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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..09e50cb --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #63507 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63507) diff --git a/old/63507-0.txt b/old/63507-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index c39b8ce..0000000 --- a/old/63507-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2125 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, -Science, and Art, No. 749, May 4, 1878, by Various - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 749, May 4, 1878 - -Author: Various - -Editor: William Chambers - Robert Chambers - -Release Date: October 20, 2020 [EBook #63507] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL OF *** - - - - -Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - -[Illustration: CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL - -OF - -POPULAR - -LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART. - -Fourth Series - -CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS. - -NO. 749. SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1878. PRICE 1½_d._] - - - - -THE POWER OF DRAW. - - -We have on several occasions called attention to the Power of Draw. -It is a force which for good as well as for evil pervades the whole -social system. Every centre of industry exerts this attractive force by -drawing to it large numbers of persons for the sake of employment, and -so far the Draw acts beneficially. All our large towns are in no small -degree made up of individuals who have drifted thither in the hope of -exercising their abilities for their own and the public advantage. This -is exactly as it should be. The world is open to everybody. It is only -a truism to say that by the Power of Draw the uttermost ends of the -earth are peopled. - -Unfortunately, this subtle power in its pervading energy is not limited -to the industrious and well-disposed. It is acutely demonstrated by all -who are looking about for the means of indulging in a life of idleness -at the cost of others. The disposition to abstain from useful labour -and to depend less or more on gratuitous benefactions, has been largely -encouraged by mistaken views of what is ordinarily called charity. The -poor—no matter how they happen to be poor—have been extolled as if they -were superior beings, to whom all must contribute as one of the noblest -of virtues. With perverted notions of this kind, society has for ages -done everything in its power to consecrate and encourage poverty, and -no wonder it has attained to stupendous dimensions. Early injunctions -to give all to the poor were followed by the piously inconsiderate and -wide-sweeping benefactions of the monasteries. These in their turn -were followed by the statutory obligations of the poor-laws. And now -there is superadded a system of voluntary contribution so extensive and -varied as to dominate the soundest principles of political economy, and -which in its general working amounts to a kind of communism. By every -large city, arrangements are organised to succour every human need and -infirmity. Those who do not find it agreeable to work will be fed—the -feeding, perhaps, not being what all would like, but pretty well as -a make-shift. For every species of ailment, from a broken leg to -diseased lungs, there is adequate provision. The cultivation of thrift -and self-respect not to be thought of. Bad as things seem to have been -in the palmy days of the monasteries, they are now in some quarters -ten times worse. While one set of people are slaving between death and -life, another set, determined to take their ease, keep hovering on the -verge of that agreeable category the poor, and so contrive to lead a -jolly sort of existence. - -Not that the so-called poor profess to be pure idlers. For decency’s -sake, they occasionally work a little, and enjoy the commiseration -of suffering from the severity of winter, or from the commercial -depression arising from ‘bad times.’ On such occasions the Power -of Draw increases in intensity; and now are offered favourable -opportunities for tender-hearted individuals to take a lead in -establishing soup-kitchens, or benefactions thought to be equally -creditable. It is melancholy to consider how at times like these, so -little real good is done in comparison with the amount of harm. We see, -more particularly as regards the young, the degree of suffering that -is presently assuaged, but take no account of the mischief incurred -by adding to the general demoralisation. While philanthropists are -fondly imagining that they are doing much good, they are very probably -adding fresh accumulations to the already overgrown mass of misery and -crime. Not more surely do hens run to the heap, than do the thriftless -and semi-pauperised instinctively flock towards places where there is -an inconsiderately lavish distribution of charity. We never hear of a -soup-kitchen being set up, under however careful an administration, -without saying: ‘There goes a distinct increase to the Power of Draw.’ - -The injury done by systems of profuse charity has been frequently -pointed out, but we have seen nothing so effective and convincing -on the subject as a paper read by Mr Brace at the American Social -Science Congress of May 1874, of which a copious abstract is given by -a correspondent in _The Times_, of January 24, in the present year. -We think it may serve a good purpose to present our readers with a few -facts from this interesting paper. - -Referring to a serious depression in trade which threw large -numbers of persons out of work in New York, plans were devised for -giving temporary support to the necessitous; the result being that -an encouragement was held out to idleness and improvidence. ‘The -experience of New York in 1857’ (says Mr Brace), ‘and of Boston and -other cities since that date, proves that the soup-kitchen charity -only creates pauperism. Despite the warning of the experienced, -soup-kitchens and free lodgings were opened by public and private -means, with the utmost liberality, in various portions of New York -last winter, and enormous sums were contributed by private citizens -for these popular benefactions. Before the winter was over, however, -most of those engaged in them regretted, without doubt, that they had -ever taken part in these kindly but mistaken charities. The reports -of competent observers shew what were their effects. The announcement -of the intended opening of these and kindred charities immediately -called into the city the floating vagrants, beggars, and paupers who -wander from village to village throughout the state. The streets of -New York became thronged with this ragged, needy crowd; they filled -all the station-houses and lodging-places provided by private charity, -and overflowed into the island almshouses. Street-begging to the point -of importunity became a custom. Ladies were robbed even on their own -door-steps by these mendicants. Petty offences such as thieving and -drunkenness increased. One of the free lodgings in the upper part of -the city established by the Commissioners of Charities became a public -nuisance from its rowdyism and criminality. - -Nor would these paupers work. On one occasion, the almshouse -authorities were discharging a band of able-bodied paupers, and having -need of some light outdoor labour on the island, they offered these men -what is thought good country wages—that is, fifteen dollars a month -and board. They unanimously refused, preferring the free lodgings -and free lunches of the city.’ Then, he adds, came the attractive -power—the Power of Draw. ‘Tramps came hurrying to the feast of -charity, honest and hard-working labouring men from every part of the -neighbouring country. Farms in the state of New York were left stripped -of labourers, though the farmers offered good wages. Working-men came -from as far away as Pittsburg and Boston, partly, no doubt, to see the -sights of New York, but hoping also for aid from public and private -charities. In some cases, young men were arrested in criminal houses, -who made their headquarters in these soup-kitchens or relief-houses, -and then sallied out to enjoy the criminal indulgences of the city. - -The pauperising influences, however, of this indiscriminate charity -reached beyond these classes. Poor families abandoned steady industry, -got their meals at the soup-kitchens, and spent the day in going from -one charitable organisation to another. Those experienced with this -class report that such people acquire a “Micawber” habit of depending -on chances, and seldom return to constant work again. Instances were -known of families taking their meals from the Relief Association and -spending the money set aside for this daily in liquor, so that, in the -poorest quarters the liquor-trade was never so prosperous. A singular -effect was also produced on the class of homeless girls. Many avoided -the houses where charity was connected with work, and obtained their -meals at the free-lunch places, and then lodged in the low cheap -lodging-houses, where their habits were uncontrolled and they could -wander the streets at night. Many were thus enticed into ruin. - -But another class now felt the pauperising influence of this charity, -one which had never stooped to public alms before, the mechanics and -artisans. These were not driven by the severest poverty. They had -been in receipt of good wages, and had much money laid up in the -savings-banks. They contributed through the winter large sums to -various strikes and labour unions. The best proof that they were not -pressed by poverty is that never once did they lower their demand for -wages in any branch of industry. The most ignorant job-work, as for -instance a man’s labour in moving, was fifty cents an hour. Few would -even clean snow from a side-walk or cut or saw wood or carry burdens -for less than at the rate of two to two and a half dollars per diem. -Mechanics still demanded from three to five dollars per diem. It was -notorious that important trades, such as the building-trade, were at -a standstill on account of high wages, and that the employing class -could not afford to pay such high rates. Yet no wages came down. -Labour was in struggle with capital against a lowering of prices. -Charity assisted labour in the combat. The soup-kitchens and relief -associations of various names became thronged with mechanics. Some of -the best working-men in the city ate and lodged at the public expense. -Thousands of able-bodied artisans, young and skilful, were fed by alms. -The idleness and dependence injured many among them irretrievably. -The whole settlement of the labour question was postponed by the -over-generous charity of the city, and spring came upon the mechanical -class without a revival of trade, which might have come if misguided -kindness had not supported them in this struggle. - -These benevolent institutions also interfered with many kinds of -legitimate business. Thus in one ward, the eleventh, a number of -small eating-house keepers, who had made an honest living by their -occupation, were almost thrown into bankruptcy by the competition -of certain soup-kitchens established by religious associations. A -similar thing occurred in other wards. In one district also, a keeper -of a laundry who had ten or twelve girls in his employment at good -wages, found himself stripped of his help in the midst of the winter, -these women preferring to live for nothing in the free lodgings. He -accordingly was compelled to advertise for help, but without success, -and was ultimately obliged to close his laundry. - -It had been expected that this industrial crisis would bring down the -wages of female servants, since these had remained at a high rate, -though all other prices had fallen. The superintendent of the Free -Labour Bureau, however, stated that during all this distress, the poor -girls who came to his office could not be induced to take situations -for less than from fourteen to twenty dollars per month, and said that -they preferred to live at the charitable institutions until they could -get such wages as they chose. It is well known that the wages of female -labour have been as high this winter as at any time since the war. -One of the free dormitories for women was, in fact, broken up by its -coming to the knowledge of the directresses that a lady on one occasion -offered each lodger a situation in a good family at ten dollars per -month, and not one of these “victims of poverty” could be found who -would accept the place on the terms.’ - -One way and another an injury was done through these pauperising -influences which is even now scarcely remedied. The drawing of large -numbers into the vortex of charity was in all respects inexcusable; -for if the heedlessly benevolent had let matters alone, the more -necessitous would have found remunerative work in quarters where labour -was specially in demand. It should never be forgotten that there -is a principle of readjustment in labour which tends to cure local -disorganisations. What philanthropists have to do on pressing occasions -like those mentioned is to interpose no distracting element, such as -the temptation of free soup-kitchens, and to facilitate removal to -spots where industry can be advantageously exercised. - -In all the large cities in Great Britain we are acquainted with, there -are antiquated semi-ruinous buildings in the alleys behind the main -thoroughfares, which were at one time occupied by the affluent classes, -but are now sunk to the condition of resorts for the idle, the drunken, -and the dissolute, who habitually prey on society, and are a torment to -the public authorities. Attempts to root out these dens of infamy and -disease encounter a resolute opposition from those who from usurious -motives have become the proprietors of such places, and more especially -does opposition come from ratepayers who are shocked at the prospect -of paying some trifle annually in the shape of an improvement tax. -Antiquaries who have a morbid fancy for old houses which will scarcely -hold together, and are as dark and unwholesome as dungeons, also have -their howl. So that it is usually no easy matter to procure legislative -authority to put our towns generally on a decent footing. - -Let it be specially noted that narrow dingy lanes are the centres of -nearly all that is degrading in towns whether large or small. The idle -and dissolute do not approve of living in the face of day. They prefer -to nestle in groups behind-backs, as being there less likely to incur -observation. It is consistent with all experience that just as a town -abounds in narrow lanes, it abounds in pauperism and every species -of iniquity. Clear away your lanes, and you correspondingly lessen -the number of the dangerous classes. Every town, of course, must have -dwellings suitable for the less affluent in the community, but in some -way or other let all come to the front. In England, the behind-backs -‘slums’ we speak of are known as courts, in Scotland they are called -closes; but whatever be their generic designation, they are a nuisance -and a scandal, for they draw towards them, by under-currents of -intelligence, the dregs of the population from all parts of the United -Kingdom. Obviously, the attraction is intensified by the succours of -one sort or other offered by public charities. What with holes and -corners to creep into out of sight, and with the chance of coming in -for a share of profuse benevolences, the Draw is complete. - -A number of years ago, when at the head of a city municipality, we -made a fair attempt, by legislative measures, to sweep away the worst -class of closes, substituting for them open thoroughfares, and likewise -endeavoured to put the public charities on a reasonably comprehensive -footing. The degree of success was moderate. From the prevalence of -narrow views, the ‘Improvement Act’ was so materially restricted as -to convey the impression that, by ordinary forms of procedure, in -which loquacious and popularity hunting agitators have their say, the -improvement of towns on a scale consistent with enlarged principles -of sanitary and social economy is barely practicable. In vain you -say of any special improvement that it would clear away the haunts -of the disreputable, and at the same time lower the mortality to the -extent of eight or ten per thousand annually. What is a lowering of -the death-rate in comparison with the obligation to pay an additional -rate of a penny per pound? Let things alone. The inertia of systematic -obstruction accordingly prevails. - -Curiously enough, as we speedily discovered, there are vested interests -in charities. Each species of benevolence possesses an administrative -organisation of chairmen, secretaries, collectors, and so forth, who -with an affection for use and wont, do not readily perceive how there -can be any advantage in a combination of distributive bodies. If you -throw twelve separate charities into one, the officials connected with -the eleven that are set aside will necessarily suffer extinction. -There is a more cogent argument. Twelve collectors, each with his -separate book, have a better chance of screwing money from householders -than one solitary collector. Besides, there are peculiar fancies -to be operated on. Some will contribute to Dispensaries, who could -not be wheedled into subscribing for the support of a Soup-kitchen -or the distribution of coals. Collectors, like sportsmen, know the -bird they can bring down. In these circumstances, all that came out -of our poor effort at combining charities was the establishment of -another administrative body with the function of being a check on all -descriptions of applicants. That this ‘Association for Improving the -Condition of the Poor,’ has done some good by arresting promiscuous -charity, is we believe generally allowed. On a similar plan there -has been established in the metropolis, a ‘Society for organising -Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicity,’ which we understand is -working advantageously. It is indeed chiefly by the rigid scrutiny -which is so organised, that the deserving poor can be properly aided -and the worthless repressed. On the public at large, however, rests -the responsibility of ridding towns of their hosts of roughs and -on-hangers; for so long as mean haunts in obscure courts and closes -are suffered to exist, and while people indiscriminately yield to -importunities, so long will be freely exercised the Power of Draw. - - W. C. - - - - -HELENA, LADY HARROGATE. - - -CHAPTER XXIV.—A NEIGHBOURLY VISIT. - -Jasper, as he walked with dawdling gait back to the morning-room—the -ex-cavalry officer always did dawdle, except in the hunting-field or -when race-horses were thundering past the judge’s chair—felt what in -his case did duty for brains to be in a dizzy whirl. He could not -grapple with the mystery which seemed to have chosen Carbery Chase for -its headquarters. The captain was by no means, as has been said, one -of those guileless youths, if such there be, who are slow to think -evil. Shew him a plain, intelligible, sordid motive, and no one could -be quicker in descrying it, no matter how fair a pretence of decorous -honour might be kept up. But this was beyond him. ‘No kith or kin of -mine after all!’ he muttered as he made his way along the thickly -carpeted corridor. ‘I must have been wrong, absurdly wrong all the -time. But why my father should press me so hard on this subject no -fellow could understand. He’s in earnest though, about desiring the -match.’ - -As he spoke he laid his grasp on the handle of the door of the -morning-room, turned it, and entering, found with a complacent smile, -that Ruth Willis was alone. Captain Denzil was on sufficiently good -terms with himself, but even coxcombs are glad of the confirmatory -suffrages of others; and Jasper felt as though he were under a sort of -obligation to the baronet’s ward for having paid him the compliment of -falling in love with him. - -‘I thought,’ said Jasper, as if to apologise for his presence in that -pretty room, where a man seemed incongruous with the surroundings, -‘that my sisters were here.’ - -‘Shall I call them?’ asked Ruth, with that sweet hypocrisy which girls -only can exhibit, and half-rising from the tiny work-table as she spoke. - -‘Pray don’t. _I_ have nothing on earth to say to them, or indeed -to anybody,’ said Jasper. ‘Life drags at Carbery like wheels on a -mud-plastered road. Don’t you find it so too, Miss Willis?’ - -‘Indeed I do not,’ answered the Indian orphan, taking up the cudgels -gracefully in defence of her guardian’s home. ‘I should be very -ungrateful if I did. It is not every day that a lonely little thing -like myself is taken into the house of a kind dear family of new-old -friends, who cherish and protect, and pet and spoil her, as your good -father and sisters have done, Captain Denzil, to poor little Ruth -Willis.’ - -She said this so well, did Ruth, in a voice that was slightly tremulous -and with eyes that swam in tears, that Jasper was for the moment fairly -taken in. There was uncommonly little sentiment in his own composition, -but such men as he was, still like women to be softer-hearted than -themselves, and then Miss Willis looked very pretty and delicate and -helpless as she glanced up at him from under the screen of her dark -eyelashes. - -‘I can’t stand it, indeed I can’t, if you cry, Miss Willis!’ he said, -drawing a chair up to the tiny work-table. ‘You have found me a sad -bore and a sad plague, I am afraid, since I was stupid enough to do -this at Pebworth races.’ - -As he spoke he looked down at his arm, which still reposed in its -silken sling, and assumed a melancholy air, although in truth he felt -all but well again. Ruth, from beneath her eyelashes, scanned him more -narrowly than he was aware of. - -‘Is he amusing himself at my expense?’ thus ran her quick thoughts. ‘Or -has he been applying thus early in the day to the cherry-brandy in his -hunting-flask, or the contents of the decanters? No; he seems sober, -and civil too. This is a puzzle.’ - -Miss Willis was justified in her perplexity, for this attention on -Jasper’s part was something new. The captain was not one of those men, -of whom there are no lack, who in a country-house flirt to pass the -time away, as naturally and with as little ulterior design as they -smoke a cigar during their early stroll about the stables or the Home -Farm. He had accepted, as an Eastern despot accepts the homage of his -courtiers, fifty petty kindnesses at Ruth’s hands during his illness, -and had preferred her company to that of Lucy and Blanche simply -because she was cleverer than they, and had the tact not to weary him. - -‘I was sorry to see you so much in pain, Captain Denzil, and glad when -I could be of any use,’ answered Ruth, plying her needle with that -demure industry which can be intermitted or resumed with such skilful -effect in the course of a conversation. - -‘Yes; and I was bear enough never to thank you, Miss Ruth. May I call -you Ruth?’ said Jasper, as he bent forward and took the girl’s slender -little hand in his. It was the first time that he had ever touched the -hand of Miss Willis, save in the ceremonial salute with which members -of a household meet for the day or part for the night. - -‘I like to be called Ruth by my friends,’ returned the baronet’s ward. -‘Dear Blanche and Lucy always call me by my Christian name, and that -pleases me, for I think it proves that they do not any longer regard me -as a stranger. And that is much to me.’ - -There was a sweet simplicity, a touching pathos in Ruth’s tone not -wholly thrown away on Jasper. He could not quite distinguish whether or -not she were playing a part; but if this were acting, he owned that it -was, of its kind, excellent. - -‘I hope you count me among your friends?’ he said, still keeping -captive the little hand that he held. - -‘I shall be very pleased to do so,’ returned Ruth, with a downward -droop of her silken eyelashes. - -‘I wish I did know how to please you. It’s a lesson I should like to -learn,’ said the captain, with a warmth that surprised himself; but -before Miss Willis could return an appropriate answer, the door opened -so quickly that she had barely time to snatch away her hand from -Jasper’s grasp before his two sisters were in the room. Blanche Denzil -had an open note in her hand, and both girls wore an expression more -animated than usual. Lucy was the first to speak. - -‘We want you, Jasper, to drive up with us to High Tor, if you feel -strong enough this morning. Maud has written to Blanche, as she -promised, you know, to let us know when her silver pheasants arrived -from the dealer’s in London; and this note’—and Lucy indicated the -letter in her sister’s hand—‘has just come, begging us to go round and -see the birds made comfortable in their new abode. The day is charming. -You must come with us, indeed.’ - -‘Pheasants before the First of October gives one leave to shoot them, -are not much in my line,’ said Jasper carelessly. ‘What are _your_ -plans for this morning, Miss Willis?’ - -Ruth with becoming modesty replied that Captain Denzil was only too -good to inquire as to the proceedings of so insignificant a person as -she was. ‘I try to be useful,’ she said. ‘Sometimes Sir Sykes allows -me to read aloud to him the newspapers or a book. If nobody wants me, -I think I shall stroll down to the quiet cool path in the woods beside -the river. It is a favourite haunt of mine.’ - -‘Well, I’ll walk down there with you, if you don’t mind my cigar, Miss -Willis,’ replied the captain languidly. ‘I don’t want particularly to -go to High Tor, or to go into ecstasies over the fine feathers of a lot -of fancy poultry cooped in a pen and called pheasants.’ - -‘No, no,’ said Blanche and Lucy with one accord; ‘we are not going -to allow you to play truant to-day. You must come, and so must Ruth. -We never thought of leaving her behind’ (this by-the-bye was the -whitest of white fibs, for up to that moment Ruth’s companionship on -the projected expedition had never once crossed the mind of either -of the sisters); ‘and there is plenty of room for all in the double -basket-carriage.’ - -‘I shall be bored, and shew it. The De Veres are not a bit in my line. -Harrogate, for instance, I can’t get on with for five minutes—my fault, -I daresay. But he knows nothing and cares nothing about the things -that interest me; and I trouble my head just as little about his model -cottages and reclamation of waste lands and militia drill. The one -subject we have in common is fox-hunting, and even on that we take -somewhat different views.’ This was a long speech for Jasper; but the -concession which it somewhat ungraciously implied was readily accepted -by his jubilant sisters. - -‘You forget Lady Gladys,’ said Blanche archly; ‘she would never forgive -us if we appeared without you.’ - -The double basket-carriage, one of those convenient, roomy, and perhaps -to male eyes ugly vehicles, that do so much good service in country -places, came round in due course, drawn by its pair of strong and -spirited Exmoor ponies, coblike, sturdy little animals, well fitted to -make light of the steep Devonshire roads, yet shewing some of the fire -and fleetness due to their dash of Arab blood. The ‘clothes-basket on -wheels,’ as Jasper irreverently styled it, received its human freight; -Miss Willis, in spite of Blanche’s instances, seating herself meekly -with her back to the horses, and the captain of course beside her. Lucy -took the reins; the smart boy in livery who had been standing at the -ponies’ heads, let go the bridles and sprang deftly to his perch behind -as the light carriage bowled merrily away along the smooth park road. - -Never yet, since first she made her appearance at Carbery Chase, had -Ruth looked one half so attractive, in her quaint elfish way, as she -did then, as flashing and animated, her dark eyes saying far more than -did her lips, she conversed with Jasper on the outward drive. - -‘I declare,’ thought the captain to himself, ‘if the governor had -been a little more explicit, I wouldn’t mind speaking out. With three -thousand a year, or four—ay, it would require to be four—the thing -might be managed.’ - - - - -NOTHING NEW. - - -‘There is no new thing under the sun,’ says a proverb which is itself -perhaps only the rehabilitation of some antediluvian precept to the -same effect; and nothing so powerfully argues in favour of the truth -of the statement as a little pamphlet written by the eccentric though -clever Marquis of Worcester, and printed in London by J. Grismond -in 1663. It is entitled, ‘A Century of the Names and Scantlings of -such Inventions as at present I can call to mind to have tried and -perfected, which, my former Notes being lost, I have, at the instance -of a powerful friend, endeavoured now, in the year 1655, to set these -down in such a way as may sufficiently instruct me to put any of them -in Practice.’ Who the ‘powerful friend’ may have been it is impossible -to say. The published catalogue was, however, dedicated to Charles II. -by His Majesty’s ‘passionately devoted, or otherwise disinterested, -subject and servant,’ the Marquis. - -This dedication is followed by a quaintly worded address to the -two Houses of Parliament, craving patronage for the author’s -investigations, thanking the Lords and Commons for past favours, -ruefully stating that the inventor had already spent ten thousand -pounds on his experiments, and promising to prosecute his researches -by the aid of one Casper Kaltoff, who for five-and-thirty years had -been employed under him. The Marquis, in stating his merits, is not too -modest, for he belauds his inventions and his disinterestedness to the -skies, and in well-chosen words suggests that if the government refuse -him its patronage, the government, and not he, will suffer. Then, after -the custom of the age, he subscribes himself, ‘Your most passionately -bent fellow-subject in His Majesty’s service, compatriot for the -publick good and advantage, and a most humble servant to all and every -of you, - - WORCESTER.’ - -So far the Marquis is, comparatively speaking, plain-spoken and -straightforward; but when he begins to catalogue his discoveries, the -reader feels bound to confess that though the noble peer may have set -down his notes in such a way as might sufficiently instruct him to -put any of them in practice, he scarcely amplified them sufficiently -to instruct other people. Doubtless he was intentionally vague in the -specifications or explanations of his inventions; for when he wrote, he -still cherished a hope that he would reap some substantial fruits from -his ingenuity; but in spite of his vagueness, he wrote at least enough -to shew that many things even now regarded as new, had been roughly -thought out by his fertile brain. - -The specification first on the list is decidedly mysterious. It is -entitled ‘Seals abundantly significant,’ and professes to describe -an invention whereby accounts may be kept mechanically, and a letter, -‘though written but in English, may be read and understood in eight -several languages, and in English itself to a clean contrary and -different sense, unknown to any but the correspondent, and not to be -read or understood by him neither, if opened before it arrive unto -him.’ Presumably this ambiguous statement alludes to an instrument for -writing accounts and letters in cipher, for the four specifications -that follow, treat of that hackneyed subject, and one of them of -a system of short-hand which seems to be not without a modern -representative. Next comes a plan for telegraphing by means of coloured -flags and lights; and then ‘A way how to level and shoot cannon by -night as well as by day and as directly.’ The ninth specification is -terribly pertinent to the tragic event that happened at Bremerhafen in -December 1875. It speaks of ‘An engine, portable in one’s pocket, which -may be carried and fastened on the inside of the greatest ship, and at -any appointed minute, though a week after, either of day or night, it -shall irrecoverably sink that ship.’ The note immediately following -suggests torpedoes, and relates to a plan for diving and fastening a -similar engine to a vessel. - -Nor were Admiral Hobart Pacha’s attempts to ward off the attacks of -these submarine monsters without a prototype; for the inventive Marquis -at once goes on to hint at a method whereby a ship may be guarded from -such a catastrophe either by day or by night. Specification number -twelve is scarcely less suggestive of water-tight compartments, for -it alludes to ‘A way to make a ship not possible to be sunk, though -shot an hundred times betwixt wind and water by cannon.’ The next note -does not seem to have prompted the exertions of modern inventors; -but who shall say whether number fourteen is not responsible for the -employment of steam, or even of hydraulic power, for the working of a -vessel? At all events, it hints at the economisation of labour, and at -the multiplication of force without the intervention of a capstan or -of similar machinery. Number fifteen palpably suggests the application -of some motive-power very like steam to boats. The Marquis speaks of -‘A way how to make a boat work itself against wind and tide, yea, both -without the help of man or beast; yet so that the wind or tide, though -directly opposite, shall force the ship or boat against itself.’ - -It is not surprising that, in the middle of the seventeenth century, -this, among many other alleged inventions, was regarded as somewhat -chimerical; and indeed, at the present moment, if we except steam, -it is hard to believe that the noble lord was not solemnly joking -with Charles II. and the two Houses of Parliament. But a subsequent -specification, which we shall notice in its due order, proves that the -Marquis knew of the power of steam, and had practically experimented -with it; and there are therefore some grounds for thinking that, had he -been properly subsidised and assisted, the name of Worcester might have -been as intimately associated with the great modern means of locomotion -as are those of Watt and Fulton. Unfortunately the Marquis was too much -in advance of his age, and thus his genius was lost upon it. - -A very common table ornament of the present day is hinted at in -number eighteen, which speaks of ‘An artificial fountain to be turned -like an hour-glass by a child in the twinkling of an eye.’ And number -nineteen plainly suggests the carriage-brake as now applied by every -coachbuilder. The two succeeding notices relate to the use of water as -a motive-power. And number twenty-three tells of a water-clock intended -not only to shew the time, but also the motions of the heavenly bodies. -Number twenty-four is a plan for discharging bullets by means of a -silent spring, ‘admirable for fire-works and astonishing of besieged -cities.’ And number twenty-six is a method for the more effectual -employment of the lever as a mechanical force. Then follows a dark hint -at the employment of pontoons for the formation of military bridges -over broad rivers; and another specification, number thirty, speaks of -a system for enabling four pieces of cannon ‘to discharge two hundred -bullets each hour’—a thing which, under the old system of loading by -manual power at the muzzle, would have been quite impossible. This is -followed by a number of different plans for writing in cipher, and for -communicating by means of various objects, such as knotted strings, -fringes, bracelets, gloves, &c., and by the smell, taste, and touch. -Number forty-four is a way ‘To make a key of a chamber-door which to -your sight hath its wards and rose-pipe but paper-thick, and yet at -pleasure in a minute of an hour shall become a perfect pistol, capable -to shoot through a breast-plate commonly of carbine-proof, with prime, -powder, and firelock, undiscoverably in a stranger’s hand.’ Such a -diabolical machine in the possession of one of the many unscrupulous -gentlemen of the period, would indeed have been a murderous weapon -if used freely in the dimly lighted streets of London. Scarcely less -unpleasant must have been the Venetian instrument for noiselessly -discharging a poisoned needle at an unsuspecting enemy. - -Next come specifications headed respectively ‘A most conceited -tinder-box,’ ‘An artificial bird,’ and ‘An hour water-ball;’ the last -of which speaks of a ball of any metal, ‘which, thrown into a pool or -pail of water, shall presently rise from the bottom, and constantly -shew, by the superficies of the water, the hour of the day or night, -never rising more out of the water than just to the minute it sheweth -of each quarter of the hour; and, if by force kept under water, yet the -time is not yet lost, but recovered as soon as it is permitted to rise -to the superficies of the water.’ Number forty-eight is the description -of an improved staircase, and number forty-nine of ‘A portable engine, -in way of a tobacco tongs, whereby a man may get over a wall, or get -up again being come down, finding the coast proving unsecure unto -him.’ Then there is ‘A pocket ladder,’ ‘A rule of gradation’ useful -for cipher-writing, ‘A mystical jangling of bells’ for the conveyance -of private intelligence, and three notices relating to ‘water-scrues.’ -Number fifty-six is entitled ‘An advantageous change of centers;’ and -respecting it the Marquis says: ‘A most incredible thing if not seen, -but tried before the late king of blessed memory, in the Tower by my -directions, two extraordinary ambassadors accompanying His Majesty, and -the Dukes of Richmond and Hamilton, with most of the court, attending -him. The wheel was fourteen feet over, and forty weights of fifty -pounds apiece. Sir William Balfore, then lieutenant of the Tower, can -justify it with several others. They all saw that no sooner these -great weights passed the diameter line of the lower side but they hung -a foot further from the center, nor no sooner passed the diameter -line of the upper side but they hung a foot nearer. Be pleased to -judge the consequence.’ In this modest request the Marquis appears to -shroud a hint that he has discovered the secret of perpetual motion, -which, however, has like all other perpetual-motion schemes, failed in -practice. - -Specification number fifty-eight is certainly in some measure -responsible for the modern revolver, telling as it does of a method -‘whereby a pistol may be made to discharge a dozen times with one -loading, and without so much as once new priming requisite, or to -change it out of one hand into the other, or stop one’s horse.’ And the -next notices are for the application of similar systems to carabines, -muskets, arquebusses, and crocks or ship-muskets, and of a different -method for sakers. In these ideas we may recognise indeed the first -principles not only of the revolver, but also of the Winchester rifle -and of the mitrailleuse in its various forms. Warfare has recently been -revolutionised by inventions of this kind; and the conditions of naval -warfare especially are now likely to be altered by the arrangement -which practically places the whole broadside of a vessel under the -control of one man. For this latter improvement we may find the idea in -the Marquis’s plan by which ‘one man in the cabbin may govern the whole -side of ship-muskets, to the number, if need require, of two or three -thousand shots.’ After devoting several notices to the various aspects -of this subject, the noble inventor complacently remarks: ‘When first -I gave my thoughts to make guns shoot often, I thought there had been -but one only exquisite way inventible, yet by several trials and much -charge I have perfectly tried all these.’ The necessary experiments -appear to have left him with an old cannon or two upon his hands, as -the next and most important specification shews that the scientific -nobleman nearly succeeded in blowing himself up, and so concluding his -investigations. He calls it ‘A fire water-work;’ and probably that -remarkable name expresses, as well as any other might, the Marquis’s -‘admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire, not by -drawing or sucking it upwards, for that must be as the philosopher -calleth it, _intra sphæram activitatis_, which is but at such a -distance. But,’ he emphatically continues, ‘this way hath no bounder, -if the vessels be strong enough.’ - -Then he goes on to give us what seems to be the earliest record of -the employment of steam-power in England. ‘I have taken,’ he says, -‘a piece of a whole cannon, whereof the end was burst, and filled it -three-quarters full of water, stopping and scruing up the broken end, -as also the touch-hole; and making a constant fire under it, within -twenty-four hours it burst and made a great crack. So that having a way -to make my vessels, so that they are strengthened by the force within -them, and the one to fill after the other, I have seen the water run -like a constant fountain-stream forty feet high; one vessel of water, -rarefied by fire, driveth up forty of cold water. And a man that tends -the work is but to turn two cocks; that, one vessel of water being -consumed, another begins to force and re-fill with cold water, and -so successively, the fire being tended and kept constant, which the -self-same person may likewise abundantly perform in the interim between -the necessity of turning the said cocks.’ Following this are four -notices relating to improvements for locks to chests and safes, one -relating to a drawbridge, and one treating of what the Marquis calls ‘A -conceited door’—namely one which will open either inwards or outwards. - -Two paragraphs further on comes the short specification, ‘How to make -a man to fly; which I have tried with a little boy of ten years old -in a barn, from one end to the other, on a hay-mow.’ The last clause -is certainly acceptable; for it justifies a hope that the poor little -fellow did not break his neck in the pursuit of science. The three -succeeding notices are entitled respectively ‘A continually going -watch,’ ‘A total locking of cabinet-boxes,’ and ‘Light pistol barrels;’ -and the headings serve to demonstrate at least the versatility of -the author. Next come two methods for carrying secret correspondence -without observation, an idea for the economisation of labour in rasping -hartshorn, and the specification of a calculating machine. These are -followed by notices of two barbarous engines, respectively called ‘An -untoothsome pear’ and ‘An imprisoning chair,’ of a candle-moulding -machine, and of a talkative artificial head, the _modus operandi_ of -which we take the liberty of smiling at. The Marquis states that his -invention would answer in French, Latin, Welsh, Irish, or English, any -question put to it, and then shut its mouth until the next question -was asked. It cannot be doubted that if the artificial head were -so life-like as to be able to answer questions, it would also do a -little talking on its own account. The noble Lord seems at this period -to have been suffering from an attack of moral depravity; for the -incredible notice of the brazen head is followed by two specifications -of methods for cheating at cards and dice respectively; and a little -lower down, we come upon ‘a little engine portable in one’s pocket, -which placed to any door, without any noise but one crack, openeth -any door or gate.’ Number ninety-three is the specification of an -engine for raising sunken ships; and at the end of the long catalogue -are some mysterious notices of a machine which the Marquis modestly -calls ‘a semi-omnipotent engine,’ and of two other machines which -conjointly seem to hint at some knowledge of hydraulic power of which -the discoverer was particularly proud. ‘I deem this invention,’ he -says, ‘to crown my labours, to reward my expenses, and make my thoughts -acquiesce in way of further inventions;’ and he concludes by hinting -at leaving to posterity a book wherein his inventions, ‘with the shape -and form of all things belonging to them, should be printed by brass -plates.’ - -And so we will take leave of the inventive nobleman, who, though -apparently not always too veracious, was decidedly a genius. It is -probably owing to the fact of his having lived in an inappreciative -age that he is to this day usually placed on a level with the fabulous -Academicians of Laputa, rather than among such men as Franklin, -Arkwright, and Watt; but on the other hand, it is not unlikely that had -his Century of Inventions been judiciously reduced to a score, or even -a dozen, the Marquis of Worcester’s reputation among his contemporaries -might have stood proportionately higher. - - - - -AN INSURANCE TALE. - - -I am a solicitor of considerable standing and practice in a large -provincial town in Ireland, the name of which it is here unnecessary to -mention. On the evening of the 31st of December some twenty-five years -ago, I was in the aforesaid town sitting in my study. The day had been -one of unusual inclemency; rain had alternated with sleet and snow; and -the cold and cutting wind had blown with a rude strength which made -its chilly touch at once incisive. As the shades of night had begun -to fall, the storm, instead of abating, had risen in turbulence and -height; and at the hour of which I am about to speak, the spasmodic -energy of the elements seemed like the last convulsions of the dying -year. I had been reading some legal documents during the evening; but -perceiving from a glance at my watch that it was fast approaching -twelve o’clock, I laid my papers aside and drew my chair nearer to the -fire. The hail beat violently against the windows, the wind sighed -amongst the trees outside, and the keyhole of my study-door expressed -its feelings in tones if possible more melancholy. - -The feeling of which I was conscious, as I sat thus gazing into the -blazing comfort before me, was one of selfish satisfaction that I -was not at the mercy of the tempest outside. Forms of various human -sufferers presented themselves to my mental vision, and seemed to take -the shape of the red coals in the fire; while the wind and my sorrowing -keyhole seemed vocal with the burden of their woe. I was soon plunged -in a deep moralising on the misery which we see around us—on that -strange invisible link between sorrow and sin; and the last moments of -the passing year were just landing me in one of those good resolutions -which we are told form such excellent paving-stones, when I was aroused -from my moral reverie by a knock at my study-door. Pushing my chair -back a little distance from the fire, and assuming a more professional -air, I articulated the well-known ‘Come in;’ and this mandate was duly -obeyed by my servant, who informed me that a gentleman outside was -particularly anxious to see me. - -A moment afterwards, a figure which in all but size resembled our old -friend the ‘drowned rat,’ entered my study, and making a courteous bow, -said: ‘I fear this is a very unreasonable hour to intrude upon you, -sir.’ My visitor was very tall, had a pale thoughtful face, and when he -unbuttoned the coat which covered him from head to foot, I perceived -that he was a clergyman. - -‘Won’t you take a seat by the fire?’ I said, ‘for you must be very cold -and wet such a night as this.’ - -‘Thank you, sir,’ he replied; ‘I am too wet to sit down. I had better -tell you at once the cause of this unseasonable visit. I have been -attending in my capacity as a Christian minister a young lady who has -been very ill, and is now, I believe, dying. She sent for me to-night -about ten o’clock, and when I went to her, she entreated me to go for -a solicitor. I had heard of you, sir, as a man of standing in that -profession, and I have accordingly come to ask you to drive over with -me to her.’ - -I suggested that the lady very probably wanted to make her will, and -wished for professional assistance. - -‘I cannot tell,’ he replied. ‘I asked her if no one but a solicitor -would do, and she said not. She said she _must_ see a solicitor before -she died. She seemed terribly distressed, and pressed her request so -earnestly upon me that I felt I dare not neglect it.’ - -‘How far is the young lady’s residence from this?’ I asked, wishing to -bring the matter to a practical issue. - -‘About ten miles,’ replied the clergyman. - -‘Ten miles on a night such as this is no joke!’ - -‘It is, sir, a long drive, and I know that the night is very severe; -but I would take it as a great favour if you would come with me. I -know not where to go or what to do, if you decline. I will drive you -there, and send my car back with you; and you will of course hold me -responsible for your fees.’ - -The last sentence decided my wavering resolve and gained the -clergyman’s object; for what attorney ever remained inactive where he -had a good mark for costs? So shrugging my shoulders, I said: ‘Well, I -suppose I had better go with you, though I should much prefer going to -bed.’ - -‘Thank you,’ he replied; ‘it is very good of you to consent.’ - -Having provided myself with the writing materials necessary to draft -a will, and having wrapped myself from head to foot in waterproof, -I accompanied the clergyman to the hall-door. There we ascended the -conveyance which was to take us to our destination, and soon were -cutting our way through the driving sleet and snow. Being of an -inquisitive turn of mind, I thought it would be wise to elicit from -the clergyman some little information about the young lady whose will -I supposed that I was about to draw; and with that view I began to -examine him. I, however, found that he could tell me very little. He -only knew that she was a Miss M——; that she had been staying with an -aunt of hers who lived in his parish; that she had become dangerously -ill some four or five days previously; that he believed she was an -only daughter; that her mother was dead; and that her father had been -telegraphed for, and was expected to arrive in the morning. He added -earnestly: ‘He will never see his daughter alive, poor man!’ - -While we were speaking, the joy-bells had begun to ring out their merry -peals, welcoming in the new year. In a few moments, however, after the -clergyman’s last remark, they ceased, and a dead silence ensued. ‘How -ironical was the tone of those bells!’ said the clergyman with a sigh, -as the last peal was dying away. I answered half-unconsciously ‘Yes;’ -but I little knew how fully I would comprehend his meaning before many -hours had passed away. - -After a long and bitter drive, the conveyance at last drew up at a -large old-fashioned house, with the appearance of which I was well -acquainted, and which I knew to be the residence of an old lady -of property, though I had never been inside it. The clergyman, on -alighting, brought me round to a side-door, at which he knocked very -gently. After he had knocked two or three times, the door was at length -opened to us by an elderly woman, whom I afterwards learned to be -the nurse, and who conducted us, by the aid of a lantern, up an old -winding-stair into a long corridor. Stopping before a door at the end -of it, the nurse motioned us to wait while she entered the room. She -had been only a few seconds inside, when I heard a low moan, and a -female voice exclaim almost in a cry: ‘Oh, has the time come?’ A moment -afterwards the clergyman and myself had entered the room, and lying on -a bed in the middle of it I saw the form of a young girl apparently -about twenty-four or twenty-five years of age. As we approached her -bedside, the clergyman said to her: ‘I have brought the solicitor with -me;’ but she did not answer him, and gently waved her hand for the -nurse and himself to leave the room. - -After they had left, she looked at me earnestly for a minute and then -said in a faint voice: ‘Are you a solicitor, sir?’ - -I answered: ‘I am;’ and added: ‘I suppose you wish me to draw your will -for you?’ - -‘My will!’ she said with evident surprise. ‘Ah no! I have nothing to -leave, except perhaps my heart.’ She remained for some time after this -without speaking, her silence being only broken by moans such as I had -heard from the corridor. After a little while I heard her murmur: ‘O my -father, my poor dear father! must it be?’ then clasping her two almost -fleshless hands, she closed her eyes for a few moments. At last, with -evident effort, she turned round on her pillow, and looking straight -at me, said in a voice tremulous with weakness and emotion: ‘I want, -sir, to make a statement to you which I feel it my duty to make before -I die. It has tortured me for months, and I dare not meet my Maker if I -did not tell all, though it breaks my very heart to do so.’ - -Fearing that she was going to confess some crime, or make some other -important criminal declaration, I said to her: ‘If you are about to -make any statement which may be of importance afterwards, I had better -go for a magistrate, and you can make it before him.’ - -‘O no, sir; no magistrate!’ she cried out earnestly. ‘What I have to -tell concerns my poor father, and I dare not state it to a magistrate, -for it might ruin him. If you will not hear me and try to save my poor -father, I shall die with sealed lips. O my father! my good kind father! -it is too, too cruel that I must tell of your sin.’ The last words -were pronounced almost in a cry; the tears filled her eyes, and she -began to sob piteously. Her racking cough soon followed; and I feared -that she must indeed die ‘with sealed lips,’ as she had said; for to -me it seemed that every succeeding cough must be her last. After a -little while, however, a slight respite came, and she tried to resume -her statement. She gasped out: ‘The insurance—the Blank Insurance’ -(mentioning the name of a well-known Company); ‘it’s not my’—— But -before she could get any farther, the cough again seized her, and this -time with such terrible power that the poor creature fell back utterly -exhausted. - -Fearing that her life was now really waning, I went to the door of -the room for the nurse, who at once came in. When she had settled the -sufferer in a more easy position, she turned to me and whispered: -‘Very little longer, sir!’ I, however, remained in the room, in the -hope that after a little time she might have strength to resume her -statement; but when half an hour had nearly elapsed without bringing -with it any sign of returning strength, I saw that the statement must -remain in its unfinished condition. I therefore wrote down carefully -all that had occurred, put it into an envelope, sealed it, placed it in -my pocket, and prepared to go away. Before doing so, I took one look at -the form that lay on the bed before me. To describe her face, I cannot, -though I seem to see it as distinctly to-day as I saw it then—one of -those strangely exquisite flowers, whose tender growth so often kindles -the selfish craving of the old reaper, Death. I had stood by many a -death-bed; my profession had inured me to scenes of anguish and pain; -but as I looked on that pale beautiful woman, and read on her features -the impression which told only too plainly of a conflict of racking -reality within, my cold heart softened, and my whole nature went forth -in one great yearning to comfort and to soothe her. I breathed a prayer -for the soul that was passing—earnest, as I had never known earnestness -before; and with feelings too sad to portray, but too real to be -forgotten, I left the room and the house. - -Two days after this eventful night, my friend the clergyman (whom -I subsequently discovered to be the newly appointed rector of a -neighbouring parish) again entered my study. He told me that the poor -young girl was dead, that she had passed away about half an hour after -I had left the room, never having spoken a word after that terrible fit -of coughing to which I had been a witness. - -The question then came to be decided as to the meaning of the broken -statement made by the young girl, and what was my duty with regard to -it. I have since frequently questioned the wisdom and propriety of the -course which I then pursued; but whether right or wrong, my action -was the result of much deliberation. I wrote in the first instance to -the insurance Company, asking them if they would kindly inform me, -as solicitor for the late Miss M——, whether any insurance had been -effected on her life with that Company; and if so, when and by whom -it was effected, what was the amount of it, and to whom it had become -payable by the fall of Miss M——’s life. I received a letter in reply -from the secretary of the Company, informing me that my young friend -had herself, about a year previously, effected an insurance on her own -life in two policies of five thousand pounds each, and that if she had -not otherwise assigned the policies during her lifetime, the sum of ten -thousand pounds was payable to her executors or administrators, as the -case might be. - -The receipt of this information led me to believe, what I had suspected -before, that there was something wrong about this insurance, though I -could not exactly determine the nature of that something. I therefore -wrote a second time to the Company, stating that I had reason to -believe that it would be wise for the Company to make careful inquiries -with reference to the Policy, before surrendering its value. The -secretary at once wrote back to me asking me to state the information -which led me to form this belief; but I replied that I was not in -possession of any information whatever bearing on the matter, but that -from what took place at an interview which I had had with the late Miss -M—— a short time before her death, I had been led to suspect that there -was something wrong about the insurance. - -I heard no more of the matter till one morning some two or three months -afterwards, when I was honoured with a visit from the secretary and -solicitor of the insurance Company. They told me that the father of my -poor young friend had threatened them with legal proceedings if they -did not pay the amount of the insurance at once, and asked me to tell -them exactly what had passed at the interview to which I had alluded -in my letter. At first I hesitated as to whether I ought to do so or -not, but ultimately I gave them a true account of all that had taken -place on that fatal 31st of December. They thanked me warmly, said they -thought I had only done my duty in disclosing the matter to them, and -went away. - -What use the Company made of this information, or what means they -adopted to probe the mystery to its source, I do not know; but about -six months after my interview with the secretary and solicitor, when -I was beginning to hope that I should never hear of the case again, I -received a summons to attend at an assizes to be shortly holden in the -county town of a northern shire. There was no means of refusing this -command, though I would have given a good deal to be able to evade it. -I therefore found myself, about a fortnight after its receipt, quietly -sitting in the crowded court-house of the aforesaid town, a witness in -the case of ‘M—— _versus_ The Blank Insurance Company.’ - -I had but little difficulty as I looked round the court in identifying -the plaintiff; for my eyes soon rested on a manly form bearing an -unmistakable resemblance to the young girl by whose death-bed I had -stood about a year before. The beauty of her face was there moulded -in lines of masculine firmness and power; and though her father’s -expression was far from pleasing, there was nothing about him at all -indicative of the character subsequently exhibited to the court. He -appeared to be a gentleman of good birth and position; and as I looked -at him before the case began, I was very curious to know what was his -real position with reference to the insurance, and how far it would be -disclosed on the evidence. - -His counsel, in opening the plaintiffs case, said that it was one of -the simplest cases ever ushered into a court of justice. The facts, -he said, were simply these: ‘Two years previously, the late Miss M—— -insured her life with the defendants, the Blank Insurance Company, -in two policies of five thousand pounds each. A year after, she had -effected these insurances, Miss M—— had died, without having assigned -or disposed of the policies in any way. Her father, the plaintiff, -was her only next of kin and her administrator, and was now entitled -absolutely to the ten thousand pounds; which the Company, however, -had refused to pay.’ To an uninitiated spectator, the evidence for -the plaintiff certainly seemed to bear out the counsel’s statement; -but when the plaintiff’s case had closed, the counsel on behalf of -the Company rose and said that they were in a position to prove by -a connected chain of evidence that every word of the plaintiff’s -case was valueless, and that this insurance had been effected under -circumstances of the grossest fraud and crime. - -I myself was the first witness called on behalf of the Company; and -after much objection, I was allowed to give a plain unvarnished -description of the scene which I have already depicted on that sad -night. You could have heard a pin drop while I was speaking, and the -sensation which was produced in court was manifest. I was of course -severely cross-examined; but as I had nothing to conceal, my testimony -was not shaken. - -The next witness for the Company was an eminent London physician, who -stated that in the beginning of March, two years previously, Mr M—— -had come to him in London, and had brought with him a young lady, who -he said was his daughter, to have her examined by him. He then made a -careful examination of the young lady, and found her to be in rapid -consumption, of which result he told Mr M——, and added at the same time -that she could not in his opinion live for six months. The Company’s -own doctor was next called, and stated that at the end of the same -month of March, Mr M—— had come to him in London, and told him that -his daughter was anxious to effect an insurance on her life with the -Blank Company, and asked him to appoint a day to examine her. He had -known Mr M—— for many years, but had never seen his daughter. Mr M——, -however, told him that she was a healthy country girl, and he would -have no difficulty in passing her for the Company. It was then agreed -that he should call upon Mr M—— the next day at the hotel at which -they were staying and examine his daughter. He did so; and Mr M—— then -introduced to him as his daughter a handsome healthy-looking girl, with -all the appearance of having lived in the country. The girl looked so -very healthy, that he did not think it necessary to make any minute -examination of her, and merely questioned her as to what diseases—if -any—she had had. She seemed very much confused, but this he attributed -to her natural shyness. He recommended the Company to insure her life -at the ordinary rate for her age, which was then twenty-four. The -doctor was then told to look round the court and say if he saw any one -like the young girl whom on that occasion he had examined; and after a -little while he pointed to a young girl, and said that he believed that -she was the person whom he had then examined. - -The excitement in court at this announcement can scarcely be imagined. -Every eye was turned on the young girl, who a few minutes afterwards -ascended the witness-table. As I gazed at her, I was painfully reminded -of the poor creature whom I had seen lying in such trouble less than a -year before; for the likeness to her was strangely great. There was, -however, a robustness, a glow of health about the girl whom I now saw -for the first time, which was sadly wanting in my young friend, and -which served to conceal a resemblance otherwise manifest. She said that -she lived in the south of England with her father, who was a well-to-do -farmer. Two years and a half previously, Mr M—— and his daughter had -come to lodge at their farm for the benefit of Miss M——’s health, as -she was then very delicate. Every one noticed a very strong likeness -between herself and Miss M——, and a firm friendship arose between -them. Mr and Miss M—— stayed about six months at the farm; and when -they were about to go away to London, Mr M—— proposed that she should -go up with them as a companion to his daughter, which she did. On the -day before they left London, Miss M—— went out with her father to pay a -visit, and she was left by herself in the hotel. She was sitting alone -in their private room reading, when suddenly Mr M—— returned alone, -rushed into the room, and said in a threatening manner: ‘You must say -you are my daughter! There is a gentleman coming in now; and mind you -_must_ say you are my daughter! If you don’t, we’ll all be ruined. -Remember!’ He then hastened back, and in less than a minute re-entered -with the Company’s doctor, the last witness. She was so completely -taken by surprise and overcome with alarm, that she did not know what -she was doing, but nevertheless felt completely under the influence of -Mr M——. He introduced her to the doctor as his daughter; the doctor -shook hands with her, and said he was glad to see her looking so strong -and well. He asked her whether she had lived much in the country; and -said he thought it would be a mere farce to go through the form of -examining any one who looked so completely the essence of health as -she did. He mentioned a great number of diseases, and asked her if she -ever had had any of them; and after some other remarks he concluded -with: ‘Well, I think I may now tell them that you’re not going to die -yet awhile.’ He then talked a little to Mr M——; they had wine together; -he bade adieu to her, and the two gentlemen quitted the house. All was -mystery to her. She now began to entertain a confused sort of dread of -Mr M——. When his daughter came home, she told her all about it, and -asked her what it meant; but Miss M—— said that she did not know—that -perhaps it was a joke of her father’s. She, however, forced Miss M—— to -promise never to say anything about it. - -What the effect of this evidence was on the occupants of the court, -I can hardly say, for I was too much absorbed in my own thoughts to -notice any manifestation of feeling in others. The truth was now only -too plain. The father of my young friend, knowing that his daughter’s -health was failing, had resolved to profit by her death, and with that -intent had secured a simple country girl and brought her up to London, -to be the unwitting means of accomplishing his unfeeling design. In -London he had learned on the best authority that his daughter could not -live for six months, and within a month afterwards he had insured her -life in her own name, without her knowledge, for a large sum of money, -which he knew must be paid to him on her death; and to secure the lucre -for which he craved, he had passed off for his poor dying daughter a -healthy country girl; he had lied to his old friend, and caused an -innocent girl to perpetrate a fraud. As these facts came home to my -mind in their horrid reality, I gazed across the court to see the man -who had conceived this mighty inhumanity. The coil of truth, as it had -been gradually unravelled by the witnesses, seemed to have wound itself -serpent-like round the frame of its foe; for the form which a little -while before had been erect and defiant was now humbly prone, the eye -which had glanced restlessly round the court was now fixed on the -ground, and a death-like pallor lay on his countenance. - -The jury without leaving their box pronounced their verdict for -the Company, and the judge thereupon solemnly announced that he -would direct a criminal prosecution to be instituted against the -plaintiff for the crimes disclosed in that most painful case. At this -announcement, I rose and entreated the judge not to adopt that course. -I reminded him of the dying anxiety of the poor daughter to have her -father saved, and urged that the plaintiff would be sufficiently -punished by the loss of position which must be consequent on the -verdict. But my solicitations were all in vain. The judge said that -he sat there to protect society, and that if such crimes as had been -that day disclosed were allowed to pass unpunished, he would fail in -the duty which he sat there to discharge. A few minutes afterwards Mr -M—— left the court in custody; and as I saw him thus committed to the -pitiless mercy of the law, compassion—which can look on the wicked as -well as the good—seemed to rise within me, and I almost regretted that -I had put the insurance Company on the track which they had followed -with such fatal accuracy. - -The law, however, though very powerful, is not omnipotent; and in -this case its power was destined to be futile. It was found not to -be convenient to try Mr M—— at the same assizes; and his trial was -therefore postponed till the following one, and he himself allowed out -on bail. The next assizes came round, and everything was ready for the -trial; but the prisoner was nowhere to be found. They called him in the -court, they called him outside; but in vain. It was soon found that the -prisoner had absconded—vanished no one knew where; and the individuals -who had been kind enough to stake a portion of their worldly goods -on his reappearance, were asked to shew their affection for him by -paying the penalty which the law so properly attaches to such misplaced -philanthropy. The following comment on the case appeared a day or two -afterwards in the local newspaper: ‘We can only say that justice has -been defeated, and a very bad type of criminal has escaped unpunished. -The inscrutable wisdom of Providence has reserved his punishment for -another world.’ - - * * * * * - -More than twenty years after the events above narrated, the course -of my professional business led me to cross the Atlantic and visit -the city of New York. It happened in the course of that visit, as I -was returning to my hotel at a late hour one night, that I became -conscious that a human form was following me. I at once looked round, -and saw within a yard of me an old man with a long white beard -and weather-beaten face, dressed in ragged attire, shoeless and -stockingless. Something in his face caught my attention, and on looking -at it more closely, I recognised it as one which I had seen before, -though I could not then tell where. When I turned round, the old man -muttered in an earnest, almost savage manner: ‘Give me some money; I -want it badly—very badly;’ but as I did not feel quite easy at finding -so questionable a creature so close to me at such an hour of the night -and in a strange city, I made no reply to his request, but hastened my -steps. He, however, followed me, and again craved for money; and this -time I answered in our English stereotyped form: ‘I have nothing for -you, my good man.’ - -I suppose, however, that he did not catch my reply, for he added -sharply: ‘What do you say?’ To which I answered: ‘I say that I have no -money for you.’ - -‘Do you indeed?’ he said with fury. ‘Then keep it, and perish with it. -I hope it may drag you down, as it did me.’ With these words he turned -away, and I heard his steps behind me no more; but I had not gone very -far when I recollected on what former occasion I had seen the old man’s -face. I remembered that it was the same face which twenty years before -I had seen in that northern court-house—the face that had known a -death-like pallor when the heavy chain of Truth clanked forth its tale -of hidden guilt. I at once stopped and turned round; but I could only -distinguish faintly the outline of his figure in the distance; and as I -gazed at that ragged form, retreating I knew not whither, there flashed -with vivid reality through my mind the events which I have endeavoured -here to relate, and I remembered the words of a thoughtful modern -writer: ‘The secrets of men’s lives are rarely held inviolate till -eternity—there is a reckoning here without the aid of eternal books.’ - - - - -THE PRAIRIES AND THEIR INHABITANTS. - - -The subject of sport has a fascinating interest for readers of almost -every class. Nor is this interest lessened when the scene of such -adventures is laid in the wide prairies of the Far West. On those -vast plains, ocean-like in their rolling expanse, the wigwam of -the red man, and the bison and other denizens of the prairie, are -alike disappearing, to be succeeded by the stately and magnificent -cities which are the result of American enterprise and civilisation. -Lieutenant-colonel Dodge, an officer in the United States army, gives -us, in his _Hunting Grounds of the Great West_ (London: Chatto and -Windus, 1877), an instructive résumé of the present aspect and position -of those plains, which are still in great measure a Debatable Land, -on the frontiers of which a fierce warfare is almost constantly being -carried on between the wandering Indian tribes and the white settlers -who are every year supplanting them. - -The distinctive term ‘The Plains’ is specially applied to the area of -rolling prairies extending from the mountains of Texas on the south to -the British line on the north, and from the Missouri river on the east -to the Rocky Mountains on the west. - -Although called Plains they are never absolutely level, but present -many undulations and much variety of surface. Even in their most barren -stretches they are covered with short grass, but are almost without -trees, which grow only in the cañons or deep water-courses. On the -higher Plains this absence of trees is caused by want of water and -the prevalence of high winds; and on the lower, by the prairie-fires -kindled by the Indians, by the devastation caused by beavers, and by -the prevalence, although in a lesser degree, of wind. In winter, on -these wide Plains the storms are sometimes fearful; the icy cold north -wind curdles the blood in the veins, and is speedily fatal to any -living creature that is exposed to its fury; even birds fall dead in -great numbers. Its destructiveness is only equalled by the terrific -rain, thunder, and hail-storms which occur in summer. - -No one should ever travel over the Plains without a compass, although -in the unsettling misery of feeling lost, confidence is sometimes lost -even in that friendly guide. In winter, from the glare of the sun on -the wide waste of snow, a painful affection called snow-blindness is -experienced by most travellers on the Plains. Not only is the power -of vision temporarily lost, but if the skin be at all sensitive, the -face and hands swell and blister, and are as exquisitely painful as if -scorched by fire. In travelling, the choice of a camping-place is of -the first importance; water, grass, and wood are essential requisites, -and so is a knowledge of the special dangers which beset wanderers on -these prairies. Camp-life, Colonel Dodge tells us, with a good tent, a -nice mess-kit, plenty of bedding, a travelling kitchen, and supplies -of preserved fruit and vegetables, is very enjoyable indeed. The rifle -rarely fails to provide a good dinner, to which the hunters return at -sunset with a keen appetite, which enables them to do full justice to -the dainties of the prairie. These discussed, they collect in the cool -breezy evening around the camp-fire, and with pipe and flask and song -and story, the short twilight hours go merrily by. - -One of the most frequent dangers to which camp-life is exposed is -prairie-fire, which rises and spreads on all sides, to the height -sometimes of thirty feet, half-stifling the men with smoke and heat, -and driving the animals frantic with terror. Another danger arises -from the sudden and severe rain-storms, which are so excessive that -they may be aptly denominated water-spouts. Fancy a party of hunters -in their comfortable well-appointed camp, pitched as camps often -are, on the bank of a half-dry stream. After a luxurious dinner and -pleasant social evening, each has retired to his own special tent, when -suddenly the unmistakable rush and roar of a large volume of water -awakens the traveller. In a moment he is upon his feet, rushing out -into the darkness to discover if possible what it all means. The green -sward of the night before is gone—water is before, behind, around him, -everywhere! - -When morning breaks, cold and gray, it shews, instead of the -picturesque river-bluff and comfortable camp, an apparently shoreless -lake, with one or two cotton-wood trees gallantly stemming the flood, -on the topmost boughs of which are a few forlorn specimens of humanity, -cowering before the keen wind, which as it careers along the prairie, -makes sad havoc of the few fluttering remnants of their sleeping -apparel. Fortunately, however, these deluges are of short continuance, -and abate as quickly as they rise. Another danger, the possibilities of -which are diminishing every year, arises from the stampedes to which -the herds of buffalo are periodically subject. When this sudden panic -seizes these immense brutes, they rush blindly on after the leaders, -trampling over everything that comes in their way. Our author was -camping out one night in the spring of 1871 with four wagons and a -small escort. He had gone to bed, but was not asleep, when he fancied -that he heard a faint, rushing sound; and suspicious that it might -be a water-spout, he sprang out of his tent, and peered up the creek -beside which the camp was pitched. He strained his eyes in the darkness -to discover the line of foam, which is generally the precursor of an -approaching deluge; but to his surprise he could discover nothing; yet -the sound went on increasing, and came evidently from the prairie. -Suddenly its probable cause flashed upon him, and arousing his men, -he explained to them what he feared and besought them to keep calm. -This was somewhat difficult, for the buffalo were already in sight, -and to all appearance bearing right down upon them. ‘Our only chance,’ -he said, ‘is to try to split the herd; if we cannot do that, we are -lost!’ With that end in view he stationed his men fifty yards from the -camp, and in trembling and fear awaited the onslaught. On, with a heavy -trampling thud like thunder, rushed the unwieldy mass till they were -within thirty yards of the men, who discharged their muskets and yelled -with the energy of despair. A few of the foremost buffalo fell dead; -the others wavered, swerved a little, and finally plunged away on one -side, roaring and crashing and tumbling in the darkness over the banks -of the creek. - -Another danger of camp-life proceeds from rattlesnakes and vipers, -which are very susceptible of cold, and at night crawl close to the -person of the sleeper for warmth. One officer—a friend of Colonel -Dodge’s—once found a rattlesnake coiled up beneath his pillow; and -another, when drawing on his boot, felt his foot come in contact with -a soft substance; he dropped the boot at once, and a huge rattlesnake -glided out. Another nocturnal visitor almost as much dreaded as the -snakes is the skunk, a horrible little animal about the size of a cat, -which makes its way into a camp and has been known to devour the face, -hands, or any uncovered part of the nearest sleeper; a skunk-bite -being almost invariably followed in certain portions of the Plains by -hydrophobia. - -The great attraction of the Plains to sportsmen is the variety and -abundance of game which they contain. First in order, as being -pre-eminently an habitué of the Plains, is the buffalo, or more -properly speaking, the bison, and which, in spite of its apparent -ferocity, is, according to Colonel Dodge, who knows its habits well, a -mild, stupid, inoffensive animal. - -The elk, although disappearing even faster than the buffalo, is still -to be met with on the Plains; and his great size, magnificent antlers, -and splendid form, stamp him as the monarch of the prairies. He is -timid, and seldom even in the last extremity employs his great strength -in his own defence; what he trusts to is his skill in doubling, -dodging, and hiding, which in spite of his size he accomplishes as -cunningly and successfully as a hare or a fox. Many varieties of the -Deer tribe are found in the Plains; of these the black-tailed deer, -the red-deer, and the antelope are the most abundant, affording in the -proper season boundless supplies of the most delicious venison. The -mountain-sheep can scarcely be called an inhabitant of the Plains; -his chosen home being amid the wild crags and rugged fastnesses of -mountain-ranges. He is a fine animal, with a body somewhat resembling -that of a deer, and a sheep’s head surmounted by a pair of stupendous -horns. His flesh is declared by the gourmands of the hunting fraternity -to be the choicest of choice morsels, a delicious compound of venison -and the finest Southdown mutton. - -The prairies abound with smaller animals, rabbits of two kinds, -gophers, and prairie-dogs a species of marmot. The carnivora of the -Plains are not numerous. First come the wolves, which hunt in packs, -but whose power of making themselves disagreeable has, Colonel Dodge -thinks, been greatly over-rated. This can scarcely be said of the -grisly bear, which is a huge, sagacious, and pre-eminently ferocious -brute. The cougar or puma, which is sometimes called the Mexican -lion, is also a formidable antagonist to come to close grips with. -The panther is very much the same animal on a smaller scale, and is -scarcely more dangerous than the wild-cat, which is abundant and of -a large size. A variety of birds are found on the Plains, flocks of -quails, partridges, geese, and five species of grouse; but none of -these can compete in point of size or delicacy with the wild turkey. -This magnificent bird when fat is often found to weigh from twenty to -twenty-five pounds. - -Of the red men, the fast diminishing aborigines of the prairies, -Colonel Dodge does not draw a very favourable picture. He paints them, -he tells us, as he finds them, not with every attribute softened and -toned down by the veil of false sentiment which the romances of Cooper -and other novelists have thrown around them. The North American Indian -taken as he stands is as cruel, lazy, and degraded a savage as is to -be found upon the face of the earth. Virtue, morality, generosity, -and honour are not only words without a meaning for him, but have -no synonyms in his language. The bad qualities of the Indians are, -however, no good reason for the infamous manner in which they have been -treated by the agents of the American government. - -Intensely conscious of his own helplessness, and conceiving that he -is tossed about like a feather between the good and bad god, it is -very important for the Indian to discover which of his deities is in -the ascendant for the moment; and this he tries to do by divination. -There is nothing so trifling but that he may deduce from it a knowledge -of the supernatural; the flight of a bird, the bark of a dog, the -gliding of a snake through the grass, are all full for him of a subtle -intelligence; but what he principally relies upon for information is -what he calls the making of a medicine. This species of manufacture, -the mysteries of which are known only to himself, is undertaken upon -all occasions; and besides these private acts of what may be called -devotion, the tribe has from time to time a great medicine-making in -common, presided over by a medicine chief. A huge structure of dressed -skins called a medicine lodge is set up, with a rude image cut from -a log suspended from the roof. A certain number of warriors are then -selected from the assembled tribe, and a dance, which may truly be -called ‘the dance of death,’ is begun. Day sinks into night and night -dawns into day, and still it goes on without a moment’s intermission, -till all the performers have fallen senseless to the floor, some to -rise no more. If at the end of two or three days this strange ceremony -is concluded without a death, the medicine chief pronounces it good -medicine, and the tribe separate assured of the protection of the good -god. - -As soon as an Indian boy becomes a warrior he thinks of a wife; and -as an Indian belle is often something of a coquette, he finds, as -others have done, that the favours of wooing are ‘fashious to seek.’ -At length, however, the dusky beauty is won, and the favoured lover -betakes himself to the father’s lodge, and something like the following -colloquy ensues. ‘You have got a daughter,’ begins the lover, ‘an ugly -lazy thing; but I want a wife, and I am willing as a favour to take her -off your hands.’ - -‘Are you speaking of my darling girl?’ says the father—‘the prettiest -best girl in the whole tribe. I do not think of giving her to any one, -much less to you. Why, you are a mere boy; you have done nothing to -speak of; you have not taken one scalp; you have only stolen a few -wretched ponies. No, no; she is not for you, unless indeed you give me -twenty ponies for her.’ - -‘Twenty ponies!’ yells the lover. ‘One is too many.’ And thus the -haggling goes on, until a bargain is struck at something like the fair -market-price of the girl, who forthwith, for there is no marriage -ceremony, accompanies her new husband or master to his father’s lodge. -Many families generally live under one roof, and they have not upon -an average more than one meal a day. A large pot full of meat is set -upon the fire, and when sufficiently cooked is taken off and placed -in the middle of the floor. The inmates then gather around and help -themselves with their fingers. What is left is set aside, and any one -who feels hungry goes and helps himself. The lodge of the Indians is -made of dressed buffalo-skins, supported upon a light framework of -wood. The fire is in the centre; and as the draught is very defective, -the lodge is generally in cold weather full of smoke. The beds are -piles of buffalo-robes and blankets, which serve as seats during the -day. Furniture there is none; except a few pots, kettles, and trunks -containing the dried meat and superfluous clothing of the family, may -be dignified by that term. But what is wanting in upholstery is made up -in dirt, everything being kept in a state of inconceivable filth. The -wealth of an Indian consists in his horses and mules; and as he leads a -nomadic life in fine weather, he rarely burdens himself with anything -that is not easily transported. In the general division of meat and -skins, the widows and orphans of the tribe are cared for, and a certain -portion set aside for their maintenance. - -The Indians are very fond of gambling, and also of drinking, which is -a very destructive vice to them. Another of their favourite indoor -amusements is story-telling, in which they take great delight. A good -story-teller is a very important personage in the tribe, and is always -surrounded by an eager audience. - -The cruelty of the Indians is extreme; men and women alike take an -exquisite pleasure in torturing their captives. Much of this cruelty, -however, has in latter days arisen from vengeful hatred to the United -States government, which has broken faith with them over and over -again, and is still conducting a war of extermination. No wonder -that under the circumstances the red man should resent the cruelties -practised by his invaders, and make reprisals when opportunity offers. -It is but fair to the Indians to state, that across the frontier-line -in Canada, where the treaties made with them have been rigidly -observed, there have been no Indian wars and no Indian massacres; and -that the red men have proved themselves to be quiet and not unthriving -subjects of Queen Victoria. - - - - -ROBBERY OF AN EXPRESS TRAIN. - - -The following story shews the extent to which wholesale plunder may -be carried on in the United States of America: About eleven o’clock -on the night of Wednesday 19th September, 1877, an express train on -the Union Pacific Railway was approaching the little station of Big -Springs in Wyoming Territory. There wanted fully a quarter of an hour -to the time when it was due, and the station-master William Barnard -and his assistant had not yet commenced to prepare for its arrival; -the former was still in his office, the latter engaged somewhere about -the premises. All was as silent as a station generally is during the -intervals between trains; when the stillness was suddenly broken -in a manner no less unexpected than unpleasant. The door of the -office was burst open, and four men entering, seized the astonished -station-master, and told him that if he attempted the slightest -resistance or refused to obey their orders, his life should instantly -be forfeited. He had no choice but to submit; for he perceived clearly -by the words and actions of the intruders that they were members of a -large party of robbers, and that the station was completely in their -power. They all wore crape masks to conceal their features, but spoke -in their natural tones; and as the band consisted of thirteen men fully -armed, nothing but compliance with their demands was possible on the -part of the station officials. The place was solitary, the hour late; -and the robbers lost no time in carrying out their evidently carefully -prepared plans. The telegraph apparatus was their first object, and -this they compelled the station-master to destroy. Barnard endeavoured -to mislead them by only removing a portion of it, but it was of no -avail; one of the men angrily desired him to mind what he was about or -he would have a bullet through his head, and then ordered him to take -out certain parts of the instrument and give them to him; shewing by -his knowledge of the terms employed that he must have been a telegraph -operator himself. In the meantime the rest of the band had not been -idle. They compelled the porter to put out his ordinary signals for the -now rapidly advancing train; and they maintained the strictest watch -to see that nothing was done that might in the faintest degree create -alarm or suspicion. - -All fell out exactly as they had anticipated: the train came gradually -to a stand in obedience to the signal, and ran blindly into the trap -prepared for it. The unconscious passengers, most of whom were asleep, -were quite at the mercy of the robbers, who lost not a moment in -diligently setting to work to make the most of the golden opportunity -before them. The train in the meantime had drawn up at the platform; it -was a long one, consisting of a saloon and two Pullman’s sleeping-cars, -besides ordinary carriages and luggage-vans; and there were a good -many passengers, nearly all of them sleeping soundly. A portion of the -gang at once made prisoners of the engineer and stoker; while four of -them compelled Barnard the station-master to go as he usually did to -the mail-van and knock at the door for admittance. George Miller, -the post-office agent in charge of the mails and specie, immediately -opened the door, when several of the robbers jumped in, one of them -holding a revolver to his head, while the others rapidly cleared the -drawers and boxes of all the money they contained; thus securing a very -large sum—about forty or fifty thousand dollars. They did not trouble -themselves to examine the letters; and a combination-safe containing a -very large sum in gold and notes was also left untouched; for it was -beyond their power to break it open, and neither Miller the agent nor -Patterson the conductor of the train knew the combined intricacies; -this the robbers obliged them to swear on their word of honour. - -The gang then directed their attention to the passengers, most of -whom were now awake, and beginning to be aware of the unpleasant -circumstances in which they were placed. Some were inclined to resist -the highwaymen; but the more prudent among them counselled submission, -as very few of them had available firearms, and they were ignorant of -the strength of the band, and feared more serious consequences if they -were driven to resort to extremes. Of the likelihood of this they had -an early intimation; for a passenger who chanced to be standing on -the outside platform of one of the carriages as the train entered the -station, had a couple of pistol-shots fired at him, luckily without -doing him any injury. He retreated into the carriage, and was directly -followed by the robbers, who entered the car at both ends, and desired -the passengers to hold up their hands; a command they all instantly -obeyed. They were then rifled one after the other; their pockets -being thoroughly searched, watches, purses, and all loose money being -taken away. This was done in all the open carriages; but the doors of -the two Pullman sleeping-cars being locked, they did not obtain an -entrance into either; and the inmates probably thinking discretion -the better part of valour, remained ensconced within their shelter. -Whether it would long have served as such cannot now be determined; -possibly the robbers might have forced the doors had time been allowed -them; but fortunately for the travellers the whistle of an approaching -goods-train scared the gang, who made a precipitate retreat from the -scene of their depredations, carrying their booty along with them. - -Relieved of their unwelcome presence, the passengers issued forth from -the cars and began to relate their various experiences. Luckily no one -was seriously wounded. The postal agent had been violently knocked -against the carriage-door at the first rush of the thieves, and was -considerably bruised, and another man had his forehead grazed by a -pistol bullet; but beyond those comparatively trifling injuries they -all escaped with the fright and the loss of every article of value on -which the robbers had time to lay their hands. Most of the passengers -in the open cars were cleared of whatever money they had about them, -and several of them lost gold and silver watches; but even in the -excitement of the moment a few of them had sufficient presence of mind -to enable them hastily to secrete purses and pocket-books, either -by slipping them under the cushions or dropping them on the floor. -A Jew named Harris was robbed of four hundred and fifty dollars and -his watch; but while raising his hands in obedience to the command -of ‘Hands up!’ he skilfully contrived to drop a roll of notes on the -seat beside him, which was overlooked by the robbers as they examined -his pockets. A miner who wore a belt containing eleven thousand -dollars in gold, was quick enough to fasten it round the waist of his -little child, who was not molested by the thieves, and this large sum -fortunately escaped their clutches. They managed, however, in the short -space of time at their disposal to make some very pretty pickings -out of the train; their gains being computed at fully fifty thousand -dollars, besides watches and other articles of value. - -The scheme had evidently been a most carefully organised one, and was -carried out in every detail with perfect coolness and regularity, not -a moment being wasted, and the members of the gang having clearly been -previously instructed as to the duty each man was to perform. It is -supposed they had fastened their horses somewhere at the back of the -station, as on quitting the train they immediately disappeared without -leaving any traces behind them. - -An alarm was at once given, and several parties started in pursuit; -but their search was entirely unsuccessful so far as regarded hearing -any tidings of the robbers. The following day a band of searchers -found among the mountains ten or twelve miles from the station of -Big Springs, a rifle, a pistol, and an empty money-box; proving -indisputably that the highwaymen had passed that way. It was well known -that some very notorious Missouri bandits were at large among the Black -Hills, and it is believed that they were the perpetrators of the attack -on the train. A large reward was offered for their apprehension; but so -far as we know, they have hitherto managed to elude all pursuit, and -it is doubtful whether they may ever be brought to justice. With such -possible contingencies, travelling by the Union Pacific, or any other -railway in the Far West, is not a pleasant idea to contemplate. - - - - -POPULAR ERRORS REGARDING THE SHREW-MOUSE. - - -No popular error is more absolutely destitute of foundation than that -regarding the shrew. This little quadruped, very common in meadows -and pastures in all parts of Britain, and generally known as the -shrew-mouse, is as harmless as any creature that lives. Its food -consists of insects and their larvæ; and its teeth are very small, so -that it is scarcely able to bite through the human skin. Yet according -to a popular belief, very widely prevalent, its bite is most venomous, -and in many districts in England the viper is less feared. Nor is it -only its bite that is supposed to be deadly to man or beast. Contact -with it in any way is accounted extremely dangerous; and cattle seized -with any malady, especially if shewing any appearance of numbness in -the legs, are apt to be reputed ‘shrew-struck.’ Horses in particular -are accounted very liable to suffer from this cause. An infallible -cure, however, was to be found in dragging the shrew-struck animal -through a bramble rooted at both ends, or in the application of -a twig of a shrew-ash. ‘A shrew-ash,’ says White, in his _Natural -History of Selborne_, ‘is an ash whose twigs or branches, when gently -applied to the limbs of cattle, will immediately relieve the pain -which a beast suffers from the running of a shrew-mouse over the part -affected; for it is supposed that a shrew-mouse is of so baneful and -deleterious a nature, that whenever it creeps over a beast, whether -it be horse, cow, or sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted with -cruel anguish, and threatened with the loss of the use of its limbs. -Against this accident, to which they were continually liable, our -provident forefathers always kept a shrew-ash at hand, which, when -once medicated, would maintain its virtue for ever.’ This tree, whose -every branch possessed such a potent charm, was an ash in the trunk of -which an auger-hole had been bored, and a living shrew put into the -hole, which was then closed with a wooden plug. The incantations used -when this was done have now been forgotten; the shrew-ash has lost -its old repute; but the belief in its virtues still lingers in some -quarters, and the belief in the dangerous bite and maleficent touch of -the shrew is strong among the country-people in many parts of England. -How confidently this belief was entertained even by the best educated -in former times appears from many allusions to it by old authors. It -was received as an unquestionable fact of natural history. In Topsel’s -_History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents_, published in 1658, it is -said of the shrew, that ‘it is a ravening beast, feigning itself gentle -and tame; but being touched, it biteth deep and poisoneth deadly; it -beareth a cruel mind, desiring to hurt anything;’ with much more of the -like nature, and much concerning medicinal virtues ascribed to this -little animal. But the belief in the deadliness of the shrew’s bite has -been transmitted from one generation to another from times far more -remote than those of this credulous author. It prevailed among the -ancient Romans, and their remedy for a shrew’s bite was to cut the body -of the little creature asunder and place it on the injured part. - - - - -FLOATING-LIGHTS. - - -Besides the lighthouses which warn the sailor of danger and guide him -in his course amidst the darkness of night, there are along the British -coasts numerous floating-lights or light-vessels in situations where -the erection of a lighthouse is impossible, where there are banks or -shoals perilous to ships but affording no foundation for a building. -These vessels ride at anchor in places that have been selected for -them, and which are as exactly marked on the charts as the positions -of the lighthouses. Most of them are stationed off the east coast of -England from the mouth of the Humber southward; a few on other parts -of the English coast, and on that of Ireland; and two on the coast -of Scotland. They are generally vessels of about one hundred and -fifty tons, specially constructed with a view to their riding safely -at anchor in exposed situations and during the most severe storms, -without regard to sailing-powers, of which they have no need; and it -has been an extremely rare thing for any of them to be driven from -their moorings or to experience any disaster. The mariner counts upon -the guidance of their light in any weather, as confidently as he does -on that of a lighthouse built upon a rock. - -The English floating-lights, like the English lighthouses, are under -the care and management of Trinity House. From the Appendix to the -Report of the Royal Commission on Lights, Buoys, and Beacons, presented -to the Houses of Parliament in 1861, we obtain some interesting -information concerning them. They are each provided with a crew of -eleven men, who have no occupation but their professional duties; -and of whom there are at all times seven on board the vessel, and -four on shore, employed in the storehouses at the Trinity Buoy Wharf, -Blackwall. The men remain on shore for a month at a time. Each vessel -has a master and mate, but these are never on duty at the same time; -taking the command in turn, month about. No men are employed in this -service but such as are already good sailors; and the men rise by -seniority from the lowest rank to that of master, so that there is -a strong inducement for them to continue in the service. Misconduct -of any kind—as disobedience of the orders of the master or mate, -quarrelling, breach of regulations, neglect of duty, or intoxication -when on shore—is punished by censure, degradation to a lower rank, or -dismissal from the service, according to the gravity of the offence. -The lowest wage of the men is only two pounds fifteen shillings per -month—at least so it was in 1861, and we have heard of no change. The -master has five pounds per month and an allowance of ten pounds a year -for house-rent. All find their own provisions. They are allowed to use -beer on board the vessel, but no spirits. They are completely secluded -from the rest of the world, whilst on duty. No boats are allowed to go -alongside the light-vessels, and the men are strictly forbidden to go -on board any passing ship. A library is supplied to each vessel. - -Life in a light-vessel one would think must be rather monotonous; but -many of those who enter the service remain long in it. Small pensions -are allowed to superannuated men or those disabled by disease or -accident. The lantern used to be hung from the yard-arm of the vessel, -but in 1807 Mr R. Stevenson introduced at the floating-light at the -Bell Rock the mode now used, in which the lantern surrounds the mast, -sliding up and down on it, and is elevated to the top of it when -lighted. Those light-vessels which occupy the most exposed stations -ride more easily, if the water is deep, than those which are tossed by -smaller but more frequent waves. The latter must sometimes be rather -unpleasant abodes. The master of the Owers light-vessel, in the English -Channel, between Beachy Head and the Isle of Wight, told the members -of the Royal Commission who visited his vessel in 1859, that in bad -weather he sometimes ‘could not lie on the floor of his cabin without -holding on to the legs of the table.’ - - * * * * * - -Printed and Published by W. & R. 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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/license - - -Title: Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 749, May 4, 1878 - -Author: Various - -Editor: William Chambers - Robert Chambers - -Release Date: October 20, 2020 [EBook #63507] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL OF *** - - - - -Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_273"></a>{273}</span></p> - -<h1>CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL<br /> -OF<br /> -POPULAR<br /> -LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.</h1> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" >CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<p class='center'> - -<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> - -<a href="#THE_POWER_OF_DRAW">THE POWER OF DRAW.</a><br /> -<a href="#HELENA_LADY_HARROGATE">HELENA, LADY HARROGATE.</a><br /> -<a href="#NOTHING_NEW">NOTHING NEW.</a><br /> -<a href="#AN_INSURANCE_TALE">AN INSURANCE TALE.</a><br /> -<a href="#THE_PRAIRIES_AND_THEIR">THE PRAIRIES AND THEIR INHABITANTS.</a><br /> -<a href="#ROBBERY_OF_AN_EXPRESS_TRAIN">ROBBERY OF AN EXPRESS TRAIN.</a><br /> -<a href="#POPULAR_ERRORS_REGARDING_THE">POPULAR ERRORS REGARDING THE SHREW-MOUSE.</a><br /> -<a href="#FLOATING-LIGHTS">FLOATING-LIGHTS.</a><br /> - -<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> - -</p> - - - -<hr class="full" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="figcenter" id="header" style="max-width: 37.5em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/header.png" alt="Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science, -and Art. Fourth Series. Conducted by William and Robert Chambers." /> -</div> - -<hr class="full" /> -<div class="center"> -<div class="header"> -<p class="floatl"><span class="smcap">No. 749.</span></p> -<p class="floatr"><span class="smcap">Price</span> 1½<em>d.</em></p> -<p class="floatc">SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1878.</p> -</div></div></div> - -<hr class="full" /> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_POWER_OF_DRAW">THE POWER OF DRAW.</h2> -</div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">We</span> have on several occasions called attention to -the Power of Draw. It is a force which for good -as well as for evil pervades the whole social -system. Every centre of industry exerts this -attractive force by drawing to it large numbers of -persons for the sake of employment, and so far -the Draw acts beneficially. All our large towns are -in no small degree made up of individuals who -have drifted thither in the hope of exercising -their abilities for their own and the public advantage. -This is exactly as it should be. The world -is open to everybody. It is only a truism to say -that by the Power of Draw the uttermost ends of -the earth are peopled.</p> - -<p>Unfortunately, this subtle power in its pervading -energy is not limited to the industrious and well-disposed. -It is acutely demonstrated by all who -are looking about for the means of indulging in -a life of idleness at the cost of others. The disposition -to abstain from useful labour and to depend -less or more on gratuitous benefactions, has been -largely encouraged by mistaken views of what is -ordinarily called charity. The poor—no matter how -they happen to be poor—have been extolled as if -they were superior beings, to whom all must contribute -as one of the noblest of virtues. With perverted -notions of this kind, society has for ages done -everything in its power to consecrate and encourage -poverty, and no wonder it has attained to stupendous -dimensions. Early injunctions to give all to -the poor were followed by the piously inconsiderate -and wide-sweeping benefactions of the monasteries. -These in their turn were followed by the statutory -obligations of the poor-laws. And now there -is superadded a system of voluntary contribution -so extensive and varied as to dominate the -soundest principles of political economy, and which -in its general working amounts to a kind of communism. -By every large city, arrangements are -organised to succour every human need and infirmity. -Those who do not find it agreeable to work -will be fed—the feeding, perhaps, not being what -all would like, but pretty well as a make-shift. -For every species of ailment, from a broken leg to -diseased lungs, there is adequate provision. The -cultivation of thrift and self-respect not to be -thought of. Bad as things seem to have been in -the palmy days of the monasteries, they are now -in some quarters ten times worse. While one set -of people are slaving between death and life, -another set, determined to take their ease, keep -hovering on the verge of that agreeable category -the poor, and so contrive to lead a jolly sort of -existence.</p> - -<p>Not that the so-called poor profess to be pure -idlers. For decency’s sake, they occasionally work -a little, and enjoy the commiseration of suffering -from the severity of winter, or from the commercial -depression arising from ‘bad times.’ On -such occasions the Power of Draw increases in -intensity; and now are offered favourable opportunities -for tender-hearted individuals to take a -lead in establishing soup-kitchens, or benefactions -thought to be equally creditable. It is melancholy -to consider how at times like these, so little real -good is done in comparison with the amount of -harm. We see, more particularly as regards the -young, the degree of suffering that is presently -assuaged, but take no account of the mischief -incurred by adding to the general demoralisation. -While philanthropists are fondly imagining that -they are doing much good, they are very probably -adding fresh accumulations to the already overgrown -mass of misery and crime. Not more surely -do hens run to the heap, than do the thriftless -and semi-pauperised instinctively flock towards -places where there is an inconsiderately lavish -distribution of charity. We never hear of a soup-kitchen -being set up, under however careful an -administration, without saying: ‘There goes a -distinct increase to the Power of Draw.’</p> - -<p>The injury done by systems of profuse charity -has been frequently pointed out, but we have -seen nothing so effective and convincing on the -subject as a paper read by Mr Brace at the -American Social Science Congress of May 1874, -of which a copious abstract is given by a correspondent -in <i>The Times</i>, of January 24, in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_274"></a>{274}</span> -present year. We think it may serve a good -purpose to present our readers with a few facts -from this interesting paper.</p> - -<p>Referring to a serious depression in trade which -threw large numbers of persons out of work in -New York, plans were devised for giving temporary -support to the necessitous; the result being -that an encouragement was held out to idleness -and improvidence. ‘The experience of New York -in 1857’ (says Mr Brace), ‘and of Boston and other -cities since that date, proves that the soup-kitchen -charity only creates pauperism. Despite the warning -of the experienced, soup-kitchens and free -lodgings were opened by public and private means, -with the utmost liberality, in various portions of -New York last winter, and enormous sums were -contributed by private citizens for these popular -benefactions. Before the winter was over, however, -most of those engaged in them regretted, -without doubt, that they had ever taken part in -these kindly but mistaken charities. The reports -of competent observers shew what were their -effects. The announcement of the intended opening -of these and kindred charities immediately -called into the city the floating vagrants, beggars, -and paupers who wander from village to village -throughout the state. The streets of New York -became thronged with this ragged, needy crowd; -they filled all the station-houses and lodging-places -provided by private charity, and overflowed -into the island almshouses. Street-begging to the -point of importunity became a custom. Ladies -were robbed even on their own door-steps by -these mendicants. Petty offences such as thieving -and drunkenness increased. One of the free lodgings -in the upper part of the city established by -the Commissioners of Charities became a public -nuisance from its rowdyism and criminality.</p> - -<p>Nor would these paupers work. On one occasion, -the almshouse authorities were discharging -a band of able-bodied paupers, and having need of -some light outdoor labour on the island, they -offered these men what is thought good country -wages—that is, fifteen dollars a month and board. -They unanimously refused, preferring the free lodgings -and free lunches of the city.’ Then, he adds, -came the attractive power—the Power of Draw. -‘Tramps came hurrying to the feast of charity, -honest and hard-working labouring men from -every part of the neighbouring country. Farms -in the state of New York were left stripped of -labourers, though the farmers offered good wages. -Working-men came from as far away as Pittsburg -and Boston, partly, no doubt, to see the sights of -New York, but hoping also for aid from public -and private charities. In some cases, young men -were arrested in criminal houses, who made their -headquarters in these soup-kitchens or relief-houses, -and then sallied out to enjoy the criminal -indulgences of the city.</p> - -<p>The pauperising influences, however, of this -indiscriminate charity reached beyond these classes. -Poor families abandoned steady industry, got their -meals at the soup-kitchens, and spent the day in -going from one charitable organisation to another. -Those experienced with this class report that such -people acquire a “Micawber” habit of depending -on chances, and seldom return to constant work -again. Instances were known of families taking -their meals from the Relief Association and spending -the money set aside for this daily in liquor, so -that, in the poorest quarters the liquor-trade was -never so prosperous. A singular effect was also -produced on the class of homeless girls. Many -avoided the houses where charity was connected -with work, and obtained their meals at the free-lunch -places, and then lodged in the low cheap -lodging-houses, where their habits were uncontrolled -and they could wander the streets at night. -Many were thus enticed into ruin.</p> - -<p>But another class now felt the pauperising -influence of this charity, one which had never -stooped to public alms before, the mechanics and -artisans. These were not driven by the severest -poverty. They had been in receipt of good wages, -and had much money laid up in the savings-banks. -They contributed through the winter large sums -to various strikes and labour unions. The best -proof that they were not pressed by poverty is -that never once did they lower their demand -for wages in any branch of industry. The most -ignorant job-work, as for instance a man’s labour -in moving, was fifty cents an hour. Few would -even clean snow from a side-walk or cut or saw -wood or carry burdens for less than at the rate of -two to two and a half dollars per diem. Mechanics -still demanded from three to five dollars per diem. -It was notorious that important trades, such as the -building-trade, were at a standstill on account of -high wages, and that the employing class could -not afford to pay such high rates. Yet no wages -came down. Labour was in struggle with capital -against a lowering of prices. Charity assisted labour -in the combat. The soup-kitchens and relief -associations of various names became thronged -with mechanics. Some of the best working-men -in the city ate and lodged at the public expense. -Thousands of able-bodied artisans, young and skilful, -were fed by alms. The idleness and dependence -injured many among them irretrievably. -The whole settlement of the labour question was -postponed by the over-generous charity of the city, -and spring came upon the mechanical class without -a revival of trade, which might have come if -misguided kindness had not supported them in -this struggle.</p> - -<p>These benevolent institutions also interfered -with many kinds of legitimate business. Thus in -one ward, the eleventh, a number of small eating-house -keepers, who had made an honest living by -their occupation, were almost thrown into bankruptcy -by the competition of certain soup-kitchens -established by religious associations. A similar -thing occurred in other wards. In one district also, -a keeper of a laundry who had ten or twelve girls -in his employment at good wages, found himself -stripped of his help in the midst of the winter, -these women preferring to live for nothing in the -free lodgings. He accordingly was compelled to<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_275"></a>{275}</span> -advertise for help, but without success, and was -ultimately obliged to close his laundry.</p> - -<p>It had been expected that this industrial crisis -would bring down the wages of female servants, -since these had remained at a high rate, though -all other prices had fallen. The superintendent of -the Free Labour Bureau, however, stated that -during all this distress, the poor girls who came -to his office could not be induced to take situations -for less than from fourteen to twenty dollars per -month, and said that they preferred to live at -the charitable institutions until they could get -such wages as they chose. It is well known that -the wages of female labour have been as high this -winter as at any time since the war. One of the -free dormitories for women was, in fact, broken -up by its coming to the knowledge of the directresses -that a lady on one occasion offered each -lodger a situation in a good family at ten dollars -per month, and not one of these “victims of -poverty” could be found who would accept the -place on the terms.’</p> - -<p>One way and another an injury was done -through these pauperising influences which is -even now scarcely remedied. The drawing of -large numbers into the vortex of charity was in -all respects inexcusable; for if the heedlessly -benevolent had let matters alone, the more necessitous -would have found remunerative work in -quarters where labour was specially in demand. -It should never be forgotten that there is a principle -of readjustment in labour which tends to cure -local disorganisations. What philanthropists have -to do on pressing occasions like those mentioned -is to interpose no distracting element, such as the -temptation of free soup-kitchens, and to facilitate -removal to spots where industry can be advantageously -exercised.</p> - -<p>In all the large cities in Great Britain we are -acquainted with, there are antiquated semi-ruinous -buildings in the alleys behind the main thoroughfares, -which were at one time occupied by the -affluent classes, but are now sunk to the condition -of resorts for the idle, the drunken, and the -dissolute, who habitually prey on society, and are a -torment to the public authorities. Attempts to root -out these dens of infamy and disease encounter a -resolute opposition from those who from usurious -motives have become the proprietors of such -places, and more especially does opposition come -from ratepayers who are shocked at the prospect -of paying some trifle annually in the shape of -an improvement tax. Antiquaries who have a -morbid fancy for old houses which will scarcely -hold together, and are as dark and unwholesome -as dungeons, also have their howl. So that it -is usually no easy matter to procure legislative -authority to put our towns generally on a decent -footing.</p> - -<p>Let it be specially noted that narrow dingy -lanes are the centres of nearly all that is degrading -in towns whether large or small. The idle -and dissolute do not approve of living in the -face of day. They prefer to nestle in groups -behind-backs, as being there less likely to incur -observation. It is consistent with all experience -that just as a town abounds in narrow lanes, -it abounds in pauperism and every species of -iniquity. Clear away your lanes, and you correspondingly -lessen the number of the dangerous -classes. Every town, of course, must have dwellings -suitable for the less affluent in the community, -but in some way or other let all come to -the front. In England, the behind-backs ‘slums’ -we speak of are known as courts, in Scotland they -are called closes; but whatever be their generic -designation, they are a nuisance and a scandal, for -they draw towards them, by under-currents of intelligence, -the dregs of the population from all -parts of the United Kingdom. Obviously, the attraction -is intensified by the succours of one sort or -other offered by public charities. What with holes -and corners to creep into out of sight, and with -the chance of coming in for a share of profuse -benevolences, the Draw is complete.</p> - -<p>A number of years ago, when at the head of a -city municipality, we made a fair attempt, by -legislative measures, to sweep away the worst -class of closes, substituting for them open thoroughfares, -and likewise endeavoured to put the public -charities on a reasonably comprehensive footing. -The degree of success was moderate. From the -prevalence of narrow views, the ‘Improvement -Act’ was so materially restricted as to convey the -impression that, by ordinary forms of procedure, -in which loquacious and popularity hunting agitators -have their say, the improvement of towns on -a scale consistent with enlarged principles of sanitary -and social economy is barely practicable. In -vain you say of any special improvement that it -would clear away the haunts of the disreputable, -and at the same time lower the mortality to the -extent of eight or ten per thousand annually. -What is a lowering of the death-rate in comparison -with the obligation to pay an additional rate -of a penny per pound? Let things alone. The -inertia of systematic obstruction accordingly -prevails.</p> - -<p>Curiously enough, as we speedily discovered, -there are vested interests in charities. Each -species of benevolence possesses an administrative -organisation of chairmen, secretaries, collectors, -and so forth, who with an affection for use and -wont, do not readily perceive how there can be -any advantage in a combination of distributive -bodies. If you throw twelve separate charities into -one, the officials connected with the eleven that -are set aside will necessarily suffer extinction. -There is a more cogent argument. Twelve collectors, -each with his separate book, have a better -chance of screwing money from householders than -one solitary collector. Besides, there are peculiar -fancies to be operated on. Some will contribute -to Dispensaries, who could not be wheedled into -subscribing for the support of a Soup-kitchen or -the distribution of coals. Collectors, like sportsmen, -know the bird they can bring down. In -these circumstances, all that came out of our poor -effort at combining charities was the establishment -of another administrative body with the function -of being a check on all descriptions of applicants. -That this ‘Association for Improving the Condition -of the Poor,’ has done some good by arresting promiscuous -charity, is we believe generally allowed. -On a similar plan there has been established in -the metropolis, a ‘Society for organising Charitable -Relief and Repressing Mendicity,’ which we -understand is working advantageously. It is -indeed chiefly by the rigid scrutiny which is so -organised, that the deserving poor can be properly -aided and the worthless repressed. On the public -at large, however, rests the responsibility of ridding<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_276"></a>{276}</span> -towns of their hosts of roughs and on-hangers; for -so long as mean haunts in obscure courts and -closes are suffered to exist, and while people indiscriminately -yield to importunities, so long will -be freely exercised the Power of Draw.</p> - -<p class="right"> -W. C. -</p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="HELENA_LADY_HARROGATE">HELENA, LADY HARROGATE.</h2> -</div> - - -<h3>CHAPTER XXIV.—A NEIGHBOURLY VISIT.</h3> - -<p><span class="smcap">Jasper</span>, as he walked with dawdling gait back to -the morning-room—the ex-cavalry officer always -did dawdle, except in the hunting-field or when -race-horses were thundering past the judge’s chair—felt -what in his case did duty for brains to be -in a dizzy whirl. He could not grapple with the -mystery which seemed to have chosen Carbery -Chase for its headquarters. The captain was by -no means, as has been said, one of those guileless -youths, if such there be, who are slow to think -evil. Shew him a plain, intelligible, sordid -motive, and no one could be quicker in descrying -it, no matter how fair a pretence of decorous -honour might be kept up. But this was beyond -him. ‘No kith or kin of mine after all!’ he -muttered as he made his way along the thickly -carpeted corridor. ‘I must have been wrong, -absurdly wrong all the time. But why my father -should press me so hard on this subject no fellow -could understand. He’s in earnest though, about -desiring the match.’</p> - -<p>As he spoke he laid his grasp on the handle -of the door of the morning-room, turned it, and -entering, found with a complacent smile, that -Ruth Willis was alone. Captain Denzil was on -sufficiently good terms with himself, but even -coxcombs are glad of the confirmatory suffrages of -others; and Jasper felt as though he were under -a sort of obligation to the baronet’s ward for -having paid him the compliment of falling in love -with him.</p> - -<p>‘I thought,’ said Jasper, as if to apologise for -his presence in that pretty room, where a man -seemed incongruous with the surroundings, ‘that -my sisters were here.’</p> - -<p>‘Shall I call them?’ asked Ruth, with that -sweet hypocrisy which girls only can exhibit, and -half-rising from the tiny work-table as she spoke.</p> - -<p>‘Pray don’t. <i>I</i> have nothing on earth to say to -them, or indeed to anybody,’ said Jasper. ‘Life -drags at Carbery like wheels on a mud-plastered -road. Don’t you find it so too, Miss Willis?’</p> - -<p>‘Indeed I do not,’ answered the Indian orphan, -taking up the cudgels gracefully in defence of her -guardian’s home. ‘I should be very ungrateful -if I did. It is not every day that a lonely little -thing like myself is taken into the house of a -kind dear family of new-old friends, who cherish -and protect, and pet and spoil her, as your good -father and sisters have done, Captain Denzil, to -poor little Ruth Willis.’</p> - -<p>She said this so well, did Ruth, in a voice -that was slightly tremulous and with eyes that -swam in tears, that Jasper was for the moment -fairly taken in. There was uncommonly little -sentiment in his own composition, but such men -as he was, still like women to be softer-hearted -than themselves, and then Miss Willis looked -very pretty and delicate and helpless as she -glanced up at him from under the screen of her -dark eyelashes.</p> - -<p>‘I can’t stand it, indeed I can’t, if you cry, -Miss Willis!’ he said, drawing a chair up to the -tiny work-table. ‘You have found me a sad bore -and a sad plague, I am afraid, since I was stupid -enough to do this at Pebworth races.’</p> - -<p>As he spoke he looked down at his arm, which -still reposed in its silken sling, and assumed a -melancholy air, although in truth he felt all but -well again. Ruth, from beneath her eyelashes, -scanned him more narrowly than he was aware -of.</p> - -<p>‘Is he amusing himself at my expense?’ thus -ran her quick thoughts. ‘Or has he been applying -thus early in the day to the cherry-brandy in -his hunting-flask, or the contents of the decanters? -No; he seems sober, and civil too. This is a -puzzle.’</p> - -<p>Miss Willis was justified in her perplexity, for -this attention on Jasper’s part was something new. -The captain was not one of those men, of whom -there are no lack, who in a country-house flirt -to pass the time away, as naturally and with -as little ulterior design as they smoke a cigar -during their early stroll about the stables or the -Home Farm. He had accepted, as an Eastern -despot accepts the homage of his courtiers, fifty -petty kindnesses at Ruth’s hands during his -illness, and had preferred her company to that -of Lucy and Blanche simply because she was -cleverer than they, and had the tact not to weary -him.</p> - -<p>‘I was sorry to see you so much in pain, Captain -Denzil, and glad when I could be of any use,’ -answered Ruth, plying her needle with that -demure industry which can be intermitted or -resumed with such skilful effect in the course -of a conversation.</p> - -<p>‘Yes; and I was bear enough never to thank -you, Miss Ruth. May I call you Ruth?’ said -Jasper, as he bent forward and took the girl’s -slender little hand in his. It was the first time -that he had ever touched the hand of Miss Willis, -save in the ceremonial salute with which members -of a household meet for the day or part for the -night.</p> - -<p>‘I like to be called Ruth by my friends,’ -returned the baronet’s ward. ‘Dear Blanche and -Lucy always call me by my Christian name, and -that pleases me, for I think it proves that they do -not any longer regard me as a stranger. And that -is much to me.’</p> - -<p>There was a sweet simplicity, a touching pathos -in Ruth’s tone not wholly thrown away on Jasper. -He could not quite distinguish whether or not she -were playing a part; but if this were acting, he -owned that it was, of its kind, excellent.</p> - -<p>‘I hope you count me among your friends?’ he -said, still keeping captive the little hand that he -held.</p> - -<p>‘I shall be very pleased to do so,’ returned -Ruth, with a downward droop of her silken eyelashes.</p> - -<p>‘I wish I did know how to please you. It’s -a lesson I should like to learn,’ said the captain, -with a warmth that surprised himself; but before -Miss Willis could return an appropriate answer, -the door opened so quickly that she had barely -time to snatch away her hand from Jasper’s -grasp before his two sisters were in the room. -Blanche Denzil had an open note in her hand, -and both girls wore an expression more animated -than usual. Lucy was the first to speak.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_277"></a>{277}</span></p> - -<p>‘We want you, Jasper, to drive up with us to -High Tor, if you feel strong enough this morning. -Maud has written to Blanche, as she promised, -you know, to let us know when her silver -pheasants arrived from the dealer’s in London; and -this note’—and Lucy indicated the letter in her -sister’s hand—‘has just come, begging us to go -round and see the birds made comfortable in their -new abode. The day is charming. You must -come with us, indeed.’</p> - -<p>‘Pheasants before the First of October gives one -leave to shoot them, are not much in my line,’ -said Jasper carelessly. ‘What are <i>your</i> plans for -this morning, Miss Willis?’</p> - -<p>Ruth with becoming modesty replied that Captain -Denzil was only too good to inquire as to the -proceedings of so insignificant a person as she was. -‘I try to be useful,’ she said. ‘Sometimes Sir -Sykes allows me to read aloud to him the newspapers -or a book. If nobody wants me, I think -I shall stroll down to the quiet cool path in the -woods beside the river. It is a favourite haunt of -mine.’</p> - -<p>‘Well, I’ll walk down there with you, if you -don’t mind my cigar, Miss Willis,’ replied the -captain languidly. ‘I don’t want particularly to -go to High Tor, or to go into ecstasies over the -fine feathers of a lot of fancy poultry cooped in a -pen and called pheasants.’</p> - -<p>‘No, no,’ said Blanche and Lucy with one -accord; ‘we are not going to allow you to play -truant to-day. You must come, and so must Ruth. -We never thought of leaving her behind’ (this by-the-bye -was the whitest of white fibs, for up to -that moment Ruth’s companionship on the projected -expedition had never once crossed the mind -of either of the sisters); ‘and there is plenty of -room for all in the double basket-carriage.’</p> - -<p>‘I shall be bored, and shew it. The De Veres -are not a bit in my line. Harrogate, for instance, -I can’t get on with for five minutes—my fault, I -daresay. But he knows nothing and cares nothing -about the things that interest me; and I trouble -my head just as little about his model cottages -and reclamation of waste lands and militia drill. -The one subject we have in common is fox-hunting, -and even on that we take somewhat different -views.’ This was a long speech for Jasper; but the -concession which it somewhat ungraciously implied -was readily accepted by his jubilant sisters.</p> - -<p>‘You forget Lady Gladys,’ said Blanche archly; -‘she would never forgive us if we appeared without -you.’</p> - -<p>The double basket-carriage, one of those convenient, -roomy, and perhaps to male eyes ugly -vehicles, that do so much good service in country -places, came round in due course, drawn by its -pair of strong and spirited Exmoor ponies, coblike, -sturdy little animals, well fitted to make light of -the steep Devonshire roads, yet shewing some of -the fire and fleetness due to their dash of Arab -blood. The ‘clothes-basket on wheels,’ as Jasper -irreverently styled it, received its human freight; -Miss Willis, in spite of Blanche’s instances, seating -herself meekly with her back to the horses, and -the captain of course beside her. Lucy took the -reins; the smart boy in livery who had been standing -at the ponies’ heads, let go the bridles and -sprang deftly to his perch behind as the light -carriage bowled merrily away along the smooth -park road.</p> - -<p>Never yet, since first she made her appearance -at Carbery Chase, had Ruth looked one half so -attractive, in her quaint elfish way, as she did -then, as flashing and animated, her dark eyes -saying far more than did her lips, she conversed -with Jasper on the outward drive.</p> - -<p>‘I declare,’ thought the captain to himself, ‘if -the governor had been a little more explicit, I -wouldn’t mind speaking out. With three thousand -a year, or four—ay, it would require to be four—the -thing might be managed.’</p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="NOTHING_NEW">NOTHING NEW.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>‘<span class="smcap">There</span> is no new thing under the sun,’ says a -proverb which is itself perhaps only the rehabilitation -of some antediluvian precept to the same -effect; and nothing so powerfully argues in favour -of the truth of the statement as a little pamphlet -written by the eccentric though clever Marquis -of Worcester, and printed in London by J. -Grismond in 1663. It is entitled, ‘A Century of -the Names and Scantlings of such Inventions -as at present I can call to mind to have tried -and perfected, which, my former Notes being -lost, I have, at the instance of a powerful friend, -endeavoured now, in the year 1655, to set these -down in such a way as may sufficiently instruct -me to put any of them in Practice.’ Who the -‘powerful friend’ may have been it is impossible -to say. The published catalogue was, however, -dedicated to Charles II. by His Majesty’s ‘passionately -devoted, or otherwise disinterested, subject -and servant,’ the Marquis.</p> - -<p>This dedication is followed by a quaintly worded -address to the two Houses of Parliament, craving -patronage for the author’s investigations, thanking -the Lords and Commons for past favours, ruefully -stating that the inventor had already spent ten -thousand pounds on his experiments, and promising -to prosecute his researches by the aid of one -Casper Kaltoff, who for five-and-thirty years had -been employed under him. The Marquis, in stating -his merits, is not too modest, for he belauds his -inventions and his disinterestedness to the skies, -and in well-chosen words suggests that if the -government refuse him its patronage, the government, -and not he, will suffer. Then, after the -custom of the age, he subscribes himself, ‘Your -most passionately bent fellow-subject in His -Majesty’s service, compatriot for the publick good -and advantage, and a most humble servant to all -and every of you,</p> - -<p class="right"> -<span class="smcap">Worcester</span>.’ -</p> - -<p>So far the Marquis is, comparatively speaking, -plain-spoken and straightforward; but when he -begins to catalogue his discoveries, the reader feels -bound to confess that though the noble peer may -have set down his notes in such a way as might -sufficiently instruct him to put any of them in -practice, he scarcely amplified them sufficiently to -instruct other people. Doubtless he was intentionally -vague in the specifications or explanations -of his inventions; for when he wrote, he still -cherished a hope that he would reap some substantial -fruits from his ingenuity; but in spite -of his vagueness, he wrote at least enough to -shew that many things even now regarded as new, -had been roughly thought out by his fertile -brain.</p> - -<p>The specification first on the list is decidedly -mysterious. It is entitled ‘Seals abundantly significant,’<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_278"></a>{278}</span> -and professes to describe an invention -whereby accounts may be kept mechanically, and -a letter, ‘though written but in English, may be -read and understood in eight several languages, -and in English itself to a clean contrary and different -sense, unknown to any but the correspondent, -and not to be read or understood by him neither, -if opened before it arrive unto him.’ Presumably -this ambiguous statement alludes to an instrument -for writing accounts and letters in cipher, for the -four specifications that follow, treat of that hackneyed -subject, and one of them of a system of -short-hand which seems to be not without a modern -representative. Next comes a plan for telegraphing -by means of coloured flags and lights; and -then ‘A way how to level and shoot cannon by -night as well as by day and as directly.’ The -ninth specification is terribly pertinent to the -tragic event that happened at Bremerhafen in -December 1875. It speaks of ‘An engine, portable -in one’s pocket, which may be carried and fastened -on the inside of the greatest ship, and at any -appointed minute, though a week after, either of -day or night, it shall irrecoverably sink that ship.’ -The note immediately following suggests torpedoes, -and relates to a plan for diving and fastening -a similar engine to a vessel.</p> - -<p>Nor were Admiral Hobart Pacha’s attempts to -ward off the attacks of these submarine monsters -without a prototype; for the inventive Marquis -at once goes on to hint at a method whereby a -ship may be guarded from such a catastrophe -either by day or by night. Specification number -twelve is scarcely less suggestive of water-tight -compartments, for it alludes to ‘A way to make -a ship not possible to be sunk, though shot -an hundred times betwixt wind and water by -cannon.’ The next note does not seem to have -prompted the exertions of modern inventors; but -who shall say whether number fourteen is not -responsible for the employment of steam, or even -of hydraulic power, for the working of a vessel? -At all events, it hints at the economisation of -labour, and at the multiplication of force without -the intervention of a capstan or of similar machinery. -Number fifteen palpably suggests the -application of some motive-power very like steam -to boats. The Marquis speaks of ‘A way how to -make a boat work itself against wind and tide, yea, -both without the help of man or beast; yet so -that the wind or tide, though directly opposite, -shall force the ship or boat against itself.’</p> - -<p>It is not surprising that, in the middle of the -seventeenth century, this, among many other -alleged inventions, was regarded as somewhat -chimerical; and indeed, at the present moment, -if we except steam, it is hard to believe that the -noble lord was not solemnly joking with Charles -II. and the two Houses of Parliament. But a -subsequent specification, which we shall notice in -its due order, proves that the Marquis knew of the -power of steam, and had practically experimented -with it; and there are therefore some grounds -for thinking that, had he been properly subsidised -and assisted, the name of Worcester might have -been as intimately associated with the great modern -means of locomotion as are those of Watt and -Fulton. Unfortunately the Marquis was too much -in advance of his age, and thus his genius was -lost upon it.</p> - -<p>A very common table ornament of the present -day is hinted at in number eighteen, which speaks -of ‘An artificial fountain to be turned like an -hour-glass by a child in the twinkling of an eye.’ -And number nineteen plainly suggests the carriage-brake -as now applied by every coachbuilder. -The two succeeding notices relate to the use of -water as a motive-power. And number twenty-three -tells of a water-clock intended not only -to shew the time, but also the motions of the -heavenly bodies. Number twenty-four is a plan -for discharging bullets by means of a silent -spring, ‘admirable for fire-works and astonishing -of besieged cities.’ And number twenty-six -is a method for the more effectual employment -of the lever as a mechanical force. Then follows -a dark hint at the employment of pontoons -for the formation of military bridges over -broad rivers; and another specification, number -thirty, speaks of a system for enabling four pieces -of cannon ‘to discharge two hundred bullets each -hour’—a thing which, under the old system of -loading by manual power at the muzzle, would -have been quite impossible. This is followed -by a number of different plans for writing in -cipher, and for communicating by means of various -objects, such as knotted strings, fringes, bracelets, -gloves, &c., and by the smell, taste, and touch. -Number forty-four is a way ‘To make a key of a -chamber-door which to your sight hath its wards -and rose-pipe but paper-thick, and yet at pleasure -in a minute of an hour shall become a perfect -pistol, capable to shoot through a breast-plate -commonly of carbine-proof, with prime, powder, -and firelock, undiscoverably in a stranger’s hand.’ -Such a diabolical machine in the possession of -one of the many unscrupulous gentlemen of the -period, would indeed have been a murderous -weapon if used freely in the dimly lighted streets -of London. Scarcely less unpleasant must have -been the Venetian instrument for noiselessly discharging -a poisoned needle at an unsuspecting -enemy.</p> - -<p>Next come specifications headed respectively -‘A most conceited tinder-box,’ ‘An artificial bird,’ -and ‘An hour water-ball;’ the last of which speaks -of a ball of any metal, ‘which, thrown into a pool -or pail of water, shall presently rise from the -bottom, and constantly shew, by the superficies of -the water, the hour of the day or night, never -rising more out of the water than just to the -minute it sheweth of each quarter of the hour; -and, if by force kept under water, yet the time is -not yet lost, but recovered as soon as it is permitted -to rise to the superficies of the water.’ -Number forty-eight is the description of an improved -staircase, and number forty-nine of ‘A -portable engine, in way of a tobacco tongs, whereby -a man may get over a wall, or get up again -being come down, finding the coast proving unsecure -unto him.’ Then there is ‘A pocket ladder,’ -‘A rule of gradation’ useful for cipher-writing, -‘A mystical jangling of bells’ for the conveyance -of private intelligence, and three notices relating -to ‘water-scrues.’ Number fifty-six is entitled -‘An advantageous change of centers;’ and respecting -it the Marquis says: ‘A most incredible -thing if not seen, but tried before the late king of -blessed memory, in the Tower by my directions, -two extraordinary ambassadors accompanying His -Majesty, and the Dukes of Richmond and Hamilton, -with most of the court, attending him. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_279"></a>{279}</span> -wheel was fourteen feet over, and forty weights -of fifty pounds apiece. Sir William Balfore, then -lieutenant of the Tower, can justify it with several -others. They all saw that no sooner these great -weights passed the diameter line of the lower side -but they hung a foot further from the center, nor -no sooner passed the diameter line of the upper -side but they hung a foot nearer. Be pleased to -judge the consequence.’ In this modest request -the Marquis appears to shroud a hint that he has -discovered the secret of perpetual motion, which, -however, has like all other perpetual-motion -schemes, failed in practice.</p> - -<p>Specification number fifty-eight is certainly in -some measure responsible for the modern revolver, -telling as it does of a method ‘whereby a pistol -may be made to discharge a dozen times with one -loading, and without so much as once new priming -requisite, or to change it out of one hand into the -other, or stop one’s horse.’ And the next notices -are for the application of similar systems to -carabines, muskets, arquebusses, and crocks or -ship-muskets, and of a different method for sakers. -In these ideas we may recognise indeed the first -principles not only of the revolver, but also of the -Winchester rifle and of the mitrailleuse in its -various forms. Warfare has recently been revolutionised -by inventions of this kind; and the conditions -of naval warfare especially are now likely -to be altered by the arrangement which practically -places the whole broadside of a vessel under the -control of one man. For this latter improvement -we may find the idea in the Marquis’s plan by -which ‘one man in the cabbin may govern the -whole side of ship-muskets, to the number, if need -require, of two or three thousand shots.’ After -devoting several notices to the various aspects of -this subject, the noble inventor complacently remarks: -‘When first I gave my thoughts to make -guns shoot often, I thought there had been but -one only exquisite way inventible, yet by several -trials and much charge I have perfectly tried all -these.’ The necessary experiments appear to have -left him with an old cannon or two upon his -hands, as the next and most important specification -shews that the scientific nobleman nearly -succeeded in blowing himself up, and so concluding -his investigations. He calls it ‘A fire water-work;’ -and probably that remarkable name -expresses, as well as any other might, the Marquis’s -‘admirable and most forcible way to drive up -water by fire, not by drawing or sucking it upwards, -for that must be as the philosopher calleth -it, <i>intra sphæram activitatis</i>, which is but at such -a distance. But,’ he emphatically continues, ‘this -way hath no bounder, if the vessels be strong -enough.’</p> - -<p>Then he goes on to give us what seems to be -the earliest record of the employment of steam-power -in England. ‘I have taken,’ he says, ‘a -piece of a whole cannon, whereof the end was -burst, and filled it three-quarters full of water, -stopping and scruing up the broken end, as also -the touch-hole; and making a constant fire under -it, within twenty-four hours it burst and made a -great crack. So that having a way to make my -vessels, so that they are strengthened by the force -within them, and the one to fill after the other, I -have seen the water run like a constant fountain-stream -forty feet high; one vessel of water, rarefied -by fire, driveth up forty of cold water. And a -man that tends the work is but to turn two cocks; -that, one vessel of water being consumed, another -begins to force and re-fill with cold water, and so -successively, the fire being tended and kept constant, -which the self-same person may likewise -abundantly perform in the interim between the -necessity of turning the said cocks.’ Following -this are four notices relating to improvements for -locks to chests and safes, one relating to a drawbridge, -and one treating of what the Marquis calls -‘A conceited door’—namely one which will open -either inwards or outwards.</p> - -<p>Two paragraphs further on comes the short -specification, ‘How to make a man to fly; which -I have tried with a little boy of ten years old in a -barn, from one end to the other, on a hay-mow.’ -The last clause is certainly acceptable; for it -justifies a hope that the poor little fellow did not -break his neck in the pursuit of science. The -three succeeding notices are entitled respectively -‘A continually going watch,’ ‘A total locking of -cabinet-boxes,’ and ‘Light pistol barrels;’ and the -headings serve to demonstrate at least the versatility -of the author. Next come two methods for -carrying secret correspondence without observation, -an idea for the economisation of labour in rasping -hartshorn, and the specification of a calculating -machine. These are followed by notices of two -barbarous engines, respectively called ‘An untoothsome -pear’ and ‘An imprisoning chair,’ of a candle-moulding -machine, and of a talkative artificial -head, the <i>modus operandi</i> of which we take the -liberty of smiling at. The Marquis states that his -invention would answer in French, Latin, Welsh, -Irish, or English, any question put to it, and then -shut its mouth until the next question was asked. -It cannot be doubted that if the artificial head -were so life-like as to be able to answer questions, -it would also do a little talking on its own account. -The noble Lord seems at this period to have -been suffering from an attack of moral depravity; -for the incredible notice of the brazen head is -followed by two specifications of methods for -cheating at cards and dice respectively; and a -little lower down, we come upon ‘a little engine -portable in one’s pocket, which placed to any -door, without any noise but one crack, openeth -any door or gate.’ Number ninety-three is the -specification of an engine for raising sunken -ships; and at the end of the long catalogue are -some mysterious notices of a machine which the -Marquis modestly calls ‘a semi-omnipotent engine,’ -and of two other machines which conjointly seem -to hint at some knowledge of hydraulic power -of which the discoverer was particularly proud. -‘I deem this invention,’ he says, ‘to crown my -labours, to reward my expenses, and make my -thoughts acquiesce in way of further inventions;’ -and he concludes by hinting at leaving to -posterity a book wherein his inventions, ‘with the -shape and form of all things belonging to them, -should be printed by brass plates.’</p> - -<p>And so we will take leave of the inventive -nobleman, who, though apparently not always too -veracious, was decidedly a genius. It is probably -owing to the fact of his having lived in an inappreciative -age that he is to this day usually placed on -a level with the fabulous Academicians of Laputa, -rather than among such men as Franklin, Arkwright, -and Watt; but on the other hand, it is -not unlikely that had his Century of Inventions<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_280"></a>{280}</span> -been judiciously reduced to a score, or even a -dozen, the Marquis of Worcester’s reputation -among his contemporaries might have stood proportionately -higher.</p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="AN_INSURANCE_TALE">AN INSURANCE TALE.</h2> -</div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">I am</span> a solicitor of considerable standing and -practice in a large provincial town in Ireland, the -name of which it is here unnecessary to mention. -On the evening of the 31st of December some -twenty-five years ago, I was in the aforesaid town -sitting in my study. The day had been one of -unusual inclemency; rain had alternated with sleet -and snow; and the cold and cutting wind had -blown with a rude strength which made its chilly -touch at once incisive. As the shades of night had -begun to fall, the storm, instead of abating, had -risen in turbulence and height; and at the hour -of which I am about to speak, the spasmodic -energy of the elements seemed like the last convulsions -of the dying year. I had been reading -some legal documents during the evening; but -perceiving from a glance at my watch that it was -fast approaching twelve o’clock, I laid my papers -aside and drew my chair nearer to the fire. The -hail beat violently against the windows, the wind -sighed amongst the trees outside, and the keyhole -of my study-door expressed its feelings in tones -if possible more melancholy.</p> - -<p>The feeling of which I was conscious, as I sat -thus gazing into the blazing comfort before me, -was one of selfish satisfaction that I was not -at the mercy of the tempest outside. Forms of -various human sufferers presented themselves to -my mental vision, and seemed to take the shape -of the red coals in the fire; while the wind and -my sorrowing keyhole seemed vocal with the -burden of their woe. I was soon plunged in a -deep moralising on the misery which we see -around us—on that strange invisible link between -sorrow and sin; and the last moments of the passing -year were just landing me in one of those good -resolutions which we are told form such excellent -paving-stones, when I was aroused from my moral -reverie by a knock at my study-door. Pushing my -chair back a little distance from the fire, and -assuming a more professional air, I articulated the -well-known ‘Come in;’ and this mandate was -duly obeyed by my servant, who informed me -that a gentleman outside was particularly anxious -to see me.</p> - -<p>A moment afterwards, a figure which in all but -size resembled our old friend the ‘drowned rat,’ -entered my study, and making a courteous bow, -said: ‘I fear this is a very unreasonable hour -to intrude upon you, sir.’ My visitor was very -tall, had a pale thoughtful face, and when he -unbuttoned the coat which covered him from -head to foot, I perceived that he was a clergyman.</p> - -<p>‘Won’t you take a seat by the fire?’ I said, ‘for -you must be very cold and wet such a night as -this.’</p> - -<p>‘Thank you, sir,’ he replied; ‘I am too wet to -sit down. I had better tell you at once the cause -of this unseasonable visit. I have been attending -in my capacity as a Christian minister a young -lady who has been very ill, and is now, I believe, -dying. She sent for me to-night about ten o’clock, -and when I went to her, she entreated me to go -for a solicitor. I had heard of you, sir, as a man -of standing in that profession, and I have accordingly -come to ask you to drive over with me to -her.’</p> - -<p>I suggested that the lady very probably wanted -to make her will, and wished for professional -assistance.</p> - -<p>‘I cannot tell,’ he replied. ‘I asked her if no -one but a solicitor would do, and she said not. -She said she <i>must</i> see a solicitor before she died. -She seemed terribly distressed, and pressed her -request so earnestly upon me that I felt I dare -not neglect it.’</p> - -<p>‘How far is the young lady’s residence from -this?’ I asked, wishing to bring the matter to a -practical issue.</p> - -<p>‘About ten miles,’ replied the clergyman.</p> - -<p>‘Ten miles on a night such as this is no joke!’</p> - -<p>‘It is, sir, a long drive, and I know that the -night is very severe; but I would take it as a -great favour if you would come with me. I know -not where to go or what to do, if you decline. I -will drive you there, and send my car back with -you; and you will of course hold me responsible -for your fees.’</p> - -<p>The last sentence decided my wavering resolve -and gained the clergyman’s object; for what -attorney ever remained inactive where he had a -good mark for costs? So shrugging my shoulders, -I said: ‘Well, I suppose I had better go with you, -though I should much prefer going to bed.’</p> - -<p>‘Thank you,’ he replied; ‘it is very good of you -to consent.’</p> - -<p>Having provided myself with the writing -materials necessary to draft a will, and having -wrapped myself from head to foot in waterproof, -I accompanied the clergyman to the hall-door. -There we ascended the conveyance which was to -take us to our destination, and soon were cutting -our way through the driving sleet and snow. -Being of an inquisitive turn of mind, I thought -it would be wise to elicit from the clergyman some -little information about the young lady whose will I -supposed that I was about to draw; and with that -view I began to examine him. I, however, found -that he could tell me very little. He only knew -that she was a Miss M——; that she had been -staying with an aunt of hers who lived in his -parish; that she had become dangerously ill some -four or five days previously; that he believed she -was an only daughter; that her mother was dead; -and that her father had been telegraphed for, and -was expected to arrive in the morning. He added -earnestly: ‘He will never see his daughter alive, -poor man!’</p> - -<p>While we were speaking, the joy-bells had begun -to ring out their merry peals, welcoming in the -new year. In a few moments, however, after the -clergyman’s last remark, they ceased, and a dead -silence ensued. ‘How ironical was the tone of -those bells!’ said the clergyman with a sigh, as the -last peal was dying away. I answered half-unconsciously -‘Yes;’ but I little knew how fully I -would comprehend his meaning before many -hours had passed away.</p> - -<p>After a long and bitter drive, the conveyance -at last drew up at a large old-fashioned house, with -the appearance of which I was well acquainted, -and which I knew to be the residence of an old -lady of property, though I had never been inside -it. The clergyman, on alighting, brought me -round to a side-door, at which he knocked very<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_281"></a>{281}</span> -gently. After he had knocked two or three times, -the door was at length opened to us by an elderly -woman, whom I afterwards learned to be the -nurse, and who conducted us, by the aid of a lantern, -up an old winding-stair into a long corridor. -Stopping before a door at the end of it, the nurse -motioned us to wait while she entered the room. -She had been only a few seconds inside, when I -heard a low moan, and a female voice exclaim -almost in a cry: ‘Oh, has the time come?’ A -moment afterwards the clergyman and myself had -entered the room, and lying on a bed in the -middle of it I saw the form of a young girl apparently -about twenty-four or twenty-five years of -age. As we approached her bedside, the clergyman -said to her: ‘I have brought the solicitor -with me;’ but she did not answer him, and gently -waved her hand for the nurse and himself to -leave the room.</p> - -<p>After they had left, she looked at me earnestly -for a minute and then said in a faint voice: ‘Are -you a solicitor, sir?’</p> - -<p>I answered: ‘I am;’ and added: ‘I suppose you -wish me to draw your will for you?’</p> - -<p>‘My will!’ she said with evident surprise. ‘Ah -no! I have nothing to leave, except perhaps my -heart.’ She remained for some time after this -without speaking, her silence being only broken -by moans such as I had heard from the corridor. -After a little while I heard her murmur: ‘O my -father, my poor dear father! must it be?’ then -clasping her two almost fleshless hands, she closed -her eyes for a few moments. At last, with evident -effort, she turned round on her pillow, and -looking straight at me, said in a voice tremulous -with weakness and emotion: ‘I want, sir, to make -a statement to you which I feel it my duty to -make before I die. It has tortured me for -months, and I dare not meet my Maker if I did -not tell all, though it breaks my very heart to -do so.’</p> - -<p>Fearing that she was going to confess some -crime, or make some other important criminal -declaration, I said to her: ‘If you are about to -make any statement which may be of importance -afterwards, I had better go for a magistrate, and -you can make it before him.’</p> - -<p>‘O no, sir; no magistrate!’ she cried out -earnestly. ‘What I have to tell concerns my poor -father, and I dare not state it to a magistrate, for it -might ruin him. If you will not hear me and try -to save my poor father, I shall die with sealed -lips. O my father! my good kind father! it is too, -too cruel that I must tell of your sin.’ The last -words were pronounced almost in a cry; the tears -filled her eyes, and she began to sob piteously. -Her racking cough soon followed; and I feared -that she must indeed die ‘with sealed lips,’ as she -had said; for to me it seemed that every succeeding -cough must be her last. After a little while, -however, a slight respite came, and she tried to -resume her statement. She gasped out: ‘The -insurance—the Blank Insurance’ (mentioning the -name of a well-known Company); ‘it’s not my’—— But -before she could get any farther, the cough -again seized her, and this time with such terrible -power that the poor creature fell back utterly -exhausted.</p> - -<p>Fearing that her life was now really waning, I -went to the door of the room for the nurse, who at -once came in. When she had settled the sufferer -in a more easy position, she turned to me -and whispered: ‘Very little longer, sir!’ I, however, -remained in the room, in the hope that after -a little time she might have strength to resume -her statement; but when half an hour had nearly -elapsed without bringing with it any sign of returning -strength, I saw that the statement must -remain in its unfinished condition. I therefore -wrote down carefully all that had occurred, put -it into an envelope, sealed it, placed it in my -pocket, and prepared to go away. Before doing -so, I took one look at the form that lay on the -bed before me. To describe her face, I cannot, -though I seem to see it as distinctly to-day as I -saw it then—one of those strangely exquisite -flowers, whose tender growth so often kindles the -selfish craving of the old reaper, Death. I had -stood by many a death-bed; my profession had -inured me to scenes of anguish and pain; but -as I looked on that pale beautiful woman, and -read on her features the impression which told -only too plainly of a conflict of racking reality -within, my cold heart softened, and my whole -nature went forth in one great yearning to comfort -and to soothe her. I breathed a prayer for the soul -that was passing—earnest, as I had never known -earnestness before; and with feelings too sad to -portray, but too real to be forgotten, I left the -room and the house.</p> - -<p>Two days after this eventful night, my friend -the clergyman (whom I subsequently discovered to -be the newly appointed rector of a neighbouring -parish) again entered my study. He told me that -the poor young girl was dead, that she had passed -away about half an hour after I had left the room, -never having spoken a word after that terrible fit -of coughing to which I had been a witness.</p> - -<p>The question then came to be decided as to -the meaning of the broken statement made by -the young girl, and what was my duty with regard -to it. I have since frequently questioned the -wisdom and propriety of the course which I then -pursued; but whether right or wrong, my action -was the result of much deliberation. I wrote -in the first instance to the insurance Company, -asking them if they would kindly inform me, as -solicitor for the late Miss M——, whether any -insurance had been effected on her life with that -Company; and if so, when and by whom it was -effected, what was the amount of it, and to whom -it had become payable by the fall of Miss M——’s -life. I received a letter in reply from the secretary -of the Company, informing me that my young -friend had herself, about a year previously, effected -an insurance on her own life in two policies of -five thousand pounds each, and that if she had -not otherwise assigned the policies during her -lifetime, the sum of ten thousand pounds was -payable to her executors or administrators, as the -case might be.</p> - -<p>The receipt of this information led me to believe, -what I had suspected before, that there was -something wrong about this insurance, though I -could not exactly determine the nature of that -something. I therefore wrote a second time to the -Company, stating that I had reason to believe that -it would be wise for the Company to make careful -inquiries with reference to the Policy, before surrendering -its value. The secretary at once wrote -back to me asking me to state the information -which led me to form this belief; but I replied that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_282"></a>{282}</span> -I was not in possession of any information whatever -bearing on the matter, but that from what -took place at an interview which I had had with -the late Miss M—— a short time before her death, -I had been led to suspect that there was something -wrong about the insurance.</p> - -<p>I heard no more of the matter till one morning -some two or three months afterwards, when I was -honoured with a visit from the secretary and -solicitor of the insurance Company. They told -me that the father of my poor young friend had -threatened them with legal proceedings if they -did not pay the amount of the insurance at once, -and asked me to tell them exactly what had -passed at the interview to which I had alluded -in my letter. At first I hesitated as to whether -I ought to do so or not, but ultimately I gave -them a true account of all that had taken place -on that fatal 31st of December. They thanked -me warmly, said they thought I had only done -my duty in disclosing the matter to them, and -went away.</p> - -<p>What use the Company made of this information, -or what means they adopted to probe the -mystery to its source, I do not know; but -about six months after my interview with the -secretary and solicitor, when I was beginning -to hope that I should never hear of the case -again, I received a summons to attend at an -assizes to be shortly holden in the county town of -a northern shire. There was no means of refusing -this command, though I would have given -a good deal to be able to evade it. I therefore -found myself, about a fortnight after its -receipt, quietly sitting in the crowded court-house -of the aforesaid town, a witness in the case of -‘M—— <i>versus</i> The Blank Insurance Company.’</p> - -<p>I had but little difficulty as I looked round the -court in identifying the plaintiff; for my eyes -soon rested on a manly form bearing an unmistakable -resemblance to the young girl by whose -death-bed I had stood about a year before. The -beauty of her face was there moulded in lines of -masculine firmness and power; and though her -father’s expression was far from pleasing, there -was nothing about him at all indicative of the -character subsequently exhibited to the court. -He appeared to be a gentleman of good birth -and position; and as I looked at him before -the case began, I was very curious to know what -was his real position with reference to the insurance, -and how far it would be disclosed on the -evidence.</p> - -<p>His counsel, in opening the plaintiffs case, said -that it was one of the simplest cases ever ushered -into a court of justice. The facts, he said, were -simply these: ‘Two years previously, the late -Miss M—— insured her life with the defendants, -the Blank Insurance Company, in two policies of -five thousand pounds each. A year after, she had -effected these insurances, Miss M—— had died, -without having assigned or disposed of the policies -in any way. Her father, the plaintiff, was her -only next of kin and her administrator, and was -now entitled absolutely to the ten thousand pounds; -which the Company, however, had refused to pay.’ -To an uninitiated spectator, the evidence for the -plaintiff certainly seemed to bear out the counsel’s -statement; but when the plaintiff’s case had -closed, the counsel on behalf of the Company -rose and said that they were in a position to prove -by a connected chain of evidence that every word -of the plaintiff’s case was valueless, and that this -insurance had been effected under circumstances -of the grossest fraud and crime.</p> - -<p>I myself was the first witness called on behalf -of the Company; and after much objection, I was -allowed to give a plain unvarnished description of -the scene which I have already depicted on that -sad night. You could have heard a pin drop -while I was speaking, and the sensation which was -produced in court was manifest. I was of course -severely cross-examined; but as I had nothing to -conceal, my testimony was not shaken.</p> - -<p>The next witness for the Company was an eminent -London physician, who stated that in the -beginning of March, two years previously, Mr -M—— had come to him in London, and had -brought with him a young lady, who he said was -his daughter, to have her examined by him. He -then made a careful examination of the young -lady, and found her to be in rapid consumption, -of which result he told Mr M——, and added at -the same time that she could not in his opinion -live for six months. The Company’s own doctor -was next called, and stated that at the end of the -same month of March, Mr M—— had come to him -in London, and told him that his daughter was -anxious to effect an insurance on her life with the -Blank Company, and asked him to appoint a day -to examine her. He had known Mr M—— for -many years, but had never seen his daughter. Mr -M——, however, told him that she was a healthy -country girl, and he would have no difficulty in -passing her for the Company. It was then agreed -that he should call upon Mr M—— the next day at -the hotel at which they were staying and examine -his daughter. He did so; and Mr M—— then -introduced to him as his daughter a handsome -healthy-looking girl, with all the appearance of -having lived in the country. The girl looked so -very healthy, that he did not think it necessary to -make any minute examination of her, and merely -questioned her as to what diseases—if any—she -had had. She seemed very much confused, but this -he attributed to her natural shyness. He recommended -the Company to insure her life at the -ordinary rate for her age, which was then twenty-four. -The doctor was then told to look round the -court and say if he saw any one like the young -girl whom on that occasion he had examined; and -after a little while he pointed to a young girl, and -said that he believed that she was the person -whom he had then examined.</p> - -<p>The excitement in court at this announcement -can scarcely be imagined. Every eye was turned -on the young girl, who a few minutes afterwards -ascended the witness-table. As I gazed at her, I -was painfully reminded of the poor creature whom -I had seen lying in such trouble less than a year -before; for the likeness to her was strangely great. -There was, however, a robustness, a glow of health -about the girl whom I now saw for the first time, -which was sadly wanting in my young friend, and -which served to conceal a resemblance otherwise -manifest. She said that she lived in the south of -England with her father, who was a well-to-do -farmer. Two years and a half previously, Mr -M—— and his daughter had come to lodge at their -farm for the benefit of Miss M——’s health, as she -was then very delicate. Every one noticed a very -strong likeness between herself and Miss M——,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_283"></a>{283}</span> -and a firm friendship arose between them. Mr -and Miss M—— stayed about six months at the -farm; and when they were about to go away to -London, Mr M—— proposed that she should go -up with them as a companion to his daughter, -which she did. On the day before they left -London, Miss M—— went out with her father -to pay a visit, and she was left by herself in the -hotel. She was sitting alone in their private room -reading, when suddenly Mr M—— returned alone, -rushed into the room, and said in a threatening -manner: ‘You must say you are my daughter! -There is a gentleman coming in now; and mind you -<i>must</i> say you are my daughter! If you don’t, we’ll -all be ruined. Remember!’ He then hastened -back, and in less than a minute re-entered with -the Company’s doctor, the last witness. She was -so completely taken by surprise and overcome -with alarm, that she did not know what she was -doing, but nevertheless felt completely under the -influence of Mr M——. He introduced her to the -doctor as his daughter; the doctor shook hands -with her, and said he was glad to see her looking -so strong and well. He asked her whether she -had lived much in the country; and said he -thought it would be a mere farce to go through -the form of examining any one who looked so -completely the essence of health as she did. He -mentioned a great number of diseases, and asked -her if she ever had had any of them; and after -some other remarks he concluded with: ‘Well, I -think I may now tell them that you’re not going -to die yet awhile.’ He then talked a little to -Mr M——; they had wine together; he bade -adieu to her, and the two gentlemen quitted -the house. All was mystery to her. She now -began to entertain a confused sort of dread of Mr -M——. When his daughter came home, she told -her all about it, and asked her what it meant; -but Miss M—— said that she did not know—that -perhaps it was a joke of her father’s. She, however, -forced Miss M—— to promise never to say -anything about it.</p> - -<p>What the effect of this evidence was on the -occupants of the court, I can hardly say, for I was -too much absorbed in my own thoughts to notice -any manifestation of feeling in others. The truth -was now only too plain. The father of my young -friend, knowing that his daughter’s health was failing, -had resolved to profit by her death, and with -that intent had secured a simple country girl and -brought her up to London, to be the unwitting -means of accomplishing his unfeeling design. In -London he had learned on the best authority that -his daughter could not live for six months, and -within a month afterwards he had insured her life -in her own name, without her knowledge, for a -large sum of money, which he knew must be paid -to him on her death; and to secure the lucre for -which he craved, he had passed off for his poor -dying daughter a healthy country girl; he had -lied to his old friend, and caused an innocent girl -to perpetrate a fraud. As these facts came home -to my mind in their horrid reality, I gazed across -the court to see the man who had conceived this -mighty inhumanity. The coil of truth, as it had -been gradually unravelled by the witnesses, seemed -to have wound itself serpent-like round the frame -of its foe; for the form which a little while before -had been erect and defiant was now humbly prone, -the eye which had glanced restlessly round the -court was now fixed on the ground, and a death-like -pallor lay on his countenance.</p> - -<p>The jury without leaving their box pronounced -their verdict for the Company, and the judge thereupon -solemnly announced that he would direct a -criminal prosecution to be instituted against the -plaintiff for the crimes disclosed in that most painful -case. At this announcement, I rose and -entreated the judge not to adopt that course. I -reminded him of the dying anxiety of the poor -daughter to have her father saved, and urged that -the plaintiff would be sufficiently punished by the -loss of position which must be consequent on the -verdict. But my solicitations were all in vain. -The judge said that he sat there to protect society, -and that if such crimes as had been that day disclosed -were allowed to pass unpunished, he would -fail in the duty which he sat there to discharge. -A few minutes afterwards Mr M—— left the court -in custody; and as I saw him thus committed to -the pitiless mercy of the law, compassion—which -can look on the wicked as well as the good—seemed -to rise within me, and I almost regretted -that I had put the insurance Company on the -track which they had followed with such fatal -accuracy.</p> - -<p>The law, however, though very powerful, is not -omnipotent; and in this case its power was destined -to be futile. It was found not to be convenient -to try Mr M—— at the same assizes; and -his trial was therefore postponed till the following -one, and he himself allowed out on bail. The next -assizes came round, and everything was ready for -the trial; but the prisoner was nowhere to be -found. They called him in the court, they called -him outside; but in vain. It was soon found that -the prisoner had absconded—vanished no one knew -where; and the individuals who had been kind -enough to stake a portion of their worldly goods -on his reappearance, were asked to shew their -affection for him by paying the penalty which the -law so properly attaches to such misplaced philanthropy. -The following comment on the case -appeared a day or two afterwards in the local -newspaper: ‘We can only say that justice has -been defeated, and a very bad type of criminal -has escaped unpunished. The inscrutable wisdom -of Providence has reserved his punishment for -another world.’</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>More than twenty years after the events above -narrated, the course of my professional business led -me to cross the Atlantic and visit the city of New -York. It happened in the course of that visit, as -I was returning to my hotel at a late hour one -night, that I became conscious that a human form -was following me. I at once looked round, and -saw within a yard of me an old man with a long -white beard and weather-beaten face, dressed in -ragged attire, shoeless and stockingless. Something -in his face caught my attention, and on looking -at it more closely, I recognised it as one which -I had seen before, though I could not then tell -where. When I turned round, the old man -muttered in an earnest, almost savage manner: -‘Give me some money; I want it badly—very -badly;’ but as I did not feel quite easy at finding -so questionable a creature so close to me at such an -hour of the night and in a strange city, I made -no reply to his request, but hastened my steps. -He, however, followed me, and again craved for<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_284"></a>{284}</span> -money; and this time I answered in our English -stereotyped form: ‘I have nothing for you, my -good man.’</p> - -<p>I suppose, however, that he did not catch my -reply, for he added sharply: ‘What do you say?’ -To which I answered: ‘I say that I have no money -for you.’</p> - -<p>‘Do you indeed?’ he said with fury. ‘Then -keep it, and perish with it. I hope it may drag -you down, as it did me.’ With these words he -turned away, and I heard his steps behind me -no more; but I had not gone very far when I -recollected on what former occasion I had seen -the old man’s face. I remembered that it was -the same face which twenty years before I had -seen in that northern court-house—the face that -had known a death-like pallor when the heavy -chain of Truth clanked forth its tale of hidden -guilt. I at once stopped and turned round; but -I could only distinguish faintly the outline of -his figure in the distance; and as I gazed at -that ragged form, retreating I knew not whither, -there flashed with vivid reality through my mind -the events which I have endeavoured here to -relate, and I remembered the words of a thoughtful -modern writer: ‘The secrets of men’s lives -are rarely held inviolate till eternity—there is a -reckoning here without the aid of eternal books.’</p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_PRAIRIES_AND_THEIR">THE PRAIRIES AND THEIR -INHABITANTS.</h2> -</div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> subject of sport has a fascinating interest for -readers of almost every class. Nor is this interest -lessened when the scene of such adventures is laid -in the wide prairies of the Far West. On those -vast plains, ocean-like in their rolling expanse, the -wigwam of the red man, and the bison and other -denizens of the prairie, are alike disappearing, to -be succeeded by the stately and magnificent cities -which are the result of American enterprise and -civilisation. Lieutenant-colonel Dodge, an officer -in the United States army, gives us, in his <i>Hunting -Grounds of the Great West</i> (London: Chatto -and Windus, 1877), an instructive résumé of the -present aspect and position of those plains, which -are still in great measure a Debatable Land, on -the frontiers of which a fierce warfare is almost -constantly being carried on between the wandering -Indian tribes and the white settlers who are -every year supplanting them.</p> - -<p>The distinctive term ‘The Plains’ is specially -applied to the area of rolling prairies extending -from the mountains of Texas on the south to the -British line on the north, and from the Missouri -river on the east to the Rocky Mountains on the -west.</p> - -<p>Although called Plains they are never absolutely -level, but present many undulations and much -variety of surface. Even in their most barren -stretches they are covered with short grass, but -are almost without trees, which grow only in the -cañons or deep water-courses. On the higher -Plains this absence of trees is caused by want of -water and the prevalence of high winds; and on -the lower, by the prairie-fires kindled by the -Indians, by the devastation caused by beavers, and -by the prevalence, although in a lesser degree, of -wind. In winter, on these wide Plains the storms -are sometimes fearful; the icy cold north wind -curdles the blood in the veins, and is speedily -fatal to any living creature that is exposed to its -fury; even birds fall dead in great numbers. Its -destructiveness is only equalled by the terrific -rain, thunder, and hail-storms which occur in -summer.</p> - -<p>No one should ever travel over the Plains without -a compass, although in the unsettling misery -of feeling lost, confidence is sometimes lost even in -that friendly guide. In winter, from the glare of -the sun on the wide waste of snow, a painful -affection called snow-blindness is experienced by -most travellers on the Plains. Not only is the -power of vision temporarily lost, but if the skin be -at all sensitive, the face and hands swell and -blister, and are as exquisitely painful as if scorched -by fire. In travelling, the choice of a camping-place -is of the first importance; water, grass, -and wood are essential requisites, and so is a -knowledge of the special dangers which beset -wanderers on these prairies. Camp-life, Colonel -Dodge tells us, with a good tent, a nice mess-kit, -plenty of bedding, a travelling kitchen, and -supplies of preserved fruit and vegetables, is very -enjoyable indeed. The rifle rarely fails to provide -a good dinner, to which the hunters return at -sunset with a keen appetite, which enables them -to do full justice to the dainties of the prairie. -These discussed, they collect in the cool breezy -evening around the camp-fire, and with pipe and -flask and song and story, the short twilight hours -go merrily by.</p> - -<p>One of the most frequent dangers to which camp-life -is exposed is prairie-fire, which rises and -spreads on all sides, to the height sometimes -of thirty feet, half-stifling the men with smoke -and heat, and driving the animals frantic with -terror. Another danger arises from the sudden -and severe rain-storms, which are so excessive -that they may be aptly denominated water-spouts. -Fancy a party of hunters in their comfortable -well-appointed camp, pitched as camps often are, -on the bank of a half-dry stream. After a luxurious -dinner and pleasant social evening, each has -retired to his own special tent, when suddenly the -unmistakable rush and roar of a large volume -of water awakens the traveller. In a moment he -is upon his feet, rushing out into the darkness to -discover if possible what it all means. The green -sward of the night before is gone—water is before, -behind, around him, everywhere!</p> - -<p>When morning breaks, cold and gray, it shews, -instead of the picturesque river-bluff and comfortable -camp, an apparently shoreless lake, with -one or two cotton-wood trees gallantly stemming -the flood, on the topmost boughs of which are a few -forlorn specimens of humanity, cowering before the -keen wind, which as it careers along the prairie, -makes sad havoc of the few fluttering remnants -of their sleeping apparel. Fortunately, however, -these deluges are of short continuance, and abate -as quickly as they rise. Another danger, the possibilities -of which are diminishing every year, arises -from the stampedes to which the herds of buffalo -are periodically subject. When this sudden panic -seizes these immense brutes, they rush blindly -on after the leaders, trampling over everything -that comes in their way. Our author was camping -out one night in the spring of 1871 with four -wagons and a small escort. He had gone to bed, -but was not asleep, when he fancied that he heard -a faint, rushing sound; and suspicious that it might<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_285"></a>{285}</span> -be a water-spout, he sprang out of his tent, and -peered up the creek beside which the camp was -pitched. He strained his eyes in the darkness to -discover the line of foam, which is generally the -precursor of an approaching deluge; but to his -surprise he could discover nothing; yet the sound -went on increasing, and came evidently from the -prairie. Suddenly its probable cause flashed upon -him, and arousing his men, he explained to them -what he feared and besought them to keep calm. -This was somewhat difficult, for the buffalo were -already in sight, and to all appearance bearing -right down upon them. ‘Our only chance,’ he -said, ‘is to try to split the herd; if we cannot do -that, we are lost!’ With that end in view he -stationed his men fifty yards from the camp, and -in trembling and fear awaited the onslaught. On, -with a heavy trampling thud like thunder, rushed -the unwieldy mass till they were within thirty -yards of the men, who discharged their muskets -and yelled with the energy of despair. A few of -the foremost buffalo fell dead; the others wavered, -swerved a little, and finally plunged away on one -side, roaring and crashing and tumbling in the -darkness over the banks of the creek.</p> - -<p>Another danger of camp-life proceeds from -rattlesnakes and vipers, which are very susceptible -of cold, and at night crawl close to the person of -the sleeper for warmth. One officer—a friend of -Colonel Dodge’s—once found a rattlesnake coiled -up beneath his pillow; and another, when drawing -on his boot, felt his foot come in contact with -a soft substance; he dropped the boot at once, -and a huge rattlesnake glided out. Another -nocturnal visitor almost as much dreaded as the -snakes is the skunk, a horrible little animal about -the size of a cat, which makes its way into a camp -and has been known to devour the face, hands, -or any uncovered part of the nearest sleeper; a -skunk-bite being almost invariably followed in -certain portions of the Plains by hydrophobia.</p> - -<p>The great attraction of the Plains to sportsmen -is the variety and abundance of game which they -contain. First in order, as being pre-eminently -an habitué of the Plains, is the buffalo, or more -properly speaking, the bison, and which, in spite -of its apparent ferocity, is, according to Colonel -Dodge, who knows its habits well, a mild, stupid, -inoffensive animal.</p> - -<p>The elk, although disappearing even faster -than the buffalo, is still to be met with on the -Plains; and his great size, magnificent antlers, and -splendid form, stamp him as the monarch of the -prairies. He is timid, and seldom even in the -last extremity employs his great strength in his -own defence; what he trusts to is his skill in -doubling, dodging, and hiding, which in spite of -his size he accomplishes as cunningly and successfully -as a hare or a fox. Many varieties of -the Deer tribe are found in the Plains; of these -the black-tailed deer, the red-deer, and the antelope -are the most abundant, affording in the -proper season boundless supplies of the most delicious -venison. The mountain-sheep can scarcely -be called an inhabitant of the Plains; his chosen -home being amid the wild crags and rugged -fastnesses of mountain-ranges. He is a fine animal, -with a body somewhat resembling that of a -deer, and a sheep’s head surmounted by a pair of -stupendous horns. His flesh is declared by the -gourmands of the hunting fraternity to be the -choicest of choice morsels, a delicious compound -of venison and the finest Southdown mutton.</p> - -<p>The prairies abound with smaller animals, -rabbits of two kinds, gophers, and prairie-dogs a -species of marmot. The carnivora of the Plains are -not numerous. First come the wolves, which hunt -in packs, but whose power of making themselves -disagreeable has, Colonel Dodge thinks, been -greatly over-rated. This can scarcely be said of -the grisly bear, which is a huge, sagacious, and -pre-eminently ferocious brute. The cougar or -puma, which is sometimes called the Mexican -lion, is also a formidable antagonist to come -to close grips with. The panther is very much -the same animal on a smaller scale, and is -scarcely more dangerous than the wild-cat, -which is abundant and of a large size. A -variety of birds are found on the Plains, flocks -of quails, partridges, geese, and five species of -grouse; but none of these can compete in point of -size or delicacy with the wild turkey. This magnificent -bird when fat is often found to weigh -from twenty to twenty-five pounds.</p> - -<p>Of the red men, the fast diminishing aborigines -of the prairies, Colonel Dodge does not draw a -very favourable picture. He paints them, he tells -us, as he finds them, not with every attribute -softened and toned down by the veil of false -sentiment which the romances of Cooper and other -novelists have thrown around them. The North -American Indian taken as he stands is as cruel, -lazy, and degraded a savage as is to be found -upon the face of the earth. Virtue, morality, -generosity, and honour are not only words without -a meaning for him, but have no synonyms -in his language. The bad qualities of the Indians -are, however, no good reason for the infamous -manner in which they have been treated by the -agents of the American government.</p> - -<p>Intensely conscious of his own helplessness, and -conceiving that he is tossed about like a feather -between the good and bad god, it is very important -for the Indian to discover which of his deities -is in the ascendant for the moment; and this he -tries to do by divination. There is nothing so -trifling but that he may deduce from it a knowledge -of the supernatural; the flight of a bird, the -bark of a dog, the gliding of a snake through the -grass, are all full for him of a subtle intelligence; -but what he principally relies upon for information -is what he calls the making of a medicine. This -species of manufacture, the mysteries of which are -known only to himself, is undertaken upon all -occasions; and besides these private acts of what -may be called devotion, the tribe has from time -to time a great medicine-making in common, presided -over by a medicine chief. A huge structure -of dressed skins called a medicine lodge is set up, -with a rude image cut from a log suspended from -the roof. A certain number of warriors are then -selected from the assembled tribe, and a dance, -which may truly be called ‘the dance of death,’ is -begun. Day sinks into night and night dawns -into day, and still it goes on without a moment’s -intermission, till all the performers have fallen -senseless to the floor, some to rise no more. If -at the end of two or three days this strange -ceremony is concluded without a death, the medicine -chief pronounces it good medicine, and the -tribe separate assured of the protection of the -good god.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_286"></a>{286}</span></p> - -<p>As soon as an Indian boy becomes a warrior he -thinks of a wife; and as an Indian belle is often -something of a coquette, he finds, as others have -done, that the favours of wooing are ‘fashious to -seek.’ At length, however, the dusky beauty is -won, and the favoured lover betakes himself to the -father’s lodge, and something like the following -colloquy ensues. ‘You have got a daughter,’ -begins the lover, ‘an ugly lazy thing; but I want -a wife, and I am willing as a favour to take her off -your hands.’</p> - -<p>‘Are you speaking of my darling girl?’ says the -father—‘the prettiest best girl in the whole tribe. -I do not think of giving her to any one, much less -to you. Why, you are a mere boy; you have done -nothing to speak of; you have not taken one scalp; -you have only stolen a few wretched ponies. No, -no; she is not for you, unless indeed you give -me twenty ponies for her.’</p> - -<p>‘Twenty ponies!’ yells the lover. ‘One is too -many.’ And thus the haggling goes on, until a -bargain is struck at something like the fair market-price -of the girl, who forthwith, for there is no -marriage ceremony, accompanies her new husband -or master to his father’s lodge. Many families -generally live under one roof, and they have not -upon an average more than one meal a day. A -large pot full of meat is set upon the fire, and when -sufficiently cooked is taken off and placed in the -middle of the floor. The inmates then gather -around and help themselves with their fingers. -What is left is set aside, and any one who feels -hungry goes and helps himself. The lodge of the -Indians is made of dressed buffalo-skins, supported -upon a light framework of wood. The fire is in the -centre; and as the draught is very defective, the -lodge is generally in cold weather full of smoke. -The beds are piles of buffalo-robes and blankets, -which serve as seats during the day. Furniture -there is none; except a few pots, kettles, and trunks -containing the dried meat and superfluous clothing -of the family, may be dignified by that term. But -what is wanting in upholstery is made up in dirt, -everything being kept in a state of inconceivable -filth. The wealth of an Indian consists in his -horses and mules; and as he leads a nomadic life -in fine weather, he rarely burdens himself with -anything that is not easily transported. In the -general division of meat and skins, the widows and -orphans of the tribe are cared for, and a certain -portion set aside for their maintenance.</p> - -<p>The Indians are very fond of gambling, and -also of drinking, which is a very destructive vice -to them. Another of their favourite indoor amusements -is story-telling, in which they take great -delight. A good story-teller is a very important -personage in the tribe, and is always surrounded -by an eager audience.</p> - -<p>The cruelty of the Indians is extreme; men and -women alike take an exquisite pleasure in torturing -their captives. Much of this cruelty, however, -has in latter days arisen from vengeful hatred to -the United States government, which has broken -faith with them over and over again, and is still -conducting a war of extermination. No wonder -that under the circumstances the red man should -resent the cruelties practised by his invaders, -and make reprisals when opportunity offers. It -is but fair to the Indians to state, that across -the frontier-line in Canada, where the treaties -made with them have been rigidly observed, there -have been no Indian wars and no Indian massacres; -and that the red men have proved themselves -to be quiet and not unthriving subjects of -Queen Victoria.</p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="ROBBERY_OF_AN_EXPRESS_TRAIN">ROBBERY OF AN EXPRESS TRAIN.</h2> -</div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">The</span> following story shews the extent to which -wholesale plunder may be carried on in the -United States of America: About eleven o’clock -on the night of Wednesday 19th September, -1877, an express train on the Union Pacific -Railway was approaching the little station of Big -Springs in Wyoming Territory. There wanted -fully a quarter of an hour to the time when it was -due, and the station-master William Barnard and -his assistant had not yet commenced to prepare for -its arrival; the former was still in his office, the -latter engaged somewhere about the premises. All -was as silent as a station generally is during the -intervals between trains; when the stillness was -suddenly broken in a manner no less unexpected -than unpleasant. The door of the office was burst -open, and four men entering, seized the astonished -station-master, and told him that if he attempted -the slightest resistance or refused to obey their -orders, his life should instantly be forfeited. He -had no choice but to submit; for he perceived -clearly by the words and actions of the intruders -that they were members of a large party of robbers, -and that the station was completely in their power. -They all wore crape masks to conceal their features, -but spoke in their natural tones; and as the band -consisted of thirteen men fully armed, nothing -but compliance with their demands was possible -on the part of the station officials. The place was -solitary, the hour late; and the robbers lost no -time in carrying out their evidently carefully prepared -plans. The telegraph apparatus was their -first object, and this they compelled the station-master -to destroy. Barnard endeavoured to mislead -them by only removing a portion of it, but -it was of no avail; one of the men angrily desired -him to mind what he was about or he would have -a bullet through his head, and then ordered him -to take out certain parts of the instrument and give -them to him; shewing by his knowledge of the -terms employed that he must have been a telegraph -operator himself. In the meantime the rest of the -band had not been idle. They compelled the -porter to put out his ordinary signals for the now -rapidly advancing train; and they maintained the -strictest watch to see that nothing was done that -might in the faintest degree create alarm or -suspicion.</p> - -<p>All fell out exactly as they had anticipated: -the train came gradually to a stand in obedience -to the signal, and ran blindly into the trap prepared -for it. The unconscious passengers, most of -whom were asleep, were quite at the mercy of the -robbers, who lost not a moment in diligently -setting to work to make the most of the golden -opportunity before them. The train in the meantime -had drawn up at the platform; it was a long -one, consisting of a saloon and two Pullman’s -sleeping-cars, besides ordinary carriages and luggage-vans; -and there were a good many passengers, -nearly all of them sleeping soundly. A portion -of the gang at once made prisoners of the engineer -and stoker; while four of them compelled Barnard -the station-master to go as he usually did to the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_287"></a>{287}</span> -mail-van and knock at the door for admittance. -George Miller, the post-office agent in charge of -the mails and specie, immediately opened the -door, when several of the robbers jumped in, one -of them holding a revolver to his head, while the -others rapidly cleared the drawers and boxes of -all the money they contained; thus securing a -very large sum—about forty or fifty thousand -dollars. They did not trouble themselves to -examine the letters; and a combination-safe containing -a very large sum in gold and notes was -also left untouched; for it was beyond their power -to break it open, and neither Miller the agent nor -Patterson the conductor of the train knew the -combined intricacies; this the robbers obliged -them to swear on their word of honour.</p> - -<p>The gang then directed their attention to the -passengers, most of whom were now awake, and -beginning to be aware of the unpleasant circumstances -in which they were placed. Some were -inclined to resist the highwaymen; but the more -prudent among them counselled submission, as -very few of them had available firearms, and -they were ignorant of the strength of the band, -and feared more serious consequences if they were -driven to resort to extremes. Of the likelihood of -this they had an early intimation; for a passenger -who chanced to be standing on the outside platform -of one of the carriages as the train entered -the station, had a couple of pistol-shots fired at -him, luckily without doing him any injury. He -retreated into the carriage, and was directly -followed by the robbers, who entered the car at -both ends, and desired the passengers to hold up -their hands; a command they all instantly obeyed. -They were then rifled one after the other; their -pockets being thoroughly searched, watches, purses, -and all loose money being taken away. This was -done in all the open carriages; but the doors of -the two Pullman sleeping-cars being locked, they -did not obtain an entrance into either; and the -inmates probably thinking discretion the better -part of valour, remained ensconced within their -shelter. Whether it would long have served as -such cannot now be determined; possibly the -robbers might have forced the doors had time been -allowed them; but fortunately for the travellers -the whistle of an approaching goods-train scared -the gang, who made a precipitate retreat from the -scene of their depredations, carrying their booty -along with them.</p> - -<p>Relieved of their unwelcome presence, the passengers -issued forth from the cars and began to -relate their various experiences. Luckily no one -was seriously wounded. The postal agent had been -violently knocked against the carriage-door at the -first rush of the thieves, and was considerably -bruised, and another man had his forehead grazed -by a pistol bullet; but beyond those comparatively -trifling injuries they all escaped with the fright and -the loss of every article of value on which the -robbers had time to lay their hands. Most of the -passengers in the open cars were cleared of whatever -money they had about them, and several of -them lost gold and silver watches; but even in the -excitement of the moment a few of them had -sufficient presence of mind to enable them hastily -to secrete purses and pocket-books, either by -slipping them under the cushions or dropping -them on the floor. A Jew named Harris was -robbed of four hundred and fifty dollars and his -watch; but while raising his hands in obedience -to the command of ‘Hands up!’ he skilfully contrived -to drop a roll of notes on the seat beside -him, which was overlooked by the robbers as they -examined his pockets. A miner who wore a belt -containing eleven thousand dollars in gold, was -quick enough to fasten it round the waist of his -little child, who was not molested by the thieves, -and this large sum fortunately escaped their -clutches. They managed, however, in the short -space of time at their disposal to make some very -pretty pickings out of the train; their gains being -computed at fully fifty thousand dollars, besides -watches and other articles of value.</p> - -<p>The scheme had evidently been a most carefully -organised one, and was carried out in every detail -with perfect coolness and regularity, not a moment -being wasted, and the members of the gang having -clearly been previously instructed as to the duty -each man was to perform. It is supposed they had -fastened their horses somewhere at the back of the -station, as on quitting the train they immediately -disappeared without leaving any traces behind -them.</p> - -<p>An alarm was at once given, and several parties -started in pursuit; but their search was entirely -unsuccessful so far as regarded hearing any tidings -of the robbers. The following day a band of -searchers found among the mountains ten or twelve -miles from the station of Big Springs, a rifle, a -pistol, and an empty money-box; proving indisputably -that the highwaymen had passed that way. -It was well known that some very notorious -Missouri bandits were at large among the Black -Hills, and it is believed that they were the perpetrators -of the attack on the train. A large -reward was offered for their apprehension; but so -far as we know, they have hitherto managed to -elude all pursuit, and it is doubtful whether they -may ever be brought to justice. With such -possible contingencies, travelling by the Union -Pacific, or any other railway in the Far West, is -not a pleasant idea to contemplate.</p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="POPULAR_ERRORS_REGARDING_THE">POPULAR ERRORS REGARDING THE -SHREW-MOUSE.</h2> -</div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">No</span> popular error is more absolutely destitute of -foundation than that regarding the shrew. This -little quadruped, very common in meadows and -pastures in all parts of Britain, and generally -known as the shrew-mouse, is as harmless as any -creature that lives. Its food consists of insects -and their larvæ; and its teeth are very small, so -that it is scarcely able to bite through the human -skin. Yet according to a popular belief, very -widely prevalent, its bite is most venomous, and -in many districts in England the viper is less -feared. Nor is it only its bite that is supposed -to be deadly to man or beast. Contact with -it in any way is accounted extremely dangerous; -and cattle seized with any malady, especially -if shewing any appearance of numbness in the -legs, are apt to be reputed ‘shrew-struck.’ Horses -in particular are accounted very liable to suffer -from this cause. An infallible cure, however, -was to be found in dragging the shrew-struck -animal through a bramble rooted at both ends, or<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_288"></a>{288}</span> -in the application of a twig of a shrew-ash. ‘A -shrew-ash,’ says White, in his <i>Natural History of -Selborne</i>, ‘is an ash whose twigs or branches, when -gently applied to the limbs of cattle, will immediately -relieve the pain which a beast suffers from -the running of a shrew-mouse over the part -affected; for it is supposed that a shrew-mouse is -of so baneful and deleterious a nature, that whenever -it creeps over a beast, whether it be horse, -cow, or sheep, the suffering animal is afflicted -with cruel anguish, and threatened with the loss -of the use of its limbs. Against this accident, to -which they were continually liable, our provident -forefathers always kept a shrew-ash at hand, which, -when once medicated, would maintain its virtue -for ever.’ This tree, whose every branch possessed -such a potent charm, was an ash in the trunk of -which an auger-hole had been bored, and a living -shrew put into the hole, which was then closed -with a wooden plug. The incantations used when -this was done have now been forgotten; the shrew-ash -has lost its old repute; but the belief in its -virtues still lingers in some quarters, and the -belief in the dangerous bite and maleficent touch -of the shrew is strong among the country-people -in many parts of England. How confidently this -belief was entertained even by the best educated -in former times appears from many allusions to -it by old authors. It was received as an unquestionable -fact of natural history. In Topsel’s <i>History -of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents</i>, published -in 1658, it is said of the shrew, that ‘it is a ravening -beast, feigning itself gentle and tame; but -being touched, it biteth deep and poisoneth deadly; -it beareth a cruel mind, desiring to hurt anything;’ -with much more of the like nature, and much -concerning medicinal virtues ascribed to this little -animal. But the belief in the deadliness of the -shrew’s bite has been transmitted from one generation -to another from times far more remote -than those of this credulous author. It prevailed -among the ancient Romans, and their remedy for -a shrew’s bite was to cut the body of the little -creature asunder and place it on the injured part.</p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="FLOATING-LIGHTS">FLOATING-LIGHTS.</h2> -</div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">Besides</span> the lighthouses which warn the sailor of -danger and guide him in his course amidst the -darkness of night, there are along the British -coasts numerous floating-lights or light-vessels in -situations where the erection of a lighthouse is -impossible, where there are banks or shoals perilous -to ships but affording no foundation for a -building. These vessels ride at anchor in places -that have been selected for them, and which are -as exactly marked on the charts as the positions -of the lighthouses. Most of them are stationed -off the east coast of England from the mouth of -the Humber southward; a few on other parts of -the English coast, and on that of Ireland; and -two on the coast of Scotland. They are generally -vessels of about one hundred and fifty tons, -specially constructed with a view to their riding -safely at anchor in exposed situations and during -the most severe storms, without regard to sailing-powers, -of which they have no need; and it has -been an extremely rare thing for any of them to -be driven from their moorings or to experience -any disaster. The mariner counts upon the guidance -of their light in any weather, as confidently -as he does on that of a lighthouse built upon a -rock.</p> - -<p>The English floating-lights, like the English -lighthouses, are under the care and management -of Trinity House. From the Appendix to the -Report of the Royal Commission on Lights, Buoys, -and Beacons, presented to the Houses of Parliament -in 1861, we obtain some interesting information -concerning them. They are each provided -with a crew of eleven men, who have no -occupation but their professional duties; and of -whom there are at all times seven on board the -vessel, and four on shore, employed in the storehouses -at the Trinity Buoy Wharf, Blackwall. -The men remain on shore for a month at a time. -Each vessel has a master and mate, but these are -never on duty at the same time; taking the command -in turn, month about. No men are employed -in this service but such as are already good sailors; -and the men rise by seniority from the lowest rank -to that of master, so that there is a strong inducement -for them to continue in the service. Misconduct -of any kind—as disobedience of the orders -of the master or mate, quarrelling, breach of regulations, -neglect of duty, or intoxication when on -shore—is punished by censure, degradation to a -lower rank, or dismissal from the service, according -to the gravity of the offence. The lowest wage -of the men is only two pounds fifteen shillings -per month—at least so it was in 1861, and we -have heard of no change. The master has five -pounds per month and an allowance of ten pounds -a year for house-rent. All find their own provisions. -They are allowed to use beer on board -the vessel, but no spirits. They are completely -secluded from the rest of the world, whilst on -duty. No boats are allowed to go alongside the -light-vessels, and the men are strictly forbidden -to go on board any passing ship. A library is -supplied to each vessel.</p> - -<p>Life in a light-vessel one would think must be -rather monotonous; but many of those who enter -the service remain long in it. Small pensions are -allowed to superannuated men or those disabled -by disease or accident. The lantern used to be -hung from the yard-arm of the vessel, but in 1807 -Mr R. Stevenson introduced at the floating-light -at the Bell Rock the mode now used, in which -the lantern surrounds the mast, sliding up and -down on it, and is elevated to the top of it when -lighted. Those light-vessels which occupy the -most exposed stations ride more easily, if the -water is deep, than those which are tossed by -smaller but more frequent waves. The latter -must sometimes be rather unpleasant abodes. The -master of the Owers light-vessel, in the English -Channel, between Beachy Head and the Isle of -Wight, told the members of the Royal Commission -who visited his vessel in 1859, that in bad -weather he sometimes ‘could not lie on the floor -of his cabin without holding on to the legs of the -table.’</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="center">Printed and Published by <span class="smcap">W. & R. Chambers</span>, 47 Paternoster -Row, <span class="smcap">London</span>, and 339 High Street, <span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="center"><i>All Rights Reserved.</i></p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers's Journal of Popular -Literature, Science, and Art,, by Various - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL OF *** - -***** This file should be named 63507-h.htm or 63507-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/5/0/63507/ - -Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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