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diff --git a/36886.txt b/36886.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7e7400 --- /dev/null +++ b/36886.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5191 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 5, October +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. 5, October 1893 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 28, 2011 [EBook #36886] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 1893 *** + + + + +Produced by Katherine Ward, Juliet Sutherland, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +McCLURE'S MAGAZINE + +VOL. I OCTOBER, 1893 No. 5 + + +_Copyright, 1893, by S. S. McClure, Limited. All rights reserved._ + +Table of Contents + + PAGE + Thomas B. Reed, of Maine. By Robert P. Porter. 375 + "Human Documents." 387 + The Joneses' Telephone. By Annie Howells Frechette. 394 + The Psychological Laboratory at Harvard. By Herbert Nichols. 399 + The Spire of St. Stephen's. By Emma W. Demeritt. 410 + Mountaineering Adventure. By Francis Gribble. 417 + The Smoke. By George MacDonald. 428 + The Earl of Dunraven. By C. Kinloch Cooke. 429 + At a Dance. By Augusta de Gruchy. 439 + Dulces Amaryllidis Irae. By Augusta de Gruchy. 439 + A Splendid Time--Ahead. By Walter Besant. 440 + An Old Song. 450 + Stranger Than Fiction. By Dr. William Wright. 451 + + + + +Illustrations + + PAGE + Thomas B. Reed, Portland Me, 17 July 1893. 375 + Mr. Reed's Home in Portland. 377 + View From the Roof of Mr. Reed's House. 378 + Mr. Reed in His Library. 380 + A Corner of the Library. 381 + Mr. Reed's Birthplace in Portland. 382 + The Members of the Pentagon Club of Bowdoin College. 383 + Mr. Reed's Portland Law Office. 386 + Thomas B. Reed. 388 + Frances E. Willard. 390 + Edgar Wilson Nye. 391 + George W. Cable. 392 + The Joneses' Telephone 394 + Studying the Effects of Sound and of Attention on Colors. 400 + Studying the Effects of Colors on Judgments of Time. 401 + Revolving Chair for Studying Localizations of Sounds. 402 + Measuring the Time Required for Various Mental Acts. 404 + Wax Specimens in the Museum. 406 + Gustave Theodore Fechner. 406 + Professor Wilhelm Wundt, of Leipsic (1878). 407 + President G. Stanley Hall, Founder of 1st Psychological Lab. 407 + Professor William James, Harvard University. 407 + Professor Hugo Muensterberg, Harvard University. 408 + The Mauvais Pas, Mont Blanc. 418 + The Needle of the Giants and Mont Blanc. 419 + The Matterhorn. 421 + The Dent Blanche. 422 + The Rhone Glacier. 424 + Passage of a Crevasse, Mont Blanc. 425 + Pyramids of the Morteratsch. 426 + Passage of a Crevasse, Mont Blanc. 428 + Lord Dunraven. 429 + Lady Dunraven. 430 + Dunraven Castle. 431 + Captain William Cranfield of the "Valkyrie." 431 + G. T. Watson, Designer of the "Valkyrie." 432 + The "Valkyrie." 433 + The Kenry Gateway. 434 + Adare Manor House. 435 + Adare Gallery. 436 + Ruins of Desmond Castle. 437 + + + + +THOMAS B. REED, OF MAINE. + +THE MAN AND HIS HOME. + +BY ROBERT P. PORTER. + + +It was at a dinner in Washington that I had the good fortune to find +myself seated next to Thomas B. Reed, of Maine. It was a brilliant +occasion, for around the table sat well-known statesmen, scientists, +jurists, economists, and literary men, besides two or three who had +gained eminence in the medical profession. Mr. Reed was at his best, +"better than the best champagne." His conversation, sparkling with +good-nature, was not only exhilarating to his immediate neighbors, but +at times to the entire table. Being among friends, among the sort of +men he really liked, he let himself out as it were. + +[Illustration: Thomas B. Reed, Portland Me, 17 July 1893] + +Before the conversation had gone beyond the serious point I remember +asking the ex-Speaker how he felt at the time when the entire +Democratic press of the country had pounced upon him; when he was +being held up as "The Czar"--a man whose iron heels were crushing out +American popular government. "Oh," he promptly replied, "you mean what +were my feelings while the uproar about the rules of the Fifty-first +Congress was going on, and while the question was in doubt? Well, I +had no feeling except that of entire serenity, and the reason was +simple. I knew just what I was going to do if the House did not +sustain me;" and raising his eyes, with a typical twist of his mouth +which those who have seen it don't easily forget, he added, "when a +man has decided upon a plan of action for either contingency there is +no need for him to be disturbed, you know." + +"And may I ask what you determined to do if the House decided +adversely?" + +"I should simply have left the Chair, resigning the Speakership, and +left the House, resigning my seat in Congress. There were things that +could be done, you know, outside of political life, and for my own +part I had made up my mind that if political life consisted in sitting +helplessly in the Speaker's chair, and seeing the majority powerless +to pass legislation, I had had enough of it, and was ready to step +down and out." + +After a moment's pause he turned, and, looking me full in the face +with a half smile, continued: "Did it ever occur to you that it is a +very soothing thing to know exactly what you are going to do, if +things do not go your way? You have then made yourself equal to the +worst, and have only to wait and find out what was ordained before the +foundation of the world." + +"You never had a doubt in your own mind that the position taken was +in perfect accordance with justice and common sense?" I ventured. + +"Never for a moment. Men, you see, being creatures of use and wont, +are naturally bound up in old traditions. While every court which had +ever considered the question had decided one way, we had been used to +the other. Fortunately for the country, there was no wavering in our +ranks." + +"But how did you feel," said I, "when the uproar was at its worst, +when the members of the minority were raging on the floor together?" + +"Just as you would feel," was the reply, "if a big creature were +jumping at you, and you knew the exact length and strength of his +chain, and were quite sure of the weapon you had in your hands." + +This conversation gives a clear insight into the character of Thomas +B. Reed. It shows his chief characteristics: manly aggressiveness, an +iron will--qualities which friend and foe alike have recognized in +him--with a certain serenity of temper, a broadness, a bigness of +horizon which only the men who have been brought into personal contact +with him fully appreciate. + +Standing, as he does, in the foremost rank of public men, one of the +leaders of his party, the public has certainly a right to know +something of the man. First of all, one thing about him has to be +emphasized; he lacks one of the traits that popular leaders too often +possess. He cannot be all things to all men. He is bound to be true to +his personal convictions, and he is not the man to vote for a measure +he detests, because his constituents clamor for it. Every one knows +how public men have at times voted against their earnest convictions, +and then gone into the cloak room and apologized for it; but it would +be difficult to imagine a man of Mr. Reed's composition in this role. + +To judge a man well, to know his best side, it is necessary to see him +at home, and I cull from notes made several weeks ago, during a visit +to Mr. Reed in Portland. + +I found Mr. Reed in a three-story corner brick house, on one of the +most sightly spots in town. Over the western walls of that modern, +substantial New England home there clambers a mass of Japanese ivy, +which, relieving the straightness of the architectural lines, gives a +pleasing something, an artistic touch, to the _ensemble_. Its owner +having shown his pride in that beautiful ivy, straightway took me to +the roof of the house, to admire the superb view of Casco Bay and the +picturesque expanse of country around Portland. + +The stamp of the man's character is plain everywhere in that house. +The rooms are large, airy, and unpretentiously furnished, yet with +solidity and that certain winning grace of domestic appointments in +old New England. Much of Mr. Reed's work is done at his desk in a wee +bit of a room on the second floor, where crowded book-shelves reach to +the ceiling. His library long ago overflowed the confines of his den, +and books are scattered through the rooms on every floor; books, +bought not for binding nor editions, but for the contents, ranging +from miscellaneous novels to the dryest historical treatises, from +poetry to philosophy. + +The library,[1] on the ground floor, where callers are usually +received, has among the inevitable book-shelves a few photographs of +masterpieces. Over the mantelpiece a painting of Weeks's shows that +the sympathies of the owner extend beyond that sphere to which the +great public is inclined to confine him. + + [1] The picture which forms the frontispiece of the Magazine + represents him in this room, at his favorite seat by the + window. + +Of the favorite haunts of Mr. Reed, the place of all to study his +social side is at his club, The Cumberland. + +"You see," said Mr. Reed, "a club of this kind is only possible in a +conservative town like Portland, a staid, old place which grows +slowly, at the rate of about five or six hundred a year, where the +one hundred club members, while belonging to opposite political +parties, unite to a man in celebrating the victory of any of their +fellow-members. Most of them, friends from boyhood, have gone to +school together, and are known to one another but by their +Christian names." There the ex-Czar is always called "Tom," or +"Thomas, old boy," and there reigns supreme a fine spirit of +equality, or unpretentious "give and take" sort of intercourse, +which is really the ideal object of a club. + +"Indeed, there is no place like it," said Reed. "It is the most +home-like club one can imagine; too small to have coteries, and with +lots of bright, sensible boys, quick at repartee. People talk of my +wit, but, I tell you, it's hard work to hold my own there; and then no +one can try to pose among us, or attempt to make a fool of himself, +but he is properly sat upon. Intercourse with your fellow-men in such +a _milieu_ is the best discipline I know of for a man--except that of +political life," he added, with his droll smile. + +Of course Mr. Reed is interested in the welfare of Portland, and he +cherishes the idea that some day the city of his birth will become one +of the great cities of the continent. "Portland harbor is one of the +finest on the Atlantic coast. It is at least two days nearer Europe +than New York, and one day nearer Europe than Boston. The annexation +of Canada to the United States, or the union of the two countries, one +of which is bound to come in the course of time, will surely bring to +Portland the great prosperity that should be hers by reason of her +admirable harbor and her geographical position. And," he added, "while +I like the life in Washington, especially when the session is active +and there is plenty of work to do, it has never yet been the case that +I have left Portland without regret, or gone back to it without +pleasure." + +[Illustration: MR. REED'S HOME IN PORTLAND.] + +The frame house in which he was born still stands, shaded by two elms +of obvious age. Henry W. Longfellow was born just around the corner +from it, in a dwelling that marks the spot where, in 1632, one George +Cleeve built the first white man's habitation ever erected in the +territory now included in Portland's boundaries. The settlement was +called, in tender remembrance of an English field, "Stogumnor," and +its founder's life was one of almost ceaseless conflict, now with the +redskins and now with the white neighbors of other settlements, so +that Cleeve left behind him the impress of a bold, vigorous fellow. +His daughter married Michael Mitten, whose two daughters in turn +married two brothers named Brackett. One of the Brackett daughters +married a fisherman named Reed, whose descendant, Thomas Brackett +Reed, has exhibited, in a different way and under vastly different +circumstances, much of the nerve and daring that animated his stern +old fighting settler-ancestor, George Cleeve. + +[Illustration: VIEW FROM THE ROOF OF MR. REED'S HOUSE.] + +At nine Mr. Reed entered the grammar school, at eleven the high +school. He was sixteen years old when he completed his course in the +latter. His boyhood friends say he was fond of fun, though the amount +of knowledge he absorbed would indicate that he was also fond of +books; yet Mr. Reed himself confesses that literature in general, and +old romances in particular, attracted him more than text-books. He +still remembers his first schoolmaster, a spare young man, "the best +disciplinarian I ever knew," who had the art of holding a turbulent +school by finding out what was the particular spring he could touch to +control every one of his lawless boys. + +"He had the pull on me," says Mr. Reed, "by simply holding over me in +critical moments the penalty of dismissal. You know, I had a sort of +inborn idea that the school was a great thing for me, and I knew that +my parents were too poor to afford to send me anywhere else, so I kept +straight along, doing my duty. It was the master's custom to allow +each boy who had no demerits to ring his bell before leaving the +class, and once for three days in succession I did not ring that bell. +I can see now the master coming to me, and saying: 'Tom, is it an +inadvertence?' 'No, sir.' 'Did you break the rules?' 'Yes, sir.' +'Why?' 'Because they were too hard.' 'Well, boy, you know what you can +do if the rules are too hard; you can leave school.' I hung my head, +and he went away, after a few moments of, to me, terrible silence, +saying: 'Never let me hear of this again, Tom.' And I replied: 'No, +sir.' And meant it." + +On entering Bowdoin College in 1856, young Reed had a half-formed +desire of becoming a minister, which he relinquished, however, long +before his graduation. His life struggle began in earnest with that +first year at college, for he had to earn enough to pay his way as he +went along. His attendance at class recitations during the first term +of his freshman year was regular, but he found it necessary to drop +out the next two terms and earn some money by teaching. He kept up his +studies, however, without an instructor. All through the first part of +his college course young Reed devoted a great deal of time to +literature, to the neglect of his studies. While in the high school, a +garret in the house of one of his mother's relations had become his +Mecca. It was packed full of books, especially novels, and there he +was wont to journey twice a week, loading himself with volumes, over +which he spent his days and the best part of his nights. Mr. Reed says +that it was mostly trashy, imaginative stuff, but that it also was +full of delight, and in some ways full of information for him. To that +omnivorous reading he attributes in large part his knowledge of words, +and it was also, no doubt, an apprenticeship from which he naturally +stepped into higher literature. + +Graduation was but little more than a year off, when, the contents +of the garret being exhausted, the young man realized to his +consternation that his class standing was very low. His place at the +end of the college course depended on his average class standing all +through. He had received none of the sixteen junior parts which were +given out during the junior year, and to his dismay the English +orations, corresponding to the junior parts at the end of the course, +were reduced to twelve. There was but one course open to the +ambitious, spirited boy--to offset the low average of his earlier +terms by an exceptionally high average during his last. Romances +and poems were laid aside, and from that time forward until +Commencement he was up at five in the morning, and by nine o'clock +every night he was in bed, and tired enough to drop asleep at once. +Mr. Reed says very frankly that he did not relish this regimen, for +by nature he is indolent. Apropos of this, it was a common saying +among his comrades that Reed would be somebody some day, if he were +not so lazy. + +The consequences of his three years of novel-reading were such a +serious matter to him that he was afraid to go and hear the result of +the final examinations but remained in his room until a friend came to +tell him that he was one of the first five in his class in his average +for the entire course. This is the other side of Reed, "the lazy." + +Besides this success, his oration on "The Fear of Death" won the first +prize for English composition. It was in delivering it that Mr. Reed +felt the first emotions of the orator, when every eye in the audience +was riveted upon him, and when the profound silence that prevailed +told the deep interest which his words aroused. Of the year's work +which won for him the privilege of delivering it on that Commencement +Day, thirty-three years ago, Mr. Reed says that it was the hardest of +his life, and the only time he has forced himself up to his full limit +for so long a period. + +Graduation from college was not by any means the end of the struggle +for the young man. Money was still lacking, and to get it he engaged +in school-teaching, an occupation which he had already followed during +two terms, and in vacation times. He taught at first for twenty +dollars a month, "boarding round," and the highest pay he ever +received as a teacher was forty-five dollars a month. His old comrades +delight in telling an incident of his school-teaching days. He once +found it necessary to chastise a boy who was about his own age, +although he had been cautioned against whipping, by the members of the +committee of the district, unless he first referred the case to them. +But Reed was Reed even in those days. The committee having failed to +sustain him in the past, in this instance he decided that some one +must be master at school, and that he would be that some one. +Accordingly, the refractory young man was thrashed, after an exciting +quarter of an hour--a close victory, which one pound more avoirdupois +might have decided against the teacher. + +Mr. Reed soon gave up school-teaching, and, thinking that a young man +would have a better chance out West, he went to California. Judge +Wallace, afterwards Chief Justice of California, examined Reed for +admission to the bar. It was in '63, during the civil war, when the +Legal Tender Act was much discussed in California, where a gold +basis was still maintained, that Wallace, whose office adjoined +the one where Reed was studying, happened in one day and said, "Mr. +Reed, I understand you want to be admitted to the bar. Have you +studied law?" "Yes, sir, I studied law in Maine while teaching." +"Well," said Wallace, "I have one question to ask. Is the Legal +Tender Act constitutional?" "Yes," said Reed. "You shall be admitted +to the bar," said Wallace. "Tom Bodley [a deputy sheriff, who had +legal aspirations] was asked the same question, and he said 'no.' We +will admit you both, for anybody who can answer off-hand a question +like that ought to practise law in this country." + +[Illustration: MR. REED IN HIS LIBRARY.] + +Reed's sojourn on the Pacific coast was short. In '64 he was made +Assistant Paymaster in the United States Navy, and served in that +capacity until his honorable discharge a year or so after. His +admission to practise before the Supreme Court of the State of Maine +followed on his return to the East. Cases came to the young lawyer +slowly. The first ones were in the minor municipal courts. Gradually +he secured a certain run of commercial and admiralty cases which began +to yield something tangible in the shape of fees. Yet the goal of +success seemed a long way off, when it happened that in one of those +minor cases he cross-examined a refractory witness in such a manner as +to completely overturn the testimony given, and thereby won the case +for his client. The unexpected result was that the witness who had +been upset by the young lawyer's skill conceived a great admiration +for him, and became influential in sending him many cases. + +That he made his mark in his modest position is shown by the fact that +after two years, in 1867, Mr. Reed was nominated for the State +Legislature. Judge Nathan Webb, then County Attorney, who had known +Reed simply as his opponent in a number of cases, had proposed his +name, and, after six ballots, had succeeded in nominating him. The +first thing Reed knew about it was when reading the papers the next +morning, and his first impulse was to decline. When Webb came in he +urged him to accept, saying that a winter's legislative experience +would broaden and be in every respect valuable to him. Mr. Reed +accepted, and after serving two terms in the House he was elected to +the State Senate. Then he was made Attorney-General and afterwards +City Solicitor of Portland, and in 1876 he was for the first time +nominated to represent his district in the House of Representatives in +Washington. + +[Illustration: A CORNER OF THE LIBRARY.] + +At the very moment when Reed, escorted by one of his colleagues, took +a seat at the first convenient desk, on the day when he began his life +as a congressman, Mr. Reed's massive figure, suggestive of physical +strength; the easy and yet not offensive assurance with which he took +his seat and glanced with quizzical eye about the chamber; the +unaffected way with which he accepted congratulations from the New +England members who knew him, and the reputation he had already won as +a master of wit and the possessor of a tongue which could be eloquent +with sarcasm, all of these things so impressed Mr. S. S. Cox that he +turned to Mr. William T. Frye, then a member for Maine, and said: +"Well, Frye, I see your State has sent another intellectual and +physical giant who is a youngster here." "Whom do you mean?" asked +Frye. "This man Reed, who must be even now cracking a joke, for I see +they are all laughing about him." + +But to maintain the reputation which his State had secured for +committing its interests to master men, Mr. Reed had a hard task +before him. Blaine, who had just passed from the House to the Senate, +had made Maine of preeminent influence by reason of his formidable +canvass for the presidential nomination. Eugene Hale and Mr. William +T. Frye represented in part the State in the House. Hannibal Hamlin +was a member of the Senate, and the tradition of the remarkable +intellectual achievements of William Pitt Fessenden, so long a senator +from Maine, was still so fresh in the minds of many members of +Congress that it was common to hear Mr. Fessenden spoken of as perhaps +the ablest senator since the days of Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. But, +unlike the stories that are told of the debuts of many statesmen, Mr. +Reed's first speech was not a failure. On the contrary, it was a +success. A success all the more brilliant because won under trying +circumstances. + +A bill was under consideration to pay the College of William and Mary, +in Virginia, damages for the occupancy of its buildings by United +States troops during the war. It was one of an almost innumerable +class of similar claims in the South, and its payment would have +established a precedent that would at that time have opened the door +to the appropriation of millions of dollars. It had been put forward +as being the most meritorious of these southern war claims, in the +hope that the sympathy which could be aroused in behalf of the +venerable institution of learning making the claim (it dating back to +Washington's time, and being of a religious and eleemosynary as well +as educational character) would stir up a sentimental feeling by means +of which the other claims could be slipped through the House. + +[Illustration: MR. REED'S BIRTHPLACE IN PORTLAND.] + +Doctor Loring, a Republican member from Massachusetts, one of the most +polished and eloquent speakers in the House, had made a strong and +touching appeal, full of pathos and sentiment, in favor of the bill. +At the conclusion of his speech spontaneous applause burst from all +sides; Republicans and Democrats thronged to the desk of the orator to +congratulate and shake him by the hand. The scene was a memorable one. +Cries of "Vote," "Vote," rose from all parts of the House, and it +seemed inevitable that the bill would pass by an almost unanimous +vote. + +At this juncture Mr. Reed arose. He has told that he would at that +moment have sold his opportunity to speak for a very insignificant +sum. He stood motionless for ten minutes, unable to utter a word. +Knowing that his only chance was to dominate the turmoil, he at last +raised his voice, and, after five minutes, he felt that he would have +a hearing. Slowly the excitement and noise quieted down, and for forty +minutes he was given the closest attention. The speech was so clear, +forcible, and convincing that, in spite of some break in the +Republican ranks, it recalled members of both parties from their +temporary emotional lapse and turned the tide against these dangerous +claims. + +[Illustration: THE MEMBERS OF THE PENTAGON CLUB OF BOWDOIN COLLEGE. (MR. +REED IN THE CENTRE.)] + +In '77 he was made a member of what was known as "The Potter +Committee," appointed to investigate the operations of the returning +boards in the South. Committee work was essentially congenial to Mr. +Reed. He delighted in cross-examinations, and his power of sarcasm and +of insinuating inquiry furnished the committee and the public with the +most dramatic scenes which occurred at any of its sessions. In +cross-examining a clever scoundrel, one Anderson, for instance, for +two whole days, he at last compelled him to admit that he was a +forger. "Who is this man Reed," every one began to ask, and the young +congressman found himself, perhaps more in his legal capacity than as +a legislator, famous. + +It is not the purpose of this article to describe Mr. Reed's public +career, further than to say that there came a day when, upon the +departure of Mr. Frye from the House to the Senate, and the election +of General Garfield to the presidency, Mr. Reed passed, by common +agreement and without questioning, to the leadership of his party in +the House, and that, in the logical course of events, he was naturally +indicated as the candidate for the Speakership, when, in 1889, after +six years of minority, his party became a majority. What a magnificent +combination of assaults and eulogies his career as Speaker brought +forth is too vividly impressed upon the popular mind to need more than +mention. + +During his public career Mr. Reed has manifested in a score or more of +verbal hand-to-hand conflicts his ability to meet an emergency to the +best advantage of his side. Always upon his feet when he scents +danger, he is as quick to scent it as any politician who ever occupied +a seat upon that floor. He is at all times as truly the master of all +his resources as ever Mr. Blaine was in that same tempestuous arena of +the House. + +From the first he has shown himself that _rara avis_, a born +debater--aggressive and cautious, able to strike the nail right on the +head at critical moments, to condense a whole argument with +epigrammatic brevity. He has shown, to my judgment, better than any +parliamentarian living, how the turbulent battlings of great +legislative bodies, so chaotic in appearance, are not chaos at all to +one who has the capacity to think with clearness and precision upon +his feet. Such a man assimilates the substance of every speech and +judges its relative bearing upon the question. At the beginning it is +hard to tell where a discussion will hinge, but gradually, as the +debate goes on, the two or three points which are the key of the +situation become clear to the true _debater_. As I understand the art +of the _debater_, it is as if logs were heaped in confusion before +him, and the thing to do was to single out the one log which, when +removed, starts all the others flying down stream--an easier thing to +conceive than to accomplish, and which demands an alliance of widely +diverse qualities. I remember telling Mr. Reed once that it seemed to +me as if there must be in the temperament of the debater something of +the artist's nature--a little of the same instinct to inspire and +guide him. And I added: "Don't you, like the artist, draw for material +everywhere, from friend and foe alike, from things bearing directly +upon your subject as well as from things that are apparently more +removed from it? Don't you have something akin to inspiration?" + +"Well, perhaps so," Mr. Reed answered, "and an anecdote occurs to my +mind which you may think fits your theory. An obscure chap got up once +and went for me in what was evidently a six months' laboriously +prepared invective. I hardly realized what he was about, except that I +had an impression of the man using words in the same frantic fashion a +windmill uses its arms in a blow. All the same, when he had finished +pitching into me, I could not but get up and return the compliment. I +had no more idea of what I was going to say than he had, when, by a +hazard, my eye caught in the sea of heads before me the face of +another representative from his State--a man who was one of the +leaders of his party--and instantly the answer flashed in my mind. I +had begun with something like 'This is only another echo of the +minority of the Fifty-first Congress, whose echoes are dying, not +musically, but dying. Gentlemen,' I continued, 'it is too much glory +for a State to furnish us with two such eminent representatives, the +one to lead the House, the other to bring up the rear.' + +"But I want to tell you, while we are on this subject of the artist +and the orator," Mr. Reed continued, "that I believe there is as +much of a rhythm in prose as there is in poetry, and if a man has not +the intuitive feeling of that subtile thing, rhythm, he can never +amount to anything as an orator. Certain books of George William +Curtis--'Prue and I,' especially--have helped me as much as anything +to realize how delightful a quality rhythm is." + +There is a side to Mr. Reed which few people suspect. He is a lover of +good novels, especially such novels as those of Balzac and Thackeray, +which present human nature in a rugged, truthful manner. I should +think that Mr. Reed would have about as much respect for a namby-pamby +novel as he has for a wishy-washy politician. + +Of the English novelists he likes Thackeray by far the best. +"Pendennis," "The Adventures of Philip," and "The Virginians" he +esteems as his most interesting works, though Thackeray reached +high-water mark, in Mr. Reed's opinion, in "Vanity Fair." Charles +Reade, too, has found in him an assiduous reader. He thinks "The +Cloister and the Hearth" the finest and truest picture that has been +made of life in the fifteenth century, and that Charles Reade is the +best story-teller that ever wrote English. + +In poetry his preference is for Tennyson, but he is a constant reader +of Browning, Holmes, Longfellow, and Whittier also. "Would you mind," +said Mr. Reed, while talking of poets, "if I descend from the great +names and say that I have a great liking for the rhymes of a Kansas +lawyer, Eugene F. Ware, who writes over the nom-de-plume of +'Ironquill'? They are so direct; they present a moral in so few and +so strikingly well chosen words; and then they have just enough of +that quality of language which is always attractive because it is +language in the making. How do you like this example of Mr. Ware's +sturdy popular muse? + + "'Once a Kansas zephyr strayed + Where a brass-eyed bull-pup played; + And that foolish canine bayed + At that zephyr in a gay, + Semi-idiotic way. + Then that zephyr in about + Half a jiffy took that pup, + Tipped him over wrong side up; + Then it turned him wrong side out. + And it calmly journeyed thence + With a barn and string of fence. + + MORAL. + + When communities turn loose + Social forces that produce + The disorders of a gale, + Act upon a well-known law, + Face the breeze, but close your jaw; + It's a rule that will not fail. + + If you bay it in a gay, + Self-sufficient sort of way, + It will land you, without doubt, + Upside down and wrong side out.'" + +Mr. Reed, who learned French after he was forty years old, enjoys the +masterpieces of French fiction and French verse in the original. He +reads and rereads Horace, or, rather, certain parts of Horace which +appeal strongly to him. But his one great admiration is Balzac. "Yes, +I like to read Balzac," Mr. Reed often says. "His closeness to nature +and life hold you in spite of yourself. There is hardly a book of his +which is not sad beyond tears. 'Eugenie Grandet' is a most powerful +delineation of the absorbing grasp which love of money has on a strong +man, and the power which love has over an untutored spirit, but +sadness permeates everything. That wonderful love story of the +'Duchess de Langais' is like no other love story ever written. Could +anything be more sad than her life at the convent, and her lover's +long search for her hiding-place? unless it be that lover's discovery, +when he scaled the convent walls, that death had been stronger than +love, and that, after a life of wasted devotion, nothing could be +said of her beautiful form as it sank into the ocean except the +mournful words, 'She was a woman; now she is nothing.' And what an +extraordinary picture that is in the 'Peau de Chagrin' of the +controlling power of society over a fashionable woman! And again, in +'Pere Goriot.' How sad they all are, and the sadness of a life that +toils not nor spins! Verily, to be happy we must take no note of the +flying hours, and live outside of ourselves. Is not the condition of +joyous life to forget that we are living? Here most of the characters +are so entirely selfish that one sometimes thinks there is not one +single friendly heart in the entire story. All are so conscious of +living--even those in the higher sphere--and so anxious to appear +other than they are, that their entire lives are only ignoble +struggles, with nothing of serene repose. When the strife is not for +gold or position it is for love, which is thus degraded!" + +I was talking the other day to that brilliant orator, Benjamin +Butterworth, of Ohio, and the conversation turned to Tom Reed, as +Butterworth affectionately called him. Said Butterworth: "The way +Reed's constituents have stood by him is one of the most gratifying +things to me in American politics. During one of his campaigns, in +which I spoke for him, I met some Democrats in his district. I said, +'Gentlemen, I do not know anything about your politics, but you have a +man of sterling qualities to represent you.' 'Yes,' they replied, 'he +is an intense Republican and has peculiarities, but we like him +because he represents the best thought of the district, and we vote +for him on the sly.'" + +That plain-speaking man, whose chief characteristic is to be true to +his own convictions, is a pretty good specimen of the Puritan. Had he +been in Cromwell's army he either would not have prayed at all or he +would have prayed just as long as Cromwell did. In either case he +would have fought for what he believed to be the right, all the time, +and given no quarter. + +Apropos of what might be called his blunt frankness, I recall an +incident told me by a member who had charge of what was known as the +Whiskey Bill. Mr. Reed had baffled the attempts of the whiskey men to +get it up, but in his temporary absence, through the inadvertence or +incapacity of a member, the bill was forced on the House. Reed ran +down to the fellow, and vented his feelings in the remark, "You are +too big a fool to lead, and haven't got sense enough to follow." + +[Illustration: MR. REED'S PORTLAND LAW OFFICE.] + +If his bits of speeches flung about in the heat of debate, either in +retort or in attack, were gathered, they would make a mighty +interesting book. No other man has like him the power to condense a +whole argument in a few striking words. His epigrams are worthy of the +literary artist in that they are perfect in form. Though struck out on +the spur of the moment you cannot take a word from nor recast them. +They have for solid basis a most profound knowledge of human nature, +of life, and they exhibit to a luminous degree the possession in their +author of that prime quality of a true man--horse sense. I remember +this fragment of a speech of last session: "Gentlemen, everybody has +an opinion about silver, except those who have talked so much about it +that they have ceased to think." + +There are many people who believe that Mr. Reed himself disproves one +of his epigrams, that "a statesman is a successful politician who is +dead." As for me, I venture to say that Mr. Reed is right, but he has +there formulated a rule to which he is one of the rare exceptions. + + + + +"HUMAN DOCUMENTS." + +BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. + + +THOMAS BRACKETT REED was born in Portland, Me., October 18, 1839. He +graduated at Bowdoin College in 1860, and then commenced to study law. +In 1864 he suspended his studies and joined the navy as Acting +Assistant Paymaster, serving until his honorable discharge at the +close of the war. Resuming his legal studies, he was admitted to the +bar and began to practise in his native town. He soon took an active +part in politics, and was a member of the Maine State Legislature from +1868 to 1869. In 1870 he sat in the State Senate. From that year until +1872 he was State Attorney-General, and in 1874-77 he served as +solicitor for the city of Portland. He was sent to Congress in 1876 +and has been continuously re-elected since. When the Republican party +came into power in 1888, he was elected Speaker of the House of +Representatives. He is a powerful debater, an energetic politician, +and a leading authority upon parliamentary procedure. + +FRANCES ELIZABETH WILLARD was born in Churchville, N.Y., September 28, +1839. She graduated at Northwestern Female College, Evanston, Ill., in +1859. She became Professor of Natural Science there in 1862, and +Principal of Genesee Wesleyan Seminary in 1866. After two years of +travel and study in Europe and the Holy Land, she became Professor of +Esthetics in Northwestern University, and, as Dean of the Women's +College there, developed her system of self-government, now generally +adopted. In 1874 Miss Willard identified herself with the Woman's +Christian Temperance Union. As secretary of the Union she organized +the Home Protection movement, and in 1879 was elected president. She +took a leading part in the establishment of the Prohibition party, and +in 1887 was elected President of the Women's Council of the United +States. She also accepted the leadership of the White Cross movement, +which has been successful in obtaining enactments in many States for +the protection of women. Besides being a director of the Women's +Temperance Publishing House, Miss Willard is chief contributor to "The +Union Signal" (Chicago) and associate editor of "Our Day" (Boston). +Her chief literary works are "Nineteen Beautiful Years," "Woman and +Temperance," "How to Win," "Woman in the Pulpit," and "Glimpses of +Fifty Years." + +EDGAR WILSON NYE, who has become famous as a humorist under the pen +name of "Bill Nye," was born in Shirley, Piscataqua County, Maine, +August 25, 1850. His family removed to Wisconsin shortly afterwards, +and the boy was educated at River Falls, in that State. Early in the +seventies he went to Wyoming Territory; he there studied law, and was +admitted to the bar in 1876. While in Wyoming he served in several +public capacities, as postmaster of Laramie and as a member of the +legislature. He had early begun to furnish humorous sketches to the +newspapers, and for some time was connected with the press as +correspondent. He returned to Wisconsin in 1883. In 1886 he was +connected with the New York "World," and since then has been a weekly +contributor to numerous papers. As a lecturer and reader from his own +books Mr. Nye has been very successful. In 1891 he produced a play, +"The Cadi," at a New York theatre. His best-known books are "Bill Nye +and the Boomerang," "The Forty Liars," "Baled Hay," and "Remarks." Mr. +Nye has resided, for some time past, near Asheville, N.C. + +GEORGE W. CABLE was born in New Orleans in 1844. He obtained an +ordinary public-school education. His early life was spent as a clerk +in a commercial office, varied by successful contributions to "The New +Orleans Picayune" under the signature of "Drop-Shot." In 1863 he +joined the Confederate Army, and served in the Fourth Regiment +Mississippi Cavalry, until the end of the civil war. His first +literary work to attract general attention was a short story, "Sieur +George," published in the old "Scribner's Monthly." To that periodical +he contributed numerous other sketches of creole life, which were +published in book form in 1879. Other stories and articles followed, +and Mr. Cable, after working up to a leading position in the +mercantile world, from that of an errand boy, devoted himself to +literature as a profession. "The Grandissimes," in 1880, "Madame +Delphine," 1881, "The Creoles of Louisiana" and "Dr. Sevier," 1884, +established him in a high place amongst modern authors. His knowledge +of the South, and his studies among the creoles and negroes, made him +an authority upon the questions relating to the past and future of the +negro and the southern States, and involved him in numerous and heated +discussions. "The Silent South," 1885, and "The Negro Question," 1890, +are the most prominent of his works on this subject. As a lecturer and +reader he is widely known. + + +THOMAS B. REED. + +[Illustration: 1860. AT GRADUATION.] + +[Illustration: 1864. ON ENTERING THE NAVY.] + +[Illustration: Thomas B. Reed, Portland Me, 17 July 1893] + + +FRANCES E. WILLARD. + +[Illustration: FROM AN EARLY PICTURE.] + +[Illustration: AGE 20. 1859.] + +[Illustration: AGE 37. 1876.] + +[Illustration: MISS WILLARD AT THE PRESENT DAY.] + + +EDGAR WILSON NYE. + +[Illustration: AGE 20. 1870.] + +[Illustration: AGE 28. 1878.] + +[Illustration: "BILL NYE" AT THE PRESENT DAY.] + +[Illustration: "BILL NYE" AT THE PRESENT DAY.] + + +GEORGE W. CABLE. + +[Illustration: AGE 9. 1853.] + +[Illustration: 1874. FIRST SKETCHES OF CREOLE LIFE.] + +[Illustration: AGE 19. 1863.] + +[Illustration: 1882. "DOCTOR SEVIER."] + +[Illustration: AGE 24. 1868.] + +[Illustration: AGE 40. 1884. "BONAVENTURE."] + +[Illustration: MR. CABLE IN 1892.] + + + + +THE JONESES' TELEPHONE + +BY ANNIE HOWELLS FRECHETTE. + +[Illustration: THE JONESES' TELEPHONE] + + +"Now, we won't be selfish with our telephone, will we, dear? We will +let a few friends use it occasionally--it will be such a pleasure and +a convenience," and Mrs. Jones stood off and looked admiringly at the +new telephone. + +"By all means. It is here and it may as well be doing some one a +service as to stand idle--and I like to feel that a friend isn't +afraid to ask a favor of me now and then. Yes, I suppose that +telephone will save us many a car-fare during the year. You can use it +to do your marketing, instead of tiring yourself out and wasting half +a day three or four times a week; and days when I forget things, think +how easy it will be to telephone and remind me. Why, it will entirely +do away with the need for strings to tie around my fingers." + +"Of course it will. I'm sure that what we'll save on strings and +car-fare will pay the rent of the instrument," joyously responded Mrs. +Jones, who had no great head for figures. + +Thus hope and kindly intentions presided at the inauguration of the +Joneses' telephone. + +Three months passed, and the great invention had carried much +information--useful and otherwise--not only to its owners, but to the +entire neighborhood as well. There were even days when the Joneses +questioned whether they were not running a public telephone, so often +did the bell ring. It is true, it had not quite paid for itself in the +anticipated saving of car-fares and finger strings; still, it had +certainly been a great comfort, and "Well, we'll just face the music +and call it a luxury," said Jones, as he put away the receipt for his +first quarter's rent; "especially for our friends," he added, with +just a touch of bitterness. + +Scarce twenty-four hours after this philosophical stand was taken, +Mrs. Jones, who was rather a light sleeper, was aroused by a violent +and prolonged ringing. It was six o'clock and Sunday morning--a day +and hour usually dedicated to undisturbed slumber. After a brief +debate in her own mind as to whether the house was on fire or the +milkman was ringing, she realized that it was the telephone bell. She +hastily donned slippers and gown and ran down-stairs. In reply to her +interrogative "Yes?" (Mrs. Jones could never bring herself to say +"Hello!") came the following, in measured and clerical tones: + +"It is Mr. Brown--Reverend Mr. Brown, speaking." + +"Oh, yes?" instinctively covering her half-clad feet in the folds of +her gown. + +"I believe you live near the Reverend Mr. Smith, and are a member of +his church." + +"Yes." + +"Will you be good enough to send to him, and ask if he can spare his +curate to take Mr. Brown's early service for him, as he is called +away. I would be glad if you would send immediately, as I must have +his answer within fifteen minutes. Thank you. Please call up 1001," +and snap went the telephone. + +Mrs. Jones looked at her raiment and reflected that her one servant +was at mass and would not be back for an hour. She went slowly +up-stairs. + +"Tom, Tom dear, wake up." + +"What is it?" + +"The Reverend Brown has telephoned to know whether the Reverend Smith +can send his curate to take his early service." + +"Well, what in the world have I got to do with the peddling out of +early services?" snapped Jones, as he turned and shook up his +pillows. + +"He has to have an answer to his message within fifteen minutes." + +"Well, let Susan take it," settling back comfortably. + +"But Susan has gone to mass." + +"And I suppose that means that I am to be turned out of my bed at +daybreak, and canter half a mile!" cried Jones, in a high and excited +voice, as he bounced from his bed and began to grope sleepily for his +clothes. His toilet was made amidst grumblings of "Confound their +early services, why can't they stay in bed like Christians, instead of +prowling about, and sending men out in the chilly morning air," etc., +etc. + +Jones's temper was soured for the day, and that night, as he was +winding his watch, he said severely, "Jane, I'm going to draw the line +at delivering messages. Tom, Dick, and Harry can come here and bellow +into the telephone until they are hoarse, but I'll be switched if I'll +be messenger boy any longer." + +But messages continued to come and go, increasing rather than +decreasing in frequency. People in the neighborhood fell into the +habit of saying to friends in distant parts of the city, when leaving +a question open: "Just telephone me when you make up your mind. I +haven't a telephone myself, but the Joneses have, and they are very +obliging about letting me use it." + +So the fact that a telephone was owned by an obliging family +circulated almost as rapidly as if it had been a lie. + +There were times when Mrs. Jones hadn't the face to ask Susan to stop +her work and carry these messages, so she carried them herself--trying +to keep up her self-respect by combining an errand of her own in the +same direction. There were a few messages, however, which remained +forever indignantly shut within the telephone; as, for instance, that +of the little girl, which came in a shrill, piping voice: + +"Mrs. Jones, will you send your servant over to Mrs. Graham's to ask +Milly where she got that perfectly delicious delight she gave me the +other day, and tell her to be quick about it, please, for I'm +waiting." + +And another which came in chuffy, distorted, conversational +English--regular "chappie" English, very hard to understand, but +which she finally straightened out into: "I say there--aw--oh--is that +you, Mrs. Jones? Sorry to trouble you, but would you be so awfully +good as to send word to Mrs. Bruce--aw--that I'm awfully cut up +about it, but I won't be able to dine there to-night. Aw--I +wouldn't trouble you, but it's so awfully hot I can't go round to +explain to her--you know. Thanks, awfully." The telephone was closed, +and the awfully-cut-up young man, whose sole claim on Mrs. Jones +was that they had once met at a party, was left to be healed by time. + +He had for company in his fate the enthusiastic tennis-player, who, in +the midst of "a little summer shower," summoned Mrs. Jones. + +"I want to speak to Flannigan, the gardener." + +"This is not Flannigan's telephone." + +"And who is speaking?" + +"Mrs. Jones." + +"Oh, well, Mrs. Jones, I can give my message to you just as well. I +want you to tell Flannigan to come and roll the tennis ground at once. +He will understand. Tell him right away, please." + +"Flannigan does not live here." + +"Well, you can send him word, I suppose," in a surprised and offended +voice, "to oblige a _lady_. It is _Miss Mortimer_ who is speaking," +and there was an impressive silence. Mrs. Jones remembered Miss +Mortimer as a high-stepping young woman whom she had met at a friend's +house, and who had given her the impression of taking an inventory of +her. So Mrs. Jones took pleasure in replying, "Miss Mortimer probably +does not know that she is addressing a private telephone. Good day." + +But it was Jones, the luckless Jones, who seemed set aside for the +cruel buffeting of the telephoning public. One night, which he will +ever point to as the wildest and wettest night he has known, he had +settled himself into his most comfortable chair, with a pile of new +magazines beside him, when he was disturbed by a summons from the +telephone. He responded with readiness, for he was rather expecting a +call from his partner, and to his cheerful "Hello, old fellow, I'm +here," came, in a sputtering and wind-tossed voice, "Will you please +tell Mrs. Goodson that as it is so stormy her daughter will not go +home to-night?" + +Jones turned and confronted his wife, and for a time words refused to +come. + +"Well, this is a little too much! Now think of an unknown voice +barking at me to go out into a storm like this and tell the Goodsons +that their daughter will not be at home to-night!" + +The Goodsons lived just six squares away. + +"And what will you do, dear? Why didn't you say plainly that you would +not and could not go out into a storm like this--that they must send a +messenger?" + +"They shut me off without giving me time to answer." + +"Well, call them up. Call them up at once." + +"Jane, please have some sense. How do I know where Miss Goodson has +gadded off to? How do I know what number to call up?" + +"Well, I just wouldn't go." + +"Oh, I'll have to. They are friends, and if they are expecting that +girl of theirs home to-night and she doesn't come Mrs. Goodson will go +out of her mind." + +So Jones drove himself forth, clad in righteous indignation and a +waterproof coat. The cold rain lashed him and the wind belabored his +umbrella, and he was more than once obliged to pause under friendly +porches to get his breath. At last the home of the Goodsons was +reached, and spent and weary he staggered up the steps. Goodson +himself opened the door. + +"Hello, Jones, you're no fair weather friend indeed. Come in, come +in." + +"No, I'm too wet," he answered, pointedly (and he felt like adding +"and too mad"). "I only came to tell you that Miss Goodson won't be at +home to-night." + +"My daughter! She is at home. Don't you hear her playing on the piano +now? Come into the vestibule, anyway." + +Jones walked in, with the rain streaming from his coat. + +"Katey!" called Mr. Goodson to his wife. "Here is Jones come to say +that Julia won't be home to-night." + +"What?" demanded Mrs. Goodson, appearing in the hall and regarding +Jones as if he were a mild sort of lunatic; "_Julia is_ at home." + +"Well, I don't understand it," said Jones, plaintively. "I was rung up +half an hour ago, and asked to come and tell you that your daughter +wouldn't be at home on account of the storm." + +"And do you mean to say that you stand ready to turn out at all hours +and deliver messages free of cost?" cried Goodson. + +"It looks that way." + +"Well, you are an ass!" + +"Don't compliment me too freely, Goodson, I can't take in much more; +I'm soaked as it is." + +Mrs. Goodson stood thinking. "Who could have been meant? Oh, I've just +thought! It must be that Mrs. Goodson who sews for Mrs. Jones and me. +And she has a daughter--a typewriter down town--and she has friends +living in the suburbs. She has doubtless gone there to dinner and +concluded to stay all night. But she lives just around the corner from +you." + +Goodson laughed loudly and brutally. "A bonny sort of a night for a +respectable family man like you, Jones, to be skylarking around +carrying messages for typewriting maidens!" + +"Oh, come now, that's a little too much!" + +"Well, old man, I'll show my gratitude for your friendly intentions +toward me by going round to the telephone people the first thing in +the morning, and complaining of you. You've no right to be running +opposition to the public telephones in this way." + +"_If_ you only would!" and Jones wrung his friend's hand while tears +of thankfulness welled up to his eyes. + +Once in the street, he longed for a contemptuous enemy to kick him +briskly to the door of the Widow Goodson. The latter was evidently +about to retire, as it was a long time before she responded to his +ring. When, finally, she did come, she heard him calmly through and +then answered languidly: "Yes, I didn't much expect Bella home +to-night, for she said if it come on to rain she thought she'd stay +with her cousins. Good night. Quite drizzly, isn't it?" peering out +into the darkness. + +Full of bitterness, Jones turned homeward. It seemed to him that his +cup was full; and so it was, for it refused to hold more. As he +entered his home, chilled without but hot within, he was greeted by an +unfamiliar voice coming from the regions of the telephone. + +"Give me Blair's," it said. "Is that Blair's? Is +that--Blair's--B-l-a-i-r-'s, do you understand? Oh, yes, it is you, is +it, Mrs. Blair? Well, say I want to speak to Miss McCrea--Oh--pshaw! +you must know her--she's the young lady that works for you. Oh, she's +out, is she? Well, when she comes in, tell her Miss Doolan told you to +say that Mr. Brennan has broke his leg--she'll know, he drives +Judson's horses--and me and Mrs. Judson want to know whether he's to +go to the hospital or to his friends. You can send your answer to No. +999. They'll let me know. Give Miss McCrea my love and tell her not to +worry about Mr. Brennan. Good-by." + +Jones confronted a stately creature as she stepped into the hall. + +"Look here, young woman, who are you?" + +"I'm Miss Doolan, and I'm stopping at Judson's--as housemaid," she +answered, so taken aback that for the moment her self-possession +failed her. + +"And to whom have you been telephoning?" + +"To Blair's--Judge Blair's, over on the avenue--a friend of mine stops +there." + +"And are you in the habit of calling up ladies in that fashion?" + +"It's a very good fashion, for all _I_ can see," she retorted +impudently. + +"And what business have you to order an answer sent here for me to +carry on a night like this?" + +"Mrs. Judson and me took you for a _gentleman_, sor, and we thought +you wouldn't mind obliging ladies." + +"Nor do I, but I don't know either Mrs. Judson or you, and I don't +propose running errands for you." + +"Oh, then don't bother yourself, sor--we can hire a boy," she flung +back with a scornful laugh as she bounced out. + +"Now, Jane, I want you to distinctly understand that the last message +has been carried from this house. I have probably to-night sown the +seeds of pleurisy and pneumonia broadcast in my system; I have walked +twelve squares to deliver a message to the wrong person; we have had a +baggage here using our telephone as if it were her own, and we have +been at the beck and call of the unpaying public for the last six +months. Now, if the telephone people are not here by noon to-morrow, +to threaten legal proceedings against me (Goodson has promised to +complain of me) for undermining their business, I shall have that +wretched instrument dragged away, body and soul, and we will try some +other form of economy in the future." + + + + +THE PSYCHOLOGICAL LABORATORY AT HARVARD. + +BY HERBERT NICHOLS, PH.D., + +Instructor in Psychology, Harvard University. + + EDITOR'S NOTE.--The illustrations of this article are from + photographs, specially taken for the Harvard University Exhibit at + the World's Fair. + + +What do they do there? + +What do they expect to come out of it? + +The notion of a mental laboratory is still a mystery to most persons. +They ask themselves the above questions, and many feel as they do so +an uncanny shiver. They cannot realize that the study of the mind is +already an established natural science, here, at sober Harvard, in all +the leading universities, and free of spooks and mediums. + +Yet a psychological laboratory looks much like any other modern +laboratory. Around the rooms run glass-cases filled with fine +instruments. Shelves line up, row after row, of specimen-jars and +bottles. Charts cover the remainder of the walls. The tables and +floors are crowded with working apparatus. Two large rooms and one +small one are now occupied at Harvard. Four more rooms will be added +to these this summer. + +Also, the spirit that reigns in these rooms is the same that is found +in other laboratories of exact science. This is the important thing. +The minds of these workers are not wandering in dialectics and vagrant +hypotheses. Reverence has opened her eyes. Hypotheses they have, and +must have. Often they hold conflicting opinions. But the referee is +always present--Nature herself. To experiment, to show the fact, is +always the method of debate. This is the great advantage of the modern +way of studying psychology over the old. + +The American public is so practical that I feel I can alone satisfy +its "whats and wherefores" by explicitly describing some of the +investigations being carried on here. + + +EFFECT OF ELEMENTARY SENSATIONS ON ONE ANOTHER. + +Here is a lantern throwing a steady light through a large tube. +(See illustration below, the right hand group.) By transparent +slides of colored glass or gelatine, the light may be made of any +color. At the end of the tube is a box, like a camera. The operator +covers his head with a cloth, and observes the color of the light as +it shines from the tube through, or on, a tiny hole in the dark +box. The size of the hole can be varied by moving slides, worked by +micrometer screws so fine that they measure the dimensions of the +hole to the four-hundredth of an inch. + +[Illustration: STUDYING THE EFFECTS OF SOUND AND OF ATTENTION ON COLORS.] + +The first step is to discover the "threshold" of each separate color. +That means the smallest-sized hole through which each color can be +distinguished. This varies for different colors. But now comes the +interesting point. The size of the hole, for any given _color seen_, +varies according to the nature of any _sound heard_ at the same time. +For instance, in order to distinguish a given red, the hole must be +larger or smaller, in proportion as the pitch of a musical tone is +lower or higher, fainter or stronger. + +[Illustration: STUDYING THE EFFECTS OF COLORS ON JUDGMENTS OF TIME.] + +The above experiment is one in a system of investigations, intended to +discover the laws by which the simplest sensations modify each other +under the simplest conditions. These are laws as fixed as the laws of +gravity, and, once determined, we may move on to study the combination +of these elements into the higher thought processes. + + +EFFECTS OF ATTENTION. + +Another experiment will further illustrate this method of study. An +apparatus is so contrived that a colored disk can be made darker or +brighter by the operator, and a measure of the change be recorded. +(See illustration on opposite page, rear group.) The persons operated +on do not know what change is made, or whether any will be made or +not. They first look at the disk for ten seconds, taking good note of +its color. Next, the operator changes the shade (or not) as he sees +fit. Then for another ten seconds the subject judges the shade of +color, but this time performs meanwhile a sum in addition as the +operator calls to him simple numbers. + +The experiment is to determine how the appearance of the color +changes, by reason of dividing the attention between observing the +disk and performing the addition. Do the colors of a rival's bonnet +really grow more glaring the harder they are looked at? To explain +this is to touch on a social as well as an esthetic problem. + +Diversion of attention changes the appearance of distances as well as +of colors. A large frame covered with black cloth stands vertical. Two +tiny white disks are held in place on the cloth by invisible threads +manipulated behind the frame by the operator. When the disks are set a +given distance apart they rest close upon the smooth black ground. The +eye sees but two white spots in a free field, and may judge the +distance between them without complication. This is done for ten +seconds, as with the color disks. Then the spots are covered, and +their distance apart slightly changed (or not) by the operator. Again +they are shown, and now judged for ten seconds while adding figures. +The mental process of addition changes the judgment of the distance. + +You will say it is a familiar experience that the road seems longer or +shorter as the mind is busy or not. But it is not a familiar thing to +determine the law of such lengthening and shortening for definite +distances, and under precise mental condition, as in the above +experiment. + + +JUDGMENTS OF TIME. + +Every woman knows that color has an effect on the apparent size of +objects; that of her dress on her figure.[2] It is not as well known +that color affects our judgments of time. Our next experiment examines +this matter. + + [2] In the diagram on the preceding page the white squares show + plainly larger than the black squares. + +[Illustration: REVOLVING CHAIR FOR STUDYING LOCALIZATIONS OF SOUNDS.] + +Upon a cylinder, slowly revolving by fine clockwork, strips of +different colored cardboard are fastened, and observed through a hole +in a screen. (See illustration on the preceding page.) The time of +each rotation is measured precisely. By observation it is found that +the period of rotation _seems_ to vary with the colors on the +cylinder. By combining colors differently through a long and tedious +series of investigations on many people, it is being determined what +part this sort of influence plays in mental processes. "When things +look gay, time seems short." Psychology seeks the laws of such +happenings. + + +LOCALIZATION OF SOUNDS. + +They are the most familiar things which in our science become the +strangest. _Not_ to know where you are when seasick, still less where +your mind is, is common enough. Our next experiment will trace our +power to know where sounds are to the same origin as seasickness. + +Seasickness starts in the ear. In its cavity are three small tubes, +each bent in a circle, and filled with fluid. The three sit at right +angles to each other, like the three sides at the corner of a room or +a box. Consequently, in whatever direction the head is moved, the +fluid in some one of the tubes is given a circular motion. Hanging +out into the tubes, from their sides, are hairs or _cilia_, which +connect with nerve cells and fibres that branch off from the auditory +nerve. When the head moves the fluid moves, the hairs move, the cells +are "fired off," a nervous current is sent up to the brain, and a +feeling of the head's peculiar motion is consequent. + +As for seasickness: this nerve current, on its way to the brain, at +one point runs beside the spot or "centre" where the nerve governing +the stomach has its origin. When the rocking of the head is abnormally +violent and prolonged, the stimulus is so great that the current leaks +over into this adjoining "centre," and so excites the nerve running to +the stomach as to cause wretchedness and retching. Deaf mutes, whose +ear "canals" are affected, are never seasick. + +But normally the amount of ear-feeling which we get by reason of +moving our head in a particular direction comes in a curious way to be +a measure of the direction of sound. The feelings we get from our skin +and muscles in turning the head play a similar _role_. We turn our ear +to catch a sound. We do this so frequently for every point, that in +time we learn to judge the direction of the sound by the way we would +have to turn the head in order to hear the sound best. Thereafter we +do not have to turn the head to get the direction, for we now remember +the proper feeling and know it. This memory of the old feeling _is_ +our idea of the present direction. If we never moved our heads we +never could have any such notion of the location of sounds as at +present--perhaps none whatever. + + +MENTAL ORIGIN OF NUMBERS. + +Number! surely there can be nothing mysterious here; no "law" to be +discovered about one, two, three? Well, the next time you shake hands, +ask the man what he feels. A hand. Then ask further and he will feel +five fingers. Now ask rightly and he will feel any number of distinct +spots of pressure. But the real pressures were practically the same +all through. Why, then, did he feel first one, then five, then eight, +ten, or a dozen? So with the objects we become acquainted with through +any of our senses! Why does the same bit of nature now stand before us +"one tree," and now a myriad of leaves and branches? Why do the same +outer groupings fall into such different inner groupings? Why does not +the result of each little nerve of the millions continually played on +in eye, ear, and skin stand out by itself, and we have so many million +feelings? + +To explain this: the first time a child opens his eyes he sees, as +Professor James says, but "one big, blooming, buzzing confusion." Not +till some "whole" (knife) be broken up into parts (blade, handle) and +each part be mentally perceived _in immediate succession the one after +the other_ can the idea of "twoness" ever be possible to that child. +The "twoness" is a feeling of distinct nature apart from the two terms +(blade, handle). It rises from the "shock of succession." It is one of +the "modified states" wrought by one element on another, which we +studied in our first experiment. Once lodged in the mind, the feeling +may be remembered and reawakened, like any other. Thereafter the two +parts or terms may come before the mind, awaken this feeling of +twoness, and _now_ stand side by side, simultaneously and numerically +separate. + +These are the primary laws of number perception. Our experiments +illustrate and prove them. Though the nerves lying under a needle +point are really several in number, the pressure on them is commonly +felt as "one prick." The area is so small that usually, through life, +all the nerves have been pressed together. They have not been split up +and pressed enough times in succession among themselves for a memory +of "twoness" to have been developed among them. But, by proper +manipulation, not unlike some of the processes of hypnotism, yet +perfectly normal, the "twoness" of some other group of nerves can be +yoked to the feeling resulting from the pressure of a particular +needle point. Thereupon the one needle will feel like two, as +distinctly and clearly as any real two. + +[Illustration: MEASURING THE TIME REQUIRED FOR VARIOUS MENTAL ACTS.] + + +MENTAL ORIGIN OF DISTANCES AND SPACE. + +By similar manipulations the simple needle may be made to feel like +three or like four; now standing in a line, now in a triangle, and +again in the corners of a square. But, since there is but one needle, +what about the apparent distance _between_ these several points that +are clearly _felt_? This is the most curious thing of all, and from +the light it throws on the formation of our "ideas" both of number and +of space, is the most important. + +To explain this: our notion of distance results out of "series" of +sensations, in the same way as our notions of number. To have any idea +of "distance" aroused between any two points of skin, the line of +nerves lying between those points must, some time during life, have +been previously stimulated in a line of succession, such as would +result from a pencil drawn along between them. A card edge would give +no idea of "distance" until such a series had some time been +previously experienced. The memory of the "series" _is_ the idea of +the distance. + +Within small areas of the skin, so few "series" have been experienced +that no "distance memories" have been developed. Consequently +pin-point areas commonly awaken no notion of distance. For some +regions of the body these "limit areas" are larger than for others; at +some places are quite large. On the back, spaces three inches apart +may fail to give any idea of number or of distance. Every region has +such a limit distance. + +_Now it is this limit distance, the smallest distance for which a +"series" memory has been developed for a given region, that always +shoves itself in, as the apparent distance between the several +fictitious points felt from the single needle in our experiment. On +the back the one needle feels like two set three inches apart; on the +forehead like two half an inch apart; on the tongue one-sixteenth of +an inch; and so on._ + +The upshot, then, of this matter is to show that our whole mind--our +notions of space, number, time, and all else--is but a bundle of +lawful habits, formed in relation with the things and occurrences +around us. Ordinarily we have right ideas, because on the whole our +mind has formed right habits. We have the right idea of an inch of +skin, because the proper idea of an "inch long" has become habitually +joined to each inch of skin, or in so far as this has been done. When +a wrong idea gets joined, then we have an illusion; that is, the +stretch of skin, or, as well, the pin-point of skin, seems a fraction +of an inch in length; or, again, like three inches. + + +"TIME REACTIONS:" METHODS OF MEASURING THE TIME REQUIRED FOR +PERFORMING VARIOUS MENTAL ACTS. + +A sketch like this would be incomplete without a word about time +reactions--a subject that historically was almost the first in the +field, and has occupied more workers than any other. A generation ago +"as quick as thought" was our extreme limit of expression. It outran +"quicker than lightning." The great physiologist, Johannes Mueller, +wrote, in 1844: + + "We shall probably never secure the means of ascertaining the + speed of nerve activities, because we lack the comparative + distances from which the speed of a movement, in this respect + analogous to light, could be calculated." + +We now know that sensory processes travel along the nerves on an +average only about one hundred and ten feet per second, and often less +than twenty-six feet. While you are performing the commonest judgment, +electricity or light would have shot from continent to continent. The +time-measurement of different mental processes is now one of the chief +means which the psychologist uses for getting at mental laws. When +certain measures are once determined, he uses these as the chemist +does his familiar reagents, to dissolve the unfamiliar and more +complicated combinations. + +The following table shows in decimals of a second about the average +length of time which our commonest judgments occupy: + +SECONDS + + To recognize the direction of a ray of light .011 + + To recognize a color when one of two, as red and blue, .012 + and expected to be seen + + To recognize the direction of ordinary sounds .015 + + To localize mentally, when blindfolded, any place on .021 + our body, touched by another person + + Mentally to judge a distance when seen .022 + + To recognize the direction of loud sounds .062 + + To recognize capital letters .180 + + To recognize short English words .214 + + To recognize pictures of objects .163 + + To add single figures .170 + + Given a month, to name its season .164 to .354 + + To answer such questions as "Who wrote Hamlet?" .900 and over + +Such then, are a few out of the many problems which have been +experimented upon in the Harvard Laboratory during the last +year--problems in perception, association, attention, "reaction +times," psycho-physic law, kinesthetics, esthetics, memory, will, and +so on, covering nearly the whole range of mental phenomena. I have +selected these few for presentation here, not for their importance +over others, but because they could be simply described in these +pages. The general aim of all the work is, however, very simple. As in +the other sciences, it seeks to establish fact after fact, in orderly +manner, along the whole line of mental nature; and by unifying these +to work ever to a larger knowledge of the whole. + +[Illustration: WAX SPECIMENS IN THE MUSEUM.] + + +FACILITIES FOR TEACHING. + +But the university laboratory is for teaching as well as for +discovering. It is equipped for the undergraduate, as well as for the +advanced investigator. The elementary or demonstrational courses are +designed to impress upon the student the facts, the methods, and the +spirit of his science. There is now furnished for these, at Harvard, +nearly every kind of apparatus commonly used in physical and +physiological laboratories, for the study of neurology, optics, +acoustics, kinesthetics, esthetics, anthropology, and so on. The +electrical department is a miniature laboratory in itself. And the +various models in wax, wire, and plaster--of eyes, ears, brains, +fishes, reptiles, monkeys, children, adults, idiots, insane people, +and people of genius--is a veritable museum.[3] + + [3] How interesting these things are to a thoughtful man may be told + to the readers of MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE in an anecdote which they + have a peculiar right to hear. Its founder, a few months ago, + stood before a shelf full of the very pedagogic images which his + illustrations now present to you. I pointed out a series of + dainty models, showing, comparatively, the various evolutionary + stages of brain development in the animal kingdom. His eyes + fastened on them and--there they stayed. + + The same part of each brain was tinted in the same color. I + showed him the olfactory lobes; in man, two little insignificant + yellow streaks; in the shark, two big bulbs larger than all the + rest of the brain together. I thus made visible to him how small + a sphere "smell" plays in our mental life, while pretty nearly + the whole life of the shark must be a world of smells. I showed + him the optic lobes in the brain of a blind mole, and then in + that of a carrier pigeon, which sees its way over dizzy leagues + to familiar places. I showed him the cerebellum of the rabbit + that hops, the fish that swims, and the alligator that crawls. I + say, he stood still, almost. I could get him to look at nothing + else. He seemed to see, projecting down future volumes of + MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE, pages after pages of comparative mental + menageries--pink infundibula swimming in blue Gulf Streams; + green cerebra flying through gorgeous sunsets; oceans of + terrific shark-smells diagrammatically printed in blood red; and + Kipling poems of adventure sent to press in surprising + variegations of color, the more scientifically to express their + psychological emotions. He stood till he murmured, "We must have + an article on this," and rushed to the train or to the telegraph + office, and secured, I suspect, from Professor Drummond, his now + famous article, "Where Man Got His Ears."--H. N. + +[Illustration: GUSTAVE THEODORE FECHNER.] + +The laboratory workshop is provided with the common implements and +facilities required for working in wood, glass, and metal. Both for +original research and for demonstration, this laboratory is the most +unique, the richest, and the most complete in any country; and in +witness of the fame and genius of its present director, and of the +rapidly spreading interest in experimental psychology, particularly +in America, there are already gathered here, under Professor +Muensterberg's administration, a larger number of students specially +devoted to mental science than ever previously studied together in +any one place. + + +THE FUTURE AND INFLUENCE OF THE NEW SCIENCE. + +So much for the place and what is done there. Now, what is expected to +come from this new psychology? "Do you fellows expect to invent patent +ways of thinking?" was once asked me. Who can tell? Who, before +Galileo, would have prophesied that man should weigh the stars or know +their chemistry? Yet there is much ground for comparison between the +position of physical science then and that of mental science now. The +popular opinion of to-day is perhaps even less awake to the fact that +the world of mental phenomena is a world of laws, susceptible to +scientific experimentation, than was the day of Galileo to the similar +conception regarding physical phenomena. Have the physical sciences +changed aught for man since the sixteenth century? Then we must not +forget how slow was the growth, and how long it took to arrive at the +laws of gravity and of conservation, not to mention those of +evolution. Experimental psychology, as a systematic science, is almost +younger than its youngest students. The mental laws are as fixed and +as determinable as the laws of physics. Who then shall say what man +shall come to know of mental composition, of the great mental +universe, and of ourselves, its wandering planets, since minds _may_ +be known as well as stars! + +[Illustration: PROFESSOR WILHELM WUNDT, OF LEIPSIC, FOUNDER OF FIRST +PSYCHOLOGICAL LABORATORY (1878).] + +But psychology will not have to wait till its greater laws shall be +wholly established before she becomes of practical influence in common +affairs. He who reads most thoughtfully to-day will most appreciate +this truth. He who reads at all, reads of "individualism" as opposed +to "socialism." The Pope of Rome has declared that the "preoccupying" +problem for active Christianity must now be the industrial problem. +Every important treatise on the subject, appearing at present, admits +that the crucial question of the industrial problem is an ethical +problem, and every ethical treatise, that every ethical problem is a +psychological problem. Two years ago the Roman Catholic Church +established a psychological laboratory in its leading American +college. + +The Presbyterians the coming year will follow with a laboratory at +Princeton. Psychology is no longer feared by religion, but is +accepted, though in places yet too timidly, as a source of its further +and unending revelation. + +[Illustration: PRESIDENT G. STANLEY HALL, FOUNDER OF FIRST PSYCHOLOGICAL +LABORATORY IN AMERICA.] + +But psychology is coming close to affairs of church and state in more +than one way. One of the greatest crimes of modern society is its +conception of criminal jurisprudence. Between the foetal period and +adult life man passes through, in abridged series, all the degrees of +evolution that have led up through the lower animal stages to his own. +In early infancy, and even in childhood, he is not yet wholly man; not +yet safely over the brute period of his lineal development. If the +domestic calf and chicken spend their first days wild in the woods, +this pre-domestic environment will seize upon and develop their +pre-domestic traits; and these once set, no amount of domestic +training will, thereafter, make calf or chicken anything else than a +wild, untamable creature. The early instinctive periods of man's +progeny are more prolonged, more delicate, and more susceptible than +those of lower animals, yet are of the same nature. If left to evil +environment in early years the latent brute within him will surely lay +hold of its own, and ripen the yet innocent child to a creature +bearing the same relation to the moral and civilized man that the wild +wolf does to the house-dog. + +On the other hand, the wolf whose first lair is the hunter's hearth, +grows to share it lovingly with the hunter's children. The government +that ignores the hordes of children which crowd to-day the criminal +quarters of its great cities, and abandons them to ripen their +pre-civilized propensities under such evil influences, becomes itself +the foster-father of its own crimes; nurses its own children to fill +its poorhouses, and raises its own youths to fill its prisons. +Psychology, if on mere ground of financial economy alone, will yet +force criminal jurisprudence to begin its work before, rather than +after, this early period of "unalterable penalty." + +[Illustration: PROFESSOR WILLIAM JAMES, HARVARD UNIVERSITY.] + +The benefits of a psychological training to the medical man are now so +obvious as to make a knowledge of psychology imperative for every +first-class physician. The nervous activities are the regulating +activities of every part of the body; and the brain embodies an +ever-meddling three-fourths of the body's whole neural energy. The +mind is a play-house wherein the skilful physician now looks to +observe the condition of the general system, and with growing +precision even to read the working of such specific organs as the +heart, the stomach, the bladder, and the liver. + +The relation of our science to modern education has long passed from +novelty to a recognized principle. A chair of psychology and a +chair of pedagogy, side by side and hand in hand, is now the +requisite of every institution of advanced learning. "To get up +more 'fads'? More patent methods?" It is only the ignorant now who +ask these questions. Galton has shown that some men do their thinking +in visual pictures--in memories of what they see; others, in memories +of what they hear; others, in the memories of their own speaking. +There is reason to suspect that the lightning-calculator's speed is +largely due to peculiar "image processes" used in his thinking, and +that these could be taught if science could but catch his unconscious +secrets. This in time will be done, and is but an instance of +innumerable things that are sure to be accomplished. In the face of +all present pedagogical fads and blunders we may yet say with +confidence, of the mind, the instincts, the emotions, the conduct of +man, individual and social, all is lawful; and the laws may be +discovered. They are difficult--more difficult than all the physical +laws achieved from Ptolemy to Darwin. But they can be scientifically +determined and mastered, and modern methods, swift with gathering +impetus, shall make of this no lingering matter. + + +HISTORY OF MENTAL LABORATORIES. + +[Illustration: PROFESSOR HUGO MUeNSTERBERG, HARVARD UNIVERSITY.] + +The psychological laboratory sprang first from no single mind; not +wholly from science nor yet from philosophy, but from an age. In +1860 Gustave Theodore Fechner, the godfather of experimental +psychology, published his famous Law. Fechner was as much a mystic +as a scientist. His Law was, perhaps, the first great impetus to +active psycho-physical experimentation. The prospects now are, +however, that this Law will stand, a halfway truth, beside Newton's +erroneous theory of light, rather than, as was at first claimed +for it, beside the Law of Gravity, a great primary law of nature. + +The spirit of Fechner, of evolution, and of our times joined to fall +upon Wilhelm Wundt, who founded at Leipsic, in 1878, the first +laboratory in the world for regular scientific mental experimentation. +Professor Wundt is the greatest psychologist now living in Europe, and +a majority of the noted psychological experts, both of Germany and of +America, have been his pupils. + +One of these pupils, G. Stanley Hall, now President of Clark +University, opened the first American laboratory at Johns Hopkins in +1883, and the larger laboratory at Worcester in 1889. To him must be +credited the founding of experimental psychology in this country, and +an eminent share of its present successful growth. + +A foremost figure in modern psychology is Professor William James, of +Harvard, whose great text-book, the product of twelve years of labor, +appeared in 1890. In 1891 he opened the present Harvard Laboratory, +or, at least, expanded a previously slow growth to important +dimensions. + +In 1892 Harvard established a new chair of Experimental Psychology, +and elected to the same, and to direct its new laboratory, Professor +Hugo Muensterberg, previously Professor of Philosophy at Freyburg, +Germany. Professor Muensterberg was at one time a pupil of Wundt, but +is much more a man of original inspiration; and in his genius the +hopes and destiny of experimental psychology at Harvard are now +centred. + +Some twenty laboratories are now actively at work in America, and +about half that number in Europe. The twentieth century will be to +mental what the sixteenth century was to physical science, and the +central field of its development is likely to be America. + +HARVARD UNIVERSITY, _July, 1893_. + + + + +THE SPIRE OF ST. STEPHEN'S. + +BY EMMA W. DEMERITT. + + +"It needs but a steady head and a clear conscience and the thing is +done." Those were old Jacob's words. + +"The clear conscience is not lacking, thank God! but all these weeks +of watching by a sick bed, and the scanty meals, have made the head +anything but steady. If it were but three months ago, my courage would +not fail me, but now----" + +The boy broke off abruptly, and, stepping back several feet, stood +looking up at the stately spire that towered above him. Fair and +shapely it rose, with gradually receding buttress and arch, until it +terminated at a point over four hundred feet from the pavement. + +All day long little groups of men had straggled across the Platz and +gathered in front of the great cathedral, elbowing one another, and +stretching upon tiptoe to read the notice nailed to the massive door. +Many were the jests passed around. + +"Does the old sexton think men are flies, to creep along yonder dizzy +height?" asked one. + +"The prize is indeed worth winning," said another, "but"--he turned +away with an expressive shrug of the shoulder--"life is sweet." + +"When I try to reach heaven 'twill be by some less steep and dangerous +way," laughed a third, with an upward glance at the spire. + +"It makes a strong man feel a bit queer to go up inside as far as the +great bell and look up at the network of crossing ladders; but to +stand _outside_ and wave a flag!--why, the mere thought of it is +enough to make one's head swim," said the first speaker. + +"Jacob Wirtig is the only man in all Vienna who has the nerve for such +a part." + +"But he served a good apprenticeship! He learned the knack of keeping +a steady head during his early days of chamois-hunting in the Tyrol. +But why does he seek to draw others into danger? For so much gold many +a man would risk his life." + +"I can understand it, Caspar. Twice before, on some grand occasion, +has old Jacob stood on the spire and waved a flag as the emperor +passed in the streets below. And now, after all the fighting and the +victory, when there is to be a triumphal entry into the city and a +grand review, and such rejoicing as was never known before, he feels +in honor bound to supply the customary salute from the cathedral. And +since this miserable fever, which has stricken down so many in the +city, has left him too weak to attempt it, he is trying, as you see by +this notice, to get some one to take his place. He offers all the +money which the emperor never fails to send as a reward, to say +nothing of the glory. I'll wager a florin that he'll offer in vain! +But come, let us be going. There's too much work to be done, to be +loitering here." + +Twice before on that day, once in the early morning, and again at +noon, had the boy stood as if spellbound, with his eyes riveted on the +beautiful spire. And now the setting of the sun had found him a third +time at his post. The Platz was deserted, but the streets beyond were +thronged with people hurrying to their homes. Was it fear, or the +chill of the night air, that sent a shiver over the slender figure of +the boy as he stood, letting his eyes slowly wander from the top of +the spire to the base of the tower beneath, as if measuring the +frightful distance? But as he turned away with a little gesture of +despair, there rose before him the vision of a wan and weary face, as +white as the pillow against which it rested, and he heard the +physician's voice as he gently replaced the wasted hand on the +coverlet: "The fever has gone, my boy, and all that your mother needs +now to make her well and strong is good care and plenty of nourishing +food." The money offered by old Jacob would do all that, and much +more. It would mean comfort for two or three years for both mother and +son, with their simple way of living. + +When the lad again faced the cathedral it was with an involuntary +straightening of the shrinking figure. "With God's help I will try," +he said aloud, with a determined ring to his voice, "and I must go at +once to let Master Wirtig know. Now that I have finally decided, it is +strange how the fear has flown. It is the hesitating that takes the +courage out of one. After all"--he paced back, back, back, until he +was far enough from the cathedral to get a good view of the noble +structure--"who knows? It may look more difficult than it really is. +'Tis but a foothold of a few inches, but 'tis enough. If it were near +the ground I should feel as safe as if I were on the floor of the +great hall in the Stadt Haus. Why, then, should I fear up yonder?" + +The flush in the western sky suddenly deepened to a vivid crimson. The +clouds above the horizon, which a moment before had shone like waves +of gold, became a sea of flame. The ruddy glow illumined the old +cathedral, touching rich carving and lace-like tracery with a new +splendor, while far over sculptured dome and stately tower rose the +lofty spire, bathed from finial to base in the radiant light. + +The boy made a step forward, and, slipping back the little cap from +his locks, stretched out his clasped hands toward the sky. "O Mary, +tender mother!" he cried, "plead thou for me in my time of need +to-morrow! O Jesu! be near to help and save!" + +He replaced the cap, and hurried across the Platz to the crowded +thoroughfare beyond. At the end of three blocks he turned into a +narrow street, and stopped in front of a high house with steep, tiled +roof. The lamp in the swinging iron bracket above the door gave such a +feeble light that he was obliged to grope his way through the hall to +the stairs. + +At the second landing he paused for a moment, fancying that he heard a +light footfall behind him, but all was still, and he hastened on to +the next floor. Again he stopped, thinking that he caught the sound of +a stealthy, cat-like tread on the steps below. "Who's there?" he +called out boldly, but the lingering echo of his own voice was the +only answer. + +"How foolish I am!" he exclaimed. "It is but the clatter of my shoes +on the stone stairs." Up another flight and down the long, narrow +entry he went, and still he could not shake off the feeling that he +was being followed. + +At that moment a door opened and a woman peered out, holding a candle +high above her head. "Is that you, Franz?" she said. "My brother has +been expecting you this half hour." By the flickering light of the +candle Franz could see that there was no one in the entry. He turned, +impelled by a strong desire to search the tall cupboard near the +stairs and see if any one had concealed himself within, but the dread +of being laughed at kept him back, and he followed the woman into a +room where a gray-haired man sat, leaning wearily against the back of +his chair. + +"You may go now, Katrina," said the man, motioning to an adjoining +room; and when the door closed he turned to Franz, trembling with +eagerness. "Well, have you decided?" + +"I will try, Master Wirtig." + +The old sexton wrung his thin hands nervously. "But if you should +fail?" + +"In God is my trust," answered the boy, calmly. "But one 'if' is as +good as another. Why not say, if you succeed? It sounds more cheery." + +"God grant it!" answered the man, sinking back in his chair. "I had +thought that it would be some hardy young sprig who should accept my +offer--some sailor or stone-mason, whose calling had taught him to +carry a steady head. I never dreamed that it would be a mere lad like +thyself, and worn out, too, with the care of thy sick mother! Even now +I feel I do thee a grievous wrong to listen to thy entreaties." + +"Think not of _me_, Master Wirtig; think rather of my mother. Shall we +let her die, when a few moments on yonder spire would furnish the +means to make her well? The kind physician who would have helped me +was smitten with the fever yesterday, and there is no one to whom I +can go." + +"Had I been as prudent as I ought, I could have aided thee. But this +lingering illness has used up what I had put aside. Here is a little +for thy present need--some broth for thy mother, and a bite for +thyself, for thy cheeks look as pinched as if thou hadst not eaten a +good meal for a fortnight." He pulled out a covered basket from under +the table, and continued: "I shall arrange with Nicholas--for he has +worked with me so long that he is as familiar with the ladders as +myself--to go with thee up to the little sliding window, and pass out +the flag. Thou must let thyself down _outside_ the window until thy +toes touch the ledge below. Then thou must creep cautiously around to +the opposite side of the spire, and wave the flag. Look always +straight before thee or up at the sky. _Thy safety lies in not +glancing below._ I believe in my heart thou wilt succeed. How I wish +that this graceless Nicholas, this unruly nephew of mine, were such an +one as thou! Then should I have some comfort. But with his evil +companions and bad ways, he brings me naught but sorrow. Listen, +Franz; if all goes well, thou shalt have his place in helping me with +the care of the cathedral. There is no longer any dependence to be +placed on him." + +In his excitement old Jacob's voice rang through the room. "What is +it?" he asked, as he saw Franz start and look toward the door. + +"I thought I heard a rattling of the latch--as if some one were +outside." + +"It's nothing but the wind drawing through the entry." + +Franz took up his basket and bade the old sexton good-night. After he +had passed into the street a figure crept out from the cupboard, and +stole softly down stairs. The light by the door showed a boy about +seventeen years old, with an evil scowl on his face. "And so thou art +to take my place, Franz Halle," he sneered. "That is nothing new. +Twice this year has our master, the goldsmith, preferred thy work to +mine, and has set thee over me. Truly, I wish thou mayst fall +to-morrow and break thy neck." + +When Franz reached home the kind neighbor who was watching by his +mother's bed motioned for him to be quiet. "The sick one is sleeping +well," she said. "If I had but some good broth to give her when she +wakes." Franz pointed to the basket, and the delighted woman began the +preparations for the evening meal. When the invalid awoke they gave +her a few spoonfuls of the broth, and had the satisfaction of seeing a +faint color come into the white cheeks as she sank into a peaceful +slumber. + +"Do thou go to bed, Franz! I will stay with thy mother to-night, and +to-morrow too, for that matter, so that thou canst have the whole day +to thyself. Thou needest it after all thy care and watching. I like +not these parades and these marches of triumph. They remind me too +much of my boy, whose young life helped to purchase the victory," and +the good frau wiped away a tear. + +The morning dawned with a bright blue sky and a crisp breeze, which +shook out the folds of the triumphal banners floating from every tower +and turret. The city was one blaze of color. The gorgeous festoons on +column and arch and facade were matched by the rich tints of the +splendid costumes in the streets below. On every side the black eagles +of Austria stood out distinctly from their gleaming orange background. +The procession was due at the cathedral by the middle of the +afternoon, but owing to some delay it was nearly sunset when the +salute from the "Fort" told of the approach of the troops. To Franz, +the hours had dragged wearily on, and he sprang up joyfully when +Nicholas finally appeared in the little room in the tower, with the +furled flag under his arm. "Come," he said gruffly, "you have just +time to climb up and take your stand on the spire." Up the boys went, +as far as the great bell, Franz close behind Nicholas. Thus far the +ascent had been easy, but from this point the steps dwindled to long, +frail ladders terminating in small platforms, and steadied by iron +bars. + +Still they toiled upward, more slowly and cautiously now, for the +danger increased with every turn. At last they halted, side by side, +on the little platform under the sliding window. To Nicholas's +surprise Franz stood there, surveying it all without flinching. The +younger boy turned to his burly companion: "Somehow, we've never been +very good friends. I don't think the fault was all on my side, because +you wouldn't let me be your friend. And we have had a good many +quarrels. Won't you shake hands with me now and wish me good luck? +If--if"--and there was just the suspicion of a tremor in the winning +voice--"I should never see you again, I should like to feel that we +were friends at the last. You're very good to come up here with me." + +To his dying day Nicholas never forgot the slight, almost girlish, +figure, standing there, with the wistful little smile, and the +pleading tenderness shining in the blue eyes. He touched the slender +outstretched hand with his own, but dropped it suddenly, as if he had +received an electric shock. He tried to say "Good luck," but his +tongue seemed glued to the roof of his mouth. + +"Look you, Franz," he murmured hoarsely, "when you are safe outside +I'll hand out the flag. I'll wait till you reach the opposite side of +the spire and call out, 'All's well,' and then I'll go down and leave +you to make your way back. And glad I shall be to leave this miserable +trap in mid air." + +Franz's face was deathly pale, but his eyes shone like two stars. He +climbed up nimbly through the opening, let himself carefully down to +the stone ledge outside, and reached up for the flag. A few moments +passed, which seemed like ages to the waiting Nicholas. Then a cheery +"All's well" rang out, without a quiver in the steady voice. The older +boy's face grew black with rage. "What nerve the pale, sickly little +thing has!" he muttered between his set teeth. "I believe he'll do it +after all! And so this baby gets not only the prizes at the +goldsmith's, but the money and the glory of this thing, to say nothing +of his taking my place in the cathedral." + +He raised his hand to the window, and stood in front of it for a +moment. Then he began the descent as if some demon were after him. The +frail ladders vibrated and swayed with the dangerous strain, but down +he went, with reckless haste, until he reached the second platform, +when he raised his hands with an agonized gesture to his ears as if he +was trying to shut out the voice of conscience, that kept calling to +him, "Back! back! before it is too late! Stain not thy young soul with +such a crime!" + +Still he hurried down with flying step to the landing near the great +bell, where he paused, and stood leaning breathless against one of the +cross-beams of the tower. Into the fierce, turbulent passions of the +troubled face stole a softened expression, lighting up the swarthy +lineaments like a gleam of sunshine. "I will go back and undo the +horrid deed," he cried, as if in answer to the good angel pleading +within his breast. "I am coming, Franz! God forgive me!" + +He had turned to make the ascent, and his hand was stretched out to +grasp the side of the ladder, when his toe caught in a coil of rope on +the platform, and, missing his hold, he plunged down, down, into the +space beneath. + +In the meantime Franz had made his way safely around the spire, and +stood quietly, with the end of the flagstaff on the ledge beneath, +waiting for the signal. It came in a few moments; the thunder of the +great gun on the Platz, and, bracing his feet firmly, he unfurled the +flag and slowly waved it back and forth. From the answering roar of +artillery, and the cheer upon cheer that floated up through the air, +he knew that his salute had been seen. + +With a light heart he began to retrace his steps, edging himself +cautiously, inch by inch, to the window. To his surprise, the sliding +wooden panel was closed! With one hand he grasped the iron ring +fastened to the wall beneath the window, and with the other pushed, +first gently, and then with all his might, but the panel remained +fast. He tried to batter it with the flagstaff, but soon found that, +in his cramped position, it only increased his danger. Again and again +he endeavored to force it open, breaking his nails and bruising his +finger-tips in his frenzy, but to no purpose. Suddenly the conviction +dawned upon him that the window was bolted from the inside. With a +despairing sob he tottered backward, but his grasp on the ring held, +and with a supreme effort he pulled himself up close to the wall, and +tried to collect his scattered wits. + +"It is no use to shout," he said aloud. "It is more than folly to +attempt to make myself heard from this height, I might as well save my +strength. All that remains for me to do is to wait patiently. Some one +will be sure to miss me and come to my relief. In God is my trust!" +and his courage rose with the words. + +The troops disbanded, and the people hurried off to the brilliantly +lighted cafes and theatres, all unconscious of the pale, silent boy +clinging with desperate grip to the spire, with but a narrow shelf of +stone between him and a horrible death. + +The sunset faded into the twilight, and with a sudden wave darkness +drifted over the earth. The noise in the streets grew fainter and +fainter. The minutes lengthened into hours, and still the boy stood +there, as the night wore on, occasionally shifting his position to +ease his cramped and aching limbs. The night wind pierced his thin +clothing, and his hands were benumbed with the cold. One by one the +bright constellations rose and glittered and dipped in the sky, and +the boy still managed to keep his foothold, as rigid as the stone +statues on the dome below. + +"Two, three, four," pealed the bells in their hoarse, deep tones, and +when the first glimmer of dawn tinged the eastern horizon with pale +yellow, the haggard face lighted with expectancy, and from the ashen +lips, which had been moving all night in prayer, came the words, "In +God is my trust." + + * * * * * + +"What is the meaning of yonder crowd?" asked one of two artisans, who +had met while hurrying across the Platz to their work. + +"What! have you not heard? All Vienna is ringing with the news! It was +young Franz, the goldsmith's apprentice, who climbed out on the spire +yesterday and waved the flag. In some way, the little window near the +top was fastened on the inside, and the poor boy was forced to stay +out all night clinging to the spire. It is only a short time ago that +he was discovered and brought fainting down the ladders. After working +over him a little while he seemed all right, and was carried to his +home. And there's another strange thing. Nicholas, old Jacob Wirtig's +nephew, was picked up, mangled and bleeding, at the foot of the tower +stairs this morning. He has just been taken to the hospital." + +The next day Franz received a summons from the emperor. As he followed +the officer who had been sent to conduct him to the palace, to his +surprise the marble steps and the corridor beyond were lined on either +sides with the soldiers of the Imperial Guard, and as the slender, +boyish figure, with its crown of golden hair, passed between the +files, each mailed and bearded warrior reverently saluted. + +On he went, through another chamber, and into a spacious hall with +marble floors and hangings of rich tapestry. On both sides were rows +of courtiers and officers, the rich costumes and nodding plumes and +splendid uniforms, with their jewelled orders, contrasting strangely +with the lad's plain, homespun garments. "It is the emperor," +whispered the guide as they drew near a canopied throne, and Franz +dropped on one knee. + +He felt the hand which was placed on his bowed head tremble, and a +kind voice said, "Rise, my boy! kneel not to me! It is I, thy emperor, +who should rather kneel to do thee homage for thy filial piety. My +brave lad, I know thy story well! Ask of me a place near my person, +aid for thy sick mother, what thou wilt, and it is granted thee! And +remember that as long as the Emperor of Austria shall live he will +feel himself honored in being known as thy friend!" + +In a short time another summons came, this time from the hospital. At +the end of a long row of beds lay Nicholas, with his arm bandaged and +strips of plaster covering the gashes on his forehead. + +"Oh, Franz!" he groaned, "if God has forgiven me, why cannot you? And +you will believe that I speak the truth when I tell you that I was +sorry for what I had done, and I had turned to go back and unbolt the +door when I tripped and fell." + +Franz bent over him with a bright smile. "I forgive you everything, +Nicholas," he said, sweetly, "so please let us say no more about it. +It wasn't a bad exchange. I lost an enemy but I gained a friend," and +the hands of the two boys met in a firm, loving grasp. + + + + +MOUNTAINEERING ADVENTURE. + +THE DANGERS OF AVALANCHE, GLACIER, CREVASSE, AND PRECIPICE. + +BY FRANCIS GRIBBLE. + + +This is the season when the mountaineer once more takes down his +Norfolk jacket, his nailed boots, and his ice-axe, and prepares to +face the perils that may lurk for him above the snowline. + +Strictly speaking--from the point of view of the expert who knows and +does everything that an expert ought to know and do--mountaineering +has two dangers only. There is the danger of bad weather, and there is +the danger of the falling stone. But every climber is not an expert, +and even of experts it may be said that _nemo horis omnibus sapit_. So +that there are all sorts of dangers to be reckoned with, and foremost +among them is the avalanche. + +Everybody knows--vaguely, if not precisely--what an avalanche is. +Masses of snow accumulate in winter on the mountain slopes. In spring +the warmth loosens their coherence, and they fall into the valleys, +sweeping away or burying everything in their track. It is bad for the +mountaineer, if he happens to be in the way of one. + +Says the editor of the volume devoted to mountaineering, in the +Badminton Library: "The simple rule with regard to all forms of +avalanche is to avoid their track, and all that is necessary in the +majority of instances is to recognize the marks on the snow surfaces +that denote their cause, and to steer clear of them." + + +THE NARROW ESCAPE OF MR. TUCKETT. + +Undoubtedly an admirable rule, if only it could be always carried out. +But mistakes, unhappily, may be made even by experts, as witness this +story of a thrilling adventure which befell F. F. Tuckett, twenty-two +years ago. + +The season had been exceptionally cold and wet. Snow lay thickly +everywhere, even on the Faulhorn, the Scheinige Platte, and the +Wengern Alp. But in the early days of July an improvement began to +show itself, and Mr. Tuckett, who for a whole month had been able to +make no big expedition, resolved to make an attempt upon the Eiger. + +The members of the party were Mr. Tuckett, Mr. Whitwell, J. H. Fox, +and the guides, Christian and Ulrich Lauener. They got off between 3 +and 4 A.M., and presently started to ascend the Eiger glacier. The +surface of it was entirely concealed with snow, but, for some reason, +they neglected to put on the rope. High up in front of them were the +disordered pillars and buttresses of the ice-fall, and above the +ice-fall rested an enormous weight of freshly fallen snow. + +Instead of ascending the centre of the glacier, the party, fortunately +for themselves, were keeping to the left, towards the rocks of the +Rothstock. Of a sudden, a sort of crack was heard high up above their +heads, and every eye was turned upon the hanging ice-cliff from which +it came. A large mass of "_serac_" was seen to break away, mingled +with a still larger contingent of snow from the slopes above; and the +whole mass slid down like a cataract, filling the "_couloir_" to its +brim, and dashing in clouds of frozen spray over the rocky ridges in +its path, towards the travellers. + +[Illustration: THE MAUVAIS PAS, MONT BLANC.] + +For a moment they did not realize that they were in its track. But +then the knowledge flashed upon them all, and they shouted to each +other, "Run for your lives," and struggled desperately through the +deep, soft snow to reach the rocks of the Rothstock, yet with their +faces turned to watch the swift oncoming of the foe. + +Let Mr. Tuckett himself describe that thrilling race for life. + +"I remember," he writes, "being struck with the idea that it seemed as +though, sure of its prey, it wished to play with us for a while, at +one moment letting us imagine that we had gained upon it, and were +getting beyond the line of its fire, and the next, with mere +wantonness of vindictive power, suddenly rolling out on its right a +vast volume of grinding blocks and whirling snow, as though to show +that it could outflank us at any moment if it chose. + +"Nearer and nearer it came, its front like a mighty wave about to +break. Now it has traversed the whole width of the glacier above +us, taking a somewhat diagonal direction; and now--run, oh! run, +if ever you did, for here it comes straight at us, swift, deadly, +and implacable! The next instant we saw no more; a wild confusion +of whirling snow and fragments of ice--a frozen cloud--swept over +us, entirely concealing us from one another, and still we were +untouched--at least I knew that I was--and still we ran. Another +half-second and the mist had passed, and there lay the body of +the monster, whose head was still careering away at lightning +speed far below us, motionless, rigid, and harmless." + +The danger was over, and the party examined the avalanche at their +leisure. It had a length of three thousand three hundred feet, an +average breadth of a thousand feet, and an average depth of five feet. +This is to say, its bulk was six hundred and eleven thousand cubic +yards, and its weight, on a moderate computation, about four hundred +and fifty thousand tons. + +Accidents of this sort, happily, are very rare, and the climber who is +carried away by the avalanche has, as a rule, deliberately faced the +risk out of bravado, and the desire to go home and boast that he had +done hard things. But there is another sort of avalanche which is a +much more frequent source of danger. It consists of a stratum of snow +loosely adherent to a slope of _neve_ or ice. The snow breaks away +under the weight of the party, and carries them down with it, +sometimes to a place of safety, sometimes to a crevasse. + + +AN ADVENTURE OF PROFESSOR TYNDALL. + +Experience, of course, has laid down many rules for determining +whether snow of this sort is safe, but the best men--guides as well as +amateurs--may sometimes be misled. Professor Tyndall, for instance, +was always a cautious as well as a brilliant mountaineer; yet there +was a day when the professor's snow craft failed him, and he came very +near to paying for his blunder with his life. + +The place was the Piz Morteratsch, in the Engadine, and the time the +month of July, 1864. Professor Tyndall's companions were Mr. +Hutchinson and Lee Warner, and the guides Jenni and Walter. Jenni was +at that time the dictator of Pontresina, and he seems to have set out +with the deliberate intention of showing his _Herren_ how great and +brave a man he was. + +The ascent was accomplished without any incident of note. On the way +down the party reached a broad _couloir_, or gully, filled with snow, +which had been melted and refrozen, so as to expose a steeply sloping +wall of ice. The question arose whether it would be better to descend +this wall of ice, or to keep to the steep rocks by the side of it. +Professor Tyndall preferred the rocks; Jenni inclined towards the +slope, and started to lead the way upon it. + +[Illustration: THE NEEDLE OF THE GIANTS AND MONT BLANC.] + +There was a remonstrance from the professor: + +"Jenni," he said, "do you know where you are going? The slope is pure +ice." + +"I know it," the guide replied, "but the ice is quite bare for a few +rods only. Across this exposed portion I will cut steps, and then the +snow which covers the ice will give us a footing." + +So they started, roped together, Jenni in front, Mr. Tyndall next, +followed by Mr. Hutchinson, Mr. Lee Warner, the one inexperienced +member of the party, and, last of all, the guide Walter, ready to +check on the instant any false step that Mr. Lee Warner might make. + +After a few steps Jenni began to see that the slope was less safe than +he had supposed. He stopped and turned round to speak a word of +warning to the three men above him. + +"Keep carefully in the steps, gentlemen," he said; "a false step here +might start an avalanche." + +And, even as he spoke, the false step was made. There was a sound of a +fall and a rush, and Professor Tyndall saw his friends and their +guide, all apparently entangled, whirled past him. He planted himself +to resist the shock, but it was irresistible; he, too, was torn from +his foothold, and Jenni followed him, and all five found themselves +riding downwards, with uncontrollable speed, on the back of an +avalanche, which a single slip had started. + +"Turn on your face, and grind the point of your axe or baton through +the moving snow into the ice"--that is the golden rule for cases of +the kind, the only way in which the faller can do anything to arrest +his speed. But it seldom avails much, and in this instance it availed +nothing. + +"No time," writes Professor Tyndall, "was allowed for the break's +action; for I had held it firmly thus for a few seconds only, when I +came into collision with some obstacle and was rudely tossed through +the air, Jenni at the same time being shot down upon me. Both of us +here lost our batons. We had been carried over a crevasse, had hit its +lower edge, and, instead of dropping into it, were pitched by our +great velocity beyond it. I was quite bewildered for a moment, but +immediately righted myself, and could see the men in front of me, +half-buried in the snow, and jolted from side to side by the ruts +among which we were passing." + +Presently a second crevasse was reached. Jenni knew that it was there, +and did a brave thing. He deliberately threw himself into the chasm, +thinking that the strain thus put upon the rope would stop the motion. +But, though he was over a hundred and eighty pounds in weight, he was +violently jerked out of the fissure, and almost squeezed to death by +the pressure of the rope. + +And so they continued to slide on. Below them was a long slope, +leading directly downwards to a brow where the glacier fell +precipitously; and at the base of the declivity the ice was cut by a +series of profound chasms, where they must fall, and where the tail of +the avalanche would cover them up forever. + +The three foremost men rode upon the forehead of the avalanche, and +were at times almost wholly hidden by the snow; but behind, the +sliding layer was not so thick, and Jenni strove with desperate energy +to arrest his progress. + +"Halt! Herr Jesus! halt!" he shouted, as again and again he drove his +heels into the firmer surface underneath. + +[Illustration: THE MATTERHORN.] + +And now let Professor Tyndall tell the rest: + +"Looking in advance, I noticed that the slope, for a short distance, +became less steep, and then fell as before. Now or never we must be +brought to rest. The speed visibly slackened, and I thought we were +saved. But the momentum had been too great; the avalanche crossed the +brow and in part regained its motion. Here Hutchinson threw his arm +round his friend, all hope being extinguished, while I grasped my belt +and struggled to free myself. Finding this difficult, from the +tossing, I sullenly resumed the strain upon the rope. Destiny had so +related the downward impetus to Jenni's pull as to give the latter a +slight advantage, and the whole question was whether the opposing +force would have sufficient time to act. This was also arranged in our +favor, for we came to rest so near the brow that two or three seconds +of our average motion of descent must have carried us over. Had this +occurred, we should have fallen into the chasms and been covered up by +the tail of the avalanche. Hutchinson emerged from the snow with his +forehead bleeding, but the wound was superficial; Jenni had a bit of +flesh removed from his hand by collision against a stone; the +pressure of the rope had left black welts on my arms, and we all +experienced a tingling sensation over the hands, like that produced by +incipient frost-bite, which continued for several days. This was all. +I found a portion of my watch-chain hanging round my neck, another +portion in my pocket; the watch was gone." + +Very similar in many respects was the famous accident of the Haut de +Cry, in which J. J. Bennen perished in February, 1864. So sure of foot +was Bennen that it used to be said of him, as it was said of Johann +Lauener, who died upon the Jungfrau, that nothing could bring him to +grief but an avalanche. And the hour came when the snowfield which he +was crossing with his _Herren_ split suddenly and the ground on which +they stood began to move, and Bennen solemnly called out the words, +"Wir sind alle verloren," and never spoke again. + +[Illustration: THE DENT BLANCHE.] + +The avalanche was deeper than the one which swept Professor Tyndall +down the glacier of the Piz Morteratsch. "Before long," writes Mr. +Gossett, one of the survivors of the accident, "I was covered up with +snow and in utter darkness. I was suffocating, when, with a jerk, I +suddenly came to the surface again. To prevent myself sinking again I +made use of my arms much in the same way as when swimming in a +standing position. At last I noticed that I was moving slower; then I +saw the pieces of snow in front of me stop at some yards distance; +then the snow straight before me stopped, and I heard on a large scale +the same creaking sound that is produced when a heavy cart passes over +hard, frozen snow in winter." + +But the snow behind pressed on and buried Mr. Gossett. So intense was +the pressure that he could not move, and he began to fear that it +would be impossible to extricate himself. Then, while trying vainly to +move his arms, he suddenly became aware that his hands, as far as the +wrist, had the faculty of motion. The cheering conclusion was that +they must be above the snow. So Mr. Gossett struggled on. At last he +saw a faint glimmer of light. The crust above his head was getting +thinner, and let a little air pass; but he could no longer reach it +with his hands. The idea struck him that he might pierce it with his +breath. He tried, and after several efforts he succeeded. Then he +shouted for help, and one of his guides, who had escaped uninjured, +came and extricated him. The snow had to be cut with the axe down to +his feet before he could be pulled out. Then he found that his +travelling companion, M. Boissonnet, was dead, and that no trace of +Bennen could be seen. His body, however, was afterwards recovered. The +story is told in a letter from Mr. Gossett to Professor Tyndall. + +"Bennen's body," he writes, "was found with great difficulty the day +after Boissonnet was found. The cord end had been covered up with +snow. The Cure d'Ardon informed me that poor Bennen was found eight +feet under the snow, in a horizontal position, the head facing the +valley of the Luzerne. His watch had been wrenched from the chain, +probably when the cord broke; the chain, however, remained attached to +his waist-coat. This reminds me of your fall on the Morteratsch +glacier." + +It may be said that the principal danger of climbing rock-mountains is +the danger of falling off them. For the art consists largely in +traversing the faces of precipices by means of narrow and imperfect +ledges, which afford more facilities for falling off than will readily +be believed by any one who has not tried to stand on them. The +climbers, of course, are always securely roped together in such +places, and the theory is that two of them shall always be so firmly +anchored that they can instantly check any slip that the third may +make. But that is not always feasible. It is not feasible, for +instance, at the difficult corner on the Dent Blanche, where Mr. +Gabbett and the two Lochmatters came to grief. + +As all three climbers were killed on that occasion, no details of the +accident are known. But the elder Lochmatter was known to be an +exceptionally heavy man, and the presumption is that it was he who +fell, and dragged the rest of the party after him. How he came to fall +may be understood from the following description of the "Mauvais Pas," +given by a traveller who traversed it a little afterwards: + +"Here," he writes, "we must get round past a perpendicular ledge by +creeping out on an overhanging rock, and then turning sharp round, +with head and arms on one side of the rock, while the legs are still +on the other; then we must at once cling to a hardly visible fissure, +and draw round the rest of the body, gently, cautiously, little by +little, and hang there by the points of our fingers until our toes +find their way to a second fissure lower down. I made this passage," +he adds, "like a bale of goods at the end of a rope, without being +conscious of the danger, and I really do not know how I escaped in +safety." + +The description gives some idea of what stiff rock-climbing is really +like; and it should be remembered that in the Dolomites more awkward +places even than the Lochmatters' corner have often to be passed, and +that when, as often happens, the rocks are glazed with ice, the danger +of climbing them is more than doubled. + +It is always assumed that the Dent Blanche is inaccessible in such a +case. Yet the story is told of an inexperienced climber who managed to +get to the summit in spite of the ice. + +He was on his first visit to Switzerland; and as soon as he got to +Zermatt he engaged the best available guide. + +"What are considered the hardest mountains here?" he asked. + +The guide told him: "The Dent Blanche, the Weisshorn, and the Ober +Gabelhorn." + +"Very well," said the novice; "we'll begin with the Dent Blanche." + +The guide protested. Did not his _Herr_ think it would be better to +begin with something easier--with the Rothhorn, for instance, or the +Strahlhorn, or the Unter Gabelhorn? + +"No," was the reply; "you've got to take me up the Dent Blanche. I've +climbed in Wales, and I'll undertake to climb any rock you show me." + +So the guide yielded, and the two started, with a porter, and for a +certain distance got on very well. But at last they came to a point +where all the hand-holds within reach were frozen up; the nearest +practicable hand-hold could only just be found by stretching out the +ice-axe. The guide explained the situation, and insisted that they +must turn back. But his employer had been roused to such a pitch of +excitement that he would not hear of it. + +[Illustration: THE RHONE GLACIER.] + +"Look here," he said, "you're a bachelor; I'm a married man with a +family. If I can afford to risk my life you can afford to risk yours. +You've got to go on up this mountain. Otherwise I'll throw myself over +the precipice, and as you're roped to me you'll have to come, too." + +The man was absolutely mad. There was no question that, in his +excitement, he would do what he threatened if he were not obeyed. So +the guide sullenly struck his ice-axe into the fissure, and climbed up +it hand over hand, and took his lunatic up and down the Dent Blanche +at a time when its ascent ought by all the laws of ice-craft to have +been impossible. + + +CROSSING GLACIERS. + +To turn from rock to snow climbing. Accidents are constantly happening +on glaciers; yet the observance of the most elementary precautions +ought to make such accidents absolutely impossible. + +An open glacier, of course, is safe enough under any circumstances. +The one thing needful is to look where you are going and not try to +make flying leaps across crevasses. But even when the crevasses are +masked by snow all danger may still quite easily be obviated. The +simple rule is that the party crossing the glacier should never +consist of less than three, and that the three should be roped +together in such a way that, if one falls into a crevasse, the other +two can pull him out. And this, of course, involves the further rule +that the rope must always be kept taut, so that a fall may be checked +before it has gained an impetus which would make it difficult to +resist. + +[Illustration: PASSAGE OF A CREVASSE, MONT BLANC.] + +By experience it is possible to recognize a crevasse, with tolerable +accuracy, in spite of its snow covering; and by sounding with the +ice-axe before treading on it, one ought to be able to tell whether +the snow bridge will bear one's weight. But, now and again, it will +happen that the most experienced man's judgment is at fault. Relying +upon their instinctive perception of such things, the Swiss peasantry +constantly traverse glaciers alone in mid-winter. But accidents are +very frequent, and when guides, tourists, or porters have attempted +the same thing, accidents have constantly befallen them as well. As an +illustration may be quoted the case of a reporter, who foolishly +ventured to return alone over the Loetschen pass. A snow bridge broke +and he fell into a crevasse, where only his knapsack saved him from +breaking his neck. He lay on his back, wedged into the ice in such a +way that he could not move, and it was by the merest accident that he +was discovered in time, and rescued by a party journeying in the same +direction. + +So much, as Herodotus would say, for crevasses. Another serious Alpine +danger is the danger of bad weather; and bad weather, as Leslie +Stephen has pointed out, may make the Righi at one time as dangerous +as the Matterhorn at another. + +To a certain extent, of course, bad weather can be foreseen; but +meteorology is not yet an exact science, and even the acquired +instinct of the guides is sometimes at fault, so that grave mistakes, +often followed by fatal consequences, are made almost every year. + + +DANGERS OF BAD WEATHER. + +Mont Blanc is probably the mountain in which bad weather makes the +greatest difference. On a fine day, the ascent of it is scarcely more +dangerous than the ascent of Primrose Hill; but in a storm you will +lose your way, and wander round and round, until you sink down +exhausted, and freeze to death. + +In September, 1870, a party of eleven persons, eight of whom were +guides or porters, were lost in this way. When their bodies were +recovered, a memorandum was found in the pocket of one of them, J. +Beane, of the United States of America, finished apparently just +before his death, and giving a brief summary of the circumstances of +the calamity. This is how it read: + +"Tuesday, September 6.--I have made the ascent of Mont Blanc, with ten +persons; eight guides, Mr. Corkendal and Mr. Randall. We arrived at +the summit at 2.30 o'clock. Immediately after leaving it, I was +enveloped in clouds of snow. We passed the night in a grotto excavated +out of snow, affording very uncomfortable shelter, and I was ill all +night. + +"September 7 (morning).--Intense cold; much snow falls uninterruptedly: +guides restless. + +[Illustration: PYRAMIDS OF THE MORTERATSCH.] + +"September 7 (evening).--We have been on Mont Blanc for two days in a +terrible snow-storm: we have lost our way and are in a hole scooped +out of the snow, at a height of fifteen thousand feet. I have no hope +of descending. Perhaps this book may be found and forwarded. (Here +follow some instructions on his private affairs.) We have no food; my +feet are already frozen and I am exhausted; I have only strength to +write a few words. I die in the faith of Jesus Christ, with +affectionate thoughts of my family. My remembrance to all. I trust we +may meet in heaven." + +Says Leslie Stephen, commenting on the incident in the "Alpine +Journal:" + +"The main facts are so simple that little explanation is needed. The +one special danger of Mont Blanc is bad weather. The inexperienced +travellers were probably ignorant of the fearful danger they were +encountering, and had not the slightest conception of the risk to life +and limb which accompanies even a successful ascent of the mountain +under such circumstances. I once ascended Mont Blanc on a day so +unusually fine that we could lie on the summit for an hour, light +matches in the open air, and enjoy the temperature. Yet, in two or +three hours before sunrise, the guide of another party which ascended +the same day was so severely frost-bitten as to lose his toes. Such +things may happen in the finest weather, when proper precautions are +neglected; but in bad weather it is simple madness to proceed. Why, +one cannot help asking, did not the guides oppose the wishes of their +employers?" + + +FALLING ICE. + +Among other dangers that the mountaineer has to reckon with are ice +avalanches and cornices. + +A cornice is a mass of snow projecting over the edge of a precipice, +and resting upon empty space. Occasionally it will bear the weight of +one, or even several, men; but more often it gives way when trodden +on, carrying a whole party to destruction. This was the case in the +famous accident on the Lyskamm--a mountain where the cornices are +particularly treacherous--when Messrs. William Arnold Lewis and Noel +H. Paterson, with the guides Niklaus, Johann, and Peter Joseph Knubel, +met their deaths in the year 1877. "The cornice," writes Mr. Hartley, +who visited the scene of the accident immediately afterwards, "had +broken away in two places, leaving some ten feet in the middle still +adhering to the mountain. The length of the parts which broke away +was, perhaps, forty feet on each side of the remaining portion. The +distance of the fall we estimated at from twelve hundred to fifteen +hundred feet. The bodies, from the nature of the injuries they had +received, had evidently fallen upon their heads on the rocks, and +then, in one great bound, had reached almost the spot where they were +found." + +A typical instance of the ice-avalanche accident happened to, and has +been recorded by, Mr. Whymper. Accompanied by A. W. Moore and the +guides Croz and Almer, he was trying to discover a shorter route than +those usually taken between Zinal and Zermatt. After spending the +night in a _chalet_ on the Arpitetta Alp, they started, and struck +directly up the centre of the Moming glacier. The route proved +impracticable, and it became necessary to cut steps across an +ice-slope immediately below the great pillars and buttresses of the +ice-fall, which were liable to break away and descend upon them at any +moment. + +"I am not ashamed to confess," wrote Mr. Moore in his journal, "that +during the whole time we were crossing the slope my heart was in my +mouth, and I never felt so relieved from such a load of care as when, +after, I suppose, a passage of about twenty minutes, we got on to the +rocks and were in safety. I have never heard a positive oath come from +Almer's mouth, but the language in which he kept up a running +commentary, more to himself than to me, as we went along, was stronger +than I should have given him credit for using. His prominent feeling +seemed to be one of indignation that we should be in such a position, +and self-reproach at being a party to the proceeding; while the +emphatic way in which, at intervals, he exclaimed, 'Quick; be quick,' +sufficiently betokened his alarm." + +And now, let the rest of the story be told in Mr. Whymper's graphic +words. Croz, it should be remembered, was leading, and had advised the +perilous route. + +"It was not necessary," Mr. Whymper says, "to admonish Croz to be +quick. He was fully as alive to the risk as any of the others. He told +me afterwards that the place was not only the most dangerous he had +ever crossed, but that no consideration whatever would tempt him to +cross it again. Manfully did he exert himself to escape from the +impending destruction. His head, bent down to his work, never turned +to the right or to the left. One, two, three, went his axe, and then +he stepped on to the spot where he had been cutting. How painfully +insecure should we have considered those steps at any other time! But +now we thought of nothing but the rocks in front, and of the hideous +'_seracs_' lurching over above us, apparently in the very act of +falling." + +[Illustration: PASSAGE OF A CREVASSE, MONT BLANC.] + +At last they reached the rocks in safety, and, says Mr. Whymper, "If +they had been doubly as difficult as they were, we should still have +been well content. We sat down and refreshed the inner man; keeping +our eyes on the towering pinnacles of ice which we had passed, but +which now were almost beneath us. Without a preliminary warning sound, +one of the largest--as high as the Monument, at London Bridge--fell +upon the slope below. The stately mass heeled over as if upon a hinge +(holding together until it bent thirty degrees forward), then it +crushed out its base, and, rent into a thousand fragments, plunged +vertically down upon the slope that we had crossed. Every atom of our +track that was in its course was obliterated; all the new snow was +swept away, and a broad sheet of smooth, glassy ice showed the +resistless force with which it had fallen." + + + + +THE SMOKE. + +FROM "PAUL FABER, SURGEON." + +BY GEORGE MACDONALD. + + + Lord, I have laid my heart upon thy altar, + But cannot get the wood to burn: + It hardly flares ere it begins to falter, + And to the dark return. + + Old sap, or night-fallen dew, has damped the fuel; + In vain my breath would flame provoke; + Yet see--at every poor attempt's renewal, + To thee ascends the smoke. + + 'Tis all I have--smoke, failure, foiled endeavor + Coldness and doubt and palsied lack: + Such as I have I send thee. Perfect Giver + Send thou thy lightning back. + + + + +THE EARL OF DUNRAVEN. + +BY C. KINLOCH COOKE. + + +Wyndham Thos. Wyndhamquin, fourth Earl of Dunraven and Mount Earl, was +born fifty-two years ago. His father, who was a convert to Roman +Catholicism, devoted much time to scientific pursuits, and wrote a +book on Irish architecture, which is generally recognized as the +standard work on the subject. His mother was a Protestant, and a +daughter of Sergeant Goold, the eminent Dublin lawyer, who, although +past forty when called to the bar, made both a name and a fortune for +himself in his profession. His grandfather on the paternal side +supported the Union, but Sergeant Goold, like so many of the leading +men in Dublin at that time, more especially barristers, opposed it. +Here, then, we have a very fair example of the fact that the prominent +men in the counties desired to see the fusion of the two countries, +while the chief representatives of the cities held the opposite +opinion. + +[Illustration: LORD DUNRAVEN.] + +Viscount Adare, the title belonging to the eldest son in the Dunraven +family, was educated privately, and although fond of athletics, had +few opportunities of joining in cricket, football, rackets, and +similar public-school games. At an early age he was sent abroad with a +tutor, and while still in his teens had visited and explored many of +the principal cities of Europe. In compliance with his father's wishes +he stayed some time at Rome. But neither the influence of the priests +nor the attractions of the Vatican were sufficient to induce him to +become a Roman Catholic. Soon after he returned to England he went to +Oxford and matriculated at Christ Church, where he spent the next +three years of his life. At college, except holding a commission for a +year in the 'Varsity volunteers, he did nothing to distinguish himself +from the ordinary undergraduate, and, like many others of his set, +came down without taking a degree. He then joined the First Life +Guards, and spent much of his spare time steeplechasing. Pluck and +nerve, combined with light weight, secured him many mounts from +Captain Machell and others. He was christened "Fly" by his brother +officers, a name by which he is still known among his most intimate +friends. + +So energetic a nature soon tired of the London soldier's life, and +when war broke out with Abyssinia he applied to the proprietors of the +"Daily Telegraph" to be allowed to act as their special correspondent. +His offer being accepted, he resigned his commission and started for +North Africa. Colonel Phayre, who was Quartermaster-General, attached +him to his staff, and so he obtained the earliest and most authentic +information. Mr. H. M. Stanley, who was doing similar duty for the +"New York Herald," shared a tent with the amateur journalist, and was +much struck with the workmanlike character of the despatches which he +sent off on every available opportunity. At the close of the campaign +he returned to England and fell in love with Lord Charles Lennox Kerr's +daughter, whom he shortly afterwards married. In 1869 he started with +his wife for a tour in the United States, where he remained for some +time and made many friends. + +In journalistic circles he was well received, and particularly so by +the late Mr. Louis Jennings, then editor of the "New York Times," Mr. +Hurlbert, who at that time had charge of the "New York World," and the +late "Sam" Ward. At the outbreak of war between France and Germany he +went to Berlin for the "Daily Telegraph," and followed the campaign +right through. As a matter of course he carried his life in his hand, +but though he had some narrow escapes he met with no accident, until +just before the capitulation of Paris, when he broke his arm and was +invalided home, with the result that he missed the days of the +Commune. + +For twelve years or more he crossed the Atlantic annually and +travelled in the States, Canada, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. He was +the first private individual to investigate the Yellowstone region, +and wrote a capital book on the expedition called "The Great Divide," +which met with a good reception both in America and England. He hunted +and shot with Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack long before they ever went +east of the Mississippi, and his name was well known among the +Indians, who allowed him to travel about their territory without +interruption. His articles in the "Nineteenth Century Review" on moose +and caribou hunting, and his stories of animal life, drafted on the +spot, were much appreciated in sporting circles. In Colorado he +purchased a tract of land called Estes Park, which is about to be +transferred to an English company. When the branch railway is made and +the proposed irrigation works inaugurated, the estate should be a +valuable property. + +[Illustration: LADY DUNRAVEN.] + +Lord Dunraven's yachting may be said to date from his college days, +since he generally spent the long vacation with his friend Lord +Romney, voyaging in a small sloop he purchased from a Cardiff pilot. +In this craft, with a man and boy for a crew, he used to cruise in all +sorts of weather round the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Very funny +indeed are some of the yarns about the dangers and difficulties which +the "Cripple"--as the yacht was named--and those on board met with +from time to time. In this way he picked up some knowledge of +navigation, learned how to manage a boat, and became well acquainted +with the discomforts of seafaring life. From the days of the "Cripple" +until 1887 Lord Dunraven took but little interest in yachting or yacht +racing. But in August of that year he chanced to be at Cowes, and went +for a sail in the "Irex." As usual with Mr. Jameson, the conversation +turned on yacht building. In a very short time Lord Dunraven was +persuaded to return to his old love, and before a month was over Mr. +Richardson, of Liverpool, who designed the "Irex," had received +instructions to build him a cutter. The result was the "Petronilla," +but, in spite of several alterations, the yacht was a failure, +although she was steered by Gomes, who during the last two seasons has +had charge of "Meteor" (_nee_ "Thistle") for the German Emperor. + +Disheartened, but not defeated, he gave a commission to Mr. Watson, of +Glasgow, who designed the first "Valkyrie." She was a signal success, +and was sailed by Thomas Diaper, better known as Tommy Dutch, and +afterwards by William Cranfield, who had been so fortunate with the +"Yarana," now the "Maid Marian," for Mr. Ralli. Like the present ship, +she was built for the express purpose of racing for the America Cup. +The challenge sent by the Royal Yacht Squadron was accepted by the New +York Yacht Club. But as conditions, considered distasteful by the +Squadron, were imposed as to the future holding of the cup, and the +New York Yacht Club declined to yield in any way, the match was +reluctantly abandoned. The following year the Watson cutter came out +again and did as well as before. In the winter of 1891-92 Lord +Dunraven took her to the Mediterranean, where, after winning every +race she sailed in, she was sold to the Archduke Carl Stephan, and +delivered at Pola. + +[Illustration: DUNRAVEN CASTLE.] + +The next order was given to Mr. Alfred Payne, of Southampton, who was +bidden to design a yacht which should serve the twofold purpose of a +fast cruiser and a reliable, seaworthy fishing boat. "L'Esperance" was +built with that object in view, and fully realized the expectations of +her owner, though, of course, she was not fast enough to hold her own +with the first-class racers. During the two seasons the yacht was +afloat she carried off several prizes in handicap matches. + +Last year Lord Dunraven determined to have a second try to bring off a +race for the America Cup, and gave an order to Mr. Watson to build him +another cutter. The success of the Clyde designer's last venture was +probably the reason for calling the new vessel "Valkyrie." The Royal +Yacht Squadron again challenged in Lord Dunraven's behalf, and the +challenge was duly accepted. Fortunately, no difficulties arose on +this occasion, and the 5th of October is fixed for the first match. + +[Illustration: CAPTAIN WILLIAM CRANFIELD OF THE "VALKYRIE."] + +The new ship was built by Messrs. Henderson, of Glasgow, side by side +with the "Britannia," the Prince of Wales's yacht. It is a mistake, +however, to suppose, as some do, that the two vessels are copies, one +of the other. The "Valkyrie" was designed first, and her building +begun, before Mr. Watson considered with Mr. Jameson the lines of the +"Britannia." "Valkyrie's" registered tonnage is 106.55, and her length +on the load water line 86.82 feet, which is 1.82 feet above the length +of the load water line given in the challenge, but doubtless she will +be altered to meet the conditions governing the race. Her length from +the fore part of stem under the bowsprit to the aft side of the head +of the stern-post is 97.75 feet, and her length over all 116.25. Her +racing rating is 148, and her sail area 10,200 square feet, being +3,500 square feet more than the first "Valkyrie." She carries a crew +of thirty hands all told, and her cabins are prettily fitted up in +cedar and cretonne. + +[Illustration: G. T. WATSON, DESIGNER OF THE "VALKYRIE."] + +The second "Valkyrie" has been tried in all weathers and in various +waters with the "Britannia," the "Satanita," the "Calluna," and the +"Iverna." Therefore her capabilities against British yachts of her own +class are pretty well known. Up to the time of writing, namely, the +eve of the Royal Yacht Squadron regatta at Cowes--the regatta in which +the schooner yacht "America" won the cup which Lord Dunraven hopes to +bring back to England--the "Valkyrie" has sailed in twenty matches and +won fourteen flags, eleven first and three second, representing a +total value of L930. Her first match was in the Thames on May 25, when +she had bad luck and only came in third, "Britannia" being first and +"Iverna" second. In the middle of the race she broke her bowsprit off +short in the stem, and in a few minutes was, for all sailing purposes, +practically a wreck. In the second Royal Thames match it was doubtful +whether "Britannia" or "Valkyrie" won. The Prince of Wales's yacht was +first in, but according to some watches she only won by seven seconds, +whereas the official timekeeper made it seventeen seconds, thus +covering "Valkyrie's" time allowance. In the Royal Cinque Ports +regatta several vessels collided, with the result that the "Britannia" +did not race at all, and Lord Dunraven's yacht was detained at the +start twelve and a half minutes, and so was not placed. During the +Royal Ulster match one of "Valkyrie's" men fell overboard, and the +time lost in picking up the man could not be recovered. It is, +however, but fair to say that when "Valkyrie" won the second Royal +Western match, "Britannia" came to grief, while in the second race on +the Clyde the prince's yacht was disqualified. + +[Illustration: THE "VALKYRIE."] + +It now remains to see how she acquits herself in contest with the +American vessels which have been built to meet her. The long notice +required gives a distinct advantage to the other side; although only +one boat can sail against the challenger, there is nothing to prevent +any number of boats being designed by the party challenged. The +Americans have built four cutters to select from, hence the chances +against the "Valkyrie" may be roughly calculated at four to one. + +There is no doubt that Lord Dunraven's ship is a great improvement on +anything hitherto built in England, and, given her time allowance, is +the fastest vessel afloat on British waters. She has gone much better +since she had her top-mast clipped and topsails cut. Her strong point +is going to windward, and her best chance is in light weather. She +leaves England on or about August 20, in charge of William Cranfield, +than whom it would be difficult to find a more experienced skipper on +either side of the Atlantic. He has sailed her all through her trial +matches and will steer her in the races for the cup. + +But it must not be supposed that Lord Dunraven is always racing in +large yachts. On the contrary, he is perhaps even more interested +in small boat sailing, and has, since 1889, built four "fives," all +of which have given a very good account of themselves. This year he +brought out a twenty-rater, but so far she has not proved a +success, and has succumbed to "Dragon" on almost every occasion. He +is commodore of the Castle Yacht Club, a sporting little racing +club on the South Coast, where races take place every Saturday and +often twice a week. The commodore generally enters his boat for +these matches, and always steers himself. Besides belonging to the +Royal Yacht Squadron and the Castle Yacht Club, Lord Dunraven is a +member of the Austrian Imperial Yacht Squadron; the Royal Cork, +London, Southern, Southampton, Clyde, Western, and Victoria; the +New Thames, Bristol Channel, Portsmouth, Corinthian and many other +yachting clubs. + +The same year that he returned to yachting he took up racing again, +and started a stable in partnership with Lord Randolph Churchill, +having Mr. R. W. Sherwood as trainer, and "Morny" Cannon and Woodburn +as jockeys. On the whole his horses have been fairly successful. +L'Abbesse de Jouarre won the Oaks in 1889, and Inverness has secured +some good stakes. Strange to say, on the day the mare won at Epsom, +Lord Randolph was in Norway, and Lord Dunraven was sailing in his +five-rater at Calshot Castle. Under these circumstances it is quite +permissible to draw the conclusion that he prefers yachting to horse +racing. After four years of partnership racing, Lord Dunraven bought +Lord Randolph's share of the stud and now races entirely on his own +account. He is a good fisherman, and as equally at home with his +salmon rod as with a deep-sea line. He knows nearly every fishing +ground round the coast, and, after the regattas are over, generally +goes trawling. His favorite places are off Plymouth, the Scilly and +the Channel Islands. Both with rifle and gun he is a first-rate shot, +and although he always shoots in spectacles, seldom misses his game. + +[Illustration: THE KENRY GATEWAY.] + +Lord Dunraven took his seat in the House of Lords as a supporter +of Mr. Gladstone, who subsequently offered him a minor post in the +government. But at that time the young traveler took but little +part in politics, and so declined the flattering invitation. His +real entry into public life, and, in fact, the foundation of his +subsequent career as a politician, are due to an article which he +wrote in the "New York World" on Mr. Gladstone's famous attack on +Lord Beaconsfield. The article obtained much attention at the +time, and attracted the notice of the Conservative chief, who was +much struck at the clever criticism of the young Liberal peer. An +acquaintance sprang up between Lord Beaconsfield and the writer, +which later on ripened into friendship, and probably had something +to do with Lord Dunraven joining the Conservative party. + +His early speeches were chiefly on foreign policy, and the intimate +knowledge he showed respecting treaties of all kinds was an additional +link between him and the leader of his new party. His favorite theme +was Egypt, and he rarely missed an opportunity of condemning Mr. +Gladstone's policy in respect to that country. Later on he interested +himself more especially in colonial affairs. Here his personal +acquaintance with the North American colonies stood him in good stead, +and gained him the ear of the House of Lords. Thus it was scarcely +surprising that when Lord Salisbury came into office he chose him as +Under Secretary of State for the colonies, a post he again filled on +the return of the Conservatives to power in 1886. + +Soon after he had taken office the second time, the Newfoundland +Government passed an act prohibiting the French fishermen from +purchasing bait in the colony. This act the imperial government at +first declined to ratify. Lord Dunraven sided with the local +legislators, on the ground that Newfoundland was a self-governing +colony. He pressed this view of the case at Downing Street, and, as +the government declined to yield, resigned his Under Secretaryship. +Some say he resigned merely to support his friend, Lord Randolph +Churchill, who had just given up the post of Chancellor of the +Exchequer and leader of the House of Commons, but, although the two +resignations may have had some connection, the immediate cause of Lord +Dunraven's leaving the Colonial Office was as I have stated. Being out +of office and out of favor with his chief, Lord Dunraven turned his +attention to social questions, and, when Mr. Burnett's report on the +Sweating System at the East End of London was presented to Parliament, +he moved the House of Lords for a select committee to inquire into the +subject. The request was granted, and he was appointed chairman. For +more than two years the committee sat, and during all that time Lord +Dunraven worked most energetically, examining and cross-examining the +various witnesses sent up from all parts of the United Kingdom, for he +was not long in discovering that the system was practised quite as +much in the provincial cities as in the East End of London, and +quickly took steps to have the reference extended. With much care he +drafted an exhaustive report, giving, as the chief causes of the +existence of sweating, unrestricted foreign immigration and +over-competition. Lord Derby and Lord Thring declined to accept this +view, and Lord Dunraven, finding himself in a minority, retired from +the chairmanship. Subsequent events have shown that Lord Dunraven was +not so far out in his diagnosis as his colleagues supposed. The evil +effects of foreign immigration upon the unskilled labor market so +impressed him that, on his own initiative and at his own expense, he +formed a society for the express purpose of making these effects known +to the public, and of forcing them upon the attention of Parliament. + +[Illustration: ADARE MANOR HOUSE.] + +The working-man may have good reason to thank Lord Dunraven, but it +is doubtful whether the capitalist will regard his efforts in the same +light. The Sweating Committee brought Mr. Alderman Ben Tillett to the +front, and Mr. Alderman Ben Tillett, in conjunction with Mr. John +Burns, M.P., were the promoters of the dock strike. The dock strike +started "new unionism," and new unionism gave an impetus to the +eight-hour-day movement. Lord Dunraven and Lord Randolph Churchill +were the first prominent politicians to openly advocate an eight-hour +day for miners, and Lord Dunraven's speech on the eight-hours' case +generally, before the members of the Chamber of Commerce at Liverpool, +attracted much comment at the time. The Factories and Workshops act +was really an extension of the very able bill which Lord Dunraven +introduced into the House of Lords, in order to carry into force +certain amendments in the law which he had suggested in his draft on +the sweating inquiry. Together with Lord Sandhurst, the present Under +Secretary for War, he championed the cause of the laundresses. Indeed, +there is scarcely a question affecting the interests of the working +classes in which he has not taken an active part, and when a separate +state department for labor is established, as it must be eventually, +Lord Dunraven, supposing the Conservatives to be in power, will +probably be invited to act as its first minister. + +There is scarcely a subject on which he is not well informed. His +difficulty seems to be in making a choice. In matters of sport he has +thrown his heart and soul into yachting, and, as a consequence, on +that subject he is naturally considered the first authority. What he +has done in yachting he must do in politics, if he is ever to reach +the position to which his abilities entitle him. + +[Illustration: ADARE GALLERY.] + +The rough-and-tumble work of the House of Commons would have been a +far better school for him than the Upper House of Parliament, and had +he not been a peer he would probably by this time have reached a far +higher rung on the political ladder than he has done. Although +nervous, he is a good speaker, and never misses his points. He seldom +addresses the House without a thorough knowledge of his subject, and +as a consequence is generally listened to and considered. Naturally +quick, he soon masters his facts. He has great power of concentration, +but, like most Irishmen, lacks application. Unlike his race, however, +he is not impulsive, and seldom speaks without thinking. He has more +the memory of a barrister than that of a permanent official, and +should he forget the details, always remembers the line of argument. +With a little more patience he would make a good judge, as he knows +well how to sift evidence, and is just in dealing with the opinions of +others. Thorough himself, he expects thoroughness in those about him. +Cant and hypocrisy he will have none of. Nor does he believe in +employing second-rate intellect. The best man and the best price is +Lord Dunraven's motto. There is no niggardliness about him, yet at +the same time he intends to get his money's worth. Mistakes are not +overlooked, but forgiven. As a result he is much liked by all who have +any dealings with him. + +The principal family estates are in Ireland and Wales. Adare Manor, +the Irish home where the present peer was born, is situated in one of +the prettiest parts of County Limerick. The house, which had fallen +into decay during the last century, was entirely rebuilt by Lord +Dunraven's grandfather. It is of gray stone and in the style of the +Tudor period. The most imposing apartment is the gallery, which is +panelled in old oak and has a beautifully carved ceiling. This room is +approached from the hall by means of a stone stair-case let into the +wall, and is entered through richly carved double doors brought from +an old church at Antwerp. It is one hundred and thirty-two feet long +and twenty-one feet wide. Along the sides hang the family pictures, +and a few choice paintings by old masters. The hall is lofty, and +lighted by colored windows, which, together with the organ, hidden +away in a recess, gives the place more the appearance of a cathedral +than the entrance to a private house. The river Maigne flows past the +manor on the south side, and, when at home, the subject of our sketch +may often be seen fishing for a salmon or shooting a weir in his +canoe, after the manner of Canadian log men down the rapids. Not far +from the manor house, on the banks of the river, are the ruins of a +Franciscan abbey, built in 1464 for the Observant Brothers by a former +Earl of Kildare, while adjoining lie the ruins of Desmond Castle, so +celebrated in Irish history. + +[Illustration: RUINS OF DESMOND CASTLE.] + +Lord Dunraven is much attached to Ireland and the Irish. He devotes +large sums of money annually towards improving and keeping up Adare, +and spends all the income derived from the estate in giving employment +to the people of the district. This fact alone, seeing that he has +only a life interest in the place, shows his large-mindedness. His +property is probably the only one in the south of Ireland on which no +outrage has ever been committed, and it speaks well for his popularity +that when he came amongst his own tenants a few months ago to deliver +a speech against Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule bill, not only was he +listened to, but, for the time, received the support of many Home +Rulers in the district. At Adare, Lord Dunraven entertained Lord +Spencer and the vice-regal court in state, and subsequently received +Lord Londonderry and Lord Houghton. + +Dunraven Castle, in Glamorganshire, is built on the edge of a cliff, +and overlooks the Bristol Channel. The coast is very dangerous, and +many a ship has struck and gone to pieces on the treacherous rocks in +sight of the castle. There is no safe anchorage anywhere near, so Lord +Dunraven is in the peculiar position of having a home by the sea, but +is unable to approach it in his yacht. Lately the castle has been +enlarged, and a new wing and courtyard added. During the last few +years, owing probably to the unsettled state of Ireland, Lord and Lady +Dunraven have done most of their entertaining here. Not long ago the +Duke and Duchess of Teck and the Princess May (Duchess of York) made a +long stay at the castle. The gardens are well kept, but the want of +shelter prevents the shrubs and coverts from growing, and gives the +more exposed part of the estate rather a barren appearance. The +shooting is fairly good, and the park well stocked with deer. + +Kenry House, in the vale of Putney, was until recently used as the +town residence, but when Lord Dunraven's daughters grew up it was +necessary to take a house in London. Still Kenry is a favorite +Saturday to Monday resort of Lord Dunraven during the parliamentary +session. + +Few men in like position have led so varied a life as the owner of +"Valkyrie," and as a consequence he has come into contact with most +men and women worth knowing. In social circles he is very popular, and +no smart entertainment is complete without him. In clubland he is +always welcome, and is as equally at home at the Beefsteak or the +Savage as at the Marlborough or the Turf. While Parliament is sitting +he is often found at the Carlton, discussing with his party the latest +move on the political chess-board, or talking science and literature +with his friends at the Athenaeum. His energy is boundless. He will +work all the morning, legislate in the afternoon, dine out, and then +spend the evening in amusement. Travelling to him is nothing. He never +tires. He is an early riser, and no matter what time he goes to bed is +always up and attending to his correspondence at the usual hour the +next morning. In this way he gets through a great amount of work, and +is able to find time for the same amount of pleasure. He is very +generous, and as a result is often imposed upon. Not only is he called +upon to give money toward the charities in his own neighborhoods, but +people write to him from all parts of the United Kingdom to help them +in their distress. Often he yields, and many a home has been made +happy by a gift of money or money's worth. Scarcely a church or chapel +on his Welsh estate is self-supporting. All expect, and many get, +grants from Lord Dunraven. In Ireland, too, he is equally liberal; and +Father Flanagan, the priest at Adare, could tell many a tale of want +relieved and assistance given to the Catholics on the estate. + +LONDON, ENGLAND. + + + + +AT A DANCE. + + + My queen is tired and craves surcease + Of twanging string and clamorous brass; + I lean against the mantelpiece, + And watch her in the glass. + + One whom I see not where I stand + Fans her, and talks in whispers low; + Her loose locks flutter as his hand + Moves lightly to and fro. + + He begs a flower; her finger tips + Stray round a rose half veiled in lace; + She grants the boon with smiling lips, + Her clear eyes read his face. + + I cannot look--my sight grows dim-- + While Fate allots, unequally, + The living woman's self to him, + The mirrored form to me. + + + + +DULCES AMARYLLIDIS IRAE. + + + I told my love a truth she liked not well; + She spoke no word. I raised my eyes to watch + Her cheek's red flush, her bosom's angry swell; + She rose to go; her hand was on the latch; + When some swift thought--of my fond love, maybe, + Or ill-requited patience--bowed her head: + She faltered, paused with foot half raised to flee, + Then turned, and stole into my arms instead. + + _Reproduced, by special arrangement, from_ "Under the Hawthorn, + and Other Verse," by Augusta de Gruchy. + + London: Edwin Matthews and John Lane, 1893. + + + + +A SPLENDID TIME--AHEAD. + +BY WALTER BESANT. + + +I. + +It was Sunday evening in July--an evening aglow with warmth and +splendor; an evening when even the streets of London were glorious +with the light of the splendid west; an evening when, if you are young +(as I sincerely hope you are), only to wander hand-in-hand over the +grass and under the trees with your sweetheart should be happiness +enough. One ought to be ashamed to ask for more. Nay, a great many do +not ask for more. + +They are engaged. Some time, but not just yet, they will marry. They +work separately all the week, but on the Sunday they are free to go +about together. Of all the days that make the week they dearly love +but one day--namely the day that lies between the Saturday and Monday. +Now that the voice of the Sabbatarian has sunk to a whisper or a +whine; now that we have learned to recognize the beauty, the priceless +boon, the true holiness of the Sunday, which not only rests body and +brain, but may be so used as to fill the mind with memories of lovely +scenes, of sweet and confidential talk, of love-making and of +happiness, we ought to determine that of all the things which make up +the British liberties, there is nothing for which the working man +should more fiercely fight or more jealously watch than the full +freedom of his Sunday--freedom uncontrolled to wander where he will, +to make his recreation as he chooses. + +If the church doors are open wide, let the doors of the public +galleries and the museums and the libraries be opened wide as well. +Let him, if he choose, step from church to library. But if he is wise, +when the grass is long and the bramble is in blossom, and the foliage +is thick and heavy on the elms, he will, after dinner, repair to the +country, if it is only to breathe the air of the fields, and lie on +his back watching the slow westering of the sun and listening to the +note of the blackbird in the wood. + +Two by two they stroll or sit about Hempstead Heath on such an +evening. If you were to listen (a pleasant thing to do, but wrong) to +the talk of these couples you would find that they are mostly silent, +except that they only occasionally exchange a word or two. Why should +they talk? They know each other's cares and prospects; they know the +burden that each has to bear--the evil temper of the boss, the +uncertainties of employment, the difficulties in the way of an +improved screw, and the family troubles--there are always family +troubles, due to some inconsiderate member or other. I declare that we +have been teaching morality and the proper conduct of life on quite a +wrong principle--namely, the selfish principle. + +We say, "Be good, my child, and you will go to heaven." The +proposition is no doubt perfectly true. But it proposes a selfish +motive for action. I would rather say to that child, "Be good, my +dear, or else you will become an intolerable nuisance to other +people." Now, no child likes to consider himself an intolerable +nuisance. + +These lovers, therefore, wander about the Heath, sometimes up to their +knees in bracken, sometimes sitting under the trees, not talking much, +but, as the old phrase has it, "enjoying themselves" very much indeed. +At the end of the Spaniards' Road--that high causeway whence one can +see, in clear weather, the steeple of Harrow Church on one side and +the dome of St. Paul's on the other--there is a famous clump of firs, +which have been represented by painters over and over again. Benches +have been placed under these trees, where one can sit and have a very +fine view indeed, with the Hendon Lake in the middle distance, and a +range of hills beyond, and fields and rills between. + +On one of these benches were sitting this evening two--Adam and Eve, +boy and girl--newly entered into paradise. Others were sitting there +as well--an ancient gentleman whose thoughts were seventy years back, +a working man with a child of three on his knee, and beside him his +wife, carrying the baby. But these lovers paid no heed to their +neighbors. They sat at the end of the bench. The boy was holding the +girl's hand, and he was talking eagerly. + +"Lily," he said, "you must come some evening to our debating society +when we begin again and hear me speak. No one speaks better. That is +acknowledged. There is to be a debate on the House of Lords in +October. I mean to come out grand. When I'm done there will be mighty +little left of the Lords." He was a handsome lad, tall and well set +up, straight featured and bright eyed. The girl looked at him proudly. +He was her own lad--this handsome chap. Not that she was bad-looking +either. Many an honest fellow has to put up with a girl not nearly so +good-looking, if you were to compare. + +He was a clerk in the city. She was in the post-office. He attended at +his office daily from half-past nine to six, doing such work as was +set before him for the salary of a pound a week. She stood all day +long at the counter, serving out postal orders, selling stamps, +weighing letters, and receiving telegrams. When I add that she was +civil to everybody you will understand that she was quite a superior +clerk--one of the queen's lucky bargains. It is not delicate to talk +about a young lady's salary, therefore I shall not say for how much +she gave her services to the British Empire. + +He was a clever boy, who read and thought. That is to say, he thought +that he thought--which is more than most do. As he took his facts from +the newspapers, and nothing else, and as he was profoundly ignorant +of English history, English law, the British Constitution, the duties +of a citizen, and the British Empire generally, his opinions, after he +had done thinking, were not of so much value to the country, it is +believed. But still a clever fellow, and able to spout in a frothy way +which carried his hearers along, if it never convinced or defeated an +opponent. + +To this kind of clever boy there are always two or three dangers. One +is that he should be led on to think more and more of froth and less +of fact; another, that he should grow conceited over his eloquence and +neglect his business. A third temptation which peculiarly besets this +kind is that he should take to drink. Oratory is thirsty work, and +places where young men orate are often in immediate proximity to bars. +As yet, however, Charley was only twenty. He was still at the first +stage of everything--oratory, business, and love; and he was still at +the stage when everything appears possible--the total abolition of +injustice, privilege, class, capital, power, oppression, greed, +sweating, poverty, suffering--by the simple process of tinkering the +constitution. + +"Oh," he cried, "we shall have the most glorious, the most splendid +time, Lily! The power of the people is only just beginning; it hasn't +begun yet. We shall see the most magnificent things...." He enumerated +them as above indicated. Well, it is very good that young men should +have such dreams and see such visions. I never heard of any girl being +thus carried out of herself. The thing belongs exclusively to male man +in youth, and it is very good for him. When he is older he will +understand that over and above the law and the constitution there is +something else more important still--namely, that every individual man +should be honest, temperate, and industrious. In brief, he will +understand the force of the admonition: "Be good, my child, or else +you will become an intolerable nuisance to everybody." + +The sun sank behind Harrow-on-the-Hill. The red light of the west +flamed in the boy's bright eyes. Presently the girl rose. + +"Yes, Charley," she said, less sympathetic than might have been +expected; "yes, and it will be a very fine time, if it comes. But I +don't know. People will always want to get rich, won't they? I think +this beautiful time will have to come after us. Perhaps we had better +be looking after our own nest first." + +"Oh, it will come--it will come!" + +"I like to hear you talk about it, Charley. But if we are ever to +marry--if I am to give up the post-office, you must make a bigger +screw. Remember what you promised. The shorthand and the French class. +Put them before your speechifying." + +"All right, Lily dear, and then we will get married, and we will have +the most splendid time. Oh, there's the most splendid time for +us--ahead!" + + +II. + +It is six months later and mid-winter, and the time is again the +evening. The day has been gloomy, with a fog heavy enough to cause the +offices to be lit with gas, so that the eyes of all London are red and +the heads of all London are heavy. + +Lily stepped outside the post-office, work done. She was going home. + +At the door stood her sweetheart, waiting for her. She tossed her head +and made as if she would pass him without speaking. But he stepped +after and walked beside her. + +"No, Lily," he said, "I will speak to you; even if you don't answer my +letters you shall hear me speak." + +"You have disgraced yourself," she said. + +"Yes, I know. But you will forgive me. It is the first time. I swear +it is the first time." + +Well, it was truly the first time that she had seen him in such a +state. + +"Oh, to be a drunkard!" she replied. "Oh, could I ever believe that I +should see you rolling about the street?" + +"It was the first time, Lily, and it shall be the last. Forgive me +and take me on again. If you give me up I shall go to the devil!" + +"Charley"--her voice broke into a sob--"you have made me miserable--I +was so proud of you. No other girl, I thought, had such a clever +sweetheart; and last Tuesday--oh! it's dreadful to think of." + +"Yes, Lily, I know. There's only one excuse. I spoke for more than an +hour, and I was exhausted. So what I took went to my head. Another +time I should not have felt it a bit. And when I found myself +staggering I was going home as fast as possible, and as bad luck would +have it, I must needs meet you." + +"Good luck, I call it. Else I might never have found it out till too +late." + +"Lily, make it up. Give me another chance. I'll swear off. I'll take +the pledge." + +He caught her hand and held it. + +"Oh, Charley," she said, "if I can only trust you." + +"You can, you must, Lily. For your sake I will take the pledge. I will +do whatever you ask me to do." + +She gave way, but not without conditions. + +"Well," she said, "I will try to think no more about it. But, Charley, +remember, I could never, never, never marry a man who drinks." + +"You never shall, dear," he replied, earnestly. + +"And then, another thing, Charley. This speaking work--oh! I know it +is clever and that--but it doesn't help us forward. How long is it +since you determined to learn shorthand, because it would advance you +so much? And French, because a clerk who can write French is worth +double? Where are your fine resolutions?" + +"I will begin again--I will practise hard; see now, Lily, I will do +all you want. I will promise anything to please you--and do it, too. +See if I won't. Only not quite to give up the speaking. Think how +people are beginning to look up to me. Why, when we get a reformed +House, and the members are paid, they will send me to Parliament--me! +I shall be a member for Camden Town. Then I shall be made Home +Secretary, or Attorney General, or something. You will be proud, Lily, +of your husband when he is a distinguished man. There's a splendid +time for us--ahead!" + +"Yes, dear. But first you know you have got to get a salary that we +can live on." + +He left her at her door with a kiss and a laugh, and turned to go +home. In the next street he passed a public-house. He stopped, he +hesitated, he felt in his pocket, he went in and had a go, just a +single go--Lily would never find out--of Scotch, cold. Then he went +home and played at practising shorthand for an hour. He had promised +his Lily. She should see how well he could keep his promise. + + +III. + +"It is good of you to come, my dear. Of course, I understand that it +is all over now. It must be. It is not in nature that you should keep +him on any longer. But I thought you would see my poor boy once +more." + +It was Charley's mother who spoke. He was the only son of a widow. + +"Oh, yes, I came--I came," Lily replied, tearfully. "But what is the +good? He will promise everything again. How many times has he repented +and promised--and promised?" + +"My poor boy! And we were so proud of him, weren't we, dear?" said the +mother, wiping away a tear. "He was going to do such great things with +his cleverness and his speaking. And now--I have seen it coming on, my +dear, for a year and more, but I durstn't speak to you. When he came +home night after night with a glassy eye and a husky voice, when he +reeled across the room, at first I pretended not to notice it. A man +mustn't be nagged or shamed, must he? Then I spoke in the morning, and +he promised to pull himself up." + +"He will promise--ah! yes--he will promise." + +"If you could only forgive him he might keep his promise." + +Lily shook her head doubtfully. + +"I went to the office this morning, my dear. They have been expecting +it for weeks. The head clerk warned him. It was known that he had +fallen into bad company--in the city they don't like spouters. And +when he came back after his dinner he was so tipsy that he fell along. +They just turned him out on the spot." + +"Mother," said Lily, "it's like this. I can't help forgiving him. We +two must forgive him, whatever he does. We love him, you see, that's +what it is." + +"Yes, dear, yes." + +"It isn't the poor, tipsy boy we love, but the real boy--the clever +boy behind. We must forgive him. But"--her lips quivered--"I cannot +marry him. Do not ask me to do that unless--what will never happen--he +reforms altogether." + +"If you would, dear, I think he might keep straight. If you were +always with him to watch him." + +"I could not be always with him. And besides, mother, think what +might happen as well. Would you have me bring into the world children +whose lives would make me wretched by a drunken father? And how should +we live? Because, you see, if I marry I must give up my place." + +The mother sighed. "Charley is in his own room," she said, "I will +send him to you." + +Lily sat down and buried her face in her hands. Alas! to this had her +engagement come. But she loved him. When he came into the room and +stood before her and she looked up, seeing him shamefaced and with +hanging head, she was filled with pity as well as love--pity and +shame, and sorrow for the boy. She took his hand and pressed it +between her own and burst into tears. "Oh, Charley, Charley!" she +cried. + +"I am a brute and a wretch," he said. "I don't deserve anything. But +don't throw me over--don't, Lily!" + +He fell on his knees before her, crying like a little school-boy. A +tendency to weep readily sometimes accompanies the consumption of +strong drink. + +Then he made confession, such confession as one makes who puts things +as prettily as their ugliness allows. He had given way once or twice; +he had never intended to get drunk; he had been overtaken yesterday. +The day was close, he had a headache in the morning. To cure his +headache he took a single glass of beer. When he went back to the +office he felt giddy. They said he was drunk. They bundled him out on +the spot without even the opportunity of explaining. + +Lily sighed. What could she say or answer? The weakness of the man's +nature only came out the more clearly by his confession. What could +she say? To reason with him was useless. To make him promise was +useless. + +"Charley," she said at length, "if my forgiveness will do any good +take it and welcome. But we cannot undo the past. You have lost your +place and your character. As for the future----" + +"You have forgiven me, Lily," he said; "oh, I can face the future. I +can get another place easily. I shall very soon retrieve my character. +Why, all they can say is that I seemed to have taken too much. +Nothing--that is nothing!" + +"What will you do? Have you got any money?" + +"No. I must go and look for another place. Until I get one I suppose +there will be short commons. I deserve it, Lily. You shall not hear me +grumble." + +She took out her purse. "I can spare two pounds," she said. "Take the +money, Charley. Nay--you must--you shall. You must not go about +looking half starved." + +He hesitated and changed color, but he took the money. + +Half an hour later he was laughing, as they all three sat at their +simple supper, as light-hearted as if there had never been such a +scene. When a man is forgiven he may as well behave accordingly. Only, +when he lifted his glass of water to his lips he gasped--it was a +craving for something stronger than water which tightened his throat +like hydrophobia. But it passed; he drank the water and set down the +glass with a nod. + +"Good water, that," he said. "Nothing like water. Mean to stick to +water in future--water and tea. Lily, I've made up my mind. For the +next six months I shall give up speaking, though it's against my +interests. Shorthand and French in the evening. By that time I shall +get a post worth a hundred--ay, a hundred and twenty--pounds a year, +if I'm lucky, and we'll get married and all live together and be as +happy as the day is long. You shall never repent your wedding-day, my +dear. I shall keep you like a lady. Oh, we will have a splendid +time." + +At ten o'clock Lily rose to go home. He sprang to his feet and took +his hat and went. + +"No, no," he said. "Let you go alone? Not if I know it." + +She laid her hand on his arm once more, and tried to believe that his +promise would be kept this time. He led her home, head in air, gallant +and brave. At the door he kissed her. "Good-night, my dear," he said. +"You know you can trust me. Haven't I promised?" + +On the way home he passed a public-house. The craving came back to +him, and the tightness of his throat and the yearning of his heart; +his footsteps were drawn and dragged toward the door. + +At eleven o'clock his mother, who was waiting up for him, heard him +bumping and tumbling about the stairs on his way up. He came in--his +eyes fishy, his voice thick. "Saw her home," he said. "Good girl, +Lily. Made--(hic)--faithful promise--we are going to have--splendid +time!" + + +IV. + +The two women stood outside the prison doors. At eight o'clock their +man would be released; the son of one, the lover of the other. The +elder woman looked frail and bowed, her face was full of trouble--the +kind of trouble that nothing can remove. The younger woman stood +beside her on the pavement; she was thinner, and her cheeks were pale; +in her eyes, too, you could read abiding trouble. + +"We will take him home between us," said the girl. "Not a word of +reproach. He has sinned and suffered. We must forgive. Oh, we cannot +choose but forgive!" + +Alas! the noble boy--the clever boy she loved--was further off than +ever. He who loses a place and his character with it never gets +another berth. This is a rule in the city. We talk of retrieving +character and getting back to work. Neither the one nor the other +event ever comes off. The wretch who is in this hapless plight begins +the weary search for employment in hope. How it ends varies with his +temperament or with the position of his friends. All day long he +climbs stairs, puts his head into offices, and asks if a clerk is +wanted. + +No clerk is wanted. Then he comes down the stairs and climbs others, +and asks the same question and gets the same reply. If ever a clerk is +wanted a character is wanted with him; and when the character includes +the qualification of drink, as well as of zeal and ability, the owner +is told that he may move on. + +I am told there is a never-ending procession of clerks out of work up +and down the London stairs. What becomes of them is never known. It +is, however, rumored that short commons, long tramps, and hope +deferred bring most of them to the hospitals, where it is tenderly +called pneumonia. + +Charley began his tramp. After a little--a very little while--his +money, the money that Lily lent him, was all gone. He was ashamed to +borrow more, because he would have to confess how that money was +chiefly spent. + +Then he pawned his watch. + +Then he borrowed another pound of Lily. + +Every evening he came home drunk. His mother knew it, and told Lily. +They could do nothing. They said nothing. They left off hoping. + +Then his mother perceived that things began to disappear. He stole +the clock on the mantel-shelf first, and pawned it. + +Then he stole other things. At last he took the furniture, bit by bit, +and pawned it, until his mother was left with nothing but a mattress +and a pair of blankets. He could not take her money, because all she +had was an annuity of fifteen shillings a week, otherwise he would +have had that too. He then borrowed Lily's watch and pawned it, and +her little trinkets and pawned them; he took from her all the money +she would give him. + +Both women half starved themselves to find him in drink and to save +him from crime. Yes, to save him from crime. They did not use these +words--they understood. For now he had become mad for drink. There was +no longer any pretence; he even left off lying; he was drunk every +day; if he could not get drunk he sat on the bare floor and cried. +Neither his mother nor Lily reproached him. + +An end--a semicolon, if not a full stop--comes to such a course. +Unfortunately not always the end which is most to be desired--the only +effectual end. + +The end or semicolon which came to this young man was that, having +nothing more of his mother's that he could pawn, one day he slipped +into the ground floor lodger's room and made up quite a valuable +little parcel for his friend the pawnbroker. It contained a Waterbury +watch, a seven and sixpenny clock, a mug--electro-plate, won at a +spelling competition--a bound volume of "Tit Bits," and a Bible. + +When the lodger came home and found out his loss he proved to be of an +irascible, suspicious, and revengeful disposition. He immediately, for +instance, suspected the drunken young man of the first floor. He +caused secret inquiry to be made, and--but why go on? Alas! the +conclusion of the affair was eight months' hard. + +"Here he comes," said Lily. "Look up, mother; we must meet him with a +smile. He will come out sober, at any rate." + +He was looking much better for his period of seclusion. He walked +home between them, subdued, but ready, on encouragement, for their +old confidence. + +In fact, it broke out, after an excellent breakfast. + +"I have made up my mind," he said, "while I was thinking--oh! I had +plenty to think about and plenty of time to do my thinking in. Well, I +have made up my mind. Mother, this is no country for me any longer. +After what has happened I must go. You two go on living together, just +for company, but I shall go--I shall go to America. There's always an +opening, I am told, in America, for fellows who are not afraid of +work. Cleverness tells there. A man isn't kept down because he's had a +misfortune. What is there against me, after all? Character gone, eh? +Well, if you come to that, I don't deny that appearances were against +me. I could explain, however. + +"But there nobody cares about character nor what you've done +here"--(this remarkable belief is widely spread concerning the +colonies, as well as the United States)--"it's what can you do? not, +what have you done? Very well. I mean to go to America, mother. I +shall polish up the shorthand and pick up the French grammar again. I +mean to get rich now. Oh, I've sown my wild oats! Then you'll both +come out to me, and then we'll be married; and, Lily, we'll have a +most splendid time!" + + +V. + +Five years later Lily sat one Sunday morning in the same lodgings. The +poor old mother was gone, praying her with her last breath not to +desert the boy. But of Charley not a word had come to her--no news of +any kind. + +She was quite alone--in those days she was generally alone; she had +kept her place at the post-office, but everybody knew of her trouble, +and somehow it made a kind of barrier between herself and her sister +clerks. The sorrows of love are sacred, but when they are mixed up +with a criminal and a prison there is a feeling--a kind of a +feeling--as if, well, one doesn't like somehow to be mixed up with it. +Lily was greatly to be pitied, no doubt; her lover had turned out +shameful; but she ought to have given up the man long before he got so +bad. + +She was alone. The church bells were beginning to ring. She thought +she would go to church. While she considered this point, she heard a +woman's step on the stairs, and there was a knock at the door. + +It was a nurse or probationer, dressed in the now familiar garb--a +young nurse. + +"You are Lily Chesters?" she asked. "There is a patient just brought +in to the London Hospital who wants to see you. He is named Charley, +he says, and will give no other name. He wrote your address on paper. +'Tell her,' he said, 'that it is Charley.'" + +Lily rose quietly. "I will go to him." + +"He is your brother?" + +"He is my lover. Is he ill?" + +"He is very ill. He came in all in rags, dirty and penniless--he is +very ill indeed. Prepare yourself. He is dying of pneumonia." + +I told you before what they call it. + +Lily sat at the bedside of the dying man. + +"It is all over," he whispered. "I have reformed, Lily. I have quite +turned over a new leaf. I have now resolved to taking the pledge. Kiss +me, dear, and tell me that you forgive me." + +"Yes, yes, Charley. God knows that I forgive you. Why, you will come +back to yourself in a very little while. Thank God for it, dear! Your +own true self. You will be my dear old boy again--the boy that I have +always loved; not the drinking, bad boy--the clever, bright boy. Oh, +my dear, my dear! you will see mother again very soon, and she will +welcome her boy, returned to himself again." + +"Yes," he said, "that's it. A serious reform this time. Lily, I dare +say I shall be up and well again in a day or two. Then we will see +what to do next. I am going out to Australia, where everybody has a +chance--America is a fraud. I shall get rich there, and then you and +mother will come to me, and we shall get married, and--oh! Lily, Lily, +after all that we have suffered, we shall have--I see that we shall +have"--he paused, and his voice grew faint--"we shall have--the most +splendid time!" + +"He is gone," said the nurse. + + + + +AN OLD SONG. + +AUTHOR UNKNOWN. + + + As, t'other day, o'er the green meadow I pass'd, + A swain overtook me, and held my hand fast; + Then cried, "My dear Lucy, thou cause of my care, + How long must thy faithful young Thyrsis despair? + To grant my petition, no longer be shy;" + But, frowning, I answer'd, "O, fie, shepherd, fie!" + + He told me his fondness like time should endure; + That beauty which kindled his flame 'twould secure; + That all my sweet charms were for homage design'd, + And youth was the season to love and be kind. + Lord, what could I say? I could hardly deny, + And faintly I uttered, "O, fie, shepherd, fie!" + + He swore--with a kiss--that he could not refrain; + I told him 'twas rude, but he kissed me again. + My conduct, ye fair ones, in question ne'er call, + Nor think I did wrong--I did nothing at all! + Resolved to resist, yet inclined to comply, + I leave it for you to say, "Fie, shepherd, fie!" + + + + +STRANGER THAN FICTION. + +LOVE IN A COTTAGE. THE IRISH STORY-TELLER. HUGH BRONTE AS A TENANT-RIGHTER. + +Stories of the Bronte Family in Ireland. + +BY DR. WILLIAM WRIGHT. + + +I. LOVE IN A COTTAGE. + +After a brief honeymoon, spent at Warrenpoint, Alice Bronte returned, +on her brother's invitation, to her old home, and Hugh went back to +complete his term of service in Loughorne. It soon became desirable +that his wife should have a home of her own, and he took a cottage in +Emdale, in the parish of Drumballyroney, with which Drumgooland was +united at the time. + +The house stands near crossroads leading to important towns. In a +direct line it is about three and three-quarters statute miles from +Rathfriland, seven and three-quarters from Newry, twelve from +Warrenpoint, and five and a quarter from Banbridge. The exact position +of the house, is on the north-west side of the old road, leading, in +Hugh Bronte's day, to Newry and Warrenpoint. Almost opposite, on the +other side of the road, there was a blacksmith's shop, which still +continues to be a blacksmith's shop. The Bronte house remains, though +partially in ruins. + +The house is now used as a byre, but its dimensions are exactly the +same as when it became the home of Hugh Bronte and his bride. The rent +then would be about sixpence per week, and would, in accordance with +the general custom, be paid by one day's work in the week, with board, +the work being given in the busy season. + +The house consisted of two rooms. That over which the roof still +stands was without chimney, and was used as bedroom and parlor, and +the outer room, from which the roof has fallen, was used as a +corn-kiln, and also as kitchen and reception-room. + +A farmer's wife, whose ancestors lived close to the Bronte house long +before the Brontes were heard of in County Down, pointing to a spot in +the corner of the byre opposite to the window, said: "There is the +very spot where the Reverend Patrick Bronte was born." Then she added, +"Numbers of great folk have asked me about his birthplace, but och! +how could I tell them that any _dacent_ man was ever born in such a +place!" This feeling on the part of the neighbors will probably +account for the fact that everything written thus far regarding +Patrick Bronte's birthplace is wrong, neither the townland, nor even +the parish of his birth, being correctly given. + +In the lowly cottage in Emdale, now known as "The Kiln," and used as a +cowhouse, Patrick Bronte was born, on the 17th of March, 1777. Men +have risen to fame from a lowly origin, but few men have ever emerged +from humbler circumstances than Patrick Bronte. + +Many a reader of Mrs. Gaskell's life of Charlotte Bronte has been +saddened by the picture of the vicar's daughters amid their narrow and +grim surroundings, but the gray vicarage of Haworth was a palace +compared with the hovel in which the vicar himself was born and +reared. + +Besides, the Haworth vicarage was never really as sombre as Mrs. +Gaskell painted it, for Miss Ellen Nussey was a constant visitor, and +she assures me that the girls were bright and happy in their home, +always engaged on some project of absorbing interest, and always +enjoying life in their own sober and thoughtful way. + +The Bronte cottage in Emdale was very poor, but it was brightened with +the perennial sunshine of love. It was love in a cottage, in which the +bare walls and narrow board were golden in the light of Alice Bronte's +smile. It was said in the neighborhood that Mrs. Bronte's smile "would +have tamed a mad bull," and on her deathbed she thanked God that her +husband had never looked upon her with a frown. + +In their wedded love they were very poor, but very happy. Hugh's +constant, steady work provided for the daily wants of an ever-increasing +family, but it made no provision for the strain of adverse +circumstances. In fact, the Emdale Brontes lived like birds, and as +happy as birds. + +Hugh Bronte was one of the industrious poor. The salt of his life was +honest, manly toil. He had forgotten the luxury of his childhood's +home, and he did not feel any degradation in his lowly lot. + +In our artificial civilization we have come to place too much store on +the accident of wealth. Our Blessed Saviour, whom all the rich and +luxurious call "Lord," was born in as lowly a condition of comfortless +poverty as Patrick Bronte. Cows are now housed in Bronte's birthplace, +but our Lord was born among the animals in the _caravanserai_. And +yet, in our social code, we have reduced the Decalogue to this one +commandment, "Thou shalt not be poor." + +Hugh Bronte did not choose poverty as his lot, but, being a working +man, like the carpenter of Nazareth, he did the daily work that came +to his hand, and then, side by side with Alice, he found the fulness +of each day sufficient for all its wants. + +The happy home was soon crowded with children, and the family removed +to a larger and better house, in the townland of Lisnacreevy. The +parish register of Drumballyroney Church, to which the Brontes +belonged, unfortunately goes no farther back than 1779, two years +after the birth of Patrick. The register, which is now kept in the +parish church of Drumgooland, belonged to the united parishes of +Drumballyroney and Drumgooland, in which, when united, the Reverend +Mr. Tighe was vicar for forty-two years. When Patrick Bronte was two +years old, less one day, his brother William was baptized, and about +every two succeeding years either a brother or a sister was added +until the family numbered ten. + + +II. THE DAILY ROUND. + +Hugh Bronte and his wife could not live wholly on love in a cottage, +and Hugh had to bestir himself. He was an unskilled laborer, but he +understood the art of burning lime. There was no limestone, however, +in that part of County Down to burn, and as he could not have a +lime-kiln, he resolved to have a corn-kiln. + +At the beginning of this century a corn-kiln in such a district in +Ireland was a very simple affair. A floor of earthenware tiles, +pierced nearly through from the underside, was arranged on a kind of +platform or loft. Beneath there was a furnace, which was heated by +burning the rough, dry seeds, or outer _shelling_, ground off the +oats. In front of the furnace there was a hollow, called "the +logie-hole," in which the kiln man sat, with the shelling or seeds +heaped up within arm's length around him, and with his right hand he +_beeked_ the kiln, by throwing, every few seconds, a sprinkling of +seeds on the flame. In this way he kept up a warm glow under the corn +till it was sufficiently dried for the mill. + +Such was the simple character of the ordinary corn-kiln in County Down +at the beginning of the century. But I have been assured by the old +men of the neighborhood that Hugh Bronte's kiln was of a still more +primitive structure. The platform, or corn-floor, was constructed by +laying iron bars across unhewn stones set up on end. On these bars +straw matting was spread, and on the matting the corn was placed to +dry. Such a structure was the immediate precursor of the pottery +floored kiln. The design was the same in both, but the matting was +always liable to catch fire, and required careful attention. + +The kiln was erected in the part of the Bronte cottage now roofless, +and, like the cottage itself, must have been a very humble affair. It +has been suggested that the kiln may have stood elsewhere, but it is +now established beyond all doubt, on the unanimous testimony of the +inhabitants, that the Bronte kiln stood in the ruined room of the +Bronte cottage, and, in fact, it is known by the name of "the Brontes' +kiln." + +Within those walls, now roofless, the grandfather of Charlotte Bronte +began in 1776 to earn the daily bread of himself and his bride, by +roasting his neighbors' oats. His wage was known by the name of +"muther," and consisted of so many pounds of fresh oats taken from +every hundredweight brought to him to be kiln-dried. The miller, too, +was paid in kind, but his muther was taken by measure, after the +shelling, or seeds, had been ground off the grain. + +When Hugh Bronte had accumulated a sackful of muther he dried it on +his kiln, took it to the mill, and paid his muther in turn to the +miller, to have it ground into meal. + +The meal, when taken home, was stored in a barrel, and with the +produce of the rood of potatoes which Hugh had _sod_ on his +brother-in-law's farm, became the food of himself and family. As the +Brontes could not consume all the muther themselves, the surplus would +be sold to provide clothing and other necessaries, and though there +remains no trace of pig-stye or fowl-house, there can be little doubt +that Mrs. Bronte would have both pigs and fowl to eke out her +husband's earnings. + +Mrs. Bronte was a famous spinner, and she handed down the art to her +daughters. She had always a couple of sheep grazing on her brother's +land. She carded and span the wool, her spinning-wheel singing all day +beside her husband, as he beeked the kiln. Then, during the long, dark +evenings, when they had no light but the red eye of the kiln, she +knitted the yarn into hose and vest and shirt, and even head-gear, so +that Hugh Bronte, like his sons in after years, was almost wholly clad +in "homespun." + +This, probably, had something to do with the general impression, which +still remains in the neighborhood, of the stately and shapely forms of +the Bronte men and women. The knitted woollen garments fitted close, +unlike the fantastic and shapeless habiliments that came from the +hands of local tailors in those days. + +Alice Bronte also span nearly all the garments which she wore, and her +tall and comely daughters after her were dressed in clothes which +their own hands had taken from the fleece. + +On principle, as well as from necessity, the Brontes wore woollen +garments, and the vicar carried the same taste with him to England, +where his dislike of everything made of cotton was attributed by his +biographer to dread of fire. The absurd servants' gossip as to his +cutting up his wife's silk gown had possibly a grain of truth in it, +owing to his preference for woollen garments; but the atrocity spun +out of the gossip by Mrs. Gaskell was probably an exaggeration of an +innocent act. At any rate, the old man characterized the statement, I +believe truly, by a small but ugly word. + +All the Brontes, father, mother, sons, and daughters, to the number of +twelve, were clad in wool, and they were the healthiest, handsomest, +strongest, heartiest family in the whole country. They were a standing +proof of the excellency of the woollen theory, and it is interesting +to note how Hugh Bronte's theory and practice have received approval +in our own day. For a time the Brontes had to look to others to weave +their yarn into the blankets and friezes that they required, but +Patrick was taught to weave as soon as he was able to throw the +shuttle and roll the beam, and then his father's house manufactured +for themselves everything they wore, from the raw staple to the +gracefully fitting corset. + +Even the scarlet mantle for which "Ayles" Bronte is still remembered +in Ballynaskeagh was carded, spun, knitted, and dyed by Mrs. Bronte's +own hands. The spirit of independence manifested by the Brontes in +England was a survival of a still sturdier spirit that had had its +origin in one of the humblest cabins in County Down. + +As time passed Hugh Bronte became a famous ditcher. There is a very +old man called Hugh Norton, living in Ballynaskeagh, who remembers him +making fences and philosophizing at the same time. It is very probable +that the introduction of corn-kilns constructed of burnt pottery may +have left him without custom for his straw-mat kiln, just as the +introduction of machinery at a later period left the country +hand-looms idle. + +In Hugh Bronte's time more careful attention began to be given to the +land. Bogs were drained, fields fenced, roads constructed, bridges +made, houses built, with greater energy than had ever been known +before, and, although the landlord generally raised the rent on every +improvement effected by the tenant, the wave of prosperity and +improvement continued. Hugh Bronte was a good, steady workman, and +found constant employment, and at that time wages rose from sixpence +per day to eightpence and tenpence. The sod fences made by him still +stand as a monument of honest work, and there are few country +districts where huntsmen would find greater difficulty with the fences +than in Emdale and Ballynaskeagh. + +As Hugh Bronte advanced in life he continued to prosper. He removed +from the Emdale cottage to a larger house in Lisnacreevy, and from +thence he and his family went home to live with Red Paddy, Mrs. +Bronte's brother. On the Ballynaskeagh farm the children found full +scope for their energies, and they continued to prosper and purchase +surrounding farms until they were in very comfortable circumstances. +The Brontes were greatly advanced in their prosperity by a discovery +made by one of their countrymen. John Loudon Macadam was a County Down +surveyor. He wrote several treatises on road-making of a revolutionary +character. His proposal was to make roads by laying down layers of +broken stones, which he said would become hardened into a solid mass +by the traffic passing over them. + +For a time he was the subject of much ridicule, but he persevered, and +proved his theory in a practical fashion. The importance of the +invention was acknowledged by a grant from the government of ten +thousand pounds, which he accepted, and by the offer of a baronetcy, +which he declined. He lived to see the world's highways improved by +his discovery, and the English language enriched by his name. + +The old, unscientific road-makers were too conservative to engage in +the construction of _macadamized_ roads, but the Brontes were shrewd +enough to see the value of the new method, and they tendered for +county contracts, and their tenders were accepted. Then the way to +fortune lay open before them. They opened quarries on their own land, +where they found an inexhaustible supply of stone, easily broken to +the required size. With suitable stone ready to their hands they had a +great advantage over all rivals, and for a generation the macadamizing +of the roads in the neighborhood was practically a monopoly in the +Bronte family. + +I remember the excellent carts and horses employed by the Brontes on +the road, and I also distinctly recollect that the names painted on +the carts were spelled "Bronte," the pronunciation being "Bronte," +never "Prunty," as has been alleged. + +With the lucrative monopoly of road-making added to their farm profits +the Brontes grew in wealth. They raised on their farm the oats and +fodder required by the horses, and, as the brothers did a large amount +of the work themselves and had nothing to purchase, the money received +for road-making was nearly all profit. + +In those days the Brontes added field to field, until they farmed a +considerable tract of land, which they held from a model landlord +called Sharman Crawford. That was the period at which a two-storied +house was built, and there were houses occupied by the Brontes, from +the two-storied house down to the thatched cottage. In fact, the house +of Red Paddy McClory, in which Alice was born and reared, stood about +half-way between the two-storied house and the cabin. The foundations +of the house in which Charlotte Bronte's Irish grandmother was born +are still visible. + +Shortly after the death of old Hugh, and in the time of the Bronte +prosperity, one of the brothers, called Welsh, opened a public-house +in the thatched cabin referred to, and from that moment, as far as I +have been able to make out, the tide of the Bronte prosperity turned. + +Everything the Brontes did was genuine. Their whiskey was as good in +quality as their roads, and I fear it must be added that they were +among the heartiest customers for their own commodities. They ceased +to work on the roads, their hard-earned money slipped through their +fingers, and the public-house became the meeting-place for the fast +and wild youth of the locality. + +Then another brother, called William, but known as Billy, opened on +the Knock Hill another public-house, which also became a centre of +demoralization to the young men of the district, and a source of +degradation to the keeper. I remember both these pests in full force. +They were much frequented by Orangemen, who, when tired playing "The +Protestant Boys," used to slake their thirst and fire their hatred of +the _Papishes_ by drinking Bronte's whiskey. + +I am bound to say distinctly that I do not believe any of Charlotte +Bronte's Irish uncles ever became confirmed drunkards. They took to +the drink business too late in life to be wholly overmastered by the +passion for alcohol. Besides, their father's example, and the +industrious habits of their youth and early manhood, had combined to +give moral fibre to the stubborn Bronte character, which saved them +from precipitate descent on the down grade. + +I never saw any of the Brontes drunk, and I believe the occasional +drinking of the family was limited to the two brothers who sold drink, +and who would always feel bound in honor "to taste a drop" with their +customers. The other brothers would drink like other people, in fairs +and markets, where every transaction was ratified by a glass of grog, +but I do not believe they often drank to excess. + +In those days everybody drank. At births, at baptisms, at weddings, at +wakes, at funerals, and in all the other leading incidents of life, +intoxicating liquors were considered indispensable. If a man was too +hot he drank, and if he was too cold he drank. He drank if he was in +sorrow, and he drank when in joy. When his gains were great he drank, +and he drank also when crushed by losses. The symbol of universal +hospitality was the black bottle. + +Ministers of the Gospel used to visit their people quarterly. On these +visitations the minister was accompanied by one of his deacons. Into +whatever house they entered they were immediately met by the +hospitable bottle and two glasses, and they were always expected to +fortify themselves with spirituous draughts before beginning their +spiritual duties. As the visitors called at from twelve to twenty +houses on their rounds, they must have been "unco fou" by the close of +the day. + +It is interesting to remember that when the drinking habits of the +country were at their height the temperance reformation was begun in +Great Britain, by the best friend the Brontes had, the Reverend David +McKee. It is of still greater interest, in our present investigation, +to know that Mr. McKee was moved to the action which has resulted in +the great temperance reform by the Bronte public-houses at his door, +and by the demoralization they were creating. + +The little incident which has led to such momentous results came about +in this way: the Reverend David McKee of Ballynaskeagh was the +minister of the Presbyterian Church of Anaghlone. He had built his +church, and he was largely independent of his congregation. One +Sunday he thought fit to preach on _The Rechabites_. In the sermon he +ridiculed and denounced the drinking habits of the time. The sermon +fell on the congregation like a thunderbolt from a cloudless sky. +Blank amazement in the audience was succeeded by hot indignation. + +On the following morning an angry deputation from the congregation +waited on Mr. McKee. He listened to them with patient courtesy while +they urged that the sermon should be immediately burnt, and that an +apology should be tendered to the congregation on the following +Sunday. + +When the deputation had exhausted themselves and their subject, Mr. +McKee began quietly to draw attention to the happy homes which had +been desolated by whiskey, the brilliant young men whom it had ruined, +the amiable neighbors whom it had hurried into drunkards' graves, and +then he pointed to the Brontes as an example of the baneful influence +of the trade on the sellers of the stuff themselves. + +The deputation, some of them Orangemen, were in no mood to listen to +radical doctrines, subversive of their time-honored customs, and they +began to threaten. + +Mr. McKee, who was six feet six inches high, and of great muscular +power, drew himself up to his full stature, and calling to his +servant, then at breakfast in the kitchen, told him to saddle his best +mare, as he wished to ride in haste to Newry, to publish his sermon in +time for circulation on the following Sunday. Then, turning to the +deputation, he thanked them for their early visit, which he hoped +would bear fruit, and bowed them out of his parlor. + +He rode the best horse in the whole district, and he never drew rein +till he reached the printing-office in Newry, and he had the sermon +ready for circulation on the following Sunday, and handed it to his +people as they retired. + +In 1798 Mr. McKee, then a youth, watched from a hill in his father's +land the battle of Ballynahinch. He had in his arms at the time a +little nephew who had been left in his charge. The little nephew +became the great Doctor Edgar of Belfast, who used to boast playfully +that he was "up in arms" at the battle of Ballynahinch. + +Mr. McKee sent a copy of _The Rechabites_ to his eloquent nephew. +Doctor Edgar read the sermon, and then, rising from his seat, +proceeded swiftly to carry all the whiskey he had in the house into +the street, and empty it into the gutter. With that drink offering +Doctor Edgar inaugurated the great temperance reform. From Ireland he +passed to Scotland, and from Scotland to England. The whole kingdom +was mightily stirred, and the temperance cause has ever since +continued to flourish. The little seed, stimulated at first by the +Bronte public-houses, has become a great tree, the branches of which +extend to all lands. + +We have now seen the Brontes in the daily round of their common +pursuits. In the next chapter we hope to see old Hugh in the light of +his Bronte genius. + + +III. THE IRISH RACONTEUR OR STORY-TELLER. + +The Hakkawati is the oriental story-teller, the man who beyond all +others relieves the tedium and wearisomeness of oriental life. I have +often watched the oriental Hakkawati, seated in the centre of a large +crowd, weaving stories with subtile plots and startling surprises, +using pathos and passion and pungent wit, and always interspersing his +narratives with familiar incidents, and laying on local color, to give +an appearance of _vraisemblance_, or reality, to the wildest fancies. + +The Arabian Hakkawati generally tells his stories at night, when the +weird and wonderful are most effective. He has always a fire so +arranged as to light up his countenance with a ruddy glow, so that the +movements and contortions of a mobile face may add support to the +narrative. He sometimes proceeds slowly, stumbling and correcting +himself, like D'Israeli, as if his one great desire was to stick to +the literal truth. + +Without any apparent effort to please, the Hakkawati keeps his finger +on the pulse of his audience. Should they show signs of weariness, he +makes them smile by some pleasantry, and as the Arab holds that +"smiles and tears are in the same _khury_," or wallet, he brings +something of great seriousness on the heels of the fun, and works +himself into a white heat of passion over it, the veins rising like +cords on his forehead, and his whole frame convulsed and throbbing, +the rapt audience following, in full sympathy with every mood. + +I have seen the Arabs shivering and pale with terror, as the Hakkawati +narrated the fearful deeds of some imaginary _jinn_, and I have seen +them feeling for their daggers, and ready to spring to their feet, to +avenge some dastard act of imaginary cruelty; and a few seconds after +I have seen them melted to tears at the recital of some imaginary tale +of woe. I never wearied in listening to the Hakkawati, or in watching +the artlessness of his consummate art; and I have always looked on him +as the most interesting of all orientals, a positive benefactor to his +illiterate countrymen. + +Hugh Bronte was an Irish Hakkawati, the last of an extinct race. I +knew several men who had heard him when he was at his best. He would +sit long winter nights in the logie-hole of his corn-kiln, in the +Emdale cottage, telling stories to an audience of rapt listeners who +thronged around him. Mrs. Bronte plied her knitting in the outer +darkness of the kitchen, for there was no light except the glow from +the furnace of the kiln, which lighted up old Hugh's face as he +_beeked_ the kiln, and told his yarns. + +The Reverend William McAllister, from whom I got most details as to +Bronte's story-telling, had heard his father say that he spent a night +in Bronte's kiln either in the winter of 1779 or 1780. Bronte's fame +was then new. The place was crowded to suffocation. At that time he +reserved a place near the fire for Mrs. Bronte, and Patrick, then a +baby, was lying on the heap of seeds from which the fire was fed, with +his eyes fixed on his father, and listening, like the rest, in +breathless silence. + +Hugh Bronte seems to have had the rare faculty of believing his own +stories, even when they were purely imaginary, and he would sometimes +conjure up scenes so unearthly and awful that both he and his hearers +were afraid to part company for the night. Frequently his neighbors +could not face the darkness alone after one of Hugh's gruesome +stories, and lay upon the _shelling_ seeds till day dawned. + +The farmers' sons of the whole neighborhood used to gather round +Bronte at night to hear his narratives, and he continued to +manufacture stories of all descriptions as long as he lived. + +I have always understood that Hugh Bronte's stories, though sometimes +rough in texture and interspersed with emphatic expletives, after the +manner of the time, had always a healthy moral bearing. As a genuine +Irishman he never used an immodest word, or by gesture, phrase, or +innuendo suggested an impure thought. On this point all my informants +were unanimous. He neither used unchaste words himself, nor permitted +any one to do so in his house. Tyranny and cruelty of every kind he +denounced fiercely. Faithlessness and deceit always met condign +punishment in his romances, and in cases where girls had been +betrayed, either the ghost of the injured woman, or the devil himself, +in some awful form, wreaked unutterable vengeance on the betrayer. + +Hugh Bronte was a great moral teacher and a power for good, as far as +his influence extended. There are still some old men living in his +neighborhood who never understood him, and who are disposed to think +he was in league with the devil. + +It is always at his peril that any man dares to live before his time, +or to leave the beaten track of the commonplace. The reformers have +all, without exception, been mad, or worse, in the eyes of dull +conservatism. Bronte dared to teach his neighbors by allowing them to +see as well as hear, and those who were too stupid to understand were +clever enough to denounce. + +By a very great effort Hugh Bronte learned to read, late in life. He +began at Mount Pleasant, with no higher aim than that of being able to +write letters to Alice McClory, when he could no longer visit her. He +made rapid strides in learning under the tutelage of his master's +children, when he lived in Loughorne, and when he went to live in +Emdale he knew the sweetness and solace of good books, and he had +always a book on his knee, which he read by the light of the kiln +fire, when he was alone. He knew the Bible, Bunyan's "Pilgrim's +Progress," and Burns's poems, well. Those were bookless days. The +newspaper had not yet found its way to the people, and in a +neighborhood of mental stagnation it was something to have one man who +could hold the mirror up to nature, and lead his illiterate visitors +into enchanted ground. + +Many of Hugh's stories were far removed from the region of romance, +but he had the literary art of giving an artistic touch to everything +he said, which added a charm to the narration, independent of the +facts which he narrated. + +The story of his early life, which I have tried to reduce to simple +prose, was delivered in the rhapsodic style of the ancient bards, but +simple enough to be understood by the most unlettered peasant. None of +Bronte's stories were so acceptable as the simple record of his early +hardships. + +Mingled with all his stories, shrewd maxims for life and conduct were +interwoven; but in his oration on tenant-right he broke new ground, +and showed that under different circumstances he might have been a +great statesman, and saved his country from unutterable woe. + +Hugh Bronte was superstitious, but while his superstitious character +descended to all his children, the faculty of story-telling was +inherited, as far as I have been able to ascertain, by Patrick alone. +All the sons and daughters talked with a dash of genius--as one of +their old acquaintances said, "They were very cliver with their +tongues"--but I have never heard of any of them except Patrick trying +to tell a story. + +Patrick, at the age of two or three, used to lie on the warm shelling +seeds and listen to his father's entrancing stories, and he seems to +have caught something of his father's gift and power. Miss Nussey, +Charlotte's friend, "Miss E.," has often told me of Patrick's power to +rivet the attention of his children, and awe them with realistic +descriptions of simple scenes. All the girls used to sit in breathless +silence, their prominent eyes starting out of their heads, while their +father unfolded lurid scene after scene; but the greatest effect was +produced on Emily, who seemed to be unconscious of everything else +except her father's story, and sometimes the descriptions became so +vivid, intense, and terrible that they had to implore him to desist. + +Miss Nussey had opportunities for observing the Bronte girls that no +other person had. She became Charlotte's friend at school, when both +were homesick and needed friends. She continued to be her fast friend +through life. Gentle Anne Bronte died in her arms, and she was +Charlotte's true consoler when the heroic Emily passed swiftly away. +She early discovered the ring of genius in Charlotte's letters, and +preserved every scrap of them, and it is chiefly through those letters +that the Brontes are known in England. She was Charlotte's confidante +in all private transactions and love matters, and she might have been +a nearer friend still had Charlotte not refused an offer of marriage +from her brother--an incident in the novelist's life here for the +first time made public. + +Miss Nussey was not only Charlotte's devoted friend, but she was a +constant visitor at Haworth, and a keen observer. She had a great +power of discernment in literary matters, and a very considerable +literary gift herself. She had not to wait till "Jane Eyre" and +"Wuthering Heights" were published to learn that Charlotte and Emily +Bronte were endowed with genius. We owe it to her penetrating sagacity +that we know so much of the vicar's daughters. She watched their +growth of intellect and everything that ministered to it, and she +believes firmly that the girls caught their inspiration from their +father, and that Emily got not only her inspiration but most of her +facts from her father's narratives.[4] + + [4] Swinburne, in his "Note on Charlotte Bronte," has alone had the + poetic insight and artistic instinct to discern this fact. He is + right when he says, "Charlotte evidently never worked so well as + when painting more or less directly from nature.... In most + cases, probably, the designs begun by means of the camera were + transferred for completion to the canvas." + + Swinburne, however, falls short in discernment, when, in + contrasting Charlotte with her sister, he says: "Emily Bronte, + like William Blake, would probably have said, or at least + presumably have felt, that such study after the model was to her + impossible--an attempt but too certain to diminish her + imaginative insight and disable her creative hand." + + Surely the highest imaginative insight and deftest creative hand + work from the model, nature, but the result is not a mere + portrait of the model. + +"The dirty, ragged, black-haired child," brought home by Mr. Earnshaw +from Liverpool, is none other than the real dirty, naked, black-haired +foundling, discovered on the boat between Liverpool and Drogheda, and +taken home by Charlotte's great-grandfather and great-grandmother to +the banks of the Boyne. The artist, however, is not a mere copyist, +and hence, while the story starts from existing facts, and follows the +general outline of the real, it is not the very image of the real, and +makes deviations from the original facts to meet the exigencies of +art. + +There is no difficulty, however, in recognizing the original of the +incarnate fiend Heathcliff in the man Welsh, who tormented Hugh +Bronte, Patrick's father, in the old family home near Drogheda. Had +Welsh never played the demon among the Brontes, Emily Bronte had never +placed on the canvas Heathcliff, "child neither of lascar nor gypsy, +but a man's shape animated by demon life--a ghoul, an afrit." Nelly +Dean, the benevolent but irresolute medium of romance and tragedy, is +Hugh's Aunt Mary, clear-eyed as to right and duty, but ever slipping +down before the force of circumstances. And old Gallagher, on the +banks of the Boyne, with "the Blessed Virgin and all the saints" on +his side, is none other than the original of the old hypocrite, Joe. +Gallagher is Joe speaking the Yorkshire dialect. + +And Edgar Linton is the gentle and forgiving brother of Alice, our +friend Red Paddy McClory, who took his sister home after her runaway +marriage with a Protestant, and finally took the whole Bronte family +under his roof, and gave them all he possessed. Even Catherine +Linton's flight and marriage has solid foundation in fact, either in +Alice Bronte's romantic elopement with Hugh, or in the more tragic +circumstances of Mary Bronte's marriage with Welsh. + +It is not credible that Patrick Bronte, in his story-telling moods, +never narrated to his listening daughters the romance of their +grandfather and grandmother. It is true Miss Nussey never heard any +reference to the story, nor did the Brontes ever in her presence refer +to their Irish home or friends or history, though, at the very time +she was visiting Haworth, they were in constant communication with +their Irish relatives, and, as we shall see, one of the uncles +actually visited them, as Charlotte's champion, and one of them had +visited Haworth at an earlier date. + +They were too proud to talk even to their most intimate friends of +their Irish home, much less to expose the foibles of their immediate +ancestors to phlegmatic English ears; but Patrick Bronte would not +omit to tell his story-loving daughters the thrilling adventures of +their ancestors, and the girls, having brooded over the incidents, +reproduced them in variant forms, and in the sombre setting of their +own surroundings. + +The originals lived and died, acted and were acted upon, in Louth and +Down; but on the steeps of "Wuthering Heights" they strut again, +speaking the Yorkshire dialect, and braced by the tonic air of the +northern downs. + +None of the stories betray their origin so clearly as "Wuthering +Heights," just as none of the novelists were so fascinated with their +father's tales as Emily. But the stories are all Bronte stories, an +echo of the thrilling narratives related by old Hugh, and retold, I +believe, a hundred times by Patrick. Of course, all the stories are +made to live again under new forms, each writer giving the stamp of +her own character to the new creations. Artists of the Bronte stamp +are not portrait painters, nor mere reproducers. + +They never were content to be mere lackeys of nature. They were above +nature, and everything without and within themselves they placed under +contribution. + +Even the rough and rugged characters that have come from the hand of +Emily show the work of the artist. She added to the repulsive +Heathcliff qualities of her own. She is perfectly serious when she +says: "Possibly some people might suspect him [Heathcliff] of a degree +of under-bred pride. I have a sympathetic chord within me that tells +me it is nothing of the sort. I know by instinct his reserve springs +from an aversion to showy display of feeling, to manifestations of +mutual kindliness. He'll love and hate equally under cover, and esteem +it a species of impertinence to be loved or hated again. No! I'm +running on too fast. I bestow my own attributes over-liberally on +him." + +Knowing the model from which Emily Bronte worked, there are few +passages which throw more light on the artist than this. Catherine +Linton was modelled on the lovely Alice McClory, who bequeathed to her +clever granddaughters all the personal attractions they possessed; but +here again Emily bestows attributes of herself and sisters on her +stately and lily-like grandmother. + +"She [Catherine] was slender, and apparently scarcely past girlhood. +An admirable form, and the most exquisite little face I had ever had +the pleasure of beholding; small features, very fair; flaxen +ringlets, or rather golden, hanging loose on her delicate neck; and +eyes, had they been agreeable in expression, that would have been +irresistible." + +The picture is neither that of a Bronte of the Haworth vicarage nor is +it a portraiture of the flower plucked in Ballynaskeagh by Hugh +Bronte, but it is Alice McClory diluted with a dash of the Penzance +Branwells, and the effect is a perfect and beautiful picture, more +pleasing, indeed, than a life-like portrait, with all the radiant +beauty of the charming Alice, when she rode off to Magherally Church +with the dashing Hugh Bronte. + + +IV. HUGH BRONTE AS A TENANT-RIGHTER. + +Hugh Bronte worked up to his tenant-right doctrines by a series of +assertions, negative and positive, on religious, political, and +economic questions. His address, in which he set forth his views on +such matters, approximated to the form of a lecture more nearly than +any of his other talks, which were generally in the narrative form. +The following are the chief points of the discourse, as given to me by +my old tutor and friend, and the propositions were never varied, +except in the mere wording, although the statement had never been +formally written out. + +Hugh Bronte always began with a little black Bible in his hand, or on +his knee, and his first negative assertion was: + +I. "The church is not Christ's." + +Laying his hand on the little book he would declare that he found +grace in the Bible, but in the church only greed. Once and only once +he had appealed to a parson. He was hungry, naked, and bleeding, but +the great double-chinned, red-faced man had looked on him as if he +were a rat, and, without hearing his story, had him driven off by a +grand-looking servant, who cracked a whip over his head and swore at +him. + +In Hugh Bronte's eyes the parsons got their livings for political +services, and not for learning or goodness. Enormous sums were paid +them to do work that they did not do. They rarely visited their +parishes, and their duties were performed by hungry and ill-paid +curates. When they did return occasionally to their livings they were +heard of at banquets, where they ate and drank too freely, and at +other resorts, where they gambled recklessly. They were seen riding +over the country after foxes and hounds, and sitting in judgment on +the men whose grain they had trampled down, and sending them to penal +servitude for trapping hares in their own gardens. They were said to +be ignorant, but they were known to be irreligious, immoral, +arrogant, and cruel. They acted as the ministers of the gentry, +before whom they were very humble, and they utterly despised the +people who paid for their luxuries, and supported their own priests +besides. + +They gave the sanction of the church to violence, craft, and crime in +high places, and they were as far removed as men could be, in origin, +position, and practices, from the apostles of the New Testament. And +yet, he added, they claimed, in the most haughty manner, that they and +they alone were the successors of the apostles, although they showed +no signs of apostolic spirituality or apostolic service. + +Hugh Bronte declared that he could not submit to the Protestant +parson, who despised him because he was poor, and could not aid in his +promotion, nor could he yield obedience to the Catholic priest, who +demanded utter subjection and prostration of both body and mind, and +enforced his church's claims by a stout stick. With these views it is +not to be wondered at that Hugh Bronte did not belong to any church. + +To us, now, his statements appear exaggerated and too sweeping, but it +must be remembered that he spoke of the Irish clergy in the closing +decades of the last century. He expressed himself fiercely regarding +the parsons, and in return they dubbed him "atheist." + +His second negative assertion was: + +II. "The world is not God's." + +He knew from the Bible that God had made all things very good, and +that he loved the world, but he held that a number of people had got +in between God and his world, and made it very bad and hateful. They +were known as kings and emperors, and they had seized on the world by +fraud and force. They lived on the best of everything that the land +produced, and when they disagreed among themselves they sent their +people to kill each other on their account, while they sat at home in +peace and luxury. + +These usurpers not only held sway over the possessions and lives of +men, but they decreed the exact thoughts men were to entertain +concerning God, and the exact words they were to speak concerning God; +and when men presumed to obey God rather than men they were tied to +stakes and burned to death as blasphemers. For such sentiments as +these Hugh Bronte was denounced as a socialist--a very bad and +dangerous name at the beginning of the present century. + +His third negative proposition was: + +III. "Ireland is not the king's." + +He understood that King George III. was not a wise man, but that he +was a humane man. Ireland was not governed by King George III., but by +a gang of rapacious brigands. They constantly invoked the king's name, +but only to serve more fully their own selfish ends. By the king's +authority they carried out their policy of systematic outrage, until +he hated the very name of the king whom he always wished to love. + +The chief business of the king's representatives was to plunder his +majesty's poorer subjects. For this purpose the country was parcelled +out and divided among a number of base and greedy adventurers, in +return for odious services. Each of these adventurers became king, or +landlord, in his own district, and lived on the wretched natives. +Every meskin of butter made on the farm, every pig reared in the +cabin, every egg laid by the hens that roosted in the kitchen, went to +support the land-king. + +The cottages were mud hovels. The land was bog and barren waste. The +men and women were in rags. The children were hungry, pinched, and +bare-footed. But the landlord carried off everything, except the +potato crop, which was barely sufficient to sustain life. + +The landlord was a very great man. He lived in London, near the king, +in more than royal splendor. Or he passed his time in some of the +great cities of Europe, spending as much on gay women as would have +clothed and fed all the starving children on his estate. In English +society his pleasantries were said to be most entertaining, regarding +the poverty, misery, and squalor of his tenants, whom he fleeced; but +he took care never to come near them, lest his fine sensibilities +should be shocked at their condition. His serious occupation was the +making of laws to increase his own power for rapacity, and to take +away from the people every vestige of rights that they might have +inherited. + +"The landlord takes everything and gives nothing," was Hugh Bronte's +simple form of the fine modern phrase regarding landlords' privileges +and duties. + +Hugh Bronte maintained that the landlord was a courteous gentleman, +graced with polished manners, and that if he had lived among his +people he might in time have developed a heart. At least, he could +hardly have kept up a gentlemanly indifference, in the presence of +squalor and misery. But he kept quite out of sight of his tenantry, or +he would not have made so much merriment about the pig, which was +being brought up among the children, to pay for his degrading +extravagances. The landlord's place among the people was taken by an +agent, an attorney, and a sub-agent. The agent was a local potentate, +whose will was law. The attorney's business was to make the law square +with the agent's acts. And the under agent was employed to do mean and +vile and inhuman acts, that neither the agent nor attorney could +conveniently do. + +The duty of the three was to find out, by public inspection and by +private espionage, the uttermost farthing the tenants could pay, and +extract it from them legally. In getting the rent for the landlord +each got as much as he could for himself. The key of the situation was +the word "eviction." + +Then Hugh told the story of his ancestors' farm. The Brontes had +occupied a piece of forfeited land, with well-defined obligations to a +chief, or landlord. Soon the landlord succeeded in removing all legal +restraints which in any way interfered with his absolute control of +the place. Remonstrance and entreaty were alike unavailing. The +alterations in title were made by the authority of "George III., by +the grace of God King of England!" + +Hugh's great-grandfather drained the bog and improved the land, at +enormous expense. Every improvement was followed by a rise in the +rent. His grandfather built a fine house on the land, by money made in +dealing, and again the rent was raised, on the increased value given +to the place by the tenant's industry. Then, the vilest creature in +human form having ingratiated himself with the agent, by vile +services, the place was handed over to him, without one farthing of +compensation to the heirs of the man whose labor had made the place of +value. All these things were done in the name of George III., though +the king had no more to do with the nefarious transactions than the +child unborn. + +From this conclusion Hugh Bronte proceeded to his fourth negative +proposition: + +IV. "Irish law is not justice." + +He expressed regret that he was unable to respect the laws of the +country. According to his views, the laws were made by an assembly of +landlords, purely and solely to serve their own rapacious desires, and +not in accordance with any dictates of right or wrong. As soon might +the lambs respect the laws of the wolves as the people of Ireland +respect the laws of the landlords. + +From this point he naturally arrived at his fifth negative proposition: + +V. "Obedience to law is not a duty." + +He said it might be prudent to obey a bad law, cruelly administered, +because disobedience might entail inconvenient consequences; but there +was no moral obligation impelling a man to obey a law which outraged +decency, and against which every righteous and generous instinct +revolted. Human laws should be the reflection of divine laws; but the +landlord-made laws of Ireland had neither the approval of honest men +nor the sanction of divine justice. + +Hugh's sixth and last negative proposition was: + +VI. "Patriotism is not a virtue." + +He held that every man should love his country, and that every +Irishman did; but he could not do violence to the most sacred +instincts of his nature, by any zeal to uphold a system of government +which dealt with Ireland as the legitimate prey of plunderers. + +In other lands men were patriotic because they loved their country. He +loved his country too well to be a patriot. Love of country more than +any other passion had prompted to the purest patriotism; but who would +do heroic acts to maintain a swarm of harpies to pollute and lacerate +his country? Who would have his zeal aglow to maintain the desolators +of his native land? + +Hugh Bronte gave out his views with a warmth that betrayed _animus_ +arising from personal injury. He was therefore declared to be +disloyal, and that at a time when there was danger in disloyalty. +About the time Hugh Bronte was enunciating these sentiments the rising +of the United Irishmen took place, and the pitched battle of +Ballynahinch was fought, in 1798. It has always seemed to me strange +that he should have passed through those times in peace, for the +"Welsh horse" devastated the country far and wide after the battle, +and hundreds of innocent people were shot down like dogs. Besides, +William, his second son, was a United Irishman, and present at the +battle of Ballynahinch. After the battle he was pursued by cavalry, +who fired at him repeatedly, but he led them into a bog and escaped. + +Hugh Bronte lived in a secluded glen; but the "Welsh horse" visited +his house, and after a short parley with his wife, in which neither +understood the other, one of the soldiers struck a light into the +thatch. Hugh suddenly appeared and spoke to the Welsh soldiers in +Irish, which it was supposed they understood, as being akin to their +own language, and they joined heartily with him in extinguishing the +flames. They joined still more heartily with Hugh in disposing of his +stock of whiskey. The inability of Hugh's neighbors to communicate +with the Welsh may account for the fact that a man well known for such +advanced and disloyal views passed safely through those troublous +times. + +Having completed his negative assertions, or paradoxes, Hugh Bronte +proceeded to state his theories, or positive conclusions. He laid it +down as an axiom that justice must be at the root of all good +government, and he declared emphatically what O'Connell and Agent +Townsend have since maintained, that the Irish were the most +justice-loving people in the world. He also held that unjust laws were +the fruitful source of all the turbulence and crime in Ireland. + +Justice, he said, was nothing very grand. It meant simply that every +man should have his own by legal right. This definition brought him to +his tenant-right theory. In illustration he returned to the story of +his ancestral home and the wrongs of his ancestors. He maintained that +when his forefathers drained the bog and improved the land they were +entitled to every ounce of improvement they had made. The landlord had +done nothing for the land. He never went near it, and had never spent +one farthing upon it, and he should not have been entitled to +confiscate to his own profit the additional value given to it by the +labor of another. + +He further declared that a just and wise legislature should secure to +every man, high and low, the fruits of his own labor, and he +maintained that such simple, natural justice would produce confidence +in Ireland, and that confidence would beget content and industry, and +that a contented and industrious people would soon learn to love both +king and country, and make Ireland happy and England strong. Just laws +would silence the agitator and the blunderbuss, and range the people +on the side of the rulers. + +Hugh Bronte preached his revolutionary doctrines of simple justice in +the cheerless east wind, but a little seed, carried I know not how, +took root in genial soil, and the revolutionary doctrine of "_Every +man his own_," at which the political parsons used to cry "Anathema," +and the short-sighted politicians used to shout "confiscation," has +become one of the commonplaces of the modern reformation programme of +fair play. The doctrine of common honesty enunciated by Hugh Bronte +has lately received the approval of Liberal and Conservative +governments in what is known as "Tenant-Right," or "The Ulster +Custom." + +And here it is interesting to note that Hugh Bronte was a tenant on +the estate of Sharman Crawford, a landlord who first took up the cause +of Irish tenant-right, and after spending a long life in its advocacy, +bequeathed its defence to his sons and daughters. + +Whether Hugh Bronte's doctrines on the relation of landlord and tenant +ever came to the ears of the Crawford family, I know not. I think it +is exceedingly probable that they heard of the remarkable man on their +estate, and of his stories and theories. The Crawfords were never +absentee landlords, and, as men of high Christian character, they +always took a personal interest in their tenants, and would not, I +believe, have failed to note any special intellectual activity among +them. It is certain, however, that the Sharman Crawfords, father and +son in succession, spent their lives largely in the propagation of +Hugh Bronte's views, both in the House of Commons and throughout the +country, and it seems to me not only probable and possible, but almost +certain, that Bronte's eloquent and passionate arguments, dropped into +the justice-loving minds of the Crawfords,[5] _may_ have been the +primary seeds of the great agrarian harvest which, with the full +sanction of the legislature, is now being reaped by the farmers in +Ireland. + + [5] In 1833 W. Sharman Crawford published a pamphlet embodying Hugh + Bronte's doctrines, and making suggestions for the good + government of Ireland. The pamphlet was republished by Doctor W. + H. Dodd, Q. C., in 1892. Councillor Dodd is an old pupil of the + Ballynaskeagh school. He received his early education from Mr. + McKee, the friend of the Brontes, and he was acquainted, as a + student, with Charlotte Bronte's uncles. The following is his + summary of the political portion of the pamphlet: + + "Mr. Crawford anticipates, as the probable result of refusing + self government to Ireland, the growth of secret societies, the + influence of agitation, and the necessity of resorting to force + in the government of the country. He touches upon the question + of private bill legislation, of a reform of the grand jury + system, of county government. He points out that the creation of + county councils, without having a central body to control them, + is not desirable. And he suggests the creation of a local + legislature for Irish affairs, combined with representation in + the Imperial Parliament, as the true method of preserving the + Union, as the surest bond of the connection between the two + countries, and as essentially necessary to tranquillity in + Ireland. + + "He refers, among other measures, to the disestablishment of the + Irish Church, and the reform of the relations between landlord + and tenant, as being pressing. + + "The arguments against his views are met and answered. One would + think he had read some of the speeches lately delivered, so apt + is his reply. + + "It is curious to note the length of time Ireland has had to + wait for the reforms he thought urgent, and it is sad to reflect + how much suffering has been endured and how much blood has been + shed because the men of his time would not listen to his + words." + +Should my surmise be correct, and I have never doubted for forty years +that it is so, great results have flowed from the inhuman treatment of +a child. Had little Bronte been left in the luxury of his father's +home, it is not likely he would ever have been shaken up to original +and independent thought; but the iron of cruel wrong had entered into +his soul, and he felt that all was not well. He owed no gratitude to +the existing order of things, and had no compunction in denouncing it; +and having thought out and formulated a new theory, he proclaimed it +with the strong conviction of an apostle who sees salvation in his +gospel alone. + +The daring character of Hugh Bronte's speculations in their +paradoxical form, combined with the fierce energy of his manner in +making them known, secured for him an audience and an amount of +consideration to which, as an uneducated working man, he could have +had no claim. Indeed, Hugh Bronte's revolutionary doctrines were known +far beyond his own immediate neighborhood, and while many said he was +mad, some declared that he only saw a little clearer than his +contemporaries. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 5, +October 1893, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE, OCTOBER 1893 *** + +***** This file should be named 36886.txt or 36886.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/8/8/36886/ + +Produced by Katherine Ward, Juliet Sutherland, 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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