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diff --git a/old/14333.txt b/old/14333.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f719446 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14333.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8844 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature +and Science, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science + Vol. XVII, No. 102. June, 1876. + +Author: Various + +Release Date: December 12, 2004 [EBook #14333] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Kathryn Lybarger and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +[Note: The Table of Contents and the list of illustrations were added +by the transcriber.] + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE OF POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE + +June, 1876. + +Vol. XVII, No. 102. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + ILLUSTRATIONS. + + THE CENTURY--ITS FRUITS AND ITS FESTIVAL. + VI.--THE DISPLAY--INTRODUCTORY. [Illustrated] + + DOLORES by EMMA LAZARUS. + + GLIMPSES OF CONSTANTINOPLE by SHEILA HALE. + CONCLUDING PAPER. [Illustrated] + + THEE AND YOU by EDWARD KEARSLEY. + A STORY OF OLD PHILADELPHIA. IN TWO PARTS.--I. + + MODERN HUGUENOTS by JAMES M. BRUCE. + + BLOOMING by MAURICE THOMPSON. + + FELIPA by CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON. + + AT CHICKAMAUGA by ROBERT LEWIS KIMBERLY. + + THE ATONEMENT OF LEAM DUNDAS by MRS. E. LYNN LINTON. + CHAPTER XXXVII. UNWORTHY. + CHAPTER XXXVIII. BLOTTED OUT. + CHAPTER XXXIX. WINDY BROW. + CHAPTER XL. LOST AND NOW FOUND. + + THE ITALIAN MEDIAEVAL WOOD-SCULPTORS by T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE. + + REST by CHARLOTTE F. BATES. + + LETTERS FROM SOUTH AFRICA by LADY BARKER. + + OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + THE CABS OF PARIS by L.H.H. + A NEW MUSEUM AT ROME by T.A.T. + OUR FOREIGN SURNAMES by W.W.C. + THE NEW FRENCH ACADEMICIAN by R.W. + + LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + Books Received. + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + FACADE OF THE SPANISH DIVISION, MAIN BUILDING. + FACADE OF THE EGYPTIAN DIVISION, MAIN BUILDING. + FACADE OF THE SWEDISH DIVISION, MAIN BUILDING. + FACADE OF THE BRAZILIAN DIVISION, MAIN BUILDING. + DOM PEDRO, EMPEROR OF BRAZIL. + JAPANESE CARPENTERS. + FACADE OF THE DIVISION OF THE NETHERLANDS, MAIN BUILDING. + THE CORLISS ENGINE, FURNISHING MOTIVE-POWER FOR MACHINERY HALL. + INTERIOR OF COOK'S WORLD'S TICKET-OFFICE. + FRENCH RESTAURANT LA FAYETTE. + THE MAMMOTH RODMAN GUN. + SCENE AT ONE OF THE ENTRANCES TO THE GROUNDS--THE TURNSTILE. + SCENE IN A BURIAL-GROUND. + THE SULTAN ABDUL-ASSIZ. + TURKISH COW-CARRIAGE. + ENTERING A MOSQUE. + CASTLE OF EUROPE, ON THE BOSPHORUS. + FORTRESS OF RIVA, AND THE BLACK SEA. + TURKISH QUARTER--STAMBOUL. + OBELISK OF THEODOSIUS. + SHEPHERDS. + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE + +OF + +_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE_. + +June, 1876. + + + + + +THE CENTURY--ITS FRUITS AND ITS FESTIVAL. + +VI. THE DISPLAY--INTRODUCTORY. + + +[Illustration: FACADE OF THE SPANISH DIVISION, MAIN BUILDING.] + +All things being ready for their reception, how were exhibits, +exhibitors and visitors to be brought to the grounds? To do this with +the extreme of rapidity and cheapness was essential to a full and +satisfactory attendance of both objects and persons. In a large majority +of cases the first consideration with the possessor of any article +deemed worthy of submission to the public eye was the cost and security +of transportation. Objects of art, the most valuable and the most +attractive portion of the display, are not usually very well adapted to +carriage over great distances with frequent transshipments. Porcelain, +glass and statuary are fragile, and paintings liable to injury from +dampness and rough handling; while an antique mosaic, like the +"Carthaginian Lion," a hundred square feet in superficies, might, after +resuscitation from its subterranean sleep of twenty centuries with its +minutest _tessera_ intact and every tint as fresh as the Phoenician +artist left it, suffer irreparable damage from a moment's carelessness +on the voyage to its temporary home in the New World. More solid things +of a very different character, and far less valuable pecuniarily, though +it may be quite as interesting to the promoter of human progress, exact +more or less time and attention to collect and prepare, and that will +not be bestowed upon them without some guarantee of their being safely +and inexpensively transmitted. So to simplify transportation as +practically to place the exposition buildings as nearly as possible at +the door of each exhibitor, student and sight-seer became, therefore, a +controlling problem. + +In the solution of it there is no exaggeration in saying that the +Centennial stands more than a quarter of a century in advance of even +the latest of its fellow expositions. At Vienna a river with a few small +steamers below and a tow-path above represented water-carriage. Good +railways came in from every quarter of the compass, but none of them +brought the locomotive to the neighborhood of the grounds. In the matter +of tram-roads for passengers the Viennese distinguished themselves over +the Londoners and Parisians by the possession of _one_. In steam-roads +they had no advantage and no inferiority. At each and all of these +cities the packing-box and the passenger were both confronted by the +vexatious interval between the station and the exposition +building--often the most trying part of the trip. Horsepower was the one +time-honored resource, in '73 as in '51, and in unnumbered years before. +Under the ancient divisions of horse and foot the world and its +_impedimenta_ moved upon Hyde Park, the Champ de Mars and the Prater, +the umbrella and the oil-cloth tilt their only shield against Jupiter +Pluvius, who seemed to take especial pleasure in demonstrating their +failure, nineteen centuries after the contemptuous erasure of him from +the calendar, to escape his power. It was reserved for the Philadelphia +Commission to bring his reign (not the slightest intention of a pun) to +a close. The most delicate silk or gem, and the most delicate wearer of +the same, were enabled to pass under roof from San Francisco into the +Main Building in Fairmount Park, and with a trifling break of twenty +steps at the wharf might do so from the dock at Bremen, Havre or +Liverpool. The hospitable shelter of the great pavilion was thus +extended over the continent and either ocean. The drip of its eaves +pattered into China, the Cape of Good Hope, Germany and Australia. Their +spread became almost that of the welkin. + +Let us look somewhat more into the detail of this unique feature of the +American fair. + +Within the limits of the United States the transportation question soon +solved itself. Five-sixths of the seventy-four thousand miles of railway +which lead, without interruption of track, to Fairmount Park are of +either one and the same gauge, or so near it as to permit the use +everywhere of the same car, its wheels a little broader than common. +From the other sixth the bodies of the wagons, with their contents, are +transferable by a change of trucks. The expected sixty or eighty +thousand tons of building material and articles for display could thus +be brought to their destination in a far shorter period than that +actually allowed. Liberal arrangements were conceded by the various +lines in regard to charges. Toll was exacted in one direction only, +unsold articles to be returned to the shipper free. As the time for +closing to exhibitors and opening to visitors approached the Centennial +cars became more and more familiar to the rural watcher of the passing +train. They aided to infect him, if free from it before, with the +Centennial craze. Their doors, though sealed, were eloquent, for they +bore in great black letters on staring white muslin the shibboleth of +the day, "1776--International Exhibition--1876." The enthusiasm of those +very hard and unimpressible entities, the railroad companies, thus +manifesting itself in low rates and gratuitous advertising, could not +fail to be contagious. Nor was the service done by the interior lines +wholly domestic. Several large foreign contributions from the Pacific +traversed the continent. The houses and the handicraft of the Mongol +climbed the Sierra Nevada on the magnificent highway his patient labor +had so large a share in constructing. Nineteen cars were freighted with +the rough and unpromising chrysalis that developed into the neat and +elaborate cottage of Japan, and others brought the Chinese display. +Polynesia and Australia adopted the same route in part. The canal +modestly assisted the rail, lines of inland navigation conducting to the +grounds barges of three times the tonnage of the average sea-going craft +of the Revolutionary era. These sluggish and smooth-going vehicles were +employed for the carriage of some of the large plants and trees which +enrich the horticultural department, eight boats being required to +transport from New York a thousand specimens of the Cuban flora sent by +a single exhibitor, M. Lachaume of Havana. Those moisture-loving shrubs, +the brilliant rhododendra collected by English nurserymen from our own +Alleghanies and returned to us wonderfully improved by civilization, +might have been expected also to affect the canal, but they chose, with +British taste, the more rapid rail. They had, in fact, no time to lose, +for their blooming season was close at hand, and their roots must needs +hasten to test the juices of American soil. Japan's miniature garden of +miniature plants, interesting far beyond the proportions of its +dimensions, was perforce dependent on the same means of conveyance. + +[Illustration: FACADE OF THE EGYPTIAN DIVISION, MAIN BUILDING.] + +The locomotive was summoned to the aid of foreign exhibitors on the +Atlantic as on the Pacific side, though to a less striking extent, the +largest steamships being able to lie within three miles of the +exposition buildings. It stood ready on the wharves of the Delaware to +welcome these stately guests from afar, indifferent whether they came in +squadrons or alone. It received on one day, in this vestibule of the +exposition, the Labrador from France and the Donati from Brazil. Dom +Pedro's coffee, sugar and tobacco and the marbles and canvases of the +Societe des Beaux-Arts were whisked off in amicable companionship to +their final destination. The solidarity of the nations is in some sort +promoted by this shaking down together of their goods and chattels. It +gives a truly international look to the exposition to see one of +Vernet's battle-pieces or Meissonier's microscopic gems of color jostled +by a package of hides from the Parana or a bale of India-rubber. + +Yet more expressive was the medley upon the covered platforms for the +reception of freight. Eleven of these, each one hundred and sixty by +twenty-four feet, admitted of the unloading of fifty-five freight-cars +at once. At this rate there was not left the least room for anxiety as +to the ability of the Commission and its employes to dispose, so far as +their responsibility was concerned, of everything presented for +exhibition within a very few days. The movements of the custom-house +officials, and the arrangements of goods after the passing of that +ordeal, were less rapid, and there seemed some ground for anxiety when +it was found that in the last days of March scarce a tenth of the +catalogued exhibits were on the ground, and for the closing ten days of +the period fixed for the receipt of goods an average of one car-load per +minute of the working hours was the calculated draft on the resources of +the unloading sheds. Home exhibitors, by reason of the very completeness +of their facilities of transport, were the most dilatory. The United +States held back until her guests were served, confident in the abundant +efficiency of the preparations made for bringing the entertainers to +their side. Better thus than that foreigners should have been behind +time. + +When the gates of the enclosure were at last shut upon the steam-horse, +a broader and more congenial field of duty opened before him. From the +role of dray-horse he passed to that of courser. Marvels from the ends +of the earth he had, with many a pant and heave, forward pull and +backward push, brought together and dumped in their allotted places. Now +it became his task to bear the fiery cross over hill and dale and +gather the clans, men, women and children. The London exhibition of +1851 had 6,170,000 visitors, and that of 1862 had 6,211,103. Paris in +1855 had 4,533,464, and in 1867, 10,200,000. Vienna's exhibition drew +7,254,867. The attendance at London on either occasion was barely double +the number of her population. So it was with Paris at her first display, +though she did much better subsequently. Vienna's was the greatest +success of all, according to this test. The least of all, if we may take +it into the list, was that of New York in 1853. Her people numbered +about the same with the visitors to her Crystal Palace--600,000. +Philadelphia's calculations went far beyond any of these figures, and +she laid her plans accordingly. + +Some trainbands from Northern and Southern cities might give their +patriotic furor the bizarre form of a march across country, but the +millions, if they came at all, must come by rail, and the problem was to +multiply the facilities far beyond any previous experience, while +reconciling the maximum of safety, comfort and speed with a reduction of +fares. The arrangements are still to be tested, and are no doubt open to +modification. On one point, however, and this an essential one, we +apprehend no grounds of complaint. There will be no crowding. The train +is practically endless, the word _terminus_ being a misnomer for the +circular system of tracks to which the station (six hundred and fifty by +one hundred feet) at the main entrance of the grounds forms a tangent. +The line of tourists is reeled off like their thread in the hands of +Clotho, the iron shears that snip it at stated intervals being +represented by the unmythical steam-engine. The same modern minister of +the Fates has another shrine not far from the dome of Memorial Hall, +where his acolytes are the officials of the Reading Railroad Company. + +Care for the visitor's comfortable locomotion does not end with +depositing him under the reception-verandah. The Commission did not +forget that a pedestrian excursion over fifteen or twenty miles of +aisles might sufficiently fatigue him without the additional trudge from +hall to hall over a surface of four hundred acres under a sun which the +century has certainly not deprived of any mentionable portion of its +heat. Hence, the belt railway, three and a half miles long, with trains +running by incessant schedule--a boon only to be justly appreciated by +those who attended the European expositions or any one of them. His +umbrella and goloshes pocketed in the form of a D.P.C. check, the +visitor, more fortunate than Brummel or Bonaparte, cannot be stopped by +the elements. + +[Illustration: FACADE OF THE SWEDISH DIVISION, MAIN BUILDING.] + +We shall have amply disposed of the subject of transportation when we +add that the neighborhood or city supply to the thirteen entrance-gates +is provided for by steam-roads capable of carrying twenty-four thousand +persons hourly, and tram-roads seating seven thousand, besides an +irregular militia or voltigeur force of light wagons, small steamers and +omnibuses equal to a demand of two or three thousand more in the same +time. It was not deemed likely that Philadelphia would require +conveyance for half of her population every day. Should that supposition +prove erroneous, the excess can fall back upon the safe and inexpensive +vehicle of 1776, 1851, 1867 and 1873--sole leather. + +Let us return to our packing-cases, and see where they go. To watch the +gradual dispersal of a congregation to their several places of abode is +always interesting. Especially is it so when those places of retreat +bear the names and fly the flags of the several nations of the globe. +This stout cube of deal, triple-bound with iron, disappears under the +asp and winged sphere of the Pharaohs. That other, big with rich velvets +and broideries, seeks the tricolor of France. Yonder, a wealth of silks +and lacquer finds a resting-place in the carved black-walnut _etageres_ +of Japan. Here go, cased in the spoils of the fjelds, toward a pavilion +seventy-five paces long and twenty wide, the bulky contributions of the +Norsemen. Swedish carpentry in perfection offers to a deposit separate +from that of the sister-kingdom a distinct receptacle. Close at hand +stand the antipodes in the pavilion of Chili, that opens its graceful +portal to bales sprinkled mayhap with the ashes of Aconcagua. There +"crashes a sturdy _box_ of stout John Bull;" and Russia, Tunis and +Canada roll into close neighborhood with him and each other. A queer and +not, let us hope, altogether transitory show of international comity is +this. Many a high-sounding, much-heralded and more-debating Peace +Congress has been held with less effect than that conducted by these +humble porters, carpenters and decorators. This one has solidity. Its +elements are palpable. The peoples not only bring their choicest +possessions, but they also set up around them their local habitations. +It is a cosmopolitan town that has sprung into being beneath the great +roof and glitters in the rays of our republican sun. In its +rectangularly-planned streets, alleys and plazas every style of +architecture is represented--domestic, state and ecclesiastical, +ancient, mediaeval and modern. The spirit and taste of most of the races +and climes find expression, giving thus the Sydenham and the Hyde Park +palaces in one. The reproductions at the former place were the work of +English hands: those before us are executed, for the most part, by +workmen to whom the originals are native and familiar. In this feature +of the interior of the Main Building we are amply compensated for the +breaking up of the _coup d'oeil_ by a multiplicity of discordant forms. +The space is still so vast as to maintain the effect of unity; and this +notwithstanding the considerable height of some of the national stalls, +that of Spain, for example, sending aloft its trophy of Moorish shields +and its effigy of the world-seeking Genoese to an elevation of forty-six +feet. The Moorish colonnade of the Brazilian pavilion lifts its head in +graceful rivalry of the lofty front reared by the other branch of the +Iberian race. In so vast an expanse this friendly competition of +Spaniards and Portuguese becomes, to the eye, a union of their +pretensions; and a single family of thirty-three millions in Europe and +America combines to present us with two of the handsomest structures in +the hall. + +[Illustration: FACADE OF THE BRAZILIAN DIVISION, MAIN BUILDING.] + +A moderate dip into statistics can no longer be evaded. We must map out +the microcosm, and allot to each sovereign power its quota of the +surface. The great European states which have assumed within the century +the supreme direction of human affairs are assigned a prominent central +position in the Main Building. Great Britain and her Asiatic possessions +occupy just eighty-three feet less than a hundred thousand; her other +colonies, including Canada, 48,150; France and her colonies, 43,314; +Germany, 27,975; Austria, 24,070; Russia, 11,002; Spain, 11,253; Sweden +and Belgium, each 15,358; Norway, 6897; Italy, 8167; Japan, 16,566; +Switzerland, 6646; China, 7504; Brazil, 6397; Egypt, 5146; Mexico, 6504; +Turkey, 4805; Denmark, 1462; and Tunis, 2015. These, with minor +apportionments to Venezuela, the Argentine Confederation, Chili, Peru +and the Orange Free State of South Africa, cover the original area of +the structure, deducting the reservation of 187,705 feet for the United +States, and excluding thirty-eight thousand square feet in the annexes. +France must be credited, in explanation of her comparatively limited +territory under the main roof, with her external pavilions devoted to +bronzes, glass, perfumery and (chief of all) to her magnificent +government exhibit of technical plans, drawings and models in +engineering, civil and military, and architecture. These outside +contributions constitute a link between her more substantial displays +and the five hundred paintings, fifty statues, etc. she places in +Memorial Hall. + +In Machinery and Agricultural Halls, respectively, Great Britain has +37,125 and 18,745 feet; Germany, 10,757 and 4875; France, 10,139 and +15,574; Belgium, 9375 and 1851; Canada, 4300 and 10,094; Brazil, 4000 +and 4657; Sweden, 3168 and 2603; Spain, 2248 and 5005; Russia, 1500 and +6785; Chili, 480 and 2493; Norway, 360 and 1590. Austria occupies 1536 +feet in Mechanical Hall; and in that of Agriculture are the following +additional allotments: Netherlands, 4276; Denmark, 836; Japan, 1665; +Peru, 1632; Liberia, 1536; Siam, 1220; Portugal, 1020. + +The foreign contributions in the department of machinery are, it will be +seen, hardly so large as might have been anticipated. When the spacious +annexes are added to the floor of the main hall, the great preponderance +of home exhibitors--five to one in the latter--is shown to be still more +marked. In Agricultural Hall the United States claim less than +two-thirds. The unexpected interest taken in this branch by foreigners +will enhance its prominence and value among the attractions of the +exposition. The collection of tropical products for food and +manufacturing is very complete. The development of the equatorial +regions of the globe has barely commenced. Even our acquaintance with +their natural resources remains but superficial. The country which takes +the lead in utilizing them in its trade and manufactures will gain a +great advantage over its fellows. England's commercial supremacy never +rested more largely on that foundation than now. Brazil, the great power +of South--as the Union is of North--America, possesses nearly half of +the accessible virgin territory of the tropics. Our interest joins hers +in retaining this vast endowment as far as possible for the benefit of +the Western World. A perception of this fact is shown in the exceptional +efforts made by Brazil to be fully represented in all departments of the +exposition, and in the visit to it of her chief magistrate, as we may +properly term her emperor, the only embodiment of hereditary power and +the monarchical principle in a country that enjoys--and has for the half +century since its erection into an independent state maintained--free +institutions. + +[Illustration: DOM PEDRO, EMPEROR OF BRAZIL.] + +In art domestic exhibits utterly lose their preponderance. Our artists +content themselves with a small fraction of the wall- and floor-space in +Memorial Hall and its northern annex. In extent of both "hanging" and +standing ground they but equal England and France, each occupying +something over twenty thousand square feet. Italy in the aesthetic combat +selects the chisel as her weapon, and takes the floor with a superb +array of marble eloquence, some three hundred pieces of statuary being +contributed by her sculptors. She might in addition set up a colorable +claim to the works executed on her soil or under the teaching of her +schools by artists of other nativities, and thus make, for example, a +sweeping raid into American territory. But she generously leaves to that +division the spoils swept from her coasts by the U.S. ship Franklin, +together with the works bearing her imprint in other sections, satisfied +with the wealth undoubtedly her own, itself but a faint adumbration of +the vast hoard she retains at home. Italy does not view the occasion +from a fine-art standpoint alone. Of her nine hundred and twenty-six +exhibitors, only one-sixth are in this department. + +[Illustration: JAPANESE CARPENTERS.] + +Nor, on the art side of our own country, must we overlook the Historical +division, the perfecting of which has been a labor of love with Mr. +Etting. He allots space among the old Thirteen, and reserves a place at +the feast of reunion to the mother of that rebellious sisterhood. + +Forty acres of "floor-space" _sub Jove_ remained to be awarded to +foreign and domestic claimants. Gardening is one of the fine arts. +Certainly nothing in Memorial Hall can excel its productions in +richness, variety and harmony of color and form. Flower, leaf and tree +are the models of the palette and the crayon. Their marvelous +improvement in variety and splendor is one of the most striking triumphs +of human ingenuity. A few hundred species have been expanded into many +thousand forms, each finer than the parent. It is a new flora created by +civilization, undreamed of by the savage, and voluminous in proportion +to the mental advancement of the races among whom it has sprung up. +Progress writes its record in flowers, and scrawls the autographs of the +nations all over Lansdowne hill. No need of gilded show-cases to set off +the German and Germantown roses, the thirty thousand hyacinths in +another compartment, or the plot of seven hundred and fifty kinds of +trees and shrubs planted by a single American contributor. The Moorish +Kiosque, however, comes in well. The material is genuine Morocco, the +building having been brought over in pieces from the realm of the +Saracens, of "gul in its bloom" and of "Larry O'Rourke"--as Rogers +punned down the poem of his Irish friend. + +The nations comfortably installed, we must sketch the tactical system +under which they are drawn up for peaceful contest. The classification +of subjects adopted by the Commission embraces seven departments. Of +these, the Main Building is devoted to I. _Mining and Metallurgy_; II. +_Manufactures_; III. _Education and Science_; Memorial Hall and its +appendages, to IV. _Art_; Machinery Hall, to V. _Machinery_; +Agricultural Hall, to VI. _Agriculture_; and Horticultural Hall and its +parterres, to VII. _Horticulture_. These habitats have, as we have +heretofore seen, proved too contracted for the august and expansive +inmates assigned them. All of the latter have overflowed; mining, for +instance, into the mineral annex of thirty-two thousand square feet and +the great pavilion (a hundred and thirty-five feet square) of Colorado +and Kansas; education into the Swedish and Pennsylvania school-houses +and others already noted; manufactures into breweries, glass-houses, +etc.; and so on with an infinity of irrepressible outgrowths. + +[Illustration: FACADE OF THE DIVISION OF THE NETHERLANDS, MAIN +BUILDING.] + +Department I. is subdivided into classes numbered from 100 to 129, and +embracing the products of mines and the means of extracting and reducing +them. II. extends from Class 200 to Class 296--chemical manufactures, +ceramics, furniture, woven goods of all kinds, jewelry, paper, +stationery, weapons, medical appliances, hardware, vehicles and their +accessories. III. deals with the high province of educational systems, +methods and libraries; institutions and organizations; scientific and +philosophical instruments and methods; engineering, architecture in its +technical and non-aesthetic aspect, maps; physical, moral and social +condition of man. Fifty classes, 300 to 349 inclusive, fence in this +field of pure reason. Department IV., Classes 400-459, covers sculpture, +painting, photography, engraving and lithography, industrial and +architectural designs, ceramic decorations, mosaics, etc. V., Classes +509-599, takes charge of machines and tools for mining, chemistry, +weaving, sewing, printing, working metal, wood and stone; motors; +hydraulic and pneumatic apparatus; railway stock or "plant;" machinery +for preparing agricultural products; "aerial, pneumatic and water +transportation," and "machinery and apparatus especially adapted to the +requirements of the exhibition." VI., Classes 600-699, assembles +arboriculture and forest products, pomology, agricultural products, land +and marine animals, pisciculture and its apparatus, "animal and +vegetable products," textile substances, machines, implements and +products of manufacture, agricultural engineering and administration, +tillage and general management. Under Department VII., Classes 700-739, +come ornamental trees, shrubs and flowers, hothouses and conservatories, +garden tools and contrivances, garden designing, construction and +management. + +The accumulated experience of past expositions, seconded by the judgment +and systematic thoroughness apparent in the preparations for the present +one, makes this a good "working" classification. It has done away with +confusion to an extent hardly to have been hoped for, and all the +thousands of objects and subjects have dropped into their places in the +exhibition with the precision of machinery, little adapted as some of +them are to such treatment. Very impalpable and elusive things had to +submit themselves to inspection and analysis, and have their elements +tabulated like a tax bill or a grocery account. All human concerns were +called on to be listed on the muster-roll and stand shoulder to shoulder +on the drill-ground. Some curious comrades appear side by side in the +long line. For example, we read: Class 286, brushes; 295, sleighs; 300, +elementary instruction; 301, academies and high schools, colleges and +universities; 305, libraries, history, etc.; 306, school-books, general +and miscellaneous literature, encyclopaedias, newspapers; 311, learned +and scientific associations, artistic, biological, zoological and +medical schools, astronomical observatories; 313, music and the drama. +Then we find, closely sandwiched between, 335--topographical maps, +etc.--and 400--figures in stone, metal, clay or plaster--340, physical +development and condition (of the young of the genus _Homo_); 345, +government and law; 346, benevolence, beginning with hospitals of all +kinds and ending with--in the order we give them--emigrant-aid +societies, treatment of aborigines and prevention of cruelty to animals! +In the last-named subdivision the visitor will be stared out of +countenance by Mr. Bergh's tremendous exposure of "various instruments +used by persons in breaking the law relative to cruelty to animals," the +glittering banner of the S.P.C.A., and its big trophy, eight yards +square, that illuminates the east end of the north avenue of the Main +Building, in opposition to the trophy at the other end of the same +avenue illustrating the history of the American flag. But he will look +in vain for selected specimens of the emigrant-runner, the luxuries of +the steerage and Castle Garden, or for photographs of the well-fed +post-trader and Indian agent, agricultural products from Captain Jack's +lava-bed reservation and jars of semi-putrescent treaty-beef. He will +alight, next door to the penniless immigrant, the red man and the +omnibus-horse, on Class 348, religious organizations and systems, +embracing everything that grows out of man's sense of responsibility to +his Maker. It will perhaps occur to the observer that, though the +juxtaposition is well enough, religion ought to have come in a little +before. His surprise at the power of condensation shown in compressing +eternity into a single class will not be lessened when he passes on to +Class 632, sheep; 634, swine; and 636, dogs and cats! + +A glance over the classification-list assists us in recognizing the +advantages of the system of awards framed by the Commission and adopted +after patient study and discussion. It discards the plan--if plan it +could be called--of scattering diplomas and medals of gold, silver and +bronze right and left, after the fashion of largesse at a mediaeval +coronation, heretofore followed at international expositions. These +prizes were decided on and assigned by juries whose impartiality--by +reason of the imperfect representation upon them of the nations which +exhibited little in mass or little in certain classes, and also of their +failure to make written reports and thus secure their +responsibility--could not be assured, and whose action, therefore, was +defective in real weight and value. The juries were badly constituted: +they had too much to do of an illusory and useless description, and they +had too little to do that was solid and instructive. Special mentions, +diplomas, half a dozen grades of medals and other honors, formed a +programme too large and complicated to be discriminatingly carried out. +So it happened that to exhibit and to get a distinction of some kind +came, at Vienna, to be almost convertible expressions; and who excelled +in the competition in any of the classes, or who had contributed anything +substantial to the stock of human knowledge or well-being, remained quite +undetermined. What instruction the display could impart was confined to +spectators who studied its specialties for themselves and used their +deductions for their individual advantage, and to those who read the +sufficiently general and cursory reports made to their several +governments by the national commissions. The official awards and reports +of the exposition authorities amounted to little or nothing. + +[Illustration: THE CORLISS ENGINE, FURNISHING MOTIVE-POWER FOR MACHINERY +HALL.] + +A sharp departure from this practice was decided on at the Centennial. +Two hundred judges, of undoubted character and intelligence and entire +familiarity with the departments assigned to them, were chosen--half by +the foreign bureaus and half by the U.S. Commission. These were made +officers of the exposition itself, and thus separated from external +influences. They were given a reasonable and fixed compensation of one +thousand dollars each for their time and personal expenses. An equal +division of the number of judges between the domestic and foreign sides +gives the latter an excess, measured by the comparative extent of the +display from the two sources. But this is favorable to us, as we shall +be the better for an outside judgment on the merits of both our own and +foreign exhibits. Were it otherwise, the excess of private observers +from this country would counterbalance our deficit in judges. The +foreign jurors have to see for the millions they represent. Our own will +have vast numbers of their constituents on the ground. + +Written reports are drawn up by these selected examiners and signed by +the authors. The reports must be "based upon inherent and comparative +merit. The elements of merit shall be held to include considerations +relating to originality, invention, discovery, utility, quality, skill, +workmanship, fitness for the purpose intended, adaptation to public +wants, economy and cost." Each report, upon its completion, is delivered +to the Centennial Commission for award and publication. The award comes +in the shape of a diploma with a bronze medal and a special report of +the judges upon its subject. This report may be published by the +exhibitor if he choose. It will also be used by the Commission in such +manner as may best promote the objects of the exposition. These +documents, well edited and put in popular form, will constitute the most +valuable publication that has been produced by any international +exhibition. To this we may add the special reports to be made by the +State and foreign commissions. These ought, with the light gained by +time, to be at least not inferior to the similar papers scattered +through the bulky records of previous exhibitions. Let us hope that +brevity will rule in the style of all the reports, regular and +irregular. There is a core to every subject, every group of subjects and +every group of groups, however numerous and complex: let all the scribes +labor to find it for us. When we recall the disposition of all +committees to select the member most fecund of words to prepare their +report, we are seized with misgivings--a feeling that becomes oppressive +as we further reflect that the local committee which deliberately +collected and sent for exhibition eighty thousand manuscripts written by +the school-children of a Western city is at large on the exposition +grounds. + +The passion for independent effort characteristic of the American people +led to the supplementing of the official list by sundry volunteer +prizes. These are offered by associations, and in some cases +individuals. They are not all, like the regular awards, purely honorary. +They lean to the pecuniary form, those particularly which are offered in +different branches of agriculture. Competition among poultry-growers, +manufacturers of butter, reaping-and threshing-machines, +cotton-planters, etc. is stimulated by money-prizes reaching in all some +six or eight thousand dollars. Agricultural machinery needs the open +field for its proper testing, and cannot operate satisfactorily in +Machinery Hall. Without a sight of our harvest-fields and +threshing-floors foreigners would carry away an incomplete impression of +our industrial methods, the farm being our great factory. The oar, the +rifle and the racer are as impatient of walls as the plough and its +new-fangled allies. They demand elbow-room for the display of their +powers, and the Commission was fain to let their votaries tempt it to +pass the confines of its territory. The lusty undergraduates of both +sides of Anglo-Saxondom escort it unresistingly down from its airy halls +to the blue bosom of the Schuylkill, while "teams" picked from eighty +English-speaking millions beckon it across the Jerseys to Creedmoor. And +the horse--is he to call in vain? Is a strait-laced negative from the +Commission to echo back his neigh? Is the blood of Eclipse and Godolphin +to stagnate under a ticket in "Class 630, horses, asses and mules"? Why, +the very ponies in front of Memorial Hall pull with extra vim against +their virago jockeys and flap their little brass wings in indignation at +the thought. The thoroughbred will be heard from, and the judges that +sit on him will be "experts in their department." + +[Illustration: INTERIOR OF COOK'S WORLD'S TICKET-OFFICE.] + +Another specimen of the desert-born, the Western Indian, forms an +exhibit as little suited as the improved Arab horse to discussion and +award at a session fraught with that "calm contemplation and poetic +ease" which ought to mark the deliberations of the judges. How are the +representatives of fifty-three tribes to be put through their paces? +These poor fragments of the ancient population of the Union have, if we +exclude the Cherokees and Choctaws and two or three of the Gila tribes, +literally nothing to show. The latter can present us with a faint trace +of the long-faded civilization of their Aztec kindred, while the former +have only borrowed a few of the rudest arts of the white, and are +protected from extinction merely by the barrier of a frontier more and +more violently assailed each year by the speculator and the settler, and +already passed by the railway. If we cannot exactly say that the Indian, +alone of all the throng at the exhibition, goes home uninformed and +unenlightened, what ideas may reach his mind will be soon smothered out +by the conditions which surround him on the Plains. It is singular that +a population of three or four hundred thousand, far from contemptible +in intellectual power, and belonging to a race which has shown itself +capable of a degree of civilization many of the tribes of the Eastern +continents have never approached, should be so absolutely an industrial +cipher. The African even exports mats, palm-oil and peanuts, but the +Indian exports nothing and produces nothing. He lacks the sense of +property, and has no object of acquisition but scalps. Can the assembled +ingenuity of the nineteenth century, in presence of this mass of waste +human material, devise no means of utilizing it? There stands its +Frankenstein, ready made, perfect in thews and sinews, perfect also in +many of its nobler parts. It is not a creation that is demanded--simply +a remodeling or expansion. For success in this achievement the United +States can afford to offer a pecuniary prize that will throw into the +shade all the other prizes put together. The cost of the Indian bureau +for 1875-76 reached eight millions of dollars. The commission appointed +to treat for the purchase of the Black Hills reports that the feeding +and clothing of the Sioux cost the government thirteen millions during +the past seven years; and that without the smallest benefit to those +spirited savages. Says the report: "They have made no advancement +whatever, but have done absolutely nothing but eat, drink, smoke and +sleep." + +Social and political questions like this point to a vast field of +inquiry. For its proper cultivation the exposition provides data +additional to those heretofore available. They should be used as far as +possible upon the spot. At least, they can be examined, collated and +prepared for full employment. To this end, meetings and discussions held +by men qualified by intellect and study to deal with them are the +obvious resort. There is room among the two hundred judges for some such +men, but the juries are little more numerous than is required for the +examination of and report on objects. For more abstract inquiries they +will need recruits. These should be supplied by the leading +philosophical associations of this country and Europe. The governments +have all an interest in enlisting their aid, and the Centennial +Commission has done what in it lay to promote their action. Ethnic +characteristics, history, literature, education, crime, statistics as a +science, hygiene and medicine generally are among the broad themes which +are not apt to be adequately treated by the average committee of +inspection. So with the whole range of the natural sciences. +Dissertations based on the jury reports will doubtless be abundant after +a while, but those reports themselves, being limited in scope, will not +be as satisfactory material as that which philosophic specialists would +themselves extract from direct observation and debate upon the ground. + +For the study of the commanding subject of education the provision made +at the present exhibition is exceptionally great. In bulk, and probably +in completeness, it is immeasurably beyond the display made on any +preceding occasion. The building erected by the single State of +Pennsylvania for her educational department covers ten or eleven +thousand square feet, and other States of the Union make corresponding +efforts to show well in the same line. The European nations all manifest +a new interest in this branch, and give it a much more prominent place +in their exhibit than ever before. The school-systems of most of them +are of very recent birth, and do not date back so far as 1851. The +kingdom of Italy did not exist at that time or for many years after, yet +we now see it pressing for a foremost place in the race of popular +education, and multiplying its public schools in the face of all the +troubles attendant upon the erection and organization of a new state. + +The historian will find aliment less abundant. A century or two of +Caucasian life in America is but a thing of yesterday to him, and, +though far from uninstructive, is but an offshoot from modern European +annals. For all that, he finds himself on our soil in presence of an +antiquity which remains to be explored, and which clamors to be rescued +from the domain of the pre-historic. It has no literary records beyond +the scant remains of Mexico. It writes itself, nevertheless, strongly +and deeply on the face of the land--in mounds, fortifications and tombs +as distinct, if not so elaborate, as those of Etruria and Cyprus. These +remains show the hand of several successive races. Who they were, what +their traits, whence they came, what their relations with the now +civilized Chinese and Japanese--whom, physically, their descendants so +nearly resemble--are legitimate queries for the historian. Geologically, +America is older than Europe, and was fitted for the home of the red man +before the latter ceased to be the home of the whale. The investigation +of its past, if impossible to be conducted in the light of its own +records or even traditions, is capable of aiding in the verification of +conclusions drawn from those of the Old World. If History, however, +contemptuously relegates the Moundbuilders to the mattock of the +antiquarian, she is still "Philosophy teaching by example." As thus +allied with Philosophy, she finds something to look into at the +Centennial, even though she look obliquely, after the fashion of the +observant Hollanders, who have stuck the reflecting glasses of the Dutch +street-windows into the sides of their compartment in the Main Building, +and squint, without a change of position, upon the United States, Spain, +South America, Egypt, Great Britain and several other countries. + +Religion and philanthropy find the field inviting, and their +representatives, individual and associated, are busy in preparing to +till it. The enthusiasm of the leading religious societies took the +concrete shape of statuary. Hence the Catholic Fountain, heretofore +noticed; the Hebrew statue to Religious Liberty, as established in a +land that never had a Ghetto or a Judenstrasse; the Presbyterian figure +of Witherspoon; an Episcopalian of Bishop White; and others under way or +proposed. The temperance movement, too, embodies itself in a fountain +that runs ice-water instead of claret. The less tangible but perhaps +more fruitful form of reunions and discussions must in a greater or less +degree enhance the power for good of these organizations. They are led +by men of mind and energy, seldom averse to enlightenment, and all +professing to seek nothing else. When men of these qualities, aiming at +the same or a like object, meet to compare their respective +admeasurements of its parallax made from as many different points, they +cannot fail to approach accuracy. Faith is a first element in all great +undertakings. It removes mountains at Mont Cenis, as it walked the waves +with Columbus. In our century even faith is progressive, and does not +shrink from elbowing its way through what Bunyan would have styled +Vanity Fair. + +Modestly in the rear of the moral reformers, yet not wholly and +uniformly unaggressive, nor guiltless altogether of isms and schisms, +step forward the literary men. As a rule, they do not affect +expositions, or exhibitions of any kind. But one general meeting, with +some minor and informal ones, is on the programme for them. This is +well. The world and the fullness thereof belongs to them, and they may +care to come forward to scan this schedule of their inheritance. We do +not hear of their having combined to put up a pavilion of their own, +like the dairymen and the brewers, "to show the different processes of +manufacture." The pen will be at work here, nevertheless, and has been +from the beginning, before the foundations of the Corliss engine were +laid or the granite of Memorial Hall left the quarry. Without this first +of implements none of the other machinery would ever have moved. The pen +is mightier than the piston. It is the invisible steam that impels all. + +[Illustration: FRENCH RESTAURANT LA FAYETTE.] + +In a visible form also it is here. The publishers of the London _Punch_ +have selected as the most comprehensive motto for the case in which they +exhibit copies of their various publications a sentence from Shakspeare: +"Come and take choice of all my library, and so beguile thy sorrow." We +do not know that to dull his sorrows is all that can be done for man. +Literature assumes to do more than make him forget. The lotos-eater is +not its one hero. School-books, piled aloft "in numbers without number +numberless," may to the man be suggestive of hours without thought and +void of grief, but they certainly are not to the boy. Blue books, ground +out in a thousand bureaus, and contributed in like profusion, may be +pronounced a weariness to the adult flesh, however sweet their ultimate +uses. Unhappy those who wade through them for increasing the happiness +of others! These humble but portly representatives of political +literature are the log-books of the ship of state. They chart and +chronicle the currents and winds along its course, so that from the mass +of chaff a grain of guidance may be painfully winnowed out for the +benefit of its next voyage, or for the voyages of other craft +floundering on the same perilous and baffling sea. Everything comes pat +to a log-book. As endless is the medley of memoranda in blue-books. They +deal, like government itself, with everything. They take up the citizen +on his entry into the cradle, and do not quite drop him at the grave. +How to educate, clothe, feed and doctor him; how to keep him out of +jail, and how, once there, to get him out again with the least possible +moral detriment; how to adjust as lightly as possible to his shoulders +the burden of taxation; how to economize him as food for powder; and how +to free him from the miasm of crowded cities,--are but a small part of +their contents. And the index is growing, if possible, larger, as the +apparatus of government becomes more and more intricate. With such +contributions and credentials do the rulers of the nations enroll +themselves in the guild of authorship. They are proud of them, and +exhibit them in profusion, in whole libraries, rich with gold and the +primary colors. + +Expositions, as we have before remarked, come into the same worshipful +guild by right of a special literature they have brought into being. +They come, moreover, into the blue-book range by their bearing upon +certain topics generally assigned to it. It is found, for example, that, +like other great gatherings, they are apt to be followed by a temporary +local increase of crime. The police-records of London show that the +arrests in 1851 outnumbered those of the previous year by 1570, and that +in 1862 the aggregate exceeded by 5043 that of 1861. It will at once +occur that the population of the city was greatly increased on each +occasion, and that the influx of thieves and lawbreakers generally must +have thinned out that class elsewhere, and in that way very probably +reduced, rather than added to, the sum-total of crime, the preventive +arrangements in London having been exceptionally thorough. The drawback +that would consist in an increase of crime is therefore only an apparent +result. An opposite effect cannot but result, if only from the evidence +that so vast and heterogeneous an assemblage can be held without marked +disorder. The police as well as the criminals and the savants of all +nations come together, compare notes and enjoy a common improvement. + +[Illustration: THE MAMMOTH RODMAN GUN.] + +This is the first opportunity the physicians of Europe have had to +become fully acquainted with the advances in surgery and pathology their +American brethren have the credit of having made within the past few +years. They will find it illustrated in the government buildings and +elsewhere; and they have an ample _quid pro quo_ to offer from their own +researches. The balancing of opinions at the proposed medical congress +and in private intercourse must tend to free medical science from what +remnants of empiricism still disfigure it, to perfect diagnosis and to +trace with precision the operation of all remedial agents. Means remain +to be found of administering the _coup de grace_ to the few epidemics +which have not yet been extirpated, but linger in a crippled condition. +This will be aided by the illustrations afforded of processes of +draining, ventilation, etc. + +Man's health rests in that of his stomach. The food question is a +concern of the physician as well as of the publicist. The race began +life on a vegetable diet, and to that it reverts when compelled by +enfeebled digestion or by the increasing difficulty of providing animal +food for a dense population. But it likes flesh when able to assimilate +it or to procure it, and demands at least the compromise of fish. Hence, +the revived attention to fish-breeding, an art wellnigh forgotten since +the Reformation emptied the carp-ponds of the monks. Maryland, New York +and other States illustrate this device for enhancing the food-supply, +and the aquaria at Agricultural Hall, containing twelve or fifteen +thousand gallons of salt and fresh water, present a congress of the +leaders, gastronomically speaking, of the finny people. The shad remains +not only to be naturalized in Europe, but to be reintroduced to the +water-side dwellers above tide, who once met him regularly at table. He +is joined by delegates from the mountain, the great lakes and the +Pacific coast in the trout, the salmon and the whitefish, and by that +quiet, silent and slow-going cousin of the fraternity, the oyster, most +valuable of all, as possessors of those qualities not unfrequently are. +Europe does not dream, and we ourselves do not realize until we come +carefully to think of it, what the oyster does for us. He sustains the +hardiest part of our coasting marine, paves our best roads, fertilizes +our sands, enlivens all our festivities, and supports an army of +packers, can-makers, etc., cased in whose panoply of tin he traverses +the globe like a mail-clad knight-errant in the cause of commerce and +good eating. Yet he needs protection. All this burden is greater than he +can bear, and it is growing. System and science are invoked to his +rescue ere he go the way of the inland shad and the salmon that became a +drug to the Pilgrim Fathers. It is not easy to frame a medal or diploma +for the fostering of the oyster. More effective is a consideration of +the impending penalty for neglecting to do so. _Ostrea edulis_ is one of +the grand things before which prizes sink into nothingness. + +Another of them is that triumph of pure reason, chess, an unadulterated +product of the brain--i.e., of phosphorus--i.e., of fish. Nobody stakes +money on chess or offers a prize to the best player. Honor at that board +is its own reward. So when we are told of the Centennial Chess +Tournament we recognize at once the fitness of the word borrowed from +the chivalric joust. It is the culmination of human strife. The thought, +labor and ardor spread over three hundred and fifty acres sums itself in +that black and white board the size of your handkerchief. War and +statecraft condense themselves into it. Armies and nations move with the +chessman. Sally, leaguer, feint, flank-march, triumphant charge are one +after another rehearsed. There, too, moves the game of politics in plot +and counterplot. It is the climax of the subjective. From those lists +the trumpet-blare, the crowd, the glitter, the banners, "the boast of +heraldry and pomp of power," melt utterly away. To the world-champions +who bend above the little board the big glass houses and all the +treasures stared at by admiring thousands are as naught. + +[Illustration: SCENE AT ONE OF THE ENTRANCES TO THE GROUNDS--THE +TURNSTILE.] + +But man is an animal, and not by any means of intellect all compact. The +average mortal confesses to a craving for the stimulus of great shows, +of material purposes, substantial objects of study and palpable prizes. +It is so in 1876, as it was in 1776, and as it will be in a long series +of Seventy-sixes. + +It is the concrete rather than the abstract which draws him in through +the turnstiles of the exposition enclosure. Separated by the divisions +of those ingeniously-contrived gates into taxed and untaxed spectators, +the masses stream in with small thought of the philosophers or the +chess-players. Their minds are reached, but reached through the eye, and +the first appeal is to that. Each visitor constitutes himself a jury of +one to consider and compare what he sees. The hundreds of thousands of +verdicts so reached will be published only by word of mouth, if +published at all. Their value will be none the less indubitable, though +far from being in all cases the same. The proportion of intelligent +observers will be greater than on like occasions heretofore. So will, +perhaps, be that of solid matter for study, although in some specialties +there may be default. He who enters with the design of self-education +will find the text-books in most branches abundant, wide open before him +and printed in the clearest characters. What shortcomings there may have +been in the selection and arrangement of them he will have, if he can, +himself to remedy. There stands the school, founded and furnished with +great labor. The would-be scholar can only be invited to use it. The +centennial that is to turn out scholars ready-made has not yet rolled +round. + + + + +DOLORES. + + A light at her feet and a light at her head, + How fast asleep my Dolores lies! + Awaken, my love, for to-morrow we wed-- + Uplift the lids of thy beautiful eyes. + + Too soon art thou clad in white, my spouse: + Who placed that garland above thy heart + Which shall wreathe to-morrow thy bridal brows? + How quiet and mute and strange thou art! + + And hearest thou not my voice that speaks? + And feelest thou not my hot tears flow + As I kiss thine eyes and thy lips and thy cheeks? + Do they not warm thee, my bride of snow? + + Thou knowest no grief, though thy love may weep. + A phantom smile, with a faint, wan beam, + Is fixed on thy features sealed in sleep: + Oh tell me the secret bliss of thy dream. + + Does it lead to fair meadows with flowering trees, + Where thy sister-angels hail thee their own? + Was not my love to thee dearer than these? + Thine was my world and my heaven in one. + + I dare not call thee aloud, nor cry, + Thou art so solemn, so rapt in rest, + But I will whisper: Dolores, 'tis I: + My heart is breaking within my breast. + + Never ere now did I speak thy name, + Itself a caress, but the lovelight leapt + Into thine eyes with a kindling flame, + And a ripple of rose o'er thy soft cheek crept. + + But now wilt thou stir not for passion or prayer, + And makest no sign of the lips or the eyes, + With a nun's strait band o'er thy bright black hair-- + Blind to mine anguish and deaf to my cries. + + I stand no more in the waxen-lit room: + I see thee again as I saw thee that day, + In a world of sunshine and springtide bloom, + 'Midst the green and white of the budding May. + + Now shadow, now shine, as the branches ope, + Flickereth over my love the while: + From her sunny eyes gleams the May-time hope, + And her pure lips dawn in a wistful smile. + + As one who waiteth I see her stand, + Who waits though she knows not what nor whom, + With a lilac spray in her slim soft hand: + All the air is sweet with its spicy bloom. + + I knew not her secret, though she held mine: + In that golden hour did we each confess; + And her low voice murmured, Yea, I am thine, + And the large world rang with my happiness. + + To-morrow shall be the blessedest day + That ever the all-seeing sun espied: + Though thou sleep till the morning's earliest ray, + Yet then thou must waken to be my bride. + + Yea, waken, my love, for to-morrow we wed: + Uplift the lids of thy beautiful eyes. + A light at her feet and a light at her head, + How fast asleep my Dolores lies! + +EMMA LAZARUS. + + + + +GLIMPSES OF CONSTANTINOPLE. + +CONCLUDING PAPER. + + +[Illustration: SCENE IN A BURIAL-GROUND.] + +There is a continuous fascination about this old city. The guide-book +says, "A week or ten days are required to see the sights," but though we +make daily expeditions we seem in no danger of exhausting them. Neither +does one have to go far to seek amusement. I never look down into the +street below my windows without being attracted by some object of +interest. The little donkeys with their great panniers of long slim +loaves of bread (oh, tell it not, but I once saw the driver use one as a +stick to belabor the lazy animal with, and then leave it, with two or +three other loaves, at the opposite house, where a pretty Armenian, that +I afterward saw taking the air on the roof with her bright-eyed little +girl, perhaps had it for her breakfast!); the fierce, lawless Turkish +soldiers stalking along, their officers mounted, and looking much better +in their baggy trousers and frock-coats on their fine horses than on +foot; Greek and Armenian ladies in gay European costumes; veiled Turkish +women in their quiet street-dress; close carriages with +gorgeously-dressed beauties from the sultan's harem followed by black +eunuchs on horseback,--these and similar groups in every variety of +costume form a constant stream of strange and picturesque sights. + +One morning, attracted by an unusual noise, I looked out and found it +proceeded from a funeral procession. First came a man carrying the lid +of the coffin; then several Greek priests; after them boys in white +robes with lighted candles, followed by choir-boys in similar dresses +who chanted as they walked along. Such sounds! Greek chanting is a +horrible nasal caterwauling. Get a dozen boys to hold their noses, and +then in a high key imitate the gamut performed by several festive cats +as they prowl over the housetops on a quiet night, and you have Greek, +Armenian or Turkish chanting and singing to perfection. There is not the +first conception of music in the souls of these barbarians. Behind this +choir came four men carrying the open coffin. The corpse was that of a +middle-aged man dressed in black clothes, with a red fez cap on the head +and yellow, red and white flowers scattered over the body. The hot sun +shone full on the pinched and shriveled features, and the sight was most +revolting. Several mourners followed the coffin, the ladies in black +clothes, with black lace veils on their heads and their hair much +dressed. The Greeks are obliged to carry their dead in this way, +uncovered, because concealed arms were at one time conveyed in coffins +to their churches, and then used in an uprising against the government. +We witnessed a still more dreadful funeral outside the walls. A party, +evidently of poor people, were approaching an unenclosed cemetery, and +we waited to see the interment. The body, in its usual clothes, was +carried on a board covered by a sheet. When they reached the grave the +women shrieked, wept and kissed the face of the dead man: then his +clothes were taken off, the body wrapped in the sheet and laid in the +grave, which was only two feet deep. The priest broke a bottle of wine +over the head, the earth was loosely thrown in, and the party went away. +There is no more melancholy spot to me than a Turkish cemetery. The +graves are squeezed tightly together, and the headstones, generally in a +tumble-down state, are shaped like a coffin standing on end, or like a +round hitching-post with a fez cap carved on the top. Weeds and rank +wild-flowers cover the ground, and over all sway the dark, stiff +cypresses. + +A little way down the street is a Turkish pastry-shop. Lecturers and +writers have from time to time held forth on the enormities of +pie-eating, and given the American people "particular fits" for their +addiction to it. Now, while I fully endorse all I ever heard said on the +subject, I beg leave to remark that the Americans are not the _worst_ +offenders in this way. If you want to see pastry, come to +Constantinople: _seeing_ will satisfy you--you won't risk a taste. +Mutton is largely eaten, and the mutton fat is used with flour to make +the crust, which is so rich that the grease fairly oozes out and +"smells to Heaven." Meat-pies are in great demand. The crust is baked +alone in a round flat piece, and laid out on a counter, which is soon +very greasy, ready to be filled. A large dish of hash is also ready, and +when a customer calls the requisite amount of meat is clapped on one +side of the paste, the other half doubled over it, and he departs eating +his halfmoon-shaped pie. On the counters you see displayed large +egg-shaped forms of what look like layers of tallow and cooked meat, +cheesy-looking cakes of many kinds and an endless variety of +confectionery. The sweetmeats are perfection, the fresh Turkish paste +with almonds in it melts in your mouth, and the sherbet, compounded of +the juice of many fruits and flowers and cooled with snow, is the most +delicious drink I ever tasted. There are also many kinds of nice +sweet-cakes; but, on the whole, I should prefer not to board in a +Turkish family or employ a Turkish cook. No wonder the women are pale +and sallow if they indulge much in such food! + +Being anxious to see a good display of Turkish rugs, and our party +having some commissions to execute, we sallied forth one afternoon on +this errand. If you intend to visit a Turkish carpet warehouse, and your +purse or your judgment counsels you not to purchase, put yourself under +bonds to that effect before you go; for, unless you possess remarkable +strength of character, the beautiful rugs displayed will prove +irresistible temptations. Near the bazaar in Stamboul is a massive +square stone house, looking like a fortress compared with the buildings +around it. Mosses and weeds crop out of every uneven part of its walls. +A heavy door that might stand a siege admitted us to a small vestibule, +and from this we passed into a paved court with a moss-grown fountain in +the centre. Around this court ran a gallery, its heavy arches and +columns supporting a second, to which we ascended by a broad flight of +steps. A double door admitted us to the wareroom, where, tolerably +secure from fire (the doors alone were of wood), were stored Turkish and +Persian rugs of all sizes and colors. The Turkish were far handsomer +than the Persian, and the colors more brilliant than those I have +usually seen. The attendants unrolled one that they said was a hundred +years old. It had a dusty, faded look, as if it had been in the +warehouse quite that length of time, and made the modern ones seem +brighter by contrast. Several rugs having been selected, we returned to +the office, where a carpet was spread and we were invited to seat +ourselves on it. Coffee was passed around, and we proceeded to bargain +for our goods through our interpreter. The merchant, as usual, asked an +exorbitant price to start with, and we offered what was equally +ridiculous the other way; and so we gradually approached the final +price--he coming gracefully down, and we as affably ascending in the +scale, till a happy medium was reached, and we departed with our +purchases following us on the back of an ammale. + +[Illustration: THE SULTAN ABDUL ASSIZ.] + +Three days of each week are observed as holy days. Friday is the Turkish +Sabbath, Saturday the Jewish, and the Greeks and Armenians keep Sunday. +The indolent government officials, glad of an excuse to be idle, keep +all three--that is, they refrain from business--so there are only four +days out of the seven in which anything is accomplished. + +One of the great sights is to see the sultan go to the mosque; so one +Friday we took a caique and were rowed up the Bosphorus to Dolma Backte, +and waited on the water opposite the palace. The sultan's caique was at +the principal entrance on the water-side of the palace, and the steps +and marble pavement were carpeted from the caique to the door. Presently +all the richly-dressed officers of the household, who were loitering +around, formed on either side the steps, and, bending nearly double, +remained so while the sultan passed down to his caique. Abdul Assiz is +quite stout and rather short, with a pleasant face and closely-cut +beard. He was dressed in a plain black uniform, his breast covered with +orders. The sultan's caique was a magnificent barge--white, profusely +ornamented with gilt, and rowed by twenty-four oarsmen dressed in white, +who rose to their feet with each stroke, bowed low, and settled back in +their seats as the stroke was expended. The sultan and grand vizier +seated themselves under the plum-colored velvet canopy, and the caique +proceeded swiftly toward the mosque, followed by three other caiques +with his attendants. A gun from an iron-clad opposite the palace +announced that the sultan had started. The shore from the palace to the +mosque was lined with soldiers; the bands played; the people cheered; +the ships ran up their flags; all the war-vessels were gay with bunting, +had their yards manned and fired salutes, which were answered by the +shore-batteries. The mosque selected for that day's devotions was in +Tophaneh, near the water. Several regiments were drawn up to receive the +sultan, and an elegant carriage and a superb Arab saddle-horse were in +waiting, so that His Majesty might return to the palace as best suited +his fancy. After an hour spent in devotion the sultan reappeared, and +entering his carriage was driven away. We saw him again on our way +home, when he stopped to call on an Austrian prince staying at the +legation. The street leading up to the embassy was too narrow and steep +for a carriage, so, mounting his horse at the foot, he rode up, passing +very close to us. + +[Illustration: TURKISH COW-CARRIAGE.] + +In the afternoon we drove to the "Sweet Waters of Europe" to see the +Turkish ladies, who in pleasant weather always go out there in carriages +or by water in caiques. Compared with our parks, with their lovely lakes +and streams and beautiful lawns, the far-famed Sweet Waters of Europe +are only fields with a canal running through them; but here, where this +is the only stream of fresh water near the city, and in a country +destitute of trees, it is a charming place. The stream has been walled +up to the top of its banks, which are from three to six feet above the +water, and there are sunny meadows and fine large trees on each side. +The sultan has a summer palace here with a pretty garden, and the stream +has been dammed up by blocks of white marble cut in scallops like +shells, over which the water falls in a cascade. The road to the Sweet +Waters, with one or two others, was made after the sultan's return from +his European trip, and in anticipation of the empress Eugenie's visit. +European carriages were also introduced at that time. The ladies of the +sultan's harem drive out in very handsome coupes, with coachmen wearing +the sultan's livery, but you more frequently see the queer one-horse +Turkish carriage, and sometimes a "cow-carriage." This last is drawn by +cows or oxen: it is an open wagon, with a white cloth awning ornamented +with gay fringes and tassels. Many people go in caiques, and all carry +bright-colored rugs, which they spread on the grass. There they sit for +several hours and gossip with each other, or take their luncheons and +spend the afternoon. A Turkish woman is never seen to better advantage +than when "made up" for such an excursion. Her house-dress is always +hidden by a large cloak, which comes down to the ground and has loose +sleeves and a cape. The cloak is left open at the neck to show the lace +and necklace worn under it, and is generally made of silk, often of +exquisite shades of pink, blue, purple or any color to suit the taste of +the wearer. A small silk cap, like the low turbans our ladies wore eight +or nine years ago, covers the head, and on it are fastened the most +brilliant jewels--diamond pins, rubies, anything that will flash. The +wearer's complexion is heightened to great brilliancy by toilet arts, +and over all, covering deficiencies, is the yashmak or thin white veil, +which conceals only in part and greatly enhances her beauty. You think +your "dream of fair women" realized, and go home and read _Lalla Rookh_ +and rave of Eastern peris. Should some female friend who has visited a +harem and seen these radiant beauties face to face mildly suggest that +paint, powder and the enchantment of distance have in a measure deluded +you, you dismiss the unwelcome information as an invention of the +"green-eyed monster," and, remembering the brilliant beauties who +reclined beside the Sweet Waters or floated by you on the Golden Horn, +cherish the recollection as that of one of the brightest scenes of the +Orient. + +These I have spoken of are the upper classes from the harems of the +sultan and rich pashas, but those you see constantly on foot in the +streets are the middle and lower classes, and not so attractive. They +have fine eyes, but the yashmaks are thicker, and you feel there is less +beauty hidden under them. The higher the rank the thinner the yashmak is +the rule. They also wear the long cloak, but it is made of black or +colored alpaca or a similar material. Gray is most worn, but black, +brown, yellow, green, blue and scarlet are often seen. The negresses +dress like their mistresses in the street, and if you see a pair of +bright yellow boots under a brilliant scarlet ferraja and an unusually +white yashmak, you will generally find the wearer is a jet-black +negress. Sitting so much in the house _a la Turque_ is not conducive to +grace of motion, nor are loose slippers to well-shaped feet, and I must +confess that a Turkish woman walks like a _goose_, and the size of her +"fairy feet" would rejoice the heart of a leather-dealer. + +[Illustration: ENTERING A MOSQUE.] + +We have been to see the Howling Dervishes, and I will endeavor to give +you some idea of their performances. Crossing to Scutari in the steam +ferryboat, we walked some distance till we reached the mosque, where the +services were just commencing. The attendant who admitted us intimated +that we must remove our boots and put on the slippers provided. N---- +did so, but I objected, and the man was satisfied with my wearing them +over my boots. We were conducted up a steep, ladder-like staircase to a +small gallery, with a low front only a foot high, with no seats but +sheepskins on the floor, where we were expected to curl ourselves up in +Turkish fashion. Both my slippers came off during my climb up stairs, +and were rescued in their downward career by N----, who by dint of much +shuffling managed to keep his on. Below us were seated some thirty or +forty dervishes. The leader repeated portions of the Koran, in which +exercise others occasionally took part in a quiet manner. After a while +they knelt in line opposite their leader and began to chant in louder +tones, occasionally bowing forward full length. Matters down below +progressed slowly at first, and were getting monotonous. One of my feet, +unaccustomed to its novel position, had gone to sleep, and I was in a +cramped state generally. Moreover, we were not the sole occupants of the +gallery: the sheepskins were full of them, and I began to think that if +the dervishes did not soon begin to howl, _I_ should. Some traveler has +said that on the coast of Syria the Arabs have a proverb that the +"sultan of _fleas_ holds his court in Jaffa, and the grand vizier in +Cairo." Certainly some very high dignitary of the realm presides over +Constantinople, and makes his head-quarters in the mosque of the Howling +Dervishes. + +[Illustration: CASTLE OF EUROPE, ON THE BOSPHORUS.] + +The dervishes now stood up in line, taking hold of hands, and swayed +backward, forward and sideways, with perfect uniformity, wildly +chanting, or rather howling, verses of the Koran, and keeping time with +their movements. They commenced slowly, and increased the rapidity of +their gymnastics as they became more excited and devout. The whole +performance lasted an hour or more, and at the end they naturally seemed +quite exhausted. Then little children were brought in, laid on the +floor, and the head-dervish stepped on their bodies. I suppose he +stepped in such a manner as not to hurt them, as they did not utter a +sound. Perhaps the breath was so squeezed out of them that they could +not. One child was quite a baby, and on this he rested his foot lightly, +leaning his weight on a man's shoulder. I could not find out exactly +what this ceremony signified, but was told it was considered a cure for +sickness, and also a preventive. + +We concluded to _do_ the dervishes, and so next day went to see the +spinning ones. They have a much larger and handsomer mosque than their +howling brethren. First they chanted, then they indulged in a "walk +around." Every time they passed the leader, who kept his place at the +head of the room, they bowed profoundly to him, then passed before him, +and, turning on the other side, bowed again. After this interchange of +courtesies had lasted a while, they sailed off around the room, spinning +with the smooth, even motion of a top--arms folded, head on one side and +eyes shut. Sometimes this would be varied by the head being thrown back +and the arms extended. The rapid whirling caused their long green +dresses to spread out like a half-open Japanese umbrella, supposing the +man to be the stick, and they kept it up about thirty minutes to the +inspiring music of what sounded like a drum, horn and tin pan. We +remained to witness the _first set:_ whether they had any more and wound +up with the German, I cannot say. We were tired and went home, satisfied +with what we had seen. I should think they corresponded somewhat with +our Shakers at home, as far as their "muscular Christianity" goes, and +are rather ahead on the dancing question. + +One of the prominent objects of interest on the Bosphorus is Roberts +College. It stands on a high hill three hundred feet above the water, +and commands an extensive view up and down the Bosphorus. For seven +years Dr. Hamlin vainly endeavored to obtain permission to build it, and +the order was not given till Farragut's visit. The gallant admiral, +while breakfasting with the grand vizier, inquired what was the reason +the government did not allow Dr. Hamlin to build the college, when the +grand vizier hastily assured him that all obstacles had been removed, +and that the order was even then as good as given. Americans may well be +proud of so fine and well-arranged a building and the able corps of +professors. We visited it in company with Dr. Wood and his agreeable +wife, who are so well known to all who take any interest in our foreign +missions. After going over the college and listening to very creditable +declamations in English from some of the students, we were hospitably +entertained at luncheon by Professor Washburn, who is in charge of the +institution, and his accomplished wife. Within a short distance of the +college is the Castle of Europe, and on the opposite side of the +Bosphorus the Castle of Asia. They were built by Mohammed II. in 1451, +and the Castle of Europe is still in good preservation. It consists of +two large towers and several small ones connected by walls, and is built +of a rough white stone, to which the ivy clings luxuriantly. + +A pleasant excursion is to take a little steamer, which runs up the +Bosphorus and back, touching at Beicos (Bey Kos), and visit the Giant +Mountain, from which is a magnificent view of the Black Sea and nearly +the whole length of the Bosphorus. We breakfasted early, but when ready +to start found our guide had disappointed us, and his place was not to +be supplied. The day was perfect, and rather than give up our trip we +determined to go by ourselves, trusting that the success which had +attended similar expeditions without a _commissionnaire_ would not +desert us on this occasion. The sail up on the steamer was charming. +There are many villages on the shores of the Bosphorus, and between +them are scattered palaces and summer residences, the latter often +reminding us of Venetian houses, built directly on the shore with steps +down to the water, and caiques moored at the doors, as the gondolas are +in Venice. The houses are surrounded by beautiful gardens, with a +profusion of flowers blooming on the very edge of the shore, their gay +colors reflected in the waves beneath. + +We learned from the captain of the steamer that Giant Mountain was two +and a half miles from the village, with no very well-defined road +leading to it; so on landing at Bey Kos we made inquiries for a guide, +and this time were successful. Horses were also forthcoming, but no +side-saddle. I respectfully declined to follow the example of my Turkish +sisters and mount a gentleman's saddle; neither was I anxious to ride my +Arab steed bareback, so we concluded to try a cow-carriage, and +despatched our guide to hire the only one the place afforded. This +stylish establishment was not to be had; so, having wasted half an hour +in trying to find some conveyance, we gave it up and started on foot; +and were glad afterward that we did so. The road was shaded to the base +of the mountain, and led through a beautiful valley, the fields covered +with wild-flowers. I have never seen such masses of color--an acre +perhaps of bright yellow, perfectly dazzling in the sunlight, then as +large a mass of purple, next to that an immense patch of white daisies, +so thick they looked like snow. The effect of these gay masses, with +intervals of green grass and grain, was very gorgeous. We passed two of +the sultan's palaces, one built in Swiss style. The ascent of Giant +Mountain from the inland side is gradual, while it descends very +abruptly on the water-side. On the top of the mountain are the ruins of +the church of St. Pantaleon, built by Justinian, also a mosque and the +tomb of Joshua: so the Turks affirm. From a rocky platform just below +the mosque there is a magnificent view. Toward the north you look off on +the Black Sea and the old fortress of Riva, which commands the entrance +to the Bosphorus. In front and to the south winds the beautiful +Bosphorus for sixteen miles till it reaches the Sea of Marmora, which +you see far in the distance glittering in the sunlight. You look down on +the decks of the passing vessels, and the large steamers seem like toy +boats as they pass below you. Near the mosque is a remarkable well of +cool water. Shrubs and a few small trees grow on the mountain, and the +ground is covered with quantities of heather, wild-flowers and ivy. We +picked long spikes of white heather in full bloom, and pansies, +polyanthus, the blue iris and many others of our garden flowers. The +country all around Constantinople is very destitute of trees. The woods +were cut down long ago, and the multitudes of sheep, which you see in +large flocks everywhere, crop the young sprouts so they cannot grow up +again. + +[Illustration: FORTRESS OF RIVA, AND THE BLACK SEA.] + +Returning to Constantinople, our steamer ran close to the European +shore, stopping at the villages on that side. Most of the officers of +these boats are Turks, but they find it necessary to employ European +(generally English) engineers, as the Turks are fatalists and not +reliable. It is said they pay but little attention to their machinery +and boilers, reasoning that if it is the will of Allah that the boiler +blow up, it will certainly do so; if not, all will go right, and why +trouble one's self? Laughable stories are told of the Turkish navy; +e.g., that a certain captain was ordered to take his vessel to Crete, +and after cruising about some time returned, not being able to find the +island. Another captain stopped an English vessel one fine day to ask +where he was, as he had lost his reckoning, although the weather had +been perfectly clear for some time. In the Golden Horn lies an old +four-decker which during the Crimean war was run broadside under a +formidable battery by her awkward crew, who were unable to manage her, +and began in their fright to jump overboard. A French tugboat went to +the rescue and towed her off. + +On our way to the hotel we saw the sultan's son, a boy of fifteen. He +was driving in a fine open carriage drawn by a very handsome span of bay +horses, and preceded by four outriders mounted on fine Arabian horses. +Coachman, footman and outriders, in the black livery of the sultan, were +resplendent in gold lace. The harness was of red leather and the +carriage painted of the same bright color. The cushions were of white +silk embroidered with scarlet flowers. It was a dashing equipage, but +seemed better suited to a harem beauty than the dark, Jewish-looking boy +in the awkward uniform of a Turkish general who was its sole occupant. + +[Illustration: TURKISH QUARTER--STAMBOUL.] + +Yesterday we took our last stroll in Constantinople, crossing the Golden +Horn by the new bridge to Stamboul. This bridge is a busy spot, for +besides the constant throngs that cross and recross, it is the favorite +resort of beggars and dealers in small wares. Many of the ferryboats +also start from here, so that, although long and wide, it is crowded +most of the day. An Englishman who is an officer in the Turkish army +told us of an amusing adventure of his in crossing the bridge. He had +been at the war department, and was told he could have the six months' +pay which was due him if he would take it in piasters. Thankful to get +it, and fearing if he did not take it then in that shape he might have +to wait a good while, he accepted, and the piasters (which are large +copper coins worth about four cents of our money) were placed in bags on +the backs of porters to be taken to a European bank at Pera. As they +were crossing the bridge one of the bags burst open with the weight of +the coins, and a quantity of them were scattered. Of course a first +class scramble ensued, in which the beggars, who are always on hand, and +others reaped quite a harvest, and when the officer got the hole tied +up the ammale found the bag considerably lighter to carry. + +Reaching Stamboul, we made our way through the crowded streets, past the +Seraglio gardens and St. Sophia, till we reached the old Hippodrome, +which was modeled after the Circus at Rome. Little remains of its +ancient glory, for the Crusaders carried off most of its works of art. +The granite obelisk of Theodosius and the pillar of Constantine, which +the vandal Turks stripped of its bronze when they first captured the +city, are still left, but the stones are continually falling, and it +will soon be a ruin. The serpentine column consists of three serpents +twisted together: the heads are gone, Mohammed II. having knocked off +one with his battle-axe. A little Turk was taking his riding-lesson on +the level ground of the Hippodrome, and his frisky little black pony +gave the old fellow in attendance plenty of occupation. We watched the +boy for a while, and then, passing on toward the Marmora, took a look at +the "Cistern of the Thousand Columns." A broad flight of steps leads +down to it, and the many tall slender columns of Byzantine architecture +make a perfect wilderness of pillars. Wherever we stood, we seemed +always the centre from which long aisles of columns radiated till they +lost themselves in the darkness. The cistern has long been empty, and is +used as a ropewalk. + +The great fire swept a large district of the city here, which has been +but little rebuilt, and the view of the Marmora is very fine. On the +opposite Asiatic shore Mount Olympus, with its snow-crowned summit, +fades away into the blue of the heavens. This is a glorious atmosphere, +at least at this season, the air clear and bracing, the sky a beautiful +blue and the sunsets golden. In winter it is cold, muddy and cheerless, +and in midsummer the simoom which sweeps up the Marmora from Africa and +the Syrian coast renders it very unhealthy for Europeans to remain in +the city. The simoom is exceedingly enervating in its effects, and all +who can spend the summer months on the upper Bosphorus, where the +prevailing winds are from the Black Sea and the air is cool and +healthful. Nearly all the foreign legations except our own have summer +residences there and beautiful grounds. + +[Illustration: OBELISK OF THEODOSIUS.] + +Following the old aqueduct built by the emperor Hadrian, which still +supplies Stamboul with water, and is exceedingly picturesque with its +high dripping arches covered with luxuriant ivy, we reached the walls +which protected the city on the land-side, and then, threading our way +through the narrow, dirty streets, we returned to the Golden Horn. I do +not wonder, after what I have seen of this part of Stamboul, that the +cholera made such ravages here a few years since. I should think it +would remain a constant scourge. Calling a caique, we were rowed up the +Golden Horn to the Sweet Waters, but its tide floated only our own boat, +and the banks lacked the attraction of the gay groups which render the +place so lively on Fridays. We were served with coffee by a Turk who +with his little brasier of coals was waiting under a wide-spreading tree +for any chance visitor, and after a short stroll on the bank opposite +the sultan's pretty palace we floated gently down the stream till we +reached the Golden Horn again. On a large meadow near the mouth of the +Sweet Waters some Arabs were camped with an immense flock of sheep. They +had brought them there to shear and wash the wool in the fresh water, +and the ground was covered with large quantities of beautiful long +fleece. The shepherds in their strange mantles and head-dresses looked +very picturesque as they spread the wool and tended their flocks. Our +_caiquegee_, as the oarsman of a caique is called, ought not to be +overlooked. His costume was in keeping with his pretty caique, which was +painted a delicate straw-color and had white linen cushions. He was a +tall, finely-built fellow, a Cretan or Bulgarian I should think, for he +looked too wide awake for a Turk. The sun had burned his olive +complexion to the deepest brown, and his black eyes and white teeth when +he smiled lighted up his intelligent face, making him very handsome. He +wore a turban, loose shirt with hanging sleeves and voluminous trousers, +all of snowy whiteness. A blue jacket embroidered with gilt braid was in +readiness to put on when he stopped rowing. It must have taken a ruinous +amount of material to make those trousers. They were full at the waist +and knee, and before seating himself to his oars he gracefully threw the +extra amount of the fullness which drooped behind over the wide seat as +a lady spreads out her overskirt. + +[Illustration: SHEPHERDS.] + +Last night we bade farewell to the strange old city with its picturesque +sights, its glorious views and the many points of interest we had grown +so familiar with. Our adieus were said, the ammales had taken our +baggage to the steamer, which lay at anchor off Seraglio Point, and +before dark we went on board, ready to sail at an early hour. + +The bustle of getting underway at daylight this morning woke me, and I +went on deck in time to take a farewell look. The first rays of the sun +were just touching the top of the Galata Tower and lighting up the dark +cypresses in the palace-grounds above us. The tall minarets and the blue +waves of the Bosphorus caught the golden light, while around Olympus the +rosy tint had not yet faded and the morning mists looked golden in the +sunlight. We rounded Seraglio Point and steamed down the Marmora, passed +the Seven Towers, and slowly the beautiful city faded from our view. + +SHEILA HALE. + + + + +THEE AND YOU. + +A STORY OF OLD PHILADELPHIA. IN TWO PARTS.--I. + + +Once on a time I was leaning over a book of the costumes of forty years +before, when a little lady said to me, "How ever could they have loved +one another in such queer bonnets?" And now that since then long years +have sped away, and the little critic is, alas! no longer young, haply +her children, looking up at her picture by Sully in a turban and short +waist; may have wondered to hear how in such disguise she too was fatal +to many hearts, and set men by the ears, and was a toast at suppers in +days when the waltz was coming in and the solemn grace of the minuet +lingered in men's manners. + +And so it is, that, calling up anew the soft September mornings of which +I would draw a picture before they fade away, with me also, from men's +minds, it is the quaintness of dress which first comes back to me, and I +find myself wondering that in nankeen breeches and swallow-tailed blue +coats with buttons of brass once lived men who, despite gnarled-rimmed +beavers and much wealth of many-folded cravats, loved and were loved as +well and earnestly as we. + +I had been brought up in the austere quiet of a small New England town, +where life was sad and manners grave, and when about eighteen served for +a while in the portion of our army then acting in the North. The life of +adventure dissatisfied me with my too quiet home, and when the war ended +I was glad to accept the offer of an uncle in China to enter his +business house. To prepare for this it was decided that I should spend +six months with one of the great East India firms. For this purpose I +came to Philadelphia, and by and by found myself a boarder in an up-town +street, in a curious household ruled over by a lady of the better class +of the people called Friends. + +For many days I was a lonely man among the eight or ten people who came +down one by one at early hours to our breakfast-table and ate somewhat +silently and went their several ways. Mostly, we were clerks in the +India houses which founded so many Philadelphia fortunes, but there were +also two or three of whom we knew little, and who went and came as they +liked. + +It was a quiet lodging-house, where, because of being on the outskirts +and away from the fashion and stir of the better streets, chiefly those +came who could pay but little, and among them some of the luckless ones +who are always to be found in such groups--stranded folks, who for the +most part have lost hope in life. The quiet, pretty woman who kept the +house was of an ancient Quaker stock which had come over long ago in a +sombre Quaker Mayflower, and had by and by gone to decay, as the best of +families will. When I first saw her and some of her inmates it was on a +pleasant afternoon early in September, and I recall even now the simple +and quiet picture of the little back parlor where I sat down among them +as a new guest. I had been tranquilly greeted, and had slipped away into +a corner behind a table, whence I looked out with some curiosity on the +room and on the dwellers with whom my lot was to be cast for a long +while to come. I was a youth shy with the shyness of my age, but, having +had a share of rough, hardy life, ruddy of visage and full of that +intense desire to know things and people that springs up quickly in +those who have lived in country hamlets far from the stir and bustle of +city life. + +The room I looked upon was strange, the people strange. On the floor was +India matting, red and white in little squares. A panel of painted white +wood-work ran around an octagonal chamber, into which stole silently the +evening twilight through open windows and across a long brick-walled +garden-space full of roses and Virginia creepers and odorless +wisterias. Between the windows sat a silent, somewhat stately female, +dressed in gray silk, with a plain frilled cap about the face, and with +long and rather slim arms tightly clad in silk. Her fingers played at +hide-and-seek among some marvelous lace stitches--evidently a woman +whose age had fallen heir to the deft ways of her youth. Over her +against the wall hung a portrait of a girl of twenty, somewhat sober in +dress, with what we should call a Martha Washington cap. It was a +pleasant face, unstirred by any touch of fate, with calm blue eyes +awaiting the future. + +The hostess saw, I fancied, my set gaze, and rising came toward me as if +minded to put at ease the new-comer. "Thee does not know our friends?" +she said. "Let me make thee known to them." + +I rose quickly and said, "I shall be most glad." + +We went over toward the dame between the windows. "Mother," she said, +raising her voice, "this is our new friend, Henry Shelburne, from New +England." + +As she spoke I saw the old lady stir and move, and after a moment she +said, "Has he a four-leaved clover?" + +"Always that is what she says. Thee will get used to it in time." + +"We all do," said a voice at my elbow; and turning I saw a man of about +thirty years, dressed in the plainest-cut Quaker clothes, but with a +contradiction to every tenet of Fox written on his face, where a brow of +gravity for ever read the riot act to eyes that twinkled with +ill-repressed mirth. When I came to know him well, and saw the +preternatural calm of his too quiet lips, I used to imagine that unseen +little demons of ready laughter were for ever twitching at their +corners. + +"Mother is very old," said my hostess. + +"Awfully old," said my male friend, whose name proved to be Richard +Wholesome. + +"Thee might think it sad to see one whose whole language has come to be +just these words, but sometimes she will be glad and say, 'Has thee a +four-leaved clover?' and sometimes she will be ready to cry, and will +say only the same words. But if thee were to say, 'Have a cup of +coffee?' she would but answer, 'Has thee a four-leaved clover?' Does it +not seem strange to thee, and sad? We are used to it, as it might +be--quite used to it. And that above her is her picture as a girl." + +"Saves her a deal of talking," said Mr. Wholesome, "and thinking. Any +words would serve her as well. Might have said, 'Topsail halyards,' all +the same." + +"Richard!" said Mistress White. Mistress Priscilla White was her name. + +"Perchance thee would pardon me," said Mr. Wholesome. + +"I wonder," said a third voice in the window, "does the nice old dame +know what color has the clover? and does she remember fields of +clover--pink among the green?" + +"Has thee a four-leaved clover?" re-echoed the voice feebly from between +the windows. + +The man who was curious as to the dame's remembrances was a small stout +person whose arms and legs did not seem to belong to him, and whose face +was strangely gnarled, like the odd face a boy might carve on a +hickory-nut, but withal a visage pleasant and ruddy. + +"That," said Mistress White as he moved away, "is Mr. Schmidt--an old +boarder with some odd ways of his own which we mostly forgive. A good +man if it were not for his pipe," she added demurely--"altogether a good +man." + +"With or without his pipe," said Mr. Wholesome. + +"Richard!" returned our hostess, with a half smile. + +"Without his pipe," he added; and the unseen demons twitched at the +corners of his mouth anew. + +Altogether, these seemed to me droll people, they said so little, and, +saving the small German, were so serenely grave. I suppose that first +evening must have made a deep mark on my memory, for to this day I +recall it with the clearness of a picture still before my eyes. Between +the windows sat the old dame with hands quiet on her lap now that the +twilight had grown deeper--a silent, gray Quaker sphinx, with one only +remembrance out of all her seventy years of life. In the open window sat +as in a frame the daughter, a woman of some twenty-five years, rosy yet +as only a Quakeress can be when rebel Nature flaunts on the soft cheek +the colors its owner may not wear on her gray dress. The outline was of +a face clearly cut and noble, as if copied from a Greek gem--a face +filled with a look of constant patience too great perhaps for one +woman's share, with a certain weariness in it also at times, yet +cheerful too, and even almost merry at times--the face of one more +thoughtful of others than herself, and, despite toil and sordid cares, a +gentlewoman, as was plain to see. The shaft of light from the window in +which she sat broadened into the room, and faded to shadow in far +corners among chairs with claw toes and shining mahogany tables--the +furniture of that day, with a certain flavor about it of elegance, +reflecting the primness and solidness of the owners. I wonder if to-day +our furniture represents us too in any wise? At least it will not +through the generations to follow us: of that we may be sure. In the +little garden, with red graveled walks between rows of box, walked to +and fro Mr. Schmidt, smoking his meerschaum--a rare sight in those days, +and almost enough to ensure your being known as odd. He walked about ten +paces, and went and came on the same path, while on the wall above a +large gray cat followed his motions to and fro, as if having some +personal interest in his movements. Against an apricot tree leaned Mr. +Wholesome, watching with gleams of amusement the cat and the man, and +now and then filliping at her a bit of plaster which he pulled from the +wall. Then the cat would start up alert, and the man's face would get to +be quizzically unconscious; after which the cat would settle down and +the game begin anew. By and by I was struck with the broad shoulders and +easy way in which Wholesome carried his head, and the idea came to me +that he had more strength than was needed by a member of the Society of +Friends, or than could well have been acquired with no greater exercise +of the limbs than is sanctioned by its usages. In the garden were also +three elderly men, all of them quiet and clerkly, who sat on and about +the steps of the other window and chatted of the India ships and +cargoes, their talk having a flavor of the spices of Borneo and of +well-sunned madeira. These were servants of the great India houses when +commerce had its nobles and lines were sharply drawn in social life. + +I was early in bed, and rising betimes went down to breakfast, which was +a brief meal, this being, as Mr. Wholesome said to me, the short end of +the day. I should here explain that Mr. Wholesome was a junior partner +in the house in which I was to learn the business before going to China. +Thus he was the greatest person by far in our little household, although +on this he did not presume, but seemed to me greatly moved toward jest +and merriment, and to sway to and fro between gayety and sadness, or at +the least gravity, but more toward the latter when Mistress White was +near, she seeming always to be a checking conscience to his mirth. + +On this morning, as often after, he desired me to walk with him to our +place of business, of which I was most glad, as I felt shy and lonely. +Walking down Arch street, I was amazed at its cleanliness, and surprised +at the many trees and the unfamiliar figures in Quaker dresses walking +leisurely. But what seemed to me most curious of all were the plain +square meeting-houses of the Friends, looking like the toy houses of +children. I was more painfully impressed by the appearance of the +graves, one so like another, without mark or number, or anything in the +disposition of them to indicate the strength of those ties of kinship +and affection which death had severed. Yet I grew to like this quiet +highway, and when years after I was in Amsterdam the resemblance of its +streets to those of the Friends here at home overcame me with a crowd of +swift-rushing memories. As I walked down of a morning to my work, I +often stopped as I crossed Fifth street to admire the arch of lindens +that barred the view to the westward, or to gaze at the inscription on +the 'Prentices' Library, still plain to see, telling that the building +was erected in the eighth year of the Empire. + +One morning Wholesome and I found open the iron grating of Christ Church +graveyard, and passing through its wall of red and black glazed brick, +he turned sharply to the right, and coming to a corner bade me look down +where under a gray plain slab of worn stone rests the body of the +greatest man, as I have ever thought, whom we have been able to claim as +ours. Now a bit of the wall is gone, and through a railing the busy or +idle or curious, as they go by, may look in and see the spot without +entering. + +Sometimes, too, we came home together, Wholesome and I, and then I found +he liked to wander and zigzag, not going very far along a street, and +showing fondness for lanes and byways. Often he would turn with me a +moment into the gateway of the University Grammar School on Fourth +street, south of Arch, and had, I thought, great pleasure in seeing the +rough play of the lads. Or often, as we came home at noon, he liked to +turn into Paradise alley, out of Market street, and did this, indeed, so +often that I came to wonder at it, and the more because in an open space +between this alley and Commerce street was the spot where almost every +day the grammar-school boys settled their disputes in the way more +common then than now. When first we chanced on one of these encounters I +was surprised to see Mr. Wholesome look about him as if to be sure that +no one else was near, and then begin to watch the combat with a strange +interest. Indeed, on one occasion he utterly astonished me by taking by +the hand a small boy who had been worsted and leading him with us, as if +he knew the lad, which may well have been. But presently he said, +"Reuben thee said was thy name?"--"Yes, sir," said the lad.--"Well," +said Mr. Wholesome, after buying him a large and very brown horse +gingerbread, two doughnuts and a small pie, "when you think it worth +while to hit a fellow, never slap his face, because then he will strike +you hard with his fist, which hurts, Reuben. Now, mind: next thee +strikes first with thee fist, my lad, and hard, too." If I had seen our +good Bishop White playing at taws, I could not have been more overcome, +and I dare say my face may have shown it, for, glancing at me, he said +demurely, "Thee has seen in thy lifetime how hard it is to get rid of +what thee liked in thy days of boyhood." After which he added no more in +the way of explanation, but walked along with swift strides and a dark +and troubled face, silent and thoughtful. + +Sometimes in the early morning I walked to my place of business with Mr. +Schmidt, who was a man so altogether unlike those about him that I found +in him a new and varied interest. He was a German, and spoke English +with a certain quaintness and with the purity of speech of one who has +learned the tongue from books rather than from men. I learned after a +while that this guess of mine was a good one, and that, having been bred +an artist, he had been put in prison for some political offence, and had +in two years of loneliness learned English from our older authors. When +at last he was set free he took his little property and came away with a +bitter heart to our freer land, where, with what he had and with the +lessons he gave in drawing, he was well able to live the life he liked +in quiet ease and comfort. He was a kindly man in his ways, and in his +talk gently cynical; so that, although you might be quite sure as to +what he would do, you were never as safe as to what he would say; +wherefore to know him a little was to dislike him, but to know him well +was to love him. There was a liking between him and Wholesome, but each +was more or less a source of wonderment to the other. Nor was it long +before I saw that both these men in their way were patient lovers of the +quiet and pretty Quaker dame who ruled over our little household, though +to the elder man, Mr. Schmidt, she was a being at whose feet he laid a +homage which he felt to be hopeless of result, while he was schooled by +sorrowful fortunes to accept the position as one which he hardly even +wished to change. + +It was on a warm sunny morning very early, for we were up and away +betimes, that Mr. Schmidt and I and Wholesome took our first walk +together through the old market-sheds. We turned into Market street at +Fourth street, whence the sheds ran downward to the Delaware. The +pictures they gave me to store away in my mind are all of them vivid +enough, but none more so than that which I saw with my two friends on +the first morning when we wandered through them together. + +On either side of the street the farmers' wagons stood backed up against +the sidewalk, each making a cheap shop, by which stood the sturdy owners +under the trees, laughing and chaffering with their customers. We +ourselves turned aside and walked down the centre of the street under +the sheds. On either side at the entry of the market odd business was +being plied, the traders being mostly colored women with bright chintz +dresses and richly-colored bandanna handkerchiefs coiled turban-like +above their dark faces. There were rows of roses in red pots, and +venders of marsh calamus, and "Hot corn, sah, smokin' hot," and +"Pepperpot, bery nice," and sellers of horse-radish and +snapping-turtles, and of doughnuts dear to grammar-school lads. Within +the market was a crowd of gentlefolks, followed by their black servants +with baskets--the elderly men in white or gray stockings, with +knee-buckles, the younger in very tight nankeen breeches and pumps, +frilled shirts and ample cravats and long blue swallow-tailed coats with +brass buttons. Ladies whose grandchildren go no more to market were +there in gowns with strangely short waists and broad gypsy-bonnets, with +the flaps tied down by wide ribbons over the ears. It was a busy and +good-humored throng. + +"Ah," said Schmidt, "what color!" and he stood quite wrapped in the joy +it gave him looking at the piles of fruit, where the level morning +sunlight, broken by the moving crowd, fell on great heaps of dark-green +watermelons and rough cantaloupes, and warmed the wealth of peaches +piled on trays backed by red rows of what were then called love-apples, +and are now known as tomatoes; while below the royal yellow of vast +overgrown pumpkins seemed to have set the long summer sunshine in their +golden tints. + +"If these were mine," said Schmidt, "I could not for ever sell them. +What pleasure to see them grow and steal to themselves such sweet colors +out of the rainbow which is in the light!" + +"Thee would make a poor gardener," said Wholesome, "sitting on thee +fence in the sun and watching thee pumpkins--damn nasty things anyhow!" + +I looked up amazed at the oath, but Schmidt did not seem to remark it, +and went on with us, lingering here and there to please himself with the +lovely contrasts of the autumn fruit. + +"Curious man is Schmidt," remarked Wholesome as we passed along. "I +could wish thee had seen him when we took him this way first. Old Betsey +yonder sells magnolia flowers in June, and also pond-lilies, which thee +may know as reasonably pleasant things to thee or me; but of a sudden I +find our friend Schmidt kneeling on the pavement with his head over a +tub of these flowers, and every one around much amazed." + +"Was it not seemly?" said Schmidt, joining us. "There are who like +music, but to me what music is there like the great attunement of color? +and mayhap no race can in this rise over our black artists hereabout the +market-ends." + +"Thee is crazed of many colors," said Wholesome laughing--"a bull of but +one." + +Schmidt stopped short in the crowd, to Wholesome's disgust. "What," said +he, quite forgetful of the crowd, "is more cordial than color? This he +recalleth was a woman black as night, with a red turban and a lapful of +magnolias, and to one side red crabs in a basket, and to one side a +tubful of lilies. Moss all about, I remember." + +"Come along," said Wholesome. "The man is cracked, and in sunny weather +the crack widens." + +And so we went away down street to our several tasks, chatting and +amused. + +Those were most happy days for me, and I found at evening one of my +greatest pleasures when Schmidt called for me after our early tea and we +would stroll together down to the Delaware, where the great India ships +lay at wharves covered with casks of madeira and boxes of tea and +spices. Then we would put out in his little rowboat and pull away toward +Jersey, and, after a plunge in the river at Cooper's Point, would lazily +row back again while the spire of Christ Church grew dim against the +fading sunset, and the lights would begin to show here and there in the +long line of sombre houses. By this time we had grown to be sure +friends, and a little help from me at a moment when I chanced to guess +that he wanted money had made the bond yet stronger. So it came that he +talked to me, though I was but a lad, with a curious freedom, which very +soon opened to me a full knowledge of those with whom I lived. + +One evening, when we had been drifting silently with the tide, he +suddenly said aloud, "A lion in the fleece of the sheep." + +"What?" said I, laughing. + +"I was thinking of Wholesome," he replied. "But you do not know him. Yet +he has that in his countenance which would betray a more cunning +creature." + +"How so?" I urged, being eager to know more of the man who wore the garb +and tongue of Penn, and could swear roundly when moved. + +"If it will amuse," said the German, "I will tell you what it befell me +to hear to-day, being come into the parlor when Mistress White and +Wholesome were in the garden, of themselves lonely." + +"Do you mean," said I, "that you listened when they did not know of your +being there?" + +"And why not?" he replied. "It did interest me, and to them only good +might come." + +"But," said I, "it was not--" + +"Well?" he added as I paused. "--'Was not honor,' you were going to say +to me. And why not? I obey my nature, which is more curious than stocked +with honor. I did listen." + +"And what did you hear?" said I. + +"Ah, hear!" he answered. "What better is the receiver than is the thief? +Well, then, if you will share my stolen goods, you shall know, and I +will tell you as I heard, my memory being good." + +"But--" said I. + +"Too late you stop me," he added: "you must hear now." + +The scene which he went on to sketch was to me strange and curious, nor +could I have thought he could give so perfect a rendering of the +language, and even the accent, of the two speakers. It was a curious +revelation of the man himself, and he seemed to enjoy his power, and yet +to suffer in the telling, without perhaps being fully conscious of it. +The oars dropped from his hands and fell in against the thwarts of the +boat, and he clasped his knees and looked up as he talked, not regarding +at all his single silent listener. + +"When this is to be put upon the stage there shall be a garden and two +personages." + +"Also," said I, "a jealous listener behind the scenes." + +"If you please," he said promptly, and plunged at once into the dialogue +he had overheard: + +"'Richard, thee may never again say the words which thee has said to me +to-night. There is, thee knows, that between us which is builded up like +as a wall to keep us the one from the other.' + +"'But men and women change, and a wall crumbles, or thee knows it may be +made to. Years have gone away, and the man who stole from thee thy +promise may be dead, for all thee knows.' + +"'Hush! thee makes me to see him, and though the dead rise not here, I +am some way assured he is not yet dead, and may come and say to me, +"'Cilla"--that is what he called me--"thee remembers the night and thy +promise, and the lightning all around us, and who took thee to shore +from the wrecked packet on the Bulkhead Bar." The life he saved I +promised.' + +"Well, and thee knows--By Heaven! you well enough know who tortured the +life he gave--who robbed you--who grew to be a mean sot, and went away +and left you; and to such you hold, with such keep faith, and wear out +the sweetness of life waiting for him!' + +"'Richard!' + +"'Have I also not waited, and given up for thee a life, a career--little +to give. I hope thee knows I feel that. Has thee no limit, Priscilla? +Thee knows--God help me! how well you know--I love you. The world, the +old world of war and venture, pulls at me always. Will not you find it +worth while to put out a hand of help? Would it not be God taking your +hand and putting it in mine?' + +"'Thee knows I love thee.' + +"'And if the devil sent him back to curse you anew--' + +"'Shame, Richard! I would say, God, who layeth out for each his way, has +pointed mine.' + +"'And I?' + +"'Thee would continue in goodness, loving me as a sister hardly tried.' + +"'By God! I should go away to sea.' + +"'Richard!' + +"Which is the last word of this scene," added Schmidt. "You mayhap have +about you punk and flint and steel." + +I struck alight in silence, feeling moved by the story of the hurt +hearts of these good people, and wondering at the man and his tale. Then +I said, "Was that all?" + +"Could you, if not a boy, ask me to say more of it? Light thy pipe and +hold thy peace. Happy those who think not of women. I, who have for a +hearth-side only the fire of an honest pipe--'Way there, my lad! pull us +in and forget what a loose tongue and a soft summer night have given +thee to hear from a silly old German who is grown weak of head and sore +at soul. How the lights twinkle!" + +Had I felt any doubt at all of the truth of his narration I should have +ceased to do so when for the next few days I watched Mr. Wholesome, and +saw him, while off his guard, looking at Mistress White askance with a +certain wistful sadness, as of a great honest dog somehow hurt and +stricken. + +When an India ship came in, the great casks of madeira, southside, grape +juice, bual and what not were rolled away into the deep cellars of the +India houses on the wharves, and left to purge their vinous consciences +of such perilous stuff as was shaken up from their depths during the +long homeward voyage. Then, when a couple of months had gone by, it was +a custom for the merchant to summon a few old gentlemen to a solemn +tasting of the wines old and new. Of this, Mr. Wholesome told me one +day, and thought I had better remain to go through the cellars and drive +out the bungs and drop in the testers, and the like. "I will also stay +with thee," he added, "knowing perhaps better than thee the prices." + +I learned afterward that Wholesome always stayed on these occasions, and +I had reason to be glad that I too was asked to stay, for, as it +chanced, it gave me a further insight into the character of my friend +the junior partner. + +I recall well the long cellar running far back under Water street, with +its rows of great casks, of which Wholesome and I started the bungs +while awaiting the new-comers. Presently came slowly down the +cellar-steps our senior partner in nankeen shanks, silk stockings and +pumps--a frosty-visaged old man, with a nose which had fully earned the +right to be called bottle. Behind him limped our old porter in a blue +check apron. He went round the cellar, and at every second cask, having +lighted a candle, he held it upside down until the grease had fallen +thick on the cask, and then turning the candle stuck it fast in its +little pile of tallow, so that by and by the cellar was pretty well +lighted. Presently, in groups or singly, came old and middle-aged +gentlemen, and with the last our friend Schmidt, who wandered off to a +corner and sat on a barrel-head watching the effects of the mingling of +daylight and candlelight, and amused in his quiet way at the scene and +the intense interest of the chief actors in it, which, like other things +he did not comprehend, had for him the charm of oddness. I went over +and stood by him while the porter dropped the tester-glass into the cool +depths of cask after cask, and solemn counsel was held and grave +decisions reached. I was enchanted with one meagre, little old gentleman +of frail and refined figure, who bent over his wine with closed eyes, as +if to shut out all the sense-impressions he did not need, while the rest +waited to hear what he had to say. + +"Needs a milk fining," muttered the old gentleman, with eyes shut as if +in prayer. + +"Wants its back broke with a good lot of eggshell," said a short, stout +man with a snuff-colored coat, the collar well up the back of his head. + +"Ach!" murmured Schmidt. "The back to be hurt with eggshell! What hath +he of meaning?" + +"Pshaw!" said a third: "give it a little rest, and then the white of an +egg to every five gallons. Is it bual?" + +"Is it gruel?" said our senior sarcastically. + +"Wants age. A good wine for one's grandchildren," murmured my old friend +with shut eyes. + +"What is it he calls gruel?" whispered Schmidt. "How nice is a picture +he makes when he shuts his eyes and the light of the candle comes +through the wine, all bright ruby, in the dark here! And ah, what is +that?" for Wholesome, who had been taking his wine in a kindly way, and +having his say with that sense of being always sure which an old taster +affects, glancing out of one of the little barred cellar-windows which +looked out over the wharf, said abruptly, "Ha! ha! that won't do!" + +Turning, I saw under the broad-brimmed hat in the clear gray eyes a +sudden sparkle of excitement as he ran hastily up the cellar-stairs. +Seeing that something unusual was afloat, I followed him quickly out on +to the wharf, where presently the cause of his movement was made plain. + +Beside the wharf was a large ship, with two planks running down from her +decks to the wharf. Just at the top of the farther one from us a large +black-haired, swarthy man was brutally kicking an aged negro, who was +hastily moving downward, clinging to the hand-rail. Colored folks were +then apt to be old servants--that is to say, friends--and this was our +pensioned porter, Old Tom. I was close behind Wholesome at the door of +the counting-house. I am almost sure he said "Damnation!" At all events, +he threw down his hat, and in a moment was away up the nearer plank to +the ship's deck, followed by me. Meanwhile, however, the black, followed +by his pursuer, had reached the wharf, where the negro, stumbling and +still clinging to the rail, was seized by the man who had struck him. In +the short struggle which ensued the plank was pulled away from the +ship's side, and fell just as Wholesome was about to move down it. He +uttered an oath, caught at a loose rope which hung from a yard, tried it +to see if it was fast, went up it hand over hand a few feet, set a foot +on the bulwarks, and swung himself fiercely back across the ship, and +then, with the force thus gained, flew far in air above the wharf, and +dropping lightly on to a pile of hogs-heads, leapt without a word to the +ground, and struck out with easy power at the man he sought, who fell as +if a butcher's mallet had stunned him--fell, and lay as one dead. The +whole action would have been amazing in any man, but to see a Quaker +thus suddenly shed his false skin and come out the true man he was, was +altogether bewildering--the more so for the easy grace with which the +feat was done. Everybody ran forward, while Wholesome stood a strange +picture, his eyes wide open and his pupils dilated, his face flushed and +lips a little apart, showing his set white teeth while he awaited his +foe. Then, as the man rallied and sat up, staring widely, Wholesome ran +forward and looked at him, waving the crowd aside. In a moment, as the +man rose still bewildered, his gaze fell on Wholesome, and, growing +suddenly white, he sat down on a bundle of staves, saying faintly, "Take +him away! Don't let him come near!" + +"Coward!" said I: "one might have guessed that." + +"There is to him," said Schmidt at my elbow, "some great mortal fear; +the soul is struck." + +"Yes," said Wholesome, "the soul is struck. Some one help him"--for the +man had fallen over in something like a fit--and so saying strode away, +thoughtful and disturbed in face, as one who had seen a ghost. + +As he entered the counting-house through the group of dignified old +merchants, who had come out to see what it all meant, one of them said, +"Pretty well for a Quaker, friend Richard!" + +Wholesome did not seem to hear him, but walked in, drank a glass of wine +which stood on a table, and sat down silently. + +"Not the first feat of that kind he has done," said the elder of the +wine-tasters. + +"No," said a sea-captain near by. "He boarded the Penelope in that +fashion during the war, and as he lit on her deck cleared a space with +his cutlass till the boarding-party joined him." + +"With his cutlass?" said I. "Then he was not always a Quaker?" + +"No," said our senior: "they don't learn these gymnastics at Fourth and +Arch, though perchance the committee may have a word to say about it." + +"Quaker or not," said the wine-taster, "I wish any of you had legs as +good or a heart as sound. Very good body, not too old, and none the +worse for a Quaker fining." + +"That's the longest sentence I ever heard Wilton speak," said a young +fellow aside to me; "and, by Jove! he is right." + +I went back into the counting-house, and was struck with the grim +sadness of face of our junior partner. He had taken up a paper and +affected to be reading, but, as I saw, was staring into space. Our +senior said something to him about Old Tom, but he answered in an absent +way, as one who half hears or half heeds. In a few moments he looked up +at the clock, which was on the stroke of twelve, and seeing me ready, +hat in hand, to return home for our one-o'clock dinner, he gathered +himself up, as it were, limb by limb, and taking his wide-brimmed hat +brushed it absently with his sleeve. Then he looked at it a moment with +a half smile, put it on decisively and went out and away up Arch street +with swifter and swifter strides. By and by he said, "You do not walk as +well as usual." + +"But," said I, "no one could keep up with you." + +"Do not try to: leave a sore man to nurse his hurts. I suppose you saw +my folly on the wharf--saw how I forgot myself?" + +"Ach!" said Schmidt, who had toiled after us hot and red, and who now +slipped his quaint form in between us--"Ach! 'You forgot yourself.' This +say you. I do think you did remember your true self for a time this +morning." + +"Hush! I am a man ashamed. Let us talk no more of it. I have ill kept my +faith," returned Wholesome impatiently. + +"You may believe God doth not honor an honest man," said Schmidt; "which +is perhaps a God Quaker, not the God I see to myself." + +I had so far kept my peace, noting the bitter self-reproach of +Wholesome, and having a lad's shyness before an older man's calamity; +but now I said indignantly, "If it be Friends' creed to see the poor and +old and feeble hurt without raising a hand, let us pray to be saved from +such religion." + +"But," said Wholesome, "I should have spoken to him in kindness first. +Now I have only made of him a worse beast, and taught him more hatred. +And he of all men!" + +"There is much salvation in some mistakes," said Schmidt smiling. + +Just then we were stopped by two middle-aged Friends in drab of orthodox +tint, from which now-a-days Friends have much fallen away into gay +browns and blacks. They asked a question or two about an insurance on +one of our ships; and then the elder said, "Thee hand seems bleeding, +friend Richard;" which was true: he had cut his knuckles on his +opponent's teeth, and around them had wrapped hastily a handkerchief +which showed stains of blood here and there. + +"Ach!" said Schmidt, hastening to save his friend annoyance. "He ran +against something.--And how late is it! Let us go." + +But Wholesome, who would have no man lie ever so little for his benefit, +said quietly, "I hurt it knocking a man down;" and now for the first +time to-day I observed the old amused look steal over his handsome face +and set it a-twitching with some sense of humor as he saw the shock +which went over the faces of the two elders when we bade them +good-morning and turned away. + +Wholesome walked on ahead quickly, and as it seemed plain that he would +be alone, we dropped behind. + +"What is all this?" said I. "Does a man grieve thus because he chastises +a scoundrel?" + +"No," said Schmidt. "The Friend Wholesome was, as you may never yet +know, an officer of the navy, and when your war being done he comes +here. There is a beautiful woman whom he must fall to loving, and this +with some men being a grave disorder, he must go and spoil a good +natural man with the clothes of a Quaker, seeing that what the woman did +was good in his sight." + +"But," said I, "I don't understand." + +"No," said he; "yet you have read of Eve and Adam. Sometimes they give +us good apples and sometimes bad. This was a russet, as it were, and at +times the apple disagrees with him for that with the new apple he got +not a new stomach." + +I laughed a little, but said, "This is not all. There was something +between him and the man he struck which we do not yet know. Did you see +him?" + +"Yes, and before this--last week some time in the market-place. He was +looking at old Dinah's tub of white lilies when I noticed him, and to me +came a curious thinking of how he was so unlike them, many people having +for me flower-likeness, and this man, being of a yellow swarthiness and +squat-browed, 'minded me soon of the toadstool you call a corpse-light." + +"Perhaps we shall know some time; but here is home, and will he speak of +it to Mistress White, do you think?" + +"Not ever, I suppose," said Schmidt; and we went in. + +The sight we saw troubled me. In the little back parlor, at a round +mahogany table with scrolled edges and claw toes, sat facing the light +Mistress White. She was clad in a gray silk with tight sleeves, and her +profusion of rich chestnut hair, with its willful curliness that forbade +it to be smooth on her temples, was coiled in a great knot at the back +of her head. Its double tints and strange changefulness, and the smooth +creamy cheeks with their moving islets of roses that would come and go +at a word, were pretty protests of Nature, I used to think, against the +demure tints of her pearl-gray silken gown. She was looking out into the +garden, quite heedless of the older dame, who sat as her wont was +between the windows, and chirruped now and then, mechanically, "Has thee +a four-leaved clover?" As I learned some time after, one of our older +clerks, perhaps with a little malice of self-comfort at the fall of his +senior's principles, had, on coming home, told her laughingly all the +story of the morning. Perhaps one should be a woman and a Friend to +enter into her feelings. She was tied by a promise and by a sense of +personal pledge to a low and disgraced man, and then coming to love +another despite herself she had grown greatly to honor him. She might +reason as she would that only a sense of right and a yearning for the +fullness of a righteous life had made him give up his profession and +fellows and turn aside to follow the harder creed of Fox, but she well +knew with a woman's keenness of view that she herself had gone for +something in this change; and now, as sometimes before, she reproached +herself with his failures. As we came in she hastily dried her eyes and +went out of the room. At dinner little was said, but in the afternoon +there was a scene of which I came to know all a good while later. + +Some of us had gone back to the afternoon work when Mr. Wholesome, who +had lingered behind, strayed thoughtfully into the little back garden. +There under a thin-leaved apricot tree sat Mistress White, very pretty, +with her long fair fingers clasped over a book which lay face down on +her lap. Presently she was aware of Richard Wholesome walking to and fro +and smoking a long-stemmed clay pipe, then, as yet in England, called a +churchwarden. These were two more than commonly good-looking persons, +come of sturdy English breeds, fined down by that in this climate which +has taken the coarseness of line and feature out of so many of our +broods, and has made more than one English painter regret that the +Vandyke faces had crossed the ocean to return no more. + +Schmidt and I looked out a moment into the long vista where, between the +rose-boughs bending from either wall under the apricot, we could see the +gray silvery shimmer of the woman's dress, and beyond it, passing to and +fro, the broad shoulders of the ex-captain. + +"Come," I said, "walk down with me to the wharf." + +"Yet leave me," he returned. "I shall wisely do to sit here on the step +over the council-fire of my pipe. Besides, when there are not markets +and flowers, and only a straight-down, early-afternoon sun, I shall find +it a more noble usage of time to see of my drama another scene. The +actors are good;" and he pointed with his pipe-stem down to the garden. +"And this," he said, "is the mute chorus of the play," indicating a +kitten which had made prey of the grand-dame's ball of worsted, and was +rolling it here and there with delight. + +"But," I answered, "it is not right or decent to spy upon others' +actions." + +"For right!" he said. "Ach! what I find right to me is my right; and for +decent, I understand you not. But if I tell you what is true, I find my +pleasure to sit here and see the maiden when at times the winds pull up +the curtain of the leaves." + +"Well! well!" said I, for most of the time he was not altogether plain +as to what he meant, as when he spoke of the cat as a chorus--"Well! +well! you will go out with me on the water at sundown?" + +"That may be," he answered; and I went away. + +I have observed since then, in the long life I have lived, that the +passion called love, when it is a hopeless one, acts on men as ferments +do on fluids after their kind--turning some to honest wine and some to +vinegar. With our stout little German all trials seemed to be of the +former use, so that he took no ill from those hurts and bruises which +leave other men sore and tender. Indeed, he talked of Mistress White to +me, or even to Wholesome, whom he much embarrassed, in a calm, +half-amused way, as of a venture which he had made, and, having failed, +found it pleasant to look back upon as an experience not altogether to +be regretted. We none of us knew until much later that it was more than +a mere fancy for a woman who was altogether so sweet and winsome that no +man needed an excuse for loving her. When by and by I also came to love +a good woman, I used to try myself by the measure of this man's lack of +self-love, and wonder how he could have seen with good-will the woman he +cared for come to like another man better. This utter sweetness of soul +has ever been to me a riddle. + +An hour passed by, when Schmidt heard a footfall in the room behind him, +and rising saw an old member of the Society of Friends who came at times +to our house, and was indeed trustee for a small estate which belonged +to Mistress White. Nicholas Oldmixon was an overseer in the Fourth +street meeting, and much looked up to among Friends as a prompt and +vigilant guardian of their discipline. Perhaps he would have been +surprised to be told that he had that in his nature which made the post +of official fault-finder agreeable; but so it was, I fancy, and he was +here on such an errand. The asceticism of Friends in those days, and the +extent to which Mr. Oldmixon, like the more strict of his sect, carried +their views as to gravity of manner and the absence of color in dress +and furniture, were especially hateful to Schmidt, who lived and was +happy in a region of color and sentiment and gayety. Both, I doubt not, +were good men, but each was by nature and training altogether unable to +sympathize with the other. + +"Good-evening!" said Schmidt, keeping his seat in the low window-sill. + +Mr. Oldmixon returned, "Thee is well, I trust?" + +"Ach! with such a sun and the last roses, which seem the most sweet, and +these most lovely of fall-flowers, and a good book and a pipe," said +Schmidt, "who will not be well? Have you the honest blessing of being a +smoker?" + +"Nay," said the Quaker, with evident guarding of his words. "Thee will +not take it amiss should I say it is a vain waste of time?" + +"But," answered Schmidt, "time hath many uses. The one is to be wasted; +and this a pipe mightily helps. I did think once, when I went to +meeting, how much more solemn it would be for each man to have a pipe to +excuse his silence." + +"Thee jests idly, I fear," said the Friend, coloring and evidently +holding himself in check. "Is that friend Wholesome in the garden? I +have need to see him." + +"Yea," said Schmidt, with a broad smile, "he is yonder under a tree, +like Adam in the garden. Let us take a peep at Paradise." + +Mr. Oldmixon held his peace, and walked quietly out of the window and +down the graveled path. There were some who surmised that his years and +his remembrance of the three wives he had outlived did not altogether +suffice to put away from him a strong sentiment of the sweetness of his +ward. Perhaps it was this notion which lit up with mirth the ruddy face +of the German as he walked down the garden behind the slim ascetic +figure of the overseer of meeting in his broad hat and drab clothes. On +the way the German plucked a dozen scarlet roses, a late geranium or two +and a few leaves of motley Poinsetta. + +Wholesome paused a moment to greet quietly the new-comer, and +straightway betook himself absently to his walk again to and fro across +the garden. Mistress White would have had the old overseer take her +seat, but this he would not do. He stood a moment near her, as if +irresolute, while Schmidt threw himself down on the sward, and, half +turning over, tossed roses into the gray lap of Mistress White, saying, +"How prettily the God of heaven has dressed them!" + +Mistress White took up the flowers, not answering the challenge, but +glancing under her long lashes at the ex-captain, to whom presently the +overseer turned, saying, "Would thee give me a word or two with thee by +ourselves, Richard?" + +"There are none in the parlor," said Priscilla, "if thee will talk +there." + +"If," said Wholesome, "it be of business, let it wait till to-morrow, +and I will call upon thee: I am not altogether myself to-day." + +"Nay," said Nicholas, gathering himself up a little, "thee must know +theeself that I would not come to thee here for business: thee knows my +exactness in such matters." + +"And for what, then, are you come?" said Wholesome with unusual +abruptness. + +"For speech of that in thee conduct which were better, as between an +elder friend and a younger, to be talked over alone," said Mr. Oldmixon +severely. + +Now, Wholesome, though disgusted by his lack of power to keep the silent +pledges he had given when he entered the Society of Friends, was not +dissatisfied with his conduct as he judged it by his own standard of +right. Moreover, like many warm-hearted people, he was quick of temper, +as we have seen. His face flushed, and he paused beside the overseer: +"There are none here who do not know most of what passed this morning; +but as you do not know all, let me advise you to hold your peace and go +your ways, and leave me to such reproach as God may send me." + +"If that God send thee any," muttered Schmidt. + +But Nicholas Oldmixon was like a war-horse smelling the battle afar off, +and anything like resistance to an overseer in the way of duty roused +him into the sternness which by no means belonged to the office, but +rather to the man. "If," he said, "any in membership with us do +countenance or promote tumults, they shall be dealt with as disorderly +persons. Wherefore did thee give way to rash violence this morning?" + +Priscilla grew pale, I think. She said, "Friend Nicholas, thee forgets +the Christian courtesy of our people one to another. Let it rest a +while: friend Richard may come to think better of it by and by." + +"And that I trust he may never," muttered Schmidt. + +But the overseer was not to be stayed. "Thee would do better to mind the +things of thy house and leave us," he said. "The ways of this young man +have been more than once a scandal, and are like to come before the +preparative meeting to be dealt with." + +"Sir," returned Wholesome, approaching him and quite forgetting his +plain speech to make it plainer, "your manners do little credit to your +age or your place. Listen: I told you to speak no more of this matter;" +and he seized him by the lappel of his coat and drew him aside a few +paces. "For your own sake, I mean. Let it die out, with no more of talk +or nonsense." + +"For my sake!" exclaimed the overseer; "and why? Most surely thee +forgets theeself." + +"For your own sake," said Wholesome, drawing him still farther away, and +bending toward him, so that his words were lost to Schmidt and +Priscilla, "and for your son John's. It was he I struck to-day." + +Mr. Oldmixon grew white and staggered as if stricken. "Why did thee not +come and tell me?" he said. "It had been kinder; and where is that +unhappy man?" + +"I do not know," returned Wholesome. + +"Nevertheless, be it he or another, thee was in the wrong, and I have +done my duty,--God help us all! and is my son yet alive?" and so saying, +he turned away, and without other words walked through the house with +uncertain steps and went down the street, while Wholesome, with softened +face, watched him from the doorstep. Then he went back quietly into the +garden, and turning to Schmidt, said, "Will you oblige me by leaving me +with Mistress White? I will explain to thee by and by." + +Schmidt looked up surprised, but seeing how pale and stern he looked, +rose and went into the house. The woman looked up expectant. + +"Priscilla, the time has come when thee must choose between me and him." + +"He has come back? I knew always he would come." + +"Yes, he has come back: I saw him to-day," said Wholesome, "and the John +Oldmixon of to-day is more than ever cruel and brutal. Will thee trust +me to make thee believe that?" + +"I believe thee," she returned; "but because he is this and worse, shall +I forget my word or turn aside from that which, if bitter for me, may +save his soul alive?" + +"And yet you love me?" + +"Have I said so?" she murmured with a half smile. + +The young man came closer and seized both hands in his: "Will it not be +a greater sin, loving me, to marry him?" + +"But he may never ask me, and then I shall wait, for I had better die +fit in soul to be yours than come to you unworthy of a good man's love." + +He dropped her hands and moved slowly away, she watching him with full +eyes. Then he turned and said, "But should he fall--fall as he must--and +come to be what his life will surely make him, a felon whom no woman +could marry--" + +"Thee makes duty hard for me, Richard," she answered. "Do not make me +think thee cruel. When in God's good time he shall send me back the +words of promise I wrote when he went away a disgraced man, to whom, +nevertheless I owed my life, then--Oh, Richard, I love thee! Do not hurt +me. Pray for me and him." + +"God help us!" he said. "We have great need, to be helped;" and suddenly +leaning over he kissed her forehead for the first time, and went away up +the garden and into the house. + +EDWARD KEARSLEY. + + + + +MODERN HUGUENOTS. + + +It demands a good deal of energy, and it involves a little hardship, to +see the Protestant communities of the High Alps of France, but the +picturesque and historic interests of the journey furnish a sufficient +motive and make ample amends. I can think of no route so entirely +unhackneyed to recommend to blase tourists. The point of departure is +Grenoble, reached in an hour or so from Chambery, and in itself well +worth turning aside from the Mont Cenis thoroughfare to visit. As far as +Corps the way lies over the beaten track of the Salette pilgrims, of +which the charms are recorded in many a devout description. + +It happened to us, however, to get a preliminary glimpse of French +Protestantism in a characteristic, although wholly modern, development +before leaving Grenoble. We applied to the Protestant clergyman there +for information respecting the details of our proposed tour. Pleased +with our project, he told us the story of a mission which he had +established under circumstances altogether unique, and invited us to +join him in paying it a visit. The scene of his enterprise was a sunny +little village lying high among vineyarded hills, and bearing the name +of Notre Dame des Commiers. Owing to its remoteness and insignificance, +the Roman Catholic authorities had never replaced its last priest, who +withdrew during the turmoils of the Revolution. For all their +ecclesiastical needs the people were obliged to descend to the next +village, the cure of which gave them little pastoral care beyond the +thrifty collection of his dues. Learning these facts, our Grenoble +friend determined to take advantage of the situation. He presented +himself in the village and told the people he was willing to become +their pastor. He only asked them to acknowledge the validity of baptism +and marriage performed by him, and to pledge him their support in the +struggle with the priests that would probably ensue. Later, he said, he +hoped to convince them that he taught a better religion than that at the +hands of whose ministers they had suffered such neglect. A majority of +the villagers accepted his proposal, and by a formal act constituted +themselves a Protestant commune. By so doing they were able to secure +recognition by the government as belonging to the National Protestant +Church of France. It was not long before the parishioners grew warmly +attached to their new pastor. His position of assistant at Grenoble +enabled him to assume the sole charge of the enterprise. Week after week +he made the tedious stage-coach journey, walking up the two-mile hill at +the foot of which he had to quit the highway. Often in winter he toiled +for hours through deep snow and faced violent storms in making the +ascent. In the worst weather it sometimes happened that the whole +journey from Grenoble had to be made on foot. For two years he carried +on the work unaided, holding his services in such rude quarters as he +was able to secure. The village is now, after an interval of seven years +since the missionary's first visit, adorned with a pretty chapel and +school-house and provided with a resident minister. + +In talking with the people we found abundant proof that their Protestant +faith is both intelligent and practical. Such of them as were not busy +in the fields surrounded their old pastor with greetings that touchingly +expressed their affection and gratitude, and we, as his friends, had a +share in the demonstration. One stalwart, clear-eyed old woman obliged +us to sit down in front of her chalet, cheerfully explaining that she +had just been burned out, and that the shed in which she had found a +shelter was not fit for us to enter. She would take no refusal of her +offer to fetch us grapes, and ran all the way to and from her vineyard +on the opposite hillside, returning in an incredibly short time, +scarcely out of breath, and carrying a basket heavy with great white +and purple clusters. As she stood watching with delight our appreciation +of her produce--the only sweet and luscious grapes, by the way, that we +found throughout the autumn in that land of vines--she talked frankly of +her religious vicissitudes, summing up as follows: "The priests used to +say to me that I had turned Protestant because that is an easier +religion than the Roman Catholic. But I have not found it so at all. _Il +est beaucoup plus facile de me confesser que de me corriger._" Presently +another woman came up the hill, bending painfully under the weight of +two water-pails hanging from the ends of a yoke that rested on her +shoulders. "Ah," said our hostess, "if they would but let us build the +aqueduct, we should not have that ugly work to do." And then we learned +that among the small minority of Roman Catholics left in the village, to +care for whom, as soon as it was found a wolf had entered the fold, a +priest arrived promptly enough, there prevail the wildest superstitions +concerning the Protestants. Among many improvements introduced by the +latter an aqueduct had been planned to furnish the hamlet with wholesome +water. The project was defeated by the opposition of the Roman +Catholics, who considered it a scheme for poisoning them _en masse_. It +was here that we heard for the first time the epithet Huguenots applied +as a term of reproach and derision to the Protestants. Afterward, in +regions where Protestants have a history of centuries, we found it +commonly used in the same way. + +Our visit to Notre Dame des Commiers was like reading a living page of +early Reformation history, and the whole neighborhood made a fitting +stage for such a reproduction. Some six or seven miles from Grenoble we +passed the restored but still, in parts at least, historic chateau of +Lesdiguieres at Vizille. Nearer our mountain-village we stopped to +admire an ivy-covered bit of tower-ruin, associated by a grim tradition +with the same Dauphine hero. A prisoner confined here by the apostate +constable had, says the legend, a lady true who came every night and +clasped her lover's hand stretched out to her between the bars of his +dungeon window. Lesdiguieres discovered the rendezvous, and the spot is +still pointed out where his soldier was stationed one fatal night to +chop off the hand that sought its accustomed pledge. The historical +associations of our excursion were, indeed, somewhat confused, but a +fresh feature was added to its interest by the departure, which we +chanced to witness, of Monsieur Thiers from the Chateau de Vizille, now +occupied by Casimir Perier, whom the ex-president had been visiting. + +The two days' diligence journey from Grenoble to the departement des +Hautes-Alpes was over one of those broad macadamized highways which make +driving a luxury in many parts of Europe. If we were more huddled than +in the less-antiquated Swiss diligences, we had the compensation of far +more original fellow-travelers than one is apt to find among the +tourists that monopolize those vehicles. There were generally two or +three priests, half a dozen merry peasants, and a sprinkling of small +officers and country-townspeople, who respectively lost no time in +establishing a pleasant intimacy with their neighbors. The unflagging +chatter, in which all joined vivaciously, and often all at once, was in +striking contrast with the silent gloom which would have enshrouded a +similar party of English or American travelers. It was impossible to +resist the contagion of cheerfulness or to refuse to mingle more or less +in the talk. + +On the second evening, having trusted to the map and the very meagre +information supplied by _Murray_, we found ourselves deposited at an +isolated wayside cabaret. It presently transpired that St. Bonnet, where +we expected to pass the Sunday, was some half mile or more off the +high-road on which this was the nearest station. While we waited in a +long, low, dimly-lighted room for the guide we had bespoken, two +gendarmes and a peasant sat listening to, or rather looking at, a vivid +account of some shooting adventure given in extraordinary pantomime by +a deaf and dumb huntsman. In time a withered gnome trundling a +wheelbarrow took possession of us and our light belongings, and led us +forth into the night. We traversed the valley, mounted the hill on the +other side, and at last entered the deeper night of a lampless village, +and began to thread its steep, black streets. The only gleam of light +was at what seemed to be the central fountain. Many women were gathered +there, chatting as they filled their pails or stood with the replenished +vessels poised on their heads. The inn was of a piece with all those at +which we lodged in Dauphine, deficient in everything for which an inn +exists. The feature of these inns which I remember, I think, with the +least relish was the condition of the floors. It is literally true that +they are never washed. A daily sprinkling is the only cleansing process +they undergo: its effect is to soften the wood until it begins to absorb +a large proportion of the rubbish which is often but never thoroughly +swept up, and grows black and evil-odored. This result is most manifest, +of course, and most offensive in the dining-rooms. + +St. Bonnet offered even less than we anticipated of interest. On the +Sunday morning we gladly drove away in such an equipage as the place +afforded to the not very distant village of St. Laurent en Champsaur. +Here we reached our first point in what was fifty years ago the parish +of Felix Neff, and has been for centuries a refuge of Protestantism. It +is a hamlet of stone cottages, lying on a kind of plateau and +overlooking a wide and fertile valley. The surrounding hills, though +mostly bare, were broken and beautified on that still autumn morning +with dim clefts of shadow. The sun was not yet high, and broad masses of +purple fell here and there across the plain and the brawling stream that +divides it, still the Drac, which we had seen an almost stately river +near Grenoble. + +Having already learned something of the local habits, we bade our driver +take us to the _temple_. That is the distinctive name of a Protestant +church in these Roman Catholic lands. The morning service was in +progress when we entered the square and austere little chapel. Every pew +was occupied, the men and women taking different sides of the one +stone-paved aisle. A gentle-looking old man was reading from a book with +much clearness and expression, and in a singularly pleasant voice, what +we soon found to be an excellent sermon. At its close a quaint, slow +hymn was sung, and the congregation was dismissed. To our amusement, the +simple folk formed a double line outside the door to inspect us as we +emerged. It was easy to imagine their interest in an apparition so +unusual as foreign visitors, and we submitted to their curious but +entirely respectful scrutiny, wishing that our aspect might give them +half the satisfaction we had in watching their eager faces and noting +their droll costumes. Ludicrously high stocks and "swallow-tail" coats +of brown homespun made the dress of the men different from that of +corresponding rustics in America. The chief peculiarity in the women's +attire was a straw hat, of which the towering crown, decked with huge +bows, and the vast flapping brim, were like an extravagant caricature of +the poke-bonnets of our grandmothers. + +As we stood demurely in the midst of the group, the old man who had +read, and who proved to be the schoolmaster, hastened out to greet us. +It was his habit, he said, in the pastor's absence, to conduct the +service. For more than thirty years, although the parish had repeatedly +been for months without a minister, he had not allowed the temple to +remain closed a single Sunday. His wife appeared directly, and both +insisted, with apologies for their peasant fare, that we should stop to +dinner at their house, a few yards from the church. We were in truth +nothing loath to accept the invitation, and found little to excuse in +the savory soup, the fresh-laid eggs and the fruit that composed the +simple feast, while we were scarcely less regaled with the neatness of +the rooms and the spectacle of well-washed floors and spotless though +coarsely-woven linen. But most of all to be enjoyed and remembered was +the peep we got into this good old man's life and history. From his +youth he had been schoolmaster at St. Laurent, and it seemed never to +have occurred to him that he might claim a more distinguished post. +Unconscious of any special self-sacrifice, he told us about his work, +heroic through its quiet faithfulness, in that obscure hamlet. He +enumerated with pride the various pastors and teachers who had been his +scholars--among the former his eldest son, among the latter two of his +daughters. Listening to his talk, we understood the intelligence of +expression in many faces and the large proportion of young men at the +service of the morning. + +In our walks about the village after dinner the schoolmaster took us to +see an ancient woman who in her youth had been a catechumen of Felix +Neff. It is curious to find that term, which was applied by the early +Church to candidates for admission, in use now among the Protestants of +France and Italy. With tears in her eyes and an enthusiasm that made her +speech almost incoherent, the grandame talked of "Monsieur Neff," his +courage, his friendliness, how he went among his people like one of +themselves, and what good words he always spoke. As we left St. Laurent +our host and his wife bore us company to the brow of a little hill +whither we had sent on our chaise, and stood there to wave us an adieu +as we descended on the other side. Then we saw them turn back toward the +group of thatched and moss-grown cottages which was all their world. + +That evening we reached Gap, the capital of the department of the High +Alps, and once an important Protestant centre. Farel, the French +Reformer of the sixteenth century, was born and for a time preached +here. But since the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes until very +lately--during a period, that is, of nearly two hundred years--no +Protestant pastor has been tolerated in the town, and the once numerous +flock was long since dispersed. A Swiss society undertook two or three +years ago a Protestant mission at Gap, and a friend in Geneva had given +us the name of the present evangelist. A humbler or more thankless +charge could scarcely be imagined than such a work in such a place. +There is no nucleus of hereditary Protestants, as in the +mountain-parishes of the department, and at the same time the little +city is so isolated that its people have retained the superstitions and +religious animosities of the Dark Ages. It was therefore with much +compassionate thought of his pitiful case that we sought the +evangelist's house. He was not, however, a man toward whom one could +maintain for a moment that frame of mind. Brisk, cheerful, polished in +manner and with an unsought elegance of dress and carriage, he had not +in the least the air of a despised heretic struggling hopelessly against +social as well as ecclesiastical contempt. Six avowed converts were the +definite results of his work for more than two years. During much of +that time he had been hampered by insuperable difficulties in finding a +place for his service or even a lodging for his family. The latter was +at last provided, as a daring defiance of popular prejudice, by a +landlord who prided himself upon being a _libre penseur_. For his chapel +he secured a disused shop in the front of a bath-house. The proprietress +of the establishment was punished by the priests for her unrighteous +thrift by being refused the sacrament. Her business, too, was for a +while endangered. One instance out of many of the kind of prejudice she +provoked was that of two wealthy and educated ladies, who, as they +entered the bath one day, heard music in the _chapelle evangelique_ and +instantly beat a hurried retreat. They only stopped to explain that all +the world knows the object of Protestant worship is the devil, and they +dare not stay within hearing of the sacrilegious rites. In spite of +multiform discouragements like these, the evangelist and his wife, a +motherly woman of much quiet strength, whose gentleness made sweet a +very homely face, talked of their work and prospects with a +matter-of-course hopefulness which it was not easy to share. Nothing in +their habits, they told us, had more amazed their Roman Catholic +neighbors at first than their lavish use of water. But in that +particular, at least, suspicion had been allayed, their perseverance had +proved the practice harmless, and their example was beginning to find a +few timid imitators. + +Our first night after leaving Gap was spent at Embrun. As we approached +the town, which surmounts an extraordinary platform of rock, its walls +looking like part of the smooth, brown tufa precipice that rises +abruptly out of the valley, we seemed to see in its picturesque and +impressive aspect something of the grandeur and gloom of its long +history. The cathedral where so many archbishops have ministered +preserves little trace of its former splendors: even architecturally it +is without attraction. + +For the next two days our route continued to lie through the valley, +which we entered upon leaving Gap, of the Durance. It is an apparently +insignificant but treacherous stream, which by repeated floods has +spread ugly devastation over a hill-girdled country that ought to be +smiling with peace and plenty. At Guillestre we came in sight of the +jagged double peak of Mont Pelvoux, and got a magnificent vista toward +the south, ending in the white slopes of some giant of the Cottian Alps. +The Mont Pelvoux and the Pointe des Ecrins, the greatest of those +mountains from which the department takes its name, although they appear +on none of the ordinary maps, stand, I believe, only twelfth and +thirteenth in the scale of height among the mountains of Europe. The +explorations of Whymper have introduced them to his readers, but they +still remain almost untrodden by other climbers. + +On the second afternoon we reached the lateral valley of Fressiniere, +the climax of our journey. There was refreshment for soul as well as +body in the daintily-clean, bare-floored rooms, redolent of apples set +out to dry, into which we were welcomed by Pastor Charpiot and his wife +at Pallons. The village is a mere group of Alpine huts, and the only +chance of shelter was at the presbytery. So much we had little doubt of +finding there, but we counted as little upon the warm and graceful +hospitality which greeted our application. And when our nationality +transpired it added new zest to the good-will of our host and hostess. +We were their first Transatlantic guests. + +The valley of Fressiniere, at the entrance of which Pallons lies, is the +centre of those special interests which first prompted the pilgrimage I +am recording. With it are specially associated the earliest traditions +of Protestantism in France, and here Felix Neff spent the larger part of +his brief but memorable career as pastor in the High Alps. I suppose the +exact antiquity of the Protestants of Dauphine is one of the historical +problems that still await their final solution. The older chronicles +provide them with what seems an unbroken line of descent from the second +century, when Irenaeus preached in Lyons and Vienne. Christian fugitives +from those cities during the persecution of Marcus Aurelius may, it is +alleged, have taken refuge in the not distant Dauphine mountains, and +have transmitted to their descendants the primitive faith they had +received. But modern criticism has so seriously undermined, as +practically to have demolished, this imposing genealogical structure. It +is not denied that voices of more or less emphatic protest against Rome +made themselves heard among these mountains and the neighboring Cottian +Alps during the earlier centuries. Can such voices be held to represent +any definitely-organized dissentient body of more remote origin than the +Poor Men of Lyons, led by Peter Waldo in 1172? The latest researches +give an apparently final negative answer to this question. At least, +however, it is beyond dispute that long before the Reformation the +valleys of the High Alps were a retreat for persecuted schismatics whose +opposition to the Romish Church anticipated Protestantism. As early as +the fifteenth century a papal bull denounced as _inveterate_ the +heretics of Dauphine and Provence, and about the middle of the next +century delegates from those provinces appeared at the first national +Protestant synod in France with the following declaration: "We consent +to merge in the common cause, but we require no Reformation, for our +forefathers and ourselves have ever disclaimed the corruptions of the +churches in communion with Rome." Enough is therefore certain as to the +antecedents of these Protestant mountaineers to surround them with an +entirely peculiar interest. The saddest feature, perhaps, of all their +history is the stunting of mind and character that has resulted from +centuries of oppression. After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes +they were subject to fresh persecution, and until within the present +century they have been denied the privileges of citizenship and forced +to look upon themselves as outcasts. One can only wonder at the degree +of individuality and force which they have still preserved. + +Felix Neff, while still a _proposant_, or candidate for the ministry, at +Geneva, was sent to Dauphine in response to the appeal of two pastors +there for an assistant. Two years later, at the beginning of 1824, in +the twenty-sixth year of his age, he became pastor of the Protestant +churches in the Arvieux section of the High Alps. This was the larger +and by far the more arduous of the two parishes into which the +department was at that time divided. In seventeen or eighteen +widely-scattered villages Neff found the little groups of "Huguenots" +which composed his charge. His official residence, the presbytery, was +at La Chalp, a hamlet above the village of Arvieux and near the border +of Italy. From this point to St. Laurent, the western limit of his +parish, is a journey of sixty miles, including the passage of a +dangerous gorge and the crossing of a difficult snow-pass. St. Veran on +the east was the least remote of his boundaries, but even this is +separated from La Chalp by twelve miles of steep descent and rough +climbing. On the north and the south the extreme points were distant +respectively thirty-three and twenty-miles, and the routes are of the +same character as in the other directions. + +These disadvantages, instead of daunting the young pastor, seemed only +to stimulate his ardor. "I am always dreaming of the High Alps," he had +written in 1823, after visiting them for the first time. "I had rather +be stationed there than in places which are under the beautiful sky of +Languedoc. The country bears a strong resemblance to the Alps of +Switzerland. It has their advantages, and even their beauties. It has, +above all, an energetic race of people--intelligent, active, hardy and +patient under fatigue--who offer a better soil for the gospel than the +wealthy and corrupt inhabitants of the plains of the South." The +illusions that mingled with these early impressions were doubtless soon +dispelled. He shows later a perfectly clear perception of the degenerate +condition of his parishioners, but his eagerness to serve them waxes +with his sense of their need. Neff was in modern times their first +regularly-appointed pastor. A son of Oberlin, whose short but devoted +life shows him to have inherited his father's spirit, had once +undertaken the provisional charge of the parish, but only for a few +months. In general, it had had no ministry beyond occasional visits from +the pastor of Orpierre, the other section of the department. + +The valley of Fressiniere at once attracted Neff's peculiar regard. It +was the part of his parish most difficult of access and most cut off +from any chance of material prosperity. The climate is such that in +unfavorable seasons even rye will not ripen, and the patches of potatoes +straggling forlornly among the rocks often fail to reach maturity. No +other grain or vegetable can be raised. Mould quickly attacks the flour +in this mountain-air, and the year's baking is accordingly done in the +autumn as soon as the rye comes back from the mill. The coarse black +loaves grow perfectly hard in a few weeks, and have to be chopped into +pieces and soaked in hot water before they can be eaten. It is only at +the head of the valley, above the hamlet of Dourmillouse, that any +pastures are found, and many of those are inaccessible to cattle and +scarcely safe for sheep. They are besides so meagre that in dry summers +no hay can be made, and the peasants are forced to sell their beasts at +a loss or else see them die for want of food. The addition of a little +salted meat to the half-grown potatoes and the stony bread is a luxury +of only the most prosperous years. The bald mountain-slopes furnish no +fuel, and it is of course only in the smallest quantities that the +people can afford to buy wood in the valley of the Durance. Their +resource against the winter's cold is moving into their stables, where, +huddled together in a corner cleared for the purpose, they pass four or +five months. The smoky and confined air is a welcome change from the icy +winds outside, and the steaming cattle are a source of grateful warmth. +"This village," Neff writes, about the middle of September, from the +smallest and most destitute of the hamlets of Fressiniere, "is squeezed +up in the very narrowest gorge of the valley, and is now buried in snow, +and without the hope of seeing the sun during the rest of the winter. +The houses are low, dark and dirty, and the people themselves seem to be +stupefied with the utter misery of their condition." + +Besides the strong appeal thus made to his sympathy, the young pastor +nowhere else felt as in this valley the inspiration of his parish's +history. Dourmillouse especially he regarded as the most staunchly +Protestant of all the villages to which he ministered. "It is +celebrated," he writes, "for the resistance which its inhabitants have +opposed for more than six hundred years to the Church of Rome. They +never bowed their knee before an idol, even when all the inhabitants of +the valley of Queyras" (on the opposite side of the Durance, and +embracing Arvieux, St. Veran and other villages) "dissembled their +faith. The aspect of this desert, both terrible and sublime, which +served as the asylum of truth when almost all the world lay in darkness; +the recollection of the faithful martyrs of old; the deep caverns into +which they withdrew to read the Bible in secret and to worship the +Father of Light in spirit and in truth,--everything tends to elevate my +soul." He spent here the whole of one winter and large portions of +another, and it was here that he gathered his most important schools. + +The rest of the field was not, however, neglected. Neff allowed himself +twenty-one days for traversing his parish from end to end, and during +much of the year his rounds succeeded each other with little interval. +He was continually passing from the extreme of heat in sunny valleys to +the arctic cold of snows and glaciers. His lodging on these journeys was +in the huts of the peasants. He shared their coarse and unwholesome +food, often cooked in ill-cleansed copper vessels. He slept in small, +unventilated hovels, a dozen other persons often dividing with him the +scanty space. He did not shrink from even the stables in winter. However +exhausted he might be by hours of toilsome walking, his elastic spirit +quickly revived: all thought of refreshment for himself was secondary to +the spiritual wants he sought to meet in others. + +Nor was he content without trying to ameliorate the temporal condition +of his parishioners. By the care of his own garden he sought to teach +them more intelligent and productive methods of agriculture than the +rude processes to which they were accustomed. In the valley of +Fressiniere he built an aqueduct for purposes of irrigation, overcoming +prejudice and opposition by beginning the work with his own hands. The +example of Oberlin was constantly before him, and he often expresses his +ambition to be to his people such a guide and helper as the pastor of +Ban de la Roche had been to the peasants of the Vosges. + +Neff was not long in discovering that his work must begin with the most +elementary instruction. Generally, the people were ignorant of any +language but their native patois. Up to this period their schoolmasters, +paid at the rate of twenty-five francs a year, had been peasants like +themselves. Their only time for study was such of the year as was not +needed for the tilling of the niggardly soil or spent in the care of the +flocks. And even the little they were able to learn was easily lost on +account of the scarcity of books. Neff first addressed himself to +learning the patois, and then, as he went from village to village, made +ordinary teaching a part of his pastoral functions. At the beginning of +his second winter he resolved to undertake the training of teachers. "I +foresaw," he writes, "that the truth which I had been permitted to +preach would not only not spread, but might even be lost, unless +something should be done to promote its continuance." Accordingly, for +five months he relinquished the more congenial general work of his +parish and devoted himself to a normal school at Dourmillouse. One +reason for planting it there was the inaccessibility of the place and +its consequent freedom from distraction. More than twenty young men from +other villages cheerfully submitted to the long confinement in this +ice-bound fastness, and the people of Dourmillouse were glad to make +room in their huts for the new-comers, and to add to the supplies +brought by them their own scanty stores. + +The following winter, his third in the High Alps, Neff again opened this +school, dividing its care, however, with one of his most capable pupils +of the previous year, and paying occasional visits to other parts of his +parish. But now his health, never robust, began to give way under the +incessant strain to which it was subjected. Early in the spring of 1829 +he was forced to go to Geneva with the hope of recruiting. There, after +two years of suffering, the details of which are painful beyond +expression, he died at the age of thirty-one. + +With our minds full of these memories we set out on the morning after +our arrival at Pallons, with Pastor Charpiot as guide, to explore the +valley of Fressiniere and ascend to Dourmillouse. The immediate vicinity +of Pallons is fair and fertile, but a short walk up the course of an +impetuous torrent brought us to a narrow gorge, beyond which we found a +totally different region. Bare slopes of rock that looked grim even in +the sunny morning, and a waste valley-bottom, here of considerable +width, but sterile and bleak, made up the landscape. Its dreariness was +only increased by an occasional chalet standing beside a patch of limp +and discolored potato-vines. As we went on the scene grew more and more +gloomy. The tillage is in cleared spots not so large as the heaps of +stones that surround them, or on bits of practicable soil left by +land-slides in the midst of their hideous debris. The only trees are +dwarfish pollards, reduced to bare trunks with thin tufts of green atop +by the practice of stripping off the sprouts every two or three years to +make fodder for the goats. Midway up the valley we passed the village of +Violins. It seemed mournfully empty, and many of the houses were in +reality deserted. A shy, bright-faced fellow opened the little _temple_ +for our inspection, and Pastor Charpiot reminded us how its interior was +not only planned by Neff, but in large measure his actual handiwork. +Half an hour further on our path led us through the hamlet of Minsas, +now entirely abandoned and in ruins. The desolation of the valley here +becomes appalling. On either hand sheer precipices of crumbling rock +rise above steep slopes of gravel and loose stones. The ground is strewn +thick with great boulders, many of which had left traces of their +furious descent before settling, sometimes close beside the path, or +even after crossing it in a final bound. The precipices from which they +had detached themselves are composed of strangely-twisted strata, and +frequently recurring streaks of lurid red give them a fierce and ghastly +aspect. Landslips and torrents of stones are so frequent of late years +that no more attempts are made to clear away the rubbish thus deposited. +Where these scourges have not fallen the sullen stream has carried +devastation. Floods occur every year. That of 1856 wrought a ruin from +which the villages have never rallied. In the whole upper half of the +valley of Fressiniere there is not, I suppose, an acre of land capable +of cultivation. In the time of Neff, wretched as its condition must +always have been, the poverty of this region was not so utterly hopeless +as it has since become. The failure of all resources is literally +driving away its inhabitants. Those who remain, as in such cases a +certain proportion cannot help doing, sometimes in bad years pass +three, six, and even nine, months without bread. Their small stock of +potatoes is often exhausted long before it can be replenished. "I am at +a loss," said the pastor, "when we are no longer able to give them aid, +to know how they live. The only semblance of food left to them is soup, +for which, perhaps, they haven't even salt, much less meat or +vegetables. Turbid water--_de l'eau trouble, rien de plus!_" + +The valley terminates abruptly at what seems an impassable wall of rock. +Upon nearer approach a zigzag path up its face is discovered. Not far +from the top the narrow way creeps by a ledge which barely affords +foothold across a thread of sparkling foam slipping down a perpendicular +precipice. In winter this passage is sheeted in dangerously unstable +ice, and makes Dourmillouse inaccessible for weeks. Neff gives a +spirited account in his journal of leading out a party of young peasants +by torchlight, armed with axes, to cut a path here on the evening before +some service in which he wished the people of the upper and lower +valleys to unite. Dourmillouse lies on a slope above this difficult +ascent. It is a mere group of rude chalets, like the other villages, but +it has a less miserable air. The land-slides are mostly confined to the +lower valley, and here the scanty Alpine pastures and steep patches of +rye are out of reach of the floods. The people are seldom reduced to +actual want of food, and are esteemed prosperous by their more destitute +neighbors below. + +Our first visit was to the old priory in which Neff held his winter +schools. A row of half a dozen trees planted by him in front of the +house now shuts off a good deal of much-needed sunshine, but is +nevertheless carefully cherished as a memorial. Beside the priory stands +the _temple_, once a Roman Catholic church, in which, before the +Revolution, a priest is said to have ministered for twenty-five years +without making a single convert, his own servant constituting his flock. +Presently we went to rest and eat the lunch Pastor Charpiot had brought, +at the house of the local _ancien_, or elder. His wife, a sturdy, +smiling young woman, gave us an eager welcome. Two round-cheeked boys +frisked about their old friend the pastor, and a baby--its spirits quite +unclouded by its austere surroundings--crowed lustily from the cradle in +which, after the fashion of the country, it was tightly strapped. It was +a low, grimy room, with one square bit of a window, and far from clean. +Dr. Gilly, the prim English biographer of Neff, quaintly says: +"Cleanliness is not a virtue which distinguishes any of the people in +these mountains; and, with such a nice sense of moral perception as they +display, and with such strict attention to the duties of religion, it is +astonishing that they have not yet learnt those ablutions in their +persons or habitations which are as necessary to comfort as to health." +I suspect, however, that the nicest "sense of moral perception" in the +world would excuse the omission of a good many "ablutions" in a place +where all the water that is used has to be carried more than a quarter +of a mile up a steep and rough mountain-path from the nearest stream. +And there was one refinement in the rude chalet not always present in +regions far less removed from the centres of civilization: besides the +cloth--so coarse as to be a curiosity--which the woman laid for us over +an end of the unscoured table, she put at each of our places, as a +matter of course, a fresh napkin of the same rude stuff. + +I could not sufficiently admire the brave cheerfulness of these simple +folk. Many of the villagers were busy gathering their little stock of +potatoes, and all had something bright to say about their good fortune +in getting them so well grown and safely stored before the frosts. It +was the last week in September, and they thought the winter already +close at hand. There was, too, in spite of a shrinking from strangers +painfully suggestive of tendencies inherited from generations of +persecuted ancestors, a degree of intelligence and self-respect often +wanting among peasants far more favorably circumstanced. And it seemed +to me worthy of remark that in all our walk--notwithstanding the +valley's unexampled poverty--we did not encounter a single beggar. +Before we left Dourmillouse the "elder" appeared, a stalwart young +mountaineer with his gun slung across his shoulder. He had finished his +morning's work in some distant field, and was off for a chamois-hunt +among the rocks and glaciers. As a relic of our visit he gave us a block +of rye bread twenty-two months old, which he chopped off the loaf with a +hatchet. + +We had frequent evidence in the course of our excursion that Pastor +Charpiot is a real shepherd to his needy flock. Indeed, he gave to the +walk an intimate and peculiar interest quite apart from its historical +associations. Here he bade us go slowly on while he looked in upon a +sick man, explaining that he had to be doctor as well as minister. Again +he asked us to stop and share with him some of the grapes which a stout +young peasant-woman was bringing on her donkey from the Durance +vineyards, and which had no sweetness save in the good-will that offered +them. For all whom we met he had a cheery greeting or an affectionate +inquiry that showed familiar acquaintance with their concerns; and +occasionally a word or two suggested a truth or hope, aptly illustrated +in some passing incident, no matter how trifling or homely. + +A storm was gathering in the mountains as we made our way back to +Pallons through the deepening shadows of the autumn afternoon. Before we +emerged from the desolate valley its gloom had grown almost intolerable; +and yet this was but a suggestion of the winter horrors which the +white-haired pastor at our side had faced for years in his regular +ministrations at the different hamlets we had visited. Speaking of the +five pastors now distributed over the field of which Neff assumed the +whole charge, he said with a modesty that was quite unaffected, "All +five together, we are not worth him alone" (_nous ne le valons pas_). +What we had seen that day convinced us that so far at least as concerned +himself his deprecation was unfounded, but in expressing it he echoed +the tone that seemed universal in the High Alps in reference to the +illustrious young pastor. Neff could not, of course, in his short career +accomplish the permanent revolution which he dreamed of and longed for. +At the same time, it cannot be said that his work has perished while not +only pastors but people feel so strongly the inspiration of that heroic +life. + +JAMES M. BRUCE. + + + + +BLOOMING. + + A little seed lay underneath the ground, + While from the south a mild wind-current blew, + And from the tropics to the northward flew + Long, angular lines of wild-fowl with a sound + Of silken wings. About that time the sun + Put forth a shining finger, and did stir + The sleeping soil to effort; whereupon + The seed made roots like webs of gossamer, + Shot up a stem, and flourished leaf and flower. + Now look, O sweet! see what your eyes have done + With just one ray of their mysterious power + Upon the germ of my heart's passion thrown! + Through all my frame steal roots of pure desire: + My dreams are blooms that shake and shine like fire. + +MAURICE THOMPSON + + + + +FELIPA. + + +Christine and I found her there. She was a small, dark-skinned, +yellow-eyed child, the offspring of the ocean and the heats, tawny, +lithe and wild, shy yet fearless--not unlike one of the little brown +deer that bounded through the open reaches of the pine barren behind the +house. She did not come to us--we came to her: we loomed into her life +like genii from another world, and she was partly afraid and partly +proud of us. For were we not her guests?--proud thought!--and, better +still, were we not women? "I have only seen three women in all my life," +said Felipa, inspecting us gravely, "and I like women. I am a woman too, +although these clothes of the son of Pedro make me appear as a boy: I +wear them on account of the boat and the hauling in of the fish. The son +of Pedro being dead at a convenient age, and his clothes fitting me, +what would you have? It was manifestly a chance not to be despised. But +when I am grown I shall wear robes long and beautiful like the +senora's." The little creature was dressed in a boy's suit of dark-blue +linen, much the worse for wear, and torn. + +"If you are a girl, why do you not mend your clothes?" I said. + +"Do you mend, senora?" + +"Certainly: all women sew and mend." + +"The other lady?" + +Christine laughed as she lay at ease upon the brown carpet of pine +needles, warm and aromatic after the tropic day's sunshine. "The child +has divined me already, Catherine," she said. + +Christine was a tall, lissome maid, with an unusually long stretch of +arm, long sloping shoulders and a long fair throat: her straight hair +fell to her knees when unbound, and its clear flaxen hue had not one +shade of gold, as her clear gray eyes had not one shade of blue. Her +small, straight, rose-leaf lips parted over small, dazzlingly white +teeth, and the outline of her face in profile reminded you of an etching +in its distinctness, although it was by no means perfect according to +the rules of art. Still, what a comfort it was, after the blurred +outlines and smudged profiles many of us possess--seen to best +advantage, I think, in church on Sundays, crowned with flower-decked +bonnets, listening calmly serene to favorite ministers, unconscious of +noses! When Christine had finished her laugh--and she never hurried +anything, but took the full taste of it--she stretched out her arm +carelessly and patted Felipa's curly head. The child caught the +descending hand and kissed the long white fingers. + +It was a wild place where we were, yet not new or crude--the coast of +Florida, that old-new land, with its deserted plantations, its skies of +Paradise, and its broad wastes open to the changeless sunshine. The old +house stood on the edge of the dry land, where the pine barren ended and +the salt marsh began: in front curved the tide-water river that seemed +ever trying to come up close to the barren and make its acquaintance, +but could not quite succeed, since it must always turn and flee at a +fixed hour, like Cinderella at the ball, leaving not a silver slipper, +but purple driftwood and bright sea-weeds, brought in from the Gulf +Stream outside. A planked platform ran out into the marsh from the edge +of the barren, and at its end the boats were moored; for although at +high tide the river was at our feet, at low tide it was far away out in +the green waste somewhere, and if we wanted it we must go and seek it. +We did not want it, however: we let it glide up to us twice a day with +its fresh salt odors and flotsam of the ocean, and the rest of the time +we wandered over the barrens or lay under the trees looking up into the +wonderful blue above, listening to the winds as they rushed across from +sea to sea. I was an artist, poor and painstaking: Christine was my kind +friend. She had brought me South because my cough was troublesome, and +here because Edward Bowne recommended the place. He and three +fellow-sportsmen were down at the Madre Lagoon, farther south; I thought +it probable we should see him, without his three fellow-sportsmen, +before very long. + +"Who were the three women you have seen, Felipa?" said Christine. + +"The grandmother, an Indian woman of the Seminoles who comes sometimes +with baskets, and the wife of Miguel of the island. But they are all +old, and their skins are curled: I like better the silver skin of the +senora." + +Poor little Felipa lived on the edge of the great salt marsh alone with +her grand-parents, for her mother was dead. The yellow old couple were +slow-witted Minorcans, part pagan, part Catholic, and wholly ignorant: +their minds rarely rose above the level of their orange trees and their +fish-nets. Felipa's father was a Spanish sailor, and as he had died only +the year before, the child's Spanish was fairly correct, and we could +converse with her readily, although we were slow to comprehend the +patois of the old people, which seemed to borrow as much from the +Italian tongue and the Greek as from its mother Spanish. "I know a great +deal," Felipa remarked confidently, "for my father taught me. He had +sailed on the ocean out of sight of land, and he knew many things. These +he taught to me. Do the gracious ladies think there is anything else to +know?" + +One of the gracious ladies thought not, decidedly: in answer to my +remonstrance, expressed in English, she said, "Teach a child like that, +and you ruin her." + +"Ruin her?" + +"Ruin her happiness--the same thing." + +Felipa had a dog, a second self--a great gaunt yellow creature of +unknown breed, with crooked legs, big feet and the name Drollo. What +Drollo meant, or whether it was an abbreviation, we never knew, but +there was a certain satisfaction in it, for the dog was droll: the fact +that the Minorcan title, whatever it was, meant nothing of that kind, +made it all the better. We never saw Felipa without Drollo. "They look +a good deal alike," observed Christine--"the same coloring." + +"For shame!" I said. + +But it was true. The child's bronzed yellow skin and soft eyes were not +unlike the dog's, but her head was crowned with a mass of short black +curls, while Drollo had only his two great flapping ears and his low +smooth head. Give him an inch or two more of skull, and what a creature +a dog would be! For love and faithfulness even now what man can match +him? But, although ugly, Felipa was a picturesque little object always, +whether attired in boy's clothes or in her own forlorn bodice and skirt. +Olive-hued and meagre-faced, lithe and thin, she flew over the pine +barrens like a creature of air, laughing to feel her short curls toss +and her thin childish arms buoyed up on the breeze as she ran, with +Drollo barking behind. For she loved the winds, and always knew when +they were coming--whether down from the north, in from the ocean, or +across from the Gulf of Mexico: she watched for them, sitting in the +doorway, where she could feel their first breath, and she taught us the +signal of the clouds. She was a queer little thing: we used to find her +sometimes dancing alone out on the barren in a circle she had marked out +with pine-cones, and once she confided to us that she talked to the +trees. "They hear," she said in a whisper: "you should see how knowing +they look, and how their leaves listen." + +Once we came upon her most secret lair in a dense thicket of +thorn-myrtle and wild smilax, a little bower she had made, where was +hidden a horrible-looking image formed of the rough pieces of +saw-palmetto grubbed up by old Bartolo from his garden. She must have +dragged these fragments thither one by one, and with infinite pains +bound them together with her rude withes of strong marsh-grass, until at +last she had formed a rough trunk with crooked arms and a sort of a +head, the red hairy surface of the palmetto looking not unlike the skin +of some beast, and making the creature all the more grotesque. This +fetich was kept crowned with flowers, and after this we often saw the +child stealing away with Drollo to carry to it portions of her meals or +a new-found treasure--a sea-shell, a broken saucer, or a fragment of +ribbon. The food always mysteriously disappeared, and my suspicion is +that Drollo used to go back secretly in the night and devour it, asking +no questions and telling no lies: it fitted in nicely, however, Drollo +merely performing the ancient part of the priests of Jupiter, men who +have been much admired. "What a little pagan she is!" I said. + +"Oh no, it is only her doll," replied Christine. + +I tried several times to paint Felipa during these first weeks, but +those eyes of hers always evaded me. They were, as I have said before, +yellow--that is, they were brown with yellow lights--and they stared at +you with the most inflexible openness. The child had the full-curved, +half-open mouth of the tropics, and a low Greek forehead. "Why isn't she +pretty?" I said. + +"She is hideous," replied Christine: "look at her elbows." + +Now, Felipa's arms _were_ unpleasant; they were brown and lean, +scratched and stained, and they terminated in a pair of determined +little paws that could hold on like grim Death. I shall never forget +coming upon a tableau one day out on the barren--a little Florida cow +and Felipa, she holding on by the horns, and the beast with its small +fore feet stubbornly set in the sand; girl pulling one way, cow the +other; both silent and determined. It was a hard contest, but the girl +won. + +"And if you pass over her elbows, there are her feet," continued +Christine languidly. For she was a sybaritic lover of the fine linens of +life, that friend of mine--a pre-Raphaelite lady with clinging draperies +and a mediaeval clasp on her belt. Her whole being rebelled against +ugliness, and the mere sight of a sharp-nosed, light-eyed woman on a +cold day made her uncomfortable for hours. + +"Have we not feet, too?" I replied sharply. + +But I knew what she meant. Bare feet are not pleasant to the eye +now-a-days, whatever they may have been in the days of the ancient +Greeks; and Felipa's little brown insteps were half the time torn or +bruised by the thorns of the chapparal. Besides, there was always the +disagreeable idea that she might step upon something cold and squirming +when she prowled through the thickets knee-deep in the matted grasses. +Snakes abounded, although we never saw them; but Felipa went up to their +very doors, as it were, and rang the bell defiantly. + +One day old Grandfather Bartolo took the child with him down to the +coast: she was always wild to go to the beach, where she could gather +shells and sea-beans, and chase the little ocean-birds that ran along +close to the waves with that swift gliding motion of theirs, and where +she could listen to the roar of the breakers. We were several miles up +the river, and to go down to the ocean was quite a voyage to Felipa. She +bade us good-bye joyously; then ran back to hug Christine a second time, +then to the boat again; then back. + +"I thought you wanted to go, child?" I said, a little impatiently, for I +was reading aloud, and these small irruptions were disturbing. + +"Yes," said Felipa, "I want to go; and still--Perhaps if the gracious +senora would kiss me again--" + +Christine only patted her cheek and told her to run away: she obeyed, +but there was a wistful look in her eyes, and even after the boat had +started her face, watching us from the stern, haunted me. + +"Now that the little monkey has gone, I may be able at last to catch and +fix a likeness of her," I said: "in this case a recollection is better +than the changing quicksilver reality." + +"You take it as a study of ugliness, I suppose?" + +"Do not be so hard upon the child, Christine." + +"Hard? Why, she adores me," said my friend, going off to her hammock +under the tree. + +Several days passed, and the boat returned not. I accomplished a fine +amount of work, and Christine a fine amount of swinging in the hammock +and dreaming. At length one afternoon I gave my final touch, and carried +my sketch over to the pre-Raphaelite lady for criticism. "What do you +see?" I said. + +"I see a wild-looking child with yellow eyes, a mat of curly black hair, +a lank little bodice, her two thin brown arms embracing a gaunt old dog +with crooked legs, big feet and turned-in toes." + +"Is that all?" + +"All." + +"You do not see latent beauty, proud courage, and a possible great gulf +of love in that poor wild little face?" + +"Nothing of the kind," replied Christine decidedly. "I see an ugly +little girl: that is all." + +The next day the boat returned, and brought back five persons--the old +grandfather, Felipa, Drollo, Miguel of the island and--Edward Bowne. + +"Already?" I said. + +"Tired of the Madre, Kitty: thought I would come up here and see you for +a while. I knew you must be pining for me." + +"Certainly," I replied: "do you not see how I have wasted away?" + +He drew my arm through his and raced me down the plank-walk toward the +shore, where I arrived laughing and out of breath. + +"Where is Christine?" he asked. + +I came back into the traces at once: "Over there in the hammock. You +wish to go to the house first, I suppose?" + +"Of course not." + +"But she did not come to meet you, Edward, although she knew you had +landed." + +"Of course not, also." + +"I do not understand you two." + +"And of course not, a third time," said Edward, looking down at me with +a smile. "What do quiet, peaceful little artists know about war?" + +"Is it war?" + +"Something very like it, Kitty. What is that you are carrying?" + +"Oh! my new sketch. What do you think of it?" + +"Good, very good. Some little girl about here, I suppose?" + +"Why, it is Felipa!" + +"And who is Felipa? Seems to me I have seen that old dog, though." + +"Of course you have: he was in the boat with you, and so was Felipa, but +she was dressed in boy's clothes, and that gives her a different look." + +"Oh! that boy? I remember him. His name is Philip. He is a funny little +fellow," said Edward calmly. + +"Her name is Felipa, and she is not a boy or a funny little fellow at +all," I replied. + +"Isn't she? I thought she was both," replied Ned carelessly, and then he +went off toward the hammock. I turned away after noting Christine's cool +greeting, and went back to the boat. + +Felipa came bounding to meet me. "What is his name?" she demanded. + +"Bowne." + +"Buon--Buona: I cannot say it." + +"Bowne, child--Edward Bowne." + +"Oh! Eduardo: I know that. Eduardo--Eduardo--a name of honey." + +She flew off singing the name, followed by Drollo carrying his +mistress's palmetto basket in his big patient mouth; but when I passed +the house a few moments afterward she was singing, or rather talking +volubly of, another name--"Miguel," and "the wife of Miguel," who were +apparently important personages on the canvas of her life. As it +happened, I never really saw that wife of Miguel, who seemingly had no +name of her own; but I imagined her. She lived on a sandbar in the ocean +not far from the mouth of our river; she drove pelicans like ducks with +a long switch, and she had a tame eagle; she had an old horse also, who +dragged the driftwood across the sand on a sledge, and this old horse +seemed like a giant horse always, outlined as he ever was against the +flat bar and the sky. She went out at dawn, and she went out at sunset, +but during the middle of the burning day she sat at home and polished +sea-beans, for which she obtained untold sums: she was very tall, she +was very yellow, and she had but one eye. These items, one by one, had +been dropped by Felipa at various times, and it was with curiosity that +I gazed upon the original Miguel, the possessor of this remarkable +spouse. He was a grave-eyed, yellow man, who said little and thought +less, applying _cui bono?_ to mental much as the city man applies it to +bodily exertion, and therefore achieving, I think, a finer degree of +inanition. The tame eagle, the pelicans, were nothing to him, and when I +saw his lethargic, gentle countenance my own curiosity about them seemed +to die away in haze, as though I had breathed in an invisible opiate. He +came, he went, and that was all: exit Miguel. + +Felipa was constantly with us now. She and Drollo followed the three of +us wherever we went--followed the two also whenever I stayed behind to +sketch, as I often stayed, for in those days I was trying to catch the +secret of the barrens: a hopeless effort, I know it now. "Stay with me, +Felipa," I said; for it was natural to suppose that the lovers might +like to be alone. (I call them lovers for want of a better name, but +they were more like haters: however, in such cases it is nearly the same +thing.) And then Christine, hearing this, would immediately call +"Felipa!" and the child would dart after them, happy as a bird. She wore +her boy's suit now all the time, because the senora had said she "looked +well in it." What the senora really said was, that in boy's clothes she +looked less like a grasshopper. But this had been translated as above by +Edward Bowne when Felipa suddenly descended upon him one day and +demanded to be instantly told what the gracious lady was saying about +her; for she seemed to know by intuition when we spoke of her, although +we talked in English and mentioned no names. When told, her small face +beamed, and she kissed Christine's hand joyfully and bounded away. +Christine took out her beautiful handkerchief and wiped the spot. + +"Christine," I said, "do you remember the fate of the proud girl who +walked upon bread?" + +"You think that I may starve for kisses some time?" said my friend, +going on with the wiping. + +"Not while I am alive," called out Edward from behind. His style of +courtship _was_ of the sledge-hammer sort sometimes. But he did not get +much for it on that day; only lofty tolerance, which seemed to amuse him +greatly. + +Edward played with Felipa very much as if she was a rubber toy or a +trapeze performer. He held her out at arm's length in mid-air, he poised +her on his shoulder, he tossed her up into the low myrtle trees, and +dangled her by her little belt over the claret-colored pools on the +barren; but he could not frighten her: she only laughed and grew wilder +and wilder, like a squirrel. "She has muscles and nerves of steel," he +said admiringly. + +"Do put her down: she is too excitable for such games," I said in +French, for Felipa seemed to divine our English now. "See the color she +has." + +For there was a trail of dark red over the child's thin oval cheeks +which made her look strangely unlike herself. As she caught our eyes +fixed upon her she suddenly stopped her climbing and came and sat at +Christine's feet. "Some day I shall wear robes like the senora's," she +said, passing her hand over the soft fabric; "and I think," she added +after some slow consideration, "that my face will be like the senora's +too." + +Edward burst out laughing. The little creature stopped abruptly and +scanned his face. + +"Do not tease her," I said. + +Quick as a flash she veered around upon me. "He does not tease me," she +said angrily in Spanish; "and, besides, what if he does? I like it." She +looked at me with gleaming eyes and stamped her foot. + +"What a little tempest!" said Christine. + +Then Edward, man-like, began to explain. "You could not look much like +this lady, Felipa," he said, "because you are so dark, you know." + +"Am I dark?" + +"Very dark; but many people are dark, of course; and for my part I +always liked dark eyes," said this mendacious person. + +"Do you like my eyes?" asked Felipa anxiously. + +"Indeed I do: they are like the eyes of a dear little calf I once owned +when I was a boy." + +The child was satisfied, and went back to her place beside Christine. +"Yes, I shall wear robes like this," she said dreamily, drawing the +flowing drapery over her knees clad in the little linen trousers, and +scanning the effect: "they would trail behind me--so." Her bare feet +peeped out below the hem, and again we all laughed, the little brown +toes looked so comical coming out from the silk and the snowy +embroideries. She came down to reality at once, looked at us, looked at +herself, and for the first time seemed to comprehend the difference. +Then suddenly she threw herself down on the ground like a little animal, +and buried her head in her arms. She would not speak, she would not look +up: she only relaxed one arm a little to take in Drollo, and then lay +motionless. Drollo looked at us out of one eye solemnly from his +uncomfortable position, as much as to say, "No use: leave her to me." So +after a while we went away and left them there. + +That evening I heard a low knock at my door. "Come in," I said, and +Felipa entered. I hardly knew her. She was dressed in a flowered muslin +gown which had probably belonged to her mother, and she wore her +grandmother's stockings and large baggy slippers: on her mat of curly +hair was perched a high-crowned, stiff white cap adorned with a ribbon +streamer, and her lank little neck, coming out of the big gown, was +decked with a chain of large sea-beans, like exaggerated lockets. She +carried a Cuban fan in her hand which was as large as a parasol, and +Drollo, walking behind, fairly clanked with the chain of sea-shells +which she had wound around him from head to tail. The droll tableau and +the supreme pride on Felipa's countenance overcame me, and I laughed +aloud. A sudden cloud of rage and disappointment came over the poor +child's face: she threw her cap on the floor and stamped on it; she tore +off her necklace and writhed herself out of her big flowered gown, and +running to Drollo, nearly strangled him in her fierce efforts to drag +off his shell chains. Then, a half-dressed, wild little phantom, she +seized me by the skirts and dragged me toward the looking-glass. "You +are not pretty either," she cried. "Look at yourself! look at yourself!" + +"I did not mean to laugh at you, Felipa," I said gently: "I would not +laugh at any one; and it is true I am not pretty, as you say. I can +never be pretty, child; but if you will try to be more gentle, I could +teach you how to dress yourself so that no one would laugh at you again. +I could make you a little bright-barred skirt and a scarlet bodice: you +could help, and that would teach you to sew. But a little girl who wants +all this done for her must be quiet and good." + +"I am good," said Felipa--"as good as everything." + +The tears still stood in her eyes, but her anger was forgotten: she +improvised a sort of dance around my room, followed by Drollo dragging +his twisted chain, stepping on it with his big feet, and finally winding +himself up into a knot around the chair-legs. + +"Couldn't we make Drollo something too? dear old Drollo!" said Felipa, +going to him and squeezing him in an enthusiastic embrace. I used to +wonder how his poor ribs stood it: Felipa used him as a safety-valve for +her impetuous feelings. + +She kissed me good-night and then asked for "the other lady." + +"Go to bed, child," I said: "I will give her your good-night." + +"But I want to kiss her too," said Felipa. + +She lingered at the door and would not go; she played with the latch, +and made me nervous with its clicking; at last I ordered her out. But on +opening my door half an hour afterward there she was sitting on the +floor outside in the darkness, she and Drollo, patiently waiting. +Annoyed, but unable to reprove her, I wrapped the child in my shawl and +carried her out into the moonlight, where Christine and Edward were +strolling to and fro under the pines. "She will not go to bed, +Christine, without kissing you," I explained. + +"Funny little monkey!" said my lily friend, passively allowing the +embrace. + +"Me too," said Edward, bending down. Then I carried my bundle back +satisfied. + +The next day Felipa and I in secret began our labors: hers consisted in +worrying me out of my life and spoiling material--mine in keeping my +temper and trying to sew. The result, however, was satisfactory, never +mind how we got there. I led Christine out one afternoon: Edward +followed. "Do you like tableaux?" I said. "There is one I have arranged +for you." + +Felipa sat on the edge of the low, square-curbed Spanish well, and +Drollo stood behind her, his great yellow body and solemn head serving +as a background. She wore a brown petticoat barred with bright colors, +and a little scarlet bodice fitting her slender waist closely; a +chemisette of soft cream-color with loose sleeves covered her neck and +arms, and set off the dark hues of her cheeks and eyes; and around her +curly hair a red scarf was twisted, its fringed edges forming a drapery +at the back of the head, which, more than anything else, seemed to bring +out the latent character of her face. Brown moccasins, red stockings and +a quantity of bright beads completed her costume. + +"By Jove!" cried Edward, "the little thing is almost pretty." + +Felipa understood this, and a great light came into her face: forgetting +her pose, she bounded forward to Christine's side. "I am pretty, then?" +she said with exultation: "I _am_ pretty, then, after all? For now you +yourself have said it--have said it." + +"No, Felipa," I interposed, "the gentleman said it." For the child had a +curious habit of confounding the two identities which puzzled me then as +now. But this afternoon, this happy afternoon, she was content, for she +was allowed to sit at Christine's feet and look up into her fair face +unmolested. I was forgotten, as usual. + +"It is always so," I said to myself. But cynicism, as Mr. Aldrich says, +is a small brass field-piece that eventually bursts and kills the +artilleryman. I knew this, having been blown up myself more than once; +so I went back to my painting and forgot the world. Our world down there +on the edge of the salt marsh, however, was a small one: when two +persons went out of it there was a vacuum at once. + +One morning Felipa came sadly to my side. "They have gone away,'" she +said. + +"Yes, child." + +"Down to the beach to spend all the day." + +"Yes, I know it." + +"And without me!" + +This was the climax. I looked up. The child's eyes were dry, but there +was a hollow look of disappointment in her face that made her seem old: +it was as though for an instant you caught what her old-woman face would +be half a century on. + +"Why did they not take me?" she said. "I am pretty now: she herself said +it." + +"They cannot always take you, Felipa," I replied, giving up the point as +to who had said it. + +"Why not? I am pretty now: she herself said it," persisted the child. +"In these clothes, you know: she herself said it. The clothes of the son +of Pedro you will never see more: they are burned." + +"Burned?" + +"Yes, burned," replied Felipa composedly. "I carried them out on the +barren and burned them. Drollo singed his paw. They burned quite nicely. +But they are gone, and I am pretty now, and yet they did not take me! +What shall I do?" + +"Take these colors and make me a picture," I suggested. Generally, this +was a prized privilege, but to-day it did not attract: she turned away, +and a few moments after I saw her going down to the end of the plank +walk, where she stood gazing wistfully toward the ocean. There she +stayed all day, going into camp with Drollo, and refusing to come to +dinner in spite of old Dominga's calls and beckonings. At last the +patient old grandmother went down herself to the end of the long plank +walk where they were with some bread and venison on a plate. Felipa ate +but little, but Drollo, after waiting politely until she had finished, +devoured everything that was left in his calmly hungry way, and then sat +back on his haunches with one paw on the plate, as though for the sake +of memory. Drollo's hunger was of the chronic kind: it seemed impossible +either to assuage it or to fill him. There was a gaunt leanness about +him which I am satisfied no amount of food could ever fatten. I think he +knew it too, and that accounted for his resignation. At length, just +before sunset, the boat returned, floating up the river with the tide, +old Bartolo steering and managing the brown sails. Felipa sprang up +joyfully: I thought she would spring into the boat in her eagerness. +What did she receive for her long vigil? A short word or two: that was +all. Christine and Edward had quarreled. + +How do lovers quarrel ordinarily? But I should not ask that, for these +were no ordinary lovers: they were decidedly extraordinary. + +"You should not submit to her caprices so readily," I said the next day +while strolling on the barren with Edward. (He was not so much cast +down, however, as he might have been.) + +"I adore the very ground her foot touches, Kitty." + +"I know it. But how will it end?" + +"I will tell you: some of these days I shall win her, and then--she will +adore me." + +Here Felipa came running after us, and Edward immediately challenged her +to a race: a game of romps began. If Christine had been looking from her +window, she might have thought he was not especially disconsolate over +her absence; but she was not looking. She was never looking out of +anything or for anybody. She was always serenely content where she was. +Edward and Felipa strayed off among the pine trees, and gradually I lost +sight of them. But as I sat sketching an hour afterward Edward came into +view, carrying the child in his arms. I hurried to meet them. + +"I shall never forgive myself," he said: "the little thing has fallen +and injured her foot badly, I fear." + +"I do not care at all," said Felipa: "I like to have it hurt. It is _my_ +foot, isn't it?" + +These remarks she threw at me defiantly, as though I had laid claim to +the member in question. I could not help laughing. + +"The other lady will not laugh," said the child proudly. And in truth +Christine, most unexpectedly, took up the role of nurse. She carried +Felipa to her own room--for we each had a little cell opening out of the +main apartment--and as white-robed Charity she shone with new radiance. +"Shone" is the proper word, for through the open door of the dim cell, +with the dark little face of Felipa on her shoulder, her white robe and +skin seemed fairly to shine, as white lilies shine on a dark night. The +old grandmother left the child in our care and watched our proceedings +wistfully, very much as a dog watches the human hands that extract the +thorn from the swollen foot of her puppy. She was grateful and asked no +questions; in fact, thought was not one of her mental processes. She did +not think much: she only felt. As for Felipa, the child lived in rapture +during those days in spite of her suffering. She scarcely slept at +all--she was too happy: I heard her voice rippling on through the night, +and Christine's low replies. She adored her beautiful nurse. + +The fourth day came: Edward Bowne walked into the cell. "Go out and +breathe the fresh air for an hour or two," he said in the tone more of a +command than a request. + +"But the child will never consent," replied Christine sweetly. + +"Oh yes, she will: I will stay with her," said the young man, lifting +the feverish little head on his arm and passing his hand softly over the +bright eyes. + +"Felipa, do you not want me?" said Christine, bending down. + +"He stays: it is all the same," murmured the child. + +"So it is. Go, Christine," said Edward with a little smile of triumph. + +Without a word Christine left the cell. But she did not go to walk: she +came to my room, and throwing herself on my bed fell in a moment into a +deep sleep, the reaction after her three nights of wakefulness. When she +awoke it was long after dark, and I had relieved Edward in his watch. + +"You will have to give it up," he said as our lily came forth at last +with sleep-flushed cheeks and starry eyes shielded from the light. "The +spell is broken: we have all been taking care of Felipa, and she likes +one as well as the other." + +Which was not true, in my case at least, since Felipa had openly derided +my small strength when I lifted her, and beat off the sponge with which +I attempted to bathe her hot face. "They" used no sponges, she said, +only their nice cool hands; and she wished "they" would come and take +care of her again. But Christine had resigned in toto. If Felipa did not +prefer her to all others, then Felipa could not have her: she was not a +common nurse. And indeed she was not. Her fair beauty, ideal grace, +cooing voice and the strength of her long arms and flexible hands were +like magic to the sick, and--distraction to the well; the well in this +case being Edward Bowne looking in at the door. + +"You love them very much, do you not, Felipa?" I said one day when the +child was sitting up for the first time in a cushioned chair. + +"Ah, yes: it is so delicious when they carry me," she replied. But it +was Edward who carried her. + +"He is very strong," I said. + +"Yes, and their long soft hair, with the smell of roses in it too," said +Felipa dreamily. But the hair was Christine's. + +"I shall love them for ever, and they will love me for ever," continued +the child. "Drollo too." She patted the dog's head as she spoke, and +then concluded to kiss him on his little inch of forehead: next she +offered him all her medicines and lotions in turn, and he smelled at +them grimly. "He likes to know what I am taking," she explained. + +I went on: "You love them, Felipa, and they are fond of you. They will +always remember you, no doubt." + +"Remember!" cried Felipa, starting up from her cushions like a +Jack-in-the-box. "They are not going away? Never! never!" + +"But of course they must go some time, for--" + +But Felipa was gone. Before I could divine her intent she had flung +herself out of her chair down on to the floor, and was crawling on her +hands and knees toward the outer room. I ran after her, but she reached +the door before me, and, dragging her bandaged foot behind her, drew +herself, toward Christine. "You are _not_ going away! You are not! you +are not!" she sobbed, clinging to her skirts. + +Christine was reading tranquilly: Edward stood at the outer door mending +his fishing-tackle. The coolness between them remained unwarmed by so +much as a breath. "Run away, child: you disturb me," said Christine, +turning over a leaf. She did not even look at the pathetic little bundle +at her feet. Pathetic little bundles must be taught some time what +ingratitude deserves. + +"How can she run, lame as she is?" said Edward from the doorway. + +"You are not going away, are you? Tell me you are not," sobbed Felipa in +a passion of tears, beating on the floor with one hand, and with the +other clinging to Christine. + +"I am not going," said Edward. "Do not sob so, you poor little thing!" + +She crawled to him, and he took her up in his arms and soothed her into +stillness again: then he carried her out on to the barren for a breath +of fresh air. + +"It is a most extraordinary thing how that child confounds you two," I +said. "It is a case of color-blindness, as it were--supposing you two +were colors." + +"Which we are not," replied Christine carelessly. "Do not stray off into +mysticism, Catherine." + +"It is not mysticism: it is a study of character--" + +"Where there is no character," replied my friend. + +I gave it up, but I said to myself, "Fate, in the next world make me +one of those long, lithe, light-haired women, will you? I want to see +how it feels." + +Felipa's foot was well again, and spring had come. Soon we must leave +our lodge on the edge of the pine barren, our outlook over the salt +marsh, our river sweeping up twice a day, bringing in the briny odors of +the ocean: soon we should see no more the eagles far above us or hear +the night-cry of the great owls, and we must go without the little fairy +flowers of the barren, so small that a hundred of them scarcely made a +tangible bouquet, yet what beauty! what sweetness! In my portfolio were +sketches and studies of the barrens, and in my heart were hopes. +Somebody says somewhere, "Hope is more than a blessing: it is a duty and +a virtue." But I fail to appreciate preserved hope--hope put up in cans +and served out in seasons of depression. I like it fresh from the tree. +And so when I hope it _is_ hope, and not that well-dried, monotonous +cheerfulness which makes one long to throw the persistent smilers out of +the window. Felipa danced no more on the barrens; her illness had toned +her excitable nature; she seemed content to sit at our feet while we +talked, looking up dreamily into our faces, but no longer eagerly +endeavoring to comprehend. We were there: that was enough. + +"She is growing like a reed," I said: "her illness has left her weak." + +"-Minded," suggested Christine, smiling. + +At this moment Felipa stroked the lady's white hand tenderly and laid +her brown cheek against it. + +"Do you not feel reproached," I said. + +"Why? Must we give our love to whoever loves us? A fine parcel of +paupers we should all be, wasting our inheritance in pitiful small +change! Shall I give a thousand beggars a half hour's happiness, or +shall I make one soul rich his whole life long?" + +"The latter," remarked Edward, who had come up unobserved. + +They gazed at each other unflinchingly. They had come to open battle +during those last days, and I knew that the end was near. Their words +had been cold as ice, cutting as steel, and I said to myself, "At any +moment." There would be a deadly struggle, and then Christine would +yield. Even I comprehended something of what that yielding would be. +There are beautiful velvety panthers in the Asian forests, and in real +life too, sometimes. + +"Why do they hate each other so?" Felipa said to me sadly. + +"Do they hate each other?" + +"Yes, for I feel it here," she answered, touching her breast with a +dramatic little gesture. + +"Nonsense! Go and play with your doll, child." For I had made her a +respectable, orderly doll to take the place of the ungainly fetich out +on the barren. + +Felipa gave me a look and walked away. A moment afterward she brought +the doll out of the house before my very eyes, and, going down to the +end of the dock, deliberately threw it into the water: the tide was +flowing out, and away went my toy-woman out of sight, out to sea. + +"Well!" I said to myself. "What next?" + +I had not told Felipa we were going: I thought it best to let it take +her by surprise. I had various small articles of finery ready as +farewell gifts which should act as sponges to absorb her tears. But Fate +took the whole matter out of my hands. This is how it happened. One +evening in the jessamine arbor, in the fragrant darkness of the warm +spring night, the end came: Christine was won. She glided in like a +wraith, and I, divining at once what had happened, followed her into her +little room, where I found her lying on her bed, her hands clasped on +her breast, her eyes open and veiled in soft shadows, her white robe +drenched with dew. I kissed her fondly--I never could help loving her +then or now--and next I went out to find Edward. He had been kind to me +all my poor gray life: should I not go to him now? He was still in the +arbor, and I sat down by his side quietly: I knew that the words would +come in time. They came: what a flood! English was not enough for him. +He poured forth his love in the rich-voweled Spanish tongue also: it +has sounded doubly sweet to me ever since. + + "Have you felt the wool of the beaver? + Or swan's down ever? + Or have smelt the bud o' the brier? + Or the nard in the fire? + Or ha' tasted the bag o' the bee? + Oh so white, oh so soft, oh so sweet is she!" + +said the young lover again and again; and I, listening there in the dark +fragrant night, with the dew heavy upon me, felt glad that the old +simple-hearted love was not entirely gone from our tired metallic world. + +It was late when we returned to the house. After reaching my room I +found that I had left my cloak in the arbor. It was a strong fabric: the +dew could not hurt it, but it could hurt my sketching materials and +various trifles in the wide inside pockets--_objets de luxe_ to me, +souvenirs of happy times, little artistic properties that I hang on the +walls of my poor studio when in the city. I went softly out into the +darkness again and sought the arbor: groping on the ground I found, not +the cloak, but--Felipa! She was crouched under the foliage, face +downward: she would not move or answer. + +"What is the matter, child?" I said, but she would not speak. I tried to +draw her from her lair, but she tangled herself stubbornly still farther +among the thorny vines, and I could not move her. I touched her neck: it +was cold. Frightened, I ran back to the house for a candle. + +"Go away," she said in a low hoarse voice when I flashed the light over +her. "I know all, and I am going to die. I have eaten the poison things +in your box, and just now a snake came on my neck and I let him. He has +bitten me, I suppose, and I am glad. Go away: I am going to die." + +I looked around: there was my color-case rifled and empty, and the other +articles were scattered on the ground. "Good Heavens, child!" I cried, +"what have you eaten?" + +"Enough," replied Felipa gloomily. "I knew they were poisons: you told +me so. And I let the snake stay." + +By this time the household, aroused by my hurried exit with the candle, +came toward the arbor. The moment Edward appeared Felipa rolled herself +up like a hedgehog again and refused to speak. But the old grandmother +knelt down and drew the little crouching figure into her arms with +gentle tenderness, smoothing its hair and murmuring loving words in her +soft dialect. + +"What is it?" said Edward; but even then his eyes were devouring +Christine, who stood in the dark, vine-wreathed doorway like a picture +in a frame. I explained. + +Christine smiled softly. "Jealousy," she said in a low voice. "I am not +surprised." And of her own accord she gave back to Edward one of his +looks. + +But at the first sound of her voice Felipa had started up: she too saw +the look, and wrenching herself free from old Dominga's arms, she threw +herself at Christine's feet. "Look at _me_ so," she cried--"me too: do +not look at him. He has forgotten poor Felipa: he does not love her any +more. But _you_ do not forget, senora: _you_ love me--_you_ love me. Say +you do or I shall die!" + +We were all shocked by the pallor and the wild hungry look of her +uplifted face. Edward bent down and tried to lift her in his arms, but +when she saw him a sudden fierceness came into her eyes: they shot out +yellow light and seemed to narrow to a point of flame. Before we knew it +she had turned, seized something and plunged it into his encircling arm. +It was my little Venetian dagger. + +We sprang forward; our dresses were spotted with the fast-flowing blood; +but Edward did not relax his hold on the writhing wild little body he +held until it lay exhausted in his arms. "I am glad I did it," said the +child, looking up into his face with her inflexible eyes. "Put me +down--put me down, I say, by the gracious senora, that I may die with +the trailing of her white robe over me." And the old grandmother with +trembling hands received her and laid her down mutely at Christine's +feet. + + * * * * * + +Ah, well! Felipa did not die. The poisons wracked but did not kill her, +and the snake must have spared the little thin brown neck so +despairingly offered to him. We went away: there was nothing for us to +do but to go away as quickly as possible and leave her to her kind. To +the silent old grandfather I said, "It will pass: she is but a child." + +"She is nearly twelve, senora. Her mother was married at thirteen." + +"But she loved them both alike, Bartolo. It is nothing: she does not +know." + +"You are right, lady: she does not know," replied the old man slowly; +"but _I_ know. It was two loves, and the stronger thrust the knife." + +CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON. + + + + +AT CHICKAMAUGA. + + +It was the cream of army life in Southern Tennessee that we left to go +to Chickamauga. Our brigade had been detached, and lay for some days at +the foot of Waldron's Ridge, which runs parallel to the broad Tennessee +River, and a few miles north of Chattanooga, then the objective point of +the campaign of the Army of the Cumberland under Rosecrans. Of course we +knew that when the movements in progress in the country below were +sufficiently advanced there would probably be lively work in effecting a +passage of the river in the face of the formidable force which was +guarding the ford two or three miles in our front. In fact, for some +days we had been preparing for the effort, and up in a sluggish bayou +the best of our mechanics were industriously at work fashioning a rude +scow out of such material as axes could get from the native forests. In +this craft, if it could be made to float, a select party was to cross +the river some foggy morning, while the enemy were intently watching the +ford below, and then, while the chosen few were being gloriously shot on +the other side, the rest of us were to attempt the waist-deep, crooked +ford. + +For the time we were, however, as has been said, enjoying the cream of +army life. The nights were chilly, though the days were hot and the clay +roads dusty. The mornings were glorious with their bracing fresh air, +their blue mists clinging about far-off Lookout Mountain, and even +hiding the top of Waldron's Ridge at our backs, and their bright +sunshine, which came flooding over the distant heights of Georgia and +North Carolina. The wagon-tracks winding among the low, mound-like hills +which filled the valley from the base of the ridge to the river were as +smooth and gravelly as a well-kept private roadway, and an +ambulance-ride along their tortuous courses was a most enjoyable +recreation in those fine September days of 1863. A gallop twenty miles +up the valley to where Minty kept watch and ward upon our flank with his +trusty horsemen; a dinner at that hospitable mess-table, furnished maybe +with a pig which had strayed from its home not wholly through natural +perversity; and then a lively ride back in the early evening,--this, +indeed, was pleasure. + +The charm of campaigning is its rapidly-succeeding surprises. The +general of the army may be proceeding regularly in the path he marked +out months before. The corps commanders, and even the chiefs of +division, may sometimes be able to foresee the movements from day to +day. But to their subordinates everything is a surprise: they lie down +at night in delightful uncertainty as to where the next sunset will find +them, and they sit down to a breakfast of hard bread and bacon, relieved +by a little foraging from the country, not sure that their coffee will +cool before the bugle sounds a signal to pack and be off, to Heaven +knows where. We found this charm of surprise, as we had hundreds of +times before in other places, at our camp in the valley of the +Tennessee. The alternating quick and droning notes of "the general" made +us spring up from the mess-table one morning, and in a moment the lazy +encampment was all hurry and bustle. An aide leaped upon his horse at +head-quarters and dashed off on the road to the river, and we saw that +the servants of General Hazen, our brigade commander, were stripping his +baggage of the small impedimenta which accumulate so rapidly even in a +few days of rest, but are abandoned when the army starts on an active +campaign. It was not to be a mere change of camp, evidently, but a final +adieu to the locality and a dash over the Tennessee--if we could make +it. + +While some of us were yet sipping our hot coffee, saved out of the +general wreck in packing up, the bugles called "the assembly," and in +ten minutes the brigade was stretching out at a lively rate on the road +the aide had taken. At the river was the detail of mechanics who had +been at work on the scow in the bayou. Their task had been suddenly +abandoned. It was useless: the enemy had left the opposite bank and +fallen back from Chattanooga. The crossing was made, and the brigade +struck out into the country toward Ringgold and the Georgia line. We +belonged to Palmer's division of Crittenden's corps, but we had no idea +where our comrades were. Passing over the uninviting country, and by the +cornfields wasted by Bragg's men that we might not gather the grain, the +brigade fell in with the rest of its division near a lonely grist-mill +at a junction of cross-roads, where a battalion of Southern cavalry had +just galloped in upon an infantry regiment lying under its stacked arms +by the wayside. So the enemy was not entirely out of the country, it +appeared. Still, we saw nothing of him, save in a trifling skirmish the +next day on the road from Ringgold to Gordon's Mills. Near this place, +however, we fell in with General Thomas J. Wood, who had had a little +encounter which convinced him that Bragg's infantry was in force near +by. The gallant old soldier was in something of a passion because the +theories of his superiors did not coincide with his demonstrations, and +of course the demonstrations had to give way in that case. + +Passing Gordon's Mills, our division stretched away on the road toward +La Fayette, and after a day's march bivouacked in a wilderness of wood +and on a sluggish stream different enough from the sparkling waters +which came down by the old camp below Waldron's Ridge. McCook's corps, +they said, having crossed the Tennessee below Chattanooga and advanced +southward on the western side of the Lookout range, was to come through +a gap opposite our present position and join us. Then the army, being +together once more, and having gained Chattanooga by McCook's flank +movement, would return to that point. To get Chattanooga was the object +of the campaign, and the movements since we crossed the river were +simply to assure the safe reunion of the several corps. + +The idle days wore on until the afternoon of the 18th of September. Then +"the general" was suddenly sounded from brigade head-quarters, the +regimental buglers took up the signal, and in twenty minutes we were on +the road and moving back toward Gordon's Mills and Chattanooga. No +leisurely march this time, however, but a race which tasked even the +legs of the veterans. Two hours of this brought the command to the crest +of a ridge from which, away to the right, a wide expanse of country lay +in view. There was a broad valley running parallel to the road we were +traveling and covered by a dense growth of low oaks, which effectually +hid roads, streams, and even the few lonely habitations of the people. +But, looking from our eminence over the unbroken expanse of tree-tops, +we could see a light yellow snake-like line stretching down the valley. +It was dust from the road on which Bragg's army was hurrying toward the +Rossville Pass, through which was the way to Chattanooga and all our +communications and supplies. The line of dust extended miles down the +valley, far in advance of the point we had reached. The rest of our army +might be ahead of us and ahead of Bragg, or it might be on our left, or +even behind us, for aught we knew, but it was plain enough why we were +making such haste back toward Chattanooga. + +The afternoon passed: darkness came, and still the march continued. Late +in the evening we came upon a group of tents by the roadside--Rosecrans's +head-quarters, with Rosecrans himself, and not in the best of humors, as +some of us discovered on riding up to see friends on his staff. In his +petulance and excitability the commanding general forgot to be gentlemanly, +some of them said; and they left him not at all relieved of any doubts they +had concerning our sudden and forced march. + +It was long after midnight when we reached Gordon's Mills. Here the road +was full of ambulances, wagons, artillery and infantry, while in the +thickets on the left were heard the confused noises of the bivouac. +There were no fires, which showed that we were supposed to be in the +immediate presence of the enemy, and that our commander did not want his +position revealed by camp-fires. At some distance past the mills +Palmer's division was halted in the road, and the troops were massed by +regiments, and moved some yards into the thicket to pass the few hours +before daylight. + +In the morning it was said that Bragg had indeed beaten in the race the +day before, and had halted at night, if he halted at all, much nearer to +the Rossville Pass than we were. The Chickamauga River was supposed to +be between the two armies, but it is a stream which is easily fordable +in many places, and a mile or two below where we lay was a bridge over +which Bragg could cross rapidly with his artillery and trains, and then +strike our road to Rossville ahead of us. A division moved out early in +the day and went off toward this bridge. Soon after there was lively +musketry and some cannonading in that direction. Word came back that the +enemy had crossed the river in force too heavy to be successfully +encountered by our reconnoitering division. Another division followed in +the path of the first, and there was more firing. Finally, General +Palmer moved his division out upon the road, and along it for some +distance toward Rossville, approaching the firing down by the bridge. +Halting near the Widow Glenn's cottage, about which were a little cloud +of cavalry and many officers, we saw that Rosecrans was there, directing +the movements in person. Palmer got his orders quickly. He was to move +down the road toward Rossville to an indicated point, then form his +division _en echelon_ by brigade from the left, and move off the road to +the right and attack. When he struck the enemy's left flank he was to +envelop and crush it. The formation _en echelon_ was to facilitate this +enveloping and crushing. + +Moving off the road as ordered, the division passed through several +hundred yards of forest, and came upon a wide open field of lower +ground, through the centre of which ran, parallel to our front, a narrow +belt of timber. The skirmishers passed through this belt and a few yards +beyond, and were then driven back by an overpowering fire from the +enemy's skirmishers. Our main line came up to the timber and passed +through it to the farther side; and then the edge of the forest beyond, +in front, on the right and on the left, was suddenly fringed with a line +of flashing fire, above which rose a thin white smoke. The tremendous +crash of musketry was measured by the deep thunder of artillery farther +back, and soon columns of dense white smoke rising above the tree-tops +indicated the positions of several swift-working batteries. A storm of +bullets whizzed through the ranks of the attacking echelons, while +shrieking shells filled the air with a horrid din, and, bursting +overhead, sent their ragged fragments hurtling down in every direction. +In an instant a hundred gaps were opened in the firm ranks as the men +sank to the ground beneath the smiting lead and iron. In an instant the +gaps were closed, and in another a hundred more were opened. Every yard +of the advance was costing the assailants a full company of men--every +rod at least half a regiment. They wavered, halted and fell back to the +shelter of the narrow belt of timber. The attack had failed, the flank +of the enemy had not been struck. + +But the other divisions of the army? Sent in as ours had been, some one +of them must surely strike the opposing flank, unless Bragg's whole army +had crossed the river and was in position before Rosecrans moved. +Palmer's division held its place, fired its sixty rounds of cartridges +into the wood where the unseen foe was, and waited for the attack of the +succeeding division which should strike Bragg's flank. But we waited in +vain. When Rosecrans's last division was forming its echelons it was +itself enveloped on its outer flank by the active foe. Rosecrans's line, +as he formed it a division at a time, had been constantly outflanked. + +The battle was a failure thus far. We could all see that, and some of us +saw how nearly it became an irretrievable disaster. Hazen's brigade had +been withdrawn to replenish its ammunition after the attack, and was +lying along the Rossville road. The men were filling their +cartridge-boxes, and the captains were counting their diminished ranks +and noting who were dead and who but wounded. Out at the front the fight +still went on, but in a desultory way. Suddenly there was an ominous +sound in front of Van Cleve's division, which was in the main line next +on the right of Palmer. + +Hazen leaped upon his horse. "Now Van Cleve is in for it!" he exclaimed. +"They're coming for him!" + +Quickly getting the men under arms, Hazen moved his brigade behind Van +Cleve to act as a support, and awaited the coming attack. It came like a +whirlwind, and Van Cleve's lines were scattered like fallen leaves. On +came the triumphant enemy in heavy masses, while Van Cleve's disordered +horde swept back with it Hazen's supporting regiments. All but one. +Colonel Aquila Wiley of the Forty-first Ohio Infantry, seeing the coming +avalanche of fugitives, broke his line to the rear by companies and +allowed the flying mass to pass through the intervals. Then instantly +reforming his line, Wiley delivered a volley by battalion upon the +advancing foe. The latter, his ranks loose, as usual in a headlong +pursuit, was staggered and stopped in Wiley's front, but pressed forward +on his right, and had got well to his rear in that direction before the +guns of the Forty-first were reloaded. At a double-quick step Wiley +changed front to the rear on his left company, and sent another volley +among the swarming enemy on his right. Twice he repeated this manoeuvre, +and, gaining ground to the rear with each change of front, kept back the +enemy from front and flank until he could take his place in good order +upon a new line on a ridge to the rear. + +Meantime, Hazen was not idle. Seeing the inevitable result when Van +Cleve's lines wavered, he dashed down the road to some unemployed +batteries. These he got quickly into position to enfilade the enemy as +he passed over Van Cleve's abandoned ground, and while Wiley with his +Forty-first was striking in front and flank to clear himself of the +surrounding foes, Hazen's batteries were pouring shells at short range +into the well-ordered supporting troops which the enemy was hurrying +forward to improve the success he had gained. Bragg had actually crossed +the Rossville road and cut the Army of the Cumberland in two, with +nothing in the gap but one regiment of three hundred men. But the +enfilading artillery smote asunder the solid ranks which were to follow +up the victory and left their advantage a barren triumph. Night fell and +ended there the first day's battle. + +The blessed night! better for the Army of the Cumberland then than +thirty thousand fresh men. Under its sheltering mantle a thousand +necessary things were done. We knew well enough that the struggle must +be renewed in the morning, but we hoped that it would not be taken up on +our side under such disadvantages as had been against us in the day just +closed. So when, some time after dark, an order came to move down the +road to the left, it was gladly obeyed. We were going into position, it +was evident, though where and how none of us could tell in the darkness. +The road and the woods on each side of it were full of troops, +ambulances, ammunition and head-quarter wagons, artillery, and, lastly, +stragglers hunting for their regiments. Now and then a wounded man, +whose hurt did not prevent his walking, came along inquiring for the +hospitals. There were not many of these, however, for the hospital +service was pretty efficient, and the surgeons were located near the +ground where the fighting had been. + +Winding about through such surroundings for what seemed a long time, so +slow was the movement and so frequent the halts to allow the +staff-officer who was directing the march to verify the route, Palmer's +division at length stacked arms on a slightly rising ground not many +hundred yards in front of the Rossville road. There were troops to the +left of us, and soon after we halted troops came up on our right. We +knew by this that we were in the main line of battle as it was being +formed for the next day's fight. There were sounds occasionally from the +forest in front which told us that the enemy also was making his +preparations for the morning, and there was moving of troops, wagons, +artillery, stragglers and mounted officers in rear of us almost all +night. Even our troops in line, tired as they were, were not quite +still. The men lay upon the ground and talked of the events of the day. +Company commanders were inquiring the fate of their missing men, and +some of them were even counting up the guns lost by killed and wounded +men, and wondering how they could account for them on their next +ordnance returns. Waking and sleeping by turns, officers and men passed +the chilly night as best they could until it was near the time when the +first gray streaks of dawn should come. Then those who were sleeping +were quietly aroused; the ranks were noiselessly formed; the stacks of +arms were broken; the first sergeants passed along the fronts of their +companies to verify the attendance; and then the men were allowed to +sit down, guns in hand, to await the daybreak and be in instant +readiness for an attack if the enemy should attempt an early surprise. + +Daylight came, however, on the memorable 20th of September, and no +attack had been made. The first thought, naturally, after apprehension +of an early attack had gone, was to appease hunger and thirst. But there +was little in the haversacks, and nothing in the canteens. Details of +men were sent for water, and never returned. The enemy had possession of +the springs we had used the day before, and our details walked +unconsciously into his hands. There was not a drop of water on the whole +field, and men and officers resigned themselves to the torments of +thirst, a thousand times worse than the gnawings of hunger. But with +daylight we could at least get some idea of our position. In front was a +dense forest, in which nothing was to be seen except our own skirmishers +a few yards in advance. Just behind us was an oblong open field, three +hundred yards wide and thrice as long. On the other side of this field +ran the Rossville road. Beyond our division, to the left, was Johnson's, +and then Baird's division, the latter forming the extreme left of the +army, and extending off into the woods beyond the lower end of the open +field. To our right--though this we could not see, the line being in a +dense forest--was the division of Reynolds; beyond him was Brannan, and +then came Wood; and so on to the right of the army, in what further +order we did not know. It was evident that the line had been hastily +formed: the divisions had been placed just as they were picked up in the +confusion of the night. No corps was together in the line, but it was +made up of a division from one corps, then a division from another, and +then one from a third corps, and so on. Thus it happened that the four +divisions on the left of the line had with them no corps commander. + +In the idle hour after daylight our brigade commander directed the +construction of a barricade of rails and logs, a little more than +knee-high, along the front of his command. Some of the troops on the +left and the right followed the example. The supposition was that the +game would be changed this day, and that we should stand for attack as +the enemy had done the day before. There was no little satisfaction in +thinking that Bragg's men would have a chance to walk up to a fire at +least as murderous as we had faced when attacking them. If the +haversacks were empty and the canteens had gone for water never to +return, the cartridge-boxes were full, and each man had about him an +extra package or two of cartridges. + +The morning wore slowly away, and on our part of the line everything was +remarkably quiet. There was some skirmishing toward the right between +eight and nine o'clock, but evidently nothing serious. The barricade was +finished, and there was nothing to do but to lie behind it and wish for +water as the day grew warmer and thirst became more intense.--But what +is that? + +There was a sharp rattle of Springfield rifles from Baird's skirmishers, +a third of a mile to our left and hidden from sight by the woods. In a +moment came a crash of musketry which brought every man to his feet. +Baird's skirmishers had been driven in, and his main line had hurled its +thousands of bullets as the attacking enemy came into view. Instantly +the answering fire was given, and then followed the continuous rattling +roar of a fierce general engagement. Wounded men began to come out of +the wood where Baird was as they made their way alone toward the +hospitals or were carried off by the hospital corps. Suddenly, a hundred +men with arms in their hands emerged from the woods into the open field +behind Baird, straggling and without order. These were not wounded men. +No: it was too plain that Baird's division was giving way. A moment +more, and the lower end of the open field was filled with a dense mass +of men as Baird's disordered lines poured forth out of the woods, which +were swarming with the exultant enemy. Through and behind the retreating +mass the mounted officers rode furiously, their swinging sabres +flashing in the sun as they alternately commanded and exhorted their men +to rally and breast the storm of lead which the enemy was hurling upon +them. Then Johnson, whose division was next to Baird's, wheeled a +regiment or two backward and opened fire on the enemy engaged with +Baird. The troops of the latter were not running, but falling back, +firing as they went. Suddenly, one of their colonels seized his +regimental standard from the color-bearer and faced his horse toward the +enemy, holding the flag high above his head. The men began to rally +around this flag, and in a moment an imperfect line had been formed. The +enemy's success was at an end. A moment more, and with a wild cheer +Baird's men dashed forward and drove the enemy from their front. + +Meanwhile, we were not idle spectators of all this. At the moment when +Baird's men had been forced into the open field, and it seemed +impossible to re-form them under the fire they were receiving, the +skirmishers in front of Johnson's and Palmer's divisions broke out into +a lively fire and came in at a run. Close behind them were the +rapidly-advancing skirmishers of the enemy. As these came in sight of +our position they took shelter behind trees and waited for their main +force to come up. Soon the woods behind them were filled with the long, +sweeping lines of Bragg's infantry, moving swiftly and steadily up to +the attack. They reached their skirmishers, and as the latter fell in +with the main body the whole broke into the peculiar shrill and fitful +yell of the Southern soldiery, and rushed impetuously upon our line. +From behind its barricade Hazen's brigade gave the yelling assailants +two volleys, by front and rear rank, and then, as the enemy staggered +under the regular blows, the command "Load and fire at will!" rang along +the line. Out burst a swift storm of lead, before which the wasting +ranks of the assailants first wavered, and then stopped to open a rapid +but wild and diminishing fire against the barricade. For a moment or two +their colors waved defiantly at their front as their officers rode +among them in the vain endeavor to hold them to the hopeless effort; and +then they turned and vanished into the deep recesses of the forest +whence they came. Not as they came, however, but as a flying multitude +of panic-stricken men, insensible to authority, conscious only of their +defeat and their peril. + +Ah! but this was quite different from yesterday's work, thought the men +of Hazen's brigade. It is one thing to march up to an enemy waiting to +receive you on his chosen ground, and another to lie quietly in position +and let your enemy feel his way up until he is within fair range. This +was the thought after the successful defence: before the fight it is a +question whether it does not require greater steadiness of nerve to wait +inactive for an attack than to rush forward in an onslaught. Officers +and men in Palmer's division were in excellent spirits. They saw that +their comrades on the right and the left had met with equally good +fortune. Johnson's division on one side and Reynolds's on the other +remained as steady as rocks. + +It was nearly eleven o'clock, and all had prospered with us thus far. +The enemy was getting his share of bloody repulses, of which we had had +more than enough the day before. The attacks upon our line had begun +upon the left, and were traveling toward our right. The two armies were +thus brought together gradually, something after the manner of +scissor-blades when they are slowly closed. The four divisions on the +left had already successfully withstood the shock, which it was to be +supposed the enemy had made as heavy as possible at that point, since +the left was the vital point of the whole line. Success there would give +him the line of retreat to Chattanooga, with Rosecrans's entire army +shut out. Besides, we knew that the line was stronger toward the right, +where at least two divisions were in reserve. No one apprehended +disaster, therefore, when a long and rapid roll of musketry far to the +right told that the enemy was attacking there. "Brannan and Wood are +attending to 'em now!" said General Palmer, standing in a group of +officers in rear of Hazen's brigade. The talk went on as before--about +the successful defences of the morning, the barricade, Baird's splendid +recovery, etc. But soon everybody was listening anxiously to the sounds +of the battle on the right. The roar of musketry had worked round until +it was behind our right shoulders as we stood facing to our front. There +could be no doubt about it: the line had given way somewhere on the +right, and the enemy was following up. It was not long before stray +bullets were singing behind and among us, flying in a direction parallel +to our line. Then, all in a moment, a battery far to the right and rear +opened a rapid fire, and some of its shells came shrieking into the rear +of Palmer's and Johnson's divisions. Meanwhile, the crash and roar of +battle came nearer and nearer, until the attack struck Reynolds on the +flank and in rear. But he had been forewarned, and his line was swung +backward, at right angles with his original position, to face the attack +from the new direction. Even then he was forced backward until his men +were stretched across the open field in rear of Palmer's division, and +the battle was going on directly behind us. Something--a shell +perhaps--set fire to a log house at the upper end of this field, not +three hundred yards from our brigade. This house had been taken for a +hospital the night before. It was filled with wounded men, too badly +hurt to be taken farther away in the ambulances, and the regular +hospital flag floated above it. This unfortunate house, with its maimed +occupants, was brought between Reynolds's men and the attacking enemy +when the former were driven into the open field; and, despite the +non-combatant flag flying from the gable, it was riddled with shells +from the Southern batteries. I do not charge upon those gunners a +knowledge of the facts here given: their batteries were some distance +away through the forest. However, whether they saw the house and the +flag or not, their fire swept mercilessly through the house, while many +a stout-hearted soldier, knowing what was there, wished that if he were +to be hit at all, he might be struck dead at once, and so avoid such +sickening horrors. + +For the second time on that memorable day it looked for a few moments as +if Palmer would have to face his men about and fight to the rear. +Preparations to do this were made on the right of the division, but, +fortunately, the appalling disaster which seemed imminent in the +complete encompassing of the four divisions of the left was averted. The +enemy yielded at last to the stubborn resistance, and Reynolds +re-established his line--not upon the old ground entirely, but to +conform to the altered situation. He was now the right of the army upon +the original field, and four divisions comprised all that was left of +the Army of the Cumberland in the position of the morning. + +The divisions of the centre and the right--where were they? Brannan, and +Wood, and Negley, and Davis, and Van Cleve, and gallant Sheridan, who +held stubbornly his division even amid the panic at Stone River--where +were they? And Rosecrans, commander of the army; Thomas, the hero in +every fight; rash McCook and unfortunate Crittenden, chiefs of corps? +Gone with the centre and the right of the army; gone with the reserves +and the artillery; gone with the ammunition-trains; gone with everything +that belonged to the Army of the Cumberland except four divisions of +unconquered soldiers with half-filled cartridge-boxes and with hearts +that knew no fear. + +All gone? No! In the hush which came after Reynolds's desperate defence, +and while hearts were yet beating fast from watching the doubtful fight, +there arose far off to the right and rear a roar of musketry, telling +that somewhere in the distance the flags of the Army of the Cumberland +still waved before the foe, as they did with us. Long afterward we knew +that this was Thomas--he who would not leave the field amid the wreck +which surrounded him--Thomas, with his fragments, posted on a commanding +ridge and bravely beating off the thickening foes about him. + +The story of the disaster is an old one. It is hardly necessary to tell +how Wood, in the main line on the right of Brannan, received an order +from Rosecrans to support Reynolds, the second division in line to the +left of Wood; how the gallant soldier hesitated to obey an order from +which such disaster might come; how McCook, chief of corps, told Wood +the order was imperative, and promised to put a reserve division into +the line to take his place; how Wood withdrew from the line, as ordered, +at the fatal moment when the enemy was preparing to attack; how the +furious foe pressed through the gap, cut the army in two, struck the +lines to right and left in flank and rear, swept the centre, the right +wing and the reserves off the field, and doubled up and crushed the left +wing as far as Reynolds's division, whose fortune has been told. All +this is familiar enough now, but those who remained on the field in the +four divisions of the left knew nothing of it then. They only knew that +the line was broken beyond Reynolds, and that, although somewhere in the +distance was a force which had not yet fled nor surrendered, they were +left to bear alone the battle against Bragg's victorious army. The odds +were five or six to one--perhaps more, maybe less. It did not matter to +be precise: Bragg had men enough to put a double line of troops entirely +around the four divisions. That was enough. + +It was after midday when the disaster was complete and the divisions of +Baird, Johnson, Palmer and Reynolds were able to understand the +situation. I need not recount in detail the repeated attempts of the +enemy to crush the line of the four divisions at one point and another. +If the reader can recall the description of the first attack on Palmer's +division, he will have a very fair example of the work which busied us +at intervals during those long hours. The enemy was, of course, not +unaware of his great success in dividing the army and driving off the +greater part of it; nor was he lacking in efforts to improve the +advantage by destroying the divisions which yet confronted him. Every +attack, however, resulted in failure, and the assailants retired each +time with heavy losses. At length it was evident to us that it had +become difficult to bring even Longstreet's boasted troops up to attacks +which met such sure and bloody repulses. There were but four divisions +against an army, but the four would not be taken or driven. + +With hands and faces blackened by the smoke and dust of battle those men +stood devotedly to their posts, their ranks thinned by every assault, +but their aim as fatal as ever. But one dread possessed them: ammunition +ran short, and there were no supplies. In the intervals between the +enemy's assaults the cartridge-boxes of dead comrades along the line and +in the open field, where were the fierce struggles of the morning, were +emptied of their contents to replenish the failing stock of the +survivors. More precious than food and water, though they were sorely +needed, were these inheritances from the dead. + +The long afternoon wore slowly away. Night could not come too soon, but +it seemed that never before was it so tardy. Officers and men were +tortured by thirst. Their tongues were swollen and their lips black and +distended, often to bursting. Speech became difficult or absolutely +impossible. Officers mumbled their commands, and prayed silently for +darkness to save them from enforced surrender or flight when the last +cartridge should be spent. + +Meantime, the relentless but cautious foe was carefully feeling his way +around the flanks, apparently unwilling to venture boldly into the rear +of the little army which he could not move by attack in front. A group +of officers stood by their horses in rear of Hazen's brigade when the +crack of an Enfield rifle was heard from the woods in rear across the +open field. A bullet came whizzing into the group and killed a colonel's +horse. Other shots followed from the same direction. The woods behind us +were evidently occupied by the enemy's skirmishers. A captain +volunteered to take his company and clear the woods, but ammunition was +too scarce to waste on sharpshooters. + +Word came at last, in some way, that Thomas, whose firing we heard far +to the right and rear, was sorely pressed. A consultation was held by +the four division generals. They needed a commander, but who should it +be? Who would take command of that beleaguered force and undertake to +extricate it from its surrounding peril or deliver it over to Thomas? +Would Palmer? No. Would Reynolds? No. The stern duty of fighting their +divisions until they could fight no longer, and doing then whatever +desperate thing might be possible--that they would not fail in; but that +responsibility was as great as they cared to assume. Up came Hazen then. +"I'll take my brigade across that interval," said he, "and find Thomas +if he's there." Palmer objected: it would make a gap in his line; it +would expose one of his brigades to a thousand chances of +destruction--for who could tell what forces of the enemy were in that +interval or watching it?--and finally, it would take away the brigade +which had most ammunition, for Hazen had husbanded his store. But +something must be done. If the four divisions could hold out until +night, somebody must command them and take them out if it could be done. +Thomas was the proper commander, and he was needed. It was agreed that +Hazen should make the attempt. + +The brigade was withdrawn from the line which it had faithfully held all +day, and some disposition made to fill the gap. Hazen formed his +regiments in close masses, faced them to the right and rear, covered his +front with a trusty battalion as skirmishers, waved an adieu to the +comrades left behind, and plunged into the unknown forest in the +direction of Thomas's firing. On and on went the brigade and came nearer +and nearer to the ridge which Thomas held. Suddenly, the skirmishers +strike obliquely an opposing line. They brush it away in an instant, but +the warning is not lost. Keep more to the rear: no fighting now, though +you should whip three to one. The fate of the four divisions rests upon +that. With quick and steady tread the regiments move on. They clear the +wood at last, climb the end of a ridge through a field of standing +corn, and burst into an open field at the summit amid the wild cheers of +Thomas's exhausted men, while Thomas himself, beloved of all the army, +rides down to take Hazen by the hand. And not a moment too soon. + +Almost at the very instant Thomas's skirmishers along the front of the +ridge broke out into a rattling fire, and were seen falling back. The +enemy was about to make his final effort, and it was to be against the +flank where now lay Hazen's brigade. Quickly deploying his regiments, +Hazen placed them in four lines, closed one upon another, and the men +lay flat upon their faces. The yell of the enemy was heard in the wood +below, and in a moment the declivity in front was covered with the heavy +lines of the assailants. Then the first of Hazen's regiments was brought +to its feet and poured its volley straight into the faces of the +oncoming foe. The next regiment, and the next, and then the last, +followed in quick succession. The echoes of the last volley had hardly +died away before the enemy, who came on so confident and so strong, had +disappeared, crushed and broken, into the forest, leaving the hillside +strewn with his dead and wounded. + +So ended the fighting. Night came down and shrouded the fierce +combatants from each other's sight. + +The dusky ranks take up the unfamiliar march with faces from the foe. +Their drums are silent, and their bugles voice-less as the spirit-horns +which marshal their heroic dead upon the farther shore. The shadowy +ranks pass on into the night. Bearing their close-furled banners and +their empty guns, they pass on into the sad and silent night of +Chickamauga to await the glorious sun of Mission Ridge. + +ROBERT LEWIS KIMBERLY. + + + NOTE.--The writer is aware that this narrative of the battle of + Chickamauga differs so materially from the commonly-received + impressions of that event that it ought to be supported by more + than his own authority. The reader will observe that the main + narrative is made up of the experiences of one command, that to + which the writer belonged, and of which he can therefore speak + as of things which he saw. For the statements of the general + battle reference is made to official reports, as follows: (1) In + regard to the first day's battle, see report of General W.S. + Rosecrans, which may be found in vol. vii. of Putnam's + _Rebellion Record_, p. 222 and following pages. (2) In regard to + the complete isolation of the four divisions of the left during + the second day, and the final opening of communication with + General Thomas, see General W.B. Hazen's official report on p. + 238 of the volume above quoted. + + The writer also quotes, by permission, from letters from + Generals Hazen and Thomas J. Wood, addressed to him within the + present year. General Hazen says: "Do not forget about the + length of time Thomas was cut off from us--how we could hear + nothing from him; how neither Reynolds nor Palmer would assume + command," etc. General Wood says, in reference to the great + disaster on the second day: "About 11 A.M. I received the + following order from General Rosecrans: 'The commanding general + directs that you close up on Reynolds as fast as possible, and + support him.' As there was an entire division (Brannan's) + between my division and Reynolds, I could only close upon the + latter and support him by withdrawing my division from line and + passing in rear of Brannan to the rear of Reynolds. This I did. + Of course I knew it was an order involving perhaps the most + momentous consequences, but General McCook concurred with me + that it was so emphatic and positive as to demand instant + obedience. I write you stubborn facts, and you can use them as + such." + + General Wood has been so severely criticised for his obedience + to this fatal order that perhaps I should add this further + explanation, contained in the letter from which I have quoted + above: "After the battle was over, and it was apparent that + Rosecrans's ill-considered order had led to a disaster, he + offered as an explanation of it the statement that some + staff-officer had reported to him that Brannan was out of line, + and that he intended I should close to the left on Reynolds, and + that I overlooked this direction to close to the left on + Reynolds. Certainly, I overlooked it, or rather I did not see + it, for it was not there to be seen. On the contrary, I was + ordered to close up on Reynolds, and for a purpose--viz., to + support him. I remark also that it was impossible for any man, + on reading Rosecrans's order to me, to even remotely conjecture + that it was based on the supposition that Brannan was out of + line. He had previously ordered me to rest my left on Brannan's + right, and I had reported to him that I had done so. Colonel + Starling (of Crittenden's staff) testified before the + McCook-Crittenden court of inquiry that he was with Rosecrans at + the time the latter directed the order to be sent to me, and + told him that Brannan was not out of line." + + + + +THE ATONEMENT OF LEAM DUNDAS. + +BY MRS. E. LYNN LINTON, AUTHOR OF "PATRICIA KEMBALL." + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +UNWORTHY. + +The storm had passed with the night, and the day was bright and +joyful--almost hard in its brightness and cruel in its joy; for while +the sun was shining overhead and the air was musical with the hum of +insects and the song of birds, the flowers were broken, the tender +plants destroyed, the uncut corn was laid as if a troop of horse had +trampled down the crops, and the woods, like the gardens and the fields, +were wrecked and spoiled. But of all the mourners sighing between earth +and sky, Nature is the one that never repents, and the sun shines out +over the saddest ruin as it shines out over the richest growth, as +careless of the one as of the other. + +Edgar came down from the Hill in the sunshine, handsome, strong, jocund +as the day. As he rode through the famous double avenue of chestnuts he +thought, What a glorious day! how clear and full of life after the +storm! but he noted the wreckage too, and was concerned to see how the +trees and fields had suffered. Still, the one would put forth new +branches and fresh leaves next year; and if the other had been roughly +handled, there was yet a salvage to be garnered. The ruin was not +irreparable, and he was in the mood to make the best of things. Do not +the first days of a happy love ever give the happiest kind of philosophy +for man and woman to go on? + +And he was happy in his love. Who more so? He was on his way now to Ford +House as a man going to his own, serene and confident of his possession. +He had left his treasure overnight, and he went to take it up again, +sure to find it where he had laid it down. He had no thought of the +thief who might have stolen it in the dark hours, of the rust that might +have cankered it in the chill of the gray morning. He only pictured to +himself its beauty, its sweetness and undimmed radiance--only remembered +that this treasure was his, his own and his only, unshared by any, and +known in its excellence by none before him. + +He rode up to the door glad, dominant, assured. Life was very pleasant +to the strong man and ardent lover--the English gentleman with his +happiness in his own keeping, and his future marked out in a clear broad +pathway before him. There was no cloud in his sky, no shadow on his sea: +it was all sunshine and serenity--man the master of his own fate and the +ruler of circumstance--man the supreme over all things, a woman's past +included. + +Not seeing Leam in the garden, Edgar rang the bells and was shown into +the drawing-room, where she was sitting alone. The down-drawn blinds had +darkened the room to a pleasant gloom for eyes somewhat overpowered by +the blazing sunshine and the dazzling white clouds flung like heaps of +snow against the hard bright blue of the sky; yet something struck more +chill than restful on the lover as he came through the doorway, little +fanciful or sentimental as he was. + +Leam, who had not been in bed through the night, was sitting on the sofa +in the remotest and darkest part of the room. She rose as he +entered--rose only, not coming forward to meet him, but standing in her +place silent, pale, yet calm and collected. She did not look at him, but +neither did she blush nor tremble. There was something statuesque, +almost dead, about her--something that was not the same Leam whom he had +known from the first. + +He went up to her, both hands held out. She shrank back and folded hers +in each other, still not looking at him. + +"Why, Leam, what is it?" he cried in amazement, pained, shocked at her +action. Was she in her right mind? Had she heard of his former +attentions to Adelaide, divined their ultimate meaning, and been seized +with a mad idea of sacrifice and generosity? It must be with Adelaide, +he thought, rapidly reviewing his past. He was absolutely safe about +Violet Cray, who had never known his name; and those later Indian +affairs were dead and as good as buried. What, then, did it mean? + +"No, not till you have heard me," said Leam in a low voice. "And never +after." + +"My darling! what is it?" he repeated. + +"You must not call me dear names: I am unworthy," said Leam. "No," +checking him as he would have spoken, smiling with a sense of relief +that her craze--if it was a craze--went to the visionary side of her own +unworthiness, and was not due to any knowledge of his misdemeanors, as +she might think them. "Do not speak. I have to tell you. I had forgotten +it," she went on to say in the same tense, compressed manner--the manner +of one who has a task to get through, and has gathered all her strength +for the effort, leaving none to be squandered in emotion--"I was so +happy in these last days I had forgotten it. Now I have remembered, and +we must part." + +Edgar was grieved to see her in such deadly trouble, for it was easy to +see her pain beneath her still exterior, but he was confident, and if +grieved not afraid. Leam's little life, so innocent and uneventful as it +must have been, could hold no such tremendous evil, could have been +smirched with no such damning stain, as that at which she seemed to +hint. Grant even that there had been something more between her and +Alick Corfield than he would quite like to hear--which was his first +thought--still, that more must needs be very little, could but be very +simple. His wife must be spotless--that he knew, and he would marry none +whose past was not as unsullied as new-fallen snow, as unsullied as must +be her future--absolute purity--the unruffled emotions of a maidenhood +undisturbed until now even by dreams, even by visions. He owed it to +himself and his position that his wife, man of many loves as he was, +should be this; but at the worst the childish affection of brother and +sister, which was all that could possibly have been between Leam and +that awkward young gangrel Alick Corfield, could have nothing in it that +he ought to take to heart or that should influence him. Yes, he might +smile and not be afraid. And indeed her delicate conscience was another +grace in his eyes. He loved her more than ever for the honesty that must +confess all its little sins. Sweet Leam! Leam having to confess! Leam! +she who was almost too modest for an ordinary lover's comfort, needing +to be tamed out of her savage bashfulness, not to be reproved for +transgressing the proper reticence of an English maid. It was a pretty +play, but it was only a play. + +"Come and sit by me and make full confession, my darling," he said +lovingly. + +"I will stand where I am. You sit," said Leam, without looking at him. + +He seated himself on the sofa. "And now what has my little culprit to +say for herself?" he asked pleasantly, putting on a playful magisterial +air. + +"It is over," said Leam, her hands pressed in each other with so tight a +clasp that the strained knuckles were white and started. "You must not +love me: I cannot be your wife." + +"Why?" He showed his square white teeth beneath the golden sweep of his +moustache, his moist red lips parted, always smiling. + +"I have done a great crime," said Leam in a low, monotonous voice. + +"A crime! That is a large word for a small peccadillo--larger than any +sin of yours merits, my sweetheart." + +"You do not know," said Leam with a despairing gesture. "How can you +know when you have not heard?" + +"Well, what may be its name?" he asked, willing to humor her. + +She paused for a moment: then with a visible effort, drawing in her +breath, she said, in a voice that was unnaturally calm and low, "I +killed madame." + +"Leam!" cried Edgar, "how can you talk such nonsense? The thing is +growing beyond a joke. Unsay your words; they are a wrong done to _me_." + +He had started to his feet while he spoke, and now stood before her +with a strangely scared and startled face. Naturally, as such a man +would, he was resolute not to accept such a terrible confession, and one +so unlikely, so impossible; but something in the girl's voice and +manner, something in its sad, still reality, seemed to overpower his +determination to find this simply a bad joke which she was playing off +on his credulity. And then the thing fitted only too well. He had heard +half a dozen times of Madame de Montfort's sudden death, and how very +strange it was that the draught which she had taken so often with +impunity before should have been found so laden with prussic acid on the +first night of her homecoming as to kill her in an instant--how strange, +too, that not the strictest search or inquiry could come upon a trace of +such poison bought or possessed by any member of the family, for what +police-officer would look to find a sixty-minim bottle of prussic acid +concealed among the coils of a young girl's hair? And when Leam said in +that quiet if desperate manner that it was she who had killed madame, +her words made the whole mystery clear and solved the as yet unsolved +problem. + +Nevertheless, he would not believe her, but said again, passionately, +"Unsay your words, Leam: they offend me." + +"I cannot," said Leam. + +He laughed scornfully. "Kill Madame de Montfort. Absurd! You could not. +It was impossible for a girl like you to kill any one," he cried in +broken sentences. "How could you do such a thing, Leam, and not be found +out? Silly child! you are raving." + +"I put poison into the bottle, and she died," said Leam in a half +whisper. + +"Leam! you a murderess!" + +She quivered at the word, at the tone of loathing, of abhorrence, of +almost terror, in which he said it, but she held her terrible ground. +She had begun her martyrdom, her agony of atonement for the sake of +truth and love, and she must go through now to the end. "Yes," she said, +"I am a murderess. Now you know all, and why you must not love me." + +"I cannot believe you," he pleaded helplessly. "It is too horrible. My +darling, say that you have told me this to try me--that it is not true, +and that you are still my own, my very own, my pure and sinless Leam." + +He knelt at her feet, clasping her waist. He was not of those who, like +Alick, could bear the sin of the beloved as the sacrifice of pride, of +self, of soul to that love. He himself might be stained from head to +heel with the soil of sin, but his wife must be, as has been said, +without flaw or blemish, immaculate and free from fault. Any lapse, +involving the loss of repute should it ever be made public, would have +been the death-knell of his hopes, the requiem of his love; but such an +infamy as this! If true it was only too final. + +"Oh, no! no! do not do that," cried Leam, trying to unclasp his hands. +"Do not kneel to me. I ought to kneel to you," she added with a little +cry that struck with more than pity to Edgar's heart, and that nearly +broke her down for so much relaxing of the strain, so much yielding to +her grief, as it included. + +"Leam, tell me you are joking--tell me that you did not do this awful +thing," he cried again, his handsome face, blanched and drawn, upturned +to her in agony. + +She put her hands over her eyes. "I cannot lie to you," she said. "And I +must not degrade you. Do not touch me: I am not good enough to be +touched by you." + +He loosened his arms, and she shrank from him almost as if she faded +away. + +"Why did you deceive me?" he groaned. "You should not have let me love +you, knowing the truth." + +"I did not know that you loved me, or that I loved you, till that +night," she pleaded piteously. "If I had known I would have prevented +it. I have told you as soon as I remembered." + +"You have broken my heart," he cried, flinging himself on the sofa, his +face buried in the cushions. And then, strong man as he was, a brave +soldier and an English country gentleman, he burst into a passion of +tears that shook him as the storm had shaken the earth last +night--tears that were the culmination of his agony, not its relief. + +Leam stood by him as pale as the shattered lilies in the garden. What +could she do? How could she comfort him? Tainted and dishonored, she +dared not even lay her hand on his--her infamous and murderous hand, and +he so pure and noble! Neither could she pray for him, nor yet for +herself. Pray? to whom? To God? God had turned His face away from her, +even as her lover had now turned away his: He was angry with her, and +still unappeased. She dared not pray to Him, and He would not hear her +if she did. The saints were no longer the familiar and parental deities, +grave and helpful, to whom she could refer all her sorrows and +perplexities, as in earlier times, sure of speedy succor. The teaching +of the later days had destroyed the simple fetichism of childhood; and +now--afraid of God, by whom she was unforgiven; the saints swept out of +her spiritual life like those mist-wreaths of morning which were once +taken for solid towers and impregnable fortresses; the Holy Mother +vanished with the rest; all spiritual help a myth, all spiritual +consolation gone--how could she pray? Lonely as her life had been since +mamma died, it had never been so lonely as now, when she felt that God +had abandoned her, and that she had sacrificed her lover to her sense of +truth and honor and what was due to his nobility. + +She stood by him and watched his passionate outburst with anguish +infinitely more intense than his own. To have caused him this sorrow was +worse than to have endured it for herself. There was no sacrifice of +self that she could not have made for his good. Spaniard as she was, she +would have been above jealousy if another woman would have made him +happier than she; and if her death would have given him gain or joy, she +would have died for him as another would have lived. Yet it was she, and +she only, who was causing him this pain, who was destroying his +happiness and breaking his heart. + +She dared not speak nor move. It took all the strength she drew from +silence to keep her from breaking into a more terrible storm of grief +than even that into which he had fallen. She dared not make a sign, but +simply stood there, doing her best to bear her heavy burden to the end. +The only feeling that she had for herself was that it was cruel not to +let her die, and why did not mute anguish kill her? + +For the rest, she knew that she had done the thing that was right, +however hard. It was not fitting that she should be his wife; and it was +better that he should suffer for the moment than be degraded for all +time by association with one so shameful, so dishonored, as herself. + +Presently, Edgar cleared his eyes and lifted up his face. He was angry +with himself for this unmanly burst of feeling, and because angry with +himself disposed for the moment to be hard on her. She was standing +there in exactly the same spot and just the same attitude as before, her +head a little bent, her hands twined in each other, her eyes with the +pleading, frightened look of confession turned timidly to him; but as he +raised himself from the sofa, pushing back his hair and striding to the +window as if to hide the fact of his having shed tears, she turned her +eyes to the floor. She was beginning to feel now that she must not even +look at him. The gulf that separated them, dug by her own ineffaceable +crime, was so deep, the distance so wide! + +A painful silence fell between them: then Edgar, not looking at her, +said in a constrained voice, "I will keep your dreadful secret, Leam, +sacredly for ever. You feel sure of that, I hope. But, as you say, we +must part. I do not pretend to be better than other men, but I could not +take as my wife one who had been guilty of such an awful crime as this." + +"No," said Leam, her parched lips scarcely able to form a word at all. + +"Your secret will be safe with me," he repeated. + +She did not reply. In giving up himself she had given up all that made +life lovely, and the refuse might as well go as not. + +"But we must part." + +"Yes," said Leam. + +He turned back to the window, desperately troubled. He did really love +her, passionately, sincerely. He longed at this very moment to take her +in his arms and tell her that he would accept her crime if only he might +have herself. Had he not been the master of the Hill and a Harrowby he +would have done so, but the master of the Hill and the head of the house +of Harrowby had a character to maintain and a social ideal to keep pure. +He could not bring into such a home as his, present to his mother as her +daughter, to his sisters as their sister, a girl who by her own +confession was a murderess--a girl who, if the law had its due, would be +hanged by the neck in the precincts of the county jail till she was +dead. He might have been sinful enough in his own life, in the ordinary +way of men--and truly there were passages in his past that would +scarcely bear the light--but what were the worst of his misdemeanors +compared with this awful crime? No: he must resolutely crush the last +lingering impulse of tenderness, and leave her to work through her own +tribulation, as he also must work through his. + +"But we must part," he said for a third time. + +Her lips quivered. She did not answer, only bent her head in sign of +acquiescence. + +"It is hard to say it, harder still to do; and I who loved you so +dearly!" cried Edgar with the angry despair of a man forced against +himself to give up his desire. + +She put up her hands. "Don't!" she said with a sharp cry. "I cannot bear +to hear about your love." + +He gave a sudden sob. Her love for him was very precious to him--his for +her very strong. + +"Why did you tell me?" he then said. "And yet you did the right thing to +tell me: I was wrong to say that. It was good of you, Leam--noble, like +yourself." + +"I love you. That is not being noble," she answered slowly and with +infinite pathos. "I could not have deceived you after I remembered." + +"You are too noble to deceive," he said, holding out his hand. + +Leam turned away. "I am not fit to touch your hand," she said, the very +pride of contrition in her voice--pride for him, if humiliation for +herself. + +"For this once," he pleaded. + +"I am unworthy," she answered. + +At this moment little Fina came jumping into the room. She had in her +hand a rose-colored scarf that had once been poor madame's, and which +the nurse, turning out an old box of hers, had found and given to the +child. + +After she had kissed Edgar, played with his _breloques_, looked at the +works of his watch, plaited his beard into three strings, and done all +that she generally did in the way of welcome, she shook out the gauze +scarf over her dress. + +"This was mamma's--my own mamma's," she said. "Leam will never tell me +about mamma: you tell me, Major Harrowby," coaxingly. + +"I cannot: I did not know her," said Edgar in an altered voice, while +Leam looked as if her judgment had come, but bore it as she had borne +all the rest, resolutely. + +"I want to hear about mamma, and who killed her," pouted Fina. + +"Hush, Fina," said Leam in an agony: "you must not talk." + +"You always say that, Leam, when I want to hear about mamma," was the +child's petulant reply. + +"Go away now, dear little Fina," said Edgar, who felt all that Leam must +feel at these inopportune words, and who, moreover, weak as he was in +this direction, was longing for one last caress. + +"I will go and send her nurse," said Leam, half staggering to the door. + +Had anything been wanting to show her the impossibility of their +marriage, this incident of Fina's random but incisive words would have +been enough. + +"Leam! not one word more?" he asked as he stood against the door, +holding the handle in his hand. + +"No," she said hopelessly. "What words can we have together?" + +"And we are parting like this, and for ever?" + +"For ever. Yes, it has to be for ever," she answered almost +mechanically. + +"Leam, why did you love me?" he cried, taking her hands in his and +keeping them. + +"How could I help it? Who would not love you?" she answered. + +Again he gave a sudden heavy sob, and again the poor pale, tortured face +reflected the pain it witnessed. + +"Good-bye!" she then said, drawing her hands from his. "Remember only, +when you blame me, that I told you, not to let you be degraded. And +forgive me before I die, for I loved you--ah, better than my own life!" + +With a sudden impulse she stooped forward, took back his right hand in +both of hers, pressed it to her bosom, kissed it passionately again and +again, then turned with one faint, half-suppressed moan, and left him. +And as he heard her light feet cross the hall, wearily, heavily, as the +feet of a mourner dragging by the grave of the beloved, he knew that his +dream of love was over. But, with the strange satire of the senses in +moments of sorrow, noting ever the most trivial things, Edgar noted +specially the powerful perfume of a spray of lemon-plant which she +bruised as she pressed his hand against her breast. + +That evening Edgar Harrowby went down to the rectory. He was strong +enough in physique and in some phases of will, but he was not strong all +through, and he had never been able to face unassisted the first +desolation of a love-disappointment. + +Adelaide, in a picturesque dress and her most becoming mood, welcomed +him with careful cordiality as a prodigal whose husks, clinging about +his coat, were to be handled tenderly as if they were pearls. She saw +that something was gravely wrong, and she grasped the line of connection +if she did not understand the issue; but, mindful of the doctrine of +letting well alone--also of that of catching a heart at the rebound--she +made no allusion in the beginning, but let her curiosity gnaw her like +the Spartan boy's fox without making a sign. At last, however, her +curiosity became impatience, and her impatience conquered her reserve. +She was clever in her generation and fairly self-controlled, but she was +only a woman, after all. + +"And when did you see that eccentric little lady, Miss Leam?" she asked +with a smile--not a bitter smile, merely one of careless amusement, as +if Leam was acknowledged to be a comical subject of conversation and one +naturally provoking a smile. + +"Dear Adelaide," said Edgar, not looking at her, but speaking with +unusual earnestness, "do not speak ill of Leam Dundas--neither to me nor +to any one else. I ask it as a favor." + +Adelaide turned pale. "Tell me only one thing, Edgar: are you going to +marry her?" she asked, her manner as earnest as his own, but with a +different meaning. + +"No. Marry her? Good God, no!" was his vehement reply. Then more +tenderly: "But for all that do not speak ill of her. Will you promise, +dear, good friend?" + +"Yes, I will promise," she answered with what was for her fervor and a +sudden look of intense relief. "I never will again, Edgar; and I am +sorry if I have hurt you at any time by what I may have said. I did not +mean to do so." + +"No, I know you did not. I can appreciate your motives, and they were +good," Edgar answered with emotion; and then their two pairs of fine +blue eyes met, and both pairs were moist. + +This was just at the moment when Leam, pale, rigid as a statue, thickly +veiled, and holding a box in her hand, met Mr. Gryce in Steel's Wood, he +having gone to catch such rare specimens of sleeping lepidoptera as the +place afforded and his eyes could discern. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +BLOTTED OUT. + +Gone! no one knew where. Gone in the night like a falling star, like a +passing cloud--gone and left no trace, vanished like the sunshine of +yesterday or the flowers of last spring! No one knew what had become of +her, and no one knew where to look for her; for the sole information +gathered by the scared neighbors was, that Leam Dundas was missing and +no one had seen her go. + +She was thought by some to have simply run away after the manner of +undisciplined youth aiming at mock heroism; but where, or with whom? +for, said the keen-eyed women and large-mouthed men, incredulous of +maiden meditation fancy free, a pretty young thing of nineteen would +never have left her comfortable home, her father, friends and good name, +without some lover stirring in the matter. And this lover was just the +missing link not to be found anywhere. Others said she had drowned +herself; but here, again, Why? Young girls do not give up their precious +freight of hope in love and present joy in youth for a trifling ailment +or a temporary annoyance. And nothing worse than either could have +befallen Leam, said the reasoners, putting their little twos and twos +together and totting up the items with the serene accuracy of spiritual +arithmeticians, dealing with human emotion as if it was a sum in long +division which any schoolboy could calculate. + +Edgar Harrowby, however, who came forward manfully enough to say when +and where--if not how--he had last seen Miss Dundas, leant to the side +of the believers in suicide, and on his own responsibility ordered the +Broad to be dragged. Which looked ugly, said a few of the rasher spirits +in the village, cherishing suspicion of their betters as the birthright +which had never had a chance of being bartered for a mess of pottage; +while the more contemptuous, critical after the event, gave it as their +opinion that the major had a bee in his bonnet somewhere, for what +gentleman in his seven sane senses would have looked for such a mare's +nest as Miss Leam Dundas lying among the bulrushes of the Broad? Drowned +herself? No: it was no drowning of herself that had come to little miss, +be sure of that. + +What, however, had come to her no one knew. The fact only was certain: +she had gone, and no one had met her coming or seen her going, and for +all trace left she might as well have melted into air like one of the +fairy women of romance. To be sure, the servants had heard her in her +room in the early evening, and she had refused the tea which they had +brought her, and told them, through the closed door, that she wanted +nothing more that night. So they left her to herself, supposing her to +be in one of her queer moods, to which they were used to give but scant +heed, and not thinking more about her. The next morning she was missing, +but when she had gone was as dark as where. + +The discovery, later in the day, that certain effects, such as her +mother's dressing-case and a few personal necessities of daily use, were +gone too, seemed to dispose effectually of the theory of suicide; though +what remained, a lover, companion of her flight, being wanting? It was a +strange thing altogether, and the country was alive with wild theories +and wild reports. But in a few days a letter from Mr. Dundas to the +rector, and another to Edgar, set the question of self-destruction at +rest, though also they gave loose to other energies of conjecture, for +in both he said, "No harm has come to her, and I am content to let her +remain where she has elected to place herself." + +As it was just this _where_ which tormented the folk with the sense of +mystery and made them eager for news, the father's meagre +explanation--which, in point of fact, was no explanation at all--was not +found very satisfactory, and a few hard words were said of Mr. Dundas, +his reserve to the world being taken for the same thing as indifference +to his daughter, and resented as an offence. But for the third time in +his life Sebastian was found capable of maintaining this impenetrable +reserve. Pepita's true status in her own country--madame's suspicious +debts and those damaging letters from London--Leam's hiding-place: he +had had strength enough to keep his own counsel about the first two +unbroken, and now he betrayed no more about this last. It may as well be +said that for this he had sufficient reason. Leam, who had confessed +her crime, and announced her intention of flight and of hiding herself +where no one should find her again, had not told him more than these +bare bones of the story. And he did not care to know more. The skeleton +was horrible enough as it stood: he was by no means inclined to clothe +it with the flesh of detail, still less to follow his erring child to +her place of exile. He was content that she should be blotted out. It +was the sole reparation that she could make. + +This sudden disappearance ended the foreign tour which had been +Josephine's sweetest anticipations of the honeymoon, for Mr. Dundas +turned back for home at once, intending to put up Ford House for sale +and leave the place for ever. He was ashamed to live at North Aston, he +said, after Leam's extraordinary conduct, her shameful, shameless +_esclandre_, which--said Josephine to her own people, weeping--she +supposed was due to her, the poor little thing not liking her for a +stepmother. + +"Though, indeed, she need not have been afraid," said the good creature +effusively, "for I had intended to be kindness itself to the poor dear +girl." + +And when she said this, Mrs. Harrowby who never failed an opportunity +for moral cautery, remarked dryly, "In all probability it is as well as +it is, Josephine. You would have been very uncomfortable with her, and +would have been sure to have spoiled her. And, as Adelaide Birkett +always says, very sensibly, she is odd enough already. She need not be +made more so." + +Maria threw out a doubt as to whether Mr. Dundas had heard from Leam at +all. It was not like Sebastian to be so close, she said; but Josephine +assured her that he had, and bridled a little at the vapory insinuation +that Sebastian was not perfect. She detailed the whole circumstance with +all the facts fully fringed and feathered. He had received the letter +just as they were preparing to go to the Louvre, but he had not shown it +to her, and she had not asked to see it. She saw, though, that he was +much agitated when he read it, but he had put it in his pocket, and +when she looked for it it was not there. All that he had said was, "Leam +has left home, Josephine, and we must go back at once." Of course she +had not asked questions, she said with a pleasant little assumption of +wifely submission. Her search in her husband's pockets was only what +might have been expected from the average woman, but the wifely +submission was special. + +For this curtailment of their sister's enjoyment Maria and Fanny judged +Leam almost more severely than for any other delinquency involved in her +flight. They spoke as if she had planned it purposely to vex her father +and his bride in their honeymoon and deprive them of their lawful +pleasure; but Josephine never blamed her as they did, and when they were +most bitter cast in her little words of soothing and excused her with +more zeal than evidence--excused her sometimes to the point of making +her sisters angry with her and inclined to accuse her of her old +failing, meek-spiritedness carried to the verge of self-abasement. + +But the one who suffered most of all those left to lament or to wonder +was poor Alick Corfield. It was a misery to see him with his hollow +cheeks and haggard eyes, like an animal that has been hunted into lone +places, terrified and looking for a way of escape, or like a dog that +has lost its master. He tried every method known to him to gain +information of her directly or indirectly, but Mr. Dundas, ignorant +himself, had only to guard that ignorance from breaking out. As for +knowledge, he could not give what he did not possess, and the terrible +thing that he did know he was not likely to let appear. + +One day when the poor fellow broke down, as was not unusual with him +when asking about Leam--and Mr. Dundas read him like a book, all save +that one black page where the beloved name stood inscribed in letters of +his own heart's blood between the words "crime" and "murder"--with a +woman's liking for saying pleasant things which soothed those who heard +them, and did no hurt to those who said them save for the insignificant +manner in which falsehood hurts the soul, Sebastian, laying his hand +kindly on the poor fellow's angular shoulder, said, "I am sorry to know +as much as I do, Alick. There is no one to whom I would have given her +so readily as to you, my dear boy. Indeed, it was always one of my hopes +for the future, poor misguided child! and I can see that it was yours +too. Ah, how I grieve that it is impossible!" + +"Why impossible?" asked Alick, who had the faculty of faith, his pale +face flushing. + +Mr. Dundas turned white. A look not so much of pain as of abhorrence +came into his face. "Impossible!" he said vehemently. "I would not curse +my greatest enemy with my daughter's hand." + +Alick felt his blood run cold. What did he mean? Did he know all, or was +he speaking only with the angry feeling of a man who had been +disappointed and annoyed? There was a short pause. Then said Alick, +looking straight into Sebastian's eyes and speaking very slowly, but +with not too much emphasis, "I would hold myself blessed with her as my +wife had she even committed murder." + +Mr. Dundas started perceptibly. "Oh," he answered after a moment's +hesitation, with a forced and sickly kind of smile, "a silly girl's +wrong-headedness does not reach quite so far as that. She has done +wrong, miserably wrong, but between withdrawing herself from her +father's house and committing such a crime as murder there is rather a +wide difference. All the same, I am disgraced by her folly," angrily, +"and I will not let any one--not even you, Alick--know where she is." + +"That is cruel to those who love her," pleaded Alick, his eyes filling +with tears. + +"If cruel it is necessary," said Mr. Dundas. + +"But she must need friends about her now more than she ever did," urged +Alick. "Tell me at least where to find her, that I may do what I can to +console her." + +Mr. Dundas shook his head. "No," he said sternly, "She is dead to me, +and shall be dead to my friends. She is blotted out from my love, and I +will blot her out from my memory; and no one's persuasions can bring +back what is effaced. Now, my dear boy, let us understand one another. I +have surprised your secret: you love my daughter, and had she been +worthy of you I would have given her to you more willingly than to any +one I know. But she herself has fixed the gulf between us, which I will +not pass nor help any one else to pass. Learn to look on her as dead, +for she is dead to me, to you, to the world." + +"Never to me," cried Alick. "While she lives she must be always to me +what she has been from the first day I saw her. Whatever she has done, I +shall always love her as much as I do now." + +"You are faithful," replied Sebastian, "but trust me, boy, no woman that +ever lived was worth so much fidelity. I will protect you against your +own wish, and be your friend in spite of yourself. You shall not know +where she is, and you shall not throw yourself away on her. As she has +elected to be effaced, she shall be effaced--blotted out for ever." + +"Then I will consecrate my life to finding her," cried Alick warmly. + +Mr. Dundas shrugged his shoulders. "Who can persuade a willful man +against his folly?" he said coldly. "You are following a marsh-light, my +boy, and if you do find it you will only be landed in a bog." + +"If I find her I shall have found my reward," Alick answered with boyish +fervor. "It will be happiness enough for me if I can bring back one +smile to her face or lighten one hour of its sorrow." + +"Let well alone," said Mr. Dundas; but Alick answered, "Not till it is +well; and God will help me." + +Whereupon the interview ended, and Alick left the house, feeling +something as one of the knights of old might have felt when he had vowed +himself to the quest of the Holy Grail. + +When Mr. Dundas came home, naturally the families called, as in duty +bound and by inclination led. Excitement concerning Ford House was at +its height, for there were two things to keep it alive--the one to see +how the bride and bridegroom looked, the other to try and pick up +something definite about Leam. And among the rest came Mr. Gryce, with +his floating white locks falling about his bland cherubic face, his mild +blue eyes with their trick of turning red on small provocation, and his +lisping manner of speech, ingenuous, interrogatory, and knowing nothing +when interrogated in his turn--somehow gleaning full ears wherever he +passed, and dropping not even a solitary stalk of straw in return. He +expressed his sorrow that he had not seen lately his young friend, Miss +Dundas. + +"In my secluded life," he said, his eyelids reddening, "she is like a +beautiful bird that flashes through the dull sky for a moment, but +leaves the atmosphere brighter than before." He glanced round the room +as if looking for her. "I hope she is well?" he added, not attempting to +conceal a certain accent of disappointment at her absence. + +"Quite well when I heard from her," answered Mr. Dundas, doing his best +to speak without embarrassment. + +Mr. Gryce turned his face in frank astonishment on the speaker. "Ah! She +is from home, then?" he asked. + +"Yes," said Mr. Dundas curtly. + +"I had not heard," lisped the tenant of Lionnet. "But I myself have been +from home for a few days, and have just returned. Though, indeed, +present or absent, I know very little of my neighbors' doings, as you +may see. I did not even know that Miss Dundas was from home." + +"Yet it was pretty widely talked about," said Mr. Dundas, with a certain +suspicious glance at the cherubic face smiling innocently into his. + +"Doubtless the absence of Miss Dundas must have caused a gap," replied +Mr. Gryce, "but you see, as I said, I have been away myself, and when I +am at home I do not gossip." + +"Have--Where have you been?" asked Mr. Dundas abruptly, with that sudden +glance as suddenly withdrawn which tells of a half-formed suspicion +neither dwelt on nor clearly made out. + +"To Paris," said Mr. Gryce demurely. "I went to see--" + +"Oh! you went to see Notre Dame and La Madeleine of course," interrupted +Sebastian satirically. + +"No," answered Mr. Gryce with a cherubic smile. "Strange to say, I had +business connected with that odd drama of _Le Sphinx_." + +There was not much more talk after this, and Mr. Gryce soon took his +leave, desiring to be most respectfully remembered to Miss Dundas when +her father next wrote, and to say that he was keeping some pretty +specimens of moths for her on her return; both of which messages +Sebastian promised to convey at the earliest opportunity, improvising a +counter-remark of Leam's which he was sorry he could not remember +accurately, but it was something about butterflies and Mr. Gryce, though +what it was he could not positively say. + +"Never mind: I will take the will for the deed," said the naturalist as +he smiled himself through the doorway. + +And when he had gone Josephine declared that she did not care if he +never came again: there was something she did not like about him. Pushed +for a reason by her husband, who always assumed a logical and masculine +tone to her, she had not one to produce, but she stumbled as if by +chance on the word "sinister," which was just what Mr. Gryce was not. So +Sebastian made her go into the library for the dictionary and hunt up +the word through all its derivations, and thus proved to her +incontestably that she was ignorant of the English language and of human +nature in about equal proportions. + +It was soon remarked at the post-office that no letter addressed to Miss +Dundas ever left North Aston, and that none came to Mr. Dundas or any +one else in the queer, cramped handwriting which experience had taught +Mrs. Pepper, post-mistress as well as the keeper of the village general +shop, carried the sentiments of Leam Dundas. This caused a curious +little buzz in the lower parts of the hive when Mrs. Pepper mentioned +it to her friends and gossips; but as no fire can live without fresh +fuel, and as nothing whatever was heard of Leam to stimulate curiosity +or set new tales afloat, by degrees her name dropped out of the daily +discussions of the place, and she was no longer interesting, because she +had become used up and talked out. + +Only, Mr. Gryce wrote more frequently than had been his wont to Miss +Gryce at Windy Brow in Cumberland--conjectured to be his sister; and +only, Alick never ceased in his attempts to discover where his lost +queen was hidden, though these attempts had hitherto been hopelessly +baffled, partly because he had not an inch of foothold whence to make +his first spring, nor the thinnest clew to tell him which path to take. + +And as a purchaser, the final cause of whose existence seemed to have +been the unquestioning possession of Ford House, came suddenly on the +scene and took the whole thing as it stood, Sebastian and his wife left +the place, taking Fina with them, and migrated to Paris to finish their +interrupted honeymoon. So now it was supposed that the last link +connecting Leam with North Aston was broken, and that she was indeed +blotted out and for ever. + +True love is faithful, and Alick Corfield's love was true. Had all the +world forsaken her, he would have remained immovable in his old place +and attitude of devotion--the one fixed idea always possessing him to +find her in her retreat and restore her to self-respect and happiness by +his undying love. But how to find her? All sorts of mad projects passed +through his brain, but mad projects need some methods, and methods in +harmony with existing conditions, if they are to bring success; and +Alick's vague resolves to go out and look for her had no more meaning in +them than the random moves of a bad chessplayer. + +Had Sir Lancelot lived at the present time, he would have gone to +Camelot by express, like meaner souls; and had Sir Galahad set out on +his quest in the latter half of the nineteenth century, he would have +either advertised in the newspapers or have employed a detective for +the first part of his undertaking. So, had Alick gone to Scotland Yard +and taken the police into his confidence, Leam would have been found in +less than a week; but as he shrank from bringing her into contact with +the force mainly associated with crime, he was left to his own devices +unassisted, and these devices ended only in constantly-recurring +disappointment, and consequent increase of sorrow. + +His sorrow indeed was so great, and told on him so heavily, that every +one said he was going to die. He had been left thin and gaunt enough by +his illness, but distress of mind, coupled with weakness of body, +reduced him to a kind of sketchy likeness of Don Quixote--his pure soul +and honest nature the only beautiful things about him--while his +mother's heart was as nearly broken as his own. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +WINDY BROW. + + +While North Aston was employing its time in wondering, and Alick +Corfield was breaking his heart in sorrowing, Leam was doing battle with +her despair and distress at Windy Brow--doing the best she could to keep +her senses clear and to live through the penance which she had inflicted +on herself. + +So far, Mrs. Pepper's conclusions, based on a badly-gummed envelope, +were right: Miss Gryce of Windy Brow was the sister of Mr. Gryce of +Lionnet, though even Mrs. Pepper did not know that Leam Dundas, under +the name of Leonora Darley, was living with her. + +It is not the most obvious agents that are the most influential. The +greatest things in Nature are the work of the smallest creatures, and +our lives are manipulated far more by unseen influences, known only to +ourselves, than by those patent to the world. In all North Aston, Mr. +Gryce was the man who had apparently the least hold on the place and the +slightest connection with the people. He had come there by accident and +by choice lived in retirement, though also by choice he had not been +there a month before he knew all there was to be known of every +individual for miles round. The merest chances had made him personally +acquainted with Sebastian Dundas--those chances his tenancy of Lionnet +and the slight attack of fever which called forth his landlord's +sentiment and pity. Through the father he came to know the daughter, +when the prying curiosity of his nature, his liking for secret influence +and concealed action, together with the kind heart at bottom, and his +real affection for the girl whose confidence he had partly forced and +partly won, threw the whole secret into his hands and made him master of +the situation--the keeper of the seal set against the writings whom no +one suspected of complicity. This was exactly the kind of thing he +liked, and the kind of thing that suited him, human mole, born detective +and conspirator as he was. + +When Leam met him in the wood on the evening of her confession to Edgar, +she met him with the deliberate intention of confessing her fearful +secret to him too, and of asking him to help her to escape, like the +friend which he had promised he would be. She knew that it was +impossible for her now to live at North Aston, and the sole desire she +had was to be blotted out, as she had been. + +There was no excitement about her, no feverish exaltation that would +burn itself cold before twenty-four hours were over--only the dead +dreariness of heartbreak, the tenacious resolution of despair. She +neither wept nor wrung her hands, but quiet, pale, rigid, she told her +terrible story in the low and level tones in which a Greek Fate might +have spoken, as sad and as immutable. She had sinned, and now had made +such atonement as she could by confession--to her lover to save him from +pollution, to her father to cancel his obligations to her, to her friend +to be helped in her lifelong penance. This done, she had strengthened +herself to bear all that might come to her with that resignation of +remorse which demands no rights and inherits no joys. She was not one of +those emotional half-hearted creatures who resolve one day, break down +the next, and drift always. For good and evil alike she had the power to +hold where she had gripped and to maintain what she had undertaken; and +even her life at Windy Brow did not shake her. + +And that life might well have shaken both a stronger mind and even a +more resolute will than hers. + +A square stone house of eight rooms, set on a bleak fell-side where the +sun never shone, where no fruits ripened, no flowers bloomed and no +trees grew, save here and there a dwarfed and twisted thorn covered with +pale gray lichen and bent by the wind into painful deformity of +growth--a house which had no garden, only a strip of rank, coarse grass +before the windows, with a potato-patch and kail-yard to the side; where +was no adornment within or without, no beauty of color, no softness of +line, merely a rugged, lonesome, square stone tent set up on a +mountain-spur, as it would seem for the express reception of tortured +penitents not seeking to soften sorrow,--this was Windy Brow, the +patrimony of the Gryces, where Keziah, Emmanuel's eldest sister, lived +and had lived these sixty years and more. + +The house stood alone. Monk Grange, the hamlet to which it +geographically belonged--a place as bleak and bare as itself, and which +seemed to have been flung against the fell-foot as if a brick-layer's +hodman had pitched the hovels at haphazard anyhow--was two good miles +away, and the market-town, to be got at only by crossing a dangerous +moor, was nine miles off--as far as Sherrington from North Aston. + +The few poor dwellers in Monk Grange had little to do with the +market-town. They lived mostly on what they managed to raise and rear +among themselves--holding braxy mutton good enough for feast-days, and +oatmeal porridge all the year round the finest food for men and bairns +alike. As for the gudewives' household necessaries, they were got by the +carrier who passed once a fortnight on their road; and for the rest, if +aught was wanting more than that which they had, they did without, and, +according to the local saying, "want was t' master." + +Society of a cultured kind there was none. The clergyman was an old man +little if it all superior to the flock to which he ministered. He was a +St. Bees man, the son of a handloom weaver, speaking broad Cumberland +and hopelessly "dished" by a hard word in the Bible. He was fond of his +glass, and was to be found every day of his life from three to nine at +the Blucher, smoking a clay pipe and drinking rum and milk. He had never +married, but he was by no means an ascetic in his morals, as more than +one buxom wench in his parish had proved; and in all respects he was an +anachronism, the like of which is rare now among the fells and dales, +though at one time it was the normal type for the clergy of the remoter +North Country districts. + +This old sinner--Priest Wilson as he was called--and Miss Gryce of Windy +Brow represented the wealth and intellect of a place which was at the +back of everything, out of the highway of life and untouched by the +progress of history or science. And the one was not very much superior +to the other save in moral cleanliness; which, however, counts for +something. + +If North Aston had said with a sniff that Mr. Gryce was not +thoroughbred, what would have been its verdict on Sister Keziah? He at +least had rubbed off some of the native fell-side mould by rolling about +foreign parts, gathering experience if not moss, and becoming rich in +knowledge if not in guineas; but Keziah, who had spent the last twenty +years of her life in close attendance on a paralytic old mother, had +stiffened as she stood, and the local mould encrusting her was very +thick. Nevertheless, she too had a good heart if a rough hand, and, +though eccentric almost to insanity, as one so often finds with people +living out of the line and influence of public opinion, yet was as sound +at the core as she was rude and odd in the husk. + +She was a small woman, lean, wrinkled, and with a curious mixture of +primness and slovenliness in her dress. She wore a false front, which +she called a topknot, the small, crimped, deep-brown mohair curls of +which were bound about her forehead with a bit of black velvet ribbon, +while gray hairs straggled from underneath to make the patent sham more +transparent still; and over her topknot she wore a rusty black cap that +enclosed the keen monkeyish face like a ruff. Her every-day gown was one +of coarse brown camlet, any number of years old, darned and patched till +it was like a Joseph's coat; and the Rob Roy tartan shawl which she +pinned across her bosom hid a state of dilapidation which even she did +not care should be seen. She wore a black stuff apron full of fine tones +from fruit-stains and fire-scorchings; and she took snuff. + +She was reputed to be worth a mort of money, and she had saved a goodly +sum. It would have been more had she had the courage to invest it; but +she had a profound distrust of all financial speculations--had not +Emmanuel lost his share by playing at knucklebones with it in the +City?--and she was not the fool to follow my leader into the mire. For +her part, she put her trust in teapots and stockings, with richer hoards +wrapped in rags and sewn up in the mattress, and here a few odd pounds +under the rice and there a few hidden in the coffee. That was her idea +of a banking account, and she held it to be the best there was. + +"Don't lend your hat," she used to say, "and then you'll not have to go +bareheaded." And sometimes, talking of loans on securities, she would +take a pinch of snuff and say she "reckoned nowt of that man who locked +his own granary door and gave another man the key." + +To all appearance, she lived only to scrape and hoard, moidering away +her loveless life on the futile energies and sordid aims of a miser's +wretched pleasures. But every now and then she had risen up out of the +slough into which she had gradually sunk, and had done some grand things +that marked her name with so many white stones. While she gloried in her +skill in filching from the pig what would serve the chickens, in making +Jenny go short to save to-day's baking of havre-bread, in skimping Tim's +bowl of porridge--his appetite being a burden on her estate which she +often declared would break her--she had more than once given a hundred +pounds at a blow to build a raft for a poor drowning wretch who must +otherwise have sunk. In fact, she was one of those people who are small +with the small things of life and great with the great--who will grudge +a daily dole of a few threshed-out stalks of straw, but who sometimes, +when rightly touched, will shower down with both hands full sheaves of +golden grain. That is, she had mean aims, a bad temper, no imagination, +but the capacity for pity and generosity on occasions. + +Above all things, she hated to be put out of the way or intruded on. +When her brother Emmanuel came down on her without a word of warning, +bringing a girl with eyes that, as she said, made her feel foolish to +look at, and a manner part scared, part stony, and wholly unconformable, +telling her to keep this precious-bit madam like a bale of goods till +called for, and to do the best with it she could, she was justified, she +said, in splurging against his thoughtlessness and want of +consideration, taking a body like that all of a heap, without With your +leave or By your leave, or giving one a chance of saying Yes I will, or +No I won't. + +But though she splurged she gave way; and after she had fumed and +fussed, heckled the maid and harried the man, said she didn't see as how +she could, and she didn't think as how she would, sworn there was no +bedding fit to use, and that she had no place for the things--apples and +onions chiefly--that were in the spare room if she gave it up for the +young lass's use, she seemed to quiet down, and going over to Leam, +standing mutely by the black-boarded fireplace, put on her spectacles, +peered up into her face, and said in shrill tones, rasping as a saw, +though she meant to be kind, "Ah, well! I suppose it must be; so go your +ways up stairs with Jenny, bairn, and make yourself at home. It's little +I have for a fine young miss like you to play with, but what I have +you're welcome to; so make no bones about it: d'ye hear?" + +"But I am in your way," said Leam, not moving. "You do not want me?" + +Miss Gryce laughed. "Want ye?" she shouted. "Want ye, do you say? Nay, +nay, honey, it was no wanting of you or your marras that would ever have +given me a headache, I'll ensure ye. But now that you are here you can +bide as long as you've a mind; and you're welcome kindly. And Emmanuel +there knows that my word is as good as my bond, and what I say I mean." + +"Am I to stay?" asked Leam, turning to Mr. Gryce with a certain forced +humility which showed how much it cost her to submit. + +"Yes," he answered, less cheerfully and more authoritatively than was +his manner at North Aston, speaking without a lisp and with a full +Cumberland accent. "It is the best thing I can do for you--all I have to +offer." + +To which Leam bent her sad head with pathetic patience--pathetic indeed +to those who knew the proud spirit that it reported broken and humbled +for ever. Following the red-armed, touzled, ragged maid to the dingy +cabin that was to be her room, she left her friend to explain to his +sister, so far as he chose and could, the necessity under which he found +himself of leaving his adopted daughter, Leonora Darley, in her care for +a week or two, until such time as he should return and claim her. + +"Your adopted daughter? God bless my soul, man! but you are the daftest +donnet I ever saw on two legs!" cried Keziah, snatching up the coarse +gray knitting which was the sole unanchored circumstance in the room and +casting off her heel viciously. "What call had you to adopt a +daughter--you with never a wife to mother her nor a house of your own to +take her to? For I reckon nowt of your furnished houses here and your +beggarly apartments there, as you know. And now you can do nothing +better than bring her here to fash the life out of me before the week's +over! But that's always the way with you men. You talk precious big, but +it's mighty little you put your hands to; and when you hack out yokes +for which you get a deal of praise, you take care not to bear them on +your own backs. It's us women who have to do that." + +"One would have supposed you would have liked a pretty young thing like +that in the house. You are lonesome enough here, and it makes a little +life," said Emmanuel quietly. + +He knew his sister Keziah, and that she must have her head when the +talking fit was on her. + +"'A pretty young thing like that!'" she repeated scornfully. "Lord love +you, born cuddy as you are! What's her good looks to me, I wonder, but a +pound spent on a looking-glass, and Jenny taken off her work to make +cakes and butter-sops for her dainty teeth? We'll have all the men-folk +too havering round to see which of 'em may have the honor of ruining +himself for my fine lady. And I'll not have it, I tell ye. I'll not have +my house turned into a fair, with madam there as the show. Life! what do +I want with 'life' about me, or you either, Emmanuel? I've got my right +foot in the grave, and I reckon yours is not far off; and what we've +both got to do now is to see that we make a good ending for our souls." + +"At all events, you don't refuse to take her for a week or two?" asked +Emmanuel innocently. + +"Did I say I refused? Did I send her up stairs as the nighest road to +the street-door?" retorted his sister with disdain. "Did I not tell you, +as plain as tongue could speak, that she is welcome to her bit and sup, +and I'll pass the time away for her in the best way I can, though bad is +the best, I reckon?" + +"Well, well, you are a good body," said her brother. + +"Ay," she answered, "I am good enough when I jump your way. But tell me, +Emmanuel," changing from the disdain of the superior creature holding +forth on high matters to the inferior to the familiar gossip of the +natural woman, "what's to do with her? It's as plain as a pike-staff +that something is troubling her, and maybe it will be some of your love +nonsense? for it's mainly that as fashes the lasses. Good Lord! I'm +thankful I was never hindered that way." + +"Yes," said Mr. Gryce, "she has had what you women call a +disappointment; and," speaking with unusual energy, "the man was a fool +and a coward, and she has had a lucky escape." + +"Say ye? If so, then there is no call for her to carry on," said Keziah +philosophically. "But the poor bairn's looking wantle enough now, though +I warrant me the fell-side air will brisk her up in no time." + +"I hope it will," said her brother. + +"What does she eat, now? You see, now I've got the lass on my hands, I +cannot hunger her," said Keziah. "Not that I can give her dainties and +messes," she added hastily, the miser's cloak suddenly covering the +woman's heart. "She'll have to take what we get, and be thankful for her +meat. Still, it's as well to know what a body's been accustomed to when +they come like this, all of a heap." + +"Don't fash yourself about her," answered Emmanuel. "Do what you +can--that you will, I know--but leave her to herself: that's the way for +her. She's an odd little body, and the least said the soonest mended +with Leam." + +"With who, d'ye say?" asked Keziah sharply. + +"Lean--Leonora," said Emmanuel cherubically. + +"Well, I wouldn't call a daughter of mine after old Pharaoh's kine," +snapped Keziah with supreme scorn; and at that moment Leam came into the +room, and Keziah bustled out of it to tig after Jenny and ding at Tim, +as these two faithful servitors were wont to express the way of their +mistress toward them. + +"My dear, I did not know that things were so miserable here for you, but +you must just bide here till the scent grows cold, and then I'll come +for you and put you where you'll be better off," said Mr. Gryce kindly +when he was alone with Leam. + +"This will do," said Leam, suppressing a shudder as she looked round +the little room, where what had originally been a rhubarb-colored +paper--chosen because it was a good wearing color--was patched here and +there with scraps of newspapers or bits of other patterned papers; where +the huge family Bible and a few musty and torn odd volumes of the +_Spectator_ and the _Tatler_ comprised the sole library; and where the +only ornaments on the chimneypiece were three or four bits of lead ore +from the Roughton Gill mines, above Caldbeck. + +"You have been used to something far different," said Emmanuel, +compassionately. + +"My past is over," she answered in a low voice. + +"But you'll come to a better future," he cried, his mild blue eyes +watery and red. + +"Shall I? When I die?" was her reply as she passed her hand wearily over +her forehead, and wished--ah, how ardently!--that the question might +answer itself now at once. + +But the young live against their will, and Leam, though bruised and +broken, had still the grand vitality of youth to support her. Of the +stuff of which in a good cause martyrs, in a bad criminals, are made, +she accepted her position at Windy Brow with the very heroism of +resignation. She never complained, though every circumstance, every +condition, was simply torture; and so soon as she saw what she was +expected to do, she did it without remonstrance or reluctance. Her life +there was like a lesson in a foreign language which she had undertaken +to learn by heart, and she gave herself to her task loyally. But it was +suffering beyond even what Emmanuel Gryce supposed or Keziah ever +dreamed of. She, with the sun of the South in her veins, her dreams of +pomegranates and orange-groves, of music and color and bright blue +skies, of women as beautiful as mamma, of that one man--not of the +South, but fit to have been the godlike son of Spain--suddenly +translated from soft and leafy North Aston to a bleak fell-side in the +most desolate corner of Cumberland--where for lush hedges were cold, +grim gray stone walls, and the sole flowers to be seen gorse which she +could not gather, and heather which had no perfume--to a house set so +far under the shadow that it saw the sun only for three months in the +year, and where her sole companion was old Keziah Gryce, ill-favored in +person, rough of mood if true of soul, or creatures even worse than +herself;--she, with that tenacious loyalty, that pride and concentrated +passion, that dry reserve and want of general benevolence characteristic +of her, to be suddenly cast among uncouth strangers whose ways she must +adopt, and who were physically loathsome to her; dead to the only man +she loved, his love for her killed by her own hand, herself by her own +confession accursed; and to bear it all in silent patience,--was it not +heroic? Had she been more plastic than she was, the effort would not +have been so great. Being what she was, it was grand; and made as it was +for penitence, it had in it the essential spirit of saintliness. For +saintliness comes in small things as well as great, and George Herbert's +swept room is a true image. There was saintliness in the docility with +which she rose at six and went to bed at nine; saintliness in the quiet +asceticism with which she ate porridge for breakfast and porridge for +supper--at the first honestly believing it either a joke or an insult, +and that they had given her pigs' food to try her temper; saintliness in +the silence with which she accepted her dinners, maybe a piece of fried +bacon and potatoes, or a huge mess of apple-pudding on washing-days, or +a plate of poached eggs cooked in a pan not over clean; saintliness in +the enforced attention which she gave to Keziah's rambling stories of +her pigs and her chickens, her mother's ailments, Jenny's shortcomings +in the matter of sweepings and savings, Tim's wastefulness in the garden +over the kailrunts, and the hardships of life on a lone woman left with +only a huzzy to look after her; saintliness in the repression of that +proud, fastidious self to which Keziah's familiarity and snuff, Jenny's +familiarity and disorder, the smell of the peat--which was the only fuel +they burnt--reeking through the house, and the utter ugliness and +barren discomfort of everything about, were hourly miseries which she +would once have repudiated with her most cutting scorn; saintliness in +the repression of that self indeed at all four corners, and the resolute +submission to her burden because it was her fitting punishment. + +So the sad days wore on, and the fell-side air had not yet brisked up +Emmanuel's adopted daughter as his sister prophesied. Indeed, she seemed +slighter and paler than ever, and if possible more submissive to her lot +and more taciturn. And as her intense quietude of bearing suited Miss +Gryce, who could not bear to be fussed, and time proved her douce and +not fashious, she became quite a favorite with her rough-grained +hostess, who wondered more and more where Emmanuel had picked her up, +and whose bairn she really was. + +Her only pleasure was in wandering over the fells, whence she could see +the tops of the Derwentwater mountains, and from some points a glimpse +of blue Bassanthwaite flowing out into the open; where mountain-tarns, +lying like silver plates in the purple distance, were her magic shows, +seen only in certain lights, and more often lost than found; whence she +could look over the broad Carlisle plain and dream of that day on the +North Aston moor when she first met Edgar Harrowby; and whence the +glittering strip of the Solway against the horizon made her yearn to be +in one of the ships which she could dimly discern passing up and down, +so that she might leave England for ever and lay down the burden of her +life and her sorrow in mamma's dear land. + +So the hours passed, dreary as Mariana's, and hopeless as those wherein +we stand round the grave and know that the end of all things has come. +And while North Aston wondered, and Alick mourned, and Edgar repented of +his past folly with his handsome head in Adelaide's lap, Leam Dundas +moved slowly through the shadow to the light, and from her chastisement +gathered that sweet grace of patience which redeemed her soul and raised +her from sin to sanctity. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +LOST AND NOW FOUND. + + +In bringing up Alick tied tight to her apron-strings, feeding him on +moral pap, putting his mind into petticoats, and seeking to make him +more of a woman than a man, Mrs. Corfield had defeated her design and +destroyed her own influence. During his early growth the boy had yielded +to her without revolt, because he was more modest than +self-assertive--had no solid point of resistance and no definite purpose +for which to resist; but after his college career he developed on an +independent line, and his soul escaped altogether from his mother's +hold. Had she let him ripen into manhood in the freedom of natural +development, she would have been his chosen friend and confidante to the +end: having invaded the most secret chambers of his mind, and sought to +mould every thought according to the pattern which she held best, when +the reaction set in the pendulum swung back in proportion to its first +beat; and as a protest against his former thraldom he now made her a +stranger to his inner life and shut her out inexorably from the holy +place of his sorrow. + +The mother felt her son's mind slipping from her, but what could she do? +Who can set time backward or reanimate the dead? Day by day found him +more silent and more suffering, the poor little woman nearly as +miserable as himself. But the name of Leam, standing as the spectre +between them, was never mentioned after Mrs. Corfield's first outburst +of indignation at her flight--indignation not because she was really +angry with Leam, but because Alick was unhappy. + +After Alick's stern rejoinder, "Mother, the next time you speak ill of +Leam Dundas I will leave your house for ever," the subject dropped by +mutual consent, but it was none the less a living barrier between them +because raised and maintained in silence. + +"Oh, these girls! these wicked girls!" Mrs. Corfield had said with a +mother's irrational anger when speaking of the circumstance to her +husband. "We bring up our boys only for them to take from us. As soon +as they begin to be some kind of comfort and to repay the anxiety of +their early days, then a wretched little huzzy steps in and makes one's +life in vain." + +"Just so, my dear," said Dr. Corfield quietly. "These were the identical +words which my mother said to me when I told her I was going to marry +you." + +"Your mother never liked me, and I did like Leam," said Mrs. Corfield +tartly. + +"As Leam Dundas, maybe; but as Leam the wife of your son, I doubt it." + +"If Alick had liked it--" said Mrs. Corfield, half in tears. + +"You would have been jealous," returned her husband. "No: all girls are +only daughters of Heth to the mothers of Jacobs, and I never knew one +whom a mother thought good enough for her boy." + +"You need not discredit your own flesh and blood for a stranger," cried +Mrs. Corfield crossly; and the mute man with an aggravating smile +suddenly seemed to repent of his unusual loquacity, and gradually +subsided into himself and his calculations, from which he was so rarely +aroused. + +Alick, ceasing to make a confidante of his mother, began to make a +friend of Mr. Gryce. Perhaps it ought rather to be said that Mr. Gryce +began to make a friend of him. The old philosopher, with that corkscrew +mind of his, knew well enough what was amiss with the poor lank-visaged +curate. Being of the order of the benevolent busybodies fond of playing +Providence, how mole-like soever his method, he had marked out a little +plan of his own by which he thought he could make all the crooked roads +run straight and discord flow into harmony. But he too fell into the +mistake common to busybodies, benevolent and otherwise--treating souls +as if they were machines to be wound up and kept going by the clockwork +of an extraneous will and neatly manipulated by well-arranged +circumstance. + +One day he joined Alick in his walk to an outlying cottage of the +parish, where the husband was sick and the wife and children short of +food, and the Church sent its prayer-book and ministers as the best +substitute it knew for a wholesome dwelling and sufficient wages. +Theology was not much in the way of an old heathen who reduced all +religions save Mohammedanism to the transmuted presentation of the +archaic solar myth, and who thought Buddhism far ahead of every other +creed; but he liked the man Alick, if the parson bored him, and he was +caressing a plan which he had in his pocket. + +"You find your life here satisfying, I suppose?" he began, his blue eyes +looking into the wayside banks for creatures. + +"Is any life?" answered Alick, his eyes turned to the vague distance. + +"Not fully: the spirit of progress, working by discontent, forbids the +social stagnation of rest and thankfulness; but we can come to something +that suffices for our daily wants if it does not satisfy all our +longings. Work in harmony with our nature, and doing good here and there +when we can, both these help us on. But the work must be harmonious and +the good we do manifest." + +"So far as that goes, Church-work is pleasant to me--all, indeed, I care +for or am fit for; but North Aston is stony ground," said Alick. + +"Can you wonder? When the husbandman-in-chief is such a man as Mr. +Birkett, you must make your account with stones and weeds. The spiritual +cannot flourish under the hand of the unspiritual; and, considering the +pastor, the flock is far from bad." + +"That may be, but we do not like to live only in comparatives," said +Alick. "I confess I should be happier in a cure where I was more of one +mind with my rector than I am here, and not decried or ridiculed on +account of every scheme for good that I might propose. Parish-work here +is shamefully neglected, but Mr. Birkett will not let me do anything to +mend it." + +"Ah!" said Mr. Gryce, catching a luckless curculio by the way, "that is +bad. A more harmonious one would certainly be, as you say, far more +agreeable. Or a little parish of your own--a parish, however small, +which would be all your own, and you not under the control of any one +below your diocesan? How would that do? That would be my affair if I +were in the Church." + +Alick's face lightened. "Yes," he said, "that is my dream--at least one +of them. I would not care how small the place might be, if I had supreme +control and might work unhindered in my own way." + +"It will come," said Mr. Gryce cheerily. "All things come in time to him +who knows how to wait." + +"Ah, if I could believe that!" sighed Alick, thinking of Leam. + +"Take my word for it," returned Mr. Gryce. "It will do you no harm to +have a dash of rose-color in your rather sombre life; and Hope, if it +tells flattering tales, does not always tell untrue ones." + +"I fear my hope has flattered me untruly," said Alick, his faithful +heart still on Leam. + +Mr. Gryce captured a caterpillar wandering across the road. "Conduct is +fate," he said. "If this poor fellow had not been troubled with a fit of +restlessness, but had been content to lie safely hidden among the +grass-roots where he was born, he would not have been caught. Yes, +conduct is fate for a captive caterpillar as well as for man." + +"And yet who can foresee?" said Alick. "We all walk in the dark +blindfold." + +"As you say, who can foresee? That makes perhaps the hardship of it, but +it does not alter the fact. Blindly walking or with our eyes wide open, +our steps determine our destiny, and our goal is reached by our own +endeavors. We ourselves are the artificers of our lives, and mould them +according to our own pattern." + +"But that part of our lives which is under the influence of another? How +can we manipulate that?" said Alick. "Love and loss are twin powers +which create or crush without our co-operation." + +"I only know one irreparable manner of loss--that by death," said Mr. +Gryce steadfastly. "For all others while there is life there is hope, +and I hold nothing, beyond the power of the will to remedy." + +"I wish I could believe that," Alick sighed again; and again Mr. Gryce +said cheerily, "Then take that too on trust, and believe me if you do +not believe in your own inborn elasticity, your own power of doing and +undoing." + +"There are some things which can never come right when they have once +gone wrong," said Alick. + +"You think so? I know very few," his companion answered in the hearty, +inspiriting manner which he had used all through the interview, talking +with a broader accent and lisping less than usual, looking altogether +more manly and less cherubic than his wont. "I am a believer myself in +the power of the will and holding on." After a pause he added suddenly, +"You would be really glad of a small living, no matter where situated, +nor how desolate and unimportant, where you would be sole master?" + +"Yes," said Alick. "If I could win over one soul to the higher life, I +should count myself repaid for all my exertions. We must all have our +small beginnings." + +"I am an odd old fellow, as you know, Mr. Corfield," laughed Emmanuel +Gryce. "Give me your hand: I can sometimes see a good deal of the future +in the hand." + +Alick blushed and looked awkward, but he gave his bony, ill-shaped hand +all the same. + +After a little while, during which Mr. Gryce had bent this finger this +way and that finger another way, had counted the lines made by the +bended wrist, and had talked half to himself of the line of Jupiter and +the line of Saturn, the line of life and that of Venus, he said quietly, +"You will have your wish, and soon. I see a most important change of +residence at about this time, which in conjunction with this," pointing +to a small cross at the root of the fourth finger, "will be certainly to +your advantage." + +"How strange!" said Alick. "One scarcely knows whether to laugh at it +all as old wives' fables or to believe in the mysterious forewarnings of +fate, the foremarkings of the future." + +"There are more things in heaven and earth--" said Mr. Gryce. "And we +know so little we may well believe a trifle more." + +The fact was, all this was founded on these circumstances: He had at +this moment a letter in his pocket from his sister Keziah telling him +that old Priest Wilson had been found dead in his bed last night; the +bishop's chaplain was a friend of his, both having been at the same +station in India; and the perpetual curacy of Monk Grange was one which, +if offices went according to their ratio of unpleasantness, a man should +have been paid a large income to take. Hence there was no chance of a +rush for the preferment, and the bishop would be grateful for any +intimation of a willing martyr. Through all of which chinks whereby to +discover the future Mr. Gryce founded his prophecy; and through them, +too, it came about that he proved a true prophet. In three days' time +from this the post brought a letter to Alick Corfield from the bishop +offering him the perpetual curacy of Monk Grange, income seventy pounds +a year and a house. + +Before speaking even to his mother, Alick rushed off with this letter to +Mr. Gryce. The old leaven of superstition which works more or less in +all of us--even those few who think proof a desirable basis for belief, +and who require an examination conducted on scientific principles before +they accept supernaturalism as "only another law coming in to modify +those already known"--that superstition which belongs to most men, and +to Alick with the rest, made this letter a matter of tremendous +excitement to him. He saw in it the hand of God and the finger of Fate. +It was impossible that Mr. Gryce, living at North Aston, should know +anything of a small country incumbency in the North. It was all that +study made of his poor parched and knuckly hand. And what had been seen +there was manifestly the thing ruled for him by Providence and destiny. + +"How could you possibly tell?" he cried, looking at his own hand as if +he could read it as his clever friend had done. + +"That is my secret," said Emmanuel, smiling at the credulity on which he +traded. Then, thinking a flutter outward of the corners of his cards the +best policy in the circumstances about them at the moment, he added, +"And when you get there you will understand more than you do now. For +you will go?" + +"Surely," said Alick: "it would be unfaithful in me to refuse." + +"But see if you cannot make arrangements to take the place on trial for +a few months. I know very little of your ecclesiastical law, but grant +even that it is as devoid of common sense as I should suppose--seeing +who are the men who make, administer and obey it--still, I should think +that a temporary incumbency might be arranged." + +"I should think so, and I will take your advice," said Alick, over whom +Emmanuel Gryce was fast establishing the power which belongs to the +stronger over the weaker, to the more astute over the more dense. + +"You will find an adopted daughter of mine in the neighborhood," then +said Mr. Gryce with the most amiable indifference. "She lives with my +sister at our old home on the fell-side: Windy Brow the place is called. +You must tell me how she looks and what you think of her altogether when +you write to me, as I suppose you will do, or when you come home, if you +elect not to take the cure even on trial." + +"I am not much in the way of criticising young ladies," said Alick +sadly. + +"She is rather a remarkable girl, all things considered," returned Mr. +Gryce quietly. "Her name is Leonora Darley. You will remember--Leonora +Darley. Ask for her when you go up to Windy Brow: Leonora Darley," for +the third time. + +"All right: Miss Leonora Darley," repeated Alick, suspecting nothing; +and again Mr. Gryce smiled as he dug his fingers into the earth of a +chrysalis-box. How pleasant it was to pull the strings and see his +puppets dance! + +Of course, Mr. Birkett's consent was a necessary preliminary to Alick's +departure, but there was no difficulty about it. The military rector was +tired to death, so he used to say, of his zealous young aide-de-camp, +and hailed the prospect of getting rid of him handsomely with a frank +pleasure not flattering to poor Alick's self-love. "Certainly, my dear +boy, certainly," he said. "It will be better for you to have a place of +your own, where you can carry out your new ideas. You see I am an old +man now, and have learnt the value of letting well alone. You are in all +the fever-time of zeal, and believe that vice and ignorance are like the +walls of Jericho, to fall down when you blow your trump. I do not. But +on the whole, it is as well that you should learn the realities of life +for yourself, and carry your energies where they may be useful." + +"Then you do not mind?" asked Alick boyishly. + +The rector gave a loud clear laugh. "Mind! a thousand times no," he +said, rubbing his plump white hands. "I can manage well enough alone, +and if I cannot there are dozens of young eligibles ready to jump at the +place. Mind! no. Go in Heaven's name, and may you be blessed in your +undertaking!" + +The last words came in as grace-lines, and with them Alick felt himself +dismissed. + +If the rector had been facile to deal with, Mrs. Corfield was not. When +she heard of the proposed arrangement, and that she was to lose her boy +for the second time out of her daily life, and more permanently than +before, her grief was as intense as if she had been told of his +approaching death. She wept bitterly, and even bent herself to entreaty; +but Alick, to whom North Aston had become a dungeon of pain since Leam +went, held pertinaciously to his plan--not without sorrow, but surely +without yielding. He was fascinated by the idea of a cure where he might +be sole master, not checked by rectorial ridicule when he wished to +establish night schools or clothing clubs, penny savings banks, or any +other of the schemes in vogue for the good of the poor; thinking too, +not unwisely, that the best heal-all for his sorrow was to be found in +change of scene and more arduous work together. Also, he thought that if +his vague tentative advertisements in the papers, which he dared not +make too evident, had as yet brought nothing, some more satisfactory +way of discovering Leam's hiding-place might shape itself when he was +alone, freer to act as he thought best. On all of which accounts he +resisted his mother's grief, and his own at seeing her grieve, and +decided on going down to Monk Grange the next day. + +Had not Dr. Corfield been ailing at this time, the mother would have +accompanied her son. The possibility of damp sheets weighed heavy on her +mind; and landladies who filch from the tea-caddy, with landladies' +girls, pert and familiar, preparing insidious gruel and seductive cups +of coffee, were the lions which her imagination conjured up as prowling +for her Alick through the fastnesses of Monk Grange. Circumstances, +however, were stronger than her desire; and, happily for Alick, she was +perforce obliged to remain at home while her darling went out from the +paternal nest to shake those limp wings of his, and bear himself up +unassisted in a new atmosphere in the best way he could. + +It was on the cold and rainy evening of a cold and rainy summer's day +that Alick arrived at Monk Grange--an evening without a sunset or a +moon, stars or a landscape; painful, mournful, as those who dwell in the +North Country know only too well as the tears on its face of beauty. He +had driven in a crazy old gig from Wigton, and the nine miles which lay +between that not too brilliant town and the desolate fell-side hamlet +which he had been so fain to make his own spiritual domain had not been +such as disposed him to a cheerful view of things. The rain had fallen +in a steady, pitiless downpour, which seemed to soak through every outer +covering and to penetrate the very flesh and marrow of the tired +traveler as it pattered noisily on the umbrella and streamed over the +leather apron; and the splash of the horse's hoofs through the liquid +mud and broad tracts of standing water was as dreary as the "splash, +splash" of Buerger's ballad. And when all this was over, and they drew up +at the Blucher, with its handful of desolate gray hovels round it, the +heart of the man sank at the gloomy surroundings into the midst of which +he had flung himself. But the zeal of the churchman was as good a tonic +for him as the best common sense, and he waited until to-morrow and +broad daylight before he allowed himself to even acknowledge an +impression. The warm fireside at the Blucher cheered him too, and his +supper of eggs and bacon and fresh crisp havre-bread satisfied such of +his physical cravings as, unsatisfied, make a man's spiritual +perceptions very gaunt. + +He went to bed, slept, and the next day woke up to a glory of sun and +sky, a brilliancy of coloring, a photographic sharpness and clearness of +form, a suggestion of beauty beyond that which was seen, which +transformed the place as if an angel had passed through it in the night. +As he tramped about the sordid hamlet he forgot the rude uncouthness of +men and place for a kind of ecstasy at the loveliness about him. Every +jutting rock of granite shone in the sun like polished jasper, and the +numberless little rills trickling down the fell-sides were as threads of +silver, now concealed in the gold of the gorse, and now whitening the +purple of the heather. The air was full of blithesome sounds. Overhead +the sky-larks sang in jocund rivalry, mounting higher and higher as if +they would have beaten their wings against the sun: the bees made the +heather and the thyme musical as they flew from flower to flower, and +the tinkling of the running rills was like the symphony to a changeful +theme. It was in real truth a transformation, and the new-comer into the +fitful, seductive, disappointing North felt all its beauty, all its +meaning, and gave himself up to his delight as if such a day as +yesterday had never been. + +After he had done what he wished to do in the village, he went up the +fell-side road to Windy Brow, and, obeying his instructions, asked when +he got there "if Miss Leonora Darley was at home." + +"Na, she bain't," said Jenny, eying poor innocent Alick as a colley +might eye a wolf sniffing about the fold. "T' auld mistress is." + +"Say Mr. Corfield, please," said Alick; and Jenny, telling him to "gang +intilt parlor," scuffled off to Keziah, pottering over some pickled red +cabbage, which made the house smell like a vinegar-cask. + +"I've heard tell of you," said Miss Gryce as she came in wiping her +hands on a serviceable and by no means luxurious cloth: "Emmanuel wrote +me a letter about you. You're kindly welcome to Monk Grange, but you're +only a haverel to look at. Take a seat, and tell me--how's Emmanuel, my +brother?" + +"He was well when I saw him the day before yesterday: at least he said +nothing to the contrary," answered Alick with his conscientious +literalness. + +"I like that," said Keziah, also eying him, but as a colley might have +eyed a strange sheep, not a wolf. "A random rory would have made no +difference between now and two days back, and believing and being. You +cannot be over-particular in the truth, I take it." + +Alick blushed, shifted his place and looked uneasy. And again, as so +often before, it came across him: had he done right, judged by the +highest law, to conceal the truth as he knew it about Leam? + +"Hoot, man! there's no call for you to sit on pins and needles in that +fashion," said Keziah. "It's a daft body that cannot hear a word of +praise without turning as red as a turkey-cock and fidging like a +parched pea on a drum-head. I've not turned much of you over yet, and +maybe I'll come to what I'll have no mind to praise; so keep your fidges +till you are touched up with the other end of the stick. And so you are +to be our new priest, are you?" + +"I am going to offer myself for a time," said Alick. + +"For a time? That's a thing as has two sides to it. If you are not to +our minds, that's its good side: if you are, and we are not to yours, +that's its bad. I doubt if our folk will care to be played Jumping Joan +with in that fashion." + +"I will be guided by the will of the Lord," said Alick reverently. + +"Humph! I like the words better nor the chances in them," returned +Keziah, taking a pinch of snuff. "But maybe things'll work round as one +would have them; and whether you stay or you do not, the Lord's will be +done, amen! and His grace follow you, young man!" + +"Thank you," said Alick with emotion, getting up and shaking the +pickle-stained and snuff-discolored hand. + +"I have a message for Miss Leonora Darley," he then said after a pause. +"Mr. Gryce told me I was to be sure and tell him how she was looking." + +"Eh, poor bairn! she is not very first-rate," the old woman answered +tenderly. At least it was tenderness in her: in another person her voice +and manner might have been taken for crabbedness and impatience. "She's +up by there, on the fell somewhere. She a'most lives on the fell-side, +but it don't make her look as brisk as I should like. Have you seen the +view from our brow-top? It is a real bonny one; and you'll maybe find +Leonora not far off. I don't think she wanders far." + +"I should like to see it," said Alick. "The country altogether looks +splendid to-day." + +"Ay, it's a bonny day enough if it would but last. Come your ways with +me and I'll set you out by the back door. You can come in again the same +road if you've a mind." + +On which she bustled up, and Alick, escorted by her, went through the +house and on to the fell-side. + +It was, if possible, grander now than it had been in the earlier part of +the day. The hot sun had cleared away the lingering mist, and the +cloudless sky was like one large perfect opal, while the earth beneath +shone and glistened as if it were a jewel set with various-colored gems. +There was not a mean or sordid thing about. Touched by the splendid +alchemy of the sun, the smallest circumstance was noble, the poorest +color glorious. Alick stood on the fell-brow entranced: then turning, he +saw slowly coming across the pathless green a young slight figure +dressed in gray. He looked as it came near, and his heart beat with a +force that took all power from him. It was absurd, he knew, but there +was such a strange look of Leam about that girl! He stood and watched +her coming along with that slow, graceful, undulating step which was +Leam's birthright. Was he mad? Was he dreaming? What was this mocking +trick of eyesight that was perplexing him? Surely it was madness; and +yet--no, it could be no one else. Supreme, beloved, who else could +personate her so as to cheat him? + +She came on, her eyes always fixed on the distance, seeing nothing of +Alick standing dark against the sky. She came nearer, nearer, till he +saw the glory of her eyes, the curve of her lip, and could count the +curling tresses on her brow. Then he came down from the height and +strode across the space between them. + +She lifted up her eyes and saw him. For an instant the sadness cleared +out of them as the mists had cleared from the sky: her pathetic mouth +broke into a smile, and she held out both her hands. "Alick, dear Alick! +my good Alick!" she cried in a voice of exquisite tenderness. + +"My queen!" he said kneeling, his honest upturned face wet with tears. +"Lost and now found!" + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +THE ITALIAN MEDIAEVAL WOOD-SCULPTORS. + +More or less during the whole of this century, and ever more during the +recent years of it, the love of art, especially in what have been called +the "industrial" manifestations of it, has been becoming a passion in +Germany and in France, as well as in England and America. Museums for +the collection and preservation of the works produced by the artists of +those centuries which were the palmy days of art have been established +in all these countries, and private amateurs have vied with them in +enriching their respective countries with specimens of all the many +kinds of art-industry which remain to us from those times when religion +encouraged and surrounded itself with the beautiful and the cultivation +of the beautiful was a religion. And it is mainly--indeed, almost +entirely--to Italy that the lovers and admirers of mediaeval art come in +search of those remains of it which, it is hoped, will be (or rather are +being) the means of producing a second art _renaissance_. The quantity +of objects, more or less genuinely representing the mediaeval art in all +its many branches, which has been carried out of Italy within the last +quarter of a century is something perfectly astounding, and far exceeds +what any one would believe who has not remained in Italy long enough to +observe the process. A considerable portion, no doubt, of the articles +thus carried home with them by the lovers of art has consisted of modern +imitations of ancient workmanship, but the quantity of genuine mediaeval +articles--pottery in its various kinds, furniture, carving in wood, in +marble, in stone and in ivory, lace, bronzes, embroidery, metal-work, +brocaded stuffs, etc.--has been so enormous as to reveal in a very +striking manner the extraordinary wealth of the country in the days when +it was the mistress of Europe in civilization, and the all-pervading +love of the beautiful which caused so very large a portion of that +wealth to be expended for the gratification of a refined taste. + +Before proceeding to the more special subject of this article--certain +interesting and recently-discovered notices of some of the most famous +of the old carvers in wood--it may be well to say a word or two on the +subject of the commerce in imitations of the mediaeval works so +extensively carried on in Italy. Of course, a trade based on deception +is in every way to be condemned and regretted. It is not only immoral, +but it generates demoralization. But it is to be observed that in very +many cases--especially in those branches where art-industry approaches +the most nearly to art proper--the artist or artisan who produced the +works in question has neither co-operated with the fraud we are speaking +of, nor has worked with any view to the perpetration of such by others. +In the next place, it is to be noted that the mortification and +humiliation which many purchasers are conscious of when it is brought +home to them that they have been taken in, and have purchased as old +that which is in truth of recent production, may well be spared to them. +I do not mean, of course, as regards the money they may have been +cheated of, but as regards the slight put upon their own +connoisseurship. The art of imitating the old works in question has been +brought to such a pitch of perfection that it needs a very special +education of the eye and large practice to detect the imposture. A +circumstance occurred a few years ago at Florence which curiously +illustrates both the facts I have mentioned--the frequent innocence of +the producer of the imitation and the extreme difficulty of detecting +the modern origin of the work. The facts are very little known, because +it was the interest of many persons to misrepresent and conceal them. +They ought, nevertheless, to be known, and I do not see any good reason +why I should not tell them here. + +A young man at Florence of the name of Bastianini--it must be at least +ten years ago now, or perhaps more--of very humble origin had shown a +remarkable talent for modeling busts in terra-cotta. Having formed his +taste for himself, not by means of any academical teaching, but by +imbuing his mind with the examples of mediaeval art which meet the eye on +all sides in his native city, his works assumed quite naturally the +manner and style of the artists who (in more or less direct line) were +his ancestors. One day it happened to him to see a man--he was a common +workman in the tobacco manufactory--whose head struck him as specially +marked by the old Florentine mediaeval type and as a remarkably good +subject for a characteristic bust. From this man he made a terra-cotta +bust which few could have pronounced to be other than a _cinque-cento_ +work, and a very fine one. Bastianini, then quite unknown and much in +need of wherewithal to live, sold this bust as the work of his hands to +a speculative dealer for, if I remember rightly, five hundred francs. +The man who bought it carried it to a dealer in antiquities--a very +well-known man in Florence whose name I could give were it of any +interest to do so--and proposed to sell it to him for a large sum. +Eventually, a bargain was struck on this basis: The dealer, with perfect +knowledge of the origin and authorship of the work, was to pay one +thousand francs for the bust, and to pay the seller another thousand if +and whenever he, the dealer, should succeed in reselling it for more +than a certain price named. Thereupon, in accordance with the usual +practice in such cases, the bust disappeared from sight. It was stored +in the secret repositories of the _antiquario_ till the circumstances +attending its creation should be a little forgotten, and dust and dirt +should have corrected the brand-new rawness of its surface, ready to be +produced with much mystery as a recent _trouvaille_ when a likely +purchaser should loom over the Apennine which encircles "gentile +Firenze." In due time, one of the largest and brightest of those comets +whose return is so accurately calculated and eagerly expected by the +Florentine dealers in ancient art made his appearance in the Tuscan +sky--no less than a buyer for the Louvre. Those were the halcyon days of +the Empire, and money was plenty. Poor Bastianini's bust was brought out +with all due mystery, duly admired by the infallible French connoisseur, +and eventually purchased by him for the imperial collection for, I +think, five thousand francs--at all events, for a sum sufficiently large +to give the man who had bought the bust from the poor artist the right +to demand his supplementary payment. He did so. But the greed of the +dealer prevailed over his prudence, and he refused to give his +accomplice in the fraud the promised share in the plunder. Of course +that ensued which might have been expected. The defrauded rogue "split." +The bust sold to the Frenchman was easily identified with that which +Bastianini had made, and which had been known to all artistic Florence, +and the authorities at the Louvre were duly certified by many a +loud-tongued informer that they had been gulled. The information, as is +usually the case with information of the kind, came too late to be of +service to the buyers, but not too late to give them serious annoyance. +The bust had been exhibited at the Louvre in a prominent place; it had +excited considerable notice; none of the savants presiding over that +establishment had conceived the smallest suspicion of its genuineness; +and it was excessively disagreeable to have to admit that they had all +been deceived by a work made the other day by an unknown Florentine +artist. It was so disagreeable that the gentlemen in question had not +the courage to face the truth. They pooh-poohed their informants, +professed to adhere without a doubt to their own first opinions, and the +bust, to the great amusement of all the Florentine art-world, remained +in its place of honor at the Louvre, exhibited as a cinque-cento +terra-cotta for a long time after all Florence was perfectly cognizant +of its real history, and after the young artist had produced three or +four other busts all equally marked by unmistakable cinque-cento +characteristics. One of these was a really remarkable bust of +Savonarola, which may be seen any day in the (now public) gallery of St. +Mark's at Florence. The original _teterrima causa belli_ has, I believe, +disappeared from the Louvre Gallery. Poor Bastianini died shortly +afterward, and it is due to his memory and undoubtedly great talent that +it should be distinctly understood that from first to last he was no +party to or profiter by the frauds to which his special talent had given +rise. + +To return, however, to what I was saying about that large portion of the +works of art and art-industry every year exported from Italy, mainly by +individual buyers for the gratification of their own taste, which +consists of _imitations_. It may be remarked, especially as regards the +objects belonging to the latter category, that these imitations, if +bought as such, are not undesirable purchases. In many instances, +particularly in those of iron- and bronze-work, intarsia, and carving in +wood, the modern Italian artists, who began as imitators, have attained +a degree of excellence which entitles them to take rank as the founders +of a new artistic _renaissance_, while their familiarity with +cinque-cento art and the loving study of it have led them to produce +work in each of the above-named branches which is calculated to improve +the taste of both workers and purchasers in countries beyond the Alps. +As regards metal-work, whether in iron or bronze, avowedly modern, but +of the true cinque-cento type and style, the amateur would do well to +visit the foundries and workshops of Venice; for intarsia he may go to +Milan; for wood-carving to Florence, Siena and Perugia; to the last also +for intarsia. He will find in Perugia work both in carving and intarsia +on which he might spend his money very much more advantageously than in +buying second-rate bits of really old wood-work, or indeed any such bits +as he is at all likely to meet with. And it is not surprising that the +little Umbrian hill-city should have become a special home for this +particular branch of art; for it contains some of the most remarkable +works of the kind extant, the product of some of the most renowned +masters of the craft in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It is a +mistake to suppose, as many persons do, that the fine works of this kind +which we still admire were the product of men who were considered in +their day as mere artisans, and whose names were not known beyond the +boundaries of their native provinces. They were recognized as true +artists, whose names were known from one end of the Peninsula to the +other, and who were sent for from distant cities to execute works of +importance. In many cases their names have perished: in more they are +unknown to the present generation of art-lovers--_caruerunt quia vate +sacro_. And in some cases--as a very notable instance, to be mentioned +presently, will show in a remarkable manner--the higher portion of the +merit which was wholly their own--the conception of their designs, with +all the grace of fancy and cultured knowledge of the principles of the +beautiful which it implies--has been assigned to others to whom the +modern world has exclusively given the title of artists. But the +increased and still increasing attention which the world is paying to +all the details and all the branches of cinque-cento art--to good +purpose, for it is due to it that we have emerged or are emerging from +the eighteenth-century depths of ugliness in all our surroundings--has +induced the useful Dryasdusts, whose nature and function it is to burrow +in corporation and conventual muniment-rooms and the like promising +covers, to search out with a very considerable degree of success a mass +of facts, not only as to the real authorship of the work in question, +but curiously illustrative of the status these artists held and the +manner in which they lived and worked. Among the principal of these +archive-hunters is the learned Professor Adam Rossi, the corporation +librarian at Perugia, and it is mainly to his researches that the facts +I am about to lay before the reader are due. + +One of the finest specimens of cinque-cento wood-work extant in +Italy--perhaps I might safely say the finest--is the choir of the +monastic church of St. Peter at Perugia. The monks of St. Peter were +Benedictines of Monte Cassino, and, like most of the families of that +order, they were very wealthy and were liberal patrons of art. On the +9th of April, 1525, having determined to refit the choir of their church +in a magnificent manner, they came to an agreement with a +master-carpenter of Perugia for the execution of the work, and a +detailed contract was signed by the parties. (I have called this +cinque-cento work, and it will be observed that it was executed in the +sixteenth century. It may be necessary, therefore, to explain to those +who are unacquainted with the Italian mode of speaking in this respect +that the Italians always speak of what we should call the fourteenth +century as the "trecento," what we should call the fifteenth, as the +"quattrecento," and so on. The period at which art in all its branches +culminated in Italy was, in our language, the sixteenth century.) + +Maestro Bernardino di Luca, the artist with whom the convent contracted +for the fitting of the choir, is styled in the instrument _legnaiuolo_ +(a "carpenter"). And no doubt Maestro Bernardino--or "Bino," for short, +as he is called in the instrument when once at the beginning he has been +named formally at full length--practiced all the more ordinary business +of his trade. But there must have been carpenters _and_ carpenters, as +to the present day there are painters _and_ painters, the same word +indicating the calling of a Landseer and of a house-painter. This simple +modesty of designation was a characteristic of the epoch. We find +sculptors whose works are to the present day admired and studied as +masterpieces styling themselves simply "stone-cutters." The contract is +a long document, consisting of twenty-one clauses, the greater number of +which are occupied with the most minute and detailed specification of +the work to be done. It is to be executed "according to the model made +by the said Bino, changing it or keeping it as it is according to the +will of the fathers" (the monks of St. Peter's), "so as not to change +the form and substance of the model." The prices agreed to be paid for +each stall in the choir, with its arch above it, is ten golden ducats, +which, allowing for the change in the value of the precious metals, may +be considered to be about equal to three hundred and seventy-five +dollars at the present day. The price does not seem by any means a small +one. But Signor Rossi's researches have elsewhere shown that it is a +mistake to suppose that the renowned professors of any branch of art +were poorly paid in those days. The very reverse was the case. It would +not be interesting to the reader to give him the details of the work +which Maestro Bino bound himself to execute, but some of the +stipulations must be mentioned, because they curiously illustrate the +life of the times. The convent is to furnish all the wood--that which is +required for the work itself, as well as all that may be needed, planks, +scaffolding and the like, for the putting of it in its place. "_Item._ +We give him rooms to work in and to sleep in and to cook in, as well as +beds furnished with bedclothes. _Item._ Maestro Bino binds himself not +to undertake any other work till the choir is wholly finished and put +up, and he engages to do all the work within the walls of the convent. +He is bound to keep four men at work under him, and more if necessary." +The work is to be completed within two years should no impediment +intervene by death or grave and manifest illness. The convent undertakes +to furnish money from time to time as needed for the pay of the +journeymen, and fifty ducats beforehand for the hiring of assistants and +other necessary expenses. + +Maestro Bino went to work at once, and on the 15th of that same April +had from the convent what seems the very large sum of ten florins and +eight soldi for glue. But, after all, this Maestro Bernardino di Luca +was not the author of the exquisite carvings which people go to Perugia +to look at at the present day. A very "grave and manifest infirmity" did +intervene to prevent the execution of the work, for on the 19th of the +following August, Maestro Bino discharged his workmen on account of the +plague, which had begun to devastate Perugia; and there is reason to +think that the maestro himself perished by it, for after that last entry +the name of Bernardino di Luca vanishes into the abyss of darkness, and +is no more heard of, and shortly afterward we find the convent entering +into a new bargain with another maestro for the execution of the work. +This was Maestro Stefano de Antoniolo da Zambelli of Bergamo, who agreed +with the monks in July, 1533, to execute the required works in the choir +for the price of thirty golden crowns each stall. It will be observed +that this price is about fifty per cent. higher than that for which +Maestro Bino had contracted to do the work, which is an indication of +the then rapidly-falling value of the precious metals. But this +increased price was still insufficient, for on the 17th of July, 1534, +the monks enter into an amended contract with Maestro Stefano, in which +the terms of the original contract are rehearsed, and it is then +declared that Maestro Stefano having shown and proved to the abbot's +satisfaction that those terms could not stand, and that he should be +greatly the loser by the bargain, and it being by no means the wish of +the fathers that Maestro Stefano should be deprived of a fair reward for +his work, but rather that he should make a suitable profit by the job, +it was now agreed that the maestro should undertake to labor +uninterruptedly and with all possible diligence, that the convent should +find all materials and tools, and should maintain Maestro Stefano and +his wife and a journeyman, and should pay sixty golden crowns a year as +long as the work was in progress. Further, the convent undertakes to pay +half a golden crown monthly to the wife of the said Maestro Stefano, "on +the understanding that the said wife of the maestro shall serve and cook +and wash clothes for all the family engaged on the work of the choir;" +and further, half a golden crown monthly to the journeyman. Under this +arrangement it was of course the interest of the convent that the work +should be completed as quickly as possible. And we find, accordingly, +the abbot commissioning Antonio of Florence to carve six of the backs +of the stalls; Battista of Bologna and Ambrose, a Frenchman, to carve +the reading-desk; and Fra Damiano of Bergamo, who was then at Bologna, +to execute the four sculptures in bas-relief which adorn the door. This +Fra Damiano, who signs himself on his work "Fr. Damianus de Bergamo, +Ordinis Predicatorum," seems to have been a brother of the principal +artist, Maestro Stefano. But a curious peep at the manners of that time +is afforded by the fact of a professed monk working for hire as a +wood-carver. The main portion of the work, however, and the general +design, were due to Maestro Stefano da Zambelli of Bergamo, and just two +years and half from the signing of the contract the work was completed +and signed in intarsia, as we see it to this day, "Hoc opus fecit M^{r.} +Stephanus di Bergamo." + +For a long time it was supposed that the very beautiful designs for the +entirety and for each detail of this noble work was due to Raphael. The +guide-books all copied the statement one after the other; and they were +indeed excusable in doing so, for the large and magnificent folio which +was published at Rome by the abbot and monks in 1845, containing +engravings of every detail of the celebrated carvings, declares on the +title-page that the work was executed "by Stefano da Bergamo after the +designs of Raffaelle Santi di Urbino." The celebrated and learned +Montfaucon, who was a member of the same order, seems to have been the +first who made this mistaken statement. Once made on such authority, it +was accepted and repeated without further investigation till the +undeniable evidence of the archives of the convent, dragged to light +from under the dust of centuries by the industry of Professor Rossi, +showed that in truth the conception and design, as well as the +execution, of this beautiful masterpiece, which has for so long been +thought worthy of Raphael, was the work of the "carpenter, Maestro +Stefano da Bergamo." + +I do not believe that it is any longer possible to obtain a complete +copy of the above-mentioned work. Many years ago I found the separate +sheets of it lying about in the sacristy in a manner which gave one a +vivid idea of the reckless carelessness which is so marked a +characteristic of Italians. Bundles of the different plates, some +containing forty or fifty copies, some twenty or so, and some not more +than four or five, were thrust into cupboards with wax candles for the +altar, tattered choir-books and old candlesticks. And here was the whole +remaining stock of the work! I was at that time able, by the exercise of +much patience, trouble and persuasion with the old sacristan--who seemed +to consider the sale of the plates a very insufficient recompense for +the trouble of looking for them--to get together a complete copy of the +work; but when I was there the other day not more than twenty of the +plates out of nearly twice that number were to be found. In the mean +time, however, a complete set of photographs of every portion of the +sculpture has been made in a smaller size, but sufficiently large to +give a very satisfactory representation of the extreme beauty and +elegance of the work. It is indeed impossible to doubt that this Master +Stephen of Bergamo, the carpenter, whose wife was to have half a crown a +month for doing the washing and cooking for all the family living in the +rooms assigned to them in the monastery for a workshop and living-rooms, +was a man of education and culture, and in every sense of the word an +_artist_. The difference between his social position and that of any +artist of corresponding eminence in our day would seem to consist wholly +in that greater degree of personal and material luxury which +civilization and increased wealth have brought with them. The payment +which he was to receive for his year's work, besides having been +maintained, lodged and fed at the cost of the monastery during the time, +may, I take it, be considered equivalent to about twenty-two thousand +five hundred dollars. + +In 1494, on the 5th of April, Maestro Mariotto di Paola, "called +Torzuolo," contracts with the canons of the cathedral to make a range of +cupboards in the sacristy. Such masses of wood-work, very frequently +richly carved and ornamented, are found in the sacristies of most of the +larger churches in Italy. They generally consist of a range of deep +drawers below, up to about the height of an ordinary table, and above +this a series of cupboards reaching to the ceiling of the apartment, so +much less deep than the drawers as to leave a large space of table on +the top of the latter. The drawers are used mainly for the keeping of +the sacred vestments; the table for the spreading out of such of these +as are about to be or have just been used; and the cupboards above for +the holding of all the treasures of the church--chalices for the altar, +monstrances for the exposition of the sacrament, reliquaries of all +sorts of shapes and sizes for the preservation of the relics of saints, +ornamental candlesticks, and such like. In the richer and more important +churches these objects are generally of the precious metals, and +frequently richly adorned with gems, so that the amount of treasure +stored in these repositories is often very considerable. Sometimes such +a range of wood-work as has been described will be found filling one +side only of the sacristy, but in many cases it runs round the whole +apartment. And this piece of ecclesiastical furniture therefore +presented a great field for the taste and ingenuity of the old _maestri_ +in wood-carving to exhibit their skill both in design and in execution. +At the Benedictine monastery of St. Peter, of the choir of which we have +been speaking, this fitting up of the sacristy had been done previously; +and it is accordingly much less rich in carving than the work in the +choir. But some of the doors of the cupboards are still more preciously +ornamented by some very finely-painted heads from the hand of the great +Perugino. + +Such as it is, however, this sacristy at St. Peter's was handsome enough +to excite the emulation of the canons of the cathedral, for the contract +made with Maestro Mariotto--who was nicknamed Torzuolo--specifies that +the work is to be entirely of walnut wood, after the fashion of the +sacristy at St. Peter's, and is to be executed "in the manner of a +good, loyal and expert master." It is to be all done by his own hand, or +at least in his presence and under his superintendence. The work is to +be completed in one year, and the canons are to pay for it at the rate +of ten florins every square braccio, Florentine measure. This was in +1494; and it will here again be observed that the price, as compared +with that to be paid to Maestro Stefano by the monks of St. Peter's for +their choir, even fully allowing for the greater richness of the latter, +indicates the very rapid alteration in the value of money which took +place at the beginning of the sixteenth century. But the canons, it +would seem, were very careful hands at a bargain, for we find that it is +provided in the contract that when the work shall have been completed it +shall be examined by two experts, and that if it shall be found to be +worth less than the price named, Maestro Torzuolo shall receive so much +less; but that if it shall be found by the said experts and appraisers +to be worth more, the maestro shall stand to his bargain and not receive +more than the price named--an agreement which is frequently found in the +contracts made about that period. When the work was completed it was +accordingly examined and appraised by Maestro Mattia of Reggio and +Maestro Pietro of Florence. The latter was brought from Citta di +Castello, a little city in the Apennines some twenty-five miles distant, +express for the purpose. We do not find any statement of their award. +But it would seem that Maestro Torzuolo did not keep to his contract in +one respect, but was as unpunctual as the carpenters of the present +generation, for the above experts were not called to appraise the work +till the year 1497. + +Maestro Pietro of Florence was evidently a man at the head of his +profession, for at Citta di Castello, when he was summoned to Perugia to +appraise the work of Maestro Torzuolo, he was engaged in making for the +canons there a wooden ceiling for the nave of their church, which was, +by a contract dated 1499, to be ornamented with large roses similar to +the ornamentation of the ceiling of the council-hall in the Palazzo +Vecchio at Florence; giving us thus another indication of the degree of +general interest and attention which these works excited in those days. +The communication between city and city was difficult and comparatively +unfrequent, yet the fame of any fine work of the sort we are talking of +evidently not only reached far and wide among other cities, but +forthwith excited their rivalry and led to the production of other +_chefs-d'oeuvre_. Maestro Pietro was to receive for the ceiling of the +nave at Citta di Castello no less a sum than five hundred golden ducats, +equal to at least seventeen thousand five hundred dollars at the present +day. We find him also employed as architect to direct the construction +of a cupola of the church of Calcinaio. This carpenter was, then, an +architect also; and Professor Rossi remarks that it is by no means the +only case of the kind. + +Maestro Mattia, the other expert called to appraise the work done by +Maestro Torzuolo for the canons of the cathedral of Perugia, was already +well and favorably known in that city, for he had been employed in 1495 +to appraise some work which had been done for the choir of the monks of +St. Lorenzo; in that same year we find him executing some very elaborate +work for the convent of St. Augustine; and on the 20th of December there +was read at a meeting of the municipal council a petition from Maestro +Mattia to be admitted to the freedom of the city of Perugia; which +request the masters of the guilds, "taking into consideration the +industry, the mode of life and the moral character" of the petitioner, +were pleased to grant, on the condition that he, together with two other +persons admitted to citizenship at the same time, should make a present +to the corporation of a silver dish and forty pounds' weight of copper +money, and, further, that he should give the masters and treasurers of +his own guild a dinner. + +The notices which Professor Rossi has collected from the various +collections of archives explored by him show in a remarkable manner how +much the best patron of art and artists in those days was the Church. +By far the greatest number of the contracts cited are made by +ecclesiastics, either monks or collegiate bodies of canons or the like, +for the ornamentation of their churches and sacristies. The next best +patrons are the different trade-guilds of the cities. Each of these had +its place of meeting for the _priori_--masters or wardens, as we should +say, of the company--and many of them a contiguous chapel. The sort of +furniture needed for these places was generally a range of seats running +round the principal room, a back of wainscoting behind them, a kind of +pulpit for those who addressed the meeting, a raised and prominent seat +for the "consuls" of the guild, and a large table or writing-desk for +the transaction of business. All this, as will be readily perceived, +afforded fine opportunities for the display of rich carvings and +intarsia; and there was much rivalry between the guilds in the splendor +and adornment of their places of meeting. Some of these works still +remain intact, as in the case of the meeting-room and chapel of the +company of exchange-brokers, which is celebrated wherever art is valued +for the magnificent frescoes by Perugino which adorn the upper part of +the walls above the wood-work. I think, however, that the Church was +more liberal and magnificent in her orders. I have seen much fine +wood-work in the different guild-halls and town-halls in various cities +of Italy, but in no lay building, not even in wealthy and magnificent +Venice itself, with all the splendor of its ducal palace and its Scuole, +have I ever seen anything of the kind at all comparable to the wood-work +in the choirs of the monastery of St. Peter at Perugia and of the +cathedral at Siena. There is in the cathedral of Bergamo some intarsia, +perhaps the finest things extant in that special description of work, +but for carving the choirs I have mentioned are pre-eminent. + +But there are a great number of beautiful works of this sort lurking in +places where the traveler, however eager a lover of art, would hardly +think of looking for them. The central districts of Italy are full of +such. There is in the mountains to the south of Perugia, overhanging +the valley of the Tiber, a little city, the very name of which will +probably be new to many even of those who have traveled much in Italy. +Still less likely is it that they have ever been at Todi, for that is +the name of the place I am alluding to. It lies high and bleak among the +Apennines, and possesses nothing to attract the wanderer save some +notable remains of mediaeval art which strikingly show how universal, how +ubiquitous, art and artists were in those halcyon days. Todi has, +moreover, the misfortune of being situated on no line of railway, and of +not being on the way to any of the great modern centres. It is, +therefore, completely out of the modern world, and nobody knows anything +about it save a few lovers of ancient art, who will not be beat in their +explorations by want of communications and bad hostelries. But the +little hill-city possesses two churches, whose choirs well deserve a +visit by the admirers of cinque-cento wood-work, I have mentioned it +here, however, mainly because one of these, the choir of the cathedral, +offers not so much in what may still be seen there, as in its records, a +very curious example of the spirit of anti-ecclesiastical freethinking +which was widely spread at that time through the artist-world, whose +best patron was the Church. I mentioned some months ago, in the pages of +this Magazine, some curious facts showing the real sentiments of the +great Perugino on this subject while he was painting Madonnas and +miracles for his ecclesiastical patrons. And the following singular +extract from the archives of the cathedral church of Todi may be added +to what was there written as a proof of the somewhat unexpected fact. +The wood-work of the choir was begun by Maestro Antonio Bencivieni of +Mercatello, in the duchy of Urbino, and was completed in 1530 by his son +Sebastian, who finished his work by inserting in it a singularly haughty +inscription in intarsia. The Latin of the original may be Englished +thus: "Begun by the art and genius of Ant^{o} Bencivieni of Mercatello. +This work was finished by his son Sebastian. Having kept faith and +maintained his honor, he did enough." The worthy canons, however, +discovered just one and forty years afterward that Maestro Sebastiano +had done somewhat too much. For he had on the fourth stall, counting +from the bishop's seat, on the right-hand side of the choir, inserted +amid the ornamentation certain Latin words, inscribed over a carving of +three vases intended to represent reliquaries, which may be translated +thus: Over the first vase, "The shadow of the ass ridden by our Lord;" +over the second, "The feet of the Blessed Virgin as she ascended into +heaven;" over the third, "Relics of the Holy Trinity." These strange +inscriptions remained where Maestro Sebastiano had so audaciously placed +them till the May of 1571. At that date we find a record in the +cathedral archives which, after rehearsing the words in question, and +describing the position of them, proceeds: "Which words, placed there +and written scandalously, and in a certain sort derisive of the +veneration for holy relics, and in contempt of the Christian religion, +the very reverend canons" (So-and-So--names rehearsed) "ordered to be +removed and entirely canceled, so that they should no longer be seen or +read." Can it be supposed that this very extraordinary inscription in a +choir frequented daily by the canons of the church had entirely escaped +notice for more than forty years? Surely this is impossible. Should we +not rather see in the fact that the chapter of 1530 noticed the mocking +words with probably a shrug and a smile, whereas the chapter of 1571 +took care that they were removed, an interesting and curious commentary +on the change which the intervening years had brought about in the +spirit of the Church, and another unexpected indication of the +difference between the Church of the worldly, pagan-minded Clement VII. +and that of the energetic, earnest bigot Pius IV. That such a difference +existed we know full well, but this passage of the Todi archives is a +very curious proof of it. + +T. ADOLPHUS TROLLOPE. + + + + +REST. + + In deepest weariness I lay so still + One might have thought it death, + For hush of motion and a sleep of will + Gave me but soundless breath. + + And yet I slept not; only knew that Rest + Held me all close to her: + Softly but firmly fettered to her breast, + I had no wish to stir. + + "Oh, if," I thought, "death would but be like this!-- + Neither to sleep nor wake, + But have for ages just this _conscious_ bliss, + That perfect rest I take." + + The soul grows often weary, like the flesh: + May rest pervade her long, + While she shall _feel_ the joy of growing fresh + For heavenly work and song! + +CHARLOTTE F. BATES. + + + + +LETTERS FROM SOUTH AFRICA. + +BY LADY BARKER. + + +MARITZBURG, February 10, 1876. + +In the South African calendar this is set down as the first of the +autumnal months, but the half dozen hours about mid-day are still quite +as close and oppressive as any we have had. I am, however, bound to say +that the nights--at all events, up here--are cooler, and I begin even to +think of a light shawl for my solitary walks in the verandah just before +bedtime. When the moon shines these walks are pleasant enough, but when +only the "common people of the skies" are trying to filter down their +feebler light through the misty atmosphere, I have a lurking fear and +distrust of the reptiles and bugs who may also have a fancy for +promenading at the same time and in the same place. I say nothing of +bats, frogs and toads, mantis or even huge moths: to these we are quite +accustomed. But although I have never seen a live snake in this country +myself, still one hears such unpleasant stories about them that it is +just as well to what the Scotch call "mak siccar" with a candle before +beginning a constitutional in the dark. + +It is not a week ago since a lady of my acquaintance, being surprised at +her little dog's refusal to follow her into her bedroom one night, +instituted a search for the reason of the poor little creature's terror +and dismay, and discovered a snake coiled up under her chest of drawers. +At this moment, too, the local papers are full of recipes for the +prevention and cure of snake-bites, public attention being much +attracted to the subject on account of an Englishman having been bitten +by a black "mamba" (a very venomous adder) a short time since, and +having died of the wound in a few hours. In his case, poor man! there +does not seem to have been a chance from the first, for he was obliged +to walk some distance to the nearest house, and as they had no proper +remedies there, he had to be taken on a farther journey of some miles to +a hospital. All this exercise and motion caused the poison to circulate +freely through the veins, and was the worst possible thing for him. The +doctors here seem agreed that the treatment of ammonia and brandy is the +safest, and many instances are adduced to show how successful it has +been, though one party of practitioners admits the ammonia, but denies +the brandy. On the other hand, one hears of a child bitten by a snake +and swallowing half a large bottle of raw brandy in half an hour without +its head being at all affected, and, what is more, recovering from the +bite and living happy ever after. I keep quantities of both remedies +close at hand, for three or four venomous snakes have been killed within +a dozen yards of the house, and little G---- is perpetually exploring +the long grass all around or hunting for a stray cricket-ball or a +pegtop in one of those beautiful fern-filled ditches whose tangle of +creepers and plumy ferns is exactly the favorite haunt of snakes. As yet +he has brought back from these forbidden raids nothing more than a few +ticks and millions of burs. + +As for the ticks, I am getting over my horror at having to dislodge them +from among the baby's soft curls by means of a sharp needle, and even +G---- only shouts with laughter at discovering a great swollen monster +hanging on by its forceps to his leg. They torment the poor horses and +dogs dreadfully; and if the said horses were not the very quietest, +meekest, most underbred and depressed animals in the world, we should +certainly hear of more accidents. As it is, they confine their efforts +to get rid of their tormentors to rubbing all the hair off their tails +and sides in patches against the stable walls or the trunk of a tree. +Indeed, the clever way G----'s miserable little Basuto pony actually +climbs inside a good-sized bush, and sways himself about in it with his +legs off the ground until the whole thing comes with a crash to the +ground, is edifying to behold to every one except the owner of the tree. +Tom, the Kafir boy, tried hard to persuade me the other day that the +pony was to blame for the destruction of a peach tree, but as the only +broken-down branches were those which had been laden with fruit, I am +inclined to acquit the pony. Carbolic soap is an excellent thing to wash +both dogs and horses with, as it not only keeps away flies and ticks +from the skin, which, is constantly rubbed off by incessant scratching, +but helps to heal the tendency to a sore place. Indeed, nothing +frightened me so much as what I heard when I first arrived about Natal +sores and Natal boils. Everybody told me that ever so slight a cut or +abrasion went on slowly festering, and that sores on children's faces +were quite common. This sounded very dreadful, but I am beginning to +hope it was an exaggeration, for whenever G---- cuts or knocks himself +(which is every day or so), or scratches an insect's bite into a bad +place, I wash the part with a little carbolic soap (there are two +sorts--one for animals and a more refined preparation for the human +skin), and it is quite well the next day. We have all had a threatening +of those horrid boils, but they have passed off. + +In town the mosquitoes are plentiful and lively, devoting their +attentions chiefly to new-comers, but up here--I write as though we were +five thousand feet instead of only fifty above Maritzburg--it is rare to +see one. I think "fillies" are more in our line, and that in spite of +every floor in the house being scrubbed daily with strong soda and +water. "Fillies," you must know, is our black groom's (Charlie's) way of +pronouncing _fleas_, and I find it ever so much prettier. Charlie and I +are having a daily discussion just now touching sundry moneys he +expended during my week's absence at D'Urban for the kittens' food. +Charlie calls them the "lil' catties," and declares that the two small +animals consumed three shillings and ninepence worth of meat in a week. +I laughingly say, "But, Charlie, that would be nearly nine pounds of +meat in six days, and they couldn't eat that, you know." Charlie grins +and shows all his beautiful even white teeth: then he bashfully turns +his head aside and says, "I doan know, ma': I buy six' meat dree time." +"Very well, Charlie, that would be one shilling and sixpence." "I doan +know, ma';" and we've not got any further than that yet. + +But G---- and I are picking up many words of Kafir, and it is quite +mortifying to see how much more easily the little monkey learns than I +do. I forget my phrases or confuse them, whereas when he learns two or +three sentences he appears to remember them always. It is a very +melodious and beautiful language, and, except for the clicks, not very +difficult to learn. Almost everybody here speaks it a little, and it is +the first thing necessary for a new-comer to endeavor to acquire; only, +unfortunately, there are no teachers, as in India, and consequently you +pick up a wretched, debased kind of patois, interlarded with Dutch +phrases. Indeed, I am assured there are two words, _el hashi_ ("the +horse"), of unmistakable Moorish origin, though no one knows how they +got into the language. Many of the Kafirs about town speak a little +English, and they are exceedingly sharp, when they choose, about +understanding what is meant, even if they do not quite catch the meaning +of the words used. There is one genius of my acquaintance, called +"Sixpence," who is not only a capital cook, but an accomplished English +scholar, having spent some months in England. Generally, to Cape Town +and back is the extent of their journeyings, for they are a home-loving +people; but Sixpence went to England with his master, and brought back a +shivering recollection of an English winter and a deep-rooted amazement +at the boys of the Shoe Brigade, who wanted to clean his boots. That +astonished him more than anything else, he says. + +The Kafirs are very fond of attending their own schools and church +services, of which there are several in the town; and I find one of my +greatest difficulties in living out here consists in getting Kafirs to +come out of town, for by doing so they miss their regular attendance at +chapel and school. A few Sundays ago I went to one of these Kafir +schools, and was much struck by the intently-absorbed air of the pupils, +almost all of whom were youths about twenty years of age. They were +learning to read the Bible in Kafir during my visit, sitting in couples, +and helping each other on with immense diligence and earnestness. No +looking about, no wandering, inattentive glances, did I see. I might as +well have "had the receipt of fern-seed and walked invisible" for all +the attention I excited. Presently the pupil-teacher, a young black man, +who had charge of this class, asked me if I would like to hear them sing +a hymn, and on my assenting he read out a verse of "Hold the Fort," and +they all stood up and sang it, or rather its Kafir translation, lustily +and with good courage, though without much tune. The chorus was +especially fine, the words "Inkanye kanye" ringing through the room with +great fervor. This is not a literal translation of the words "Hold the +Fort," but it is difficult, as the teacher explained to me, for the +translator to avail himself of the usual word for "hold," as it conveys +more the idea of "take hold," "seize," and the young Kafir missionary +thoroughly understood all the nicety of the idiom. There was another +class for women and children, but it was a small one. Certainly, the +young men seemed much in earnest, and the rapt expression of their faces +was most striking, especially during the short prayer which followed the +hymn and ended the school for the afternoon. + +I have had constantly impressed upon my mind since my arrival the advice +_not_ to take Christian Kafirs into my service, but I am at a loss to +know in what way the prejudice against them can have arisen. "Take a +Kafir green from his kraal if you wish to have a good servant," is what +every one tells me. It so happens that we have two of each--two +Christians and two heathens--about the place, and there is no doubt +whatever which is the best. Indeed, I have sometimes conversations with +the one who speaks English, and I can assure you we might all learn from +him with advantage. His simple creed is just what came from the +Saviour's lips two thousand years ago, and comprises His teaching of the +whole duty of man--to love God, the great "En' Kos," and his neighbor as +himself. He speaks always with real delight of his privileges, and is +very anxious to go to Cape Town to attend some school there of which he +talks a great deal, and where he says he should learn to read the Bible +in English. At present he is spelling it out with great difficulty in +Kafir. This man often talks to me in the most respectful and civil +manner imaginable about the customs of his tribe, and he constantly +alludes to the narrow escape he had of being murdered directly after his +birth for the crime of being a twin. His people have a fixed belief that +unless one of a pair of babies be killed at once, either the father or +mother will die within the year; and they argue that as in any case one +child will be sure to die in its infancy, twins being proverbially +difficult to rear, it is only both kind and natural to kill the weakly +one at once. This young man is very small and quiet and gentle, with an +ugly face, but a sweet, intelligent expression and a very nice manner. I +find him and the other Christian in our employment very trustworthy and +reliable. If they tell me anything which has occurred, I know I can +believe their version of it, and they are absolutely honest. Now, the +other lads have very loose ideas on the subject of sugar, and make +shifty excuses for everything, from the cat breaking a heavy stone +filter up to half the marketing being dropped on the road. + +I don't think I have made it sufficiently clear that besides the +Sunday-schools and services I have mentioned there are night-schools +every evening in the week, which are fully attended by Kafir servants, +and where they are first taught to read their own language, which is an +enormous difficulty to them. They always tell me it is so much easier to +learn to read English than Kafir; and if one studies the two languages, +it is plain to see how much simpler the new tongue must appear to a +learner than the intricate construction, the varying patois and the +necessarily phonetic spelling of a language compounded of so many +dialects as the Zulu-Kafir. + + +FEBRUARY 12. + +In some respects I consider this climate has been rather over-praised. +Of course it is a great deal--a very great deal--better than our English +one, but that, after all, is not saying much in its praise. Then we must +remember that in England we have the fear and dread of the climate ever +before our eyes, and consequently are always, so to speak, on our guard +against it. Here, and in other places where civilization is in its +infancy, we are at the mercy of dust and sun, wind and rain, and all the +eccentric elements which go to make up weather. Consequently, when the +balance of comfort and convenience has to be struck, it is surprising +how small an advantage a really better climate gives when you take away +watering-carts and shady streets for hot weather, and sheltered +railway-stations and hansom cabs for wet weather, and roads and servants +and civility and general convenience everywhere. This particular climate +is both depressing and trying in spite of the sunny skies we are ever +boasting about, because it has a strong tinge of the tropical element in +it; and yet people live in much the same kind of houses (only that they +are very small), and wear much the same sort of clothes (only that they +are very ugly), and lead much the same sort of lives (only that it is a +thousand times duller than the dullest country village), as they do in +England. Some small concession is made to the thermometer in the matter +of puggeries and matted floors, but even then carpets are used wherever +it is practicable, because this matting never looks clean and nice after +the first week it is put down. All the houses are built on the ground +floor, with the utmost economy of building material and labor, and +consequently there are no passages: every room is, in fact, a passage +and leads to its neighbor. So the perpetually dirty bare feet, or, still +worse, boots fresh from the mud or dust of the streets, soon wear out +the matting. Few houses are at all prettily decorated or furnished, +partly from the difficulty of procuring anything pretty here, the cost +and risk of its carriage up from D'Urban if you send to England for it, +and partly from the want of servants accustomed to anything but the +roughest and coarsest articles of household use. A lady soon begins to +take her drawing-room ornaments _en guignon_ if she has to dust them +herself every day in a very dusty climate. I speak feelingly and with +authority, for that is my case at this moment, and applies to every +other part of the house as well. + +I must say I like Kafir servants in some respects. They require, I +acknowledge, constant supervision; they require to be told to do the +same thing over and over again every day; and, what is more, besides +telling, you have to stand by and see that they do the thing. They are +also very slow. But still, with all these disadvantages, they are far +better than the generality of European servants out here, who make their +luckless employers' lives a burden to them by reason of their tempers +and caprices. It is much better, I am convinced, to face the evil boldly +and to make up one's mind to have none but Kafir servants. Of course one +immediately turns into a sort of overseer and upper servant one's self; +but at all events you feel master or mistress of your own house, and you +have faithful and good-tempered domestics, who do their best, however +awkwardly, to please you. Where there are children, then indeed a good +English nurse is a great boon; and in this one respect I am fortunate. +Kafirs are also much easier to manage when the orders come direct from +the master or mistress, and they work far more willingly for them than +for white servants. Tom, the nurse-boy, confided to me yesterday that he +hoped to stop in my employment for forty moons. After that space of time +he considered that he should be in a position to buy plenty of wives, +who would work for him and support him for the rest of his life. But +how Tom or Jack, or any of the boys in fact, are to save money I know +not, for every shilling of their wages, except a small margin for coarse +snuff, goes to their parents, who fleece them without mercy. If they are +fined for breakages or misconduct (the only punishment a Kafir cares +for), they have to account for the deficient money to the stern parents; +and both Tom and Jack went through a most graphic pantomime with a stick +of the consequences to themselves, adding that their father said both +the beating from him and the fine from us served them right for their +carelessness. It seemed so hard they should suffer both ways, and they +were so good-tempered and uncomplaining about it, that I fear I shall +find it very difficult to stop any threepenny pieces out of their wages +in future. A Kafir servant usually gets one pound a month, his clothes +and food. The former consists of a shirt and short trousers of coarse +check cotton, a soldier's old great-coat for winter, and plenty of +mealy-meal for "scoff." If he is a good servant and worth making +comfortable, you give him a trifle every week to buy meat. Kafirs are +very fond of going to their kraals, and you have to make them sign an +agreement to remain with you so many months, generally six. By the time +you have just taught them, with infinite pains and trouble, how to do +their work, they depart, and you have to begin it all over again. + +I frequently see the chiefs or indunas of chiefs passing here on their +way to some kraals which lie just over the hills. These kraals consist +of half a dozen or more large huts, exactly like so many huge beehives, +on the slope of a hill. There is a rude attempt at sod-fencing round +them; a few head of cattle graze in the neighborhood; lower down, the +hillside is roughly scratched by the women with crooked hoes to form a +mealy-ground. (Cows and mealies are all they require except snuff or +tobacco, which they smoke out of a cow's horn.) They seem a very gay and +cheerful people, to judge by the laughter and jests I hear from the +groups returning to these kraals every day by the road just outside our +fence. Sometimes one of the party carries an umbrella; and I assure you +the effect of a tall, stalwart Kafir, clad either in nothing at all or +else in a sack, carefully guarding his bare head with a tattered Gamp, +is very ridiculous. Often some one walks along playing upon a rude pipe, +whilst the others jog before and after him, laughing and capering like +boys let loose from school, and all chattering loudly. You never meet a +man carrying a burden unless he is a white settler's servant. When a +chief or the induna of a kraal passes this way, I see him, clad in a +motley garb of red regimentals with his bare "ringed" head, riding a +sorry nag, only the point of his great toe resting in his stirrup. He is +followed closely and with great _empressement_ by his "tail," all +"ringed" men also--that is, men of some substance and weight in the +community. They carry bundles of sticks, and keep up with the ambling +nag, and are closely followed by some of his wives bearing heavy loads +on their heads, but stepping out bravely with beautiful erect carriage, +shapely bare arms and legs; and some sort of coarse drapery worn across +their bodies, covering them from shoulder to knee in folds which would +delight an artist's eye and be the despair of a sculptor's chisel. They +don't look either oppressed or discontented. Happy, healthy and jolly +are the words by which they would be most truthfully described. Still, +they are lazy, and slow to appreciate any benefit from civilization +except the money, but then savages always seem to me as keen and sordid +about money as the most civilized mercantile community anywhere. + + +FEBRUARY 14. + +I am often asked by people who are thinking of coming here, or who want +to send presents to friends here, what to bring or send. Of course it is +difficult to say, because my experience is limited and confined to one +spot at present: therefore I give my opinion very guardedly, and +acknowledge it is derived in great part from the experience of others +who have been here a long time. Amongst other wraps, I brought a +sealskin jacket and muff which I happened to have. These, I am assured, +will be absolutely useless, and already they are a great anxiety to me +on account of the swarms of fish-tail moths which I see scuttling about +in every direction if I move a box or look behind a picture. In fact, +there are destructive moths everywhere, and every drawer is redolent of +camphor. The only things I can venture to recommend as necessaries are +things which no one advised me to bring, and which were only random +shots. One was a light waterproof ulster, and the other was a lot of +those outside blinds for windows which come, I believe, from Japan, and +are made of grass--green, painted with gay figures. I picked up these +latter by the merest accident at the Baker-street bazaar for a few +shillings: they are the comfort of my life, keeping out glare and dust +in the day and moths and insects of all kinds at night. As for the +waterproof, I do not know what I should have done without it; and little +G----'s has also been most useful. It is the necessary of necessaries +here--a _real_, good substantial waterproof. A man cannot do better than +get a regular military waterproof which will cover him from chin to heel +on horseback; and even waterproof hats and caps are a comfort in this +treacherous summer season, where a storm bursts over your head out of a +blue dome of sky, and drenches you even whilst the sun is shining +brightly. + +A worse climate and country for clothes of every kind and description +cannot be imagined. When I first arrived I thought I had never seen such +ugly toilettes in all my life; and I should have been less than woman +(or more--which is it?) if I had not derived some secret satisfaction +from the possession of at least prettier garments. What I was vain of in +my secret heart was my store of cotton gowns. One can't very well wear +cotton gowns in London; and, as I am particularly fond of them, I +indemnify myself for going abroad by rushing wildly into extensive +purchases in cambrics and print dresses. They are so pretty and so +cheap, and when charmingly made, as mine _were_ (alas, they are already +things of the past!), nothing can be so satisfactory in the way of +summer country garb. Well, it has been precisely in the matter of cotton +gowns that I have been punished for my vanity. For a day or two each +gown in turn looked charming. Then came a flounce or bordering of bright +red earth on the lower skirt and a general impression of red dust and +dirt all over it. That was after a drive into Maritzburg along a road +ploughed up by ox-wagons. Still, I felt no uneasiness. What is a cotton +gown made for if not to be washed? Away it goes to the wash! What is +this limp, discolored rag which returns to me iron-moulded, blued until +it is nearly black, rough-dried, starched in patches, with the fringe of +red earth only more firmly fixed than before? Behold my favorite ivory +cotton! My white gowns are even in a worse plight, for there are no two +yards of them the same, and the grotesque mixture of extreme yellowness, +extreme blueness and a pervading tinge of the red mud they have been +washed in renders them a piteous example of misplaced confidence. Other +things fare rather better--not much--but my poor gowns are only hopeless +wrecks, and I am reduced to some old yachting dresses of ticking and +serge. The price of washing, as this spoiling process is pleasantly +called, is enormous, and I exhaust my faculties in devising more +economical arrangements. We can't wash at home, for the simple reason +that we have no water, no proper appliances of any sort, and to build +and buy such would cost a small fortune. But a tall, white-aproned +Kafir, with a badge upon his arm, comes now at daylight every Monday +morning and takes away a huge sackful of linen, which is placed, with +sundry pieces of soap and blue in its mouth, all ready for him. He +brings it back in the afternoon full of clean and dry linen, for which +he receives three shillings and sixpence. But this is only the first +stage. The things to be starched have to be sorted and sent to one +woman, and those to be mangled to another, and both lots have to be +fetched home again by Tom and Jack. (I have forgotten to tell you that +Jack's real name, elicited with great difficulty, as there is a click +somewhere in it, is "Umpashongwana," whilst the pickle Tom is known +among his own people as "Umkabangwana." You will admit that our +substitutes for these five-syllabled appellations are easier to +pronounce in a hurry. Jack is a favorite name: I know half a dozen black +Jacks myself.) To return, however, to the washing. I spend my time in +this uncertain weather watching the clouds on the days when the clothes +are to come home, for it would be altogether _too_ great a trial if +one's starched garments, borne aloft on Jack's head, were to be caught +in a thunder-shower. If the washerwoman takes pains with anything, it is +with gentlemen's shirts, though even then she insists on ironing the +collars into strange and fearful shapes. + +Let not men think, however, that they have it all their own way in the +matter of clothes. White jackets and trousers are commonly worn here in +summer, and it is very soothing, I am told, to try to put them on in a +hurry when the arms and legs are firmly glued together by several pounds +of starch. Then as to boots and shoes: they get so mildewed if laid +aside for even a few days as to be absolutely offensive; and these, with +hats, wear out at the most astonishing rate. The sun and dust and rain +finish up the hats in less than no time. + +But I have not done with my clothes yet. A lady must keep a warm dress +and jacket close at hand all through the most broiling summer weather, +for a couple of hours will bring the thermometer down ten or twenty +degrees, and I have often been gasping in a white dressing-gown at noon +and shivering in a serge dress at three o'clock on the same day. I am +making up my mind that serge and ticking are likely to be the most +useful material for dresses, and, as one must have something very cool +for these burning months, tussore or foulard, which get themselves +better washed than my poor dear cottons. Silks are next to useless--too +smart, too hot, too entirely out of place in such a life as this, except +perhaps one or two of tried principles, which won't spot or fade or +misbehave themselves in any way. One goes out of a warm, dry afternoon +with a tulle veil on to keep off the flies, or a feather in one's hat, +and returns with the one a limp, wet rag and the other quite out of +curl. I only wish any milliner could see my feathers now! All straight, +rigidly straight as a carpenter's rule, and tinged with red dust +besides. As for tulle or crepe-lisse frilling, or any of those soft +pretty adjuncts to a simple toilette, they are five minutes' wear--no +more, I solemnly declare. + +I love telling a story against myself, and here is one. In spite of +repeated experiences of the injurious effect of alternate damp and dust +upon finery, the old Eve is occasionally too strong for my prudence, and +I can't resist, on the rare occasions which offer themselves, the +temptation of wearing pretty things. Especially weak am I in the matter +of caps, and this is what befell me. Imagine a lovely, soft summer +evening, broad daylight, though it is half-past seven (it will be dark +directly, however): a dinner-party to be reached a couple of miles away. +The little open carriage is at the door, and into this I step, swathing +my gown carefully up in a huge shawl. This precaution is especially +necessary, for during the afternoon there has been a terrific +thunderstorm and a sudden sharp deluge of rain. Besides a swamp or two +to be ploughed through as best we may, there are those two miles of deep +red muddy road full of ruts and big stones and pitfalls of all sorts. +The drive home in the dark will be nervous work, but now in daylight let +us enjoy whilst we may. Of course I _ought_ to have taken my cap in a +box or bag, or something of the sort; but that seemed too much trouble, +especially as it was so small it needed to be firmly pinned on in its +place. It consisted of a centre or crown of white crepe, a little frill +of the same, and a close-fitting wreath of deep red feathers all round. +Very neat and tidy it looked as I took my last glance at it whilst I +hastily knotted a light black lace veil over my head by way of +protection during my drive. When I got to my destination there was no +looking-glass to be seen anywhere, no maid, no anything or anybody to +warn me. Into the dining-room I marched in happy unconsciousness that +the extreme dampness of the evening had flattened the crown of my cap, +and that it and its frill were mere unconsidered limp rags, whilst the +unpretending circlet of feathers had started into undue prominence, and +struck straight out like a red nimbus all round my unconscious head. How +my fellow-guests managed to keep their countenances I cannot tell. I am +certain _I_ never could have sat opposite to any one with such an +Ojibbeway Indian's head-dress on without giggling. But no one gave me +the least hint of my misfortune, and it only burst upon me suddenly when +I returned to my own room and my own glass. Still, there was a ray of +hope left: it _might_ have been the dampness of the drive home which had +worked me this woe. I rushed into F----'s dressing-room and demanded +quite fiercely whether my cap had been like that all the time. + +"Why, yes," F---- admitted; adding by way of consolation, "In fact, it +is a good deal subdued now: it was very wild all dinner-time. I can't +say I admired it, but I supposed it was all right." + +Did ever any one hear such shocking apathy? In answer to my reproaches +for not telling me, he only said, "Why, what could you have done with it +if you _had_ known? Taken it off and put it in your pocket, or what?" + +I don't know, but anything would have been better than sitting at table +with a thing only fit for a May-Day sweep on one's head. It makes me hot +and angry with myself even to think of it now. + +F----'s clothes could also relate some curious experiences which they +have had to go through, not only at the hands of his washerwoman, but at +those of his temporary valet, Jack (I beg his pardon, Umpashongwana) the +Zulu, whose zeal exceeds anything one can imagine. For instance, when he +sets to work to brush F----'s clothes of a morning he is by no means +content to brush the cloth clothes. Oh dear, no! He brushes the socks, +putting each carefully on his hand like a glove and brushing vigorously +away. As they are necessarily very thin socks for this hot weather, they +are apt to melt away entirely under the process. I say nothing of his +blacking the boots inside as well as out, or of his laboriously +scrubbing holes in a serge coat with a scrubbing-brush, for these are +errors of judgment dictated by a kindly heart. But when Jack puts a +saucepan on the fire without any water and burns holes in it, or tries +whether plates and dishes can support their own weight in the air +without a table beneath them, then, I confess, my patience runs short. +But Jack is so imperturbable, so perfectly and genuinely astonished at +the untoward result of his experiments, and so grieved that the +_inkosacasa_ (I have not an idea how the word ought to be spelt) should +be vexed, that I am obliged to leave off shaking my head at him, which +is the only way I have of expressing my displeasure. He keeps on saying, +"Ja, oui, yaas," alternately, all the time, and I have to go away to +laugh. + + +FEBRUARY 16. + +I was much amused the other day at receiving a letter of introduction +from a mutual friend in England, warmly recommending a newly-arrived +bride and bridegroom to my acquaintance, and especially begging me to +take pains to introduce the new-comers into the "best society." To +appreciate the joke thoroughly you must understand that there is no +society here at all--absolutely none. We are not proud, we +Maritzburgians, nor are we inhospitable, nor exclusive, nor unsociable. +Not a bit. We are as anxious as any community can be to have society or +sociable gatherings, or whatever you like to call the way people manage +to meet together; but circumstances are altogether too strong for us, +and we all in turn are forced to abandon the attempt in despair. First +of all, the weather is against us. It is maddeningly uncertain, and the +best-arranged entertainment cannot be considered a success if the guests +have to struggle through rain and tempest and streets ankle-deep in +water and pitchy darkness to assist at it. People are hardly likely to +make themselves pleasant at a party when their return home through storm +and darkness is on their minds all the time: at least, I know _I_ cannot +do so. But the weather is only one of the lets and hinderances to +society in Natal. We are all exceedingly poor, and necessary food is +very dear: luxuries are enormously expensive, but they are generally not +to be had at all, so one is not tempted by them. Servants, particularly +cooks, are few and far between, and I doubt if even any one calling +himself a cook could send up what would be considered a fairly good dish +elsewhere. Kafirs can be taught to do one or two things pretty well, but +even then they could not be trusted to do them for a party. In fact, if +I stated that there were no good servants--in the ordinary acceptation +of the word--here at all, I should not be guilty of exaggeration. If +there are, all I can say is, I have neither heard of nor seen them. On +the contrary, I have been overwhelmed by lamentations on that score in +which I can heartily join. Besides the want of means of conveyance (for +there are no cabs, and very few _remises_) and good food and attendance, +any one wanting to entertain would almost need to build a house, so +impossible is it to collect more than half a dozen people inside an +ordinary-sized house here. For my part, my verandah is the comfort of my +life. When more than four or five people at a time chance to come to +afternoon tea, we overflow into the verandah. It runs round three sides +of the four rooms called a house, and is at once my day-nursery, my +lumber-room, my summer-parlor, my place of exercise--everything, in +fact. And it is an incessant occupation to train the creepers and wage +war against the legions of brilliantly-colored grasshoppers which infest +and devour the honeysuckles and roses. Never was there such a place for +insects! They eat up everything in the kitchen-garden, devour every leaf +off my peach and orange trees, scarring and spoiling the fruit as well. +It is no comfort whatever that they are wonderfully beautiful +creatures, striped and ringed with a thousand colors in a thousand +various ways: one has only to see the riddled appearance of every leaf +and flower to harden one's heart. Just now they have cleared off every +blossom out of the garden except my zinnias, which grow magnificently +and make the devastated flower-bed still gay with every hue and tint a +zinnia can put on--salmon-color, rose, scarlet, pink, maroon, and fifty +shades besides. On the veldt too the flowers have passed by, but their +place is taken by the grasses, which are all in seed. People say the +grass is rank and poor, and of not much account as food for stock, but +it has an astonishing variety of beautiful seeds. In one patch it is +like miniature pampas-grass, only a couple of inches long each seed-pod, +but white and fluffy. Again, there will be tall stems laden with rich +purple grains or delicate tufts of rose-colored seed. One of the +prettiest, however, is like wee green harebells hanging all down a tall +and slender stalk, and hiding within their cups the seed. Unfortunately, +the weeds and burs seed just as freely, and there is one especial +torment to the garden in the shape of an innocent-looking little plant +something like an alpine strawberry in leaf and blossom, bearing a most +aggravating tuft of little black spines which lose no opportunity of +sticking to one's petticoats in myriads. They are familiarly known as +"blackjacks," and can hold their own as pests with any weed of my +acquaintance. + +But the most beautiful tree I have seen in Natal was an _Acacia +flamboyante_. I saw it at D'Urban, and I shall never forget the contrast +of its vivid green, bright as the spring foliage of a young oak, and the +crown of rich crimson flowers on its topmost branches, tossing their +brilliant blossoms against a background of gleaming sea and sky. It was +really splendid, like a bit of Italian coloring among the sombre tangle +of tropical verdure. It is too cold up here for this glorious tree, +which properly belongs to a far more tropical temperature than even +D'Urban can mount up to. + +I am looking forward to next month and the following ones to make some +little excursions into the country, or to go "trekking," as the local +expression is. I hear on all sides how much that is interesting lies a +little way beyond the reach of a ride, but it is difficult for the +mistress--who is at the same time the general servant--of an +establishment out here to get away from home for even a few days, +especially when there is a couple of small children to be left behind. +No one travels now who can possibly help it, for the sudden violent +rains which come down nearly every afternoon swell the rivers and make +even the spruits impassable; so a traveler may be detained for days +within a few miles of his destination. Now, in winter the roads will be +hard, and dust will be the only inconvenience. At least, that is what I +am promised. + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + +THE CABS OF PARIS. + + +Paris is without doubt, of all large cities, the easiest to get about +in. Lines of omnibuses cross and recross its surface in every direction, +and, better still, the streets swarm with cabs, in which for the small +sum of thirty cents one can pass at will from any given point to any +other far distant one within its limits. There are carriage-stands on +every side and in every principal street, and unoccupied vehicles may be +seen driven at a snail's pace, with their drivers keenly on the lookout +for a possible fare. Yet, with all this provision, it is occasionally +very difficult to secure a carriage in Paris. On a sunny Sunday +afternoon, on the day of the Grand Prix de Paris, or during the +prevalence of a sudden storm carriages are as scarce in Paris as they +are in New York. Yet their number increases daily, thanks to the law of +1866, by virtue of which any coachman who can pass an examination as to +his knowledge of driving and acquaintance with the streets of Paris can, +if he likes, purchase a vehicle of the regulation style, have his number +painted on it and set up for himself as a public cabman, subject always +in the matter of pace, charges, etc. to the police laws regulating all +such details. + +It has taken two hundred and thirty years to bring the cab-system of +Paris to the point of perfection to which it has now attained. In 1617 +the only public means of locomotion was afforded by a company which let +out sedan-chairs. In 1640 a certain Nicholas Sauvage, agent for the +stage-coaches of Amiens, formed the plan of establishing carriages, +harnessed and ready for use at certain designated points, for the +accommodation of the public. These vehicles were christened _fiacres_, +but the reason for their receiving this appellation remains unknown. +Some say it was because Sauvage occupied a house the facade of which was +decorated with an image of St. Fiacre: another and more probable +solution of the mystery has been found in the fact that just at that +epoch a monk of the Petits Peres, called Fiacre, died in the odor of +sanctity, and his portrait was placed in all the new vehicles to protect +them against accidents. Be this as it may, the new enterprise proved +successful, and in 1703 a law was passed compelling the numbering of all +public carriages. In 1753 there existed in Paris twenty-eight cab-stands +and sixty livery-stables, containing in all one hundred and seventy +carriages. At present, Paris possesses over eight thousand cabs and +three thousand livery-stable carriages: these last are generally very +handsome vehicles, drawn by spirited, well-kept horses and driven by +stylish-looking coachmen. The public vehicles of Paris, exclusive of +the omnibuses, may be divided into three classes. First, the _voitures +de place_, which are permitted, on payment of an annual tax of three +hundred and sixty-five francs, to stand at one of the one hundred and +fifty-eight points designated by the police; these bear a yellow number. +Secondly, the _voitures mixtes_, which may at will be hired from a +livery-stable or stand or ply upon the public highway; these bear a red +number. And thirdly, the _voitures de remise_, which can only be hired +from a stable, and are prohibited from appearing on the stands; these +also are numbered in red, but in a particular style, so that a policeman +at a glance can distinguish the difference between the voitures mixtes +and those of the last category. To this latter class belong the stunning +and splendid equipages which may be hired for any period, extending from +a few hours to an indefinite number of months, and which enable the +stranger to make as fine a display of equipages and liveries as the +wealthiest resident of the city. The first two classes, the cabs +properly so called, are, however, the most interesting to the transient +visitor to Paris or to the permanent resident with a purse of moderate +dimensions. + +The cabs of Paris, as a rule, are comparatively neat and comfortable, +those belonging to the Compagnie Generale des Voitures (of which +institution more anon) being carefully brushed and cleaned every day. In +winter a two-seated coupe lined with dark cloth or with leather, and +drawn by a single horse, is the usual style of vehicle offered for the +accommodation of the public. The price of such a vehicle is thirty cents +for a "course" or single unbroken trip, which may be from one side of +Paris to the other, or forty cents an hour. The coachman is bound by law +to give the person engaging him a square ticket on which is printed his +number and the exact amount of his fare: this last, however, being +stated as varying under certain conditions and at certain hours, is apt +to be rather puzzling to the inexperienced traveler, particularly if he +or she be ignorant of French. Four-seated carriages are hard to find in +winter: they are drawn by two horses, and the fare is ten cents more on +the course and by the hour than that of the two-seated ones. In summer +the coupes are replaced by light, open, four-seated carriages, with a +hood and with leather curtains, to be used in case of rain; and they are +really pleasant and comfortable vehicles. The horses do not differ much +from the style of cab-horses known all over the world, being thin, +shabby and dismal-looking animals as a general thing, though exceptions +to the rule are not uncommon. + +The cabmen of Paris form a distinct class, a separate society, composed +of all sorts of elements--a turbulent, indocile, rebellious set of men, +always in revolt against their employers and against the law, which +holds them with an iron and inflexible grasp. Most of them are +Communists, though many of them are men belonging to the higher classes +of society, whom dissipation, extravagance or misfortune has driven to +this mode of gaining a living. Thus, it is a well-known fact that the +son of a distinguished diplomat, an ambassador to more than one foreign +court, is now a cab-driver, and not a particularly good one. Unfrocked +priests, unsuccessful school-teachers, small bankrupt tradesmen, swell +the ranks, the _personnel_ of which is mainly composed of servants out +of place or of provincials who have come to Paris to seek their fortune. +These last come mostly from Normandy, Auvergne and Savoy; and it has +been noticed that the Savoyards are the most sober and docile of all. +The Parisian cabman is always under the surveillance of the police: a +policeman stationed on every stand watches each cab as it drives off, +and takes its number to guard as far as possible against any overcharge +or peculation. In case of a collision and quarrel or an accident the +ubiquitous policeman is always at hand to take the numbers of the +vehicles whose drivers may be concerned in the affair. Complaints made +by passengers are always attended to at once, and immediate redress is +pretty sure to follow. The cabman is generally gruff and surly, and, +though seldom seen drunk, in the majority of cases is addicted to +drink--a vice which the exposed nature of his calling palliates if it +does not wholly excuse. Some cabmen are devoted to newspaper reading, +and may be seen engaged perusing the _Rappel_ or the _Evenement_ while +awaiting the appearance of a fare or stationed before the door of a shop +or a picture-gallery. Others prefer to nap away their leisure moments, +and may be seen, half sitting, half lying on their boxes, and sound +asleep. It is rather a curious process to pass slowly along the line of +a Parisian cab-stand and observe the faces of the men. Every variety and +type of countenance--from the Parisian "Jakey" with villainous eyes, +sharp features and black soaplocks, to the jolly old patriarch, gray and +stout, and somewhat stiff in the joints, who has been a cab-driver for +over forty years perhaps--presents itself to your view. The best way to +engage a cab is by observing the face of the driver, not the condition +of the vehicle or that of the horse. The Parisian cabmen wear no +uniform, the high glazed hat being the only article of attire which is +universally adopted. Even the red waistcoat, once a distinctive mark of +their calling, is gradually falling into disuse, and every variety of +coat and overcoat may be seen, liveries past private service being very +generally adopted. Any overcharge may be reclaimed by the passenger by +the simple process of making a complaint before the nearest chef de +police. In past days the coachman thus complained against was forced to +go in person to the complainant to beg his or her pardon, and to pay +over the extra sum demanded. A frightful catastrophe which occurred some +twenty years ago put an end to this form of retribution. On the 16th of +September, 1855, M. Juge, director of the normal school at Douai, took a +cab in the Place de la Concorde and went for a drive in the Bois de +Boulogne. The driver, one Collignon, insisted on being paid more than +his legal fare, and M. Juge forwarded his complaint to the prefecture of +police the next day. Collignon was condemned to make restitution in +person to M. Juge. He sold his furniture, purchased a pair of pistols +and went on the appointed day to the house of M. Juge in the Rue +d'Enfer. No hard words passed between them, but while the gentleman was +in the act of signing the receipt the coachman drew out one of his +pistols and shot him through the head, killing him instantly. Collignon +was at once arrested: he was tried and condemned to death, and expiated +his crime on the scaffold on the 6th of December following. Since that +event another system of restitution has been followed, the sum exacted +in excess of the legal fare being deposited at the prefecture of police, +whither the traveler is compelled to go in quest of it. + +At the prefecture of police is likewise situated the storehouse of +articles forgotten or left behind in public carriages. According to the +law, every coachman is commanded to inspect carefully his carriage after +the occupant has departed, and to deposit every article left therein, +were it but an odd glove, in the storehouse above mentioned. Each object +is inscribed in a register and bears a particular number, and the number +of the cab in which it was left as well. These articles fill a large +room, whereof the contents are ever changing, and which is always full. +Umbrellas, muffs, opera-glasses, pocket-books (sometimes containing +thousands of francs) are among the most usual deposits. In one year +there were found in the cabs of Paris over twenty thousand objects, +among which were six thousand five hundred umbrellas. Should the article +bear the address of the owner, he is at once apprised by letter of its +whereabouts; otherwise, it is kept till called for, and if never claimed +it becomes the property of the city at the end of three years, and is +sold at auction. A vast row of underground apartments is appropriated to +the unclaimed articles--dim cellar-rooms, lighted with gas. There may be +seen umbrellas by the hundred or the thousand, strapped together in +bundles and stacked up like fagots. Everything is registered, numbered +and catalogued, and if returned to the owner his address and the date +of delivery are carefully noted. The strict surveillance of the police +contributes greatly toward keeping the Parisian cabman honest. Instances +are on record where costly sets of jewels, bags of napoleons and +pocket-books crammed with bank-notes have been faithfully deposited at +the prefecture by their finders. On the other hand, an anecdote is told +of a cab-driver in whose vehicle a gentleman chanced to leave his +pocket-book, containing fifty thousand francs which he had just won at +play. He traced his cabman to the stable, where he was in the act of +feeding his horse, opened the carriage-door, and found his pocket-book +lying untouched upon the floor. On learning what a prize he had missed +the coachman incontinently hung himself. + +The great source of supply for public vehicles in Paris is the Compagnie +Generale des Voitures, one of the most gigantic of the great enterprises +of Paris. It possesses five thousand cabs and over two thousand handsome +and stylish voitures de remise. It furnishes every style; of carriage +for hire, from the superb private-looking barouche or landau, with +servants in gorgeous livery and splendid blooded horses, or the showy +pony-phaeton and low victoria of the _cocotte du grand monde_, down to +the humble one-horse cab. This beneficent company will furnish you, if +desired, with a princely equipage, with armorial bearings, family +liveries, etc., all complete and got up specially to suit the ideas of +the hirer. Nine-tenths of the elegant turnouts in Paris are supplied in +this manner. There is a regular tariff for everything: each additional +footman costs so much, there is a fixed charge for powder, for +postilions, for a _chasseur_ decked with feathers and gold lace. You can +be as elegant as you please without purchasing a single accessory of +your equipage. + +The cab-horses of the Compagnie Generale are usually brought from +Normandy, and belong to a specially hardy race, such a one being needed +to endure the privations and trials to which a Parisian cab-horse is +exposed. Each horse has to be gradually initiated into the duties of +his new calling: he has to be trained to eat at irregular hours, to +sleep standing, and to endure the fatigues of the Parisian streets. Were +the country-bred horse to be put at once to full city work, he would die +in a week. He is first sent out for a quarter of a day; then after a +week or two for half a day; then for a whole day; and when accustomed to +that he is considered fit for night-work. The horses of the Compagnie +Generale remain in the stable one day out of every three. If well fed, +well kept and well looked after, the life of a Paris cab-horse may be +prolonged from three to five years, but the latter is the extreme limit. + +The Compagnie Generale not only buys its own horses, but constructs its +own carriages. Its coachmen are obliged to pass through a preliminary +examination, not only as to their capabilities for driving, but as to +their knowledge of the streets of Paris. But the passage of the law of +1866 has let loose upon the community a swarm of ignorant coachmen, who, +assuming the reins and whip, in some instances without any knowledge +even of the great thoroughfares of Paris, will lead their unhappy hirer +a pretty dance, particularly if he or she is a stranger on a first visit +to the great city. I know of one instance where a lady, desirous of +visiting the Pare Monceau, was taken to the extreme northern boundary of +the city limits, and was only rescued by the intervention of the police. +Then one must be very particular as to the pronunciation of the name of +the street, as so many streets exist in Paris the names of which closely +resemble each other when spoken, such as the Rue de Teheran and the Rue +de Turin, the Rue du Marl and the Rue d'Aumale, etc. And if your +coachman _can_ make a mistake, you may rest assured he will do it. + +The Parisian cab is not, like its London compeer, a prohibited pariah of +a vehicle, excluded from parks or the court-yards of palaces. You can go +to call at the Elysee or to attend a ball there in a cab if you like, +and the Bois de Boulogne or the Pare Monceau is as free to that plebeian +vehicle as to the landau of a prince. And if one attends a ball in +Paris, there is no need to engage a carriage to return home in. +Attracted by the lights, the cabmen station their vehicles in long lines +in the neighborhood of any mansion where such a festivity is taking +place, waiting patiently till three, four and five o'clock in the +morning for a chance of conveying home some of the merrymakers. The only +instance in which I ever heard of their failing to be on hand on such an +occasion was at a large fancy ball where the German was kept up till six +o'clock in the morning. The gay troupe issued forth into the golden +glowing sunshine of the April morning, and found not a single cab in +attendance; so powdered and brocaded Marquises, white-satin clad +"Mignons," Highlanders, Turks and Leaguers were forced to walk to their +homes, in many instances miles away, to the immense amusement of the +street-sweepers and naughty little boys, the only Parisians astir at +that hour of the city's universal repose. + +L.H.H. + + + + +A NEW MUSEUM AT ROME. + + +A new museum of sculpture at Rome! One would have thought that it could +hardly be needed. Besides three vast collections--that of the Lateran, +that of the Capitol, and that wondrous world of antique sculpture at the +Vatican, itself, in fact, three museums, and each of the three alone +matchless in the world--we have the work of the hands that lived and +worked here a couple of thousands of years ago in every villa, in every +garden, almost at every corner. And yet we need, and have just +established, another museum of ancient sculpture. We are now cutting new +lines of streets--not, as you are doing, on the surface of a soil that +has never been moved save by the forces of Nature since first the +Creator divided the sea from the dry land, but--among the debris of the +successive civilizations of more than three thousand years. The laying +of our gas- and water-pipes breaks the painting on the walls of +banquet-halls whose last revel was disturbed by the irruption of the +barbarian. Our "main drainage" lies among the temples of gods whose +godlike forms are found mutilated and prostrate among the fallen +columns and tumbled architraves and cornices of their shrines. + +But if no awe of the mighty past prevents the speculator and contractor +of our day from marching his army of excavators in an undeviating and +unyielding line impartially athwart the temples, the palaces, the +theatres, the baths of the perished world beneath their feet, yet in +these days of ours the work is done reverently, at least so far as not +only to respect, but to gather up with the most scrupulous care, every +available fragment of the art, and even of the common life, of those +vanished generations. If the day shall come when some future people +shall yet once again build their city on this same eternal site, and +some future social cataclysm shall have overwhelmed the works and +civilization of the present time, those future builders will not find +walls constructed in great part of the fragments of statues and the +richly-carved friezes of yet older builders and artists, as we have +found. The Romans of the present day are, it must be admitted, fully +alive to the inappreciable value of the wondrous heritage they possess +in this kind; and every fragment of it is carefully and jealously +gathered and stored. And hence is the need of a new museum, and hence +will be the need of other new museums--who shall say how many? For truly +this Roman soil seems inexhaustible in buried treasures. There seems no +likelihood that the vein should be exhausted or die out. Every now and +then the excavators come upon "a fault," as the miners say, but the vein +is soon struck again. + +And so the new museum at the Capitol has been rendered necessary. It was +inaugurated on the 25th of February in this year. It consists of twelve +rooms or galleries, part of which occupy the site of the apartments +which used to contain the archives, now moved to other quarters, and +part, including a large octagonal hall, the principal feature of the new +museum, have been newly constructed on ground which used to be the +garden of the Conservatori, the ancient municipal officers of the city, +so called. The entrance is by the main staircase of the palazzo of the +Conservatori, which is the building that forms the side of the square of +the Capitol to the right hand of the visitor as he ascends the +magnificent flight of steps from the Via di Ara Coeli. The steep sides +of the Capitoline Hill on either side of these steps has been recently +turned into a very well-kept and pretty garden, among the lawns and +shrubberies of which the attention of the stranger, as he ascends, may +be attracted by a neatly-painted iron cage in front of the mouth of a +little cavern in the rock, which is inhabited by a she-wolf in memorial +of the earliest traditions of the place. Memorials, indeed, are not +wanting at every step, and from the first window of the staircase as the +visitor ascends to the museum on the first floor he may look down on the +Tarpeian Rock. + +The public functionaries of all sorts here do so much of their work in a +manner which gives rise to much discontentment among the Romans, and +would by the people of better-ruled countries be deemed wholly +intolerable, that it is a pleasure to be able to say that upon this +occasion the municipality has done what it had to do thoroughly well. +The galleries and rooms of the new establishment are decorated in +admirably good taste in the Pompeian style, the walls being colored in +panels and borders of blue and red on a buff ground. They are +excellently well lighted, and the visitor is not hunted round the rooms +by an attendant anxious only to get his tedious task over, but is +allowed to wander about among the treasures around him at his own +discretion, and to spend the whole day there, or as much of it as lies +between 10 A.M. and 3 P.M., if he pleases. A sufficient catalogue, +accompanied by a map of the place, is purchasable at the doors for a +couple of francs, and the visitor is required to pay half a franc for +his entrance. This last regulation is in accordance with a law recently +passed by the legislature establishing an entrance-fee at the doors of +all public galleries and museums throughout Italy. Heretofore the +entrance to all such places was entirely free. But, seeing that the +country really needs the assistance to be obtained from this source, it +cannot be said to be acting otherwise than reasonably in making such a +charge; and probably no one of the thousands who come to Italy to profit +by her artistic treasures will ever grudge the payment of the small fee +demanded; the only question being whether the measure is on the whole a +profitable one financially, of which I do not feel quite sure. + +The first landing-place of the vast staircase and the ante-room at the +top of it are lined with the more interesting and perfect of the pagan +inscriptions which the recent movements of the soil have brought to +light. Of course, the majority of these present no specialties +distinguishing them from the thousands of similar inscriptions with +which the world has long since been familiar. But there are some among +them which contribute useful fragments of knowledge to the attempts of +our antiquaries to construct a satisfactory plan of the ancient +city--dedications of statues, showing what god or goddess inhabited such +or such a shrine, and the like. The letters of these inscriptions have +been rendered more easily legible by restoring the scarlet coloring of +them, as has been done in the case of those at the Vatican. + +The visitor next enters a very long corridor or gallery giving access to +the various halls and rooms, and adorned with a series of modern busts +of the men of whom Italy has most reason to be proud. Some among them +are of much merit. + +Then comes the gallery of the bronzes. In this department the late finds +have been very numerous and extremely interesting. Among the objects +which will immediately attract the visitor's eye as he enters the +principal room are a litter and a biga or chariot. In both cases of +course only fragments of the bronze remain, but they are sufficient to +have enabled skilled antiquaries to reconstruct the entire litter and +the entire chariot. The latter is very specially interesting. The plates +of embossed and chiseled bronze which encased the body of the chariot +are figured with admirably-worked subjects in basso-rilievo, many of +them relating to the "wondrous tale of Troy." This invaluable specimen +was the gift to the museum of that eminent and liberal archaeologist, +Signor A. Castellani, of whose matchless collection of Etruscan jewelry +I wrote in a former number of this Magazine. The remaining portions of +the bronze- and iron-work of the litter, with its arrangement of poles +for carrying it, somewhat after the fashion of a sedan-chair, though the +whole of the apparatus is much lighter, are more fragmentary, but yet +sufficient for the reconstruction of a specimen illustrative to the +classical reader of many a passage in the ancient writers. Under No. 10 +the visitor will find the small statue of an hermaphrodite in bronze, +fashioned as the bearer of a lamp--a statue of very great delicacy and +beauty. + +The next room is that of the medals and coins, the number of which will +probably surprise the visitor not a little. The gold coins and the +better-preserved and more interesting specimens are shown single under +cleverly-arranged glass cases. The more ordinary results of the finds +which are almost daily being made have been consigned in promiscuous +heaps to huge glass vases, whose tops, however, are carefully sealed +down. The large collections of the _aes rude signatum_ of the consular +and of the imperial families, in bronze, in silver and in gold, together +with some mediaeval specimens, are ranged around the walls. + +Then we come to the sculpture, the main scope of the new museum, which +is distributed in a large vestibule, in a noble octagonal central hall +and in a long gallery. It was an excellent idea, adding much to the +interest which every stranger in Rome will take in the museum, to place +on each specimen a placard specifying the locality in which it was +discovered and the date of the finding. And this information is +admirably supplemented by a map hung against the wall showing in detail +the relative positions of all the places which have yielded up these +long-buried treasures. The number of specimens of sculpture is in all +one hundred and thirty-three; and it is impossible, without letting this +notice run to an immoderate length, to attempt to give an adequate +account of the various objects, or even of the principal among them. +There is a richly-ornamented and very characteristic head of Commodus, +which really looks as if it might have come from the sculptor's hands +yesterday. A colossal bust of Maecenas, also the gift of Signor +Castellani, a bust of Tiberius, a small statue of the child Hercules, a +Venus Anadyomene, may be, and many others might be, mentioned. The +last-named is a very lovely statue of a young girl entirely nude. The +archaeologists have chosen to call it a Venus, but it is to my thinking +clear that it never was intended for the laughter-loving goddess. The +expression of the face is perfectly and beautifully chaste, and indeed a +little sad. I should say that it must have been a nymph coming from the +bath, and just about to clothe herself with the drapery thrown over a +broken column at her knee as soon as she shall have completed the +arrangement of her tresses, with which her hands are (or, alas! were, +for the arms are wanting) engaged. + +Room No. 10 contains a very extensive and most interesting collection of +ancient pottery. There are many of the painted vases with which the +world has become so well acquainted, and which, as being the more showy +objects, will on his first entrance attract the eye of the visitor. But +if he will with loving patience examine the vast numbers of utensils of +every sort which have been with the utmost care sifted, one might almost +say, from out of the mass of debris which the recent excavations have +thrown up, he will find an amount of suggestive illustration of the old +pagan life of two thousand years ago which cannot fail to interest and +instruct him. + +T.A.T. + + + + +OUR FOREIGN SURNAMES. + + +It is interesting as well as amusing to read the foreign names upon the +signs in the streets of our cities and towns, and observe the number of +nationalities thereon represented, together with the peculiarities of +form and meaning displayed by the names themselves. + +German names meet the eye everywhere, and are usually very outlandish in +appearance, while many of them have significations which are +conspicuously and ludicrously inappropriate. For example, a lager-beer +saloon in one of our large cities is kept by Mr. Heiliggeist ("Holy +Ghost"); a cigar-shop in another place belongs to Mr. Priesterjahn +("Prester John"); while the pastor of a devout German flock in a third +locality is the Rev. Mr. Wuestling ("low scoundrel"). The Hon. Carl +Schurz, too, is hardly the sort of man to be named "apron," though it is +certainly true that his name is in this country sometimes pronounced +"Shirts." + +Other branches of the great Teutonic family have many representatives +among us, and their names seem, to the uninitiated, even more fearfully +and wonderfully constructed than those of their German cousins. It +produces a good deal of surprise in the mind of an American to see on +the sign of a tradesman from Belgium the familiar name of Cox spelled +"Kockx;" and the Norwegian patronymic Trondhjemer ("Drontheimer"), +though a very mild specimen of the language, has a formidable aspect to +the general beholder. + +The German-Hebrew names display such an exuberant Eastern fancy in their +composition as to suggest the inquiry whether they are not really but +German translations of their possessors' original Oriental titles. It is +not unlikely that this was the origin of names like Rosenthal ("Vale of +Roses"), Lilienhain ("Meadow of Lilies"), Liebenstrom ("Stream of +Love"), and Goldenberg ("Golden Mount"). + +The Teutonic names, whether German, Scandinavian or Flemish, do not, as +a rule, seem by any means so unpronounceable as those pertaining to +foreigners of Slavonic race. The Russian, Polish and Bohemian +appellations, which occur frequently in some sections of our country, so +often begin with the extraordinary combination _cz_ that many Americans, +believing that nothing but a convulsive sneeze could meet the +necessities of such a case, decline trying to pronounce them at all. But +the difficulties which these Slavonic names apparently offer would, in a +great measure, be removed by a uniform system of orthography. The +combination _cz_, for instance, corresponds to our _ch_, and the Polish +cognomen Czajkowski becomes much less exasperating when spelled, as it +would be in English, "Chycovsky." The same thing is true, to a great +extent, of the Hungarian names, which are not rare in our larger cities. +They, too, would be greatly simplified to us by being spelled according +to English rules. A very frequent combination in Hungarian names, that +of _sz_ is really the same as our _ss_; while _s_ without the _z_ is +pronounced _sh_. The Hungarian name Szemelenyi under our system of +spelling would therefore be "Semelenye," which is less discouraging. + +The foreign names in the United States that really present the most +serious difficulties to the native citizen are unquestionably the Welsh. +Some of the obstacles to easy pronunciation may even in their case be +removed by adaptation to our orthography; as is shown by the name Hwg +("hog"), which would be spelled by us "Hoog." But there are so many +sounds in Welsh that are not only unknown, but almost inconceivable to +English-speaking people, that the difficulties would still be very far +from being overcome. And some of these peculiar utterances are expressed +in Welsh by combinations of the Roman characters which in English stand +for familiar and simple sounds; so that an attempt to reduce the two +languages to a common system of spelling would not be at all easy. The +combination _ll_ stands in Welsh for a terrific gurgling, gasping sound, +which when once heard swiftly puts an end to all the romantic +associations that the name of Llewellyn has derived from history and +poetry. + +But all such foreign--or, more strictly speaking, un-English--names, +after being in this country a generation or two, become, in a certain +sense, "acclimated." They undergo a change in pronunciation, in +spelling, or in both, which removes, in effect, the difficulties that +originally characterized them. In this way the German names Schneider, +Meyer, Kaiser, Kraemer, Schallenberger, Schwarzwaelder, and a host of +others have become, respectively, Snyder, Myers, Keyser, Creamer, +Shellabarger, Swartswelder, etc. Sometimes, too, an American name more +or less similar in sound or meaning has been taken or given in place of +the original German title; as when Loewenstein ("Lion-rock") was +exchanged for Livingston, and Albrecht ("Albert") for Allbright. + +The old "Knickerbocker" names of the Middle States have, in most +instances, retained their Dutch spelling intact, but have generally been +subjected to a similar process of adaptation in sound. The same may be +said of the French names in this country. Their spelling has, as a rule, +been preserved, while their sound has been Americanized. In this way De +Rosset has acquired the pronunciation Derrozett, and Jacques has come to +be called either Jaquess or Jakes. Many French patronymics, such as the +old South Carolina Huguenot name _Marion_, exhibiting nothing peculiarly +French in their forms, are now pronounced entirely in accordance with +our rules, and their national origin is preserved by tradition alone. +Some French titles, however, having undergone only a partial change in +pronunciation, survive in a hybrid form as to sound, though their +spelling remains unaltered. Specimens of this class may be found in such +names as _Huger_, pronounced "Huzhee;" _Fouche_, commonly called +"Fooshee;" and _Deveraux_ or _Devereux_, now converted into "Debro" or +"Devroo." The only very noticeable change that has taken place in the +orthography of our French names is that the article has been joined to +the noun in many cases where they were originally separate. In this way +_La Ramie_, _La Rabie_, _La Reintree_, etc. are now usually spelled Laramie, +Larabie (or, in some instances, Larrabee), Lareintree, etc.; the +pronunciation of the newer form being Americanized in the usual way. But +this change in form is one which might easily have occurred even in +France. + +Most of these French and Dutch names have been in the country for a +comparatively long time, and, indeed, many of them date back to the +early colonial period. Like the Spanish-American names of Texas, +California, Florida and Louisiana, to which the same rule generally +applies, they belonged to members of organized foreign communities, +proportionately large enough to preserve their names from a complete +assimilation with the ideas of the English-American population. And in a +lesser degree this is also true of those early German emigrants, mainly +from the Palatinate, who settled in Pennsylvania, Western Maryland and +the Shenandoah Valley. + +The tendency at the present day, however, seems to be strongly in favor +of the process mentioned first--that of changing the sound of the names +to suit American ears, and altering the spelling so as to conform to the +new pronunciation. There is every indication that this will be done with +regard to a very large majority of the foreign surnames that have been +introduced among us within the last fifty years, or which may be brought +into our country in the future. And as the changes so made are quite +arbitrary, the result will be that the future student of American +nomenclature will often be sorely puzzled by some of the surnames to +which his attention shall be drawn. + +W.W.C. + + + + +THE NEW FRENCH ACADEMICIAN. + + +No institution of its kind holds so eminent a place in the esteem of a +great country as the _Academie Francaise_. The elections are always a +matter of interest, largely shared by the cultivated +_Revue-des-Deux-Mondes_-reading world of both hemispheres; and the last +election was one which excited fully as much attention as most of its +predecessors. M. John Lemoinne, who at length summoned up courage to +present himself as a candidate, was born in London in Waterloo year, +1815, and has for a long period, probably thirty years, been, through +the _Journal des Debats_, in some sort a European power. His selection +to fill the seat of M. Jules Janin is in every way appropriate. Indeed, +it seems strange that he should have been contented to wait until he was +sixty-one to come forward for that distinction. + +The foundation of the Academy is directly traceable to the meetings of +men of science at the house of M. Courart--who, early in the seventeenth +century, was for forty years its first secretary--but it unquestionably +owes to Richelieu a habitation and a name. It was formed with the +special object of preserving accuracy in the French language, to which +Frenchmen have been wont to pay an almost exclusive attention, but by +the election of M. Lemoinne the Academy will have at least one member +who is no less acquainted with another tongue. + +Every one will remember old Miss Crawley's rage when she found that +Becky was trading on her connection with the democratic-aristocratic +spinster to make her way into the Faubourg St. Germain. Too impatient to +write in French, the old lady posted off a furious disavowal of the +little adventuress in vigorous vernacular, but, adds the author, as +Madame la Duchesse had only passed twenty years in England, she didn't +understand one word. It may be hoped that the new Academician will, in +conjunction with the new minister of public instruction, Mr. Waddington, +who is a Rugby and Cambridge man, have some effect in arousing his +countrymen to the study which they have heretofore so strangely +neglected of a tongue which threatens to obliterate in time the +inconveniences occasioned by the Tower of Babel. English is every day +more and more spoken, and French less and less. + +In delivering his address of welcome to M. Lemoinne, M. Cavillier Fleury +said: "You are one of the creators of the discussion of foreign affairs +in the French papers: you gave them the taste for interesting themselves +in the concerns of foreign countries. Few of us before steam had +shortened distance really knew England. Voltaire had by turns glorified +and ridiculed it; De Stael had shown it to us in an agreeable book; the +witty letters of Duvergier de Hauranne had revealed the secrets of its +electoral system. Your correspondence of 1841 completed the work." He +might pertinently have added, "Because you are about the only French +newspaper writer who ever thoroughly understood the English language, +and could thus avoid ridiculous blunders." + +It has been observed that the _Debats_ almost exclusively supplies the +Academy with its contingent of publicists--a circumstance accounted for +by that journal being jealous of the purity of its language, and in +other respects preserving a high and dignified standard. It has, indeed, +for an unusually long period enjoyed its reputation. French and Belgian +newspapers are very much of a mystery to an Anglo-Saxon. They seem to +flourish under conditions impracticable to American or English journals. +The _Independance Belge_ and the _Journal des Debats_ lie before us. +Neither of them contains sufficient advertisements to make up three of +our columns, yet their expenses must, we should suppose, especially in +the case of the _Debats_, published as it is where prices are so high, +be very large. Both these papers contain articles evidently the work of +able hands, and in the case of the _Independance_ the foreign +correspondence must be a very costly item, forming, as it frequently +does, five columns of a large page. The price of each is twenty +centimes--high, certainly, for a single sheet. + +It has often been observed, too, that French newspaper-men seem +exceptionally well off. They frequent costly _cafes_, occasionally +indulge in _petits soupers_ in _cabinets particuliers_, and, altogether, +taking prices into account, appear to be in the enjoyment of larger +means than their brethren of the pen elsewhere. Of course, the success +of a French newspaper is, even in the absence of advertisements, +intelligible in the case of the _Figaro_ or _Petit Journal_, with their +circulation of 70,000 and 150,000 a day; but in the case of such papers +as the _Debats_, whose circulation is not very large, it is difficult to +explain. + +The position of a journalist in Paris seems to stand in many respects +higher than elsewhere. Of course, the fact of contributions not being +anonymous adds immeasurably to the writer's personal importance, if it +also gets him into scrapes. Elsewhere, _editors_ are men of mark, and +certainly no one in the journalistic world can possibly be made more of +than Mr. Delane in London. But the editorial writers in his paper, who +would in Paris be men of nearly as much mark as rising members of +Parliament in England, are completely "left out in the cold," gaining no +reputation even among acquaintance, since they are required to preserve +the strictest secrecy as to their connection with the paper. Altogether, +we are disposed to believe that Paris--official "warnings," press +prosecutions and possible duels notwithstanding--must be accepted as the +journalist's paradise. To be courted, caressed and feared is as much as +any reasonable newspaper writer can expect, and a great deal more than +he is likely to get out of his work elsewhere. + +R.W. + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + +Cities of Northern and Central Italy. By Augustus J.C. Hare. New York: +George Routledge & Sons. + + +Those who know Mr. Hare's _Walks in Rome_ and _Days near Rome_ will +welcome another series of Italian itineraries from the same pen. These +volumes are primarily guide-books; they tell us the best hotels, the +price of cabs, the distances by rail or high-road. But the parts of +traveler and manual are inverted: whereas you take your _Murray_ or +_Baedeker_ in your hand and carry it whither you list, Mr. Hare takes +you by the hand, leads you in the way you should go, makes you pause the +requisite time before the things you are to look at, points to every +view, lets you miss no effect, does not force his own opinions upon you, +except now and then when he loses his temper a little on the debatable +ground between religion and politics, repeats that quotation you are +vainly trying to recall, or delights you by the beauty and aptness of a +new one. He gives to a course of systematic sight-seeing the freedom and +variety of a ramble with a cultivated and sympathetic companion. We +would not be ungrateful to that inestimable impersonality, Murray, for +all are his debtors, even Mr. Hare for the plan of his books; but, +remembering how, with the latest edition in hand, we have panted up four +or more flights of stairs in a Roman or Venetian palace in search of a +picture removed years before, we are not sorry to find him here taken to +task for leaving uncorrected statements which had ceased to be true. +Moreover, Murray is no guide in matters of art; his authorities are +often captains of the British Philistines; while Mr. Hare generally +gives all that has been said by competent judges, sometimes +imperturbably recording two conflicting opinions, and leaving the reader +to decide. The range of quotation is indeed remarkable, from Dean Milman +to Ouida, including many writers too little known in this country, such +as Burckhardt, Ampere and Street. + +But it is not to the actual traveler only that these volumes will be of +use and give pleasure. They are not bad preparatory reading for those +who are going abroad, suggesting what should be studied beforehand; they +will be dear to those who sit within the blank limits of a home in this +raw New World trying to revive the fading outlines and colors of scenes +which, though unforgotten, tend to mingle with the visions of Dreamland; +and they are capital wishing-carpets for those who can travel only in +fancy. In the introduction there is an excellent passage on the +distinctive differences between the great Italian cities: "Each has its +own individual sovereignty; its own chronicles; its own politics, +domestic and foreign; its own saints, peculiarly to be revered--patrons +in peace and protectors in war; its own phase of architecture; its own +passion in architectural material, brick or stone, marble or +terra-cotta; ...its own proverbs, its own superstitions and its own +ballads." Mr. Hare contrives to convey much of the characteristic +impression of each town. Pretty little wood-cuts are called in to his +aid, but the best illustrations of his text are the poetical quotations +and exquisite prose-bits from Ruskin, Swinburne, Symonds and others +whose pens sometimes turn into the pencil of a great painter. The +author's own descriptions are extremely faithful and charming. To those +who have made the journey from Florence to Rome a single fine page of +the introduction brings back a thrill of that long ecstasy. In these few +quiet words he spreads Thrasymene before us: "It has a soft, still +beauty especially its own. Upon the vast expanse of shallow pale-green +waters, surrounded by low-lying hills, storms have scarcely any effect, +and the birds which float over it and the fishing-boats which skim +across its surface are reflected as in a mirror. At Passignano and +Torricella picturesque villages, chiefly occupied by fishermen, jut out +into the water, but otherwise the reedy shore is perfectly desolate on +this side, though beyond the lake convents and villages crown the hills +which rise between us and the pale violet mountains beyond +Montepulciano." Nothing can be more lifelike than the following picture +of the tract around Siena: "Scarcely do we pass beyond the rose-hung +walls which encircle the fortifications than we are in an upland desert, +piteously bleak in winter, but most lovely when spring comes to clothe +it. The volcanic nature of the soil in these parts gives a softer tint +than usual to the coloring. The miles upon miles of open gray-green +country, treeless, hedgeless, houseless, swoop toward one another with +the strangest sinuosities and rifts and knobs of volcanic earth, till at +last they sink in faint mists, only to rise again in pink and blue +distances, so far off, so pale and aerial, that they can scarcely be +distinguished from the atmosphere itself. Only here and there a lonely +convent with a few black cypress spires clustered round it, or a +solitary cross which the peasants choose as their midday resting-place, +cuts the pellucid sky. Here in these great uplands, where all is so +immense, the very sky itself seems more full of space than elsewhere: it +is not the deep blue of the South, but so soft and aerial that it looks +as if it were indeed the very heaven itself, only very far away." + +The chapter on Ravenna is the best in the book: it is an admirable +piece of work, a complete monograph. Everything is there--history, +legends, art--and the quotations and illustrations are peculiarly +beautiful and convincing. + +Mr. Hare, like many gentlemen of similar tastes and tendencies, does not +seem to have a strong sense of humor, although now and then he +condescends to smile as he repeats some local legend, such as that of +the crucifix at S. Francesco delle Cariere, which awoke an overwearied +devotee, who had fallen asleep on his knees before it, with "un +soavissimo schiaffo," the gentlest slap, and bade him go to sleep in the +dormitory. He speaks of an ancient custom, not mentioned by _Murray_, of +harboring lost cats in the cloister of San Lorenzo at Florence: "The +feeding of the cats, which takes place when the clock strikes twelve, is +a most curious sight.... From every roof and arch and parapet-wall, +mewing, hissing and screaming, the cats rush down to devour." It sounds +like a wicked parody on the poetic assembling of the Venetian pigeons at +the daily scattering of grain in the square of St. Mark's. + +There are a few little slips--so few that it is strange there should be +any--among which is his mention of the "St. Christopher" of the doges' +palace as "the only known fresco of Titian," forgetting the celebrated +one in the Scuola del Santo at Padua, of which he has spoken in a +previous volume. He occasionally makes an assertion to which many will +demur; as, for instance, that "The real glory of the Italian towns +consists not in their churches, but in their palaces." The best +refutation of this paradox is in his own pages. Most people will be +startled, too, by hearing of "the want of architectural power in Michael +Angelo," although this remark is followed by a criticism which strikes +us as extremely just on the stupendous slumberers on the monuments of +the Medici: "The disproportionate figures are slipping off the pitiable +pedestals which support them." Among the throng of indefinable emotions +and sensations which beset one in the Medicean chapel of San Lorenzo, we +have always been conscious of distinct discomfort from the attitude of +these sleepers, who could only maintain their posture by an immense +muscular effort incompatible with their sublime repose. As regards +practical matters, few travelers or foreign residents in Italy will +endorse Mr. Hare's statement that making a bargain in advance for +lodgings or conveyances is not a necessary precaution, or his denial of +the almost universal attempt to overcharge which is recognized and +resisted by all natives. But Mr. Hare has illusions, and Italian probity +is one of them. All his remarks about the present government of Italy +(of which he speaks as "the Sardinian government" with an emphasis akin +to the B_u_onapart_e_ of old French monarchists) are to be taken with +the utmost reservation, as most readers will see for themselves after +meeting his allusion to the massacre at Perugia in 1859 as in some sort a +defensive action on the part of the papal troops. Mr. Hare's reasoning +on all that relates to this subject is weak and illogical, sometimes +puerile. Any one who loves what is venerable and picturesque must share +the impatience and regret with which he sees so much beauty and +antiquity disappearing before the besom of progress or the rage for +improvement, especially in Rome. But we must remember that Italy is not +the first, but the last, European country in which this has come about: +in England, France and Germany what delights the eyes of the few has +long been giving place to what betters the condition or serves the +interest of the masses. Moreover, the Italians themselves, of whatever +political complexion, black or red, are totally indifferent to these +losses and changes which we lament so deeply. If there be a sad want of +good taste and good sense in Cavaliere Rosa's management of the +excavations, there is at least no lack of zeal. Formerly, next to +nothing was done to preserve or protect the monuments, and many of the +finest were irrecognizable and all but inaccessible from dirt and +dilapidation. The reverence of the papal Romans for their treasures of +either classic or Christian art is well illustrated by Retzsch's +outline, in which a lovely statue of Apollo, broken and half buried, +defiled by dogs and swine, serves as a seat for a loutish herd, who +tries to copy a miserable modern Virgin and Child from a wayside shrine. +Such a temper of mind in an intelligent, high-principled Englishman can +only arise from a moral bias which distorts every view; but the +discussion of these causes and effects would be out of place here, and +we only smile in passing at the charge of "excessive cruelty" in the +suppression of the monastery of San Vivaldo. Mr. Hare's treatment of the +legitimate topics of his book deserves all admiration and praise. His +style is simple, pleasant and picturesque; in future editions a few +careless tricks should be corrected, such as the use of _from_, with +_hence_, _thence_, _whence_, and a muddled sentence here and there, of +which a very slight instance occurs in the pretty extract about Lake +Thrasymene: there is a most confusing one about a girl who refused to +kiss the emperor Otho, which reads as if she would not kiss her own +father. It would be almost a pity to spoil a laugh by particularizing +whether a tree or nut is meant in the story of "S. Vivaldo, who became a +hermit and _lived in a hollow chestnut_, in which he was found dead in +1300." + + + + +_Books Received._ + + +The Little, or A, B, C, Book of German; that is, High School Primer; +Child's Story Book and Dictionary. By Professor C.C. Schaeffer. +Philadelphia: Charles Brothers & Co. + +Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies. By Major +Henry M. Robert, U.S.A. Chicago: S.C. Griggs & Co. + +Cabin and Plantation Songs, as sung by the Hampton Students. Arranged by +Thomas P. Fenner. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. + +The Spectator. (Selected Papers.) By Addison and Steele. Edited by John +Habberton. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. + +Characteristics from the Writings of J.H. Newman. By Wm. Samuel Lilly. +New York: D. and J. Sadlier & Co. + +Brief Biographies. Vol. III. French Political Leaders. By Edward King. +New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. + +The Life of William, Earl of Shelburne. Vol. II. By Lord Edmond +Fitzmaurice. New York: MacMillan & Co. + +Jonathan: A Novel. By C.C. Fraser-Tytler. (Leisure-Hour Series.) New +York: Henry Holt & Co. + +Faith and Modern Thought. By Ransom B. Welch, D.D., LL.D. New York: G.P. +Putnam's Sons. + +Fetich in Theology; or, Doctrinalism Twin to Ritualism. By John Miller. +New York: Dodd & Mead. + +The American Kennel and Sporting Field. By Arnold Burges. New York: J.B. +Ford & Co. + +On Dangerous Ground. By Mrs. Bloomfield H. Moore. Philadelphia: Porter & +Coates. + +Filth-Diseases, and their Prevention. By John Simon, M.D. Boston: James +Campbell. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular +Literature and Science, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 14333.txt or 14333.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/3/3/14333/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Kathryn Lybarger and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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