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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature
+and Science, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science
+       April, 1873, Vol. XI, No. 25.
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: August 9, 2004 [EBook #13145]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, William Flis and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE
+
+APRIL, 1873.
+
+Vol. XI, No. 25.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+  WILMINGTON AND ITS INDUSTRIES. [Illustrated]
+
+  THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA.
+
+    SECOND PAPER. [Illustrated]
+
+  A CHINESE STORY, by C.P. CRANCH.
+
+  BERRYTOWN, by REBECCA HARDING DAVIS.
+
+    CHAPTER I.
+
+    CHAPTER II.
+
+    CHAPTER III.
+
+    CHAPTER IV.
+
+    CHAPTER V.
+
+  THE GLACIERS OF PARADISE, by HJALMAR HJARTH BOYESEN.
+
+  THACKERAY'S "GRAY FRIARS," by AN OLD "GOWN-BOY."
+
+  A PRINCESS OF THULE, by WILLIAM BLACK.
+
+    CHAPTER IV. ROMANCE-TIME.
+
+    CHAPTER V. SHEILA SINGS.
+
+  MEDICAL EXPERT EVIDENCE, by H.C. WOOD, JR., M.D.
+
+  THE SWEET WATERS, by EDWIN DE LEON.
+
+  MADEMOISELLE STYLITES, by MARGARET VANDEGRIFT.
+
+  THE MYSTERY OF MASSABIELLE, by WILLIAM D. WOOD.
+
+  BENEDICTION, by HOWARD GLYNDON.
+
+  A NIGHT IN BEDFORD, VIRGINIA, by RICHARD B. ELDER.
+
+  OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.
+
+    THE WELLESLEY-POLES.
+
+    THE FATE OF DANGAN CASTLE.
+
+    INTERVIEWING CAPTAIN KIDD.
+
+    A DINNER EXCUSE.
+
+    NOTES.
+
+  LITERATURE OF THE DAY.
+
+  _BOOKS RECEIVED._
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+  SHIP IN DRY-DOCK: HARLAN & HOLLINGSWORTH COMPANY.
+
+  WILMINGTON DEPOT OF THE PHILADELPHIA, WILMINGTON AND BALTIMORE RAILROAD.
+
+  THE BRANDYWINE, AND LEA'S MILLS.
+
+  IRON SHIP-BUILDING AND MACHINE-WORKS--P. 378.
+
+  CHRISTINE CREEK WITH THE DIAMOND STATE WORKS.
+
+  PLATE-IRON ROLLING-MILLS--P. 379.
+
+  MOROCCO-MAKING FACTORY.--P. 381.
+
+  COACH-BUILDING ESTABLISHMENT.--P. 381
+
+  STEAM MANUFACTORY OF SUPERPHOSPHATES.
+
+  FAUKLAND, THE SITE OF OLIVER EVANS'S MILL.
+
+  BRANDYWINE SPRINGS, ON REDCLAY CREEK.
+
+  HOUSE OF MR. J.T. HEALD.
+
+  DEPOT OF THE WILMINGTON AND WESTERN RAILROAD.
+
+  CHRISTINE RIVER, WITH WILMINGTON AND WESTERN RAILROAD BRIDGE.
+
+  CUTTING THROUGH CUBA HILL RIDGE.
+
+  VIEW OF THE WILMINGTON WHARVES.
+
+  FROM CONSTANTINA TO SETIF.
+
+  MOUNTAIN ARABS.
+
+  AN ARAB DOUAR.
+
+  THE WASHERWOMEN.
+
+  THE STONE TURBAN.
+
+  BOU-KTEUN.
+
+  TOBRIZ, AN ENEMY OF THE GUILLOTINE.
+
+  THE IRON GATES.
+
+
+
+
+WILMINGTON AND ITS INDUSTRIES.
+
+
+[Illustration: SHIP IN DRY-DOCK: HARLAN & HOLLINGSWORTH COMPANY.]
+
+Sleepy travelers on the great route to Washington, having passed
+Philadelphia and expecting Baltimore, are attracted, if it is a
+way-train, by a phenomenon. The engine is observed to slacken, and
+a little elderly man with a lantern, looking in the twilight like an
+Arabian Night's phantom with one red eye in the middle of its body,
+places himself just in advance of the locomotive. He trots nimbly
+along, defending himself from incessant death by the sureness of his
+legs, and after a long race guides up to the station the clattering
+train, which is all the time threatening to catch him by the heel.
+"Wilmington!" shouts the brakesman. Every train into Wilmington is
+thus attended, as the palfrey of an Eastern pasha by the running
+footman. The man's life is passed in a perpetual race with
+destruction, and having beaten innumerable locomotives, he still
+survives, contentedly wagging his crimson eye, and hardly conscious
+that his existence is a perpetual escape.
+
+[Illustration: WILMINGTON DEPOT OF THE PHILADELPHIA, WILMINGTON AND
+BALTIMORE RAILROAD.]
+
+Something quaint, peremptory, old-world and feudal strikes the
+traveler as adhering in this custom, by which Wilmington constantly
+pays for the general safety of her promenaders with the offering of
+a citizen's life and limbs. This impression is right. The city is
+the best-defined spot on the American map where the South begins and
+the North ends. Wilmington is, for its own part, a perfect crystal
+of Yankee grit, run out and fixed in a country which in the highest
+degree represents the soft, contented, lazy, incoherent Bourbon
+temper. We select it for our subject because it is so complete a
+terminal image. There is no other instance in the country of such
+sharp, close contrast. A man might step out to the city limit, and
+stand with one leg in full Yankeeland, thrilling with enterprise and
+emulation, and the other planted, as it were, in the "Patriarchal
+Times." Elsewhere along the effaced line of Mason and Dixon the
+sections die away into each other: here they stand face to face, and
+stare.
+
+[Illustration: THE BRANDYWINE, AND LEA'S MILLS.]
+
+Wilmington's legend belongs to the general story of the settlements
+along the Delaware. The discoveries of its site overlapped each other,
+the Quakers discovering the Swedes, who had discovered the Dutch, who
+had discovered the Indians. It was first called Willing's Town, from
+a settler, and then Wilmington, from the earl of that name in England,
+to whom Thomson dedicated his poem of _Winter_. But the spirit of
+enterprise--the spirit whose results we are now to chronicle--came in
+only with William Shipley, for whose story we must refer the reader,
+strange as it may seem, to the latest novel of the first living master
+of English fiction.
+
+This introduces to our notice the most singular literary partnership
+that ever was or ever will be. Dumas used to be helped out in his
+splendid fictions by Maquet, but Dumas and Maquet were Frenchmen, and
+had plenty of sympathies in common. Charles Reade, however, in his
+romance of _The Wandering Heir_, written to minister to the Tichborne
+excitement, takes for his helper the most unlikely colleague in
+nature--a grave, tranquil, intensely respectable Friend, a writer of
+colonial histories in a far pastoral retreat by the Delaware. Such
+workmen were never matched before; yet the words of Benjamin Ferris,
+the Wilmington antiquarian, form a part, and a telling part, of
+the exciting romance signed by Charles Reade. The words of Ferris,
+unexpectedly earning renown in a work of imagination, trace the true
+tale of the Quaker prophetess, Elizabeth Shipley, who brought her
+practical husband to Wilmington through the influence of a brilliant
+dream. The words of Ferris, adopted and sold to the publishers by
+Reade, describe the terrestrial Paradise now known as Wilmington in
+just those glowing and golden terms we should have needed for the
+prologue to this article if we had not been so anticipated. Reade,
+so long as he keeps up his partnership with Ferris, is safe, sane
+and true. It would have been well if he had kept it up a little
+longer, for the moment he lets go Ferris's coat-cuff he falls into
+mistakes--calling the Delaware hereabouts a "bay," and speaking of a
+prickly-pear hedge on a farm only sixty miles from Philadelphia.
+
+[Illustration: IRON SHIP-BUILDING AND MACHINE-WORKS--P. 378.]
+
+The Reade Ferris legend, precluding any necessity of a story from us,
+brings good Elizabeth Shipley into Wilmington, which was then a garden
+and is now a mart, from her former home at Ridley, which was then
+a forest-clearing and is now a garden, being in truth the site of
+Ridley Park, the landscape-city which was described in this Magazine
+last September. The legend gives all proper emphasis to the location,
+endowing it with beauty enough to tempt a celestial guide from heaven
+for the meek Quakeress's benefit, and with practical advantages enough
+to tempt the worldly-minded husband. To get a high idea of the natural
+attractions of Wilmington, therefore, read _The Wandering Heir_, thus
+advertised gratuitously. Wilmington lies, says the author of _Peg
+Woffington_, "between the finger and thumb of two rivers," and also
+upon the broad palm of the Delaware. The two minor streams which
+embrace it are entirely different in character: one is a picturesque
+torrent, named by the Dutch Brand-wijn (Brandywine), from the
+circumstance of a ship loaded with brandy having foundered at its
+mouth; the other, serene and navigable, is the Christine, named by the
+Swedes from Christina, their favorite princess. Hereabouts George Fox,
+the first Quaker, built a fire in 1672 to dry his immortal leather
+breeches. "We came to Christian River," he says, "where we swam over
+our horses." The stream in that day, before the destruction of inland
+forests, had about six times its present volume, but it is still good
+for vessels of considerable burden. The thriving settlers made it
+carry down the harvests of the interior, and then made the Brandywine
+grind them. The focus of the rivers became a rich milling centre, and
+was also a post for whaling-ships. The Otaheitan prince stepped from
+the deck of the whaler to court with gifts of shells the demure Quaker
+maidens of Wilmington, and Kanaka sailors were almost as familiar on
+its wharves as Indian chiefs. About the time of the Revolution the
+town became a well-known station for the export of quercitron bark,
+and all the while the clacking mills were busy along the uneasy rapids
+of the Brandywine.
+
+[Illustration: CHRISTINE CREEK WITH THE DIAMOND STATE WORKS.]
+
+[Illustration: PLATE-IRON ROLLING-MILLS--P. 379.]
+
+Shall we take a glance at a historic mill? The best location for
+such a structure where water-power just met tide-water, and shallops
+drawing eight feet could load up at the shore, was selected in 1762
+for mill-buildings which still stand, and which were for many years
+the most famous in the country, regulating the price of grain for
+the United States. The business soon overflowed, and necessitated the
+building, in 1770, of the structures represented in the engraving on
+page 371, the whole group, on the two sides of the stream, being under
+one ownership, and known as "Lea's Brandywine Mills." Hither would
+come the long lines of Conestoga wagons, from distant counties, such
+as Dauphin and Berks, with fat horses, and wagoners persuading them
+by means of biblical oaths jabbered in Pennsylvania Dutch. From these
+mills Washington removed the runners (or upper stones), lest they
+should be seized and used by the British, hauling them up into Chester
+county. When independence was secured the State of Delaware hastened
+to pass laws putting foreign trade on a more liberal footing than
+the neighbor commonwealths, thus securing for her mills the enviable
+commerce with the West Indies. Much shipping was thus attracted to
+Wilmington, and the trade with Cuba in corn-meal was particularly
+large. It was found, however, that the flour of maize invariably
+rotted in a tropical voyage, and thereupon the commodity known as
+kiln-dried corn was invented at the Brandywine Mills: two hundred
+bushels would be dried per day on brick floors, and be thought a large
+amount, though the "pan-kiln" now in use dries two thousand in the
+same time. The dried meal was delivered at Havana perfectly fresh, and
+pay received, in those good old days of barter, in Jamaica rum, sugar
+and coffees. In the old times flour was heaped in the barrels and
+patted down with wooden shovels: then, when full, a cloth was laid
+over the top, and the fattest journeyman on the premises clambered up
+to a seat on the heap, to "cheese it down" and imprint his callipyge
+upon it. Flour thus made and branded was always safe to bring a high
+price, but never so high as in the short epoch of the Continental
+currency, when the old entries of the Brandywine Mill books show
+(1780) wheat bought at twenty-four pounds a bushel, a pair of the
+miller's leather small-clothes at eighty pounds, and some three or
+four hundred barrels of his flour charged at a gross sum of twenty-one
+thousand pounds.
+
+The fine old mills are still in lively operation, manufacturing into
+meal about a million bushels of wheat and Indian corn every year. The
+principal proprietor receives us in his domain, the living image of
+easy, old-fashioned prosperity, and narrates the long history of the
+structures, showing his little museum of curiosities--now a whale's
+jaw bequeathed from the old fishing days, now a Revolutionary
+cannon-ball--and helps us to realize the ancient times by means of the
+music of the mill, which is loquacious now as it was under George III.
+
+Such is a specimen of one of the stout old industries of a hundred
+years ago, still surviving and hale as ever, though out of its former
+proportion amongst the immense enterprises of modern days. This
+article, however, must pass out of the atmosphere of ancient tradition
+as quickly as possible, being intended to show the handsome city of
+Wilmington with its sleeves rolled up as it were, and in the thick of
+the hardest work belonging to the nineteenth century. When steam was
+introduced to revolutionize labor, and railroads came to supplement
+water-transport, they found the manufacturers of this prosperous town
+ready to avail themselves of every improvement, and pass at once from
+the chrysalis state into the soaring development of modern enterprise.
+
+That is a feature the citizens point out with a good deal of honest
+pride--the prosperity of the old families, enabling them at once to
+invest in the most enormous of modern mechanical applications. The
+wealthy companies now found here did not go to work by calling for
+capital from the large cities: they went to the old stocking, and
+found it there. The manufacturers show you, reared in a back office or
+sticking on a wall, the ancient family sign, which Washington and La
+Fayette regarded at the time of their disasters along the Brandywine.
+It is one continuity of thrift.
+
+Take, for instance, some of these Lairds of America, who build ships
+along the Delaware as their prototypes upon the Clyde. The Harlan
+& Hollingsworth Company claims to be the oldest iron shipbuilding
+establishment in America. The money in this concern was local. The
+partners were old neighbors, relatives or friends. They worked along
+as a firm until 1868, when the huge proportions of their business
+induced them to incorporate themselves as a company, still
+distinguished by the good old proper names. We stroll into their
+domain by the river-side, and if we previously cherished any notion
+that shipbuilding was a decayed institution in America, the lively
+tumult here will effectually drive the insulting thought out of our
+heads. Among a shoal of leviathans stretched out beside the waters
+there is the iron steamer Acapulco, waiting for her compound engines
+from John Elder & Co. of Glasgow: she is three hundred feet long (and
+that is a dimension that looks almost immeasurable when dry on land),
+forty feet beam and twenty-five hundred tons burden. Another, of
+similar dimensions, is building beside her, and they are both intended
+for the Pacific Mail Company's line, and will ply between California
+and China. The various operations going on upon the ground--the laying
+of an iron keel three hundred feet long, the modeling into true and
+fine curves the enormous plates for a ship's side, the joining of
+these so neatly that the rivets are not visible, and the bending of
+stout iron timbers on vast iron floors--are interesting even as a
+mere spectacle; and the trains of men who go about to minister to the
+various great machines seem like races of beings suddenly diminished
+in the scale of magnitude, and to be so many wise Lilliputians
+attending around the bodies of creatures of Brobdingnag. It is true
+that neat mechanical contrivances save their muscle wherever it is
+possible. A great plate of iron or a bundle of deck flooring is picked
+up, by a hand which swings down from aloft, like a visiting-card by
+a lady: a single man turning a windlass, it sails into the air, gets
+up as high as it chooses to, and drops delicately just where it is
+wanted along the length of the structure. Out on the wharf a double
+"hoister," working by steam, and able to pick up and swing a hundred
+tons, is used in handling the materials of the works. The dry-docks
+are, in winter, a singular spectacle. They are a vast hospital
+of interesting invalids, the patients being steamers, barges and
+canal-boats. For instance, the old Edwin Forrest, which has paddled up
+the Delaware with excursionists since a time whereof the mind of man
+runneth not to the contrary, comes up into the dry-dock complaining of
+its bunions. The dry-dock accommodates a ship as long as three hundred
+and forty feet, and is one hundred feet across. The gouty steamer
+potters comfortably in, and lays up its tired keel, while the dock is
+being discharged, as serenely as a patient who lays his foot on the
+knee of a corn-doctor: in due time, relieved and sound, the invalid
+is ready to take the stage of life again. Another boat comes in to
+be lengthened: it has growing-pains, and wants assistance. The stern
+is sliced off, the keel is spliced, and the adolescent leaves the
+docks longer by twenty feet. On the steamers that are being finished
+we notice the extreme beauty of the upholstery and of the engraved,
+inlaid and polished woodwork: it is all done on the spot, and before
+we leave Wilmington we shall have many occasions to admire the luxury
+with which the higher kinds of joinery are prepared for the various
+structures made there. On our way to the car-works--for this versatile
+corporation is a great manufacturer of railway-carriages too--we
+notice the throngs of workers scattered like ants over every part of
+the huge area, and it occurs to us to ask if there are any strikes.
+Our conductor is Mr. J. Taylor Gause, a big, hearty, shrewd man, who
+knows every bolt and rivet on the whole premises as Bunyan knew the
+words of his Bible.
+
+[Illustration: MOROCCO-MAKING FACTORY.--P. 381.]
+
+"We never have any trouble," replies Mr. Gause; "and it is owing to a
+way we have of nipping sea-lawyers in the bud."
+
+And what, may we ask, are sea-lawyers?
+
+"Sea-lawyer is a workman's term. The sea-lawyer is the calculating,
+dissatisfied, eloquent man. He is the Henri Rochefort of their
+assemblies. A supposed grievance arises, the men have a meeting, and
+the sea-lawyer begins to stir them up, big in his opportunity. We
+find who he is, pay him on the instant, and send him away. The men
+run about for a while with their complaints in their heads, but with
+nobody to utter them by. It ends by their coming to us in a body
+to receive back the mischief-maker, by this time repentant. This we
+generally do, getting a friend converted from an enemy."
+
+[Illustration: COACH-BUILDING ESTABLISHMENT.--P. 381]
+
+In fact, the workmen of this city do not strike. The principal remedy
+for the disease is a simple one. They are householders, being aided to
+own their own houses. They are therefore committed to the interests of
+the place, and do not deal in revolutions which would make wandering
+Ishmaelites of them.
+
+The Harlan & Hollingsworth Company makes great numbers of
+railway-cars, from the ordinary kind to the most luxurious
+saloon-cars, and the examination of the shops is entertaining
+enough. Pullman, in fact, is said to have had more of his luxurious
+parlor-cars built in Wilmington than in any other city. As we are
+going, however, to see these carriages constructed where their
+manufacture is a specialty, we will not linger here, where they occupy
+but a part of an enormous establishment.
+
+We will visit some more of the American Lairds. Pusey, Jones & Co.
+show you the vast extent of their premises, occupying ten acres
+and extending along the water in a thousand feet of wharfage. Their
+iron ships--one of which the artist has caught just after its
+completion--and other boats are moving to-day on nearly every river
+emptying into our Atlantic coast or the Gulf of Mexico. Steamboats of
+their build are now troubling the more distant waters of the Atrato,
+Magdalena, Orinoco, Amazon, Purus, Madeira, Tocantins, Ucayali, La
+Plata, Parana and Guayaquil Rivers of South America. They have other
+branches of manufacture, uniting the industries of the land to the
+toil of the sea. They turn out great quantities of machinery and many
+engines for paper-mills and iron-rolling mills, either of which they
+supply in every detail. This is an old and experienced firm, fully
+settled in character, credit and reputation.
+
+Another great industrial combination is the Diamond State Works,
+established in 1853, occupying a whole block, and enjoying a frontage
+of three hundred and fifty feet on the Christine. Here are made the
+vast variety of things into which iron can be rolled or pinched.
+The eye is puzzled and pleased at the groups of intelligent machines
+standing up in their places and moulding with their steel fingers the
+rivets and the bolts; the railroad spikes, washers and fish-joints;
+the nuts, whether hot-pressed or cold-pressed; the lag-screws and
+the bolt-ends. Bars of all sizes and for an endless number of
+uses are pressed out like dough, and stored for sale in enormous
+warehouses. Mr. Mendinhall and Mr. Clement B. Smyth, the president
+and vice-president of this company, are of long experience in the
+management of their business; and the business of the company
+increases from year to year, demanding all the room in its commodious
+location, and necessitating an office in New York, where, at No.
+71 Broadway, the large disbursing interests of the works are partly
+attended to.
+
+Such are the bare commercial facts. But stand in one of these noisy
+working-grounds of a manufacturing place like Wilmington, or ride up
+to the top of one of their buildings on the steam-elevators which some
+of them employ. Think how these men of iron are changing the surface
+of the earth, spiking rails to the prairie in distant territories,
+or sending into Polynesian archipelagoes the rivet on whose integrity
+depends the safety of the iron ship. How needful to human progress
+is the conscientious perfection of their work! What tact they must
+employ in dealing with phalanxes of laborers of different nations
+and imperfect intelligence! What a stimulus to genius they are,
+with their readiness to catch at any labor-saving machine! See that
+astute-looking dwarf of an apparatus, biting off red-hot ends of
+rods, closing its jaws together upon them in such a way as to form
+a four-square mould, then smartly hitting one end so as to make a
+projecting head: a railroad spike is turned off in a moment. See this
+other making "nuts" as smartly as a baker makes ginger-nuts: some are
+raw and some are cooked--that is, some are punched hot and some cold,
+sufficing for different purposes: the cold are the softer, and the
+easier to "tap" or perforate with the screw--thread. Other machines
+are scissors trimming plates of iron like cardboard; others, in a
+careless kind of way, spend all their time in nipping off whatever
+bolts and bars are presented to them; and others make pretty rows of
+rivet-holes all along the edges of huge iron plates. These animated
+creatures of the mill, performing their tasks like child's play,
+are efforts of intellectual genius as truly as are the dramas of
+Shakespeare. And busy talents are growing up in our manufacturing
+centres as in hotbeds, each one trying to carry the domain of
+mechanical substitution a little farther, and so escape the necessity,
+so costly in America, of paying for man-power. In several ways a grand
+manufactory is a college, stimulating the human minds engaged there
+in the highest degree, setting a premium on intellect and culture, and
+reminding us that whoever caused some idea to take shape that never
+had an existence before, was called by the ancients a "_poeta_."
+
+[Illustration: STEAM MANUFACTORY OF SUPERPHOSPHATES.]
+
+We will explore another of these great working-places--this time,
+a group of mills as large as a modest village, yet devoted to one
+special product. In 1864, Mr. Henry B. Seidel purchased a rolling-mill
+which had already been in operation with varied success for eighty
+years, and established the manufacture of large plates for iron
+ships and boilers. In a few years, associating with himself his
+superintendent, Mr. Hastings, he greatly enlarged his operations, and
+the firm found their edifice too small. An ample new one, one hundred
+and twenty-five feet long, was put up in 1870, upon the Church street
+side of their property, and with the introduction of all the new
+machines became capable of the quickest and completest operations.
+Seidel & Hastings now run both mills, and turn out, when working night
+and day, at the rate of between five and six thousand tons of plate
+iron per annum. They prepare their own "blooms" of charcoal iron at a
+great forge erected on their premises: this forge has five fires, and
+is provided with the engines and blowing-cylinders for the manufacture
+of boiler iron, and the monster steam-hammers necessary in its
+preparation. Nature's products are here taught manners with a witness:
+whatever shape they enter in, they leave in the form of pie-crust. The
+tough old genius of iron, which has been trying since the creation to
+build itself into mountains or dissipate itself in bogs, is taught by
+the powerful persuasions of these gentlemen to pack and toughen itself
+into cards, and is only recognized by the foreman when he takes count
+of stock as "plate inch and a half" or "plate one-eighth."
+
+[Illustration: FAUKLAND, THE SITE OF OLIVER EVANS'S MILL.]
+
+But the reader has had enough of iron. We will relieve him--though
+we cannot promise not to revert to the metals--with a glimpse of some
+different kinds of employment. Nothing, now, can be softer than kid,
+nothing more scholarly than a morocco book-binding, nothing is more
+brilliant in the autumn woods than sumach, nothing is more graceful
+than the pet goat of Esmeralda. We will pay a visit to one of the
+morocco-factories, premising that our independent little city of
+Wilmington has a wide reputation in the trade for her excellence in
+this special article, and that her product in morocco is actually
+the largest single item of her trade, the production last year having
+exceeded two million dollars' worth. We will enter a specimen factory,
+where the tame African goats playing about the yard, by putting their
+skins into contact with the powdered sumach lying up stairs in the
+bags, are to yield us specimens of about the best American morocco
+known to commerce. The superiority of the Wilmington product is
+attributed by buyers to something in the quality of the Brandywine
+water, but probably the high condition and tone of the workmen has
+more to do with it. In Wilmington, where a workman finds that a given
+rate of wages represents better living and more happiness than in any
+large city, the labor obtainable for the pay is naturally of a higher
+character; and this, in a business where everything depends upon hand
+manipulation, is a controlling influence. The factory we select is
+that of Pusey, Scott & Co., at Madison and Third streets, five stories
+high and a hundred and sixty feet deep. Over this scented labyrinth we
+go, up stairs and down; now among the slippery vats, where the hides
+are deprived of their hair; now into a bright room, where half a dozen
+pretty sewing-machine girls are stitching the wet, slimy skins into
+bags; now into gloomy cellars, where these bags are filled with
+sumach-dust and water. The scene in these dark apartments, where many
+of the workmen are negroes, is especially high-flavored and like a
+chapter in _Vathek_. Writers usually talk of "life in the iron-mills"
+as conducing to the development of herculean strength. But
+iron-workers are apt to be dry and wiry, their flesh half sweated off
+and their complexions unnaturally pale. For true muscular development,
+rather Flemish and beefy in quality, we would instance the workmen
+in this department of a morocco-factory. The skins when filled with
+water are very heavy, and the jolly fellows who play at aquatic games
+with them, now ducking into the tanks, now holding a bag under the
+hopper whence the sumach descends, and anon stirring, manipulating
+and inspecting the mass of floating pillows, are true heroes out of
+Rubens' pictures. The scenes up stairs again, where young Swedes
+and Irish boys dress the dry skins, painting them over with black,
+and polishing and graining them by rubbing them with stones (a
+back-breaking operation, apparently, in the attitude of laundresses
+bent over an eternal washboard), are all highly entertaining. In
+the store-rooms we see the handsome sheets of morocco, including the
+kangaroo skins from Australia, perforated here and there with the
+hunter's shot, and distinguishable by the enormous flap which has,
+in the creature's life, encased the tail. Among them all the little
+orphaned kid skins, clothed in mourning colors and so soft and small,
+look very innocent and interesting. The distinguishing claim of
+Wilmington is that of having been the pioneer to introduce machinery
+into this as into other kinds of business. Several kinds of
+labor-saving apparatus are explained to us, and the foresight in
+building the apartments so that the skins travel from stage to stage
+with the least possible lifting is pointed out. These economies are
+said to be unmatched in the world. In this manufacture the relations
+of employers with employed, and amongst each other, would appear
+to be particularly happy. The morocco-makers of Wilmington seem to
+believe that worth makes the man, that readiness to do a favor to
+fellow-manufacturers is what shows the true "grain," and that "the
+rest is naught but leather and prunello." In dealing with their men,
+Messrs. Pusey, Scott & Co. have kept up the best relations, and have
+solved the difficult, the crucial problem in these latitudes, of
+inducing whites and negroes to labor side by side at the same task
+in harmony. We believe that this one fact alone, if we were able to
+develop it eloquently, would be found to stamp the character of the
+principals with the best traits of benevolence, tact and sense. Mr.
+Warner, our guide through the premises, concludes the exhibition
+by showing us a curious set of great books in the counting house,
+where the foreman of each department records his answer daily to a
+list of printed questions, stating his figures, his ideas, reports,
+suggestions and complaints. This diurnal inquisition, which
+morally gives ventilation to the whole establishment, and relieves
+difficulties at their start, seems to be another indication of an
+enviable relationship, keeping up an excellent, old-fashioned sympathy
+between employers and operatives.
+
+From morocco-dressing to carriages, which are curtained and cushioned
+with morocco, is not a difficult step. La Bruyere, who wrote a whole
+book without making any transitions, would have passed without effort
+from the establishment of Pusey, Scott & Co. to the coach-factory of
+McLear & Kendall. It should be premised that coach-building is another
+of the very special successes of Wilmington. She produced last year
+an amount, in cash value, of carriages greater than her iron ships,
+greater than her cotton fabrics, being one million four hundred
+thousand dollars. The engraving shows the outside magnitude of McLear
+& Kendall's factory, the largest in the city, but cannot show the
+curious effect of the great show-room, filled with rockaways, buggies
+of all kinds, and park phaetons. The building, which was put up in
+1865, is on Ninth, King and French streets, and is two hundred and
+eighteen feet in length. These makers produce annually fifteen hundred
+vehicles, which are shipped to all parts of the United States. An
+engine of forty horse-power assists the workmen, of whom a hundred and
+seventy-five are kept in employment, earning the high wages commanded
+by skilled labor, or, on an average throughout the factory, twenty
+dollars per week.
+
+[Illustration: BRANDYWINE SPRINGS, ON REDCLAY CREEK.]
+
+After the ponderous establishments near the mouth of the Christine,
+and the neater sorts of industries which can be carried on within the
+city, we come to notice some of the mills and factories up stream.
+Many of these are of great antiquity.
+
+Walton, Whann & Co. boast that fully one-half the arrivals and
+departures of shipping at Wilmington are in connection with their
+business. What is that business? Why, it is the revival of the
+fertility of the South, exhausted by the land-murdering agriculture
+of slavery. The demand from the cotton regions since the war has been
+enormous for the best artificial fertilizers, and the appreciation
+of the particular kind made by Walton, Whann & Co. is very marked.
+Planters have learned the fact, which science and experience
+demonstrate, that a reliable compost must be now used for the
+remunerative culture of cotton, as well as of their corn and other
+staples; and their preference for the superphosphate prepared by this
+firm over most other fertilizers is evinced by the fact that their
+demand has for several years been largely in excess of the supply.
+We need not wonder, then, at the formidable preparations made for
+this mighty overdriven business. The cargoes discharging by means
+of steam-power into the barges proceed from mills covering several
+acres of ground, and worked by three engines, aggregating one
+hundred horse-power. Think of it! the strength of one hundred horses
+overtasked day by day to provide this magic powder, through which
+the tired _real_ horse is to drag the plough in so many thousands of
+distant acres! The machinery for grinding the organic materials is of
+the most approved excellence, and is tested by the turning out, with
+the power stated, of full fifteen hundred tons of the phosphate per
+month. A visit to the store-house of this factory is a strange sight,
+reminding the tourist of the open-air cemetery of the Capuchins at
+Rome. It is a realm of bones. Bones from the South American pampas,
+bones from the pork-packing houses of Cincinnati, bones from the
+grazing plains of Texas, come here to mingle. The skeletons of half
+a continent meet in these whirling mills for a prodigious Dance of
+Death, being most emphatically denied what is the last wish of all
+sentient creatures--rest for their bones.
+
+[Illustration: HOUSE OF MR. J.T. HEALD.]
+
+This factory is on the Christine River, just outside the limit of
+the city. On Redclay Creek--a tributary to the Christine, running
+into it parallel with the Brandywine--a number of mills have seated
+themselves, attracted by its swift torrent, amid scenery of steeps
+and rapids comparable to that on the Lehigh about Mauch Chunk. Of
+these the most interesting traditions attach to the Faulkland Mills.
+Their name may remind the reader of the first novel of the late Lord
+Lytton--_Falkland_, written in 1828--but it was given to the spot long
+before in designation of a primitive settlement, Faulk's Land. The
+association with this site is that of Oliver Evans, the true inventor
+of the locomotive, who here worked and dreamed in a mill enriched with
+his contrivances.
+
+Evans, like Fitch, is one of the world's lost renowns. Had the
+legislators of his time possessed sagacity enough to endow his
+inventions, the advantages of steam-transport would have been
+anticipated by several years, and the glory would have radiated
+from the Delaware River instead of from the Hudson. His design for a
+locomotive was sent to England in 1787, disputing priority with the
+"steam-wagons" of James Watt. He built steamboats at Philadelphia in
+1802 and 1803, and ran them successfully, antedating by five years
+the Clermont of Robert Fulton--Fulton, whom people are beginning to
+regard, with Mr. Stone, author of the recent _History of New York_, as
+the man who has received the greatest quantity of undeserved praise
+of all who ever lived. Oliver Evans, born in 1755 of a respectable
+family, was a miller at Faulkland, where his smaller inventions were
+first put in use. The plank just under the apex of the roof, which he
+used to retire to as his private study, was shown until 1867, when the
+old mill was burned. Up among the swallows, as he lay on the board--to
+which, as Beecher expresses it, he "brought the softness"--the
+children of his genius were conceived and delivered. The mill was
+full of his labor-saving machines, which clattered to the babbling
+Redclay. One of his notions was the mill "elevator" (an improvement of
+something he had seen in Marshall's mill at Stanton), by which grain
+was raised to the top of the building in buckets set along a revolving
+belt which passed from the roof to the bottom, distributing the wheat
+with spouts to the bolt. This was set up, by contributions among the
+millers, at Shipley's great mill in Wilmington, and also introduced
+into his own, where his other inventions of the "conveyer" and the
+"hopper-boy" attracted the stares of the rival millwrights. Poor
+Oliver was known to the fat millers of this neighborhood as the
+inconvenient person who was always wanting the loan of a thousand
+dollars to carry out a new invention. The "thinking men" among them
+sagely argued that his improvements would benefit the consumer, by
+increasing the supply of flour and making it cheap--a clear detriment
+to the interests of capital. Then Oliver plunged desperately into his
+idea of steam-motion, losing the faint vestiges of his repute for
+wit, and died poor and heartbroken in 1819, the hero of an unwritten
+tragedy. The happy hours of his life were the hours on the dusty plank
+in the mill-gable at Faulkland.
+
+[Illustration: DEPOT OF THE WILMINGTON AND WESTERN RAILROAD.]
+
+Evans's mill was bought in 1828 by Mr. Jonathan Fell, and turned
+into the spice-grinding establishment which is still operated by his
+descendants on the same ground. But Fell's business was much older
+than that purchase, being a good representative of the ancestral
+industries that exist in such numbers among Penn's settlers. Early in
+this century the passengers in Front street in Philadelphia laughed
+at the juxtaposition of a sign just put up with an older one, the two
+reading thus: "James _Scholl_--Jonathan _Fell_." He had purchased the
+spice-grinding business of an English immigrant on that site, and now
+the same business is carried on at Faulkland, one hundred and seven
+years from its commencement, in the thirteenth generation of Fell's
+descendants, after a career of accumulated and undeviating success.
+Moving the factory to Faulkland, and retaining the Philadelphia
+situation as a warehouse, the family have kept the old system
+unchanged, served by employes as steady as themselves, two of the
+latter having died of old age after forty years in their service.
+The present works of C.J. Fell & Brother, combining steam and
+turbine-wheel power, are represented as the most complete in America,
+and produce a great variety of condiments, which season the traveler's
+meal in whatever State or Territory of the Union he may visit.
+
+[Illustration: CHRISTINE RIVER, WITH WILMINGTON AND WESTERN RAILROAD
+BRIDGE.]
+
+A chalybeate spring at Faulkland, formerly much resorted to, is now
+in railway communication with Wilmington, and will recover its ancient
+prestige. Under the ownership of Mr. Matthew Newkirk, the late railway
+manager of Philadelphia, a large hotel at the Brandywine Springs
+was filled with rich Southerners for many summers, but the house was
+destroyed by fire, and the flow of visitors turned aside. One of the
+smaller houses, with accommodation for two hundred guests, is the
+present claimant for watering-place custom. Its situation, with the
+fine water-scenery, and a natural coliseum of wooded hills, is very
+attractive, and the restorative properties of the spring are proved
+and valuable.
+
+One more interest attaches to Faulkland. Close by were the earthworks
+where Washington protected his army, expecting the British attack,
+but, drawn from his intrenchments by a flank movement, was tempted on,
+to sustain disaster at Chadd's Ford on the Brandywine.
+
+We have just mentioned the site as in railway communication with the
+city of Wilmington. It is time to speak of the town in its relation to
+means of transport and as a railroad centre.
+
+The location of the burgh, so near the ocean, on the beach of an
+immense river, and in the clasp of two smaller but partly navigable
+streams, kept it, in the old times, outside the latitude of railway
+improvement. Its naval facilities were thought to be sufficient for
+what business it had. The Baltimore line from Philadelphia passed
+through it, and could move its freight either north or south. With
+the development of its iron manufactures, however, the necessity of
+other connections became pressing, and in 1869 a road was opened to
+the coal-regions at Reading, crossing the Pennsylvania Central at
+Coatesville. Another road leads to New Castle. And now a short road
+has been opened to the westward, through a very rich region for
+way-freight; and with some notice of this, an artery for various
+mines and quarries, we finish our duty toward Wilmington as a railway
+nucleus.
+
+[Illustration: CUTTING THROUGH CUBA HILL RIDGE.]
+
+The Wilmington and Western Railroad has not yet got over the
+excitement of being constructed. The creative spirit, it may be said,
+was Mr. Joshua T. Heald, an enterprising Wilmingtonian, already a
+director of the Wilmington and Reading line. It was he who drummed up
+the stock-subscriptions among his fellow townsmen. On July 8, 1871,
+he struck the first pick into the line as president, and in October,
+1872, the road was opened for travel as far as Landenberg in
+Pennsylvania. The Wilmington and Western Road crosses Christine River
+in the suburbs, then follows the valley of Redclay Creek, past all its
+mills and local improvements, sends visitors to Brandywine Springs,
+and passes the birthplace of the inventor Oliver Evans, while its
+contemplated extension will pass it close to the birthplace of Robert
+Fulton, in the Peachbottom slate region of Pennsylvania. No bad omen
+for a steam-road, to have had its ground first broken at the cradle of
+one steam inventor and to lead to the cradle of another!
+
+Regarding a map, to the west of Wilmington we see that there is a
+continuous tier of counties, from one extremity of Pennsylvania to
+the other, which has no great railway running east and west. A few of
+these counties are penetrated by feeders to the Pennsylvania Railroad
+or by other lateral roads, but they are not opened by any general
+comprehensive system; yet this section of Pennsylvania is one of
+the richest in mineral wealth. It has limestone, slate, iron ore,
+bituminous coal and other deposits. From one extremity to the other it
+is a region well worth development, and sure to reward by a large and
+valuable traffic the line of railway which will carry its products to
+the tide-water markets for sale or transhipment. The road is still an
+infant, but a good symptom is, that within six weeks of its opening
+the gross earnings of the company had reached a sum more than equal
+to the weekly interest on its bonded debt. Its extension to Oxford and
+the Susquehanna River is a matter for the immediate future.
+
+So much for the facilities of moving Wilmington's many products by
+railway. It would be too unjust, however, to pay court to these roads,
+which are matters of yesterday, and show no attention to the system of
+water-transport for the sake of which her site was chosen two hundred
+years since.
+
+Long years ago, Wilmington millers, wishing to ship flour to
+Philadelphia, used to walk down to Market street wharf, and pulling a
+bellcord that hung outside a little brick office by the river, summon
+to his duty the easy-going and cheerful freight-clerk of the transport
+line. The old sign, with the name of "Warner" upon it, is still upon
+the office, but the bell is gone, and the premises of Charles Warner
+& Co. have blossomed out into store-sheds and coal-sheds beyond
+all calculation. The guiding instinct of the firm was found to be
+concentrated in the handsome head of Mr. E. Tatnall Warner, a son
+and now a partner; and it was he who sketched out the amplitude of
+the store-houses, and determined to bring the line into victorious
+competition with the rail for all the freight of the port that would
+bear slow moving. The wharves of Warner & Co. now extend from Water
+street to the Christine River, and from Market to King streets. There
+are three communications daily with Philadelphia, and tri-weekly ones
+with New York and Boston. Their Philadelphia line consists of two
+steam-barges of one hundred and fifty tons, and they are constructing
+a third at a shipyard we have yet to examine--that of the Jackson
+& Sharp Company--of two hundred and fifty tons burden. The four
+railroads of Wilmington--the Baltimore line, the Wilmington and
+Reading, the Western, and the Delaware Road--all run their cars by
+continuous rails to the wharves of Warner & Co., where freight is
+transferred from cars to steamers with extreme rapidity, by four
+steam-hoisters placed on the ground for the purpose. A stationary
+engine also takes hold of the cars, and moves them from place to place
+on the rail as wanted. The handling by steam-power--a great change
+from the days of the old bell under the eaves!--of course reduces
+greatly the necessity for mere human porters. The steamers ply to a
+wharf at Chestnut street, Philadelphia, and also, as aforesaid, to New
+York. In respect to the latter port, the Messrs. Warner anticipate an
+early day when various novel manufactures established at Wilmington
+will demand new freights from the New York market, and to hasten that
+day they offer very strong inducements for return cargoes. Such is a
+specimen of a transport-office, transformed from old-fashioned ideas
+to the newest ambitions of the time. While the iron road will always
+collect a large portion of moving merchandise, there will still
+be another large portion for which the superior cheapness of
+water-transport will be a successful inducement.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW OF THE WILMINGTON WHARVES.]
+
+An immense bid which Wilmington makes for future greatness is in the
+excellence of her harbor. Shipping there is at once safe and unimpeded
+in its exit. The Delaware and its bay below the city are broad and
+without sudden bends. Ice does not gather, and the influence of the
+ocean, by its tidal movement and salt water, makes the breaking of a
+channel comparatively easy. The Christine harbor, from any point near
+its mouth, can be kept open to the sea in all ordinary winters by a
+stout and well-built tug. The Christine is much wider--probably by
+three times--than the Chicago River, upon which every ton of the
+magnificent commerce of that great city is delivered. It has a better
+entrance and deeper water, as well as greater breadth. Wilmington
+believes she has a better issue for her manufactures in the Christine
+and Delaware than Glasgow possesses in the Clyde. The Clyde is
+narrower and more difficult to keep in order than the Christine, and
+Glasgow's facilities for getting materials for shipbuilding are not as
+great as Wilmington's.
+
+The difference in the cost of production of iron ships in Wilmington
+and on the Clyde, exclusive of the premium on gold, is at this time
+about ten per cent. only. Taking the present price of gold (fourteen),
+this increases the difference to about twenty-four per cent. The
+falling off in the price of gold, which is so generally expected,
+together with the advance in labor in Great Britain, and the
+consequent advance in the price of iron there, will soon bring the
+cost nearly equal in both countries. Indeed, if our shipbuilders would
+use the light and inferior iron in their ships that is used on the
+Clyde, the cost would not now materially differ. This will not be
+done, however, for reasons that are too evident to need stating; and
+by waiting until the prices have adjusted themselves naturally and
+permanently, a more lasting and desirable prosperity will be gained.
+Meditating these considerations, Wilmington is quite serene
+and fearless under the present temporary depression of American
+shipbuilding.
+
+There are some features connected with the life and education of the
+operatives so abundant in this town, some additional industries, a
+few items of religious history, and a few evidences of modern taste
+or luxury, that we wish to consider; but these must be reserved for a
+second paper.
+
+
+
+
+THE ROUMI IN KABYLIA.
+
+SECOND PAPER.
+
+[Illustration: FROM CONSTANTINA TO SETIF.]
+
+
+The Roumi who leaves Constantina for Setif has a choice of two
+routes--one picturesque, lively and covered with Roman remains; the
+other perfectly arid, and distinguished by the fact that in five miles
+there are just four trees.
+
+He turns, however, as he settles himself in his stirrup amongst the
+interested Arab population of Constantina, to cast a last look at the
+ugly French streets in which, as a tourist, his lot was cast. The Arab
+quarters, where life still flows on in the old African style, have
+seized his attention exclusively, and he remembers with a kind of
+contemptuous remorse that he has paid no regard to the smart modern
+edifices and offices that belong to French occupation. Yet one of
+these, at least, the staring Napoleonic Palais de Justice, would yield
+him a romance from time to time.
+
+Here, in December, 1872, twenty-one natives of the Belezma were tried
+at a court of assizes for the massacre, last April, of twelve French
+colonists. The affair was a sequel of the French-Prussian war. The
+natives, for a long time past on good terms with strangers, became
+insolent, boasting that France was ruined, and that all the French
+would soon disappear from Algeria. Some of the tribes, however,
+remained, if not friendly, at least less hostile. The revolt had
+become almost general, and on the 21st of April the sheikh Brahim of
+the Halymias informed the little colony near Batna that they were
+no longer safe in the forest, and offered to escort them into Batna.
+These colonists were the workmen at the saw-mills of a M. Prudhomme,
+about ten miles out of the town. The Europeans, consisting of thirteen
+men, one woman named Dorliat and her four children, set out the next
+morning, accompanied by Brahim and about forty of his men. On arriving
+in a ravine they were suddenly attacked by a large body of the rebels.
+Six of the party, who were in the rear, succeeded in escaping, but
+twelve of the men were massacred. Madame Dorliat, it is said, owed
+her life to a native named Abdallah at the saw-mills, who, on seeing
+her in tears before starting, said to her: "Woman, you have nothing
+to fear: no harm will be done to you or to your children. As for the
+men, I will not answer for them." As she continued to weep, he added:
+"Listen! When you see the guns pointed at your breast, say this
+prayer: 'Allah! Allah! Mohammed racoul Allah!' and you will be saved."
+He also taught the same prayer to her children. In the midst of the
+slaughter several Arabs had leveled their firearms at her to shoot
+her, when she remembered Abdallah's lesson, and throwing herself on
+her knees to them repeated the invocation. The murderers stopped, made
+her say it over again, and asked, "Do you mean it?" On her replying
+in the affirmative they spared her, but stripped her entirely naked,
+and took from her three of her children: she only recovered them
+thirty-two days later, and one of them died from a sabre-cut in the
+head, received during the fight. The woman's husband was among the
+killed, and so was the proprietor of the mill, M. Prudhomme. Of the
+twenty accused brought to trial at Constantina, twelve were condemned
+to death and three to hard labor; the others, among whom was the
+sheikh Brahim, being acquitted.
+
+[Illustration: MOUNTAIN ARABS.]
+
+Severe justice is the only condition on which French supremacy can be
+maintained in the country, and probably for the general Arab populace
+the rule of the Gauls is a judicious one. But it is to be questioned
+whether the rule of _talion_ is the right one for the Kabyles.
+In 1871, at the height of the French troubles with the Commune,
+formidable revolts were going on among the descendants of those
+untamable wretches whom Saint Arnaud smoked out in a cave. In July the
+garrison at Setif heard the plaint of a friendly cadi, named D'joudi,
+who had been wantonly attacked for his loyalty to the French by some
+organized mutineers under Mohammed Ben-Hadad. The poor wretch had been
+obliged to flee, with his women and his flocks, into the protection
+of his country's oppressors. Since the chassepot has succeeded in
+reducing the Kabyles once more to a superficial obedience, the courts
+have been busy with the sentences of their insubordinate leaders.
+France imitates England's sanguinary policy in her treatment of
+rebellious and semi-civilized tribes. Eight of the leaders of the
+Kabyle revolt of 1871 have been condemned to death, and a number
+of others have been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. The
+Kabyles will take their revenge when another European war places the
+Algiers colonists at their mercy.
+
+The guides who accompany the traveler serve, in the absence of the
+trees, to attract his scrutiny. These mountain Arabs are superb
+fellows. Lips almost black, and shaded with lustrous beards, set off
+their perfect teeth, white, small, and separated like those of a young
+dog. Their black eyes are soft or stern at will. They are usually of
+middle size, large-chested, as befits Arabs from the hills, with small
+heads and finely-tapered wrists and ankles. They are dressed in red,
+with a covering of two bornouses--a white one beneath, and a black
+one fastened over. Long iron spurs are attached to their boots of
+red morocco, which come up to the knee; for the Algerian Arab, a
+bare-legged animal when walking, is a booted cavalier when mounted.
+The white haik, or toga, is fastened around the temples. The horse
+of the principal guide is a fine iron-gray, with an enormous tail of
+black--high-stepping, and carrying his elaborately-draped burden as
+proudly as a banner.
+
+[Illustration: AN ARAB DOUAR.]
+
+In contrast to this imposing guard of honor, the traveler minces along
+on a dumb, timid mule, who smells the ground in a sordid and vulgar
+manner, and is guided by a pitiful rope bridle. Such are the hackneys
+and the guides, engaged on the recommendation of the commandant of
+Constantina, who undertake to carry us to Setif and on to Bou-Kteun
+in Kabylia.
+
+[Illustration: THE WASHERWOMEN.]
+
+Setif, the ancient metropolis of this part of Mauritania, and
+celebrated for a brave defence against the invading Saracens, is now
+the healthiest spot occupied by the French in all Algeria. It lies on
+a great table a mile above the sea, is fortified, and has four good
+streets, but pays for its salubrity by the extreme outspokenness of
+the climate. It is subject to snow for six months, and is enveloped
+in a cloud of dust the other six. It is in the midst of a great
+grain-producing country, and is famed for its market, held every
+Sabbath. The surrounding folk dress for market, instead of dressing
+for Sunday, and exhibit the whitest of bornouses above the dustiest of
+legs as they sit crooning over trays of eggs or onions, brought far on
+foot through the powdery roads.
+
+As we leave Setif we are overtaken by the lumbering stage-coach, which
+plunges and jolts over the road to Sibou-Areridj--a coach apparently
+about the age of the carriage of General Washington, for Algeria is
+the infirmary of all the worn-out French diligences. Sibou-Areridj is
+reached and passed, and a few miles farther on is encountered an Arab
+douar, or assemblage of tents forming a tribal fraction. This woven
+village, although we have attained the limits of Kabylia, reminds us
+that we have not yet reached the Kabylian abodes: an Arab lives in
+a tent in all localities outside the great cities--a Kabyle, never.
+However poor the hut in which the Kabylian artisan starves and labors,
+it must be a solid mansion founded upon the soil, and its master
+must feel himself a householder. Our douar proves to be an encampment
+belonging to the marabouts, or high religious orders, situated on a
+large plot of ground in the ownership of the saints, and extending
+up to the limits of Kabylia. Composed of a circle of tents numbering
+about fifty, and exhibiting numbers of fine horses picketed near
+the tent-doors, it is as fine a specimen as we shall see of the
+patriarchal life inherited from the unfatherly father of Ishmael. The
+pavilions are of a thick camel's hair stuff, very laboriously made
+by the women, which swells up in the rain and completely excludes
+moisture. They are striped brown and yellow, but a splendid tabernacle
+in the centre, of richer colors and finer fabric, bears at the apex
+a golden ball with plumes of ostrich feathers, the sign of authority.
+This tent is oval in form, resembling an overturned ship. It is the
+residence and office of the sheikh, or chief of the douar: several
+douars united form a tribe, governed by a caid. We venture to visit
+the sheikh, assured by our spahi guides that we shall be welcome. We
+are received blandly by the officer, offensively by his dogs, a throng
+of veritable jackals who scream around our feet as we enter. The
+interior, rich and severe at once, exhibits saddles and arms, gilded
+boxes and silken curtains, without a single article of furniture. The
+sheikh treats us to mild tobacco in chiboukhs--another sign that we
+are not yet in Kabylia: never is a Kabyle seen smoking. We reciprocate
+by offering coffee, made on the spot over our spirit-lamp--a process
+which the venerable sheikh watches as a piece of jugglery, and then
+dismisses us on our way with the polite but final air which Sarah may
+be supposed to have used in dismissing Hagar.
+
+[Illustration: THE STONE TURBAN.]
+
+The douar, like a city, has suburbs of greater squalor than its
+interior, and among them, under the palm trees, we see women washing
+clothes or engaged in the manufacture of couscoussou, a dish common
+to the Arab, the Kabyle and the traveler hereabouts, and so important
+that a description of its preparation may be acceptable.
+
+In the opening of a small tent, then, we paused to watch an old
+moukere (or daughter of Araby), whose hands look as if she had been
+stirring up the compost-heap of bones, pickings and dirt before the
+door. With these hands she rolls dexterously a quantity of moistened
+flour upon a plate. Long habit has made it easy to her, and in an
+incredibly short time she has formed a multitude of small grains--her
+hands, it must be said, looking a great deal cleaner after the
+process. On the fire is a pot of water, just placed. She interrupts
+her labor to throw in a piece of kid, which, with a quantity of
+spices, she stirs around with her callous hand, almost to the
+boiling-pitch of the water. She then addicts herself once more to
+the manufacture of the flour-grains, of which she has directly made
+a perfect mountain. The water now boiling, she places the granulated
+paste in a second earthen pot or vase, whose bottom, pierced like a
+colander with holes, fits like a cover upon that in which the meat is
+boiling. The steam cooks the grains, which are afterward served upon a
+platter, with the meat on top and the soup poured over. All travelers
+agree that, when you do not witness the preparation, couscoussou is a
+toothsome and attractive dish, fit to be set beside the maccaroni of
+Rossini.
+
+[Illustration: BOU-KTEUN.]
+
+On the plateau outside the douar we find the cemetery, with its tombs;
+for the Arab, content to sleep under tissue while he lives, must needs
+sleep under mason-work after he is dead. Under the koubba, or dome,
+is seen a sarcophagus covered with a crimson pall, the tomb of a dead
+marabout: banners of yellow or green silk, the testimony of so many
+pilgrimages to Mecca, hang over the dead. In the graveyard round about
+are tombstones roughly sculptured, and the stone turbans indicating
+the cranium of a Mussulman; the Arab, again, after building his
+house of camel's hair, ordering his last turban to be woven by the
+stone-mason!
+
+We pass along a sterile country, with chalky rocks cropping from the
+ground and making our way increasingly difficult. All is dry as a
+lime-basket. The climate here, completely wanting in the sense of a
+just medium, knows no resource between the utter desiccation of all
+the water-courses in summer and an outpouring in winter which carries
+away trees, crops and arable earth, presenting the farmer with a
+result of boulders and sand. The rocks sound beneath our animals' feet
+for an hour or two: we dip into a ravine and attain Bou-Kteun, our
+first Kabylian town.
+
+It is night, and we invoke the hospitality of the village chief,
+called by the Kabyles the amin. Our prayers are not refused. The
+amin receives the strangers, not so much from a feeling of social
+etiquette, of which he knows little, as from his religion, which
+commands him to receive the guest as the messenger of God. He comes
+to the threshold, kisses our hands without servility, waits on us at a
+supper which he is too polite to share, and presents us with a prayer
+at our bedside. Bou-Kteun, situated halfway up the "Red Plateau,"
+guards the pass called the Gates of Iron. It is an uninteresting
+village, the official house being alone respectable amidst a town of
+huts. As the amin accompanies us a little way outside the burgh, we
+remark, among the young orchards, stumps of olive and fig trees sawn
+away at the base. The amin shows them with sad satire, saying in
+explanation, "French Roumi:" it was the Christian French.
+
+That is the term, meaning no compliment, which the Kabyle fits to all
+Europeans alike. In vain the Frenchman, writhing with intellectual
+repugnance, explains that he is not a Christian--that he is a
+Voltairean, a creature of reason, an _illumine_. The Kabyle continues
+to call him a Roumi, which will bear to be translated Romanist, being
+imitated from the word Rome and applied to all Catholics. These same
+tribes doubtless called Saint Augustine a Roumi, and he returned the
+epithet Barbari or Berbers--a name which the emperors applied with
+vast contempt to the hordes and mongrel population of exiles and
+convicts that peopled Mauritania, and which the natives retained until
+the Arab invasion, when they changed Berber for Kebaile.
+
+The Romans conquered the shores and the plains. You find none of
+their ruins among the mountains, where the Berbers, from the Roman
+occupation to the French, have preserved an independence never
+completely subdued.
+
+The Kabyle villages are united into federations. If these federations
+engage in quarrels--which is by no means rare--or if a village is
+menaced by an enemy, signals are placed in the minarets to appeal
+to the towns of the same party. These are easily seen, for all the
+villages are on hilly crests and visible from a distance. From the
+summit of Taourit el Embrank we can count more than twenty of these
+Kabyle towns, perched on the peaks around us, and separated by
+profound chasms.
+
+[Illustration: TOBRIZ, AN ENEMY OF THE GUILLOTINE.]
+
+Every trait points out the distinction between the Kabyles and the
+surrounding Arabs. The Arabs seek laziness as a sovereign good; the
+Kabyles are great artificers. The Arabs imprison their wives; the
+Kabyle women are almost as free as our own. The Kabylian adherence to
+the Mohammedan faith is but partial, and is variegated by a quantity
+of superstitions and articles of belief indicating quite another
+origin. While the Koran proclaims the law of retaliation, eye for
+eye and tooth for tooth, the more humane Kabyle law simply exiles
+the criminal for ever, confiscating his goods to the community. It
+is true, the family of a murdered person are expected to pursue the
+homicide with all the tenacity of a Corsican vendetta, but the tribal
+laws are kept singularly clean from the ferocity of individual habits.
+A strange thing, indicating probably a derivation from times at least
+as early as Augustine, is that the Kabyle code (a mixture, like all
+primitive codes, of law and religion) is called by the Greek term
+canon (_kanoun_). An institution of great protective use, in practice,
+is the safe-conduct, or _anaya_, a token given to a guest, traveler or
+prescript, and which protects the bearer as far as the acquaintance of
+the giver extends: it may be a gun, a stick, a bornouse or a letter.
+The _anaya_ is the sultan of the Kabyles, doing charity and raising no
+taxes--"the finest sultan in the world," says the native proverb. The
+Kabyles press into all the towns and seaports for employment with
+the same independence as if they were a neighboring nationality. They
+build houses, they work in carpentry, they forge weapons, gun-barrels
+and locks, swords, knives, pickaxes, cards for wool, ploughshares,
+gun-stocks, shovels, wooden shoes, and frames for weaving. They weave
+neatly, and their earthenware is renowned. In addition, they are
+expert and shameless counterfeiters. Yes, the fact must be admitted:
+these rugged mountaineers, so proud, and, according to their own code,
+so honorable, never blush to prepare imitations of the circulating
+medium, which they only know as an appurtenance and invention of their
+civilized conquerors. In his rude hovel, with all the sublimities
+of Nature around him, this child of the wilderness looks up to the
+summits of the Atlas, "with peaky tops engrailed," and immediately
+thereafter looks down again to attend to the engrailing of his neat
+five-franc pieces, which can hardly be told from the genuine. This
+multiplication of finance was punished under the beys with death.
+The bey of Constantina arrested in one day the men of three tribes
+notorious for counterfeiting, and decapitated a hundred of them. There
+was lately to be seen at Constantina the executioner who was charged
+with this punishment, the very individual who cut off the ingenious
+heads of all these poor money-makers, and did not "cut them off with
+a shilling." He appeared to modern visitors as a modest coffee-house
+keeper in the Arab quarters, who would serve you, for two cents, a
+cup of coffee with the hand that had wielded the yataghan. He was an
+old Turk, with wide gray moustaches, dressed in a remarkable and
+theatrical fashion. He wore a yellow turban of colossal size, and an
+ample orange girdle over a dress of light green. Poor Tobriz--that was
+his name--was violently opposed to the introduction of the guillotine
+in Algeria. In the days of his prosperity an enormous sabre was passed
+through his flaming girdle. In the early years of the French conquest
+Tobriz was employed in the decapitations, which were executed with a
+saw, and must have been a horrible spectacle. He remembered well the
+execution of the hundred counterfeiters in one night, and their heads
+exposed in the market.
+
+[Illustration: THE IRON GATES.]
+
+A rapid descent from Bou-Kteun to the bed of a river of the same name,
+and a pursuit of the latter to its confluence with the river Biban,
+lead through impressive ravines to the Iron Gates. The waters of the
+Biban, impregnated with magnesia, leave their white traces on the
+bottoms of the precipices which enclose them. The mules pick their
+way over paths of terrible inclination. At length, at a turn in the
+overhanging reddish cliffs, where a hundred men could hold in check
+an entire army, we find ourselves in front of the first gate. It is a
+round arch four yards in width, pierced by Nature between the rocks.
+The second is at twenty paces off, and two others are found at a
+short distance. Between the first and second we observe, chiseled in
+the stone above the reach of the water, "_L'Armee Francaise_, 1839,"
+engraved by the sappers attached to the army of the duke of Orleans on
+the passage of the expedition.
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+A CHINESE STORY.
+
+  None are so wise as they who make pretence
+  To know what fate conceals from mortal sense.
+  This moral from a tale of Ho-hang-ho
+  Might have been drawn a thousand years ago,
+  Long ere the days of spectacles and lenses,
+  When men were left to their unaided senses.
+
+  Two young short-sighted fellows, Chang and Ching,
+  Over their chopsticks idly chattering,
+  Fell to disputing which could see the best:
+  At last they agreed to put it to the test.
+  Said Chang: "A marble tablet, so I hear,
+  Is placed upon the Bo-hee temple near,
+  With an inscription on it. Let us go
+  And read it (since you boast your optics so),
+  Standing together at a certain place
+  In front, where we the letters just may trace.
+  Then he who quickest reads the inscription there
+  The palm for keenest eyes henceforth shall bear."
+  "Agreed," said Ching; "but let us try it soon:
+  Suppose we say to-morrow afternoon."
+
+  "Nay, not so soon," said Chang: "I'm bound to go,
+  To-morrow, a day's ride from Ho-hang-ho,
+  And sha'n't be ready till the following day:
+  At ten A.M. on Thursday let us say."
+
+  So 'twas arranged. But Ching was wide awake:
+  Time by the forelock he resolved to take;
+  And to the temple went at once, and read
+  Upon the tablet: "To the illustrious dead--
+  The chief of mandarins, the great Goh-Bang."
+  Scarce had he gone when stealthily came Chang,
+  Who read the same; but, peering closer, he
+  Spied in a corner what Ching failed to see--
+  The words, "This tablet is erected here
+  By those to whom the great Goh-Bang was dear."
+
+  So, on the appointed day--both innocent
+  As babes, of course--these honest fellows went
+  And took their distant station; and Ching said,
+  "I can read plainly, 'To the illustrious dead--
+  The chief of mandarins, the great Goh-Bang.'"
+  "And is that all that you can spell?" said Chang.
+  "_I_ see what you have read, but furthermore,
+  In smaller letters, toward the temple-door,
+  Quite plain, 'This tablet is erected here
+  By those to whom the great Goh-Bang was dear.'"
+
+  "My sharp-eyed friend, there are no such words!" said Ching.
+  "They're there," said Chang, "if I see anything--
+  As clear as daylight!" "Patent eyes, indeed,
+  You have!" cried Ching. "Do you think I cannot read?"
+  "Not at this distance, as I can," Chang said,
+  "If what you say you saw is all you read."
+
+  In fine, they quarreled, and their wrath increased,
+  Till Chang said, "Let us leave it to the priest:
+  Lo, here he comes to meet us." "It is well,"
+  Said honest Ching: "no falsehood he will tell."
+
+  The good man heard their artless story through,
+  And said, "I think, dear sirs, there must be few
+  Blest with such wondrous eyes as those you wear.
+  There's no such tablet or inscription there.
+  There was one, it is true; 'twas moved away,
+  And placed _within_ the temple yesterday."
+
+C.P. CRANCH.
+
+
+
+
+BERRYTOWN.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A straggling old house, painted yellow, and set down between a
+corn-field and the village pasture for family cows; old walnut trees
+growing close to its back and front, young walnut trees thrusting
+themselves unhindered through beet and tomato patches, and even
+through the roof of the hennery in the rear, which had been rebuilt to
+accommodate them, spreading a heavy shade all about, picturesque but
+unprofitable.
+
+Old Peter Guinness used to sit on the doorstep every hot summer
+evening, smoking his cigar, and watching the hens go clucking up to
+roost in the lower branches and the cattle gathered underneath.
+
+"What a godsend the trees are to those poor beasts!" he said a dozen
+times every summer.
+
+"Yes. We risk dampness and neuralgia and ague to oblige the town
+cows," Mrs. Guinness would reply calmly.
+
+"I shall cut them down this fall, Fanny. I'm not unreasonable, I hope.
+Don't say a word more: I forgot your neuralgia, my dear. Down they
+come!"
+
+But they never did come down. Mrs. Guinness never expected them to
+come down, any more than she expected Peter to give up his cigar.
+When they were first married she explained to him daily the danger of
+smoking, the effect of nicotine on the lungs, liver and stomach: then
+she would appeal to him on behalf of his soul against this debasing
+temptation of the devil. "It is such a gross way to fall," she would
+plead--"such a mean, sensual appetite!"
+
+Peter was always convinced, yielding a ready assent to all her
+arguments: then he would turn his mild, cow-like regards on her: "But,
+my dear, I smoke the best Partagas: they're very expensive, I assure
+you."
+
+Long ago his wife had left him to go his own way downward. As with
+smoking, so with other ungodly traits and habits. She felt his
+condemnation was sure. It was a case for submission at the female
+prayer-meeting; bemoaning his eternal damnation became indeed a part
+of her religion, but the matter was not one to render her apple-cheeks
+a whit less round or her smile less placid. The mode in which Peter
+earned their bread and butter interfered more with her daily comfort
+and digestion. Dealing in second-hand books, half of which were
+dramatic works, was a business not only irreligious, but ungenteel.
+She never passed under the swinging sign over the door without feeling
+that her cross was indeed heavy, and the old parlor, which had been
+turned into a shop, she left to the occupancy of her husband and
+Kitty.
+
+Out of the shop, one summer afternoon, had come for an hour the
+perpetual scrape, scrape of Peter's fiddle. He jumped up at
+last, suddenly, bow in hand, and went to the doorstep, where his
+stepdaughter sat sewing. From the words he had overheard in the next
+room he was sure that the decisive hour of life had just struck for
+the girl, and there she was stitching her flannel and singing about
+"Alpine horns, tra-la!" She ought to have known, he thought, without
+hearing. A woman ought to be of the kindred of the old seeresses,
+and by the divine ichor or the animal instinct in her know when the
+supreme moment of love approached.
+
+But what kind of love was this coming to Kitty?
+
+He twanged the strings just over her head, to keep her from hearing,
+but quite out of tune, he was so agitated with the criticalness of
+the moment. But then most moments were critical to Peter Guinness, and
+agitation, his wife was wont smilingly to assure him, was his normal
+condition.
+
+He anxiously watched Catharine's restless glances into the room where
+her mother and the clergyman sat in council. She had guessed their
+object then? She was opposed to it?
+
+A thoughtful frown contracted her forehead. Suddenly it cleared:
+"Oysters? Yes, it is oysters Jane is broiling. I'm horribly hungry.
+I could go round the back way and bring us a little lunch in here,
+father. They'll never see us behind the books."
+
+"Shame on you, Kit! You're nothing but a greedy child." But he laughed
+with a sudden sense of relief. She really was nothing yet but a
+healthy child with a very sharp remembrance of meal-times. It would
+be years before her mother or Mr. Muller would talk to her of the
+marriage or the work they had planned for her.
+
+"Just as you please," taking up her flannel again. "Very likely it
+will be midnight before we have supper: Mr. Muller often forgets
+to eat altogether. From what mother tells me, I suppose approving
+conscience and a plate of grits now and then carry him through the
+day. It's different with me."
+
+"Very different, Kitty. Don't flatter yourself that you will ever be
+like him in any way. William Muller is a Christian of the old type.
+Though, as for grits, a man should not disregard the requirements of
+the stomach too much," with an inward twinge as he smelt the oysters.
+He began to play thoughtfully, while Kitty looked again through
+the book-shop to the room beyond. The books about her always made
+unfamiliar pictures when one looked at them suddenly. They lay now
+in such weights of age and mustiness on the floor, the counters, the
+beams overhead, the yellow walls of them were lost in such depths of
+cobwebs and gloom, that they made a dark retreating frame, in which
+she sat like a clear, fine picture in the doorway, the yellow sunset
+light behind her. She could see her mother looking in at her, and the
+plump, neat little clergyman in his tight-fitting ribbed suit of brown
+and spotless shirt-front. He gently stroked his small black imperial
+as he talked, but his eyes behind their gold eye-glasses never wavered
+in their mild regard of her. Kitty grew restless under it.
+
+"Mr. Muller is talking of the class of books you keep, father," she
+said, lowering her voice: "I'm sure of it. They are as unsavory in his
+nostrils as to the reformers in the village. They'd all excommunicate
+you if they could."
+
+"Guinness, Book Agent, Kitty," finishing his tune with a complacent
+scrape, "has been known for twenty years, while Berrytown belongs
+to yesterday. But the intolerance of these apostles of toleration is
+unaccountable. They mean well, though. I really never knew people
+mean better; yet--" He finished the sentence with a shake of the head,
+solemnly burying the fiddle in its case.
+
+Both he and Catharine turned involuntarily to the window. Five years
+ago there had been half a dozen old buildings like the Book-house
+stretched along Indian Creek, the roofs curled and black, the walls
+bulging with age and damp. Now, there was Berrytown.
+
+Berrytown was the Utopia in actual laths, orchards and bushel-measures
+of the advance-guard of the reform party in the United States. It was
+the capital of Progress, where social systems and raspberries grew
+miraculously together. Thither hied every man who had any indictment
+against the age, or who had invented an inch-rule of a theory which
+was to bring the staggering old world into shape. Woman-Suffrage,
+Free-Love, Spiritualism, off-shoots from Orthodoxy in every sect, had
+there food and shelter. Radical New England held the new enterprise
+dear as the apple of her eye: Western New York stretched toward
+it hands of benediction. As Catharine looked out, not a tree stood
+between her and the sky-line. Row after row of cottages replete with
+white paint and the modern conveniences; row after row of prolific
+raspberry bushes on the right, cranberry bogs on the left--the great
+Improved Canning-houses for fruit flanking the town on one side,
+Muller's Reformatory for boys on the other. The Book-house behind its
+walnut trees, its yellow walls clammy with lichen, was undeniably a
+blot, the sole sign of age and conservatism in a landscape which, from
+horizon to horizon, Reform swept with the newest of brooms. No wonder
+that the Berrytownites looked askance at it, and at the book-fanciers
+who had haunted the place for years, knowing old Guinness to be the
+keenest agent they could put upon the trail of a pamphlet or relic.
+
+The old man grew surly sometimes when sorely goaded by the new-comers.
+"There's not a man of them, Kitty," he would say, "but has ideas; and
+there's not an idea in the town five years old." But generally he
+was cordial with them all, going off into rapt admiration of each new
+prophet as he arose, and he would willingly have stood cheek by jowl
+with them in their planting and watering and increase if they had not
+snubbed him from the first. Book-shops full of old plays, and a man
+who talked of Scott's width of imagination and Clay's statesmanship,
+were indigestible matter which Berrytown would gladly have spewed out
+of her mouth. "What have aimless imagination and temporizing policy
+to do with the Advancement of Mankind? Dead weight, sir, dead weight!
+which but clogs the wheels of the machine." Any schoolboy in Berrytown
+could have so reasoned you the matter. While Catharine was growing
+up, therefore, the walnut trees had shut the Guinnesses into complete
+social solitude until deliverance came in the shape of Mr. Muller.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Besides her supper now, Catharine wanted her share of this visitor.
+Nothing else, in fact, came in or went out of her life. Outside lay
+emancipated Berrytown, to unemancipated Kitty only a dumb panorama:
+inside, her meals, her lessons and perpetual consultations with her
+mother on bias folds and gussets while they made their dresses or
+sewed for the Indian missions. Kitty was quite willing to believe that
+the Berrytown women were mad and unsexed, but ought the events of
+life to consist of beef and new dresses and far-off Sioux? She laughed
+good-humoredly at her own grumbling, but she looked longingly out of
+the window at the girls going by chattering in the evenings with their
+sweet-hearts; and certainly the Man coming into her life had affected
+her not unpleasantly. Not that the clergyman, with his small jokes and
+small enthusiasms, was any high revelation to her mind; but there was
+no other.
+
+"It's something to hear a heavy step about the house, and to see the
+carpet kicked crooked," she said sometimes. Her mother would shake her
+hand gently and smile.
+
+She shook her head and smiled in precisely the same way now. Mr.
+Muller, who had grown excited as he talked, felt a wave of insipid
+propriety wash over his emotions, bringing them to a dead level.
+
+"However the matter may conclude," said Mrs. Guinness pleasantly, "why
+should you and I lose our self-control, Mr. Muller? Now, why should
+we? Ah?"
+
+There was something numbing in the very note of prolonged
+interrogation. The folds of Mrs. Guinness's glossy alpaca lay calmly
+over her plump breast; her colorless hair (both her own and the
+switch) rolled and rose high above her head; her round cheeks were
+unchanging pink, her light eyes steady; the surprised lift of those
+flaxen eyelashes had made many a man ashamed of his emotions and his
+slipshod grammar together.
+
+Mr. Muller was humbled, he did not know why. "It is practical enough,
+I suppose," he said irritably, "to ask what Catharine herself thinks
+of marriage with me?"
+
+"You never tried to discover for yourself?" with an attempt at roguish
+shrewdness.
+
+"No, upon my honor, no!" The little man fairly lost his breath in his
+haste. "I have a diffidence in speaking to her."
+
+"To Kitty!" with an amused, indulgent smile, which worsted him again.
+
+He struggled back into the hardest common sense: "Of course it is not
+diffidence in me. I feel no hesitation in discussing the question of
+marriage with anybody else. My family wish me to marry: my sister has
+suggested several young ladies to me in well-to-do religious families
+in the city. There are marriageable young women here, too, whose
+acquaintance I have made with that object in view. Very intelligent
+girls: they have given me some really original views on religion and
+politics. One can talk to them about anything--social evils or what
+not. But Catharine--she is so young! It is like broaching marriage to
+a baby!"
+
+Mrs. Guinness was silent. The sudden silence struck like a dead wall
+before the little man, and bewildered and alarmed him: "Perhaps, Mrs.
+Guinness, you think I ought not to look upon Catharine as another man
+would? I should regard a wife only as a fellow-servant of the Lord? I
+oughtn't to--to make love to Kitty, in short?"
+
+"She is a dear, pious child. I love to think of her in the midst of
+your Reformed boys," said the lady evasively.
+
+There was another pause. "Of course, you know," he said with an
+anxious laugh, "I never had a serious thought of those young ladies
+chosen by my sister. Social position or wealth does not weigh with me,
+Mrs. Guinness--not a feather!" earnestly. If he really had meant to
+give her a passing reminder that marriage with Kitty would be a step
+down the social grade for him, he was thoroughly scared out of his
+intention. As he talked, reiterating the same thing again and again,
+the heat rose into his neatly-shaved face and little aquiline nose.
+
+Mrs. Guinness observed his agitation with calm triumph. She knew but
+one ladder into heaven, and that, short and narrow, was through her
+own Church. Kitty was stepping up on a high rung of it. Once the wife
+of this good Christian man, and her soul was safe. A sudden vision of
+her flitted before her mother in grave but rich attire (fawn-colored
+velvet, for instance, for next winter, trimmed with brown fur),
+to suit her place as the wife of the wealthy Muller, head of the
+congregation and the Reformatory school: she would be instant, too, at
+prayer--meetings and Dorcas societies. This was Mrs. Guinness's world,
+and she reasoned according to the laws of it. She rejoiced as Hannah
+did when she had safely placed her child within the temple of the
+Lord.
+
+And yet with that hint of the social position of the Mullers had come
+the certainty to her that this marriage could never be. A shadow had
+stood suddenly before her--a boy's face, the only one before which
+her calm, complacent soul had ever quailed or shrunk. The pleasant,
+apple-cheeked woman, like the rest of us, had her ghost--her sin
+unwhipped of justice. She stood calmly as Mr. Muller hurried his
+explanations, piling them one on top of the other, but she did not
+hear a word of them. If he should ever hear Hugh's story! Dead though
+he was, if that were known not a beggar in the street would marry
+Catharine.
+
+But since Fanny Guinness was an amiable, pink-cheeked belle in the
+village choir, she had never turned her back on an enemy: why should
+she now? Hugh Guinness had hated her as the vicious always hate
+the good, but she was thankful she had smiled and greeted him with
+Christian forbearance to the very last. As for this danger coming from
+him, now that he was dead, the safest way was to drag it to the light
+at once. All things worked together for good to those who loved the
+Lord--if you managed them right.
+
+"Of course," she said, as if just finishing a sentence, "you are
+indifferent to social rank. And yet it will be no slight advantage to
+you that Catharine has no swarm of needy kinsfolk. Her own father died
+when she was a baby. Mr. Guinness is the only near friend she has ever
+known except myself. He had a son when I married him--" The boy's
+name stuck in her throat. For a moment she felt as the murderer
+does, forced to touch his victim with his naked hand. "Hugh--Hugh
+Guinness--was the lad's name."
+
+"I never heard of him," indifferently.
+
+"No, it is not probable you should. Long before Berrytown was built
+he went to Nicaragua. He died there. Well," with a little wave of the
+hand, "there you have Kitty's whole family. It will be better that she
+should be so untrammeled, for the interests of the school."
+
+"The school? I'm not a Reformatory machine altogether, I suppose!" He
+had been watching Catharine, who was moving about in the shop. When
+he was not in sight of her he always remembered that she was a mere
+child, to be instructed from the very rudiments up after marriage,
+and that the Guinnesses were ten degrees, at least, below him in the
+social scale. But she was near--she was coming! The complacent smile
+went out of his trig little features: he moved his tongue about
+to moisten his dry lips before he could speak. He was absolutely
+frightened at himself. "There's more than the school to be thought of,
+Mrs. Guinness," he blurted out. "I--I love Catharine. And I want this
+matter settled. Immediately--within the hour."
+
+"Very well. You will be satisfied with the result, I am sure, Mr.
+Muller. I give Catharine to you with all my heart." But she did not
+look any more at ease than he. They both turned to look at Kitty, who
+came toward them in her usual headlong gait through the shop.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+Her mother scanned Catharine when she came in as she had never done
+before. She was "taking stock" of her, so to speak: she wished to know
+what was in the girl to have secured this lover, or what there was
+to hold him should he ever hear Hugh's damning story. Her eye ran
+over her. She was able to hold her motherly fondness aside while she
+judged her. Kitty was flushed and awakened from head to foot with the
+excitement of this single visitor.
+
+"At her age," thought Mrs. Guinness, "_I_ could have faced a regiment
+of lovers. Kitty's weak: I always felt her brain was small--small. She
+has nothing of my face, or address either. There's no beauty there
+but youth, and her curious eyes." She never had been sure whether she
+admired Kitty's eyes or not.
+
+But clergymen and reformers were as vulnerable as other men to soft,
+flushing cheeks and moist lips, and Mr. Muller, as she judged from his
+agitation, was no wiser than the rest. He pressed nervously forward,
+bridging his nose with his eye-glasses.
+
+"Catharine, my child, will you walk out with me? I wish to consult you
+on a little matter."
+
+"Oh, with pleasure," said Kitty.
+
+Her mother stood aghast. Like the mass of women, she viewed the
+matter of love from the sentimental, L.E.L. stand-point. It had been a
+forbidden subject to Kitty. Her heart her mother supposed, slept, like
+the summer dawn, full of dreams, passion, dewy tenderness, waiting for
+the touch of the coming day. What kind of awakening would the plump
+"Will you marry me?" of this fat little clergyman be? In the street
+of Berry town, too! in the middle of the afternoon! If it were only
+moonlight!
+
+"Pray wait until evening, Catharine: you're always famished for your
+supper," she cried anxiously.
+
+"But I'm not hungry now at all," running up the stairs. For
+politeness' sake Kitty would lie with a smile on her mouth though a
+fox were gnawing at her stomach. Something in her running reminded Mr.
+Muller that she was a school-girl and he a middle-aged noted reformer.
+He fidgeted about the room, looking at the prints of La Fayette and
+Franklin on the whitewashed wall, and the Tomb of Washington done in
+faded chenilles by Mr. Guinness's first wife, buttoning his gloves
+with an anxious frown.
+
+"I'm sure I don't know what my sister Maria will say to this," after
+one or two uneasy laughs. "I never mean to be eccentric, yet somehow
+I always am different from anybody else. Now, in church-matters--_I_
+never intended to leave the orthodox communion, yet when I showed how
+my Church was clinging to worn-out dogmas, and opened my Reformatory
+in Berrytown, the Free-Religionists in Boston seized me, and printed
+my opening sermon under one cover with that of an Oneidaite and a
+Spiritualist. Do _I_ look like a medium or a Free-Lover? That was
+going a little too far, I take it."
+
+"Ah?" came Mrs. Guinness's calm interrogatory. No more.
+
+William Muller was a man of culture and a certain force in one
+direction, and when pleading the cause of the vicious children to
+whom he was giving his life could hold men of real mental strength
+attentive and subdued. He did not know why, when this commonplace
+little woman had her steady eye on him, he should always dribble out
+all his weakness to her. But he did it--talked on in a leaky way
+of his squabble with his church and the praises he had received in
+newspapers for his school, until he heard Kitty's step on the stairs.
+
+"Ah! there she is!" he cried relieved.
+
+Catharine came back, close buttoned in a brown dress, with high-laced
+boots, and a light stick in her hand. She used to call it her
+alpenstock, and make all Switzerland out of the New Jersey sands with
+it. She ran in to kiss her father good-bye, blushing and delighted.
+It was the first time she had ever walked with any man but himself.
+"Here's an adventure!" she whispered. Every day she and Peter expected
+an adventure before night. She drew back startled at the strange,
+uneasy look he gave her. Her mother, too, pulled her hastily away, and
+walked beside her to the gate.
+
+"Child," she whispered breathlessly, "he is your lover."
+
+"Lover?" said Kitty aloud. "Lover?" But Mr. Muller joined her at the
+moment, and opening the gate motioned for her to precede him. They
+went down the quiet street together.
+
+Mrs. Guinness went back and watched them from the shop-window. "It is
+as I thought," she said triumphantly.
+
+Peter nodded. She came behind him, leaning on his shoulder. "It was
+only proper for me to speak to him of--of--" It was fifteen years
+since Hugh's name had passed between them.
+
+"Whatever was necessary to protect you and Catharine," he said
+quietly. She pressed her hands on his forehead beneath his wig, and
+presently he drew one of them down and held it to his lips, thinking
+how forbearing she had been with his boy. Mrs. Guinness went up stairs
+then and knelt down by the bed. She was rather fond of the exercise
+which she called praying--taking a larger image of herself into her
+confidence. Her one idea of Him was that He could provide comfortably
+here and elsewhere for herself and Catharine. But to-day her
+conscience irritated her like a nettle. Could it be that she was at
+soul tricky? Could God hold her, rigorous church-member, fond wife
+and mother as she was, guilty of this boy's blood? Nettles, however,
+do not sting very deeply. She rose presently, unfolded her work, and
+sat sewing and singing a hymn, a complacent smile on her good-humored
+face.
+
+Down in the shop Peter had taken out the violin again, and was playing
+some nameless old air, into the two or three monotonous notes of which
+had crept an infinite stillness and longing. He often played it, but
+only when he was alone, for he would not allow Kitty to hear any but
+merry, vivacious music.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Meanwhile, Catharine and Mr. Muller walked down the street in absolute
+silence, Kitty bearing herself with her usual grave politeness,
+though there was a quizzical laugh in her eyes. "Lover? My lover?"
+she thought. But she did not blush, as some other innocent girls would
+have done. She had never talked an hour in her life to a young man, or
+heard from other girls their incessant chirping of "he--he," like that
+of birds in spring wooing their mates. Her nearest acquaintance with
+lovers was old Peter's rendering of Romeo or Othello. She remembered
+them well enough as her eye furtively ran over the jaunty little
+figure beside her. "Is his hose ungartered, his beard neglected, his
+shoe untied?" she thought. "Pshaw! he is not Orlando, any more than I
+am Rosalind." Her mother had been mistaken, that was all: she let the
+matter slip easily past her. There was a certain tough common sense in
+Catharine that summarily sent mistakes and sentimental fancies to the
+right about.
+
+Mr. Muller, finding the words he wished to speak would not come at
+once, and ashamed of jogging on in silence, began to overflow with
+the ordinary ideas of which he was full. They passed the grape-packing
+house. "Eight thousand boxes despatched last season, Catharine! And
+there is the Freedmen's Agency. Three teachers supported, five hundred
+primers furnished to Virginia alone since January, and I really forget
+the number of Bibles. But the world moves: yes indeed. And I think
+sometimes Berrytown moves in the van."
+
+"I've no doubt of that," said Kitty politely. "Dear me! Five hundred
+spelling-books!" But she felt humiliated. She had neither picked
+grapes nor taught freedmen. What thin wisps of hair these women had
+stopping to speak to Mr. Muller! She put her hand suddenly to the back
+of her head.
+
+"Those are employees in the canning-house," he said as they passed on.
+"One is educating herself as a short-hand reporter, and the other has
+a lecture ready for next winter on Shakespeare's Women."
+
+"What admirable persons they must be! Ah! now I have it right!"
+setting her hat higher on the light chestnut coils. Mr. Muller looked,
+and his eye rested there. She knew that, though the back of her head
+was toward him. But lover? Nonsense! He meant no doubt to propose that
+she should go into the typesetting business or stenography.
+
+Now, to tell Kitty's secret, she had had her love-affair her mother
+knew nothing about, which made her purblind in this matter. It was
+this: There was a certain cave (originally a spring-house) behind
+the walnut trees, quite covered over with trumpet-vines and
+partridge-berries. She had a bench there, from which she could see
+only the shady old house and the sun going down. When she was a child
+of about eight, alone all day long, year in and out, she had taken
+down this bench, and working stealthily and blushing terribly, had
+made it large enough for two. She never allowed anybody, not even
+Peter, dearest of all, to come into the cave or sit on the bench
+afterward. What her childish fancy of an unknown friend was, or how
+it grew and altered with her years, only she knew, though after she
+was grown she told her father of a certain Sir Guy in some of his
+crusading stories in whom she had believed as a fact. "I actually
+thought he would come to woo me," she said laughing, "and I had a
+castle where I sat and waited for him. There never was a child so full
+of absurd fancies."
+
+But she never said where the castle was, and she was fond still of
+sitting alone for hours on the old bench, over which the shade grew
+heavier year by year, and the moonlight crept with more mysterious
+glitter. She came in sometimes when she had been there in the evening,
+and the sound of old Peter's violin alone broke the silence, with her
+cheeks feverish, as though there had been an actual presence with her
+to share her secret thoughts. The only living being she had ever taken
+into her hiding-place was, oddly enough, a baby of whom she was fond.
+It happened to fall asleep in her arms one day, and Catharine stole
+out with it and sat on the old seat, feeling its warm breath on
+her breast. The girl was shaken by an emotion which she did not
+understand: her blood grew hot, her breath came and went, she stroked
+the baby's hand and foot, kissed it, glanced about her with eyes
+guilty yet pure.
+
+But it is certain Kitty had no thought of her cave this afternoon. Mr.
+Muller and his affairs were quite another matter. There was an awkward
+silence. Mr. Muller was collecting his forces: he cleared his throat.
+"Catharine--" he said.
+
+"Ah, William!" cried a clear, well-toned voice behind them. He turned,
+half annoyed and half relieved, to meet a young lady in gray, stepping
+alertly from the doorway of the Water-cure House.
+
+"Maria? This is my sister Maria, Miss Vogdes."
+
+The lady looked at Kitty--a steady, straightforward look--then held
+out her hand. It was a large, warm, hearty hand, and gripped yours
+like a man's. Kitty took it, but felt like shirking the eyes. She
+had no mind to be so weighed and measured. She had an uncomfortable
+consciousness that her inner nature was all bared and sorted by this
+agreeable young woman in this first moment to the last odd and end in
+it, though she could not have put the consciousness into words.
+
+"Going to the school, William? I am."
+
+"Well--yes, we will go there." He turned irresolutely, and they walked
+together down the plank pathway, Kitty with an oppressive sense of
+having fallen into the clutch of one of the Primal Forces, who was
+about to settle her destiny for her; in which she stumbled almost on
+the truth. Miss Muller was quite aware of the fact of her brother's
+visits at the book-shop, and their motive. She glanced at her watch:
+she could give herself half an hour to find out what stuff was in the
+girl, though it hardly needed so long. "A good type of the Domestic
+Woman in the raw state," she thought. (She always jotted down her
+thoughts sharply to herself, as a busy shopkeeper makes entries in his
+day-book.) "Pulpy, kissable. A vine to which poor William would appear
+an oak. A devoted wife, and, if he died, a gay widow, ready to be a
+fond wife to somebody else."
+
+"What do you mean to make of yourself, Miss Vogdes?" she snapped
+suddenly, just as Kitty was counting the hen-coops of the society in
+the field they were passing, and wondering how she could contrive to
+get a pair of their Cochin Chinas.
+
+"To make?" stammered Kitty ("I knew she would take me by the throat
+somehow," she thought)--"of myself?--Why, I am Peter Guinness's
+daughter."
+
+"You poor child!" Miss Muller laughed. It was a very merry, infectious
+laugh. She laid her hand on Kitty's shoulder gently, as though she
+had been a helpless kitten. "Now you see how our social system works,
+William. Ask a boy that question, and his answer comes pat--a doctor,
+carpenter, what not. In any case, he has a career, an independent soul
+and identity. This poor girl is--Peter Guinness's daughter, is content
+to be that. Though perhaps," turning sharply on her, "she thinks of
+the day when she will be the wife of somebody, the mother of children.
+Those, two ideas are enough to fill the brains of most women."
+
+Mr. Muller colored, and smiled significantly to himself. Catharine
+looked at her with a grave suspense, but made no answer.
+
+"Yes," Miss Muller went on, a certain heat coming into her delicate
+face, "that contents the most of them--to be the fool or slave of a
+lover or a husband or son. 'The perfume and suppliance of a minute--no
+more but that.'"
+
+She walked on in silence after this, and Catharine scanned her
+quietly. She was not at all the mad woman Mrs. Guinness had always
+described her--not at all what Kitty had fancied a lecturer on woman
+suffrage, a manager of the Water-cure and a skillful operating surgeon
+must be. She was little, pretty, frail, with a very genuine look and
+voice--almost as young as Kitty, and far more tastefully dressed.
+Catharine eyed her wonderful coiffure with envy, and was quite sure
+those rosy-tipped, well-kept fingers never had anything to do with
+cutting up dead babies.
+
+Mr. Muller at the moment was comparing the two girls critically. The
+point on which he dwelt longest was that his sister's eyes, fine,
+limpid and brown, were those of an actress, acting to herself very
+probably. They went through the whole imperative mood--exhorted,
+commanded, entreated in five minutes: even a certain woeful sadness
+which came into them at times, and was there now, was quite bare and
+ready to be seen of all men.
+
+"She is always on review before herself: she is conscious of herself
+from head to foot," he thought with shrewdness only born out of long
+knowledge. "Her very toes, I've no doubt, say to each other, 'I,
+Maria.'"
+
+As for his future wife, her eyes were given her to see with,
+nothing more. "And she looks out with them, never in," he reflected
+complacently. For he had come by this time to regard her as his future
+wife. It seemed quite natural when Maria presently took Kitty in hand
+as one of the family, and began to manage for her as she did for them
+all, from Grandfather Hicks down to the dog Tar.
+
+"I think, William, Miss Vogdes has the maternal instinct largely
+developed," looking at her face and the shape of her head as a
+naturalist would at a new bug. "You could find work for her in here,"
+unlatching the gate of the Reformatory school. "She could serve
+humanity here just as well as if she had more--more--well, we'll say
+stamina."
+
+"Precisely what I thought of," cheerfully. "You've hit the nail on
+the head about her, Maria." He was a peaceable, affectionate fellow at
+bottom. He had never hoped that his sister would tolerate Kitty, and
+women's squabbles in a family he abhorred, like every other man; and
+here she was extending a hospitable greeting, finding work for Kitty
+already. _Io triumphe!_
+
+"Suppose you show Miss Vogdes the institution, sister?" he said,
+rubbing his eye-glasses and putting them on again in a flutter of
+pleasure and cordiality.
+
+Miss Muller nodded authoritatively, and he fell into the background.
+
+"You'll observe, Miss Vogdes," with a laugh and shrug, "Berrytown has
+given its best of aesthetic instincts here: five square stories painted
+white, with green shutters; pebble walks; six straight evergreens to
+testify of the Beautiful. Inside--here we are! Parlor: yellow-pine
+floors, spotless; green paper blinds in the windows, that hang
+stirless the year round. This is the kitchen: white boards, shining
+caldrons. William, show the soup."
+
+Mr. Muller gravely held up a ladleful: "Beef and cabbage. To each
+child we allow per diem three parts of animal food, three purely
+farinaceous, four vegetable. The proper scale, I hold, of healthful
+nourishment," putting back the ladle. He had not spilled a drop.
+
+"Dining-room," continued Miss Muller: "more white boards; shining
+tin plates; these three hundred little figures in blue jeans ranged
+against the wall are the--the patients. Now observe." Mr. Muller
+rapped once, they raised their hands; twice, they clasped them; three
+times, they rattled off the Lord's Prayer; the next moment they were
+shoveling their soup into their mouths in silence.
+
+"Miss Vogdes does not approve their religious teaching, William. You
+see," turning to her, "how they need a real motherly care. _You_ could
+give it to them."
+
+But Kitty, who perhaps did "want stamina," and who was more of a child
+than any before her, made no answer. Vice and disease faced her as
+never before: those hundreds of hungry eyes fenced her in.
+
+"Are you sick?" said Mr. Muller anxiously, seeing her face. "It is
+the smell of the soup, perhaps. Come out of this. Let me pass, Maria.
+You forget how foolishly tender her life has been: she never probably
+looked at crime before. Come out to the fresh air."
+
+"You'd better stay," said Maria coolly, aside. "These children will
+plead your cause with such a girl as that better than you can do or
+have done, I take it. Now, my dear," putting Kitty's hand between her
+own, "this is my brother's work, in which he wishes you to join him.
+Put it to yourself whether it is not your duty. You're very young;
+you've dreamed a good deal, most likely: this wakening to the fact
+that there is work in the world besides marrying and nursing babies
+revolts and shocks most young girls. Yet here it is." Her voice was
+very gentle, and sincere in every cadence, the words true: there lay
+the terrible grinding power of them. "Talk over your future life with
+William, my dear. There is the matron. I must go and see about that
+charge for pepper she made last month. Pepper for these children's
+stomachs, indeed!"
+
+Mr. Muller drew Catharine's hand in his arm. "I did not mean to
+bring you here to-day," he said, nervously mopping his face with his
+handkerchief. "Maria is so fond of managing! But--but it was as my
+wife I wanted your help."
+
+"_My wife._" Kitty was not surprised. At eighteen one reasons as the
+bird flies. Since she passed the six straight evergreens yonder she
+had learned that life was not an old book-house, a few sad and merry
+tunes, meals, and a bench to dream on. It was work--for Christ. Not
+far-off pagans, but little children with sin and disease heavy upon
+them, asking her to take it away.
+
+She might want stamina or any other intellectual power, but her
+emotions were hot and near the surface: these children and their
+misery wounded and bruised her as they had never done Mr. Muller or
+his sister: her sense of duty and affection for her God, too, was as
+real and urgent with her as that of a dog for his master.
+
+"Take me home now," she said quietly.
+
+"But, Catharine--This is no answer. And my love for you is of such
+long standing!" pleaded the little man, whose mouth, being once opened
+by his passion, found it difficult to close. He forgot, too, the
+hundreds of eyes staring at him over the soup-spoons.
+
+"Shall we go out?" said Kitty with an impatient laugh, which would not
+be polite. "There's too much beef here. And cabbage."
+
+They passed Miss Muller, who nodded down on Catharine from the heights
+of brusque sincerity of the Woman's Rights people: "Come and see me,
+my dear. You and I shall get on very comfortably, I dare say;" to
+which Kitty replied with her old-fashioned manner, which had a fine
+courteous quality in it, whether it meant anything or not.
+
+They were out in the street again. The sun was still hot and glaring.
+Past the new row of Morse's blue-painted shops, down the factory
+alley, all along the cinder path, Mr. Muller pressed and urged his
+suit. She heard every word with sharp distinctness.
+
+The children: her work for Christ. Under all was a dull consciousness
+that this thing had been coming on her since the day, years ago, when
+she had suffered conviction at a revival and been converted. All His
+followers must give their lives to His service. Give their lives!
+These were words which to the poor little girl had always been
+terribly real, never a hackneyed form. Now the time had come, there
+was a dreadful wrenching at her heart.
+
+"Oh, God! oh, my God! I want to do what's right!" cried Kitty
+silently, looking away to the farthest horizon.
+
+Mr. Muller remembered by this time some of his long-planned endearing
+speeches, and used them. But he could not bring a blush to her cheek.
+She did presently look straight at him, her eye passing quickly and
+critically over the neat paunchy little figure in its fashionably-cut
+coat and tight-fitting trowsers. When she was a girl of ten she had
+fancied that Dr. Brownlee would be her future husband--the actual
+Sir Guy. She would listen Sunday after Sunday to the gray-bearded old
+fellow dealing the thunders of Sinai from the pulpit overhead, in a
+rapt delight, thinking how sweet it would be to be guided step by step
+by so holy and great a man. Long after she grew out of that, indeed
+only a year or two ago, she used to tremble and grow hot to her
+finger-tips when young Herr Bluhm, the music-master, went by the gate.
+A nod of his curly bullet head or the tramp of his sturdy cowskin
+boots along the road made her nerves tingle as never before. "What was
+this that ailed her?" she had asked herself a dozen times a day. All
+Mr. Muller's love-making did not move her now as one note of Bluhm's
+voluntaries on the organ had done. She had thought him Mendelssohn and
+Mozart in one: the tears came now, thinking of that divine music. But
+one day Mrs. Guinness had brought him in, being a phrenologist, to
+"feel Kitty's head." She felt the astonished indignation yet which
+stunned her from his thick thumb and fore finger as they gripped and
+fumbled over her head as if she had been a log of wood. But what could
+poor Bluhm know of the delicate fancies about himself in her brain as
+he measured it, which his heavy paws, smelling of garlic and tobacco,
+were putting to flight? "Philoprogenitiveness--whew! this little girl
+will be fond of children, madam. Tune, time!--has no more notion of
+music than a frog."
+
+"At least," thought Catharine now, "Mr. Muller is a gentleman. I shall
+never feel disgust for him."
+
+They had reached the gate now. He waited. "I shall not come in. I've
+confused and startled you, Catharine. You want time to think," he said
+gently.
+
+"I understand, oh, I quite understand. But I never thought of myself
+as your wife," she said quietly. "It would be better you gave me
+time."
+
+"Good-bye, then, my--my darling."
+
+"Good-bye."
+
+She stood looking over the gate, the walnut branches dark overhead, a
+level ray of sunlight on her strange alluring eyes and full bosom. Mr.
+Muller lingered, smoothing his hat before he put it on.
+
+"She has not at all the intellectual power of Maria," he thought.
+"Maria's the sort of woman I ought to have chosen, I suppose," being
+a reformer, first of all, in the very grain. But the silly thought of
+holding her hand or kissing her lips came to him at the moment, and
+tormented him thereafter with a feverish desire.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+Catharine stood a long time by the gate.
+
+"Don't question the child," said Peter to her mother. He would not
+even look at her when she came in, but fidgeted about, his leathery
+jaws red as a girl's at the thought that Kitty loved and was beloved.
+
+"Is supper over? I'm hungry," was all she said. They watched her
+furtively as she ate.
+
+"It's prayer-meeting night, Catharine," said Mrs. Guinness when she
+was through, taking her bonnet from the closet.
+
+"I'm not going."
+
+"Mr. Muller will miss you, my dear."
+
+"Mr. Muller never has enough of prayer-meetings," recklessly, "but I
+have. I prefer going to bed to-night;" and she went up stairs.
+
+Before her mother was gone, however, she began to change her dress,
+putting on one which, when the cape was not worn, left her shoulders
+and arms bare. She shook down her hair after the fashion of a portrait
+in the book-shop of Kitty Clive, Peg Woffington or some other ancient
+beauty more amiable than discreet. There was a delicious flavor of
+wickedness in the taking out of every hairpin. Then she came down to
+Peter where he sat smoking.
+
+"In the dark, father? I'll light the candles;" which she did, scolding
+Jane savagely between-times. "We'll have some old plays to-night,
+father," bringing a book which her mother had forbidden, and then
+bringing his sheepskin-lined chair up to the table. Peter eyed her
+furtively as he puffed out his cigar to the last ash. On the stage
+or in the ball-room he had never seen, he thought, a finer woman than
+Catharine; and the old man's taste in beauty or dress or wine had been
+keen enough when he was a young blood on the town. He was annoyed and
+irritable.
+
+"Catharine," he said sharply "bring your shawl: the night is chilly."
+But he read the plays with outward good-humor, and with an inward
+delight and gusto, which he would not betray. All his youth--that
+old Peter Guinness, for whom each day's bumpers had been frothed so
+high--came back in the familiar exits and entrances. The words were
+innocent enough as he altered them in reading for Kitty, though a
+good deal disjointed as to meaning; but she was not critical--forced
+herself to take an interest in his stories of Burton and Kean, and how
+he first saw old Jefferson.
+
+"I suppose," moving uneasily on her stool at his feet, "that this now
+is 'the world, the flesh and the devil!' But," viciously snapping her
+eyes, "I like it, I like it! I wish I could think of something else to
+do."
+
+In the middle of Peter's croaking of "Poor Yarico," to show her how
+Catalani sang it on the London boards, she jumped up and went to the
+window. People were coming home from prayer-meeting, husbands and
+wives together.
+
+"I suppose every woman must marry, father?" she said.
+
+Peter looked doubtfully at her over his spectacles, opened his mouth
+and shut it once or twice. "I judge that is the highest lot for a
+woman," he said slowly, "to be the wife of a good man."
+
+"A good man? Oh yes, good enough!" and with that she flung herself
+down on the floor, and, putting her head on Peter's knee, cried as if
+her heart would break. For Kitty was never in the habit of carrying
+her pain off into solitary places: when she cried it must be with her
+head on somebody's knee.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This chapter of Catharine's history every wide-awake young woman
+among our readers has doubtless finished for herself: she knows the
+closing-in process by which society, expediency, propinquity, even
+moral obligations, hedge many a man and woman and drive them into
+marriage.
+
+In the weeks that followed she saw but one path open to her: in it lay
+her work for Christ and her woman's birthright to be a wife and mother
+(for Kitty, ever since she was a baby nursing dolls, had meant to be
+both).
+
+She spent most of her time shut up with her Bible and hymn-book,
+sometimes praying over them, sometimes sticking in her forefinger and
+opening at chance verses to try her fortune about this affair. During
+this time she was usually unnaturally humble and meek, but there were
+days when her temper was intolerable.
+
+"Don't come complaining to me," said Peter testily to her mother. "The
+child's a good child enough. But when you force her to stretch her
+heart over three hundred vicious little imps, no wonder it breaks."
+
+"Kitty's a free agent," she replied calmly.
+
+Kitty was a free agent, and at the end of two weeks she accepted Mr.
+Muller.
+
+REBECCA HARDING DAVIS.
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED.]
+
+
+
+
+THE GLACIERS OF PARADISE.
+
+
+  Spring is waking, and the Yokul lifts on high his glittering shield,
+  Far and wide in sunny splendor gleams the ice-engirded field,
+  And the swelling freshet murmurs gay spring-ditties as it flows,
+  Till its noisy life it mingles in the ocean's grand repose;
+                      And in silence,
+                      Dream-fraught silence,
+              O'er its course the billows close.
+
+  On the strand they gayly played, where the trembling birch trees grow,
+  Children both with golden ringlets and with cheeks like maiden snow,
+  Wherein blushed fresh spring-like roses--blushed and hid, and blushed again,
+  While they plucked the shining pebbles, smooth-worn by the stormy main;
+                      And in silence,
+                      Rippling silence,
+              Chants the sea its old refrain.
+
+  She, the fair and gladsome maiden, raised her head and called his name:
+  He was deep-eyed, light and slender, shy of mien and slight of frame.
+  Like a laughing brook she skipped to and fro along the strand;
+  He was grave, like nodding fern-leaf, gently by the breezes fanned,
+                      Which in silence,
+                      Pensive silence,
+              Grows upon the brooklet's sand,
+
+  "Ragnas," said she, "when God's angels visit will this world of ours,
+  They descend, so mother told me, on the Yokul's shining towers.
+  Now, if I should die, then promise thou wilt climb the peaks of ice,
+  And my hand I'll reach to help thee up to God's bright paradise."
+                      But in silence,
+                      Wondering silence,
+              Gazed he in her innocent eyes.
+
+  It was summer: thrush and linnet sung their gladsome summer-lay;
+  Through the fir trees' cooling vista rose the cataract's white spray;
+  And the light blue smoke of even o'er the darksome forests fell--
+  Rose and lingered like a lover loath to bid his love farewell;
+                      And in silence,
+                      Wistful silence,
+              Shed its peace o'er sunlit dell.
+
+  On the pleasant hillside sat they, where the silvery birches grow,
+  And th' eternal sun of midnight bathed them in its fitful glow--
+  She a maid of eighteen summers, fresh and fair as Norway's spring;
+  Tall and dark-browed he, like pine-woods in whose gloom the Hulders[1] sing,
+                      When in silence,
+                      Deep-toned silence,
+              Night lets droop her dusky wing.
+
+  It was now that he must leave her, and the waves and tempest breast:
+  Heavy-hearted sat they, gazing on the Yokul's flaming crest;
+  And she spoke: "O Ragnas, never, while yon airy peak shall gleam
+  O'er our home, shall I forget thee or our childhood's blissful dream,
+                      Until silence,
+                      Death and silence,
+              Freeze my heart and memory's stream."
+
+  Up he sprang, and boldly looked he toward the midnight-lighted west,
+  Seized her white, soft hand and pressed it closely to his throbbing breast,
+  And the love his childhood fostered, and in youth made warm his blood,
+  Trembled on his lips as trembles bursting flower in freezing bud:
+                      Ah, but silence,
+                      Fateful silence,
+              Held the mighty feeling's flood.
+
+  Years had passed with autumn's splendor, like a glistening shower of gems;
+  Doubly rich the sunlight streamed from the Yokul's diadems;
+  Once again in joyful rapture he his native vale beheld,
+  For the love long years had fostered whispered still of faith unquelled,
+                      Spite of silence,
+                      Hapless silence,
+              That the timid tongue had spelled.
+
+  And his boat shot swiftly onward: well the rowers plied their oar,
+  Till a heavy tolling reached them from the church-tower on the shore;
+  And a solemn train of barges slowly wound their pensive way
+  Through the hushed waves that glittered o'er their image in the bay;
+                      And the silence,
+                      Listening silence,
+              Dimmed the splendor of the day.
+
+  O'er the barge that now drew nearer countless virgin lilies wept,
+  Telling that some white-souled maiden in the snowy bower slept.
+  Dumb he stood, and gazed in terror on the shroud and lilies sweet,
+  And a dread foreboding filled him, and his heart forgot to beat;
+                      And in silence,
+                      Deathlike silence,
+              Fell he at the boatman's feet.
+
+  So the parish-people told me; and as years went rolling by
+  Oft they saw him sadly staring on the flaming sunset sky;
+  Watched the purple-stained Yokul, half in joy and half in pain,
+  As if hoped he there to see her coming back to earth again;
+                      Mourned his silence,
+                      Fateful silence,
+              That had rent two lives atwain.
+
+  Till at length one Sabbath morning--deep-voiced church-bells shook the air--
+  While in festal garb the church-folk wandered to their house of prayer,
+  Reached their ears a hollow thunder from the glaciers overhead,
+  And huge blocks of ice came crashing downward to the river's bed,
+                      And in silence,
+                      Wrathful silence,
+              Down the seething stream they sped.
+
+  Ah, the breathless hush that followed! for amid the icy waste
+  They a human shape discerned, madly, as by demons chased,
+  Up the crystal ledges climbing, pausing now where ice-walls screen
+  From the blast, then upward springing o'er abyss and dread ravine,
+                      Until silence,
+                      Glittering silence,
+              Reigned amid the icebergs' sheen.
+
+  They have searched for him, they told me, sought him far and sought him near:
+  Ne'er a trace was found to tell them of his grave so lone and drear;
+  But the legend goes that angels swift the shining ether clove,
+  And with them his youth's beloved bore him up to God above,
+                      Where shall silence,
+                      Deepest silence,
+              Never sunder hearts that love.
+
+HJALMAR HJARTH BOYESEN.
+
+[Footnote 1: The Hulder is the spirit of the forest, and is
+represented as a virgin of wonderful beauty. She plays her loor, a
+long birch-bark horn, at evening, and is the protecting genius of the
+cattle.]
+
+
+
+
+THACKERAY'S "GRAY FRIARS."
+
+
+There is an eloquent passage in one of Victor Hugo's novels in which
+the writer affectionately apostrophizes the Paris of his youth--those
+quaint old streets of the _Quartier Latin_ so redolent of the happy
+associations which cling to the springtide of life. Were Thackeray
+living now, he would, we fancy, experience emotions very similar to
+those of his French _confrere_ should he try to find his beloved "Gray
+Friars," which lives enshrined in the most pathetic scene he ever
+penned, and is ever and anon coming before us in the pages of his
+several stories. It is but a few years since the author of _Vanity
+Fair_ passed away, yet already Gray Friars' surroundings are no longer
+those with which he was familiar.
+
+Descending Holborn Hill five years ago, you found yourself, when at
+the foot of that celebrated thoroughfare, at Snow Hill, just at that
+point where the words, "Here he is, father!" struck upon the parental
+ears of Mr. Squeers as his son and heir manfully "went for" Smike.
+Turning to the left, instead of proceeding up Newgate street, a
+circuitous street took you to Smithfield, so long associated with
+stakes and steaks. Thence, when half-way through the forest of pens,
+you turned sharp off to the left, and then, after another hundred
+yards by a turn to the right, found yourself in a long narrow lane,
+called Charter-House lane. This brought you presently to some iron
+gates admitting you to a quaint and not very mathematical quadrangle,
+such as you would never have dreamed of stumbling upon there. This
+is Charter-House Square, which, still intensely respectable, was once
+eminently fashionable. At one corner of it is a little recess known as
+Rutland Square, for on this site once stood the abode of the dukes of
+that ilk, and near to it is a stately mansion with a high pitched roof
+which was in days long gone the residence of the Venetian ambassador.
+A garden occupies the centre of the square. Everything is neat,
+orderly and severely dull, the most dissipated tenants of the square
+being boarding-house keepers of a highly sedate description. The
+secret of all this tremendous respectability is to be found in the
+contiguity to the Charter-House itself, a portion of whose buildings
+abut on the square, which, with many of the streets adjoining, belongs
+to this wealthy institution. Four years ago the place was so secluded
+that a stranger to London might have walked around the spot a dozen
+times without suspecting its existence, and living in one of its
+comfortable old mansions supposed himself in the cathedral close of
+a provincial city. The entrance to the Charter-House itself is under
+an archway through venerable oaken portals, which are said--and there
+seems no reason to question the statement--to be the identical gates
+of the monastery which occupied the ground in the time of Henry VIII.
+This monastery had been a religious house of the Carthusians.[2] The
+order first came to England in 1180, and was seated at a place called
+Witham Priory[3] in Somersetshire, to this day known as Charter-House
+Witham. There Henry II. founded and endowed a monastery. The London
+branch of the establishment at Witham was founded by Sir Walter de
+Manni, seigneur de Manni in Cambrai, France, who was made a knight
+of the Garter by Edward III., in reward for gallant services. Manni
+founded the house in pious commemoration of a decimating pestilence,
+on which occasion not fewer than fifty thousand persons are said
+to have been buried within the thirteen acres which he bought
+and enclosed, and a gentle eminence known as the "hill" in the
+play-ground, separating what was called "Upper Green" from "Under
+Green," is said to owe its shape to the thousands of bodies buried
+there. Manni died in 1371: his funeral was conducted with the utmost
+pomp, and attended by the king and the princes of the blood.
+
+A hundred and fifty years rolled on without aught very momentous to
+interrupt the daily routine of the monks of Charter-House, who, had
+there not been a woman in the case, might possibly be the occupants of
+the ground to this day. When, however, Henry's fancy for Anne Boleyn
+led him to look with favor on the Reformation, the Charter-House, in
+common with other such establishments, came in for an ample share of
+Thomas Cromwell's scrutinizing inquiries. And a sad fate its occupants
+had. Required to take the oath of allegiance to Henry VIII., they
+refused. Froude, who gives them an extended notice, says: "In general,
+the house was perhaps the best ordered in England. The hospitality
+was well sustained, the charities were profuse. Among many good, the
+prior, John Haughton, was the best. He was of an old English family,
+and had been educated at Cambridge. He had been twenty years a
+Carthusian at the opening of the troubles of the Reformation. He is
+described as small of stature, in figure graceful, in countenance
+dignified: in manner he was most modest, in eloquence most sweet, in
+chastity without stain."
+
+On the 4th of May, 1535, Haughton was executed with all the horrors
+attending the punishment of death for high treason in those barbarous
+times. He and his companions, certain monks of Sion Priory, died
+without a murmur, and Haughton's arm was hung up under the archway of
+the Charter-House beneath which the visitor drives to-day, to awe his
+brethren. The remnant never gave in. Some were executed; ten died of
+filth and fever in Newgate; and thus the noblest band of monks in the
+country was broken up by Henry's ruthless hand.
+
+The Charter-House was then granted to two men, by name Bridges and
+Hall, for their lives, after which it was bestowed in 1545 on Sir E.
+North. North's son sold it to the duke of Norfolk, who resided there,
+on and off, until decapitated in 1572. The duke was beheaded by
+Elizabeth for intriguing with Mary queen of Scots, and the papers
+proving his offence are said to have been found concealed beneath
+the roof of the stately mansion he had erected for himself at the
+Charter-House.
+
+Before the duke came to grief that most erratic of sovereigns was a
+visitor at his house--as indeed where was she not?--coming thence
+from Hampton Court in 1568, and remaining a day with him; and when her
+successor, James I., came to take up her English sceptre, he, mindful
+of what the Howards had suffered for their sympathy with his mother's
+cause, came straight thither from Theobalds, his halting-place next to
+London, and remained on a visit of four days.
+
+From the duke of Norfolk the Charter-House passed to his eldest son by
+his second wife, Lord Thomas Howard, who was created by James I. earl
+of Suffolk;[4] and he about 1609 sold it to Mr. Thomas Sutton.
+
+Sutton's career was remarkable. It was said of the late earl of Derby
+that even had he been born in a shepherd's cot on Salisbury Plain,
+instead of in the purple at Knowsley, he would still have proved
+himself a remarkable man. In local phraseology, he was "bound to get
+on," and so was Thomas Sutton. The son of a country gentleman at a
+place called Knaith in Lincolnshire, he inherited early in life a good
+property from his father, and spent some time in traveling abroad.
+Then he became attached to the household of the duke of Norfolk,
+probably as surveyor and manager of that great peer's vast estates,
+and in 1569, when a serious disturbance broke out in the north of
+England, he repaired thither, and greatly distinguished himself in
+aiding to quell it. He then received the appointment of master-general
+of ordnance for the North for life.
+
+Whilst in the North he found another mode of making hay whilst the
+sun shone. Soon after his arrival he bought a lease of the bishop
+of Durham of the manors of Gateshead and Wickham, and worked the
+collieries on these properties to such good purpose that, on coming
+up to London in 1580 he brought with him two horse-loads of money, and
+was reputed to be worth fifty thousand pounds--a great sum in those
+days.
+
+About 1582 he increased his wealth by marriage, and commenced business
+as a merchant in London. His large amount of ready money--a commodity
+especially scarce in those days--soon enabled him to carry on very
+large commercial operations; and amongst other sources of wealth he
+probably derived considerable profit from his office of victualer of
+the navy. In 1590, finding himself without prospect of children, he
+withdrew from business, and retired to the country, having already
+invested largely in real estate. Although very frugal, there are
+sufficient evidences of his liberality to the poor on his property;
+and it seems not improbable that his charitable schemes now began to
+take definite form, for after his death a credible witness stated that
+Sutton was in the habit of repairing to a summer-house in his garden
+for private devotion, and on one of these occasions he heard him utter
+the words: "Lord, Thou hast given me a large and liberal estate: give
+me also a heart to make use thereof."
+
+About 1608, when he had quite retired from the world, he was greatly
+exercised by a rumor that he was to be raised to the peerage--an honor
+which it was contemplated to bestow with the understanding that he
+would make Prince Charles, subsequently Charles I., his heir. This
+was a court intrigue to get his money, but an urgent appeal to Lord
+Chancellor Ellesmere and the earl of Salisbury, prime minister,
+appears to have put an end to trouble in the matter. He died on the
+12th of December, 1611, at the age of seventy-nine, leaving immense
+wealth, and on the 12th of December, 1614, his body was brought on the
+shoulders of his pensioners to Charter-House Chapel, and interred in
+a vault ready for it there, beneath the huge monument erected to his
+memory.
+
+"The death-day of the founder is still kept solemnly by Cistercians.
+In their chapel, where assemble the boys of the school and the
+fourscore old men of the hospital, the founder's tomb stands, a
+huge edifice emblazoned with heraldic decorations and clumsy,
+carved allegories. There is an old hall, a beautiful specimen of
+the architecture of James's time. An old hall? Many old halls, old
+staircases, old passages, old chambers decorated with old portraits,
+walking in the midst of which we walk as it were in the early
+seventeenth century. To others than Cistercians, Gray Friars is a
+dreary place possibly. Nevertheless, the pupils educated there love to
+revisit it, and the oldest of us grow young again for an hour or two
+as we come back into those scenes of childhood.
+
+"The custom of the school is that on the 12th of December, the
+Founder's Day, the head gown-boy shall recite a Latin oration in
+praise _Fundatoris Nostri_, and upon other subjects; and a goodly
+company of old Cistercians is generally brought together to attend
+this oration; after which[5] ... we adjourn to a great dinner, where
+old condisciples meet, old toasts are given and speeches are made.
+Before marching from the oration-hall to chapel the stewards of the
+day's dinner, according to old-fashioned rite, have wands put into
+their hands, walk to church at the head of the procession, and sit
+there in places of honor. The boys are already in their seats, with
+smug fresh faces and shining white collars; the old black-gowned
+pensioners are on their benches; the chapel is lighted, and Founder's
+tomb, with its grotesque carvings, monsters, heraldries, darkles and
+shines with the most wonderful shadows and lights. There he lies,
+Fundator Noster, in his ruff and gown, awaiting the great Examination
+Day. We oldsters, be we ever so old, become boys again as we look at
+that familiar old tomb, and think how the seats are altered since we
+were here; and how the doctor--not the present doctor, the doctor of
+_our_ time--used to sit yonder, and his awful eye used to frighten us
+shuddering boys on whom it lighted; and how the boy next us _would_
+kick our shins during service-time; and how the monitor would cane us
+afterward because our shins were kicked....
+
+"The service for Founder's Day is a special one. How solemn the
+well-remembered prayers are!... how beautiful and decorous the rite!
+how noble the ancient words of the supplication which the priest
+utters, and to which generations of fresh children and troops of
+bygone seniors have cried Amen under those arches!"[6]
+
+Having resolved to found a charity which should provide both for
+young and old, Sutton, who had ample reason fully to appreciate the
+unprincipled and grasping character of the court, proceeded to take
+every precaution that sagacity and ingenuity could suggest to keep his
+money secure from the hands of such harpies as Carr and "Steenie,"
+and hedge it round with every bulwark possible. Perhaps he consulted
+"Jingling Geordie," then planning his own singular scheme,[7] on
+the point, and got him to persuade the king, always vain of his
+scholarship, that it would well become him to become patron of an
+institution having for one of its main objects the education of youth
+in sound learning. Be this as it may, the fact is certain that a
+degree of royal and other powerful protection was somehow secured
+for the institution which for all time prevented its funds from being
+diverted to other purposes.
+
+Sutton's bequest of the bulk of his estate to charitable uses was not
+unnaturally viewed with strong disapprobation by his nephew, one
+Simon Baxter, for whom he had, however, not neglected to provide, who
+brought a suit to set aside the will. However, notwithstanding that
+he had Bacon for his counsel, he failed to interfere with his uncle's
+disposition of his estate; the court holding that the claims of
+kinship had been sufficiently recognized.[8]
+
+In the same year, 1614, the institution opened. The rules and orders
+for its government may yet be seen, bearing the autograph signature
+of Charles I., then prince of Wales. From that time almost every man
+in the country, of the first rank of eminence by birth or fortune,
+has been a governor, and the name of Cromwell may be seen not far
+from that of Charles on the roll. Up to about 1850 the patronage
+was vested exclusively in the governors. Amongst these were always
+included--though not necessarily--the sovereign, the archbishop of
+Canterbury and the bishop of London. The remainder were men eminent
+in Church or State, "the master of the hospital,"[9] who must not be
+confounded with the school-master, being the only official member. The
+sovereign had two nominations to the other governors' one. Thackeray
+makes the great marquis of Steyne a governor, and shows how little
+Rawdon Crawley benefited by that august personage's patronage: "When
+Lord Steyne was benevolently disposed he did nothing by halves, and
+his kindness toward the Crawley family did the greatest honor to
+his benevolent discrimination. His lordship extended his goodness
+to little Rawdon: he pointed out to the boy's parents the necessity
+of sending him to a public school; that he was of an age now when
+emulation, the first principles of the Latin language, pugilistic
+exercises and the society of his fellow-boys would be of the greatest
+benefit to the boy.... All objections disappeared before the generous
+perseverance of the marquis. His lordship was one of the governors of
+that famous old collegiate institution called the White Friars. It
+had been a Cistercian convent in old days, when Smithfield, which is
+contiguous to it, was a tournament-ground. Obstinate heretics used to
+be brought thither, convenient for burning hard by. Harry VIII., the
+Defender of the Faith, seized upon the monastery and its possessions,
+and hanged and tortured some of the monks who could not accommodate
+themselves to the pace of his reform. Finally, a great merchant bought
+the house and land adjoining, in which, and with the help of other
+wealthy endowments of land and money, he established a famous
+foundation hospital for old men and children. An extern school grew
+round the old almost monastic foundation, which subsists still with
+its Middle-Age costume and usages; and all Cistercians pray that it
+may long flourish. Of this famous house some of the greatest noblemen,
+prelates and dignitaries of the land are governors; and as the boys
+are very comfortably lodged, fed and educated, and subsequently
+inducted to good scholarships at the university and livings in the
+Church, many little gentlemen are devoted to the ecclesiastical
+profession from their tenderest years, and there is considerable
+emulation to procure nominations for the foundation.
+
+"It was originally intended for the sons of poor and deserving clerics
+and laics, but many of the noble governors of the institution, with
+an enlarged and rather capricious benevolence, selected all sorts
+of objects for their bounty. To get an education for nothing, and a
+future livelihood and profession assured, was so excellent a scheme
+that some of the richest people did not disdain it, and not only great
+men's relations, but great men themselves, sent their sons to profit
+by the chance."
+
+A boy on the foundation received his education entirely free. Whilst
+within the walls he was clothed in black cloth at the expense of
+the house, and even had shirts and shoes provided for him. His only
+expenses were a fee to the matron of twenty-five dollars a year, and
+the cost of books, stationery, etc., the whole amounting to a sum
+less than one hundred dollars a year. On leaving school for college he
+received an allowance--four hundred dollars for three years, and five
+hundred dollars for the fourth.
+
+There may have been a time when much of the patronage was improperly
+bestowed, but this certainly was not the case in our day. The majority
+of the boys on the foundation were the sons of well-born and often
+distinguished gentlemen of small means, and the sort of perversion
+of patronage to which Thackeray alludes had ceased to take place.
+When some of the places on the foundation were thrown open, it
+was a subject of general remark that several of the boys who got
+scholarships were those whose parents could perfectly have afforded
+to give them a first-class education.
+
+Probably there will some day be a reaction in England in this matter.
+The prevalent present plan is to give every advantage to the clever
+boy (which means a boy who has a faculty for acquirement, but often
+lacks those qualities most needed to make him a valuable citizen), and
+to let those who are not so bright at book-learning, and need every
+aid, scramble along as they can. It was certainly not the system which
+Sutton designed, and there are not a few who, without being by any
+means bigoted conservatives, consider that the utter indifference
+displayed of late years to the intentions of founders is quite
+unjustifiable, and offers little encouragement to those who would
+be disposed to make similar bequests.
+
+At Oxford, for instance, nearly every scholarship is now thrown
+open to general competition. This sounds very fine, but is in utter
+disregard of the fact that the founder in most instances was induced
+to bequeath his money with the view that those who came from the part
+of the country to which he himself belonged should benefit. Of course,
+time had rendered necessary certain changes, but these have been
+sweeping to a degree which is inconsistent with a due regard to the
+wills of the dead, and meanwhile no one seems disposed to admit that
+the public schools or universities turn out men one whit better than
+in days gone by, or indeed do more for the general education of the
+people.
+
+Recently a sweeping change has been made at the Charter-House, which
+had seemed to be almost proof against innovation. So far as nominating
+boys to the foundation, the governors' patronage will, after one
+more term apiece, be at an end, and the privilege of participating
+in Button's benefits will be open to all boys who have been for some
+months members of the school, and are clever enough to beat their
+fellows in competition. The governors reserve, however, their right of
+nominating aged or disabled men, whose number now, we believe, amounts
+to one hundred.
+
+A school-day at Charter-House began at eight, with what we called
+"first school." Prayers, lasting about five minutes, took place in
+the large school-room. These were read by a "gown-boy" monitor. The
+lessons at first school consisted entirely of repetition--repeating
+Latin poetry, and occasionally prose. As each boy finished his
+repetition--the boys being taken up in the order in which they were
+numbered the previous day--he left the school and went to breakfast.
+Breakfast consisted of an almost unlimited supply of hot rolls and
+butter and milk, but this was supplemented in the case of almost every
+boy by edibles purchased with his pocket-money. For those who had the
+privilege of fagging this was recognized and allowed, and in regard
+to the rest it was connived at, and marmalades, potted meats and
+such-like relishes freely circulated, being supplied for the most part
+by the servants, who drove a lively trade in such comestibles.
+
+Toasting was brought to the very highest perfection. Never before or
+since have we tasted anything of its kind so good as a buttered roll
+toasted. It was a French roll buttered all over outside, and then
+skillfully grilled until the outside was a rich crisp brown. This was
+brought by the fag to his master "hot and hot," and, being cut open,
+eaten with butter. The rooms were warmed by immense open fireplaces,
+there being no limit to the expenditure of coal, which was prodigious.
+
+In our time (1847-1853) there was an immense deal of fagging, which
+has been, we believe very properly, much diminished. Under boys were
+called in to perform many menial offices which should have been done
+by servants. The task-work which by "gown-boys" was most disliked was
+what was called being basonite. This duty devolved upon the twelve
+junior boys occupying what was known as "the under bedroom." To this
+hour we recall with horror how on a gloomy, foggy, wintry Monday
+morning we remembered on waking that it was our basonite week--for a
+fresh set of three went to work each Monday morning--and that we must
+get up and call the monitors. This basonite duty consisted of the most
+elaborate valeting. Each monitor's clothes were brushed, warm water
+was fetched and poured out for him, and everything so arranged that
+he might lie in bed up to the last possible moment, and then one small
+boy being ready with his coat, another with his waistcoat, and a third
+with his cap--be able to dress in five minutes and rush into school.
+At midday, when the monitors washed their hands for dinner, similar
+work had to be done, and again in the evening, when they washed their
+hands for supper. The only set-off to all this was that each monitor
+had been a basonite, and each basonite had a very good chance of
+becoming a monitor. But it was carrying the fagging system to far too
+great an extent, and the practice is now greatly modified.
+
+The domestic arrangements were in many respects rough and comfortless,
+and so intensely conservative were the ruling powers in these respects
+that complaint or remonstrance scarcely received any attention. On
+the other hand, the utmost liberality prevailed in most matters. The
+foundation scholars' dinner, for instance, was provided in a long,
+low, old-fashioned, oak-paneled hall, admirably adapted for the
+purpose. The food was excellent in quality, unlimited in quantity, and
+very comfortably served. The only drawback was want of variety, and
+the perennial reappearance of raspberry tartlets every Wednesday at
+length provoked a mutiny against that form of pastry, the order being
+passed down that no one was to touch it.
+
+An upper boy had two fags, the inferior of the two being called his
+tea-fag. A good feeling nearly always subsisted between master and
+fag, inasmuch as the former generally selected a boy he liked; and
+indeed in many cases the connection engendered a warm and lasting
+regard between the parties. The fag had access to his master's study,
+could retreat there to do his lessons in quiet, and not unfrequently
+was assisted in them by his master.
+
+Those who came off worst were dirty boys: no mercy was shown them.
+One such we can recall--now a very spruce, well-appointed government
+official--whose obstinate adherence to dirt was marvelous, seeing what
+it cost him.
+
+There are always some bullies among a lot of boys, but serious
+bullying was uncommon, and not unfrequently a hideous retribution
+befell a bully through some "big fellow" resolving to wreak on him
+what he inflicted on others. We can recall one very bright, brilliant
+youth, now high in the Indian civil service, whose drollery when
+bullying was irresistible, even to those who knew their turn might
+come next. "Come here, F----," we remember his saying to a fat youth
+of reputed uncleanness: then dropping his voice to a tone of subdued
+horror and solemnity, "I was shocked to hear you use a bad word just
+now." "No indeed, B----," protested the trembling F----. "Ah, well,
+I'm certain that you are now thinking it; and, besides, at any rate,
+you look fat and disgusting; so hold down your hands;" and poor F----
+retired howling after a tremendous "swinger"--i.e. swinging box on the
+ear.
+
+The school was divided into six forms, the sixth being the highest.
+Below the first form were two classes called upper and lower petties.
+Up to 1850, classics were the almost exclusive study, but the changes
+then made in the curriculum of studies at Oxford rendered attention to
+mathematics absolutely necessary. Much less stress was laid upon Latin
+verses at Charter-House than at Eton, and a Latin prose composition
+was regarded as the most important part of scholarship, inasmuch as
+a certain proficiency in it is a _sine qua non_ at Oxford. French was
+taught twice a week by a master of celebrity, who, however, did not
+understand the art of dinning learning into unwilling boys. It rarely
+happens in England that boys acquire any real knowledge of French at
+school: those who gain the prizes are almost invariably boys who have
+resided abroad and picked up the language in childhood. Music was
+taught by Mr. Hullah, and attendance on the part of gown-boys was
+compulsory. Drawing and fencing were extras.
+
+Very great importance was attached to the annual examination, which
+was conducted by examiners specially appointed by the governors. The
+result, which was kept a close secret until "Prize Saturday," was as
+eagerly looked forward to as the Derby by a betting man. The different
+forms were divided into classes, as at Oxford, according to merit, and
+the names printed along with the examination papers in pamphlet form.
+After this examination boys went up to the form above them, each boy
+usually remaining a year in each form. The system of punishment was as
+follows. A book called the "Black Book" was kept by the school monitor
+of the week, there being four gown-boy--that is, foundation--monitors
+who took the duty of school monitor in rotation. A boy put down for
+three offences during the same week was flogged, but the end of each
+week cleared off old scores. The entries were in this wise:
+
+  _Name of Boy._    _Offence._          _By whom put down._
+  Robinson 1        Idle                Dr. Saunders.
+  Smith 1, 2        Talking in School   Mr. Curtis.
+
+"Go and put your name down," a master would say. "Oh please, sir,
+I'm down twice." "Then put it down a third time." Then would follow
+entreaties, which, unless the delinquent had been previously privately
+marked down for execution, would probably avail. When a flogging
+offence was committed a boy was put down thus:
+
+  Robinson 1, 2, 3   Impertinent        Mr. ----.
+
+The flogging varied much in severity according to the crime. The
+process was precisely the same as at Eton. Partially denuded of his
+nether garments, the victim knelt upon the block, the monitor standing
+at his head. The birches were kept in a long box which served as a
+settee, and were furnished periodically by the man who brought the
+fire fagots. Now and again the box would, by the carelessness of the
+functionary called "the school-groom," be left open, and it was then
+considered a point of honor on the part of an under boy to promptly
+avail himself of the opportunity to "skin" the rods--i.e. draw them
+through a piece of stuff in such a way as to take the buds off, after
+which they hurt very much less.
+
+Serious offences, such as insubordination and gross disobedience,
+were punished by a flogging with two birches, which was too severe
+a punishment. The degree of pain varied very much according to the
+delicacy of skin, and no doubt some boys--one of our comrades had
+been flogged about twenty-five times--did not feel much after many
+floggings, becoming literally case-hardened; whereas, we have known a
+boy compelled to stay in bed two or three days from the effects of a
+flogging which would have left little mark upon the "twenty-fiver."
+When a victim issued from the flogging-room the questions from an
+eager throng were, "How many cuts, old fellow? Did it _take_ much? You
+howled like the devil!"[10]
+
+The monitors were furnished with small canes, which they were
+permitted to use with moderation, but nothing like the horrible
+process of "tunding," as at Winchester, was known. The theory of
+entrusting this power to monitors is, that if you do not give certain
+boys the right to punish, might will be right, whilst the monitors,
+being duly made to feel their responsibility, will only punish where
+punishment is properly due, and will serve as a protection to the
+weak.
+
+There was a half-holiday every Wednesday and Saturday. Every Saturday
+upper boys who had friends might go out from Saturday till Sunday
+night, and lower boys were allowed to do the same every other
+Saturday. These events were of course greatly looked forward to
+from week to week. Not the least agreeable feature was the probable
+addition to pocket-money, for in England it is the custom to "tip"
+school-boys, and we have ourselves come back joyous on a Sunday
+evening with six sovereigns chinking in our pockets. Alas, no one tips
+us now! Then there was the delight of comparing notes of the doings
+during the delightful preceding twenty-four hours. Thus, whilst Brown
+detailed the delights of the pantomime to which Uncle John had taken
+him on Saturday night, Robinson descanted on the marvels of the
+Zoological Gardens, with special reference to the free-and-easy life
+of monkeydom, and Smith never wearied of enlarging on the terrors and
+glories of the Tower of London. Altogether, there were fourteen weeks'
+holiday in the year--six weeks in August, five at Christmas and three
+at Whitsuntide, with two days at Easter.
+
+There were several beds in each bedroom, and there was a very strict
+rule that the most perfect order should prevail--in fact, lower boys
+were forbidden to talk; but talk they always did, and long stories,
+often protracted for nights, were told; and for our part, we must
+confess that we have never enjoyed any fictions more than those.
+
+Evening prayers took place in the several houses at nine, after which
+the lower boys went to bed. A junior master--there was one to each
+house--always attended at prayers, which were read by a monitor.
+Before prayers names were called over and every boy accounted for.
+
+Although in the midst of brick and mortar, two large spaces,
+containing several acres, were available for cricket, whilst
+foot-ball--and very fierce games of it, too--was usually played in the
+curious old cloisters of the Chartreuse monks which opened on "Upper
+Green." The grass-plot of Upper Green was kept sacred from the feet
+of under boys except in "cricket quarter," as the summer quarter was
+termed. It was rolled, watered and attended to with an assiduity
+such as befalls few spots of ground in the world. The roof of the
+cloisters was a terrace flagged with stone, and on the occasion of
+cricket-matches a gay bevy of ladies assembled here to look at the
+exploits of the young Rawdon Crawleys and Pendennises of the day.
+Immediately opposite the terrace, across the green, on the immensely
+high blank wall, was the word "Crown" rudely painted, and above it
+what was intended as a representation of that sign of sovereignty.
+This had a history. It was said to have been written there originally
+by "the bold and strong-minded Law," commemorated by Macaulay in his
+Warren Hastings article, who became Lord Ellenborough, and the last
+lord chief-justice who had the honor of a seat in the cabinet. It was
+probably put up originally as a goal for boys running races, and for
+nearly a century was regularly repainted as commemorative of a famous
+alumnus who was so fondly attached to the place of his early education
+that he desired to be buried in its chapel, and an imposing monument
+to his memory may be seen on its walls. Between Upper and Under
+Greens, on the slight eminence to which we have alluded, stood
+"School," a large ugly edifice of brick mounted with stone, which
+derived an interest in the eyes of those educated there from the fact
+that the names of hundreds of old Carthusians were engraven on its
+face; for it was the custom of boys leaving school to have their names
+bracketed with those of friends; and when Brown took his departure his
+name was duly cut, with a space left for Robinson's name when the time
+of his departure came.
+
+These stones have now exchanged the murky air of London for that of
+one of the pleasantest sites in Surrey. Charter-House School has,
+after passing two hundred and sixty years in the metropolis, changed
+its location, and must be looked for now on a delightful spot near
+Godalming in Surrey. The governors very wisely determined about five
+years ago that boys were much better in country than in town, and,
+having ample funds, took measures accordingly. Last October the new
+buildings were ready for the boys' reception, and they met there for
+the first time. The stones, however, were, with a sentiment most will
+appreciate, removed, in order to connect the past with the present,
+for the Charter-House must ever have many tender ties binding it to
+the site of the old monastery with its rich historic memories; and
+however famous may be the men who go forth from the new ground which
+Sutton's famous foundation occupies, it must derive a great part of
+its fame for a long time to come from the place which sent out into
+the world Addison, Steele, Thirlwall, Grote, Leech and Thackeray, not
+to mention a host of names of those who in arms and arts have done
+credit to the place of their education.[11]
+
+The home for aged and infirm or disabled men will remain where it has
+always been. This establishment has indeed been a welcome refuge to
+thousands who have known better days. Men of all ranks and conditions,
+who have experienced in the afternoon of life contrary winds too
+powerful for them to encounter, have here found a haven for the
+remnant of their days. Some have held most important positions, and
+a lord mayor of London, who had received emperors at his table, was
+a few years ago one of Sutton's "poor brethren." The pensioners were
+always called _cods_ by the boys, probably short for codgers. Each had
+a room plainly furnished, about one hundred and fifty dollars a year,
+rations, and a dinner every day in the great hall. The boys, who did
+not often know their names, gave them nicknames by which they became
+generally known. Thus three were called "Battle," "Murder" and
+"Sudden Death;" another "Larky," in consequence of a certain levity
+of demeanor at divine service. These old gentlemen were expected to
+attend chapel daily. Every evening at nine o'clock the chapel bell
+tolled the exact number of them, just as Great Tom at Christ Church,
+Oxford, nightly rings out the number of the students. Being for
+the most part aged men, soured by misfortune and failure, they are
+naturally enough often hard to please and difficult to deal with.
+
+No passage in Thackeray's writings is more deeply pathetic than
+that in which he records the last scene of one "poor brother," that
+Bayard of fiction, Colonel Newcome: "At the usual evening hour the
+chapel-bell began to toll, and Thomas Newcome's hands outside the bed
+feebly beat time. And just as the last bell struck, a peculiar sweet
+smile shone over his face, and he lifted up his head a little, and
+quickly said, 'Adsum!' and fell back. It was the word he used at
+school when names, were called; and lo, he whose heart was as that of
+a little child had answered to his name and stood in the presence of
+the Master."
+
+AN OLD "GOWN-BOY."
+
+[Footnote 2: The original seat of the Carthusian order was at
+Chartreux in Dauphiny, where it was founded by Saint Bruno.]
+
+[Footnote 3: Witham, which is not far from Fonthill, became in 1763
+the property of Alderman Beckford, the millionaire father of the
+celebrated author of _Vathek_.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Lord Suffolk probably applied the purchase-money
+(thirteen thousand pounds) to help build the palace, called Audley End
+or Inn, he raised in Essex. It stands on abbey-land granted by Henry
+VIII. to his wife's father, Lord Audley of Walden, near Saffron-Walden
+in Essex, and was generally regarded as the most magnificent structure
+of its period, although Evelyn gives the preference to Clarendon
+House, that grand mansion of the chancellor's which provoked so much
+jealousy against him, and came to be called Dunkirk House, from the
+insinuation that it was built out of the funds paid by the French for
+Dunkirk. Abbey-lands are supposed by many to carry ill-luck with them,
+and quickly to change hands. Audley End has proved no exception to
+this hypothetical fate. Only a portion of it now remains, but this,
+though much marred by injudicious alterations, is amply sufficient to
+show how grand it was. It has long since passed out of the hands of
+the Howards, and now belongs to Lord Braybrooke, whose family name
+is Nevill. A relation of his, a former peer of the name, edited the
+best edition of _Pepys' Diary_, in which and in Evelyn is frequent
+reference to Audley End.]
+
+[Footnote 5: The order of proceedings was subsequently inverted.]
+
+[Footnote 6: _The Newcomers_: "Founder's Day at Gray Friars." On one
+of the last Founder's Days of his life Thackeray came with a friend
+early in the day, and scattered half sovereigns to the little
+gown-boys in "Gown-boys' Hall."]
+
+[Footnote 7: Heriot's Hospital at Edinburgh.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Simon Baxter was his only sister's son. Sutton had
+left him an estate which in 1615 he sold to the ancestor of the
+present earl of Sefton for fifteen thousand pounds--equal to about
+seventy-five thousand pounds now--and a legacy of three hundred
+pounds.]
+
+[Footnote 9: This was a post which Thackeray coveted, and had he lived
+might possibly have filled. The master's lodge, a spacious antique
+residence, lined with portraits of governors in their robes of estate,
+by Lely, Kneller, etc., would in his hands have become a resort of
+rare interest and hospitality.]
+
+[Footnote 10: In what is known as "The Charter-House Play," which
+describes some boyish orgies and their subsequent punishment, the
+latter is described in the pathetic lines:
+
+  Now the victim low is bending,
+  Now the fearful rod descending,
+  Hark a blow! Again, again
+  Sounds the instrument of pain.
+
+  Goddess of mercy! oh impart
+  Thy kindness to the doctor's heart:
+  Bid him words of pardon say--
+  Cast the blood-stained scourge away.
+
+  In vain, in vain! he will not hear:
+  Mercy is a stranger there.
+  Justice, unrelenting dame,
+  First asserts her lawful claim.
+
+  This is aye her maxim true:
+  "They who sin must suffer too."
+  When of fun we've had our fill,
+  Justice then sends in her bill,
+  And as soon as we have read it,
+  Pay we must: she gives no credit.
+
+There is some rather fine doggerel too, in which the doctor--the Dr.
+Portman _Pendennis_--apostrophizes a monitor in whom he had believed,
+but finds to have been as bad as the rest. _The Doctor_ (with voice
+indicative of tears and indignation):
+
+  Oh, Simon Steady! Simon Steady, oh!
+  What would your father say to see you so?--
+  You whom I always trusted, whom I deemed
+  As really good and honest as you seemed.
+
+  Are you the leader of this lawless throng,
+  The chief of all that's dissolute and wrong?
+
+_Then with awful emphasis_:
+
+  Bad is the drunkard, shameless is the youth
+  Who dares desert the sacred paths of truth;
+  But he who hides himself 'neath Virtue's pall,
+  The painted hypocrite, is worse than all!
+
+In acting this play the manner of the real doctor (Mr. Gladstone's old
+tutor, now dean of Peterborough) was often imitated to the life, which
+of course brought down the house.]
+
+[Footnote 11: In his curious _London and the Country, Carbonadoed and
+Quartered into severall Characters_ (1632), Lupton writes under the
+head of
+
+  "CHARTER-HOUSE.
+
+"This place is well described by three things--magnificence,
+munificence and religious government. The first shows the wealth
+of the founder; the second, the means to make the good thing done
+durable; the third demonstrates his intent that thus established
+it.... This one place hath sent many a famous member to the
+universities, and not a few to the wars. The deed of this man that so
+ordered this house is much spoken of and commended; but there's none
+(except only one--Sion College) that hath as yet either striven to
+equal or imitate that, and I fear never will."]
+
+
+
+
+A PRINCESS OF THULE
+
+BY WILLIAM BLACK, AUTHOR OF "THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PHAETON."
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+ROMANCE-TIME.
+
+Early morning at Borva, fresh, luminous and rare; the mountains in the
+south grown pale and cloud-like under a sapphire sky; the sea ruffled
+into a darker blue by a light breeze from the west: and the sunlight
+lying hot on the red gravel and white shells around Mackenzie's house.
+There is an odor of sweetbrier about, hovering in the warm, still air,
+except at such times as the breeze freshens a bit, and brings round
+the shoulder of the hill the cold, strange scent of the rocks and the
+sea beyond.
+
+And on this fresh and pleasant morning Sheila sat in the big garden
+seat in front of the house, talking to the stranger to whom she had
+been introduced the day before. He was no more a stranger, however, to
+all appearance, for what could be more frank and friendly than their
+conversation, or more bright and winning than the smile with which
+she frequently turned to speak or to listen? Of course this stranger
+could not be her friend as Mr. Ingram was--that was impossible. But
+he talked a great deal more than Mr. Ingram, and was apparently more
+anxious to please and be pleased; and indeed was altogether very
+winning and courteous and pleasant in his ways. Beyond this vague
+impression, Sheila ventured upon no further comparison between the
+two men. If her older friend had been down, she would doubtless have
+preferred talking to him about all that had happened in the island
+since his last visit; but here was this newer friend thrown, as it
+were, upon her hospitality, and eager, with a most respectful and yet
+simple and friendly interest, to be taught all that Ingram already
+knew. Was he not, too, in mere appearance like one of the princes
+she had read of in many an ancient ballad--tall and handsome and
+yellow-haired, fit to have come sailing over the sea, with a dozen
+merry comrades, to carry off some sea-king's daughter to be his bride?
+Sheila began to regret that the young man knew so little about the sea
+and the northern islands and those old-time stories; but then he was
+very anxious to learn.
+
+"You must say _Mach-Klyoda_ instead of Macleod," she was saying
+to him, "if you like _Styornoway_ better than Stornoway. It is the
+Gaelic, that is all."
+
+"Oh, it is ever so much prettier," said young Lavender with a quite
+genuine enthusiasm in his face, not altogether begotten of the letter
+_y_; "and indeed I don't think you can possibly tell how singularly
+pleasant and quaint it is to an English ear to hear just that little
+softening of the vowels that the people have here. I suppose you don't
+notice that they say _gyarden_ for garden--"
+
+"They!" As if he had paid attention to the pronunciation of any one
+except Sheila herself!
+
+"--but not quite so hard as I pronounce it. And so with a great many
+other words, that are softened and sweetened, and made almost poetical
+in their sound by the least bit of inflection. How surprised and
+pleased English ladies would be to hear you speak! Oh, I beg your
+pardon--I did not mean to--I--I beg your pardon--"
+
+Sheila seemed a little astonished by her companion's evident
+mortification, and said with a smile, "If others speak so in the
+island, of course I must too; and you say it does not shock you."
+
+His distress at his own rudeness now found an easy vent. He protested
+that no people could talk English like the people of Lewis. He gave
+Sheila to understand that the speech of English folks was as the
+croaking of ravens compared with the sweet tones of the northern
+isles; and this drew him on to speak of his friends in the South and
+of London, and of the chances of Sheila ever going thither.
+
+"It must be so strange never to have seen London," he said. "Don't you
+ever dream of what it is like? Don't you ever try to think of a great
+space, nearly as big as this island, all covered over with large
+houses, the roads between the houses all made of stone, and great
+bridges going over the rivers, with railway-trains standing? By the
+way, you have never seen a railway-engine!"
+
+He looked at her for a moment in astonishment, as if he had not
+hitherto realized to himself the absolute ignorance of the remote
+princess. Sheila, with some little touch of humor appearing in her
+calm eyes, said, "But I am not quite ignorant of all these things. I
+have seen pictures of them, and my papa has described them to me so
+often that I will feel as if I had seen them all; and I do not think
+I should be surprised, except, perhaps, by the noise of the big towns.
+It was many a time my papa told me of that; but he says I cannot
+understand it, nor the great distance of land you travel over to get
+to London. That is what I do not wish to see. I was often thinking of
+it, and that to pass so many places that you do not know would make
+you very sad."
+
+"That can be easily avoided," he said lightly. "When you go to London,
+you must go from Glasgow or Edinburgh in a night-train, and fall fast
+asleep, and in the morning you will find yourself in London, without
+having seen anything."
+
+"Just as if one had gone across a great distance of sea, and come
+to another island you will never see before," said Sheila, with the
+gray-blue eyes under the black eyelashes grown strange and distant.
+
+"But you must not think of it as a melancholy thing," he said, almost
+anxiously. "You will find yourself among all sorts of gayeties and
+amusements; you will have cheerful people around you, and plenty of
+things to see; you will drive in beautiful parks, and go to theatres,
+and meet people in large and brilliant rooms, filled with flowers and
+silver and light. And all through the winter, that must be so cold and
+dark up here, you will find abundance of warmth and light, and plenty
+of flowers, and every sort of pleasant thing. You will hear no more of
+those songs of drowned people; and you will be afraid no longer of the
+storms, or listen to the waves at night; and by and by, when you have
+got quite accustomed to London, and got a great many friends, you
+might be disposed to stay there altogether; and you would grow to
+think of this island as a desolate and melancholy place, and never
+seek to come back."
+
+The girl rose suddenly and turned to a fuchsia tree, pretending to
+pick some of its flowers. Tears had sprung to her eyes unbidden, and
+it was in rather an uncertain voice that she said, still managing to
+conceal her face, "I like to hear you talk of those places, but--but I
+will never leave Borva."
+
+What possible interest could he have in combating this decision so
+anxiously, almost so imploringly? He renewed his complaints against
+the melancholy of the sea and the dreariness of the northern winters.
+He described again and again the brilliant lights and colors of
+town-life in the South. As a mere matter of experience and education
+she ought to go to London; and had not her papa as good as intimated
+his intention of taking her?
+
+In the midst of these representations a step was heard in the hall,
+and then the girl looked round with a bright light on her face.
+
+"Well, Sheila?" said Ingram, according to his custom, and both the
+girl's hands were in his the next minute. "You are down early. What
+have you been about? Have you been telling Mr. Lavender of the Black
+Horse of Loch Suainabhal?"
+
+"No: Mr. Lavender has been telling me of London."
+
+"And I have been trying to induce Miss Mackenzie to pay us a visit,
+so that we may show her the difference between a city and an island.
+But all to no purpose. Miss Mackenzie seems to like hard winters and
+darkness and cold; and as for that perpetual and melancholy and cruel
+sea, that in the winter-time I should fancy might drive anybody into a
+lunatic asylum--"
+
+"Ah, you must not talk badly of the sea," said the girl, with all
+her courage and brightness returned to her face: "it is our very good
+friend. It gives us food, and keeps many people alive. It carries the
+lads away to other places, and brings them back with money in their
+pockets--"
+
+"And sometimes it smashes a few of them on the rocks, or swallows up
+a dozen families, and the next morning it is as smooth and treacherous
+and fair as if nothing had happened."
+
+"But that is not the sea at all," said Sheila: "that is the storms
+that will wreck the boats; and how can the sea help that? When the sea
+is let alone the sea is very good to us."
+
+Ingram laughed aloud and patted the girl's head fondly; and Lavender,
+blushing a little, confessed he was beaten, and that he would never
+again, in Miss Mackenzie's presence, say anything against the sea.
+
+The King of Borva now appearing, they all went in to breakfast; and
+Sheila sat opposite the window, so that all the light coming in from
+the clear sky and the sea was reflected upon her face, and lit up
+every varying expression that crossed it or that shone up in the
+beautiful deeps of her eyes. Lavender, his own face in shadow, could
+look at her from time to time, himself unseen; and as he sat in almost
+absolute silence, and noticed how she talked with Ingram, and what
+deference she paid him, and how anxious she was to please him, he
+began to wonder if he should ever be admitted to a like friendship
+with her. It was so strange, too, that this handsome, proud-featured,
+proud-spirited girl should so devote herself to the amusement of a
+man like Ingram, and, forgetting all the court that should have been
+paid to a pretty woman, seem determined to persuade him that he
+was conferring a favor upon her by every word and look. Of course,
+Lavender admitted to himself, Ingram was a very good sort of fellow--a
+very good sort of fellow indeed. If any one was in a scrape about
+money, Ingram would come to the rescue without a moment's hesitation,
+although the salary of a clerk in the Board of Trade might have been
+made the excuse, by any other man, for a very justifiable refusal.
+He was very clever too--had read much, and all that kind of thing.
+But he was not the sort of man you might expect to get on well with
+women. Unless with very intimate friends, he was a trifle silent and
+reserved. Often he was inclined to be pragmatic and sententious, and
+had a habit of saying unpleasantly bitter things when some careless
+joke was being made. He was a little dingy in appearance; and a
+man who had a somewhat cold manner, who was sallow of face, who
+was obviously getting gray, and who was generally insignificant in
+appearance, was not the sort of man, one would think, to fascinate
+an exceptionally handsome girl, who had brains enough to know the
+fineness of her own face. But here was this princess paying attentions
+to him such as must have driven a more impressionable man out of his
+senses, while Ingram sat quiet and pleased, sometimes making fun of
+her, and generally talking to her as if she were a child. Sheila had
+chatted very pleasantly with him, Lavender, in the morning, but it was
+evident that her relations with Ingram were of a very different kind,
+such as he could not well understand. For it was scarcely possible
+that she could be in love with Ingram, and yet surely the pleasure
+that dwelt in her expressive face when she spoke to him or listened to
+him was not the result of a mere friendship.
+
+If Lavender had been told at that moment that these two were lovers,
+and that they were looking forward to an early marriage, he would
+have rejoiced with an enthusiasm of joy. He would have honestly and
+cordially shaken Ingram by the hand; he would have made plans for
+introducing the young bride to all the people he knew; and he would
+have gone straight off, on reaching London, to buy Sheila a diamond
+necklace even if he had to borrow the money from Ingram himself.
+
+"And have you got rid yet of the _Airgiod-cearc_[12] Sheila?" said
+Ingram, suddenly breaking in upon these dreams; "or does every owner
+of hens still pay his annual shilling to the Lord of Lewis?"
+
+"It is not away yet," said the girl, "but when Sir James comes in the
+autumn I will go over to Stornoway and ask him to take away the tax;
+and I know he will do it, for what is the shilling worth to him, when
+he has spent thousands and thousands of pounds on the Lewis? But it
+will be very hard on some of the poor people that only keep one or two
+hens; and I will tell Sir James of all that--"
+
+"You will do nothing of the kind, Sheila," said her father
+impatiently. "What is the _Airgiod-cearc_ to you, that you will go
+over to Stornoway only to be laughed at and make a fool of yourself?"
+
+"That is nothing, not anything at all," said the girl, "if Sir James
+will only take away the tax."
+
+"Why, Sheila, they would treat you as another Lady Godiva!" said
+Ingram, with a good-humored smile.
+
+"But Miss Mackenzie is quite right," exclaimed Lavender, with a sudden
+flush of color leaping into his handsome face and an honest glow of
+admiration into his eyes. "I think it is a very noble thing for her to
+do, and nobody, either in Stornoway or anywhere else, would be such
+a brute as to laugh at her for trying to help those poor people, who
+have not too many friends and defenders, God knows!"
+
+Ingram looked surprised. Since when had the young gentleman across
+the table acquired such a singular interest in the poorer classes, of
+whose very existence he had for the most part seemed unaware? But the
+enthusiasm in his face was quite honest: there could be no doubt of
+that. As for Sheila, with a beating heart she ventured to send to her
+champion a brief and timid glance of gratitude, which the young man
+observed, and never forgot.
+
+"You will not know what it is all about," said the King of Borva
+with a peevish air, as though it were too bad that a person of his
+authority should have to descend to petty details about a hen-tax.
+"It is many and many a tax and a due Sir James will take away from his
+tenants in the Lewis, and he will spend more money a thousand times
+than ever he will get back; and it was this _Airgiod-cearc_, it will
+stand in the place of a great many other things taken away, just to
+remind the folk that they have not their land all in their own right.
+It is many things you will have to do in managing the poor people, not
+to let them get too proud, or forgetful of what they owe to you; and
+now there is no more tacksmen to be the masters of the small crofters,
+and the crofters they would think they were landlords themselves if
+there were no dues for them to pay."
+
+"I have heard of those middlemen: they were dreadful tyrants and
+thieves, weren't they?" said Lavender. Ingram kicked his foot under
+the table. "I mean, that was the popular impression of them--a vulgar
+error, I presume," continued the young man in the coolest manner. "And
+so you have got rid of them? Well, I dare say many of them were honest
+men, and suffered very unjustly in common report."
+
+Mackenzie answered nothing, but his daughter said quickly, "But, you
+know, Mr. Lavender, they have not gone away merely because they cease
+to have the letting of the land to the crofters. They have still their
+old holdings, and so have the crofters in most cases. Every one now
+holds direct from the proprietor, that is all."
+
+"So that there is no difference between the former tacksman and his
+serf except the relative size of their farms?"
+
+"Well, the crofters have no leases, but the tacksmen have," said the
+girl somewhat timidly; and then she added, "But you have not decided
+yet, Mr. Ingram, what you will do to-day. It is too clear for the
+salmon-fishing. Will you go over to Meavig, and show Mr. Lavender the
+Bay of Uig and the Seven Hunters?"
+
+"Surely we must show him Borvabost first, Sheila," said Ingram. "He
+saw nothing of it last night in the dark; and I think, if you offered
+to take Mr. Lavender round in your boat and show him what a clever
+sailor you are, he would prefer that to walking over the hill."
+
+"I can take you all round in the boat, certainly," said the girl with
+a quick blush of pleasure; and forthwith a message was sent to Duncan
+that cushions should be taken down to the Maighdean-mhara, the little
+vessel of which Sheila was both skipper and pilot.
+
+How beautiful was the fair sea-picture that lay around them as the
+Maighdean-mhara stood out to the mouth of Loch Roag on this bright
+summer morning! Sheila sat in the stern of the small boat, her hand
+on the filler. Lufrath lay at her feet, his nose between the long and
+shaggy paws. Duncan, grave and watchful as to the wind and the points
+of the coast, sat amidships, with the sheets of the mainsail held
+fast, and superintended the seamanship of his young mistress with a
+respectful but most evident pride. And as Ingram had gone off with
+Mackenzie to walk over to the White Water before going down to
+Borvabost, Frank Lavender was Sheila's sole companion out in this
+wonderland of rock and sea and blue sky.
+
+He did not talk much to her, and she was so well occupied with the
+boat that he could regard with impunity the shifting lights and graces
+of her face and all the wonder and winning depths of her eyes. The sea
+was blue around them; the sky overhead had not a speck of cloud in it;
+the white sand-bays, the green stretches of pasture and the far and
+spectral mountains trembled in a haze of sunlight. Then there was all
+the delight of the fresh and cool wind, the hissing of the water along
+the boat, and the joyous rapidity with which the small vessel, lying
+over a little, ran through the crisply curling waters, and brought
+into view the newer wonders of the opening sea.
+
+Was it not all a dream, that he should be sitting by the side of this
+sea-princess, who was attended only by her deerhound and the tall
+keeper? And if a dream, why should it not go on for ever? To live for
+ever in this magic land--to have the princess herself carry him in
+this little boat into the quiet bays of the islands, or out at night,
+in moonlight, on the open sea--to forget for ever the godless South
+and its social phantasmagoria, and live in this beautiful and distant
+solitude, with the solemn secrets of the hills and the moving deep for
+ever present to the imagination, might not that be a nobler life? And
+some day or other he would take this island-princess up to London,
+and he would bid the women that he knew--the scheming mothers and the
+doll-like daughters--stand aside from before this perfect work of God.
+She would carry with her the mystery of the sea in the deeps of her
+eyes, and the music of the far hills would be heard in her voice, and
+all the sweetness and purity and brightness of the clear summer skies
+would be mirrored in her innocent soul. She would appear in London as
+some wild-plumaged bird hailing from distant climes, and before she
+had lived there long enough to grow sad, and have the weight of the
+city clouding the brightness of her eyes, she would be spirited
+away again into this strange sea-kingdom, where there seemed to be
+perpetual sunshine and the light music of the waves.
+
+Poor Sheila! She little knew what was expected of her, or the sort of
+drama into which she was being thrown as a central figure. She little
+knew that she, a simple Highland girl, was being transformed into
+a wonderful creature of romance, who was to put to shame the gentle
+dames and maidens of London society, and do many other extraordinary
+things. But what would have appeared the most extraordinary of all
+these speculations, if she had only known of them, was the assumption
+that she would marry Frank Lavender. _That_ the young man had quite
+naturally taken for granted, but perhaps only as a basis for his
+imaginative scenes. In order to do these fine things she would have
+to be married to somebody, and why not to himself? Think of the pride
+he would have in leading this beautiful girl, with her quaint manners
+and fashion of speech, into a London drawing-room! Would not every
+one wish to know her? Would not every one listen to her singing of
+those Gaelic songs? for of course she must sing well. Would not all
+his artist friends be anxious to paint her? and she would go to the
+Academy to convince the loungers there how utterly the canvas had
+failed to catch the light and dignity and sweetness of her face.
+
+When Sheila spoke he started.
+
+"Did you not see it?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"The seal: it rose for a moment just over there," said the girl, with
+a great interest visible in her eyes.
+
+The beautiful dreams he had been dreaming were considerably shattered
+by this interruption. How could a fairy princess be so interested in
+some common animal showing its head out of the sea? It also occurred
+to him, just at this moment, that if Sheila and Mairi went out in
+this boat by themselves, they must be in the habit of hoisting up the
+mainsail; and was such rude and coarse work befitting the character of
+a princess?
+
+"He looks very like a black man in the water when his head comes up,"
+said Sheila--"when the water is smooth so that you will see him
+look at you. But I have not told you yet about the Black Horse that
+Alister-nan-Each saw at Loch Suainabhal one night. Loch Suainabhal,
+that is inland and fresh water, so it was not a seal; but Alister
+was going along the shore, and he saw it lying up by the road, and he
+looked at it for a long time. It was quite black, and he thought it
+was a boat; but when he came near he saw it begin to move, and then
+it went down across the shore and splashed into the loch. And it had
+a head bigger than a horse, and quite black, and it made a noise as it
+went down the shore to the loch."
+
+"Don't you think Alister must have been taking a little whisky, Miss
+Mackenzie?"
+
+"No, not that, for he came to me just after he will see the beast."
+
+"And do you really believe he saw such an animal?" said Lavender with
+a smile.
+
+"I do not know," said the girl gravely. "Perhaps it was only a fright,
+and he imagined he saw it; but I do not know it is impossible there
+can be such an animal at Loch Suainabhal. But that is nothing: it
+is of no consequence. But I have seen stranger things than the Black
+Horse, that many people will not believe."
+
+"May I ask what they are?" he said gently.
+
+"Some other time, perhaps, I will tell you; but there is much
+explanation about it, and, you see, we are going in to Borvabost."
+
+Was this, then, the capital of the small empire over which the
+princess ruled? He saw before him but a long row of small huts or
+hovels resembling bee-hives, which stood above the curve of a white
+bay, and at one portion of the bay was a small creek, near which
+a number of large boats, bottom upward, lay on the beach. What odd
+little dwellings those were! The walls, a few feet high, were built
+of rude blocks of stone or slices of turf, and from those low supports
+rose a rounded roof of straw, which was thatched over by a further
+layer of turf. There were few windows, and no chimneys at all--not
+even a hole in the roof. And what was meant by the two men who,
+standing on one of the turf walls, were busily engaged in digging into
+the rich brown and black thatch and heaving it into a cart? Sheila had
+to explain to him that while she was doing everything in her power to
+get the people to suffer the introduction of windows, it was hopeless
+to think of chimneys; for by carefully guarding against the egress of
+the peat-smoke, it slowly saturated the thatch of the roof, which at
+certain periods of the year was then taken off to dress the fields,
+and a new roof of straw put on.
+
+By this time they had run the Maighdean-mhara--the "Sea Maiden"--into
+a creek, and were climbing up the steep beach of shingle that had been
+worn smooth by the unquiet waters of the Atlantic.
+
+"And will you want to speak to me, Ailasa?" said Sheila, turning to a
+small girl who had approached her somewhat diffidently.
+
+She was a pretty little thing, with a round fair face tanned by the
+sun, brown hair and soft dark eyes. She was bare-headed, bare-footed
+and bare-armed, but she was otherwise smartly dressed, and she held
+in her hand an enormous flounder, apparently about half as heavy as
+herself.
+
+"Will ye hef the fesh, Miss Sheila?" said the small Ailasa, holding
+out the flounder, but looking down all the same.
+
+"Did you catch it yourself, Ailasa?"
+
+"Yes, it wass Donald and me: we wass out in a boat, and Donald had a
+line."
+
+"And it is a present for me?" said Sheila, patting the small head and
+its wild and soft hair. "Thank you, Ailasa. But you must ask Donald to
+carry it up to the house and give it to Mairi. I cannot take it with
+me just now, you know."
+
+There was a small boy cowering behind one of the upturned boats, and
+by his furtive peepings showing that he was in league with his sister.
+Ailasa, not thinking that she was discovering his whereabouts, turned
+quite naturally in that direction, until she was suddenly stopped by
+Lavender, who called to her and put his hand in his pocket. But he was
+too late. Sheila had stepped in, and with a quick look, which was all
+the protest that was needed, shut her hand over the half crown he had
+in his fingers.
+
+"Never mind, Ailasa," she said. "Go away and get Donald, and bid him
+carry the fish up to Mairi."
+
+Lavender put up the half crown in his pocket in a somewhat dazed
+fashion: what he chiefly knew was that Sheila had for a moment held
+his hand in hers and that her eyes had met his.
+
+Well, that little incident of Ailasa and the flounder was rather
+pleasant to him. It did not shock the romantic associations he had
+begun to weave around his fair companion. But when they had gone up
+to the cottages--Mackenzie and Ingram not yet having arrived--and
+when Sheila proceeded to tell him about the circumstances of the
+fishermen's lives, and to explain how such and such things were done
+in the fields and in the pickling-houses, and so forth, Lavender was
+a little disappointed. Sheila took him into some of the cottages, or
+rather hovels, and he vaguely knew in the darkness that she sat down
+by the low glow of the peat-fire, and began to ask the women about all
+sorts of improvements in the walls and windows and gardens, and what
+not. Surely it was not for a princess to go advising people about
+particular sorts of soap, or offering to pay for a pane of glass if
+the husband of the woman would make the necessary aperture in the
+stone wall. The picture of Sheila appearing as a sea-princess in a
+London drawing-room was all very beautiful in its way, but here she
+was discussing as to the quality given to broth by the addition of a
+certain vegetable which she offered to send down from her own garden
+if the cottager in question would try to grow it.
+
+"I wonder, Miss Mackenzie," he said at length, when they got outside,
+his eyes dazed with the light and smarting with the peat-smoke--"I
+wonder you can trouble yourself with such little matters that those
+people should find out for themselves."
+
+The girl looked up with some surprise: "That is the work I have to do.
+My papa cannot do everything in the island."
+
+"But what is the necessity for your bothering yourself about such
+things? Surely they ought to be able to look after their own gardens
+and houses. It is no degradation--certainly not, for anything you
+interested yourself in would become worthy of attention by the very
+fact--but, after all, it seems such a pity you should give up your
+time to these commonplace details."
+
+"But some one must do it," said the girl quite innocently, "and my
+papa has no time. And they will be very good in doing what I ask
+them--every one in the island."
+
+Was this a willful affectation? he said to himself. Or was she really
+incapable of understanding that there was anything incongruous in a
+young lady of her position, education and refinement busying herself
+with the curing of fish and the cost of lime? He had himself marked
+the incongruity long ago, when Ingram had been telling him of the
+remote and beautiful maiden whose only notions of the world had been
+derived from literature--who was more familiar with the magic land
+in which Endymion wandered than with any other--and that at the same
+time she was about as good as her father at planning a wooden bridge
+over a stream. When Lavender had got outside again--when he found
+himself walking with her along the white beach in front of the blue
+Atlantic--she was again the princess of his dreams. He looked at her
+face, and he saw in her eyes that she must be familiar with all the
+romantic nooks and glades of English poetry. The plashing of the waves
+down there and the music of her voice recalled the sad legends of the
+fishermen he hoped to hear her sing. But ever and anon there occurred
+a jarring recollection--whether arising from a contradiction between
+his notion of Sheila and the actual Sheila, or whether from some
+incongruity in himself, he did not stop to consider. He only knew that
+a beautiful maiden who had lived by the sea all her life, and who had
+followed the wanderings of Endymion in the enchanted forest, need not
+have been so particular about a method of boiling potatoes, or have
+shown so much interest in a pattern for children's frocks.
+
+Mackenzie and Ingram met them. There was the usual "Well, Sheila?"
+followed by a thousand questions about the very things she had been
+inquiring into. That was one of the odd points about Ingram that
+puzzled and sometimes vexed Lavender; for if you are walking home at
+night it is inconvenient to be accompanied by a friend who would stop
+to ask about the circumstances of some old crone hobbling along the
+pavement, or who could, on his own doorstep, stop to have a chat with
+a garrulous policeman. Ingram was about as odd as Sheila herself in
+the attention he paid to those wretched cotters and their doings.
+He could not advise on the important subject of broth, but he would
+have tasted it by way of discovery, even if it had been presented to
+him in a tea-cup. He had already been prowling round the place with
+Mackenzie. He had inspected the apparatus in the creek for hauling up
+the boats. He had visited the curing-houses. He had examined the heaps
+of fish drying on the beach. He had drunk whisky with John the Piper
+and shaken hands with Alister-nan-Each. And now he had come to tell
+Sheila that the piper was bringing down luncheon from Mackenzie's
+house, and that after they had eaten and drunk on the white beach they
+would put out the Maighdean-mhara once more to sea, and sail over to
+Mevaig, that the stranger might see the wondrous sands of the Bay of
+Uig.
+
+But it was not in consonance with the dignity of a king that his
+guests should eat from off the pebbles, like so many fishermen, and
+when Mairi and another girl brought down the baskets, luncheon was
+placed in the stern of the small vessel, while Duncan got up the
+sails and put out from the stone quay. As for John the Piper, was he
+insulted at having been sent on a menial errand? They had scarcely got
+away from the shore when the sounds of the pipes was wafted to them
+from the hillside above, and it was the "Lament of Mackrimmon" that
+followed them out to sea:
+
+  Mackrimmon shall no more return,
+  Oh never, never more return!
+
+That was the wild and ominous air that was skirling up on the
+hillside; and Mackenzie's face, as he heard it, grew wroth. "That
+teffle of a piper John!" he said with an involuntary stamp of his
+foot. "What for will he be playing _Cha till mi tuilich?_"
+
+"It is out of mischief, papa," said Sheila--"that is all."
+
+"It will be more than mischief if I burn his pipes and drive him out
+of Borva. Then there will be no more of mischief."
+
+"It is very bad of John to do that," said Sheila to Lavender,
+apparently in explanation of her father's anger, "for we have given
+him shelter here when there will be no more pipes in all the Lewis.
+It wass the Free Church ministers, they put down the pipes, for there
+wass too much wildness at the marriages when the pipes would play."
+
+"And what do the people dance to now?" asked the young gentleman, who
+seemed to resent this piece of paternal government.
+
+Sheila laughed in an embarrassed way.
+
+"Miss Mackenzie would rather not tell you," said Ingram. "The fact is,
+the noble mountaineers of these districts have had to fall back on the
+Jew's harp. The ministers allow that instrument to be used--I suppose
+because there is a look of piety in the name. But the dancing doesn't
+get very mad when you have two or three young fellows playing a
+strathspey on a bit of trembling wire."
+
+"That teffle of a piper John!" growled Mackenzie under his breath;
+and so the Maighdean-mhara lightly sped on her way, opening out the
+various headlands of the islands, until at last she got into the
+narrows by Eilean-Aird-Meinish, and ran up the long arm of the sea
+to Mevaig.
+
+They landed and went up the rocks. They passed two or three small
+white houses overlooking the still, green waters of the sea, and then,
+following the line of a river, plunged into the heart of a strange
+and lonely district, in which there appeared to be no life. The
+river-track took them up a great glen, the sides of which were about
+as sheer as a railway-cutting. There were no trees or bushes about,
+but the green pasture along the bed of the valley wore its brightest
+colors in the warm sunlight, and far up on the hillsides the browns
+and crimsons of the heather and the silver-gray of the rocks trembled
+in the white haze of the heat. Over that again the blue sky, as still
+and silent as the world below.
+
+They wandered on, content with idleness and a fine day. Mr. Mackenzie
+was talking with some little loudness, so that Lavender might hear,
+of Mr. John Stuart Mill, and was anxious to convey to Ted Ingram
+that a wise man, who is responsible for the well-being of his
+fellow-creatures, will study all sides of all questions, however
+dangerous. Sheila was doing her best to entertain the stranger, and
+he, in a dream of his own, was listening to the information she gave
+him. How much of it did he carry away? He was told that the gray goose
+built its nest in the rushes at the edge of lakes: Sheila knew several
+nests in Borva. Sheila also caught the young of the wild-duck when
+the mother was guiding them down the hill-rivulets to the sea. She
+had tamed many of them, catching them thus before they could fly. The
+names of most of the mountains about here ended in _bhal_, which was
+a Gaelic corruption of the Norse _fiall_, a mountain. There were many
+Norse names all through the Lewis, but more particularly toward the
+Butt. The termination _bost_, for example, at the end of many words,
+meant an inhabited place, but she fancied _bost_ was Danish. And did
+Mr. Lavender know of the legend connected with the air of _Cha till,
+cha till mi tuille_?
+
+Lavender started as from a trance, with an impression that he had
+been desperately rude. He was about to say that the gray gosling in
+the legend could not speak Scandinavian, when he was interrupted by
+Mr. Mackenzie turning and asking him if he knew from what ports the
+English smacks hailed that came up hither to the cod and the ling
+fishing for a couple of months in the autumn. The young man said he
+did not know. There were many fishermen at Brighton. And when the King
+of Borva turned to Ingram, to see why he was shouting with laughter,
+Sheila suddenly announced to the party that before them lay the great
+Bay of Uig.
+
+It was certainly a strange and impressive scene. They stood on the top
+of a lofty range of hill, and, underneath them lay a vast semicircle,
+miles in extent, of gleaming white sand, that had in bygone ages been
+washed in by the Atlantic. Into this vast plain of silver whiteness
+the sea, entering by a somewhat narrow portal, stretched in long arms
+of a pale blue. Elsewhere, the great crescent of sand was surrounded
+by a low line of rocky hill, showing a thousand tints of olive-green
+and gray and heather-purple; and beyond that again rose the giant bulk
+of Mealasabhal, grown pale in the heat, into the southern sky. There
+was not a ship visible along the blue plain of the Atlantic. The only
+human habitation to be seen in the strange world beneath them was a
+solitary manse. But away toward the summit of Mealasabhal two specks
+slowly circled in the air, which Sheila thought were eagles; and far
+out on the western sea, lying like dusky whales in the vague blue,
+were the Pladda Islands--the remote and unvisited Seven Hunters--whose
+only inhabitants are certain flocks of sheep belonging to dwellers on
+the mainland of Lewis.
+
+The travelers sat down on a low block of gneiss to rest themselves,
+and then and there did the King of Borva recite his grievances and
+rage against the English smacks. Was it not enough that they should
+in passing steal the sheep, but that they should also, in mere
+wantonness, stalk them as deer, wounding them with rifle-bullets, and
+leaving them to die among the rocks? Sheila said bravely that no one
+could tell that it was the English fishermen who did that. Why not the
+crews of merchant-vessels, who might be of any nation? It was unfair
+to charge upon any body of men such a despicable act, when there was
+no proof of it whatever.
+
+"Why, Sheila," said Ingram with some surprise, "you never doubted
+before that it was the English smacks that killed the sheep."
+
+Sheila cast down her eyes and said nothing.
+
+Was the sinister prophecy of John the Piper to be fulfilled? Mackenzie
+was so much engaged in expounding politics to Ingram, and Sheila was
+so proud to show her companion all the wonders of Uig, that when they
+returned to Mevaig in the evening the wind had altogether gone down
+and the sea was as a sea of glass. But if John the Piper had been
+ready to foretell for Mackenzie the fate of Mackrimmon, he had taken
+means to defeat destiny by bringing over from Borvabost a large
+and heavy boat pulled by six rowers. These were not strapping young
+fellows, clad in the best blue cloth to be got in Stornoway, but
+elderly men, gray, wrinkled, weather-beaten and hard of face, who sat
+stolidly in the boat and listened with a sort of bovine gaze to the
+old hunchback's wicked stories and jokes. John was in a mischievous
+mood, but Lavender, in a confidential whisper, informed Sheila that
+her father would speedily be avenged on the inconsiderate piper.
+
+"Come, men, sing us a song, quick!" said Mackenzie as the party took
+their seats in the stern and the great oars splashed into the sea of
+gold. "Look sharp, John, and no teffle of a drowning song!"
+
+In a shrill, high, querulous voice the piper, who was himself pulling
+one of the two stroke oars, began to sing, and then the men behind
+him, gathering courage, joined in an octave lower, their voices being
+even more uncertain and lugubrious than his own. These poor fishermen
+had not had the musical education of Clan-Alpine's warriors. The
+performance was not enlivening, and as the monotonous and melancholy
+sing-song that kept time to the oars told its story in Gaelic, all
+that the English strangers could make out was an occasional reference
+to Jura or Scarba or Isla. It was, indeed, the song of an exile shut
+up in "sea-worn Mull," who was complaining of the wearisome look of
+the neighboring islands.
+
+"But why do you sing such Gaelic as that, John?" said young Lavender
+confidently. "I should have thought a man in your position--the last
+of the Hebridean bards--would have known the classical Gaelic. Don't
+you know the classical Gaelic?"
+
+"There iss only the wan sort of Kallic, and it is a ferry goot sort of
+Kallic," said the piper with some show of petulance.
+
+"Do you mean to tell me you don't know your own tongue? Do you
+not know what the greatest of all the bards wrote about your own
+island?--'O et praesidium et dulce decus meum, _agus_, Tityre tu patulae
+recubans sub tegmine _Styornoway_, Arma virumque cano, _Macklyoda_ et
+_Borvabost_ sub tegmine fagi?'"
+
+Not only John the Piper, but all the men behind him, began to look
+amazed and sorely troubled; and all the more so that Ingram--who had
+picked up more Gaelic words than his friend--came to his assistance,
+and began to talk to him in this unknown tongue. They heard references
+in the conversation to persons and things with which they were
+familiar in their own language, but still accompanied by much more
+they could not understand.
+
+The men now began to whisper awe-stricken questions to each other; and
+at last John the Piper could not restrain his curiosity. "What in ta
+name of Kott is tat sort of Kallic?" he asked, with some look of fear
+in his eyes.
+
+"You are not much of a student, John," said Lavender carelessly,
+"but still, a man in your position should know something of your own
+language. A bard, a poet, and not know the classical form of your own
+tongue!"
+
+"Is it, ta Welsh Kallic?" cried John in desperation, for he knew that
+the men behind him would carry the story of his ignorance all over
+Borvabost.
+
+"The Welsh Gaelic? No. I see you will have to go to school again."
+
+"There iss no more Kallic in ta schools," said the piper, eagerly
+seizing the excuse. "It iss Miss Sheila, she will hef put away all ta
+Kallic from ta schools."
+
+"But you were born half a century before Miss Sheila: how is it you
+neglected to learn that form of Gaelic that has been sacred to the use
+of the bards and poets since the time of Ossian?"
+
+There were no more quips or cranks for John the Piper during the rest
+of the pull home. The wretched man relapsed into a moody silence
+and worked mechanically at his oar, brooding over this mysterious
+language of which he had not even heard. As for Lavender, he turned to
+Mackenzie and begged to know what he thought of affairs in France.
+
+And so they sailed back to Borvabost over the smooth water that lay
+like a lake of gold. Was it not a strange sight to see the Atlantic
+one vast and smooth yellow plain under the great glow of saffron that
+spread across the regions of the sunset? It was a world of light,
+unbroken but by the presence of a heavy coaster that had anchored
+in the bay, and that sent a long line of trembling black down on the
+perfect mirror of the sea. As they got near the shore the portions
+that were in shadow showed with a strange distinctness the dark green
+of the pasture and the sharp outlines of the rocks; and there was a
+cold scent of seaweed in the evening air. The six heavy oars plashed
+into the smooth bay. The big boat was moored to the quay, and its
+passengers landed once more in Borva. And when they turned, on their
+way home, to look from the brow of the hill, on which Sheila had
+placed a garden-seat, lo! all the west was on fire, the mountains in
+the south had grown dark on their eastern side, and the plain of the
+sea was like a lake of blood, with the heavy hull and masts of the
+coaster grown large and solemn and distant. There was scarcely a
+ripple around the rocks at their feet to break the stillness of the
+approaching twilight.
+
+So another day had passed, devoid of adventure or incident. Lavender
+had not rescued his wonderful princess from an angry sea, nor had he
+shown prowess in slaying a dozen stags, nor in any way distinguished
+himself. To all outward appearance the relations of the party were the
+same at night as they had been in the morning. But the greatest crises
+of life steal on us imperceptibly, and have sometimes occurred and
+wound us in their consequences before we know. The memorable things
+in a man's career are not always marked by some sharp convulsion. The
+youth does not necessarily marry the girl whom he happens to fish out
+of a mill-pond: his future life may be far more definitely shaped for
+him at a prosaic dinner-table, where he fancies he is only thinking
+of the wines. We are indeed but as children seated on the shore,
+watching the ripples that come on to our feet; and while the ripples
+unceasingly repeat themselves, and while the hour that passes is but
+as the hour before it, constellation after constellation has gone by
+over our heads unheeded and unseen, and we awake with a start to find
+ourselves in a new day, with all our former life cut off from us and
+become as a dream.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+SHEILA SINGS.
+
+A knocking at Ingram's door.
+
+"Well, what's the matter?"
+
+"Will ye be goin' to ta fishin', Mr. Ingram?"
+
+"Is that you, Duncan? How the devil have you got over from Mevaig at
+this hour of the morning?"
+
+"Oh, there wass a bit breeze tis morning, and I hef prought over ta
+Maighdean-mhara. And there iss a very goot ripple on ta watter, if you
+will tek ta other gentleman to try for ta salmon."
+
+"All right! Hammer at his door until he gets up. I shall be ready in
+ten minutes."
+
+About half an hour thereafter the two young men were standing at the
+front of Mackenzie's house, examining the enormous rod that Duncan had
+placed against the porch. It was still early morning, and there was a
+cold wind blowing in from the sea, but there was not a speck of cloud
+in the sky, and the day promised to be hot. The plain of the Atlantic
+was no longer a sheet of glass: it was rough and gray, and far out an
+occasional quiver of white showed where a wave was hissing over. There
+was not much of a sea on, but the heavy wash of the water round the
+rocks and sandy bays could be distinctly heard in the silence of the
+morning.
+
+And what was this moving object down there by the shore where the
+Maighdean-mhara lay at anchor? Both the young men at once recognized
+the glimmer of the small white feather and the tightly-fitting blue
+dress of the sea-princess.
+
+"Why, there is Sheila!" cried Ingram. "What in all the world is she
+about at such an hour?"
+
+At this moment Duncan came out with a book of flies in his hand, and
+he said in rather a petulant way, "And it iss no wonder Miss Sheila
+will be out. And it wass Miss Sheila herself will tell me to see if
+you will go to ta White Water and try for a salmon."
+
+"And she is bringing up something from the boat: I must go and carry
+it for her," said Lavender, making down the path to the shore with the
+speed of a deer.
+
+When Sheila and he came up the hill there was a fine color in the
+girl's face from her morning's exertions, but she was not disposed to
+go indoors to rest. On the contrary, she was soon engaged in helping
+Mairi to bring in some coffee to the parlor, while Duncan cut slices
+of ham and cold beef big enough to have provisioned a fishing-boat
+bound for Caithness. Sheila had had her breakfast; so she devoted all
+her time to waiting upon her two guests, until Lavender could scarcely
+eat through the embarrassment produced by her noble servitude. Ingram
+was not so sensitive, and made a very good meal indeed.
+
+"Where's your father, Sheila?" said Ingram when the last of their
+preparations had been made and they were about to start for the river,
+"Isn't he up yet?"
+
+"My father?" said the girl, with the least possible elevation of her
+eyebrows--"he will be down at Borvabost an hour ago. And I hope that
+John the Piper will not see him this morning. But we must make haste,
+Mr. Ingram, for the wind will fall when the sun gets stronger, and
+then your friend will have no more of the fishing."
+
+So they set out, and Ingram put Sheila's hand on his arm, and took her
+along with him in that fashion, while the tall gillie walked behind
+with Lavender, who was or was not pleased with the arrangement. The
+young man, indeed, was a trifle silent, but Duncan was in an amiable
+and communicative mood, and passed the time in telling him stories
+of the salmon he had caught, and of the people who had tried to catch
+them and failed. Sheila and Ingram certainly went a good pace up the
+hill and round the summit of it, and down again into the valley of the
+White Water. The light step of the girl seemed to be as full of spring
+as the heather on which she trod; and as for her feet getting wet,
+the dew must have soaked them long ago. She was in the brightest of
+spirits. Lavender could hear her laughing in a low pleased fashion,
+and then presently her head would be turned up toward her companion,
+and all the light of some humorous anecdote would appear in her face
+and in her eloquent eyes, and it would be Ingram's turn to break out
+into one of those short abrupt laughs that had something sardonic in
+them.
+
+But hark! From the other side of the valley comes another sound, the
+faint and distant skirl of the pipes, and yonder is the white-haired
+hunchback, a mere speck in a waste of brown and green morass. What is
+he playing to himself now?
+
+"He is a foolish fellow, that John," said the tall keeper, "for if
+he comes down to Borvabost this morning it iss Mr. Mackenzie will
+fling his pipes in ta sea, and he will hef to go away and work in ta
+steamboat. He iss a ferry foolish fellow; and it wass him tat wass
+goin' into ta steamboat before, and he went to a tailor in Styornoway,
+and he said to him, 'I want a pair o' troosers.' And the tailor said
+to him, 'What sort o' troosers iss it you will want?' And he said to
+him, 'I want a pair o' troosers for a steamboat.' A pair o' troosers
+for a steamboat!--he is a teffle of a foolish fellow. And it wass him
+that went in ta steamboat with a lot o' freens o' his, that wass a'
+goin' to Skye to a big weddin' there; and it wass a very bad passage,
+and when tey got into Portree the captain said to him, 'John, where
+iss all your freens that tey do not come ashore?' And he said to him,
+'I hef peen down below, sir, and four-thirds o' ta whole o' them are
+a' half-trooned and sick and tead.' Four-thirds o' ta whole o' them!
+And he iss just the ferry man to laugh at every other pody when it iss
+a mistake you will make in ta English."
+
+"I suppose," said Lavender, "you found it rather difficult to learn
+good English?"
+
+"Well, sir, I hefna got ta goot English yet. But Miss Sheila she has
+put away all the Gaelic from the schools, and the young ones they will
+learn more of ta good English after that."
+
+"I wish I knew as much Gaelic as you know English," said the young
+man.
+
+"Oh, you will soon learn. It iss very easy if you will only stay in ta
+island."
+
+"It would take me several months to pick it up, I suppose?"
+
+"Oh, yes--nine or six--that will do," said Duncan. "You will begin to
+learn ta names o' ta islands and ta places. There now, as far as you
+can see is ta Seann Bheinn; and it means ta old hill. And there is a
+rock there: it is Stac-nan Balg--"
+
+Here Duncan looked rather perplexed.
+
+"Yes," said Lavender: "what does that mean?"
+
+"It means--it means," said Duncan in still greater perplexity, and
+getting a little impatient, "it means--_stac_, tat iss a steep rock:
+Stac-nan-Balg--it means--well, sir, _it is ower deep for ta English_"
+
+The tone of mortification in which Duncan uttered these words warned
+Lavender that his philological studies might as well cease; and indeed
+Sheila and Ingram had by this time reached the banks of the White
+Water, and were waiting Duncan and the majestic rod.
+
+It was much too bright and pleasant a morning for good fishing, but
+there was a fair ripple on the pools of the stream, where ever and
+anon a salmon fresh run from the sea would leap into the air, showing
+a gleaming curve of silver to the sunlight. The splash of the big
+fish seemed an invitation, and Duncan was all anxiety to teach the
+stranger, who, as he fancied, knew nothing about throwing a fly.
+Ingram lay down on a rock some little distance back from the banks,
+and put his hands beneath his head and watched the operations going
+forward. But was it really Duncan who was to teach the stranger? It
+was Sheila who picked out flies for him. It was Sheila who held the
+rod while he put them on the line. It was Sheila who told him where
+the bigger salmon usually lay--under the opposite bank of the broad
+and almost lake-like pool into which the small but rapid White Water
+came tumbling and foaming down its narrow channel of rocks and stones.
+
+Then Sheila waited to see her pupil begin. He had evidently a little
+difficulty about the big double-handed rod, a somewhat more formidable
+engine of destruction than the supple little thing with which he had
+whipped the streams of Devonshire and Cornwall.
+
+The first cast sent both flies and a lump of line tumbling on to the
+pool, and would have driven the boldest of salmon out of its wits. The
+second pretty nearly took a piece out of Ingram's ear, and made him
+shift his quarters with rapidity. Duncan gave him up in despair. The
+third cast dropped both flies with the lightness of a feather in the
+running waters of the other side of the pool; and the next second
+there was a slight wave along the surface, a dexterous jerk with the
+butt, and presently the line was whirled out into the middle of the
+pool, running rapidly off the reel from the straining rod.
+
+"Plenty o' line, sir, plenty o' line!" shouted Duncan in a wild fever
+of anxiety, for the fish had plunged suddenly.
+
+Ingram had come running down to the bank. Sheila was all excitement
+and interest as she stood and watched every slackening or tightening
+of the line as the fish went up the pool and down the pool, and
+crossed the current in his efforts to escape. The only self-possessed
+person, indeed, was Lavender himself, who presently said, "Miss
+Mackenzie, won't you take the rod now and have the honor of landing
+him? I don't think he will show much more fight."
+
+At this moment, however, the line slackened suddenly, and the fish
+threw himself clean out of the water, turning a complete summersault.
+It was a dangerous moment, but the captive was well hooked, and in his
+next plunge Lavender was admonished by Duncan to keep a good strain on
+him.
+
+"I will take the second one," Sheila promised, "if you like; but you
+must surely land your first salmon yourself."
+
+I suppose nobody but a fisherman can understand the generosity of the
+offer made by the young man. To have hooked your first salmon--to have
+its first wild rushes and plunges safely over--and to offer to another
+the delight of bringing him victoriously to bank! But Sheila knew. And
+what could have surpassed the cleverness with which he had hooked the
+fish, and the coolness and courage he showed throughout the playing of
+him, except this more than royal offer on the part of the young hero?
+
+The fish was losing strength. All the line had been got in, although
+the fore finger of the fisherman felt the pulse of his captive, as it
+were, ready for any expiring plunge. They caught occasional glimpses
+of a large white body gliding through the ruddy-brown water. Duncan
+was down on his knees more than once, with the landing-net in his
+hand, but again and again the big fish would sheer off, with just
+such indications of power as to make his conqueror cautious. At length
+he was guided slowly in to the bank. Behind him the landing-net
+was gently let into the water--then a quick forward movement, and a
+fourteen-pounder was scooped up and flung upon the bank, landing-net
+and all. "Hurrah!" cried Ingram, and Lavender blushed like a
+school-girl; and Sheila, quite naturally and without thinking, shook
+hands with him and said, "I congratulate you;" and there was more
+congratulation in her glad eyes than in that simple little gesture.
+
+It was a good beginning, and of course the young man was very much
+pleased to show Sheila that he was no mere lily-fingered idler about
+town. He buckled to his work in earnest. With a few more casts he soon
+got into the way of managing the big rod; and every time the flies
+fell lightly on the other side of the pool, to be dragged with gentle
+jerks across the foaming current of the stream. Ingram went back to
+his couch on the rock. He lay and watched the monotonous flinging
+back of the long rod, the light whistle of the line through the air,
+and the careful manipulation of the flies through the water. Or was
+it something else that he was watching--something that awakened in
+his mind a sudden sense of surprise and fear, and a new and strange
+consciousness that he had been guiltily remiss?
+
+Sheila was wholly preoccupied with her companion and his efforts. He
+had had one or two rises, but had struck either too soon or too late,
+until at last there was a terrific plunge and rush, and again the line
+was whirled out. But Duncan did not like the look of it, somehow. The
+fish had been sheering off when it was hooked, and the deep plunge at
+the outset was ugly.
+
+"Now will you take the rod?" said Lavender to Sheila.
+
+But before she could answer the fish had come rushing up to the
+surface, and had thrown itself out of the water, so that it fell on
+the opposite bank. It was a splendid animal, and Duncan, despite his
+doubts, called out to Ingram to slacken his hold. There was another
+spring into the air, the fish fell with a splash into the water, and
+the line was flying helplessly in the air, with the two flies floating
+about.
+
+"Ay," said Duncan, with a sigh, "it wass foul-hooked. It wass no
+chance of catching him whatever."
+
+Lavender was more successful next time, however, with a pretty little
+grilse of about half a dozen pounds, that seemed to have in him the
+spirit and fight of a dozen salmon. How he rushed and struggled, how
+he plunged and sulked, how he burrowed along the banks, and then ran
+out to the middle of the pool, and then threw himself into the air,
+with the line apparently but not really doubling up under him! All
+these things can only be understood by the fisherman who has played in
+a Highland stream a wild and powerful little grilse fresh in from the
+salt water. And it was Sheila who held him captive, who humored him
+when he sulked, and gently guided him away from dangerous places, and
+kept him well in hand when he tried to cross the current, until at
+last, all the fierceness gone out of him, he let himself be tenderly
+inveigled into the side of the pool, where Duncan, by a dexterous
+movement, surrounded him with network and placed his shining body
+among the bright green grass.
+
+But Ingram was not so overjoyed this time. He complimented Sheila in a
+friendly way, but he was rather grave, and obviously did not care for
+this business of fishing. And so Sheila, fancying that he was rather
+dull because he was not joining in the sport, proposed that he should
+walk back to the house with her, leaving Mr. Lavender with Duncan. And
+Ingram was quite ready to do so.
+
+But Lavender protested that he cared very little for salmon-fishing.
+He suggested that they should all go back together. The sun was
+killing the wind, and soon the pools would be as clear as glass. Had
+they not better try in the afternoon, when perhaps the breeze would
+freshen? And so they walked back to the house.
+
+On the garden-seat a book lay open. It was Mr. Mill's _Essay on
+Liberty_, and it had evidently been left there by Mr. Mackenzie,
+perhaps--who knows?--to hint to his friends from the South that he was
+familiar with the problems of the age. Lavender winked to Ingram, but
+somehow his companion seemed in no humor for a joke.
+
+They had luncheon then, and after luncheon Ingram touched Lavender
+on the shoulder and said, "I want to have a word with you privately.
+Let's walk down to the shore."
+
+And so they did; and when they had got some little distance from the
+house, Ingram said, "Look here, Lavender. I mean to be frank with you.
+I don't think it fair that you should try to drag Sheila Mackenzie
+into a flirtation. I knew you would fall in love with her. For a week
+or two, that does not matter--it harms no one. But I never thought
+of the chance of her being led into such a thing, for what is a mere
+passing amusement to you would be a very serious thing to her."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Well? Is not that enough? Do you think it fair to take advantage of
+this girl's ignorance of the world?"
+
+Lavender stopped in the middle of the path, and said, somewhat
+stiffly, "This may be as well settled at once. You have talked of
+flirtation and all that sort of thing. You may regard it as you
+please, but before I leave this island I mean to ask Sheila Mackenzie
+to be my wife."
+
+"Why, you are mad!" cried Ingram, amazed to see that the young man was
+perfectly serious.
+
+The other shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Do you mean to say," continued Ingram, "that even supposing Sheila
+would consent--which is impossible--you would try to take away that
+girl from her father?"
+
+"Girls must leave their fathers some time or other," said Lavender
+somewhat sullenly.
+
+"Not unless they are asked."
+
+"Oh well, they are sure to be asked, and they are sure to go. If their
+mothers had not done so before them, where would they be? It's all
+very well for you to talk about it and argue it out as a theory, but
+I know what the facts of the case are, and what any man in my position
+would do; and I know that I am careless of any consequences so long as
+I can secure her for my wife."
+
+"Apparently you are--careless of any consequences to herself or those
+about her."
+
+"But what is your objection, Ingram?" said the young man, suddenly
+abandoning his defiant manner: "why should you object? Do you think I
+would make a bad husband to the woman I married?"
+
+"I believe nothing of the sort. I believe you would make a very good
+husband if you were to marry a woman whom you knew something about,
+and whom you had really learned to love and respect through your
+knowledge of her. I tell you, you know nothing about Sheila Mackenzie
+as yet. If you were to marry her to-morrow, you would discover in six
+months she was a woman wholly different from what you had expected."
+
+"Very well, then," said Lavender with an air of triumph, "you can't
+deny this: you think so much of her that the real woman I would
+discover must be better than the one I imagine; and so you don't
+expect I shall be disappointed?"
+
+"If you marry Sheila Mackenzie you will be disappointed--not through
+her fault, but your own. Why, a more preposterous notion never entered
+into a man's head! She knows nothing of your friends or your ways of
+life: you know nothing of hers. She would be miserable in London, even
+if you could persuade her father to go with her, which is the most
+unlikely thing in the world. Do give up this foolish idea, like a good
+fellow; and do it before Sheila is dragged into a flirtation that may
+have the most serious consequences to her."
+
+Lavender would not promise, but all that afternoon various resolutions
+and emotions were struggling within him for mastery, insomuch that
+Duncan could not understand the blundering way in which he whipped
+the pools. Mackenzie, Sheila and Ingram had gone off to pay a visit
+to an old crone who lived in a neighboring island, and in whom Ingram
+had been much interested a few years before; so that Lavender had
+an opportunity of practicing the art of salmon-fishing without
+interruptions. But all the skill he had shown in the morning seemed to
+have deserted him; and at last he gave the rod to Duncan, and, sitting
+down on a top-coat flung on the wet heather, indolently watched the
+gillie's operations.
+
+Should he at once fly from temptation and return to London? Would
+it not be heroic to leave this old man in possession of his only
+daughter? Sheila would never know of the sacrifice, but what of that?
+It might be for her happiness that he should go.
+
+But when a young man is in love, or fancies himself in love, with a
+young girl, it is hard for him to persuade himself that anybody else
+can make her as happy as he might. Who could be so tender to her, so
+watchful over her, as himself? He does not reflect that her parents
+have had the experience of years in taking care of her, while he would
+be a mere novice at the business. The pleasure with which he regards
+the prospect of being constantly with her he transfers to her, and
+she seems to demand it of him as a duty that he should confer upon her
+this new happiness.
+
+Lavender met Sheila in the evening, and he was yet undecided.
+Sometimes he fancied, when their eyes met unexpectedly, that there
+was something wistful as well as friendly in her look: was she too
+dreaming of the vague possibilities of the future? This was strange,
+too, that after each of those little chance reveries she seemed to be
+moved by a resolution to be more than usually affectionate toward
+her father, and would go round the table and place her hand on his
+shoulder and talk to him. Perhaps these things were but delusions
+begotten of his own imaginings, but the possibility of their being
+real agitated him not a little, and he scarcely dared to think what
+might follow.
+
+That evening Sheila sang, and all his half-formed resolutions
+vanished into air. He sat in a corner of the curious, dimly-lit and
+old-fashioned chamber, and, lying back in the chair, abandoned himself
+to dreams as Sheila sang the mystic songs of the northern coasts.
+There was something strangely suggestive of the sea in the room
+itself, and all her songs were of the sea. It was a smaller room than
+the large apartment in which they had dined, and it was filled with
+curiosities from distant shores and with the strange captures made by
+the Borva fishermen. Everywhere, too, were the trophies of Mackenzie's
+skill with rod and rifle. Deer's horns, seal skins, stuffed birds,
+salmon in glass cases, masses of coral, enormous shells and a thousand
+similar things made the little drawing-room a sort of grotto; but it
+was a grotto within hearing of the sound of the sea, and there was no
+musty atmosphere in a room that was open all day to the cold winds of
+the Atlantic.
+
+With a smoking tumbler of whisky and water before him, the King of
+Borva sat at the table, poring over a large volume containing plans
+for bridges. Ingram was seated at the piano, in continual consultation
+with Sheila about her songs. Lavender, in this dusky corner, lay and
+listened, with all sorts of fancies crowding in upon him as Sheila
+sang of the sad and wild legends of her home. Was it by chance, then,
+he asked himself, that these songs seemed so frequently to be the
+lamentation of a Highland girl for a fair-haired lover beyond the sea?
+First of all she sang the "Wail of Dunevegan," and how strangely her
+voice thrilled with the sadness of the song!--
+
+  Morn, oh mantle thy smiles of gladness!
+  Night, oh come with thy clouds of sadness!
+  Earth, thy pleasures to me seem madness!
+  Macleod, my leal love, since thou art gone.
+        Dunevegan, oh! Dunevegan, oh!
+        Dunevegan! Dunevegan!
+
+It was as in a dream that he heard Ingram talking in a matter-of-fact
+way about the various airs, and asking the meaning of certain lines of
+Gaelic to compare them with the stiff and old-fashioned phrases of the
+translation. Surely this girl must have sat by the shore and waited
+for her absent lover, or how could she sing with such feeling?--
+
+  Say, my love, why didst thou tarry
+        Far over the deep sea?
+  Knew'st thou not my heart was weary,
+  Heard'st thou not how I sighed for thee!
+  Did no light wind bear my wild despair
+        Far over the deep sea?
+
+He could imagine that beautiful face grown pale and wild with anguish.
+And then some day, as she went along the lonely island, with all the
+light of hope gone out of her eyes, and with no more wistful glances
+cast across the desolate sea, might not the fair-haired lover come
+at last, and leap ashore to clasp her in his arms, and hide the
+wonder-stricken eyes and the glad face in his bosom? But Sheila sang
+of no such meeting. The girl was always alone, her lover gone away
+from her across the sea or into the wilds.
+
+  Oh long on the mountain he tarries, he tarries:
+    Why tarries the youth with the bright yellow hair:
+  Oh long on the mountain he tarries, he tarries:
+    Why seeks he the hill when his flock is not there?
+
+That was what he heard her sing, until it seemed to him that her
+singing was a cry to be taken away from these melancholy surroundings
+of sea and shore, and carried to the secure and comfortable South,
+to be cherished and tended and loved. Why should this girl be left
+to live a cruel life up in these wilds, and to go through the world
+without knowing anything of the happy existence that might have been
+hers? It was well for harder and stronger natures to withstand the
+buffetings of wind and rain, and to be indifferent to the melancholy
+influences of the lonely sea and the darkness of the northern
+winters; but for her--for this beautiful, sensitive, tender-hearted
+girl--surely some other and gentler fate was in store. What he, at
+least, could do he would. He would lay his life at her feet; and if
+she chose to go away from this bleak and cruel home to the sunnier
+South, would not he devote himself, as never a man had given himself
+to a woman before, to the constant duty of enriching her life with all
+the treasures of admiration and respect and love?
+
+It was getting late, and presently Sheila retired. As she bade
+"Good-night" to him, Lavender fancied her manners was a little less
+frank toward him than usual, and her eyes were cast down. All the
+light of the room seemed to go with her when she went.
+
+Mackenzie mixed another tumbler of toddy, and began to expound to
+Ingram his views upon deer-forests and sheep-farms. Ingram lit a
+cigar, stretched out his legs and proceeded to listen with much
+complacent attention. As for Lavender, he sat a while, hearing vaguely
+the sounds of his companions' voices, and then, saying he was a trifle
+tired, he left and went to his own room. The moon was then shining
+clearly over Suainabhal, and a pathway of glimmering light lay across
+Loch Roag.
+
+He went to bed, but not to sleep. He had resolved to ask Sheila
+Mackenzie to be his wife, and a thousand conjectures as to the future
+were floating about his imagination. In the first place, would she
+listen to his prayer? She knew nothing of him beyond what she might
+have heard from Ingram. He had had no opportunity, during their
+friendly talking, of revealing to her what he thought of herself; but
+might she not have guessed it? Then her father--what action might not
+this determined old man take in the matter? Would his love for his
+daughter prompt him to consider her happiness alone? All these things,
+however, were mere preliminaries, and the imagination of the young man
+soon overleapt them. He began to draw pictures of Sheila as his wife
+in their London home, among his friends, at Hastings, at Ascot, in
+Hyde Park. What would people say of the beautiful sea-princess with
+the proud air, the fearless eyes and the gentle and musical voice?
+Hour after hour he lay and could not sleep: a fever of anticipation,
+of fear and of hope combined seemed to stir in his blood and throb in
+his brain. At last, in a paroxysm of unrest, he rose, hastily dressed
+himself, stole down stairs, and made his way out into the cool air of
+the night.
+
+It could not be the coming dawn that revealed to him the outlines of
+the shore and the mountains and the loch? The moon had already sunk in
+the south-west: not from her came that strange clearness by which all
+these objects were defined. Then the young man bethought him of what
+Sheila had said of the twilight in these latitudes, and, turning to
+the north, he saw there a pale glow which looked as if it were the
+last faint traces of some former sunset. All over the rest of the
+heavens something of the same metallic clearness reigned, so that the
+stars were pale, and a gray hue lay over the sea, and over the island,
+the white bays, the black rocks and the valleys, in which lay a
+scarcely perceptible mist.
+
+He left the house and went vaguely down to the sea. The cold air,
+scented strongly with the seaweed, blew about him, and was sweet and
+fresh on the lips and the forehead. How strange was the monotonous
+sound of the waves, mournful and distant, like the sound in a
+seashell! That alone spoke in the awful stillness of the night, and
+it seemed to be telling of those things which the silent stars and the
+silent hills had looked down on for ages and ages. Did Sheila really
+love this terrible thing, with its strange voice talking in the night,
+or did she not secretly dread it and shudder at it when she sang
+of all that old sadness? There was ringing in his ears the "Wail of
+Dunevegan" as he listened for a while to the melancholy plashing
+of the waves all around the lonely shores; and there was a cry of
+"Dunevegan, oh! Dunevegan, oh!" weaving itself curiously with those
+wild pictures of Sheila in London which were still floating before his
+imagination.
+
+He walked away around the coast, seeing almost nothing of the objects
+around him, but conscious of the solemn majesty of the mountains and
+the stillness of the throbbing stars. He could have called aloud,
+"Sheila! Sheila!" but that all the place seemed associated with her
+presence; and might he not turn suddenly to find her figure standing
+by him, with her face grown wild and pale as it was in the ballad,
+and a piteous and awful look in her eyes? Did the figure accuse him?
+He scarcely dared look round, lest there should be a phantom Sheila
+appealing to him for compassion, and complaining against him with her
+speechless eyes for a wrong that he could not understand. He fled from
+her, but he knew she was there; and all the love in his heart went out
+to her as if beseeching her to go away and forsake him, and forgive
+him the injury of which she seemed to accuse him. What wrong had
+he done her that he should be haunted by this spectre, that did not
+threaten, but only looked piteously toward him with eyes full of
+entreaty and pain?
+
+He left the shore, and blindly made his way up to the pasture-land
+above, careless whither he went. He knew not how long he had been away
+from the house, but here was a small fresh-water lake set round about
+with rushes, and far over there in the east lay a glimmer of the
+channels between Borva and Lewis. But soon there was another light
+in the east, high over the low mists that lay along the land. A pale
+blue-gray arose in the cloudless sky, and the stars went out one by
+one. The mists were seen to lie in thicker folds along the desolate
+valleys. Then a faintly yellow whiteness stole up into the sky, and
+broadened and widened, and behold! the little moorland loch caught
+a reflection of the glare, and there was a streak of crimson here
+and there on the dark-blue surface of the water. Loch Roag began to
+brighten. Suainabhal was touched with rose-red on its eastern slopes.
+The Atlantic seemed to rise out of its purple sleep with the new
+light of a new dawn; and then there was a chirruping of birds over
+the heath, and the first shafts of the sunlight ran along the surface
+of the sea, and lit up the white wavelets that were breaking on the
+beach. The new day struck upon him with a strange sense of wonder.
+Where was he? Whither had gone the wild visions of the night, the
+feverish dread, the horrible forebodings? The strong mental emotion
+that had driven him out now produced its natural reaction: he looked
+about in a dazed fashion at the revelation of light around him, and
+felt himself trembling with weakness. Slowly, blindly and hopelessly
+he set to walk back across the island, with the sunlight of the fresh
+morning calling into life ten thousand audible things of the moorland
+around him.
+
+And who was this who stood at the porch of the house in the clear
+sunshine? Not the pale and ghastly creature who had haunted him during
+those wild hours, but Sheila herself, singing some snatches of a song,
+and engaged in watering the two bushes of sweetbrier at the gate. How
+bright and roseate and happy she looked, with the fine color of her
+face lit up by the fresh sunlight, and the brisk breeze from the sea
+stirring now and again the loose masses of her hair! Haggard and faint
+as he was, he would have startled her if he had gone up to her then.
+He dared not approach her. He waited until she had gone round to the
+gable of the house to water the plants there, and then he stole into
+the house and up stairs, and threw himself upon the bed. And outside
+he still heard Sheila singing lightly to herself as she went about her
+ordinary duties, little thinking in how strange and wild a drama her
+wraith had that night taken part.
+
+[TO BE CONTINUED]
+
+[Footnote 12: Pronounced _Argyud-chark_; literally, "hen-money."]
+
+
+
+
+MEDICAL EXPERT EVIDENCE.
+
+
+There is scarcely any position of more responsibility than that of
+the medical expert in cases of alleged poisoning. Often he stands with
+practically absolute power between society and the accused--the former
+looking to him for the proof of the crime and for the protection which
+discovery brings; the latter relying upon him for the vindication
+of his innocence. How profound and complete, then, should be
+his knowledge! how thorough his skill! how pure and spotless his
+integrity! how unimpeachable his results! Yet recently the humiliating
+spectacle has been repeatedly presented of expert swearing against
+expert, until the question at issue was apparently degraded into one
+of personal feeling or of professional reputation. So far has this
+gone that both judicial and public opinion seems to be demanding
+the abolition of expert testimony. The medical expert must, however,
+remain an essential feature in our criminal procedures, partaking as
+he does of the functions of the lawyer, inasmuch as he has, to some
+extent, the right to argue before the jury, partaking also of the
+judicial character in that it is his duty to express an opinion upon
+evidence, but differing from both judge and advocate in that as a
+witness he testifies to facts. Were the attempt made to do away with
+his functions, there would be an end to just convictions in the class
+of cases spoken of, because no one would be qualified to say whether
+any given death had been produced by poison or by a natural cause.
+
+In many matters that come under the notice of medical experts there is
+room for honest differences of opinion. Of such nature are questions
+of sanity and insanity. It must be remembered that these are, after
+all, _relative_ terms. Reason leaves its seat by almost imperceptible
+steps. Who can determine with exactness the line that separates
+eccentricity from madness--responsibility from irresponsibility?
+Moreover, the phenomena upon which opinion is based are, in such
+cases, so hidden, so complex, so obscure, that in the half-lights of a
+few short interviews they will often be seen differently by different
+observers.
+
+In scarcely any of its parts does toxicology belong to this class
+of subjects--certainly not at all in so far as it deals with mineral
+poisons. To a great extent it is a fixed science--a science whose
+boundaries may be widened, whose processes may be rendered more
+delicate, but whose principles are in great measure settled for ever.
+Not in the imperfections of the science, but in the habits of the
+American medical profession and in the methods of our criminal
+procedures, lies the origin of the evils complained of.
+
+Some of the causes of the present difficulties are readily to be seen.
+One is the common ignorance of legal or forensic medicine among the
+members of the profession. In none of our medical colleges is legal
+medicine taught as a part of the regular course or as an essential
+branch of study. Consequently, when the student graduates he has only
+heard a few passing allusions to the subject from professors of other
+branches. Unfortunately, this is more or less true of many other
+medical subjects of importance: helped out, however, by his mother
+wit, and impelled by necessity, the imperfectly-educated graduate
+after a time becomes very generally a skillful practitioner. During
+the period of growth his daily needs govern the direction of his
+studies, which are therefore more or less exclusively confined to the
+so-called practical branches. Forensic medicine is not one of these,
+poison cases are comparatively rare, and to be called upon to give a
+definite opinion upon such matters before a legal tribunal happens
+not once in the lifetime of most medical men. Consequently, to a great
+part of the American medical profession legal medicine is a veritable
+_terra incognita_.
+
+Moreover, the whole drift of modern medicine is toward a division
+of labor, and forensic medicine is more widely separated from the
+ordinary specialties of the science than these are from one another.
+In a case of delicate eye-surgery who would value the opinion of a
+man whose attention had been devoted mainly to thoracic diseases? What
+specialist of the latter character would even offer an opinion? Yet
+physicians who acknowledge that they have paid no especial attention
+to toxicology do not hesitate to give the most positive opinions upon
+the most delicate questions of that science. Men who would, as in
+honor bound, ask for a consultation in any case of serious sickness
+outside of their line of private practice, on the witness-stand put
+forth with the utmost boldness their ignorant crudities, careless
+or forgetful of the fact that they may be imperiling the life of an
+innocent human being. On the trial of Mrs. Wharton for the attempted
+murder of Mr. Van Ness, Dr. Williams asserted that there are
+peculiar characteristic symptoms or groups of symptoms of tartar
+emetic poisoning;[13] and both he and Dr. Chew--who with frankness
+acknowledged that he had not especially studied toxicology--did most
+positively recognize tartar emetic as the sole possible cause of
+certain symptoms which were but a little beyond the line of medicinal
+action, and for which obviously possible natural cause existed.
+Contrast these bold opinions with the cautious statement of a man
+who had given a lifetime of study to this particular subject. On the
+trial of Madeleine Smith, Professor Christison--at that time the first
+toxicologist of England--stated that if in any case the symptoms and
+post-mortem appearances corresponded exactly with those caused by
+arsenic, he should be led to _suspect_ poisoning.
+
+Another source of mischief lies in the fact that the law does not
+recognize the well-established principles of forensic medicine, and
+consequently the books in which these principles are laid down by the
+highest authorities are excluded by the courts, while the _viva voce_
+evidence of any medical man, however ignorant on such points, is
+admitted as that of an expert.
+
+It is therefore not to be wondered at that juries give but little
+consideration to the knowledge or professional standing of expert
+witnesses. It is, in fact, notorious that the medical autocrat of the
+village, who has superintended the entrance of the majority of the
+jurymen into this troublous world, is a more important witness than
+the most renowned special student of the branch: indeed, the chief
+value of the real expert often rests on his ability to influence the
+local physician.[14] At the late Wharton-Van Ness trial the defence
+desired to show that the work of the chemist employed by the
+prosecution was unreliable, because the analyses made by him in a
+previous case had "been condemned by the united voice of the whole
+scientific world." The court was not able to see the _relevancy_ of
+this, and refused to allow the professional ability or standing of an
+expert to be called in question. The witness thus adjudged competent
+brought no results into court; had kept no laboratory notes; relied
+solely on a memory so deficient that although he had been teaching for
+thirty-five years, he could not tell the shape of a crystal of tartar
+emetic, the poison in question; and upon the stand made a statement
+different from one which he had furnished officially to the district
+attorney of Baltimore fourteen months before.
+
+There are principles of toxicology which ought to have legal force
+and recognition, and ought to govern expert testimony in the same
+way that the principles of evidence govern ordinary testimony.
+Without presuming to enumerate these, I will cite two or three for
+illustration. Certain substances, the so-called irritant poisons, such
+as arsenic, tartar emetic and the like, induce their toxic effects
+by causing irritation and inflammation of the alimentary canal. All
+authorities agree that poisoning by these substances cannot be proved,
+or even rendered, very probable, by symptoms alone--that chemical
+evidence, the discovery of the poison in the food, dejections, or in
+case of death the body, is absolutely essential for making out a case.
+Irritation and inflammation of the alimentary canal occur so often
+and so suddenly from natural causes, which are sometimes apparent, but
+often hidden, that no especial weight can be attached to them.
+
+In the case of the so-called neurotic poisons, those which act upon
+the nervous system, the symptoms are so closely simulated by natural
+disease that even when they agree in the most absolute manner with
+those usually developed by any such poison they only render poisoning
+highly probable, not certain.[15] When in any case the symptoms
+diverge from the typical array, poisoning becomes improbable just in
+proportion to the amount of divergence.
+
+All toxicological authorities also agree that in the case of the
+metallic poisons, such as tartar emetic and arsenic, the metal must be
+brought into court, and that the so-called "color tests" are not to be
+relied on. When sulphuretted hydrogen is passed through solutions of
+these metallic substances colored precipitates are thrown down, which
+at one time were thought to be absolute proof of the existence of the
+poison in the original solution. But in the celebrated Donnal case,
+tried at Falmouth, England, in 1817, Dr. Neale saved the accused by
+showing that a decoction of onions, of which the deceased had eaten a
+short time before death, yielded similar precipitates to those relied
+upon by the prosecution as establishing the presence of arsenic in
+the stomach. In regard to tartar emetic, Dr. Taylor, in his work on
+medical jurisprudence, says: "Antimony in the metallic state is so
+easily procured from a small quantity of material that on no account
+should this be omitted. A reliance on a small quantity of a colored
+precipitate would be most unsatisfactory as chemical evidence." In
+defiance of all the authorities the prosecution, on the trial of Mrs.
+Wharton for the murder of General Ketchum, rested its proof of poison
+upon these color tests and their sequences. The defence, however,
+found that the counterparts of three out of the four so-called
+characteristic reactions were readily performed with the substances
+known to have been in the stomach of General Ketchum at the time of
+his death.
+
+Several cases of poisoning which have been tried recently in this
+State and Maryland have attracted much attention, and I propose now
+briefly to outline these, and show that the disgraceful scenes
+which have taken place were not due to deficiencies of toxicological
+science, but to the causes already spoken of.
+
+First in time among these _causes celebres_ was the Schoeppe case,
+the facts of which may be briefly summed up as follows: Dr. Schoeppe,
+a young German practicing medicine in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, became
+engaged to be married to a Miss Stennecke, a maiden lady of sixty
+years of age. Miss Stennecke was somewhat of an invalid, not often
+actually sick, but habitually distressed by dyspeptic symptoms, etc.
+On the morning of the 27th of January, 1869, feeling unwell, she sent
+for Dr. Schoeppe, who gave her an emetic. In the afternoon, according
+to the testimony of her maid, she was weak, but apparently not ill.
+Between 7 and 8 P.M., however, she became much worse, and her servant
+noticed that she was very drowsy, so that if left alone she would
+immediately fall asleep whilst sitting in her chair. Shortly after
+this she was put to bed, and was not seen again until the next morning
+about six o'clock, when she was found comatose, with contracted
+pupils, irregular respiration and complete muscular relaxation. Late
+in the afternoon of the same day she died quietly.
+
+Nothing was said about poisoning until some days afterward, when, a
+will having been produced in favor of Dr. Schoeppe, an accusation
+was made against him. The body of Miss Stennecke was exhumed, and
+underwent a post-mortem examination, which, for culpable carelessness
+and inexcusable omissions, stands unrivaled. Not a single organ in
+the whole body was thoroughly examined, and many of the more important
+parts were not looked at. Death, preceded by the symptoms exhibited
+in the case of Miss Stennecke, occurs not infrequently from insidious
+disease of the kidneys, yet these organs were not taken out of the
+body. The stomach was examined chemically by Professor Aiken of the
+University of Maryland, who reported that he had found prussic acid,
+and who testified on the trial that Miss Stennecke had received a
+fatal dose of that poison. When, however, his evidence was sifted, it
+was discovered that he had only obtained traces of the poison by the
+distillation of the stomach with sulphuric acid. As saliva contains
+ferrocyanide of potassium, out of which sulphuric acid generates
+prussic acid, the latter substance will always be obtained by the
+process adopted by Professor Aiken from any stomach which has in it
+the least particle of saliva. If, then, the professor did really get
+prussic acid, without doubt he manufactured it.
+
+Dr. Hermann, however, testified that Miss Stennecke, whom he saw on
+the morning of her death, must have died of a compound poison, because
+her eye looked like that of a hawk killed by himself some years before
+with a dose of all the poisons he had in his apothecary's shop. Dr.
+Conrad confirmed the assertion of Dr. Hermann, that Miss Stennecke
+could not have died from a natural cause, and testified that as the
+liver was healthy, therefore the kidneys must have been so too--a
+conclusion which could only have been evolved from his inner
+consciousness.
+
+In vain Professor Wormley protested, declaring that it was impossible
+Miss Stennecke could have been killed by prussic acid, because that
+poison always does its work in a few minutes, if at all, whereas Miss
+Stennecke lived nearly twenty-four hours after the alleged poisoning.
+What did it matter that Dr. Conrad had shown himself by his
+post-mortem examination ignorant of the first rudiments of legal
+medicine, and that Dr. Hermann was a village doctor of the olden
+type dragged into court from a mediaeval contest with the diseases of
+simple country-folk, while Professor Wormley had devoted his life to
+toxicology and achieved a world-wide reputation? What did it matter
+that the written words of all authorities upon such subjects in every
+land were in absolute accord with Dr. Wormley? Under the ruling--which
+has been reaffirmed at Annapolis--the settled principles of science
+were overborne by ignorant conjecture, and to the mockery of justice,
+to the deep disgrace of our commonwealth, Dr. Schoeppe was condemned
+to death upon evidence which, from the same bench, was subsequently
+stigmatized as being insufficient to warrant his commitment for trial.
+
+Three years of close confinement under the shadow of death followed.
+The governor refused a pardon, and Dr. Schoeppe heard the hammer
+driving the nails into his scaffold beneath the prison-window. He was
+measured for his coffin, but at the last moment was reprieved, and
+listened to the heavy thud as the drop fell and a man whose companion
+he was to have been on the scaffold was launched into eternity.
+Finally, moved by the incessant pleadings of Mr. Hepburn, the junior
+counsel, by the urgings of the public press, led by the Philadelphia
+_Evening Bulletin_, and by the protests of numerous scientific bodies,
+the legislature passed a special act granting Dr. Schoeppe a new
+trial. On this occasion the judge allowed the weakness of the expert
+testimony for the prosecution to be demonstrated, and chiefly as a
+result of this demonstration--of what has been called the "coarse
+brutality" of showing Dr. Conrad's ignorance--Dr. Schoeppe was
+acquitted.
+
+If the principles contended for in this article had been acknowledged,
+the processes and results in the case of Dr. Schoeppe would have been
+far different. In the first place, the post mortem would have been
+entrusted to some one qualified to make it--an expert in legal
+medicine--and very probably a natural cause for the death of Miss
+Stennecke would have been found. Such post mortem not having been
+made, the case, after Professor Aiken's analysis, would have been
+dropped, because it was impossible that prussic acid could have caused
+the death. Had, however, capable experts failed to detect a natural
+cause of death, a very serious case might have been made out against
+Dr. Schoeppe, even though the analyst had not found morphia in the
+stomach. The prosecution might have affirmed that the poison had been
+absorbed, and therefore was not in the stomach, and, for the support
+of the charge, relied upon the resemblance of the symptoms to those
+produced by morphia, and upon the absence of natural cause of death.
+
+A case which has acquired even more celebrity than the last is that of
+Mrs. Wharton of Baltimore. The chief facts, as developed at the first
+trial at Annapolis, are as follows: General Ketchum, a man of over
+middle age and usually in good health, was very much engaged in
+attending to matters of business at Washington throughout the entire
+day of the 24th of June, 1871. The weather was very hot, yet he walked
+about hurriedly and steadily, getting no dinner, and returning in
+the evening to Mrs. Wharton's at Baltimore about 9 P.M., where he
+ate a very hearty meal, consisting partly of raspberries. During the
+night he was heard to go down stairs several times. The next day he
+complained of feeling unwell, but took at bed-time a glass of lemonade
+with brandy, and during the night had some slight vomiting and
+purging. In the morning he complained of sick stomach and giddiness,
+and at Mrs. Wharton's earnest request[16] Dr. Williams was finally
+sent for, and on arriving at 4 P.M. found him sitting up and vomiting,
+and prescribed as for a slight attack of cholera morbus. The next
+morning General Ketchum thought himself so much better that he
+discharged his physician. He was, however, very drowsy during the
+day, and the evidence at the trial rendered it probable that he took
+laudanum on this day upon his own responsibility. In the evening
+he was found sleeping heavily upon the lounge, and again at Mrs.
+Wharton's request Dr. Williams was sent for, but did not think it
+worth while to come. The next morning Mrs. Wharton again sent for Dr.
+Williams, as General Ketchum was found still lying upon the lounge in
+a stupor. He remained in this state until his death, which took place
+in a convulsion at 3 P.M. He had had during the intervening period
+repeated convulsions, and about one o'clock had become very uneasy,
+uttering incoherent cries, but did not recover true consciousness. At
+the examination of the body, made the following morning, the spinal
+cord was not looked at: the inner membranes of the brain were found
+congested, and the brain-substance presented throughout "those dark
+points of blood which indicate passive congestion." No other lesions
+were found, and the stomach was handed for analysis to Professor
+Aiken, who in due time reported that he had "satisfied himself" of
+the existence of at least twenty grains of tartar emetic in it.
+
+It is highly probable that this official announcement had much
+influence upon the minds of Drs. Williams and Chew, with
+their colleagues, and it is very certain that by it and their
+representations was created the public belief in Baltimore that
+General Ketchum had been poisoned. The false analysis remained
+for months uncontradicted, and backed up as it was by the whole
+intellectual and moral force of the University of Maryland, it could
+scarcely happen otherwise than that public opinion should become
+so set and hardened that no testimony at the trial could affect it,
+especially as local pride and local prejudice came to its support
+when experts from other cities questioned the work of the Baltimore
+physicians.
+
+Mrs. Wharton's servants were first accused, but after a few days she
+was arrested, and with her daughter--who has clung throughout to her
+faith in her mother's purity and goodness--was thrust into a common
+felon's cell, with only the grated bars between her and the lowest of
+men in every stage of drunkenness and delirium. After nearly two weeks
+her lawyers obtained her removal to one of the better rooms of the
+jail, but it was months before anything was said in her favor.
+
+The trial opened on December 4, 1871, at Annapolis, and lasted nearly
+two months. The circumstantial evidence certainly went no farther than
+to render it probable that if General Ketchum died of poison it was
+administered by Mrs. Wharton. The State attempted to prove as a
+motive that Mrs. Wharton owed the deceased money. They were signally
+unsuccessful in this, however; so that a very intelligent member of
+the jury said to the writer since the trial, "Whether Mrs. Wharton
+did or did not poison General Ketchum, certainly the State completely
+failed to prove a motive." The defence admitted that Mrs. Wharton
+had bought tartar emetic near the time of the alleged poisoning,
+but proved that she was in the habit of using it externally as a
+counter-irritant, and that it was purchased in the most open manner,
+through a third party, not with the secresy that marks the steps of
+the poisoner.
+
+Thus the whole case centred in a rather remarkable degree upon the
+expert testimony, and the very point of it all was the chemical
+analysis. This is not the place to follow out in detail the scientific
+testimony, but only to point out some peculiarities of it. Almost
+all the medical witnesses for the prosecution were colleagues of
+Professor Aiken, none of them men of eminence in toxicological
+science--surgeons, physiologists, obstetricians, the whole faculty,
+trying apparently to hide the nakedness of their colleague. Never
+was strong language more justifiable than that of Mr. Hagner, when
+he said, "It seemed that the University of Maryland was on trial, and
+that blood was demanded to support it."
+
+After all, the testimony of most of these gentlemen amounted only to
+this: that they did not believe the death of General Ketchum could
+have occurred from natural causes. On the other hand, the numerous
+medical witnesses for the defence, unconnected by any bond of common
+interest, testified that natural causes, were sufficient to account
+for the death; many of them asserting that the case in all its
+symptoms and post-mortem appearances tallied precisely with the
+so-called fulminating form of cerebro-spinal meningitis, which was
+prevalent in Baltimore at the time of General Ketchum's death.[17]
+
+The medical witnesses for the defence further called attention to
+the fact that the symptoms of General Ketchum's illness were wholly
+different from those produced by tartar emetic, and some denied that
+the latter could have caused the sickness. The chemical evidence for
+the prosecution was triumphantly refuted. It was shown that antimony
+did not conform in its reactions with at least one of the tests,
+which Professor Aiken said his precipitates did; that almost all the
+other reactions could be closely simulated with ordinary organic
+bodies; that the processes used were those universally condemned by
+authorities; and that carelessness was everywhere so manifest in their
+conduction as to entirely vitiate any results. It was also proved that
+Professor Aiken had simply estimated the amount of tartar emetic in
+General Ketchum's stomach by the _ocular comparison_ of the _bulk of
+precipitates, neither of which could have been pure_, and _in neither
+of which was the existence of antimony really proved_. To weigh
+a precipitate was a labor not to be thought of when nothing more
+important than the life of a woman was involved: _guessing_ was all
+that such a trifling issue demanded!
+
+The most extraordinary event of this most extraordinary trial occurred
+when the chemists for the defence had completely broken down the
+testimony of Professor Aiken. With the knowledge, it is said, of at
+least one of the judges, without the presence of a representative of
+the defence, or even of a legal officer, the body of General Ketchum
+was secretly exhumed by the doctors who had shown themselves so eager
+for the execution of Mrs. Wharton. The viscera, which they removed,
+were put into the hands not of a chemist of national reputation,
+but of an individual who had been advanced from the position of
+hospital steward at Washington to that of professor of chemistry in
+a small local institute at Baltimore. This professor, when on the
+witness-stand, was singularly confused as to his weights and measures,
+and finally shared the ignominy of his predecessor. The defence had
+several chemists at Annapolis of world-wide reputation and unspotted
+integrity. If the prosecution really believed that General Ketchum had
+been poisoned, if they really did expect tartar emetic to be found,
+why did they not allow the presence of these gentlemen at the
+analysis, and thereby ensure the condemnation of Mrs. Wharton? The
+conviction is irresistible that they were _afraid of the truth_--that
+they were simply determined to procure the desired verdict at
+all hazards and by any means. Yet this was the procedure for the
+completion of which the court suspended the trial for two days,
+because, as Chief-Justice Miller stated from the bench, "it thought
+the ends of justice demanded it"! Is any further evidence needed of
+the strange ideas, of the perversion of truth and justice, which have
+grown out of the American method of using expert testimony?
+
+Before leaving this trial I desire to quote from advanced sheets of
+the edition of Dr. Taylor's great work on medical jurisprudence, now
+passing through the press. Reviewing the trial in London with that
+freedom from bias which the isolation of distance produces, he
+says: "The trial lasted fifty-two days, and an astonishing amount
+of evidence was brought forward by the defence and prosecution,
+apparently owing to the high social position of the parties, for there
+is nothing, medically speaking, which might not have been settled in
+forty-eight hours. The general died after a short illness, but the
+symptoms, taken as a whole, _bore no resemblance_ to those observed in
+poisoning with antimony; and but for the alleged discovery after death
+of tartar emetic in the stomach, _no suspicion of poisoning_ would
+probably have arisen.... The chemical evidence," he adds, "does not
+conflict with the pathological evidence, for _it failed to show_ with
+clearness and distinctness _the presence_ and proportion of poison
+said to have been found. The _evidence that antimony was really there_
+was not satisfactory, and that twenty grains were in the stomach
+wholly unproven."[18]
+
+What would have been the course of this trial if expert testimony were
+established upon proper principles? Professor Aiken having shown his
+complete incompetency in the Schoeppe case, the analysis would have
+been entrusted to some skillful chemist, who by failing to discover
+poison would have established the innocence of Mrs. Wharton, or by
+bringing positive results into court have ensured conviction; or,
+Dr. Aiken having made the analysis, and having broken all the laws of
+toxicological evidence, his testimony would have been ruled out, and
+the case dismissed because the bungling of the State's witness had
+destroyed the evidences of guilt or of innocence.
+
+In January, 1873, Mrs. Wharton was tried at Annapolis for attempting
+to poison Eugene Van Ness. The facts of the case are briefly as
+follows: Mr. Van Ness, whose relations with the Wharton family had
+been extremely intimate for many years, was a bank-clerk, but during
+the spring and early summer of 1871, besides attending to his regular
+duties, was employed in settling a large estate. He habitually rose
+early, often at 5 A.M., and generally worked until eleven o'clock at
+night. During this period he suffered from severe nervous headaches,
+and probably from other symptoms of an overworked nervous system, but
+on this point the testimony disagreed. His stomach is at all times so
+sensitive that brandy nauseates him. On the 19th of June, after taking
+some claret on an empty stomach at Mrs. Wharton's, he felt very
+badly, suffering from lightness of the head or giddiness and general
+wretchedness, with stiffness and numbness in the back of his neck.
+On the 20th he stopped at Mrs. Wharton's about 4 P.M., having eaten
+nothing for seven or eight hours, and took raspberries with cream,
+and drank claret. This claret, he stated, "had a taste like peach
+leaves."[19] Directly after this he had an attack similar to, but
+much more violent than, that of the day before. Some little time
+after this, whilst in a condition of profound relaxation, he took some
+brandy, and at once emptied his stomach by a single spasmodic effort
+of vomiting, with immediate relief. The weather was extremely hot
+during the whole time in which the various attacks here narrated took
+place.
+
+On the 24th of June, Mr. Van Ness rose at 5 A.M., but was forced to
+return to bed by a severe headache. At 9 A.M., after dressing, he
+said to his wife that he would not eat at home, but would stop at Mrs.
+Wharton's on his way to the office, to get a cup of her "nice black
+tea." A piece of toast was all he ate before his return to Mrs.
+Wharton's from the banking-house at 4 P.M. Mrs. Wharton then offered
+him some lager beer, and, partly at his own suggestion, put into it
+something out of a bottle labeled "Gentian Bitters." He found the
+liquid so bitter that he took but a part of it.[20]
+
+Shortly afterward Mr. Van Ness became partially blind, and was "seized
+with the same feeling of giddiness" as on the day before. After this
+he had convulsions, with unconsciousness, for which large doses of
+chloroform and chloral were given. During the attack the patient
+repeatedly said it was of the same character as the preceding ones,
+and referred the trouble to the pit of the stomach and to indigestion.
+
+The next morning (Sunday), about an hour after waking, he took some
+tea and toast, and in ten minutes was seized with nausea, followed by
+heartburn and retching, which lasted all day. On Monday morning some
+beef tea--two-thirds of a cupful--was given him, and in less than an
+hour as much more, which induced nausea with heartburn. In the evening
+he was roused, and more beef tea offered him, which he refused because
+the last dose had made him sick, and he was afraid this would have the
+same effect. He was, however, prevailed on to take it. After this he
+fell asleep, but in a short time woke up with violent nausea, burning
+at the pit of the stomach, and finally vomiting. Not until this
+occurred did he discover anything wrong with the beef tea: as he
+vomited it he found it had an acrid metallic taste.[21]
+
+The circumstantial evidence in the case did not amount to any more
+than, or indeed as much as, in the previous trial. It was distinctly
+admitted that no motive could be found, Mr. Van Ness testifying that
+the relations between himself and Mrs. Wharton were most friendly;
+that he held four thousand dollars of her government bonds, for
+which she had not even a receipt; that she depended upon him for the
+completion of her pecuniary arrangements for a contemplated trip to
+Europe; or, in other words, that she had nothing to gain and much to
+lose by his death, and that there was no conceivable emotional motive,
+such as hate, revenge or envy.[22]
+
+No attempt was made to prove that Mrs. Wharton had at any time in her
+possession strychnia, the poison alleged to have been used by her. As
+on the previous trial, the case centred upon the expert testimony, but
+there was no direct chemical evidence, neither the food, the matters
+vomited nor the bodily secretions having been examined. Some sediment
+found in a tumbler of punch was asserted by Dr. Aiken to consist
+largely of tartar emetic. This tumbler was not connected with Mrs.
+Wharton, except by being found at her house in a position where, in
+the language of one of the State's witnesses, "hundreds of persons"
+had access to it. It was carried about in the pocket of a lady
+inimical to Mrs. Wharton, and into at least one drug-store, before it
+reached Professor Aiken, whose analysis was as faulty as before. Any
+tartar emetic present in the sediment might have been procured in
+a pure form by the simple process of dialysis. The only apparatus
+necessary for this would have been a glass vessel divided into two
+compartments by a piece of hog's bladder stretched across it. These
+chambers having been partially filled with distilled water, and the
+sediment of the tumbler put into one of them, the tartar emetic
+would have left the other ingredients and passed into the second
+compartment. By taking the water out of this and evaporating it, the
+poison would have been obtained in a pure crystalline state, and might
+have been brought into court. But Dr. Aiken thought it sufficient for
+him to "satisfy himself:" as he stated on the witness-stand, he did
+not consider it his business whether other people were or were not
+satisfied. Consequently, the court was only favored with a memorized
+report of the color tests used by him, exactly as in the previous
+trial. One of the reactions which he said he obtained antimony does
+not conform to.
+
+Drs. Williams and Chew unhesitatingly stated on the witness-stand that
+they recognized poisoning as early as the Saturday of Mr. Van Ness's
+illness.[23] Yet they gave no antidote. They employed on Monday and
+Tuesday a treatment which, although well adapted to a case of natural
+disease presenting such symptoms, would in a case of poisoning have
+materially increased the risk to life. They did not save the matters
+vomited: they did not save the secretions, which would certainly
+have contained antimony if Mr. Van Ness had been poisoned as alleged.
+According to their testimony, Mr. Van Ness received six doses of
+poison on as many different days, four of the doses administered under
+their eyes; yet they gave no warning to the unfortunate victim or to
+his friends. If the theory they upheld be correct, that Mrs. Wharton
+poisoned both General Ketchum and Mr. Van Ness, the extraordinary
+spectacle was presented of one man lying dead in the house from the
+effect of poison, of another receiving day after day the fatal dose
+with the knowledge of the attending physician, yet no antidote given,
+no warning word put forth, no saving of the evidences of guilt! It
+would seem as though silence at a trial would best become gentlemen
+with such a record, yet they were the only experts who asserted that
+strychnia was the sole possible cause for the attack of the 24th of
+June, and tartar emetic of the subsequent attacks.
+
+The experts for the defence asserted that the convulsion of Saturday
+could not have been caused by strychnia or other known poison; that
+although the symptoms of the later attacks resembled those of tartar
+emetic poisoning, they were not identical with those usually produced
+by that drug; and that it was exceedingly improbable that these
+attacks were due to the poison named, because obvious natural causes
+for them existed.[24]
+
+The impropriety and total insufficiency of our methods of criminal
+prosecutions were very strongly shown by this trial. One member of
+the jury could barely write his name, and not more than one or two
+of them were in the lowest sense of the term educated; no record of
+the testimony was kept by the court, and none, except in the very
+beginning, by the jury, who must therefore have been guided chiefly
+by impressions, lawyers' speeches or newspaper records; the feeling
+amongst the populace, with whom the jurymen freely mingled, was so
+bitter that one of the experts was barred out of his lodgings at
+ten o'clock at night, openly because he was for the defence of Mrs.
+Wharton; the newspaper which circulated most largely in the place
+misrepresented the testimony, and devoted its columns to scurrilous
+attacks upon the integrity and professional ability of the medical
+witnesses for the defence. Yet under these influences, mazed and
+confused by the subtleties and partial statements of the lawyers,
+these twelve honest but ignorant men were called upon to decide
+between physicians offering precisely opposite opinions. It is well
+when this so-called administration of justice ends as a monstrous
+farce and not as a tragedy.
+
+The conduct of the Wharton-Van Ness trial would have been far
+different if the expert testimony had been what it ought to have
+been. If the excretions of Mr. Van Ness had been put in the hands of
+a properly-qualified chemist, by finding the metal antimony or by
+proving its absence he would at once have settled the case. As it
+is, there is no proper evidence of the guilt of Mrs. Wharton. The
+probabilities are in favor of her innocence, because the symptoms were
+certainly widely divergent from those induced by poison, if not, as I
+believe, absolutely incompatible with poisoning. The medical gentlemen
+who attended Mr. Van Ness, by destroying all the evidence, have made
+a just conviction and an absolute proving of innocence equally
+impossible.
+
+If it were necessary, further illustrations of the deficiencies of our
+criminal processes could be detailed. Some little time since, upon the
+chemical evidence of Professor Aiken, a poor colored woman was hung
+in Anne Arundel county, Maryland. She died protesting her innocence,
+and the general impression appears to be now that she did not commit
+the crime. A prominent member of the Maryland Bar told me recently
+of a case tried in that State, in which the accused, as he stated,
+certainly did kill the deceased with arsenic, yet in which, by showing
+the insufficiency of Professor Aiken's analysis of the stomach, he
+obtained the acquittal of the prisoner.
+
+It cannot be stated too strongly that the trouble is not in the
+science of toxicology, nor in the real students of it. So far as
+mineral poisons are concerned, any qualified expert will determine
+the question of poisoning with the unwavering step of a mathematical
+demonstration.
+
+The legal recognition of the true character and position of the
+expert, and of certain principles of medical jurisprudence, would
+probably improve the present status, but it is doubtful whether some
+other method of reform may not be more available. Professor Henry
+Hartshorne, at the last meeting of the American Medical Association,
+suggested that the court should appoint in poisoning cases a
+commission to collect the scientific testimony and make report on the
+same. This seems at first sight practicable, but suppose the court
+had appointed, as is not at all improbable they would have done,
+Professors Aiken and Chew and Dr. Williams as the commission in
+Mrs. Wharton's case? The result would certainly have been an unjust
+conviction.
+
+In Spain and some other countries of Europe the custom is to refer
+the case to the local medical society. If the opinion afterward given
+is unanimous, the court is bound by it; if any member object to the
+opinion, the case is referred to the medical society of the province;
+if the disagreement continue, the matter is brought before the chief
+society of the capital. Evidently, this plan would not work well here.
+In Prussia it was formerly, and may still be, the custom for an expert
+holding a fixed appointment under the government to investigate the
+case, and to send his report to the Royal Medical College of Prussia.
+A standing committee of this body, after investigating the matter,
+sent the original report, with their comments, to the ministry, by
+whom it was referred to a permanent commission of experts. The report
+of the latter body, with all the other papers, was finally sent to
+the criminal court. This method seems complicated, but it resulted in
+giving to Prussia the best corps of experts the world has ever seen,
+as well as the most eminent individual medical jurists.
+
+It is not, however, the object of the present paper to urge any
+especial method of reform, but to call attention to the need of
+it, and to show that the present evils do not grow out of the
+imperfections of medical jurisprudence, but out of the methods of our
+criminal procedures. Certainly, the matter needs investigation, and
+it is hardly possible but that some practicable means of relief could
+be devised by the deliberations of a mixed commission of lawyers and
+medical jurists of eminence.
+
+H.C. WOOD, JR., M.D.
+
+[Footnote 13: The utter absurdity of Dr. Williams's assertion is shown
+by the fact that on the first and second trials of Mrs. Wharton he
+affirmed that the violent convulsions, the extreme muscular rigidity,
+the retentive stomach, seen in the last day of General Ketchum's life
+were due to tartar emetic, and that to tartar emetic were due the
+excessive vomiting, the motionless prostration and muscular relaxation
+of Mr. Van Ness on the Sunday and Monday of his illness. Tartar emetic
+the sole possible cause of precisely opposite symptoms!]
+
+[Footnote 14: The parsimony of many legal authorities is an indication
+of their want of appreciation of the differences in men. Not
+rarely medical experts are forced to sue a borough or county for
+compensation, even when the fee has been agreed on beforehand. In
+Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, some time ago a woman was arrested
+on the charge of poisoning her mother-in-law, and the stomach of the
+deceased was sent to Professor Reese of this city for analysis. Warned
+by previous experience, he refused to make the analysis without a
+written agreement as to the fees. Nearly three months were spent by
+the authorities in vainly trying to get him to do it without such
+arrangement, and finally the stomach was returned unopened. During the
+whole of this time the poor woman, very probably innocent, was lying
+in prison with the dreadful charge hanging over her.]
+
+[Footnote 15: A very forcible illustration occurs to me from my own
+experience. I was once summoned to see a woman in the Philadelphia
+Hospital to whom an assistant nurse of bad character had been seen
+to administer laudanum. At the time of my arrival she was apparently
+suffering from the advanced stages of opium poisoning. I spent about
+five hours in trying to restore her. The nurse protested that she
+had given only the medicinal dose ordered by the doctor, but was
+not believed. After death we found thrombosis of the brain--a rare
+affection, leaving such minute traces behind it that a careless
+examination will always fail to detect them. This was one of the
+affections which, as I had stated on the witness-stand some months
+before the occurrence just narrated, might have caused the death of
+Miss Stennecke with symptoms resembling those of opium poisoning.]
+
+[Footnote 16: According to the testimony in both the cases of alleged
+poisoning by Mrs. Wharton, professional advice was called in at her
+request.]
+
+[Footnote 17: I think the general opinion of the profession has
+endorsed the position of the defence. It is very probable that General
+Ketchum did die of the disease named, but there are other affections
+of which he I may have died; and certainly there were no sufficient
+grounds for asserting that the facts of his case were inconsistent
+with natural disease. The truth is, disease is often so hidden, its
+manifestations so obscure, its stamp upon the tissues so faint, that
+rarely is a physician justified in asserting from the symptoms and
+a _partial_ negative post mortem, such as was performed on General
+Ketchum, that any given death could not have been due to a natural
+cause. Numerous cases of death from natural causes have occurred in
+which science has been apparently baffled. I have myself seen at least
+one sudden death in which a careful post mortem failed entirely to
+detect the cause.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Since writing the present paper I have been shown a
+private letter of Judge Pierce, written last April in regard to the
+first trial of Mrs. Wharton. After considerable solicitation the judge
+has allowed the publication of an extract from it, which I insert
+here as the words of one of our most eminent criminal jurists, He
+says: "I had made up my mind, when Dr. Williams's first testimony
+was concluded, that the case would fail. When Professor Aiken's
+examination was concluded it was beyond recovery. All efforts to
+secure a conviction after that were a waste of time and money. The
+case could have been safely for the defendant given to the jury on the
+testimony of the prosecution alone. If I had been sitting as a judge
+in the case, I would have instructed the jury at the close of the case
+for the State, if there had been no other testimony, that the evidence
+would not warrant a conviction. And I would have set aside the verdict
+if the jury had found the defendant guilty. I do not know the lady
+who was so wantonly charged with this crime, and I do not know of any
+case in the annals of criminal jurisprudence which, from the evidence
+submitted in the case, had so baseless a foundation for so grave a
+charge."]
+
+[Footnote 19: It is proper to state that Miss Wharton, in his
+presence, partook of the same claret, but perceived nothing peculiar
+either in its taste, as she told him at the time, or in its effects
+upon her afterward. According to Miss Wharton's testimony, Mrs.
+Wharton actually drank the claret left in the glass of Mr. Van Ness
+directly after he left the room.]
+
+[Footnote 20: This bottle was found in the house after the arrest of
+Mrs. Wharton, with compound tincture of gentian in it.
+
+I have outlined the circumstances as Mr. Van Ness told them. A
+peculiarity of this trial was the direct contradiction of witnesses.
+Mr. Van Ness for a long time refused to entertain the idea that Mrs.
+Wharton had poisoned him. Whilst he was being persuaded into this
+belief he sent for Mrs. Neilson, a prominent lady of Baltimore, with
+whom both he and Mrs. Wharton were very intimate, and dismissing his
+wife from the room had a private conversation with her. During this,
+according to Mrs. Neilson's testimony, he stated that Mrs. Wharton
+could not have poisoned him on the Saturday, because they had
+exchanged glasses when he complained of the bitterness of the one
+into which she had put the gentian. On the stand Mr. Van Ness flatly
+denied ever having said anything of the sort. In a point of such
+vital importance it is impossible to account for the contradiction by
+"failure of memory."
+
+Miss Neilson also contradicted Mr. Van Ness, and the act was in this
+case especially impressive from the manner in which it was done. Miss
+Neilson being on the stand, a dispute arose as to whether Mr. Van Ness
+had or had not previously made a sufficient denial for contradiction.
+To settle this, Miss Neilson left the stand: Mr. Van Ness went up and
+took the oath. Then the question was put, "Did you say so and so?" He
+answered, "I certainly did not." Miss Neilson returning to the stand
+immediately after this, the question was put to her. The court-room
+was in the deepest silence while in a low but audible voice she
+replied, "He did say it." The testimony of these ladies was in no
+degree shaken by a severe cross-examination.]
+
+[Footnote 21: An essential symptom of tartar emetic poisoning is
+purging as well as vomiting. Dr. Williams of course knows this. It
+is a singular circumstance that whilst Mr. Van Ness stated that his
+bowels were scarcely affected at all, Dr. Williams testified that
+there was frequent purging. No remedies calculated to arrest purging
+were employed by Dr. Williams, however, during the illness of Mr. Van
+Ness.]
+
+[Footnote 22: Mrs. Wharton's trip to Europe had been arranged and her
+passage engaged months before the occurrence of these events. If the
+theory of the State of Maryland, that she poisoned General Ketchum,
+be true, by poisoning Mr. Van Ness she placed herself in the position
+of the criminal who voluntarily and without motive destroys his means
+of escape. Either she was insane, or the asserted crimes were not
+committed.]
+
+[Footnote 23: It is well worthy of mention in this connection that Mr.
+I.G. Moale of Baltimore testified that he went for Dr. Chew on Sunday
+morning, on account of the sick stomach of Mr. Van Ness, and that Dr.
+Chew told him that the vomiting was the almost necessary result of the
+remedies used the day before--a truth which, previous to Mr. Moale's
+appearance in Annapolis, the experts for the defence had insisted
+upon. H. Clay Dallam also testified that Dr. Williams had told him
+on Saturday that the indisposition of Mr. Van Ness the day before had
+been a nervous attack from overwork. This opinion also was in absolute
+agreement with the opinion expressed by the experts for the defence.]
+
+[Footnote 24: The detailed reasons for this opinion will be given in
+a medical journal at the proper time. It is allowable here to state,
+however, that not one of the symptoms laid down by authorities as
+characteristic of strychnia poisoning was present in the attack of the
+24th of June, and that not one of the symptoms which characterizes the
+natural convulsion was absent. Further, there is a connection between
+the various portions of Mr. Van Ness's illness which is inconsistent
+with the theory advanced by the prosecution. Mr. Van Ness stated
+very positively that the attacks of the 19th, 20th and 24th of June
+commenced in the same way, with the same symptoms. Yet, according to
+the theory alluded to, they were the result of poisons which act in
+precisely opposite methods. On the other hand, the very simple natural
+explanation of the illness of Mr. Van Ness which was offered by the
+defence at the trial accounts for the unity and the diversity of the
+attacks, the basis of which, according to it, was over-susceptibility
+of the nervous system and of the stomach, produced by overwork and
+heat.]
+
+
+
+
+THE SWEET WATERS.
+
+
+The denizens of great cities, whose weary eyes are doomed to rest
+eternally on long rows of buildings, unrelieved by anything softer
+or fresher than brownstone or marble fronts, thirst for an occasional
+glimpse of Nature, so healing to jaded mind and wearied body. So
+universal is this sentiment that provision for gratifying it is not
+confined to the cities which our modern civilization has reared, nor
+do the capitals of Christendom alone boast of their parks and similar
+places of resort. In effete and uncivilized Turkey the "institution"
+has long been established, and still flourishes; and the "Sweet Waters
+of Constantinople" draw quite as well, as regards both male and female
+visitors, as either Fairmount, Central or Hyde Park, or even the Bois
+de Boulogne, to which far-famed resort of all that is wise, wicked or
+witty in Paris these Turkish parks most nearly assimilate.
+
+One of the two "Valleys of the Sweet Waters" is on the European,
+the other on the Asiatic, side of the Bosphorus. The former is more
+frequented by the Greek and other Christian populations, while the
+latter is chiefly resorted to by the higher classes among the Turks
+and the veiled ladies of their hareems, and is often visited by the
+sultan himself.
+
+To the Asiatic Sweet Waters you must go by boat, or rather by
+_caique_, a peculiar little frail cockle-shell of a conveyance, rowed
+by the most truculent-looking and unmitigated ruffians, Turkish
+or Grecian, to be found on any waters or in any land, Christian or
+heathen. Picturesque in costume and exceedingly ragged and dirty,
+with the most cut-throat expression of face possible to conceive of,
+when you entrust your person and purse to their tender mercies you
+involuntarily remember with satisfaction that you insured your life
+for a good round sum before leaving your native country, and that this
+is one of the risks it covers.
+
+To the European Sweet Waters you may go by carriage, but if wise will
+go there also by caique; for even the corduroy roads of our Southern
+country, so famous for their dislocating qualities, can be paralleled
+by the so-called road over which once (and once only), for our sins,
+we suffered ourselves to be shaken, not driven. It is the fashion at
+Constantinople to visit the Asiatic Sweet Waters only on Friday (the
+Mussulman Sabbath), and the European Sweet Waters on Sunday; and
+on those days all that may be seen of Turkish ladies is on full
+exhibition.
+
+If you select the Asiatic Sweet Waters for your visit, you go down to
+the wharf at Tophane, where the rival boatmen (caiquejees) raise as
+loud a din and make as fierce a fight for your person and piastres as
+you ever encountered on your arrival at New York in a European steamer
+from rival hack-drivers or hotel "touters." Pulled, pushed and shoved
+about in all directions as fiercely as ever was the body of Patroclus
+in the _Iliad_, when Greek and Trojan contended for possession of it,
+you are at last hustled into a caique, and deposited in the bottom
+on soft cushions, your back supported by the end of the boat, your
+face to the two boatmen. The caique is gayly ornamented and pretty
+to look at, but it is the crankiest and tickliest of all nautical
+inventions--more resembling a Canadian birch-bark canoe than any other
+craft you are acquainted with. Admiring the view, you partially rise
+up and lean your elbow on the side of the boat. A warning cry from
+your boatmen and a sudden dip of your frail bark, which almost upsets
+you head-foremost to feed the fishes of the Bosphorus, admonish you
+to sit quietly, and you can scarcely venture to stir again during
+the long row. The caique is long and very narrow, and sharp at both
+ends--pointed, in fact. It is boarded over at these ends to prevent
+shipping seas. These planks are prettily varnished, with gilded rails,
+which give the boat a gay look.
+
+The men row vigorously, and the frail skiff skims along the water at
+a rate of speed equal to an express-train. But the rushing of the
+rippling waters past the boat is the chief indication of the rapidity
+of our progress, so smoothly do we glide along. One peculiarity of the
+caique is that there are no rowlocks for the oars, which are held by a
+loop of leather fastened on the boat.
+
+All the senses are soothed and steeped in Elysium during this rapid
+transit. The eye lazily runs over the squat-looking red houses with
+flat roofs which line the shore, to rest on the dark cypress trees
+which fill the intervening spaces, with the gilded balconies of
+some pleasure-palace of sultan or high Turk catching the sight
+occasionally. Caiques similar to your own are darting about in all
+directions, following, passing or meeting you, until at length you
+reach your destination, indicated by the crowd of caiques tied up
+there, like cabs on a grand-opera night waiting for their customers.
+Those of high Turkish functionaries or foreign ambassadors are very
+different from yours--as different as a coach-and-four from a common
+cab. Many of these have twelve rowers, all in fancy uniforms--red
+fezzes and jackets embroidered with gold--while the larger caiques are
+profusely and expensively ornamented.
+
+Stepping ashore, you see a long line of carriages drawn up in several
+rows, and of every conceivable variety--from the Turkish araba to the
+most coquettish-looking Parisian coupe--gilded and adorned in a style
+to make a French lorette stare with amazement at a lavishness of
+expenditure exceeding her own.
+
+The fair ones to whom these carriages belong may be seen in the
+distance squatting down on rugs spread out beneath the trees,
+and sipping coffee or sherbert while listening to musicians or
+story-tellers. You stroll toward them as near as their attendant
+guardians--grim-looking black eunuchs armed to the teeth, and quite
+ready to use those arms with very little provocation on the persons
+of any "dogs of infidels" who may interfere or seem to interfere with
+their fair charges--will permit. You see bundles of the gayest colored
+silks worn by women whose veils are thin as gossamer, and generally
+permit a very fair view of their charms, not only of face, but of
+bust as well. The bold black eyes of the caged birds flash out
+unshrinkingly on the strangers, who inspire curiosity, and not always
+aversion, if the language of those eyes be interpreted according to
+the Western code. In fact, the women seem to take a malicious pleasure
+in annoying their guards by encouraging such advances as can be made
+by the mute language of looks and signs.
+
+Every Friday in the year the same pantomime is performed. The women
+go to the Sweet Waters to sit and stare at men whom they do not and
+never will know or speak to, and the men go to walk or waddle about
+and stare back at the women in the same way. This monotonous and
+melancholy pastime is varied by much stuffing of sweetmeats and cakes
+and sipping of colored beverages by the fair ones, and endless smoking
+by the men. There are strolling jugglers and musicians plying their
+trades for the amusement and paras of the public, and they are
+liberally patronized in the dreary dearth of amusement on these
+pleasure-grounds.
+
+To the foreigner, after the sight has been seen a few times and
+divested of its novelty, the whole thing becomes tedious in the
+extreme; but we must remember that in his tastes the Turk is the very
+opposite of the Western man, and what would be death to us is fun
+to him. His idea of true enjoyment is that it should be passive, not
+active: his highest happiness is in "keff," a perfect repose of mind
+and body--an exaggeration of the Italian _dolce far niente_. This keff
+he enjoys at these weekly meetings, and the women in their way enjoy
+it too as the only public exposition of themselves they are permitted
+to make, and as a break in the monotony of their dreary and secluded
+lives.
+
+But there is another mode of killing time there, evidently borrowed,
+as are the carriages, from Europe. The conveyances at intervals are
+driven round a circular road in two long files, going and coming, to
+permit people to stare at each other, just as in London, Paris or New
+York, minus the salutations to friends or conversation. As the poet
+says of the stars--
+
+                     In silence all
+  Move round this dark terrestrial ball,
+
+though the women, while sitting under the trees, chatter like magpies
+to one another. The etiquette is to recline languidly back in the
+carriage and speak through the eyes alone to the mounted cavaliers,
+who prance as near the carriages containing veiled inmates as the
+sable guards will permit, to the infinite amusement of Fatima and
+Zuleika, and boundless wrath and disgust of Hassan or Mustapha, "with
+his long sword, saddle, bridle, etc."
+
+Two of these carriages are so peculiar to the place and people as
+to merit description. One of these, the "araba," is an heirloom
+from their old Tartar ancestry, and is only an exaggerated ox-cart
+with seats, and a scaffolding of poles around it. Over these poles
+there hangs a canopy of red to keep off the sun, and the seats are
+well-stuffed cushions, making a kind of bed of the bottom of the
+wagon. Into this curious conveyance are piled promiscuously the
+mother, children and slaves of the establishment--packed in as tightly
+as possible; and the contrast of costumes, faces, colors and ages
+between its occupants may be imagined, but cannot be described. For a
+genuine old-fashioned family carriage commend us to the araba.
+
+This curious conveyance is drawn not by horses, but by white oxen,
+whose broad fronts are pleasingly painted between the eyes bright red
+with henna, the dye with which the Turkish ladies tinge their own fair
+hands and the soles of their feet. The oxen bear high wooden yokes
+covered with fringes and tassels, and their tails are often looped up
+with bright cords. Their pace, bearing their heavy burden of wood and
+flesh, is slow and stately, and the jolting of the springless wagon
+over the rough roads seemingly very severe. But the inmates seem
+used to their discomforts, and sit placidly and contentedly on their
+uneasy seats, apparently proud of their turn-out and the effect
+they are producing. These cumbrous vehicles are much affected
+by the elder ladies of the sultan's court, who constitute the
+Faubourg-Saint-Germain portion of society. True old-school Turks
+these, who look down with scorn on the new fashions, both in costume
+and carriage, stolen or adopted from the despised Franks.
+
+Chief and most conspicuous of these latter is the small imitation
+brougham or coupe, termed a "teleki," and generally built at Paris
+regardless of cost, and resembling a Christian carriage about as
+nearly as the Turk resembles a European when he puts on a similar
+dress. The teleki is pumpkin-shaped, almost round, painted and gilded
+in the gayest colors, with large bunches of the brightest flowers
+painted on panels and on the glasses which shut it in all round. It
+is the most dazzling carriage the imagination of carriage-makers ever
+devised, and well adapted to the taste of the grown-up children it is
+intended for, who, clad in raiments of rose-color, pink, bright blue
+or scarlet, seem a fit lining for the gorgeous exterior. Unlike the
+French carriage, the teleki has no springs; so the exercise these fair
+ladies get is about equal to that of a ride on a hard-trotting horse.
+
+Another peculiarity consists in the driver's dismounting from his box
+and walking gravely alongside the carriage, holding in his hands the
+colored silken reins to guide the well-bred horses.
+
+On horseback alongside prance the ill-favored eunuchs, ready to
+swear at or smite the insolent Frank venturing too near the moon-eyed
+beauties in the teleki.
+
+At these Sweet Waters the sultan has his own kiosk, a gilded
+monstrosity of architecture, and at its window, worn, pallid, haggard,
+gazing out with lacklustre and indifferent eye upon the scene below,
+this shadow of the Prophet might frequently be seen a few years since.
+It was etiquette for him to come sometimes, so he did it as a duty,
+not a pleasure; for the poor man had no pleasures, being the most
+utterly _blase_ man in this wide world. The drawback on all his pomp
+and power is the condition annexed to it, that no one is worthy of
+his society, and he must be ever alone, in public as in private. A
+representative of the faith as well as of the loyalty of his people,
+no one can be supposed to meet or associate with him on terms
+approaching equality, and hence his isolation from human sympathy or
+society.[25]
+
+The fountain is covered by a square roof, and all around it are marble
+slabs with Turkish inscriptions in gilt letters praising the virtues
+of the water. In that scriptural phraseology so common in the East you
+are notified that "These waters are as sweet as those of the well of
+Zemzem, of which Abraham drank, and like unto those of the rivers
+of Paradise to the hot and thirsty who come here to taste them." The
+water was really very good water, but its praises struck us as rather
+hyperbolical, possibly because the Frank at Constantinople generally
+drinks and prefers other and more potent beverages.
+
+But drinking the water is the least part of the performance here, and,
+unlike Saratoga, "flirtation around the spring" is a thing undreamed
+of where the sexes, at peril of life and limb, dare not even
+approximate, much less exchange courtesies over the draught.
+
+There is a narrow road which leads you away from this busy spot to
+the sources of the fountains of these Sweet Waters. But road-making
+is not one of the triumphs of Turkish skill, and this is a very dirty
+and dusty road, full of holes which would smash the springs of any
+conveyances less primitive and strong than those in use. It is hedged
+in by fig trees growing to a size which would astonish those who have
+only seen the dwarf trees of the species which we possess. Passing
+along this road, we reach the inner valley. Here we find fewer people,
+but the same astonishing variety of race and costume which makes the
+other so curious and characteristic. The richness of the silk and
+satin dresses, all of the brightest colors, which adorn the women,
+and the gayly-embroidered jackets of the men, make the eyes ache which
+gaze upon them. Almost every specimen of the Eastern races may be
+seen here--all taking their pleasure in the same indolent way which
+distinguishes Eastern enjoyment. The Circassian and Georgian women
+are certainly very beautiful, as far as regularity of features, bold
+flashing eyes and great symmetry of form can make them; but they lack
+expression, the highest feminine charm, and softness is alien to those
+bold beauties. They remind you of Jezebel, and like her they "paint
+their faces" before going into public. Not only do they smear their
+faces freely with white and red, but they also join together their
+eyebrows by a thick black band of _kohl_, and with the same pigment
+blacken the lower lids of the eyes, giving a wicked and peculiar
+expression to the eyes. The tips of the fingers are stained red
+with henna; and without these appliances no Eastern woman deems her
+toilette complete. Many of them would doubtless be exceedingly lovely
+were they to let themselves alone, but Turkish taste requires these
+appliances, and an unpainted woman is a rarity.
+
+It is an Eastern saying that a woman should be a load for a camel, and
+in deference to this taste they fatten themselves up until they become
+mountains of flesh. Where obesity is considered a charm, delicacy of
+outline ceases to be regarded, and a woman who has not rotundity is
+regarded as an unfortunate being. They are decidedly the greatest
+collection of well-fed females to be seen in the world.
+
+The task of the black guards who accompany these houris is anything
+but a sinecure, and "nods and becks and wreathed smiles" are freely
+bestowed on the male passers-by in spite of etiquette and eunuchs. If
+the scandalous chronicles of the coffee-shops and bazaars are to
+be relied upon, "Love laughs at locksmiths" here as well as in more
+civilized lands, and Danger and Opportunity wink at each other. There
+is far less decorum and outward reserve of manner here than in our
+parks, but this freedom is all confined to looks and gestures, access
+and converse being both forbidden.
+
+Frequently, however, the bad-tempered guardians of the hareem commit
+outrages on the persons of real or supposed aggressors in this way,
+and from these even members of the foreign embassies have not always
+been exempt. The difficulty of identifying the offender in such cases
+enhances the impunity of these wretches, for to arrest one on the spot
+would be impossible in the midst of a crowd which sympathizes with
+the offender, instead of the sufferer, and looks upon it as a proper
+punishment for the insolent Giaour. A private person unconnected with
+an embassy has still less chance for satisfaction, but must pocket the
+affront, even if smitten by whip or flat of sabre, considering himself
+fortunate to have escaped maiming or mutilation should he incautiously
+give a pretext for Ethiopian or Nubian intervention.
+
+Few persons of foreign birth and training would go more than twice
+to visit the Sweet Waters of Asia, whose peculiarities and amusements
+have been thus briefly sketched. The spectacle at the European Sweet
+Waters differs somewhat from the routine already described. There,
+although you also meet the Turks, the greater proportion of the
+visitors are either Greeks or native Christians of different races.
+You see fewer arabas and telekis, and more carriages, or rather hacks,
+and men galloping along on raw-boned horses in a kind of imitation
+"Rotten-Row" style. The men wear the European dress, often surmounted
+by the red fez: the women dress in an insane imitation of French
+fashions, and glitter with jewelry--a passion with Eastern women of
+all races and creeds. Frequently a woman carries her whole fortune
+and her husband's in these ornaments, which, in a country where the
+difference between _meum_ and _tuum_ is so little observed by persons
+in authority, is regarded as the safest mode of investment.
+
+The European Sweet Waters are rather more dull and less interesting
+than the Asiatic, owing to the causes already described, nor is
+compensation to be found in the superior beauty of the women; for,
+as a general rule, the Greek men are better looking than the women;
+and the intercourse between the sexes is regulated on the Eastern
+plan to a very great extent, though there is not the same absolute
+prohibition, nor the same peril attendant on the attempt to open an
+acquaintance. In all Eastern countries, however, the position and
+treatment of woman are modified by the prevailing prejudice, which
+places her on a much lower level than the man, and deprives her of
+most of the cherished privileges of her more favored Western sisters.
+If the Turk has failed in forcing his religious faith on his Christian
+vassals, he has succeeded in fixing the social status of their women
+on much the same basis as his own.
+
+The day selected for visiting the European Sweet Waters by the native
+or Greek population is either Sunday or on the festival of some one
+of the many saints whose names are legion in the Greek calendar. Never
+was there a people so fond of holidays, or who take them oftener under
+religious pretexts. Yet they celebrate them in anything but a pious
+manner. Their fasts are much fewer and not so punctiliously observed.
+
+As the restriction on intoxicating beverages is not such a cardinal
+article of faith at the European as at the Asiatic Sweet Waters,
+that element enters into the diversions at the former place, to the
+frequent scandal of the decorous and abstemious Turks. The fiery
+wines of Sicily and the Greek islands are freely indulged in, and
+tipsy cavaliers, caracoling on the hacks of Pera and Galata, are not
+infrequent accessories, aggravating the danger and discomfort to the
+stranger of the return in carriage or on horseback. The roughness of
+the road, its heat and dust, are bad enough; but to aggravate these
+discomforts you have a crowd of hacks and a swarm of cavaliers
+pursuing the same route, with all the collisions inevitable from
+unskillful coachmen and tipsy riders. It is a long, dreary drive too,
+with no scenery worth looking at on the route, even could you discern
+it through the dense clouds of dust which envelop you from its
+commencement to its close. When you reach your hotel you take a bath
+to refresh yourself, and go down to supper, exclaiming with a sigh of
+relief, "Well, thank Heaven! I have seen the Sweet Waters!"
+
+EDWIN DE LEON.
+
+[Footnote 25: This rule was observed by Abdul Medjid, the late sultan,
+of whom I speak. It is said that his successor has broken through this
+restriction to a considerable extent, and is a social being.]
+
+
+
+
+MADEMOISELLE STYLITES.
+
+
+I.
+
+The discussion between Mr. John Woodstock and his sister was becoming
+animated, and their aunt, who never could understand the difference
+between a discussion and a quarrel, was listening anxiously, expecting
+every moment to see Marjory flounce out of the room at one door, and
+John at the other, in their respective furies. It began in this way:
+John had just read a notice of an extraordinary concert to come off
+the next week, and had pushed the paper over to Marjory, with the
+remark, "Like to go, Peg?"
+
+_She_. Of course I should like to go! You don't mean to say you have
+tickets for it? (Excitedly.)
+
+_He_. No, of course I don't: I am not a thief.
+
+_She_. No, you are only the next thing to it--a shabby fellow. Why did
+you ask me in that way when you knew we couldn't go?
+
+_He_. How you do jump at lame and impotent conclusions! Who said we
+could not go? I am sure I did not.
+
+_She_. John Woodstock, if you don't stop this, and tell me what you
+mean, I will never make you another shirt!
+
+_He_. Small loss! Of all mean things, a homemade shirt is the meanest;
+and why a man of my native nobility of character should be condemned
+to wear them--
+
+_Their aunt_ (distressedly). Children! children!--
+
+_He_ (soothingly). Never mind, aunty: she did not mean it. She would
+not put it out of her power to say that she had made every shirt I
+ever wore for all the mines of Golconda.
+
+_She_. What a small potato you are!
+
+_He_. Now, my dear Marjory, how often must I tell you that calling a
+fellow names is not arguing? If you could keep from being abusive for
+five minutes, you might hear of something to your advantage. I have
+a little money, for a wonder, but it is like the turkey--too much for
+one, and not enough for two. You cannot go by yourself, for it is an
+evening affair; but if you were not so frightfully vain about your
+personal appearance, I think we could manage it. I heard you say
+yesterday that you had the money for a new pair of gloves: if you will
+sacrifice them, we can go, and in two weeks I can give you the gloves
+besides. I can't before, for my princely income is at present heavily
+mortgaged. Can you furbish up your old ones till then, and thereby
+prove yourself sensible for once?
+
+_She_. You are a pretty good boy, after all; but really I have not a
+decent pair to my name: that last pair of light ones got lemonade all
+over them, and it took the color out, of course.
+
+_He_. Now I'll tell you what! I can take them for you on my way down
+town, and leave them to be dyed, and then you can do some fancy-work
+on their backs; and what more do you want?
+
+_She_ (doubtfully). But would black gloves do?
+
+_He_ (conclusively). Of course they would for a thing like that. Fetch
+them out, and be quick about it; and bring your money too, for I
+had better buy the tickets this morning, and then we shall have some
+choice as to seats.
+
+So it was arranged. Marjory's lofty mind did wince a little at the
+idea of dyed gloves, but she tried not to think of it. John brought
+the objectionable kids home in time for elaborate decoration "on their
+backs;" but, as he watched her in the pauses of his reading aloud,
+they both observed with anxiety that the black "came off a little,"
+and Marjory asked him to warn her if he saw her let them go anywhere
+near her face.
+
+Two children never enjoyed a holiday more than these two enjoyed that
+concert. Dyed gloves and all other sublunary trials were forgotten:
+Marjory did not touch her face once; and when the happy evening was
+over, the gloves were put away with a loving pat on their backs, and
+John had risen ten degrees in Marjory's respect.
+
+If those gloves had but rested on their laurels! But if people of
+genius will not do that, can you expect it of dyed gloves? Few are the
+authors who have not followed up a brilliant success with something
+very like a failure, and Marjory's gloves seemed to catch the spirit
+of the times.
+
+Before the two weeks were up which were to restore John to
+comparatively easy circumstances, and Marjory to respectability so far
+as her hands went, John asked her to go with him to hear a lecture.
+Just about that time he was rather wild concerning natural history,
+for which, I am sorry to say, Marjory did not care a pin. She
+indignantly repelled the idea of a gorilla somewhere toward the top of
+her family tree, asserting that she preferred to believe that she had
+descended from so mean a man as Adam, and so curious a woman as Eve,
+to that: furthermore, she was indifferent upon the subject. But there
+was not much she would not do to please John; so when he asked her to
+go with him to hear a lecture about the gorilla, she made a face to
+herself, and said certainly she would.
+
+She consented with rather better grace from the fact that Mr.
+Pradamite--such was the lecturer's euphonious name--undertook to prove
+conclusively that man was _not_ descended from the gorilla; but when
+the little old gentleman walked briskly upon the stage, she whispered
+John that he would have been a valuable advocate of the theory held
+by the other side: he wanted nothing but a little pointed felt hat,
+with a feather in it, to look very much like a small edition of
+the original gorilla reduced to earning his living by assisting a
+hand-organist.
+
+The lecture, to John, was delightful--so clear, so logical, went so
+far back, and so deep down, and so high up. "Walked all around that
+fellow I heard last week on the other side," John said. But Marjory,
+who had herself taken a long walk that afternoon, thought the whole
+thing unutterably stupid: her eyelids would drop, her neck felt
+double-jointed and would not stay erect. Fortunately, their seats
+were far back, not very brilliantly lighted, and Marjory's had the
+advantage of being next a pillar. John, however, considered this fact
+unfortunate, for he could not obtain a good view of the remarkable
+figures with which the old gentleman was illustrating his lecture,
+talking in spasmodic jerks as he drew, and when John saw a dear and
+scientific friend on a front seat, with a vacant place beside him, he
+could not resist the temptation to take it. He looked at Marjory: she
+was half asleep, but still contending bravely for the other half. He
+surveyed their immediate neighbors--three strong-minded-looking women
+just behind them; a fatherly-looking old gentleman in the seat next
+his own; a pillar protecting Marjory on the other side, and two highly
+respectable-looking young men in the row of seats before them, who
+appeared to be listening intently and occasionally taking notes;
+at least, one of them was, and he submitted his note-book to the
+criticism of the other, who smiled approvingly. The seats immediately
+in front of his own and Marjory's were vacant.
+
+"Would you mind, Peggy," said John, deprecatingly, "if I left you for
+a few minutes? I can't half see what he is drawing, and there is a
+vacant front seat. I'll only stay five minutes."
+
+"Certainly, dear," said Marjory with sleepy amiability: "stay up
+there till he has finished, and then come back for me. I am not at all
+afraid."
+
+"Oh no: I will not do that," answered John, considerately, "but I do
+want to go for a few minutes." So away he went, and, once up there,
+he of course "took no note of time," and Marjory was left to her own
+devices. These were few and simple, but small causes sometimes produce
+great effects. She had on those gloves, of course.
+
+She never could recall that part of the evening very distinctly. A
+confused recollection that she found the pillar very comfortable for a
+while; that finally the ridges in it hurt her cheek; that she had one
+or two lucid intervals between her naps, in one of which she concluded
+that it would be better to take those gloves off for fear of marking
+her face; and that while she was doing so she caught a sentence or
+two of the lecture--something like this: "This one essential point of
+difference is in itself convincing proof of the theory which I hold.
+The difference in the formation of the hands is a difficulty which
+no theory of development can overcome." These few insignificant items
+were all which remained in her memory: then the little gentleman's
+voice gradually took to her ears the form of a chant: his "theory," as
+the simple rustic said about a matter less abstruse, "might be wrong,
+but it was awful soothin'," and pleasant dreams of having four hands,
+all available, and not of the objectionable sort whose bones the
+professor was dangling, beguiled the time for Marjory--how long she
+knew not.
+
+What woke her? Surely somebody laughed? She started up: the lecture
+was over at last; John, with a penitent face, was hastening back to
+her; the people who had sat nearest her were gone, and so were her
+gloves!
+
+"What, in thunder--" said John forcibly, looking at her face in blank
+amazement.
+
+"Oh, I didn't mind," she answered mildly, thinking he was apologizing.
+"I believe I have had a little nap, Jack, but I can't find my gloves:
+will you look under the next seat, please?"
+
+"My dear child," said John, shaking with suppressed laughter,
+"your face has 'found your gloves' with a vengeance! It's as black
+as--anything. Can't you put your veil down till we get out of this?"
+
+Obediently hiding her countenance, Marjory, bewildered and still not
+quite awake, followed John after a few minutes' further and fruitless
+search for the missing gloves.
+
+The brisk walk home through the frosty air restored her consciousness,
+and when John led her up to the looking-glass, kindly removing her
+veil at the same time, consciousness took the form of wrath.
+
+"I _never_ could have done all that myself," she exclaimed
+indignantly. "Why, I took those hateful gloves off, and put them on
+the cushion; and it is just my belief that one of those dreadful boys
+in front of us--"
+
+"Boys!" interrupted John. "Those fellows were enough older than
+you--or I either, for that matter."
+
+"I don't care," said Marjory, with tears of vexation in her brown
+eyes. "They behaved like boys, for when I woke--I mean just before
+you came for me--I thought I heard somebody laugh, and then they were
+gone, and my gloves were gone too; and I just believe they managed to
+blacken my face somehow, and then stole my gloves."
+
+"If I thought that--" exclaimed John savagely; and then added in a
+puzzled tone, "But how could they have done it, Peg, unless you were
+sleeping like a rock?"
+
+"Well, I believe I was," answered the young woman candidly, "for I was
+tired to death, and couldn't understand half the gorilla said."
+
+"It was all my fault for dragging you there, and then leaving you,"
+said John, his penitence making him overlook this glaring disrespect
+to his hobby and its rider. "But those fellows looked like gentlemen;
+and besides, I know who that old man was who sat next me, and I am
+sure he would not have let any such trick be played right under his
+nose without stopping it."
+
+"You can think what you please," said Marjory, a little crossly, for
+her naturally good temper had been severely tried, "but nothing will
+ever make me believe it was not those boys."
+
+
+II.
+
+Some weeks had elapsed since that sorrowful result of praiseworthy
+economy. Marjory's feelings had been soothed by a pair of tan-colored
+kids, three-buttoned, stitched on the backs, accompanied by a
+glove-buttoner and a hug from John. The mention of dyed gloves still
+raised a flush on her round cheeks and painful recollections in her
+heart, but she was beginning to banish the sore subject from her mind,
+and to half smile to herself when she did think of it; for, in spite
+of the enormity of the supposed offence, the vision of her remarkable
+appearance when John raised her veil before the glass was too much for
+her risibles as it grew more and more retrospective. For she was one
+of those happy mortals who cannot help seeing a joke, even when it
+points their way.
+
+She came down stairs one evening arrayed in her best bib and tucker,
+and was speedily joined by John, whose appearance likewise indicated
+some approaching festivity--all but his face, which wore a rather
+disgusted expression. "What a bore parties are!" said that world-weary
+individual from the height of his twenty-third year.
+
+"That depends," answered Marjory with the superior wisdom of eighteen.
+"If one meets bright people, they are not a bore. And I'll give you
+some advice, Jack: don't always take it for granted that the girls
+can only talk gossip and fashions. Take it for granted that they have
+at least as much sense as you have, and talk about something worth
+while."
+
+"The descent of man, for instance?" suggested John, somewhat
+mischievously. "From the interest _you_ take in that, I've no doubt
+the rest of the girls would be charmed."
+
+"What is that thing somebody said about the man of one book?" asked
+Marjory, looking abstracted.
+
+"Don't know," replied John--"never met him."
+
+The party was about as lively and about as stupid as parties generally
+are. There was a little pleasant music, a little innocent "square
+dancing," a very well-ordered supper, and a good deal of conversation.
+
+Toward the close of the evening the hostess came to Marjory. "My
+dear," she said, "I have a young friend here whom I wish to introduce
+to you and your brother: he told me he had heard of John's interest
+in scientific matters, and as he has just come to live in the city, he
+has not many acquaintances. He is a very nice fellow. I know all about
+him, and I want him to have a few pleasant visiting-places: I always
+feel so sorry for a young man away from his family in a large city.
+May I bring him and introduce him to you?"
+
+"Certainly, if he is not stupid," said Marjory, smiling. "There is
+John: I will make him come here before you have captured your young
+man, and then we can be introduced together.".
+
+John, however, was talking biology or protoplasm or something else to
+an interested listener on the other side of the room, and was blind
+to all Marjory's "nods and becks and wreathed smiles." So, when the
+amiable old lady returned with her prize, whom she appeared to
+have "captured" without either difficulty or delay, Marjory had
+the introduction all to herself. She was not one of those wonderful
+inventions, a girl who can meet a man's eyes with a steady stare,
+and for the first few minutes after their hostess left them she only
+noticed that her new acquaintance looked and spoke like a gentleman,
+that he had a very pleasant voice, and that, without being pedantic,
+he was not talking nonsense. Imagine the sensation which took place
+in her head when, at some bright speech from her antagonist--for they
+had immediately fallen into an argument--she raised her laughing eyes
+to his face, and saw--one of the youths who had fallen under her
+righteous indignation on the memorable night of the gorilla lecture!
+Marjory had what are called "speaking eyes." It afflicted her greatly
+that, no matter what the emergency, her feelings would appear in
+her face; so--although she struggled hard to go on as if nothing had
+happened, resolving, after a hasty mental review of the situation,
+to behave as if she had never seen him before, and upon better
+acquaintance demand the truth if she liked him, and let him severely
+alone if she did not--anybody could have seen her countenance change,
+and to her intense chagrin she felt herself blushing. To make matters
+worse, he blushed too, and over his intelligent face flitted just the
+shadow of a smile.
+
+This was too much! Marjory fanned herself vigorously, and hazarded an
+original observation in a constrained voice. "Don't you think it is
+very warm here?" she said.
+
+"Very!" replied the student of nature. "Shall we walk in the hall for
+a few minutes?" and he offered her his arm. She rested the tips of
+her fingers on his sleeve, and they proceeded to walk up and down the
+hall, she being saved only by her escort from collision with various
+other couples similarly employed. This interesting exercise lasted for
+some minutes, varied by attempts at conversation which were about as
+natural as spasms. Marjory took a desperate resolution. This absurd
+state of things should not last much longer, if she could help it. "I
+never could act as if nothing was the matter when something was," she
+began, "and I can't help it if this is not polite; but I think, from
+what Mrs. Grove said about you, that you will tell me the truth if I
+ask you something. Will you?" and she looked up once more.
+
+"Certainly I will," he answered gravely, meeting her glance with
+steady, honest eyes, and somehow, short as their acquaintance had
+been, she believed him.
+
+She had meant to ask him deliberately if he or his companion, or both,
+had stolen her gloves and decorated her face, but she felt unable to
+do that with those eyes on hers; so she changed her tactics, and said,
+rather meekly, considering what her former feelings had been: "Will
+you please tell me exactly what happened the evening that man lectured
+about the gorilla, and you sat nearly in front of my brother and me?"
+
+"That was your brother, then?" he said quickly, and then stopped,
+looking a little foolish.
+
+"Yes," she answered, with a surprised glance at his face; "but you
+said you would answer."
+
+"I beg your pardon," he replied. "I will, of course, and I know you
+will believe me. After your brother left you, you leaned your head
+against the pillar, and then, as if the grooving hurt your face, you
+put your hand between; and then--I must apologize for my apparent
+impoliteness, but I promised to tell the truth;" and he smiled a
+little--"then you seemed to fall fast asleep. A mosquito lit on your
+nose, and woke you. When you raised your head, your cheek was quite
+black from your glove; you rubbed your nose and made that black too;
+then you went to sleep again, and directly a curl of your hair fell
+over your other cheek, and woke you again, and you gave your cheek
+a little slap, thinking, I suppose, that the mosquito had come back:
+that left the mark of your fingers, and you rubbed it a little and
+made it yet blacker. Then you took your gloves off and fell asleep
+again; and then--you will believe now that I am telling you 'the
+truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,' for I am risking
+your displeasure by telling what came next;" and he flushed up to his
+hair--"I made up my mind that it was my duty to secure those gloves,
+and prevent thereby the possibility of such an accident in the future.
+So I put my arm over the back of the seat carelessly, and when nobody
+was looking I picked them up and pocketed them. It was not I who
+laughed, but my brother, who did not notice your face--after you
+had blackened it, that is--until he rose to go, when he laughed
+involuntarily, and I collared him and took him off. Now you know all
+about it, and I await my sentence. Can you forgive me for stealing
+your gloves? The motive at least was good."
+
+Marjory's face had cleared as this highly circumstantial narrative
+progressed, and when it was finished she looked up smiling. "Yes," she
+said, "I quite forgive you: the motive is everything. But do please
+tell me, were you really so interested in what that little gorilla
+said as you seemed to be? You were taking notes, you know--I saw that
+before I went to sleep. Now what was there that was worth making a
+note of? I am sure I heard nothing."
+
+"Would you like to see my notes?" he asked, drawing a little book from
+his waistcoat pocket.
+
+"Yes, if they are not long," she answered doubtfully; "but Jack will
+tell you how stupid I am on all such subjects as that."
+
+He placed the book in her hand, open, and she saw a clever sketch
+of herself and the pillar: underneath was written, "Mademoiselle
+Stylites."
+
+"Did you draw that?" she asked, smiling in spite of herself.
+
+"Yes," he replied, answering her smile. "I am fond of sketching from
+nature." Then, as he glanced at the picture, he added hastily, "I
+forgot that absurd inscription: George, my brother, did that."
+
+Marjory did not look deeply offended, even at the "absurd
+inscription;" and the conversation continued, upon different and
+indifferent subjects, until John bethought himself of his duty, and
+came to find her. She introduced her squire to him, and after a few
+minutes more of pleasant conversation they separated, Mr. Owen--such
+was the natural philosopher's name--having received John's assurance
+of a speedy call upon him, and given his address with an alacrity
+which proved, John thought, that they were kindred spirits.
+
+As they walked home, John suddenly exclaimed, "You know I never
+remember faces, Peg, but somehow I feel as if I had seen that fellow
+before. He's an uncommonly good fellow, and Mrs. Grove says he is very
+fond of my hobby, as you call it, so I shall go to see him soon."
+
+Of course Marjory gave him an outline of her evening's adventure "upon
+this hint," and he laughed heartily at the whole thing, assuring
+her that _he_ had never believed for a moment in such an absurd
+possibility as she had fancied.
+
+Well, what of it all? Nothing particular. Mr. Owen and John are fast
+friends by this time. Marjory is beginning to take an interest in
+natural history. Also, she has lost all faith in conviction upon
+circumstantial evidence. She is "o'er young to marry yet," her aunt
+thinks, and so do I of course, for this is not a love-story: I wish
+that to be distinctly understood.
+
+MARGARET VANDEGRIFT.
+
+
+
+
+THE MYSTERY OF MASSABIELLE.
+
+
+It was a mild and pleasant day in the middle of February, and the
+bright sunlight streamed through the windows of the poor little room
+where Madame Soubirons sat alone. The table, with its dishes neatly
+arranged for the noonday meal, stood in the middle of the room. A pot
+hung in the large fireplace, and a skillet sat upon the few remaining
+coals. There was nothing with which to replenish the fire, and Madame
+Soubirons sat gazing at the flickering embers with a rueful face. "A
+cold hearth is more chilling than the mountains," she said; and she
+rose and went out of the poor little apartment, which, with all its
+poverty, would not have been cheerless had a bright fire glowed upon
+the neatly-kept hearth, and sat down upon the doorstep, where the
+sunlight fell warmly.
+
+From this position was afforded a view of a picturesque and romantic
+landscape, presenting in the foreground a portion of the quaint
+village of Lourdes, with the cross of the old church brightly gleaming
+in the sunlight above the thickly-clustered cottage roofs. Farther
+away stood the great mill, and grimly from its rocky seat frowned
+the ancient castle, of which the people of Lourdes never wearied of
+telling that it had been besieged by Charlemagne centuries ago. In the
+distance glanced the river Gave, fighting its rock-riven way to the
+sea. The prospect, growing continually more grand as it receded, was
+finally hedged about by the majestic Pyrenees, which lifted their
+glimmering snows against the pale winter sky.
+
+But Madame Soubirons was familiar with these scenes, and had no eyes
+for them. She sat leaning her cheek upon her hand, and as she glanced
+down the crooked walk she murmured, "They have had time to get back,
+if they hurried as I charged them." Presently a cheery whistle rang
+out upon the air, and looking up she saw a man in miller's dress
+approaching. It was Jean Soubirons, her husband, coming home to
+dinner. She waited until he arrived, and they then went into the
+house together.
+
+"Can you eat a cold dinner to-day, Jean?" she asked. "I have only
+bread and milk to give you."
+
+"Yes, with thanks, Louise," he replied; "but where are Bernadette and
+Marie?"
+
+"They went with Jeanne Abadie to gather fagots, but they should have
+been back long since. You might then have had a warm dinner."
+
+"All is well if they come to no harm, but it is somewhat chilly for
+our Bernadette."
+
+"I gave her a pair of stockings to wear. She can't go like Marie, poor
+child! who can hardly endure her sabots, even in winter. But I do not
+see what detains them."
+
+They sat down and ate in silence, the two vacant places seeming to
+fill them with a feeling of desolation.
+
+"I am sorry," said Jean Soubirons as he rose from the table, "that
+I am so poor a man that my little girls must bring the wood for the
+pot."
+
+"Perhaps we shall be richer some day, Jean," said Louise, as if she
+had hope.
+
+"Perhaps so--in heaven," said he sadly, "where there are no poor;" and
+he went back to his work.
+
+Meantime the three girls had been wandering. Of the two sisters, Marie
+was rosy and strong, but Bernadette pale and delicate, being afflicted
+with asthma. Bernadette appeared to be only ten years old, but was
+fourteen. Previous to this time almost all her life had been passed
+away from home, she having lived at Bastres with a friend of her
+mother, where she had been provided with a home for the small sum of
+five francs a month and her service in tending the sheep: she was not
+strong enough for more laborious work. Here Bernadette lived a calm
+and uneventful life, her duties causing her to be much in solitude,
+which she whiled away in petting her lambs. Very often the time had
+been set when she was to return home, but it was as often postponed.
+Her friends at Bastres could not bear to give her up, and year after
+year she had lingered with them. She had been at home only two weeks
+upon that day when she went with Jeanne and Marie to gather sticks.
+
+The three girls, dressed in their black woolen frocks, white capulets
+and wooden shoes--Bernadette alone having stockings, in consideration
+of her health--trudged on, enjoying the pure air. They crossed the
+bridge of the Gave, passed the mill and went on through the meadow,
+turning their steps toward the grotto of Massabielle, which was not
+far distant. There are, properly speaking, several grottoes in the
+rocks of Massabielle, which consist of numerous excavations formed by
+Nature in the great crags. One of these, however, is usually referred
+to as "The Grotto," and is a cavern of quite extensive dimensions,
+being about thirteen feet high by fifty wide. There are two other
+excavations in the rock above this cavern, one of which rudely
+resembles the broken window of a ruined church--suggesting that idea
+the more forcibly perhaps from the fact that it admits light into the
+lower cavern.
+
+Before reaching the entrance of the grotto, however, there was a
+small stream to be crossed. There was no bridge, but this was only a
+slight hindrance to Jeanne and Marie, who took off their shoes, and,
+springing from stone to stone, were soon over. They were in advance of
+Bernadette, who stopped frequently to cough, and when she came up to
+the stream they were putting on their wooden shoes.
+
+"How cold the water is!" she heard one say, and she hesitated to
+step into the cold stream. Jeanne saw her pausing upon the brink,
+and called out, "Cross as we did: give long leaps and come over." She
+called to them then to throw stones in for her to step upon, but they
+were busily engaged piling up sticks, and paid no attention to her, so
+she began to pull off her shoes and stockings. When she bent down she
+heard a great rushing sound, as of the water and the wind. It seemed
+as if a great storm were breaking, but when she looked up all was
+calm. The leaves scarcely stirred in the breeze, and the trails of ivy
+that hung over the rocky windows of the grotto swayed gently to and
+fro. So she proceeded to pull off her stockings unalarmed. After a few
+seconds the noise increased, and when Bernadette again looked up she
+saw a beautiful vision standing in the window or upper entrance of the
+grotto, which was filled with the lustre of its halo. The apparition
+was dressed in pure white, and bore a chaplet upon its arm, and had no
+resemblance to Bernadette's ideal of the Virgin. The child was filled
+with awe, but felt no fear, and reverently kneeling she continued to
+gaze at the vision, which smiled upon her and made the sign of the
+cross. Bernadette did likewise. The appearance then vanished, and
+for some time Bernadette remained spell-bound and still kneeling and
+gazing abstractedly into the grotto, from which the luminous quality
+had faded. After a short time she recovered from her transport, and
+looking around her found the appearance of nothing changed. The stream
+rushed on, the trees were the same, and in the hollow of the grotto
+the wild brier grew in its accustomed place, and the clinging moss and
+the ivy trails were unchanged.
+
+Bernadette made her way across the stream as quickly as she could,
+and hastening onward soon overtook Marie and Jeanne, who looked up
+in surprise at her haste. When she had reached them their surprise
+deepened into wonder as they observed the emotion depicted in her
+face.
+
+"Have you seen nothing?" inquired Bernadette, her eyes all aglow with
+excitement.
+
+"No: what is it?" said Marie.
+
+"It is something strange," said Bernadette.
+
+"It could not have been stranger than you look now, with your staring
+eyes and your flying hair," said Jeanne.
+
+"What have you seen, Bernadette?" asked Marie.
+
+"Some one in white, bright and gleaming," said Bernadette.
+
+"What did it do? Describe it," exclaimed Jeanne.
+
+"I cannot describe it. If you haven't seen it, I can't tell you what
+it was like," she said.
+
+The two other girls were frightened. "Will it hurt us?" asked Marie.
+
+"I am afraid of such things," said Jeanne: "let us hurry home as fast
+as we can."
+
+Bernadette was not afraid, but, habitually passive, she hurried with
+them without protest. When they arrived at home she told her mother
+her experience, and Madame Soubirons, being incredulous, attempted to
+convince Bernadette that her vision was only a creature of her fancy;
+but with no avail. The child was silenced, but not convinced. Madame
+Soubirons said she would not allow her daughter to go to the grotto
+any more, as it filled her with such ideas; and she expected to
+hear no more about the matter. But the next day Bernadette talked
+incessantly of her "Dame," and on the following day, when some one
+inquired what her vision was like, she replied that she had seen
+such a face at church; and on the third day, which was Sunday, she
+prevailed upon her mother to allow her to go to the grotto again.
+
+Marie and Jeanne accompanied her as before. Having arrived at the
+grotto, Bernadette knelt before the aperture: Marie and Jeanne
+followed her example, and when they turned to look at her they were
+amazed at her appearance. She seemed to be transfigured. Her face
+was radiant. With her eyes fixed, her lips partly open and her hands
+clasped, she appeared to listen with the greatest attention. Her
+companions were frightened by her strange behavior, and implored her
+to rise and go home with them.
+
+"Bernadette, get up! Come: we are afraid of you when you look so
+strange."
+
+She seemed to hear them no more than if she had been a statue, and for
+a few moments the group remained silent and motionless. There was
+no sound except the swirling of the stream and the rustling of the
+leaves, and to Marie and Jeanne the very silence seemed to be a spell
+of enchantment. Presently the rapturous light died out of the face
+of Bernadette, and she appeared as usual, much to the relief of the
+others.
+
+Upon their arrival at home the same story was told by Bernadette as
+before, and again it was disbelieved. No restriction was placed upon
+her going to the grotto, however, and she continued to visit it,
+when her vision arose before her again and again. In course of time
+the singular event became much talked about, especially among the
+peasantry of that vicinity, who believed implicitly that the Virgin
+Mary appeared to the child.
+
+People began to accompany Bernadette upon her visits to the grotto,
+and the number and interest of her observers daily increased. Many
+who were entirely skeptical went for the purpose of gratifying their
+curiosity. Among this class were Madame Millet and Mademoiselle
+Antoinette Peyret, who accompanied the little girl one day with the
+intention of questioning her after they had studied her conduct.
+On this occasion she excited their suspicions by leading them by an
+unaccustomed route down a steep and rocky path, where they had great
+difficulty in following her. They finally arrived at the grotto, and
+were astounded to observe the change that came over her. She seemed to
+be in a state of ecstatic awe.
+
+The ladies were so solemnly impressed by her appearance that they felt
+deep regret for having intruded upon so reverent a scene.
+
+"It is a profanation for us to be here," said one.
+
+"You must remain," said Bernadette immediately, as if she had been
+directed to stop them.
+
+"Ask who she is," exclaimed Madame Millet, greatly excited. "Here,
+take this card and pencil, and beg of her that she will write down her
+wishes."
+
+Bernadette took them, and the ladies heard her repeat the request as
+she approached the excavation and the divine radiance lighted up her
+face. She paused, and for several moments remained in an apparent
+state of rapture: then she returned to them, and in reply to their
+inquiries said that her "Dame" had said that she saw no necessity to
+write her wishes, for she knew Bernadette would obey.
+
+"Obey what?" asked Mademoiselle Peyret. "What did she command you to
+do?"
+
+"To come to meet her at the grotto every day for fifteen days."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I don't know why."
+
+"But did she not say anything more?"
+
+"Yes, madame."
+
+"What?"
+
+"She promised that if I did so I should be happy in a future world."
+
+Madame Millet and Mademoiselle Peyret went home mystified. The story
+of their futile attempt to discover deception in Bernadette got
+abroad, "and still the wonder grew." The interest in the visions
+intensified, and vast crowds, numbered not by tens, but by hundreds,
+assembled to watch Bernadette during the appointed fifteen days. The
+entire population of Lourdes appeared to be included in the crowd.
+The presence of this observing multitude exerted no influence whatever
+upon Bernadette, who passed among them as they made way for her
+without looking to the right or to the left, as if she had too great
+thoughts on her mind to give any heed to the people. Day after day
+she repeated her visits, kneeling in her accustomed place and giving
+herself up to a state of ecstasy.
+
+About this time, so great had become the popular excitement over
+the child, the attention of the authorities was attracted by it.
+Accordingly, M. Massy, prefect of the commune, and M. Jacomet,
+commissaire de police, conferred together, and decided to arrest
+Bernadette as an impostor. It was on the 11th of February, 1858, when
+the girl had her first vision, and about ten days thereafter, in
+the presence of a great crowd, a police-officer approached her, and
+laying his hand upon her shoulder took her to the commissaire for
+examination.
+
+Imagine this simple and artless child boldly confronting
+the commissaire, who must have been, in her eyes, a person of high
+dignity! M. Jacomet plied her with questions and cross-questions,
+and used all his power to implicate her in some inconsistency or
+contradiction; but his efforts were futile, and he was obliged to
+confess that he could not make out any case against the child, whom
+he allowed to go home. Still, his dignity required some show of
+authority; so he commanded Jean Soubirons that he should not permit
+Bernadette to go to the grotto of Massabielle, under penalty of
+imprisonment. Then he wrote to M. Rouland, minister of public
+instruction, for advice.
+
+Soubirons kept his daughter at home for a day or two: then, observing
+her to grieve under the restraint, decided to risk the wrath of M.
+Jacomet, and allowed her to go where she wished. The people upheld
+Soubirons, and the crowds at the grotto assembled again. It was then
+proposed by some to consult Peyramale, the cure, who was known to
+discredit the stories of Bernadette, and it was thought might disabuse
+her mind of its illusions or detect her imposture, as the case might
+be; but Peyramale would not make any efforts in that direction.
+However, Bernadette, of her own accord, came to him one day, saying
+she wished to speak to him.
+
+"Are you the daughter of the miller Soubirons?" asked Peyramale.
+
+"Yes, monsieur le cure," she said.
+
+"What is it you wish?"
+
+"I came to say that the Lady who appears to me in the grotto of
+Massabielle--"
+
+"Hush, child!" interrupted Peyramale. "Do not repeat this foolish tale
+to me. You have stirred the whole country round with the story of your
+vision, but do not bring such tales to me. What do you mean by this?
+I tell you, child, the Virgin sees you now, and if you practice
+imposture the door of heaven will be for ever shut against you."
+
+Bernadette was in no wise disturbed, and resumed her narrative without
+faltering.
+
+"What, then, is the name of your vision?" asked Peyramale
+when she had told him the story of her experience.
+
+"I don't know," she replied.
+
+"Was it the Virgin?"
+
+"I do not say that it was the Virgin," said Bernadette, "but I know
+that I see her as plainly as I see you now, and she speaks to me
+distinctly; and she commanded me to say to you that she wishes a
+church to be built on the rock of Massabielle."
+
+Peyramale was astonished at the strange language and the firmness of
+the child, and replied: "Your story, Bernadette, is beyond reason:
+still, your manner is honest. Do not give yourself up, I pray you,
+to an illusion of your mind. You have some fancy, it may be, that
+deceives you. The Virgin could command me as well as yourself. You
+say there is a brier growing in the grotto: if your vision wants me to
+build a church on the cliff, tell her she must first cause that brier
+to bring forth roses in this winter season."
+
+Having received this reply, Bernadette withdrew. When she next saw
+her vision she delivered the message of Peyramale, but it was not
+regarded. The apparition commanded her to go as far as she could on
+her hands and knees, and when Bernadette had done so, to the great
+wonder of her observers she was commanded to drink. She rose, and was
+about to go to the stream, when the vision called her back and told
+her to drink of the fountain, not of the stream. Now, there was no
+fountain, but Bernadette instinctively dug a small hole in the earth
+with her hands, and a very small stream of water flowed forth from
+the earth and filled it. She dipped some up with her hands and drank.
+This little stream continued to flow, and increased in size. On the
+following day it was many times its original size. Travelers are to
+this day shown the stream near the grotto of Massabielle, which, it is
+declared, thus sprang from a miraculous source. Three hundred people
+are declared to have seen this miracle, and in different regions
+of France many people may still be found who declare that they were
+present upon that occasion.
+
+After this, still greater crowds flocked to the grotto of Massabielle,
+and again the authorities interfered. MM. Massy and Jacomet for a long
+time waged their war with the people until the emperor telegraphed,
+ordering that all interference should be stopped. Thus the people
+were left in peaceful possession of their fountain, and reports of its
+marvelous cures filled all the papers, and visitors came from far and
+near, bringing cans and bottles to fill at the wondrous stream.
+
+It will be remembered that Peyramale had demanded that the brier
+should blossom before a church should be built. In spite of his
+decision there now stands not far from the grotto a church that has
+already cost two and a half millions of francs, though not completed,
+and numerous convents are projected to occupy sites in the vicinity.
+A statue of the Virgin stands in the grotto where the vision appeared,
+and on the rock are hung numerous crutches and staffs, which it is
+claimed were left there by those cripples whom the waters of the
+spring have healed.
+
+Bernadette became day by day an object of still greater interest--in
+some cases of reverence. Many offers were made to provide for herself
+and her family, but they were declined, and both her parents died
+poor, her mother so late as December 18, 1866. Marie Soubirons and
+a brother, it is said, still live at Lourdes, but Bernadette became
+a Sister of Charity, and is now an inmate of the Hospice of Nevers,
+under the name of Sister Marie Bernard. At this institution she took
+the veil, and she occupies herself, when health admits, in tending
+the sick. She lives a life of great seclusion, and is almost utterly
+ignorant of all that occurs outside the hospice walls. From the letter
+of a graphic writer I quote as follows: "She is now twenty-five. She
+is not beautiful in feature, but in expression. Her look has a soft,
+melting attraction. She is a great sufferer, and is tried by cruel
+pains in her chest, which she bears very patiently, saying the Virgin
+told her she should be happy in heaven."
+
+Early in October, 1872, a cable despatch from Paris appeared in
+all the dailies, announcing that fifty thousand pilgrims were then
+journeying through France toward Lourdes. Their object was to
+assemble at the grotto of Massabielle to pray for the salvation and
+regeneration of France, so lately desolated by war. A large proportion
+of the pilgrims came from Paris, where their journey had been
+inaugurated by services at Notre Dame des Victoires. Indeed, it may
+be said that their entire journey was one long religious service, for
+litanies were chanted unceasingly upon the route. The grand service
+at the grotto took place October 6th, when five bishops conducted mass
+and vespers at five altars reared among the rocks; and other services
+were conducted at numerous chapels and shrines among the mountains for
+miles around by various pilgrim priests. A sermon was delivered to the
+great host by the bishop of Tarbes, the subject being the disasters
+of the nation. He closed by exhorting them to patriotism. Raising his
+arms to the multitude, he asked, "Will you promise to serve and love
+your country as I mean?"
+
+"Yes! yes! yes!" answered the vast host in thunderous response.
+
+"Will you cry 'Vive la France!' as children should who have been
+nurtured from the breast of a cherishing mother?"
+
+"Vive la France!" resounded from rock and valley.
+
+Then turning toward the statue of the Virgin, the bishop cried, "Vive
+the Church, the Rock of Ages!" Again the mighty voice of the crowd
+responded, and with the final cry of "Vive the Holy Father, Pius IX.!"
+the assemblage broke up.
+
+Probably there were no scenes incidental to the pilgrimage more
+imposing than its processions, formed in the public square of Lourdes.
+One of them was a mile long, and the van had entered the meadow
+before the rear had left the square. It was composed of people of all
+classes, who sang hymns as with one mighty voice. It bore banners of
+violet, green, rose, blue and other colors, magnificently decorated
+with gilding, paintings and embroidery. These banners numbered nearly
+three hundred, and came from various parts of the country. Even
+far-off Algeria was represented. The banner of Alsace and Lorraine
+was in mourning, and was borne by girls in white. As it passed many
+persons pressed forward to kiss its hanging tassels. The banner from
+Nantes was so profusedly embellished with gold and other decorations
+that six strong men labored to support it; and those from Paris,
+Bordeaux, Rheims, Lille, etc. were not greatly inferior to it in
+elegance. The sun shone brightly, and with the grandeur of the banners
+and the pomp of the prelates in their rich sacerdotal robes formed a
+scene of indescribable splendor.
+
+At the farther end of the meadow or valley an altar had been erected.
+Here the banners drew up in a vast semicircle enclosing the great
+audience, and vespers were sung, after which the fifty thousand
+worshipers knelt and received the benediction, which was pronounced by
+eight bishops simultaneously. The services before the altar being thus
+concluded, the bearers of the banners again formed in procession for
+the purpose of carrying them to the church upon the rock, in which
+they were to be placed. At this time the sun was sinking behind the
+blue Pyrenean peaks, and as it threw its last red gleams upon the
+splendid train that wound in and out along the craggy mountain-path
+it lighted up a picture of resplendent glory. As fast as the banners
+arrived at the church they were placed upon its walls, which were soon
+completely covered with their gorgeous hangings. Owing to the length
+of the procession, it was after sunset when the last banner had been
+placed in the church, which, with its brilliant adornments flashing
+in the blaze of wax tapers, was one grand glow of glittering splendor.
+After a brief service of thanksgiving the congregation withdrew,
+and descended the mountain in the light of bonfires that burned upon
+numerous cliffs.
+
+A spectacle of equal brilliancy, though less pompous, was presented by
+the grand torchlight procession which formed one evening in the square
+of Lourdes, where all were provided with candles. Thirty thousand
+persons were in this procession. They marched to the grotto of
+Massabielle and to the church upon the rock, moving slowly and singing
+hymns. As they moved they formed a great stream of glittering light,
+which rolled on and on and up and up, across the meadow and up the
+sinuous mountain-path. This impressive display lasted until midnight,
+when the greater number of the lights had died out and their bearers
+retired. But a goodly company still remained in the crypt of the
+church at prayer, in some instances fighting off sleep by marching up
+and down in companies, chanting night-prayers.
+
+Thus a nation's ardent worshipers assembled in devotion at the spot
+sanctified by the visions of Bernadette Soubirons. And what shall we
+say of her? Her professed visions cannot be set aside as impostures
+against the voice of thousands whose skepticism, as great as ours,
+has been abashed. It could not have been in the nature of this artless
+child, unencouraged and alone, to have been an impostor. Such would
+have been a role thoroughly foreign to her character. Perhaps there
+may have been illusion, a self-nourished fancy, evoked from the silent
+reveries of those solitary days at Bastres, when her mind was for long
+periods given up to undisturbed imaginings. Who can say?
+
+WILLIAM D. WOOD.
+
+
+
+
+BENEDICTION.
+
+
+  Good-bye, good-bye, my dearest!
+  My bravest and my fairest!
+  I bless thee with a blessing meet
+    For all thy manly worth.
+  Good-bye, good-bye, my treasure!
+  My only pride and pleasure!
+  I bless thee with the strength of love
+    Before I send thee forth.
+
+  Mine own! I fear to bless thee,
+  I hardly dare caress thee,
+  Because I love thee with a love
+    That overgrows my life;
+  And as the time gets longer
+  Its tender throbs grow stronger:
+  My maiden troth but waits to be
+    The fondness of the wife.
+
+  Alas! alas! my dearest,
+  The look of pain thou wearest!
+  The kisses thou dost bend to give
+    Are parting ones to-day!
+  Thy sheltering arms are round me,
+  But the cruel pain hath found me.
+  What shall I do with all this love
+    When thou art gone away?
+
+  Ah well! One poor endeavor
+  Shall nerve me while we sever:
+  I will not fret my hero's heart
+    With piteous sobs and tears.
+  I send thee forth, my dearest,
+  My truest and my rarest,
+  And yield thee to the keep of Him
+    Who blessed our happier years.
+
+  Once more good-bye! and bless thee!
+  My faltering lips caress thee.
+  When shall I feel thy hand again
+    Go kindly o'er my hair?
+  Let the dear arms that fold me
+  One last sweet moment hold me:
+  In life or death our love shall be
+    No weaker for the wear!
+
+HOWARD GLYNDON.
+
+
+
+
+A NIGHT IN BEDFORD, VIRGINIA.
+
+
+"The general has been sending his ambulance"--Bless these ambulances!
+they are as common in Virginia as hen-nest grass or clumps of
+sassafras--"to the depot every morning for three or four days for
+you."
+
+"The deuce he has! Then why didn't he let me know by letter, as I
+asked him to do?"
+
+"Can't say, really."
+
+This conversation took place in the main street of the extraordinary
+city of Lugston--a city so very peculiar that I must give it an entire
+article some day.
+
+Repairing forthwith to a newspaper office, I wrote to the general
+how sorry I was that he had been put to so much trouble--I had not
+received the letter which he must have written--obliged to go home
+in the morning--hoped at some future time to have the pleasure, etc.,
+etc. Then I went to my lodgings on Federal Hill, and, behold! there
+was the letter. "Although the ambulance"--ever blessed!--"had been so
+often to the depot, it would be there on Monday morning, and again on
+Tuesday evening. Don't fail to," etc. Whereupon I called for paper
+and wrote the general that, in spite of the necessity for my returning
+home the next day, I would be at Blank Station on Tuesday evening and
+meet that ambulance--blessed ambulance!--or die in the struggle. Go I
+would, and go I went--if that is grammar.
+
+A newspaper editor--there is no end of editors in Virginia: wherever
+there is a tank, a tan-yard or a wood-pile, there you find one--a
+learned professor who had a flourishing school a few miles up the road
+(public instruction is playing hob with most of the private schools
+in Virginia), and a judge on a lecturing-tour (how is a Virginia
+judge to support his family without lecturing, wood-sawing or other
+supplementary business?) entertained me most agreeably on my way to
+the station.
+
+A cadet from Annapolis was the first object that met my eye when I got
+out.
+
+"'S death! a Virginian in that hated uniform?"
+
+I said no such thing, felt no such thing, but was inwardly pleased
+that Uncle Sam's money (he gets ten millions a year out of Virginia
+tobacco, and then brags about what he does for our children, the sly
+old dog!) was educating some of our boys who otherwise might not be
+educated half so well, if at all. Moreover, the broad shoulders, the
+trim flanks, the aquiline nose, brown hair and ruddy cheeks of the
+young fellow recalled the best specimens of British lads whom I had
+seen in Canada and elsewhere. In truth, I could hardly persuade myself
+that he was not English.
+
+Albion was in the air, for on the other side of the depot there was
+a lot of trunks and other baggage, the make of which could not
+be mistaken. I soon learned that one of the best estates in the
+neighborhood had been sold to an Englishman, who had arrived that
+very day.
+
+"Furies! the sacred soil of Virginia _again_ passing into the hands of
+the blarsted Hinglish, from whom it was wrested a century ago by the
+blood and treasure of George Washington's hatchet! A Federal cadet on
+one side and an Englishman on the other of Blank Depot, away off here
+in Bedford! What are we coming to?"
+
+I did not say or think this either, but was delighted to find John
+Bull pervading the Old Dominion.
+
+Another and a bitterer pill, had I been as disloyal as I was five
+years ago, and ought to be now, awaited me, as you shall hear.
+
+But where is that ambulance? The blessed vehicle was there, and, after
+so long and painful a separation, we should have met face to face if
+it had not been backed up to the platform to receive--whom? me? No,
+a parcel of ladies, who filled every seat. My inflammable Southside
+soul would have burst into a high blaze at this if a gentleman had
+not immediately stepped forward with a snug jug of whisky. Whisky in
+any vessel I love, but whisky in a jug not too big to handle easily
+I adore. My viznomy relaxed, a beam of joy began to irradiate my
+features, when to my extreme surprise the benevolent jug-gentleman
+said, "Take a glass of claret punch"--he had the glass as well as the
+jug--"won't you, sir?"
+
+Amazement! claret punch in a jug at a depot in the heart, or at any
+rate the pericardium, of Bedford county! Where was I? who was I? what
+was my name? and where was I going to? In my life I was never more
+nonplussed.
+
+The ambulance drove off, and I was consigned to a spring wagon with a
+white boy for a driver.
+
+"How far is it to the general's?" I ventured to ask as I stepped in.
+
+"Eight miles."
+
+"Whew!"
+
+"Never mind, sir: we shall be there in an hour and a half."
+
+And off we went like the wind. He drove very boldly and at the same
+time very cautiously, avoiding the numerous stumps, stones and ruts
+with admirable dexterity. I began to suspect that the boy was not a
+Virginia boy. When at length we reached the smooth stage-road I began
+to question him: "Are you the general's son?"
+
+"No, sir: that was my father at the station"--he of the jug.
+
+"How do you like this country?"
+
+My habit from childhood had been to take the life of any stranger who
+had the audacity to tell me that he did not like any and every part
+of Virginia, but of late I have contented myself with slicing off his
+ears.
+
+"The longer I live here the better I like it."
+
+Smart boy! he had saved his auditory organs. But as yet his accent had
+not been sufficiently defined to enable me to tell his nationality.
+"You are not from England, are you?"
+
+"No, indeed, sir--from New Hampshire."
+
+The appalling truth was out. First, a Yankee uniform; second, an
+Englishman; third, a whole raft, a "hull lot," of New Hampshire
+Yankees; and yet they call this Virginia!
+
+No wonder I was silent. Night had fallen, we had entered a dark
+forest, there was an unreconstructed penknife (somehow or other,
+I always forget my bowie-knife and Derringers now-a-days) recently
+sharpened in my pocket. Why did I not cut the throat of this little
+Oppressor and fatten the soil of my native land with the blood of the
+small ruthless Yankee Invader?
+
+It was just because at this moment we caught up with the ambulance.
+The two vehicles halted, a young girl and a little boy left the
+ambulance and took seats by the side of my driver, and the greeting of
+the brother and sister--the latter having just returned from a visit
+to her native granite hills--was actually as affectionate, beautiful
+and sweet as if they had been born in the middle of the Mother of
+States and of Statesmen. And as the ambulance drove on there came
+floating back to us ever and anon on the night wind a still sweeter
+voice. It came from a young lady--a young Yankee lady at that--and it
+sounded sweet to me--to me myself, my own dear, unadulterated, real
+Old Virginia self.
+
+Turning from the main road, we wound around among the rocky ravines
+in a fashion truly bewildering to a body with weak eyes, but my little
+Yankee driver seemed so much at home that I felt no shadow of fear.
+Arriving safely at the general's capacious mansion, I bade my Northern
+friends good-night, and sat down to a supper without fried chickens
+or coffee. In lieu of the latter we had cold tea, with a slice of
+lemon in each goblet. After a long talk on matters of no concern to
+the reader, during which the general related a number of capital
+war-anecdotes, I contrived, as is my wont, to turn the conversation
+upon agricultural topics, with the view of imparting to him a modicum
+of that consummate farming wisdom which appertains to every thoroughly
+conceited scribbler.
+
+"Fine country you have, general."
+
+"Yes: from Lugston to the Tennessee line, two hundred good miles, the
+country is as fine as the sun ever shone upon."
+
+"Appears to be thinly settled."
+
+"You may well say so. Between my house and the station there are eight
+or nine thousand acres, most of it excellent land, belonging to only
+five or six owners."
+
+"Indeed! What are such immense tracts good for now-a-days?"
+
+"Good for grass."
+
+"But they seem to pay little attention to grass."
+
+"True. It is a splendid cheese country, as I have proved, but our
+people are not up to that as yet."
+
+"They _will_ grow tobacco. I saw some fine timber sacrificed for the
+sake of new-ground tobacco."
+
+"And why not? A man gets tired of paying taxes for twenty or thirty
+years on timber which yields him nothing."
+
+I smiled an invisible smile, reverting in my thoughts to an assault
+I had made the week before upon my kinsman in Buckingham. "William,"
+said I, "why will you Southside people continue to exhaust your land
+with tobacco?"
+
+"Dick," he replied, "you are the doggonedest fool out of jail. _You_,
+raised in Virginia, and ask a question like that! Wheat is uncertain,
+corn doesn't pay, we are too far from market for vegetables, too poor
+to put our lands in grass, and tobacco is the only thing that will
+fetch money. As for exhausting land, plenty of tobacco is raised in
+Ohio and Connecticut, and you never hear anybody talk about exhausting
+land there."
+
+"Yes, but there they manure heavily, giving back to the land as much
+as they take, or more."
+
+"Well, old-field pine is good enough manure for a man who has plenty
+of land and can take his time."
+
+Thus in two instances my anti-tobacco wisdom turned out to be about
+as profitable as King James's memorable _Counterblast_ against the
+beloved weed of Virginia.
+
+"But, general," said I, "surely your neighbors don't want to retain
+such vast tracts of land."
+
+"Certainly not. Men do not like to part with good land, and if my
+friends could set their farms well in grass, so that a few hands could
+attend to them, they would only sell at very high figures; but being
+unable to do this, they are willing, and many of them anxious, to sell
+on most reasonable terms."
+
+"What is the trouble, then?"
+
+"The trouble is about houses."
+
+"Explain."
+
+"Wealthy people seldom emigrate. The men who leave home have generally
+but limited means, and coming here they find just the soil and climate
+they desire, but no place to lay their heads; and few if any of them
+can afford to buy land and build houses at the same time. This, I am
+satisfied, is the main difficulty in the way of the speedy filling up
+of Virginia with the best class of yeoman settlers."
+
+"A difficulty not easily remedied."
+
+"No, for our people, rich in land, are even poorer in money than the
+immigrants themselves."
+
+"How on earth, then, did you manage to sell to the New Hampshire
+gentleman who came with me this evening, and who, as I learn, bought a
+part of your farm?"
+
+"Why, I had a roomy house, and I just opened my doors to him and his
+family, and kept them here free of charge till their own house was
+finished."
+
+"Well, general," dropping my voice to the Secesh conspirator level,
+"how do you like him?"
+
+The general, known by the antique name of Jones (though the Sixth
+Pennsylvania and other Northern cavalry were acquainted with him under
+another cognomen), like all the strapping sons of thunder who went
+actively into the field instead of staying at home and abusing Jeff.
+Davis, does not regard his late enemies with that intense hatred which
+is so gratifying to myself and some other people.
+
+He spoke out aloud: "I like him first rate. He is an admirable
+neighbor--a man of sense, practical, sagacious and industrious; and
+his family, wife, sons and daughters, are in all respects worthy of
+him. I wish the county had a thousand of just such people."
+
+This was a crusher for me. Drawing myself up to my full height--which
+ought to be but is not six feet--I seized a kerosene lamp with my
+right hand, and looking the unfortunate man full in the eye, I said
+very respectfully, "General, good-night."
+
+Undismayed, he eyed me back, and, in a tone of what I took to be
+cordiality, replied, "Maybe you'd like a little whisky-and-water
+before going to bed?"
+
+I thanked him "No," mounted the lofty staircase, divested myself of
+sundry sartorial cerements and plunged my earthly tabernacle into the
+centre of a big delicious bed. There, while the thunder rolled among
+the mountains, the rain plashed upon the window-shutters and the wind
+blew like the very devil, I muttered to myself, "Here is a man bearing
+worthily one of the most honored names in the Commonwealth--a member,
+in fact, of one of the first--the first--_first_ fam--families in
+Vir--gin--ia, actually pr--prais--praising Yan--Yank--Yankees in--in's
+own hou--" I was asleep.
+
+On the morrow, when I returned to the station and saw how very lovely
+the country was, how fertile--the rounded mountains, when cleared
+of their royal forests, arable to their very summits, the air like
+Olympian nectar, the sunshine a divine balm, the whole scene a
+Sabbath-land of peace and of boundless plenty, awaiting only the
+cohorts of the North and of the white-cliffed isle--I would fain have
+cried, "Come, ye moderately pecunious Bulls, and you, ye hyperborean
+Vandals from the far Lake of Winnipiseogee and the uttermost Cape of
+Cod--come to this Canaan, not like carpet-bagging spies to steal our
+big bunch of grapes and tote it off on a stick between two of you (as
+per authentic pictures in Sunday-school books), but with your shekels,
+your deniers, your pence, pounds sterling and crisp greenbacks: come
+to this beauteous land, take it, own it, possess it, buy freely, and
+be sure you reserve enough cash to build a house with; or, better
+still, bring your houses ready made, in nests like buckets or painted
+pails (I am sure you have them in your inventive realm). Come, I say,
+and oust these mutton-headed Virginians, or sit down beside them, work
+with them, teach them to work (you are so certain you can), and make
+this American republic the Storehouse of the nations, the Cornucopia
+of all creation!"
+
+I got to the station just three hours after the train I intended to
+take had left, and had to wait only two hours for the next train;
+which was doing pretty well for Virginia. Possessing my Southside
+soul in patience, I bought two not very bad cigars for ten cents, and
+fell to contemplating some eight or nine of the Down-Trodden who were
+hanging around. I must say that the Down-Trodden did not appear to
+have been much flattened by the heel of the Oppressor. As I gazed, a
+foolish parody started itself in my idle brain:
+
+  When the fair land of Bedford
+  Was ploughed by the hoof
+  Of the ruthless invader--
+
+There the thing broke down, and--the events of the night before, the
+Englishman, the happy Northern family and the thoroughly reconstructed
+general, suggesting it in some queer cerebral way--a still more
+foolish negro song, which I had forgotten for years, popped up in my
+brain-pan:
+
+  Lit-tel gal, I give you ninepunce
+  Ef you will dance de Haul-back;
+  And I kin dance de Haul-back,
+  And you kin dance de Haul back,
+  And we kin dance de Haul-back.
+
+The relevancy of this utterly absurd thing did not then strike me. I
+see it now. A certain people--whom I do love with my whole heart,
+not in spite of their faults, but because of them: are they not my
+own?--have been dancing the Haul-back for many generations, and now,
+under my own eye and quite perceptibly in the rural parts of Virginia,
+the dance is coming to an end. Slowly but surely we are lapsing
+into Bullo-doodledom, with a momentary preponderance of Bull.
+_Tempora_--do, I entreat you, allow me the use of my solitary dear
+delightful old bit of Latin--_mutantur_; ay! and we mutate with them.
+The world moves, and no amount of Haul-back will stay it.
+
+RICHARD B. ELDER.
+
+
+
+
+OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.
+
+
+THE WELLESLEY-POLES.
+
+
+The death was announced a few weeks ago of a lady whose name will
+awaken a train of recollection in the minds of all who take an
+interest in English family history. This was Miss Tylney-Long, sister
+to the ill-fated Mrs. Tylney-Long-Wellesley-Pole.
+
+The duke of Wellington's second brother, William, succeeded in 1778 to
+the large Irish estates of a kinsman, Mr. Pole, and assumed that name
+in addition to his own. Mr. Wellesley-Pole, who was eventually created
+a peer as Lord Maryborough, had a son, who became, on the death of
+his uncle, the marquis Wellesley, earl of Mornington. Never had the
+peerage a more unworthy member. Starting in life with every advantage,
+Mr. Wellesley-Pole seemed bent upon showing how effectually he could
+foil the efforts of Fortune to serve him. When he reached an age for
+marriage the greatest heiress of the time was Miss Tylney-Long. By a
+succession of failures of male heirs the vast wealth of the family
+of Child had devolved on this lady, and Mr. Wellesley-Pole became
+the successful suitor for her hand. One of her seats was Wanstead
+in Essex, some fifteen miles from London. Originally a royal manor,
+Wanstead was granted by Edward VI. to Lord Rich, who sold it to
+Elizabeth's favorite, Leicester. Subsequently, on its reverting to the
+Crown, James I. gave it to Sir Henry Mildmay, but, he having been one
+of Charles I.'s judges, it became forfeited, and once more returned to
+the sovereign. Charles II. gave it to his brother James, who sold it
+to Sir Robert Brooke, and he in turn sold it to Sir Joshua Child.
+
+The Childs were the greatest mercantile family of their time. Sir
+Joshua founded the banking-house of the name which still flourishes
+(the oldest in London), and of which the young earl of Jersey is,
+through his great-grandmother, also a Child heiress, the principal
+partner. Sir Joshua's son was raised to a peerage as Earl Tylney, and
+about 1715 employed a celebrated architect of the day, Colin Campbell,
+to build a magnificent mansion. Wanstead was deemed on its completion
+in many respects the most magnificent house in England. It was of
+Portland stone, two hundred feet in length and seventy deep. The great
+hall was fifty-three by forty-five feet, the ball-room seventy-five by
+twenty-seven. This abode was furnished in a style of the most lavish
+splendor, and Mr. Wellesley-Pole's income was more than adequate to
+maintain it in befitting style. But no income is adequate to meet
+the expenses of a gambler and spendthrift, and such was Mr.
+Wellesley-Pole.
+
+Some of his wife's property was happily settled on her and her heirs,
+and could not be got hold of by her rascally husband; but Wanstead,
+after being leased for some time to the duc de Bourbon--who here
+received intelligence of the death of his unfortunate son, the
+duc d'Enghien--came to the hammer. The sale of the effects in 1822
+exceeded anything of the kind which had been known in England up
+to that date. The catalogue consisted of four hundred quarto pages,
+published in three parts, at five shillings each, and it is said that
+not less than twenty thousand copies were sold. It is not a little
+remarkable that the contents of Fonthill Abbey (the celebrated seat of
+the author of _Vathek_), which teemed with even greater riches, were
+sold almost at the same time. Nor were the contents of the mansion
+only disposed of. The fabric itself, which had cost three hundred and
+sixty thousand pounds, was sold for eight thousand pounds, it being
+a condition of the sale that it should be razed and the materials
+removed within a definite number of months.
+
+Had Tylney-Long-Wellesley-Pole (for such was the polysyllabic name he
+bore after his marriage) been only a spendthrift and a gambler, his
+case might not have seemed remarkable. But he showed himself in every
+way a heartless scoundrel as regarded his wife and his children, who
+had to seek legal protection against him. About a year after the sale
+of her splendid home his wife died, and the event is thus spoken of
+in a leading journal of the time: "The premature death of an amiable
+and accomplished lady born to large possessions, and against whom the
+voice of calumny never so much as breathed a slander, calls, we think,
+for a passing comment, as illustrating and furnishing, we trust, a
+lasting and useful lesson to the heartlessness of too many men of the
+present day. With a fortune that made her a prize for princes, this
+amiable woman gave her hand and heart to the man of her choice, and
+with them all that unbounded wealth could bestow. What her fate has
+been all the world knows: what it ought to have been the world is
+equally well aware. To her, riches have been worse than poverty; and
+her life seems to have been scarified and her heart broken through
+the very means that should have cherished and maintained her in the
+happiness and splendor which her fortune and disposition were alike
+qualified to produce. Let her fate be a warning to all of her sex
+who, blessed with affluence, think the buzzing throng which surrounds
+them have hearts, when in fact they have none; and if there be such a
+feeling as remorse accessible in the quarter where it is most called
+for, let the world witness, by a future life of contrition, something
+like atonement for the past."
+
+So far, however, as the world could discover, the atonement never
+came. Lord Mornington, as he became, actually found another woman to
+marry him: he ill-used her, and having sunk into narrow circumstances,
+neglected to provide her with the barest necessaries, so that the
+applications of the countess of Mornington to the London police
+magistrates for assistance became of frequent occurrence. It may
+seem strange that the Wellesley family should not have stepped in to
+prevent such a scandal. Probably they thought that the woman who in
+the teeth of his evil reputation had chosen to marry him should take
+the consequences. He died in 1857. His son, whose life his father's
+conduct had sadly embittered, did not long survive him, and bequeathed
+the remnant of his estates, including Draycot, a large mansion (which
+had been strictly entailed) in Wiltshire, to his cousin, Lord Cowley,
+then ambassador at Paris. His title passed to the duke of Wellington.
+
+
+THE FATE OF DANGAN CASTLE.
+
+
+Lord Cowley, on being created an earl, selected for his second title
+that of Viscount Dangan, thus perpetuating the memory of the old seat
+of the Wellesleys in Ireland. It is a somewhat remarkable circumstance
+that although no family in the United Kingdom has within the last
+century acquired such fame and honors as the Wellesleys, they have
+long since ceased to own a rood of ground in the country whence
+they derived the affluence and rank which were to the famous sons of
+Garrett, earl of Mornington, the first stepping-stones to fame.
+
+The Wellesleys are only Wellesleys--or Wesleys, as the name was
+formerly spelt--in the female line. Richard Colley, son of Henry
+Colley, of Castle Carbery, county Cork, succeeded on the 23d of
+September, 1728, to the estates of his cousin, Garrett Wesley, Esq.,
+of Dangan, county Meath, assumed the name and arms of "Wesley," and
+was created baron of Mornington July 9, 1746. He married, December
+23, 1819, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Doctor John Sale, M.P. for
+Carysfort, and died January 31, 1758, when he was succeeded by his
+only son, Garrett, father of the duke of Wellington, who was created
+in 1760 Viscount Wellesley and earl of Mornington.
+
+In October, 1748, Mrs. Delany writes: "Last Monday we set out for
+Dangan, Lord Mornington's. He is the same good-humored, agreeable man
+he was seventeen years ago. My godson, Master Wesley [Wellington's
+father] is a most extraordinary boy: he was thirteen last month,
+is a very good scholar, and whatever study he undertakes masters
+it most surprisingly. He began with the riddle last year, and now
+plays everything at sight." [In after years Lord Mornington acquired
+considerable distinction as a composer.]
+
+"This place, Dangan Castle, is really magnificent: the old house that
+was burnt down is rebuilding. They live at present in the offices: the
+garden (or rather improvements and parks, for it is too extensive to
+be called a garden) consists of six hundred Irish acres, between eight
+and nine hundred English. There is a gravel-walk fifty-two feet broad
+and six hundred yards long from the house to the great lake. The lake
+contains twenty-six acres, is of an irregular shape, with a fort
+built in all its forms. My godson is governor of the fort. He hoisted
+all his colors, and was not a little mortified that I declined the
+compliment of being saluted from the fort and ship. The ground, so far
+as you can see every way, is waving in hills and dales."
+
+Dangan stands about seven miles from Trim and twenty from Dublin. The
+Marquis Wellesley (husband of Miss Caton of Maryland), who succeeded
+his father as second earl of Mornington, sold it to a Mr. Burroughs,
+who, after greatly improving it, let it to Mr. Roger O'Connor, a
+near relative of the Chartist agitator of the name. Whilst in his
+possession the house and demesne were stripped of everything that
+could be turned into money; the timber, which was remarkable both for
+quantity and quality, was cut down; and the gardens were permitted to
+run to waste. At length the house--being heavily insured--was found
+to be on fire, and was burnt before assistance could be obtained. One
+part of the building, of which the walls were extraordinarily thick,
+is now inhabited by a farmer who superintends the property.
+
+The present duke of Wellington (whose wife, formerly well known as
+Lady Douro, is a daughter of Lord Tweeddale, and sister of the wife
+of Sir Robert Peel) is childless. His only brother, Lord Charles
+Wellesley, left two sons, but if these should die issueless the
+dukedom will be extinct, and the Irish earldom of Mornington will
+pass to Lord Cowley.
+
+
+INTERVIEWING CAPTAIN KIDD.
+
+
+Mr. Editor: The following, which I cut from the New York _Herald_ of
+July 17, 1699 (accidentally in my possession), may interest some of
+your readers. I was not before aware that the _Herald's_ files
+went back so far, but it was a greater surprise to discover that
+interviewing flourished at so early a date.
+
+Yours, SARSFIELD YOUNG.
+
+
+CAPTAIN KIDD!
+
+THE PIRATE CHIEF IN A BOSTON JAIL!
+
+BOUQUETS AND BAKED BEANS _vs._ PURITAN THEOLOGY!
+
+CALUMNIATIONS OF THE PRESS!
+
+DON'T CALL ME PET NAMES--WILLIAM _vs._ ROBERT!
+
+ALL A MISTAKE ABOUT THAT CHISEL!
+
+SARAH'S MUGS AND PORRINGERS!
+
+"HOW IS MY FRIEND, COL. LIVINGSTONE?"
+
+EAST INDIA RING _vs._ INNOCENCE!
+
+CAN ADAMS AND CHOATE CLEAR HIM? etc. etc.
+
+[From _Herald_ Special Correspondent.]
+
+BOSTON, 16th July, 1699.
+
+Your correspondent arrived here last evening, and found (as already
+telegraphed) that the arrest and imprisonment of Captain Kidd, the
+champion pirate of the world, continues to form the all-absorbing
+topic of conversation. Little Boston has got a sensation at last, and
+is determined to keep it. Merchants and brokers talk Kidd on 'Change.
+Groups at the hotels discuss the nautical hero. Badly-executed
+pictures of him stare at you from the shop-windows. Cotton Mather,
+the great gun of the clergy here, blazes away at this "child of
+iniquity" from the pulpit; and it is understood that a prominent
+publishing-house has already arranged to bring out _The Autobiography
+of a Buccaneer_. _On dit_, that certain parties are negotiating to
+have him appear next season as a lecturer in case he isn't wanted on
+another platform.
+
+The first paroxysm of excitement, which looked to nothing short of
+hanging him from the steeple of the Old South Church, has given
+place to a conviction that the law had better be suffered to take
+its course, inasmuch as the unfortunate captain will surely drift
+among the breakers when he is tossed about on the sea of criminal
+jurisprudence.
+
+By the politeness of the colonial authorities, your correspondent
+obtained a permit to visit the noted son of Neptune at the Stone
+Prison. Sending in his card, he was at once invited into the small but
+comfortable apartment where the "scourge of the seas" is confined.
+
+Captain Kidd graciously extended his hand and bade your correspondent
+welcome. He is a short, broad-shouldered, powerfully-built man, of
+perhaps forty-five or forty-seven years of age. His hair, which is
+of dark chestnut and inclined to curl, was combed back from a medium
+forehead, and his face was sun-burnt into a rich mahogany hue. His
+cold gray eyes were deep set under thick brows that arched and met.
+His manner was courteous and dignified. He was dressed in light gray
+trowsers of perfect cut, patent-leather boots and a red-and-black
+spotted shirt, which displayed in its front a set of superb diamond
+studs. From under a Byron collar, _parfaitement_ starched, peeped
+the ends of a pale lilac scarf. A magnificent seal-ring decorated the
+third finger of his left hand.
+
+The day being excessively warm, his coat and vest had been laid aside.
+The room was plainly furnished. The table was littered with charts and
+papers, while on a stand were flowers sent to the prisoner by ladies
+of Boston.
+
+With the instinct of a true gentleman, he proceeded to put on his coat
+and vest, when the following conversation ensued:
+
+_Rep_. "Pray, captain, keep your coat off."
+
+_Capt. K._ "Thank you, if the same to you?"
+
+_Rep_. "Quite the same, I assure you. My visit is informal." (Handing
+him a cigar.)
+
+_Capt. K._ "Thanks: I take things coolly--waive ceremony. You know
+that's a habit I acquired at sea. You are a reporter?"
+
+_Rep_. "Yes, for the New York _Herald_. I call to ascertain your views
+of the situation. The public are anxious to hear your defence; and, if
+proper, I would like to ask you a few questions."
+
+_Capt. K._ "Certainly" (lighting his cigar). "You newspaper men
+haven't given me a fair show. There's a heap of lying going on about
+me. They are hounding me--that's a fact. I've got the evidence to
+prove that I'm an injured man. I have a clear conscience, that's one
+comfort."
+
+_Rep_. "A great comfort, no doubt. May I ask, captain, what particular
+falsehood has gained currency?"
+
+_Capt. K._ "Yes, sir. I will name one that is an unmitigated slander.
+They say that when I came across Moore and corrected him with a bucket
+for his impertinence, he was grinding a chisel. Now, sir, that is as
+false as ----!"
+
+_Rep_. "Indeed?"
+
+_Capt. K._ "Yes, sir, 'twas a screwdriver."
+
+_Rep_. "That shall be corrected, captain. Anything else?"
+
+_Capt. K._ "Yes, sir--a bigger lie still. There is a scurrilous
+broadside circulating all over the country. Here it is." (He handed me
+a copy of verses printed in the _Herald_ of last Tuesday.) "Read
+that, if you please, sir: 'My name is Robert Kidd, as I sailed, as I
+sailed.' Now, sir, that is a villainous falsehood."
+
+_Rep_. "You didn't sail under that name, then, captain?"
+
+_Capt. K._ "Never. Why, bless your innocent heart, my baptismal name
+is _William_. It is of a piece with all their malignant lying, this
+persisting in calling me _Robert_."
+
+_Rep_. "It _is_ hard." (Pause.) "Pray, captain, permit me to ask
+if the story is true that Mrs. Kidd's trunk was seized by the
+authorities, and kept with its contents of gold-dust and diamonds?"
+
+_Capt. K._ "In part true, sir. A perfect outrage, sir. Mrs. Kidd
+came on from New York post-haste when she heard that the Antonio had
+arrived, and no sooner had she set foot in Boston than the authorities
+gobbled up her trunk, leaving her in a strange community with nothing
+but a band-box. The public have exaggerated the contents. They were
+silver mugs, porringers and plate generally for family use, that
+we had been years accumulating. They locked it up in the castle,
+and--Poor Sarah! poor Sarah!" (Here the stout man buried his head in
+his hands and appeared deeply affected. Your correspondent improved
+the opportunity to perfect his notes.)
+
+_Rep_. (after a few minutes). "I am glad to assure you, Captain Kidd,
+that it will probably be returned to her to-morrow."
+
+_Capt. K._ (brightening up). "To-morrow? Well, that's good. It
+wellnigh broke Sarah's heart. By the way, you are lately from New
+York, I suppose. How is my old friend, Colonel Livingstone? Well, I
+hope?"
+
+_Rep_. "I haven't the honor of his acquaintance, but I have no doubt
+he is well. New York men usually are. He is a staunch friend of yours,
+captain?"
+
+_Capt. K._ "Ay, that he is. He has always stood by me, ever since he
+got me that appointment to command the 'Adventure galley.'"
+
+_Rep_. "You have no doubt, captain, of your ability to substantiate
+your entire innocence of these charges brought against you?"
+
+_Capt. K._ "Not the slightest, not the slightest, sir. There was
+Captain Wright of the Quedah--you remember him, I dare say: had
+command of that nigger crew--what did he say when I went aboard his
+ship? Said he, 'Kidd, you remind me of the new-born babe.' I suppose
+I can't prove that, for Wright, poor fellow! has been dropped into the
+sea, with a twenty-four-pound shot at his heels.
+
+"But what if the jury does convict me? Can't I have a bill of
+exceptions? Can't I sue out an injunction to stay proceedings? What
+did they let me walk the streets of Boston a whole week for, if I was
+such a criminal as some of 'em pretend? I tell you what it is--this
+thing is a put-up job. That ring of East India speculators is at the
+bottom of it. They just run Bellamont. They know I stand in their way;
+but I'll be even with them yet. Mark my word, Mr. Reporter: William
+Kidd is going to march down these streets head up, colors flying and
+the band playing 'Carry the news to Hiram.'"
+
+_Rep_. "I hope so, captain. One word more. If not too bold, may I
+inquire about these stories of your burying treasure on Gardner's
+Island?"
+
+_Capt. K._ "True as gospel preaching! I buried doubloons all over
+that island--used to work moonlight nights at it. You can't show me a
+square yard of soil there that isn't stuck full of shiners. You see,
+it grew to be a perfect passion with me. I stopped on my way up Boston
+harbor here, and planted about three millions of pounds sterling. I
+forget now which island it was. However, I shall publish a complete
+guide to all these points, with diagrams and directions for getting
+up stock companies, in the book I'm preparing." (Just then a card was
+brought in. Captain K. nodded affirmatively to the attendant, and
+your correspondent rose to withdraw.) "I am sorry not to talk with you
+longer, but a delegation of the ministry are just outside the door.
+They propose to sit down and discuss with me the exceeding sinfulness
+of a greed of worldly gain, especially when it runs into piracy.--My
+best compliments to you, sir. Good-morning."
+
+_Rep_. "Good-morning, captain."
+
+Your correspondent encountered six white-chokered gentlemen on their
+way to interview the great nautical backslider. He is certainly the
+lion of the hour.
+
+From what your correspondent has been able to gather it is probable
+that a few friends of the captain will succeed in their efforts to
+secure Samuel Adams and a promising young lawyer named Choate to
+conduct his defence. In this event his chances of a discharge from
+custody will prove favorable. It may be that Bellamont and the council
+will conclude to send him over for trial in the King's Bench.
+
+Your correspondent inclines to the view that the distinguished marine
+plunderer can hardly be held for piracy, but may be convicted of
+the murder of the gunner Moore. The story is here that Kidd, with an
+iron-hooped bucket, not only finished up things for William Moore,
+but left that unhappy man in his gore. As regards jurisdiction, the
+government will allege that the awful deed was committed not many
+leagues from shore.
+
+
+A DINNER EXCUSE.
+
+
+Apologies for poor dinners are generally out of place. But when a lady
+has a forgetful husband, who, without warning, brings home a dozen
+guests to sit down to a plain family dinner for three or four, it is
+not in human nature to keep absolute silence. What to say, and how
+to say it, form the problem. Mrs. Tucker, the wife of Judge Tucker of
+Williamsburg, solved this problem most happily many years ago. She was
+the daughter or niece (I am uncertain which) of Sir Peyton Skipwith,
+and celebrated for her beauty, wit, ease and grace of manner. Her
+temper and tact were put to the proof one court-day, when the judge
+brought with him the accustomed half score or more of lawyers, for
+whom not the slightest preparation had been made, the judge having
+quite forgotten to remind his wife that it was court-day, and she
+herself, strange to tell, having overlooked the fact.
+
+The dinner was served with elegance, and Mrs. T. made herself very
+charming. Upon rising to leave the guests to their wine she said:
+"Gentlemen, you have dined to-day with Judge Tucker: promise me now
+that you will all dine to-morrow with _me_"
+
+This was all her apology, whereupon the gentlemen swore that such a
+wife was beyond price. The judge then explained the situation, and the
+next day there was a noble banquet.
+
+_Moral_: Never worry a guest with apologies.
+
+
+NOTES.
+
+
+A Turkish paper gives an account of a curious forced emigration
+which has recently produced great excitement on classic ground. On
+the European banks of the Hellespont stands the city of Gallipoli,
+interesting as the first possession of the Turks in Europe in 1357;
+and nearly opposite to it is Lamsaki, a village long renowned for
+the vineyards in its neighborhood, and situated near the site of
+the celebrated Lampsacus of classic times. During the autumn the
+authorities of Gallipoli came to the conclusion that there were in
+that town--as where are there not?--too many owner-less dogs about;
+and instead of issuing death-warrants against these vagrants, they
+took the extraordinary course of exporting them to their opposite
+neighbors across the Hellespont, who were already plentifully
+provided with canine treasures. On the arrival of these two thousand
+immigrants, who were very unruly on the passage, they started, in
+quest of food it may be supposed, to the mountains, but not finding
+anything to suit their palates, returned to the town. Here the tug of
+war commenced. The Lamsakian canines, on recognizing the situation,
+turned out to a dog, and a frightful conflict, with terrible howlings
+and barkings, ensued for four hours. At the end of that time the
+foreign foe was worsted, and, beating a retreat, endeavored to allay
+the pangs of hunger by eating the grapes, and thus doing really
+serious damage. The people then had to turn out: two hundred dogs
+were killed, and the rest retreated, but of course only to return.
+The _Djeridei Havadis_ concludes the account by mildly saying that
+the Lamsakians are much disgusted by the eccentric conduct of the
+Gallipoli magistrates, who ought of course to have sent their canine
+emigrants to a desert island. But how thankful would Philadelphians be
+if somebody, imitating the Gallipoli magistrates, would but deport two
+thousand of the cats which make night-life hideous--to the New Jersey
+shore, say!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The pie is almost an "institution" in America. A single New York
+bakery claims that it produces nine hundred pies an hour from one of
+its ten capacious ovens, and a total of fifty thousand pies daily,
+the year round, forcing the supply occasionally up to sixty-five
+thousand--probably on Fourths of July or other festal occasions. Let
+the reader busy himself with imagining the total production of pies
+by this and all other bakeries of the country during a twelve-month!
+Nevertheless, these facilities would be inadequate to popular demand
+were the majority of our countrymen of a stomach as unbounded as
+that of the Dundee laborer whom a Scotch journal commemorates. This
+extraordinary person, having not long since eaten nine large twopenny
+pies at a Dundee pie-shop within fourteen and a half minutes,
+announced his purpose to eat on the following Monday twelve pies
+within twenty-five minutes; and in fact, when the delicacies were put
+before him in the shape of a six-pound pile, fourteen inches high, he
+consumed half a dozen in five minutes, the next three at the end of
+eleven minutes, and the last three in six minutes more, having ended
+his repast eight minutes sooner than he had designed--possibly owing
+to the pangs of hunger, since he expressed a willingness to occupy the
+spare moments with devouring another half dozen pies.
+
+With this item of news in fresh remembrance we chanced to read in a
+very old English newspaper the supper eaten, many years ago, by Mr.
+Oakley of Stanton, Derbyshire--a repast which makes the Scotchman's,
+just recorded, rather frugal by comparison. His first dish, says the
+report, was two quarts of milk, thirty eggs, half a pound of butter,
+half a pound of sugar, three penny loaves, a quantity of ginger and
+nutmeg and an ounce of mustard, all boiled together; his second course
+was "apiece of cheese and a pound of bread to it;" the third was half
+a pound of bacon, a penny loaf and a quart of ale, followed by three
+halfpennies' worth of ginger-bread and a pint of ale; his fourth dish
+was a custard of two pounds, an ounce of mustard, some black pepper,
+a pint of milk and three pints of ale to it. This banquet he finished
+in an hour, and then ungratefully complained of not having had enough;
+so, after running three hundred yards by way of appetizer, he sat down
+with the rest of the company, who had witnessed his prowess, and drank
+pretty freely. Yet even this exploit is hardly equal to the marvel in
+digestion reported in the same ancient newspaper of a Truro porter,
+who, for a bet of five shillings, ate two pairs of worsted stockings
+fried in train oil, and half a pound of yellow soap into the bargain.
+The losers of this wager might have been more cautious had they known
+that the same atrocious glutton once undertook to eat as much tripe as
+would make himself a jacket with sleeves, and was accordingly measured
+by a tailor, who regularly cut out the materials, when, to general
+surprise, the voracious fellow ate up the whole in twenty minutes.
+Compared with these performances some of the current prodigies of
+gormandism which the papers so often report are surely as trifling
+in amount as they are tame and uninventive in the character of their
+details.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The strange accident of Albertacce brought to general notice an
+obscure Corsican custom which singularly contrasts with the ordinary
+funeral ceremonies of Christendom. The _vocero_, as this rite is
+styled, is palpably an inheritance from the classical conquerors of
+the island, now preserved only in some of the interior villages.
+When the head of a family dies, the body, after being robed in its
+handsomest garments, is laid in state on a table in the largest room,
+surrounded with lights. Then, five or six hours before the burial,
+all the women of the village and the district, clothed in black and
+with bare heads, assemble around the corpse, the mother and sisters
+of the dead at the feet, the nearest relations next, and so on. When
+this assemblage is formed the most renowned poetesses or singers of
+their number, with hair disheveled and bleeding faces, and a white
+handkerchief waving in the hand, chant in verse the history, virtues
+and destiny of the dead. The mournful cadence, the profuse weeping and
+the dramatic gestures of the ceremony are striking. The chief mourner
+amid her wailing sometimes raises the head or the arm of the corpse,
+and plucks out her own hair or freshly tears at her face till the
+blood pours again from the wounded skin, while the half-stifled
+sobbing of the whole company adds to the effect. When at length the
+priest arrives, all is hushed, but the women follow the corpse in
+procession to the church, where the ceremony sometimes lasts several
+hours. Such, at least, is the account of the _vocero_ given by a
+correspondent of the _XIX'e Siecle_, who visited the scene of the
+Albertacce accident, where a roomful of celebrants were suddenly
+precipitated into the cellar by the giving way of the floor. The mere
+mention of the accident came by telegraph, but it appears that twenty
+dead and fourteen mangled women were taken from the wreck of the house
+where they had been singing their mournful _vocero_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Unless the Paris postmen are more patient than those of Madrid (who
+were on strike a few weeks since), their temper must be ruffled by
+the transformations now going on in the names of streets. In France,
+and especially in Paris, each overthrow of a dynasty produces a
+corresponding revolution in the city directory, for all unpopular
+names must be effaced, and the streets which bore them must be
+rebaptized in accordance with the political favorites of the hour.
+Decrees have already turned the Avenue de l'Empereur into the Avenue
+des Lacs; the Avenue Napoleon into the Avenue de l'Opera; the Place
+Napoleon into the Place de l'Opera; the Avenue de l'Imperatrice
+into the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne; the Boulevard Voltaire
+into the Boulevard de Belfort; the Rue Magnan into the Rue
+d'Angouleme-Saint-Honore (its old name); the Rue Billault into the Rue
+de l'Oratoire-du-Roule, also its old appellation; while there has been
+a general effacing of those names which the Communists set up upon
+the streets and avenues during their brief lease of power. Scores of
+other old names of streets are already changed or are in train of
+alteration; but the preceding will suffice for examples. Now, when
+one reflects that at the overthrow of Charles X., and again at the
+overthrow of Louis Philippe, and again at the overthrow of the Second
+Republic, and again at the overthrow of the Second Empire, and again
+at the overthrow of the Commune, these alterations wept on, it is
+seen that the puzzle offered to Paris people in general, and to Paris
+postmen in particular, must be anything but amusing. Should the
+Third Republic perish to-morrow, a new christening of streets would
+have to be made; but the event only would determine whether the new
+names should celebrate Imperialism, or Communism, or Bourbonism, or
+Orleanism, or each in its turn. It is rather strange that, with such
+an experience, Paris should not take refuge in that tame but enduring
+system of street nomenclature which is based on the letters of the
+alphabet and the ordinal numbers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An English magazine not long since described some of the curious
+theories and superstitions which prevail among devotees of the
+lottery and the gaming-table, regarding "lucky numbers." There are
+traditionally fortunate and unfortunate combinations, and there are
+also newer favorites, based very often on figures connected with the
+chronology of famous men. The career of Napoleon III. would seem to be
+considered by gamblers a specially successful one, for since his death
+they have been betting furiously on all numbers supposed to bear a
+relation to sundry pivotal events of his life. In Vienna, in Milan, in
+Rome, the newspapers notice this universal rage among regular patrons
+of the lottery for staking their fortunes on Napoleonic numbers; and,
+what is also curious, these numbers have in several instances turned
+out lucky. Thus, in a late Vienna paper we read that "the death of the
+Man of Sedan has brought good luck to the old women of this city who
+give themselves up with unquenchable passion to the lottery." At the
+last drawing, as the paper goes on to say, the numbers most eagerly
+seized upon were 3, for Napoleon III.; 65, for his age; 20, for his
+birthday, it falling on the twentieth of the month; 90, as the highest
+number in the lottery, hence interpreted to signify "emperor;" and
+finally 52, the year of his accession to the throne. To the joy of all
+the old lottery-gossips, the luck fell on these numbers, 3, 20, and
+90. At Rome the death of Napoleon. III. has furnished new combinations
+for all the devotees of the lottery. At Milan the same infatuated
+class have "pointed a moral" of their own from the event--a moral
+quite different from the one extracted by sermonizers. They have
+been playing heavily on number 20 (a gold Napoleon being worth twenty
+francs), and on number 13, which latter, as the proverbially unlucky
+one, is interpreted to mean the ex-emperor's death. On the first
+drawing after his death these two numbers proved to be the lucky ones
+of the lottery, and it was then found that there had been a great
+number of winners.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Is this present year, 1873, to be, like some famous ones in history,
+specially fatal to crowned heads, and to heads that have once been
+crowned? During the whole twelve months of 1872 the only European
+sovereign who died was Charles XV. of Sweden, while none suffered
+irremediable misfortune; and in European royal families the only two
+losses by death were Archduke Albrecht and the duke of Guise. But
+within the first six weeks of 1873 no less than three persons died who
+had at some time worn imperial crowns, and one monarch resigned his
+sceptre. First died Napoleon III., on the 9th of January. Then, on the
+25th, at Lisbon, died the dowager-empress Amelia, daughter of Prince
+Eugene, wife of Pedro I. of Brazil, and stepmother of the present
+emperor, Pedro II. On February 8 the empress Caroline Augusta, widow
+of Francis I. of Austria, and grandmother of the reigning emperor,
+died at Vienna. In Spain the abdication of Amadeo is an incident to
+be mentioned in a year opening so ominously to crowned and discrowned
+heads.
+
+
+
+
+LITERATURE OF THE DAY.
+
+    Santo Domingo, Past and Present; with a Glance at Hayti. By
+    Samuel Hazard. New York: Harper & Brothers.
+
+Mr. Hazard, who has already obliged us with one of the best accounts
+of Cuba extant in modern literature, now does a similar service for
+Santo Domingo, which he declares to be much more highly favored by
+Nature, and which he examined with the United States commission of
+1871. This book has the advantage of being prepared within reach of
+the British Museum, whose stores of Americo-Spanish authorities have
+enabled him to write up with much fullness the historical sketch which
+occupies a third of his space. This is a fair, faithful and skillful
+condensation, and the most readable narrative we have seen of poor
+Dominica's tale of revolutions and wrongs. The personal portion begins
+with the author's arrival at the Salt Keys and Puerto Plata, and
+follows the steps of the commissioners, with a great many anecdotes
+and a sprinkling of artistic sketches, to Samana and Santo Domingo
+City; thence overland to the great inland tobacco-mart of Santiago;
+and so back to Puerto Plata and Monte Christo, where the commission
+ceased its labors, being discouraged by the Haytians from an
+exploration within their domain; while Mr. Hazard, resuming his
+capacity of private citizen, took his life in his hand and ventured
+into the proud Mumbo-Jumbo republic. It is here that the really lively
+part of the story commences, and the author becomes the hero of quite
+a tragedy of errors. At the first Haytian port, Dauphin Bay, he meets
+the port-captain who cannot read his passport, the port-general who
+bows and sends him to the chef de police, the chef who asks for half
+a dollar without countersigning the document, and lets the pilgrim
+go on in quest of the American consul. The only hotel is closed and
+"busted:" the consul indicates a billiard-room, whose proprietor feeds
+the stranger, informing him at the same time that the authorities take
+him for a United States commissioner, and have doubled the guards.
+The next visit is to a banker, who plays him a curious practical joke.
+Demanding Haytian bank-notes for a few hundred dollars on a letter of
+credit, the tourist, after a time of waiting, sees the street on which
+the banker lives completely blocked with donkey-carts, drays, mules,
+horses with panniers and carts drawn by bullocks. A negro drayman
+informs him that "the American commissioner, having come over-night
+from Monte Christo, is drawing a draft in Haytian specie, and that the
+carts are to load up with it." The banker, being consulted, offers to
+store the currency cheap in a warehouse, but advises as a friend that
+the draft be reduced, the bullocks sent away, and that the traveler
+take a beer. "I took the beer," says Mr. Hazard. A dollar in gold
+means just four hundred dollars in Haytian paper: a cocktail cost
+the traveler "thirty dollars," and other things in proportion. These
+beginnings of make-believe pomposity are followed up by the strangest
+revelations wherever the adventurer sets his foot. Going from Cape
+Haytien to the citadel and "Sans-Souci" palace of Christophe, the
+traveler is charged "two thousand dollars" by the drunken negro
+guide, and "a dollar" by the sable sentry of whom he happens to ask a
+question. The town of Cape Haytien he finds surrounded by the rotting
+bodies of dead animals; the ruins of fine old country-seats are
+occupied by filthy black squatters; the new houses going up are built
+by the process of throwing single bricks one after the other from the
+ground to the bricklayer. Squalor and braggadocio he finds everywhere.
+The general who has given him a permit to inspect Christophe's
+stronghold sends a messenger secretly in advance with instructions
+reversing his order: the commandant refuses lodgings to "the American
+who has come to take the fort." Some friends of the consul who
+had received a general invitation to accompany the excursion had
+previously backed out, because the stranger was an American, a reputed
+commissioner, and very unsafe company. Mr. Hazard could only obtain
+permission to swing his hammock in the house of a negress; a citizen
+who pointed him out to the others made the signs of throat-cutting;
+and he left behind him the filibustering reputation of the American
+who came to take the citadel. Naturally disgusted by this time, the
+author renounced his intention of further land-traveling, and passed
+in a steamer around the western end of the island to Port-au-Prince.
+Here he was delighted with the entertainment of our present minister
+to Hayti, Mr. Bassett, a Philadelphia quadroon of uncommon qualities
+and collegiate education. "Some of my most delightful hours," says the
+writer, "were spent enjoying the kind hospitalities of Mr. Bassett
+and his lady." He represents the minister as living in a palace built
+for the emperor Soulouque, and playing a part in the revolutionary
+conflicts of the island similar to that of Minister Washburne in
+revolutionary Paris. The brave conduct of Mr. Bassett during the
+brief presidency of the unhappy Salnave deserves mention. About
+three thousand humble blacks, frightened by the rebellion of the
+"aristocracy," fled to the protection of our flag, and the minister,
+though shot at in the streets and without the support of a single
+man-of-war, saved and fed them all. It seems to be not much to its
+credit that our nation, though very tender of Hayti when the question
+of Dominican annexation is raised, has never reimbursed its ambassador
+for this drain on his private purse for the succor of Haytian lives.
+With Port-au-Prince, where the writer awaited his steamer's departure
+for the United States, the journey terminates. The traveler's
+evident disgust with almost every manifestation of Haytian attempts
+at self-government is balanced by his rapture with the natural
+features of the other end of the island. He writes as an ardent
+annexationist--not so much from the humanitarian view of President
+White and Dr. Howe, as from the belief that Santo Domingo, if once
+made our territory, would soon enrich our treasury from its commerce
+and its uncommon adaptability as a watering-place. We have spoken of
+this book as very thorough. It is so in every respect--historical,
+pictorial and narrative. The list of books pertaining to the subject
+occupies alone eight pages of small print: as the author, however,
+evidently wishes this list to be approximately complete, and as he
+seems to be aware of but few books except those in the British Museum,
+we will oblige him, as possibly useful for a future edition, with
+the titles of some which he does not give: one of these especially,
+Dr. Brown's _History and Present Condition of St. Domingo_, we are
+surprised he does not include, as it is one of the most popular and
+useful books on the topic, and a manual of which we imagined every
+commissioner to have got a chapter by heart daily when on the way to
+Samana:
+
+    Las Casas, "Destruccion de las Indias," Sevilla, 1552;
+    Desportes, "Histoire des Maladies de Saint Domingue," Paris,
+    1770, 3 vols.; Petit, "Droit Publique des Colonies Francaises"
+    (containing the "Black Code"), Paris, 1777; Nicolson,
+    "Histoire Naturelle de Saint Domingue," Paris, 1776; Valverde,
+    "Idea del Valor de la Isla Espanola," Madrid, 1785; Puysegur,
+    "Navigation aux Cotes de St. Domingue," Paris, 1787;
+    D'Auberteuil, "Considerations sur la Colonie, etc.," 1776;
+    Coulon, "Troubles en Saint Domingue," 1798; Malouet, fourth
+    volume of his "Colonial History," 1802; Dubroca, "Toussaint
+    l'Ouverture," 1802; Tonnerre, "Memoires, Histoire d'Haiti,"
+    Port-au-Prince, 1804; Laujon and Montpenay, "Precis," 1805,
+    1811, 1814 and 1819; Bercy, "De St. Domingue," Paris, 1814;
+    Herard Dumesle, "Voyage," Port-au-Prince, 1824; Clausson,
+    "Revolution de Saint Domingue," 1819; Malo, "Histoire
+    d'Haiti," Paris, 1825; Wallez, "Biography of General Boyer,"
+    1826; Macaulay, "Abolition d'Esclavage," 1835; J. Brown,
+    M.D., "History and Present Condition of Saint Domingo," 1837;
+    Chaucheprat, "Le Routier des Antilles," 1843; Schoelcher,
+    "Resultats de l'emancipation anglaise," 1843; Emile Nau,
+    "Histoire des Caciques d'Haiti," 1855; Saint-Amand, "Histoire
+    des Revolutions d'Haiti," Paris, 1860; Pradine (ex-minister to
+    England), "Digest of Laws of Hayti," Paris, 1860.
+
+
+    Thorvaldsen: his Life and Works. From the French of Eugene
+    Plon, by I.M. Luyster. Boston: Roberts Brothers.
+
+Thorwaldsen's life lasted from 1770 to 1844, and was very industrious.
+He was the son of a Copenhagen ship-carver, and received all his bent
+from the study of the antique in Italy. The works he left are almost
+innumerable, and some of them will have lasting reputation. The finest
+perhaps is his medallion of Night, "launched with infinite lightness
+into space, carrying in her arms her two children, Sleep and Death."
+This masterpiece is said to have been conceived during a sleepless
+night in 1815, and modeled in one day. His Lion at Lucerne, made
+to commemorate the Swiss guards at Paris who fell in defending
+the Tuileries, August 10, 1792, is known to every tourist: it is
+altogether conventional, but it is not commonplace. "Never having seen
+a live lion," says his biographer, "he went to antique statues for
+inspiration:" he thus, at two or three removes from Nature, secured a
+grand, monumental conception, fully charged with human intelligence.
+The colossi of Christ and his Twelve, now to be seen with the artist's
+other works at Copenhagen, and formerly exhibited at the World's Fair
+in New York, are imposing and classical, while they perhaps show the
+absence of the Christian idea noted in his other clerical subjects.
+Thorvaldsen, born a Lutheran, was a spectator in Rome of bigotry and
+skepticism, and took refuge in artistic impartiality. A friend once
+observing that his want of religious faith must make it difficult
+to express Christian ideas in his works, "If I were altogether an
+unbeliever," he replied, "why should that give me any trouble? Have
+I not represented pagan divinities?--still, I don't believe in them."
+The life of this artist was one of consummate worldly success;
+the kings of Bavaria and Denmark were the personal friends of the
+unlettered son of the ship-carver, as were Horace Vernet, Walter
+Scott, Andersen, and Mendelssohn; his casket of decorations was the
+amusement of his lady visitors; and his invitations were so constant
+that he could not always remember the name of his host: he was at once
+parsimonious and charitable, cheerful and melancholy. His artistic
+influence was very strong, exhibiting itself in the style of Tenerani,
+Galli, Rauch, Drake and Bissen. The life of him by Plon is methodical
+and complete, and the American version is illustrated by thirty-five
+careful engravings printed in Paris and gummed upon the sheets.
+
+
+    Expiation. By Mrs. Julia C.R. Dorr, author of "Sibyl
+    Huntington," etc. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co.
+
+_Expiation_ is an interesting American story, with a background of
+lonely woods that protect the rustic privacy of Altona, and a list of
+characters that combine city culture and country eccentricity. Patsy,
+the grim and self-sacrificing "help," who observes drily of a statue
+representing Eve with the apple that "some things is decent and some
+things ain't," is the best delineation in it, but the style is always
+lively, always feminine and pure, and the conception of the high-bred,
+aristocratic family, come to bury their mistakes and miseries in a
+forest seclusion, would have been thought worthy of being worked up by
+Emily Bronte. The catastrophe, where a dumb nun turns out to be a lost
+wife given over to the undertakers in a state of catalepsy, is perhaps
+not quite new, but it is striking and vigorously told, and her union
+at last with her husband's sons and the girlish bride of one of them
+is very touching. The novel is full of local American color, and
+entices the attention from the reader's first plunge to the end.
+
+
+    Wanderings in Spain. By Augustus J.C. Hare, author of
+    "Memorials of a Quiet Life," "Walks in Rome," etc. London:
+    Strahan & Co.; New York: Dodd & Mead.
+
+This companionable book tells you how to travel over the Spanish
+Peninsula by means of a slight knowledge of the Castilian tongue, a
+bold infidelity to Murray's _Guide_, a cake of soap and some Liebig's
+broth, and a habit of universal politeness. "Pardon me, my sister,"
+said the author to a beggar-woman at Barcelona: "does not your worship
+see that I am drawing?" "Ah, Dios!" she answered, "blind that I was!
+worm that I am! So your worship draws? And I--I too am a lover of the
+arts." On the other hand, a stiff-necked Englishman traveling from
+Seville to Xeres sent his driver to dine in the kitchen of an inn on
+the road. The driver, who in his heart thought that he would have been
+doing great honor to a heretic by sitting at the same table with him,
+concealed his indignation at the time, but in the middle of the road,
+three or four leagues from Xeres, in a horrible desert full of bogs
+and brambles, pushed the Englishman out of the carriage, and cried out
+as he whipped on his horse, "My lord, you did not find me worthy to
+sit at your table; and I, Don Jose Balbino Bustamente y Orozco, find
+you too bad company to occupy a seat in my carriage. Good-night!"
+Another story, of time-honored repetition, is here restored to what
+may possibly have been its true parentage. A gypsy, on his knees
+to his priest, is tempted by the father's snuffbox and steals it.
+"Father," he says immediately, "I have one more confession: I accuse
+myself of stealing a snuffbox." "Then, my son, you must certainly
+restore it." "Will you have it yourself, my father?" "I? certainly
+not," answered the confessor. "The fact is," proceeded the gypsy,
+"that I have offered it to the owner, and he has refused it." "Then
+you can keep it with a good conscience," answered the father. Such are
+the glimpses of Spanish character. We could easily bear to have more
+of them; but the author, accompanied with ladies, and an antiquarian
+by habit and nature, gives more sketches of ruins, and of landscapes
+which are usually found "hideous," than of the infinite whims of
+national manners. His contempt for Spanish landscape appears to us to
+amount to a disease: he scorns honest Murray for describing Valencia's
+mud huts as "pearls set in emeralds," and says that O'Shea's eulogy of
+her as "the sultana of Mediterranean cities" is a glowing picture of
+what is dismal enough in reality. In fact, we are afraid that Mr. Hare
+has not exactly the artist's eye, and cannot easily admire a scene in
+which he is not physically comfortable. But he has rich and heart-warm
+descriptions of the Alhambra, the Escorial, and the ruins of Poblet
+near Tarragona, where an order of patrician monks lived in incredible
+luxury until a time within present memory, when they were scattered by
+a tumult and their sculptured home crushed into dry and haggard ruin.
+This book cannot compare with his _Walks in Rome_, which was the
+careful record of a familiar and a resident; but it is the result of
+a very lively curiosity and the record of a mind evidently stored with
+history and romance. Excepting Colonel Hay's inimitable _Castilian
+Days_, it is the best recent book about the country which it skims
+over.
+
+
+    Marie Derville: A Story of a French Boarding-school. From
+    the French of Madame Guizot de Witt, by Mary G. Wells.
+    Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co.
+
+French fiction when playing off innocence or when intended for
+uncontaminated ears attains a blank intensity of virtue that our own
+literature cannot hope to rival. The French "juvenile" still guards
+that beauteous ignorance of slang or of other small vice which the
+American schoolboy regards as poverty of resource or incapacity, and
+which he has put off with his frocks and his _Parent's Assistant_ and
+his _Sanford and Merton_. But _Marie Derville_, when its accent of
+Berquin is allowed for, is a varied and interesting tale, affording
+many a glimpse into that country guarded about with such jealous
+walls--middle-class childhood in France. Marie is the child of a
+sea-captain who goes to China, disappears for many years, and comes
+back at last, after a narrow escape from massacre, saying, "How
+strange it was to find myself on the eve of becoming a martyr--to
+die for the Christian religion when one is so poor a Christian as
+I!" His wife and two or three of Marie's grandparents meantime unite
+to conduct a boarding-school on the sea-shore, the history of which
+enterprise forms the bulk of the tale. Here the American reader learns
+with surprise that the French little girl, who is never actually seen
+otherwise than perfect and doll-like, is really subject in private
+to a few of the faults common to Miss Edgeworth's heroines, such as
+selfishness, gluttony and laziness. But the story of the school is
+on the whole sunshiny and prosperous, and _Marie Derville's_ young
+readers will follow with delight the career of these prim little
+beings, so much more governed than themselves, as they go picnicking
+on the sea-beach for mussels, make flannels for the cholera-patients
+of a fishing village, or learn to recite the fable of "The Country
+Rat" without making it all one word in their hurry. The story is very
+healthy and happy, and the translation excellent.
+
+
+
+
+_BOOKS RECEIVED._
+
+
+The Teacher's Companion to the American Drawing-slates and Cards. With
+Cards. By Walter Smith, Art Master, South Kensington, London, State
+Director of Art Education in Massachusetts. Boston: Noyes, Holmes &
+Co.
+
+Keel and Saddle: A Retrospect of Forty Years of Military and Naval
+Service. By Joseph W. Revere. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co.
+
+Helps over Hard Places. For Boys. Second series. By Lynde Palmer.
+Illustrated. Troy, N.Y.: H.B. Nims & Co.
+
+Cyclopedia of the Best Thoughts of Charles Dickens. By F.C.
+DeFontaine. Nos. 2-5. New York: E.J. Hale & Son.
+
+Liza: A Russian Novel. By Ivan S. Turgenieff. Translated by W.R.S.
+Ralston. New York: Holt & Williams.
+
+The Witch of Nemi, and other Poems. By Edward Brennan. London:
+Longmans, Green & Co.
+
+The First Differential Coefficient. By John Newton Lyle, A.M. St.
+Louis: Review Steam Press.
+
+A Lonely Life. By J.A. St. John Blythe. Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson &
+Brothers.
+
+Life of Major-General Meade. Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson & Brothers.
+
+Sunshine and Shadows in Kattern's Life. Boston: Henry Hoyt.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular
+Literature and Science, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE ***
+
+***** This file should be named 13145.txt or 13145.zip *****
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+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
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+
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