun was hot. + +"Sun hot!" he retorted. "Jeanne is lazy, I think! _Mon Dieu_, that I +should have married a wife who is tired by noon! I had better have +left you to that never-do-well Pierre Bounat. But I have news for you, +my girl." + +He lounged after her as he spoke, his low, cunning face--the face of +the worst kind of French peasant--flickering with cruel pleasure, as +he saw how she started at his words. She made no answer, however. +Instead, she drew her load with increased vehemence towards one of the +two doors which led into the building. "Well, well, I will tell you +presently," he called after her. "Be quick and come to dinner." + +He entered himself by the other door. The house was divided into two +chambers by a breast-high partition of wood. The one room served for +kitchen; the other, now half full of straw, was barn and granary, +fowl-house and dove-cote, in one. "Be quick!" he called to her. +Standing in the house-room, he could see her head as she stooped to +unload the straw. + +In a moment she came in, her shoes clattering on the floor. The +perspiration stood in great beads on her forehead, and showed how +little she had deserved his reproach. She sat down silently, avoiding +his eyes; but he thought nothing of this. It was no new thing. It +pleased him, if anything. + +"Well, my Jeanne," he said, in his gibing tone, "are you longing for +my news?" + +The hand she stretched out towards the pitcher of cider, which, with +black bread and onions, formed their meal, shook, but she answered +simply: "If you please, Michel." + +"Well, the Girondins have been beaten, my girl, and are flying all +over the country. That is the news. Master Pierre is among them, I do +not doubt, if he has not been killed already. I wish he would come +this way." + +"Why?" she asked, suddenly looking up at last, a flash of light in her +gray eyes. + +"Why?" he repeated, grinning across the table at her, "because he +would be worth five crowns to me. There is five crowns, I am told, on +the head of every Girondin who has been in arms, my girl." + +The French Revolution, it will be understood, was at its height. The +more moderate and constitutional Republicans--the Girondins, as they +were called--worsted in Paris by the Jacobins and the mob, had lately +tried to raise the provinces against the capital, and to this end had +drawn together at Caen, near the border of Brittany. They had been +defeated, however, and the Jacobins, in this month of August, were +preparing to take a fearful vengeance at once on them and the +Royalists. The Reign of Terror had begun. Even to such a boor as this, +sitting over his black bread, the Revolution had come home, and, in +common with many a thousand others, he wondered what he could make of +it. + +The girl did not answer, even by the look of contempt to which he had +become accustomed, and for which he hated her; and he repeated, "Five +crowns! Ah, it is money, that is! _Mon Dieu!_" Then, with a sudden +exclamation, he sprang up. "What is that?" he cried. + +He had been sitting with his back to the barn, but he turned now so as +to face it. Something had startled him--a rustling in the straw behind +him. "What is that?" he said again, his hand on the table, his face +lowering and watchful. + +The girl had risen also; and, as the last word passed his lips, sprang +by him with a low cry, and aimed a frantic blow with her stool at +something he could not see. + +"What is it?" he asked, recoiling. + +"A rat!" she answered, breathless. And she aimed another blow at it. + +"Where?" he asked, fretfully. "Where is it?" He snatched his stool, +too, and at that moment a rat darted out of the straw, ran nimbly +between his legs, and plunged into a hole by the door. He flung the +wooden stool after it; but, of course, in vain. "It was a rat!" he +said, as if before he had doubted it. + +"Thank God!" she muttered. She was shaking all over. + +He stared at her in stupid wonder. What did she mean? What had come to +her? "Have you had a sunstroke, my girl?" he said, suspiciously. + +Her nut-brown face was a shade less brown than usual, but she met his +eyes boldly, and said: "No," adding an explanation which for the +moment satisfied him. But he did not sit down again. When she went out +he went out also. And though, as she retired slowly to the rye fields +and work, she repeatedly looked back at him, it was always to find his +eyes upon her. When this had happened half a dozen times, a thought +struck him. "How now?" he muttered. "The rat ran out of the straw!" + +Nevertheless he still stood gazing after her, with a cunning look upon +his features, until she disappeared over the edge of the rift, and +then he crept back to the door of the barn, and stole in out of the +sunlight into the cool darkness of the raftered building, across which +a dozen rays of light were shooting, laden with dancing motes. Inside +he stood stock still until he had regained the use of his eyes, and +then he began to peer round him. In a moment he found what he sought. +Half upon, and half hidden by, the straw, lay a young man, in the deep +sleep of utter exhaustion. His face, which bore traces of more than +common beauty, was now white and pinched; his hair hung dank about his +forehead. His clothes were in rags; and his feet, bound up in pieces +torn at random from his blouse, were raw and bleeding. For a short +while Michel Tellier bent over him, remarking these things with +glistening eyes. Then the peasant stole out again. "It is five +crowns!" he muttered, blinking in the sunlight. "Ha, ha! Five +crowns!" + +He looked round cautiously, but could see no sign of his wife; and +after hesitating and pondering a minute or two, he took the path +for Carbaix, his native astuteness leading him to saunter slowly +along in his ordinary fashion. After that the moorland about the +cottage lay seemingly deserted. Thrice, at intervals, the girl +dragged home her load of straw, but each time she seemed to linger +in the barn no longer than was necessary. Michel's absence, though +it was unlooked-for, raised no suspicion in her breast, for he would +frequently go down to the village to spend the afternoon. The sun +sank lower, and the shadow of the great monolith, which, standing +on the highest point of the moor, about a mile away, rose gaunt and +black against a roseate sky, grew longer and longer; and then, as +twilight fell, the two coming home met a few paces from the cottage. +He asked some questions about the work she had been doing, and she +answered briefly. Then, silent and uncommunicative, they went in +together. The girl set the bread and cider on the table, and going to +the great black pot which had been simmering all day upon the fire, +poured some broth into two pitchers. It did not escape Michel's +frugal eye that there was still a little broth left in the bottom +of the pot, and this induced a new feeling in him--anger. When his +wife hailed him by a sign to the meal, he went instead to the door, +and fastened it. Thence he went to the corner and picked up the +wood-chopper, and armed with this came back to his seat. + +The girl watched his movements first with surprise, and then with +secret terror. The twilight was come, and the cottage was almost dark, +and she was alone with him; or, if not alone, yet with no one near who +could help her. Yet she met his grin of triumph bravely. "What is +this?" she said. "Why do you want that?" + +"For the rat," he answered grimly, his eyes on hers. + +"Why not use your stool?" she strove to murmur, her heart sinking. + +"Not for this rat," he answered. "It might not do, my girl. Oh, I know +all about it," he continued. "I have been down to the village, and +seen the mayor, and he is coming up to fetch him." He nodded towards +the partition, and she knew that her secret was known. + +"It is Pierre," she said, trembling violently, and turning first +crimson and then white. + +"I know it, Jeanne. It was excellent of you! Excellent! It is long +since you have done such a day's work." + +"You will not give him up?" + +"My faith, I shall!" he answered, affecting, and perhaps really +feeling, wonder at her simplicity. "He is five crowns, girl! You do +not understand. He is worth five crowns, and the risk nothing at +all." + +If he had been angry, or shown anything of the fury of the suspicious +husband; if he had been about to do this out of jealousy or revenge, +she would have quailed before him, though she had done him no wrong, +save the wrong of mercy and pity. But his spirit was too mean for the +great passions; he felt only the sordid ones, which to a woman are the +most hateful. And instead of quailing, she looked at him with flashing +eyes. "I shall warn him," she said. + +"It will not help him," he answered, sitting still, and feeling the +edge of the hatchet with his fingers. + +"It will help him," she retorted. "He shall go. He shall escape before +they come." + +"I have locked the doors!" + +"Give me the key!" she panted. "Give me the key, I say!" She had risen +and was standing before him, her figure drawn to its full height. He +rose hastily and retreated behind the table, still retaining the +hatchet in his grasp. + +"Stand back!" he said, sullenly. "You may awaken him, if you please, +my girl. It will not avail him. Do you not understand, fool, that he +is worth five crowns? And listen! It is too late now. They are here!" + +A blow fell on the door as he spoke, and he stepped towards it. But at +that despair moved her, and she threw herself upon him, and for a +moment wrestled with him. At last, with an effort he flung her off, +and, brandishing his weapon in her face, kept her at bay. "You vixen!" +he cried, savagely, retreating to the door, with a pale cheek and his +eyes still on her, for he was an arrant coward. "You deserve to go to +prison with him, you jade! I will have you in the stocks for this!" + +She leaned against the wall where she had fallen, her white, +despairing face seeming almost to shine in the darkness of the +wretched room. Meanwhile the continuous murmur of men's voices outside +could now be heard, mingled with the ring of weapons; and the summons +for admission was again and again repeated, as if those without had no +mind to be kept waiting. + +"Patience! patience! I am opening!" he cried. Still keeping his face +to her, he unlocked the door and called on the men to enter. "He is in +the straw, M. le Mayor!" he cried in a tone of triumph, his eyes still +on his wife. "He will give you no trouble, I will answer for it! But +first give me my five crowns, mayor. My five crowns!" + +He still felt so much fear of his wife that he did not turn to see the +men enter, and was taken by surprise when a voice at his elbow--a +strange voice--said, "Five crowns, my friend? For what, may I ask?" + +In his eagerness and excitement he suspected nothing, but thought only +that the mayor had sent a deputy. "For what? For the Girondin!" he +answered, rapidly. Then at last he turned and found that half-a-dozen +men had entered, and that more were entering. To his astonishment, +they were all strangers to him--men with stern, gloomy faces, and +armed to the teeth. There was something so formidable in their +appearance that his voice faltered as he added: "But where is the +mayor, gentlemen? I do not see him." + +No one answered, but in silence the last of the men--there were eleven +in all--entered and bolted the door behind him. Michel Tellier peered +at them in the gloom with growing alarm. In return the tallest of the +strangers, who had entered first and seemed to be in command, looked +round keenly. At length this man spoke. "So you have a Girondin here, +have you?" he said, his voice curiously sweet and sonorous. + +"I was to have five crowns for him," Michel muttered dubiously. + +"Oh! Petion," continued the spokesman to one of his companions, "can +you kindle a light? It strikes me that we have hit upon a dark +place." + +The man addressed took something from his pouch. For a moment there +was silence, broken only by the sharp sound of the flint striking the +steel. Then a sudden glare lit up the dark interior, and disclosed the +group of cloaked strangers standing about the door, the light gleaming +back from their muskets and cutlasses. Michel trembled. He had never +seen such men as these before. True, they were wet and travel-stained, +and had the air of those who spend their nights in ditches and under +haystacks. But their pale, stern faces were set in indomitable +resolve. Their eyes glowed with a steady fire, and they trod as kings +tread. Their leader was a man of majestic height and beauty, and in +his eyes alone there seemed to lurk a spark of some lighter fire, as +if his spirit still rose above the task which had sobered his +companions. Michel noted all this in fear and bewilderment; noted the +white head and yet vigorous bearing of the man who had struck the +light; noted even the manner in which the light died away in the dim +recesses of the barn. + +"And this Girondin--is he in hiding here?" said the tall man. + +"That is so," Michel answered. "But I had nothing to do with hiding +him, citizen. It was my wife hid him in the straw there." + +"And you gave notice of his presence to the authorities?" continued +the stranger, raising his hand to repress some movement among his +followers. + +"Certainly, or you would not have been here," replied Michel, better +satisfied with himself. + +The answer struck him down with an awful terror. "That does not +follow," said the tall man, coolly, "for we are Girondins!" + +"You are?" + +"Without doubt," the other answered, with majestic simplicity; "or +there are no such persons. This is Petion, and this Citizen Buzot. +Have you heard of Louvet? There he stands. For me, I am Barbaroux." + +Michel's tongue seemed glued to the roof of his mouth. He could not +utter a word. But another could. On the far side of the barrier a +sudden rustling was heard, and while all turned to look--but with +what different feelings--the pale face of the youth over whom +Michel had bent in the afternoon appeared above the partition. A +smile of joyful recognition effaced for the time the lines of +exhaustion. The young man, clinging for support to the planks, +uttered a cry of thankfulness. "It is you! It is really you! You are +safe!" he exclaimed. + +"We are safe, all of us, Pierre," Barbaroux answered. "And now"--and +he turned to Michel Tellier with sudden thunder in his voice--"this +man whom you would have betrayed is our guide, let me tell you, whom +we lost last night. Speak, man, in your defence, if you can. Say what +you have to say why justice shall not be done upon you, miserable +caitiff, who would have sold a man's life for a few pieces of +silver!" + +The wretched peasant's knees trembled, and the perspiration stood upon +his brow. He heard the voice as the voice of a judge. He looked in the +stern eyes of the Girondins, and read only anger and vengeance. Then +he caught in the silence the sound of his wife weeping, for at +Pierre's appearance she had broken into wild sobbing, and he spoke out +of the base instincts of his heart. + +"He was her lover," he muttered. "I swear it, citizens." + +"He lies!" cried the man at the barrier, his face transfigured with +rage. "I loved her, it is true, but it was before her old father sold +her to this Judas. For what he would have you believe now, my friends, +it is false. I, too, swear it." + +A murmur of execration broke from the group of Girondins. Barbaroux +repressed it by a gesture. "What do you say of this man?" he asked, +turning to them, his voice deep and solemn. + +"He is not fit to live!" they answered in chorus. + +The poor coward screamed as he heard the words, and, flinging himself +on the ground, he embraced Barbaroux's knees in a paroxysm of terror. +But the judge did not look at him. Barbaroux turned, instead, to +Pierre Bounat. "What do you say of him?" he asked. + +"He is not fit to live," said the young man solemnly, his breath +coming quick and fast. + +"And you?" Barbaroux continued, turning and looking with his eyes of +fire at the wife, his voice gentle, and yet more solemn. + +A moment before she had ceased to weep, and had stood up listening and +gazing, awe and wonder in her face. Barbaroux had to repeat his +question before she answered. Then she said, "He is not fit to die." + +There was silence for a moment, broken only by the entreaties of the +wretch on the floor. At last Barbaroux spoke. "She has said rightly," +he pronounced. "He shall live. They have put us out of the law and set +a price on our heads; but we will keep the law. He shall live. But, +hark you," the great orator continued, in tones which Michel never +forgot, "if a whisper escape you as to our presence here, or our +names, or if you wrong your wife by word or deed, the life she has +saved shall pay for it. + +"Remember!" he added, shaking Michel to and fro with a finger, "the +arm of Barbaroux is long, and though I be a hundred leagues away, I +shall know and I shall punish. So, beware! Now rise, and live!" + +The miserable man cowered back to the wall, frightened to the core of +his heart. The Girondins conferred a while in whispers, two of their +number assisting Pierre to cross the barrier. Suddenly there came--and +Michel trembled anew as he heard it--a loud knocking at the door. All +started and stood listening and waiting. A voice outside cried: "Open! +open! in the name of the law!" + +"We have lingered too long," Barbaroux muttered. "I should have +thought of this. It is the Mayor of Carbaix come to apprehend our +friend." + +Again the Girondins conferred together. At last, seeming to arrive at +a conclusion, they ranged themselves on either side of the door, and +one of their number opened it. A short, stout man, girt with a +tricolor sash, and wearing a huge sword, entered with an air of +authority--being blinded by the light he saw nothing out of the +common--and was followed by four men armed with muskets. + +Their appearance produced an extraordinary effect on Michel Tellier. +As they one by one crossed the threshold, the peasant leaned forward, +his face flushed, his eyes gleaming, and counted them. They were only +five. And the others were twelve. He fell back, and from that moment +his belief in the Girondins' power was clinched. + +"In the name of the law!" panted the mayor. "Why did you not--" Then +he stopped abruptly, his mouth remaining open. He found himself +surrounded by a group of grim, silent mutes, with arms in their hands, +and in a twinkling it flashed into his mind that these were the eleven +chiefs of the Girondins, whom he had been warned to keep watch for. He +had come to catch a pigeon and had caught a crow. He turned pale and +his eyes dropped. "Who are--who are these gentlemen?" he stammered, in +a ludicrously altered tone. + +"Some volunteers of Quumpen, returning home," replied Barbaroux, with +ironical smoothness. + +"You have your papers, citizens?" the mayor asked, mechanically; and +he took a step back towards the door, and looked over his shoulder. + +"Here they are!" said Petion rudely, thrusting a packet into his +hands. "They are in order." + +The mayor took them, and longing only to see the outside of the +door, pretended to look through them, his little heart going +pit-a-pat within him. "They seem to be in order," he assented, +feebly. "I need not trouble you further, citizens. I came here under +a misapprehension, I find, and I wish you a good journey." + +He knew, as he backed out, that he was cutting a poor figure. He would +fain have made a more dignified retreat. But before these men, +fugitives and outlaws as they were, he felt, though he was Mayor of +Carbaix, almost as small a man as did Michel Tellier. These were the +men of the Revolution. They had bearded nobles and pulled down kings. +There was Barbaroux, who had grappled with Marat; and Petion, the +Mayor of the Bastille. The little Mayor of Carbaix knew greatness when +he saw it. He turned tail, and hurried back to his fireside, his +body-guard not a whit behind him. + +Five minutes later the men he feared and envied came out also, and +went their way, passing in single file into the darkness which brooded +over the great monolith; beginning, brave hearts, another of the few +stages which still lay between them and the guillotine. Then in the +cottage there remained only Michel and Jeanne. She sat by the dying +embers, silent, and lost in thought. He leaned against the wall, his +eyes roving ceaselessly, but always when his gaze met hers it fell. +Barbaroux had conquered him. It was not until Jeanne had risen to +close the door, and he was alone, that he wrung his hands, and +muttered: "Five crowns! Five crowns gone and wasted!" + + + + +"HUMAN DOCUMENTS." + + Facing this pastel, in an opposite corner of the room, another + little thing full of sadness catches my eye, despite the deepening + twilight. It is a yellow-stained photograph hung on the wall in a + simple, wooden frame. It is the young Prince Imperial, who was + killed in Africa a dozen years ago, but is shown here as a mere + child in knee breeches. An odd, but touching, fancy it was of the + Empress Eugenie to place this souvenir of her son, the last of the + Napoleons, in the very room where that other one was born, the + giant who shook the earth.... + + How strange and startling it will be a century or two hence + for our descendants to turn over the photographs of their + ancestors!... The portraits left by our forefathers, expressive + though they may be, whether painted or engraved, can never + produce in us an impression equally vivid; but photographs are + the very reflections of living beings, fixing their precise + attitudes, their gestures, their most fleeting expressions. + What a curious thing it will be, what an awe-inspiring thing for + future generations to study our faces when we shall have fallen + into the dead past!...--A fragment from Loti's "Book of Pity + and of Death." + + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. + +EDWARD EVERETT HALE, clergyman and author, born in Boston in 1822, was +graduated at Harvard in 1839. While a clergyman, he is perhaps best +known to the world as a philanthropist and an author. He has written +short stories, novels, juvenile books, works of travel, essays, +biography, and history, besides giving much time to his pastoral +duties, to preaching, lecturing, and the organization of charities. He +founded the magazine "Old and New," afterward merged in "Scribner's" +(now "The Century"). Two of his short stories, "My Double, and How He +Undid Me," and "The Man Without a Country," are classics. + +HENRI ADOLPHE STEPHAN OPPER, known to the world as M. DE BLOWITZ, born +at Blowitz, Bohemia, on December 28, 1825, migrated to France in 1848, +and became engaged as professor of the German language and literature +at the Lycee of Tours. Here he remained till 1860, when he left to +fill, successively, similar posts at Limoges, Poictiers, and +Marseilles. He married the daughter of a paymaster of the French +Marine. It was not till 1871 that he became a naturalized Frenchman, +and, after the French defeat by the Germans, he was a confidant and +emissary of both Gambetta and Thiers. His entrance into journalism was +as the collaborateur of Lawrence Oliphant, the special correspondent +of the "London Times" at Versailles. On Oliphant's retirement, M. de +Blowitz was promoted by the editor of the "Times," to fill his place. +The subsequent career of the great correspondent has been identified +with some of the most striking episodes in modern politics and +journalism. + +DANIEL VIERGE URRABIETA, born in Madrid, 1852, became a student of +the Fine Arts Academy of Madrid in 1865. In 1869 he went to Paris +and began his career of illustrator. In 1881 he was stricken by an +attack of paralysis, which it was feared would be fatal. But for the +last four or five years he has been growing steadily better in +health, and has been able to resume his brilliant work. Although +but little known to the public at large, he ranks among the most +original and striking of modern artists, and is without doubt at the +head of the illustrators. + +THOMAS ALVA EDISON, born at Alva, Ohio, February 11, 1847, had no +schooling except the attrition of life. At the age of fifteen, having +been taught telegraphy, he graduated from the life of a train newsboy +into that of an operator, and, during several years of wandering, +acquired extraordinary skill. The study of theory ran _aequo pede_ with +executive work. He quickly invented the automatic repeater to transfer +messages from one to another wire. It is needless to touch upon his +further achievements which have made his name famous in the whole +civilized world. + + +EDWARD EVERETT HALE. + +[Illustration: FROM AN OLD DAGUERREOTYPE.] + +[Illustration: AGE 37. 1859.] + +[Illustration: AGE 39. 1861.] + +[Illustration: FROM AN UNDATED DAGUERREOTYPE TAKEN BEFORE 1855.] + +[Illustration: AGE 43. 1865.] + +[Illustration: MR. HALE AND HIS CHILDREN IN 1869.] + +[Illustration: AGE 48. 1870.] + +[Illustration: MR. HALE IN 1888.] + + +M. DE BLOWITZ. + +[Illustration: 1866.] + +[Illustration: 1875. PARIS.] + +[Illustration: 1884. CONSTANTINOPLE. TAKEN IN THE COSTUME IN WHICH HE +INTERVIEWED THE SULTAN.] + +[Illustration: M. DE BLOWITZ AT THE PRESENT DAY.] + + +DANIEL VIERGE URRABIETA. + +[Illustration: AGE 13. 1865.] + +[Illustration: AGE 17. 1869. MADRID.] + +[Illustration: AGE 19. 1871. PARIS.] + +[Illustration: VIERGE IN 1890.] + + +THOMAS ALVA EDISON. + +[Illustration: AGE 3. 1850.] + +[Illustration: AGE 13. 1860.] + +[Illustration: AGE 31. 1878. EDISON AND THE FIRST PHONOGRAPH.] + +[Illustration: AGE 44. 1891. EDISON AND THE IMPROVED PHONOGRAPH.] + +[Illustration: EDISON AT THE PRESENT DAY.] + + + + +WILD BEASTS. + +HOW THEY ARE TRANSPORTED AND TRAINED. + +BY RAYMOND BLATHWAYT. + + +Few of those people who go to a menagerie realize what an immense +undertaking it is to transport wild beasts from the land of their +birth and of their freedom to the land of their imprisonment, and, too +frequently, of their death. I will ask my readers to picture for +themselves an African desert blazing beneath a burning sun. Across the +weary waste of sand a long column of men and animals is wending its +slow way. As it draws nearer we see that it is a caravan of wild +animals on their way from the interior to the seaboard. And as it +passes us, the vast mass of living creatures, as in a chemical +process, slowly dissolves itself into distinct particles and +individualities. Let us regard them carefully. In the first place we +notice a procession of fourteen stately giraffes, then come five +elephants, a huge rhinoceros, four wild buffaloes bellowing sadly +after the mates they have forever left behind. Then there go lumbering +by a number of enormous carts or wagons, in which are safely confined +thirty hyenas, five leopards, six lions, two chetahs, sixteen +antelopes, two lynxes, one serval, one wardbob, twenty smaller +carnivorous animals, four African ant-eaters, and forty-five monkeys. +And then there come slowly prancing by, wary, restless, cunning, +twenty-six ostriches. There are twenty boxes of birds, from which +sounds of shrill screaming are constantly proceeding. There are +upwards of a hundred Abyssinian goats scattered here and there in the +procession. These are to give milk for the young animals, and to serve +as food and meat for the old. The caravan is on its way through the +desert to Suakim, which is the first shipping place for Europe. There +are no less than a hundred and twenty camels in it, which are +required to carry the food for this caravan, and there are upwards of +a hundred and sixty drivers in the procession. It takes the caravans +upwards of thirty-six days to cover the distance which lies between +Cassala in the interior of Nubia and the port of Suakim, for which +they are bound. The same journey is usually performed by quick post +camels in twelve days. + +This is the exact account of a caravan which Karl Hagenbeck told me he +brought across the desert in the year 1870. "It is tremendously +anxious work," said he, "the transportation of these animals across +sea and land. The amount of water which we have to carry with us in +goats' hides upon camels' backs is prodigious, for nothing would be +more awful than to run short of water in the middle of the desert, and +to be surrounded by a number of wild beasts, maddened with heat and +unquenchable thirst. The principal food for the young elephants and +rhinoceroses on the way home is a fruit called nabeck, that is, a kind +of cherry of which they are very fond. Giraffes and antelopes and +ostriches are provided with the doura corn that grows in the interior. +All these bigger animals walk, and as they jog along my people feed +them occasionally with hard ship biscuit, which appears to sustain +them well through the journey. At four o'clock every morning the +caravan strikes its tents and begins its march. They go plodding along +till ten o'clock, when the day becomes too hot for further progress." + +[Illustration: KARL HAGENBECK.] + +"But do the animals never attempt to escape?" said I. + +"Well, not often," replied Karl Hagenbeck; "but," he added, with a +hearty laugh of recollection, "I remember that once, in that very year +1870, of which I have just been telling you, the whole of the +ostriches, twenty-six in number, ran away just as we were getting them +into the railway station at Suakim. Away they went, heading straight +for the desert. I never was in such a dreadful fix in my life. At last +it struck me that it would be a good plan to drive all the goats and +camels towards them; we did so, and, when the ostriches saw them +advancing, they formed themselves into a flock, and we drove the whole +lot into the station. The birds were caught one by one and put into +the cars. That was the last transport, by-the-by, that poor Casanova +ever brought over. Indeed, he died at Alexandria in the very midst of +the whole business, and we buried him on the evening of his death. It +was a dreadful time, and everything appeared to be against us, for at +the very moment of his death, just as we were getting the animals on +board ship, a fearful earthquake shook the whole land. I thought there +was something about to happen, for the animals were very uneasy, the +birds were twittering, the monkeys were chattering and trembling, the +lions were roaring constantly, the elephants were deafening with their +long trumpetings. Suddenly I felt the steamer quivering from stem to +stern. The sea was tossing, the sun was hidden behind a thick yellow +mist. I looked toward the land where the minarets were toppling down, +and where the greatest horror and confusion appeared to prevail, and +all the while poor Casanova lay dead or dying below. I shall never +forget that awful morning. + +"We had had the greatest possible difficulty just before, too, for at +Suakim the railway people had told us that we had too many wagons, and +that they would not transport us any farther. However, I soon settled +that by going up to the directors of the railway and demanding from +them an express train immediately; 'for,' said I, 'these animals are +for the Emperor of Austria,' and to prove this I showed them a great +document sealed by the emperor himself." + + +ADVENTURES WITH ESCAPED ANIMALS. + +"On another occasion I was journeying through Suez with a giraffe +which for five months had been living in the German Consul's garden. I +was leading it to the station when it suddenly took fright and ran +away. For four long, weary miles I hung on to the wretched beast, but +at last I was obliged to drop the rope and let it go. A smart little +Nubian boy then took up the chase; he got hold of the rope and +eventually tied it round a tree, and after a while we led the animal +quietly back to the station. + +"But one of the most alarming adventures that ever overtook me whilst +I was transporting animals was that which occurred once when twelve +elephants broke away from me and rushed through the streets of Vienna. +The whole twelve had been deposited in a _depot_, where they had to +rest for two days. I was taking six of the elephants to lead them to +the station, and when my back was turned and I was engaged with these +six elephants, the other six stealthily and quietly pulled up the iron +rings by which they were fastened to the ground, trumpeted loudly, +and, before I knew what had happened, the twelve animals were rushing +through the streets of Vienna. At last, after a long chase, I caught +the biggest elephant, and led it to the station, the others following +quietly enough. But my troubles were not over yet, for I hardly got +the first four into a railway van when the others began to howl. The +four elephants in the train plunged and kicked about, and at last they +broke their ropes and ran out of the van, followed by all the others, +and into the open streets. Then began another hunt up the big +fashionable streets, down little courts and alleys, once after one +which ran into a big shop, all over a big park, and this went on for +three hours, until, at last, greatly to my relief, I got them safely +into the station and packed into the vans for their journey." + + +WILD ANIMALS ABOARD SHIP. + +"Perhaps the most difficult part of transportation, notwithstanding +all the adventures I have had on land, is the getting the big animals +on board ship. Take elephants for instance. They are placed in barges +and then they are slung up in big slings on to the steamer. This is +very difficult and very anxious work, for very often they are killed +by the breaking of their necks or their legs. And then again, once +they are on board ship, it is very difficult to bring elephants alive +to Europe. They suffer dreadfully from sea-sickness, and cannot eat. +Some of them are put between decks, and some of them have stables +fitted up for them on deck. + +"I remember once that Casanova left Africa with a cargo of forty +elephants, thirteen only of which reached Trieste alive, and only +twelve came here to me in Hamburg. On one occasion, in 1881 I think it +was, I was bringing over a large cargo of forty-two ostriches from +the Somali country. We were going through the Red Sea, when suddenly a +violent storm broke upon us. It was pitch dark on deck, but I went +below to look at my birds, and by the dim light of the lantern, and +the flash of lightning that every now and again lit up the whole of +the ship, I saw that the poor creatures were swaying to and fro, and +that they were in the greatest possible discomfort. That night more +than thirty of them broke their legs, and the next day we had to throw +their bodies into the sea, and out of the forty-two I brought only +nine home to Europe. But perhaps one of the most dangerous adventures +that I ever had in transporting wild beasts was in 1871. I was taking +a rhinoceros from the East India Docks to the Zoological Gardens in +London. To do this I had to take it and lead it through the docks on a +flat trolly. At last we got the beast hoisted on a wagon, and fastened +by all four legs. Suddenly an engine drove by. The animal became +hideously frightened, his eyes rolled white, then red. He then planted +his horn under the seat upon which the man who was driving the wagon +was seated. Away went the man, away went the seat, clean over the +three horses. They in their turn became dreadfully frightened, too, +and bolted. I hit the beast as hard as ever I could with a rope. We +managed to tie another rope round his neck and fastened it down, and +at last we got him safely down the Commercial Road, and then settled +in some stables. I had a big box made for him, and at last conveyed +him safely to his destination; but I wouldn't go through that +experience again for a million of money. + +"I was once bringing home a full-grown alligator," continued Mr. +Hagenbeck, smiling at the thought of the adventure of which he was +about to tell me, "and I was travelling on a passenger ship. One +morning a most amusing incident occurred, but one which all the same +might have been attended with serious consequences. I had paid my +usual morning visit to my travelling companion, and had seen to his +supply of food and water, and having assured myself that he was quite +comfortable and well looked after, I retired to my cabin to lie down, +the day being very hot. Suddenly I heard a great tramping overhead and +the screaming of women and children. I could not think what was the +matter, so I ran up on deck; as I went I passed a number of people +rushing down the companion way. The male passengers were on the +captain's deck; the sailors were climbing the rigging as fast as they +could. The deck was perfectly clear. In the midst of the empty deck +stood my alligator, the innocent cause of this sudden commotion, with +gently smiling jaws, looking wonderingly on. After a good long time +and much difficulty I got the beast into his own habitation." + + +TRAINING OF WILD BEASTS. + +It is told of the mad King of Bavaria, that he used frequently to +command great theatrical entertainments at which he himself was the +only spectator. A similar experience befell myself when I was visiting +Hamburg. For Mr. Karl Hagenbeck, at my special request, and with +great good nature, gave two full performances in my honor, at which, +like the mad Bavarian monarch, I was the only spectator. In the first +performance only very young animals took part, but as they had been +working since last January year, they were pretty well up to all the +little tricks they had been taught. My readers will imagine a great +circle carefully railed off from the outside world by iron bars. Round +this circle, upon a number of little stands, sat the performing +animals, waiting to take their respective "turns," as they say in the +music halls; in the midst of the circle sat myself, with a beautiful +little baby lion on my knee, which amused itself by playing with my +watch chain and handkerchief. Two little tigers which got tired of +sitting still suddenly jumped down from their perches and ran up to +play with me and the baby lion. A young lion on another perch yawned +so loud that we all, animals and men, looked up to see what was the +matter. Mr. Hagenbeck walked round the circle, stroking the animals, +most of which affectionately kissed him as he passed. + + +YOUNG ANIMALS AT SCHOOL. + +At this moment Mr. Mellermann, who is one of the finest wild beast +trainers in the world, entered the circle with his whip in his hand, +which, as he entered, he cracked smartly, causing the animals to +spring sharply to attention upon their little seats. Karl Hagenbeck +introduced me to Mr. Mellermann, who is indeed his own brother-in-law +as well as being his trainer. + +"What is your rule of training, Mr. Mellermann?" said I. + +"Kindness and coolness and firmness," he replied, "as you will see in +this performance. Come on, pussies," he continued, "show this +gentleman how you can run round the circle." + +The pussies, as he called them, fairly big tigers as I should have +considered them, unwillingly crept off their seats, growling not a +little. Mr. Mellermann cracked his whip smartly, but did not hit +them. The animals then began to run very prettily round and round the +circle. So well did they do their little tricks that Mr. Mellermann +said: "Now you shall have some sugar, you have been very good." He +placed in my hand a few lumps of sugar which I myself gave to them, +greatly to their pleasure. Then a pyramid was formed by some young +tigers, some lions, a couple of ponies, and four young goats. The +pyramid itself consisted of a small double ladder upon the steps of +which the animals somewhat nervously took their places, and upon which +they stood gazing quietly down upon us, until they were told that they +might go back to their places. After a while, when school was over, +the goats and ponies left the arena, and then the door of a big cage, +which gave upon the circle, was thrown wide open. It was pretty to see +the little lions and tigers running home, for all the world like an +infant school dismissed to play. The pretty creatures gambolled about +for a short while in their cage, and then lay down to rest. + + +A WONDERFUL PERFORMANCE. + +"And now," said Mr. Hagenbeck, "the older animals are coming in to do +their performance." + +Several attendants entered the building as he spoke; for to handle a +large number of fully grown wild animals is no light matter. The first +animals to come rushing into the arena were a number of huge German +boar-hounds--great affectionate beasts they were, too. I patted one of +them as he passed me, and he reared himself on his hind legs, threw +his forepaws round my neck, and delightedly covered my face with +kisses. Each boar-hound on entering the circle went to his own +allotted place with all the sense of a human being. A few moments +afterwards a door was thrown open, and in walked the lions and tigers. +Splendid big beasts these last were. Some looked very good-tempered, +although it is to be acknowledged that one tiger had evidently got out +of bed the wrong side, whilst a lion that had arrived comparatively +recently from Nubia evinced now and again a strong disposition to +rebel against the novel circumstances in which he found himself +placed. Three bears then walked in--a polar bear, a sloth bear, and a +black bear, the latter causing much amusement by quietly entering on +its hind legs. Then came a couple of elephants, a camel, four ponies, +several goats, and last of all a big, sleepy sheep, which seemed to be +on particularly intimate terms with one of the lions. + +One of the most remarkable things that I noticed in Karl Hagenbeck's +menagerie is the marvellous unity and loving-kindness which is brought +to pass amongst his animals. They are fondling and playing with each +other the whole day long. Like the younger animals, they took their +seats upon the rickety pedestals which are provided for them. It was a +wonder to me how such huge beasts were able to balance themselves so +easily and comfortably as they did upon such small and slender +supports. One of them, however, came to grief in a most amusing +manner. The human beings were standing talking together in the middle +of the circle, when suddenly a loud crash and an indignant howl was +heard. We all turned to see what was the matter, as did also the wild +beasts themselves; one of the lions had suddenly tumbled down off his +perch, or rather the perch had fallen with him, and there he lay, more +startled than hurt, wondering what on earth had happened. It was +partly his own fault, poor dear fellow, for he had fallen asleep +whilst waiting for the performance to begin, and so lost his balance. +But his look of indignant surprise was so ludicrously human that none +of us could help laughing. However, both he and his pedestal were +speedily reinstated in their former position, and a lump of sugar soon +restored him to his usual tranquillity of spirit. + +"And will the animals be arranged round the Chicago circus like this, +Mr. Hagenbeck?" said I. + +"Everything will be exactly as you see it to-day," he replied. +"Perhaps, if anything, on a bigger scale." + +At this moment the band struck up a stirring tune, on hearing which +the animals delightedly pricked their ears, and all became life and +animation at once! + +"My animals love music," said Mr. Hagenbeck, "and they perform twice +as well with a band as they do without." + +The first thing that took place was the riding round the circus on a +pony by a full-grown lion. Round and round they went. The pony +spiritedly enough; the lion, it must be confessed, looking, as wild +beasts generally do when engaged in such performances, rather a fool. + +"The ponies and dogs were at first dreadfully afraid of the lions and +tigers," explained Mr. Hagenbeck, "but they soon got over it. These +two animals were the rage of all Paris when I was performing there a +year or two ago. Four ponies refused altogether, but at last we +managed to persuade this one to accomplish the trick." + +"Has your brother-in-law never been hurt by any of these animals?" + +"Only once," said he, "when he tried to separate a dog and a tiger +which were fighting, and the dog bit him. The dogs are frequently very +plucky, and sometimes attack the lions." + +The next feature in the programme was that a tiger should ride round +the circus on a tricycle. A man rolled in the tricycle, the tiger was +called by name to come down from his perch, which he did slowly and +unwillingly enough. "For," said Mr. Hagenbeck, "he always hates this +ride of his." Then the tiger sullenly mounted the tricycle exactly as +is shown in the picture, growling frequently the whole time; two of +the boar-hounds walked behind as footmen, the band struck up a slow +tune, the tiger set the tricycle in motion, and slowly and solemnly +enough the little procession passed round the circus. "Now," said the +chief trainer, "I'll show you how a tiger can roll a ball along, +standing upon it the whole time." Some trestles were brought in, +placed at equal distances from each other, and a long plank was laid +across them, and then there was placed upon it a huge wooden ball. +"Come on, Caesar," cried Mr. Mellermann, "it's your turn now." To our +surprise a beautiful lion jumped down from his pedestal and ran gayly +up to Mr. Mellermann. "No, no, no, you dear old stupid," said the +trainer, leading him back to his perch; "I want Caesar, not you." But +all our persuasion couldn't get Caesar the tiger to come down, so Mr. +Mellermann went boldly up to him and gently flicked him with his whip. +Caesar got slowly down, snarling and growling the whole time. "Come on, +then, there's a good fellow," said Mr. Mellermann, and after a while +Caesar was persuaded to balance himself on the ball which he rolled +slowly along the plank. Having done it once or twice forwards and +backwards, he was allowed to return to his seat, which he did with +great joy and satisfaction. Mr. Mellermann then went up to him, told +him he had been a good fellow, and gave him a special bit of meat all +to himself. "I always do that," said he, coming back to where I was +standing, "when an animal has shown any unwillingness to perform his +tricks, for there is nothing that encourages them like kindness." + +"Which animals show the most intelligence?" said I. + +"Well," replied Mr. Mellermann, "I don't think there is much +difference between them. Lions and tigers, males and females, are +equally clever; and," continued Mr. Mellermann, "I think it is all +rubbish to say that tigers are not as affectionate or as easily tamed +as lions. Why, look here," he continued, going up to a splendid Royal +Bengal tiger which greeted him with a most extravagant affection as he +threw his arms round the creature's neck and drew the great head down +on a level with his own, "you couldn't get a more affectionate beast +than this is, I am sure." + +On this particular morning the animals seemed to be a little flighty, +which Karl Hagenbeck explained to me was owing to the fact that the +young animals were so close by, and the old ones wanted to play with +them. Next, one of the bears was led forth to walk on the tight rope, +this appliance really being a long narrow plank. Very cleverly he +balanced himself on his hind legs, and walked, first forwards and then +backwards, with wonderful skill and ease. The trainer walked beside +him, encouraging him now and again with the words, "Steady, John, +steady," treating him, indeed, exactly as he would treat a boy at +school. In the middle of his performance a loud snarling and growling +was suddenly heard; a tiger and a leopard had begun quarrelling, and, +as the leopard had been behaving very badly the whole morning, and +distracting the attention of the school, he was sent back to his den +in disgrace. Meanwhile the bear retired to his pedestal and sat down +upon it with a graceful and self-satisfied air. "That bear very much +pleased the Emperor of Austria and the King of Bavaria when they came +here some years ago," said Mr. Hagenbeck, and then he took a beautiful +silver cigar-case out of his pocket, from which he offered me a very +fine weed. This cigar-case, he told me, had been given him on that +memorable occasion by the King of Bavaria himself. + +Then a see-saw was constructed in the middle of the circus, upon one +end of which stood a lion, and upon the other end of which stood a +tiger. A bear standing in the middle preserved the peace between them. +Two leopards stood on guard on either side, and then the bear set the +see-saw in motion by walking alternately from one side to the other. + +Then took place a curious and amusing performance. Four lions and +tigers were arranged in a row at an equal distance from one another. +Some of the German boar-hounds were let loose, and one after another +they gayly started a game of leap-frog with the wild beasts, who +seemed to enjoy it to the full as much as they did. After they had +finished their performance, some enormous double ladders were brought +in. The great Polar bear was persuaded to take his place at the very +top; next to him on either side, on the next rung of the ladder, was a +beautiful boar-hound; then came two royal Bengal tigers, and then a +couple of the finest lions I ever saw. Round about the base of the +pyramid were grouped, in picturesque profusion, lions, tigers, +leopards, and dogs. There they stood perfectly still, and uttering not +a single sound, until, very suddenly, Mr. Mellermann cracked his +whip, when the animals joyfully quitted their strained positions and +retired to their seats. "Ah!" said Mr. Hagenbeck, as he turned to me, +"no living human being can imagine what it means to get those animals +to do that. It makes a man old and sick and nervous before his time. +I'll never do it again after the Chicago Exhibition. Life is too short +for such a strain. I wouldn't take any money for those animals now +that they are trained, although I was offered only the other day +upwards of sixty thousand dollars for them." + +And now came the _piece de resistance_ of the whole affair. A large +Roman chariot was rolled into the circus; two huge tigers were led +forth, and, growling much, they were harnessed to it; and then there +was ushered into the chariot, with no little state, a noble and +stately lion. A robe of royal crimson was fastened round his neck, a +gleaming crown was placed upon his head, the reins were thrown upon +his shoulders, two boar-hounds took their position as footmen in the +rear of the chariot, Mr. Mellermann cracked his whip, and the royal +chariot drawn by the tigers rolled solemnly round the circus. After +this a curious thing occurred. The entertainment was at an end, the +band quitted the building, and the animals were allowed to play about, +all jumbled up together. They seemed perfectly happy, gambolling with +pure pleasure round Mr. Mellermann and his assistants, between whom +and the animals the strongest affection most evidently exists. After +they had played about for a few minutes, the order was given that they +should retire to their cells, which they did by devious ways and +by-paths, the last glimpse I caught of them being that of a tiger +playfully sparring with a tawny African lion. + + + + +JOHN HORSELEIGH, KNYGHT + +BY THOMAS HARDY. + +Illustrated by Mr. Harry C. Edwards. + + +In the earliest and mustiest volume of the Havenpool marriage +registers (said the thin-faced gentleman) this entry may still be read +by anyone curious enough to decipher the crabbed handwriting of the +date. I took a copy of it when I was last there; and it runs thus (he +had opened his pocket-book, and now read aloud the extract; afterwards +handing round the book to us, wherein we saw transcribed the +following): + + Mast^r John Horseleigh, Knyght, of the p'ysshe of Clyffton was + maryd to Edith the wyffe late off John Stocker, m'chawnte of + Havenpool the xiiij daie of December be p'vylegge gevyn by our + sup'me hedd of the chyrche of Ingelonde Kynge Henry the viii^th + 1539. + +Now, if you turn to the long and elaborate pedigree of the ancient +family of the Horseleighs of Clyfton Horseleigh, you will find no +mention whatever of this alliance, notwithstanding the privilege given +by the sovereign and head of the Church; the said Sir John being +therein chronicled as marrying, at a date apparently earlier than the +above, the daughter and heiress of Richard Phelipson of Montislope, in +Nether Wessex, a lady who outlived him, of which marriage there were +issue two daughters and a son, who succeeded him in his estates. How +are we to account for these, as it would seem, contemporaneous wives? +A strange local tradition only can help us, and this can be briefly +told. + + * * * * * + +One evening in the autumn of the year 1540 or 1541, a young sailor, +whose Christian name was Roger, but whose surname is not known, landed +at his native place of Havenpool, on the South Wessex coast, after a +voyage in the Newfoundland trade, then newly sprung into existence. He +returned in the ship "Primrose" with a cargo of "trayne oyle brought +home from the New Founde Lande," to quote from the town records of the +date. During his absence of two summers and a winter, which made up +the term of a Newfoundland "spell," many unlooked-for changes had +occurred within the quiet little seaport, some of which closely +affected Roger the sailor. At the time of his departure his only +sister Edith had become the bride of one Stocker, a respectable +townsman, and part owner of the brig in which Roger had sailed; and it +was to the house of this couple, his only relatives, that the young +man directed his steps. On trying the door in Quay Street he found it +locked, and then observed that the windows were boarded up. Inquiring +of a bystander, he learned for the first time of the death of his +brother-in-law, though that event had taken place nearly eighteen +months before. + +"And my sister Edith?" asked Roger. + +"She's married again--as they do say, and hath been so these twelve +months. I don't vouch for the truth o't, though if she isn't she ought +to be." + +Roger's face grew dark. He was a man with a considerable reserve of +strong passion, and he asked his informant what he meant by speaking +thus. + +The man explained that shortly after the young woman's bereavement a +stranger had come to the port. He had seen her moping on the quay, had +been attracted by her youth and loneliness, and in an extraordinarily +brief wooing had completely fascinated her--had carried her off, and, +as was reported, had married her. Though he had come by water, he was +supposed to live no very great distance off by land. They were last +heard of at Oozewood, in Upper Wessex, at the house of one Wall, a +timber-merchant, where, he believed, she still had a lodging, though +her husband, if he were lawfully that much, was but an occasional +visitor to the place. + +"The stranger?" asked Roger. "Did you see him? What manner of man was +he?" + +"I liked him not," said the other. "He seemed of that kind that hath +something to conceal, and as he walked with her he ever and anon +turned his head and gazed behind him, as if he much feared an +unwelcome pursuer. But, faith," continued he, "it may have been the +man's anxiety only. Yet did I not like him." + +"Was he older than my sister?" Roger asked. + +"Ay, much older; from a dozen to a score of years older. A man of some +position, may be, playing an amorous game for the pleasure of the +hour. Who knoweth but that he have a wife already? Many have done the +thing hereabouts of late." + +Having paid a visit to the graves of his relatives, the sailor next +day went along the straight road which, then a lane, now a highway, +conducted to the curious little inland town named by the Havenpool +man. It is unnecessary to describe Oozewood on the South-Avon. It has +a railway at the present day, but thirty years of steam traffic past +its precincts have hardly modified its original features. Surrounded +by a sort of fresh-water lagoon, dividing it from meadows and coppice, +its ancient thatch and timber houses have barely made way even in the +front street for the ubiquitous modern brick and slate. It neither +increases nor diminishes in size; it is difficult to say what the +inhabitants find to do, for, though trades in wood-ware are still +carried on, there cannot be enough of this class of work now-a-days to +maintain all the house-holders, the forests around having been so +greatly thinned and curtailed. At the time of this tradition the +forests were dense, artificers in wood abounded, and the timber trade +was brisk. Every house in the town, without exception, was of oak +framework, filled in with plaster, and covered with thatch, the +chimney being the only brick portion of the structure. Inquiry soon +brought Roger the sailor to the door of Wall, the timber-dealer +referred to, but it was some time before he was able to gain admission +to the lodging of his sister, the people having plainly received +directions not to welcome strangers. + +She was sitting in an upper room, on one of the lath-backed, +willow-bottomed "shepherd's" chairs, made on the spot then as to this +day, and as they were probably made there in the days of the +Heptarchy. In her lap was an infant, which she had been suckling, +though now it had fallen asleep; so had the young mother herself for a +few minutes, under the drowsing effects of solitude. Hearing footsteps +on the stairs, she awoke, started up with a glad cry, and ran to the +door, opening which she met her brother on the threshold. + +"Oh, this is merry! I didn't expect 'ee!" she said. "Ah, Roger--I +thought it was John." Her tones fell to disappointment. + +The sailor kissed her, looked at her sternly for a few moments, and +pointing to the infant, said: "You mean the father of this?" + +"Yes, my husband," said Edith. + +"I hope so," he answered. + +"Why, Roger, I'm married--of a truth am I!" she cried. + +"Shame upon 'ee, if true! If not true, worse. Master Stocker was an +honest man, and ye should have respected his memory longer. Where is +thy husband?" + +"He comes often. I thought it was he now. Our marriage has to be kept +secret for a while; it was done privily for certain reasons, but we +were married at church like honest folk--afore God we were, Roger--six +months after poor Stocker's death." + +"'Twas too soon," said Roger. + +"I was living in a house alone; I had nowhere to go to. You were far +over sea in the New Found Land, and John took me and brought me +here." + +"How often doth he come?" says Roger again. + +"Once or twice weekly," says she. + +"I wish th' 'dst waited till I returned, dear Edy," he said. "It mid +be you are a wife--I hope so. But, if so, why this mystery? Why this +mean and cramped lodging in this lonely copse-circled town? Of what +standing is your husband, and of where?" + +"He is of gentle breeding; his name is John. I am not free to tell his +family name. He is said to be of London, for safety' sake; but he +really lives in the county next adjoining this." + +"Where in the next county?" + +"I do not know. He has preferred not to tell me, that I may not have +the secret forced from me, to his and my hurt, by bringing the +marriage to the ears of his kinsfolk and friends." + +Her brother's face flushed. "Our people have been honest townsmen, +well-reputed for long; why should you readily take such humbling from +a sojourner of whom th' 'st know nothing?" + +They remained in constrained converse till her quick ear caught a +sound, for which she might have been waiting--a horse's footfall. "It +is John!" said she. "This is his night--Saturday." + +"Don't be frightened lest he should find me here," said Roger. "I am +on the point of leaving. I wish not to be a third party. Say nothing +at all about my visit, if it will incommode you so to do. I will see +thee before I go afloat again." + +Speaking thus he left the room, and descending the staircase let +himself out by the front door, thinking he might obtain a glimpse of +the approaching horseman. But that traveller had in the meantime gone +stealthily round to the back of the homestead, and peering along the +pinion-end of the house Roger discerned him unbridling and haltering +his horse with his own hands in the shed there. + +Roger retired to the neighboring inn called the Black Lamb, and +meditated. This mysterious method of approach determined him, after +all, not to leave the place till he had ascertained more definite +facts of his sister's position--whether she were the deluded victim of +the stranger or the wife she obviously believed herself to be. Having +eaten some supper, he left the inn, it being now about eleven o'clock. +He first looked into the shed, and, finding the horse still standing +there, waited irresolutely near the door of his sister's lodging. Half +an hour elapsed, and, while thinking he would climb into a loft hard +by for a night's rest, there seemed to be a movement within the +shutters of the sitting-room that his sister occupied. Roger hid +himself behind a fagot-stack near the back door, rightly divining that +his sister's visitor would emerge by the way he had entered. The door +opened, and the candle she held in her hand lighted for a moment the +stranger's form, showing it to be that of a tall and handsome +personage, about forty years of age, and apparently of a superior +position in life. Edith was assisting him to cloak himself, which +being done he took leave of her with a kiss and left the house. From +the door she watched him bridle and saddle his horse, and having +mounted and waved an adieu to her as she stood, candle in hand, he +turned out of the yard and rode away. + +The horse which bore him was, or seemed to be, a little lame, and +Roger fancied from this that the rider's journey was not likely to be +a long one. Being light of foot he followed apace, having no great +difficulty on such a still night in keeping within earshot some few +miles, the horseman pausing more than once. In this pursuit Roger +discovered the rider to choose bridle-tracks and open commons in +preference to any high road. The distance soon began to prove a more +trying one than he had bargained for; and when out of breath and in +some despair of being able to ascertain the man's identity, he +perceived an ass standing in the star-light under a hayrick, from +which the animal was helping itself to periodic mouthfuls. + +The story goes that Roger caught the ass, mounted, and again resumed +the trail of the unconscious horseman, which feat may have been +possible to a nautical young fellow, though one can hardly understand +how a sailor would ride such an animal without bridle or saddle, +and strange to his hands, unless the creature was extraordinarily +docile. This question, however, is immaterial. Suffice it to say, +that at dawn the following morning Roger beheld his sister's lover or +husband entering the gates of a large and well-timbered park on the +south-western verge of the White Hart Forest (as it was then +called), now known to everybody as the Vale of Blackmoor. Thereupon +the sailor discarded his steed, and finding for himself an obscurer +entrance to the same park a little farther on, he crossed the grass +to reconnoitre. + +He presently perceived amid the trees before him a mansion which, new +to himself, was one of the best known in the county at that time. Of +this fine manorial residence hardly a trace now remains; but a +manuscript, dated some years later than the events we are regarding, +describes it in terms from which the imagination may construct a +singularly clear and vivid picture. This record presents it as +consisting of "a faire yellow freestone building, partly two and +partly three storeys; a faire halle and parlour, both waynscotted; a +faire dyning roome and withdrawing roome, and many good lodgings; a +kitchen adjoyninge backwarde to one end of the dwelling-house, with a +faire passage from it into the halle, parlour, and dyninge roome, and +sellars adjoyninge. + +"In the front of the house a square greene court, and a curious +gatehouse with lodgings in it, standing with the front of the house to +the south; in a large outer court three stables, a coach-house, a +large barne, and a stable for oxen and kyne, and all houses +necessary. + +"Without the gatehouse, paled in, a large square greene, in which +standeth a faire chappell; of the south-east side of the greene court, +towards the river, a large garden. + +"Of the south-west side of the greene court is a large bowling greene, +with fower mounted walks about it, all walled about with a batteled +wall, and sett with all sorts of fruit; and out of it into the feildes +there are large walks under many tall elmes orderly planted." + +Then follows a description of the orchards and gardens; the servants' +offices, brewhouse, bakehouse, dairy, pigeon-houses, and corn-mill; +the river and its abundance of fish; the warren, the coppices, the +walks; ending thus-- + +"And all the country north of the house, open champaign, sandy +feildes, very dry and pleasant for all kindes of recreation, huntinge, +and hawkinge, and profitable for tillage.... The house hath a large +prospect east, south, and west, over a very large and pleasant vale +... is seated from the good markett towns of Sherton Abbas three +miles, and Ivel a mile, that plentifully yield all manner of +provision; and within twelve miles of the south sea." + +It was on the grass before this seductive and picturesque structure +that the sailor stood at gaze under the elms in the dim dawn of Sunday +morning, and saw to his surprise his sister's lover and horse vanish +within the court of the building. + +Perplexed and weary, Roger slowly retreated, more than ever convinced +that something was wrong in his sister's position. He crossed the +bowling green to the avenue of elms, and, bent on further research, +was about to climb into one of these, when, looking below, he saw a +hole large enough to allow a man to creep to the hollow interior. Here +Roger ensconced himself, and having eaten a crust of bread which he +had hastily thrust into his pocket at the inn, he fell asleep upon the +stratum of broken touchwood that formed the floor of the hollow. + +He slept soundly and long, and was awakened by the sound of a bell. On +peering from the hole he found the time had advanced to full day; the +sun was shining brightly. The bell was that of the "faire chappell" +on the green outside the gatehouse, and it was calling to matins. +Presently the priest crossed the green to a little side-door in the +chancel, and then from the gateway of the mansion emerged the +household, the tall man whom Roger had seen with his sister on the +previous night, on his arm being a portly dame, and, running beside +the pair, two little girls and a boy. These all entered the chapel, +and the bell having ceased and the environs become clear, the sailor +crept out from his hiding. + +He sauntered towards the chapel, the opening words of the service +being audible within. While standing by the porch he saw a belated +servitor approaching from the kitchen-court to attend the service +also. Roger carelessly accosted him, and asked, as an idle wanderer, +the name of the family he had just seen cross over from the mansion. + +"Od zounds! if ye modden be a stranger here in very truth, goodman. +That war Sir John and his dame, and his children Elizabeth, Mary, and +John." + +"I be from foreign parts. Sir John what d'ye call'n?" + +"Master John Horseleigh, Knight, who had a'most as much lond by +inheritance of his mother as a had by his father, and likewise some by +his wife. Why, baint his arms dree goolden horses' heads, and idden +his lady the daughter of Master Richard Phelipson of Montislope, in +Nether Wessex, known to us all?" + +"It mid be so, and yet it mid not. However, th' 'lt miss thy prayers +for such an honest knight's welfare, and I have to traipse seaward +many miles." + +He went onward, and, as he walked, continued saying to himself, "Now +to that poor wronged fool Edy. The fond thing! I thought it; 'twas too +quick--she was ever amorous. What's to become of her? God wot! How be +I going to face her with the news, and how be I to hold it from her? +To bring this disgrace on my father's honored name, a double-tongued +knave!" He turned and shook his fist at the chapel and all in it, and +resumed his way. + +Perhaps it was owing to the perplexity of his mind that, instead of +returning by the direct road towards his sister's obscure lodging in +the next county, he followed the highway to Casterbridge, some fifteen +miles off, where he remained drinking hard all that afternoon and +evening, and where he lay that and two or three succeeding nights, +wandering thence along the Anglebury road to some village that way, +and lying the Friday night after at his native place of Havenpool. The +sight of the familiar objects there seems to have stirred him anew to +action, and the next morning he was observed pursuing the way to +Oozewood that he had followed on the Saturday previous, reckoning, no +doubt, that Saturday night would, as before, be a time for finding Sir +John with his sister again. + +He delayed to reach the place till just before sunset. His sister was +walking in the meadows at the foot of the garden, with a nursemaid who +carried the baby, and she looked up pensively when he approached. +Anxiety as to her position had already told upon her once rosy cheeks +and lucid eyes. But concern for herself and child was displaced for +the moment by her regard of Roger's worn and haggard face. + +"Why, you are sick, Roger! You are tired! Where have you been these +many days? Why not keep me company a bit? My husband is much away. And +we have hardly spoke at all of dear father and of your voyage to the +New Land. Why did you go away so suddenly? There is a spare chamber at +my lodging." + +"Come indoors," he said. "We'll talk now--talk a good deal. As for him +(nodding to the child), better heave him into the river; better for +him and you!" + +She forced a laugh, as if she tried to see a good joke in the remark, +and they went silently indoors. + +"A miserable hole!" said Roger, looking around the room. + +"Nay, but 'tis very pretty!" + +"Not after what I've seen. Did he marry 'ee at church in orderly +fashion?" + +"He did sure--at our church at Havenpool." + +"But in a privy way?" + +"Ay, because of his friends--it was at night time." + +"Ede, ye fond one, for all that he's not thy husband! Th' 'rt not his +wife, and the child is a bastard. He hath a wife and children of his +own rank, and bearing his name; and that's Sir John Horseleigh of +Clyfton Horseleigh, and not plain Jack, as you think him, and your +lawful husband. The sacrament of marriage is no safeguard now-a-days. +The king's new-made headship of the Church hath led men to practise +these tricks lightly." + +She had turned white. "That's not true, Roger!" she said. "You are in +liquor, my brother, and you know not what you say. Your seafaring +years have taught 'ee bad things." + +"Edith--I've seen them; wife and family--all. How canst----" + +They were sitting in the gathered darkness, and at that moment steps +were heard without. "Go out this way," she said. "It is my husband. He +must not see thee in this mood. Get away till to-morrow, Roger, as you +care for me." + +She pushed her brother through a door leading to the back stairs, and +almost as soon as it was closed her visitor entered. Roger, however, +did not retreat down the stairs; he stood and looked through the +bobbin-hole. If the visitor turned out to be Sir John, he had +determined to confront him. + +It was the knight. She had struck a light on his entry, and he kissed +the child, and took Edith tenderly by the shoulders, looking into her +face. + +"Something's gone awry wi' my dear," he said. "What is it? What's the +matter?" + +"Oh, Jack!" she cried. "I have heard such a fearsome rumor--what doth +it mean? He who told me is my best friend. He must be deceived! But +who deceived him, and why? Jack, I was just told that you had a wife +living when you married me, and have her still!" + +"A wife? H'm." + +"Yes, and children. Say no, say no!" + +"My God! I have no lawful wife but you; and as for children, many or +few, they are all bastards, save this one alone!" + +"And that you be Sir John Horseleigh of Clyfton?" + +"I mid be. I have never said so to 'ee." + +"But Sir John is known to have a lady, and issue of her!" + +The knight looked down. "How did thy mind get filled with such as +this?" he asked. + +"One of my kindred came." + +"A traitor! Why should he mar our life? Ah! you said you had a brother +at sea--where is he now?" + +"_Here!_" said a stern voice behind him. And, flinging open the door, +Roger faced the intruder. "Liar," he said, "to call thyself her +husband!" + +Sir John fired up, and made a rush at the sailor, who seized him by +the collar, and in the wrestle they both fell, Roger under. But in a +few seconds he contrived to extricate his right arm, and drawing from +his belt a knife which he wore attached to a cord round his neck, he +opened it with his teeth, and struck it into the breast of Sir John +stretched above him. Edith had during these moments run into the next +room to place the child in safety, and when she came back the knight +was relaxing his hold on Roger's throat. He rolled over upon his back +and groaned. + +The only witness of the scene, save the three concerned, was the +nursemaid, who had brought in the child on its father's arrival. She +stated afterwards that nobody suspected Sir John had received his +death wound; yet it was so, though he did not die for a long while, +meaning thereby an hour or two; that Mistress Edith continually +endeavored to staunch the blood, calling her brother Roger a wretch, +and ordering him to get himself gone; on which order he acted, after a +gloomy pause, by opening the window, and letting himself down by the +sill to the ground. + +It was then that Sir John, in difficult accents, made his dying +declaration to the nurse and Edith, and, later, the apothecary, which +was to this purport: that the Dame Horseleigh who passed as his wife +at Clyfton, and who had borne him three children, was in truth and +deed, though unconsciously, the wife of another man. Sir John had +married her several years before, in the face of the whole county, as +the widow of one Decimus Strong, who had disappeared shortly after her +union with him, having adventured to the North to join the revolt of +the Nobles, and on that revolt being quelled retreated across the sea. +Two years ago, having discovered the man to be still living in France, +and not wishing to disturb the mind and happiness of her who believed +herself his wife, yet wishing for legitimate issue, Sir John had +informed the king of the facts, who had encouraged him to wed +honestly, though secretly, the young merchant's widow at Havenpool; +she being, therefore, his lawful wife, and she only. That to avoid all +scandal and hubbub he had purposed to let things remain as they were +till fair opportunity should arise of making the true case known with +least pain to all parties concerned; but that, having been thus +suspected and attacked by his own brother-in-law, his zest for such +schemes and for all things had died out in him, and he only wished to +commend his soul to God. + +That night, while the owls were hooting from the forest that encircled +the sleeping townlet, and the South-Avon was gurgling through the +wooden piles of the bridge, Sir John died there in the arms of his +wife. She concealed nothing of the cause of her husband's death save +the subject of the quarrel, which she felt it would be premature to +announce just then, and until proof of her status should be +forthcoming. But before a month had passed, it happened, to her +inexpressible sorrow, that the child of this clandestine union fell +sick and died. From that hour all interest in the name and fame of the +Horseleighs forsook the younger of the twain who called themselves +wives of Sir John, and, being careless about her own fame, she took no +steps to assert her claims, her legal position having, indeed, grown +hateful to her in her horror at the tragedy. And Sir William Byrt, the +curate who had married her to her husband, being an old man and +feeble, was not disinclined to leave the embers unstirred of such a +fiery matter as this, and to assist her in letting established things +stand. Therefore, Edith retired with the nurse, her only companion +and friend, to her native town, where she lived in absolute obscurity +till her death at no great age. Her brother was never seen again in +England. + +A strangely corroborative sequel to the story remains to be told. +Shortly after the death of Sir John Horseleigh, a soldier of fortune +returned from the Continent, called on Dame Horseleigh the fictitious, +living in widowed state at Clyfton Horseleigh, and, after a singularly +brief courtship, married her. The tradition at Havenpool and elsewhere +has ever been that this man was already her husband, Decimus Strong, +who re-married her for appearance's sake only. + +The illegitimate son of this lady by Sir John succeeded to the estates +and honors, and his son after him, there being nobody alert to +investigate their pretensions. Little difference would it have made to +the present generation, however, had there been such a one, for the +family in all its branches, lawful and unlawful, has been extinct +these many score years, the last representative but one being killed +at the siege of Sherton Castle, while attacking in the service of the +Parliament, and the other being outlawed later in the same century for +a debt of ten pounds, and dying in the county jail. The mansion house +and its appurtenances were, as I have previously stated, destroyed, +excepting one small wing which now forms part of a farmhouse, and is +visible as you pass along the railway from Casterbridge to Ivel. The +outline of the old bowling-green is also distinctly to be seen. + +This, then, is the reason why the only lawful marriage of Sir John, as +recorded in the obscure register at Havenpool, does not appear in the +pedigree of the house of Horseleigh. + +[Illustration: Ye Ende.] + + + + +[_"THE EDGE OF THE FUTURE" SERIES._] + +THE RACE TO THE NORTH POLE. + +THE EXPEDITIONS OF NANSEN AND JACKSON. + +BY HUGH ROBERT MILL, D.SC., Author of "The Realm of Nature." + + +INTRODUCTION. + +Arctic enthusiasm is an intermittent fever, returning in almost +epidemic form after intervals of normal indifference. Twelve years ago +there was a wide-spread outbreak, but for the last ten years the +symptoms have never been so severe as to result in a great expedition. +If all goes well this summer there will be a renewed paroxysm; no less +than three new ventures northward being sent out by different routes +to converge on the pole. + +It is refreshing, in this prosaic time, to recognize the power of pure +sentiment in the quest for glory. Polar research is a survival, or +rather an evolution, of knight-errantry, and our Childe Rolands +challenge the "Dark Tower of the North" as dauntlessly as ever their +forbears wound slug-horn at gate of enchanted castle. The "woe of +years" invests the quest with elements which redeem failure from +disgrace; but whoever succeeds in overcoming the difficulties that +have baffled all the "lost adventurers" will make the world ring with +his fame as it never rang before. We commonplace human beings are as +quick to see and prompt to appreciate heroic daring, perseverance, and +valor as ever were the dames of mythic Camelot; and the race for the +pole will be watched by the world with generous sympathy. + +Incidentally the fresh Arctic journeys must secure much scientific +information, but that aspect of them appeals to the few. It is as a +display of the grandest powers of man in conflict with the tyranny of +his surroundings that Arctic travel appeals directly to the heart. +Since McClure, in 1850, forced the north-west passage from Bering +Strait to Baffin Bay, and Nordenskjold, in 1878, squeezed the "Vega" +through, between ice and land, from the North Cape to the Pacific, the +futility of the golden dreams of the greedy old merchants who tried to +reach the wealth of the Orient by short cuts through the ice has been +demonstrated. Although no money is likely to be made out of the +Arctic, we want information thence which it is almost impossible to +get; and the almost impossible is dear to every valiant heart. + +We know a good deal about the state of matters near the poles, but yet +not enough to let us understand all the phenomena of our own lands. In +this respect, however, the South Pole is the most promising field, for +its surroundings probably conceal the mainspring of the great system +of winds which do the work of the air on every land and sea. Dr. +Nansen has promised to go there after returning from the North, and +solving its simpler problems. The chilly distinction of being the +coldest part of the earth is probably due to the northern parts of +Eastern Siberia, and not to the North Pole. The "magnetic pole," where +the needle hangs vertically, has been found in the Arctic archipelago +north of America, and in many ways scientific observations there are +worth more than at the North Pole itself. + +We know that, if attained, the North Pole would probably be like +any other part of the Arctic regions, presenting a landscape of ice +and snow, perhaps with black rock showing here and there, containing +fossils of a former age of heat, perhaps broken by pools or lanes of +open water. The pole has no physical mark any more than the top of a +spinning coin has, and the pole is not even a fixed point; like +the end of the axis of the spinning coin, it moves a little to and +fro on the circumference. If the geographical point were reached, the +pole-star would be seen shining almost vertically overhead, +describing a tiny circle around the actual zenith; and all the +other stars of the northern half of the sky would appear slowly +wheeling in horizontal circles, never rising, never setting, and each +completing its circuit in the space of twenty-three hours and +fifty-six minutes. In summer the sun would appear similarly, never +far above the horizon, but circling for more than half the year in a +spiral, winding upward until about 25 deg. above the horizon, and winding +downward again until lost to view. The periods of daylight and +darkness at the poles do not last exactly six months each, as little +geography books are prone to assert. Such little books ignore the +atmosphere for the sake of simplicity, but the air-shell that +shuts in our globe bends the rays of light, so that the sun appears +before his theoretical rising, and remains in sight after his +theoretical setting. At the pole, in fact, the single "half-yearly +day" is a week longer than the one "half-yearly night." + +At the North Pole there is only one direction--south. One could go +south in as many ways as there are points on the compass card, but +every one of these ways is south; east and west have vanished. The +hour of the day at the pole is a paradoxical conception, for that +point is the meeting place of every meridian, and the time of all +holds good, so that it is always any hour one cares to mention. +Unpunctuality is hence impossible--but the question grows complex, and +its practical solution concerns few. + +No one needs to go to the pole to discover all that makes that +point different from any other point of the surface. But the whole +polar regions are full of unknown things, which every Arctic +explorer of the right stamp looks forward to finding. And the reward +he looks forward to most is the approval of the few who understand and +love knowledge for its own sake, rather than the noisy applause of +the crowd who would cheer him, after all, much as they cheer a +winning prize-fighter, or race-horse, or political candidate. + +The difficulties that make the quest of the pole so arduous have been +discovered by slow degrees. It is marvellous how soon nearly the full +limits of northward attainment were reached. In 1596 Barents +discovered Spitzbergen in about 78 deg. north; in 1770 Hudson reached +80 deg.; in 1827 Parry, by sledging on the ice when his ship became fast, +succeeded in touching 82 deg. 45'. Since then all the enormous resources +of modern science--steam, electricity, preserved foods and the +experience of centuries--have only enabled forty miles of additional +poleward advance to be made. + +The accompanying map gives a fair idea of the form of the Arctic +regions, and remembering that the circle marked 80 deg. is distant seven +hundred miles from the pole, the reader can realize the distances +involved. The Arctic Basin, occupied by the Arctic Sea, is ringed in +by land; the northern coasts of America, Europe, and Asia, forming a +roughly circular boundary broken by three well-marked channels +communicating with the ocean. Bering Strait between America and Asia +is the narrowest, Baffin Bay between America and Greenland is wider, +branching into a number of ice-blocked sounds to the westward, and +tapering off into Smith Sound in the north-east. The widest channel +of the three lies between Greenland and Europe, and this is bisected +just south of 80 deg. North by the island group of Spitzbergen. + +The whole region is one of severe cold, and the sea is frozen for +the greater part of the year, land and water becoming almost +indistinguishable, but for the incessant movement and drift of the +sea-ice. In summer the sea-ice breaks up into floes which may drift +away southward and melt, or be driven by the wind against the +shores of continents or islands, leaving lanes of open water which +a shift of wind may change and close in an hour. Icebergs launched +from the glaciers of the land also drift with tide, current, and +wind through the more or less open water. Possibly at some times the +pack may open and a clear waterway run through to the pole, and old +whalers tell of many a year when they believed that a few days' +steaming would carry them to the end of the world, if they could have +seized the opportunity. At other times, routes traversed in safety +time after time may be effectively closed for years, and all advance +barred. Food in the form of seals or walrus in the open water, +reindeer, musk ox, polar bears or birds on the land, may often be +procured, but these sources cannot be relied upon. Advance northward +may be made by water in a ship, or by dog-sledge, or on foot, over +the frozen snow or ice. Each method has grave drawbacks. Advance by +sea is stopped when the young ice forms in autumn, and land advance +is hampered by the long Arctic night which enforces months of +inaction, more trying to health and spirits than the severest +exertion. + +Smith Sound has been the channel by which most recent Arctic explorers +have pushed north. Thus Markham reached latitude 83 deg. 20' North, in +1876, and in 1882 Lockwood got four miles farther north, coming nearer +the pole than any other man. From his farthest point an express train +could cover the intervening distance in ten hours, but the best ice +traveller would require months, even if the way were smooth. This +route has been by common consent abandoned, at least for advance by +water. No high latitude has been reached from Bering Strait nor along +the east coast of Greenland. For ships the most open way to the north +lies to the west of Spitzbergen, as Parry found two generations ago. +Neither of the two projected expeditions from Europe is, however, +intended to take this route. Mr. Jackson means to advance over the ice +in sledges, trusting that Franz-Josef Land stretches northward to the +immediate neighborhood of the pole. Doctor Nansen also founds his plan +on a theory, but his is so novel, and involves a plan of action so +different from all previously attempted, that it must be considered in +detail. + + +NANSEN AND HIS PLANS. + +Fridtjof Nansen, who planned and will lead the Norwegian expedition +starting in June, is a naturalist, thirty-two years of age. He is +singularly adapted physically for deeds of daring and endurance, +perfectly equipped intellectually for command and research. His +lithe, erect figure testifies to athletic training, while his +expansive forehead and firm chin equally betoken thoughtfulness and +determination. He is a typical Norseman, fair in complexion and +hair, simple and rather reserved in manner, and modest almost to a +fault. No one can see him without becoming his friend. He speaks +English fluently, and a quiet, half-repressed humor lights up his +conversation. Never overstepping the truth, he does not seem to +feel the temptation of spinning imaginative yarns so over-powering +for the undisciplined traveller. He knows his own strength, and +measuring himself against the difficulties he proposes to meet, he +feels confident of victory, and inspires others with his own faith. +There is no turning back when once his mind is fully made up. + +Nansen's whole life has been a training for the exploit he now engages +in. After graduating at the University of Christiania, he was +appointed curator of the Museum at Bergen, and carried out several +important biological researches, of which that on the anatomy of +whales is perhaps the best known. He was a diligent student of the +great Norwegian naturalist Sars, and on his return from Greenland he +entered into a closer relation by marrying the professor's daughter. +Mrs. Nansen is said to be the most accomplished lady ski-runner in +Norway, as her husband is the champion of his sex; their portraits in +the costume of this national sport are extremely characteristic. She +had originally planned to accompany Doctor Nansen on the Arctic +voyage, but has reluctantly relinquished the intention. She stays +behind with her little girl only a few months old. For the last three +years Doctor Nansen has devoted himself entirely to the study of +various branches of science likely to be of service to him in the +accomplishment of his great ambition, and in organizing every detail +of his expedition. + +The chief circumstance in which Nansen differs from all his +predecessors is, that he prepares no line of retreat. To the common +question, "But how are you to come back?" his reply in word and deed +has always been, "I will never come back. I shall go through to the +other side." Thus, in crossing Greenland in 1888, he started from the +uninhabited east coast, so that he and his companions had to go +forward--retreat meant destruction. Such determination is only +redeemed from obstinacy by the forethought which inspires it. Before +setting out to cross Greenland, Nansen crossed the mountains of Norway +from Bergen to Christiania in winter, thus proving his mastery of the +ski or Norwegian snow-shoes, and testing his power of withstanding +cold and fatigue. Just as the crossing of the Norwegian mountains +proved his competence for the splendid feat of crossing Greenland, +that journey by its success establishes his ability for enduring the +severest privations which his new expedition may be called upon to +undergo. + +[Illustration: FRIDTJOF NANSEN.] + +A careful study of all the known phenomena of the Arctic Basin, and +the records of all the exploring, whaling, and sealing voyages in +these waters which were accessible, impressed two facts upon him--one, +that the currents of the Polar Basin were more regular and more +powerful agents than had been previously supposed; the other, that the +failure of the great expeditions to the north was in most cases due to +the great number of men carried, and the labor involved in keeping +open a line of retreat. The moral of this is simple enough: to sail as +far as possible with the currents, to take as few men as possible, and +these in thorough training for Arctic work, and to make no provision +for retreat. For the valor and heroic efforts of the earlier Arctic +explorers there can never be anything but praise; those men fought +against the most terrific odds, and stood their ground without +flinching, and their opinion on all matters connected with Arctic +travel carries the utmost weight. Nansen breaks away from all +tradition; he goes right against every cherished principle of all the +older Arctic men. He will secure no line of retreat, he will carry +only eleven men with him, every one of whom is inured to hardship and +expert in ice-travel. He is bound by no orders, but has perfect +freedom to alter his plans should circumstances seem to demand it. His +plan is to drift with the currents, and the evidence for the currents +moving in the direction he wishes to go is as follows: + +The great drift of polar water southward along the east coasts of +Labrador and of Greenland has been known from the beginning of +Atlantic navigation, and the icebergs and floes carried along are +serious obstacles to the shipping of the North Atlantic. It is +estimated that between Greenland and Spitzbergen about eighty or +ninety cubic miles of water pour southward every day. The current, +like that down Smith Sound, flows from the north, but the water cannot +originate there. There is a very slight northward extension of the +Gulf Stream drift along the west coasts of Spitzbergen and Greenland, +but the main drift of North Atlantic water from the southward sets +round the North Cape of Norway, keeping the sea free from ice all the +year round. It is felt in the Kara Sea, and as a north-easterly stream +along the coast of Novaya Zemlya. It is difficult to estimate the +volume of this drift, but from certain observations made by the +Norwegian Government it seems to be about sixty cubic miles per day. +There is a current running on the whole northward from the Pacific +through Bering Strait with a volume of perhaps fifteen cubic miles a +day, and in addition there is the volume of perhaps two cubic miles +daily poured out during summer by the great American and Siberian +rivers. This water is fresh and warm, and accumulating near shore in +autumn it gives rise to the ice-free border which let the "Vega" slip +round the north of Asia. Even where the sea is covered with floating +ice, there are perceptible currents, and the ice-pack is never at +rest. + +Since the vast body of water north of 80 deg. between Franz-Josef Land +and Greenland is streaming from the north, and since it must be derived +somehow from water which comes from the south, it is evident that +north-flowing currents of considerable power must exist in the Arctic +Basin. Parry in his splendid voyage of 1827 spent months in sledging +northward on a vast ice-floe which all the while was drifting south +faster than the dogs could drag the sledges northward. + +This polar current is the exit by which Doctor Nansen intends to +leave the Polar Basin. It is a current which strews the coast of +Greenland with Siberian and North American driftwood, all coming +from the north, perhaps across the pole itself. Mud containing +microscopic shells which only occur in Siberia has been collected +on some of these southward-bound ice-floes. On one occasion a +throwing-stick of a form used exclusively by the Eskimo of Alaska to +cast their harpoons was picked up on the west coast of Greenland, +having obviously been drifted round Cape Farewell, as the boats of +many a whaler shipwrecked in the polar current have been drifted +before. But perhaps the most interesting argument is that derived +from the drift of the "Jeannette." The "Jeannette" (once a British +gunboat, and afterward employed as the "Pandora" in attempting to +repeat the north-west passage) was sent out by the proprietor of the +"New York Herald," under the command of De Long, to push north to the +pole, through Bering Strait, in 1879. In September of that year she +got fast in the ice, and drifted on the whole north-westward for +nearly two years. At last she was crushed in the ice on June 13, +1881, to the north of the New Siberian Islands. The drift of the +"Jeannette" was becoming faster as she got farther west; indeed, it +was possibly the more rapid movement of the current that set the +floes in motion and led to the crushing of the vessel. Three years +after she sank, an ice-floe was found on the south coast of +Greenland at Julianehaab, on which were a number of articles, +including documents relating to the stores and boats of the +"Jeannette," bearing De Long's signature. The relics had a romantic +history, and have given rise to controversy; but before their +authenticity had been seriously questioned they were sacrificed to +the sense of order of a Copenhagen housewife. Nansen is certain that +the relics did come from the "Jeannette," and he believes they were +drifted like the wood and Siberian mud upon an ice-raft across the +pole or in its immediate vicinity. + +His resolve was made accordingly "to take a ticket with the ice," as +he phrases it, and so drift across. The point where it would be best +to join the current, Nansen decided to be off the New Siberian +Islands, although Captain Wiggins recommends the most northerly point +of continental land, Cape Chelyuskin, as a more likely starting place. +At first Nansen proposed to follow the "Jeannette" through Bering Sea, +but he has now decided to take the nearer route round the North Cape, +through the Kara Sea, and along the coast of Asia, as the "Vega" went, +striking northward off the Lena Delta. It will require extremely +skilful navigation even to reach the starting point, and it may even +be impossible to do so in one year, but, having reached and run into +the ice, another question comes to the front. The vessel in which the +drift of several years is to be made must not share the fate of the +"Jeannette," if human ingenuity can avoid it. And ingenuity has been +taxed to produce a ship of the most perfect kind. + +Nansen's little vessel, launched at Laurvik last October, suits his +venture and himself as well as the famous "long serpents" of his +ancestors suited them and their voyages of conquest and discovery a +thousand years ago. She is built of wood, but is of a strength never +hitherto aimed at. The frame timbers, Nansen modestly says, "may be +said to be well-seasoned," for though cut from the gnarled oaks of +Italy they have been stored in a Norwegian dockyard during the whole +lifetime of the explorer. These timbers--the ribs of the ship--are a +foot thick, and are placed only two inches apart, the intervening +spaces being filled with a special composition, so that even the +skeleton of the ship would be water-tight should the planks be +stripped off. Inside, the walls are lined with pitch-pine planks +alternately four inches and eight inches thick, with cross-beams and +supports to resist pressure in every direction, as shown in the +accompanying section. Outside, there is a three-inch skin of oak, +carefully calked and made water-tight, then covered by another skin of +oak four inches thick, which in turn is encased in a still thicker +layer of the hard and slippery greenheart. Bow and stern are heavily +plated with iron to cut through thin ice. Finally, to render her fit +for living in during the coldest weather, the water-tight compartment +set apart for this purpose (one of three) is lined, walls and ceiling, +with layers of non-conducting material. Tarred canvas, cork, wood, +several inches of felt enclosed by painted canvas, and finally a +wooden wainscot, promise to effectually keep out the cold. In the +roof, a layer of two inches of reindeer's hair has also been +introduced. + +The form of the vessel is as original as her material. She measures +one hundred and twenty-eight feet in extreme length, thirty-six in +beam, and is seventeen feet deep. With a full cargo she will draw +fifteen feet, and have a freeboard of little more than three feet. She +is pointed fore and aft, the stern being so formed that the propeller +and rudder are deeply immersed to escape floating ice, and both these +vital fittings are placed in wells, through which they may be brought +on board in case of need, or readily replaced if damaged. The hull is +rounded so that even the keel does not project materially. The form is +designed so that when the ice begins to press, it will not crush but +lift the ship, as one might lift an egg from a table by sliding two +hands under it. Her rig, as shown in the illustration, is simply that +of a three-masted fore and aft schooner, with a very tall mainmast, +designed to carry the crow's nest for the look-out. This will stand +one hundred and five feet above the water, thus affording the wide +view indispensable in ice navigation. A captive balloon would have +been used as well, but the necessary fittings were too heavy to carry. +The engine is not of great power, as no particular reason exists for +high speed, and with a coal capacity of only three hundred tons +economy of fuel is of the first importance. + +The ship is prophetically named the "Fram," or "Forward," and for her +the viking explorer is determined there will be no turning back. + +It is possible that in spite of all precautions the "Fram" may be +nipped in the ice-floe which will carry her along, or stranded on some +unknown northern land. This contingency is provided for by two large +decked boats, twenty-nine feet long, either of which could accommodate +the whole crew. These would be placed on the ice to serve as houses, +and in the end could be used for the return voyage. Many smaller boats +are carried, and light sledges with dog teams, in case it becomes +necessary to travel over the ice. The invaluable "ski" would of course +be used in such an emergency, and plenty of tarred canvas would be +carried, by means of which the sledges could be converted into boats. +Provisions for five years, at least, are stowed away on board; also +books for study and recreation, and a complete equipment of scientific +instruments for observations and collecting of every kind. The ship +carries no alcoholic drink; alcohol is taken only as a fuel for use +when the coal runs out, or if the ship has to be left. Nansen does not +smoke, and very likely he may regulate the smoking of his followers, +for his views on hygiene are clear, and his determination to enforce +them strong. The eleven men chosen for the enterprise have the fullest +faith in their leader, and that respect for his splendid qualities as +a man which is essential to good order being maintained. For in the +hardships of Arctic travel there is no sentimental deference to a +leader unless he is the best man of the party, and Arctic hardships +quickly reduce things and men to their real worth. Nansen and his crew +will prove, we are confident, as firmly knit together as the timbers +of the "Fram" herself. Captain Sverdrup, who accompanied him across +Greenland, goes as navigating officer of the "Fram." + +Perhaps the most original of the many original fittings of this little +polar cruiser is the dynamo which will for the first time in the +history of exploration supply abundant light during the whole Arctic +night. When there is wind a windmill will work it; but in the calm +weather the men, in watches, will take their necessary exercise in +tramping round a capstan to the strains of a musical box of long +Arctic experience--it was in the "Jeannette,"--and thus at least eight +hours of perfect light will be secured every day. + +Everything that foresight can suggest and money can buy has been +secured to make the voyage a success; but even in the most sanguine +mind the risk must appear great, and the time of suspense will be +long. The drift across the polar area cannot occupy less than two +years, and provisions are carried for five. But we need not dwell on +dangers; the personality of Nansen rises above them all--the motto he +carries with him in a little volume of condensed poetry, as powerful +meat for the soul as any of his cunningly concocted extracts are for +the body, is the wish of all his friends-- + + "Greet the Unseen with a cheer, + Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be, + 'Strive and thrive!' cry 'Speed--fight on, fare ever + There as here!'" + +The Norwegian expedition goes out under the command of a hero full of +experience, ripe in knowledge, certain to do all that a strong and +trained man can accomplish, backed by large grants of money from his +own government, and smaller gifts from people and societies in many +lands. + + +JACKSON'S EXPEDITION. + +The British expedition which has been projected is not a national +effort. It is purely private, planned and equipped by private +enterprise and private money, in order to follow up the line in which +private exertions have already done more for polar exploration than +many government expeditions have achieved. Its leader, Mr. Frederick +G. Jackson, is a business man, possessed of leisure and sufficient +means, and experienced in travel in all parts of the world. Of the +same age as Doctor Nansen, and, like him, married, he is as typical an +Englishman as the latter is a Norseman. Pluck and "go" are his in very +large measure; experience in serious ice-work he cannot lay claim to, +but he knows more about the Arctic regions than many famous explorers +did on their first setting out. Mr. Jackson has made a summer cruise +to the far north, and, under the tuition of a canny Peterhead whaler, +he has picked up many wrinkles which will help him in time of need. He +is a keen sportsman rather than a man of science, but his ten +companions will be chosen for their ability to make all necessary +scientific observations and collections. If his plans fall out as he +hopes, Jackson will be the most eager in the race to the pole, and it +will not be his fault if the Union Jack is not the first flag planted +on that much coveted site. He intends to leave England about the +middle of July, or perhaps as late as the beginning of August. + +His plan of attack is that which is most approved by the Arctic +admirals of the British navy. It is to approach by Franz-Josef Land, +which may in favorable years be comparatively easily reached. On +landing, a depot will be formed and stores laid up as a base for +retreat; and then, by sledging northward along the land-ice, the coast +would be delineated and mapped as far as it extends, other depots +established, and if the surface proves suitable, and if Franz-Josef +Land proves, as is probable, not to have a great northerly extent, an +advance may be made on the sea-ice, carrying boats for crossing open +water. + +It seems very probable that in this way the highest latitudes of +earlier explorers may be passed, and in Franz-Josef Land life is more +tolerable than in perhaps any other place at the same latitude. Mr. +Leigh Smith, the most successful Arctic yachtsman, spent the winter of +1881-82 in a hut built on an island in the south of Franz-Josef Land, +after his ship was wrecked, and without winter clothing, and he found +bears and walrus plentiful enough to keep himself and his party +supplied with fresh meat. The country however is very desolate, in +spite of its comparatively genial conditions. Mr. Jackson intends to +hire or purchase a steam whaler to convey him to Franz-Josef Land, and +for navigation he has secured the services of Mr. Crowther, Leigh +Smith's ice-master. After establishing winter quarters, he will make +some preliminary trips to test his sledges and complete the survey of +the southern part of the land, reserving the great northward march for +the spring of 1894. He is pushing forward his preparations quietly and +quickly, and, as he does not ask for public money, he does not feel it +necessary to publish any of the details of his intended mode of life. +It is difficult to forecast the result of his expedition. From the +little we know about Franz-Josef Land, it appears certain that with a +favorable season much good work could be done, and there is more +satisfaction in contemplating an expedition in which pluck and +endurance count than the mere passive submission to the laws of +physical geography, on which Nansen depends. In two years he hopes to +prove that Franz-Josef Land is or is not a practicable road to the +pole. + +We have no data to make a comparison between the two brave men, nor +any wish to do so. But Nansen is Nansen, and Jackson has yet to win +his spurs; to him therefore would be the greater glory if success +attend him. + +For our part, we heartily desire that Nansen, Peary, and Jackson may +meet simultaneously at the pole, and return betimes to tell their +story and share the honors. The aggravating thing is, that the +expeditions may never reach their proper starting point. Many a good +ship has knocked about for a whole season in the Kara Sea without +getting a lead through the ice; the effort to reach Franz-Josef Land +has not been often made, and it is a sinister omen that the +"Tegetthof," which discovered that region, arrived there after +eighteen months of drifting fast in the floes. But we shall see. + + + + +LIEUTENANT PEARY'S EXPEDITION. + +BY CLEVELAND MOFFETT. + + +Before the end of June, Civil Engineer Robert E. Peary of the United +States Navy will have sailed on another expedition for the Arctic +regions. The party will go by the way of Newfoundland, Baffin's Bay, +and Whale Sound, to Inglefield Gulf, which lies just southeast of +Smith Sound and south of the promontory containing the great Humboldt +glacier. The winter camp will be established at the head of Bowdoin +Bay, some forty miles to the east of Redcliffe House, where Lieutenant +Peary passed the winter of '91, '92. + +[Illustration: ROBERT E. PEARY.] + +The programme of the expedition may be briefly summarized as follows: + +The party will be absent about two years and a half, a three years' +leave of absence having been accorded Lieutenant Peary by the Navy +Department. They expect to be in camp, as indicated, by the last week +in July, when the staunch "Falcon," a sealing steamer which carries +them, will land the expedition and return to Newfoundland. The months +of August and September, all they will have before the Arctic night +sets in, will be utilized in three ways: a party will be sent inland +over the ice-cap with a large store of provisions, which will be +stored as far to the north as possible, to await the expedition of the +ensuing spring; another party, under Lieutenant Peary himself, will +make a careful survey of Inglefield Gulf, which is of rare scientific +interest on account of the tremendous glaciers which discharge into +it; and a third party will busy itself hunting reindeer and other game +to supply the expedition with fresh meat. + +By November 1, 1893, they will go into winter quarters, all occupying +a single house, which will be made as comfortable as possible. During +the five or six months of darkness, scientific work will be carried +on, including a thorough study of Esquimo habits and institutions. +Clothing will be made of reindeer skins, and, in general, preparations +be completed for the advance over the ice-cap. Lieutenant Peary hopes +to start the sledges northward early in March, thus gaining two months +on the start made in '92. The season of '94 will be spent in advancing +as rapidly as possible to the northern extremity of Greenland, to +Independence Bay, discovered by Lieutenant Peary in his recent +expedition. At this point the party will divide, several men being +detailed to explore the northeastern coast of Greenland as far to the +south as Cape Bismarck, while Lieutenant Peary with two picked men +will push across the fjord separating Greenland from the land beyond, +and will advance thence still farther to the north, as circumstances +may direct. It is probable that Lieutenant Peary will spend the winter +of '94 to '95 somewhere in the neighborhood of northernmost Greenland, +very probably in the most extreme northern latitude in which any white +man has wintered. In the spring of '95, or as soon as the season will +permit, he will make a further and final advance, leaving time enough +for the party to return to Inglefield Gulf before the fall. There a +relief ship will be in waiting to carry the expedition back to New +York with the results of their explorations. + +So much for Lieutenant Peary's time-table; now for what he hopes to +accomplish. + +To begin with, the party expect to attain the highest north ever +reached by any Arctic expedition. The present record is held by the +Greely expedition, two members of which reached 83 deg. 24' north +latitude. The farthest north reached by Lieutenant Peary in his last +expedition was 82 deg. north latitude, which is some eighty-four +geographical miles south of the point reached by Lieutenant Lockwood +of the Greely party. Then, as already mentioned, a complete survey +will be made of Inglefield Gulf, and also of the entirely unknown +stretch of land on the northeastern coast of Greenland, between +Independence Bay and Cape Bismarck. + +In addition to this, the main object of the expedition is to make a +complete map of the land lying to the north of Greenland, or, rather, +the Archipelago, for it is believed that this region is occupied by an +extensive group of islands. Unfortunately there is reason for thinking +that the lofty ice-cap which will allow the explorers to reach the +northernmost point of Greenland by sledging over the inland ice does +not continue in the same way over the islands to the north of +Greenland. Both Lieutenant Peary in his observations on the east, and +Lieutenant Lockwood on the west, remarked that the land stretching +away to the north was in many places bare of ice and snow, and rugged +in its character. One reason for this absence of an inland ice-cap +here is the fact that these islands to the north lie low in the ocean +compared with mountainous Greenland. Hence, in the summer, which is +the only season when an advance would be possible, the ice and snow +melt to a great extent and leave the land bare. Now in case Lieutenant +Peary finds that there is no continuous ice on this northern land, he +will skirt around the shore on the ice of the open sea, for this is +present winter and summer alike. It is likely that such an advance +over the ice-pack will be attended by very serious difficulties, the +ice being heaped up in broken and uneven surfaces, with mountains and +chasms to baffle the party. There may also be spaces of open water +where boats or rafts will have to be used instead of sledges. At any +rate, the advance will be made as far as possible, and the land to the +north of Greenland studied and mapped as far as may be. + +It is not the purpose of the expedition to seek the North Pole itself. +They may and very probably will get nearer to the Pole than anyone has +hitherto done. Lieutenant Peary is confident that he will make the +farthest north, and General Greely is inclined to admit this, and told +me some days ago in Washington that he should not be surprised if +Lieutenant Peary reached 85 deg. north latitude. In any event, an approach +to the North Pole will be an incident in the expedition, and not its +main object. + +Several important considerations make it probable that Lieutenant +Peary's present expedition will attain a considerable measure of +success. In the first place, in starting from Bowdoin Bay instead of +from Redcliffe House, there will be a gain of forty miles rough +hauling, which meant in the recent expedition two weeks' valuable +time. From Bowdoin Bay, the party will be able to climb to the inland +ice-cap by the shortest and easiest possible route. The fact that an +abundant supply of provisions will be sent ahead during the present +summer will be a great advantage, and will do away with the necessity +of a supporting party such as was employed on the last expedition. To +save the carrying of a ton or so of provisions for even a hundred +miles is a matter of great importance. Lieutenant Peary expects to +make a further saving in time by choosing a course midway between the +one taken on his last journey to Independence Bay and the one taken on +his return journey. These two courses, it will be remembered, were +unsatisfactory, because in the advance to Independence Bay he went too +far to the west and was caught in immense fissures and depressions +leading to the glaciers, while on the return journey he went so far +to the east that the great elevation above the sea level, often eight +thousand feet or more, made it difficult to find the way or take +observations on account of perpetual fogs. Now he proposes to avoid +the two extremes, and to search for an easier course in a happy +medium. A still greater gain in time will be made by starting the +expedition early in March, 1894, instead of waiting until May, as was +the case before. + +A novel feature of the expedition, and one that will be of great +service, it is believed, in hauling the loads, will be the use of pack +horses in addition to the dog teams. Lieutenant Peary, during his +recent western trip, secured a number of hardy burros in Colorado, +which he believes will be able to endure the Arctic winter. At any +rate, they will be very valuable in carrying the advance provisions +this present season, and on a pinch they can be turned into steaks. It +has been found possible to fit snow shoes to the hoofs of these pack +horses, so as to allow them to advance as rapidly as the dogs. An +experiment similar to this has been tried in Norway, where ponies have +been used successfully on snow, and also in Alaska. + +As to the size of the exploring party, it will be small, comprising +not more than ten men in all, and several of these will be left behind +at the winter quarters. Lieutenant Peary fully realizes that an +exploring party is no stronger than the weakest of its members, and +will take along with him only men whose endurance and loyalty have +been fully demonstrated. From the winter camp the line of advance will +be Independence Bay, where the party will divide, Lieutenant Peary +pushing on to the north, and his other men exploring southward to +Cape Bismarck. From that point the latter party will be instructed to +return to the winter camp directly across Greenland. There is no human +way of knowing how Lieutenant Peary will return. + +One question which will occur to anxious friends of the explorer is, +how Lieutenant Peary and his two companions will live during the +winter of '94 and '95, at the northernmost point of Greenland, where +the foot of man has never trod, and where no supplies could reach +them. The answer to this question is, that the party will take with +them a very large supply of dried meat and other necessaries, and that +they count on finding musk oxen in the region where they will camp. In +his previous expedition, Lieutenant Peary killed five of these musk +oxen near Independence Bay, and he saw many others. With such a supply +of fresh meat, and with abundant means of protecting themselves +against the cold, there is no reason why the party may not live +through the winter without serious danger or even extraordinary +discomfort. Leigh Smith was able to pass a winter on Franz-Josef Land +under much less favorable conditions. + +In a general way it may be said, in conclusion, that the present Peary +expedition starts out with bright prospects. Advantage has been taken +of errors and oversights made by others in the past. Dangers and +difficulties have been foreseen, and will be guarded against. A +sensible, and to a great extent feasible, plan of advance has been +adopted. In a word, everything would seem to have been done to prevent +the recurrence of one of those wretched tragedies which have stained +and saddened the records of Arctic exploration. + + EDITOR'S NOTE.--The expedition of Lieutenant Peary is undertaken + at his own expense, with the aid of voluntary subscriptions. + + Contributions from one dollar up may be sent to Professor + Angelo Heilprin, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, + Pennsylvania. + + + + +AN EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE. + +BY W. H. GILDER. Author of "Schwatka's Search," "Ice Pack and Tundra," +etc. + + +On the Fourth of July, 1879, after a long and tedious journey over +territory never before crossed by man, I stood with Lieutenant +Schwatka on Cape Felix, the most northern point of King William's +Land. + +Looking in the direction of the Isthmus of Boothia, not more than +twenty miles to the eastward, across the frozen surface of McClintock +Channel, we could see the snow-covered hills of Cape Adelaide, radiant +with all the tints of the rainbow, in the light of the midnight sun. +It was there that, nearly half a century before, Sir James Ross had +located the North Magnetic Pole. The place is invested with deep +interest to all explorers, but, with us, the pleasure was mitigated by +the knowledge that we were entirely devoid of instruments with which +to improve the opportunity of either verifying the work already done +or continuing it upon the same line of research. + +Ever since that time I have been strongly imbued with the desire to +return to that field of labor with a party of observers properly +equipped to make an exhaustive search through that storehouse of +hidden knowledge. + +About three years ago I brought the subject uppermost in my mind to +the attention of Professor T. C. Mendenhall, Superintendent of the +United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, in Washington, and to that of +his assistant, Professor Charles A. Schott, in charge of the computing +division of that bureau. From the first both of these gentlemen have +been strong advocates of such an expedition. + +[Illustration: COLONEL W. H. GILDER.] + +"The importance of a redetermination of the geographical position of +the North Magnetic Pole," said Professor Mendenhall, in a letter to +the Secretary of the Treasury written at that time, "has long been +recognized by all interested in the theory of the earth's magnetism +or its application. The point as determined by Ross in the early part +of this century was not located with that degree of accuracy which +modern science demands and permits, and, besides, it is altogether +likely that its position is not a fixed one. Our knowledge of the +secular variation of the magnetic needle would be greatly increased +by better information concerning this Magnetic Pole, and, in my +judgment, it would be the duty of the Government to offer all possible +encouragement to any suitably organized exploring expedition which +might undertake to seek for this information." + +Acting upon a further recommendation in this letter, the Secretary of +the Treasury requested the President of the National Academy of +Sciences to appoint a committee of its members, or others familiar +with the difficult problems involved, "to formulate a plan or scheme +for carrying out a systematic search for the North Magnetic Pole, and +kindred work," and such a committee was subsequently appointed, with +Professor S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, as +chairman. + +[Illustration: GENERAL A. W. GREELY.] + +The work proposed by this expedition has attracted the attention and +held the interest of scientists everywhere, and material aid from +several scientific bodies has already been pledged toward the securing +of the necessary funds for transporting the party to the field of its +labors, and its maintenance while at work there. + +The observers will be selected from among the officers of the United +States Navy attached to the Coast Survey, who have had special +training in magnetic field work. That bureau will also provide the +necessary instruments, but, in the absence of any appropriation that +could be applied to the transportation and maintenance of the party in +the field, the funds for that purpose have to be obtained by the +voluntary contribution of those with means and inclination to aid so +important an enterprise. + +Said the late Professor Trowbridge of Columbia College, in a lecture +upon the data to be obtained by this expedition for subsequent expert +discussion, "We are living in an epoch in the world's history when man +is struggling for a higher and more perfect life, not only against the +degrading tendencies of his inherited nature, but to make the forces +of nature subservient to his advancement and well being. Among these +forces there are none which seem to affect or control the conditions +of animal life on the earth more than heat, light, electricity, and +magnetism, all, perhaps, the manifestations of one cosmical agent. As +the variations of the magnetic force appear to follow lesser and +greater cycles, it is not impossible that nearly all terrestrial +phenomena, which depend on causes allied to magnetism, follow similar +cycles. We can now predict the course of storms; may we not hope to +determine their origin and predict their recurrence, as far as they +depend upon the forces which have been mentioned? A knowledge of the +laws of the cycles through which these forces pass is the first and +only step in this direction to be taken, and this step must be made by +patient, long-continued observations." + +[Illustration: PROFESSOR T. C. MENDENHALL.] + +An immediate practical use of the observations to be made is their +application to the correction of compass errors. Every one can see +that such work as tends to render the mariner's compass a more +reliable instrument must be of immediate and direct benefit, not only +to the sailor, but to the surveyor on land. + +Admitting that the observations of such an expedition as that to the +North Magnetic Pole will be of scientific and general value, it +remains to explain something of the personnel of the party, how the +work is to be conducted, and by what route it will reach the field of +its labor. + +Besides the two observers of terrestrial magnetism to be supplied by +the Coast Survey, there will be a physician fitted by education and +habits of study to take charge of some scientific portion of the work, +in which he will be specially instructed by the Superintendent of the +Coast Survey or his assistant. There will also be three sailors +selected from the whaling fleet, who will have charge of the three +whale boats belonging to the outfit, and act as assistants to the +several observers. The writer of this article, by reason of his +experience in Arctic travel, will have charge of the expedition in all +except the scientific work, the reports on which will be turned over +directly to the officers of the United States Coast and Geodetic +Survey for reduction and discussion upon the return of the party from +the field. + +The scheme of work has already been prepared by Professor Charles A. +Schott, who is looked upon as probably the best informed on all the +details of terrestrial magnetism of all men in this or any other +country. In the course of his exhaustive report upon this subject he +says: "The magnetic observations proper will comprise the measure of +the three elements, the declination, the dip, and the intensity, which +fully define the magnetic force at a place. The measures will be +partly absolute and partly differential, and will be considered under +two heads; those to be taken while travelling, and those to be +attended to at winter quarters." Detailed instructions for this work +are given which are too technical to be interesting except to the +specialist. He recommends that a single cocoon thread carrying a +sewing needle shall be used to observe the declination where by +proximity to the Magnetic Pole the horizontal force is weak. For it +must be borne in mind that the Magnetic Pole is the point where the +vertical force, called "dip," is greatest--represented by 90 deg.--while +the horizontal force, called "declination," is 0 deg. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE REGION.] + +The observations for dip, naturally the most important of the survey, +will be made with a Kew Dip Circle employing two needles; the usual +reversals of circle, face, and polarity should be attended to at each +station, to place the instrument in the plane of the magnetic +meridian. The usual method of finding the plane of the meridian will +probably not answer in that part of the world for want of sufficient +accuracy; the direction of the magnetic meridian should, therefore, +be taken as indicated by the delicately suspended needle of the +declination instrument, and, where this method fails, dip observations +should be made in any two planes 90 deg. apart, of which the first plane +is preferably that of the meridian as guessed at. + +It is proposed to charter a steam whaler to take the party from St. +John's, Newfoundland, to the northern part of Repulse Bay, which, +being directly connected with Hudson's Bay, is the nearest point to +the pole-containing area that is accessible any year. There a +permanent station is to be erected where regular observations will be +continued all the time and from which each spring a field party +(perhaps two) will start to locate the geographical position of the +pole. + +[Illustration: PROFESSOR C. A. SCHOTT.] + +It may be well to repeat that the Magnetic Pole is that point where +the needle of the dip circle is absolutely vertical--where it stands +at exactly 90 deg. to the plane of the horizon. + +To find this unknown spot the observer follows as nearly as possible +the direction indicated by the delicately poised needle of the +declinometer. The magnetic meridian is not always a straight line, and +may therefore indicate a very circuitous route, but by a system +something like the regular approaches to a besieged fort one may be +certain of arriving there eventually. + +For instance, when the needle indicates a dip of 89 deg. the stations +should be nearer together--say not farther apart than twenty miles, if +possible, and these intervals should be less as the dip increases. + +Suppose the observer to have reached a point where the dip is found to +be 89 deg. 30', and at the next station he has 89 deg. 35', at the next +89 deg. 40'. At the next he may find only 89 deg. 37'; he then returns to +where he found the greatest dip and starts off at right angles, one +way or the other, to that course. As long as the dip continues to +increase, he knows he is travelling in the right direction. When it +again decreases he returns to the point of his last greatest dip and +travels at right angles to his last course as long as the dip +increases. In this way he will eventually see the absolute verticity +of the suspended needle marked and know he has reached the North +Magnetic Pole at last. Sir James Ross did not succeed so well, the +needle marking only 89 deg. 59' of verticity. But as this would indicate +that he was within one and a quarter to two miles of the point sought, +he was justified in feeling elated at his success. + +It is believed, however, that with the improved instruments of the +present day, and in the light of our increased knowledge of +terrestrial magnetism, absolute accuracy is now demanded. These +observations will have to be repeated from time to time until at last +we shall know with certainty whether or not the North Magnetic Pole is +a fixed or movable point, and if it is found to move, the direction +and rate of that motion shall be positively determined. + + + + +THE MERCHANTMEN. + +BY RUDYARD KIPLING. + + + King Solomon drew merchantmen + Because of his desire + For peacocks, apes, and ivory + From Tarshish unto Tyre: + And Drake he sacked La Guayra, + So stout of heart was he; + But we be only sailormen + That use upon the sea. + + _Coastwise--cross-seas--round the world and back again, + Where the flaw shall head us or the full trade suits! + Plain-sail--storm-sail--lay your board and tack again-- + And that's the way we pay Paddy Doyle for his boots!_ + + Now we have come to youward + To walk beneath the trees, + And see the folk that live on land + And ride in carriages. + Oh, sure they must be silly gulls + That do with pains desire + To build a house that cannot move + Of stones and sticks and mire. + + We bring no store of ingots, + Of gold or precious stones, + But that we have we gathered + With sweat and aching bones: + In flame beneath the tropics, + In frost upon the floe, + And jeopardy of every wind + That does between them go. + + And some we got by purchase, + And some we had by trade, + And some we took by courtesy + Of pike and carronade, + At midnight, 'mid sea meetings + For charity to keep, + And light the rolling homeward bound + That rode a foot too deep. + + By sport of bitter weather + We're walty, strained, and scarred + From the kentledge of the kelson + To the slings upon the yard. + Six oceans had their will of us + To carry all away-- + Our galley's in the Baltic, + And our boom's in Mossel Bay! + + We've floundered off the Texel, + Awash with sodden deals, + We've slipped from Valparaiso + With the Norther at our heels: + We've ratched beyond the Crossets + That tusk the Southern Pole, + And dipped our gunnels under + To the dread Agulhas' roll. + + Beyond all outer chartings + We sailed where none have sailed, + And saw the land-lights burning + On islands none have hailed. + Our hair stood up for wonder, + But when the night was done + There rolled the deep to windward + Blue-empty 'neath the sun! + + Strange consorts rode beside us + And brought us evil luck; + The witch-fire climbed our channels, + And danced on vane and truck: + Till, through the red tornado, + That lashed us nigh to blind, + We saw The Dutchman plunging, + Full canvas, head to wind! + + We've heard the Midnight Leadsman + That calls the black deeps down-- + Ay, thrice we heard The Swimmer, + The soul that may not drown. + On frozen bunt and gasket + The sleet-cloud drave her hosts, + When, manned by more than signed with us, + We passed the Isle o' Ghosts! + + And north, among the hummocks, + A biscuit-toss below, + We met the silent shallop + That frighted whalers know; + For down a bitter ice-lane, + That opened as he sped, + We saw dead Henry Hudson + Steer, North by West, his dead. + + So dealt God's waters with us + Beneath the roaring skies, + So walked His signs and marvels + All naked to our eyes: + But we were heading homeward + With trade to lose or make-- + Good Lord, they slipped behind us + In the tailing of our wake! + + Let go, let go the anchors; + Now shamed at heart are we + To bring so poor a cargo home + That had for gift the sea! + Let go--let go the anchors-- + Ah, fools were we and blind-- + The worst we saved with bitter toil, + The best we left behind! + + _Coastwise--cross-seas--round the world and back again, + Where the flaw shall fail us or the trades drive down: + Plain-sail--storm-sail--lay your board and tack again-- + And all to bring a cargo into London Town!_ + + + + +MONSIEUR DE BLOWITZ. + +BY W. MORTON FULLERTON. + + +When Taine died, people whom his books had interested felt a sudden +longing to say all that they had been thinking about his famous theory +of the "_milieu_." Taine had been, with Renan, the chief literary +medium of thought in France; but while Renan was altogether useful, +caring as he did more for his method than for its results, Taine, with +his imperative and beautiful consistency, imposed on the younger +generation a habit of applying the principle of environment which was +somewhat lacking in criticism. No one but an artist of his surprising +agility and perceptions could have made such a method so universal. +The French wilfully attain clearness by defect of vision, but this is +the same thing as saying that they attain plausibility at the expense +of truth. Taine died, and the thing we lacked courage to say to his +face we have all been saying now that he is safe and irresponsible, as +well as unresponsive, in the earth. + +An inevitable way, undoubtedly, to be assured of the insufficiency of +Taine's method is to read Taine's books; and the first book of all, +the "Essay on La Fontaine," is, I may insert the observation, as +conclusive as the last in this respect. But in order to obtain the +conviction that what the critic can get to know of the environing +conditions of any product, human or other, does not explain that +product, one needs not go to Taine's books; one has only to apply it +to the things and people one knows best. The result will be +unsatisfactory. The critic will find a thousand elements in that +particular product's individuality thus left unexplained; in a word, +the theory is one natural, no doubt, to the Olympians, who see all +things; but impracticable for men who, even at their best, see only +very little. Apply it to yourself; apply it to your friends. Apply it +to the person of whom I am going to speak, to M. de Blowitz, the Paris +correspondent of an English newspaper, the "Times." The act will +result in a failure, a scientific failure, whatever the artistic +success. Yet M. de Blowitz is a very remarkable human fact; and that a +philosophic or critical method cannot be applied to him with triumph, +for both him and the method--is this not of itself a consideration +extraordinary enough to vitiate the whole method? A much more +important thing to know than what determined this or that product, +whether it be the Book of Judges, or the Panama trial, or M. Taine, or +M. de Blowitz, is what they themselves determined; what followed, +because of their existence; and though this be reasoning in a dizzy +circle, I cling to the remark as a not unapt way to introduce my +subject. A chief reason why M. de Blowitz is worth considering is, +that he is and always has been a producer himself, a fact pregnant +with a thousand others, rather than the resultant of many vague facts +that have gone before. Most of us must be content with being, +comparatively speaking, only results. M. de Blowitz, prodigious result +as he is, is even more striking as initiator, as himself the creator +of a special environment, as himself in his own way a "final cause." + +[Illustration: THE DINING-ROOM IN M. DE BLOWITZ'S PARIS HOME.] + +Cosmopolite in a world becoming rapidly no larger than the tiniest +of the asteroids, M. de Blowitz is one of those who have most +contributed to this planetary shrinkage. His career is a continual +and entertaining illustration of the truth that tact can render even +tolerance successful. For he is the most amiable, the most tolerant +of men, and yet he has blazed a wide path through the woodland of +warring interests in which every man who seeks to succeed runs risk, +not only of losing his way, but of setting all the other denizens of +the forest against him. Ordinarily, success implies that a man is a +man of only one idea. What Frenchman said: "Truth is a wedge that +makes its way only by being struck"? I have forgotten. At all events, +isn't the remark nine times out of ten true? But M. de Blowitz +could apply for the honor of being the proverbial exception. His +workshop is full of wedges, and a more impatient man would have +used up all of them long ago, after having hammered the battered +tops into a condition of splay disfigurement. M. de Blowitz does not +do this. He knew and knows a better way. He can afford to wait. He +likes to wait. He has the good and amiable heart of a man who, like +Odysseus, has seen many men and countries, and knows that all +things--I include even people who are "bores"--have a point of +view that may be rendered interesting. Himself one of the most +individualized of contemporary institutions, his own career is a +standing argument against the sacredness of the idea of institutions. +Yet, though he has inevitably learned how relative things in general +are, he himself appeals to his friends as unusually self-contained +and absolute. Diplomatist among diplomatists, he is more powerful than +any of them, because he works in the interest of the whole rather than +in that of a part. Loyal absolutely to the "Times," which, to its +accidental honor, has entangled him, the "Times" is, at its best, only +the accidental projection, a kind of chronic double, of himself. His +letters are kind attentions which have the air of a continual +favor. Though better recompensed than favors sometimes are, and +though, whatever their contents, they will be read by everybody, +this is not only because what the author writes is important, but +because he does not write when he has nothing to say. + + +M. DE BLOWITZ AT HIS SUMMER HOME. + +This reticence is superb, and one of its practical results has been +the remarkable physical vigor of this man who is after all no longer +young. One should see him in his country home. M. de Blowitz went up +and down the north coast of France, hunting for an eyry. He found it +on the wooded top of one of the side slopes of the thousand and one +ravines in which fishermen along that coast had fixed their cabins, at +the small hamlet of _Les Petites Dalles_. Like Alphonse Karr at +Etretat, he made the fame of this spot. Your guide-book will tell you +the fact. "M. de Blowitz, correspondent of the English newspaper the +'Times,' has a villa here." I defy you to find any other distinction +special to this place. The high Normandy coast is always charming, but +it is equally so at a hundred other points. And of what charm there is +here simply as village, M. Blowitz's presence would seem to threaten +the partial extinction. For this very presence is rendering the spot +famous and crowded. Sit in the afternoon listening to the three +violins that provide the music, and, taking your absinthe on one of +those hard benches within the narrow limits of the space there called +Casino, you will run the risk of overhearing a conversation like +this: + +"This is your first summer here?" + +"Yes, came last night. I am tired of Pau, and thought I could bury +myself here. But there's too much world." + +"Yes, but what a world it is!" + +"Oh, I don't mind that! They say there's enough society in the villas. +Since de Blowitz built the _Lampottes_ and has brought his friends +down, there are some people _tres bien de la meilleure societe_ on the +cliffs. That's the place up there, the house with the flag above all +the others. I walked up there this morning. He has a tennis court. +Looking up the gravel walk, I saw him sitting on the veranda. That's +M. Ernest Daudet's place just under him in the trees--_mais voila_; +there he is." + +Towards three o'clock in the afternoon, indeed, almost daily, M. de +Blowitz has an amiable habit. He walks down with members of his +family, and the guests who are staying with him, to the pretty +bathing-cabins, in front of which stretches an improvised awning, and, +picturesque in his colored flannels, he sits himself down with a cigar +to watch the bathers. He, the most distinguished of European critics, +is here and now the object of many curious and admiring observations. +He holds here a little court on the shingle beach. Brightly dressed +women gather to him from every point of the compass; while he who has +his emissaries in every quarter of the world, and whose subtle +influence is felt at each episode of the European movement, gives +himself up with pardonable indulgence--under the ample umbrella--to +the pretty trifles of glib women's charm and chatter. Before he has +enjoyed enough, and obedient to one of those harmless devices in which +well-taught men of the world often indulge, he retires from this +charmed and, as I can affirm, charming circle, and climbs to the great +villa on the cliff. There are letters to be written and telegrams to +be sent to Paris, and perhaps an article meditated during the +afternoon. + +[Illustration: M. DE BLOWITZ IN HIS STUDY.] + +The doors of the _Lampottes_ are wide open upon the great veranda, and +the winds of the channel enter there, warmed from blowing over the +upland grass. The life within is the ideally tranquil existence of an +English country gentleman. Where did this cosmopolite, who really has +no English roots, learn the system? For the hospitality of England can +scarcely be translated with full flavor into any other idiom. The +_schloss_ of Germany or of the Tyrol, the _chateau_ of France, have +never, within my experience of lazy summers, afforded just the same +delightful background as the country house of England. Yet to the +_Lampottes_ the peculiar air has somehow been conjured. All the +country round about this house is Norman, and therefore English--that +is, dense, rich, familiar--so that the English illusion is complete. +But no reader of M. de Blowitz's correspondence in the "Times" would +ever have thought of placing the author in these surroundings. The +_raconteur_ of the reminiscences in "Harper's Magazine" must appeal to +the American reader as a sort of bustling incarnation of the +ubiquitous telegraph, unwearied, and knowing not even in his dreams +the first soothing tremor of the sound of the word "rest." On the +contrary, M. de Blowitz rests frequently and smiles quietly. Large +himself, he likes large air, large rooms, large landscapes, large and +general ideas. And what contributes to all this more than rest, which +gives time to think? It is a generous and natural temper, and that is +why the great doors from the veranda are open to the channel winds. + +Although M. de Blowitz wears in his buttonhole, in bright contrast to +the famous flowing tie, the rosette of the French Legion of Honor, he +is not in race a Frenchman; yet he is sufficiently French in two +conspicuous characteristics. The French strike me as being, with the +Americans, the most naturally intelligent people on the western part +of the planet. But the Frenchman is also _bon enfant_, and for the +moment I do not stop to consider that he always remains _enfant_. To +be intelligent and _bon enfant_ at once is to promise all kinds of +successes in life, and to be both is to make success charming. M. de +Blowitz is both. He has been, therefore, a charming success. The +nature of this success defies analysis, but as a result can be +described. + + +THE BEGINNING OF A CAREER. + +It is now more than twenty years since a young man appeared before +the enthusiast, Laurence Oliphant, then correspondent of the English +"Times," and rendered himself so indispensable to Oliphant that +the latter, with the quixotic temper peculiar to him, felt it, I +believe, a moral duty to abdicate. This young man had already so +distinguished himself at Marseilles, during Communal riots there, as +to attract the attention and merit the gratitude of Thiers. Justly +rating his powers as a diplomatist, and knowing himself to be an +indefatigable worker, he conceived the notion of becoming a sort +of general self-accredited representative to every European Court, +and of inducing the "Times" to afford him an organ of communication +with his diplomatic rivals everywhere. The "Times" is the secluded +pool into which England loves to gaze when it plays the _role_ of +Narcissus. And when Narcissus-England admires itself therein, that +is, once a day the year round, it not only sees the healthy, +beaming, determined visage of John Bull, but notes with approval +his quiet expression of patience and caution, his willingness to +wait. The "Times" kept M. de Blowitz waiting for some time before +it found him as relatively indispensable as he really was, and +always has been since; but finally the moment came when M. de Blowitz, +seated before his desk, could feel himself more than the equal of +his diplomatist _confreres_. Statesman he was not, nor ambassador; for +these words imply limitations, a condition of responsibility to +this or that state. But diplomatist he was, and in this entire +class of men he was the most powerful of all; for he found himself +in the position of critic, unattached, of the European movement, owing +allegiance to no country, although sought out by the representatives +of all. What position save that of the Pope afforded a more enviable +outlook? The chances were undoubtedly all on the side of his playing +the great _role_ which the happy coincidence of an unusually +exciting time in Europe, and his own activity, tact and perception, +combined to create for him. He has himself lately been telling us +in an American magazine some of the episodes in which he played his +part. I will not dilute the flavor of the original by any individual +essence of my own. The reminiscences are accessible and are not to +be imitated. But to the reader of them one fact above all others +will be evident: M. de Blowitz was and is a diplomatist of the +first order. Seek to explain the eternal hatred felt towards him by a +Prince Bismarck on any other ground. The attempt is impossible. + + +IDEALS OF A GREAT JOURNALIST. + +Whatever M. de Blowitz's loyalty to the "Times," he has been loyal +above all to his own ideal. This ideal has always been to get at the +most political truth possible as a condition of exerting an individual +influence on European states in the interest of European peace. To me, +individually, this ideal seems rather too generous. Everybody +now-a-days wants to take a part in affairs, when only to look on is +surely the one wise part to take. But generous M. de Blowitz is, and +he is demonstrating now, in a series of "recollections," that his +ideal can be carried out in a striking way. I do not deny for a moment +that the point is proven. I doubt very much, however, if any other +similar series of facts will ever be marshalled to the same end. But +all the more reason for being belongs, just for this cause, to the +"Blowitziana." + +[Illustration: THE _Lampottes_; THE COUNTRY HOUSE OF M. DE BLOWITZ.] + +The "Blowitziana"! This, however, is just what some of us feel more +inspired, than at liberty, to give. I recall here, over this paper, +too many things at once; and all the impressions, seeing M. de Blowitz +as I do continually, fortunately lack perspective. But to note this +and that about him seems in a way as much a duty as a pleasure, for I +remember well that my original notion of this remarkable man was +widely different from that which began to form in my mind once I knew +him. I don't think that people who hear about him, people who read his +name in the newspapers, the average citizen of the world who doesn't +know him personally, have quite the right idea about him. During the +last twenty years he has obtained a reputation for being the most +persistent ferreter of news in existence; but in many minds there is +distrust whenever, over his signature, some unexpected revelation +comes to change the key in the European concert. Perhaps an +unlooked-for document is published, interrupting the plans of +European statesmen, bringing to nothing all their most elaborate +scheming; and on the morrow, by some official source, comes a denial +that any such document was ever dreamed of. It is obviously +impracticable for M. de Blowitz to give his proofs, and this or that +unthinking reader, used to a thousand irresponsible writers who care +only for what is sensational, and who never verify their information, +hurriedly relegates the disclosure of the "Times" correspondent to the +same category. This is natural enough, of course. But let there be no +mistake. The revelation was worthy of the name; of this you may be +sure. M. de Blowitz has done all that he intended to do. He has nipped +in the bud this or that diplomatic scheme; he has anticipated some +subsequent further revelation; or it may be he has laid the net for +some other and less wary diplomatist. The diplomatists themselves are +not so incredulous. They listen to what M. de Blowitz is saying with a +more respectful attention, and, thinking discretion the better part of +valor, they usually end in bringing their mite to his universal +diplomatic bureau. Upon his discretion they know they can count. + +Here is a fact in point. Breakfasting once in Paris with an amiable +lady and a very distinguished diplomatist who was also a poet, the +conversation fell on the subject of M. de Blowitz and Count Munster +who had recently been the object of a long-resounding letter in the +"Times." The diplomatist who sat opposite me spoke freely of the +Munster episode, which was then entertaining the whole of Europe, save +the person most concerned. + +"M. de Blowitz," said he, "is our only peer. But there should be honor +even among thieves. He has 'cooked Count Munster's goose.'" + +"Yes," I replied, "but with fuel of Count Munster's own providing." + +"Quite so," he continued; "but of course we are paid to deny just such +things as this. And I have heard of licensed jesters, but the world +has come to a pretty pass if we are to be at the mercy of licensed +truth-tellers. What will become, this side of the Orient, of our +profession?" + +"I agree with you," interrupted our host; "but what does it matter so +only diplomacy may be the bay-leaves of poets, and you may have time +to take the world into your confidence in verse?" + +This estimate, implied in the ambassador's somewhat cynical words, +has always been shared by all M. de Blowitz's _confreres_. It would +be more than amusing, it would be curiously instructive, to +corroborate this anecdote by comparison with the hundred others that +tremble in the ink of my pen. But fortunately it is many years before +"Blowitziana" will be written, while now there are Hawaii and +Panama and the Papal ambassador to the United States to occupy our +attention. Yet because of the existence of just this assurance in +the foreign offices of all the European powers, it seems necessary to +set the average reader on his guard against a natural error. What +it all comes to is this--M. Jules Simon has said it--"Newspapers are +better served than kings and peoples." + +Everybody has been recently talking of an extraordinary scheme of M. +de Blowitz for the reformation of journalism. That article, crackling +with anathema against the ignorance and irresponsibility of most +modern journalism, and warm with generous and high notions of what +constitutes the duty and privilege of the journalist, had about it a +surprising flavor of detachment and idealism which recalled the famous +Utopian schemes familiar in the pedantic idiom of scholars. It was a +dream, a warning--a vision of a kind of journalistic "City of God." +But the air of that city is, after all, the air of the world in which +M. de Blowitz, the most surprisingly unprofessional of men, seems +eternally to live. + +Not that he is always an idealist. He was not, for instance, when, +jumping the wall at Versailles after a dinner to the Shah of Persia, +he outwitted every journalist in the palace garden, and, as he says, +"made five enemies in a single well-employed evening." No, even the +most ubiquitous of American reporters would admit that he may be +practical enough when need be. But after all, and above all, he is an +idealist, marked by a distinguished imagination and an amiable and +generous sympathy. No journalistic tag is on him. He is simply a +gentleman with the widest interests and uncommon capacities who +succeeded in convincing the "Times" (this, of itself, is surely by way +of being a _vrai coup de maitre_), and then every other intelligent +observer, of his power and usefulness. He has his own philanthropic +ends, for the propagation of which it pleases him to have so esteemed +a medium as the "Times." + + +IN HIS PARIS HOME. + +The people who come to see him--the deputies, the ministers, the +ambassadors, the writers, the artists, the simple _gens du monde_--come +more often not to his office, but to his warm and hospitable home. +Here, in one of the streets that wind about the Star Arch at the head +of the Champs Elysees, he receives all the world, rather as the +charming gentleman than the historic journalist de Blowitz. The +centre--I must add the admired centre--of a devoted family circle, he +discourses at his dinner-table of the serious events of the day, +volubly, picturesquely, and with conviction. Yet he is always ready to +listen, and even to alter his opinions at a moment's notice, though +that notice must be good. While he himself makes the coffee, the talk +becomes less exacting and more general. Often he tells you of his +pictures, and points out to you the panels set into the wall of the +room, works of his friends, great canvases by M. Clairin or Mme. Sarah +Bernhardt; and one, a sunny view of the Norman house on the cliff, by +M. Duphot. After dinner in the private study, with its high walls +covered with paintings and souvenirs and autograph photographs of the +greatest names of France, you smoke in the arms of your easy-chair, +the wood fire burning brightly in an ample chimney; while your host, +propped by divan cushions, and with one leg curled under him, drops +grandly into pleasant reminiscences. One has visions of Bagdad. After +an hour like this, you wonder when M. de Blowitz works. But he has been +working all the time. He has been thinking in one half of a very +capacious brain and talking from another. The chances are that he will +have planned a column article for the "Times" newspaper, left you for +a half hour to rummage in his books while he dictates the article, +telephoned for his carriage to await him at nine o'clock in the court +below, and asked you to accompany him to the opera--all before he has +finished his cigar. But then the cigar is a remarkably good one, and +knows not, as is the case with ambassadorial nicotine, the protective +customs of France. + +Life means to M. de Blowitz a mental activity and alertness that never +sleep. Yet he is always amiable, tolerating everything except +stupidity. He is a journalist by "natural selection." But that, in the +Europe of his time, and given the accidents of his fortune, made him +the diplomatist that he has been and is. He can keep a secret as well +as tell one. I repeat, he disproves that masterly theory of Taine, who +drove facts like wild horses into a corral in order, having lassoed +them, to tame them to his own uses; for, like Taine himself, he has +made his own _milieu_, created his own series of facts, far more truly +even than he is himself the striking and delightful resultant of +others that have gone before. + + + + +ON THE TRACK OF THE REVIEWER. + +A TRUE STORY OF REVENGE, CONNECTED WITH THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF +"JANE EYRE." + +BY DOCTOR WILLIAM WRIGHT. + + +The Bronte novels were first read and admired in the Ballynaskeagh +manse. This statement I am able to make with fulness of knowledge. +"Jane Eyre" was read, cried over, laughed over, argued over, +condemned, exalted, by the Reverend David McKee, his brilliant +children and numerous pupils, before the author was known publicly in +England, or a single review of the work had appeared. + +The Reverend W. J. McCracken, an old pupil of the Ballynaskeagh manse, +writes me on this point: + +"You have no doubt heard Mr. McKee's[2] opinion as to the source of +Charlotte's genius. When Charlotte Bronte published one of her books, +there was always an early copy sent to the uncles and aunts in +Ballynaskeagh. As they had little taste for such literature, the book +was sent straight over to our dear old friend Mr. McKee. If it pleased +him, the Brontes would be in raptures with their niece, and +triumphantly say to their neighbors, 'Mr. McKee thinks her very +_cliver_.' + +"I well remember Mr. McKee reading one of Charlotte's novels, and, in +his own inimitable way, making the remark: 'She is just her Uncle +Jamie over the world. Just Jamie's strong, powerful, direct way of +putting a thing.'" + +Mrs. McKee, now living in New Zealand, writes me: "My husband had +early copies of the novels from the Brontes, and he pronounced them to +be Bronte in warp and woof, before 'Currer Bell' was publicly known to +be Charlotte Bronte. He held that the stories not only showed the +Bronte genius and style, but that the facts were largely reminiscences +of the Bronte family. He recognized many of the characters as founded +largely on old Hugh's yarns, polished into literature. When 'Jane +Eyre' came into the hands of the uncles they were troubled as to its +character, but they were very grateful to my husband for his good +opinion of its ability. He pronounced it a remarkable and brilliant +work, before any of the reviews appeared." + +In addition to the five hundred pounds that Smith, Elder & Co. paid +Charlotte Bronte for the copyright of each of her novels, they sent +half a dozen copies direct to herself. The book was published on +October 16th, and ten days later Charlotte thus acknowledged receipt +of the copies: + + _October 26, 1847._ + + "MESSRS. SMITH, ELDER & CO.: + + "_Gentlemen_: The six copies of 'Jane Eyre' reached me this + morning. You have given the work every advantage which good paper, + clear type and a seemly outside can supply; if it fails, the fault + will lie with the author--you are exempt. I now await the judgment + of the press and the public. I am, gentlemen, + + "Yours respectfully, + + "C. BELL." + +Charlotte Bronte's friends were not numerous, and she was most anxious +that none of the few should find out that she was the author. In the +distribution of even her six copies, she would most likely send one to +her friends in Ireland. When the volumes arrived in Ireland, there +was no room for doubt as to the authorship of "Jane Eyre." The Brontes +had no other friend in England to send them books. They themselves +neither wrote nor read romances. They lived them. + +It was well known to the family that the clever brother in England +had very clever daughters. Patrick was a constant correspondent +with the home circle, and a not infrequent visitor. Their habits +of study, their wonderful compositions, their education in Brussels, +were steps in the ascending gradation of the girls, minutely +communicated by the vicar to his only relatives, and fairly well +understood in Ballynaskeagh. Something was expected. + +That something caused blank disappointment. C(urrer) B(ell) was a thin +disguise for C(harlotte) B(ronte), but it did not deceive the +relatives. Why concealment if there was nothing discreditable to +conceal? A very little reading convinced the uncles and aunts that +concealment was necessary. + +The book was not good like Willison's "Balm of Gilead," or like +Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." It was neither history like Goldsmith, +nor biography like Johnson, nor philosophy like Locke, nor theology +like Edwards; but "a parcel of lies, the fruit of living among +foreigners." + +The Irish Brontes had never before seen a book like "Jane Eyre"--three +volumes of babble that would take a whole winter to read. They laid +the work down in despair; but after a little, Hugh resolved to show it +to Mr. McKee, the one man in the district whom he could trust. + +The reputation of his nieces in England was dearer to Hugh Bronte than +his own. + +He tied up the three volumes in a red handkerchief, and called with +them at the manse. Contrary to his usual custom, he asked if he could +see Mr. McKee alone. The interview, of which my information comes from +an eye-witness, took place in a large parlor, which contained a bed, +and a central table on which Mr. McKee's tea was spread. + +Hugh Bronte began in a mysterious whisper to unfold his sad tale +to Mr. McKee, as if his niece had been guilty of some serious +indiscretion. Mr. McKee comforted him by suggesting that the book +might not have been written by his niece at all. At this point +Hugh Bronte was prevailed upon to draw up to the table to partake of +the abundant tea that had been prepared for Mr. McKee, while the +latter proceeded to examine the book. Bronte settled down in the +most self-denying manner to dispose of the heap of bread and butter, +and the pot of tea, while McKee went galloping over the pages of the +first volume of "Jane Eyre," oblivious to all but the fascinating +story. + +The afternoon wore on; Bronte sat at the table, watching the features +of the reader as they changed from somber to gay, and from flinty +fierceness to melting pathos. + +When the servant went in to remove the tea things and light the +candles, both men were sitting silent in the gloaming. McKee, roused +from his state of abstraction, observed Bronte sitting at the _debris_ +and empty plates. + +"Hughey," he said, breaking the silence, "the book bears the Bronte +stamp on every sentence and idea, and it is the grandest novel that +has been produced in my time;" and then he added: "The child 'Jane +Eyre' is your father in petticoats, and Mrs. Reed is the wicked uncle +by the Boyne." + +The cloud passed from Hugh Bronte's brow, and the apologetic tone from +his voice. He started up as if he had received new life, wrung Mr. +McKee's hand, and hurried away comforted, to comfort others. Mr. McKee +had said the novel was "_gran_" and that was enough for the Irish +Brontes. + +There was joy in the Bronte house when Hugh returned and reported to +his brothers and sisters what Mr. McKee had said. They needed no +further commendation, for they knew no higher court on such a matter. +They had all been alarmed lest Charlotte had done something to be +ashamed of; but on Mr. McKee's approval, pride and elation of spirit +succeeded depression and sinking of heart. + +Mr. McKee's opinion did not long remain unconfirmed. Reviews from the +English magazines were quoted in the Newry paper, probably by Mr. +McKee, and found their way quickly into the uncles' and aunts' hands. + +The publication of the book created a profound impression generally. +It was felt in literary circles that a strong nature had broken +through conventional restraints, that a fresh voice had delivered a +new message. Men and women paused in the perusal of the pretty, the +artificial, the inane, to listen to the wild story that had come to +them with the breeze of the moorland and the bloom of the heather. And +so exquisite was the gift of thought blended with the art of artless +expression, that only the facts appeared in the transparent +narrative. + +"The Times" declared: "Freshness and originality, truth and passion, +singular felicity in the description of natural scenery, and in the +analyzation of human thought, enable this tale to stand boldly out +from the mass." + +"The Edinburgh Review" said: "For many years there has been no work of +such power, piquancy, and originality." + +"Blackwood's Magazine" spoke thus: "'Jane Eyre' is an episode in this +work-a-day world; most interesting, and touched at once by a daring +and delicate hand." + +In "Frazer's Magazine" Mr. G. H. Lewes said: "Reality--deep, +significant reality--is the characteristic of the book. It is +autobiography, not perhaps in the naked facts and circumstances, but +in the actual suffering and experience." + +"Tait's Magazine," "The Examiner," the "Athenaeum," and the "Literary +Gazette," followed in the same strain; while the "Daily News" spoke +with qualified praise, and only the "Spectator," according to +Charlotte, was "flat." + +The club coteries paused, the literary log-rollers were nonplussed, +and Thackeray sat reading instead of writing. + +The interest in the story was intensified, inasmuch as no one knew +whence had come the voice that had stirred all hearts. Nor did the +interest diminish when the mystery was dispelled. On the contrary, it +was much increased when it became known that the author was a little, +shy, bright-eyed Yorkshire maiden, of Irish origin, who could scarcely +reach up to great Thackeray's arm, or reply unmoved to his simplest +remark. + +The Irish Brontes read the reviews of their niece's book with intense +delight. To them the paeans of praise were successive whiffs of pure +incense. They had never doubted that they themselves were superior to +their neighbors, and they felt quite sure that their niece Charlotte +was superior to every other writer. + +But the Brontes were not content to enjoy silently their niece's +triumph and fame. Their hearts were full, and overflowed from the +lips. They had reached the period of decadence, and were often heard +boasting of the illustrious Charlotte. Sometimes even they would read +to uninterested and unappreciative listeners scraps of praise cut from +the Newry papers, or supplied to them from English sources by Mr. +McKee. The whole heaven of Bronte fame was bright and cloudless; +suddenly the proverbial bolt fell from the blue. + +"The Quarterly"[3] onslaught on "Jane Eyre" appeared, and all the good +things that had been said were forgotten. The news travelled fast, and +reached Ballynaskeagh. The neighbors, who cared little for what "The +Times," "Frazer," "Blackwood," and such periodicals said, had got hold +of the "Quarterly" verdict in a very direct and simple form. The +report went round the district like wild-fire that the "Quarterly +Review" had said Charlotte Bronte, the vicar's daughter, was a bad +woman, and an outcast from her kind. The neighbors of the Brontes had +very vague ideas as to what "The Quarterly" might be, but I am afraid +the one bad review gave them more piquant pleasure than all the good +ones put together. In the changed atmosphere the uncles and aunts +assumed their old unsocial and taciturn ways. When their acquaintances +came, with simpering smiles, to sympathize with them, their gossip was +cut short by the Brontes, who judged rightly that the sense of +humiliation pressed lightly on their comforters. + +In their sore distress they went to Mr. McKee. He was able to show +them the "Review" itself. The reviewer had been speculating on the sex +of Currer Bell, and, for effect, assumed that the author was a man, +but he added: + + "Whoever it be, it is a person who, with great mental power, + combines a total ignorance of the habits of society, a great + coarseness of taste, a heathenish doctrine of religion. For if we + ascribe the work to a woman at all, we have no alternative but to + ascribe it to one who has, from some sufficient reason, long + forfeited the society of her sex." + +Mr. McKee's reading of the review and words of comment gave no comfort +to the Brontes. I am afraid his indignation at the cowardly attack +only served to fan the flames of their wrath. The sun of his sympathy, +however, touched their hearts, and their pent-up passion flowed down +like a torrent of lava. + +The uncles of Charlotte Bronte always expressed themselves, when +roused, in language which combined simplicity of diction with depth of +significance. Hugh was the spokesman. White with passion, the words +hissing from his lips, he vowed to take vengeance on the traducer of +his niece. The language of malediction rushed from him, hot and +pestiferous, as if it had come from the bottomless pit, reeking with +sulphur and brimstone. + +Mr. McKee did not attempt to stem the wrathful torrent. He hoped that +the storm would exhaust itself by its own fury. But in the case of +Hugh Bronte the anger was not a mere thing of the passing storm. The +scoundrel who had spoken of his niece as if she were a strumpet must +die. Hugh's oath was pledged, and he meant to perform it. The +brothers recognized the work of vengeance as a family duty. Hugh had +simply taken in hand its execution. + +He set about his preparation with the calm deliberation befitting such +a tremendous enterprise. Like Thothmes the Great, his first concern +was with regard to his arms. Irishmen at that time had one national +weapon. What the blood mare is to the Bedawi, or his sling was to King +David, that was the _shillelagh_ to Hugh Bronte as avenger. Irishmen +have proved their superiority as marksmen, with long-range rifles; +they have always had a reputation for expertness at "the long bow;" +but the blackthorn cudgel has always been the beloved hereditary +weapon. + +The shillelagh was not a mere stick picked up for a few pence, or cut +casually out of the common hedge. Like the Arab mare, it grew to +maturity under the fostering care of its owner. + +The shillelagh, like the poet, is born, not made. Like the poet, too, +it is a choice plant, and its growth is slow. Among ten thousand +blackthorn shoots, perhaps not more than one is destined to become +famous, but one of the ten thousand appears of singular fitness. As +soon as discovered, it is marked, and dedicated for future service. +Everything that might hinder its development is removed, and any +off-shoot of the main stem is skilfully cut off. With constant care it +grows thick and strong, upon a bulbous root that can be shaped into a +handle. + +Hugh had for many years been watching over the growth of a young +blackthorn sapling. It had arrived at maturity about the time the +diabolical article appeared in "The Quarterly." The supreme moment of +his life came just when the weapon on which he depended was ready. + +Returning from the manse, his whole heart and soul set on avenging his +niece, his first act was to dig up the blackthorn so carefully that he +might have enough of the thick root to form a lethal club. Having +pruned it roughly, he placed the butt end in warm ashes, night after +night, to season. Then when it had become sapless and hard, he cut it +to shape, then "put it to pickle," as the saying goes. After a +sufficient time in the salt water, he took it out and rubbed it with +chamois and train-oil for hours. Then he shot a magpie, drained its +blood into a cup, and with it polished the blackthorn till it became a +glossy black with a mahogany tint. + +The shillelagh was then a beautiful, tough, formidable weapon, and +when tipped with an iron ferrule was quite ready for action. It became +Hugh's trusty companion. No Sir Galahad ever cherished his shield or +trusted his spear as Hugh Bronte cherished and loved his shillelagh. + +When the shillelagh was ready, other preparations were quickly +completed. Hugh made his will by the aid of a local school-master, +leaving all he possessed to his maligned niece, and then, decked out +in a new suit of broadcloth, in which he felt stiff and awkward, he +departed on his mission of vengeance. + +He set sail from Warrenpoint for Liverpool by a vessel called the "Sea +Nymph," and walked from Liverpool to Haworth. His brother James had +been over the route a short time previously, and from him he had +received all necessary directions as to the way. He reached the +vicarage on a Sunday, when all, except Martha the old servant, were at +church. At first she looked upon him as a tramp, and refused to admit +him into the house; but when he turned to go to the church, +road-stained as he was, she saw that the honor of the house was +involved, and agreed to let him remain till the family returned. Under +the conditions of the truce he was able to satisfy Martha as to his +identity, and then she rated him soundly for journeying on the Sabbath +day. + +Hugh's reception at the vicarage was at first chilling, but soon the +girls gathered round him and inquired about the Glen, the Knock Hill, +Emdale Fort, and the Mourne Mountains, but especially with reference +to the local ghosts and haunted houses. + +Hugh was greatly disappointed to find his niece so small and frail. +His pride in the Bronte superiority had rested mainly on the thews and +comeliness of the family, and he found it difficult to associate +mental greatness with physical littleness. On his return home he +spoke of the vicar's family to Mr. McKee as "a poor _frachther_" a +term applied to a brood of young chickens. From his brother Jamie, +Hugh had heard that Branwell had something of the _spunk_ he had +expected from the family on English soil; but he was too small, +fantastic, and a chatterer, and could not drink more than two glasses +of whiskey at the Black Bull without making a fool of himself. In +fact, Jamie, during a visit, had to carry Branwell home, more than +once, from that refuge of the thirsty, and as he had to lie in the +same bed with his nephew he found him a most exasperating bed-fellow. +He would toss about and rave and spout poetry in such a way as to make +sleep impossible. + +The declaration of Hugh's mission of revenge was received by Charlotte +with incredulous astonishment, but gentle Anne sympathized with him, +and wished him success; but for her, Hugh would have returned straight +home from Haworth in disgust. + +Patrick, as befitted a clergyman, condemned the undertaking, and did +what he could to amuse Hughy. Careful that Hugh's entertainments +should be to his taste, he took him to see a prize fight. His object +was to show him "a battle that would take the conceit out of him." It +had the contrary effect. Hugh thought that the combatants were too fat +and lazy to fight, and he always asserted that he could have "licked +them both." + +The vicar also took him to Sir John Armitage's, where he saw a +collection of arms, some of which were exceedingly unwieldy. Hugh was +greatly impressed with the heaviness of the armor, and especially with +Robin Hood's helmet, which he was allowed to place on his head. Hugh +admitted that he could not have worn the helmet or wielded the sword, +but he maintained at the same time that he "could have eaten half a +dozen of the men he saw in England"--in fact, taken them like a dish +of whitebait. + +When Hugh Bronte had exhausted the wonders of Yorkshire, to which the +vicar looked for moral effect, he started on his mission to London. A +full and complete account of his search for the reviewer would be most +interesting, though somewhat ludicrous, but the reader must be content +with the scrappy information at my disposal. + +Through an introduction from a friend of Branwell's he found cheap +lodgings with a working family from Haworth. As soon as Hugh had got +fairly settled, he went direct to John Murray's publishing house and +asked to see the reviewer. He declared himself an uncle of Currer +Bell, and said he wished to give the reviewer some specific +information. + +He had a short interview at Murray's with a man who said he was the +editor of "The Quarterly," and who may have been Lockhart, but Hugh +told him that he could only communicate to the reviewer his secret +message. + +He continued to visit Murray's under a promise of seeing the reviewer, +but he always saw the same man who at first had said that he was +editor, but afterwards assured him he was the reviewer, and pressed +him greatly to say who Currer Bell was. + +Hugh declined to make any statement except into the ear of the +reviewer; but as the truculent character of the avenger was probably +very apparent, his direct and bold move did not succeed, and at last +they ceased to admit him at Murray's. + +Having failed there, he went to the publishers of "Jane Eyre," and +told them plainly he was the author's uncle, and that he had come to +London to chastise the "Quarterly Review" critic. They treated him +civilly without furthering his quest, but he got from them, I believe, +an introduction to the reading-room of the British Museum, and to some +other reading-rooms. + +In the reading-room he was greatly disgusted to find how little +interest was taken in the matter that absorbed his whole attention. He +met, however, one kind old gentleman in the British Museum who +thoroughly sympathized with him, and took him home with him several +times. On one occasion he invited a number of people to meet him at +dinner. The house had signs of wealth such as he had never before +seen or dreamt of. Everybody was kind to him. After dinner he was +called on for a speech, and when he sat down they cheered him and +drank his health. + +They all examined his shillelagh, and, before parting, promised to do +their best to aid him in discovering the reviewer; but his friend +afterwards told him, at the Museum, that all had failed, and +considered Hugh's undertaking hopeless. + +He tried other plans of getting on the reviewer's track. He would step +into a book-shop, and buy a sheet of paper on which to write home, or +some other trifling object. While paying for his small purchase he +would lift "The Quarterly Review," and casually ask the book-seller +who wrote the attack on "Jane Eyre." + +He always found the book-sellers communicative, if not well informed. +Many told him that "Jane Eyre" was a well-known mistress of +Thackeray's. None of them seemed able to bear the thought of appearing +ignorant of anything. It was quite well known, others assured him, +that Thackeray had written the review--"in fact, he admitted that he +was the author of the review." Some declared that Mr. George Henry +Lewes was the author, others said it was Harriet Martineau, and some +ventured to say that Bulwer Lytton or Dickens was the critic. These +names were given with confidence, and with details of circumstances +which seemed to create a probability; but his friend, whom he met +daily at the Museum, assured him that they were only wild and absurd +guesses. Thus ended one of the strangest adventures within the whole +range of literary adventure. + +Hugh Bronte failed to find the reviewer of his niece's novel, but +explored London thoroughly. He saw the queen, but was better pleased +to see her horses and talk with her grooms. + +He saw reviews of troops, and public demonstrations, and cattle shows, +and the Houses of Parliament, and ships of many nations that lay near +his lodging; and he visited the Crystal Palace and the Tower, and +other objects of interest; and when his patience was exhausted and +his money spent, he returned to Haworth on his homeward journey. + +[Illustration: CHARLOTTE BRONTE.] + +His stay at the vicarage was brief. During his absence, consumption +had been rapidly sapping the life of the youngest girl, yet the gentle +Anne received him with the warmest welcome, and talked of accompanying +him to Ireland, which she spoke of as "home." At parting she threw her +long, slender arms round his neck, and called him her noble uncle. +Charlotte took him for a walk on the moor, asked a thousand questions, +told him about Emily and Branwell, and, slipping a few sovereigns into +his hand, advised him to hasten home. On the following day he parted +forever from the family that he would have given his life to +befriend. + +No welcome awaited him at home, because he had failed in his mission. +He gave to Mr. McKee a detailed account of his adventures in England, +but I do not think anyone else ever heard from him a single word +regarding the sad home at Haworth. But as long as he lived he +regretted his helplessness to avenge the slight put upon his niece, +and seemed to look on the miscarriage of his plans as the great +failure of his life. + +Since the foregoing article was put in type Doctor Wright has written +to the editor of this magazine announcing that he has discovered the +author of the "Quarterly" review. He says: + + "Assuming the editor's responsibility for the incriminated + interpolations, who wrote the article itself? Secrets have a bad + time of it in our day, and the authorship of the article is no + longer a secret. As has been generally suspected, the writer was a + woman, and that woman was Miss Rigby, the daughter of a Norwich + doctor, and was better known as Lady Eastlake. + + "The well-kept secret has been brought to light by Doctor + Robertson Nicoll in the 'Bookman' of September, 1892. Doctor + Nicoll found the key to the mystery in a letter written on March + 31, 1849, by Sara Coleridge to Edward Quillman, and published in + the 'Memoirs and Letters of Sara Coleridge.' The following is the + passage referred to: + + "'Miss Rigby's article on "Vanity Fair" was brilliant, as all her + productions are. But I could not agree to the concluding remark + about governesses. How could it benefit that uneasy class to + reduce the number of their employers, which, if high salaries were + considered in all cases indispensable, must necessarily be the + result of such a state of opinion?' + + "The 'Quarterly' article on 'Vanity Fair' dealt also with 'Jane + Eyre,' and with the 'Report of the Governesses' Benevolent + Institution for 1847,' and it is without doubt the article + referred to by Sara Coleridge. + + "On this matter Sara Coleridge was not likely to be under any + mistake. Miss Rigby was her intimate friend, and not likely to + conceal from her so important a literary event as the production + of a 'Quarterly' review. + + "I am also informed that Mr. George Smith, the publisher of 'Jane + Eyre,' declares without hesitation or doubt that he had always + known that Lady Eastlake was the author of the 'Quarterly' + article, and that he had declined to meet her at dinner on account + of it. + + "The fact that the brilliant Miss Rigby was the writer of the + review greatly strengthens my interpolation theory. To me it seems + beyond the range of things probable, that the pharisaic part of + the article could have come from the same source as 'Livonian + Tales' and the 'Letters from the Shores of the Baltic.' + + "The article is therefore of a composite character. It was written + by Miss Rigby the year before her marriage with Sir Charles Lock + Eastlake, and heavily edited during the reign of Lockhart. I know + it will be said that the genial Lockhart would not have added the + objectionable fustian to the superior material supplied by Miss + Rigby; but I must repeat that it was his duty, as a mere matter of + business, and a purely editorial affair, to maintain the + traditional tone of the 'Review.'" + + [2] The Reverend David McKee of Ballynaskeagh, a very successful + school teacher, who prepared hundreds of boys for college. Among + them was Captain Mayne Reid, who afterwards dedicated his book, + "The White Chief," to Mr. McKee. Ballynaskeagh, was the centre + of mental activity for the country round about. Its master was + the friend and neighbor of the Irish Brontes. He himself wrote + several books, one of which led to the beginning of a temperance + movement in Ireland. The writer of this article was his pupil at + the time of the publication of "Jane Eyre," and tells whereof he + knows personally, as well as some things of which he was + informed by Mr. McKee. + + [3] The December number of the "Quarterly Review" of 1848 is perhaps + the most famous of the entire series. Its fame rests on a + mystery which has baffled literary curiosity for close on half a + century. "Who wrote the review of 'Jane Eyre'?" is a question + that has been asked by every contributor to English literature + since the critique appeared. But thus far the question has been + asked in vain. + + The descendant and namesake of the eminent projector and + proprietor of "The Quarterly" does not feel at liberty to solve + the mystery by revealing the writer. I admire the loyalty of + John Murray to a servant whose work has attained an evil + pre-eminence. It is interesting to know, in these prying and + babbling times, that in the house of Murray the secret of even a + supposed ruffian is safe to the third generation. + + + + +ANNOUNCEMENT. + +ROMANTIC STORIES FROM THE FAMILY HISTORY OF THE BRONTES. + + +The August and succeeding issues of McCLURE'S MAGAZINE will contain a +series of papers giving the dramatic and hitherto unknown history of +the Brontes in Ireland. They will throw a vivid light upon the origin +of the Bronte novels, and upon the ancestors of the Brontes. As Doctor +Wright says: + + "Hugh Bronte, the father of Patrick, and grandfather of the famous + novelists, first makes his appearance as if he had stepped out of + a Bronte novel. His early experiences qualified him to take a + permanent place beside the child 'Jane Eyre' at Mrs. Reed's. The + treatment that embittered his childhood is never referred to by + the grand-daughters in their correspondence, but it is quite + evident that the knowledge of his hardships dominated their minds, + and gave a bent to their imaginations, when depicting the misery + of young lives dependent on charity." + +All the existing biographies of the Bronte sisters are confined to the +Brontes in England. There were but two people competent to give the +story of the Bronte ancestors: one, Captain Mayne Reid; and the other, +Doctor William Wright, who has spent many years preparing this +history. + +Doctor Wright had exceptional advantages for his labor of love. In his +childhood his nurse told him the traditions of the Brontes; his tutor +was full of recollections of the father, uncles, and grandfather of +the novelists. As a student he wrote screeds of the Bronte novels in +place of essays, having first been told the incidents and events by +his tutor. His recollections, extending back to the early part of this +century, have been strengthened by years of patient investigation. +During different years Doctor Wright has spent several months at a +time in Ireland, following up obscure traces of the family, hunting +down traditions connected with the Brontes, or carefully verifying +minute points derived from his own recollections or the reports of +others. The result of these painstaking researches, which have +extended over a lifetime, is an authentic narrative of great human +interest. + +The unadorned history of the family reads like a Bronte novel. The +adventures, the hairbreadth escapes, the struggles, the kidnapping, +the abuse, which figure in these chapters are stranger than fiction. +The courtship, elopement, and marriage of Hugh Bronte with Alice +McGlory form one of the most extraordinary narratives of love and +adventure that has ever been penned. + +The half-humorous, half-pathetic, but always intensely interesting, +descriptions of the ancestors of the Bronte sisters, their peculiarities, +the superstition with which some of them were regarded as masters of the +black art, the respect that they commanded as fighters and singers and +workmen, the side-lights thrown upon the early and bitter contest over +tenant rights, the exposition of strange religious beliefs--all of this, +and more that cannot here even be hinted at, serve to present a curious +and vivid picture of everyday life in a corner of Ireland one hundred +years ago. + +These articles bring out the hereditary and surrounding influences +which helped to shape the genius of Charlotte Bronte. Aside from the +value which they have because they furnish a remarkable commentary on +the work of the great novelist, they are pages of real life of +fascination and remarkable interest. + +The first article will give a glimpse of the early Brontes and the +singular weird story of that dark foundling who brought ruin to his +benefactors, and whose machinations resulted in the absolute +separation of Hugh Bronte, the grandfather of the novelists, from his +parents--a separation so complete that he was never able to learn in +what part of Ireland his father's family lived. Hugh Bronte was +kidnapped when he was six years old. The strange narrative of his +abduction will be given in the August number of McCLURE'S MAGAZINE. + + + + +A STRANGE STORY: THE LOST YEARS + +LIZZIE HYER NEFF. + + +I. + +Whether or not to relate the history that I now commence has been to +me a seriously debated question. + +But after due reflection I decide that, being the only witness to the +events that have lately been so startling to at least one community, +it is my duty to state as clearly and exactly as possible, while yet +fresh in my memory, the occurrences that came under my observation. I +am satisfied in so doing that the contingencies which might arise from +my silence would be much more serious in their effect upon my friends +than their aversion to the publicity to which they may be subjected; +but, of course, when completed, my statement will be subject to their +wish in its disposal. + +Regarding myself, it is only necessary to state that last winter--I +think it was the last week of January--my health became so alarming as +to induce me to accept my son's urgent invitation to visit him in a +far Western territory, hoping that the brighter sky and milder air +would more than compensate for the long and lonely journey to one who +is neither young nor adventurous. + +And the effect of the change was almost magical. My son is a civil and +mining engineer, and, being unmarried, boards at the largest of the +three hotels in the busy mining town upon the Southern Pacific road, +which I shall call Brownville. + +I reached the place on the afternoon of a bright, balmy day--a May day +it seemed to me--but being an unaccustomed traveller, the motion of +the cars and the strangeness of the transition gave everything such a +dreamlike unreality that I cannot recall the impressions of the first +few days with as much distinctness as later ones. I was continually +expecting my son to vanish, and myself to wake up in my room at home. +This soon wore off, however. I think it was on the second day after my +arrival, as we were starting down stairs to dinner, my son suddenly +drew me back into my room as if to avoid some one who was passing. + +"I was afraid you might be startled," he exclaimed. "I was at first, +and I am neither sick nor a lady. Mother, there is a young man here +who will seem like one risen from the dead to you at first sight. He +looks enough like Chester Mansfield to be his twin brother. I think I +never saw so striking a resemblance before, but after you are +acquainted with him the impression will wear away, because he is so +different in every other way." Then we went down stairs, and meeting +the young man at the dining-room door, my son introduced him as "Mr. +Reynolds;" and thus began my acquaintance with him. Of course, after +my son's cautionary remark, I noticed him closely, but I should have +done so anyhow, I am sure, for the resemblance to the dead was so +strong as to give me a very strange feeling, for Chester Mansfield had +been only less dear to me than my own son. But as Howard had said, the +resemblance seemed to wear away somewhat as I talked with him, and I +began to wonder that I had felt it so much. This young man was older, +stouter--and many shades darker in complexion than my friend. His +manner, speech, and style of dress were wholly unlike those of the +dead Chester, although his voice, while deeper, was very similar. He +was attached to the hotel in some capacity, and went out with us to +dinner after a moment's talk, and I found him to be a pleasant talker, +with a ready fund of the slang which seems to be the evolving language +of the Far West, and a very witty use of it; but he did not seem to be +well informed on any subject that I could mention, a strong contrast +to the scholarship of the dead man whose face he bore. + +Yet he had an unmistakable air of good breeding, and even of +intelligence, although it was impossible to draw him into a connected +conversation. He seemed to be very popular in the house. + +Howard was closely engaged in his work, which sometimes kept him away +for a week at a time, and I had neither the strength nor courage to +go very far from the house alone, through that odd, rushing, +foreign-looking town, so I had much time to myself. I was the only +woman at the house except the proprietor's wife and one Irish +chambermaid. This, perhaps, would account for my interest in the +young man, for I must confess that he occupied my thoughts a good +deal during those first weeks. One Sabbath afternoon I saw him going +away with a party of friends--stylishly dressed, hard-looking men, +and I turned and spoke to Howard of the idea that I had formed of +him. + +"I have thought of the same thing myself, mother," he replied. "That +fellow is of Eastern origin, and he is well brought up, in spite of +his efforts to conceal it. And you can't get a word out of him about +his past. I've tried a dozen times. I'm positive that he puts on +ignorance a good many times, just as a blind. There's a good deal of +that here--men who have forgotten all about the East, you understand, +and who have new names, and who don't write home by every mail. Now, +weren't there other Mansfield boys besides Chester? His mother was a +second wife, wasn't she, and there was another family who lived with +their grandmother?" + +"Why, certainly there was!" I exclaimed, catching at the idea. "Three +boys, and two of them went out to Denver, or somewhere in that region. +Now I have it--that's just who he is. I wonder what crime he has +committed--robbery, or perhaps murder--who knows?" + +"Oh, no! Take care, not quite so fast, mother. But I have a little +clue that nobody else has had the interest to notice. It is more than +mere coincidence. Of course Doctor Mansfield's sons would be brought +up in the deepest piety, and when this fellow gets drunk--you'll hear +him some night--he's terribly pious; prays and sings half the night to +himself--old church hymns that were never heard in this place. And the +thing that I notice is this: he prays like one who was brought up to +it; not like some reprobate who has been scared into piety. I've heard +them a few times, too, and I know the difference. + +"Now, that means a little, and when you put it with the company he +keeps, especially Crouch, his chum, that black-looking fellow who was +shooting at the target out there this morning, don't you see it grows +quite interesting?" + +"I should think it does. Why, it is perfectly certain that he is a +desperate sort of person. I wonder what he has done? It couldn't be +the Cleveland fur robbery, I suppose," I said. + +Howard got up and shook himself and then laughed uproariously. + +"No, but he might be the Rahway murderer. You'd better lock the door +fast and tight at night." (This was a stab at my well-known +cowardice.) + +"And, little mother, if you think you have got hold of a delightful, +bloody mystery, for the love of heaven keep still about it. A little +talk will set a cyclone going if you're not particular." + +I resented this caution as quite unnecessary, but Howard laughed and +shook his finger at me. I think he is at the age when a young man +feels his physical and political superiority over his mother very +fully. After he had gone out I sat thinking over his new idea. I had a +faint suspicion that Howard was amusing himself at my interest in the +matter, and was starting me in pursuit of something that he knew +perfectly well beforehand; yet every word that he had said was +fastened in my memory, and many little unnoticed things now came up to +strengthen my suspicions. + +In Crouch, the evil-looking fellow, I had no interest, for he was not +mysterious. He was a rascal at the first glance, and could not be +anything else. And he was the sort of rascal that one is content not +to investigate, but observe at the greatest possible distance. + +What, then, was young Reynolds' interest in him? I intended to write +home the next day to ask about the Mansfield brothers, but Howard +carried me off to the mines to camp for a few days, and my thoughts +were turned in a new direction. + +The day after my return I went out for a walk through the town. I +crossed the plaza and started down one of the diverging streets, when +I suddenly found myself in a most unsavory neighborhood, and suspected +that I must have crossed the "dead line," beyond which I had been told +no white woman ever ventured. I turned to beat a hasty retreat, when I +heard my name, and looking up saw Charlie Reynolds, apparently very +drunk, issuing from the door of a dance saloon. One or two of his +friends were smoking in the doorway. "Good evening, Mish Spencer," he +said, with an aggravated bow. "Thish bad place for lady. See you home, +Mish Spencer?" + +"No," I said, "you can't see me home, but I will see you home. You +walk on before me, and I will follow." + +To my surprise he obeyed, and across the plaza and down the street of +_adobe_ houses I steered my drunken companion, until I saw him safe +within the doors of the Eldorado House, where I was assured that he +would be put to bed. + +That night my son was detained at the mines, and I sat at my window +alone in the marvellous moonlight so clear, so brilliant in that +rarefied atmosphere, that I could see the round blue lines of the +mountains in Mexico, sixty miles away. Sounds from different parts of +the town came up with startling distinctness. I could distinguish +every word of sentences spoken two squares away, and the barking of +coyotes out in the mesquit brush that surrounded the town seemed to +come from under my window. I seemed to be far from the rest of the +earth, on some desolate peak that stood in vast solitude, for the +stars were so large and bright, and the great glowing moon seemed to +hang just overhead. + +There were no trees on the great blue mountains, no grass in the stony +valleys, and I realized in their absence how much we owe to the +mission of the green and growing. There was no sense of companionship +in the babel of sounds and languages that came up from the wicked +little town. I am afraid that a few homesick tears came to my eyes. + +Suddenly one of the grand old hymns of my church struck the intense +air. A clear, strong, manly voice. How familiar it sounded, ringing +out alone! I sat spellbound, for it was, as my son had said, not the +effort of a tyro, but the cultivated voice of a cultivated man. Coming +just at this moment in the grandly solemn night, its effect upon me +was indescribable, and a new thought flashed into my mind, which I am +ashamed to confess was not there before. Why cannot this young man, +whatever he may have done, be saved through this early training? I +could not sleep for this thought, and waited impatiently for the +morning, resolved to undertake some missionary work in behalf of +Charlie Reynolds. + + +II. + +The Chester Mansfield to whom I have referred was the young minister +of my church, and also the son of my dearest friend. Mrs. Mansfield +had been my playmate and schoolmate in childhood, my confidante in +girlhood, and when we were matrons and neighbors our early affection +had settled into the deep, enduring friendship of later life. She had +married our minister and was an exemplary wife and mother. Our +children were schoolmates also, and her only son Chester was a boy of +unusual promise. He distinguished himself in school and college, and, +finishing his course just before his father's death, was unanimously +called to fill the vacant pulpit. Here his eloquence and spirituality +fully justified the promise of his youth, and he became almost the +idol of his congregation. He married a lovely girl, and life seemed to +hold for him the highest blessings that man can dream of. + +The sorrow, then, of his sudden and peculiarly sad death cannot be +described. Not only his family and church, but the whole town, mourned +as if for a brother, and the church could not hold the concourse that +followed his body to the grave. + +The mothers and sisters and the frail young wife were almost crushed +by the blow, and even after the lapse of nearly five years it was +fresh enough in my heart to make Charlie Reynolds' face bring back +those days of mourning with sad reality. I formed then the hope, +foolish, perhaps, that if this young man should be found to be a +relative of the dead man and reclaimed, he might in some measure +atone to those bereaved ones for their loss. With this idea, I +improved every opportunity to cultivate Charlie Reynolds' acquaintance +and win his good opinion, although I was much embarrassed by the +laughing eyes that Howard never failed to turn upon me in my +efforts at conversation. + +They were efforts, indeed; for if I had come from a foreign land, and +spoken an unknown language, I could hardly have had more difficulty in +finding a topic of common interest or in making myself intelligible, +for old-fashioned English seemed to be less understood than any others +of the numerous tongues I heard. + +I could hear from my window, Mexicans, Chinamen, Indians, Frenchmen, +and Spaniards chatting in the plaza, until I could almost guess what +they said, but the vernacular of the American miner and rancher is +beyond comprehension. + +There are about four topics discussed at the Eldorado tables, chief of +all, the mines, and to this day I cannot talk coherently about drifts +and leads and dumps, and the like. + +Then there were the games, the most absorbing of all, who had lost and +won, and as I don't know one card nor one game from another, I am not +interested in that subject. There was, it seemed to me, a fresh murder +or robbery or Indian fight to discuss every morning at breakfast; and +the ranch talk, in which my most intelligent questions always provoked +a shout of laughter. When I quoted Talmage one morning, a young man +looked at me pityingly, and said, "Oh, he's dead a year ago! He had +one of the finest saloons in Las Vegas; he was a smart man, poor +fellow!" My attempts to interest my table companions in a description +of the Chautauqua and its purpose, and the mission of the W. C. T. U., +and their painful efforts to be politely interested, almost sent my +son into convulsions in consequence of laughing into his coffee-cup; +and the intense earnestness with which the man they called Bunco Brown +asked, "And didn't they sell no booze there?" and then, "Well, then, +how in thunder do they get it if they're too pious to steal?" might +have seemed amusing to one who was not struck by the horror of the +fact that the man could not conceive of life for any person without +drink. + +So, owing to the missionary's usual difficulty in making himself +understood, I had to wait to learn a means of communication with my +subject. I even ventured to the door of the billiard room and tried to +manifest an interest in the science of the game, but here, also, I +was too hopelessly old-fashioned to be able to comprehend the beauty +of the angles, and beat an ignominious retreat. I heard Charlie remark +as I went up-stairs: "Game, for such a pious old lady, isn't she?" I +took it as a compliment. + +But my opportunity finally came through the humble instrumentality of +an onion. It was about the size of a dinner-plate, and lay on the +newel-post as I came down stairs one morning. Charlie was standing in +the front door, with his back to me, peeling an orange. He turned +around at my exclamation of surprise and asked, "Why, don't they grow +like that where you live?" + +"In New England? Oh dear, no!" I cried; and then he asked me a number +of questions, and seemed very much interested in my account of +vegetables and fruit and trees and flowers in the East. I was +delighted to tell him, although I had a lurking suspicion that such a +remarkable ignorance of that country was feigned. And yet his eyes, so +wonderfully like Chester Mansfield's, except in expression, had a +certain vacant honesty--for which, I presume, an accustomed +story-teller could find a better expression--that I was obliged to +believe genuine. As soon as he found that I was curious about the +flora and fauna of the locality, he took great pains in bringing me +specimens, and on two occasions took me out for a walk to see +something that could not be brought. In this closer acquaintance I +found so much that was kind and pleasant, and so many peculiar little +resemblances to my dead friend--a backward toss of the head when he +laughed, a frown when listening, an odd little gesture with the left +hand in explaining anything--that he puzzled me more and more. Among +the few books that I could find to read in the town was the "Woman in +White," which I read with compunction, not having been addicted to +works of fiction, and the curious resemblance between the two women +made a deep impression upon me, and seemed to have a strange +significance just at this time. Although I had as yet not succeeded in +drawing any confidence from Charlie--who, indeed, seldom spoke of +himself, and never related any past experience--a very suspicious +trait I thought, I felt sure that time would unravel the dark mystery +that enveloped him. + +Just as I was feeling that I had now Charlie's friendship, the man +Crouch seemed to become jealous of my influence, and became so +attentive to him that my acquaintance with him was virtually suspended +for a time. One day, a bright, hot day in March, a Mexican wagon train +arrived in town, laden with beans, hides, and "Chili Colorade," and a +crowd of rancheros from another direction swarmed into the plaza. The +town was full of excitement and whiskey; the tinkle of the dance +saloons came up from all quarters; the rancheros, with their red +shirts and broad hats, galloped their tough mustangs madly through the +streets, firing at random, and lassoing the unlucky curs and pigs that +happened to be in the way. While there were street brawls at every +corner, I hardly dared to leave my room, and I could not venture to +sit by my window. It was a great relief that Howard came in very +early. All through the evening I listened to the confused sounds that +came up through the resonant air, and could distinguish the soft voice +of the pretty Mexican girl in the saloon opposite my window, +accompanied by her castanet. It was another of those still, white +nights, when the town seemed to hang in mid-air. I felt the +premonition of impending disaster so common to nervous women, and made +Howard sit in my room as long as I could think of a pretext for +keeping him. When I was alone, I lay wakeful through the noisy hours, +waiting for daylight. At perhaps three o'clock, or a little later, I +fell into a semi-conscious doze, from which I was aroused by the +footsteps and low voices of men in the hall. The slowness of the +steps, and the hushed tone in which they spoke, gave me a thrill of +terror. Something had happened. Yes, they were talking about it, and +carrying something--some one--by. "Right this way, lay him on the +bed." "What, doctor?" "Pretty near dead." "Small chance," and so on. +Then with strained nerves I listened for the doctor, heard him come, +heard his quick directions, heard the running to and fro to get what +he required, and then arose and dressed myself with trembling hands, +unable to bear the tension any longer, and thinking that I might be of +assistance. I went to Howard's door, aroused him, and sent him to +learn what was the matter. He went a little reluctantly, but returned +wide awake. + +"Why, it's Charlie Reynolds, poor fellow! I guess he's about +killed--some row, I suppose; didn't wait to find out. The doctor is +attending to him now." + +A little later, in the gray, solemn dawn, the doctor came out of the +room in which Charlie had been laid, and I went to learn the worst. I +knew now that I had grown very fond of the young man, and I could see +that Howard liked him, too. + + +III. + +The doctor looked at me curiously. "He is pretty badly hurt, but I +think he will pull through. I don't suppose it makes any particular +difference to him or anybody else, whether he does or not!" he said, +brushing his hat with his coat-sleeve. + +"Why not?" I demanded. + +"Why, because he will only pull through this to get killed in some +other scrape, and before he can get into anything else he will have to +answer for this one. You know how he was hurt?" + +"No, I don't know anything about it." + +"He robbed a fellow in the night, and the man chased him and shot him, +and finding that he still ran, knocked him down with the butt end of +his pistol, threw it at him; that is the worst hurt he had. And he is +an old customer, for this blow opened an old place; it isn't the first +time he has been caught. I've just trepanned it--quite a serious +operation under the circumstances." + +"And the pistol wounds?" + +"Nothing but scratches; they won't hurt." + +"Well, he is a human creature, with an immortal soul, and I shall take +care of him, anyhow. There is nobody else to do it, so I intend to," I +said as calmly as I could, after all this terrible information, which +had shaken me none the less for the doctor's indifferent tone and +manner. + +"Very well, ma'am, I wish you success. There's nothing to do now but +keep him quiet until I come back after breakfast." + +I walked in alone and looked at the still, white face under the +bandages. He was evidently under the influence of a heavy opiate, for +there was no sign of life, except the faint breathing. + +I could not help feeling a great pity for the young man, so friendless +and so indifferently regarded, and with such a future to look forward +to in his recovery. No clue could be found to his past or his family, +if he had any. + +I took it as more than mere accident that he had fallen thus helpless +and suffering into my hands, and resolved to use to the utmost my +skill and influence for the best. + +He lay for a good many days--I cannot tell just how many--in a +comatose condition, and I did not for a moment relax my watch, except +to take a little rest now and then. At length there began to be signs +of returning consciousness. The dull eyes would open and gaze vacantly +around the room. + +He could utter a few incoherent words, and the hands groped in a +troubled way among the bed-clothes. And day by day, as the bronze tint +of the skin disappeared, and the features grew clearer and thinner, +that marvellous likeness grew stronger, until, looking at him, I +rubbed my eyes sometimes, and believed myself the victim of an +hallucination. + +One morning, at length, he opened his eyes, and looked at me with a +new intelligence, an attentiveness that I had never seen in him +before. + +As he lay there with bright open eyes the likeness was simply +intolerable, as I thought of the career that he represented. I busied +myself in bringing the basin of water and sponge to bathe his face and +hands. He was evidently trying to recall the circumstances of his +injury and account for his presence there, for he looked in turn at me +and the room, and then at the bed in which he lay. + +"Mrs. Spencer, I cannot think how you come to be here. Was I much +hurt?" + +"Yes, you were pretty badly hurt, but you will soon be all right now +if you keep quiet. Don't move your head. I will wash your hands now." + +He closed his eyes as if weary with even the effort he had made, and +soon fell asleep, as naturally as a child. + +Later in the day he awoke and seemed strange. He looked at me with the +same puzzled expression. I was heating some drink for him over a +spirit lamp when he spoke in a strangely familiar voice, although very +weak. + +"Mrs. Spencer, has anything happened at home that you have come to me, +and not mother? I had a letter from mother yesterday, and all were +well. Was the accident very fatal?" + +I dropped the cup I was holding; my heart seemed to stop beating. For +the white, serious face on the pillow was not that of Charlie +Reynolds, but Chester Mansfield! I ran out of the room, down the hall, +and into my own room. I had no motive in doing so, because I was too +much startled and I think terrified for thought. + +My first collected idea was, that I had dwelt upon the subject so much +during lonely days and nights of vigil that I was now a victim of +subjective vision--I was for the moment insane upon that subject. I +sent for the doctor immediately, and after bathing my face and trying +to steady my quivering nerves, returned to my patient whom I was +afraid I might have shocked by my sudden exit. He looked surprised, +and watched me curiously. + +"I think you had better not talk any more. The doctor says you must be +kept quiet." And I busied my hands in smoothing down the bed-clothes. + +"I will be quiet; but you must tell me one or two things. Are they all +well at home--Lucia, and mother and the girls? and how many were hurt +in the accident?" + +"They are all well at home. I am visiting here," I managed to answer, +and he turned away his head, apparently satisfied. I paced up and down +the hall until the doctor came, and drew him into a vacant room to +tell him the situation. He looked at me incredulously when I had +finished my excited narrative, reached for my wrist, and shook his +head. "You have been working too hard over that fellow," he said. "You +will be the next patient." + +"But he asked for his wife and called her by name. Come and see which +is the lunatic," and I led the way to the sick-room. + +"Ah!" he said in a cheery tone, going to the bedside. "I see we are +getting along bravely, and look as smart as folks that have a whole +skull." + +The patient (I didn't know what name to call him) smiled, but without +a trace of recognition. + +"I suppose you are my physician, and I am probably indebted to you for +my life," he said feebly. + +The doctor looked puzzled. "You don't seem to recall my face." + +"No, I suppose I was knocked senseless. The last thing I can remember +is going down the embankment. I tried to jump, but my foot caught, and +I struck my head against something. There was a young woman in the +opposite berth--was she killed, I wonder? She had two little children. +I suppose I have been unconscious for sometime. It must have happened +yesterday, didn't it?" + +"It was several days ago," said the doctor, soothingly. "You had +better rest a while, and then you can tell us more, and about +yourself." + +"This lady can tell you all about me. She has known me all my life," +and he closed his eyes wearily. + +The doctor looked at me significantly, and I followed him into the +hall. + +"What in the world does this mean? That young man is no more +Charlie Reynolds than I am. I can only account for the case in one +way, and that is a very unusual one. The operation I performed last +week restored his skull to its normal shape. There was quite a +deep indenture and a consequent pressure upon the brain, which +undoubtedly affected, probably suspended, his memory. Now this young +man--minister, did you say?----" + +"Yes," I interrupted. "But this is the awful part of it. He is +dead--buried--five years ago. I saw him buried, have gone to his grave +many times, and now he lies there and talks to me. And Charlie +Reynolds, drunkard and robber. Oh, no! no!" + +"You say your friend was killed in a railroad accident on his vacation +trip? How was the body identified? Who saw it after it was sent +home?" + +"None of his family saw the remains, he was so badly burned. I see. It +must have been the wrong body." + +"And the railroad, of course, had him cared for until he was well. And +then he couldn't tell who he was, and drifted about until he fell into +bad company. He has been a cat's paw for this gang, no doubt. Well, +you've got a pretty little sensation upon your hands. I'd like to see +you get back and tell your story." + +I wondered how he could talk and smile so carelessly, but in that +country nobody is surprised at anything. I went back to my patient, +after dispatching a messenger for Howard, who was working in the "San +Jacinto," twenty miles away. + +Chester, as I could safely call him now, was extremely anxious about +his fellow passengers, and thought they must be in the hotel at this +time. I was familiar with the shocking details of the disaster at the +time, but could not recall them with sufficient accuracy to satisfy +him. The five years intervening were apparently entirely lost. He +could scarcely believe us when we told him that he had lain +unconscious for more than a week. + +Howard came in the evening, and was amazed beyond his power of +expression. He thought over the complex situation a long time before +he made any effort to communicate with the family of the patient. +Chester could not understand why we had not telegraphed before, and we +could not explain. We called a council of three and debated. Chester +Mansfield, the gifted, irreproachable minister of our large church, +was held to be tried for robbery and assault as soon as he was able to +appear. We could not take him away. What word could we send to the +young wife, about whom he continually asked, and the old mother? We +finally left it to Howard, who telegraphed to the wife that her +husband had been found alive, though recovering from serious illness; +that he was in our care, but wished her to join him as soon as +possible; and that the body sent home as his must have been that of +another man. + +When we told Chester that she had been sent for he exclaimed, "How can +she leave her baby? She would have been with me but for that three +months old baby." The baby was now a tall boy of five in kilts. +Although the complications arising from this strange case were +countless, we managed to keep the real story from Chester until he was +sufficiently recovered to bear it, and indeed we did not then tell him +of the serious misdeeds of his other self. + +But when the young wife came after her long journey, and we led her, +for the first time without her mourning dress, up to his room, he knew +that to her he was in truth one risen from the dead. I opened the door +for her, and when I heard her cry of joy as she sprang forward, +satisfied at last of his identity, and his low, "My love, my love!" I +closed the door and went away to weep a few tears to myself, but not +of sorrow. + +My story is told. We secured bail for Charles Reynolds and took him +home, to await the fall term of court, where he expects to have no +difficulty in proving his innocence in his present person. To himself +his case presents some metaphysical and moral studies quite at +variance with his own belief. He cannot yet comprehend the silence of +his conscience at this time of need. The sensation created by our +return, and all subsequent events, are well known to those who will +read this statement, so that I need tell no more. + +My only object in writing so minute an account, and detailing such +conversations as I could remember, is to protect him forever, as far +as my word will avail, from any insinuation of intentional or +conscious wrong doing in those five lost years, knowing as I do the +conditions of life exacted of a clergyman and fearing some future +recrimination. + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber Notes + +The Table of Contents and the List of Illustrations were added by the +transcriber. Quotation marks changed to standardize usage. All other +original punctuation and archaic spelling (i.e. chetahs, serval, +wardbob, and Bagdad) preserved as written. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2, +July, 1893, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE, JULY, 1893 *** + +***** This file should be named 33771.txt or 33771.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/7/7/33771/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Katherine Ward, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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