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diff --git a/old/13145.txt b/old/13145.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71857f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13145.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8228 @@ +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 ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/1/4/13145/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, William Flis and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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