116 files changed, 17 insertions, 21059 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7b82bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+*.txt text eol=lf
+*.htm text eol=lf
+*.html text eol=lf
+*.md text eol=lf
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1e91e1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #54545 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54545)
diff --git a/old/54545-0.txt b/old/54545-0.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 411489e..0000000
--- a/old/54545-0.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9749 +0,0 @@
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine
-(June 1913), by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (June 1913)
-       Vol. LXXXVI. New Series: Vol. LXIV. May to October, 1913
-
-Author: Various
-
-Release Date: April 13, 2017 [EBook #54545]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CENTURY ILLUSTRATED ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Jane Robins, Reiner Ruf, and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
- ######################################################################
-
-                          Transcriber’s Notes
-
-This e-text is based on ‘The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine,’
-from June 1913. The table of contents has been added by the transcriber.
-
-Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation have been retained, but
-punctuation and typographical errors have been corrected. Passages
-in English dialect and in languages other than English have not been
-altered.
-
-Special characters have been used to highlight the following font
-styles:
-
-    italic:       _underscores_
-    small caps:  ~tilde characters~
-    underlined:  #hash symbols#
-
- ######################################################################
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA
-
-PAINTED FOR THE CENTURY BY JULES GUÉRIN]
-
-
-
-
-      Copyright, 1913, by ~The Century Co.~ All rights reserved.
-
-
-
-
-                             TRAVEL NUMBER
-
-                        ~The Century Magazine~
-
-            ~Vol. LXXXVI~        JUNE, 1913        ~No. 2~
-
-
-
-
-                               CONTENTS
-
-
-                                                                    PAGE
-
-  ~The Great St. Bernard.~                _Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg_  161
-      Pictures by André Castaigne.
-
-  ~The Training of a Japanese Child.~     _Frances Little_           170
-      Pictures from photographs.
-
-  ~Brother Leo.~                          _Phyllis Bottome_          181
-      Pictures by W. T. Benda.
-
-  ~The Century’s After-the-war Series.~
-    Another View of “The Hayes-Tilden
-     Contest”.                            _George F. Edmunds_        192
-        Portrait of Ex-Senator Edmunds.
-
-  ~The Grand Cañon of the Colorado.~      _Joseph Pennell_           202
-    Six lithographs drawn from
-      nature for “The Century.”
-
-  ~If Richard Wagner Came Back.~          _Henry T. Finck_           208
-      Portrait of Wagner from photograph.
-
-  ~Portrait of Dorothy McK----.~          _Wilhelm Funk_             211
-
-  “~Black Blood.~”                        _Edward Lyell Fox_         213
-      Pictures by William H. Foster.
-
-  ~Skirting the Balkan Peninsula.~        _Robert Hichens_
-     IV. Delphi and Olympia.                                         224
-        Pictures by Jules Guérin and
-          from photographs.
-
-  ~Noosing Wild Elephants.~               _Charles Moser_            240
-      Pictures from photographs.
-
-  ~John Quincy Adams in Russia.~
-    (Unpublished letters.)
-    Introduction and notes by Charles
-      Francis Adams. Portraits of John
-      Quincy Adams and Madame de Staël                               250
-
-  ~The Century’s American Artists
-      Series.~
-    Frank W. Benson: My Daughter.                                    264
-
-  ~Sigiriya, “The Lion’s Rock” of
-    Ceylon.~                              _Jennie Coker Gay_         265
-      Pictures by Duncan Gay.
-
-  ~Noteworthy Stories of the Last
-    Generation.~
-      Belles Demoiselles Plantation.      _George W. Cable_          273
-        With portrait of the author,
-          and new pictures by W. M.
-          Berger.
-
-  ~Colonel Watterson’s Rejoinder to
-    Ex-Senator Edmunds.~                   _Henry Watterson_         285
-      Comments on “Another View of ‘The
-        Hayes-Tilden Contest.’”
-
-  ~A Paper of Puns.~                      _Brander Matthews_         290
-      Head-piece by Reginald Birch.
-
-  ~T. Tembarom.~                          _Frances Hodgson Burnett_
-      Drawings by Charles S. Chapman.                                296
-
-  ~Under which Flag, Ladies, Order or
-    Anarchy?~                             _Editorial_                309
-
-  ~Newspaper Invasion of Privacy.~        _Editorial_                310
-
-  ~The Changing View of Government.~      _Editorial_                311
-
-  ~The Two-billion-dollar Congress.~      _Editorial_                313
-
-  ~On the Lady and her Book.~             _Helen Minturn Seymour_    315
-
-  ~On the Use of Hyperbole in
-    Advertising.~                         _Agnes Repplier_           316
-
-  ~After-Dinner Stories.~
-    An Anecdote of McKinley.              _Silas Harrison_           319
-
-
-VERSE
-
-  ~Off Capri.~                            _Sara Teasdale_            223
-
-  ~At the Closed Gate of Justice.~        _James D. Corrothers_      272
-
-  ~Finis.~                                _William H. Hayne_         295
-
-  ~Invulnerable.~                         _William Rose Benét_       308
-
-  ~A Cubist Romance.~                     _Oliver Herford_           318
-      Picture by Oliver Herford.
-
-  ~Old Daddy Do-funny’s Wisdom Jingles.~  _Ruth McEnery Stuart_      319
-
-  ~Limericks.~:
-      Text and pictures by Oliver Herford.
-      XXIX.   The Kind Armadillo.                                    320
-
-
-
-
-THE GREAT ST. BERNARD
-
-BY ERNST VON HESSE-WARTEGG
-
-WITH PICTURES BY ANDRÉ CASTAIGNE
-
-
-In a popular guide-book to Switzerland, it is stated that of all Alpine
-passes the Great St. Bernard is the least interesting. With this view
-the traveling public does not seem to agree, for the St. Bernard is
-crossed every year by more people than any other pass. On an average,
-twenty thousand annually arrive at the hospice on the summit, and nine
-tenths of them during the short summer season, from the beginning of
-July to the end of August, which means over three hundred daily.
-
-Now, the whole district of the St. Bernard for many miles around
-possesses not one of the vast caravansaries characteristic of the
-picturesque mountain-tops in Switzerland,--indeed, not even a modest
-inn,--where tourists may find shelter for a few days. Why, then, should
-these armies of tourists invade the pass every summer, if it really
-offers little of interest?
-
-To me, who have seen almost all the passes from one end of the Alps
-to the other, the trip over the Great St. Bernard was most enjoyable.
-Though the scenery may not be so beautiful as that of the St. Gotthard,
-for instance, it surpasses by far even that and most of the others in
-wild grandeur; for nowhere else in the Alps can be found mountains
-of bolder aspect and greater height. On the west, near the French
-boundary, I need only mention Mont Blanc and Mont Dolent; on the east,
-the glacier-covered peaks of Mont Velan, and the towering masses of the
-Grand Combin.
-
-The valley of the river Dranse, which is followed by the traveler from
-Martigny, in the Rhone valley, to very near the summit, more than eight
-thousand feet above the sea, is full of romantic beauty and wildness,
-closed in by snow-covered mountains of fantastic shapes, their steep
-slopes partly covered with dark pine forests. Nestling on the rocks or
-sleeping in the valleys there are a few straggling settlements, with
-heavy-visaged natives, apparently of a different race from the Swiss,
-and entirely untouched by modern life. They live in tottering, wooden
-houses of the quaintest shapes, dark brown with age, and with wooden
-barns on stilts attached to them. Only a few villages, as Orsières,
-Liddes, and Bourg St. Pierre on the Swiss side, and St. Rémy on the
-Italian side, have stone houses along their narrow main thoroughfares.
-
-During the summer months these roads are daily traversed by a motley
-crowd of tourists from all parts of the world, traveling on foot, or
-in private carriages or postal diligences, for the road is kept in
-capital order. Many wayfarers stop at the modest inns to rest and take
-a glass of _kirsch_, or even to seek shelter in the old houses when
-storms spring up suddenly, blowing furiously down the valleys; or they
-may repose on the rotten thresholds of the houses side by side with old
-matrons working at their spinning-wheels or with young girls knitting
-stockings, and converse with them in their French patois. The men are
-frequently employed as guides, and all are in constant intercourse with
-modern people from the great capitals of both continents, yet they do
-not depart from their ancient manners and ways.
-
-The uncommon tenacity of these mountaineers is surprising, as the
-St. Bernard traffic is by no means new. True, the new carriage-road
-connecting central Europe, by way of Switzerland, with Italy was
-opened only in the first days of August, 1905, when the King of Italy
-himself was present, together with the authorities of the neighboring
-countries. But the St. Bernard has been a highway for thousands of
-years; it has seen many armies in war-time and many caravans with
-merchandise in times of peace. More than two hundred years before
-Christ, the great Hannibal passed over it with his Carthaginian
-legions; over the winding road which Hannibal had constructed Julius
-Cæsar led his Roman army down the valley of the Dranse for the conquest
-of Gallia and Germania. Emperor Augustus II improved and rebuilt
-the road, portions of which are still seen by the side of the new
-carriage-road wherever the latter has not been built on the foundation
-of the Roman highway.
-
-At the beginning of the Christian era, the summit of the pass was
-crowned with a temple in honor of Jupiter, with rest-houses for
-travelers. Vestiges of this temple still exist, and in the large and
-well-stocked library of the present Hospice of St. Bernard the prior of
-the religious order in charge showed me a number of gold and silver
-coins, ex-voto figures, tablets, vessels, statuettes, and other objects
-found by the priests on the temple site. Indeed, owing to its situation
-on the direct geographical line between Italy and the North, the St.
-Bernard has been crossed in the course of time by more people than has
-any other pass.
-
-The traveler of to-day, arriving at the hospice in a comfortable
-carriage within ten hours from the nearest railway-station, and
-provided with all the luxuries of modern life, can hardly picture to
-himself the terrible privations of the traveler in ancient times, when
-settlements were scarce. Provisions had to be carried along for many
-miles to these icy regions, most of the time covered with deep snow
-which obliterated every trace of roads.
-
-On the evening of my arrival, I went to the plateau where once Jupiter
-was worshiped. The small lake beyond which it is situated had still
-some ice-cakes floating on its placid surface. Resting there on a
-stone, my fancy enlivened this scene of solitude and desolation with
-the savage soldiers of heathen times. I imagined that I heard the
-cracking and screaking of heavy cart-wheels, the clattering of armor,
-the clanking of spears, as the legions toiled wearisomely upward to the
-beating of drums and blowing of trumpets. My eyes pictured strange,
-stalwart warriors, exhausted from the arduous pull up those steep
-valleys, shivering with intense cold, fainting, sinking into the deep
-snow. And then an avalanche, breaking loose from the towering mountains
-above, came thundering down, dispersing this glittering array, and
-burying many under the soft, white, yet deadly, mass.
-
-It was with the object of offering shelter to the weary and of rescuing
-those who succumbed to the inclemencies of these forbidding heights
-that in the year 962 a pious monk, Bernard, Count of Menthon, whose
-home was in Savoy, near Annecy, resolved to devote his life and fortune
-to the founding of a hospice on the summit of the pass. He succeeded
-in persuading other monks to share with him the dreary life, and thus
-founded a holy order, named to-day “Les Chanoines reguliers de St.
-Augustin.” Bernard of Menthon himself, afterward canonized by the pope,
-was elected first prior, and lived forty years at the hospice. His
-tomb is still standing in the Italian town of Novara. According to the
-keeper of the royal archives at Turin, whom I consulted on the history
-of the hospice, it is first mentioned in a document in the year 1108.
-
-[Illustration: Drawn by André Castaigne. Half-tone plate engraved by R.
-Varley
-
-AN AVALANCHE ON THE ST. BERNARD PASS]
-
-In the Middle Ages the hospice, being of great importance in the
-intercourse between the north and south of Europe, enjoyed the powerful
-support and protection of the great rulers of that period, notably
-the German emperors. In return for valuable services, the order was
-richly endowed, and became in time exceedingly wealthy and prosperous.
-At the beginning of the sixteenth century it possessed no fewer than
-ninety-eight livings. The Reformation, however, ended this prosperity,
-and since then various misfortunes have carried away most of its once
-very large revenues. Its total income is now about eight thousand
-dollars, and without the aid received from the Italian and Swiss
-governments it would be impossible to offer hospitality to the large
-number of tourists that come every year. As many as five hundred have
-received free board and lodging in a single day.
-
-It is to be regretted that so few visitors take notice of the
-collection-box in the pretty little church. Many well able to pay for
-the hospitality they receive do not give even so much as they would pay
-for their entertainment in a third-rate inn. The total amount given by
-tourists is only a small fraction of the actual expense incurred in
-entertaining them. The present King of England, who visited the hospice
-when Prince of Wales, sent a piano, and I could not help wondering
-how this bulky instrument was brought up the steep mountains. Emperor
-Frederick of Germany, with his consort, came in 1883, and the prior
-showed me one of their valuable gifts--a volume of Thomas à Kempis,
-bearing their signatures.
-
-One must bear in mind that provisions, wood, and all other necessities
-of life have to be brought up eight thousand feet from the valleys
-below. For miles about the hospice there is not a tree, not a bush or
-a single blade of grass, and the view from my window offered nothing
-but barren rocks, bleak mountains, glaciers, and snow-fields. The mean
-annual temperature is below the freezing-point, being about the same
-as Spitzbergen, within the Arctic Ocean! One cannot help admiring the
-little group of monks, about twelve in number, who, with an equal
-number of lay brothers and servants, live here, in this highest human
-habitation of Europe, summer and winter, year after year, till they
-die. They do not wear the monk’s capouch, but the ordinary black
-sacerdotal robe, with a white cord falling from the neck as a special
-distinction.
-
-Their sufferings are sometimes intense. The climate is so severe, and
-their duties are so arduous, that their constitutions would soon be
-broken down if they were not allowed to recuperate temporarily at their
-house in Martigny, their places being taken by other members of this
-brave and devoted brotherhood.
-
-On the St. Bernard summit the seasons are unknown. Winter is, so
-to speak, perpetual, without spring or autumn or summer, the only
-indication of our warm seasons being the melting of the snow, which
-sometimes drifts about the three tall stone buildings to a height of
-forty feet. The cold is often twenty degrees below zero Fahrenheit and
-has been in one instance twenty-nine degrees. When I stayed at the
-hospice early in August, the lake behind it was frozen over during the
-night, and the monks told me that there have been years when the ice on
-its surface did not melt.
-
-Under these conditions, I was not surprised to find among the occupants
-of the hospice mostly young men, only one of them being over fifty, and
-he had spent twenty consecutive years on the St. Bernard. The hardest
-labors of these pious men are during the winter months, notably in
-November and February, when numerous poor laborers from Italy venture
-to cross in search of work. Unfamiliar with the hardships and dangers
-they have to face, they ascend from Aosta over St. Rémy, plodding
-wearily through the deep snow, which obliterates all traces of the
-road, sometimes covering even the telegraph-poles. At last their
-strength gives out, or they are buried under an avalanche, or they lose
-their way and cannot proceed from sheer exhaustion. Those who do not
-perish owe their lives to the zeal of the monks and the alertness of
-the famous dogs of St. Bernard.
-
-Day after day all the monks are out on their beat through the “Valley
-of Death” on the north side opening immediately below the hospice, and
-the steep snow-fields to the south, each accompanied by a servant and
-a dog. They search the surroundings, where every dell, every rock is
-familiar to them, with powerful field-glasses. Breaks or dark spots are
-detected at once on the white surface, but the surest and never-failing
-discoverers of unfortunate victims are the dogs. Their extraordinary
-fine scent indicates to them the exact direction in which it is
-necessary to search, and the men follow on snow-shoes. Arrived at the
-supposed spot, the dogs begin to bark and to scratch in the snow, the
-men take to their shovels, and soon the poor wayfarer is discovered.
-If life has fled from him, the body is carried up to the hospice and
-placed in the little low, desolate stone hut standing at a short
-distance from the buildings, the abode of the dead. In this “morgue”
-rest the victims of the Alps till their bodies crumble to ashes. There
-is no other way of disposing of the dead, since for miles about the
-hospice not enough soil can be found to furnish a grave.
-
-[Illustration: Drawn by André Castaigne
-
-INTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL IN THE HOSPICE]
-
-At the time of my visit, only one body of the preceding winter was
-lying among the remains of the victims of former years. The others who
-had been found had been restored to life.
-
-Many thousands have been rescued from certain death, principally
-owing to the cleverness of the dogs, carefully trained to their work.
-According to the register kept at the hospice, these dogs, originally
-a cross between Newfoundland and Pyrenean, were employed first in the
-fifteenth century, and the present breed is undoubtedly descended from
-them. To preserve it pure, several dogs are also kept at the two other
-settlements of the brotherhood, the Simplon hospice and Martigny. The
-expediency of this is shown by the accident of 1825, when nearly all
-the dogs at the St. Bernard hospice, together with three lay brothers,
-perished in a terrible avalanche on the Swiss slope near the present
-“Cantine de Proz,” the highest inn on the way to the hospice, kept
-by the Swiss Government as a postal station. Only two or three dogs
-survived, and they perpetuated the race.
-
-Now there are about fifteen dogs at the hospice. They are objects of
-much petting on the part of travelers, especially ladies, to which they
-indulgently submit. In appearance they differ considerably from what
-we picture them to be. They are much smaller than the St. Bernard dog
-of other countries, but heavier-set and stronger. The hair is white,
-coarse, and tight to the skin, with large yellow or reddish-brown
-spots, the chest and the lower part of the body being always white.
-The long tail is heavy and shaggy, the neck short-set and uncommonly
-strong, carrying a large head, with the muzzle short and broad.
-The front teeth are mostly visible, and the dogs would look rather
-ferocious without the intelligent and withal docile expression of their
-large, bright eyes. Many of them have been reproduced on postal cards,
-for sale in the large reception-room, one of the few rooms furnished
-with a stove. The prior, who is also Swiss postmaster, told me that
-on the average one thousand postal cards, mostly with pictures of the
-dogs, are daily sent “with hearty greetings” to all parts of the world.
-But in the “season,” as many as fifteen hundred have been mailed in a
-single afternoon, especially when snow-storms or rain keep the tourists
-indoors with nothing to do.
-
-[Illustration: Drawn by André Castaigne
-
-A ST. BERNARD DOG]
-
-The best type of a St. Bernard dog was famous Bary, who, after saving
-thirty-nine lives, was unfortunately shot by an English traveler he was
-trying to rescue, who mistook him for a wolf. His stuffed skin is now
-in the museum at Bern. Since then there has always been a “Bary” among
-the dogs. The present dog of that name has already saved three lives,
-while Pallas and Diana have saved two each.
-
-St. Bernard dogs, imported mostly from England in recent years,
-have become decidedly popular in America. They are chiefly of the
-long-haired kind, much larger and with rather flatter heads and longer
-muzzles than the dogs at the St. Bernard hospice. Nevertheless, they
-are genuine St. Bernards, and are descended from those originally
-brought to England from Switzerland for Lord Dashwood, about one
-hundred years ago.
-
-In their home country this breed of dogs is by no means confined to the
-St. Bernard mountain. Raised in most Alpine valleys, they have become,
-so to speak, the national dog of Switzerland, and are foremost in
-public favor. While the long-haired type prevails in the lower cantons,
-nothing but the short-haired variety are employed at the hospice, the
-former type being unfitted for the peculiar mountain work. Enormous
-snowfalls in spring and autumn force them sometimes to dig their way
-under the snow for two or three days; on occasions they remain in the
-icy fields for a week or two, returning to the hospice reduced to mere
-skeletons. The coat of the long-haired dogs dries much slower, and the
-dripping from the fur congeals, causing rheumatism and other ailments
-and making them soon unfit for their work.
-
-[Illustration: Drawn by André Castaigne
-
-THE ST. BERNARD HOSPICE]
-
-The general belief that the original St. Bernard race died out long ago
-is unfounded. There can be no doubt that the present dogs are descended
-from those kept at the hospice in the Middle Ages, crossed with Danish
-bulldogs and Pyrenean dogs about five centuries ago, that they might
-inherit size and strength from the former and intelligence and keen
-scent from the latter. St. Bernard, the founder of the hospice, is
-represented in ancient pictures accompanied by a large white dog. The
-insecurity of the much frequented route between Italy and the North in
-early times caused the monks to keep dogs for their own protection,
-till their usefulness for life-saving purposes made them indispensable
-companions.
-
-[Illustration: Drawn by André Castaigne. Half-tone plate engraved by H.
-C. Merrill
-
-A BAND OF GIPSIES TRAVELING ALONG THE ST. BERNARD PASS]
-
-Unfortunately, most of the early documents in regard to the dogs were
-destroyed by fire, but the existing traditions of the antiquity of the
-race are confirmed by the escutcheon of an ancient Swiss family which
-I discovered in the archives of the city of Zurich. Four families
-of the fourteenth century have dogs as ornaments of the escutcheon
-helmet. They are Stubenweg, Aichelberg, Hailigberg, and the counts
-of Toggenburg, the latter famous in history and still flourishing
-in Austria. The escutcheons are most carefully painted, and show
-four distinct and clearly defined types of dogs. The type over the
-escutcheon of the family of Hailigberg shows a striking resemblance
-to the St. Bernard dog of to-day, with all the characteristic signs.
-Mountains crowned by hospices used to be called sacred mountains or
-Hailigberg (present style Heiligberg) during the Middle Ages, and from
-this it may safely be deducted that the knights of Hailigberg, took the
-picture of a hospice dog for their helmet ornament.
-
-For ages the St. Bernard dogs have been trained for their service in a
-peculiar manner: one old and one young dog are sent together daily down
-the Valley of Death toward the nearest human habitation; two others on
-the south side toward St. Rémy, their footprints in the snow indicating
-to lost travelers with unfailing certainty the exact line of the road
-buried under the snow. The younger dogs are taught by the older ones
-to show to travelers the way to the hospice by barking and jumping and
-running ahead of them toward the summit of the pass. If they happen
-to find a poor half-frozen victim, they try to restore animation by
-licking the hands and face. Then they hasten back to the hospice and
-announce their discovery by barking.
-
-Great credit is due to the Kynological Society of Switzerland for the
-preservation, improvement, and popularization of the hospice dogs in
-their pure type. In the latter part of the last century the English
-type, as described above, threatened to become generally established as
-the correct one. At an international Kynological Congress convened by
-that society in Zurich in 1887, the characteristic marks of the pure
-hospice type were laid down and acknowledged by the delegates of all
-countries, England included. In 1885 the first pure St. Bernard dogs
-were introduced into Germany by Prince Albrecht of Solms-Braunfels, and
-as they became very popular in a short time, a St. Bernard Club was
-organized in Munich in 1891 for the express purpose of improving the
-St. Bernard breed by organizing an exposition with competent judges,
-and publishing annually a book of genealogy.
-
-The first Napoleon, who crossed the St. Bernard with his army, cavalry,
-artillery, and all, between the fifteenth and twenty-first of May,
-1800, was very fond of these dogs and kept some in his room while
-resting at the hospice. Near the entrance of the largest building,
-erected in the seventeenth century, there is a big bell, rung by
-travelers to announce their arrival. Opposite the bell a large
-marble tablet commemorates the passage of Napoleon, dedicated by the
-government of the then republic, now the Swiss canton of Valais. His
-army was the last to cross the St. Bernard, and in the place of armies
-of soldiers, those of tourists invade the historic pass every year.
-They are most numerous in August, for the snow rarely melts before
-July and begins to fall again early in September, to stay till the
-following July. The poor priests are then left to themselves for about
-ten months, when the next summer’s sun makes the carriage-road again
-practicable.
-
-The founder of the hospice, with its brotherhood, has at last received
-a monument, which he well deserved. His statue was unveiled during the
-summer of 1905, and stands on the spot which the many thousands have
-had to pass who, after being rescued by his successors, have resumed
-their journey to the valleys below and to renewed life.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-THE TRAINING OF A JAPANESE CHILD
-
-BY FRANCES LITTLE
-
-Author of “The Lady of the Decoration,” “The Lady and Sada San,” etc.
-
-
-The stork has no vacation in Japan, neither does he sleep; and if he
-rests, the time and place are known of no man. On the stroke of the
-hour, nay, of the quarter, he is faithfully at his work distributing
-impartially among rich and poor small bits of humanity. He may be a
-wise bird, but if he thinks by the swiftness of his wings to find a
-home beneath roof of straw or palace tile unprepared for his coming, he
-is mistaken. He will discover that he has failed utterly to comprehend
-the joy of the mother to be. A childless woman is of no value in a
-land where the perpetuation of the family name is the most vital law
-prescribed in its religious and moral teachings. For a Japanese woman,
-therefore, the pinnacle of desire is reached when the white bird taps
-at her door and lays its precious bundle in her outstretched arms. For
-a time at least she has been able to forget the great terror of her
-life, divorce, and to make ready for the coming of the child with high
-hope and tender joy.
-
-Only two little garments are prepared previously. For the inside, a
-tiny kimono of bright yellow, the color supposed to give health and
-strength to the body; and for an outer covering, a coat of red, which
-color means congratulation. Until the sex of the baby is known, the
-wardrobe is thus limited as a matter of economy in time and cloth. If
-a boy, he has the sole right to every shade of blue. To the girl fall
-the softest pinks and reds. Whichever the sex, every available member
-of the family lends a willing hand to the busy task of cutting and
-stitching into many shapes the flowered cloth necessary to decorate the
-small body.
-
-The tiny wardrobe complete, the household turns its attention to the
-preparation of the feast with which to make merry and give thanks to
-the gods for so good a gift as a little child, whether it be boy or
-girl. The house is swept and garnished. Out in the kitchen, maids run
-hither and thither, hurrying the boiling pot, cleansing the already
-spotless rice, and scampering to bring the best wine. It is glad
-service. The happiness in the coming of the baby is shared by everybody
-from the parents to the water-coolie. Hence the eagerness with which
-the little house shrine is decorated and offerings of food and sake set
-before the benign old image who is responsible for this great favor.
-For days preparations go joyfully on, and though the small guest cannot
-indulge, a special table is set for him at the feast given in his
-honor, when neighbors and friends assemble to offer congratulations
-and presents. Later, each present must be acknowledged by the parents
-sending one in return.
-
-[Illustration: JAPANESE GIRLS PLAYING THEIR FAVORITE GAME, _ONIGOTO_]
-
-[Illustration: SUPPER-TIME]
-
-[Illustration: DRAWING ON A NEW WHITE SHOJI]
-
-The baby is excused from being present at the festival, but custom
-demands that no other engagement interfere with the shaving of his head
-on the third day. In the olden days styles in hair-cutting were as
-rigidly adhered to as the wearing of a samurai’s sword, but progress
-must needs tamper even with the down on a baby’s head. Now the fashion
-has lost much of its quaintness, and is mostly uniform. The sides and
-back of the head are shaved smooth, while from the crown a fringe is
-left to sprout like the long petals of a ragged chrysanthemum. The
-length and seriousness of the hair-cutting ceremony depend upon the
-self-control of the young gentleman. Regardless of conduct, however, or
-of the cost to the nervous system, certain fixed rules are enforced,
-which are virtually the only training the child receives in early years.
-
-After the little stranger, all shaven and shorn, is returned to his
-private apartments, the elders of the family consult on the grave
-matter of choosing a name for him. Often the naming of the baby is a
-simple matter, the father or grandfather speaking before the company
-the name of some famous man, if the child is a boy, or of some favorite
-flower, if it is a girl. For girls, _Hana_, flower, _Yuki_, snow,
-_Ai_, love, are the favorites of parents with a poetical strain. The
-sterner country-folk choose for their daughters, _Matsu_, pine, _Take_,
-bamboo (the bamboo joints are exact; hence the exactness of virtue),
-_Ume_, plum, since the plum bears both cold and snow bravely. For boys,
-_Ichiro_, first boy, _Toshio_, smart, _Iwao_, strong, and _Isamu_,
-brave, are very popular.
-
-Where belief is strong in the power of a name, the family, in holiday
-dress, often assembles in a large room. Each writes a name upon a slip
-of paper and lays it reverently before the house shrine. From the group
-a very young child is chosen and led before this shrine, and the fate
-of the name is decided by the small hand which reaches out for a slip.
-Though it is a festive occasion, the selection of a name is made with
-a seriousness worthy the election of a bishop. Many believe devoutly
-that this rite influences the baby’s entire future, and therefore
-the one whose slip is chosen incurs from the moment of choice great
-responsibility for the child’s welfare.
-
-The next great event in the baby’s existence is on the thirtieth day,
-when he is taken to the temple to be offered to the god that rules
-over that particular village or city. Dressed in his best suit of
-clothes, he is strapped to the back of his mother or nurse, with his
-body wrapped almost to suffocation, and usually with his head dangling
-from side to side with no protection for face or eyes. Why all Japanese
-babies are not blind is one of the secrets of nature’s provision. With
-tender women for mothers and affectionate servants for nurses, it is
-strange that the little face is seldom shielded from the direct rays of
-the sun or the piercing winds of winter. Possibly it is a training for
-physical endurance that later in life is a part of his education.
-
-Arrived at the temple, the child is presented to the priest. This
-dignitary, with shaven head and clad in a purple gown, reads very
-solemnly a special prayer to the god whose image, enshrined in gilt
-and ebony, rests within the deep shadows of the temple. He asks his
-care and protection for the helpless little creature that lies before
-him. At the end of the reading the priest shakes a _gohei_ to and fro
-over the child. A _gohei_ resembles nothing so much as a paper feather
-duster. Its fluffy whiteness is supposed to represent the pure spirit
-of the god, and through some mysterious agency a part of this spirit is
-transferred to the child by the vigorous shaking.
-
-For a few more coins, further protection can be purchased for the
-little wayfarer. The guaranty of his success and happiness comes in two
-small paper amulets on which the priest has drawn curious characters
-decipherable only to the priest and the god. Both amulets are given
-to the mother, who, with the baby on her back, trots home on her high
-wooden geta, or clogs, her face aglow with the contentment possible
-only to one whose faith in prayer and priest is sublime. One amulet,
-carefully wrapped with the cuttings of the first hair and with the
-name, is laid away safely in the house shrine, that the god may not
-forget. The other is carried in a gay little bag of colored crape,
-which is tied to the sash of the child; for it is believed that it will
-ward off sickness and hold all evil spirits at bay.
-
-It must be with a sigh of relief that the baby comes to this stage of
-his existence. The numerous rites necessary to a fair start on life’s
-highway have been conscientiously performed, the watchful care of the
-spirits invoked. Now it is his sole business to kick and grow and feed
-like any small healthy animal, to be served as a young prince and to
-be adored as a young god. He is the pivot on which the whole household
-turns. Often, in the soft shadows of evening, on the paper doors of a
-Japanese house is silhouetted a picture where the child is the center
-about which the family is grouped in the great act of adoration. It is
-a bit of inner life that finds a tender response in the heart of any
-beholder.
-
-[Illustration: “SEEKING SOME OBJECT ON WHICH TO BESTOW HIS ADORABLE
-SMILE”]
-
-[Illustration: FERTILE SOIL FOR MISCHIEF]
-
-The attitude of the usual family is that obedience is not to be
-expected of one so young, consequently nobody is disappointed, and
-the effect on the child is telling. He quickly learns his power, and
-becomes in turn the trainer and the ruler of the household. In fact, he
-is a small king, with only a soft ring of dark hair for a crown, and
-a chop-stick in his chubby fist for a scepter. His lightest frown or
-smile is a command to all the house, from the poodle with the ingrown
-nose to the bent old grandmother. But more willing subjects never bent
-before a king of maturer growth. Father and mother, with a train of
-relatives, yield glad obedience and stand ever ready for action at the
-merest suggestion of a wish.
-
-Alas! for the tried and true theories on early training that have
-held for generations in other countries! Alas! for the scores of
-learned volumes on child culture! Useless the work of the greatest
-psychologists, who sound grave warning as to the direful results should
-one fail to observe certain hard-and-fast rules in the training of mind
-and body. Grant a few months to a fat, well-fed Japanese baby, and with
-one wave of his pink heels he will kick into thin air every tested
-theory that scholarly men have grown gray in proving. He snaps in twain
-the old saw, “As the twig is bent,” and sends to eternal oblivion
-that oft-repeated legend, “Give me a child till its seventh year, and
-neither friend nor foe can change his tendencies.” Even the promise of
-old, “Children, obey your parents,” loses its value as a recipe for
-long life when applied to the baby citizen of old Nippon. It is a rare
-exception if he obeys. He lives neither by rule nor regulation, eats
-when, where, and what he pleases, then cuddles down to sleep in peace.
-
-[Illustration: “SPECIAL LESSONS FOR THE YOUNG IN HOW TO BOW”]
-
-To the specialist, one such ill-regulated day in a baby’s life
-would augur a morning after with digestion in tatters and a ragged
-temper. He does not take into account the strange mental and physical
-contradictions of the race. Unchecked, the baby has been permitted to
-shatter every precept of health, but he awakens as happy as a young
-kitten. Fresh, sweet, and wholesome, he crawls from his soft nest of
-comfortables and goes about seeking some object on which to bestow his
-adorable smile. He is ready to thrive on another lawless day.
-
-There is a mistaken, but popular, belief that a Japanese baby
-never cries. There is really no reason why he should. Replete with
-nourishment and rarely denied a wish, he blossoms like a wild rose on
-the sunny side of the hedge, as sweet and as unrestrained. His life is
-full of rich and varied interests. From his second day on earth, tied
-safely to his mother’s back under an overcoat made for two, he finds
-amusement for every waking hour in watching the passing show. He is the
-honored guest at every family picnic. No matter what the hour or the
-weather, he is the active member in all that concerns the household
-amusements or work. From his perch he participates in the life of the
-neighborhood, and is a part of all the merry festivals that turn the
-streets into fairy-land. Later, his playground is the gay market-place
-or the dim old temples.
-
-[Illustration: “UNDER AN OVERCOAT MADE FOR TWO”]
-
-Up to this time the child has had no suggestion of real training. His
-innate deftness in the art of imitation has taught him much. Continual
-contact with a wide-awake world has effectively quickened the growth
-of his brain, but the strings that have held him steadily to his
-mother’s back have stunted the growth of his body. The result is that
-when the time comes for that wonderful first day in the kindergarten,
-into the play-room often toddles a self-confident youngster whose legs
-refuse to coöperate when he makes his quaint bow, but whose keen brain
-and correspondingly deft hand work small miracles with blocks and
-paint-brush.
-
-In Japan only a blind child could be insensible to color, after long
-days under the pink mist of the cherry-blossoms and the crimson
-glory of the maples, in the sunny green and yellow fields, or with
-mountain slopes of wild azalea for a romping-place and a wonderful
-sky of blue for a cover. By inheritance and environment he is an
-artist in the use of color. Form, too, is as easy, for when crude toys
-have failed to please, it is his privilege to build ships, castles,
-gunboats, and temples with every conceivable household article from the
-spinning-wheel to the family rice-bucket.
-
-His instinct for play is strong, and after his legs grow steady he
-quickly masters games, and to his own satisfaction he can sing any song
-without tune or words. In the kindergarten he finds at first new joys
-in a play paradise of which he is, as at home, the ruler. Alas! for the
-swift coming of grief! For the first time in his life his will clashes
-with law, and for the first time he meets defeat, though he rises to
-conquer with all his fighting blood on fire. The struggle is swift and
-fierce, then behold the mystery of a small Oriental! After the first
-encounter, and often before the tears of passion have dried, he bends
-to authority, and with only occasional lapses soon becomes a devotee
-of the thing he has so bitterly fought. Henceforth _kisoku_, or law,
-becomes his meat and drink, the very foundation of living.
-
-[Illustration: ARRANGING FLOWERS]
-
-[Illustration: CHILDREN IN A CHRYSANTHEMUM ARBOR
-
-F · C · G]
-
-It is difficult to say whether this sudden change of heart comes from
-an inherited belief in the divine right of rulers or is the first
-cropping-out of that Eastern fatalism forcibly expressed in the word
-“Shikataganai” (“There is no help for it”). A partial explanation might
-be found in the attitude of most Japanese parents to the teacher in
-both kindergarten and school. By some strange reasoning they argue
-that it is the teacher’s business in life to train children; therefore
-from its earliest days the teacher is held before the child as a power
-from whose word there is no appeal. Frequently a mother says to her
-unmanageable offspring:
-
-“What will happen when the _sensei_ [teacher] hears of your rudeness?”
-or, “I shall speak to your teacher to command you to obey me.” Often
-the appeal is made direct to the teacher: “My daughter does not bow
-correctly,” or “She is neglectful of duty. Please remind her.”
-
-The value of using the teacher as a prop or commander-in-chief lies in
-the fact that most of the profession realize their responsibility and
-earnestly endeavor to live up to the trust. They seek to share every
-experience of the pupil’s life, and are faithful leaders to the highest
-ideals they know.
-
-There is a tendency in most Japanese kindergartens to make of them
-elementary schools in which much of the spirit of play is lost in an
-effort on the part of the teachers to give formal instruction. The
-inclination is to fit the child to the rule; to follow to the last
-detail a written law, at the sacrifice of spontaneity. Formality finds
-steady resistance in the buoyancy of youth; and how childhood will have
-its fling, refusing to wear the shackles till it must, is expressed in
-the despair of a little Japanese teacher who had worked in vain to make
-an unessential point in posture: “I have the great trouble. They just
-_will_ kick up their heels spiritually [spiritedly].”
-
-In addition to the gifts, games, and songs usually found in the
-kindergartens, there is a specific training in patriotism, loyalty,
-and physical endurance by the constant repetition of certain stories
-emphasizing these virtues that have been told from generation to
-generation. Stories of brave men and women are dramatized. Day after
-day the child takes part in these simple plays. So earnest is the
-acting, so unwavering are the ideals presented at this very early age,
-that the mind is saturated with the principle of the sacrifice of the
-individual for the good of the whole.
-
-In all circumstances, stress is laid upon outward courtesy, regardless
-of time or consequences. The key-note in the mimic plays is kindness
-to a fallen foe. Often there is an organized band of tiny Red Cross
-workers, who in full uniform are ever on the alert in the games to
-render quick aid to the supposedly wounded. The play is very real and
-sincere, and it fosters a spirit of kindness and sympathy never wholly
-lost in later years.
-
-From babyhood the diminutive subject hears stories of his glorious
-ruler; but sometimes it is in the kindergarten that he is trained to
-perform his first great act of reverence to the throne in bowing before
-the picture of the emperor. It is a ceremony that touches deeply the
-most skeptical heart. On certain days groups of little children, many
-still unsteady on their feet, dressed in gay holiday clothes, come
-before the pictured image and pay homage to his Majesty by a low,
-reverent bow. It is like a flower-garden bending before the greater
-brilliancy of the sun. It is the tribute of innocence to power, and no
-sovereign lives who would not be a better man for having seen it.
-
-As the first day in the kindergarten is wonderful, so to the child
-is the last. He is leaving babyhood behind, and half a day is barely
-sufficient for the imposing ceremonies. For weeks he has been patiently
-drilled. At the proper hour, with the precision of a mechanical doll
-and the dignity of a field-marshal, he graciously accepts from the hand
-of the teacher a roll of parchment only slightly shorter than himself.
-It is his certificate of graduation, stamped with a large seal, which
-inspires a deeper joy than comes later with the Order of the Rising Sun.
-
-The transition from the kindergarten to the primary grade is
-accomplished easily, and as the pupil is never supposed or expected to
-take the initiative, he has only to follow where he is led. A Japanese
-child is as responsive as are the strings of a samisen to the fingers
-of a skilled musician, and the leader has only to touch the notes to
-create the harmony desired.
-
-During the period of elementary school, the training for boys and
-girls is much the same except in special cases when very young boys
-are instructed in fencing and jiu-jutsu. In these first years it is a
-sharing of all experiences, and the girls pluckily take their chances
-in the rough-and-tumble games with the boys. Then comes the parting
-of the ways. The sign-post for each points to a difference in school
-and subjects. For the boys, the road leads to the sterner things of
-life. Every step of the girls’ path is trained for the inevitable
-end--marriage. Whatever the future, it never yields--to the girl,
-at least--the same golden hours of freedom and equal right to joy
-and pleasure as in the glory days of youth. Every boy in Japan is a
-prospective soldier or sailor, every girl, a wife; and a training
-toward the end best fitting each for the duties involved is the
-principal aim of the carefully planned curriculum. In all grades the
-teaching is en masse; individual attention is rare.
-
-From the first year of the primary course, through every grade,
-the study of morals heads the list. This rather formidable subject
-is presented to the very youthful in a most attractive way. Large
-pictures are shown illustrating in a charming manner the virtues to be
-emphasized. The teacher tells a set story. It is short, but so dramatic
-is the manner of telling it, so alluring the trick of hand and voice,
-the child’s interest is held as if by magic. The subjects of these
-early moral lessons are the “Teacher,” the “Flag,” “Attitude.” Later,
-family relations are studied; as, for instance, that of father and
-mother, grandparents, etc.
-
-Training in pronunciation and simple lessons in drawing are included
-in the first year, with manual work for the boys. The girls begin
-preparation for their calling with the first principles of sewing and
-the first stitches of crocheting or knitting. In the latter part of the
-year practice begins in writing the _kana_, gradually intermixed with
-the Chinese ideographs. There are many thousands of these characters,
-and they are usually difficult. Necessarily the first steps are simple.
-The awkward little fist must be trained to lightness and poise of
-brush, delicacy and sureness in touch, for one false stroke in the
-intricate structure brings grief. Ignorant of the difficulties in store
-for him, the child begins his task merrily, delighted with the lines,
-big and bold at first, which resemble funny pictures more than an
-alphabet. He practises on everything at hand, from the fresh sand on
-the playground to the nearest new, white shoji.
-
-A system of calisthenics, too, is begun early with the child, and
-only the unconquerable grace of childhood saves it from a permanent
-stiffening of bone and muscle. Happily, studies and gymnastics are
-interspersed with generous hours for free play. In all the training
-of Japanese children a great deal of outdoor life is planned. There
-are historical excursions, geographical excursions for practical
-instruction, and jolly ones merely for pleasure, when with a luncheon
-of cold rice and pickled plum tied in a _furoshiki_, or handkerchief,
-everybody scampers away to the river or mountain for a long happy day.
-
-Every year at school means increased hours and more difficult studies.
-Added to these long periods are special lessons for the young in how
-to bow, how to stand, how to enter a room, how to lower the eyes,
-the placing of each finger on a book when reading, and endless other
-regulations. These rules are published in a text-book for the teacher,
-who is expected to drill them into the student to the minutest detail.
-It seems folly to expect anything from such training but a group of
-automata; but underlying this fixed formality is an air of controlled
-freedom that is really the foundation of the tremendous respect for
-law cherished by the entire nation. Nor is it to be imagined that
-continuous training in repression means permanent suppression of high
-spirits. This light-hearted race takes joy in the simplest pleasures,
-and the imp of mischief finds fertile soil in the brain of any healthy
-boy or girl.
-
-During these years the hand of discipline is lightly laid in the home.
-The attitude of father and mother is kindly indulgent, and punishments,
-if any, cause neither pain nor inconvenience. Current topics involving
-the welfare of the country and intimate matters of family life are
-freely discussed in the child’s presence. At an early age he absorbs
-much information, both wholesome and other. But whatever else may be
-neglected in his training, so insistently is held before the heir
-day by day the requirements necessary as a man to bear the honors of
-the family name, it often works something of a miracle in regulating
-conduct.
-
-Next in reverence for the emperor is veneration for ancestors. There
-is one form of entertainment and instruction in the home which as an
-educative factor plays a large and delightful part in the life of
-the children. In the evenings, after the books have been put away,
-they gather around the glowing hibachi to hear the grandfather or
-grandmother weave the nondescript tales of gods and goddesses, of
-loyal, wise, and brave men. If any deed of the day calls for emphasis,
-it is skilfully marked by a special story cleverly worded by the aged
-narrator. Thus reward or punishment is effectively recited rather than
-administered.
-
-But the training of the Japanese child is not all play and easy
-studies. Very soon the girls in the home begin lessons in light
-household duties, sewing, weaving, and cooking. Koto-playing is an
-accomplishment in the education of a girl, flower arrangement a
-necessity. To this most difficult art is usually allotted a period of
-five years. By tedious and patient practice the small hand must learn
-delicacy of touch and deftness in twists, that each leaf and blossom
-may express the symbol for which it stands. Every home festival and
-feast calls for a certain “poem” in arrangement. This is the duty of
-the young daughter of the house, who early must be well versed in the
-legends and meaning of flowers.
-
-In ceremonial tea, “O Cha No Yu,” there are especial lessons in
-etiquette, which mean days and months of constant application and
-repetition of certain attitudes and definite postures, before supple
-muscles and youthful spirits are toned to the graceful formality and
-modest reserve requisite to every well-bred Japanese girl. Should
-the girl’s destiny point to the calling of geisha, or professional
-entertainer, the training is severe. At the age of three or four
-she is taken in hand by an expert in the business, and the strict
-discipline of the training soon robs childhood of its rights. Should
-a foolish law compel attendance for a year or so at school, it does
-not in the least interfere with long hours of music lessons, dancing
-lessons, flower arrangement, lessons in tea-serving, and the etiquette
-peculiar to tea-houses. The girl is persuaded or forced into quiet
-submission to the hard, tedious work by the glowing pictures of the
-butterfly life that awaits her. There is only one standard in the
-training of a geisha--attractiveness, and often the price of its
-attainment is an irretrievable tragedy.
-
-Education for the child of the East calls for different methods from
-that of the West, and fully to understand the training of the Japanese
-child one must know the influence and demand for ancestor-worship,
-ethics, and the passion for patriotism. In fact, to understand any
-part of the system of training, it must be remembered that the whole
-moral and national education of the Japanese is based on the imperial
-rescript given the people by the emperor in 1890. The rescript is
-read in all the schools four times a year. The manner of reading, the
-silence, breathless with reverence, in which it is received by the
-students, young and old, is a profound testimony to the sacredness of
-the emperor’s desires for his people.
-
-The following is a translation, given by the president of the Tokio
-University:
-
-    Know ye, Our Subjects:
-
-    Our Imperial Ancestors have founded Our Empire on a basis broad
-    and everlasting, and have deeply and firmly implanted virtue;
-    Our Subjects, ever united in loyalty and filial piety, have from
-    generation to generation illustrated the beauty thereof. This is
-    the glory of the fundamental character of Our Empire, and herein
-    also lies the source of Our education. Ye, Our Subjects, be filial
-    to your parents, affectionate to your brothers and sisters; as
-    husbands and wives be harmonious; as friends, true; bear yourselves
-    in modesty and moderation; extend your benevolence to all; pursue
-    learning and cultivate the arts, and thereby develop intellectual
-    faculties and perfect moral powers; furthermore, advance public
-    good and promote common interests; always respect the Constitution
-    and observe the laws; should emergency arise, offer yourselves
-    courageously to the State; and thus guard and maintain the
-    prosperity of Our Imperial Throne coeval with heaven and earth.
-
-    So shall ye not only be Our good and faithful subjects, but render
-    illustrious the best traditions of your forefathers.
-
-    The Way here set forth is indeed the teaching bequeathed by Our
-    Imperial Ancestors, to be observed alike by Their Descendants and
-    the subjects, infallible for all ages, and true in all places. It
-    is Our Wish to lay it to heart in all reverence, in common with
-    you, Our Subjects, that we may all attain to the same virtue.
-
-From the early days to the present, the educational system, which
-enters more vitally into the training of a Japanese child than any
-other influence, has survived many changes. The authorities have
-sought earnestly in every country for the plan best adapted to the
-peculiar demands of a country that was progressing by leaps. After the
-Restoration, when every sentiment was swinging away from old customs
-and traditions, there was a reorganization with the American plan as
-a model. Soon, however, the wholesale doctrine of freedom proved too
-radical for a country lately emerged from isolation and feudalism,
-and much of the German system was introduced, and more rigid control
-was exercised over the students. The schools assumed something of a
-military atmosphere and the dangers of a too new liberty were laid low
-for a while.
-
-It would be difficult in a brief space to estimate the whole influence
-of European and American methods on Japanese education. While these
-influences, especially those of America, have enjoyed successive waves
-of favor and disrepute, it is undoubtedly true that the educational
-department is slowly but surely feeling its way to the final adoption
-of a general American plan. So far, the most marked tendency of the
-Western spirit has been a bolder assertion of individual freedom, less
-tolerance of the teacher’s supreme authority, a demand for a more
-practical education and not so much eagerness for the Chinese classics.
-
-While to an outsider the present system in many instances seems
-needlessly complex, and in frequent danger of a sad and sudden death
-from strangulation by its endless red tape, yet a glimpse of the
-internal workings of the department is reassuring.
-
-Whatever criticism might be offered as to the methods of training or
-defects thereof in school or home, one undeniable truth stands out
-boldly: despite its faults, or because of its virtues, the system has
-produced men splendidly brave and noble, and women whose lives stand
-for all that is tender and beautiful in womanhood and motherhood.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-BROTHER LEO
-
-BY PHYLLIS BOTTOME
-
-WITH PICTURES BY W. T. BENDA
-
-
-It was a sunny morning, and I was on my way to Torcello. Venice lay
-behind us a dazzling line, with towers of gold against the blue lagoon.
-All at once a breeze sprang up from the sea; the small, feathery
-islands seemed to shake and quiver, and, like leaves driven before
-a gale, those flocks of colored butterflies, the fishing-boats, ran
-in before the storm. Far away to our left stood the ancient tower of
-Altinum, with the island of Burano a bright pink beneath the towering
-clouds. To our right, and much nearer, was a small cypress-covered
-islet. One large umbrella-pine hung close to the sea, and behind it
-rose the tower of the convent church. The two gondoliers consulted
-together in hoarse cries and decided to make for it.
-
-“It is San Francesco del Deserto,” the elder explained to me. “It
-belongs to the little brown brothers, who take no money and are very
-kind. One would hardly believe these ones had any religion, they are
-such a simple people, and they live on fish and the vegetables they
-grow in their garden.”
-
-We fought the crooked little waves in silence after that; only the high
-prow rebelled openly against its sudden twistings and turnings. The
-arrowy-shaped gondola is not a structure made for the rough jostling
-of waves, and the gondoliers put forth all their strength and skill to
-reach the tiny haven under the convent wall. As we did so, the black
-bars of cloud rushed down upon us in a perfect deluge of rain, and we
-ran speechless and half drowned across the tossed field of grass and
-forget-me-nots to the convent door. A shivering beggar sprang up from
-nowhere and insisted on ringing the bell for us.
-
-The door opened, and I saw before me a young brown brother with the
-merriest eyes I have ever seen. They were unshadowed, like a child’s,
-dancing and eager, and yet there was a strange gentleness and patience
-about him, too, as if there was no hurry even about his eagerness.
-
-He was very poorly dressed and looked thin. I think he was charmed to
-see us, though a little shy, like a hospitable country hostess anxious
-to give pleasure, but afraid that she has not much to offer citizens of
-a larger world.
-
-“What a tempest!” he exclaimed. “You have come at a good hour. Enter,
-enter, Signore! And your men, will they not come in?”
-
-We found ourselves in a very small rose-red cloister; in the middle of
-it was an old well under the open sky, but above us was a sheltering
-roof spanned by slender arches. The young monk hesitated for a moment,
-smiling from me to the two gondoliers. I think it occurred to him that
-we should like different entertainment, for he said at last:
-
-“You men would perhaps like to sit in the porter’s lodge for a while?
-Our Brother Lorenzo is there; he is our chief fisherman, with a great
-knowledge of the lagoons; and he could light a fire for you to dry
-yourselves by--Signori. And you, if I mistake not, are English, are you
-not, Signore? It is probable that you would like to see our chapel. It
-is not much. We are very proud of it, but that, you know, is because
-it was founded by our blessed father, Saint Francis. He believed in
-poverty, and we also believe in it, but it does not give much for
-people to see. That is a misfortune, to come all this way and to see
-nothing.” Brother Leo looked at me a little wistfully. I think he
-feared that I should be disappointed. Then he passed before me with
-swift, eager feet toward the little chapel.
-
-It was a very little chapel and quite bare; behind the altar some monks
-were chanting an office. It was clean, and there were no pictures or
-images, only, as I knelt there, I felt as if the little island in its
-desert of waters had indeed secreted some vast treasure, and as if
-the chapel, empty as it had seemed at first, was full of invisible
-possessions. As for Brother Leo, he had stood beside me nervously for
-a moment; but on seeing that I was prepared to kneel, he started,
-like a bird set free, toward the altar steps, where his lithe young
-impetuosity sank into sudden peace. He knelt there so still, so rapt,
-so incased in his listening silence, that he might have been part of
-the stone pavement. Yet his earthly senses were alive, for the moment I
-rose he was at my side again, as patient and courteous as ever, though
-I felt as if his inner ear were listening still to some unheard melody.
-
-We stood again in the pink cloister. “There is little to see,” he
-repeated. “We are _poverelli_; it has been like this for seven hundred
-years.” He smiled as if that age-long, simple service of poverty were
-a light matter, an excuse, perhaps, in the eyes of the citizen of a
-larger world for their having nothing to show. Only the citizen, as he
-looked at Brother Leo, had a sudden doubt as to the size of the world
-outside. Was it as large, half as large, even, as the eager young heart
-beside him which had chosen poverty as a bride?
-
-The rain fell monotonously against the stones of the tiny cloister.
-
-“What a tempest!” said Brother Leo, smiling contentedly at the sky.
-“You must come in and see our father. I sent word by the porter of your
-arrival, and I am sure he will receive you; that will be a pleasure for
-him, for he is of the great world, too. A very learnèd man, our father;
-he knows the French and the English tongue. Once he went to Rome; also
-he has been several times to Venice. He has been a great traveler.”
-
-“And you,” I asked--“have you also traveled?”
-
-Brother Leo shook his head.
-
-“I have sometimes looked at Venice,” he said, “across the water, and
-once I went to Burano with the marketing brother; otherwise, no, I have
-not traveled. But being a guest-brother, you see, I meet often with
-those who have, like your Excellency, for instance, and that is a great
-education.”
-
-We reached the door of the monastery, and I felt sorry when another
-brother opened to us, and Brother Leo, with the most cordial of
-farewell smiles, turned back across the cloister to the chapel door.
-
-“Even if he does not hurry, he will still find prayer there,” said a
-quiet voice beside me.
-
-I turned to look at the speaker. He was a tall old man with white hair
-and eyes like small blue flowers, very bright and innocent, with the
-same look of almost superb contentment in them that I had seen in
-Brother Leo’s eyes.
-
-“But what will you have?” he added with a twinkle. “The young are
-always afraid of losing time; it is, perhaps, because they have
-so much. But enter, Signore! If you will be so kind as to excuse
-the refectory, it will give me much pleasure to bring you a little
-refreshment. You will pardon that we have not much to offer?”
-
-The father--for I found out afterward that he was the superior
-himself--brought me bread and wine, made in the convent, and waited on
-me with his own hands. Then he sat down on a narrow bench opposite to
-watch me smoke. I offered him one of my cigarettes, but he shook his
-head, smiling.
-
-“I used to smoke once,” he said. “I was very particular about my
-tobacco. I think it was similar to yours--at least the aroma, which
-I enjoy very much, reminds me of it. It is curious, is it not, the
-pleasure we derive from remembering what we once had? But perhaps it is
-not altogether a pleasure unless one is glad that one has not got it
-now. Here one is free from things. I sometimes fear one may be a little
-indulgent about one’s liberty. Space, solitude, and love--it is all
-very intoxicating.”
-
-There was nothing in the refectory except the two narrow benches on
-which we sat, and a long trestled board which formed the table; the
-walls were whitewashed and bare, the floor was stone. I found out later
-that the brothers ate and drank nothing except bread and wine and their
-own vegetables in season, a little macaroni sometimes in winter, and
-in summer figs out of their own garden. They slept on bare boards,
-with one thin blanket winter and summer alike. The fish they caught
-they sold at Burano or gave to the poor. There was no doubt that they
-enjoyed very great freedom from “things.”
-
-It was a strange experience to meet a man who never had heard of a
-flying-machine and who could not understand why it was important to
-save time by using the telephone or the wireless-telegraphy system; but
-despite the fact that the father seemed very little impressed by our
-modern urgencies, I never have met a more intelligent listener or one
-who seized more quickly on all that was essential in an explanation.
-
-“You must not think we do nothing at all, we lazy ones who follow old
-paths,” he said in answer to one of my questions. “There are only
-eight of us brothers, and there is the garden, fishing, cleaning, and
-praying. We are sent for, too, from Burano to go and talk a little with
-the people there, or from some island on the lagoons which perhaps no
-priest can reach in the winter. It is easy for us, with our little boat
-and no cares.”
-
-“But Brother Leo told me he had been to Burano only once,” I said.
-“That seems strange when you are so near.”
-
-“Yes, he went only once,” said the father, and for a moment or two he
-was silent, and I found his blue eyes on mine, as if he were weighing
-me.
-
-“Brother Leo,” said the superior at last, “is our youngest. He is very
-young, younger perhaps than his years; but we have brought him up
-altogether, you see. His parents died of cholera within a few days of
-each other. As there were no relatives, we took him, and when he was
-seventeen he decided to join our order. He has always been happy with
-us, but one cannot say that he has seen much of the world.” He paused
-again, and once more I felt his blue eyes searching mine. “Who knows?”
-he said finally. “Perhaps you were sent here to help me. I have prayed
-for two years on the subject, and that seems very likely. The storm
-is increasing, and you will not be able to return until to-morrow.
-This evening, if you will allow me, we will speak more on this matter.
-Meanwhile I will show you our spare room. Brother Lorenzo will see that
-you are made as comfortable as we can manage. It is a great privilege
-for us to have this opportunity; believe me, we are not ungrateful.”
-
-It would have been of no use to try to explain to him that it was for
-us to feel gratitude. It was apparent that none of the brothers had
-ever learned that important lesson of the worldly respectable--that
-duty is what other people ought to do. They were so busy thinking
-of their own obligations as to overlook entirely the obligations of
-others. It was not that they did not think of others. I think they
-thought only of one another, but they thought without a shadow of
-judgment, with that bright, spontaneous love of little children, too
-interested to point a moral. Indeed, they seemed to me very like a
-family of happy children listening to a fairy-story and knowing that
-the tale is true.
-
-After supper the superior took me to his office. The rain had ceased,
-but the wind howled and shrieked across the lagoons, and I could hear
-the waves breaking heavily against the island. There was a candle on
-the desk, and the tiny, shadowy cell looked like a picture by Rembrandt.
-
-“The rain has ceased now,” the father said quietly, “and to-morrow the
-waves will have gone down, and you, Signore, will have left us. It is
-in your power to do us all a great favor. I have thought much whether
-I shall ask it of you, and even now I hesitate; but Scripture nowhere
-tells us that the kingdom of heaven was taken by precaution, nor do I
-imagine that in this world things come oftenest to those who refrain
-from asking.”
-
-“All of us,” he continued, “have come here after seeing something of
-the outside world; some of us even had great possessions. Leo alone
-knows nothing of it, and has possessed nothing, nor did he ever wish
-to; he has been willing that nothing should be his own, not a flower
-in the garden, not anything but his prayers, and even these I think he
-has oftenest shared. But the visit to Burano put an idea in his head.
-It is, perhaps you know, a factory town where they make lace, and the
-people live there with good wages, many of them, but also much poverty.
-There is a poverty which is a grace, but there is also a poverty which
-is a great misery, and this Leo never had seen before. He did not know
-that poverty could be a pain. It filled him with a great horror, and
-in his heart there was a certain rebellion. It seemed to him that in a
-world with so much money no one should suffer for the lack of it.
-
-“It was useless for me to point out to him that in a world where there
-is so much health God has permitted sickness; where there is so much
-beauty, ugliness; where there is so much holiness, sin. It is not that
-there is any lack in the gifts of God; all are there, and in abundance,
-but He has left their distribution to the soul of man. It is easy for
-me to believe this. I have known what money can buy and what it cannot
-buy; but Brother Leo, who never has owned a penny, how should he know
-anything of the ways of pennies?
-
-“I saw that he could not be contented with my answer; and then this
-other idea came to him--the idea that is, I think, the blessèd hope of
-youth: that this thing being wrong, he, Leo, must protest against it,
-must resist it! Surely, if money can do wonders, we who set ourselves
-to work the will of God should have more control of this wonder-working
-power? He fretted against his rule. He did not permit himself to
-believe that our blessèd father, Saint Francis, was wrong, but it was
-a hardship for him to refuse alms from our kindly visitors. He thought
-the beggars’ rags would be made whole by gold; he wanted to give them
-more than bread, he wanted, _poverino!_ to buy happiness for the whole
-world.”
-
-The father paused, and his dark, thought-lined face lighted up with a
-sudden, beautiful smile till every feature seemed as young as his eyes.
-
-“I do not think the human being ever has lived who has not thought that
-he ought to have happiness,” he said. “We begin at once to get ready
-for heaven; but heaven is a long way off. We make haste slowly. It
-takes us all our lives, and perhaps purgatory, to get to the bottom of
-our own hearts. That is the last place in which we look for heaven, but
-I think it is the first in which we shall find it.”
-
-“But it seems to me extraordinary that, if Brother Leo has this thing
-so much on his mind, he should look so happy,” I exclaimed. “That is
-the first thing I noticed about him.”
-
-“Yes, it is not for himself that he is searching,” said the superior.
-“If it were, I should not wish him to go out into the world, because I
-should not expect him to find anything there. His heart is utterly at
-rest; but though he is personally happy, this thing troubles him. His
-prayers are eating into his soul like flame, and in time this fire of
-pity and sorrow will become a serious menace to his peace. Besides, I
-see in Leo a great power of sympathy and understanding. He has in him
-the gift of ruling other souls. He is very young to rule his own soul,
-and yet he rules it. When I die, it is probable that he will be called
-to take my place, and for that it is necessary he should have seen
-clearly that our rule is right. At present he accepts it in obedience,
-but he must have more than obedience in order to teach it to others; he
-must have a personal light.
-
-“This, then, is the favor I have to ask of you, Signore. I should like
-to have you take Brother Leo to Venice to-morrow, and, if you have the
-time at your disposal, I should like you to show him the towers, the
-churches, the palaces, and the poor who are still so poor. I wish him
-to see how people spend money, both the good and the bad. I wish him to
-see the world. Perhaps then it will come to him as it came to me--that
-money is neither a curse nor a blessing in itself, but only one of
-God’s mysteries, like the dust in a sunbeam.”
-
-“I will take him very gladly; but will one day be enough?” I answered.
-
-The superior arose and smiled again.
-
-“Ah, we slow worms of earth,” he said, “are quick about some things!
-You have learned to save time by flying-machines; we, too, have certain
-methods of flight. Brother Leo learns all his lessons that way. I
-hardly see him start before he arrives. You must not think I am so
-myself. No, no. I am an old man who has lived a long life learning
-nothing, but I have seen Leo grow like a flower in a tropic night. I
-thank you, my friend, for this great favor. I think God will reward
-you.”
-
-Brother Lorenzo took me to my bedroom; he was a talkative old man, very
-anxious for my comfort. He told me that there was an office in the
-chapel at two o’clock, and one at five to begin the day, but he hoped
-that I should sleep through them.
-
-“They are all very well for us,” he explained, “but for a stranger,
-what cold, what disturbance, and what a difficulty to arrange the
-right thoughts in the head during chapel! Even for me it is a great
-temptation. I find my mind running on coffee in the morning, a thing
-we have only on great feast-days. I may say that I have fought this
-thought for seven years, but though a small devil, perhaps, it is a
-very strong one. Now, if you should hear our bell in the night, as a
-favor pray that I may not think about coffee. Such an imperfection! I
-say to myself, the sin of Esau! But he, you know, had some excuse; he
-had been hunting. Now, I ask you--one has not much chance of that on
-this little island; one has only one’s sins to hunt, and, alas! they
-don’t run away as fast as one could wish! I am afraid they are tame,
-these ones. May your Excellency sleep like the blessed saints, only a
-trifle longer!”
-
-[Illustration:
-
-    Drawn by W. T. Benda      Half-tone plate engraved by R. C. Collins
-
-“HE WAS LOOKING OUT OVER THE BLUE STRETCH OF LAGOON INTO THE DISTANCE,
-WHERE VENICE LAY LIKE A MOVING CLOUD AT THE HORIZON’S EDGE”]
-
-I did sleep a trifle longer; indeed, I was quite unable to assist
-Brother Lorenzo to resist his coffee devil during chapel-time. I did
-not wake till my tiny cell was flooded with sunshine and full of
-the sound of St. Francis’s birds. Through my window I could see the
-fishing-boats pass by. First came one with a pair of lemon-yellow
-sails, like floating primroses; then a boat as scarlet as a dancing
-flame, and half a dozen others painted some with jokes and some with
-incidents in the lives of patron saints, all gliding out over the blue
-lagoon to meet the golden day.
-
-I rose, and from my window I saw Brother Leo in the garden. He was
-standing under St. Francis’s tree--the old gnarled umbrella-pine which
-hung over the convent-wall above the water by the island’s edge. His
-back was toward me, and he was looking out over the blue stretch of
-lagoon into the distance, where Venice lay like a moving cloud at the
-horizon’s edge; but a mist hid her from his eyes, and while I watched
-him he turned back to the garden-bed and began pulling out weeds. The
-gondoliers were already at the tiny pier when I came out.
-
-“_Per Bacco_, Signore!” the elder explained. “Let us hasten back to
-Venice and make up for the Lent we have had here. The brothers gave
-us all they had, the holy ones--a little wine, a little bread, cheese
-that couldn’t fatten one’s grandmother, and no macaroni--not so much as
-would go round a baby’s tongue! For my part, I shall wait till I get to
-heaven to fast, and pay some attention to my stomach while I have one.”
-And he spat on his hands and looked toward Venice.
-
-“And not an image in the chapel!” agreed the younger man. “Why, there
-is nothing to pray to but the Signore Dio Himself! _Veramente_,
-Signore, you are a witness that I speak nothing but the truth.”
-
-The father superior and Leo appeared at this moment down the path
-between the cypresses. The father gave me thanks and spoke in a
-friendly way to the gondoliers, who for their part expressed a very
-pretty gratitude in their broad Venetian patois, one of them saying
-that the hospitality of the monks had been like paradise itself, and
-the other hasting to agree with him.
-
-The two monks did not speak to each other, but as the gondolier turned
-the huge prow toward Venice, a long look passed between them--such a
-look as a father and son might exchange if the son were going out to
-war, while his father, remembering old campaigns, was yet bound to stay
-at home.
-
-It was a glorious day in early June; the last traces of the storm had
-vanished from the serene, still waters; a vague curtain of heat and
-mist hung and shimmered between ourselves and Venice; far away lay the
-little islands in the lagoon, growing out of the water like strange
-sea-flowers. Behind us stood San Francesco del Deserto, with long
-reflections of its one pink tower and arrowy, straight cypresses, soft
-under the blue water.
-
-The father superior walked slowly back to the convent, his brown-clad
-figure a shining shadow between the two black rows of cypresses.
-Brother Leo waited till he had disappeared, then turned his eager eyes
-toward Venice.
-
-As we approached the city the milky sea of mist retreated, and her
-towers sprang up to greet us. I saw a look in Brother Leo’s eyes that
-was not fear or wholly pleasure; yet there was in it a certain awe and
-a strange, tentative joy, as if something in him stretched out to greet
-the world. He muttered half to himself:
-
-“What a great world, and how many children _il Signore Dio_ has!”
-
-When we reached the piazzetta, and he looked up at the amazing splendor
-of the ducal palace, that building of soft yellow, with its pointed
-arches and double loggias of white marble, he spread out both his hands
-in an ecstasy.
-
-“But what a miracle!” he cried. “What a joy to God and to His angels!
-How I wish my brothers could see this! Do you not imagine that some
-good man was taken to paradise to see this great building and brought
-back here to copy it?”
-
-“Chi lo sa?” I replied guardedly, and we landed by the column of the
-Lion of St. Mark’s. That noble beast, astride on his pedestal, with
-wings outstretched, delighted the young monk, who walked round and
-round him.
-
-“What a tribute to the saint!” he exclaimed. “Look, they have his
-wings, too. Is not that faith?”
-
-“Come,” I said, “let us go on to Saint Mark’s. I think you would like
-to go there first; it is the right way to begin our pilgrimage.”
-
-The piazza was not very full at that hour of the morning, and its
-emptiness increased the feeling of space and size. The pigeons wheeled
-and circled to and fro, a dazzle of soft plumage, and the cluster of
-golden domes and sparkling minarets glittered in the sunshine like
-flames. Every image and statue on St. Mark’s wavered in great lines of
-light like a living pageant in a sea of gold.
-
-Brother Leo said nothing as he stood in front of the three great
-doorways that lead into the church. He stood quite still for a while,
-and then his eyes fell on a beggar beside the pink and cream of the new
-campanile, and I saw the wistfulness in his eyes suddenly grow as deep
-as pain.
-
-“Have you money, Signore?” he asked me. That seemed to him the only
-question. I gave the man something, but I explained to Brother Leo that
-he was probably not so poor as he looked.
-
-“They live in rags,” I explained, “because they wish to arouse pity.
-Many of them need not beg at all.”
-
-“Is it possible?” asked Brother Leo, gravely; then he followed me under
-the brilliant doorways of mosaic which lead into the richer dimness of
-St. Mark’s.
-
-When he found himself within that great incrusted jewel, he fell on
-his knees. I think he hardly saw the golden roof, the jeweled walls,
-and the five lifted domes full of sunshine and old gold, or the dark
-altars, with their mysterious, rich shimmering. All these seemed to
-pass away beyond the sense of sight; even I felt somehow as if those
-great walls of St. Mark’s were not so great as I had fancied. Something
-greater was kneeling there in an old habit and with bare feet, half
-broken-hearted because a beggar had lied.
-
-I found myself regretting the responsibility laid on my shoulders.
-Why should I have been compelled to take this strangely innocent,
-sheltered boy, with his fantastic third-century ideals, out into the
-shoddy, decorative, unhappy world? I even felt a kind of anger at the
-simplicity of his soul. I wished he were more like other people; I
-suppose because he had made me wish for a moment that I was less like
-them.
-
-“What do you think of Saint Mark’s?” I asked him as we stood once more
-in the hot sunshine outside, with the strutting pigeons at our feet and
-wheeling over our heads.
-
-Brother Leo did not answer for a moment, then he said:
-
-“I think Saint Mark would feel it a little strange. You see, I do not
-think he was a great man in the world, and the great in paradise--”
-He stooped and lifted a pigeon with a broken foot nearer to some corn
-a passer-by was throwing for the birds. “I cannot think,” he finished
-gravely, “that they care very much for palaces in paradise: I should
-think every one had them there or else--nobody.”
-
-I was surprised to see the pigeons that wheeled away at my approach
-allow the monk to handle them, but they seemed unaware of his touch.
-
-“Poverino!” he said to the one with the broken foot. “Thank God that He
-has given you wings!”
-
-Brother Leo spoke to every child he met, and they all answered him as
-if there was a secret freemasonry between them; but the grown-up people
-he passed with troubled eyes.
-
-“It seems strange to me,” he said at last, “not to speak to these
-brothers and sisters of ours, and yet I see all about me that they do
-not salute one another.”
-
-“They are many, and they are all strangers,” I tried to explain.
-
-“Yes, they are very many,” he said a little sadly. “I had not known
-that there were so many people in the world, and I thought that in a
-Christian country they would not be strangers.”
-
-I took another gondola by the nearest bridge, and we rowed to the
-Frari. I hardly knew what effect that great church, with its famous
-Titian, would have upon him. A group of tourists surrounded the
-picture. I heard a young lady exclaiming:
-
-“My! but I’d like her veil! Ain’t she cute, looking round it that way?”
-
-[Illustration: Drawn by W. T. Benda. Half-tone plate engraved by C. W.
-Chadwick
-
-“HE STOOD QUITE STILL FOR A WHILE, AND THEN HIS EYES FELL ON A BEGGAR”]
-
-Brother Leo did not pause; he passed as if by instinct toward the
-chapel on the right which holds the softest, tenderest of Bellinis.
-There, before the Madonna with her four saints and two small attendant
-cherubs, he knelt again, and his eyes filled with tears. I do not think
-he heard the return of the tourists, who were rather startled at seeing
-him there. The elder lady remarked that he might have some infectious
-disease, and the younger that she did not think much of Bellini, anyway.
-
-He knelt for some time, and I had not the heart to disturb him; indeed,
-I had no wish to, either, for Bellini’s “Madonna” is my favorite
-picture, and that morning I saw in it more than I had ever seen before.
-It seemed to me as if that triumphant, mellow glow of the great master
-was an eternal thing, and as if the saints and their gracious Lady,
-with the stalwart, standing Child upon her knee, were more real than
-flesh and blood, and would still be more real when flesh and blood had
-ceased to be. I never have recaptured the feeling; perhaps there was
-something infectious about Brother Leo, after all. He made no comment
-on the Madonna, nor did I expect one, for we do not need to assert that
-we find the object of our worship beautiful; but I was amused at his
-calm refusal to look upon the great Titian as a Madonna at all.
-
-“No, no,” he said firmly. “This one is no doubt some good and gracious
-lady, but the Madonna! Signore, you jest. Or, if the painter thought
-so, he was deceived by the devil. Yes, that is very possible. The
-father has often told us that artists are exposed to great temptations:
-their eyes see paradise before their souls have reached it, and that is
-a great danger.”
-
-I said no more, and we passed out into the street again. I felt ashamed
-to say that I wanted my luncheon, but I did say so, and it did not seem
-in the least surprising to Brother Leo; he merely drew out a small
-wallet and offered me some bread, which he said the father had given
-him for our needs.
-
-I told him that he must not dream of eating that; he was to come and
-dine with me at my hotel. He replied that he would go wherever I
-liked, but that really he would prefer to eat his bread unless indeed
-we were so fortunate as to find a beggar who would like it. However,
-we were not so fortunate, and I was compelled to eat my exceedingly
-substantial five-course luncheon while my companion sat opposite me and
-ate his half-loaf of black bread with what appeared to be appetite and
-satisfaction.
-
-He asked me a great many questions about what everything in the room
-was used for and what everything cost, and appeared very much surprised
-at my answers.
-
-“This, then,” he said, “is not like all the other houses in Venice? Is
-it a special house--perhaps for the English only?”
-
-I explained to him that most houses contained tables and chairs; that
-this, being a hotel, was in some ways even less furnished than a
-private house, though doubtless it was larger and was arranged with a
-special eye to foreign requirements.
-
-“But the poor--they do not live like this?” Leo asked. I had to own
-that the poor did not. “But the people here are rich?” Leo persisted.
-
-“Well, yes, I suppose so, tolerably well off,” I admitted.
-
-“How miserable they must be!” exclaimed Leo, compassionately. “Are they
-not allowed to give away their money?”
-
-This seemed hardly the way to approach the question of the rich and the
-poor, and I do not know that I made it any better by an after-dinner
-exposition upon capital and labor. I finished, of course, by saying
-that if the rich gave to the poor to-day, there would still be rich
-and poor to-morrow. It did not sound very convincing to me, and it did
-nothing whatever to convince Brother Leo.
-
-“That is perhaps true,” he said at last. “One would not wish, however,
-to give all into unready hands like that poor beggar this morning who
-knew no better than to pretend in order to get more money. No, that
-would be the gift of a madman. But could not the rich use their money
-in trust for the poor, and help and teach them little by little till
-they learned how to share their labor and their wealth? But you know
-how ignorant am I who speak to you. It is probable that this is what
-is already being done even here now in Venice and all over the world.
-It would not be left to a little one like me to think of it. What an
-idea for the brothers at home to laugh at!”
-
-[Illustration: Drawn by W. T. Benda. Half-tone plate engraved by R.
-Varley
-
-“‘IT SEEMS STRANGE TO ME NOT TO SPEAK TO THESE BROTHERS AND SISTERS’”]
-
-“Some people do think these things,” I admitted.
-
-“But do not all?” asked Brother Leo, incredulously.
-
-“No, not all,” I confessed.
-
-“Andiamo!” said Leo, rising resolutely. “Let us pray to the Madonna.
-What a vexation it must be to her and to all the blessed saints to
-watch the earth! It needs the patience of the Blessed One Himself, to
-bear it.”
-
-In the Palazzo Giovanelli there is one of the loveliest of Giorgiones.
-It is called “His Family,” and it represents a beautiful nude woman
-with her child and her lover. It seemed to me an outrage that this
-young brother should know nothing of the world, of life. I was
-determined that he should see this picture. I think I expected Brother
-Leo to be shocked when he saw it. I know I was surprised that he
-looked at it--at the serene content of earth, its exquisite ultimate
-satisfaction--a long time. Then he said in an awed voice:
-
-“It is so beautiful that it is strange any one in all the world can
-doubt the love of God who gave it.”
-
-“Have you ever seen anything more beautiful; do you believe there is
-anything more beautiful?” I asked rather cruelly.
-
-“Yes,” said Brother Leo, very quietly; “the love of God is more
-beautiful, only that cannot be painted.”
-
-After that I showed him no more pictures, nor did I try to make him
-understand life. I had an idea that he understood it already rather
-better than I did.
-
-When I took him back to the piazza, it was getting on toward sunset,
-and we sat at one of the little tables at Florian’s, where I drank
-coffee. We heard the band and watched the slow-moving, good-natured
-Venetian crowd, and the pigeons winging their perpetual flight.
-
-All the light of the gathered day seemed to fall on the great golden
-church at the end of the piazza. Brother Leo did not look at it very
-much; his attention was taken up completely in watching the faces of
-the crowd, and as he watched them I thought to read in his face what
-he had learned in that one day in Venice--whether my mission had been
-a success or a failure; but, though I looked long at that simple and
-childlike face, I learned nothing.
-
-What is so mysterious as the eyes of a child?
-
-But I was not destined to part from Brother Leo wholly in ignorance.
-It was as if, in his open kindliness of nature, he would not leave me
-with any unspoken puzzle between us. I had been his friend and he told
-me, because it was the way things seemed to him, that I had been his
-teacher.
-
-We stood on the piazzetta. I had hired a gondola with two men to row
-him back; the water was like beaten gold, and the horizon the softest
-shade of pink.
-
-“This day I shall remember all my life,” he said, “and you in my
-prayers with all the world--always, always. Only I should like to tell
-you that that little idea of mine, which the father told me he had
-spoken to you about, I see now that it is too large for me. I am only
-a very poor monk. I should think I must be the poorest monk God has in
-all His family of monks. If He can be patient, surely I can. And it
-came over me while we were looking at all those wonderful things, that
-if money had been the way to save the world, Christ himself would have
-been rich. It was stupid of me. I did not remember that when he wanted
-to feed the multitude, he did not empty the great granaries that were
-all his, too; he took only five loaves and two small fishes; but they
-were enough.
-
-“We little ones can pray, and God can change His world. Speriamo!” He
-smiled as he gave me his hand--a smile which seemed to me as beautiful
-as anything we had seen that day in Venice. Then the high-prowed, black
-gondola glided swiftly out over the golden waters with the little brown
-figure seated in the smallest seat. He turned often to wave to me, but
-I noticed that he sat with his face away from Venice.
-
-He had turned back to San Francesco del Deserto, and I knew as I looked
-at his face that he carried no single small regret in his eager heart.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: EX-SENATOR GEORGE F. EDMUNDS
-
-Born in Vermont February 1, 1828: Member of the Vermont Legislature
-1854-59 and 1861-62; United States Senator from Vermont 1866-91; only
-surviving member of the Electoral Commission formed in 1877 to settle
-the disputed Hayes-Tilden election.]
-
-
-[Illustration: THE CENTURY’S AFTER-THE-WAR SERIES]
-
-ANOTHER VIEW OF “THE HAYES-TILDEN CONTEST”
-
-A REPLY TO COLONEL WATTERSON IN THE MAY “CENTURY”
-
-BY EX-SENATOR GEORGE F. EDMUNDS
-
-The sole surviving member of the Electoral Commission
-
-
-The rather astonishing article of Mr. Henry Watterson in the May number
-of ~The Century~ opens to me the opportunity and the duty of
-giving my recollections of such of the inside history, as well as of
-the outside, as came to my knowledge at the time, in connection with
-the Hayes-Tilden contest for the Presidency. I believe that the time
-_has_ come when, among fair-minded and intelligent Americans who will
-investigate the public and printed documents and papers in existence
-on the subject, there will be few divergent opinions touching the
-justice and lawfulness of the election of Mr. Hayes. They will find
-that he was lawfully elected and instituted to the office by fair and
-lawful means. I wish that such investigators could have the benefit
-of the correspondence and other papers to which Mr. Watterson refers,
-as well as of all other documents and papers touching the subject.
-All the papers relating to the action of the Senate committee on the
-Electoral Bill, and of our conferences with the House committee, are
-in my possession and are open to the examination of the student, the
-politician, and the historian.
-
-In the year 1876 many of the States which had been engaged in the war
-for secession were still in a condition of unrest, and their Negro
-citizens, as well as many whites who had supported the United States
-and were lawfully in those of the Southern States under consideration
-(and opprobriously called “carpet-baggers”), were under great
-apprehension of personal danger. The Negro citizens in many instances
-had suffered, and they were continually in danger of violence from the
-efforts of a secret association known as “the Ku-Klux Klan” to prevent
-their voting as they were entitled to do under the provisions of the
-Fifteenth Amendment. In this state of things small detachments of the
-army of the United States were stationed in various places where the
-greatest danger of intimidation and violence appeared to exist. The
-civil operations of the Government required the presence of these
-troops in such places, not only to assist the state authorities in
-preserving the peace at a national election when there should be one,
-but also to protect the operations of the United States in carrying on
-its share of the civil government, such as customs, internal revenues,
-post-offices, etc. I suppose everybody will agree that the army of the
-United States must be somewhere, and has a right to be somewhere within
-the country; and nobody has yet maintained that any State has a right
-to exclude their presence. I think not a soldier interfered with any
-right or peaceable conduct, or was present at any polling-place in the
-late “Confederate States” in the election of 1876. When the elections
-came on nothing but violence could prevent either whites or Negroes
-who were lawfully entitled to vote from doing so in peace, as in most
-instances they did. In the States where Negro citizens were in great
-majority the Hayes ticket, naturally, should have prevailed. In some of
-them it did prevail, and the necessary certificates of the result were
-sent to the president of the Senate, as required by the Constitution.
-The “grandfather” legislation had not yet been invented.
-
-The election was very close; and immediately agents of the Democratic
-party were sent to South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana for _some_
-purpose. They were at first, apparently, under the direction of Colonel
-Pelton, a nephew of Mr. Tilden, and by Pelton were authorized, in
-substance and in effect, to bribe some of the canvassing boards to
-make false returns of the choice of Tilden electors instead of those
-electors who had been actually chosen on the Hayes ticket, or to bribe
-some of the Republican electors. This scheme very early became known to
-the Republican National Committee, and steps were immediately taken to
-send Republican gentlemen, well known and of high standing, to those
-States where, it was feared, efforts at bribery were being, or were
-to be, attempted, in order to preserve, so far as lawfully could be
-done, the real results of the election. Among these men so sent were,
-as stated by Mr. Watterson, John Sherman, Stanley Matthews, James A.
-Garfield, William M. Evarts, John A. Logan, and some others, one of
-whom, as I remember, was Senator Howe of Wisconsin, a fine lawyer and
-a man of absolutely upright private and public life. As everybody
-knows who reads or remembers the history of those times, none of the
-gentlemen mentioned would be directly or indirectly a party to intrigue
-or dishonesty of any kind. They found on investigation that the Hayes
-electors had been duly chosen and that, unless some one of them, after
-being elected on the Hayes ticket, should be induced to dishonor
-himself by Peltonian expedients, all would vote for President Hayes.
-The corrupt dealers in canvassing boards and votes apparently sought a
-market only with the Democrats, who, as Mr. Watterson says, declined to
-buy.
-
-When the Republicans before mentioned returned to Washington I
-learned from more than one of them, in relating their experiences at
-New Orleans, that the States had truly gone Republican and that the
-only danger, if any, was the exertion of evil influences to change
-the result. The actual experiences related by Mr. Watterson in this
-connection illustrate and confirm what I have said. The political
-“book-makers” were undoubtedly on hand, but that they were acting under
-the authority of any of the Returning Board there was no proof. There
-are speculators in politics as well as in stocks, and they often act
-without having a principal behind them or any principle within them.
-I remember an instance occurring in the Senate at Washington when a
-bill of much financial importance was under consideration. I learned
-afterward that a lobbyist whom I did not know had contracted my vote in
-favor of the bill with one interest, and my vote against the same bill
-in favor of the opposing interest. He had sold me to both sides, and
-whichever side lost he would get his lobbyist reward.
-
-Mr. Watterson quotes from a speech of Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, in which Mr.
-Hewitt is made to say that the vote of Louisiana was offered to him
-for money and that he declined to buy it. So far Mr. Hewitt of course
-personally knew the truth of what he was saying; but when he says, “The
-vote of that State was sold for money,” he could not have stated what
-he personally knew, though he doubtless believed what he said. He was
-careful not to say that he personally knew of the sale of the vote of
-Louisiana, nor did he refer to any evidence of it. He was evidently at
-New Orleans when, as he says, the vote of that State was offered him
-for money. Why did he not, then and there, in the presence of the body
-of the gentlemen of both parties mentioned by Mr. Watterson, make known
-the guilty person, and so explode and destroy the corruption which was
-contemplated and begun by Colonel Pelton, nephew of Mr. Tilden, at the
-Democratic headquarters in New York and which compelled the sending of
-Republican gentlemen to New Orleans?
-
-I was invited to go there as one of the Republican Committee, but I
-thought it better to remain in Washington and help to the best of my
-ability in framing and passing a law in which the Democratic House
-of Representatives and the Republican Senate could agree, and which
-would execute the letter and spirit of the Constitution and preserve
-the people of the whole United States from the apparent great danger
-of disorder, tumult--and possibly anarchy--likely to arise from the
-fire of party passion if a clear and exact law of procedure and final
-determination should not be enacted speedily.
-
-Historically, it is very unfortunate that Mr. Watterson did not
-include in his enlivening article copies of his telegraphic and other
-correspondence with Mr. Tilden from New Orleans, and elsewhere, for
-it would certainly and truly, so far as it went, throw much light on
-the existing drama being displayed, as well as the plans and work
-behind the curtain whereby (we may believe) it was hoped to produce
-the election of Mr. Tilden. We Republicans at Washington were forced
-to believe that an effort was being made, by every means that could
-be employed, to overcome the Hayes majority of one. During that whole
-period, so far as I personally knew or was informed, there never was
-any scheme or act of the Republicans to bribe any state canvassing
-board or elector by money or promise in support of Mr. Hayes’s
-election. We did (if I may borrow an ancient classic simile) fear “the
-Greeks bearing gifts.” We were morally certain that a large majority
-of the legal voters in the States of South Carolina, Florida, and
-Louisiana were earnestly in favor of the election of Mr. Hayes, and
-we believed that if violence or some other kind of unlawful influence
-were not brought to bear the electoral votes of those States would be
-cast for him; but when the secret though bold operations of Colonel
-Pelton became partly known we were astonished and alarmed, though not
-disheartened, and we went forward in our efforts to provide by law for
-the final act in the great drama.
-
-The scene of action was now transferred to Washington. Mr. Watterson in
-his usual charming style gives a clear description of the next steps
-taken by the Democratic managers to achieve the wished-for triumph
-of Mr. Tilden. He was advised by Mr. McLane--referring to the contest
-over the English Reform Bill of 1832, when he had seen the powerful
-impression produced by “the direct force of public opinion upon
-law-making and law-makers”--that an analogous situation now existed in
-America; that the Republican Senate was like the Tory House of Lords,
-and that the Democrats must organize a movement such as had been so
-effectual in England. But there was neither precedent nor analogy
-except violence and riots, for Parliament was engaged in considering
-discretionary _legislation_ enlarging and purifying the franchise, in
-which peaceful persuasion and petition were right, as they would have
-been for or against the passage of the Electoral Commission Bill. Mr.
-Watterson tells us it was agreed that he return to Washington and make
-a speech “with the suggestion that in the National Capital there should
-assemble” a mass convention of at least one hundred thousand peaceful
-citizens exercising the freemen’s right of petition. Mr. Watterson
-tells us that it was a venture in which he had no great faith; but
-that he prepared the speech, and that, after much reading and revising
-of it by Mr. Tilden and Mr. McLane, to cover the case and meet the
-purpose, Mr. Tilden wrote Mr. Randall, Speaker of the House, a letter
-which was carried by Mr. McLane to Mr. Randall “instructing him what
-to do in the event that the popular response [which did not come]
-should prove favorable.” It is a great pity that this letter is lost
-to the historian, for it would doubtless illuminate the real meaning
-of the speech of Mr. Watterson prepared in New York and there ratified
-by Mr. Tilden; for the speech that was delivered at Washington soon
-after Christmas, 1876, was of such a character that “the Democrats at
-once set about denying the sinister and violent purpose ascribed to it
-by Republicans.” Mr. Watterson says,--I have no doubt with absolute
-frankness,--that no thought of _violence_ had entered _his_ mind. But
-Mr. Pulitzer, who immediately followed him in the speech-making, said
-without rebuke that he wanted the one hundred thousand to come “fully
-armed and ready for business.”
-
-At the time of the delivery of these speeches action in all the States
-must already have been concluded, and the documents required by law,
-showing the action of the several States, had already been forwarded
-to the president of the Senate to be held by him to be opened and
-acted upon as required by the Constitution. These speeches, then, must
-have been intended to frighten members of Congress by the threatened
-presence of at least one hundred thousand men assembling at Washington,
-under color of the right of petition, to persuade them by some means to
-win a triumph for Mr. Tilden by procuring the rejection of some vote or
-votes appearing in the electoral documents to have been cast for Mr.
-Hayes. It would seem that the framers of the speech of Mr. Watterson
-had overlooked the provisions in the Constitution of the United States
-on the subject, which left no discretion or policy to be exercised by
-any one, and the fact that so-called public opinion or partizan wishes
-had no place in the procedure of receiving and counting the electoral
-votes.
-
-This great army of petitioning citizens could as well have been
-assembled to influence the Supreme Court in the consideration of
-some great cause, or the House of Representatives or the Senate in
-an impeachment proceeding. This mode of influencing administrative
-or judicial procedure, which has been and is supposed to be for the
-ascertainment of the law and the truth, would be retrogression to Roman
-times, when the populace sometimes flocked into the Forum to influence
-by their voices and uproar the trial of causes.
-
-I come now in my recollections (which are verified by the volume of the
-“Proceedings of the Electoral Commission,” by the official “Journals”
-of the two Houses, and by the “Congressional Record”) to the details
-of the proceedings of the two Houses and of the Electoral Commission.
-On December 14, 1876, the Democratic House of Representatives passed a
-resolution in the following words:
-
-    Whereas there are differences of opinion as to the proper mode of
-    counting the electoral votes for President and Vice-President, and
-    as to the manner of determining questions that may arise as to the
-    legality and validity of returns made of such votes by the several
-    States;
-
-    And whereas it is of the utmost importance that all differences of
-    opinion and all doubt and uncertainty upon these questions should
-    be removed, to the end therefore that the votes may be counted and
-    the result declared by a tribunal whose authority none can question
-    and whose decision all will accept as final: Therefore,
-
-    Resolved, That a committee of seven members of this House be
-    appointed by the Speaker, to act in conjunction with any similar
-    committee that may be appointed by the Senate, to prepare and
-    report without delay such a measure, either legislative or
-    constitutional, as may in their judgment be best calculated to
-    accomplish the desired end, and that said committee have leave to
-    report at any time.
-
-This resolution was sent to the Senate, and in response thereto, on
-December 18 the Republican Senate passed a resolution in the following
-words:
-
-    Resolved, That the message of the House of Representatives on
-    the subject of the presidential election be referred to a select
-    committee of seven Senators, with power to prepare and report,
-    without unnecessary delay, such a measure either of a legislative
-    or other character, as may, in their judgment, be best calculated
-    to accomplish the lawful counting of the electoral votes, and the
-    best disposition of all questions connected therewith, and the due
-    declaration of the result: and that said committee have power to
-    confer and act with the committee of the House of Representatives
-    named in said message, and to report by bill or otherwise.
-
-On December 21 the Senate appointed, as members of its select
-committee, Messrs. Edmunds, Morton, Frelinghuysen, Logan, Republicans;
-Messrs. Thurman, Bayard, and Ransom, Democrats. (Mr. Logan declined
-the appointment and Mr. Conkling was appointed in his place.) On
-December 22 the House of Representatives appointed, as the members of
-its committee, Messrs. Payne, Hunton, Hewitt, Springer, Democrats,
-and Messrs. McCrary, Hoar, and Willard, Republicans. These two
-committees proceeded to consider the subject separately; and they
-held conferences from time to time with a view to agreeing upon one
-measure to accomplish the great objects named in the resolutions
-of the two Houses. After much discussion and deliberation, the two
-committees agreed that there should be reported in the Senate the bill
-which, without amendment in either House, became the law under which
-the procedure of the two Houses and the Electoral Commission took
-place. This bill was reported by me to the Senate January 18, 1877.
-After much debate and the rejection of sundry amendments it passed the
-Senate, January 24, by a vote of forty-seven yeas and seventeen nays.
-The negative votes were nearly all cast by Republicans. The bill was
-then sent to the House, where, on January 26, it was referred to the
-House committee on the subject, and on the same day was reported to
-the House by Mr. Payne without amendment. After debate it passed the
-House without any amendment, by a vote of one hundred and ninety-one
-yeas and eighty nays. The negative vote was composed, as in the Senate,
-very largely of Republicans. In the Senate, before the final vote
-was taken, it was perfectly understood that the bill would pass by a
-large majority in the form in which it came from the committee. It
-was seen, apparently, that some gentlemen who were supposed to have
-hopeful visions of their political future felt that they could safely
-vote against the bill, of which, if it were followed by the success of
-Mr. Hayes, it could be said to be quite unnecessary; and if it were
-followed by the success of Mr. Tilden it could be said that disaster to
-the Republican party had been brought about by the foolish conduct of
-the Republicans who supported it.
-
-Previous to the passage of the bill no law existed providing what
-should be done, when in pursuance of the Constitution the two Houses
-should meet and the president of the Senate open and cause to be read
-the certificates of electoral votes from the various States, if a
-difference of opinion between the Houses should arise concerning the
-validity of any electoral vote. Two radical and opposing contentions
-were being put forward by the more excited of the two parties. One side
-said that the Constitution gave the president of the Senate the power
-and duty to decide the result after the state certificates should be
-opened and read. The other side maintained that the president of the
-Senate had no power other than to preside, open the sealed packages
-received by him from the various States, and cause them to be read;
-and that it was in the power of the two Houses concurrently to decide
-what votes should or should not be counted. Both these contentions were
-thought by the Senate committee--and I hope by the House committee
-also--to be absolutely erroneous. The Constitution had not made the
-president of the Senate the judge of election returns. His only duty
-was to receive, preserve, open, and cause to be read and summed up the
-certificates of the action of each of the States, which he had received
-as provided by the Constitution. To decide what persons mentioned in
-the certificates were lawful electors was no part of his duty.
-
-If the concurrent power of the two Houses to judge of the elections
-existed, no votes on which the two Houses disagreed could be counted.
-In such a case how long would each House “in the heat of conflict keep
-the law”? The only things certain to happen in such instances would be
-reprisals, and then--anarchy and open war.
-
-I think few sane persons of intelligence can believe that the wise
-and far-seeing builders of the Constitution intended to leave open
-such an avenue to destruction; and so they did provide, after granting
-to Congress affirmative powers on enumerated subjects, that Congress
-should have power “To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper
-for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers and all other Powers
-vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States or
-in any Department or officer thereof.” On this firm rock the select
-committees of the two Houses rested the provisions of the Electoral Law
-which we reported.
-
-In framing this act the two committees carefully and intentionally
-refrained from changing in any way any law then existing that might
-affect either way the fundamental merits of the existing controversy;
-and so, when the bill was under debate in the Senate, and Mr. Morton,
-a member of the committee, who did not concur in its report or in the
-passage of the bill, moved to amend the same by providing “That nothing
-herein contained shall authorize the said commission to go behind the
-finding and determination of the canvassing or returning officers of
-a State authorized by the laws of the State to find and determine the
-result of an election for electors,” I moved to amend the amendment so
-as to make it declare that the commission should have authority to go
-behind the returns. The purpose of my motion was to make it impossible
-that any inference should exist from Mr. Morton’s proposition being
-rejected that the commission should be granted by the act any authority
-either way that did not already exist. I, of course, voted against my
-own amendment and only one senator voted for it. The amendment of Mr.
-Morton was defeated by a majority of more than two to one. Thus the
-bill passed without any amendment at all, as before stated.
-
-The act provided that the Electoral Commission be composed of
-fifteen members consisting of five justices of the Supreme Court of
-the United States, five senators, and five members of the House of
-Representatives. The members of the commission were the following:
-Justices, Clifford from Maine, Miller from Iowa, Field from California,
-Strong from Pennsylvania, and Bradley from New Jersey; Senators,
-Edmunds of Vermont, Morton of Indiana, Frelinghuysen of New Jersey,
-Bayard of Delaware, and Thurman of Ohio; Members of the House,
-Payne of Ohio, Hunton of Virginia, Abbott of Massachusetts, Hoar of
-Massachusetts, and Garfield of Ohio.
-
-The law provided that the fifth of the five justices to compose that
-part of the commission was to be selected by those justices assigned to
-the First, Third, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits, and that the senior in
-service should be president of the commission. It required that each
-House, by a _viva voce_ vote of its members, should appoint the five
-senators and the five representatives provided by the law, which was
-done. Mr. Watterson says that it was believed by the Democratic members
-of the House that justice Davis of Illinois would be appointed as the
-fifth justice composing the commission, and that it was also believed
-that Justice Davis would be “sure for Tilden.” I had no belief upon the
-subject other than that founded upon my knowledge of the capacity and
-character of Justice Davis; and that led me to believe that he, as well
-as the other justices, would follow what they thought, after hearing
-the cases, was the law; and I believed that neither the Constitution
-nor the law authorized the commission to overthrow the regular returns
-of any State and make what must necessarily be an endless inquiry into
-what the votes of the people of any State had been in point of numbers,
-either for or against the Republican or Democratic electors. That
-right, by the letter and the spirit of the Constitution, was given to
-the States alone.
-
-After the Electoral Act had been passed Justice Davis was elected
-senator from Illinois and consequently became ineligible; and the
-four justices selected Justice Bradley (from New Jersey) as the fifth
-justice of the commission. Mr. Watterson thinks that if Justice Davis
-had been a member of the commission he would have voted as Justice
-Bradley did. I agree with him in that belief.
-
-Although the act made no provision in respect of the political
-character of the members of either House to be appointed, it was
-agreed by those representing the two parties in each House that the
-members selected for the commission should be three Republicans and two
-Democrats of the Senate and three Democrats and two Republicans of the
-House. Each side had faith enough in the honor of the other to be sure
-such would be the case, as it was. Thus the Electoral Commission was
-formed.
-
-The commission met and organized January 31, 1877, only thirty-four
-days before the final ceremony of the election of the President must
-take place.
-
-All its members were present, and the certificates of the appointments
-of its members, before named, were presented and recorded, showing
-that the Senate had by a unanimous vote appointed the persons before
-mentioned to be members of the commission, and that the House had
-appointed as its members of the commission the gentlemen named above.
-All the members of the commission took and subscribed the oath of
-office required by the statute--that they would “impartially examine
-and consider all questions submitted to the Commission and a true
-judgment give thereon, agreeably to the Constitution and the Laws.”
-The commission adopted simple rules of procedure and notified the two
-Houses that it was ready for business.
-
-On the first day of February the two Houses met in the Hall of the
-House, and the opening of the electoral certificates was begun,
-proceeding in alphabetical order, as the act required. The votes of
-the States of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut,
-and Delaware were read without objection and recorded as returned. The
-next State alphabetically was Florida. Three separate packages, which
-had in due course come to the hands of the president of the Senate from
-that State, were presented by him, the first one of which, purporting
-that the electors of the State had voted for Mr. Hayes, was objected to
-by Democratic members of the House and Senate in the manner authorized
-by the Electoral Act; and objections to the other certificates were
-in like manner made by Republican members of both Houses. Whereupon
-all these papers and objections were transmitted to the commission
-for consideration and decision. The case was correctly understood to
-involve substantially the same questions that would arise in respect of
-Louisiana and South Carolina; and the case was argued on both sides by
-eminent counsel and patiently heard by the commission until February
-9, when, after consultation and discussion, the majority of the
-commission decided that the certificate showing the election of Hayes
-and Wheeler was the true and lawful certificate of the State of Florida
-and should be counted as such, upon the ground stated, as required
-by the act; “That it is not competent under the Constitution and the
-law, as it existed at the date of the passage of said act, to go into
-evidence aliunde the papers opened by the president of the Senate in
-the presence of the two Houses, to prove that other persons than those
-regularly certified to by the Governor of the State of Florida, in and
-according to the determination and declaration of their appointment by
-the board of state canvassers of said State prior to the time required
-for the performance of their duties, had been appointed electors, or by
-counter-proof to show that they had not.”
-
-The members of the commission voting in favor of this decision
-were (alphabetically stated) Mr. Justice Bradley, Messrs. Edmunds,
-Frelinghuysen, Garfield, Hoar, Mr. Justice Miller, Mr. Morton, and Mr.
-Justice Strong. Those who voted in the negative were Messrs. Abbott,
-Bayard, Mr. Justice Clifford, Mr. Justice Field, and Messrs. Hunton,
-Payne, and Thurman.
-
-In the course of the discussions in the consultations of the commission
-on the Florida case, Senator Frelinghuysen, in support of his view
-that there was no power to go behind the regular returns, called the
-attention of the commission to the debates in the Senate on January
-7, 1873, as reported in the “Congressional Record,” to the opinion
-expressed by Senator Thurman in the consideration of a resolution
-authorizing an investigation as to whether the election for President
-and Vice-President had been conducted in Louisiana and Arkansas in
-1872 in accordance with the laws of the United States, in which Mr.
-Thurman was reported as saying, “There seems to be no way provided by
-Congress, and no way, I believe, that Congress, as the Constitution
-stands, can provide to try the title of an elector to his office”; and
-he proceeded to say, “I take it that the entire control over the manner
-of appointing the electors is one of the reserved rights of the State.”
-
-Mr. Thurman, on hearing this read by Mr. Frelinghuysen, said: “I
-have changed my mind.” Mr. Frelinghuysen, also quoting from the
-“Congressional Record” reporting the proceedings of the Senate on
-February 25, 1875, in considering the bill then pending to provide for
-counting the votes for President and Vice-President, read from the
-speech of Senator Bayard on the subject, in which Mr. Bayard said,
-“There is no pretext that for any cause whatever Congress has any
-power, or all the other departments of the Government have any power,
-to refuse to receive and count the result of the action of the voters
-of the States in that election, as certified by the electors whom they
-have chosen.” (See official report of the Proceedings of the Commission
-compiled and printed by order of Congress, page 847.)
-
-But it is a duty and a pleasure to say that I am sure both Mr. Bayard
-and Mr. Thurman voted with perfect honesty and sincerity. Thus it will
-be seen that the fundamental and controlling question in the three
-disputed elections before mentioned was not new.
-
-That these decisions of the majority of the commission, recognizing the
-conclusive authority of the several States in holding elections and
-determining the result of their choice of Presidential electors, were
-fully in accordance with the Electoral Act and with the Constitution,
-is absolutely confirmed by the non-partizan action of Congress
-itself--at a time when there was no possible party bias or emotion upon
-the subject--in the passage of the act of February 3, 1887, wherein
-the very principles controlling the decisions of the majority of the
-commission were recognized and adopted, and whereby the very substance
-and almost the very form of the Electoral Act was enacted into law so
-far as it respected the rights of the States and the proceedings of the
-two Houses, without the intervention of an Electoral Commission. (See
-Supplement to the “Revised Statutes of the United States,” 1874-91,
-page 525.) If the Republican members of the Electoral Commission needed
-any vindication of their action, I feel sure (though the “Journals”
-of 1887 are not available in the city where I write) that this act of
-Congress, passed without party division, gives it completely.
-
-The case of Florida having been thus disposed of, that of Louisiana was
-sent to the commission on February 12, and was decided upon the same
-principle governing the Florida case; but it was not finally determined
-and the vote counted until February 20. From that time until the
-second day of March, at four o’clock in the afternoon, when the final
-declaration of the election of Hayes and Wheeler was made, there was
-a continual and successful effort, growing more and more intense and
-violent, by the Democratic majority of the House of Representatives to
-delay final action by the two Houses in counting the whole electoral
-vote; and in the last case but one the House of Representatives
-rejected the vote of one of the Vermont electors by a party vote
-including, I think, that of Mr. Watterson; while the Senate, by a
-_unanimous_ vote on the yeas and nays, declared that the vote should be
-counted, which under the law validated the disputed vote. (See “Journal
-of the House,” and the “Congressional Record.”)
-
-This illustrates the extremities to which the majority of the Democrats
-in the House went to prevent any final conclusion of the electoral
-proceedings under the very law that they themselves had almost
-unanimously voted for. What would have followed had this effort to
-prevent a regular conclusion of the proceedings been successful it was
-and is impossible to know. What _might_ have followed was a declaration
-of a majority of the House that there had been no election at all,
-after which Mr. Tilden (according to the law in case of failure to
-elect) could have been elected by the House,--as against the inevitable
-claim of Mr. Hayes that the returns as made to the president of the
-Senate in accordance with the requirements of the Constitution, showed
-that he had been elected President of the United States.
-
-In the then state of public feeling I think there can be little, if
-any, doubt that an armed collision of the supporters of the respective
-claimants would have taken place.
-
-Mr. Watterson states that when the election by the people in the
-various States “ ... came to an end, the result showed on the face of
-the returns 196” votes for Mr. Tilden “in the Electoral College, 11
-more than a majority.” The returns he speaks of must have been the
-_newspaper returns_, for, of course, on November 8, 1876, the day
-after the election, there could have been no official returns of any
-character in existence excepting, possibly, precinct and district
-returns of the local votes in some sections. He states that on the
-evening of the eighth of November Senator Barnum, the financial head
-of the Democratic National Committee, sent a telegram to “The New York
-Times” asking for the latest news from Oregon, Louisiana, Florida, and
-South Carolina, and that from that unlucky telegram sprang all the
-woes of the Democratic party! The next day, after some telegraphic
-correspondence with Mr. Tilden--of the contents of which the public
-never has been informed--Mr. Watterson left Louisville for New Orleans,
-being joined en route by Mr. Lamar of Mississippi; and they were
-soon followed by the body of Democrats chosen by Mr. Tilden to go
-to the “seat of war.” President Grant, having been informed of the
-Pelton enterprise, appointed a body of Republicans to go there also
-to ascertain the truth and support a lawful and peaceable course. The
-names of some or all of these Republicans visiting New Orleans are
-given in Mr. Watterson’s article and have been already mentioned. His
-recital of what happened I have already referred to, though the object
-and purpose is not stated. But he does say, “There was corruption
-in the air,” and “It was my own belief that the Returning Board was
-playing for the best price it could get from the Republicans, and that
-the only effect of any offer to buy on our part would be to assist this
-scheme of blackmail.”
-
-The last scene in this eventful history mentioned by Mr. Watterson
-was “the Wormley conference,” as the consequence of what he correctly
-calls the Democratic “bluff” “filibuster” intended merely to induce the
-Hayes people to make certain concessions touching some of the Southern
-States; and he says that “It had the desired effect,” and that,
-satisfactory assurances having been given, the count proceeded to the
-end.
-
-I have no personal knowledge whatever of the doings of the so-called
-conference, and had then no information even of its existence, and have
-therefore no comment to make upon it except that the filibuster was a
-“bluff” and would have died in time without issue from very shame of
-its bluffing actors.
-
-I am glad that Mr. Watterson’s article has appeared at this time,
-before all the gentlemen, who in one form or another were personally
-connected with public affairs during the years 1876-77, have passed to
-the future life. Such as survive may now have an opportunity, if they
-think it worth while to take it, to defend themselves from accusations
-stated or implied in his article.
-
-Recollections of ancient conversations, hearsays, or traditions are
-of very little value in showing what the very facts were; while
-written correspondence or other writings of the time would clarify and
-illuminate the events supposed to have happened. Mr. Watterson most
-correctly says that “Once in a while the world is startled by some
-revelation of the unknown which alters the estimate of the historic
-event or figure.” It is, therefore, very much to be regretted that he
-did not print every writing (of which he appears to know many) within
-his reach relative to the subject. He imputes to the members of the
-Republican party at that time officially or otherwise connected with
-public affairs the crime of bribing the State canvassing boards of the
-disputed States “at least in patronage, to make false returns in favor
-of the Republican electors.” As one of the few survivors of that stormy
-time, as the _last survivor_ of the members of the select committees of
-the two Houses who conducted the passage of the Electoral Bill, and as
-the last survivor of the members of the Electoral Commission, I feel
-bound to repel the imputation as wholly groundless. In all our frequent
-consultations during the whole time there never was a proposal,
-suggestion, or hint of ours, or on the part of any one of us, resorting
-to bribery in any form, or of promise of office or other benefit, or
-influencing or trying to influence any of the canvassing boards or
-other state officials to depart from their lawful duty.
-
-I, and I believe all the others, thought that the Republican ticket
-had been truly and lawfully elected; and everything we did was to try
-by lawful means to save the cause we believed our party had fairly
-and lawfully won. We had not been educated under, and did not believe
-in, the standard of political morality Mr. Watterson sympathetically
-imputes to us; but we feared, as well we might from the Pelton work
-and other revelations of occurrences in the disputed four Southern
-States, that unlawful and more practical methods were being resorted
-to by our adversaries to pervert, if possible, the lawful course and
-result of the election. I cannot close this condensed statement without
-expressing my earnest and grateful admiration of the conduct of all
-the justices of the Supreme Court who were members of the Electoral
-Commission. They were pure, high-minded, and patriotic, trying
-earnestly to expedite our work. The venerable Justice Clifford, the
-president, performed his arduous duties with promptness and perfect
-impartiality. My memory of him and of his associates is among the most
-pleasant of my public life.
-
-    (For Colonel Watterson’s rejoinder, see page 285.)
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-    _The_ GRAND CAÑON _of the_ COLORADO
-
-    _Six Lithographs drawn from nature
-    in 1912 for the Century by_
-    JOSEPH PENNELL
-
-[Illustration: THE GREAT TEMPLE]
-
-[Illustration: A RIFT IN THE WALLS]
-
-[Illustration: A STORM PASSING OVER THE CAÑON]
-
-[Illustration: IN THE GLOW OF SUNSET]
-
-[Illustration: MISTS IN THE CAÑON]
-
-[Illustration: From a photograph by Hanfstaengl. Half-tone plate
-engraved by H. Davidson
-
-RICHARD WAGNER]
-
-
-
-
-IF RICHARD WAGNER CAME BACK
-
-BY HENRY T. FINCK
-
-Author of “Wagner and His Works,” “Chopin,” “Success in Music,” etc.
-
-
-The outcome of the first Bayreuth Festival, in 1876, was a deficit of
-$37,500. There was need of thirteen hundred subscriptions to cover the
-expenses, but barely one half that number had been secured, thanks
-to the hostility of the German press, which for years in advance
-had systematically decried the project as a humbug, and at the last
-moment actually got up a fake smallpox scare in order to frustrate
-the festival. Wagner was only sixty-three years old at that time, and
-therefore quite too young to be appreciated in a country where it seems
-to be held that the only real genius is a dead genius. A series of
-concerts given in London in the hope of covering the deficit referred
-to resulted in further losses. The plan of repeating the Nibelung
-performances in Bayreuth every year or two consequently vanished like
-a rainbow, and it was not till Wagner was ready with his swan-song,
-“Parsifal,” in 1882, that he found it possible again to invite the
-world to that Bavarian town. This time there was actually a surplus of
-$1500. Wagner was beginning to be appreciated! Six months later he died.
-
-If he came back to-day, thirty years after, what would he find? If
-he glanced at the newspapers and the musical periodicals, he would
-note, perhaps not without some surprise, that no trace is left of the
-virulent opposition to his music-dramas which had thwarted his plans
-and made life a burden to him. He would see himself ranked with the
-classics, the musical world no longer divided into Wagnerites and
-anti-Wagnerites, and most of those who do not personally care for his
-music yet willing to pay him the tribute of respect which they give to
-Bach and Beethoven.
-
-It is not generally known that Wagner was forty-four years old and had
-written all but three of his operas before a single one of them was
-produced in Vienna, Munich, or Stuttgart, and that he was fifty-six
-and over before even his early works were staged in France, Italy, and
-England. He was obliged to publish “Rienzi,” “The Flying Dutchman,”
-and “Tannhäuser” at his own expense, and never got his money back. The
-leading musical firms in Germany were aghast at his asking $7500 for
-the publishing rights of “Das Rheingold,” “Die Walküre,” “Siegfried,”
-and “Götterdämmerung.” He needed money, and reduced his demand by one
-half; but again his offer was declined. Breitkopf and Härtel did buy
-“Lohengrin,” only to be jeered at for so doing by Mendelssohn, who
-thought it was a bad bargain. The same firm purchased “Tristan and
-Isolde,” but had to wait years to get back the sum expended.
-
-Soon after Wagner’s death the tide turned, and if he came back to-day,
-he would enjoy a spectacle which would perhaps surprise him as much
-as the disappearance of his detractors. Though he had great faith in
-his “music of the future” (it was not he, but one of his enemies who
-dubbed it so), he would hardly be prepared to find that in New York,
-as in all the cities of Germany, his operas year after year now have a
-greater number of performances than those of any other composer, and
-that the same is true even in the cities of Italy, Spain, and France
-whenever it is possible to secure for them competent singers and
-conductors. But the most astonishing spectacle would be presented to
-him in the warehouses of the publishing firms, nearly all of which have
-whole floors stacked to the ceiling with reprints of his scores ready
-to be rushed into the markets the moment the copyright on them has
-expired a few months hence. While he might be wroth at a law which will
-thus suddenly reduce the income of his heirs, he could not but feel
-flattered on discovering that no other composer had ever been reprinted
-in such wholesale fashion, proof of unprecedented popularity.
-
-If it were possible to communicate with him to-day, would he join his
-widow and son and their followers in petitioning parliament to make
-an exception to the copyright law in favor of preserving “Parsifal”
-forever for Bayreuth? I very much doubt if he would. In all probability
-he would say to them:
-
-“My prose writings and letters should have made it clear to you that
-my chief reason for building a theater at Bayreuth for special model
-performances of my music-dramas was that the royal opera-houses of the
-empire had neither the means nor the good-will to produce these works
-in a satisfactory manner. To-day I find the situation entirely changed,
-the opera-houses vying with one another in their efforts to present my
-works in exact accordance with my wishes. There is therefore no reason
-for withholding ‘Parsifal’ from them any longer. They will stage it
-conscientiously, and henceforth not only those who are wealthy enough
-to travel to Bayreuth, but hundreds of thousands of others, will be
-able to hear it. That the Bayreuth atmosphere is not a necessity for
-the appreciation of my last work I infer from the reports from New
-York, where ‘Parsifal’ is always listened to in the devotional attitude
-which this semi-religious composition calls for.”
-
-In 1852, Wagner wrote that a Lohengrin singer was yet to be born.
-Twenty-four years later, for the Bayreuth performances of the Nibelung
-dramas and “Parsifal” he selected his singers from all the German
-opera-houses; yet it is not difficult to read between the lines of
-his subsequent comments, appreciative and cordial though they were,
-that few of these singers approximated to his ideal, and in most cases
-he had to turn instructor to impart correct ideas of his new vocal
-style, in which melody and declamation are amalgamated. Emil Scaria,
-the wonderful _Gurnemanz_ of the Parsifal festival in 1882, was the
-nearest approach to his ideal. Lilli Lehmann was too young in 1876 to
-assume the part of _Brünhild_ in which she afterward established a new
-standard of singing, combining the Italian _bel canto_ with German
-realism of dramatic accent and emotional coloring.
-
-That it was at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York that Lilli
-Lehmann first revealed this new art is a detail of operatic history
-which would interest Wagner if he came back to-day. When he composed
-“Tristan and Isolde” he had in his mind prophetic visions not only of
-Lehmann, but of Jean de Reszke, who established the same new standard
-for tenors. While good dramatic singers are still scarce, the general
-level has been raised, as Wagner would be the first to acknowledge.
-How happy he would have been could he have had at Bayreuth masters of
-his style as Nordica, Eames, Ternina, Krauss-Seidl, Gadski, Fremstad,
-Schumann-Heink, Matzenauer, Homer, Knote, Burrian, Reiss, Goritz,
-Alvary, the De Reszke brothers, Urlus, Braun, and Fischer, all of whom
-are or have been associated with the Metropolitan.
-
-One of the most important changes Wagner would note relates to the
-importance now attached to orchestral conductors. Before he wrote his
-essay on conducting, the orchestral leaders as a rule were little more
-than mere time-beaters. He taught them by example and precept to be
-real interpreters, molding an orchestral performance to their own will
-as much as a pianist does the piece he plays.
-
-What would Wagner say about the operas composed since his death?
-Of all of them he would, I believe, like best Humperdinck’s “Die
-Königskinder,” which, while written entirely in his own style,
-nevertheless is charmingly original in its melodies. He would certainly
-not admire the operas of Richard Strauss, partly because of their
-repulsive subjects, partly because of the violence they do to the
-human voice, but chiefly because this composer too often uses his
-large orchestral apparatus to hide his poverty of invention. On the
-other hand, he would be likely to denounce Debussy for his boycotting
-of melody in “Pelléas et Mélisande” and for his neglect of modern
-orchestral means of expression and coloring. Turning to Italy, he would
-smile at the two short operas of Mascagni and Leoncavallo, which, when
-first launched, were supposed to have dethroned him. Possibly he might
-admire Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” and the last act of “Tosca.” In any
-case, he could not but feel flattered on noting how, after his death,
-Verdi, who was born in the same year as himself, but lived nineteen
-years longer, followed his methods in “Otello” and “Falstaff.” In other
-countries Wagner would find no indication of a genius able to alienate
-the affections of opera-goers from his music-dramas. There has been no
-progress, no important development, since his death.
-
-[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF DOROTHY McK----
-
-FROM THE PAINTING BY WILHELM FUNK
-
-(THE CENTURY’S AMERICAN ARTISTS SERIES)]
-
-
-
-
-“BLACK BLOOD”
-
-BY EDWARD LYELL FOX
-
-WITH PICTURES BY WILLIAM H. FOSTER
-
-
-Drifting mists enveloped the landscape, a thousand gray wraiths
-crawling through the air, their thin bodies changing, contracting,
-vanishing. Over toward Massapequa the sky was brightening, distant
-lights of purple and pink fighting their way through the mists, a dim
-burning of color like that of fire through smoke. Somewhere a rooster
-crowed; a dog barked drowsily. Already the vague shadows of the night
-were congealing into trees, a rail fence, farm buildings. Beyond them
-more trees, a stone wall, a red barn appeared. From the earth rose the
-fresh odors of a new day.
-
-In the windows of the house on the opposite side of the road lights
-appeared. The figure of a man moved into shadow on a curtain and
-was gone. No sound came from within. Then a door creaked open, feet
-shuffled. Four men, carrying lanterns, issued forth and waited on the
-porch. They began to talk in hoarse, early morning voices. The door
-opened again; a powerful, soldierly looking man appeared. He said
-something in a foreign tongue, and the others, lighting their lanterns,
-hurried toward the barn.
-
-When they were gone, Léon Giron, whom the newspapers called “the
-greatest automobile race-driver in the world,” lighted a cigarette and
-scowled. Indeed, he had begun the last ten days in the same way--the
-cigarette, the scowl. This daybreak practice on the Vanderbilt Cup
-Course had become distasteful. It was unnecessary, with the race as
-good as won. Still, his employees had insisted. Scowling again, Giron
-waited for his mechanicians to roll out the big Saturn.
-
-He had thought of trying the twenty-mile cup course for speed or of
-studying the turns, most particularly the one just opposite, where the
-Jericho Turnpike bent into a right angle and continued as a narrow
-road. He was still undecided when from down the pike came the low
-rumbling of a motor. Louder and louder it grew, a growing succession of
-reports that split the quiet air like volleys of musketry. Now Giron
-could see the flames of its exhausts, the yellow and red flashes,
-wild fire shining through the mists. Now he saw the white bulk of the
-machine, the long, lean hood, the tilted steering-post, the two black
-forms crouched behind.
-
-On it came, faster than the wind, a spew of flame and smoke, a
-voice-breathing thunder, a monstrous white dragon bursting the dawn.
-As Giron watched, as his trained eye timed instantly the frightful
-speed, as his experience whispered that for a car to rush the Jericho
-turn meant disaster, possible death, the man’s face showed only cold
-interest. Years before men had called him steel-nerved, ruthless,
-abnormally cruel.
-
-But now the white car crashed past. Swerving, it threw up a wall of
-flying dirt, skidded terribly, shot across the road, seemed about to
-go off, but, righting, bellowed round “the Jericho,” and rushed toward
-Westbury. And as it went, as its dust-cloud trembled and fell, as its
-explosions grew fainter and fainter, Giron stood watching, a startled
-figure leaning far over the porch-rail, unbelief and venom in his
-face. And as he watched, waiting until the white car was only a speck
-dissolving toward Westbury, his lips began to move. To the air he
-talked doubtfully, musingly, saying aloud:
-
-“I thought there was only one man who could take a turn like that. One
-man,”--his eyes glittered,--“Jean Lescault was his name, and I fixed
-him seven years ago.”
-
-Turning abruptly, he walked toward the garage.
-
-Meanwhile the white car, passing Westbury, had turned off the course
-and, rumbling contentedly, had come to a stop before Krugs. As you may
-know, Krugs, an old-fashioned Long Island road-house kept by a tidy
-German woman, has for years been the quarters of the cup-racers. Here
-in spacious stables are kept the machines of two companies, sometimes
-of three. Here in the uncomfortable rooms of the inn sleep their crews,
-drivers, mechanics, team-managers. In its low-ceilinged dining-room
-they sit, a score of them, smudgy-faced and in overalls, a careless,
-boyish company whose faces, were they not so lined, you would call
-young.
-
-Nobody paid much attention to the white car as its heavy panting became
-quieter and then died away, nor did they notice the tall, strapping
-man with the boyish face who climbed out from the driver’s seat, nor
-the broken little figure who climbed with him. As one of the reporters
-had said, “Sammy Stevenson always looks as if he had just jumped out
-of a cold plunge.” The expression was very pat. The boyish Stevenson’s
-skin always seemed tingling, coloring; his eyes clear and wide-open;
-his body tense, full-blown, strong. And as he kept step with his
-companion in their walk toward the house, one would have said that the
-contrast was pitiless; for the other man was a cripple. One of his
-legs was shorter than the other; as he walked, his body swayed from
-side to side; his left sleeve was empty. His whole frame looked gaunt,
-emaciated, racked--racked, one thought immediately, by some terrible
-accident that had disfigured his face, lining it with a long, white
-scar. Though hideously ugly, broken in body, the little man walked with
-his head well up, his chin high. And Stevenson regarded him as he might
-have regarded a deity.
-
-Out in Detroit, at the Mercury Motor-Car Company factory, everybody
-knew the little man as “Old Lescault.” Five years before this time he
-had appeared mysteriously, and in a few hours the factory had hired him
-as a “racing expert.” He had taken Sammy Stevenson from the testing
-service, put him on one of the racing-cars, and taught him “the game.”
-In his department his word was law. Even John Willard, the company’s
-gruff and positive president, who never had been known to take advice,
-obeyed this hideous little Frenchman, who ruled all with a word, a
-grimace, and made the sturdy, self-reliant Stevenson his personal
-worshiper and the hostile factory hands his sympathetic friends.
-
-Just now Jean Lescault was busy explaining something to Stevenson. The
-young man listened intently.
-
-“You’ll lose time on those turns,” Lescault was saying, “unless you
-take them the way I tell you. Instead of swinging wide and describing
-a curve, I want you to do this: rush the car right into the turn, jam
-on the brakes, skid around on your front wheels, and then shoot ahead.
-Look!” He quickly sketched a diagram on the breakfast-cloth. “There,”
-he exclaimed, looking up, “that shows how you’ll cut time on the fellow
-who curves around. It’s dangerous, but not if you keep your head. You
-tried it at Jericho this morning and made it. Do it at every turn
-hereafter.”
-
-Stevenson nodded. Jean Lescault would be obeyed.
-
-But Lescault wanted to tell him other things. It was his first morning
-on the course. For some reason he had seen fit to remain in New York
-despite Stevenson’s urging him to come down. Now, as they finished
-breakfast, and Stevenson, pushing back his chair, remarked that he was
-going out to see that the mechanics put away the car properly, a last
-question came to Lescault’s lips:
-
-“How”--he paused--“how is Giron getting along?”
-
-Stevenson hesitated before answering.
-
-“Do you know him?” he asked.
-
-“No,” said Lescault.
-
-“I asked,” said Stevenson, “because if, being a countryman, he happened
-also to be a friend of yours, I shouldn’t want to repeat certain
-things. Most of the American drivers dislike him. They criticize him
-for not stopping when he knocked down that boy and broke his leg during
-practice the other morning. They say Giron couldn’t have known whether
-he killed him or not, and cared less. They say, too, that his manner is
-unbearable, conceited, and sneering.”
-
-“But his work,” interrupted Lescault, impatiently,--“his driving, his
-skill, his nerve,--what of these things? Of the others I have heard.”
-
-“His driving,” replied Stevenson, “is really wonderful. He’s a
-daredevil, cool, thorough, and skilled. The newspapers say nothing like
-his ability has ever been seen on the Vanderbilt Cup Course.”
-
-“Damn the newspapers!” cried Lescault in a rage. “We’ll beat him. I
-tell you, we’ll beat him.”
-
-As he slid up abruptly from the table and limped away, Stevenson
-noticed his eyes. In them was an expression that was not good to see.
-
-Going to his room, Lescault locked the door behind him. He listened for
-a moment at the keyhole, and then; seizing his traveling-bag, emptied
-it on the bed. From a confusion of socks and shirts he rooted out a
-small tin box, set it aside, put back the bag, and composed himself on
-the edge of the bed. His slightest movement had become eager, stealthy.
-Holding the tin box on his knee, he patted it fondly. He produced a
-key, and chuckled as it grated in the lock. His hands were shaking as
-he threw back the cover and carefully took out the contents. Not gold
-or precious stones rolled out before him, not the hoard of a miser, the
-collection of a seeker of rare things, or the sacred relics of a family
-trust, but a heap of photographs! On the bed he spread them, arranged
-in some accustomed order, and as he bent over each his breath came with
-a low, hissing sound. His eyes, half shut, blazed queerly--eyes that
-looked not upon memoirs of love, but of hate.
-
-It was a full minute before he moved. Then he snatched one of the
-photographs and held it from him, tearing the edges with his clenched
-hands. It was a full-length picture of a straight, soldierly looking
-man who might be called good looking were it not for the curl of his
-mouth. Below it was written:
-
-“_Léon Giron, taken upon his arrival in New York._”
-
-As he gazed at the man’s straight and powerful figure, Lescault’s
-mutilated face became savage in its hate.
-
-“And I’d have been like you, Léon Giron, if you’d played square,” he
-accused the picture. “I’d have been like you, with my body whole and
-young and vigorous. Bah!” He threw it from him and picked up another.
-
-“Ho!” he cried, “this is how you looked when you won the Grand Prix,
-when they pelted you with flowers after you had crossed the line, when
-with your dirty driving you sent me into a ditch and left me out on
-that road, dying, as you thought. But I didn’t die, Léon Giron.”
-
-His voice had fallen to a whisper, strained, harsh, the way a man talks
-when some overpowering emotion takes him. He snatched up picture after
-picture,--racing scenes all of them,--only to examine each feverishly
-and fling it away.
-
-“Here you are when you won the Targa Floria,--” he was talking rapidly,
-addressing one picture after another,--“when you won the Berlin cup,
-the Czar’s trophy, all _my_ races, all of them--mine, if you’d played
-square. And this is after you won at Brooklands. That was a year ago. I
-could have beaten you then, Giron. For three years I’ve been training a
-boy for you, teaching him all I know, more than you’ll ever know, about
-racing. I’ve given him every trick that used to beat you, confound you!
-that maddened on into throwing me into the ditch.
-
-“And I’ve given that boy more. I’ve devised new tricks, new strategies,
-skill you’ve never dreamed of; and he’ll beat you, Léon Giron. He’ll
-beat you in the Vanderbilt. He’ll break you on the greatest day of your
-career. He, a boy, will make you a laughing-stock--you, the favorite.
-You’ve come from Europe, your great reputation preceding you but you’ll
-fail. And it’ll be the clean, strong body of young Stevenson, like mine
-was. But more than that, the brain of Jean Lescault will break you,
-Giron--the brain of poor old Lescault, working down in the pits.”
-
-As he dropped the pictures one by one back into the box, as, trembling
-and leering, he gazed and spat upon the image of Giron, it seemed as
-though the beast in him might be trying to overpower the God. Thus it
-was Lescault’s custom to drink deeply of the vials of hate, to nurse
-his spleen, to envenom his whole being against this one man.
-
-The idea had come to him one winter morning seven years before, when
-he had just left the hospital at Lariboisière. In a shop-window he
-had seen the photograph of Giron, flower-showered, coolly triumphant
-in his Grand Prix car. With rancor slowly filling his soul, Lescault
-had bought the picture, carried it to his room, brooded over it,
-conceived his awful hate, planned the reckoning that alone could
-satisfy it. Then he happened upon another picture in which Giron was
-again the central figure, and bought that, too, placed it alongside
-the other, and brooded. The overthrow of Giron became an obsession, in
-time a paranœa. Indeed, during the days immediately preceding the
-Vanderbilt race, Lescault, when not busy with Stevenson, spent most
-of his time in his room; and the pictures, shrine of his hatred, were
-always before him.
-
-Meanwhile Giron had become a byword with those thousands and thousands
-who a day hence would swarm Hempstead plains and watch him guide the
-big Saturn on its quest for the cup. The newspapers were full of him.
-They told of his rise, of his quarters at Jericho, of his mannerisms,
-of the almost slavish obedience that he exacted of his helpers; but
-they always spoke, too, of his nerve, his utter fearlessness, his
-immobile face, his calmness when the wind was singing in his ears and
-the wheels were sweeping the ground beneath him, as the whirlwind
-sweeps chaff. Yet of all the “stories” there was only one that
-presented Giron as he actually was. And that was done by a noted writer
-who had visited the course for “color.” This man saw beyond Giron’s
-indifference and coldness, and guessed ruthlessness and cruelty to
-be a strong part of him. Telltale lines had long ago written their
-revelations on Giron’s mouth, so that all might read who could.
-
-And so came the eve of the race, with Giron the word on the public’s
-lips. The favorite, conceded beyond all doubt as the winner, he sat
-alone in his quarters at Jericho, scorning the gossip of the camps,
-hearing no word of the cripple who had been seen on the course with
-Stevenson, coolly confident, an eternal sneer on his lips, the ruthless
-fires of a _Messala_ in his eyes. No man could come between him and
-this greatest triumph of his career; no man could do it and live. He
-unconsciously felt it.
-
-All that night the spectators descended upon the course, coming by
-train and trolley, luncheon-boxes and blankets in hand. Numberless
-droves of them came by motor, an endless, fiery-scaled snake that
-writhed slowly down the roads from New York, coiled round the course,
-moaned constantly, and waited. At dawn the race was to start; thirty of
-the most powerful automobiles ever made would pit their speed for three
-hundred miles, a harsh test, over an oblong of country road, with half
-a million people looking on.
-
-Lescault, shivering despite his warm wraps, was in the repair pits
-as the cars began to come to the line. Tints of violet and pink were
-creeping over the fields, and in the growing light of morning the
-headlights of a row of automobiles drawn up behind the grand-stand
-fence began to look self-conscious and absurd. Behind him, in a box,
-he saw a party of men, their eyes heavy-lidded for want of sleep. They
-were drinking something from a metal bottle. Lescault decided it was
-coffee, and wished he had some. Then he forgot about the coffee, for
-far in the distance a sound, deep and droning, caught his ear. It was
-the voice of the Saturn. Lescault recognized it instantly.
-
-In perfect control of himself he waited. He had left hysteria behind
-at Krugs, locked it in the same drawer with the pictures. Now, if
-never before, he must restrain himself. This day he must become again
-the old Lescault of the race-course, calm, emotionless. It would be
-hard at the sight of Giron, but he must be cool. And now he heard the
-booming of an engine; saw the fires of the Saturn’s exhausts burning
-the morning; saw the big red car come nearer and nearer, its engine,
-shutting off, thundering intermittently; saw it advance with its speed
-throttled, calmly, majestically, as a car of triumph should come; and
-on the conqueror’s seat sat Giron. Slowly it rolled past the repair
-trenches, past the Jupiter, the Green Dragon; now it was almost abreast
-the Mercury, and Lescault, timing his move, scrambled suddenly from the
-pit, and stood waiting on the road.
-
-That Giron had seen him he knew. Lescault had caught the momentary
-surprise on his face, the exclamation on his lips. But Giron had
-swiftly regained his habitual sneer--a sneer that curled his lips as he
-passed the pit and spit deliberately at the feet of the man below him.
-
-But Lescault’s self-control was superb, and as the Saturn rolled past,
-he looked after it, smiled, and spoke as he had spoken to the pictures,
-saying sweetly under his breath:
-
-“Léon Giron, I’ve got you.”
-
-The road was now jammed with masses of shaking, smoking steel. One
-car followed another, manœuvered for position, choked the course,
-thickened the bluish haze that, rising from the exhausts, hung almost
-as motionless as a canopy. Here were the trim-looking Vegas and their
-French drivers; the Green Dragons, with fierce-looking Italians
-behind the wheels; a curious cartridge-shaped car entered by an
-American concern; and the Mercury, called the “Ninety,” because of its
-tremendous horse-power. Stevenson was at the wheel, and as the grand
-stand saw his boyish, good-looking face, there were exclamations, then
-a rattle of applause, growing into steady cheering. Waving his hand
-and grinning, Stevenson stopped before the pit and, swinging himself
-over the rail, joined Lescault. He was dressed in white,--suit and
-skull-piece,--with black gloves, black streamers trailing from his hat,
-black puttees to his knees, a picturesque figure with his broad chest
-and shoulders. It had been Lescault’s wish that Stevenson, like the
-car, be in white and black. He remembered that some of the crusaders of
-old used to dress that way.
-
-During those last minutes Lescault’s words to Stevenson were as an
-exhortation. Of technic he could give the boy no more, for his skill
-had been transmitted completely, astoundingly to him. So now, with
-his voice lowered, Lescault spoke with all his long-growing, loosened
-emotions; he impressed upon him that Giron was the one to beat, the
-only rival he need fear, and commanded him particularly to obey orders,
-do all that he said, nothing more. And Stevenson, who long ago had
-caught the fervor of this broken-bodied little Frenchman, felt a fierce
-yearning to be at the wheel, to be riding the wind, with all others
-falling as he rode. With an exclamation he sprang from the pit and
-scrambled into the car. The soul of jean Lescault would be driving the
-“Ninety” that day.
-
-By this time chaos had opened its gates. Thirty engines were roaring,
-their steel throats belching. Flame and smoke burst from them. A clamor
-of machinery smote the ear. Gears rattled shrilly, levers ground and
-rasped. A stench of oil assailed the nostrils. Now the bluish canopy,
-thickening, descended as a curtain. Through it Lescault saw the
-“Ninety” sliding like a great specter, creeping along until its front
-wheels almost touched the red tanks of the Saturn.
-
-Above the crash of machinery he heard a man’s voice intoning the
-seconds from one to ten backward. He could not see the man, for the
-drifting smoke shrouded all; but he listened, and suddenly a voice
-shouted “Go!” Then came a rattling from the Saturn, a succession of
-sharp reports, a deep boom, a savage cry from Giron: the Vanderbilt was
-on.
-
-Three minutes later the white “Ninety” loomed through the smoke, paused
-on the line, licked at the starter with thin tongues of yellow flame,
-and, snorting eagerly, crashed away.
-
-Twenty-seven other cars followed, but upon none of them would Lescault
-deign to glance. With pad and pencil in hand he was busy figuring how
-fast Stevenson would have to go to lead Giron at the end of the first
-lap. He knew that the best Giron had done in practice was a circuit
-of the twenty-mile course in eighteen minutes. This was at the rate
-of sixty-seven miles an hour. And Lescault grinned, for he had told
-Stevenson to keep his speedometer at seventy-five miles an hour, gain
-a two-minute lead at the outset, and confound Giron when the race was
-only a lap old.
-
-His figures verified, Lescault waited impatiently for the Saturn to
-appear. If it came just one minute ahead of the “Ninety,” his schedule
-was true. Time dragged; the crowd settled back; the tense vigil
-disintegrated into stretchings and yawnings. The stage of a Vanderbilt
-is not reset quickly, but long before the signal “Car coming!” passed
-for miles from mouth to mouth, grew from a murmur to a shout, and
-threw the grand stand into tumult, Lescault’s trained ear had caught
-the distant rumble of the Saturn. Giron was driving hard. Lescault saw
-that he passed the grand stand with the engine “wide open,” forcing
-the car to its utmost. Then the Saturn roared away, and out of the
-distance came another apparition that, flashing by in a blur of white,
-cast up dust and was gone. Down in the pits, Lescault, one of few who
-had recognized the white car, so great was its speed, drew his hideous
-features into a smile.
-
-His stop-watch had told him that Stevenson’s first lap was at
-seventy-seven miles an hour, a gain of more than two minutes on the
-unbeaten Giron! And he grinned again when back of him men began to ask
-of one another in surprise:
-
-“Who is this Stevenson? He’s beaten the life out of Giron. Who is he?”
-
-No one knew anything but what the program had printed, and down in the
-pits the crippled little Frenchman was enjoying himself as he never had
-before. Each bewildered question was as music to his ears.
-
-Quarter of an hour later the white “Ninety” and the red Saturn again
-crashed past, only this time Giron was behind. Even the advantage that
-his starting position had given him was gone, and Stevenson led by five
-minutes. So one lap followed another, a whirligig of blurred wheels
-and flaming hoods, sweeping round and round that oblong of Long Island
-country-side, strewing men and machines as it went.
-
-Soon reports of accidents began to come in. In trying to keep up with
-the awful pace, the other drivers were overtaxing their machines.
-Already two cars had collapsed on the course, burying their crews
-beneath them. Others,--a score of them, with the Vegas, and the
-Germans, painted gray,--limping, had stopped at the repair pits, and
-Lescault had laughed. What chance had they with the white “Ninety” and
-his brain?
-
-Complacently he saw Stevenson push his car past the Saturn a second
-time. Near Westbury he had driven wonderfully, and obtained a lead of
-more than a length of the course over the favorite. And this time, when
-the Saturn rushed by, Lescault saw that Giron had stopped his waving to
-the grand stand. Clever driver that he was, Giron now realized that the
-early lead of the “Ninety” was more than a fluke, more than sensational
-forcing of a car beyond its limits, only to have it collapse with the
-goal miles away. In Stevenson he had come to recognize a new driver
-of rare power, a rival worthy of his steel. All Giron’s attention was
-demanded on the wheel.
-
-Another swift rimming of the course, and Lescault saw the “Ninety”
-slacken speed coming up the stretch. Stevenson would stop, probably for
-gasolene or water. And Lescault was glad. Indeed, fortune seemed to be
-favoring him that day. It was tremendously important that he have a
-word with Stevenson at this stage of the race. Lescault had remembered
-that it was at such a time in the Grand Prix that Giron had broken
-him--waited on a lonely stretch of road until he had tried to pass and
-then had ditched him.
-
-“Don’t,” he told Stevenson, while mechanics swarmed about the throbbing
-“Ninety”--“don’t pass Giron again unless you can do it in front of the
-judges’ stand.”
-
-Stevenson showed his amazement. A question was on his lips.
-
-“Obey me!” snapped Lescault, anticipating him. “Remember you’re pledged
-to that--to carry out my commands. I’ve made you, and you must do just
-what I say,” he added.
-
-And Stevenson, excited, abashed, regretting his moment of doubt,
-nodded, and turned to the men who were pouring gasolene down the
-thirsty throat of the “Ninety.” Then he swung into the seat, threw in
-his clutch, and went snorting away. Jean Lescault would be obeyed.
-
-As though by telepathy, there came to Giron at this time the same
-thought that had made Lescault speak his warning. Stevenson must
-be done away with. As Giron had seen him draw steadily away lap by
-lap, displaying more and more daring and skill; as he had seen him
-manœuver as only a master could manœuver, put trick against
-trick, and, winning, outdo all who would cut him down; as he had
-watched the big “Ninety” roar by again and again, always about the same
-time, a “limited” on schedule, the keen Frenchman admitted finally that
-Stevenson’s was no half-charged sensation, but a decided menace.
-
-Setting his mouth in a thin, cruel line, he made his plans. He would
-wait for this boy--wait as he had waited for Lescault years before. To
-him it was only an incident, a sweeping aside of an unforeseen obstacle
-that had risen between him and victory. That Stevenson might die, that
-a young and wonderfully brilliant driver might he maimed for life, did
-not interest him. The boy was in the way. He must go.
-
-Giron waited patiently for the “Ninety” to draw near. Just as he
-was about to pass he would obey the law of the race--turn out and
-give room. Then he would veer in suddenly, and, to avoid collision,
-Stevenson would be forced into the ditch. In just that way he had
-disposed of Lescault and of others whose names do not matter. Snarling
-at his mechanician to warn him of the approach of the “Ninety,” Giron
-drove on. The wait, he felt, would not be long.
-
-[Illustration: Drawn by William H. Foster
-
-“ON IT CAME, FASTER THAN THE WIND” (SEE PAGE 213)]
-
-But for some reason the “Ninety” never overtook him. It hung so close
-to his rear wheels that Giron could hear the crunch of the tires, the
-cries of its mechanician; but it came no nearer. Its front wheels were
-always just out of reach; but it never came farther. Stubbornly and
-tenaciously it hung like a shadow that would not shorten.
-
-In his desperation Giron began jockeying. Slackening his speed almost
-imperceptibly, he waited grimly; but the “Ninety” slackened, too. For
-a moment Giron was puzzled; then, thinking it might be a coincidence,
-he lowered his pace even more, but the “Ninety” lowered, too. Suddenly
-suspicious, he tried again; but still the “Ninety” hung back. Then it
-burst upon Giron amazingly clear. How blind he had been! This was not
-Stevenson who refused to be tricked; this was no impetuous, lusty boy
-who couldn’t be tempted into the ditch. This was the cool mind of the
-master driver, the calm, scheming mind of Lescault--old Lescault back
-in the pits, the hideous cripple at whom he had spat, now pulling him
-down at the top of his career.
-
-So they rushed into the straightaway, headed for the grand stand, and
-came booming and pounding until a report from one of the “Ninety’s”
-rear tires brought that car to a stop while the red Saturn whirled
-away in a screen of dust. Stevenson drove in on a flat tire, and,
-reaching the pits, shouted to his mechanics to hurry their work; and
-while he waited, chafing and fretting, Lescault clutched at his arm and
-said impressively:
-
-“Remember, don’t pass Giron unless it’s in front of the judges’ stand.
-Remember you promised to obey.”
-
-Then the “Ninety” rushed away. Somewhat nervous now, for the race was
-drawing to a close, Lescault saw the Saturn appear again and knew
-that Stevenson must come soon after. Impatiently he strained his ear,
-hoping to catch the rumble of the “Ninety” before it swung round the
-“Hairpin” into view of the stands. But no rumble came. Soon Stevenson
-was overdue. Concern and worry, then fear, followed upon impatience.
-Seconds grew into minutes, and to Lescault the minutes were as ages. He
-began to ask himself questions. What was wrong? Had Stevenson disobeyed
-orders?
-
-Lescault feverishly jotted down some figures. Yes, the boy could have
-passed Giron over by Westbury; but Giron had swept by, and Stevenson--
-
-The pitmen, now alarmed at the delay, had climbed out upon the side of
-the track. One of them, a little fellow, standing on the shoulders of
-the others, was trying to see far down the road. Lescault watched his
-face for some expression of relief, but the pitman’s worry seemed to
-grow.
-
-“Stevenson’s hurt!”
-
-In a trice the rumor had spread among the crowd. Wild stories spread.
-The minutes were now dragging on feet of lead--agonizing minutes
-to Lescault, who felt an overpowering weakness coming over him, a
-sickening of the heart, an overwhelming of conscience that undermined
-his iron nerve. Giron had beaten him again! His painstaking work, his
-self-denials, all the plans of years, had been for naught. And by using
-Stevenson,--God help him!--he had sent the boy to a fate perhaps worse
-than his own. Into the scarred face came sorrow.
-
-Then he heard an exclamation; he saw the pitmen dancing about like
-children.
-
-“He’s coming! He’s coming!” they cried.
-
-Far down the road Lescault made out the white blur of the “Ninety.”
-
-“Busted valve!” cried Stevenson as he jumped down. “Thought we’d never
-fix it.”
-
-Lescault saw that the boyish face looked old, ages old, that his hands
-were moving nervously, his whole body tense with repressed eagerness.
-
-“You’ve lost the lead,” a tireman shouted. “Giron’s a minute ahead!”
-
-Lescault could have killed the speaker. The effect of his words was
-obvious. Stevenson’s nervousness increased.
-
-“As bad as that!” he exclaimed. “Hurry it up, boys! Only two more
-laps--just enough to catch Giron.”
-
-Swinging into the car, he threw on the engine, drowning the warning
-that Lescault was shouting, and rushed away. The grand stand was in an
-uproar as he swept past, but Stevenson did not hear. He heard only the
-words of the tireman, and kept repeating them:
-
-“Giron’s a minute ahead. Giron’s a minute ahead.”
-
-He now opened his engine to the limit, and driving faster than he had
-ever driven before, burst into the “S” turn and reeled round it on two
-wheels. Past Massapequa he whirled, dirt and oil flying in a trembling
-wall of brown. Downhill, over bridges, he rushed, the wind shrieking
-in his ears. Into the straight stretch of the Parkway he burst, the
-“Ninety” gathering momentum on the smooth road, faster and faster,
-until the front wheels, bending to the sonorous rhythm of the engine,
-jumped up and down in a weird dance.
-
-[Illustration: Drawn by William H. Foster
-
-“‘DON’T PASS GIRON AGAIN UNLESS YOU CAN DO IT IN FRONT OF THE JUDGES’
-STAND’”]
-
-Yes, no speck of red had taken shape on the road ahead. The lead of
-the Saturn was even greater than he had feared. It must be still miles
-away, and Giron, supreme again, driving like the wind. That streak of
-red! If he could only see it, just to know that it really was within
-reach.
-
-Then Stevenson caught a glimpse of car far ahead. An exclamation
-escaped him, only to leave him more grimly silent; for the car was
-gray, one of the Germans. Then he made out other cars,--white, green,
-and blue cars, the Jupiter, the Vegas, and the Crowns,--and soon he
-had overtaken them, roared past them, with their crews appalled at the
-awful speed, the awful daring. Now he began to curse the “Ninety” for
-not bearing him more swiftly, for not bringing to him that red-painted
-goal. And so he crashed, skidded, and battered through mile after mile,
-forgot the perils of “the Jericho,” the “S,” and the “Hairpin,” and
-drove in the grip of a mania, a boyish giant on whom the race had laid
-its spell.
-
-Out of the distance there finally came to him the speck of red, a
-vague, blurry shape that quickly took on the lines of the Saturn. It
-gave him a sense of fierce pleasure, an unnatural desire to laugh
-aloud; and then he thought of Lescault, of his warning:
-
-“Don’t pass Giron unless it’s in front of the judges’ stand.”
-
-But surely Lescault could not mean for him to wait now--now when he
-was behind, when he had caught the red car and in a trice could snatch
-back a race almost lost! Of course Lescault didn’t mean that. Stevenson
-compressed his lips, pressed down on the accelerator, leaned slightly
-forward, his eyes peering over the steering-wheel.
-
-A minute of terrific driving, and the “Ninety” had come near enough
-for Giron to hear the thunder of its exhausts. Employing a signal that
-racing crews have, he ordered his mechanician to watch its approach.
-The mechanician, after craning his head, turned swiftly around.
-
-“He’s coming like the wind,” he bawled in Giron’s ear. “He’s driving
-like a madman!”
-
-And Giron, who had waited patiently for this moment, who knew even when
-he had gained the lead that he could not hold it, that the “Ninety” was
-faster, the brain guiding it craftier, parted his lips as a panther
-does before the leap; for he thought again that the soul of Lescault
-was no longer driving the “Ninety,” that lusty, unthinking youth, mad
-with speed, had risen, overwhelming caution and sending Stevenson down
-into the ditch, as it had another years before.
-
-“I’ll get him,” he murmured, and bent lower over the wheel.
-
-Past Hicksville came the two cars, the “Ninety” creeping up at every
-turn of the wheel.
-
-“Not here,” Giron told himself; “the crowd might see.”
-
-Round “Death Turn,” they shot, skidded, righted in a whirl of dust,
-bellowed, and were gone down a lonely road, narrow, slippery, black
-with oil, the “Crossover,” which the crowds had avoided because of the
-marshy land on each side. Half a mile away the road lay over a swamp,
-and the ditch was deep. Not a soul was there.
-
-As the cars rushed toward it, Giron almost imperceptibly lowered his
-speed just enough for the “Ninety” to come up before the swamp was
-crossed. Listening carefully, his ears attuned by long practice, he
-read the thunder of the “Ninety’s” engine, calculated to a foot how
-much nearer Stevenson was being borne with each detonation. Louder and
-louder grew the clamor, the harsh shrieking and rasping of machinery,
-the booming of the exhausts, until it deafened him. Then Giron acted.
-
-Bracing his feet, he sank lower in the seat, gripped the wheel, and
-made as though to turn out, to obey the law of the race. Up crept the
-“Ninety” closer and closer, until with a snarl Giron threw over the
-wheel suddenly, tugged sharply, and, shooting his own car back across
-the road, blocked the way.
-
-But, hours before that, Fate had made a workman blunder. The workman
-had put on more oil than safety allowed. The oil had made the surface
-slippery and dangerous at just this place. No driver had noticed it
-because none had tried to turn in it. But now, catching the big Saturn
-veering suddenly under high speed, the treacherous mixture of dirt
-and oil slid away from under the front wheels. With all the power of
-inanimate things breaking loose, the huge red car careened across the
-road. As though possessed, it ran to destruction, dug its flat snout
-into the embankment, lifted slowly end on end, swayed a moment, and, as
-the “Ninety” shot by, lurched forward, somersaulting down into the
-swamp.
-
-[Illustration: Drawn by William H. Foster. Half-tone plate engraved by
-R. Varley
-
-“WITH ALL THE POWER OF INANIMATE THINGS BREAKING LOOSE, THE HUGE RED
-CAR CAREENED ACROSS THE ROAD”]
-
-No sooner had Stevenson crossed the finish-line than the Mercury
-Motor-Car Company’s representatives telephoned Garden City and arranged
-for a banquet. But banquets were not for Stevenson that night. The fate
-of Giron lay heavy upon him. It had shadowed his joy in winning. The
-strain of the race over, he had broken down; and in breaking down it
-seemed to him that he had rushed to success over another man’s body.
-
-At the hospital, where he had gone to inquire as soon as he could tear
-himself away from the swarms at the finish-line, the day nurse had told
-him that Giron would be a cripple for life. She had added that, oddly
-enough, a crippled little Frenchman had been there an hour ago, and
-that he, too, had been anxious to know about Giron.
-
-“Good old Lescault!” thought Stevenson as he drove back to Krugs.
-“Always the first to think of a man in danger.”
-
-Then he found himself wishing that Lescault were at his side. Now more
-than ever before he felt the need of the strange little Frenchman,
-the man who had made him, the man to whom he could now turn in this
-time of depression, of worried conscience, and even of half-guilt, he
-thought with a start. Had not Giron gone into the ditch to avoid a
-collision, to save him? He wasn’t the hero, he thought bitterly. It was
-Giron--poor Giron!
-
-Stevenson found Lescault in his room. The little fellow had his chair
-drawn up close to the old-fashioned fireplace, in which wood was
-burning. He was smoking a cigarette, and if he heard Stevenson enter,
-he gave no sign. Instead, he gazed steadily at some charred bits of
-cardboard strewn about the edges of the fire--thick cardboard, and one
-piece only partly burned appeared to be a photograph.
-
-The red glow of the fire shone on the little man’s face as Stevenson
-drew a chair beside him. In the flickering light the boy thought he saw
-him grin; but it might have been only the play of the shadows.
-
-“It’s terrible about Giron, isn’t it, Jean?” he said abruptly, unable
-to endure the silence. “Think of it--that man at the height of his
-power suddenly crippled, never able to drive again, a great career
-ended so terribly!”
-
-The little man at his side looked up.
-
-“No, he’ll never drive again,” said Lescault.
-
-Stevenson wondered at his tone, the look that had come into his face,
-the queer burning of his eyes, eery, unholy.
-
-“Léon Giron will never drive again,” Lescault repeated. “It’s sure?
-You’re certain of it?” he asked suddenly, clutching Stevenson’s sleeve.
-“It’s sure, isn’t it?” he begged.
-
-Bewildered, Stevenson said that it was so. Then he felt his flesh
-creep, for the little Frenchman had begun to smile, a horrible smile,
-with a hideous face, changing expression in the fire’s glow; began to
-rub his one hand over his knee, to slide it up and down creepily and
-unpleasantly, like a snake at play; to leer, and gloat over disaster
-not like a man, but a beast.
-
-Horrified, unable to understand, Stevenson slid silently from his chair
-and backed slowly from the room. At the door he stopped, hesitated,
-and, as though unwilling to believe, looked again at the hunched little
-figure in the chair. There came to him faintly the sound of a voice
-chuckling!
-
-
-
-
-OFF CAPRI
-
-BY SARA TEASDALE
-
-
-    When beauty grows too great to bear,
-      How shall I ease me of its ache?
-    For beauty, more than bitterness,
-      Makes the heart break.
-
-    O sunlight on the dreaming sea,
-      With isles like flowers against her breast!
-    Is there a voice in all the world
-      To give me rest?
-
-
-
-
-SKIRTING THE BALKAN PENINSULA
-
-FROM TRIEST TO CONSTANTINOPLE
-
-FOURTH PAPER: DELPHI AND OLYMPIA
-
-BY ROBERT HICHENS
-
-Author of “The Spell of Egypt,” “The Holy Land,” “The Garden of Allah,”
-etc.
-
-WITH PICTURES BY JULES GUÉRIN (SEE FRONTISPIECE) AND PHOTOGRAPHS
-
-
-There are two ways of going from Athens to Delphi: by sea from the
-Piræus to Itea and thence by carriage or by motor. Despite the rough
-surfaces of the roads and the terrors of dust, I chose the latter; and
-I was well rewarded. For the drive is a glorious one, though very long
-and fatiguing, and it enabled me to see a grand monument which many
-travelers miss--the Lion of Chæronea, which gazes across a vast plain
-in a solitary place between Thebes and Delphi.
-
-Leaving Athens early one morning, I followed the Via Sacra, left
-Eleusis behind me, traversed the Thriasian plain, the heights of Mount
-Geraneia, and the rich cultivated plain of Bœotia, passed through
-the village of Kriekouki, and arrived at Thebes. There I halted for
-an hour. After leaving Thebes, the journey became continually more
-and more interesting as I drew near to Parnassus: over the plain of
-Livadia, through the village and khan of Gravia, where one hundred
-and eighty Greeks fought heroically against three thousand Turks in
-1821, over the magnificent Pass of Amblema, across the delightful
-olive-covered plain of Krissa, and up the mountain to Delphi.
-
-Throughout this wonderful journey, during which I saw country
-alternately intimate and wild, genial and majestic, and at one point
-almost savage, I had only one deception: that was on the Pass of
-Amblema, which rises to more than eight thousand feet above the level
-of the sea. Delphi, I felt, ought to be there. Delphi, I believed,
-must be there, hidden somewhere among the rocks and the fir-woods,
-where wolves lurk, and where the eagle circles and swoops above peaks
-which are cold and austere. Only when we began to descend in serpentine
-curves, when I saw far below me great masses of olive-trees, and,
-beyond, the shining of the sea, did I realize that I was mistaken, and
-that Delphi lay far beyond, in a region less tragically wild, more
-rustic, even more tender.
-
-During this journey of, I believe, about three hundred kilometers or
-more, I realized fully the loneliness that happily shadows a great
-part of Greece. We seemed to be almost perpetually in the midst of a
-delightful desolation, gloriously alone with nature, now far up on
-bare flanks of the hills, now traveling through deserted pine-woods
-or olive-groves, now upon plains which extended to shadowy ranges
-of mountains, and which here and there reminded me of the plains of
-Palestine. Strange it seemed to come upon an occasional village of
-Greeks or Albanians, strayed, surely, and lost and forgotten in the
-wilderness; stranger still to see now and then some tiny Byzantine
-church, perhaps with a few cypresses about it, perched on a mountain
-height that looked as if it never had been trodden by foot of man. The
-breezes that met us were alive with a tingling purity of hilltop and
-sea, or sweet and wholesome with the resinous odor of pine. And the
-light that lay over the face of the land made nearly all things magical.
-
-[Illustration: From a photograph, copyright by Underwood & Underwood
-
-VIEW OF MOUNT PARNASSUS]
-
-Again we met Turkish Gipsies. In Greece they have made the wild life
-their own. No longer one hears of brigands, though only a few years
-ago these highways were dangerous, and men traversed them armed and at
-their own peril. Now the Gipsies are in happy possession, and travel
-from place to place in small caravans, with their mules, donkeys, and
-dogs, and their tiny peaked tents, telling the _bonne aventure_ to the
-superstitious, and, so the Greeks declare, stealing whatever they can
-lay their dark hands on. They look wild and smiling, crafty rather than
-ferocious; and they greet you with loud cries in an unknown tongue,
-and with gestures expressive of the perpetual desire to receive which
-seems inherent in all true vagabonds. They pitch their tents usually
-on the outskirts of the villages, staying for days or weeks, as the
-luck serves them. And, so far as I could judge, people receive them
-with good nature, perhaps grateful for the excitement they bring into
-lives that know little variation as season follows season and year
-glides into year. Just outside Thebes I found eleven of their tents set
-upon some rough ground, the beasts tethered, the dogs on guard, the
-babies toddling and sprawling, while their mothers were cooking some
-mysterious compound, and the men were away perhaps on some nefarious
-errand among the excited Thebans. For that day Greek officers were
-visiting the town, and in front of the café, among the trees, and above
-the waterside, where we stopped to lunch, there was a parade of horses,
-mules, and donkeys from all the neighborhood. War was taking its toll
-of the live-stock, and the whole population was abroad to see the fun.
-
-[Illustration: From a photograph, copyright by Underwood & Underwood
-
-RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI]
-
-As soon as I had descended from the car and begun to unpack my
-provisions, an elderly man came up, asked whether we were from Athens,
-and then put the question that is forever on the lips of the Greek,
-“What is the news?” Every Greek has a passion for the latest news.
-Often, when I was traveling through the country, people I passed on
-the way called out to me, “What is the news?” or, “Can you give us a
-newspaper?”
-
-Thebes, where, according to legend, Hercules was born; where the
-stones gathered themselves together when Amphion struck his lyre;
-where blind Tiresias prophesied; and, seated upon a block of stone,
-the Sphinx asked her riddle of the passers-by and slew them; where
-Œdipus ruled and suffered his hideous fate; where the Epigoni took
-their vengeance; and Epaminondas showed how one man can lift a city
-and set it on a throne above all the cities of its fatherland--Thebes,
-where letters were first brought into use among the Greeks, and where
-weak-voiced Demosthenes by his eloquence persuaded the people to march
-to their glorious death against Philip of Macedon, is now just a busy
-village on the flank of a hill. Frequently devastated by earthquakes,
-which are the scourge of this region, it looks newly built, fairly
-clean and neat. It dominates the plain in which Plutarch was born, and
-the murmur of its waters is pleasant to the ear in a dry and thirsty
-land. But though Thebes is not specially interesting, below it, in
-that plain once celebrated for its flowers,--iris and lily, narcissus
-and rose,--beyond all sound of the voices of chattering peasants or
-determined soldiers, solitary in its noble rage and grief, is that most
-moving of monuments, the Lion of Chæronea.
-
-I came upon it unexpectedly. If I had not happened to be looking
-toward the left my chauffeur would have driven me on without pause
-to Parnassus, the mighty flanks of which were already visible in the
-distance. When he pulled up we were already almost out of sight of the
-lion. And I was glad as I walked back alone, still more glad when I
-stood before it in solitude, surrounded by the great silence of the
-plain.
-
-There where the lion sits, raised now on a high pedestal and with
-cypresses planted about him, was fought the great battle of Chæronea
-between the Greeks and Philip of Macedon; and there the Greeks lost
-much, but not their honor. Had it been otherwise, would the lion be
-there now after so many centuries, testifying to the grief of men
-long since dead, to their anger, even to their despair, but not to
-their cowardice or shame? I have heard people say that the face of
-the lion does express shame. It seems to me nobly passionate, loftily
-angry and sad, but not ashamed. The Thebans raised it to commemorate
-those of their comrades in arms who died on the battle-field. What
-shame can attach to such men? For long years the lion lay broken in
-pieces and buried in the earth. Only in 1902 were the fragments fitted
-together, though long before that they had lain above ground, where
-many noted travelers had seen them. The restoration has been splendidly
-successful, and has given to Greece one of the most memorable
-manifestations in marble of a state of soul that exists not merely in
-Greece, but in the world. Lion-hearted men are superbly commemorated by
-this lion.
-
-The height of the statue from the top of the pedestal is about twenty
-feet. The material of which it is made, marble of Bœotia, was once,
-I believe, blue-gray. It is now gray and yellow. The lion is sitting,
-but in an attitude that suggests fierce vitality. Both the huge front
-paws seem to grasp the pedestal almost as if the claws were extended in
-an impulse of irresistible anger. The head is raised. The expression
-on the face is wonderful. There is in it a savage intensity of feeling
-that is rarely to be found in anything Greek. But the savagery is
-ennobled in some mysterious way by the sublime art of the sculptor, is
-lifted up and made ideal, eternal. It is as if the splendid rage in
-the souls of all men who ever have died fighting on a losing side had
-been gathered up by the soul of the sculptor, and conveyed by him whole
-into his work. The mysterious human spirit, breathed upon from eternal
-regions, glows in this divine lion of Greece.
-
-Various writers on the scenery of Greece have described it as “alpine”
-in character. One has even used the word in connection with some
-of the mountain-ranges that may be seen from the plain of Attica.
-Such distracting visions of Switzerland did not beset my spirit as
-I traveled through a more beautiful and far more romantic land,
-absolutely different from the contented little republic which has
-been chosen by Europe as its playground. But there were moments, as
-we slowly ascended the Pass of Amblema, when I thought of the North.
-For the delicate and romantic serenity of the Greek landscape did here
-give way to something that was almost savage, almost spectacular. The
-climbing forests of dark and hardy firs made me think of snow, which
-lies among them deep in winter. The naked peaks, the severe uplands,
-the precipices, the dim ravines, bred gloom in the soul. There was
-sadness combined with wildness in the scene, which a premature darkness
-was seizing, and the cold wind seemed to go shivering among the rocks.
-
-It was then that I thought of Delphi, and believed that we must be
-nearing the home of the oracle. As we climbed and climbed, and the cold
-increased, and the world seemed closing brutally about us, I felt no
-longer in doubt. We must be close to Delphi, old region of mysteries
-and terror, where the god of the dead was thought to be hidden, where
-Apollo fought with Python, where men came with fear in their hearts to
-search out the future.
-
-But presently we began to descend, and I learned that we were still
-a long way from Delphi. The sun set, and evening was falling when
-we were once more down on the sea-level, traversing one of the most
-delightful and fertile regions of Greece, the lovely plain of Krissa,
-which extends to the sea. The great olive-gardens stretch away for
-miles on every hand, interspersed here and there with plane-trees,
-mulberry-trees, medlars, cypresses, and the wild oleander. Many
-battles have been fought in that sylvan paradise, which now looks the
-home of peace, a veritable Garden of Eden lying between mountains and
-sea. Pilgrims traveling to Delphi were forced to pay toll there, and
-eventually the extortion became so intolerable that it led to war. That
-evening, as we drove along a road cut straight through the heart of the
-olive-woods, the whole region seemed sunk in a dream. We met no one;
-we heard no traffic, no voices, no barking of dogs. The thousands of
-splendid trees, planted symmetrically, were moved by no breeze. Warmth
-and an odorous calm pervaded the shadowy alleys between them. Here and
-there a soft beam of light shone among the trees from the window of a
-guardian’s dwelling. And once we stopped to take Turkish coffee under
-a vine-trimmed arbor, solitary and lost in the sweet silence, in the
-silver dusk of the forest. A lodge in the wilderness! As I looked at
-the dark, bright-eyed man who served us, I, perhaps foolishly, envied
-him his life, his strange little home, remote, protected by his only
-companions, the trees.
-
-In this plain camels are used for transport, and, I believe, for
-plowing and other work. They are to be found nowhere else in Greece.
-I saw none that night; but one morning, after leaving Delphi, I met
-a train of them pacing softly and disdainfully along the dusty road,
-laden with bales and with mysterious bundles wrapped round with sacking.
-
-In the dark we began to climb up once more. At last we were actually
-on Parnassus, were approaching the “navel of the earth.” But I was not
-aware of any wildness, such as that of Amblema, about us. The little
-I could see of the landscape did not look savage. I heard goat-bells
-tinkling now and then not far off. Presently some lights beamed out
-above us, as if in welcome. We passed through a friendly village
-street, came out on the mountain-side, and drew up before a long house,
-which stood facing what was evidently a wide view, now almost entirely
-hidden, though a little horned moon hung in the sky, attended by the
-evening star. The village was Kastri; the long house was the “Hôtel
-d’Apollon Pythien.”
-
-Delphi is memorable, but not because of wildness or terror. In
-retrospect it rises in my mind as a lonely place of light, gleaming
-on volcanic rocks and on higher rocks that are gray; of a few mighty
-plane-trees, pouring a libation of green toward olive-trees on the
-slopes beneath them; of a perpetual sweet sound of water. And beside
-the water travelers from the plain of Krissa, and travelers from
-Arachova, that wonderfully placed Parnassian village, renowned for its
-beautiful women, are pausing. They get down from their horses and mules
-to lave their hands and to drink. They cross themselves before the
-little Christian shrine under the trees by the roadside. They sit down
-in the shadows to rest.
-
-It is very sweet to rest for long hours by the Castalian fountain of
-Delphi, remote from all habitations upon the great southern slope of
-Parnassus, under the tree of Agamemnon; to listen to the voice of the
-lustral wave. There, in the dead years, the pilgrims piously sprinkled
-themselves before consulting the oracle; there, now, the brown women of
-the mountains chatter gaily as they wash their clothes. The mountain
-is bare behind the shrine, where perhaps is a figure of Mary with
-Christ in her arms, or some saint with outspread wings. Its great
-precipices of rock are tawny. They bloom with strong reds and yellows,
-they shine with scars of gold. Among the rocks the stream is only a
-thread of silver, though under the bridge it flows down through the
-olive-gardens, a broad band of singing happiness.
-
-[Illustration: THE HERMES OF PRAXITELES (FOUND AT OLYMPIA AND NOW IN
-THE MUSEUM THERE)]
-
-Delphi has a mountain charm of remoteness, of lofty silence; it has
-also a seduction of pastoral warmth and gentleness and peace. Far up on
-the slope of gigantic Parnassus, it faces a narrow valley, or ravine,
-and a bare, calm mountain, scarred by zigzag paths, which look almost
-like lines sharply cut in the volcanic soil with an instrument. In the
-distance, away to the right, the defile opens out into the plain of
-Krissa, at the edge of which lies a section of sea, like a huge uncut
-turquoise lying in a cup of the land. Beyond are ranges of beautiful,
-delicate mountains.
-
-The ruins of Delphi lie above the highroad to the left of it, between
-Kastri and the Castalian fountain, unshaded, in a naked confusion, but
-free from modern houses and in a fine loneliness. At one time, and not
-very long ago, the village of Kastri stood close to the ruins, and
-some of it actually above them. But when excavations were undertaken
-seriously, all the houses were pulled down, and set up again where
-they stand to-day. Like the ruins at Eleusis and Olympia, the remains
-at Delphi are fragmentary. The ancient Hellenes believed that the
-center of the earth was at a certain spot within the Temple of Apollo
-at Delphi, where the eagles of Zeus, flying from the two ends of the
-earth, had met. The foundations, and some portions of the walls of
-this celebrated shrine, in which two golden eagles stood, may be
-visited, but very little of it remains. On the foundation has been set
-up a large Roman column, upon which once stood a statue. The fallen
-blocks of Doric columns are gigantic, and from them it is possible to
-gain some faint idea of the temple’s immense size and massiveness.
-In the midst of a pit of stone, not far from the columns, I found a
-solitary fig-tree growing. It is interesting to notice that the huge
-outer wall of the temple was constructed of quantities of blocks, each
-one differing in shape from its neighbors. These were ingeniously
-fitted close together without the aid of any joining material. Although
-it is impossible not to wonder at and admire the cleverness shown in
-this wall, it produced on my mind an impression of confusion that was
-almost painful. The multitudes of irregular lines distressed my eyes.
-There is little repose in a puzzle, and this wall is like a mighty
-puzzle in stone.
-
-Among the masses of broken fragments which cover much of the hillside
-stands out a small, solid building of Parian marble, very pure, very
-clean, almost shining under the rays of the sun. It resembles a great
-marble casket in which something very precious might be placed and
-sealed up. This is the treasury of the Athenians, which has been
-reconstructed since Kastri was moved from the fragments of the original
-temple. It is, in fact, a tiny Doric temple. The marble, of a beautiful
-yellow-white color, is mingled here and there with limestone. This
-little temple stands on a platform, with the clearly defined Sacred
-Way winding up the hill beside it. The front of it is approached by
-two steps, and it has two Doric columns, containing, however, only two
-blocks of the original marble, brown, with touches of old gold. The
-remaining blocks of these columns are of white Poros marble, brought
-from a distance, and they look rough and almost glaring. Poros marble
-may always be recognized by the minute shining grains, like specks of
-gold, that are scattered through it. Although a fine substance, it
-looks vulgar when placed beside Parian marble.
-
-The semicircular places in which the priests of Delphi used to sit may
-still be seen, facing a fine view. The sea is hidden by a shoulder
-of the mountain, but the rolling slopes beyond the road are covered
-thickly with olive-trees, among which the goat-bells chime almost
-perpetually; and on the far side of the narrow valley the bare slopes,
-with their tiny, red paths, lead calmly toward rocky summits. To the
-left the highroad turns sharply round a rock in the direction of the
-Castalian fountain.
-
-In the fairly well-preserved theater to the northwest, quantities
-of yellow flowers were growing, with some daisies. Among the gray
-limestone blocks of the orchestra I found a quantity of excellent
-blackberries. Where once was the stage, there are now brown grasses
-dried up by the sun. This theater is very steep, and above it towers
-a precipice. Near by, between the theater and the stadium, Parnassus
-gives back to your cry a swift and sharp echo. The gold, red-gold, and
-gray stadium, which lies farther up the mountain than the theater,
-is partly ruined, but in parts is well preserved. As I stood in it,
-thinking of the intellectual competitions that used to take place
-there, of the poems recited in it, of the music the lyre gave forth,
-and of the famous Pythian games, which, later, used to be celebrated in
-this strange mountain fastness, I saw eagles wheeling over me far up in
-the blue, above the wild gray and orange peaks.
-
-In the museum, which stands in a splendid position on the
-mountain-side, with a terrace before it, there are many fine things.
-Delphi in the time of its greatness contained thousands of statues,
-great numbers of which were in bronze. Nero, Constantine, and others
-carried hundreds of them away. One which they left, a bronze charioteer
-in a long robe, faces you as you enter the museum. It is marvelously
-alive, almost seems to glow with vitality. The feet should be specially
-noticed. They are bare, and are miracles of sensitiveness. Farther
-on there is a splendid Antinous, robust, sensual, egoistic, a type
-of muscular beauty and crude determination, without heart or any
-sparkle of intellect. Two other statues which I thought exceptionally
-interesting are of a sturdy, smiling child and of a headless and
-armless woman. The latter, numbered in the catalogue 1817, is very
-gracious and lovely. The back of the figure and the drapery, especially
-that part of it which flows from under the left arm to the heel of
-the right foot, are exceptionally beautiful.
-
-[Illustration: SITE OF ANCIENT DELPHI
-
-PAINTED FOR THE CENTURY BY JULES GUÉRIN]
-
-There is a very fine view from the terrace. Toward evening it becomes
-wonderfully romantic. Far off, the village of Arachova, perched on its
-high ridge, bounds the horizon. It is a view closed in by mountains
-yet not oppressive; for there is width between the two ranges, and the
-large volcanic slopes are splendidly spacious. Here and there on these
-slopes are large wine-colored splashes such as you see often on the
-mountains of Syria, and these splashes give warmth to the scene. Above
-the Castalian fountain the two peaks of the Phædriadæ, a thousand feet
-high, stand up magnificently. Between them is the famous cleft from
-which the cold stream issues, to flow down through the olive-groves.
-
-When evening falls, follow the winding white road a little way toward
-Arachova. From the soft dusk of the defile that spreads out into the
-plain of Krissa the goat-bells still chime melodiously. I have heard
-them even very late in the night. The section of sea that was turquoise
-now looks like solid silver. Behind it the mountains, velvety and
-black, flow away in delicate shapes. They are dreamlike, but beyond
-them rise other ethereal ranges which seem to you, as you gaze on
-them, impalpable, fluid almost, like a lovely imagination of mountains
-summoned up in your mind. Black-green is the plain. Under the tree of
-Agamemnon glows a tiny light, like an earth-bound star. Where once the
-pilgrims gathered who knew only the gods, Christian hands have tended
-the lamp before the holy picture. And a little farther on, among the
-foliage of the olive-trees, shines another of these Christian stars,
-which, in the darkness of Delphi’s solitudes, shed their light, faintly
-perhaps, but faithfully, upon a way once often trodden by pagans who
-now sleep the last long sleep. To what changes in the human soul do
-these earth-bound stars bear witness! I sat beneath Agamemnon’s tree,
-listening to the cry of the fountain, watching the little lights, till
-the night was black about me.
-
-I must always think of Olympia as the poetic shrine of one of the most
-poetic statues in the world. As the Parthenon seems to be the soul of
-Athens, so the Hermes of Praxiteles seems to be the soul of Olympia;
-gathering up and expressing its aloofness from all ugly things, its
-almost reflective tenderness, its profound calm, and its far-off
-freedom from any sadness. When I stayed there I was the only traveler.
-Never did I see any human being among the beautiful ruins or hear any
-voice to break their silence. Only the peasants of that region passed
-now and then on the winding track below the hill of Cronus, to lose
-themselves among the pine-trees. And I heard only at a distance the
-wonderful sound, like eternity’s murmur withdrawn, that the breeze
-makes among their branches, as I sat by the palace of Nero.
-
-Nature has taken Olympia into her loving arms. She has shed her
-pine-needles and her leaves of the golden autumn upon the seats where
-the wrestlers reposed. She has set her grasses and flowers among the
-stones of the Temple of Zeus. Her vines creep down to the edge of
-that cup of her earth which holds gently, as a nurse holds a sleeping
-child, palaces, temples, altars, shrines of the gods and ways for the
-chariots. All the glory of men has departed, but something remains
-which is better than glory--peace, loveliness, a pervading promise of
-lasting things beyond.
-
-Among the ruins of Nero’s palace I watched white butterflies flitting
-among feathery, silver grasses and red and white daisies. Lizards
-basked on the altar of Zeus. At the foot of the Heræum, the most
-ancient temple that may be seen in Greece at this time, a jackal whined
-in its dwelling. Sheep-bells were sounding plaintively down the valley
-beyond the arch leading to the walled way by which the great stadium,
-where the games took place, was entered. When I got up presently to
-stroll among the ruins, I set my foot on the tiny ruts of an uneven
-pavement, specially constructed so that the feet of contending athletes
-should not slip upon it.
-
-The ruins lie in a sheltered and remote valley far away from the sea,
-and surrounded by gentle hills, woods, and delightful pastoral country.
-At some distance is the last railway-station of the Peloponnesian
-railway line, which connects with the main line at Pyrgos. Between the
-station and the low hill on which stand the hotel and the museum is
-strung out a small, straggling hamlet of peasants’ houses. It is very
-difficult to realize that this remote sanctuary, hidden away in the
-green glades and amid the pastures of Elis, where the waters of Cladeus
-and Alpheus glide among reeds and rushes, was ever crowded with people
-from all parts of Greece; that emperors dwelled there; that there the
-passions of the mob were roused to intense expression; that there men
-gained the desire of their hearts or were exposed to the sneers and
-opprobrium of their fellows. For Olympia to-day looks like an ideal
-home for the great god Pan.
-
-I have called the ruins beautiful, and I think them so, partly because
-of their situation, with which they seem to me to combine harmoniously,
-and partly because of nature’s collaboration with them, which is
-lacking from the ruins at Eleusis and even at Delphi. At Olympia many
-trees grow among the remains of the temples. A river runs by them.
-Excavations, though usually interesting, are often both dusty and ugly.
-At Olympia they are pastoral. Dryads might love them. Pan might sit
-happily on almost any bit of the walls and play his pipe. They form
-a unique sylvan paradise, full of wonderful associations, in which
-one is tempted to rest for hours, whereas from many ruins one wishes
-only to get away once they have been examined. And yet Olympia is so
-fragmentary that many persons are bitterly disappointed with what they
-find there, as the visitors’ book in the little hotel bears witness.
-
-In all the mass of remains, and they cover a very large extent of
-ground, I think I saw only four complete columns standing. Two of these
-were columns of the Heræum, in which the Hermes of Praxiteles was found
-lying among the remnants. They are golden-brown in color, and are of
-course Doric, very massive and rather squat. The temple, the base of
-which is very clearly marked, must have looked very powerful, but, I
-should think, heavy rather than really majestic. I cannot imagine the
-wonderfully delicate Hermes standing within it. It is believed that the
-original columns of the Heræum were of wood, and that when they began
-to rot away the stone columns were put up in their places. Much of the
-temple was made of brick. The Hermes stood between two of the columns.
-
-It will be evident to any one who examines carefully all that is left
-of the Temple of Zeus that it must have been very grand. Fragments of
-the shafts of its columns, which are heaped in confusion on the ground,
-are enormous. One block, which I found poised upright on its rounded
-edge, was quite six feet high. This temple was made of limestone, which
-is now of a rather dreary, almost sinister, gray color. Exposure to
-the weather has evidently darkened it. The foundations are terrific.
-They suggest titanic preparations for the bearing up of a universe
-of stone. It seems to me that from what is left of this celebrated
-building, which stands in the middle of the sacred precinct, and which
-once contained Phidias’s statue of Zeus, about forty feet high, one can
-gather something of what was the builder’s conception of the chief of
-all the gods of Olympus. To them he must surely have been simply the
-Thunderer, a deity terrific and forbidding, to whose worship must be
-raised a temple grand but probably almost repellent. Legend relates
-that when Phidias had completed his great statue of Zeus, and it had
-been placed in position, Zeus sent down a thunderbolt which struck
-the ground close to the statue. The Greeks considered the thunderbolt
-to be the god’s characteristic expression of content. Instead of the
-eagles of Zeus, I saw hovering over, and perching upon, this ruin black
-and white birds, with long tails, not unlike magpies. The statue of
-Zeus disappeared. It is known to have been taken to Constantinople,
-and in that tempestuous city it vanished, like so much else. In the
-time of Olympia’s glory the temple was elaborately decorated, with
-stucco, painting, gilding, marble tiles, shields, and vases, as well
-as with many statues. But despite this, I think it must have been far
-less satisfying than the calm and glorious Parthenon, in which seems
-to dwell rather the spirit of a goddess than the spirit of any human
-builders.
-
-Earthquakes are frequent at Olympia, and have been so since the most
-ancient times. One destroyed the greater part of Zeus’s temple about
-four hundred years after Christ. By that time the Olympic games had
-ceased to be held, and no doubt the place was beginning to fall into
-the neglect which, with the lapse of the centuries, has become so
-romantic. After it was forgotten by men, nature began to remember and
-love it. Very little of the famous stadium has been excavated. I found
-flocks of sheep and goats feeding peacefully above it, and near by a
-small, barefooted boy, with a little gun, out after quail.
-
-On the first day of my visit to Olympia, after spending a few hours
-alone among the ruins I crossed the river, where I saw some half-naked
-men dragging for fish with hand-nets, and mounted the hill to the
-museum, which looks out over the delicious valley, and is attended by
-some umbrella-pines. It was closed, but the keeper came smiling from
-his dwelling close by to let me in. He did not follow me far, but sat
-down in the vestibule among the Roman emperors.
-
-On my right I saw the entrance to what seemed a small gallery, or
-perhaps a series of small rooms. In front of me was a large, calm,
-well-lighted hall, with a wooden roof and walls of a deep, dull red,
-round which were ranged various objects. My eyes were attracted
-immediately to one figure, a woman apparently almost in flight,
-radiantly advancing, with thin draperies floating back from an
-exquisitely vital form--the celebrated “Victory” of Pæonius, now more
-than two thousand years old. Beyond this marvel of suggested motion I
-saw part of another room very much smaller than the hall and apparently
-empty. It drew me on, as in certain Egyptian temples the dim holy of
-holies draws the wanderer onward with an influence that may not be
-resisted. I took no more heed of the “Victory,” of Hercules winning the
-apples of the Hesperides, or of anything else, but walked forward, came
-into the last room, and found myself alone with the Hermes of Olympia.
-
-The room in which the Hermes stands--alone save for the little child
-on his arm--is exactly opposite the distant entrance of the museum.
-The keeper, when letting me in, had left the big door wide open. In my
-heart I thanked him, but not at that moment, for just then I did not
-notice it. I was looking at the Hermes.
-
-A great deal of sad nonsense is talked in our day by critics of art,
-music, and literature about “restraint.” With them the word has become
-a mere parrot cry, a most blessed word, like Mesopotamia. They preach
-restraint very often to those who have little or nothing to restrain.
-The result is nullity. In striving to become “Greek,” too many unhappy
-ones become nothing at all. Standing before the Hermes of Olympia, one
-realizes as never before the meaning, the loveliness, of restraint,
-of the restraint of a great genius, one who could be what he chose to
-be, and who has chosen to be serene. This it is to be Greek. Desire of
-anything else fails and lies dead. In the small and silent room, hidden
-away from the world in the green wilderness of Elis, one has found that
-rare sensation, a perfect satisfaction.
-
-Naked the Hermes stands, with his thin robe put off, and flowing down
-over the trunk of a tree upon which he lightly leans. He is resting
-on his way to the nymphs, but not from any fatigue. Rather, perhaps,
-because he is in no haste to resign his little brother Dionysus to
-their hands for education. Semele, the mother, is dead, and surely this
-gracious and lovely child, touching because of his innocent happiness,
-his innocent eagerness in pleasure, looks to Hermes as his protector.
-He stretches out one soft arm in an adorable gesture of desire. The
-other clings to the shoulder of Hermes. And Hermes watches him with an
-expression of divine, half-smiling gentleness, untouched by sadness, by
-any misgiving, such as we often feel as to the future of a little child
-we love; Hermes watches him, contemplative, benign, celestial.
-
-There is a pause in the hurry, in the sorrow, of this travailing
-world; there is a hush. No more do the human cries sound in the midst
-of that darkness which is created by our misunderstanding. No longer
-do the frantic footfalls go by. The golden age has returned, with its
-knowledge of what is not needed--a knowledge that we have lost.
-
-I looked up from Hermes and the little brother, and, in the distance,
-through the doorway of the museum, I saw a tiny picture of Elis bathed
-in soft, golden light; a calm hillside, some green and poetic country,
-and, in the foreground, like a message, a branch of wild olive.
-
-That is what we need, what secretly we desire, our branch, perhaps our
-crown, of wild olive. And all the rest is as nothing.
-
-    (To be continued)
-
-
-
-
-AN ELEPHANT ROUND-UP
-
-BY D. P. B. CONKLING
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Ninety miles from the mouth of the Menam River lies the city of
-Ayuthia, the old capital of Siam. The jungle has taken back to itself
-miles of its ancient grandeur, and temples, palaces, and brick roadways
-lie crumbling and half buried in the rank luxuriance of the tropical
-forest. To the north, east, and west, except on the very banks of the
-river, the country stretches out in one unbroken line of wilderness,
-and this primeval jungle-land forms the great elephant preserve of the
-king. Here the huge herds wander in absolute freedom, making unmolested
-raids upon the paddy-fields and palm-orchards of the river villages,
-lords of the land except in the event of a great “round-up,” when the
-royal mahouts, mounted on tame tuskers, form in an immense circle and
-slowly drive one or more herds steadily toward the kraal at Ayuthia.
-
-With the exception on some few miles of roadways in Bangkok, Siam
-is destitute of the ordinary modes of communication, and the entire
-transportation of the country is by rivers and canals or by elephants.
-All the great up-country produce is packed by them through the jungle
-to the waterways, over roads made by themselves and quite impassable
-for any other beast of burden. Therefore the capture of young tuskers
-to be tamed and trained for this work forms, perhaps, _the_ event of
-the year to the natives.
-
-The kraal at Ayuthia is four hundred feet square, formed of teak-wood
-logs, set about two feet apart and fifteen feet high, bound strongly
-with iron and forming a barrier which is seldom broken even by the
-strongest tuskers. The entrance is at the end immediately adjoining the
-jungle, and two lines of stockade extend in the shape of a fan a mile
-or more into the forest. In the center of the paddock is a small square
-of ten feet, built in the same way as the outer barrier, and used as a
-place of refuge for the natives employed in cutting-out and tying up
-the captives.
-
-In the round-up that we had the good fortune to see there were exactly
-two hundred and thirteen wild elephants brought in. Thirty trained
-mounts, each with his two mahouts, together with hundreds of natives
-on foot, had been at work for two or more weeks getting this herd
-together, and safely into the kraal. The driving of this huge mass of
-beasts day after day until finally the last rush is made and the herd
-is well inside the fan, requires more nerve, patience, and skill than
-perhaps any other form of capture in the world. It is not unusual that
-many men are killed in this work, for if once the herd gets scent of
-danger, nothing can withstand their fearful charge. While there is no
-animal in which docility and kindness are more strongly marked than in
-the elephant, let him once become wicked, or “rogue,” as a man-killer
-is called, and there is no other beast which shows equal ferocity and
-cruelty, combined with an absolutely devilish cunning.
-
-The first signs of the approaching herd were a great cloud of dust
-and a dull roar like a heavy freight-train, making the ground fairly
-tremble; and then out of the mist came the huge beasts, pushing and
-fighting as they were packed closer in the converging fan, and making
-the air ring with their shrill trumpetings.
-
-The large swinging beams at the entrance were pulled aside, and in they
-came with a rush, by twos and threes, stopping suddenly, and looking
-about in a dazed way at the yelling crowd of natives perched out of
-danger high on the walls beyond the stockade. When the whole herd was
-in and the paddock closed, they were left to themselves for a time
-before the real work of the day, from a spectator’s point of view at
-least, began.
-
-In a herd of this size it is remarkable how few elephants there are
-that are fit for training--only eight in this case. They must be young,
-strong, and well built, with promise of good tusks. The cutting-out
-proceedings opened in a truly circus-like style. The exit by the
-side of the pavilion was opened, and seven of the largest tame tuskers
-entered in single file, led by the king’s chief mahout mounted on a
-superb animal.
-
-[Illustration: Half-tone plate engraved by S. Davis
-
-A ROUND-UP FESTIVAL--TWO HUNDRED ELEPHANTS IN THE OUTER PEN]
-
-Each elephant carried two men, the mahout sitting astride the neck and
-guiding his mount by the pressure of his knees as well as by shouting,
-the second man sitting over the hind quarters and by means of the goad
-urging the beast to quicken his pace either forward or backward. The
-mahouts carried a long bamboo pole, to one end of which was fastened
-the detachable noose of a coil of rope on his elephant’s back.
-
-When the seven tuskers had formed in line, they drove the herd in a
-circle around the center refuge. After a short time, one of the young
-elephants would drift to the rear rank, and a mahout, urging his mount
-forward, would slip the noose under one of the youngster’s hind feet,
-detach the pole by a quick jerk, and turning sharply and paying out the
-coil of rope at the same time, would bring the line taut and fix the
-noose firmly in place. The end would then be untied from the saddle
-of the tame mount, and the young tusker would go racing madly back to
-the herd, dragging fifty yards of rope after him. This operation was
-repeated for each of the eight captives, and in some instances, when
-the youngsters seemed particularly fractious, both hind feet would be
-roped.
-
-After all the ropes were made fast, the herd was let loose, the tame
-mounts mingling with it, and gradually forcing the roped animals closer
-to the posts to which they were respectively tied, the slack being
-taken up by men outside the stockades, and made fast, leaving them
-secured within a small radius of ten or fifteen yards. The mahouts now
-left the kraal for a short breathing-space, and the herd wandered about
-sucking up every possible drop of water from the pools made by the rain
-of the night before, throwing it high over their backs to cool their
-hot hides from the burning sun.
-
-It was amusing to watch the frantic efforts of the baby elephants,
-of which there were a considerable number, to keep from being
-trampled upon by the herd. In every instance their coign of vantage
-was immediately beneath their mother, and they showed the greatest
-cleverness in keeping their position as she swayed about, backward or
-forward, in the throng.
-
-After a time the beams of the exit were pulled widely open, and
-the chief mahout entered, urging his mount to a run, and feigning
-what looked like a most foolhardy charge at the entire herd. When
-only a few yards away, he turned sharply and rushed back through
-the exit, thus acting as a leader for the herd, and the whole lot
-dashed simultaneously for the gateway. The ford of the river was well
-patrolled by tame elephants, and as the herd came rushing down the bank
-to the stream, they were kept in a confined space, where they swayed
-about in the cool water, grunting with satisfaction, and sending up a
-perfect fountain through their trunks. After a reasonable rest had been
-given them, they were cautiously driven into the jungle, and at a good
-distance from the city were turned loose, to wander as they pleased and
-seek again their old haunts.
-
-While all this was going on, the young tuskers left tied in the kraal
-were giving vent most strenuously to their feelings. Some, evidently
-having given themselves up to despair, stood quite still and uttered
-the most plaintive groans, while others seemed to go quite beside
-themselves with rage, rolling in the mud, straining every nerve at
-their ropes, and trumpeting wildly. One youngster, charging madly at
-the post to which he was tied, managed to break one of his tusks sharp
-off at the base, bringing down the most fearful amount of wrath on his
-head from the mahouts, as it knocked some fifty per cent. off his value.
-
-In many cases it seemed to be a particularly exasperating job to get
-these captives out of the kraal. Two trained mounts would finally be
-driven up on each side of the young elephant, and a sort of collar made
-of cocoanut-fiber rope was slipped under his neck. These collar ropes
-are crossed at the top, and an end is made fast to the neck of the tame
-mounts, which, being a good deal taller than the little chap in the
-middle, would be able to lift him nearly off his front legs by raising
-their heads, and so compel him to walk, the youngster’s great act being
-to lie down and refuse to budge. The leg-ropes were then thrown off,
-and in this way they made a start for the exit, with a third elephant
-bringing up the rear to push the captive forward in case of any signs
-of balking. When he was gracefully shoved through the gateway, two
-others would meet him outside the stockade, and he would be marched
-off across the river to the stables, to be chained up to his post, and
-there either sensibly accept his lot and start to learn to work, or
-else be starved into submission. In some few cases captivity seems to
-take all the spirit out of the beasts, and rather than endure it, they
-will refuse all food and water and finally die, a sort of martyr at the
-altar of freedom.
-
-[Illustration: FIRST STEPS IN THE EDUCATION OF A YOUNGSTER IN THE INNER
-PEN]
-
-The attachment the elephant has for his keeper is something marvelous.
-Almost incredible accounts are told of their devotion. Perhaps this
-is due to the inseparable life that the mahout and his elephant lead,
-for the keeper and his charge are constantly together. Always the same
-hand feeds and tends him, always the same voice commands him, whether
-at work in the lumber-yards, charging through the jungle at a round-up,
-or moving slowly in some royal procession. If by any chance a mahout
-becomes too ill to work or dies, there is often the greatest difficulty
-to induce the elephant to accept a new master, and it is very seldom
-that the new man can gain the complete mastery over the brute that its
-original trainer had.
-
-There is a wrong impression prevalent that the Siamese regard the white
-elephant as a deity. That they hold it in special regard is true,
-for each Buddha, in passing through a series of transmigrations, is
-supposed to have inhabited the body of some white animal, either a
-monkey, a dove, or an elephant; and therefore a white animal is yet
-worshiped as having at some time been the superior of man.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-NOOSING WILD ELEPHANTS
-
-[Illustration]
-
-BY CHARLES MOSER
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-From time immemorial, Eastern princes have captured wild elephants by
-driving them into a stockade and noosing them from the backs of tamed
-beasts. It has been virtually the only means of replenishing their
-stables, for elephants in captivity do not breed well. Nevertheless,
-elephant kraals, the common name from Jeypore to Siam, have always
-been events of great interest and excitement. The enormous size of the
-game, its inevitable danger, and the wonderful exhibition of brute
-intelligence often seen, account for the fascination of the sport.
-
-Kraals are usually conducted by the minor prince or chieftain who holds
-in feudal tenure the villages of the district in which the kraal is
-held; and it was our privilege to be at the one last mentioned as the
-guests of Ratemahatmeya Meduanwella, lord of the villages of Panamure
-and Wellawe, in the province of Sabaramamuwa.
-
-We left Colombo at sunrise in a motor-car (I can never get over that; I
-am still near enough to my boyhood’s dreaming over the pages of old Sir
-Samuel Baker not to accept _that_!) and swept along the muddy Kelani,
-alive in the early morning with _cadjan_ boats and women bathing.
-It is a lovely, undulating valley; we saw coolies treading out the
-grain in the paddy-fields, _svelte_ arecas and talipot-palms smoking
-with dew, low hills thickly feathered with the dark-green plumage of
-young rubber-trees, and bevies of brown girls plucking leaves among
-the sparse tea-bushes. By nine o’clock we had reached the rest-house
-at Ratnapura, nestled close by Kelani’s sullen lip, and were calling
-loudly for breakfast. The most striking ornament in the dining-room
-was a placard advertising American buckwheat cakes, and our roving eye
-fell upon a two-months’-old copy of the Kansas City “Star,” sure signs
-of the miracle of mere living in our times. Ratnapura is the capital
-of the famous gem district, and our host, a wily Cingalese with a
-prodigious tortoise-shell comb in his back hair, showed us some rough
-stones--rubies, sapphires, and cats’-eyes--which he had “found,” and
-would part with as a very special favor.
-
-At noon we left the motor-car and took to the jungle on foot. Our route
-lay for eight miles along a path cut and burned through the densest
-jungle specially for this occasion, and toward dusk we came at last,
-drenched, yet thirsty, through dim, green aisles of tall ebony-and
-satinwood-trees, to a wide meadow and the dark, swift stream that
-flows through it along the hem of Panamure. We saw a man far up in a
-giant palm-tree, clinging to the bole with his naked feet, cutting
-branches; then a great gaunt beast in the jungle twilight, feeding on
-the white, succulent trunks of banana-trees; and the pathetic figure
-of a baby elephant, captured only the week before, tugging hopelessly,
-but incessantly, at his ankle-ropes, and we knew that we were near the
-scene of the kraal. We crossed the stream on a bridge half crushed in
-by ponderous, pachydermous feet, and at once found ourselves among
-lines of bare brown men squatting under palm-leaf shelters. These
-were the beaters surrounding the wild herds. The long line of their
-fires dotted the dusk of the jungle, and the smell of wet wood smoke,
-flavored with the odors from their cooking-pots, made a kind of wild
-incense, strangely grateful and reminiscent to our civilized nostrils.
-At a distance an occasional faint snort, or the soft crackling of
-undergrowth followed by the thudding of some distant beater’s drum,
-betrayed the locality where the quarry fed uneasily.
-
-The plan and strategy of an elephant kraal is very simple. A wooded
-country, over which elephants rove and through which a suitable stream
-flows, is selected. A stockade from twelve to sixteen feet in height,
-and inclosing part of the stream and from four to six acres of jungle,
-is constructed of stout logs lashed together with rattan withes. At one
-side of the inclosure is a gate, with a V-shaped approach leading to
-it. When the stockade has been completed, the villagers arm themselves
-with guns, spears, tom-toms, old pots, horns--anything that will make
-a noise--and pour into the jungle to beat up the wild herds. They
-spread out in a circle, sometimes twenty-five miles long, but gradually
-lessening as the herds are driven nearer the stockade. The main object
-is to keep the elephants from reaching water except by entering the
-inclosure, and sometimes this is very difficult. Fires are kept alight
-at distances of a few feet; and sometimes at night, when the huge
-beasts charge in a body, the din of drums, bells, shouts, and horns is
-enough to daunt bolder spirits than the jungle denizens. Frequently a
-herd succeeds in breaking through and making its escape, occasionally
-not without a heavy loss to the enemy; but usually after being kept
-from water for three or four days their terrible thirst drives the poor
-creatures to the water within the stockade, and the gate closes forever
-between them and the dear free life of their native jungle.
-
-Panamure is a lovely little village, idling along the banks of its
-streamlet and cuddled in between two tall and softly wooded peaks
-as delicately rounded as the breasts of a woman. Its daughters are
-tender-eyed and domestic, performing the family washing at the front
-gate, while the men are of mild manner and much given to the business
-of gentling noosed elephants. They are Buddhists, but their real god is
-the snowy-bearded old Ratemahatmeya, who is also their father, lord of
-their lands, and of every grain of rice that goes into their mouths.
-
-[Illustration: THE LORD OF THE KRAAL AND HIS HEIR]
-
-We found the old gentleman waiting for us at the “hotel.” He had laid
-aside the garments of his high estate and put on the long-tailed shirt
-of the coolie, as being more in keeping with one who had watched five
-nights in the jungle; but for all that he was a memorable figure,
-with his small, sharp nose and eyes like those of a sparrow-hawk, his
-patriarchal beard and imperious voice. Even more distinguished-looking
-was his brother-in-law, the imperturbable Kalawane. Clad to lead the
-heaters in nothing but a breech-clout and his shining black beard,
-he seemed at that moment to have stepped out of the pages of Kipling
-especially for this occasion.
-
-[Illustration: NATIVE BEATERS IN CAMP]
-
-[Illustration: READY TO PROD THE ELEPHANTS]
-
-[Illustration: NATIVES BINDING A WILD ELEPHANT TO A TREE]
-
-[Illustration: TWO TAME ELEPHANTS CAJOLING A WILD SISTER]
-
-[Illustration: “HE SCREAMED, FROTHED, AND LUNGED AGAINST HIS FETTERS”]
-
-They took us to get a first glimpse of the stockade in the now
-fast-dying light. It was the old Ratemahatmeya’s fourteenth kraal, he
-told us, and he had had 2500 villagers out for many days. He hoped to
-catch thirty or forty elephants, but some might escape through the line
-of beaters that night, as the elephants were desperate and the beaters
-nearly exhausted. Even as he talked there were sounds of trampling and
-crashing of underbrush a few yards to our right, and the whole line of
-beaters rushed toward the spot, beating brass pots and yelling. After
-torches had been thrown, the crashing ceased suddenly, and not another
-sound was heard. Not a line of living form could be seen; not even a
-leaf stirred, but one had the most vivid sense that all about us the
-jungle was permeated with mysterious forces, tremendous, yet impalpable.
-
-The stockade itself was worth a fortune, could it have been brought
-to market. It was constructed of peeled ebony and satinwood logs,
-many from twenty to thirty feet long and as thick as a man’s body.
-Seven hundred and fifty coolies had spent three weeks in building
-it, sinking the upright logs ten feet into the earth and with rattan
-thongs lashing to them the horizontal logs at three-foot intervals. It
-looked enormously strong and resistant. Overlooking the stockade on
-three sides, towers had been built from which the Ratemahatmeya and his
-principal guests were to view the grand spectacle of noosing and tying
-up the kraaled elephants.
-
-Dinner in the hotel that night was eaten on bare boards, within
-gunny-sack walls, and with damp earth underfoot. As we sat about the
-boards afterward, in bare feet and pajamas, a small, breathless figure
-dashed up and flung his torch of dried stalks down before us. Some
-elephants had entered the kraal and the gate had been closed behind
-them! It was not a moment for reflection. Away we ran through the black
-night, barefooted and pajama-clad, unmindful of thorns, and deadly
-cobras, perhaps, lying in wait along the path. Guided by the weird
-little figure with his torch, who was immensely proud to have been
-the bearer of great tidings, we reached the stockade and found the
-Ratemahatmeya seated on a log rocking himself in glee. Ten elephants,
-led by a furious old cow, he explained, had been trapped. To-morrow
-the rest of the herd would be caught. In this, however, he proved a bad
-prophet, for during the night the elephants outside the kraal broke
-through the beaters’ lines and escaped.
-
-Around the circle of the stockade they were now lighting hundreds of
-fires. Flames and smoke shot up half-way to the tops of the trees, and
-the whole jungle was an endless moving parade of black shadows. Scores
-of men lined the barricade, their bodies dripping sweat, points of
-light flashing from their sharpened spear-heads. The business was eery
-and serious. Twice the fear-maddened animals had charged the stockade
-and twice had been driven back with spear-thrusts and firebrands. Now
-they were hiding somewhere in the gulf of blackness beyond the fires,
-as silent as the dark, plotting, full of hatred, and terribly dangerous.
-
-We went back to the hotel and to a sleep of troubled dreams. There is
-no doubt that the presence of wild elephants in the neighborhood of
-one’s slumbers produces a curious impression. Some might even call
-it “funk.” Throughout the night the shouting of the beaters and the
-muffled trumpetings of giants in distress told how mighty Hathi and
-his sons struggled to break through the cordon of their enemies. And
-when morning came we knew from the scattered fire-lines that the lords
-of the jungle had bravely won their freedom. The Ratemahatmeya held a
-sunrise court-martial over it, but no one knew anything. He was forced
-to content himself with the ten animals safe within the kraal.
-
-Early as we were at the stockade, the village, bringing its breakfast
-in fresh _kos_ leaves and gourds, was there before us. A thin stream of
-sunlight, penetrating the kraal, revealed the captured herd standing
-together in the deep shadows beneath a giant unga-tree, brooding and
-sinister, their alinement as perfect as that of a line of infantry.
-They were absolutely motionless, yet somehow conveyed the impression
-of hair-trigger alertness. We could count two half-grown bulls, two
-yearling calves, and a two-year-old. The other five were cows. There
-were no tuskers among them, but it soon became evident that an old cow,
-which always took her position on the extreme right, was “boss” of the
-herd. The moment she cocked her ears the others stiffened their tails
-and gathered themselves to charge.
-
-We had not long to wait for the first charge in daylight. Ratemahatmeya
-Kalawane came upon the scene riding his brother-in-law’s finest decoy,
-a magnificent brute in the prime of his vigor and intelligence.
-Apparently without a command, the big elephant majestically approached
-the stockade at a point nearest the beleaguered herd, lifted his
-trunk over the barricade and gave the call of his kind. The whole
-herd at once swung toward him, as if in obedience to the voice of a
-friend. They had covered barely twenty paces, however, when suspicion
-entered the mind of the old cow. At her signal they all paused, waving
-their trunks uncertainly. One of the village headmen thought this an
-auspicious moment to step through the stockade for a clearer view.
-Instantly the old cow’s tail shot into the air as stiff as a rod, and
-she charged with the speed of an express-train, the others following
-her, but half-heartedly. A volley of yells from the spearmen and
-beaters greeted her as she came, but she struck the stockade with a
-tremendous impact, rocking the piles in their sockets and making the
-earth tremble. The beaters stood fearlessly to their work, however,
-and a score of spear-thrusts from the heavy twelve-foot staves sent
-her back, sullen and bloody. The others, seeing their leader’s
-discomfiture, contemptuously turned their backs to the enemy and
-continued their interrupted coquetting with the decoy elephant.
-
-But those trapped cows, though frightened and no doubt bewildered
-beyond anything in their experience, were not foolish. The big,
-handsome bull, sent out to court and mollify them, continued his
-outrageous attempts at flirtation through the interstices of the
-stockade all in vain. Not that they were not flattered, perhaps, by his
-attentions, for they paralleled his amiable saunterings up and down the
-barricade for an hour, but always at the safe distance of a hundred
-yards; ten pairs of little, bright, malicious eyes the while keeping
-watch of his every movement and of every movement inside the kraal.
-Satisfied at last of his treacherous intentions, and, perhaps, tiring
-of the sport, they ignored him altogether and turned their energies
-again toward their human foes.
-
-The rest of the morning was given to beating back charge after
-charge. The old cow, especially, was a veritable demon in temper and
-courage. Sometimes she charged alone, her calf bellowing and coughing
-his ridiculous rage in her wake. Sometimes, with one impulse, the
-whole herd charged with her, as if at a preconcerted signal. Once,
-indeed, she nearly got our photographer. The elephants were standing
-quiet for the moment, a hundred yards away, trunks down and slack,
-apparently oblivious to their enemies. A fugitive patch of sunlight,
-finely illuminating their heads, tempted the camera man to advance
-a few steps inside the gate in the hope of obtaining a picture. The
-next instant the whole herd was almost upon him. He had barely time
-to fling himself headlong between the posts when the old cow, in the
-lead, crashed against the gate. Another yard, and she would have got
-him. It took half an hour and two brandy sodas to coax his nerve back,
-but the imperturbable Kalawane, who had been lying sound asleep beneath
-the gate timbers till the crash awakened him, merely raised himself
-long enough to curse camera man, elephants, and beaters fluently and
-indiscriminately, and then resumed his nap.
-
-I had often heard of the speed of an elephant’s charge, and had
-marveled without enlightenment. I had even scoffed, because those who
-told of it never were able to explain it. Their descriptions seemed to
-me the result of “nerves,” justifying effect by cause. Now that I have
-seen it for myself, I marvel no more, but am simply dazed. You cannot
-explain the charge because you do not really see him make it. One
-instant he is standing over there, a hundred yards away, as motionless
-as the tree-trunks; at the end of that same instant he is upon you,
-overwhelming, monstrous, like a mountain falling upon you. And you did
-not even see him start!
-
-I have a theory about it. An elephant’s loose skin is a sort of bag
-that conceals the most flexible and finely articulated set of muscles
-in the animal kingdom. He has no bulge of muscles anywhere. They are
-all as smooth and flat as ribbons, as elastic as rubber, tempered like
-steel wire. Wherefore he can wheel that vast bulk of his instantly and
-in a space the size of a tea-table. He can hurl the whole four or five
-tons of him into action with a single impulse and strike his top speed
-in a single stride. Place an enemy in front of him, and I believe he
-can run ten yards or two hundred from a standing start faster than any
-other creature on legs.
-
-Meantime, the decoys to be used for the noosing in the afternoon
-had come up from their teak-piling duties in the low country. Seven
-gigantic beasts, far larger than the captured ones, they moved like
-conquerors, majestic and grand. It was not to be comprehended that
-these colossi, the mightiest of the earth’s creatures, were willing
-servants of those pygmies astride their necks. Yet all through the
-subsequent proceedings the mahout’s word was law, and I never once saw
-a tame elephant pricked with the ankus. This is the more remarkable
-when it is understood that with one exception they had all been wild
-elephants fewer than ten years before.
-
-After they had been bathed and scraped and holystoned till their hides
-shone like polished slate, the decoys were led before the Ratemahatmeya
-to receive the ceremonial anointment with oil and make their salaams.
-As the great beasts fell on their knees before the old man and
-made their dumb, strange genuflections of obeisance, my eyes were
-filled with a picture of the galleries of old Rome and of the German
-gladiators stooped before some palsied Cæsar, and through my brain
-pulsed again the echo of their grand and solemn valedictory.
-
-But it was two o’clock, and the ladies of the Ratemahatmeya’s family
-were in the tower, the village was in the tree-tops, or chattering like
-schools of monkeys in the undergrowth, and all was ready for the great
-spectacle of the kraal, the contests in the arena. Kalawane, on the
-largest elephant, headed the procession of the seven decoys, followed
-by a small army of spearmen and elephant shikarees, carrying ropes.
-Each of the decoys bore on his back a mahout and a nooser, the latter
-armed with a coil of rope noosed at one end and attached at the other
-to a stout collar around the decoy’s neck.
-
-For some time before the procession set out for the kraal gate the
-wild herd had been clustered in thick cover on the far side of the
-stream from the Ratemahatmeya’s tower. As we could neither see nor hear
-anything of them, Ricalton and I ran around the stockade to a point
-nearest them and no more than forty yards from the little hillock on
-which they stood. We could hear the decoys pulling down the gate far
-away on the other side, and it was evident that the wild herd was quite
-as plainly aware that something new and decisive in their affairs was
-about to occur. They stood stone-still, indifferent to our presence,
-their eyes alert, but their heads a little drooping. Nothing but actual
-speech could have better expressed that, though sore perplexed, they
-_all but_ understood. As for us, we were so lost in the contemplation
-of them in this greatest moment of their lives that we did not hear the
-approach of the decoys, and they, if they heard it, gave no sign.
-
-Suddenly we heard the sharp crackle of voices--Kalawane’s and the
-mahouts’--shouting, “_Yunga! Yunga! Yunga!_” (“Charge! Charge!
-Charge!”) and saw the decoys swiftly looming through the underbrush.
-The wild ones saw them at the same time, and for just a moment the
-whole herd, trunks uplifted in welcome, swung forward to meet them.
-The next instant they realized their mistake, turned tail, and went
-crashing down the slope in a panic. After them came the whole band of
-decoys, spearmen, and noosers barking a staccato chorus that set the
-blood tingling all over me. I never have had such a feeling. It was a
-little like the first shock of a shower-bath on a frosty morning. I
-found myself plunging knee-deep through the stream in the wake of the
-rushing animals, with Ricalton, sixty-six years old and as white as
-Mount Hood, not a foot behind me.
-
-On the other bank the decoys overtook their quarry, and two big bulls
-separated one of the yearlings from his mother for the fraction of a
-second--just time enough for a nooser to drop off behind and slip the
-loop around his right hind leg. He suddenly found himself being dragged
-backward on his fore legs and belly, and such squalling never was
-heard. At first his frantic mother fought furiously to reach him, but
-two powerful bulls so unceremoniously butted her about that she gave
-up and rushed off for help; for I never will believe that she deserted
-him. The little fellow was dragged and butted to a convenient tree, to
-which he was securely tied by both ankles, while a decoy on each side
-alternately bullied and cozened him. The moment he was tied, just as he
-was on the point of thinking his new-found friends not such bad fellows
-after all, and was preparing to console himself for the loss of his
-mother, they heartlessly left him. Oh, how angry he was! He screamed,
-frothed, lunged and lunged against his fetters, bit the earth, and
-broke off the point of an embryonic tusk trying to demolish a stone he
-had dug up in his frenzy. But it was all in vain; and at last the poor
-little baby, just like other babies, broke down and cried. I saw him,
-and later I saw his mother, the terrible old cow, crying, and they shed
-real tears.
-
-Meanwhile the chase had gone on across the kraal, and on the other
-side one of the cows had been wedged in between two decoys for the
-needful moment. A nooser had slipped down under the decoy’s belly for
-protection, and actually had the noose over her ankle when she felt
-him, and let loose that four-ton kick he had sought protection from.
-Luckily it missed him a hair’s-breadth; but the savage old lady got
-free by it, and the nooser was a crumpled, fearful ruin for the rest of
-that day. Again they caught her, but she snapped the inch-and-a-quarter
-hawser as if it had been twine. The third attempt was successful, but
-by now madam had regained her wits and gathered together her scattered
-forces for rescue work. No doubt she ached also to avenge her baby, for
-she headed a tremendous charge against the decoys, and the bulls had to
-knock her off her feet time after time before she gave up the project.
-Kalawane then decided that the rest of the herd would be subjugated
-more easily after she had been disposed of.
-
-This was more easily decided upon than accomplished. The old cow was a
-tactician of the highest order, and her gifts as a fighter amounted to
-positive genius. Several times they had her cornered, but she smashed
-her way through. They scattered her followers, and finally managed to
-isolate her on a small knoll between the stockade and a deep gully.
-Here she successfully eluded the skill of the decoys for at least half
-an hour, and it was while I was endeavoring to obtain a closer view
-of this heroic last stand that I was treated to a bit of insight into
-elephant cunning that I am not likely to forget.
-
-The decoys had the old cow nearly cornered in a space close to the
-stockade and about one hundred and fifty yards from me, with the gully
-before mentioned running between us. I started to cross to the scene of
-conflict, but before descending into the gully, and thus losing sight
-of the jungle about me for a moment, I took a glance around. It was
-fortunate that I did so, for about two hundred yards below me, on the
-same side of the gully, was one of the young bulls coming stealthily
-through the underbrush, and there was something in his manner which
-warned me that he “had intentions.” But the very moment I became aware
-of his state of mind he apparently became as exactly aware of mine; for
-he dropped his ears, stopped, and then, seemingly disgusted that he
-should have betrayed himself, deliberately turned his back on me and
-walked off in the direction whence he had come. Nor did he once glance
-back, but near the brink of the gully stopped again in some scrub and,
-with his head wholly averted from me, appeared to be lost in thought.
-This seemed my chance, so I ran rapidly down the side of the gully, and
-for only a few seconds lost sight of him.
-
-But what was my astonishment, upon climbing up the other side, to see
-him coming toward me like a hurricane and not more than seventy yards
-away! He must have started at full speed the moment my back was turned.
-Fortunately the stockade was not far off, and I made for it--hurriedly.
-It is possible, though, that I might not have escaped him, for thin,
-wiry, and almost invisible creepers clutched my legs at every step,
-had not some of the spearmen rushed to my rescue. They actually threw
-sticks at him! But for me it was a very interesting moment.
-
-However, I was in time to see the defeat of the old empress. After
-many vain and furious struggles she was noosed around the left ankle
-with the rope attached to the biggest of all the decoys. At the word,
-this magnificent, six-ton brute picked out a tree, and without even a
-pause dragged the old lady off her feet. To make her humiliation more
-complete, he actually “wiped up the earth with her” when she spread
-herself out on the ground in protest, dragging her along with no more
-effort than if she had been a baby-carriage. But madam had not done
-with them yet. Arrived at the tree, she put up a glorious fight, even
-breaking two ropes, and she might have won a brief liberty had not two
-of the decoys shown marvelous intelligence in blocking her flight,
-butting her into place and firmly lashing her there by winding their
-powerful trunks around her neck from each side. Then, while the ropes
-that forever withheld her from her liberty were being securely knotted
-about her legs, these two gigantic old frauds, looking all the while
-wonderfully benignant and solemn, alternately bullied and flattered
-her. While one caressed her gently with his trunk the other thumped her
-in the ribs, and sometimes, under the guise of affection, both of them
-together would lean their vast bulk against her and force her gently
-but irresistibly into the position desired of their masters. One _knew_
-that in elephant language they were talking to her somewhat after this
-fashion:
-
-“Come, my dear, be reasonable! A little more to the right! Softly!
-_Softly!_ Tut, tut! It’s for your own good. There, now; that’s better.
-Just look at us; and _we_ used to be as wild and foolish as you are.”
-
-And then they cuddled her a little, gave her a final pat while the
-last knot was being tied, and left her! For a little while the old cow
-raged horribly; and then, like her abandoned baby, she broke down and
-cried. It is in such scenes that the fascination of elephant-kraaling,
-is found. The animals not only display a really wonderful intelligence
-and the possession of those lovable qualities we are pleased to
-term “human,” but they exhibit at all times, the trained elephants
-especially, a noble temper and that kind of profound _character_ which
-is associated in our thoughts with only the simplest and noblest of
-men. It must be admitted that the elephants that have been gentled and
-trained by man exhibit the finest intelligence and a majesty of port
-rarely if ever observed in the wild ones. They impress one as having
-become grand under servitude. It is difficult to observe them and
-believe that they would wish to return to their wild state. This is no
-doubt sentimentality on my part, but it is hard to be on close terms
-with a noble elephant and not be awakened to sentiment concerning it.
-
-The noosing of their leader sealed the fate of the rest of the herd
-(not that it had ever been in doubt); but by sunset all had been
-tied to trees save two, and it was reasonably certain these could
-not escape. The last glimpse I had of them they were standing in
-grief-stricken silence before the prostrate figure of a tethered calf
-whose struggles had worn him out. All night the hoarse trumpetings
-of the fettered-up mothers and the wails of their calves filled the
-jungle with lamentation. Occasionally, far off in the wilderness, a
-deep-throated bull would send out a long call of sympathy. Somewhere in
-the darkness the herd that had escaped hovered near, but the beaters’
-line of fires kept them back. The captured ten were lost to the jungle
-forever.
-
-Next morning, in the earliest light, I went up to the stockade to have
-a last look. The youngsters were still bawling and plunging frantically
-against their fetters, but the old empress was motionless and silent.
-So still she stood that in the pale light I took a time exposure of
-her. Her hind quarters and her flanks sagged, and her head expressed
-all the ache of utter despair. Youth might still cry and struggle
-against its fate, but she had given up the fight. Two hours later they
-had harnessed her securely between two mighty bulls, and a pygmy man
-had climbed upon her back. Then she uttered one last and mighty burst
-of anguished rage before she fell into the captive’s stride that was to
-carry her to her new life of labor down on the low-country estates.
-
-I have always been fond of big-game shooting, and I have longed to
-include this mightiest of beasts in my huntsman’s bag; but I came away
-from the kraal with one clear idea in my mind, dominating all others: I
-never shall willingly kill an elephant.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-JOHN QUINCY ADAMS IN RUSSIA
-
-EXTRACTS FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE WAR OF 1812,
-NAPOLEON’S RETREAT FROM MOSCOW, AND CONVERSATIONS WITH MADAME DE STAËL
-
-INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS
-
-
-A century ago at this time the Napoleonic wars, so-called, or the
-convulsions which succeeded the French Revolution of 1789, were rapidly
-drawing to a close. Beginning with the capture of the Bastille, July
-14, 1789, the final catastrophe occurred at Waterloo, June 18, 1815.
-Meanwhile, during the last half of 1812 and the whole of 1813, it is no
-exaggeration to say that the whole world was at war. Up to June, 1812,
-the United States had kept out of the actual fray, maintaining, by
-hook or by crook, a species of so-called neutrality. The affair of the
-_Leopard_ and the _Chesapeake_, unspeakably disgraceful to the United
-States, had occurred off the capes of Virginia in June, 1807. In the
-following December Jefferson’s embargo had been proclaimed; but, having
-proved utterly futile as either a remedial or a protective measure, it
-was removed in March, 1809.
-
-Needless to say, this was for the United States a period of tension and
-deep humiliation. Threats of disunion were freely made, and the first
-steps looking to a secession of the New England States from the Union
-had been taken. On March 4, 1809, James Madison was inaugurated as the
-fourth President, and war with Great Britain was declared in June,
-1812. One of the earliest acts of Madison after taking the oath of
-office had been to nominate John Quincy Adams to represent the United
-States at the court of St. Petersburg. Alexander I, then thirty-five
-years old, was Czar of Russia. Two years before that he had, with
-Napoleon, effected the treaty of Tilsit, so-called, theatrically signed
-on a raft moored in the river Niemen. A temporary peace, therefore,
-existed between the Russian czar and Napoleon, then at the zenith of
-his career; a truce, rather than a peace, destined to be rudely broken
-in the summer of 1812. Napoleon’s disastrous Russian campaign, and
-the War of 1812-15 between the United States and Great Britain, then
-ensued; the latter was drawing to a close just at the end of 1814
-(December 25), six months before the battle of Waterloo.
-
-Mr. Adams’s residence in Russia (1809-1814) covered, therefore, the
-whole of the period of Napoleon’s Russian experience, as also his
-campaign during the subsequent year (1813), intervening between the
-retreat from Moscow and Waterloo. Mr. Adams thus held an official
-position at the very center of conflict during the four most troubled
-years of the nineteenth century. He was in the midst of things. During
-that period also he maintained a constant interchange of familiar,
-family letters, so far as the facilities for such an interchange then
-existed, between St. Petersburg and Quincy, his home in Massachusetts.
-These letters never have seen the light.
-
-On Wednesday, October 16, 1912, the American Antiquarian Society
-celebrated its centennial anniversary at Worcester, Massachusetts. As
-president of a sister, but senior, organization--the Massachusetts
-Historical Society--the writer was invited to take part in this affair,
-contributing to it. His thoughts, therefore, naturally reverted to the
-events taking place at the particular time the society, whose birth was
-thus celebrated, came into existence; and those events were of a very
-exciting and memorable character.
-
-Napoleon was in Moscow that day, anxiously awaiting the results of
-certain negotiations he had undertaken, looking to a possible escape
-from the situation in which he had involved himself. Tidings of the
-utter failure of the negotiations reached him, and the order to
-evacuate Moscow, preliminary to the fatal retreat, was given on October
-18--just two days subsequent to the occurrence we were to celebrate.
-
-On this side of the Atlantic the memorable action between the
-_Constitution_ and the _Guerrière_ had occurred on August 19--just two
-months before; and exactly one week later--October 25--the frigate
-_United States_ captured the _Macedonian_. Thus, during the latter half
-of the year 1812, memorable events followed close on one another’s
-heels. Of all of these, Mr. Adams, in Russia, and his relatives in
-Massachusetts, were deeply interested observers; and a recurrence
-to the letters then interchanged, canvassing these events from the
-contemporary point of view, could hardly fail to be of interest and
-even of historical value.
-
-A portion of the material from the yellowing letter-files of that
-intimate family correspondence is offered in the following extracts.
-They relate exclusively to the events then occurring in Russia and
-America, and to characters now become historic. One letter, of the most
-informal character, describes a long interview with the famous Madame
-de Staël in St. Petersburg, at the time of Napoleon’s Russian campaign,
-the conversation taking place on the day preceding that on which the
-great battle of Borodino was fought (September 7, 1812). It will be
-remembered that Napoleon, considering Madame de Staël an enemy in no
-way to be despised, had some years before treated her accordingly, so
-that in 1812 she was still in exile.
-
-Correspondence between Europe and America in those days was carried on
-under extreme difficulty. Letters, whether passing through the post, or
-confided for delivery to private hands, were freely opened by officials
-in nearly every country. To such a degree was this practised that in
-a letter written from St. Petersburg to his brother, Thomas Boylston
-Adams, John Quincy Adams observed: “Almost every letter I write is
-opened and read either by French or English officers.”
-
-Correspondence, therefore, had to be carried on with great discretion.
-This is apparent in the letters of Mrs. John Adams to her son. In one
-of them, dated from Quincy, July 29, 1812, she says:
-
-    “The declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain,
-    the necessity for which is deplored, renders the communication
-    between us so hazardous that I despair of hearing from you
-    or conveying intelligence to you.... We have not any letters
-    from you of a later date than the 4th March, and we wait in
-    anxious expectation of hearing. I have written to you by various
-    opportunities, and I could not fill many pages with subjects which
-    ought to come to your knowledge of a political nature, if I did not
-    feel myself restrained by the desire I have, that this letter may
-    reach you, as it contains no subject to gratify the curiosity of
-    any one and can be only interesting to yourself as a testimony of
-    the health of your friends.”
-
-And again, writing under date of November 30 following, she says:
-
-    “Your letters gave us the more pleasure, as we had despaired of
-    hearing again from you during the winter. It is almost a forlorn
-    hope to expect any communication between us. The war between France
-    and Russia on the one hand, and America and England on the other,
-    leaves few chances for private correspondence. If while peace
-    existed so little regard was had to letters addrest to a publicke
-    minister that they must be broken open and family and domesticke
-    concerns become the subject of public investigation, there can
-    be but little satisfaction in writing.... Notwithstanding that
-    blundering Irish Lord Castlereagh[1] denies the fact, I cannot
-    expect more respect or civility when the nations are hostile to
-    each other. Should this be destined to similar honor I request Sir
-    William or any of their Lordships to awaken in their own Bosoms
-    some natural affection and kindly forward this letter to the son to
-    whom it is addrest, and whom three years’ absence from his parents
-    and children render it particularly necessary that it should go
-    with safety.”
-
-Curious light on this subject of tampering with correspondence is shown
-in a letter from J. Q. Adams to his mother, dated St. Petersburg, April
-7, 1813:
-
-    “I know not whether it was generosity, or any other virtue, or
-    merely a disposition to receive the postage, that induced the
-    transmission of your favour of 30 December to Mr. Williams of
-    London; for by him it was kindly forwarded to me, and on the first
-    day of this month, to my inexpressible joy, came to hand. It was
-    but so short a time before that I had received your letter of 29
-    July!--and excepting that, not a line from Quincy later than April
-    of the last year. This last letter had apparently been opened,
-    although the impression of your Seal upon the wax was restored--a
-    circumstance which indicates that it was done in England, where
-    they still affect the appearance of not breaking seals at the
-    Post-Office.
-
-    “On this Continent they are less scrupulous about forms. When they
-    open letters, they break the seals, and do not take the trouble of
-    restoring them. They send them open to their address. It reminds
-    me of an anecdote I have lately met with of Prince Kaunitz when he
-    was prime Minister of the Empress Maria Theresa. One of his clerks
-    whose business it was to copy the _opened_ letters, coming to
-    foreign Ministers at Vienna, in the hurry of reclosing a despatch
-    to one of the Envoys, sent him his copy instead of the original.
-    The Envoy went to Prince Kaunitz, showed him the copy that he had
-    received, and complained that the original was withheld from him.
-    The Prince immediately sent for the Clerk, severely reprimanded
-    him in the Envoy’s presence for his blunder, and directed him to
-    bring instantaneously the original despatch. The Clerk brought
-    it accordingly, and the Prince gave it to the Envoy, with many
-    apologies for the trouble occasioned him by the Clerk’s mistake,
-    and assurances of his hope that it would never occur again.”
-
-
-THE SITUATION IN 1812
-
-John Quincy Adams to his mother, Mrs. John Adams
-
-    “St. Petersburg, 24 October, 1812.
-
-    “ ... There is now scarcely a spot upon the habitable globe but
-    is desolated by the scourge of War. I see my own Country writhing
-    under it, and every hope of better prospects vanishing before me.
-    If I turn my eyes around me, I see the flame still more intensely
-    burning. Fire and the Sword are ravaging the Country where I
-    reside. Moscow, the antient Metropolis, one of the most magnificent
-    and most populous Cities of Europe in the hands of an invader,
-    and probably the greatest part of it buried in ashes.[2] Numerous
-    inferior Cities daily devoted to the same Destruction, and Millions
-    of People trampled under the feet of oppression of fugitives from
-    the ruins of their habitations, perishing by hunger, in woods or
-    deserts....
-
-    “We live indeed in an age when it is not lawful for any civilized
-    Nation to be unprepared for or incapable of War. Never, with an
-    aching Heart I say it, never did the warlike Spirit burn with so
-    intense a flame throughout the civilized World as at this moment.
-    Never was the prospect of its continuing to burn and becoming still
-    fiercer, so terrible as now. It would perhaps not be difficult
-    to show that the State of War has become indispensable to the
-    existence both of the French and British _Governments_. That in
-    Peace they would both find their destruction....”
-
-
-John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams
-
-    “St. Petersburg, 24 November, 1812.
-
-    “ ... You know how deeply I was disappointed at the breaking out
-    of our War,[3] precisely at the moment when I entertained the
-    most ardent and sanguine hopes that War had become unnecessary.
-    Its Events have hitherto been far from favourable to our Cause,
-    but they have rather contributed to convince me of its necessity,
-    upon principles distinct from the consideration of its Causes....
-    Our Means of taking the British possessions upon our Continent
-    are so ample and unquestionable that if we do not take them it
-    must be owing to the want of qualities, without which there is no
-    Independent Nation, and which we must acquire at any hazard and any
-    loss.
-
-    “The acquisition of Canada, however, was not and could not be
-    the object of this War. I do not suppose it is expected that we
-    should keep it if we were now to take it. Great Britain is yet too
-    powerful and values her remaining possessions too highly to make it
-    possible for us to retain them at the Peace, if we should conquer
-    them by the War. The time is not come. But the power of Great
-    Britain must soon decline. She is now straining it so excessively
-    beyond its natural extent that it must before long sink under the
-    violence of its own exertions. Her paper credit is already rapidly
-    declining, and she is daily becoming more extravagant in the abuse
-    of it. I believe that her Government could not exist three years at
-    Peace without a National Convulsion. And I doubt whether she can
-    carry on three years longer the War in which she is now engaged,
-    without such failure of her finances as she can never recover. It
-    is in the stage of weakness which must inevitably follow that of
-    overplied and exhausted strength that Canada and all her other
-    possessions would have fallen into our hands without the need of
-    any effort on our part, and in a manner more congenial to our
-    principles, and to Justice, than by Conquest.
-
-    “The great Events daily occurring in the Country whence I now
-    write you are strong and continual additional warnings to us not
-    to involve ourselves in the inextricable labyrinth of European
-    politicks and Revolutions.”
-
-
-John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams
-
-    “St. Petersburg, 30 January, 1813.
-
-    “ ... There are several Americans residing here, who continue to
-    receive frequent letters from their friends at home. Through them
-    and through the English Newspapers we collect the information of
-    the most important events occurring on our side of the Water.
-
-    “ ... The English Government and Nation have been told, and have
-    probably believed that Mr. De Witt Clinton would be elected
-    President instead of Mr. Madison, and that he would instantly make
-    peace with England upon English terms. Of the real issue of the
-    Election we are here not yet informed; though accounts from the
-    United States have reached us to late in November, and they lead us
-    to expect Mr. Madison’s re-election.[4]
-
-    “I never entertained very sanguine hopes of success to our first
-    military efforts by land. I did not indeed anticipate that within
-    six months from the Commencement of the War they would make us the
-    scorn and laughter of all Europe, and that our National Character
-    would be saved from sinking beneath contempt, only by the exploits
-    of our Navy upon the Ocean. Blessing upon the names of #Isaac#
-    Hull[5] and Decatur,[6] and their brave Officers and Men! for
-    enabling an American to hold up his head among the Nations!--The
-    capture of two British frigates successively, by American ships but
-    little superior to them in force has not only been most profoundly
-    felt in England, but has excited the attention of all Europe. It
-    has gone far towards wiping away the disgrace of our two Surrenders
-    in Canada. I believe if the English could have had their choice
-    they would rather have lost Canada the first Campaign, than their
-    two frigates as they have lost them. I hope and pray that the
-    effect of these occurrences upon the national mind in our own
-    Country will be as powerful as it has been in England, but with a
-    different operation.
-
-    “After the news of the _Guerrière’s_ capture, I saw an Article
-    in the ‘Times,’ a _Wellesley_ Paper, written evidently under the
-    impression of great alarm; and explicitly declaring that ‘a new
-    Enemy to Great Britain has appeared upon the Ocean, _which must
-    instantly be crushed_, or would become the most formidable Enemy
-    to her naval supremacy with which she ever had to contend.’ We
-    must rely upon it that this will be the prevailing sentiment of
-    the British Nation. That we must instantly be crushed upon the
-    Ocean--and unless our Spirit shall rise and expand in proportion to
-    the pressure which they can and will apply to crush us, our first
-    success will only serve more effectually to seal our ultimate ruin
-    upon the Sea.
-
-    “The disproportion of force between us and Britain at Sea is so
-    excessive that the very idea of a contest with her upon that
-    Element has something in it of desperation. To her it is only
-    ridiculous. Upon a late debate in the House of Peers, something
-    having been said of the American Navy, Lord Bathurst, one of the
-    Ministers, told their lordships that the American Navy consisted of
-    _five frigates_--and the House burst into a fit of laughter. These
-    five frigates, however, have excited a sentiment quite different
-    from laughter in the five hundred frigates of the British Navy,
-    and if the American People will be as true to themselves as their
-    little despised Navy has proved itself true to them, it is not
-    in the gigantic power of Britain herself to _crush_ us; neither
-    instantly nor in any course of time, upon the Ocean.
-
-    “Hitherto, Fortune, or rather with a grateful Heart would I humbly
-    say Providence, has favoured us in a signal manner. But we must not
-    expect that our frigates will often have the luck of meeting single
-    ships a little inferior in strength to themselves, or of escaping
-    from ships greatly superior to them. That they have not already all
-    fallen into the Enemy’s hands, is matter of surprise as well as of
-    gratulation....
-
-    “The first wish of my heart is for Peace. But the Prospects of
-    Peace, both in Europe and America, are more faint and distant than
-    they have been for many years. War has in the course of the year
-    1812 consumed in the North of Europe alone, at least half a million
-    of human lives, without producing the slightest indication in
-    any of the parties engaged in it of a disposition to sheathe the
-    sword....”
-
-
-John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams
-
-    “St. Petersburg, 31 January, 1813.
-
-    “ ... The spirit of 1775 seems to be extinct in New England,[7] but
-    I hope the profligacy of British policy will not be more successful
-    now than it was then.
-
-    “The War between us and them is now reduced to one single
-    point--_Impressment!_--A cause for which we should not have
-    commenced a War, but without an arrangement of which our Government
-    now say they cannot make Peace. If ever there was a _just_
-    cause for War in the sight of Almighty God, this cause is on
-    our side just. The essence of this Cause is on the British side
-    _Oppression_, on our side _personal liberty_. We are fighting for
-    the _Sailor’s Cause_. The English Cause is the _Press-gang_. It
-    seems to me that in the very Nature of this Cause we ought to find
-    some resources for maintaining it, by operation upon the minds of
-    our own Seamen, and upon those of the Adversary’s. It is sometimes
-    customary for the Commanders of Ships to address their crews, on
-    going into action; and to inspirit them by motives drawn from
-    the cause they are called to support. In this War, when our Ships
-    go into action, their Commanders have the best possible materials
-    for cheering their men to extraordinary exertions of duty. How
-    the English Admirals and Captains will acquit themselves on such
-    occasions I can easily conjecture. But I fancy to myself a Captain
-    telling them honestly that they are fighting for the Cause of
-    Impressment. That having been most of them impressed themselves,
-    in the face of every principle of Freedom, of which their Country
-    boasted, they must all be sensible how _just_ and how _glorious_
-    the right of the Press-gang is, and how clear the right of
-    practising it upon American Sailors as well as upon themselves must
-    be. I think they will not very readily recur to such arguments....
-    The English talk of the _Seduction_ practiced by us upon their
-    Seamen. There is a Seduction in the very Nature of this Cause,
-    which it would be strange indeed if their Seamen were insensible
-    to. I have heard that many of their Seamen taken by us have shown
-    a reluctance at being exchanged, from an unwillingness to be sent
-    back to be impressed again. A more admirable comment upon the
-    character of the War could not be imagined. Prisoners who deem it
-    a hardship to be exchanged! With what heart can they fight for the
-    principle which is to rivet the chains of their own servitude?
-
-    “I have been reading a multitude of speculations in the English
-    Newspapers, about the capture of their two Frigates _Guerrière_ and
-    _Macedonian_. They have settled it that the American forty-fours
-    are line of battle-ships in disguise, and that henceforth all the
-    frigates in the British Navy are to have the privilege of running
-    away from them![8] This of itself is no despicable result of the
-    first half-year of War. Let it be once understood as a matter of
-    course that every single frigate in the British Navy is to shrink
-    from a contest with the large American frigates, and even this will
-    have its effect upon the Spirits of the Tars on both sides. It
-    differs a little from the time when the _Guerrière_ went out with
-    her name painted in Capitals on her fore-topsail, in search of our
-    disguised line of battle-ship _President_.[9]
-
-    “But the English Admiralty have further ordered the immediate
-    construction of seventeen new frigates, to be disguised line of
-    Battle ships too. Their particular destination is to be to fight
-    the Americans. Their numbers will be six to one against us,
-    unless we too taking the hint from one success can build frigate
-    for frigate and meet them on their own terms; in which case if
-    our new ships are commanded and officered, and manned like the
-    _Constitution_ and the _United States_ and _Wasp_,[10] I am
-    persuaded they will in process of time gain one step more upon the
-    maxims of the British Navy, and settle it as a principle that
-    single English ships are not to fight Americans of equal force.
-    Thus much I believe it will be in their power to do. And further I
-    wish them never to go. I hope they will never catch the indolent
-    affectation of seeking Battle against superior force. An English
-    pretension which has been so well chastised in the fate of their
-    two frigates.
-
-    “Our Navy, like all our other Institutions, is formed upon the
-    English model. With regard to the Navy at least the superiority
-    of that model to all others extant is incontestable. But in the
-    British Navy itself there are a multitude of abuses against which
-    we may guard, and there are many improvements of which it is
-    susceptible, and for which the field is open before us. Our three
-    44 gun ships were originally built not as the English pretend for
-    line of Battle ships, but to be a little more than a match in
-    force to the largest European Frigates, and the experience both of
-    our partial War with France, in 1798 and 1799 as well as of our
-    present War with England has proved the wisdom of the principle
-    upon which they were constructed. It has been a great and momentous
-    question among our Statesmen whether we should have any Navy or
-    not. It will probably still be a great question, but Great Britain
-    appears determined to solve all our doubts and difficulties upon
-    the subject. She blockades our Coast, and is resolved to crush us
-    instantly upon the Ocean. We must sink without a struggle, under
-    her hand, or we must have a Navy....”
-
-
-NAPOLEON’S RETREAT FROM MOSCOW
-
-
-John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams
-
-    “St. Petersburg, 30 November, 1812.
-
-    “ ... It may well be doubted whether in the compass of human
-    history since the Creation of the World, a greater, more sudden and
-    more total reverse of Fortune was ever experienced by man, than is
-    now exhibiting in the person of a man, whom Fortune for a previous
-    course of nearly twenty years had favored with a steadiness and
-    a prodigality equally unexampled in the annals of mankind. He
-    entered Russia at the head of three hundred thousand men, on the
-    24th of last June. On the 15th of September he took possession of
-    Moscow, the Russian armies having retreated before him almost as
-    fast as he could advance; not however without attempting to stop
-    him by two Battles, one of which [Borodino] was perhaps the most
-    bloody that had been fought for many ages. He appears really to
-    have concluded that all he had to do was to reach Moscow, and the
-    Russian Empire would be prostrate at his feet. Instead of that it
-    was precisely then that his serious difficulties began. Moscow
-    was destroyed; partly by his troops, and partly by the Russians
-    themselves. His Communications in his rear were continually
-    interrupted and harassed by separate small Detachments from the
-    Russian Army. His two flanks, one upon the Dvina, and the other
-    upon the frontier of Austria were both overpowered by superior
-    forces, which were drawing together and closing behind him; and
-    after having passed six weeks in total inaction at Moscow, he found
-    himself with a starving and almost naked army, eight hundred miles
-    from his frontier, exposed to all the rigour of a Russian Winter,
-    with an Army before him superior to his own and a Country behind
-    him already ravaged by himself, and where he had left scarcely a
-    possibility of any other sentiment than that of execration and
-    vengeance upon himself and his followers.
-
-    “He began his retreat on the 28th of October, scarcely a month
-    since, and at this moment, if he yet lives, he has scarcely the
-    ruins of an Army remaining with him. He has been pursued with all
-    the eagerness that could be felt by an exasperated and triumphant
-    Enemy. Thousands of his men have perished by famine,--thousands by
-    the extremity of the Season, and in the course of the last ten days
-    we have heard of more than thirty thousand who have laid down their
-    arms almost without resistance. His Cavalry is in a more dreadful
-    condition even than his Infantry. He has lost the greatest part
-    of his Artillery,--has abandoned most of the baggage of his army,
-    and has been even reduced to blow up his own stores of ammunition.
-    The two wings of the Russian Armies have formed their junction and
-    closed the passage to his retreat; and according to every human
-    probability within ten days the whole remnant of his host will be
-    compelled like the rest to lay down their arms and surrender at
-    discretion. If he has a soul capable of surviving such an Event, he
-    will probably be a prisoner himself.
-
-    “Should he by some extraordinary accident escape in his own person,
-    he has no longer a force nor the means of assembling one which can
-    in the slightest degree be formidable to Russia. Even before his
-    Career of victory had ceased, commotions against his Government
-    had manifested themselves in his own Capital, on a false rumour of
-    his death which had been circulated. Now, that if he returns at
-    all, it must be as a solitary fugitive, it is scarcely possible
-    that he should be safer at the Thuileries [_sic_], than he would
-    be in Russia. His allies, almost every one of whom was such upon
-    the bitterest compulsion, and upon whom he has brought the most
-    impending danger of ruin, may not content themselves merely with
-    deserting him. Revolutions in Germany, France, and Italy must be
-    the inevitable consequence of this state of things, and Russia,
-    whose influence in the political affairs of the World he expressly
-    threatened to destroy, will henceforth be the arbitress of Europe.
-
-    “It has pleased Heaven for many years to preserve this man, and
-    to make him prosper, as an instrument of divine wrath to scourge
-    mankind. His race is now run, and his own term of punishment has
-    commenced.--‘Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his
-    way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass--for
-    yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt
-    diligently consider his place and it shall not be.’ How often have
-    I thought of this Oracle of divine truth, with an application of
-    the Sentiment to this very man upon whom it is now so signally
-    fulfilling. And how ardently would I pray the supreme disposer of
-    Events that the other and more consolatory part of the same promise
-    may now be also near its accomplishment--‘But the _meek_ shall
-    inherit the Earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of
-    Peace.’”
-
-
-John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams
-
-    “St. Petersburg, 31 December, 1812.
-
-    “ ... In my last letter I gave you a sketch of the situation at
-    that time of Napoleon the Great. There is no Account yet that he
-    has personally surrendered himself;[11] but he has only saved
-    himself by the swiftness of his flight, which on one occasion at
-    least he was obliged to pursue in disguise. Of the immense host
-    with which six months since he invaded Russia, nine tenths at least
-    are prisoners, or food for worms. They have been surrendering
-    by ten thousands at a time, and at this Moment there are at
-    least one hundred and fifty thousand of them in the power of the
-    Emperor Alexander. From Moscow to Prussia, eight hundred miles
-    of road have been strewed with his Artillery, Baggage-Waggons,
-    Ammunition-Chests, dead and dying men who he has been forced to
-    abandon to their fate. Pursued all the time by three large regular
-    armies of a most embittered and exasperated Enemy, and by an almost
-    numberless militia of peasants, stung by the destruction of their
-    harvests and cottages which he had carried before him, and spurr’d
-    to Revenge at once themselves, their Country and their Religion.
-    To complete his disasters, the Season itself during the greatest
-    part of his Retreat has been unusually rigorous even for this
-    Northern Climate. So that it has become a sort of bye-word among
-    the Common People here that the two Russian Generals who have
-    conquered Napoleon and all his Marshals are General _Famine_ and
-    General _Frost_. There may be and probably is some exaggeration
-    in the accounts which have been received and officially published
-    here of the late Events; but where the realities are so certain and
-    so momentous the temptation to exaggerate and misrepresent almost
-    vanishes.
-
-    “In all human probability the Career of Napoleon’s conquests is
-    at an end. France can no longer give the law to the Continent of
-    Europe. How he will make up his account with Germany, the victim
-    of his former successful rashness, and with France, who rewarded
-    it with an Imperial Crown is now to be seen. The transition
-    from the condition of France in June last to her present State
-    is much greater than would be from the present to her defensive
-    campaign against the Duke of Brunswick in 1792. A new Era is
-    dawning upon Europe. The possibility of a more propitious prospect
-    is discernible; but to the great disposer of Events only is it
-    known whether this new Revolution is to be an opening for some
-    alleviation to human misery or whether it is to be only a variation
-    of Calamities.
-
-    “ ... I have already mentioned that the season has been unusually
-    rigorous. In the course of this month of December, we have had
-    seventeen days in succession with Fahrenheit’s thermometer almost
-    invariably below 0. I now write you at that temperature, and
-    notwithstanding the stoves and double windows my fingers can hardly
-    hold the pen. The Sun rises at a quarter past 9 in the morning,
-    and sets a quarter before 3 in the afternoon; so that we must live
-    almost by Candlelight. We are all literally and really sick of the
-    Climate. It is certainly contrary to the course of Nature, for men
-    of the South to invade the Regions of the North. Napoleon should
-    have thought of that....”
-
-
-John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams
-
-    “St. Petersburg, 19 July, 1813.
-
-    “ ... The Battle of Lützen[12] was claimed by both parties as a
-    Victory, and was here celebrated as such by a Te Deum. But in
-    its consequences it was the most important Victory ever won by
-    Bonaparte--for it proved to all Europe that France was still able
-    to cope with her Enemies, and even to make head against them.
-    A second Battle[13] three weeks after had a similar and more
-    unequivocal result. Between the first and second Battles Napoleon
-    had proposed that a Congress should be assembled at Prague in
-    Bohemia, to which all the powers at War, including the United
-    States of America, should be invited to send Plenipotentiaries
-    for the purpose of concluding a general Peace; and he offered to
-    stipulate an Armistice, during the Negotiation. After the second
-    Battle, Russia and Prussia, with the concurrence of Austria,
-    accepted the proposition for an Armistice, limited however to the
-    term of six weeks, probably with a view to receive the answer
-    from England, whether she should choose to be represented at the
-    Congress or not. This Armistice is now on the point of expiring,
-    but is said to have been prolonged for six weeks more. In the
-    meantime Napoleon has quartered his army upon the Territory of his
-    Enemy in Silesia, is levying a contribution upon Hamburg of about
-    ten Millions of Dollars, is doubly fortifying all his positions
-    upon the Elbe, and receiving continual reinforcements to be
-    prepared for renewing an offensive campaign. He has made sure of
-    the aid and support of Denmark and Saxony, and strongly confirmed
-    Austria in her propensities to neutrality. If the War should be
-    renewed his prospects, though infinitely below those with which he
-    invaded Russia, last Summer, will be far above those with which
-    he entered upon the present Campaign in April. If the Congress
-    should meet he will not have it in his power to give the law to
-    Europe; but the Peace must be in effect of reciprocal and important
-    concessions.
-
-    “There has nothing occurred since the commencement of the French
-    Revolution which has occasioned such astonishment throughout Europe
-    as this state of things. There are many examples in History of the
-    extraordinary defeat and annihilation of immensely powerful armies.
-    But the reappearance of a second overpowering host, within five
-    Months after the dissolution of the first, is I believe without a
-    parallel....”[14]
-
-
-John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams
-
-    “St. Petersburg, 19 November, 1813.
-
-    “ ... Since the renewal of the War in Germany the odds of force
-    have been too decisive against the French, and the catastrophe
-    of their Army [at Dresden and Leipsic] has been nearly equal to
-    that of the last year.[15] Napoleon himself has been defeated
-    and overpowered by the four combined armies of Austria, Russia,
-    Prussia and Sweden, and on the 19th of October escaped from Leipsic
-    leaving his ally the king of Saxony a Prisoner, more than twenty
-    of his Generals, and forty thousand men also prisoners, and 400
-    pieces of Cannon, Ammunition, baggage, etc., in proportion to the
-    conquerors. All his other German Allies have deserted him and taken
-    side against him; the Austrians are advancing in Italy, and Lord
-    Wellington with his English, Spaniards and Portuguese, are invading
-    France from the Pyrenees....”
-
-
-John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams
-
-    “St. Petersburg, 24 January, 1814.
-
-    “ ... The Events of the last two years have opened a new prospect
-    to all Europe, and have discovered the glassy substance of the
-    Colossal Power of France. Had that power been acquired by Wisdom,
-    it might have been consolidated by Time and the most ordinary
-    portion of Prudence. The Emperor Napoleon says that he was
-    never _seduced_ by Prosperity; but when he comes to be judged
-    impartially by Posterity, that will not be their sentence. His
-    Fortune will be among the wonders of the age in which he has lived.
-    His Military Talent and Genius will place him high in the Rank
-    of Great Captains; but his intemperate Passion, his presumptuous
-    Insolence, and his Spanish and Russian Wars, will reduce him very
-    nearly to the level of ordinary Men. At all Events he will be one
-    of the standing examples of human Vicissitude--ranged, not among
-    the Alexanders, Cæsars and Charlemagnes, but among the Hannibals,
-    Pompeys and Charles the 12ths. I believe his Romance is drawing
-    towards its close; and that he will soon cease even to yield a
-    pretext for the War against France. England alone will be ‘afraid
-    of the Gunpowder Percy, though he should be dead.’”[16]
-
-
-John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams
-
-    “Reval, 12 May, 1814.
-
-    “ ... The Coalition of all Europe against France has at length
-    been crowned with complete success. The annals of the World do
-    not I believe furnish an example of such a reverse of Fortune as
-    that Nation has experienced within the last two years.[17] The
-    interposition of Providence to produce this mighty change has been
-    so signal, so peculiar, so distinct from all human co-operation,
-    that in ages less addicted to superstition than the present
-    it might have been considered as miraculous. As a Judgment of
-    Heaven, it will undoubtedly be considered by all pious Minds now
-    and hereafter, and I cannot but indulge the Hope that it opens a
-    Prospect of at least more Tranquility and Security to the civilized
-    part of Mankind than they have enjoyed the last half Century.
-    France for the last twenty-five Years has been the scourge of
-    Europe; in every change of her Government she has manifested the
-    same ambitious, domineering, oppressive and rapacious Spirit to
-    all her Neighbours. She has now fallen a wretched and helpless
-    victim into their hands--dethroning the Sovereign she had chosen,
-    and taking back the family she had expelled, at their command;
-    and ready to be dismembered and parceled out as the Resentment
-    or the Generosity of her Conquerors shall determine. The final
-    Result is now universally, and in a great degree justly imputable
-    to one Man. Had Napoleon Bonaparte, with his extraordinary Genius,
-    and transcendent military talents, possessed an ordinary portion
-    of Judgment or common Sense, France might have been for ages the
-    preponderating Power in Europe, and he might have transmitted to
-    his Posterity the most powerful Empire upon Earth, and a name
-    to stand by the side of Alexander, Cæsar and Charlemagne--A name
-    surrounded by such a blaze of Glory as to blind the eyes of all
-    humankind to the baseness of its origin and even to the blood with
-    which it would still have been polluted. But if the Catastrophe
-    is the work of one Man, it was the Spirit of the Times and of the
-    Nation, which brought forward that Man, and concentrated in his
-    person and character the whole issue of the Revolution. ‘Oh! it
-    is the Sport (says Shakespear) to see the Engineer hoist by his
-    own petard.’ The sufferings of Europe are compensated and avenged
-    in the humiliation of France.... The great danger of the present
-    moment appears to me to be that the policy of crippling France to
-    guard against her future power will be carried too far....”
-
-
-MADAME DE STAËL
-
-John Q. Adams to Thomas B. Adams
-
-    “St. Petersburg, 22d November, 1812.
-
-    “ ... Toward the close of the last summer arrived here as a sort of
-    semi official appendage to the British embassy an old acquaintance
-    of yours, Sir Francis D’Ivernois, who as you know has been for many
-    years a distinguished political writer in the French language and
-    in the Interest of the British Government. He came not I believe
-    with, but very soon after, the Embassador Lord Cathcart.[18] just
-    at the same time a lady of celebrated fame, Madame de Staël, the
-    daughter of Mr. Necker, was also here on a transient visit.[19]
-    As I had not the honor of being personally known to Madame de
-    Staël and as we had just received information of the American
-    Declaration of war against Britain, I had no expectation of having
-    any communication or intercourse either with the Embassador or the
-    lady. And I regretted this the less as my whole soul was at that
-    period absorbed in the distressed situation of my family.... Early
-    one morning I received a note from Madame de Staël, requesting me
-    to call on her at her lodgings that same day at noon as she wished
-    to speak to me on a subject respecting America.
-
-    “I went accordingly at the hour appointed and upon entering the
-    lady’s _salon_ found there a company of some fifteen or twenty
-    persons, not a soul of whom I had ever seen before. An elderly
-    gentleman in the full uniform of an English General was seated on
-    a sofa and the lady whom I immediately perceived to be Madame de
-    Staël was complimenting him with equal elegance and fluency upon
-    the glories of his nation, his countryman, Lord Wellington, and
-    his own. The Battle of Salamanca and the bombardment of Copenhagen
-    were themes upon which much was to be said and upon which she said
-    much.[20]
-
-    “When I went in she intermitted her discourse for a moment to
-    receive me and offer me a seat which I immediately took and for
-    about half an hour had the opportunity to admire the brilliancy of
-    her genius as it sparkled incessantly in her conversation. There
-    was something a little too broad and direct in the substance of
-    the panegyrics which she pronounced to allow them the claim of
-    refinement. There was neither disguise nor veil to cover their
-    naked beauties, but they were expressed with so much variety and
-    vivacity that the hearers had not time to examine the thread of
-    their texture. Lord Cathcart received the compliments pointed at
-    himself with becoming modesty; those to his nation with apparent
-    satisfaction and those to the conquest of Salamanca with silent
-    acquiescence. The lady insisted that the British was the most
-    astonishing nation of antient or modern times, the only preservers
-    of social order, the defenders exclusively of the liberties of
-    mankind, to which his lordship added that their glory was in
-    being a moral nation, a character which he was sure they would
-    always preserve. The glittering sprightliness of the Lady and
-    the stately gravity of the Embassador were as well contrasted as
-    their respective topics of praise, and if my mind had been at cast
-    to relish anything in the nature of an exhibition I should have
-    been much amused at hearing a Frenchwoman’s celebration of the
-    generosity of the English towards other nations and a lecture upon
-    national morality from the commander of the expedition Copenhagen.
-
-    [Illustration: Owned by the Century Association, New York.
-    Half-tone plate engraved by H. Davidson
-
-    JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
-
-    FROM THE PORTRAIT, PAINTED IN 1835, BY ASHER B. DURAND]
-
-    “During this sentimental duet between the ambassador and the
-    Embassadress, kept my seat, merely an auditor. The rest of the
-    company were equally silent. Among them was an English Naval
-    Officer, Admiral Bentinck, since deceased. He was then quite the
-    chevalier d’honneur to Madame de Staël but whether the scene did
-    not strike him precisely as it did me or whether his feelings
-    resulting from it were of a more serious nature than mine the
-    moment it was finished he drew a very long breath and sighed it
-    out as if relieved from an offensive burden saying only ‘thank God
-    that’s over.’ He and all the rest of the company immediately after
-    that retired and left me tête-à-tête with Madame de Staël.
-
-    “The subject respecting America was to tell me that she had a
-    large sum in the American funds and to enquire whether I knew how
-    she could contrive to receive the interest which she had hitherto
-    received from England. I gave her such information as I possessed.
-    She had also some lands in the State of New York of which she
-    wished to know the value. I answered her as well as I could but her
-    lands and her funds did not appear to occupy much of her thoughts.
-
-    “She soon asked me if I was related to the celebrated Mr. Adams
-    who wrote the book upon Government. I said I had the happiness
-    of being his son. She said she had read it and admired it very
-    much, that her father. Mr. Necker, had always expressed a very
-    high opinion of it. She next commenced upon Politics and asked
-    how it was possible that America should have declared war against
-    England. In accounting for this phenomenon I was obliged to recur
-    to a multitude of facts not as strongly stamped with British
-    generosity or British Morality as might be expected from the
-    character which she and the Embassador had just been assigning
-    that nation. The orders in council and the press gang afforded but
-    a sorry commentary upon the Chauvinesque defence of the liberties
-    of mankind and no very instructive lessons of morality. She had
-    nothing to say in their defence but she thought that the knights
-    errant of the Human race were to be allowed special indulgence and
-    in consideration of their cause were not to be held by the ordinary
-    obligations of war and peace.
-
-    “There was no probability that any arguments of mine could make
-    any impression upon opinions thus toned. She listened, however,
-    with as much complacency as could be expected to what I said and
-    finally asked me why I had not been to see her before. I answered
-    that her high reputation was calculated to inspire respect no less
-    than curiosity and that however desirous I had been of becoming
-    personally acquainted with her I had thought I could not without
-    indiscretion intrude myself upon her Society. The reason appeared
-    to please her. She said she was to leave this city the next day at
-    noon. She was going to Stockholm to pass the winter and then to
-    England. She wished to have another conversation with me before she
-    went and asked me to call on her the next morning.
-
-    “I readily accepted the invitation and we discussed politics again
-    two or three hours. I found her better conversant with Rhetoric
-    than with Logic. She had much to say about social order, much
-    about universal monarchy, much about the preservation of religion
-    in which she gave me to understand she did not herself believe,
-    and much about the ambition and supremacy of Buonaparte upon which
-    she soon discovered there was no difference of sentiment between
-    us. But why did not America join in the holy cause against the
-    tyrant? First because America had no means of making war against
-    him, she could neither attack him by sea or land. 2d because it was
-    a fundamental maxim of American policy never to intermeddle with
-    the political affairs of Europe. Thirdly because it was altogether
-    unnecessary. He had enemies enough upon his hands already. What!
-    Did not I dread his universal monarchy? Not in the least. I saw
-    indeed a very formidable mass of force arrayed under him, but I saw
-    a mass of force at least as formidable arrayed against him. Europe
-    contained about 100 millions of human beings. He was wielding the
-    means of 15 millions and the means of 85 millions were wielding
-    against him. It was an awful spectacle to behold the shock, but I
-    did not believe nor ever had believed that he would ever be able to
-    subjugate even the continent of Europe. If there had ever been any
-    real danger of such an event it was passed.
-
-    “She herself saw that there was every prospect of his being very
-    shortly driven out of Spain. And I was equally convinced he would
-    be driven out of Russia. It was the very day of the battle of
-    Borodino. ‘J’en accepte l’augure,’ she said. ‘Everything that
-    you say of him is very just. But I have particular reason for
-    resentment against him. I have been persecuted by him in the most
-    shameful manner. I was neither suffered to live anywhere nor to
-    go where I would have gone, all for no other reason but because I
-    would not eulogize him in my writings.’ As to our war with England
-    I told her that I deeply lamented it and yet cherished the hope
-    that it would not last long. That England had forced it upon
-    us by measures as outrageous upon the rights of an independent
-    nation as tyrannical as oppressive as any that could be charged
-    upon Buonaparte. Her pretences were retaliation and necessity.
-    Retaliation upon America for the wrongs of France and necessity
-    for man Stealing. We asked of England nothing but our indisputable
-    rights, but we allowed no special prerogatives to political
-    Quixotism. We did not consider Britain at all as the defender
-    of the liberties of mankind but as another Tyrant pretending to
-    exclusive dominion upon the ocean. A pretension full as detestable
-    and I trusted in God full as chimerical as the pretension of
-    universal monarchy upon the land.
-
-[Illustration: MADAME DE STAËL]
-
-    “Madame de Staël was of her own opinion still but on the point of
-    empressment she owned that my observations were reasonable. I have
-    not yet found a European of any nation except the English who on
-    having this question in its true state brought to a precise point
-    had a syllable to say for the English side. In conclusion I told
-    her that the pretended retaliation of England had compelled us to
-    resort to real retaliation upon them and that as long as they felt
-    a necessity to fight for the practice of stealing men from American
-    merchant vessels on the high seas we should feel the _necessity_ of
-    fighting against it. I could only hope that God would prosper the
-    righteous cause.
-
-    “Madame de Staël charged me if I ever should be again in any place
-    where she should be at the same time not to neglect paying her a
-    visit which I very willingly promised. She left St. Petersburg
-    the same day. I should ask Sir Francis D’Ivernois pardon. I began
-    this letter with him, but whom can one help deserting for Madame
-    de Staël? I will return to Sir Francis by the next opportunity.
-    Dutifully and affectionately yours.”
-
-[Illustration: Half-tone plate engraved by H. Davidson
-
-MY DAUGHTER
-
-FROM THE PAINTING BY FRANK W. BENSON
-
-(THE CENTURY’S AMERICAN ARTISTS SERIES)]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-SIGIRIYA
-
-“THE LIONS’ ROCK” OF CEYLON
-
-BY JENNIE COKER GAY
-
-WITH PICTURES BY DUNCAN GAY
-
-
-    “And after that, that wicked ruler of men (Kassapa) sent his groom
-    and his cook to his brother (Moggallana) to kill him. And finding
-    that he could not fulfil his purpose, he feared danger, and took
-    himself to Sihagiri rock, that was hard for men to climb. He
-    cleared it round about and surrounded it by a rampart, and built
-    galleries in it ornamented with figures of lions; wherefore it took
-    its name of Sihagiri (‘The Lions’ Rock’). Having gathered together
-    all his wealth, he buried it there carefully, and set guards over
-    the treasures he had buried in divers places. He built there a
-    lovely palace, splendid to behold....
-
-    “He planted gardens at the gates of the city.... He observed the
-    sacred days ... and caused books to be written. He made many
-    images, alms-houses, and the like; but he lived on in fear of the
-    world to come and of Moggallana.”[21]
-
-That is what history has to say about the founding of Sigiriya (or
-“Sihagiri,” as it is called in “The Mihavansa,”) and all that it has to
-say; just enough to arouse our interest, and not enough to satisfy it.
-At Anuradhpura we had come across numerous traces of Kassapa’s father,
-Dhatusena, who was counted a great king when he ruled Ceylon fifteen
-hundred years ago. And we were curious to see the place where Kassapa
-had sought safety after he had killed Dhatusena and usurped the
-throne, and had been forced to flee into the jungle for fear of his
-brother Moggallana; so we decided to follow this bold, wild patricide
-to his hiding-place not by the exact trail that he took, for no one
-knows by what roundabout wandering he finally reached the rock, but by
-the more modern and convenient, if somewhat dustier, way that leads
-along the iron rails of the Ceylon Government railroad.
-
-Sigiriya is southeast of Anuradhpura, and only about fifty miles away
-from it in a direct line; but around by way of Kandy, as we purposed
-to go, it is fully three times that far. It lies just north of the
-mountainous center of Ceylon at the edge of the great plain that
-stretches on the one hand to the Indian Ocean and on the other to the
-small waters that separate the island from the Indian peninsula.
-
-A long, hot ride through the western lowlands brought us to
-Polgahawela, where the road we were to follow diverges at a right angle
-from the main line, and we began to climb the magnificent mountains;
-past rice-fields, so substantially terraced up the sides of the hills
-that they looked like monstrous and never-ending fortifications; past
-forests of palms and masses of brilliant flowers; past the world-famed
-botanical gardens of Peradeniya, until just at dusk we came into the
-lovely town of Kandy, which seemed delightfully fresh and cool after
-the heaviness and heat of the plains. Beyond Kandy the road began to
-descend again, until at Matale it suddenly came to an end, and we were
-obliged to look out for some less-modern conveyance for the continuance
-of our journey.
-
-[Illustration: SIGIRIYA ROCK]
-
-On the northeast coast of the island is a little place called
-Trincomali. For the convenience of this village and the scattered
-native settlements that lie between, a daily coaching service is
-maintained, and this we found we might take as far as Dambolo. The
-vehicle that was called a coach had a seat in front for the Cingalese
-driver and the mail-bags, and behind this, two lengthwise seats
-facing each other, which on a pinch could hold six persons, three on
-a side. Into this conveyance we climbed; in climbed also a shiny,
-round-headed Tamil, two wild-looking, magnificently dressed gentlemen
-from Afghanistan, and a mild and smiling Mohammedan. All the morning
-we rode, and at noon we changed horses and took lunch at a wayside
-rest-house. The Afghans left us here, and I felt more comfortable,
-for their mustaches curled in such a terribly fierce way, and their
-remarkable costumes offered such unlimited opportunity for the carrying
-of concealed weapons, as to warrant a certain uneasiness. We alighted
-at Dambolo, and the stage went on and left us. And yet Dambolo is a
-long way from Sigiriya--a long, long way in point of time.
-
-The little rest-house that the Government places wherever one wishes
-to spend the night took us in and gave us a room, and its Mohammedan
-keeper advised us to use the rest of the afternoon seeing the rock
-temples that have made Dambolo famous. Obediently we went to visit
-these gorgeously decorated caverns, but, I am sorry to confess, they
-gave me no pleasure. They are wonderful, or would be if one were given
-an opportunity to look at them in peace and quiet; but one cannot
-wonder or admire or enjoy, or do anything but fume, with dozens of
-sleek yellow priests hanging about and holding out hands for Money!
-money!” at the opening of every door and at the entrance and exit of
-every cavern. This is a nuisance that the Government most certainly
-should correct, for it spoils the enjoyment of many of the island’s
-remarkable ruins.
-
-[Illustration: VIEW OF THE WESTERN PORTION OF THE GALLERY LEADING TO
-THE CITADEL OF SIGIRIYA]
-
-We came down from the caves rather discouraged, but were somewhat
-cheered when we looked upon the decorations of the table that had been
-set for our dinner. An elaborate design was traced on the table-cloth
-by a sprinkling of rice that had been dyed a bright pink. The very
-holes in the cloth, and these were numerous, were turned into part
-of the decoration; for they were made the centers of flowers or the
-eyes of a bird, and one triangular rent formed the roof of a little
-cottage. The keeper of the rest-house, who seemed to be cook, waiter,
-and chambermaid, told us as he served the rice and chicken that he had
-engaged a bullock-cart to take us the rest of the way. It was late the
-next morning before the bullock, the cart, and the driver appeared at
-our door. A bullock about the size of a three-months’-old calf, an
-equally tiny cart, with an arched cover woven of split bamboo, and of
-course without a suggestion of springs, and a Tamil driver, his head
-tied up in the brightest of handkerchiefs, and with the ubiquitous
-sarong (only it is not called a sarong in Ceylon) dangling about his
-heels, made up our equipment for the last stage of the journey.
-
-[Illustration: THE AUDIENCE-HALL ROCK]
-
-The fabled tortoise was an animal of speed compared with that bullock.
-Had we made an earlier start, I am sure we could have walked the whole
-way; but the terrible sun made walking impossible, and we were forced
-to keep huddled down under the cart’s protecting thatch. We could count
-the seconds while the little animal seemed to stand poised after each
-step. Even twisting his tail did little good, and beating none at all.
-Along each side of the road the jungle formed a solid wall too dense
-for beauty. Occasionally a bright-plumed bird peeped out through the
-trees, and once a small panther-like animal showed himself at the
-roadside, and our bullock actually ran until he was well away from the
-danger.
-
-[Illustration: ONE OF THE ENTRANCES TO THE GALLERY LEADING TO SIGIRIYA]
-
-We were hot and dusty and tired when at last we came in sight of
-Sigiriya, but in the presence of the strange impressiveness of this
-enormous rock, heat, dust, and weariness passed from our thoughts like
-a dream. It rose, this great shaft of granite, high above the trees,
-like some enormous mushroom sprung suddenly from the dank flatness of
-the jungle. Against the dusty green of the surrounding forest and the
-burned-out blue of the pale, hot sky its simple and majestic outline
-showed clean and sharp. But past all understanding was the brilliance
-of coloring that marked its walls. In the glare of the declining sun
-it looked as though a mighty battle had been fought upon the level
-crown, and the blood of thousands of warriors had spilled and trickled
-over the edge and down the cliff, and so set an indelible mark of
-fierceness and anger on the face of this somber jungle monster.
-
-At first we could see no evidence of past human occupation; but by and
-by, as we drew nearer, we were able to detect a little spiral line,
-broken here and there, that seemed to be wound about the face of the
-cliff. What concerned us more at the time, however, was that we could
-see no signs of present human habitation, and we were in sore need,
-after the jolt, jolt, jolt of our wretched little cart, of food and a
-place where we might sleep. Our Tamil driver, while he belabored his
-bullock to make him hurry, had been telling us of the elephants and
-tigers that lived out here in the jungle, and we could easily see for
-ourselves that the woods were thick enough to shelter a whole menagerie
-of animals; so it was with the greatest relief that we presently saw
-a little rest-house in front of us, and leaving the small bullock and
-his black driver to come as they pleased, we took to our own feet and
-hurried on to the protecting inclosure. After a long rest and a long
-good supper, we took our “Mihavansa,” and, there under the brow of the
-great “Lions’ Rock,” read again the strange, fragmentary history of
-Kassapa and his crime.
-
-    “ ... And he (Dhatusena) had two sons,--Kassapa, whose mother was
-    unequal in rank to his father, and Moggallana, a mighty man, whose
-    mother was of equal rank with his father. Likewise also he had a
-    beautiful daughter, who was as dear unto him as his own life. And
-    he gave her to wife unto his sister’s son, to whom also he gave
-    the office of chief of the army. And he (the nephew) scourged her
-    on the thighs, albeit there was no fault in her. And when the king
-    saw that his daughter’s cloth was stained with blood, he learned
-    the truth and was wroth, and caused his nephew’s mother to be
-    burnt naked. From that time forth the nephew bare malice against
-    the king; and he joined himself unto Kassapa, and tempted him to
-    seize the kingdom and betray his father. And then he gained over
-    the people, and caused the king his father to be taken alive. And
-    Kassapa raised the canopy of dominion after that he had destroyed
-    the men of the king’s party and received the support of the wicked
-    men in the kingdom. Thereupon Moggallana endeavored to make war
-    against him. But he could not obtain a sufficient force, and
-    proceeded to the Continent of India with the intent to raise an
-    army there.
-
-    “And that he might the more vex the king, who was now sorely
-    afflicted ... this wicked general spake to Kassapa the king,
-    saying, ‘O king, the treasures of the royal house are hidden by
-    thy father.’ And when the king said unto him, ‘Nay,’ he answered,
-    saying, ‘Knowest thou not, O Lord of the land, the purpose of this
-    thy father? He treasureth up the riches for Moggallana.’ And when
-    the base man heard these words he was wroth, and sent messengers
-    unto his father, saying, ‘Reveal the place where thou hast hid the
-    treasure.’ Thereupon the king thought to himself, saying: ‘This
-    is a device whereby the wretch seeketh to destroy us’; and he
-    remained silent. And they (the messengers) went and informed the
-    king thereof. And his anger was yet more greatly increased, and he
-    sent the messengers back unto him again and again. Then the king
-    (Dhatusena) thought to himself, saying, ‘It is well that I should
-    die after that I have seen my friend and washed myself in the
-    Kalavapi.’ So he told the messengers saying, ‘Now, if he will cause
-    me to be taken to Kalavapi, then shall I be able to find out the
-    treasure.’
-
-    “And when they went and told the king thereof he was exceedingly
-    glad, because that he desired greatly to obtain the treasure, and
-    he sent the messengers back to his father with a chariot. And while
-    the king, with his eyes sunk in grief, proceeded on the journey to
-    Kalavapi, the charioteer who drove the chariot gave him some of the
-    roasted rice that he ate....
-
-    “And when his friend, the Elder, heard that the king was coming,
-    he preserved and set apart a rich meal of beans with the flesh of
-    water-fowls that he had obtained, saying, ‘The king loveth this
-    sort of meat.’ ...
-
-    “Then the king went up to the tank, and after that he had plunged
-    therein and bathed and drank of its water as it pleased him, he
-    turned to the king’s servants and said, ‘O friends, this is all
-    the treasure that I possess!’ And when the king’s servants heard
-    these words they took him back to the city and informed the king.
-    Then the chief of men was exceeding wroth and said, ‘This man
-    hoardeth up riches for his son; and so long as he liveth will
-    he estrange the people of the island from me.’ And he commanded
-    the chief of the army, saying, ‘Kill my father.’ Thereupon he
-    (the general), who hated him exceedingly, was greatly delighted
-    and said, ‘Now have I seen the last of my enemy.’ And he arrayed
-    himself in all his apparel, and went up to the king, and walked
-    to and fro before him.... Then this violent man stripped the king
-    naked, and bound him with chains inside the walls of his prison
-    with his face to the east and caused it to be plastered up with
-    clay. What wise man, therefore, after that he hath seen such
-    things, will covet riches, or life, or glory!”
-
-Kassapa was most certainly a wicked man,--the reading of “The
-Mihavansa” leaves no doubt of that,--but when we came next day to look
-over the remains of his city and to study this formidable rock that
-he had subjugated and turned into a citadel, we knew that he was also
-a man of genius. When he found that he was in danger from his brother
-Moggallana, whom he had attempted in vain to kill, he led his host of
-half-naked warriors out from the ancient capital of Anuradhpura into
-the jungle, seeking for a refuge. Whether design or accident led him to
-Sigiriya we do not know, but we do know that once having looked upon
-its four hundred feet of towering walls and upon its uplifted acres, he
-had the wisdom to see its possibilities and the genius to overcome the
-difficulties, to an ordinary man the impossibilities, of the situation.
-I dare say the abundance of his need helped his genius to speak; but
-no matter what his incentive, when he conceived the notion of building
-against this gigantic, cylindrical rock a spiral gallery which would
-place at his disposal the four flat acres that crowned the summit, he
-laid claim to the respect and admiration of ages.
-
-The sides of the rock, which we had at first supposed to be
-perpendicular, are really concave, and perhaps it would be more exact
-to speak of this gallery as being built into, rather than against,
-the mighty column. With such surpassing genius is it placed that it
-literally makes itself one with the rock it embraces. To gain some sort
-of foothold for the masonry, deep grooves were cut in the face of the
-cliff, and from these a wall of brick and mortar was erected, and this
-in turn supported the great limestone blocks which form the surface of
-the road. This roadway was wide enough for four men to walk abreast,
-and was protected by a wall nine feet high.
-
-It is hard to emphasize sufficiently the wild boldness of the
-conception and achievement. From base to summit the splendid gallery
-mounted. Breaking the gentle slope here and there to lift itself
-suddenly by a short flight of stairs, buttressed at one too abrupt
-corner, snuggling at places under the brow of the rock, and at the one
-terrace that breaks the height on the north side, it rose in direct
-steps between the paws and up through the body of a great masonry
-lion that Kassapa had built against the cliff. Finally it sought out
-the only place where the top does not overhang the sides for its last
-hurried dash before flinging itself triumphantly over the edge of the
-summit.
-
-The walls of this gallery were finished with some smooth, shining white
-cement. It must have looked, when it was all in place, like a huge,
-gleaming serpent wound about the face of the rock. Of course at the
-present day much of it, indeed most of it, has fallen away; but the
-fact that, despite the washing rains that for many years have come
-pouring over the sides of the rock, one hundred yards of it remains in
-almost perfect condition is proof of its splendid construction. For
-the rest of the way the gallery can be traced by the deep grooves that
-supported its base.
-
-When, with the help of these grooves and the protecting bars that the
-Government has kindly placed to give the adventurous traveler at least
-a chance to reach the summit in safety, we had climbed to the very top,
-we understood at last the unnatural markings on the face of the cliff
-that had before puzzled us. Kassapa built his citadel of bright-red
-brick. The whole crown of the rock was covered with his palaces, and
-after they had fallen and crumbled, the heavy rains smeared the walls
-with great streaks and patches of this brilliant stain.
-
-[Illustration: PLAN OF THE TOPMOST PORTION OF THE INNER CITY OF
-SIGIRIYA. (BASED ON A CEYLON GOVERNMENT SURVEY MAP)
-
-The right-hand side of the map is the north side, the top is the west.]
-
-The ground that lies at the base of the rock is not less interesting
-than that upon its summit. Over the wooded sides of the little hill
-that culminates in the great shaft, and spreading out into the jungle
-about its foot, are the remains of the city that Kassapa built for his
-army and followers. A strange city it must have been. The main houses
-were of brick with tiled roofs, but these more formal dwellings were
-supplemented by semi-caves tucked under the sides of every available
-boulder. All the large stones show notches, cut evidently to hold the
-ends of rafters and roof-beams. Up many of the highest boulders steps
-have been hewn, possibly to make them accessible as watch-towers,
-and at almost every turn one comes upon the indispensable cistern
-that made living through the long dry season possible. Some of these
-reservoirs were hewn out of solid stone, but most were built of brick
-and cement, and the one little stream in the neighborhood was dammed
-to form a large pond, which even now lies like a lake at the foot of
-the little hill. So there was an outer city interspersed with gardens,
-an inner city set on innumerable terraces up the slope of the hill,
-and surmounting all, lifted four hundred feet above the crest of the
-hill on its gigantic pedestal, stood the king’s palace and citadel. And
-about all the city Kassapa built great protecting walls. So three times
-over Kassapa fortified himself.
-
-We tried to trace the main passageway from the outer fortification to
-the foot of the gallery, but we had only our imagination for a guide.
-When we came to the huge balloon-like boulders that form a gateway to
-a flight of steps, we felt sure that we had found the main entrance
-to the inner city. The face of these boulders showed the usual cuts
-for the support of rafters, and we could trace about them in masses
-of decaying brick the outer walls of what might have been watchmen’s
-lodges. Up these steps and a few feet farther on lies the stone that is
-called the audience-hall rock. This is the half of a great elliptical
-rock laid round side down. Its upper surface has been cut to form a
-floor, with an elevated platform at the upper end, and about its edges
-a heavy coping, all cut from the rock itself. Here presumably the lord
-of the city sat to receive ambassadors and visitors from the outside
-world, as no one not a follower of Kassapa was admitted to the central
-citadel.
-
-But strangest of all the Sigiriya ruins, as unique in thought and
-masterly in execution as the great spiral gallery itself, are the
-remains of a pictured procession that some believe once marched across
-the whole face of the cliff. The fragments of this great picture show
-female figures, larger than life, carrying in their hands bunches of
-fruit and flowers. They are painted on smooth, white plaster in colors
-that apparently have lost none of their brilliancy, and are so strongly
-drawn in face and figure that by some they are held to be portraits of
-the women of Kassapa’s court. Though this fresco may have encircled the
-rock, it remains now only in the protected crevices of its western face.
-
-For eighteen years Kassapa lived and reigned at Sigiriya. He was as
-secure in his fortress as though he lived in the clouds. His army
-remained faithful. His colony was thriving, and yet in the end he fell
-into the hands of that dreaded Moggallana. One day word was brought
-to him that his brother had returned from India, and with an army was
-advancing against him. Instead of remaining within his fortifications
-and challenging his brother to penetrate to his citadel, he went down
-from his rock to meet his enemy.
-
-Even then he might have been victorious had not blind chance
-interfered. In the course of the battle, Kassapa, riding in advance of
-his army, came to a marsh, and turned his elephant to avoid it. When
-his followers saw this, the cry went up that the king was retreating,
-and the whole army broke in confusion, and fled through the woods.
-Kassapa tried in vain to check the panic, and finally cut his own
-throat. And “Moggallana was pleased with this deed of boldness of his
-brother, and performed the rite of cremation over his dead body; and
-having gathered all his spoils, went up to the royal city.”
-
-So Sigiriya fell from being a kingly citadel, and was given over to the
-priesthood. Why it was finally abandoned by the priests we do not know,
-but for centuries now it has stood in majestic loneliness watching over
-the jungle.
-
-
-
-
-AT THE CLOSED GATE OF JUSTICE
-
-BY JAMES D. CORROTHERS
-
-
-    To be a Negro in a day like this
-      Demands forgiveness. Bruised with blow on blow,
-    Betrayed, like him whose woe-dimmed eyes gave bliss,
-      Still must one succor those who brought one low,
-    To be a Negro in a day like this.
-
-    To be a Negro in a day like this
-      Demands rare patience--patience that can wait
-    In utter darkness. ’Tis the path to miss,
-      And knock, unheeded, at an iron gate,
-    To be a Negro in a day like this.
-
-    To be a Negro in a day like this
-      Demands strange loyalty. We serve a flag
-    Which is to us white freedom’s emphasis.
-      Ah! one must love when truth and justice lag,
-    To be a Negro in a day like this.
-
-    To be a Negro in a day like this--
-      Alas! Lord God, what evil have we done?
-    Still shines the gate, all gold and amethyst,
-      But I pass by, the glorious goal unwon,
-    “Merely a Negro”--in a day like _this_!
-
-
-
-
-BELLES DEMOISELLES PLANTATION[22]
-
-BY GEORGE W. CABLE
-
-Author of “Old Creole Days,” “The Grandissimes,” “Madame Delphine,” etc.
-
-WITH PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR AND NEW PICTURES BY W. M. BERGER
-
-(NOTEWORTHY STORIES OF THE LAST GENERATION)
-
-
-The original grantee was Count----
-
-Assume the name to be De Charleu; the old Creoles never forgive a
-public mention. He was the French king’s commissary. One day, called
-to France to explain the lucky accident of the commissariat having
-burned down with his account-books inside, he left his wife, a Choctaw
-comtesse, behind.
-
-Arrived at court, his excuses were accepted, and that tract was granted
-him where afterward stood Belles Demoiselles Plantation. A man cannot
-remember everything. In a fit of forgetfulness he married a French
-gentlewoman, rich and beautiful, and “brought her out.” However, “All’s
-well that ends well”; a famine had been in the colony, and the Choctaw
-comtesse had starved, leaving naught but a half-caste orphan family
-lurking on the edge of the settlement, bearing our French gentlewoman’s
-own new name, and being mentioned in monsieur’s will.
-
-And the new comtesse--she tarried only a twelvemonth--left monsieur a
-lovely son, and departed, led out of this vain world by the swamp-fever.
-
-From this son sprang the proud Creole family of De Charleu. It rose
-straight up, up, up, generation after generation, tall, branchless,
-slender, palm-like, and finally, in the time of which I am to tell,
-flowered, with all the rare beauty of a century-plant, in Artémise,
-Innocente, Félicité, the twins Marie and Martha, Léontine, and little
-Septima, the seven beautiful daughters for whom their home had been
-fitly named Belles Demoiselles.
-
-The count’s grant had once been a long point round which the
-Mississippi used so to whirl and seethe and foam that it was horrid
-to behold. Big whirlpools would open and wheel about in the savage
-eddies under the low bank, and close up again, and others open and
-spin and disappear. Great circles of muddy surface would boil up from
-the depths below and gloss over and seem to float away; sink, come back
-again under water, and with only a soft hiss surge up again, and again
-drift off and vanish. Every few minutes the loamy bank would tip down a
-great load of earth upon its besieger, and fall back a foot, sometimes
-a yard, and the writhing river would press after, until at last the
-_pointe_ was quite swallowed up, and the great river glided by in a
-majestic curve and asked no more. The bank stood fast, the “caving”
-became a forgotten misfortune, and the diminished grant was a long,
-sweeping, willowy bend, rustling with miles of sugar-cane.
-
-Coming up the Mississippi in the sailing-craft of those early days,
-about the time one first could descry the white spires of the old St.
-Louis Cathedral, one would be pretty sure to spy just over to the
-right, under the levee, Belles Demoiselles mansion, with its broad
-veranda and red-painted cypress roof, peering over the embankment, like
-a bird in the nest, half hidden by the avenue of willows which one of
-the departed De Charleus--he that married a Marot--had planted on the
-levee’s crown.
-
-The house stood unusually near the river, facing eastward, and standing
-foursquare, with an immense veranda about its sides, and a flight of
-steps in front spreading broadly downward, as we open arms to a child.
-From the veranda nine miles of river were seen; and in their compass,
-near at hand, the shady garden, full of rare and beautiful flowers;
-farther away broad fields of cane and rice and the distant quarters
-of the slaves; and on the horizon everywhere a dark belt of cypress
-forest.
-
-The master was old Colonel De Charleu--Jean-Albert-Henri-Joseph De
-Charleu-Marot, and “Colonel” by the grace of the first American
-governor. Monsieur--he would not speak to any one who called him
-“Colonel”--was a hoary-headed patriarch. His step was firm; his form
-erect; his intellect strong and clear; his countenance classic, serene,
-dignified, commanding; his manners were courtly; his voice was musical,
-fascinating. He had had his vices all his life, but had borne them,
-as his race does, with a serenity of conscience and a cleanness of
-mouth that left no outward blemish on the surface of the gentleman.
-He had gambled in Royal Street, drank hard in Orleans Street, run his
-adversary through in the dueling-ground at Slaughter-House Point, and
-danced and quarreled at the St. Phillippe-Street Theater quadroon
-balls. Even now, with all his courtesy and bounty, and a hospitality
-which seemed to be entertaining angels, he was bitter-proud and
-penurious, and deep down in his hard-finished heart loved nothing
-but himself, his name, and his motherless children. But these! Their
-ravishing beauty was all but excuse enough for the unbounded idolatry
-of their father. Against these seven goddesses he never rebelled. Had
-they even required him to defraud old De Carlos--I can hardly say.
-
-Old De Carlos was his extremely distant relative on the Choctaw side.
-With this single exception, the narrow, thread-like line of descent
-from the Indian wife, diminished to a mere strand by injudicious
-alliances, and deaths in the gutters of old New Orleans, was extinct.
-The name, by Spanish contact, had become De Carlos, but this one
-surviving bearer of it was known to all, and known only, as Injin
-Charlie.
-
-One thing I never knew a Creole to do: he will not utterly go back on
-the ties of blood, no matter what sort of knots those ties may he. For
-one reason, he is never ashamed of his or his father’s sins; and for
-another, he will tell you, he is “all heart.”
-
-So the different heirs of the De Charleu estate had always strictly
-regarded the rights and interests of the De Carloses, especially
-their ownership of a block of dilapidated buildings in a part of the
-city which had once been very poor property, but was beginning to be
-valuable. This block had much more than maintained the last De Carlos
-through a long and lazy lifetime, and as his household consisted
-only of himself and an aged and crippled Negress, the inference was
-irresistible that he “had money.” Old Charlie, though by alias an
-“Injin,” was plainly a dark white man, about as old as Colonel De
-Charleu, sunk in the bliss of deep ignorance, shrewd, deaf, and, by
-repute at least, unmerciful.
-
-The colonel and he always conversed in English. This rare
-accomplishment, which the former had learned from his Scotch wife,
-the latter from up-river traders, they found an admirable medium of
-communication, answering better than French could a purpose similar
-to that of the stick which we fasten to the bit of one horse and to
-the breast-gear of another, whereby each keeps his distance. Once in a
-while, too, by way of jest, English found its way among the ladies of
-Belles Demoiselles, always signifying that their sire was about to have
-business with old Charlie.
-
-Now, a long-standing wish to buy out Charlie troubled the colonel. He
-had no desire to oust him unfairly, he was proud of being always fair;
-yet he did long to engross the whole estate under one title. Out of his
-luxurious idleness he had conceived this desire, and thought little of
-so slight an obstacle as being already somewhat in debt to old Charlie
-for money borrowed, and for which Belles Demoiselles was of course good
-ten times over. Lots, buildings, rents, all, might as well be his, he
-thought, to give, keep, or destroy. Had he but the old man’s heritage!
-Ah, he might bring that into existence which his _belles demoiselles_
-had been begging for “since many years--” a home, and such a home,
-in the gay city! Here he should tear down this row of cottages and
-make his garden wall; there that long rope-walk should give place to
-vine-covered arbors; the bakery yonder should make way for a costly
-conservatory; that wine warehouse should come down; and the mansion
-go up. It should be the finest in the State. Men should never pass it
-but they should say: “The palace of the De Charleus, a family of grand
-descent, a people of elegance and bounty, a line as old as France, a
-fine old man, and seven daughters as beautiful as happy. Whoever dare
-attempt to marry there must leave his own name behind him.”
-
-The house should be of stones fitly set, brought down in ships from the
-land of “_les_ Yankees” and it should have an airy belvedere, with a
-gilded image tiptoeing and shining on its peak, and from it you should
-see, far across the gleaming folds of the river, the red roof of Belles
-Demoiselles, the country-seat. At the big stone gate there should be a
-porter’s lodge, and it should be a privilege even to see the ground.
-
-Truly they were a family fine enough and fancy-free enough to have fine
-wishes, yet happy enough where they were to have had no wish but to
-live there always.
-
-To those who by whatever fortune wandered into the garden of Belles
-Demoiselles some summer afternoon as the sky was reddening toward
-evening, it was lovely to see the family gathered out upon the tiled
-pavement at the foot of the broad front steps, gaily chatting and
-jesting, with that ripple of laughter that comes pleasingly from a
-bevy of girls. The father would be found seated among them, the center
-of attention and compliment, witness, arbiter, umpire, critic, by his
-beautiful children’s unanimous appointment, but the single vassal, too,
-of seven absolute sovereigns.
-
-Now they would draw their chairs near together in eager discussion of
-some new step in the dance or the adjustment of some rich adornment.
-Now they would start about him with excited comments to see the eldest
-fix a bunch of violets in his buttonhole. Now the twins would move down
-a walk after some unusual flower, and be greeted on their return with
-the high-pitched notes of delighted feminine surprise.
-
-As evening came on they would draw more quietly about their paternal
-center. Often their chairs were forsaken, and they grouped themselves
-on the lower steps one above another, and surrendered themselves to the
-tender influences of the approaching night. At such an hour the passer
-on the river, already attracted by the dark figures of the broad-roofed
-mansion and its woody garden standing against the glowing sunset,
-would hear the voices of the hidden group rise from the spot in the
-soft harmonies of an evening song, swelling clearer and clearer as the
-thrill of music warmed them into feeling, and presently joined by the
-deeper tones of the father’s voice; then, as the daylight passed quite
-away, all would be still, and the passer would know that the beautiful
-home had gathered its nestlings under its wings.
-
-And yet, for mere vagary, it pleased them not to be pleased.
-
-“Arti,” called one sister to another in the broad hall one morning,
-mock amazement in her distended eyes, “something is goin’ to took
-place!”
-
-“Comm-e-n-t?” in long-drawn perplexity.
-
-“Papa is goin’ to town!”
-
-The news passed up-stairs.
-
-“Inno,”--one to another meeting in a doorway,--“something is goin’ to
-took place!”
-
-“Qu’est-ce-que c’est?” in vain attempt at gruffness.
-
-“Papa is goin’ to town!”
-
-The unusual tidings were true. It was afternoon of the same day that
-the colonel tossed his horse’s bridle to his groom, and stepped up
-to old Charlie, who was sitting on his bench under a china-tree, his
-head, as was his fashion, bound in a madras handkerchief. The “old
-man” was plainly under the effect of spirits, and smiled a deferential
-salutation, without trusting himself to his feet.
-
-“Eh, well, Charlie,”--the colonel raised his voice to suit his
-kinsman’s deafness,--“how is those times with my friend Charlie?”
-
-“Eh?” said Charlie, distractedly.
-
-“Is that goin’ well with my friend Charlie?”
-
-“In the house; call her,” making pretense of rising.
-
-“_Non, non_; I don’t want,”--the speaker paused to breathe,--“’Ow is
-collection?”
-
-“Oh,” said Charlie, “every day he make me more poorer.”
-
-“What do you hask for it?” asked the planter, indifferently,
-designating the house with a wave of his whip.
-
-“Ask for w’at?” said Injin Charlie.
-
-“De _house_. What you ask for it?”
-
-“I don’t believe,” said Charlie.
-
-“What you would _take_ for it?” cried the planter.
-
-“Wait for w’at?”
-
-“What you would _take_ for the whole block?”
-
-“I don’t want to sell him.”
-
-“I’ll give you _ten thousand dollah’_ for it.”
-
-“Ten t’ousand dollah’ for dis house? Oh, no, that is no price. He is
-blame’ good old house, that old house.” Old Charlie and the colonel
-never swore in presence of each other. “Forty years that old house
-didn’t had to be paint’! I easy can get fifty t’ousand dollah’ for that
-old house.”
-
-“Fifty thousand picayunes, yes,” said the colonel.
-
-“She’s a good house. Can make plenty money,” pursued the deaf man.
-
-“That’s what make’ you so rich, eh, Charlie?”
-
-“_Non_, I don’t make nothing. Too blame’ clever, me, dat’s de troub’.
-She’s a good house; make money fast like a steamboat; make a barrelful
-in a week. Me, I lose money all the days. Too blame’ clever.”
-
-“Charlie.”
-
-“Eh?”
-
-“Tell me what you’ll take.”
-
-“Make? I don’t make _nothing_. Too blame’ clever.”
-
-“What will you _take_?”
-
-“Oh, I got enough already; half drunk now.”
-
-“What you will take for the ’ouse?”
-
-“You want to buy her?”
-
-“I don’t know,”--shrug,--“may_be_, if you sell it cheap.”
-
-“She’s a bully old house.”
-
-There was a long silence. By and by old Charlie began:
-
-“Old Injin Charlie is a low-down dog.”
-
-“C’est vrai, oui,” retorted the colonel in an undertone.
-
-“He’s got Injin blood in him.”
-
-The colonel nodded assent.
-
-“But he’s got some blame’ good blood, too, ain’t it?”
-
-The colonel nodded impatiently.
-
-“_Bien._ Old Charlie’s Injin blood says, ‘Sell the house, Charlie, you
-blame’ old fool!’ _Mais_, old Charlie’s good blood says, ‘Charlie, if
-you sell that old house, Charlie, you low-down old dog, Charlie, what
-de Comte De Charleu make for you’ grace-gran’muzzer, de dev’ can eat
-you, Charlie, I don’t care.’”
-
-“But you’ll sell it, anyhow, won’t you, old man?”
-
-“No!” And the no rumbled off in muttered oaths like thunder out on the
-gulf. The incensed old colonel wheeled and started off.
-
-“Curl!” [“Colonel”] said Charlie, standing up unsteadily.
-
-The planter turned with an inquiring frown.
-
-“I’ll trade with you,” said Charlie. The colonel was tempted. “’Ow’ll
-you trade?” he asked.
-
-“My house for yours.”
-
-The old colonel turned pale with anger. He walked very quickly back,
-and came close up to his kinsman.
-
-“Charlie,” he said.
-
-“Injin Charlie,” with a tipsy nod.
-
-But by this time self-control was returning. “Sell Belles Demoiselles
-to you?” he said in a high key, and then laughed, “Ho! ho! ho!” and
-rode away.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-A cloud, but not a dark one, overshadowed the spirits of Belles
-Demoiselles Plantation. The old master, whose beaming presence had
-always made him a shining Saturn, spinning and sparkling within the
-bright circle of his daughters, fell into musing fits, started out of
-frowning reveries, walked often by himself, and heard business from his
-overseer fretfully.
-
-No wonder. The daughters knew his closeness in trade, and attributed
-to it his failure to negotiate for the old Charlie buildings, so to
-call them. They began to depreciate Belles Demoiselles. If a north
-wind blew, it was too cold to ride. If a shower had fallen, it was too
-muddy to drive. In the morning the garden was wet. In the evening the
-grasshopper was a burden. Ennui was turned into capital, every headache
-was interpreted a premonition of ague, and when the native exuberance
-of a flock of ladies without a want or a care burst out in laughter
-in the father’s face, they spread their French eyes, rolled up their
-little hands, and with rigid wrists and mock vehemence vowed and vowed
-again that they laughed only at their misery, and should pine to death
-unless they could move to the sweet city. “Oh, the theater! Oh, Orleans
-Street! Oh, the masquerade, the Place d’Armes, the ball!” and they
-would call upon Heaven with French irreverence, and fall into one
-another’s arms, whirl down the hall singing a waltz, end with a grand
-collision and fall, and, their eyes streaming merriment, lay the blame
-on the slippery floor, which some day would be the death of the whole
-seven.
-
-[Illustration: Engraved on wood by Timothy Cole
-
-GEORGE W. CABLE
-
-Author of “Belles Demoiselles Plantation.”
-
-FROM AN EARLY PORTRAIT BY ABBOTT H. THAYER]
-
-Three times more the fond father, thus goaded, managed, by
-accident--business accident--to see old Charlie and increase his offer;
-but in vain. He finally went to him formally.
-
-“Eh?” said the deaf and distant relative. “For what you want him, eh?
-Why you don’t stay where you halways be ’appy? This is a blame’ old
-rat-hole; good for old Injin Charlie, tha’s all. Why you don’t stay
-where you be halways ’appy? Why you don’t buy somewhere else?”
-
-“That’s none of your business,” snapped the planter. Truth was, his
-reasons were unsatisfactory even to himself.
-
-A sullen silence followed. Then Charlie spoke:
-
-“Well, now, look here; I sell you old Charlie’s house.”
-
-“_Bien_, and the whole block,” said the colonel.
-
-“Hold on,” said Charlie. “I sell you de ’ouse and de block. Den I go
-and git drunk and go to sleep; de dev’ comes along and says: ‘Charlie,
-old Charlie, you blame’ low-down old dog, wake up! What you doin’ here?
-Where’s de ’ouse what Monsieur le Comte give your grace-gran’muzzer?
-Don’t you see dat fine gentyman De Charleu done gone and tore him down
-and make him over new, you blame’ old fool, Charlie, you low-down old
-Injin dog!’”
-
-“I’ll give you forty thousand dollars,” said the colonel.
-
-“For de ’ouse?”
-
-“For all.”
-
-The deaf man shook his head.
-
-“Forty-five,” said the colonel.
-
-“What a lie? For what you tell me ‘What a lie?’ I don’t tell you no
-lie.”
-
-“_Non, non_; I give you _forty-five_,” shouted the colonel.
-
-Charlie shook his head again.
-
-“Fifty.”
-
-He shook it again.
-
-The figures rose and rose to “Seventy-five.”
-
-The answer was an invitation to go away and let the owner alone, as he
-was, in certain specified respects, the vilest of living creatures,
-and no company for a fine “gentyman.”
-
-The fine “gentyman” longed to blaspheme; but before old Charlie, in the
-name of pride, how could he? He mounted and started away.
-
-“Tell you what I’ll make wid you,” said Charlie.
-
-The other, guessing aright, turned back without dismounting, smiling.
-
-“How much Belles Demoiselles howes me now?” asked the deaf one.
-
-“One hundred and eighty thousand dollars,” said the colonel, firmly.
-
-“Yass,” said Charlie. “I don’t want Belles Demoiselles.”
-
-The old colonel’s quiet laugh intimated it made no difference either
-way.
-
-“But me,” continued Charlie--“me, I’m got le Comte De Charleu’s blood
-in me, any’ow--a litt’ bit, any’ow, ain’t it?”
-
-The colonel nodded that it was.
-
-“_Bien._ If I go out of dis place and don’t go to Belles Demoiselles,
-de peoples will say--dey-will say: ‘Old Charlie he been all doze time
-tell a blame’ _lie_. He ain’t no kin to his old grace-gran’muzzer, not
-a blame’ bit. He don’t got nary drop of De Charleu blood to save his
-blame’ low-down old Injin soul.’ No, sare! What I want wid money, den?
-No, sare! My place for yours.”
-
-He turned to go into the house just too soon to see the colonel make an
-ugly whisk at him with his riding-whip. Then the colonel, too, moved
-off.
-
-Two or three times over, as he ambled homeward, laughter broke through
-his annoyance as he recalled old Charlie’s family pride and the
-presumption of his offer. Yet each time he could but think better of
-not the offer to swap, but the preposterous ancestral loyalty. It
-was so much better than he could have expected from his “low-down”
-relative, and not unlike his own whim withal, the proposition which
-went with it was forgiven.
-
-This last defeat bore so harshly on the master of Belles Demoiselles
-that the daughters, reading chagrin in his face, began to repent. They
-loved their father as daughters can, and when they saw their pretended
-dejection harassing him seriously, they restrained their complaints,
-displayed more than ordinary tenderness, and heroically and
-ostentatiously concluded there was no place like Belles Demoiselles.
-But the new mood touched him more than the old, and only refined his
-discontent. Here was a man, rich without the care of riches, free
-from any real trouble, happiness as native to his house as perfume to
-his garden, deliberately, as it were with premeditated malice, taking
-joy by the shoulder and bidding her be gone to town, whither he might
-easily have followed only that the very same ancestral nonsense that
-kept Injin Charlie from selling the old place for twice its value
-prevented him from choosing any other spot for a city home.
-
-[Illustration: Drawn by W. M. Berger. Half-tone plate engraved by R.
-Varley
-
-“‘I’LL GIVE YOU TEN THOUSAND DOLLAH’ FOR IT’”]
-
-Heaven sometimes pities such rich men and sends them trouble.
-
-By and by the charm of nature and the merry hearts around prevailed;
-the fit of exalted sulks passed off, and after a while the year flared
-up at Christmas, flickered, and went out.
-
-New-Year came and passed; the beautiful garden of Belles Demoiselles
-put on its spring attire; the seven fair sisters moved from rose to
-rose; the cloud of discontent had warmed into invisible vapor in the
-rich sunlight of family affection; and on the common memory the only
-scar of last year’s wound was old Charlie’s sheer impertinence in
-crossing the caprice of the De Charleus. The cup of gladness seemed to
-fill with the filling of the river.
-
-How high it was! Its tremendous current rolled and tumbled and spun
-along, hustling the long funeral flotillas of drift, and how near
-shore it came! Men were out day and night watching the levee. Even
-the old colonel took part, and grew light-hearted with occupation
-and excitement, as every minute the river threw a white arm over the
-levee’s top, as though it would vault over. But all held fast, and, as
-the summer drifted in, the water sank down into its banks and looked
-quite incapable of harm.
-
-[Illustration: Drawn by W. M. Berger. Half-tone plate engraved by R.
-Varley
-
-“A SOUND REVEL FELL ON THE EAR, THE MUSIC OF HARPS: AND ACROSS ONE
-WINDOW ... FLITTED ONCE OR TWICE THE SHADOWS OF DANCERS”]
-
-On a summer afternoon of uncommon mildness, old Colonel
-Jean-Albert-Henri-Joseph De Charleu-Marot, being in a mood for
-reverie, slipped the custody of his feminine rulers and sought the
-crown of the levee, where it was his wont to promenade. Presently
-he sat upon a stone bench, a favorite seat. Before him lay his
-broad-spread fields; near by, his lordly mansion; and being still,
-perhaps by female contact, somewhat sentimental, he fell to musing
-on his past. It was hardly worthy to be proud of. All its morning
-was reddened with mad frolic, and far toward the meridian it was
-marred with elegant rioting. Pride had kept him well-nigh useless,
-and despised the honors won by valor; gaming had dimmed prosperity;
-death had taken his heavenly wife; voluptuous ease had mortgaged his
-lands: and yet his house still stood, his sweet-smelling fields were
-still fruitful, his name was fame enough, and yonder and yonder, among
-the trees and flowers, like angels walking in Eden, were the seven
-goddesses of his only worship.
-
-Just then a slight sound behind him brought him to his feet. He cast
-his eyes anxiously to the outer edge of the little strip of bank
-between the levee’s base and the river. There was nothing visible. He
-paused, with his ear toward the water, his face full of frightened
-expectation. Ha! There came a single plashing sound, like some great
-beast slipping into the river, and little waves in a wide semicircle
-came out from under the bank and spread over the water.
-
-“My God!”
-
-He plunged down the levee and bounded through the low weeds to the edge
-of the bank. It was sheer, and the water about four feet below. He did
-not stand quite on the edge, but fell upon his knees a couple of yards
-away, wringing his hands, moaning, weeping, and staring through his
-watery eyes at a fine, long crevice just discernible under the matted
-grass, and curving outward on each hand toward the river.
-
-“My God!” he sobbed aloud--“My God!” and even while he called, his God
-answered: the tough Bermuda grass stretched and snapped, the crevice
-slowly became a gap, and softly, gradually, with no sound but the
-closing of the water at last, a ton or more of earth settled into the
-boiling eddy and disappeared.
-
-At the same instant a pulse of the breeze brought from the garden
-behind the joyous, thoughtless laughter of the fair mistresses of
-Belles Demoiselles.
-
-The old colonel sprang up and clambered over the levee. Then forcing
-himself to a more composed movement, he hastened into the house and
-ordered his horse.
-
-“Tell my children to make merry while I am gone,” he left word. “I
-shall be back to-night,” and the big horse’s hoofs clattered down a
-by-road leading to the city.
-
-“Charlie,” said the planter, riding up to a window from which the old
-man’s nightcap was thrust out, “what you say, Charlie--my house for
-yours? Eh, Charlie, what you say?”
-
-“’Ello!” said Charlie. “From where you come from dis time of to-night?”
-
-“I come from the Exchange.” A small fraction of the truth.
-
-“What you want?” said matter-of-fact Charlie.
-
-“I come to trade.”
-
-The low-down relative drew the worsted off his ears. “Oh, yass,” he
-said with an uncertain air.
-
-“Well, old man Charlie, what you say? My house for yours, like you
-said, eh, Charlie?”
-
-“I dunno,” said Charlie; “it’s nearly mine now. Why you don’t stay dare
-you’se’f?”
-
-“Because I don’t want,” said the colonel, savagely. “Is dat reason
-enough for you? You better take me in de notion, old man, I tell you,
-yes!”
-
-Charlie never winced; but how his answer delighted the colonel! Said
-Charlie:
-
-“I don’t care, I take him. _Mais_, possession give’ right off.”
-
-“Not the whole plantation, Charlie; only--”
-
-“I don’t care,” said Charlie; “we easy can fix dat. _Mais_, what for
-you don’t want to keep him. I don’t want him. You better keep him.”
-
-“Don’ you try to make no fool of me, old man,” cried the planter.
-
-“Oh, no,” said the other. “Oh, no; but you make a fool of yourself,
-ain’t it?” The dumfounded colonel stared; Charlie went on:
-
-“Yass, Belles Demoiselles is more wort’ dan t’ree block like dis one.
-I pass by dare since two weeks. Oh, pretty Belles Demoiselles! De cane
-was wave in de wind, de garden smell like a bouquet, de white-cap was
-jump up and down on de river, seven _belles demoiselles_ was ridin’ on
-horses. ‘Pretty, pretty, pretty!’ says old Charlie. Ah, _Monsieur le
-père_, ’ow ’appy, ’appy, ’appy!”
-
-“Yass,” he continued, the colonel still staring, “le Comte De Charleu
-have two famil’. One was low-down Choctaw, one was high-up _noblesse_.
-He give the low-down Choctaw dis old rat-hole; he give Belles
-Demoiselles to your gran’fozzer; and now you don’t be _satisfait_. What
-I’ll do wid Belles Demoiselles? She’ll break me in two years, yass. And
-what you’ll do wid old Charlie’s house, eh? You’ll tear her down and
-make you’se’f a blame’ old fool. I rather wouldn’t trade.”
-
-The planter caught a big breath of anger, but Charlie went straight on:
-
-“I rather wouldn’t, _mais_, I will do it for you--just de same, like
-_Monsieur le Comte_ would say, ‘Charlie, you old fool, I want to shange
-houses wid you.’”
-
-So long as the colonel suspected irony he was angry, but as Charlie
-seemed, after all, to be certainly in earnest, he began to feel
-conscience-stricken. He was by no means a tender man, but his lately
-discovered misfortune had unhinged him, and this strange, undeserved,
-disinterested family fealty on the part of Charlie touched his heart.
-And should he still try to lead him into the pitfall he had dug? He
-hesitated. No, he would show him the place by broad daylight, and if
-he chose to overlook the “caving bank,” it would be his own fault. A
-trade’s a trade.
-
-“Come,” said the planter--“come at my house to-night; to-morrow we look
-at the place before breakfast, and finish the trade.”
-
-“For what?” said Charlie.
-
-“Oh, because I got to come in town in the morning.”
-
-“I don’t want,” said Charlie. “How I’m goin’ to come dere?”
-
-“I git you a horse at the liberty-stable.”
-
-“Well, anyhow, I don’t care; I’ll go.” And they went.
-
-When they had ridden a long time, and were on the road darkened
-by hedges of Cherokee rose, the colonel called behind him to the
-“low-down” scion:
-
-“Keep the road, old man.”
-
-“Eh?”
-
-“Keep the road.”
-
-“Oh, yes, all right; I keep my word. We don’t goin’ to play no tricks,
-eh?”
-
-But the colonel seemed not to hear. His ungenerous design was beginning
-to be hateful to him. Not only old Charlie’s unprovoked goodness was
-prevailing; the eulogy on Belles Demoiselles had stirred the depths of
-an intense love for his beautiful home. True, if he held to it, the
-caving of the bank at its present fearful speed would let the house
-into the river within three months; but were it not better to lose it
-so than sell his birthright? Again, coming back to the first thought,
-to betray his own blood! It was only Injin Charlie; but had not the De
-Charleu blood just spoken out in him? Unconsciously he groaned.
-
-After a time they struck a path approaching the plantation in the
-rear, and a little after, passing from behind a clump of live-oaks,
-they came in sight of the villa. It looked so like a gem, shining
-through its dark grove, so like a great glow-worm in the dense foliage,
-so significant of luxury and gaiety, that the poor master, from an
-overflowing heart, groaned again.
-
-“What?” asked Charlie.
-
-The colonel only drew his rein, and, dismounting mechanically,
-contemplated the sight before him. The high, arched doors and windows
-were thrown wide to the summer air, from every opening the bright
-light of numerous candelabra darted out upon the sparkling foliage of
-magnolia and bay, and here and there in the spacious verandas a colored
-lantern swayed in the gentle breeze. A sound of revel fell on the ear,
-the music of harps; and across one window, brighter than the rest,
-flitted once or twice the shadows of dancers. But, oh, the shadows
-flitting across the heart of the fair mansion’s master!
-
-“Old Charlie,” said he, gazing fondly at his house, “you and me is both
-old, eh?”
-
-“Yass,” said the stolid Charlie.
-
-“And we has both been had enough in our time, eh, Charlie?”
-
-Charlie, surprised at the tender tone, repeated, “Yass.”
-
-“And you and me is mighty close?”
-
-“Blame’ close, yass.”
-
-“But you never know me to cheat, old man?”
-
-“No,” impassively.
-
-[Illustration: Drawn by W. M. Berger. Half-tone plate engraved by R. C.
-Collins
-
-THE OLD COLONEL AND HIS NURSE]
-
-“And do you think I would cheat you now?”
-
-“I dunno,” said Charlie. “I don’t believe.”
-
-“Well, old man, old man,”--his voice began to quiver,--“I sha’n’t cheat
-you now. My God! old man, I tell you--you better not make the trade!”
-
-“Because for what?” asked Charlie in plain anger; but both looked
-quickly toward the house. The colonel tossed his hands wildly in the
-air, rushed forward a step or two, and, giving one fearful scream of
-agony and fright, fell forward on his face in the path. Old Charlie
-stood transfixed with horror. Belles Demoiselles, the realm of maiden
-beauty, the home of merriment, the house of dancing, all in the tremor
-and glow of pleasure, suddenly sank, with one short, wild wail of
-terror--sank, sank, down, down, down, into the merciless, unfathomable
-flood of the Mississippi.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Twelve long months were midnight to the mind of the childless father.
-When they were only half gone, he took to his bed; and every day
-and every night old Charlie, the “low-down,” the “fool,” watched
-him tenderly, tended him lovingly, for the sake of his name, his
-misfortunes, and his broken heart. No woman’s step crossed the floor
-of the sick chamber, the western dormer-windows of which overpeered
-the dingy architecture of old Charlie’s block. Charlie and a skilled
-physician, the one all interest, the other all gentleness, hope, and
-patience, only these entered by the door; but by the window came in
-a sweet-scented evergreen vine, transplanted from the caving hank of
-Belles Demoiselles. It caught the rays of sunset in its flowery net and
-let them softly in upon the sick man’s bed; gathered the glancing beams
-of the moon at midnight, and often wakened the sleeper to look, with
-his mindless eyes, upon their pretty silver fragments strewn upon the
-floor.
-
-By and by there seemed--there was--a twinkling dawn of returning
-reason. Slowly, peacefully, with an increase unseen from day to day,
-the light of reason came into the eyes, and speech became coherent; but
-withal there came a failing of the wrecked body, and the doctor said
-that monsieur was both better and worse.
-
-One evening as Charlie sat by the vine-clad window with his fireless
-pipe in his hand, the old colonel’s eyes fell full upon his own, and
-rested there.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Charl--,” he said with an effort, and his delighted nurse hastened to
-the bedside and bowed his best ear. There was an unsuccessful effort or
-two, and then he whispered, smiling with sweet sadness:
-
-“We did’nt trade.”
-
-The truth in this case was a secondary matter to Charlie; the main
-point was to give a pleasing answer. So he nodded his head decidedly,
-as who should say, “Oh, Yes, we did; it was a bona-fide swap.” But
-when he saw the smile vanish, he tried the other expedient, and shook
-his head with still more vigor to signify that they had not so much as
-approached a bargain; and the smile returned.
-
-Charlie wanted to see the vine recognized. He stepped backward to the
-window with a broad smile, shook the foliage, nodded, and looked smart.
-
-“I know,” said the colonel, with beaming eyes; “many weeks.”
-
-The next day he said:
-
-“Charl--”
-
-The best ear went down.
-
-“Send for a priest.”
-
-The priest came, and was alone with him a whole afternoon. When he
-left, the patient was very haggard and exhausted, but smiled, and would
-not suffer the crucifix to be removed from his breast.
-
-One more morning came. Just before dawn Charlie, lying on a pallet in
-the room, thought he was called, and came to the bedside.
-
-“Old man,” whispered the failing invalid, “is it caving yet?”
-
-Charlie nodded.
-
-“It won’t pay you out.”
-
-“Oh, dat makes not’ing,” said Charlie. Two big tears rolled down his
-brown face. “Dat makes not’ing.”
-
-The colonel whispered once more:
-
-“_Mes belles demoiselles_--in paradise--in the garden. I shall be with
-them at sunrise.” And so it was.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-COLONEL WATTERSON’S REJOINDER TO EX-SENATOR EDMUNDS
-
-COMMENTS ON “ANOTHER VIEW OF ‘THE HAYES-TILDEN CONTEST’” (~SEE PAGE
-193~)
-
-
-    To the Editor of ~The Century~:
-
-Sir: If I may say so without departing from the respect and regard
-in which I hold Senator Edmunds, he has made rather a case at law
-than a contribution to history. With the trained skill of an expert,
-he emphasizes all that may be pleaded on his own side, whilst either
-ignoring or belittling the strength of the other side. The ultimate
-verdict in the matter of Tilden _versus_ Hayes will turn on issues
-which the Electoral Commission refused, by a party vote of eight to
-seven, to consider; on evidence in equity which was not allowed to
-become a part of the record; upon rulings of the majority which the
-minority claimed, and justly claimed I think, to have been sometimes
-erroneous and sometimes inconsistent, but in every instance obedient to
-the party exigency.
-
-I have neither the mind nor the heart to recall the wrangles and
-passions of the controversy. To me they mean nothing more than the
-half-forgotten dreams of a very dark night of the long ago. One may
-dismiss the exciting incidents: the conflicting testimony in Florida
-and Louisiana; the contested elector in Oregon; the tergiversation in
-opinions of some of the members of the court; the playing State law
-against National law, and vice versa, in a shuttlecock process all
-on one side, the unescapable inference being that from the first the
-majority was bent upon denying Tilden the one vote needed to make him
-President and securing to Hayes the twelve votes needed to make him
-President.
-
-One may likewise dismiss the long list of questionable persons
-appointed to office under the Hayes administration, apparently from no
-other consideration than their service as members of returning boards
-and officers of election, most of them charged with corrupt practices.
-
-At the election of the seventh of November, 1876, the popular vote was
-as follows:
-
-    For Tilden             4,300,316
-    For Hayes              4,036,016
-                           ---------
-      Tilden’s majority      264,300
-
-The total vote for Tilden was nearly 700,000 larger than Grant’s
-against Greeley. Of the electoral vote, the Republicans conceded Tilden
-184. The electoral votes of Louisiana and Florida, thrown into dispute
-before Congress and the Electoral Commission, but finally cast by the
-commission for Hayes, determined the result. Referring to my narrative
-of the events immediately succeeding the election and preceding the
-creation of the electoral tribunal, judge Edmunds says:
-
-    Historically, it is very unfortunate that Mr. Watterson did not
-    include in his enlivening article copies of his telegraphic
-    and other correspondence with Mr. Tilden from New Orleans, and
-    elsewhere, for it would certainly and truly, as far as it went,
-    throw much light on the existing drama being displayed, as well as
-    the plans and work behind the curtain whereby (we may believe) it
-    was hoped to produce the election of Mr. Tilden. We Republicans at
-    Washington were forced to believe that an effort was being made, by
-    every means that could be employed, to overcome the Hayes majority
-    of one. During that whole period, so far as I personally knew or
-    was informed, there never was any scheme or act of the Republicans
-    to bribe any State canvassing board or elector by money or promise
-    in support of Mr. Hayes’s election. We did (if I may borrow an
-    ancient classic simile) fear “the Greeks bearing gifts.” We were
-    morally certain that a large majority of the legal voters in the
-    States of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana were earnestly
-    in favor of the election of Mr. Hayes, and we believe that if
-    violence or some other kind of unlawful influence were not brought
-    to bear the electoral votes of those States would be cast for
-    him; but when the secret though bold operations of Colonel Pelton
-    became partly known we were astonished and alarmed, though not
-    disheartened, and we went forward in our efforts to provide by law
-    for the final act in the great drama.
-
-It is quite certain that all the telegraphic correspondence I had
-with Mr. Tilden reached Republican headquarters as soon as it reached
-Gramercy Park. Assuredly I never wrote or wired him a word that I
-should be unwilling to have appear in print. May I not claim the
-circumstance that the Republicans used none of it as going to the
-credit either of my prudence or my patriotism, or of both?
-
-At no time did I apprehend any physical collision, although General
-Grant seemed to fear one, and although two of the most famous and
-popular heroes among the general officers of the Union army at
-Washington were pressing armed organization upon the Democrats. It was
-distinctly the South that would not listen to the suggestion of force.
-Truth to say, both sides were playing something of a “bluff.” Neither
-was either ready or anxious for a fight, and, in extremis, whichever
-won, the other was bound to submit. My sole thought was publicity,
-agitation; this I urged from the outset and continued to urge to the
-end.
-
-In reverting to these events, my purpose was chiefly to vindicate the
-personal integrity of Mr. Tilden. Neither he nor Mr. Hewitt nor any one
-in authority was willing to win by fraud. As I have stated, and as Mr.
-Hewitt stated, fraudulent possession was offered, and I directly know
-that Mr. Tilden refused to accept the Presidency as the result of an
-arrangement perfectly simple and obvious and absolutely certain.
-
-One might imagine, by a perusal of Judge Edmunds, that the Republican
-lambs were greatly afraid of the Democratic wolves, and put themselves
-to many pains to circumvent the Democratic conspiracy set on foot
-immediately after the election. As a matter of fact, the reverse is
-true. The returning boards were made up of Republicans, not Democrats.
-The Southern States were still under military surveillance and
-martial law. All were invoked to coerce the vote and the counting of
-the vote. Whatever the worst of Democrats may have contemplated, the
-Republicans overmatched by deeds. They held the resources and the power
-of possession; the State governors, the President of the United States,
-the Senate, the Supreme Court, the army and navy; the Democrats held
-only the lower House of Congress, and what they believed the justice of
-their case.
-
-Hayes had to receive every vote in dispute to be elected. The loss
-of a single vote would have defeated him. Hence the majority of the
-Electoral Commission could not throw out Florida and Louisiana, as
-many thought the equities in each instance required. In his speech on
-the vote of Louisiana, the very eminent Julius H. Seelye, president of
-Amherst College, who sat in the Forty-fourth Congress as a Republican
-from Massachusetts, said:
-
-    Wiser and more candid men would be hard to find than those of this
-    Electoral Commission who have pronounced the decision on which
-    we are now called to vote. I acknowledge I think I appreciate
-    the strength of their position. We cannot be too jealous of
-    the constitutional right of a State to choose its Presidential
-    electors “in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.” We
-    cannot be too careful of congressional interference with the duly
-    accredited results of such a choice. Whether we like or dislike it,
-    the right of a State to choose its electors in its own way, and to
-    ascertain and certify as to the method of their choice, is beyond
-    our lawful control. All this I accept as a formal and technical
-    statement of a clear principle of our Constitution; a principle,
-    moreover, in its general application as wise as it is clear.
-
-    But, Mr. Speaker, there are cases where the _summum jus_ becomes
-    the _summa injuria_; cases where the law, strictly interpreted and
-    strenuously enforced, works out results contrary to all law; and in
-    such cases equity lays the letter of the law aside and lifts her
-    voice in judgment as the sovereign spirit of the law, the spirit of
-    righteousness and truth declares. I find such a case in the pending
-    issue.
-
-    Granted--and I hold this to be incontestable--that this Electoral
-    Commission has clearly interpreted and accurately applied the
-    Constitution and the laws to the question submitted to them, yet
-    what if the very principle on which the Constitution and the laws
-    must ultimately rest becomes thereby subverted? Granted that the
-    decision reached is fairly within the bond; yet what if the pound
-    of flesh cannot be taken without its drop of blood? What if this
-    jealous care for State rights and constitutional prerogatives
-    may so foster faction, and so blunt the sense of justice, and
-    so increase the prevalence of fraud that the very foundation of
-    prerogatives and rights has disappeared?
-
-    ... No nation, said Niebuhr, ever died except by suicide; and the
-    suicidal poison is engendered not so much in the unjust statutes
-    of a government as in the immoral practices of a people, which
-    the government is unable to punish and unable to restrain. It is
-    because I fear that the strict and accurate interpretation of the
-    Constitution, applied to the electoral vote of Louisiana, would
-    imperil that vote in the future, and increase the very danger which
-    the Constitution intended to avoid, that I am unable to concur with
-    such an application.
-
-I commend this to the perusal of Senator Edmunds, though it is unlikely
-to impress a mind which could declare, as Senator Edmunds does
-declare in the April issue of ~The Century Magazine~, “that
-the constitutional amendments and reconstruction and other laws were
-passed by Congress as the best measures available in the complicated
-and untoward situation. These measures were not measures of cruelty or
-tyranny, but of justice and hopefulness. After the lapse of years it
-is evident to me that nothing better could have been done, and that
-nothing done by Congress should have been omitted.”
-
-Against the plan of reconstruction, here approved so unreservedly and
-despite the events that came after, unremembered if not condoned by
-Judge Edmunds, I set the plan of Abraham Lincoln, laid in a larger
-conception of human nature and better knowledge of the character
-of the people of the South. None of the dangers apprehended and
-foreshadowed by Mr. Edmunds would have come to pass had Lincoln lived
-to put his plan on foot and conduct it to achievement. The South was
-in desolation. The leaders of the secession movement had been wholly
-discredited by the result of the war. All their calculations and
-promises had been disastrously falsified. They could no more escape the
-consequences of their failure than could other public men, baffled and
-defeated by events.
-
-The murder of Lincoln removed the sun from the heavens. The clouds of
-hate and fear, or both, overspread the sky. The policy of “thorough,”
-adopted by the Radicals in Congress, was not only cruel, taking no
-account of the myriads in the South who had perpetrated no wrong,
-but was obtusely senseless, on one hand breeding an oligarchy of
-corruption, and, on the other, driving a whole people to desperation.
-It was thus, and thus alone, that a “solid South” was created.
-
-God was more merciful than Congress. The North came to see that the
-South was a part of itself. Nothing happened in the South that, in
-the same circumstances and conditions, would not have happened at the
-North. We are indeed the most homogeneous people on the face of the
-globe. Our balanced system of representative government, strong in the
-hearts of the people, is the best and freest, because the most flexible
-and adjustable, on earth. We have outlived secession; we have survived
-reconstruction; we have weathered a disputed succession, complicated
-and embittered; we are passing through, and shall surely surmount,
-other and still more insidious approaches of revolution. Tilden is
-dead. Hayes is dead. They were but atoms in a sum total which sweeps
-onward unaffected by either of them, then, or since--a few loaves and
-a few fishes the while involved--toward the goal, the yet more perfect
-day, that shines before us.
-
-    ~Henry Watterson~,
-    “Courier-Journal” Office,
-    Louisville, Kentucky.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: TO ALFRED NOYES]
-
-APOSTLE OF POETRY AND PEACE
-
-AN APRIL GREETING ON HIS RETURN FROM THE SOUTH
-
-BY EDWIN MARKHAM
-
-
-    Again the mood of Eden on the earth!
-    Again the summons and the mystic mirth,
-    The beauty and the wonder and the dare,
-    Thrilling the heart, the field, the delicate air!
-
-    So now once more the old remembering:
-    The lyric hosts come out of the South with song,
-    With music that can save the soul from wrong--
-    The immemorial multitudes a-wing
-    Down bright savannas, over the greening trees.
-    Hark, the first warbling in the bough soft-stirred!
-    And you, O Poet, with your wingèd word,
-        You come convoyed by these!
-
-    You come with all the buds and birds astart--
-    You with the heart of April in your heart.
-    So take our banded welcome as we drink
-    A health to you on April’s flowering brink--
-    To you come hither from that elder clime,
-    Where April has been wreathed in poet’s rhyme,
-        Been touched with love and tears
-    By English minstrels down a thousand years.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-    And now that Sherwood Forest calls you home
-    Over the furrows of the ocean foam,
-    Take message from this people to your own--
-    To England, with her scented hawthorns blown,
-    And all her skylarks in a rapture-pain
-    Sprinkling the happy fields with lyric rain.
-    Tell her that, lordlier than her cliffs and towers,
-    Tell her that, mightier than her pomps and powers,
-    We see her line of poets stretching back
-    Ten centuries, a bright, immortal track.
-    Tell her that while she builded the things that seem,
-    They built her glory out of deathless dream.
-
-    Ah, more is that wild beauty left by Keats
-    Than all the blazon of her kingly seats;
-    More is that wonder from the hand of Blake
-    Than all her guns that make the nations quake;
-    More is her Shelley, with his starry dare,
-    Than all her flags ringed round with battle blare;
-    More her blind Milton voyaging the vast
-    Than all her squadrons shearing down the blast;
-    And more is Shakspere, lord of lyric seers,
-    Than all her conquests of a thousand years.
-
-        But none of all the line
-    (Save only Shelley, darling of the Nine)
-    Has cried as you have cried the valorous vow
-    Of Love’s heroic heart, God’s prayer to men
-    To cease the wolfish battles of the den.
-    And so the Muses bind upon your brow
-    The olive with the laurel; for your song
-    Bears on that dauntless prayer against the wrong,
-    The cry the embassy of angels sent
-    Of old across the Syrian firmament,
-        Above the stable door.
-    For in your voice we still can hear their cry
-        Sound down into our sky:
-    “Let there be peace: let battles be no more!”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-A PAPER OF PUNS
-
-BY BRANDER MATTHEWS
-
-
-When two major artists have chosen to turn aside from the practice of
-their art to discuss one of its principles, there may be an intrusive
-impropriety in a mere outsider’s rashly urging a reconsideration of any
-point they have felicitously sharpened. Yet it was only by impaling
-himself upon the acute weapons of his adversaries that Arnold von
-Winkelried was able to make way for liberty--an act of self-sacrifice
-which cost him his life and gained him immortality.
-
-The art of punning has had few practitioners more accomplished than
-Charles Lamb and Oliver Wendell Holmes. A century ago Lamb declared
-in a letter that “a pun is a noble thing per se: O never lug it in as
-an accessory. It is entire; it fills the mind; it is as perfect as a
-sonnet,--better. It limps ashamed in the train and retinue of humor; it
-knows it should have an establishment of its own.” And in a more formal
-essay Elia discussed the popular fallacy that the worst puns are the
-best. Half a century ago the Autocrat in his turn expressed an adverse
-opinion of a form of wit in which he delighted and for which he was
-marvelously gifted. Lamb analyzed at length and with intense enjoyment
-the immortal query of the Oxford scholar meeting a porter carrying
-a hare and astounding him with the extraordinary question, “Is that
-your own hare or a wig?” And Holmes once pretended to have overheard
-a remark about “the Macaulay-flowers of literature”; and he recorded
-the conundrum, “Why is an onion like a piano?” declaring that it was
-incredible for any person in an educated community who could be found
-willing to answer it in these words, “Because it smell odious.”
-
-The difference between Lamb and Holmes is that Elia is frank in
-declaring his delight in the ingenious dislocation of the vocabulary,
-whereas the Autocrat pretends to deprecate it, to depreciate it, and
-to disparage it as evidence in favor of the doctrine of the total
-depravity of man. He even invented a polysyllabic quotation from an
-earlier autocrat, the ponderous Doctor Johnson: “To trifle with the
-vocabulary which is the vehicle of social intercourse is to tamper
-with the currency of human intelligence. He who would violate the
-sanctities of his mother tongue would invade the recesses of the
-paternal till without remorse, and repeat the banquet of Saturn without
-an indigestion.”
-
-This is an appalling overstatement of the case; and Holmes was happier
-in another of the remarks made in the same chapter of the book in which
-he expressed the utmost of his own witty wisdom: “People that make puns
-are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks. They
-amuse themselves and other children, but their little trick may upset
-a freight-train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism.”
-Here the doctor is on solid ground; a pun may be a good thing in
-itself, as good as a sonnet even, but it is only dirt--that is to say,
-matter in the wrong place--when it is injected into good talk only to
-throw the conversational locomotive off the track. Oddly enough, the
-Autocrat was once himself derailed by a pun a score of years after
-he had thus laid down the law; and, as it happens, I had the full
-particulars of the fatal accident from the punster who placed the penny
-on the track. In this case the disturber of traffic was the late Thomas
-Bailey Aldrich.
-
-When Matthew Arnold paid his first visit to America thirty years
-ago, Aldrich gave him a dinner and invited the best that Boston and
-Cambridge had to show to do honor to his alien guest. He put Arnold
-on his right and Holmes on his left; and early in the dinner he
-discovered that the Autocrat was in fine form and ready to discourse
-in his best manner. Holmes began by suggesting that it must be
-amusing to meet unexpected characters, burglars, for example, and
-pirates, and cannibals. “What would you do,” he asked, “if you were
-to meet a cannibal walking down Beacon Street?” And he paused for the
-reply that he did not desire, whereupon Aldrich saw his chance and
-responded promptly, “I think I should stop to pick an acquaintance.”
-The rest of the company laughed at this sally, but Holmes looked at
-his host reproachfully and then shut up absolutely, saying scarcely
-a word during the rest of the dinner. The witticism, even if it was
-bright and not battered, had upset the freight-train of the Autocrat’s
-conversation. And as Aldrich asserted, in telling the sad story, the
-host had to repent in a sack-coat and cigarette-ashes for the rest of
-his life. Autocrats are autocrats, after all; and not with impunity are
-their unlimited expresses to be flagged by an unauthorized pun.
-
-Possibly it was the painful memory of this unfortunate experience which
-led Dr. Holmes to omit from the final edition of his complete works the
-very amusing account of his “Visit to the Asylum for Aged and Decayed
-Punsters,” which he had included in an earlier volume--“Soundings from
-the ‘Atlantic’”--now out of print. He tells us in this paper that he
-was surprised to find that the asylum was intended wholly for males;
-and yet on reflection he admitted the remarkable psychologic fact that
-“there is no such a thing as a female punster. At least,” he adds, “I
-never knew or heard of one, though I have once or twice heard a woman
-make a single detached pun, as I have known a hen to crow.” And when we
-recall the proverbial fate of the crowing hen, the fair sex may rejoice
-that there are no female punsters, whatever may be the psychological
-explanation of the remarkable fact itself. The fact might indeed be
-accounted for easily by those ungallant cynics who maintain that women
-are careless in the employment of words (which are the raw material of
-puns), commonly using them as counters to convey emotions rather than
-as coins to express thoughts.
-
-Holmes’s account of his visit to the asylum reverberates with the
-rattle of a corps of conundrummers; and every one of the inmates is
-ready with his contribution, from the superintendent who explained
-why “they did not take steppes in Tartary for establishing insane
-hospitals, because there are nomad people to be found there,” to the
-retired sailor who had gone as mate on a fishing-schooner, giving it up
-because he “did not like working for two-masters.” The most imaginative
-touch is at the end of the paper when the visitors are introduced to
-a centenarian inmate, who asks affably, “Why is a--a--a like a--a--a?
-Give it up? Because it is a--a--a.” Then he smiled pleasantly; and
-the superintendent explained that the ancient man was “one hundred
-and seven last Christmas. He lost his answers about the age of
-ninety-eight. Of late years he puts his whole conundrums in blank--but
-they please him just as well.”
-
-Lowell, who was Holmes’s chief rival among the Cambridge wits, did not
-pretend to disdain the pun, as Holmes affected to do. But he insisted
-upon the absolute identity of sound with an equally absolute and
-therefore ludicrous disparity of meaning. Lowell pointed out that Hood,
-who is said to have lain on his death-bed “spitting blood and puns,”
-abounded in examples of this sort of fun, “only his analogies are of a
-more subtle and perplexing kind.” To illustrate this assertion Lowell
-quoted Hood’s elegy on the old sailor, whose
-
-    “... head was turned, and so he chewed
-    His pigtail till he died.”
-
-And the American critic called this “inimitable, like all the best
-of Hood’s puns. To the ear it is perfect, but so soon as you attempt
-to realize it to yourself, the mind is involved in an inextricable
-confusion of comical non-sequiturs. And yet observe the gravity with
-which the forms of reason are kept up in the _and so_.”
-
-Another quotation from Hood also won high commendation from Lowell. It
-was taken from the peddler’s recommendation of his ear-trumpet:
-
-    “I don’t pretend with horns of mine,
-    Like some in the advertising line,
-    To magnify sounds on such marvelous scales
-    That the sounds of a cod seem as large as a whale’s.
-
-              There was Mrs. F.
-              So very deaf
-    That she might have worn a percussion-cap
-    And been knocked on the head without hearing it snap.
-    Well, I sold her a horn; and the very next day
-    She heard from her husband in Botany Bay.”
-
-Is that last line wit or humor? It is a play on a word, no doubt, and
-that would relate it to wit. But it has the imaginative exaggeration
-that we are wont to associate with humor. Lowell noted that we find it
-natural to speak of the breadth of humor, while wit, by the necessity
-of its being, is “as narrow as a flash of lightning, and as sudden.”
-Humor has also its unexpectedness, and while most good puns must be
-classed as specimens of wit, some few transcendent examples may fairly
-claim to be specimens of humor--that last line of Hood’s, for example.
-Many other instances might be advanced. A very distinguished British
-scientist had the foible of inventing thrilling episodes in his own
-autobiography; and on one occasion after he had spun a most marvelous
-yarn, with himself in the center of the coil, a skeptical friend looked
-him in the eye and asked sternly, “Clifford, do you mean to say that
-this really occurred to you?” Whereupon the imaginative man of science
-laughed lightly and with a most imperturable assurance calmly answered,
-“Yes--it just occurred to me!”
-
-It is wit and not humor, no doubt, when Holmes promulgates the law of
-financial safety: “Put not your trust in money, but put your money
-in trust.” It is wisdom as well as wit, but is it a pun? Is it only
-a play on words? Is it not also a play on the idea? And take the
-somewhat parallel remark about the rising fortune of a successful
-man, to the effect that “he got on, he got honor, he got honest.”
-That again is wit; but is it fairly to be termed a pun? Merely verbal
-playfulness is more obvious in a recent remark that “some men stand
-for office, some men run for it, and some have a walk-over,” and yet
-that somehow fails to fall completely within any acceptable definition
-of the pun. If it is a pun, it is something more also. With these
-specimens may be grouped three other remarks which have not hitherto
-been recorded in print. When a certain critic of limited equipment
-was appointed to the chair of comparative literature in one of our
-universities, the question was asked why he was assigned to this
-particular professorship, since his information was mainly confined to
-English; and the explanation was instantly forthcoming that comparative
-literature was the position for which he was best fitted, because
-his own literature was neither positive nor superlative. A certain
-former Vice-President of the United States has been described as “a
-very cold-blooded proposition,” and yet his speeches were the usual
-flowery and perfervid political oratory which led an observer to make
-the assertion that “to hear ---- speak is like catching nature in the
-act of self-contradiction, since it is the emission of hot air from an
-ice-box.”
-
-And it was the same anonymous observer who pointed out the difference
-between two contemporary British authors, insisting that “Mr. George
-Bernard Shaw always writes with his tongue in his cheek, whereas when
-Mr. Gilbert K. Chesterton is writing he keeps thrusting his tongue
-out at the public.” Now, are these remarks, strictly speaking, puns?
-They conform at least to one of Lamb’s definitions that a pun “is a
-pistol let off at the end, not a feather to tickle the intellect,” and
-that it is “not bound by the laws which limit nicer wit.” He warns us
-that “a pun may be easily too curious and artificial”; and he held
-that a pun, at least in actual conversation, ought to stand alone and
-not be followed by another. “When a man has said a good thing it is
-seldom politic to follow it up.” This is true enough of conversation;
-but it does not apply to literature. The spoken word and the written
-have different rules. A large part of the humorous effect of the
-trumpet-peddler’s eulogy of the wares he is vending is due to the
-heaping-up of the puns, one tumbling over another, like salmon flashing
-swiftly in the sunshine as they follow each other up the falls. Here
-our pleasure is akin to that we take at the circus as we behold the
-acrobats going on from one impossible stunt to its equally impossible
-successor and accomplishing these feats as if each was the easiest
-thing in the world.
-
-There is in many passages of that rollicking satire, “A Fable for
-Critics,” wise as it is in its author’s acute valuation of his
-contemporaries, a riot of complicated riming and of unexpected
-punning,--passages which impress us with an abiding sense of
-spontaneous humor and good humor. These passages overflow with fun,
-and we are carried along by Lowell’s delight in displaying his verbal
-dexterity. For once he appears before us dancing on a metrical
-tight-rope and setting off iridescent fireworks at the ends of his
-balancing-pole. Consider, for example, these lines at the very
-beginning, where Apollo is discussing his plight after he had pursued
-Daphne and she had turned into a tree:
-
-    “‘My case is like Dido’s,’ he sometimes remarked;
-    ‘When I last saw my love she was fairly embarked
-    In a laurel, as _she_ thought--but (ah, how fate mocks!)
-    She has found it by this time a very bad box;
-    Let hunters from me take this saw when they need it--
-    You’re not always sure of your game when you’ve treed it.
-    Just conceive such a change taking place in one’s mistress!
-    What romance would be left?--who can flatter or kiss trees?
-    And for mercy’s sake, how could one keep up a dialogue
-    With a dull wooden thing that will live and will die a log,--
-    Not to say that the thought would forever intrude
-    That you’ve less chance to win her the more she is wood?
-    Ah! it went to my heart, and the memory still grieves,
-    To see those loved graces all taking their leaves;
-    Those charms beyond speech, so enchanting, but now,
-    As they left me forever, each making its bough!
-    If her tongue _had_ a tang sometimes more than was right,
-    Her new bark is worse than ten times her old bite.’”
-
-Almost worthy to be set beside Lowell’s lines is Mr. William A.
-Croffut’s “Dirge concerning the late lamented King of the Cannibal
-Islands” in which he rings the changes on a single theme:
-
-    “And missionaries graced his festive board,
-      Solemn and succulent, in twos and dozens,
-    And smoked before their hospitable lord,
-      Welcome as if they’d been his second cousins.
-    When cold he warmed them as he would his kin--
-    They came as strangers, and he took them in.
-
-    “He had a hundred wives. To make things pleasant
-      They found it quite judicious to adore him;
-    And when he dined, the nymphs were always present--
-      Sometimes beside him and sometimes before him.
-    When he was tired of one, he called her ‘sweet,’
-    And told her she was ‘good enough to eat!’
-
-    “We grow like what we eat. Bad food depresses;
-      Good food exalts us like an inspiration,
-    And missionaries on the _menu_ blesses
-      And elevates the Feejee population.
-    A people who for years saints, bairns, and women ate
-    Must soon their vilest qualities eliminate.
-
-    “How fond he was of children! To his breast
-      The tenderest nurslings gained a free admission.
-    Rank he despised, nor, if they came well dressed,
-      Cared if they were plebeian or patrician.
-    Shade of Leigh Hunt! O, guide this laggard pen
-    To write of one who loved his fellow-men!”
-
-Lamb would have enjoyed the stanzas of this elegy, with the effortless
-ease of the long succession of puns, playing leap-frog; and Hood would
-have appreciated them without envy. Perhaps Lamb would have liked even
-better than Hood a superbly impossible pun in John Brougham’s burlesque
-of “Pocahontas,” a long popular piece, which perhaps owed a part of
-its success to the unhistoric marrying off of Captain John Smith and
-the dusky heroine. When Smith is bound to the sacrificial rock and
-the war-club of Powhatan is raised aloft to dash out the Englishman’s
-brains, Pocahontas rushes in with the plaintive cry, “For my husband I
-scream!” Whereupon Smith lifts his head and asks, “Lemon or vanilla?”
-This has not a little of the illogical impossibility of “Is that your
-own hare or a wig?” and like that immortal query it defies analysis.
-It is not merely a play on a word; it is a play on an idea, which we
-cannot ourselves formulate.
-
-Brougham was an Irishman who was a past-master in the art of punning.
-Perhaps his chief rival was the British playwright Henry J. Byron,
-who once wrote a burlesque on a theme from the “Arabian Nights” which
-he entitled “Ali Baba, or the Thirty-Nine Thieves--in accordance with
-the author’s habit of taking one off.” Byron, however, was wont to
-besprinkle the dialogue of his more ambitious comedies with puns not
-always fresh and not always appropriate. In one of his forgotten farces
-a retired soldier who had served in India makes a bore of himself by
-talking forever about the Bungalura River. Finally, one of the other
-characters, in a moment of natural irritation, ejaculates, “Oh, damn
-the Bungalura River!” To which the old officer responds instantly,
-“Sir, they have vainly endeavored to do so!” This is an ingenious quip
-in itself; but it was not at all in keeping with the character, since
-it was a remark the bore was quite incapable of making.
-
-An earlier British dramatist, Douglas Jerrold, is said by his son
-and biographer never to have put a pun in the dialogue of any one of
-his plays; and if this assertion is well founded, the fact is the
-more curious since Jerrold was prolific of puns in conversation and
-in correspondence. In a letter written just after Queen Victoria had
-been fired at, Jerrold declared that he had seen her out driving,
-adding that “she looked very well, and--as is not always the case
-with women--none the worse for powder.” And it was at one of the
-“Punch” dinners that he made his cruellest retort, a pun with a
-venomous sting in the tail of it. Gilbert A Becket--author of a “Comic
-History of England” and a frequent contributor to “Punch” at the time
-when Jerrold was providing that weekly with “Mrs. Caudle’s Curtain
-Lectures”--claimed a friendly interest from his associate, declaring,
-“You know we row in the same boat.” To which Jerrold retorted
-brutally, “Yes--but with different skulls.”
-
-One of the pleasantest of the protean appearances of the pun is to
-be found in the familiar quotation, made unexpectedly pertinent by a
-felicitous suggestion of an unforeseen meaning hitherto concealed in
-one of its words. A neat example of this is the Shaksperian motto which
-the late Edwin Booth caused to be inscribed on the mantelpiece of the
-grill-room in the club he founded for the practitioners of the allied
-arts: “Mouth it, as many of our Players do.” When Mrs. Stowe was on her
-way to Liverpool a fog suddenly shut the ship in after it had taken on
-the pilot; and the authoress suggested that the pilot might sing, “That
-Mersey I to others show, that Mersey show to me.” And in the “Autocrat”
-again Dr. Holmes, after dwelling on the delight he had in beholding
-noble oaks and spreading elms, mentioned one tree which was more than
-eighteen feet in girth, and expressed a hope that he might meet a
-tree-loving friend under its branches. “If we don’t have youth at the
-prow, we shall have pleasure at the ’elm.” This is added evidence, were
-any needed, that Holmes was not sincere in his denunciation of punning,
-or at least that he was willing to damn “the sins he had no mind to.”
-
-The derogatory old saying that a pun is the lowest form of wit has
-been explained by the apt addition that this is because a pun is the
-foundation of all wit. This explanation is not strictly true, of
-course; the best wit is often independent of any flavor of word-play.
-But there is a kind of pun which is really lower than any other effort
-to arouse laughter; this is the pun which is due to a violent wrench
-made visible only by the use of italics. As a general principle we may
-assert that any pun is beneath contempt when it needs a typographic
-sign-post before it can be seen. And the unfortunate who descends to
-this dismal form of near-wit is of a truth the “mournful professor of
-high drollery” that George Eliot once castigated. Pitiable specimens
-of his lamentable handiwork--if anything so mechanical may fairly be
-described by this term--can be discovered abundantly in more than one
-of the inferior comic weeklies of Great Britain; and even the superior
-weekly “Punch” is not always free from it.
-
-When an observer of international characteristics shall undertake the
-task of differentiating the British from the Americans he can scarcely
-fail to note that the mechanical pun, the bare play upon the sound of
-a word without any corresponding diversity of idea, is far commoner
-in the older branch of the English-speaking race than it is in the
-younger. This strikes us at once when we compare the comic papers or
-the comic operas of Great Britain with those of the United States.
-The transatlantic relish for purely verbal juggling is probably an
-inheritance from the Elizabethans, for we find it displayed in even
-the mightiest of them, Shakspere. Curious it is, therefore, that we
-colonists did not import it in the original package as we imported so
-many other Tudor characteristics, some of which are still discoverable
-on this side of the Western ocean although on the other they have
-fallen into “innocuous desuetude.”
-
-
-
-
-FINIS
-
-BY WILLIAM H. HAYNE
-
-
-    No blood-stains on the polished floor--
-      Not one drop has been shed--
-    No wound in heart or brow or breast,
-      And yet the man is dead.
-
-    No dirk or pistol in the room--
-      No sign of death’s dark goal--
-    And yet the man who seems alive
-      Has murdered his own soul.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-T. TEMBAROM
-
-BY FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT
-
-Author of “That Lass o’ Lowrie’s,” “The Shuttle,” etc.
-
-WITH DECORATIVE PICTURES BY CHARLES S. CHAPMAN
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII
-
-Form, color, drama, and divers other advantages are necessary to the
-creation of an object of interest. Presenting to the world none of
-these assets, Miss Alicia had slipped through life a scarcely remarked
-unit. No little ghost of prettiness had attracted the wandering eye,
-no suggestion of agreeable or disagreeable power of self-assertion had
-arrested attention. There had been no hour in her life when she had
-expected to count as being of the slightest consequence. When she had
-knocked at the door of the study at Rowcroft Vicarage, and “dear papa”
-had exclaimed irritably: “Who is that? Who is that?” she had always
-replied, “It is only Alicia.”
-
-This being the case, her gradual awakening to the singularity of her
-new situation was mentally a process full of doubts and sometimes of
-alarmed bewilderments. If in her girlhood a curate, even a curate
-with prominent eyes and a receding chin, had proposed to her that she
-should face with him a future enriched by the prospect of being called
-upon to bring up a probable family of twelve on one hundred and fifty
-pounds a year, with both parish and rectory barking and snapping at
-her worn-down heels, she would have been sure to assert tenderly that
-she was afraid she was “not worthy.” This was the natural habit of her
-mind, and in the weeks which followed the foggy afternoon when Tembarom
-“staked out his claim” she dwelt often upon her unworthiness of the
-benefits bestowed upon her.
-
-First the world below-stairs, then the village, and then the county
-itself awoke to the fact that the new Temple Barholm had “taken her
-up.” The first tendency of the world below-stairs was to resent the
-unwarranted uplifting of a person whom there had been a certain luxury
-in regarding with disdain and treating with scarcely veiled lack of
-consideration. To be able to do this with a person who, after all was
-said and done, was not one of the servant class, but a sort of lady of
-birth, was not unstimulating. And below-stairs the sense of personal
-rancor against “a ’anger-on” is strong. The meals served in Miss
-Alicia’s remote sitting-room had been served at leisure, her tea had
-rarely been hot, and her modestly tinkled bell irregularly answered.
-Often her far from liberally supplied fire had gone out on chilly days,
-and she had been afraid to insist on its being relighted. Her sole
-defense against inattention would have been to complain to Mr. Temple
-Barholm, and when on one occasion a too obvious neglect had obliged her
-to gather her quaking being together in mere self-respect and say, “If
-this continues to occur, William, I shall be obliged to speak to Mr.
-Temple Barholm,” William had so looked at her and so ill hid a secret
-smile that it had been almost tantamount to his saying, “I’d jolly well
-like to see you.”
-
-And now! Sitting at the end of the table opposite him, if you please!
-Walking here and walking there with him! Sitting in the library or
-wherever he is, with him talking and laughing and making as much of
-her as though she were an aunt with a fortune to leave, and with her
-making as free in talk as though at liberty to say anything that came
-into her head! Well, the beggar that had found himself on horseback
-was setting another one galloping alongside of him. In the midst of
-this natural resentment it was “a bit upsetting,” as Burrill said, to
-find it dawning upon one that absolute exactness of ceremony was as
-much to be required for “her” as for “him.” Miss Alicia had long felt
-secretly sure that she was spoken of as “her” in the servants’ hall.
-That businesslike sharpness which Palford had observed in his client
-aided Tembarom always to see things without illusions. He knew that
-there was no particular reason why his army of servants should regard
-him for the present as much more than an intruder; but he also knew
-that if men and women had employment which was not made hard for them,
-and were well paid for doing, they were not anxious to lose it, and
-the man who paid their wages might give orders with some certainty of
-finding them obeyed. He was “sharp” in more ways than one. He observed
-shades he might have been expected to overlook. He observed a certain
-shade in the demeanor of the domestics when attending Miss Alicia, and
-it was a shade which marked a difference between service done for her
-and service done for himself. This was only at the outset, of course,
-when the secret resentment was felt; but he observed it, mere shade
-though it was.
-
-He walked out into the hall after Burrill one morning. Not having yet
-adjusted himself to the rule that when one wished to speak to a man
-one rang a bell and called him back, fifty times if necessary, he just
-walked after Burrill and stopped him.
-
-“This is a pretty good place for servants, ain’t it?” he said.
-
-“Yes, sir.”
-
-“Good pay, good food, not too much to do?”
-
-“Certainly, sir,” Burrill replied, somewhat disturbed by a casualness
-which yet suggested a method of getting at something or other.
-
-“You and the rest of them don’t want to change, do you?”
-
-“No, sir. There is no complaint whatever as far as I have heard.”
-
-“That’s all right.” Mr. Temple Barholm had put his hands into his
-pockets, and stood looking non-committal in a steady sort of way.
-“There’s something I want the lot of you to get on to--right away. Miss
-Temple Barholm is going to stay here. She’s got to have everything just
-as she wants it. She’s got to be pleased. She’s the lady of the house.
-See?”
-
-“I hope, sir,” Burrill said with professional dignity, “that Miss
-Temple Barholm has not had reason to express any dissatisfaction.”
-
-“I’m the one that would express it--quick,” said Tembarom. “She
-wouldn’t have time to get in first. I just wanted to make sure I
-shouldn’t have to do it. The other fellows are under you. You’ve got
-a head on your shoulders I guess. It’s up to you to put ’em on to it.
-That’s all.”
-
-“Thank you, sir,” said Burrill.
-
-His master went back into the library smiling genially, and Burrill
-stood still a moment or so gazing at the door he closed behind him.
-
-Be sure the village, and finally circles not made up of cottagers,
-heard of this, howsoever mysteriously. Miss Alicia was not aware that
-the incident had occurred. She could not help observing, however,
-that the manners of the servants of the household curiously improved;
-also, when she passed through the village, that foreheads were touched
-without omission and the curtseys of playing children were prompt. When
-she dropped into a cottage, housewives polished off the seats of chairs
-vigorously before offering them, and symptoms and needs were explained
-with a respectful fluency which at times almost suggested that she
-might be relied on to use influence.
-
-“I’m afraid I have done the village people injustice,” she said
-leniently to Tembarom. “I used to think them so disrespectful and
-unappreciative. I dare say it was because I was so troubled myself. I’m
-afraid one’s own troubles do sometimes make one unfair.”
-
-“Well, yours are over,” said Tembarom. “And so are mine as long as you
-stay by me.”
-
-Never had Miss Alicia been to London. She had remained, as was
-demanded of her by her duty to dear papa, at Rowcroft, which was in
-Somersetshire. She had only dreamed of London, and had had fifty-five
-years of dreaming. She had read of great functions, and seen pictures
-of some of them in the illustrated papers. She had loyally endeavored
-to follow at a distance the doings of her Majesty,--she always spoke
-of Queen Victoria reverentially as “her Majesty,”--she rejoiced
-when a prince or a princess was horn or christened or married, and
-believed that a “drawing-room” was the most awe-inspiring, brilliant,
-and important function in the civilized world, scarcely second to
-Parliament. London--no one but herself or an elderly gentlewoman of her
-type could have told any one the nature of her thoughts of London.
-
-Let, therefore, those of vivid imagination make an effort to depict to
-themselves the, effect produced upon her mind by Tembarom’s casually
-suggesting at breakfast one morning that he thought it might be rather
-a good “stunt” for them to run up to London. By mere good fortune she
-escaped dropping the egg she had just taken from the egg-stand.
-
-“London!” she said. “Oh!”
-
-“Pearson thinks it would be a first-rate idea,” he explained. “I guess
-he thinks that if he can get me into the swell clothing stores he can
-fix me up as I ought to be fixed, if I’m not going to disgrace him. I
-should hate to disgrace Pearson. Then he can see his girl, too, and I
-want him to see his girl.”
-
-“Is--Pearson--engaged?” she asked; but the thought which was repeating
-itself aloud to her was “London! London!”
-
-“He calls it ‘keeping company,’ or ‘walking out,’” Tembarom answered.
-“She’s a nice girl, and he’s dead stuck on her. Will you go with me,
-Miss Alicia?”
-
-“Dear Mr. Temple Barholm,” she fluttered, “to visit London would be a
-privilege I never dreamed it would be my great fortune to enjoy--never.”
-
-“Good business!” he ejaculated delightedly. “That’s luck for me. It
-gave me the blues--what I saw of it. But if you are with me, I’ll bet
-it’ll be as different as afternoon tea was after I got hold of you.
-When shall we start? To-morrow?”
-
-Her sixteen-year-old blush repeated itself.
-
-“I feel so sorry. It seems almost undignified to mention it, but--I
-fear I should not look smart enough for London. My wardrobe is so very
-limited. I mustn’t,” she added with a sweet effort at humor, “do the
-new Mr. Temple Barholm discredit by looking unfashionable.”
-
-He was more delighted than before.
-
-“Say,” he broke out, “I’ll tell you what we’ll do: we’ll go together
-and buy everything ‘suitable’ in sight. The pair of us ’ll come back
-here as suitable as Burrill and Pearson. We’ll paint the town red.”
-
-He actually meant it. He was like a boy with a new game. His sense of
-the dreariness of London had disappeared. He knew what it would be like
-with Miss Alicia as a companion. He had really seen nothing of the
-place himself, and he would find out every darned thing worth looking
-at, and take her to see it--theaters, shops, every show in town. When
-they left the breakfast-table it was agreed upon that they would make
-the journey the following day.
-
-He did not openly refer to the fact that among the plans for their
-round of festivities he had laid out for himself the attending to one
-or two practical points. He was going to see Palford, and he had made
-an appointment with a celebrated nerve specialist. He did not discuss
-this for several reasons. One of them was that his summing up of Miss
-Alicia was that she had had trouble enough to think over all her little
-life, and the thing for a fellow to do for her, if he liked her, was to
-give her a good time and make her feel as if she was at a picnic right
-straight along--not let her even hear of a darned thing that might
-worry her. He had said comparatively little to her about Strangeways.
-His first mention of his condition had obviously made her somewhat
-nervous, though she had been full of kindly interest. She was in
-private not sorry that it was felt better that she should not disturb
-the patient by a visit to his room. The abnormality of his condition
-seemed just slightly alarming to her.
-
-“But, oh, how good, how charitable, you are!” she had murmured.
-
-“Good,” he answered, the devout admiration of her tone rather puzzling
-him. “It ain’t that. I just want to see the thing through. I dropped
-into it by accident, and then I dropped into this by accident, and that
-made it as easy as falling off a log. I believe he’s going to get well
-sometime. I guess I kind of like him because he holds on to me so and
-believes I’m just It. Maybe it’s because I’m stuck on myself.”
-
-His visit to Strangeways was longer than usual that afternoon. He
-explained the situation to him so that he understood it sufficiently
-not to seem alarmed by it. This was one of the advances Tembarom
-had noticed recently, that he was less easily terrified, and seemed
-occasionally to see facts in their proper relation to one another.
-Sometimes the experiments tried on him were successful, sometimes they
-were not, but he never resented them.
-
-“You are trying to help me to remember,” he said once. “I think you
-will sometime.”
-
-“Sure I will,” said Tembarom. “You’re better every day.”
-
-Pearson was to remain in charge of him until toward the end of the
-London visit. Then he was to run up for a couple of days, leaving in
-his place a young footman to whom the invalid had become accustomed.
-
-The visit to London was to Miss Alicia a period of enraptured delirium.
-The beautiful hotel in which she was established, the afternoons at
-the Tower, the National Gallery, the British Museum, the evenings at
-the play, during which one saw the most brilliant and distinguished
-actors, the mornings in the shops, attended as though one were a person
-of fortune, what could be said of them? And the sacred day on which
-she saw her Majesty drive slowly by, glittering helmets, splendid
-uniforms, waving plumes, and clanking swords accompanying and guarding
-her, and gentlemen standing still with their hats off, and everybody
-looking after her with that natural touch of awe which royalty properly
-inspires! Miss Alicia’s heart beat rapidly in her breast, and she
-involuntarily made a curtsey as the great lady in mourning drove by.
-She lost no shade of any flavor of ecstatic pleasure in anything, and
-was to Tembarom, who knew nothing about shades and flavors, indeed a
-touching and endearing thing.
-
-He had never got so much out of anything. If Ann had just been there,
-well, that would have been the limit. Ann was on her way to America
-now, and she wouldn’t write to him or let him write to her. He had to
-make a fair trial of it. He could find out only in that way, she said.
-It was not to be denied that the youth and longing in him gave him some
-half-hours to face which made him shut himself up in his room and stare
-hard at the wall, folding his arms tightly as he tilted his chair.
-
-Then arrived a day when one of the most exalted shops in Bond Street
-was invaded by an American young man of a bearing the peculiarities of
-which were subtly combined with a remotely suggested air of knowing
-that if he could find what he wanted, there was no doubt as to his
-power to get it. What he wanted was not usual, and was explained with
-a frankness which might have seemed unsophisticated, but, singularly,
-did not. He wanted to have a private talk with some feminine power in
-charge, and she must be some one who knew exactly what ladies ought to
-have.
-
-Being shown into a room, such a feminine power was brought to him
-and placed at his service. She was a middle-aged person, wearing
-beautifully fitted garments and having an observant eye and a dignified
-suavity of manner. She looked the young American over with a swift
-inclusion of all possibilities. He was by this time wearing extremely
-well-fitting garments himself, but she was at once aware that his
-tailored perfection was a new thing to him.
-
-He went to his point without apologetic explanation.
-
-“You know all the things any kind of a lady ought to have,” he
-said--“all the things that would make any one feel comfortable and as
-if they’d got plenty? Useful things as well as ornamental ones?”
-
-“Yes, sir,” she replied, with rising interest. “I have been in the
-establishment thirty years.”
-
-“Good business,” Tembarom replied. Already he felt relieved. “I’ve got
-a relation, a little old lady, and I want her to fix herself out just
-as she ought to be fixed. Now, what I’m afraid of is that she won’t get
-everything she ought to unless I manage it for her somehow beforehand.
-She’s got into a habit of--well, economizing. Now the time’s past for
-that, and I want her to get everything a woman like you would know she
-really wants, so that she could look her best, living in a big country
-house, with a relation that thinks a lot of her.”
-
-He paused a second or so, and then went further, fixing a clear and
-astonishingly shrewd eye upon the head of the department listening to
-him.
-
-“I found out this was a high-class place,” he explained. “I made sure
-of that before I came in. In a place that was second or third class
-there might be people who’d think they’d caught a ‘sucker’ that would
-take anything that was unloaded on to him, because he didn’t know. The
-things are for Miss Temple Barholm, and she _does_ know. I shall ask
-her to come here herself to-morrow morning, and I want you to take care
-of her, and show her the best you’ve got that’s suitable.” He seemed to
-like the word; he repeated it--“Suitable,” and quickly restrained a
-sudden, unexplainable, wide smile.
-
-The attending lady’s name was Mrs. Mellish. Thirty years’ experience
-had taught her many lessons. She was a hard woman and a sharp one, but
-beneath her sharp hardness lay a suppressed sense of the perfect in
-taste. To have a customer with unchecked resources put into her hands
-to do her best by was an inspiring incident. A quiver of enlightenment
-had crossed her countenance when she had heard the name of Temple
-Barholm. She had a newspaper knowledge of the odd Temple Barholm story.
-This was the next of kin who had blacked boots in New York, and the
-obvious probability that he was a fool, if it had taken the form of a
-hope, had been promptly nipped in the bud. The type from which he was
-furthest removed was that of the fortune-intoxicated young man who
-could be obsequiously flattered into buying anything which cost money
-enough.
-
-“Not a thing’s to be unloaded on her that she doesn’t like,” he added,
-“and she’s not a girl that goes to pink teas. She’s a--a--lady--and not
-young--and used to quiet ways.”
-
-The evidently New York word “unload” revealed him to his hearer as by a
-flash, though she had never heard it before.
-
-“We have exactly the things which will be suitable, sir,” she said. “I
-think I quite understand.” Tembarom smiled again, and, thanking her,
-went away still smiling, because he knew Miss Alicia was safe.
-
-There were of course difficulties in the way of persuading Miss Alicia
-that her duty lay in the direction of spending mornings in the most
-sumptuous of Bond Street shops, ordering for herself an entire wardrobe
-on a basis of unlimited resources. Tembarom was called upon to employ
-the most adroitly subtle reasoning, entirely founded on his “claim” and
-her affectionate willingness to give him pleasure.
-
-He really made love to her in the way a joyful young fellow can make
-love to his mother or his nicest aunt. He made her feel that she
-counted for so much in his scheme of enjoyment that to do as he asked
-would be to add a glow to it.
-
-“And they won’t spoil you,” he said. “The Mellish woman that’s the
-boss has promised that. I wouldn’t have you spoiled for a farm,” he
-added heartily.
-
-And he spoke the truth. If he had been told that he was cherishing
-her type as though it were a priceless bit of old Saxe, he would have
-stared blankly and made a jocular remark. But it was exactly this which
-he actually clung to and adored. He even had a second private interview
-with Mrs. Mellish, and asked her to “keep her as much like she was” as
-was possible.
-
-Stimulated by the suppressed touch of artistic fervor, Mrs. Mellish
-guessed at something even before her client arrived; but the moment she
-entered the showroom all was revealed to her at once. The very hint of
-flush and tremor in Miss Alicia’s manner was an assistance. Surrounded
-by a small and extremely select court composed of Mrs. Mellish and
-two low-voiced, deft-handed assistants, it was with a fine little
-effort that Miss Alicia restrained herself from exterior suggestion
-of her feeling that there was something almost impious in thinking
-of possessing the exquisite stuffs and shades displayed to her in
-flowing beauty on every side. Such linens and batistes and laces, such
-delicate, faint grays and lavenders and soft-falling blacks! If she had
-been capable of approaching the thought, such luxury might even have
-hinted at guilty splendor.
-
-Mrs. Mellish became possessed of an “idea.” To create the costume of
-an exquisite, early-Victorian old lady in a play done for the most
-fashionable and popular actor manager of the most “drawing-room”
-of West End theaters, where one saw royalty in the royal box, with
-bouquets on every side, the orchestra breaking off in the middle of
-a strain to play “God Save the Queen,” and the audience standing up
-as the royal party came in--that was her idea. She carried it out,
-steering Miss Alicia with finished tact through the shoals and rapids
-of her timidities. And the result was wonderful; color,--or, rather,
-shades,--textures, and forms were made subservient by real genius. Miss
-Alicia--as she was turned out when the wardrobe was complete--might
-have been an elderly little duchess of sweet and modest good taste in
-the dress of forty years earlier. It took time, but some of the things
-were prepared as though by magic, and the night the first boxes were
-delivered at the hotel Miss Alicia, on going to bed, in kneeling down
-to her devotions prayed fervently that she might not be “led astray by
-fleshly desires,” and that her gratitude might be acceptable, and not
-stained by a too great joy “in the things which corrupt.”
-
-The very next day occurred Rose. She was the young person to whom
-Pearson was engaged, and it appeared that if Miss Alicia would make
-up her mind to oblige Mr. Temple Barholm by allowing the girl to come
-to her as lady’s-maid, even if only temporarily, she would be doing
-a most kind and charitable thing. She was a very nice, well-behaved
-girl, and unfortunately she had felt herself forced to leave her place
-because her mistress’s husband was not at all a nice man. He had shown
-himself so far from nice that Pearson had been most unhappy, and Rose
-had been compelled to give notice, though she had no other situation in
-prospect and her mother was dependent on her. This was without doubt
-not Mr. Temple Barholm’s exact phrasing of the story, but it was what
-Miss Alicia gathered, and what moved her deeply. It was so cruel and so
-sad! That wicked man! That poor girl! She had never had a lady’s-maid,
-and might be rather at a loss at first, but it was only like Mr. Temple
-Barholm’s kind heart to suggest such a way of helping the girl and poor
-Pearson.
-
-So occurred Rose, a rather pretty creature whose blue eyes suppressed
-grateful tears as she took Miss Alicia’s instructions during their
-first interview. And Pearson arrived the same night, and, waiting upon
-Tembarom, stood before him, and with perfect respect, choked.
-
-“Might I thank you, if you please, sir,” he began, recovering
-himself--“might I thank you and say how grateful--Rose and me, sir--”
-and choked again.
-
-“I told you it would be all right,” answered Tembarom. “It _is_ all
-right. I wish I was fixed like you are, Pearson.”
-
-When the Countess of Mallowe called, Rose had just dressed Miss Alicia
-for the afternoon in one of the most perfect of the evolutions of
-Mrs. Mellish’s idea. It was a definite creation, as even Lady Mallowe
-detected the moment her eyes fell upon it. Its hue was dull, soft gray,
-and how it managed to concede points and elude suggestions of modes
-interred, and yet remain what it did remain, and accord perfectly with
-the side ringlets and the lace cap of Mechlin, only dressmaking genius
-could have explained. The mere wearing of it gave Miss Alicia a support
-and courage which she could scarcely believe to be her own. When the
-cards of Lady Mallowe and Lady Joan Fayre were brought up to her, she
-was absolutely not really frightened; a little nervous for a moment,
-perhaps, but frightened, no. A few weeks of relief and ease, of cheery
-consideration, of perfectly good treatment and good food and good
-clothes, had begun a rebuilding of the actual cells of her.
-
-Lady Mallowe entered alone. She was a handsome person, and
-astonishingly young when considered as the mother of a daughter of
-twenty-seven. She wore a white veil, and looked pink through it. She
-swept into the room, and shook hands with Miss Alicia with delicate
-warmth.
-
-“We do not really know each other at all,” she said. “It is disgraceful
-how little relatives see of one another.”
-
-The disgrace, if measured by the extent of the relationship, was not
-immense. Perhaps this thought flickered across Miss Alicia’s mind among
-a number of other things. She had heard “dear papa” on Lady Mallowe,
-and, howsoever lacking in graces, the vicar of Rowcroft had not lacked
-an acrid shrewdness. Miss Alicia’s sensitively self-accusing soul
-shrank before a hasty realization of the fact that if he had been
-present when the cards were brought up, he would, on glancing over them
-through his spectacles, have jerked out immediately: “What does the
-woman want? She’s come to get something.” Miss Alicia wished she had
-not been so immediately beset by this mental vision.
-
-Lady Mallowe had come for something. She had come to be amiable to Miss
-Temple Barholm and to establish relations with her.
-
-“Joan should have been here to meet me,” she explained. “Her dressmaker
-is keeping her, of course. She will be so annoyed. She wanted very much
-to come with me.”
-
-It was further revealed that she might arrive at any moment, which gave
-Miss Alicia an opportunity to express, with pretty grace, the hope
-that she would, and her trust that she was quite well.
-
-“She is always well,” Lady Mallowe returned. “And she is of course
-as interested as we all are in this romantic thing. It is perfectly
-delicious, like a three-volumed novel.”
-
-“It is romantic,” said Miss Alicia, wondering how much her visitor knew
-or thought she knew, and what circumstances would present themselves to
-her as delicious.
-
-“Of course one has heard only the usual talk one always hears when
-everybody is chattering about a thing,” Lady Mallowe replied, with a
-propitiating smile. “No one really knows what is true and what isn’t.
-But it is nice to notice that all the gossip speaks so well of him. No
-one seems to pretend that he is anything but extremely nice himself,
-notwithstanding his disadvantages.”
-
-She kept a fine hazel eye, surrounded by a line which artistically
-represented itself as black lashes, steadily resting on Miss Alicia as
-she said the last words.
-
-“He is,” said Miss Alicia, with gentle firmness, “nicer than I had ever
-imagined any young man could be--far nicer.”
-
-Lady Mallowe’s glance round the luxurious private sitting-room and
-over the perfect “idea” of Mrs. Mellish was so swift as to be almost
-imperceptible.
-
-“How delightful!” she said. “He must be unusually agreeable, or you
-would not have consented to stay and take care of him.”
-
-“I cannot tell you how _happy_ I am to have been asked to stay with
-him, Lady Mallowe,” Miss Alicia replied, the gentle firmness becoming a
-soft dignity.
-
-“Which of course shows all the more how attractive he must be. And in
-view of the past lack of advantages, what a help you can be to him!
-It is quite wonderful for him to have a relative at hand who is an
-Englishwoman and familiar with things he will feel he must learn.”
-
-A perhaps singular truth is that but for the unmistakable nature of
-the surroundings she quickly took in the significance of, and but for
-the perfection of the carrying out of Mrs. Mellish’s delightful idea,
-it is more than probable that her ladyship’s manner of approaching
-Miss Alicia and certain subjects on which she desired enlightenment
-would have been much more direct and much less propitiatory.
-Extraordinary as it was, “the creature”--she thought of Tembarom as
-“the creature”--had plainly been so pleased with the chance of being
-properly coached that he had put everything, so to speak, in the
-little old woman’s hands. She had got a hold upon him. It was quite
-likely that to regard her as a definite factor would only be the part
-of the merest discretion. She was evidently quite in love with him in
-her early-Victorian, spinster way. One had to be prudent with women
-like that who had got hold of a male creature for the first time in
-their lives, and were almost unaware of their own power. Their very
-unconsciousness made them a dangerous influence.
-
-With a masterly review of these facts in her mind Lady Mallowe went
-on with a fluent and pleasant talk, through the medium of which she
-managed to convey a large number of things Miss Alicia was far from
-being clever enough to realize she was talking about. She lightly
-waved wings of suggestion across the scene, she dropped infinitesimal
-seeds in passing, she left faint echoes behind her--the kind of echoes
-one would find oneself listening to and trying to hear as definitely
-formed sounds. She had been balancing herself on a precarious platform
-of rank and title, unsupported by any sordid foundation of a solid
-nature, through a lifetime spent in London. She had learned to catch
-fiercely at straws of chance, and bitterly to regret the floating
-past of the slightest, which had made of her a finished product of
-her kind. She talked lightly, and was sometimes almost witty. To
-her hearer she seemed to know every brilliant personage and to be
-familiar with every dazzling thing. She knew well what social habits
-and customs meant, what their value, or lack of value, was. There were
-customs, she implied skilfully, so established by time that it was
-impossible to ignore them. Relationships, for instance, stood for so
-much that was fine in England that one was sometimes quite touched by
-the far-reachingness of family loyalty. The head of the house of a
-great estate represented a certain power in the matter of upholding the
-dignity of his possessions, of caring for his tenantry, of standing
-for proper hospitality and friendly family feeling. It was quite
-beautiful as one often saw it. Throughout the talk there were several
-references to Joan, who really must come in shortly, which were very
-interesting to Miss Alicia. Lady Joan, Miss Alicia heard casually, was
-a great beauty. Her perfection and her extreme cleverness had made her
-perhaps a trifle _difficile_. She had not done--Lady Mallowe put it with
-a lightness of phrasing which was delicacy itself--what she might have
-done, with every exalted advantage, so many times. She had a profound
-nature. Here Lady Mallowe waved away, as it were, a ghost of a sigh.
-Since Miss Temple Barholm was a relative, she had no doubt heard of the
-unfortunate, the very sad incident which her mother sometimes feared
-prejudiced the girl even yet.
-
-“You mean--poor Jem!” broke forth involuntarily from Miss Alicia’s
-lips. Lady Mallowe stared a little.
-
-“Do you call him that?” she asked. “Did you know him, then?”
-
-“I loved him,” answered Miss Alicia, winking her eyes to keep back the
-moisture in them, “though it was only when he was a little boy.”
-
-“Oh,” said Lady Mallowe, with a sudden, singular softness, “I must tell
-Joan that.”
-
-Lady Joan had not appeared even after they had had tea and her mother
-went away, but somehow Miss Alicia had reached a vaguely yearning
-feeling for her and wished very much the dressmaker had released her.
-She was quite stirred when it revealed itself almost at the last moment
-that in a few weeks both she and Lady Mallowe were to pay a visit at no
-great distance from Temple Barholm itself, and that her ladyship would
-certainly arrange to drive over to continue her delightful acquaintance
-and to see the beautiful old place again.
-
-“In any case one must, even if he lived in lonely state, pay one’s
-respects to the head of the house. The truth is, of course, one is
-extremely anxious to meet him, and it is charming to know that one is
-not merely invading the privacy of a bachelor,” Lady Mallowe put it.
-
-“She’ll come for _you_,” Little Ann had soberly remarked.
-
-Tembarom remembered the look in her quiet, unresentful blue eyes when
-he came in to dinner and Miss Alicia related to him the events of the
-afternoon.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII
-
-The spring, when they traveled back to the north, was so perceptibly
-nearer that the fugitive soft days strayed in advance at intervals that
-were briefer. They chose one for their journey, and its clear sunshine
-and hints at faint greenness were so exhilarating to Miss Alicia
-that she was a companion to make any journey an affair to rank with
-holidays and adventures. The strange luxury of traveling in a reserved
-first-class carriage, of being made timid by no sense of unfitness of
-dress or luggage, would have filled her with grateful rapture; but
-Rose, journeying, with Pearson a few coaches behind, appeared at the
-carriage window at every important station to say, “Is there anything I
-may do for you, ma’am?” And there really never was anything she could
-do, because Mr. Temple Barholm remembered everything which could make
-her comfort perfect. In the moods of one who searches the prospect
-for suggestions as to pleasure he can give to himself by delighting
-a dear child, he had found and bought for her a most elegant little
-dressing-bag, with the neatest of plain-gold fittings beautifully
-initialed. It reposed upon the cushioned seat near her, and made her
-heart beat every time she caught sight of it anew. How wonderful it
-would be if poor dear, darling mama could look down and see everything
-and really know what happiness had been vouchsafed to her unworthy
-child!
-
-Having a vivid recollection of the journey made with Mr. Palford,
-Tembarom felt that his whole world had changed for him. The landscape
-had altered its aspect. Miss Alicia pointed out bits of freshening
-grass, was sure of the breaking of brown leaf-buds, and more than
-once breathlessly suspected a primrose in a sheltered hedge corner.
-A country-bred woman, with country-bred keenness of eye and a
-country-bred sense of the seasons’ change, she saw so much that he had
-never known that she began to make him see also. Bare trees would be
-thick-leaved nesting-places, hedges would be white with hawthorn, and
-hold blue eggs and chirps and songs. Skylarks would spring out of the
-fields and soar into the sky, dropping crystal chains of joyous trills.
-The cottage gardens would be full of flowers, there would be poppies
-gleaming scarlet in the corn, and in buttercup-time all the green grass
-would be a sheet of shining gold.
-
-“When it all happens I shall be like a little East-Sider taken for
-a day in the country. I shall be asking questions at every step,”
-Tembarom said. “Temple Barholm must be pretty fine then.”
-
-“It is so lovely,” said Miss Alicia, turning to him almost solemnly,
-“that sometimes it makes one really lose one’s breath.”
-
-He looked out of the window with sudden wistfulness.
-
-“I wish Ann--” he began and then, seeing the repressed question in her
-eyes, made up his mind.
-
-He told her about Little Ann. He did not use very many words, but
-she knew a great deal when he had finished. And her spinster soul
-was thrilled. Neither she nor poor Emily had ever had an admirer,
-and it was not considered refined for unsought females to discuss
-“such subjects.” Domestic delirium over the joy of an engagement in
-families in which daughters were a drug she had seen. It was indeed
-inevitable that there should be more rejoicing over one Miss Timson
-who had strayed from the fold into the haven of marriage than over the
-ninety-nine Misses Timson who remained behind. But she had never known
-intimately any one who was in love--really in love. Mr. Temple Barholm
-must be. When he spoke of Little Ann he flushed shyly and his eyes
-looked so touching and nice. His voice sounded different, and though
-of course his odd New York expressions were always rather puzzling,
-she felt as though she saw things she had had no previous knowledge
-of--things which thrilled her.
-
-“She must be a very--very nice girl,” she ventured at length. “I am
-afraid I have never been into old Mrs. Hutchinson’s cottage. She is
-quite comfortably off in her way, and does not need parish care. I wish
-I had seen Miss Hutchinson.”
-
-“I wish she had seen you,” was Tembarom’s answer.
-
-Miss Alicia reflected. “She must be very clever to have such--sensible
-views,” she remarked.
-
-If he had remained in New York, and there had been no question of his
-inheriting Temple Barholm, the marriage would have been most suitable.
-But however “superior” she might be, a vision of old Mrs. Hutchinson’s
-granddaughter as the wife of Mr. Temple Barholm, and of noisy old Mr.
-Hutchinson as his father-in-law was a staggering thing.
-
-“You think they were sensible?” asked Tembarom. “Well, she never did
-anything that wasn’t. So I guess they were. And what she says _goes_.
-I wanted you to know, anyhow. I wouldn’t like you not to know. I’m too
-fond of you, Miss Alicia.” And he put his hand round her neat glove
-and squeezed it. The tears of course came into her tender eyes. Emotion
-of any sort always expressed itself in her in this early-Victorian
-manner.
-
-“This Lady Joan girl,” he said suddenly not long afterward, “isn’t she
-the kind that I’m to get used to--the kind in the pictorial magazine
-Ann talked about? I bought one at the depot before we started. I wanted
-to get on to the pictures and see what they did to me.”
-
-He found the paper among his belongings and regarded it with the
-expression of a serious explorer. It opened at a page of illustrations
-of slim goddesses in court dresses. By actual measurement, if regarded
-according to scale, each was about ten feet high; but their long lines,
-combining themselves with court trains, waving plumes, and falling
-veils, produced an awe-inspiring effect. Tembarom gazed at them in
-absorbed silence.
-
-“Is she something like any of these?” he inquired finally.
-
-Miss Alicia looked through her glasses.
-
-“Far more beautiful, I believe,” she answered. “These are only
-fashion-plates, and I have heard that she is a most striking girl.”
-
-“A beaut’ from Beautsville!” he said. “So that’s what I’m up against! I
-wonder how much use that kind of a girl would have for me.”
-
-He gave a good deal of attention to the paper before he laid it aside.
-As she watched him, Miss Alicia became gradually aware of the existence
-of a certain hint of determined squareness in his boyish jaw. It was
-perhaps not much more than a hint, but it really was there, though she
-had not noticed it before. In fact, it usually hid itself behind his
-slangy youthfulness and readiness for any good cheer.
-
-One may as well admit that it sustained him during his novitiate
-and aided him to pass through it without ignominy or disaster. He
-was strengthened also by a private resolve to hear himself in such
-a manner as would at least do decent credit to Little Ann and her
-superior knowledge. With the curious eyes of servants, villagers, and
-secretly outraged neighborhood upon him, he was shrewd enough to know
-that he might easily become a perennial fount of grotesque anecdote,
-to be used as a legitimate source of entertainment in cottages over
-the consumption of beans and bacon, as well as at great houses when
-dinner-table talk threatened to become dull if not enlivened by some
-spice. He would not have thought of this or been disturbed by it but
-for Ann. She knew, and he was not going to let her be met on her return
-from America with what he called “a lot of funny dope” about him.
-
-“No girl would like it,” he said to himself. “And the way she said she
-‘cared too much’ just put it up to me to see that the fellow she cares
-for doesn’t let himself get laughed at.”
-
-Though he still continued to be jocular on subjects which to his valet
-seemed almost sacred, Pearson was relieved to find that his employer
-gradually gave himself into his hands in a manner quite amenable. In
-the touching way in which nine out of ten nice, domesticated American
-males obey the behests of the women they are fond of, he had followed
-Ann’s directions to the letter. Guided by the adept Pearson, he had
-gone to the best places in London and purchased the correct things,
-returning to Temple Barholm with a wardrobe to which any gentleman
-might turn at any moment without a question.
-
-“He’s got good shoulders, though he does slouch a bit,” Pearson said to
-Rose. “And a gentleman’s shoulders are more than half the battle.”
-
-What Tembarom himself felt cheered by was the certainty that if Ann saw
-him walking about the park or the village, or driving out with Miss
-Alicia in the big landau, or taking her in to dinner, or even going to
-church with her, she would not have occasion to flush at sight of him.
-
-The going to church was one of the duties of his position he found out.
-Miss Alicia “put him on” to that. It seemed that he had to present
-himself to the villagers “as an example.” If the Temple Barholm pews
-were empty, the villagers, not being incited to devotional exercise by
-his exalted presence, would feel at liberty to remain at home, and in
-the irreligious undress of shirt-sleeves sit and smoke their pipes or,
-worse still, gather at “the Hare and Hounds” and drink beer. Also, it
-would not be “at all proper” not to go to church.
-
-Pearson produced a special cut of costume for this ceremony, and
-Tembarom walked with Miss Alicia across the park to the square-towered
-Norman church.
-
-In a position of dignity the Temple Barholm pews overlooked the
-congregation. There was the great square pew for the family, with
-two others for servants. Footmen and house-maids gazed reverentially
-at prayer-books. Pearson, making every preparation respectfully to
-declare himself a “miserable sinner” when the proper moment arrived,
-could scarcely restrain a side glance as the correctly cut and fitted
-and entirely “suitable” work of his hands opened the pew-door for Miss
-Alicia, followed her in, and took his place.
-
-Let not the fact that he had never been to church before be counted
-against him. There was nothing very extraordinary in the fact. He had
-felt no antipathy to church-going, but he had not by chance fallen
-under proselyting influence, and it had certainly never occurred to
-him that he had any place among the well-dressed, comfortable-looking
-people he had seen flocking into places of worship in New York. As
-far as religious observances were concerned, he was an unadulterated
-heathen, and was all the more to be congratulated on being a heathen of
-genial tendencies.
-
-The very large pew, under the stone floor of which his ancestors had
-slept undisturbedly for centuries, interested him greatly. A recumbent
-marble crusader in armor, with feet crossed in the customary manner,
-fitted into a sort of niche in one side of the wall. There were carved
-tablets and many inscriptions in Latin wheresoever one glanced. The
-place was like a room. A heavy, round table, on which lay prayer-books,
-Bibles, and hymn-books, occupied the middle. About it were arranged
-beautiful old chairs, with hassocks to kneel on. Toward a specially
-imposing chair with arms Miss Alicia directed him with a glance. It was
-apparently his place. He was going to sit down when he saw Miss Alicia
-gently push forward a hassock with her foot, and kneel on it, covering
-her face with her hands as she bent her head. He hastily drew forth his
-hassock and followed her example.
-
-That was it, was it? It wasn’t only a matter of listening to a sermon;
-you had to do things. He had better watch out and see that he didn’t
-miss anything. She didn’t know it was his first time, and it might
-worry her to the limit if he didn’t put it over all right. One of the
-things he had noticed in her was her fear of attracting attention by
-failing to do exactly the “proper thing.” If he made a fool of himself
-by kneeling down when he ought to stand up, or lying down when he ought
-to sit, she’d get hot all over, thinking what the villagers would say.
-Well, Ann hadn’t wanted him to look different from other fellows or to
-make breaks. He’d look out from start to finish. He directed a watchful
-eye at Miss Alicia through his fingers. She remained kneeling a few
-moments, and then very quietly got up. He rose with her, and took his
-big chair when she sat down. He breathed more freely. That was the
-first round.
-
-It was not a large church, but a gray and solemn impression of
-dignity brooded over it. It was dim with light, which fell through
-stained-glass memorial windows set deep in the thick stone walls. The
-silence which reigned throughout its spaces seemed to Tembarom of a
-new kind, different from the silence of the big house. The occasional
-subdued rustle of turned prayer-book leaves seemed to accentuate it;
-the most careful movement could not conceal itself; a slight cough was
-a startling thing. The way, Tembarom thought, they could get things
-dead-still in English places!
-
-The chimes, which had been ringing their last summons to the tardy,
-slackened their final warning notes, became still slower, stopped.
-There was a slight stir in the benches occupied by the infant school.
-It suggested that something new was going to happen. From some unseen
-place came the sound of singing voices--boyish voices and the voices
-of men. Tembarom involuntarily turned his head. Out of the unseen
-place came a procession in white robes. Great Scott! every one was
-standing up! He must stand up, too. The boys and men in white garments
-filed into their seats. An elderly man, also in white robes, separated
-himself from them, and, going into his special place, kneeled down.
-Then he rose and began to read:
-
-“When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness--”
-
-Tembarom took the open book which Miss Alicia had very delicately
-pushed toward him. He read the first words,--that was plain
-sailing,--then he seemed to lose his place. Miss Alicia turned a leaf.
-He turned one also.
-
-“Dearly beloved brethren--”
-
-There you were. This was once more plain sailing. He could follow it.
-What was the matter with Miss Alicia? She was kneeling again, everybody
-was kneeling. Where was the hassock? He went down upon his knees,
-hoping Miss Alicia had not seen that he wasn’t going to kneel at all.
-Then when the minister said “Amen,” the congregation said it, too, and
-he came in too late, so that his voice sounded out alone. He must watch
-that. Then the minister knelt, and all the people prayed aloud with
-him. With the book before him he managed to get in after the first few
-words; but he was not ready with the responses, and in the middle of
-them everybody stood up again. And then the organ played, and every one
-sang. He couldn’t sing, anyhow, and he knew he couldn’t catch on to the
-kind of thing they were doing. He hoped Miss Alicia wouldn’t mind his
-standing up and holding his book and doing nothing. He could not help
-seeing that eyes continually turned toward him. They’d notice every
-darned break he made, and Miss Alicia would know it. He felt quite hot
-more than once. He watched her like a hawk; he sat down and listened
-to reading, he stood up and listened to singing; he kneeled, he tried
-to chime in with “Amens” and to keep up with her bending of head and
-knee. But the creed, with its sudden turn toward the altar, caught him
-unawares, he lost himself wholly in the Psalms, the collects left him
-in deep water, and the Litany baffled him by changing from “miserable
-sinners” to “Spare us Good Lord.” If he could have found the place he
-would have been all right, but his anxiety excited him, and the fear of
-embarrassing Miss Alicia by going wrong made the morning a strenuous
-thing. He was so relieved to find he might sit still when the sermon
-began that he gave the minister the attention of a religious enthusiast.
-
-By the time the service had come to an end the stately peace of the
-place had seemed to sink into his being and become part of himself. The
-voice of the minister bestowing his blessing, the voices of the choir
-floating up to the vaulted roof, stirred him to a remote pleasure. He
-liked it, or he knew he would like it when he knew what to do. The
-filing out of the choristers, the silent final prayer, the soft rustle
-of people rising from their knees, somehow moved him by its suggestion
-of something before unknown. He was a heathen, but a heathen vaguely
-stirred.
-
-He was very quiet as he walked home across the park with Miss Alicia.
-
-“How did you enjoy the sermon?” she asked with much sweetness.
-
-“I’m not used to sermons, but it seemed all right to me,” he answered.
-“What I’ve got to get on to is knowing when to stand up and when to sit
-down. I wasn’t much of a winner at it this morning. I guess you noticed
-that.”
-
-But his outward bearing had been much more composed than his inward
-anxiety had allowed him to believe. His hesitations had not produced
-the noticeable effect he had feared.
-
-“Do you mean you are not quite familiar with the service?” she said.
-Poor dear boy! he had perhaps not been able to go to church regularly
-at all.
-
-“I’m not familiar with any service,” he answered without prejudice. “I
-never went to church before.”
-
-She slightly started and then smiled.
-
-“Oh, you mean you have never been to the Church of England,” she said.
-
-Then he saw that, if he told her the exact truth, she would be
-frightened and shocked. She would not know what to say or what to
-think. To her unsophisticated mind only murderers and thieves and
-criminals _never_ went to church. She just didn’t know. Why should she?
-So he smiled also.
-
-“No, I’ve never been to the Church of England,” he said.
-
-
-(To be continued)
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-INVULNERABLE
-
-BY WILLIAM ROSE BENÉT
-
-
-    The armorers met me at the marge of life,
-    The weapon-bearers, calling each his ware,
-    Praising sword or spear or sinuous knife
-      Fashioned for the strife
-    In the forest depths that lay before,
-    To ward off malice or to pierce despair;
-      Shields that could affright
-    All the hissing snakes in Envy’s hair;
-    Or, when Peril’s sudden arrow sped,
-    Crying how bucklers, stern of proof and bright,
-    Glanced the shaft, the rancor overbore;
-    Or iron helms, securely vizarded,
-    Turned the thrusts of mockery and spite.
-    Loudly “Arm you! Arm you!” rose their cry;
-    And I chose a shield, Indifference,
-    And a blade, Sharp Wit, for my defense.
-    Close-meshed mail beneath my gaberdine
-      Glittered all unseen.
-    Proud I strode and whirled my sword on high.
-      Then my friend went by,
-    Passing in his shining joy unarmed,
-    With not even an amulet that charmed;
-    Singing for the innocence confessed
-    In his sparkling eyes, his buoyant breast;
-    Swiftly, gaily thrusting through the trees
-    To his deep and darkling forest doom,
-    As I thought. But still before me goes,
-    Blithe and wonderful, his candid smile
-    Every ambushed shadow to illume,
-    And the quickening sympathy that glows
-    Sudden on his cheek when friends seem foes,
-    And his utter radiance without guile,
-    Merry ignorance where I am--_wise_?
-
-    Where they lurk and snarl and close with me,
-    All unscathed of foemen passeth he,
-    Seeing no strife, unarmed eternally,
-    And e’en the Terrors turn away their eyes!
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: TOPICS OF THE TIME]
-
-
-UNDER WHICH FLAG, LADIES, ORDER OR ANARCHY?
-
-THE PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE DISAVOWS VIOLENCE
-
-In the April ~Century~, in an editorial article, “The Silent
-Suffragists of America,” we called upon the official organizations in
-the United States advocating woman suffrage to abandon their passive
-and tolerant attitude toward the methods of the English militants, a
-plea which we had also made in the number for November last.[23] We
-have received letters of approval of this article from representative
-women on each side of the suffrage question. It is a matter of sincere
-gratification to us to publish at the first opportunity the letter
-which follows from Miss Eleanor Cuyler Patterson of Chestnut Hill
-(Philadelphia):
-
-    I have read with interest the temperate and wise opinion printed
-    in “Topics of the Time” in the April number of ~The Century
-    Magazine~. It gives me great pleasure to send you the
-    resolution on this subject passed by the executive committee of the
-    Pennsylvania Association for Woman Suffrage on March 7, 1913.
-
-    “Although we do not pass judgment on the methods of other
-    organizations, _we disclaim all connection with militant
-    organizations, and do not indorse or intend to use militant
-    methods_, but shall continue to employ educational methods as in
-    the past.”
-
-Here at last we have from an official suffrage organization in America
-a sober-minded expression of opinion on this burning subject. It ought
-to be the beginning of a sincere effort to rescue the whole woman
-movement from the shallow thinking and super-emotionalism that are
-likely to wreck it.
-
-That this sort of protest is much needed is shown from the following
-passage from a letter to “The New York Times” from a leading advocate
-of the suffrage, Mrs. Eunice Dana Brannan, which is the first public
-expression of what we must regard as a very unfortunate, not to say
-shocking, frame of mind on the part of many refined and well-educated
-American women:
-
-    The suffragists in America are agreed in their belief that militant
-    action is _not called for_. Injustice to women is not so evident
-    nor so general as in England, and the attitude of the majority of
-    American men is certainly fairer and more honestly chivalrous.
-    _But, in spite of these amiable differences, it is quite possible
-    that if the Eastern States continue to deny enfranchisement to
-    their women, while the Western States continue to grant it, the
-    women thus discriminated against would find the political anomaly
-    of their position so impossible to bear that even militancy would
-    seem to them justifiable._
-
-The words we have italicized are deplorably significant. They mean, for
-instance, that the immunity of New York City from similar outrages is
-to be dependent only upon the granting of the suffrage by the State.
-“Militant action is not called for”--yet, but will be called for if the
-voters of the East, however conscientiously, shall deny the suffrage to
-women!
-
-In striking contrast is this extract from an open letter, printed in
-“The New York Times” of April 14, from Mrs. Helen Magill White (Mrs.
-Andrew D. White) of Ithaca, New York, addressed “To the Treasurer of
-the National American Woman Suffrage Association.” After recording her
-friendly attitude toward the movement, Mrs. White closes her letter
-with these downright words:
-
-    I never until lately admitted to myself the possibility of our
-    _essential_ inferiority--such that, in matters of government, we
-    could without outrage be classed with children, with idiots and
-    insane, and with criminals.
-
-    But now that I see our own kinswomen across the sea sowing the wind
-    to reap the whirlwind--sowing seeds of lawlessness which we may see
-    in our own day, I greatly fear, blossoming in an anarchism more
-    terrible than anything yet known to history--and when I see our own
-    women protesting feebly or not at all, and even, to some extent,
-    encouraging, I have not a cent to contribute nor a word of sympathy
-    for any association of women which does not publicly and earnestly
-    protest against such a line of procedure. It resembles the kicking
-    and biting of spoiled children, the raving and gibbering of insane
-    and idiots--and the unbridled license of the most abandoned
-    criminals. All these classes think solely of what they want, and
-    self-constitute themselves arbiters of what they should have. What
-    it may cost other human beings, innocent though they be, for them
-    to grasp at the objects of their desire by whatever means may come
-    to hand, does not touch their minds; and so it would seem to be
-    with those women of England; and so, also, with those of our own
-    women who condone their offenses--who would condone such action _in
-    any cause_.
-
-Mrs. White here indicates both the responsibility of sincere, educated,
-and thoughtful suffragists and an effective method whereby they may
-hold the official organizations to their duty. Not a dollar should
-be subscribed to their work until they have pledged themselves that
-no part of their funds shall go to the support of lawlessness, and
-have made as definite a disclaimer of sympathy and intention as the
-Pennsylvania society, the action of which, at this time, is a patriotic
-public service of the highest order.
-
-We have nothing but respect for the women of America who are earnestly
-convinced that the extension of the suffrage gives promise of a
-brighter day for humanity, and we take this opportunity to record our
-abhorrence not only of violence by women but of such interference with
-peaceable parades as disgraced the city of Washington on the third of
-March. In these days of turbulence of action and of thought, there is
-no securer anchorage to the mind than Chatham’s saying, “Where law
-ends, tyranny begins.”
-
-
-NEWSPAPER INVASION OF PRIVACY
-
-IS THE PAUL PRY AND PEEPING TOM TYPE OF REPORTING ON THE INCREASE?
-
-The newspapers printed the initial paragraph of Mr. Pierpont Morgan’s
-will, and some of them made it the theme of very respectful and
-profitable comment. It was as intimate a statement as can well be
-imagined, a solemn committal of the soul of the maker of the will into
-the hands of his Saviour, and a charge to his children to maintain and
-defend “the blessed doctrine of the complete atonement for sin through
-the blood of Jesus Christ.”
-
-But Mr. Morgan was a public person. All of us, in that sense, became
-members of his family. We had made our way to his bedside as he lay
-dying in Rome, and we expected to be given his will to read as soon as
-his wife and son and daughters had read it. They were obliged to give
-it to us: what could they do? Mr. Morgan, by reason of his great wealth
-and his distinguished public service had lost the privilege of privacy.
-
-At the same time, there were those who read the will, and especially
-the beginning of it, with a certain sense of embarrassment, as if they
-had been found reading a neighbor’s private letters. The situation
-is one which arises in connection with some modern biographies and
-autobiographies, but the newspapers present it to our conscience
-every day. Now is abundantly fulfilled the prediction of an old book
-which said, “There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed;
-and hid, that shall not be known.” When the book promises further
-that that which is spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed
-upon the housetops, we seem to see the reporter in the midst of his
-characteristic activities. All the closet doors are now wide open; or,
-if they are shut and locked against us, there are dictagraphs inside.
-
-The other day at a great college a student was found dead in bed.
-The reporter who put the fact in the paper reported also that the
-president and the dean, and other persons much older and perhaps wiser
-than himself, had done their best to keep the matter private. Their
-endeavors appear to have been entirely for the sake of the student’s
-family and friends. There was no suspicion of anything wrong except
-such as the reporter himself conveyed to heighten the interest. These
-kindly endeavors the reporter, according to his own frank and impudent
-confession, had frustrated. No purpose seems to have been served by the
-publication except that the reporter got his money for it.
-
-The other day, in the midst of a suit for divorce, the wife was
-stricken with a mortal disease, and the husband was sent for. She was
-unconscious when he arrived, and he knelt by her bedside, praying.
-Then she opened her eyes and saw him, and told him that she loved him
-still. Behind the door was a reporter, with his paper in one hand and
-his pencil in the other, putting down what he saw and heard through the
-crack, and going out to shout it through a megaphone in the street.
-
-Two lads in a high school fought a duel over the attentions which one
-was paying to the other’s sister. The local newspapers gave it nearly
-as much space as they gave to the floods in Ohio. The little girls who
-looked on were all interviewed, and we were told what the sister said
-when she went to see her wounded lover in the hospital. Of course the
-perspective was absurd, but the performance was by no means absurd.
-
-So with the divorce-suits that are tried in the court-rooms, which
-have no walls, where the busy reporters prepare themselves to tell
-us a hundred things that we have no right to know. A brutal husband
-forces his wife to sue him for divorce as her only defense against
-his cruelty, and the newspapers coöperate with him in exposing to the
-common gaze all the tender privacies of the woman’s soul.
-
-We read such revelations, at first ashamed, as if we were looking
-through a keyhole, then somewhat brutalized ourselves by the
-experience. Thus the line is blurred between the publicity which is
-for the good of the people and for the terror of offenders, and the
-publicity which is only gossip and scandal printed for no other purpose
-than to sell the papers and make money. Whatever the remedy, the fact
-is plain that our sense of the honest rights of privacy is dulled. If
-Lady Godiva were to ride through the streets of Coventry to-day, there
-would be Peeping Toms in groups at every window with cameras and
-machines for taking moving pictures.
-
-It is not improbable that one of the next important movements in this
-country will be for a greater sense of responsibility to wholesome
-public opinion on the part of the press. There is so much that is good
-and helpful and truly progressive in the better newspapers, and they
-are so sound on the larger questions of national policy, that it is
-to be hoped that the reformation of the grosser faults of journalism
-will be initiated by them. And in saying this we must not forget the
-offenses against good taste and good morals which are continually being
-perpetrated by certain periodicals that appear but once a month.
-
-
-THE CHANGING VIEW OF GOVERNMENT
-
-A GROWING SENSE OF ITS DUTIES TO THE PEOPLE
-
-A member of Congress summed up the strongest impression from his latest
-electoral campaign as being that the people in this country are coming
-to have a much more vivid sense of the Government as “a political
-entity” which “owes duties.” He obviously means something more than
-Secretary Hay’s famous phrase about the “administrative entity” of
-China. This is no mere quibble about Pope’s “forms of government.”
-It implies a wide departure from the old view that government is a
-necessary evil, to be kept as limited as possible. However we explain
-or interpret the new conception, its existence and increasing sway over
-the minds of men will not be questioned by any one who keeps his eyes
-open to the facts. He may call the tendency socialistic or simply an
-extension of the democratic principle, but that it has now become a
-part of American political thinking he cannot well deny.
-
-Equally undeniable is it that the idea that people have of the
-nature and function of their Government is more important than any
-mere question of governmental machinery. We hear much of a movement
-to “restore the government to the people.” All manner of political
-devices are commended, or else condemned, to bring about a more direct
-participation by the citizen in the work of government. Be these
-proposals wise or foolish, it is plain that the chief question lies
-behind them. It is what the people wish their Government to be; what
-they would now have done by those responsible for its conduct; what
-they themselves would undertake by means of governmental agencies in
-case those agencies were somehow made more quickly responsive to the
-popular will. Show a political philosopher what the driving forces of
-a republic really desire it to be or to become, and he will be able to
-get much more instruction out of that, much more material on which to
-base prophecies respecting future development, than he possibly can
-from endless talk about primaries and conventions, ballot-laws and
-corrupt-practices acts. Those are only means and machinery; the end
-aimed at is the main thing.
-
-Looking back at the recent enlargement of governmental activities,
-and endeavoring to read in them the new sense of duties owed, we are
-able to detect at least a few general indications and even certain
-principles. For example, it is clear that the people are demanding, and
-will more and more demand, that their governments, local and national,
-do a great deal more than was formerly expected to conserve the
-physical health of the nation. Here is the origin of pure-food laws,
-of meat-inspection, of statutes against the adulteration of drugs. In
-this feeling of the vital relation that ought to exist between the
-Government and the bodily well-being of its subjects we have also the
-explanation of official campaigns against disease, of the movement
-for a national quarantine, and of the great broadening of the work
-everywhere laid upon health officers.
-
-All this has not come about through a deliberate or reasoned change in
-the point of view. It is, rather, the result of quiet pressure from the
-practical side. Large problems of public health have pushed themselves
-to the front; and in seeking to solve them, the people have merely laid
-hold of the powers of government as ready and efficient instruments.
-It is now tacitly assumed that the Government is under a continuing
-obligation to guard the people against epidemic disease and exposure to
-impure food and deleterious drugs. This is now distinctly one of the
-duties owed.
-
-But life is more than meat, liberty and equality of opportunity are
-more precious than health. And in seeking to preserve these, the
-work of our Government during the last few years has made of official
-activity something very different from the conceptions and standards of
-1787 or 1850--something which is no doubt open to abuse, but which, we
-are persuaded, has thus far been largely beneficial in its practical
-manifestations.
-
-When the Government takes hold of the evil of railway rebating with a
-strong hand, it is not alone a question of enforcement of the law, but
-of striking down an insidious and dangerous form of special privilege.
-The real offense in the old rebate system, now happily so nearly a
-thing of the past, was not alone its secret favors to a secret few,
-but its gross discrimination against the unprotected many. It was the
-denial of the right to compete on equal terms. This is the intolerable
-thing in a free democracy. It can endure the sight of great wealth,
-of vast fortunes honestly gained, but it cannot submit to a method of
-accumulating property which destroys the opportunities of thousands in
-order to give unfair advantages to one. It is the determination to keep
-the career open to talent, not to shut it up to favoritism, which has
-been the animating spirit in the long struggle to prevent the railroads
-from virtually creating private fortunes at their own sweet will, and
-bringing whom they please to penury by means of rebates.
-
-A like attitude and animus are seen in the other forms of legislative
-restriction upon great corporations. All the anti-monopoly laws and
-anti-trust suits, all the regulating statutes and the public-utilities
-commissions, have one principle at bottom, and it is to make all men
-stand equal before the law. On the one hand to strike down oppression,
-on the other to equalize opportunity, has been the intent of these new
-activities of government which, whatever else they show, leave no doubt
-of an altogether changed view of what governments owe.
-
-In all these matters, the greatest peril that lurks in our path is that
-of being misled by abstractions. If we talk overmuch of “government,”
-we are in danger of forgetting the human beings who make it up. If we
-are afflicted by bad rulers, it is no help to us to fall back upon an
-ideal conception of “the state.” The state is simply men acting. Much
-amusement was created in Paris by an innocent peasant who passed from
-one public building to another demanding that he be allowed to see
-_l’état_. He had heard of it all his life; he thought it was something
-at the capital; being there, he wanted to inspect it at close range. He
-was an unsophisticated rustic, but was he not right in his instinct?
-We are not, after all, governed by an “entity.” Government is the most
-concrete of human affairs. It is vested in mortal men. And in all the
-agitations and the hopes and fears of our day respecting the extension
-of governmental functions, and the quickening of the whole idea of what
-the state owes to citizens, it would be fatal to forget that government
-cannot be made better except by putting better men in charge of it.
-
-
-THE TWO-BILLION-DOLLAR CONGRESS
-
-A NATIONAL BUDGET THE REMEDY FOR EXTRAVAGANCE IN APPROPRIATIONS
-
-The time is overripe for a fundamental change in our method of making
-annual appropriations for the cost of the National Government. A glance
-at the result of the work done by the various congressional committees
-charged with the duty of preparing appropriation bills is enough to
-bring conviction that order and system must be substituted for the
-present chaotic methods; while, if we could penetrate the secrets of
-the committee-rooms, the country would stand appalled at the ignoble
-tricks and devices by which the “pork-barrel” is filled and the money
-of the taxpayers wantonly and wickedly wasted.
-
-The Democrats in their platform of 1912 “denounce the profligate
-waste of money wrung from the people by oppressive taxation through
-the lavish appropriations of recent Republican Congresses,” and
-they demand “a return to that simplicity and economy which befits a
-democratic Government.” How did they keep faith with the people under
-this self-denying ordinance? In the session of Congress immediately
-following, the second regular session of the Sixty-second Congress,
-which adjourned on March 4, they passed appropriation bills aggregating
-$1,098,647,960, and authorized contracts on public works committing
-the Government to a further expenditure of $76,956,174, making a
-total demand upon the treasury for the year ending June 30, 1914,
-of $1,175,604,134, a sum that surpasses all previous congressional
-achievements in extravagance. Not only that, but the grand total of
-the appropriations and contracts authorized in the two years of the
-Sixty-second Congress was $2,238,470,990, which is to be compared with
-$2,151,610,940 of the Sixty-first Congress. This is democratic economy
-and simplicity with a vengeance. The Democrats surpassed by more than
-$86,000,000 the exploits of the previous Republican Congress, which
-they had denounced as profligate.
-
-But the Republican pot cannot call the Democratic kettle black. The
-blame falls upon both parties, for both have been profligate. Not only
-is the method of drawing up the appropriation schedules indefensible,
-but many of the senators and congressmen of both parties exhibit a
-degree of greed and rapacity in grabbing for the people’s money that
-is fairly comparable with the behavior of a drunken army looting a
-captive city. The river-and-harbor appropriation of $41,000,000, and
-the public-buildings appropriation amounting to $45,000,000 more, cover
-multitudes of log-rolling sins, of costly improvements of streams never
-navigable, of imposing buildings for small towns, veritable “grabs” of
-money to foster local pride, put district constituents in a good humor,
-and lay the foundation for safe majorities in the next congressional
-elections. The sin here is not alone that of profligate wastefulness;
-it is a pretty direct form of bribery of the voter. The staggering
-appropriation for pensions belongs in this category. The Service
-Pension Act added $25,000,000 to this item of expenditure, which in
-this fiscal year is raised to the great sum of $180,300,000. And we are
-now observing the fiftieth anniversaries of events of the war!
-
-The national balance-sheet for the year which this “return to that
-simplicity and economy which befits a democratic Government” presents
-for the scrutiny of the voter and the taxpayer stands thus: estimated
-revenue of the Government under existing laws, $991,791,508; direct
-appropriations, $1,098,647,960; deficit, $106,856,452. But there must
-be added to the appropriations $76,976,174 of contract commitments
-authorized, raising the deficit to the colossal total of $183,812,626.
-
-How shall this riot of extravagance be checked? By concentrating
-the power of control over appropriation bills and by establishing a
-definite responsibility for them. Two methods have been proposed.
-President Taft in a special message urged upon Congress the plan of a
-national budget. The various departments would prepare the estimates as
-now; these would be diligently studied and coördinated, with constant
-reference to the estimated revenue of the year; and the Executive
-would then submit to Congress such a budget statement as in most other
-countries the legislative body receives from the Government. In the
-House of Representatives this budget would be considered by a budget
-committee, or, if the old name were retained, by the Committee on
-Appropriations. And the report of that committee, of course, would
-be subject to discussion and amendment by the House. Representative
-Fitzgerald of the Appropriations Committee and ex-Speaker Cannon agree
-in advising a return to the practice of intrusting, the preparation of
-appropriation bills to a single Committee on Appropriations.
-
-Prior to the year 1865, the Committee on Ways and Means had control of
-appropriation bills. Then the Committee on Appropriations was created,
-with full control of supply bills. In 1885, because of jealousy of the
-great power exercised by Samuel J. Randall, the bills making provision
-for the army, the diplomatic and consular service, the military
-academy, the navy, Indian affairs, and the post-office, were taken away
-from the Committee on Appropriations. This change marked the beginning
-of the era of extravagance. Under the present system, appropriations
-are made in thirteen annual bills, and “eight different committees,
-unrelated to one another, without coöperation, are charged with the
-duty” of preparing these bills. No fairer invitation to extravagance
-could be issued. Each committee works with regard only to itself,
-and, as we have seen, all together work without regard to the revenue
-side of the account. Coordination is impossible, and no balanced and
-well-apportioned budget could be the result of such a system.
-
-The national-budget plan proposed by Mr. Taft should have the most
-serious consideration of Congress and of the country. Objection is made
-that this plan is “wholly inapplicable to our system of government.”
-It may be admitted at once that it is wholly incongruous with the
-present “system” of Congress in respect to appropriations. It would
-smash in both heads of the “pork-barrel,” and apprehension of that
-catastrophe, rather than any constitutional scruple, we imagine, is
-the motive of the objections that have been raised. It is true that
-the House under the Constitution originates revenue bills. But there
-is no constitutional impediment to the submission of estimates by
-the Executive, since that has been the practice of the Government
-since the beginning. A budget based upon the “needs of the Government
-economically administered,” and scrupulously adjusted to the revenue
-account, is the most promising remedy for the evils of the present
-method of preparing bills in eight committees, working with no
-recognized relation or understanding, under which extravagance has
-grown into a habit.
-
-
-
-
-ERRATUM
-
-
-In the April ~Century~, on page 821, by a misapprehension M.
-André Tardieu was spoken of as the editor of the “Revue des Deux
-Mondes,” to which he is a contributor. The editor is M. Francis Charmes
-of the French Academy.--~The Editor.~
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: OPEN LETTERS]
-
-
-ON THE LADY AND HER BOOK
-
-_A Plea for the Suppression of a Catchword_
-
-BY HELEN MINTURN SEYMOUR
-
-[Illustration]
-
-    _My dear George_:
-
-The magazine containing “Confessions of a Novel Reader” arrived not
-two hours ago, and I have just come from its perusal. When a young man
-cares enough about his spinster aunt to send her his latest literary
-production on the very day it appears it does seem ungracious to do
-what I am about to do--make the letter of acknowledgment one continuous
-complaint. But you touched me on a sensitive spot, George. Your essay
-proved the proverbial straw, the drop that filled a cup of bitterness
-to overflowing.
-
-Perhaps you suspect that this tirade comes from an elderly New
-Englander’s aversion to those very outspoken writers whom you admire.
-Not a bit of it. Worship at whatever shrine you please. I, too, in my
-young days, distressed my elders by my attachment to strange gods.
-It is a waste of time to be shocked, since most of us have gone in
-for “daring” literature when we were green in judgment. It is a phase
-of youth, like a boy’s swagger. No, all the trouble came from one
-little paragraph, which you probably never dreamed would upset me. You
-said--oh, you said--that no woman enjoys Dumas! That cut me to the
-heart, George,--and coming from you!
-
-“A woman cannot read--” “A woman does not like--” We have heard those
-expressions so often! Sometimes the statement is used to illustrate the
-limitations of feminine sympathy. Sometimes the supposed limitations of
-feminine sympathy are used to support the statement. I don’t know which
-is worse, to go softly all one’s days, lest some individual weakness be
-foisted on the whole unfortunate sex, or to feel that individual tastes
-avail nothing as examples of female character.
-
-Hark to Mr. Paul Elmer More on Christina Rossetti. He finds her
-“perfectly passive attitude toward the powers that command her heart
-and soul” makes her “the purest expression in English of the feminine
-genius.” Mrs. Browning sinks to a lower level because “her political
-opinions, her passion for reform, her scholarship ... simply carry her
-into the sphere of masculine poets, where she suffers by comparison.”
-But, “even within the range of strictly feminine powers her genius
-is not simple and typical.” How he comes to his conclusion regarding
-the typical woman Mr. More neglects to tell us. But you will observe
-the advantage of this method for the doctrinaire. One has only to
-accept a certain premise (it matters not what), and by excluding as
-“not typical” every instance which might contradict it one can prove
-anything. Thus, a certain book on the Negro proved, some years ago,
-that the colored race was a hopeless mass of laziness, vice, and
-stupidity. The writer hastened to forestall criticism by declaring that
-the well-conducted Negro, wherever and whenever found, was not typical
-of the race.
-
-Here comes Dr. William Lyon Phelps, all amazement because women have
-enjoyed the soldier tales of Kipling. To him the preference is as
-out of place in a woman as her presence in a bar-room amid oaths and
-tobacco-juice. Well, if there were as much color, adventure, and
-excellent broad comedy in the bar-room as in the best of these stories
-a lady might even forgive the profanity and the filthy floor. And
-you must remember that life, for all the realists may say, is not
-literature. We take our broad comedy, selected and arranged, from an
-author. Life is like a variety show; we sit through a deal of vulgar
-stupidity for the sake of a laugh or two. Furthermore, I believe plenty
-of men who enjoy _Mistress Doll Common_ when Ben Jonson leads her on
-the stage would find her sadly dull in real life. Perhaps I have grown
-more patient with the limitations of sex since the days when I read
-“Monte Cristo” in the hayloft; but I still fume under that particular
-form of petticoat tyranny which would extend to books. Sex may pervade
-all the departments of life, but I hold that it should stop at the
-library door.
-
-Divest yourself of certain odious catchwords, my dear boy. Toss certain
-theories into the waste-basket, where they belong. Forget that any one
-ever called woman “the subjective sex,” and that somebody described
-her as a “divine totality” (I think it was divine). Any superfluous
-subjectiveness is wearing away in the freer air which has done so much
-to destroy woman’s “personal outlook.” Remember that women are no more
-of a piece than are their fathers or brothers, but a hodge-podge of
-miscellaneous and often contradictory tastes. “Tell me what you eat
-and I will tell you what you are,” runs the saying. “Tell me what you
-read and I will tell you what you are,” says the critic by implication.
-Now, what is that middle-aged relative of mine who keeps a place in her
-heart of hearts for “Pride and Prejudice” and “Pan Michael,” for “The
-Essays of Elia” and “Junius’s Letters”? Verily, we seek our books as we
-seek the society of many friends, to suit a mood, with no regard for
-totalities.
-
-By the way, is not this just another instance of that mania for
-pigeonholing human tastes and playing them off against one another?
-If you appreciate Sienkiewicz, you must share the opinion of “The
-Virginian” (and Mr. Wister) regarding Jane Austen; and if you find
-entertainment in the human comedy as played in English country towns
-at the end of the eighteenth century, it stands to reason that you are
-not the person for the Poland of the seventeenth. It avails you little
-to protest that you find an equal pleasure in routing _Lady Catherine_
-with _Elizabeth_ and Tartars with _Volodyovski_. One of these days I
-intend to found a society for the suppression of useless comparisons.
-I can understand how a Trinitarian and a Unitarian, a Democrat and a
-Republican, a suffragist and an anti-suffragist might drift naturally
-into discussion. But why, when I speak a good word for the canine race,
-must my acquaintance, B, launch aggressively into praise of cats, as if
-my love of dogs were a challenge? Why may I not enjoy Tennyson without
-calling down on myself the scorn of the Browningite? It annoys me to
-have my pets or my poets made the excuse for a wrangle. I refuse to
-commit myself to any type of novel.
-
-But, you may remind me, I went so far as to keep a parrot “once, long
-ago.” I plead guilty, yet, Mark Twain to the contrary, a parrot is no
-index to character. _John Silver_ kept one, but nobody ever compared
-him to a maiden lady.
-
-So, dear George, when you meet some gentle spinster with a flavor of
-“Cranford” about her, give her the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps she
-likes nothing better than to swagger in imagination through the streets
-of old Paris in company with the immortal three, brandishing a sheaf of
-rapiers taken from the cardinal’s guard.
-
---And between you and me, George, I never saw a “typical woman.”
-
-    Your affectionate aunt,
-    _Anne Coddington_.
-
-
-ON THE USE OF HYPERBOLE IN ADVERTISING
-
-_From a Lady who Suffers from Skepticism to a Friend who is Healthily
-Credulous_
-
-BY AGNES REPPLIER
-
-[Illustration]
-
-    _My dear Eleanor_:
-
-No, Eleanor, I have not read “The Three Golden Apples.” I have not even
-read the reviews. But I _have_ read the publishers’ notice, because
-they were good enough to send it to me. They say the book is the
-literary masterpiece of our day, that it stands unrivaled in tensity
-of situation, that it is an epoch-making narrative, and a masterly
-contribution to the problems that confront the thinking world. Upon
-which I find myself murmuring with _Sancho Panza_, “Nothing else, mine
-honest friend?” Why not say simply and plainly that it is the greatest
-novel ever written, and that Clarence Coventry (have you ever met him,
-Eleanor? He is a charming man) is the greatest novelist ever born? Why,
-when people are soaring in the pure and limitless realms of fancy,
-should they stop short, as if they were impeded by facts?
-
-Now even if I did not know Clarence--who writes quite as well as his
-neighbors--I should be chilled into apathy by the publishers’ red-hot
-enthusiasm. The phrase “epoch-making” is calculated to chill any reader
-who has encountered it before and who remembers what it usually means.
-And though I am well aware that epochs are not made or marred by even
-a readable novel, I don’t like being told pure nonsense, and I don’t
-like being hounded by advertisements. Why, Eleanor, since I have been
-running over to New York every few weeks to see Amy and the children,
-and staring out of the car-windows at ninety weary miles of continuous
-advertising, I am cured forever of touching pills or pickles.
-
-Yet they tell me (though I don’t believe it) that the success of any
-business venture depends wholly and entirely on its advertisements;
-that if people are told often enough to buy a thing they end by buying
-it; that if they are told imperatively or persuasively they buy it a
-little sooner; and that they can be startled into buying it at once. I
-have been given to understand that the artless expedient of printing an
-advertisement upside-down impels hundreds of men and women to purchase
-the object or visit the attraction so derided.
-
-But we are not, in other respects, a child-like nation; I find a
-great deal of incredulity in this world when it comes to things
-worth believing. Why, then, this touching simplicity in the face of
-a transparent artifice? Does a young man really believe that if he
-eats one kind of cereal rather than another he will become a great
-financier? That is virtually what he is told. But if he will add up the
-financiers on the one hand, and the cereal-eaters on the other, he will
-find his figures disheartening.
-
-The other day I received a long and exceedingly intimate communication,
-which began “Why not be Beautiful?”, and which (assuming ungraciously
-that I was ugly) gave me so many good reasons for altering my estate,
-that I began to fear I was “resisting grace” by retaining a single
-feature. A beautiful woman, I was reminded, “has the world at her feet,
-and can nobly mold the characters of men.” All this for thirty dollars,
-Eleanor! And I have so many friends whose characters--or at least whose
-habits--would “thole a mend.” Do you think, if I paid thirty dollars
-to be beautiful--in an elderly fashion--I could break Archie Hamilton
-of contradicting every innocent statement made in his presence (he’d
-say the sea wasn’t salt if he had a chance), and induce Dr. Nett not
-to tell us any more about the Panama Canal? It would be money well
-invested; but I fear--I fear--
-
-The amazing thing about the whole business is that it should be worth
-while. Last winter in a magazine I read a very serious and sanguine
-paper called “A Revolution in Advertising.” The writer--it is always
-a woman who believes in the perfectibility of our fallen race--wanted
-advertisers, one and all, to abandon romance and become educational
-mediums. She begged them to give us their aid in apportioning our
-incomes, to tell us “facts about economy and expenditure,” to impart to
-us the secrets of skill and the principles of science. She sought to
-make our department stores “museums of vital importance.” As the stores
-are already concert-halls and picture-galleries, cooking-schools,
-day nurseries, and vaudeville shows, it seems grasping to ask them
-to be museums as well; but to expect them to teach us the value of
-economy is like expecting the steamship companies to teach us the
-advantages of staying at home. It is not, after all, the money we save,
-but the money we spend, which benefits the shopkeeper. He may tell
-us that we economize when we buy a seventy-five-dollar costume for
-thirty-nine dollars and a half. According to his computation we shall
-save thirty-five dollars and fifty cents--quite a comfortable sum--by
-so doing. Who was it that said that figures lie more than anything
-in the world except facts; and by what system, I often wonder, does
-the advertiser regulate his choice of numerals? Human greed and human
-credulity are his only guides. If he said the costume was reduced from
-seventy-five dollars to sixty dollars, we’d say it wasn’t worth while;
-and if he said it was reduced from seventy-five to fifteen, we’d say
-we didn’t believe it; so he has to choose some happy medium which will
-sound both tempting and trustworthy. He depends on our gullibility, and
-he does not depend in vain.
-
-What I like best, however, are the ingenious appeals that cast all
-cramping veracities to the winds. I like being invited (don’t laugh, I
-can show you the advertisement) to grow potatoes in a closet, or in my
-spare room. “Method cheap, simple, and sure.” “No digging, no hoeing”
-(I should think not, in my spare room!). All the potatoes I want to
-eat, and “immense profits” if I send them to market. No labor involved,
-and no annoyance, save possibly the loss of an occasional guest, as I
-could not well have friends sleeping in my potato-patch. I have heard
-of people raising mushrooms and angleworms in their cellars (I’d as
-soon eat one as the other); but a truck-garden in the next room would
-be living in the heart of nature.
-
-And now Massachusetts, in a spasm of integrity, is trying to restrain
-the exuberance of the advertiser, to clip his wings, and teach him
-the worth of sobriety. The State proposes to abolish fraudulent
-advertisements, and to construe the word “fraudulent” so that it will
-cover any statement that can be proved to be false. A thing must really
-and truly be just what the advertiser says it is. But oh, Eleanor,
-what a tangle for the law to smooth out! If, like the three rogues in
-the Hindoo legend, you sell a dog for a sheep, that, of course, is a
-transparent lie. But if you say that Clarence Coventry’s book is an
-“epoch-making narrative,” who shall prove the contrary? We’d have to
-wait so long to find out the truth that our graves would yawn for us in
-the interval. And if in 1950 the student of social science were asked,
-“Who wrote ‘The Three Golden Apples,’ and what influence did it have
-upon its day?” and he should answer--very naturally--that he never
-had heard of it, the time for investigation would be over. Clarence,
-and the publishers, and “The Three Golden Apples” would all be dead
-together.
-
-    Your affectionate friend,
-    _Agatha Reynolds_.
-
-P.S. Don’t send me the book for a birthday present.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: IN LIGHTER VEIN]
-
-
-[Illustration: A Cubist Romance.]
-
-TEXT AND PICTURES BY OLIVER HERFORD
-
-    A sculptor once, in search of fame
-    (I can’t recall the sculptor’s name),
-    Turned Cubist, and at once began
-    A statue on the Cubist plan.
-
-    The statue, I need hardly say,
-    Was something in the Venus way,
-    And as its form grew bit by bit,
-    The sculptor fell in love with it.
-
-    Then came a wonderful idea:
-    He named his statue Galatea,
-    Which, by the way, reminds me that
-    His own name was Pygmalion Pratt.
-
-    One day it chanced Pygmalion came
-    To read the legend of his name
-    And hers, and prayed that fiction might
-    Repeat itself for his delight.
-
-    When, lo! the cubic feet of stone
-    Turned all at once to flesh and bone,
-    And Galatea’s cubic face
-    Met his in angular embrace.
-
-    Short-lived was Galatea’s bliss;
-    She soon guessed something was amiss,
-    And from the wall, in modish dress,
-    A Gibson girl confirmed her guess.
-
-    “Pygmalion dear,” she cried, “oh, please
-    Buy me some pretty frills like these!”
-    Then, meeting his astonished stare,
-    Blushed to the cube roots of her hair.
-
-    Picture the curious crowds they drew
-    As they strolled up Fifth Avenue!
-    Think of the modistes asked to drape
-    Miss Galatea’s cubic shape!
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-    When Galatea came to see
-    The sheer impossibility
-    Of getting clothes, without ado
-    She took to posing for _le nu_.
-
-    And now she leads (to end my tale)
-    A model life in Bloomingdale,
-    Painted and sculptured and adored
-    By inmates of the Cubist ward.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-AN AFTER-DINNER STORY
-
-BY SILAS HARRISON
-
-AN ANECDOTE OF MCKINLEY
-
-President McKinley’s scrupulous loyalty to his cabinet officers is
-spoken of as one of his characteristics. It is said that he never went
-over the heads of his secretaries to consult an assistant, but held
-each to responsibility for his department.
-
-Of all the events of his administration probably none was a source
-of more anxiety to him than the decision of the Supreme Court on the
-status of the colonies. It was a matter of great moment whether the
-highest judicial body should uphold the view of the Administration
-that the Constitution sanctioned the possession of colonies which were
-not granted full representation. There were conflicting rumors and
-forecasts of the color of the decision, and these added to the tension
-felt at Washington. Shortly before the announcement of the finding of
-the court a subordinate officer of one of the Departments appeared
-at the White House, at an unusual hour, and insisted upon seeing the
-President on the plea of important business. Having been admitted, he
-came at once to his errand.
-
-“Mr. President, I have some good news for you. I have just learned
-authoritatively that the decision of the Supreme Court is to be in your
-favor.” He fairly glowed with the importance of his welcome message.
-
-“Thank you,” said Mr. McKinley quietly, “that _is_ good news. But have
-you informed your chief?”
-
-“No, Mr. President; I thought you ought to be the first to know it.”
-
-“Well, Mr.----, I’m sorry for that. Now, will you please do me the
-favor to go at once to your chief and give him the information, so that
-_he_ may communicate it to _me_.”
-
-
-OLD DADDY DO-FUNNY’S WISDOM JINGLES
-
-BY RUTH MCENERY STUART
-
-THE JACK-O’-LANTERN
-
-    Sence he los’ ’is brains to git ’is smile,
-    Brer Jack-o’-lantern grins lak a ’wilderin’ chile,
-    Widout no secrets out or in;
-    An’ de lighter in de head de broader is ’is grin.
-      An’ he ain’t by ’isself in dat, in dat--
-      No, he ain’t by ’isself in dat.
-
-
-ANTS
-
-    Dem ants is sho got savin’ ways,
-    An’ even de scripture ’lows ’em praise;
-    But dey hoa’ds for deyselves f’om day to day,
-    An’ dey stings any man wha’ gits in de way.
-      An’ dey ain’t no new co’poration in dat--
-      No, dey ain’t by deyselves in dat.
-
-
-THE CANARY
-
-    Dat little yaller cage-bird preems ’is wings,
-    An’ he mounts ’is pyerch an’ sings an’ sings
-    He feels ’is cage, but I ’spec’ he ’low
-    To take what comes an’ sing _anyhow_.
-      An’ you ain’t by yo’self, little bird, in dat--
-      No, you ain’t by yo’self in dat.
-
-
-LIMERICK
-
-TEXT AND PICTURE BY OLIVER HERFORD
-
-[Illustration]
-
-THE KIND ARMADILLO
-
-    There once was a kind armadillo,
-    Who solaced a lone weeping-willow.
-        Said he: “Do not weep!
-        What _you_ need is some sleep;
-    Pray rest on my shell as a pillow.”
-
-
-THE DE VINNE PRESS, NEW YORK
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[1] Robert Stewart, second Marquis of Londonderry, was known by
-courtesy until the death of his father in 1821, as Lord Castlereagh. He
-held at this time the position in the British ministry, then in power,
-of First Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
-
-[2] The retreat from Moscow had been ordered and begun just six days
-before this letter was written.
-
-[3] The United States had formally declared war with Great Britain on
-the eighteenth of June preceding the writing of this letter.
-
-[4] The Presidential election of 1812, occurring in the midst of the
-war with England, was closely contested. James Madison was a candidate
-for reëlection, representing the so-called Republican party. De Witt
-Clinton of New York was the candidate of the Federalist party. A change
-of twenty electoral votes would have turned the scale. The Federalists
-in Massachusetts had a majority of 24,000, and the Peace party swept
-the Congressional districts throughout New England and New York.
-Madison, however, received 128 votes in the Electoral College, out of a
-total of 217.
-
-[5] The name “Isaac” was underlined and emphasized in this letter by
-Mr. Adams to distinguish the commander of the _Constitution_, in its
-flight with the _Guerrière_, from the uncle of that commander, General
-William Hull, who had surrendered Detroit to the British commander
-on the sixteenth of August--three days before the naval battle.
-General William Hull was subsequently [January, 1814] tried before a
-court-martial, and convicted. His sentence--that of death--was modified
-in execution, however. His name was ordered to be struck from the army
-roll.
-
-[6] Stephen Decatur had been in command of the frigate _United States_
-when it captured the British frigate _Macedonian_, in the engagement
-referred to.
-
-[7] The reference is here to the recent Presidential election.
-Massachusetts had then by a very large majority thrown its vote in
-favor of De Witt Clinton, the Federalist, or Peace party, candidate
-against Madison, who was a candidate for reëlection.
-
-[8] A circular to British naval officers was at this time issued by the
-Secretary of the Admiralty. It read as follows: “My Lords Commissioners
-of the Admiralty having received intelligence that several of the
-American ships of war are now at sea, I have their Lordships’ commands
-to acquaint you therewith, and that they do not conceive that any
-of his Majesty’s frigates should attempt to engage, single-handed,
-the larger class of American ships, which, though they may be called
-frigates, are of a size, complement and weight of metal much beyond
-that class and more resembling line-of-battle ships.
-
-“In the event of one of his Majesty’s frigates under your orders
-falling in with one of these ships, his captain should endeavor in
-the first instance to secure the retreat of his Majesty’s ship; but
-if he finds that he has an advantage in sailing he should endeavor
-to manœuvre, and keep company with her, without coming to action, in
-the hope of falling in with some other of his Majesty’s ships, with
-whose assistance the enemy might be attacked with a reasonable hope of
-success.
-
-“It is their Lordships’ further directions that you make this known
-as soon as possible to the several captains commanding his Majesty’s
-ships.” (The _Croker Papers_, I, 44.)
-
-In a paper recently prepared by him on the American Navy, Rear-Admiral
-French Ensor Chadwick pronounces this “the finest tribute ever paid
-any navy.” (Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for
-November, 1912, Vol. 46, pp. 207-208.)
-
-[9] This incident resulted from what was known as the affair of the
-_Little Belt_. It occurred May 16, 1811, off Cape Charles, Virginia.
-The United States frigate _President_, of forty-four guns, and the
-British corvette, of twenty guns, were concerned in it. The affair was
-accidental, and the _Little Belt_ escaped being sunk, but, at the time,
-asserted that after a sharp engagement it had driven off the American
-frigate of greatly superior force. It was alleged that the commander of
-the _President_ had mistaken the _Little Belt_ for the _Guerrière_; and
-consequently the captain of the _Guerrière_, it was said, subsequently
-had the name of the ship painted as indicated by Mr. Adams, in order
-that in future there should be no possibility of mistake.
-
-[10] Reference is here made to the engagements between the frigates
-_Constitution_ and _Guerrière_, August 19, between the frigates _United
-States_ and _Macedonian_, October 25, and between the _Wasp_ and the
-_Frolic_, both eighteen-gun sloops of war, October 17--all in 1812. The
-_Wasp_ was commanded by Captain Jacob Jones of Delaware. The action
-lasted forty-three minutes, was desperately fought, and resulted in the
-capture of the _Frolic_.
-
-[11] This statement illustrates the slowness with which news then
-traveled in Russia, or the degree to which information was suppressed
-during the campaign of 1812. St. Petersburg is about four hundred and
-fifty miles from the river Niemen, which constituted the boundary
-between East Prussia and Russia. Mr. Adams occupied an official
-position at St. Petersburg. What remained of Napoleon’s army had
-succeeded in effecting its escape by the crossing of the Beresina
-during the closing days of November. On the fifth of December Napoleon
-had left his army at Smorgoni, a town in the Russian province of Vilna,
-and about one hundred and twenty-five miles east of the river Niemen.
-
-At the time this letter was written he had been thirteen days in Paris,
-having reached that place on the evening of December 18. Thus tidings
-of what had occurred on the fifth of December, in Russia, less than
-four hundred and fifty miles from St. Petersburg, had not reached St.
-Petersburg and become generally known on the thirty-first of that month.
-
-[12] Fought May 2, 1813, near Leipsic, Saxony, between the French under
-Napoleon and the allies, Prussian and Russian. The French greatly
-predominated in numbers, and claimed the victory, which, however,
-proved fruitless.
-
-[13] Bautzen, fought May 21, 1814, between the allies and the French,
-at a point some thirty miles east of Dresden, and about one hundred
-and fifty miles from Lützen. It was another nominal French victory. In
-these two engagements the loss of Napoleon’s army is computed as having
-been between forty and fifty thousand men.
-
-[14] Of the 600,000 men Napoleon is believed to have, first and last,
-led into Russia, only about 12,000, in a wholly disorganized condition,
-reached the Niemen. The French army was virtually destroyed. Napoleon
-got to Paris December 18, 1812, and again took the field at the head of
-a fresh army of about 700,000 men, the following April, fighting the
-battle of Lützen May 2.
-
-[15] The battle of Leipsic, resulting in the total defeat of the French
-army under Napoleon, with a loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners of
-about 70,000 men, occurred October 16-19, 1813. Wellington, as the
-result of his Peninsular campaign, entered French territory on the
-seventh of the same month.
-
-[16] Henry IV, Part I, Act V, Sc. 4.
-
-[17] The Fontainebleau abdication of the emperor had taken place on the
-eleventh of April. Napoleon had reached Elba, after his abdication, on
-the fourth of May, eight days before the date of this letter.
-
-[18] William Shaw Cathcart, created Earl Cathcart July 16, 1814. He had
-served in the American Revolutionary War 1777-1780. He was Ambassador
-from the Court of St. James’s to that of Russia in 1812-1814.
-
-[19] Anne Louise Germaine Necker, Baronne de Staël-Holstein, better
-known as Madame de Staël, was born at Paris, April 22, 1766, and died
-there July 14, 1817. Exiled from France in 1812 by order of Napoleon,
-she visited Austria, Russia, Sweden, and England. She was then
-forty-six years of age, and at the height of her great reputation.
-The following letter was written by John Quincy Adams to his brother,
-Thomas Boylston Adams, in the latter part of November, 1812, but the
-interviews described and the conversations related had taken place on
-the sixth and the eighth of the previous September.
-
-[20] The battle of Salamanca, between the British army, under the Duke
-of Wellington, and the French army, under Marshal Marmont, was fought
-July 22, 1812. The bombardment of Copenhagen under the command of Lord
-Cathcart had occurred in September, 1807.
-
-[21] “The Mihavansa,” Wiiesinha’s translation.
-
-[22] Reprinted from “Scribner’s Monthly” (now ~The Century~) for April,
-1874, and included in “Old Creole Days,” by George W. Cable. (New York:
-Charles Scribner’s Sons.)
-
-[23] “Wanted: Straight Thinking about Militant Suffragists.” See
-also previous editorial articles of the same tenor: “Grace before
-Lawlessness” (March, 1912) and “Teaching Violence to Women” (May, 1912).
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Century Illustrated Monthly
-Magazine (June 1913), by Various
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CENTURY ILLUSTRATED ***
-
-***** This file should be named 54545-0.txt or 54545-0.zip *****
-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
-        http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/5/4/54545/
-
-Produced by Jane Robins, Reiner Ruf, and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
-and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
-specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
-eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
-for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
-performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
-away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
-not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
-trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
-
-START: FULL LICENSE
-
-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
-
-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
-www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
-1.E.8.
-
-1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
-
-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
-Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
-you share it without charge with others.
-
-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
-country outside the United States.
-
-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
-
-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
-on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
-phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
-
-  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-  most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the
-  United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
-  are located before using this ebook.
-
-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
-beginning of this work.
-
-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
-
-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm License.
-
-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
-other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
-Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
-
-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-provided that
-
-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
-  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
-  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
-  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
-  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
-  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
-  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
-  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
-  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
-  Literary Archive Foundation."
-
-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
-  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
-  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
-  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
-  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
-  works.
-
-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
-  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
-  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
-  receipt of the work.
-
-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
-  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
-
-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
-from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
-Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
-
-1.F.
-
-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
-contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
-cannot be read by your equipment.
-
-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
-of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
-DAMAGE.
-
-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
-without further opportunities to fix the problem.
-
-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
-
-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
-remaining provisions.
-
-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
-Defect you cause.
-
-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
-from people in all walks of life.
-
-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
-www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
-
-The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
-mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
-volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
-locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
-Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
-date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
-official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
-
-For additional contact information:
-
-    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
-    Chief Executive and Director
-    gbnewby@pglaf.org
-
-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
-spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
-freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
-status with the IRS.
-
-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
-approach us with offers to donate.
-
-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
-
-Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
-
-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
-volunteer support.
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
-edition.
-
-Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
-facility: www.gutenberg.org
-
-This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
-
diff --git a/old/54545-0.zip b/old/54545-0.zip
deleted file mode 100644
index 9e36f86..0000000
--- a/old/54545-0.zip
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h.zip b/old/54545-h.zip
deleted file mode 100644
index 4e6b6c4..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h.zip
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/54545-h.htm b/old/54545-h/54545-h.htm
deleted file mode 100644
index 5d935be..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/54545-h.htm
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11310 +0,0 @@
-<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
-    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
-<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
-  <head>
-    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
-    <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
-    <title>
-      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, June 1913, by Various.
-    </title>
-    <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" />
-    <style type="text/css">
-
-body {
-    margin-left: 10%;
-    margin-right: 10%;
-}
-
-.break-before {page-break-before: always;}
-.no-break-before {page-break-before: avoid;}
-
-h1,h2,h3 {
-  text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
-  font-weight: normal;}
-
-h1     {font-size: 250%;}
-h2,.s2 {font-size: 175%;}
-h3,.s3 {font-size: 135%;}
-.s4    {font-size: 110%;}
-.s5    {font-size: 90%;}
-.s6    {font-size: 75%;}
-.s7    {font-size: 50%;}
-
-h2 {padding-top: 3em;}
-h3 {padding-top: 1.5em;}
-
-h3.nopad,h2.nopad {padding-top: 0;}
-
-h1 {padding-top: 5em;}
-
-h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;}
-
-div.chapter,div.section {page-break-before: always;}
-
-h2.nodisp,h3.nodisp {visibility: hidden;}
-
-p {
-  margin-top: .51em;
-  text-align: justify;
-  margin-bottom: .49em;
-  text-indent: 1.5em;}
-
-p.p0, p.center {text-indent: 0;}
-
-.drop-cap {
-  float: left;
-  font-size: 2.7em;
-  margin-top: -0.15em;
-  margin-bottom: 0;}
-
-.drop-cap_poetry {
-  font-size: 2.25em;
-  margin-bottom: 0;
-  line-height: 0.8em;}
-
-.mtop-2,.mtop-2a {margin-top: -2em;}
-.mtop-0_5 {margin-top: -0.5em;}
-.mtop1 {margin-top: 1em;}
-.mtop2 {margin-top: 2em;}
-.mtop2_eb {margin-top: auto;}
-.mtop3 {margin-top: 3em;}
-.mbot1 {margin-bottom: 1em;}
-.mbot2 {margin-bottom: 2em;}
-.mbot3 {margin-bottom: 3em;}
-.mleft0_1 {margin-left: 0.1em;}
-.mleft1 {margin-left: 1em;}
-.mleft2 {margin-left: 2em;}
-.mleft4 {margin-left: 4em;}
-.mright1 {margin-right: 1em;}
-.mright2 {margin-right: 2em;}
-
-.padt3 {padding-top: 3em;}
-.padt5 {padding-top: 5em;}
-.padr5 {padding-right: 5em;}
-.padb1 {padding-bottom: 1em;}
-.padb2 {padding-bottom: 2em;}
-.pad_grandcanon {padding: 0.5em 2em;}
-
-hr {
-  width: 33%;
-  margin-top: 2em;
-  margin-bottom: 2em;
-  margin-left: auto;
-  margin-right: auto;
-  clear: both;}
-
-hr {
-  width: 33%;
-  margin: 2em auto 2em auto;
-  height: 0;
-  color: #dddddd;
-  clear: both;}
-
-hr.chap {width: 65%; margin: 2em 17.5%;}
-hr.full {width: 95%; margin: 2.5em 2.5%;}
-
-table {
-    margin-left: auto;
-    margin-right: auto;}
-
-table.toc {width: 100%;}
-
-table.toc td p {
-  margin-top: 0;
-  margin-bottom: 0;
-  line-height: 1.3em;}
-
-table.tilden {
-  margin-left: 0;
-  padding-left: 1.5em;}
-
-td.subject {
-  text-align: left;
-  vertical-align: top;
-  width: 65%;}
-
-td.subject2 {
-  text-align: left;
-  padding-left: 2.5em;
-  text-indent: -1em;
-  line-height: 1.1em;}
-
-td.subject3 {
-  text-align: left;
-  padding-left: 4em;
-  text-indent: -1em;
-  line-height: 0.8em;
-  font-size: 75%;}
-
-td.subject p {
-  padding-left: 1.5em;
-  text-indent: -1.5em;}
-
-td.subject p.subject3 {
-  padding-left: 3em;
-  text-indent: -2em;
-  line-height: 1.1em;
-  font-size: 75%;}
-
-td.author {
-  font-style: italic;
-  text-align: left;
-  vertical-align: top;
-  width: 25%;}
-
-td.pgnum {
-  text-align: right;
-  vertical-align: bottom;
-  width: 10%;}
-
-td.underline {border-bottom: thin black solid;}
-
-div.header_tab {
-  display: table;
-  width: 80%;
-  margin: 1em 10%;}
-
-div.table_row {display: table-row;}
-
-div.table_cell {display: table-cell;}
-
-.w60 {width: 60%; margin: auto 20%;}
-
-.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
-    /*  visibility: hidden;  */
-    position: absolute;
-    left: 92%;
-    font-size: smaller;
-    text-align: right;} /* page numbers */
-
-.blockquot {
-  margin: 1.5em 5%;
-  font-size: 90%;}
-
-.thinbox {border: solid black thin;}
-
-.center   {text-align: center;}
-
-.right   {text-align: right;}
-
-.smaller {font-size: 75%;}
-
-.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
-
-.hidden {visibility: hidden;}
-
-/* Images */
-.figcenter   {
-  margin: auto;
-  text-align: center;
-  clear: both;}
-
-img {max-width: 650px; height: auto;}
-
-div.dc {
-  float: left;
-  margin: 0.5em 0.9em 0 0;}
-div.dc2 {
-  float: left;
-  margin: 2.1em 1.2em 0 0;}
-
-
-.hide-first1_4 {
-  visibility: hidden;
-  margin-left: -1.4em;}
-
-.hide-first3_5 {
-  visibility: hidden;
-  margin-left: -3.5em;}
-
-.w12em {width: 12em; height: auto;}
-.w10em {width: 10em; height: auto;}
-
-/* Footnotes */
-.footnotes {
-  border: thin black dotted;
-  background-color: #f5fffa;
-  color: black;}
-
-.footnote  {
-  margin-left: 10%;
-  margin-right: 10%;
-  font-size: 0.9em;}
-
-.footnote .label {
-  position: absolute;
-  right: 84%;
-  text-align: right;}
-
-.fnanchor {
-    vertical-align: top;
-    font-size: 70%;
-    text-decoration: none;}
-
-/* Poetry */
-.poetry-container {text-align: center;}
-
-.poetry {
-  display: inline-block;
-  text-align: left;}
-
-.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;}
-
-.poetry .verse {
-  text-indent: -3em;
-  padding-left: 3em;}
-
-/* Transcriber's notes */
-.transnote {
-  background-color: #e6e6fA;
-  color: black;
-  font-size:smaller;
-  padding:0.5em;}
-
-.transnote p {text-indent: 0;}
-
-.htmlhide {display: none;}
-
-@media handheld {
-
-img {max-width: 100%; height: auto;}
-
-.mtop2_eb {margin-top: 2em;}
-
-.ebhide {display: none; padding-bottom: 2em;}
-
-.htmlhide {display: block;}
-
-h1 {padding-top: 0;}
-
-.poetry {
-  display: block;
-  text-align: left;
-  margin-left: 2.5em;}
-
-.drop-cap {
-  float: left;
-  font-size: 2.7em;
-  vertical-align: top;
-  margin-bottom: 0;}
-
-div.dc {float: left;}
-div.dc2 {
-  float: left;
-  margin: 0.5em 1.2em 0 0;}
-
-.mtop-2a {margin-top: 0;}
-
-.hide-first3_5 {
-  visibility: hidden;
-  margin-left: -3em;}
-
-}
-
-    </style>
-  </head>
-<body>
-
-
-<pre>
-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine
-(June 1913), by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine (June 1913)
-       Vol. LXXXVI. New Series: Vol. LXIV. May to October, 1913
-
-Author: Various
-
-Release Date: April 13, 2017 [EBook #54545]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CENTURY ILLUSTRATED ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Jane Robins, Reiner Ruf, and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<div class="transnote mbot3">
-
-<p class="s3 center"><b>Transcriber’s Notes</b></p>
-
-<p>This e-text is based on ‘The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine,’
-from June 1913. The table of contents has been added by the transcriber.</p>
-
-<p>Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation have been retained, but
-punctuation and typographical errors have been corrected. Passages in
-English dialect and in languages other than English have
-not been altered.</p>
-
-<p class="htmlhide">The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the
-public domain.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter break-before">
-   <a id="i_161" name="i_161">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_161.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center no-break-before">TEMPLE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA</p>
-  <p class="s6 center">PAINTED FOR THE CENTURY BY JULES GUÉRIN</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_161_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="s6 center padt5 break-before">Copyright, 1913, by T<span class="smaller">HE</span> C<span class="smaller">ENTURY</span> C<span class="smaller">O.</span> All rights reserved.</p>
-
-<p class="center s2 padt3">TRAVEL NUMBER</p>
-
-<h1>T<span class="smaller">HE</span> C<span class="smaller">ENTURY</span> M<span class="smaller">AGAZINE</span></h1>
-
-<div class="header_tab center padb2">
-  <div class="table_row">
-    <div class="table_cell">
-      V<span class="smaller">OL</span>. LXXXVI
-    </div>
-    <div class="table_cell">
-      JUNE, 1913
-    </div>
-    <div class="table_cell">
-      N<span class="smaller">O</span>. 2
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="full" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<table class="toc" summary="Table of Contents for June">
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum s6">
-      PAGE
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      T<span class="smaller">HE</span> G<span class="smaller">REAT</span>
-      S<span class="smaller">T</span>. B<span class="smaller">ERNARD</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#THE_GREAT_ST_BERNARD">161</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      Pictures by André Castaigne.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      T<span class="smaller">HE</span> T<span class="smaller">RAINING OF</span>
-      <span class="smaller">A</span> J<span class="smaller">APANESE</span>
-      C<span class="smaller">HILD</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Frances Little
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#i_170">170</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      Pictures from photographs.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      B<span class="smaller">ROTHER</span> L<span class="smaller">EO</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Phyllis Bottome
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#BROTHER_LEO">181</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      Pictures by W. T. Benda.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject" colspan="3">
-      T<span class="smaller">HE</span> C<span class="smaller">ENTURY</span>’<span class="smaller">S</span>
-      A<span class="smaller">FTER</span>-<span class="smaller">THE</span>-W<span class="smaller">AR</span>
-      S<span class="smaller">ERIES</span>.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      Another View of “The Hayes-Tilden Contest”.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      George F. Edmunds
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#G_F_EDMUNDS">192</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      Portrait of Ex-Senator Edmunds.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      T<span class="smaller">HE</span> G<span class="smaller">RAND</span>
-      C<span class="smaller">AÑON OF THE</span> C<span class="smaller">OLORADO</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Joseph Pennell
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#i_202">202</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      Six lithographs drawn from nature for “The Century.”
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      I<span class="smaller">F</span> R<span class="smaller">ICHARD</span>
-      W<span class="smaller">AGNER</span> C<span class="smaller">AME</span>
-      B<span class="smaller">ACK</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Henry T. Finck
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#i_208">208</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      Portrait of Wagner from photograph.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      P<span class="smaller">ORTRAIT OF</span> D<span class="smaller">OROTHY</span>
-      M<span class="smaller">C</span>K&mdash;&mdash;.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Wilhelm Funk
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#i_211">211</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      “B<span class="smaller">LACK</span> B<span class="smaller">LOOD.</span>”
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Edward Lyell Fox
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#BLACK_BLOOD">213</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      Pictures by William H. Foster.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      S<span class="smaller">KIRTING THE</span> B<span class="smaller">ALKAN</span>
-      P<span class="smaller">ENINSULA</span>
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Robert Hichens
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject2">
-      IV. Delphi and Olympia.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#SKIRTING_THE_BALKAN_PENINSULA">224</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      Pictures by Jules Guérin and from photographs.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      N<span class="smaller">OOSING</span> W<span class="smaller">ILD</span>
-      E<span class="smaller">LEPHANTS</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Charles Moser
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#i_240aa">240</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      Pictures from photographs.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject" colspan="3">
-      J<span class="smaller">OHN</span> Q<span class="smaller">UINCY</span>
-      A<span class="smaller">DAMS</span> <span class="smaller">IN</span>
-      R<span class="smaller">USSIA</span>.
-      (Unpublished letters.)
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject2">
-      Introduction and notes by Charles Francis Adams.
-      Portraits of John Quincy Adams and Madame de Staël
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#i_250">250</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject" colspan="3">
-      T<span class="smaller">HE</span> C<span class="smaller">ENTURY</span>’<span class="smaller">S</span>
-      A<span class="smaller">MERICAN</span> A<span class="smaller">RTISTS</span>
-      S<span class="smaller">ERIES</span>.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject2">
-      Frank W. Benson: My Daughter.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#i_264">264</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      S<span class="smaller">IGIRIYA</span>, “T<span class="smaller">HE</span>
-      L<span class="smaller">ION</span>’<span class="smaller">S</span>
-      R<span class="smaller">OCK</span>” <span class="smaller">OF</span>
-      C<span class="smaller">EYLON</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Jennie Coker Gay
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#i_265">265</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      Pictures by Duncan Gay.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      N<span class="smaller">OTEWORTHY</span>
-      S<span class="smaller">TORIES OF THE</span>
-      L<span class="smaller">AST</span> G<span class="smaller">ENERATION</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject2">
-      Belles Demoiselles Plantation.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      George W. Cable
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#BELLES_DEMOISELLES_PLANTATION">273</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      With portrait of the author, and new pictures by W. M. Berger.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      C<span class="smaller">OLONEL</span> W<span class="smaller">ATTERSON</span>’<span class="smaller">S</span>
-      R<span class="smaller">EJOINDER TO</span>
-      E<span class="smaller">X</span>-S<span class="smaller">ENATOR</span>
-      E<span class="smaller">DMUNDS</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Henry Watterson
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#COLONEL_WATTERSONS_REJOINDER_TO_EX-SENATOR_EDMUNDS">285</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject2">
-      Comments on “Another View of ‘The Hayes-Tilden Contest.’”
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      A P<span class="smaller">APER OF</span>
-      P<span class="smaller">UNS</span>
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Brander Matthews
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#i_290">290</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      Head-piece by Reginald Birch.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      T. T<span class="smaller">EMBAROM</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Frances Hodgson Burnett
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3">
-      Drawings by Charles S. Chapman.
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum" colspan="2">
-      <a href="#i_296">296</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      U<span class="smaller">NDER WHICH</span>
-      F<span class="smaller">LAG</span>, L<span class="smaller">ADIES</span>,
-      O<span class="smaller">RDER OR</span> A<span class="smaller">NARCHY</span>?
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Editorial
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#i_309">309</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      N<span class="smaller">EWSPAPER</span>
-      I<span class="smaller">NVASION OF</span>
-      P<span class="smaller">RIVACY</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Editorial
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#NEWSPAPER_INVASION_OF_PRIVACY">310</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      T<span class="smaller">HE</span> C<span class="smaller">HANGING</span>
-      V<span class="smaller">IEW OF</span> G<span class="smaller">OVERNMENT</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Editorial
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#THE_CHANGING_VIEW_OF_GOVERNMENT">311</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      T<span class="smaller">HE</span> T<span class="smaller">WO-BILLION-DOLLAR</span>
-      C<span class="smaller">ONGRESS</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Editorial
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#THE_TWO-BILLION-DOLLAR_CONGRESS">313</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      O<span class="smaller">N THE</span> L<span class="smaller">ADY AND HER</span>
-      B<span class="smaller">OOK</span>.
-
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Helen Minturn Seymour
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#i_315a">315</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      O<span class="smaller">N THE</span> U<span class="smaller">SE OF</span>
-      H<span class="smaller">YPERBOLE IN</span>
-      A<span class="smaller">DVERTISING</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Agnes Repplier
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#ON_THE_USE_OF_HYPERBOLE">316</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject" colspan="3">
-      A<span class="smaller">FTER</span>-D<span class="smaller">INNER</span>
-      S<span class="smaller">TORIES</span>.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject2">
-      An Anecdote of McKinley.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Silas Harrison
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#AN_AFTER-DINNER_STORY">319</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p class="s4 center mtop2 break-before">VERSE</p>
-
-<table class="toc mtop1" summary="Verses, June">
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      O<span class="smaller">FF</span> C<span class="smaller">APRI</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Sara Teasdale
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#OFF_CAPRI">223</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      A<span class="smaller">T THE</span> C<span class="smaller">LOSED</span>
-      G<span class="smaller">ATE OF</span> J<span class="smaller">USTICE</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      James D. Corrothers
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#AT_THE_CLOSED_GATE_OF_JUSTICE">272</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      F<span class="smaller">INIS</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      William H. Hayne
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#FINIS">295</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      I<span class="smaller">NVULNERABLE</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      William Rose Benét
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#INVULNERABLE">308</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      A C<span class="smaller">UBIST</span>
-      R<span class="smaller">OMANCE</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Oliver Herford
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#i_318">318</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      Picture by Oliver Herford.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      O<span class="smaller">LD</span> D<span class="smaller">ADDY</span>
-      D<span class="smaller">O</span>-F<span class="smaller">UNNY</span>’<span class="smaller">S</span>
-      W<span class="smaller">ISDOM</span> J<span class="smaller">INGLES</span>.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      Ruth McEnery Stuart
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#OLD_DADDY_DO-FUNNY">319</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject">
-      L<span class="smaller">IMERICKS</span>:
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject3" colspan="3">
-      Text and pictures by Oliver Herford.
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="subject2">
-      XXIX. The Kind Armadillo.
-    </td>
-    <td class="author">
-      &nbsp;
-    </td>
-    <td class="pgnum">
-      <a href="#LIMERICK">320</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<hr class="full" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_GREAT_ST_BERNARD">THE GREAT ST. BERNARD</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s2 center"><span class="smaller">BY ERNST VON HESSE-WARTEGG</span></p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">WITH PICTURES BY ANDRÉ CASTAIGNE</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">I</span>N a popular guide-book to Switzerland, it is stated that of all Alpine
-passes the Great St. Bernard is the least interesting. With this view
-the traveling public does not seem to agree, for the St. Bernard is
-crossed every year by more people than any other pass. On an average,
-twenty thousand annually arrive at the hospice on the summit, and nine
-tenths of them during the short summer season, from the beginning of
-July to the end of August, which means over three hundred daily.</p>
-
-<p>Now, the whole district of the St. Bernard for many miles around
-possesses not one of the vast caravansaries characteristic of the
-picturesque mountain-tops in Switzerland,&mdash;indeed, not even a modest
-inn,&mdash;where tourists may find shelter for a few days. Why, then, should
-these armies of tourists invade the pass every summer, if it really
-offers little of interest?</p>
-
-<p>To me, who have seen almost all the passes from one end of the Alps
-to the other, the trip over the Great St. Bernard was most enjoyable.
-Though the scenery may not be so beautiful as that of the St. Gotthard,
-for instance, it surpasses by far even that and most of the others in
-wild grandeur; for nowhere else in the Alps can be found mountains
-of bolder aspect and greater height. On the west, near the French
-boundary, I need only mention Mont Blanc and Mont Dolent; on the east,
-the glacier-covered peaks of Mont Velan, and the towering masses of the
-Grand Combin.</p>
-
-<p>The valley of the river Dranse, which is followed by the traveler from
-Martigny, in the Rhone valley, to very near the summit, more than eight
-thousand feet above the sea, is full of romantic beauty and wildness,
-closed in by snow-covered mountains of fantastic shapes, their steep
-slopes partly covered with dark pine forests. Nestling on the rocks or
-sleeping in the valleys there are a few straggling settlements, with
-heavy-visaged natives, apparently of a different race from the Swiss,
-and entirely untouched by modern life. They live in tottering, wooden
-houses of the quaintest shapes, dark brown with age, and with wooden
-barns on stilts attached to them. Only a few villages, as Orsières,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>
-Liddes, and Bourg St. Pierre on the Swiss side, and St. Rémy on the
-Italian side, have stone houses along their narrow main thoroughfares.</p>
-
-<p>During the summer months these roads are daily traversed by a motley
-crowd of tourists from all parts of the world, traveling on foot, or
-in private carriages or postal diligences, for the road is kept in
-capital order. Many wayfarers stop at the modest inns to rest and take
-a glass of <i>kirsch</i>, or even to seek shelter in the old houses when
-storms spring up suddenly, blowing furiously down the valleys; or they
-may repose on the rotten thresholds of the houses side by side with old
-matrons working at their spinning-wheels or with young girls knitting
-stockings, and converse with them in their French patois. The men are
-frequently employed as guides, and all are in constant intercourse with
-modern people from the great capitals of both continents, yet they do
-not depart from their ancient manners and ways.</p>
-
-<p>The uncommon tenacity of these mountaineers is surprising, as the
-St. Bernard traffic is by no means new. True, the new carriage-road
-connecting central Europe, by way of Switzerland, with Italy was
-opened only in the first days of August, 1905, when the King of Italy
-himself was present, together with the authorities of the neighboring
-countries. But the St. Bernard has been a highway for thousands of
-years; it has seen many armies in war-time and many caravans with
-merchandise in times of peace. More than two hundred years before
-Christ, the great Hannibal passed over it with his Carthaginian
-legions; over the winding road which Hannibal had constructed Julius
-Cæsar led his Roman army down the valley of the Dranse for the conquest
-of Gallia and Germania. Emperor Augustus II improved and rebuilt
-the road, portions of which are still seen by the side of the new
-carriage-road wherever the latter has not been built on the foundation
-of the Roman highway.</p>
-
-<p>At the beginning of the Christian era, the summit of the pass was
-crowned with a temple in honor of Jupiter, with rest-houses for
-travelers. Vestiges of this temple still exist, and in the large and
-well-stocked library of the present Hospice of St. Bernard the prior of
-the religious order in charge showed me a number of gold and silver
-coins, ex-voto figures, tablets, vessels, statuettes, and other objects
-found by the priests on the temple site. Indeed, owing to its situation
-on the direct geographical line between Italy and the North, the St.
-Bernard has been crossed in the course of time by more people than has
-any other pass.</p>
-
-<p>The traveler of to-day, arriving at the hospice in a comfortable
-carriage within ten hours from the nearest railway-station, and
-provided with all the luxuries of modern life, can hardly picture to
-himself the terrible privations of the traveler in ancient times, when
-settlements were scarce. Provisions had to be carried along for many
-miles to these icy regions, most of the time covered with deep snow
-which obliterated every trace of roads.</p>
-
-<p>On the evening of my arrival, I went to the plateau where once Jupiter
-was worshiped. The small lake beyond which it is situated had still
-some ice-cakes floating on its placid surface. Resting there on a
-stone, my fancy enlivened this scene of solitude and desolation with
-the savage soldiers of heathen times. I imagined that I heard the
-cracking and screaking of heavy cart-wheels, the clattering of armor,
-the clanking of spears, as the legions toiled wearisomely upward to the
-beating of drums and blowing of trumpets. My eyes pictured strange,
-stalwart warriors, exhausted from the arduous pull up those steep
-valleys, shivering with intense cold, fainting, sinking into the deep
-snow. And then an avalanche, breaking loose from the towering mountains
-above, came thundering down, dispersing this glittering array, and
-burying many under the soft, white, yet deadly, mass.</p>
-
-<p>It was with the object of offering shelter to the weary and of rescuing
-those who succumbed to the inclemencies of these forbidding heights
-that in the year 962 a pious monk, Bernard, Count of Menthon, whose
-home was in Savoy, near Annecy, resolved to devote his life and fortune
-to the founding of a hospice on the summit of the pass. He succeeded
-in persuading other monks to share with him the dreary life, and thus
-founded a holy order, named to-day “Les Chanoines reguliers de St.
-Augustin.” Bernard of Menthon himself, afterward canonized by the pope,
-was elected first prior, and lived<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> forty years at the hospice. His
-tomb is still standing in the Italian town of Novara. According to the
-keeper of the royal archives at Turin, whom I consulted on the history
-of the hospice, it is first mentioned in a document in the year 1108.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_163" name="i_163">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_163.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Drawn by André Castaigne. Half-tone plate engraved by
-      R. Varley</p>
-  <p class="s5 center">AN AVALANCHE ON THE ST. BERNARD PASS</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_163_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="mtop2_eb">In the Middle Ages the hospice, being of great importance in the
-intercourse between the north and south of Europe, enjoyed the powerful
-support and protection of the great rulers of that period, notably
-the German emperors. In return for valuable services, the order was
-richly endowed, and became in time exceedingly wealthy and prosperous.
-At the beginning of the sixteenth century it possessed no fewer than
-ninety-eight livings. The Reformation, however, ended this prosperity,
-and since then various misfortunes have carried away most of its once
-very large revenues. Its total income is now about eight thousand
-dollars, and without the aid received from the Italian and Swiss
-governments it would be impossible to offer hospitality to the large
-number of tourists that come every year. As many as five hundred have
-received free board and lodging in a single day.</p>
-
-<p>It is to be regretted that so few visitors take notice of the
-collection-box in the pretty little church. Many well able to pay for
-the hospitality they receive do not give even so much as they would pay
-for their entertainment in a third-rate inn. The total amount given by
-tourists is only a small fraction of the actual expense incurred in
-entertaining them. The present King of England, who visited the hospice
-when Prince of Wales, sent a piano, and I could not help wondering
-how this bulky instrument was brought up the steep mountains. Emperor
-Frederick of Germany, with his consort, came in 1883, and the prior
-showed me one of their valuable gifts&mdash;a volume of Thomas à Kempis,
-bearing their signatures.</p>
-
-<p>One must bear in mind that provisions, wood, and all other necessities
-of life have to be brought up eight thousand feet from the valleys
-below. For miles about the hospice there is not a tree, not a bush or
-a single blade of grass, and the view from my window offered nothing
-but barren rocks, bleak mountains, glaciers, and snow-fields. The mean
-annual temperature is below the freezing-point, being about the same
-as Spitzbergen, within the Arctic Ocean! One cannot help admiring the
-little group of monks, about twelve in number, who, with an equal
-number of lay brothers and servants, live here, in this highest human
-habitation of Europe, summer and winter, year after year, till they
-die. They do not wear the monk’s capouch, but the ordinary black
-sacerdotal robe, with a white cord falling from the neck as a special
-distinction.</p>
-
-<p>Their sufferings are sometimes intense. The climate is so severe, and
-their duties are so arduous, that their constitutions would soon be
-broken down if they were not allowed to recuperate temporarily at their
-house in Martigny, their places being taken by other members of this
-brave and devoted brotherhood.</p>
-
-<p>On the St. Bernard summit the seasons are unknown. Winter is, so
-to speak, perpetual, without spring or autumn or summer, the only
-indication of our warm seasons being the melting of the snow, which
-sometimes drifts about the three tall stone buildings to a height of
-forty feet. The cold is often twenty degrees below zero Fahrenheit and
-has been in one instance twenty-nine degrees. When I stayed at the
-hospice early in August, the lake behind it was frozen over during the
-night, and the monks told me that there have been years when the ice on
-its surface did not melt.</p>
-
-<p>Under these conditions, I was not surprised to find among the occupants
-of the hospice mostly young men, only one of them being over fifty, and
-he had spent twenty consecutive years on the St. Bernard. The hardest
-labors of these pious men are during the winter months, notably in
-November and February, when numerous poor laborers from Italy venture
-to cross in search of work. Unfamiliar with the hardships and dangers
-they have to face, they ascend from Aosta over St. Rémy, plodding
-wearily through the deep snow, which obliterates all traces of the
-road, sometimes covering even the telegraph-poles. At last their
-strength gives out, or they are buried under an avalanche, or they lose
-their way and cannot proceed from sheer exhaustion. Those who do not
-perish owe their lives to the zeal of the monks and the alertness of
-the famous dogs of St. Bernard.</p>
-
-<p>Day after day all the monks are out on their beat through the “Valley
-of Death” on the north side opening immediately below the hospice, and
-the steep snow-fields to the south, each accompanied by a servant and
-a dog. They search the surroundings, where every dell, every rock is
-familiar to them, with powerful field-glasses. Breaks or dark spots are
-detected at once on the white surface, but the surest and never-failing
-discoverers of unfortunate victims are the dogs. Their extraordinary
-fine scent indicates to them the exact direction in which it is
-necessary to search, and the men follow on snow-shoes. Arrived at the
-supposed spot, the dogs begin to bark and to scratch in the snow, the
-men take to their shovels, and soon the poor wayfarer is discovered.
-If life has fled from him, the body is carried up to the hospice and
-placed in the little low, desolate stone hut standing at a short
-distance from the buildings, the abode of the dead. In this “morgue”
-rest the victims of the Alps till their bodies crumble to ashes. There
-is no other way of disposing of the dead, since for miles about the
-hospice not enough soil can be found to furnish a grave.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_165" name="i_165">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_165.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Drawn by André Castaigne.</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2">INTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL IN THE HOSPICE</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>At the time of my visit, only one body of the preceding winter was
-lying among the remains of the victims of former years. The others who
-had been found had been restored to life.</p>
-
-<p>Many thousands have been rescued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> from certain death, principally
-owing to the cleverness of the dogs, carefully trained to their work.
-According to the register kept at the hospice, these dogs, originally
-a cross between Newfoundland and Pyrenean, were employed first in the
-fifteenth century, and the present breed is undoubtedly descended from
-them. To preserve it pure, several dogs are also kept at the two other
-settlements of the brotherhood, the Simplon hospice and Martigny. The
-expediency of this is shown by the accident of 1825, when nearly all
-the dogs at the St. Bernard hospice, together with three lay brothers,
-perished in a terrible avalanche on the Swiss slope near the present
-“Cantine de Proz,” the highest inn on the way to the hospice, kept
-by the Swiss Government as a postal station. Only two or three dogs
-survived, and they perpetuated the race.</p>
-
-<p>Now there are about fifteen dogs at the hospice. They are objects of
-much petting on the part of travelers, especially ladies, to which they
-indulgently submit. In appearance they differ considerably from what
-we picture them to be. They are much smaller than the St. Bernard dog
-of other countries, but heavier-set and stronger. The hair is white,
-coarse, and tight to the skin, with large yellow or reddish-brown
-spots, the chest and the lower part of the body being always white.
-The long tail is heavy and shaggy, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> neck short-set and uncommonly
-strong, carrying a large head, with the muzzle short and broad.
-The front teeth are mostly visible, and the dogs would look rather
-ferocious without the intelligent and withal docile expression of their
-large, bright eyes. Many of them have been reproduced on postal cards,
-for sale in the large reception-room, one of the few rooms furnished
-with a stove. The prior, who is also Swiss postmaster, told me that
-on the average one thousand postal cards, mostly with pictures of the
-dogs, are daily sent “with hearty greetings” to all parts of the world.
-But in the “season,” as many as fifteen hundred have been mailed in a
-single afternoon, especially when snow-storms or rain keep the tourists
-indoors with nothing to do.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_166" name="i_166">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_166.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Drawn by André Castaigne.</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2">A ST. BERNARD DOG</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>The best type of a St. Bernard dog was famous Bary, who, after saving
-thirty-nine lives, was unfortunately shot by an English traveler he was
-trying to rescue, who mistook him for a wolf. His stuffed skin is now
-in the museum at Bern. Since then there has always been a “Bary” among
-the dogs. The present dog of that name has already saved three lives,
-while Pallas and Diana have saved two each.</p>
-
-<p>St. Bernard dogs, imported mostly from England in recent years,
-have become decidedly popular in America. They are chiefly of the
-long-haired kind, much larger and with rather flatter heads and longer
-muzzles than the dogs at the St. Bernard hospice. Nevertheless, they
-are genuine St. Bernards, and are descended from those originally
-brought to England from Switzerland for Lord Dashwood, about one
-hundred years ago.</p>
-
-<p>In their home country this breed of dogs is by no means confined to the
-St. Bernard mountain. Raised in most Alpine valleys, they have become,
-so to speak, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> national dog of Switzerland, and are foremost in
-public favor. While the long-haired type prevails in the lower cantons,
-nothing but the short-haired variety are employed at the hospice, the
-former type being unfitted for the peculiar mountain work. Enormous
-snowfalls in spring and autumn force them sometimes to dig their way
-under the snow for two or three days; on occasions they remain in the
-icy fields for a week or two, returning to the hospice reduced to mere
-skeletons. The coat of the long-haired dogs dries much slower, and the
-dripping from the fur congeals, causing rheumatism and other ailments
-and making them soon unfit for their work.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_167" name="i_167">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_167.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Drawn by André Castaigne.</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2">THE ST. BERNARD HOSPICE</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>The general belief that the original St. Bernard race died out long ago
-is unfounded. There can be no doubt that the present dogs are descended
-from those kept at the hospice in the Middle Ages, crossed with Danish
-bulldogs and Pyrenean dogs about five centuries ago, that they might
-inherit size and strength from the former and intelligence and keen
-scent from the latter. St. Bernard, the founder of the hospice, is
-represented in ancient pictures accompanied by a large white dog. The
-insecurity of the much frequented route between Italy and the North in
-early times caused the monks to keep dogs for their own protection,
-till their usefulness for life-saving purposes made them indispensable
-companions.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_168" name="i_168">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_168.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Drawn by André Castaigne. Half-tone plate engraved by
-      H. C. Merrill</p>
-  <p class="s5 center">A BAND OF GIPSIES TRAVELING ALONG THE ST. BERNARD PASS</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_168_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="mtop2_eb">Unfortunately, most of the early documents in regard to the dogs were
-destroyed by fire, but the existing traditions of the antiquity of the
-race are confirmed by the escutcheon of an ancient Swiss family which
-I discovered in the archives of the city of Zurich. Four families
-of the fourteenth century have dogs as ornaments of the escutcheon
-helmet. They are Stubenweg, Aichelberg, Hailigberg, and the counts
-of Toggenburg, the latter famous in history and still flourishing
-in Austria. The escutcheons are most carefully painted, and show
-four distinct and clearly defined types of dogs. The type over the
-escutcheon of the family of Hailigberg shows a striking resemblance
-to the St. Bernard dog of to-day, with all the characteristic signs.
-Mountains crowned by hospices used to be called sacred mountains or
-Hailigberg (present style Heiligberg) during the Middle Ages, and from
-this it may safely be deducted that the knights of Hailigberg, took the
-picture of a hospice dog for their helmet ornament.</p>
-
-<p>For ages the St. Bernard dogs have been trained for their service in a
-peculiar manner: one old and one young dog are sent together daily down
-the Valley of Death toward the nearest human habitation; two others on
-the south side toward St. Rémy, their footprints in the snow indicating
-to lost travelers with unfailing certainty the exact line of the road
-buried under the snow. The younger dogs are taught by the older ones
-to show to travelers the way to the hospice by barking and jumping and
-running ahead of them toward the summit of the pass. If they happen
-to find a poor half-frozen victim, they try to restore animation by
-licking the hands and face. Then they hasten back to the hospice and
-announce their discovery by barking.</p>
-
-<p>Great credit is due to the Kynological Society of Switzerland for the
-preservation, improvement, and popularization of the hospice dogs in
-their pure type. In the latter part of the last century the English
-type, as described above, threatened to become generally established as
-the correct one. At an international Kynological Congress convened by
-that society in Zurich in 1887, the characteristic marks of the pure
-hospice type were laid down and acknowledged by the delegates of all
-countries, England included. In 1885 the first pure St. Bernard dogs
-were introduced into Germany by Prince Albrecht of Solms-Braunfels, and
-as they became very popular in a short time, a St. Bernard Club was
-organized in Munich in 1891 for the express purpose of improving the
-St. Bernard breed by organizing an exposition with competent judges,
-and publishing annually a book of genealogy.</p>
-
-<p>The first Napoleon, who crossed the St. Bernard with his army, cavalry,
-artillery, and all, between the fifteenth and twenty-first of May,
-1800, was very fond of these dogs and kept some in his room while
-resting at the hospice. Near the entrance of the largest building,
-erected in the seventeenth century, there is a big bell, rung by
-travelers to announce their arrival. Opposite the bell a large
-marble tablet commemorates the passage of Napoleon, dedicated by the
-government of the then republic, now the Swiss canton of Valais. His
-army was the last to cross the St. Bernard, and in the place of armies
-of soldiers, those of tourists invade the historic pass every year.
-They are most numerous in August, for the snow rarely melts before
-July and begins to fall again early in September, to stay till the
-following July. The poor priests are then left to themselves for about
-ten months, when the next summer’s sun makes the carriage-road again
-practicable.</p>
-
-<p>The founder of the hospice, with its brotherhood, has at last received
-a monument, which he well deserved. His statue was unveiled during the
-summer of 1905, and stands on the spot which the many thousands have
-had to pass who, after being rescued by his successors, have resumed
-their journey to the valleys below and to renewed life.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_169" name="i_169">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_169.jpg" alt="Tailpiece for St. Bernard" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_170" name="i_170">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_170.jpg" alt="Headpiece for Japanese Child" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_TRAINING_OF_A_JAPANESE_CHILD">THE TRAINING OF A
-JAPANESE CHILD</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s2 center"><span class="smaller">BY FRANCES LITTLE</span></p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">Author of “The Lady of the Decoration,” “The Lady
-and Sada San,” etc.</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">T</span>HE stork has no vacation in Japan, neither does he sleep; and if he
-rests, the time and place are known of no man. On the stroke of the
-hour, nay, of the quarter, he is faithfully at his work distributing
-impartially among rich and poor small bits of humanity. He may be a
-wise bird, but if he thinks by the swiftness of his wings to find a
-home beneath roof of straw or palace tile unprepared for his coming, he
-is mistaken. He will discover that he has failed utterly to comprehend
-the joy of the mother to be. A childless woman is of no value in a
-land where the perpetuation of the family name is the most vital law
-prescribed in its religious and moral teachings. For a Japanese woman,
-therefore, the pinnacle of desire is reached when the white bird taps
-at her door and lays its precious bundle in her outstretched arms. For
-a time at least she has been able to forget the great terror of her
-life, divorce, and to make ready for the coming of the child with high
-hope and tender joy.</p>
-
-<p>Only two little garments are prepared previously. For the inside, a
-tiny kimono of bright yellow, the color supposed to give health and
-strength to the body; and for an outer covering, a coat of red, which
-color means congratulation. Until the sex of the baby is known, the
-wardrobe is thus limited as a matter of economy in time and cloth. If
-a boy, he has the sole right to every shade of blue. To the girl fall
-the softest pinks and reds. Whichever the sex, every available member
-of the family lends a willing hand to the busy task of cutting and
-stitching into many shapes the flowered cloth necessary to decorate the
-small body.</p>
-
-<p>The tiny wardrobe complete, the household turns its attention to the
-preparation of the feast with which to make merry and give thanks to
-the gods for so good a gift as a little child, whether it be boy or
-girl. The house is swept and garnished. Out in the kitchen, maids run
-hither and thither, hurrying the boiling pot, cleansing the already
-spotless rice, and scampering to bring the best wine. It is glad
-service. The happiness in the coming of the baby is shared by everybody
-from the parents to the water-coolie. Hence the eagerness with which
-the little house shrine is decorated and offerings of food and sake set
-before the benign old image who is responsible for this great favor.
-For days preparations go joyfully on, and though the small guest cannot
-indulge, a special table is set for him at the feast given in his
-honor, when neighbors and friends as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>semble to offer congratulations
-and presents. Later, each present must be acknowledged by the parents
-sending one in return.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_171a" name="i_171a">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_171a.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">JAPANESE GIRLS PLAYING THEIR FAVORITE GAME,
-    <i>ONIGOTO</i></p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_171b" name="i_171b">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_171b.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">SUPPER-TIME</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>The baby is excused from being present at the festival, but custom
-demands that no other engagement interfere with the shaving of his head
-on the third day. In the olden days styles in hair-cutting were as
-rigidly adhered to as the wearing of a samurai’s sword, but progress
-must needs tamper even with the down on a baby’s head. Now the fashion
-has lost much of its quaintness, and is mostly uniform. The sides and
-back of the head are shaved smooth, while from the crown a fringe is
-left to sprout like the long petals of a ragged chrysanthemum. The
-length and seriousness of the hair-cutting ceremony depend upon the
-self-control of the young gentleman. Regardless of conduct, however, or
-of the cost to the nervous system, certain fixed rules are enforced,
-which are virtually the only training the child receives in early years.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_172" name="i_172">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_172.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">DRAWING ON A NEW WHITE SHOJI</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>After the little stranger, all shaven and shorn, is returned to his
-private apartments, the elders of the family consult on the grave
-matter of choosing a name for him. Often the naming of the baby is a
-simple matter, the father or grandfather speaking before the company
-the name of some famous man, if the child is a boy, or of some favorite
-flower, if it is a girl. For girls, <i>Hana</i>, flower, <i>Yuki</i>, snow,
-<i>Ai</i>, love, are the favorites of parents with a poetical strain. The
-sterner country-folk choose for their daughters, <i>Matsu</i>, pine, <i>Take</i>,
-bamboo (the bamboo joints are exact; hence the exactness of virtue),
-<i>Ume</i>, plum, since the plum bears both cold and snow bravely. For boys,
-<i>Ichiro</i>, first boy, <i>Toshio</i>, smart, <i>Iwao</i>, strong, and <i>Isamu</i>,
-brave, are very popular.</p>
-
-<p>Where belief is strong in the power of a name, the family, in holiday
-dress, often assembles in a large room. Each writes a name upon a slip
-of paper and lays it reverently before the house shrine. From the group
-a very young child is chosen and led before this shrine, and the fate
-of the name is decided by the small hand which reaches out for a slip.
-Though it is a festive occasion, the selection of a name is made with
-a seriousness worthy the election of a bishop. Many believe devoutly
-that this rite influences the baby’s entire future, and therefore
-the one whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> slip is chosen incurs from the moment of choice great
-responsibility for the child’s welfare.</p>
-
-<p>The next great event in the baby’s existence is on the thirtieth day,
-when he is taken to the temple to be offered to the god that rules
-over that particular village or city. Dressed in his best suit of
-clothes, he is strapped to the back of his mother or nurse, with his
-body wrapped almost to suffocation, and usually with his head dangling
-from side to side with no protection for face or eyes. Why all Japanese
-babies are not blind is one of the secrets of nature’s provision. With
-tender women for mothers and affectionate servants for nurses, it is
-strange that the little face is seldom shielded from the direct rays of
-the sun or the piercing winds of winter. Possibly it is a training for
-physical endurance that later in life is a part of his education.</p>
-
-<p>Arrived at the temple, the child is presented to the priest. This
-dignitary, with shaven head and clad in a purple gown, reads very
-solemnly a special prayer to the god whose image, enshrined in gilt
-and ebony, rests within the deep shadows of the temple. He asks his
-care and protection for the helpless little creature that lies before
-him. At the end of the reading the priest shakes a <i>gohei</i> to and fro
-over the child. A <i>gohei</i> resembles nothing so much as a paper feather
-duster. Its fluffy whiteness is supposed to represent the pure spirit
-of the god, and through some mysterious agency a part of this spirit is
-transferred to the child by the vigorous shaking.</p>
-
-<p>For a few more coins, further protection can be purchased for the
-little wayfarer. The guaranty of his success and happiness comes in two
-small paper amulets on which the priest has drawn curious characters
-decipherable only to the priest and the god. Both amulets are given
-to the mother, who, with the baby on her back, trots home on her high
-wooden geta, or clogs, her face aglow with the contentment possible
-only to one whose faith in prayer and priest is sublime. One amulet,
-carefully wrapped with the cuttings of the first hair and with the
-name, is laid away safely in the house shrine, that the god may not
-forget. The other is carried in a gay little bag of colored crape,
-which is tied to the sash of the child; for it is believed that it will
-ward off sickness and hold all evil spirits at bay.</p>
-
-<p>It must be with a sigh of relief that the baby comes to this stage of
-his existence. The numerous rites necessary to a fair start on life’s
-highway have been conscientiously performed, the watchful care of the
-spirits invoked. Now it is his sole business to kick and grow and feed
-like any small healthy animal, to be served as a young prince and to
-be adored as a young god. He is the pivot on which the whole household
-turns. Often, in the soft shadows of evening, on the paper doors of a
-Japanese house is silhouetted a picture where the child is the center
-about which the family is grouped in the great act of adoration. It is
-a bit of inner life that finds a tender response in the heart of any
-beholder.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_173" name="i_173">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_173.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">“SEEKING SOME OBJECT ON WHICH TO BESTOW HIS
-    ADORABLE SMILE”</p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_174a" name="i_174a">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_174a.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">FERTILE SOIL FOR MISCHIEF</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>The attitude of the usual family is that obedience is not to be
-expected of one so young, consequently nobody is disappointed, and
-the effect on the child is telling. He quickly learns his power, and
-becomes in turn the trainer and the ruler of the household. In fact, he
-is a small king, with only a soft ring of dark hair for a crown, and
-a chop-stick in his chubby fist for a scepter. His lightest frown or
-smile is a command to all the house, from the poodle with the ingrown
-nose to the bent old grandmother. But more willing subjects never bent
-before a king of maturer growth. Father and mother, with a train of
-relatives, yield glad obedience and stand ever ready for action at the
-merest suggestion of a wish.</p>
-
-<p>Alas! for the tried and true theories on early training that have
-held for generations in other countries! Alas! for the scores of
-learned volumes on child culture! Useless the work of the greatest
-psychologists, who sound grave warning as to the direful results should
-one fail to observe certain hard-and-fast rules in the training of mind
-and body. Grant a few months to a fat, well-fed Japanese baby, and with
-one wave of his pink heels he will kick into thin air every tested
-theory that scholarly men have grown gray in proving. He snaps in twain
-the old saw, “As the twig is bent,” and sends to eternal oblivion
-that oft-repeated legend, “Give me a child till its seventh year, and
-neither friend nor foe can change his tendencies.” Even the promise of
-old, “Children, obey your parents,” loses its value as a recipe for
-long life when applied to the baby citizen of old Nippon. It is a rare
-exception if he obeys. He lives neither by rule nor regulation, eats
-when, where, and what he pleases, then cuddles down to sleep in peace.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_174b" name="i_174b">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_174b.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">“SPECIAL LESSONS FOR THE YOUNG IN HOW TO BOW”</p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>To the specialist, one such ill-regulated day in a baby’s life
-would augur a morning after with digestion in tatters and a ragged
-temper. He does not take into account the strange mental and physical
-contradictions of the race. Unchecked, the baby has been permitted to
-shatter every precept of health, but he awakens as happy as a young
-kitten. Fresh, sweet, and wholesome, he crawls from his soft nest of
-comfortables and goes about seeking some object on which to bestow his
-adorable smile. He is ready to thrive on another lawless day.</p>
-
-<p>There is a mistaken, but popular, belief that a Japanese baby
-never cries. There is really no reason why he should. Replete with
-nourishment and rarely denied a wish, he blossoms like a wild rose on
-the sunny side of the hedge, as sweet and as unrestrained. His life is
-full of rich and varied interests. From his second day on earth, tied
-safely to his mother’s back under an overcoat made for two, he finds
-amusement for every waking hour in watching the passing show. He is the
-honored guest at every family picnic. No matter what the hour or the
-weather, he is the active member in all that concerns the household
-amusements or work. From his perch he participates in the life of the
-neighborhood, and is a part of all the merry festivals that turn the
-streets into fairy-land. Later, his playground is the gay market-place
-or the dim old temples.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_175" name="i_175">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_175.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">“UNDER AN OVERCOAT MADE FOR TWO”</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>Up to this time the child has had no suggestion of real training. His
-innate deftness in the art of imitation has taught him much. Continual
-contact with a wide-awake world has effectively quickened the growth
-of his brain, but the strings that have held him steadily to his
-mother’s back have stunted the growth of his body. The result is that
-when the time comes for that wonderful first day in the kindergarten,
-into the play-room often toddles a self-confident youngster whose legs
-refuse to coöperate when he makes his quaint bow, but whose keen brain
-and correspondingly deft hand work small miracles with blocks and
-paint-brush.</p>
-
-<p>In Japan only a blind child could be insensible to color, after long
-days under the pink mist of the cherry-blossoms and the crimson
-glory of the maples, in the sunny green and yellow fields, or with
-mountain slopes of wild azalea for a romping-place and a wonderful
-sky of blue for a cover. By inheritance and environment he is an
-artist in the use of color. Form, too, is as easy, for when crude toys
-have failed to please, it is his privilege to build ships, castles,
-gunboats, and temples with every conceivable household article from the
-spinning-wheel to the family rice-bucket.</p>
-
-<p>His instinct for play is strong, and after his legs grow steady he
-quickly masters games, and to his own satisfaction he can sing any song
-without tune or words. In the kindergarten he finds at first new joys
-in a play paradise of which he is, as at home, the ruler. Alas! for the
-swift coming of grief! For the first time in his life his will clashes
-with law, and for the first time he meets defeat, though he rises to
-conquer with all his fighting blood on fire. The struggle is swift and
-fierce, then behold the mystery of a small Ori<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>ental! After the first
-encounter, and often before the tears of passion have dried, he bends
-to authority, and with only occasional lapses soon becomes a devotee
-of the thing he has so bitterly fought. Henceforth <i>kisoku</i>, or law,
-becomes his meat and drink, the very foundation of living.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_176a" name="i_176a">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_176a.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">ARRANGING FLOWERS</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_176b" name="i_176b">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_176b.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">CHILDREN IN A CHRYSANTHEMUM ARBOR</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>It is difficult to say whether this sudden change of heart comes from
-an inherited belief in the divine right of rulers or is the first
-cropping-out of that Eastern fatalism forcibly expressed in the word
-“Shikataganai” (“There is no help for it”). A partial explanation might
-be found in the attitude of most Japanese parents to the teacher in
-both kindergarten and school. By some strange reasoning they argue
-that it is the teacher’s business in life to train children; therefore
-from its earliest days the teacher is held before the child as a power
-from whose word there is no appeal. Frequently a mother says to her
-unmanageable offspring:</p>
-
-<p>“What will happen when the <i>sensei</i> [teacher] hears of your rudeness?”
-or, “I shall speak to your teacher to command you to obey me.” Often
-the appeal is made direct to the teacher: “My daughter does not bow
-correctly,” or “She is neglectful of duty. Please remind her.”</p>
-
-<p>The value of using the teacher as a prop or commander-in-chief lies in
-the fact that most of the profession realize their responsibility and
-earnestly endeavor to live up to the trust. They seek to share every
-experience of the pupil’s life, and are faithful leaders to the highest
-ideals they know.</p>
-
-<p>There is a tendency in most Japanese kindergartens to make of them
-elementary schools in which much of the spirit of play is lost in an
-effort on the part of the teachers to give formal instruction. The
-inclination is to fit the child to the rule; to follow to the last
-detail a written law, at the sacrifice of spontaneity. Formality finds
-steady resistance in the buoyancy of youth; and how childhood will have
-its fling, refusing to wear the shackles till it must, is expressed in
-the despair of a little Japanese teacher who had worked in vain to make
-an unessential point in posture: “I have the great trouble. They just
-<i>will</i> kick up their heels spiritually [spiritedly].”</p>
-
-<p>In addition to the gifts, games, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> songs usually found in the
-kindergartens, there is a specific training in patriotism, loyalty,
-and physical endurance by the constant repetition of certain stories
-emphasizing these virtues that have been told from generation to
-generation. Stories of brave men and women are dramatized. Day after
-day the child takes part in these simple plays. So earnest is the
-acting, so unwavering are the ideals presented at this very early age,
-that the mind is saturated with the principle of the sacrifice of the
-individual for the good of the whole.</p>
-
-<p>In all circumstances, stress is laid upon outward courtesy, regardless
-of time or consequences. The key-note in the mimic plays is kindness
-to a fallen foe. Often there is an organized band of tiny Red Cross
-workers, who in full uniform are ever on the alert in the games to
-render quick aid to the supposedly wounded. The play is very real and
-sincere, and it fosters a spirit of kindness and sympathy never wholly
-lost in later years.</p>
-
-<p>From babyhood the diminutive subject hears stories of his glorious
-ruler; but sometimes it is in the kindergarten that he is trained to
-perform his first great act of reverence to the throne in bowing before
-the picture of the emperor. It is a ceremony that touches deeply the
-most skeptical heart. On certain days groups of little children, many
-still unsteady on their feet, dressed in gay holiday clothes, come
-before the pictured image and pay homage to his Majesty by a low,
-reverent bow. It is like a flower-garden bending before the greater
-brilliancy of the sun. It is the tribute of innocence to power, and no
-sovereign lives who would not be a better man for having seen it.</p>
-
-<p>As the first day in the kindergarten is wonderful, so to the child
-is the last. He is leaving babyhood behind, and half a day is barely
-sufficient for the imposing ceremonies. For weeks he has been patiently
-drilled. At the proper hour, with the precision of a mechanical doll
-and the dignity of a field-marshal, he graciously accepts from the hand
-of the teacher a roll of parchment only slightly shorter than himself.
-It is his certificate of graduation, stamped with a large seal, which
-inspires a deeper joy than comes later with the Order of the Rising Sun.</p>
-
-<p>The transition from the kindergarten<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> to the primary grade is
-accomplished easily, and as the pupil is never supposed or expected to
-take the initiative, he has only to follow where he is led. A Japanese
-child is as responsive as are the strings of a samisen to the fingers
-of a skilled musician, and the leader has only to touch the notes to
-create the harmony desired.</p>
-
-<p>During the period of elementary school, the training for boys and
-girls is much the same except in special cases when very young boys
-are instructed in fencing and jiu-jutsu. In these first years it is a
-sharing of all experiences, and the girls pluckily take their chances
-in the rough-and-tumble games with the boys. Then comes the parting
-of the ways. The sign-post for each points to a difference in school
-and subjects. For the boys, the road leads to the sterner things of
-life. Every step of the girls’ path is trained for the inevitable
-end&mdash;marriage. Whatever the future, it never yields&mdash;to the girl,
-at least&mdash;the same golden hours of freedom and equal right to joy
-and pleasure as in the glory days of youth. Every boy in Japan is a
-prospective soldier or sailor, every girl, a wife; and a training
-toward the end best fitting each for the duties involved is the
-principal aim of the carefully planned curriculum. In all grades the
-teaching is en masse; individual attention is rare.</p>
-
-<p>From the first year of the primary course, through every grade,
-the study of morals heads the list. This rather formidable subject
-is presented to the very youthful in a most attractive way. Large
-pictures are shown illustrating in a charming manner the virtues to be
-emphasized. The teacher tells a set story. It is short, but so dramatic
-is the manner of telling it, so alluring the trick of hand and voice,
-the child’s interest is held as if by magic. The subjects of these
-early moral lessons are the “Teacher,” the “Flag,” “Attitude.” Later,
-family relations are studied; as, for instance, that of father and
-mother, grandparents, etc.</p>
-
-<p>Training in pronunciation and simple lessons in drawing are included
-in the first year, with manual work for the boys. The girls begin
-preparation for their calling with the first principles of sewing and
-the first stitches of crocheting or knitting. In the latter part of the
-year practice begins in writing the <i>kana</i>, gradually intermixed with
-the Chinese ideographs. There are many thousands of these characters,
-and they are usually difficult. Necessarily the first steps are simple.
-The awkward little fist must be trained to lightness and poise of
-brush, delicacy and sureness in touch, for one false stroke in the
-intricate structure brings grief. Ignorant of the difficulties in store
-for him, the child begins his task merrily, delighted with the lines,
-big and bold at first, which resemble funny pictures more than an
-alphabet. He practises on everything at hand, from the fresh sand on
-the playground to the nearest new, white shoji.</p>
-
-<p>A system of calisthenics, too, is begun early with the child, and
-only the unconquerable grace of childhood saves it from a permanent
-stiffening of bone and muscle. Happily, studies and gymnastics are
-interspersed with generous hours for free play. In all the training
-of Japanese children a great deal of outdoor life is planned. There
-are historical excursions, geographical excursions for practical
-instruction, and jolly ones merely for pleasure, when with a luncheon
-of cold rice and pickled plum tied in a <i>furoshiki</i>, or handkerchief,
-everybody scampers away to the river or mountain for a long happy day.</p>
-
-<p>Every year at school means increased hours and more difficult studies.
-Added to these long periods are special lessons for the young in how
-to bow, how to stand, how to enter a room, how to lower the eyes,
-the placing of each finger on a book when reading, and endless other
-regulations. These rules are published in a text-book for the teacher,
-who is expected to drill them into the student to the minutest detail.
-It seems folly to expect anything from such training but a group of
-automata; but underlying this fixed formality is an air of controlled
-freedom that is really the foundation of the tremendous respect for
-law cherished by the entire nation. Nor is it to be imagined that
-continuous training in repression means permanent suppression of high
-spirits. This light-hearted race takes joy in the simplest pleasures,
-and the imp of mischief finds fertile soil in the brain of any healthy
-boy or girl.</p>
-
-<p>During these years the hand of discipline is lightly laid in the home.
-The attitude of father and mother is kindly indulgent, and punishments,
-if any, cause<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> neither pain nor inconvenience. Current topics involving
-the welfare of the country and intimate matters of family life are
-freely discussed in the child’s presence. At an early age he absorbs
-much information, both wholesome and other. But whatever else may be
-neglected in his training, so insistently is held before the heir
-day by day the requirements necessary as a man to bear the honors of
-the family name, it often works something of a miracle in regulating
-conduct.</p>
-
-<p>Next in reverence for the emperor is veneration for ancestors. There
-is one form of entertainment and instruction in the home which as an
-educative factor plays a large and delightful part in the life of
-the children. In the evenings, after the books have been put away,
-they gather around the glowing hibachi to hear the grandfather or
-grandmother weave the nondescript tales of gods and goddesses, of
-loyal, wise, and brave men. If any deed of the day calls for emphasis,
-it is skilfully marked by a special story cleverly worded by the aged
-narrator. Thus reward or punishment is effectively recited rather than
-administered.</p>
-
-<p>But the training of the Japanese child is not all play and easy
-studies. Very soon the girls in the home begin lessons in light
-household duties, sewing, weaving, and cooking. Koto-playing is an
-accomplishment in the education of a girl, flower arrangement a
-necessity. To this most difficult art is usually allotted a period of
-five years. By tedious and patient practice the small hand must learn
-delicacy of touch and deftness in twists, that each leaf and blossom
-may express the symbol for which it stands. Every home festival and
-feast calls for a certain “poem” in arrangement. This is the duty of
-the young daughter of the house, who early must be well versed in the
-legends and meaning of flowers.</p>
-
-<p>In ceremonial tea, “O Cha No Yu,” there are especial lessons in
-etiquette, which mean days and months of constant application and
-repetition of certain attitudes and definite postures, before supple
-muscles and youthful spirits are toned to the graceful formality and
-modest reserve requisite to every well-bred Japanese girl. Should
-the girl’s destiny point to the calling of geisha, or professional
-entertainer, the training is severe. At the age of three or four
-she is taken in hand by an expert in the business, and the strict
-discipline of the training soon robs childhood of its rights. Should
-a foolish law compel attendance for a year or so at school, it does
-not in the least interfere with long hours of music lessons, dancing
-lessons, flower arrangement, lessons in tea-serving, and the etiquette
-peculiar to tea-houses. The girl is persuaded or forced into quiet
-submission to the hard, tedious work by the glowing pictures of the
-butterfly life that awaits her. There is only one standard in the
-training of a geisha&mdash;attractiveness, and often the price of its
-attainment is an irretrievable tragedy.</p>
-
-<p>Education for the child of the East calls for different methods from
-that of the West, and fully to understand the training of the Japanese
-child one must know the influence and demand for ancestor-worship,
-ethics, and the passion for patriotism. In fact, to understand any
-part of the system of training, it must be remembered that the whole
-moral and national education of the Japanese is based on the imperial
-rescript given the people by the emperor in 1890. The rescript is
-read in all the schools four times a year. The manner of reading, the
-silence, breathless with reverence, in which it is received by the
-students, young and old, is a profound testimony to the sacredness of
-the emperor’s desires for his people.</p>
-
-<p>The following is a translation, given by the president of the Tokio
-University:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>Know ye, Our Subjects:</p>
-
-<p>Our Imperial Ancestors have founded Our Empire on a basis broad
-and everlasting, and have deeply and firmly implanted virtue;
-Our Subjects, ever united in loyalty and filial piety, have from
-generation to generation illustrated the beauty thereof. This is
-the glory of the fundamental character of Our Empire, and herein
-also lies the source of Our education. Ye, Our Subjects, be filial
-to your parents, affectionate to your brothers and sisters; as
-husbands and wives be harmonious; as friends, true; bear yourselves
-in modesty and moderation; extend your benevolence to all; pursue
-learning and cultivate the arts, and thereby develop intellectual
-faculties and perfect moral powers; furthermore, advance public
-good and promote common interests; always respect the Constitution
-and observe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> the laws; should emergency arise, offer yourselves
-courageously to the State; and thus guard and maintain the
-prosperity of Our Imperial Throne coeval with heaven and earth.</p>
-
-<p>So shall ye not only be Our good and faithful subjects, but render
-illustrious the best traditions of your forefathers.</p>
-
-<p>The Way here set forth is indeed the teaching bequeathed by Our
-Imperial Ancestors, to be observed alike by Their Descendants and
-the subjects, infallible for all ages, and true in all places. It
-is Our Wish to lay it to heart in all reverence, in common with
-you, Our Subjects, that we may all attain to the same virtue.</p></div>
-
-<p>From the early days to the present, the educational system, which
-enters more vitally into the training of a Japanese child than any
-other influence, has survived many changes. The authorities have
-sought earnestly in every country for the plan best adapted to the
-peculiar demands of a country that was progressing by leaps. After the
-Restoration, when every sentiment was swinging away from old customs
-and traditions, there was a reorganization with the American plan as
-a model. Soon, however, the wholesale doctrine of freedom proved too
-radical for a country lately emerged from isolation and feudalism,
-and much of the German system was introduced, and more rigid control
-was exercised over the students. The schools assumed something of a
-military atmosphere and the dangers of a too new liberty were laid low
-for a while.</p>
-
-<p>It would be difficult in a brief space to estimate the whole influence
-of European and American methods on Japanese education. While these
-influences, especially those of America, have enjoyed successive waves
-of favor and disrepute, it is undoubtedly true that the educational
-department is slowly but surely feeling its way to the final adoption
-of a general American plan. So far, the most marked tendency of the
-Western spirit has been a bolder assertion of individual freedom, less
-tolerance of the teacher’s supreme authority, a demand for a more
-practical education and not so much eagerness for the Chinese classics.</p>
-
-<p>While to an outsider the present system in many instances seems
-needlessly complex, and in frequent danger of a sad and sudden death
-from strangulation by its endless red tape, yet a glimpse of the
-internal workings of the department is reassuring.</p>
-
-<p>Whatever criticism might be offered as to the methods of training or
-defects thereof in school or home, one undeniable truth stands out
-boldly: despite its faults, or because of its virtues, the system has
-produced men splendidly brave and noble, and women whose lives stand
-for all that is tender and beautiful in womanhood and motherhood.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_180" name="i_180">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_180.jpg" alt="Tailpiece for Japanese Child" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="BROTHER_LEO">BROTHER LEO</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s2 center"><span class="smaller">BY PHYLLIS BOTTOME</span></p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">WITH PICTURES BY W. T. BENDA</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">I</span>T was a sunny morning, and I was on my way to Torcello. Venice lay
-behind us a dazzling line, with towers of gold against the blue lagoon.
-All at once a breeze sprang up from the sea; the small, feathery
-islands seemed to shake and quiver, and, like leaves driven before
-a gale, those flocks of colored butterflies, the fishing-boats, ran
-in before the storm. Far away to our left stood the ancient tower of
-Altinum, with the island of Burano a bright pink beneath the towering
-clouds. To our right, and much nearer, was a small cypress-covered
-islet. One large umbrella-pine hung close to the sea, and behind it
-rose the tower of the convent church. The two gondoliers consulted
-together in hoarse cries and decided to make for it.</p>
-
-<p>“It is San Francesco del Deserto,” the elder explained to me. “It
-belongs to the little brown brothers, who take no money and are very
-kind. One would hardly believe these ones had any religion, they are
-such a simple people, and they live on fish and the vegetables they
-grow in their garden.”</p>
-
-<p>We fought the crooked little waves in silence after that; only the high
-prow rebelled openly against its sudden twistings and turnings. The
-arrowy-shaped gondola is not a structure made for the rough jostling
-of waves, and the gondoliers put forth all their strength and skill to
-reach the tiny haven under the convent wall. As we did so, the black
-bars of cloud rushed down upon us in a perfect deluge of rain, and we
-ran speechless and half drowned across the tossed field of grass and
-forget-me-nots to the convent door. A shivering beggar sprang up from
-nowhere and insisted on ringing the bell for us.</p>
-
-<p>The door opened, and I saw before me a young brown brother with the
-merriest eyes I have ever seen. They were unshadowed, like a child’s,
-dancing and eager, and yet there was a strange gentleness and patience
-about him, too, as if there was no hurry even about his eagerness.</p>
-
-<p>He was very poorly dressed and looked thin. I think he was charmed to
-see us, though a little shy, like a hospitable country hostess anxious
-to give pleasure, but afraid that she has not much to offer citizens of
-a larger world.</p>
-
-<p>“What a tempest!” he exclaimed. “You have come at a good hour. Enter,
-enter, Signore! And your men, will they not come in?”</p>
-
-<p>We found ourselves in a very small rose-red cloister; in the middle of
-it was an old well under the open sky, but above us was a sheltering
-roof spanned by slender arches. The young monk hesitated for a moment,
-smiling from me to the two gondoliers. I think it occurred to him that
-we should like different entertainment, for he said at last:</p>
-
-<p>“You men would perhaps like to sit in the porter’s lodge for a while?
-Our Brother Lorenzo is there; he is our chief fisherman, with a great
-knowledge of the lagoons; and he could light a fire for you to dry
-yourselves by&mdash;Signori. And you, if I mistake not, are English, are you
-not, Signore? It is probable that you would like to see our chapel. It
-is not much. We are very proud of it, but that, you know, is because
-it was founded by our blessed father, Saint Francis. He believed in
-poverty, and we also believe in it, but it does not give much for
-people to see. That is a misfortune, to come all this way and to see
-nothing.” Brother Leo looked at me a little wistfully. I think he
-feared that I should be disappointed. Then he passed before me with
-swift, eager feet toward the little chapel.</p>
-
-<p>It was a very little chapel and quite bare; behind the altar some monks
-were chanting an office. It was clean, and there were no pictures or
-images, only, as I knelt there, I felt as if the little island in its
-desert of waters had indeed secreted some vast treasure, and as if
-the chapel, empty as it had seemed at first, was full of invisible
-possessions. As for Brother Leo, he had stood beside me nervously for
-a moment; but on seeing that I was prepared to kneel, he started,
-like a bird set<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> free, toward the altar steps, where his lithe young
-impetuosity sank into sudden peace. He knelt there so still, so rapt,
-so incased in his listening silence, that he might have been part of
-the stone pavement. Yet his earthly senses were alive, for the moment I
-rose he was at my side again, as patient and courteous as ever, though
-I felt as if his inner ear were listening still to some unheard melody.</p>
-
-<p>We stood again in the pink cloister. “There is little to see,” he
-repeated. “We are <i>poverelli</i>; it has been like this for seven hundred
-years.” He smiled as if that age-long, simple service of poverty were
-a light matter, an excuse, perhaps, in the eyes of the citizen of a
-larger world for their having nothing to show. Only the citizen, as he
-looked at Brother Leo, had a sudden doubt as to the size of the world
-outside. Was it as large, half as large, even, as the eager young heart
-beside him which had chosen poverty as a bride?</p>
-
-<p>The rain fell monotonously against the stones of the tiny cloister.</p>
-
-<p>“What a tempest!” said Brother Leo, smiling contentedly at the sky.
-“You must come in and see our father. I sent word by the porter of your
-arrival, and I am sure he will receive you; that will be a pleasure for
-him, for he is of the great world, too. A very learnèd man, our father;
-he knows the French and the English tongue. Once he went to Rome; also
-he has been several times to Venice. He has been a great traveler.”</p>
-
-<p>“And you,” I asked&mdash;“have you also traveled?”</p>
-
-<p>Brother Leo shook his head.</p>
-
-<p>“I have sometimes looked at Venice,” he said, “across the water, and
-once I went to Burano with the marketing brother; otherwise, no, I have
-not traveled. But being a guest-brother, you see, I meet often with
-those who have, like your Excellency, for instance, and that is a great
-education.”</p>
-
-<p>We reached the door of the monastery, and I felt sorry when another
-brother opened to us, and Brother Leo, with the most cordial of
-farewell smiles, turned back across the cloister to the chapel door.</p>
-
-<p>“Even if he does not hurry, he will still find prayer there,” said a
-quiet voice beside me.</p>
-
-<p>I turned to look at the speaker. He was a tall old man with white hair
-and eyes like small blue flowers, very bright and innocent, with the
-same look of almost superb contentment in them that I had seen in
-Brother Leo’s eyes.</p>
-
-<p>“But what will you have?” he added with a twinkle. “The young are
-always afraid of losing time; it is, perhaps, because they have
-so much. But enter, Signore! If you will be so kind as to excuse
-the refectory, it will give me much pleasure to bring you a little
-refreshment. You will pardon that we have not much to offer?”</p>
-
-<p>The father&mdash;for I found out afterward that he was the superior
-himself&mdash;brought me bread and wine, made in the convent, and waited on
-me with his own hands. Then he sat down on a narrow bench opposite to
-watch me smoke. I offered him one of my cigarettes, but he shook his
-head, smiling.</p>
-
-<p>“I used to smoke once,” he said. “I was very particular about my
-tobacco. I think it was similar to yours&mdash;at least the aroma, which
-I enjoy very much, reminds me of it. It is curious, is it not, the
-pleasure we derive from remembering what we once had? But perhaps it is
-not altogether a pleasure unless one is glad that one has not got it
-now. Here one is free from things. I sometimes fear one may be a little
-indulgent about one’s liberty. Space, solitude, and love&mdash;it is all
-very intoxicating.”</p>
-
-<p>There was nothing in the refectory except the two narrow benches on
-which we sat, and a long trestled board which formed the table; the
-walls were whitewashed and bare, the floor was stone. I found out later
-that the brothers ate and drank nothing except bread and wine and their
-own vegetables in season, a little macaroni sometimes in winter, and
-in summer figs out of their own garden. They slept on bare boards,
-with one thin blanket winter and summer alike. The fish they caught
-they sold at Burano or gave to the poor. There was no doubt that they
-enjoyed very great freedom from “things.”</p>
-
-<p>It was a strange experience to meet a man who never had heard of a
-flying-machine and who could not understand why it was important to
-save time by using the telephone or the wireless-telegraphy system; but
-despite the fact that the father seemed very little impressed by our
-modern urgencies, I never have met a more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> intelligent listener or one
-who seized more quickly on all that was essential in an explanation.</p>
-
-<p>“You must not think we do nothing at all, we lazy ones who follow old
-paths,” he said in answer to one of my questions. “There are only
-eight of us brothers, and there is the garden, fishing, cleaning, and
-praying. We are sent for, too, from Burano to go and talk a little with
-the people there, or from some island on the lagoons which perhaps no
-priest can reach in the winter. It is easy for us, with our little boat
-and no cares.”</p>
-
-<p>“But Brother Leo told me he had been to Burano only once,” I said.
-“That seems strange when you are so near.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, he went only once,” said the father, and for a moment or two he
-was silent, and I found his blue eyes on mine, as if he were weighing
-me.</p>
-
-<p>“Brother Leo,” said the superior at last, “is our youngest. He is very
-young, younger perhaps than his years; but we have brought him up
-altogether, you see. His parents died of cholera within a few days of
-each other. As there were no relatives, we took him, and when he was
-seventeen he decided to join our order. He has always been happy with
-us, but one cannot say that he has seen much of the world.” He paused
-again, and once more I felt his blue eyes searching mine. “Who knows?”
-he said finally. “Perhaps you were sent here to help me. I have prayed
-for two years on the subject, and that seems very likely. The storm
-is increasing, and you will not be able to return until to-morrow.
-This evening, if you will allow me, we will speak more on this matter.
-Meanwhile I will show you our spare room. Brother Lorenzo will see that
-you are made as comfortable as we can manage. It is a great privilege
-for us to have this opportunity; believe me, we are not ungrateful.”</p>
-
-<p>It would have been of no use to try to explain to him that it was for
-us to feel gratitude. It was apparent that none of the brothers had
-ever learned that important lesson of the worldly respectable&mdash;that
-duty is what other people ought to do. They were so busy thinking
-of their own obligations as to overlook entirely the obligations of
-others. It was not that they did not think of others. I think they
-thought only of one another, but they thought without a shadow of
-judgment, with that bright, spontaneous love of little children, too
-interested to point a moral. Indeed, they seemed to me very like a
-family of happy children listening to a fairy-story and knowing that
-the tale is true.</p>
-
-<p>After supper the superior took me to his office. The rain had ceased,
-but the wind howled and shrieked across the lagoons, and I could hear
-the waves breaking heavily against the island. There was a candle on
-the desk, and the tiny, shadowy cell looked like a picture by Rembrandt.</p>
-
-<p>“The rain has ceased now,” the father said quietly, “and to-morrow the
-waves will have gone down, and you, Signore, will have left us. It is
-in your power to do us all a great favor. I have thought much whether
-I shall ask it of you, and even now I hesitate; but Scripture nowhere
-tells us that the kingdom of heaven was taken by precaution, nor do I
-imagine that in this world things come oftenest to those who refrain
-from asking.”</p>
-
-<p>“All of us,” he continued, “have come here after seeing something of
-the outside world; some of us even had great possessions. Leo alone
-knows nothing of it, and has possessed nothing, nor did he ever wish
-to; he has been willing that nothing should be his own, not a flower
-in the garden, not anything but his prayers, and even these I think he
-has oftenest shared. But the visit to Burano put an idea in his head.
-It is, perhaps you know, a factory town where they make lace, and the
-people live there with good wages, many of them, but also much poverty.
-There is a poverty which is a grace, but there is also a poverty which
-is a great misery, and this Leo never had seen before. He did not know
-that poverty could be a pain. It filled him with a great horror, and
-in his heart there was a certain rebellion. It seemed to him that in a
-world with so much money no one should suffer for the lack of it.</p>
-
-<p>“It was useless for me to point out to him that in a world where there
-is so much health God has permitted sickness; where there is so much
-beauty, ugliness; where there is so much holiness, sin. It is not that
-there is any lack in the gifts of God; all are there, and in abundance,
-but He has left their distribution to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> soul of man. It is easy for
-me to believe this. I have known what money can buy and what it cannot
-buy; but Brother Leo, who never has owned a penny, how should he know
-anything of the ways of pennies?</p>
-
-<p>“I saw that he could not be contented with my answer; and then this
-other idea came to him&mdash;the idea that is, I think, the blessèd hope of
-youth: that this thing being wrong, he, Leo, must protest against it,
-must resist it! Surely, if money can do wonders, we who set ourselves
-to work the will of God should have more control of this wonder-working
-power? He fretted against his rule. He did not permit himself to
-believe that our blessèd father, Saint Francis, was wrong, but it was
-a hardship for him to refuse alms from our kindly visitors. He thought
-the beggars’ rags would be made whole by gold; he wanted to give them
-more than bread, he wanted, <i>poverino!</i> to buy happiness for the whole
-world.”</p>
-
-<p>The father paused, and his dark, thought-lined face lighted up with a
-sudden, beautiful smile till every feature seemed as young as his eyes.</p>
-
-<p>“I do not think the human being ever has lived who has not thought that
-he ought to have happiness,” he said. “We begin at once to get ready
-for heaven; but heaven is a long way off. We make haste slowly. It
-takes us all our lives, and perhaps purgatory, to get to the bottom of
-our own hearts. That is the last place in which we look for heaven, but
-I think it is the first in which we shall find it.”</p>
-
-<p>“But it seems to me extraordinary that, if Brother Leo has this thing
-so much on his mind, he should look so happy,” I exclaimed. “That is
-the first thing I noticed about him.”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, it is not for himself that he is searching,” said the superior.
-“If it were, I should not wish him to go out into the world, because I
-should not expect him to find anything there. His heart is utterly at
-rest; but though he is personally happy, this thing troubles him. His
-prayers are eating into his soul like flame, and in time this fire of
-pity and sorrow will become a serious menace to his peace. Besides, I
-see in Leo a great power of sympathy and understanding. He has in him
-the gift of ruling other souls. He is very young to rule his own soul,
-and yet he rules it. When I die, it is probable that he will be called
-to take my place, and for that it is necessary he should have seen
-clearly that our rule is right. At present he accepts it in obedience,
-but he must have more than obedience in order to teach it to others; he
-must have a personal light.</p>
-
-<p>“This, then, is the favor I have to ask of you, Signore. I should like
-to have you take Brother Leo to Venice to-morrow, and, if you have the
-time at your disposal, I should like you to show him the towers, the
-churches, the palaces, and the poor who are still so poor. I wish him
-to see how people spend money, both the good and the bad. I wish him to
-see the world. Perhaps then it will come to him as it came to me&mdash;that
-money is neither a curse nor a blessing in itself, but only one of
-God’s mysteries, like the dust in a sunbeam.”</p>
-
-<p>“I will take him very gladly; but will one day be enough?” I answered.</p>
-
-<p>The superior arose and smiled again.</p>
-
-<p>“Ah, we slow worms of earth,” he said, “are quick about some things!
-You have learned to save time by flying-machines; we, too, have certain
-methods of flight. Brother Leo learns all his lessons that way. I
-hardly see him start before he arrives. You must not think I am so
-myself. No, no. I am an old man who has lived a long life learning
-nothing, but I have seen Leo grow like a flower in a tropic night. I
-thank you, my friend, for this great favor. I think God will reward
-you.”</p>
-
-<p>Brother Lorenzo took me to my bedroom; he was a talkative old man, very
-anxious for my comfort. He told me that there was an office in the
-chapel at two o’clock, and one at five to begin the day, but he hoped
-that I should sleep through them.</p>
-
-<p>“They are all very well for us,” he explained,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> “but for a stranger,
-what cold, what disturbance, and what a difficulty to arrange the
-right thoughts in the head during chapel! Even for me it is a great
-temptation. I find my mind running on coffee in the morning, a thing
-we have only on great feast-days. I may say that I have fought this
-thought for seven years, but though a small devil, perhaps, it is a
-very strong one. Now, if you should hear our bell in the night, as a
-favor pray that I may not think about coffee. Such an imperfection! I
-say to myself, the sin of Esau! But he, you know, had some excuse; he
-had been hunting. Now, I ask you&mdash;one has not much chance of that on
-this little island; one has only one’s sins to hunt, and, alas! they
-don’t run away as fast as one could wish! I am afraid they are tame,
-these ones. May your Excellency sleep like the blessed saints, only a
-trifle longer!”</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_185" name="i_185">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_185.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Drawn by W. T. Benda &emsp; &emsp; Half-tone plate engraved by R. C. Collins</p>
-  <p class="s5 center">“HE WAS LOOKING OUT OVER THE BLUE STRETCH OF LAGOON INTO THE DISTANCE,
-    WHERE VENICE LAY LIKE A MOVING CLOUD AT THE HORIZON’S EDGE”</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_185_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="mtop2_eb">I did sleep a trifle longer; indeed, I was quite unable to assist
-Brother Lorenzo to resist his coffee devil during chapel-time. I did
-not wake till my tiny cell was flooded with sunshine and full of
-the sound of St. Francis’s birds. Through my window I could see the
-fishing-boats pass by. First came one with a pair of lemon-yellow
-sails, like floating primroses; then a boat as scarlet as a dancing
-flame, and half a dozen others painted some with jokes and some with
-incidents in the lives of patron saints, all gliding out over the blue
-lagoon to meet the golden day.</p>
-
-<p>I rose, and from my window I saw Brother Leo in the garden. He was
-standing under St. Francis’s tree&mdash;the old gnarled umbrella-pine which
-hung over the convent-wall above the water by the island’s edge. His
-back was toward me, and he was looking out over the blue stretch of
-lagoon into the distance, where Venice lay like a moving cloud at the
-horizon’s edge; but a mist hid her from his eyes, and while I watched
-him he turned back to the garden-bed and began pulling out weeds. The
-gondoliers were already at the tiny pier when I came out.</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Per Bacco</i>, Signore!” the elder explained. “Let us hasten back to
-Venice and make up for the Lent we have had here. The brothers gave
-us all they had, the holy ones&mdash;a little wine, a little bread, cheese
-that couldn’t fatten one’s grandmother, and no macaroni&mdash;not so much as
-would go round a baby’s tongue! For my part, I shall wait till I get to
-heaven to fast, and pay some attention to my stomach while I have one.”
-And he spat on his hands and looked toward Venice.</p>
-
-<p>“And not an image in the chapel!” agreed the younger man. “Why, there
-is nothing to pray to but the Signore Dio Himself! <i>Veramente</i>,
-Signore, you are a witness that I speak nothing but the truth.”</p>
-
-<p>The father superior and Leo appeared at this moment down the path
-between the cypresses. The father gave me thanks and spoke in a
-friendly way to the gondoliers, who for their part expressed a very
-pretty gratitude in their broad Venetian patois, one of them saying
-that the hospitality of the monks had been like paradise itself, and
-the other hasting to agree with him.</p>
-
-<p>The two monks did not speak to each other, but as the gondolier turned
-the huge prow toward Venice, a long look passed between them&mdash;such a
-look as a father and son might exchange if the son were going out to
-war, while his father, remembering old campaigns, was yet bound to stay
-at home.</p>
-
-<p>It was a glorious day in early June; the last traces of the storm had
-vanished from the serene, still waters; a vague curtain of heat and
-mist hung and shimmered between ourselves and Venice; far away lay the
-little islands in the lagoon, growing out of the water like strange
-sea-flowers. Behind us stood San Francesco del Deserto, with long
-reflections of its one pink tower and arrowy, straight cypresses, soft
-under the blue water.</p>
-
-<p>The father superior walked slowly back to the convent, his brown-clad
-figure a shining shadow between the two black rows of cypresses.
-Brother Leo waited till he had disappeared, then turned his eager eyes
-toward Venice.</p>
-
-<p>As we approached the city the milky sea of mist retreated, and her
-towers sprang up to greet us. I saw a look in Brother Leo’s eyes that
-was not fear or wholly pleasure; yet there was in it a certain awe and
-a strange, tentative joy, as if something in him stretched out to greet
-the world. He muttered half to himself:</p>
-
-<p>“What a great world, and how many children <i>il Signore Dio</i> has!”</p>
-
-<p>When we reached the piazzetta, and he looked up at the amazing splendor
-of the ducal palace, that building of soft yellow, with its pointed
-arches and double loggias of white marble, he spread out both his hands
-in an ecstasy.</p>
-
-<p>“But what a miracle!” he cried.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> “What a joy to God and to His angels!
-How I wish my brothers could see this! Do you not imagine that some
-good man was taken to paradise to see this great building and brought
-back here to copy it?”</p>
-
-<p>“Chi lo sa?” I replied guardedly, and we landed by the column of the
-Lion of St. Mark’s. That noble beast, astride on his pedestal, with
-wings outstretched, delighted the young monk, who walked round and
-round him.</p>
-
-<p>“What a tribute to the saint!” he exclaimed. “Look, they have his
-wings, too. Is not that faith?”</p>
-
-<p>“Come,” I said, “let us go on to Saint Mark’s. I think you would like
-to go there first; it is the right way to begin our pilgrimage.”</p>
-
-<p>The piazza was not very full at that hour of the morning, and its
-emptiness increased the feeling of space and size. The pigeons wheeled
-and circled to and fro, a dazzle of soft plumage, and the cluster of
-golden domes and sparkling minarets glittered in the sunshine like
-flames. Every image and statue on St. Mark’s wavered in great lines of
-light like a living pageant in a sea of gold.</p>
-
-<p>Brother Leo said nothing as he stood in front of the three great
-doorways that lead into the church. He stood quite still for a while,
-and then his eyes fell on a beggar beside the pink and cream of the new
-campanile, and I saw the wistfulness in his eyes suddenly grow as deep
-as pain.</p>
-
-<p>“Have you money, Signore?” he asked me. That seemed to him the only
-question. I gave the man something, but I explained to Brother Leo that
-he was probably not so poor as he looked.</p>
-
-<p>“They live in rags,” I explained, “because they wish to arouse pity.
-Many of them need not beg at all.”</p>
-
-<p>“Is it possible?” asked Brother Leo, gravely; then he followed me under
-the brilliant doorways of mosaic which lead into the richer dimness of
-St. Mark’s.</p>
-
-<p>When he found himself within that great incrusted jewel, he fell on
-his knees. I think he hardly saw the golden roof, the jeweled walls,
-and the five lifted domes full of sunshine and old gold, or the dark
-altars, with their mysterious, rich shimmering. All these seemed to
-pass away beyond the sense of sight; even I felt somehow as if those
-great walls of St. Mark’s were not so great as I had fancied. Something
-greater was kneeling there in an old habit and with bare feet, half
-broken-hearted because a beggar had lied.</p>
-
-<p>I found myself regretting the responsibility laid on my shoulders.
-Why should I have been compelled to take this strangely innocent,
-sheltered boy, with his fantastic third-century ideals, out into the
-shoddy, decorative, unhappy world? I even felt a kind of anger at the
-simplicity of his soul. I wished he were more like other people; I
-suppose because he had made me wish for a moment that I was less like
-them.</p>
-
-<p>“What do you think of Saint Mark’s?” I asked him as we stood once more
-in the hot sunshine outside, with the strutting pigeons at our feet and
-wheeling over our heads.</p>
-
-<p>Brother Leo did not answer for a moment, then he said:</p>
-
-<p>“I think Saint Mark would feel it a little strange. You see, I do not
-think he was a great man in the world, and the great in paradise&mdash;”
-He stooped and lifted a pigeon with a broken foot nearer to some corn
-a passer-by was throwing for the birds. “I cannot think,” he finished
-gravely, “that they care very much for palaces in paradise: I should
-think every one had them there or else&mdash;nobody.”</p>
-
-<p>I was surprised to see the pigeons that wheeled away at my approach
-allow the monk to handle them, but they seemed unaware of his touch.</p>
-
-<p>“Poverino!” he said to the one with the broken foot. “Thank God that He
-has given you wings!”</p>
-
-<p>Brother Leo spoke to every child he met, and they all answered him as
-if there was a secret freemasonry between them; but the grown-up people
-he passed with troubled eyes.</p>
-
-<p>“It seems strange to me,” he said at last, “not to speak to these
-brothers and sisters of ours, and yet I see all about me that they do
-not salute one another.”</p>
-
-<p>“They are many, and they are all strangers,” I tried to explain.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, they are very many,” he said a little sadly. “I had not known
-that there were so many people in the world, and I thought that in a
-Christian country they would not be strangers.”</p>
-
-<p>I took another gondola by the nearest bridge, and we rowed to the
-Frari. I hardly knew what effect that great church, with its famous
-Titian, would have upon him. A group of tourists surrounded the
-picture. I heard a young lady exclaiming:</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_188" name="i_188">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_188.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Drawn by W. T. Benda &emsp; &emsp; Half-tone plate engraved by C. W. Chadwick</p>
-  <p class="s5 center">“HE STOOD QUITE STILL FOR A WHILE, AND THEN HIS EYES FELL ON A BEGGAR”</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_188_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="mtop2_eb">“My! but I’d like her veil! Ain’t she cute, looking round it that way?”</p>
-
-<p>Brother Leo did not pause; he passed as if by instinct toward the
-chapel on the right which holds the softest, tenderest of Bellinis.
-There, before the Madonna with her four saints and two small attendant
-cherubs, he knelt again, and his eyes filled with tears. I do not think
-he heard the return of the tourists, who were rather startled at seeing
-him there. The elder lady remarked that he might have some infectious
-disease, and the younger that she did not think much of Bellini, anyway.</p>
-
-<p>He knelt for some time, and I had not the heart to disturb him; indeed,
-I had no wish to, either, for Bellini’s “Madonna” is my favorite
-picture, and that morning I saw in it more than I had ever seen before.
-It seemed to me as if that triumphant, mellow glow of the great master
-was an eternal thing, and as if the saints and their gracious Lady,
-with the stalwart, standing Child upon her knee, were more real than
-flesh and blood, and would still be more real when flesh and blood had
-ceased to be. I never have recaptured the feeling; perhaps there was
-something infectious about Brother Leo, after all. He made no comment
-on the Madonna, nor did I expect one, for we do not need to assert that
-we find the object of our worship beautiful; but I was amused at his
-calm refusal to look upon the great Titian as a Madonna at all.</p>
-
-<p>“No, no,” he said firmly. “This one is no doubt some good and gracious
-lady, but the Madonna! Signore, you jest. Or, if the painter thought
-so, he was deceived by the devil. Yes, that is very possible. The
-father has often told us that artists are exposed to great temptations:
-their eyes see paradise before their souls have reached it, and that is
-a great danger.”</p>
-
-<p>I said no more, and we passed out into the street again. I felt ashamed
-to say that I wanted my luncheon, but I did say so, and it did not seem
-in the least surprising to Brother Leo; he merely drew out a small
-wallet and offered me some bread, which he said the father had given
-him for our needs.</p>
-
-<p>I told him that he must not dream of eating that; he was to come and
-dine with me at my hotel. He replied that he would go wherever I
-liked, but that really he would prefer to eat his bread unless indeed
-we were so fortunate as to find a beggar who would like it. However,
-we were not so fortunate, and I was compelled to eat my exceedingly
-substantial five-course luncheon while my companion sat opposite me and
-ate his half-loaf of black bread with what appeared to be appetite and
-satisfaction.</p>
-
-<p>He asked me a great many questions about what everything in the room
-was used for and what everything cost, and appeared very much surprised
-at my answers.</p>
-
-<p>“This, then,” he said, “is not like all the other houses in Venice? Is
-it a special house&mdash;perhaps for the English only?”</p>
-
-<p>I explained to him that most houses contained tables and chairs; that
-this, being a hotel, was in some ways even less furnished than a
-private house, though doubtless it was larger and was arranged with a
-special eye to foreign requirements.</p>
-
-<p>“But the poor&mdash;they do not live like this?” Leo asked. I had to own
-that the poor did not. “But the people here are rich?” Leo persisted.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, yes, I suppose so, tolerably well off,” I admitted.</p>
-
-<p>“How miserable they must be!” exclaimed Leo, compassionately. “Are they
-not allowed to give away their money?”</p>
-
-<p>This seemed hardly the way to approach the question of the rich and the
-poor, and I do not know that I made it any better by an after-dinner
-exposition upon capital and labor. I finished, of course, by saying
-that if the rich gave to the poor to-day, there would still be rich
-and poor to-morrow. It did not sound very convincing to me, and it did
-nothing whatever to convince Brother Leo.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_190" name="i_190">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_190.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Drawn by W. T. Benda &emsp; &emsp; Half-tone plate engraved by R. Varley</p>
-  <p class="s5 center">“‘IT SEEMS STRANGE TO ME NOT TO SPEAK TO THESE BROTHERS AND SISTERS’”</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_190_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="mtop2_eb">“That is perhaps true,” he said at last.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> “One would not wish, however,
-to give all into unready hands like that poor beggar this morning who
-knew no better than to pretend in order to get more money. No, that
-would be the gift of a madman. But could not the rich use their money
-in trust for the poor, and help and teach them little by little till
-they learned how to share their labor and their wealth? But you know
-how ignorant am I who speak to you. It is probable that this is what
-is already being done even here now in Venice and all over the world.
-It would not be left to a little one like me to think of it. What an
-idea for the brothers at home to laugh at!”</p>
-
-<p>“Some people do think these things,” I admitted.</p>
-
-<p>“But do not all?” asked Brother Leo, incredulously.</p>
-
-<p>“No, not all,” I confessed.</p>
-
-<p>“Andiamo!” said Leo, rising resolutely. “Let us pray to the Madonna.
-What a vexation it must be to her and to all the blessed saints to
-watch the earth! It needs the patience of the Blessed One Himself, to
-bear it.”</p>
-
-<p>In the Palazzo Giovanelli there is one of the loveliest of Giorgiones.
-It is called “His Family,” and it represents a beautiful nude woman
-with her child and her lover. It seemed to me an outrage that this
-young brother should know nothing of the world, of life. I was
-determined that he should see this picture. I think I expected Brother
-Leo to be shocked when he saw it. I know I was surprised that he
-looked at it&mdash;at the serene content of earth, its exquisite ultimate
-satisfaction&mdash;a long time. Then he said in an awed voice:</p>
-
-<p>“It is so beautiful that it is strange any one in all the world can
-doubt the love of God who gave it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Have you ever seen anything more beautiful; do you believe there is
-anything more beautiful?” I asked rather cruelly.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes,” said Brother Leo, very quietly; “the love of God is more
-beautiful, only that cannot be painted.”</p>
-
-<p>After that I showed him no more pictures, nor did I try to make him
-understand life. I had an idea that he understood it already rather
-better than I did.</p>
-
-<p>When I took him back to the piazza, it was getting on toward sunset,
-and we sat at one of the little tables at Florian’s, where I drank
-coffee. We heard the band and watched the slow-moving, good-natured
-Venetian crowd, and the pigeons winging their perpetual flight.</p>
-
-<p>All the light of the gathered day seemed to fall on the great golden
-church at the end of the piazza. Brother Leo did not look at it very
-much; his attention was taken up completely in watching the faces of
-the crowd, and as he watched them I thought to read in his face what
-he had learned in that one day in Venice&mdash;whether my mission had been
-a success or a failure; but, though I looked long at that simple and
-childlike face, I learned nothing.</p>
-
-<p>What is so mysterious as the eyes of a child?</p>
-
-<p>But I was not destined to part from Brother Leo wholly in ignorance.
-It was as if, in his open kindliness of nature, he would not leave me
-with any unspoken puzzle between us. I had been his friend and he told
-me, because it was the way things seemed to him, that I had been his
-teacher.</p>
-
-<p>We stood on the piazzetta. I had hired a gondola with two men to row
-him back; the water was like beaten gold, and the horizon the softest
-shade of pink.</p>
-
-<p>“This day I shall remember all my life,” he said, “and you in my
-prayers with all the world&mdash;always, always. Only I should like to tell
-you that that little idea of mine, which the father told me he had
-spoken to you about, I see now that it is too large for me. I am only
-a very poor monk. I should think I must be the poorest monk God has in
-all His family of monks. If He can be patient, surely I can. And it
-came over me while we were looking at all those wonderful things, that
-if money had been the way to save the world, Christ himself would have
-been rich. It was stupid of me. I did not remember that when he wanted
-to feed the multitude, he did not empty the great granaries that were
-all his, too; he took only five loaves and two small fishes; but they
-were enough.</p>
-
-<p>“We little ones can pray, and God can change His world. Speriamo!” He
-smiled as he gave me his hand&mdash;a smile which seemed to me as beautiful
-as anything we had seen that day in Venice. Then the high-prowed, black
-gondola glided swiftly out over the golden waters with the little brown
-figure seated in the smallest seat. He turned often to wave to me, but
-I noticed that he sat with his face away from Venice.</p>
-
-<p>He had turned back to San Francesco del Deserto, and I knew as I looked
-at his face that he carried no single small regret in his eager heart.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p class="s5 center" id="G_F_EDMUNDS">EX-SENATOR GEORGE F. EDMUNDS</p>
-
-<p class="s6 center">Born in Vermont February 1, 1828: Member of the Vermont Legislature
-1854&ndash;59 and 1861&ndash;62; United States Senator from Vermont 1866&ndash;91; only
-surviving member of the Electoral Commission formed in 1877 to settle
-the disputed Hayes-Tilden election.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_192" name="i_192">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_192.jpg" alt="George F. Edmunds" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide no-break-before"><a href="images/i_192_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter break-before">
-   <a id="i_193" name="i_193">
-   <img class="mtop3" src="images/i_193.jpg"
-    alt="The Century’s After-the-War Series" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="ANOTHER_VIEW_OF_THE_HAYES-TILDEN_CONTEST">ANOTHER VIEW
-OF “THE HAYES-TILDEN CONTEST”</h2>
-
-<p class="s4 center">A REPLY TO COLONEL WATTERSON IN THE MAY “CENTURY”</p>
-
-<p class="s3 center">BY EX-SENATOR GEORGE F. EDMUNDS</p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">The sole surviving member of the Electoral Commission</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">T</span>HE rather astonishing article of Mr. Henry Watterson in the May number
-of T<span class="smaller">HE</span> C<span class="smaller">ENTURY</span> opens to me the opportunity and the duty of
-giving my recollections of such of the inside history, as well as of
-the outside, as came to my knowledge at the time, in connection with
-the Hayes-Tilden contest for the Presidency. I believe that the time
-<i>has</i> come when, among fair-minded and intelligent Americans who will
-investigate the public and printed documents and papers in existence
-on the subject, there will be few divergent opinions touching the
-justice and lawfulness of the election of Mr. Hayes. They will find
-that he was lawfully elected and instituted to the office by fair and
-lawful means. I wish that such investigators could have the benefit
-of the correspondence and other papers to which Mr. Watterson refers,
-as well as of all other documents and papers touching the subject.
-All the papers relating to the action of the Senate committee on the
-Electoral Bill, and of our conferences with the House committee, are
-in my possession and are open to the examination of the student, the
-politician, and the historian.</p>
-
-<p>In the year 1876 many of the States which had been engaged in the war
-for secession were still in a condition of unrest, and their Negro
-citizens, as well as many whites who had supported the United States
-and were lawfully in those of the Southern States under consideration
-(and opprobriously called “carpet-baggers”), were under great
-apprehension of personal danger. The Negro citizens in many instances
-had suffered, and they were continually in danger of violence from the
-efforts of a secret association known as “the Ku-Klux Klan” to prevent
-their voting as they were entitled to do under the provisions of the
-Fifteenth Amendment. In this state of things small detachments of the
-army of the United States were stationed in various places where the
-greatest danger of intimidation and violence appeared to exist. The
-civil operations of the Government required the presence of these
-troops in such places, not only to assist the state authorities in
-preserving the peace at a national election when there should be one,
-but also to protect the operations of the United States in carrying on
-its share of the civil government, such as customs, internal revenues,
-post-offices, etc. I suppose everybody will agree that the army of the
-United States must be somewhere, and has a right to be somewhere within
-the country; and nobody has yet maintained that any State has a right<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>
-to exclude their presence. I think not a soldier interfered with any
-right or peaceable conduct, or was present at any polling-place in the
-late “Confederate States” in the election of 1876. When the elections
-came on nothing but violence could prevent either whites or Negroes
-who were lawfully entitled to vote from doing so in peace, as in most
-instances they did. In the States where Negro citizens were in great
-majority the Hayes ticket, naturally, should have prevailed. In some of
-them it did prevail, and the necessary certificates of the result were
-sent to the president of the Senate, as required by the Constitution.
-The “grandfather” legislation had not yet been invented.</p>
-
-<p>The election was very close; and immediately agents of the Democratic
-party were sent to South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana for <i>some</i>
-purpose. They were at first, apparently, under the direction of Colonel
-Pelton, a nephew of Mr. Tilden, and by Pelton were authorized, in
-substance and in effect, to bribe some of the canvassing boards to
-make false returns of the choice of Tilden electors instead of those
-electors who had been actually chosen on the Hayes ticket, or to bribe
-some of the Republican electors. This scheme very early became known to
-the Republican National Committee, and steps were immediately taken to
-send Republican gentlemen, well known and of high standing, to those
-States where, it was feared, efforts at bribery were being, or were
-to be, attempted, in order to preserve, so far as lawfully could be
-done, the real results of the election. Among these men so sent were,
-as stated by Mr. Watterson, John Sherman, Stanley Matthews, James A.
-Garfield, William M. Evarts, John A. Logan, and some others, one of
-whom, as I remember, was Senator Howe of Wisconsin, a fine lawyer and
-a man of absolutely upright private and public life. As everybody
-knows who reads or remembers the history of those times, none of the
-gentlemen mentioned would be directly or indirectly a party to intrigue
-or dishonesty of any kind. They found on investigation that the Hayes
-electors had been duly chosen and that, unless some one of them, after
-being elected on the Hayes ticket, should be induced to dishonor
-himself by Peltonian expedients, all would vote for President Hayes.
-The corrupt dealers in canvassing boards and votes apparently sought a
-market only with the Democrats, who, as Mr. Watterson says, declined to
-buy.</p>
-
-<p>When the Republicans before mentioned returned to Washington I
-learned from more than one of them, in relating their experiences at
-New Orleans, that the States had truly gone Republican and that the
-only danger, if any, was the exertion of evil influences to change
-the result. The actual experiences related by Mr. Watterson in this
-connection illustrate and confirm what I have said. The political
-“book-makers” were undoubtedly on hand, but that they were acting under
-the authority of any of the Returning Board there was no proof. There
-are speculators in politics as well as in stocks, and they often act
-without having a principal behind them or any principle within them.
-I remember an instance occurring in the Senate at Washington when a
-bill of much financial importance was under consideration. I learned
-afterward that a lobbyist whom I did not know had contracted my vote in
-favor of the bill with one interest, and my vote against the same bill
-in favor of the opposing interest. He had sold me to both sides, and
-whichever side lost he would get his lobbyist reward.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Watterson quotes from a speech of Mr. Abram S. Hewitt, in which Mr.
-Hewitt is made to say that the vote of Louisiana was offered to him
-for money and that he declined to buy it. So far Mr. Hewitt of course
-personally knew the truth of what he was saying; but when he says, “The
-vote of that State was sold for money,” he could not have stated what
-he personally knew, though he doubtless believed what he said. He was
-careful not to say that he personally knew of the sale of the vote of
-Louisiana, nor did he refer to any evidence of it. He was evidently at
-New Orleans when, as he says, the vote of that State was offered him
-for money. Why did he not, then and there, in the presence of the body
-of the gentlemen of both parties mentioned by Mr. Watterson, make known
-the guilty person, and so explode and destroy the corruption which was
-contemplated and begun by Colonel Pelton, nephew of Mr. Tilden, at the
-Democratic headquarters in New York and which compelled the sending of
-Republican gentlemen to New Orleans?</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>I was invited to go there as one of the Republican Committee, but I
-thought it better to remain in Washington and help to the best of my
-ability in framing and passing a law in which the Democratic House
-of Representatives and the Republican Senate could agree, and which
-would execute the letter and spirit of the Constitution and preserve
-the people of the whole United States from the apparent great danger
-of disorder, tumult&mdash;and possibly anarchy&mdash;likely to arise from the
-fire of party passion if a clear and exact law of procedure and final
-determination should not be enacted speedily.</p>
-
-<p>Historically, it is very unfortunate that Mr. Watterson did not
-include in his enlivening article copies of his telegraphic and other
-correspondence with Mr. Tilden from New Orleans, and elsewhere, for
-it would certainly and truly, so far as it went, throw much light on
-the existing drama being displayed, as well as the plans and work
-behind the curtain whereby (we may believe) it was hoped to produce
-the election of Mr. Tilden. We Republicans at Washington were forced
-to believe that an effort was being made, by every means that could
-be employed, to overcome the Hayes majority of one. During that whole
-period, so far as I personally knew or was informed, there never was
-any scheme or act of the Republicans to bribe any state canvassing
-board or elector by money or promise in support of Mr. Hayes’s
-election. We did (if I may borrow an ancient classic simile) fear “the
-Greeks bearing gifts.” We were morally certain that a large majority
-of the legal voters in the States of South Carolina, Florida, and
-Louisiana were earnestly in favor of the election of Mr. Hayes, and
-we believed that if violence or some other kind of unlawful influence
-were not brought to bear the electoral votes of those States would be
-cast for him; but when the secret though bold operations of Colonel
-Pelton became partly known we were astonished and alarmed, though not
-disheartened, and we went forward in our efforts to provide by law for
-the final act in the great drama.</p>
-
-<p>The scene of action was now transferred to Washington. Mr. Watterson in
-his usual charming style gives a clear description of the next steps
-taken by the Democratic managers to achieve the wished-for triumph
-of Mr. Tilden. He was advised by Mr. McLane&mdash;referring to the contest
-over the English Reform Bill of 1832, when he had seen the powerful
-impression produced by “the direct force of public opinion upon
-law-making and law-makers”&mdash;that an analogous situation now existed in
-America; that the Republican Senate was like the Tory House of Lords,
-and that the Democrats must organize a movement such as had been so
-effectual in England. But there was neither precedent nor analogy
-except violence and riots, for Parliament was engaged in considering
-discretionary <i>legislation</i> enlarging and purifying the franchise, in
-which peaceful persuasion and petition were right, as they would have
-been for or against the passage of the Electoral Commission Bill. Mr.
-Watterson tells us it was agreed that he return to Washington and make
-a speech “with the suggestion that in the National Capital there should
-assemble” a mass convention of at least one hundred thousand peaceful
-citizens exercising the freemen’s right of petition. Mr. Watterson
-tells us that it was a venture in which he had no great faith; but
-that he prepared the speech, and that, after much reading and revising
-of it by Mr. Tilden and Mr. McLane, to cover the case and meet the
-purpose, Mr. Tilden wrote Mr. Randall, Speaker of the House, a letter
-which was carried by Mr. McLane to Mr. Randall “instructing him what
-to do in the event that the popular response [which did not come]
-should prove favorable.” It is a great pity that this letter is lost
-to the historian, for it would doubtless illuminate the real meaning
-of the speech of Mr. Watterson prepared in New York and there ratified
-by Mr. Tilden; for the speech that was delivered at Washington soon
-after Christmas, 1876, was of such a character that “the Democrats at
-once set about denying the sinister and violent purpose ascribed to it
-by Republicans.” Mr. Watterson says,&mdash;I have no doubt with absolute
-frankness,&mdash;that no thought of <i>violence</i> had entered <i>his</i> mind. But
-Mr. Pulitzer, who immediately followed him in the speech-making, said
-without rebuke that he wanted the one hundred thousand to come “fully
-armed and ready for business.”</p>
-
-<p>At the time of the delivery of these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> speeches action in all the States
-must already have been concluded, and the documents required by law,
-showing the action of the several States, had already been forwarded
-to the president of the Senate to be held by him to be opened and
-acted upon as required by the Constitution. These speeches, then, must
-have been intended to frighten members of Congress by the threatened
-presence of at least one hundred thousand men assembling at Washington,
-under color of the right of petition, to persuade them by some means to
-win a triumph for Mr. Tilden by procuring the rejection of some vote or
-votes appearing in the electoral documents to have been cast for Mr.
-Hayes. It would seem that the framers of the speech of Mr. Watterson
-had overlooked the provisions in the Constitution of the United States
-on the subject, which left no discretion or policy to be exercised by
-any one, and the fact that so-called public opinion or partizan wishes
-had no place in the procedure of receiving and counting the electoral
-votes.</p>
-
-<p>This great army of petitioning citizens could as well have been
-assembled to influence the Supreme Court in the consideration of
-some great cause, or the House of Representatives or the Senate in
-an impeachment proceeding. This mode of influencing administrative
-or judicial procedure, which has been and is supposed to be for the
-ascertainment of the law and the truth, would be retrogression to Roman
-times, when the populace sometimes flocked into the Forum to influence
-by their voices and uproar the trial of causes.</p>
-
-<p>I come now in my recollections (which are verified by the volume of the
-“Proceedings of the Electoral Commission,” by the official “Journals”
-of the two Houses, and by the “Congressional Record”) to the details
-of the proceedings of the two Houses and of the Electoral Commission.
-On December 14, 1876, the Democratic House of Representatives passed a
-resolution in the following words:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>Whereas there are differences of opinion as to the proper mode of
-counting the electoral votes for President and Vice-President, and
-as to the manner of determining questions that may arise as to the
-legality and validity of returns made of such votes by the several
-States;</p>
-
-<p>And whereas it is of the utmost importance that all differences of
-opinion and all doubt and uncertainty upon these questions should
-be removed, to the end therefore that the votes may be counted and
-the result declared by a tribunal whose authority none can question
-and whose decision all will accept as final: Therefore,</p>
-
-<p>Resolved, That a committee of seven members of this House be
-appointed by the Speaker, to act in conjunction with any similar
-committee that may be appointed by the Senate, to prepare and
-report without delay such a measure, either legislative or
-constitutional, as may in their judgment be best calculated to
-accomplish the desired end, and that said committee have leave to
-report at any time.</p></div>
-
-<p>This resolution was sent to the Senate, and in response thereto, on
-December 18 the Republican Senate passed a resolution in the following
-words:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>Resolved, That the message of the House of Representatives on
-the subject of the presidential election be referred to a select
-committee of seven Senators, with power to prepare and report,
-without unnecessary delay, such a measure either of a legislative
-or other character, as may, in their judgment, be best calculated
-to accomplish the lawful counting of the electoral votes, and the
-best disposition of all questions connected therewith, and the due
-declaration of the result: and that said committee have power to
-confer and act with the committee of the House of Representatives
-named in said message, and to report by bill or otherwise.</p></div>
-
-<p>On December 21 the Senate appointed, as members of its select
-committee, Messrs. Edmunds, Morton, Frelinghuysen, Logan, Republicans;
-Messrs. Thurman, Bayard, and Ransom, Democrats. (Mr. Logan declined
-the appointment and Mr. Conkling was appointed in his place.) On
-December 22 the House of Representatives appointed, as the members of
-its committee, Messrs. Payne, Hunton, Hewitt, Springer, Democrats,
-and Messrs. McCrary, Hoar, and Willard, Republicans. These two
-committees proceeded to consider the subject separately; and they
-held conferences from time to time with a view to agreeing upon one
-measure to accomplish the great objects named in the reso<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>lutions
-of the two Houses. After much discussion and deliberation, the two
-committees agreed that there should be reported in the Senate the bill
-which, without amendment in either House, became the law under which
-the procedure of the two Houses and the Electoral Commission took
-place. This bill was reported by me to the Senate January 18, 1877.
-After much debate and the rejection of sundry amendments it passed the
-Senate, January 24, by a vote of forty-seven yeas and seventeen nays.
-The negative votes were nearly all cast by Republicans. The bill was
-then sent to the House, where, on January 26, it was referred to the
-House committee on the subject, and on the same day was reported to
-the House by Mr. Payne without amendment. After debate it passed the
-House without any amendment, by a vote of one hundred and ninety-one
-yeas and eighty nays. The negative vote was composed, as in the Senate,
-very largely of Republicans. In the Senate, before the final vote
-was taken, it was perfectly understood that the bill would pass by a
-large majority in the form in which it came from the committee. It
-was seen, apparently, that some gentlemen who were supposed to have
-hopeful visions of their political future felt that they could safely
-vote against the bill, of which, if it were followed by the success of
-Mr. Hayes, it could be said to be quite unnecessary; and if it were
-followed by the success of Mr. Tilden it could be said that disaster to
-the Republican party had been brought about by the foolish conduct of
-the Republicans who supported it.</p>
-
-<p>Previous to the passage of the bill no law existed providing what
-should be done, when in pursuance of the Constitution the two Houses
-should meet and the president of the Senate open and cause to be read
-the certificates of electoral votes from the various States, if a
-difference of opinion between the Houses should arise concerning the
-validity of any electoral vote. Two radical and opposing contentions
-were being put forward by the more excited of the two parties. One side
-said that the Constitution gave the president of the Senate the power
-and duty to decide the result after the state certificates should be
-opened and read. The other side maintained that the president of the
-Senate had no power other than to preside, open the sealed packages
-received by him from the various States, and cause them to be read;
-and that it was in the power of the two Houses concurrently to decide
-what votes should or should not be counted. Both these contentions were
-thought by the Senate committee&mdash;and I hope by the House committee
-also&mdash;to be absolutely erroneous. The Constitution had not made the
-president of the Senate the judge of election returns. His only duty
-was to receive, preserve, open, and cause to be read and summed up the
-certificates of the action of each of the States, which he had received
-as provided by the Constitution. To decide what persons mentioned in
-the certificates were lawful electors was no part of his duty.</p>
-
-<p>If the concurrent power of the two Houses to judge of the elections
-existed, no votes on which the two Houses disagreed could be counted.
-In such a case how long would each House “in the heat of conflict keep
-the law”? The only things certain to happen in such instances would be
-reprisals, and then&mdash;anarchy and open war.</p>
-
-<p>I think few sane persons of intelligence can believe that the wise
-and far-seeing builders of the Constitution intended to leave open
-such an avenue to destruction; and so they did provide, after granting
-to Congress affirmative powers on enumerated subjects, that Congress
-should have power “To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper
-for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers and all other Powers
-vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States or
-in any Department or officer thereof.” On this firm rock the select
-committees of the two Houses rested the provisions of the Electoral Law
-which we reported.</p>
-
-<p>In framing this act the two committees carefully and intentionally
-refrained from changing in any way any law then existing that might
-affect either way the fundamental merits of the existing controversy;
-and so, when the bill was under debate in the Senate, and Mr. Morton,
-a member of the committee, who did not concur in its report or in the
-passage of the bill, moved to amend the same by providing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> “That nothing
-herein contained shall authorize the said commission to go behind the
-finding and determination of the canvassing or returning officers of
-a State authorized by the laws of the State to find and determine the
-result of an election for electors,” I moved to amend the amendment so
-as to make it declare that the commission should have authority to go
-behind the returns. The purpose of my motion was to make it impossible
-that any inference should exist from Mr. Morton’s proposition being
-rejected that the commission should be granted by the act any authority
-either way that did not already exist. I, of course, voted against my
-own amendment and only one senator voted for it. The amendment of Mr.
-Morton was defeated by a majority of more than two to one. Thus the
-bill passed without any amendment at all, as before stated.</p>
-
-<p>The act provided that the Electoral Commission be composed of
-fifteen members consisting of five justices of the Supreme Court of
-the United States, five senators, and five members of the House of
-Representatives. The members of the commission were the following:
-Justices, Clifford from Maine, Miller from Iowa, Field from California,
-Strong from Pennsylvania, and Bradley from New Jersey; Senators,
-Edmunds of Vermont, Morton of Indiana, Frelinghuysen of New Jersey,
-Bayard of Delaware, and Thurman of Ohio; Members of the House,
-Payne of Ohio, Hunton of Virginia, Abbott of Massachusetts, Hoar of
-Massachusetts, and Garfield of Ohio.</p>
-
-<p>The law provided that the fifth of the five justices to compose that
-part of the commission was to be selected by those justices assigned to
-the First, Third, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits, and that the senior in
-service should be president of the commission. It required that each
-House, by a <i>viva voce</i> vote of its members, should appoint the five
-senators and the five representatives provided by the law, which was
-done. Mr. Watterson says that it was believed by the Democratic members
-of the House that justice Davis of Illinois would be appointed as the
-fifth justice composing the commission, and that it was also believed
-that Justice Davis would be “sure for Tilden.” I had no belief upon the
-subject other than that founded upon my knowledge of the capacity and
-character of Justice Davis; and that led me to believe that he, as well
-as the other justices, would follow what they thought, after hearing
-the cases, was the law; and I believed that neither the Constitution
-nor the law authorized the commission to overthrow the regular returns
-of any State and make what must necessarily be an endless inquiry into
-what the votes of the people of any State had been in point of numbers,
-either for or against the Republican or Democratic electors. That
-right, by the letter and the spirit of the Constitution, was given to
-the States alone.</p>
-
-<p>After the Electoral Act had been passed Justice Davis was elected
-senator from Illinois and consequently became ineligible; and the
-four justices selected Justice Bradley (from New Jersey) as the fifth
-justice of the commission. Mr. Watterson thinks that if Justice Davis
-had been a member of the commission he would have voted as Justice
-Bradley did. I agree with him in that belief.</p>
-
-<p>Although the act made no provision in respect of the political
-character of the members of either House to be appointed, it was
-agreed by those representing the two parties in each House that the
-members selected for the commission should be three Republicans and two
-Democrats of the Senate and three Democrats and two Republicans of the
-House. Each side had faith enough in the honor of the other to be sure
-such would be the case, as it was. Thus the Electoral Commission was
-formed.</p>
-
-<p>The commission met and organized January 31, 1877, only thirty-four
-days before the final ceremony of the election of the President must
-take place.</p>
-
-<p>All its members were present, and the certificates of the appointments
-of its members, before named, were presented and recorded, showing
-that the Senate had by a unanimous vote appointed the persons before
-mentioned to be members of the commission, and that the House had
-appointed as its members of the commission the gentlemen named above.
-All the members of the commission took and subscribed the oath of
-office required by the statute&mdash;that they would “impartially examine
-and consider all questions submitted to the Commission and a true
-judgment give thereon, agreeably to the Constitution and the Laws.”
-The commission adopted simple rules of procedure and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> notified the two
-Houses that it was ready for business.</p>
-
-<p>On the first day of February the two Houses met in the Hall of the
-House, and the opening of the electoral certificates was begun,
-proceeding in alphabetical order, as the act required. The votes of
-the States of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut,
-and Delaware were read without objection and recorded as returned. The
-next State alphabetically was Florida. Three separate packages, which
-had in due course come to the hands of the president of the Senate from
-that State, were presented by him, the first one of which, purporting
-that the electors of the State had voted for Mr. Hayes, was objected to
-by Democratic members of the House and Senate in the manner authorized
-by the Electoral Act; and objections to the other certificates were
-in like manner made by Republican members of both Houses. Whereupon
-all these papers and objections were transmitted to the commission
-for consideration and decision. The case was correctly understood to
-involve substantially the same questions that would arise in respect of
-Louisiana and South Carolina; and the case was argued on both sides by
-eminent counsel and patiently heard by the commission until February
-9, when, after consultation and discussion, the majority of the
-commission decided that the certificate showing the election of Hayes
-and Wheeler was the true and lawful certificate of the State of Florida
-and should be counted as such, upon the ground stated, as required
-by the act; “That it is not competent under the Constitution and the
-law, as it existed at the date of the passage of said act, to go into
-evidence aliunde the papers opened by the president of the Senate in
-the presence of the two Houses, to prove that other persons than those
-regularly certified to by the Governor of the State of Florida, in and
-according to the determination and declaration of their appointment by
-the board of state canvassers of said State prior to the time required
-for the performance of their duties, had been appointed electors, or by
-counter-proof to show that they had not.”</p>
-
-<p>The members of the commission voting in favor of this decision
-were (alphabetically stated) Mr. Justice Bradley, Messrs. Edmunds,
-Frelinghuysen, Garfield, Hoar, Mr. Justice Miller, Mr. Morton, and Mr.
-Justice Strong. Those who voted in the negative were Messrs. Abbott,
-Bayard, Mr. Justice Clifford, Mr. Justice Field, and Messrs. Hunton,
-Payne, and Thurman.</p>
-
-<p>In the course of the discussions in the consultations of the commission
-on the Florida case, Senator Frelinghuysen, in support of his view
-that there was no power to go behind the regular returns, called the
-attention of the commission to the debates in the Senate on January
-7, 1873, as reported in the “Congressional Record,” to the opinion
-expressed by Senator Thurman in the consideration of a resolution
-authorizing an investigation as to whether the election for President
-and Vice-President had been conducted in Louisiana and Arkansas in
-1872 in accordance with the laws of the United States, in which Mr.
-Thurman was reported as saying, “There seems to be no way provided by
-Congress, and no way, I believe, that Congress, as the Constitution
-stands, can provide to try the title of an elector to his office”; and
-he proceeded to say, “I take it that the entire control over the manner
-of appointing the electors is one of the reserved rights of the State.”</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Thurman, on hearing this read by Mr. Frelinghuysen, said: “I
-have changed my mind.” Mr. Frelinghuysen, also quoting from the
-“Congressional Record” reporting the proceedings of the Senate on
-February 25, 1875, in considering the bill then pending to provide for
-counting the votes for President and Vice-President, read from the
-speech of Senator Bayard on the subject, in which Mr. Bayard said,
-“There is no pretext that for any cause whatever Congress has any
-power, or all the other departments of the Government have any power,
-to refuse to receive and count the result of the action of the voters
-of the States in that election, as certified by the electors whom they
-have chosen.” (See official report of the Proceedings of the Commission
-compiled and printed by order of Congress, page 847.)</p>
-
-<p>But it is a duty and a pleasure to say that I am sure both Mr. Bayard
-and Mr. Thurman voted with perfect honesty and sincerity. Thus it will
-be seen that the fundamental and controlling question in the three
-disputed elections before mentioned was not new.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>That these decisions of the majority of the commission, recognizing the
-conclusive authority of the several States in holding elections and
-determining the result of their choice of Presidential electors, were
-fully in accordance with the Electoral Act and with the Constitution,
-is absolutely confirmed by the non-partizan action of Congress
-itself&mdash;at a time when there was no possible party bias or emotion upon
-the subject&mdash;in the passage of the act of February 3, 1887, wherein
-the very principles controlling the decisions of the majority of the
-commission were recognized and adopted, and whereby the very substance
-and almost the very form of the Electoral Act was enacted into law so
-far as it respected the rights of the States and the proceedings of the
-two Houses, without the intervention of an Electoral Commission. (See
-Supplement to the “Revised Statutes of the United States,” 1874&ndash;91,
-page 525.) If the Republican members of the Electoral Commission needed
-any vindication of their action, I feel sure (though the “Journals”
-of 1887 are not available in the city where I write) that this act of
-Congress, passed without party division, gives it completely.</p>
-
-<p>The case of Florida having been thus disposed of, that of Louisiana was
-sent to the commission on February 12, and was decided upon the same
-principle governing the Florida case; but it was not finally determined
-and the vote counted until February 20. From that time until the
-second day of March, at four o’clock in the afternoon, when the final
-declaration of the election of Hayes and Wheeler was made, there was
-a continual and successful effort, growing more and more intense and
-violent, by the Democratic majority of the House of Representatives to
-delay final action by the two Houses in counting the whole electoral
-vote; and in the last case but one the House of Representatives
-rejected the vote of one of the Vermont electors by a party vote
-including, I think, that of Mr. Watterson; while the Senate, by a
-<i>unanimous</i> vote on the yeas and nays, declared that the vote should be
-counted, which under the law validated the disputed vote. (See “Journal
-of the House,” and the “Congressional Record.”)</p>
-
-<p>This illustrates the extremities to which the majority of the Democrats
-in the House went to prevent any final conclusion of the electoral
-proceedings under the very law that they themselves had almost
-unanimously voted for. What would have followed had this effort to
-prevent a regular conclusion of the proceedings been successful it was
-and is impossible to know. What <i>might</i> have followed was a declaration
-of a majority of the House that there had been no election at all,
-after which Mr. Tilden (according to the law in case of failure to
-elect) could have been elected by the House,&mdash;as against the inevitable
-claim of Mr. Hayes that the returns as made to the president of the
-Senate in accordance with the requirements of the Constitution, showed
-that he had been elected President of the United States.</p>
-
-<p>In the then state of public feeling I think there can be little, if
-any, doubt that an armed collision of the supporters of the respective
-claimants would have taken place.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Watterson states that when the election by the people in the
-various States “ ... came to an end, the result showed on the face of
-the returns 196” votes for Mr. Tilden “in the Electoral College, 11
-more than a majority.” The returns he speaks of must have been the
-<i>newspaper returns</i>, for, of course, on November 8, 1876, the day
-after the election, there could have been no official returns of any
-character in existence excepting, possibly, precinct and district
-returns of the local votes in some sections. He states that on the
-evening of the eighth of November Senator Barnum, the financial head
-of the Democratic National Committee, sent a telegram to “The New York
-Times” asking for the latest news from Oregon, Louisiana, Florida, and
-South Carolina, and that from that unlucky telegram sprang all the
-woes of the Democratic party! The next day, after some telegraphic
-correspondence with Mr. Tilden&mdash;of the contents of which the public
-never has been informed&mdash;Mr. Watterson left Louisville for New Orleans,
-being joined en route by Mr. Lamar of Mississippi; and they were
-soon followed by the body of Democrats chosen by Mr. Tilden to go
-to the “seat of war.” President Grant, having been informed of the
-Pelton enterprise, appointed a body of Republicans to go there also
-to ascertain the truth and support a lawful and peaceable course. The
-names of some or all of these Repub<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>licans visiting New Orleans are
-given in Mr. Watterson’s article and have been already mentioned. His
-recital of what happened I have already referred to, though the object
-and purpose is not stated. But he does say, “There was corruption
-in the air,” and “It was my own belief that the Returning Board was
-playing for the best price it could get from the Republicans, and that
-the only effect of any offer to buy on our part would be to assist this
-scheme of blackmail.”</p>
-
-<p>The last scene in this eventful history mentioned by Mr. Watterson
-was “the Wormley conference,” as the consequence of what he correctly
-calls the Democratic “bluff” “filibuster” intended merely to induce the
-Hayes people to make certain concessions touching some of the Southern
-States; and he says that “It had the desired effect,” and that,
-satisfactory assurances having been given, the count proceeded to the
-end.</p>
-
-<p>I have no personal knowledge whatever of the doings of the so-called
-conference, and had then no information even of its existence, and have
-therefore no comment to make upon it except that the filibuster was a
-“bluff” and would have died in time without issue from very shame of
-its bluffing actors.</p>
-
-<p>I am glad that Mr. Watterson’s article has appeared at this time,
-before all the gentlemen, who in one form or another were personally
-connected with public affairs during the years 1876&ndash;77, have passed to
-the future life. Such as survive may now have an opportunity, if they
-think it worth while to take it, to defend themselves from accusations
-stated or implied in his article.</p>
-
-<p>Recollections of ancient conversations, hearsays, or traditions are
-of very little value in showing what the very facts were; while
-written correspondence or other writings of the time would clarify and
-illuminate the events supposed to have happened. Mr. Watterson most
-correctly says that “Once in a while the world is startled by some
-revelation of the unknown which alters the estimate of the historic
-event or figure.” It is, therefore, very much to be regretted that he
-did not print every writing (of which he appears to know many) within
-his reach relative to the subject. He imputes to the members of the
-Republican party at that time officially or otherwise connected with
-public affairs the crime of bribing the State canvassing boards of the
-disputed States “at least in patronage, to make false returns in favor
-of the Republican electors.” As one of the few survivors of that stormy
-time, as the <i>last survivor</i> of the members of the select committees of
-the two Houses who conducted the passage of the Electoral Bill, and as
-the last survivor of the members of the Electoral Commission, I feel
-bound to repel the imputation as wholly groundless. In all our frequent
-consultations during the whole time there never was a proposal,
-suggestion, or hint of ours, or on the part of any one of us, resorting
-to bribery in any form, or of promise of office or other benefit, or
-influencing or trying to influence any of the canvassing boards or
-other state officials to depart from their lawful duty.</p>
-
-<p>I, and I believe all the others, thought that the Republican ticket
-had been truly and lawfully elected; and everything we did was to try
-by lawful means to save the cause we believed our party had fairly
-and lawfully won. We had not been educated under, and did not believe
-in, the standard of political morality Mr. Watterson sympathetically
-imputes to us; but we feared, as well we might from the Pelton work
-and other revelations of occurrences in the disputed four Southern
-States, that unlawful and more practical methods were being resorted
-to by our adversaries to pervert, if possible, the lawful course and
-result of the election. I cannot close this condensed statement without
-expressing my earnest and grateful admiration of the conduct of all
-the justices of the Supreme Court who were members of the Electoral
-Commission. They were pure, high-minded, and patriotic, trying
-earnestly to expedite our work. The venerable Justice Clifford, the
-president, performed his arduous duties with promptness and perfect
-impartiality. My memory of him and of his associates is among the most
-pleasant of my public life.</p>
-
-<p class="s5 center mtop2">(For Colonel Watterson’s rejoinder, see
-<a href="#Page_285">page 285</a>.)</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_202" name="i_202">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_202.jpg" alt="The Grand Cañon" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide no-break-before"><a href="images/i_202_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<h2 id="The_GRAND_CANON" class="nodisp nobreak nopad" title="The GRAND CAÑON of the COLORADO"></h2>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_202a" name="i_202a">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_202a.jpg"
-      alt="Title Image for The Grand Cañon" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter break-before">
-   <a id="i_203" name="i_203">
-   <img class="mtop3" src="images/i_203.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-
-  <div class="no-break-before w60 thinbox">
-
-    <p class="s5 center pad_grandcanon">THE GREAT TEMPLE</p>
-
-  </div>
-
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_203_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter break-before">
-   <a id="i_204" name="i_204">
-   <img class="mtop3" src="images/i_204.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center no-break-before">A RIFT IN THE WALLS</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_204_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter break-before">
-   <a id="i_205" name="i_205">
-   <img class="mtop3" src="images/i_205.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center no-break-before">A STORM PASSING OVER THE CAÑON</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_205_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter break-before">
-   <a id="i_206" name="i_206">
-   <img class="mtop3" src="images/i_206.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center no-break-before">IN THE GLOW OF SUNSET</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_206_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter break-before">
-   <a id="i_207" name="i_207">
-   <img class="mtop3" src="images/i_207.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center no-break-before">MISTS IN THE CAÑON</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_207_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_208" name="i_208">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_208.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">From a photograph by Hanfstaengl. &emsp; &emsp; Half-tone
-    plate engraved by H. Davidson</p>
-  <p class="s5 center no-break-before">RICHARD WAGNER</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_208_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 id="IF_RICHARD_WAGNER_CAME_BACK">IF RICHARD WAGNER
-CAME BACK</h2>
-
-<p class="s2 center"><span class="smaller">BY HENRY T. FINCK</span></p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">Author of “Wagner and His Works,” “Chopin,”
-“Success in Music,” etc.</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">T</span>HE outcome of the first Bayreuth Festival, in 1876, was a deficit of
-$37,500. There was need of thirteen hundred subscriptions to cover the
-expenses, but barely one half that number had been secured, thanks
-to the hostility of the German press, which for years in advance
-had systematically decried the project as a humbug, and at the last
-moment actually got up a fake smallpox scare in order to frustrate
-the festival. Wagner was only sixty-three years old at that time, and
-therefore quite too young to be appreciated in a country where it seems
-to be held that the only real genius is a dead genius. A series of
-concerts given in London in the hope of covering the deficit referred
-to resulted in further losses. The plan of repeating the Nibelung
-performances in Bayreuth every year or two consequently vanished like
-a rainbow, and it was not till Wagner was ready with his swan-song,
-“Parsifal,” in 1882, that he found it possible again to invite the
-world to that Bavarian town. This time there was actually a surplus of
-$1500. Wagner was beginning to be appreciated! Six months later he died.</p>
-
-<p>If he came back to-day, thirty years after, what would he find? If
-he glanced at the newspapers and the musical periodicals, he would
-note, perhaps not without some surprise, that no trace is left of the
-virulent opposition to his music-dramas which had thwarted his plans
-and made life a burden to him. He would see himself ranked with the
-classics, the musical world no longer divided into Wagnerites and
-anti-Wagnerites, and most of those who do not personally care for his
-music yet willing to pay him the tribute of respect which they give to
-Bach and Beethoven.</p>
-
-<p>It is not generally known that Wagner was forty-four years old and had
-written all but three of his operas before a single one of them was
-produced in Vienna, Munich, or Stuttgart, and that he was fifty-six
-and over before even his early works were staged in France, Italy, and
-England. He was obliged to publish “Rienzi,” “The Flying Dutchman,”
-and “Tannhäuser” at his own expense, and never got his money back. The
-leading musical firms in Germany were aghast at his asking $7500 for
-the publishing rights of “Das Rheingold,” “Die Walküre,” “Siegfried,”
-and “Götterdämmerung.” He needed money, and reduced his demand by one
-half; but again his offer was declined. Breitkopf and Härtel did buy
-“Lohengrin,” only to be jeered at for so doing by Mendelssohn, who
-thought it was a bad bargain. The same firm purchased “Tristan and
-Isolde,” but had to wait years to get back the sum expended.</p>
-
-<p>Soon after Wagner’s death the tide turned, and if he came back to-day,
-he would enjoy a spectacle which would perhaps surprise him as much
-as the disappearance of his detractors. Though he had great faith in
-his “music of the future” (it was not he, but one of his enemies who
-dubbed it so), he would hardly be prepared to find that in New York,
-as in all the cities of Germany, his operas year after year now have a
-greater number of performances than those of any other composer, and
-that the same is true even in the cities of Italy, Spain, and France
-whenever it is possible to secure for them competent singers and
-conductors. But the most astonishing spectacle would be presented to
-him in the warehouses of the publishing firms, nearly all of which have
-whole floors stacked to the ceiling with reprints of his scores ready
-to be rushed into the markets the moment the copyright on them has
-expired a few months hence. While he might be wroth at a law which will
-thus suddenly reduce the income of his heirs, he could not but feel
-flattered on discovering that no other composer had ever been reprinted
-in such wholesale fashion, proof of unprecedented popularity.</p>
-
-<p>If it were possible to communicate with him to-day, would he join his
-widow and son and their followers in petitioning parliament to make
-an exception to the copyright law in favor of preserving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> “Parsifal”
-forever for Bayreuth? I very much doubt if he would. In all probability
-he would say to them:</p>
-
-<p>“My prose writings and letters should have made it clear to you that
-my chief reason for building a theater at Bayreuth for special model
-performances of my music-dramas was that the royal opera-houses of the
-empire had neither the means nor the good-will to produce these works
-in a satisfactory manner. To-day I find the situation entirely changed,
-the opera-houses vying with one another in their efforts to present my
-works in exact accordance with my wishes. There is therefore no reason
-for withholding ‘Parsifal’ from them any longer. They will stage it
-conscientiously, and henceforth not only those who are wealthy enough
-to travel to Bayreuth, but hundreds of thousands of others, will be
-able to hear it. That the Bayreuth atmosphere is not a necessity for
-the appreciation of my last work I infer from the reports from New
-York, where ‘Parsifal’ is always listened to in the devotional attitude
-which this semi-religious composition calls for.”</p>
-
-<p>In 1852, Wagner wrote that a Lohengrin singer was yet to be born.
-Twenty-four years later, for the Bayreuth performances of the Nibelung
-dramas and “Parsifal” he selected his singers from all the German
-opera-houses; yet it is not difficult to read between the lines of
-his subsequent comments, appreciative and cordial though they were,
-that few of these singers approximated to his ideal, and in most cases
-he had to turn instructor to impart correct ideas of his new vocal
-style, in which melody and declamation are amalgamated. Emil Scaria,
-the wonderful <i>Gurnemanz</i> of the Parsifal festival in 1882, was the
-nearest approach to his ideal. Lilli Lehmann was too young in 1876 to
-assume the part of <i>Brünhild</i> in which she afterward established a new
-standard of singing, combining the Italian <i>bel canto</i> with German
-realism of dramatic accent and emotional coloring.</p>
-
-<p>That it was at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York that Lilli
-Lehmann first revealed this new art is a detail of operatic history
-which would interest Wagner if he came back to-day. When he composed
-“Tristan and Isolde” he had in his mind prophetic visions not only of
-Lehmann, but of Jean de Reszke, who established the same new standard
-for tenors. While good dramatic singers are still scarce, the general
-level has been raised, as Wagner would be the first to acknowledge.
-How happy he would have been could he have had at Bayreuth masters of
-his style as Nordica, Eames, Ternina, Krauss-Seidl, Gadski, Fremstad,
-Schumann-Heink, Matzenauer, Homer, Knote, Burrian, Reiss, Goritz,
-Alvary, the De Reszke brothers, Urlus, Braun, and Fischer, all of whom
-are or have been associated with the Metropolitan.</p>
-
-<p>One of the most important changes Wagner would note relates to the
-importance now attached to orchestral conductors. Before he wrote his
-essay on conducting, the orchestral leaders as a rule were little more
-than mere time-beaters. He taught them by example and precept to be
-real interpreters, molding an orchestral performance to their own will
-as much as a pianist does the piece he plays.</p>
-
-<p>What would Wagner say about the operas composed since his death?
-Of all of them he would, I believe, like best Humperdinck’s “Die
-Königskinder,” which, while written entirely in his own style,
-nevertheless is charmingly original in its melodies. He would certainly
-not admire the operas of Richard Strauss, partly because of their
-repulsive subjects, partly because of the violence they do to the
-human voice, but chiefly because this composer too often uses his
-large orchestral apparatus to hide his poverty of invention. On the
-other hand, he would be likely to denounce Debussy for his boycotting
-of melody in “Pelléas et Mélisande” and for his neglect of modern
-orchestral means of expression and coloring. Turning to Italy, he would
-smile at the two short operas of Mascagni and Leoncavallo, which, when
-first launched, were supposed to have dethroned him. Possibly he might
-admire Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” and the last act of “Tosca.” In any
-case, he could not but feel flattered on noting how, after his death,
-Verdi, who was born in the same year as himself, but lived nineteen
-years longer, followed his methods in “Otello” and “Falstaff.” In other
-countries Wagner would find no indication of a genius able to alienate
-the affections of opera-goers from his music-dramas. There has been no
-progress, no important development, since his death.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_211" name="i_211">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_211.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center no-break-before">PORTRAIT OF DOROTHY McK&mdash;&mdash;</p>
-  <p class="s6 center">FROM THE PAINTING BY WILHELM FUNK</p>
-  <p class="s5 center">(THE CENTURY’S AMERICAN ARTISTS SERIES)</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_211_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="BLACK_BLOOD">“BLACK BLOOD”</h2>
-
-<p class="s2 center"><span class="smaller">BY EDWARD LYELL FOX</span></p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">WITH PICTURES BY WILLIAM H. FOSTER</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="dc">
-   <a id="i_213" name="i_213">
-   <img class="mtop-2 w12em" src="images/i_213.jpg" alt="D" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="hide-first3_5">D</span>RIFTING mists enveloped the landscape, a thousand gray wraiths
-crawling through the air, their thin bodies changing, contracting,
-vanishing. Over toward Massapequa the sky was brightening, distant
-lights of purple and pink fighting their way through the mists, a dim
-burning of color like that of fire through smoke. Somewhere a rooster
-crowed; a dog barked drowsily. Already the vague shadows of the night
-were congealing into trees, a rail fence, farm buildings. Beyond them
-more trees, a stone wall, a red barn appeared. From the earth rose the
-fresh odors of a new day.</p>
-
-<p>In the windows of the house on the opposite side of the road lights
-appeared. The figure of a man moved into shadow on a curtain and
-was gone. No sound came from within. Then a door creaked open, feet
-shuffled. Four men, carrying lanterns, issued forth and waited on the
-porch. They began to talk in hoarse, early morning voices. The door
-opened again; a powerful, soldierly looking man appeared. He said
-something in a foreign tongue, and the others, lighting their lanterns,
-hurried toward the barn.</p>
-
-<p>When they were gone, Léon Giron, whom the newspapers called “the
-greatest automobile race-driver in the world,” lighted a cigarette and
-scowled. Indeed, he had begun the last ten days in the same way&mdash;the
-cigarette, the scowl. This daybreak practice on the Vanderbilt Cup
-Course had become distasteful. It was unnecessary, with the race as
-good as won. Still, his employees had insisted. Scowling again, Giron
-waited for his mechanicians to roll out the big Saturn.</p>
-
-<p>He had thought of trying the twenty-mile cup course for speed or of
-studying the turns, most particularly the one just opposite, where the
-Jericho Turnpike bent into a right angle and continued as a narrow
-road. He was still undecided when from down the pike came the low
-rumbling of a motor. Louder and louder it grew, a growing succession of
-reports that split the quiet air like volleys of musketry. Now Giron
-could see the flames of its exhausts, the yellow and red flashes,
-wild fire shining through the mists. Now he saw the white bulk of the
-machine, the long, lean hood, the tilted steering-post, the two black
-forms crouched behind.</p>
-
-<p>On it came, faster than the wind, a spew of flame and smoke, a
-voice-breathing thunder, a monstrous white dragon bursting the dawn.
-As Giron watched, as his trained eye timed instantly the frightful
-speed, as his experience whispered that for a car to rush the Jericho
-turn meant disaster, possible death, the man’s face showed only cold
-interest. Years before men had called him steel-nerved, ruthless,
-abnormally cruel.</p>
-
-<p>But now the white car crashed past. Swerving, it threw up a wall of
-flying dirt, skidded terribly, shot across the road, seemed about to
-go off, but, righting, bellowed round “the Jericho,” and rushed toward
-Westbury. And as it went, as its dust-cloud trembled and fell, as its
-explosions grew fainter and fainter, Giron stood watching, a startled
-figure leaning far over the porch-rail, unbelief and venom in his
-face. And as he watched, waiting until the white car was only a speck
-dissolving toward Westbury, his lips began to move. To the air he
-talked doubtfully, musingly, saying aloud:</p>
-
-<p>“I thought there was only one man who could take a turn like that. One
-man,”&mdash;his eyes glittered,&mdash;“Jean Lescault was his name, and I fixed
-him seven years ago.”</p>
-
-<p>Turning abruptly, he walked toward the garage.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile the white car, passing Westbury, had turned off the course
-and, rumbling contentedly, had come to a stop before Krugs. As you may
-know, Krugs, an old-fashioned Long Island road-house kept by a tidy
-German woman, has for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> years been the quarters of the cup-racers. Here
-in spacious stables are kept the machines of two companies, sometimes
-of three. Here in the uncomfortable rooms of the inn sleep their crews,
-drivers, mechanics, team-managers. In its low-ceilinged dining-room
-they sit, a score of them, smudgy-faced and in overalls, a careless,
-boyish company whose faces, were they not so lined, you would call
-young.</p>
-
-<p>Nobody paid much attention to the white car as its heavy panting became
-quieter and then died away, nor did they notice the tall, strapping
-man with the boyish face who climbed out from the driver’s seat, nor
-the broken little figure who climbed with him. As one of the reporters
-had said, “Sammy Stevenson always looks as if he had just jumped out
-of a cold plunge.” The expression was very pat. The boyish Stevenson’s
-skin always seemed tingling, coloring; his eyes clear and wide-open;
-his body tense, full-blown, strong. And as he kept step with his
-companion in their walk toward the house, one would have said that the
-contrast was pitiless; for the other man was a cripple. One of his
-legs was shorter than the other; as he walked, his body swayed from
-side to side; his left sleeve was empty. His whole frame looked gaunt,
-emaciated, racked&mdash;racked, one thought immediately, by some terrible
-accident that had disfigured his face, lining it with a long, white
-scar. Though hideously ugly, broken in body, the little man walked with
-his head well up, his chin high. And Stevenson regarded him as he might
-have regarded a deity.</p>
-
-<p>Out in Detroit, at the Mercury Motor-Car Company factory, everybody
-knew the little man as “Old Lescault.” Five years before this time he
-had appeared mysteriously, and in a few hours the factory had hired him
-as a “racing expert.” He had taken Sammy Stevenson from the testing
-service, put him on one of the racing-cars, and taught him “the game.”
-In his department his word was law. Even John Willard, the company’s
-gruff and positive president, who never had been known to take advice,
-obeyed this hideous little Frenchman, who ruled all with a word, a
-grimace, and made the sturdy, self-reliant Stevenson his personal
-worshiper and the hostile factory hands his sympathetic friends.</p>
-
-<p>Just now Jean Lescault was busy explaining something to Stevenson. The
-young man listened intently.</p>
-
-<p>“You’ll lose time on those turns,” Lescault was saying, “unless you
-take them the way I tell you. Instead of swinging wide and describing
-a curve, I want you to do this: rush the car right into the turn, jam
-on the brakes, skid around on your front wheels, and then shoot ahead.
-Look!” He quickly sketched a diagram on the breakfast-cloth. “There,”
-he exclaimed, looking up, “that shows how you’ll cut time on the fellow
-who curves around. It’s dangerous, but not if you keep your head. You
-tried it at Jericho this morning and made it. Do it at every turn
-hereafter.”</p>
-
-<p>Stevenson nodded. Jean Lescault would be obeyed.</p>
-
-<p>But Lescault wanted to tell him other things. It was his first morning
-on the course. For some reason he had seen fit to remain in New York
-despite Stevenson’s urging him to come down. Now, as they finished
-breakfast, and Stevenson, pushing back his chair, remarked that he was
-going out to see that the mechanics put away the car properly, a last
-question came to Lescault’s lips:</p>
-
-<p>“How”&mdash;he paused&mdash;“how is Giron getting along?”</p>
-
-<p>Stevenson hesitated before answering.</p>
-
-<p>“Do you know him?” he asked.</p>
-
-<p>“No,” said Lescault.</p>
-
-<p>“I asked,” said Stevenson, “because if, being a countryman, he happened
-also to be a friend of yours, I shouldn’t want to repeat certain
-things. Most of the American drivers dislike him. They criticize him
-for not stopping when he knocked down that boy and broke his leg during
-practice the other morning. They say Giron couldn’t have known whether
-he killed him or not, and cared less. They say, too, that his manner is
-unbearable, conceited, and sneering.”</p>
-
-<p>“But his work,” interrupted Lescault, impatiently,&mdash;“his driving, his
-skill, his nerve,&mdash;what of these things? Of the others I have heard.”</p>
-
-<p>“His driving,” replied Stevenson, “is really wonderful. He’s a
-daredevil, cool, thorough, and skilled. The newspapers say nothing like
-his ability has ever been seen on the Vanderbilt Cup Course.”</p>
-
-<p>“Damn the newspapers!” cried Les<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>cault in a rage. “We’ll beat him. I
-tell you, we’ll beat him.”</p>
-
-<p>As he slid up abruptly from the table and limped away, Stevenson
-noticed his eyes. In them was an expression that was not good to see.</p>
-
-<p>Going to his room, Lescault locked the door behind him. He listened for
-a moment at the keyhole, and then; seizing his traveling-bag, emptied
-it on the bed. From a confusion of socks and shirts he rooted out a
-small tin box, set it aside, put back the bag, and composed himself on
-the edge of the bed. His slightest movement had become eager, stealthy.
-Holding the tin box on his knee, he patted it fondly. He produced a
-key, and chuckled as it grated in the lock. His hands were shaking as
-he threw back the cover and carefully took out the contents. Not gold
-or precious stones rolled out before him, not the hoard of a miser, the
-collection of a seeker of rare things, or the sacred relics of a family
-trust, but a heap of photographs! On the bed he spread them, arranged
-in some accustomed order, and as he bent over each his breath came with
-a low, hissing sound. His eyes, half shut, blazed queerly&mdash;eyes that
-looked not upon memoirs of love, but of hate.</p>
-
-<p>It was a full minute before he moved. Then he snatched one of the
-photographs and held it from him, tearing the edges with his clenched
-hands. It was a full-length picture of a straight, soldierly looking
-man who might be called good looking were it not for the curl of his
-mouth. Below it was written:</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Léon Giron, taken upon his arrival in New York.</i>”</p>
-
-<p>As he gazed at the man’s straight and powerful figure, Lescault’s
-mutilated face became savage in its hate.</p>
-
-<p>“And I’d have been like you, Léon Giron, if you’d played square,” he
-accused the picture. “I’d have been like you, with my body whole and
-young and vigorous. Bah!” He threw it from him and picked up another.</p>
-
-<p>“Ho!” he cried, “this is how you looked when you won the Grand Prix,
-when they pelted you with flowers after you had crossed the line, when
-with your dirty driving you sent me into a ditch and left me out on
-that road, dying, as you thought. But I didn’t die, Léon Giron.”</p>
-
-<p>His voice had fallen to a whisper, strained, harsh, the way a man talks
-when some overpowering emotion takes him. He snatched up picture after
-picture,&mdash;racing scenes all of them,&mdash;only to examine each feverishly
-and fling it away.</p>
-
-<p>“Here you are when you won the Targa Floria,&mdash;” he was talking rapidly,
-addressing one picture after another,&mdash;“when you won the Berlin cup,
-the Czar’s trophy, all <i>my</i> races, all of them&mdash;mine, if you’d played
-square. And this is after you won at Brooklands. That was a year ago. I
-could have beaten you then, Giron. For three years I’ve been training a
-boy for you, teaching him all I know, more than you’ll ever know, about
-racing. I’ve given him every trick that used to beat you, confound you!
-that maddened on into throwing me into the ditch.</p>
-
-<p>“And I’ve given that boy more. I’ve devised new tricks, new strategies,
-skill you’ve never dreamed of; and he’ll beat you, Léon Giron. He’ll
-beat you in the Vanderbilt. He’ll break you on the greatest day of your
-career. He, a boy, will make you a laughing-stock&mdash;you, the favorite.
-You’ve come from Europe, your great reputation preceding you but you’ll
-fail. And it’ll be the clean, strong body of young Stevenson, like mine
-was. But more than that, the brain of Jean Lescault will break you,
-Giron&mdash;the brain of poor old Lescault, working down in the pits.”</p>
-
-<p>As he dropped the pictures one by one back into the box, as, trembling
-and leering, he gazed and spat upon the image of Giron, it seemed as
-though the beast in him might be trying to overpower the God. Thus it
-was Lescault’s custom to drink deeply of the vials of hate, to nurse
-his spleen, to envenom his whole being against this one man.</p>
-
-<p>The idea had come to him one winter morning seven years before, when
-he had just left the hospital at Lariboisière. In a shop-window he
-had seen the photograph of Giron, flower-showered, coolly triumphant
-in his Grand Prix car. With rancor slowly filling his soul, Lescault
-had bought the picture, carried it to his room, brooded over it,
-conceived his awful hate, planned the reckoning that alone could
-satisfy it. Then he happened upon another picture in which Giron was
-again the central figure, and bought that, too,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> placed it alongside
-the other, and brooded. The overthrow of Giron became an obsession, in
-time a paranœa. Indeed, during the days immediately preceding the
-Vanderbilt race, Lescault, when not busy with Stevenson, spent most
-of his time in his room; and the pictures, shrine of his hatred, were
-always before him.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile Giron had become a byword with those thousands and thousands
-who a day hence would swarm Hempstead plains and watch him guide the
-big Saturn on its quest for the cup. The newspapers were full of him.
-They told of his rise, of his quarters at Jericho, of his mannerisms,
-of the almost slavish obedience that he exacted of his helpers; but
-they always spoke, too, of his nerve, his utter fearlessness, his
-immobile face, his calmness when the wind was singing in his ears and
-the wheels were sweeping the ground beneath him, as the whirlwind
-sweeps chaff. Yet of all the “stories” there was only one that
-presented Giron as he actually was. And that was done by a noted writer
-who had visited the course for “color.” This man saw beyond Giron’s
-indifference and coldness, and guessed ruthlessness and cruelty to
-be a strong part of him. Telltale lines had long ago written their
-revelations on Giron’s mouth, so that all might read who could.</p>
-
-<p>And so came the eve of the race, with Giron the word on the public’s
-lips. The favorite, conceded beyond all doubt as the winner, he sat
-alone in his quarters at Jericho, scorning the gossip of the camps,
-hearing no word of the cripple who had been seen on the course with
-Stevenson, coolly confident, an eternal sneer on his lips, the ruthless
-fires of a <i>Messala</i> in his eyes. No man could come between him and
-this greatest triumph of his career; no man could do it and live. He
-unconsciously felt it.</p>
-
-<p>All that night the spectators descended upon the course, coming by
-train and trolley, luncheon-boxes and blankets in hand. Numberless
-droves of them came by motor, an endless, fiery-scaled snake that
-writhed slowly down the roads from New York, coiled round the course,
-moaned constantly, and waited. At dawn the race was to start; thirty of
-the most powerful automobiles ever made would pit their speed for three
-hundred miles, a harsh test, over an oblong of country road, with half
-a million people looking on.</p>
-
-<p>Lescault, shivering despite his warm wraps, was in the repair pits
-as the cars began to come to the line. Tints of violet and pink were
-creeping over the fields, and in the growing light of morning the
-headlights of a row of automobiles drawn up behind the grand-stand
-fence began to look self-conscious and absurd. Behind him, in a box,
-he saw a party of men, their eyes heavy-lidded for want of sleep. They
-were drinking something from a metal bottle. Lescault decided it was
-coffee, and wished he had some. Then he forgot about the coffee, for
-far in the distance a sound, deep and droning, caught his ear. It was
-the voice of the Saturn. Lescault recognized it instantly.</p>
-
-<p>In perfect control of himself he waited. He had left hysteria behind
-at Krugs, locked it in the same drawer with the pictures. Now, if
-never before, he must restrain himself. This day he must become again
-the old Lescault of the race-course, calm, emotionless. It would be
-hard at the sight of Giron, but he must be cool. And now he heard the
-booming of an engine; saw the fires of the Saturn’s exhausts burning
-the morning; saw the big red car come nearer and nearer, its engine,
-shutting off, thundering intermittently; saw it advance with its speed
-throttled, calmly, majestically, as a car of triumph should come; and
-on the conqueror’s seat sat Giron. Slowly it rolled past the repair
-trenches, past the Jupiter, the Green Dragon; now it was almost abreast
-the Mercury, and Lescault, timing his move, scrambled suddenly from the
-pit, and stood waiting on the road.</p>
-
-<p>That Giron had seen him he knew. Lescault had caught the momentary
-surprise on his face, the exclamation on his lips. But Giron had
-swiftly regained his habitual sneer&mdash;a sneer that curled his lips as he
-passed the pit and spit deliberately at the feet of the man below him.</p>
-
-<p>But Lescault’s self-control was superb, and as the Saturn rolled past,
-he looked after it, smiled, and spoke as he had spoken to the pictures,
-saying sweetly under his breath:</p>
-
-<p>“Léon Giron, I’ve got you.”</p>
-
-<p>The road was now jammed with masses of shaking, smoking steel. One
-car followed another, manœuvered for position,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> choked the course,
-thickened the bluish haze that, rising from the exhausts, hung almost
-as motionless as a canopy. Here were the trim-looking Vegas and their
-French drivers; the Green Dragons, with fierce-looking Italians
-behind the wheels; a curious cartridge-shaped car entered by an
-American concern; and the Mercury, called the “Ninety,” because of its
-tremendous horse-power. Stevenson was at the wheel, and as the grand
-stand saw his boyish, good-looking face, there were exclamations, then
-a rattle of applause, growing into steady cheering. Waving his hand
-and grinning, Stevenson stopped before the pit and, swinging himself
-over the rail, joined Lescault. He was dressed in white,&mdash;suit and
-skull-piece,&mdash;with black gloves, black streamers trailing from his hat,
-black puttees to his knees, a picturesque figure with his broad chest
-and shoulders. It had been Lescault’s wish that Stevenson, like the
-car, be in white and black. He remembered that some of the crusaders of
-old used to dress that way.</p>
-
-<p>During those last minutes Lescault’s words to Stevenson were as an
-exhortation. Of technic he could give the boy no more, for his skill
-had been transmitted completely, astoundingly to him. So now, with
-his voice lowered, Lescault spoke with all his long-growing, loosened
-emotions; he impressed upon him that Giron was the one to beat, the
-only rival he need fear, and commanded him particularly to obey orders,
-do all that he said, nothing more. And Stevenson, who long ago had
-caught the fervor of this broken-bodied little Frenchman, felt a fierce
-yearning to be at the wheel, to be riding the wind, with all others
-falling as he rode. With an exclamation he sprang from the pit and
-scrambled into the car. The soul of jean Lescault would be driving the
-“Ninety” that day.</p>
-
-<p>By this time chaos had opened its gates. Thirty engines were roaring,
-their steel throats belching. Flame and smoke burst from them. A clamor
-of machinery smote the ear. Gears rattled shrilly, levers ground and
-rasped. A stench of oil assailed the nostrils. Now the bluish canopy,
-thickening, descended as a curtain. Through it Lescault saw the
-“Ninety” sliding like a great specter, creeping along until its front
-wheels almost touched the red tanks of the Saturn.</p>
-
-<p>Above the crash of machinery he heard a man’s voice intoning the
-seconds from one to ten backward. He could not see the man, for the
-drifting smoke shrouded all; but he listened, and suddenly a voice
-shouted “Go!” Then came a rattling from the Saturn, a succession of
-sharp reports, a deep boom, a savage cry from Giron: the Vanderbilt was
-on.</p>
-
-<p>Three minutes later the white “Ninety” loomed through the smoke, paused
-on the line, licked at the starter with thin tongues of yellow flame,
-and, snorting eagerly, crashed away.</p>
-
-<p>Twenty-seven other cars followed, but upon none of them would Lescault
-deign to glance. With pad and pencil in hand he was busy figuring how
-fast Stevenson would have to go to lead Giron at the end of the first
-lap. He knew that the best Giron had done in practice was a circuit
-of the twenty-mile course in eighteen minutes. This was at the rate
-of sixty-seven miles an hour. And Lescault grinned, for he had told
-Stevenson to keep his speedometer at seventy-five miles an hour, gain
-a two-minute lead at the outset, and confound Giron when the race was
-only a lap old.</p>
-
-<p>His figures verified, Lescault waited impatiently for the Saturn to
-appear. If it came just one minute ahead of the “Ninety,” his schedule
-was true. Time dragged; the crowd settled back; the tense vigil
-disintegrated into stretchings and yawnings. The stage of a Vanderbilt
-is not reset quickly, but long before the signal “Car coming!” passed
-for miles from mouth to mouth, grew from a murmur to a shout, and
-threw the grand stand into tumult, Lescault’s trained ear had caught
-the distant rumble of the Saturn. Giron was driving hard. Lescault saw
-that he passed the grand stand with the engine “wide open,” forcing
-the car to its utmost. Then the Saturn roared away, and out of the
-distance came another apparition that, flashing by in a blur of white,
-cast up dust and was gone. Down in the pits, Lescault, one of few who
-had recognized the white car, so great was its speed, drew his hideous
-features into a smile.</p>
-
-<p>His stop-watch had told him that Stevenson’s first lap was at
-seventy-seven miles an hour, a gain of more than two minutes on the
-unbeaten Giron! And he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> grinned again when back of him men began to ask
-of one another in surprise:</p>
-
-<p>“Who is this Stevenson? He’s beaten the life out of Giron. Who is he?”</p>
-
-<p>No one knew anything but what the program had printed, and down in the
-pits the crippled little Frenchman was enjoying himself as he never had
-before. Each bewildered question was as music to his ears.</p>
-
-<p>Quarter of an hour later the white “Ninety” and the red Saturn again
-crashed past, only this time Giron was behind. Even the advantage that
-his starting position had given him was gone, and Stevenson led by five
-minutes. So one lap followed another, a whirligig of blurred wheels
-and flaming hoods, sweeping round and round that oblong of Long Island
-country-side, strewing men and machines as it went.</p>
-
-<p>Soon reports of accidents began to come in. In trying to keep up with
-the awful pace, the other drivers were overtaxing their machines.
-Already two cars had collapsed on the course, burying their crews
-beneath them. Others,&mdash;a score of them, with the Vegas, and the
-Germans, painted gray,&mdash;limping, had stopped at the repair pits, and
-Lescault had laughed. What chance had they with the white “Ninety” and
-his brain?</p>
-
-<p>Complacently he saw Stevenson push his car past the Saturn a second
-time. Near Westbury he had driven wonderfully, and obtained a lead of
-more than a length of the course over the favorite. And this time, when
-the Saturn rushed by, Lescault saw that Giron had stopped his waving to
-the grand stand. Clever driver that he was, Giron now realized that the
-early lead of the “Ninety” was more than a fluke, more than sensational
-forcing of a car beyond its limits, only to have it collapse with the
-goal miles away. In Stevenson he had come to recognize a new driver
-of rare power, a rival worthy of his steel. All Giron’s attention was
-demanded on the wheel.</p>
-
-<p>Another swift rimming of the course, and Lescault saw the “Ninety”
-slacken speed coming up the stretch. Stevenson would stop, probably for
-gasolene or water. And Lescault was glad. Indeed, fortune seemed to be
-favoring him that day. It was tremendously important that he have a
-word with Stevenson at this stage of the race. Lescault had remembered
-that it was at such a time in the Grand Prix that Giron had broken
-him&mdash;waited on a lonely stretch of road until he had tried to pass and
-then had ditched him.</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t,” he told Stevenson, while mechanics swarmed about the throbbing
-“Ninety”&mdash;“don’t pass Giron again unless you can do it in front of the
-judges’ stand.”</p>
-
-<p>Stevenson showed his amazement. A question was on his lips.</p>
-
-<p>“Obey me!” snapped Lescault, anticipating him. “Remember you’re pledged
-to that&mdash;to carry out my commands. I’ve made you, and you must do just
-what I say,” he added.</p>
-
-<p>And Stevenson, excited, abashed, regretting his moment of doubt,
-nodded, and turned to the men who were pouring gasolene down the
-thirsty throat of the “Ninety.” Then he swung into the seat, threw in
-his clutch, and went snorting away. Jean Lescault would be obeyed.</p>
-
-<p>As though by telepathy, there came to Giron at this time the same
-thought that had made Lescault speak his warning. Stevenson must
-be done away with. As Giron had seen him draw steadily away lap by
-lap, displaying more and more daring and skill; as he had seen him
-manœuver as only a master could manœuver, put trick against
-trick, and, winning, outdo all who would cut him down; as he had
-watched the big “Ninety” roar by again and again, always about the same
-time, a “limited” on schedule, the keen Frenchman admitted finally that
-Stevenson’s was no half-charged sensation, but a decided menace.</p>
-
-<p>Setting his mouth in a thin, cruel line, he made his plans. He would
-wait for this boy&mdash;wait as he had waited for Lescault years before. To
-him it was only an incident, a sweeping aside of an unforeseen obstacle
-that had risen between him and victory. That Stevenson might die, that
-a young and wonderfully brilliant driver might he maimed for life, did
-not interest him. The boy was in the way. He must go.</p>
-
-<p>Giron waited patiently for the “Ninety” to draw near. Just as he
-was about to pass he would obey the law of the race&mdash;turn out and
-give room. Then he would veer in suddenly, and, to avoid collision,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>
-Stevenson would be forced into the ditch. In just that way he had
-disposed of Lescault and of others whose names do not matter. Snarling
-at his mechanician to warn him of the approach of the “Ninety,” Giron
-drove on. The wait, he felt, would not be long.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_219" name="i_219">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_219.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Drawn by William H. Foster</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2">“ON IT CAME, FASTER THAN THE WIND” (SEE
-    <a href="#Page_213">PAGE 213</a>)</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>But for some reason the “Ninety” never overtook him. It hung so close
-to his rear wheels that Giron could hear the crunch of the tires, the
-cries of its mechanician; but it came no nearer. Its front wheels were
-always just out of reach; but it never came farther. Stubbornly and
-tenaciously it hung like a shadow that would not shorten.</p>
-
-<p>In his desperation Giron began jockeying. Slackening his speed almost
-imperceptibly, he waited grimly; but the “Ninety” slackened, too. For
-a moment Giron was puzzled; then, thinking it might be a coincidence,
-he lowered his pace even more, but the “Ninety” lowered, too. Suddenly
-suspicious, he tried again; but still the “Ninety” hung back. Then it
-burst upon Giron amazingly clear. How blind he had been! This was not
-Stevenson who refused to be tricked; this was no impetuous, lusty boy
-who couldn’t be tempted into the ditch. This was the cool mind of the
-master driver, the calm, scheming mind of Lescault&mdash;old Lescault back
-in the pits, the hideous cripple at whom he had spat, now pulling him
-down at the top of his career.</p>
-
-<p>So they rushed into the straightaway, headed for the grand stand, and
-came booming and pounding until a report from one of the “Ninety’s”
-rear tires brought that car to a stop while the red Saturn whirled
-away in a screen of dust. Stevenson drove in on a flat tire, and,
-reaching the pits, shouted to his mechanics to hurry their work; and
-while he waited, chafing and fretting, Lescault clutched at his arm and
-said impressively:</p>
-
-<p>“Remember, don’t pass Giron unless it’s in front of the judges’ stand.
-Remember you promised to obey.”</p>
-
-<p>Then the “Ninety” rushed away. Somewhat nervous now, for the race was
-drawing to a close, Lescault saw the Saturn appear again and knew
-that Stevenson must come soon after. Impatiently he strained his ear,
-hoping to catch the rumble of the “Ninety” before it swung round the
-“Hairpin” into view of the stands. But no rumble came. Soon Stevenson
-was overdue. Concern and worry, then fear, followed upon impatience.
-Seconds grew into minutes, and to Lescault the minutes were as ages. He
-began to ask himself questions. What was wrong? Had Stevenson disobeyed
-orders?</p>
-
-<p>Lescault feverishly jotted down some figures. Yes, the boy could have
-passed Giron over by Westbury; but Giron had swept by, and Stevenson&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>The pitmen, now alarmed at the delay, had climbed out upon the side of
-the track. One of them, a little fellow, standing on the shoulders of
-the others, was trying to see far down the road. Lescault watched his
-face for some expression of relief, but the pitman’s worry seemed to
-grow.</p>
-
-<p>“Stevenson’s hurt!”</p>
-
-<p>In a trice the rumor had spread among the crowd. Wild stories spread.
-The minutes were now dragging on feet of lead<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>&mdash;agonizing minutes
-to Lescault, who felt an overpowering weakness coming over him, a
-sickening of the heart, an overwhelming of conscience that undermined
-his iron nerve. Giron had beaten him again! His painstaking work, his
-self-denials, all the plans of years, had been for naught. And by using
-Stevenson,&mdash;God help him!&mdash;he had sent the boy to a fate perhaps worse
-than his own. Into the scarred face came sorrow.</p>
-
-<p>Then he heard an exclamation; he saw the pitmen dancing about like
-children.</p>
-
-<p>“He’s coming! He’s coming!” they cried.</p>
-
-<p>Far down the road Lescault made out the white blur of the “Ninety.”</p>
-
-<p>“Busted valve!” cried Stevenson as he jumped down. “Thought we’d never
-fix it.”</p>
-
-<p>Lescault saw that the boyish face looked old, ages old, that his hands
-were moving nervously, his whole body tense with repressed eagerness.</p>
-
-<p>“You’ve lost the lead,” a tireman shouted. “Giron’s a minute ahead!”</p>
-
-<p>Lescault could have killed the speaker. The effect of his words was
-obvious. Stevenson’s nervousness increased.</p>
-
-<p>“As bad as that!” he exclaimed. “Hurry it up, boys! Only two more
-laps&mdash;just enough to catch Giron.”</p>
-
-<p>Swinging into the car, he threw on the engine, drowning the warning
-that Lescault was shouting, and rushed away. The grand stand was in an
-uproar as he swept past, but Stevenson did not hear. He heard only the
-words of the tireman, and kept repeating them:</p>
-
-<p>“Giron’s a minute ahead. Giron’s a minute ahead.”</p>
-
-<p>He now opened his engine to the limit, and driving faster than he had
-ever driven before, burst into the “S” turn and reeled round it on two
-wheels. Past Massapequa he whirled, dirt and oil flying in a trembling
-wall of brown. Downhill, over bridges, he rushed, the wind shrieking
-in his ears. Into the straight stretch of the Parkway he burst, the
-“Ninety” gathering momentum on the smooth road, faster and faster,
-until the front wheels, bending to the sonorous rhythm of the engine,
-jumped up and down in a weird dance.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_220" name="i_220">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_220.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Drawn by William H. Foster</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2">“‘DON’T PASS GIRON AGAIN UNLESS YOU CAN DO IT
-    IN FRONT OF THE JUDGES’ STAND’”</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>Yes, no speck of red had taken shape on the road ahead. The lead of
-the Saturn was even greater than he had feared. It must be still miles
-away, and Giron,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> supreme again, driving like the wind. That streak of
-red! If he could only see it, just to know that it really was within
-reach.</p>
-
-<p>Then Stevenson caught a glimpse of car far ahead. An exclamation
-escaped him, only to leave him more grimly silent; for the car was
-gray, one of the Germans. Then he made out other cars,&mdash;white, green,
-and blue cars, the Jupiter, the Vegas, and the Crowns,&mdash;and soon he
-had overtaken them, roared past them, with their crews appalled at the
-awful speed, the awful daring. Now he began to curse the “Ninety” for
-not bearing him more swiftly, for not bringing to him that red-painted
-goal. And so he crashed, skidded, and battered through mile after mile,
-forgot the perils of “the Jericho,” the “S,” and the “Hairpin,” and
-drove in the grip of a mania, a boyish giant on whom the race had laid
-its spell.</p>
-
-<p>Out of the distance there finally came to him the speck of red, a
-vague, blurry shape that quickly took on the lines of the Saturn. It
-gave him a sense of fierce pleasure, an unnatural desire to laugh
-aloud; and then he thought of Lescault, of his warning:</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t pass Giron unless it’s in front of the judges’ stand.”</p>
-
-<p>But surely Lescault could not mean for him to wait now&mdash;now when he
-was behind, when he had caught the red car and in a trice could snatch
-back a race almost lost! Of course Lescault didn’t mean that. Stevenson
-compressed his lips, pressed down on the accelerator, leaned slightly
-forward, his eyes peering over the steering-wheel.</p>
-
-<p>A minute of terrific driving, and the “Ninety” had come near enough
-for Giron to hear the thunder of its exhausts. Employing a signal that
-racing crews have, he ordered his mechanician to watch its approach.
-The mechanician, after craning his head, turned swiftly around.</p>
-
-<p>“He’s coming like the wind,” he bawled in Giron’s ear. “He’s driving
-like a madman!”</p>
-
-<p>And Giron, who had waited patiently for this moment, who knew even when
-he had gained the lead that he could not hold it, that the “Ninety” was
-faster, the brain guiding it craftier, parted his lips as a panther
-does before the leap; for he thought again that the soul of Lescault
-was no longer driving the “Ninety,” that lusty, unthinking youth, mad
-with speed, had risen, overwhelming caution and sending Stevenson down
-into the ditch, as it had another years before.</p>
-
-<p>“I’ll get him,” he murmured, and bent lower over the wheel.</p>
-
-<p>Past Hicksville came the two cars, the “Ninety” creeping up at every
-turn of the wheel.</p>
-
-<p>“Not here,” Giron told himself; “the crowd might see.”</p>
-
-<p>Round “Death Turn,” they shot, skidded, righted in a whirl of dust,
-bellowed, and were gone down a lonely road, narrow, slippery, black
-with oil, the “Crossover,” which the crowds had avoided because of the
-marshy land on each side. Half a mile away the road lay over a swamp,
-and the ditch was deep. Not a soul was there.</p>
-
-<p>As the cars rushed toward it, Giron almost imperceptibly lowered his
-speed just enough for the “Ninety” to come up before the swamp was
-crossed. Listening carefully, his ears attuned by long practice, he
-read the thunder of the “Ninety’s” engine, calculated to a foot how
-much nearer Stevenson was being borne with each detonation. Louder and
-louder grew the clamor, the harsh shrieking and rasping of machinery,
-the booming of the exhausts, until it deafened him. Then Giron acted.</p>
-
-<p>Bracing his feet, he sank lower in the seat, gripped the wheel, and
-made as though to turn out, to obey the law of the race. Up crept the
-“Ninety” closer and closer, until with a snarl Giron threw over the
-wheel suddenly, tugged sharply, and, shooting his own car back across
-the road, blocked the way.</p>
-
-<p>But, hours before that, Fate had made a workman blunder. The workman
-had put on more oil than safety allowed. The oil had made the surface
-slippery and dangerous at just this place. No driver had noticed it
-because none had tried to turn in it. But now, catching the big Saturn
-veering suddenly under high speed, the treacherous mixture of dirt
-and oil slid away from under the front wheels. With all the power of
-inanimate things breaking loose, the huge red car careened across the
-road. As though possessed, it ran to destruction, dug its flat snout
-into the embankment, lifted slowly end on end, swayed a moment, and, as
-the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> “Ninety” shot by, lurched forward, somersaulting down into the
-swamp.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_222" name="i_222">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_222.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Drawn by William H. Foster. &emsp; &emsp; Half-tone
-    plate engraved by R. Varley</p>
-  <p class="s5 center">“WITH ALL THE POWER OF INANIMATE THINGS BREAKING LOOSE,
-    THE HUGE RED CAR CAREENED ACROSS THE ROAD”</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_222_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="mtop2_eb">No sooner had Stevenson crossed the finish-line than the Mercury
-Motor-Car Company’s representatives telephoned Garden City and arranged
-for a banquet. But banquets were not for Stevenson that night. The fate
-of Giron lay heavy upon him. It had shadowed his joy in winning. The
-strain of the race over, he had broken down; and in breaking down it
-seemed to him that he had rushed to success over another man’s body.</p>
-
-<p>At the hospital, where he had gone to inquire as soon as he could tear
-himself away from the swarms at the finish-line, the day nurse had told
-him that Giron would be a cripple for life. She had added that, oddly
-enough, a crippled little Frenchman had been there an hour ago, and
-that he, too, had been anxious to know about Giron.</p>
-
-<p>“Good old Lescault!” thought Stevenson as he drove back to Krugs.
-“Always the first to think of a man in danger.”</p>
-
-<p>Then he found himself wishing that Lescault were at his side. Now more
-than ever before he felt the need of the strange little Frenchman,
-the man who had made him, the man to whom he could now turn in this
-time of depression, of worried conscience, and even of half-guilt, he
-thought with a start. Had not Giron gone into the ditch to avoid a
-collision, to save him? He wasn’t the hero, he thought bitterly. It was
-Giron&mdash;poor Giron!</p>
-
-<p>Stevenson found Lescault in his room. The little fellow had his chair
-drawn up close to the old-fashioned fireplace, in which wood was
-burning. He was smoking a cigarette, and if he heard Stevenson enter,
-he gave no sign. Instead, he gazed steadily at some charred bits of
-cardboard strewn about the edges of the fire&mdash;thick cardboard, and one
-piece only partly burned appeared to be a photograph.</p>
-
-<p>The red glow of the fire shone on the little man’s face as Stevenson
-drew a chair beside him. In the flickering light the boy thought he saw
-him grin; but it might have been only the play of the shadows.</p>
-
-<p>“It’s terrible about Giron, isn’t it, Jean?” he said abruptly, unable
-to endure the silence. “Think of it&mdash;that man at the height of his
-power suddenly crippled, never able to drive again, a great career
-ended so terribly!”</p>
-
-<p>The little man at his side looked up.</p>
-
-<p>“No, he’ll never drive again,” said Lescault.</p>
-
-<p>Stevenson wondered at his tone, the look that had come into his face,
-the queer burning of his eyes, eery, unholy.</p>
-
-<p>“Léon Giron will never drive again,” Lescault repeated. “It’s sure?
-You’re certain of it?” he asked suddenly, clutching Stevenson’s sleeve.
-“It’s sure, isn’t it?” he begged.</p>
-
-<p>Bewildered, Stevenson said that it was so. Then he felt his flesh
-creep, for the little Frenchman had begun to smile, a horrible smile,
-with a hideous face, changing expression in the fire’s glow; began to
-rub his one hand over his knee, to slide it up and down creepily and
-unpleasantly, like a snake at play; to leer, and gloat over disaster
-not like a man, but a beast.</p>
-
-<p>Horrified, unable to understand, Stevenson slid silently from his chair
-and backed slowly from the room. At the door he stopped, hesitated,
-and, as though unwilling to believe, looked again at the hunched little
-figure in the chair. There came to him faintly the sound of a voice
-chuckling!</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="OFF_CAPRI">OFF CAPRI</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s3 center">BY SARA TEASDALE</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse"><span class="drop-cap_poetry">W</span>HEN beauty grows too great to bear,</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">How shall I ease me of its ache?</div>
-      <div class="verse">For beauty, more than bitterness,</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Makes the heart break.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">O sunlight on the dreaming sea,</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">With isles like flowers against her breast!</div>
-      <div class="verse">Is there a voice in all the world</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">To give me rest?</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="SKIRTING_THE_BALKAN_PENINSULA">SKIRTING THE BALKAN
-PENINSULA</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s3 center">FROM TRIEST TO CONSTANTINOPLE</p>
-
-<p class="s4 center">FOURTH PAPER: DELPHI AND OLYMPIA</p>
-
-<p class="s3 center">BY ROBERT HICHENS</p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot1">Author of “The Spell of Egypt,” “The Holy Land,”
-“The Garden of Allah,” etc.</p>
-
-<p class="s5 center mbot2">WITH PICTURES BY JULES GUÉRIN (SEE FRONTISPIECE) AND
-PHOTOGRAPHS</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">T</span>HERE are two ways of going from Athens to Delphi: by sea from the
-Piræus to Itea and thence by carriage or by motor. Despite the rough
-surfaces of the roads and the terrors of dust, I chose the latter; and
-I was well rewarded. For the drive is a glorious one, though very long
-and fatiguing, and it enabled me to see a grand monument which many
-travelers miss&mdash;the Lion of Chæronea, which gazes across a vast plain
-in a solitary place between Thebes and Delphi.</p>
-
-<p>Leaving Athens early one morning, I followed the Via Sacra, left
-Eleusis behind me, traversed the Thriasian plain, the heights of Mount
-Geraneia, and the rich cultivated plain of Bœotia, passed through
-the village of Kriekouki, and arrived at Thebes. There I halted for
-an hour. After leaving Thebes, the journey became continually more
-and more interesting as I drew near to Parnassus: over the plain of
-Livadia, through the village and khan of Gravia, where one hundred
-and eighty Greeks fought heroically against three thousand Turks in
-1821, over the magnificent Pass of Amblema, across the delightful
-olive-covered plain of Krissa, and up the mountain to Delphi.</p>
-
-<p>Throughout this wonderful journey, during which I saw country
-alternately intimate and wild, genial and majestic, and at one point
-almost savage, I had only one deception: that was on the Pass of
-Amblema, which rises to more than eight thousand feet above the level
-of the sea. Delphi, I felt, ought to be there. Delphi, I believed,
-must be there, hidden somewhere among the rocks and the fir-woods,
-where wolves lurk, and where the eagle circles and swoops above peaks
-which are cold and austere. Only when we began to descend in serpentine
-curves, when I saw far below me great masses of olive-trees, and,
-beyond, the shining of the sea, did I realize that I was mistaken, and
-that Delphi lay far beyond, in a region less tragically wild, more
-rustic, even more tender.</p>
-
-<p>During this journey of, I believe, about three hundred kilometers or
-more, I realized fully the loneliness that happily shadows a great
-part of Greece. We seemed to be almost perpetually in the midst of a
-delightful desolation, gloriously alone with nature, now far up on
-bare flanks of the hills, now traveling through deserted pine-woods
-or olive-groves, now upon plains which extended to shadowy ranges
-of mountains, and which here and there reminded me of the plains of
-Palestine. Strange it seemed to come upon an occasional village of
-Greeks or Albanians, strayed, surely, and lost and forgotten in the
-wilderness; stranger still to see now and then some tiny Byzantine
-church, perhaps with a few cypresses about it, perched on a mountain
-height that looked as if it never had been trodden by foot of man. The
-breezes that met us were alive with a tingling purity of hilltop and
-sea, or sweet and wholesome with the resinous odor of pine. And the
-light that lay over the face of the land made nearly all things magical.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_225" name="i_225">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_225.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">From a photograph, copyright by Underwood &amp;
-    Underwood</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2">VIEW OF MOUNT PARNASSUS</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>Again we met Turkish Gipsies. In Greece they have made the wild life
-their own. No longer one hears of brigands, though only a few years
-ago these highways were dangerous, and men traversed them armed and at
-their own peril. Now the Gipsies are in happy possession, and travel
-from place to place in small caravans, with their mules, donkeys, and
-dogs, and their tiny peaked tents, telling the <i>bonne aventure</i> to the
-superstitious,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> and, so the Greeks declare, stealing whatever they can
-lay their dark hands on. They look wild and smiling, crafty rather than
-ferocious; and they greet you with loud cries in an unknown tongue,
-and with gestures expressive of the perpetual desire to receive which
-seems inherent in all true vagabonds. They pitch their tents usually
-on the outskirts of the villages, staying for days or weeks, as the
-luck serves them. And, so far as I could judge, people receive them
-with good nature, perhaps grateful for the excitement they bring into
-lives that know little variation as season follows season and year
-glides into year. Just outside Thebes I found eleven of their tents set
-upon some rough ground, the beasts tethered, the dogs on guard, the
-babies toddling and sprawling, while their mothers were cooking some
-mysterious compound, and the men were away perhaps on some nefarious
-errand among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> the excited Thebans. For that day Greek officers were
-visiting the town, and in front of the café, among the trees, and above
-the waterside, where we stopped to lunch, there was a parade of horses,
-mules, and donkeys from all the neighborhood. War was taking its toll
-of the live-stock, and the whole population was abroad to see the fun.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_226" name="i_226">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_226.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">From a photograph, copyright by Underwood &amp;
-    Underwood</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2">RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>As soon as I had descended from the car and begun to unpack my
-provisions, an elderly man came up, asked whether we were from Athens,
-and then put the question that is forever on the lips of the Greek,
-“What is the news?” Every Greek has a passion for the latest news.
-Often, when I was traveling through the country, people I passed on
-the way called out to me, “What is the news?” or, “Can you give us a
-newspaper?”</p>
-
-<p>Thebes, where, according to legend, Hercules was born; where the
-stones gathered themselves together when Amphion struck his lyre;
-where blind Tiresias proph<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>esied; and, seated upon a block of stone,
-the Sphinx asked her riddle of the passers-by and slew them; where
-Œdipus ruled and suffered his hideous fate; where the Epigoni took
-their vengeance; and Epaminondas showed how one man can lift a city
-and set it on a throne above all the cities of its fatherland&mdash;Thebes,
-where letters were first brought into use among the Greeks, and where
-weak-voiced Demosthenes by his eloquence persuaded the people to march
-to their glorious death against Philip of Macedon, is now just a busy
-village on the flank of a hill. Frequently devastated by earthquakes,
-which are the scourge of this region, it looks newly built, fairly
-clean and neat. It dominates the plain in which Plutarch was born, and
-the murmur of its waters is pleasant to the ear in a dry and thirsty
-land. But though Thebes is not specially interesting, below it, in
-that plain once celebrated for its flowers,&mdash;iris and lily, narcissus
-and rose,&mdash;beyond all sound of the voices of chattering peasants or
-determined soldiers, solitary in its noble rage and grief, is that most
-moving of monuments, the Lion of Chæronea.</p>
-
-<p>I came upon it unexpectedly. If I had not happened to be looking
-toward the left my chauffeur would have driven me on without pause
-to Parnassus, the mighty flanks of which were already visible in the
-distance. When he pulled up we were already almost out of sight of the
-lion. And I was glad as I walked back alone, still more glad when I
-stood before it in solitude, surrounded by the great silence of the
-plain.</p>
-
-<p>There where the lion sits, raised now on a high pedestal and with
-cypresses planted about him, was fought the great battle of Chæronea
-between the Greeks and Philip of Macedon; and there the Greeks lost
-much, but not their honor. Had it been otherwise, would the lion be
-there now after so many centuries, testifying to the grief of men
-long since dead, to their anger, even to their despair, but not to
-their cowardice or shame? I have heard people say that the face of
-the lion does express shame. It seems to me nobly passionate, loftily
-angry and sad, but not ashamed. The Thebans raised it to commemorate
-those of their comrades in arms who died on the battle-field. What
-shame can attach to such men? For long years the lion lay broken in
-pieces and buried in the earth. Only in 1902 were the fragments fitted
-together, though long before that they had lain above ground, where
-many noted travelers had seen them. The restoration has been splendidly
-successful, and has given to Greece one of the most memorable
-manifestations in marble of a state of soul that exists not merely in
-Greece, but in the world. Lion-hearted men are superbly commemorated by
-this lion.</p>
-
-<p>The height of the statue from the top of the pedestal is about twenty
-feet. The material of which it is made, marble of Bœotia, was once,
-I believe, blue-gray. It is now gray and yellow. The lion is sitting,
-but in an attitude that suggests fierce vitality. Both the huge front
-paws seem to grasp the pedestal almost as if the claws were extended in
-an impulse of irresistible anger. The head is raised. The expression
-on the face is wonderful. There is in it a savage intensity of feeling
-that is rarely to be found in anything Greek. But the savagery is
-ennobled in some mysterious way by the sublime art of the sculptor, is
-lifted up and made ideal, eternal. It is as if the splendid rage in
-the souls of all men who ever have died fighting on a losing side had
-been gathered up by the soul of the sculptor, and conveyed by him whole
-into his work. The mysterious human spirit, breathed upon from eternal
-regions, glows in this divine lion of Greece.</p>
-
-<p>Various writers on the scenery of Greece have described it as “alpine”
-in character. One has even used the word in connection with some
-of the mountain-ranges that may be seen from the plain of Attica.
-Such distracting visions of Switzerland did not beset my spirit as
-I traveled through a more beautiful and far more romantic land,
-absolutely different from the contented little republic which has
-been chosen by Europe as its playground. But there were moments, as
-we slowly ascended the Pass of Amblema, when I thought of the North.
-For the delicate and romantic serenity of the Greek landscape did here
-give way to something that was almost savage, almost spectacular. The
-climbing forests of dark and hardy firs made me think of snow, which
-lies among them deep in winter. The naked peaks, the severe uplands,
-the precipices, the dim ravines, bred gloom in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> the soul. There was
-sadness combined with wildness in the scene, which a premature darkness
-was seizing, and the cold wind seemed to go shivering among the rocks.</p>
-
-<p>It was then that I thought of Delphi, and believed that we must be
-nearing the home of the oracle. As we climbed and climbed, and the cold
-increased, and the world seemed closing brutally about us, I felt no
-longer in doubt. We must be close to Delphi, old region of mysteries
-and terror, where the god of the dead was thought to be hidden, where
-Apollo fought with Python, where men came with fear in their hearts to
-search out the future.</p>
-
-<p>But presently we began to descend, and I learned that we were still
-a long way from Delphi. The sun set, and evening was falling when
-we were once more down on the sea-level, traversing one of the most
-delightful and fertile regions of Greece, the lovely plain of Krissa,
-which extends to the sea. The great olive-gardens stretch away for
-miles on every hand, interspersed here and there with plane-trees,
-mulberry-trees, medlars, cypresses, and the wild oleander. Many
-battles have been fought in that sylvan paradise, which now looks the
-home of peace, a veritable Garden of Eden lying between mountains and
-sea. Pilgrims traveling to Delphi were forced to pay toll there, and
-eventually the extortion became so intolerable that it led to war. That
-evening, as we drove along a road cut straight through the heart of the
-olive-woods, the whole region seemed sunk in a dream. We met no one;
-we heard no traffic, no voices, no barking of dogs. The thousands of
-splendid trees, planted symmetrically, were moved by no breeze. Warmth
-and an odorous calm pervaded the shadowy alleys between them. Here and
-there a soft beam of light shone among the trees from the window of a
-guardian’s dwelling. And once we stopped to take Turkish coffee under
-a vine-trimmed arbor, solitary and lost in the sweet silence, in the
-silver dusk of the forest. A lodge in the wilderness! As I looked at
-the dark, bright-eyed man who served us, I, perhaps foolishly, envied
-him his life, his strange little home, remote, protected by his only
-companions, the trees.</p>
-
-<p>In this plain camels are used for transport, and, I believe, for
-plowing and other work. They are to be found nowhere else in Greece.
-I saw none that night; but one morning, after leaving Delphi, I met
-a train of them pacing softly and disdainfully along the dusty road,
-laden with bales and with mysterious bundles wrapped round with sacking.</p>
-
-<p>In the dark we began to climb up once more. At last we were actually
-on Parnassus, were approaching the “navel of the earth.” But I was not
-aware of any wildness, such as that of Amblema, about us. The little
-I could see of the landscape did not look savage. I heard goat-bells
-tinkling now and then not far off. Presently some lights beamed out
-above us, as if in welcome. We passed through a friendly village
-street, came out on the mountain-side, and drew up before a long house,
-which stood facing what was evidently a wide view, now almost entirely
-hidden, though a little horned moon hung in the sky, attended by the
-evening star. The village was Kastri; the long house was the “Hôtel
-d’Apollon Pythien.”</p>
-
-<p>Delphi is memorable, but not because of wildness or terror. In
-retrospect it rises in my mind as a lonely place of light, gleaming
-on volcanic rocks and on higher rocks that are gray; of a few mighty
-plane-trees, pouring a libation of green toward olive-trees on the
-slopes beneath them; of a perpetual sweet sound of water. And beside
-the water travelers from the plain of Krissa, and travelers from
-Arachova, that wonderfully placed Parnassian village, renowned for its
-beautiful women, are pausing. They get down from their horses and mules
-to lave their hands and to drink. They cross themselves before the
-little Christian shrine under the trees by the roadside. They sit down
-in the shadows to rest.</p>
-
-<p>It is very sweet to rest for long hours by the Castalian fountain of
-Delphi, remote from all habitations upon the great southern slope of
-Parnassus, under the tree of Agamemnon; to listen to the voice of the
-lustral wave. There, in the dead years, the pilgrims piously sprinkled
-themselves before consulting the oracle; there, now, the brown women of
-the mountains chatter gaily as they wash their clothes. The mountain
-is bare behind the shrine, where perhaps is a figure of Mary with
-Christ in her arms, or some saint with outspread wings. Its great
-precipices of rock are tawny. They bloom with strong reds and yellows,
-they shine with scars of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> gold. Among the rocks the stream is only a
-thread of silver, though under the bridge it flows down through the
-olive-gardens, a broad band of singing happiness.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_229" name="i_229">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_229.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">THE HERMES OF PRAXITELES (FOUND AT OLYMPIA AND
-    NOW IN THE MUSEUM THERE)</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>Delphi has a mountain charm of remoteness, of lofty silence; it has
-also a seduction of pastoral warmth and gentleness and peace. Far up on
-the slope of gigantic Parnassus, it faces a narrow valley, or ravine,
-and a bare, calm mountain, scarred by zigzag paths, which look almost
-like lines sharply cut in the volcanic soil with an instrument. In the
-distance, away to the right, the defile opens out into the plain of
-Krissa, at the edge of which lies a section of sea, like a huge uncut
-turquoise lying in a cup of the land. Beyond are ranges of beautiful,
-delicate mountains.</p>
-
-<p>The ruins of Delphi lie above the highroad to the left of it, between
-Kastri and the Castalian fountain, unshaded, in a naked confusion, but
-free from modern houses and in a fine loneliness. At one time, and not
-very long ago, the village of Kastri stood close to the ruins, and
-some of it actually above them. But when excavations were undertaken
-seriously, all the houses were pulled down, and set up again where
-they stand to-day. Like the ruins at Eleusis and Olympia, the remains
-at Delphi are fragmentary. The ancient Hellenes believed that the
-center of the earth was at a certain spot within the Temple of Apollo
-at Delphi, where the eagles of Zeus, flying from the two ends of the
-earth, had met. The foundations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> and some portions of the walls of
-this celebrated shrine, in which two golden eagles stood, may be
-visited, but very little of it remains. On the foundation has been set
-up a large Roman column, upon which once stood a statue. The fallen
-blocks of Doric columns are gigantic, and from them it is possible to
-gain some faint idea of the temple’s immense size and massiveness.
-In the midst of a pit of stone, not far from the columns, I found a
-solitary fig-tree growing. It is interesting to notice that the huge
-outer wall of the temple was constructed of quantities of blocks, each
-one differing in shape from its neighbors. These were ingeniously
-fitted close together without the aid of any joining material. Although
-it is impossible not to wonder at and admire the cleverness shown in
-this wall, it produced on my mind an impression of confusion that was
-almost painful. The multitudes of irregular lines distressed my eyes.
-There is little repose in a puzzle, and this wall is like a mighty
-puzzle in stone.</p>
-
-<p>Among the masses of broken fragments which cover much of the hillside
-stands out a small, solid building of Parian marble, very pure, very
-clean, almost shining under the rays of the sun. It resembles a great
-marble casket in which something very precious might be placed and
-sealed up. This is the treasury of the Athenians, which has been
-reconstructed since Kastri was moved from the fragments of the original
-temple. It is, in fact, a tiny Doric temple. The marble, of a beautiful
-yellow-white color, is mingled here and there with limestone. This
-little temple stands on a platform, with the clearly defined Sacred
-Way winding up the hill beside it. The front of it is approached by
-two steps, and it has two Doric columns, containing, however, only two
-blocks of the original marble, brown, with touches of old gold. The
-remaining blocks of these columns are of white Poros marble, brought
-from a distance, and they look rough and almost glaring. Poros marble
-may always be recognized by the minute shining grains, like specks of
-gold, that are scattered through it. Although a fine substance, it
-looks vulgar when placed beside Parian marble.</p>
-
-<p>The semicircular places in which the priests of Delphi used to sit may
-still be seen, facing a fine view. The sea is hidden by a shoulder
-of the mountain, but the rolling slopes beyond the road are covered
-thickly with olive-trees, among which the goat-bells chime almost
-perpetually; and on the far side of the narrow valley the bare slopes,
-with their tiny, red paths, lead calmly toward rocky summits. To the
-left the highroad turns sharply round a rock in the direction of the
-Castalian fountain.</p>
-
-<p>In the fairly well-preserved theater to the northwest, quantities
-of yellow flowers were growing, with some daisies. Among the gray
-limestone blocks of the orchestra I found a quantity of excellent
-blackberries. Where once was the stage, there are now brown grasses
-dried up by the sun. This theater is very steep, and above it towers
-a precipice. Near by, between the theater and the stadium, Parnassus
-gives back to your cry a swift and sharp echo. The gold, red-gold, and
-gray stadium, which lies farther up the mountain than the theater,
-is partly ruined, but in parts is well preserved. As I stood in it,
-thinking of the intellectual competitions that used to take place
-there, of the poems recited in it, of the music the lyre gave forth,
-and of the famous Pythian games, which, later, used to be celebrated in
-this strange mountain fastness, I saw eagles wheeling over me far up in
-the blue, above the wild gray and orange peaks.</p>
-
-<p>In the museum, which stands in a splendid position on the
-mountain-side, with a terrace before it, there are many fine things.
-Delphi in the time of its greatness contained thousands of statues,
-great numbers of which were in bronze. Nero, Constantine, and others
-carried hundreds of them away. One which they left, a bronze charioteer
-in a long robe, faces you as you enter the museum. It is marvelously
-alive, almost seems to glow with vitality. The feet should be specially
-noticed. They are bare, and are miracles of sensitiveness. Farther
-on there is a splendid Antinous, robust, sensual, egoistic, a type
-of muscular beauty and crude determination, without heart or any
-sparkle of intellect. Two other statues which I thought exceptionally
-interesting are of a sturdy, smiling child and of a headless and
-armless woman. The latter, numbered in the catalogue 1817, is very
-gracious and lovely. The back of the figure and the drapery, especially
-that part of it which flows from under the left arm to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> the heel of
-the right foot, are exceptionally beautiful.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_231" name="i_231">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_231.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center no-break-before">SITE OF ANCIENT DELPHI</p>
-  <p class="s6 center">PAINTED FOR THE CENTURY BY JULES GUÉRIN</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_231_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="mtop2_eb">There is a very fine view from the terrace. Toward evening it becomes
-wonderfully romantic. Far off, the village of Arachova, perched on its
-high ridge, bounds the horizon. It is a view closed in by mountains
-yet not oppressive; for there is width between the two ranges, and the
-large volcanic slopes are splendidly spacious. Here and there on these
-slopes are large wine-colored splashes such as you see often on the
-mountains of Syria, and these splashes give warmth to the scene. Above
-the Castalian fountain the two peaks of the Phædriadæ, a thousand feet
-high, stand up magnificently. Between them is the famous cleft from
-which the cold stream issues, to flow down through the olive-groves.</p>
-
-<p>When evening falls, follow the winding white road a little way toward
-Arachova. From the soft dusk of the defile that spreads out into the
-plain of Krissa the goat-bells still chime melodiously. I have heard
-them even very late in the night. The section of sea that was turquoise
-now looks like solid silver. Behind it the mountains, velvety and
-black, flow away in delicate shapes. They are dreamlike, but beyond
-them rise other ethereal ranges which seem to you, as you gaze on
-them, impalpable, fluid almost, like a lovely imagination of mountains
-summoned up in your mind. Black-green is the plain. Under the tree of
-Agamemnon glows a tiny light, like an earth-bound star. Where once the
-pilgrims gathered who knew only the gods, Christian hands have tended
-the lamp before the holy picture. And a little farther on, among the
-foliage of the olive-trees, shines another of these Christian stars,
-which, in the darkness of Delphi’s solitudes, shed their light, faintly
-perhaps, but faithfully, upon a way once often trodden by pagans who
-now sleep the last long sleep. To what changes in the human soul do
-these earth-bound stars bear witness! I sat beneath Agamemnon’s tree,
-listening to the cry of the fountain, watching the little lights, till
-the night was black about me.</p>
-
-<p>I must always think of Olympia as the poetic shrine of one of the most
-poetic statues in the world. As the Parthenon seems to be the soul of
-Athens, so the Hermes of Praxiteles seems to be the soul of Olympia;
-gathering up and expressing its aloofness from all ugly things, its
-almost reflective tenderness, its profound calm, and its far-off
-freedom from any sadness. When I stayed there I was the only traveler.
-Never did I see any human being among the beautiful ruins or hear any
-voice to break their silence. Only the peasants of that region passed
-now and then on the winding track below the hill of Cronus, to lose
-themselves among the pine-trees. And I heard only at a distance the
-wonderful sound, like eternity’s murmur withdrawn, that the breeze
-makes among their branches, as I sat by the palace of Nero.</p>
-
-<p>Nature has taken Olympia into her loving arms. She has shed her
-pine-needles and her leaves of the golden autumn upon the seats where
-the wrestlers reposed. She has set her grasses and flowers among the
-stones of the Temple of Zeus. Her vines creep down to the edge of
-that cup of her earth which holds gently, as a nurse holds a sleeping
-child, palaces, temples, altars, shrines of the gods and ways for the
-chariots. All the glory of men has departed, but something remains
-which is better than glory&mdash;peace, loveliness, a pervading promise of
-lasting things beyond.</p>
-
-<p>Among the ruins of Nero’s palace I watched white butterflies flitting
-among feathery, silver grasses and red and white daisies. Lizards
-basked on the altar of Zeus. At the foot of the Heræum, the most
-ancient temple that may be seen in Greece at this time, a jackal whined
-in its dwelling. Sheep-bells were sounding plaintively down the valley
-beyond the arch leading to the walled way by which the great stadium,
-where the games took place, was entered. When I got up presently to
-stroll among the ruins, I set my foot on the tiny ruts of an uneven
-pavement, specially constructed so that the feet of contending athletes
-should not slip upon it.</p>
-
-<p>The ruins lie in a sheltered and remote valley far away from the sea,
-and surrounded by gentle hills, woods, and delightful pastoral country.
-At some distance is the last railway-station of the Peloponnesian
-railway line, which connects with the main line at Pyrgos. Between the
-station and the low hill on which stand the hotel and the museum is
-strung out a small, straggling hamlet of peasants’ houses. It is very
-difficult to realize that this remote<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> sanctuary, hidden away in the
-green glades and amid the pastures of Elis, where the waters of Cladeus
-and Alpheus glide among reeds and rushes, was ever crowded with people
-from all parts of Greece; that emperors dwelled there; that there the
-passions of the mob were roused to intense expression; that there men
-gained the desire of their hearts or were exposed to the sneers and
-opprobrium of their fellows. For Olympia to-day looks like an ideal
-home for the great god Pan.</p>
-
-<p>I have called the ruins beautiful, and I think them so, partly because
-of their situation, with which they seem to me to combine harmoniously,
-and partly because of nature’s collaboration with them, which is
-lacking from the ruins at Eleusis and even at Delphi. At Olympia many
-trees grow among the remains of the temples. A river runs by them.
-Excavations, though usually interesting, are often both dusty and ugly.
-At Olympia they are pastoral. Dryads might love them. Pan might sit
-happily on almost any bit of the walls and play his pipe. They form
-a unique sylvan paradise, full of wonderful associations, in which
-one is tempted to rest for hours, whereas from many ruins one wishes
-only to get away once they have been examined. And yet Olympia is so
-fragmentary that many persons are bitterly disappointed with what they
-find there, as the visitors’ book in the little hotel bears witness.</p>
-
-<p>In all the mass of remains, and they cover a very large extent of
-ground, I think I saw only four complete columns standing. Two of these
-were columns of the Heræum, in which the Hermes of Praxiteles was found
-lying among the remnants. They are golden-brown in color, and are of
-course Doric, very massive and rather squat. The temple, the base of
-which is very clearly marked, must have looked very powerful, but, I
-should think, heavy rather than really majestic. I cannot imagine the
-wonderfully delicate Hermes standing within it. It is believed that the
-original columns of the Heræum were of wood, and that when they began
-to rot away the stone columns were put up in their places. Much of the
-temple was made of brick. The Hermes stood between two of the columns.</p>
-
-<p>It will be evident to any one who examines carefully all that is left
-of the Temple of Zeus that it must have been very grand. Fragments of
-the shafts of its columns, which are heaped in confusion on the ground,
-are enormous. One block, which I found poised upright on its rounded
-edge, was quite six feet high. This temple was made of limestone, which
-is now of a rather dreary, almost sinister, gray color. Exposure to
-the weather has evidently darkened it. The foundations are terrific.
-They suggest titanic preparations for the bearing up of a universe
-of stone. It seems to me that from what is left of this celebrated
-building, which stands in the middle of the sacred precinct, and which
-once contained Phidias’s statue of Zeus, about forty feet high, one can
-gather something of what was the builder’s conception of the chief of
-all the gods of Olympus. To them he must surely have been simply the
-Thunderer, a deity terrific and forbidding, to whose worship must be
-raised a temple grand but probably almost repellent. Legend relates
-that when Phidias had completed his great statue of Zeus, and it had
-been placed in position, Zeus sent down a thunderbolt which struck
-the ground close to the statue. The Greeks considered the thunderbolt
-to be the god’s characteristic expression of content. Instead of the
-eagles of Zeus, I saw hovering over, and perching upon, this ruin black
-and white birds, with long tails, not unlike magpies. The statue of
-Zeus disappeared. It is known to have been taken to Constantinople,
-and in that tempestuous city it vanished, like so much else. In the
-time of Olympia’s glory the temple was elaborately decorated, with
-stucco, painting, gilding, marble tiles, shields, and vases, as well
-as with many statues. But despite this, I think it must have been far
-less satisfying than the calm and glorious Parthenon, in which seems
-to dwell rather the spirit of a goddess than the spirit of any human
-builders.</p>
-
-<p>Earthquakes are frequent at Olympia, and have been so since the most
-ancient times. One destroyed the greater part of Zeus’s temple about
-four hundred years after Christ. By that time the Olympic games had
-ceased to be held, and no doubt the place was beginning to fall into
-the neglect which, with the lapse of the centuries, has become so
-romantic. After it was forgotten by men, nature began to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> remember and
-love it. Very little of the famous stadium has been excavated. I found
-flocks of sheep and goats feeding peacefully above it, and near by a
-small, barefooted boy, with a little gun, out after quail.</p>
-
-<p>On the first day of my visit to Olympia, after spending a few hours
-alone among the ruins I crossed the river, where I saw some half-naked
-men dragging for fish with hand-nets, and mounted the hill to the
-museum, which looks out over the delicious valley, and is attended by
-some umbrella-pines. It was closed, but the keeper came smiling from
-his dwelling close by to let me in. He did not follow me far, but sat
-down in the vestibule among the Roman emperors.</p>
-
-<p>On my right I saw the entrance to what seemed a small gallery, or
-perhaps a series of small rooms. In front of me was a large, calm,
-well-lighted hall, with a wooden roof and walls of a deep, dull red,
-round which were ranged various objects. My eyes were attracted
-immediately to one figure, a woman apparently almost in flight,
-radiantly advancing, with thin draperies floating back from an
-exquisitely vital form&mdash;the celebrated “Victory” of Pæonius, now more
-than two thousand years old. Beyond this marvel of suggested motion I
-saw part of another room very much smaller than the hall and apparently
-empty. It drew me on, as in certain Egyptian temples the dim holy of
-holies draws the wanderer onward with an influence that may not be
-resisted. I took no more heed of the “Victory,” of Hercules winning the
-apples of the Hesperides, or of anything else, but walked forward, came
-into the last room, and found myself alone with the Hermes of Olympia.</p>
-
-<p>The room in which the Hermes stands&mdash;alone save for the little child
-on his arm&mdash;is exactly opposite the distant entrance of the museum.
-The keeper, when letting me in, had left the big door wide open. In my
-heart I thanked him, but not at that moment, for just then I did not
-notice it. I was looking at the Hermes.</p>
-
-<p>A great deal of sad nonsense is talked in our day by critics of art,
-music, and literature about “restraint.” With them the word has become
-a mere parrot cry, a most blessed word, like Mesopotamia. They preach
-restraint very often to those who have little or nothing to restrain.
-The result is nullity. In striving to become “Greek,” too many unhappy
-ones become nothing at all. Standing before the Hermes of Olympia, one
-realizes as never before the meaning, the loveliness, of restraint,
-of the restraint of a great genius, one who could be what he chose to
-be, and who has chosen to be serene. This it is to be Greek. Desire of
-anything else fails and lies dead. In the small and silent room, hidden
-away from the world in the green wilderness of Elis, one has found that
-rare sensation, a perfect satisfaction.</p>
-
-<p>Naked the Hermes stands, with his thin robe put off, and flowing down
-over the trunk of a tree upon which he lightly leans. He is resting
-on his way to the nymphs, but not from any fatigue. Rather, perhaps,
-because he is in no haste to resign his little brother Dionysus to
-their hands for education. Semele, the mother, is dead, and surely this
-gracious and lovely child, touching because of his innocent happiness,
-his innocent eagerness in pleasure, looks to Hermes as his protector.
-He stretches out one soft arm in an adorable gesture of desire. The
-other clings to the shoulder of Hermes. And Hermes watches him with an
-expression of divine, half-smiling gentleness, untouched by sadness, by
-any misgiving, such as we often feel as to the future of a little child
-we love; Hermes watches him, contemplative, benign, celestial.</p>
-
-<p>There is a pause in the hurry, in the sorrow, of this travailing
-world; there is a hush. No more do the human cries sound in the midst
-of that darkness which is created by our misunderstanding. No longer
-do the frantic footfalls go by. The golden age has returned, with its
-knowledge of what is not needed&mdash;a knowledge that we have lost.</p>
-
-<p>I looked up from Hermes and the little brother, and, in the distance,
-through the doorway of the museum, I saw a tiny picture of Elis bathed
-in soft, golden light; a calm hillside, some green and poetic country,
-and, in the foreground, like a message, a branch of wild olive.</p>
-
-<p>That is what we need, what secretly we desire, our branch, perhaps our
-crown, of wild olive. And all the rest is as nothing.</p>
-
-<p class="s6 mtop1">(To be continued)</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="AN_ELEPHANT_ROUND">AN ELEPHANT ROUND-UP</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s3 center mbot2">BY D. P. B. CONKLING</p>
-
-<div class="dc">
-   <a id="i_236" name="i_236">
-   <img class="w12em" src="images/i_236.jpg" alt="Elephant" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">N</span>INETY miles from the mouth of the Menam River lies the city of
-Ayuthia, the old capital of Siam. The jungle has taken back to itself
-miles of its ancient grandeur, and temples, palaces, and brick roadways
-lie crumbling and half buried in the rank luxuriance of the tropical
-forest. To the north, east, and west, except on the very banks of the
-river, the country stretches out in one unbroken line of wilderness,
-and this primeval jungle-land forms the great elephant preserve of the
-king. Here the huge herds wander in absolute freedom, making unmolested
-raids upon the paddy-fields and palm-orchards of the river villages,
-lords of the land except in the event of a great “round-up,” when the
-royal mahouts, mounted on tame tuskers, form in an immense circle and
-slowly drive one or more herds steadily toward the kraal at Ayuthia.</p>
-
-<p>With the exception on some few miles of roadways in Bangkok, Siam
-is destitute of the ordinary modes of communication, and the entire
-transportation of the country is by rivers and canals or by elephants.
-All the great up-country produce is packed by them through the jungle
-to the waterways, over roads made by themselves and quite impassable
-for any other beast of burden. Therefore the capture of young tuskers
-to be tamed and trained for this work forms, perhaps, <i>the</i> event of
-the year to the natives.</p>
-
-<p>The kraal at Ayuthia is four hundred feet square, formed of teak-wood
-logs, set about two feet apart and fifteen feet high, bound strongly
-with iron and forming a barrier which is seldom broken even by the
-strongest tuskers. The entrance is at the end immediately adjoining the
-jungle, and two lines of stockade extend in the shape of a fan a mile
-or more into the forest. In the center of the paddock is a small square
-of ten feet, built in the same way as the outer barrier, and used as a
-place of refuge for the natives employed in cutting-out and tying up
-the captives.</p>
-
-<p>In the round-up that we had the good fortune to see there were exactly
-two hundred and thirteen wild elephants brought in. Thirty trained
-mounts, each with his two mahouts, together with hundreds of natives
-on foot, had been at work for two or more weeks getting this herd
-together, and safely into the kraal. The driving of this huge mass of
-beasts day after day until finally the last rush is made and the herd
-is well inside the fan, requires more nerve, patience, and skill than
-perhaps any other form of capture in the world. It is not unusual that
-many men are killed in this work, for if once the herd gets scent of
-danger, nothing can withstand their fearful charge. While there is no
-animal in which docility and kindness are more strongly marked than in
-the elephant, let him once become wicked, or “rogue,” as a man-killer
-is called, and there is no other beast which shows equal ferocity and
-cruelty, combined with an absolutely devilish cunning.</p>
-
-<p>The first signs of the approaching herd were a great cloud of dust
-and a dull roar like a heavy freight-train, making the ground fairly
-tremble; and then out of the mist came the huge beasts, pushing and
-fighting as they were packed closer in the converging fan, and making
-the air ring with their shrill trumpetings.</p>
-
-<p>The large swinging beams at the entrance were pulled aside, and in they
-came with a rush, by twos and threes, stopping suddenly, and looking
-about in a dazed way at the yelling crowd of natives perched out of
-danger high on the walls beyond the stockade. When the whole herd was
-in and the paddock closed, they were left to themselves for a time
-before the real work of the day, from a spectator’s point of view at
-least, began.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_237" name="i_237">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_237.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Half-tone plate engraved by S. Davis</p>
-  <p class="s5 center">A ROUND-UP FESTIVAL&mdash;TWO HUNDRED ELEPHANTS IN THE OUTER PEN</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_237_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="mtop2_eb">In a herd of this size it is remarkable how few elephants there are
-that are fit for training&mdash;only eight in this case. They must be young,
-strong, and well built, with promise of good tusks. The cutting-out
-proceedings opened in a truly circus-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>like style. The exit by the
-side of the pavilion was opened, and seven of the largest tame tuskers
-entered in single file, led by the king’s chief mahout mounted on a
-superb animal.</p>
-
-<p>Each elephant carried two men, the mahout sitting astride the neck and
-guiding his mount by the pressure of his knees as well as by shouting,
-the second man sitting over the hind quarters and by means of the goad
-urging the beast to quicken his pace either forward or backward. The
-mahouts carried a long bamboo pole, to one end of which was fastened
-the detachable noose of a coil of rope on his elephant’s back.</p>
-
-<p>When the seven tuskers had formed in line, they drove the herd in a
-circle around the center refuge. After a short time, one of the young
-elephants would drift to the rear rank, and a mahout, urging his mount
-forward, would slip the noose under one of the youngster’s hind feet,
-detach the pole by a quick jerk, and turning sharply and paying out the
-coil of rope at the same time, would bring the line taut and fix the
-noose firmly in place. The end would then be untied from the saddle
-of the tame mount, and the young tusker would go racing madly back to
-the herd, dragging fifty yards of rope after him. This operation was
-repeated for each of the eight captives, and in some instances, when
-the youngsters seemed particularly fractious, both hind feet would be
-roped.</p>
-
-<p>After all the ropes were made fast, the herd was let loose, the tame
-mounts mingling with it, and gradually forcing the roped animals closer
-to the posts to which they were respectively tied, the slack being
-taken up by men outside the stockades, and made fast, leaving them
-secured within a small radius of ten or fifteen yards. The mahouts now
-left the kraal for a short breathing-space, and the herd wandered about
-sucking up every possible drop of water from the pools made by the rain
-of the night before, throwing it high over their backs to cool their
-hot hides from the burning sun.</p>
-
-<p>It was amusing to watch the frantic efforts of the baby elephants,
-of which there were a considerable number, to keep from being
-trampled upon by the herd. In every instance their coign of vantage
-was immediately beneath their mother, and they showed the greatest
-cleverness in keeping their position as she swayed about, backward or
-forward, in the throng.</p>
-
-<p>After a time the beams of the exit were pulled widely open, and
-the chief mahout entered, urging his mount to a run, and feigning
-what looked like a most foolhardy charge at the entire herd. When
-only a few yards away, he turned sharply and rushed back through
-the exit, thus acting as a leader for the herd, and the whole lot
-dashed simultaneously for the gateway. The ford of the river was well
-patrolled by tame elephants, and as the herd came rushing down the bank
-to the stream, they were kept in a confined space, where they swayed
-about in the cool water, grunting with satisfaction, and sending up a
-perfect fountain through their trunks. After a reasonable rest had been
-given them, they were cautiously driven into the jungle, and at a good
-distance from the city were turned loose, to wander as they pleased and
-seek again their old haunts.</p>
-
-<p>While all this was going on, the young tuskers left tied in the kraal
-were giving vent most strenuously to their feelings. Some, evidently
-having given themselves up to despair, stood quite still and uttered
-the most plaintive groans, while others seemed to go quite beside
-themselves with rage, rolling in the mud, straining every nerve at
-their ropes, and trumpeting wildly. One youngster, charging madly at
-the post to which he was tied, managed to break one of his tusks sharp
-off at the base, bringing down the most fearful amount of wrath on his
-head from the mahouts, as it knocked some fifty per cent. off his value.</p>
-
-<p>In many cases it seemed to be a particularly exasperating job to get
-these captives out of the kraal. Two trained mounts would finally be
-driven up on each side of the young elephant, and a sort of collar made
-of cocoanut-fiber rope was slipped under his neck. These collar ropes
-are crossed at the top, and an end is made fast to the neck of the tame
-mounts, which, being a good deal taller than the little chap in the
-middle, would be able to lift him nearly off his front legs by raising
-their heads, and so compel him to walk, the youngster’s great act being
-to lie down and refuse to budge. The leg-ropes were then thrown off,
-and in this way they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> made a start for the exit, with a third elephant
-bringing up the rear to push the captive forward in case of any signs
-of balking. When he was gracefully shoved through the gateway, two
-others would meet him outside the stockade, and he would be marched
-off across the river to the stables, to be chained up to his post, and
-there either sensibly accept his lot and start to learn to work, or
-else be starved into submission. In some few cases captivity seems to
-take all the spirit out of the beasts, and rather than endure it, they
-will refuse all food and water and finally die, a sort of martyr at the
-altar of freedom.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_239a" name="i_239a">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_239a.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">FIRST STEPS IN THE EDUCATION OF A YOUNGSTER IN
-    THE INNER PEN</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>The attachment the elephant has for his keeper is something marvelous.
-Almost incredible accounts are told of their devotion. Perhaps this
-is due to the inseparable life that the mahout and his elephant lead,
-for the keeper and his charge are constantly together. Always the same
-hand feeds and tends him, always the same voice commands him, whether
-at work in the lumber-yards, charging through the jungle at a round-up,
-or moving slowly in some royal procession. If by any chance a mahout
-becomes too ill to work or dies, there is often the greatest difficulty
-to induce the elephant to accept a new master, and it is very seldom
-that the new man can gain the complete mastery over the brute that its
-original trainer had.</p>
-
-<p>There is a wrong impression prevalent that the Siamese regard the white
-elephant as a deity. That they hold it in special regard is true,
-for each Buddha, in passing through a series of transmigrations, is
-supposed to have inhabited the body of some white animal, either a
-monkey, a dove, or an elephant; and therefore a white animal is yet
-worshiped as having at some time been the superior of man.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_239b" name="i_239b">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_239b.jpg" alt="Tailpiece for Elephant
-    Round-up" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 id="NOOSING_WILD_ELEPHANTS" class="nodisp nobreak nopad" title="NOOSING WILD ELEPHANTS"></h2>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_240aa" name="i_240aa">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_240aa.jpg"
-      alt="Title Image for Noosing Wild Elephants" /></a>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s3 center mbot2">BY CHARLES MOSER</p>
-
-<div class="dc">
-   <a id="i_240b" name="i_240b">
-   <img class="w12em" src="images/i_240b.jpg" alt="Lodge" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">F</span>ROM time immemorial, Eastern princes have captured wild elephants by
-driving them into a stockade and noosing them from the backs of tamed
-beasts. It has been virtually the only means of replenishing their
-stables, for elephants in captivity do not breed well. Nevertheless,
-elephant kraals, the common name from Jeypore to Siam, have always
-been events of great interest and excitement. The enormous size of the
-game, its inevitable danger, and the wonderful exhibition of brute
-intelligence often seen, account for the fascination of the sport.</p>
-
-<p>Kraals are usually conducted by the minor prince or chieftain who holds
-in feudal tenure the villages of the district in which the kraal is
-held; and it was our privilege to be at the one last mentioned as the
-guests of Ratemahatmeya Meduanwella, lord of the villages of Panamure
-and Wellawe, in the province of Sabaramamuwa.</p>
-
-<p>We left Colombo at sunrise in a motor-car (I can never get over that; I
-am still near enough to my boyhood’s dreaming over the pages of old Sir
-Samuel Baker not to accept <i>that</i>!) and swept along the muddy Kelani,
-alive in the early morning with <i>cadjan</i> boats and women bathing.
-It is a lovely, undulating valley; we saw coolies treading out the
-grain in the paddy-fields, <i>svelte</i> arecas and talipot-palms smoking
-with dew, low hills thickly feathered with the dark-green plumage of
-young rubber-trees, and bevies of brown girls plucking leaves among
-the sparse tea-bushes. By nine o’clock we had reached the rest-house
-at Ratnapura, nestled close by Kelani’s sullen lip, and were calling
-loudly for breakfast. The most striking ornament in the dining-room
-was a placard advertising American buckwheat cakes, and our roving eye
-fell upon a two-months’-old copy of the Kansas City “Star,” sure signs
-of the miracle of mere living in our times. Ratnapura is the capital
-of the famous gem district, and our host, a wily Cingalese with a
-prodigious tortoise-shell comb in his back hair, showed us some rough
-stones&mdash;rubies, sapphires, and cats’-eyes&mdash;which he had “found,” and
-would part with as a very special favor.</p>
-
-<p>At noon we left the motor-car and took to the jungle on foot. Our route
-lay for eight miles along a path cut and burned through the densest
-jungle specially for this occasion, and toward dusk we came at last,
-drenched, yet thirsty, through dim, green aisles of tall ebony-and
-satinwood-trees, to a wide meadow and the dark, swift stream that
-flows through it along the hem of Panamure. We saw a man far up in a
-giant palm-tree, clinging to the bole with his naked feet, cutting
-branches; then a great gaunt beast in the jungle twilight, feeding on
-the white, succulent trunks of banana-trees; and the pathetic figure
-of a baby elephant, captured only the week before, tugging hopelessly,
-but incessantly, at his ankle-ropes, and we knew that we were near the
-scene of the kraal. We crossed the stream on a bridge half crushed in
-by ponderous, pachydermous feet, and at once found ourselves among
-lines of bare brown men squatting under palm-leaf shelters. These
-were the beaters surrounding the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> wild herds. The long line of their
-fires dotted the dusk of the jungle, and the smell of wet wood smoke,
-flavored with the odors from their cooking-pots, made a kind of wild
-incense, strangely grateful and reminiscent to our civilized nostrils.
-At a distance an occasional faint snort, or the soft crackling of
-undergrowth followed by the thudding of some distant beater’s drum,
-betrayed the locality where the quarry fed uneasily.</p>
-
-<p>The plan and strategy of an elephant kraal is very simple. A wooded
-country, over which elephants rove and through which a suitable stream
-flows, is selected. A stockade from twelve to sixteen feet in height,
-and inclosing part of the stream and from four to six acres of jungle,
-is constructed of stout logs lashed together with rattan withes. At one
-side of the inclosure is a gate, with a V-shaped approach leading to
-it. When the stockade has been completed, the villagers arm themselves
-with guns, spears, tom-toms, old pots, horns&mdash;anything that will make
-a noise&mdash;and pour into the jungle to beat up the wild herds. They
-spread out in a circle, sometimes twenty-five miles long, but gradually
-lessening as the herds are driven nearer the stockade. The main object
-is to keep the elephants from reaching water except by entering the
-inclosure, and sometimes this is very difficult. Fires are kept alight
-at distances of a few feet; and sometimes at night, when the huge
-beasts charge in a body, the din of drums, bells, shouts, and horns is
-enough to daunt bolder spirits than the jungle denizens. Frequently a
-herd succeeds in breaking through and making its escape, occasionally
-not without a heavy loss to the enemy; but usually after being kept
-from water for three or four days their terrible thirst drives the poor
-creatures to the water within the stockade, and the gate closes forever
-between them and the dear free life of their native jungle.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_241" name="i_241">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_241.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">THE LORD OF THE KRAAL AND HIS HEIR</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>Panamure is a lovely little village, idling along the banks of its
-streamlet and cuddled in between two tall and softly wooded peaks
-as delicately rounded as the breasts of a woman. Its daughters are
-tender-eyed and domestic, performing the family washing at the front
-gate, while the men are of mild manner and much given to the business
-of gentling noosed elephants. They are Buddhists, but their real god is
-the snowy-bearded old Ratemahatmeya, who is also their father, lord of
-their lands, and of every grain of rice that goes into their mouths.</p>
-
-<p>We found the old gentleman waiting for us at the “hotel.” He had laid
-aside the garments of his high estate and put on the long-tailed shirt
-of the coolie, as being more in keeping with one who had watched five
-nights in the jungle; but for all that he was a memorable figure,
-with his small, sharp nose and eyes like those of a sparrow-hawk, his
-patriarchal beard and imperious voice. Even more distinguished-looking
-was his brother-in-law, the imperturbable Kalawane. Clad to lead the
-beaters in nothing but a breech-clout and his shining black beard,
-he seemed at that moment to have stepped out of the pages of Kipling
-especially for this occasion.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_242a" name="i_242a">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_242a.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">NATIVE BEATERS IN CAMP</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_242b" name="i_242b">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_242b.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">READY TO PROD THE ELEPHANTS</p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_243a" name="i_243a">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_243a.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">NATIVES BINDING A WILD ELEPHANT TO A TREE</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_243b" name="i_243b">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_243b.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">TWO TAME ELEPHANTS CAJOLING A WILD SISTER</p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_244" name="i_244">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_244.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center no-break-before">“HE SCREAMED, FROTHED, AND LUNGED AGAINST HIS FETTERS”</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_244_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="mtop2_eb">They took us to get a first glimpse of the stockade in the now
-fast-dying light. It was the old Ratemahatmeya’s fourteenth kraal, he
-told us, and he had had 2500 villagers out for many days. He hoped to
-catch thirty or forty elephants, but some might escape through the line
-of beaters that night, as the elephants were desperate and the beaters
-nearly exhausted. Even as he talked there were sounds of trampling and
-crashing of underbrush a few yards to our right, and the whole line of
-beaters rushed toward the spot, beating brass pots and yelling. After
-torches had been thrown, the crashing ceased suddenly, and not another
-sound was heard. Not a line of living form could be seen; not even a
-leaf stirred, but one had the most vivid sense that all about us the
-jungle was permeated with mysterious forces, tremendous, yet impalpable.</p>
-
-<p>The stockade itself was worth a fortune, could it have been brought
-to market. It was constructed of peeled ebony and satinwood logs,
-many from twenty to thirty feet long and as thick as a man’s body.
-Seven hundred and fifty coolies had spent three weeks in building
-it, sinking the upright logs ten feet into the earth and with rattan
-thongs lashing to them the horizontal logs at three-foot intervals. It
-looked enormously strong and resistant. Overlooking the stockade on
-three sides, towers had been built from which the Ratemahatmeya and his
-principal guests were to view the grand spectacle of noosing and tying
-up the kraaled elephants.</p>
-
-<p>Dinner in the hotel that night was eaten on bare boards, within
-gunny-sack walls, and with damp earth underfoot. As we sat about the
-boards afterward, in bare feet and pajamas, a small, breathless figure
-dashed up and flung his torch of dried stalks down before us. Some
-elephants had entered the kraal and the gate had been closed behind
-them! It was not a moment for reflection. Away we ran through the black
-night, barefooted and pajama-clad, unmindful of thorns, and deadly
-cobras, perhaps, lying in wait along the path. Guided by the weird
-little figure with his torch, who was immensely proud to have been
-the bearer of great tidings, we reached the stockade and found the
-Ratemahatmeya seated on a log rocking himself in glee. Ten elephants,
-led by a furious old cow, he explained, had been trapped. To-morrow
-the rest of the herd would be caught. In this, however, he proved a bad
-prophet, for during the night the elephants outside the kraal broke
-through the beaters’ lines and escaped.</p>
-
-<p>Around the circle of the stockade they were now lighting hundreds of
-fires. Flames and smoke shot up half-way to the tops of the trees, and
-the whole jungle was an endless moving parade of black shadows. Scores
-of men lined the barricade, their bodies dripping sweat, points of
-light flashing from their sharpened spear-heads. The business was eery
-and serious. Twice the fear-maddened animals had charged the stockade
-and twice had been driven back with spear-thrusts and firebrands. Now
-they were hiding somewhere in the gulf of blackness beyond the fires,
-as silent as the dark, plotting, full of hatred, and terribly dangerous.</p>
-
-<p>We went back to the hotel and to a sleep of troubled dreams. There is
-no doubt that the presence of wild elephants in the neighborhood of
-one’s slumbers produces a curious impression. Some might even call
-it “funk.” Throughout the night the shouting of the beaters and the
-muffled trumpetings of giants in distress told how mighty Hathi and
-his sons struggled to break through the cordon of their enemies. And
-when morning came we knew from the scattered fire-lines that the lords
-of the jungle had bravely won their freedom. The Ratemahatmeya held a
-sunrise court-martial over it, but no one knew anything. He was forced
-to content himself with the ten animals safe within the kraal.</p>
-
-<p>Early as we were at the stockade, the village, bringing its breakfast
-in fresh <i>kos</i> leaves and gourds, was there before us. A thin stream of
-sunlight, penetrating the kraal, revealed the captured herd standing
-together in the deep shadows beneath a giant unga-tree, brooding and
-sinister, their alinement as perfect as that of a line of infantry.
-They were absolutely motionless, yet somehow conveyed the impression
-of hair-trigger alertness. We could count two half-grown bulls, two
-yearling calves, and a two-year-old. The other five were cows. There
-were no tuskers among them, but it soon became evident that an old cow,
-which always took her position on the extreme right, was “boss” of the
-herd. The moment she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> cocked her ears the others stiffened their tails
-and gathered themselves to charge.</p>
-
-<p>We had not long to wait for the first charge in daylight. Ratemahatmeya
-Kalawane came upon the scene riding his brother-in-law’s finest decoy,
-a magnificent brute in the prime of his vigor and intelligence.
-Apparently without a command, the big elephant majestically approached
-the stockade at a point nearest the beleaguered herd, lifted his
-trunk over the barricade and gave the call of his kind. The whole
-herd at once swung toward him, as if in obedience to the voice of a
-friend. They had covered barely twenty paces, however, when suspicion
-entered the mind of the old cow. At her signal they all paused, waving
-their trunks uncertainly. One of the village headmen thought this an
-auspicious moment to step through the stockade for a clearer view.
-Instantly the old cow’s tail shot into the air as stiff as a rod, and
-she charged with the speed of an express-train, the others following
-her, but half-heartedly. A volley of yells from the spearmen and
-beaters greeted her as she came, but she struck the stockade with a
-tremendous impact, rocking the piles in their sockets and making the
-earth tremble. The beaters stood fearlessly to their work, however,
-and a score of spear-thrusts from the heavy twelve-foot staves sent
-her back, sullen and bloody. The others, seeing their leader’s
-discomfiture, contemptuously turned their backs to the enemy and
-continued their interrupted coquetting with the decoy elephant.</p>
-
-<p>But those trapped cows, though frightened and no doubt bewildered
-beyond anything in their experience, were not foolish. The big,
-handsome bull, sent out to court and mollify them, continued his
-outrageous attempts at flirtation through the interstices of the
-stockade all in vain. Not that they were not flattered, perhaps, by his
-attentions, for they paralleled his amiable saunterings up and down the
-barricade for an hour, but always at the safe distance of a hundred
-yards; ten pairs of little, bright, malicious eyes the while keeping
-watch of his every movement and of every movement inside the kraal.
-Satisfied at last of his treacherous intentions, and, perhaps, tiring
-of the sport, they ignored him altogether and turned their energies
-again toward their human foes.</p>
-
-<p>The rest of the morning was given to beating back charge after
-charge. The old cow, especially, was a veritable demon in temper and
-courage. Sometimes she charged alone, her calf bellowing and coughing
-his ridiculous rage in her wake. Sometimes, with one impulse, the
-whole herd charged with her, as if at a preconcerted signal. Once,
-indeed, she nearly got our photographer. The elephants were standing
-quiet for the moment, a hundred yards away, trunks down and slack,
-apparently oblivious to their enemies. A fugitive patch of sunlight,
-finely illuminating their heads, tempted the camera man to advance
-a few steps inside the gate in the hope of obtaining a picture. The
-next instant the whole herd was almost upon him. He had barely time
-to fling himself headlong between the posts when the old cow, in the
-lead, crashed against the gate. Another yard, and she would have got
-him. It took half an hour and two brandy sodas to coax his nerve back,
-but the imperturbable Kalawane, who had been lying sound asleep beneath
-the gate timbers till the crash awakened him, merely raised himself
-long enough to curse camera man, elephants, and beaters fluently and
-indiscriminately, and then resumed his nap.</p>
-
-<p>I had often heard of the speed of an elephant’s charge, and had
-marveled without enlightenment. I had even scoffed, because those who
-told of it never were able to explain it. Their descriptions seemed to
-me the result of “nerves,” justifying effect by cause. Now that I have
-seen it for myself, I marvel no more, but am simply dazed. You cannot
-explain the charge because you do not really see him make it. One
-instant he is standing over there, a hundred yards away, as motionless
-as the tree-trunks; at the end of that same instant he is upon you,
-overwhelming, monstrous, like a mountain falling upon you. And you did
-not even see him start!</p>
-
-<p>I have a theory about it. An elephant’s loose skin is a sort of bag
-that conceals the most flexible and finely articulated set of muscles
-in the animal kingdom. He has no bulge of muscles anywhere. They are
-all as smooth and flat as ribbons, as elastic as rubber, tempered like
-steel wire. Wherefore he can wheel that vast bulk of his instantly and
-in a space the size of a tea-table. He can hurl the whole four or five<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>
-tons of him into action with a single impulse and strike his top speed
-in a single stride. Place an enemy in front of him, and I believe he
-can run ten yards or two hundred from a standing start faster than any
-other creature on legs.</p>
-
-<p>Meantime, the decoys to be used for the noosing in the afternoon
-had come up from their teak-piling duties in the low country. Seven
-gigantic beasts, far larger than the captured ones, they moved like
-conquerors, majestic and grand. It was not to be comprehended that
-these colossi, the mightiest of the earth’s creatures, were willing
-servants of those pygmies astride their necks. Yet all through the
-subsequent proceedings the mahout’s word was law, and I never once saw
-a tame elephant pricked with the ankus. This is the more remarkable
-when it is understood that with one exception they had all been wild
-elephants fewer than ten years before.</p>
-
-<p>After they had been bathed and scraped and holystoned till their hides
-shone like polished slate, the decoys were led before the Ratemahatmeya
-to receive the ceremonial anointment with oil and make their salaams.
-As the great beasts fell on their knees before the old man and
-made their dumb, strange genuflections of obeisance, my eyes were
-filled with a picture of the galleries of old Rome and of the German
-gladiators stooped before some palsied Cæsar, and through my brain
-pulsed again the echo of their grand and solemn valedictory.</p>
-
-<p>But it was two o’clock, and the ladies of the Ratemahatmeya’s family
-were in the tower, the village was in the tree-tops, or chattering like
-schools of monkeys in the undergrowth, and all was ready for the great
-spectacle of the kraal, the contests in the arena. Kalawane, on the
-largest elephant, headed the procession of the seven decoys, followed
-by a small army of spearmen and elephant shikarees, carrying ropes.
-Each of the decoys bore on his back a mahout and a nooser, the latter
-armed with a coil of rope noosed at one end and attached at the other
-to a stout collar around the decoy’s neck.</p>
-
-<p>For some time before the procession set out for the kraal gate the
-wild herd had been clustered in thick cover on the far side of the
-stream from the Ratemahatmeya’s tower. As we could neither see nor hear
-anything of them, Ricalton and I ran around the stockade to a point
-nearest them and no more than forty yards from the little hillock on
-which they stood. We could hear the decoys pulling down the gate far
-away on the other side, and it was evident that the wild herd was quite
-as plainly aware that something new and decisive in their affairs was
-about to occur. They stood stone-still, indifferent to our presence,
-their eyes alert, but their heads a little drooping. Nothing but actual
-speech could have better expressed that, though sore perplexed, they
-<i>all but</i> understood. As for us, we were so lost in the contemplation
-of them in this greatest moment of their lives that we did not hear the
-approach of the decoys, and they, if they heard it, gave no sign.</p>
-
-<p>Suddenly we heard the sharp crackle of voices&mdash;Kalawane’s and the
-mahouts’&mdash;shouting, “<i>Yunga! Yunga! Yunga!</i>” (“Charge! Charge!
-Charge!”) and saw the decoys swiftly looming through the underbrush.
-The wild ones saw them at the same time, and for just a moment the
-whole herd, trunks uplifted in welcome, swung forward to meet them.
-The next instant they realized their mistake, turned tail, and went
-crashing down the slope in a panic. After them came the whole band of
-decoys, spearmen, and noosers barking a staccato chorus that set the
-blood tingling all over me. I never have had such a feeling. It was a
-little like the first shock of a shower-bath on a frosty morning. I
-found myself plunging knee-deep through the stream in the wake of the
-rushing animals, with Ricalton, sixty-six years old and as white as
-Mount Hood, not a foot behind me.</p>
-
-<p>On the other bank the decoys overtook their quarry, and two big bulls
-separated one of the yearlings from his mother for the fraction of a
-second&mdash;just time enough for a nooser to drop off behind and slip the
-loop around his right hind leg. He suddenly found himself being dragged
-backward on his fore legs and belly, and such squalling never was
-heard. At first his frantic mother fought furiously to reach him, but
-two powerful bulls so unceremoniously butted her about that she gave
-up and rushed off for help; for I never will believe that she deserted
-him. The little fellow was dragged and butted to a convenient tree, to
-which he was securely tied by both ankles, while a decoy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> on each side
-alternately bullied and cozened him. The moment he was tied, just as he
-was on the point of thinking his new-found friends not such bad fellows
-after all, and was preparing to console himself for the loss of his
-mother, they heartlessly left him. Oh, how angry he was! He screamed,
-frothed, lunged and lunged against his fetters, bit the earth, and
-broke off the point of an embryonic tusk trying to demolish a stone he
-had dug up in his frenzy. But it was all in vain; and at last the poor
-little baby, just like other babies, broke down and cried. I saw him,
-and later I saw his mother, the terrible old cow, crying, and they shed
-real tears.</p>
-
-<p>Meanwhile the chase had gone on across the kraal, and on the other
-side one of the cows had been wedged in between two decoys for the
-needful moment. A nooser had slipped down under the decoy’s belly for
-protection, and actually had the noose over her ankle when she felt
-him, and let loose that four-ton kick he had sought protection from.
-Luckily it missed him a hair’s-breadth; but the savage old lady got
-free by it, and the nooser was a crumpled, fearful ruin for the rest of
-that day. Again they caught her, but she snapped the inch-and-a-quarter
-hawser as if it had been twine. The third attempt was successful, but
-by now madam had regained her wits and gathered together her scattered
-forces for rescue work. No doubt she ached also to avenge her baby, for
-she headed a tremendous charge against the decoys, and the bulls had to
-knock her off her feet time after time before she gave up the project.
-Kalawane then decided that the rest of the herd would be subjugated
-more easily after she had been disposed of.</p>
-
-<p>This was more easily decided upon than accomplished. The old cow was a
-tactician of the highest order, and her gifts as a fighter amounted to
-positive genius. Several times they had her cornered, but she smashed
-her way through. They scattered her followers, and finally managed to
-isolate her on a small knoll between the stockade and a deep gully.
-Here she successfully eluded the skill of the decoys for at least half
-an hour, and it was while I was endeavoring to obtain a closer view
-of this heroic last stand that I was treated to a bit of insight into
-elephant cunning that I am not likely to forget.</p>
-
-<p>The decoys had the old cow nearly cornered in a space close to the
-stockade and about one hundred and fifty yards from me, with the gully
-before mentioned running between us. I started to cross to the scene of
-conflict, but before descending into the gully, and thus losing sight
-of the jungle about me for a moment, I took a glance around. It was
-fortunate that I did so, for about two hundred yards below me, on the
-same side of the gully, was one of the young bulls coming stealthily
-through the underbrush, and there was something in his manner which
-warned me that he “had intentions.” But the very moment I became aware
-of his state of mind he apparently became as exactly aware of mine; for
-he dropped his ears, stopped, and then, seemingly disgusted that he
-should have betrayed himself, deliberately turned his back on me and
-walked off in the direction whence he had come. Nor did he once glance
-back, but near the brink of the gully stopped again in some scrub and,
-with his head wholly averted from me, appeared to be lost in thought.
-This seemed my chance, so I ran rapidly down the side of the gully, and
-for only a few seconds lost sight of him.</p>
-
-<p>But what was my astonishment, upon climbing up the other side, to see
-him coming toward me like a hurricane and not more than seventy yards
-away! He must have started at full speed the moment my back was turned.
-Fortunately the stockade was not far off, and I made for it&mdash;hurriedly.
-It is possible, though, that I might not have escaped him, for thin,
-wiry, and almost invisible creepers clutched my legs at every step,
-had not some of the spearmen rushed to my rescue. They actually threw
-sticks at him! But for me it was a very interesting moment.</p>
-
-<p>However, I was in time to see the defeat of the old empress. After
-many vain and furious struggles she was noosed around the left ankle
-with the rope attached to the biggest of all the decoys. At the word,
-this magnificent, six-ton brute picked out a tree, and without even a
-pause dragged the old lady off her feet. To make her humiliation more
-complete, he actually “wiped up the earth with her” when she spread
-herself out on the ground in protest, dragging her along with no more
-effort than if she had been a baby-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>carriage. But madam had not done
-with them yet. Arrived at the tree, she put up a glorious fight, even
-breaking two ropes, and she might have won a brief liberty had not two
-of the decoys shown marvelous intelligence in blocking her flight,
-butting her into place and firmly lashing her there by winding their
-powerful trunks around her neck from each side. Then, while the ropes
-that forever withheld her from her liberty were being securely knotted
-about her legs, these two gigantic old frauds, looking all the while
-wonderfully benignant and solemn, alternately bullied and flattered
-her. While one caressed her gently with his trunk the other thumped her
-in the ribs, and sometimes, under the guise of affection, both of them
-together would lean their vast bulk against her and force her gently
-but irresistibly into the position desired of their masters. One <i>knew</i>
-that in elephant language they were talking to her somewhat after this
-fashion:</p>
-
-<p>“Come, my dear, be reasonable! A little more to the right! Softly!
-<i>Softly!</i> Tut, tut! It’s for your own good. There, now; that’s better.
-Just look at us; and <i>we</i> used to be as wild and foolish as you are.”</p>
-
-<p>And then they cuddled her a little, gave her a final pat while the
-last knot was being tied, and left her! For a little while the old cow
-raged horribly; and then, like her abandoned baby, she broke down and
-cried. It is in such scenes that the fascination of elephant-kraaling,
-is found. The animals not only display a really wonderful intelligence
-and the possession of those lovable qualities we are pleased to
-term “human,” but they exhibit at all times, the trained elephants
-especially, a noble temper and that kind of profound <i>character</i> which
-is associated in our thoughts with only the simplest and noblest of
-men. It must be admitted that the elephants that have been gentled and
-trained by man exhibit the finest intelligence and a majesty of port
-rarely if ever observed in the wild ones. They impress one as having
-become grand under servitude. It is difficult to observe them and
-believe that they would wish to return to their wild state. This is no
-doubt sentimentality on my part, but it is hard to be on close terms
-with a noble elephant and not be awakened to sentiment concerning it.</p>
-
-<p>The noosing of their leader sealed the fate of the rest of the herd
-(not that it had ever been in doubt); but by sunset all had been
-tied to trees save two, and it was reasonably certain these could
-not escape. The last glimpse I had of them they were standing in
-grief-stricken silence before the prostrate figure of a tethered calf
-whose struggles had worn him out. All night the hoarse trumpetings
-of the fettered-up mothers and the wails of their calves filled the
-jungle with lamentation. Occasionally, far off in the wilderness, a
-deep-throated bull would send out a long call of sympathy. Somewhere in
-the darkness the herd that had escaped hovered near, but the beaters’
-line of fires kept them back. The captured ten were lost to the jungle
-forever.</p>
-
-<p>Next morning, in the earliest light, I went up to the stockade to have
-a last look. The youngsters were still bawling and plunging frantically
-against their fetters, but the old empress was motionless and silent.
-So still she stood that in the pale light I took a time exposure of
-her. Her hind quarters and her flanks sagged, and her head expressed
-all the ache of utter despair. Youth might still cry and struggle
-against its fate, but she had given up the fight. Two hours later they
-had harnessed her securely between two mighty bulls, and a pygmy man
-had climbed upon her back. Then she uttered one last and mighty burst
-of anguished rage before she fell into the captive’s stride that was to
-carry her to her new life of labor down on the low-country estates.</p>
-
-<p>I have always been fond of big-game shooting, and I have longed to
-include this mightiest of beasts in my huntsman’s bag; but I came away
-from the kraal with one clear idea in my mind, dominating all others: I
-never shall willingly kill an elephant.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_250" name="i_250">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_250.jpg" alt="Headpiece for J. Q. Adams" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="JOHN_QUINCY_ADAMS_IN_RUSSIA">JOHN QUINCY ADAMS IN
-RUSSIA</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s4 center">EXTRACTS FROM HIS CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE WAR OF
- 1812, NAPOLEON’S RETREAT FROM MOSCOW, AND CONVERSATIONS WITH MADAME DE STAËL</p>
-
-<p class="s3 center mbot2">INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">A</span> CENTURY ago at this time the Napoleonic wars, so-called, or the
-convulsions which succeeded the French Revolution of 1789, were rapidly
-drawing to a close. Beginning with the capture of the Bastille, July
-14, 1789, the final catastrophe occurred at Waterloo, June 18, 1815.
-Meanwhile, during the last half of 1812 and the whole of 1813, it is no
-exaggeration to say that the whole world was at war. Up to June, 1812,
-the United States had kept out of the actual fray, maintaining, by
-hook or by crook, a species of so-called neutrality. The affair of the
-<i>Leopard</i> and the <i>Chesapeake</i>, unspeakably disgraceful to the United
-States, had occurred off the capes of Virginia in June, 1807. In the
-following December Jefferson’s embargo had been proclaimed; but, having
-proved utterly futile as either a remedial or a protective measure, it
-was removed in March, 1809.</p>
-
-<p>Needless to say, this was for the United States a period of tension and
-deep humiliation. Threats of disunion were freely made, and the first
-steps looking to a secession of the New England States from the Union
-had been taken. On March 4, 1809, James Madison was inaugurated as the
-fourth President, and war with Great Britain was declared in June,
-1812. One of the earliest acts of Madison after taking the oath of
-office had been to nominate John Quincy Adams to represent the United
-States at the court of St. Petersburg. Alexander I, then thirty-five
-years old, was Czar of Russia. Two years before that he had, with
-Napoleon, effected the treaty of Tilsit, so-called, theatrically signed
-on a raft moored in the river Niemen. A temporary peace, therefore,
-existed between the Russian czar and Napoleon, then at the zenith of
-his career; a truce, rather than a peace, destined to be rudely broken
-in the summer of 1812. Napoleon’s disastrous Russian campaign, and
-the War of 1812&ndash;15 between the United States and Great Britain, then
-ensued; the latter was drawing to a close just at the end of 1814
-(December 25), six months before the battle of Waterloo.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Adams’s residence in Russia (1809&ndash;1814) covered, therefore, the
-whole of the period of Napoleon’s Russian experience, as also his
-campaign during the subsequent year (1813), intervening between the
-retreat from Moscow and Waterloo. Mr. Adams thus held an official
-position at the very center of conflict during the four most troubled
-years of the nineteenth century. He was in the midst of things. During
-that period also he maintained a constant interchange of familiar,
-family letters, so far as the facilities for such an interchange then
-existed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> between St. Petersburg and Quincy, his home in Massachusetts.
-These letters never have seen the light.</p>
-
-<p>On Wednesday, October 16, 1912, the American Antiquarian Society
-celebrated its centennial anniversary at Worcester, Massachusetts. As
-president of a sister, but senior, organization&mdash;the Massachusetts
-Historical Society&mdash;the writer was invited to take part in this affair,
-contributing to it. His thoughts, therefore, naturally reverted to the
-events taking place at the particular time the society, whose birth was
-thus celebrated, came into existence; and those events were of a very
-exciting and memorable character.</p>
-
-<p>Napoleon was in Moscow that day, anxiously awaiting the results of
-certain negotiations he had undertaken, looking to a possible escape
-from the situation in which he had involved himself. Tidings of the
-utter failure of the negotiations reached him, and the order to
-evacuate Moscow, preliminary to the fatal retreat, was given on October
-18&mdash;just two days subsequent to the occurrence we were to celebrate.</p>
-
-<p>On this side of the Atlantic the memorable action between the
-<i>Constitution</i> and the <i>Guerrière</i> had occurred on August 19&mdash;just two
-months before; and exactly one week later&mdash;October 25&mdash;the frigate
-<i>United States</i> captured the <i>Macedonian</i>. Thus, during the latter half
-of the year 1812, memorable events followed close on one another’s
-heels. Of all of these, Mr. Adams, in Russia, and his relatives in
-Massachusetts, were deeply interested observers; and a recurrence
-to the letters then interchanged, canvassing these events from the
-contemporary point of view, could hardly fail to be of interest and
-even of historical value.</p>
-
-<p>A portion of the material from the yellowing letter-files of that
-intimate family correspondence is offered in the following extracts.
-They relate exclusively to the events then occurring in Russia and
-America, and to characters now become historic. One letter, of the most
-informal character, describes a long interview with the famous Madame
-de Staël in St. Petersburg, at the time of Napoleon’s Russian campaign,
-the conversation taking place on the day preceding that on which the
-great battle of Borodino was fought (September 7, 1812). It will be
-remembered that Napoleon, considering Madame de Staël an enemy in no
-way to be despised, had some years before treated her accordingly, so
-that in 1812 she was still in exile.</p>
-
-<p>Correspondence between Europe and America in those days was carried on
-under extreme difficulty. Letters, whether passing through the post, or
-confided for delivery to private hands, were freely opened by officials
-in nearly every country. To such a degree was this practised that in
-a letter written from St. Petersburg to his brother, Thomas Boylston
-Adams, John Quincy Adams observed: “Almost every letter I write is
-opened and read either by French or English officers.”</p>
-
-<p>Correspondence, therefore, had to be carried on with great discretion.
-This is apparent in the letters of Mrs. John Adams to her son. In one
-of them, dated from Quincy, July 29, 1812, she says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>“The declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain,
-the necessity for which is deplored, renders the communication
-between us so hazardous that I despair of hearing from you
-or conveying intelligence to you.... We have not any letters
-from you of a later date than the 4th March, and we wait in
-anxious expectation of hearing. I have written to you by various
-opportunities, and I could not fill many pages with subjects which
-ought to come to your knowledge of a political nature, if I did not
-feel myself restrained by the desire I have, that this letter may
-reach you, as it contains no subject to gratify the curiosity of
-any one and can be only interesting to yourself as a testimony of
-the health of your friends.”</p></div>
-
-<p>And again, writing under date of November 30 following, she says:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p><div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>“Your letters gave us the more pleasure, as we had despaired of
-hearing again from you during the winter. It is almost a forlorn
-hope to expect any communication between us. The war between France
-and Russia on the one hand, and America and England on the other,
-leaves few chances for private correspondence. If while peace
-existed so little regard was had to letters addrest to a publicke
-minister that they must be broken open and family and domesticke
-concerns become the subject of public investigation, there can
-be but little satisfaction in writing.... Notwithstanding that
-blundering Irish Lord Castlereagh<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> denies the fact, I cannot
-expect more respect or civility when the nations are hostile to
-each other. Should this be destined to similar honor I request Sir
-William or any of their Lordships to awaken in their own Bosoms
-some natural affection and kindly forward this letter to the son to
-whom it is addrest, and whom three years’ absence from his parents
-and children render it particularly necessary that it should go
-with safety.”</p></div>
-
-<p>Curious light on this subject of tampering with correspondence is shown
-in a letter from J. Q. Adams to his mother, dated St. Petersburg, April
-7, 1813:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>“I know not whether it was generosity, or any other virtue, or
-merely a disposition to receive the postage, that induced the
-transmission of your favour of 30 December to Mr. Williams of
-London; for by him it was kindly forwarded to me, and on the first
-day of this month, to my inexpressible joy, came to hand. It was
-but so short a time before that I had received your letter of 29
-July!&mdash;and excepting that, not a line from Quincy later than April
-of the last year. This last letter had apparently been opened,
-although the impression of your Seal upon the wax was restored&mdash;a
-circumstance which indicates that it was done in England, where
-they still affect the appearance of not breaking seals at the
-Post-Office.</p>
-
-<p>“On this Continent they are less scrupulous about forms. When they
-open letters, they break the seals, and do not take the trouble of
-restoring them. They send them open to their address. It reminds
-me of an anecdote I have lately met with of Prince Kaunitz when he
-was prime Minister of the Empress Maria Theresa. One of his clerks
-whose business it was to copy the <i>opened</i> letters, coming to
-foreign Ministers at Vienna, in the hurry of reclosing a despatch
-to one of the Envoys, sent him his copy instead of the original.
-The Envoy went to Prince Kaunitz, showed him the copy that he had
-received, and complained that the original was withheld from him.
-The Prince immediately sent for the Clerk, severely reprimanded
-him in the Envoy’s presence for his blunder, and directed him to
-bring instantaneously the original despatch. The Clerk brought
-it accordingly, and the Prince gave it to the Envoy, with many
-apologies for the trouble occasioned him by the Clerk’s mistake,
-and assurances of his hope that it would never occur again.”</p></div>
-
-<div class="section">
-
-<h3 id="THE_SITUATION_IN_1812">THE SITUATION IN 1812</h3>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="center">John Quincy Adams to his mother, Mrs. John Adams</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p class="mbot1">“St. Petersburg, 24 October, 1812.</p>
-
-<p>“ ... There is now scarcely a spot upon the habitable globe but
-is desolated by the scourge of War. I see my own Country writhing
-under it, and every hope of better prospects vanishing before me.
-If I turn my eyes around me, I see the flame still more intensely
-burning. Fire and the Sword are ravaging the Country where I
-reside. Moscow, the antient Metropolis, one of the most magnificent
-and most populous Cities of Europe in the hands of an invader,
-and probably the greatest part of it buried in ashes.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Numerous
-inferior Cities daily devoted to the same Destruction, and Millions
-of People trampled under the feet of oppression of fugitives from
-the ruins of their habitations, perishing by hunger, in woods or
-deserts....</p>
-
-<p>“We live indeed in an age when it is not lawful for any civilized
-Nation to be unprepared for or incapable of War. Never, with an
-aching Heart I say it, never did the warlike Spirit burn with so
-intense a flame throughout the civilized World as at this moment.
-Never was the prospect of its continuing to burn and becoming still
-fiercer, so terrible as now. It would perhaps not be difficult
-to show that the State of War has become indispensable to the
-existence both of the French and British <i>Governments</i>. That in
-Peace they would both find their destruction....”</p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="center">John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p class="mbot1">“St. Petersburg, 24 November, 1812.</p>
-
-<p>“ ... You know how deeply I was disappointed at the breaking out
-of our War,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> precisely at the moment when I entertained the
-most ardent and sanguine hopes that War had become unnecessary.
-Its Events have hitherto been far from favourable to our Cause,
-but they have rather contributed to convince me of its necessity,
-upon principles distinct from the consideration of its Causes....
-Our Means of taking the British possessions upon our Continent
-are so ample and unquestionable that if we do not take them it
-must be owing to the want of qualities, without which there is no
-Independent Nation, and which we must acquire at any hazard and any
-loss.</p>
-
-<p>“The acquisition of Canada, however, was not and could not be
-the object of this War. I do not suppose it is expected that we
-should keep it if we were now to take it. Great Britain is yet too
-powerful and values her remaining possessions too highly to make it
-possible for us to retain them at the Peace, if we should conquer
-them by the War. The time is not come. But the power of Great
-Britain must soon decline. She is now straining it so excessively
-beyond its natural extent that it must before long sink under the
-violence of its own exertions. Her paper credit is already rapidly
-declining, and she is daily becoming more extravagant in the abuse
-of it. I believe that her Government could not exist three years at
-Peace without a National Convulsion. And I doubt whether she can
-carry on three years longer the War in which she is now engaged,
-without such failure of her finances as she can never recover. It
-is in the stage of weakness which must inevitably follow that of
-overplied and exhausted strength that Canada and all her other
-possessions would have fallen into our hands without the need of
-any effort on our part, and in a manner more congenial to our
-principles, and to Justice, than by Conquest.</p>
-
-<p>“The great Events daily occurring in the Country whence I now
-write you are strong and continual additional warnings to us not
-to involve ourselves in the inextricable labyrinth of European
-politicks and Revolutions.”</p></div>
-
-<p class="center">John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p class="mbot1">“St. Petersburg, 30 January, 1813.</p>
-
-<p>“ ... There are several Americans residing here, who continue to
-receive frequent letters from their friends at home. Through them
-and through the English Newspapers we collect the information of
-the most important events occurring on our side of the Water.</p>
-
-<p>“ ... The English Government and Nation have been told, and have
-probably believed that Mr. De Witt Clinton would be elected
-President instead of Mr. Madison, and that he would instantly make
-peace with England upon English terms. Of the real issue of the
-Election we are here not yet informed; though accounts from the
-United States have reached us to late in November, and they lead us
-to expect Mr. Madison’s re-election.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
-
-<p>“I never entertained very sanguine hopes of success to our first
-military efforts by land. I did not indeed anticipate that within
-six months from the Commencement of the War they would make us the
-scorn and laughter of all Europe, and that our National Character
-would be saved from sinking beneath contempt, only by the exploits
-of our Navy upon the Ocean. Blessing upon the names of <span class="u">Isaac</span>
-Hull<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> and Decatur,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> and their brave Of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>ficers and Men! for
-enabling an American to hold up his head among the Nations!&mdash;The
-capture of two British frigates successively, by American ships but
-little superior to them in force has not only been most profoundly
-felt in England, but has excited the attention of all Europe. It
-has gone far towards wiping away the disgrace of our two Surrenders
-in Canada. I believe if the English could have had their choice
-they would rather have lost Canada the first Campaign, than their
-two frigates as they have lost them. I hope and pray that the
-effect of these occurrences upon the national mind in our own
-Country will be as powerful as it has been in England, but with a
-different operation.</p>
-
-<p>“After the news of the <i>Guerrière’s</i> capture, I saw an Article
-in the ‘Times,’ a <i>Wellesley</i> Paper, written evidently under the
-impression of great alarm; and explicitly declaring that ‘a new
-Enemy to Great Britain has appeared upon the Ocean, <i>which must
-instantly be crushed</i>, or would become the most formidable Enemy
-to her naval supremacy with which she ever had to contend.’ We
-must rely upon it that this will be the prevailing sentiment of
-the British Nation. That we must instantly be crushed upon the
-Ocean&mdash;and unless our Spirit shall rise and expand in proportion to
-the pressure which they can and will apply to crush us, our first
-success will only serve more effectually to seal our ultimate ruin
-upon the Sea.</p>
-
-<p>“The disproportion of force between us and Britain at Sea is so
-excessive that the very idea of a contest with her upon that
-Element has something in it of desperation. To her it is only
-ridiculous. Upon a late debate in the House of Peers, something
-having been said of the American Navy, Lord Bathurst, one of the
-Ministers, told their lordships that the American Navy consisted of
-<i>five frigates</i>&mdash;and the House burst into a fit of laughter. These
-five frigates, however, have excited a sentiment quite different
-from laughter in the five hundred frigates of the British Navy,
-and if the American People will be as true to themselves as their
-little despised Navy has proved itself true to them, it is not
-in the gigantic power of Britain herself to <i>crush</i> us; neither
-instantly nor in any course of time, upon the Ocean.</p>
-
-<p>“Hitherto, Fortune, or rather with a grateful Heart would I humbly
-say Providence, has favoured us in a signal manner. But we must not
-expect that our frigates will often have the luck of meeting single
-ships a little inferior in strength to themselves, or of escaping
-from ships greatly superior to them. That they have not already all
-fallen into the Enemy’s hands, is matter of surprise as well as of
-gratulation....</p>
-
-<p>“The first wish of my heart is for Peace. But the Prospects of
-Peace, both in Europe and America, are more faint and distant than
-they have been for many years. War has in the course of the year
-1812 consumed in the North of Europe alone, at least half a million
-of human lives, without producing the slightest indication in
-any of the parties engaged in it of a disposition to sheathe the
-sword....”</p></div>
-
-<p class="center">John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p class="mbot1">“St. Petersburg, 31 January, 1813.</p>
-
-<p>“ ... The spirit of 1775 seems to be extinct in New England,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> but
-I hope the profligacy of British policy will not be more successful
-now than it was then.</p>
-
-<p>“The War between us and them is now reduced to one single
-point&mdash;<i>Impressment!</i>&mdash;A cause for which we should not have
-commenced a War, but without an arrangement of which our Government
-now say they cannot make Peace. If ever there was a <i>just</i>
-cause for War in the sight of Almighty God, this cause is on
-our side just. The essence of this Cause is on the British side
-<i>Oppression</i>, on our side <i>personal liberty</i>. We are fighting for
-the <i>Sailor’s Cause</i>. The English Cause is the <i>Press-gang</i>. It
-seems to me that in the very Nature of this Cause we ought to find
-some resources for maintaining it, by operation upon the minds of
-our own Seamen, and upon those of the Adversary’s. It is sometimes
-customary for the Commanders of Ships to address their crews, on
-going into action; and to in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>spirit them by motives drawn from
-the cause they are called to support. In this War, when our Ships
-go into action, their Commanders have the best possible materials
-for cheering their men to extraordinary exertions of duty. How
-the English Admirals and Captains will acquit themselves on such
-occasions I can easily conjecture. But I fancy to myself a Captain
-telling them honestly that they are fighting for the Cause of
-Impressment. That having been most of them impressed themselves,
-in the face of every principle of Freedom, of which their Country
-boasted, they must all be sensible how <i>just</i> and how <i>glorious</i>
-the right of the Press-gang is, and how clear the right of
-practising it upon American Sailors as well as upon themselves must
-be. I think they will not very readily recur to such arguments....
-The English talk of the <i>Seduction</i> practiced by us upon their
-Seamen. There is a Seduction in the very Nature of this Cause,
-which it would be strange indeed if their Seamen were insensible
-to. I have heard that many of their Seamen taken by us have shown
-a reluctance at being exchanged, from an unwillingness to be sent
-back to be impressed again. A more admirable comment upon the
-character of the War could not be imagined. Prisoners who deem it
-a hardship to be exchanged! With what heart can they fight for the
-principle which is to rivet the chains of their own servitude?</p>
-
-<p>“I have been reading a multitude of speculations in the English
-Newspapers, about the capture of their two Frigates <i>Guerrière</i> and
-<i>Macedonian</i>. They have settled it that the American forty-fours
-are line of battle-ships in disguise, and that henceforth all the
-frigates in the British Navy are to have the privilege of running
-away from them!<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> This of itself is no despicable result of the
-first half-year of War. Let it be once understood as a matter of
-course that every single frigate in the British Navy is to shrink
-from a contest with the large American frigates, and even this will
-have its effect upon the Spirits of the Tars on both sides. It
-differs a little from the time when the <i>Guerrière</i> went out with
-her name painted in Capitals on her fore-topsail, in search of our
-disguised line of battle-ship <i>President</i>.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
-
-<p>“But the English Admiralty have further ordered the immediate
-construction of seventeen new frigates, to be disguised line of
-Battle ships too. Their particular destination is to be to fight
-the Americans. Their numbers will be six to one against us,
-unless we too taking the hint from one success can build frigate
-for frigate and meet them on their own terms; in which case if
-our new ships are commanded and officered, and manned like the
-<i>Constitution</i> and the <i>United States</i> and <i>Wasp</i>,<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> I am
-persuaded they will in process of time gain one step more upon the
-maxims of the British Navy, and settle it as a prin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>ciple that
-single English ships are not to fight Americans of equal force.
-Thus much I believe it will be in their power to do. And further I
-wish them never to go. I hope they will never catch the indolent
-affectation of seeking Battle against superior force. An English
-pretension which has been so well chastised in the fate of their
-two frigates.</p>
-
-<p>“Our Navy, like all our other Institutions, is formed upon the
-English model. With regard to the Navy at least the superiority
-of that model to all others extant is incontestable. But in the
-British Navy itself there are a multitude of abuses against which
-we may guard, and there are many improvements of which it is
-susceptible, and for which the field is open before us. Our three
-44 gun ships were originally built not as the English pretend for
-line of Battle ships, but to be a little more than a match in
-force to the largest European Frigates, and the experience both of
-our partial War with France, in 1798 and 1799 as well as of our
-present War with England has proved the wisdom of the principle
-upon which they were constructed. It has been a great and momentous
-question among our Statesmen whether we should have any Navy or
-not. It will probably still be a great question, but Great Britain
-appears determined to solve all our doubts and difficulties upon
-the subject. She blockades our Coast, and is resolved to crush us
-instantly upon the Ocean. We must sink without a struggle, under
-her hand, or we must have a Navy....”</p></div>
-
-<div class="section">
-
-<h3 id="NAPOLEONS_RETREAT_FROM_MOSCOW">NAPOLEON’S RETREAT FROM MOSCOW</h3>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="center">John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p class="mbot1">“St. Petersburg, 30 November, 1812.</p>
-
-<p>“ ... It may well be doubted whether in the compass of human
-history since the Creation of the World, a greater, more sudden and
-more total reverse of Fortune was ever experienced by man, than is
-now exhibiting in the person of a man, whom Fortune for a previous
-course of nearly twenty years had favored with a steadiness and
-a prodigality equally unexampled in the annals of mankind. He
-entered Russia at the head of three hundred thousand men, on the
-24th of last June. On the 15th of September he took possession of
-Moscow, the Russian armies having retreated before him almost as
-fast as he could advance; not however without attempting to stop
-him by two Battles, one of which [Borodino] was perhaps the most
-bloody that had been fought for many ages. He appears really to
-have concluded that all he had to do was to reach Moscow, and the
-Russian Empire would be prostrate at his feet. Instead of that it
-was precisely then that his serious difficulties began. Moscow
-was destroyed; partly by his troops, and partly by the Russians
-themselves. His Communications in his rear were continually
-interrupted and harassed by separate small Detachments from the
-Russian Army. His two flanks, one upon the Dvina, and the other
-upon the frontier of Austria were both overpowered by superior
-forces, which were drawing together and closing behind him; and
-after having passed six weeks in total inaction at Moscow, he found
-himself with a starving and almost naked army, eight hundred miles
-from his frontier, exposed to all the rigour of a Russian Winter,
-with an Army before him superior to his own and a Country behind
-him already ravaged by himself, and where he had left scarcely a
-possibility of any other sentiment than that of execration and
-vengeance upon himself and his followers.</p>
-
-<p>“He began his retreat on the 28th of October, scarcely a month
-since, and at this moment, if he yet lives, he has scarcely the
-ruins of an Army remaining with him. He has been pursued with all
-the eagerness that could be felt by an exasperated and triumphant
-Enemy. Thousands of his men have perished by famine,&mdash;thousands by
-the extremity of the Season, and in the course of the last ten days
-we have heard of more than thirty thousand who have laid down their
-arms almost without resistance. His Cavalry is in a more dreadful
-condition even than his Infantry. He has lost the greatest part
-of his Artillery,&mdash;has abandoned most of the baggage of his army,
-and has been even reduced to blow up his own stores of ammunition.
-The two wings of the Russian Armies have formed their junction and
-closed the passage to his retreat; and according to every human
-probability within ten days the whole remnant of his host will be
-compelled like the rest to lay down their arms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> and surrender at
-discretion. If he has a soul capable of surviving such an Event, he
-will probably be a prisoner himself.</p>
-
-<p>“Should he by some extraordinary accident escape in his own person,
-he has no longer a force nor the means of assembling one which can
-in the slightest degree be formidable to Russia. Even before his
-Career of victory had ceased, commotions against his Government
-had manifested themselves in his own Capital, on a false rumour of
-his death which had been circulated. Now, that if he returns at
-all, it must be as a solitary fugitive, it is scarcely possible
-that he should be safer at the Thuileries [<i>sic</i>], than he would
-be in Russia. His allies, almost every one of whom was such upon
-the bitterest compulsion, and upon whom he has brought the most
-impending danger of ruin, may not content themselves merely with
-deserting him. Revolutions in Germany, France, and Italy must be
-the inevitable consequence of this state of things, and Russia,
-whose influence in the political affairs of the World he expressly
-threatened to destroy, will henceforth be the arbitress of Europe.</p>
-
-<p>“It has pleased Heaven for many years to preserve this man, and
-to make him prosper, as an instrument of divine wrath to scourge
-mankind. His race is now run, and his own term of punishment has
-commenced.&mdash;‘Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his
-way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass&mdash;for
-yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt
-diligently consider his place and it shall not be.’ How often have
-I thought of this Oracle of divine truth, with an application of
-the Sentiment to this very man upon whom it is now so signally
-fulfilling. And how ardently would I pray the supreme disposer of
-Events that the other and more consolatory part of the same promise
-may now be also near its accomplishment&mdash;‘But the <i>meek</i> shall
-inherit the Earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of
-Peace.’”</p></div>
-
-<p class="center">John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p class="mbot1">“St. Petersburg, 31 December, 1812.</p>
-
-<p>“ ... In my last letter I gave you a sketch of the situation at
-that time of Napoleon the Great. There is no Account yet that he
-has personally surrendered himself;<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> but he has only saved
-himself by the swiftness of his flight, which on one occasion at
-least he was obliged to pursue in disguise. Of the immense host
-with which six months since he invaded Russia, nine tenths at least
-are prisoners, or food for worms. They have been surrendering
-by ten thousands at a time, and at this Moment there are at
-least one hundred and fifty thousand of them in the power of the
-Emperor Alexander. From Moscow to Prussia, eight hundred miles
-of road have been strewed with his Artillery, Baggage-Waggons,
-Ammunition-Chests, dead and dying men who he has been forced to
-abandon to their fate. Pursued all the time by three large regular
-armies of a most embittered and exasperated Enemy, and by an almost
-numberless militia of peasants, stung by the destruction of their
-harvests and cottages which he had carried before him, and spurr’d
-to Revenge at once themselves, their Country and their Religion.
-To complete his disasters, the Season itself during the greatest
-part of his Retreat has been unusually rigorous even for this
-Northern Climate. So that it has become a sort of bye-word among
-the Common People here that the two Russian Generals who have
-conquered Napoleon and all his Marshals are General <i>Famine</i> and
-General <i>Frost</i>. There may be and probably is some exaggeration
-in the accounts which have been received and officially published
-here of the late Events; but where the realities are so certain and
-so momentous the temptation to exaggerate and misrepresent almost
-vanishes.</p>
-
-<p>“In all human probability the Career of Napoleon’s conquests is
-at an end. France can no longer give the law to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> Continent of
-Europe. How he will make up his account with Germany, the victim
-of his former successful rashness, and with France, who rewarded
-it with an Imperial Crown is now to be seen. The transition
-from the condition of France in June last to her present State
-is much greater than would be from the present to her defensive
-campaign against the Duke of Brunswick in 1792. A new Era is
-dawning upon Europe. The possibility of a more propitious prospect
-is discernible; but to the great disposer of Events only is it
-known whether this new Revolution is to be an opening for some
-alleviation to human misery or whether it is to be only a variation
-of Calamities.</p>
-
-<p>“ ... I have already mentioned that the season has been unusually
-rigorous. In the course of this month of December, we have had
-seventeen days in succession with Fahrenheit’s thermometer almost
-invariably below 0. I now write you at that temperature, and
-notwithstanding the stoves and double windows my fingers can hardly
-hold the pen. The Sun rises at a quarter past 9 in the morning,
-and sets a quarter before 3 in the afternoon; so that we must live
-almost by Candlelight. We are all literally and really sick of the
-Climate. It is certainly contrary to the course of Nature, for men
-of the South to invade the Regions of the North. Napoleon should
-have thought of that....”</p></div>
-
-<p class="center">John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p class="mbot1">“St. Petersburg, 19 July, 1813.</p>
-
-<p>“ ... The Battle of Lützen<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> was claimed by both parties as a
-Victory, and was here celebrated as such by a Te Deum. But in
-its consequences it was the most important Victory ever won by
-Bonaparte&mdash;for it proved to all Europe that France was still able
-to cope with her Enemies, and even to make head against them.
-A second Battle<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> three weeks after had a similar and more
-unequivocal result. Between the first and second Battles Napoleon
-had proposed that a Congress should be assembled at Prague in
-Bohemia, to which all the powers at War, including the United
-States of America, should be invited to send Plenipotentiaries
-for the purpose of concluding a general Peace; and he offered to
-stipulate an Armistice, during the Negotiation. After the second
-Battle, Russia and Prussia, with the concurrence of Austria,
-accepted the proposition for an Armistice, limited however to the
-term of six weeks, probably with a view to receive the answer
-from England, whether she should choose to be represented at the
-Congress or not. This Armistice is now on the point of expiring,
-but is said to have been prolonged for six weeks more. In the
-meantime Napoleon has quartered his army upon the Territory of his
-Enemy in Silesia, is levying a contribution upon Hamburg of about
-ten Millions of Dollars, is doubly fortifying all his positions
-upon the Elbe, and receiving continual reinforcements to be
-prepared for renewing an offensive campaign. He has made sure of
-the aid and support of Denmark and Saxony, and strongly confirmed
-Austria in her propensities to neutrality. If the War should be
-renewed his prospects, though infinitely below those with which he
-invaded Russia, last Summer, will be far above those with which
-he entered upon the present Campaign in April. If the Congress
-should meet he will not have it in his power to give the law to
-Europe; but the Peace must be in effect of reciprocal and important
-concessions.</p>
-
-<p>“There has nothing occurred since the commencement of the French
-Revolution which has occasioned such astonishment throughout Europe
-as this state of things. There are many examples in History of the
-extraordinary defeat and annihilation of immensely powerful armies.
-But the reappearance of a second overpowering host, within five
-Months after the dissolution of the first, is I believe without a
-parallel....”<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p>
-
-<p class="center">John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p class="mbot1">“St. Petersburg, 19 November, 1813.</p>
-
-<p>“ ... Since the renewal of the War in Germany the odds of force
-have been too decisive against the French, and the catastrophe
-of their Army [at Dresden and Leipsic] has been nearly equal to
-that of the last year.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> Napoleon himself has been defeated
-and overpowered by the four combined armies of Austria, Russia,
-Prussia and Sweden, and on the 19th of October escaped from Leipsic
-leaving his ally the king of Saxony a Prisoner, more than twenty
-of his Generals, and forty thousand men also prisoners, and 400
-pieces of Cannon, Ammunition, baggage, etc., in proportion to the
-conquerors. All his other German Allies have deserted him and taken
-side against him; the Austrians are advancing in Italy, and Lord
-Wellington with his English, Spaniards and Portuguese, are invading
-France from the Pyrenees....”</p></div>
-
-<p class="center">John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p class="mbot1">“St. Petersburg, 24 January, 1814.</p>
-
-<p>“ ... The Events of the last two years have opened a new prospect
-to all Europe, and have discovered the glassy substance of the
-Colossal Power of France. Had that power been acquired by Wisdom,
-it might have been consolidated by Time and the most ordinary
-portion of Prudence. The Emperor Napoleon says that he was
-never <i>seduced</i> by Prosperity; but when he comes to be judged
-impartially by Posterity, that will not be their sentence. His
-Fortune will be among the wonders of the age in which he has lived.
-His Military Talent and Genius will place him high in the Rank
-of Great Captains; but his intemperate Passion, his presumptuous
-Insolence, and his Spanish and Russian Wars, will reduce him very
-nearly to the level of ordinary Men. At all Events he will be one
-of the standing examples of human Vicissitude&mdash;ranged, not among
-the Alexanders, Cæsars and Charlemagnes, but among the Hannibals,
-Pompeys and Charles the 12ths. I believe his Romance is drawing
-towards its close; and that he will soon cease even to yield a
-pretext for the War against France. England alone will be ‘afraid
-of the Gunpowder Percy, though he should be dead.’”<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p></div>
-
-<p class="center">John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p class="mbot1">“Reval, 12 May, 1814.</p>
-
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>
-
-<p>“ ... The Coalition of all Europe against France has at length
-been crowned with complete success. The annals of the World do
-not I believe furnish an example of such a reverse of Fortune as
-that Nation has experienced within the last two years.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> The
-interposition of Providence to produce this mighty change has been
-so signal, so peculiar, so distinct from all human co-operation,
-that in ages less addicted to superstition than the present
-it might have been considered as miraculous. As a Judgment of
-Heaven, it will undoubtedly be considered by all pious Minds now
-and hereafter, and I cannot but indulge the Hope that it opens a
-Prospect of at least more Tranquility and Security to the civilized
-part of Mankind than they have enjoyed the last half Century.
-France for the last twenty-five Years has been the scourge of
-Europe; in every change of her Government she has manifested the
-same ambitious, domineering, oppressive and rapacious Spirit to
-all her Neighbours. She has now fallen a wretched and helpless
-victim into their hands&mdash;dethroning the Sovereign she had chosen,
-and taking back the family she had expelled, at their command;
-and ready to be dismembered and parceled out as the Resentment
-or the Generosity of her Conquerors shall determine. The final
-Result is now universally, and in a great degree justly imputable
-to one Man. Had Napoleon Bonaparte, with his extraordinary Genius,
-and transcendent military talents, possessed an ordinary portion
-of Judgment or common Sense, France might have been for ages the
-preponderating Power in Europe, and he might have transmitted to
-his Posterity the most powerful Empire upon Earth, and a name
-to stand by the side of Alexander, Cæsar and Charlemagne&mdash;A name
-surrounded by such a blaze of Glory as to blind the eyes of all
-humankind to the baseness of its origin and even to the blood with
-which it would still have been polluted. But if the Catastrophe
-is the work of one Man, it was the Spirit of the Times and of the
-Nation, which brought forward that Man, and concentrated in his
-person and character the whole issue of the Revolution. ‘Oh! it
-is the Sport (says Shakespear) to see the Engineer hoist by his
-own petard.’ The sufferings of Europe are compensated and avenged
-in the humiliation of France.... The great danger of the present
-moment appears to me to be that the policy of crippling France to
-guard against her future power will be carried too far....”</p></div>
-
-<div class="section">
-
-<h3 id="MADAME_DE_STAEL">MADAME DE STAËL</h3>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="center">John Q. Adams to Thomas B. Adams</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p class="mbot1">“St. Petersburg, 22d November, 1812.</p>
-
-<p>“ ... Toward the close of the last summer arrived here as a sort of
-semi official appendage to the British embassy an old acquaintance
-of yours, Sir Francis D’Ivernois, who as you know has been for many
-years a distinguished political writer in the French language and
-in the Interest of the British Government. He came not I believe
-with, but very soon after, the Embassador Lord Cathcart.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> just
-at the same time a lady of celebrated fame, Madame de Staël, the
-daughter of Mr. Necker, was also here on a transient visit.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>
-As I had not the honor of being personally known to Madame de
-Staël and as we had just received information of the American
-Declaration of war against Britain, I had no expectation of having
-any communication or intercourse either with the Embassador or the
-lady. And I regretted this the less as my whole soul was at that
-period absorbed in the distressed situation of my family.... Early
-one morning I received a note from Madame de Staël, requesting me
-to call on her at her lodgings that same day at noon as she wished
-to speak to me on a subject respecting America.</p>
-
-<p>“I went accordingly at the hour appointed and upon entering the
-lady’s <i>salon</i> found there a company of some fifteen or twenty
-persons, not a soul of whom I had ever seen before. An elderly
-gentleman in the full uniform of an English General was seated on
-a sofa and the lady whom I immediately perceived to be Madame de
-Staël was complimenting him with equal elegance and fluency upon
-the glories of his nation, his countryman, Lord Wellington, and
-his own. The Battle of Salamanca and the bombardment of Copenhagen
-were themes upon which much was to be said and upon which she said
-much.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p>
-
-<p>“When I went in she intermitted her discourse for a moment to
-receive me and offer me a seat which I immediately took and for
-about half an hour had the opportunity to admire the brilliancy of
-her genius as it sparkled incessantly in her conversation. There
-was something a little too broad and direct in the substance of
-the panegyrics which she pronounced to allow them the claim of
-refinement. There was neither disguise nor veil to cover their
-naked beauties, but they were expressed with so much variety and
-vivacity that the hearers had not time to examine the thread of
-their texture. Lord Cathcart received the compliments pointed at
-himself with becoming modesty; those to his nation with apparent
-satisfaction and those to the conquest of Salamanca with silent
-acquiescence. The lady insisted that the British was the most
-astonishing nation of antient or modern times, the only preservers
-of social order, the defenders exclusively of the liberties of
-mankind, to which his lordship added that their glory was in
-being a moral nation, a character which he was sure they would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>
-always preserve. The glittering sprightliness of the Lady and
-the stately gravity of the Embassador were as well contrasted as
-their respective topics of praise, and if my mind had been at cast
-to relish anything in the nature of an exhibition I should have
-been much amused at hearing a Frenchwoman’s celebration of the
-generosity of the English towards other nations and a lecture upon
-national morality from the commander of the expedition Copenhagen.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_261" name="i_261">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_261.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Owned by the Century Association, New York. &emsp; &emsp;
-    Half-tone plate engraved by H. Davidson</p>
-  <p class="s5 center">JOHN QUINCY ADAMS</p>
-  <p class="s6 center mbot2">FROM THE PORTRAIT, PAINTED IN 1835, BY
-    ASHER B. DURAND</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>“During this sentimental duet between the ambassador and the
-Embassadress, kept my seat, merely an auditor. The rest of the
-company were equally silent. Among them was an English Naval
-Officer, Admiral Bentinck, since deceased. He was then quite the
-chevalier d’honneur to Madame de Staël but whether the scene<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> did
-not strike him precisely as it did me or whether his feelings
-resulting from it were of a more serious nature than mine the
-moment it was finished he drew a very long breath and sighed it
-out as if relieved from an offensive burden saying only ‘thank God
-that’s over.’ He and all the rest of the company immediately after
-that retired and left me tête-à-tête with Madame de Staël.</p>
-
-<p>“The subject respecting America was to tell me that she had a
-large sum in the American funds and to enquire whether I knew how
-she could contrive to receive the interest which she had hitherto
-received from England. I gave her such information as I possessed.
-She had also some lands in the State of New York of which she
-wished to know the value. I answered her as well as I could but her
-lands and her funds did not appear to occupy much of her thoughts.</p>
-
-<p>“She soon asked me if I was related to the celebrated Mr. Adams
-who wrote the book upon Government. I said I had the happiness
-of being his son. She said she had read it and admired it very
-much, that her father. Mr. Necker, had always expressed a very
-high opinion of it. She next commenced upon Politics and asked
-how it was possible that America should have declared war against
-England. In accounting for this phenomenon I was obliged to recur
-to a multitude of facts not as strongly stamped with British
-generosity or British Morality as might be expected from the
-character which she and the Embassador had just been assigning
-that nation. The orders in council and the press gang afforded but
-a sorry commentary upon the Chauvinesque defence of the liberties
-of mankind and no very instructive lessons of morality. She had
-nothing to say in their defence but she thought that the knights
-errant of the Human race were to be allowed special indulgence and
-in consideration of their cause were not to be held by the ordinary
-obligations of war and peace.</p>
-
-<p>“There was no probability that any arguments of mine could make
-any impression upon opinions thus toned. She listened, however,
-with as much complacency as could be expected to what I said and
-finally asked me why I had not been to see her before. I answered
-that her high reputation was calculated to inspire respect no less
-than curiosity and that however desirous I had been of becoming
-personally acquainted with her I had thought I could not without
-indiscretion intrude myself upon her Society. The reason appeared
-to please her. She said she was to leave this city the next day at
-noon. She was going to Stockholm to pass the winter and then to
-England. She wished to have another conversation with me before she
-went and asked me to call on her the next morning.</p>
-
-<p>“I readily accepted the invitation and we discussed politics again
-two or three hours. I found her better conversant with Rhetoric
-than with Logic. She had much to say about social order, much
-about universal monarchy, much about the preservation of religion
-in which she gave me to understand she did not herself believe,
-and much about the ambition and supremacy of Buonaparte upon which
-she soon discovered there was no difference of sentiment between
-us. But why did not America join in the holy cause against the
-tyrant? First because America had no means of making war against
-him, she could neither attack him by sea or land. 2d because it was
-a fundamental maxim of American policy never to intermeddle with
-the political affairs of Europe. Thirdly because it was altogether
-unnecessary. He had enemies enough upon his hands already. What!
-Did not I dread his universal monarchy? Not in the least. I saw
-indeed a very formidable mass of force arrayed under him, but I saw
-a mass of force at least as formidable arrayed against him. Europe
-contained about 100 millions of human beings. He was wielding the
-means of 15 millions and the means of 85 millions were wielding
-against him. It was an awful spectacle to behold the shock, but I
-did not believe nor ever had believed that he would ever be able to
-subjugate even the continent of Europe. If there had ever been any
-real danger of such an event it was passed.</p>
-
-<p>“She herself saw that there was every prospect of his being very
-shortly driven out of Spain. And I was equally convinced he would
-be driven out of Russia. It was the very day of the battle of
-Borodino. ‘J’en accepte l’augure,’ she said.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> ‘Everything that
-you say of him is very just. But I have particular reason for
-resentment against him. I have been persecuted by him in the most
-shameful manner. I was neither suffered to live anywhere nor to
-go where I would have gone, all for no other reason but because I
-would not eulogize him in my writings.’ As to our war with England
-I told her that I deeply lamented it and yet cherished the hope
-that it would not last long. That England had forced it upon
-us by measures as outrageous upon the rights of an independent
-nation as tyrannical as oppressive as any that could be charged
-upon Buonaparte. Her pretences were retaliation and necessity.
-Retaliation upon America for the wrongs of France and necessity
-for man Stealing. We asked of England nothing but our indisputable
-rights, but we allowed no special prerogatives to political
-Quixotism. We did not consider Britain at all as the defender
-of the liberties of mankind but as another Tyrant pretending to
-exclusive dominion upon the ocean. A pretension full as detestable
-and I trusted in God full as chimerical as the pretension of
-universal monarchy upon the land.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_263" name="i_263">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_263.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center no-break-before">MADAME DE STAËL</p>
-</div>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>“Madame de Staël was of her own opinion still but on the point of
-empressment she owned that my observations were reasonable. I have
-not yet found a European of any nation except the English who on
-having this question in its true state brought to a precise point
-had a syllable to say for the English side. In conclusion I told
-her that the pretended retaliation of England had compelled us to
-resort to real retaliation upon them and that as long as they felt
-a necessity to fight for the practice of stealing men from American
-merchant vessels on the high seas we should feel the <i>necessity</i> of
-fighting against it. I could only hope that God would prosper the
-righteous cause.</p>
-
-<p>“Madame de Staël charged me if I ever should be again in any place
-where she should be at the same time not to neglect paying her a
-visit which I very willingly promised. She left St. Petersburg
-the same day. I should ask Sir Francis D’Ivernois pardon. I began
-this letter with him, but whom can one help deserting for Madame
-de Staël? I will return to Sir Francis by the next opportunity.
-Dutifully and affectionately yours.”</p></div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_264" name="i_264">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_264.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center no-break-before">Half-tone plate engraved by H. Davidson</p>
-  <p class="s5 center">MY DAUGHTER</p>
-  <p class="s6 center">FROM THE PAINTING BY FRANK W. BENSON</p>
-  <p class="s5 center"><span class="s5">(THE CENTURY’S AMERICAN ARTISTS SERIES)</span></p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_264_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_265" name="i_265">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_265.jpg" alt="Headpiece for Sigiriya" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="SIGIRIYA">SIGIRIYA</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s4 center">“THE LIONS’ ROCK” OF CEYLON</p>
-
-<p class="s3 center">BY JENNIE COKER GAY</p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">WITH PICTURES BY DUNCAN GAY</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">“A</span>ND after that, that wicked ruler of men (Kassapa) sent his groom
-and his cook to his brother (Moggallana) to kill him. And finding
-that he could not fulfil his purpose, he feared danger, and took
-himself to Sihagiri rock, that was hard for men to climb. He
-cleared it round about and surrounded it by a rampart, and built
-galleries in it ornamented with figures of lions; wherefore it took
-its name of Sihagiri (‘The Lions’ Rock’). Having gathered together
-all his wealth, he buried it there carefully, and set guards over
-the treasures he had buried in divers places. He built there a
-lovely palace, splendid to behold....</p>
-
-<p>“He planted gardens at the gates of the city.... He observed the
-sacred days ... and caused books to be written. He made many
-images, alms-houses, and the like; but he lived on in fear of the
-world to come and of Moggallana.”<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p></div>
-
-<p>That is what history has to say about the founding of Sigiriya (or
-“Sihagiri,” as it is called in “The Mihavansa,”) and all that it has to
-say; just enough to arouse our interest, and not enough to satisfy it.
-At Anuradhpura we had come across numerous traces of Kassapa’s father,
-Dhatusena, who was counted a great king when he ruled Ceylon fifteen
-hundred years ago. And we were curious to see the place where Kassapa
-had sought safety after he had killed Dhatusena and usurped the
-throne, and had been forced to flee into the jungle for fear of his
-brother Moggallana; so we decided to follow this bold, wild patricide
-to his hiding-place not by the exact trail that he took, for no one
-knows by what roundabout wandering he finally reached the rock, but by
-the more modern and convenient, if somewhat dustier, way that leads
-along the iron rails of the Ceylon Government railroad.</p>
-
-<p>Sigiriya is southeast of Anuradhpura, and only about fifty miles away
-from it in a direct line; but around by way of Kandy, as we purposed
-to go, it is fully three times that far. It lies just north of the
-mountainous center of Ceylon at the edge of the great plain that
-stretches on the one hand to the Indian Ocean and on the other to the
-small waters that separate the island from the Indian peninsula.</p>
-
-<p>A long, hot ride through the western lowlands brought us to
-Polgahawela, where the road we were to follow diverges at a right angle
-from the main line, and we began to climb the magnificent mountains;
-past rice-fields, so substantially terraced up the sides of the hills
-that they looked like monstrous and never-ending fortifications; past
-forests of palms and masses of brilliant flowers; past the world-famed
-botanical gardens of Peradeniya, until just at dusk we came into the
-lovely town of Kandy, which seemed delightfully fresh and cool after
-the heaviness and heat of the plains. Beyond Kandy the road<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> began to
-descend again, until at Matale it suddenly came to an end, and we were
-obliged to look out for some less-modern conveyance for the continuance
-of our journey.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_266" name="i_266">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_266.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">SIGIRIYA ROCK</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>On the northeast coast of the island is a little place called
-Trincomali. For the convenience of this village and the scattered
-native settlements that lie between, a daily coaching service is
-maintained, and this we found we might take as far as Dambolo. The
-vehicle that was called a coach had a seat in front for the Cingalese
-driver and the mail-bags, and behind this, two lengthwise seats
-facing each other, which on a pinch could hold six persons, three on
-a side. Into this conveyance we climbed; in climbed also a shiny,
-round-headed Tamil, two wild-looking, magnificently dressed gentlemen
-from Afghanistan, and a mild and smiling Mohammedan. All the morning
-we rode, and at noon we changed horses and took lunch at a wayside
-rest-house. The Afghans left us here, and I felt more comfortable,
-for their mustaches curled in such a terribly fierce way, and their
-remarkable costumes offered such unlimited opportunity for the carrying
-of concealed weapons, as to warrant a certain uneasiness. We alighted
-at Dambolo, and the stage went on and left us. And yet Dambolo is a
-long way from Sigiriya&mdash;a long, long way in point of time.</p>
-
-<p>The little rest-house that the Government places wherever one wishes
-to spend the night took us in and gave us a room, and its Mohammedan
-keeper advised us to use the rest of the afternoon seeing the rock
-temples that have made Dambolo famous. Obediently we went to visit
-these gorgeously decorated caverns, but, I am<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> sorry to confess, they
-gave me no pleasure. They are wonderful, or would be if one were given
-an opportunity to look at them in peace and quiet; but one cannot
-wonder or admire or enjoy, or do anything but fume, with dozens of
-sleek yellow priests hanging about and holding out hands for Money!
-money!” at the opening of every door and at the entrance and exit of
-every cavern. This is a nuisance that the Government most certainly
-should correct, for it spoils the enjoyment of many of the island’s
-remarkable ruins.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_267" name="i_267">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_267.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">VIEW OF THE WESTERN PORTION OF THE GALLERY LEADING TO
-    THE CITADEL OF SIGIRIYA</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>We came down from the caves rather discouraged, but were somewhat
-cheered when we looked upon the decorations of the table that had been
-set for our dinner. An elaborate design was traced on the table-cloth
-by a sprinkling of rice that had been dyed a bright pink. The very
-holes in the cloth, and these were numerous, were turned into part
-of the decoration; for they were made the centers of flowers or the
-eyes of a bird, and one triangular rent formed the roof of a little
-cottage. The keeper of the rest-house, who seemed to be cook, waiter,
-and chambermaid, told us as he served the rice and chicken that he had
-engaged a bullock-cart to take us the rest of the way. It was late the
-next morning before the bullock, the cart, and the driver appeared at
-our door. A bullock about the size of a three-months’-old calf, an
-equally tiny cart, with an arched cover woven of split bamboo, and of
-course without a suggestion of springs, and a Tamil driver, his head
-tied up in the brightest of handkerchiefs, and with the ubiquitous
-sarong (only it is not called a sarong in Ceylon) dangling about his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>
-heels, made up our equipment for the last stage of the journey.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_268a" name="i_268a">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_268a.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">THE AUDIENCE-HALL ROCK</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>The fabled tortoise was an animal of speed compared with that bullock.
-Had we made an earlier start, I am sure we could have walked the whole
-way; but the terrible sun made walking impossible, and we were forced
-to keep huddled down under the cart’s protecting thatch. We could count
-the seconds while the little animal seemed to stand poised after each
-step. Even twisting his tail did little good, and beating none at all.
-Along each side of the road the jungle formed a solid wall too dense
-for beauty. Occasionally a bright-plumed bird peeped out through the
-trees, and once a small panther-like animal showed himself at the
-roadside, and our bullock actually ran until he was well away from the
-danger.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_268b" name="i_268b">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_268b.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 no-break-before">ONE OF THE ENTRANCES TO THE GALLERY LEADING TO
-    SIGIRIYA</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>We were hot and dusty and tired when at last we came in sight of
-Sigiriya, but in the presence of the strange impressiveness of this
-enormous rock, heat, dust, and weariness passed from our thoughts like
-a dream. It rose, this great shaft of granite, high above the trees,
-like some enormous mushroom sprung suddenly from the dank flatness of
-the jungle. Against the dusty green of the surrounding forest and the
-burned-out blue of the pale, hot sky its simple and majestic outline
-showed clean and sharp. But past all understanding was the brilliance
-of coloring that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> marked its walls. In the glare of the declining sun
-it looked as though a mighty battle had been fought upon the level
-crown, and the blood of thousands of warriors had spilled and trickled
-over the edge and down the cliff, and so set an indelible mark of
-fierceness and anger on the face of this somber jungle monster.</p>
-
-<p>At first we could see no evidence of past human occupation; but by and
-by, as we drew nearer, we were able to detect a little spiral line,
-broken here and there, that seemed to be wound about the face of the
-cliff. What concerned us more at the time, however, was that we could
-see no signs of present human habitation, and we were in sore need,
-after the jolt, jolt, jolt of our wretched little cart, of food and a
-place where we might sleep. Our Tamil driver, while he belabored his
-bullock to make him hurry, had been telling us of the elephants and
-tigers that lived out here in the jungle, and we could easily see for
-ourselves that the woods were thick enough to shelter a whole menagerie
-of animals; so it was with the greatest relief that we presently saw
-a little rest-house in front of us, and leaving the small bullock and
-his black driver to come as they pleased, we took to our own feet and
-hurried on to the protecting inclosure. After a long rest and a long
-good supper, we took our “Mihavansa,” and, there under the brow of the
-great “Lions’ Rock,” read again the strange, fragmentary history of
-Kassapa and his crime.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>“ ... And he (Dhatusena) had two sons,&mdash;Kassapa, whose mother was
-unequal in rank to his father, and Moggallana, a mighty man, whose
-mother was of equal rank with his father. Likewise also he had a
-beautiful daughter, who was as dear unto him as his own life. And
-he gave her to wife unto his sister’s son, to whom also he gave
-the office of chief of the army. And he (the nephew) scourged her
-on the thighs, albeit there was no fault in her. And when the king
-saw that his daughter’s cloth was stained with blood, he learned
-the truth and was wroth, and caused his nephew’s mother to be
-burnt naked. From that time forth the nephew bare malice against
-the king; and he joined himself unto Kassapa, and tempted him to
-seize the kingdom and betray his father. And then he gained over
-the people, and caused the king his father to be taken alive. And
-Kassapa raised the canopy of dominion after that he had destroyed
-the men of the king’s party and received the support of the wicked
-men in the kingdom. Thereupon Moggallana endeavored to make war
-against him. But he could not obtain a sufficient force, and
-proceeded to the Continent of India with the intent to raise an
-army there.</p>
-
-<p>“And that he might the more vex the king, who was now sorely
-afflicted ... this wicked general spake to Kassapa the king,
-saying, ‘O king, the treasures of the royal house are hidden by
-thy father.’ And when the king said unto him, ‘Nay,’ he answered,
-saying, ‘Knowest thou not, O Lord of the land, the purpose of this
-thy father? He treasureth up the riches for Moggallana.’ And when
-the base man heard these words he was wroth, and sent messengers
-unto his father, saying, ‘Reveal the place where thou hast hid the
-treasure.’ Thereupon the king thought to himself, saying: ‘This
-is a device whereby the wretch seeketh to destroy us’; and he
-remained silent. And they (the messengers) went and informed the
-king thereof. And his anger was yet more greatly increased, and he
-sent the messengers back unto him again and again. Then the king
-(Dhatusena) thought to himself, saying, ‘It is well that I should
-die after that I have seen my friend and washed myself in the
-Kalavapi.’ So he told the messengers saying, ‘Now, if he will cause
-me to be taken to Kalavapi, then shall I be able to find out the
-treasure.’</p>
-
-<p>“And when they went and told the king thereof he was exceedingly
-glad, because that he desired greatly to obtain the treasure, and
-he sent the messengers back to his father with a chariot. And while
-the king, with his eyes sunk in grief, proceeded on the journey to
-Kalavapi, the charioteer who drove the chariot gave him some of the
-roasted rice that he ate....</p>
-
-<p>“And when his friend, the Elder, heard that the king was coming,
-he preserved and set apart a rich meal of beans with the flesh of
-water-fowls that he had obtained, saying, ‘The king loveth this
-sort of meat.’ ...</p>
-
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>
-
-<p>“Then the king went up to the tank, and after that he had plunged
-therein and bathed and drank of its water as it pleased him, he
-turned to the king’s servants and said, ‘O friends, this is all
-the treasure that I possess!’ And when the king’s servants heard
-these words they took him back to the city and informed the king.
-Then the chief of men was exceeding wroth and said, ‘This man
-hoardeth up riches for his son; and so long as he liveth will
-he estrange the people of the island from me.’ And he commanded
-the chief of the army, saying, ‘Kill my father.’ Thereupon he
-(the general), who hated him exceedingly, was greatly delighted
-and said, ‘Now have I seen the last of my enemy.’ And he arrayed
-himself in all his apparel, and went up to the king, and walked
-to and fro before him.... Then this violent man stripped the king
-naked, and bound him with chains inside the walls of his prison
-with his face to the east and caused it to be plastered up with
-clay. What wise man, therefore, after that he hath seen such
-things, will covet riches, or life, or glory!”</p></div>
-
-<p>Kassapa was most certainly a wicked man,&mdash;the reading of “The
-Mihavansa” leaves no doubt of that,&mdash;but when we came next day to look
-over the remains of his city and to study this formidable rock that
-he had subjugated and turned into a citadel, we knew that he was also
-a man of genius. When he found that he was in danger from his brother
-Moggallana, whom he had attempted in vain to kill, he led his host of
-half-naked warriors out from the ancient capital of Anuradhpura into
-the jungle, seeking for a refuge. Whether design or accident led him to
-Sigiriya we do not know, but we do know that once having looked upon
-its four hundred feet of towering walls and upon its uplifted acres, he
-had the wisdom to see its possibilities and the genius to overcome the
-difficulties, to an ordinary man the impossibilities, of the situation.
-I dare say the abundance of his need helped his genius to speak; but
-no matter what his incentive, when he conceived the notion of building
-against this gigantic, cylindrical rock a spiral gallery which would
-place at his disposal the four flat acres that crowned the summit, he
-laid claim to the respect and admiration of ages.</p>
-
-<p>The sides of the rock, which we had at first supposed to be
-perpendicular, are really concave, and perhaps it would be more exact
-to speak of this gallery as being built into, rather than against,
-the mighty column. With such surpassing genius is it placed that it
-literally makes itself one with the rock it embraces. To gain some sort
-of foothold for the masonry, deep grooves were cut in the face of the
-cliff, and from these a wall of brick and mortar was erected, and this
-in turn supported the great limestone blocks which form the surface of
-the road. This roadway was wide enough for four men to walk abreast,
-and was protected by a wall nine feet high.</p>
-
-<p>It is hard to emphasize sufficiently the wild boldness of the
-conception and achievement. From base to summit the splendid gallery
-mounted. Breaking the gentle slope here and there to lift itself
-suddenly by a short flight of stairs, buttressed at one too abrupt
-corner, snuggling at places under the brow of the rock, and at the one
-terrace that breaks the height on the north side, it rose in direct
-steps between the paws and up through the body of a great masonry
-lion that Kassapa had built against the cliff. Finally it sought out
-the only place where the top does not overhang the sides for its last
-hurried dash before flinging itself triumphantly over the edge of the
-summit.</p>
-
-<p>The walls of this gallery were finished with some smooth, shining white
-cement. It must have looked, when it was all in place, like a huge,
-gleaming serpent wound about the face of the rock. Of course at the
-present day much of it, indeed most of it, has fallen away; but the
-fact that, despite the washing rains that for many years have come
-pouring over the sides of the rock, one hundred yards of it remains in
-almost perfect condition is proof of its splendid construction. For
-the rest of the way the gallery can be traced by the deep grooves that
-supported its base.</p>
-
-<p>When, with the help of these grooves and the protecting bars that the
-Government has kindly placed to give the adventurous traveler at least
-a chance to reach the summit in safety, we had climbed to the very top,
-we understood at last the unnatural markings on the face of the cliff
-that had before puzzled us. Kassapa built his citadel of bright-red
-brick. The whole crown of the rock was covered with his palaces, and
-after they had fallen and crumbled, the heavy rains smeared the walls
-with great streaks and patches of this brilliant stain.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_271" name="i_271">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_271.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s5 center no-break-before">PLAN OF THE TOPMOST PORTION OF THE INNER CITY OF
-    SIGIRIYA. (BASED ON A CEYLON GOVERNMENT SURVEY MAP)</p>
-  <p class="s6 center">The right-hand side of the map is the north side, the
-    top is the west.</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_271_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="mtop2_eb">The ground that lies at the base of the rock is not less interesting
-than that upon its summit. Over the wooded sides of the little hill
-that culminates in the great shaft, and spreading out into the jungle
-about its foot, are the remains of the city that Kassapa built for his
-army and followers. A strange city it must have been. The main houses
-were of brick with tiled roofs, but these more formal dwellings were
-supplemented by semi-caves tucked under the sides of every available
-boulder. All the large stones show notches, cut evidently to hold the
-ends of rafters and roof-beams. Up many of the highest boulders steps
-have been hewn, possibly to make them accessible as watch-towers,
-and at almost every turn one comes upon the indispensable cistern
-that made living through the long dry season possible. Some of these
-reservoirs were hewn out of solid stone, but most were built of brick
-and cement, and the one little stream in the neighborhood was dammed
-to form a large pond, which even now lies like a lake at the foot of
-the little hill. So there was an outer city interspersed with gardens,
-an inner city set on innumerable terraces up the slope of the hill,
-and surmounting all, lifted four hundred feet above the crest of the
-hill on its gigantic pedestal, stood the king’s palace and citadel. And
-about all the city Kassapa built great protecting walls. So three times
-over Kassapa fortified himself.</p>
-
-<p>We tried to trace the main passageway from the outer fortification to
-the foot of the gallery, but we had only our imagination for a guide.
-When we came to the huge balloon-like boulders that form a gateway to
-a flight of steps, we felt sure that we had found the main entrance
-to the inner city. The face of these boulders showed the usual cuts
-for the support of rafters, and we could trace about them in masses
-of decaying brick the outer walls of what might have been watchmen’s
-lodges. Up these steps and a few feet farther on lies the stone that is
-called the audience-hall rock. This is the half of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> great elliptical
-rock laid round side down. Its upper surface has been cut to form a
-floor, with an elevated platform at the upper end, and about its edges
-a heavy coping, all cut from the rock itself. Here presumably the lord
-of the city sat to receive ambassadors and visitors from the outside
-world, as no one not a follower of Kassapa was admitted to the central
-citadel.</p>
-
-<p>But strangest of all the Sigiriya ruins, as unique in thought and
-masterly in execution as the great spiral gallery itself, are the
-remains of a pictured procession that some believe once marched across
-the whole face of the cliff. The fragments of this great picture show
-female figures, larger than life, carrying in their hands bunches of
-fruit and flowers. They are painted on smooth, white plaster in colors
-that apparently have lost none of their brilliancy, and are so strongly
-drawn in face and figure that by some they are held to be portraits of
-the women of Kassapa’s court. Though this fresco may have encircled the
-rock, it remains now only in the protected crevices of its western face.</p>
-
-<p>For eighteen years Kassapa lived and reigned at Sigiriya. He was as
-secure in his fortress as though he lived in the clouds. His army
-remained faithful. His colony was thriving, and yet in the end he fell
-into the hands of that dreaded Moggallana. One day word was brought
-to him that his brother had returned from India, and with an army was
-advancing against him. Instead of remaining within his fortifications
-and challenging his brother to penetrate to his citadel, he went down
-from his rock to meet his enemy.</p>
-
-<p>Even then he might have been victorious had not blind chance
-interfered. In the course of the battle, Kassapa, riding in advance of
-his army, came to a marsh, and turned his elephant to avoid it. When
-his followers saw this, the cry went up that the king was retreating,
-and the whole army broke in confusion, and fled through the woods.
-Kassapa tried in vain to check the panic, and finally cut his own
-throat. And “Moggallana was pleased with this deed of boldness of his
-brother, and performed the rite of cremation over his dead body; and
-having gathered all his spoils, went up to the royal city.”</p>
-
-<p>So Sigiriya fell from being a kingly citadel, and was given over to the
-priesthood. Why it was finally abandoned by the priests we do not know,
-but for centuries now it has stood in majestic loneliness watching over
-the jungle.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="AT_THE_CLOSED_GATE_OF_JUSTICE">AT THE CLOSED GATE OF
-JUSTICE</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s3 center">BY JAMES D. CORROTHERS</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse"><span class="drop-cap_poetry">T</span>O be a Negro in a day like this</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Demands forgiveness. Bruised with blow on blow,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Betrayed, like him whose woe-dimmed eyes gave bliss,</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Still must one succor those who brought one low,</div>
-      <div class="verse">To be a Negro in a day like this.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">To be a Negro in a day like this</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Demands rare patience&mdash;patience that can wait</div>
-      <div class="verse">In utter darkness. ’Tis the path to miss,</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">And knock, unheeded, at an iron gate,</div>
-      <div class="verse">To be a Negro in a day like this.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">To be a Negro in a day like this</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Demands strange loyalty. We serve a flag</div>
-      <div class="verse">Which is to us white freedom’s emphasis.</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Ah! one must love when truth and justice lag,</div>
-      <div class="verse">To be a Negro in a day like this.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">To be a Negro in a day like this&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Alas! Lord God, what evil have we done?</div>
-      <div class="verse">Still shines the gate, all gold and amethyst,</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">But I pass by, the glorious goal unwon,</div>
-      <div class="verse">“Merely a Negro”&mdash;in a day like <i>this</i>!</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="BELLES_DEMOISELLES_PLANTATION">BELLES DEMOISELLES
-PLANTATION<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor"><span class="s6">[22]</span></a></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s3 center">BY GEORGE W. CABLE</p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot1">Author of “Old Creole Days,” “The Grandissimes,”
-“Madame Delphine,” etc.</p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot1">WITH PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR AND NEW PICTURES BY
-W. M. BERGER</p>
-
-<p class="s4 center mbot2">(NOTEWORTHY STORIES OF THE LAST GENERATION)</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">T</span>HE original grantee was Count&mdash;&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>Assume the name to be De Charleu; the old Creoles never forgive a
-public mention. He was the French king’s commissary. One day, called
-to France to explain the lucky accident of the commissariat having
-burned down with his account-books inside, he left his wife, a Choctaw
-comtesse, behind.</p>
-
-<p>Arrived at court, his excuses were accepted, and that tract was granted
-him where afterward stood Belles Demoiselles Plantation. A man cannot
-remember everything. In a fit of forgetfulness he married a French
-gentlewoman, rich and beautiful, and “brought her out.” However, “All’s
-well that ends well”; a famine had been in the colony, and the Choctaw
-comtesse had starved, leaving naught but a half-caste orphan family
-lurking on the edge of the settlement, bearing our French gentlewoman’s
-own new name, and being mentioned in monsieur’s will.</p>
-
-<p>And the new comtesse&mdash;she tarried only a twelvemonth&mdash;left monsieur a
-lovely son, and departed, led out of this vain world by the swamp-fever.</p>
-
-<p>From this son sprang the proud Creole family of De Charleu. It rose
-straight up, up, up, generation after generation, tall, branchless,
-slender, palm-like, and finally, in the time of which I am to tell,
-flowered, with all the rare beauty of a century-plant, in Artémise,
-Innocente, Félicité, the twins Marie and Martha, Léontine, and little
-Septima, the seven beautiful daughters for whom their home had been
-fitly named Belles Demoiselles.</p>
-
-<p>The count’s grant had once been a long point round which the
-Mississippi used so to whirl and seethe and foam that it was horrid
-to behold. Big whirlpools would open and wheel about in the savage
-eddies under the low bank, and close up again, and others open and
-spin and disappear. Great circles of muddy surface would boil up from
-the depths below and gloss over and seem to float away; sink, come back
-again under water, and with only a soft hiss surge up again, and again
-drift off and vanish. Every few minutes the loamy bank would tip down a
-great load of earth upon its besieger, and fall back a foot, sometimes
-a yard, and the writhing river would press after, until at last the
-<i>pointe</i> was quite swallowed up, and the great river glided by in a
-majestic curve and asked no more. The bank stood fast, the “caving”
-became a forgotten misfortune, and the diminished grant was a long,
-sweeping, willowy bend, rustling with miles of sugar-cane.</p>
-
-<p>Coming up the Mississippi in the sailing-craft of those early days,
-about the time one first could descry the white spires of the old St.
-Louis Cathedral, one would be pretty sure to spy just over to the
-right, under the levee, Belles Demoiselles mansion, with its broad
-veranda and red-painted cypress roof, peering over the embankment, like
-a bird in the nest, half hidden by the avenue of willows which one of
-the departed De Charleus&mdash;he that married a Marot&mdash;had planted on the
-levee’s crown.</p>
-
-<p>The house stood unusually near the river, facing eastward, and standing
-foursquare, with an immense veranda about its sides, and a flight of
-steps in front spreading broadly downward, as we open arms to a child.
-From the veranda nine miles of river were seen; and in their compass,
-near at hand, the shady garden, full of rare and beautiful flowers;
-farther away broad fields of cane and rice and the distant quarters
-of the slaves; and on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> horizon everywhere a dark belt of cypress
-forest.</p>
-
-<p>The master was old Colonel De Charleu&mdash;Jean-Albert-Henri-Joseph De
-Charleu-Marot, and “Colonel” by the grace of the first American
-governor. Monsieur&mdash;he would not speak to any one who called him
-“Colonel”&mdash;was a hoary-headed patriarch. His step was firm; his form
-erect; his intellect strong and clear; his countenance classic, serene,
-dignified, commanding; his manners were courtly; his voice was musical,
-fascinating. He had had his vices all his life, but had borne them,
-as his race does, with a serenity of conscience and a cleanness of
-mouth that left no outward blemish on the surface of the gentleman.
-He had gambled in Royal Street, drank hard in Orleans Street, run his
-adversary through in the dueling-ground at Slaughter-House Point, and
-danced and quarreled at the St. Phillippe-Street Theater quadroon
-balls. Even now, with all his courtesy and bounty, and a hospitality
-which seemed to be entertaining angels, he was bitter-proud and
-penurious, and deep down in his hard-finished heart loved nothing
-but himself, his name, and his motherless children. But these! Their
-ravishing beauty was all but excuse enough for the unbounded idolatry
-of their father. Against these seven goddesses he never rebelled. Had
-they even required him to defraud old De Carlos&mdash;I can hardly say.</p>
-
-<p>Old De Carlos was his extremely distant relative on the Choctaw side.
-With this single exception, the narrow, thread-like line of descent
-from the Indian wife, diminished to a mere strand by injudicious
-alliances, and deaths in the gutters of old New Orleans, was extinct.
-The name, by Spanish contact, had become De Carlos, but this one
-surviving bearer of it was known to all, and known only, as Injin
-Charlie.</p>
-
-<p>One thing I never knew a Creole to do: he will not utterly go back on
-the ties of blood, no matter what sort of knots those ties may he. For
-one reason, he is never ashamed of his or his father’s sins; and for
-another, he will tell you, he is “all heart.”</p>
-
-<p>So the different heirs of the De Charleu estate had always strictly
-regarded the rights and interests of the De Carloses, especially
-their ownership of a block of dilapidated buildings in a part of the
-city which had once been very poor property, but was beginning to be
-valuable. This block had much more than maintained the last De Carlos
-through a long and lazy lifetime, and as his household consisted
-only of himself and an aged and crippled Negress, the inference was
-irresistible that he “had money.” Old Charlie, though by alias an
-“Injin,” was plainly a dark white man, about as old as Colonel De
-Charleu, sunk in the bliss of deep ignorance, shrewd, deaf, and, by
-repute at least, unmerciful.</p>
-
-<p>The colonel and he always conversed in English. This rare
-accomplishment, which the former had learned from his Scotch wife,
-the latter from up-river traders, they found an admirable medium of
-communication, answering better than French could a purpose similar
-to that of the stick which we fasten to the bit of one horse and to
-the breast-gear of another, whereby each keeps his distance. Once in a
-while, too, by way of jest, English found its way among the ladies of
-Belles Demoiselles, always signifying that their sire was about to have
-business with old Charlie.</p>
-
-<p>Now, a long-standing wish to buy out Charlie troubled the colonel. He
-had no desire to oust him unfairly, he was proud of being always fair;
-yet he did long to engross the whole estate under one title. Out of his
-luxurious idleness he had conceived this desire, and thought little of
-so slight an obstacle as being already somewhat in debt to old Charlie
-for money borrowed, and for which Belles Demoiselles was of course good
-ten times over. Lots, buildings, rents, all, might as well be his, he
-thought, to give, keep, or destroy. Had he but the old man’s heritage!
-Ah, he might bring that into existence which his <i>belles demoiselles</i>
-had been begging for “since many years&mdash;” a home, and such a home,
-in the gay city! Here he should tear down this row of cottages and
-make his garden wall; there that long rope-walk should give place to
-vine-covered arbors; the bakery yonder should make way for a costly
-conservatory; that wine warehouse should come down; and the mansion
-go up. It should be the finest in the State. Men should never pass it
-but they should say:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> “The palace of the De Charleus, a family of grand
-descent, a people of elegance and bounty, a line as old as France, a
-fine old man, and seven daughters as beautiful as happy. Whoever dare
-attempt to marry there must leave his own name behind him.”</p>
-
-<p>The house should be of stones fitly set, brought down in ships from the
-land of “<i>les</i> Yankees” and it should have an airy belvedere, with a
-gilded image tiptoeing and shining on its peak, and from it you should
-see, far across the gleaming folds of the river, the red roof of Belles
-Demoiselles, the country-seat. At the big stone gate there should be a
-porter’s lodge, and it should be a privilege even to see the ground.</p>
-
-<p>Truly they were a family fine enough and fancy-free enough to have fine
-wishes, yet happy enough where they were to have had no wish but to
-live there always.</p>
-
-<p>To those who by whatever fortune wandered into the garden of Belles
-Demoiselles some summer afternoon as the sky was reddening toward
-evening, it was lovely to see the family gathered out upon the tiled
-pavement at the foot of the broad front steps, gaily chatting and
-jesting, with that ripple of laughter that comes pleasingly from a
-bevy of girls. The father would be found seated among them, the center
-of attention and compliment, witness, arbiter, umpire, critic, by his
-beautiful children’s unanimous appointment, but the single vassal, too,
-of seven absolute sovereigns.</p>
-
-<p>Now they would draw their chairs near together in eager discussion of
-some new step in the dance or the adjustment of some rich adornment.
-Now they would start about him with excited comments to see the eldest
-fix a bunch of violets in his buttonhole. Now the twins would move down
-a walk after some unusual flower, and be greeted on their return with
-the high-pitched notes of delighted feminine surprise.</p>
-
-<p>As evening came on they would draw more quietly about their paternal
-center. Often their chairs were forsaken, and they grouped themselves
-on the lower steps one above another, and surrendered themselves to the
-tender influences of the approaching night. At such an hour the passer
-on the river, already attracted by the dark figures of the broad-roofed
-mansion and its woody garden standing against the glowing sunset,
-would hear the voices of the hidden group rise from the spot in the
-soft harmonies of an evening song, swelling clearer and clearer as the
-thrill of music warmed them into feeling, and presently joined by the
-deeper tones of the father’s voice; then, as the daylight passed quite
-away, all would be still, and the passer would know that the beautiful
-home had gathered its nestlings under its wings.</p>
-
-<p>And yet, for mere vagary, it pleased them not to be pleased.</p>
-
-<p>“Arti,” called one sister to another in the broad hall one morning,
-mock amazement in her distended eyes, “something is goin’ to took
-place!”</p>
-
-<p>“Comm-e-n-t?” in long-drawn perplexity.</p>
-
-<p>“Papa is goin’ to town!”</p>
-
-<p>The news passed up-stairs.</p>
-
-<p>“Inno,”&mdash;one to another meeting in a doorway,&mdash;“something is goin’ to
-took place!”</p>
-
-<p>“Qu’est-ce-que c’est?” in vain attempt at gruffness.</p>
-
-<p>“Papa is goin’ to town!”</p>
-
-<p>The unusual tidings were true. It was afternoon of the same day that
-the colonel tossed his horse’s bridle to his groom, and stepped up
-to old Charlie, who was sitting on his bench under a china-tree, his
-head, as was his fashion, bound in a madras handkerchief. The “old
-man” was plainly under the effect of spirits, and smiled a deferential
-salutation, without trusting himself to his feet.</p>
-
-<p>“Eh, well, Charlie,”&mdash;the colonel raised his voice to suit his
-kinsman’s deafness,&mdash;“how is those times with my friend Charlie?”</p>
-
-<p>“Eh?” said Charlie, distractedly.</p>
-
-<p>“Is that goin’ well with my friend Charlie?”</p>
-
-<p>“In the house; call her,” making pretense of rising.</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Non, non</i>; I don’t want,”&mdash;the speaker paused to breathe,&mdash;“’Ow is
-collection?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh,” said Charlie, “every day he make me more poorer.”</p>
-
-<p>“What do you hask for it?” asked the planter, indifferently,
-designating the house with a wave of his whip.</p>
-
-<p>“Ask for w’at?” said Injin Charlie.</p>
-
-<p>“De <i>house</i>. What you ask for it?”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t believe,” said Charlie.</p>
-
-<p>“What you would <i>take</i> for it?” cried the planter.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>“Wait for w’at?”</p>
-
-<p>“What you would <i>take</i> for the whole block?”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t want to sell him.”</p>
-
-<p>“I’ll give you <i>ten thousand dollah’</i> for it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Ten t’ousand dollah’ for dis house? Oh, no, that is no price. He is
-blame’ good old house, that old house.” Old Charlie and the colonel
-never swore in presence of each other. “Forty years that old house
-didn’t had to be paint’! I easy can get fifty t’ousand dollah’ for that
-old house.”</p>
-
-<p>“Fifty thousand picayunes, yes,” said the colonel.</p>
-
-<p>“She’s a good house. Can make plenty money,” pursued the deaf man.</p>
-
-<p>“That’s what make’ you so rich, eh, Charlie?”</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Non</i>, I don’t make nothing. Too blame’ clever, me, dat’s de troub’.
-She’s a good house; make money fast like a steamboat; make a barrelful
-in a week. Me, I lose money all the days. Too blame’ clever.”</p>
-
-<p>“Charlie.”</p>
-
-<p>“Eh?”</p>
-
-<p>“Tell me what you’ll take.”</p>
-
-<p>“Make? I don’t make <i>nothing</i>. Too blame’ clever.”</p>
-
-<p>“What will you <i>take</i>?”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, I got enough already; half drunk now.”</p>
-
-<p>“What you will take for the ’ouse?”</p>
-
-<p>“You want to buy her?”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t know,”&mdash;shrug,&mdash;“may<i>be</i>, if you sell it cheap.”</p>
-
-<p>“She’s a bully old house.”</p>
-
-<p>There was a long silence. By and by old Charlie began:</p>
-
-<p>“Old Injin Charlie is a low-down dog.”</p>
-
-<p>“C’est vrai, oui,” retorted the colonel in an undertone.</p>
-
-<p>“He’s got Injin blood in him.”</p>
-
-<p>The colonel nodded assent.</p>
-
-<p>“But he’s got some blame’ good blood, too, ain’t it?”</p>
-
-<p>The colonel nodded impatiently.</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Bien.</i> Old Charlie’s Injin blood says, ‘Sell the house, Charlie, you
-blame’ old fool!’ <i>Mais</i>, old Charlie’s good blood says, ‘Charlie, if
-you sell that old house, Charlie, you low-down old dog, Charlie, what
-de Comte De Charleu make for you’ grace-gran’muzzer, de dev’ can eat
-you, Charlie, I don’t care.’”</p>
-
-<p>“But you’ll sell it, anyhow, won’t you, old man?”</p>
-
-<p>“No!” And the no rumbled off in muttered oaths like thunder out on the
-gulf. The incensed old colonel wheeled and started off.</p>
-
-<p>“Curl!” [“Colonel”] said Charlie, standing up unsteadily.</p>
-
-<p>The planter turned with an inquiring frown.</p>
-
-<p>“I’ll trade with you,” said Charlie. The colonel was tempted. “’Ow’ll
-you trade?” he asked.</p>
-
-<p>“My house for yours.”</p>
-
-<p>The old colonel turned pale with anger. He walked very quickly back,
-and came close up to his kinsman.</p>
-
-<p>“Charlie,” he said.</p>
-
-<p>“Injin Charlie,” with a tipsy nod.</p>
-
-<p>But by this time self-control was returning. “Sell Belles Demoiselles
-to you?” he said in a high key, and then laughed, “Ho! ho! ho!” and
-rode away.</p>
-
-<p class=" p0 mtop2">A <span class="smaller">CLOUD</span>, but not a dark one, overshadowed the spirits of Belles
-Demoiselles Plantation. The old master, whose beaming presence had
-always made him a shining Saturn, spinning and sparkling within the
-bright circle of his daughters, fell into musing fits, started out of
-frowning reveries, walked often by himself, and heard business from his
-overseer fretfully.</p>
-
-<p>No wonder. The daughters knew his closeness in trade, and attributed
-to it his failure to negotiate for the old Charlie buildings, so to
-call them. They began to depreciate Belles Demoiselles. If a north
-wind blew, it was too cold to ride. If a shower had fallen, it was too
-muddy to drive. In the morning the garden was wet. In the evening the
-grasshopper was a burden. Ennui was turned into capital, every headache
-was interpreted a premonition of ague, and when the native exuberance
-of a flock of ladies without a want or a care burst out in laughter
-in the father’s face, they spread their French eyes, rolled up their
-little hands, and with rigid wrists and mock vehemence vowed and vowed
-again that they laughed only at their misery, and should pine to death
-unless they could move to the sweet city. “Oh, the theater! Oh, Orleans
-Street! Oh, the masquerade, the Place d’Armes, the ball!” and they
-would call upon Heaven with French irreverence, and fall into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> one
-another’s arms, whirl down the hall singing a waltz, end with a grand
-collision and fall, and, their eyes streaming merriment, lay the blame
-on the slippery floor, which some day would be the death of the whole
-seven.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_277" name="i_277">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_277.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center mbot1 no-break-before">Engraved on wood by Timothy Cole</p>
-  <p class="s5 center">GEORGE W. CABLE</p>
-  <p class="s6 center">Author of “Belles Demoiselles Plantation.”</p>
-  <p class="s6 center mbot2">FROM AN EARLY PORTRAIT BY ABBOTT H. THAYER</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>Three times more the fond father, thus goaded, managed, by
-accident&mdash;business accident&mdash;to see old Charlie and increase his offer;
-but in vain. He finally went to him formally.</p>
-
-<p>“Eh?” said the deaf and distant relative. “For what you want him, eh?
-Why you don’t stay where you halways be ’appy? This is a blame’ old
-rat-hole; good for old Injin Charlie, tha’s all. Why you don’t stay
-where you be halways ’appy? Why you don’t buy somewhere else?”</p>
-
-<p>“That’s none of your business,” snapped the planter. Truth was, his
-reasons were unsatisfactory even to himself.</p>
-
-<p>A sullen silence followed. Then Charlie spoke:</p>
-
-<p>“Well, now, look here; I sell you old Charlie’s house.”</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Bien</i>, and the whole block,” said the colonel.</p>
-
-<p>“Hold on,” said Charlie. “I sell you de ’ouse and de block. Den I go
-and git drunk and go to sleep; de dev’ comes along and says: ‘Charlie,
-old Charlie, you blame’ low-down old dog, wake up! What you doin’ here?
-Where’s de ’ouse what Monsieur le Comte give your grace-gran’muzzer?
-Don’t you see dat fine gentyman De Charleu done gone and tore him down
-and make him over new, you blame’ old fool, Charlie, you low-down old
-Injin dog!’”</p>
-
-<p>“I’ll give you forty thousand dollars,” said the colonel.</p>
-
-<p>“For de ’ouse?”</p>
-
-<p>“For all.”</p>
-
-<p>The deaf man shook his head.</p>
-
-<p>“Forty-five,” said the colonel.</p>
-
-<p>“What a lie? For what you tell me ‘What a lie?’ I don’t tell you no
-lie.”</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Non, non</i>; I give you <i>forty-five</i>,” shouted the colonel.</p>
-
-<p>Charlie shook his head again.</p>
-
-<p>“Fifty.”</p>
-
-<p>He shook it again.</p>
-
-<p>The figures rose and rose to “Seventy-five.”</p>
-
-<p>The answer was an invitation to go away and let the owner alone, as he
-was, in certain specified respects, the vilest of living creatures,
-and no company for a fine “gentyman.”</p>
-
-<p>The fine “gentyman” longed to blaspheme; but before old Charlie, in the
-name of pride, how could he? He mounted and started away.</p>
-
-<p>“Tell you what I’ll make wid you,” said Charlie.</p>
-
-<p>The other, guessing aright, turned back without dismounting, smiling.</p>
-
-<p>“How much Belles Demoiselles howes me now?” asked the deaf one.</p>
-
-<p>“One hundred and eighty thousand dollars,” said the colonel, firmly.</p>
-
-<p>“Yass,” said Charlie. “I don’t want Belles Demoiselles.”</p>
-
-<p>The old colonel’s quiet laugh intimated it made no difference either
-way.</p>
-
-<p>“But me,” continued Charlie&mdash;“me, I’m got le Comte De Charleu’s blood
-in me, any’ow&mdash;a litt’ bit, any’ow, ain’t it?”</p>
-
-<p>The colonel nodded that it was.</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Bien.</i> If I go out of dis place and don’t go to Belles Demoiselles,
-de peoples will say&mdash;dey-will say: ‘Old Charlie he been all doze time
-tell a blame’ <i>lie</i>. He ain’t no kin to his old grace-gran’muzzer, not
-a blame’ bit. He don’t got nary drop of De Charleu blood to save his
-blame’ low-down old Injin soul.’ No, sare! What I want wid money, den?
-No, sare! My place for yours.”</p>
-
-<p>He turned to go into the house just too soon to see the colonel make an
-ugly whisk at him with his riding-whip. Then the colonel, too, moved
-off.</p>
-
-<p>Two or three times over, as he ambled homeward, laughter broke through
-his annoyance as he recalled old Charlie’s family pride and the
-presumption of his offer. Yet each time he could but think better of
-not the offer to swap, but the preposterous ancestral loyalty. It
-was so much better than he could have expected from his “low-down”
-relative, and not unlike his own whim withal, the proposition which
-went with it was forgiven.</p>
-
-<p>This last defeat bore so harshly on the master of Belles Demoiselles
-that the daughters, reading chagrin in his face, began to repent. They
-loved their father as daughters can, and when they saw their pretended
-dejection harassing him seriously, they restrained their complaints,
-displayed more than ordinary tenderness,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> and heroically and
-ostentatiously concluded there was no place like Belles Demoiselles.
-But the new mood touched him more than the old, and only refined his
-discontent. Here was a man, rich without the care of riches, free
-from any real trouble, happiness as native to his house as perfume to
-his garden, deliberately, as it were with premeditated malice, taking
-joy by the shoulder and bidding her be gone to town, whither he might
-easily have followed only that the very same ancestral nonsense that
-kept Injin Charlie from selling the old place for twice its value
-prevented him from choosing any other spot for a city home.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_279" name="i_279">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_279.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center mbot1 no-break-before">Drawn by W. M. Berger. &emsp; &emsp; Half-tone
-    plate engraved by R. Varley</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2">“‘I’LL GIVE YOU TEN THOUSAND DOLLAH’ FOR IT’”</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>Heaven sometimes pities such rich men and sends them trouble.</p>
-
-<p>By and by the charm of nature and the merry hearts around prevailed;
-the fit of exalted sulks passed off, and after a while the year flared
-up at Christmas, flickered, and went out.</p>
-
-<p>New-Year came and passed; the beautiful garden of Belles Demoiselles
-put on its spring attire; the seven fair sisters moved from rose to
-rose; the cloud of discontent had warmed into invisible vapor in the
-rich sunlight of family affection; and on the common memory the only
-scar of last year’s wound was old Charlie’s sheer impertinence in
-crossing the caprice of the De Charleus. The cup of gladness seemed to
-fill with the filling of the river.</p>
-
-<p>How high it was! Its tremendous current rolled and tumbled and spun
-along, hustling the long funeral flotillas of drift, and how near
-shore it came! Men were out day and night watching the levee. Even
-the old colonel took part, and grew light-hearted with occupation
-and excitement, as every minute the river threw a white arm over the
-levee’s top, as though it would vault over. But all held fast, and, as
-the summer drifted in, the water sank down into its banks and looked
-quite incapable of harm.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_280" name="i_280">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_280.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center mbot1 no-break-before">Drawn by W. M. Berger. &emsp; &emsp; Half-tone
-    plate engraved by R. Varley</p>
-  <p class="s5 center">“A SOUND REVEL FELL ON THE EAR, THE MUSIC OF HARPS: AND ACROSS ONE
-    WINDOW ... FLITTED ONCE OR TWICE THE SHADOWS OF DANCERS”</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2 ebhide"><a href="images/i_280_large.jpg">&#10063;<br />
-  <span class="smaller">LARGER IMAGE</span></a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p class="mtop2_eb">On a summer afternoon of uncommon mildness, old Colonel
-Jean-Albert-Henri-Joseph De Charleu-Marot, being in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> mood for
-reverie, slipped the custody of his feminine rulers and sought the
-crown of the levee, where it was his wont to promenade. Presently
-he sat upon a stone bench, a favorite seat. Before him lay his
-broad-spread fields; near by, his lordly mansion; and being still,
-perhaps by female contact, somewhat sentimental, he fell to musing
-on his past. It was hardly worthy to be proud of. All its morning
-was reddened with mad frolic, and far toward the meridian it was
-marred with elegant rioting. Pride had kept him well-nigh useless,
-and despised the honors won by valor; gaming had dimmed prosperity;
-death had taken his heavenly wife; voluptuous ease had mortgaged his
-lands: and yet his house still stood, his sweet-smelling fields were
-still fruitful, his name was fame enough, and yonder and yonder, among
-the trees and flowers, like angels walking in Eden, were the seven
-goddesses of his only worship.</p>
-
-<p>Just then a slight sound behind him brought him to his feet. He cast
-his eyes anxiously to the outer edge of the little strip of bank
-between the levee’s base and the river. There was nothing visible. He
-paused, with his ear toward the water, his face full of frightened
-expectation. Ha! There came a single plashing sound, like some great
-beast slipping into the river, and little waves in a wide semicircle
-came out from under the bank and spread over the water.</p>
-
-<p>“My God!”</p>
-
-<p>He plunged down the levee and bounded through the low weeds to the edge
-of the bank. It was sheer, and the water about four feet below. He did
-not stand quite on the edge, but fell upon his knees a couple of yards
-away, wringing his hands, moaning, weeping, and staring through his
-watery eyes at a fine, long crevice just discernible under the matted
-grass, and curving outward on each hand toward the river.</p>
-
-<p>“My God!” he sobbed aloud&mdash;“My God!” and even while he called, his God
-answered: the tough Bermuda grass stretched and snapped, the crevice
-slowly became a gap, and softly, gradually, with no sound but the
-closing of the water at last, a ton or more of earth settled into the
-boiling eddy and disappeared.</p>
-
-<p>At the same instant a pulse of the breeze brought from the garden
-behind the joyous, thoughtless laughter of the fair mistresses of
-Belles Demoiselles.</p>
-
-<p>The old colonel sprang up and clambered over the levee. Then forcing
-himself to a more composed movement, he hastened into the house and
-ordered his horse.</p>
-
-<p>“Tell my children to make merry while I am gone,” he left word. “I
-shall be back to-night,” and the big horse’s hoofs clattered down a
-by-road leading to the city.</p>
-
-<p>“Charlie,” said the planter, riding up to a window from which the old
-man’s nightcap was thrust out, “what you say, Charlie&mdash;my house for
-yours? Eh, Charlie, what you say?”</p>
-
-<p>“’Ello!” said Charlie. “From where you come from dis time of to-night?”</p>
-
-<p>“I come from the Exchange.” A small fraction of the truth.</p>
-
-<p>“What you want?” said matter-of-fact Charlie.</p>
-
-<p>“I come to trade.”</p>
-
-<p>The low-down relative drew the worsted off his ears. “Oh, yass,” he
-said with an uncertain air.</p>
-
-<p>“Well, old man Charlie, what you say? My house for yours, like you
-said, eh, Charlie?”</p>
-
-<p>“I dunno,” said Charlie; “it’s nearly mine now. Why you don’t stay dare
-you’se’f?”</p>
-
-<p>“Because I don’t want,” said the colonel, savagely. “Is dat reason
-enough for you? You better take me in de notion, old man, I tell you,
-yes!”</p>
-
-<p>Charlie never winced; but how his answer delighted the colonel! Said
-Charlie:</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t care, I take him. <i>Mais</i>, possession give’ right off.”</p>
-
-<p>“Not the whole plantation, Charlie; only&mdash;”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t care,” said Charlie; “we easy can fix dat. <i>Mais</i>, what for
-you don’t want to keep him. I don’t want him. You better keep him.”</p>
-
-<p>“Don’ you try to make no fool of me, old man,” cried the planter.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, no,” said the other. “Oh, no; but you make a fool of yourself,
-ain’t it?” The dumfounded colonel stared; Charlie went on:</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p>
-<p>“Yass, Belles Demoiselles is more wort’ dan t’ree block like dis one.
-I pass by dare since two weeks. Oh, pretty Belles Demoiselles! De cane
-was wave in de wind, de garden smell like a bouquet, de white-cap was
-jump up and down on de river, seven <i>belles demoiselles</i> was ridin’ on
-horses. ‘Pretty, pretty, pretty!’ says old Charlie. Ah, <i>Monsieur le
-père</i>, ’ow ’appy, ’appy, ’appy!”</p>
-
-<p>“Yass,” he continued, the colonel still staring, “le Comte De Charleu
-have two famil’. One was low-down Choctaw, one was high-up <i>noblesse</i>.
-He give the low-down Choctaw dis old rat-hole; he give Belles
-Demoiselles to your gran’fozzer; and now you don’t be <i>satisfait</i>. What
-I’ll do wid Belles Demoiselles? She’ll break me in two years, yass. And
-what you’ll do wid old Charlie’s house, eh? You’ll tear her down and
-make you’se’f a blame’ old fool. I rather wouldn’t trade.”</p>
-
-<p>The planter caught a big breath of anger, but Charlie went straight on:</p>
-
-<p>“I rather wouldn’t, <i>mais</i>, I will do it for you&mdash;just de same, like
-<i>Monsieur le Comte</i> would say, ‘Charlie, you old fool, I want to shange
-houses wid you.’”</p>
-
-<p>So long as the colonel suspected irony he was angry, but as Charlie
-seemed, after all, to be certainly in earnest, he began to feel
-conscience-stricken. He was by no means a tender man, but his lately
-discovered misfortune had unhinged him, and this strange, undeserved,
-disinterested family fealty on the part of Charlie touched his heart.
-And should he still try to lead him into the pitfall he had dug? He
-hesitated. No, he would show him the place by broad daylight, and if
-he chose to overlook the “caving bank,” it would be his own fault. A
-trade’s a trade.</p>
-
-<p>“Come,” said the planter&mdash;“come at my house to-night; to-morrow we look
-at the place before breakfast, and finish the trade.”</p>
-
-<p>“For what?” said Charlie.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, because I got to come in town in the morning.”</p>
-
-<p>“I don’t want,” said Charlie. “How I’m goin’ to come dere?”</p>
-
-<p>“I git you a horse at the liberty-stable.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, anyhow, I don’t care; I’ll go.” And they went.</p>
-
-<p>When they had ridden a long time, and were on the road darkened
-by hedges of Cherokee rose, the colonel called behind him to the
-“low-down” scion:</p>
-
-<p>“Keep the road, old man.”</p>
-
-<p>“Eh?”</p>
-
-<p>“Keep the road.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, yes, all right; I keep my word. We don’t goin’ to play no tricks,
-eh?”</p>
-
-<p>But the colonel seemed not to hear. His ungenerous design was beginning
-to be hateful to him. Not only old Charlie’s unprovoked goodness was
-prevailing; the eulogy on Belles Demoiselles had stirred the depths of
-an intense love for his beautiful home. True, if he held to it, the
-caving of the bank at its present fearful speed would let the house
-into the river within three months; but were it not better to lose it
-so than sell his birthright? Again, coming back to the first thought,
-to betray his own blood! It was only Injin Charlie; but had not the De
-Charleu blood just spoken out in him? Unconsciously he groaned.</p>
-
-<p>After a time they struck a path approaching the plantation in the
-rear, and a little after, passing from behind a clump of live-oaks,
-they came in sight of the villa. It looked so like a gem, shining
-through its dark grove, so like a great glow-worm in the dense foliage,
-so significant of luxury and gaiety, that the poor master, from an
-overflowing heart, groaned again.</p>
-
-<p>“What?” asked Charlie.</p>
-
-<p>The colonel only drew his rein, and, dismounting mechanically,
-contemplated the sight before him. The high, arched doors and windows
-were thrown wide to the summer air, from every opening the bright
-light of numerous candelabra darted out upon the sparkling foliage of
-magnolia and bay, and here and there in the spacious verandas a colored
-lantern swayed in the gentle breeze. A sound of revel fell on the ear,
-the music of harps; and across one window, brighter than the rest,
-flitted once or twice the shadows of dancers. But, oh, the shadows
-flitting across the heart of the fair mansion’s master!</p>
-
-<p>“Old Charlie,” said he, gazing fondly at his house, “you and me is both
-old, eh?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yass,” said the stolid Charlie.</p>
-
-<p>“And we has both been bad enough in our time, eh, Charlie?”</p>
-
-<p>Charlie, surprised at the tender tone, repeated, “Yass.”</p>
-
-<p>“And you and me is mighty close?”</p>
-
-<p>“Blame’ close, yass.”</p>
-
-<p>“But you never know me to cheat, old man?”</p>
-
-<p>“No,” impassively.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_283" name="i_283">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_283.jpg" alt="" /></a>
-  <p class="s6 center mbot1 no-break-before">Drawn by W. M. Berger. &emsp; &emsp; Half-tone
-    plate engraved by R. C. Collins</p>
-  <p class="s5 center mbot2">THE OLD COLONEL AND HIS NURSE</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>“And do you think I would cheat you now?”</p>
-
-<p>“I dunno,” said Charlie. “I don’t believe.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, old man, old man,”&mdash;his voice began to quiver,&mdash;“I sha’n’t cheat
-you now. My God! old man, I tell you&mdash;you better not make the trade!”</p>
-
-<p>“Because for what?” asked Charlie in plain anger; but both looked
-quickly toward the house. The colonel tossed his hands wildly in the
-air, rushed forward a step or two, and, giving one fearful scream of
-agony and fright, fell forward on his face in the path. Old Charlie
-stood transfixed with horror. Belles Demoiselles, the realm of maiden
-beauty, the home of merriment, the house of dancing, all in the tremor
-and glow of pleasure, suddenly sank, with one short, wild wail of
-terror&mdash;sank, sank, down, down, down, into the merciless, unfathomable
-flood of the Mississippi.</p>
-
-<p class="p0 mtop2">T<span class="smaller">WELVE</span> long months were midnight to the mind of the childless father.
-When they were only half gone, he took to his bed; and every day
-and every night old Charlie, the “low-down,” the “fool,” watched
-him tenderly, tended him lovingly, for the sake of his name, his
-misfortunes, and his broken heart. No woman’s step crossed the floor
-of the sick chamber, the western dormer-windows of which overpeered
-the dingy architecture of old Charlie’s block. Charlie and a skilled
-physician, the one all interest, the other all gentleness, hope, and
-patience, only these entered by the door; but by the window came in
-a sweet-scented evergreen vine, transplanted from the caving hank of
-Belles Demoiselles. It caught the rays of sunset in its flowery net and
-let them softly in upon the sick man’s bed; gathered the glancing beams
-of the moon at midnight, and often wakened the sleeper to look, with
-his mindless eyes, upon their pretty silver fragments strewn upon the
-floor.</p>
-
-<p>By and by there seemed&mdash;there was&mdash;a twinkling dawn of returning
-reason. Slowly, peacefully, with an increase unseen from day to day,
-the light of reason came into the eyes, and speech became coherent; but
-withal there came a failing of the wrecked body, and the doctor said
-that monsieur was both better and worse.</p>
-
-<p>One evening as Charlie sat by the vine-clad window with his fireless
-pipe in his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> hand, the old colonel’s eyes fell full upon his own, and
-rested there.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_284a" name="i_284a">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_284a.jpg" alt="The colonel and the demoiselles" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p>“Charl&mdash;,” he said with an effort, and his delighted nurse hastened to
-the bedside and bowed his best ear. There was an unsuccessful effort or
-two, and then he whispered, smiling with sweet sadness:</p>
-
-<p>“We did’nt trade.”</p>
-
-<p>The truth in this case was a secondary matter to Charlie; the main
-point was to give a pleasing answer. So he nodded his head decidedly,
-as who should say, “Oh, Yes, we did; it was a bona-fide swap.” But
-when he saw the smile vanish, he tried the other expedient, and shook
-his head with still more vigor to signify that they had not so much as
-approached a bargain; and the smile returned.</p>
-
-<p>Charlie wanted to see the vine recognized. He stepped backward to the
-window with a broad smile, shook the foliage, nodded, and looked smart.</p>
-
-<p>“I know,” said the colonel, with beaming eyes; “many weeks.”</p>
-
-<p>The next day he said:</p>
-
-<p>“Charl&mdash;”</p>
-
-<p>The best ear went down.</p>
-
-<p>“Send for a priest.”</p>
-
-<p>The priest came, and was alone with him a whole afternoon. When he
-left, the patient was very haggard and exhausted, but smiled, and would
-not suffer the crucifix to be removed from his breast.</p>
-
-<p>One more morning came. Just before dawn Charlie, lying on a pallet in
-the room, thought he was called, and came to the bedside.</p>
-
-<p>“Old man,” whispered the failing invalid, “is it caving yet?”</p>
-
-<p>Charlie nodded.</p>
-
-<p>“It won’t pay you out.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, dat makes not’ing,” said Charlie. Two big tears rolled down his
-brown face. “Dat makes not’ing.”</p>
-
-<p>The colonel whispered once more:</p>
-
-<p>“<i>Mes belles demoiselles</i>&mdash;in paradise&mdash;in the garden. I shall be with
-them at sunrise.” And so it was.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_284b" name="i_284b">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_284b.jpg" alt="Tailpiece for The Demoiselles" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="COLONEL_WATTERSONS_REJOINDER_TO_EX-SENATOR_EDMUNDS">COLONEL
-WATTERSON’S REJOINDER TO EX-SENATOR EDMUNDS</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s4 center mbot1">COMMENTS ON “ANOTHER VIEW OF ‘THE HAYES-TILDEN CONTEST’”
-(<a href="#i_192"><span class="smaller">SEE PAGE</span> 193</a>)</p>
-
-<p class="p0">To the Editor of T<span class="smaller">HE</span>
-C<span class="smaller">ENTURY</span>:</p>
-
-<p>Sir: If I may say so without departing from the respect and regard
-in which I hold Senator Edmunds, he has made rather a case at law
-than a contribution to history. With the trained skill of an expert,
-he emphasizes all that may be pleaded on his own side, whilst either
-ignoring or belittling the strength of the other side. The ultimate
-verdict in the matter of Tilden <i>versus</i> Hayes will turn on issues
-which the Electoral Commission refused, by a party vote of eight to
-seven, to consider; on evidence in equity which was not allowed to
-become a part of the record; upon rulings of the majority which the
-minority claimed, and justly claimed I think, to have been sometimes
-erroneous and sometimes inconsistent, but in every instance obedient to
-the party exigency.</p>
-
-<p>I have neither the mind nor the heart to recall the wrangles and
-passions of the controversy. To me they mean nothing more than the
-half-forgotten dreams of a very dark night of the long ago. One may
-dismiss the exciting incidents: the conflicting testimony in Florida
-and Louisiana; the contested elector in Oregon; the tergiversation in
-opinions of some of the members of the court; the playing State law
-against National law, and vice versa, in a shuttlecock process all
-on one side, the unescapable inference being that from the first the
-majority was bent upon denying Tilden the one vote needed to make him
-President and securing to Hayes the twelve votes needed to make him
-President.</p>
-
-<p>One may likewise dismiss the long list of questionable persons
-appointed to office under the Hayes administration, apparently from no
-other consideration than their service as members of returning boards
-and officers of election, most of them charged with corrupt practices.</p>
-
-<p>At the election of the seventh of November, 1876, the popular vote was
-as follows:</p>
-
-<table class="tilden" summary="Tilden's majority">
-  <tr>
-    <td class="padr5">
-      For Tilden
-    </td>
-    <td>
-      4,300,316
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="padr5">
-      For Hayes
-    </td>
-    <td class="underline">
-      4,036,016
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class="padr5">
-      &nbsp;&ensp;Tilden’s majority
-    </td>
-    <td>
-      &#8199;<span class="hidden">,</span>264,300
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<p>The total vote for Tilden was nearly 700,000 larger than Grant’s
-against Greeley. Of the electoral vote, the Republicans conceded Tilden
-184. The electoral votes of Louisiana and Florida, thrown into dispute
-before Congress and the Electoral Commission, but finally cast by the
-commission for Hayes, determined the result. Referring to my narrative
-of the events immediately succeeding the election and preceding the
-creation of the electoral tribunal, judge Edmunds says:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>Historically, it is very unfortunate that Mr. Watterson did not
-include in his enlivening article copies of his telegraphic
-and other correspondence with Mr. Tilden from New Orleans, and
-elsewhere, for it would certainly and truly, as far as it went,
-throw much light on the existing drama being displayed, as well as
-the plans and work behind the curtain whereby (we may believe) it
-was hoped to produce the election of Mr. Tilden. We Republicans at
-Washington were forced to believe that an effort was being made, by
-every means that could be employed, to overcome the Hayes majority
-of one. During that whole period, so far as I personally knew or
-was informed, there never was any scheme or act of the Republicans
-to bribe any State canvassing board or elector by money or promise
-in support of Mr. Hayes’s election. We did (if I may borrow an
-ancient classic simile) fear “the Greeks bearing gifts.” We were
-morally certain that a large majority of the legal voters in the
-States of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana were earnestly
-in favor of the election of Mr. Hayes, and we believe that if
-vio<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>lence or some other kind of unlawful influence were not brought
-to bear the electoral votes of those States would be cast for
-him; but when the secret though bold operations of Colonel Pelton
-became partly known we were astonished and alarmed, though not
-disheartened, and we went forward in our efforts to provide by law
-for the final act in the great drama.</p></div>
-
-<p>It is quite certain that all the telegraphic correspondence I had
-with Mr. Tilden reached Republican headquarters as soon as it reached
-Gramercy Park. Assuredly I never wrote or wired him a word that I
-should be unwilling to have appear in print. May I not claim the
-circumstance that the Republicans used none of it as going to the
-credit either of my prudence or my patriotism, or of both?</p>
-
-<p>At no time did I apprehend any physical collision, although General
-Grant seemed to fear one, and although two of the most famous and
-popular heroes among the general officers of the Union army at
-Washington were pressing armed organization upon the Democrats. It was
-distinctly the South that would not listen to the suggestion of force.
-Truth to say, both sides were playing something of a “bluff.” Neither
-was either ready or anxious for a fight, and, in extremis, whichever
-won, the other was bound to submit. My sole thought was publicity,
-agitation; this I urged from the outset and continued to urge to the
-end.</p>
-
-<p>In reverting to these events, my purpose was chiefly to vindicate the
-personal integrity of Mr. Tilden. Neither he nor Mr. Hewitt nor any one
-in authority was willing to win by fraud. As I have stated, and as Mr.
-Hewitt stated, fraudulent possession was offered, and I directly know
-that Mr. Tilden refused to accept the Presidency as the result of an
-arrangement perfectly simple and obvious and absolutely certain.</p>
-
-<p>One might imagine, by a perusal of Judge Edmunds, that the Republican
-lambs were greatly afraid of the Democratic wolves, and put themselves
-to many pains to circumvent the Democratic conspiracy set on foot
-immediately after the election. As a matter of fact, the reverse is
-true. The returning boards were made up of Republicans, not Democrats.
-The Southern States were still under military surveillance and
-martial law. All were invoked to coerce the vote and the counting of
-the vote. Whatever the worst of Democrats may have contemplated, the
-Republicans overmatched by deeds. They held the resources and the power
-of possession; the State governors, the President of the United States,
-the Senate, the Supreme Court, the army and navy; the Democrats held
-only the lower House of Congress, and what they believed the justice of
-their case.</p>
-
-<p>Hayes had to receive every vote in dispute to be elected. The loss
-of a single vote would have defeated him. Hence the majority of the
-Electoral Commission could not throw out Florida and Louisiana, as
-many thought the equities in each instance required. In his speech on
-the vote of Louisiana, the very eminent Julius H. Seelye, president of
-Amherst College, who sat in the Forty-fourth Congress as a Republican
-from Massachusetts, said:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>Wiser and more candid men would be hard to find than those of this
-Electoral Commission who have pronounced the decision on which
-we are now called to vote. I acknowledge I think I appreciate
-the strength of their position. We cannot be too jealous of
-the constitutional right of a State to choose its Presidential
-electors “in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.” We
-cannot be too careful of congressional interference with the duly
-accredited results of such a choice. Whether we like or dislike it,
-the right of a State to choose its electors in its own way, and to
-ascertain and certify as to the method of their choice, is beyond
-our lawful control. All this I accept as a formal and technical
-statement of a clear principle of our Constitution; a principle,
-moreover, in its general application as wise as it is clear.</p>
-
-<p>But, Mr. Speaker, there are cases where the <i>summum jus</i> becomes
-the <i>summa injuria</i>; cases where the law, strictly interpreted and
-strenuously enforced, works out results contrary to all law; and in
-such cases equity lays the letter of the law aside and lifts her
-voice in judgment as the sovereign spirit of the law, the spirit of
-righteousness and truth declares. I find such a case in the pending
-issue.</p>
-
-<p>Granted&mdash;and I hold this to be incontestable&mdash;that this Electoral
-Commission has clearly interpreted and accurately ap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>plied the
-Constitution and the laws to the question submitted to them, yet
-what if the very principle on which the Constitution and the laws
-must ultimately rest becomes thereby subverted? Granted that the
-decision reached is fairly within the bond; yet what if the pound
-of flesh cannot be taken without its drop of blood? What if this
-jealous care for State rights and constitutional prerogatives
-may so foster faction, and so blunt the sense of justice, and
-so increase the prevalence of fraud that the very foundation of
-prerogatives and rights has disappeared?</p>
-
-<p>... No nation, said Niebuhr, ever died except by suicide; and the
-suicidal poison is engendered not so much in the unjust statutes
-of a government as in the immoral practices of a people, which
-the government is unable to punish and unable to restrain. It is
-because I fear that the strict and accurate interpretation of the
-Constitution, applied to the electoral vote of Louisiana, would
-imperil that vote in the future, and increase the very danger which
-the Constitution intended to avoid, that I am unable to concur with
-such an application.</p></div>
-
-<p>I commend this to the perusal of Senator Edmunds, though it is unlikely
-to impress a mind which could declare, as Senator Edmunds does
-declare in the April issue of T<span class="smaller">HE</span> C<span class="smaller">ENTURY</span> M<span class="smaller">AGAZINE</span>, “that
-the constitutional amendments and reconstruction and other laws were
-passed by Congress as the best measures available in the complicated
-and untoward situation. These measures were not measures of cruelty or
-tyranny, but of justice and hopefulness. After the lapse of years it
-is evident to me that nothing better could have been done, and that
-nothing done by Congress should have been omitted.”</p>
-
-<p>Against the plan of reconstruction, here approved so unreservedly and
-despite the events that came after, unremembered if not condoned by
-Judge Edmunds, I set the plan of Abraham Lincoln, laid in a larger
-conception of human nature and better knowledge of the character
-of the people of the South. None of the dangers apprehended and
-foreshadowed by Mr. Edmunds would have come to pass had Lincoln lived
-to put his plan on foot and conduct it to achievement. The South was
-in desolation. The leaders of the secession movement had been wholly
-discredited by the result of the war. All their calculations and
-promises had been disastrously falsified. They could no more escape the
-consequences of their failure than could other public men, baffled and
-defeated by events.</p>
-
-<p>The murder of Lincoln removed the sun from the heavens. The clouds of
-hate and fear, or both, overspread the sky. The policy of “thorough,”
-adopted by the Radicals in Congress, was not only cruel, taking no
-account of the myriads in the South who had perpetrated no wrong,
-but was obtusely senseless, on one hand breeding an oligarchy of
-corruption, and, on the other, driving a whole people to desperation.
-It was thus, and thus alone, that a “solid South” was created.</p>
-
-<p>God was more merciful than Congress. The North came to see that the
-South was a part of itself. Nothing happened in the South that, in
-the same circumstances and conditions, would not have happened at the
-North. We are indeed the most homogeneous people on the face of the
-globe. Our balanced system of representative government, strong in the
-hearts of the people, is the best and freest, because the most flexible
-and adjustable, on earth. We have outlived secession; we have survived
-reconstruction; we have weathered a disputed succession, complicated
-and embittered; we are passing through, and shall surely surmount,
-other and still more insidious approaches of revolution. Tilden is
-dead. Hayes is dead. They were but atoms in a sum total which sweeps
-onward unaffected by either of them, then, or since&mdash;a few loaves and
-a few fishes the while involved&mdash;toward the goal, the yet more perfect
-day, that shines before us.</p>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="mright2">H<span class="smaller">ENRY</span>
-W<span class="smaller">ATTERSON</span>,</span><br />
-<span class="mright1">“Courier-Journal” Office,</span><br />
-<span class="mright2">Louisville, Kentucky.</span></p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="TO_ALFRED_NOYES">TO ALFRED NOYES</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s4 center">APOSTLE OF POETRY AND PEACE</p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mtop1 mbot1">AN APRIL GREETING ON HIS RETURN FROM THE SOUTH</p>
-
-<p class="s3 center">BY EDWIN MARKHAM</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza padb1">
-      <div class="verse"><span class="drop-cap_poetry">A</span>GAIN the mood of Eden on the earth!</div>
-      <div class="verse">Again the summons and the mystic mirth,</div>
-      <div class="verse">The beauty and the wonder and the dare,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Thrilling the heart, the field, the delicate air!</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza padb1">
-      <div class="verse">So now once more the old remembering:</div>
-      <div class="verse">The lyric hosts come out of the South with song,</div>
-      <div class="verse">With music that can save the soul from wrong&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse">The immemorial multitudes a-wing</div>
-      <div class="verse">Down bright savannas, over the greening trees.</div>
-      <div class="verse">Hark, the first warbling in the bough soft-stirred!</div>
-      <div class="verse">And you, O Poet, with your wingèd word,</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft2">You come convoyed by these!</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza padb1">
-      <div class="verse">You come with all the buds and birds astart&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse">You with the heart of April in your heart.</div>
-      <div class="verse">So take our banded welcome as we drink</div>
-      <div class="verse">A health to you on April’s flowering brink&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse">To you come hither from that elder clime,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Where April has been wreathed in poet’s rhyme,</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft2">Been touched with love and tears</div>
-      <div class="verse">By English minstrels down a thousand years.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza padb1">
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>
-      <div class="verse">And now that Sherwood Forest calls you home</div>
-      <div class="verse">Over the furrows of the ocean foam,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Take message from this people to your own&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse">To England, with her scented hawthorns blown,</div>
-      <div class="verse">And all her skylarks in a rapture-pain</div>
-      <div class="verse">Sprinkling the happy fields with lyric rain.</div>
-      <div class="verse">Tell her that, lordlier than her cliffs and towers,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Tell her that, mightier than her pomps and powers,</div>
-      <div class="verse">We see her line of poets stretching back</div>
-      <div class="verse">Ten centuries, a bright, immortal track.</div>
-      <div class="verse">Tell her that while she builded the things that seem,</div>
-      <div class="verse">They built her glory out of deathless dream.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza padb1">
-      <div class="verse">Ah, more is that wild beauty left by Keats</div>
-      <div class="verse">Than all the blazon of her kingly seats;</div>
-      <div class="verse">More is that wonder from the hand of Blake</div>
-      <div class="verse">Than all her guns that make the nations quake;</div>
-      <div class="verse">More is her Shelley, with his starry dare,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Than all her flags ringed round with battle blare;</div>
-      <div class="verse">More her blind Milton voyaging the vast</div>
-      <div class="verse">Than all her squadrons shearing down the blast;</div>
-      <div class="verse">And more is Shakspere, lord of lyric seers,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Than all her conquests of a thousand years.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse mleft2">But none of all the line</div>
-      <div class="verse">(Save only Shelley, darling of the Nine)</div>
-      <div class="verse">Has cried as you have cried the valorous vow</div>
-      <div class="verse">Of Love’s heroic heart, God’s prayer to men</div>
-      <div class="verse">To cease the wolfish battles of the den.</div>
-      <div class="verse">And so the Muses bind upon your brow</div>
-      <div class="verse">The olive with the laurel; for your song</div>
-      <div class="verse">Bears on that dauntless prayer against the wrong,</div>
-      <div class="verse">The cry the embassy of angels sent</div>
-      <div class="verse">Of old across the Syrian firmament,</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft2">Above the stable door.</div>
-      <div class="verse">For in your voice we still can hear their cry</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft2">Sound down into our sky:</div>
-      <div class="verse">“Let there be peace: let battles be no more!”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter break-before">
-   <a id="i_288" name="i_288">
-   <img class="mtop2 mbot1" src="images/i_288.jpg"
-      alt="To Alfred Noyes (1)" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter break-before">
-   <a id="i_289" name="i_289">
-   <img src="images/i_289.jpg"
-      alt="To Alfred Noyes (2)" /></a>
-   <p class="s5 center no-break-before"><b>(Original Images)</b></p>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_290" name="i_290">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_290.jpg" alt="Headpiece for Paper of Puns" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_PAPER_OF_PUNS">A PAPER OF PUNS</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s3 center">BY BRANDER MATTHEWS</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">W</span>HEN two major artists have chosen to turn aside from the practice of
-their art to discuss one of its principles, there may be an intrusive
-impropriety in a mere outsider’s rashly urging a reconsideration of any
-point they have felicitously sharpened. Yet it was only by impaling
-himself upon the acute weapons of his adversaries that Arnold von
-Winkelried was able to make way for liberty&mdash;an act of self-sacrifice
-which cost him his life and gained him immortality.</p>
-
-<p>The art of punning has had few practitioners more accomplished than
-Charles Lamb and Oliver Wendell Holmes. A century ago Lamb declared
-in a letter that “a pun is a noble thing per se: O never lug it in as
-an accessory. It is entire; it fills the mind; it is as perfect as a
-sonnet,&mdash;better. It limps ashamed in the train and retinue of humor; it
-knows it should have an establishment of its own.” And in a more formal
-essay Elia discussed the popular fallacy that the worst puns are the
-best. Half a century ago the Autocrat in his turn expressed an adverse
-opinion of a form of wit in which he delighted and for which he was
-marvelously gifted. Lamb analyzed at length and with intense enjoyment
-the immortal query of the Oxford scholar meeting a porter carrying
-a hare and astounding him with the extraordinary question, “Is that
-your own hare or a wig?” And Holmes once pretended to have overheard
-a remark about “the Macaulay-flowers of literature”; and he recorded
-the conundrum, “Why is an onion like a piano?” declaring that it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> was
-incredible for any person in an educated community who could be found
-willing to answer it in these words, “Because it smell odious.”</p>
-
-<p>The difference between Lamb and Holmes is that Elia is frank in
-declaring his delight in the ingenious dislocation of the vocabulary,
-whereas the Autocrat pretends to deprecate it, to depreciate it, and
-to disparage it as evidence in favor of the doctrine of the total
-depravity of man. He even invented a polysyllabic quotation from an
-earlier autocrat, the ponderous Doctor Johnson: “To trifle with the
-vocabulary which is the vehicle of social intercourse is to tamper
-with the currency of human intelligence. He who would violate the
-sanctities of his mother tongue would invade the recesses of the
-paternal till without remorse, and repeat the banquet of Saturn without
-an indigestion.”</p>
-
-<p>This is an appalling overstatement of the case; and Holmes was happier
-in another of the remarks made in the same chapter of the book in which
-he expressed the utmost of his own witty wisdom: “People that make puns
-are like wanton boys that put coppers on the railroad tracks. They
-amuse themselves and other children, but their little trick may upset
-a freight-train of conversation for the sake of a battered witticism.”
-Here the doctor is on solid ground; a pun may be a good thing in
-itself, as good as a sonnet even, but it is only dirt&mdash;that is to say,
-matter in the wrong place&mdash;when it is injected into good talk only to
-throw the conversational locomotive off the track. Oddly enough, the
-Autocrat was once himself derailed by a pun a score of years after
-he had thus laid down the law; and, as it happens, I had the full
-particulars of the fatal accident from the punster who placed the penny
-on the track. In this case the disturber of traffic was the late Thomas
-Bailey Aldrich.</p>
-
-<p>When Matthew Arnold paid his first visit to America thirty years
-ago, Aldrich gave him a dinner and invited the best that Boston and
-Cambridge had to show to do honor to his alien guest. He put Arnold
-on his right and Holmes on his left; and early in the dinner he
-discovered that the Autocrat was in fine form and ready to discourse
-in his best manner. Holmes began by suggesting that it must be
-amusing to meet unexpected characters, burglars, for example, and
-pirates, and cannibals. “What would you do,” he asked, “if you were
-to meet a cannibal walking down Beacon Street?” And he paused for the
-reply that he did not desire, whereupon Aldrich saw his chance and
-responded promptly, “I think I should stop to pick an acquaintance.”
-The rest of the company laughed at this sally, but Holmes looked at
-his host reproachfully and then shut up absolutely, saying scarcely
-a word during the rest of the dinner. The witticism, even if it was
-bright and not battered, had upset the freight-train of the Autocrat’s
-conversation. And as Aldrich asserted, in telling the sad story, the
-host had to repent in a sack-coat and cigarette-ashes for the rest of
-his life. Autocrats are autocrats, after all; and not with impunity are
-their unlimited expresses to be flagged by an unauthorized pun.</p>
-
-<p>Possibly it was the painful memory of this unfortunate experience which
-led Dr. Holmes to omit from the final edition of his complete works the
-very amusing account of his “Visit to the Asylum for Aged and Decayed
-Punsters,” which he had included in an earlier volume&mdash;“Soundings from
-the ‘Atlantic’”&mdash;now out of print. He tells us in this paper that he
-was surprised to find that the asylum was intended wholly for males;
-and yet on reflection he admitted the remarkable psychologic fact that
-“there is no such a thing as a female punster. At least,” he adds, “I
-never knew or heard of one, though I have once or twice heard a woman
-make a single detached pun, as I have known a hen to crow.” And when we
-recall the proverbial fate of the crowing hen, the fair sex may rejoice
-that there are no female punsters, whatever may be the psychological
-explanation of the remarkable fact itself. The fact might indeed be
-accounted for easily by those ungallant cynics who maintain that women
-are careless in the employment of words (which are the raw material of
-puns), commonly using them as counters to convey emotions rather than
-as coins to express thoughts.</p>
-
-<p>Holmes’s account of his visit to the asylum reverberates with the
-rattle of a corps of conundrummers; and every one of the inmates is
-ready with his contribution, from the superintendent who ex<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>plained
-why “they did not take steppes in Tartary for establishing insane
-hospitals, because there are nomad people to be found there,” to the
-retired sailor who had gone as mate on a fishing-schooner, giving it up
-because he “did not like working for two-masters.” The most imaginative
-touch is at the end of the paper when the visitors are introduced to
-a centenarian inmate, who asks affably, “Why is a&mdash;a&mdash;a like a&mdash;a&mdash;a?
-Give it up? Because it is a&mdash;a&mdash;a.” Then he smiled pleasantly; and
-the superintendent explained that the ancient man was “one hundred
-and seven last Christmas. He lost his answers about the age of
-ninety-eight. Of late years he puts his whole conundrums in blank&mdash;but
-they please him just as well.”</p>
-
-<p>Lowell, who was Holmes’s chief rival among the Cambridge wits, did not
-pretend to disdain the pun, as Holmes affected to do. But he insisted
-upon the absolute identity of sound with an equally absolute and
-therefore ludicrous disparity of meaning. Lowell pointed out that Hood,
-who is said to have lain on his death-bed “spitting blood and puns,”
-abounded in examples of this sort of fun, “only his analogies are of a
-more subtle and perplexing kind.” To illustrate this assertion Lowell
-quoted Hood’s elegy on the old sailor, whose</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container s5">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">“... head was turned, and so he chewed</div>
-      <div class="verse">His pigtail till he died.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>And the American critic called this “inimitable, like all the best
-of Hood’s puns. To the ear it is perfect, but so soon as you attempt
-to realize it to yourself, the mind is involved in an inextricable
-confusion of comical non-sequiturs. And yet observe the gravity with
-which the forms of reason are kept up in the <i>and so</i>.”</p>
-
-<p>Another quotation from Hood also won high commendation from Lowell. It
-was taken from the peddler’s recommendation of his ear-trumpet:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container s5">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza padb1">
-      <div class="verse">“I don’t pretend with horns of mine,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Like some in the advertising line,</div>
-      <div class="verse">To magnify sounds on such marvelous scales</div>
-      <div class="verse">That the sounds of a cod seem as large as a whale’s.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse mleft4">There was Mrs. F.</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft4">So very deaf</div>
-      <div class="verse">That she might have worn a percussion-cap</div>
-      <div class="verse">And been knocked on the head without hearing it snap.</div>
-      <div class="verse">Well, I sold her a horn; and the very next day</div>
-      <div class="verse">She heard from her husband in Botany Bay.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Is that last line wit or humor? It is a play on a word, no doubt, and
-that would relate it to wit. But it has the imaginative exaggeration
-that we are wont to associate with humor. Lowell noted that we find it
-natural to speak of the breadth of humor, while wit, by the necessity
-of its being, is “as narrow as a flash of lightning, and as sudden.”
-Humor has also its unexpectedness, and while most good puns must be
-classed as specimens of wit, some few transcendent examples may fairly
-claim to be specimens of humor&mdash;that last line of Hood’s, for example.
-Many other instances might be advanced. A very distinguished British
-scientist had the foible of inventing thrilling episodes in his own
-autobiography; and on one occasion after he had spun a most marvelous
-yarn, with himself in the center of the coil, a skeptical friend looked
-him in the eye and asked sternly, “Clifford, do you mean to say that
-this really occurred to you?” Whereupon the imaginative man of science
-laughed lightly and with a most imperturable assurance calmly answered,
-“Yes&mdash;it just occurred to me!”</p>
-
-<p>It is wit and not humor, no doubt, when Holmes promulgates the law of
-financial safety: “Put not your trust in money, but put your money
-in trust.” It is wisdom as well as wit, but is it a pun? Is it only
-a play on words? Is it not also a play on the idea? And take the
-somewhat parallel remark about the rising fortune of a successful
-man, to the effect that “he got on, he got honor, he got honest.”
-That again is wit; but is it fairly to be termed a pun? Merely verbal
-playfulness is more obvious in a recent remark that “some men stand
-for office, some men run for it, and some have a walk-over,” and yet
-that somehow fails to fall completely within any acceptable definition
-of the pun. If it is a pun, it is something more also. With these
-specimens may be grouped three other remarks which have not hitherto
-been recorded in print. When a certain critic of limited equipment
-was appointed to the chair of comparative literature in one of our
-uni<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>versities, the question was asked why he was assigned to this
-particular professorship, since his information was mainly confined to
-English; and the explanation was instantly forthcoming that comparative
-literature was the position for which he was best fitted, because
-his own literature was neither positive nor superlative. A certain
-former Vice-President of the United States has been described as “a
-very cold-blooded proposition,” and yet his speeches were the usual
-flowery and perfervid political oratory which led an observer to make
-the assertion that “to hear &mdash;&mdash; speak is like catching nature in the
-act of self-contradiction, since it is the emission of hot air from an
-ice-box.”</p>
-
-<p>And it was the same anonymous observer who pointed out the difference
-between two contemporary British authors, insisting that “Mr. George
-Bernard Shaw always writes with his tongue in his cheek, whereas when
-Mr. Gilbert K. Chesterton is writing he keeps thrusting his tongue
-out at the public.” Now, are these remarks, strictly speaking, puns?
-They conform at least to one of Lamb’s definitions that a pun “is a
-pistol let off at the end, not a feather to tickle the intellect,” and
-that it is “not bound by the laws which limit nicer wit.” He warns us
-that “a pun may be easily too curious and artificial”; and he held
-that a pun, at least in actual conversation, ought to stand alone and
-not be followed by another. “When a man has said a good thing it is
-seldom politic to follow it up.” This is true enough of conversation;
-but it does not apply to literature. The spoken word and the written
-have different rules. A large part of the humorous effect of the
-trumpet-peddler’s eulogy of the wares he is vending is due to the
-heaping-up of the puns, one tumbling over another, like salmon flashing
-swiftly in the sunshine as they follow each other up the falls. Here
-our pleasure is akin to that we take at the circus as we behold the
-acrobats going on from one impossible stunt to its equally impossible
-successor and accomplishing these feats as if each was the easiest
-thing in the world.</p>
-
-<p>There is in many passages of that rollicking satire, “A Fable for
-Critics,” wise as it is in its author’s acute valuation of his
-contemporaries, a riot of complicated riming and of unexpected
-punning,&mdash;passages which impress us with an abiding sense of
-spontaneous humor and good humor. These passages overflow with fun,
-and we are carried along by Lowell’s delight in displaying his verbal
-dexterity. For once he appears before us dancing on a metrical
-tight-rope and setting off iridescent fireworks at the ends of his
-balancing-pole. Consider, for example, these lines at the very
-beginning, where Apollo is discussing his plight after he had pursued
-Daphne and she had turned into a tree:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container s5">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">“‘My case is like Dido’s,’ he sometimes remarked;</div>
-      <div class="verse">‘When I last saw my love she was fairly embarked</div>
-      <div class="verse">In a laurel, as <i>she</i> thought&mdash;but (ah, how fate mocks!)</div>
-      <div class="verse">She has found it by this time a very bad box;</div>
-      <div class="verse">Let hunters from me take this saw when they need it&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse">You’re not always sure of your game when you’ve treed it.</div>
-      <div class="verse">Just conceive such a change taking place in one’s mistress!</div>
-      <div class="verse">What romance would be left?&mdash;who can flatter or kiss trees?</div>
-      <div class="verse">And for mercy’s sake, how could one keep up a dialogue</div>
-      <div class="verse">With a dull wooden thing that will live and will die a log,&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse">Not to say that the thought would forever intrude</div>
-      <div class="verse">That you’ve less chance to win her the more she is wood?</div>
-      <div class="verse">Ah! it went to my heart, and the memory still grieves,</div>
-      <div class="verse">To see those loved graces all taking their leaves;</div>
-      <div class="verse">Those charms beyond speech, so enchanting, but now,</div>
-      <div class="verse">As they left me forever, each making its bough!</div>
-      <div class="verse">If her tongue <i>had</i> a tang sometimes more than was right,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Her new bark is worse than ten times her old bite.’”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Almost worthy to be set beside Lowell’s lines is Mr. William A.
-Croffut’s “Dirge concerning the late lamented King of the Cannibal
-Islands” in which he rings the changes on a single theme:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container s5">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">“And missionaries graced his festive board,</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Solemn and succulent, in twos and dozens,</div>
-      <div class="verse">And smoked before their hospitable lord,</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Welcome as if they’d been his second cousins.</div>
-      <div class="verse">When cold he warmed them as he would his kin&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse">They came as strangers, and he took them in.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">“He had a hundred wives. To make things pleasant</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">They found it quite judicious to adore him;</div>
-      <div class="verse">And when he dined, the nymphs were always present&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Sometimes beside him and sometimes before him.</div>
-      <div class="verse">When he was tired of one, he called her ‘sweet,’</div>
-      <div class="verse">And told her she was ‘good enough to eat!’</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">“We grow like what we eat. Bad food depresses;</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Good food exalts us like an inspiration,</div>
-      <div class="verse">And missionaries on the <i>menu</i> blesses</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">And elevates the Feejee population.</div>
-      <div class="verse">A people who for years saints, bairns, and women ate</div>
-      <div class="verse">Must soon their vilest qualities eliminate.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">“How fond he was of children! To his breast</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">The tenderest nurslings gained a free admission.</div>
-      <div class="verse">Rank he despised, nor, if they came well dressed,</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Cared if they were plebeian or patrician.</div>
-      <div class="verse">Shade of Leigh Hunt! O, guide this laggard pen</div>
-      <div class="verse">To write of one who loved his fellow-men!”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Lamb would have enjoyed the stanzas of this elegy, with the effortless
-ease of the long succession of puns, playing leap-frog; and Hood would
-have appreciated them without envy. Perhaps Lamb would have liked even
-better than Hood a superbly impossible pun in John Brougham’s burlesque
-of “Pocahontas,” a long popular piece, which perhaps owed a part of
-its success to the unhistoric marrying off of Captain John Smith and
-the dusky heroine. When Smith is bound to the sacrificial rock and
-the war-club of Powhatan is raised aloft to dash out the Englishman’s
-brains, Pocahontas rushes in with the plaintive cry, “For my husband I
-scream!” Whereupon Smith lifts his head and asks, “Lemon or vanilla?”
-This has not a little of the illogical impossibility of “Is that your
-own hare or a wig?” and like that immortal query it defies analysis.
-It is not merely a play on a word; it is a play on an idea, which we
-cannot ourselves formulate.</p>
-
-<p>Brougham was an Irishman who was a past-master in the art of punning.
-Perhaps his chief rival was the British playwright Henry J. Byron,
-who once wrote a burlesque on a theme from the “Arabian Nights” which
-he entitled “Ali Baba, or the Thirty-Nine Thieves&mdash;in accordance with
-the author’s habit of taking one off.” Byron, however, was wont to
-besprinkle the dialogue of his more ambitious comedies with puns not
-always fresh and not always appropriate. In one of his forgotten farces
-a retired soldier who had served in India makes a bore of himself by
-talking forever about the Bungalura River. Finally, one of the other
-characters, in a moment of natural irritation, ejaculates, “Oh, damn
-the Bungalura River!” To which the old officer responds instantly,
-“Sir, they have vainly endeavored to do so!” This is an ingenious quip
-in itself; but it was not at all in keeping with the character, since
-it was a remark the bore was quite incapable of making.</p>
-
-<p>An earlier British dramatist, Douglas Jerrold, is said by his son
-and biographer never to have put a pun in the dialogue of any one of
-his plays; and if this assertion is well founded, the fact is the
-more curious since Jerrold was prolific of puns in conversation and
-in correspondence. In a letter written just after Queen Victoria had
-been fired at, Jerrold declared that he had seen her out driving,
-adding that “she looked very well, and&mdash;as is not always the case
-with women&mdash;none the worse for powder.” And it was at one of the
-“Punch” dinners that he made his cruellest retort, a pun with a
-venomous sting in the tail of it. Gilbert A Becket&mdash;author of a “Comic
-History of England” and a frequent contributor to “Punch” at the time
-when Jerrold was providing that weekly with “Mrs. Caudle’s Curtain
-Lectures”&mdash;claimed a friendly interest from his associate, declaring,
-“You know we row in the same boat.” To which Jerrold<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> retorted
-brutally, “Yes&mdash;but with different skulls.”</p>
-
-<p>One of the pleasantest of the protean appearances of the pun is to
-be found in the familiar quotation, made unexpectedly pertinent by a
-felicitous suggestion of an unforeseen meaning hitherto concealed in
-one of its words. A neat example of this is the Shaksperian motto which
-the late Edwin Booth caused to be inscribed on the mantelpiece of the
-grill-room in the club he founded for the practitioners of the allied
-arts: “Mouth it, as many of our Players do.” When Mrs. Stowe was on her
-way to Liverpool a fog suddenly shut the ship in after it had taken on
-the pilot; and the authoress suggested that the pilot might sing, “That
-Mersey I to others show, that Mersey show to me.” And in the “Autocrat”
-again Dr. Holmes, after dwelling on the delight he had in beholding
-noble oaks and spreading elms, mentioned one tree which was more than
-eighteen feet in girth, and expressed a hope that he might meet a
-tree-loving friend under its branches. “If we don’t have youth at the
-prow, we shall have pleasure at the ’elm.” This is added evidence, were
-any needed, that Holmes was not sincere in his denunciation of punning,
-or at least that he was willing to damn “the sins he had no mind to.”</p>
-
-<p>The derogatory old saying that a pun is the lowest form of wit has
-been explained by the apt addition that this is because a pun is the
-foundation of all wit. This explanation is not strictly true, of
-course; the best wit is often independent of any flavor of word-play.
-But there is a kind of pun which is really lower than any other effort
-to arouse laughter; this is the pun which is due to a violent wrench
-made visible only by the use of italics. As a general principle we may
-assert that any pun is beneath contempt when it needs a typographic
-sign-post before it can be seen. And the unfortunate who descends to
-this dismal form of near-wit is of a truth the “mournful professor of
-high drollery” that George Eliot once castigated. Pitiable specimens
-of his lamentable handiwork&mdash;if anything so mechanical may fairly be
-described by this term&mdash;can be discovered abundantly in more than one
-of the inferior comic weeklies of Great Britain; and even the superior
-weekly “Punch” is not always free from it.</p>
-
-<p>When an observer of international characteristics shall undertake the
-task of differentiating the British from the Americans he can scarcely
-fail to note that the mechanical pun, the bare play upon the sound of
-a word without any corresponding diversity of idea, is far commoner
-in the older branch of the English-speaking race than it is in the
-younger. This strikes us at once when we compare the comic papers or
-the comic operas of Great Britain with those of the United States.
-The transatlantic relish for purely verbal juggling is probably an
-inheritance from the Elizabethans, for we find it displayed in even
-the mightiest of them, Shakspere. Curious it is, therefore, that we
-colonists did not import it in the original package as we imported so
-many other Tudor characteristics, some of which are still discoverable
-on this side of the Western ocean although on the other they have
-fallen into “innocuous desuetude.”</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="FINIS">FINIS</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s3 center">BY WILLIAM H. HAYNE</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse"><span class="drop-cap_poetry">N</span>O blood-stains on the polished floor&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Not one drop has been shed&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse">No wound in heart or brow or breast,</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">And yet the man is dead.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">No dirk or pistol in the room&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">No sign of death’s dark goal&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse">And yet the man who seems alive</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Has murdered his own soul.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_296" name="i_296">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_296.jpg" alt="Headpiece for T. Tembarom" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="T_TEMBAROM">T. TEMBAROM</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s3 center">BY FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT</p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot1">Author of “That Lass o’ Lowrie’s,” “The Shuttle,”
-etc.</p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot1">WITH DECORATIVE PICTURES BY CHARLES S. CHAPMAN</p>
-
-<h3 class="s5 center mbot2" id="TEMBAROM_CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</h3>
-
-<div class="dc2">
-   <a id="i_296a" name="i_296a">
-   <img class="mtop-2a w12em" src="images/i_296a.jpg" alt="F" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="hide-first3_5">F</span>ORM, color, drama, and divers other advantages are necessary to the
-creation of an object of interest. Presenting to the world none of
-these assets, Miss Alicia had slipped through life a scarcely remarked
-unit. No little ghost of prettiness had attracted the wandering eye,
-no suggestion of agreeable or disagreeable power of self-assertion had
-arrested attention. There had been no hour in her life when she had
-expected to count as being of the slightest consequence. When she had
-knocked at the door of the study at Rowcroft Vicarage, and “dear papa”
-had exclaimed irritably: “Who is that? Who is that?” she had always
-replied, “It is only Alicia.”</p>
-
-<p>This being the case, her gradual awakening to the singularity of her
-new situation was mentally a process full of doubts and sometimes of
-alarmed bewilderments. If in her girlhood a curate, even a curate
-with prominent eyes and a receding chin, had proposed to her that she
-should face with him a future enriched by the prospect of being called
-upon to bring up a probable family of twelve on one hundred and fifty
-pounds a year, with both parish and rectory barking and snapping at
-her worn-down heels, she would have been sure to assert tenderly that
-she was afraid she was “not worthy.” This was the natural habit of her
-mind, and in the weeks which followed the foggy afternoon when Tembarom
-“staked out his claim” she dwelt often upon her unworthiness of the
-benefits bestowed upon her.</p>
-
-<p>First the world below-stairs, then the village, and then the county
-itself awoke to the fact that the new Temple Barholm had “taken her
-up.” The first tendency of the world below-stairs was to resent the
-unwarranted uplifting of a per<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>son whom there had been a certain luxury
-in regarding with disdain and treating with scarcely veiled lack of
-consideration. To be able to do this with a person who, after all was
-said and done, was not one of the servant class, but a sort of lady of
-birth, was not unstimulating. And below-stairs the sense of personal
-rancor against “a ’anger-on” is strong. The meals served in Miss
-Alicia’s remote sitting-room had been served at leisure, her tea had
-rarely been hot, and her modestly tinkled bell irregularly answered.
-Often her far from liberally supplied fire had gone out on chilly days,
-and she had been afraid to insist on its being relighted. Her sole
-defense against inattention would have been to complain to Mr. Temple
-Barholm, and when on one occasion a too obvious neglect had obliged her
-to gather her quaking being together in mere self-respect and say, “If
-this continues to occur, William, I shall be obliged to speak to Mr.
-Temple Barholm,” William had so looked at her and so ill hid a secret
-smile that it had been almost tantamount to his saying, “I’d jolly well
-like to see you.”</p>
-
-<p>And now! Sitting at the end of the table opposite him, if you please!
-Walking here and walking there with him! Sitting in the library or
-wherever he is, with him talking and laughing and making as much of
-her as though she were an aunt with a fortune to leave, and with her
-making as free in talk as though at liberty to say anything that came
-into her head! Well, the beggar that had found himself on horseback
-was setting another one galloping alongside of him. In the midst of
-this natural resentment it was “a bit upsetting,” as Burrill said, to
-find it dawning upon one that absolute exactness of ceremony was as
-much to be required for “her” as for “him.” Miss Alicia had long felt
-secretly sure that she was spoken of as “her” in the servants’ hall.
-That businesslike sharpness which Palford had observed in his client
-aided Tembarom always to see things without illusions. He knew that
-there was no particular reason why his army of servants should regard
-him for the present as much more than an intruder; but he also knew
-that if men and women had employment which was not made hard for them,
-and were well paid for doing, they were not anxious to lose it, and
-the man who paid their wages might give orders with some certainty of
-finding them obeyed. He was “sharp” in more ways than one. He observed
-shades he might have been expected to overlook. He observed a certain
-shade in the demeanor of the domestics when attending Miss Alicia, and
-it was a shade which marked a difference between service done for her
-and service done for himself. This was only at the outset, of course,
-when the secret resentment was felt; but he observed it, mere shade
-though it was.</p>
-
-<p>He walked out into the hall after Burrill one morning. Not having yet
-adjusted himself to the rule that when one wished to speak to a man
-one rang a bell and called him back, fifty times if necessary, he just
-walked after Burrill and stopped him.</p>
-
-<p>“This is a pretty good place for servants, ain’t it?” he said.</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, sir.”</p>
-
-<p>“Good pay, good food, not too much to do?”</p>
-
-<p>“Certainly, sir,” Burrill replied, somewhat disturbed by a casualness
-which yet suggested a method of getting at something or other.</p>
-
-<p>“You and the rest of them don’t want to change, do you?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, sir. There is no complaint whatever as far as I have heard.”</p>
-
-<p>“That’s all right.” Mr. Temple Barholm had put his hands into his
-pockets, and stood looking non-committal in a steady sort of way.
-“There’s something I want the lot of you to get on to&mdash;right away. Miss
-Temple Barholm is going to stay here. She’s got to have everything just
-as she wants it. She’s got to be pleased. She’s the lady of the house.
-See?”</p>
-
-<p>“I hope, sir,” Burrill said with professional dignity, “that Miss
-Temple Barholm has not had reason to express any dissatisfaction.”</p>
-
-<p>“I’m the one that would express it&mdash;quick,” said Tembarom. “She
-wouldn’t have time to get in first. I just wanted to make sure I
-shouldn’t have to do it. The other fellows are under you. You’ve got
-a head on your shoulders I guess. It’s up to you to put ’em on to it.
-That’s all.”</p>
-
-<p>“Thank you, sir,” said Burrill.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>His master went back into the library smiling genially, and Burrill
-stood still a moment or so gazing at the door he closed behind him.</p>
-
-<p>Be sure the village, and finally circles not made up of cottagers,
-heard of this, howsoever mysteriously. Miss Alicia was not aware that
-the incident had occurred. She could not help observing, however,
-that the manners of the servants of the household curiously improved;
-also, when she passed through the village, that foreheads were touched
-without omission and the curtseys of playing children were prompt. When
-she dropped into a cottage, housewives polished off the seats of chairs
-vigorously before offering them, and symptoms and needs were explained
-with a respectful fluency which at times almost suggested that she
-might be relied on to use influence.</p>
-
-<p>“I’m afraid I have done the village people injustice,” she said
-leniently to Tembarom. “I used to think them so disrespectful and
-unappreciative. I dare say it was because I was so troubled myself. I’m
-afraid one’s own troubles do sometimes make one unfair.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, yours are over,” said Tembarom. “And so are mine as long as you
-stay by me.”</p>
-
-<p>Never had Miss Alicia been to London. She had remained, as was
-demanded of her by her duty to dear papa, at Rowcroft, which was in
-Somersetshire. She had only dreamed of London, and had had fifty-five
-years of dreaming. She had read of great functions, and seen pictures
-of some of them in the illustrated papers. She had loyally endeavored
-to follow at a distance the doings of her Majesty,&mdash;she always spoke
-of Queen Victoria reverentially as “her Majesty,”&mdash;she rejoiced
-when a prince or a princess was horn or christened or married, and
-believed that a “drawing-room” was the most awe-inspiring, brilliant,
-and important function in the civilized world, scarcely second to
-Parliament. London&mdash;no one but herself or an elderly gentlewoman of her
-type could have told any one the nature of her thoughts of London.</p>
-
-<p>Let, therefore, those of vivid imagination make an effort to depict to
-themselves the, effect produced upon her mind by Tembarom’s casually
-suggesting at breakfast one morning that he thought it might be rather
-a good “stunt” for them to run up to London. By mere good fortune she
-escaped dropping the egg she had just taken from the egg-stand.</p>
-
-<p>“London!” she said. “Oh!”</p>
-
-<p>“Pearson thinks it would be a first-rate idea,” he explained. “I guess
-he thinks that if he can get me into the swell clothing stores he can
-fix me up as I ought to be fixed, if I’m not going to disgrace him. I
-should hate to disgrace Pearson. Then he can see his girl, too, and I
-want him to see his girl.”</p>
-
-<p>“Is&mdash;Pearson&mdash;engaged?” she asked; but the thought which was repeating
-itself aloud to her was “London! London!”</p>
-
-<p>“He calls it ‘keeping company,’ or ‘walking out,’” Tembarom answered.
-“She’s a nice girl, and he’s dead stuck on her. Will you go with me,
-Miss Alicia?”</p>
-
-<p>“Dear Mr. Temple Barholm,” she fluttered, “to visit London would be a
-privilege I never dreamed it would be my great fortune to enjoy&mdash;never.”</p>
-
-<p>“Good business!” he ejaculated delightedly. “That’s luck for me. It
-gave me the blues&mdash;what I saw of it. But if you are with me, I’ll bet
-it’ll be as different as afternoon tea was after I got hold of you.
-When shall we start? To-morrow?”</p>
-
-<p>Her sixteen-year-old blush repeated itself.</p>
-
-<p>“I feel so sorry. It seems almost undignified to mention it, but&mdash;I
-fear I should not look smart enough for London. My wardrobe is so very
-limited. I mustn’t,” she added with a sweet effort at humor, “do the
-new Mr. Temple Barholm discredit by looking unfashionable.”</p>
-
-<p>He was more delighted than before.</p>
-
-<p>“Say,” he broke out, “I’ll tell you what we’ll do: we’ll go together
-and buy everything ‘suitable’ in sight. The pair of us ’ll come back
-here as suitable as Burrill and Pearson. We’ll paint the town red.”</p>
-
-<p>He actually meant it. He was like a boy with a new game. His sense of
-the dreariness of London had disappeared. He knew what it would be like
-with Miss Alicia as a companion. He had really seen nothing of the
-place himself, and he would find out every darned thing worth looking
-at, and take her to see it&mdash;theaters, shops, every show in town. When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>
-they left the breakfast-table it was agreed upon that they would make
-the journey the following day.</p>
-
-<p>He did not openly refer to the fact that among the plans for their
-round of festivities he had laid out for himself the attending to one
-or two practical points. He was going to see Palford, and he had made
-an appointment with a celebrated nerve specialist. He did not discuss
-this for several reasons. One of them was that his summing up of Miss
-Alicia was that she had had trouble enough to think over all her little
-life, and the thing for a fellow to do for her, if he liked her, was to
-give her a good time and make her feel as if she was at a picnic right
-straight along&mdash;not let her even hear of a darned thing that might
-worry her. He had said comparatively little to her about Strangeways.
-His first mention of his condition had obviously made her somewhat
-nervous, though she had been full of kindly interest. She was in
-private not sorry that it was felt better that she should not disturb
-the patient by a visit to his room. The abnormality of his condition
-seemed just slightly alarming to her.</p>
-
-<p>“But, oh, how good, how charitable, you are!” she had murmured.</p>
-
-<p>“Good,” he answered, the devout admiration of her tone rather puzzling
-him. “It ain’t that. I just want to see the thing through. I dropped
-into it by accident, and then I dropped into this by accident, and that
-made it as easy as falling off a log. I believe he’s going to get well
-sometime. I guess I kind of like him because he holds on to me so and
-believes I’m just It. Maybe it’s because I’m stuck on myself.”</p>
-
-<p>His visit to Strangeways was longer than usual that afternoon. He
-explained the situation to him so that he understood it sufficiently
-not to seem alarmed by it. This was one of the advances Tembarom
-had noticed recently, that he was less easily terrified, and seemed
-occasionally to see facts in their proper relation to one another.
-Sometimes the experiments tried on him were successful, sometimes they
-were not, but he never resented them.</p>
-
-<p>“You are trying to help me to remember,” he said once. “I think you
-will sometime.”</p>
-
-<p>“Sure I will,” said Tembarom. “You’re better every day.”</p>
-
-<p>Pearson was to remain in charge of him until toward the end of the
-London visit. Then he was to run up for a couple of days, leaving in
-his place a young footman to whom the invalid had become accustomed.</p>
-
-<p>The visit to London was to Miss Alicia a period of enraptured delirium.
-The beautiful hotel in which she was established, the afternoons at
-the Tower, the National Gallery, the British Museum, the evenings at
-the play, during which one saw the most brilliant and distinguished
-actors, the mornings in the shops, attended as though one were a person
-of fortune, what could be said of them? And the sacred day on which
-she saw her Majesty drive slowly by, glittering helmets, splendid
-uniforms, waving plumes, and clanking swords accompanying and guarding
-her, and gentlemen standing still with their hats off, and everybody
-looking after her with that natural touch of awe which royalty properly
-inspires! Miss Alicia’s heart beat rapidly in her breast, and she
-involuntarily made a curtsey as the great lady in mourning drove by.
-She lost no shade of any flavor of ecstatic pleasure in anything, and
-was to Tembarom, who knew nothing about shades and flavors, indeed a
-touching and endearing thing.</p>
-
-<p>He had never got so much out of anything. If Ann had just been there,
-well, that would have been the limit. Ann was on her way to America
-now, and she wouldn’t write to him or let him write to her. He had to
-make a fair trial of it. He could find out only in that way, she said.
-It was not to be denied that the youth and longing in him gave him some
-half-hours to face which made him shut himself up in his room and stare
-hard at the wall, folding his arms tightly as he tilted his chair.</p>
-
-<p>Then arrived a day when one of the most exalted shops in Bond Street
-was invaded by an American young man of a bearing the peculiarities of
-which were subtly combined with a remotely suggested air of knowing
-that if he could find what he wanted, there was no doubt as to his
-power to get it. What he wanted was not usual, and was explained with
-a frankness which might have seemed unsophisticated, but, singularly,
-did not. He wanted to have a private talk with some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> feminine power in
-charge, and she must be some one who knew exactly what ladies ought to
-have.</p>
-
-<p>Being shown into a room, such a feminine power was brought to him
-and placed at his service. She was a middle-aged person, wearing
-beautifully fitted garments and having an observant eye and a dignified
-suavity of manner. She looked the young American over with a swift
-inclusion of all possibilities. He was by this time wearing extremely
-well-fitting garments himself, but she was at once aware that his
-tailored perfection was a new thing to him.</p>
-
-<p>He went to his point without apologetic explanation.</p>
-
-<p>“You know all the things any kind of a lady ought to have,” he
-said&mdash;“all the things that would make any one feel comfortable and as
-if they’d got plenty? Useful things as well as ornamental ones?”</p>
-
-<p>“Yes, sir,” she replied, with rising interest. “I have been in the
-establishment thirty years.”</p>
-
-<p>“Good business,” Tembarom replied. Already he felt relieved. “I’ve got
-a relation, a little old lady, and I want her to fix herself out just
-as she ought to be fixed. Now, what I’m afraid of is that she won’t get
-everything she ought to unless I manage it for her somehow beforehand.
-She’s got into a habit of&mdash;well, economizing. Now the time’s past for
-that, and I want her to get everything a woman like you would know she
-really wants, so that she could look her best, living in a big country
-house, with a relation that thinks a lot of her.”</p>
-
-<p>He paused a second or so, and then went further, fixing a clear and
-astonishingly shrewd eye upon the head of the department listening to
-him.</p>
-
-<p>“I found out this was a high-class place,” he explained. “I made sure
-of that before I came in. In a place that was second or third class
-there might be people who’d think they’d caught a ‘sucker’ that would
-take anything that was unloaded on to him, because he didn’t know. The
-things are for Miss Temple Barholm, and she <i>does</i> know. I shall ask
-her to come here herself to-morrow morning, and I want you to take care
-of her, and show her the best you’ve got that’s suitable.” He seemed to
-like the word; he repeated it&mdash;“Suitable,” and quickly restrained a
-sudden, unexplainable, wide smile.</p>
-
-<p>The attending lady’s name was Mrs. Mellish. Thirty years’ experience
-had taught her many lessons. She was a hard woman and a sharp one, but
-beneath her sharp hardness lay a suppressed sense of the perfect in
-taste. To have a customer with unchecked resources put into her hands
-to do her best by was an inspiring incident. A quiver of enlightenment
-had crossed her countenance when she had heard the name of Temple
-Barholm. She had a newspaper knowledge of the odd Temple Barholm story.
-This was the next of kin who had blacked boots in New York, and the
-obvious probability that he was a fool, if it had taken the form of a
-hope, had been promptly nipped in the bud. The type from which he was
-furthest removed was that of the fortune-intoxicated young man who
-could be obsequiously flattered into buying anything which cost money
-enough.</p>
-
-<p>“Not a thing’s to be unloaded on her that she doesn’t like,” he added,
-“and she’s not a girl that goes to pink teas. She’s a&mdash;a&mdash;lady&mdash;and not
-young&mdash;and used to quiet ways.”</p>
-
-<p>The evidently New York word “unload” revealed him to his hearer as by a
-flash, though she had never heard it before.</p>
-
-<p>“We have exactly the things which will be suitable, sir,” she said. “I
-think I quite understand.” Tembarom smiled again, and, thanking her,
-went away still smiling, because he knew Miss Alicia was safe.</p>
-
-<p>There were of course difficulties in the way of persuading Miss Alicia
-that her duty lay in the direction of spending mornings in the most
-sumptuous of Bond Street shops, ordering for herself an entire wardrobe
-on a basis of unlimited resources. Tembarom was called upon to employ
-the most adroitly subtle reasoning, entirely founded on his “claim” and
-her affectionate willingness to give him pleasure.</p>
-
-<p>He really made love to her in the way a joyful young fellow can make
-love to his mother or his nicest aunt. He made her feel that she
-counted for so much in his scheme of enjoyment that to do as he asked
-would be to add a glow to it.</p>
-
-<p>“And they won’t spoil you,” he said.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> “The Mellish woman that’s the
-boss has promised that. I wouldn’t have you spoiled for a farm,” he
-added heartily.</p>
-
-<p>And he spoke the truth. If he had been told that he was cherishing
-her type as though it were a priceless bit of old Saxe, he would have
-stared blankly and made a jocular remark. But it was exactly this which
-he actually clung to and adored. He even had a second private interview
-with Mrs. Mellish, and asked her to “keep her as much like she was” as
-was possible.</p>
-
-<p>Stimulated by the suppressed touch of artistic fervor, Mrs. Mellish
-guessed at something even before her client arrived; but the moment she
-entered the showroom all was revealed to her at once. The very hint of
-flush and tremor in Miss Alicia’s manner was an assistance. Surrounded
-by a small and extremely select court composed of Mrs. Mellish and
-two low-voiced, deft-handed assistants, it was with a fine little
-effort that Miss Alicia restrained herself from exterior suggestion
-of her feeling that there was something almost impious in thinking
-of possessing the exquisite stuffs and shades displayed to her in
-flowing beauty on every side. Such linens and batistes and laces, such
-delicate, faint grays and lavenders and soft-falling blacks! If she had
-been capable of approaching the thought, such luxury might even have
-hinted at guilty splendor.</p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Mellish became possessed of an “idea.” To create the costume of
-an exquisite, early-Victorian old lady in a play done for the most
-fashionable and popular actor manager of the most “drawing-room”
-of West End theaters, where one saw royalty in the royal box, with
-bouquets on every side, the orchestra breaking off in the middle of
-a strain to play “God Save the Queen,” and the audience standing up
-as the royal party came in&mdash;that was her idea. She carried it out,
-steering Miss Alicia with finished tact through the shoals and rapids
-of her timidities. And the result was wonderful; color,&mdash;or, rather,
-shades,&mdash;textures, and forms were made subservient by real genius. Miss
-Alicia&mdash;as she was turned out when the wardrobe was complete&mdash;might
-have been an elderly little duchess of sweet and modest good taste in
-the dress of forty years earlier. It took time, but some of the things
-were prepared as though by magic, and the night the first boxes were
-delivered at the hotel Miss Alicia, on going to bed, in kneeling down
-to her devotions prayed fervently that she might not be “led astray by
-fleshly desires,” and that her gratitude might be acceptable, and not
-stained by a too great joy “in the things which corrupt.”</p>
-
-<p>The very next day occurred Rose. She was the young person to whom
-Pearson was engaged, and it appeared that if Miss Alicia would make
-up her mind to oblige Mr. Temple Barholm by allowing the girl to come
-to her as lady’s-maid, even if only temporarily, she would be doing
-a most kind and charitable thing. She was a very nice, well-behaved
-girl, and unfortunately she had felt herself forced to leave her place
-because her mistress’s husband was not at all a nice man. He had shown
-himself so far from nice that Pearson had been most unhappy, and Rose
-had been compelled to give notice, though she had no other situation in
-prospect and her mother was dependent on her. This was without doubt
-not Mr. Temple Barholm’s exact phrasing of the story, but it was what
-Miss Alicia gathered, and what moved her deeply. It was so cruel and so
-sad! That wicked man! That poor girl! She had never had a lady’s-maid,
-and might be rather at a loss at first, but it was only like Mr. Temple
-Barholm’s kind heart to suggest such a way of helping the girl and poor
-Pearson.</p>
-
-<p>So occurred Rose, a rather pretty creature whose blue eyes suppressed
-grateful tears as she took Miss Alicia’s instructions during their
-first interview. And Pearson arrived the same night, and, waiting upon
-Tembarom, stood before him, and with perfect respect, choked.</p>
-
-<p>“Might I thank you, if you please, sir,” he began, recovering
-himself&mdash;“might I thank you and say how grateful&mdash;Rose and me, sir&mdash;”
-and choked again.</p>
-
-<p>“I told you it would be all right,” answered Tembarom. “It <i>is</i> all
-right. I wish I was fixed like you are, Pearson.”</p>
-
-<p>When the Countess of Mallowe called, Rose had just dressed Miss Alicia
-for the afternoon in one of the most perfect of the evolutions of
-Mrs. Mellish’s idea. It was a definite creation, as even Lady Mallowe
-detected the moment her eyes fell upon it. Its hue was dull, soft gray,
-and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> how it managed to concede points and elude suggestions of modes
-interred, and yet remain what it did remain, and accord perfectly with
-the side ringlets and the lace cap of Mechlin, only dressmaking genius
-could have explained. The mere wearing of it gave Miss Alicia a support
-and courage which she could scarcely believe to be her own. When the
-cards of Lady Mallowe and Lady Joan Fayre were brought up to her, she
-was absolutely not really frightened; a little nervous for a moment,
-perhaps, but frightened, no. A few weeks of relief and ease, of cheery
-consideration, of perfectly good treatment and good food and good
-clothes, had begun a rebuilding of the actual cells of her.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Mallowe entered alone. She was a handsome person, and
-astonishingly young when considered as the mother of a daughter of
-twenty-seven. She wore a white veil, and looked pink through it. She
-swept into the room, and shook hands with Miss Alicia with delicate
-warmth.</p>
-
-<p>“We do not really know each other at all,” she said. “It is disgraceful
-how little relatives see of one another.”</p>
-
-<p>The disgrace, if measured by the extent of the relationship, was not
-immense. Perhaps this thought flickered across Miss Alicia’s mind among
-a number of other things. She had heard “dear papa” on Lady Mallowe,
-and, howsoever lacking in graces, the vicar of Rowcroft had not lacked
-an acrid shrewdness. Miss Alicia’s sensitively self-accusing soul
-shrank before a hasty realization of the fact that if he had been
-present when the cards were brought up, he would, on glancing over them
-through his spectacles, have jerked out immediately: “What does the
-woman want? She’s come to get something.” Miss Alicia wished she had
-not been so immediately beset by this mental vision.</p>
-
-<p>Lady Mallowe had come for something. She had come to be amiable to Miss
-Temple Barholm and to establish relations with her.</p>
-
-<p>“Joan should have been here to meet me,” she explained. “Her dressmaker
-is keeping her, of course. She will be so annoyed. She wanted very much
-to come with me.”</p>
-
-<p>It was further revealed that she might arrive at any moment, which gave
-Miss Alicia an opportunity to express, with pretty grace, the hope
-that she would, and her trust that she was quite well.</p>
-
-<p>“She is always well,” Lady Mallowe returned. “And she is of course
-as interested as we all are in this romantic thing. It is perfectly
-delicious, like a three-volumed novel.”</p>
-
-<p>“It is romantic,” said Miss Alicia, wondering how much her visitor knew
-or thought she knew, and what circumstances would present themselves to
-her as delicious.</p>
-
-<p>“Of course one has heard only the usual talk one always hears when
-everybody is chattering about a thing,” Lady Mallowe replied, with a
-propitiating smile. “No one really knows what is true and what isn’t.
-But it is nice to notice that all the gossip speaks so well of him. No
-one seems to pretend that he is anything but extremely nice himself,
-notwithstanding his disadvantages.”</p>
-
-<p>She kept a fine hazel eye, surrounded by a line which artistically
-represented itself as black lashes, steadily resting on Miss Alicia as
-she said the last words.</p>
-
-<p>“He is,” said Miss Alicia, with gentle firmness, “nicer than I had ever
-imagined any young man could be&mdash;far nicer.”</p>
-
-<p>Lady Mallowe’s glance round the luxurious private sitting-room and
-over the perfect “idea” of Mrs. Mellish was so swift as to be almost
-imperceptible.</p>
-
-<p>“How delightful!” she said. “He must be unusually agreeable, or you
-would not have consented to stay and take care of him.”</p>
-
-<p>“I cannot tell you how <i>happy</i> I am to have been asked to stay with
-him, Lady Mallowe,” Miss Alicia replied, the gentle firmness becoming a
-soft dignity.</p>
-
-<p>“Which of course shows all the more how attractive he must be. And in
-view of the past lack of advantages, what a help you can be to him!
-It is quite wonderful for him to have a relative at hand who is an
-Englishwoman and familiar with things he will feel he must learn.”</p>
-
-<p>A perhaps singular truth is that but for the unmistakable nature of
-the surroundings she quickly took in the significance of, and but for
-the perfection of the carrying out of Mrs. Mellish’s delightful idea,
-it is more than probable that her ladyship’s manner of approaching
-Miss Alicia and certain subjects on which she desired enlightenment
-would have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> much more direct and much less propitiatory.
-Extraordinary as it was, “the creature”&mdash;she thought of Tembarom as
-“the creature”&mdash;had plainly been so pleased with the chance of being
-properly coached that he had put everything, so to speak, in the
-little old woman’s hands. She had got a hold upon him. It was quite
-likely that to regard her as a definite factor would only be the part
-of the merest discretion. She was evidently quite in love with him in
-her early-Victorian, spinster way. One had to be prudent with women
-like that who had got hold of a male creature for the first time in
-their lives, and were almost unaware of their own power. Their very
-unconsciousness made them a dangerous influence.</p>
-
-<p>With a masterly review of these facts in her mind Lady Mallowe went
-on with a fluent and pleasant talk, through the medium of which she
-managed to convey a large number of things Miss Alicia was far from
-being clever enough to realize she was talking about. She lightly
-waved wings of suggestion across the scene, she dropped infinitesimal
-seeds in passing, she left faint echoes behind her&mdash;the kind of echoes
-one would find oneself listening to and trying to hear as definitely
-formed sounds. She had been balancing herself on a precarious platform
-of rank and title, unsupported by any sordid foundation of a solid
-nature, through a lifetime spent in London. She had learned to catch
-fiercely at straws of chance, and bitterly to regret the floating
-past of the slightest, which had made of her a finished product of
-her kind. She talked lightly, and was sometimes almost witty. To
-her hearer she seemed to know every brilliant personage and to be
-familiar with every dazzling thing. She knew well what social habits
-and customs meant, what their value, or lack of value, was. There were
-customs, she implied skilfully, so established by time that it was
-impossible to ignore them. Relationships, for instance, stood for so
-much that was fine in England that one was sometimes quite touched by
-the far-reachingness of family loyalty. The head of the house of a
-great estate represented a certain power in the matter of upholding the
-dignity of his possessions, of caring for his tenantry, of standing
-for proper hospitality and friendly family feeling. It was quite
-beautiful as one often saw it. Throughout the talk there were several
-references to Joan, who really must come in shortly, which were very
-interesting to Miss Alicia. Lady Joan, Miss Alicia heard casually, was
-a great beauty. Her perfection and her extreme cleverness had made her
-perhaps a trifle <i>difficile</i>. She had not done&mdash;Lady Mallowe put it with
-a lightness of phrasing which was delicacy itself&mdash;what she might have
-done, with every exalted advantage, so many times. She had a profound
-nature. Here Lady Mallowe waved away, as it were, a ghost of a sigh.
-Since Miss Temple Barholm was a relative, she had no doubt heard of the
-unfortunate, the very sad incident which her mother sometimes feared
-prejudiced the girl even yet.</p>
-
-<p>“You mean&mdash;poor Jem!” broke forth involuntarily from Miss Alicia’s
-lips. Lady Mallowe stared a little.</p>
-
-<p>“Do you call him that?” she asked. “Did you know him, then?”</p>
-
-<p>“I loved him,” answered Miss Alicia, winking her eyes to keep back the
-moisture in them, “though it was only when he was a little boy.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh,” said Lady Mallowe, with a sudden, singular softness, “I must tell
-Joan that.”</p>
-
-<p>Lady Joan had not appeared even after they had had tea and her mother
-went away, but somehow Miss Alicia had reached a vaguely yearning
-feeling for her and wished very much the dressmaker had released her.
-She was quite stirred when it revealed itself almost at the last moment
-that in a few weeks both she and Lady Mallowe were to pay a visit at no
-great distance from Temple Barholm itself, and that her ladyship would
-certainly arrange to drive over to continue her delightful acquaintance
-and to see the beautiful old place again.</p>
-
-<p>“In any case one must, even if he lived in lonely state, pay one’s
-respects to the head of the house. The truth is, of course, one is
-extremely anxious to meet him, and it is charming to know that one is
-not merely invading the privacy of a bachelor,” Lady Mallowe put it.</p>
-
-<p>“She’ll come for <i>you</i>,” Little Ann had soberly remarked.</p>
-
-<p>Tembarom remembered the look in her quiet, unresentful blue eyes when
-he came in to dinner and Miss Alicia related to him the events of the
-afternoon.</p>
-
-<div class="section">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_304" name="i_304">
-   <img class="mtop3" src="images/i_304.jpg" alt="Headpiece for Chapter XVIII" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<h3 class="s5 center mbot2" id="TEMBAROM_CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</h3>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="dc">
-   <a id="i_304a" name="i_304a">
-   <img class="mtop-0_5 w10em" src="images/i_304a.jpg" alt="T" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="hide-first1_4">T</span>HE spring, when they traveled back to the north, was so perceptibly
-nearer that the fugitive soft days strayed in advance at intervals that
-were briefer. They chose one for their journey, and its clear sunshine
-and hints at faint greenness were so exhilarating to Miss Alicia
-that she was a companion to make any journey an affair to rank with
-holidays and adventures. The strange luxury of traveling in a reserved
-first-class carriage, of being made timid by no sense of unfitness of
-dress or luggage, would have filled her with grateful rapture; but
-Rose, journeying, with Pearson a few coaches behind, appeared at the
-carriage window at every important station to say, “Is there anything I
-may do for you, ma’am?” And there really never was anything she could
-do, because Mr. Temple Barholm remembered everything which could make
-her comfort perfect. In the moods of one who searches the prospect
-for suggestions as to pleasure he can give to himself by delighting
-a dear child, he had found and bought for her a most elegant little
-dressing-bag, with the neatest of plain-gold fittings beautifully
-initialed. It reposed upon the cushioned seat near her, and made her
-heart beat every time she caught sight of it anew. How wonderful it
-would be if poor dear, darling mama could look down and see everything
-and really know what happiness had been vouchsafed to her unworthy
-child!</p>
-
-<p>Having a vivid recollection of the journey made with Mr. Palford,
-Tembarom felt that his whole world had changed for him. The landscape
-had altered its aspect. Miss Alicia pointed out bits of freshening
-grass, was sure of the breaking of brown leaf-buds, and more than
-once breathlessly suspected a primrose in a sheltered hedge corner.
-A country-bred woman, with country-bred keenness of eye and a
-country-bred sense of the seasons’ change, she saw so much that he had
-never known that she began to make him see also. Bare trees would be
-thick-leaved nesting-places, hedges would be white with hawthorn, and
-hold blue eggs and chirps and songs. Skylarks would spring out of the
-fields and soar into the sky, dropping crystal chains of joyous trills.
-The cottage gardens would be full of flowers, there would be poppies
-gleaming scarlet in the corn, and in buttercup-time all the green grass
-would be a sheet of shining gold.</p>
-
-<p>“When it all happens I shall be like a little East-Sider taken for
-a day in the country. I shall be asking questions at every step,”
-Tembarom said. “Temple Barholm must be pretty fine then.”</p>
-
-<p>“It is so lovely,” said Miss Alicia, turning to him almost solemnly,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>
-“that sometimes it makes one really lose one’s breath.”</p>
-
-<p>He looked out of the window with sudden wistfulness.</p>
-
-<p>“I wish Ann&mdash;” he began and then, seeing the repressed question in her
-eyes, made up his mind.</p>
-
-<p>He told her about Little Ann. He did not use very many words, but
-she knew a great deal when he had finished. And her spinster soul
-was thrilled. Neither she nor poor Emily had ever had an admirer,
-and it was not considered refined for unsought females to discuss
-“such subjects.” Domestic delirium over the joy of an engagement in
-families in which daughters were a drug she had seen. It was indeed
-inevitable that there should be more rejoicing over one Miss Timson
-who had strayed from the fold into the haven of marriage than over the
-ninety-nine Misses Timson who remained behind. But she had never known
-intimately any one who was in love&mdash;really in love. Mr. Temple Barholm
-must be. When he spoke of Little Ann he flushed shyly and his eyes
-looked so touching and nice. His voice sounded different, and though
-of course his odd New York expressions were always rather puzzling,
-she felt as though she saw things she had had no previous knowledge
-of&mdash;things which thrilled her.</p>
-
-<p>“She must be a very&mdash;very nice girl,” she ventured at length. “I am
-afraid I have never been into old Mrs. Hutchinson’s cottage. She is
-quite comfortably off in her way, and does not need parish care. I wish
-I had seen Miss Hutchinson.”</p>
-
-<p>“I wish she had seen you,” was Tembarom’s answer.</p>
-
-<p>Miss Alicia reflected. “She must be very clever to have such&mdash;sensible
-views,” she remarked.</p>
-
-<p>If he had remained in New York, and there had been no question of his
-inheriting Temple Barholm, the marriage would have been most suitable.
-But however “superior” she might be, a vision of old Mrs. Hutchinson’s
-granddaughter as the wife of Mr. Temple Barholm, and of noisy old Mr.
-Hutchinson as his father-in-law was a staggering thing.</p>
-
-<p>“You think they were sensible?” asked Tembarom. “Well, she never did
-anything that wasn’t. So I guess they were. And what she says <i>goes</i>.
-I wanted you to know, anyhow. I wouldn’t like you not to know. I’m too
-fond of you, Miss Alicia.” And he put his hand round her neat glove
-and squeezed it. The tears of course came into her tender eyes. Emotion
-of any sort always expressed itself in her in this early-Victorian
-manner.</p>
-
-<p>“This Lady Joan girl,” he said suddenly not long afterward, “isn’t she
-the kind that I’m to get used to&mdash;the kind in the pictorial magazine
-Ann talked about? I bought one at the depot before we started. I wanted
-to get on to the pictures and see what they did to me.”</p>
-
-<p>He found the paper among his belongings and regarded it with the
-expression of a serious explorer. It opened at a page of illustrations
-of slim goddesses in court dresses. By actual measurement, if regarded
-according to scale, each was about ten feet high; but their long lines,
-combining themselves with court trains, waving plumes, and falling
-veils, produced an awe-inspiring effect. Tembarom gazed at them in
-absorbed silence.</p>
-
-<p>“Is she something like any of these?” he inquired finally.</p>
-
-<p>Miss Alicia looked through her glasses.</p>
-
-<p>“Far more beautiful, I believe,” she answered. “These are only
-fashion-plates, and I have heard that she is a most striking girl.”</p>
-
-<p>“A beaut’ from Beautsville!” he said. “So that’s what I’m up against! I
-wonder how much use that kind of a girl would have for me.”</p>
-
-<p>He gave a good deal of attention to the paper before he laid it aside.
-As she watched him, Miss Alicia became gradually aware of the existence
-of a certain hint of determined squareness in his boyish jaw. It was
-perhaps not much more than a hint, but it really was there, though she
-had not noticed it before. In fact, it usually hid itself behind his
-slangy youthfulness and readiness for any good cheer.</p>
-
-<p>One may as well admit that it sustained him during his novitiate
-and aided him to pass through it without ignominy or disaster. He
-was strengthened also by a private resolve to hear himself in such
-a manner as would at least do decent credit to Little Ann and her
-superior knowledge. With the curious eyes of servants, villagers, and
-secretly outraged neighborhood upon him, he was shrewd enough to know
-that he might easily become a perennial fount of grotesque anecdote,
-to be used as a legitimate source of entertain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>ment in cottages over
-the consumption of beans and bacon, as well as at great houses when
-dinner-table talk threatened to become dull if not enlivened by some
-spice. He would not have thought of this or been disturbed by it but
-for Ann. She knew, and he was not going to let her be met on her return
-from America with what he called “a lot of funny dope” about him.</p>
-
-<p>“No girl would like it,” he said to himself. “And the way she said she
-‘cared too much’ just put it up to me to see that the fellow she cares
-for doesn’t let himself get laughed at.”</p>
-
-<p>Though he still continued to be jocular on subjects which to his valet
-seemed almost sacred, Pearson was relieved to find that his employer
-gradually gave himself into his hands in a manner quite amenable. In
-the touching way in which nine out of ten nice, domesticated American
-males obey the behests of the women they are fond of, he had followed
-Ann’s directions to the letter. Guided by the adept Pearson, he had
-gone to the best places in London and purchased the correct things,
-returning to Temple Barholm with a wardrobe to which any gentleman
-might turn at any moment without a question.</p>
-
-<p>“He’s got good shoulders, though he does slouch a bit,” Pearson said to
-Rose. “And a gentleman’s shoulders are more than half the battle.”</p>
-
-<p>What Tembarom himself felt cheered by was the certainty that if Ann saw
-him walking about the park or the village, or driving out with Miss
-Alicia in the big landau, or taking her in to dinner, or even going to
-church with her, she would not have occasion to flush at sight of him.</p>
-
-<p>The going to church was one of the duties of his position he found out.
-Miss Alicia “put him on” to that. It seemed that he had to present
-himself to the villagers “as an example.” If the Temple Barholm pews
-were empty, the villagers, not being incited to devotional exercise by
-his exalted presence, would feel at liberty to remain at home, and in
-the irreligious undress of shirt-sleeves sit and smoke their pipes or,
-worse still, gather at “the Hare and Hounds” and drink beer. Also, it
-would not be “at all proper” not to go to church.</p>
-
-<p>Pearson produced a special cut of costume for this ceremony, and
-Tembarom walked with Miss Alicia across the park to the square-towered
-Norman church.</p>
-
-<p>In a position of dignity the Temple Barholm pews overlooked the
-congregation. There was the great square pew for the family, with
-two others for servants. Footmen and house-maids gazed reverentially
-at prayer-books. Pearson, making every preparation respectfully to
-declare himself a “miserable sinner” when the proper moment arrived,
-could scarcely restrain a side glance as the correctly cut and fitted
-and entirely “suitable” work of his hands opened the pew-door for Miss
-Alicia, followed her in, and took his place.</p>
-
-<p>Let not the fact that he had never been to church before be counted
-against him. There was nothing very extraordinary in the fact. He had
-felt no antipathy to church-going, but he had not by chance fallen
-under proselyting influence, and it had certainly never occurred to
-him that he had any place among the well-dressed, comfortable-looking
-people he had seen flocking into places of worship in New York. As
-far as religious observances were concerned, he was an unadulterated
-heathen, and was all the more to be congratulated on being a heathen of
-genial tendencies.</p>
-
-<p>The very large pew, under the stone floor of which his ancestors had
-slept undisturbedly for centuries, interested him greatly. A recumbent
-marble crusader in armor, with feet crossed in the customary manner,
-fitted into a sort of niche in one side of the wall. There were carved
-tablets and many inscriptions in Latin wheresoever one glanced. The
-place was like a room. A heavy, round table, on which lay prayer-books,
-Bibles, and hymn-books, occupied the middle. About it were arranged
-beautiful old chairs, with hassocks to kneel on. Toward a specially
-imposing chair with arms Miss Alicia directed him with a glance. It was
-apparently his place. He was going to sit down when he saw Miss Alicia
-gently push forward a hassock with her foot, and kneel on it, covering
-her face with her hands as she bent her head. He hastily drew forth his
-hassock and followed her example.</p>
-
-<p>That was it, was it? It wasn’t only a matter of listening to a sermon;
-you had to do things. He had better watch out and see that he didn’t
-miss anything. She didn’t know it was his first time, and it might
-worry her to the limit if he didn’t put it over all right. One of the
-things<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> he had noticed in her was her fear of attracting attention by
-failing to do exactly the “proper thing.” If he made a fool of himself
-by kneeling down when he ought to stand up, or lying down when he ought
-to sit, she’d get hot all over, thinking what the villagers would say.
-Well, Ann hadn’t wanted him to look different from other fellows or to
-make breaks. He’d look out from start to finish. He directed a watchful
-eye at Miss Alicia through his fingers. She remained kneeling a few
-moments, and then very quietly got up. He rose with her, and took his
-big chair when she sat down. He breathed more freely. That was the
-first round.</p>
-
-<p>It was not a large church, but a gray and solemn impression of
-dignity brooded over it. It was dim with light, which fell through
-stained-glass memorial windows set deep in the thick stone walls. The
-silence which reigned throughout its spaces seemed to Tembarom of a
-new kind, different from the silence of the big house. The occasional
-subdued rustle of turned prayer-book leaves seemed to accentuate it;
-the most careful movement could not conceal itself; a slight cough was
-a startling thing. The way, Tembarom thought, they could get things
-dead-still in English places!</p>
-
-<p>The chimes, which had been ringing their last summons to the tardy,
-slackened their final warning notes, became still slower, stopped.
-There was a slight stir in the benches occupied by the infant school.
-It suggested that something new was going to happen. From some unseen
-place came the sound of singing voices&mdash;boyish voices and the voices
-of men. Tembarom involuntarily turned his head. Out of the unseen
-place came a procession in white robes. Great Scott! every one was
-standing up! He must stand up, too. The boys and men in white garments
-filed into their seats. An elderly man, also in white robes, separated
-himself from them, and, going into his special place, kneeled down.
-Then he rose and began to read:</p>
-
-<p>“When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness&mdash;”</p>
-
-<p>Tembarom took the open book which Miss Alicia had very delicately
-pushed toward him. He read the first words,&mdash;that was plain
-sailing,&mdash;then he seemed to lose his place. Miss Alicia turned a leaf.
-He turned one also.</p>
-
-<p>“Dearly beloved brethren&mdash;”</p>
-
-<p>There you were. This was once more plain sailing. He could follow it.
-What was the matter with Miss Alicia? She was kneeling again, everybody
-was kneeling. Where was the hassock? He went down upon his knees,
-hoping Miss Alicia had not seen that he wasn’t going to kneel at all.
-Then when the minister said “Amen,” the congregation said it, too, and
-he came in too late, so that his voice sounded out alone. He must watch
-that. Then the minister knelt, and all the people prayed aloud with
-him. With the book before him he managed to get in after the first few
-words; but he was not ready with the responses, and in the middle of
-them everybody stood up again. And then the organ played, and every one
-sang. He couldn’t sing, anyhow, and he knew he couldn’t catch on to the
-kind of thing they were doing. He hoped Miss Alicia wouldn’t mind his
-standing up and holding his book and doing nothing. He could not help
-seeing that eyes continually turned toward him. They’d notice every
-darned break he made, and Miss Alicia would know it. He felt quite hot
-more than once. He watched her like a hawk; he sat down and listened
-to reading, he stood up and listened to singing; he kneeled, he tried
-to chime in with “Amens” and to keep up with her bending of head and
-knee. But the creed, with its sudden turn toward the altar, caught him
-unawares, he lost himself wholly in the Psalms, the collects left him
-in deep water, and the Litany baffled him by changing from “miserable
-sinners” to “Spare us Good Lord.” If he could have found the place he
-would have been all right, but his anxiety excited him, and the fear of
-embarrassing Miss Alicia by going wrong made the morning a strenuous
-thing. He was so relieved to find he might sit still when the sermon
-began that he gave the minister the attention of a religious enthusiast.</p>
-
-<p>By the time the service had come to an end the stately peace of the
-place had seemed to sink into his being and become part of himself. The
-voice of the minister bestowing his blessing, the voices of the choir
-floating up to the vaulted roof, stirred him to a remote pleasure. He
-liked it, or he knew he would like it when he knew what to do. The
-filing out of the choris<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>ters, the silent final prayer, the soft rustle
-of people rising from their knees, somehow moved him by its suggestion
-of something before unknown. He was a heathen, but a heathen vaguely
-stirred.</p>
-
-<p>He was very quiet as he walked home across the park with Miss Alicia.</p>
-
-<p>“How did you enjoy the sermon?” she asked with much sweetness.</p>
-
-<p>“I’m not used to sermons, but it seemed all right to me,” he answered.
-“What I’ve got to get on to is knowing when to stand up and when to sit
-down. I wasn’t much of a winner at it this morning. I guess you noticed
-that.”</p>
-
-<p>But his outward bearing had been much more composed than his inward
-anxiety had allowed him to believe. His hesitations had not produced
-the noticeable effect he had feared.</p>
-
-<p>“Do you mean you are not quite familiar with the service?” she said.
-Poor dear boy! he had perhaps not been able to go to church regularly
-at all.</p>
-
-<p>“I’m not familiar with any service,” he answered without prejudice. “I
-never went to church before.”</p>
-
-<p>She slightly started and then smiled.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, you mean you have never been to the Church of England,” she said.</p>
-
-<p>Then he saw that, if he told her the exact truth, she would be
-frightened and shocked. She would not know what to say or what to
-think. To her unsophisticated mind only murderers and thieves and
-criminals <i>never</i> went to church. She just didn’t know. Why should she?
-So he smiled also.</p>
-
-<p>“No, I’ve never been to the Church of England,” he said.</p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mtop2">(To be continued)</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter padt3">
-   <a id="i_308" name="i_308">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_308.jpg" alt="Tailpiece for Tembarom" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="INVULNERABLE">INVULNERABLE</h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s3 center">BY WILLIAM ROSE BENÉT</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse"><span class="drop-cap_poetry">T</span>HE armorers met me at the marge of life,</div>
-      <div class="verse">The weapon-bearers, calling each his ware,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Praising sword or spear or sinuous knife</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Fashioned for the strife</div>
-      <div class="verse">In the forest depths that lay before,</div>
-      <div class="verse">To ward off malice or to pierce despair;</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Shields that could affright</div>
-      <div class="verse">All the hissing snakes in Envy’s hair;</div>
-      <div class="verse">Or, when Peril’s sudden arrow sped,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Crying how bucklers, stern of proof and bright,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Glanced the shaft, the rancor overbore;</div>
-      <div class="verse">Or iron helms, securely vizarded,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Turned the thrusts of mockery and spite.</div>
-      <div class="verse">Loudly “Arm you! Arm you!” rose their cry;</div>
-      <div class="verse">And I chose a shield, Indifference,</div>
-      <div class="verse">And a blade, Sharp Wit, for my defense.</div>
-      <div class="verse">Close-meshed mail beneath my gaberdine</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Glittered all unseen.</div>
-      <div class="verse">Proud I strode and whirled my sword on high.</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">Then my friend went by,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Passing in his shining joy unarmed,</div>
-      <div class="verse">With not even an amulet that charmed;</div>
-      <div class="verse">Singing for the innocence confessed</div>
-      <div class="verse">In his sparkling eyes, his buoyant breast;</div>
-      <div class="verse">Swiftly, gaily thrusting through the trees</div>
-      <div class="verse">To his deep and darkling forest doom,</div>
-      <div class="verse">As I thought. But still before me goes,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Blithe and wonderful, his candid smile</div>
-      <div class="verse">Every ambushed shadow to illume,</div>
-      <div class="verse">And the quickening sympathy that glows</div>
-      <div class="verse">Sudden on his cheek when friends seem foes,</div>
-      <div class="verse">And his utter radiance without guile,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Merry ignorance where I am&mdash;<i>wise</i>?</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">Where they lurk and snarl and close with me,</div>
-      <div class="verse">All unscathed of foemen passeth he,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Seeing no strife, unarmed eternally,</div>
-      <div class="verse">And e’en the Terrors turn away their eyes!</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 id="TOPICS_OF_THE_TIME" class="nodisp" title="TOPICS OF THE TIME"></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_309" name="i_309">
-   <img class="mtop2 mbot2" src="images/i_309.jpg"
-      alt="Topics of the Time" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<h3 id="UNDER_WHICH_FLAG">UNDER WHICH FLAG, LADIES, ORDER OR ANARCHY?</h3>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">THE PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE
-DISAVOWS VIOLENCE</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">I</span>N the April C<span class="smaller">ENTURY</span>, in an editorial article, “The Silent
-Suffragists of America,” we called upon the official organizations in
-the United States advocating woman suffrage to abandon their passive
-and tolerant attitude toward the methods of the English militants, a
-plea which we had also made in the number for November last.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> We
-have received letters of approval of this article from representative
-women on each side of the suffrage question. It is a matter of sincere
-gratification to us to publish at the first opportunity the letter
-which follows from Miss Eleanor Cuyler Patterson of Chestnut Hill
-(Philadelphia):</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>I have read with interest the temperate and wise opinion printed
-in “Topics of the Time” in the April number of
-T<span class="smaller">HE</span> C<span class="smaller">ENTURY</span>
-M<span class="smaller">AGAZINE</span>. It gives me great pleasure to send you the
-resolution on this subject passed by the executive committee of the
-Pennsylvania Association for Woman Suffrage on March 7, 1913.</p>
-
-<p>“Although we do not pass judgment on the methods of other
-organizations, <i>we disclaim all connection with militant
-organizations, and do not indorse or intend to use militant
-methods</i>, but shall continue to employ educational methods as in
-the past.”</p></div>
-
-<p>Here at last we have from an official suffrage organization in America
-a sober-minded expression of opinion on this burning subject. It ought
-to be the beginning of a sincere effort to rescue the whole woman
-movement from the shallow thinking and super-emotionalism that are
-likely to wreck it.</p>
-
-<p>That this sort of protest is much needed is shown from the following
-passage from a letter to “The New York Times” from a leading advocate
-of the suffrage, Mrs. Eunice Dana Brannan, which is the first public
-expression of what we must regard as a very unfortunate, not to say
-shocking, frame of mind on the part of many refined and well-educated
-American women:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>The suffragists in America are agreed in their belief that militant
-action is <i>not called for</i>. Injustice to women is not so evident
-nor so general as in England, and the attitude of the majority of
-American men is certainly fairer and more honestly chivalrous.
-<i>But, in spite of these amiable differences, it is quite possible
-that if the Eastern States continue to deny enfranchisement to
-their women, while the Western States continue to grant it, the
-women thus discriminated against would find the political anomaly
-of their position so impossible to bear that even militancy would
-seem to them justifiable.</i></p></div>
-
-<p>The words we have italicized are deplorably significant. They mean, for
-instance, that the immunity of New York City from similar outrages is
-to be dependent only upon the granting of the suffrage by the State.
-“Militant action is not called for”&mdash;yet, but will be called for if the
-voters of the East, however conscientiously, shall deny the suffrage to
-women!</p>
-
-<p>In striking contrast is this extract from an open letter, printed in
-“The New York Times” of April 14, from Mrs. Helen Magill White (Mrs.
-Andrew D. White) of Ithaca, New York, addressed “To the Treasurer of
-the National American Woman Suffrage Association.” After recording her
-friendly attitude toward the movement, Mrs. White closes her letter
-with these downright words:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>I never until lately admitted to myself the possibility of our
-<i>essential</i> inferiority&mdash;such that, in matters of government, we
-could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> without outrage be classed with children, with idiots and
-insane, and with criminals.</p>
-
-<p>But now that I see our own kinswomen across the sea sowing the wind
-to reap the whirlwind&mdash;sowing seeds of lawlessness which we may see
-in our own day, I greatly fear, blossoming in an anarchism more
-terrible than anything yet known to history&mdash;and when I see our own
-women protesting feebly or not at all, and even, to some extent,
-encouraging, I have not a cent to contribute nor a word of sympathy
-for any association of women which does not publicly and earnestly
-protest against such a line of procedure. It resembles the kicking
-and biting of spoiled children, the raving and gibbering of insane
-and idiots&mdash;and the unbridled license of the most abandoned
-criminals. All these classes think solely of what they want, and
-self-constitute themselves arbiters of what they should have. What
-it may cost other human beings, innocent though they be, for them
-to grasp at the objects of their desire by whatever means may come
-to hand, does not touch their minds; and so it would seem to be
-with those women of England; and so, also, with those of our own
-women who condone their offenses&mdash;who would condone such action <i>in
-any cause</i>.</p></div>
-
-<p>Mrs. White here indicates both the responsibility of sincere, educated,
-and thoughtful suffragists and an effective method whereby they may
-hold the official organizations to their duty. Not a dollar should
-be subscribed to their work until they have pledged themselves that
-no part of their funds shall go to the support of lawlessness, and
-have made as definite a disclaimer of sympathy and intention as the
-Pennsylvania society, the action of which, at this time, is a patriotic
-public service of the highest order.</p>
-
-<p>We have nothing but respect for the women of America who are earnestly
-convinced that the extension of the suffrage gives promise of a
-brighter day for humanity, and we take this opportunity to record our
-abhorrence not only of violence by women but of such interference with
-peaceable parades as disgraced the city of Washington on the third of
-March. In these days of turbulence of action and of thought, there is
-no securer anchorage to the mind than Chatham’s saying, “Where law
-ends, tyranny begins.”</p>
-
-<div class="section">
-
-<h3 id="NEWSPAPER_INVASION_OF_PRIVACY">NEWSPAPER INVASION OF PRIVACY</h3>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">IS THE PAUL PRY AND PEEPING TOM TYPE OF REPORTING
-ON THE INCREASE?</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">T</span>HE newspapers printed the initial paragraph of Mr. Pierpont Morgan’s
-will, and some of them made it the theme of very respectful and
-profitable comment. It was as intimate a statement as can well be
-imagined, a solemn committal of the soul of the maker of the will into
-the hands of his Saviour, and a charge to his children to maintain and
-defend “the blessed doctrine of the complete atonement for sin through
-the blood of Jesus Christ.”</p>
-
-<p>But Mr. Morgan was a public person. All of us, in that sense, became
-members of his family. We had made our way to his bedside as he lay
-dying in Rome, and we expected to be given his will to read as soon as
-his wife and son and daughters had read it. They were obliged to give
-it to us: what could they do? Mr. Morgan, by reason of his great wealth
-and his distinguished public service had lost the privilege of privacy.</p>
-
-<p>At the same time, there were those who read the will, and especially
-the beginning of it, with a certain sense of embarrassment, as if they
-had been found reading a neighbor’s private letters. The situation
-is one which arises in connection with some modern biographies and
-autobiographies, but the newspapers present it to our conscience
-every day. Now is abundantly fulfilled the prediction of an old book
-which said, “There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed;
-and hid, that shall not be known.” When the book promises further
-that that which is spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed
-upon the housetops, we seem to see the reporter in the midst of his
-characteristic activities. All the closet doors are now wide open; or,
-if they are shut and locked against us, there are dictagraphs inside.</p>
-
-<p>The other day at a great college a student was found dead in bed.
-The reporter who put the fact in the paper reported also that the
-president and the dean, and other persons much older and perhaps wiser
-than himself, had done their best to keep the matter private. Their
-endeavors appear to have been entirely for the sake of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> student’s
-family and friends. There was no suspicion of anything wrong except
-such as the reporter himself conveyed to heighten the interest. These
-kindly endeavors the reporter, according to his own frank and impudent
-confession, had frustrated. No purpose seems to have been served by the
-publication except that the reporter got his money for it.</p>
-
-<p>The other day, in the midst of a suit for divorce, the wife was
-stricken with a mortal disease, and the husband was sent for. She was
-unconscious when he arrived, and he knelt by her bedside, praying.
-Then she opened her eyes and saw him, and told him that she loved him
-still. Behind the door was a reporter, with his paper in one hand and
-his pencil in the other, putting down what he saw and heard through the
-crack, and going out to shout it through a megaphone in the street.</p>
-
-<p>Two lads in a high school fought a duel over the attentions which one
-was paying to the other’s sister. The local newspapers gave it nearly
-as much space as they gave to the floods in Ohio. The little girls who
-looked on were all interviewed, and we were told what the sister said
-when she went to see her wounded lover in the hospital. Of course the
-perspective was absurd, but the performance was by no means absurd.</p>
-
-<p>So with the divorce-suits that are tried in the court-rooms, which
-have no walls, where the busy reporters prepare themselves to tell
-us a hundred things that we have no right to know. A brutal husband
-forces his wife to sue him for divorce as her only defense against
-his cruelty, and the newspapers coöperate with him in exposing to the
-common gaze all the tender privacies of the woman’s soul.</p>
-
-<p>We read such revelations, at first ashamed, as if we were looking
-through a keyhole, then somewhat brutalized ourselves by the
-experience. Thus the line is blurred between the publicity which is
-for the good of the people and for the terror of offenders, and the
-publicity which is only gossip and scandal printed for no other purpose
-than to sell the papers and make money. Whatever the remedy, the fact
-is plain that our sense of the honest rights of privacy is dulled. If
-Lady Godiva were to ride through the streets of Coventry to-day, there
-would be Peeping Toms in groups at every window with cameras and
-machines for taking moving pictures.</p>
-
-<p>It is not improbable that one of the next important movements in this
-country will be for a greater sense of responsibility to wholesome
-public opinion on the part of the press. There is so much that is good
-and helpful and truly progressive in the better newspapers, and they
-are so sound on the larger questions of national policy, that it is
-to be hoped that the reformation of the grosser faults of journalism
-will be initiated by them. And in saying this we must not forget the
-offenses against good taste and good morals which are continually being
-perpetrated by certain periodicals that appear but once a month.</p>
-
-<div class="section">
-
-<h3 id="THE_CHANGING_VIEW_OF_GOVERNMENT">THE CHANGING VIEW OF GOVERNMENT</h3>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">A GROWING SENSE OF ITS DUTIES TO THE PEOPLE</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">A</span> MEMBER of Congress summed up the strongest impression from his latest
-electoral campaign as being that the people in this country are coming
-to have a much more vivid sense of the Government as “a political
-entity” which “owes duties.” He obviously means something more than
-Secretary Hay’s famous phrase about the “administrative entity” of
-China. This is no mere quibble about Pope’s “forms of government.”
-It implies a wide departure from the old view that government is a
-necessary evil, to be kept as limited as possible. However we explain
-or interpret the new conception, its existence and increasing sway over
-the minds of men will not be questioned by any one who keeps his eyes
-open to the facts. He may call the tendency socialistic or simply an
-extension of the democratic principle, but that it has now become a
-part of American political thinking he cannot well deny.</p>
-
-<p>Equally undeniable is it that the idea that people have of the
-nature and function of their Government is more important than any
-mere question of governmental machinery. We hear much of a movement
-to “restore the government to the people.” All manner of political
-devices are commended, or else condemned, to bring about a more direct
-participation by the citizen in the work of government. Be these
-proposals wise or foolish, it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> plain that the chief question lies
-behind them. It is what the people wish their Government to be; what
-they would now have done by those responsible for its conduct; what
-they themselves would undertake by means of governmental agencies in
-case those agencies were somehow made more quickly responsive to the
-popular will. Show a political philosopher what the driving forces of
-a republic really desire it to be or to become, and he will be able to
-get much more instruction out of that, much more material on which to
-base prophecies respecting future development, than he possibly can
-from endless talk about primaries and conventions, ballot-laws and
-corrupt-practices acts. Those are only means and machinery; the end
-aimed at is the main thing.</p>
-
-<p>Looking back at the recent enlargement of governmental activities,
-and endeavoring to read in them the new sense of duties owed, we are
-able to detect at least a few general indications and even certain
-principles. For example, it is clear that the people are demanding, and
-will more and more demand, that their governments, local and national,
-do a great deal more than was formerly expected to conserve the
-physical health of the nation. Here is the origin of pure-food laws,
-of meat-inspection, of statutes against the adulteration of drugs. In
-this feeling of the vital relation that ought to exist between the
-Government and the bodily well-being of its subjects we have also the
-explanation of official campaigns against disease, of the movement
-for a national quarantine, and of the great broadening of the work
-everywhere laid upon health officers.</p>
-
-<p>All this has not come about through a deliberate or reasoned change in
-the point of view. It is, rather, the result of quiet pressure from the
-practical side. Large problems of public health have pushed themselves
-to the front; and in seeking to solve them, the people have merely laid
-hold of the powers of government as ready and efficient instruments.
-It is now tacitly assumed that the Government is under a continuing
-obligation to guard the people against epidemic disease and exposure to
-impure food and deleterious drugs. This is now distinctly one of the
-duties owed.</p>
-
-<p>But life is more than meat, liberty and equality of opportunity are
-more precious than health. And in seeking to preserve these, the
-work of our Government during the last few years has made of official
-activity something very different from the conceptions and standards of
-1787 or 1850&mdash;something which is no doubt open to abuse, but which, we
-are persuaded, has thus far been largely beneficial in its practical
-manifestations.</p>
-
-<p>When the Government takes hold of the evil of railway rebating with a
-strong hand, it is not alone a question of enforcement of the law, but
-of striking down an insidious and dangerous form of special privilege.
-The real offense in the old rebate system, now happily so nearly a
-thing of the past, was not alone its secret favors to a secret few,
-but its gross discrimination against the unprotected many. It was the
-denial of the right to compete on equal terms. This is the intolerable
-thing in a free democracy. It can endure the sight of great wealth,
-of vast fortunes honestly gained, but it cannot submit to a method of
-accumulating property which destroys the opportunities of thousands in
-order to give unfair advantages to one. It is the determination to keep
-the career open to talent, not to shut it up to favoritism, which has
-been the animating spirit in the long struggle to prevent the railroads
-from virtually creating private fortunes at their own sweet will, and
-bringing whom they please to penury by means of rebates.</p>
-
-<p>A like attitude and animus are seen in the other forms of legislative
-restriction upon great corporations. All the anti-monopoly laws and
-anti-trust suits, all the regulating statutes and the public-utilities
-commissions, have one principle at bottom, and it is to make all men
-stand equal before the law. On the one hand to strike down oppression,
-on the other to equalize opportunity, has been the intent of these new
-activities of government which, whatever else they show, leave no doubt
-of an altogether changed view of what governments owe.</p>
-
-<p>In all these matters, the greatest peril that lurks in our path is that
-of being misled by abstractions. If we talk overmuch of “government,”
-we are in danger of forgetting the human beings who make it up. If we
-are afflicted by bad rulers, it is no help to us to fall back upon an
-ideal conception of “the state.” The state is simply men acting. Much
-amusement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> was created in Paris by an innocent peasant who passed from
-one public building to another demanding that he be allowed to see
-<i>l’état</i>. He had heard of it all his life; he thought it was something
-at the capital; being there, he wanted to inspect it at close range. He
-was an unsophisticated rustic, but was he not right in his instinct?
-We are not, after all, governed by an “entity.” Government is the most
-concrete of human affairs. It is vested in mortal men. And in all the
-agitations and the hopes and fears of our day respecting the extension
-of governmental functions, and the quickening of the whole idea of what
-the state owes to citizens, it would be fatal to forget that government
-cannot be made better except by putting better men in charge of it.</p>
-
-<div class="section">
-
-<h3 id="THE_TWO-BILLION-DOLLAR_CONGRESS">THE TWO-BILLION-DOLLAR CONGRESS</h3>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">A NATIONAL BUDGET THE REMEDY FOR EXTRAVAGANCE IN
-APPROPRIATIONS</p>
-
-<p class="p0"><span class="drop-cap">T</span>HE time is overripe for a fundamental change in our method of making
-annual appropriations for the cost of the National Government. A glance
-at the result of the work done by the various congressional committees
-charged with the duty of preparing appropriation bills is enough to
-bring conviction that order and system must be substituted for the
-present chaotic methods; while, if we could penetrate the secrets of
-the committee-rooms, the country would stand appalled at the ignoble
-tricks and devices by which the “pork-barrel” is filled and the money
-of the taxpayers wantonly and wickedly wasted.</p>
-
-<p>The Democrats in their platform of 1912 “denounce the profligate
-waste of money wrung from the people by oppressive taxation through
-the lavish appropriations of recent Republican Congresses,” and
-they demand “a return to that simplicity and economy which befits a
-democratic Government.” How did they keep faith with the people under
-this self-denying ordinance? In the session of Congress immediately
-following, the second regular session of the Sixty-second Congress,
-which adjourned on March 4, they passed appropriation bills aggregating
-$1,098,647,960, and authorized contracts on public works committing
-the Government to a further expenditure of $76,956,174, making a
-total demand upon the treasury for the year ending June 30, 1914,
-of $1,175,604,134, a sum that surpasses all previous congressional
-achievements in extravagance. Not only that, but the grand total of
-the appropriations and contracts authorized in the two years of the
-Sixty-second Congress was $2,238,470,990, which is to be compared with
-$2,151,610,940 of the Sixty-first Congress. This is democratic economy
-and simplicity with a vengeance. The Democrats surpassed by more than
-$86,000,000 the exploits of the previous Republican Congress, which
-they had denounced as profligate.</p>
-
-<p>But the Republican pot cannot call the Democratic kettle black. The
-blame falls upon both parties, for both have been profligate. Not only
-is the method of drawing up the appropriation schedules indefensible,
-but many of the senators and congressmen of both parties exhibit a
-degree of greed and rapacity in grabbing for the people’s money that
-is fairly comparable with the behavior of a drunken army looting a
-captive city. The river-and-harbor appropriation of $41,000,000, and
-the public-buildings appropriation amounting to $45,000,000 more, cover
-multitudes of log-rolling sins, of costly improvements of streams never
-navigable, of imposing buildings for small towns, veritable “grabs” of
-money to foster local pride, put district constituents in a good humor,
-and lay the foundation for safe majorities in the next congressional
-elections. The sin here is not alone that of profligate wastefulness;
-it is a pretty direct form of bribery of the voter. The staggering
-appropriation for pensions belongs in this category. The Service
-Pension Act added $25,000,000 to this item of expenditure, which in
-this fiscal year is raised to the great sum of $180,300,000. And we are
-now observing the fiftieth anniversaries of events of the war!</p>
-
-<p>The national balance-sheet for the year which this “return to that
-simplicity and economy which befits a democratic Government” presents
-for the scrutiny of the voter and the taxpayer stands thus: estimated
-revenue of the Government under existing laws, $991,791,508; direct
-appropriations, $1,098,647,960; deficit, $106,856,452. But there must
-be added<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> to the appropriations $76,976,174 of contract commitments
-authorized, raising the deficit to the colossal total of $183,812,626.</p>
-
-<p>How shall this riot of extravagance be checked? By concentrating
-the power of control over appropriation bills and by establishing a
-definite responsibility for them. Two methods have been proposed.
-President Taft in a special message urged upon Congress the plan of a
-national budget. The various departments would prepare the estimates as
-now; these would be diligently studied and coördinated, with constant
-reference to the estimated revenue of the year; and the Executive
-would then submit to Congress such a budget statement as in most other
-countries the legislative body receives from the Government. In the
-House of Representatives this budget would be considered by a budget
-committee, or, if the old name were retained, by the Committee on
-Appropriations. And the report of that committee, of course, would
-be subject to discussion and amendment by the House. Representative
-Fitzgerald of the Appropriations Committee and ex-Speaker Cannon agree
-in advising a return to the practice of intrusting, the preparation of
-appropriation bills to a single Committee on Appropriations.</p>
-
-<p>Prior to the year 1865, the Committee on Ways and Means had control of
-appropriation bills. Then the Committee on Appropriations was created,
-with full control of supply bills. In 1885, because of jealousy of the
-great power exercised by Samuel J. Randall, the bills making provision
-for the army, the diplomatic and consular service, the military
-academy, the navy, Indian affairs, and the post-office, were taken away
-from the Committee on Appropriations. This change marked the beginning
-of the era of extravagance. Under the present system, appropriations
-are made in thirteen annual bills, and “eight different committees,
-unrelated to one another, without coöperation, are charged with the
-duty” of preparing these bills. No fairer invitation to extravagance
-could be issued. Each committee works with regard only to itself,
-and, as we have seen, all together work without regard to the revenue
-side of the account. Coordination is impossible, and no balanced and
-well-apportioned budget could be the result of such a system.</p>
-
-<p>The national-budget plan proposed by Mr. Taft should have the most
-serious consideration of Congress and of the country. Objection is made
-that this plan is “wholly inapplicable to our system of government.”
-It may be admitted at once that it is wholly incongruous with the
-present “system” of Congress in respect to appropriations. It would
-smash in both heads of the “pork-barrel,” and apprehension of that
-catastrophe, rather than any constitutional scruple, we imagine, is
-the motive of the objections that have been raised. It is true that
-the House under the Constitution originates revenue bills. But there
-is no constitutional impediment to the submission of estimates by
-the Executive, since that has been the practice of the Government
-since the beginning. A budget based upon the “needs of the Government
-economically administered,” and scrupulously adjusted to the revenue
-account, is the most promising remedy for the evils of the present
-method of preparing bills in eight committees, working with no
-recognized relation or understanding, under which extravagance has
-grown into a habit.</p>
-
-<div class="section">
-
-<h3 id="ERRATUM">ERRATUM</h3>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>I<span class="smaller">N</span> the April C<span class="smaller">ENTURY</span>, on page 821, by a misapprehension M.
-André Tardieu was spoken of as the editor of the “Revue des Deux
-Mondes,” to which he is a contributor. The editor is M. Francis Charmes
-of the French Academy.&mdash;T<span class="smaller">HE</span> E<span class="smaller">DITOR</span>.</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter padt3">
-   <a id="i_314" name="i_314">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_314.jpg" alt="Tailpiece for Topics of the Time" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2 id="OPEN_LETTERS" class="nodisp" title="OPEN LETTERS"></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_315a" name="i_315a">
-   <img class="mtop2 mbot2" src="images/i_315a.jpg"
-      alt="Open Letters" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<h3 id="ON_THE_LADY_AND_HER_BOOK">ON THE LADY AND HER BOOK</h3>
-
-<p class="s6 center"><i>A Plea for the Suppression of a Catchword</i></p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">BY HELEN MINTURN SEYMOUR</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_315b" name="i_315b">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_315b.jpg" alt="Essays of Elia" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p class="p0 mtop2"><i>My dear George</i>:</p>
-
-<p>The magazine containing “Confessions of a Novel Reader” arrived not
-two hours ago, and I have just come from its perusal. When a young man
-cares enough about his spinster aunt to send her his latest literary
-production on the very day it appears it does seem ungracious to do
-what I am about to do&mdash;make the letter of acknowledgment one continuous
-complaint. But you touched me on a sensitive spot, George. Your essay
-proved the proverbial straw, the drop that filled a cup of bitterness
-to overflowing.</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps you suspect that this tirade comes from an elderly New
-Englander’s aversion to those very outspoken writers whom you admire.
-Not a bit of it. Worship at whatever shrine you please. I, too, in my
-young days, distressed my elders by my attachment to strange gods.
-It is a waste of time to be shocked, since most of us have gone in
-for “daring” literature when we were green in judgment. It is a phase
-of youth, like a boy’s swagger. No, all the trouble came from one
-little paragraph, which you probably never dreamed would upset me. You
-said&mdash;oh, you said&mdash;that no woman enjoys Dumas! That cut me to the
-heart, George,&mdash;and coming from you!</p>
-
-<p>“A woman cannot read&mdash;” “A woman does not like&mdash;” We have heard those
-expressions so often! Sometimes the statement is used to illustrate the
-limitations of feminine sympathy. Sometimes the supposed limitations of
-feminine sympathy are used to support the statement. I don’t know which
-is worse, to go softly all one’s days, lest some individual weakness be
-foisted on the whole unfortunate sex, or to feel that individual tastes
-avail nothing as examples of female character.</p>
-
-<p>Hark to Mr. Paul Elmer More on Christina Rossetti. He finds her
-“perfectly passive attitude toward the powers that command her heart
-and soul” makes her “the purest expression in English of the feminine
-genius.” Mrs. Browning sinks to a lower level because “her political
-opinions, her passion for reform, her scholarship ... simply carry her
-into the sphere of masculine poets, where she suffers by comparison.”
-But, “even within the range of strictly feminine powers her genius
-is not simple and typical.” How he comes to his conclusion regarding
-the typical woman Mr. More neglects to tell us. But you will observe
-the advantage of this method for the doctrinaire. One has only to
-accept a certain premise (it matters not what), and by excluding as
-“not typical” every instance which might contradict it one can prove
-anything. Thus, a certain book on the Negro proved, some years ago,
-that the colored race was a hopeless mass of laziness, vice, and
-stupidity. The writer hastened to forestall criticism by declaring that
-the well-conducted Negro, wherever and whenever found, was not typical
-of the race.</p>
-
-<p>Here comes Dr. William Lyon Phelps, all amazement because women have
-enjoyed the soldier tales of Kipling. To him the preference is as
-out of place in a woman as her presence in a bar-room amid oaths and
-tobacco-juice. Well, if there were as much color, adventure, and
-excellent broad comedy in the bar-room as in the best of these stories
-a lady might even forgive the profanity and the filthy floor. And
-you must remember that life, for all the realists may say, is not
-literature. We take our broad comedy, selected and arranged, from an
-author. Life is like a variety show; we sit through a deal of vulgar
-stupidity for the sake of a laugh or two. Furthermore, I believe plenty
-of men who enjoy <i>Mistress Doll Common</i> when Ben Jonson leads her on
-the stage would find her sadly dull in real life. Perhaps I have grown
-more pa<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>tient with the limitations of sex since the days when I read
-“Monte Cristo” in the hayloft; but I still fume under that particular
-form of petticoat tyranny which would extend to books. Sex may pervade
-all the departments of life, but I hold that it should stop at the
-library door.</p>
-
-<p>Divest yourself of certain odious catchwords, my dear boy. Toss certain
-theories into the waste-basket, where they belong. Forget that any one
-ever called woman “the subjective sex,” and that somebody described
-her as a “divine totality” (I think it was divine). Any superfluous
-subjectiveness is wearing away in the freer air which has done so much
-to destroy woman’s “personal outlook.” Remember that women are no more
-of a piece than are their fathers or brothers, but a hodge-podge of
-miscellaneous and often contradictory tastes. “Tell me what you eat
-and I will tell you what you are,” runs the saying. “Tell me what you
-read and I will tell you what you are,” says the critic by implication.
-Now, what is that middle-aged relative of mine who keeps a place in her
-heart of hearts for “Pride and Prejudice” and “Pan Michael,” for “The
-Essays of Elia” and “Junius’s Letters”? Verily, we seek our books as we
-seek the society of many friends, to suit a mood, with no regard for
-totalities.</p>
-
-<p>By the way, is not this just another instance of that mania for
-pigeonholing human tastes and playing them off against one another?
-If you appreciate Sienkiewicz, you must share the opinion of “The
-Virginian” (and Mr. Wister) regarding Jane Austen; and if you find
-entertainment in the human comedy as played in English country towns
-at the end of the eighteenth century, it stands to reason that you are
-not the person for the Poland of the seventeenth. It avails you little
-to protest that you find an equal pleasure in routing <i>Lady Catherine</i>
-with <i>Elizabeth</i> and Tartars with <i>Volodyovski</i>. One of these days I
-intend to found a society for the suppression of useless comparisons.
-I can understand how a Trinitarian and a Unitarian, a Democrat and a
-Republican, a suffragist and an anti-suffragist might drift naturally
-into discussion. But why, when I speak a good word for the canine race,
-must my acquaintance, B, launch aggressively into praise of cats, as if
-my love of dogs were a challenge? Why may I not enjoy Tennyson without
-calling down on myself the scorn of the Browningite? It annoys me to
-have my pets or my poets made the excuse for a wrangle. I refuse to
-commit myself to any type of novel.</p>
-
-<p>But, you may remind me, I went so far as to keep a parrot “once, long
-ago.” I plead guilty, yet, Mark Twain to the contrary, a parrot is no
-index to character. <i>John Silver</i> kept one, but nobody ever compared
-him to a maiden lady.</p>
-
-<p>So, dear George, when you meet some gentle spinster with a flavor of
-“Cranford” about her, give her the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps she
-likes nothing better than to swagger in imagination through the streets
-of old Paris in company with the immortal three, brandishing a sheaf of
-rapiers taken from the cardinal’s guard.</p>
-
-<p>&mdash;And between you and me, George, I never saw a “typical woman.”</p>
-
-<p class="center">Your affectionate aunt,</p>
-
-<p class="right mright2"><i>Anne Coddington</i>.</p>
-
-<div class="section">
-
-<h3 id="ON_THE_USE_OF_HYPERBOLE">ON THE USE OF HYPERBOLE IN ADVERTISING</h3>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s6 center"><i>From a Lady who Suffers from Skepticism to a Friend
-who is Healthily Credulous</i></p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">BY AGNES REPPLIER</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_316" name="i_316">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_316.jpg" alt="Hyperbole" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p class="p0 mtop2"><i>My dear Eleanor</i>:</p>
-
-<p>No, Eleanor, I have not read “The Three Golden Apples.” I have not even
-read the reviews. But I <i>have</i> read the publishers’ notice, because
-they were good enough to send it to me. They say the book is the
-literary masterpiece of our day, that it stands unrivaled in tensity
-of situation, that it is an epoch-making narrative, and a masterly
-contribution to the problems that confront the thinking world. Upon
-which I find myself murmuring with <i>Sancho Panza</i>, “Nothing else, mine
-honest friend?” Why not say simply and plainly that it is the greatest
-novel ever written, and that Clarence Coventry (have you ever met him,
-Eleanor? He is a charming man) is the greatest novelist ever born? Why,
-when people are soaring in the pure and limitless realms of fancy,
-should they stop short, as if they were impeded by facts?</p>
-
-<p>Now even if I did not know Clarence&mdash;who writes quite as well as his
-neighbors&mdash;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span>I should be chilled into apathy by the publishers’ red-hot
-enthusiasm. The phrase “epoch-making” is calculated to chill any reader
-who has encountered it before and who remembers what it usually means.
-And though I am well aware that epochs are not made or marred by even
-a readable novel, I don’t like being told pure nonsense, and I don’t
-like being hounded by advertisements. Why, Eleanor, since I have been
-running over to New York every few weeks to see Amy and the children,
-and staring out of the car-windows at ninety weary miles of continuous
-advertising, I am cured forever of touching pills or pickles.</p>
-
-<p>Yet they tell me (though I don’t believe it) that the success of any
-business venture depends wholly and entirely on its advertisements;
-that if people are told often enough to buy a thing they end by buying
-it; that if they are told imperatively or persuasively they buy it a
-little sooner; and that they can be startled into buying it at once. I
-have been given to understand that the artless expedient of printing an
-advertisement upside-down impels hundreds of men and women to purchase
-the object or visit the attraction so derided.</p>
-
-<p>But we are not, in other respects, a child-like nation; I find a
-great deal of incredulity in this world when it comes to things
-worth believing. Why, then, this touching simplicity in the face of
-a transparent artifice? Does a young man really believe that if he
-eats one kind of cereal rather than another he will become a great
-financier? That is virtually what he is told. But if he will add up the
-financiers on the one hand, and the cereal-eaters on the other, he will
-find his figures disheartening.</p>
-
-<p>The other day I received a long and exceedingly intimate communication,
-which began “Why not be Beautiful?”, and which (assuming ungraciously
-that I was ugly) gave me so many good reasons for altering my estate,
-that I began to fear I was “resisting grace” by retaining a single
-feature. A beautiful woman, I was reminded, “has the world at her feet,
-and can nobly mold the characters of men.” All this for thirty dollars,
-Eleanor! And I have so many friends whose characters&mdash;or at least whose
-habits&mdash;would “thole a mend.” Do you think, if I paid thirty dollars
-to be beautiful&mdash;in an elderly fashion&mdash;I could break Archie Hamilton
-of contradicting every innocent statement made in his presence (he’d
-say the sea wasn’t salt if he had a chance), and induce Dr. Nett not
-to tell us any more about the Panama Canal? It would be money well
-invested; but I fear&mdash;I fear&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>The amazing thing about the whole business is that it should be worth
-while. Last winter in a magazine I read a very serious and sanguine
-paper called “A Revolution in Advertising.” The writer&mdash;it is always
-a woman who believes in the perfectibility of our fallen race&mdash;wanted
-advertisers, one and all, to abandon romance and become educational
-mediums. She begged them to give us their aid in apportioning our
-incomes, to tell us “facts about economy and expenditure,” to impart to
-us the secrets of skill and the principles of science. She sought to
-make our department stores “museums of vital importance.” As the stores
-are already concert-halls and picture-galleries, cooking-schools,
-day nurseries, and vaudeville shows, it seems grasping to ask them
-to be museums as well; but to expect them to teach us the value of
-economy is like expecting the steamship companies to teach us the
-advantages of staying at home. It is not, after all, the money we save,
-but the money we spend, which benefits the shopkeeper. He may tell
-us that we economize when we buy a seventy-five-dollar costume for
-thirty-nine dollars and a half. According to his computation we shall
-save thirty-five dollars and fifty cents&mdash;quite a comfortable sum&mdash;by
-so doing. Who was it that said that figures lie more than anything
-in the world except facts; and by what system, I often wonder, does
-the advertiser regulate his choice of numerals? Human greed and human
-credulity are his only guides. If he said the costume was reduced from
-seventy-five dollars to sixty dollars, we’d say it wasn’t worth while;
-and if he said it was reduced from seventy-five to fifteen, we’d say
-we didn’t believe it; so he has to choose some happy medium which will
-sound both tempting and trustworthy. He depends on our gullibility, and
-he does not depend in vain.</p>
-
-<p>What I like best, however, are the ingenious appeals that cast all
-cramping veracities to the winds. I like being invited (don’t laugh, I
-can show you the advertisement) to grow potatoes in a closet, or in my
-spare room. “Method cheap, simple, and sure.” “No digging, no hoeing”
-(I should think not, in my spare room!). All the potatoes I want to
-eat, and “immense profits” if I send them to market. No labor involved,
-and no annoyance, save possibly the loss of an occasional guest, as I
-could not well have friends sleeping in my potato-patch. I have heard
-of people raising mushrooms and angleworms in their cellars (I’d as
-soon eat one as the other); but a truck-garden in the next room would
-be living in the heart of nature.</p>
-
-<p>And now Massachusetts, in a spasm of integrity, is trying to restrain
-the exuberance of the advertiser, to clip his wings, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> teach him
-the worth of sobriety. The State proposes to abolish fraudulent
-advertisements, and to construe the word “fraudulent” so that it will
-cover any statement that can be proved to be false. A thing must really
-and truly be just what the advertiser says it is. But oh, Eleanor,
-what a tangle for the law to smooth out! If, like the three rogues in
-the Hindoo legend, you sell a dog for a sheep, that, of course, is a
-transparent lie. But if you say that Clarence Coventry’s book is an
-“epoch-making narrative,” who shall prove the contrary? We’d have to
-wait so long to find out the truth that our graves would yawn for us in
-the interval. And if in 1950 the student of social science were asked,
-“Who wrote ‘The Three Golden Apples,’ and what influence did it have
-upon its day?” and he should answer&mdash;very naturally&mdash;that he never
-had heard of it, the time for investigation would be over. Clarence,
-and the publishers, and “The Three Golden Apples” would all be dead
-together.</p>
-
-<p class="center">Your affectionate friend,</p>
-
-<p class="right mright2"><i>Agatha Reynolds</i>.</p>
-
-<p class="mtop1">P.S. Don’t send me the book for a birthday present.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<h2 id="IN_LIGHTER_VEIN" class="nodisp" title="IN LIGHTER VEIN"></h2>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_318" name="i_318">
-   <img src="images/i_318.jpg"
-      alt="In Lighter Vein" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<h3 class="nopad nodisp" id="A_Cubist_Romance" title="A Cubist Romance"></h3>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_318a" name="i_318a">
-   <img class="mtop2 mbot2" src="images/i_318a.jpg"
-      alt="A Cubist Romance" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot1">TEXT AND PICTURES BY OLIVER HERFORD</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse"><span class="drop-cap_poetry">A</span> SCULPTOR once, in search of fame</div>
-      <div class="verse">(I can’t recall the sculptor’s name),</div>
-      <div class="verse">Turned Cubist, and at once began</div>
-      <div class="verse">A statue on the Cubist plan.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">The statue, I need hardly say,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Was something in the Venus way,</div>
-      <div class="verse">And as its form grew bit by bit,</div>
-      <div class="verse">The sculptor fell in love with it.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">Then came a wonderful idea:</div>
-      <div class="verse">He named his statue Galatea,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Which, by the way, reminds me that</div>
-      <div class="verse">His own name was Pygmalion Pratt.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">One day it chanced Pygmalion came</div>
-      <div class="verse">To read the legend of his name</div>
-      <div class="verse">And hers, and prayed that fiction might</div>
-      <div class="verse">Repeat itself for his delight.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">When, lo! the cubic feet of stone</div>
-      <div class="verse">Turned all at once to flesh and bone,</div>
-      <div class="verse">And Galatea’s cubic face</div>
-      <div class="verse">Met his in angular embrace.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">Short-lived was Galatea’s bliss;</div>
-      <div class="verse">She soon guessed something was amiss,</div>
-      <div class="verse">And from the wall, in modish dress,</div>
-      <div class="verse">A Gibson girl confirmed her guess.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">“Pygmalion dear,” she cried, “oh, please</div>
-      <div class="verse">Buy me some pretty frills like these!”</div>
-      <div class="verse">Then, meeting his astonished stare,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Blushed to the cube roots of her hair.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">Picture the curious crowds they drew</div>
-      <div class="verse">As they strolled up Fifth Avenue!</div>
-      <div class="verse">Think of the modistes asked to drape</div>
-      <div class="verse">Miss Galatea’s cubic shape!</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_318b" name="i_318b">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_318b.jpg" alt="Galatea" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">When Galatea came to see</div>
-      <div class="verse">The sheer impossibility</div>
-      <div class="verse">Of getting clothes, without ado</div>
-      <div class="verse">She took to posing for <i>le nu</i>.</div>
-    </div>
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">And now she leads (to end my tale)</div>
-      <div class="verse">A model life in Bloomingdale,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Painted and sculptured and adored</div>
-      <div class="verse">By inmates of the Cubist ward.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_319" name="i_319">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_319.jpg" alt="Galatea running" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<div class="section">
-
-<h3 id="AN_AFTER-DINNER_STORY">AN AFTER-DINNER STORY</h3>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s6 center">BY SILAS HARRISON</p>
-
-<p class="s6 center mtop1 mbot2">AN ANECDOTE OF MC<span class="mleft0_1">KINLEY</span></p>
-
-<p>P<span class="smaller">RESIDENT</span>
-M<span class="smaller">C</span><span class="mleft0_1">K<span class="smaller">INLEY</span></span>’<span class="smaller">S</span> scrupulous loyalty to his cabinet officers is
-spoken of as one of his characteristics. It is said that he never went
-over the heads of his secretaries to consult an assistant, but held
-each to responsibility for his department.</p>
-
-<p>Of all the events of his administration probably none was a source
-of more anxiety to him than the decision of the Supreme Court on the
-status of the colonies. It was a matter of great moment whether the
-highest judicial body should uphold the view of the Administration
-that the Constitution sanctioned the possession of colonies which were
-not granted full representation. There were conflicting rumors and
-forecasts of the color of the decision, and these added to the tension
-felt at Washington. Shortly before the announcement of the finding of
-the court a subordinate officer of one of the Departments appeared
-at the White House, at an unusual hour, and insisted upon seeing the
-President on the plea of important business. Having been admitted, he
-came at once to his errand.</p>
-
-<p>“Mr. President, I have some good news for you. I have just learned
-authoritatively that the decision of the Supreme Court is to be in your
-favor.” He fairly glowed with the importance of his welcome message.</p>
-
-<p>“Thank you,” said Mr. McKinley quietly, “that <i>is</i> good news. But have
-you informed your chief?”</p>
-
-<p>“No, Mr. President; I thought you ought to be the first to know it.”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, Mr.&mdash;&mdash;, I’m sorry for that. Now, will you please do me the
-favor to go at once to your chief and give him the information, so that
-<i>he</i> may communicate it to <i>me</i>.”</p>
-
-<div class="section">
-
-<h3 id="OLD_DADDY_DO-FUNNY">OLD DADDY DO-FUNNY’S WISDOM JINGLES</h3>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s6 center mbot2">BY RUTH MC<span class="mleft0_1">ENERY</span> STUART</p>
-
-<p class="s6 center">THE JACK-O’-LANTERN</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">S<span class="smaller">ENCE</span> he los’ ’is brains to git ’is smile,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Brer Jack-o’-lantern grins lak a ’wilderin’ chile,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Widout no secrets out or in;</div>
-      <div class="verse">An’ de lighter in de head de broader is ’is grin.</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">An’ he ain’t by ’isself in dat, in dat&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">No, he ain’t by ’isself in dat.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="s6 center">ANTS</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">D<span class="smaller">EM</span> ants is sho got savin’ ways,</div>
-      <div class="verse">An’ even de scripture ’lows ’em praise;</div>
-      <div class="verse">But dey hoa’ds for deyselves f’om day to day,</div>
-      <div class="verse">An’ dey stings any man wha’ gits in de way.</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">An’ dey ain’t no new co’poration in dat&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">No, dey ain’t by deyselves in dat.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="s6 center">THE CANARY</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">D<span class="smaller">AT</span> little yaller cage-bird preems ’is wings,</div>
-      <div class="verse">An’ he mounts ’is pyerch an’ sings an’ sings</div>
-      <div class="verse">He feels ’is cage, but I ’spec’ he ’low</div>
-      <div class="verse">To take what comes an’ sing <i>anyhow</i>.</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">An’ you ain’t by yo’self, little bird, in dat&mdash;</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft1">No, you ain’t by yo’self in dat.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="section">
-
-<h3 id="LIMERICK">LIMERICK</h3>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="s6 center">TEXT AND PICTURE BY OLIVER HERFORD</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter">
-   <a id="i_320" name="i_320">
-   <img class="mtop1" src="images/i_320.jpg" alt="Armadillo" /></a>
-</div>
-
-<p class="s6 center">THE KIND ARMADILLO</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-  <div class="poetry">
-    <div class="stanza">
-      <div class="verse">T<span class="smaller">HERE</span> once was a kind armadillo,</div>
-      <div class="verse">Who solaced a lone weeping-willow.</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft2">Said he: “Do not weep!</div>
-      <div class="verse mleft2">What <i>you</i> need is some sleep;</div>
-      <div class="verse">Pray rest on my shell as a pillow.”</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p class="s7 center">THE DE VINNE PRESS, NEW YORK</p>
-
-<hr class="full" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-
-<div class="footnotes">
-
-<p class="s3 center padt3">FOOTNOTES:</p>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Robert Stewart, second Marquis of Londonderry, was known
-by courtesy until the death of his father in 1821, as Lord Castlereagh.
-He held at this time the position in the British ministry, then in
-power, of First Secretary for Foreign Affairs.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The retreat from Moscow had been ordered and begun just
-six days before this letter was written.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> The United States had formally declared war with Great
-Britain on the eighteenth of June preceding the writing of this letter.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The Presidential election of 1812, occurring in the midst
-of the war with England, was closely contested. James Madison was a
-candidate for reëlection, representing the so-called Republican party.
-De Witt Clinton of New York was the candidate of the Federalist party.
-A change of twenty electoral votes would have turned the scale. The
-Federalists in Massachusetts had a majority of 24,000, and the Peace
-party swept the Congressional districts throughout New England and New
-York. Madison, however, received 128 votes in the Electoral College,
-out of a total of 217.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> The name “Isaac” was underlined and emphasized in this
-letter by Mr. Adams to distinguish the commander of the <i>Constitution</i>,
-in its flight with the <i>Guerrière</i>, from the uncle of that commander,
-General William Hull, who had surrendered Detroit to the British
-commander on the sixteenth of August&mdash;three days before the naval
-battle. General William Hull was subsequently [January, 1814] tried
-before a court-martial, and convicted. His sentence&mdash;that of death&mdash;was
-modified in execution, however. His name was ordered to be struck from
-the army roll.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Stephen Decatur had been in command of the frigate <i>United
-States</i> when it captured the British frigate <i>Macedonian</i>, in the
-engagement referred to.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> The reference is here to the recent Presidential election.
-Massachusetts had then by a very large majority thrown its vote in
-favor of De Witt Clinton, the Federalist, or Peace party, candidate
-against Madison, who was a candidate for reëlection.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> A circular to British naval officers was at this time
-issued by the Secretary of the Admiralty. It read as follows: “My
-Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having received intelligence that
-several of the American ships of war are now at sea, I have their
-Lordships’ commands to acquaint you therewith, and that they do not
-conceive that any of his Majesty’s frigates should attempt to engage,
-single-handed, the larger class of American ships, which, though they
-may be called frigates, are of a size, complement and weight of metal
-much beyond that class and more resembling line-of-battle ships.
-</p>
-<p>
-“In the event of one of his Majesty’s frigates under your orders
-falling in with one of these ships, his captain should endeavor in
-the first instance to secure the retreat of his Majesty’s ship; but
-if he finds that he has an advantage in sailing he should endeavor to
-manœuvre, and keep company with her, without coming to action, in
-the hope of falling in with some other of his Majesty’s ships, with
-whose assistance the enemy might be attacked with a reasonable hope of
-success.
-</p>
-<p>
-“It is their Lordships’ further directions that you make this known
-as soon as possible to the several captains commanding his Majesty’s
-ships.” (The <i>Croker Papers</i>, I, 44.)
-</p>
-<p>
-In a paper recently prepared by him on the American Navy, Rear-Admiral
-French Ensor Chadwick pronounces this “the finest tribute ever paid
-any navy.” (Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for
-November, 1912, Vol. 46, pp. 207&ndash;208.)</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> This incident resulted from what was known as the affair
-of the <i>Little Belt</i>. It occurred May 16, 1811, off Cape Charles,
-Virginia. The United States frigate <i>President</i>, of forty-four guns,
-and the British corvette, of twenty guns, were concerned in it. The
-affair was accidental, and the <i>Little Belt</i> escaped being sunk, but,
-at the time, asserted that after a sharp engagement it had driven off
-the American frigate of greatly superior force. It was alleged that the
-commander of the <i>President</i> had mistaken the <i>Little Belt</i> for the
-<i>Guerrière</i>; and consequently the captain of the <i>Guerrière</i>, it was
-said, subsequently had the name of the ship painted as indicated by
-Mr. Adams, in order that in future there should be no possibility of
-mistake.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Reference is here made to the engagements between the
-frigates <i>Constitution</i> and <i>Guerrière</i>, August 19, between the
-frigates <i>United States</i> and <i>Macedonian</i>, October 25, and between
-the <i>Wasp</i> and the <i>Frolic</i>, both eighteen-gun sloops of war, October
-17&mdash;all in 1812. The <i>Wasp</i> was commanded by Captain Jacob Jones of
-Delaware. The action lasted forty-three minutes, was desperately
-fought, and resulted in the capture of the <i>Frolic</i>.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> This statement illustrates the slowness with which
-news then traveled in Russia, or the degree to which information was
-suppressed during the campaign of 1812. St. Petersburg is about four
-hundred and fifty miles from the river Niemen, which constituted
-the boundary between East Prussia and Russia. Mr. Adams occupied an
-official position at St. Petersburg. What remained of Napoleon’s army
-had succeeded in effecting its escape by the crossing of the Beresina
-during the closing days of November. On the fifth of December Napoleon
-had left his army at Smorgoni, a town in the Russian province of Vilna,
-and about one hundred and twenty-five miles east of the river Niemen.
-</p>
-<p>
-At the time this letter was written he had been thirteen days in Paris,
-having reached that place on the evening of December 18. Thus tidings
-of what had occurred on the fifth of December, in Russia, less than
-four hundred and fifty miles from St. Petersburg, had not reached St.
-Petersburg and become generally known on the thirty-first of that
-month.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Fought May 2, 1813, near Leipsic, Saxony, between the
-French under Napoleon and the allies, Prussian and Russian. The French
-greatly predominated in numbers, and claimed the victory, which,
-however, proved fruitless.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Bautzen, fought May 21, 1814, between the allies and the
-French, at a point some thirty miles east of Dresden, and about one
-hundred and fifty miles from Lützen. It was another nominal French
-victory. In these two engagements the loss of Napoleon’s army is
-computed as having been between forty and fifty thousand men.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Of the 600,000 men Napoleon is believed to have, first
-and last, led into Russia, only about 12,000, in a wholly disorganized
-condition, reached the Niemen. The French army was virtually destroyed.
-Napoleon got to Paris December 18, 1812, and again took the field at
-the head of a fresh army of about 700,000 men, the following April,
-fighting the battle of Lützen May 2.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> The battle of Leipsic, resulting in the total defeat
-of the French army under Napoleon, with a loss in killed, wounded,
-and prisoners of about 70,000 men, occurred October 16&ndash;19, 1813.
-Wellington, as the result of his Peninsular campaign, entered French
-territory on the seventh of the same month.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Henry IV, Part I, Act V, Sc. 4.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> The Fontainebleau abdication of the emperor had taken
-place on the eleventh of April. Napoleon had reached Elba, after his
-abdication, on the fourth of May, eight days before the date of this
-letter.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> William Shaw Cathcart, created Earl Cathcart July 16,
-1814. He had served in the American Revolutionary War 1777&ndash;1780. He
-was Ambassador from the Court of St. James’s to that of Russia in
-1812&ndash;1814.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Anne Louise Germaine Necker, Baronne de Staël-Holstein,
-better known as Madame de Staël, was born at Paris, April 22, 1766,
-and died there July 14, 1817. Exiled from France in 1812 by order of
-Napoleon, she visited Austria, Russia, Sweden, and England. She was
-then forty-six years of age, and at the height of her great reputation.
-The following letter was written by John Quincy Adams to his brother,
-Thomas Boylston Adams, in the latter part of November, 1812, but the
-interviews described and the conversations related had taken place on
-the sixth and the eighth of the previous September.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> The battle of Salamanca, between the British army, under
-the Duke of Wellington, and the French army, under Marshal Marmont, was
-fought July 22, 1812. The bombardment of Copenhagen under the command
-of Lord Cathcart had occurred in September, 1807.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> “The Mihavansa,” Wiiesinha’s translation.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Reprinted from “Scribner’s Monthly”
-(now T<span class="smaller">HE</span> C<span class="smaller">ENTURY</span>) for April, 1874, and included in “Old Creole Days,” by
-George W. Cable. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.)</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> “Wanted: Straight Thinking about Militant Suffragists.”
-See also previous editorial articles of the same tenor: “Grace before
-Lawlessness” (March, 1912) and “Teaching Violence to Women” (May,
-1912).</p></div>
-
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Century Illustrated Monthly
-Magazine (June 1913), by Various
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CENTURY ILLUSTRATED ***
-
-***** This file should be named 54545-h.htm or 54545-h.zip *****
-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
-        http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/5/4/54545/
-
-Produced by Jane Robins, Reiner Ruf, and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
-and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
-specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
-eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
-for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
-performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
-away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
-not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
-trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
-
-START: FULL LICENSE
-
-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
-
-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
-www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
-1.E.8.
-
-1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
-
-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
-Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
-you share it without charge with others.
-
-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
-country outside the United States.
-
-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
-
-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
-on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
-phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
-
-  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-  most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the
-  United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
-  are located before using this ebook.
-
-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
-beginning of this work.
-
-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
-
-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm License.
-
-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
-other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
-Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
-
-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-provided that
-
-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
-  the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
-  you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
-  to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
-  agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
-  within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
-  legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
-  payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
-  Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
-  Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
-  Literary Archive Foundation."
-
-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
-  you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
-  does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-  License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
-  copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
-  all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
-  works.
-
-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
-  any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
-  electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
-  receipt of the work.
-
-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
-  distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
-
-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
-from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
-Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
-
-1.F.
-
-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
-contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
-cannot be read by your equipment.
-
-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
-of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
-DAMAGE.
-
-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
-without further opportunities to fix the problem.
-
-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
-
-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
-remaining provisions.
-
-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
-Defect you cause.
-
-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
-from people in all walks of life.
-
-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
-www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
-
-The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
-mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
-volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
-locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
-Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
-date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
-official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
-
-For additional contact information:
-
-    Dr. Gregory B. Newby
-    Chief Executive and Director
-    gbnewby@pglaf.org
-
-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
-spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
-freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
-status with the IRS.
-
-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
-approach us with offers to donate.
-
-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
-
-Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
-
-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
-volunteer support.
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
-edition.
-
-Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
-facility: www.gutenberg.org
-
-This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-</body>
-</html>
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/cover.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 189cf6f..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/cover.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_161.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_161.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index ec3d649..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_161.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_161_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_161_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 4bac5ad..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_161_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_163.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_163.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index ad94f49..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_163.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_163_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_163_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 31d47c0..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_163_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_165.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_165.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 58650b2..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_165.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_166.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_166.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 5caa2b5..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_166.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_167.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_167.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index c2a501e..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_167.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_168.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_168.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 5f2cd28..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_168.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_168_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_168_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 528a721..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_168_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_169.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_169.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 0aaffa1..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_169.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_170.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_170.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 91c8f75..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_170.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_171a.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_171a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index fc433f4..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_171a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_171b.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_171b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 43404da..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_171b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_172.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_172.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index a02f250..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_172.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_173.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_173.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index b23467f..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_173.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_174a.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_174a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index b72a0b9..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_174a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_174b.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_174b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 274afdb..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_174b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_175.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_175.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index c96e392..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_175.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_176a.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_176a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 96eec14..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_176a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_176b.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_176b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index c8d02cd..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_176b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_180.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_180.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index a4a88e3..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_180.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_185.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_185.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 8c25e99..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_185.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_185_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_185_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 743e227..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_185_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_188.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_188.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 4b0335e..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_188.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_188_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_188_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index f2a5650..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_188_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_190.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_190.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index ae0771b..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_190.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_190_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_190_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index c327bbf..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_190_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_192.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_192.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index dc78eda..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_192.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_192_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_192_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 4eb3026..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_192_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_193.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_193.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 777b992..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_193.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_202.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_202.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 2daaa9e..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_202.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_202_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_202_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index f27ec7d..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_202_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_202a.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_202a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index f9201de..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_202a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_203.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_203.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index be4366e..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_203.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_203_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_203_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 02e658c..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_203_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_204.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_204.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 02293ac..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_204.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_204_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_204_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 2d2342b..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_204_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_205.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_205.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index cda62aa..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_205.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_205_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_205_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 66830be..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_205_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_206.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_206.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 8a0c2f5..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_206.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_206_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_206_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index ab3cd37..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_206_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_207.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_207.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 36a7697..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_207.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_207_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_207_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 90d764a..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_207_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_208.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_208.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 7bd15a8..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_208.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_208_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_208_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index c9910d2..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_208_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_211.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_211.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 12dcb1c..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_211.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_211_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_211_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 2249399..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_211_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_213.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_213.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 0d37133..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_213.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_219.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_219.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 9ea9159..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_219.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_220.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_220.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 56c33de..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_220.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_222.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_222.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index af50aad..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_222.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_222_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_222_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 1e0f518..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_222_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_225.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_225.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index c264c1d..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_225.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_226.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_226.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index b606978..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_226.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_229.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_229.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 1a76b5d..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_229.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_231.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_231.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index f04b091..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_231.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_231_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_231_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 66850ec..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_231_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_236.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_236.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 3559da3..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_236.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_237.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_237.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index ab9954b..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_237.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_237_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_237_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 92ef8cd..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_237_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_239a.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_239a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 781213a..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_239a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_239b.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_239b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index cbd9e53..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_239b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_240aa.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_240aa.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 4c76f90..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_240aa.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_240b.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_240b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 901d05e..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_240b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_241.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_241.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index add2c7d..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_241.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_242a.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_242a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index b89572a..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_242a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_242b.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_242b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 2c6de3f..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_242b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_243a.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_243a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index eaca1fb..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_243a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_243b.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_243b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 588b827..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_243b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_244.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_244.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index f4fa68e..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_244.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_244_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_244_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 5d3c3a5..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_244_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_250.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_250.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 4bdcb4c..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_250.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_261.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_261.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 82f0cb5..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_261.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_263.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_263.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 980a222..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_263.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_264.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_264.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index f9913fd..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_264.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_264_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_264_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index fb33fbf..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_264_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_265.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_265.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index f1fe528..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_265.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_266.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_266.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 0c2724c..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_266.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_267.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_267.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index f066bbd..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_267.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_268a.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_268a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 54df3f7..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_268a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_268b.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_268b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index b9c9a74..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_268b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_271.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_271.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index da49ed4..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_271.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_271_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_271_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index cfc80a5..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_271_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_277.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_277.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 6730633..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_277.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_279.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_279.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 1272c65..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_279.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_280.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_280.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 75cba13..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_280.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_280_large.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_280_large.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 570b662..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_280_large.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_283.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_283.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index d54e0f9..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_283.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_284a.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_284a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 9fe0a6f..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_284a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_284b.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_284b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index ed7f1d0..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_284b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_288.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_288.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index f5c1a76..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_288.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_289.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_289.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index f6cb2be..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_289.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_290.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_290.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 598cea9..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_290.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_296.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_296.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index de9bbbd..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_296.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_296a.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_296a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 6a7681c..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_296a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_304.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_304.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index be2d25a..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_304.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_304a.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_304a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 364f73d..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_304a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_308.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_308.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 046687c..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_308.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_309.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_309.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 262e76b..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_309.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_314.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_314.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index cd5398c..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_314.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_315a.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_315a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index ae5362d..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_315a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_315b.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_315b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 2977971..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_315b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_316.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_316.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index eaea7d6..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_316.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_318.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_318.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 8931cad..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_318.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_318a.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_318a.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index ac98c6e..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_318a.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_318b.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_318b.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 27af2e4..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_318b.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_319.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_319.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index d58d1bb..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_319.jpg
+++ /dev/null
diff --git a/old/54545-h/images/i_320.jpg b/old/54545-h/images/i_320.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 70fee72..0000000
--- a/old/54545-h/images/i_320.jpg
+++ /dev/null