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diff --git a/10638-h/10638-h.htm b/10638-h/10638-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b79c912 --- /dev/null +++ b/10638-h/10638-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6568 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html> + +<head> +<title>The Youthful Wanderer, by George H. Heffner</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + + body { + margin .5em; + font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; + font-variant: small-caps + } + + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + + a { text-decoration: none; } + a:hover { background-color: #ffffcc } + + div.chapter { + margin-top: 4em; + } + + div.sec { + margin-top: 1.5em; + } + + ul { + list-style-type: none; + } + + ol { + list-style-type: decimal; + } + --> +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10638 ***</div> + +<p align="center"><img src="images/illus01.png" alt="Geo. H. Heffner" /><br />Geo. H. Heffner</p> + + + +<h1 class="title">The Youthful Wanderer;</h1> + +<h2 class="subtitle">or An Account of a Tour through England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany +and the Rhine, Switzerland, Italy, and Egypt</h2> + +<h3>Adapted to the Wants of Young Americans Taking Their First Glimpses at the +Old World</h3> + +<p align="center" class="smallcaps">by</p> + +<h2 class="author">Geo. H. Heffner.</h2> + + +<h3>Orefield:<br /> +A. S. Heffner, Printer.<br /> +1876.</h3> + + +<p align="center">Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by <br /><span class="smallcaps">Geo. H. +Heffner</span>,<br /> In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.</p> + + + +<div class="chapter" id="preface"> +<h2>Preface.</h2> + + + +<p>It had been fashionable among the ancients, for men of learning to visit +distant countries and improve their education by traveling, after they had +completed their various courses of study in literary institutions, and the +same custom still prevails in Europe at the present time; but in our +country, comparatively few avail themselves of this finishing course. It +is not strange that this should have been so with a people who are +separated from the rest of the world by such wide oceans as we are, which +could, up to a comparatively recent period, only have been crossed at a +sacrifice of much time and money, and at the risk of loosing either life +or health. These difficulties have been greatly reduced by the application +of steam-power to navigation, and the time has come when an American can +make the tour of Europe with but little more expenditure of time and money +than it costs even a native of Europe to do it.</p> + +<p>One of my principal objects in writing this book is to encourage others to +make similar tours. We would have plenty of books no traveling, if some of +them did represent the readers in the humbler spheres of life, but the +general impression in America is that no one can see Europe to any +satisfaction in less than a year or two and with an outlay of from a +thousand to two thousand dollars. This is a great mistake. If one travels +for pleasure mainly, it will certainly require a great deal of time and +money, but a hard-working student can do much in a few months. Permit me +to say, that one will see and experience more in two weeks abroad, than +many a learned man in America expects could be seen in a year. I sometimes +give the particulars of sights and adventures in detail, that the reader +may take an example of my experience, for any tour he may propose to make. +The times devoted to different places are given that he may form an +estimate of the comparative importance of different places.</p> + +<p>Statistics form a leading feature of this work, and these have been +gathered and compiled with special reference to the wants of the student. +Many an American scholar studies the geography and history of foreign +countries at a great disadvantage, because he can not obtain a general +idea of the institutions of Europe, unless he reads half a dozen works on +the subject. To do this he has not the time. This work gives, in the +compass of a single volume, a general idea of all the most striking +features of the manners, customs and institutions of the people of some +eight different nations speaking as many different languages and dialects.</p> + +<p>As the sights that one sees abroad are so radically different from what we +are accustomed to see at home, I feel pained whenever I think of +describing them to any one. If you would know the nature of my +perplexity, then go to Washington and see the stately magnificence of our +National Capitol there, and then go and describe what you have seen to one +who has never seen a larger building than his village church; or go and +see the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and then tell your neighbor +who has never seen anything greater than a county fair, how, what he has +seen compares with the World's Fair! I too am proud of our country, (not +so much for what she now is, but because she promises to become the +greatest nation that ever existed), but it must be confessed, that America +presents little in the sphere of architecture that bears comparison with +the castles, palaces and churches of the Old World. The Capitol at +Washington, erected at the cost of twelve and a half millions, the City +Hall of Baltimore, perhaps more beautiful but less magnificent, and other +edifices that have been erected of late, are structures of which we may +justly be proud; but let us take the buildings of the "Centennial +Exposition" for a standard and compare them with some of those in Europe. +The total expenses incurred in erecting all the exposition buildings, and +preparing the grounds, &c., with all the contingent expenses, is less than +ten million. But St. Peter's in Rome cost nine times, and the palace and +pleasure-garden of Versailles twenty times as much as this! It is safe to +assert, that if a young man had but two hundred dollars with six weeks of +time at his command, and would spend it in seeing London and Paris, he +could never feel sorry for it. <i>Young student go east.</i></p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="toc"> +<h2>Contents.</h2> + + + +<p><a href="#ch01">Chapter I.</a></p> +<ul> + <li>Leaving Home</li> + <li>New York</li> + <li>Brooklyn--Plymouth Church</li> + <li>Extracts from Henry Ward Beecher's Sermon</li> + <li>Greenwood Cemetery</li> + <li>Barnum's Hippodrome</li> + <li>On Board the "Manhattan"</li> + <li>Setting Sail--The Parting Hour</li> + <li>Sea-Sickness</li> + <li>A Shoal of Whales</li> + <li>Approaching Queenstown--The First Sight of Land</li> + <li>Coasting Ireland and Wales</li> + <li>Personal Incidents--Life-boat, No. 5</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch02">Chapter II.</a></p> +<ul> + <li>Liverpool</li> + <li>The Mystical Letters "IHS" mean Jesus</li> + <li>The Wonderful Clock of Jacob Lovelace</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch03">Chapter III.</a></p> +<ul> + <li>Chester--Origin of the Name</li> + <li>The Rows or Second-Story Pavements</li> + <li>The Cathedral and St. John's</li> + <li>The Walls</li> + <li>Birmingham</li> + <li><i>Railroads in Europe</i></li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch04">Chapter IV.</a></p> +<ul> + <li>Stratford-on-Avon--- Shakespeare's Birthplace</li> + <li>Shottery--Anne Hathaway's Home</li> + <li>Shakespeare's Grave</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch05">Chapter V.</a></p> +<ul> + <li>Warwick--St. Mary's</li> + <li>Kenilworth Castle</li> + <li>Approaching Coventry--"The Lover's Promenade"</li> + <li>Coventry--Its Fine Churches</li> + <li>Warwick Castle</li> + <li>Oxford--The Great University</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch06">Chapter VI.</a></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 5px" class="smallcaps">London.</p> +<ul> + <li>Its Underground Railroads</li> + <li>Territory, Population and Other Statistics</li> + <li>St. Paul's Cathedral</li> + <li>Crystal Palace</li> + <li>The Houses of Parliament</li> + <li>Westminster Abbey</li> + <li><i>Ensigns Armorial, &c.</i></li> + <li>Sunday in London</li> + <li>Hyde Park--Radical Meeting</li> + <li>The Tower of London</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch07">Chapter VII.</a></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 5px" class="smallcaps">London to Paris.</p> +<ul> + <li>Strait of Dover</li> + <li>Calais</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch08">Chapter VIII.</a></p> + <p style="margin-left: 5px" class="smallcaps">Paris.</p> +<ul> + <li>Its Railway Stations,</li> + <li><i>Lack of Delicacy in Many of the Social Habits and Institutions + Among the People of Warm Countries</i></li> + <li>The Boulevards, Rues, &c.</li> + <li>Arcades and Passages</li> + <li>Palais Royal</li> + <li>Its Diamond Windows</li> + <li>The Cafe--A Characteristic Feature of Modern</li> + <li>Civilization</li> + <li>Champs Elysees</li> + <li>Palais de l'Industrie or the Exhibition Buildings</li> + <li>Place de la Concorde and the Obelisk of Luxor</li> + <li>Garden of the Tuileries</li> + <li>The Arch of Triumph</li> + <li>Other Triumphal Arches</li> + <li>The Tomb of Napoleon I</li> + <li>Artesian Wells</li> + <li>Notre Dame Cathedral</li> + <li>The Pantheon</li> + <li>The Madeleine</li> + <li>The Louvre</li> + <li>Theaters and Operas</li> + <li>At a Ball</li> + <li>Incidents</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch09">Chapter IX.</a></p> +<ul> + <li>St. Cloud</li> + <li>The Palace at Versailles</li> + <li>The Pleasure-Garden</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch10">Chapter X.</a></p> +<ul> + <li>Leaving Paris</li> + <li>Brussels</li> + <li>The Cathedral</li> + <li>Hotel de Ville</li> + <li>Antwerp</li> + <li><i>The Spirit of Revolution</i></li> + <li>Notre Dame Cathedral</li> + <li>The Museum</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch11">Chapter XI.</a></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 5px" class="smallcaps">Holland.</p> +<ul> + <li>The Hague</li> + <li><i>Cloak-Rooms</i></li> + <li>Utrecht</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch12">Chapter XII.</a></p> +<ul> + <li>Cologne</li> + <li>The Cathedral</li> + <li>The Museum</li> + <li>Depths of Man's Degradation</li> + <li>Bonn</li> + <li>The Kreuzberg</li> + <li>The Drachenfels</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch13">Chapter XIII.</a></p> +<ul> + <li>Coblentz</li> + <li>Geological Laws</li> + <li>On the Rhine</li> + <li>Frankfort</li> + <li>Darmstadt</li> + <li>Worms</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch14">Chapter XIV.</a></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 5px" class="smallcaps">The Palatinate, (<i>Die Pfalz</i>).</p> +<ul> + <li>Mannheim</li> + <li>Neustadt</li> + <li>Heidelberg</li> + <li>The Castle</li> + <li>The Great Tun</li> + <li>Stuttgart</li> + <li>Strassburg</li> + <li>The Black Forest</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch15">Chapter XV.</a></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 5px" class="smallcaps">Switzerland.</p> +<ul> + <li>The Rigi</li> + <li>The Giessbach Falls</li> + <li>The Rhone Glacier</li> + <li>The Grimsel</li> + <li>The Cathedral of Freiburg</li> + <li>Berne</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch16">Chapter XVI.</a></p> +<ul> + <li>Geneva to Turin</li> + <li>Mont Cenis Tunnel</li> +</ul> +<p style="margin-left: 5px" class="smallcaps">Italy.</p> +<ul> + <li>Its Fair Sky and Beautiful People,</li> + <li>Milan</li> + <li>Venice</li> + <li>San Marco</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch17">Chapter XVII.</a></p> +<ul> + <li>Venice to Bologne</li> + <li>Florence</li> + <li>Pisa</li> + <li>Going Southward</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch18">Chapter XVIII.</a></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 5px" class="smallcaps">Rome.</p> +<ul> + <li>The Colosseum</li> + <li>The Roman Forum</li> + <li>The Site of the Ancient Capitol</li> + <li>"Twelve"</li> + <li>The Temple of Cæsar</li> + <li>The Baths of Caracalla</li> + <li>The Pyramid of Cestius</li> + <li>St. Peter's</li> + <li>The Lateran</li> + <li>Santa Maria Maggiore</li> + <li>Museums</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch19">Chapter XIX.</a></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 5px" class="smallcaps">Rome to Brindisi.</p> +<ul> + <li>Ascent of Mount Vesuvius,</li> + <li>The Ruins of Pompeii</li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#ch20">Chapter XX.</a></p> +<ul> + <li>On the Mediterranean</li> + <li>Alexandria</li> + <li>Cairo</li> + <li>Wretchedness of the Poorer Classes</li> + <li>The Return Trip</li> + <li>Conclusion</li> +</ul> + +<p>Subjects treated in a general way are distinguished by being rendered in +italics, in this table of contents.</p> +</div> + + +<p align="center"><img src="images/illus02.png" alt=" The Keystone State Normal School." /><br /> The Keystone State Normal School.</p> + + + +<div id="ch01"> +<h2>Chapter I.</h2> + +<h3>Leaving Home.</h3> + + + +<p>While engaged in making the preliminary arrangements for leaving soon +after the "Commencement" of the Keystone State Normal School (coming off +June 24th), information was received that the "Manhattan," an old and +well-tried steamer of the Guion Line, would sail from New York for +Liverpool on the 22nd of June. She had been upon the ocean for nine years, +and had acquired the reputation of being "<i>safe but slow</i>." As I esteemed +<i>life</i> more precious than <i>time</i>, though either of them once lost can +never be recovered, I soon decided to share my fate with her--by her, to +be carried safely to the "farther shore," or with her, to seek a watery +grave.</p> + +<p>The idea of remaining for the Commencement, was at once abandoned; short +visits, abrupt farewells, and a hasty preparation for the pilgrimage, were +my portion for the few days still left me, and Saturday, the 19th, was +determined upon as the day for leaving home. It would be evidence of gross +ingratitude to forget the kind wishes, tender good-byes, and many other +marks of attention, on the part of friends and acquaintances, which +characterized the parting hour. Both Literary Societies had passed +resolutions to turn out, and on the ringing of the bell at 6:30 a.m., all +assembled in the Chapel, and addresses were delivered.</p> + +<p>Half an hour later, we left in procession for the depot, where we arrived +in time to exchange our last tokens of remembrance--cards, books, bouquets +&c., and shake hands once more.</p> + +<p>While the train was moving away, the benedictions and cheers of a hundred +familiar voices rang upon the air, and waving handkerchiefs caught the +echoes even from the distant cupola of the now fast receding Normal School +buildings. A number of torpedoes that had been placed under the wheels of +the locomotive, had already apprised us that the train was in motion, and +would soon hurry us out of sight. During all this excitement of the +parting hour, which seemed to affect some so deeply, I was either looking +into the future, or contemplating the present, rather, from an <i>active</i> +than from a <i>passive</i> standpoint; and, as a natural consequence, remained +quite tranquil and composed--my feelings and emotions being at a lower ebb +than they could now be, if the occasion would repeat itself. The idea of +making a tour through Europe and to the Orient, had been continually +revolving in my mind for many years; and now, that I saw the prospect open +of once realizing the happy dreams of my childhood, and the schemes of +early youth, I took no time for contemplating the dangers of sea voyages +or any of the other perils of adventure.</p> + +<p>Before we came to Easton, I formed the acquaintance of a Swiss mother, +who seemed much pleased to find one that was about to visit her dear +"Fatherland," where she had spent the sunny days of her childhood. After +giving me directions and letters of introduction, she entreated me very +earnestly to visit her home and kin, and bring them word from her.</p> + +<p>New York was reached at 12:10 p.m. As there were but three days remaining +for seeing the city, I immediately began my visits to some of its +principal points of interest. Having first engaged a room at a hotel in +the vicinity of the new Post-Office, I commenced to stroll about, and at +5:30 p.m., entered Trinity Church. Its capacious interior soon disclosed +to me numerous architectural peculiarities, such as are characteristic of +the English parish churches or of cathedrals in general; and which render +old Trinity quite conspicuous among her American sisters. A fee of twelve +cents entitled me to an ascent of its lofty spire, which can be made to +the height of 304 (?) steps, or about 225 feet.</p> + +<p>Sunday, June 20th. Rose at 4:30 a.m. and visited Central Park. This being +an importune time for seeing the gay and fashionable life of the city, I +contended myself with a walk to the Managerie, and returned in time to +attend the forenoon service of Plymouth Church, in Brooklyn. I reached the +place before 9:00 o'clock, and formed the acquaintance of a young +gentleman who was a great admirer of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, and, +being an occasional visitor at this church, knew how to get a seat in that +congregation, which generally closed its doors against the faces of +hundreds, after every available seat was occupied. We at once took our +stand at the middle gate, and there endured the pressure of the crowd for +more than half an hour before the doors opened. We were the first two that +entered, and running up stairs at the head of the dashing throng, +succeeded in making sure of a place in the audience. The church has +seating capacity for about 2,800 adults. All the pews are rented to +members of the congregation by the year, except the outer row of seats +along the three walls; but these are generally all occupied in one or +several minutes after the doors open.</p> + +<p>The choir files in at 10:25. A "voluntary" by the organist at 10:30, and +by the choir at 10:32, during which time Mr. Beecher comes in, jerks his +hat behind a boquet stand, and takes his seat. Leads in a prayer in so low +a strain that he can not be understood at any remote place in the +audience. At 10:55 he baptizes eight infants, whose names are passed to +him on cards. Concludes another prayer at 11:20 and announces his text, +"Christ and him crucified." I Cor. ii. 2</p> + + + +<h3>Extracts from the Sermon.</h3> + + +<p>"One of Christ's followers once said, 'If all that Christ said and did +were written in books, the world could not contain them. This is an +<i>exageration</i>, (<i>a ripple of laughter dances over the congregation</i>), +having a great meaning, however." * * * * "David gives us only his +<i>intense</i> life." (<i>The audience smile</i>). (11:35). The preacher becoming +dramatic in gesticulation and oratorical in delivery, walks back and forth +upon the elevated platform. While describing the crosses which he saw +yesterday, he becomes highly excited, swinging his arms above his head. +"Crosses everywhere. All the way up street; on every beauty's breast." +(<i>Explosive laughter</i>). "Some may have cost $500, others possibly $1,500; +perhaps some cost $2,000." (<i>Claps his hands in excitement</i>). "Some say +'the church handed down Christianity'; but I say Christianity kept the +church alive. What was it, that, in the Reformation, made blood such a +sweet manure for souls?" (12:10 p.m.) Pleads earnestly for the weak and +the erring. "A man that has gone wrong, and has nobody to be sorry for it +is lost; pity may save." Sermon concluded at 12:25. Prayer. Dismissal by +singing.</p> + +<p>Mr. Beecher's voice is so clear and powerful, that he can be readily +understood in the most distant parts of the house. After leaving church, I +went up to Columbia Heights, the most aristocratic section of Brooklyn, +where I enjoyed myself in contemplating the beautiful and magnificent +buildings which constitute the quiet and charming homes of those wealthy +people living there. How partial Heaven is to some of her children! Thence +I found my way to Greenwood Cemetery, where I spent the remainder of the +day amid the tombs and monuments of "the great city of the dead." Guide +books containing all the carriage roads and foot-paths of that burial +ground, are sold at or near the gate. One of these I procured, and found +it was so perfect in the particulars, that I could readily find the grave +of any one of the many distinguished persons mentioned in the index, +without further assistance whatever. It is impossible here to give an +account of the many splendid tombs and monuments erected there by loving +hearts and skillful hands, in memory of dear friends and relatives that +have "gone away!" What multitudes of strange and curious designs meet the +eye here! Some few perhaps seem odd; but most of them bear appropriate +emblems, and convey sweet thoughts and tender sentiments in behalf of +those "sleeping beneath the sod." What a place for meditation! How quiet, +how solemn! No one should visit New York without allotting at least half a +day to these holy grounds. How I wander from grave to grave! Here I am +struck with the text of an impressive epitaph, and there I see the +delicate and elaborate workmanship of a skillful master. Here my heart is +touched by the sweet simplicity of a simple slab bearing some touching +lines, there I stand in silent admiration before the magnificent +proportions of a towering monument, or sit down to study the meaning of +some obscure design. A mere sketch of all that I saw there would fill a +volume, but I found one monument which I cannot pass by without some +notice. It stands on Hilly Ridge, and was erected to the memory of six +"<i>lost at sea</i>, on board the steamer 'Arctic,' Sept. 27th, 1854." These +words arrested my attention, and a minute later, I had ascended the +domical summit of the hill, and stood at the foot of the high monument. It +has a square granite base upon which stand four little red pillars of +polished Russian granite, supporting a transversely arched canopy, with a +high spire. Under the canopy is represented the Ocean and the shipwreck of +the "Arctic." The vessel is assailed by a terrible storm, and fiercely +tossed upon the foaming waves! She has already sprung a leak, and through +the ugly gash admits a copious stream of the fatal liquid, while the +raging sea, like an angry monster, is about to swallow her distined prey! +Down she goes, and among the many passengers on board, are</p> + +<blockquote> +<p> Grace, <i>wife of Geo. F. Allen and daughter of James Brown, born Aug. + 25th, 1821.</i></p> + +<p> Herbert, <i>infant child of Geo. F. and Grace Allen, born Sept, 28th, + 1853.</i></p> + +<p> William B., <i>son of James Brown, born April 23rd, 1825.</i></p> + +<p> Clara, <i>wife of Wm. B. Brown and daughter of Chas. Moulton, born June + 30th, 1830.</i></p> + +<p> Clara Alice Jane, <i>daughter of William B. and Clara Brown, born Aug. 30, + 1852.</i></p> + +<p> Maria Miller, <i>daughter of James Brown, born Sept. 30th, 1833.</i></p> +</blockquote> + +<p>What a sad story! As the ship wreck occurred in the fall, it is highly +probable that the party was homeward bound and, had better fortune been +with them, might in a very few days have again been safe and happy in +their respective homes, relating stories of their strange but pleasant +experiences in the Old World. How changed the tale! How their friends must +have been looking and waiting for the "Arctic!" One line told the whole +story, and perhaps all that was ever heard of them, "The 'Arctic' is +wrecked!"</p> + +<p>Not far away, on the crown of Locust Hill, sleeps Horace Greeley, +America's great journalist and political economist. At the head of his +grave stands a temporal memorial stone in the form of a simple marble +slab, bearing the inscription, "Horace Greeley, born February 3rd, 1811; +died November 29th, 1872." I left the Cemetery at 7:45 p.m., and returned +to my quarters in New York.</p> + +<p>Monday, June 21st. Having procured passage with the "Manhattan," which was +to sail on the morrow, I straightway went to Pier No. 46, North River, <i>to +take a look at her</i>! At 12:45 p.m. I stood in the third story of A.T. +Stewart's great dry goods establishment, perhaps the largest of kind in +the world. It is six stories high, and covers nearly two acres of ground. +My next point of destination was Brooklyn Court-House. The afternoon +session opened at 2:00 o'clock, but I did not reach the place until half +an hour later. The court-room was crowded as usual, and many had been +turned away, who stood in knots about the halls and portico, holding the +posts, and discussing politics and church matters. I entered hastily, like +one behind time and in a hurry, and inquired where the court-room was. "It +is crowded to over-flowing, you can not enter," was the reply; but I went +for the reporter's door. A few raps, and it was opened. I offered my card +and asked for a place in the audience as a reporter. The reply was that +the room was already jammed full. But I retained my position in the door +all the same! "What paper do you represent?" asked the door-keeper. "I am +a correspondent of the <i>National Educator"</i> was my response; whereupon he +bid me step in. The court-room was a small one for the occasion, affording +seats for about 400 on the floor, and for 125 more in the gallery. Some +twenty-five or thirty ladies were scattered through the audience. Mr. +Beech, Tilton's senior lawyer, was summing up his closing speech. Tilton +and Fullerton sat immediately behind him, but Mr. Beecher was not in +court. Toward the close of the session there was a kind of "clash of arms" +among the opposing lawyers. Fullerton repeated the challenge previously +made by Beech, offering to prove that corrupt influences were made to bear +upon the jury. The Judge appointed a time for hearing the complaint, and +adjourned the Court.</p> + + + +<h3>Barnum's Hippodrome</h3> + + +<p>was visited in the evening, where I saw for the first time on a grand +scale, the charming features of the European <i>"cafe</i>" (pronounced +cä'fā'). Here are combined the attractions of the pleasure garden or +public square, with the ornaments and graces of the ball-room and the +opera. It is a magnificent parlor abounding in trees, fountains, statuary +and rustic retreats. Gilmore's large band of seventy-five to a hundred +pieces, occupying an elevated platform in the centre, render excellent +music. Fifteen hundred to two thousand gas jets, eveloped by globes of +different colors (red, white, blue, yellow and green) and blazing from the +curves of immense arches, spanning the Hippodrome in different directions, +illuminate the entire building with the brilliancy of the noon-day sun. To +the right of the entrance is an artificial water-fall about thirty feet +in height. Two stationary engines supply the water, elevating 1,800 +gallons per minute, which issues from beneath the arched roof of a +subterranean cavern, and dashing down in broken sheets over a series of +cascades and rapids, plunges into a basin below. From this basin it flows +away into tanks in an other building, where four to five tons of ice are +consumed daily to keep it at a low temperature, so that the vapor and +breeze produced by this ice-water, at the foot of the cataract, refreshes +the air and keeps it cool and pleasant during the warm summer evenings. +The admittance is fifty cents, and 5,000 to 10,000 persons enter every +night, during the height of the season. Here meets "youth and beauty," and +the wealth, gayety and fashion of New York is well represented,</p> + +<p>Tuesday, June 22d. I spent the morning in writing farewell letters, and +making the final preparations for leaving. At one o'clock I went on board +the "Manhattan," which was still quite empty. In order to have something +to do by which to while away the slow dull hours yet remaining, I +commenced writing a letter. None of my friends or acquaintances being with +me, I bid all my farewells by note. But such writing! Though the vessel +was locked to the pier by immense cables, still she was anything but +steady. As passengers began to multiply, acquaintances were formed. By and +by the stewart came around, and assigned to us our berths. Ship government +is monarchic in form. The officers have almost absolute authority, and +the passengers, like bashful pupils, do their best to learn the new rules +and regulations and adapt their conduct to them, as soon as possible, so +that nobody may find occasion for making observations or passing remarks. +All these things remind one very much of a first day at school. As</p> + + + +<h3>The Parting Hour</h3> + + +<p>approaches, large numbers of the friends and relatives of some of our +passengers, came upon deck to bid good-by. Some cried, others laughed, and +many more <i>tried</i> to laugh. Some that seemed to relish repetition, or were +carried away by enthusiasm and the excitement of the hour, shook hands +over, and over again with the same person. At 3:00 o'clock p.m., the +gangway was lowered and the cables were removed. A shock, a boom, and the +vessel swung away and glided into the river! The die was cast, and our +fate was sealed. Shouts and huzzas rent the air, as the steamer skimmed +proudly over the waves, while clouds of handkerchiefs, on deck and upon +the receding shore, waved in the air as long as we could see each other. +Down, down the river glided the steady "Manhattan," and our thoughts began +to run in new channels. "Good-by! dear, sweet America," thought we a +hundred times, while we watched the retreating shores; perhaps our +thoughts were whispers! Europe with its innumerable attractions, its Alps, +Appennines and Vesuvius, its castles, palaces, walled towns, fine cities, +great battle fields, ancient ruins and a thousand other milestones of +civilization, lay before us; but a wide Ocean, and all the dangers and +perils of a long sea voyage lay between us and that other--longed for +shore.</p> + +<p>The question whether we would ever realize the pleasure of a visit to the +Old World, was now reduced to the alternatives of <i>success</i>, or <i>failure +by accident or disease</i>.</p> + + + +<h3>Sea-Sickness.</h3> + + +<p>I had labored under the erroneous impression that sea-sickness was bred of +fear and terror, and would attack only women (of both sexes) and children +of tender minds and frail constitutions. But, when the waves commenced to +roll higher, and the ship began a ceaseless rocking, which was in direct +opposition to the wants and comfort of my system, as all manner of +swinging ever was, I began to have fears that it was not <i>fright</i>, but +<i>swinging</i>, that made people sick at sea. The inner man threatened to +rebel, and I made my calculations how much higher the billows might swell, +before stomachs would be apt to revolt. We sailed out of sight of the land +before dusk, by which time, however, numbers of ill-mannered stomachs had +given evidence of their bad humor. Though I nodded but once or twice to +old Neptune, during the entire voyage, still I suffered much during the +first five days, from the pressure of intense dizziness and headache, +occasioned by the incessant rocking of our vessel upon the restless +waves. We had a very fine passage, as the sailors would say, but it was +far from being as fine as I had always fancied fine sea voyages would be. +The rocking of the ship would never be less than about two feet up and +down in its width of thirty feet. When the winds blew hard and the waves +rolled high, it swung some, twenty or twenty-five feet up and down at its +bow and at the stern. The highest waves that we saw in our outward passage +were probably from twelve to eighteen feet. That the rocking or swinging +of the ship, is the one and only cause of sea-sickness, may admit of a +question; but that it is the principal cause, there can be little doubt. +My observations and experiences in five or six voyages (long and short) +did not point to any other cause. As the sea air is generally regarded as +more salubrious and healthier than that on land, it can certainly not be a +cause of sea-sickness. Fright and terror, in a timid person might perhaps +aggravate the disease in few instances, though it seems doubtful, to say +the least. When the sea is calm and smooth, everybody feels well, even if +the vessel swims in the middle of the Ocean; but let a storm come on, and +the number of sick will increase in proportion to its violence.</p> + + + +<h3>Whales.</h3> + + +<p>On the second day of our voyage, in the afternoon at about 4:00 o'clock, +we came across a shoal of whales. There must have been two or three dozen +of them. They apparently avoided our ship, as only a few made their +appearance very close by, though we sailed through the midst of them. They +swam about leisurely near the surface, betraying their whereabouts +frequently by spouting; but occasionally they would rise considerably +above the surface of the water, and expose large portions of their bodies +to our view. The excitement occasioned among all on board, by the +appearance of so many of these terrible monsters, greatly quickened our +dull spirits, and tended much to alleviate the lonesomeness occasioned by +the monotony of the sea voyage.</p> + +<p>No one who has never experienced it, can form an idea of how the mind is +depressed and benumbed by the monotony of sea life. The nights drag along +so slowly, and the days--they seem to have no end. One will often loose +his "bearings" so completely, that he knows neither what day of the week +it is, nor whether it is forenoon or afternoon. Without keeping a diary or +record of some kind, it would be difficult for many to keep a sure run of +the date. Ordinarily, one sits down early in the morning <i>to wait for the +evening to draw by</i>, and often it happens, when it seems to him that he +has waited the length of three days on the land, he is mortified by the +announcement that it is yet far from being noon! An eternal present seems +to swallow up both the past and the future. After a week or two of such +weary waiting, one feels as if he had forgotten almost every thing that +happened before the day of his leaving home. I remarked one day to a +company of passengers on deck, that I could scarcely recall any thing that +had happened in the past; indeed, it required quite an effort to remember +that I had ever been in America, or anywhere else except on the old +"Manhattan" in an everlasting voyage. "Yes," observed one of the company, +"and I heard a fellow say yesterday that time seemed so long to him, that +he had really forgotten how many children he had." There is little doubt, +that if a ship-load of passengers could be suddenly and unexpectedly +landed upon the grassy slope of a verdant hillside; many would under +momentary impulse of overwhelming pleasure, kiss the dear earth, as +Columbus did on landing at San Salvador, if, indeed, extreme joy did not +impel them to make themselves ridiculous by imitating old Nebuchadnezzar, +in commencing to graze on the herbage! But the longest day must have an +end, and so have sea voyages.</p> + + + +<h3>The First Sight of Land.</h3> + + +<p>On Saturday morning, July 3rd, everybody came upon deck in hope of seeing +land. A report was soon circulated, that the sailors with their +telescopes, had already seen the mountains of Ireland. Those passengers +that had telescopes or opera glasses soon brought them upon deck. Some +said they saw the land, but others using the same glasees could see +nothing. This, created a pleasant excitement with but little +satisfaction, however, except a lively hope of soon seeing <i>terra firma</i> +again. At about 8:00 o'clock (4:00 o'clock Penna. time) it was believed by +the passengers generally, that land was really in sight. When I first saw +the outline of the mountains through the mist and clouds that hung near +the horizon, it stood out so clear and bold that I felt surprised at not +having been able to see it long before, as some others had. There were +some who could not see the land till an hour afterwards. The inexperienced +must first <i>learn</i>, before they will know <i>how</i> to see land. The first +light-house (one sixty miles from Queenstown) came into view at 9:35 a.m. +We passed it at 10:00 o'clock.</p> + +<p>White sea-gulls come one or two days' journey into the sea to meet the +ships, and follow them for food. These had been increasing from an early +hour, and amounted to about fifty in number in the afternoon. It seems as +if their wings would never tire. All-day long they fly after the ships, +sometimes even coming over the deck near the passengers.</p> + +<p>A great excitement prevailed on board during the whole day, because a +number of our passengers were to leave us there. While these were getting +ready to depart, and bidding good-by to their many friends on board, many +of us were busy writing letters to our friends and relatives in America. +Those letters were taken on to Queenstown, there mailed, and brought the +first news of our safe passage across the Atlantic. We were still a day +from Liverpool, but it was a day of pleasure. The dangers of the deep were +now forgotten, the strong winds of the Ocean had abated, and health and +happiness over all on board prevailed. Our course continued along.</p> + + + +<h3>The Coasts of Ireland and Wales.</h3> + + +<p>At about 4:00 o'clock p.m., the little steamer "Lord Lyons" came up to our +ship to fetch the passengers that were bound for Queenstown. A company of +fruit-women came on board with gooseberries, raspberries and many other +good things with which they fed our famished passengers. These were our +first fruits of the season, and were highly relished by all.</p> + +<p>The vegetation of Ireland is remarkable for its fresh, green color. We all +agreed that we had never seen such a rich green color before. "Emerald +Isle" (the <i>green island</i>) is a very appropriate name for Ireland, We saw +many light-houses and beautiful castles hanging upon the rocky shores or +standing proudly upon commanding eminences. Steamers keep so close to the +shore in sailing from Queenstown to Liverpool, that the land is nearly +always in sight. On Sunday morning, July 4th, the charming fields of +Ireland had been exchanged for the lofty mountains of Wales. We passed +Holyhead at 9:00 o'clock, and Liverpool came into sight at 1:30 p.m. An +hour later we came so near to the coast that the individual trees of a +shady wood upon the shores could readily he discerned. By 3:25 we had +entered the Mersey, and "half-speed" was ordered. Five minutes later, we +anchored and were touched by a tender. Here we learned what custom-house +officers are for. Every trunk, carpet-bag and satchel had to be opened for +them, and their busy hands were run all through our wardrobes. In order to +detect any smuggling that might be attempted, they will examine every +trunk or chest, &c., from top to bottom. They did not search our pockets, +however, but short of that they are required to do most anything +disagreeable to the traveler. As it was Sunday, all the shipping was +tessellated with the colors of every nation. It is a grand sight to see +acres upon acres of ships so profusely decorated with flags that it seems +as if the sky was ablaze with their brilliant colors. Our own "Manhattan" +sailed proudly into port with twenty-six flags streaming from her +mast-head and rigging.</p> + +<p>After we had passed muster, we passed over a kind of bridge or gangway +from the "Manhattan" into a little steamer that had come down the river to +fetch us. How glad we were to leave the good old ship, and bound into the +arms of another that promised to take us ashore in a very few minutes! It +was a glorious time! We had come to regard the "Manhattan" as a +prison-house, from which we had long desired to take our leave, if we only +could. But now that the parting hour had come, how changed our feelings! +As the little boat sailed away, we felt sorry to leave her, and commenced +to call her by pet names. "Good-by dear 'Manhattan,' many thanks to you +for carrying us so safely across the deep wide sea," cried many of us; +while others gave the customary <i>three cheers</i> and waved their hats. +Though we left her empty behind--no friends, and no acquaintances +remaining there, still we continued to wave our handkerchiefs at her so +long as we could see her, and have ever since remembered her as the +noblest of all the ships that was in harbor that day. Her, colors seemed +the brightest, and a hundred happy passengers separated that hour that +will never cease to sing her praises. Permit me, kind reader, to add one +line more, and in that line make mention of</p> + + + +<h3>Life-Boat, No. 5.</h3> + + +<p>You may not be able to understand it, or to appreciate how a small party +of our passengers came to regard her as almost a sacred thing, but there +are a few that know the spell, and who will ever bless the page that tells +the tale! Thither we went when the winds blew harder and the waves rolled +higher, when our heads became heavier and our steps unsteady! She hung at +or near the center of the ship, where there was the least rocking or +swinging of all places in the whole vessel. During day-time we lay down +beneath her shade, and at night, we would sit by her side relating to +each other our feelings and experiences, &c. When sea-sickness had left +our company, we agreed upon that place as our general rendezvous by day +and by night, for the remainder of the voyage. There we spent our days and +there we met every night! If our sleep was interrupted by a storm at the +midnight hour, thither would we go for relief! A thousand recollections +gather around that boat, and bind our hearts together there, as with so +many cords; because our hearts meet there in fond remembrance, therefore +will we never forget the place.</p> + + + +<h3>Stepping Ashore.</h3> + + +<p>I had bid adieu to all my acquaintances before leaving the steamer, and +consequently went ashore quite by myself. I did not experience that +piercing thrill through my system as I had expected to, on touching the +firm earth again; for we had seen the shore so long before we could land, +that all its novelty had disappeared.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch02"> +<h2>Chapter II.</h2> + +<h3>Liverpool.</h3> + + + +<p>Traveling-bag in hand, which contained my entire wardrobe, I now went In +search of an hotel. The "Angel Hotel" was soon pointed out to me, and on +entering it, I learned that several of my fellow-passengers had already +taken rooms there. It is entirely under the control of ladies, being +managed by a proprietress and female clerks. The house is an excellent +one, and the accommodations are first-class. It bears a very appropriate +name. After partaking of a hardy supper, I walked out to "take a look at +Europe!" At 6:45 p.m., I entered St. Peter's Church, and was conducted to +a pew. Here, as elsewhere in Europe, the young and the old of both sexes +occupy the same seat together. One of the little boys of the family +occupying the same pew with me, gave me a hymn-book. A part of the +exercises consisted in chanting psalms. The eagle lectant and the Bible +characters represented in the stained glass of the windows, soon enlisted +my attention, but the meaning of having two birds perched upon a high +stand in the middle of the church, I could not unfold, nor was there any +one about that could tell me. The next day I saw the same bird beside a +noble female form in the museum. "What bird is that?" said I to a +by-stander. "That figure," said he, "is the emblem of Liverpool, and the +bird is the <i>liver</i>, which abounded down in the pools, and after which the +place was first named."</p> + +<p>St. Luke's was visited after service. The chorister seemed much pleased to +meet an American, and showed me every mark of attention. When asked +whether all the churches of Liverpool had their chancels in the <i>east</i> +ends, he answered in the affirmative. I afterwards found this to be true +all over Europe. The dead are buried everywhere so as to face the rising +sun.</p> + +<p>Around St. John's the memorial slabs lie flat upon the graves. IHS, with a +cross over the H, is engraved upon the tombstones of the Catholics. These +same letters IHS equivalent to JES or JESUS, are to be seen, in almost +every church and chapel in all Christian Europe. Upon goblets, +chrismatories and crosses in the churches they are generally written in +gold; while myriads of crosses on headstones in the graveyards bear the +same mystical letters. Various other interpretations are given to them by +different writers, but every explanation except the one above given, seems +far-fetched and of doubtful origin, to say the least.</p> + +<p>In summer, the sun sets after 8:00 o'clock in the latitude of Liverpool. I +saw some twilight after 10:00 o'clock. The early dawn becomes visible +before 2:00 o'clock in the morning, and he who wants to see the sun rise, +must content himself with a short night. The Exchange is one of the most +elegant buildings of its class in Europe. St. George's Hall contains the +largest organ in England. In front of it are the Colossal Lions and the +<i>Equestion Statue</i> of <i>Prince Albert. Britania</i> (England's crest) which +surmounts the dome of the Town Hall, and the Wellington Statue, both face +<i>south</i>.</p> + +<p>I had expected to see people dressed differently in Liverpool from what is +customary in America. In this and a dozen other anticipations I was +utterly disappointed. Thus I was surprised at every step, because I was +not surprised.</p> + +<p>It was a scource of great grief to me that I could not indulge in +refreshments on Sunday evening. A passenger after landing, is much like a +patient after the fever has left him, he is hungry all the time. I had +some American silver in my pocket, which I repeatedly offered to exchange +for cakes, fruits and refreshments, at the numerous stores and stands +which I passed, but no one was willing to invest in my stock of change. +Thus I had to suffer both from hunger and thirst, because I did not have +the right kind of money. On Monday I drew my check in English currency, +and bought a suitable purse; but I was very awkward for a few days at +counting money. England has the oddest and most irregular money table that +I found from there to Egypt, except those of Holland and Germany. Many of +the coins are old and purseworn, so that it is impossible to decipher +either the image or the superscription (Matt. XXII. 20), consequently the +value must he guessed by their size.</p> + +<p>I spent a great part of the day in the Museum. It contains a large and +well classified collection of natural history, of objects of ancient and +medieval art, of ancient manuscripts, of coins, of pictures, sculpture, +&c. Saw the horns of a South African ox, each of which was about four feet +long and five or six inches thick.</p> + + + +<h3>The Wonderful Clock of Jacob Lovelace.</h3> + + +<p>In the second story of the building stands a magnificent clock, weighing +half a ton. Its case is about five feet long by three feet wide, and ten +feet high. Upon its face are seven hands. It is a very old and complicated +machine, and near it in a frame I found the following description: "It is +a the work of Jacob Lovelace, of Exeter, ornamented with Oriental figures +and finely executed paintings, guilted by fretworks." The movements are +1st--A moving Panorama descriptive of Day and Night, Day is beautifully +represented by Apollo in his Car, drawn by four spirited coursers, +accompanied by the twelve hours, and Diana in her Car, drawn by stags +attended by twelve hours, represents Night. 2nd--Two Guilt Figures in +Roman costume who turn their heads and salute with their swords as the +Panorama revolves; and also move in the same manner while the bells are +ringing. 3rd--A Perpectual Almanac showing the day of the month on a +semi-circular plate, the Index returning to the first day of the month on +the close of each month, without alteration even in leap years, regulated +only once in 130 years. 4th--A Circle, the Index of which shows the day of +the week with its appropriate planet. 5th--A Perpetual Almanac showing the +days of the Month Weekly and the Equation of time. 6th--A Circle showing +the leap year, the Index revolving once in four years. 7th--A Time Piece +that strikes the hours and chimes the quarters, on the face of which the +whole of the twenty-four hours (twelve day and twelve night) are shown and +regulated; within this circle the sun is seen in his course, with the time +of rising and setting by an Horison receding or advancing as the days +lengthen and shorten, and under is seen the moon showing her different +quarters, phases, age, &c. 8th--Two female figures, one on each side of +the Dial Plate, representing Fame and Terpsichore, who move in time when +the organ plays. 9th--A Movement regulating the Clock as a repeater to +strike or be silent. 10th--Saturn, the God of Time, who beats in movement +while the organ plays. 11th--A circle of the face shows the names of eight +celebrated tunes played by the organ in the interior of the cabinet every +four hours. 12th--A Belfry with six ringers, who ring a merry peal <i>ad +libitum</i>; the interior of this part of the cabinet is ornamented with +beautiful paintings, representing some of the principal ancient Buildings +of the city of Exeter. 13th--Connected with the organ there is a Bird +Organ, which plays when required. This unrivaled piece of mechanism was +perfectly cleaned and repaired by <i>W. Frost</i>, of Exeter, a self-taught +artist. Jacob Lovelace, the maker, ended his days in great poverty in +Exeter, at the age of sixty years, having been thirty-four years in +completing it. This museum also contains glass of the Roman period--A.D. +100-500. The best specimens are a little greenish, but quite clear. One of +the Egyptian mummies is wrapped up by a bandage of cloth, that was woven +3,000 years ago. It is still in a good state of preservation.</p> + +<p>Tuesday, July 6th. The Sultan of Zanzibar, who was on a tour of +inspection, started from the North-western Hotel at about 10:00 o'clock to +drive out to the docks. He was accompanied by two natives from his own +country, and the mayor and thirteen British cavaliers. The appearance, in +Liverpool, of this South African dignitary, created a considerable +sensation.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch03"> +<h2>Chapter III.</h2> + +<h3>Chester.</h3> + + + +<p>At 10:45 I left Liverpool for Chester. Edge Hill Tunnel, which is about a +mile or a mile and a quarter in length, was passed in five minutes. Grain +ripens from one to two months later here, than in Pennsylvania. The +farmers were busy making hay, and the wheat still retained a dark green +color. Harvesting is done in August and September. Wheat, rye, barley and +potatoes are the staple products. No corn is cultivated in northern +England. Wood is so scarce and dear in Great Britain, as well as upon the +continent, that the farmers can not afford to build rail-fences. +Hedge-fences, walls and ditches, therefore, take their places in every +European country. All this is new to the American when he first comes to +the Old World. Pass some fields of clover still in bloom. See men mow with +the same "German" scythes that we use in America. We reached Chester +before noon. This is one of the oldest cities, if not the oldest in the +country. Here one sees the England of his dreams, the England he so long +desired to see, and which now presents to his gaze, as it were in a focus, +both the monuments and the rubbish of many ages. It was once a great +military station of the Romans in Britain, who called it the City of +Legions. King Æthelfrith reduced it to ruins in the year 607, and it +remained "a waste chester" (a waste castra or fortification) for three +centuries. The Danes made its walls a stronghold against Alfred and +Æthelred, and the Lady of the Mercians, who was the daughter of Alfred and +the wife of Æthelred, recognized the importance of the place, and built it +up again. It was the last city in England to hold out against William the +Conqueror. During the Civil Wars the city adhered to the royal cause, and +was besieged and taken by the Parliamentary forces in 1645. The <i>Phoenix +Tower</i> bears the incription: <i>King Charles stood on this tower September</i> +24, 1645, <i>and saw his army defeated on Rowton Moor</i>.</p> + +<p><i>The Rows</i> are a very curious feature of the two principal streets running +at right angles to each other. Besides the ordinary walks or pavements of +these streets, there is a continuous covered gallery through the front of +the second story. Some one has said, "Great is the puzzle of the stranger +as to whether the roadway is down in the cellar, or he is upstairs on the +landing, or the house has turned outside of the window." On this "upstairs +street," as some call it, are situated all the first-class shops, the +others being in the lower story on a level with the road. Picture to +yourself a row of houses having porches in the second story but not in the +first, and you have a correct idea of the Rows of Chester. To compare them +to the Arcades of Rue de Rivoli in Paris, is a mistake, as they do not +resemble those more, than a porch over a pavement resembles one in the +second story.</p> + +<p>The Cathedral is a grand old church. It was built in the latter part of +the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth centuries, upon the same +site where two of its predecessors had already crumbled into decay. "<i>St. +John's Church</i> is even more ancient than the Cathedral, having been built +in the eleventh century. I shall never forget its weather-beaten walls and +its mossy roof. In many places, the thickness of the walls is greatly +reduced by the rain and hail that have washed and beaten against it so +long. In my rambles through Chester I had the good fortune of meeting and +forming the acquaintance of an Irish Catholic Priest and a wine merchant +from Wolverhampton, two intelligent and amiable gentlemen, who taught me +much about those curious relics still found in heaps among the ruins of +old Chester. At about 2:00 o'clock we stood upon the high square: tower of +St. John's (thirty-five feet each side at the top) amidst the elderberries +and grass which flourish at that giddy height. Looking at the town from +this elevation, one gets no idea of its <i>unique</i> features, as the numerous +slate-roofs give it the appearance of a modern town. The descent was made +with difficulty, land even attended with some danger, for the long wooden +stairs or ladders are becoming shaky and a break of one of its steps +might precepitate one from such a height that instant death was the most +desirable alternative. But who would not become bold, or even sometimes +more that, amid such surroundings! When one says we <i>can't</i> get there, +another is sure to declare that we <i>must</i> get there! "What! would you come +so far to see antiquity, and then count your steps how near you would +approach her?" Eight bells constitute the peal in this venerable old +tower. Near by, stand the ivy-clad and moss-covered ruins of portions of +the sacred edifices that date back, even to the earlier ages of the +Christian era, and from among the dust and rubbish are picked up the +broken images of hideous-looking idols that were the ornaments (?) of the +temples once standing there. We found a large collection of those +ghastly-looking idols piled away in the crypt of the church. Whether the +emblems of Druid, or Christian worship, these "images cut out of stone" +evidently represent an age, in which the heart was subdued by +superstitious fear rather than by "<i>love</i>."</p> + +<p>The Walls merit especial attention. They still surround the city +completely, and form, in a certain sense, the proudest and most admirable +promenade that the world affords anywhere. From it are obtained the best +views of the Cathedral and of the country around. The ascent to it is made +by a flight of steps on the north side of the East-gate. A ditch or canal +about twenty-five feet wide, runs all around the wall and used to render +the battering of the wall a matter of extreme difficulty before the +invention of powder and the introduction of fire-arms. The pavement, on +top of the wall, is four and a half to six feet wide, and skirted on both +sides by thinner walls; that on the outside being about four or five feet +high. From behind this wall the soldiers would hurl spears, javelins, &c., +at the attacking enemy, and keep them in check. How things have changed +since that time! Now this walk forms the peaceful and delightful promenade +of the private citizens. Here meet the young and the gay, fashion displays +its gaudiest colors, and lovers take their "moonlight strolls."</p> + +<p>Such is the use now made of the Walls of Chester! America has no walled +cities; Europe has but few without walls. In the early history of Europe, +every town even had its walls. In many places where the walls have almost +disappeared, there are still remaining the gates of the city. At those +points the walls were made doubly strong, and high and impregnable towers +built over them, in which were stationed strong guards "to defend the +gates." Then no stranger could enter without some kind of "pass" from +recognized authorities. Did not the system of "pass-ports" which has been +handed down to our day, but which seems to be falling into disuse even in +Europe, have its origin in this way? At 5:40 I left Chester for +Birmingham. On our way we passed Crewe, one of the great railroad centers +of England. At this station <i>five hundred</i> trains pass each other every +twenty-four hours.</p> + +<p>We arrived at Birmingham at 8:45 p.m. Between Wolverhampton and Birmingham +lies the great ore and manufacturing district of England. Ore-beds and +smoke-stacks cover all the area some thirty miles long and sixteen miles +wide, except that occupied by the miserable cottages (some of them mere +hovels) of the laborers. Looking at this immense area from the cars, it +presents the appearance of one continuous town. No wonder that England can +accommodate a population of some twenty odd millions on an area but little +more than that of Pennsylvania, when poor humanity is thus crowded +together. In the cars, I had formed the acquaintance of a sociable party +of ladies and gentlemen, who pointed out places to me, and instructed me +concerning the manners and social habits of the people. From Liverpool +hither, I found very small brick houses the rule and spacious buildings +like our Pennsylvania farm houses, the exception. Barns, I saw none; small +stables supply their places even on large farms. We saw several very fine +castles by the way, however.</p> + +<p>Birmingham is known as "the toy-shop of Europe," "but most of the toys are +for children of larger growth." One can nowhere see richer sights than in +the show-rooms of many of these shops. One that I visited, a glass +show-room containing chandeliers priced upwards of a thousand dollars, and +all varieties of fancy-wares of every description, had large mirrors at +the ends of the room, covering the entire walls, and producing the +grandest effect conceivable. The objects in the room were thus infinitely +multiplied in both directions, so that whichever way one turned his face, +glittering glassware was seen "as far as the eye could reach."</p> + +<p>Such sights are simply bewildering! It is a little difficult to gain +admittance to the manufacturing departments of many of these places, but +to literary characters that represent "newspapers," the doors are +generally opened quite readily. In hunting these shops, I discovered a +great want of system in the naming and numbering of the streets of this +otherwise quite elegant city. I had passed a certain street twice, from +end to end, in search of a particular number. Upon further inquiry, I +learned that what I had considered one street, was numbered and named as +two, though there was not the slightest deviation from a perfectly +straight line at any point of it. To make bad worse, the houses were +counted and numbered upwards on one side of the street, and downwards on +the other side. In such a city the stranger must find places by +<i>speculation!</i></p> + +<p>Strange things one meets at every step in Europe, and soon gets so used +to it, that it seems the strangest to see something that is not strange; +but oddities are perhaps no plentier on one side of the Atlantic than they +are on the other, and are equally amusing everywhere. Upon the burial +ground of St. Philip's, stands a monument in honor and memory of a wife +that died at the age of fifty-nine years, which has a bee-hive and the +inscription: "She looked well to the ways of her household, and did not +eat the bread of idleness."</p> + +<p>A number of fine statues adorn some of the public squares. One of these, a +bronze statue to <i>Peel</i> faces <i>east</i>; while <i>Priestley's</i> marble statue +faces <i>south</i>.</p> + +<p>The first thing that arrests the tourist's attention on arriving at +Birmingham, is its magnificent railroad station, the largest and finest +that I had thus far met with in England. As it was late in the evening +when I arrived, I had no time to pay much attention to it until the next +day. The part entered by the trains is about 1,050 feet long and 200 feet +wide, all in one apartment. This part is sprung by forty-two immense iron +arches, supporting a roof half of whose covering is glass. The numerous +tracks are separated by platforms running lengthwise through the building, +from which the passengers enter the cars. In order to avoid the danger of +crossing the tracks, there is a fine foot-bridge, eighteen feet wide, +running across the tracks above the reach of the locomotive stacks. From +this bridge, stairs descent to the platforms between the tracks, as before +mentioned. Three hundred trains pass through this station every +twenty-four hours. An officer receives and dismisses these trains by means +of a signal-bell. The ticket-offices are in the second story of a large +building adjoining.</p> + + + +<h3>Railroads in Europe.</h3> + + +<p>There are no "conductors" upon the trains after they leave the "stations" +(which, by the way, I never heard any one call depots, in Europe) but +officers are stationed at the head of every stairway to punch the tickets. +Five minutes before any particular train leaves, the ticket-office is +closed and the conductors pass through the cars and inspect the tickets. +If any one did come into a wrong car or train, there is still time left to +correct the mistake. Tickets are not collected till one's destination is +reached, where they <i>must</i> be delivered to the door-keeper on leaving the +station. Without it, a passenger is a prisoner. "Railroading" is so +perfectly systemized in Europe, that it is quite impossible either to +cheat a company, or to be cheated out of one's time by missing trains. +There is little danger of missing a train even in countries where one can +not speak the language. The cars are divided into compartments <i>(Ger. +Abtheilungen)</i> of two seats or benches each, running across the car, with +doors at the sides. In 1st Class cars, the seats are finely cushioned and +the compartments are about as inviting in appearance as our Palace cars; +in 2nd Class cars the seats are comfortable but common; but 3rd Class cars +have only bare wooden benches. There are in some countries, 4th Class +cars, which have no seats. I did not see any of those, but from what I +learned of others, they must resemble our freight cars. In those, too, +passengers have the privilege of standing or sitting down, according to +their taste or comfort. Tickets to 1st Class cars cost about the same as +in this country, 2nd Class tickets cost three-fourths, and 3rd Class about +half as much.</p> + +<p>In hilly sections of the country, the railways generally cross the wagon +roads by bridges; but wherever the two kinds of roads intersect each other +on a level, travel on the latter is interrupted by gates and watchmen, who +permit no one to pass while a train is approaching the crossing. Thus +every railway crossing in Europe is superintended day and night by +watchmen. These watchmen are noticed by signal-bells, at the departure of +every train running in the direction of their crossings. Under such a +system, accidents are impossible. Even the doors of each "compartment" are +barred by the conductors before the trains are dismissed, and will not be +opened by the conductors of the next station, until the train stands +still. The tickets, besides containing the ordinary matter on tickets in +this country, have also the price printed upon them.</p> + +<p>Some of the stations of the Old World, are buildings of extraordinary +beauty and magnificence.</p> + +<p>The grandest structure of this kind, is, probably, the station (Ger. +<i>Station</i> or <i>Bahnhof</i>, Italian <i>Stazione</i>) of Stuttgart. Among many +others, might also be mentioned the stations of Paris, of Turin, of Milan, +and of Rome; but the Great Western Station of London, lakes the palm of +those all, for magnificence, beauty and convenience combined. What the +station at Clapham (seven miles above London) looks like, I do not know, +but it is said, that from 1,000 to 1,200 trains run through it every +twenty-four hours! What multitudes of people must be streaming over the +platforms and past the windows of the ticket-offices of such a station, +every day! At Birmingham and at Crewe, where 300 and 500 trains pass +daily, the swarming thousands remind one of <i>floods</i> and <i>inundations</i>, +but how must it look at Clapham?</p> + +<p>July 7th, 3:40 p.m. Leave Birmingham for Stratford on the Avon (pron. +ā'von).</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch04"> +<h2>Chapter IV.</h2> + +<h3>Stratford-upon-Avon.</h3> + + + +<p>Arrived at 5:00 p.m., July 7th. It had been my intention to pay this place +only a brief visit, giving but a glance at "The Poet's" home and +birthplace, and then start on foot for Coventry; but I soon found that +Stratford possesses more charms than I had anticipated. Shakespeare's fame +has an influence over his native town, that is simply marvelous.</p> + +<p>The thousands of tourists that come from every land, and from every clime, +<i>to see the scenes that the poet saw, and breath the same air that he +breathed,</i> make the place one of the most popular resorts of literary +pilgrims, that can be found anywhere.</p> + +<p>The buildings of Stratford are small and low, as is the rule, rather than +the exception, in English towns and villages. Many are covered with tiles, +but the thatch roof is also very common here. This consists of a mixture +of straw and earth, often more than a foot in thickness, and covered with +moss and grass. Notwithstanding this, both the houses and the streets are +kept remarkably clean and inviting; so much so, that I felt nowhere else +so soon and so perfectly at home as here. Its people seem to be possessed +of every virtue, and preëminent among them all, is that of hospitality +which seems to be blooming in the hearts of all its citizens to-day, as +did poetry in the mind of Shakespeare three hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>The streets of this town are kept as clean as a floor, by sweepers +watching the streets all day long, collecting and carrying away all the +refuse matter. One day, I felt ill at ease about a small piece of paper +that had become a superfluity in my pocket, but which I was afraid to +throw upon the street, as it would there seem as much out of place as if I +should drop it upon the carpet in a parlor. I passed along the pavement +with it, until I met a street-sweeper, and there threw it upon his heap +with a nod, which he reciprocated with a bow.</p> + +<p>On entering Stratford, my foot first tended toward</p> + + + +<h3>Shakespeare's Birthplace,</h3> + + +<p>a large two-story house, about fifty feet long, having three large +dormer-windows and two chimneys, one of them running up on the outside of +the house.</p> + +<p>The custodian takes the visitor through every apartment of it, giving the +history of the same and of numerous articles of furniture and Shakesperian +relics, &c., which constitute a considerable museum.</p> + +<p>When William Shakespeare's father was a "well-to-do" man, he occupied the +whole house; but after he had become poor, the east end was rented to a +hotel-keeper, and he lived in the middle part only, which has later been +used as a butcher-shop.</p> + +<p>"On the 16th of September, 1847, it (the building) was put up for sale by +the magniloquent Mr. George Robins, and in consequence of a strong appeal +to the feelings of the people, made through the public press, by which a +<i>National Subscription</i> was raised for the purpose; this house was bought +at the bidding of Mr. Peter Cunningham, for something more than 3,000 +pounds sterling, and was placed under Trustees on behalf of the Nation."</p> + +<p>Space will not permit me to make mention of more than a few of the many +interesting books, manuscripts, works of art, antiques and relics, found +in this Library and Museum. Among them stands the desk at which little +"Willie" sat at school, also a ring which he wore at his thumb (later in +life), and upon which are engraved the letters "W.S." and a "true lover's +knot." I spent nearly an hour here, a studying how things looked in +Shakespeare's time. The ground floors of the house, are covered with +flagstones broken in varied forms, as accident would have it, while the +rough massive timbers of the floors above stand out unpainted and +unplastered. After taking a pleasant walk, with a gay party, through the +garden, in which are cultivated all the flowers of which Shakespeare +speaks in his works, and, (I must not fail also to mention), after having +taken our turns in sitting upon <i>Shakespeare's chair</i>, I bade the sociable +company "good-by!" and started for</p> + + + +<h3>Shottery,</h3> + + +<p>"a genuine country village, consisting of a few straggling farm-houses +and brick and timber cottages, standing apart from each other in their old +gardens and orchard-crofts. Simple, old-fashioned, and almost untouched by +the innovations of modern life, we are here amidst the charmed past of +Shakespeare's time." Here is still to be seen, the cottage in which was +born and lived Anne Hathaway, the wife of Wm. Shakespeare. This village +lies about a mile from Stratford, and is approached by a pleasant walk +across quiet and fertile fields and pasture lands, the same path along +which "Willie" used to steal when he went a-wooing his Anne. The Hathaway +cottage is a large old-fashioned thatch-roofed building--very plain but +very homely. The clumsy string-lifted wooden door-latches, and the wooden +pins fixing the framing, and which have never been cut off, but stick up +some inches from the wall, are still all there. It was dusk before I got +there. My rap at the door was responded to by the appearance of an old +lady custodian, a descendent of the Hathaway family, who immediately +busied herself to light a tallow candle. That being successfully +accomplished, she commenced her story by pointing out the old hearth, and +explaining the kitchen arrangements of olden times. Among the old articles +of furniture, is a plain wooden settee or bench which used to stand +outside against the house near the door, during the summer, and which, as +tradition, has it, was Willie's and Anne's courting settee. Pictures of +their courtships hang against the walls, exhibiting styles and fashions +well in keeping with the antique furniture of the room. An old carved +bed-stead of the Shakespeare era, stands in the room above. Here the +custodian offered me a book of autographs, asking me to sign my name, as +has been customary since October 4th, 1846. Six books have been filled +with autographs, since that time. Among the signatures I saw one Emma R., +July 24th, 1866. "This," said the custodian, "is the signature of the +Queen of the Sandwich Islands."</p> + +<p>Henry W. Longfellow's signature, who was here with his brother (and +families), June 23rd, 1868, and that of Chas. Dickens, here in 1852, were +also pointed out.</p> + +<p>The old lady would not let me go away without having taken a drink from +"the spring where Anne used to drink." After presenting me with "lavender" +and "rosemary" for mementoes, and a button-hole boquet consisting of a +fine rose and buds, for immediate display, she wished me god-speed on my +journey, and I retraced the path across the fields to Stratford.</p> + +<p>New Place, the Home of Shakespeare, is the most charming place in all +Stratford. The extensive yard and garden which belonged to the property in +Shakespeare's time, had been partially cut up in lots and covered with +houses; but these have all been removed again, and the grounds laid out +into walks, lawns and flower beds, as the poet was wont to have them. His +yard and garden covered an area of about two acres. The gentleman who has +charge of the property now, exerts himself to the utmost, to make the +surroundings pleasant and inviting, aiming particularly to plant the same +trees and flowers that the poet had planted there, and to keep his +favorite trees, or lineal successors of them, in the same sites. Among the +ornamental trees and flowers, he pointed out a number that he obtained +from Vick, the florist, of Rochester, N.Y.</p> + +<p>Shakespeare was buried in the Church of the Holy Trinity. His wife, his +only daughter Susanna and her husband, Thomas Nash, lie with him in the +same row, immediately in front of the altar-rails. His tombstone bears the +following inscription:</p> + +<blockquote><p>GOOD FREND FOR JESVS SAKE FORBEARE,<br /> + TO DIGG THE BVST ENCLOASED HEARE:<br /> +BLESE BE YE MAN YT SPARES THES STONES,<br /> + AND CVRST BE HE YT MOVES MY BONES.</p></blockquote> + +<p>The only typographical peculiarity not rendered here, is the grouping +together of HE in HEARE and TH in THES, after the fashion of monograms.</p> + +<p>This church also contains a half-length figure of Shakespeare, painted +after nature. There is evidence extant that it had already taken its place +against the wall in the year 1623. Beneath is inscribed:</p> + +<blockquote><p> Judicio pylivm genio socratem, arte maronem,<br /> + Terra tegit, popvlvs mæret, Olympvs Habet<sup><a href="#note01">*</a></sup><br /> +Stay, passenger; why goest thov by so fast?<br /> +Read, if thov canst, whom enviovs death hath plast<br /> +Within this monvment; Shakespeare, with whom<br /> +Quick natvre dide; whose name doth deck ys. tombe<br /> +Far more than cost; sith all yt. he hath writt<br /> +Leaves living art bvt page to serve his witt.</p> + +<p>Obiit. Ano. Doi. 1616.<br /> +Ætatis 53. Die 23. Ap.</p></blockquote> + +<div class="note" id="note01"><p>[In judgment a Nestor, in genius a Socrates, in art a Virgil. +The earth covers him, the people mourn for him, Olympus has him.]</p></div> + +<p>Of the Guildhall, the Grammar School, and the beautiful Avon, with their +hundred sweet associations, I dare say nothing more. After a stay of three +days, during which time I had recovered from the effects of the severe +strain and close application of mind and body, by which both had suffered +exhaustion, and been driven almost to the verge of prostration, in the +museum at Liverpool and the ruins of Chester; I started on way to Warwick +(pron. War'rick) and Coventry. As my purpose was to walk the whole +distance, about twenty miles, I sent my sachel by rail, to the former +place.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch05"> +<h2>Chapter V.</h2> + +<h3>Stratford to Coventry.</h3> + + + +<p>This is the walk referred to by the two Englishmen who laid a wager as to +which was the finest walk in England. "After the money had been put up, +one named the walk from Stratford to Coventry, and the other from Coventry +to Stratford. How the umpire decided the case, is not recorded." It was +late in the afternoon on Saturday, July 10th, when I bade adieu to +Stratford, and went away rejoicing, in the hope of soon seeing the +beauties of England's most charming agricultural section.</p> + +<p>After two hours, I entered Charlecote Park, where I disturbed several +herds of deer, some hundred head in all. From this park, as lame tradition +has it, Shakespeare once stole deer, and became an exile for the crime!</p> + +<p>On Sunday forenoon I attended service at</p> + + + +<h3>St. Mary's Church,</h3> + + +<p>in Warwick. The choir, lady chapel and chapter-house are among the purest +examples of Decorated work, and date from 1394. The tomb of Richard +Beauchamp (Bee'cham) in the Lady Chapel, is considered the most splendid +in the kingdom, with the single exception of that of Henry VII. in +Westminster Abbey.</p> + +<p>A very high tower stands over the entrance door, at the west end of the +church. The organ and choir (at the same end) rendered the finest music +that I heard in England. There were several very highly cultivated voices +among those of the half dozen ladies that occupied the space in front of +the organ. + +Everything else about the services is eminently examplery of the olden +times. Preaching is the least important part of the exercises. Pulpit +oratory finds no place here. Singing, praying and readings are the leading +feature of worship in the English Church in general, and of old churches +like this, in particular. Such exercises seem to be eminently appropriate +for a people whose hearts and minds are almost petrified in civil and +religious forms and ceremonies. The step which the English Church took +away from Catholicism, must have been an extremely short one, if it was a +step at all. This congregation still turn their faces toward the east, +during a certain part of their recitals, and bow ceremoniously, in +concert, as often, as they mention the name of "Jesus Christ."</p> + +<p>Two miles from Warwich, is Leamington, (Lĕm'ington), a fashionable +"spa," which I visited in the afternoon. It is a very pretty town, and +emphatically modern in style; presenting nothing that is anti-American in +appearance, except its clusters of chimney-tops, so common everywhere in +Europe. As soon as one has crossed the Atlantic he will seldom longer see +single square tops built upon the chimneys, but each apartment of the +house has its own chimney; all these converge, but do not meet before +coming out of the roof, so that from two to six or eight tops generally +keep each other company on the house-tops.</p> + +<p>At 3:45 p.m., I started from Warwick for Coventry. The road leading from +this place to Coventry is an excellent turnpike, just as that is from +Stratford hither, and has a splendid gravel walk for pedestrians on one +side, and a riding path for those on horseback, on the other side.</p> + +<p>Five miles brought me to Kenilworth Castle. Great must have been its +glories when Elizabeth came here in 1575 to visit Liecester. Cromwell +dismantled it, and laid waste the gardens around it, and the tooth of time +has been gnawing at it ever since, but it is magnificent even in its +ruins. "Go round about it, tell the towers thereof, and mark well its +bulwarks, if you would know what a mighty fortress it must have been when +it held out for half a year against Henry III. in 1266, or what a lordly +palace when it thrice welcomed Elizabeth to its hospitalities, three +hundred years later."</p> + +<p>A quarter or half a mile further on, is a fine church, and nearby an +ivy-covered arch. A passing gentleman told me this had been the entrance +to an ancient abbey; and others said it was a part of the ruined Castle of +Kenilworth.</p> + +<p>It was 6:00 o'clock when I left here, and had five miles more to +Coventry. A mile and a half on this side of that city lie the extensive +possessions of Lord Leigh. This wealthy peer owns here, in one stretch, +about twenty square miles of the finest and most fertile land in the +world.</p> + +<p>About a mile from Coventry I encountered an enormous stream of pedestrians +coming out of the city to take their evening walk. The promenade, which is +about ten feet wide at that place, was so thronged with the gay young +couples, that I found it impossible to walk against the mighty stream, and +took the middle of the street. After. I had entered the gate, I found the +pavements on both sides of the road becoming more and more crowded, all +bound for a pleasant grassy grove known as "the lovers quarters."</p> + +<p>It is difficult to make estimates under such circumstances, but there can +hardly have been less than 5,000 to 10,000 persons upon the promenade that +evening.</p> + + + + +<h3>Coventry.</h3> + + +<p>Coventry is remarkable for its elegant parish churches, which are among +the finest in England.</p> + +<p>"St. Michael's Church is one of the largest (some say <i>the</i> largest) and +noblest parish churches in England." Its steeple built between 1373 and +1395, is 303 feet high. The church was finished in 1450, when Henry VI. +heard mass there. The second and third of the "three tall spires" of +Coventry are that of Trinity Church and of Christ Church. St. John's is +famous for its magnificent western window.</p> + +<p>Coventry is well worth, a visit on account of those famous churches.</p> + +<p>I was accompanied to those fine edifices by two precociously intelligent +little beauties, (of seven and eleven years respectively), whose gayety +and cheer fulness not only rendered their society very accept able to "a +stranger in a strange land;" but the simple fact of their being permitted +to accompany so perfect a stranger to all parts of the city, showed how +much trust some foreigners have in Amercans, and consequently, to what +extent one may put confidence in them. Such incidents are very pleasant +and encouraging to the lonely pilgrim and may be made a matter of almost +daily occurence by any social but circumspective traveler. The traveling +public in Europe are so social, and etiquette so free, that the tourist +can at every step form the acquaintance of some one who is bound for the +same church, museum or pleasure garden and thus be continually enjoying +the benefits of intelligent and cheerful company.</p> + +<p>On Monday noon, July 12th, I left Coventry by rail, to return to</p> + + + +<h3>Warwick via Leamington.</h3> + + +<p>At 3:30 p.m., I had passed through the many elegant apartments of Warwick +Castle, and stood at the top of its tower, overlooking the wood groves, +and flower garden, occupying the 70 acres of ground belonging to that +princely mansion.</p> + +<p>Among the ornamental trees, our guide pointed out "one that Queen Victoria +planted with her own hands." Scott calls Warwich Castle "the farest +monument of ancient and chivalrous splender which yet remains uninjured by +time."</p> + +<p>It is said to have been founded in the 10th century, destroyed in the +13th, and restored by Thomas de Beauchamp in the 14th. It has been +preserved so well that it looks almost like a new palace, to-day</p> + + + +<h3>Oxford</h3> + + +<p>with its score of colleges scattered all over the city, constituting the +world renowned University of the same name, was "done" the next day, but +done in a hurry. It is a depressing business to pass by so much, giving +but a glance here and there, and not be able to see so many things more at +leisure, Magnificent libraries and museums, grand churches and chapels, +and extensive buildings and botanical gardens, were rushed through and +passed by, as if the charm and beauty of Oxford's scenes consisted rather +in making the images of them flit in quick succession across the retina of +the eye, than in examining, studying and contemplating them.</p> + +<p>Merton College, founded 1264, contains a library 600 years old. Many of +its large and rare books are chained to their respective shelves, like +dogs to their kennels; and with chains too, of sufficient strength to +check any canine's wanderings. Christ Church I entered by the Tower-Gate, +so named after the great bell contained in the cupola of the tower over +it. This bell weighs about 17,000 pounds. The quadrangle inclosed by the +buildings of this college, is "the largest and the most noble in Oxford." +Its dimensions are 264 by 200 feet, or nearly an acre and a half in +extent. The "Hall" is 113 feet by forty, and fifty feet in height. "The +roof is of carved oak, with very elegant pendants, profusely decorated +with the armorial bearings and badges of King Henry VIII. and Cardinal +Wolsey, and has the date 1529." Its bay window at the end of the dais with +its rich grained vault of fan-tracery, is admired by every one.</p> + +<p>Christ Church Meadow, with its "Broad Walk" one and a quarter mile in +circuit, and Addison walk, near St. Mary Magdalen College, are among the +most bewitching promenades that can be found anywhere, while "the manner +in which High street opens upon the view, in walking from the Botanic +Garden, is probably one of the finest things of the kind in Europe."</p> + +<p>Oxford is all history and poetry. There is a tradition that upon the top +of the elegant tower St. Mary Magdalen, formerly on every May-day morning, +at four o'clock, was sung a requiem for the soul of Henry VII., the +reigning monarch at the time of its erection. The custom of chanting a +hymn beginning with</p> + +<blockquote><p> "Te Deum Patrem colimus,<br /> +Te laudibus prosequimur,"</p></blockquote> + +<p>In the same place is still preserved, on the same morning of each year, +at five o'clock.</p> + +<p>The dark lantern which Guy Fawks used in the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, and a +picture of the conspirators are contained in the New Museum.</p> + +<p>From Oxford I went directly to London by a fast line, which occupied less +than two hours in making the journey. From the cars, we saw Windsor +Castle, with its colors raised, meaning that the Queen was there.</p> + +<p>We also passed some large patches of flowers in the fields, which were +cultivated for the London flower-market.</p> + +<p>Foreigners in general have a great passion for flowers. While ladies wear +them in their hair, upon their bosoms, and carry them in their hand, the +gentlemen will carry button-hole bouquets, and many even stick them upon +their hats. They are fashionable with all ages and all classes. From +blooming maidenhood to gray-headed age, all will adorn themselves with +flowers. The English seem to <i>cultivate</i> the most flowers, while the +French and the Italians, and (lately?) the Germans, <i>wear most</i> upon their +persons. In England, every available spot of spare soil about the yard, is +planted with flowers; on the continent, all the fashionable restaurants +and cafes must daily be supplied with fresh bouquets, with which these +halls are decorated in lavish profusion.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch06"> +<h2>Chapter VI.</h2> + +<h3>London.</h3> + + + +<p>We now approach London, the mighty mistress of the commercial world, the +most populous city on our globe. Here, certers the trade of all nations +here, is transacted the business of the world. If you would know how it +looks where concentration of business has reached its climax, then come to +London. Many of its streets are so crowded with omnibuses, wagons, +dray-carts, &c., that it is almost Impossible for a pedestrian to cross +them. When the principal streets intersect each other, the bustle and +tumult of trade is so great, that it becomes a dangerous undertaking to +attempt to effect a crossing at such a square.</p> + +<p>For the protection and accommodation of those on foot, the squares are +provided with little platforms elevated a step above the surface of the +road and surrounded with a thick row of stone posts between these, the +pedestrian can enter, but they shield him from the clanger of being tread +under the feet of horses, or run over by vehicles. Here one stands +perfectly safe, even when everything is confusion for an acre around. As +soon as an opportunity opens, he runs to the next landing; and thus +continues, from landing to landing, until the opposite side of the square +is reached. It often requires five minutes to accomplish this feat. It +has been estimated that no less than 20,000 teams and equestrians, and +107,000 pedestrians cross London Bridge every twenty-four hours. By police +arrangement, slow traffic travel at the sides and the quick in the center. +It is 928 feet long and fifty-four wide. Not only are the streets crowded, +but beneath the houses and streets, in the dark bosom of the earth, there +is a net-work of</p> + + + +<h3>Underground Railroads,</h3> + + +<p>extending to all parts of the city, which pick up that surplus of travel +which it has become impossible to accomplish above.</p> + +<p>There are some thirty miles of tunneled railways in London, now, and the +work of extending them is carried on with increasing energy. This railway +is double track everywhere, and forms two circuits, upon one of which the +trains continually run in one direction, while those on the other track +run in the opposite direction. Collisions are therefore impossible between +these two systems of counter-currents. Numerous stations are built all +along these roads, where travelers can descend to meet the trains or leave +them, to make their ascend to the city above. To give the reader an idea +of the immense amount of traveling done in these dark passages under +London, it need only be stated that long trains of cars pass each station +every "ten minutes," and are as well filled with passengers as those of +railroads on the surface of the earth. The cars are comfortably lighted, +so that after one has taken his seat and the train begins to run along, it +resembles night-traveling so perfectly, that the difference is scarcely +perceptible.</p> + +<p>Of all modes of travel, these underground railroads afford the quickest, +cheapest, safest and most convenient manner of transit.</p> + +<p>This great metropolis includes the cities of London and Westminster, the +borough of Southwark, and thirty-six adjacent parishes, precincts, +townships, &c. It covers an area of 122 square miles, and has a population +of about 4,000,000, that of the <i>City of London proper</i> being no more than +about 75,000. Murray's Modern London contains the following statistics:</p> + +<p>"The Metropolis is supposed to consume in one year 1,600,000 quarters of +wheat, 300,000 bullocks, 1,700,000 sheep, 28,000 calves, and 35,000 pigs." +(If these animals were arranged in a double line, they would constitute a +drove over a thousand miles long!)</p> + +<p>"One market alone (Leadenhall) supplies about 4,025,000 head of game. +This, together with 3,000,000 of salmon, irrespective of other fish and +flesh, is washed down by 43,200,000 gallons of porter and ale, 2,000,000 +gallons of spirits, and 65,000 pipes of wine. To fill its milk and cream +jugs, 13,000 cows are kept. To light it at night, 360,000 gas-lights +fringe the streets, consuming, every twenty-four hours, 13,000,000 cubic +feet of gas; while the private consumption of gas in a year amounts to +10,000,000,000 cubic feet. Its arterial or water system supplies the +enormous quantity of 44,383,328 gallons per day, while its venous or sewer +system carries off 9,502,720 cubic feet of refuse. To warm its people and +to supply its factories, a fleet, amounting to upwards of a thousand sail, +is employed in bringing annually 3,000,000 tons of coal, exclusive of +2,000,000 tons brought by rail. The thirsty souls of London need have no +fear of becoming thirstier so long as there are upwards of 6,700 public +houses and 2,000 wine merchants to minister to their deathless thirst.</p> + +<p>"The bread to this enormous quantity of sack is represented by 2,500 +bakers, 1,700 butchers, not including pork butchers, 2,600 tea dealers and +grocers, 1,260 coffee-room keepers, nearly 1,500 dairy-men, and 1,350 +tobacconists. To look after the digestion of this enormous amount of food +upwards of 2,400 duly licensed practitioners, surgeons and physicians are +daily running to and fro through this mighty metropolis, whose patients, +in due course of time and physic, are handed over to the tender mercies of +500 undertakers. Nearly 3,000 boot and shoe-makers give their aid to keep +our feet dry and warm, while 2,950 tailors do as much for the rest of our +bodies. The wants of the fairer portion of the population are supplied, by +1,080 linen drapers, 1,500 milliners and dressmakers; 1,540 private +schools take charge of their children; and 290 pawn-brokers' shops find +employment and profit out of the reverses, follies, and vices of the +community. It is said that 700,000 <i>cats</i> are kept in London, to maintain +whom large part of the 3,000 horses which die every week is sold by +cat's-meat vendors. About 520,000 (1873) houses give shelter to upwards of +three millions of people, whose little differences are aggravated or +settled by upwards of 3,000 attorneys and 3,900 barristers.</p> + +<p>"The spiritual wants of this mighty aggregate of human souls are cared for +by more than 2,000 clergymen and dissenting ministers, who respectively +preside over 620 churches and 423 chapels, of which latter buildings the +Independents have 121, the Baptists 100, the Wesleyans 77, the Roman, +Catholics about 90, whereas in 1808 they had but 13, the Calvinists and, +English Presbyterians 10 each, the Quakers 7, and the Jews 10; the +numerous other sects being content with numbers varying from one to five +each. To wind up with the darkest part of the picture, the metropolis +contains on an average 129,000 paupers."</p> + +<p>On my way to London, I fell in company with a young gentleman who was well +acquainted in the metropolis, and who gave me much valuable information, +and assisted me in establishing myself in a central location, where +excursions to all sections could be conveniently made. This was "King's +Cross Station," the terminus of the Great Northern Railway, and one of the +principal stations of the Metropolitan (or Underground) Railroad; +besides, it is in the heart of the great city. We reached it by the +Underground Railway from Paddington, the terminus of the Great Western +Railway. When we <i>came up out of the earth</i> at Kings Cross, I saw a +<i>busy-ness</i> such as I had never seen before. My friend went with me a +short distance to point out a street where private rooms could be rented.</p> + +<p>The tourist who wants to make the most of his time must never engage to +board at his lodging-place, as it will be very inconvenient and at a +sacrifice of much time, to return thither for his meals. The most +economical way is to have a room either at a hotel or at a private house, +and to take the meals at the numerous restaurants, one of which can be +reached anywhere in five minutes.</p> + +<p>I had great difficulty in procuring a room, but persisted in my inquiries +until I succeeded. The traveler will learn quicker than any other person +that <i>perseverence is the only road to success</i>. He must often see +everything go contrary for a whole hour, and even sometimes for half a day +in succession. Such reverses frequently occasion a "blue-Monday" in the +middle of the week.</p> + +<p>My first walk, after I had found a home in London, was to the Post-Office, +to look for letters from my friends in America, This was about three miles +off. I returned a different way, and took a look at the exterior of St. +Paul's. As the Covent Garden Theater (the finest in London) was already +full before I reached it, I went on to the Oxford Street Music Theater and +spent my first evening there. The next day (Wednesday, July 14th,) I +entered</p> + + + +<h3>St. Paul's Cathedral,</h3> + + +<p>the noblest building in England in the Classic style. Its length from east +to west is 550 feet and its height to the top of the cross 370 feet. Under +the dome is an area affording seats for 5,000 persons. Here 5,000 charity +children are collected on the first Thursday in June every year, to unite +their voices in songs of praise. Besides the dome, St. Paul's has two +other towers, each 222 feet high. In one of these is the clock and the +great bell upon which it strikes.</p> + +<p>The length of the minute-hand of the clock is eight feet, and its weight +seventy-five pounds; the length of the hour-hand is five feet five inches, +and its weight forty-four pounds. The bell is ten feet in diameter and +weighs 11,474 pounds. "It is inscribed, 'Richard Phelps made, me, 1716,' +and is never used except for striking the hour, and for tolling at the +deaths and funerals of any of the Royal Family, the Bishops of London, the +Deans of St. Paul's, and the Lord Mayor, should he die in his mayoralty."</p> + +<p>It requires a man three quarters of an hour every day to wind the clock, +the striking weight alone weighing 1,200 pounds.</p> + +<p>The dome constitutes a very remarkable whisper gallery, the slightest +whisper being transmitted from one side to the other with the greatest +distinctness.</p> + +<p>This Cathedral contains many fine monuments interesting from the persons +they commemorate. Among them are those to the Duke of Wellington, to +Nelson, to Lord Cornwallis, to Sir Charles Napier, to Sir William Jones, +the Oriental scholar, and numerous others.</p> + + + +<h3>Crystal Palace,</h3> + + +<p>which is outside of the city, is perhaps the grandest Exposition Building +in the world, and possibly the only structure of the kind in existence, +since the destruction, by fire, of Crystal Palace, in New York. This Great +Exhibition Building was first built upon Hyde Park, covering nearly +nineteen acres of ground. It was visited by upwards of 6,000,000 persons +during the twenty-four weeks that it was open, or about 40,000 persons +daily. The receipts amounted to over $2,000,000.</p> + +<p>It was re-erected and enlarged at Sydenham, in Kent, 1853-4, at a cost of +over $7,000,000.</p> + +<p>It must be over a quarter of a mile long, and about one-fourth as wide. +The entire sides and the whole of the immense arched roof are of glass, +admitting all the light except what little is intercepted by the sashes, +thus affording an illumination quite equal to that outside, under the +clear canopy of heaven.</p> + +<p>The exterior gardens and water-works are magnificent. Among the +attractions about the yard, is a glass tower about forty-five or fifty +feet in diameter and over 200 feet high. Beautiful indeed is this +magnificent crystal tower.</p> + +<p>A clock with sixty-nine faces shows the times of so many different places +on our planet. For the accommodation of such as are astronomically +inclined, I render the following record as I entered it upon my diary, +July 16th: Civil Middle Time, 12:40 p.m.; Astronomical Middle Time, 12:391/2 +p.m.; Sidereal Time, 19:493/4; True Time, 12:381/2 p.m.</p> + +<p>Around its great organ, there is seating accommodation for a choir of +2,000 singers.</p> + +<p>For seeing the building only, one could well afford to go a great +distance; but there are also constantly on exhibition a large collection +of curiosities of every description, while extensive bazars expose for +sale the richest and finest goods and wares of all kinds, and from the +stores of every quarter of the globe.</p> + +<p>There is also on exposition a large collection of plants, and a +magnificent art gallery of paintings, sculpture, &c. Concert every day.</p> + +<p>London has much fog and rain. I had but two fair days out of the eight I +spent there. One very rainy morning I started out to see the Houses of +Parliament. On my way thither I came to Trafalgar Square. In the center +stands the magnificent Nelson Column, surrounded by statues and +fountains. In order to-shield myself from the rain, and to enjoy the view +of the grand square before me, and of the Parliamentary Buildings in the +distance, I took refuge upon the portico of the National Gallery of +Paintings. Here I incidentally met and formed the acquaintance of the +brother of Miss Rosie Hersee, a songstress, who had lately made herself +popular in this country. After accompanying me through the Art Gallery, he +changed his programme for the afternoon, and had the kindness to spent the +balance of the day with me, showing me through the Houses of Parliament +and Westminster Abbey. The tourist should constantly be on the lookout for +some suitable companion who is well posted at the place that he proposes +to visit. Without such a person to point out things and explain them, one +will miss more than he sees. I had just taken leave of a gentleman who had +given me considerable assistance, but whose course so differed from my +programme, that I was in fear of losing time should I accompany him +longer. My new companion was a short-hand reporter of one of the London +papers, and thoroughly acquainted in Westminster.</p> + + + +<h3>The Houses of Parliament.</h3> + + +<p>This is one of the largest buildings ever erected continuously in +Europe--perhaps the largest Gothic edifice in the world. It stands upon +the bank of the Thames, occupying the site of the old Royal Palace of +Westminster, burnt down in 1834, and covers nearly eight acres. This +building has 100 staircases, more than two miles of corridors, and 1,100 +apartments! The cost of erection was some $14,000,000, or a little more +than that of the Capitol of the United States.</p> + +<p>Having procured tickets we entered by the Royal Entrance under the +Victoria Tower, one of the most stupendous structures of the kind in the +world. It is 340 feet high and seventy-five feet square. The entrance +archway is sixty-five feet high, and the vault is a rich and beautiful +grained roof of elaborate workmanship, while the interior is decorated +with statues of her present Majesty, supported by Justice and Mercy, and +the statues of the patron saints of England, Scotland and Ireland.</p> + +<p>The first apartment that we entered, was the Robing Room. From this room, +after the ceremony of robing, her Majesty on her way to the Throne passes +through a magnificent hall 110 feet long, forty-five feet wide and +forty-five feet high, called the Victoria Gallery. It contains two +magnificent frescoes of events in the history of England, covering large +sections of the two side-walls. One represents the death of Nelson, and +the other the meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of +Waterloo.</p> + +<p><i>The House of Peers</i>, ninety-seven feet long, forty-five feet wide, and +forty-five high, is one of the richest and most magnificent chambers in +the world. To the left of the entrance is the Throne on which her Majesty +sits when she attends the House, and beside it, the chair of the Prince of +Wales. Rich in carvings and lavishly gilt, this noble chamber presents a +view of great grandeur.</p> + +<p>The subdued light, admitted by the stained glass of its windows, does not +dazzle the eye as would a perfect illumination of such giltings, but what +is lost in <i>splendor</i>, is perhaps gained in <i>modest grandeur</i>.</p> + +<p>"The arrival of her Majesty is announced within the House by the booming +of the cannon. Her entrance is preceeded by the Heralds in their rich +dress, and by some of the chief officers of state in their robes. All the +peers are in their robes. The Speech is presented to her Majesty by the +Lord Chancellor, kneeling, and is read by her Majesty or by him; the Royal +Princes and Princesses with the Mistress of the Robes and one of the +ladies of the bed-chamber standing by her side on the dais. The return to +Buckingham Palace is by three at the latest."</p> + +<p>The old custom of examining the cellars underneath the House of Lords, +some hours before her Majesty's arrival, is still observed. This custom +had its origin in the infamous Gunpowder plot of 1605.</p> + +<p><i>The House of Commons</i> is sixty-two feet long by forty-five feet broad and +forty-five feet high; to which England and Wales return 500 members, +Ireland 105, and Scotland 53, making in all 658 members.</p> + +<p>St. Stephens Hall 95 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 56 feet high to the apex +of the stone groining, is lined by twelve "statues of Parliamentary +statesmen who rose to eminence by the eloquence and abilities they +displayed in the House of Commons," Fox and Pitt are here placed on +opposite sides of the hall, "facing" each other after the manner they were +wont to in the House of Commons.</p> + +<p>Westminster Hall is 290 feet in length, 68 feet in width, and 110 feet in +height. "It is the largest apartment not supported by pillars in the +world." Let the reader picture to himself the scenes of the events which +history records as having taken place in this venerable Hall. "Here were +hung the banners taken from Charles I., at the battle of Naseby; from +Charles II. at the battle of Worcester; at Preston and Dunbar; and, +somewhat later, those taken at the battle of Blenheim. Here, at the upper +end of the Hall, Oliver Cromwell was inaugurated as Lord Protector, +sitting in a robe of purple velvet lined with ermine, on a rich cloth of +state, with the gold sceptre in one hand, the Bible richly gilt and bossed +in the other, and his sword at his side. Here, four years later, at the +top of the Hall fronting Palace-yard, his head was set on a pole, with the +skulls of Ireton on one side, of Bradshaw on the other. Here, shameless +ruffians sought employment as hired witnesses, and walked openly in the +Hall with a straw in the shoe to denote their quality; and here the good, +the great, the brave, the wise, and the abandoned have been brought to +trial. Here (in the Hall of Rufus) Sir William Wallace was tried and +condemned; in this very Hall, Sir Thomas More and Protector Sommerset were +doomed to the scaffold. Here, in Henry VIII.'s reign (1517), entered the +City apprentices, implicated in the murders on 'Evil May Day' of the +aliens settled in London, each with a halter round his neck, and crying +'Mercy, gracious Lord, Mercy,' while Wolsey stood by, and the King, +beneath his cloth of state, heard their defense and pronounced their +pardon--the prisoners shouting with delight and casting up their halters +to the Hall roof, 'so that the King,' as the chroniclers observe, 'might +perceive they were none of the descreetest.' Here the notorious Earl and +Countess of Somerset were tried in the reign of James I. for the murder of +Sir Thomas Overbury. Here, the great Earl of Stafford was condemned; the +King being present, and the Commons sitting bareheaded all the time. The +<i>High Court of Justice</i> which condemned King Charles I. sat in this Hall, +the upper part hung with scarlet cloth, and the King sitting underneath, +with the Naseby banners suspended above his head. Lilly, the astrologer, +who was present, saw the silver top fall from the King's staff, and others +heard Lady Fairfax exclaim, when her husband's name was called over, 'He +has more wit than to be here.' Here, in the reign of James II., the seven +bishops were acquitted. Here Dr. Sacheverel was tried and pronounced +guilty by a majority of seventeen. Here the rebel Lords of 1745, +Kilmarnock, Balmerino, and Lovat, were heard and condemned. Here, Warren +Hastings was tried, and Burke and Sheridan grew eloquent and impassioned, +while Senators by birth and election, and the beauty and rank of Great +Britain, sat earnest spectators and listeners of the extraordinary scene. +The last public trial in the Hall was Lord Melville's in 1806; and the +last coronation dinner in the Hall was that of George IV., when, according +to the custom maintained for ages, and for the last time probably, the +King's champion (Dymocke) rode into the Hall in full armor, and threw down +the gauntlet, challenging the world in a King's behalf. Silver plates were +laid, on the same occasion, for 334 guests,"--<i>Murray</i>.</p> + +<p>The <i>Central</i> or <i>Octagon Hall</i> is an elegant and well lighted apartment +eighty feet in height. It is covered by a groined roof ornamented with 250 +bosses.</p> + +<p>The <i>Clock Tower</i> is forty feet square and 320 feet high. The Palace Clock +in this tower is an eighty-day clock, striking the hours and chiming the +quarters upon eight bells. Its four dials on the tower are each thirty +feet in diameter.</p> + +<p>From the Houses of Parliament we went over to see Westminster Abbey, +which is on the opposite side of the street. The contrast between those +buildings is so striking, that old Westminster seemed to be quite an +ordinary edifice. As I looked at its weather-beaten and moss-covered +walls, and its small proportions as compared with the grand edifice which +we had just left; I speculated what the old stable-like building might +look like on the inside. We had not entered long before I observed that it +was somewhat larger than I had imagined. It is 416 feet long, 203 feet +across the transepts, and 101 feet 8 inches to the roof.</p> + +<p>Back of the high altar is Edward the Confessor's Chapel containing the +graves and monuments of nine kings and queens. In this chapel are the two +<i>Coronation Chairs</i> upon which all the sovereigns of Great Britain have +been crowned since the death of Henry III., (by whom Westminster Abbey was +built), beginning with the coronation of his son? Edward I., and Queen +Eleanor, October 19th, 1274. One of these chairs has for a seat the +venerable stone on which the Scottish kings had been crowned at Scone from +time immemorial; but which together with the regalia of Scotland, Edward +I. brought with him as trophies in 1296. "This stone is 26 inches long, 16 +inches wide, and 11 inches thick."</p> + +<p>In the "Poet's Corner" we joined a party and were guided through the +chapels.</p> + +<p>In Henry VII.'s Chapel we found a very beautiful effigy of the Princess +Sophia lying in an alabaster cradle. This infant princess was the daughter +of James I., and is not mentioned by some historians, having died at a +very tender age.</p> + +<p>This chapel contains many royal tombs. Among others are the altar-tomb, +with effigy of the mother of Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of +Scots; tomb, with effigy of Queen Elizabeth (her sister, Mary, being +buried in the same grave); and the tomb, with a fine effigy of Mary, Queen +of Scots, erected by her son, King James IV., of Scotland, (being James I. +of England). The face of this image is very beautiful, and generally +recognized as a genuine likeness of the Queen. Oliver Cromwell's bones +were speedily ejected from this chapel at the Restoration.</p> + +<p>In the E. aisle of the North Transept is a remarkable monument to Mr. and +Mrs. Nightingale. Death represented in the ghastly form of a sheeted +skeleton has just issued from a dark aperture in the lower part of the +monument, and aims his dart at the sick lady who has sunk affrighted into +her husband's arms. "This dying woman," says Cunningham, "would do honor +to any artist."</p> + +<p>In another part of the church, we found a fine monument to "Major John +Andre, who raised by his merit, at an early period of life, to the rank of +Adj. General of the British forces in America, and employed in an +important but hazardous enterprise, fell a sacrifice to his zeal and his +king and country on the 2nd of October, A.D., 1780, aged 29 years, +universally beloved and esteemed. His gracious sovereign, King George the +Third, has caused this monument to be erected. The remains of Major John +Andre were on the 10th of August, 1821, removed from Tappan by James +Buchanan, Esq., his Majesty's consul at New York, under instruction from +his Royal Highness, the Duke of York, and with the permission of Dean and +Chapter finally deposited in a grave contiguous to this monument on the +28th of November, 1821."</p> + +<p>There are altogether between twenty-five and thirty kings and queens +buried in this Abbey, besides a host of England's most famous statesmen, +soldiers, poets and other eminent persons that have flourished within the +last five or six centuries, a mere catalogue of whose names would fill +whole pages.</p> + +<p>It seems odd enough to an American to find large graveyards in the +interior of churches and cathedrals, and to see monuments, tombs and +altar-tombs, with the effigies of persons lying in state having all kinds +of animals (their crests) lying at their feet; but a day in Westminster +will accustom one to such scenes.</p> + + + +<h3>Arms and Crests.</h3> + + +<p>In England, it is very common to place the crests of the nobility with +their effigies upon their tombs. Thus Mary, Queen of Scots, has the lion +lying at her feet, and in St. Mary's, at Warwick, I learned that the +Muzzled Bear is the Earl of Warwick's crest, while the Marquis of +Northampton has the Black Swan, and Richard Beauchamp the Bear and +Griffin. Even literary characters were not without them, Shakespeare for +example, had adopted the Falcon rising argent, supporting a spear, in +pale.</p> + + + +<h3>Sunday in London.</h3> + + +<p>On Sunday morning, July 18th, I started out at random to find a church +where religious service was held. Before going far I came to a large +church edifice (St. Pancras) where numbers of people were assembling from +all directions and gradually filling up that capacious building which has +seats for about 3,000 worshipers. Upon the portico I met the +Superintendent of the Mission House, who had accompanied the Vicar of St. +Pancras on a visit to Canada, some years ago, and who seemed as much +pleased to meet an American as I was benefited by his kind attentions and +accommodations. For three-fourths of an hour, he answered me questions and +explained the organization of the Church of England, which by the way, is +quite as complicated as the organization of the civil government of a +nation. Arch-bishops, bishops, vicars, canons, deans, chapters, curates, +&c., constitute a list of ecclesiastical dignitaries whose functions are +not very easily defined and comprehended by a stranger. Just before +service commenced, he conducted me to a seat near the pulpit. Rev. +Thorold, the officiating clergyman, is a very able speaker, and made the +first attempt at argument in his discourse that I had yet listened to in +England. Preaching, in England, like the reciting of prayers, is all so +much blank assertion--no more, and no less. I had never before so felt the +force of <i>unquestioned authority</i> as I learned to feel and appreciate it +in the services of the Episcopal Church of England. The very fact of +arguing a question is in itself a compromise of its one-sidedness and of +the infallibility of the position the preacher may have taken; but let the +clergy of an entire nation read the same mass and recite the same prayers +in all their congregations, and let them refrain from discussing +scriptural texts, and all give one and the same answer to each and every +question, and there will soon be an end of sectarianism. The best +reasoning has always provoked more doubt than it has established faith, +and in consequence, ever been more fruitful of contention than of peace. +So long as a people are one-minded they will be peaceful and contended +even if they are bound in wretched slavery, but the tide of revolution has +set in at London, and the church begins to tremble, and the clergy to +argue. In the afternoon, the weather being very fair, I went to</p> + + + +<h3>Hyde Park.</h3> + + +<p>This park has an area of 388 acres, upon which may be seen all the wealth +and fashion and splendid equipages of the nobility and gentry of England. +A meeting of the Radicals had been announced and placarded over the city, +inviting all workingmen to be present and enter their protest against +Parliament appropriating any money to the Prince of Wales for defraying +the expenses of his contemplated trip to India. The novelty of seeing a +political meeting on <i>Sunday</i>, and that too on the part of the Republicans +in monarchial England, was enough to entice me thither, so I went early +and spent an hour with a silver-haired clergyman, upon a settee under the +shade of a tree not far from "The Reform Tree," around which, as this +gentleman informed me, the nucleus of Radical meetings is always formed. +On my way to the park, I was accompanied for some distance by a certain +policeman, (whose acquaintance I had formed during the week); to him I +expressed my surprise at seeing Great Britain compromise the sacredness of +the Sabbath with radical Republicanism and Rationalism! "Well," said he, +"If we let them have their own way, they will come here and hold their +meetings and after they have listened to their leaders awhile and cheered +right lustily, they will scatter and that is the end of it, but when we +interfere, there is no telling where the matter will end. In 1866, we once +closed the park against them, and the consequence was a riot in which the +police suffered severely from brick-bats, and the mob finally took hold of +the iron fence and tore it away for a long distance along the park, made +their entry, and took their own way." "Well could you not have punished +those offenders according to due process of law?" I asked. "Yes," he +rejoined, "we might, but their number was so great that we could never +have finished trying them all!" Thus it often happens that what is +criminal for one or several to do, goes unpunished when a thousand offend, +and besides they open the way to new privileges and greater liberties.</p> + +<p>At 3:00 o'clock a mighty flood of the Reform Party, headed by Bradlaugh +and Watts, marched into the park and, soon a large meeting of many +thousands was formed, which increased in numbers as long as the speakers +continued to address them. It is a striking feature of these reform +agitations, perhaps of every revolutionary movement that has ever been +undertaken and accomplished, that they are headed and lead by men whose +personal influence embodies the whole power of the organizations, and +whose word and command are their supreme law. This meeting was variously +estimated at between 20,000 and 50,000 persons, and this immense concourse +of people was us perfectly under the control of Chas. Bradlaugh as the +best organized army can be under its general. This harmony must be +attributed to the fact that the movement is a spontaneous one in which +each member participates because he likes the leader and his principles. +It is an encouraging feature of these reformers that they do not despise +<i>everything</i> that the past has handed down to our time, as the +hot-blooded Communists of Paris seemed to be inclined to do in the late +<i>crisis</i>. The dress of these agitators speak nothing about bloody +revolution as did the "red cap" and slouch hat of the political reformers +of Europe of earlier times.</p> + +<p>Bradlaugh, for an example, wears a black dress coat, silk dress hat, +lay-down collar and black necktie, and carries a cane. The great majority +of the meeting wore also the fashionable "stove-pipe." These things and +the sound judgment of the leaders promise "peaceable reforms" but the +boundless enthusiasm of the mass of them when imflammatory remarks are +made, betray the existence of feelings that are akin to pent up volcanoes, +and may break out in violent eruptions when least expected. There is +certainly fire enough in European Republicanism to impel them on to mighty +efforts when the proper time comes. The part played by several ladies in +this movement has a salutary influence for moderation and order. Mrs. +Besant and the two daughters of Mr. Bradlaugh are always accompanying him +wherever he lectures in London. A table was placed in the center of a +circle formed around the leaders, and upon this Mr. Bradlaugh took his +stand in addressing the meeting. His voice is far more powerful than that +of any other man that I have ever heard, and by the use of medicine which +his elder daughter (Alice) reaches up to him very frequently during his +speeches, he keeps it perfectly clear to the end; though in these open +air meetings he often, stands in the face of 10,000 to 100,000 persons, +speaking by the hour with a force quite equal to the roaring of a lion. +This violent exercise of his vooal organs, he sometimes repeats several +times every day for a month in succession, displaying powers of endurance +which are perhaps not equaled by any other living orator. It is an +exciting scene to behold acres of hats beclouding the sky while "cheers +rend the air," and to see a field white with hands when votes are taken. +Only three persons in this entire meeting voted in favor of granting the +Prince of Wales the $700,000 asked for, while some acres of people voted +against it.</p> + +<p>It should be remembered that this was a meeting of the <i>extreme</i> branch of +the Republican party in London. There is a more moderate party headed by +leaders who only despise royalty, but abide with the Church and the +Christian religion, and which is said to be far more numerous than the +extremists are. In the evening the Radicals had a meeting in the Hall of +Science, where Mr. Bradlaugh addressed them on the subject of religion and +social ethics. His discourses here are generally very abtruse. None but a +very intelligent audience, and educated in his system of philosophy would +understand his logic or appreciate his wit and humor at the expense of +royalty and Christianity. The hall will hold about 1,500 adults and his +congregation (?) is a mixed one comprising both sexes, just like all +church organizations; after which, it is a copy. There is no praying, but +the Miss Brad laughs render music upon a melodian or organ both before and +after the lecture. In place of the "collection," they charge a small +admittance, which becomes a source of considerable revenue; as the hall is +crowded at almost every meeting. I must here record, one more feature +which implies, besides the oratorical powers and progressive originality +of the father, an intensity of interest on the part of a daughter, in her +father's views, such as is seldom witnessed. Miss Alice B. will, from the +beginning to the end of every lecture, keep the eye of her father, +watching every change of his countenance from the flush of a glowing +enthusiasm to the pallor of bitter contempt, catching every syllable he +utters, reflecting with beaming smiles every happy hit he makes, and +sinking down to the paleness of utter disdain with him, when he comes to +the recital of the heartless oppressions of the aristocracy; continually +following his remarks with such an interest as if she was seeing and +hearing him for the first time in her life.</p> + +<p>I have given a somewhat lengthy account of these Radical meetings and +rationalistic sentiments, not on account of their popularity in England, +for though hundreds of thousands endorse the movement in London and a +number of other cities in Great Britain, still they are by far in the +minority, at least when the question of religion is taken; but upon the +continent of Europe--in France, Germany, and I had almost added +Switzerland and Italy, the case is already different or fast becoming so. +Rationalism is rampant, and the reader should constantly bear in mind, as +I may not often return to this topic, that the majority of the intelligent +people in most places are of the camp that I have described as holding +these meetings on Hyde Park and in the Hall of Science in London.</p> + +<p>Those Radical societies have their own hymn-books, and even their children +are baptised and the dead buried, according to their own forms and +ceremonies, of unbelief.</p> + +<p>Of the numerous other parks in London, I have no room to make mention. Of +the British Museum, comprising a collection of books, works of art, +antiquities, and curiosities, larger than that of any other museum +contained under one roof in the world, costing in the aggregate +$12,000,000, and the building $5,000,000, and of the South Kensington +Museum fast approaching the British Museum in the vastness of its +collection, I can only add, that a complete catalogue of their collections +would fill several large volumes, and to examine all their contents would +require many weeks. There are numerous other museums and galleries of art +strewn over the great metropolis, each more comprehensive than the pride +and boast of many other cities of pretention in the world, but in London +they are only regarded as second rate collections.</p> + +<p>If a tourist has only a few days to devote to London, he should not fail +to pass through Park Lane (along Hyde Park, at the foot of which lives the +son of Arthur, the Duke of Wellington, Commander at Waterloo) thence along +Piccadilly, passing Charing Cross, Trafalgar Square, the Strand and Fleet +Street, and, having visited Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral, +will now find</p> + + + +<h3>The Tower of London.</h3> + + +<p>next in importance. This ancient citadel is the most celebrated in +England, and dates back to the time of William the Conqueror (A.D., 1066) +at least; but tradition refers it even to Caesar's time. It covers over +twelve acres, and its walls are about three-fifth of a mile in circuit. +The outer walls of the White Tower, which stands within the +fortifications, are fifteen feet thick.</p> + +<p>"This Tower" (The Tower of London) "is a citadel to defend or command the +city; a royal palace; a prison of state for the most dangerous offenders; +the armory for warlike provisions; the treasury of the ornaments and +jewels of the Crown; and general conserver of most of the records of the +King's courts of justice at Westminster."--<i>Stow</i>.</p> + +<p>The Bloody Tower, so called because within it was committed the murder of +the princes, Edward V. and Duke of York, sons of Edward IV., by order of +Richard III. In this Tower is the Jewel-house containing the regalia and +the Crown jewels. Among these, are St. Edward's Crown which was made for +the coronation of Charles II., (A.D., 1649), and used in the coronations +of all the sovereigns since his time. The Crown made for the coronation of +Victoria, consisting of a purple velvet cap enclosed by hoops of silver, +and studded with diamonds. It weighs 13/4 pounds. This Crown is estimated at +£111,900 (about $550,000). The Crown of the Prince of Wales, of pure gold, +unadorned by jewels. The Queen Consort's Crown, of gold adorned with +precious stones. The Queen's Diadem. Besides, staffs, sceptres, spurs, the +Ampulla of the Holy Oil, the Coronation Spoon, the Golden Salt-cellar of +State, in the shape of a castle, Baptismal Font, used at the Christening +of the Royal Children, a Silver Wine Fountain, maces, swords, bracelets +&c.,--all arranged upon a large table, enclosed by a glass case and +shielded by iron palings. These treasures are estimated at $17,000,000!</p> + +<p>The Horse Armory is contained in a hall 150 feet long and 33 feet wide. In +the center, is a line of equestrian figures, 22 in number, clothed in the +armor of the various reigns from the time of Edward I. to James II. +(1272-1688). When armory had reached its height, just before the +introduction of gunpowder, the suits of armor were so heavy and covered +the bodies of the soldiers and horses so completely, that a knight in +full armor looked much like a turtle sitting upon an armadillo. I saw a +suit of armor that weighs 112 pounds, and a spear 18 feet in length. In +those days physical strength carried almost everything, while intelligence +frequently counted nothing. Looking at those mailed figures makes one +almost feel ashamed of his ancestry. Besides one of the blocks upor which +were beheaded both the innocent and the guilty in former times, there are +also on exhibition the Collar of Torture, 14 pounds in weight, the +Thumb-screw, the Stocks, &c., a collection of instruments of torture well +calculated to restore in the mind of the beholder, a vivid picture of the +dark and wretched past, when man's greatest and most dangerous enemy was +his brother. It seemed then to be the best policy of kings, queens, and of +all noblemen, to get rid of brothers and sisters at the earliest +convenience!</p> + +<p>On our way to Beauchamp Tower, the Prison of Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane +Grey, we passed Tower Green, where Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey and +Catherine Howard, three queens, were beheaded.</p> + +<p>This is the place where King Henry VIII. had several of his six wives +dispatched, which he could not well have got rid of, by divorce.</p> + +<p>I had intended to touch in these remarks a number of other points about +London, and especially the almost boundless resources of England's welthy +Lords, but I can only present a single example, and must then hurry on +with my account to Continental Europe. The wealthiest nobleman whose home +and dwelling-place I passed, is the Duke of Maclew (a Scotchman) whose +annual income is estimated at £350,000 or about $1,700,000. He lives at +White Hall, near Westminster Bridge.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch07"> +<h2>Chapter VII.</h2> + +<h3>London to Paris.</h3> + + + +<p>On Wednesday, July 21st, the eight day of my stay in London, I went to +Charing Cross Station and procured a ticket for Paris. Before leaving +however, I exchanged my English currency for French money. The rate of +Exchange is 25 francs for one sovereign. The exchange clerk explained to +me the relative values of the French coins which I found to be much easier +to understand than English money.</p> + +<p>The table runs thus: 100 centimes equal one franc; and 20 francs, one +napoleon. The coins are: napoleons, (20£), 10 franc and 5 franc pieces in +gold; francs and half-franc coins in silver; and 10 centime, 5 centime, +(the sou), and 1 centime copper and nickle coins, though the centime is +not in general circulation now, being equal to but one fifth of a cent in +our money. It was a great consolation to me to know that I would +understand the French money perfectly, especially as I expected not to be +able to speak with anybody in Paris, except, now and then, with a stray +German or Englishman. Soon after entering the train at Charing Cross I met +a Frenchman (Prof. P. Simond who could speak English fluently, having +occupied his time in England in teaching French, and was on his way to +Paris to spend his vacation there. He offered at once, very kindly, to +assist me in Paris, and I felt from that moment that I should be ten-fold +luckier in making my entry into Paris than I had thus far had reason to +expect. The train left London at 6:35 p.m., and was to make connection +with a steamer for Calais, (pron. Kăl'ĭ), thence by rail to Paris, +reaching the latter place the next afternoon. The "through ticket" 3rd +Class, from London to Paris, cost 21 shillings. Distance 262 miles.</p> + +<p>Soon after leaving London, I discovered that I was surrounded by the +family of an English merchant, who, having retired from business, had +taken his wife and daughters to make a trip to the Continent, with a view +to see France and Germany. The mother expressed great delight on learning +that I was an American, remarking that "Americans are not so <i>stiff</i> in +their intercourse." It was lot long before I felt that I was in a fair +position to spend the <i>day and night en route from London to Paris</i> +pleasantly, even if we were to be confined to the cars and the boat with +the exception of a few hours.</p> + +<p>We crossed the Strait of Dover at about midnight, though not <i>unawares</i>!</p> + +<p>As I had no fears of getting sea-sick upon the Strait of Dover, I took my +seat on the deck in confidence of a pleasant voyage. Mrs. L. soon asked me +whether I did not expect to get sick, stating that she was in great fear +of it. I replied that I hoped our passage was too short for getting sick, +as the waves were not apt to rise very high in such a narrow strait. But I +was mistaken; the sick were soon moaning in every direction. My gay +companions all disappeared except the old gentleman and his younger +daughter. A large steamship of 3,000 tons burden would probably show more +dignity, but the little steamer upon which we had taken passage, was as +fiercely knocked about by the waves, and made fully as much ado about it, +as the old "Manhattan" ever did in the middle of the Atlantic. The young +lady was keeping close to her father and had already ceased to laugh, when +I asked him the last time about their health. <i>He</i> was well, but the young +lady was also becoming dizzy from the rocking, and turning pale at the +terrors of the sea. I hastened to the cabin below and sought relief in +lying down. Being both weary and giddy I soon fell into a sleep, from +which I did not wake until we reached Calais.</p> + +<p>The train for Paris was not to leave until the next morning, so I tried to +find rest and sleep in the Waiting Room, but without success. By and by a +gentleman came round and offered to conduct us to lodging places. I +followed him into the city, through strange streets into a strange house, +and was shown to retire in a strange room. Everything seemed in its place, +however, so that I had no occasion for feeling uneasy. The next morning I +rose at break of day and took a long walk through the city of Calais, to +look about and see as much, as possible before I had to leave. This was my +first walk on the Continent of Europe.</p> + +<p>I looked about where I might get breakfast, but as most of the business +houses were not yet open, I stood a poor chance. Into the saloons I would +not go, as I could not have asked for what I wanted on account of my +inability to speak French; my only hope, therefore, was to find a shop or +store that displayed in the window what I wanted, so that I could make my +purchase by gestures. I had provided myself with a Conversational Guide +Book, in London, containing the French, Italian and German equivalents of +English words and phrases, most necessary to the tourist; but the French +pronunciation is so difficult that I could after all not make myself +understood except by pointing out these French words to the shop-keepers. +To give the reader an idea of what mistakes an American is apt to make in +pronouncing French, I offer the names of two of the most common articles +of food. They are <i>pain</i> (bread) pronounced pä, and <i>lait</i> (milk) +pronounced lā. I succeeded, however, later in the morning, when the +shops were generally open, to procure a breakfast, whereupon, after having +visited a very antique church and examined the strong fortifications of +the city, I started for the railway station.</p> + +<p>On my way thither I passed the open door of a saloon in which Mr. and +Mrs. L., whose friendship I had formed the previous day, sat at coffee. It +was a pleasant surprise, and I took my seat with them, drinking coffee for +the benefit of the milk (<i>du lait</i>) which I poured into it. This done, Mr. +L. invited me to accompany him to their hotel to "see what a nice place +they had found last night!" It was a excellant hotel, and as we approached +the beautiful flower-beds which lined the path leading to the entrance, +their daughter came down the walk, and greeted us, the old gentleman +remarking that they had been inquiring last night what had become of me. +It is very pleasant and agreeable to fall into such society, and to behold +the cloth spread and the China and glass ware set with an excellent +breakfast (a regular home-fashion scene) after one has spent several hours +in lingual conflicts for a breakfast, and seen nothing but the outside of +old weather-beaten houses.</p> + +<p>I took my seat with the English party and my French friend (Prof. P.S.) in +the same car, and left Calais at 7:20 a.m. Everything looked strange +again; even more so than when I first came to England. Everybody, except +our English company, spoke French, and the cars, the buildings, and the +tickets and conductors, seemed all different from what I was accustomed to +in England. The houses which we saw from the train, were small and covered +with tiles like those which I had seen in northwestern England. We soon +passed burial grounds in which the graves were headed with crosses, in +place of marble slabs, for tombstones. Large quantities of peat and the +white stone quarries in the chalk formations, next arrested our attention. +Though it was the 22nd of July, haying was not yet finished. Some of the +farmers were, however, engaged in reaping both their wheat and barley. At +8:34 a.m., the English Channel came again into view. Thus we passed along +enjoying the scenery of "belle France," (beautiful France), but by and by +we became tired of watching landscapes.</p> + +<p>To see odd styles of architecture, and watch the strange ways about a +people, may afford a pleasant diversion for a time; but the eyes, too, +become tired of looking. A striking feature about the agriculture is the +smallness of many of the fields; there being no fences, the fields are +distinguished by their crops. Some of them are but several rods in extent. +The various colors which the different kinds of vegetables assume in their +progress of growth and ripening, make the landscape look like an immense +expanse of checkered carpet, exceedingly beautiful to behold.</p> + +<p>When these scenes seemed no longer to be charming, or we had become too +fatigued to appreciate them, we commenced to amuse ourselves in games, +joking and tricks, of which the traveler sees and enjoys his fill.</p> + +<p>Gambling; which is such a wide-spread social evil in America, is +prohibited or restricted to certain fixed days of the year, in some +countries of Europe; but games of various kinds are played, by the best +society, almost everywhere. Notwithstanding all the arguments that may be +advanced in favor of games at chess and back-gammon, as exercises in +mental gymnastics, and of playing cards as affording pleasant diversion +for mixed parties, the diligent tourist, like the industrious student, +should not squander much of his time at it.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch08"> +<h2>Chapter VIII.</h2> + +<h3>Paris.</h3> + + + +<p>In the middle of the afternoon, we reached the Northern Railway Terminus +<i>(Embarcadere du Nord) </i> in Paris. This magnificent station covers nearly +10 acres of ground. The arrival and departure sheds in the center are 230 +metres long, and 70 metres wide. (The meter is equal to 39.370079 inches). +Its facade is 180 metres long, 38 metres (about 125 feet) high and +consists of a lofty central arch and two lateral arches. This imposing +front is adorned with twenty-three colossal statues of noble female +figures, representing the following, principal cities of Europe: Paris, +(surmounting the central arch), Londres, St. Petersburg, Berlin, +Frankfort, Vienne, Bruixelles, Cologne, Amsterdam, Donai, Dunkerque, +Boulogne, Compeigne, St. Quentin, Cambrai, Beauvais, Lille, Armiens, +Rouen, Arras, Laon, Calais, Valengiens. (1864).</p> + +<p>There are a number of other very fine railway stations in Paris, but we +can only take room to define their area. The largest is the Strasbourg +Railway Terminus, nearly 13 acres in extent; while the Western Railway +Terminus covers an area of 5 acres.</p> + +<p>As soon as our train had stopped, I followed my French companion (Prof. +S.) into the extensive apartments of the station, and passed muster. I +expected to be asked for my "passport," but slipped through unchallenged. +On passing out into the yard I was again saluted by my English friends who +were about entering a "bus" to drive to a hotel. In bidding each other +good-by and god-speed on our journeys, I ran a great risk of losing my +Parisian friend, in the great multitude of people that thronged the yard +and pavement; but fortunately, I found him again in a few minutes.</p> + +<p>Before we reached the street, I was already made to feel that some strange +scenes and experiences were undoubtedly in store for me in Paris and +likely throughout the rest of my continental tour, for I had already +observed one of those strange social habits of the Parisians in a most +public place which the nice delicacies of our language and customs forbid +to describe.</p> + +<p>The French, the Italians, and many of the inhabitants of South Germany and +parts of Switzerland--I should say all the sunny lands in Europe--have +handed down to our day, manners and customs which speak in a language that +cannot be misunderstood, and with a force far louder than a whisper, that +<i>it is not very long since man took to dressing himself</i>. In my +intercourse with those people, from Paris to Egypt, I nowhere observed any +baneful influences exerted over morality by these practices in question, +for they are not thought about by those people which are guilty of them, +but many an American will be shocked at them, and go home declaring that +such indecencies <i>must</i> lead to immoralities, even if they have never gone +to the trouble to see whether they actually <i>do</i>. Their pernicious +influence upon American tastes and manners may be granted, but that does +not prove that foreigners, who are cradled, nursed and brought up in these +customs, will be affected in like manner. American and English tourists +are alike shocked and provoked at the sight of the innumerable nude +statues and paintings, on the, pleasure gardens and in the art galleries, +but the ladies of the continent seem to see as little of indecencies or +improprieties in those things, as we do in opening our Bibles and seeing +saints and apostles represented with bare feet--the <i>toes</i> standing out +naked over the sandals, or when we read in the family circle and in the +public capacity of teachers and ministers, passages from Scriptures, +such as no one would be capable of reading if they were found in a +periodical or a newspaper.</p> + +<p>During my first month on the continent, I was often vexed to think that +much of what I saw, that was not only very interesting and impressive, but +which had likewise an important bearing on history, was of such a nature +that it would either constitute unfit material for general diffusion, or +seem to be incredible to the average reader.</p> + +<p>We went down Boulevard (pron. Bool'var') de Magenta about one-third of a +mile, to Boulevard de Strasbourg, (pron. Straws'boor'), thence along that +avenue (?) to the foot of it (another third of a mile) and continued our +walk down Boulevard de Sebastopol to Rue de Rivoli, along which latter +street we went half a mile west, where my friend, guide and teacher +procured for me a room not far from <i>his</i> home.</p> + +<p>[With this gentleman I spent from three to five hours daily, during my +first stay of fifteen days, in walking about the city seeing sights and +studying French reading and pronunciation].</p> + +<p>As soon as I had taken my room, I retraced my steps to the railway station +and fetched my sachel; this time, alone. It was not a little task, for the +distance from my quarters, which were near the center of Paris, to the +station, was over two miles. The names of the Boulevards "Magenta, +Strasbourg and Sebastopol," I was constantly repeating in my mind, so that +I might not forget the way that I had come with my friend, the first time. +It was dark by the time I reached my lodging place the second time, but I +had seen and learned enough for one day. Almost two miles of <i>Boulevards</i> +and nearly half a mile of Rue de Rivoli (the finest <i>Rue</i> in Paris) thrice +walked that afternoon, had presented to me more that was new, than I had +expected to see in a week.</p> + + + +<h3>The Boulevards,</h3> + + +<p>like a dozen other of the distinguishing features of Paris, are <i>new +things</i> to the American; and as they are quite different from anything +that I have yet seen of the kind in this country, I shall here take room +to note some of their striking characteristics. They are the grandest +streets in Paris, sustaining about the same relation to the "Rues" that +the avenues in our American cities sustain to the streets. In the French +nomenclature, the names applied the different classes of thoroughfares, +&c., run as follows: 1st., avenues; 2nd., boulevards; 3rd., rues; 4th., +allees or ruelles, and 5th., passages (pron. pahsahjes). In America, the +corresponding terms are 1st., avenues; 2nd.,----; 3rd., streets; 4th., +alleys, and 5th., passages. It will be observed, that we have here nothing +to correspond with the boulevard. In the classification here presented, +the term avenue is to designate thoroughfares of great width and shaded +with rows of trees on each side, as are the avenues in Washington, D.C. In +most American cities, the avenues are diagonal streets or openings +connecting distant points of the cities, but this definition loses most of +its force when applied to European cities, as they are not built square or +rectangular.</p> + +<p>Champs Elysees intersects a fine and extensive reservation, (having many +of the characteristics of the pleasure garden), extending from the Jardin +des Tuileries (Garden of the Tuileries) to the Arc de Triomphe (the Arch +of Triumph). Its length is a mile and a quarter, and the garden or park of +which it is the grand thoroughfare, is, in one place, about a third of a +mile in width. The buildings are consequently a considerable distance off +from this carriage-way; but in the boulevards, nothing except the pavement +intervenes between the street and the houses. The boulevards of Paris are +its widest as well as its noblest streets. The pavements on each side of +them, are, in many instances from twenty-five to thirty feet in width. +Thick rows of large and elegant shade-trees border them on both sides, and +under these are placed numerous wooden settees for the accommodation of +the public. Many of the 6,000 cafes which are strewn over Paris, grace +these boulevards with their glass fronts. During the summer season, most +of the refreshments and meals are served in front of the cafes on the +pavements, and grand is the sight of seeing ten thousand gay Parisians +seated along these splendid streets, chattering away over their wine and +coffee! Paris is about five miles long by four miles wide, and few are the +houses in the entire city that are less than five or six stories high. A +few only of the outer streets have as low as four and five story houses. +These houses are mostly built of stone, having stone floors, even. Each +room is arched over from the four walls; upon these arches are placed the +flagstones constituting the next floor, and it is in consequence of this +arching that each story is so very high. The white sandstone of the Paris +basin constitutes the principal building stone. The city is divided into +seven sections, and each section is required by law, to either scrape the +fronts of their houses once every seven years, so that the walls look new +again, or to paint them anew. No proprietor can choose his time, but when +the year is come for his section to repair their houses, it must be done. +In consequence of this regulation, the streets never look <i>checkered</i> by +old and new houses contrasting with each other, but the external +appearance of the buildings is made to harmonize, and each street is a +unit in appearance. In the finest part of Paris there are few alleys or +stables, but splendid rues and boulevards lined with magnificent buildings +with elegant fronts, have taken their places. This section is over three +miles in length, nearly two in width, and presents scenes of beauty, +grandeur and magnificence which are <i>unrivaled</i> by anything that the first +other cities of the world have ever brought forth.</p> + +<p>Its beautiful balconies, as numerous as the windows, constitute another +very charming feature of Parisian scenery. The streets are always kept +clean and wet by sweepers and sprinklers, and the broad smooth pavements +along the boulevards, free from dust and all manner of rubbish or +obstructions, afford a suitable promenade for gayety, wealth and fashion +to roam. Here beauty's feet may stray, arrayed in the most showy colors or +the stateliest attire, without fear of encountering nasty crossings or of +being splashed over and soiled by teams upon muddy streets. Ladies +attired in gaudy ball-room dresses with long trails, would scarcely +present a contrast in dress with the average promenaders. All dress +equally well, on Sundays, and on week-days, so that Paris presents to the +foreigner, the appearance of a city celebrating an eternal Sabbath. Even +when it rains, the pedestrian can walk <i>for miles</i> about the city, without +being in want of an umbrella. In that event he need only confine his +course to the</p> + + + +<h3>Arcades and Passages.</h3> + + +<p>Webster defines an arcade as "A long, arched building or gallery lined on +each side with shops." May the reader not be misled by this definition; +for the arcades of Paris do not have shops on <i>both</i> sides. They are a +uniform system of porticoes generally from twenty to thirty feet in width. +Those on Rue de Rivoli are about a mile in length, and the houses to which +they belong have been exempted from taxes for thirty years. From these +ramify numerous passages and other arcades, connecting different parts of +the city.</p> + +<p>A "Passage" (pron. pä-sahj) is a street covered with a glass roof, +elegantly paved, animals and vehicles excluded or shut off, and lined by +the first-class shops in the city. The most remarkable are the Passages +des Panoramas, Jouffroy, Verdean, Vivienne, Colbert, Choiseul, Delorine du +Saumon, &c. The first of these are the most brilliant and are perhaps not +excelled or even equaled by any other in the world, with the solitary +exception of Passage des Victor Emanuel of Milan, in Italy. Some of these +passages are called</p> + + + +<h3>Galleries.</h3> + + +<p>The Galerie d'Orleans in Palais Royal, is a good example. This lofty hall, +forty feet wide and 300 feet long, extending between a double range of +shops, connects the arcades extending around the other three sides of the +inner court of that palace, (now turned into shops, bazaars, etc.)</p> + +<p>Many of the grand boulevards and rues of Paris have been built since 1848, +and the work of widening and improving old streets and building new ones +is still going on with constantly increasing vigor.</p> + +<p>There are now in progress of construction, broad boulevards, which can +only be constructed at the sacrifice of many acres of some of the finest +buildings in Paris; but only beauty and grandeur are regarded anything in +this noble city, expenses being but little estimated. Notwithstanding the +lavish expenditure of money upon this class of improvements, Paris is, of +all cities, perhaps the most prosperous on the globe.</p> + +<p>Of the wide-spread destruction of public buildings, occasioned by the late +war and the stormy days of the Commune, there are but few marks remaining. +The Palace of the Tuileries, Hotel de Ville, and a few other buildings, +lie still in ruins; but the thirty or more churches which were either +greatly damaged or quite demolished, and numerous other public edifices +that have been destroyed, have already been restored--some of them with +increased magnificence. Besides this, the French have almost finished +paying their immense war-debt, while America, whose war ended seven years +before theirs, is obliged to sail into the centennial year, still heavily +freighted with the obnoxious burden.</p> + +<p>Did heaven ever smile upon a more blessed city than Paris? To give the +reader an idea of how buildings are torn down to make room for the purpose +of extending fine streets, let us refer to the statistics concerning Rue +de Rivoli. This street cost $30,000,000. It is two miles in length, and +its establishment caused the demolition of upwards of one thousand houses! +Thirty millions of dollars, enough to pay for a tract of land that is +twenty miles long and eleven miles wide, bought at the rate of $200 per +acre; and all this expended on the improvement of two miles of road!</p> + +<p>In the Old World, a strip of three to five or six story houses, several +hundred feet wide and a quarter of a mile to upwards of a mile in length, +is torn down with as much complacent indifference concerning the +destruction, as men manifest in mowing so much grass!</p> + +<p>As among the most fashionable places in Paris, may be mentioned, Boulevard +des Italiens, Palais Royal, Champs Elysees, Jardin des Tuileries and +other pleasure gardens and public squares. Boulevard des Italiens, in +fair weather, is densely crowded with ladies and gentlemen seated on +chairs hired for two to three sous (cents) each. The city clears over +$7,000 a year from this source of revenue. But several hundred steps +toward the west of this street stand the Academic de Musique (the most +splendid opera-house in the world) and the Grand Hotel--two of the most +brilliant edifices in the city.</p> + + + +<h3>Palais Royal,</h3> + + +<p>as it now stands, was completed in 1786. This building, like most of the +palaces in Europe, is built around a quadrangle, and its plan may be +compared to a pupil's slate used for ciphering. The frame corresponds to +the form or ground-plan of the buildings, and the slate, to the court or +yard which they inclose. This inner court or garden, 700 feet long and 300 +feet wide, containing nearly five acres of land, is planted with lime +(linden?) trees from end to end, and two flower gardens. In the middle is +a fine <i>jet d'eau</i> (a fountain). "The garden was thus arranged in 1799; it +contains bronze copies of Diane a la Biche of the Louvre, and the Apollo +Belvedere; two modern statues in white marble, one of a young man about to +bathe, by d'Espercieux; the other of a boy struggling with a goat, by +Lemoine; Ulysses on the sea-shore, by Bra; and Eurydice stung by the +snake, by Nanteuil, a fine copy in bronze, but more fitted for a gallery +than the place it now occupies. Near this statue is a <i>solar cannon</i>, +which is fired by the sun when it reaches the meridian, and regulates the +clocks of Palais Royal."</p> + +<p>From the privilege of supplying refreshments and from the hiring of +chairs, the Government derives an annual rent of $7,000.</p> + +<p>The shops under the arcades are chiefly devoted to articles of luxury, and +are among the most elegant in Paris. Many restaurants are on the first +floor; here, were formerly the gambling-houses which rendered this place +so notorious. The best time for visiting Palais Royal is in the evening, +when the garden and arcades are brilliantly illuminated and full of +people. The shops of the watch-makers and the diamond windows are then +particularly brilliant. In the most magnificent windows the articles have +no price marks; but in the best windows in which the articles have price +marks, I saw lockets priced $200; rings for $900; ear-rings for $1,000 a +pair; a pair of diamond studs for $2,800; crosses for $320; and a necklace +worth $3,000.</p> + +<p>Palais Royal has been called the capital of Paris. During the early part +of the first Revolution, its gardens became the resort of the most violent +politicians; here, the tri-coloured cockade was first adopted, and the +popular party decided on many of its bolder measures.</p> + +<p>There is little room for doubt, that the Cafe, one of the characteristic +features of French society, is a potent factor in civilizing and refining +the human race, in these latter times. Religion and intelligence--moral +ideas, moral habits and the collective knowledge of our ancestors--has +been transmitted from one generation to another down to our time, by the +Church and the Schools, principally. But the affairs of the human race +have taken a new turn since the invention of printing, by which the steady +development of traditional ideas has been arrested, so that the propriety +of retaining the standards of ancient civilization as patterns for the +present, is being questioned and discussed everywhere. In this great +revolutionary era, the authority of the past and even the respect +naturally due to parents is very generally disregarded. This latter sad +feature of failing to do homage to the aged, is not more the result of a +lack of love and esteem, on the part of children for their parents, than +of the want of confidence which parents have in themselves. We can take an +illustration from our young ladies. A few generations ago, the traditional +white cap constituted the head-dress of the young maidens among the +catechumens, when they presented themselves for the first time at the +altar; now, in place of having all the heads look alike, every head must +present a different phase. We still find sections in the Old World, where +all the dresses of the young are "cut out of the same piece," so to say, +and made after the same pattern, so that all the individuals of a company +are almost as nearly dressed alike, as soldiers in uniform. Rev. Bausman, +in his Wayside Gleanings, page 141, in describing the appearance of people +at church in a certain section of Germany, portrays one feature in these +words: "Very pleasant was it to see every lady, old and young, having her +hymn book carefully folded in her white handkerchief." The clergy, and the +monks and nuns in Europe display like uniformity in their dress. In every +old picture or painting, representing a group or company of persons, it +will be observed that all the individuals are dressed and combed after the +same fashion.</p> + +<p>This incessant yearning and seeking for something new is of recent date, +and the key-note of a universal system of revolutions. Every season brings +a new style of dress, and what is true of fashion is true of everything +else. As it would ill become mothers to leave their family for a time and +learn the milliners' trade, she makes choice of one of her daughters to be +educated in that trade. This young girl after she has learned dressmaking +takes the place of the mother in the matter of providing clothes for the +family, and becomes in a large measure the mistress of the house. The same +thing happens to the baking department of the family. A score of new kinds +of pies and cakes have become fashionable in our day, and it is the +daughters that have the greatest opportunity to earn this baking of +pastries the quickest. The consequence is that the mother soon turns out +to be only a <i>second rate cook!</i> Fully aware that she can neither cook nor +make dresses, she resigns her position as head of these departments, +respectively to her daughters, who, when once master of the culinary and +millinery, affairs, will soon be master of the balance of the household +affairs. Need I say that the fathers of this generation are served about +the same way by their sons? And it is the same between the teacher and the +pupil. "Old fogy teacher" or "he has the old ways yet" are expressions +that are too common to require any explanation. Happily, most old teachers +have cleared the turf, and yielded their laurels to a host of youngsters, +ranging in age from about sixteen to twenty years! Thus all difficulties +are surmounted in this line, and "Young America" has the reins to himself! +Look at the improvements that have resulted from the efforts of inventive +genius, and at the progress that the arts and sciences have made. We are +in a <i>new world</i>, so different from that of our forefathers, that their +experiences count almost nothing in this new era. It is a sad picture to +see the young and the inexperienced thus groping in the dark, but it is +the inevitable consequence of the new turn that things have taken since +the inauguration of the <i>age of reason</i> [dating from the introduction of +printing (?)], Nevertheless, the young would display much greater +prudence, if they would bring many of their schemes and purposes to a +lower temperature by sitting still when age rises to speak, and were they +to take heed of the counsels and admonitions of those who are older than +themselves.</p> + +<p>This radical change in the affairs of the world being recognized, it +becomes apparent how the power and influence of the Church and Schools +must abate in a measure, and give scope, for a season, to a class of +institutions more fitted for revolutionary times. This transition era will +likely be marked as a glacial period in the history of religion, during +which time rationalism and infidelity will possibly be rampant in Europe, +if indeed they do not even establish their dominion in America, But we may +hope for a calm after the storm, when things will be steadied down again +to a smooth and even flow. In this our time, the transition era, theaters, +operas, cafes and the printing press, will play a very important part; the +press for the literary public in general, the theaters and operas for the +social benefit of the upper class and the cafe for the middle and <i>large +class</i>, the class which give shape and character to the predominant +methods of social evolution. The first cafe in Paris was established in +1697 by an Armenian, and like the establishment of the Hippodrome in New +York by Barnum, was a success from the beginning. These institutions +increased rapidly in number under Louis XV., and became the favorite +resort of distinguished individuals. At present, they abound in every +quarter, and justly rank among the most remarkable features of the city, +being very generally decorated with unrivaled costliness and splendor. +Besides coffee, wine, beer and other refreshments, they frequently provide +breakfast, and many of them also dinners and suppers. In 1874, there were +over 6,000 cafes in Paris, doing business to the amount of $24,000,000 +annually, or an average income of $4,000 to each establishment! The +furniture of the cafe and the plan of conducting its business resembles +that of our fashionable ice-cream saloons more than any other +establishment that we are acquainted with. The halls are furnished with +little tables or marble-stands surrounded by chairs or costly sofas, and +every person that enters, is expected to order some kind of drink or +refreshment as soon as he has taken his seat. Both sexes frequent them +alike, and a grand sight it is to see a brilliant company of ladies and +gentlemen sitting in groups and couples about these gorgeously decorated +halls, enjoying their wine and each other's company, thus presenting +scenes of gayety and festive pleasure that are seldom outvied, even in the +ball-room and the opera in this country. A band of musicians render music +from an elevated platform all evening, and an open space in front of the +platform is provided for the accommodation of those who delight in the +dance. The waiting girls of these cafes are usually ladies of remarkable +beauty and refinement, whose elegant dresses, graceful manners and rare +accomplishment in conversation and address, are well in keeping with the +charming brilliancy of the hall, and the merryand refined company around +them.</p> + +<p>It is astonishing how cheap these splendid accommodations of the cafe, +almost princely in their style, can be rendered. A person may enter a cafe +early in the evening, sit down with his friends and acquaintances, order a +glass of wine or beer and enjoy the best music and the pleasures of the +most refined society for an hour or two, and when he leaves, his purse is +only from three to eight cents the poorer for it. A gentleman may take a +lady to the cafe <i>five</i> evenings in a week, for between thirty cents and a +dollar. He may spent twice as much or even ten or fifty times as much, if +he washes to spend his time in a building whose very window sashes and +external ornamentations glitter with gold; but such a lavish expenditure +of money is not <i>required</i> to be comfortable and happy. These cafes are +very orderly houses. It is not fashionable to consume a glass of wine or +beer in less than half an hour, and many drink the whole evening at one +glass. No one can get drunk at this rate, and any one who would drink fast +and should become wild, he would not be tolerated in the cafe, as no lady +would remain in his society.</p> + +<p>There are some fast drinking-houses even in Paris, and more in some +sections of Germany, but even those sent few or no drunk men upon the +streets. A fellow that would stagger upon the pavement would be conducted +to the station house at once. I did not see a single drunk person in Paris +in half a month's stay, and only several in the rest of my tour through +Europe. It is an encouraging sign of the times, that the cafe is being +introduced in America. May it soon take the place of our gambling-halls +and drinking-hells. See what Macaulay says of the Cafe, as he is quoted by +Webster in his Unabridged Dictionary under the word Coffee-house.</p> + + + +<h3>Champs Elysees,</h3> + + +<p>Champs Elysees, (pron. Shangs-ai-le-zai), a term equivalent to "The +Elysian Fields" of the Greeks, is perhaps the most charming place in the +world. It is a paradise in reality, as its names implies; and during the +summer evenings, when its many thousand gas jets blaze in globes of +various colors, and the magnificent illuminations of its grand cafes +produce a brilliancy of coloured light intense enough to see pins on its +walks and flower-beds, the scenes become grand beyond description. Immense +throngs of people gather around the cafes in the evening to see the youths +and beauties whirl in the mazy dance, and listen to the bewitching strains +of the sweet music there rendered. It is not a rare thing to see +spectators go into raptures on these occasions, for I have seen few places +where nature and art so harmonize and unite in producing scenes of +enchanting beauty and creating feelings of ecstatic delight, as here on +Champs Elysees. The atmosphere of Paris, too, is preeminently soft and +balmy, and the temperature so even that ladies may sit in the most +brilliant attire all evening in the open air under the trees of this +pleasure-garden without the least danger of contracting a cold. One of the +first evenings that I enjoyed these scenes of indescribable beauty, I +could not help but observe to my companion, that the finest poetical +descriptions of a celestial Paradise, were not ideal representations of +imaginary pleasures, but true word images of the joys and beauties of the +"Elysian Fields" (Champs Ely sees) in Paris.</p> + +<p>The buildings which front upon this lovely place are among the most +elegant in the city, being finely painted, even on the outside, like those +in the boulevards. I saw one, whose balconies were all gilt, from the +bottom to the attic story, reminding one of the splendor of the foremost +royal mansions.</p> + +<p>Palais de l'Elysee, lies contiguous to this place and gave origin to its +name. It was a favorite residence of Napoleon I. When he returned from +Elba, he occupied it until after the defeat of Waterloo. It was also the +official residence of Napoleon III. while he was President of the French +Republic. At present it is occupied by Marshal MacMahon during the +recesses of the National Assembly.</p> + +<p>In about the center of Champs Elysees, is the Palais de l'Industrie, the +great Exhibition Buildings, in which the World's Fair was held in 1855.</p> + +<p>The Avenue des Champs Elysees intersects Champs Elysees, and is a mile and +a quarter in length. Its foot-pavements are twelve feet wide, This is the +favorite walk of the gay Parisians.</p> + +<p>"On sunny winter-days, or cool summer-evenings numerous parties of all +classes are seen, enjoying the lively spectacle before them, seated on +iron chairs hired for three or four sous, (cents), or on the wooden +benches placed at intervals on the sides of the avenue, while elegant +carriages roll in procession along the road."--<i>Galignani's Paris Guide</i>.</p> + +<p>Place de la Concorde, called Place de la Revolution in 1792, (when the +guillotine was erected here), is at the east end of Champs Elysees, +adjoining the Jardin des Tuileries. The square is enclosed with +balustrades, upon which stand eight colossal statues of the chief +provincial cities. In the center of it stands the Obelish of Luxor. This +magnificent monument of ancient Egypt, was brought to Paris in 1833 and +erected in 1836. It weighs 250 tons, and to transport it from Thebes to +the place where it now stands required three years. It is one of two +monoliths that stood in front of the great temple of Thebes, where they +were erected 1550 years before Christ. Both of them were given to the +French Government, by Mehemet All, Viceroy of Egypt, "in consideration of +advantages conferred by France on Egypt in aiding to form the arsenal and +naval establishment of Alexandria." Only one was removed. It is 72 feet 3 +inches high. Its greatest width is 7 feet 6 inches at the base, and 5 feet +4 inches at the top. The pedestal upon which it stands, is 15 feet by 9 +feet at the bottom and 8 feet at the top, and weighs 120 tons.</p> + +<p>The transportation and re-erection of this obelisk cost the French +Government about $400,000. A dear present! No wonder that they did not go +to fetch the other one.</p> + +<p>Galignani enumerates the following events which occurred here and rendered +the Place de la Concorde famous:</p> + +<p>"July 12, 1789.--A collision between Prince de Lambesc's regiment and the +people became the signal for the destruction of the Bastille.</p> + +<p>"Jan. 21, 1793.--Louis XVI. suffered death on this place.</p> + +<p>"From Jan. 21, 1793, to May 3, 1795, more than 2,800 persons were executed +here by the guillotine.</p> + +<p>"Feb. 23, 1848.--The first disturbances that ushered in the memorable +revolution of that year took place here.</p> + +<p>"Feb. 24, 1848--Flight of Louis Philippe and his family by the western +entrance of the Tuileries Garden.</p> + +<p>"Nov. 4, 1848.--The Constitution of the Republic was solemnly proclaimed +here, in the presence of the Constituent Assembly.</p> + +<p>"Sept. 4, 1870.--The downfall of Napoleon III. and the Third Republic +proclaimed, after the disaster of Sedan.</p> + +<p>"May 22, 1871.--A desperate conflict between the Versailles troops and the +Communists, the latter in their retreat setting fire to public and private +Bubldings."</p> + + + +<h3>Jardin des Tuileries,</h3> + + +<p>A pleasure-garden over fifty acres in extent (containing flower-beds, an +extensive orangery, trees, statues and fountains) intervenes between Place +de la Concorde and the Palace of the Tuileries, and, in connection with +Champs Elysees, constitutes a continuous garden and park whose total +length is over a mile and three quarters.</p> + +<p>This magnificent reservation penetrates almost to the heart of the city. +Its width is in one place nearly half a mile, being about one fifth of a +mile wide at the Tuileries on the east, while it tapers down to about 450 +feet (the width of Avenue des Champs Elysees) at the Arch of Triumph on +the west end of it. The Avenue des Champs Elysees and the principal avenue +in the Tuileries Garden are in a perfectly strait line, so that a person +standing in the center of the avenue at the Tuileries will see both sides +of the Arch of Triumph, nearly two miles away from him; while the center +is concealed from his view by the Obelisk of Luxor standing in the center +of Place de la Concorde, as above described. Stepping a few yards to +either side throws the obelisk out of the way and affords one a perfect +view of that noble arch (one of the most stately monuments in existence). +The tourist can not approach that imposing monument called</p> + + + +<h3>Arc de Triomphe de L'Etoile</h3> + + +<p>to greater advantage than by this avenue, starting out from the ruins of +the Tuileries. As some of the finest scenes and most important places in +Paris are met with, by this approach, one should allot a whole day to this +walk. He will have half a mile to the obelisk in the center of Place de la +Concorde, which, with its surroundings, will require him hours to see. +Three thousand feet further, is the Rond Point of Champs Elysees. A +quarter of a mile short of this, he will have found the Exhibition +Buildings on his left and Palais de l'Elysees on his right. Having seen +these, he may make his approach of the Arch of Triumph without further +interruption. From Rond Point to the Center of the arch, it is about 3,800 +feet more. It is only after the visitor comes within half a mile of its +base that the monument begins to assume its gigantic proportions. This +proud monument was designed by Chalgrin, having been decreed by Napoleon +I. in 1806. The work was suspended from 1814 till 1823; labor was resumed +then, but it was not completed before 1836. Thus, thirty years of time and +over $2,000,000 were bestowed upon the erection of this historic monument, +which is perhaps destined to hand down to future generations both the +names of the victors and of the numerous vanquished cities that were +subject to the authority of Napoleon I. The great central arch is +forty-five feet wide and ninety feet high, over which rises a bold +entablature and the crowning attic. The transversal arch is twenty-five +feet wide and fifty-seven feet high. The total height of the monument +being 152 feet; and its breadth and depth 137 feet and 68 feet +respectively. The fronts of the structure are towards Champs Elysees and +Porte de Neuilly, the city gate near Bois de Boulogne.</p> + +<p>The general plan of this imposing monument is borrowed from that of the +famous arches at Rome; but the transversal arch is an additional feature, +while its reliefs, and inscriptions, and its colossal proportions throw +the arches of Rome into comparative insignificance. The interior sides of +the piers are inscribed with the names of ninety-six victories; under the +transversal arches are the names of generals. A group upon the northern +pier of the eastern front represents the departure of the army in +1792:--"The Genius of War summons the nation to arms." The group on the +southern front represents the triumph of 1810:--Victory is in the act of +crowning Napoleon. History with pencil in hand is about to record his +deeds upon a tablet before her; conquered towns are at his feet. Fame +surmounts the whole, blowing her bugle of praise. The group on the +southern pier of the western front represents the French nation's +resistance to the invading army of 1814:--A young man defends his wife, +his children and his father; a warrior falls slain from his horse, and the +Genius of the Future encourages them to action. Upon the northern pier is +represented the peace of 1815:--The warrior sheathes his sword, the farmer +has caught a bull with a rope, and is taming him for purposes of +agriculture, while a mother with her children is sitting by, and Minerva +sheds her protecting influence over them. Every group is 36 feet in height +and each figure 18 feet.</p> + +<p>A chain fence encircles this proud and noble monument, and shuts off all +conveyances. Pedestrians can enter until dusk. An ascent of 272 steps +brings the visitor to the platform at the top, from which one of the +finest views of Paris and the surrounding country may be enjoyed.</p> + +<p>There are three other triumphal arches in Paris. The oldest is that of +Porte St. Denis. It was erected by the city of Paris in 1672. The +principal arch is 25 feet wide, and 43 feet high; and the total height of +the structure is 72 feet. Its reliefs and other representations are +superb.</p> + +<p>The triumphal arch over Porte St. Martin is 54 feet wide by 54 feet high. +The central arch is 15 feet wide by 30 feet in elevation. It was built in +1674, two years after the erection of Porte St. Denis.</p> + +<p>The last of the three inferior arches was erected by order of Napoleon in +1806. It has a base of 60 feet by 20 feet, and is 45 feet high. The cost +of erection was about $275,000. It stands near the Tuileries at the Place +du Carrousel, after which it was named, and which was so called from a +great tournament held by Louis XIV. in 1662. The entablature is supported +by eight Corinthian columns of marble, with bases and capitals of bronze, +adorned with eagles. The attic of this arch is surmounted by a figure of +Victory in a triumphal car with four bronze horses hitched to it. These +were modelled by Bosio from the celebrated historic horses which Napoleon +brought from Venice to Paris in 1797, but which were restored by the +allies in 1815, and now stand again in the Piazza of St. Mark at Venice, +as they had since 1205. The original (those in Venice) are gilt, but those +in Paris are black.</p> + + + +<h3>The Tomb of Napoleon I.</h3> + + + +<p>The tomb and last burial place of the great Napoleon, which is in Eglise +des Invalids, is perhaps the most imposing monument of the kind in the +world. I have not found its equal anywhere; nor anything to rival it even, +in costliness and splendor, except those of several of the Popes at Rome. +The tomb which covers the sarcophagus into which the mortal remains of +Napoleon I. brought from St. Helena, were placed April 2nd, 1861, consists +of a immense monolith of porphyry weighing 67 tons, brought from Lake +Onega in Russia at an expense of $28,000. This tomb, 131/2 feet in height, +stands in the center of a circular crypt, and is surrounded by twelve +colossal statues representing so many victories. The pavement of the crypt +contains a crown of laurels in mosaic, and a black circle upon which are +inscribed the names of the following victories: Rivoli, Pyramids, Marengo, +Austerlitz, Iena, Friedland, Wagram and Moskowa. A large bouquet of +immortelles (everlasting flowers) lying upon the tomb is emblamatic of the +immortality of the great soldier's fame. Over the bronze door which leads +to the crypt, are inscribed the following words, quoted from the Emperor's +will:</p> + +<blockquote><p> "Je desire que mes cendres reposent sur les bordes de la Seine, au + milieu de ce peuple Francais que j'ai tant aime."</p> + +<p> "I wish my remains to be laid on the banks of the Seine, amongst that + French people whom I have loved so much."--<i>P. Simond</i>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>In the center of an adjoining chapel, stands the tomb of Joseph, King of +Spain, the eldest brother of Napoleon I. His mortal remains were brought +hither in 1864.</p> + +<p>The dome which rises over the tomb of Napoleon I. is one of the proudest +monuments in Paris, and its gilt and glittering cupola may be seen many +miles around. The cross on top of the globe and spire surmounting this +dome is 323 feet above the pavement. Leaving Eglise des Invalids from the +southern entrance, which leads to the tomb of Napoleon I., a spectacle +presents itself to the beholder in the form of a grand fountain throwing +its water high into the air. It is at</p> + + + +<h3>The Artesian Well of Grenelle.</h3> + + +<p>M. Mulot commenced to bore at this well in 1834, but did not succeed in +reaching water until February 26th, 1841, by which time his boring +instrument had reached the depth of 1,800 feet, and the water suddenly +gushed forth with tremendous force. The whole depth is lined by a +galvanized iron tube that is 21 inches in diameter at the top and 7 inches +at the bottom. The, amount of water yielded every 24 hours is 170,940 +gallons. Its temperature is about 82 degrees Fahrenheit.</p> + +<p>Twenty years after the sinking of this well, that is in 1861,</p> + + + +<h3>The Artesian Well of Passy,</h3> + + +<p>near the Arch of Triumph, was completed. This yielded at first 5,000,000 +gallons in 24 hours; it yields now over 3,000,000 gallons per day. A third +artesian well is in Boulevard de la Gare.</p> + +<p>There are, besides these artesian wells, 35 monumental fountains, 88 plain +fountains and over 2,000 water-plugs in the city.</p> + + + +<h3>Notre Dame.</h3> + + +<p>The Cathedral Church of Notre Dame is the grandest church of the +rose-window class that I met with in my whole tour of Europe, The length +of this edifice is 390 feet, and its greatest width at the transepts 144 +feet. It is said to be capable of holding 21,000 persons. The nave is 225 +feet long, 39 feet wide and 102 feet in height to the vaulting; the +windows are 36 feet high. Its two western towers are each 204 feet high, +and the spire about 270 feet. The first thing that arrests the attention +of the visitor on approaching it, are the grotesque figures of its antique +gargoyles, several hundred in all, which give the church a very odd +appearance. The three portals (at the west end) contain about 300 images. +Its organ is 36 feet broad, 45 feet high and contains 3,484 pipes. But +among the most remarkable features of this magnificent cathedral are its +splendid rose-windows, representing a variety of scripture and legendary +subjects, and its choir and sacristy. Here, are mitres and crosses +glittering with jewels, and the church-utensils and vestments. The most +gorgeous are the robes worn by Pius VII. at the coronation of Napoleon I., +and several series of brilliant robes profusely embroidered in silver and +gold. It seems that the place upon which Notre Dame now stands, was first +occupied by a heathen temple erected in the time of the Romans; for, among +nine large stones dug up in 1711, one bears the effigy of the Gallic deity +Hesus, and the other was a votive altar raised to Jove.</p> + + + +<h3>The Pantheon.</h3> + + +<p>About half a mile distant from the island of the Seine upon which Notre +Dame stands, on an eminence south of the river, is located the Pantheon, +or church of St. Genevieve. This building cost $6,000,000. The six fluted +columns of its portico are 6 feet in diameter and 60 feet high. The whole +number of Corinthian columns in and about this superb edifice is 258. The +arched ceilings of the interior are 80 feet high. The dome is 66 feet in +diameter and its height from the pavement to the top is 268 feet. I have +seen no other dome in Europe that resembles so closely the dome on the +Capitol of the United States, both on account of its fine illumination by +natural light, and in its general design. One section of the frescoes in +the canopy of the dome on our national capitol, represents the deification +of Washington. In the dome of the Pantheon at Paris, Clovis, Charlemagne, +St. Louis and Louis XVIII., are represented as rendering homage to Ste. +Genevieve, who descends towards them on clouds, and Glory embraces +Napoleon. In the heavenly regions are represented, Louis XVI. and Marie +Antoinette, Louis XVII. and Madame Elizabeth.</p> + +<p>In 1791, Mirabeau was interred here with great pomp, and in the same year +took place, the celebrated apotheoses (deifications) of Voltaire and +Rousseau. The remains of Mirabeau and of Marat were afterwards +depantheonized, and the body of the latter was thrown into a common sewer.</p> + +<p>The vaults are under the western nave. In these the "monuments and funeral +urns are arranged like the Roman tombs in Pompeii." There are two +concentric passages in the center, where small sounds are repeated by +loud echoes. A hand holding a torch issues from one side of Rousseau's +tomb, meaning that he is a light to the world even after death.</p> + + + +<h3>La Madeleine</h3> + + +<p>is the third and the last of the large churches of Paris to which I can +direct particular attention. It is 328 feet long by 138 feet wide, +covering over an acre of ground, and its erection cost over $2,500,000. +This structure was commenced in 1764, but the work was suspended during +the revolution of 1789. Napoleon had once directed Vignon to complete it +for a Temple of Glory, but Louis XVIII. restored it to its original +destination in 1815. It is approached at each end by a flight of 28 steps, +(the same number that constitute the Scala Sancta at Rome), extending +along the whole length of the facade; and a Corinthian colonnade of 52 +columns, each 49 feet high and five feet in diameter, surrounds it on +every side.</p> + +<p>There are scores of other churches in Paris that are interesting on +account of the various styles of architecture which they represent, but I +will only make mention of one more, and that on account of its terrible +historical associations. It is the church of St. Germain l'auxerrois +(pron. sang jer-mang lo-zher-wa). It was from the belfry of this church, +that the signal was given for the commencement of the Massacre of St. +Bartholomew, August 23rd, 1572. Its bells tolled during the whole of that +dreadful night. This church was the theater of another outbreak on the +13th of February, 1831, when everything within the church was destroyed.</p> + + + +<h3>The Louvre.</h3> + + +<p>The reader may form an idea of the extent of these buildings, when he +reflects that the space covered and inclosed by the Old and New Louvre and +the Tuileries, is upwards of sixty acres. The court of the louvre is one +of the finest in Europe, and its art galleries are among the richest in +the world. The Long Gallery alone covers nearly an acre and a quarter, +being 42 feet wide and 1,322 feet long! A person can well spend weeks or +even months in the museum of the Louvre, but simply to walk through all of +its brilliant galleries will require about three hours! I cannot stop to +say more than that its collections of paintings and of sculpture is +probably much larger than any other in the world.</p> + +<p>Besides what I have already described and enumerated, Paris has its Bois +de Boulogne containing large botanical and zological gardens, three race +courses, the longest nearly two miles in circuit, lakes and drives; also +many other gardens, squares, towers, columns, &c.--all full of beauty or +interesting on account of the historical events and incidents associated +with them; but I must now devote the remainder of my space to the</p> + + + +<h3>Theatres, Operas</h3> + + +<p>and other places of amusement of the great capital of the social world. +Places of amusement are the leading feature of Paris, and a boundless +variety, adapted to the wants and tastes of every class of society, are +strewn in endless profusion all over the city. The concert season lasts +almost all the year round, though the highest class are limited to the +winter and spring. Masked balls take place throughout the Carnival, in the +winter season, and are thus spoken of and described by Galignani: "The +most amusing are at the Opera-house, where they begin at midnight and +continue till daybreak. No stranger who visits Paris at this season of the +year should omit a visit to one of the <i>Bals masques</i> at this theater, for +it is difficult to imagine a scene more curious and fantastic than that +presented in the <i>Salle</i> of the Grand Opera at a Carnival Ball. On these +nights the pit is boarded over and joins the stage; the vast area of the +whole theater forming a ball-room of magnificent proportions, which, +brilliantly lighted, and crowded with thousands of gay maskers attired in +every variety of colour and costume, forms a sight not easily forgotten. +Ladies should not go except as spectators in a box and under the +protection of their relatives. The ticket costs $2.00. To witness this +scene in perfection the visitor should wait until 12 or 1 o'clock, when +the company is completely assembled and the votaries of the dance are in +full activity. On entering the vast <i>salle</i> at such a moment the effect is +scarcely imaginable, the gorgeousness of the immense theater, the glitter +of the lights, the brilliancy and variety of the costumes, the enlivening +strains of music, the mirth of the browd, and, above all, the the +untiring velocity with which the dancers whirl themselves through the +mazes of the waltz, polka and mazourka, present an appearance of +bewindering gayety not to be described. * * * * On some occasions of +special enthusiasm the crowd take up the leader of the orchestra with the +most frantic plaudits, and in more than one instance have carried him in +triumph round the theater. It is scarcely necessary to add that at these +balls the <i>roue</i> (profligate) may find an endless variety of pleasant +adventures." On some days during the Carnival, crowds of masked persons, +exhibiting all sorts of antics, appear in the streets, and people assemble +on horseback, in carriages and on foot, to witness the scene.</p> + +<p>"The Carnival was prohibited in 1790, and not resumed till Bonaparte was +elected first consul." Great was the joy of the Parisians when the +Carnival was again restored!</p> + +<p>The Opera-house referred to in the extract above quoted, is the Academie +Nationals de Musique, or French Opera-house, also sometimes called the new +Opera-house. It is generally admitted to be the finest Opera-house in the +world. The space covered by this magnificent building is 140 metres by +122, (about 470 feet by 410), or nearly four and a half acres. It has +seats for 2,520 spectators. The staircases, walls and ceiling are of the +finest marble. The "house" for the spectators or audience is built +entirely of stone and iron, rich in decorations and thick with gold. The +stage alone is a quarter of an acre in extent, being 128 feet wide by 85 +feet long. Below the stage there is a depth of 47 feet, from which the +scenes are drawn up all in one piece. This abyss below the stage was +obtained at an immense cost, as the architect had to lay the foundations +far below a subterranean body of water, but the advantage thus gained +enables them to present scenes that are marvelous. "The singers in this +opera are pupils of the Conservatoire, and the <i>corps de ballet</i> consists +of the most distinguished dancers of the day. Great attention is paid to +costume and general effect." During the matchless performances of a night +that I was present, there were at one time nine large horses and a +procession of several hundred actors upon the stage, and it was far from +being full. One of the most beautiful and astounding performances of the +night was the production of a series of transformations that were as +sudden and as astonishing in their developments as is the metamorphosis of +the gaudy butterfly from the groveling worm. As the curtain rose there +stood upon the stage a mighty fortress, massive and strong. We had seen it +but long enough to observe how thick and how rough from age its +weather-beaten walls were, when there was heard a crash, and the mighty +citadel had fallen out of sight; but there still remained a most +beautiful castle which must have been contained inside of the citadel but +hid from the view by its towering walls. This castle was beautiful beyond +description. It was fairer far than the castles of the kings seem to be, +except when "distance lends enchantment to their view." But the second +scene was as ephemeral as the first. We beheld its fascinating beauties +only a few seconds when its four walls again dropped into the abyss below, +and there issued from its inner apartment a host of beautiful little +actresses such as I did not see upon any other stage in Europe. These +little fairy-like beauties, many perhaps not more than from 5 to 10 years +of age, all dressed in the most brilliant costumes, at once skipped into a +dance "running the ring and tracing the mazy round," to the great +satisfaction of the admiring spectators, who were as much delighted by the +gayety, grace and accomplishment which they displayed in their +performances, as they have been astonished at their sudden and almost +miraculous appearance.</p> + + + +<h3>At a Ball.</h3> + + +<p>Dancing is the favorite amusement in Paris, and these exercises are +conducted on a grand scale, even during the summer season. I attended a +Public Ball one evening, when almost the entire floor (covering nearly +three fourths of an acre) and the adjoining garden of about the same area, +were thronged by thousands of gay and jovial dancers, all wild from the +excitement produced by the rhythmical motions and music of that playful +exercise.</p> + + + +<h3>Incidents.</h3> + + +<p>The reader can not be more curious to know how one that is unacquainted +with the French language can get along in Paris, than I was when I first +took up my residence there. The first morning I went out to seek some +place where I might get fresh milk; <i>Lait</i> is the French name of it as I +found it in my conversational guide book. I soon found that name upon a +card of pasteboard hanging at the door of a shop where bread and fruits +were displayed in the window. On entering the store a clever Frenchman +politely addressed me, but he soon discovered that I was none of the +<i>loquacious</i> kind, in French. I asked for <i>lait</i>, pronouncing the word as +if it was spelt l-a-t-e, but he did not understand me. I could adorn my +conversation neither with verbs nor with adjectives, so I repeated the +word <i>lait</i> several times with the rising inflection, by which he readily +inferred that I wanted something, though what that something was, remained +a mistery to him, all the same. By and by, I pointed out the word lait to +him, on seeing which, he exclaimed "---- du lá!" and gave me what I +wanted. Thereafter I visited him from two to five times every day, +according to convenience, to get my "du lā<i>it!</i>". Of "du pä<i>in</i>" +(bread) and smoked sausages, I constantly kept a supply in my satchel, so +that when I entered a new city, I could well get along until I had become +acquainted. Fruits and a very healthy and nutricious kind of nuts, (the +Brazilian nuts), I bought in great abundance and exceedingly cheap from +such as hawked them about on the streets. Five to ten centimes (1 to 2 +cents) would buy 7 or 8 large Brazilian nuts and 6 to 8 fine juicy pears, +or as many delicious plums, of which I was extremely fond. By thus +reducing the number and variety of my dishes at the regular meals, I only +enhanced the pleasures of the palate instead of reducing them; for he who +"does not eat but when he is hungry, nor drink except when he is thirsty," +will enjoy the humblest meal much more than the pampered dedauchee can +relish the richest feast. As beer does not please my palate, and because +the water fountains of Paris were often out of my reach when I was +thirsty, I soon took fruit to supply the place of drink, and thus, in +Paris already, I laid the foundation of a dietary system that ensured me +not only health, happiness and convenience of procuring it alike in all +countries, but that proved to be very economical too. For from 40 to 60 +cents a day, I supplied all the necessaries, and more of the luxuries of +life, than most of us are accustomed to, even in voluptuous America.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch09"> +<h2>Chapter IX.</h2> + +<h3>Versailles.</h3> + + + +<p>On my voyage across the Atlantic, I had formed the friendship of a young +clergyman, (Rev. O.), of New York, who wished to make a summer vacation +tour through western Europe, visiting Ireland, Scotland, England, France, +Italy, Switzerland and Germany. On comparing programmes, we noticed that +he would likely come to Paris during the time that I had alotted to that +city. We therefore agreed that each should drop a letter to the other, +immediately after reaching Paris, so that he who should happen to come +last might at once know where to find the other. One evening, when I came +home, the card of Rev. O., my American friend, was handed to me by the +landlord, who informed me by his gestures that he had been there to call +on me. The card was backed by a note asking me to meet him at No.--, +Rue--------. Though that street is perhaps not more than an eighth of a +mile long, I soon found it upon my map of Paris, which was a very +excellent one, as the maps of all large foreign cities generally are and +must be, in order that persons who cannot speak the languages of those +cities, may still be able to find any places without asking any one where +they are or which way to go. The map of Paris, for example, is divided +into numerous squares by arbitrary lines. Those which run vertically down +the map are lettered, and those which cross it horizontally are numbered. +At the side of the map is a table of all the streets, with references to +the squares on the map, designating between what lines they are found, or +which they intersect. By the aid of such a map, I started out the next +morning to meet my friend, whose quarters were in a distant part of the +city, about three miles away. I found him without difficulty. He was +accompanied by two gentlemen from London that had come with him to see +Paris and its environs. It is both novel and pleasant for two such lonely +pilgrims as my New York friend and I were when we left home, to meet each +other again in a foreign city, and introduce to each other the friends +which one picked up by the way. We soon agreed to go all together to +Versailles, the French Capital, that day. This was Tuesday, July 27th. At +10:40 a.m., we crossed the fortifications of Paris, and soon came into +view of Bois de Boulogne, the great park of Paris. Five minutes later we +crossed the Seine at St. Cloud, a small town, where we stopped to see the +ruins occasioned by the siege of Paris in 1870. We had considerable +trouble, however, in identifying the strongholds and redoubts held by the +Prussians in that memorable siege, as nobody seemed to understand any of +our French! On one occasion, Rev. O., while asking a lady for a certain +place, called on Mr. K----, one of the Londoners, to come and see whether +he could make this woman understand any of <i>his</i> French! It was altogether +a day of odd adventures and fun. After enjoying the lovely prospects an +hour, we walked another hour in great perplexity as to what directions we +should take to find a railway station where we might take a train for +Versailles, but finally succeeded. We did not understand more from those +who directed us, than the direction we should take, never knowing the +distance. It is more than a joke, for a party to be obliged to walk +several miles for a station, when they had expected to reach it in a +quarter or half a mile at most! When we arrived at the station at Sevres, +our difficulties only commenced. "When will the next train leave for +Versailles, and where can we procure our tickets?" were questions which +engaged our best energies and all our ingenuity for half an hour, besides +a rash adventure on my part, before they were solved. (It seems to me now, +that throughout my tour, I always got into more trouble when I had company +to rely upon, than when I was alone). By means of motions with our hands +and by pronouncing the name Versailles, we made them understand where we +intended to go to; but when we asked for "billets," they did not offer us +any. They showed us, however, that the train was due at 1:10, by pointing +out those figures on the dial of the clock. About 15 minutes before the +train was due, we asked again for tickets, and when they were again +refused, we began to fear that the tickets had to be procured on the +opposite side of the railroad. We therefore crossed by a foot-bridge near +the station, but could not approach the house on the other side, on +account of the high fence which shut every body off from the tracks. When +our plans were thus frustrated our company became alarmed with the fear +that we might miss the train for want of tickets, and fail to see +Versailles that day. At this crisis I ascended the bridge and climbed down +along the walls on the inside of the fence; suspending myself from the +lowest iron bars along the bridge, I thus dropped myself into the yard +below! But our discouragement reached its climax, when I found that the +door was closed and locked, which we had hoped was the ticket office. I +could not get out of that inclosure, as the fences were high, the gates +locked and the bridge from which I had dropped myself, was out of my +reach. Several railroad men saw me immediately, who appeared as much +astonished at my coming into that place, as I was perplexed in my awkward +position. I did not misinterpret their French this time, however, for the +way they looked up toward the sky, and their gestures and chattering, +plainly indicated that they wondered where I came from. I motioned them +that I came "from above," and pointed toward the bridge. What fine or +punishment might have been inflicted for my intrusion I do not know, but +I was only rebuked in language which I did not understand, and sent out +through one of the office doors which they unlocked for the purpose. My +companions were now in great glee at this termination of my adventure, one +of them observing that I might soon be landed in <i>close quarters</i>, at my +present rate of progress! I responded that we were a party corporate, and +that three fourths of what any one did was to the credit of the other +three. The train soon came, and we took our places on the top of the cars +and rode on to Versailles. This was the only ride I had in two-story +railway cars, but our trip was such a delightful one in the second story +of those cars, that I often wished for like accommodations again.</p> + +<p>The National Assembly was in session when we reached Versailles, but we +could not gain admittance. We immediately went to the Palace, which is +devoted to the reception of a rich and splendid historical museum +unparalleled in Europe. There are altogether some 34 salles or galleries, +which require upwards of an hour to walk through. The paintings are +arranged chronologically, and it is this classification, as well as the +magnitude of the collection, that render the museum one of the most famous +in Europe. Adjoining this palace, are the gardens and park, upon the +establishment and improvement of which, Louis XIV., (1616) spent +$200,000,000! This immense sum would pay a tract of land 100 miles long +and 10 miles wide, bought at $300 per acre! Many millions have since been +spent upon it. It is at the present day one of the finest pleasure-gardens +in Europe. Its fountains are among the most magnificent in existence. +These are made to play only once (the first Sunday) every month; to supply +the water in sufficient aboundance for this magnificent display, costs on +each occasion $2,000! It is a source of the purest happiness for a party +of Republicans, as ours was, to see the very palace and gardens which +Napoleon III. once occupied as a royal mansion, now held as the common +property and the peaceful promenade of the pleasure-seeking masses. How +changed the scene! That which was prepaired for the king, is now enjoyed +by the common people. Such are the fruits of the French Republic, which +has now broken the fetters of royalty for the third time.</p> + +<p>On Sunday, August 1st., I visited this garden and park again, this time to +see the fountains play. It is impossible to do justice to this +pleasure-garden even in two days. In the center is the grand canal 186 +feet wide and nearly a mile long, intersected at right angles by another +canal that is 3,000 feet long. My rambles were confined to the section +intervening between the palace and the Bassin d'Apollon, which is at the +nearer end of the Grand Canal. The fountains and jets in this section, +north and south of the Allee du Tapis Vert (green lawn), are almost +innumerable. They do not all play at the same time, so the crowd can +follow them from basin to basin until Neptune with his numerous jets, the +last and the greatest of them all, is reached. The Terrasse du Chateau +with Silenus, Antinous, Apollo and Bacchus, after the antique, lies next +to the palace. Immediately below is the Parterre d'Eau, upon whose border +repose twenty-four magnificent groups in bronze, namely, eight groups of +children, eight nymphs and the four principal rivers of France, with their +tributaries. Toward the left of this lies the Parterre du Midi, and still +further south, along the palace, lies the Orangerie. A flight of 103 steps +lead down to an iron gate on the road to Brest.</p> + +<p>Parterre de Latone lies in advance of Parterre d'Eau, which two paterres +(pits) the Allee du Tapis Vert (green carpet) and the Grand Canal, lie in +a straight line and present a charming view nearly a mile and a quarter in +length. Bassin Latone is surrounded by a semi-circular terrace crowned +with yew-trees and a range of statues and groups in marble. (It would +require the space of a volume to describe all the fine statuary of this +garden). This fountain consists of five circular basins rising one above +the other in the form of a pyramid, surmounted by a group of Latona with +Apollo and Diana. "The goddess implores the vengeance of Jupiter against +the peasants of Libya, who refused her water, and the peasants, already +metamorphosed, some half, and others entirely, into frogs and tortoises, +are placed on the edge of the different tablets, and throw forth water +upon Latona in every direction, thus forming liquid arches of the most +beautiful effect." Walking down the green velvet lawn, we came to the +Bassin d'Apollon. Apollo, the God of Day, is emerging from the water in a +chariot drawn by four horses, and surrounded by a throng of sea-monsters. +Several other fountains represent the seasons. Spring is represented by +Flora and Summer by Ceres. Winter appears in a group representing Saturn +surrounded by children; and Bacchus, reclining upon grapes and surrounded +by infant satyrs, represents Autumn. Near the Tapis Vert, in the midst of +a dense grove, is a magnificent rotunda composed of 32 marble columns, +united by arches and supporting a number of marble vases. Under the +arcades, are a circular range of fountains, "and in the middle is a fine +group of the Rape of Proserpine."</p> + +<p>The largest and most splendid fountain in the park, is the Bassin de +Neptune. Upon its southern border stand 22 ornamental vases, each with a +jet in the center. Against the same side, are three colossal groups in +lead. The central one represents Neptune and Amphitrite seated in an +immense shell and surrounded by tritons, nymphs and sea-monsters. On the +left is Oceanus resting upon a sea-unicorn, and on the right, Proteus, the +son of Oceanus. There are several other groups; and from the jets of +these, amounting to some 55 or 60 in all, issues a deluge of water, when +the gates are opened. A quarter of an hour in advance of the appointed +time, about 15,000 persons had assembled upon the circular terrace, facing +this magnificent fountain, and were waiting with breathless anxiety to see +old Neptune take his turn. We had seen the wonders and beauties presented +by the other fountains as they shot their silvery columns, and clouds of +vapor high into the air, or spanned their pyramidal basins with +innumerable liquid arches intersecting each other in every conceivable +direction; but the grandest sight, it was said, was still in store for us. +All the other fountains had commenced their playing with humble +spasms--the columns rising higher by degrees, but old Neptune took every +body by surprise. Hundreds leaped and shouted for joy, when they saw that +the southern heavens, which had been so clear and beautiful but a moment +before, were suddenly whitened with clouds of vapor upon which the rays of +the western sun produced a most charming effect. A gentle breeze gave to +each spouting jet, a misty tail, comet-like in appearance to the admiring +spectators.</p> + + + +<h3>An Incident</h3> + + +<p>which added much to my pleasures and enjoyments of that glorious day, +deserves notice here, as it illustrates that if one even starts to make +the tour of the world alone, so that he may not be detained by the +loiterings of a companion whose tastes and fancies differ from his, need +not therefore be without pleasant associates when he is in want of them. +Early in the afternoon, as I was about taking my seat under the shade of a +yew-tree on a terrace where I might have a fair view of Bassin de Latone, +(the play of whose liquid arches render it the most <i>beautiful</i> of all in +the garden), I was accidentally met by the same English party with whom I +had traveled from London to Paris. It was a happy meeting indeed, and the +incidents of our walks and conversations upon that pleasure-garden will +ever remain fresh and green on memory's tablet. They had finished their +tour of Germany and returned in time to spent the great day of the month +at Versailles. As the band was discoursing excellent music, the fountains +playing, and crowds of people streaming hither and thither in the midst of +these splendid scenes, one of the ladies passed a remark which I only +learned to appreciate fully, several months afterwards. She said, "<i>I love +the quiet English Sabbath</i>." Her father had experienced before what the +continental Sabbath was, but his daughters, though they appreciated these +charming scenes none the less, would have preferred them on week-days; +for, nearly a month of sight-seeing among a people who keep no Sundays +such as we do, had made them long for a day of sweet and silent repose. +Several months later, after I had traveled through France, Belgium, +Germany, Switzerland and Italy, without finding a day of rest such as +England and America make of their Sundays, I felt that even the +pleasure-seeker should rest one day in seven. Often thought of the "quiet +English" and American Sabbaths.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch10"> +<h2>Chapter X.</h2> + +<h3>Leaving Paris.</h3> + + + +<p>On the 6th of August, after a stay of fifteen happy days in Paris, I began +to make preparations to leave for Brussels. I had walked during that time +according to my daily register, about 140 miles, making an average of over +9 miles per day, for I could not avail myself of the omnibuses and city +cars, as I had done in London; because I could not make myself understood +in French.</p> + +<p>Paris had presented so much that was new or radically different from what +I had seen elsewhere in the world, even London not excepted, that I felt +justified in addressing the following conclusion to an American +journalist:--In Paris, there is such a harmonious combination of +civilizing and refining instrumentalities and influences, which, if I do +not elsewhere find a nearer approach to than I have thus far, will not +only throw sufficient light upon the question, "How does she lead the +nations in thought and fashion," that the most thoughtless may be able to +solve it, but which will even entitle her to be styled <i>queen of cities +and Capital of the social world.</i></p> + +<p>As I had definitely decided to return from Egypt to America by way of +Paris, in order that I might see the great city once more toward the end +of my tour, and be the better qualified to estimate her true position in +the world, I made a little bundle of the guide books and views, which I +had already accumulated on my trip, and also dropped some of the +superfluities of my wardrobe--these things I gave into the care of my +chamberlain, and bade good-by to Paris for a season. My friend and tutor +Prof. P.S., accompanied me to the station and bought me a ticket for +Brussels, as we call it in our language, but the French and Belgians call +it Bruixelle (pron. Broo-ĭx-el). My friend informed me of this and gave +me a drill on pronouncing the word correctly, for if I should have called +it Brussels, no Frenchman would have understood what I meant. I was now +about to leave the only acquaintance that could speak my language, and go +to another people of the same strange language as the Parisians speak, +with no right to expect that I should be so lucky again in meeting a +suitable companion. I had ordered my mail to be forwarded to Cologne, +Germany, until September 1st. At 11:15 p.m., August 6th, the train moved +away with me toward Belgium.</p> + +<p>I had forgotten to ask how often and where I must "change cars" from Paris +to Brussels, and now, where no one understood either English or German, +what could be done! Possibly, I need not make a change all night; and +perhaps I should at the next station already! How readily my friend could +have informed me, had I only asked him! But I managed to keep the right +track, though at the expense of considerable anxiety and the sacrifice of +some rest and sleep that I might otherwise have enjoyed during that +night-journey. I learned a lesson, however, which aided me in avoiding +such perplexities in the future. As soon is we reached the first station, +I ran to a conductor and, holding up my ticket, cried out, "Broox-el?" He +understood me and motioned me to keep my seat. Some accommodating +Frenchman soon told me that he was traveling the same way for a +considerable distance, (as his ticket also made clear to me), and offered +kindly to inform me when I had to leave that train. My peace of mind being +thus restored again, I made a pillow of my satchel and went to sleep.</p> + +<p>The next forenoon (Saturday, August 7th) we reached Douane, where we had +to pass muster under the Belgian custom-house officers. I was now with the +wooden-shoed Belgians. A large company of the poor peasants passed muster +with me. Each was provided with a pick or a hoe, or both, lying over his +shoulder, and a large flaxen bag of other implements, &c., suspended from +it. Nearly all wore caps, and the whole company looked very shabby, +indeed. My clothes were in strange contrast with their tattered garments, +for there was not another well-dressed passenger in the whole company; and +I felt like one out of his element, because I did not also have a pick or +hoe! A hundred Belgians with a hundred bundles crowded into several small +apartments of the station, found little room for their, careers, which +consisted of the irony ends of their picks and hoes, so that those +occasionally hooked the prominent points of the faces of those immediately +behind them! Strange to say, these collisions did not provoke any to +insults or the use of vulgar adverbs, but gentle reproofs kept them all +cool and steady till we entered the cars again. The reader will pardon me +for saying that a similar crowd of persons in this country, placed under +the same tempting and exasperating circumstances, would have created a row +in five minutes, as would be the natural consequence if there were but a +single ruffian in the whole lot. Nothing will strike the American tourist +more when he comes to the Old World, than the good order which prevails +everywhere. To meet two persons scolding and insulting each other, is an +extremely rare occurrence. The orderly behavior of such a company of +peasants will impress one more with the importance of teaching the young, +lessons of patience, humility and <i>obedience</i> (which latter quality of +character is the mother of a hundred virtues), than volumes of dry +philosophy on social ethics will generally avail.</p> + +<p>I saw an elderly lady kiss a middle-aged man alternately upon each cheek; +an incident that is common in European social life, and that shows how the +affections of the heart are cultivated and find expression. In Brussels I +saw a son rest his hand affectionately upon his mother's shoulder, as they +stood amongst the multitude in a public square.</p> + +<p>I reached Bruixelle (Brussels) at about three o'clock in the afternoon. In +order to see what kind of money was in circulation in Belgium, I +immediately bought some pears of a fruit-woman, and handed her half a +franc (10 cents). You may imagine how I was perplexed when the lady handed +me a dozen coins of various sizes and values, as my change. Knowing, +however, that though the coins had different impressions, the-system was +the same as that of French money, I murmered to myself, "Blessed be the +Decimal System," and went to some retired quarter to count it! One piece +was a large whitish coin marked 10c., and worth 2 cents in our money; +others were centimes, which are equivalent to but one fifth of our cent! I +soon learned to know them all.</p> + +<p>After having taken a long walk through the city, I engaged a room at a +hotel where one of the boarders could speak a little English, and soon +retired to take an afternoon nap. I awoke to broad daylight, but did not +at once know whether it was <i>that day</i>, or <i>the next day already</i>; and +there was no one about, just then, whom I could have asked! As the sun was +standing in the western sky, I concluded that it was more likely that I +had slept only a few hours, than that I should have slept 27 hours; and +when the landlord was contended with the payment of one night's lodging, I +felt satisfied that I could not have stayed two nights with him! On +Saturday afternoon, after my nap, I went out again to see the city. +Brussels is one of the most progressive capitals in all Europe. Several +splendid boulevards lined with fine cafes and large edifices adorned with +innumerable balconies, reminded me of Paris and its architectural scenery. +It has a passage that compares well, both in brilliancy and magnificence, +with some of the grandest in Paris. The Bourse de Commerce, (just +completed), with its four elegant facades, would do credit to any city, +and its market houses are among the finest that I have ever seen.</p> + +<p>On Sunday (August 8th) I found all kinds of business being transacted, +just as is done in Paris. On my way to the Cathedral, I met a dozen +dog-teams that Sunday morning. Quite a small dog will draw a larger cart +load of milk, than I would have expected that half a dozen of them could +pull. The milk is distributed over the city by women, principally. It +seems strange, how much work must be done by the women, where the men are +required to spend a large portion of their time in the service of their +respective countries, constituting the large standing armies with which +Europe is flooded. Some of these women have large dogs to draw their +milk-carts, others have smaller ones hitched to one side and assist them +by pulling themselves on the other side of the shaft!</p> + + + +<h3>The Cathedral (St. Gudule),</h3> + + +<p>is a grand old church, some portions of it dating from the 13th and 14th +centuries. "It is rich in old stained glass and monuments. The carved +wooden pulpit by Verbrüggen (1699) represents the expulsion of Adam and +Eve from Paradise." The choir renders excellent music. An odd feature in +the religious exercises of this church, is the manner in which the choir +is noticed when to sing, by the ringing of a common bell.</p> + + + +<h3>Hotel de Ville.</h3> + + +<p>Hotel de Ville (the Town Hall) is an elegant building dating from the 15th +century. It is four stories high to the roof, besides there are 4 rows of +dormer-windows in the roof (four stories in the garret!) Its graceful +tower is 506 (?) steps, 364 feet high. The view from the top is +magnificent. Behind this building, at the crossing of two fine streets, +stands the curious "mannikin ----" statue and fountain, evidently a relic +of the <i>shameless age</i>.</p> + +<p>I spent some of my time with an intelligent merchant who had been +traveling in America, and could, in consequence, speak the English quite +well. He informed me that he was not aware that Belgium had any +Sunday-laws upon her statutes. Any one may do upon the Sabbath-day +everything that he might do on week-days, if he feels so inclined. On +Sunday afternoon, I left Brussels for Antwerp (Anvers). Nothing can be +more delightful than the rural scenery of Belgium. The whole country is +as carefully tilled as a garden--every foot of available soil being under +cultivation. Most of the dwelling houses are small, but everything about +the houses, yards and gardens is kept in the most perfect order. +Occasionally, a beautiful vista opens to a fine residence in the distance. +As we rode along in the cars, we would occasionally see an afternoon or +evening party seated around a richly laden table glittering with +glassware, and enjoy their dinners and suppers under some shade trees in +the midst of their gardens. This custom is common in Europe, and presents +most beautiful and homely sights.</p> + +<p>Soon after I had entered the cars, I noticed that the tone of the +conversation among the passengers was different from what I had been +accustomed to hear in France and Belgium thus far. I now heard the chatter +of the Dutch, but understood no more than if it had been so much French. +Dutch and German are two entirely different languages. Dutch print in the +newspapers does, however, not look so perfectly strange, as the +conversation sounds to the ear.</p> + +<p>After arriving at Antwerp I was soon found by a porter who conducted me to +a German Hotel. How social and hospitable these Germans are--and, I must +add, Europeans in general. <i>Die "Deutsche Wirthschaft"</i> (German Hotel) +occupied quite a small building, which presented a very ordinary +appearance on the outside, but I shall never forget that carpeted +bar-room, the costly furniture of the parlor, and the accommodating +landlady which we found there. Taste and comfort are always consulted, +even where the greatest simplicity prevails.</p> + + + +<h3>Antwerp</h3> + + +<p>is one of the most Catholic cities (some say the most Catholic city) in +the world. Its streets are filled with images of the Virgin and Child, the +Savior and the Cross. These stand at the corners of the crossings, or +preside over the street lamps. On one of its church towers, over a gas +light, is represented a candle stick with the rays emanating from its +light. On each side, is a little cherub--one has a cross and the other an +anchor. Over them, stand the mystical letters "IHS," the cross being +combined with the H after the fashion of a monogram. Beneath is the +following inscription:</p> + +<p align="center"> GELOOFD<br /> + ZY JESUS CHRISTUS<br /> + IN HET ALLERHEYLIGSTE<br /> + SACRAMENT.</p> + +<p>In another part of the city I found a representation of the crucifixion, +the cross upon which Christ is nailed being about 20 feet high. Effigies +of two women in oriental costume stand on either side of it.</p> + +<p>In Antwerp, as in Brussels, the spirit of progress: has seized the leading +circles, and the hand of improvement has commenced tearing down her +ancient houses and building new streets upon the modern plan and style of +architecture. One of the most handsome avenues in the world, being from +290 to 350 feet in width, and about two miles long, runs through the very +heart of this city. It has several moderate angles, which render it +convenient to assign different names to different sections of it. Avenue +du Commerce reaches from the northern end of the city to its magnificent +squares in the center, known as Place de la Commune and Place de la +Victoire. Here begins Avenue des Arts, which, with Avenue de l'Industrie, +leads to the southern confines of the city. These avenues consist of three +parallel roadways with two broad foot-pavements between them, and wide +pavements at the sides. Let us cross this avenue from one side to the +other, and estimate the width of its different parts. First we cross a +broad payement of perhaps 30 feet; then a roadway of about 50 feet; next a +foot-pavement lined by thick rows of trees whose branches form an arch +over it; then the central roadway, perhaps 150 feet wide; and afterwards, +another foot-pavement, a roadway and the pavement on the other side, +corresponding with those already mentioned. The great square in the center +of the city occupies about 6 acres. In this section of Antwerp, nearly all +the old buildings have been torn down and new ones erected during the last +few years; and in many other sections the same work of widening streets +and erecting new buildings in place of the old, is being done with +reckless haste. It seems as if old houses were regarded as a disgrace to +the city. That few images are to be seen in the new sections of the city, +is a sure sign that commerce, art and industry (see the names of three +avenues which run through this city) have sounded the tocsin of +revolution, and that the ancient religion with its emblems, forms and +ceremonies, is yielding to the spirit of modern civilization and +refinement, as many other cities of Europe have already done.</p> + +<p>It is a remarkable fact, that as Catholicism sinks in Continental Europe, +its communicants will not stop to join Prodestantism, but go strait over +to Rationalism. France, for example, has had these two extreme elements +fighting each other for the ascendency, for a long time, and no +middle-road sentiment ever gained a foothold. Prodestant Europe will cling +to the church the longest, and, do we not already see the indications very +planely that after all Europe has turned rationalistic, America will +continue to cherish the church and built her a Rome for future generations +to bless as the fostering mother of modern Christianity?</p> + + + +<h3>Notre Dame Cathedral.</h3> + + +<p>The Cathedral is the most elegant Gothic Church in Belgium, and one of the +most famous in the world. Some parts of it date from the 13th and others +from the 16th centuries. The spire (403 feet in height) is a proud rival +of that on the Cathedral of Strasbourg, and its chimes of 99 bells are +deservedly famous. Within the church, are some of the most celebrated +paintings of Rubens. Among them are "Descent from the Cross," (considered +his master piece), "Elevation of the Cross," "Assumption" and +"Resurrection." The interior of this church is ornamented with master +paintings and fine works of art in lavish profusion. The cathedral is free +in the morning, but at noon the paintings of Rubens are unveiled, and a +fee of 1 fr. is charged for admission. There were about 35 other tourists +there during the afternoon that I visited it.</p> + +<p>The Church of St. Jaques contains the tomb of Rubens, and many pictures, a +number of them veiled and shown only for a fee.</p> + + + +<h3>The Museum.</h3> + + +<p>The museum contains some of the best (most natural) paintings in Europe. +The pencil of Rubens has imitated nature so perfectly that the eye almost +fails to detect a flaw in the execution. The spectator may know that he +only stands before a flat surface of paper daubed with paint; but his soul +will be stirred, his pulse begins to beat faster and his imagination runs +away with him, as he looks at such masterly executions of a skillful hand +as is the "Dead Jesus" and some others in this museum. The congealed blood +in his side, upon his hands and on his head, with the tears of Joseph and +Mary and others, so natural that one mistakes the pictures for the +reality, create feelings in the beholder such as he seldom experiences +elsewhere, even in Europe. He first mourns for the dead and pities the +afflicted; then he recovers himself again, and thanks the artist for +having given him a key to the thoughts and feelings which he himself must +have cherished while executing this painting. It is said, that when +Roubiliac was erecting the Nightingale monument in Westminster Abbey, +described on page 86, "he was found one day by Gayfere, the Abbey mason, +standing with his arms folded, and his looks fixed on one of the knightly +figures which support the canopy over the statue of Sir Francis Vere; as +Gayfere approached, the enthusiastic Frenchman laid his hand on his arm, +pointed to the figure, and said in a whisper, 'Hush! hush! he vil speak +presently.'" Can we conceive that Rubens painted the "Dead Jesus" without +sobs and tears?</p> + +<p>I had seen acres of paintings in the Kensington Museum in London, in the +Louvre in Paris and in Palais de Versailles; but it was reserved for me to +see the paintings of Rubens and of Van Dyck last, so that I might know +their merit.</p> + +<p>Near the entrance of the Museum, stands a fine monument and statue to the +honor and memory of</p> + +<p align="center"> ANTONIO VAN DYCK<br /> + P.<br /> + CIC.ICCCC.LVI.</p> + +<p>No one would wish to leave Antwerp without having seen the "gilded halls" +by the river side, containing some of the most brilliant apartments in +existence.</p> + +<p>Antwerp has a population of about 120,000 inhabitants, and is the chief +sea-port of Belgium. The Scaut Fleuve (River Scheldt) is from a quarter to +a third of a mile wide at Antwerp.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch11"> +<h2>Chapter XI.</h2> + +<h3>Holland.</h3> + + + +<p>Early on Tuesday morning (August 10th) I started on "a run through +Holland."</p> + +<p>The Meuse and the Rhine form numerous mouths, and their deltas are low and +marshy. A most magnificent bridge crosses these, which is several (three?) +miles in length. Fourteen immense iron arches are required to span one of +the mouths of the Rhine. Much of the land is lower than the ocean, and a +great conflict is waged between the Hollanders and the Sea, for the +possession of the land. It is a strange sight to see vessels sail along +the embankments higher than the chimney tops of the houses along the +shore! Watchmen are stationed along these embankments and when the ocean +breaks a leak, they will ring the alarm bells and every body will arm +himself with a spade or shovel and run to the sea-shore to battle with the +water. Thus have these people defended their property against the +encroachments of the sea for many centuries.</p> + +<p>A great part of Holland is as level as the ocean, and there are neither +fences nor hedges to be seen. But ditches surround every little field and +lot, and innumerable wind-mills pump the water that gathers into these +ditches, up into canals, which intersect the country like a net-work, and +conduct the water to the sea. Extensive meadows and rich pasture land +support large, herds of fine cattle and sheep, which constitute the wealth +of Flemish industry.</p> + +<p>These Hollanders have some very curious styles of dress, and, like the +Swiss, still wear their ancient costumes, even after the rest of Europe +have adopted the fashions of Paris. In the larger towns and cities, +however, the tide of revolution has set in and the young belles and beaux +have commenced to "sail in Paris styles." A few years more, and the +traditional costumes of the Flanders will have disappeared altogether.</p> + +<p>The men are very partial to "burnsides" and wear their hair pretty long, +combed wet and stroked down so as to look smooth and glossy. The old +women, in place of ear-rings, wear ornaments in the form of immense +spirals suspended from the ends of half of a brass hoop that passes around +their heads below their white caps. These hang down over the cheeks and +are almost as long as their faces. Some of the young ladies coming in from +the rural districts, carry a head rigging--I do not know what else to call +it, for it is neither bonnet, hat, nor cap, nor any combination of these; +but it is an apparatus for the head that baffles description, and which, +for want of a better name, we must call a <i>tremendous thing</i>, both in +magnitude and in design! I have seen women with straw hats that must have +been well nigh a yard in diameter! In The Hague, I saw little girls, +however, (from 6 to 12 or 15 years of age) that were dressed as tidily and +looked as fair and as sweet as any of our American school-girls.</p> + + + +<h3>Public Highways.</h3> + + +<p>In Holland, these are <i>highways</i> in fact as well as in name. They run in +perfectly strait lines through the country, are about a yard higher than +the meadows at their sides, and are lined by thick rows of willow-trees. +They are turnpiked of course, as are all the roads in civilized Europe. +From these roads the traveler has always the same field of vision--a +circle around him that is about 8 to 5 miles in diameter. Towering spires +may be seen in all directions. I visited Dordrecht, Rotterdam, The Hague, +Amsterdam, Utrecht, Arnheim and intermediate places.</p> + + + +<h3>The Hague,</h3> + + +<p>In Dutch 'S Gravenhage or 'S Hage, in French La Haye, is the capital of +Holland as well as one of its finest towns. "It was originally a hunting +seat of the Counts of Holland (whence its name, 'S Graven Hage, 'the +Count's enclosure')."--<i>Hurd and Houghton's Satchel Guide to Europe</i>.</p> + +<p>The supreme attraction, is the museum rich im the best paintings of the +Dutch school. "Here is Paul Potter's world renowned 'Bull,' alone worth, a +trip to Holland to see." This famous picture represents a rural scene. A +ram, a ewe, a lamb, a bull and a cow are gathered together under an old +tree, and the old farmer, standing somehow behind the tree, taking a look +at them. It is so perfectly true to nature that one can hardly persuade +himself that the living animals are not before him. The pictures known as +Rembrandt's "School of Anatomy" are also as deservedly famous. What ever +the criticism of one who is no artist may be worth, it is my opinion that +Rubens's paintings and some of those in this museum, are the truest to +nature of all that I have seen in Europe. Raphael's paintings in Rome are +shady in comparison to those of the Dutch school.</p> + +<p>Tuesday, August 10th, 4:21 p.m. Leave The Hague for Amsterdam, where I +arrived at 7:30 p.m., having passed Haarlem at 6:45 p.m. At 8 o'clock, as +I sat on the platform of the Oosterspoorweg Station, the bells of three +different towers commenced simultaneously to chime their peals and that +too with mathematical precision. The exactness with which the clocks in +the clock-towers of Europe keep time is remarkable; and the music of the +pealing bells is beautiful, when numbers of them chime at the same time.</p> + +<p>At Amsterdam I was asked for my passport, I told the "blue coats" that I +had it in my satchel, "You should have it with you," said the +German-speaking official. I replied that I had not been aware of that; and +as I had not been asked for it either in England, France or Belgium, I had +placed it into my satchel, so as not to wear it out in my pockets. I sent +the porter to fetch my satchel, took the passport from it, and, after +having shown it to the officials, placed it into my pocket again, so that +I might have it ready in any emergency. These officers were very +accommodating to me afterwards, however, during the time that I waited for +the next train for Utrecht. After having had quite a social chat with +them, I asked them what they would have done with me if I could not have +produced them a passport from the government of my country. "Well," said +one of them, "we would have been obliged to subject you to an examination, +and if your answers would have satisfied the committee, you would have +been allowed to pass on."</p> + + + +<h3>Cloak-Rooms.</h3> + + +<p>In connection with the railway stations, wherever I traveled in Europe, +there are "cloak-rooms," in which the baggage of the travelers is stored +away. It costs 1 to 2 cents to have a package, parcel, umbrella or satchel +deposited into one of these, and then the depositor receives a receipt or +check for his luggage, which he must present when he wishes to have it +again. But Holland offers none of these excellent accommodations, else I +would have spent a day more among these Flanders. When I came to +Amsterdam, I was immediately assailed by a herd of porters, each anxious +to take my satchel into charge. It had been my rule to carry it to the +cloak-room myself, but here I could not find one! After a vehement +struggle with the fierce porters, one of them who could say "Yes," in +German, and who nodded his head when I asked him whether he would take it +to a cloak-room, took it and carried it into the station, a distance of +about fifty feet. But they kept no cloak-room as I observed when it was +not placed into a special apartment for the purpose. It did not seem +homelike at all to me, so I asked the agent whether he would give me a +receipt for it. "Yes, if you satisfy the porter, I will," he answered. +This reply made me more tired of Amsterdam than anything else, for, +thought I, if the agent of the would-be "cloak-room" is a party to such a +set of fellows, I must indeed have fallen into pretty bad company. I +offered the porter 4 cents, which was twice as much as it cost me in other +cities to have my satchel cared for a whole day, but he refused to take +it. Being unwilling to become the victim of their extortions, I took my +satchel and carried it (almost three fourths of a mile) through town to +the Oosterspoorweg on the other side of the city. There I obtained good +accommodations. I had asked for lodging while coming through the city, but +could not suit myself; so I decided to start that evening with the first +train for Utrecht. How different was the social atmosphere of the +Oosterspoorweg Station! Not only were the porters and the officers civil, +but there was an excellent restaurant connected with it, and the +waiting-girls of the coffee-room were tidily dressed in French costume, +spoke German, and were social, polite and accommodating.</p> + +<p>At 9:30, I left by train for Utrecht, which I reached at 10:35 p.m. The +station was a new and spacious one and the accommodations were again like +those which I had been accustomed to, before I saw Holland; so I felt +quite at home again.</p> + + + +<h3>Utrecht.</h3> + + +<p>It is entirely wrong for the tourist to come into a strange city late at +night, but I could not avoid it this time on account of my sudden +determination in Amsterdam not to spend the night there, as had been my +intention. A clever and kind-hearted gentleman accompanied me through +comparatively dark streets, and found a good hotel for me.</p> + +<p>The next forenoon I ascended the high tower (469 steps, 321 feet in +height). In this tower, at the height of 124 steps, lives the lady +custodian of this stupendous building. She must have "<i>high</i> times" up +there! The tower is a large square structure affording plenty of room even +for several families; but I was thinking that she must have quite a time +of it carrying up her water and all the numerous other things necessary to +house-keeping.</p> + +<p>The view from the top of the tower takes in the greater part of Holland. +The country all around is quite level, as far as the eye can see. Level, +in Holland, <i>means</i> level. Here one sees the innumerable wind-mills, and +the labyrinthic net-work of canals which intersect Holland. An almost +boundless expanse of meadow land stretches out in every direction, and +affords excellent pasture to the lowing herds that roam upon it. One sees +but a few scattered trees, and several small woods, all the rest is clear +and bear--no hedge-fences even to interrupt the dull monotony of the scene +below. A strong wind, and it was high too, whistled around that lofty +tower, reminding me of our winter storms when they whistle over the +chimney-tops--a music that often makes melancholy hearts home-sick.</p> + +<p>It was exactly 12:00 o'clock, and I was in the middle of the sentence, +"How beautiful these bells chime," when a boy motioned me to come quickly +to a certain place where I could see the cylinder revolve which +communicates with the peal of bells.</p> + +<p>Two points of lightning-rods crown this tower. Few lightning-rods are to +be seen upon private buildings, in Europe, but upon public buildings they +are occasionally met with.</p> + +<p>I must not leave Holland without once more referring to the rattling of +the wooden shoes upon the pavements, the red artificial flowers which old +gray-headed women wear upon their heads and the gaudy colors of some of +their dresses; also to the universal custom of carrying everything upon +their heads.</p> + +<p>The denominations of Dutch money are <i>florins</i> or <i>guldins,</i> and cents; +100 cents equal one florin. The florin is equal to 40 cents in United +States money.</p> + +<p>At 12:38 p.m., I left by train for Cologne, Germany. By 1:00 o'clock we +entered a desolate section of country consisting of barren sandy soil, +scanty crops, and dwarfish shrubs and trees. On our way, I formed the +acquaintance of an elderly gentleman who moved from Holland to this +country nineteen years ago. This gentleman explained to me the +agricultural institutions of Holland. He now lives in new Holland, Ottowa +Co., Michigan, a town of 3,000 inhabitants, most of which are natives of +Holland. There are about 15,000 more of his native countrymen living in +the neighborhood of new Holland and at Grand Rapids. They have a newspaper +published in their language in this country. At 2:25 we reached Arnheim +where my Dutch friend left me.</p> + +<p>At Zeevenaar (near the boundary between Holland and Germany) we passed +muster. Soon after we crossed the Rhine on a ferry, which carried us and +the whole trains of cars over together. Thence we rode through Rhenish +Prussia on, on, until we reached Cologne.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch12"> +<h2>Chapter XII.</h2> + +<h3>Cologne.</h3> + + + +<p>Köln, (or Cologne), the principal town in the Rhenish Province of Prussia, +the seat of the supreme court of justice for the west bank of the Rhine, +one of the chief commercial cities in Germany, and a military stronghold +of the first class, is an old Catholic city dating its foundation from the +1st century of the Christian era. In the beginning of the present century, +it had 200 churches and chapels; it has at present 25 only, two of which +are prodestant.</p> + + + +<h3>The Cathedral.</h3> + + +<p>The first place that the traveler naturally goes to visit is the +Cathedral, (Ger. Dom), which "is perhaps" says Bædeker, "the most +magnificent Gothic edifice in the world." This superb edifice is over an +acre and a half in extent! It is 448 feet long and 249 feet through the +transepts; the choir is 149 feet high. The magnificent south portal cost +more than $500,000.</p> + +<p>The central portal in the west end is 93 feet high, and 31 feet wide. The +central window is 48 feet in height and 20 feet wide. The projected height +of the twin towers is 511 feet. These are intended to consist of four +stories, the third of which is approaching completion. A model +representing in miniature what this structure is intended to be in the +height of its glory when its towers are completed and crowned with spires, +may be seen in a store adjacent to the <i>Dom-platz,</i> where the "only +veritable" Cologne water (eau de Cologne) may also be obtained.</p> + +<p>The foundation of this vast edifice was laid in 1248. Little work was done +at it between 1322 and the beginning of the 16th century, and none from +the latter date until 1816, when its restoration was begun under the +auspices of the King of Prussia. Since that time $2,000,000 have been +expended upon it. Those lower portions of the walls which were built 600 +years ago, are old and gray and washed thinner by the rains of those half +a dozen centuries. Such as appreciate the poetry of architecture, see in +its multitude of spires and finials (large and small) a thousand vegetable +forms, uniting to produce a bewildering effect upon the imagination; but +no word-picture can do justice to the almost matchless beauty of this fine +blossom of Gothic architecture. The tourist will love to go round about it +and inspect and contemplate its every part, to take near views and distant +views of it, and to revisit it time and again; and when he has bid adieu +to Cologne and returned to his far distant home, he will dream dreams, by +day and by night, in which he revisits and beholds again the beauties and +glories of this magnificent temple.</p> + +<p><i>St. Ursula,</i> a church that is said to have been been built in the 11th +century, contains a monument erected (1658) to St. Ursula, a princess of +England, who, according to the legend, when on her return from a +pilgrimage to Rome, was barbarously murdered by the Huns at Cologne with +her 11,000 virgin attendants. The skulls and bones of these martyrs are +preserved in cases placed round the church. Large sections of the walls in +the church are shelved and divided into pigeon holes, each containing a +skull! I saw no less than 600 or 700 of these skulls (by actual count). +The bones "are worked into the walls in a species of sepulchral mosaic." +These bones, it is said, had been in their graves about 400 years. The old +pictures of the apostles are painted upon slates, one of them bearing the +date 1224.</p> + +<p>In the Golden Chamber are preserved the most sacred relics; here is a bone +which is claimed to have been in the right arm of St. Ursula, while a +gilded shrine contains the rest of her bones. Do these identifications not +prove conclusively that anatomy was better understood when these bones +were classified than it is even now? The name of the anatomist who +selected St. Ursula's bones from among 11,000 and identified them is not +given, but he certainly deserves much credit for it. Here are thorns from +the crown and a piece of the rod with which Christ was scorged, one of the +six jars of alabaster used at the marriage in Galilee, and a piece, about +as thick as a hair and an inch or two long, of the "true cross." So they +<i>say</i>. These things were brought hither from Syria by the crusaders in +1378.</p> + + + +<h3>The Museum.</h3> + + +<p>The Museum in Cologne is one of the most interesting that I have yet seen. +Its curious old paintings carry one back to the wretched times of the +middle ages, when nothing but superstition and the night-mare of hell +could influence predatory man to humanity on civil order. A picture of the +Last Judgement is characteristic of the religious notions of those early +times. In this, Christ is represented as sitting on one rainbow and +resting his feet upon another. To his right stands a beautiful castle, +into which numbers of beautiful persons are going. But on the left, how +horrible! A massive time-worn citadel from whose large chimney tower issue +flames and smoke, into which winged devils are descending, while others, +carrying wretched-looking men in their clutches, fly about near it, or are +approaching it with their struggling victims, and hideous monsters of +quaint, fantastic forms accompany them in their excursions! One of these +hideous beasts is represented with an extra head upon one shoulder and one +under its breast; it has also faces upon its knees!</p> + +<p>Among the other relics of antiquity, is Cheopetra with a little snake +creeping over her bosom, Christ on the Cross surrounded by Mary and the +Apostles, Madonna in an arbor of roses, Lions Fighting, Mourning Jews, +Summer Night on the Rhine, and Galileo in Prison, deserve special notice +among the hundreds of other admirable paintings.</p> + +<p>A fine iron bridge 1,359 feet long, and wide enough for a double line of +rails and a separate roadway, crosses the Rhine directly east of the +Cathedral.</p> + +<p>In traveling through foreign lands, one sees so much that is indecent, +obscene, and shockingly profane, according to his our way of thinking, +that he scarcely knows what to include and what to suppress in his +accounts of foreign manners, customs and institutions. Some writers +incline to the policy of rendering a true account of what they touch, but +will restrain their pens from giving any notice of about one fourth of all +they see, because they do not wish to pain the feelings of their readers +by reciting to them narrations of horrible tragedies that occurred in the +past, or of groveling superstitions that prevailed; such as we all wish +had never disgraced the history of infant humanity or constituted the +day-dreams of our ancestors. They carefully select that which flatters and +pleases the vanity of their fellows, and pass by unnoticed, everything +else. This course may tickle vain people, but it cannot meet with favor +among those who love the truth, and the whole truth. There are sins of +<i>omission</i> as well as of <i>commission,</i> and writers betray and deceive the +world as much by the former class as by the latter. Some fastidious +writers are afraid to call things by their proper names, considering it +more appropriate to paint an African with a brownish color than to shock +the beholder with a picture of a man with a <i>black</i> face! I can not take +the reader through Europe in that way. To paint a negro we need <i>black</i> +paint, and to describe scenes which are unfamiliar we need words and +language that is not used in the drawing room or parlor every time we +meet. So much for the introduction to an episode that is characteristic of +the profanity of some of the descendents of the old Teutonic stock, when +they become exasperated. The second day that I spent in Cologne, I went to +a German barber to be put into trim for making my descend into the lower +latitudes and consequently warmer countries. Another customer was ahead of +me. While the barber was at work upon him, all the time in a rage and +swearing <i>barber</i>ously at some proceedings, a thunder storm came up very +suddenly, and so obscured the light of the sun (though it was midday) that +he could not see to go on with his work. Hereupon he began first to swear +at the clouds, then at the Lord himself, using all the epithets of abuse +that he could find in his entire vocabulary of profanity, there were heavy +peals of thunder and vivid flashes of lightning, but, the darker it became +and the more tremendous the crashes of the thunderbolts, the more the +senseless and exasperated barber cursed and swore. After the shower and +hail, I walked out into the pure fresh air and under the blue vault of +heaven smiling down upon the refreshed vegetation, and tried to draw a +picture of that profane man's mental panorama, but I never succeeded even +to this day. Such behavior is not of rare occurrence, else I should not +have related it; but even sacred history refers to similar incidents. The +wicked, it is recorded, danced and were merry even until the waters of the +flood swept them away.</p> + +<p>A certain divine related to me a similar story concerning the behavior of +a large body of the passengers with him on the "Great Eastern," when she +was foundered at sea and obliged to return, after they had advanced 500 +miles. When the storm was assailing the great ship, breaking down its +masts and tearing away its rigging, so that most of the passengers were in +despair and expected to sink any hour, they kept prayer-meetings almost +continually. Another faction found fault with these, declared that praying +was an intolerable nuisance and asked the Captain to prohibit it. The +Captain decided that he would not interfere, whereupon the party offended +took to dancing, cursing and swearing, and tried their utmost in this way +to break up the prayer-meetings,</p> + +<p>I heard similar profanity on my return trip across the Atlantic. One night +when a storm assailed our ship, so that the waves rolled over the deck and +the fierce rocking of the vessel threw many almost out of their beds, I +heard many of them swear, even during the very time that the thunder +rolled with tremendous roarings and crashes across the heavens. It seems +almost impossible that conscious intelligent beings could behave thus, but +the fact that they do, helps us to believe other strange truths recorded +in history, without which, no correct conception of man's former depraved +condition can be formed at this advanced day. For example, few seem to +appreciate the part played by the Catholic Church with her images, +shrines, sacred relics, paid magnificent temples, in taming and civilizing +man, because they do not know who and what he was when the light of +intelligence first began to direct his footsteps, and he had not yet +learned to control his selfish nature which had hitherto been guided by an +instinct worth a hundred times more than intelligence without morality or +religion. We make a sad mistake yet in the nineteenth century, in +cultivating the intellect and leaving morality so much out of the +question. We see some of the fruits already in the corruption which +prevails alike in all circles without regard to party or sect. I will +recur to this again in speaking of the influence of the church, when I +come to describe the magnificent churches of Italy.</p> + +<p>On the second afternoon that I spent at Cologne there had been a shower, +and from sunset till dusk I beheld one of the grandest atmospheric +phenomena that I had ever witnessed. From a window of Mlüler's Hotel +(facing the <i>Dom-Platz</i>) I was looking over the Cathedral at the western +sky, as the sun throw its colored light through the small drops of rain +still descending, and thus colored both the green foliage of the trees and +the grand edifice before me, presenting a scene of such enchanting beauty +as would afford almost a sufficient excuse for one to go into raptures, or +sink down in a fit of ecstatic delight.</p> + +<p>I may add that before leaving Cologne, I saw among the many dog-teams used +in distributing produce over the city, a span whose disproportion I shall +never forget; there was a dog hitched to one side of the shaft and a woman +took hold of the other side and assisted him in pulling the load!</p> + + + +<h3>Bonn.</h3> + + +<p>On Friday morning, August 13th, I left Cologne and went by rail to Bonn, +21 miles further up the Rhine. It is the seat of the Freidrich Wilhelm +University, and contains about 26,000 inhabitants. The Poppelsdorfer +Allee, an excellent quadruple avenue of fine horse-chestnuts, three +quarters of a mile long, is the principal promenade of the town. At the +end of it stands the Schloss containing the University, with a library +(200,000 volumes) and a museum rich in Roman antiquities. The Münster (or +Cathedral) dates from the 12th and 13th centuries. In the Münsterplatz +stands a fine bronze statue of Beethoven, a celebrated German musician, +who was born in the Bonngasse, No. 515. This statue faces south, (as do +most of the statues that I have seen in Europe, except when the +surroundings are unfavorable). One side of the pedestal contains the +following inscription:</p> + +<p> LUDWIG<br /> + VAN<br /> + BEETHOVEN<br /> +Geb. zu Bonn MDCCLXX.</p> + +<p>The other three sides contain base reliefs representing muses playing upon +musical instruments.</p> + +<p>Half a mile above the Poppelsdorfer Schloss rises the Kreuzberg (400 feet +high) crowned with a white church. This contains the "Holy Steps" 28 in +number, which must only be ascended on the knees, and are in imitation of +the Scala Sancta at the Lateran in Rome, piously believed to be the +identical steps of the Prætorium ascended by the Savior when he appeared +before Pilate.</p> + +<p>The view from the tower of this church is one of the most beautiful on the +Rhine. After enjoying the scenery a while, with a party of ladies and +gentlemen whose society I had joined in the church below, we came down, +and I took a rustic seat on an eminence and surveyed the beauties of the +landscape more at leisure. The most beautiful part of the Rhine is from +Bonn to Mayence, and this view from the Kreuzberg constituted for me a +fine initiation into the charming scenery that fell to my portion to enjoy +the coming three days. Large sections of the country here are entirely +without fences, there being no hedge-fences even, and the landscape +checkered by the different fresh colors of the various crops, spreads out +like a beautiful carpet of green, red, yellow, gray, and a dozen other +tints and shakes, all mixed up, or like a pavement rich in mosaics. We had +also gone into the cellar of the church to see the skeletons and bodies of +26 <i>Servitten</i> lying about in boxes or coffins set in rows upon the +ground. These, it is said, built the church in 1627. The bodies of several +of them seem to have petrified more or less perfectly, but the rest of +them are mere skeletons, and present an anatomical display that reminded +me of what I had seen in St. Ursula, in Cologne, as above described. This +cellar is perfectly dark and is entered by a trap-door in the form of a +heavy stone, which an attendant removes by means of a crow-bar. The steps +leading down are narrow and the passage very low, so that several of the +ladies at first declined to enter, but we persuaded them, however, to +accompany us. A tallow candle afforded us some little light, and after +brushing away the cobwebs which the spiders had spun since the last party +had made their entry, we came upon the sickening sight of the dozen or +more skeletons still preserved. The ladies in the party were intelligent +and dressed tastefully, and I shall never forget how the gaudy colors of +their dresses contrasted with the gloom of that nasty cellar.</p> + +<p>The frequent odd adventures into such places as many would not like to +enter in their own homes in the presence of their friends and companions, +constitutes a prolific source of amusement. After we had crept out of that +dirty cobwebbed passage, our clothes were slightly soiled and cobwebby. +With the remark, "If we were all with our fashionable circles at home, I +suppose we should not go on this way," or some such allusion, that reminds +the company of how differently they are wont to go on at home,-one can, +under such circumstances generally provoke a fit of merriment. To the +traveler, every day is a day of adventures--frequently of rather funny +adventures!</p> + +<p>At 2:30 p.m., I left Bonn by rail for Mehlen, (5 miles further up), where +I crossed the Rhine on a ferry and came to Königswinter on its right bank. +Southeast of this village lie "The Seven Mountains" (Siebengebirge). From +the Drachenfels (1,066 feet high) the view is the most picturesque, and +this one, about a mile from the village, I ascended. Donkeys and donkey +boys are found here in aboundance, but I would have nothing to do with the +donkey, and immediately set out to make the ascent on foot. I did not come +far before a girl crowned me, with a wreath made of leaves, and asked me +to buy it. The scenery is so romantic, here, that many will yield to the +importunities of these poor girls and give them a <i>groschen</i> (21/2 cents) +and make the rest of their journeys with wreaths of leaves upon their +hats! The ruins of the castle of Drachenfels (or dragon's rock) erected in +the beginning of the 12th century, is near the summit of the peak. The +cavern of the dragon may be seen from the Rhine half way up the hill. +"This dragon was slain by Sigfried, the hero from the Low Countries, who, +having bathed himself in its blood, became invulnerable."</p> + +<p>The summit of Drachenfels commands one of the noblest prospects of the +Rhine. Here sat Byron when he wrote the following beautiful lines:</p> + +<blockquote><p> "The castled crag of Drachenfels<br /> + Frowns o'er the wide and winding Rhine,<br /> +Whose breast of waters broadly swells<br /> + Between the banks which hear the vine;<br /> +And hills all rich with blossomed trees,<br /> + And fields which promise corn and wine<br /> +And scattered cities crowning these,<br /> + Whose far white walls along them shine,<br /> +Have strew'd a scene which I should see<br /> + With double joy went <i>thou</i> with me."</p></blockquote> + +<p>While luxuriating here amidst these grand and beautiful scenes of the +Rhine, we were visited, by a shower, after which I enjoyed the sublime +sight of <i>looking down upon a rainbow</i> which stood in the valley below me!</p> + +<p>That evening I rode by rail to Ehrenbreitstein which is opposite to +Coblentz.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch13"> +<h2>Chapter XIII.</h2> + +<h3>Coblentz.</h3> + + + +<p>On Saturday afternoon, August 14th, I prepared a programme of my +contemplated trip through South Germany, Switzerland, Italy and the East, +which, together with several hundred cards, I got printed in the +afternoon. By means of these programmes I informed my correspondents in +America, in which cities I would look for mail matter and at what times I +expected to reach them.</p> + +<p>Mr. Elmer, of the <i>Coblentzer Volkszeitung</i>, told me that the dialects of +the German language are so different, that the people of Coblentz and +those of Cologne can scarcely understand each other when they speak their +peculiar dialects.</p> + +<p>The principle, that whenever a stream of water makes a curve, the outside +bank (that which turns the water from its strait course) is always more +precipitous than the other in proportion to the amount of curvature of the +stream, is well illustrated at the confluence of the Mosel and the Rhine +at Coblentz, by the course of the latter. The waters of the Mosel flow +almost perpendicularly against the right bank of the Rhine, and have +helped it in forming the precipitous rock of Ehrenbreitstein rising to the +height of 387 feet above the river, upon which stand the famous +fortifications of that name. The Rhine curves toward the left for about +six or eight miles, and its right bank is in consequence high and steep, +while the left bank is in the form of a gradual slope, bearing a striking +resemblance to the valley of the Jordan for a mile around Siegersville, +Lehigh Co., Pa. Another principle, that the width of a valley and the +hardness of its bed is always in proportion to the fall of the stream of +water flowing through it, does also find as ample illustrations in the +sweeping Rhine as in any of the humbler streams whose courses I had +watched and studied at home. These two principles afford perhaps the +strongest and most conclusive of all proofs, that the hills and valleys of +our planet are all the result of erosion.</p> + +<p>The streets of Coblentz are mostly narrow, as are also its pavements, many +of the latter being only from one to two feet wide. There are several +remarkable churches, one, the Church of St. Castor dating from 1208, being +an example of the early "Lombard style."</p> + +<p>In order to enjoy the Rhine scenery to the greatest advantage, I took +passage on a steamer to Bingen, and started out on Sunday morning at 10 +o'clock. One of the steamers had been delayed about three hours that +morning on account of the fog, but the day turned out to be a most +beautiful one. I took a seat near the prow of the steamer, where I could +conveniently watch the views of both banks without interruption from any +source. I was now about to ascend the most romantic part of the +Rhine--the Rhine of history and of poetry, upon whose precipitous banks +the Germans erected their castles in the early and middle ages and +defended their "Fatherland" against the attacks of their warlike +neighbors. Only after one has seen the castled steam with its numerous +watch-towers crowning every towering peak, and the indescribable beauties +of this noble river, will the national air, "Die Wacht Am Rhein," (Watch +At The Rhine), seem so beautiful to him, as it does to the sons of +Germany, whose souls are stirred by its boundless historic associations.</p> + +<p>I cannot stop to describe the scores of Schlösser, (castles), the charming +prospects, the beautiful valleys with their verdant hillsides peeping into +the Rhine, and the rich vineyards upon its sloping banks in some places, +or the romantic scenery of the bare rocky mountains that rise almost +perpendicularly at its sides to the height of 300 to 500 feet, in other +places. Several objects claim particular attention, however.</p> + +<p>Some 35 or 40 miles up the river from Coblentz, on the left bank, rise the +imposing rocks of the Lurlei to the height of 433 feet above the Rhine. +The river is very narrow in this place, has much fall and makes a decided +turn, so that it is with considerable difficulty and some danger that +steamers make their ascent. The river is here 76 feet deep and its waters +form a whirlpool, (Gewirre). This place and every other one of interest +along the Rhine, as well as all its castles, have their legends. It is +said that a siren who had her abode on the rock, was wont by means of +charming music to entice sailors and fishermen to their destruction in the +rapids at the foot of the precipice.</p> + +<p>As it is dangerous for steamers to meet on these rapids, they have a rule +that every steamer coming up the stream must fire a few small cannons as +soon as it approaches the Lurlei, so that steamers that are descending may +hear it and wait to let the ascending steamer pass before they enter upon +the rapids.</p> + +<p>Near Bingen is the Mouse Tower, so called because the cruel Archbishop +Hatto, of Mayence? had once compared some poor famishing people to mice +bent on devouring corn, and caused them to be burned in his barn after +having invited them to come there and receive provisions which it had been +his duty to give them. After this outrage he was immediately attacked by +mice, which tormented him day and night. He sought refuge in this tower, +but was followed by his persecutors and soon devoured alive. Thus runs the +legend.</p> + +<p>We reached Bingen at 3:30 p.m., and started by rail for Frankfort on the +Main an hour later. At 7:15 we crossed the Rhine by the magnificent iron +bridge at Mayence, from which we had a good view of the extensive +fortifications of that city, also the rich decorations of the entire city +with banners, for, though it was Sunday, the Republicans (Internationals +or Communists as they call themselves) had a great political meeting. I +formed the acquaintance of one of their number who traveled with me to +Frankfort and gave me an invitation to accompany him to one of their +meetings the next evening. The Communists which fled from Paris after the +storm of 1871, are now busy in different countries assisting those opposed +to royalty to form organizations for the purpose of instituting other +revolutionary movements some future day.</p> + + + +<h3>Frankfort.</h3> + + +<p>Frankfort, the home of the Rothschilds, down to 1866 a free city of the +German Confederation and the seat of the Diet, has a population of 90,000 +inhabitants. It has 20,000 Catholics and 8,000 Jews.</p> + +<p>The Römer is historically the most interesting building in Frankfort. It +became the town-hall in 1405. In the second story is the Kaisersaal +(Imperial Hall) containing the portraits of 47 emperors reigning from A.D. +912 to 1806. In front of it is the Römerberg, (a large square), or +market-place, which was the scene of public rejoicings on the occasion of +the election of an emperor. After dining in the Kaisersaal he would show +himself from the balcony to the assembled multitudes upon it. Down to the +end of the last century no Jew was permitted to enter it.</p> + +<p>The Judengasse (or Jew's street) was founded in 1462 and until the +beginning of the present century all the Jews of the city lived there in +an isolated community. Every evening and on Sundays and holidays, this +street was closed with gates, and a Jew who would venture into any part of +the town was subject to a heavy penalty.</p> + +<p>The Church of St. Paul is immediately behind the Römer. It is a circular +building having seating capacity for 3,000 adults, and was used in 1848-9 +for the meetings of the "German National Assembly for remodeling the +Constitution."</p> + +<p>Frankfort is the birthplace of Goethe, and has embellished one of its +squares with a fine monument to his memory. It has also a fine monument to +Schiller and a magnificent one to Gutenberg.</p> + +<p>In some of the old streets of this city the upper stories of the houses +are built out over the streets, making a break in the wall at every story, +so that some of the narrow streets are thus almost arched over.</p> + +<p>I left Frankfort by rail on the 17th of August, at 2:00 o'clock, and +reached Darmstadt at 2:40 p.m.</p> + +<p>Before leaving home, I had been presented by different persons with the +addresses of a number of their friends and acquaintances in different +countries of Europe, and also with letters of introduction to them. On +account of my unbounded success in forming congenial friendships with +foreigners, I never departed from my programme in order to meet persons +for whom I carried letters, and consequently met none of them except a +young American lady who had been abroad for several years with the object +of studying the German language, and who was now connected with an +educational institution at Darmstadt. Though I had been almost continually +surrounded by tourists whose society and friendship I enjoyed and +appreciated, still this meeting with a friend of one of my friends at +home, seemed to me just like meeting an old acquaintance. We seated +ourselves under a tree in the beautiful garden belonging to the Boarding +School, and had a long talk about what each had seen in Europe, and how +the social, political and literary institution of the Old World differ +from those of America. The next day my new friend kindly accompanied me +through the large museum contained in the Schloss, comprising a valuable +collection of about 700 paintings, among them some fine specimens of the +Dutch school. The Library in the Schloss consists of 450,000 volumes. On +our way to the Schloss Garden we saw a little hut nestled in the garrets +of other large buildings and surrounded by them on every side, except one +of its gable-ends. The old peasant (so says tradition) would not part with +it for any price, therefore his neighbors built their houses <i>around</i>, +<i>beneath</i> and <i>over</i> his, leaving but <i>one</i> side clear through which he +could admit the light of heaven into his humble apartment! Darmstadt has +about 40,000 inhabitants, and is one of the cleanest and most modern in +appearance of all the cities that I met in the Old World. Its broad and +shaded streets intersecting each other at right angles, give it much of +the appearance of an American city. The view from the Ludwigsäule commands +a fine prospect of the level country around, with its large woods of "tall +trees" so rare in Europe, and the Rhein Strasse (Rhine Street) loosing +itself only in the distance, is the straitest and longest street that I +have yet seen.</p> + + + +<h3>Worms.</h3> + + +<p>Worms is one of the oldest towns in Germany. "The war against the Saxons +was planned here in, 772, and here the great contest concerning the +investure of the bishops with ring and staff was adjusted by the Concordat +between, the Emp. Henry V. and Pope Calixtus II." It had once 70,000 +inhabitants, but it contains now only 15,000, (2/3 Prodestant).</p> + +<p>The <i>Cathedral</i> is a remarkably fine Romanesque edifice with four elegant +towers, and two domes. The towers are adorned with odd figures of animals +and gurgoyles. Most of this church dates from the 12th century. In the +pediment is "the figure of a woman with a mural crown, mounted on an +animal, whose four heads (angel, lion, ox, eagle,) are symbols of the four +Evangelists, the whole being emblematic of the victorious church."</p> + +<p>"In the Bishofshof was held the diet of April 1521, in which Luther +defended his doctrines in the presence of Charles V., six electors, and a +numerous assembly, concluding with the words: 'Here I stand, I cannot act +otherwise, God help me! Amen.'"</p> + +<p>The Baptistry contains some curious sculptures. Upon the roof of the +building (stable) represented in connection with the Nativity, there lies +a wheel, the signification of which no one could tell me. Among other +musical instruments represented in relief in this church, there are the +harp, the bugle and rows of violins or fiddles!</p> + +<p>In the Luther-Platz stands the great Luther Monument, an imposing memorial +of the Great Reformer. Its execution occupied nine years and cost $85,000.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch14"> +<h2>Chapter XIV.</h2> + +<h3>Die Pfalz (Palatinate).</h3> + + + +<p>From Worms I went to Frankenthal, where I spent the night (of August 18th) +at the Pfalzhof. It was now nearly two months since I had left America, +and since that time, in all my wanderings, I had met no people that +resembled the Americans. Even in Germany had I not yet seen any one whose +physiognomy spoke of near kinship to any that I knew on the other side of +the Atlantic. But at</p> + + + +<h3>Frankenthal</h3> + + +<p>I was introduced to a new class of experiences which were as unexpected as +they were pleasant. If I had not here experienced it, I could never have +anticipated the feelings of a lonely wanderer who, when thousands of miles +away from home, was addressed in tones so like unto the voices of those he +loved to hear at home, that he felt as if he was all the time hearing +familiar voices in every direction.</p> + +<p>At Worms my attention had already been arrested by social phases that +reminded me of America, but at Frankenthal I met an officer at the +station, who, upon being asked where the peculiar Palatinate dialect was +spoken, not only mentioned to me the places, but also gave me a list of +Pfälzish words that are peculiar to them, most of which are purely +Pennsylvania German both in their pronunciation and their meanings. A +young girl at the hotel and her brother not only used language similar to +ours, but betrayed their kinship in various other ways. I spent about a +week in Mannheim, Neustadt, Speyer and the surrounding country, during +which time I devoted all my attention to the question of our common +ancestry. That those people are cousins to many of our Pennsylvania +Germans can easily be proved in a variety of ways, even when we throw +aside the traditional and historic evidences which we have that many +Pennsylvanians have emigrated from the Pfalz in times past. The most +convincing proof to those who can not go there and see the people +themselves, likely consists in the fact that many of the family names of +the Pfälzer and of our Pennsylvania Germans are the same. I attended the +large annual Sängerfest at Neustadt, in which 973 singers from all parts +of the Pfalz participated. I procured a catalogue of their names and found +that a very large proportion are the same as those of the majority of our +people. When we contrast with this the fact that the proportion of names +common between our people and that of any other section, is much smaller, +we see the force of the argument. But this is by no means the first thing +that strikes the visitor. Consanguinity or relationship by blood betrays +itself in a hundred ways. Particular words and expressions, peculiar +pitches of the voice, styles of address, forms of salutations, and special +ways of performing certain kinds of work, tell their tale with an emphasis +that makes itself understood even to the unscientific observer. The +expression of the face and the very ring of the laugh often impressed me +with the truth that it was that of a cousin's brother or sister. I often +expressed my surprise at these things to those around me, and by a free +indulgence in the peculiarities of their idiom enlisted the attention and +gained the friendship of those people with magical effect. From +Frankenthal I went to</p> + + + +<h3>Mannheim,</h3> + + +<p>which is the most regularly built town in Germany. It is divided into 100 +squares like a chess-board, and has about 40,000 inhabitants. It consists +of 20 sections lettered from A to U (the J being excluded from the +nomenclature) and the squares of each sections numbered from 1 to 5. As +the city enlarges in territory the numbers of the squares run from 5 +upwards. The streets are named as in other cities, but the houses are +numbered <i>around</i> the squares. Thus the <i>Mannheimer Familienblatter</i> (a +newspaper published in the Pfälzisch dialect, which is like the +Pennsylvania German) is printed at E 1. 8.--Section E, Square 1, No. 8.</p> + + + +<h3>Neustadt.</h3> + + +<p>At Neustadt I made my home for half a week whence I took excursions into +the country. One day I went to Drachenfels, walking about 16 miles in the +woods, where I had nothing but paths and guide-boards to lead me; but the +latter are found wherever two paths meet, so that I could easily find my +way back again. In order to meet these people in every sphere of life, I +used to go out to see the poor men and women work in the fields. One +Saturday afternoon I struck out from Landau toward the Haardt Mountains +with a view to put up for the night in a certain town that I saw on a +distant hill. When I had come a short distance, I overtook a little maiden +whom I asked the name of that town, so that I might ask the way thither if +I should come into a valley where I could not have pointed it out any +longer. I pleased the young girl very much by presenting her with my card, +and induced her to use her glib tongue volubly in telling me about their +schools--what they studied, how long the terms last, &c. She would get +along very well in our Pennsylvania German dialect. When we parted, she +skipped away and proudly showed the card which she had received from an +"American," to one of her schoolmates (?). Here one may see women hauling +hay and grain with cows, though I also saw some men use horses. Toward +evening I met a peasant of Böchingen, who had finished his work and was +about to return home. On learning that I was an American, he asked me to +accompany him to his village, saying that <i>Kirmes</i> had come, the great +jubilee season of the year when all the churches were being re-dedicated, +after which ceremony the people would go to the public houses and keep up +dancing and drinking wine and beer from Sunday noon till Monday night, and +that I could therefore see a great many Palatinates together in his town I +asked him what hotel accommodations their town had; to which he replied +that there were several hotels and he would conduct me to a good one. On +reaching the place I accompanied him first to his home and was introduced +to his family. I had here one of those opportunities, so rare to the +traveler, of seeing the kitchen arrangements of the middle and lower +classes. When we came to the hotel he asked the landlord for a room for +me, who immediately came to me and explained that on account of the great +"Fest" (anniversary) he had turned all the spare rooms of the house into +coffee-rooms, "but," said he, "though I know that Americans are used to +good accommodations, I can only offer you the <i>Fruchtkammer</i> (granery) +to-night, where I have a good nice bed for you, however, if that will suit +you." The homelike cheerful tone and conversation of the landlord at once +captivated me, and when I looked at the large house and saw all his rooms +already filled with guests enjoying their wine and beer together, after +the German fashion, I soon decided to stay with them. The room which he +gave me was a very large one in the second story of the house, and, +though there were large heaps of grain and different kinds of farming +implements there, the end where the bed stood was clean and inviting, +considering the circumstances. There was no lock at the door, but the +landlord's honest face and assurances soon put me at ease about that +matter. He told me that I might place some barrels against it, however, if +I felt so inclined, which of course I did. There was a lady in that town +who had been spending her time in Philadelphia for several years, but who +had on this occasion come home to Böchingen on a visit. An invitation was +sent to her in the evening already, asking her to come to the hotel where +an American was waiting to meet her, and early on Sunday morning she met +me in the coffee-room where we spent the morning. One's partiality to the +English language seldom displeased me in Europe, but as this lady was a +native of that part of the Pfalz whose people spoke a dialect more like +the Pennsylvania German than I heard anywhere else, I insisted upon +conversing with her in "the dialect." The landlord who did not understand +any English was with us most of the time, so that out of respect for him +she also felt constrained to speak German when he was present, but +whenever he left us she would speak English, the language of her new +American home. She had visited Allentown, Pa., and was well acquainted +with the resemblance of the Pfälzish and the Pennsylvania German +dialects. I went home to Neustadt that forenoon and attended the great +Pfälzer Sängerfest (the annual Concert of the Palatinate Choirs). The city +was splendidly decorated with flags, and the "Fest" was a grand success in +every respect. From Neustadt I went to Speyer, and a day later to</p> + + + +<h3>Heidelberg.</h3> + + +<p>Heidelberg was the only place where I found lady ticket agents at the +railway station. The station is a very large and important one, and the +positions held by those ladies are of great responsibility. In Continental +Europe, it is the ladies that transact most of the business in almost +every city. Hotels, stores, shops, cafes, drinking stands, &c., are +generally managed by ladies.</p> + +<p>Heidelberg was the last city in which I felt that I was hourly seeing the +cousins of the Pennsylvania Germans. Here still, I did occasionally see +one who not only favored some of our people in form and features, but +whose voice and accent also spoke of kinship. I had heard persons speak in +some parts of the Pfalz and particularly around Böchingen (about 10 miles +S.S.W. from Neustadt and 25 miles W.S.W. from Speyer) from 50 to 70 per +cent of whose words corresponded to the Pennsylvania German. Dürkheim, +Landau, (and some say, Kaiserslautern too), are good examples.</p> + +<p>The old renowned university of Heidelberg has 800 students, and a library +of 200,000 volumes and 1,800 MSS.</p> + +<p>The castle is the most magnificent ruin in Germany. The towers, turrets, +buttresses, balconies, and fine statues still stand there, proud and bold, +even in its ruins. And the portcullis of iron in one of its lofty gateways +gave me the first idea how the balance of the enemy could be shut off, +after a portion had been admitted into the yard of the fortifications with +a view of slaughtering them. The iron bars of this portcullis or sliding +gate are very thick and heavy, and have sharp points below. A tower stands +over the gate, into which the portcullis is drawn up. The defenders of +castles would sometimes conceal themselves and keep perfectly silent on +the approach of an enemy, as if the castle had been abandoned, but as soon +as as large a portion of them as they thought they could dispose of, had +entered, the portcullis was dropped, which, on account of its immense +weight, of course made its way to the ground even, if it had to pierce the +bodies of a dozen that stood under it! Hereupon the alarm was sounded and +all that were inside were barbarously slaughtered. In some castles there +were large pit-falls full of pointed spears standing upwards. As soon as a +large part of the enemy were upon this pit, they would be precipitated +into the spears below! At other places there were immense rollers, and +only one approach to the castle, which lead directly up the hill. When the +assaulting enemy made its approach by this, the hillside was filled with +the enemy's soldiers, these rollers would be loosened upon them, and thus +the bodies of many thousands would be mangled in a minute! Such was the +barbarity of the ancients.</p> + +<p>I will not forget the long walk I had all alone through one of the +underground passages of the Heidelberg Castle. I saw a pale light at the +other end, when I entered; but it was dark in the middle, and turned out +to be much longer than I had anticipated. These passages are about 7 feet +high and 10 feet wide, and are arched by a brick vault. The illumination +of this ruined castle on the evening of August 23rd, constituted one of my +grandest sights in all Europe. It seemed to be enveloped with flames of +such an intense heat, that its walls, towers, &c., appeared to be about to +melt down! As the colors of the illuminating light changed suddenly from +yellowish white to blue, green and red, the scene was so indescribably +beautiful, that numbers of the ten thousand spectators actually went into +raptures.</p> + + + +<h3>The Tun,</h3> + + +<p>in the castle of Heidelberg, the largest of all the tuns in the world, is +32 feet long, 22 feet in diameter at both ends and 23 feet in the center. +Its eighteen wooden hoops are 8 inches thick and 15 inches broad, and its +127 staves are 91 inches thick. The bung-hole is 3 to 4 inches in +diameter. To built it cost the enormous sum of $32,000, and its capacity +is equal to about 2,200 common barrels! On top of it is a dancing-floor +having the bung-hole in the center! What a joy it must be for the dancers +to reflect that there is such a flood of wine still beneath them! This +giant tun erected as an altar to the jovial God "Bacchus," has been filled +completely three times, (1753, 1760, 1766).</p> + +<blockquote><p> "In Heidelberg beim grossen Fass<br /> + Da liess sich's fröhlich sein,<br /> +Bei einem vollgefülten Glas<br /> + Von edlem Pfälzer Wein;<br /> +Den als dies Fass kam einst zum stand<br /> + Do war ein Jubel in dem Land,<br /> +Da freut' sich Alles, Gross und Klein,<br /> + Denn voll war es mit Pfälzer Wein."</p> + +<p>"In Heidelberg, the 'Grosse Fass,'<br /> + Caused merry days to shine,<br /> +When all enjoyed the well filled glass<br /> + Of noble Pfälzer wine;<br /> +For when this Tun first came to light,<br /> + All did in joy combine,<br /> +To see the 'Fass,' oh wondrous sight!<br /> + Fill'd up with Pfälzer wine."</p></blockquote> + +<p>The Philosophenweg, (Philosopher's way), two miles in length, commands +some of the finest prospect on the Rhine. It winds through charming +vineyards, and from it may be enjoyed splendid views of the town, castle, +valley, and of the beautiful outlines of the Haardt Mountains and the +cathedral of Speyer in the distance.</p> + +<p>From Heidelberg I went to Stuttgart, remarkable for the vast collection +of books (300,000 vols.) in the Royal Library. Among these are about 9,000 +Bibles, in some 80 languages!</p> + +<p>The Railway Station in Stuttgart is remarkable both for magnificence and +the beauty of its interior. Its wide and lofty passages and splendid +waiting-rooms, are among the grandest in the world.</p> + +<p>From Stuttgart I went to Carlsruhe, famous for the manner in which the +streets meet at the Castle, from every point of the compass. Some thirty +streets meet here like so many sticks of a circular fan. Near the Botanic +Garden, is a large Hall of Art rich in paintings and relics.</p> + + + +<h3>Strassburg.</h3> + + +<p>Strassburg, the capital of Alsace and Lorraine, is situated on the River +Ill, 2 miles from the Rhine, and comprises a population of 80,000 +inhabitants. Its Cathedral, covering more than an acre of ground and 216 +feet in height, is deservedly famous. Its elegant spire, the highest in +Europe, is 465 feet in height. To procure a permit from the city +authorities to ascend to the "lantern," which is immediately below the +extreme summit, I walked about the city nearly an hour to find the proper +official. The view from the platform or roof of the building (216 feet +high) affords a fine view of the beautiful plains of Alsace, but many +ascend to the "lantern" simply for the satisfaction of saying that they +have done it. No one is allowed to go higher than the platform, except by +special permission from the city authorities, and accompanied by a guide +and protector, for which an extra ticket is required. The ascent is quite +easy for some distance, but by and by the spire becomes too narrow to have +stairs on the inside, so that we had to climb up on the outside along +ladder-like steps. If one would become giddy in this place, he might fall +from a hight of over four hundred feet into the street below! I cannot +stop to speak of the world-renowned astronomical clock which is contained +in this cathedral.</p> + +<p>The railroad through the Black Forest is one of the great victories of +civil engineering which characterize this age of great undertakings. We +passed in exactly one hour through 38 tunnels, during which time, in our +ascent of the mountains, we passed through one valley three times! When we +had reached the highest point, we saw the two other tracks at different +elevations on the mountain side below us! Here we passed for many hours +through pine forests, all the trees of which were raised from seed, (some +sown, and others planted). Many square miles of this mountainous section +is covered with pines planted as regularly as our orchards; and the +scenery of these mountain-sides green with dense forests in which the +comical tree-tops stand with mathematical exactness in the square or +quincunx order, is among the most beautiful imaginable.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch15"> +<h2>Chapter XV.</h2> + +<h3>Switzerland.</h3> + + + +<p>It is almost impossible to describe the scenery of the Alps to one who had +never yet ascended mountains above the region of the clouds, without so +bewildering his imagination that his fancy will call forth and accept more +fictitious notions than true ones. The best description that I had ever +heard of the Alps, was the occasion of my most incorrect conceptions about +them. I think the speaker did not misstate or exaggerate anything in a +single word, but as he could in an hour's talk tell only one tenth of what +one ought to know, in order to form a correct notion of what the Alps look +like, my fanciful imagination promptly supplied the coloring of the other +nine tenths of the picture which he left untouched; and consequently when +I came to see the Alps, I found them entirely different from what I had +anticipated.</p> + +<p>The ordinary school maps represent the Alps as extending along the borders +of Switzerland, as if they consisted of a single range, or possibly of +several parallel ranges, and Mount Blanc as its towering peak. With what +surprise a scholar who only saw these maps, will look about him, when he +reaches the summit of any high peak in Switzerland! On the Rigi, for +example, one sees an extent of territory almost 300 miles in circuit, +every part of which is studded with ice-capped peaks. These range not in +any one particular direction, nor do they number only several dozen, but +many hundreds of them stand around the beholder toward every point of the +compass and at variable distances, from the Pilatus near by to the most +distant part of the horizon--more than 50 miles away. The snow-clad crowns +of many of these rise high above the clouds, so that</p> + +<blockquote><p> "Through the parting clouds only<br /> + The earth can be seen,<br /> + Far down 'neath the vapour<br /> + The meadows of green."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Those forms of clouds called cumuli, (P.G. Gewitter Wolken), presenting +themselves the appearance of mountains covered with ice, often creep +around these peaks at less than half their height! At Zurich I first +beheld the strange sight of mountains and clouds piled upon each other so +that I could not well distinguish them. It was on a sunny afternoon that I +stood on the banks of the <i>Zuricher See</i> (Lake Zurich) and, looking over +its calm waters, I beheld in the distant southeast a strange phenomenon. +There stood the high glittering banks of clouds, and over them I saw the +black sides of a towering peak whose top was covered with ice and snow. I +then visited the Rigi and looked at Alpine Switzerland from its giddy +heights. This, since the railroad has been completed to its top, is one +of the most famous mountains in Switzerland. Though it stands beneath the +line of perpectual snow, its top being covered with grass in summer, still +it commands a panoramic view of indescribable grandeur. Numerous hotels +stand around the top where thousands of tourists find shelter during the +summer nights, and among them is one of the finest hotels in the world. +When fall comes, all the landlords must take their families and move down +from the mountain, as it would be impossible to keep the track of the +railroad clear during the winter to bring up the necessary provisions for +them. The snow is often from 10 to 20 feet deep on these Alps.</p> + +<p>All Swiss scenery, whether one is on the lakes, upon the mountains, or in +the valleys and ravines, is singularly charming, and bears no resemblance +to the scenery which one sees elsewhere; so that for this lack of having +something with which to compare it, no one can do it justice in any +description short of a volume. The reader will therefore pardon our haste +in this country. One who sees the rest of Europe and not Switzerland, will +not miss any particular links in the historic chain of social, religious +and political development of the human race, but he will not have seen the +sublime in nature. The Alps are the poetry of inorganic creation, and a +week or two spent on their lakes, in their valleys and gorges, amid the +high waterfalls or upon their snowfields and glaciers, teaches one to +associate new meanings to the words, grand, sublime, lofty, inspiring, +overawing, romantic, wild, precipitous and bewildering, &c. It took me two +days to ascend as high as the Rhone glacier, during which time I walked +over 30 miles up hill along old military roads which the Romans +constructed through Switzerland. I saw the snow and ice on the first day +already, and it seemed as if I was but a little below it, but in place of +reaching the snow line in the afternoon as I judged I might, I did not +reach it until the next afternoon at 5:00 o'clock. The valleys are narrow +and the mountains rise in some places almost perpendicularly at the sides, +so that the snow and ice which melts near the tops of the mountains, falls +down thousands of feet into the streams below. Water-falls that are from +several hundred to a thousand feet in height are numerous among the Alps.</p> + +<p>The Giessbach Falls which I ascended on the 6th of September, descends in +a series of seven cascades 1,148 feet, and the Handeck Falls, which I +passed on the 5th, precipitates in an unbroken sheet from the height of +250 feet! Rainbows stand over all the falls of the Alps, whenever the sun +shines.</p> + +<p>On the second day (Sept. 4th) of my ascend of the Alps, I could look +upwards and see the eternal snows, or look down into the valleys, and see +the people in the meadows and fields making hay or cutting grain! +Haymakers may drink the water that was an hour before part of the mass of +ice and snow which they see hanging near the top of the mountains several +thousand feet above their heads! Avalanches slide down into the valleys +every month of the year, and I passed through tunnels and bridges that are +purposely constructed that the snow may thus slide over the roads without +doing harm to any one. Where the mountains rise too precipitously, it is +in some places impossible to construct a road along the edge; in these +cases they pierce through the mountains for considerable distances. The +Axenstrasse, along Lake Luzerne, has many such tunnels, one of which is +about one eighth of a mile in length. In the Grimsel, the road avoids a +water-fall by passing through a tunnel under it.</p> + +<p>The Rhone Glacier, the only ice-field that I crossed, is upwards of nine +miles in length and rises from 5,751 feet to 10,450 feet in height. About +the time of sunset on the 4th of September, I entered the cavern of ice +from which issues the stream that constitutes the source of the Rhone +River. "This is the Rhodanus of the ancients, which was said to issue +'from the gates of eternal night at the foot of the pillar of the sun.'"</p> + +<p>I descended through the Grimsel pass (7,103 feet) and Haslithal along the +upper waters of the Aare down to Meiringen, in one day. Though there is +only a bridle-path through the almost unparalled wildnesses of this +valley, still there is a telegraphic wire running up to the hotel at the +upper end, near the Rhone Glacier! No language can describe the +picturesqueness of the bare rocky sides of this valley. I heard persons +who thought they were alone, utter a dozen exclamations of surprise while +making a single turn where a new view opened! The solitary tourist will +ejaculate his exclamations without number; and it is under such +circumstances that the unpoetical soul seeks some personification to whom +it may do homage. It would not require a worshipper of images to kneel +down, in the Grimsel or Ober Haslithal, before any emblem that embodied +any adequate representation of the crushingly sublime scenery that one +beholds there!</p> + +<p>I met a lake whose depths seemed as boundless as the blue heavens above +me. The water of many of the Swiss lakes is as clear as crystal, so that +white objects at their bottoms may be discerned at great depths.</p> + +<p>While sailing along the Lake of Geneva one day, I could as little see +substance in the water below me, when I looked upon it at a certain +distance from the steamer, as in the clear sky; both seemed alike blue and +boundless!</p> + +<p>The weather and the temperature changes very suddenly among the high Alps. +The climate in the valleys of Switzerland is as warm as ours, in summer, +while some thousand feet higher lie the everlasting glaciers. From these, +avalanches of cold air precipitate into the valleys, so that the mercury +often falls from 20 to 30 degrees in ten minutes! One is in danger of +taking "a cold" every day in Switzerland.</p> + +<p>Besides "The Alps" and the <i>lovely lakes</i> among them, the tourist may also +see castles, museums, art galleries, pleasure gardens, &c., in +Switzerland, but I will only enumerate a few of the most striking objects +that I met and saw in this curious country, and then pass on to Italy.</p> + +<p>One of the bridges of Lucerne is adorned with very curious paintings +representing the "Dance of Death." Scores of skeletons, some blowing the +bugle or playing with the triangles, others equipped with hoes and spades, +are jubilant over their work!</p> + +<p>One of the finest organs in Europe is the far-famed one at Freiburg, +having 67 stops and 7,800 pipes, some of them 33 feet long. This +instrument has such a range of volume that it can simulate the roaring +thunder as well as the faintest echo. The portal of the same cathedral +which contains the famous organ is also adorned (?) with a curious +representation of the last judgment. St. Peter leads the blessed to the +door of Heaven, but half a dozen evil ones busy themselves in disposing of +the wicked. One of them that has a head like a hog, carries them from the +scales into a large caldron where they are boiled. Others with forks in +their hands pitch them into the mouth of the large dragon-devil who is +represented as glutting them, and whose capacious mouth admits of several +of them at a time! The time has almost arrived when one may no longer +describe what he sees in the churches of Europe! This reminds me of a +monster that stands upon a fountain in Bern, called the Kindlifresser, +(the Ogre), who is in the act of eating a child, while others doomed to +the same fate protrude from his girdle and pockets!</p> + +<p>Berne is a great place for bears. Besides those connected with the curious +machinery of the clock on one of its clock-towers, among the dead bears, +they also keep a large den of living bears at the expense of the +government. The bear is the heraldic emblem of Switzerland, as is our +eagle of American freedom.</p> + +<p>Of the fictitous hero, William Tell, and the nature and character of the +Swiss Republic, I can not say more in the compass of this book, than that +the former is a myth and that the latter was in a great measure the +outgrowth of poverty.</p> + +<p>The reader may form an idea of the miserable dwellings of the peasantry on +the mountains, when he is told that many are hardly distinguishable from +the stables in which the cattle are sheltered.</p> + +<p>When I came into view of Guttannen, the first village of any considerable +extent that I passed after seeing the Rhone Glacier and the wildnesses of +the Grimsel and Haslithal, where no houses except hotels, and in some +places not even trees or grass abound, I felt glad once more to see a +group of human habitations, and determined to count them, so that I might +record their number. I passed along the edge of the mountains where I +could easily overlook the village, but it was in many instances impossible +to determine by a survey of their external appearances, which were the +stables and which the houses or huts, so I counted them all, large and +small, and found their number between 60 and 90. I once intended to count +these buildings only with windows, as houses; but I soon discovered that +some huts had windows only on one or several sides, and looked like +stables on the other sides!</p> + +<p>A question to dairy men: Do thunder and lightning affect fresh milk? A +lady keeping a cafe in Brienz, told me that if a thunder storm overtook +those which were bringing the fresh milk from the mountains, the milk +would suddenly turn sour, so that it could no longer be boiled for +drinking it sweet. She said, "<i>Es thut sie verbolera, so das sie gerinnt +wen man sie kochen will!</i>"</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch16"> +<h2>Chapter XVI.</h2> + +<h3>Geneva to Turin.</h3> + + + +<p>Switzerland has two national languages, the German and the French, both of +which are recognized by the Government. Geneva is French, so I had some +trouble in getting my information and procuring a ticket for Italy. I left +Geneva at 6:40 a.m., September 10th; and after passing through a number of +tunnels, one of which required 5-1/2 minutes of moderate railway speed, we +arrived at Bellegarde, on the French border, and passed muster. From 9:00 +to 10:00 o'clock we were detained at Culoz, and by noon we saw the +snow-covered Alps again. At 3:30 p.m., we arrived at Modane and passed +muster for Italy.</p> + + + +<h3>Mont Cenis Tunnel.</h3> + + +<p>We entered the mouth of this great tunnel, over 8 miles in length, at +4:58-1/2 p.m., and were exactly 26 minutes in the very bowels of the +earth, where absolute darkness reigns. Temperature in the middle, 59° +Fahrenheit.</p> + + + +<h3>Italy.</h3> + + +<p>We now come to a country which contrasts as strangely with the nations of +western Europe, as those do with America, or as Alpine Switzerland does +with the rest of the world. When I parted at Paris with my New York +friend, he bound for Rome, I for the north, we still had our school-boy +ideas of Germany, Switzerland and Italy; and I shall never forget the +remark which he then made, and which embodied my notions and anticipations +perhaps as well as his own. He said, "I suppose we have now seen the +brightest side of the picture, the trouble is that scenes will now become +tamer as we advance toward the cradle of humanity." I had been pleasantly +disappointed almost every time that I entered a new country, but now, as I +was entering Italy, I expected that I would surely not see much to +interest me except her rich stores of art and the ancient ruins. But less +than a day at Turin convinced me that I had by no means entered a country +whose people were behind hand in civilization and refinement; and when on +my way from Turin to Milan I saw how much clearer and brighter the blue +heavens were, how much sweeter the air smelt than any I had ever breathed +before, (not excepting that of Paris, even), and how much fairer the +people were than any other that I had yet seen, I felt that I must surely +be on the border of that charming paradise which the poets make of Italy, +but for which I had never given them due credit.</p> + + + +<h3>Italy's Fair Sons and Daughters.</h3> + + +<p>I now come to a dry subject, especially for old people; but numbers of my +young friends, among them several editors and teachers, requested me very +earnestly to take particular notice which country contained the fairest +specimens of the human species. Why these literary characters are so +deeply interested in this question, I cannot tell, but my duty is plain +enough--they want "a true and impartial statement of the facts," which I +will endeavor to render them. I observed everywhere that <i>culture</i> and +<i>personal beauty</i> always go together. When I came to a city that had clean +and beautiful streets and houses, I invariably found good looking people +there; but in the rural districts generally, and in suburbs and wretched +towns, beauty and culture are at a lower ebb. I now refer to that form of +beauty which is dependent upon personal accomplishments and intellectual +endowments and culture--that beauty which beams from an intellectual +countenance and sparkles from eyes that glisten with pleasure. That is the +kind of beauty that renders 90 per cent. of the individuals in all +cultivated society acceptable, and 20 per cent. charming and attractive, +but which is wanting to nine tenths of those who cannot, or do not, pay +attention to cultivation and refinement. There are a very few persons +whose forms and features please and fascinate even without the aid of +accomplishments. These may be said to be possessed of <i>native</i> beauty, +which is met with very seldom in all countries that have a climate +unfavorable to health. If I had not gone to Italy, I should not have +hesitated to give my preference to the mild climate of Paris, where health +and beauty are the natural result of a warm temperature, almost +semi-tropical in mildness, and where the highest art assists to make every +grace shine. But when I saw how nature dotes upon Italy, I felt as if she +was only acting the step-mother to the rest of the world. The loveliest +portion of Italy is the valley of the Po. One sees fewer sickly or +consumptive people in some parts of England, France and Germany, than in +our section of America, but in Turin and Milan every person looks hale, +healthy, happy and beautiful, from the tender days of infancy to a ripe +old age.</p> + +<p>Nothing that I saw in Europe surprised me more than to come so suddenly +into the midst of a people whose very countenance bear the bloom of youth, +even until the gray locks of age appear.</p> + +<p>Old age even knows no wingles here! I know that it seems incredible to any +one that has never been in warmer climes, but the word beauty has a new +meaning here. The glow which is lambent upon the faces of the sons and +daughters of this section of sunny Italy, is something that I never saw +elsewhere, and that cannot be described. It is a solemn truth, that nine +tenths of all the ladies of Turin and Milan are perfect beauties; and I +need not say less for the full round forms of the gentlemen. Only after I +had observed that several very fair persons, who happened, to pass near +me, had gray hair, did I notice that the bloom of youth still glows upon +the faces of those who are 35 to 40 years of age! When I first came into +this paradise of fairy angels, (for a paradise is the valley of the Po), I +mistook this bloom of youth and glow of health and vigor for the lambent +flames which flash from the countenances of the intellectual--it seemed to +me that I must be surrounded by a halo of literary sages and muses, all +gifted alike with every grace and charm that nature can bestow or art +improve; but when I observed the youths at work in the fields and the +maidens at the garden gates, who turned for a moment from their respective +tasks to see our train move along, look as happy, as gay and as beautiful +as the belles of the cafes and the beaus of the cities, I concluded that +it must be the healthy state of the body that makes every face look rosy +and bright in this fair and sunny clime. At Milan I asked some of my +companions how far this <i>paradise of beauties</i> extended southward in +Italy. "To Florence," was the answer. But I did not find that to be quite +correct, for though Florence may have more fair people than any northern +city, the proportion of beauties to the whole population, which is perhaps +ninety per cent, in Turin and Milan, cannot be more than 20 or 30 per +cent, in Florence. In order to be able to correct any false impression +that I might have imbibed in my first visit to the valley of the Po, I +paid particular attention to the same subject on my return from Egypt. At +Milan there was then an immense concourse of people assembled from all +parts of Europe to see Emperor William of Germany and King Victor Emanuel +of Italy parade the streets of that elegant city, with a retinue of over +20,000 soldiers; the consequence was, that the fair people of Milan were +lost in the multitude. But on my return to Turin, I found that her +beautiful sons and daughters, again presented the same dream-like and +enchanting scene of a pleasure-garden full of fair and merry beings +possessed of angelic beauty, and enjoying their blessed existance just as +I had seen them a month before.</p> + +<p>I met travelers that say the same thing of Nature's children in other +sunny lands--Spain for example. The truth seems to be, that in warm +climates only, will man attain that perfect healthy and beautiful physical +development which has constituted the model of the artist and the theme of +the poet, in every age. I have heard some pronounce the statue of Venus de +Medici, the ideal perfection of female form and beauty. It is probably as +near as sculpture can reach it, but who would suppose that a white stone +could do justice to the beauty of a pure child of nature? The marble may +present a most perfect <i>form</i>; but what becomes of the glow of life and +flush of beauty upon the maiden's cheek, the ruby lips and the grace and +elegance of her movements and winning manners? We may speak of ideal +beauty in countries where the physical development of the inhabitants is +blasted by the severities of the extreme heat and cold of an inhospitable +clime, where the blasts of winter make every form shiver for many months +of the year; but the superior beauty of the daughters of Northern Italy, +if they were placed side by side with Venus de Medici, would laugh that +frigid form to scorn! As compared with these, I thought I had seen no +others that could either <i>talk</i> or <i>laugh</i> or <i>walk</i>!</p> + +<p>The Italians live upon a very simple diet. When I first saw numbers of +them make meals of dry bread and fruit, I supposed poverty impelled them +to partake of so scant a diet, but by the time I came back from Egypt, I +too had learned to sit down and eat dry bread and grapes together, though +I could procure meat as cheap in Italy as elsewhere in Europe. It is not +advisable to partake of much meat in any warm country. Any one may form an +idea of what kind of a consumer of food cold is, when he reflects how much +more flesh we consume in winter than in summer. I did not partake of more +than half the amount of food in southern Italy and Egypt that I needed in +England, Germany or Switzerland, and there is little room for doubt that +many Italians do with one third of the amount of food that we require in +the severer climate of the Middle States. I was always reminded of the +story of "Cornaro the Italian," related in Wilson's Fourth Reader, +whenever I saw them eat their simple meals. It is very singular, too, that +they should all look full, healthy and robust; and many of us, on the +contrary, lean and sickly. Twelve ounces of solid food and thirteen ounces +of drink, seems a very spare supply to an American, but I do not believe +that it is accounted very extraordinary in Italy.</p> + + + +<h3>Milan.</h3> + + +<p>The praises of the magnificence and splendor of the Cathedral of Milan are +sung all over the world. It is nearly 500 feet long and 250 feet wide +through the transepts, covering an area of almost <i>two acres and three +quarters!</i> The height of the nave is 150 feet! Its entire walls, and its +pinnacles, spire and roof are all constructed of fine marble. The spire is +over 350 feet high. The marble slabs constituting the roof are about three +inches thick; how enormous the weight of that roof must be! Each of the +135 pinnacles or smaller spires is crowned with a statue, and throngs of +others (some 4,500) ornament the outside of this magnificent building. The +interior of this edifice is one of the most imposing in the world. As I +looked at the rich decorations and delicate traceries of its high ceiling, +150 feet above me, I felt as if no human being could be worthy of enjoying +such a magnificent view. But, "unless a language be invented full of +lance-headed characters, and Gothic vagaries of arch and finial, flower +and fruit, bird and beast," the beauties and glories of the temples of +Italy, and her unparalleled galleries of art, can never be described. From +Milan I went to Vicenza, where I spent a sleepless night in skirmishes +with the mosquitoes! The number and variety of obnoxious insects +multiplies fearfully as one approaches the topical regions. Thence I went +to</p> + + + +<h3>Venice.</h3> + + +<p>As I was very much disappointed with Venice, I shall not occupy much time +in describing this <i>daughter of the sea</i>. The railway bridge which leads +to this city is about two miles long. I expected that a city whose streets +are canals and whose carriages are all boats, would present a very unique +appearance, but when I once saw them, they were so exactly what I had +anticipated, that I felt disgusted and left the city without doing justice +even to the vast collection of paintings in the Ducal Palace, which alone +is worth going a great distance to see.</p> + + + +<h3>San Marco.</h3> + + +<p>The church of <i>San Marco</i> is one of the grandest and most wonderful +structures in Italy, and I can only refrain from copying Ruskin's very +fine description of it, because his account, though true in every +particular, would, to one who has never seen any of the architectural +glories of Italy, seem more like the attempt of a poet to depict in +glowing language the vagaries of a dream, than like the description of an +edifice really in existance.</p> + +<p>On the Piazza above the portal of San Marco, stand the celebrated bronze +horses "which Constantine carried from Rome to Constantinople, whence +Marino Zeno brought them hither in 1205; they were taken to Paris by +Napoleon in 1797, but restored by the Allies in 1815."</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch17"> +<h2>Chapter XVII.</h2> + +<h3>Venice to Bologna.</h3> + + + +<p>In place of spending several days at Venice, as I now think I should have, +I left already in the afternoon at 3:35 o'clock, and reached Bologna that +evening. It required between 6 and 7 minutes to cross the bridge, over two +miles long, which connects Venice with the land. The water is not deep, +and most of this bridge is a mere bank of earth running into the sea. It +was on account of my being disgusted at the general unpretending +appearance of Venice, that I left her so soon. Among the objects of +interest that I saw between Venice and Bologna, was a herd of a hundred +deer on a hill-side, and the merry bells of stage-teams jingling like our +sleigh-bells, but which may be heard in Italy and Switzerland all the year +round. When I observed in my Satchel Guide that Bologna has two <i>leaning +towers</i>, one of them nearly 300 feet high leaning 4 feet, and the other +about half that height and leaning 8 feet, I determined to go and see +them. They are massive but plain brick structures, and it is difficult to +decide which way the higher one leans. The inclination of the lower one, +however, is decided, but presents nothing striking or threatening in its +appearance. I felt afraid that the Leaning Tower of Pisa might possibly +also fail to present anything that was remarkable or imposing to the +beholder when I would come to see it once, just as a thousand and one +other objects do which antiquity and poetry have rendered sacred and +famous; and I walked away with down-cast countenance and took passage for +Firenze (Florence).</p> + + + +<h3>Florence.</h3> + + +<p>The Cathedral, (Il Duomo), begun in 1298, is 554 feet long; and 334 feet +through the transepts. The nave is 152 feet high; the cupola is 138 feet +in diameter or about the same as that of St. Peter's in Rome, for which it +also served Michael Angelo as a model.</p> + +<p>Close by the cathedral is Giotto's Campanile, 300 feet high, the most +beautiful of all the towers that I have seen in Europe. The square blocks +of many colored marble with which its four sides are coated, produce a +richness of effect that is indescribable. Decorated from top to bottom +with all manner of statues and architectural ornamentations, "it is like a +toy of ivory, which some ingenious and pious monk might have spent his +life-time in adorning with sculptural designs and figures of saints; and +when it was finished, seeing it so beautiful, he prayed that it might be +miraculously magnified from the size of one foot to that of three +hundred." The view of this superb structure in connection with the grand +edifice (the Cathedral) to which it belongs, opens so suddenly upon the +visitor, that he will never forget what feelings of joy and surprise he +experienced on making the last turn around the corner, when these splendid +edifices leaped upon him so unexpectedly in all their beauty and magesty.</p> + +<p>The church of Santa Croce, whose foundation was laid in 1294, is "the +Pantheon of Tuscany." It contains the tomb of Michael Angelo, and +magnificent monuments of Dante, of Alfiero, of Macchiavelli, of Galileo +and of many others of less fame.</p> + +<p>The houses in which were born Michael Angelo, Dante, Amerigo Vespucci, +Macchiavelli and Galileo may be found and identified by the memorial +tablets which mark them.</p> + +<p><i>Piazza della Signoria</i> is the business as well as the historic center of +Florence. Here stands the old capitol of the republic, begun in 1298. It +was afterwards the residence of Cosmo I. Near this palace is a magnificent +fountain of the time of Cosmo I. I cannot tell positively, now, whether +the sculpture and architecture of Florence is so much richer than what I +saw elsewhere in Europe, or whether the enchanting beauty of sculpturesque +and architectural master-strokes at the Cathedral, the Campanile, St. +Croce, and the Fountain and Palace in this magnificent square, may not +have thrown me into the condition of one in a dream; but I certainly felt +all the time that I spent in Florence like one in another world, where +scenes of fascinating beauty were surrounding me on every side, and +feelings of ecstatic delight precluding me from any but a dream-like +enjoyment of the scenery around. I was without any acquaintance or +companion the whole day, which in connection with the fact that I was +thousands of miles away from the familiar scenes of home, where every +object that I contemplated was new and different from what I was wont to +see, could not fail to make me feel like one in a dream. I went along the +<i>Portico degli Uffizi</i> adorned with throngs of statues of celebrated +Tuscans, and into the famous Uffizi Gallery, founded by the Medici, and +one of the most precious collections in the world. In the <i>Tribune</i>, the +inner sanctuary of the great temple of art ("the richest room in all the +world, a heart that draws all hearts to it") I saw the Venus de Medici, +the Dancing Faun, the Apollino, the Wrestlers, and other masterpieces of +ancient sculpture; also, among the paintings, some of the best works of +Raphael, Angelo, Titian and others. I must however admit that the out-door +scenery of Florence charmed me more than what I saw in its world renowned +museum. It seems to me, that Raphael and M. Angelo deserve more praise for +the inventive genius which they evinced in translating bible stories and +poetical imagery into pictures, than for their mechanical execution. To +such as understand anything about paintings, it will seem very absurd, of +course, that I should presume to criticise the paintings of these great +masters, but they must admit that a hundred of those who roam the world +and come to see the works of the masters, are ignorant of painting and +sculpture, as I am, to half a dozen that are able to criticise them from +the standpoint of one who is himself an artist. The "hundred" unskilled in +the fine arts, have as great a desire to know how they will likely be +affected by the sight of those works as the half dozen artists are; permit +me to speak to the "hundred!" It is true that the paintings of Raphael and +Angelo may have faded, but, whatever they may have been when they were +first hung to the wall, they now look pale, shady and inferior in artistic +execution to many of those of Rubens and of the masters of the Dutch +school in general; that is, if we consider nature as the standard and +copying it as the only criterion of a master's talents. But for inventive +originality of conception, the Dutch masters are no rivals even, certainly +not, of the Italians.</p> + +<p>Need I repeat that wherever one finds such a rich store of art as in +Florence, there too will he find ladies and gentlemen of beauty, culture +and refinement? The same fascinating forms and features which characterize +the men and women of Turin and Milan, are also met with here, but they +comprise a much smaller proportion of the whole population. It is fair to +presume, however, that a large proportion of those which I saw in Florence +were natives of distant parts of the globe, which streamed thither, by the +thousand, to see that charming city. One can nowhere see more intelligent +company than in such a place as Florence; but how the most symmetrical and +best looking people of all other countries contrast with Italian beauties, +none but those few who ever go thither will ever learn to form the least +conception of. It has become my duty, however, to record the fact, that +the most favored of all countries when they sail into the society of the +fair daughters of sunny Italy cast a shadow about them, as we may fancy +any human would when coming into the company of the beautiful angels of a +heavenly Paradise. Go reader, if you cannot visit Italy personally, and +see what the poets say about these people, and believe every word they can +say in favor of their charms.</p> + + + +<h3>Pisa.</h3> + + +<p>From Florence I went to Pisa with the special object of seeing the famous +Leaning Tower (1174-1350). It is circular, having 15 pillars in the wall +of the first story and 30 in each of the six succeeding ones. On top of +these, is another one (the eighth) much smaller than the rest, and +probably built upon it after the tower had reached the amount of +inclination which it now has. The entire structure is 187 feet high, and +173 feet 9 inches in circumference (according to my own measurement). The +walls are from 5 to 7 feet thick. There is a peal of bells at the top, the +heaviest weighing 6 tons. Nothing is more evident than that this tower +assumed its leaning position by <i>accident</i>. It is probable that this +structure, which is the finest in Italy except Giotto's Campanile at +Florence, was originally designed to be a very high one, (perhaps 300 +feet). It is likely that the foundation did not give way until at the +seventh story, and that after it came to a stand-still again, they capped +it off abruptly by the odd little story which we now see at the top of it. +The inclination amounts to about 13 feet. There is a circular pavement +around it about 10 feet wide, which has the same angle of inclination that +the tower itself has. It is sunk 3 feet into the ground on one side and 8 +feet on the other side. Upon careful examination and measurement I +discovered that the diameter of the basin thus formed is to the height of +the tower, as the inclination of pavement constituting the floor of the +basin is to the amount of inclination of the tower.</p> + +<p>Let it be remembered, that this tower is not an independent structure, but +that it stands near the east end of the Cathedral, as the elegant +campanile at Florence stands near the cathedral of that city.</p> + + + +<h3>The Cathedral.</h3> + + +<p>The Cathedral (1063-1118) is 311 feet long, 106 feet wide, and the nave +109 feet high. The great bronze lamp which gave Galileo the hint of the +pendulum, still hangs in its nave.</p> + +<p>The Baptistry (1153-1278) stands a little distance from the west end of +the Cathedral. It is about 120 feet in diameter and its dome is 180 feet +high. Peabody considers it "the most faultlessly and exquisitely +beautiful building" he ever saw.</p> + +<p>These three most elegant buildings, the Cathedral, the Baptistry and the +Campanile or Leaning Tower, are a unite in architectural beauty and +design, and for effect in external appearance are scarcely outvied by +anything that I have seen of the kind in all Italy. No one will feel sorry +for having traveled a hundred miles to see the "Leaning Tower," and the +traveler will observe with pleasure and satisfaction that its two +companions are even more elegant than itself.</p> + +<p>On Tuesday noon, September 15th, I left Pisa for Rome. It was continually</p> + + + +<h3>Getting Warmer,</h3> + + +<p>as I progressed southward. At London I had received information that I +must by no means go to Rome before October, as I might not be able to +endure the intense heat of summer in central Italy.</p> + +<p>The tourist must not always believe all that is said. Though it is not so +pleasant to visit Rome in July or August, as later in the season, still it +is quite as safe, if one takes the necessary precautions against fever. No +one should eat much meat in Italy and Egypt. I lived upon milk, bread and +fruit principally, and dressed in flannel; and as a consequence, never +experienced much inconvenience from any source--not from heat even. At +Rome I used an umbrella during the middle of the day, and in Egypt all of +the day, but with that to protect me from the effect of the direct rays of +the sun, I could get along tolerably well.</p> + +<p>At Milan a young friend had cautioned me to be careful at Rome, as persons +were often murdered there in broad daylight! I was not at all alarmed by +that remark, because I had previously received similarly reports in regard +to the morality of other cities, and had discovered that they were +unfounded. As our train was sweeping on toward Rome, I apprehended little +danger, therefore, from these sources, and after having formed the +acquaintance of a certain Frenchman, the professor of mathematics of the +University of Brest, who could speak a very little English, I began to +have brighter hopes in regard to my visit to Rome.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch18"> +<h2>Chapter XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>Rome.</h3> + + + +<p>The sun set soon after we had passed Orbetello, and the moon rose about +the same time. We had still two hours to Civita Vecchia and four hours to +Rome, but I shall never forget the happiness and emotional excitement that +prevailed among our passengers, as we were approaching the city of the +Caesars and of the Popes, on that pleasant moonlight evening. The light of +the full moon cast a charm about every scene, and as we watched the +appearance of tropical species of plants and trees under the subdued and +enchanted light of the moon and stars, we felt that we were about to enter +the celestial city under eminently fascinating circumstances. At 10:00 +o'clock we were intently looking from the windows, each for the first +glimpse of Rome. Will we reach the Tiber soon? As our train leaped upon +the bridge and my French companion first saw the glassy surface of the +historic stream, he, half distracted by solemnity of the occasion, +exclaimed with a forced but feeble effort, "THE TIBER, <i>the Tiber</i>!" None +was his own, and the enraptured Professor, sinking from the effects of an +ecstatic swoon, grasped hold of me and with labored enunciation spoke in a +low voice, saying, "I feel in-ex-pres-si-ble e-mo-sions!"</p> + +<p>At 10:20 we entered the shed of the great Railway Station. It was my good +fortune to meet a German porter who conducted me and my new companion to +an excellent hotel (Albergo Torino E Trattoria duetto da Abrate--Via +Principe Amedo in prossimita alla Stazione) where we took rooms together.</p> + +<p>One sees a thousand strange and curious things at Rome that my limited +space will preclude me from describing or mentioning, even. The gable-end +of the Stazione (Station) has in base relief a representation of the +traditional she-wolf nursing the twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, the +founders of Rome.</p> + +<p>Emblems unique and obscure in design, may be seen in almost every street. +I saw in one place the hands of a clock dial in the form of snakes.</p> + +<p>I did more justice to my eyes than to my feet, during my first day in +Rome. The Column of Marcus Aurelius, the Post-Office, Castello S. Angelo, +St. Peter, the Vatican, the Colosseum <i>(Amfiteatro Flavia,</i> or <i>Coliseo</i>) +and the fountains, arches and ruins of ancient heathen temples that I +passed on my way, gave me a pretty good practical idea of the Rome that I +had read about in the books. Only the approaching darkness and the dread +of walking alone through the suburbs of Rome under cover of night, could +induce me on the evening of the first day to tear myself away from the +crumbling heaps of stones which constitute the ruins of ancient Rome, so +charming and grand to behold.</p> + +<p>It required about three days of close study before I could readily +identify on my map of ancient Rome, the temples of Vespasian, of Saturn, +of Castor and Pollux, of Julius Caesar, of Faustina, and of Venus and +Roma; the triumphal arches of Titus, of Severus and of Constantine; the +<i>Meta Sudarite</i>, and the Column of Phocas, in the <i>Roman Forum</i>; also the +Column of Trajan and other objects in the Forum of Trajan, and numerous +other ruins of ancient Rome, including the aqueducts, baths, and the +little round Temple of Vesta (?) on the left bank of the Tiber.</p> + +<p>The Rome of to-day is about a mile and a half square, and has a population +of 245,000 inhabitants. Ancient Rome occupied much more territory, and its +population was <i>at the beginning of the 2nd century</i> about 1-1/2 million. +The ruins of ancient Rome cover a desolate area of several square miles in +extent, besides what is covered by the modern city. Its walls are 15 miles +in circuit.</p> + +<p>Whatever may be said of the 364 churches of Rome, (including seven called +Basilicae, namely: St. Peter, St. John Lateran, Santa Maria Maggiore, and +Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, within the city, and St. Paolo, San Lorenzo +and San Sebastian, outside of the walls), all agree, that</p> + + + +<h3>The Colosseum</h3> + + +<p>is the <i>elephant</i> among the ruins of the old city. This stupendous +structure is eliptical in form, measuring 615 feet through the longer +diameter and 510 feet through the shorter, covering more than 5-1/2 acres +of ground. In the height of its glory 87,000 spectators could he +accommodated within its walls! It is 156 feet high, but has no roof. The +sailors of the imperial fleet used to stretch sail-cloth over it to +exclude the burning rays of the sun. The arena is 279 feet by 174 feet. +This building was begun in A.D. 72, and dedicated by Titus in A.D. 80. It +was inaugurated by gladiatorial combats which lasted 100 days, during +which time 5,000 wild animals were killed. About one third of the building +is still preserved, and presents a scene to the beholder of overawing +magnificence and grandeur. When I walked into the Cathedral of Milan, I +felt as if its elevated ceiling was about to lift me up, but, standing in +the arena of this vast amphitheater, one feels as if its stupendous walls +would crush him to the ground. Close by the Colosseum is the Meta Sudans, +and the Arch of Constantine which spans the <i>Via Triumphalis</i> and unites +it with <i>Via Sacra</i> (the Sacred Way). This arch has three passages and is +adorned with admirable sculptures. It was erected in 311, when Constantine +declared himself in favor of Christianity. Following the Sacred way, +toward the north, we first come to the arch of Titus and afterwards to</p> + + + +<h3>The Roman Forum.</h3> + + +<p>The Sacred Way, it seems, was about 3/8 of a mile in length and extended +from the Arch of Constantine or the northern end of the Colosseum near +by, to the Capitol. Near the Capitol stands the Triumphal Arch of +Septimius Severus, 75 feet high and 82 feet wide, with three passages. It +was erected in honor of that emperor and his two sons Caracalla and Geta +in A.D. 203, to commemorate victories. It was once surmounted by a brazen +chariot with six horses, on which stood Severus, crowned by Victory. The +pavement of the Forum, which has been laid bare by recent diggings, lies +some twenty feet lower than the level of the street which now passes at +the side of the diggings. Near the northern end stands the Column of +Phocas, 54 feet high, which was erected in 608 in honor of the tyrant +Phocas, of the Eastern Empire. All around the Forum stand what remains of +the ancient temples, once dedicated to the deities which it was believed +presided over the destinies of Rome, before the advent of Christianity. +The broken pillars of ruined temples are seen on every side.</p> + + + +<h3>The Tabularium.</h3> + + +<p>The only relics still extant of the ancient Capitol of Rome are the ruins +of the Tabularium, erected B.C. 78, by the consul Q. Lutatius Catulus for +the reception of the state archives. The modern Capitol covers a part of +it. The Tarpeian Rock, from which the condemned used to be thrown by the +ancient Romans, is close by this edifice, <i>if</i> the <i>Rupe Tarpeia</i> still +pointed out is the veritable one.</p> + +<p>Adjoining the Tabularium is the <i>Schola Xantha</i>, "With the <i>Colonnade of +the Twelve Gods</i>, whose images Vettius Agorius Prætextatus, the præfectus +urbi, and one of the principal champions of expiring paganism, erected +here in A.D. 367." The <i>Twelve Gods</i> stand in base relief, on a beautiful +vase in the corridor of the Capitoline Museum, in the following order: +Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Hercules, Apollo, Diana, Mars, Venus, Vesta, +Mercury, Neptune and Vulcan. It is a remarkable coincidence(?), that there +are: First, <i>Twelve</i> Lunations in a year; Second, <i>Twelve</i> Months in a +year; Third, <i>Twelve</i> Constellations in the heavens; Fourth, <i>Twelve</i> Gods +in the ancient mythology; Fifth, <i>Twelve</i> Labors of Hercules; Sixth, see +Law of the <i>Twelve</i> tables(?), Encyclopædia Britannica on Burying; +Seventh, <i>Twelve</i> Sons of Jacob; Eighth, <i>Twelve</i> Tribes of Israel; Ninth, +<i>Twelve</i> Apostles of Christ; Tenth, <i>Twelve</i> Virtues and <i>Twelve</i> Vices +represented in base reliefs in Notre Dame, Paris; Eleventh, <i>Twelve</i> +Colossal statues facing the tomb of Napoleon I.; and Twelfth, <i>Twelve</i> +units in a dozen.</p> + +<p>It is strange enough that there are <i>a dozen dozen</i> of these curious +<i>dozens</i>!</p> + +<p>Did Pythagoras not also have twelve spheres to make his sphere-music?</p> + +<p>Between the Tabularium and the Forum, about 150 feet southeast from the +former, and near the Arch of Severus, are the "remains of</p> + + + +<h3>The Rostra,</h3> + + +<p>or orator's tribune, a name derived from the iron prows of the war-ships +of Antium with which the tribune was adorned after the capture of that +town in B.C. 338. At the end of it was the <i>Umbilicus urbis Romæ</i>, or +ideal center of the city and empire, the remains of which are +recognizable. At the other end, below the street, are a few traces of the +<i>Miliareum Aureum</i>, or central mile-stone of the roads radiating from +Rome, erected by Augustus in B.C. 28. It is however doubtful whether these +names are correctly applied to these remains."</p> + + + +<h3>The Temple of Cæsar</h3> + + +<p>is situated on the east side of the Forum, with its front toward the +Capitol. To this, "Caesar, in addition to other alterations made by him, +transferred the tribune of the orators. This was now named the <i>Rostra +Julia</i>, and from it, on the occasion of the funeral of the murdered +dictator on the 19th or 20th March, B.C. 44, Mark Antony pronounced the +celebrated oration which wrought so wonder-fully on the passions of the +excited populace. A funeral pyre was hastily improvised, and the +unparalleled honor accorded to the illustrious dead of being burned in +view of the most sacred shrines of the city. A column with the inscription +'parenti patriae' was afterwards erected here to commemorate the event. At +a later period Augustus erected this temple in honor of 'Divus Julius,' +his defied uncle and adopted father, and dedicated it to him in B.C. 29, +after the battle of Actium. At the same time he adorned the rostra with +prows of the captured Egyptian vessels."--<i>Bædeker</i>.</p> + + + +<h3>The Baths of Caracalla.</h3> + + +<p>As an example of the magnificence of the ancient Roman baths, we may take +the Thermae of Caracalla which could accommodate 1,600 bathers at a time! +This establishment, now the largest mass of ruins in Rome, except the +Colosseum, was 720 feet long and 372 feet wide. A flight of 98 steps lead +to the roof which (the roof) has now tumbled down. This structure covered +over six acres of ground, and had its porticoes, race course, &c., +surrounded by a wall. The total area of the grounds is nearly 27 acres!</p> + +<p>The Baths of Diocletian, erected in the 4th century, were 6,000 feet in +perimeter and its number of daily bathers were 3,000.</p> + + + +<h3>The Pyramid of Cestius.</h3> + + +<p>"The Egyptian pyramidal form was not unfrequently employed by the Romans +in the construction of their tombs." That of Cestius, who died within the +last thirty years before Christ, is 116 feet high and 98 feet square at +the base. It is constructed with bricks and covered with marble blocks.</p> + +<p>Upon the Cemetery of St. Lorenzo, "the great modern burial-ground of +Rome," I saw one or several small monuments or head stones which were in +the form of pyramids. Here, as in Catholic burial-grounds generally in +Europe, crosses take the place of memorial stones, except some of the +latest interments are marked by marble slabs and monuments.</p> + + + +<h3>The Catacombs</h3> + + +<p>or underground burial-places of Rome, are not quite as interesting as many +suppose who have read large chapters and heard long addresses upon the +subject. The passages are almost innumerable, intersecting each other in +every direction and ranging in some places many stories above each other, +but still, as you pass along in the dim light of a little taper, it +appears much like a subterranean stone-quarry containing pigeon-holes for +the dead.</p> + + + +<h3>The Temple of Vesta.</h3> + + +<p>The little round temple referred to on page 244, was once supposed to have +been the temple of Vesta, but it is now quite certain that this was a +mistake. It is 50 feet in diameter and each of its 20 Corinthian columns +which constitute the circular colonnade around it, is 32 feet high. +Wherever the Temple of Vesta may have stood, it is evident that from its +eternal fires was borrowed the custom, still extant in Catholic churches, +of keeping up a perpetual flame by means of tapers. Six Vestal Virgins +sworn to perpetual virginity, used to watch the sacred flame upon the +altar in the Temple of Vesta, and it is an impressive sight to see the +same sacred and eternal flame still burning around the High Altar in St. +Peter's. From what may still be seen in Europe in general, and at Rome in +particular, it is evident that all or nearly all of the emblems, forms +and ceremonies of the <i>early</i> Catholic Church were borrowed from ancient +mythology.</p> + + + +<h3>Obelisks and Fountains.</h3> + + +<p>The many magnificent fountains of Rome are all adorned with groups +representing characters of ancient mythology, as is the case with nearly +all the fountains of Europe and America, even unto this day, and the half +a dozen or more obelisks of Rome are likewise monuments of the heathen +origin of modern civilization. These, it seems, were first erected and +dedicated to the sun, as we may infer from the fact that globes +representing the sun surmount them. Since the introduction of the +Christian religion, a figure of St. Peter with the cross is placed upon +some of them. Hence, the development of religious ideas stands +chronologically thus: First, Sun-worship and afterwards the elevation of +St. Peter, and of the Cross. Judging from what we see on ancient monuments +and in the churches, it is perhaps a fair question, whether St. Peter, the +Virgin and other saints were not at one time quite as much the' object of +worship, as Christ himself?</p> + + + +<h3>St. Peter's.</h3> + + +<p>"St. Peter's stands on the site of the circus of Nero, where many +Christians were martyred and where St. Peter is said to have been buried +after his crucifixion." An oratory (chapel?) stood here as early as A.D. +90. In 309 a basilica, half the size of what St. Peter's now is, was begun +by Constantine. It was the grandest church of that time. "The crypt is +now the only remnant of this early basilica." The building of the present +edifice was commenced in 1506 by Julius II. Michael Angelo worked 17 years +at it (to 1564). It was completed and "consecrated by Pope Urban VIII., on +18th November, 1626, on the 1300th anniversary of the day on which St. +Silvester is said to have consecrated the original edifice."</p> + +<p>This church contains 29 altars, besides the high altar. "Its area is +212,321 sq. ft., while that of the cathedral of Milan is 117,678, St. +Paul's at London 108,982, St. Sophia at Constantinople 96,497, and the +Cathedral of Cologne 73,903 sq. ft." The nave is 87 feet wide and 150 feet +high, and the dome is 138 feet in diameter (5 feet less than that of the +Pantheon) and some 450 feet high. One might fill a volume in describing +its rich marble pavement, its 148 massive columns, its gilded chapels and +ceiling, its fine sculpture, and the thousand and one objects in and about +it that render it the most imposing as well as the largest church in the +world. Imagine yourself in the middle of a church occupying over five +acres, whose High Altar stands under a brass canopy 95 feet high, and +weighing 93 tons, and whose <i>Confessio</i> is surrounded by 89 burning lamps! +The total cost of the edifice is about $85,000,000. [It should always be +remembered that labor has been twice to three times as cheap in Europe as +it is now in this country]. "The expense of erecting this church was so +heavy that Julius II. and Leo X. resorted to the sale of indulgences to +raise the money, and this lead to the Reformation."</p> + + + +<h3>The Lateran</h3> + + +<p>is the church of the Pope as bishop of Rome, and here his coronation takes +place. "It takes the precedence even of St. Peter, in ecclesiastical rank, +being, as the inscription on its facade sets forth, '<i>c Ominum Urbis Et +Urbis Ecclesiarum Mater Et Caput.</i>'"</p> + +<p>If St. Peter's had not the advantage of a piazza that is unrivaled in +magnificence, I think the lofty facade of the Lateran would present a view +of more imposing grandeur, even, than that stately structure. The interior +of this church is very beautiful. It must not be supposed that St. Peter's +has no rivals in beauty. Even in Rome it does not seem to stand alone. Of +the 363 other churches in the great city of churches, there are numbers +that vie with it in the beauty and perfection of some particular portions.</p> + + + +<h3>Santa Maria Maggiore.</h3> + + +<p>"The Virgin appeared simultaneously to the devout Roman patrician Johannes +and to Pope Liberius in their dreams, commanding them to erect a church to +her on the spot where they should find a deposit of snow on the following +morning (August 5th)." The Basilica Liberiana which was erected in +obedience of this vision, was succeeded by a church named S. Maria Mater +Dei (A.D. 432) and later by the present edifice. Almost every church in +Rome has its legend. I have seen no other church that seemed so rich in +gold, precious alabaster and many other kinds of beautiful and costly +stones. Its panelled roof is gilt with the first gold brought to Spain +from South America, and presented to the Pope by Ferdinand and Isabella.</p> + +<p>Near S. Maria Maggiore is the church of</p> + + + +<h3>S. Antonio Abbate,</h3> + + +<p>to which are brought the horses, mules, cows, etc., during the week +following the feast of the saint (January 17-23). On the 23rd, the Pope +and many persons of the higher classes send their horses here to be +blessed and sprinkled with holy water.</p> + + + +<h3>The Scala Santa</h3> + + +<p>referred to on page 189 of this book, are in a church near the Lateran. +They were brought to Rome by the Empress Helena and may only be ascended +on the knees. They are partly covered with boards, to save the stones from +being worn away by the thousands that ascend it. Two adjoining stairways +are for the descent.</p> + + + +<h3>S. Pietro in Vincoli</h3> + + +<p>was founded about 442, as the receptacle for the chains of St. Peter, +which had been presented by Eudoxia, wife of Valentinian III., to Pope Leo +I. This church contains the famous statue of Moses with horns, by Michael +Angelo. Mediaeval Christian artists generally represented Moses with +horns, owing to an erroneous translation of Exodus XXXIV., 35. Michael +Angelo represented these horns upon the head of Moses as having been about +three inches in length.</p> + + + +<h3>S. Maria in Aracoeli</h3> + + +<p>probably occupies the site of the Temple of Jupiter. Its present altar +encloses an ancient altar which is said to have been erected by Augustus. +"According to a legend of the 12th century, this was the spot where the +Sibyl Tibur appeared to the emperor, whom the senate proposed to elevate +to the rank of a god, and revealed to him a vision of the Virgin and her +Son."</p> + +<p>This church is approached by a very high flight of steps rising from the +foot of those leading to the piazza of the modern Capitol, and "the +interior is vast, solemn, and highly picturesque. It was here, as Gibbon +tells us, that on the 15th of October, 1764, as he sat musing amidst the +ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers, +the idea of writing the 'Decline and Fall' of the city first started to +his mind."</p> + + + +<h3>The Vatican</h3> + + +<p>has been the residence of the Popes since their return from Avignon, in +France, where they had resided from 1309 to 1377. It is now the most +extensive palace in the world, being three stories high and 1,151 feet +long by 767 feet wide, covering over 20 acres! The palace comprises 20 +courts, eight grand staircases and two hundred smaller ones, and is said +to contain 11,000 halls, chapels, saloons and private apartments. Since +the Italian occupation, Pope Pius IX. considers himself a prisoner in his +own palace, though strange to say, there are no doors locked except those +which he locks himself on the inside! King Victor Emanuel, though, +excommunicated by the Pope in the most indecent language that ever fell +from human lips, has done no violence to the person of the Pope, and now +contents himself as an outsider of the church.</p> + +<p>The masses can now no longer "go to Rome to see the Pope," for he neither +ventures forth from his palace into the city for exercise and pleasure, as +he used to, neither does he hold any public receptions. My French +companion who had come to Rome for the purpose of making a present of +several hundred dollars to the Pope, insisted on my accompanying him, as +he was allowed a private interview, but I could not avail myself of the +opportunity.</p> + +<p>The galleries and museums of the palace are the richest in the world, in +Roman and Christian antiquities. Here are the paintings which have +rendered Raphael and Angelo immortal to fame. They are almost innumerable. +These masters translated the Bible into pictures, and here are the +originals of many of the cuts that adorn our finely illustrated family +Bibles. Michael Angelo painted 22 months (1508-11) at the ceiling of the +Sixtine Chapel. In the Loggie, Raphael represents God in the person of an +old man wearing a long gray beard and attired in the oriental costume.</p> + + + +<h3>Museums.</h3> + + +<p>The principal museums in Rome are the Christian and the Gregorianum +Lateranense in the Lateran; the Etruscan, the Egyptian and the Museum of +Christian Antiquities in the Vatican; and the Capitoline Museum, on +Capitoline Hill. The vast stores of ancient art contained in these, brings +the beholder back again to the strange scenes of the distant past, as do +perhaps no other museums in the world. To do justice to these collections +would require many weeks, and a mere catalogue of their contents would +cover many pages. Among the most interesting apartments of the Capitoline +Museum, are the Room of the Dying Gladiator, the Room of the Philosophers, +the Room of the Busts of the Emperors, the Room of Venus, &c. Baedeker +guides the tourist through Rome by means of 312 pages of description in +fine print. It may be proper to observe here, that Murray leads the +visitor in the same way through London by means of a guide-book of 316 +pages, and Galignani has 438 pages on Paris, exclusive of the tables of +contents.</p> + +<p>In regard to the brilliant and magnificent churches of Italy, which, for +beauty, throw those of the rest of the world into the shade, I will here +add that their overawing grandeur assisted materially in making man a +humble and submissive being; and possibly taught him to take the first +steps from ancient barbarity toward civilization and refinement.</p> + +<p>Several square miles of ancient Rome lying in ruins, is now unoccupied, +and many of the roads which intersect this desolate area are lined on both +sides by walls from 7 to 10 or 12 feet in height. They are plastered white +and overgrown by the ivy; and as one walks along in these, he may well +occupy his time in watching a species of little reptiles that are very +nimble but shy, running up the high smooth walls as easily as along the +ground. They are harmless, no doubt, but I dreaded them quite as much as +if I had been in a similar danger of treading upon snakes! They dart like +arrows across the streets, and in their reckless haste of attempting to +cross the street to avoid me, they frequently came near losing their lives +under my feet! They are about 3 to 6 inches long, we will say; have four +legs as near as I could count, and are very slim, resembling the snake in +form and the frog in features. Good-by, Old Rome!</p> + +<p>I spent 8 days in London, 17 in Paris and 6 in Rome; doing to one city +about as much justice as to the other, in those various periods of time; +but if one would come to Rome first, he would not be able to tear himself +away in less than a few weeks. No one should travel any other way than +<i>against</i> the course of civilization, on his first visit to Europe. In my +course from Liverpool to Rome I enjoyed new sights in a constant flow, +like that of a steady rain. I do not believe that it would be well for an +American to be abruptly transported to Rome and awake one morning there. +The strange sights would assail him suddenly, like a flood of angry +waters!</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch19"> +<h2>Chapter XIX.</h2> + +<h3>Rome to Brindisi.</h3> + + + +<p>From Rome I went to Pompeii, stopping long enough at Naples, however, to +learn that the impudence of the pestiferous porters is quite unendurable. +Italy throughout is much infested with porters, but in the southern +section of the peninsula they are a regular pest, which at times becomes +epidemic. During the traveling season it seems as if everybody was a +porter. Sometimes they will surround the traveler and assail him on every +side, asking him to let them carry his baggage. Sometimes I found them to +be of great service in finding hotels for me, but at other times I was +much inconvenienced by their attacks. I think it was at Naples, where a +dozen or more of them yelled at me all at the same time, each desirous of +carrying my satchel. As none of them could speak in a language that I +understood, I declined to let any one have it. Each one evinced his +earnestness by taking hold of my baggage while asking for it. After taking +turns at their chances in this way for a while, at the same time crowding +the path in front of me so that I could not proceed, one of them in his +greediness almost tore my satchel out of my hands, I responded to his +supplication with such a tremendous no, that the next fellow assumed a +stooping posture and asked me in a whisper! These people deserve our pity +rather than censure. Many of them are evidently sometimes in a famishing +condition. But few who have not seen, can form an idea of the poverty +which reigns in some sections of Southern Italy, especially between Naples +and Brindisi. I saw children running about in this section, that had +little of clothing save a shirt, which was generally torn in every part; +some few, below the age of about six or eight years, had not even a thread +of clothing upon their bodies. An elderly man that was plowing with a pair +of oxen, as is the custom in Italy, was accompanied by his wife who was +well dressed, but he wore only a shirt that reached to his knees, and a +hat. I spent a Sunday at Brindisi, and observed that people keep no Sunday +there. All the people wear old and tattered garments, and I could not see +a hat, a coat or a pair of pantaloons on the person of one of the hundreds +that thronged the market-place all Sunday, that looked as if it had been +new at any time within the last few years!</p> + +<p>The railroad tunnels are even more numerous than in the Black Forest. In +some places it becomes impossible to read in the cars, as the train is +much of the time under the mountains. From the window of the cars I saw a +man with his bare feet in a tub treading grapes, for the purpose of making +wine. It reminded me of the way, as it is said, some made their sourcrout +in this country some forty-five or fifty years ago.</p> + +<p>I spent a day among the ruins of Pompeii and in the ascent of Mount +Vesuvius. Pompeii was a town of about 30,000 inhabitants when it was +destroyed by an eruption of old Vesuvius in A.D. 79. On the 24th of August +a dense shower of ashes covered the town 3 feet in thickness, but allowed +the inhabitants time to escape. Only of those which returned to recover +valuables, &c., were overtaken and covered by the shower of red hot +rapilli, or fragments of pumice-stone, which, with succeeding showers of +ashes, covered the town to the depth of 7-8 feet. "The present +superincumbent mass is about 20 feet in thickness." In the one third of +the town already excavated the skeletons of some 500 have been found. +Casts of bodies found in 1863, were made by pouring plaster of Paris into +the cavities where they had lain, and the figures of the deceased in their +death-struggle are thus obtained. Bædeker devotes 25 pages to a +description of the wonders and curiosities of this exhumed town.</p> + +<p>The ascent of Vesuvius required about six hours. We started at 6:30 in the +morning and returned at 12:30 p.m. The distance from Pompeii, which stands +at its foot, to the top of it is about 5 miles in a straight line, and +eight miles by the paths. Mules can ascend half-way; but I took a guide +and walked the whole distance. At the point where the mules must be +abandoned, a number of guides offered to carry me up, or to drag me up by +means of a rope! But I climbed it. A cloud hangs over it all the time, +which is occasioned by the column of steam that issues from its crater. +The entire upper part of the peak is perfectly bare of vegetation, and +covered with fine cinders, rapilli, &c., through which escapes a gas that +almost suffocates the ascending traveler. At the top we shouted into the +crater and heard distinct echos after two seconds, which proves that the +mouth of the crater reflected the sound at the depth of about 1,000 or +1,100 feet!</p> + +<p>From Pompeii I returned to Naples and spent the night there. Early on +Thursday morning I went to the "Stazione" (Station) and left for Brindisi. +The temperature was 90 degrees in the shade, in the afternoon. Some people +have constructed artificial caves which they use as stables, for their +cattle; and possibly some have such rude grottos for their homes!</p> +</div> + + +<div id="ch20"> +<h2>Chapter XX.</h2> + +<h3>On the Mediterranean.</h3> + + + +<p>On Monday morning, September 26th, at 4:00 o'clock a.m., I stepped on +board the steamship "Avoca" to take passage for Alexandria. Brindisi, like +Havre, is one of the finest places in the world to leave! Almost +everything about it is repulsive. I saw many children there that have +possibly never seen a washing day in their lives! I sailed for Egypt with +great reluctance, for I had already my misgivings about the property of +tourists from civilized nations going thither for sight-seeing. Well one +does see sights there--but, <i>such sights</i>!</p> + +<p>Our voyage to Egypt was a very prosperous and, I may say, a pleasant one. +Time, some eighty hours. As first and second class passage is unreasonably +high, boarding costing $9--$10 per day, I took third class passage, and +with a special outlay of a few dollars obtained acceptable meals. The +steamer belonged to an English line, and it was one of the most pleasant +incidents of my entire tour, to hear a company of sailors chime in one +evening and sing "Kiss Me Mother, Kiss Your Darling." I had heard little +English speaking for months, and now to hear that old familiar tune, five +thousand miles away from home, made me feel as if America could after all +not be so very far off! There were no storms, nor was their any cool +night air upon that "summer seat." I slept one night on deck, without even +an awning of canvass over me,--how pleasant it was at night to awake and +see the winter constellation of Orion as high up already in September, as +I was wont to see it in America in the month of January! We reached</p> + + + +<h3>Alexandria</h3> + + +<p>on the fourth day after leaving the coasts of Italy. Perhaps I can not +give the reader a better idea of what a blank Egypt seems to one who has +luxuriated for months amid the scenes of Europe, than by leaving my +chapter on Egypt a blank one. A great deal too much has been written about +Egypt and the East, already. What profitable example can we take from +those semi-barbarians? A young man who was just returning from a tour +through Egypt and Greece, had told me already at Rome, that "going to see +the East is done mostly for the name of having done the thing." He had +been disappointed, and so was I. Why do tourists speak so much about the +pyramids, after returning from Egypt? Because there is little else to be +seen there or to talk about! And these are not half the wonders that many +imagine who falsely presume that the building of the entire structures +were undertaken at once. The broad foundation of 13 acres, which +constitutes the base of the greatest, was not undertaken at one time; but +only a small pyramid was at first reared, and around this, as a nucleus, +was built layer after layer, until the structure assumed the amazing +proportions which now characterize the astounding magnificence of the +great pyramids on the plains of Geezeh. Thus at whatever time the +sovereign might die, his pyramid would be almost complete, and would be +large or small, in proportion to the time spent upon it. Perhaps +succeeding generations built at some of the larger pyramids. They are +monuments erected to the memory of kings or ruling families, and contain +their tombs. Such, at least, is a plausible solution of the problem of +pyramid-building.</p> + + + +<h3>Cairo.</h3> + + +<p>At Cairo I engaged a guide whom I paid three dollars for accompanying me +as many hours, and bargained with him that he must furnish the mules, (or +donkeys I should have said), and pay all the contingent expenses. We +visited the Mosk of Mohamet Ali in the Citadel, the Mosk of Hassen and +others. Attendants at the doors provided us with slippers, for no one is +allowed to tread the fine carpet (or matting?) of these holy temples with +his shoes. Hats must be kept on, however. A large mosque generally +consists of porticoes surrounded a square open court, containing a +fountain or tank in the center. Here every Mussulman washes his hands and +feet before he goes to prayers. They sometimes would here bathe their +whole bodies in former times! It is not at all surprising that washing of +feet should have become a part of the religious ceremonies in countries +like Egypt, where washing is quite as necessary to existence, as eating +and drinking, even. I wish they had pure water enough to wash themselves a +dozen times a day. They would certainly be, what we consider very dirty, +more than half the time, even then. As it is, they must take their +untanned goat-skin bags and collect the luke-warm water which they find in +dirty pools, and take it home for drinking purposes! It is impossible for +the poor Egyptians to keep themselves clean. It rains only about three +days in a year, and the wind takes so much dust into the air that one can +often neither see or breath for a few seconds. This dust collected in such +a thick layer upon my body, the first day, that I could in the evening +plow furrows with my fingers upon any portion of my skin. I protected my +eyes, by hiding my face in my shawl, during the most dangerous busts; but +being ignorant of the necessity of putting cotton into my ears, I lost the +hearing of one of them, which I only recovered quite lately. Hundreds of +people in Cairo are blind, and certainly the majority of them have but +poor sight or have very sore eyes! What wretched houses they live in! Many +of the huts in their villages consist of but a single apartment, large +enough for a person to lie down lengthwise in it, but not more than 5 feet +wide. The walls and roof are all mud, and so low that a man cannot stand +erect in some of them! These mud-huts have no doors even! The men as well +as the women wear long flowing garments, like those represented in our +picture Bibles. Many of the poor women have but a single garment to cover +their bodies with. This consists of a hood-like covering for the head, and +a loose flowing robe, all in one piece; having neither shoes nor the other +garments to make themselves presentable in any decent or refined society. +Many present pictures of indescribable wretchedness. I saw a woman nurse +her child in the cars, who, when presented with an apple for her babe, +returned her thanks <i>without a smile,</i> even, to the giver! These people +are in too great misery to know what it is to feel happy! I saw men and +women speak by the hour in the train without once turning into any +pleasant mood. How my pity might have turned into joy, could I only have +seen them indulge in a hearty laugh occasionally! Some of their girls and +women of all ages will still ride the donkey, after the oriental style. +The middle and poorer classes of Egyptians will eat little snails and fish +fried with the heads, scales and all the appurtenances of their internal +structures! In the East they churn the butter in bags made of untanned +goat-skins, having the hair inside. Moreover, they bring the butter upon +the table without doing so much as to comb it, even!</p> + +<p>When I had seen these things, and was informed that on account of the +cholera which was still raging in Syria, the surrounding nations had +interposed a quarantine, so that if I would venture to go on to Joppa +(which I could have reached in a few hours), I would become a prisoner, I +soon decided that I would rather not see a people (the Syrians) that is +more miserable than the Egyptians, even, than be in danger of being +obliged to partake of food that could scarcely have failed to make me +sick. Crossing the desert by rail, meeting large caravans of camels, and +seeing the palm-trees, the minarets, the mosks, the pyramids, the muddy +waters of the Nile, and above all the curious styles of the oriental +costume, are interesting enough to one that comes to Egypt with ordinary +expectations and correct information in regard to the country; but I did +not expect to find the Egyptians a black inferior race, that would fight +with each other on the pavements in the largest cities in broad daylight, +violently tear my property out of my hands in sight of the finest square +in Alexandria, carry naked children upon their shoulders in their large +towns, and seat themselves around large dishes of rice and gravy mixing +the same with their fingers and conveying it to their mouths in the palms +of their hands! Numbers of them will dine without the use of either +knives, forks or spoons, and when dinner is over, there is but one dish to +be washed. Each has two hands and ten fingers to clean, and washing those, +ends the whole matter! These are extreme cases, of course. Some live +decently, too. Some <i>few</i> of the ruling classes, in luxury, perhaps. From +Cairo I traveled by rail to Ismalia, thence by the Suez Canal to Port +Said, where I spent the Sunday (October 3rd). On Tuesday I reached +Alexandria again. I there put up at a first-class hotel (for travelers +from civilized and refined nations can not enjoy themselves at inferior +hotels in Egypt), and stayed five days, until the next steamer sailed for +Brindisi. The hotel contained an excellent cafe, where ten intelligent and +refined ladies and four gentlemen, all natives of Austria, were engaged to +render music every evening for a whole year. One evening as I sat in the +cafe at my supper, a poor boy came in to sell flowers; for what we must +pay in this country for a drink, I bought a bouquet almost as large as a +bucket, and when the next lady came to collect for the music, I gave her +the bouquet as a present to the whole company. It was worth more than an +introduction to the entire party, and for the balance of my stay I was +always well entertained, and was kindly informed of anything that I asked +in regard to the manners and customs of oriental life. The people of every +nation under the sun, travel in Egypt in the habits of their own peculiar +national costumes--the Turk with his turban, the Greek with his red cap, +and the Arabians, East Indians, Russians, and all the nations of Western +Europe are represented here, all wearing their own peculiar styles and +fashions. The money too is a mixture of the coins of a dozen different +countries. None except the poorest women will come out of their houses +without having their faces covered with thick black veils.</p> + + + +<h3>On the "Home-Stretch."</h3> + + +<p>I do not know where I was the happiest, when I reached the coasts of Italy +and saw dear Europe again, when I reached Paris, or when I landed at New +York and was finally again ushered into the sweet scenes of home! But I +remember well that I left no city with so much regret as Paris. How I +watched to see the last glimmering rays of its ten thousand gas-jets, as +our train moved away at the silent midnight hour of October 22nd.</p> + +<p>I had stopped at Milan to see the grand peagent of Emperor William of +Germany, and King Victor Emanuel of Italy, with a retinue of some 22,000 +militia, with which they held a military drill, and saw the illumination +of the Cathedral on that memorable occasion; besides I had stopped a day +at Rome, and two at Paris; yet I made my return trip from Alexandria to +New York in 25 days, sleeping but 7 nights in comfortable beds in all that +time. Sleeping in the cars and on the ships, never amounted to much. I +made this haste on account of the now rapidly approaching winter.</p> + + + +<h3>Conclusion.</h3> + + +<p>Notwithstanding the influence which the church and the political powers of +Rome, in earlier times, and which Paris and the spirit of progress in +later years, have exerted to the contrary, the manners, customs and +institutions of the people are still so different that the people of the +Western Continent can not form correct ideas of European life without +having first visited portions of it. For want of a standard of comparison, +the reader is often utterly deceived by fine poetical descriptions, +because he can not properly construe the language.</p> + +<p>A tour of ordinary length and duration can now be made through the western +nations of Europe, with less expense than is generally believed, as may be +inferred from the fact that my entire tour of nearly fourteen thousand +miles, cost less than seven hundred dollars. Many travelers lose forty +percent of their money by imposition, and others are more careless and +extravagant than they ought. If I could not have spoken German, it would +have cost me several hundred dollars more. Could I have spoken French, it +might have cost me a hundred dollars less. The expenses of making the tour +of England, France and Switzerland are from $300 to $1,000, according to +the style in which one wishes to travel; but a young man who wishes to +spent $1,000 in educating himself, will make the best investment by +spending half of it in traveling in foreign lands. He will there lay such +a sure foundation for a correct knowledge of the institutions of the +world, as no amount of reading can ever afford him. Let the enterprising +"go west," but the student should see eastern countries.</p> +</div> + +<h4>The End.</h4> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10638 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/10638-h/images/illus01.png b/10638-h/images/illus01.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9060d8d --- /dev/null +++ b/10638-h/images/illus01.png diff --git a/10638-h/images/illus02.png b/10638-h/images/illus02.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..93a7dc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/10638-h/images/illus02.png |
