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diff --git a/13655-0.txt b/13655-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b9aec8 --- /dev/null +++ b/13655-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8306 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13655 *** + +[Note: The Table of Contents and the list of illustrations were added +by the transcriber.] + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE + +March, 1876. + +Vol. XVII, No. 99. + + + + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + THE CENTURY—ITS FRUITS AND ITS FESTIVAL. + + III.--PAST EXPOSITIONS. + + SKETCHES OF INDIA. + III. + + LIFE-SAVING STATIONS by REBECCA HARDING DAVIS. + + THE EUTAW FLAG. + II. + III. + + CONVENT LIFE AND WORK by LADY BLANCHE MURPHY. + + THE ATONEMENT OF LEAM DUNDAS. + BY MRS. E. LYNN LINTON, AUTHOR OF "PATRICIA KEMBALL." + + CHAPTER XXV. SMALL CAUSES. + + CHAPTER XXVI. THE GREEN YULE. + + CHAPTER XXVII. IN THE BALANCE. + + CHAPTER XXVIII. ONLY A DREAM. + + LOVE'S SEPULCHRE by KATE HILLARD. + + LETTERS FROM SOUTH AFRICA by LADY BARKER. + + A SYLVAN SEARCH by MARY B. DODGE. + + THE SONGS OF MIRZA-SCHAFFY by AUBER FORESTIER. + + TO CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN by SIDNEY LANIER. + + CHARLES KINGSLEY: A REMINISCENCE by ELLIS YARNALL. + + OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + + A WOMAN'S OPINION OF PARIS AND THE PARISIANS by L.H.H. + + THE COLLEGIO ROMANO by T.A.T. + + TRADES UNIONISM IN ITS INFANCY. + + MORAL TRAINING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. + + THE EARLIEST PRINTED BOOKS by M.H. + + FLOWERS VS. FLIES. + + LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + Books Received. + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + THE GREAT ANNUAL FAIR AT NIZHNEE-NOVGOROD. + + CRYSTAL PALACE--LONDON EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1851. + + INTERIOR VIEW OF THE TRANSEPT OF CRYSTAL PALACE. + + NEW YORK EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1853. + + CORK EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1853. + + DUBLIN EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1853. + + MUNICH EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1854. + + MANCHESTER EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1857. + + FLORENCE EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1861 + + PARIS EXPOSITION BUILDING AND GROUNDS, 1867. + + GRAND VESTIBULE OF THE PARIS EXPOSITION BUILDING, 1867. + + VIENNA EXPOSITION BUILDING AND GROUNDS, 1873. + + ROTUNDA OF THE VIENNA EXPOSITION BUILDING, 1873. + + MUSSULMAN WOMAN OF BHOPAL. + + A NAUTCH-GIRL (OR BAYADÈRE) OF ULWUR. + + A NAUTCHNI (OR BAYADÈRE) OF BARODA. + + THE CATHACKS (OR DANCING MEN) OF BHOPAL. + + BURIAL PLACE OF THE RAJAHS OF JHANSI. + + TOMB OF ALLUM SAYED. + + PEASANTS OF THE DOUAB. + + HINDU BANKERS OF DELHI. + + THE GRAND HALL OF THE DEWANI KHAS IN THE PALACE OF DELHI. + + THE JAMMAH MASJID AT DELHI. + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE + +OF + +_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE._ + + +MARCH, 1876. + +Vol. XVII, No. 99. + + + + +THE CENTURY--ITS FRUITS AND ITS FESTIVAL. + +III.--PAST EXPOSITIONS. + +[Illustration: THE GREAT ANNUAL FAIR AT NIZHNEE-NOVGOROD.] + +We have presented a feeble sketch of a century that stands out from +its fellows, not as a mere continuation, or even intensification, of +them--a hundred annual circuits of the earth in its orbit as little +distinguished by intellectual or material achievement as those +repetitions of the old beaten track through space are by astronomical +incident--but as an epoch _sui generis_, a century _d'elite_, picked +out from the long ranks of time for special service, charged by +Fate with an extraordinary duty, and decorated for its successful +performance. Those of its historic comrades even partially so honored +are few indeed. They will not make a platoon--scarce a corporal's +guard. We should seek them, for instance, in the Periclean age, +when eternal beauty, and something very like eternal truth, gained +a habitation upon earth through the chisel and the pen; in the first +years of the Roman empire, when the whole temperate zone west of China +found itself politically and socially a unit, at rest but for the +labors of peace; and in the sixteenth century, when the area fit for +the support of man was suddenly doubled, when the nominal value of his +possessions was additionally doubled by the mines of Mexico and +Peru, and when his mental implements were in a far greater proportion +multiplied by the press. + +[Illustration: CRYSTAL PALACE--LONDON EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1851.] + +The last of these periods comes nearest to our standard. The first had +undying brilliance in certain fields, but the scope of its influence +was geographically narrow, and its excessively active thought was not +what we are wont to consider practically productive, its conquests in +the domain of physical science being but slender. The second was in no +sense originative, mankind being occupied, quietly and industriously, +in making themselves comfortable in the pleasant hush after the +secular rattle of spear and shield. The third was certainly full of +results in art, science and the diffusion of intelligence through the +upper and middle strata of society. It might well have celebrated the +first centennial of the discovery of printing or of the discovery of +America by assembling the fresh triumphs of European art, so wonderful +to us in their decay, with the still more novel productions of +Portuguese India and Spanish America. But the length of sea--voyages +prosecuted in small vessels with imperfect knowledge of winds and +currents, and the difficulties of land-transportation when roads +were almost unknown, would have restricted the display to meagre +proportions, particularly had Vienna been the site selected. Few +visitors could have attended from distant countries, and the masses of +the vicinage could only have stared. The idea, indeed, of getting up +an exhibition to be chiefly supported by the intelligent curiosity of +the bulk of the people would not have been apt to occur to any one. +The political and educational condition of these was at the end of the +century much what it had been at the beginning. Labor and the laborer +had gained little. + +The weapon-show, depicted in _Old Mortality_, and the market-fair, as +vivid in the _Vicar of Wakefield_, exemplify the expositions of +those days. To them were added a variety of church festivals, or +"functions," still a great feature of the life of Catholic countries. +Trade and frolic divided these among themselves in infinite gradation +of respective share, now the ell-wand, and now the quarter-staff or +the fiddler's bow, representing the sceptre of the Lord of Misrule. +"At Christe's Kirk on the Grene that day" the Donnybrook element would +appear to have predominated. The mercantile feature was naturally +preferred by gentle Goldy, and the hapless investor in green +spectacles may be counted the first dissatisfied exhibitor on record +at a modern exposition, for he skirts the century. + +Looking eastward, we find these rallies of the people, the +time-honored stalking-grounds of tale-writers and students of +character generally, swell into more imposing proportions. The sea +dwindles and the land broadens. Transportation and travel become +difficult and hazardous. Merchant and customer, running alike a +labyrinthine gauntlet of taxes, tolls and arbitrary exactions by the +wolves of schloss and château, found it safest to make fewer trips and +concentrate their transactions. The great nations, with many secondary +trade-tournaments, as they may be termed, had each a principal one. +From the great fair of Leipsic, with the intellectual but very bulky +commodity of books for its specialty to-day, we pass to the two +Novgorods--one of them no more than a tradition, having been +annihilated by Peter the Great when, with the instinct of great rulers +for deep water, he located the new capital of his vast interior empire +on the only available harbor it possessed. Its successor, known from +its numerous namesakes by the designation of "New," draws convoys of +merchandise from a vast tributary belt bounded by the Arctic and +North Pacific oceans and the deserts of Khiva. This traffic exceeds +a hundred millions of dollars annually. The medley of tongues and +products due to the united contributions of Northern Siberia, China +and Turkestan is hardly to be paralleled elsewhere on the globe. +_Was_, insists the all-conquering railway as it moves inexorably +eastward, and relegates the New Novgorod, with its modern fairs, +to the stranded condition of the old one, with its traditional +expositions. As, however, the rail must have a terminus somewhere, +if only temporary, the caravans of camels, oxen, horses, boats and +sledges will converge to a movable entrepôt that will assume more +and more an inter-Asiatic instead of an inter-national character. The +furs, fossil ivory, sheepskins and brick tea brought by them after +voyages often reaching a year and eighteen months, come, strictly +enough, under the head of raw products. Still, it is the best they +can bring; which cannot be said of what Europe offers in +exchange--articles mostly of the class and quality succinctly +described as "Brummagem." It is obvious that prizes, diplomas, medals, +commissioners and juries would be thrown away here. The palace +of glass and iron can only loom in the distant future, like the +cloud-castle in Cole's _Voyage of Life_. It may possibly be essayed in +a generation or two, when Ekaterinenborg, built up into a great +city by the copper, iron, gold, and, above all, the lately-opened +coal-mines of the Ural, shall have become the focus of the Yenisei, +Amour, Yang-tse and Indus system of railways. But here, again, we are +overstepping our century. + +[Illustration: INTERIOR VIEW OF THE TRANSEPT OF CRYSTAL PALACE.] + +To us it seems odd that in the days when an autocratic decree could +summarily call up "all the world" to be taxed, and when, in prompt +obedience to it, the people of all the regions gathered to a thousand +cities, the idea of numbering and comparing, side by side, goods, +handicrafts, arts, skill, faculties and energies, as well as heads, +never occurred to rulers or their counselors. If it did, it was never +put in practice. The difficulties to which we have before adverted +stood in the way of that combination of individual effort to which the +great displays of our day are mainly indebted for their success; but +what the government might have accomplished toward overcoming distance +and defective means of transport is evidenced by the mighty current +of objects of art, luxury and curiosity which flowed toward the +metropolis. Obelisks, colossal statues, and elephants and giraffes by +the score are articles of traffic not particularly easy to handle even +now. + +[Illustration: NEW YORK EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1853.] + +At the annual exposition of the Olympic games we have the feature of a +distribution of prizes. They were conferred, however, only on horses, +poets and athletes--a conjunction certainly in advance of the asses +and savants that constituted the especial care of the French army in +Egypt, but not up to the modern idea of the comprehensiveness of human +effort. While our artists confess it almost a vain hope to rival +the cameo brooch that fastened the scanty garment of the Argive +charioteer, or the statue spattered with the foam of his horses and +shrouded in the dust of his furious wheel--while they are content to +be teachable, moreover, by the exquisite embroidery and lacework +in gold and cotton thread displayed at another semi-religious and +similarly ancient reunion at Benares,--they claim the alliance and +support of many classes of craftsmen unrepresented on the Ganges or +Ilissus. These were, in the old days, ranked with slaves, many of whom +were merchants and tradesmen; and they labor yet in some countries +under the social ban of courts, no British merchant or cotton-lord, +though the master of millions, being presentable at Buckingham Palace, +itself the product of the counting-room and the loom. Little, however, +does this slight appear to affect the sensibilities of the noble army +of producers, who loyally rejoice to elevate their constitutional +sovereign on their implements as the Frankish prolétaries did upon +their shields. + +The family of expositions with which we are directly concerned is, +like others of plebeian origin, at some loss as to the roots of its +ancestral tree. We may venture to locate them in the middle of the +eighteenth century. In 1756-57 the London Society of Arts offered +prizes for specimens of decorative manufactures, such as tapestry, +carpets and porcelain. This was part of the same movement with that +which brought into being the Royal Academy, with infinitely less +success in the promotion of high art than has attended the development +of taste, ingenuity and economy in the wider if less pretentious +field. + +France's first exhibition of industry took place in 1798. It was +followed by others under the Consulate and Empire in 1801, 1802, 1806. +In 1819 the French expositions became regular. Each year attested an +advance, and drew more and more the attention of adjacent countries. +The international idea had not yet suggested itself. The tendency +was rather to the less than the more comprehensive, geographically +speaking. Cities took the cue from the central power, and got up each +its own show, of course inviting outside competition. The nearest +resemblance to the grand displays of the past quarter of a century +was perhaps that of Birmingham in 1849, which had yet no government +recognition; but the French exposition of five years earlier had a +leading influence in bringing on the London Fair of 1851, which +had its inception as early as 1848--one year before the Birmingham +display. + +The getting up of a World's Fair was an afterthought; the original +design having been simply an illustration of British industrial +advancement, in friendly rivalry with that which was becoming, +across the Channel, too brilliant to be ignored. The government's +contribution, in the first instance, was meagre enough--merely the use +of a site. Rough discipline in youth is England's system with all her +bantlings. She is but a frosty parent if at bottom kindly, and, when +she has a shadow of justification, proud. In the present instance +she stands excused by the sore shock caused her conservatism by the +conceit of a building of glass and iron four times as long as St. +Paul's, high enough to accommodate comfortably one of her ancestral +elms, and capacious enough to sustain a general invitation to all +mankind to exhibit and admire. + +Novelty and innovation attended the first step of the great movement. +The design of the structure made architects rub their eyes, and +yet its origin was humble and practical enough. The Adam of crystal +palaces, like him of Eden, was a gardener. When Joseph Paxton raised +the palm-house at Chatsworth he little suspected that he was building +for the world--that, to borrow a simile from his own vocation, he was +setting a bulb which would expand into a shape of as wide note as the +domes of Florence and St. Sophia. And the cost of his new production +was so absurdly low--eighty thousand pounds by the contract. +The cheapness of his plan was its great merit in the eyes of the +committee, and that which chiefly determined its selection over +two hundred and forty-four competitors. This new cathedral for the +apotheosis of industry resembled those of the old worship in the +attributes of nave, aisles and transepts; and these features have +been, by reason in great degree of the requirements of construction, +continued in its successors. Galleries were added to the original +design to secure space additional to what was naturally deemed at +first an ample allowance for all comers. Before ground had been well +broken the demands of British exhibitors alone ran up to four hundred +and seventeen thousand superficial feet instead of the two hundred and +ten thousand--half the whole area--allotted them. The United States +were offered forty thousand feet; France, fifty thousand, afterward +increased to sixty-five; the Zollverein, thirty thousand, and +India the same. A comparison of the whole number of exhibitors, as +distributed between Great Britain and other countries, indicates that +the equal division of the superficial space was a tolerably accurate +guess. They numbered 7381 from the mother-country and her colonies, +and 6556 from the rest of the world. Certainly, a change this from the +first French exhibition, held in the dark days of the Directory, when +the list reached but 110 names. We shall dismiss the statistics of +this exhibition with the remark that it has precedence of its fellows +in financial success as well as in time, having cleared a hundred +and seventy-odd thousand pounds, and left the Kensington Museum as +a memorial of that creditable feat, besides sending its cast-off but +still serviceable induviæ to Sydenham, where it enshrines another +museum, chiefly of architectural reproductions in plaster, in a +sempiternal coruscation of fountains, fireworks and fiddle-bows. The +palace of industry has become the palace of the industrial--abundantly +useful still if it lure him from the palace of gin. The chrism of +Thackeray's inaugural ode will not have been dishonored. + +[Illustration: CORK EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1853.] + +The first of the great fairs, in so many respects a model to all +that came after, was beset at the outset by the same difficulty in +arrangement encountered by them. How to reconcile the two headings of +subjects and nations, groups of objects and groups of exhibitors, the +endowments and progress of different races and the advance of mankind +generally in the various fields of effort, was, and is, a problem only +approximately to be solved. It was yet more complicated in 1851 from +the compression of the entire display into one building of simple and +symmetrical form, instead of dispersing certain classes of objects, +bulky and requiring special appliances for their proper display, into +subsidiary structures--the plan so effectively employed in Fairmount +Park. A sort of compromise was arrived at which rendered possible the +mapping of both countries and subjects, especially in the reports, and +to some extent in the exhibition itself, without making the spectacle +one of confusion. The visitor was enabled to accomplish his double +voyage through the depths of the sea of glass without a great deal +of backing and filling, and to find his log, after it was over, +reasonably coherent. + +The articles displayed were ranged under thirty heads. The +preponderance of matter of fact was shown in the concession of four of +these to raw material, nineteen to manufactures, and _one_ to the +fine arts. Twenty-nine atoms of earth to one of heaven! Of course the +one-thirtieth whereinto the multiform and elastic shape of genius was +invited, like the afreet into his chest, to condense itself, had to +be subdivided--an intaglio and a temple, a scarabæus and a French +battle-picture, being very different things. This was accomplished, +and the Muses made as comfortable as could be expected. They soon +asserted the pre-eminence theirs by right divine, and came to be the +leading attraction of the affair, next to the Koh-i-noor. On this +barbaric contribution of the gorgeous East the French observers, a +little jealous perhaps, were severe. One of them says: "They rely on +the sun to make it sparkle," and, when the fog is too thick, on gas. +The curiosity about it, in the eyes of this incisive Gaul, was "not +the divinity, but the worshipers." All day long a crowd filed solemnly +by it under the supervision of a detachment of police, each pilgrim +bestowing upon the fetish, "an egg-shaped lump of glass," half a +second's adoration, and then moving reluctantly on. Thousands of far +more beautiful things were around it, but none embodying in so small +a space so many dollars and cents, and none therefore so brilliant in +the light of the nineteenth century. As this light, nevertheless, is +that in which we live, move and have our being, we must accept it, and +turn to substantials, wrought and unwrought. + +On our way to this feast of solids we must step for a moment into St. +Paul's and listen to the great commemorative concert of sixty-five +hundred voices that swept all cavilers, foreign and domestic, off +their feet, brought tears to the most sternly critical eye, and caused +the composer, Cramer, to exclaim, as he looked up into the great dome, +filled with the volume of harmony, "Cosa stupenda! stupenda! La gloria +d'Inghilterra!" + +A transition, indeed, from this to coal and iron--from a concord of +sweet sounds to the rumble into hold, car and cart of thirty-five +millions of tons of coal and two and a half millions of iron, the +yearly product at that time of England! She has since doubled that of +iron, and nearly trebled her extract of coal, whatever her progress +in the harvest of good music and good pictures. Forced by economical +necessity and assisted by chemistry, she makes her fuel, too, go a +great deal farther than it did in 1851, when the estimate was that +eighty-one per cent. of that consumed in iron-smelting was lost, and +when the "duty" of a bushel of coal burnt in a steam-engine was less +than half what it now is. The United States have the benefit of these +improvements, at the same time that their yield of coal has swelled +from four millions of tons at that time to more than fifty now, and +of iron in a large though not equal ratio. The Lake Superior region, +which rested its claims on a sample of its then annual product of one +hundred tons of copper, now exports seven hundred thousand tons of +iron ore. + +Steel, now replacing iron in some of its heaviest uses, appeared as +almost an article of luxury in the shape of knives, scissors and the +like. The success of the Hindus in its production was quite envied and +admired, though they had probably advanced little since Porus deemed +thirty pounds a present fit for Alexander; their rude appliances +beating Sheffield an hour and a half in the four hours demanded by the +most adroit forgers of the city of whittles for its elimination from +the warm bath of iron and carbon. Bessemer, with his steel-mines, as +his furnaces at the ore-bank may be termed, was then in the future. +The steel rails over which we now do most of our traveling were +undreamed of. Bar iron did duty on all the eighty-eight hundred miles +of American and sixty-five hundred of British railway; not many, if +at all, more than are now laid, in this country at least, with steel. +This poetic and historic metal has become as truly a raw product as +potatoes. The poets will have to drop it. The glory of Toledo--of +her swords bent double in the scabbard, of her rapiers that bore into +one's interior only the titillating sensation of a spoonful of vanilla +ice, and of her decapitating sabres that left the culprit whole so +long as he forbore to sneeze--is trodden under foot of men. + +[Illustration: DUBLIN EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1853.] + +In crude materials the Union is at home. It was so in 1851, and is +still; but then it was not so much at home in anything else as now. +We have advanced in that field too, since we sent no silver, and from +Colorado no gold, no canned fruits, meats or fish, and no wine but +some Cincinnati Catawba, thin and acid, according to the verdict +of the imbibing jury. We adventured timidly into manufacturing +competition with the McCormick reaper, which all Europe proceeded +straightway to pirate; ten or twelve samples of cotton and three of +woolen goods; Ericsson's caloric-engine; a hydrostatic pump; some +nautical instruments; Cornelius's chandeliers for burning lard +oil--now the light of other days, thanks to our new riches in +kerosene; buggies of a tenuity so marvelous in Old-World eyes that +their half-inch tires were likened to the miller of Ferrette's legs, +so thin that Talleyrand pronounced his standing an act of the most +desperate bravery; soap enough to answer Coleridge's cry for a +detergent for the lower Rhine; and one bridge model, forerunner of the +superb iron erections that have since leaped over rivers and ravines +in hundreds. + +Meagre enough was the display of our craftsmen by the side of that +made by their brethren of the other side. It could have been scarce +visible to Britannia, looking down from a pinnacle of calico ready for +a year's export over and above her home consumption, long enough, if +unrolled, to put a girdle thirty times round the globe, though not all +of it warranted to stand the washing-test that would be imposed by the +briny part of the circuit. + +And yet there were visible in the American department germs +of original inventions and adaptations, the development and +fructification of which in the near future were foreseen by acute +observers. Our metallic life-boats were then unknown to other +countries, those of England being all of wood. The screw-propeller +was quite a new thing, though the Princeton had carried it, or been +carried by it, into the Mediterranean ten years before. Engines +designed for its propulsion attracted special attention. The +side-wheel reigned supreme among British war-steamers, although some +of the altered liners which cut such an imposing figure till the +Sebastopol forts in '55 checked, and iron-clads in '62 finished, +their career, were under way. A model of one of them, The Queen, was +exhibited as the highest exemplification of "the progress of art +as applied to shipbuilding during the last eighteen centuries"--a +progress entirely eclipsed by that of the subsequent eighteen years. + +We sent no steam fire-engines, no locomotives, and no cars. Our great +printing-presses, since largely borrowed from and imported by Europe, +were scarcely noticed. Not so with "a most beautiful little machine" +for making card wire-cloth, copied from America. Recognition of the +supreme merits of the pianos of Chickering, Steinway and the rest was +still wanting, Erard's Parisian instruments bearing the bell. Borden's +meat-biscuit--to revert to the practical--caused quite a sensation, +the Admiralty being overloaded with spoiled and condemned _preserved_ +meat. The American daguerreotypes on exhibition were pronounced +decidedly superior to those of France, and still more to those of +England. Whipple displayed the first photograph taken of the moon, +thus securing to this country the credit of having broken ground for +the application of the new art to astronomy. No photograph of a star +or of the sun had been obtained. The distance between the United +States and Europe in the application and improvement of photography +cannot be said, notwithstanding our advantage in climate, to have been +since widened. A field of competition still lies open before them in +the fixing of color by the camera and the sensitive surface. The +sun still insists on doing his work with India ink and keeping his +spectral palette strictly to himself. For cheap and popular renderings +of color man was then, as now, fain to have recourse to the press. +The English exhibited some chromatic printing, far inferior to the +chromo-lithographs of today. + +And this brings us to art. One out of thirty in the programme, it was, +as it always will be on these occasions, nearer thirty to one in the +estimation of assembled sight-seers. The dry goods and machinery, even +the bald, shadeless and ugly (however comfortable) model cottages of +the inevitable Prince Albert, failed to draw like the things which +flattered the lust of the eye; as the pigs and pumpkins of an +"agricultural horse-trot" attract but a wayside glance from the +procession to the grand stand. We are all dwellers in a vast +picture-gallery, with frescoed dome above and polychromed sculpture +and mosaic pavement on the floor below. Its merits we perceive, enjoy +and interpret according to our individual gifts and education. But it +makes amateurs in some sort of every mother's son or daughter, of us; +and we hasten to plunge, confident each in his particular grammar of +the beautiful, into the study of what imitative gallery may be offered +us. Though the financial idea may have been uppermost in the minds of +the devotees of the Mountain of Light, and their pleasure in the march +past that of a stroll through the vaults of the Bank of England, they +also expected to see in it the combined brilliance of all diamonds. +Not finding that, we dare say few of them paid it a second visit, but, +led by a like craving for dazzle, sought more legitimate intoxication +in marble, canvas, porcelain and chased and cast metals. + +There they saw the diamond put into harness by the Hindus and used +for drilling gems as it is now for drilling railway tunnels. In the +carpets and shawls of the same region was to be traced an exact and +unfaltering instinct for color, the tints falling into their proper +places like those of the rainbow--the result not a picture, any more +than the rainbow is a picture, but a blotted study rubbed up with the +palette-knife, or what in music would be a fantasia. + +[Illustration: MUNICH EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1854.] + +From the Asiatic display, more complete by far than any before known, +the eye passed to the works of the more disciplined hand and fancy and +the more scholastic color-notions of Europe. There was young Munich +with Müller's lions and the anti-realistic figures of Schwanthaler; +Austria with Monti's veiled heads, henceforth to be credited to +Lombardy; Prussia with Rauch; and Denmark with Thorwaldsen--all pure +form, copied without color from Nature, from convention and from +the antique. Then came design and color united in ceramics--in +the marvelously delicate flowers of Dresden, purified in the +porcelain-furnace as by fire; in the stately vases of Sèvres, just +but varied in proportion, unfathomable in the rich depths of their +ground-shadows, and exact and brilliant in the superimposed details; +the more raw but promising efforts of Berlin, marked, like the jewelry +from the same city, by faithful study of Nature; and, blending the +decorative with the economic, the works of the English Wedgwoods and +Mintons, infinite in variety of style and utility, and often pleasing +in design. Italy, though supplying from her ancient stores so many +of the models and so much of the inspiration of the countries named, +seems to have forgotten Faenza and Etruria, and to prefer solid stone +as a material to preparations of clay and flint. Her Venetian glass +has markedly declined, at the same time that glass elsewhere--notably, +the stained windows of Munich and the smaller objects of France +and Bohemia--shows a great advance in perfection of manufacture and +manageability for art purposes. + +In that debatable land where the artistic and the convenient meet at +the fire-side and the tea-table, English invention, enterprise +and solicitude for the comfort and presentability of home shone +conspicuous. Domestic art finds in the island a congenial home, +and helps to make one for the islanders. English interiors, often +incongruous and sombre in their decorations, at least produce the +always pleasant sensation of physical comfort, the attainment of +which the average Briton will class among the fine arts. Lovely as the +Graces are, they need a little editing to harmonize them with a coal +fire. + +This halfway house of the nineteenth century, the house of glass in +which it boldly ensconced itself to throw stones at its benighted +relations, will ever be a landmark to the traveler over the somewhat +arid expanse of industrial and commercial history. Its humblest +statistics will be preserved, and coming generations will read with +interest that 42,809 persons visited it, on an average, each day, that +these rose on one day to 109,915, and that there were at one time +in the building 93,224, or six thousand more than Domitian's most +tempting and sanguinary bill of theatrical fare could have drawn +into the Coliseum. Its length, by the way, was exactly equal to the +circumference of the Flavian amphitheatre--1848 feet. + +A new home (of progress)! who'll follow? "I," quoth New York. The +British empire had taken three years in preparation: New York was +ready with less than two. Not quite ready, either, we are apt to +say now, but most creditably so for the time and the means of a few +enterprising private men bestowed upon it. And up to this time the +display of '53 under the Karnak-like shadow of the Croton Reservoir +has not been equaled on our soil. + +Architecturally, the building was superior to that of London, and +showed itself less cramped by the peculiarities of the novel material. +The form was that of a Greek cross, with a central dome a hundred and +forty-eight feet high, and eight towers at the salients of seventy +feet. The space, including galleries, did not reach a third of that +afforded by its prototype, but proved equal to the demand. + +Considering the absence of any formal public character in the movement +and the brief notice, foreign exhibitors came forward in tolerable +force. They could not expect to address through this display each +other's commercial constituencies, as very few visitors would traverse +the Atlantic: they could reach only the people of the United States. +This difficulty must interfere--though much less now than twenty years +ago, when the means of ocean-travel were but a fraction of what they +are at present--with the strictly international complexion of any +exposition in this country. If, however--as we are already assured +beyond peradventure will be the case with the Centennial--our +neighbors over the way send us a full representation of their +products, and a delegation of visitors from their most intelligent +classes, not inferior in numbers, for example, to the Germans who went +to London, and the English who repaired in '73 to Vienna, we shall +claim a cosmopolitan character for our exposition, and hold that it +well fills its place in the line of progress. + +What Europe did send to New York sufficed to prove the superiority +of our own artisans in such labor-saving contrivances as suited the +conditions of the country. The foreign implements and machines were +more cumbrous in both complexity and weight of parts than ours. In +the finer departments of manufacture, the Gobelin tapestry, the French +glass, porcelain and silks, the broadcloths of England and Prussia, +and a host of other such articles, could expect no rivalry here. The +slender contributions of statuary and paintings hardly sufficed to +illustrate the conceded superiority of the Old World in art. Crawford +and Powers did very well by the side of the other, disciples of +the antique, their chief opposition coming from some indifferent +plaster-casts of Thorwaldsen's _Twelve Apostles_. In point of +popularity, Kiss's spirited melodramatic group of the _Amazon and +Tiger_ threw them all into the shade. Its triumph at London was almost +as marked, and the innumerable reductions of it met with everywhere +show it to be one of the few hits of modern sculpture. + +The general result of the exhibition was to encourage our +manufacturers, without giving them a great deal of food for higher +ambition; while our artists and the taste of their patrons, actual +and possible, were disappointed of the instruction they had reason to +expect, and which the ateliers of Europe will supply in fuller measure +this year. + +The succeeding years present us with an epidemic of expositions, most +of them, often on the slenderest grounds, arrogating the title of +"international." The sprightly little city of Cork was one year ahead +of New York. Then came Dublin in '53, Munich in '54, Paris in '55, +Manchester in '57 (of art exclusively, and very brilliant), Florence +in '61, London again in '62, Amsterdam in '64; and in '65 the mania +had overspread the globe, that year witnessing exhibitions dubbed +"international" in Dublin, New Zealand, Oporto, Cologne and Stettin, +with perhaps some outliers we have missed. Then ensued a lull or a +mitigation till the moribund empire of France and the remodeled empire +of Austro-Hungary flared up into the magnificent demonstrations of '67 +and '73. To these last we shall devote the remainder of this article, +with but a glance at the second British of 1862. + +[Illustration: MANCHESTER EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1857.] + +This, held upon the same ground with its forerunner of eleven years +previous, affords a better measure of progress. It developed a +manifest advance in designs for ornamental manufactures. The +schools of decorative art were beginning to tell. Carpets, hangings, +furniture, stuffs for wear, encaustic tiles, etc. showed a sounder +taste; and this in the foreign as well as the British stalls. French +porcelain was more fully represented than before, and in finer +designs. The Paris exhibition of '55, more extensively planned, though +less of a financial success, than the London one it followed, was not +without effect on the industry and art-culture of France. The United +States also showed that they had not been idle. Our fabrics of +vulcanized rubber and sewing-machines were boons to Europe she has not +been slow to seize. The latter are now sold in England, with trifling +modifications and new trademarks, at from one-third to one-half the +price our people have to pay. + +The secret of making money out of these great fairs seemed to have +been lost. Although England's second took in much more than the first, +and four times as much as the first French, four hundred and sixty +thousand pounds having entered its treasury, it failed to leave any +such profitable memorials of profit. + +By this time the spirit of French emulation was stirred to its +inmost depths. They had gone to London, argued the Gauls, under every +disadvantage. To prove that they had returned covered with glory, +they hunted every nook and corner of numerical analysis. Out of 18,000 +exhibitors of all nations, they had had but 1747, and yet Paris had +received thirty-nine council medals, or honors of the first order, +per million of inhabitants, against fourteen per million accorded to +London. She had beaten the metropolis of fog not only in general, +but in detail. In every branch, from the most solid to the most +sentimental, she was victorious. For machinery a million of gamins +beat a million of Cockneys in the proportion of seven to six; in the +economical and chemical arts, four to one; in the geographical and +geometrical, eight to three; and in the fine arts, Waterloo was +reversed to the tune of twenty to four. + +Nothing could be more conclusive; but to take a bond of fate it +was determined to imitate England in trying a second display, and +supplement '53 with '67 more effectively than Albion had '51 with +'62. In what gallant style this determination was carried out we +all remember. France did put forth her strength. She illustrated the +Second Empire with an outpouring of her own genius and energy the +variety and comprehensiveness of which no other nation could pretend +to equal; and she called together the nearest approach to a rally of +the nations that had yet been seen. + +The casket of these assembled treasures was hardly worthy of them, +so far as the effect of the mass went. It needed a facade as badly +as does a confectioner's plum-cake. Had the vitreous mass been dumped +upon the Champs de Mars from the clouds in a viscous state like +the Alpine _mers de glace_, it would have assumed much such a thick +disk-like shape as it actually wore. Then decorate it with some +spun-sugar pinnacles and some flags of silver paper, and the confiseur +stood confessed. Nevertheless, motive was there. Catch anything French +without it. + +[Illustration: FLORENCE EXHIBITION BUILDING, 1861] + +The pavilion consisted of seven concentric ovals, the arcs and their +radii effecting the duplicate division of objects and countries. +Outside, under the eaves and in the surrounding area, the peoples +were encamped around their possessions. The gastric fluid being the +universal solvent, the festive board was assigned the position nearest +the building, a continuous shed protecting the restaurants of all +nations, each with its proper specialty in the way of viands and +service. Necessarily, there was in the carrying out of the latter idea +a good deal of the sham and theatrical. But that gave the thing more +zest, and the saloons were by no means the least effective feature of +the appliances for introducing the races to each other. Tired of +the tender intercourse of chopsticks, forks and fingers, they could +exchange visits in their drawing-rooms; most of the known styles +of dwelling-place, if we except the snow-huts of the Esquimaux, +the burrows of the Kamtchadales and the boats of Canton, having +representatives. + +The United States government took particular interest in this +exposition, and published a long and detailed report made by its +commissioners. Our contributions were not worthy of the country, and +showed but little novelty. Implements of farming and of war, pianos, +sewing-machines and locomotives attracted chief attention. The pianos +were "unreservedly praised." The wines, California having come to the +rescue, were pronounced an improvement on previous specimens. The only +trait of our engines that was admired or borrowed appears to have been +that which had least to do with the organism of the machine--the cab. +In cars our ideas have fruited better, and Pullman and Westinghouse +have gained a firm foothold in England, with whose endorsement their +way is open across the Channel. In the arts we are credited with +seventy-five pictures, against a hundred and twenty-three from England +and six hundred and fifty-two from France. + +[Illustration: PARIS EXPOSITION BUILDING AND GROUNDS, 1867.] + +Here France was at home, and felt it. The works of Dubray, Triquetti, +Yvon, Giraud, Gérôme, Dubufe, Toulmouche, Courbet, Troyon, Rosa +Bonheur and others exhibited the route toward the naturalistic +taken by her modern school, so different from that pursued by the +Pre-Raphaelites in England. The Düsseldorf school has been drawn into +the same path--France's one conquest from Prussia, who made at the +same time a stout struggle in defence of the classic manner through +Kaulbach. The drawings and paintings of art-students maintained by the +French government in Italy attested an enlightened liberality other +governments, general or local, would do well to imitate. The cost of +supporting a few score of pupils in Rome could in no way be better +bestowed for the promotion of commerce, manufactures and education. +Taste has unquestionably a high economic value. But this is only one +of France's ways of recognizing the fact. The government École des +Beaux Arts at Paris contained, in 1875, a hundred and seventy-two +students of architecture, a hundred and eighty-three of painting, +forty of sculpture and two hundred and fifty of engraving. + +As a corollary to this assiduous culture, French art collectively was +at the exposition "first, and the rest nowhere." The old works sent +by Italy stood by themselves; and in mosaic, Salviati's glass, and +statuary led by Vela's _Last Moments of Napoleon_, the modern studios +of that country ranked in the front. Prussia had some heliographic +maps, then a new thing, and chromos, also in the bud; Austria and +England, fine architectural drawings; and Eastlake, Stanfield, +Landseer, Frith and Faed crossed pencils with the French. But nothing +modern of the kind could stand by the porcelain of Sèvres, the glass +of St. Louis and Baccarat, the bronzes of other French producers, the +vast collection of drawings of ancient and mediaeval monuments and +architecture in France, her book-binding and illustration by Bida and +Doré, her jewelry and her art-manufactures as a whole. In carriages +she had obviously studied the turnouts of American workshops to +advantage. + +In agricultural machinery all civilized exhibitors had gone to school +to our artisans. + +One of our specialties, a postal-car, appeared under the Prussian +flag. So did things more legitimately the property of the nascent +empire. The Krupp gun cast its substance, as well as its shadow, +before. A locomotive destined for India made Bull rub his eyes. +Chemicals in every grade of purity spoke the potency of the German +alembic. + +The probability that the production of beetroot-sugar would before +many years attain a position among the industries of this country gave +interest in the eyes of American visitors to the display of European +machinery employed so successfully in that business. Labor-saving +machinery we have not generally been in the habit of borrowing. +Neither, on the other hand, has Europe been accustomed to draw from +us crude material for the finest manufactures; and the balance was set +even by the admirable quality of the glass made from American sand +and the porcelain moulded in American kaolin. The latter substance, a +silicate of alumina, is not found in England, and at but few points on +the Continent. We have it in abundance and of the finest quality. + +[Illustration: GRAND VESTIBULE OF THE PARIS EXPOSITION BUILDING, +1867.] + +The extraordinary steps made within five years in the arts of +destruction were illustrated by the twelve-inch Armstrong rifles of +England and the Essen gun, throwing a 1212-pound shot. In 1862 the +heaviest projectile shown did not exceed one hundred pounds. For +field-service the limit of practice in weight seems long ago to have +been reached: for forts and ships it cannot be far off. Armor and +projectiles must soon bring each other to a standstill; as when, in +the Italian wars of the fifteenth century, offence and defence reached +the _reductio ad absurdum_ of the incapacity of men-at-arms to inflict +serious injury upon each other, or even to pick themselves up when +the weight of their armor, with some aid from the clumsy blows of +an antagonist, had overthrown them. Assailant and assailed were _in +equilibrio_, and personal equilibrium could not be restored. Some such +inane result may be witnessed when a pair of hostile iron-clads, out +of sight of their nursing convoys, shall meet alone upon the deep; +with the disagreeable difference that they will, if they go down, have +a great deal farther to fall than the cuirassiers of the land. + +[Illustration: VIENNA EXPOSITION BUILDING AND GROUNDS, 1873.] + +Since 1851 a new commercial cement had come into operation in the +adoption by neighboring powers of the French metrical system. England +and America still hold out against the mètre and the gramme; and the +press of both occasionally levels at it the old jokes of making the +spheres weigh a pound of butter and the polar axis measure a yard +of calico. With the innovation, however, our merchants have become +perforce familiar, a large share of their imported commodities +being invoiced in accordance with it. Its immense superiority to our +complicated and arbitrary weights and measures, in the tables whereof +the same word often has half a dozen meanings, is beyond argument. +In the United States it has earned a quasi-official adoption, but the +force of habit among the people has yet to be overcome. + +We may here give, in evidence of the increasing hold these expositions +have upon the popular mind, the gradual multiplication of the numbers +exhibiting. At London, in '51, the exhibitors were 13,937; at Paris, +'55, 23,954; at London, '62, 28,653; and at Paris, '67, 50,226. + +Austria, with admirable spirit, determined to anticipate her turn to +enter the lists of peace. Undismayed by Solferino and Sadowa, she had +found her Antaeus in Andrassy. Her capital city was advancing with +immense strides in beauty and extent. Geographically and ethnically it +was, like the empire itself, a meeting-ground of north and south, east +and west. Isolated from the sea, it offered for the transport of heavy +articles a system of railways proved by the event to be sufficiently +effective. It was decided that the march of progress should be more +than kept up, and that the building, with its appendages, should be an +improvement on all its predecessors in extent, in architectural effect +and in solidity of material. The dimensions are so variously stated, +owing largely to difference of opinion as to what should be embraced +within the admeasurement, that we are at a loss how to give them. To +the main building, however, was assigned a capacity of seventy-three +thousand five hundred and ninety-three square mètres. Sixty-three +hundred and eighty of these were awarded to France, ten mètres less +to England; and thirteen hundred and sixty to the United States. The +marquee-like rotunda rose to a height of two hundred and fifty feet, +with a diameter at base of three hundred and fifty-four. The principal +entrance, with piers and arches of cut stone profusely decorated +with statues and reliefs, was in highly satisfactory contrast to +the fragile shells of glass and cast iron that sheltered the earlier +exhibitions. + + +[Illustration: ROTUNDA OF THE VIENNA EXPOSITION BUILDING, 1873.] + +Perhaps in all this solid work the demands of time had not been duly +considered. Certainly, the display was not punctual to the appointed +period of opening. Exceptionally bad weather was another drawback, and +the greed of the Viennese hotel-keepers a third. For such, among other +reasons, the enterprise was financially a failure--a fact which little +concerns those who went to study and learn, and those who three years +later have to describe. If the darkening of the imperial exchequer +prove more than a passing shadow, and an ultimate loss on the +speculation cease to be matter of question, the few millions it cost +may be recovered by the disbanding of a regiment or two. For one +brigade, out of half a million soldiers, to bring the world and its +wealth to the seat of government, is doing better than the usual work +of the bayonet. + +The country and the city themselves were a study to foreigners in +many of the modes of life. The extent to which the utilization, as +stationary and locomotive machines, of pigs, cows, women and dogs +was carried elicited constant remark from the Western tourists, with +sundry moral conclusions perhaps too hastily arrived at. This outside +feature of the exposition may serve as an admonition to put our own +surroundings in order. They are not apt to expose us to such comments +as naturally occur to those who have never seen dogs and damsels in +harness together; but other vulnerable points may peradventure be +descried. We must demonstrate our civilization to be complete at +all points, and not simply a coddled exotic under glass. What if our +Viennese guests, physically a stouter race than we, should pronounce +our women _too_ obviously not hod-carriers, and painfully unaccustomed +to wheeling anything heavier than an arm-chair or a piano-stool? + +In that land of music concerts could not fail to be a leading feature. +The Boston improvement of emphasizing the bass with discharges of +distant artillery, or its equivalent, the slamming of cellar-doors +nearer by, was not attained. Noise and harmony were kept at arm's +length apart. + +The illustration of homes was made a specialty. As at Paris, the +peoples brought their dwellings, or, more often, the dwellings came +without their occupants. The four-footed and feathered live-stock +were of more indubitable authenticity. The display of all the European +breeds of cattle and horses--English Durhams, Alderneys and racers, +Russian trotters, Holstein cows and Flemish mares, the gray oxen of +Hungary and the buffaloes of the Campagna, the wild red pigs of the +Don and the razor-backs of Southern France--was calculated to amuse, +if but moderately to edify, our breeders of Ohio, Kentucky and New +York. A thousand horses and fifteen hundred horned cattle comprised +this congress, while two hundred and fifty pigs were deemed enough to +represent the grunters of all nations. + +Of animals in another form, the preserved meats of Australia, sent +sound across the tropics to the amount of seventeen thousand tons in +1872, against _four_ tons in 1866, had their use of instruction to +our packers. So with the improved display of agricultural produce from +Southern Russia, our chief competitor in the grain-market. Our reapers +and threshers are supplanting, in Eastern Europe, the ridiculous +flails, sickles and straight-handled scythes that figured at New York +in 1853. We have sent the Dacians, Huns and Sarmatians weapons to +cut our own commercial throats. There are more enriching articles of +export than wheat, as we must continue to learn. + +In turning to other provinces, we find that England was foremost in +machinery, the United States, "the only rival," says a British critic, +"from whom we had anything to fear," being feebly represented, as +we were in other respects, thanks to certain irregularities in the +management of our commissioners sufficiently discussed at the time. +The British carpets out-shone the display of any competitor, the +influence of her new schools of decorative design being unmistakably +marked. + +The Aubusson carpets of France still maintained their position, as did +the velvet, faïence, tapestry, engravings, books, marine photographs, +etc. of the same country. Italy made her usual contribution in the +arts. Among the Austrian objects of this class the opals of Hungary +were prominent. + +India was unexpectedly complete in her collection: not only her modern +industry, but her antiquities, had abundant specimens. + +Much criticism has been expended upon the alleged lavish and +indiscriminate distribution of medals and diplomas at Vienna. But, +however numerous the undeserving who obtained them, the deserving must +at the same time have had their share: the shower that fell on the +unjust could not have missed the just. Therefore we note that, despite +our slender show, one hundred and seventy-eight medals for Merit and +sixty-nine for Progress, two for the Fine Arts (German Bierstadt and +French Healey) and five for Good Taste, came to America. The +National Bureau of Education, the Lighthouse Board and the State of +Massachusetts obtained "Grand Diplomas of Honor" for documents. The +like honor was awarded to the city of Boston and the Smithsonian +Institution, and to four private exhibitors for the more +palpable contributions of tool-making machinery, steam-machinery, +mowing-machines and dentistry. This list does not teach us much. The +prizes are, unless awarded with the most intelligent and conscientious +precision, valuable chiefly as advertisements to the recipients, who +can earn, and generally have earned, better advertisements in other +shapes. + +Thus have the chief powers of Western and Central Europe displayed +their mettle in peaceful tourney. The visor of a young and unknown +knight is now barred for the fray. He has, like the rest in these days +of modern chivalry, to be his own herald and blow his own preliminary +blast. It is a tolerably sonorous one. Let the event show that he +speaks not through brass alone. + + + + +SKETCHES OF INDIA. + +III. + + +Thus we fared leisurely along. We passed Cabul merchants peddling +their dried fruit on shaggy-haired camels; to these succeeded, in +more lonesome portions of the road, small groups of Korkas, wretched +remnants of one of the autochthonal families of Central India--even +lower in the scale of civilization than the Gónds, among whom they are +found; and to these the richly-caparisoned elephants of some wealthy +Bhopal gentleman making a journey. We lingered long among the +marvelous old Buddhistic _topes_ or tumuli of Sanchi, and I interested +my companion greatly in describing the mounds of the United +States, with which I was familiar, and whose resemblance to these +richly-sculptured and variously-ornamented ruins, though rude and far +off, was quite enough to set his active fancy to evolving all manner +of curious hypotheses going to explain such similarity. The whole way, +by Sangor, Gharispore, Bhilsa, Sanchi, Sonori, presented us with the +most interesting relics of the past, and the frequent recurrence of +the works of the once prevalent Buddhistic faith continually incited +us to new discussions of the yet unsolved question, Why has Buddha's +religion, which once had such entire possession of this people's +hearts, so entirely disappeared from the land? + +And, as nothing could be more completely contrasted with the desert +asceticism which Buddha's tenets inculcated than the luxury into which +Mohammed's creed has flowered, so nothing could have more strikingly +broken in upon our discussions of the Buddhistic monuments than +the view which we at last obtained of the lovely Mohammedan city of +Bhopal. To the south and east ran a strip of country as barren and +heartacheish as if the very rocks and earth had turned Buddhist, +beyond which a range of low rounded hills, not unlike _topes_, +completed the ascetic suggestion. But, turning from this, we saw +Mohammedanism at its very loveliest. Minarets, domes, palaces, +gardens, the towers of the citadel, waters of lovely lakes, all +mingled themselves together in the voluptuous light of the low +sun: there was a sense of music, of things that sparkled, of pearly +lustres, of shimmering jewels, of softness, of delight, of luxury. +Bhopal looked over the ragged valley like a sultan from the window of +his zenana regarding afar off an unkempt hermit in his solitude. My +companion had arranged for permission to enter the town, and it was +not long ere we were installed in the house of a friend of Bhima +Gandharva's, whose guests we remained during our stay in Bhopal. + +[Illustration: MUSSULMAN WOMAN OF BHOPAL.] + +On a rock at the summit of a hill commanding this interesting city +stands the fort of Fatehgarh, built by a certain Afghan adventurer, +Dost Mohammed Khan, who, in a time when this part of India must have +been a perfect paradise for all the free lances of the East, was +so fortunate as to win the favor of Aurungzebe, and to receive as +evidence thereof a certain district in Malwa. The Afghan seems to +have lost no time in improving the foothold thus gained, and he thus +founded the modern district of Bhopal, which was formerly divided +between Malwa and Góndwana, one gate of the town standing in the +former and one in the latter country. Dost Mohammed Khan appears, +indeed, to have been not the only adventurer who bettered his fortunes +in Bhopal. It is a curious fact, and one well illustrating the +liberality which has characterized much of the more modern history of +the Bhopal government, that no long time ago it was administered by +a regency consisting of three persons--one a Hindu, one a Mohammedan, +and the other a Christian. This Christian is mentioned by Sir John +Malcolm as "Shahzed Musseah, or Belthazzar Bourbona" (by which Sir +John means _Shahzahad Messiah_--a native appellation signifying "the +Christian prince"--or _Balthazar of Bourbon_), and is described by +that officer, to whom he was well known, as a brave soldier and an +able man. He traced his lineage to a certain Frenchman calling himself +John of Bourbon, who in the time of Akbar was high in favor and +position at Delhi. His widow, the princess Elizabeth of Bourbon, still +resides at Bhopal in great state, being possessed of abundant wealth +and ranking second only to the Begum. She is the acknowledged head of +a large number of descendants of John of Bourbon, amounting to five or +six hundred, who remain at Bhopal and preserve their faith--having a +church and Catholic priest of their own--as well as the traditions of +their ancestry, which, according to their claim, allies them to the +royal blood of France. + +No mention of Bhopal can fail to pay at least a hasty tribute in +commemoration of the forcible character and liberal politics of +the Begum, who has but of late gone to her account after a long and +sometimes trying connection with the administration of her country's +affairs. After the death of her husband--who was accidentally killed +by a pistol in the hands of a child not long after the treaty with the +English in 1818--their nephew, then in his minority, was considered as +the future nawab, and was betrothed to their daughter, the Begum being +regent during his minority. When the time came, with his majority, for +the nuptials, the Begum refused to allow the marriage to take place, +for reasons which need not here be detailed. After much dispute a +younger brother of the nephew was declared more eligible, but the +Begum still managed in one way or another to postpone matters, much to +his dissatisfaction. An arbitration finally resulted in placing him +on the throne, but his reign was short, and he died after a few years, +leaving the Begum again in practical charge of affairs--a position +which she improved by instituting many wise and salutary reforms and +bringing the state of Bhopal to a condition of great prosperity. The +Pearl Mosque (_Monti Masjid_), which stands immediately in front +of the palace, was built at her instance in imitation of the great +cathedral-mosque of Delhi, and presents a charming evidence of her +taste, as well as of the architectural powers still existing in this +remarkable race. + +The town proper of Bhopal is enclosed by a much--decayed wall of +masonry some two miles in circuit, within which is a fort, similar +both in its condition and material to the wall. Outside these limits +is a large commercial quarter (_gunge_). The beautiful lake running +off past the town to the south is said to be artificial in its origin, +and to have been produced at the instance of Bho Pal, the minister +of King Bohoje, as long ago as the sixth century, by damming up the +waters of the Bess (or Besali) River, for the purpose of converting an +arid section into fertile land. It is still called the Bhopal Tal. + +[Illustration: A NAUTCH-GIRL (OR BAYADÈRE) OF ULWUR.] + +If this were a ponderous folio of travels, one could detail the +pleasures and polite attentions of one's Bhopalese host; of the social +_utter-pán_; of the sprinklings with rose-water; of the dreamy talks +over fragrant hookahs; of the wanderings among bazaars filled with +moving crowds of people hailing from all the ports that lie between +Persia and the Góndwana; of the _fêtes_ where the nautch-girl of +Baroda contended in graceful emulation with the nautch-girl of Ulwur, +and the cathacks (or male dancers) with both; of elegantly-perfumed +Bhopalese young men; of the palaces of nobles guarded by soldiers +whose accoutrements ranged from the musket to the morion; of the +Moharum, when the Mohammedan celebrates the New Year. But what would +you have? A sketch is a sketch. We have got only to the heart of +India: the head and the whole prodigious eastern side are not yet +reached. It is time one were off for Jhansi. + +At Bioura we encountered modern civilization again in the shape of the +south-west branch of the Grand Trunk road, which leads off from the +main stem at Agra. The Grand Trunk is not a railroad, but a firm and +smooth highway, with which the English have united Calcutta to the +North-west Provinces and to the west of India. Much of this great +roadway is metaled with _kunkur_, an oolitic limestone found near the +surface of the soil in Hindustan; and all Anglo-India laughed at the +joke of an irreverent punster who, _apropos_ of the fact that this +application of kunkur to the road-bed was made under the orders of +Lord William Bentinck, then governor-general, dubbed that gentleman +William the Kunkurer. + +We had abandoned our _chapaya_--which, we may add for the benefit +of future travelers, we had greatly improved as against jolting by +causing it to be suspended upon a pair of old springs which we found, +a relic of some antique break-down, in a village on the route--and +after a short journey on elephants were traveling _dâk_; that is, by +post. The _dâk-gharri_ is a comfortable-enough long carriage on four +wheels, and constitutes the principal mode of conveyance for travelers +in India besides the railway. It contains a mattress inside, for it +goes night and day, and one's baggage is strapped on top, much as in +an American stage-coach after the "boot" is full. Frequent relays of +horses along the route enable the driver to urge his animals from one +station to the other with great speed, and the only other stoppages +are at the _dâk_-bungalows. + +"I have discovered," I said to Bhima Gandharva after a short +experience of the _dâk-gharri_ and the _dâk_-bungalows--"I have +discovered a general remark about India which is _not_ absurd: all the +horses are devils and all the _dâk_-bungalow servants are patriarchs." + +"If you judge by the heels of the former and the beards of the latter, +it is true," he said. + +This little passage was based on the experience of the last relay, +which was, however, little more than a repetition of many previous +ones. My friend and I having arranged ourselves comfortably in the +_dâk-gharri_ as soon as it was announced ready to start, the long and +marvelously lean Indian who was our driver signified to his team by +the usual horse-language that we should be glad to go. The horse did +not even agitate his left ear--a phenomenon which I associate with +a horse in that moment when he is quietly making up his mind to be +fractious. "Go, my brother," said the driver in a mellifluous and +really fraternal tone of voice. The horse disdained to acknowledge the +tie: he stood still. + +[Illustration: A NAUTCHNI (OR BAYADÈRE) OF BARODA.] + +Then the driver changed the relationship, with an access of tenderness +in voice and in adjuration. "Go, my son," he entreated. But the son +stood as immovable as if he were going to remain a monument of filial +impiety to all time. + +"Go, my grandson, my love." This seemed entirely too much for the +animal, and produced apparently a sense of abasement in him which was +in the highest degree uncomplimentary to his human kinsman and lover. +He lay down. In so doing he broke several portions of the ragged +harness, and then proceeded, with the most deliberate absurdity, to +get himself thoroughly tangled in the remainder. + +"I think I should be willing," I said to my companion, "to carry that +horse to Jhansi on my own shoulders if I could have the pleasure of +seeing him blown from one of the rajah's cannon in the, fort." + +But the driver, without the least appearance of discomposure, had +dismounted, and with his long deft Hindu fingers soon released the +animal, patched up his gear, replaced him between the shafts and +resumed his place. + +[Illustration: THE CATHACKS (OR DANCING MEN) OF BHOPAL.] + +Another round of consanguinities: the animal still remained immovable, +till presently he lunged out with a wicked kick which had nearly +obliterated at one blow the whole line of his ancestry and collateral +relatives as represented in the driver. At this the latter became +as furious as he had before been patient: he belabored the horse, +assistants ran from the stables, the whole party yelled and +gesticulated at the little beast simultaneously, and he finally broke +down the road at a pace which the driver did not suffer him to relax +until we arrived at the bungalow where we intended to stop for supper. + +A venerable old Mohammedan in a white beard that gave him the majesty +of Moses advanced for the purpose of ascertaining our wants. + +"Had he any mutton-chops?" asked Bhima Gandharva in Hindustani, the +_lingua franca_ of the country. + +"Cherisher of the humble! no." + +"Any beefsteak?" + +"Nourisher of the poor! no." + +"Well, then, I _hear_ a chicken," said my friend, conclusively. + +"O great king," said the Mohammedan, turning to me, "there _is_ a +chicken." + +In a twinkling the cook caught the chicken: its head was turned toward +Mecca. Bismillah! O God the Compassionate, the Merciful! the poor +fowl's head flew off, and by the time we had made our ablutions supper +was ready. + +Turning across the ridges to the north-eastward from Sipri, we were +soon making our way among the tanks and groves which lie about the +walls of Jhansi. Here, as at Poona, there was ever present to me a +sense of evil destinies, of blood, of treacheries, which seemed to +linger about the trees and the tanks like exhalations from the old +crimes which have stained the soil of the country. For Jhansi is in +the Bundelcund, and the Bundelcund was born in great iniquity. The +very name--which properly is _Bundelakhand,_ or "the country of the +Bundelas"--has a history thickly set about with the terrors of caste, +of murder and of usurpation. Some five hundred years ago a certain +Rajput prince, Hurdeo Sing, committed the unpardonable sin of marrying +a slave (_bundi_), and was in consequence expelled from the Kshatriya +caste to which he belonged. He fled with his disgrace into this +region, and after some years found opportunity at least to salve his +wounds with blood and power. The son of the king into whose land he +had escaped conceived a passion for the daughter of the slave wife. +It must needs have been a mighty sentiment, for the conditions which +Hurdeo Sing exacted were of a nature to try the strongest love. These +were, that the nuptial banquet should be prepared by the unmentionable +hands of the slave wife herself, and that the king and his court +should partake of it--a proceeding which would involve the loss of +their caste also. But the prince loved, and his love must have lent +him extraordinary eloquence, for he prevailed on his royal father to +accept the disgrace. If one could only stop here, and record that he +won his bride, succeeded his magnanimous old parent on the throne, +lived a long and happy life with his queen, and finally died regretted +by his loving people! But this is in the Bundelcund, and the facts +are, that the treacherous Hurdeo Sing caused opium to be secretly put +into all the dishes of the wedding-feast, and when the unsuspecting +revelers were completely stupefied by the drug had the whole party +assassinated, after which he possessed himself of the throne and +founded the Bundelcund. + +One does not wonder that the hills and forests of such a land became +the hiding-places of the strangling Thugs, the home of the poisoning +Dacoits, the refuge of conspirators and insurgents and the terror of +Central India. + +As for Jhansi, the district in whose capital we were now sojourning, +its people must have tasted many of the sorrows of anarchy and of +despotism even in recent times. It was appurtenant no long time ago to +the Bundela rajah of Ourcha: from him it passed by conquest into the +possession of the Peishwa. These small districts were all too handy +for being tossed over as presents to favorites: one finds them falling +about among the greedy subordinates of conquerors like nuts thrown out +to school-boys. The Peishwa gave Jhansi to a soubahdar: the British +government then appeared, and effected an arrangement by which the +soubahdar should retain it as hereditary rajah on the annual payment +of twenty-four thousand rupees. This so-called rajah, Ramchund Rao, +died without issue in 1835. Amid great disputes as to the succession +the British arbitrators finally decided in favor of Rugonath Rao; but +new quarrels straightway arose, a great cry being made that Rugonath +Rao was a leper, and that a leper ought not to be a rajah. His death +in some three years settled that difficulty, only to open fresh +ones among the conflicting claimants. These perplexing questions the +British finally concluded quite effectually by assuming charge of the +government themselves, though this was attended with trouble, for the +stout old mother of Ramchund Rao made armed resistance from the fort +or castellated residence of the rajahs, which stands on its great +rock overlooking the town of Jhansi. A commission finally decreed the +succession to Baba Gunghadar Rao, but retained the substantial power +until the revenues had recovered from the depression consequent upon +these anarchic disturbances. + +[Illustration: BURIAL PLACE OF THE RAJAHS OF JHANSI.] + +"At any rate," I said as Bhima Gandharva finished this narrative while +we were walking about the burial-place of the rajahs of Jhansi, and +occupying ourselves with tracing the curious admixture of Moslem with +Hindu architecture presented by the tombs, "these rajahs, if they +loved each other but little in life, appear to have buried each other +with proper enough observances: the cenotaphs are worthy of tenderer +remembrances." + +"Yes," he said: "this part of India is everywhere a land of beautiful +tombs which enclose ugly memories. I recall one tomb, however, near +which I have spent many hours of tranquil meditation, and which is +at once lovely without and within: it is the tomb of the Muslim saint +Allum Sayed at Baroda. It was built of stones taken from an old Jain +temple whose ruins are still visible near by; and with a singular +fitness, in view of its material, the Muslim architect has mingled +his own style with the Hindu, so that an elegant union of the keen +and naked Jain asceticism with the mellower and richer fancy of the +luxurious Mohammedan has resulted in a perfect work of that art which +makes death lovely by recalling its spiritual significance. Besides, +a holy silence broods about the cactus and the euphorbian foliage, +so that a word will send the paroquets, accustomed to such unbroken +stillness, into hasty flights. The tomb proper is in the chamber at +the centre, enclosed by delicately-trellised walls of stone. I can +easily fancy that the soul of Allum Sayed is sitting by his grave, +like a faithful dog loath to quit his dead master. + +[Illustration: TOMB OF ALLUM SAYED.] + +Jhansi was once in the enjoyment of a considerable trade. The caravans +from the Deccan to Furruckabad and other places in the Douab were +in the habit of stopping here, and there was much trafficking in the +cloths of Chanderi and in bows, arrows and spears--the weapons of the +Bundela tribes--which were here manufactured. Remnants of the wealth +then acquired remain; and on the evening of the same day when we were +wandering among the rajahs' tombs we proceeded to the house of a rich +friend of Bhima Gandharva's, where we were to witness a _nautch_, or +dance, executed by a wandering troop of Mewati bayadères. We arrived +about nine o'clock: a servant sprinkled us with rose-water, and we +were ushered into a large saloon, where the bayadères were seated with +a couple of musicians, one of whom played the tam-tam and another +a sort of violin. When the family of our host, together with a few +friends, were seated at the end of the room opposite the bayadères, +the signal was given, and the music commenced with a soft and +indescribably languorous air. One of the bayadères rose with a lithe +and supple movement of the body not comparable to anything save the +slow separating of a white scud from the main cloud which one sees +on a summer's day high up in the cirrus regions. She was attired in a +short jacket, a scarf, and a profusion of floating stuff that seemed +at once to hide and expose. Presently I observed that her jewelry was +glittering as it does not glitter when one is still, yet her feet +were not moving. I also heard a gentle tinkling from her anklets and +bracelets. On regarding her more steadily, I saw that her whole body +was trembling in gentle and yet seemingly intense vibrations, and she +maintained this singular agitation while she assumed an attitude +of much grace, extending her arms and spreading out her scarf in +gracefully-waving curves. In these slow and languid changes of +posture, which accommodated themselves to the music like undulations +in running water to undulations in the sand of its bed, and in the +strange trembling of her body, which seemed to be an inner miniature +dance of the nerves, consisted her entire performance. She intensified +the languid nature of her movements by the languishing coquetries of +her enormous black eyes, from which she sent piercing glances +between half-closed lids. It was a dance which only southern peoples +understand. Any one who has ever beheld the _slow juba_ of the negro +in the Southern United States will recognize its affinity to these +movements, which, apparently deliberate, are yet surcharged with +intense energy and fire. + +[Illustration: MEWATI DANCING-GIRL.] + +Her performance being finished, the bayadère was succeeded by others, +each of whom appeared to have her specialty--one imitating by her +postures a serpent-charmer; another quite unequivocally representing +a man-charmer; another rapidly executing what seemed an interminable +pirouette. Finally, all joined in a song and a closing round, adding +the sound of clapping hands to the more energetic measures of the +music. + +"I can now understand," I said when the nautch was finished, "the +remark of the shah of Persia which set everybody laughing not long ago +in England. During his visit to that country, being present at a ball +where ladies and gentlemen were enjoying themselves in a somewhat +laborious way in dancing, he finally asked, 'Why do you not make +your servants do this for you?' It is at least entertaining to see +a nautch, but to wade through the English interpretation of a waltz, +_hic labor hoc opus est_, and the servants _ought_ to perform it." + +"Do you know," said Bhima Gandharva, "that much the same national mode +of thought which prompts the Hindu to have his dancing done by the +nautch-girls also prompts him to have his tax-gathering and general +governing done by the English? We are often asked why the spectacle +has so often been seen of our native princes quietly yielding up their +kingdoms to strangers, and even why we do not now rise and expel the +foreigner from power over us. The truth is, most Hindus are only +glad to get some one else to do the very hard work of governing. The +Englishman is always glad to get a French cook, because the French can +cook better than the English. Why should not we be also glad to get +English governors, when the English govern so much better than the +Hindus? In truth, governing and cooking are very like--the successful +ruler, like the successful cook, has only to consult the tastes of his +employers; and upon any proper theory of politics government becomes +just as purely an economic business as cooking. You do not cook your +own dinner: why? Because you desire to devote your time to something +better and higher. So we do not collect taxes and lay them out for the +public convenience, because there are other things we prefer to do. I +am amazed at the modern ideas of government: it is looked upon as an +end, as an objective result in itself, whereas it is really only +the merest of means toward leaving a man at leisure to attend to his +private affairs. The time will come"--and here the Hindu betrayed more +energy than I had hitherto ever seen him display--"when the world will +have its whole governing work done upon contract by those best fitted +for it, and when such affairs will be looked upon as belonging simply +to the police function of existence, which negatively secures us from +harm, without at all positively touching the substantial advancement +of man's life." + +The next day we fared northward toward Agra, by Duttiah, Gwalior and +Dholepore. Learning at Agra that the northward-bound train--for +here we had come upon complete civilization again in the East Indian +Railway--would pass in an hour, we determined to reserve the Taj +Mahal (the lovely Pearl Mosque of Agra) until we should be returning +from Delhi to Calcutta. Bhima Gandharva desired me, however, to see +the Douab country and the old sacred city of Mattra; and so when we +had reached Hatras Station, a few miles north of Agra, we abandoned +the railway and struck across to the south-westward, toward Mattra, in +a hired carriage. + +We were now veritably in ancient Hindustan. It was among these level +plains through which we were rolling that the antique Brahmins came +and propounded that marvelous system which afterward took the whole +heart of the land. Nothing could have been more striking than to cast +one's eye thus over the wide cotton-fields--for one associates cotton +with the New--and find them cultivated by these bare-legged and +breech-clouted peasants of the Douab, with ploughs which consisted +substantially of a crooked stick shod with iron at the end, and with +other such farming-implements out of the time that one thinks of +as forty centuries back. Yet in spite of this primitive rudeness +of culture, and of an aridity of soil necessitating troublesome +irrigation, these plains have for a prodigious period of time +supported a teeming population; and I could not help crying out to +Bhima Gandharva that if we had a few millions of these gentle and +patient peasants among the cotton-fields of the United States, the +South would quickly become a Garden of Delight and the planters could +build Jammah Masjids with rupees for marble. + +[Illustration: PEASANTS OF THE DOUAB.] + +The conservatism which has preserved for so long a time the ancient +rude methods of industry begins to grow on one as one passes between +these villages of people who seem to be living as if they were +perfectly sure that God never intended them to live any other way. + +"It is not long," said my friend, "since a British officer of +engineers, on some expedition or other, was encamped for the night +at no great distance from here. His tent had been pitched near one of +those Persian water-wheels such as you have seen, which, although of +great antiquity, are perhaps as ingeniously adapted to the purpose of +lifting water as any machine ever invented. The creaking of the wheel +annoyed him very much, and after a restless night, owing to that +cause, he rose and went out of his tent and inquired of the proprietor +of the wheel (a native) why in the name of Heaven he never greased it. +'Because,' said the conservative Hindu, 'I have become so accustomed +to the noise that I can only sleep soundly while it is going on: when +it stops, then I wake, and knowing from the cessation of the sound +that my bullock-driver is neglecting his duty, I go out and beat him.' +Thus, even the conservation of the useless comes in time to create +habits which are useful." + +"It is true," I replied, "and it recalls to me a somewhat unusual +illustration. A summer or two ago a legal friend of mine, who is the +possessor of a large family of children, came into the court-room one +morning with very red eyes, and to my inquiry concerning the cause +of the same he replied: 'To tell you the truth, I can't go to sleep +unless a child is crying about the house somewhere; but my wife left +town yesterday for the summer with all the children, and I haven't had +a wink the whole night.'" + +A drive of some five hours brought us to Mattra after dark, and as we +crossed the bridge of boats over the sacred Jumna (the _Yamuna_ of the +Sanscrit poems) he seemed indeed thrice holy, with his bosom full +of stars. Mattra, which lies immediately on the western bank of the +river, stands next to Benares among the holy cities of the Hindus: +here both the soil and the river-water are consecrated, for this was +the birthplace of Krishna, or, more properly speaking, the scene of +that avatar of Vishnu which is known as Krishna. When we rose early in +the morning and repaired to the river-bank, hundreds of the faithful +were ascending and descending the numerous ghâts leading down the high +bank to the water, while a still more animated crowd of both sexes +were standing up to their middle in the stream, throwing the water in +this direction and that, and mingling their personal ablutions with +the rites of worship in such a way as might at once clean both +souls and bodies. Evidences of the holy character of the town met +us everywhere as we strolled back to our lodgings. Sacred monkeys, +painted red over their hind quarters in consecration to the monkey-god +Hanuman, capered and grinned about us, and sacred bulls obstructed +our way along the narrow and dirty streets, while everywhere we saw +pictures representing Krishna--sometimes much like an Apollo in the +guise of a youthful shepherd playing the flute to a group of young +girls, who danced under a tree; sometimes as a Hercules strangling a +serpent or performing other feats of physical strength. + +Fabulous stories are told of the early wealth and glory of Mattra. +Ferishta relates that when Mahmoud of Ghazni had arrived with his +troops in the neighborhood in the year 1017, he heard of this rich +city consecrated to Krishna Vasu-Deva, and straightway marching upon +it captured it and gave it up to plunder. Writing of it afterward to +the governor of Ghazni, he declared that such another city could not +be built within two centuries; that it contained one thousand edifices +"as firm as the faith of the faithful," and mostly built of marble; +that among the temples had been found five golden idols in whose heads +were ruby eyes worth fifty thousand dinars; that in another was a +sapphire weighing four hundred _miskals_ (the present _miskal_ of +Bosrah is seventy-two grains), the image itself producing, after being +melted, ninety-eight thousand three hundred _miskals_ of pure gold; +and that besides these there were captured one hundred silver idols, +each of which was a camel's load. + +We spent a pleasant morning in wandering about the old ruined +fort which was built here by Jey Singh (or Jaya Sinha), the famous +astronomer, and we were particularly attracted, each in his own +contemplative and quiet way, by the ruins of an observatory which we +found on the roof of one of the buildings, where the remains of old +dials, horizontal circles and mural instruments lay scattered about. +I think the only remark made by either of us was when Bhima Gandharva +declared in a voice of much earnestness, from behind a broken gnomon +where he had ensconced himself, that he saw Time lying yonder on his +back, with his head on a broken dial, nearly asleep. + +[Illustration: HINDU BANKERS OF DELHI.] + +Returning to Hatras Station on the same day, we again took the train, +and this time did not leave it until we had crossed the great tubular +bridge over the Jumna and come to a standstill in the station at +Delhi. Here we found one of the apparently innumerable friends of +Bhima Gandharva, a banker of Delhi, awaiting us with a carriage, and +we were quickly driven to his residence--a circumstance, by the way, +which I discovered next day to be a legitimate matter of felicitation +to myself, for there is, strange to say, no hotel in Delhi for +Europeans, travelers being dependent upon the accommodations of a +_dâk_-bungalow, where one is lodged for a rupee a day. + +In the morning we made an early start for the palace of the padishahs, +which stands near the river, and indeed may be said to constitute the +eastern portion of the city, having a wall of a mile in extent on its +three sides, while the other abuts along the offset of the Jumna upon +which Delhi is built. Passing under a splendid Gothic arch in the +centre of a tower, then along a vaulted aisle in the centre of which +was an octagonal court of stone, the whole route being adorned with +flowers carved in stone and inscriptions from the Koran, we finally +gained the court of the palace, in which is situated the Dewani Khas, +the famous throne-room which contained the marvelous "peacock throne." +I found it exteriorly a beautiful pavilion of white marble crowned by +four domes of the same material, opening on one side to the court, +on the other to the garden of the palace. On entering, my eye was +at first conscious only of a confused interweaving of traceries and +incrustations of stones, nor was it until after a few moments that I +could bring myself to any definite singling out of particular elements +from the general dream of flowing and intricate lines; but presently +I was enabled to trace with more discriminating pleasure the flowers, +the arabesques, the inscriptions which were carved or designed in +incrustations of smaller stones, or inlaid or gilt on ceiling, arch +and pillar. + +Yet what a sense of utter reverse of fortune comes upon one after the +first shock of the beauty of these delicate stone fantasies! Wherever +we went--in the Dewani Aum or hall of audience; in the Akbari Hammun +or imperial baths; in the Sammam Burj or private palace of the +padishahs, that famous and beautiful palace over whose gate the +well-known inscription stands, "If there is a Paradise on earth, it +is here;" in the court, in the garden--everywhere was abandonment, +everywhere the filthy occupations of birds, everywhere dirt, decay, +desolation. + +It was therefore a prodigious change when, emerging from the main gate +of the palace, we found ourselves in the great thoroughfare of Delhi, +the Chandni Chowk (literally "Shining street"), which runs straight to +the Lahore gate of the city. Here an immense number of daily affairs +were transacting themselves, and the Present eagerly jostled the Past +out of the road. The shops were of a size which would have seemed very +absurd to an enterprising American tradesman, and those dealing in +the same commodities appeared to be mostly situated together--here the +shoemakers, there the bankers, and so on. + +The gold-embroidered cloths--Delhi is famous for them--made me think +of those embroidered in stone which we had just seen in the Dewani +Khas. These people seem to dream in curves and flowing lines, as the +German dreams in chords and meandering tones, the Italian in colors +and ripe forms. + +("And as the American--?" said Bhima Gandharva with a little smile as +we were walking down the Chandni Chowk. + +"The American does not dream--yet," I answered.) + +[Illustration: THE GRAND HALL OF THE DEWANI KHAS IN THE PALACE OF +DELHI.] + +We saw much of the embroidered fabrics known as "kincob" (properly, +_kunkhwab_) and "kalabatu;" and Bhima Gandharva led me into an inner +apartment where a _nakad_ was manufacturing the gold thread (called +_kalabatoon_) for these curious loom embroideries. The kalabatoon +consists of gold wire wound about a silk thread; and nothing could +better illustrate the deftness of the Hindu fingers than the motions +of the workman whom we saw. Over a polished steel hook hung from the +ceiling the end of a reel of slightly twisted silk thread was passed. +This end was tied to a spindle with a long bamboo shank, which was +weighted and nearly reached the floor. Giving the shank of the spindle +a smart roll along his thigh, the workman set it going with great +velocity: then applying to the revolving thread the end of a quantity +of gold wire which was wound upon a different reel, the gold wire +twisted itself in with the silk thread and made a length of kalabatoon +about as long as the workman. The kalabatoon was then reeled off on a +separate reel, and the process continually repeated. + +We stopped at the office of our banker for a moment on our way along +the Chandni Chowk in order to effect some changes of money. As we were +leaving, Bhima Gandharva inquired if I had observed the young man in +the red cotton turban who had politely broken off in our favor a long +negotiation with our banker, which he resumed when we had finished our +little business. + +"Of course I did," I replied. "What a beautiful young man he was! +His aquiline nose, his fair complexion, his brilliant eyes, his +lithe form, his intelligent and vivacious expression,--all these +irresistibly attracted me to him." + +"Ha!" said Bhima Gandharva, as if he were clearing his throat. He +grasped my arm: "Come, I thought I saw the young man's father standing +near the door as we passed out. I wonder if _he_ will irresistibly +attract you?" He made me retrace my steps to the banker's office: +"There he is." + +He was the image of the son in feature, yet his face was as repulsive +as his son's was beautiful: the Devil after the fall, compared with +the angel he was before it, would have presented just such a contrast. + +"They are two Vallàbhácháryas," said my companion as we walked away. +"You know that the trading community of India, comprehended under +the general term of Baniahs, is divided into numerous castes, which +transmit their avocations from father to son and preserve themselves +free from intermixture with others. The two men you saw are probably +on some important business negotiation connected with Bombay or the +west of India; for they are Bhattias, who are also followers of +the most singular religion the world has ever known--that of the +Vallàbháchárya or Maharaja sect. These are Epicureans who have quite +exceeded, as well in their formal creeds as in their actual practices, +the wildest dreams of any of those mortals who have endeavored to +make a religion of luxury. They are called Vallàbhácháryas, from +_Vallabha_, the name of their founder, who dates from 1479, and +_áchárya_, a "leader." Their _Pushti Marga_, or eat-and-drink +doctrine, is briefly this: In the centre of heaven (_Gouloka_) sits +Krishna, of the complexion of a dark cloud, clad in yellow, covered +with unspeakable jewels, holding a flute. He is accompanied by Roaha, +his wife, and also by three hundred millions of Gopis, or female +attendants, each of whom has her own palace and three millions of +private maids and waiting-women. It appears that once upon a time two +over-loving Gopis quarreled about the god, and, as might be expected +in a place so given over to love, they fell from heaven as a +consequence. Animated by love for them, Krishna descended from heaven, +incarnated himself in the form of Vallabha (founder of the sect), and +finally redeemed them. Vallabha's descendants are therefore all gods, +and reverence is paid them as such, the number of them being now sixty +or seventy. To God belong all things--_Tan_ (the body), _Man_ (the +mind) and _Dhan_ (earthly possessions). The Vallàbhácháryas therefore +give up all first to be enjoyed by their god, together with his +descendants (the Maharajas, as they royally term themselves) and +his representatives, the gosains or priestly teachers. Apply these +doctrines logically, and what a carnival of the senses results! A few +years ago one Karsandas Mulji, a man of talent and education, was sued +for libel in the court at Bombay by this sect, whose practices he +had been exposing. On the trial the evidence revealed such a mass +of iniquity, such a complete subversion of the natural proprietary +feelings of manhood in the objects of its love, such systematic +worship of beastly sin, as must for ever give the Vallàbhácháryas +pre-eminence among those who have manufactured authority for crime out +of the laws of virtue. For the Vallàbhácháryas derive their scriptural +sanction from the eighth book of the _Bhagavata Purana_, which they +have completely falsified from its true meaning in their translation +called the _Prem Sagar_, or "Ocean of Love." You saw the son? In +twenty years--for these people cannot last long--trade and cunning +and the riot of all the senses will have made him what you saw the +father." + +[Illustration: THE JAMMAH MASJID AT DELHI.] + +On the next day we visited the Jammah Masjid, the "Great Mosque" of +Shah Jehan the renowned, and the glory of Delhi. Ascending the flight +of steps leading to the principal entrance, we passed under the lofty +arch of the gateway and found ourselves in a great court four hundred +and fifty feet square, paved with red stone, in the centre of which +a large basin supplied by several fountains contained the water for +ceremonial ablutions. On three sides ran light and graceful arcades, +while the fourth was quite enclosed by the mass of the mosque proper. +Crossing the court and ascending another magnificent flight of +stone steps, our eyes were soon commanding the façade of the great +structure, and reveling in those prodigious contrasts of forms and +colors which it presents. No building could, for this very reason, +suffer more from that lack of simultaneity which is involved in any +description by words; for it is the vivid shock of seeing, in one +stroke of the eye, these three ripe and luxuriant domes (each of which +at the same time offers its own subsidiary opposition of white and +black stripes), relieved by the keen heights of the two flanking +minarets,--it is this, together with the noble admixtures of reds, +whites and blacks in the stones, crowned by the shining of the gilded +minaret-shafts, which fills the eye of the beholder with a large +content of beautiful form and color. + +As one's eye becomes cooler one begins to distinguish in the front, +which is faced with slabs of pure white marble, the divisions adorned +by inscriptions from the Koran inlaid in letters of black marble, +and the singularly airy little pavilions which crown the minarets. We +ascended one of the minarets by a winding staircase of one hundred +and thirty steps, and here, while our gaze took flight over Delhi and +beyond, traversing in a second the achievements of many centuries +and races, Bhima Gandharva told me of the glories of old Delhi. +Indranechta--as Delhi appears in the fabulous legends of old India, +and as it is still called by the Hindus--dates its own birth as far +back as three thousand years before our era. It was fifty-seven years +before the time of Christ that the name of Delhi began to appear in +history. Its successive destructions (which a sketch like this cannot +even name) left enormous quantities of ruins, and as its successive +rebuildings were accomplished by the side of (not upon) these remains, +the result has been that from the garden of Shahlimar, the site of +which is on the north-west of the town, to beyond the Kantab Minar, +whose tall column I could plainly distinguish rising up nine miles +off to the south-west, the plain of Delhi presents an accumulation and +variety of ruins not to be surpassed in the whole world. + + + +LIFE-SAVING STATIONS. + +With their enthusiasm fairly kindled for the work which the government +carries on in the signal-service department of the little house on the +beach,[A] our exploring party descended the narrow ladder and found +themselves in a ten-by-twelve room, warmed by a stove and surrounded +by benches. It is used, the old captain who has volunteered as guide +tells us, by the men on the life-saving service during the nine months +in which they are on duty. A cheerful fire was burning in the stove, +and we gathered about it: the wind blew a stronger gale each moment +outside, barring out the far sea-horizon with a wall of gray mist. The +tide rolled up on the shelving beach beneath the square window with a +sullen, treacherous roar. + +"It's the bar that gives the sea that sound," said the captain. "This +is the ugliest bit of coast for vessels from Nova Scotia to Florida. +It's like this," drawing his finger across the table in the +vain effort to map out the matter intelligibly to a landsman's +comprehension. "Here's the Jersey coast. You've got to hug it close +with your vessel to make New York harbor--there; and all along it, +from Sandy Hook to Cape May, runs the bar--so. Broken, but so much the +worse. A nor'-easter drives you on it, sure. I've known from sixteen +to twenty wracks in a winter on this coast before the companies or +government took up the matter." + +[Footnote A: See the article entitled "The House on the Beach," in +_Lippincott's Magazine_ for January. Since the publication of that +paper a letter of distinction has been received by General Albert J. +Myer from the International Congress of Geographical Sciences, held +in Paris in 1875, which states that the United States signal service +appeared to the Congress to deserve an exceptional reward. "This +service, so remarkably organized, has been the cause of such progress +in meteorological science that the distinctions provided by the +regulations of the Congress would not be commensurate for it." The +letter of distinction was therefore sent as the highest award decreed +by the Congress.] + +"That only argued bad seamanship," said one of his listeners. "When +every ship's captain knew the bar--" + +"That's precisely what they didn't know. It alters with every year; +and on a dark night, with a driving sea and wind both against you, +there's small chance of clearing it. However, I don't mean to say +that all of them vessels were wracked fair and square. It got to be +customary with owners of wornout coast-schooners to send them out with +light cargoes and run them on the Jersey bar. The captain and crew +would time it so's they could get ashore, and the sea would soon break +up the vessel, and then up they goes to York for insurance on ship and +cargo. There was a good deal of that sort of work went on when I was +a boy, until the underwriters got wind of it and established the +wracking system." + +"This building?--" + +"No, no! Don't confound the two things. This is government work +altogether, and maintained solely for the saving of life. The crew +of the lifeboat here are not allowed to touch a pound of freight or +baggage on a wracked ship. The wracking-masters were appointed and +paid by the board of underwriters in New York. Old Captain Brown was +general agent on this beach. They took the coast in charge, as you +might say, long before this government service was started. It was +managed--like this," resorting again to his finger and the imaginary +lines on the table. "A vessel came ashore on the bar. The first man +who saw it gave warning to the wracking-master, who took command of +the men ashore and the cargo in behalf of the insurance companies." + +"Were there any signals then to rouse the coast in case of wreck?" + +"Lord save you! no: every man warned his neighbor. There weren't but a +few scattered folks along the coast then, but in time of a wrack you'd +see them in the dead of night ready and waiting along the beach. No +need of your signal-flags for them, I reckon. They knew there'd be +dead men and plenty of wrack coming ashore before morning." + +"And every man was ready to go out in his boat?" cried an enthusiastic +townsman, "or to carry a line to the sinking ship?" + +"Well--hardly," said the captain with a dry smile. "Folks that +know the water don't go exactly that way to work. There was regular +wracking-boats, built for the surf, and crews for each, you see: best +man in the starn. The man in the starn, he generally owned the boat +and chose his crew. Picked men. He kept them year after year. Then the +wracking-masters hired him, his boat and his crew. Best crew chosen +first, of course. Two dollars a day each was reckoned good pay. They +got famous names, some of them surfboat crews," reflectively. "There +was William Chadwick--Bill Shattuck he goes by--his crew was known +from Sandy Hook to Hatteras. There's one of them now: he can tell you +about it better than me.--Hello, Jake!" + +We looked out of the window and saw the fisherman whom we had met in +the afternoon lazily drawing his slow length along the beach, two +or three blue mackerel dangling from his hand: he had not enough of +energy, apparently, to hold them up. This was the fellow whom, an hour +before, we had pitied as a dull soul to whom the wreck was "timber" +and the life-saving station a "shed." We all had a vague ideal +before us of a gallant sailor, with eyes of fire and nerves of steel, +plunging into the cruel surf to rescue the sinking ship. We accepted +the slouching Jacob instead with disrelish. He was not the stuff of +which heroes in books are made. + +"Jake," said the captain, "where is Shattuck's boat now? I was +speaking of it to the gentlemen here." + +"Take a cigar," interpolated one of the party. + +Jacob took a cigar, bit off the end and dropped easily into a +seat: "Bill's boat? Well, it's drawed up ashore at the head of +Barnegat--down there. You kin see it out of the window ef you like." + +"There is very seldom any call for the surf-boats and crews in +summer," explained the captain. "The men follow fishing usually. But +in winter they're always ready if a ship comes on the bar." + +"Your crew has done good service in saving life, I hear, Jacob?" said +one of the strangers. + +"Well, I dunno. We're generally the first called on by the +wracking-master. Sure of the best pay. There's Shattuck and Curtis and +Van Note and George Johnson, and Fleming in the starn," checking them +off with his fingers--"all good men to bring off trade in a heavy +pull." + +"You don't mean that these surf boat crews are paid to save the cargo, +and that human life is left to the care of the government?" cried a +listener indignantly. + +"The government undertakes the life-saving service, and we're paid +by the wracking-master, certainly," said Jacob calmly. "To save the +cargo. But the human bein's is took out first. Of course. As you say. +It's not likely any man's a-goin' to bring trade out of a wrack's +long's there's a live critter aboard." + +"There's not one of these men," said the captain with a little heat in +his tone, "who has not saved many a life at the risk of his own. Isn't +that true, Jacob?" + +"I dunno. We jist work ahead at what's got to be done. I know Van Note +saved _my_ life. The way of it was this. It was the time the Clara +Brookman went down: you mind the Clara Brookman, cap'n? She was +homeward bound after a long cruise--three year--and she struck the bar +just below, a mile or two. It was a swashin' sea an' a black night. +Our surfboat was overturned with thirteen aboard: 'leven of us was +picked up by the other boat. The men, they stood in the starn an' +hauled us aboard by main force--lifted us clear out of the water. Van +Note's a tremendous musc'lar fellar, he is. He caught me by the wrist +jest as I was goin' down for the last time: I'm not a small fish, +either," slapping his brawny thigh. "Yes, sir. Van Note and I never +mixed much together afore or sence. But he did that for me: I don't +deny it." + +"You remember some terrible scenes of suffering no doubt, Jacob?" + +"Well, I've seen vessels pretty well smashed up, sir. There was the +Alabama, coast-schooner: all the crew went down on her in full sight; +and the Annandale: she was a coal-brig, and she run aground on a +December night. It was a terrible storm: but one surfboat got out to +her. They took off what they could--the women and part of the crew. I +was a boy then, and I mind seein' them come ashore, their beards and +clothes frozen stiff. After the boat left, some of the crew jumped +into the sea, but they couldn't live in it two minutes. It was nigh +dawn when the boat got out to the brig agen, and there wasn't a livin' +soul aboard of her; only the body of the mate lashed tight to the +mainmast, a solid mass of ice. He couldn't be got down, and I've heerd +my father say it was awful to see him, with one hand held out as if +p'intin' to shore, rockin' to and fro there overhead till the brig +went under. Months after, some of the bodies of the crew was thrown up +by the tide; they was as fresh as if they'd jest gone to sleep." + +"How could that be? Where had they been?" + +"Sucked into the sand. Them heavy nothe-easters always throws up a +bar, an' they was sucked under it. When the bar give way the tide +threw them up. But as soon as the air tetched them they began to +moulder." + +There was a short silence. The evening was gathering fast, cold and +threatening, the little fire threw our shadows high up on the wall, +and the wail of the wind and thunder of the incoming tide gave a +ghastly significance to this matter-of-fact catalogue of horrors. As +we looked through the little window at the vast gray plain of water, +it seemed as if every wave covered a wreck or dead men's bones. + +"Now, George Johnson," continued Jacob, "he was the first man as saw +the John Minturn come ashore. That was the worst storm I ever seen on +this coast.--You mind it, cap'n?" + +The captain nodded gravely: "February 15, 1846. It was the night old +Phoebe Hall died, and I was sitting with the body when I heerd the +guns fired from the Minturn," he remarked.--"But go on, Jacob," waving +his pipe. + +"The current was a-settin' south. Sech a tide hadn't been knowd sence +the oldest men could remember: the sea broke over all the mashes clear +up to the farm-houses. Well, sir, I was but a lad, but I couldn't +sleep: seemed as ef I ought to be a doin' something, I didn't rightly +know what. About three o'clock in the morning I heerd a gun, and in a +minute another, 'Mother,' I says, 'there's a vessel on the bar.' So, +as I gets on my clothes, she makes me a mug of hot coffee. 'You must +drink this, Jacob, an' eat some'at,' she says, 'before you go out.' So +to quiet her I takes the mug, but I hadn't half drunk it when I hears +shouting outside. It was one of the Shattucks: he says, 'There's a +ship come ashore up by Barnegat' I says, 'No,' I says: 'the guns are +from off the inlet.' So I runs one way, and Shattuck the other. The +night was dark as pitch, and the storm drivin' like hell. And we was +both right, for there was two vessels--a coast-schooner down by +Squan, where I goes, and this big ship, the John Minturn, just here," +pointing with his thumb over his shoulder to the beach outside and bar +beyond. + +"Were there many lives lost?" + +"Over three hundred--all but fourteen. They come ashore tied on +to boards or hencoops or the like--seven of the crew and seven +passengers. We tried to launch the surfboat, but the boat was never +built that could live on that sea. She was bound from New Orleans to +New York, and the most of her passengers were wealthy people, going to +the North for the winter. At least, so we jedged from her papers and +the bodies and clothes of them that come ashore--some pretty +little children, I mind, babies and their black nurses, and their +mothers--delicate women with valooable rings on their hands. Some of +them's buried in the graveyard in the village, and their friends took +some away." + +"There was the Minerva, too," said the captain as Jacob paused to +light his cigar again. "I forgit how many emigrants went down on that +ship, but I remember picking up on the beach next day a clay pipe, +with a stem nigh a yard long, not even chipped. It seemed curious that +a useless thing like that should be washed safe ashore and hundreds of +human lives be lost. And there was the New Era--went down near Deal: +three hundred emigrants drowned. The captain had nailed down the +hatches on them. Oh, that's generally done," he added, seeing the +look of horror on our faces: "in a storm the steerage can't be managed +otherwise." + +"I remember," said one of the listeners, "an incident which occurred +when I was in China about ten years ago. Five hundred Chinese soldiers +were being taken across the Inland Sea to quell an insurrection: +when off Hoang-Ho the ship sprung a leak. The boats could only give a +chance of escape to about eighty. The troops were all ordered on deck, +while a detachment was selected to fill the boats. The rest remained +immovable, standing under arms without a word, until the ship went +down." + +Somebody reminded him of the story of the Birkenhead, which sank +within four miles of the English coast with a regiment aboard that +was coming home after five years' absence in India. They too stood in +solid rank on deck, their homes almost in sight, while the women and +children were taken off and the ship slowly sank, the officers, with +swords drawn, presenting arms to Death. + +"Discipline! discipline!" said the captain. "But one wouldn't have +looked for it in them heathen Chinees." + +Duty! duty! we thought, and were quite sure heathenism had never +interfered with that kind of heroism. + +"Now, the usual run of American sailors," said Jacob, who felt by +this time that his final verdict was needed, wouldn't have done +that. Passengers is easier managed in time of a storm than sailors, +especially them of coast-ships. Passengers is like sheep: they're so +skeert they'll do what you bids 'em; but the sailors broach the liquor +first thing. I'd rather manage so many pigs than sailors when they get +holt of the grog. There was the City of New York. When she went down +the mate stood with a club in his hand to keep the crew off the Scotch +ale which was part of the freight. Well; sir, they got it, and thar +they stayed, drinkin', till the vessel parted amidships: couldn't be +got off no-how. There was three hundred passengers landed from that +ship. We used the apparatus for her: government had taken hold of the +matter then." + +"Before we say anything about the government service, one question +about the Jersey wreckers. They bear a bad name. The story goes that +the Barnegat pirates in old times drew vessels ashore by false lights, +and plundered the shipwrecked people. How about that, Jacob? Honestly, +now!" + +"Well, sir, them stories is onjust. Them men as is called Barnegat +pirates are not us fishermen--never were: they're from the +main--colliers and sech--as come down to a wrack, and they will have +something to kerry home when they're kept up all night. They do their +share of stealin', I'll confess; but from Sandy Hook to Cape May +it's innocent to what is done on Long Island. It's the stevedores and +rigger-men on Long Island--reg'lar New York roughs. No man or woman +was ever robbed on this beach till they was dead. Of course I don't +mean their trunks and sech, but not the body. The Long Islanders cut +off the fingers of livin' people for rings, but the Barnegat men never +touch the body till it's dead. _No_, sir." + +"And you understand," interposed the captain eagerly, "these Barnegat +robbers are a very different class from Jacob and the crews of surf +boats?" + +"Certainly. We understand the noble work which these wrecking-crews +have done.--By the way, how do they choose their captain, Jacob--the +man in the stern, as you call him? The most brave, heroic fellow, I +suppose?" + +"I dunno about that," with a perplexed air. "We don't calcoolate much +on heroism and sech: we choose the man that's got the best judgment of +the sea--a keerful, firm man. These six men hes got to obey him--hes +got to put their lives altogether in his hand, you see. They +don't want a headlong fellow: they want a man that knows the +water--thorough." + +"Besides," added the captain, "it is as with any other business--the +best crew is surest of employment and pay. Each owner of a +wracking-boat chooses his men for their muscle and skill: and the +wracking-master chooses the best boat and crew. There's competition, +competition. On the contrary, the life-saving service, like all +other government work, for a good many years fell into the hands of +politicians: the superintendent was chosen because he had given some +help to his party, and he appointed his own friends as lifeboat-men, +often tavern loafers like himself. A harness-maker from Bricksburg +held the place of master of the station below here for years--a man +who probably never was in a boat, and certainly would not go in one in +a heavy sea." + +"One would hardly expect to find fishermen in this solitary corner +of the world struggling for political preferment on the seats of a +lifeboat," laughed one of the party. + +But the captain could see no joke in it: "Well, sir, it's a fact that +it was done. And the consequence was, the people's money was thrown +away, and hundreds of human beings was left to perish within sight of +land. If the administration--" + +But while the captain and his companions labor over the well-trodden +road thus opened, we will look into the work done in the house on +the beach with the help of authorities more accurate than himself and +Jacob. + +Oddly enough, the first effort anywhere to stop the enormous loss +of human life by shipwreck was made by that most selfish of rulers, +George IV., and the first lifeboat was built by a London coachmaker, +Lukin, who, it is said, had never seen the sea. After that other +models of lifeboats were produced in England, none of which proved +satisfactory until in 1850 the duke of Northumberland offered one +hundred guineas as a prize for the best model, which was gained by +James Beeching. A modification of his boat is now used by the +National Lifeboat Institution, to which the entire care of the English +life-saving service is committed. There is probably no object on which +the British nation has more zealously expended sentiment, enthusiasm +and money than this service, yet despite its grand record of work +done there can be no doubt that it has been grossly mismanaged, and +is ineffective to cope with the actual need. The roll of the National +Lifeboat Institution numbers names of the most noble, humane and +wealthy men and women in Great Britain; the queen is its patron; its +resources are amply sufficient; no pains have been spared to secure +the most scientific and perfect appliances. The whole work is made, +in a degree, a matter of sentiment--exalted and humane sentiment, +but, like all other emotional service, apt to be gusty and at times +unpractical. The man who saves human life is rewarded with silver or +gold medals: the individual lifeboats are themes of essays and song, +and when one wears out a tablet is raised with the record of its +services. It is the beautiful and touching custom, too, for mourners +to offer a memorial lifeboat to the memory of their dead, instead of a +painted window or a showy monument. But with all this genuine feeling +and actual expenditure of time and money the fact remains that the +loss of human life from shipwreck is five hundred per cent. larger +on the coast of Great Britain than on our own, although there are 242 +stations on their comparatively small extent of shore, and but 104 +on our whole Atlantic seaboard. In three cases of shipwreck on the +English coast in 1875 the loss of life was directly traceable to the +lack of some necessary appliance or to the absence of guards at the +stations. In one instance there were no means of telegraphing +for boats or aid: in the case of the Deutschland, as late as last +November, where the disaster occurred on a stretch of coast known as +the most dangerous in England (except that of Norfolk)--a spot where +shipwrecks have been numbered literally by thousands--there was no +lifeboat nor any means of taking a line to the ship. The secret of +these failures lies in the fact that the institution relies for its +work on spontaneous service and emotion, and is not, like ours, a +legalized, systematic business. No permanent force or watch is kept at +the stations: a reward of seven shillings is paid to anybody who gives +notice of a wreck to the coxswain of the boat. The crews of the boats +are volunteers, and if they do not happen to report themselves at the +time of a disaster, their places are filled with any good oarsmen who +offer. In short, the whole system is based upon the occasional zeal +and heroism of men, instead of tried and paid skill, fitness for the +work and a simple sense of duty. + +Our own life-saving service is founded on wholly different principles. +It dates from 1848, when Hon. William Newell of New Jersey (incited +probably by the recent terrible loss of the John Minturn, of which the +captain told us) brought before Congress the frightful dangers of the +coast of that State, and procured an appropriation of ten thousand +dollars for "providing surf boats, carronades, etc. for the better +protection of life and property from shipwreck on the coast between +Sandy Hook and Little Egg Harbor." The next session a similar +appropriation was obtained. Small houses were built and furnished, +but no persons were paid or authorized to take charge of them, and the +business was managed in the well-meaning but slipshod English fashion. +In 1854 the wreck of the Powhatan on Squan Beach and the loss of three +hundred lives produced a storm of public indignation which aroused +Congress, and twenty thousand dollars were appropriated for lifeboats, +etc. for the coast of New Jersey, and a similar sum for the ocean side +of Long Island. A superintendent was appointed for each coast and a +keeper for each of the houses, but for sixteen years no regular crews +were employed. It was during this period, too, that the petty offices +of superintendent and keeper became the reward of small village +politicians, and wreckers who, like Jacob, had worked for years +without pay in saving human life, showed their righteous indignation +at these political favorites by refusing to work under them. Several +terrible disasters in the winter of 1870 and '71 called public +attention again to the subject, and Captain John Faunce was appointed +by the department to inspect the coast and the stations. He reported +the houses as generally in a filthy, dilapidated condition, and often +so far gone as to be worthless; the apparatus rusty, and many of the +most necessary articles wanting; in some stations nothing which could +be carried away was left; the keepers were utterly unfit for +their position, and the crews which they employed worse. Yet, +notwithstanding this mismanagement and lack of system, and although no +regular official record had been kept, there was proof that 4163 lives +had been saved and $716,000 worth of property. + +In 1871, S.I. Kimball, to whom the Revenue Marine Bureau was then +given in charge, proceeded to completely reorganize the service. New +houses were built or the old ones repaired and enlarged; competent men +were appointed as keepers, and strict orders given as to the selection +of experienced and skillful surfmen as crews; the houses were +thoroughly furnished with every appliance requisite in time of +disaster, for which the keeper is held responsible. The average +distance between the stations is three miles. Immediate proof of +the efficacy of the improvements in the service was given, as in the +twenty-two wrecks occurring that season on the Long Island and New +Jersey coasts not a single life was lost. In a word, Mr. Kimball began +successfully the seemingly hopeless task of converting the dirty, +ruinous station-houses and their lazy, disorderly keepers and crews, +scattered along the coast, to the order, discipline and efficiency +of forts and drilled soldiers, and the result proved that order and +discipline, when evolved out of the worst materials, can grapple with +and conquer even the sea. In 1873 the seventy-one station-houses +were increased to eighty-one, the line having been extended along the +coasts of Cape Cod and Rhode Island. Congress having appropriated +one hundred thousand dollars for the establishment of new stations, +twenty-three were contracted for, giving the Maine coast five; New +Hampshire, one; Massachusetts, five; Virginia, two; North Carolina, +ten. The connection between the life-saving and storm-signal +service was effected at several stations, thus supplying telegraphic +communication between the department and the coast outposts. This, +probably, was the most marked advance made by the service: it was +the nerve-line which brought the working members under control of an +intelligent head. In thirty-two wrecks occurring during the year on +the coasts where stations were established but one life had been lost. + +The unprecedented success of the service to this point justified its +demand for larger means and fuller powers. In the last session of +the Forty-second Congress a bill was introduced by Hon. John Lynch of +Maine to provide for the establishment of additional stations on the +North Atlantic seaboard, and directing the Secretary of the Treasury +to report the points on the entire sea and lake coasts at which +stations would best subserve the interests of humanity and commerce, +with estimates of the cost. This bill passed, and was approved March +3, 1873. The commission appointed consisted of Mr. Kimball, Captain +John Faunce and Captain J.H. Merryman. Their report is the result +of minute examination into the wrecks and disasters on every mile of +coast for the previous ten years--a research into ghastly horrors for +a practical end unparalleled perhaps in accuracy and patience. +They recommended the erection of twenty-three life-saving stations +complete, twenty-two lifeboat stations and five houses of refuge. The +first class, containing all appliances for saving life on stranded +vessels, and manned by regular crews during the winter months, were +for flat beaches with outlying bars distant from settlements, and were +required on certain points of the shores of the great lakes and on the +Atlantic coast as far south as Hatteras. "Upon the coast of Florida +the shores are so bold," the report states, "that stranded vessels are +usually thrown high enough upon the beach to permit easy escape from +them; therefore the usual apparatus belonging to the complete stations +are not considered necessary. The section of that coast from Indian +River Inlet to Cape Florida is almost destitute of inhabitants, and +persons cast upon its inhospitable shores are liable to perish +from starvation and thirst, from inability to reach the remote +settlements." Upon these coasts it was recommended that houses +of refuge should be built large enough to accommodate twenty-five +persons, supplied with provisions to support them for ten days, and +provided with surfboat, oars and sails. For the majority of points +on the Pacific and lake coasts, where disasters were infrequent, +lifeboats only were considered necessary, these in general to be +manned by volunteer crews. It was proposed that these crews should +be paid for services rendered at each wreck, and a system of rewards +adopted in the shape of medals of honor. The estimated cost of a +life-saving station complete was $5302; of a house of refuge, $2995; +of a lifeboat station, $4790. A bill founded on this report was +prepared by Mr. Kimball, the chief both of the Revenue Marine and +Life-saving Service, and became a law June, 1874. This bill provides +for the protection of the entire lake and sea-coasts of the United +States by a cordon of stations, lifeboats or houses of refuge placed +at all dangerous points. The stations on the Pacific coast are not yet +built, but it is hoped that all will be finished and in working +order by the fall of 1876. The United States will then offer to the +shipwrecked voyager security and protection through her vast extent of +coast such as is afforded by no other nation. The measures promoting +this end were carried through Congress by Senators Newell, Stockton, +Hamlin, Boutwell, Chandler and Frelinghuysen, and Representatives +Lynch, Hale of Maine, Cox, Hooper and Conger. But the actual credit of +this great national work of humanity is due to Sumner I. Kimball, who +not only conceived the idea of the complete guarding of the coast and +prepared the bill for Congress, but has reorganized the entire +system and carried it out successfully in all of its minute practical +details. + +The work accomplished by the service may be clearly understood by a +glance at the following figures. There is no record of the loss of +life on stranded vessels previous to its formation in 1848. There +remain only the terrible legends, such as those which the captain and +Jacob told us, of numbers of emigrant ships and steamers yearly going +down with three to four hundred souls on board. The coasts of Long +Island and New Jersey have justly been called "the despair of mariners +and shipowners." During the first twenty years of the operation of the +service, despite its mismanagement, the number of lives lost yearly +was reduced to an average of twenty-five. Since 1871 the period of its +reorganization, the loss of life on the coasts of New Jersey and +Long Island has averaged but one per annum. The report for these four +years, inclusive of the whole coast guarded by stations, is-- + + Total number of disasters, 185 + Total number of lives imperiled, 2583 + Total number of lives saved, 2564 + Total number of lives lost, 19 + Total number of shipwrecked persons sheltered + at the stations, 368 + Total number of days' shelter afforded, 1307 + Total value of property imperiled, $6,293,658 + Total value of property saved, 4,514,756 + Total value of property lost, 1,742,902 + +Included in this report are the fourteen lives lost on the Italian +bark Giovanni near Provincetown, Cape Cod, in a storm unprecedented +for its terrors. A story found its way into the papers at the time +that the powder used in the mortar was damp, and that from this +trifling neglect help could not be extended from the station. A strict +investigation was made, and it was proved by the testimony of the +people in Provincetown that all the apparatus was in perfect order and +the keepers and surfmen exerted themselves heroically in aid of the +doomed vessel, but that she was stranded so far from shore that it +was simply impossible to reach her. In another case, that of the +Vicksburg, wrecked on the Long Island coast, where a life was lost +through the remissness of the keeper, the whole force of the station +was discharged, and the order to that effect read to every crew in the +service. + +The localities of the stations and houses of refuge now legally +authorized are-- + + Districts. Location. Stations. + + 1st. Coasts of Maine and New Hampshire, 6 + 2d. Coast of Massachusetts, 14 + 3d. Coasts of Long Island and Rhode Island, 36 + 4th. Coast of New Jersey, 39 + 5th. Coasts of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, 8 + 6th. Coasts of Virginia and North Carolina, 10 + 7th. Eastern coast of Florida, 5[A] + 8th. Coasts of Lakes Ontario and Erie, 9 + 9th. Coasts of Lakes Huron and Superior, 9 + 10th. Coast of Lake Michigan, 12 + 11th. Pacific coast, 8 + +[Footnote A: Houses of refuge.] + +While we have been looking into these facts and figures the exploring +party in the house on the beach have told many a terrible tale of +shipwreck and half-hinted horrors, among others that of the ill-fated +Giovanni. + +"Suppose that a ship should be driven on this bar in the middle of the +night, a storm raging," said one of the party, "what would then be the +keeper's duty?" + +The captain threw open the door of the larger room, which in the +fading light looked full, but for a moment only, of ghostly shadows. +There we saw boats suspended halfway from the ceiling, other +mysterious apparatus ranged on either side, anchors, great cables +coiled accurately in heaps, and all in as exact neatness as though +upon the deck of a man-of-war. + +"When a wrack is sighted," said the captain, "the signal-officer up +stairs telegraphs to the other near stations, whose keepers at once +send their lifeboats, cars and surfmen here. The ship is signaled--by +flags in daytime, by rockets at night." He opened a closet in which +were arranged the cases of lights, with books of instruction for +their use. "The keepers ought to understand these as well as all other +apparatus in the station, and under the new management they usually +do. The keeper here is an old wracker, and has 'good judgment of +the sea,' as Jacob would say. _He_ never made harness or friends in +Congress," the captain threw in with fine satire. "If the ship can +be reached by a boat, this lifeboat is run into the surf. It moves on +wheels, you see, and in two minutes ought to be launched and the men +aboard. This ridge on the outside is an air-tight chamber for giving +buoyancy. Here are the oars swung in place and the buckets for +bailing, as you see." + +"Is this the English lifeboat?" + +"No, sir. Two years ago the service imported a lifeboat and rocket +apparatus from England to test them here. The lifeboat was found to be +nearly perfect, but too heavy for launching on our flat beaches with +light crews: she weighed four thousand pounds. This boat was invented +by Lieutenant Stodder." + +"But if the sea be too heavy for the lifeboat to live in it?" + +"Then we give the ship a line: the ball is fired from this mortar, the +line being fastened to the shot by a spiral wire. Mortar, powder and +matches are set, you see, ready for instantaneous use. The ball must +be shot so that the line falls over the ship. Not an easy mark to hit +in the night and the storm driving. Sometimes it is not done until +after many trials: sometimes, as in the case of the Giovanni, it +cannot be reached at all. I saw the Argyle go down eight years ago +with all on board, after we had tried all night to reach her. One man +was washed ashore, and we made a rope of hands out beyond the first +breaker, and so got him in." + +"The men farthest out on the line had not much better chance than he?" + +"No, but the man had to be got in," carelessly. "I was going to say +that as soon as the line does fall over the ship it is hauled +aboard. There is a hauling-line fastened to it, and a hawser to the +hauling-line. Here they all are in order. When the hawser reaches the +ship it is made taut and secured to the mizzentop or mainmast, high +enough to swing clear of the taffrail. It is fastened on shore by +this sand-anchor. Then we send over the breeches-buoy," pointing to a +complete suit of india-rubber very similar in appearance to that used +by Paul Boyton. "One man can be sent safely to shore in that. But we +use the life-car most frequently." + +"A boat?" + +"You may call it a covered boat if you will. That life-car, sir, was +invented by Captain Douglass Ottinger, and this is the first one ever +used. It was sent out to the ship Ayrshire, and more than two hundred +souls were saved by it when there was no other way of giving them +human help. There she is, sir." He laid his hand with a good deal of +feeling on the queer shell that hung from the ceiling. + +The Ottinger life-car, the patent for which the generous inventor gave +to the; public, is simply an egg-shaped case with bands of cork about +it. Along the top are iron rings through which it is slung on the +hawser. The car is drawn by another line from the shore to the vessel. +It opens by means of a door or lid two feet square on top. Eleven +passengers can be crowded inside. The lid is then screwed down and the +car drawn ashore. + +"Eleven!" cried one of the party. "It would not hold four +comfortably." + +"Men in that extremity are not apt to stand on the order of their +going," said another. + +"Nor women, neither," added the captain; "though women always do cry +out to go in the open boat rather than the car, though there isn't +half the chance for them." + +"How is it ventilated?" + +"Ventilated? Lord bless you! What would be the good of it if it wasn't +air-tight? It's under the water all the time, upside down, over and +over a hundred times. There's air in it enough to last 'em for three +minutes, and it's calculated that it can be brought ashore in less +time. I've seen husbands put their wives into it, and mothers their +little babies--them standing on deck, never hoping to live to see them +again." + +"And when it was opened--" + +"Well, sir, there's curious things seen on the beach on nights of +shipwreck. I'm no hand at describing. Some men stagger out of the car +sick, some crying or praying, some as cool as if they'd just stepped +off the train." + +The captain locked the rocket-closet, hung the key on the nail and +rearranged a coil of rope which had been displaced. "Things have to +be shipshape when the lives of a crew may depend on a missing match +or wet powder. The houses," he added as we came out of the door and +he stopped to close it, "are built every three miles along the beach. +From November 15 until April 15 the keeper and six surfmen live in +this house, and take watches, patrolling the beach night and day, +meeting halfway between the stations. Chief Kimball's plan is that +there shall be an unbroken line of sentries along this dangerous coast +during the six stormy months." + +When the hearty old captain had left us, and we found our way again +across the marshes, the solitude of the night and stormy sky and the +moaning sea became oppressive again, and took on all their old meaning +of death and disaster. But we looked back at the square black shadow +of the little house upon the headland with its fluttering flag, and +at the red light burning in the window, and felt a sense of protection +and trust in the government which we had never known before. + +REBECCA HARDING DAVIS. + + + + +THE EUTAW FLAG.[A] + +In the early spring of the year 1780 two ladies attired in morning +_négligé_ were sitting together in the parlor of a fine old country +mansion in lower South Carolina. The remains of two or three huge +hickory logs were smouldering on the capacious hearth, for the cool +air of the early morning made fires still comfortable, though as +the day wore on and the southern sun gathered power the small-paned +windows which opened on the lawn had been raised to admit the soft +breeze, which already whispered of opening flowers and breathed the +sweet fragrance of the jessamine and magnolia. These same embers would +have furnished heat enough in a house of modern construction to have +made the room intolerable, but as they reposed upon their bed of ashes +in the depths of the wide-mouthed chimney-place, lazily sending +up their little curls of smoke, they served only to create a +draught-power which cooled the apartment by the free circulation of +the flower-scented air. The wide lawn was green with the fresh +spring grass, amid which a lively company of field-larks were busily +searching for grasshoppers and grubs, their gay yellow breasts and +jetty breastpins glancing in the sunlight as they raised their heads +from time to time to utter their soft whistling notes. The blackbirds +puffed their feathers and sounded their singular call from the +branches of the old pecan tree, and the flashing of the oriole +enlivened the sombre foliage of the enormous live-oaks in the avenue. +Three or four deer-hounds were stretched about under the broad +benches of the piazza or snapped at the flies under the shade of the +rose-bushes, already heavy with bloom, paying no attention to the +tame doe which jingled her little bell over their very heads as she +stretched up to browse the young shoots of "rose-candy" above them. +Two mocking-birds, one perched on the chimney-stack of the house, and +the other on a straggling spray of the wild-orange hedge, vied with +each other in imitating the medley of bird-language which made the air +vocal on every side, pouring a rich flood of melody through the open +windows and into the appreciative ears of the ladies who sat within. + +"What a lovely day!" exclaimed the elder of the two as she dropped her +piece of embroidery and rose to look out upon the scene. + +"Oh, how I wish we could take a long ride! Here have I been staying at +Oaklands three whole weeks, and I have not been in the saddle once! I +declare, Jane, this horrid war will never be over;" and Rebecca Stead +drew a long sigh and leaned her pretty head thoughtfully against the +sash. + +"Well, suppose we ride over to The Willows?" answered Jane Elliott +with a ringing laugh. "If you'll take the old broken-winded mare, I'll +take one of the plough-mules, and Billy can go with us on the other. +Wouldn't it be fun?" + +In response to the bell, Billy soon made his appearance--an elderly +negro of most respectable appearance, dressed in a blue cloth coat +with large brass buttons, a red plush waistcoat with flaps nearly +reaching his knees, and a pair of yellow breeches with plated +knee-buckles and coarse blue worsted stockings. A single glance at his +face and bearing was enough to show his sense of importance and his +keen appreciation of the responsibility of his position. He listened +with a look of utter amazement to the orders of his young mistress, +and then replied in a tone of stern authority, such as none but an old +family negro servant could assume: "Miss Jane, dat mule nebber had no +saddle 'pon he back sence he been born." + +"Well, Billy, it's high time he should know how it feels." + +"He wi' kick you' brains out 'fore you git on um, an' broke you' neck +'fore you kin git from here to de gate." + +"Oh nonsense, Billy! Have the saddle put on him at once, and get the +old mare for Miss Rebecca." + +"Miss 'Becca can't ride de ole mare tid-day, 'cause she 'way down +in de pasture, an' anybody can't ketch um in tree hour time; an' you +can't ride de mule, Miss Jane, 'cause you ma done tell me I must tek +good care o' you an' de house w'ile she gone, an' I ain't gwine let +you broke you' neck or you' arm--not tid-day." And Billy quietly +walked out and closed the door, leaving the young ladies half vexed +and half amused at his summary disposal of their scheme. + +"After Tarleton's troop and that horrid Tory Ball took my saddle-pony +out of the pasture," said Miss Elliott, "mamma sent all the blooded +horses to General Lincoln, and we hear that they were turned over to +the Virginia Light Horse." + +"Yes," replied Miss Stead with a mischievous smile, "and I hear that +Colonel Washington has taken the beautiful bay mare for his own mount, +and named her 'Jane.'" + +"That's a piece of his Virginia impudence," rejoined Miss Elliott. "I +have met him only once, at General Izard's, and I think he has taken a +great liberty with my name. They say he behaved splendidly at Trenton +and Princeton." + +"Oh, I wish he would call while I am here," said her companion. "They +say he is an elegant rider. I wonder if he looks like the general? +I don't believe any Virginian can ride better than our young men. I +wonder if he can take up a handful of sand at a gallop, like cousin +John Izard?" + +"Or jump his horse on the table," suggested Miss Elliott with a +roguish glance, "as I've heard that Mr. Izard did one day after a +club-dinner." + +Miss Stead colored slightly as she said that the gentlemen all +complained of the strength of the last box of claret received from +Charleston before the club was broken up. + +"I hear that Colonel Washington is a fine swordsman," said Miss +Elliott, "and that his troop are all bold riders. They have fought +Tarleton's Legion once or twice in skirmishes, and they say the +red-coats are rather shy of them." + +Just at this point the conversation was interrupted by the entrance +of Billy, bearing a peace-offering in the shape of a huge waiter of +luncheon. Billy was butler and major-domo to the establishment, and +the young ladies could not restrain their mirth at the profusion and +variety with which the faithful fellow was evidently trying to +make amends for the disappointment which his high sense of duty had +compelled him to inflict upon them. Had there been a dozen instead of +two, there would have been ample provision for their wants upon the +broad silver salver. Cakes and jellies, preserves and sandwiches, +tarts and ruddy apples, a decanter of sherry and a stand of liqueurs, +left barely room enough for the dainty little plates and glasses, +while Billy's special apology appeared in the form of two steaming +little tumblers of rum-punch, the characteristic beverage of the +day. All severity of tone and manner had disappeared, and there was +something almost chivalric in the deferential smile and rude grace +with which the old fellow handed his waiter to the ladies and assured +them of the harmless mildness of the punch. Depositing his burden upon +a little stand within easy reach of the sofa, Billy turned to leave, +but paused as his eye wandered down the opening vista of the avenue, +and after gazing for a moment in silence he suddenly exclaimed, +"Dere's two sojer gemplemans comin' t'rough de big gate." + +In an instant both the young ladies were on their feet and at the +window, for such an announcement was cause enough for excitement in +that time of war, when the "sojer gemplemans" might prove to be either +friends or foes. Charleston had already narrowly escaped capture +during the previous summer by General Prevost, who, although compelled +to retire on Savannah, had worsted Lincoln's militia army, destroying +about one-fourth of the little force. In October had occurred the +disastrous, attack upon Savannah, in which the gallant Pulaski +lost his life, and Jasper, the hero of Fort Sullivan, received his +death-wound. Sumter, the "Game-Cock" of Carolina, had retired from +the State with his handful of followers badly demoralized; Marion, the +"Swamp-Fox," was concealed with his little band among the cypress-bays +and canebrakes of the Pedee; and a tone of gloom and despondency +prevailed among the people. In the neighborhood of Charleston all +was uncertainty. The plantation residences were occupied chiefly by +ladies, the gentlemen being generally with the army. Tarleton's Legion +had become widely known and feared on account of the dashing forays +which that famous command was constantly making under the lead of its +brave and impetuous chief. No wonder, then, that the hearts of the +two young ladies at Oaklands beat quick with anxiety as they strained +their gaze down the avenue, uncertain whether they should see the +hated scarlet uniforms of the British troopers or the welcome blue of +the Continental cavalry. + +But the "big gate" to which Billy had alluded was a full quarter of +a mile distant, and although the first glance satisfied the excited +watchers that their visitors were friends, little more could be +certain until they should approach more nearly. Patience, however, +was hardly to be expected under the circumstances, and its place was +effectually supplied by a little red morocco-covered spy-glass which +Miss Elliott took from the table. Scarcely was it brought to bear upon +the approaching horsemen when she laid it down as suddenly as she had +seized it, the rich color mantling to her forehead. + +"Why, Jane," said her friend, "am I not to have a look at the +strangers? Oh, I declare--yes, I _do_ believe I know that horse. It +must be--" + +"It is Colonel Washington and some other officer whom I do not know," +said Miss Elliott, who had regained her self-possession completely. +"You have your wish, Rebecca." + +The two visitors cantered rapidly up the broad avenue, and found Billy +waiting to receive them. One was a tall, soldierly-looking man of +about twenty-eight, his fine face bronzed by exposure, and his easy +seat in the saddle betokening one who had been a horseman from his +youth. He wore the blue coat with yellow facings and the buckskin +breeches of the Continental cavalry, his red sash bound over a broad +sword-belt which supported a strong sabre, while the handsome and +well-muscled bay mare which he rode carried a leather portmanteau in +addition to the heavy bearskin holster. His large cavalry-boots were +well bespattered, and his whole bearing was that of an officer +on duty, rather than of a gallant bent on visiting lady fair. His +companion was a mere youth, seemingly not over seventeen, well mounted +also, and dressed in the simple uniform of an orderly, but evidently +the friend and social equal of his superior officer. The young man sat +his horse with the ease and grace of one born to the saddle, and his +fiery chestnut seemed to know and understand his rider thoroughly. +Like the other, he was provided with holsters and portmanteau, a heavy +blue cavalry cloak being strapped over the unstuffed saddle-tree. +Entering the drawing-room, Colonel Washington presented his companion +to Miss Elliott as "Mr. Peyton of Virginia," and both gentlemen were +in turn presented to Miss Stead, who received their courtly bows with +one of those graceful, sweeping courtesies which may be ranked among +the lost arts of a past generation. Billy had followed the guests to +the parlor-door, where he stood as if waiting orders. + +"You seem to have ridden far," said: the fair hostess when the +ordinary salutations had passed. "Let me order your horses to the +stable to be fed." + +"I thank you very kindly, miss, but there will be scarcely time, +for we are under marching orders, and must be in Charleston before +sunset," replied the colonel with a bow; and there was something +in his tone which faintly suggested a mental desire to see the said +marching orders in Jericho. + +Perhaps young Peyton detected this, for he said immediately, "I think +we had best accept Miss Elliott's kindness, for we have a long ride +before us, and we cannot tell what orders may be awaiting us at the +end of it." + +"I believe Peyton is right," said the colonel, "and if you will permit +me I will ask him to give some directions to the servant." + +Billy, however, had heard enough to give him his cue, and had +disappeared, nor did the summons of the bell bring him back until full +ten minutes had elapsed. When he did return it was to bring in two +more tumblers of punch, but this time of "the regulation size" and +strength, which were handed to the guests and disposed of with bow +and sentiment; and then the young orderly went out with him to see the +horses stripped and the holsters deposited on the piazza before the +animals were led off to be fed. + +"We shall have to defer accepting your invitation to attend the dress +parade until your return to camp," said Miss Elliott. + +"I regret to be obliged to say that the fortunes of war have deprived +us for the present of that honor. My orders extend to the command, +which broke camp this morning and is now on its march to Charleston." + +"Oh, what are we to do? We felt so safe while they were near us." + +The remark burst involuntarily from Miss Stead, who blushed and cast +down her eyes as if conscious of having said too much for maidenly +propriety, but the smile of acknowledgment on Colonel Washington's +face gave way to a look of grave anxiety as he replied, "No lady of +Carolina shall ever need a defender while a man of my command is left +to draw a sword; but we have news of movements on the enemy's part +which require our presence nearer to the city, and I have advised that +all noncombatants who can possibly move into Charleston should do +so at their earliest convenience. Perhaps we may meet there in a few +days." + + +A momentary pallor had overspread Miss Elliott's face, but it was +succeeded immediately by a proud flush as she said, "It is true, then, +that General Clinton has left Savannah and is moving on Charleston?" + +"Such is the report, and I fear we are badly prepared to meet him." + +"We have a righteous cause, and God is on our side," replied the brave +girl with flashing eyes. "Governor Rutledge has issued a call for all +men not in service to take up arms, and the whole upper country will +swarm down to meet these hireling British." + +"So we all hope and expect; and if they are only in good time, there +will be no fear of the result." + +"Fear! Who fears these upstart baronets and their insolent soldiers? +Oh, how I wish women could fight! If the men can't drive them back, +let _us_ take the field, and Clinton shall never set his foot in the +streets of Charleston;" and the brave little beauty looked as if she +meant every word she said. + +"The men cannot fail to be heroes when the eyes of such women are upon +them," exclaimed the gallant colonel, looking with amused admiration +at the lovely face all aglow with patriotic excitement. "But you must +let us do the fighting, Miss Elliott, while you cheer and support us +with your smiles and your prayers.--Peyton, what do you think would +be the result of a charge by a squadron of ladies upon Tarleton's +Legion?" + +"I can't answer for Tarleton," laughingly replied the orderly, who had +just entered the room, "but I am afraid I should throw down my arms +and desert in the face of the enemy." + +"You are an ungallant fellow, Peyton, to hint even that the ladies +could ever be your enemies." + +"Oh, do look there!" cried Miss Stead with a silvery laugh, and +pointing through the open window: "shall we take the issue of that +struggle as an omen?" + +The whole party rushed to the window and looked out on the lawn. A +brilliant redbird, the proximity of whose nest perhaps had fired his +timid heart with courage, had made a savage assault on a bluejay, the +colors of whose feathers were strikingly suggestive of the Continental +uniform. For a moment the two combatants fluttered in angry strife, +and the result seemed doubtful, when a female mocking-bird flew from +her nest in the shrubbery and drove them both ingloriously from the +field. + +"That settles the matter," exclaimed Colonel Washington, laughing +gayly. "If Governor Rutledge calls out the ladies, I shall throw up +my commission at once, and retire in good order to the security of +private life." + +"Perhaps then Lieutenant Peyton would succeed to the command?" +rejoined Miss Elliott, glancing archly at the young orderly. + +"I am almost sorry that your corps has not been organized, miss, for +I might then consider myself gazetted for promotion, and claim my +lieutenant's commission over your signature." The young man spoke in a +tone of gay badinage, but a shade of annoyance came over his features +as he added with a slight bow, "I am only plain 'Mr.' Peyton as yet." + +"I beg pardon," said Miss Elliott, "but I thought 'lieutenant' was an +ensign's proper title." + +"If Peyton were the ensign of the troop, his office would be a +sinecure," laughed the colonel, "seeing we have no standard for him to +carry." + +"You surely don't mean, colonel, that your gallant corps fights +without colors?" said Miss Stead. + +"Why, we cannot use those that we captured from the enemy, and I fear +our lady friends will be unable to present us with a stand until the +war is over and silk becomes more plentiful." + +Miss Elliott's eyes flashed with a sudden impulse, and the color +deepened on her cheek as she eagerly asked, "Would you carry so poor a +little flag as a Carolina girl can present to you? Many a good knight +has gone into battle with no richer standard than a lady's scarf." + +"If Miss Elliott will honor my command by entrusting her kerchief to +its keeping, I swear to fly it in the face of Tarleton's Legion and +defend it to the last drop of my blood." + +"Then let this be your flag," cried the noble girl with a burst of +enthusiasm which echoed that which rung in Colonel Washington's tones. +A large _fauteuil_, covered with heavy crimson silk embroidered with +raised laurel-leaves, was standing near. Miss Elliott seized, as she +spoke, the scissors from her work-basket, and in a moment had cut out +the rectangular piece which covered the back and offered it to her +distinguished guest. Washington bowed low with courtly grace and +touched his lips to the fair hand which presented it, while young +Peyton, carried away by the excitement of the moment, sprang to his +feet with a cheer which started the wild birds from the shrubbery: +"Colonel Washington, I claim the right, by Miss Elliott's commission, +to carry that flag into action, and I swear that it shall never be +stained with dishonor while Walter Peyton has a right hand to grasp +its staff." + +"Take it, my boy," said the colonel in a voice tremulous with emotion, +"and guard it with your life. With God's help we will make that flag +a terror to the enemies of our country.--Miss Elliott, accept a +soldier's gratitude for your precious gift to-day. No prouder banner +ever waved over battle-field or claimed the devotion of patriotic +hearts. It shall be fringed and mounted this very night in Charleston, +and I pledge my sacred honor that Washington's Light Horse shall prove +worthy of their trust." + +There was a pause in the conversation which was broken by young +Peyton, who rattled on for some time with Miss Stead in that light +vein which the most serious circumstances cannot long repress when +youth and beauty meet. Colonel Washington spoke but little, and +with an evident effort at gayety which ill agreed with the earnest, +thoughtful look which settled on his features, while Miss Elliott +could not conceal the embarrassment which her heightened color and +downcast eyes betrayed as she toyed with her embroidery, avoiding the +glances of deep and ardent yet restrained admiration with which +her distinguished guest regarded her. The hour had arrived when the +soldiers must resume their journey; and while Rebecca Stead stood +watching from the piazza the final preparations which the young +orderly was making for the march, Colonel Washington took the hand of +his fair hostess and after a moment's hesitation bowed low and pressed +it to his lips, but with somewhat more of warmth than was required by +the stately courtesy of the day. Their eyes met for an instant, and +then, without one word of spoken adieu, they parted. When Miss Stead +turned to join her friend she found herself alone with old Billy, +who was gazing after the fast-receding forms of the troopers. "Mass' +Tahlton done ketch de debbil ef he meet dem Virginia man to-night," +said the old fellow sententiously as he slowly retired into his +pantry. + +[Footnote A: This fine old relic of the Revolution is preserved by the +Washington Light Infantry of Charleston, South Carolina. It was borne +by Colonel William Washington's corps at Cowpens and Eutaw.] + + + + +II. + + +On the 12th of May, 1780, General Lincoln, after sustaining a close +siege of more than a month's duration, surrendered Charleston, with +five thousand men and four hundred pieces of artillery, into the hands +of Sir Henry Clinton. The dark cloud which had long been threatening +Lower Carolina now settled like a pall over the whole State, and but +for two causes the whole issue of the war might have been changed. One +of these was the severity of Cornwallis, who succeeded Clinton in the +command, and who by his unwise policy drove the despondent people to +desperation: the other was the indomitable courage and self-devoted +heroism of the women, which encouraged and strengthened the flagging +patriotism of the men. The militia who had been captured with the city +regarded themselves as absolved from a parole which did not protect +them from enlistment in the ranks of the Crown, and the irregular +bands of Marion, Pickens and Sumter received large accessions. +Mill-saws were roughly forged into sabres and pewter table-ware melted +and beaten into slugs for the shot-guns with which the men were armed. +The British dared not forage except in force, the pickets were shot +from ambushes, and their Tory allies hung whenever captured. In +August the disastrous battle of Camden destroyed Gates's army, and +the Congress sent Greene to supersede him. Making his head-quarters in +North Carolina, this experienced commander divided his force and sent +General Morgan, with about one thousand men, into South Carolina to +harass Cornwallis in the rear. The latter at once sent Tarleton with +eleven hundred troopers, among them his famous Legion, to cut off +Morgan or drive him back upon Greene. In the latter part of December +the Americans were in the region of the upper Broad River, in +Spartanburg district, South Carolina, Morgan having but one hundred +and thirty mounted men--they could hardly be called cavalry--among +whom was Washington's troop. + +It was about nine o'clock on the night of the 16th of January, 1781, +that the little army was encamped between the Pacolet and Broad +rivers, near a piece of thin woodland known as Hannah's Cowpens. The +weather was very cold, for the elevation of that part of the country +produces a temperature equal in severity to that of a much higher +latitude, but neither tents nor shanties protected the sleeping +soldiers from the frosty air. Here and there a rough shelter of pine +boughs heaped together to windward of the smouldering camp-fires told +of a squad who had not been too weary to work for a little show of +comfort; but in most cases the men were stretched out on the bare +ground, their feet toward the embers and their arms wrapped up with +them in their tattered blankets, which scarcely served to keep out the +cold. The regular troops, who had seen some service, might have +been easily distinguished from the less experienced militia by their +superior sleeping arrangements. Two and sometimes three men would be +found wrapped in one blanket, "spoon-fashion," with another blanket +stretched above them on four stakes to serve as a tent-fly, and their +fires were usually large and well covered with green branches to +prevent their burning out too rapidly. One and all, however, slept +as soundly as if reposing on beds of down, while the same quiet stars +smiled on them and on the anxious wives and mothers who lay waking +and praying in many a distant home. In and out among the weird and +shifting shadows of the outer lines the dim figures of the sentinels +stalked with their old "Queen Anne" muskets at the "right-shoulder +shift," or tramped back and forth along their beats at the double +quick to keep their blood in circulation. At a little distance from +the infantry camp the horses of Washington's dragoons and M'Call's +mounted Georgians were picketed in groups of ten, the saddles piled +together, and a sentinel paced between every two groups, while the +men were stretched around their fires, sleeping on their arms like the +infantry, for it was known that Tarleton had crossed the Pacolet that +day, and an attack was expected at any time. A party of officers were +asleep near one of the fires, with nothing, however, to distinguish +them from the men but the red or buff facings of their heavy cloaks. +One of these lay with his face to the stars, sleeping as placidly as +if his boyish form were safe beneath his mother's roof. One arm lay +across his chest, clasping to his body the staff of a small cavalry +flag, while the other stretched along his side, the hand resting +unconsciously upon a holster-case of pistols. As the glare of the +neighboring fire played over his features it was easy to recognize +Walter Peyton, guarding faithfully, even in his sleep, the banner +which Jane Elliott had cut from her mother's parlor _fauteuil_, and +which had already become known to the enemy. A rough log cabin stood a +little way from the bivouac, before which two sentinels in the uniform +of the Continental regulars were pacing up and down. The gleam of +the roaring lightwood fire flashed through the open seams between the +logs, and heavy volumes of smoke rolled out of the clay chimney. +Just in front of the huge fire-place stood the tall, burly figure of +Morgan, and near him were grouped, in earnest consultation, the manly +figure of William Washington, the brave and knightly John Eager Howard +of Maryland, McDowell, Triplett, Cunningham and other officers of the +field and staff. Determination not unmingled with gloom was visible +upon the faces of all. Every arrangement had been made for the +probable fight of the morrow, and the council was about to disperse, +when the silence of the night was broken by the call of a distant +sentinel, taken up and repeated along the line. Morgan instantly +despatched an orderly, to the bivouac of the guard, and the party were +soon cheered by the intelligence that a courier had just arrived who +reported the near approach of Pickens with three hundred Carolina +riflemen--a timely and valuable addition to the little force of +patriots. + +The first gray pencilings of dawn were scarcely visible when the +slumbering camp was roused by the rolling notes of the reveille from +the drum of little Solly Barrett,[A] the drummer-boy of Howard's +Maryland Regulars. Fully refreshed by a good night's rest, the men +prepared and ate their breakfasts with but little delay, and by seven +o'clock the entire force was in line of battle, awaiting the approach +of the enemy. + +[Footnote A: "Solly" resided for many years after the war at Easton, +Maryland. A good portrait of him is still there.] + +Tarleton, flushed with the assurance of easy victory, had made a +forced march during the night, and his command was much jaded when at +eight o'clock he came in sight of Morgan's outposts: notwithstanding +this, however, he determined, as was fully expected by those who knew +his disposition and mode of warfare, to attack the American lines +forthwith. It must be left to the historian to tell how the battle +raged with varying fortunes until Howard's gallant Marylanders taught +the British regulars that the despised provincials had learned the +trick of the bayonet, and decided the issue of the day. Up to this +moment the cavalry, which had been posted in reserve behind a slight +wooded eminence, had been chafing for a hand in the fray. As has +been stated, these troops consisted of McCall's mounted militia and +Washington's Light Dragoons. The latter were all well mounted and +armed, for their frequent successes in skirmishes with the enemy's +horse kept them well supplied. They were a crack corps, and well +had they earned their reputation. Just as Howard's regulars turned +savagely on their disorderly pursuers and put them to the rout, a +squadron of British light horse made a dash at McCall, whose men +were unused to the sabre, and had been demoralized by the first +bayonet-charge of the enemy, which they had sustained on foot. Now was +Washington's chance. + +"Are you ready, men? Charge!" The words were scarcely off his lips +ere the noble mare which he rode shot forward, touched by her rider's +spur. With a wild yell, which drowned the regular cheer of the +Englishmen, the men dashed after their brave and impetuous leader, +who was ever the first to cross a sabre with the enemy. Rising in +his stirrups as the gallant chestnut answered the spur, Walter Peyton +looked backward at the men as he raised the light staff of his little +banner and shook its folds to the breeze, and the next moment he was +close by the side of his chief in the very thickest of the mêlée. For +a moment all was dust and confusion, for Tarleton's veterans were not +the men to break at the first onset, and they met the furious charge +of the Virginians with a determination which promised a bloody and +doubtful struggle. One stout fellow, mounted on a powerful horse, +singled out the young ensign as his special quarry, not noticing, in +his ardor to capture the daring little rebel flag, that the trooper +who rode next to it was the gallant colonel himself. Reining back his +horse almost upon its haunches, he had raised his sabre in the very +act to strike when that of Washington came down with tremendous force, +severing the upper muscles of his sword-arm, and at the same instant +Peyton, for the first time observing his danger, dropped his rein and, +grasping the flagstaff with both hands, swung it full in the face of +his assailant. The man's horse shied violently as the folds of the +little banner flapped across his eyes, and as his rider fell heavily +from the saddle dashed at full speed through the British line. Already +this had begun to waver, and in another moment the panicstricken +troopers were flying in wild confusion toward their reserve. To +rally a body of frightened cavalry is no easy matter under any +circumstances, but when a determined pursuing force is pressing hotly +on the rear it becomes a simple impossibility. The entire command gave +way as the fugitives approached, and in a little while was in full +retreat. Colonel Washington, as usual far in advance of his men, +caught sight of the British commander, who, with two of his aides, +was endeavoring to rally a favorite regiment, and without a thought of +support pressed toward the group, accompanied only by Peyton with Jane +Elliott's flag and a little bugler, a mere boy, who carried no sword, +but who had drawn a pistol from his holster and kept close to the +colors all through the day. + +Tarleton was not deficient in personal courage, and turned to meet his +old enemy in a hand-to-hand encounter. The officer nearest him struck +at Washington as he passed, but missed his blow and received a bullet +in his side from the young bugler's pistol. + +"Carter," cried Tarleton to the other aide, who rode near him, "a +captain's brevet if you take that woman's petticoat," pointing with +his sword to the saucy little flag, the story of which had reached the +British camps. + +But it was no woman's hand which was there to defend it, and as the +Englishman wheeled his horse for the attack Peyton's pistol flashed +almost in his face, and he fell forward on his charger's neck, +convulsively clasping it as the animal ran wildly forward unguided +toward the American lines. Meanwhile, the two commanders had crossed +swords, and as both were good fencers, a duel _à l'outrance_ seemed +imminent. But Tarleton had no time for chivalrous encounters. His +opponent beat down his guard, and with a sudden thrust wounded the +British colonel in the hand. The latter drew a pistol, and as he +wheeled to follow his flying squadrons discharged it at his adversary, +the ball taking effect near the knee. The battle was now really at an +end, and the pursuit was abandoned at this point. + +As Walter Peyton lay down beside his camp-fire that night it was with +a body worn down by excitement and fatigue, but with a heart beating +high with pride as he looked at the flag he had so gallantly defended, +and remembered his colonel's words of commendation, which he more than +hoped meant promotion to a captain's commission. + +In the city of Charleston all was gloom and sorrow except in the +little circle of society which boasted of its loyalty to the Crown. +Scarcely a family but had some representative in the Continental +ranks, and as all intelligence reached the city through British +channels, the darkest side of every encounter between the armies was +the first which the imprisoned patriots saw. The non-combatant members +of all the planters' families had moved into the city before +its capitulation, and while the ladies permitted the visits and +acquaintance of the English officers, they never lost an opportunity +to show them how hateful they esteemed the royal cause. + +It was nearly a month after the victory at the Cowpens that Miss +Elliott was sitting with her mother one evening in the parlor of +their city residence. Conspicuous among the furniture was a large and +comfortable arm-chair upholstered in heavy crimson silk damask, but +while everything else in the room was neat and even elegant, this +chair appeared to be more fit for the lumber-closet, the entire square +of silk having been cut from the back, leaving the underlining of +coarse striped cotton exposed to view. The tones of the curfew or +"first bell," which may still be heard nightly in the seagirt old +city, had just died away when a loud rap came from the heavy brass +knocker on the street-door, and in a few moments old Billy appeared to +announce "Captain Fraser." + +A look of slight annoyance passed over the face of the elder lady as +she arranged the snowy ruffles of her cap, while the deepened color +and sparkling eyes of the younger, with the almost imperceptible +sarcasm of her smile, seemed to indicate mingled pleasure, defiance +and contempt. The visitor who entered was resplendent in the gay +scarlet and glittering lace of the British uniform, and his redundancy +of ruffles, powder and sword-knot betokened the military exquisite, +his bearing presenting a singular mixture of high breeding and haughty +insolence. With his right hand laid upon the spot where his heart +was supposed to be, while his left daintily supported the leathern +scabbard of his sword, he bowed until the stiff little queue of his +curled wig pointed straight at the heavy cornice. The ladies swept the +floor with their graceful courtesies, that of the younger presenting +the least touch of exaggeration as with folded arms and downcast eyes +she sank backward before her guest. Another knock was heard, and when +the names of three more of the garrison officers were announced, Miss +Elliott whispered to Billy a hasty message to some of her fair friends +in the neighborhood to come in and help her entertain them. These +impromptu parties were quite common, and in a little while the room +was sparkling with beauty, gallantry and wit. It may seem strange that +the patriotic belles of the day, the fair Brewtons and Pinckneys +and Rutledges, the Ravenels and Mazycks, should have cultivated such +pleasant associations with the enemies of their country. But among the +officers they had many old friends and acquaintances of _ante-bellum_ +days, and not a few marriages had established even closer ties. Thus, +Lord Campbell, the last royal governor, was husband to Sarah Izard, +the sister of General Ralph Izard, who was brother-in-law to our +former acquaintance, Rebecca Stead; and even General Washington had +invited Admiral Fairfax to dine, on the ground that a state of war did +not preclude the exchange of social civilities between gentlemen who +served under opposing flags. + +Mrs. Elliott received the attentions of her daughter's visitors with +dignified grace, but with a degree of reserve which it was impossible +altogether to conceal, and to which the officers had become too much +accustomed to feel any offence; while the younger ladies drove the +keen darts of their sarcasm home to the feelings of their hostile +guests, who were forced to submit to it or forego entirely the +pleasures of female society. + +"May I ask if Company K has been on duty at the picket-lines to-day?" +asked Miss Elliott of Captain Fraser, who had just sauntered up to her +chair. + +"May I answer the question after the fashion of my ancestors," was the +reply, "by asking why you should think so?" + +"Only because you seem to be suffering from fatigue, which a long +march might explain." + +Fraser's company was notoriously a "fancy corps," whose severest duty +was generally to furnish the guard at head-quarters and to go through +a dress parade every evening at the Battery. + +"Ah, no, but I have been on inspection duty, and it's a bore, I assure +you." + +"Inspecting the flower-gardens, I presume, to be sure that there are +no rattlesnakes under the rose-bushes, or the milliner-shops, to see +that no palmetto cockades are made. May I insist upon a seat for you? +Not _that_ chair," she added hastily and with heightened color as the +captain was about to occupy the mutilated _fauteuil_: "excuse me, but +that is a 'reserved seat.'" + +"Ah, I see--beg pardon," said Fraser with a slight sneer, for +the story of Washington's flag was generally known, and also Miss +Elliott's aversion to the use of the chair by any British officer. +"Somebody seems to have carried off the back of that one." + +"When last heard from," said the beauty with curling lip, "it was at +Colonel Tarleton's back." + +"Tarleton should be court-martialed for that affair at Cowpens," said +Fraser with some warmth, and forgetting the proffered seat he prepared +to take his leave. + +"Perhaps Captain Fraser would like to have had a hand in the 'affair' +also," added Miss Elliott with a demure smile. This allusion to +Tarleton's wound was too much for the gallant captain, and again +elevating the point of his queue toward the ceiling, but this time +without his hand to his heart, he left the room with a face somewhat +redder than his uniform. + + + + +III. + + +There are defeats which are more glorious than victory, and one +of these it was which, on the 8th of September, 1781, gave to Jane +Elliott's flag the title which has come down with it to posterity. In +the earlier days of its history the saucy little standard was known to +the gallant men who followed it to action as "Tarleton's Terror," and +sometimes it is even now spoken of as "the Cowpens Banner." But the +name by which its brave custodians most love to call it is "the Eutaw +Flag," It is hard to realize as one stands beside the lovely fountains +which flow to-day as they did a hundred--or perhaps a thousand--years +ago, that close by these placid waters was fought one of the most +desperate and bloody struggles of a long and cruel war. The sunfish +and bream floated with quivering fins or darted among the rippling +shadows on that autumn morning as we see them doing now. The +mocking-bird sang among the overhanging branches the same varied +song which gladdens our ears, and the wild deer then, as now, lay +peacefully in the shady coverts of the neighboring woods. Who knows +what they may have thought when they heard their only enemy, man, ring +out his bugle-call to slip the war-dogs on his fellows, or when the +sharp crack of the rifle told them for the first time of safety to +themselves and of death to their wonted destroyers? + +Already had "Light-horse Harry" Lee struck the first blow victoriously +in the capture of Coffin and the discomfiture of his force. Already +for several hours the old black oaks had quivered beneath the thunder +of artillery more fearfully destructive than that of Heaven itself as +Williams hurled back from his field-battery the iron hail with which +the enemy strove to overwhelm him. Already had Howard's gallant +Marylanders, the heroes of the Cowpens, crossed bayonets with the +veteran "Irish Buffs" and forced them in confusion from the field. +Majoribanks, with his regulars, grenadiers and infantry, was strongly +posted behind a copse too dense to be forced by cavalry, and yet to +dislodge him was Colonel Washington's special duty. Pointing with his +sword toward a narrow passage near the water, he dashed the spurs into +the flanks of his gallant mare and called on his men to follow. +There was a momentary pause, for the duty was of the most desperate +character, but Captain Peyton snatched the little banner which he had +carried so long from the hand of the sergeant who had succeeded to its +charge, and raising it above his head spurred after his leader. As the +silken folds fluttered out on the air a ringing cheer went up from +the troop, and the whole line, wheeling into sections so as to pass +through the narrow gap, dashed forward as one man. It was a daring +attempt, and terribly did they pay for their audacity. A perfect storm +of bullets greeted the brave Virginians, and nearly one-half of them +went down, horse and man, beneath its fearful breath ere the other +half were in the midst of the enemy's ranks. Those were days when a +certain simplicity of character made the soldier believe that bayonets +and sabres were terrible weapons and meant to do terrible work. No +rewards were then offered for "a dead cavalryman" or for "a bloody +bayonet." There were cloven skulls at Eutaw as at Crecy, and men were +transfixed by each other's deadly bayonet-thrusts. As Washington, +maddened by the loss of his brave troopers, swung his sharp blade like +the flail of death, a shot from the musket of a tall grenadier pierced +the lung of his noble bay, and as the falling steed rolled over on her +gallant rider the man shortened his musket and buried the sharp steel +in the colonel's body. A second thrust would have followed with deadly +result had not the British major, Majoribanks, seized the arm of the +soldier and demanded the surrender of his fallen and bleeding foe. The +tide of battle had receded like some huge swell of ocean, and as the +wounded hero struggled to his feet he found himself surrounded by +enemies, to contend with whom would have been folly. Turning his +feeble glance for a second toward the retreating remnant of his +shattered command, he caught a glimpse through the smoke and dust of +his little battle-flag fluttering in the distance, and fast receding +toward the point whence Hampton's bugles were already sounding the +rally. Neither William Washington nor his "Eutaw Flag" was ever again +in battle for the country, for the captivity of the former terminated +only with the war, and the latter fades from history from that +date until, in 1827, Jane Washington, for seventeen years a widow, +presented it as a precious inheritance to the gallant corps of +Charleston citizen soldiery, who still guard its folds from dishonor, +as they do the name of the knightly paladin which they bear. The +wedding was celebrated soon after the establishment of peace. Major +Majoribanks escaped the carnage of the day, but he lived not to +deliver his distinguished prisoner at Charleston. Sickening on the +retreat with the deadly malaria of the Carolina swamps, he died near +Black Oak, and his mossy grave may be seen to-day by the roadside, +marked by a simple stone and protected from desecration by a wooden +paling. It stands near the gate of Woodboo plantation, which old +Stephen Mazyck, the Huguenot, first settled, about twenty-five miles +from Eutaw and forty-three from Charleston. On the banks of the +Cooper, amid the lovely scenes of "Magnolia," Charleston's city of +the dead, there stands a marble shaft enwreathed in the folds of the +rattlesnake, the symbol of Revolutionary patriotism, and beneath it +rests all that was mortal of William Washington and Jane Elliott his +wife. + +ROBERT WILSON. + + + + +CONVENT LIFE AND WORK. + + +To those who have had but little opportunity to examine the inner +workings of the Catholic Church the subject of the conventual life has +always been something of a puzzle. Of course it has been difficult for +them to obtain a personal insight into its details, just as it would +be difficult to gain admittance into the mosque of St. Sophia or a +Hindu community of religious. Curiosity, unsatisfied, betakes itself +to hearsay, and since those who know most are generally most silent +about their knowledge, it is to the gossip of ignorance or prejudice +that curiosity looks for an answer. Distorted views or imaginary +descriptions end by being received into the mill of public opinion, +and issue thence ground into gospel truth and invested with mysterious +(because fictitious) interest. It is strange that a phase of life +which is in constant practice at the present day, often within a +stone's throw of our own doors, and which has personal ramifications +in the families of our neighbors and acquaintances, should still be +so much of a phenomenon to the public mind. In England, France, Italy, +Germany and America I have been familiarly acquainted with it, have +studied its principles and its details under many varying forms, +and never found it less interesting because it was _not_ mysterious. +Human, fallible beings are the inhabitants of monasteries either +for males or females, with individual peculiarities and different +sympathies--by no means machines, but free and intelligent agents, +each with a character as individual as that of separate flowers in a +large garden--full of personality and of human imperfection. + +In Rome, not far from the Fountain of Trevi--of whose waters it is +said that they have the power to ensure the return to Rome of any +one who has drunk of them in a cup not heretofore devoted to common +purposes--is the spacious convent called San Domenico e Sisto. Here +the first convent of Dominican friars was established, and the spot +is historic ground in the annals of the order of Preachers. In the +turbulent thirteenth century, when papal, feudal and democratic +parties opposed each other in Rome, and the vigorous sap of half-tamed +barbarian life still coursed through the pulses of Italy, Saint +Dominic rose like a reformer, a lawgiver and a peace-maker. On the +other side of the Tiber, entrenched behind baronial walls and fiercely +protected by baronial champions, was a convent of women whose practice +of their vows had become too relaxed for such a bad example to be +allowed to remain unreproved. The ecclesiastical authorities wished +peremptorily to disestablish the convent and filter its inmates +through some neighboring religious houses more zealous and more +edifying in their conduct. But the nuns, who were mostly of noble +families, appealed to their charters, their immunities and exemption +from papal jurisdiction. Their fathers and brothers, the formidable +barons who held within the papal city many strongholds well +garrisoned, took up their quarrel and dared the world to dispossess +the refractory sisterhood. Saint Dominic had just brought his friars +to the dilapidated house then known as San Sisto, had caused rapid +repairs to be made, and in his fervor had created round himself a +nucleus of ardent reformers. The Gordian knot was referred to him, and +with characteristic abruptness he promised to cut it at once. He came +alone to the gates of the convent, presented no credentials from pope +or cardinal, and asked an interview with the abbess. He spoke of the +holiness of an austere life, the reward of those that "follow the Lamb +whithersoever He goeth," the merit of obedience, the need of reform, +the great work that his order was doing for God, and the call for more +laborers in the field: he proposed to the nuns to be his helpers +among their own sex, and his coheiresses in the heavenly reward of the +future. His eloquence and zeal soon melted the haughty resolve of +the rebellious but still noble-minded women. Roused to a new sense of +power and responsibility, they embraced his rigid rule, and with the +enthusiasm of their sex, that never halts midway in reform, became +models of austerity. The better to signify to the world the spiritual +change wrought in their temper, they migrated from the abode which +they had sworn to make the symbol and palladium of their independence, +and went to San Sisto, Saint Dominic taking his monks to repeople the +convent across the Tiber left vacant by the submissive sisterhood. + +It is with this new house, henceforth called San Domenico e Sisto, +that one of my earliest recollections of conventual life is connected. +The order is one which enjoins strict enclosure. The dress is of +coarse white serge or flannel, consisting of a long, narrow tunic with +flowing sleeves drawn over tight ones of linen; a _scapular_ or stole +(i.e., a piece of straight stuff half a yard broad worn hanging from +the shoulders both behind and before); a leathern girdle round the +waist, from which hangs a rosary, large, common and set in steel; +strong, thick sandals; a linen wimple enveloping the face and hiding +the ears, neck and roots of the hair; a woolen veil, black for the +professed nuns, white for the novices, and of white _linen_ for the +lay sisters; and over all an immense black cloak, falling around the +figure in statuesque folds. + +In this order, and almost invariably in every other, a candidate is +admitted at first as a _postulant_ for a period of six months--a sort +of preliminary trial of her fitness for the religious life. She wears +ordinary clothes during this time--plain and black, of course, but not +of any prescribed shape. Sometimes, however, she is required by custom +to wear a plain black cap. After six months she is admitted as a +novice--i.e., she solemnly puts off the secular dress and wears the +habit of the order, making the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience +for the space of one year only. The details of the ceremony vary in +different orders, but the ceremony itself is called in all by the +generic name of "clothing" or "taking the white veil." In orders where +a white woolen veil is the badge of profession (these are not many) +a linen one is equally the mark of the novice and the lay sister. +Although there exists for convenience' sake a distinction between +choir-nuns and lay sisters--the former paying a dowry to the common +fund on the day of their entrance, and the latter bringing their +manual service to the house instead of any offering--still, the +difference is not spiritual, and beyond the mere distribution of labor +is not practically discernible. In orders where the education of youth +is the primary object, the lay sisters, under the supervision of the +choir-nun to whose charge the housekeeping is directly entrusted, +perform all the menial service, which would otherwise make too many +inroads on the time of the teaching nuns; but in other orders, the +Carmelites for instance, the lowest work, be it of the kitchen, the +laundry or the chamber, is undertaken in turn by every member of the +community. When Madame Louise, the daughter of Louis XV. of France, +became a Carmelite nun, the first task assigned her was the washing of +coarse dishes and the sweeping of floors. A parallel case is that of +the Cistercian monks, who to this day, at their famous farm-monastery +at Mount St. Bernard, England, are bound by their rule to labor with +their hands so many hours a day. No exception is made for the abbot +himself; and when we visited the establishment a few years ago we had +to wait some time for the abbot, who was digging in a distant field. +Scholar and savant are not exempt any more than the humblest member of +the brotherhood; and as it is a very learned order, and attracts +many recent converts to Catholicism, it is not infrequently that one +recognizes in the monk-laborer, digging potatoes or hoeing turnips, +some Anglican clergyman of delicate nurture and scholarly renown. +To this monastery, entirely self-supported by its extensive farm, +is attached a boys' reformatory, one of whose products is the most +excellent butter known in England. Tailoring, shoemaking, carpentry, +turning, etc. are all taught under the supervision of the monks: +those among the boys who wish it are helped to emigrate, and others +apprenticed at the proper time to the trades they have already been +taught at Mount St. Bernard. + +To resume our sketch of the Dominican nuns in Rome. It is the custom +in Italy for a young lady about to "enter religion" to choose a +godmother or _madrina_, a lady of proper age and mature experience, +who acts as her chaperon during the few weeks preceding the +"clothing." She comes forth from the convent where she has been a +postulant, and, dressed in the garb of the world, makes formal +visits to all her relations, friends and patrons, assists at public +ceremonies in the local churches, even visits some places of interest, +such as museums and galleries. This is her solemn farewell to the +world, and she is supposed thus to have another trial given to the +steadfastness of her resolve, another chance to abandon it before it +is too late. A young girl of an illustrious Roman family, but of very +slender fortune, was about to enter the Dominican order at the time to +which I allude, in 1853. Her only sister had for some years been a nun +of a strictly enclosed order, and Mademoiselle G----, having chosen as +her madrina an English Catholic lady who had been enabled to show her +some kindness while still in the world, went to bid farewell to this +elder sister. The meeting was very affecting: the sisters could not +see each other face to face--a thick grating separated them. The elder +had long been a spiritual guide to the younger: she had led her mind +in the direction of the cloister, and now rejoiced sincerely that God +had smoothed away the family difficulties and pecuniary embarrassments +which for some time had stood in the way of her vocation. Still, +natural affection was not stifled in the generous, unselfish heart of +the cloistered nun, and she wept with her sister at the thought that, +though the walls of the same city would hold them both till death, and +hardly a few blocks of houses separate their convent homes, yet in +the flesh they should never meet again. The English godmother sat in a +remote corner of the cool, shady parlor, sympathizing in silence with +the touching scene, but keeping as much in the background as etiquette +and custom allowed, that she might not intrude on this last farewell. +At length the curtain behind the grating fell, and the young girl had +severed the tenderest link that bound her to the world. Many other +visits were paid--some to friends of Mademoiselle G----'s parents (she +had long been an orphan), some to ecclesiastical personages who had +interested themselves to procure her admission into the Dominican +community. With repeated blessings the young girl left their presence, +every day advancing nearer to her spiritual bridal. + +At last the day came. Early in the morning the madrina arrived at the +convent with her two little girls of six and eight years old dressed +in white as bridesmaids, or, as the Italian term _angiolini_ has it, +little angels. They bore delicate baskets filled with white flowers to +strew before the "bride," and their office during the ceremony was +to hold the novice's gloves, fan and handkerchief. The young girl +herself, looking pale and earnest, walked up the aisle of the convent +chapel in bridal robes of white silk, with a veil and wreath on her +head, and round her neck a string of pearls, an heirloom in the G---- +family. Her brother, the only male representative of her once powerful +house, was present in the outer chapel, full of grief at a sacrifice +which he had never countenanced, and ready to claim that morning the +only legacy of his sister the promise of which he had been able to +secure--the thick coils of her black hair when they should have been +cut off preparatory to her taking the novice's veil. The scene was +very solemn. The nuns sat in their carved stalls within the grating +whose black bars divided them from the "bride" and her friends in the +ante-chapel: the chant of psalms and versicles came down from a hidden +gallery, and the priest in rich vestments stood at the foot of the +altar within the railing. The service went on in the midst of a +palpable hush; the very air seemed hardly to vibrate; the bride, +attended by her two angiolini, left her gorgeous kneeling-chair and +advanced to the open door in the grating, where the priest met her. +Question and answer were interchanged in Italian, and the young girl +vowed that of her own free will she left the world and joined the +order of St. Dominic. Prayers in Latin followed, then again a chanted +psalm, and Mademoiselle G---- was led away through the iron-grated +door, which was then closed. It was not long ere she reappeared in +the long close tunic of white serge, her head covered with a temporary +veil of coarse linen and her feet shod in sandals. A procession of +nuns, each bearing a lighted taper, escorted her to the foot of the +altar (everything was visible through the grating), and she knelt +before the officiating priest. A white woolen veil was handed to +him, which he blessed with holy water, the sign of the cross and the +prescribed ejaculations accompanying these rites: he then laid it +on her head as a "symbol of the virgin modesty" to which she was now +pledged. Two nuns were at hand to pin it into the right folds while a +silver ring was being blessed in the same manner as the veil. This +was placed on the ring-finger of the left hand as a "symbol of the +intimate union and espousal with Christ" signified by her renunciation +of the world. The scapular of white serge, similarly blessed, was +then laid upon her shoulders as a type of the "yoke of obedience and +sacrifice;" and lastly, the black cloak, signifying charity, covering +and enveloping the whole person. Then in a loud, firm voice, instinct +with passion and resolve, she read, standing, the formal declaration +of her religious vows. When this was over the mother-superior led +the novice, now Sister Maria Colomba, to a small table on which lay +a bridal wreath of white roses and a crown of thorns. She asked her +solemnly which was her choice in life, and the novice took up the +crown of thorns and placed it on her head. This typical ceremony I +never saw performed in any other order. Shortly after the crown of +thorns was exchanged for that of roses, the superior saying, "Inasmuch +as thou hast chosen the crown which thy Saviour wore, He rewards thee +with that which is a shadow of the heavenly crown reserved for His +spouses in heaven." This bridal token the new nun wears during the +whole day. + +To a few ladies and to the angiolini a special permission to enter the +enclosure was given in honor of the day: a festive meal was served in +the bare, cool refectory, the rule of silence being relaxed for the +special occasion, and the nuns wearing a happy, child-like expression +that hardly varied in the face of the youngest novice and that of +the septuagenarian "mother." The strangers were shown through the +dormitories, the kitchen, the laundry, the garden, the community-room, +where embroidery, painting and study diversify the labors of the broom +and the dishcloth, and everywhere the same exquisite neatness +struck the eye. Everything used in the house was of the coarsest +description--the linen like sack-cloth, but speckless; the delf as +thick and rough as if made for sailors; the floors mostly of brick or +stone; the furniture of unpainted deal. Over each bed, which is only a +board on trestles covered with heavy sacking, is a common crucifix and +a sprig of box or olive blessed on Palm Sunday. The sisters sleep in +their tunics. The library is common property, but no one may use or +read any book save by permission of the superioress. The rules of +fasting and abstinence are not exactly the same in every convent of +the order, but the broad rule is that meat should be eaten only on +great holidays, vegetables and farinaceous preparations, such as most +Italians are not unskilled in, forming the staple of the nuns' food. +Fish is almost as rare a luxury as meat. Their bread is coarse and +brown, and their drink indifferently water or a wine so sour that it +is practically vinegar. Not that these nuns are not good cooks and +bakers: witness the delicate sweetmeats, biscuits and pastry they +offer to strangers on such festival days as the one just described, +the fruit-preserves in blocks sold for their sustenance by the nuns +at Funchal, Madeira, and the fairy frostwork of sugar seen on great +occasions in French convents. No womanly art is a stranger to the deft +fingers of cloistered nuns. Bookbinding is a pursuit well known among +them, as is also the mounting in delicate filigree of the "Agnus Dei" +or waxen representation of the Lamb of God, blessed by the pope +at Easter and distributed throughout Christendom from the papal +metropolis. Another convent industry is the preparation of the wafers +used in the celebration of mass. + +These Dominicanesses rise at four in the morning and dine at eleven, +making after that only one slight meal in the evening--bread and +vegetables, for instance, or a saucerful of macaroni. At stated times +they assemble in the chapel for the singing of the "divine office," +and always have an early mass, at which the whole community receives +holy communion. This is administered by the priest through a square +opening in the iron grating dividing the nuns from the altar. At +eight, or at latest nine o'clock in the evening, all are in bed, +whence they rise again at midnight (in some orders at two o'clock in +the morning, but this custom involves rising somewhat later, generally +five o'clock) for matins and lauds. + +The duties of separate departments are judiciously divided among the +sisters. There is the infirmarian; the _économe_, or housekeeper, +to whose share falls the supplying of the larder; the librarian, the +sacristan, the portress (often in cloistered orders this position, +which is exceptional in its exemptions, involves the ordering of +outside business matters), the care-taker of the garments and linen, +the gardener, the secretary, the mistress and sub-mistress of novices. +The house is managed like clockwork. Punctually as the bell rings each +sister goes to the task appointed for that hour, and leaves it, no +matter how important or absorbing it may be, for the duty appointed +by the rule for the next division of time. Silence prevails among the +sisters at almost all hours: for at most three times a day speech is +permitted, and seldom for more than half an hour at a time. During +meals one sister reads the _Lives of the Saints_ aloud. Each in her +turn takes the place of server at table. The superioress alone has +power to dispense with the rule of silence in case of necessity, as +she transacts most of the business, social or legal, of her community. + +During the year of novitiate the novices are under the direct rule +of the mistress of novices, whose authority over them is paramount, +though she herself is of course under a vow of obedience to the +superior. When a novice receives a visit from one in the world she is +accompanied by the "mistress," and if the visitor be a near relation +and a woman the curtain behind the grating is withdrawn; if only a +friend, the visitor does not even see the nun, as the thick curtain +is drawn, and the only communication possible is by speech. It is +generally possible, on any necessity arising, to obtain a special +permission to break through the rule of enclosure: this is done by +applying to the superior-general of the order, or in Rome to the Holy +Father, whose authority naturally supersedes all others. Sometimes +the power to dispense lies with the local superior, but it is a +prerogative seldom used, and wisely so. In every order the internal +government of each house is of an elective form, but when once chosen +the superiors exercise absolute authority. The community meets +every three years (in some orders every year) and chooses by vote a +superioress, an assistant superioress and a mistress of novices. Only +the professed nuns have a vote, and the majority carry the day. +These "officers," once appointed, rule the house and choose all minor +deputies themselves. The heads alone of each house assemble at the +death of the superior-general (or abbess, as she is styled in some +of the more ancient orders) and choose another, equally by vote, the +election being sometimes decided by only one vote. This assembly is +called a "chapter." The generals of most orders reside in Rome. + +The year after the "clothing" of Sister Maria Colomba we witnessed the +final ceremony of her "profession"--that is, of her assuming the black +veil and renewing her religious vows _for life_. Hitherto, she had +been free to return to the world and marry: henceforth such a return +(unless by a dispensation so rarely given that it is practically +non-existent) would be sacrilege. The details of the ceremony vary in +different orders, and with those which are not cloistered the scene +is far less impressive. What we were going to see included the most +solemn forms ever used. This time the whole service took place behind +the grating: there were no "bridesmaids" now, no shadow of worldly +pomp was borrowed to enhance the last and momentous consecration of +religion. The novice knelt between the superior and the mistress of +novices, each bearing a lighted taper. The white veil was taken +from her head, and a black one, previously blessed with holy water +sprinkled over it in the form of a cross, substituted: the low chant +of the unseen choir of nuns sounded impressively as the echo of +another world. Then came the renewal of the dread vows, binding now +until death, and the voice of the young girl seemed firm though low: +her face wore a calm, peaceful look, subdued by the solemn occasion, +yet irrepressibly suggesting a joy unknown in the world, where joy is +seldom free from passion. The most interesting ceremony, however, was +yet to come. The slow chant shaped itself into the words of the psalm +_De Profundis_, the special prayer which in the Catholic Church is +reserved for the dead, and four professed nuns advanced toward their +new sister, who was now prostrate at the foot of the altar. Each held +the corner of a funeral pall, which they slowly; dropped over the +figure of Sister Maria Colomba, and, kneeling, held it over her until +the last verse of the psalm had been sung. This suggestive ceremony +closed the service. It is a forcible and picturesque type of the +complete severance of the nun's future life and interests from the +outside world, the death of her heart to all carnal affections, the +"dying daily" which Saint Paul calls the "life" of the Christian soul. +A long procession accompanied the newly-professed nun to the inner +rooms of the convent, and for this one day again she wore over the +black veil the bridal wreath, which to-morrow would be put away until +required for her last adornment in the coffin. + +Ten years after our farewell to Sister Maria Colomba behind the +bars of the convent-parlor we saw her again, and, armed with a papal +permission, were shown by her over the whole convent. Those rare +occasions when a stranger is allowed to penetrate the "enclosure" are +always gala-days for the nuns. I remarked the blithe, youthful look +that shone on all their faces: Sister Maria Colomba herself, from a +pale, nervous girl, had expanded into a strong, hale, buxom woman. The +glow of health was on her cheek, the sparkle of innocent mirth shone +in her eye. There was one among the sisters who gleefully asked me to +guess at her age. She was a sweet, fresh-complexioned, matronly woman. +"Not more than fifty, good mother," was the answer. + +She laughed and gently clapped her hands. "Add twenty years to that," +she answered with an innocent burst of pride. Then she told how she +had entered the order while yet in her "teens," had held half the +offices of trust in the community, and had never missed any of the +most rigid fasts or absented herself once from the midnight office, +never having known so much as a day's ill-health. "Ah, a nun's life is +a healthy one, child, as well as a happy one," she said in conclusion. + +We went over the kitchen, laundry, refectory, dormitories, chapel, +garden, etc. Just the same as before--a little "calvary" at one end +of the garden and a rough picture of a Madonna in an arbor, the +long, echoing corridors spotless as the deck of a man-of-war, and the +smiling faces making a very flower-garden of the community-room. We +left loaded with specimens of the nuns' work--Agnus Deis in frames of +silver filigree dotted with white roses and hanging from white satin +ribbon-bows; flake-like biscuits of peculiar flavor; and baskets, +pincushions, etc. of delicate workmanship. I do not know whether this +convent is still in the hands of the Dominicanesses, so many in Rome +having become barracks since the new royal authority superseded that +of the pope. But the picture of San Domenico e Sisto as it was in +1853 and 1863 may yet interest many who perhaps will never have the +opportunity of seeing such an establishment for themselves. + +This is a very fair sample of the convents of the stricter and +cloistered orders: there are some exceptional houses, such as that of +the Sepolte Vive, where the rule is far more austere. There is but +one convent of this description in Rome, and I believe one or two in +France. It is a noteworthy fact that most of the strictest observances +of penance originated in France, and are continued there to this day. +This convent of the Sepolte Vive ("Buried Alive") is not formally +sanctioned by the papal authority, but only _tolerated_. The nuns +were forbidden more than ten years ago to admit any more novices, and +although the individual zeal of those who started the order was not +exactly censured, still a tacit intimation of its being considered +excessive and imprudent was given by the highest ecclesiastical court. +Among their customs (which much resemble those of the Trappist monks) +these nuns have that of digging their own graves, and as the cemetery +is small and included in the "enclosure," the oldest graves are opened +after a period of forty or fifty years, and the crumbling contents +ejected to make room for the lately deceased. The death of a nun's +nearest relation, be it father, mother, brother or sister, is made +known to the superior alone, and she in her turn announces it, _not_ +to the bereaved one, but to the whole sisterhood, in this manner: They +are all assembled in the community-room, and admonished to "pray for +the soul of the father or mother" (as the case may be) "of one among +their number." To the day of her death the nun never knows how near +and dear by the ties of Nature may have been the soul for which she +has prayed every day since the announcement was made. + +The Sepolte Vive, when found guilty of any breach of the rule, are +labeled with a ticket attached to their habit, and on which their +fault is written in large, conspicuous letters--for instance, +"Disobedience," "Curiosity," "Talkativeness"--and this they wear +at their ordinary avocations for as many hours as the superioress +commands. They never undress on going to bed, and wear the same habit +winter and summer, the stuff being too hot for the one and too cold +for the other; so that at all times the penance is the same. On the +wrists many of them wear iron manacles that graze the skin and cause +constant irritation at every turn of the hand: this is sometimes +imposed as a penance, but very often is voluntarily inflicted +on themselves by zealous members of the sisterhood. Before the +prohibition to receive additional novices the sisterhood consisted of +a fixed number, and when a vacancy occurred by the death of one the +place was filled by the first on the list of postulants. _This list +was always a large one_, and generally contained many names belonging +to the noblest families of Rome. These details were gathered from +the same lady who acted as madrina to the Dominican nun Sister Maria +Colomba; and when she and a friend obtained permission from the pope +to penetrate the "enclosure," the nuns told her that it was _twenty +years_ since the same privilege had been granted. For almost the space +of a generation no stranger had been seen or heard by them, for not +even the privilege of a grated and curtained parlor interview is +allowed to the Sepolte Vive. And yet with all this unparalleled +refinement of austerity they were as blithe and healthy a body of +women, as cheerful and youthful in manner, as peaceful and calm in +appearance, as could be found among the Sisters of Charity or the lay +members of an association of Mercy. + +The Carmelites are an order spread wide over the Christian world. The +reform of Saint Teresa was sadly needed among these nuns three hundred +years ago, and the recital of the vehement opposition made to her +efforts shows the merit due to her. At the present day the order is +one of the strictest in existence. The habit is of coarse brown serge, +including the tunic and scapular, a cord round the waist, sandals (in +England and other northern climates shoes are allowed), a black veil +and an ample white cloak. They rise at two o'clock, winter and summer +alike, to sing matins, and when they retire to rest at night one of +their number walks through the corridors--in this order each nun has +a cell--springing a rattle and repeating in a clear tone a verse of +Scripture to serve as a subject of meditation before going to sleep. +In the choir the Carmelites are only permitted the use of three notes, +the reason alleged for this restriction being that the service of God +must not run the risk of becoming an occasion of temptation to the +singers. These nuns are very strictly cloistered, and their rules +regarding visitors are much the same as those described at length in +the beginning of this paper. + +The cloistered orders are less numerous, but also less known, than the +communities formed for active duty, such as education and nursing +the sick; but in describing their constitution and rules we show the +reader the true basis on which the more modern and active orders are +constituted. The traditions of the spiritual life came down through +them, and they represent the principle of vicarious oblation +which animates all the different phases of convent life; i.e. the +substitution of a small body of voluntary servants of God for the +entire world, which ought to be perpetually engaged in His service +and worship. The Benedictines, Capuchins and Visitation nuns are also +cloistered, but the last are the only ones of this description who are +likewise teachers of youth. Many very superior women belong to this +order, which, except for the enclosure, practices no special physical +austerities. The principle of the rule is the subduing of the will +and the curbing of the spirit. The order is a recent one, and was +instituted by Saint Francis of Sales while Beza ruled in Geneva and +the Reformation had just disturbed the religious balance of Europe. +With consummate prudence the new order was directed to employ the +means best understood by the age. Cold calculation had succeeded to +ardent zeal: the public mind no longer instinctively revered the old +heroic type of dragon-tamers, be they called Roland or Saint Benedict. +The new current required a new rudder, and the Visitation nuns +supplied the need. At first they were not even meant to be cloistered, +but to form a kind of missionary society (as their very name implies) +among the Calvinists of Savoy and France. This original intention was +soon overruled by the Italian advisers of Saint Francis: the southern +European mind has ever been slow to conceive the idea of a more +spiritual protection than bolts and bars. But even in their cloistered +sphere the Visitation nuns clung to useful, active work, and became +a teaching order. They and the Ursulines (who in Italy, at least, are +cloistered) shared this task among them till the more modern order of +the "Sacred Heart" almost monopolized it. I have myself known women +of the most tried virtue and rare learning among the "Visitandines." +Their rule is less strict about visitors, and even strangers are +admitted to the parlor without a curtain being drawn behind the +grating. Their features are thus perfectly visible, and you can even +shake hands between the bars. + +Even to this day there is hardly a noble family of Catholic Europe +that has not one or more representatives among the religious orders. +In England, both among "converts" and families of old Catholic stock, +there are many girls whose names have been absorbed into those given +at the same time as the ring and veil of a novice. In Flanders +there are fully half a dozen convents--at Bruges, Antwerp and +Louvain--emphatically called "English," and founded by scions of great +English families exiled for their adherence to the old faith under +Elizabeth and James I. They are mostly Augustinians. The new order of +the "Sacred Heart" has drawn to it women from Russia, Spain, America, +as well as from its native land of France, and the Sisters of Charity +have won a worldwide fame in the hospitals of the East and the recent +battle-fields of the West. + +I have dwelt chiefly on the life of the old contemplative, cloistered +orders, because they are less known to the public and more mistakes +are made about their constitution and rules, and also because in these +old cradle-institutions are hidden the roots of the whole religious +system which to this day crops out so vigorously in works of mercy +over every land where the Catholic Church has a foothold. Among the +uncloistered orders of religious women--and here we expect to be +better understood and more fairly met by those whose knowledge +of "religion" is not personal--there are many that fulfill heroic +missions, perform useful tasks, or even silent, uncomplaining +drudgery. In all large European towns the _cornette_ of the Sister +of St. Vincent of Paul is seen in hospital, prison and asylum, in the +garret of the dying workman as well as by the bed where the warrior +lies in state--in the humble schools of the lowest suburbs and in the +_crèches_ of the darkest byways. + +The crèche--so called in remembrance of the crib of Bethlehem--is +an institution of the greatest use to poor women obliged to work for +their living. They either find their children an insuperable bar +to their labor, or else a source of constant anxiety during their +absence. To the crèche, however, they can take the little ones in the +early morning and leave them till late at night, paying only a +small sum, such as five cents a day, if they are able, while if +circumstances warrant their being exempted even this is not required. +The house is supported chiefly by voluntary contributions, and the +sisters often have lay assistants eager to share in their labor of +love. The children are taken in at all ages, the tiniest, unweaned +infant not excepted: there are little cots of all sizes prepared for +them, an abundance of milk, toys for the older ones, picture-books, +etc. They are fed three times a day, washed and combed before being +sent home (although constant applicants are expected to bring their +children tidy and neat on first arrival), and if the mother fails to +return at night, they are of course housed with the tenderest care. As +there would be no room to accommodate permanent baby-boarders without +impairing the original intention for which the crèche is opened, these +little waifs, if not claimed after three nights and days, are sent to +the foundling asylum: this, however, does not often occur. There are +many of these institutions scattered through France: London has two, +and New York will soon have one--perhaps by this time it has already +been opened. A woman earning her bread by hard work would have to +leave her children in the care of some neighbor, who most likely would +fail in her task or teach the children bad things, and demand some +compensation all the same. If the eldest child were left in charge +of younger infants, as is so often the case with the honest poor, the +chances are that it will break or injure its spine by carrying +the little ones. All this anxiety is avoided by this beautiful and +inviting arrangement, which is generally under the management of the +Sisters of Charity. The London crèches have a night school for working +girls and grown women in connection with the principal part of the +institution; also a Sunday school for children. Among the rules is one +which forbids the wearing of artificial flowers or any tawdry finery +during school-time. But in another part of London artificial flowers +in a Sunday bonnet are a sign of a reclaimed female drunkard, as the +clergyman has hit on the ingenious method of advising the women to +leave off drinking, that they may be able to afford some Sunday finery +wherewith to please their husbands' eyes and to hold up their heads +with the best in church! + +Old age is as helpless as infancy, and less attractive in its +helplessness, so that the task undertaken by the Little Sisters of the +Poor is still more meritorious when performed in the devoted spirit +which characterizes them. They are literally the servants of beggars: +they are bound to possess nothing and to hoard nothing; they live on +the refuse of refuse, begging the crumbs from rich men's tables to +feed the hungry ones under their care, and when these are satisfied +sitting down to the scanty remains. They have a large establishment +in London, which I once visited, but which has since been divided +into two, the aim of both continuing the same. The sisters wear a very +unpretending black gown and cap: when out of doors they add to this +a poke-bonnet and thick veil, with a large black shawl. They have a +little donkey-cart, which they drive themselves, and which makes daily +pilgrimages all over town, stopping at the houses of the rich of all +denominations and receiving contributions of that which is too often +thought below the cook's while to claim as a perquisite. So laden, the +Little Sisters return to their old people, and a transformation begins +in the vast kitchen. No one would believe what savory dishes +they manufacture out of the leavings and parings of great houses: +everything is sifted, cleaned, washed, as the case requires; each kind +of food is carefully separated and placed in its appointed place; an +immense cauldron is continually on the fire, and soups and jellies are +in a constant state of fusion and preparation. Puddings of all sorts +come out of the renovating oven: joints of roast meat are the only +things which are exceptional, and sometimes the more generous charity +of some outsider adds even this luxury to the usual fare. The Little +Sisters of the Poor clothe as well as feed their charges: for this, +too, they trust to charity, and left-off clothes are a great boon to +them. They are so ingenious that there is hardly a thing of which they +cannot make a deft use. They have houses in New York and Philadelphia, +and already do an immense deal of good among the destitute aged poor. + +The Order of Sion is a rather peculiar one, its principal object +being the conversion to Christianity and subsequent education of +young Jewesses. It has been founded within the last forty years by +the brothers Ratisbonne, both of them Jews of distinction converted +to Christianity. The elder brother (they are both priests now) +superintends the order in Europe: the younger resides at +the mother-house at Jerusalem. The convent is an educational +establishment, where the daughters of Orientals of all kinds are +received--Jews, Arabs, Syrians, Armenians, etc. In Europe the houses, +of course, do not confine themselves to Jewish pupils, else they would +find less work than their many hands could do, but receive boarders +and give a solid education like the other and more fashionable +convents. As a child I lived nearly a year in one of these houses, a +large, roomy, silent villa, two hours from Paris. Behind the house +was a garden and grove crossed in all directions by bewildering +little paths leading into unexpected hollows where a rustic altar +and statuette of Our Lady would be placed, or a crucifix erected in +startling loneliness on a little hillock. A wide avenue of lime trees, +where the pupils might be seen early in the morning studying their +tasks, or in the afternoon eating their luncheon of grapes and brown +bread, traversed this grove in a straight line, and here on certain +feast-days nuns and pupils would form picturesque processions, with +the customary banners, tapers, white veils and swelling hymns. Here +the Ratisbonne brothers came to rest from their work of furthering the +interests of the order--the elder a fatherly, portly man with white +hair and a gentle manner, the younger a bronzed, black-bearded man, +a true Oriental, with enthusiasm expressed in every line of his +countenance and every flash of his piercing eye. He was only on a +visit at that time, and then, as now, made Jerusalem his permanent +home. There are one or two convents of this order in England, but I +think none as yet in America. + +The convent of the Assumption at Auteuil, a suburb of Paris, is one +renowned for its excellent educational advantages. I spent a week +there one winter on a visit to a near relative among the pupils, and +had an opportunity to observe the clock-like life of the place. All +the girls I have known to be educated there were better scholars than +any brought up elsewhere. There were many English and American girls, +besides Poles, Germans and West Indian Creoles. The war of 1860-64 +left traces of strange animosity among the Northern and Southern +children: it was hardly credible that such a spirit could animate +young children so long removed from the immediate home influences that +would otherwise have accounted for the feeling. Among the nuns were +several English women, clever and deeply read, but softer-hearted than +most scholars who have had too much to do with the world. There was +also a sister of Père Hyacinthe among the Assumptionists, and the +great orator himself often came to the convent-chapel to preach simple +little sermons to the school-girls. His sister was terribly crushed +by the news of his defection from the Catholic Church, and, I believe, +refused even to see him again. + +A very beautiful scene which I witnessed on the 8th of December in +this convent was the renewal of the vows. The mass was celebrated in +the chapel at five in the morning, of course by gas- and candle-light. +The body of the chapel was perfectly clear, the community sat in +carved wooden stalls round the altar, the pupils assisted from the +galleries above, and hidden under the gallery was the small but very +perfect choir of nuns and children. The hymns of Père Hermann, a +famous pianist and composer, a pupil of Liszt, a convert from Judaism, +and afterward a Carmelite friar, are very popular in France, and of +these the music chiefly consisted. At the communion the superioress +stepped forward, wearing the white woolen mantle (which with a purple +tunic is the complete dress of this order) and knelt to receive the +holy sacrament. A nun in the same costume, bearing a lighted taper and +bowing almost to the ground, stood on each side of her as the priest +communicated her, and so on till the whole sisterhood had each knelt +separately and the bowing figures, like attendant angels, had +done homage to each as the tabernacle, for a time, of the blessed +sacrament. When the mass was over each professed sister solemnly read +over the formula of her religious vows before a table on which lay +a crucifix, which each reverently kissed in token of rededication of +herself to the divine service. + +The order of the Good Shepherd is one that is known throughout the +world. It has branch houses in every country. The one to which I shall +specially refer is in New York. It stands on the banks of the East +River, overlooking Astoria and Long Island, and from its top windows +the eye reaches far up the Sound. Like all convents, it is marvelously +clean. The order is devoted to the reclaiming of fallen women, and in +this instance the house is a government reformatory. A certain +annual subsidy is guaranteed by the city authorities, but voluntary +contributions and the industry of the inmates give more than half +toward the real support of the house. Three sorts of women are +under the care of the nuns: (1) those whom the judges send there as +criminals for a specified term; (2) those whom their friends send +in hope of their being quietly reformed without the intervention of +justice; and (3) those who seek of their own accord to do penance and +earn forgiveness for their sins. This is of course the most hopeful +class, and it frequently happens that these penitents become in time +permanent inmates, and even nuns. In the latter case, as the rule of +the order does not allow of the reception of any woman with a stain on +her reputation, they are clothed in the habit of the Carmelite Third +Order (brown serge tunic and black veil), in which the austerities are +not very great. They go through the usual novitiate and make their +vows in the regular manner: they are then called "Magdalens," and +inhabit a portion of the house reserved for them, say their office +at stated hours in their own chapel, contiguous to that of the Good +Shepherd nuns, and live under obedience to the superioress of the +latter. I saw about a dozen of them taking their evening walk in a +pretty enclosed garden by the river-side. Other women who do not feel +inclined to so full a renunciation of their liberty bind themselves +by a promise, good for one year only, to the service of the house, and +wear a semi-religious kind of cap and a scarlet badge with the letter +_P_ or _F_: they are divided into two classes, under the patronage of +Saint Joseph and Saint Patrick. They renew the promise from year to +year, and often spend their lives in this lay sisterhood of penance. +Every inmate, be she prisoner or penitent, is taught to sew, first +by hand, then on the machine: many on their first entrance are so +ignorant that they do not know on which finger to place the thimble, +but after a while most are able to do a good day's work on common +shirts and linen articles which the order contracts for with the +wholesale shops. Another source of profit to the house is the laundry, +but this is conducted exclusively by the nuns themselves. They do all +the washing of surplices, altar-cloths, etc. for most of the Catholic +churches of New York, for the convents and colleges, and for many +private families. The fluting on children's frocks and the polish on +shirts is something wonderful, and the young nun who superintends +the concern seemed to be a real enthusiast in the matter. The nuns' +dormitories, as well as those of the prisoners, are miracles of +neatness; the refectories likewise. There are various immense airy +halls where the nuns and girls sit sewing, and where a stranger sees +a spectacle new to most people, certainly unexpected by the greater +number--that of an assemblage of ugly faces, each belonging to +an _unfortunate_ whose temptations are usually understood to lie +originally in her fatal beauty. Many of them are scarcely fourteen, +and if once admitted, the melancholy chance is that they will be here +again time after time: the sentences are seldom long enough to afford +room for thought and conversion. Among the penitents the cases are +far more hopeful, but the gentle sisters never forget their kind, +conciliatory manner toward all; and unless a perverse demon whispers +to their ear that these nuns are their _jailers_, the poor prisoners +see little to remind them that they are not in a voluntarily chosen +home. + +Nuns are by no means a shiftless, unbusiness-like set of women: they +can look after themselves as well as after the poor and forlorn: +many of them, were they in the world, would be called strong-minded, +blue-stockinged women. At Montreal there is a large establishment +of the Sisters of the Congrégation de Notre Dame, generally called +Congregation Sisters, founded by Margaret Bourgeoys. They are the +great educational sisters of Lower Canada. They own St. Paul's Island, +some distance above the city: this is their farm, and one of the nuns, +called the sister économe, has to visit it frequently and superintend +matters, being the stewardess and committee of ways and means and +revenue department combined. Of course a good horse is desirable for +these drives, and their horses being one source of profit, the économe +feels that the reputation of the breed ought not to be depreciated +by her own "turnout." The young men of the town often meet her on the +road and try to distance her, but this she will never permit, and her +horse, faultlessly groomed and in splendid condition, always comes +off the winner in these innocent races. One day, however, the +bishop, having heard of this rivalry on the road, sent for her and +remonstrated, alleging that such "fast" conduct might lend itself to +scandalous rumors, and was altogether unbecoming in a _religious_. The +nun smiled, and protested that she was ready to obey her superiors' +orders in every particular, as all good Catholics and good religious +are bound to do, but slyly insinuated the following cogent argument: +"Does not Your Lordship think, however, that, since our convent lives +partly on the reputation of this famous breed of trotters, it is +hardly for the credit of the house that its representative conveyance +should drag along as dejectedly as a street-vendor's donkey-cart?" +What the bishop's reply was "the deponent sayeth not," but we may +infer that this shrewd woman was at least as capable of controlling a +wide meshwork of business details as he was of managing his diocese. +Now, there are many such women in convents, for the religious +life leads not, as people think, to a renunciation of your own +self-dependence, but on the contrary to the highest kind of confidence +in your own power _when backed by the help of Almighty God_. Saint +Teresa of Spain once said these memorable words: "Teresa and tenpence +are nothing: Teresa, tenpence _and God_ are omnipotent." + +LADY BLANCHE MURPHY. + + + + +THE ATONEMENT OF LEAM DUNDAS. + +BY MRS. E. LYNN LINTON, AUTHOR OF "PATRICIA KEMBALL." + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +SMALL CAUSES. + + +The frost came early this year; and by the second week in December +the ponds and shallows in the neighborhood of North Aston were covered +with ice that made good sliding-grounds for the children. Presently +it grew and spread till the deeper waters were frozen over, and a +skating-rink was formed of the Broad that bore the heavier weights +without danger. It was a merry time for the North Astonians; and even +the elder men strapped on their skates and took colds and contusions +in their endeavors to double back on their supple youth and to forget +the stiffer facts of time. As for the young people, they were in the +full swing of innocent enjoyment; and the girls wished that the frost +would last through the whole of the winter, so that they might make +up skating-parties with the boys every day, and avoid the unmeaning +deadness of "tender" weather. + +This ice had been in perfect condition for three days and the Broad +had been thronged, but Leam had not appeared. All the other young +ladies of the country had come, Adelaide Birkett one of the most +diligent in her attendance, for was not Edgar Harrowby one of the +most constant in his? But though more than one pair of eyes had looked +anxiously along the road that led to Ford House, which some people +still continued to call Andalusia Cottage, no lithe, graceful figure +had been seen gliding between the frosted hedgerows, and Edgar, like +Alick, had skated in disappointment, the former with the feeling of an +actor playing to an empty house when he made his finest turns and she +was not there to see them; the latter with the self-reproach of one +taking enjoyment abroad while the beloved is sitting in solitude and +dreariness at home. + +At last, on the fourth day, she came down with her father; and to at +least two on the ground the advent of a slender-waisted girl with dark +eyes and small feet changed the whole aspect of things, and made life +for the moment infinitely more beautiful and desirable than it had +been. It was a brilliant day, with as fine a sun as England can show +in winter--no wind, but a clear air, crisp, dry and exhilarating, +Every one was there--Edgar, the most graceful of the skaters; Alick, +the most awkward; Dr. Corfield, essaying careful little spurts, +schoolboy fashion, along the edges; and the portly rector, proud +to show his past superiority in sharp criticism on the style of the +present day as a voucher for his own greater grace and skill in the +days when he too was an Adonis for the one part and an Admirable +Crichton for the other, and carried no superfluous flesh about his +ribs. Among them, too, looking on the scene as if it was something in +which he had no inherited share, as if these were not men and women to +whom he was sib on Adam's side, but cunningly contrived machines whose +movements he contemplated with benign indifference, was to be seen the +mild philosophic occupant of Lionnet--that Mr. Gryce of whom no one +knew more than that he studied dead languages through the day and +caught moths and beetles in the twilight, had come without letters of +introduction and was never seen at church; hence that he was a man of +whom to beware, and a dangerous element among them. The pendulum of +acceptance, which had swung so far on one side in the unguaranteed +reception of Madame de Montfort, had now gone back to the +corresponding extent on the other; and no one, not even Mr. Birkett as +the clergyman, nor Mr. Dundas as the landlord, had held out a finger +to the new-comer, not to speak of a hand; while all regarded +his presence at North Aston as rather a liberty than otherwise. +Nevertheless, as time would show, though he had come there without +purpose and lived among the people without interest, he would not be +found without his uses, and one at least of the threads making up the +skein of life at North Aston would be placed in his hands. + +As Leam came to the side both Edgar Harrowby and Alick Corfield turned +to greet her, the usually sad face of the curate, already brightened +by fresh air and exercise, brighter still at seeing her, the handsome +head of the squire held a little higher as his figure involuntarily +straightened and he put out his best powers in her honor. But Alick's +shambling legs carried him fastest, and he was first at the edge, the +neighborhood looking on, prepared to build a Tower of Babel heaven +high on the foundation of a single brick. Leam Dundas had not yet been +fitted with her hypothetical mate, and people wanted to see to whom +they were to give her. + +"Oh, come on with me!" cried Alick as soon as he came up, speaking +with the unconscious familiarity of gladness at the advent for which +he had watched so long. He held out his arm to Leam crooked awkwardly +at the elbow. + +"No," said Leam a little shortly. + +She always stiffened when Alick spoke to her before folk with anything +like intimacy in his manner. He was her good friend, granted, and she +liked him in a way and respected him in a way, though he was still too +much after the pattern of her former slave and dog to gain her best +esteem. She was one of those women who are arbitrary and disdainful to +masculine weakness, and require to be absolutely dominated by men if +they are to respect them as men like to be respected by women, and +as--_pace_ the Shriekers--the true woman likes to respect men. And +Alick, though he had her in his hands and might destroy her at a +word--clergyman, too, as he was, and thus possessing the key to higher +things than she knew--was always so humble, so subservient, he made +her feel as if she was his superior--not, as it should have been, that +he was hers. In consequence, girl-like, proud and shy, she treated +him with more disdain than she ought to have done, and used the power +which he himself gave her without much consideration as to its effect. +Besides, she did not wish to let people think he knew too much of +her. With the nervous fancy of youth, ever believing itself to be +transparent and understood all through, she imagined it would be seen +that he had the right to speak to her familiarly--that he had her in +his hand to destroy her at a word if so minded. Wherefore she said +"No" shortly, and turned away her eyes as her protest against his glad +face, crooked elbow and eager offer. + +"I will not let you fall, and it is very jolly," cried Alick cheerily, +more like the boyish Alick of former days than the ascetic young +curate of modern times. + +"I do not like it," said Leam. + +Alick's countenance fell; and when his face, always long, became +longer still, with a congealed-looking skin, sad, red-lidded eyes +and a hanging under lip, it was not lovely. Indeed, according to +the miserable fatality which so often makes the spiritually best the +physically worst--like the gods whom the Athenians enclosed in outer +cases of satyrs and hideous masks of misshapen men--Alick's face was +never lovely. But his soul? If that could have been seen, the old +carved parable of the Greeks would have been justified. + +"Nonsense, Leam! Why cannot you do as others do?" cried Mr. Dundas. + +He wanted to get rid of her for a while, and he was not unwilling that +Alick, whose affection he suspected, should rid him of her for ever +if he cared to saddle himself for life with such an uncomfortable +companion. + +"I do not like it," repeated Leam. + +"Nonsense!" said her father again. "Other girls are on. Why should you +not join them? I see Adelaide Birkett and the Fairbairns. Why not go +to them with Alick?" + +"It looks silly balancing one's self on the edge of a knife. And I +should fall," said Leam. + +"No, you shall not fall," Alick pleaded. "I will undertake that you +shall not." + +His arm was still held out, always awkwardly crooked. + +Leam lifted her eyes. "No," she said with her old calm decision, and +moved away. Four years ago she would have supplemented her refusal by +the words, "You are stupid. You tease me," Now she contented herself +with action and accent. + +Alick, very sorry, moist-eyed from disappointment, but not caring to +stand there and get chilled--for our good Alick was a little afraid +of cold, after the manner of mothers' sons in general--skated off +again to keep up his circulation, his knees bent, his chin forward, +his arms swinging as balance-weights to his long body, the ends of +his white woolen comforter flying behind him, and his legs running +anywhere, the clumsiest and most ungraceful skater on the Broad. All +the same, he never fell, and he went faster than even Edgar in his +perfection of manly elegance. + +Edgar had watched the whole of this little scene between Leam and +Alick while seeming to be occupied only in executing his spread eagles +and outside curves to perfection, and it was no secret to him what +it meant. The demon of masculine vanity, never far off where a pretty +woman was concerned, entered and took possession of him. He would +succeed where Alick Corfield had failed, and Leam, who refused her old +friend, should gratify her new. He had been guiding Adelaide over the +ice, but she was rather too stiff in her movements, not sufficiently +pliant nor yielding to be a very pleasant skating companion. And he +had been pushing Josephine along the slide, but Joseph was too stout +and short-breathed to be an ideal convoy; also he had been racing and +half romping with the Fairbairn girls, who slipped and tumbled and +laughed and screamed--more hoydenish than he thought pleasing; but +now he intended to reward himself with Leam, whose action he was sure +would be all that was delightful, even though unaccustomed, and who +would look so well on his arm. Her slight and supple figure against +his breadth and height and sense of solidity and strength, her dark +hair and his beard of tawny brown, her large dark eyes and his of true +Saxon blue, her southern face, oval in shape, cream-colored in tint, +and his, square, open, ruddy, Scandinavian,--yes, they would make +a splendid pair by their very contrast; and Edgar, narrowing his +ambition to his circumstances, was quietly resolved to win the day +over Alick Corfield by inducing Leam to cross the Broad with him +after she had so manifestly refused her old friend. It was but a small +object of ambition, but we must do what we can, thought Edgar; and +it is the best wisdom to content ourselves with mice when we have no +lions to destroy. He did not, however, rush up to her with Alick's +tactless precipitancy. He waited just long enough for her to desire, +and not so long as to disappoint; then, speaking to Adelaide by the +way, and giving her and Josephine each a helping hand, he came in +a series of clean, showy curves to where Leam and her father were +standing. + +Leam was glad to meet again this handsome man who had seen so much and +who talked so well. He was something different from the rest, and +so far superior to them all. But, not being one of those instinctive +girls who yield without pressure and fall in love at first sight, +there were no flushings nor palpitations as Edgar came up; only a +grave little smile stole half timidly over her face, and she forgot +that he had insulted her mother's country by calling her the prettiest +Andalusian he had ever seen. + +"Do you skate, Miss Dundas?" asked Edgar after a while, during which +he had been talking of different matters, beginning with the weather, +that camel of English conversation, and ending with the state of the +ice and the chances of a thaw. His five minutes of commonplaces seemed +an eternity to Adelaide, watching them jealously from a distance. + +"No," said Leam. + +"I want her to learn; and this is a good opportunity," put in her +father. + +"You are right. It is a capital exercise and a graceful +accomplishment," said Edgar. "I think a woman never looks better than +when she is skating," he added carelessly. + +"I think she looks silly," said Leam. + +He laughed. "That is because you are not English _pur sang_," he cried +gayly. "If you had only the brave old Norse blood in you, you would +take to the frost and ice like second nature." + +"No, I am not English _pur sang_," answered Leam gravely. "I am more +than half Spanish," a little proudly. + +"Hang it all, you can't make it more than half!" said her father +testily. + +"And that makes such a splendid combination," said Edgar, slightly +lowering his voice as, ignoring his remark, he turned away from Mr. +Dundas and gave himself wholly to Leam. "Spanish for art and poetry +and all the fervid beauty of the South--English for the courage, +the hardihood, the energy of the North. You ought to cultivate the +characteristics of both nationalities, Miss Dundas," in a louder tone; +"and to do justice to one of them you ought to learn to skate." + +"That's right, Edgar; so I say," cried Mr. Dundas, who had heard only +the last part. + +"I cannot learn," said Leam; but her face became strangely flushed, +and she felt her resolution growing limp as her cheeks grew red. + +"Yes, you can. I could teach you in half an hour," cried Edgar, +pulling down his coat-cuffs with an air. + +"Go, Leam: let Major Harrowby give you a lesson," said her father. +"Perhaps he is a better teacher than that shambling-looking Alick. Go, +child." + +"Shall I?" asked Edgar. "At least let me assist you to cross the ice, +if without skates at first." + +He held out his hand. + +"I shall fall," objected reluctant Leam. + +"No, you shall not. I will answer for that. Come. Will you not trust +me?" This last phrase was said half tenderly, half with an offended +kind of remonstrance, and he was still holding out his hand. + +"Go, Leam," urged her father. + +"It is silly, and I shall fall," repeated Leam. + +Nevertheless, she put her hand in Edgar's, and he took her on his arm +in triumph. + +At first her steps were slow and timid; but as her feet grew more +accustomed to the unusual ground, as she gained more confidence in +the strong arm that held her like a bar of iron, as her youth began +to assert itself in the physical pleasure of the fresh air and the +gliding movement, she lost her shyness and timidity, and she found +herself almost laughing--she, who never laughed and only so rarely +smiled. + +"You like it?" he asked, looking down on her with a man's admiration +for a pretty woman marked in every line and feature. + +"Yes, so much!" she answered, her usual reserved, self-centred manner +for the moment lost. + +"Now you will know how to trust me in future," he said not very +loudly. + +She looked up to him, carrying her eyes right into his. "Yes, I will," +she answered simply. + +At this moment Alick joined them, and Leam suddenly lost her new-found +joy. + +"I am glad you have come on at last," said her faithful dog, effacing +himself and his disappointment with an effort. + +"They made me," Leam replied. + +"I hope not against your will and not to your displeasure," said +Edgar, still looking down into her face with the man's admiration of a +woman's beauty so strongly marked in his own. + +"No," she answered: "I have liked it." + +"Let us take her between us, major, and give her a good spin," said +Alick, grasping the upper part of her arm uncomfortably. + +Edgar slightly pressed the hand he held crosswise. "Would you like to +double your protectors?" he asked. "Shall I share my office?" + +"No," said Leam. "I like best to be with one person only." + +"And possession being the nine points, let us go on," laughed Edgar, +whirling her away. "By the by, would you have preferred my giving +you to Mr. Corfield as 'the one person only'?" he asked with affected +doubt, making pretence of wishing to know her mind. He was skating +rapidly now. It was as good as flying to Leam, and she was happy and +very grateful. + +"I would rather be with you," she answered. + +"Thanks!" said Edgar, and smiled. + +"He is awkward, and you are not," continued Leam, anxious to explain. +"But I like him very much. He is good and kind; and he cannot help +being awkward, can he?" + +"No," said Edgar coldly. "So you like him very much, do you?" + +"Very much," repeated Leam with loyal emphasis, "He has always been my +friend here." + +"I hope for the future that I may be included in that sacred place," +said Edgar after a pause. + +Leam looked at him slowly, fixedly. "You will never be so good to me +as he is," she answered. + +It was the man's heart that beat now, the man's cheek that flushed. +Who could keep his pulses still when those eyes were turned to his +with, as it seemed, such maddening meaning? "I will try," he said; and +from that moment the die was cast. Edgar put himself in competition +with Alick: he lowered his pride to such a rivalry as this, and threw +his whole energies into the determination to surpass and supplant a +man for whom even the least personable of his own sex need have had no +fear. + +He kept Leam for a long time after this, laying ground-lines for the +future; forgetting Adelaide and the suitability which had hitherto +been such an important factor in his calculations; forgetting his +horror of Pepita, whose daughter Leam was, and his contempt for weak, +fusionless Mr. Dundas, who was her father; forgetting the conventional +demands of his class, intolerant of foreign blood; forgetting all but +the words which said that Alick was her best friend here, and doubted +his (Edgar's) ever being so good to her as that other had been. It was +on his heart now to convince her that he could be as good to her as +Alick, and, if she would allow him, a great deal better. At last he +slackened, and pulled up at the group of which the Fairbairn girls and +Adelaide Birkett were the most conspicuous members. + +"What a long skate you have had!" said Susy Fairbairn ruefully, for +all that she was a good-tempered girl and not disposed to measure her +neighbor's wheat by her own bushel. But this was a special matter; for +Edgar Harrowby was the pride of the place, and they took count of his +doings as of their local prince, and envied the lucky queen of the +hour bitterly or sadly according to the mood and the person. + +"It was the first time I had tried," said Leam, all aglow with the +unwonted exercise and unusual excitement. + +"I suppose you began by saying you could not and would not, and then +did more than any one else?" said Adelaide in an acrid voice, veiling +a very displeased face with a very unpleasant smile; but the veil was +too transparent and showed the displeasure with palpable plainness. + +Leam looked at her in a half-surprised way. Jealousy was a passion +of which she was wholly ignorant, and she did not understand the +key-note. She knew nothing of the unspoken affair between Edgar and +the rector's daughter, and could not read between the lines. Why was +Adelaide cross because she had been a long time upon the ice? Did it +hurt her? They had not been near her--not interfered with her in any +way: why should she be vexed that they, Major Harrowby and herself, +had been enjoying themselves? So she thought, gazing at Adelaide with +the serious, searching look which always irritated that young lady, +and at this moment almost unbearably. + +"I wonder they did not teach you at school that it was rude to stare +as you do, Leam," she cried with impolitic haste and bitterness. "What +are you looking at? Am I changing into a monster, or what?" + +"I am looking at you because you are so cross about nothing," answered +Leam gravely. "What does it matter to any one if I have been on the +ice long or no? Why should you be angry?" "Angry!" said Adelaide with +supreme disdain. "I am not sufficiently interested in what you do, +Leam, to be angry or cross, as you call it. I confess I do not like +affectation: that is all." + +"Neither do I like affectation," returned Leam. "People should say +what they feel." + +"Indeed! That might not always be agreeable," said Adelaide with her +most sarcastic air. "Perhaps it is as well that the laws of politeness +keep one's mouth shut at times, and that we do not say what we feel." + +"It would be better," insisted Leam. + +"I wonder if you would say so were I to tell you what I thought of you +now?" Adelaide replied, measuring her scornfully with her eyes. + +"Why should you not? What have I done to be ashamed of?" Leam asked. + +"And you call yourself natural and not affected!" Adelaide cried, +turning away abruptly.--"How wrong," she said in a low voice to Edgar, +"turning the head of such a silly child as this!" + +Edgar laughed. The vein of cruelty traversing his nature made him find +more amusement than chagrin in Adelaide's patent jealousy: he thought +she was silly, and he was rather amazed at her want of dignity; still, +it was amusing, and he enjoyed it as so much fun. + +But when he laughed Leam's discomfiture was complete. "I am sorry I +came on the ice at all," she said with a mixture of her old pride and +new softness that made her infinitely lovely, the proud little head +held high, but the beautiful eyes dewy. "I have offended every one, +and I do not know why." Just then Alick came rambling by. She held out +her hand to him. Here at least was her friend and faithful follower. +He would not jeer at her nor laugh, nor yet look cross and angry, as +if she had done wrong. "Take me to papa," she said superbly, making as +if to withdraw her other hand from Edgar. + +Alick's homely face brightened like the morning. "Certainly," he said. + +"Certainly not," flashed Edgar proudly, taking both her hands in his +crosswise and grasping them even more firmly than before. "You are in +my charge, Miss Dundas, and I can give you up to no one else--not even +by your own desire." + +Adelaide's slight cast became an unmistakable squint; the Fairbairn +girls fluttered, half frightened at the chance of a fracas; Alick +looked irresolute; Edgar looked haughty and displeased; Leam tragic +and proud, partly bewildered, partly distressed. + +Then Edgar cut the whole thing short by taking her away in silence, +but like a whirlwind, saying, when half over the ground and well out +of hearing, "What have I done to you, Miss Dundas, that you should try +to throw me over like that?" + +"You laughed at me," said Leam. + +"Laughed at you? You are dreaming." + +"You did," she persisted. + +"Pardon me: I laughed because my little friend Adelaide was so cross +at your skating. It was fun to see her so angry." + +"I saw no fun in it," Leam returned. "I only saw that she was angry +with me, and impertinent, and that then you laughed at me." + +"I swear to you I did not," cried Edgar earnestly. "Will you believe +me? Tell me, Miss Dundas, that you exonerate me from such a charge. +Tell me that you are sure I did not laugh at you." + +Leam looked at him with her large luminous eyes serious, questioning. +"If you say so, I must believe you," she answered slowly, "but I +thought you did." + +"If you could read my heart, you would know I did not," he said +emphatically. + +They were close on the bank now, where Mr. Dundas was walking with the +rector. + +"Say you believe me," Edgar almost whispered in his rich musical +voice, so sweet and tender. "Say it, I beseech you! You do not know +how I shall suffer else." + +She looked at him again. "I do," she said in the manner of a +surrender, the grave little smile which was her most eloquent +expression of pleasure stealing over her face. + +"Thank you," said Edgar: "now you have made me happy." + +"I do not understand why," she answered with serious simplicity. + +"Perhaps you will some day," he replied as her father came down to +receive her, rather more content with her than he usually was, seeing +that Edgar Harrowby--Major Harrowby, the possessor of the Hill and +some thousands a year--had singled her out for his special attention, +and had made a picture on the ice almost as pretty as an illustrated +weekly. + +But Edgar, not wishing to go too far in the way of provocation, nor +to burn his boats behind him before he had decided on his settlement, +skated off to Adelaide so soon as he had deposited Leam, and by a few +judicious praises and well-administered tendernesses of voice and look +succeeded in bringing her back to her normal condition of quiescent +resolve and satisfaction. Then, when she was her smiling self +again--for if she had frowns for many others, she had always +smiles for the Harrowbys as a race, and specially for Edgar as an +individual--he said, in the manner of one wishing to know the truth of +a thing, "What made you so savage to Miss Dundas just now?" + +"I cannot bear her," said Adelaide with energy. + +"No, I see that you dislike her; but why?" + +"I can hardly tell you: she has never done anything very bad, but I +always feel as if she could, she is so silent, so reserved, so odd +altogether." + +"A woman's reason!" he laughed, "Dr. Fell over again." + +"It may be," returned Adelaide coldly, "but I believe in my own +instinctive dislikes. I felt the same kind of mistrust for that +wretched woman who called herself Madame de Montfort, about whom papa +and mamma and the whole place went mad. And after her death quite +odd-enough stories came out to justify my doubts and condemn her +faithful friends. Every one said she poisoned herself because she knew +that she would be unmasked and she was afraid to face the ordeal. And +her debts, I believe, were frightful; though it served that ridiculous +Mr. Dundas right for marrying such a creature." + +"But granting that this woman was an adventuress, as you say, what has +that to do with Miss Dundas?" + +"Nothing, of course: I only mentioned her to show you that I have some +accuracy of judgment, and that when I say I dislike Leam Dundas my +opinion ought to be taken as worth consideration." + +Adelaide said this quietly, in the well-bred but absolutely positive +manner which she would have when they were married and she differed +from him in opinion. It was the moral arbitrariness of the superior +being, which, amusing now in the maiden, might become wearisome, not +to say oppressive, in the wife. + +"Well, I do not know her as you do, of course, but I cannot see why +you should dislike her so much," persisted Edgar. + +"Trust me, some day it will be seen why," she answered. "I feel +confident that before long Leam will show herself in her true colors, +and those will be black. I pity the man who will ever be her husband." + +Edgar laughed somewhat forcedly, then looked at Leam walking up the +road alone, and thought that her husband would not need much pity +for his state. Her beauty stood with him for moral qualities and +intellectual graces. Given such a face as hers, such a figure, and +all the rest was included. And when he thought of her eyes and the +maddening way in which they looked into his; of the grave little +smile, evanescent, delicate, subtle, the very aroma of a smile, so +different from the coarse hilarity of your commonplace English girls; +of the reticence and pride which gave such value to her smaller +graces; of the enchanting look and accent which had accompanied +her act of self-surrender just now--that acceptance of his word and +renunciation of her own fancy which had put him in the place and given +him the honor of a conqueror,--he accused Adelaide in his heart of +prejudice and jealousy, and despised her for her littleness. In fact, +he was nearer to loving Leam Dundas because of these strictures +than he would have been had the rector's daughter praised her; and +Adelaide, usually so politic, had made a horribly bad move by her +unguarded confession of distrust and dislike. + +The whole episode, however, had been lost in its true meaning to all +save one--that one the Mr. Gryce of Lionnet, who already knew what +there was to be known of every family in the place, and who had the +faculty of dovetailing parts into a whole characteristic of the born +detective. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +THE GREEN YULE. + + +The frost broke suddenly, and was succeeded by damp, close, +unseasonable weather, continuing up to Christmas, and giving the +"green yule" which the proverb says "makes a fat churchyard." That +proverb was justified sadly enough at North Aston, for typhus set in +among the low-lying cottages, and, as in olden times, when jail-fever +struck the lawyer at the bar and the judge on the bench in stern +protest against the foulness they fostered, so now the sins of the +wealthy landlords in suffering such cottages as these in the bottom +to exist reacted on their own class, and the fever entered other +dwellings beside those of the peasants. + +Two of the gentry were struck down by it--Alick Corfield and the new +occupant of Lionnet, that Mr. Gryce who never went to church, and who +was assumed in consequence to have neither a soul to be saved by God +nor a heart to be touched by man. And these were just the two who, +according to the theory of the good or evil of a man's deeds returned +to him in kind, had the most reason to expect exemption. For Alick had +spent his strength in visiting the sick as a faithful pastor should, +and Mr. Gryce had taken them material help with royal abundance. Both +together they had to pay the price of principle, always an expensive +luxury, and never personally so safe a card to play in the game of +life as selfishness. For virtue has not only to be contented with its +own reward, as we constantly hear, but has to accept punishment for +its good deeds, vice for the most part carrying off the blue ribbons +and the gold medals, while poor virtue, shivering in the corner, gets +fitted with the fool's cap or is haled into the marketplace to be +pelted in the pillory. As was seen now in North Aston. + +The rector, who never went into an infected cottage nor suffered +a parishioner to stand between the wind and his security, kept his +portly strength and handsome flesh intact, but Alick nearly lost his +life as the practical comment on his faithful ministry; and Mr. Gryce, +who, if he did not carry spiritual manna wherewith to feed hungry +souls, did take quinine and port wine, money and comforting substances +generally, for half-starved aching bodies, was also laid hold of by +that inexorable law which knows nothing about providential immunities +from established consequences on account of the good motives of the +actors. This would have been called heresy by the North Astonian +families, who professed to trust themselves to superior care, but none +the less used Condy's Fluid as a means whereby the work of Providence +might be rendered easier to it, nor disdained precipitate flight from +the protection in which they all said dolefully they believed. But +there is a wide difference between saying and doing, and men who are +shocked by words of frank unbelief find faithless deeds both natural +and in reason. + +In spite, then, of that expressed trust in Providence which is part +of the garniture of English respectability, a great fear fell on the +North Aston gentry when these two of their own circle were attacked. +The fever, while it had confined itself to the ill-drained, +picturesque little cottages below, was lamentable enough, but not more +than lamentable on the broad platform of a common humanity; and those +who had lost nothing told those who had lost all that they must bear +their cross with patience, seeing that it was the divine will that it +should be so. Now, when the fiery epidemic had come upon the gentry +face to face in their homes, it was a monster from which they must +flee without delay, for no one knew whose house was safe, nor for how +long his own might remain uninfected. + +Mrs. Harrowby and her daughters went off to Cheltenham two days after +Alick was announced as "down," to find there the security of +living which had failed them here. They were people of the highest +respectability--people who are the very pith and marrow of English +social virtue; but they had not been touched with the divine fire of +self-sacrifice for humanity, and they had no desire to hush the groans +of the afflicted if they thereby ran the risk of having to gnash their +own teeth. They could do no good at home. As Mrs. Harrowby said, as +one propounding a self-evident paradox, how could they go and see the +sick or help to nurse ploughmen and their children? They would only +catch the fever themselves, and so spread it still farther. And every +one knows what a wicked thing that is to do. Cook had orders to supply +a certain amount of soup and wine when asked for, which was more to +the purpose than any mere sentimental kindness, of no use to the one +and highly dangerous to the other; and as Edgar had a great deal to do +in the house and stables, it was as well, she said with the air of one +undergoing something disagreeable for high principles, to get out of +his way and leave him to his bricks and mortar undisturbed. Gentlemen, +she said, as the clamp holding all together, do not like to be +interfered with in their own domain. That fever in the bottom was such +an admirable lever of womanly good sense! So they went and enjoyed +themselves at Cheltenham as much as it was in the Harrowby nature to +do, and even Josephine's kind heart consoled itself in the Pump-room +while their miserable tenants at home sickened and died as comfortably +as circumstances would allow. + +The Fairbairns, too, found themselves obliged to pay a long-promised +visit to London now on the instant, and swept out of the place with +even more than their characteristic promptitude; and the rector would +have given up his charge to a substitute if he could. But floating +clerical labor was just then scarce, and he could not find any one +to take his place in the Valley of the Shadow, though he offered the +liberal terms which are dictated by fear. He sent away his wife and +daughter, but he himself was bound to his post, and had to make the +best of the bad bit of cord that held him. He used to say with his +grand manner of martyrdom that, whatever he suffered, he must pull +the laboring-oar to the end, and attend to the sheep committed to his +charge. And he said it so often that he got at last to believe in his +own devotion. All the same, that laboring-oar of his pulled nothing +heavier than a cock-boat, and in waters no stormier than a duck-pond; +and when his sheep had the rot he was too delicate about the hands +to meddle with them. He preached to the living and he buried the dead +surrounded by all the protective appliances that science has devised +or money can supply. When the epidemic was over he too talked of +Providence and his trust therein, and how he had been mercifully +spared as his reward. + +Mrs. Birkett's native indolence would have kept her at home, well +fumigated and isolated, even in such a strait of fear and danger as +this in which they all were, and Adelaide was racked with torment at +leaving Leam unwatched and unhindered in the same place as Edgar; yet, +being more afraid of the fever than even of a potential rival, she +agreed with her father that in justice to themselves they ought to go +now at once; and Pace, who was to remain to take care of the rector, +packed up their best dresses, and sent them off with Adelaide's maid +shared between them. She prophesied, however, that their things would +all be spoiled before they returned, and then they would know her +value. As Mr. Dundas elected to remain at home, not being afraid of +infection and being tired of travel, Mrs. Birkett insisted on +taking little Fina with her. This was her contribution to the sum +of philanthropy and self-sacrifice in the world, and it was not +despicable; for Fina was restless and only six years of age, and Mrs. +Birkett was indolent and soon tired. + +Thus, the whole society of the place was reduced now to the rector, +Mr. Dundas and Leam, with Edgar Harrowby left alone at the Hill. The +Corfields did not count, because of Alick's illness, by which they +were put in quarantine; and if Mr. Gryce at Lionnet had not been the +cipher he was, his illness too would have disbarred him. + +There was nothing of the saint by nature nor of the instinctive +philanthropist about Leam. She was too concentrated for general +benevolence, and men and women whom she did not know were little more +than symbols to her. When she loved it was with her whole heart, her +whole being: failing this kind of love, she had but weak affections +and no curiosity, in which much of our ordinary charity consists. When +the servants told her of such and such distressing circumstances, she +was sorry because they were sorry, not because she realized in her own +emotions the troubles she did not share or see. When prompted she sent +improper things in the way of diet and useless things in the way +of dress for the benefit of the poor fever patients--and she sent +generously--but it never occurred to her as possible that she should +go to see them in their own homes. When we read of a cyclone in China +which has killed half a hundred mandarins and a small army of coolies, +we realize the sorrow of the survivors no more than we realize the +distress of a disturbed ant-hill; and Leam's attitude of mind toward +the poor of her native village was precisely the same as ours toward +the Chinese killed in a cyclone or the ants murdered in their hill. + +But she went daily to Steel's Corner, because she knew the Corfields +and in her own way liked Alick. Mrs. Corfield assured her there was +no danger, not a particle, with her free use of disinfectants and her +cunning devices of ventilation. And Leam believed her, and acted on +her belief, which gave her a false look of heroism and devotion that +won the heart of poor Pepita's "crooked stick" for ever. She thought +it so good of the girl, so brave and unselfish; and you could scarcely +have expected such nice feeling from Leam, now could you? she used +to ask her husband half a dozen times a day, ringing the changes +on Leam's good qualities as no one in the place had ever rung them +before, and disturbing the poor doctor in his calculations on the +varying strength of henbane and aconite till he wished that Leam +Dundas had never been born. Mrs. Corfield was just as wrong in +ascribing heroic qualities to the girl for her daily visits to ask +after Alick as she had been when she had credited her with moral +faults because of her intellectual ignorance. She was not afraid +because she knew nothing about infection, and had therefore the +boldness of ignorance, and she went daily to ask after Alick because +she somehow slipped into the groove of doing so; and a groove was +a great thing to conservative Leam. Nevertheless, she was really +concerned at the illness of her first North Astonian friend, and +wished that he would soon get well. She never thought that if he died +she would be rid of the only person who knew her deadly secret. Leam +was not one who would care to buy her own safety at the price of +another's destruction; and, more than this, she was not afraid that +Alick would betray her. + +This, then, was the condition of things at North Aston at this moment: +the villagers dying of fever in the bottom, the families seeking +safety in flight, Leam going daily to Steel's Corner to ask after +Alick and sit for precisely half an hour with Mrs. Corfield, and Edgar +not so much taken up with bricks and mortar as not to understand times +and habits, and therefore, through that understanding, seeing her for +some part of every day. And the more he saw of her the more he yearned +to see, and the stronger grew her strange fascination over him. To +him, at least, the fever had not been an unmitigated evil; and though +he was sometimes inclined to quarrel with the fact that Leam went +daily to Steel's Corner to inquire after Alick Corfield, yet, as he +got the grain and Alick only the husk, he submitted to the process by +which the best was winnowed to his side. As the gain of that winnowing +process became more evident he grew philosophically convinced that +nothing is so charming in a woman as faithful friendship for a sick +man, and that sitting daily for half an hour, always at exactly the +same time, with an afflicted mother is the most delightful act of +charity to be imagined. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +IN THE BALANCE. + + +Riding was one of the accomplishments brought by Leam from school, +though she had never been able to thoroughly conquer either her +timidity or her reluctance. Her childish days of inaction and +inclusion had left their mark on her for life, and, moreover, she was +not of the race or kind whence, by any process of education possible, +could have been evolved a girl of the florid, fearless, energetic kind +usually held as the type of the English maiden. Hence she was never +quite happy on horseback, and always wondered how it was that people +could be enthusiastic about riding. Nevertheless, she had learnt to +sit with grace, if not with confidence, and she was too proud to +show the discomfort she felt. Her father had bought for her use the +showiest chestnut to be had in the market; and as he wished her to +ride sometimes with him, if oftener with only the groom at her heels, +and as, again, she had honestly set herself to please him, she used +to mount her Red Coat, as she called her beast, punctually every +other day, and carry her dislike to the exercise as the penance it was +fitting she should perform. And besides all this, that devouring +fever in her blood, that oppressive consciousness rather than active +remembrance, lying always at the back of her life, was best soothed +by long hours alone in the open air. For when she had only the groom +behind her, Leam--to whom all men were as yet powers undesignated, +and a man of low degree a mere animal that made intelligible sounds +on occasions and was of a little more use than a dog--forgot him +altogether, and was as much alone as if he had not been there. + +Once or twice before the hegira of the gentry she had chanced to +meet Major Harrowby in her rides, and he had turned with her and +accompanied her, which was half a pain to' Leam and half a pleasure. +The pain was connected with her reins and her stirrups, her saddle and +the girths, the restless way in which the chestnut moved his ears, +the discomposing toss of his small impatient head, the snorts which +frightened her as the heralds of an outbreak, and his inclination +to dance sideways into the hedge rather than walk discreetly in the +middle of the road, whereby her seat was disturbed and her courage +tried, she all the while not liking to show that she was ill at +ease. The pleasure was personal, arising from the strange sense of +protection that she felt in Edgar's society and the charming way in +which he talked to her. He had seen a great deal, and he had a facile +tongue, and between fact and color, memory and make-up, his stories +were delightful. Also, after the manner of men who seek to influence a +young girl's mind and heart, he lent her books to read, and he marked +his favorite passages, which he discussed afterward. They were not +passages of abstract thought and impersonal sentiment, like the +penciled notes in Alick Corfield's literary loans, but scenes of +passion or of pathos, going straight to the heart of youth, which +feels rather than reflects, or descriptions of places which were +equal to pictures of human life. Under Alick's guidance she had fallen +asleep over Wordsworth--under Edgar's she dreamed beneath the stars +over Byron, and had heartaches without knowing why. + +If they had met sometimes, and by chance, before the families went +away, they met now continually, and not by chance. But as Edgar's +passion and reason were not in accord, he restrained himself, for him +marvelously, and neither made love to her in earnest nor flirted with +her in jest. Indeed, Leam was too intense to be approached at any time +with levity. As well dress the Tragic Muse in the costume of a Watteau +shepherdess as ply Leam Dundas with the pretty follies found so useful +with other women. She did not understand them, and it seemed useless +to try to make her. If Edgar paid her any of the trivial compliments +always on his lips for women, Leam used to look at him with her +serious eyes and ask him how could he possibly know what she was +like--he, who scarcely knew her at all. If he praised her beauty, she +used to turn away her head offended and tell him he was rude. He felt +as if he could never touch her, never hold her: his ways were not as +hers; and if her fascination for him increased, so did his trouble. + +He was in doubt on both sides--for her and for himself. He could not +read that silent, irresponsive nature nor measure his influence over +her. By no blushes when they met, no girlish poutings when he kept +away, by no covert reproaches, no ill-concealed gladness, no tremors +and no consciousness could he gain the smallest clew to guide him. She +was always the same--grave, gentle, laconic, self-possessed. But who +that looked into her eyes could fail to see underneath her Spanish +pride and more than Oriental reserve that fund of passion lying hidden +like the waters of an artesian well, waiting only to be brought to the +surface? He had not yet brought that hidden treasure into the light +of the sun and of love, and he wondered if ever he should. And if he +should, would it be for happiness? Leam was the kind of girl to love +madly under the orange trees and myrtles, to break one's heart for +when brothers interposed in the moonlight with rapiers and daggers +and caught her away for conventual discipline or for marriage with the +don; but as the mistress of an English home, the every-day wife of an +English squire with a character to keep up and an example to set, +was she fit for that? She was so quaint, so original, there were +such depths of passionate thought and feeling side by side with such +strange shallows of social and intellectual ignorance--though reticent +she was so direct, though tenacious so simple, her love, if difficult +to win, had such marvelous vitality when won--that he felt as if +she spoke a language sweeter and purer in many of its tones than the +current speech of society, but a language with which neither his own +people nor that society would ever be familiar. + +Amorous and easily impressed as he was, her beauty drew him with its +subtle charm, but his doubt and her pride interposed barriers which +even he dared not disregard; and at the end of two months he was no +nearer than at the beginning that understanding which he would have +established with any other pretty woman in less than a week. And he +was no surer of himself and what he did really desire. Yet, accustomed +as he was to loves as easily won as the gathering of a flower by the +wayside, and to the knowledge that Adelaide Birkett, his social match +in all things, was ready to pick up the handkerchief when he should +think fit to throw it, this very doubt both of himself and Leam made +half the interest if all the perplexity of the situation. He knew, as +well as he knew that the Corinthian shaft should bear the Corinthian +capital, if it was Leam whom he loved it was Adelaide whom he ought to +marry. She would carry incense to the gods of British respectability +as a squire's lady should, doing nothing that should not be done and +leaving as little undone that should be done. She would preside at +the Hill dinners with grace and join the meet at the coverside with +punctuality; she would dress as became her position, but neither +extravagantly nor questionably, and she would be more likely to stint +than to squander; she would live as a polite Christian should, in +the odor of genteel righteousness, not a fibre laid cross to the +conventional grain, not a note out of tune with the orthodox chord. +Yes, it was the rector's daughter whom he ought to marry, but it was +Pepita's whom he loved. Yet how would things go with such a perplexing +iconoclast at the head of affairs? Imagine the feelings of an English +squire, M.H. of his county, loving dogs and horses as some women love +children, and regarding poaching and vulpicide as crimes almost as +bad as murder--imagine his feelings when his beautiful wife, grave and +simple, should say at a hunt-dinner, "I do not like riding. I think +hunting stupid and cruel: an army of men in red coats after a poor +little hare--it is horrid! I think poaching quite right. God gave +beasts and birds to us all alike, and your preserves are robberies. I +would like to save all the foxes, and I hate the dogs when they catch +them;" for be sure she would never learn to call them hounds. What +would he feel? It would be an incongruous kind of thing altogether, +Edgar used to think when meditating on life as seen through the +curling clouds of his cigar. + +But he loved her--he loved her: daily with more passion, because +daily holding a stronger check on himself, and so accumulating by +concentration. It was the old combat between love and reason, personal +desires and social feelings, and as yet it was undecided which side +would win. Now it was Adelaide and her exact suitability for her part, +when he would avoid Leam Dundas for days; now it was Leam and his +fervid love for her, his passion of doubt, his fever of longing, when +he would all but commit himself and tempt the fortune of the future +irrevocably. + +One day, during this, time of sickness in the village and Edgar's +lonely residence at the Hill, Leam was riding along the Green Lanes, +a pretty bit of quiet country, when she heard the well-known hoofs +thundering rapidly behind her, and in due time Major Harrowby drew +rein at her side. "I saw you from the Sherrington road," he said, his +eyes kindling with pleasure at the meeting. + +Leam smiled, that pretty little fluttering smile which was so +peculiarly her own, playing like a flicker of tender sunshine over +her face, but she felt gladder than she showed. It was not her way to +flourish her feelings like flags in the face of men. Her reticence was +part of her dislike to noise and glare. "I am glad to see you," she +returned quietly, her eyes raised for a moment to his. + +"I sometimes fear I annoy you by joining you so often," said Edgar. + +"No, you do not annoy me," Leam answered. + +"It is a pleasure to know at least as much as that," he returned with +a forced laugh. + +"Yes? But why should you think that you annoy me?" she asked. + +"Oh, perhaps you see too much of me, and so get tired of me. The thing +is possible," he said, stroking his horse's ears. + +Leam looked at him as she had looked before, but this time without the +smile. "Are you tired of me that you say so?" she asked. + +"No, no, no! How can you say such a thing--how dream it?" cried Edgar. +"How could I be tired of you? Why, you are the sunshine of my life, +the one thing I "--he checked himself--"I look forward to meeting," he +added awkwardly. + +"Then why should I be tired of you?" she returned. "You are kind +to me; you tell me things I do not know; and," with maddening +unconsciousness of how her words might be taken, "there is no one +else." + +This was the nearest approach to a compliment that Leam had ever made. +She meant simply that, as there was no one else to tire her, how could +her pleasant friend Major Harrowby possibly do so? But Edgar naturally +took her words awry. "And if there were anyone else I suppose I should +be nowhere? My part has not often been that of a _pis aller_," with a +deep flush of displeasure. + +"Why do you say that?" she asked in a slight tone of surprise. "You +would be always where you are." + +"With you?" + +Her face asked his meaning. + +"I mean, would you always hold me as much your friend, always care for +me as much as you do now--if, indeed, you care for me at all--if any +one else was here?" he explained. + +Leam turned her troubled eyes to the ground. "I do not change like the +wind," she answered, wishing he would not talk of her at all. + +"No, I do not think you do or would," returned Edgar, bending his head +nearer to hers as he drew his horse closer. "I should think that once +loved would be always loved with you, Miss Dundas?" He said this in a +low voice that slightly trembled. + +She was silent. She had a consciousness of unknown dangers, sweet +and perilous, closing around her--dangers which she must avoid she +scarcely knew how, only vaguely conscious as she was that they were +about. Then she said, with an effort, "I do not like myself talked of. +It does not matter what I am." + +"To me everything!" cried Edgar impulsively. + +"You say what you do not mean," returned Leam. "I am not your +sister; how, then, should it matter?" + +Her grave simplicity was more seductive to him than the most +coquettish wiles would have been. She was so entirely at sea in the +art of love-making that her very ignorance provoked a more explicit +declaration. "Are there only sisters in the world?" he asked +passionately, yet angry with himself for skirting so near to the edge +of peril. + +"No: there are mothers," said Leam. + +Edgar caught his breath, but again checked himself just in time to +prevent the words "and wives," that rose to his lips. "And friends," +he substituted, with evident constraint and as awkwardly as before. It +was not often that a woman had been able to disconcert Edgar Harrowby +so strangely as did this ignorant and innocent half-breed Spanish +girl. + +"And friends," repeated Leam. "But they are not much." + +"Alick Corfield? He is my good friend," she answered quietly. + +"Yes, I know how much you like him." An understanding ear would have +caught the sneering undertone in these words. + +"Yes, I like him," responded Leam with unmoved gravity. + +"And you are sorry that he is ill--very sorry, awfully sorry?" + +"I am sorry." + +"Would you be as pained if I were ill? and would you come every day +to the Hill to ask after me, as you go to Steel's Corner to ask after +him?" + +"I would be pained if you were ill, but I would not go to the Hill +every day," said Leam. + +"No? Why this unfair preference?" he asked. + +"Because I am not afraid of Mrs. Corfield," she answered. + +"And you are of my mother?" + +"Yes. She is severe." + +"It is severe in you to say so," said Edgar gently. + +"No," said Leam with her proud air. "It is true." + +"Then you would not like to be my mother's daughter?" asked Edgar, +both inflamed and troubled. + +Leam looked him straight in the face, utterly unconscious of his +secret meaning. "No," she answered, her head held high, her dark eyes +proud and fixed, and her small mouth resolute, almost hard. "I would +like to be no one's daughter but mamma's." + +"I do love your fidelity," cried Edgar with a burst of admiration. +"You are the most loyal girl I know." + +She turned pale: her head drooped. "Let us talk of something else," +she said in an altered voice. "Myself is displeasing to me." + +"But if it pleases me?" + +"That is impossible," said Leam. "How can it please you?" + +Was it craft? was it indifference? or was it honest ignorance of the +true motive of a man's words and looks? Edgar pondered for a moment, +but could come to no definite conclusion save rejection of that one +hypothesis of craft. Leam was too savagely direct, too uncompromising, +to be artful. No man who understood women only half so well as Edgar +Harrowby understood them could have credited such a character as hers +with deception. + +He wavered, then, between the alternative of indifference or +ignorance. If the one, he felt bound by self-respect to overcome +it--that self-respect which a man of his temperament puts into his +successes with women; if the other, he must enlighten it. "Does it not +please you to talk of those you like?" he asked after a short pause. + +"Yes," said Leam, her face suddenly softening into tenderness as she +thought of her mother; of whom Edgar did not think. "Talk to me of +Spain and all that you did there." + +"And that would be of what you like?" he asked. + +"Of what I love," returned Leam in a low voice, her eyes lifted to +his, soft and humid. + +"How can I read you? What can I think? What do you want me to +believe?" cried Edgar in strange trouble. + +"What have I said?" she asked with grave surprise. "Why do you speak +like this?" + +"Are you playing with me, or do you want me to understand that you +have made me happy?" he cried, his face, voice, bearing, all changed, +all full of an unknown something that half allured and half frightened +her. + +She turned aside her head with her cold, proud, shrinking air. "I am +not playing with you; and you are silly to say I have made you happy," +she said, shaking her reins lightly and quickening her chestnut's +uneasy pace; and Edgar, quickening the pace of his heavy bay, +thought it wiser to let the moment pass, and so stand free and still +wavering--in doubt and committed to nothing. + +Thus the time wore on, with frequent meetings, always crowded +with doubts and fears, hopes, joys, displeasures in a tangled heap +together, till the drying winds of March set in and cleared off the +last of the fever, which had by now worn itself away, and by degrees +the things of North Aston went back to their normal condition. The +families came into residence again, and save for the widow's wail and +the orphan's cry in the desolated village below, life passed as it had +always passed, and the strong did not spend their strength in bearing +the burdens of the weak. + +The greatest social event that had taken place in consequence of +the epidemic was, that Mr. Dundas had made acquaintance with his new +tenant at Lionnet. Full of painful memories for him as the place was, +he could not let the poor fellow die, he said, with no Christian soul +near him. As a landlord he felt that he owed this mark of humanity to +one of whom, if nothing absolutely good was known, neither was there +anything absolutely bad, save that negative misdemeanor of not coming +to church. As this was not an unpardonable offence to a man who had +traveled much if he had thought little, Mr. Dundas let his humanity +get the upper hand without much difficulty. By which it came about +that he and his new tenant became friends, as the phrase goes, and +that thus another paragraph was added to the restricted page of life +as North Aston knew it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +ONLY A DREAM. + + +Of all those who lived through the fever, poor Alick Corfield's +case had been the most desperate while it lasted. Mr. Gryce, his +fellow-sufferer, had been up and about his usual work, extracting +Aryan roots and impaling Lepidoptera for a month and more, while Alick +was still in bed among ice-bags and Condy's Fluid, and as bad as at +the beginning--indeed, worse, having had a relapse which nothing but +his wiry constitution, backed by his mother's scientific nursing, +could have pulled him through. Gradually the danger passed, and this +time his convalescence was solid, and, though slow, uninterrupted. He +began to creep about the house by the aid of sticks and arms, and he +came down stairs for the first time on the day when the Harrowbys +and Birketts returned home; but he remained in strict quarantine, and +Steel's Corner was scrupulously avoided by the neighbors as the local +lazaretto which it would be sinful to invade. By all but Leam, who +went daily to ask after the invalid, and to keep the mother company +for exactly half an hour by the clock. + +One day when she went on her usual errand Mrs. Corfield met her at the +hall-door, "Alick will be glad to see you, my dear," she called out, +radiant with happiness, as the girl crossed the threshold. "We are in +the drawing-room to-day, as brisk and bonny as a bird: such a treat +for him, poor dear!" + +"I am glad," said Leam, who held a basket of early spring flowers +in her hand. "Now you are happy." Tears came into the poor mother's +haggard eyes. "Happy, child! You do not know what I feel," she said +with tremulous emotion. "Only a mother who has been so near to the +loss of her dearest, so near to heartbreak and despair, as I have +been, can know the blessed joy of the reprieve." + +"How you love him!" said Leam in a half whisper. "I loved mamma like +that." + +"Yes, poor child! I remember," said Mrs. Corfield with compassion. She +forgot that at the time she had thought the girl's love and despair, +both the one and the other, exaggerated and morbid. She met her now on +the platform of sympathy, and her mind saw what it brought to-day as +it had seen what it had brought before, but she was not conscious of +the contradiction. + +"I thought I should have died too when she did. I wish I had," said +Leam, looking up to the sky with dreamy love, as if she still thought +to meet her mother's face in the blue depths. + +"My poor dear! it was terrible for you," sighed the elder woman +sympathetically. "But you must not always mourn, you know. There is +a time for everything, even for forgetting, and for being happy after +sorrow." + +"Never a time for me to forget mamma, nor to be happy," said Leam. + +"Why not?" answered Mrs. Corfield in her impatient way. "You are +young, nice-looking, in tolerably good health, but you are black +round your eyes to-day. You have friends: I am sure all of us, from my +husband downward, think a great deal of you. And Alick has always been +your friend. Why should you not be happy?" + +Leam put the question by. "Yes, you have always been kind to me," she +answered. "I remember when mamma died how you wanted to be kind then. +But I did not understand you as I do now. And how good Alick was! How +sorry I should have been if anything had happened to him now!" Her +beautiful face grew tender with the thought. She did really love Alick +in her girlish, sisterly way. + +Mrs. Corfield looked at her. "Have you never loved any one else as you +loved your poor mother?" she asked. + +Leam lifted her eyes. "Never," she answered simply. "I have liked a +few people since, but love as I loved mamma? No!" + +"Leam, I am going to ask you a straightforward question, and you must +give me a straightforward answer: Which do you like best, my boy or +Edgar Harrowby?" Mrs. Corfield asked this suddenly, as if she wanted +to surprise the girl's secret thought rather than have a deliberate +answer. + +"I like them differently," began Leam without affectation. "Alick is +so unlike Major Harrowby in every way. And then I have known him so +long--since I was a mere child. I feel that I can say what I like to +him: I always did. But Major Harrowby is a stranger, and I am--I don't +know: it is all different. I cannot say what I mean." She hesitated, +stopped, grew pale, glanced aside and looked disturbed; then putting +on her old air of cold pride, she drew herself a few paces away and +said, "Why do you ask me such a question, Mrs. Corfield? You should +not." + +Mrs. Corfield sighed. If Edgar was undecided between his personal +desires and conventional fitness, she was undecided between her +longing to see Alick happy and her dislike to his being happy in any +way but the one she should design for him. He had raved a good deal +during his illness, and had said many mad things connected with +Leam--always Leam; and since his convalescence his mother had seen +clearly enough how his heart was toward her. His pleasure when he +heard that she had been there, his childish delight in anything that +she had brought for him, the feverishness with which he waited to hear +her step, her voice from a distance, always demanding that the doors +should be left open so that he might hear her,--all betrayed to his +mother as plainly as confession would have done the real thoughts of +his heart, and cast a trouble into her own whence she saw no present +satisfactory issue. Though she was fond of Leam now, and grateful to +her for her faithful visits during Alick's illness, yet, just as Edgar +doubted of her fitness as a wife for the master of the Hill, so did +she doubt of her fitness as a daughter-in-law for Steel's Corner. As a +friend she was pleasant enough, with her quaint ways and pretty face; +but as one of the Corfield family, bound to them for ever--what then +would she be? But again, if Alick really loved her, she would not like +to see him disappointed. So, what between her dislike to the marriage +should it ever be, and her fear for Alick's unhappiness should he ask +and be refused, the poor mother was in a state of confused feelings +and contradictory wishes which did not agree with a nature like hers, +given to mathematical certainties and averse to loose ends and frayed +edges anywhere. As nothing more was to be got out of Leam at this +moment, and as Mrs. Corfield knew that Alick would be impatient, they +went into the drawing-room together, Leam carrying her basket of +spring flowers for her old friend. + +It was pitiful to see the poor fellow. Thin, gaunt, plainer than ever, +if also ennobled by that almost saintly dignity which is given by +illness, the first impression made on Leam was one of acute physical +repulsion: the second only gave room to compassion. Fortunately, that +little shudder of hers was unnoticed, and Alick saw only the beloved +face, more beautiful to him than anything out of heaven, with its +grave intensity of look that seemed so full of thought and feeling, +turned to him--saw only those glorious eyes fixed once more straight +on his--felt only the small hand which seemed to give him new life +to touch lying clasped in his own, weak, wasted, whitened, like a dead +hand for color against the warm olive of her skin. It was almost worth +while to have been separated so long to have this joy of meeting; and +he thought his pain and danger not too dearly bought by this exquisite +pleasure of knowing that she had pitied him and cared for him. + +He raised himself from his pillows as he took her small, warm, fibrous +hand, and his pallid face brightened into a tearful smile. "Ah!" he +said, drawing a deep breath, "I am so glad to see you again!" + +"I am glad to see you too," said Leam with a certain sudden +embarrassment, she did not know why, but it came from something that +she saw in his eyes and could not explain even to herself. + +"Are you?" He pressed her hand, which he still held. "It does me good +to hear you say so," he replied. + +"I have brought you some flowers," then said Leam, a little coldly, +drawing away her hand, which she hated to have either held or pressed. + +He took them with a pleased smile. "Our pretty wild-flowers!" he said +gratefully, burying his face in them, so cool and fresh and fragrant +as they were. "They are like the giver," he added after a pause, "only +not so sweet." + +"Do you remember when I persisted to you there were no wild-flowers +in England?" asked Leam, wishing that Alick would not pay her +compliments. + +"Do I remember? That was the first time I saw you," cried Alick. "Of +what else have I thought ever since?" + +"You like wild-flowers and celandine, do you not?" asked poor Leam, +desperately disturbed. "I found them in the wood as I came here." + +"And picked them for me?--up in the corner there by Barton's? I know. +And you went up the lane for them--for me?" he repeated. + +"Yes," said Leam. + +"For me?" he asked again. + +"Why, yes: for whom else could it have been?" answered Leam in the +tone of grave rebuke he knew so well--the tone which always expressed, +"You are stupid." + +Alick's lip quivered. "You are so good," he said. + +"Am I?" asked Leam seriously. + +Then something passed over her face, a kind of gray shadow of +remembrance, and she dropped her eyes. Was she good? and could he +think so? + +A silence fell between them, and each knew of what the other was +thinking; then Leam said suddenly, to break that terrible silence, +which she felt was more betraying than even speech would have +been, "I am sorry you have been so ill. How dreadfully ill you have +been!" + +"Yes," he said, "I have been bad enough, I believe, but by God's grace +I have been spared." + +"It would have been more grace not to have let you get ill in the +beginning," said Leam gravely. + +Alick looked distressed. Should he never Christianize this pagan? +"Don't say that, dear," he remonstrated. "We must not call in question +His will." + +"Things are things," said Leam with her quiet positiveness. "If they +are bad, they are bad, whoever sends them." + +"No. God cannot send us evil," cried Alick. + +"Then He does not send us disease or sorrow," answered Leam. "If He +does, it is silly to say they are good, or that He is kind to make us +ill and wretched. I cannot tell stories. And all you people do." + +"Leam, you pain me so much when you talk like this. It is bad, +dear--impious and unchristian. Ah! can I never bring you to the true +way?" he cried with real pain. + +"You cannot make me tell stories or talk nonsense because you say +it is religious," replied Leam, impervious and unconvinced. "I like +better to tell the truth and call things by their right names." + +"And you cannot feel that we are little children walking in the dark +and that we must accept by faith?" said Alick. + +She shook her head, then answered with a certain tone of triumph in +her voice, "Well, yes, it is the dark: so let it be the dark, and do +not pretend you understand when you do not. Do not say God made you +ill in one breath, and in another that He is kind. It is silly." + +"Now, my boy, don't excite yourself," said Mrs. Corfield, bustling +into the room and noting how the thin cheek had flushed and how bright +and feverish the hollow eyes of her invalid were looking. "You know +the doctor says you are not to be excited or tired. It is the worst +thing in the world for you." + +"I am neither, mother: don't alarm yourself," he answered; "but I must +have a little talk with Leam. I have not seen her for so long. How +long is it, mother?" + +"Well, my dear, you have been ill for over ten weeks," she said as she +went to the window with a sudden gasp. + +"Ten weeks gone out of my life!" he replied. + +"We have all been sorry," said Leam a little vaguely. + +His eyes grew moist. He was weak and easily moved. "Were you very +sorry?" he asked. + +"Very," she answered, for her quite warmly. + +"Then you did not want me to die?" He said this with a yearning look, +raising himself again on his elbow to meet her eyes more straightly. + +"Want you to die?" she repeated in astonishment. "Why should I want +you to die? I want you to get well and live." + +He took her hand again. "God bless you!" he said, and turned his face +to the pillow to conceal that he was weeping. + +Again that gray look of remembrance, passed over her face. She knew +now what he had meant. "No," she said slowly, "I do not want you to +die. You are good, and would harm no one." + +After this visit Leam saw Alick whenever she called at the house, +which, however, was not so often as heretofore, and week by week +became still more seldom. Something was growing up in her heart +against him that made his presence a discomfort. It was not fear +nor moral dislike, but it was a personal distaste that threatened to +become unconquerable. She hated to be with him; hated to see his face +looking at her with such yearning tenderness as abashed her somehow +and made her lower her eyes; hated his endeavors to convert her to +an orthodox acceptance of mysteries she could not understand and of +explanations she could not believe; hated his sadness, hated his joy: +she only wished that he would go away and leave her alone. What did +he mean? What did he want? He was changing from the blushing, awkward, +subservient dog of his early youth, and from the still subservient if +also more argumentative pastor of these later days alike, and she did +not like the new Alick who was gradually creeping into the place of +the old. + +When Mrs. Corfield spoke of taking him to the sea for change of air, +her heart bounded as if a weight had been suddenly removed, and she +said, "Yes, he ought to go," so warmly that the mother was surprised, +wondering if she cared so much for him that the idea of his getting +good elated her beyond herself and made her forget her usual reserve. +She instinctively contrived not to see him alone now when she went to +Steel's Corner during his tedious convalescence, for the poor fellow +mended but slowly, if surely. Either she had only a short time to +stay, and so stood for a moment, making serious talk impossible, or +she took little Fina with her, or maybe she entangled Mrs. Corfield +in the conversation so that she should not leave them alone, the vague +fear and distaste possessing her making her strangely _rusée_ and on +the alert. But one day she was caught. It had to come, and it was only +a question of time. She knew that, as we know when our doom is upon +us. + +Leam had not intended to go in to-day, but Alick, who was in the +garden rejoicing in the warmth and freshness of this tender April +noontide, came to meet her at the second gate, and asked her to come +and sit with him on the garden-seat, there where the budding lilacs +began to show their bloom, and there where they sat on that fatal day +when she had hidden the little phial in her hair and bade him tell her +of flowers till she tired. + +She hesitated, and was on the point of refusing, when he took her by +the upper part of her arm as if to hold her. "Do," he pleaded. "I want +to say something to you." + +"I have no time to stay," she answered, shrinking from his touch. + +"Yes, yes, time enough for all I have to say," he returned. "I beg you +to come with me to-day, Leam--I beg it; and I do not often ask a favor +of you." + +There was something in his manner that seemed to compel Leam to +consent in spite of herself. True, he besought, but also he seemed +almost to command; and if he did not command, then his earnestness was +so strong that she was forced to yield to it. Trembling, but with +her proud little head held straight--wondering what was coming, and +vaguely conscious that whatever it was it would be pain--Leam let +him take her to the garden-seat where the budding lilacs spoke of +springtime freshness and summer beauty. Alick was trembling too, but +from excitement, not from fear. He had made up his mind now, and when +he had once resolved he was not wavering. He would ask her to share +his life, accept his love, and he would thus take on himself half the +burden of her sin. This was how he felt it. If he married her, knowing +all that he knew, he would make himself the partner of her crime, +because he would accept her past like her present--like her future; +and thus he would be equally guilty with her before God. But he would +trust to prayer and the Supreme Mercy to save her and him. He would +carry no merits of devotion as his own claim, but he would have freed +her of half her guilt, and he would be content to bear his own portion +of punishment for this unfathomable gain. It was the man's love, but +also the soul's passionate promise of sacrifice and redemption, that +gave him boldness to plead, power to ask for a grace to which, had +this deep stain of sin never tainted her, he would not have dared to +aspire. But, as it was, his love was her greater safety, and what +he gained in earthly joy he would lose in spiritual peace, while her +partial forgiveness would be bought by the loss of his security of +salvation. Not that she understood all this or ever should, but it +gave him courage. + +"When you first saw me, Leam, after my illness you said that you +wanted me to live," he began in a low voice, husky with emotion. "Do +you mean this?" + +"Yes," she said, looking straight before her. + +"Live for you?" he asked. + +"For us all," she answered. + +"No, not for us all--for you," he returned with insistence. + +"That would be silly," said Leam quietly. "I am not the only person in +the world: you have your mother." + +"For my mother, perhaps; but for the world, nothing. You are the world +to me," said Alick. "Give me your love, and I care for nothing else. +Tell me you will be my wife, and I can live then--live as nothing else +can make me. Leam, can you love me, dear? I have loved you from the +first moment I saw you. Will you be my wife?" + +"Your wife!" cried Leam with an involuntary gesture of repulsion. "You +are dreaming." + +"No, no: I am in full earnest. Tell me that you love me, Leam. Oh, +I believe that you do. Surely I have not deceived myself so far. Why +should you have come every day--every day, as you have done--if you do +not love me? Yes, you do--I know you, do. Say so, Leam, my darling, my +beloved, and put me out of my misery of suspense." + +"You are my good friend: I love you like a friend; but a wife--that is +different," faltered Leam. + +"Yes, but it will come if you try," pleaded Alick, shifting his point +from confidence to entreaty. "Won't you try to love me as I love you, +Leam? Won't you try to love me as a wife loves her husband?" + +She turned away. "I cannot," she answered in a low voice, yet firm +and distinct. It was a voice in which even the most sanguine must have +recognized the accent of hopeless certainty, inevitable despair. + +"Leam, it will be your salvation," cried Alick, taking her hands. +He meant her spiritual salvation, not her personal safety: it was a +prayer, not a threat. + +"You would not force me by anything you may know?" asked Leam in the +same low, firm, distinct voice. "Not even for safety, Alick." + +"Which I would buy with my own," he answered--"with my eternal +salvation." + +"I am not worthy of such love," said Leam trembling. "And oh, dear +Alick, do not blame me, but I cannot return it," she added piteously. + +She saw him start and heard him moan when she said this, but for a +moment he was silent. He seemed half stunned as if by a heavy blow, +but one that he was doing his best to bear. "Tell me so again, Leam. +Let me be convinced," he then said with pathetic calmness, looking +into her face. "You cannot love me?--never? never?" + +"Never," she said, her voice breaking. + +Alick covered his face in his hands, and she saw the tears trickle +slowly through his fingers. He made no com-plaint, no protestation, +only covered up his face and prayed, weeping, recognizing his fate. + +She was sorry and heart-struck. She felt cruel, selfish, ungrateful, +but for all that she could not yield nor say that she would marry him, +trying to love him. Confused images of something dearer than this as +the love of her life passed before her mind. They were images without +recognizable form or tangible substance, but they were the true love, +and this was not like them. No, she could not yield. Sorry as she +might be for him, and was, she could not promise to marry him. + +"Yes," he then said after a pause, lifting up his wan face, +tear-stained and disordered, but making a sad attempt to smile--"yes, +dear Leam, I was, as you say, dreaming. We shall always be friends, +though--brother and sister, as we have been--to the end of our lives, +shall we not?" + +"Yes," was her answer, tears in her own eyes and a kind of wonder at +her hardness running through her repugnance. + +"Thank you, darling, thank you! If you want a friend, and I can be +that friend and can serve you, you will come to me, will you not? You +may want me some day, and you know that I shall not fail you. Don't +you know that, my royal Leam?" + +"I am sure of you," she half whispered, shuddering. To be in his power +and to have rejected him! It all seemed very terrible and confused to +Leam, to whom things complex and entangled were abhorrent. + +"And now forget all this. I was only dreaming, dear. Why, no, of +course you could not have married me--never could--never, never! +I know that well enough now. You see I have been ill," nervously +plucking at his hands, "and have had strange fancies, and I do not +know myself or anything about me quite yet. But forget it all. It was +only a sick fancy, and I thought what did not exist" + +"I am sorry to have hurt you even in fancy," said Leam; giving a sigh +of relief. "I do not like to see you unhappy, Alick. You are so-good +to me." + +"And to the end of my life I shall be what I have been," he said +earnestly. "You can trust me, Leam." + +"I am sorry I have hurt you," she said again, bending forward and +looking up into his face. "But it was only a dream, was it not?" +pleadingly. + +He smiled pitifully, "Yes, dear, only a dream," he answered, turning +away his head. After a while he took her hand and looked into her +face, "And now it has passed," he said, calm that she should not be +sorry. + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +LOVE'S SEPULCHRE. + + Build for my love a costly sepulchre; + Not underneath cathedral arches dim, + Where the sad soul may wake to comfort her + The stately music of a funeral hymn; + + Nor on some wind-swept hill, whose wavering grass + Sways to the summer breezes blowing free, + While the great cedars, rustling as they pass, + Murmur a cadence of the mournful sea; + + Not in the arched depths of the solemn woods, + Within the flickering shadows cool and deep, + Where the still wing of silence ever broods, + And woos the weary soul to dreamless sleep. + + But build it in the temple of my heart, + And from the sacred and mysterious shrine + A flame of deathless memory shall start, + Tended by Sorrow and by Love divine. + + All sweetest recollections of past joy + Shall haunt that shrine, to make it heavenly fair: + All memories of bliss without alloy + Shall cluster in undying beauty there. + + There quiet peace shall hold resistless sway: + Softer than snow the holy hush shall be. + Till even Sorrow gently glide away, + And Love divine alone keep watch with me. + +KATE HILLARD. + + + + +LETTERS FROM SOUTH AFRICA. + +BY LADY BARKER. + + +ALGOA BAY, October 23, 1875. + + +Two days ago we steamed out of Table Bay on just such a gray, +drizzling afternoon as that on which we entered it. But the weather +cleared directly we got out to sea, and since then it has carried us +along as though we had been on a pleasant summer cruise. All yesterday +we were coasting along the low downs which edge the dangerous +sea-board for miles upon miles. From the deck of the Edinburgh Castle +the effect is monotonous enough, although just now everything +is brightly green; and, with their long ribbon fringe of white +breaker-foam glinting in the spring sunshine, the stretches of +undulating hillocks looked their best. This part of the coast is well +lighted, and it was always a matter of felicitation at night when, +every eighty miles or so, the guiding rays of a lighthouse shone out +in the soft gloom of the starlight night. One of these lonely towers +stands more than eight hundred feet above the sea-level, and warns +ships off the terrible Agulhas Bank. + +We have dropped our anchor this fresh bright morning a mile or so from +the shore on which Port Elizabeth stands. Algoa Bay is not much of a +shelter, and it is always a chance whether a sudden south-easter +may not come tearing down upon the shipping, necessitating a sudden +tripping of anchors and running out to sea to avoid the fate which +is staring us warningly in the face in the shape of the gaunt ribs or +rusty cylinders of sundry cast-away vessels. To-day the weather is on +its good behavior; the south-easter rests on its + + aëry nest + As still as a brooding dove; + +and sun and sea are doing their best to show off the queer little +straggling town creeping up the low sandy hills that lie before us. I +am assured that Port Elizabeth is a flourishing mercantile place. From +the deck of our ship I can't at all perceive that it is flourishing, +or doing anything except basking in the pleasant sunshine. But when I +go on shore an hour or two later I am shown a store which takes +away my breath, and before whose miscellaneous contents the +stoutest-hearted female shopper must needs _baisser son pavilion_. +Everything in this vast emporium looked as neat and orderly as +possible, and, though the building was twice as big as the largest +co-operative store in London, there was no hurry or confusion. +Thimbles and ploughs, eau-de-cologne and mangles, American stoves, +cotton dresses of astounding patterns to suit the taste of Dutch +ladies, harmoniums and flat-irons,--all stood peaceably side by side +together. But these were all "unconsidered trifles" next the more +serious business of the establishment, which was wool--wool in every +shape and stage and bale. In this department, however, although for +the sake of the dear old New Zealand days my heart warms at the sight +of the huge packages, I was not supposed to take any interest; so we +pass quickly out into the street again, get into a large open carriage +driven by a black coachman, and make the best of our way up to a +villa on the slope of the sandy hill. Once I am away from the majestic +influence of that store the original feeling of Port Elizabeth being +rather a dreary place comes back upon me; but we drive all about--to +the Park, which may be said to be in its swaddling-clothes _as_ a +park, and to the Botanic Gardens, where the culture of foreign +and colonial flowers and shrubs is carried on under the chronic +difficulties of too much sun and wind and too little water. Everywhere +there is building going on--very modest building, it is true, with +rough-and-ready masonry or timber, and roofs of zinc painted in +strips of light colors, but everywhere there are signs of progress and +growth. People look bored, but healthy, and it does not surprise me in +the least to hear that though there are a good many inhabitants, there +is not much society. A pretty little luncheon and a pleasant hour's +chat in a cool, shady drawing-room, with plenty of new books and music +and flowers, gave me an agreeable impression to carry back on board +the ship; which, by the way, seemed strangely silent and deserted when +we returned, for most of our fellow-passengers had disembarked here on +their way to different parts of the interior. + +As I saunter up and down the clean, smart-looking deck of what has +been our pleasant floating home during these past four weeks, I +suddenly perceive a short, squat pyramid on the shore, standing out +oddly enough among the low-roofed houses. If it had only been red +instead of gray, it might have passed for the model of the label on +Bass's beer--bottles; but, even as it is, I feel convinced that there +is a story connected with it: and so it proves, for this ugly, most +unsentimental-looking bit of masonry was built long ago by a former +governor as a record of the virtues and perfections of his dead wife, +whom, among other lavish epithets of praise, he declares to have been +"the most perfect of women." Anyhow, there it stands, on what was once +a lonely strip of sand and sea, a memorial--if one can only believe +the stone story, now nearly a hundred years old--of a great love and a +great sorrow; and one can envy the one and pity the other just as much +when looking at this queer, unsightly monument as when one stands +on the pure marble threshold of the exquisite Taj Mahal at Agra, and +reads that it too, in all its grace and beauty, was reared "in memory +of an undying love." + +Although the day has been warm and balmy, the evening air strikes +chill and raw, and our last evening on board the dear old ship has to +be spent under shelter, for it is too cold to sit on deck. With the +first hours of daylight next morning we have to be up and packing, for +by ten o'clock we must be on board the Florence, a small, yacht-like +coasting-steamer which can go much closer into the sand-blocked +harbors scooped by the action of the rivers all along the coast. It is +with a very heavy heart that I, for one, say good-bye to the Edinburgh +Castle, where I have passed so many happy hours and made some pleasant +acquaintances. A ship is a very forcing-house of friendship, and no +one who has not taken a voyage can realize how rapidly an acquaintance +grows and ripens into a friend under the lonely influences of sea +and sky. We have all been so happy together, everything has been so +comfortable, everybody so kind, that one would indeed be cold-hearted +if, when the last moment of our halcyon voyage arrived, it could bring +with it anything short of a regret. + +With the same chivalrous goodness and courtesy which has taken thought +for the comfort of our every movement since we left Dartmouth, our +captain insists on seeing us safely on board the Florence (what a +toy-boat she looks after our stately ship!) and satisfying himself +that we can be comfortably settled once more in our doll's house of a +new cabin. Then there comes a reluctant "Good-bye" to him and all +our kind care-takers of the Edinburgh Castle; and the last glimpse we +catch of her--for the Florence darts out of the bay like a swallow in +a hurry--is her dipping her ensign in courteous farewell to us. + +In less than twenty-four hours we had reached another little port, +some hundred and fifty miles or so up the coast, called East London. +Here the harbor is again only an open roadstead, and hardly any vessel +drawing more than three or four feet of water can get in at all near +the shore, for between us and it is a bar of shifting sand, washed +down, day by day, by the strong current of the river Buffalo. All +the cargo has to be transferred to lighters, and a little tug steamer +bustles backward and forward with messages of entreaty to those said +lighters to come out and take away their loads. We had dropped our +anchor by daylight, yet at ten o'clock scarcely a boat had made its +appearance alongside, and every one was fuming and fretting at the +delay and consequent waste of fine weather and daylight. That is to +say, it was a fine bright day overhead, with sunshine and sparkle all +round, but the heavy roll of the sea never ceased for a moment. From +one side to the other, until her ports touched the water, backward and +forward, with slow, monotonous heaving, our little vessel swayed with +the swaying rollers until everybody on board felt sick and sorry. +"This is comparatively a calm day," I was told: "you can't possible +imagine from this what rolling really is." But I _can_ imagine quite +easily, and do not at all desire a closer acquaintance with this +restless Indian Ocean. Breakfast is a moment of penance: little G---- +is absolutely fainting from agonies of sea-sickness, though he has +borne all our South-Atlantic tossings with perfect equanimity; and it +is with real joy that I hear the lifeboat is alongside, and that the +kind-hearted captain of the Florence (_how_ kind sailors are!) offers +to take babies, nurse and me on shore, so as to escape a long day of +this agonizing rolling. In happy unconsciousness of what landing at +East London, even in a lifeboat, meant when a bar had to be crossed, +we were all tumbled and bundled, more or less unceremoniously, into +the great, roomy boat, and were immediately taken in hand by the busy +little tug. For half a mile or more we made good progress in her wake, +being in a position to set at naught the threatening water-mountains +which came tumbling in furious haste from seaward. It was not until we +seemed close to the shore and all our troubles over that the tug was +obliged to cast us off, owing to the rapidly shoaling water, and +we prepared to make the best of our own way in. Bad was that best, +indeed, though the peril came and went so quickly that it is but a +confused impression I retain of what seemed to me a really terrible +moment. One instant I hear felicitations exchanged between our +captain--who sits protectingly close to me and poor, fainting +little G----, who lies like death in my arms--and the captain of the +lifeboat. The next moment, in spite of sudden panic and presence of +danger, I could laugh to hear the latter sing out in sharpest tones +of terror and dismay, "Ah, you would, would you?" coupled with rapid +orders to the stout rowers and shouts to us of "Look out!" and I _do_ +look out, to see on one side sand which the retreating wave has sucked +dry, and in which the boat-seems trying to bury herself as though +she were a mole: on the other hand there towers above us a huge +green wave, white-crested and curled, which is rushing at us like a +devouring monster. I glance, as I think, for the last time, at the +pale nurse, on whose lap lies the baby placidly sucking his bottle. +I see a couple of sailors lay hold of her and the child with one hand +each, whilst with the other they cling desperately to the thwarts. +A stout seafaring man flings the whole weight of his ponderous +pilot-coated body upon G---- and me: I hear a roar of water, and, lo! +we are washed right up alongside of the rude landing-place, still _in_ +the boat indeed, but wet and frightened to the last degree. Looking +back on it all, I can distinctly remember that it was not the sight +of the overhanging wave which cost me my deadliest pang of sickening +fright, but the glimpse I caught of the shining, cruel-looking sand, +sucking us in so silently and greedily. We were all trembling so much +that it seemed as impossible to stand upright on the earth as on the +tossing waters, and it was with reeling, drunken-looking steps that +we rolled and staggered through the heavy sand-street until we reached +the shelter of an exceedingly dirty hotel. Everything in it required +courage to touch, and it was with many qualms that I deposited limp +little G---- on a filthy sofa. However, the mistress of the house +looked clean, and so did the cups and saucers she quickly produced; +and by the time we had finished a capital breakfast we were all quite +in good spirits again, and so sharpened up as to be able to "mock +ourselves" of our past perils and present discomforts. Outside there +were strange, beautiful shrubs in flower, tame pigeons came cooing and +bowing in at the door, and above all there was an enchanting freshness +and balminess in the sunny air. + +In about an hour "Capting Florence" (as G---- styles our new +commander) calls for us and takes us out sight-seeing. First and +foremost, across the river to the rapidly-growing railway lines, where +a brand-new locomotive was hissing away with full steam up. Here we +were met and welcomed by the energetic superintendent of this iron +road, and, to my intense delight, after explaining to me what a long +distance into the interior the line had to go and how fast it was +getting on, considering the difficulties in the way of doing anything +in South Africa, from washing a pocket-handkerchief up to laying down +a railway, he proposed that we should get _on_ the engine and go as +far as the line was open for anything like safe traveling. Never were +such delightful five minutes as those spent in whizzing along through +the park-like country and cutting fast through the heavenly air. In +vain did I smell that my serge skirts were getting dreadfully singed, +in vain did I see most uncertain bits of rail before me: it was all +too perfectly enchanting to care for danger or disgrace, and I could +have found it in my heart to echo G----'s plaintive cry for "More!" +when we came to the end and had to get off. But it consoled us a +little to watch the stone-breaking machine crunching up small rocks as +though they had been lumps of sugar, and after looking at that we set +off for the unfinished station, and could take in, even in its present +skeleton state, how commodious and handsome it will all be some day. +You are all so accustomed to be whisked about the civilized world when +and where you choose that it is difficult to make you understand the +enormous boon the first line of railway is to a new country--not only +for the convenience of travelers, but for the transport of goods, the +setting free of hundreds of cattle and horses and drivers--all sorely +needed for other purposes--and the fast-following effects of opening +up the resources of the back districts. In these regions labor is the +great difficulty, and one needs to hold both patience and temper fast +with both one's hands when watching either Kafir or Coolie at work. +The white man cannot or will not do much with his hands out here, so +the navvies are slim-looking blacks, who jabber and grunt and sigh a +good deal more than they work. + +It is a fortunate circumstance that the delicious air keeps us all in +a chronic state of hunger, for it appears in South Africa that one is +expected to eat every half hour or so. And, shamed am I to confess, +we _do_ eat--and eat with a good appetite too--a delicious luncheon at +the superintendent's, albeit it followed closely on the heels of our +enormous breakfast at the dirty hotel. Such a pretty little bachelor's +box as it was!--so cool and quiet and neat!--built somewhat after the +fashion of the Pompeian houses, with a small square garden full of +orange trees in the centre, and the house running round this opening +in four corridors. After lunch a couple of nice, light Cape carts came +to the door, and we set off to see a beautiful garden whose owner had +all a true Dutchman's passion for flowers. Here was fruit as well as +flowers. Pine-apples and jasmine, strawberries and honeysuckle, +grew side by side with bordering orange trees, feathery bamboos and +sheltering gum trees. In the midst of the garden stood a sort of +double platform, up whose steep border we all climbed: from this we +got a good idea of the slightly undulating land all about, waving down +like solidified billows to where the deep blue waters sparkled and +rolled restlessly beyond the white line of waves ever breaking on the +bar. I miss animal life sadly in these parts: the dogs I see about the +streets are few in number, and miserably currish specimens of their +kind. "Good dogs don't answer out here," I am told: that is to say, +they get a peculiar sort of distemper, or ticks bite them, or they got +weak from loss of blood, or become degenerate in some way. The horses +and cattle are small and poor-looking, and hard-worked, very dear +to buy and very difficult to keep and to feed. I don't even see many +cats, and a pet bird is a rarity. However, as we stood on the breezy +platform I saw a most beautiful wild bird fly over the rose-hedge just +below us. It was about as big as a crow, but with a strange iridescent +plumage. When it flitted into the sunshine its back and wings shone +like a rainbow, and the next moment it looked perfectly black and +velvety in the shade. Now a turquoise-blue tint comes out on its +spreading wings, and a slant in the sunshine turns the blue into a +chrysoprase green. Nobody could tell me its name: our Dutch host spoke +exactly like Hans Breitmann, and declared it was a "bid of a crow," +and so we had to leave it and the platform and come down to more roses +and tea. There was so much yet to be seen and to be done that we could +not stay long, and, laden with magnificent bouquets of _gloire de +Dijon_ roses and honeysuckle, and divers strange and lovely flowers, +we drove off again in our Cape carts. I observed that instead of +saying "Whoa!" or checking the horses in anyway by the reins, the +driver always whistles to them--long, low whistle--and they stand +quite still directly. We bumped up and down, over extraordinarily +rough places, and finally slid down a steep cutting to the brink of +the river Buffalo, over which we were ferried, all standing, on a big +punt, or rather pontoon. A hundred yards or so of rapid driving then +took us to a sort of wharf which projected into the river, where the +important-looking little tug awaited us; and no sooner were we all +safely on board--rather a large party by this time, for we had gone +on picking up stragglers ever since we started, only three in number, +from the hotel--than she sputtered and fizzed herself off up-stream. +By this time it was the afternoon, and I almost despair of making +you see the woodland beauty of that broad mere, fringed down to the +water's edge on one side with shrubs and tangle of roses and woodbine, +with ferns and every lovely green creeping thing. That was on the bank +which was sheltered from the high winds: the other hillside showed the +contrast, for there, though green indeed, only a few feathery tufts +of pliant shrubs had survived the force of some of these south-eastern +gales. We paddled steadily along in mid-stream, and from the bridge +(where little G---- and I had begged "Capting Florence" to let us +stand) one could see the double of each leaf and tendril and +passing cloud mirrored sharp and clear in the crystalline water. The +lengthening shadows from rock and fallen crag were in some places +flung quite across our little boat, and so through the soft, lovely +air, flooded with brightest sunshine, we made our way, up past Picnic +Creek, where another stream joins the Buffalo, and makes miniature +green islands and harbors at its mouth, up as far as the river was +navigable for even so small a steamer as ours. Every one was sorry +when it became time to turn, but there was no choice: the sun-burned, +good-looking captain of the tug held up a warning hand, and round we +went with a wide sweep, under the shadows, out into the sunlight, down +the middle of the stream, all too soon to please us. + +Before we left East London, however, there was one more great work to +be glanced at, and accordingly we paid a hasty visit to the office of +the superintendent of the new harbor-works, and saw plans and drawings +of what will indeed be a magnificent achievement when carried out. +Yard by yard, with patient under-sea sweeping, all that waste of sand +brought down by the Buffalo is being cleared away; yard by yard, two +massive arms of solidest masonry are stretching themselves out beyond +those cruel breakers: the river is being forced into so narrow a +channel that the rush of the water must needs carry the sand far +out to sea in future, and scatter it in soundings where it cannot +accumulate into such a barrier as that which now exists. + +Lighthouses will guard this safe entrance into a tranquil anchorage, +and so, at some not too far distant day, there is good hope that East +London may be one of the most valuable harbors on this vast coast; and +when her railway has reached even the point to which it is at present +projected, nearly two hundred miles away, it will indeed be a thriving +place. Even now, there is a greater air of movement and life and +progress about the little seaport, what with the railway and the +harbor-works, than at any other place I have yet seen; and each +great undertaking is in the hands of men of first-rate ability and +experience, who are as persevering as they are energetic. After +looking well over these most interesting plans there was nothing left +for us to do except to make a sudden raid on the hotel, pick up our +shawls and bags, pay a most moderate bill of seven shillings and +sixpence for breakfast for three people and luncheon for two, and the +use of a room all day, piteously entreat the mistress of the inn to +sell us half a bottle of milk for G----'s breakfast to-morrow--as he +will not drink the preserved milk--and so back again on board the tug. +The difficulty about milk and butter is the first trouble which besets +a family traveling in these parts. Everywhere milk is scarce and poor, +and the butter such as no charwoman would touch in England. In vain +does one behold from the sea thousands of acres of what looks like +undulating green pasturage, and inland the same waving green hillocks +stretch as far as the eye can reach: there is never a sheep or cow to +be seen, and one hears that there is no water, or that the grass +is sour, or that there is a great deal of sickness about among the +animals in that locality. Whatever the cause, the result is the +same--namely, that one has to go down on one's knees for a cupful of +milk, which is but poor, thin stuff at its best, and that Irish salt +butter out of a tub is a costly delicacy. + +Having secured this precious quarter of a bottle of milk, for which +I was really as grateful as though it had been the Koh-i-noor, we +hastened back to the wharf and got on board the little tug again. +"Now for the bridge!" cry G---- and I, for has not Captain Florence +promised us a splendid but safe tossing across the bar? And faithfully +he and the bar and the boat keep their word, for we are in no danger, +it seems, and yet we appear to leap like a race-horse across the strip +of sand, receiving a staggering buffet first on one paddle-wheel and +then on the other from the angry guardian breakers, which seem sworn +foes of boats and passengers. Again and again are we knocked aside by +huge billows, as though the poor little tug were a walnut-shell; again +and again do we recover ourselves, and blunder bravely on, sometimes +with but one paddle in the water, sometimes burying our bowsprit in a +big green wave too high to climb, and dashing right through it as fast +as if we shut our eyes and went at everything. The spray flies high +over our heads, G---- and I are drenched over and over again, but +we shake the sparkling water off our coats, for all the world like +Newfoundland dogs, and are all right again in a moment, "Is that the +very last?" asks G---- reluctantly as we take our last breaker like +a five-barred gate, flying, and find ourselves safe and sound, but +quivering a good deal, in what seems comparatively smooth water. Is it +smooth, though? Look at the Florence and all the other vessels. Still +at it, see-saw, backward and forward, roll, roll, roll! How thankful +we all are to have escaped a long day of sickening, monotonous motion! +But there is the getting on board to be accomplished, for the brave +little tug dare not come too near to her big sister steamboat or +she would roll over on her. So we signal for a boat, and quickly the +largest which the Florence possesses is launched and manned--no +easy task in such a sea, but accomplished in the smartest and most +seamanlike fashion. The sides of the tug are low, so it is not very +difficult to scramble and tumble into the boat, which is laden to the +water's edge by new passengers from East London and their luggage. +When, however, we have reached the rolling Florence it is no easy +matter to get out of the said boat and on board. There is a ladder let +down, indeed, from the Florence's side, but how are we to use it when +one moment half a dozen rungs are buried deep in the sea, and the next +instant ship and ladder and all have rolled right away from us? It has +to be done, however, and what a tower of strength and encouragement +does "Capting Florence" prove himself at this juncture! We are all to +sit perfectly still: no one is to move until his name is called, and +then he is to come unhesitatingly and do exactly what he is told. + +"Pass up the baby!" is the first order which I hear given, and +that astonishing baby is "passed up" accordingly. I use the word +"astonishing" advisedly, for never was an infant so bundled about +uncomplainingly. He is just as often upside down as not; he is +generally handed from one quartermaster to the other by the gathers of +his little blue flannel frock; seas break over his cradle on deck, +but nothing disturbs him. He grins and sleeps and pulls at his bottle +through everything, and grows fatter and browner and more impudent +every day. On this occasion, when--after rivaling Léotard's most +daring feats on the trapeze in my scramble up the side of a vessel +which was lurching away from me--I at last reached the deck, I found +the ship's carpenter nursing the baby, who had seized the poor man's +beard firmly with one hand, and with the finger and thumb of the other +was attempting to pick out one of his merry blue eyes. "Avast +there!" cried the long-suffering sailor, and gladly relinquished the +mischievous bundle to me. + +Up with the anchor, and off we go once more into the gathering +darkness of what turns out to be a wet and windy night. Next day the +weather had recovered its temper, and I was called upon deck directly +after breakfast to see the "Gates of St. John," a really fine pass +on the coast where the river Umzimvubu rushes through great granite +cliffs into the sea. If the exact truth is to be told, I must confess +I am a little disappointed with this coast-scenery. I have heard +so much of its beauty, and as yet, though I have seen it under +exceptionally favorable conditions of calm weather, which has allowed +us to stand in very close to shore, I have not seen anything really +fine until these "Gates" came in view. It has all been monotonous, +undulating downs, here and there dotted with trees, and in some places +the ravines were filled with what we used to call in New Zealand +_bush_--i.e., miscellaneous greenery. Here and there a bold cliff or +tumbled pile of red rock makes a landmark for the passing ships, but +otherwise the uniformity is great indeed. The ordinary weather along +this coast is something frightful, and the great reputation of our +little Florence is built on the method in which she rides dry and safe +as a duck among these stormy waters. Now that we are close to "fair +Natal," the country opens out and improves in beauty. There are still +the same sloping, rolling downs, but higher downs rise behind them, +and again beyond are blue and purpling hills. Here and there, too, are +clusters of fat, dumpy haystacks, which in reality are no haystacks at +all, but Kafir kraals. Just before we pass the cliff and river which +marks where No-Man's Land ends and Natal begins these little locations +are more frequently to be observed, though what their inhabitants +subsist on is a marvel to me, for we are only a mile or so from shore, +and all the seeing power of all the field-glasses on board fails to +discern a solitary animal. We can see lots of babies crawling about +the hole which serves as door to a Kafir hut, and they are all as fat +as little pigs; but what do they live on? Buttermilk, I am told--that +is to say, sour milk, for the true Kafir palate does not appreciate +fresh, sweet milk--and a sort of porridge made of _mealies_. I used +to think "mealies" was a coined word for potatoes, but it really +signifies maize or Indian corn, which is rudely crushed and ground, +and forms the staple food of man and beast. + +In the mean time, we are speeding gayly over the bright waters, never +very calm along this shore. Presently we come to a spot clearly marked +by some odd-colored, tumbled-down cliffs and the remains of a great +iron butt, where, more than a hundred years ago, the Grosvenor, a +splendid clipper ship, was wrecked. The men nearly all perished or +were made away with, but a few women were got on shore and carried +off as prizes to the kraals of the Kafir "inkosis" or chieftains. +What sort of husbands these stalwart warriors made to their reluctant +brides tradition does not say, but it is a fact that almost all the +children were born mad, and their descendants are, many of them, +lunatics or idiots up to the present time. As the afternoon draws on a +chill mist creeps over the hills and provokingly blots out the coast, +which gets more beautiful every league we go. I wanted to remain up +and see the light on the bluff just outside Port d'Urban, but a heavy +shower drove me down to my wee cabin before ten o'clock. Soon after +midnight the rolling of the anchor-chains and the sudden change of +motion from pitching and jumping to the old monotonous roll told us +that we were once more outside a bar, with a heavy sea on, and that +there we must remain until the tug came to fetch us. But, alas! the +tug had to make short work of it next morning, on account of the +unaccommodating state of the tide, and all our hopes of breakfasting +on shore were dashed by a hasty announcement at 5 A.M. that the tug +was alongside, the mails were rapidly being put on board of her, and +that she could not wait for passengers or anything else, because ten +minutes later there would not be water enough to float her over the +bar. + +"When shall _we_ be able to get over the bar?" I asked dolefully. + +"Not until the afternoon," was the prompt and uncompromising reply, +delivered through my keyhole by the authority in charge of us. And he +proved to be quite right; but I am bound to say the time passed more +quickly than we had dared to hope or expect, for an hour later a bold +little fishing-boat made her way through the breakers and across the +bar in the teeth of wind and rain, bringing F---- on board. He has +been out here these eight months, and looks a walking advertisement of +the climate and temperature of our new home, so absolutely healthy +is his appearance. He is very cheery about liking the place, and +particularly insists on the blooming faces and sturdy limbs I +shall see belonging to the young Natalians. Altogether, he appears +thoroughly happy and contented, liking his work, his position, +everything and everybody; which is all extremely satisfactory to +hear. There is so much to tell and so much to behold that, as G---- +declares, "it is afternoon directly," and, the signal-flag being up, +we trip our anchor once more and rush at the bar, two quartermasters +and an officer at the wheel, the pilot and captain on the bridge, all +hands on deck and on the alert, for always, under the most favorable +circumstances, the next five minutes hold a peril in every second, +"Stand by for spray!" sings out somebody, and we do stand by, luckily +for ourselves, for "spray" means the top of two or three waves. The +dear little Florence is as plucky as she is pretty, and appears to +shut her eyes and lower her head and go _at_ the bar. Scrape, scrape, +scrape! "We've stuck! No, we haven't! Helm hard down! Over!" and so +we are. Among the breakers, it is true, buffeted hither and thither, +knocked first to one side and then to the other; but we keep right on, +and a few more turns of the screw take us into calm water under the +green hills of the bluff. The breakers are behind us, we have twenty +fathoms of water under our keel, the voyage is ended and over, the +captain takes off his straw hat to mop his curly head, everybody's +face loses the expression of anxiety and rigidity it has worn these +past ten minutes, and boats swarm like locusts round the ship. The +baby is passed over the ship's side for the last time, having been +well kissed and petted and praised by every one as he was handed from +one to the other, and we row swiftly away to the low sandy shore of +the "Point." + +Only a few warehouses, or rather sheds of warehouses, are to be +seen, and a rude sort of railway-station, which appears to afford +indiscriminate shelter to boats as well as to engines. There are +leisurely trains which saunter into the town of D'Urban, a mile and a +half away, every half hour or so, but one of these "crawlers" had just +started. The sun was very hot, and we voyagers were all sadly +weary and headachy. But the best of the colonies is the prompt, +self-sacrificing kindness of old-comers to new-comers. A gentleman had +driven down in his own nice, comfortable pony-carriage, and without a +moment's hesitation he insisted on our all getting into it and making +the best of our way to our hotel. It is too good an offer to be +refused, for the sun is hot and the babies are tired to death; so we +start, slowly enough, to plough our way through heavy sand up to the +axles. If the tide had been out we could have driven quickly along the +hard, dry sand; but we comfort ourselves by remembering that there +had been water enough on the bar, and make the best of our way through +clouds of impalpable dust to a better road, of which a couple of +hundred yards land us at our hotel. It looks bare and unfurnished +enough, in all conscience, but it is a new place, and must be +furnished by degrees. At all events, it is tolerably clean and quiet, +and we can wash our sunburned faces and hands, and, as nurse says, +"turn ourselves round." + +Coolies swarm in every direction, picturesque fish- and fruit-sellers +throng the verandah of the kitchen a little way off, and everything +looks bright and green and fresh, having been well washed by the +recent rains. There are still, however, several feet of dust in the +streets, for they are _made_ of dust; and my own private impression +is, that all the water in the harbor would not suffice to lay the dust +of D'Urban for more than half an hour. With the restlessness of people +who have been cooped up on board ship for a month, we insist, the +moment it is cool enough, on being taken out for a walk. Fortunately, +the public gardens are close at hand, and we amuse ourselves very well +in them for an hour or two, but we are all thoroughly tired and worn +out, and glad to get to bed, even in gaunt, narrow rooms on hard +pallets. + +The two following days were spent in looking after and collecting +our cumbrous array of boxes and baskets. Tin baths, wicker chairs and +baskets, all had to be counted and recounted, until one got weary of +the word "luggage;" but that is the penalty of drafting babies about +the world. In the intervals of the serious business of tracing No. 5 +or running No. 10 to earth in the corner of a warehouse, I made many +pleasant acquaintances and received kindest words and notes of welcome +from unknown friends. All this warm-hearted, unconventional kindness +goes far to make the stranger forget his "own people and his father's +house," and feel at once at home amid strange and unfamiliar scenes. +After all, "home" is portable, luckily, and a welcoming smile and +hand-clasp act as a spell to create it in any place. We also managed, +after business-hours, when it was of no use making expeditions to +wharf or custom-house after recusant carpet-bags, to drive to +the Botanic Gardens. They are extensive and well kept, but seem +principally devoted to shrubs. I was assured that this is the worst +time of year for flowers, as the plants have not yet recovered +from the winter drought. A dry winter and wet summer is the correct +atmospheric fashion here: in winter everything is brown and dusty and +dried up, in summer green and fragrant and well watered. The gardens +are in good order, and I rather regretted not being able to examine +them more thoroughly. Another afternoon we drove to the Berea, a +sort of suburban Richmond, where the rich semi-tropical vegetation is +cleared away in patches, and villas with pretty pleasure-grounds +are springing up in every direction. The road winds up the +luxuriantly-clothed slopes, with every here and there lovely sea-views +of the harbor, with the purpling lights of the Indian Ocean stretching +away beyond. Every villa must have an enchanting prospect from its +front door, and one can quite understand how alluring to the merchants +and business--men of D'Urban must be the idea of getting away after +office-hours, and sleeping on such; high ground in so fresh and +healthy an: atmosphere. And here I must say that we Maritzburgians (I +am only one in prospective) wage a constant and deadly warfare with +the D'Urbanites on the score of the health and convenience of our +respective cities. _We_ are two thousand feet above the sea and +fifty-two miles inland, so we talk in a pitying tone of the poor +D'Urbanites as dwellers in a very hot and unhealthy place. "Relaxing" +is the word we apply to their climate when we want to be particularly +nasty, and they retaliate by reminding us that they are ever so much +older than we are (which is an advantage in a colony), and that they +are on the coast, and can grow all manner of nice things which we +cannot compass, to say nothing of their climate being more equable +than ours, and their thunderstorms, though longer in duration, mere +flashes in the pan compared to what we in our amphitheatre of hills +have to undergo at the hands of the electric current. We never can +find answer to that taunt, and if the D'Urbanites only follow up their +victory by allusions to their abounding bananas and other fruits, +their vicinity to the shipping, and consequent facility of getting +almost anything quite easily, we are completely silenced, and it is a +wonder if we retain presence of mind enough to murmur "Flies." On the +score of dust we are about equal, but I must in fairness confess that +D'Urban is a more lively and a better-looking town than Maritzburg +when you are in it, though the effect from a distance is not so +good. It is very odd how unevenly the necessaries of existence are +distributed in this country. Here at D'Urban anything hard in the +way of stone is a treasure: everything is soft and friable: sand and +finest shingle, so fine as to be mere dust, are all the available +material for road-making. I am told that later on I shall find that +a cartload of sand in Maritzburg is indeed a rare and costly thing: +there we are all rock, a sort of flaky, slaty rock underlying every +place. Our last day, or rather half day, in D'Urban was very full of +sightseeing and work. F---- was extremely anxious for me to see the +sun rise from the signal-station on the bluff, and accordingly he, +G---- and I started with the earliest dawn. We drove through the sand +again in a hired and springless Cape cart down to the Point, got into +the port-captain's boat and rowed across a little strip of sand at the +foot of a winding path cut out of the dense vegetation which makes +the bluff such a refreshingly green headland to eyes of wave-worn +voyagers. A stalwart Kafir carried our picnic basket, with tea and +milk, bread and butter and eggs, up the hill, and it was delightful +to follow the windings of the path through beautiful bushes bearing +strange and lovely flowers, and knit together in patches in a green +tangle by the tendrils of a convolvulus or clematis, or sort of wild, +passion-flower, whose blossoms were opening to the fresh morning air. +It was a cool but misty morning, and though we got to our destination +in ample time, there was never any sunrise at all to be seen. In fact, +the sun steadily declined to get up the whole day, so far as I knew, +for the sea looked gray and solemn and sleepy, and the land kept its +drowsy mantle of haze over its flat shore; which haze thickened and +deepened into a Scotch mist as the morning wore on. We returned by +the leisurely railway--a railway so calm and stately in its method +of progression that it is not at all unusual to see a passenger step +calmly out of the train when it is at its fullest speed of crawl, +and wave his hand to his companions as he disappears down the by-path +leading to his little home. The passengers are conveyed at a uniform +rate of sixpence a head, which sixpence is collected promiscuously +by a small boy at odd moments during the journey. There are no nice +distinctions of class, either, for we all travel amicably together in +compartments which are a judicious mixture of a third-class carriage +and a cattle-truck. Of course, wood is the only fuel used, and that +but sparingly, for it is exceedingly costly. + +There was still much to be done by the afternoon--many visitors to +receive, notes to write and packages to arrange, for our traveling of +these fifty-two miles spreads itself over a good many hours, as you +will see. About three o'clock the government mule-wagon came to the +door. It may truly and literally be described as "stopping the way," +for not only is the wagon itself a huge and cumbrous machine, but +it is drawn by eight mules in pairs, and driven by a couple of black +drivers. I say "driven by a couple of drivers," because the driving +was evidently an affair of copartnership: one held the reins--such +elaborate reins as they were! a confused tangle of leather--and the +other had the care of two or three whips of differing lengths. The +drivers were both jet black--not Kafirs, but Cape blacks--descendants +of the old slaves taken by the Dutch. They appeared to be great +friends, these two, and took earnest counsel together at every rut and +drain and steep pinch of the road, which stretched away, over hill and +dale, before us, a broad red track, with high green hedges on either +hand. Although the rain had not yet fallen long or heavily, the +ditches were all running freely with red, muddy water, and the dust +had already begun to cake itself into a sticky, pasty red clay. The +wagon was shut in by curtains at the back and sides, and could hold +eight passengers easily. Luckily for the poor mules, however, we +were only five grown-up people, including the drivers. The road was +extremely pretty, and the town looked very picturesque as we gradually +rose above it and looked down on it and the harbor together. Of a +fine, clear afternoon it would have been still nicer, though I was +much congratulated on the falling rain on account of the absence of +its alternative--dust. Still, it was possible to have too much of a +good thing, and by the time we reached Pine Town, only fourteen miles +away, the heavy roads were beginning to tell on the poor mules, and +the chill damp of the closing evening made us all only too thankful to +get under the shelter of a roadside inn (or hotel, as they are called +here), which was snug and bright and comfortable enough to be a credit +to any colony. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to be +told that this inn was not only a favorite place for people to come +out to from D'Urban to spend their holiday time in fine weather (there +is a pretty little church in the village hard by), but also that it +was quite _de rigueur_ for all honeymoons to be spent amid its pretty +scenery. + +A steady downpour of rain all through the night made our early start +next day an affair of doubt and discouragement and dismal prophecy; +but we persevered, and accomplished another long stage through a cold +persistent drizzle before reaching an inn, where we enjoyed simply the +best breakfast I ever tasted, or at all events the best I have tasted +in Natal. The mules were also unharnessed, and after taking, each, a +good roll on the damp grass, turned out in the drizzling rain for a +rest and a nibble until their more substantial repast was ready. The +rain cleared up from time to time, but an occasional heavy shower +warned us that the weather was still sulky. It was in much better +heart and spirits, however, that we made a second start about eleven +o'clock, and struggled on through heavy roads up and down weary hills, +slipping here, sliding there, and threatening to stick everywhere. +Our next stage was to a place where the only available shelter was a +filthy inn, at which we lingered as short a time as practicable--only +long enough, in fact, to feed the mules--and then, with every prospect +of a finer afternoon, set out once more on the last and longest stage +of our journey. All the way the road has been very beautiful, in spite +of the shrouding mist, especially at the Inchanga Pass, where round +the shoulder of the hill as fair a prospect of curved green hills, +dotted with clusters of timber exactly like an English park, of +distant ranges rising in softly-rounded outlines, with deep violet +shadows in the clefts and pale green lights on the slopes, stretches +before you as the heart of painter could desire. Nestling out of sight +amid this rich pasture-land are the kraals of a large Kafir location, +and no one can say that these, the children of the soil, have not +secured one of the most favored spots. To me it all looked like a fair +mirage. I am already sick of beholding all this lovely country +lying around, and yet of being told that food and fuel are almost at +famine-prices. People say, "Oh, but you should see it in winter. _Now_ +it is green, and there is plenty of feed on it, but three months ago +no grass-eating creature could have picked up a living on all the +country-side. It is all as brown and bare as parchment for half the +year. _This_ is the spring." Can you not imagine how provoking it is +to hear such statements made by old settlers, who know the place only +too well, and to find out that all the radiant beauty which greets +the traveler's eye is illusive, for in many places there are miles and +miles without a drop of water for the flock and herds; consequently, +there are no means of transport for all this fuel until the days of +railways? Besides which, through Natal lies the great highway to +the Diamond Fields, the Transvaal and the Free States, and all the +opening-up country beyond; so it is more profitable to drive a wagon +than to till a farm. Every beast with four legs is wanted to drag +building materials or provisions. The supply of beef becomes daily +more precarious and costly, for the oxen are all "treking," and +one hears of nothing but diseases among animals--"horse sickness," +pleuro-pneumonia, fowl sickness (I feel it an impertinence for the +poultry to presume to be ill), and even dogs set up a peculiar and +fatal sort of distemper among themselves. + +But to return to the last hours of our journey. The mules struggle +bravely along, though their ears are beginning to flap about any way, +instead of being held straight and sharply pricked forward, and the +encouraging cries of "Pull up, Capting! now then, Blue-bok, hi!" +become more and more frequent: the driver in charge of the whips is +less nice in his choice of a scourge with which to urge on the patient +animals, and whacks them soundly with whichever comes first. The +children have long ago wearied of the confinement and darkness of +the back seats of the hooded vehicle; we are all black and blue from +jolting in and out of deep holes hidden by mud which occur at every +yard; but still our flagging spirits keep pretty good, for _our_ +little Table Mountain has been left behind, whilst before us, leaning +up in one corner of an amphitheatre of hills, are the trees which mark +where Maritzburg nestles. The mules see it too, and, sniffing their +stables afar off, jog along faster. Only one more rise to pull up: we +turn a little off the high-road, and there, amid a young plantation +of trees, with roses, honeysuckle and passion-flowers climbing up the +posts of the wide verandah, a fair and enchanting prospect lying +at our feet, stands our new home, with its broad red tiled roof +stretching out a friendly welcome to the tired, belated travelers. + + + + +A SYLVAN SEARCH. + + + I. + + From tales of rural gods I rose, + And sought them through the woody deeps, + Where, held in shadowy, sweet repose, + The sunshine, like Endymion, sleeps-- + Where murmurous waters softly sing + To listening branches, bended low, + And tuneful birds on waving wing, + As Zephyrus, gently come and go. + + + II. + + Vainly I sought the gods, yet heard + Their whispering spirits say to mine, + "Who seeks us finds the forests stirred + By myriad voices all divine, + And learns that still the mystic spell + Of fauns and dryads fills the place + With beauty myths have failed to tell-- + One god in every hidden face." + +MARY B. DODGE. + + + + +THE SONGS OF MIRZA-SCHAFFY. + + +It was in Vienna during the stormy days of October, 1848. The sky was +lurid with the glow of surrounding conflagrations: roof and turret +were illumined by the glaring reflection of the sea of fire, while +the broad Danube madly stretched forth its blood-red tongue to the +blood-red walls of the city. The clashing of weapons and rolling of +drums resounded through the streets. Every house became in its turn a +fortress, every window a porthole. During these days of horror there +assembled in the evening at the dwelling of Friedrich Bodenstedt a +circle of friends, who sought in conversation on literary topics some +relief after the agitating experiences of the day. + +"Bodenstedt," exclaimed Auerbach on one of these occasions, "tell +us of your adventures in the East. Awake with blithesome touch the +memories of your past: transport us into a new world where will be +dispelled the gloom of the present." + +"Yes, do," chimed in the rest, drawing their chairs closer together. + +"Tell us, above all, of your famous teacher, Mirza-Schaffy," added +Kaufmann. + +One usually narrates one's experiences best in a circle of sympathetic +listeners, and even under ordinary circumstances Bodenstedt was +esteemed a good talker. Soon a spirit of cheerfulness prevailed, and +as the friends sat far into the night, the tumult without, the burning +suburbs, the beat of drums and the firing of cannons were forgotten. + +Night after night the friends met--poets, philosophers, men of +learning, artists--and sat, to use Bodenstedt's own words, "on the +carpet of expectation, smoked the pipe of satisfaction, saw the +sunshine of wine sparkle up from the flask, and fished for words of +pearls with the delicate nets of the ears." The story of Eastern life +grew and rounded in its proportions, and Auerbach, who seemed most of +all entranced, insisted that the source of so fascinating a narrative +should be guided through the "canal of the pen into the sea of +publicity." Bodenstedt demurred, maintaining that the "art-hewn path +from the head to the hand" was far more difficult to traverse than the +natural one from the mouth to the ear. + +"Yes, but it leads farther," rejoined Auerbach, "and what pleases us, +who listen, you may rest assured, with critical ears, cannot fail to +please in more extended circles." + +Upon this foundation arose that delightful book, _A Thousand and One +Days in the Orient_, which was the occasion of one of the most +amusing mystifications and controversies that ever occupied the German +literary world. + +Friedrich Bodenstedt was born at Peine in Hanover, April 21, 1819. +Notwithstanding his precocious intellectuality and remarkable poetic +talents, he was condemned by his parents to a mercantile career. After +a mournful apprenticeship he managed, however, to escape from this +uncongenial employment, and pursued a course of study at Göttingen, +Munich and Berlin, devoting himself chiefly to philology and history. +The year 1840 found him in Moscow as private tutor in the family of +Prince Galitzin, and shortly after he published his first volume of +poetry. Later, he was appointed teacher of languages at the Tiflis +Gymnasium, and the result of his learned investigations here were +given to the world in his _People of Caucasus_, in which, however, +were wholly thrust into the background poetical reminiscences evoked, +as we have seen, by gifted and genial friends. + +During his sojourn in Tiflis, the mountain-encompassed capital of +Georgia, Bodenstedt undertook the study of the Tartar language, +finding it to be a universally-employed means of communication with +the many-tongued races of Caucasus. Among the numerous teachers +recommended to him, he selected one called Mirza-Schaffy, "the wise +man of Gjändsha," being attracted to him partly because of his calm, +dignified demeanor, partly because he possessed a sufficient knowledge +of Russian, with which Bodenstedt was perfectly familiar, to render +intercourse easy and agreeable. + +Here it may not be amiss to observe that "Mirza" is a title which +placed before a proper name signifies "scribe"--after a name it +designates a prince. Thus, Mirza-Schaff[^y] means "Scribe Schaffy," +but Schaffy-Mirzâ would mean "Prince Schaffy." Each word, when +pronounced separately, has the accent on the last syllable, but +together they are pronounced as one word, with the accent on the final +syllable. + +The Tartars possess no such brilliant stores of literature as the +Persians, but they are endowed with a manly vigor which the latter +have lost. Mirza-Schaffy was a Tartar by birth, nurtured with Persian +culture, and was, when Bodenstedt made his acquaintance, in December, +1843, a man of some forty years of age, of very stately appearance +and excessive neatness. He wore a soft silken suit, about which he +carelessly draped a blue Turkish cloak, while a tall black sheep-skin +hat of sugar-loaf form adorned his shapely head. A dark, well-tended +beard framed his handsomely chiseled face, whose calm, earnest +expression was heightened by the deep, rich hue of his complexion, and +his large, serious eyes were void of the usual cunning of his class. +His high-heeled slippers, whose purity he miraculously preserved +unimpaired when mud was at its height in the streets of Tiflis, he +left always at the threshold of his pupil's room, pressing carpet and +divan only with his immaculate variegated stockings. + +But Mirza-Schaffy's main charm lay in his thorough genuineness, +his earnestness of purpose and the tranquillity of his whole being. +Misfortune and sorrow had visited him in many forms, leaving their +impress on his brow, yet he had not been crushed; and thoroughly as he +appreciated the refined enjoyments of life, he could most gracefully +renounce luxuries attainable only by Fortune's favorites. So long as +he could have his _tschibuq_ filled with good tobacco and his goblet +with good wine, both of which were plentiful in Tiflis, he seemed +content with the entire dispensation of the world. Highly as he +prized, however, the beneficent effects of wine, he was an enemy to +excess, having made moderation in all things the law of his life. + +The whole atmosphere surrounding the man produced a deep and lasting +impression on Bodenstedt, who, longing to immortalize the name of one +who had unfolded to him the treasures of Eastern lore, and from whom +he had derived so much pleasure and profit, conceived the idea of +representing his teacher in his public characterization with poetic +freedom, as a type of the Eastern poet and man of learning. Poet, +Mirza-Schaffy was not in reality, for although he was skilled in the +art of rhyming, and could translate with ease any simple song from +the Persian into the Tartar language, Bodenstedt found only one of his +original efforts which was worthy of preservation. The song referred +to was one hurled, as it were, at the head of an offending mullah who +had derided Mirza-Schaffy for his tenderness to wine, and reads as +follows: + + Mullah! pure is our wine: + It to revile were sin. + Shouldst thou censure my word, + May'st find truth therein! + + No devotion hath me + To thy mosque led to pray: + Through wine render'd free, + I have chanced there to stray. + +All other poems introduced into the _Thousand and One Days in the +Orient_ are entirely of Bodenstedt's own composition, were designed +to add flavor to the picture of an Eastern divan of wisdom, and were +usually written while the impression was fresh of intercourse with the +wise man of Gjändsha. Shortly after the appearance of the book, which +was well received by the public, the publisher proposed to Bodenstedt +to issue separately the poems contained in it; and this was finally +done in an attractive volume entitled _The Songs of Mirza-Schaffy_, +many additions being made to the original collection. Of these, one of +the most fresh and sparkling is a spring song, which has never before +appeared in English, and which we present as a fitting introduction: + + When young Spring up mountain-peaks doth hie, + And the sunbeams scatter stores of snow-- + When the trees put forth their leaflets shy, + And amid grass the first wild flower doth blow-- + When in yonder vale + Fleeth in a gale + All the dolesome rain and wintry wail, + Rings from upland air + Forth to many a clime, + "Oh, how wond'rous fair + Is the glad spring-time!" + + When the glaciers quail 'neath hot sunbeams, + And all Nature into life doth spring-- + When from mountain-sides gush forth cool streams, + And with sounds of glee the forests ring-- + Fragrant zephyrs too + Stray the green meads through + And the heavens smile, serene and blue. + While from upland air + Rings to many a clime, + "Oh, how wond'rous fair + Is the glad spring-time!" + + And was it not in the days of spring + That thy heart and mine, O maiden fair! + Were united, while our lips did cling + In their first long kiss, so sweet and rare? + What the glad grove sang + Through the wide vale rang, + And the fresh stream from the mountain sprang. + While the upland air + Wafted forth its rhyme, + "Oh, how wond'rous fair + Is the glad spring-time!" + +Seldom has a volume of poems been received with more general applause. +Their renown spread rapidly through their native land; constantly +increasing demand for copies rendered needful frequent new editions, +to which at divers times were added by the author freshly-created +poems; and the interest is still alive, now nearly quarter of a +century after their first appearance, when they have passed their +fiftieth edition. They have been at one time or other translated into +most of the modern tongues of Europe; and that they have never gained +popularity with us is due probably to the fact that in those which +have been translated into our tongue neither the essence nor the form +of the original has been preserved. By the title no mystification was +ever designed: it came, as it were, of itself, and the purport of +the narrative through which the main songs were interwoven being well +known, it was never, supposed that a doubt concerning the authorship +could arise. Nevertheless, the critics accepted them as translations +from the Persian, and sharp lines of distinction were drawn between +the poet, Mirza-Schaffy, and his translator, Friedrich Bodenstedt, +not precisely to the advantage of the latter. Many a hearty laugh +did Bodenstedt indulge in on reading in one or another learned +dissertation that he was the possessor of a very neat poetic talent, +and frequently reminded one in his original compositions of the works +of his genial teacher, Mirza-Schaffy, of which he had given admirable +translations, though without attaining to the excellence of the +original. Now, a poet, in the wildest flights of his imagination, +could not hope for a more brilliant success for the poetic fiction +of his own creation than to have it accepted by the world as a living +reality. In this he would naturally delight, even though his own +personality were for a time thrust into the background, precisely like +a loving father whose children meet with better fortune in life than +himself. Sundry renditions into foreign tongues were even announced as +direct translations from the Persian. + +After the death of the real Mirza-Schaffy in 1852, which was duly +announced by the press, sundry efforts were made by Eastern travelers +to visit his grave in Tiflis and gain those particulars concerning +him and his writings which Bodenstedt was supposed to have selfishly +withheld from the public. Of these, one of the most prominent was +Professor H. Brugsch, secretary of the Prussian embassy to Persia in +1860, who in his book of travels thus descants on his futile efforts: +"No one could inform us where the last earthly remains of a certain +Mirza-Schaffy were laid to rest. We consoled ourselves with the +reflection that neither mounds nor monuments are requisite to preserve +a poet's fame, but that through his songs is his name transmitted to +posterity. Yet even here we were doomed to disappointment. No one +whom we encountered knew aught of the songs of the jovial, genial +Mirza-Schaffy which in our German Fatherland have penetrated to the +very life of the people." + +Some years later the Russian imperial state counselor Bergé, while +chief of educational institutions in Caucasus, also made the matter +a subject of investigation, and in the year 1870 gave the history +thereof to the world in the _Journal of the German Oriental Society_. +He tells of his vain efforts to learn something of the genius of +Mirza-Schaffy in his own land, and the amusement he created by his +queries concerning possible posthumous works, and finally settles the +question beyond dispute concerning the authorship of the poems. + +After this, Bodenstedt yielded to the solicitations of friends to give +in the pages of the popular German magazine _Daheim_ a correct version +of the whole affair. + +Let the reader present to his mind's eye a picture of the Eastern +scribe, clad in the apparel before described, seated on the +comfortable divan, with legs crossed after the fashion of the country, +the long _tschibuq_ caressingly held in one hand, the other uplifted, +and with finger pointed to his brow, haranguing the German man of +letters at his side on the advantages to be enjoyed under his tuition, +and on the idle pretensions of those who call themselves learned +without so much as comprehending the sacred languages. He cherished, +however, the pious hope that in the course of time, thanks to his +efforts, the enlightenment of the East might take effect in the West, +which hope was strengthened by the encouraging fact that Bodenstedt +was the fifth scholar who had felt the need of migrating to Tiflis to +profit by his instructions. In his excess of national modesty the wise +man of Gjändsha only styled himself the first wise man of the East, +but since the children of the West dwelt under a dark cloud of +unbelief, it resulted as a matter of course that he must be the wisest +of all men. + +"I, Mirza-Schaffy," said he to his pupil, "am the first wise man +of the East, consequently thou, as my disciple, art the second. But +misunderstand me not. I have a friend, Omar Effendi, an extremely wise +man, who verily is not third among the learned scribes of the land. +Did not I live, and were Omar Effendi thy teacher, he would be first, +and thou the second wise man." + +On being asked what he should do if told that the wise men of the West +would consider him as deficient in enlightenment as he did them, he +rejoined, "What could I do but be amazed at their folly? What new +thing can I learn from their opinions when they merely repeat my own?" +Hence the song: + + Shall I laugh or fall to wailing + That the most of men so dumb are, + Ever borrowed thoughts retailing, + And in mother-wit so mum are? + + No: thanksgiving heavenward rise + That fools so crowd this generation, + Else the wisdom of the wise + Would be lost to observation. + +Numerous rivals envied Mirza-Schaffy his lessons, for each of which +he was paid a whole silver ruble--an unusually high tuition-fee. Most +formidable among these was Mirza-Jussuf (Joseph), the wise man of +Bagdad, who called one day on Bodenstedt and boldly informed him that +the revered Mirza-Schaffy was an Ischekj ("an ass") among the bearers +of wisdom--that he could not write properly, and could not sing +at all. "And what is wisdom without song?" he exclaimed. "What is +Mirza-Schaffy compared with me?" With bewildering eloquence he set +forth his own superior accomplishments, dwelling largely on his name, +which had been exalted by the Hebrew poet Moses as well as by +the Persian poet Hafiz, and exerting himself to prove that the +significance of a great name must be transmitted to all future bearers +thereof. He was still speaking when a measured tread was heard in +the ante-chamber, and Mirza-Schaffy himself drew near. He appeared to +comprehend intuitively the cause of the guest's presence, for he cast +on Jussuf, who had become suddenly stricken with modesty, a glance +of withering contempt, and was about giving vent to his emotions when +Bodenstedt interposed with the words, "Mirza-Schaffy, wise man of +Gjändsha, what have my ears heard? You undertake to instruct me, and +you can neither write nor sing! You are an Ischekj among the bearers +of wisdom: thus sayeth Mirza-Jussuf, the wise man of Bagdad." + +Without deigning a word of reply, Mirza-Schaffy clapped his hands, a +sign at which the servant usually brought him a fresh pipe, but +this time he demanded his thick-soled slippers. With one of these he +proceeded to so unmercifully belabor the wise man of Bagdad that the +latter besought mercy with the most appealing words and gestures. But +the chastiser was inexorable. "What?" said he. "I cannot sing, dost +thou say? Wait, I will make music for thee! And I cannot write, +either? Let it be, then, on thy head!" Whimpering and writhing beneath +the blows accompanying these words, the wise man of Bagdad staggered +toward the door and vanished from sight. + +More calmly than might have been anticipated did Mirza-Schaffy return +from the contest of wisdom, and promptly taking his usual seat on the +divan, he began to exhort his German disciple to lend no ear to such +false teachers as Jussuf and his fellows, whose name, he said, was +legion, whose avarice was greater than their wisdom, and whose aim was +to plunder, not teach, their pupils. + +Later, Jussuf strove to win Bodenstedt by repeated messages, +accompanied by songs in the most exquisite handwriting. +Mirza-Schaffy's opinion concerning these compositions is embodied in +quite a number of songs, of which space must be found for one: + + Forsooth! is Mirza-Jussuf a very well-read man! + Now searcheth he Hafiz, now searcheth the Koran, + Now Dshamy and Chakany, and now the _Gülistan_. + Here stealeth he a symbol, and there doth steal a flower, + Here robbeth precious thoughts, and there a true word's power. + He giveth as his own what has been said before, + Transplanted! the whole world into his tedious lore; + And proudly decketh he his prey with borrowed plumes, + Then flauntingly that this is poetry assumes. + + How differently lives and sings Mirza-Schaffy! + A glowing star his heart to lighten paths of gloom, + His mind a blooming garden, filled with sweet perfume, + And in his rich creations no plagiarist is he: + His songs are full of beauty, and perfect as can be. + +Mirza-Schaffy himself was a miracle of skill in chirography: none +could equal him in wielding the _kalem_. His aim was not to impart a +precise regularity to the characters, but to indicate by the writing +the matter and style. Proverbs or utterances of wisdom were indited +by him in a firm, bold hand with unadorned simplicity; love-songs with +delicate, clear-cut lines, attractive capricious curves, enigmatical, +almost illegible minuteness, designed to set forth the type of female +character. The chirography of the songs to wine and earthly pleasure +is full of fire and flourish--that of the songs of lamentation neat, +legible and unadorned. To impart this skill to his pupil was one of +his most earnest endeavors. + +One day, when inspired by choice wine and soothed by the fragrant +fumes of his _tschibuq_, Mirza-Schaffy was moved to tell of the love +his heart had cherished--love such as man had never before known. The +object of his adoration was Zuléikha, daughter of Ibrahim, the chan of +Gjändsha. Her eyes, darker than the night, shone with a brighter +glow than the stars of heaven: passing description were the graceful +loveliness of her form, the dainty perfection of hands and feet, her +soft hair long as eternity, and the sweet mouth whose breath was more +fragrant than the roses of Schiraz. He who was destined to be her +slave had watched her daily for six months--as she sat on the housetop +at midday with her companions, or on moonlight evenings when she +amused herself with the dancing of her slaves--before he received so +much as a sign that she deemed him worthy of her regard. He rejoiced +in the splendor of her countenance, but dared no more approach her +than the sun in whose warm rays he might bask. By day he was compelled +to exercise the utmost caution, as his life would have been in +jeopardy had Ibrahim Chan descried him casting loving looks at +Zuléikha, but in the evening he was safe to draw attention to himself, +as after eight o'clock the old man never crossed his threshold. Then +the flames of the lover's heart burst into song, and he gave +utterance to a _ghazel_ now of Hafiz, now of Firdusa, while still more +frequently he sang his own songs. + +Finally, Ibrahim Chan set forth on an expedition against the enemies +of Moscow, and thus was afforded a rare opportunity for the enamored +Mirza to present himself and his songs to the fair one's notice. One +dark evening, when the ladies had failed to appear on the housetop, +as Mirza-Schaffy was turning disappointed away he was accosted by a +closely-veiled female, who, bidding him follow her, led the way to +a secluded spot where interruption would be improbable, and thus +addressed him: "I am Fatima, the confidential attendant of Zuléikha. +My mistress hath gazed on thee with the eye of satisfaction. The +resonance of thy voice hath delighted her ear, the purport of thy +songs touched her heart. I am come of my own accord, without my lady's +bidding, to let thee drink hope from the fountain of my words, because +I wish thee well." + +"Has, then, Zuléikha not closed her ear to the poorest of her slaves?" +exclaimed the overjoyed Mirza. "And will my heart not be lacerated +by the thorn of her displeasure? Allah min! Allah bir! The God of +thousands is one only God! Great is His goodness and wonderful are His +ways! What have I done that He hath guided the stream of my songs to +the sea of beauty?" + +Fatima told him he did well to prize the merciful goodness of Allah +and the loveliness of her mistress, who was a "jewel in the ring of +beauty, a pearl in the shell of fortune." Her noble lady, she said, +would have given token of her favor before had not her virtuous +modesty exceeded her beauty, and had she not feared the displeasure +of her father, who tenderly loved her and would never consent to her +stooping to a poor mirza. Then she proceeded to tell how Achmed +Chan of Avaria, who was at the war with Ibrahim Chan, was suing for +Zuléikha's hand, which was promised by the father should he return +triumphant from the campaign. This would render prompt action +desirable, and Fatima suggested that Mirza-Schaffy should appear on +the following evening, when the call to prayer resounded from the +minaret, before the garden with his choicest offering of song, to +which, the messenger was ready to wager, would be accorded a rosebud. +Intoxicated with joy, Mirza-Schaffy bestowed on the friendly Fatima +his purse, his watch and all the valuables about him, also promising a +talisman to cure a black spot on her left cheek; and they parted +with the understanding that they should meet, again for further +communication. + +And here, in exemplification of the learned scribe's rejoinders to +his pupil's queries concerning the significance of the thorn of +displeasure and the rosebud, is introduced the song: + + The thorn is token of rejection, + Of disapproval and of scorn: + If she to union hath objection, + She giveth me as sign a thorn. + + Yet if, instead, the maiden throws me + A tender rosebud as a token, + That fate propitious is it shows me, + And bids me wait with faith unbroken. + + But if a full-blown rose she tenders, + Its open chalice is a token + Which boldest hope in me engenders; + Through it her love is clearly spoken. + +On the ensuing evening Mirza-Schaffy presented himself promptly at +the appointed place, prepared with a love-song which he knew none of +womankind could resist. The evening was calm and clear, and on the +housetop, alone with Fatima, was plainly discernible Zuléikha, her +veil slightly drawn aside in token of favor. Taking courage, the +enamored Mirza pushed back his cap in order to display his freshly +shaven head, of whose whiteness he was excessively proud, and which he +felt to be irresistible to maidens' eyes, and began to sing his song, +having first cast a written copy folded about a double almond-kernel, +as a keepsake at the feet of beauty. The song given at this point is +excessively flowery, and declares the maiden's eyes to be brighter +than those of the wild gazelle, her form more ethereal than the +slender pine, and pronounces the wooer, his heart and his tuneful lay +to be but slaves of her loveliness. This by way of preparation, the +highest point of the offering being the concluding stanzas: + + With faithful heart and hopefully + Approach I now Love's sacred bower, + And cast this wistful song at thee, + This fragrant song, as question-flower. + + Accept with joy or scornfully, + Give my heart death or consolation, + Cast rosebud, rose, or thorn at me, + I humbly wait thy revelation. + +Smilingly the maiden cast a rosebud at her waiting suitor, and for the +first time fully displayed to him her beauteous face. From this moment +new life dawned on our Mirza, and for six weeks he basked in the +sunshine of felicity ere threatening clouds loomed up in his horizon. +Then Ibrahim Chan returned from the war, and with him came his +daughter's suitor. A troop of horsemen had been despatched to Avaria +for the bridal gift, and on their return they were to conduct Achmed +Chan and his chosen lady home. Prize combats and festivities were +planned to celebrate the return of the heroes, and at Zuléikha's +request a singing festival was likewise to take place. All the singers +of the land were invited and bidden to prepare their choicest lays +extolling the sovereign lady of the fête: to the victorious competitor +would be accorded the right to break the instruments of his opponents. + +Now was the time for Mirza-Schaffy to gather all his courage, for he +knew the crisis of his destiny to be at hand. He arranged with Fatima +that the day of the singing festival should be likewise that of his +flight with Zuléikha, for he was troubled with no doubt concerning +the success of his lyrical efforts. An Armenian who was about setting +forth with a caravan was confided in, and engaged to reserve camels +for and accord protection to the fugitives. + +The minutes seemed like days, the hours like years, until the +announcement was heralded that Ibrahim Chan had sallied forth with his +guests to the prize combat, and that the ladies awaited the minstrels. +They were assembled on the housetop, lovely matrons and maidens, and +there was spread a large carpet on which set two players on the _sass_ +and _tshengir_, between whom each singer in turn took his place to +sing his offering to the sound of strings. The handsomest boy +in Gjändsha was appointed to hand to each singer a silver plate, +wherewith to conceal from the eye of beauty the emotions depicted in +his countenance while singing. Twenty singers stood in a circle and +stepped forth one after the other, Mirza-Schaffy, as the youngest +of the number, coming last. All other emanations he felt to be +faint sparks in comparison with the fire of his own. How could it be +otherwise, considering the source of his inspiration? As he sang his +heart swelled with ecstasy, and when he concluded there lay at his +feet a full-blown rose. He was victor of the festival, yet so filled +was he with thoughts of his beloved that he remembered not to break +the instruments of the vanquished. + +The flight was effected; the bride, although awaiting the coming of +the bridegroom in bridal array, offering all due resistance as he led +her from her home; indeed, so zealous was she to be faithful to the +customs of her country that her cries would have roused the household +had not the prudent Fatima interposed. On reaching the caravan a +double security seemed to arise from the Armenian proving to be +the accepted lover of Fatima; and Zuléikha, although deeming it a +degradation for a daughter of Ali to unite her destinies with an +unbeliever, was herself too strongly in the bondage of love to +withhold her consent. Then how happy were they all! and what +precautions were taken for their safety! Nevertheless, they were +overtaken by the angry father and the outraged suitor of his choice. +Zuléikha and Fatima were rudely snatched from the protection of their +lovers, and the learned scribe--we blush to write it--received on the +very soles which had borne him to the summit of bliss the ignominious +blows of the bastinado. + +From that day Mirza-Schaffy had felt indisposed to bestow his +affections on mortal woman, and since the sun of his hopes had set +dwelt serenely in the moonlight of remembrance. As Zuléikha, the +embodiment of all virtue and beauty, had loved him, he believed +himself to be an object of adoration to all feminine hearts, and +grimly resolved that all womankind must suffer in expiation of his own +sufferings. + +During the winter there arrived another student from Germany, who, +becoming acquainted with Bodenstedt, arranged to share with him the +lessons in Tartar and Persian, which Mirza-Schaffy was pleased to call +"hours of wisdom." In course of time other friends joined the circle, +so that finally arose a formal divan, where the wise man of Gjändsha +discoursed less on personalities, dwelling chiefly on general +effusions of wisdom, interspersed with many a song. One of the latter +reads as though designed by Bodenstedt to indicate the relation borne +by Mirza-Schaffy to his own productions: + + Thou art of my song the begetter; + Its drapery putteth my wand on; + Thou yieldest the purest of marble, + And I lay the sculpturing hand on. + + Thou givest the spirit, the essence: + Me for utt'rance alone mak'st demand on-- + Oft my power's deficient, and madly + Thy crude thoughts I haste to expand on. + +Sundry songs extolling the beneficence of wine and earthly pleasure +arose at this period. Of these we find none more attractive than that +which owed its origin to a conversation held in the divan of wisdom +concerning certain Russians and Georgians who drank wine more freely +than the camels drank water, yet had gained no inspiration therefrom: + + From wine's fiery fascination + From the goblet's mystic pleasure, + Poison foams, and sweet refreshment, + Beauty flows, and degradation, + As the drinker's worth may measure, + According to his brain's assessment. + + In debasement deeply sunken + Lies the fool, through wine's might captur'd: + When _he_ drinks becomes he drunken; + When _we_ drink we are enraptured. + Sparkling gleams of wit, worth dreaming, + Flash from tongues like angel's seeming, + And with ardor we are teeming, + And alone with beauty drunken. + + Well resembles wine the shower + Which to mire fresh mire amasses, + But to fair fields brings a dower + Rich in blessing as it passes. + +One evening Bodenstedt discovered his worthy teacher singing before +a house on whose roof sat a graceful maiden, and from the man's whole +manner then and thereafter concluded that in the long-faithful heart +had been at last replaced the image of Zuléikha. And so it proved. On +the very evening when he was returning home with softened heart after +the recital of the joys and sorrows of his first love, Mirza-Schaffy's +attention had been arrested by a lovely maiden who, as he pushed +back his cap--solely, of course, to cool his heated brow--gave +incontestable evidences of being smitten with him. When he went to +his couch that night sleep refused to visit his eyelids, and as he +restlessly tossed to and fro, the image of Zuléikha haunting him with +reproachful mien, his thoughts turned ever to the peerless maiden who +menaced further fidelity to the old love. Ere morning dawned he had +resolved to break the spell, and for several days avoided the locality +of the fair enticer. But the attraction became finally too strong to +resist. He went, he saw the maiden, and she bestowed on him a glance +which rendered him her slave for life; + + A wond'rous glance hath met my eyes: + The magic of this moment rare + Worketh for aye a fresh surprise, + A miracle beyond compare. + + A question, therefore, ask I thee-- + Pay heed, sweet life whom I adore-- + Was that fond glance bestowed on me? + A token give, then, I implore. + + And round thee could my strong arm cling, + Might I to thee life consecrate, + Loud jubilees my heart would sing, + And these to thee I'd dedicate. + +The first interview presents decidedly a comical side. By a +confidential attendant Mirza-Schaffy was introduced on the roof +disguised in female costume, his face and flowing beard modestly +covered with a long veil. Luckily, he was not doomed long to such +undignified concealment, for he soon managed, through his beauty +and genius, to win favor in the eyes of the lady's mother, and she +promised to intercede in his behalf with the stern old father. The +latter, however, having eyes neither for beauty nor poetry, thought +only to demand what means of support the bold intruder had to offer +his daughter, and when he learned how small these were, withheld +his consent until the suitor could secure a professorship in some +institution of learning. Although loath to renounce his freedom, +Mirza-Schaffy determined for Hafisa's sake to make application, as he +had often been advised to do, at the Tiflis Gymnasium for the position +of teacher of Tartaric. But, alas! there was prepared for our poor +Mirza a humiliation second only to the bastinado. His reply was a +portentous document in the Russian language, of which he could not +read a word. Hafisa's father demanded sight of it, had it interpreted +by a learned mullah, and it proved to be a summons for the applicant +to appear at an appointed hour for examination. This was too much. +Mirza-Schaffy, the first wise man of the East, the pride of his race, +the pearl in the shell of poetry, to be examined in his own language! +Hafisa's father declared his belief that the mirza's wisdom was as +doubtful as his fortune, and the wise man himself began to wonder +whether his wisdom had not gone "pleasuring in the dusk of the +evening." Moreover, during the conference with the mullah certain +revelations came to light concerning the lack of orthodoxy in the +mirza's belief and the frequent slurs it was his wont to cast on the +powerful mullahs; and this set the old father hopelessly against him, +causing him to revoke all promise of possible consent. Such being +the case, Mirza-Schaffy had no heart to brave the humiliation of an +examination. Shortly after, however, he was honored with a call to the +new school at Gjändsha, and Hafisa's father dying about the same time, +all obstacles were removed to a union with the maiden of his choice. +And so with his bride he returned to his native place, and felt that +the summit of earthly bliss was attained. + +Friedrich Bodenstedt has been a very prolific author, having published +several volumes of poetry, besides numerous romances, tales and +miscellaneous works. He is one of a committee of poets and men +of learning appointed not long since to retranslate the works of +Shakespeare. At present he is adding to his well-earned laurels +through his volume _Aus dem Nachlasse Mirza-Schaffys_. The book is +divided into seven parts, the first of which is dedicated to love. +Then there are songs of earthly pleasure, songs of consolation, +sayings of wisdom, stories in rhyme of Eastern romance, a series of +problems and a "bouquet of cypresses and roses." + +AUBER FORESTIER. + + + + +TO CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN. + + + Look where a three-point star shall weave his beam + Into the slumb'rous tissue of some stream, + Till his bright self o'er his bright copy seem + Fulfillment dropping on a come-true dream; + So in this night of art thy soul doth show + Her excellent double in the steadfast flow + Of wishing love that through men's hearts doth go: + At once thou shin'st above and shin'st below. + E'en when thou strivest there within Art's sky + (Each star must round an arduous orbit fly), + Full calm thine image in our love doth lie, + A Motion glassed in a Tranquillity. + So triple-rayed, thou mov'st, yet stay'st, serene-- + Art's artist, Love's dear woman, Fame's good queen! + +SIDNEY LANIER. + + + + +CHARLES KINGSLEY: A REMINISCENCE. + + +The heat of London in the midsummer of 1857, even to my American +apprehension, was intense. The noise of the streets oppressed me, +and perhaps the sight now and again of freshly-watered flowers which +beautify so many of the window-ledges, and which seem to flourish and +bloom whatever the weather, filled me the more with a desire for the +quiet of green fields and the refreshing shade of trees. I had just +returned from Switzerland, and the friends with whom I had been +journeying in that land of all perfections had gone back to their home +among the wealds and woods of Essex. I began to feel that sense of +solitude which weighs heavily on a stranger in the throng of a great +city; so that it was with keen pleasure I looked forward to a visit to +Mr. Kingsley. A most kind invitation had come from him, offering me "a +bed and all hospitality in their plain country fashion." + +At four in the afternoon of a hot July day I started for Winchfield, +which is the station on the London and Southampton Railway nearest to +Eversley--a journey of an hour and a half. I took a fly at Winchfield +for Eversley, a distance of six miles. My way lay over wide silent +moors: now and then a quiet farmstead came in view--_moated granges_ +they might have been--but these were few and far between, this part of +Hampshire being owned in large tracts. It was a little after six when +I drew near to the church and antique brick dwelling-house adjoining +it which were the church and rectory of Eversley. There were no other +houses near, so that it was evidently a wide and scattered parish. +Old trees shaded the venerable irregularly-shaped parsonage, ivy +and creeping plants covered the walls, and roses peeped out here and +there. Mr. Kingsley himself met me at the open hall-door, and there +was something in his clear and cheerful tone that gave a peculiar +sense of welcome to his greeting. "Very glad to see you," said he. +Then taking my bag from the fly, "Let me show you your room at once, +that you may make yourself comfortable." So, leading the way, he +conducted me up stairs and along a somewhat intricate passage to a +room in the oldest part of the house. It was a quaint apartment, with +leaden casements, a low ceiling, an uneven floor--a room four hundred +years old, as Mr. Kingsley told me, but having withal a very habitable +look. "I hope you'll be comfortable here," said my host as he turned +to go--"as comfortable as one can be in a cottage. Have you everything +you want? There will be a tea-dinner or a dinner-tea in about half +an hour." Then, as he lingered, he asked, "When did you see Forster +last?" + +"Six weeks ago," I said--"in London. He had just received news of +the vacancy at Leeds, and at once determined to offer himself as the +Liberal candidate. He went to Leeds for this purpose, but subsequently +withdrew his name. I gather from his speech at the banquet his +supporters gave him afterward that this was a mistake, and that if he +had stood he would have been elected." + +"Ah," said Kingsley, "I should like to see Forster in Parliament. He +is not the man, however, to make head against the _tracasseries_ of an +election contest." + +Some other talk we had, and then he left me, coming back before long +to conduct me to the drawing-room. Two gentlemen were there--one a +visitor who soon took leave; the other, the tutor to Mr. Kingsley's +son. Mrs. Kingsley came in now and shook hands with me cordially, and +I had very soon the sense of being at one with them all. Our having +mutual friends did much toward this good understanding, but it was +partly that we seemed at once to have so much to talk of on the events +of the day, and on English matters in which I took keen interest. + +India was naturally our first subject, and the great and absorbing +question of the mutiny. I told what the London news was in regard to +it, and how serious was the look of things. Kingsley said there must +be great blame somewhere--that as to the British rule in India, no man +could doubt that it had been a great blessing to the country, but +the individual Englishman had come very far short of his duty in +his dealings with the subject race: a reckoning was sure to come. +_Oakfield_ was mentioned--a story by William Arnold of which the scene +was laid in India, and which contained evidence of this ill-treatment +of the Hindoos by their white masters. Kingsley spoke highly of this +book. I said I thought it had hardly been appreciated in England. +Kingsley thought the reason was it was too didactic--there was too +much moralizing. Only the few could appreciate this: the many did not +care for it in a novel. + +Our tea-dinner was announced: it was served in the hall. Mrs. +Kingsley spoke laughingly of their being obliged to make this their +dining-room. The talk at the table fell on American affairs. Sumner's +name was mentioned. I said he was in London, and that I had had a +long conversation with him a few days before. Would I give them his +address? they asked: they must have a visit from him. I said he would +be glad to visit them, I was sure, for when I told him I was coming +here he said he envied me. He was at present engaged in a round +of dinners--expected to go to France in August to stay with De +Tocqueville, but would be again in England in the autumn. Kingsley +spoke of Brooks's death--of the suddenness of it seeming almost a +judgment. I said Brooks, as I happened to know, was thought a good +fellow before the assault--that he really had good qualities, and +was liked even by Northern men. "So we have heard from others," said +Kingsley, "and one can well believe it. The man who suffers for a bad +system is often the best man--one with attractive qualities." Charles +I. and Louis XVI. were instances he gave to illustrate this. A recent +article in the _Edinburgh Review_ on slavery was spoken of. I said +it had attracted a good deal of attention with us, because we saw +immediately it could only have been written by an American. Of +slavery Mr. Kingsley spoke in calm and moderate words. I told him his +introductory chapter to _Two Years Ago_ showed that he appreciated the +difficulties with which the question was encumbered. He said it would +be strange if he did not see these difficulties, considering that he +was of West Indian descent (his grandfather had married a West Indian +heiress). He admitted that the result of emancipation in the West +Indies was not encouraging as it regarded the material condition +of the islands, especially of Jamaica, and he was quite able to +understand how powerfully this fact would weigh on our Southern +planters, and how it tended to close their ears to all anti-slavery +argument. They could hardly be expected to look beyond this test of +sugar-production to the moral progress of the black race which freedom +alone could ensure. + +Our pleasant meal being over, we strolled out on the lawn and sat down +under one of the fine old trees, where we continued our talk about +slavery. Mr. Kingsley said he could quite believe any story he might +hear of cruelty practiced upon slaves. He knew too well his own +nature, and felt that under the influence of sudden anger he would be +capable of deeds as violent as any of which we read. This, of course, +was putting out of view the restraints which religion would impose; +but it was safe for no man to have the absolute control of others. + +He left us to go into the house, and Mrs. Kingsley then spoke of his +parochial labors. She wished I could spend a Sunday with them--"I +should so like you to see the congregation he has. The common +farm-laborers come morning and afternoon: the reason is, he preaches +so that they can understand him. I wish you could have been with us +last Sunday, we had such an interesting person here--Max Müller, the +great linguist and Orientalist. But we can't have pleasant _meets_ +here: we have only one spare room." + +"How old is Max Müller?" I asked. + +"Twenty-eight, and he scarcely looks to be twenty-two." + +"How long has Mr. Kingsley been here?" I asked. + +"Fifteen years--two years as curate, and then the living becoming +vacant, it was given to him." + +She told me a funeral was to take place directly--that of a poor woman +who had been a great sufferer. "Ah, here it comes," she said. + +There was the bier borne on men's shoulders and a little company +of mourners, the peasantry of the neighborhood, the men wearing +smock-frocks. They were awaiting the clergyman at the lichgate. Mr. +Kingsley appeared at the moment in his surplice, and the procession +entered the churchyard, he saying as he walked in front the solemn +sentences with which the service begins. It was the scene which I had +witnessed in another part of Hampshire some years before, when the +author of _The Christian Year_ was the officiating clergyman. Mrs. +Kingsley and I joined the procession and entered the church. It was a +small, oddly-arranged interior--brick pavements, high-backed pews, +the clerk's desk adjoining the reading-desk, but a little lower. Mr. +Kingsley read the service in a measured tone, which enabled him to +overcome the defect in his utterance noticeable in conversation. At +the grave the rest of the office was said, and here the grief of the +poor mourners overcame them. The family group consisted of the husband +of the deceased, a grown-up daughter and a son, a boy of fifteen. All +were much moved, but the boy the most. He cried bitterly--a long wail, +as if he could not be comforted. Mr. Kingsley tried to console him, +putting his arm over his shoulders. He said words of sympathy to the +others also. They went their way over the heath to their desolate +home. Mr. and Mrs. Kingsley spoke of the life of toil which had thus +ended, and of the patience with which long-continued bodily pain had +been borne. It was clear that the popular author was first of all a +parish priest. + +We now went into his study, where he lighted a long pipe, and we then +returned to a part of the lawn which he called his quarter-deck, and +where we walked up and down for near an hour. What an English summer +evening it was!--dewy and still. Now and then a slight breeze stirred +in the leaves and brought with it wafts of delicate odors from the +flowers somewhere hidden in the deep shadows, though as yet it was not +night and the sweet twilight lay about us like a charm. He asked if +I knew Maurice. I did slightly--had breakfasted with him six weeks +before, and had seen enough of him to understand the strong personal +influence he exerted. "I owe all that I am to Maurice," said Kingsley, +"I aim only to teach to others what I get from him. Whatever facility +of expression I have is God's gift, but the views I endeavor to +enforce are those which I learn from Maurice. I live to interpret him +to the people of England." + +A talk about the influence of the Oxford writers came next: on +this subject I knew we should not agree, though of course it was +interesting to me to hear Mr. Kingsley's opinion. He spoke with some +asperity of one or two of the leaders, though his chief objection was +to certain young men who had put themselves forward as champions of +the movement. Of Mr. Keble he spoke very kindly. He said he had at +one time been much under the influence of these writings. I mentioned +Alexander Knox as being perhaps the forerunner of the Oxford men. +"Ah," he said, "I owe my knowledge of that good man to Mrs. Kingsley: +you must talk with her about him." We joined the party in the +drawing-room, and there was some further conversation on this subject. + +At about ten o'clock the bell was rung, the servants came in, +prayers were said, and the ladies (Mrs. Kingsley and their daughter's +governess) bid us good-night. Then to Mr. Kingsley's study, where +the rest of the evening was spent--from half-past ten to half-past +twelve--the pipe went on, and the talk--a continuous flow. Quakerism +was a subject. George Fox, Kingsley said, was his admiration: he read +his _Journal_ constantly--thought him one of the most remarkable men +that age produced. He liked his hostility to Calvinism. "How little +that fellow Macaulay," he said, "could understand Quakerism! A man +needs to have been in Inferno himself to know what the Quakers meant +in what they said and did." He referred me to an article of his on +Jacob Boehme and the mystic writers, in which he had given his views +in regard to Fox. + +We talked about his parish work: he found it, he said, a great help to +him, adding emphatically that his other labor was secondary to this. +He had trained himself not to be annoyed by his people calling on him +when he was writing. If he was to be their priest, he must see them +when it suited them to come; and he had become able if called off from +his writing to go on again the moment he was alone. I asked him when +he wrote. He said in the morning almost always: sometimes, when much +pushed, he had written for an hour in the evening, but he always had +to correct largely the next morning work thus done. Daily exercise, +riding, hunting, together with parish work, were necessary to keep him +in a condition for writing: he aimed to keep himself in rude health. +I asked whether _Alton Locke_ had been written in that room. "Yes," he +said--"from four to eight in the mornings; and a young man was staying +with me at the time with whom every day I used to ride, or perhaps +hunt, when my task of writing was done." + +A fine copy of St. Augustine attracted my attention on his +shelves--five volumes folio bound in vellum. "Ah," he said, "that _is_ +a treasure I must show you;" and taking down a volume he turned to the +fly-leaf, where were the words "Charles Kingsley from Thomas Carlyle," +and above them "Thomas Carlyle from John Sterling." One could +understand that Carlyle had thus handed on the book, notwithstanding +its sacred associations, knowing that to Kingsley it would have a +threefold value. My eye caught also a relic of curious interest--a +fragment from one of the vessels of the Spanish Armada. It lay on the +mantelpiece: I could well understand Kingsley's pleasure in possessing +it. + +At the breakfast-table the next morning we had much talk in regard to +American writers. Kingsley admitted Emerson's high merit, but thought +him too fragmentary a writer and thinker to have enduring fame. He had +meant that this should be implied as his opinion in the title he gave +to _Phaethon_--"Loose Thoughts for Loose Thinkers"--a book he had +written in direct opposition to what he understood to be the general +teaching of Emerson. I remarked upon the great beauty of some of +Emerson's later writings and the marvelous clearness of insight which +was shown in his _English Traits_. Kingsley acquiesced in this, but +referred to some American poetry, so called, which Emerson had lately +edited, and in his preface had out-Heroded Herod. Kingsley said the +poems were the production of a coarse, sensual mind. His reference, of +course, was to Walt Whitman, and I had no defence to make. Of Lowell, +Mr. Kingsley spoke very highly: his _Fable for Critics_ was worthy of +Rabelais. Mr. Froude, who is Kingsley's brother-in-law, had first made +him acquainted with Lowell's poetry. Hawthorne's style he thought was +exquisite: there was scarcely any modern writing equal to it. Of all +his books he preferred the _Blithedale Romance_. + +We talked of Mr. Froude, whom Kingsley spoke of as his dearest friend: +he thought Froude sincerely regretted ever having written the _Nemesis +of Faith_. Mr. Helps, author of _Friends in Council_, he spoke of as +his near neighbor there in Hampshire, and his intimate friend. Mr. +Charles Reade he knew, and I think he said he was also a neighbor: +his _Christie Johnston_ he thought showed high original power. Mrs. +Gaskell we talked of, whose _Life of Charlotte Bronté_ had just then +been published: Mr. Kingsley thought it extremely interesting and +"slightly slanderous." He told me of the author of _Tom Brown's +School-days_, a copy of which, fresh from the publishers, was lying on +his table. Mr. Hughes is now so well known to us I need only mention +that Mr. Kingsley spoke of him as an old pupil of Arnold's and a +spiritual child of Maurice. He spoke most warmly of him, and offered +me a letter of introduction to him. I could not avail myself of this, +having so little time to remain in London. + +I must mention, as showing further Mr. Kingsley's state of mind toward +Maurice, that he had named his son after him. He spoke of the boy as +being intended for the army: the family, he said, had been soldiers +for generations. "That is the profession England will need for the +next five-and-twenty years." Of Forster he said, "What a pity he had +not been put in the army at the age of eighteen!--he would have been a +general now. England has need of such men." I note this as showing +the curious apprehension of war which he, an Englishman, felt eighteen +years ago, and which he expressed to me, an American. How little +either of us thought of the struggle which men of English blood were +to engage in in three years from that time! How little I could dream +that one of the decisive battles of the world was so soon to be fought +in my own State, Pennsylvania! + +Our morning was spent in all this varied talk, walking partly on the +lawn, partly in the study. His pipe was still his companion. He +seemed to need to walk incessantly, such was his nervous activity of +temperament. He asked me if it annoyed me for him to walk so much up +and down his study. The slight impediment in his speech one forgot as +one listened to the flow of his discourse. He talked a volume while +I was with him, and what he said often rose to eloquence. There was +humor too in it, of which I can give no example, for it was fine and +delicate. But what most impressed me was his perfect simplicity of +character. He talked of his wife with the strongest affection--wished +I could remain longer with them, if only to know her better. Nothing +could be more tender than his manner toward her. He went for her when +we were in the study, and the last half hour of my stay she sat with +us. She is one of five sisters who are all married to eminent men. + +It occurs to me to note, as among my last recollections of our talk, +that I spoke of Spurgeon, whom I had heard in London a short time +before, and was very favorably impressed with. I could not but commend +his simple, strong Saxon speech, the charm of his rich full voice, +and above all the earnest aim which I thought was manifest in all he +uttered. Mr. Kingsley said he was glad to hear this, for he had been +told of occasional irreverences of Spurgeon's, and of his giving way +now and then to a disposition to make a joke of things. Not that he +objected altogether to humor in sermons: he had his own temptations +in this way. "One must either weep at the follies of men or laugh +at them," he added. I told him Mr. Maurice had spoken to me of Mr. +Spurgeon as no doubt an important influence for good in the land, and +he said this was on the whole his own opinion. He told me, however, +of teaching of quite another character, addressed to people of +cultivation mainly, and to him peculiarly acceptable. His reference +was to Robertson's _Sermons_: he showed me the volume--the first +series--just then published. The mention of this book perhaps led to +a reference by Mr. Kingsley to the Unitarians of New England, of whom +he spoke very kindly, adding, in effect, that their error was but +a natural rebound from Calvinism, that dreary perversion of God's +boundless love. + +But I had now to say good-bye to these new friends, who had come to +seem old friends, so full and cordial had been their hospitality, and +so much had we found to talk of in the quickly-passing hours of my +visit. Mr. Kingsley drove me three miles on my way to Winchfield. His +talk with me was interspersed with cheery and friendly words to his +horse, with whom he seemed to be on very intimate terms. "Come and +see us again," he said as we parted: "the second visit, you know, is +always the best." + +ELLIS YARNALL. + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + +A WOMAN'S OPINION OF PARIS AND THE PARISIANS. + + +I have now lived in Paris two consecutive years, and during this time +the question has often been put to me, "How do you like Paris and the +Parisians?" That question I will now try to answer. + +Like Paris? Of course I do--heartily and truly. Cold indeed must the +heart be that does not find space in its depths for a true affection +for the fair queen-city which welcomes all strangers so kindly and +hospitably, which has a smile for all, and which at the wide banquet +of her bounty sets forth food for every phase of mental hunger. Do you +wish to study? Her libraries lie open to your research--her monuments, +her galleries, her public institutions are given to your inspection, +freely and without price. Do you seek amusement? Paris, in that +respect, is like the rollicking heroine of _Barbe-Bleu:_ there is none +like Boulotte, "quand il s'agit de batifoler." Do you wish to hide +yourself in depths of unbroken quiet? There are in her very heart +lonely streets where scarce a cart ever penetrates, and in her suburbs +green shaded nooks where the spirit of Solitude reigns supreme. + +Life runs on such smooth and well-oiled wheels for all humanity in +Paris that half the cares that torture us are cast aside as soon as +we enter her precincts. Take, for instance, the grand question of +housekeeping. Fancy living in a land where all the servants +are skilled and civil, if not all trustworthy and honest; where +washing-days and ironing-days and baking-days are unknown; where there +are no staircases to sweep down and no front-door steps to scour; +where rents and eating and all other household expenses may be gauged +in accordance with one's purse. If you wish to entertain, you may give +a soirée that will cost ten dollars if you cannot afford to give a +ball that costs five thousand. Nothing is _de rigueur_ in Paris. It +is neither incumbent upon you to be housed splendidly nor to feast +sumptuously--to drive your own carriage nor to entertain an army of +servants. "Do the best you can" is the motto of Parisian life. And +so it often happens that in a small room, up half a dozen flights +of stairs, with a cup of tea for sole refreshment and music or +conversation for sole amusement, one will find some of the pleasantest +society in Paris. You do not get champagne and boned turkey and the +German, but you hear sometimes a little music, such as one pays untold +gold to hear at the opera, or a fragment of declamation by some noted +elocutionist, or a new poem fresh from the pen of some celebrated +writer. And you have always conversation; that is to say, the wit and +sparkle of the wittiest and brightest nation on the face of the earth. +In a world that is becoming more and more a Paradise of Fools the +charm of sheer brain and brightness is irresistible. To live in such +an intellectual centre is in itself delightful. Paris is a veritable +_Foire aux Idées_. Its criticism, keen as the sword of Saladin, +overwhelming as the battle-axe of Coeur de Lion, is in itself a +study. It is not so much the intellectual productions of Paris as the +comments they call forth that are at once instructive and fascinating. + +When we turn from the world of intellect to that of ordinary life +the same charm haunts our footsteps. Everything is so well done, +so gracefully and so winningly presented! The exquisite perfume of +refinement hangs about every trivial detail. Your washerwoman is a +lady, and your coalman a Chesterfield. If a Frenchman is ever rude, he +is rude with malice prepense and aforethought. He knows better, we may +be sure. Patrick may err on the score of politeness from ignorance, +but Alphonse is a beast only because he chooses to be bestial. All the +traditions of his race run counter to his conduct when he forgets the +supreme suavity that should characterize a Gaul. + +And yet it is possible for an American--or rather an Anglo-Saxon--to +live for years in the midst of this brilliant, polished, fascinating +people, and never to feel specially interested in them, either +individually or nationally. What is the reason? Why is it that, loving +Paris like a second home, we do not take the Parisians to our hearts +as brothers and sisters, or at least as dear first cousins? The causes +are many and various. In the first place, the Parisians do not like +us. The popularity which Americans were said to possess in Paris has +vanished with the Empire--that is, if it really existed. It probably +was nothing more at any time than the courtesy shown by an astute +sovereign of a nation of shopkeepers to a nation of purchasers. To-day +Americans are not popular in Parisian society. It is almost impossible +that they should be. Our ideas, our social customs, our notions of +right and wrong, are diametrically opposed to all the social theories +of France. Our girls, with their free frank ways and their liberty of +speech and action, are so many disreputable horrors in Parisian eyes. +Madame la Comtesse de St. Germain would as soon think of taking her +daughters to see Schneider as of permitting them to associate with +young ladies who are allowed to receive morning calls from gentlemen +without the presence of their parents--who call the male friends of +their childhood by their first names--and who are suffered to witness +_Faust_ at the opera and _La Haine_ at La Gaîté. Americans, especially +wealthy ones, usually draw around them a vast circle of French +acquaintances, it is true, but these are mostly sponges and +adventurers, well born and well bred, it may be, but decidedly, to use +a vulgar but expressive American idiom, "on the make." Of the pure +and inner sanctuary of French society scarce a glimpse is afforded to +these alien eyes. It would not amuse them very much if it were, +for, by all accounts, this hallowed inner circle is as dull as it is +exclusive. The charm of French society is to be found in those salons +which are frequented by the kings of Parisian Bohemia--journalists, +poets, dramatists, artists--wherein the Republic is queen and Victor +Hugo a god. + +Two great and ineradicable defects underlie the brightness and +fascination of the external part of French character--namely, +selfishness and insincerity. Perfect in manner, in dress, in grace, +in suavity, in sweetness it may be, the French are utterly and wholly +unreliable. They resemble the phantom woman in the story told by Leigh +Hunt, that was only a suit of clothes, with no face beneath the hood +and no body inside of the robes; or rather those malignant spirits +that look like fair women when seen in front, but when seen from +behind show only as hollow shells. + +And the tradespeople, the bourgeoisie--your dressmaker, your milliner, +your tailor, your butcher and baker and candlestick-maker--skilled and +suave and generally charming--O heaven and earth! how they do lie! +Not occasionally, not when hard-pressed, not when truth will not do as +well, but persistently, calmly, eternally. "I swear to you, monsieur," +will your Parisian say, "that your work shall be done in two hours," +Esteem yourself fortunate if it is finished in two days: very probably +two weeks will see it still uncompleted. Send for a workman to execute +some little job about your house. "He will come at once--yes, at +once." Days roll round, and he never comes at all. Your dressmaker +agrees to make you a dress for a certain price: your bill comes +home for half as much again. An American in Paris ordered an extra +door-key, giving the original key as a pattern. The key was to cost +four francs. Here is a copy of the bill as presented: + + Francs. +For taking off lock (a process wholly unnecessary, + by the by), 1-1/2 +For putting it on again, 1-1/2 +Workman's time, 1 +Journey from shop (about half a square), 1 +Key, 4 + ____ + Total 9 + +Another American sent for a bell-hanger to inspect an electric bell +which was thought to be out of order, but which proved on inspection +to be all right. He got a bill of five francs, whereof one item ran +thus: "_For looking at the bell_, 2 francs." He had not touched the +thing, be it borne in mind. + +I cannot refrain from here making answer to a remark too often +heard from American lips, that America is as immoral as France--that +American society is every whit as depraved as the French. It is _not_. +The immorality of America is as a festering wound on an otherwise +healthy body: the immorality of France is like a scrofulous taint that +poisons the whole life-current. One gets weary and heartsick with the +old eternal song, the everlasting theme, which is sung and told and +dramatized and written about and painted--that flies in your face at +every corner and stares up at you from every inch of printed paper, +every square of colored canvas, in the whole nationality. And to sum +up at last this, "a woman's opinion," I will freely state that the +longer I live in France the more I admire the Parisians and the less I +like them. + +L.H.H. + + + + +THE COLLEGIO ROMANO. + + +The Collegio Romano was always worth a visit, because it contained the +celebrated Kircherian Museum and the admirable observatory presided +over by Father Secchi, the world-celebrated astronomer. But these are +matters sufficiently treated of by the guide-books, and may be left +to them. Of the story of the enormous building they have less to tell, +though there is much of curious interest to be told. But neither is +that my object on the present occasion. My purpose is to speak of the +strangely-changed fortunes and destinies of the old historic pile, and +of what it now is and is to be. But little in Rome, as we all +know, has remained unchanged in these strange latter days. But few +things--at least few material things--have experienced such a change +as the Collegio Romano. The "Collegio Romano" was in fact nothing +more than the principal convent of the Jesuits. The establishment was +founded immediately after the institution of the order, and mainly by +the care and energy of Saint Francisco Borgia, the third general +of the order. The present building, however, was raised in the +pontificate of Gregory XIII. by the Florentine architect Ammanati, +the first stone having been laid in 1582. It is an enormous mass of +building--enormous even among the huge structures for which Rome above +all other cities is remarkable--situated near the church of the Gesù +and not far from the Piazza di Venezia. There is nothing remarkable in +its outward appearance save the vast size, the object of the builders +having evidently been only to adapt it in a business-like way to +the purposes to which it was destined. These included not only the +provision of a residence for the fathers of the order resident +in Rome, and for the all-but all-powerful general of the terrible +order--the "Black Pope," as the Romans were wont to call him--but also +all the _locale_ necessary for a very large educational establishment, +whence the building took its name. + +The Jesuits, like all other members of the almost innumerable monastic +establishments in Rome, have, as we all know, been turned out of their +homes, their property has been--or rather is being--sold, and the +convents have become national property. Many of these are vast +buildings, but no one of them is to be compared with the great Jesuit +convent, which was the central home and head-quarters of the "Company +of Jesus." And a memorable day it was in Rome, and a very singular +sight, when, the dreaded fathers of the terrible "Company" having +taken their departure, the few remaining goods and chattels in the +convent were sold by public auction. Few and not of much value were +the articles to be sold; for the fathers are not men to take no heed +of those shadows which coming events cast before them, and they had +long foreseen that their day in Rome was at an end, and had contrived +to leave as little as might be to the spoiler. None the less was it a +strange sight, as I say, to see the _profanum vulgus_ of the buyers +of old furniture, and the still more numerous herd of the curious, +looking on with very diversified feelings--some with bitterness enough +in their hearts--pushing and tramping through those noble corridors +and vast halls and secret cells, on which no profane gaze had rested +for more than three hundred years. + +There has been abundance of doubt, but no difficulty, in disposing of +the great number of buildings which have thus come into the possession +of the nation. Many of the smaller convents have been sold in the same +manner as the other property of the ousted communities. But this has +not been done--and indeed could hardly have been done--in the case of +the larger buildings; and there has been a competition very much in +the nature of a scramble for the appropriation of them by the heads of +the several governmental departments. That of Public Instruction, now +worthily represented by Signor Bonghi, has succeeded in laying hands +on perhaps the grandest prize of all, the great Jesuit establishment +of the Collegio Romano; and, looking to the uses to which it is being +put by Signor Bonghi, it may, I think, be said that it could not have +been better bestowed. Under his auspices it is intended to assume, and +is indeed rapidly assuming, the functions of the still vaster pile of +building in Great Russell street, London, known to all the world as +the British Museum, as will be seen from the following statement of +the purposes it is intended to serve and of the various matters to be +housed in it. + +On the ground-floor there is already established a "Museo +Scolastico-Pedagogico"--a museum of all the means and appurtenances +that are used, or have been used, in different countries for the ends +and purposes of instruction. This is the idea and the creation of +Signor Bonghi; and it will, I think, be admitted that it is a very +happy one and likely to be fruitful in good results. A visit to it is +more interesting than might perhaps at first sight be imagined. I may +mention that on asking the very competent and enlightened director of +the establishment what people he considered to have done most and as +foremost in the work of educating the masses, he said that the +Germans had done most theoretically and in the way of thinking on +the philosophy of the matter, but that the Americans had done most +practically in the way of improving the material means for popular +education. + +On the first and second floors the great national library, the +"Biblioteca Vittorio Emmanuele," is--or, it would perhaps be more +accurate to say, will be--placed and made accessible to the public. +At Florence there exists the celebrated Magliabecchian Library, which +when Florence became the capital of Italy was called the National +Library--somewhat ungratefully, it will probably be thought, to the +learned and indefatigable collector who gave his life and his means to +the formation of it, and then bequeathed it to his native city. And I +am inclined to believe that this library is still, for all the general +working purposes of a nineteenth-century student, the best in Italy. +In Rome, when the Eternal City in its turn became the capital of a +New Italy, there existed nothing that deserved to be called a national +library, and the present minister of Public Instruction set about +doing what was possible to supply the want. The Company of Jesus +possessed a fine and valuable library, containing about one hundred +and seventy thousand volumes. This, when the Jesuits were turned out, +was declared national property, and it forms the nucleus of the new +Victor Emmanuel Library. While the Jesuits inhabited their old home it +was arranged in one very fine hall built in the form of a cross, +which will continue to be one of the principal receptacles, in the +new establishment. It was in the middle of 1874 that the Italian +government took possession of this collection. To this have been added +forty-eight other libraries, the former property of the suppressed +convents of the city and provinces of Rome. They were placed for the +nonce in the cells which had been inhabited by the Jesuit fathers. The +mass of books thus collected amounts to about four hundred thousand +volumes. It will be seen at once that the labor of reducing to +order, classifying and arranging such a confused mass must be truly +herculean. But the first librarian of the Victor Emmanuel Library, +Signor Carlo Castellani, well known in the literary world as a +palaeographer of great eminence, is laboring at the colossal task with +an energy and a zeal that have already accomplished much, and is daily +making sensible advances in the work. It is, however, also evident +that four hundred thousand volumes thus collected must include an +immense number of duplicates; and, worse still, that (as may be +readily supposed from the sources whence the books have come) one +special branch of general literature will be represented in very undue +proportion. Of course, the greater portion of the conventual +libraries was theological. It may be presumed that classical and (old) +historical literature will be found to exist, the former in tolerable +completeness (so far as regards old and in many cases now obsolete +editions), and the latter in considerable abundance. But of modern +literature little or nothing can be expected, even of Italian, and +still less of any other language. Among the number of volumes which +has been mentioned there are some seven or eight thousand manuscripts, +and perhaps an equal number of the editions of the fifteenth century, +which go far to make the library an interesting one to the learned and +to the student and lover of bibliography, but are of very little avail +toward rendering the collection worth much as a national _working_ +library. The question then arises, What means has Italy of procuring +such a library for her capital? Something may be probably expected +from the liberality of her Parliament in furtherance of this great +national object. But for the present, in the depressed (though +improving) state of the Italian finances, this cannot be much. There +exists in Italy a law similar to that on the same subject in England, +by which every publisher is obliged to deposit one copy of every book +published in the national library. But this copy at present is sent to +the Magliabecchian Library at Florence. Signor Castellani hopes that +the privilege may be transferred, as seems but reasonable, to Rome. +But I do not see why it should be necessary thus to impoverish +Florence to enrich the capital. In England the law requires eleven +copies which are distributed to the great libraries of the three +kingdoms. It is true that this exaction has sometimes been complained +of, and it is said that in the case of very costly illustrated +works the tax is a very heavy one, and that in some instances it +has operated to make the production of certain books impossible. And +perhaps it may be reasonable to make some regulation by which such +works should be exempted from the obligation. But in ordinary cases +the tax is an almost inappreciable one, and, such as it is, must of +course fall ultimately on the writers and readers of books--mainly on +the latter--for the benefit of which classes libraries exist. It seems +to me, therefore, that a somewhat larger number of copies than one or +two might reasonably and advantageously be exacted from publishers. +And if three or four copies were delivered to the great Roman library, +there would be the means of effecting very advantageous exchanges with +other countries. I asked Signor Castellani what increase in the number +of volumes the _locale_ now at the disposal of the library would be +capable of accommodating. He said that there would be room for about +seven hundred thousand volumes, evidently a quite inadequate provision +for the future. Many years will not elapse before the measure which +is now demanded at the British Museum--viz., the removal of all +the various collections housed there to other localities, and +the dedication of the entire building to the library--will become +necessary at the old Collegio Romano. Vast as the building is, the +entirety of it is not at all too large for the Roman library of the +future. Or--since we _are_ allowing our thoughts to consider +events which cast their shadows before as if they were accomplished +facts--may it not perhaps be found better some of these days to move +the whole of the present collection to the Vatican, to be united with +the colossal and almost unknown hoards there buried in one collection? +As it is, a new reading-room, after the model of that existing at the +National Library in Paris, is about to be built in the courtyard of +the Collegio Romano. The classification, arrangement and methods +of working the library will be copied in great measure from those +introduced by Mr. Panizzi at the British Museum. Unlike the liberal +practice of the great German libraries, no volume will be on any +account permitted to leave the library. I was sorry to find that in +one all-important respect the Roman practice as regards the national +library will differ from that of London. The collection is being +catalogued in slips, to be kept, after the fashion of booksellers, +in boxes made for the purpose, and there is no present intention of +making any catalogue in volumes accessible to the public. Of course it +is impossible to allow the public to have access to the slips; and +all who have ever really used a great library know but too well that a +library the catalogue of which is not accessible to the student is at +least _half_ useless. Even putting aside the numerous cases in which +an inquirer knows of the existence of such or such a work, but is not +aware of the author's name, and cannot therefore ask for or obtain +the book in question, it happens more often than not that a person +inquiring on any given subject finds his best guide to the available +sources of information in the catalogue. + +I have not left myself room, I fear, to say anything on the present +occasion of the other highly interesting collections which are +at present lodged, or in the course of being placed, under the +all-sheltering roof of the Collegio Romano. I must content myself with +simply enumerating them, with the hope of giving some account of them +at some future time. I may briefly state, then, that the celebrated +Kircherian Museum, formed toward the close of the sixteenth century +by the learned Jesuit father Kircher, still occupies the rooms on the +ground-floor, with a somewhat improved arrangement, which it occupied +when the fathers of the Company inhabited the building. The collection +of ancient Roman marbles discovered in the excavations of the buried +city of Ostia have been brought thence, and arranged in rooms also +on the third floor--a fact which strikes one as not a little to the +credit of the handiwork of Ammanati, the Florentine architect. Also +on the third floor there is an exceedingly interesting collection, +of which I hope to speak somewhat more at length another time. It +is called a palaeo-ethnographical museum, and consists of a large +collection of the implements of all sorts of the people belonging to +the pre-historic period, together with a similar gathering of articles +used by the uncivilized races of the present day. The interest of +such a comparative study as is here suggested is, as may be +readily understood, very great. On the fourth floor there is a very +considerable collection of objects illustrating Italian art of the +ante-Roman period, and also a Museum of Industrial Art, conceived on +the plan of the English School of Art at South Kensington. + +T.A.T. + + + + +TRADES UNIONISM IN ITS INFANCY. + +In these days of trades unionism and strikes an account of the germ of +such associations in this country is not without interest. So far +back as 1806 a remarkable trial arising out of such a combination took +place before the recorder of Philadelphia and a jury. It lasted three +days and excited extraordinary interest. Jared Ingersoll and Joseph +Hopkinson were counsel for the prosecution, and Caesar A. Rodney and +Walter Franklin for the defence. + +The defendants, eight in number, were indicted for not being content +to work at the usual prices, but contriving to increase and augment +them, and for endeavoring to prevent by threats, menaces and other +unlawful means other artificers from working at the usual rate, and +uniting into a club or combination to make and ordain unlawful and +arbitrary rules to govern those engaged in their trade, and unjustly +exact great sums of money by means thereof. + +The evidence went to show in the clearest manner that a system of +frightful thralldom had been put in force. A witness named Harrison +stated that when he reached the United States in 1794 he found this +system of terrorism prevalent. He went to work for a Mr. Bedford, +and presently got a hint that if he did not join the association of +journeymen shoemakers he was liable to be "scabbed," which meant that +men would not work in the same shop, nor board or lodge in the same +house, nor would they work at all for the same employer. The case of +this man seemed exceptionally hard. He made shoes exclusively, and +when "a turn-out came to raise the wages on boots" he remonstrated, +pleading that shoes did not enter into the question, and urging that +he had a sick wife and a large family. But it was all to no +purpose. He then resolved that he would turn a "scab" unknown to the +association, and continue his work; but having a neighbor whom it was +impossible for him to deceive, he went to him and said that he knew +his circumstances, and that his family must perish or go to "the +bettering-house" unless he continued to work. This neighbor, Swain, +replied that he knew his condition was desperate, but that a man +had better make any sacrifice than turn a "scab" at that time. He +presently informed against him, and Mr. Bedford (his employer) was +warned that he must discharge his "scabs." He refused, saying +that, "Let the consequence be what it might, we should sink or swim +together." However, one Saturday night, when all but Harrison and a +man named Logan had left him, Bedford's resolution gave way, and he +exclaimed, "I don't know what the devil I am to do: they will ruin +me in the end. I wish you would go to the body and pay a fine, if not +very large, in order to set the shop free once more." The fine offered +was refused, and Mr. Bedford's shop remained "under scab" for a year. +Still, Mr. Bedford, who must have been a very plucky fellow, would not +give Harrison up, but removed in 1802 to Trenton. Harrison stated that +although he could not, had Mr. Bedford given him up, have got work +anywhere else, and that he might have ground him down to any terms, +yet he (Bedford) very nobly always gave him full price. At length, +by paying a fine, Harrison became reconciled to his persecutors, and +Bedford's shop was once more free. + +William Forgrave said that "the name of a 'scab' is very dangerous: +men of this description have been hurt when out at night." He had been +threatened, and joined the association from fear of personal injury. +A vast deal more of evidence was given and eloquent speeches delivered +by counsel, but the foregoing gives the sum and substance of the case. + +In the course of the summing up Recorder Levy said: "To make an +artificial regulation is not to regard the excellence of the work or +quality of the material, but to fix a positive and arbitrary price, +governed by no standard, but dependent on the will of the few who are +interested.... What, then, is the operation of this kind of conduct +upon the commerce of the city? It exposes it to inconveniences, if +not to ruin: therefore it is against the public welfare. How does it +operate upon the defendants? We see that those who are in indigent +circumstances, and who have families to maintain, have declared +here on oath that it was impossible for them to hold out. They were +interdicted from all employment in future if they did not continue to +persevere in the measures taken by the journeymen shoemakers. Does not +such a regulation tend to involve necessitous men in the commission +of crimes? If they are prevented working for six weeks, it might lead +them to procure support for their wives and children by burglary, +larceny or highway robbery." + +The jury found the defendants "guilty of a combination to raise their +wages," and the court sentenced them to pay a fine of eight dollars +each, with costs of suit, and to stand committed till paid. + + + + +MORAL TRAINING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. + + +One of our popular clergymen, in a late Sunday discourse upon the +Bible in the public schools, labored to show that the question was a +very unimportant one. because none were much interested in it except +infidels and politicians--a sufficiently absurd position for a +professed teacher of the people to assume. Doubtless it is a folly to +fan into flame the slumbering embers of a quarrel, but it is a greater +folly to pretend, in the face of the common sense of the people, that +all signs of fire are extinguished or never existed where there is +so much inflammable material about and the "wind of doctrine" running +high. + +This question of secular education for our public schools is in fact +one of the most difficult of solution. Chicago has met it in a summary +manner by excluding the Bible from all her free schools, but this does +not settle the question, because both believers and unbelievers in the +various creeds of the churches admit that there should be provision +made for the training of the moral faculties of the children in +our public schools. Many of them, especially in cities and large +manufacturing centres, come out of the dark alleys where intemperance, +poverty and ignorance tend to arrest the development of their higher +sentiments. For the unfortunate children of such homes the sessions of +the public school afford the only glimpse of a better life, the +only chance for moral and æsthetic culture. Protestants, as a rule, +honestly believe that the reading of the Bible at the opening of +school tends to waken and develop the moral aspirations of the child. +Just as honestly and conscientiously do Catholics disbelieve in the +efficacy of Bible reading, while they boldly condemn secular education +as a principle. Father Muller, priest of the congregation of the Most +Holy Redeemer, in his work upon public school education, published +three years ago in Boston, says: "The language of the Vicar of Christ +in regard to godless education is very plain and unmistakable".... +"Our Holy Father, Pope Pius IX., has declared that Catholics cannot +approve of a system of educating youth unconnected with the Catholic +faith and the power of the Church".... "The voice of common sense, the +voice of sad experience, the voice of Catholic bishops, and especially +the voice of the Holy Father, is raised against and condemns the +public school system as a huge humbug, injuring and not promoting +personal virtue and good citizenship, and as being most pernicious to +the Catholic faith and life and all good morals. A pastor, therefore, +cannot maintain the contrary opinion without incurring guilt before +God and the Church. He cannot allow parents to send their children to +such schools of infidelity. He cannot give them absolution and say, +_Innocens sum_." + +According to the _American Annual Cyclopædia_ for 1875, the Roman +Catholic Church has in the United States 1 cardinal, 8 archbishops, 54 +bishops, 4872 priests, 4731 churches, 1902 chapels, 68 colleges, 511 +academies, and a lay membership numbering over 6,000,000. This shows +a great and increasing prosperity of that Church in this country; yet +our institutions have nothing to fear from that prosperity unless +the principles of Catholicity support the "one-man power" against the +doctrine of the sovereignty of the people, the foundation-principle +of republicanism. Patriotic Catholic citizens claim that there is no +conflict. They love their Church and their country, and will labor to +preserve peace and harmony. Yet how can harmony be maintained while +a large and increasing number of our tax-paying citizens, accepting +their Church and its head as infallible, are forced by their spiritual +allegiance to send their children to Catholic schools, though at +the same time paying taxes to support those "godless" public schools +condemned by the infallible Church? To take the ground that these +two powers, the Catholic Church and our government, do not conflict, +because one is a spiritual and the other a civil power, is simply +absurd. We see that they _do_ conflict. The pope interferes with the +civil rights of our citizens when--as, for example, in his encyclical +letter of December 8, 1874--he commands all Catholics to treat the +liberty of speech, of the press, of conscience and of worship, the +separation of Church and State and the secular education of youth, as +"_reprobatas, proscriptas, atque damnatas_." + + + + +THE EARLIEST PRINTED BOOKS. + + +A recent lecture of the Rev. Dr. Storrs in New York, before the +Society for the Advancement of Science and Art, must have been very +interesting to an ordinary audience, but for one composed of professed +promoters of learning it could hardly have been sufficiently exact to +give general satisfaction if the newspaper reports of it were at all +correct. They represent the lecturer as saying that an immense number +of books date back to 1450. Now, the first printed book bearing a date +is the _Psalter_ of Füst and Schoeffer, 1457. A _portion_ of the +Bible was printed by Gutenberg and Füst in 1450, but the work was +so expensive and so imperfect that it was abandoned. In 1452, after +Schoeffer joined the firm, another Bible is supposed to have been +printed, but no copy of it is known to exist. Of course it is well +known that many of the earliest printed books are without date, but +none could have been printed before 1450; and there is no proof, we +believe, that the Bible said to be of 1455 bore that or any date. +In that year the firm of Gutenberg, Füst and Schoeffer dissolved. L. +Grégoire in his _Dictionnaire Encyclopédique_, published in Paris in +1817, says that there are only three or four copies of the Füst +Bible known to exist. Dr. Storrs, however, says, without giving his +authority, that there are fifteen. + +The sole idea of the early printers was to imitate exactly the +manuscript characters of the scribes. The initial letters of the +Bibles and the numbers of the chapters were therefore added with a pen +in blue and red ink alternately; and there is not the slightest doubt +that these first books were palmed off upon an unsuspecting public as +manuscripts. All the servants or employés of Füst and Schoeffer were +put under solemn oath to divulge nothing of the secret concerning +printing. It is to the policy which the first printers exerted to +conceal their art that we owe the tradition of the Devil and Dr. +Faustus. Füst having printed off quite a number of Bibles, and had the +large initial letters added by hand, he took them to Paris and sold +them for about fifty dollars apiece. The scribes demanded about ten +times that sum, and they earned the money, for it must have been an +herculean task to copy, as they did, every letter of the Bible with +such exquisite care, and then draw and illuminate the heads of the +chapters and the initial letters. It was a marvel how this new man +could produce these ponderous books at so low a rate. And then the +uniformity of the letters and the pages increased the wonder, until +the cry of "sorcerer" was raised: complaints before the magistrates +were made against him, his lodgings were searched and a great number +of copies were found and confiscated. The populace in their ignorance +and superstition declared that he was in league with the devil, and +that the red ink with which the books were embellished was his blood. +It is a satisfaction to know that the Parliament of Paris passed an +act to discharge the sorcerer from all prosecution in consideration of +_the usefulness of his art_. + +M.H. + + + + +FLOWERS VS. FLIES. + + +An Irish clergyman is said to have discovered last autumn a charming +antidote to flies, which it is only a pity he could not have lighted +on rather earlier in the season. Having occasion to change his abode, +he sent on his window-plants, calceolarias and geraniums, to that +which he intended to occupy several days before he went himself, and +immediately found that he was pestered with flies, whereas previously +he had enjoyed perfect immunity from the nuisance. A more agreeable +remedy cannot be conceived. Next autumn let our windows be a blaze +of brilliancy, so that all visitors to the Centennial may say, at all +events, "There are no flies in Philadelphia." + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + +Shakespeare Hermeneutics; or, The Still Lion. Being an Essay towards +the Restoration of Shakespeare's Text. By C.M. Ingleby, M.A., LL.D. +London: Trübner & Co. + +Setting aside those who care merely to see a play on the stage, it may +be said that of Shakespeare there are readers and readers; and both +classes have rights and privileges which should be treated with +deference. The reader who studies every line should not fleer at +him who studies not at all. Have we not a right to read a play of +Shakespeare's through in two short hours, surrendering ourselves, +unvexed by logic or grammar, to the enchantment which scenes and +phrases and words conjure up as they glide through our minds? When all +the atmosphere is tremulous with airs from heaven or blasts from hell, +must we, forsooth! stop and philosophically investigate what Hamlet +means by a "_dram of eale"_? Must we lose a scruple of the sport by +turning aside to find out what Malvolio means by the "_lady of the +Strachey_"? If Timon chooses to invite _Ullorxa_ to his feast, are we +to bar the door because no one ever heard the name before? No: let us +have our Shakespeare (is he not as much ours as yours?) free from +all notes, on a page purified from the musty cobwebs of black-letter +pedants. We want no jargon of bickering critics to drown the music +that sings at Heaven's gate. Give us those immortal plays just +as Shakespeare wrote them, that we may read them without let or +hinderance. + +But, fair and softly, is not this the very point at which we are +striving? With all our twistings and turnings, our patchings and +piecings, have we aught else in view than to decipher just what +Shakespeare wrote? Where are Shakespeare's exact words to be found? +Not in the so-called Quartos; for they are said by Shakespeare's +intimate and dear friends to have been "maimed and deformed by the +frauds and stealthes of injurious impostors," and taken down perhaps +from the lips of some of the actors, bribed by stoops of liquor at +_Yaughan's_ (and from the gibberish here and there set down it is to +be feared that the potations were at times pottle deep). Nor can +we take the Folio in which all his dramas were first collected: +Shakespeare never saw a line of it; for seven years he had been hid in +death's dateless night when that volume was printed. What, then, is +to be done? The Quartos and Folios are all the authority we have, +and none of them present what can be held to have been undeniably +Shakespeare's exact words. In dealing with the text we must never +for a moment forget that there stands, and will for ever stand, as +interpreters between us and Shakespeare, a crew of dishonest actors +or of more or less ignorant compositors. Is such a text, thus +transmitted, to be held in reverence so deep that not a syllable is to +be changed for fear of the cry that we are tampering with the words of +Shakespeare? Is the curse in his epitaph on the mover of his bones to +hang over his text? Small reverence for Shakespeare does it betoken, +in our opinion, to believe this. Rather, let us regard these pages of +the Folio as what they virtually are in so many cases--namely, as but +little better than our modern proof-sheets. And they should be +dealt with accordingly by a modern critic; but only on one condition +precedent: he must be Shakespeare's peer. In default of this we can +only humbly erase here, and reverently suggest there, summoning to our +aid all possible knowledge, lest in plucking up the tares we pluck up +the wheat also. + +And this is really all that textual criticism for the last hundred +and forty years has aimed at--merely to get at what Shakespeare really +wrote. We know that he could not write sheer nonsense, and yet at +times sheer nonsense mows at us from his printed page. Those who +clamor for Shakespeare's text, pure and simple, divested of all notes +and annotations, have no idea how much thought and time have been +expended on every line,--nay, on every word, on every comma,--in the +text of any good modern edition of his dramas, and with the single +aim, be it remembered, of revealing exactly what the poet wrote. + +It must not, however, be thought that since the original texts of +Shakespeare's plays are so corrupt, any criticaster has good leave to +expunge or expand at will, under a roving commission to hack and +hew wheresoever and howsoever it may please him, under the plea of +restoring the text. On the contrary, since we cannot fulfill the +condition precedent of being Shakespeare's peers, we must exercise the +greatest caution in changing a reading of the Quartos or Folios, lest +in condemning the text as corrupt we pass judgment on our own wit. + + He who the sword of Heaven would bear + Must be as holy as severe. + +And we must be very sure that the passage is corrupt before we set +about amending it. First and last, we must remember that primal elder +law, that of two readings the more difficult is to be preferred. +_Durior lectio preferenda 'st_ should be a frontlet between our brows. +The weaker reading or the plainer meaning is more likely to be a +printer's interpretation of what he failed to comprehend. + +But to understand Shakespeare's meaning in a degree that will +authorize us to amend the text, we must understand Shakespeare's +speech; that is, we must be thoroughly familiar with the words and +usages of Elizabethan English; and not only with Elizabethan words and +phrases, but also, as far as possible, with the very pronunciation. + +This fundamental principle is well enforced and illustrated in Dr. +Ingleby's book, which was originally published in one of the Annuals +of the German Shakespeare Society under the title of _The Still Lion_, +a title suggested by a passage in De Quincey, where the danger of +meddling with Milton's text is compared to that of meddling with +a still lion, which may be neither dead nor sleeping, but merely +shamming. Dr. Ingleby substitutes Shakespeare for Milton, and +maintains that the mass of Shakespearian emendations that have +been proposed during the last twenty years are needless; and that +corruptions have been assumed where none exist, owing to the limited +knowledge possessed by the critics. Thus, for instance, in the _Comedy +of Errors_ (I. i. 152) the Duke bids Aegeon to "seek thy _help_ +by beneficial _help_." At once there is a chorus from all of +us, sciolists, of "Corruption!" "Sophistication!" "Cacophonous +repetition!" etc. etc. "But gently, friends," says Dr. Ingleby: "may +not 'help' have borne a different or a special meaning in Elizabethan +English?" and turning to medical writers and books on medicine of +the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (among them Dr. John Hall, +Shakespeare's own son-in-law), he proves that _heal_ and _help_ having +a common origin, _help_ was used by Shakespeare's contemporaries as a +synonym for _cure, deliverance_. The text, then, is perfectly correct, +Ægeon being bid to seek his _deliverance_ from the doom of death by +the _help_ of what friends he can find. The lion's slumbers were here +of the lightest, and happy men be our dole to have escaped with whole +skins. Thus Dr. Ingleby takes up passage after passage of Shakespeare +that has been pronounced corrupt, and shows that the fault imputed to +it lies not in the text, but in the lack of requisite knowledge, be it +of language, of usage, of manners and customs, or even of Elizabethan +spelling and grammar, on the part of the critic. The mischief that +ignorance has done in the past is irrevocable, but such impressive +warnings as Dr. Ingleby gives us may help, in both senses of the +word, in the future. We may be spared, hereafter, the infliction +of numberless "felicitous" conjectures, on which the following is +scarcely a parody. It was proposed many years ago in sport by the late +deeply-lamented Chauncey Wright, and, as far as we know, has never yet +appeared in print, though it may live to be gravely noted down in +some future Variorum, being a genuine echo of many a note by Zachary +Jackson or Andrew Beckett. In _As You Like It_ occur the familiar +lines, "And thus our life ... finds ... books in the running brooks, +sermons in stones," etc. "This is stark nonsense, and must be +remedied. Who ever found a _book_ in a _rivulet_ or a _sermon_ in +a _rock?_ It is clearly an error of a most ignorant or careless +compositor, who has transposed the nouns. Read, '_stones in the +running brooks and sermons in books_.' Sense is vindicated. Stones +are frequently found in brooks. David chose smooth _pebbles from +the brook_, and sermons are quite frequently printed and sold in a +book-form. By this restoration Shakespeare's wonderful observation +is," etc., etc., etc. + +Great as is the service done in particular cases, the most valuable +part of _The Still Lion_ is the moral which it points, that +"successful emendation is the fruit of severe study and research on +the one hand, and of rare sensibility and sense on the other." And in +our opinion Dr. Ingleby might have gone even farther, and demanded for +it a spark of that creative power which is genius. But it must not be +inferred that all the difficult passages in Shakespeare can be thus +explained away. Despite all learning, or acuteness, or genius, there +remains a considerable number that have never yet been solved, and +never will be, in general acceptation, till the crack of doom. These, +however, bear so small a proportion to the vast mass of perplexing +riddles that have been satisfactorily settled that, like an infinitely +small quantity in mathematics, they may be neglected. Therefore, let +not him who wishes to read his Shakespeare unalloyed by notes and +textual comment, despise the painful critic or accuse him of playing +at loggats with the words of Shakespeare. It is through the labors of +critics that the text is in such a shape that the work-a-day reader +can read it at all. In the Folios and Quartos we see Shakespeare +as through a glass darkly, but, thanks to those drudges, the +commentators, in numberless places we can now see him face to face. + + +The Orphan of Pimlico, and other Sketches, Fragments and Drawings. +By William Makepeace Thackeray. With some notes by Anne Isabella +Thackeray. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. + +The artistic sense--the vivid conception of things and persons in +their external aspects and with a constant regard to their groupings +and the effect upon the spectator--made itself peculiarly prominent +in all that Thackeray wrote. It is not that he gives us elaborate +descriptions: this, indeed, is the resource of writers who are lacking +in the faculty mentioned, and are consequently obliged to reach the +result, if at all, by inferior means. His power lay in the selection +of traits which were strictly characteristic, in making every act or +phrase indicative of individuality. An astute critic, therefore--one +gifted with that keenness of vision to which the exercise of the +office unhappily implies a claim--should have been able to infer +Thackeray's dexterity with the pencil from the methods of his literary +work. There was, however, no room for conjecture on this point, as the +fact was early a matter of notoriety, and many of the illustrations +in his books were known to be from his own sketches. Recently, too, a +publication containing some of his earliest and slightest work in this +way attracted considerable attention, with the fortunate result of +calling out the volume before us, which embodies the best specimens +of his skill reproduced by a method that renders every line an exact +transcript, and accompanied by facsimiles of whatever written text or +comment appeared on the same page. Many of them partake more or less +of the nature of caricature, and if the execution alone be considered, +they show that Thackeray might, in default of talents of a different +order, have pursued this line with as much success as some of its +cleverest cultivators. But what distinguishes the drolleries in +this book is the inventiveness shown in the conception and the +characteristic ingenuity of the details. The designs for "Playing +Cards," in which the tray of spades is represented by the figures of +Johnson, Boswell and Gibbon, and a scene at "Dr. Birch's School" does +duty for the seven of hearts, are especially felicitous in this way; +while a different but not less familiar trait is exhibited in +some carefully-drawn "Initial Letters," embodying charming bits of +child-life and quaint allusions to well-known scenes in history and +romance. "Othello" in the form of "Dandy Jim of Souf Caroline," and +"The Little Assessor of Tübingen"--a mysterious personage of whom +the author refused to reveal the secret--are equally amusing and +suggestive. There are some half hundred subjects of the same or +other kinds in the volume, which, as a mere picture-book, is full of +entertainment for readers of all ages, while for those with whom the +name of Thackeray is a dear household word it will have a still higher +charm, calling up as it does so many associations connected with the +author and the man, and seeming like a fragment of the biography which +has been vainly looked for. + + + + +_BOOKS RECEIVED_. + +The Illustrated Annual Register of Rural Affairs for 1876. By J.J. +Thomas. Albany: Luther Tucker & Son. + +The Chevalier Casse-Cou: The Red Camellia. By Fortuné Du Boisgobey. +Translated from the French by Thos. Picton. New York: Robert M. De +Witt. + +Household Elegancies. By Mrs. C.S. Jones and Henry T. Williams. New +York: Henry T. Williams. + +The Children's Treasury of English Song. By Francis Turner Palgrave. +New York: Macmillan & Co. + +Stories from the Lips of the Teacher. By O.B. Frothingham. New York: +G.P. Putnam's Sons. + +Songs of Three Centuries. Edited by J.G. Whittier. Boston: James R. +Osgood & Co. + +Roddy's Reality. By Helen Kendrick Johnson. New York: G.P. Putnam's +Sons. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13655 *** |