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diff --git a/14663-0.txt b/14663-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8195adc --- /dev/null +++ b/14663-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6379 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14663 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 14663-h.htm or 14663-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/6/6/14663/14663-h/14663-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/6/6/14663/14663-h.zip) + + + + + +McCLURE'S MAGAZINE + +VOL. VI, NO. 5, APRIL, 1896 + + + + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + ILLUSTRATIONS. + THE NEW MARVEL IN PHOTOGRAPHY. By H.J.W. Dam. + THE RÖNTGEN RAYS IN AMERICA. By Cleveland Moffett. + THE HOUSEHOLDERS. By "Q." + ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By Ida M. Tarbell. + Lincoln in the Campaign of 1840. + Lincoln's Engagement to Miss Todd. + The Lincoln and Shields Duel. + Marriage of Lincoln and Miss Todd. + "PHROSO." By Anthony Hope. + Chapter I. A Long Thing Ending in Poulos. + Chapter II. A Conservative Country. + Chapter III. The Fever of Neopalia. + A CENTURY OF PAINTING. By Will H. Low. + "SOLDIER AN' SAILOR TOO." By Rudyard Kipling. + RACHEL. By Mrs. E.V. Wilson. + CHAPTERS FROM A LIFE. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. + EDITORIAL NOTES. + Twenty Thousand Dollars for Short Stories. + The McClure's "Early Life of Lincoln." + The McClure's New "Life of Grant." + New Pictures of Lincoln. + The Abraham Lincoln School of Science and Practical Arts. + The House in which Lincoln's Parents Were Married--a Correction. + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + PICTURES SHOWING THE DIFFERENCES IN PENETRABILITY TO THE RÖNTGEN RAYS. + DR. WILLIAM KONRAD RÖNTGEN, DISCOVERER OF THE X RAYS. + PICTURE OF AN ALUMINIUM CIGAR-CASE, SHOWING CIGARS WITHIN. + PHOTOGRAPH OF A LADY'S HAND SHOWING THE BONES, AND A RING ON THE + THIRD FINGER. + THE PHYSICAL INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF WÜRZBURG. + SKELETON OF A FROG, PHOTOGRAPHED THROUGH THE FLESH. + RAZOR-BLADE PHOTOGRAPHED THROUGH A LEATHER CASE AND THE RAZOR-HANDLE. + SKELETON OF A FISH PHOTOGRAPHED THROUGH THE FLESH. + A HUMAN FOOT PHOTOGRAPHED THROUGH THE SOLE OF A SHOE. + PHOTOGRAPHING A FOOT IN ITS SHOE BY THE RÖNTGEN PROCESS. + BONES OF A HUMAN FOOT PHOTOGRAPHED THROUGH THE FLESH. + CORK-SCREW, KEY, PENCIL WITH METALLIC PROTECTOR, AND PIECE OF COIN. + COINS PHOTOGRAPHED INSIDE A PURSE. + DR. WILLIAM J. MORTON PHOTOGRAPHING HIS OWN HAND UNDER RÖNTGEN + A GROUP OF FAMILIAR ARTICLES UNDER THE RÖNTGEN RAYS. + THOMAS A. EDISON EXPERIMENTING WITH THE RÖNTGEN RAYS. + "I ... TRIED A STEP TOWARD THE STAIRS, WITH EYES ALERT ..." + "HE STOOD SIDEWAYS, ... AND LOOKED AT ME OVER HIS LEFT SHOULDER." + "FACE TO FACE WITH THE REAL HOUSEHOLDER." + OLD STATE-HOUSE AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. + A HARRISON BADGE OF 1840. + A HARRISON BUTTON OF 1840. + LINCOLN IN 1860. + ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1861. + WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, NINTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. + JOSHUA F. SPEED AND WIFE. + MARY TODD LINCOLN. + LINCOLN IN 1858. + ROBERT S. TODD. + MISS JULIA JAYNE, ONE OF MISS TODD'S BRIDESMAIDS. + GENERAL JAMES SHIELDS. + MRS. NINIAN W. EDWARDS. + COURT-HOUSE AT TREMONT WHERE LINCOLN RECEIVED WARNING OF SHIELDS'S + CHALLENGE. + RESIDENCE OF NINIAN W. EDWARDS, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. + LINCOLN'S MARRIAGE LICENSE AND MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE. + REV. CHARLES DRESSER. + THE GLOBE HOTEL, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. + A BROOK IN THE DEPARTMENT OF VAR, FRANCE. + JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT. + A BY-PATH. + EARLY MORNING. + DIANA'S BATH. + A SHALLOW RIVER. + THE EDGE OF THE FOREST (FONTAINEBLEAU). + ON THE RIVER OISE. + THE STORMY SEA. + A SUNLIT GLADE. + A SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. + "THE MAN WITH THE LEATHERN BELT." + THE STONE-BREAKERS. + THE GOOD SAMARITAN. + SERVANT AT THE FOUNTAIN. + AN UNHAPPY FAMILY. + + + + +[Illustration: PICTURES TAKEN BY PROFESSOR ARTHUR W. WRIGHT OF YALE +COLLEGE, SHOWING THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SUBSTANCES IN PENETRABILITY +TO THE RÖNTGEN RAYS. + +1 and 3. Flint glass prism (very opaque). + +2. Quartz prism, showing transmission of the rays through the thin +edges. + +4. Prism of heavy glass, more opaque than flint glass. + +5. One-cent coin, copper. + +6. Five-cent coin, nickel. + +7. White-crown glass, 1½ millimetres thick. + +8. Blue crown glass, 2 millimetres thick. + +9. Yellow crown glass, 1½ millimetres thick. + +10. Crown glass, 1 millimetre thick, covered with a very thin layer of +gold. + +11. Red crown glass, 2 millimetres thick. + +12. Block of Iceland spar (very transparent to ordinary light, but +very opaque to Röntgen rays). + +13. A bit of tinfoil. + +14. Aluminium medal, showing faint traces of the design and lettering +on both sides, as if it were translucent. + +15. Metallic mirror, shows no effect of regular reflection. + +16. Bit of sheet-lead, 1 millimetre thick. + +17. Quarter-of-a-dollar coin, silver. + +18. Piece of thin ebonite, such as is used for photographic +plate-holder.] + +[Illustration: DR. WILLIAM KONRAD RÖNTGEN, DISCOVERER OF THE X RAYS. + +From a photograph by Hanfstaenge, Frankfort-on-the-Main.] + + + + + +THE NEW MARVEL IN PHOTOGRAPHY. + +A VISIT TO PROFESSOR RÖNTGEN AT HIS LABORATORY IN WÜRZBURG.--HIS OWN +ACCOUNT OF HIS GREAT DISCOVERY.--INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS WITH THE +CATHODE RAYS.--PRACTICAL USES OF THE NEW PHOTOGRAPHY. + +BY H.J.W. DAM. + + +In all the history of scientific discovery there has never been, +perhaps, so general, rapid, and dramatic an effect wrought on the +scientific centres of Europe as has followed, in the past four weeks, +upon an announcement made to the Würzburg Physico-Medical Society, at +their December meeting, by Professor William Konrad Röntgen, professor +of physics at the Royal University of Würzburg. The first news which +reached London was by telegraph from Vienna to the effect that a +Professor Röntgen, until then the possessor of only a local fame +in the town mentioned, had discovered a new kind of light, which +penetrated and photographed through everything. This news was received +with a mild interest, some amusement, and much incredulity; and a week +passed. Then, by mail and telegraph, came daily clear indications +of the stir which the discovery was making in all the great line of +universities between Vienna and Berlin. Then Röntgen's own report +arrived, so cool, so business-like, and so truly scientific in +character, that it left no doubt either of the truth or of the great +importance of the preceding reports. To-day, four weeks after the +announcement, Röntgen's name is apparently in every scientific +publication issued this week in Europe; and accounts of his +experiments, of the experiments of others following his method, and +of theories as to the strange new force which he has been the first +to observe, fill pages of every scientific journal that comes to +hand. And before the necessary time elapses for this article to +attain publication in America, it is in all ways probable that the +laboratories and lecture-rooms of the United States will also be +giving full evidence of this contagious arousal of interest over a +discovery so strange that its importance cannot yet be measured, +its utility be even prophesied, or its ultimate effect upon +long-established scientific beliefs be even vaguely foretold. + +[Illustration: PICTURE OF AN ALUMINIUM CIGAR-CASE, SHOWING CIGARS +WITHIN. + +From a photograph by A.A.C. Swinton, Victoria Street, London. +Exposure, ten minutes.] + +[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH OF A LADY'S HAND SHOWING THE BONES, AND A +RING ON THE THIRD FINGER, WITH FAINT OUTLINES OF THE FLESH. + +From a photograph taken by Mr. P. Spies, director of the "Urania," +Berlin.] + +[Illustration: THE PHYSICAL INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF +WÜRZBURG, WHERE PROFESSOR RÖNTGEN HAS HIS RESIDENCE, DELIVERS HIS +LECTURES, AND CONDUCTS HIS EXPERIMENTS. + +From a photograph by G. Glock, Würzburg.] + +The Röntgen rays are certain invisible rays resembling, in many +respects, rays of light, which are set free when a high pressure +electric current is discharged through a vacuum tube. A vacuum tube +is a glass tube from which all the air, down to one-millionth of an +atmosphere, has been exhausted after the insertion of a platinum +wire in either end of the tube for connection with the two poles of +a battery or induction coil. When the discharge is sent through +the tube, there proceeds from the anode--that is, the wire which is +connected with the positive pole of the battery--certain bands of +light, varying in color with the color of the glass. But these are +insignificant in comparison with the brilliant glow which shoots +from the cathode, or negative wire. This glow excites brilliant +phosphorescence in glass and many substances, and these "cathode +rays," as they are called, were observed and studied by Hertz; and +more deeply by his assistant, Professor Lenard, Lenard having, in +1894, reported that the cathode rays would penetrate thin films of +aluminium, wood, and other substances and produce photographic results +beyond. It was left, however, for Professor Röntgen to discover that +during the discharge another kind of rays are set free, which differ +greatly from those described by Lenard as cathode rays The most marked +difference between the two is the fact that Röntgen rays are not +deflected by a magnet, indicating a very essential difference, while +their range and penetrative power are incomparably greater. In fact, +all those qualities which have lent a sensational character to the +discovery of Röntgen's rays were mainly absent from these of Lenard, +to the end that, although Röntgen has not been working in an entirely +new field, he has by common accord been freely granted all the honors +of a great discovery. + +[Illustration: SKELETON OF A FROG, PHOTOGRAPHED +THROUGH THE FLESH. THE SHADINGS INDICATE, IN ADDITION TO THE BONES, +ALSO THE LUNGS AND THE CEREBRAL LOBES. + +From a photograph by Professors Imbert and Bertin-Sans; reproduced +by the courtesy of the "Presse Medicale," Paris. In taking this +photograph the experiment was tried of using a diaphragm interposed +between the Crookes tube and the plate; and the superior clearness +obtained is thought to result from this.] + +[Illustration: RAZOR-BLADE PHOTOGRAPHED THROUGH A LEATHER CASE AND THE +RAZOR-HANDLE. + +From a photograph taken by Dr. W.L. Robb of Trinity College. The +shading in the picture indicates, what was the actual fact, that the +blade, which was hollow ground, was thinner in the middle than near +the edge.] + +[Illustration: SKELETON OF A FISH PHOTOGRAPHED THROUGH THE FLESH. + +From a photograph by A.A.C. Swinton, Victoria Street, London. +Exposure, four minutes.] + +Exactly what kind of a force Professor Röntgen has discovered he does +not know. As will be seen below, he declines to call it a new kind of +light, or a new form of electricity. He has given it the name of the +X rays. Others speak of it as the Röntgen rays. Thus far its results +only, and not its essence, are known. In the terminology of science it +is generally called "a new mode of motion," or, in other words, a new +force. As to whether it is or not actually a force new to science, or +one of the known forces masquerading under strange conditions, weighty +authorities are already arguing. More than one eminent scientist has +already affected to see in it a key to the great mystery of the law +of gravity. All who have expressed themselves in print have admitted, +with more or less frankness, that, in view of Röntgen's discovery, +science must forth-with revise, possibly to a revolutionary degree, +the long accepted theories concerning the phenomena of light and +sound. That the X rays, in their mode of action, combine a strange +resemblance to both sound and light vibrations, and are destined to +materially affect, if they do not greatly alter, our views of both +phenomena, is already certain; and beyond this is the opening into +a new and unknown field of physical knowledge, concerning which +speculation is already eager, and experimental investigation already +in hand, in London, Paris, Berlin, and, perhaps, to a greater or less +extent, in every well-equipped physical laboratory in Europe. + +This is the present scientific aspect of the discovery. But, unlike +most epoch-making results from laboratories, this discovery is one +which, to a very unusual degree, is within the grasp of the popular +and non-technical imagination. Among the other kinds of matter +which these rays penetrate with ease is the human flesh. That a new +photography has suddenly arisen which can photograph the bones, and, +before long, the organs of the human body; that a light has been found +which can penetrate, so as to make a photographic record, through +everything from a purse or a pocket to the walls of a room or a house, +is news which cannot fail to startle everybody. That the eye of the +physician or surgeon, long baffled by the skin, and vainly seeking +to penetrate the unfortunate darkness of the human body, is now to be +supplemented by a camera, making all the parts of the human body as +visible, in a way, as the exterior, appears certainly to be a greater +blessing to humanity than even the Listerian antiseptic system of +surgery; and its benefits must inevitably be greater than those +conferred by Lister, great as the latter have been. Already, in +the few weeks since Röntgen's announcement, the results of surgical +operations under the new system are growing voluminous. In Berlin, not +only new bone fractures are being immediately photographed, but joined +fractures, as well, in order to examine the results of recent surgical +work. In Vienna, imbedded bullets are being photographed, instead of +being probed for, and extracted with comparative ease. In London, a +wounded sailor, completely paralyzed, whose injury was a mystery, has +been saved by the photographing of an object imbedded in the spine, +which, upon extraction, proved to be a small knife-blade. Operations +for malformations, hitherto obscure, but now clearly revealed by the +new photography, are already becoming common, and are being reported +from all directions. Professor Czermark of Graz has photographed the +living skull, denuded of flesh and hair, and has begun the adaptation +of the new photography to brain study. The relation of the new rays +to thought rays is being eagerly discussed in what may be called +the non-exact circles and journals; and all that numerous group +of inquirers into the occult, the believers in clairvoyance, +spiritualism, telepathy, and kindred orders of alleged phenomena, are +confident of finding in the new force long-sought facts in proof of +their claims. Professor Neusser in Vienna has photographed gall-stones +in the liver of one patient (the stone showing snow-white in the +negative), and a stone in the bladder of another patient. His results +so far induce him to announce that all the organs of the human body +can, and will, shortly, be photographed. Lannelougue of Paris has +exhibited to the Academy of Science photographs of bones showing +inherited tuberculosis which had not otherwise revealed itself. Berlin +has already formed a society of forty for the immediate prosecution +of researches into both the character of the new force and its +physiological possibilities. In the next few weeks these strange +announcements will be trebled or quadrupled, giving the best evidence +from all quarters of the great future that awaits the Röntgen rays, +and the startling impetus to the universal search for knowledge that +has come at the close of the nineteenth century from the modest little +laboratory in the Pleicher Ring at Würzburg. + +[Illustration: A HUMAN FOOT PHOTOGRAPHED THROUGH THE SOLE OF A SHOE. +THE SHADING SHOWS THE PEGS OF THE SHOE, AS WELL AS TRACES OF THE FOOT. + +From a photograph by Dr. W.L. Robb of Trinity College.] + +[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPHING A FOOT IN ITS SHOE BY THE RÖNTGEN +PROCESS.--A PICTURE OF THE ACTUAL OPERATION WHICH PRODUCED THE +PHOTOGRAPH SHOWN ON PAGE 408. + +From a photograph by Dr. W.L. Robb of Trinity College. The subject's +foot rests on the photographic plate.] + +On instruction by cable from the editor of this magazine, on the +first announcement of the discovery, I set out for Würzburg to see the +discoverer and his laboratory. I found a neat and thriving Bavarian +city of forty-five thousand inhabitants, which, for some ten +centuries, has made no salient claim upon the admiration of the world, +except for the elaborateness of its mediæval castle and the excellence +of its local beer. Its streets were adorned with large numbers of +students, all wearing either scarlet, green, or blue caps, and an +extremely serious expression, suggesting much intensity either in the +contemplation of Röntgen rays or of the beer aforesaid. All knew the +residence of Professor Röntgen (pronunciation: "Renken"), and directed +me to the "Pleicher Ring." The various buildings of the university are +scattered in different parts of Würzburg, the majority being in the +Pleicher Ring, which is a fine avenue, with a park along one side +of it, in the centre of the town. The Physical Institute, Professor +Röntgen's particular domain, is a modest building of two stories and +basement, the upper story constituting his private residence, and +the remainder of the building being given over to lecture rooms, +laboratories, and their attendant offices. At the door I was met by an +old serving-man of the idolatrous order, whose pain was apparent when +I asked for "Professor" Röntgen, and he gently corrected me with "Herr +Doctor Röntgen." As it was evident, however, that we referred to the +same person, he conducted me along a wide, bare hall, running the +length of the building, with blackboards and charts on the walls. At +the end he showed me into a small room on the right. This contained +a large table desk, and a small table by the window, covered +with photographs, while the walls held rows of shelves laden with +laboratory and other records. An open door led into a somewhat larger +room, perhaps twenty feet by fifteen, and I found myself gazing into +a laboratory which was the scene of the discovery--a laboratory which, +though in all ways modest, is destined to be enduringly historical. + +There was a wide table shelf running along the farther side, in front +of the two windows, which were high, and gave plenty of light. In the +centre was a stove; on the left, a small cabinet, whose shelves held +the small objects which the professor had been using. There was a +table in the left-hand corner; and another small table--the one on +which living bones were first photographed--was near the stove, and +a Rhumkorff coil was on the right. The lesson of the laboratory was +eloquent. Compared, for instance, with the elaborate, expensive, and +complete apparatus of, say, the University of London, or of any of the +great American universities, it was bare and unassuming to a degree. +It mutely said that in the great march of science it is the genius of +man, and not the perfection of appliances, that breaks new ground in +the great territory of the unknown. It also caused one to wonder at +and endeavor to imagine the great things which are to be done through +elaborate appliances with the Röntgen rays--a field in which the +United States, with its foremost genius in invention, will very +possibly, if not probably, take the lead--when the discoverer himself +had done so much with so little. Already, in a few weeks, a skilled +London operator, Mr. A.A.C. Swinton, has reduced the necessary time +of exposure for Röntgen photographs from fifteen minutes to four. +He used, however, a Tesla oil coil, discharged by twelve half-gallon +Leyden jars, with an alternating current of twenty thousand volts' +pressure. Here were no oil coils, Leyden jars, or specially elaborate +and expensive machines. There were only a Rhumkorff coil and Crookes +(vacuum) tube and the man himself. + +Professor Röntgen entered hurriedly, something like an amiable gust +of wind. He is a tall, slender, and loose-limbed man, whose whole +appearance bespeaks enthusiasm and energy. He wore a dark blue sack +suit, and his long, dark hair stood straight up from his forehead, as +if he were permanently electrified by his own enthusiasm. His voice is +full and deep, he speaks rapidly, and, altogether, he seems clearly a +man who, once upon the track of a mystery which appealed to him, +would pursue it with unremitting vigor. His eyes are kind, quick, and +penetrating; and there is no doubt that he much prefers gazing at a +Crookes tube to beholding a visitor, visitors at present robbing him +of much valued time. The meeting was by appointment, however, and his +greeting was cordial and hearty. In addition to his own language he +speaks French well and English scientifically, which is different from +speaking it popularly. These three tongues being more or less within +the equipment of his visitor, the conversation proceeded on an +international or polyglot basis, so to speak, varying at necessity's +demand. + +It transpired, in the course of inquiry, that the professor is +a married man and fifty years of age, though his eyes have the +enthusiasm of twenty-five. He was born near Zurich, and educated +there, and completed his studies and took his degree at Utrecht. He +has been at Würzburg about seven years, and had made no discoveries +which he considered of great importance prior to the one under +consideration. These details were given under good-natured protest, he +failing to understand why his personality should interest the public. +He declined to admire himself or his results in any degree, and +laughed at the idea of being famous. The professor is too deeply +interested in science to waste any time in thinking about himself. His +emperor had _fêted_, flattered, and decorated him, and he was loyally +grateful. It was evident, however, that fame and applause had small +attractions for him, compared to the mysteries still hidden in the +vacuum tubes of the other room. + +[Illustration: BONES OF A HUMAN FOOT PHOTOGRAPHED THROUGH THE FLESH. + +From a photograph by A.A.C. Swinton, Victoria Street, London. +Exposure, fifty-five seconds.] + +"Now, then," said he, smiling, and with some impatience, when the +preliminary questions at which he chafed were over, "you have come to +see the invisible rays." + +"Is the invisible visible?" + +"Not to the eye; but its results are. Come in here." + +He led the way to the other square room mentioned, and indicated +the induction coil with which his researches were made, an ordinary +Rhumkorff coil, with a spark of from four to six inches, charged by +a current of twenty amperes. Two wires led from the coil, through an +open door, into a smaller room on the right. In this room was a +small table carrying a Crookes tube connected with the coil. The most +striking object in the room, however, was a huge and mysterious tin +box about seven feet high and four feet square. It stood on end, +like a huge packing-case, its side being perhaps five inches from the +Crookes tube. + +The professor explained the mystery of the tin box, to the effect that +it was a device of his own for obtaining a portable dark-room. When he +began his investigations he used the whole room, as was shown by the +heavy blinds and curtains so arranged as to exclude the entrance of +all interfering light from the windows. In the side of the tin box, +at the point immediately against the tube, was a circular sheet of +aluminium one millimetre in thickness, and perhaps eighteen inches +in diameter, soldered to the surrounding tin. To study his rays the +professor had only to turn on the current, enter the box, close the +door, and in perfect darkness inspect only such light or light effects +as he had a right to consider his own, hiding his light, in fact, not +under the Biblical bushel, but in a more commodious box. + +"Step inside," said he, opening the door, which was on the side of +the box farthest from the tube. I immediately did so, not altogether +certain whether my skeleton was to be photographed for general +inspection, or my secret thoughts held up to light on a glass plate. +"You will find a sheet of barium paper on the shelf," he added, and +then went away to the coil. The door was closed, and the interior of +the box became black darkness. The first thing I found was a wooden +stool, on which I resolved to sit. Then I found the shelf on the +side next the tube, and then the sheet of paper prepared with barium +platino-cyanide. I was thus being shown the first phenomenon which +attracted the discoverer's attention and led to the discovery, namely, +the passage of rays, themselves wholly invisible, whose presence was +only indicated by the effect they produced on a piece of sensitized +photographic paper. + +A moment later, the black darkness was penetrated by the rapid +snapping sound of the high-pressure current in action, and I knew +that the tube outside was glowing. I held the sheet vertically on +the shelf, perhaps four inches from the plate. There was no change, +however, and nothing was visible. + +"Do you see anything?" he called. + +"No." + +"The tension is not high enough;" and he proceeded to increase the +pressure by operating an apparatus of mercury in long vertical tubes +acted upon automatically by a weight lever which stood near the coil. +In a few moments the sound of the discharge again began, and then I +made my first acquaintance with the Röntgen rays. + +The moment the current passed, the paper began to glow. A +yellowish-green light spread all over its surface in clouds, waves, +and flashes. The yellow-green luminescence, all the stranger and +stronger in the darkness, trembled, wavered, and floated over the +paper, in rhythm with the snapping of the discharge. Through the metal +plate, the paper, myself, and the tin box, the invisible rays were +flying, with an effect strange, interesting, and uncanny. The metal +plate seemed to offer no appreciable resistance to the flying force, +and the light was as rich and full as if nothing lay between the paper +and the tube. + +"Put the book up," said the professor. + +I felt upon the shelf, in the darkness, a heavy book, two inches in +thickness, and placed this against the plate. It made no difference. +The rays flew through the metal and the book as if neither had been +there, and the waves of light, rolling cloud-like over the paper, +showed no change in brightness. It was a clear, material illustration +of the ease with which paper and wood are penetrated. And then I +laid book and paper down, and put my eyes against the rays. All was +blackness, and I neither saw nor felt anything. The discharge was in +full force, and the rays were flying through my head, and, for all I +knew, through the side of the box behind me. But they were invisible +and impalpable. They gave no sensation whatever. Whatever the +mysterious rays may be, they are not to be seen, and are to be judged +only by their works. + +I was loath to leave this historical tin box, but time pressed. I +thanked the professor, who was happy in the reality of his discovery +and the music of his sparks. Then I said: "Where did you first +photograph living bones?" + +"Here," he said, leading the way into the room where the coil stood. +He pointed to a table on which was another--the latter a small +short-legged wooden one with more the shape and size of a wooden +seat. It was two feet square and painted coal black. I viewed it with +interest. I would have bought it, for the little table on which +light was first sent through the human body will some day be a great +historical curiosity; but it was "nicht zu verkaufen." A photograph of +it would have been a consolation, but for several reasons one was not +to be had at present. However, the historical table was there, and was +duly inspected. + +[Illustration: CORK-SCREW, KEY, PENCIL WITH METALLIC PROTECTOR, AND +PIECE OF COIN, AS PHOTOGRAPHED WHILE INSIDE A CALICO POCKET. + +From a photograph by A.A.C. Swinton, Victoria Street, London. Four +minutes' exposure through a sheet of aluminium.] + +"How did you take the first hand photograph?" I asked. + +The professor went over to a shelf by the window, where lay a number +of prepared glass plates, closely wrapped in black paper. He put a +Crookes tube underneath the table, a few inches from the under side +of its top. Then he laid his hand flat on the top of the table, and +placed the glass plate loosely on his hand. + +"You ought to have your portrait painted in that attitude," I +suggested. + +"No, that is nonsense," said he, smiling. + +"Or be photographed." This suggestion was made with a deeply hidden +purpose. + +The rays from the Röntgen eyes instantly penetrated the deeply hidden +purpose. "Oh, no," said he; "I can't let you make pictures of me. I +am too busy." Clearly the professor was entirely too modest to gratify +the wishes of the curious world. + +"Now, Professor," said I, "will you tell me the history of the +discovery?" + +[Illustration: COINS PHOTOGRAPHED INSIDE A PURSE. + +From a photograph by A.A.C. Swinton, Victoria Street, London.] + +"There is no history," he said. "I have been for a long time +interested in the problem of the cathode rays from a vacuum tube +as studied by Hertz and Lenard. I had followed theirs and other +researches with great interest, and determined, as soon as I had the +time, to make some researches of my own. This time I found at the +close of last October. I had been at work for some days when I +discovered something new." + +"What was the date?" + +"The eighth of November." + +"And what was the discovery?" + +"I was working with a Crookes tube covered by a shield of black +cardboard. A piece of barium platino-cyanide paper lay on the bench +there. I had been passing a current through the tube, and I noticed a +peculiar black line across the paper." + +"What of that?" + +"The effect was one which could only be produced, in ordinary +parlance, by the passage of light. No light could come from the tube, +because the shield which covered it was impervious to any light known, +even that of the electric arc." + +"And what did you think?" + +"I did not think; I investigated. I assumed that the effect must have +come from the tube, since its character indicated that it could come +from nowhere else. I tested it. In a few minutes there was no doubt +about it. Rays were coming from the tube which had a luminescent +effect upon the paper. I tried it successfully at greater and greater +distances, even at two metres. It seemed at first a new kind of +invisible light. It was clearly something new, something unrecorded." + +"Is it light?" + +"No." + +"Is it electricity?" + +"Not in any known form." + +"What is it?" + +"I don't know." + +And the discoverer of the X rays thus stated as calmly his ignorance +of their essence as has everybody else who has written on the +phenomena thus far. + +"Having discovered the existence of a new kind of rays, I of course +began to investigate what they would do." He took up a series of +cabinet-sized photographs. "It soon appeared from tests that the rays +had penetrative power to a degree hitherto unknown. They penetrated +paper, wood, and cloth with ease; and the thickness of the substance +made no perceptible difference, within reasonable limits." He showed +photographs of a box of laboratory weights of platinum, aluminium, and +brass, they and the brass hinges all having been photographed from a +closed box, without any indication of the box. Also a photograph of +a coil of fine wire, wound on a wooden spool, the wire having been +photographed, and the wood omitted. "The rays," he continued, "passed +through all the metals tested, with a facility varying, roughly +speaking, with the density of the metal. These phenomena I have +discussed carefully in my report to the Würzburg society, and you will +find all the technical results therein stated." He showed a photograph +of a small sheet of zinc. This was composed of smaller plates +soldered laterally with solders of different metallic proportions. The +differing lines of shadow, caused by the difference in the solders, +were visible evidence that a new means of detecting flaws and chemical +variations in metals had been found. A photograph of a compass showed +the needle and dial taken through the closed brass cover. The markings +of the dial were in red metallic paint, and thus interfered with the +rays, and were reproduced. "Since the rays had this great penetrative +power, it seemed natural that they should penetrate flesh, and so it +proved in photographing the hand, as I showed you." + +A detailed discussion of the characteristics of his rays the professor +considered unprofitable and unnecessary. He believes, though, that +these mysterious radiations are not light, because their behavior is +essentially different from that of light rays, even those light rays +which are themselves invisible. The Röntgen rays cannot be reflected +by reflecting surfaces, concentrated by lenses, or refracted or +diffracted. They produce photographic action on a sensitive film, but +their action is weak as yet, and herein lies the first important field +of their development. The professor's exposures were comparatively +long--an average of fifteen minutes in easily penetrable media, +and half an hour or more in photographing the bones of the hand. +Concerning vacuum tubes, he said that he preferred the Hittorf, +because it had the most perfect vacuum, the highest degree of air +exhaustion being the consummation most desirable. In answer to a +question, "What of the future?" he said: + +"I am not a prophet, and I am opposed to prophesying. I am pursuing +my investigations, and as fast as my results are verified I shall make +them public." + +"Do you think the rays can be so modified as to photograph the organs +of the human body?" + +In answer he took up the photograph of the box of weights. "Here are +already modifications," he said, indicating the various degrees of +shadow produced by the aluminium, platinum, and brass weights, the +brass hinges, and even the metallic stamped lettering on the cover of +the box, which was faintly perceptible. + +"But Professor Neusser has already announced that the photographing of +the various organs is possible." + +"We shall see what we shall see," he said. We have the start now; the +developments will follow in time." + +"You know the apparatus for introducing the electric light into the +stomach?" + +"Yes." + +"Do you think that this electric light will become a vacuum tube for +photographing, from the stomach, any part of the abdomen or thorax?" + +The idea of swallowing a Crookes tube, and sending a high frequency +current down into one's stomach, seemed to him exceedingly funny. +"When I have done it, I will tell you," he said, smiling, resolute in +abiding by results. + +"There is much to do, and I am busy, very busy," he said in +conclusion. He extended his hand in farewell, his eyes already +wandering toward his work in the inside room. And his visitor promptly +left him; the words, "I am busy," said in all sincerity, seeming +to describe in a single phrase the essence of his character and the +watchword of a very unusual man. + +Returning by way of Berlin, I called upon Herr Spies of the Urania, +whose photographs after the Röntgen method were the first made +public, and have been the best seen thus far. The Urania is a peculiar +institution, and one which it seems might be profitably duplicated in +other countries. It is a scientific theatre. By means of the +lantern and an admirable equipment of scientific appliances, all +new discoveries, as well as ordinary interesting and picturesque +phenomena, when new discoveries are lacking, are described and +illustrated daily to the public, who pay for seats as in an ordinary +theatre, and keep the Urania profitably filled all the year round. +Professor Spies is a young man of great mental alertness and +mechanical resource. It is the photograph of a hand, his wife's hand, +which illustrates, perhaps better than any other illustration in this +article, the clear delineation of the bones which can be obtained by +the Röntgen rays. In speaking of the discovery he said: + +"I applied it, as soon as the penetration of flesh was apparent, to +the photograph of a man's hand. Something in it had pained him for +years, and the photograph at once exhibited a small foreign object, as +you can see;" and he exhibited a copy of the photograph in question. +"The speck there is a small piece of glass, which was immediately +extracted, and which, in all probability, would have otherwise +remained in the man's hand to the end of his days." All of which +indicates that the needle which has pursued its travels in so many +persons, through so many years, will be suppressed by the camera. + +"My next object is to photograph the bones of the entire leg," +continued Herr Spies. "I anticipate no difficulty, though it requires +some thought in manipulation." + +It will be seen that the Röntgen rays and their marvellous practical +possibilities are still in their infancy. The first successful +modification of the action of the rays so that the varying densities +of bodily organs will enable them to be photographed, will bring all +such morbid growths as tumors and cancers into the photographic field, +to say nothing of vital organs which may be abnormally developed or +degenerate. How much this means to medical and surgical practice it +requires little imagination to conceive. Diagnosis, long a painfully +uncertain science, has received an unexpected and wonderful assistant; +and how greatly the world will benefit thereby, how much pain will +be saved, and how many lives saved, the future can only determine. In +science a new door has been opened where none was known to exist, and +a side-light on phenomena has appeared, of which the results may prove +as penetrating and astonishing as the Röntgen rays themselves. The +most agreeable feature of the discovery is the opportunity it gives +for other hands to help; and the work of these hands will add many +new words to the dictionaries, many new facts to science, and, in +the years long ahead of us, fill many more volumes than there are +paragraphs in this brief and imperfect account. + + + + +THE RÖNTGEN RAYS IN AMERICA. + +BY CLEVELAND MOFFETT. + + +At the top of the great Sloane laboratory of Yale University, in an +experimenting room lined with curious apparatus, I found Professor +Arthur W. Wright experimenting with the wonderful Röntgen rays. +Professor Wright, a small, low-voiced man, of modest manner, +has achieved, in his experiments in photographing through solid +substances, some of the most interesting and remarkable results thus +far attained in this country. His success is, no doubt, largely due +to the fact that for years he had been experimenting constantly +with vacuum tubes similar to the Crookes tubes used in producing the +cathode rays. + +When I arrived, Professor Wright was at work with a Crookes tube, +nearly spherical in shape, and about five inches in diameter--the one +with which he has taken all his shadow pictures. His best results have +been obtained with long exposures--an hour or an hour and a half--and +he regards it as of the first importance that the objects through +which the Röntgen rays are to be projected be placed as near as +possible to the sensitized plate. + +It is from a failure to observe this precaution that so many of the +shadow pictures show blurred outlines. It is with these pictures as +with a shadow of the hand thrown on the wall--the nearer the hand +is to the wall, the more distinct becomes the shadow; and this +consideration makes Professor Wright doubt whether it will be +possible, with the present facilities, to get clearly cut shadow +images of very thick objects, or in cases where the pictures are +taken through a thick board or other obstacle. The Röntgen rays will +doubtless traverse the board, and shadows will be formed upon the +plate, but there will be an uncertainty or dimness of outline that +will render the results unsatisfactory. It is for this reason that +Professor Wright has taken most of his shadow pictures through only +the thickness of ebonite in his plate-holder. A most successful shadow +picture taken by Professor Wright in this way, shows five objects laid +side by side on a large plate--a saw, a case of pocket tools in their +cover, a pocket lense opened out as for use, a pair of eye-glasses +inside their leather case, and an awl. As will be seen from the +accompanying reproduction of this picture, all the objects are +photographed with remarkable distinctness, the leather case of the +eye-glasses being almost transparent, the wood of the handles of the +awl and saw being a little less so, while the glass in the eye-glasses +is less transparent than either. In the case of the awl and the saw, +the iron stem of the tool shows plainly inside the wooden handle. This +photograph is similar to a dozen that have been taken by Professor +Wright with equal success. The exposure here was fifty-five minutes. + +A more remarkable picture is one taken in the same way, but with a +somewhat longer exposure--of a rabbit laid upon the ebonite plate, and +so successfully pierced with the Röntgen rays that not only the bones +of the body show plainly, but also the six grains of shot with which +the animal was killed. The bones of the fore legs show with beautiful +distinctness inside the shadowy flesh, while a closer inspection makes +visible the ribs, the cartilages of the ear, and a lighter region in +the centre of the body, which marks the location of the heart. + +Like most experimenters, Professor Wright has taken numerous shadow +pictures of the human hand, showing the bones within, and he has made +a great number of experiments in photographing various metals and +different varieties of quartz and glass, with a view to studying +characteristic differences in the shadows produced. A photograph +of the latter sort is reproduced on page 401. Aluminium shows a +remarkable degree of transparency to the Röntgen rays; so much so that +Professor Wright was able to photograph a medal of this metal, showing +in the same picture the designs and lettering on both sides of the +medal, presented simultaneously in superimposed images. The denser +metals, however, give in the main black shadows, which offer little +opportunity of distinguishing between them. + +As to the nature of the Röntgen rays, Professor Wright is inclined +to regard them as a mode of motion through the ether, in longitudinal +stresses; and he thinks that, while they are in many ways similar to +the rays discovered by Lenard a year or so ago, they still present +important characteristics of their own. It may be, he thinks, that the +Röntgen rays are the ordinary cathode rays produced in a Crookes tube, +filtered, if one may so express it, of the metallic particles carried +in their electrical stream from the metal terminal, on passing through +the glass. It is well known that the metal terminals of a Crookes tube +are steadily worn away while the current is passing; so much so that +sometimes portions of the interior of the tube become coated with a +metallic deposit almost mirror-like. + +As to the future, Professor Wright feels convinced that important +results will be achieved in surgery and medicine by the use of these +new rays, while in physical science they point to an entirely new +field of investigation. The most necessary thing now is to find some +means of producing streams of Röntgen rays of greater volume and +intensity, so as to make possible greater penetration and distinctness +in the images. Thus far only small Crookes tubes have been used, and +much is to be expected when larger ones become available; but there +is great difficulty in the manufacture of them. It might be possible, +Professor Wright thinks, to get good results by using, instead of the +Crookes tube, a large sphere of aluminium, which is more transparent +to the new rays than glass and possesses considerable strength. It is +a delicate question, however, whether the increased thickness of metal +necessary to resist the air pressure upon a vacuum would not offset +the advantage gained from the greater size. Moreover, it is a matter +for experiment still to determine, what kind of an electric current +would be necessary to excite such a larger tube with the best results. + +Among the most important experiments in shadow photography made thus +far in America are those of Dr. William J. Morton of New York, who was +the first in this country to use the disruptive discharges of +static electricity in connection with the Röntgen discovery, and to +demonstrate that shadow pictures may be successfully taken without the +use of Crookes tubes. It was the well-known photographic properties of +ordinary lightning that made Dr. Morton suspect that cathode rays are +produced freely in the air when there is an electric discharge from +the heavens. Reasoning thus, he resolved to search for cathode rays in +the ten-inch lightning flash he was able to produce between the poles +of his immense Holtz machine, probably the largest in this country. + +On January 30th he suspended a glass plate, with a circular window in +the middle, between the two poles. Cemented to this plate of glass was +one of hard rubber, about equal in size, which of course covered +the window in the glass. Back of the rubber plate was suspended a +photographic plate in the plate-holder, and outside of this, between +it and the rubber surface, were ten letters cut from thin copper. Dr. +Morton proposed to see if he could not prove the existence of cathode +rays between the poles by causing them to picture in shadow, upon the +sensitized plate, the letters thus exposed. + +In order to do this it was necessary to separate the ordinary electric +sparks from the invisible cathode rays which, as Dr. Morton believed, +accompanied them. It was to accomplish this that he used the double +plates of glass and hard rubber placed, as already described, between +the two poles; for while the ordinary electric spark would not +traverse the rubber, any cathode rays that might be present would do +so with great ease, the circular window in the glass plate allowing +them passage there. + +[Illustration: DR. WILLIAM J. MORTON PHOTOGRAPHING HIS OWN HAND UNDER +RÖNTGEN RAYS. + +In this case the vacuum bulb is charged from Leyden jars which, in +their turn, are excited by an induction coil.] + +The current being turned on, it was found that the powerful electric +sparks visible to the eye, unable to follow a straight course on +account of the intervening rubber plate, jumped around the two plates +in jagged, lightning-like lines, and thus reached the other pole of +the machine. But it was noticed that at the same time a faint spray of +purplish light was streaming straight through the rubber between the +two holes, as if its passage was not interfered with by the rubber +plate. It was in company with this stream of violet rays, known as the +brush discharge, that the doctor conceived the invisible Röntgen +rays to be projected at each spark discharge around the plate; and +presently, when the photographic plate was developed, it was found +that his conception was based on fact. For there, dim in outline, but +unmistakable, were shadow pictures of the ten letters which stand as +historic, since they were probably the first shadow pictures in the +world taken without any bulb or vacuum tube whatever. These shadow +pictures Dr. Morton carefully distinguished from the ordinary +blackening effects on the film produced by electrified objects. + +Pursuing his experiments with static electricity, Dr. Morton soon +found that better results could be obtained by the use of Leyden jars +influenced by the Holtz machine, and discharging into a vacuum bulb, +as shown in the illustration on this page. This arrangement of the +apparatus has the advantage of making it much easier to regulate the +electric supply and to modify its intensity, and Dr. Morton finds that +in this way large vacuum tubes, perhaps twenty inches in diameter, +may be excited to the point of doing practical work without danger of +breaking the glass walls. But certain precautions are necessary. When +he uses tin-foil electrodes on the outside of the bulb, he protects +the tin-foil edges, and, what is more essential, uses extremely small +Leyden jars and a short spark gap between the poles of the discharging +rods. The philosophy of this is, that the smaller the jars, the +greater their number of oscillations per second (easily fifteen +million, according to Dr. Lodge's computations), the shorter the wave +length, and, therefore, the greater the intensity of effects. + +[Illustration: A GROUP OF FAMILIAR ARTICLES UNDER THE RÖNTGEN RAYS. + +From a photograph by Professor Arthur W. Wright of Yale College, taken +through an ebonite plate-holder with fifty-five minutes exposure. It +shows a pair of spectacles in their leather case; an awl and a saw, +with the iron stem, plainly visible through the wooden handles; a +magnifying-glass; and a combination wooden tool-handle with metallic +tools stored in the head, and the metallic clamp visible through the +lower half.] + +The next step was to bring more energy into play, still using Leyden +jars; and for this purpose Dr. Morton placed within the circuit +between the jars a Tesla oscillating coil. He was thus able to use in +his shadow pictures the most powerful sparks the machine was capable +of producing (twelve inches), sending the Leyden-jar discharge through +the primary of the coil, and employing for the excitation of the +vacuum tube the "step up" current of the secondary coil with a +potential incalculably increased. + +While Dr. Morton has in some of his experiments excited his Leyden +jars from an induction coil, he thinks the best promise lies in the +use of powerful Holtz machines; and he now uses no Leyden jars or +converters, thus greatly adding to the simplicity of operations. + +In regard to the bulb, Dr. Morton has tested various kinds of vacuum +tubes, the ordinary Crookes tubes, the Geissler tubes, and has +obtained excellent results from the use of a special vacuum lamp +adapted by himself to the purpose. One of his ingenious expedients +was to turn to use an ordinary radiometer of large bulb, and, having +fitted this with tin-foil electrodes, he found that he was able to +get strongly marked shadow pictures. This application of the Röntgen +principle will commend itself to many students who, being unable to +provide themselves with the rare and expensive Crookes tubes, may +buy a radiometer which will serve their purpose excellently in any +laboratory supply store, the cost being only a few dollars, while the +application of the tin foil electrodes is perfectly simple. + +In the-well equipped Jackson laboratory at Trinity College, Hartford, +I found Dr. W.L. Robb, the professor of physics, surrounded by +enthusiastic students, who were assisting him in some experiments with +the new rays. Dr. Robb is the better qualified for this work from +the fact that he pursued his electrical studies at the Würzburg +University, in the very laboratory where Professor Röntgen made his +great discovery. The picture reproduced herewith, showing a human foot +inside the shoe, was taken by Dr. Robb. The Crookes tubes used in this +and in most of Dr. Robb's experiments are considerably larger than any +I have seen elsewhere, being pear-shaped, about eight inches long, and +four inches wide at the widest part. It is, perhaps, to the excellence +of this tube that Dr. Robb owes part of his success. At any rate, in +the foot picture the bones are outlined through shoe and stocking, +while every nail in the sole of the shoe shows plainly, although the +rays came from above, striking the top of the foot first, the sole +resting upon the plate-holder. In other of Dr. Robb's pictures equally +fine results were obtained; notably in one of a fish, reproduced +herewith, and showing the bony structure of the body; one of a razor, +where the lighter shadow proves that the hollow ground portion is +almost as thin as the edge; and one of a man's hand, taken for use +in a lawsuit, to prove that the bones of the thumb, which had been +crushed and broken in an accident, had been improperly set by the +attending physician. + +[Illustration: THOMAS A. EDISON EXPERIMENTING WITH THE RÖNTGEN RAYS.] + +Dr. Robb has made a series of novel and important experiments with +tubes from which the air has been exhausted in varying degrees, and +has concluded from these that it is impossible to produce the Röntgen +phenomena unless there is present in the tube an almost perfect +vacuum. Through a tube half exhausted, on connecting it with an +induction coil, he obtained merely the ordinary series of sparks; in a +tube three-quarters exhausted, he obtained a reddish glow from end to +end, a torpedo-shaped stream of fire; through a tube exhausted to +a fairly high degree--what the electric companies would call "not +bad"--he obtained a beautiful steaked effect of bluish striæ in +transverse layers. Finally, in a tube exhausted as highly as possible, +he obtained a faint fluorescent glow, like that produced in a +Crookes tube. This fluorescence of the glass, according to Dr. Robb, +invariably accompanies the discharge of Röntgen rays, and it is likely +that these rays are produced more abundantly as the fluorescence +increases. Just how perfect a vacuum is needed to give the best +results remains a matter of conjecture. It is possible, of course, +as Tesla believes, that with an absolutely perfect vacuum no results +whatever would be obtained. + +Dr. Robb has discovered that in order to get the best results with +shadow pictures it is necessary to use special developers for the +plates, and a different process in the dark-room from the one known +to ordinary photographers. In a general way, it is necessary to +use solutions designed to affect the ultra-violet rays, and not the +visible rays of the spectrum. Having succeeded, after much experiment, +in thus modifying his developing process to meet the needs of the +case, Dr. Robb finds that he makes a great gain in time of exposure, +fifteen minutes being sufficient for the average shadow picture taken +through a layer of wood or leather, and half an hour representing an +extreme case. In some shadow pictures, as, for instance, in taking a +lead-pencil, it is a great mistake to give an exposure exceeding two +or three minutes; for the wood is so transparent that with a long +exposure it does not show at all, and the effect of the picture is +spoiled. Indeed, Dr. Robb finds that there is a constant tendency to +shorten the time of exposure, and with good results. For instance, one +of the best shadow pictures he had taken was of a box of instruments +covered by two thicknesses of leather, two thicknesses of velvet, and +two thicknesses of wood; and yet the time of exposure, owing to an +accident to the coil, was only five minutes. + +Dr. Robb made one very interesting experiment a few days ago in the +interest of a large bicycle company which sent to him specimens of +carbon steel and nickel steel for the purpose of having him test them +with the Röntgen rays, and see if they showed any radical differences +in the crystalline structure. Photographs were taken as desired, but +at the time of my visit only negative results had been obtained. + +Dr. Robb realizes the great desirability of finding a stronger source +of Röntgen rays, and has himself begun experimenting with exhaustive +bulbs made of aluminium. One of these he has already finished, and +has obtained some results with it, but not such as are entirely +satisfactory, owing to the great difficulty in obtaining a high vacuum +without special facilities. + +I also visited Professor U.I. Pupin of Columbia College, who has been +making numerous experiments with the Röntgen rays, and has produced +at least one very remarkable shadow picture. This is of the hand of +a gentleman resident in New York, who, while on a hunting trip in +England a few months ago, was so unfortunate as to discharge his gun +into his right hand, no less than forty shot lodging in the palm and +fingers. The hand has since healed completely; but the shot remain +in it, the doctors being unable to remove them, because unable to +determine their exact location. The result is that the hand is almost +useless, and often painful. + +Hearing of this case, Professor Pupin induced the gentleman to allow +him to attempt a photograph of the hand. He used a Crookes tube. The +distance from the tube to the plate was only five inches, and the hand +lay between. After waiting fifty minutes the plate was examined. Not +only did every bone of the hand show with beautiful distinctness, but +each one of the forty shot was to be seen almost as plainly as if it +lay there on the table; and, most remarkable of all, a number of shot +were seen through the bones of the fingers, showing that the bones +were transparent to the lead. + +In making this picture, Professor Pupin excited his tube by means of a +powerful Holtz machine, thus following Dr. Morton in the substitution +of statical electricity for the more common induction coil. + +Professor Pupin sees no reason why the whole skeleton of the human +body should not be shown completely in a photograph as soon as +sufficiently powerful bulbs can be obtained. He thinks that it would +be possible to make Crookes tubes two feet in diameter instead of a +few inches, as at present. + +Thomas A. Edison has also been devoting himself, with his usual +energy, to experiments with the Röntgen rays, and announces +confidently that in the near future he will be able to photograph the +human brain, through the heavy bones of the skull, and perhaps even to +get a shadow picture showing the human skeleton through the tissues of +the body. + + + + +THE HOUSEHOLDERS. + +BY "Q," + +AUTHOR OF "DEAD MAN'S ROCK," "THE ROLL-CALL OF THE REEF," ETC. + + +I will say this--speaking as accurately as a man may, so long +afterwards--that when first I spied the house it put no desire in me +but just to give thanks. + +For conceive my case. It was near midnight by this; and ever since +dusk I had been tracking the naked moors a-foot, in the teeth of as +vicious a nor'wester as ever drenched a man to the skin, and then blew +the cold home to his marrow. My clothes were sodden; my coat-tails +flapped with a noise like pistol shots; my boots squeaked as I went. +Overhead the October moon was in her last quarter, and might have been +a slice of finger-nail for all the light she afforded. Two-thirds of +the time the wrack blotted her out altogether; and I, with my stick +clipped tight under my arm-pit, eyes puckered up, and head bent like +a butting ram's, but a little aslant, had to keep my wits agog to +distinguish the glimmer of the road from the black heath to right and +left. For three hours I had met neither man nor man's dwelling, and +(for all I knew) was desperately lost. Indeed, at the cross roads, two +miles back, there had been nothing for me but to choose the way that +kept the wind on my face, and it gnawed me like a dog. + +Mainly to allay the stinging of my eyes, I pulled up at last, turned +right-about face, leant back against the blast with a hand on my hat, +and surveyed the blackness I had traversed. It was at this instant +that, far away to the left, a point of light caught my notice, faint +but steady; and at once I felt sure it burnt in the window of a house. +"The house," thought I, "is a good mile off, beside the other road, +and the light must have been an inch over my hat-brim for the +last half hour," for my head had been sloped that way. This +reflection--that on so wide a moor I had come near missing the +information I wanted (and perhaps a supper) by one inch--sent a strong +thrill down my back. + +[Illustration: "I ... TRIED A STEP TOWARD THE STAIRS, WITH EYES ALERT +FOR ANY MOVEMENT OF THE MASTIFF."] + +I cut straight across the heather towards the light, risking quags +and pitfalls. Nay, so heartening was the chance to hear a +fellow-creature's voice that I broke into a run, skipping over the +stunted gorse that cropped up here and there, and dreading every +moment to see the light quenched. "Suppose it burns in an upper +window, and the family is going to bed, as would be likely at this +hour"--the apprehension kept my eyes fixed on the bright spot, to the +frequent scandal of my legs, that within five minutes were stuck full +of gorse-prickles. + +But the light did not go out, and soon a flicker of moonlight gave me +a glimpse of the house's outline. It proved to be a deal more imposing +than I looked for--the outline, in fact, of a tall-square barrack +with a cluster of chimneys at either end, like ears, and a high +wall, topped by the roofs of some outbuildings, concealing the lower +windows. There was no gate in this wall, and presently I guessed the +reason. I was approaching the place from behind, and the light came +from a back window on the first floor. + +The faintness of the light also was explained by this time. It shone +behind a drab-colored blind, and in shape resembled the stem of a +wine-glass, broadening out at the foot--an effect produced by the +half-drawn curtains within. I came to a halt, waiting for the next +ray of moonlight. At the same moment a rush of wind swept over the +chimney-stacks, and on the wind there seemed to ride a human sigh. + +On this last point I may err. The gust had passed some seconds before +I caught myself detecting this peculiar note, and trying to disengage +it from the natural chords of the storm. From the next gust it was +absent. And then, to my dismay, the light faded from the window. + +I was half-minded to call out when it appeared again, this time in two +windows--those next on the right to that where it had shone before. +Almost at once it increased in brilliance, as if the person who +carried it from the smaller room to the larger were lighting more +candles; and now the illumination was strong enough to make fine +gold threads of the rain that fell within its radiance, and fling two +shafts of warm yellow over the coping of the back wall into the night. +During the minute or more that I stood watching, no shadow fell on +either blind. + +Between me and the wall ran a ditch, into the black obscurity of which +the ground at my feet broke sharply away. Setting my back to the storm +again, I followed the lip of this ditch around the wall's angle. Here +was shelter, and here the ditch seemed to grow shallower. Not wishing, +however, to mistake a bed of nettles or any such pitfall for solid +earth, I kept pretty wide as I went on. The house was dark on this +side, and the wall, as before, had no opening. Close beside the next +angle grew a mass of thick gorse bushes, and pushing through these I +found myself suddenly on a sound high road, with the wind tearing at +me as furiously as ever. + +But here was the front; and I now perceived that the surrounding wall +advanced some way before the house, so as to form a narrow curtilage. +So much of it, too, as faced the road had been whitewashed; which made +it an easy matter to find the gate. But as I laid hand on its latch, I +had a surprise. + +A line of paving-stones led from the gate to the heavy porch; and +along the wet surface of these fell a streak of light from the front +door, which stood ajar. + +That a door should remain six inches open on such a night was +astonishing enough, until I entered the court and found it was as +still as a room, owing to the high wall, and doubtless the porch gave +additional protection. But looking up and assuring myself that all the +rest of _façade_ was black as ink, I wondered at the inmates who could +be thus careless of their property. + +It was here that my professional instincts received the first jog. +Abating the sound of my feet on the paving-stones, I went up to the +door and pushed it softly. It opened without noise. + +I stepped into a fair-sized hall of modern build, paved with red +tiles and lit with a small hanging lamp. To right and left were doors +leading to the ground-floor rooms. Along the wall by my shoulder ran +a line of pegs, on which hung half a dozen hats and great coats, every +one of clerical shape; and full in front of me a broad staircase ran +up, with a staring Brussels carpet, the colors and pattern of which I +can recall as well as to-day's breakfast. Under this staircase was +set a stand full of walking-sticks, and a table littered with gloves, +brushes, a hand-bell, a riding-crop, one or two dog-whistles, and a +bed-room candle, with tinder-box beside it. This, with one notable +exception, was all the furniture. + +The exception--which turned me cold--was the form of a yellow mastiff +dog, curled on a mat beneath the table. The arch of his back was +towards me, and one forepaw lay over his nose in a natural posture of +sleep. I leant back on the wainscoting, with my eyes tightly fixed +on him, and my thoughts flying back, with something of regret, to the +storm I had come through. + +But a man's habits are not easily denied. At the end of three minutes +the dog had not moved, and I was down on the doormat unlacing my +soaked boots. Slipping them off, and taking them in my left hand, I +stood up, and tried a step towards the stairs, with eyes alert for +any movement of the mastiff; but he never stirred. I was glad enough, +however, on reaching the stairs, to find them newly built and the +carpet thick. Up I went with a glance at every step for the table +which now hid the brute's form from me, and never a creak did I wake +out of that staircase till I was almost at the first landing, when my +toe caught a loose stair-rod, and rattled it in a way that stopped my +heart for a moment, and then set it going in double-quick time. + +[Illustration: "HE STOOD SIDEWAYS, ... AND LOOKED AT ME OVER HIS LEFT +SHOULDER."] + +I stood still, with a hand on the rail. My eyes were now on a level +with the floor of the landing, out of which branched two passages--one +by my right hand, the other to the left, at the foot of the next +flight, so placed that I was gazing down the length of it. And almost +at the end there fell a parallelogram of light across it from an open +door. + +A man who has once felt it knows there is only one kind of silence +that can fitly be called "dead." This is only to be found in a great +house at midnight. I declare that for a few seconds after I rattled +the stair-rod you might have cut the silence with a knife. If the +house held a clock it ticked inaudibly. + +Upon this silence, at the end of a minute, broke a light sound--the +_clink, clink_ of a decanter on the rim of a wine-glass. It came from +the room where the light was. + +Now, perhaps it was that the very thought of liquor put warmth into my +cold bones. It is certain that all of a sudden I straightened my back, +took the remaining stairs at two strides, and walked down the passage, +as bold as brass, with out caring a jot for the noise I made. + +In the doorway I halted. The room was long, lined for the most part +with books bound in what they call "divinity calf," and littered with +papers like a barrister's table on assize day. Before the fireplace, +where a few coals burned sulkily, was drawn a leathern elbow chair, +and beside it, on the corner of a writing-table, were set an unlit +candle and a pile of manuscripts. At the opposite end of the room a +curtained door led (I guessed) to the chamber that I had first seen +illuminated. All this I took in with the tail of my eye, while staring +straight in front, where, in the middle of a great square of carpet +between me and the windows, was a table with a red cloth upon it. +On this cloth were a couple of wax candles, lit, in silver stands, a +tray, and a decanter three parts full of brandy. And between me and +the table stood a man. + +He stood sideways, leaning a little back, as if to keep his shadow off +the threshold, and looked at me over his left shoulder--a bald, grave +man, slightly under the common height, with a long clerical coat of +preposterous fit hanging loosely from his shoulders, a white cravat, +black breeches, and black stockings. His feet were loosely thrust into +carpet-slippers. I judged his age at fifty, or thereabouts; but his +face rested in the shadow, and I could only note a pair of eyes, very +small and alert, twinkling above a large expanse of cheek. + +He was lifting a wine-glass from the table at the moment when I +appeared, and it trembled now in his right hand. I heard a spilt drop +or two fall on the carpet, and this was all the evidence he showed of +discomposure. + +Setting the glass back, he felt in his breast-pocket for a +handkerchief, failed to find one, and rubbed his hands together to get +the liquor off his fingers. + +"You startled me," he said, in a matter-of-fact tone, turning his eyes +upon me, as he lifted his glass again, and emptied it. "How did you +find your way in?" + +"By the front door," said I, wondering at his unconcern. + +He nodded his head slowly. + +"Ah! yes; I forgot to lock it. You came to steal, I suppose?" + +"I came because I lost my way. I've been travelling this God-forsaken +moor since dusk--" + +"With your boots in your hand," he put in quietly. + +"I took them off out of respect to the yellow dog you keep." + +"He lies in a very natural attitude--eh?" + +"You don't tell me he was _stuffed_!" + +The old man's eyes beamed a contemptuous pity. + +"You are indifferently sharp, my dear sir, for a housebreaker. Come +in. Set down those convicting boots, and don't drip pools of water +in the very doorway, of all places. If I must entertain a burglar, I +prefer him tidy." + +He walked to the fire, picked up a poker, and knocked the coals into +a blaze. This done, he turned round on me with the poker still in his +hand. The serenest gravity sat on his large, pale features. + +"Why have I done this?" he asked. + +"I suppose to get possession of the poker." + +"Quite right. May I inquire your next move?" + +"Why," said I, feeling in my tail pocket, "I carry a pistol." + +"Which I suppose to be damp?" + +"By no means. I carry it, as you see, in an oil-cloth case." + +He stopped, and laid the poker carefully in the fender. + +"That is a stronger card than I possess. I might urge that by pulling +the trigger you would certainly alarm the house and the neighborhood, +and put a halter round your neck. I say, I _might_ urge this, and +assume you to be an intelligent auditor. But it strikes me as safer to +assume you capable of using a pistol with effect at three paces. With +what might happen subsequently I will not pretend to be concerned. It +is sufficient that I dislike the notion of being perforated. The fate +of your neck--" He waved a hand. "Well, I have known you for just +five minutes, and feel but moderate interest in your neck. As for +the inmates of this house, it will refresh you to hear that there are +none. I have lived here two years with a butler and a female cook, +both of whom I dismissed yesterday at a moment's notice for conduct +which I will not shock your ears by explicitly naming. Suffice it to +say, I carried them off yesterday to my parish church, two miles away, +married them, and dismissed them in the vestry without characters. I +wish you had known that butler--but excuse me; with the information I +have supplied, you ought to find no difficulty in fixing the price you +will take to clear out of my house instanter." + +"Sir," I answered, "I have held a pistol at one or two heads in my +time; but never at one stuffed with nobler discretion. Your chivalry +does not, indeed, disarm me, but prompts me to desire more of your +acquaintance. I have found a gentleman, and must sup with him before I +make terms." + +The address seemed to please him. He shuffled across the room to a +sideboard, and produced a plate of biscuits, another of almonds and +dried raisins, a glass and two decanters. + +"Sherry and Madeira," he said. "There is also a cold pie in the +larder, if you care for it." + +"A biscuit will serve," I replied. "To tell the truth, I'm more for +the bucket than the manger, as the grooms say; and, by your leave, the +brandy you were testing just now is more to my mind than wine." + +"There is no water handy." + +"There was plenty out of doors to last me with this bottle." + +I pulled over a chair, and laid my pistol on the table, and held out +the glass for him to fill. Having done so, he helped himself to a +glass and a chair, and sat down facing me. + +"I was talking, just now, of my late butler," he began, with a sip +at his brandy. "Has it struck you that, when confronted with moral +delinquency, I am apt to let my indignation get the better of me?" + +"Not at all," I answered heartily, refilling my glass. + +It appeared that another reply would have pleased him better. + +"H'm. I was hoping that, perhaps, I had visited his offence too +strongly. As a clergyman, you see, I was bound to be severe; but upon +my word, sir, since he went I have felt like a man who has lost a +limb." + +He drummed with his fingers on the cloth for a few moments, and went +on: + +"One has a natural disposition to forgive butlers--Pharaoh, for +instance, felt it. There hovers around butlers that peculiar +atmosphere which Shakespeare noticed as encircling kings, an +atmosphere in which common ethics lose their pertinence. But mine was +a rare bird--a black swan among butlers. He was more than a butler: he +was a quick and brightly-gifted man. Of the accuracy of his taste, +and the unusual scope of his endeavor, you will be able to form some +opinion when I assure you he modelled himself upon _me_." + +I bowed over my brandy. + +"I am a scholar; yet I employed him to read aloud to me, and derived +pleasure from his intonation. I talk as a scholar; yet he learned +to answer me in language as precise as my own. My cast-off garments +fitted him not more irreproachably than did my amenities of manner. +Divest him of his tray, and you would find his mode of entering a +room hardly distinguishable from my own--the same urbanity, the same +alertness of carriage, the same superfine deference towards the weaker +sex. All--all my idiosyncrasies I saw reflected in this my mirror; and +can you doubt that I was gratified? He was my _alter ego_--which, +by the way, makes it the more extraordinary that it should have been +necessary to marry him to the cook." + +"Look here," I broke in; "you want a butler." + +"Oh, you really grasp that fact, do you?" he retorted. + +"And you wish to get rid of me as soon as may be." + +"I hope there is no impoliteness in complimenting you on your +discernment." + +"Your two wishes," said I, "may be reconciled. Let me cease to be your +burglar, and let me continue here as your butler." + +He leant back, spreading out the fingers of each hand as if the +table's edge was a harpsichord, and he stretching octaves upon it. + +"Believe me," I went on, "you might do worse. I have been a demy of +Magdalen College, Oxford, in my time, and retain some Greek and Latin. +I'll undertake to read the Fathers with an accent that shall not +offend you. My knowledge of wine is none the worse for having been +cultivated in other men's cellars. Moreover, you shall engage the +ugliest cook in Christendom, so long as I'm your butler. I've taken a +liking to you--that's flat--and I apply for the post." + +"I give forty pounds a year," said he. + +"And I'm cheap at that price." + +He filled up his glass, looking up at me while he did so with the air +of one digesting a problem. From first to last his face was grave as a +judge's. + +"We are too impulsive, I think," was his answer, after a minute's +silence. "And your speech smacks of the amateur. You say, 'Let +me cease to be your burglar, and let me be your butler.' The mere +aspiration is respectable; but a man might as well say, 'Let me cease +to write poems; let me paint pictures.' And truly, sir, you impressed +me as no expert in your present trade, but a journeyman-housebreaker, +if I may say so." + +"On the other hand," I argued, "consider the moderation of my demands; +that alone should convince you of my desire to turn over a new leaf. +I ask for a month's trial; if, at the end of that time, I don't suit, +you shall say so, and I'll march from your door with nothing in my +pocket but my month's wages. Be hanged, sir! but when I reflect on the +amount you'll have to pay to get me to face to-night's storm again, +you seem to be getting off dirt-cheap!" cried I, slapping my palm on +the table. + +"Ah, if you had only known Adolphus!" he exclaimed. + +Now, the third glass of clean spirits has always a deplorable effect +on me. It turns me from bright to black, from lightness of spirits to +extreme sulkiness. I have done more wickedness over this third tumbler +than in all the other states of comparative inebriety within my +experience. So now I glowered at my companion and rapped out a curse. + +"Look here, I don't want to hear any more of Adolphus, and I've a +pretty clear notion of the game you're playing. You want to make me +drunk, and you're ready to sit prattling there till I drop under the +table." + +"Do me the favor to remember that you came, and are staying, at your +own invitation. As for the brandy, I would remind you that I suggested +a milder drink. Try some Madeira." + +He handed me the decanter, as he spoke, and I poured out a glass. + +"Madeira!" said I, taking a gulp. "Ugh! it's the commonest Marsala!" + +I had no sooner said the words than he rose up, and stretched a hand +gravely across to me. + +"I hope you'll shake it," he said; "though, as a man who after three +glasses of neat spirit can distinguish between Madeira and Marsala, +you have every right to refuse me. Two minutes ago you offered to +become my butler, and I demurred. I now beg you to repeat that offer. +Say the word, and I employ you gladly; you shall even have the second +decanter (which contains genuine Madeira) to take to bed with you." + +We shook hands on our bargain, and catching up a candlestick, he led +the way from the room. + +Picking up my boots, I followed him along the passage and down the +silent staircase. In the hall he paused to stand on tiptoe, and turn +up the lamp, which was burning low. As he did so, I found time to +fling a glance at my old enemy, the mastiff. He lay as I had first +seen him--a stuffed dog, if ever there was one. "Decidedly," thought +I, "my wits are to seek, to-night;" and with the same, a sudden +suspicion made me turn to my conductor, who had advanced to the +left-hand door, and was waiting for me, with hand on the knob. + +"One moment," I said; "this is all very pretty, but how am I to know +you're not sending me to bed while you fetch in all the countryside to +lay me by the heels?" + +"I'm afraid," was his answer, "you must be content with my word, as +a gentleman, that never, to-night or hereafter, will I breathe a +syllable about the circumstances of your visit. However, if you +choose, we will return upstairs." + +"No; I'll trust you," said I; and he opened the door. + +It led into a broad passage, paved with slate, upon which three or +four rooms opened. He paused by the second, and ushered me into a +sleeping-chamber which, though narrow, was comfortable enough--a vast +improvement, at any rate, on the mumper's lodgings I had been used to +for many months past. + +"You can undress here," he said. "The sheets are aired, and if you'll +wait a moment I'll fetch a nightshirt--one of my own." + +"Sir, you heap coals of fire on me." + +"Believe me that for ninety-nine of your qualities I do not care a +tinker's curse: but as a man who, after three tumblers of neat brandy, +can tell Marsala from Madeira you are to be taken care of." + +He shuffled away, but came back in a couple of minutes with the +nightshirt. + +"Good-night," he called to me, flinging it in at the door; and without +giving me time to return the wish, went his way upstairs. + +Now it might be supposed that I was only too glad to toss off my +clothes and climb into the bed I had so unexpectedly acquired a right +to. But, as a matter of fact, I did nothing of the kind. Instead, I +drew on my boots and sat on the bed's edge, blinking at my candle till +it died down in its socket, and afterwards at the purple square of +window as it slowly changed to gray with the coming of dawn. I was +cold to the heart, and my teeth chattered with an ague. Certainly I +never suspected my host's word; but was even occupied in framing good +resolutions and shaping out an excellent future, when I heard the +front door gently pulled to, and a man's footsteps moving quietly to +the gate. + +The treachery knocked me in a heap for the moment. Then leaping up and +flinging my door wide, I stumbled through the uncertain light of the +passage into the front hall. + +There was a fan-shaped light over the door, and the place was very +still and gray. A quick thought, or rather a sudden prophetic guess at +the truth, made me turn to the figure of the mastiff curled under the +hall table. + +I laid my hand on the scruff of his neck. He was quite limp, and my +fingers sank into the flesh on either side of the vertebrae. Digging +them deeper, I dragged him out into the middle of the hall, and pulled +the front door open to see the better. + +His throat was gashed from ear to ear. + +How many seconds passed after I dropped the senseless lump on the +floor, and before I made another movement, it would puzzle me to say. +Twice I stirred a foot as if to run out at the door. Then, changing my +mind, I stepped over the mastiff, and ran up the staircase. The light +no longer shone out into the left-hand passage; but groping down it, +I found the study door open, as before, and passed in. A sick light +stole through the blinds--enough for me to distinguish the glasses +and decanters on the table, and find my way to the curtain that hung +before the room where the light had first attracted me. + +I pushed the curtain aside, paused for a moment, and listened to the +violent beat of my heart; then felt for the door handle and turned it. + +All I could see at first; was that the chamber was small; next, that +the light patch in a line with the window was the white coverlet of a +bed; and next, that somebody, or something, lay on the bed. + +I listened again. There was no sound in the room; no heart beating but +my own. I reached out a hand to pull up the blind, and drew it back +again. I dared not. + +The daylight grew, minute by minute, on the dull parallelogram of +the blind, and minute by minute that horrible thing on the bed took +something of distinctness. The strain beat me at last. I fetched a +veritable yell to give myself courage, and, reaching for the cord, +pulled up the blind as fast as it would go. + +The face on the pillow was that of an old man--a face waxen and +peaceful, with quiet lines about the month and eyes, and long lines of +gray hair falling back from the temples. The body was turned a little +on one side, and one hand lay outside the bedclothes in a very natural +manner. But there were two dark spots on the coverlet. + +Then I knew I was face to face with the real householder; and it +flashed on me that I had been indiscreet in taking service as his +butler, and that I knew the face his ex-butler wore. + +[Illustration: "FACE TO FACE WITH THE REAL HOUSEHOLDER."] + +And, being by this time awake to the responsibilities of the post, I +quitted it three steps at a time, not once looking behind me. Outside +the house the storm had died, and white sunlight broke over the sodden +moors. But my bones were cold, and I ran faster and faster. + + + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +BY IDA M. TARBELL. + +LINCOLN'S PROMINENCE AS A WHIG POLITICIAN AT THIRTY-TWO.--STEPHEN A. +DOUGLAS'S REMOVAL TO SPRINGFIELD.--BEGINNING OF THE RIVALRY BETWEEN +LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS.--LINCOLN'S PART IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840.--MARY +TODD AND HER ENGAGEMENT TO LINCOLN.--FALSE STORIES REGARDING LINCOLN'S +COURTSHIP.--THE LINCOLN AND SHIELDS DUEL.--LINCOLN'S MARRIAGE. + + +By the time Abraham Lincoln was thirty-two years old--that is, in +1841--he was one of the leading Whig politicians of Illinois. Four +times in succession he had been elected to the General Assembly of the +State--in 1834, 1836, 1838, and 1840. Twice he had been a candidate +for Speaker of the House--in 1838 and in 1840--both times against +William L.D. Ewing; and though both times defeated, the vote had in +each instance been close. In 1841 he had been talked of as a candidate +for governor, a suggestion to which he would not listen. + +He had not taken this prominent position because the Whig party lacked +material. Edward Dickinson Baker, Colonel John J. Hardin, John T. +Stuart, Ninian W. Edwards, Jesse K. Dubois, O.H. Browning, were but +a few of the brilliant men who were throwing all their ability and +ambition into the contest for political honors in the State. Nor +were the Whigs a whit superior to the Democrats. William L.D. Ewing, +Ebenezer Peck, William Thomas, James Shields, John Calhoun, were in +every respect as able as the best men of the Whig party. Indeed, one +of the prominent Democrats with whom Lincoln came often in contact, +was popularly regarded as the most brilliant and promising politician +of the State--Stephen A. Douglas. His record had been phenomenal. +He had amazed both parties, in 1834, by securing appointment by the +legislature to the office of State Attorney for the first judicial +circuit, over John J. Hardin. In 1836 he had been elected to the +legislature, and although he was at that time but twenty-three years +of age, he had shown himself one of the most vigorous, capable, and +intelligent members. Indeed, Douglas's work in the Tenth Assembly gave +him about the same position in the Democratic party of the State at +large that Lincoln's work in the same body gave him in the Whig +party of his own district. In 1837 he had had no difficulty in being +appointed register of the land office, a position which compelled +him to make his home in Springfield. It was only a few months after +Lincoln rode into town, all his earthly possessions in a pair of +saddle-bags, that Douglas appeared. Handsome, polished, and always +with an air of prosperity, the advent of the young Democratic +official was in striking contrast to that of the sad-eyed, ill-clad, +poverty-stricken young lawyer from New Salem. + +From the first, Lincoln and Douglas were thrown constantly together +in the social life of the town, and often pitted against each other in +what were the real forums of the State at that day--the space around +the huge "Franklin" stove of some obliging store-keeper, the steps of +somebody's law office, a pile of lumber, or a long timber, lying in +the public square, where the new State-house was going up. + +In the fall of 1837 Douglas was nominated for Congress on the +Democratic ticket. His Whig opponent was Lincoln's law partner, John +T. Stuart. The campaign which the two conducted was one of the most +remarkable in the history of the State. For five months of the spring +and summer of 1838 they rode together from town to town all over the +northern part of Illinois (Illinois at that time was divided into but +three congressional districts; the third, in which Sangamon County +was included, being made up of the twenty-two northernmost counties), +speaking six days out of seven. When the election came off in August, +1838, out of thirty-six thousand votes cast, Stuart received a +majority of only fourteen; but even that majority the Democrats always +contended was won unfairly. The campaign was watched with intense +interest by the young politicians of Springfield; no one of them felt +a deeper interest in it than Lincoln, who was himself at the same time +a candidate for member of the State legislature. + +[Illustration: OLD STATE-HOUSE AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. + +From a recent photograph made for MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE. The corner-stone +was laid July 4, 1837, about four months after the passage of the +act removing the capital to Springfield. The event was attended with +elaborate ceremonies. The orator of the day was Colonel E.D. Baker. It +was nearly four years before the building was finally completed, at a +cost of two hundred and forty thousand dollars. It was first occupied +by the legislature during the regular session of 1840-1841, that body, +at two previous special sessions, being obliged to use the Methodist +church for the Senate, and the Second Presbyterian church for the +House. The Supreme Court found a meeting place in the Episcopal +church. The legislative committees met in rooms in private houses +about town. This building was the State capitol for more than thirty +years, becoming, upon the completion of the present State-house, the +court-house of Sangamon County.] + +Lincoln must have learned by the end of 1840, if not before, something +of the power of the "Little Giant," as Douglas was called. Certainly +no man in public life between 1837 and 1860 had a greater hold on his +followers. The reasons for this grasp are not hard to find. Douglas +was by nature buoyant, enthusiastic, impetuous. He had that sunny +boyishness which is so irresistible to young and old. With it he had +great natural eloquence. When his deep, rich voice rolled out fervid +periods in support of the sub-treasury and the convention system, or +in opposition to internal improvements by the federal government, the +people applauded out of sheer joy at the pleasure of hearing him. He +was one of the few men in Illinois whom the epithet of "Yankee" never +hurt. He might be a Yankee, but when he sat down on the knee of +some surly lawyer, and confidentially told him his plans; or, at a +political meeting, took off his coat, and rolled up his sleeves, and +"pitched into" his opponent, the sons of Illinois forgot his origin in +love for the man. + +Lincoln undoubtedly understood the charm of Douglas, and realized +his power. But he already had an insight into one of his political +characteristics that few people recognized at that day. In writing to +Stuart in 1839, while the latter was attending Congress, Lincoln said: +"Douglas has not been here since you left. A report is in circulation +here now that he has abandoned the idea of going to Washington, though +the report does not come in a very authentic form, so far as I can +learn. Though, by the way, speaking of authenticity, you know that if +we had heard Douglas say that he had abandoned the contest, it would +not be very authentic." + +In the campaign of 1840 Lincoln and Douglas came more frequently than +ever into conflict. At that time the local issues, which had formerly +engaged Illinois candidates almost entirely, were lost sight of in +national questions. In Springfield, where the leaders of the parties +were living, many hot debates were held in private. Out of these grew, +in December, 1839, a series of public discussions, extending over +eight evenings, and in which several of the first orators of the +State took part. Lincoln was the last man on the list. The people were +nearly worn out before his turn came, and his audience was small. He +began his speech with some melancholy, self-deprecatory reflections, +complaining that the small audience cast a damp upon his spirits which +he was sure he would be unable to overcome during the evening. He +did better than he expected, overcoming the damp on his spirits so +effectually that he made what was regarded as the best speech of the +series; and by a general request, it was printed for distribution. The +speech is peculiarly interesting from the fact that while there is +a little of the perfervid eloquence of 1840 in it, as well as a good +deal of the rather boisterous humor of the time, a part of it is +devoted to a careful examination of the statements of his opponents, +and a refutation of them by means of public documents. + +[Illustration: A HARRISON BADGE OF 1840. + +From the collection of Mr. O.H. Oldroyd of Washington, D.C.] + +[Illustration: A HARRISON BUTTON OF 1840. + +From the collection of Mr. John C. Browne of Philadelphia.] + +As a good Democrat was expected to do, Douglas had explained with +plausibility why the Van Buren administration had in 1838 spent +$40,000,000. Lincoln takes up his statements one by one, and proves, +as he says, that "the majority of them are wholly untrue." Douglas had +attributed a part of the expenditures to the purchase of public lands +from the Indians. + + "Now it happens," says Lincoln, "that no such purchase was + made during that year. It is true that some money was paid + that year in pursuance of Indian treaties; but no more, or + rather not as much, as had been paid on the same account in + each of several preceding years.... Again, Mr. Douglas says + that the removal of the Indians to the country west of the + Mississippi created much of the expenditure of 1838. I have + examined the public documents in relation to this matter, and + find that less was paid for the removal of the Indians in + that than in some former years. The whole sum expended on that + account in that year did not exceed one quarter of a + million. For this small sum, although we do not think the + administration entitled to credit, because large sums have + been expended in the same way in former years, we consent it + may take one and make the most of it. + + "Next, Mr. Douglas says that five millions of the expenditures + of 1838 consisted of the payment of the French indemnity money + to its individual claimants. I have carefully examined the + public documents, and thereby find this statement to be wholly + untrue. Of the forty millions of dollars expended in 1838, I + am enabled to say positively that not one dollar consisted of + payments on the French indemnities. So much for that excuse. + + "Next comes the post-office. He says that five millions were + expended during that year to sustain that department. By a + like examination of public documents, I find this also wholly + untrue. Of the so often mentioned forty millions, not one + dollar went to the post-office.... + + "I return to another of Mr. Douglas's excuses for the + expenditures of 1838, at the same time announcing the pleasing + intelligence that this is the last one. He says that + ten millions of that year's expenditure was a contingent + appropriation, to prosecute an anticipated war with Great + Britain on the Maine boundary question. Few words will settle + this. First, that the ten millions appropriated was not made + till 1839, and consequently could not have been expended in + 1838; second, although it was appropriated, it has never been + expended at all. Those who heard Mr. Douglas, recollect that + he indulged himself in a contemptuous expression of pity for + me. 'Now he's got me,' thought I. But when he went on to say + that five millions of the expenditure of 1838 were payments of + the French indemnities, which I knew to be untrue; that five + millions had been for the post-office, which I knew to be + untrue; that ten millions had been for the Maine boundary war, + which I not only knew to be untrue, but supremely ridiculous + also; and when I saw that he was stupid enough to hope that + I would permit such groundless and audacious assertions to + go unexposed,--I readily consented that, on the score both of + veracity and sagacity, the audience should judge whether he or + I were the more deserving of the world's contempt." + +[Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1860.--NOW FIRST PUBLISHED. + +From a first-state proof of an engraving of the Cooper Institute +picture of Lincoln (see McCLURE'S MAGAZINE for February, 1896, first +frontispiece). Made by John C. Buttre, and now in the collection +of W.C. Crane of New York City, through whose courtesy it is here +reproduced.] + +These citations show that Lincoln had already learned to handle public +documents, and to depend for at least a part of his success with an +audience upon a careful statement of facts. The methods used in +at least a portion of this speech are exactly those which made the +irresistible strength of his speeches in 1858 and 1859. + + +LINCOLN IN THE CAMPAIGN OF 1840. + +But there was little of as good work done in the campaign of 1840, by +Lincoln or anybody else, as is found in this speech. It was a campaign +of noise and fun, and nowhere more so than in Illinois. Lincoln was +one of the five Whig Presidential electors, and he flung himself into +the campaign with confidence. "The nomination of Harrison takes first +rate," he wrote to his partner Stuart, then in Washington. "You know +I am never sanguine, but I believe we will carry the State. The chance +of doing so appears to me twenty-five per cent, better than it did +for you to beat Douglas." The Whigs, in spite of their dislike of the +convention system, organized as they never had before, and even sent +out a "confidential" circular of which Lincoln was the author. + +Every weapon he thought of possible use in the contest he secured. "Be +sure to send me as many copies of the 'Life of Harrison' as you can +spare from other uses," he wrote Stuart. "Be very sure to procure and +send me the 'Senate Journal' of New York, of September, 1814. I have a +newspaper article which says that that document proves that Van Buren +voted against raising troops in the last war. And, in general, send me +everything you think will be a good 'war-club.'" + +Every sign of success he quoted to Stuart; the number of subscribers +to the "Old Soldier," a campaign newspaper which the Whig committee +had informed the Whigs of the State that they "_must take_;" the names +of Van Buren men who were weakening, and to whom he wanted Stuart to +send documents; the name of every theretofore doubtful person who had +declared himself for Harrison. "Japh Bell has come out for Harrison," +he put in a postscript to one letter; "ain't that a caution?" + +The monster political meetings held throughout the State did much +to widen Lincoln's reputation, particularly one held in June in +Springfield. Twenty thousand people attended this meeting, delegations +coming from every direction. It took fourteen teams to haul the +delegation from Chicago, and they were three weeks on their journey. +Each party carried some huge symbolic piece--the log cabin being the +favorite. One of the cabins taken to Springfield was drawn by thirty +yokes of oxen. In a hickory tree which was planted beside this cabin, +coons were seen playing, and a barrel of hard cider stood by the door, +continually on tap. Instead of a log cabin, the Chicago delegation +dragged across country a government yawl rigged up as a two-masted +ship, with a band of music and a six-pounder cannon on board. + +There are many reminiscences of this great celebration, and Lincoln's +part in it, still afloat in Illinois. General T.J. Henderson writes, +in the entertaining reminiscences of Lincoln prepared for this +biography: + +"The first time I remember to have seen Abraham Lincoln was during the +memorable campaign of 1840, when I was a boy fifteen years of age. It +was at an immense Whig mass-meeting held at Springfield, Illinois, in +the month of June of that year. The Whigs attended this meeting from +all parts of the State in large numbers, and it was estimated that +from forty to fifty thousand people were present. They came in +carriages and wagons, on horseback and on foot. They came with log +cabins drawn on wheels by oxen, and with coons, coon-skins, and hard +cider. They came with music and banners; and thousands of them came +from long distances. It was the first political meeting I had ever +attended, and it made a very strong impression upon my youthful mind. + +"My father, William H. Henderson, then a resident of Stark County, +Illinois, was an ardent Whig; and having served under General William +Henry Harrison, the then Whig candidate for President, in the war of +1812-1815, he felt a deep interest in his election. And although +he lived about a hundred miles from Springfield, he went with a +delegation from Stark County to this political meeting, and took +me along with him. I remember that at this great meeting of the +supporters of Harrison and Tyler there were a number of able and +distinguished speakers of the Whig party of the State of Illinois +present. Among them were Colonel E.D. Baker, who was killed at Ball's +Bluff, on the Potomac, in the late war, and who was one of the most +eloquent speakers in the State; Colonel John J. Hardin, who was killed +at the battle of Buena Vista, in the Mexican War; Fletcher Webster, +a son of Daniel Webster, who was killed in the late war; S. Leslie +Smith, a brilliant orator of Chicago; Rev. John Hogan, Ben Bond, and +Abraham Lincoln. I heard all of these men speak on that occasion. And +while I was too young to be a judge of their speeches, yet I thought +them all to be great men, and none of them greater than Abraham +Lincoln." + +One of the most prominent members of the Illinois bar has written out +especially for this work his impressions of Lincoln's speech at that +gathering. + +[Illustration: ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1861. + +From a photograph by Klauber of Louisville, Kentucky. From a +photograph owned by Mr. James B. Speed of Louisville, Kentucky, to +whose courtesy we owe the right to reproduce it here. When Lincoln +was visiting Joshua F. Speed in 1841, Mrs. Speed, the mother of his +friend, became much interested in him. His melancholy was profound, +and she tried by kindness and gentleness to arouse him to new interest +in life. One day before his departure she asked one of her daughters +for the latter's Oxford Bible, telling her she wanted it for Mr. +Lincoln, and promising to get another in its place. The gift touched +Lincoln deeply, and after he became President he remembered the giver +with the above portrait--one he had had taken especially for her, he +wrote.] + +[Transcriber's Note: The following is handwritten beneath the +photograph: "For Mrs. Lucy G. Speed, from whose pious hands I accepted +the present of an Oxford Bible twenty years ago. Washington, D.C. +October 5, 1861 A. Lincoln"] + +[Illustration: WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, NINTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED +STATES. + +From a painting. William Henry Harrison was born at Berkeley, +Virginia, February 9, 1773. He was educated at Hampden Sidney College, +and began to study medicine, but, excited by Indian outrages, gave it +up to enter the army. He was sent against the Indians of the West, and +at once distinguished himself. After peace was made in 1798, he was +appointed secretary of the Northwest Territory. In 1799 he was a +territorial delegate to Congress, and from 1801 to 1813, territorial +governor of Indiana. In the war of 1812 he gained the battles of +Tippecanoe and the Thames. From 1816 to 1819 he was a delegate to +Congress from Ohio; from 1825 to 1828, a United State Senator; and in +1828 and 1829, United States Minister to Colombia. In 1836 he was the +Whig candidate for the Presidency, but was defeated. Four years +later (1840) he was elected, but lived for only one month after his +inauguration.] + +"Mr. Lincoln stood in a wagon, from which he addressed the mass of +people that surrounded it. The meeting was one of unusual interest +because of him who was to make the principal address. It was at the +time of his greatest physical strength. He was tall, and perhaps a +little more slender than in later life, and more homely than after he +became stouter in person. He was then only thirty-one years of age, +and yet he was regarded as one of the ablest of the Whig speakers in +that campaign. There was that in him that attracted and held public +attention. Even then he was the subject of popular regard because of +his candid and simple mode of discussing and illustrating political +questions. At times he was intensely logical, and was always most +convincing in his arguments. The questions involved in that canvass +had relation to the tariff, internal public improvements by the +federal government, the distribution of the proceeds of the sales +of public lands among the several States, and other questions +that divided the political parties of that day. They were not such +questions as enlisted and engaged his best thoughts; they did not take +hold of his great nature, and had no tendency to develop it. At times +he discussed the questions of the time in a logical way, but much +time was devoted to telling stories to illustrate some phase of his +argument, though more often the telling of these stories was resorted +to for the purpose of rendering his opponents ridiculous. That was a +style of speaking much appreciated at that early day. In that kind +of oratory he excelled most of his contemporaries--indeed, he had no +equals in the State. One story he told on that occasion was full of +salient points, and well illustrated the argument he was making. It +was not an impure story, yet it was not one it would be seemly to +publish; but rendered, as it was, in his inimitable way, it contained +nothing that was offensive to a refined taste. The same story might +have been told by another in such a way that it would probably have +been regarded as transcending the proprieties of popular address. One +characterizing feature of all the stories told by Mr. Lincoln, on the +stump and elsewhere, was that although the subject matter of some of +them might not have been entirely unobjectionable, yet the manner of +telling them was so peculiarly his own that they gave no offence +even to refined and cultured people. On the contrary, they were much +enjoyed. The story he told on this occasion was much liked by the vast +assembly that surrounded the temporary platform from which he spoke, +and was received with loud bursts of laughter and applause. It served +to place the opposing party and its speakers in a most ludicrous +position in respect to the question being considered, and gave him a +most favorable hearing for the arguments he later made in support of +the measures he was sustaining." + +[Illustration: JOSHUA F. SPEED AND WIFE. + +From a painting by Healy, owned by Mrs, Joshua F. Speed of Louisville, +Kentucky, and reproduced here by permission. Joshua F. Speed was a +Kentuckian. At the time Lincoln went to Springfield he was one of the +leading merchants of the town, and it was he who befriended the young +lawyer on his arrival (see MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE for March). Towards +the end of 1840 Mr. Speed sold his store, and soon after returned to +Louisville. At his urgent invitation Lincoln visited him in the +summer of 1841. He seems not to have gone back with Speed, as many +biographers have stated, for in a letter of June 19, 1841, to Speed, +Lincoln says: "I stick to my promise to come to Louisville." He seems, +too, to have stayed a much shorter time than has frequently been +stated, for he wrote back to Speed's sister, on September 27th, of his +safe arrival in Springfield. The letters quoted from in this article +were given by Speed himself to Mr. Herndon to publish in his "Life of +Lincoln." Mr. Herndon turned them over to Lamon, who used them in his +volume published in 1872. Joshua Speed and Lincoln remained intimate +friends through life. Although they differed radically in 1855 on the +policy to be pursued in regard to slavery, Lincoln, in writing Speed +a long letter explaining his views, closes: "And yet let me say I am +your friend forever."] + + +LINCOLN'S ENGAGEMENT TO MISS TODD. + +Lincoln had been busy with politics and law in the years since he left +New Salem, but he had by no means neglected the social side of life. +Indeed, he had gone so far as to become engaged to be married to +one of the favorite young women of Springfield, Miss Mary Todd, the +sister-in-law of one of his political friends, a member of the "Long +Nine" and a prominent citizen, Ninian W. Edwards. + +[Illustration: MARY TODD LINCOLN. + +From a carbon enlargement, by Sherman and McHugh of New York, of +a photograph by Brady. Mary Todd was born in Lexington, Kentucky, +December 13, 1818. Her mother died when she was young, and she +was educated at one of the best-known schools of the State--Madame +Mantelli's. She remained there some four years, and as the school was +conducted entirely in French, she spoke the language fluently. She was +afterwards some time in the Ward Academy of Lexington. Miss Todd first +visited Springfield in 1837, but remained only a few months. In 1839 +she returned to make her home with her sister, Mrs. Edwards. She had +two other sisters in the town, Mrs. William Wallace and Mrs. C.M. +Smith. The story of her life will, of course, be told in connection +with that of Mr. Lincoln in the forthcoming articles. The photograph +used for this reproduction was kindly loaned by Mrs. S.J. Withington, +Warner, New Hampshire.] + +Miss Todd came from a well-known family of Lexington, Kentucky; her +father, Robert S. Todd, being one of the leading citizens of his +State. She had come to Springfield in 1839 to live with her sister, +Mrs. Edwards. She was a brilliant, witty, highly-educated girl, +ambitious and spirited, with a touch of audacity which only made +her more attractive, and she at once took a leading position in +Springfield society. There were many young unmarried men in the town, +drawn there by politics, and Mr. Edwards's handsome home was opened to +them in the hospitable Southern way. After Mary Todd became an inmate +of the Edwards house, the place was gayer than ever. She received much +attention from Douglas, Shields, Lincoln, and several others. It +was soon apparent, however, that Miss Todd preferred Lincoln. As +the intimacy between them increased, Mr. and Mrs. Edwards protested. +However honorable and able a man Lincoln might be, he was still a +"plebeian." His family were humble and poor; he was self-educated, +without address or polish, careless of forms, indifferent to society. +How could Mary Todd, brought up in a cultured home, accustomed to +the refinements of life, and with ambition for social position, +accommodate herself to so grave a nature, so dull an exterior? Miss +Todd knew her own mind, however. She loved Lincoln, and seems to have +believed from the first in his future. Some time in 1840 they became +engaged. + +[Illustration: LINCOLN IN 1858.--HITHERTO UNPUBLISHED. + +From a photograph, by Harrison, Galesburg, Illinois, of an ambrotype +owned by Mrs. W.J. Thomson of Monmouth, Illinois. This picture was +taken at Monmouth on October 11, 1858, by W.J. Thomson, after a speech +made in the town by Lincoln that day, and four days after the debate +between Lincoln and Douglas at Galesburg, Illinois, on October 7, +1858.] + +But it was not long before there came the clashing inevitable between +two persons whose tastes and ambitions were so different. Miss Todd +was jealous and exacting. Lincoln frequently failed to accompany her +to the merry-makings which she wanted to attend. She resented this +indifference, which seemed to her a purposed slight, instead of simply +a lack of thought on his part, and sometimes she went with Mr. +Douglas or any other escort who offered. Reproaches and tears and +misunderstanding followed. If the lovers made up, it was only to +fall out again. At last Lincoln became convinced that they were +incompatible, and resolved that he must break the engagement. But the +knowledge that the girl loved him took away his courage. He felt that +he must not draw back, and he became profoundly miserable. + +"Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it +is my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented; +and there is nothing I can imagine that would make me more unhappy +than to fail in the effort," Lincoln had written Miss Owens three +years before. How could he make this brilliant, passionate creature to +whom he was betrothed happy? + +A mortal dread of the result of the marriage, a harrowing doubt of +his own feelings, possessed him. The experience is not so rare in the +lives of lovers that it should be regarded, as it often has been, as +something exceptional and abnormal in Lincoln's case. A reflective +nature founded in melancholy, like Lincoln's, rarely undertakes +even the simpler affairs of life without misgivings. He certainly +experienced dread and doubt before entering on any new relation. +When it came to forming the most delicate and intimate of all human +relations, he staggered under a storm of uncertainty and suffering, +and finally broke the engagement. + +So horrible a breach of honor did this seem to him that he called the +day when it occurred the "fatal first of January, 1841," and months +afterward he wrote to his intimate friend Speed: "I must regain my +confidence in my own ability to keep my resolves when they are made. +In that ability I once prided myself as the only or chief gem of my +character; that gem I lost--how and where you know too well. I have +not yet regained it, and, until I do, I cannot trust myself in any +matter of much importance." + +[Illustration: ROBERT S. TODD. + +Robert S. Todd, father of Mrs. Lincoln, came of distinguished +ancestors. He was the seventh son of Major-General Levi Todd, and was +born at Lexington, Kentucky, February 25, 1791. He was prominent in +the politics of Kentucky for nearly thirty years. For many years he +was clerk of the Kentucky House of Representatives; he was three times +elected Representative from Fayette County, and was a State Senator +at the time of his death, which occurred July 15, 1849. He was twice +married--the first time to his near relative, Eliza Ann Parker, the +mother of Mary Todd.] + +[Illustration: MISS JULIA JAYNE, ONE OF MISS TODD'S BRIDESMAIDS. + +From a photograph loaned by Mr. Jesse W. Weik. Miss Jayne afterward +became Mrs. Lyman Trumbull.] + +The breaking of the engagement between Miss Todd and Mr. Lincoln was +naturally known at the time to all their friends. Lincoln's melancholy +was evident to them all, nor did he, indeed, attempt to disguise +it. He wrote and spoke freely to his intimates of the despair which +possessed him, and of his sense of dishonor. The episode caused a +great amount of gossip, as was to be expected. After Mr. Lincoln's +assassination and Mrs. Lincoln's sad death, various accounts of the +courtship and marriage were circulated. It remained, however, for one +of Lincoln's law partners, Mr. W.H. Herndon, to develop and circulate +the most sensational of all the versions of the rupture. His story +would not be referred to here were it not that it has been generally +accepted as truthful by even his most conservative biographers, +including Mr. John T. Morse and Mr. Carl Schurz. According to Mr. +Herndon, the engagement between the two was broken in the most violent +and public way possible, by Mr. Lincoln's failing to appear at the +wedding. Mr. Herndon even describes the scene in detail: + + "The time fixed for the marriage was the first day of + January, 1841. Careful preparations for the happy occasion + were made at the Edwards mansion. The house underwent the + customary renovation; the furniture was properly arranged, + the rooms neatly decorated, the supper prepared, and the + guests invited. The latter assembled on the evening in + question, and awaited in expectant pleasure the interesting + ceremony of marriage. The bride, bedecked in veil and + silken gown, and nervously toying with the flowers in her + hair, sat in the adjoining room. Nothing was lacking but + the groom. For some strange reason he had been delayed. An + hour passed, and the guests, as well as the bride, were + becoming restless. But they were all doomed to + disappointment. Another hour passed; messengers were sent + out over town, and each returning with the same report, it + became apparent that Lincoln, the principal in this little + drama, had purposely failed to appear. The bride, in grief, + disappeared to her room; the wedding supper was left + untouched; the guests quietly and wonderingly withdrew; the + lights in the Edwards mansion were blown out, and darkness + settled over all for the night. What the feelings of a lady + as sensitive, passionate, and proud as Miss Todd were, we + can only imagine; no one can ever describe them. By + daybreak, after persistent search, Lincoln's friends found + him. Restless, gloomy, miserable, desperate, he seemed an + object of pity. His friends, Speed among the number, + fearing a tragic termination, watched him closely in their + rooms day and night. 'Knives and razors, and every + instrument that could be used for self-destruction, were + removed from his reach.' Mrs. Edwards did not hesitate to + regard him as insane, and of course her sister Mary shared + in that view." + +[Illustration: GENERAL JAMES SHIELDS. + +From a photograph kindly loaned by C.B. Hall, New York. General +Shields was born at Dungannon, County of Tyrone, Ireland, in 1810; +came to the United States in 1826; located in Randolph County, +Illinois, and taught school there; was admitted to the bar in 1832, +and practised at Kaskaskia. He was elected to the legislature in 1836, +and there became acquainted with Lincoln. In 1841 he was made auditor +of public accounts of Illinois, and it was while holding this office +that he challenged Lincoln to mortal combat. In 1843 Governor Ford +appointed him an associate justice of the Supreme Court--an office +which he resigned two years later to become commissioner of the +general land-office. His gallantry in the Mexican War was such that he +was brevetted a major-general. The prestige which his military record +gave him made him a United States Senator in 1849. Defeated for +reelection by Lyman Trumbull in 1855, he removed to Minnesota. There, +May 12, 1858, he was elected to the United States Senate to fill a +vacancy, serving about ten months. Then he went to California for +a year. August 19, 1861, President Lincoln, his old-time enemy, +presented him with a brigadier-general's commission; but two years +later he gave this up, and settled on a farm in Missouri. He remained +in retirement for a while, but eventually emerged to become a +member of the legislature, a defeated candidate for Congress, +adjutant-general of the State, and finally, in 1879, once more a +United States Senator, serving about six weeks of an unexpired term. +He thus had the rare distinction to be a United States Senator from +three States. In his later years he delivered lectures--"Reminiscences +of the Mexican War" and "Recollections of Eminent Statesmen and +Soldiers." He died suddenly at Ottumwa, Iowa, June 1, 1879. General +Shields has been variously rated by his contemporaries. That he was a +man of considerable ability is conceded, and he possessed the warmth +and generosity common to his race.--_J. McCan Davis_.] + +[Illustration: MRS. NINIAN W. EDWARDS. + +From a painting by Healy, owned by her son, Mr. A.S. Edwards, +Springfield, Illinois. Mrs. Ninian W. Edwards was a sister of Mrs. +Lincoln. Her maiden name was Elizabeth P. Todd. She was born at +Lexington, Kentucky, in 1813, and died at Springfield, Illinois, her +home since 1835, February 22, 1888.] + +[Illustration: COURT-HOUSE AT TREMONT WHERE LINCOLN RECEIVED WARNING +OF SHIELDS'S CHALLENGE. + +Tremont was about fifty miles north of Springfield, in Tazewell +County. Although the internal improvements scheme of 1837 ran a +railroad through the town, it was only reached in 1842, at the time +of the Shields-Lincoln duel, by driving. The court-house is a fair +example of those in which Lincoln first practised law.] + +No one can read this description in connection with the rest of Mr. +Herndon's text, and escape the impression that, if it is true, there +must have been a vein of cowardice in Lincoln. The context shows that +he was not insane enough to excuse such a public insult to a woman. +To break his engagement was, all things considered, not in any way +an unusual or abnormal thing; to brood over the rupture, to blame +himself, to feel that he had been dishonorable, was to be expected, +after such an act, from one of his temperament. Nothing, however, +but temporary insanity or constitutional cowardice could explain such +conduct as here described. Mr. Herndon does not pretend to found his +story on any personal knowledge of the affair. He was in Springfield +at the time, a clerk in Speed's store, but did not have then, nor, +indeed, did he ever have, any social relations with the families in +which Mr. Lincoln was always a welcome guest. His only authority for +the story is a remark which he says Mrs. Ninian Edwards made to him in +an interview: "Lincoln and Mary were engaged; everything was ready and +prepared for the marriage, even to the supper. Mr. Lincoln failed +to meet his engagement; cause, insanity." This remark, it should be +noted, is not from a manuscript written by Mrs. Edwards, but in a +report of an interview with her, written by Mr. Herndon. Supposing, +however, that the statement was made exactly as Mr. Herndon reports +it, it certainly does not justify any such sensational description as +Mr. Herndon gives. + +If such a thing had ever occurred, it could not have failed to be +known, of course, even to its smallest details, by all the relatives +and friends of both Miss Todd and Mr. Lincoln. Nobody, however, ever +heard of this wedding party until Mr. Herndon gave his material to the +public. + +One of the closest friends of the Lincolns throughout their lives was +a cousin of Mrs. Lincoln's, Mrs. Grimsley, afterwards Mrs. Dr. Brown. +Mrs. Grimsley lived in Springfield, on the most intimate and friendly +relations with Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, and the first six months of +their life in the White House she spent with them. She was a woman +of unusual culture, and of the rarest sweetness and graciousness of +character. No one could look on her face without feeling her perfect +sincerity and goodness. Some months before Mrs. Brown's death, in +August, 1895, a copy of Mr. Herndon's story was sent her, with a +request that she write for publication her knowledge of the affair. In +her reply she said: + +"Did Mr. Lincoln fail to appear when the invitations were out, the +guests invited, and the supper ready for the wedding? I will say +emphatically, 'No.' + +"There may have been a little shadow of foundation for Mr. Herndon's +lively imagination to play upon, in that, the year previous to the +marriage, and when Mr. Lincoln and my cousin Mary expected soon to be +married, Mr. Lincoln was taken with one of those fearful, overwhelming +periods of depression, which induced his friends to persuade him to +leave Springfield. This he did for a time; but I am satisfied he +was loyal and true to Mary, even though at times he may have doubted +whether he was responding as fully as a manly, generous nature should +to such affection as he knew my cousin was ready to bestow on him. And +this because it had not the overmastering depth of an early love. This +everybody here knows; therefore I do not feel as if I were betraying +dear friends." + +[Illustration: RESIDENCE OF NINIAN W. EDWARDS, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. + +From a photograph made for MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE in February, 1896. At +this house Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd were married November 4, +1842, and here Mrs. Lincoln died July 16, 1882. The house was built +about 1835. It was a brick structure, and there were few handsomer +ones in the town. The south half (appearing in the left of this +picture) was at first only one story in height; the second story was +but recently added. In this part was the dining-room. The parlor, in +which the marriage ceremony was performed, was the front room on the +first floor of the north half of the house. The house is now occupied +by St. Agatha's School (Episcopal).] + +Mrs. John Stuart, the wife of Lincoln's law partner at that time, is +still living in Springfield, a refined, cultivated, intelligent woman, +who remembers perfectly the life and events of that day. When Mr. +Herndon's story first came to her attention, her indignation was +intense. She protested that she never before had heard of such a +thing. Mrs. Stuart was not, however, in Springfield at that particular +date, but in Washington, her husband being a member of Congress. She +wrote the following statement for this biography: + +"I cannot deny this, as I was not in Springfield for some months +before and after this occurrence was said to have taken place; but I +was in close correspondence with relatives and friends during all this +time, and never heard a word of it. The late Judge Broadwell told me +that he had asked Mr. Ninian Edwards about it, and Mr. Edwards told +him that no such thing had ever taken place. + +"All I can say is that I unhesitatingly do not believe such an event +ever occurred. I thought I had never heard of this till I saw it in +Herndon's book. I have since been told that Lamon mentions the same +thing. I read Lamon at the time he published, and felt very much +disgusted, but did not remember this particular assertion. The first +chapters of Lamon's book were purchased from Herndon; so Herndon is +responsible for the whole. + +"Mrs. Lincoln told me herself all the circumstances of her engagement +to Mr. Lincoln, of his illness, and the breaking off of her +engagement, of the renewal, and her marriage. So I say I do not +believe one word of this dishonorable story about Mr. Lincoln." + +[Illustration: LINCOLN'S MARRIAGE LICENSE AND MARRIAGE +CERTIFICATE.--NOW FIRST PUBLISHED. + +Photographed for MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE from the original, now on file in +the county clerk's office, Springfield, Illinois. It has hitherto been +commonly supposed that the original marriage license issued to +Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd in 1842, with the officiating-minister's +certificate of marriage attached to it, was one of the interesting +documents in what was formerly the Keys Lincoln Memorial Collection. +Nicolay and Hay reproduced it in their biography of Lincoln, and other +publications have made it appear authentic. Messrs. Keys and +Munson, who formed the collection in which the certificate was first +exhibited, called it a duplicate, and Mr. William H. Lambert of +Philadelphia, who owns it now, supposed, in buying it, that it was a +duplicate. Mr. Lambert, however, in showing us the certificate, called +attention to a suspicious circumstance connected with the license. +The seal of the county court stamped upon it was dated "1849." It was +difficult to reconcile this with the fact that the marriage occurred +in 1842. The inconsistency was covered up in certain facsimiles which +have been published, by a stroke of the pen; the date of the seal was +changed to fit the date of the marriage. Mr. Lambert's suggestion led +to an investigation for this Magazine. A search in the county clerk's +office at Springfield brought to light the real and only "original" +license, stowed away in a dusty pigeon-hole, untouched in thirty +years. This is the license which is reproduced above. Beneath the +license is the Rev. Charles Dresser's certificate of the marriage. +The bogus document was made out on the blank form in use in the county +clerk's office in 1865--a form quite different from that used in 1842. +This form was not used prior to 1865, and never after February 3, +1866. So it seems most probable that the spurious license was procured +soon after Mr. Lincoln's assassination. The handwriting is that of +N.W. Matheny, then, as in 1842, the county clerk, a gentleman of high +character, who no doubt furnished the copy for a perfectly proper +purpose. It will be observed that the genuine license bears no seal. +This is due to the fact that prior to 1849 the county court did not +have a seal; indeed, before that year, such a tribunal as the +"county court" was unknown to the judiciary system of the State. The +certificate attached to the counterfeit license, of course, was not +written by the Rev. Charles Dresser (for he was then dead), but, +like the license itself, was made out by the county clerk.--_J. McCan +Davis._] + +Another prominent member in the same circle with Mr. Lincoln and Miss +Todd is Mrs. B.T. Edwards, the widow of Judge Benjamin T. Edwards, +and sister-in-law of Mr. Ninian Edwards, who had married Miss Todd's +sister. She came to Springfield in 1839, and was intimately acquainted +with Mr. Lincoln and Miss Todd, and knew, as well as another could +know, their affairs. Mrs. Edwards is still living in Springfield, a +woman of the most perfect refinement and trustworthiness. In answer to +the question, "Is Mr. Herndon's description true?" she writes: + +"I am impatient to tell you that all that he says about this +wedding--the time for which was 'fixed for the first day of +January'--is a fabrication. He has drawn largely upon his imagination +in describing something which never took place. + +"I know the engagement between Mr. Lincoln and Miss Todd was +interrupted for a time, and it was rumored among her young friends +that Mr. Edwards had rather opposed it. But I am sure there had been +no 'time fixed' for any wedding; that is, no preparations had ever +been made until the day that Mr. Lincoln met Mr. Edwards on the street +and told him that he and Mary were going to be married that evening. +Upon inquiry, Mr. Lincoln said they would be married in the Episcopal +church, to which Mr. Edwards replied: 'No; Mary is my ward, and she +must be married at my house.' + +"If I remember rightly, the wedding guests were few, not more than +thirty; and it seems to me all are gone now but Mrs. Wallace, +Mrs. Levering, and myself, for it was not much more than a family +gathering; only two or three of Mary Todd's young friends were +present. The 'entertainment' was simple, but in beautiful taste; but +the bride had neither veil nor flowers in her hair, with which to 'toy +nervously.' There had been no elaborate _trousseau_ for the bride of +the future President of the United States, nor even a handsome wedding +gown; nor was it a gay wedding." + +Two sisters of Mrs. Lincoln's who are still living, Mrs. Wallace +of Springfield, and Mrs. Helm of Elizabethstown, Kentucky, deny +emphatically that any wedding was ever arranged between Mr. Lincoln +and Miss Todd but the one which did take place. That the engagement +was broken after a wedding had been talked of, they think possible; +but Mr. Herndon's story, they deny emphatically. + +"There is not a word of truth in it!" Mrs. Wallace broke out, +impulsively, before the question about the non-appearance of Mr. +Lincoln had been finished. "I never was so amazed in my life as when I +read that story. Mr. Lincoln never did such a thing. Why, Mary Lincoln +never had a silk dress in her life until she went to Washington." + +[Illustration: REV. CHARLES DRESSER. + +From a daguerreotype owned by his son, Dr. T.W. Dresser, Springfield, +Illinois. The Rev. Charles Dresser, who was the officiating clergyman +at the wedding of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd, was born at Pomfret, +Connecticut, February 24, 1800. He was graduated from Brown University +in 1823, and went to Virginia, where he studied theology. In 1829 he +became an ordained minister in the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was +married in 1832 in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, to Louisa W. Withers. +Upon his removal to Springfield, Illinois, in 1838, he became the +rector of the Protestant Episcopal church there, and remained so until +1858, when failing health caused his retirement. In 1855, Jubilee +College elected him Professor of Divinity and Belles-Lettres, but he +held this position only a short time. He died March 25, 1865.--_J. +McCan Davis._] + +As Mr. Joshua Speed was, all through this period, Mr. Lincoln's +closest friend, no thought or feeling of the one ever being concealed +from the other, Mrs. Joshua Speed, who is still living in Louisville, +Kentucky, was asked if she knew of the story. Mrs. Speed listened +in surprise to Mr. Herndon's tale. "I never heard of it before," she +declared. "I never heard of it. If it is true, I never heard of it." + +In all of these cases the opinion of only those persons intimately +connected with Mr. Lincoln and Miss Todd has been asked. Care has been +taken, too, to apply only to persons whose character put them beyond +the suspicion of distorting facts. + +Quite unexpectedly, some months ago, a volunteer witness to the +falsity of the story appeared. The Hon. H.W. Thornton of Millersburg, +Illinois, was a member of the Twelfth General Assembly, which met in +Springfield in 1840. During that winter he was boarding near Lincoln, +saw him almost every day, was a constant visitor at Mr. Edwards's +house, and he knew Miss Todd well. He wrote to this magazine declaring +that Mr. Herndon's statement about the wedding must be false, as he +was closely associated with Miss Todd and Mr. Lincoln all winter, and +never knew anything of it. Mr. Thornton went on to say that he knew +beyond a doubt that the sensational account of Lincoln's insanity +was untrue, and he quoted from the House journal to show how it was +impossible that, as Lamon says, using Herndon's notes, "Lincoln went +crazy as a loon, and did not attend the legislature in 1841-1842, +for this reason;" or, as Herndon says, that he had to be watched +constantly. According to the record taken from the journals of the +House sent us by Mr. Thornton, and which we have had verified in +Springfield, Mr. Lincoln was in his seat in the House on that "fatal +first of January" when he is asserted to have been groping in the +shadow of madness, and he was also there on the following day. The +third of January was Sunday. On Monday, the fourth, he appears not to +have been present--at least he did not vote; but even this is by no +means conclusive evidence that he was not there. On the fifth, and on +every succeeding day until the thirteenth, he was in his seat. From +the thirteenth to the eighteenth, inclusive, he is not recorded on +any of the roll-calls, and probably was not present. But on the +nineteenth, when "John J. Hardin announced his illness to the House," +as Mr. Herndon says (which announcement seems not to have gotten +into the journal), Lincoln was again in his place, and voted. On the +twentieth he is not recorded; but on every subsequent day, until the +close of the session on the first of March, Lincoln was in the House. +Thus, during the whole of the two months of January and February, +he was absent not more than seven days--as good a record as to +attendance, perhaps, as that made by the average member. + +Mr. Thornton says further: "Mr. Lincoln boarded at William Butler's, +near to Dr. Henry's, where I boarded. The missing days, from January +13th to 19th, Mr. Lincoln spent several hours each day at Dr. Henry's; +a part of these days I remained with Mr. Lincoln. His most intimate +friends had no fears of his injuring himself. He was very sad and +melancholy, but being subject to these spells, nothing serious was +apprehended. His being watched, as stated in Herndon's book, was news +to me until I saw it there." + +But while Lincoln went about his daily duties, even on the "fatal +first of January," his whole being was shrouded in gloom. He did not +pretend to conceal this from his friends. Writing to Mr. Stuart on +January 23d, he said: "I am now the most miserable man living. If what +I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would +not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better +I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is +impossible. I must die or be better, it appears to me. The matter you +speak of on my account you may attend to as you say, unless you shall +hear of my condition forbidding it. I say this because I fear I shall +be unable to attend to any business here, and a change of scene might +help me." + +In the summer he visited his friend Speed, who had sold his store in +Springfield, and returned to Louisville, Kentucky. The visit did much +to brighten his spirits, for, writing back in September, after his +return, to his friend's sister, he was even gay. + +A curious situation arose the next year (1842), which did much to +restore Lincoln to a more normal view of his relation to Miss Todd. +In the summer of 1841, his friend Speed had become engaged. As his +marriage approached, he in turn was attacked by a melancholy not +unlike that which Lincoln had suffered. He feared he did not love well +enough to marry, and he confided his fear to Lincoln. Full of sympathy +for the trouble of his friend, Lincoln tried in every way to persuade +him that his "twinges of the soul" were all explained by nervous +debility. When Speed returned to Kentucky, Lincoln wrote him several +letters, in which he consoled, counselled, or laughed at him. These +letters abound in suggestive passages. From what did Speed suffer? +From three special causes and a general one, which Lincoln proceeds to +enumerate: + + "The general cause is, that you are naturally of a nervous + temperament; and this I say from what I have seen of you + personally, and what you have told me concerning your mother + at various times, and concerning your brother William at the + time his wife died. The first special cause is your exposure + to bad weather on your journey, which my experience clearly + proves to be very severe on defective nerves. The second is + the absence of all business and conversation of friends, + which might divert your mind, give it occasional rest from the + intensity of thought which will sometimes wear the sweetest + idea thread-bare and turn it to the bitterness of death. The + third is the rapid and near approach of that crisis on which + all your thoughts and feelings concentrate." + +Speed writes that his _fiancée_ is ill, and his letter is full of +gloomy forebodings of an early death. Lincoln hails these fears as an +omen of happiness. + +[Illustration: THE GLOBE HOTEL, SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS. + +In a letter to Joshua R. Speed, dated May 18, 1843, Lincoln wrote: "We +are not keeping house, but boarding at the Globe Tavern, which is very +well kept now by a widow lady of the name of Beck. Our room (the +same that Dr. Wallace occupied there) and boarding only costs us four +dollars a week.... I most heartily wish you and your Fanny would +not fail to come. Just let us know the time, and we will have a room +provided for you at our house, and all be merry together for a while." +The Globe Hotel stood in Springfield until about three years ago.] + + "I hope and believe that your present anxiety and distress + about her health and her life must and will forever banish + those horrid doubts which I know you sometimes felt as to the + truth of your affection for her. If they can once and forever + be removed (and I almost feel a presentiment that the Almighty + has sent your present affliction expressly for that object), + surely nothing can come in their stead to fill their + immeasurable measure of misery.... I am now fully convinced + that you love her as ardently as you are capable of loving. + Your ever being happy in her presence, and your intense + anxiety about her health, if there were nothing else, would + place this beyond all dispute in my mind. I incline to think + it probable that your nerves will fail you occasionally for a + while; but once you get them firmly guarded now, that trouble + is over forever. I think, if I were you, in case my mind + were not exactly right, I would avoid being idle. I + would immediately engage in some business or go to making + preparations for it, which would be the same thing." + +Mr. Speed's marriage occurred in February, and to the letter +announcing it Lincoln replied: + + "I tell you, Speed, our forebodings (for which you and I are + peculiar) are all the worst sort of nonsense. I fancied, from + the time I received your letter of Saturday, that the one of + Wednesday was never to come, and yet it did come, and what + is more, it is perfectly clear, both from its tone and + handwriting, that you were much happier, or, if you think the + term preferable, less miserable, when you wrote it than when + you wrote the last one before. You had so obviously improved + at the very time I so much fancied you would have grown worse. + You say that something indescribably horrible and alarming + still haunts you. You will not say that three months from + now, I will venture. When your nerves once get steady now, + the whole trouble will be over forever. Nor should you become + impatient at their being even very slow in becoming steady. + Again, you say, you much fear that that Elysium of which you + have dreamed so much is never to be realized. Well, if it + shall not, I dare swear it will not be the fault of her who + is now your wife. I now have no doubt that it is the peculiar + misfortune of both you and me to dream dreams of Elysium far + exceeding all that anything earthly can realize." + +His prophecy was true. In March Speed wrote him that he was "far +happier than he had ever expected to be." Lincoln caught at the letter +with an eagerness which is deeply pathetic: + + "It cannot be told how it now thrills me with joy to hear you + say you are far happier than you ever expected to be. I know + you too well to suppose your expectations were not, at least, + sometimes extravagant, and if the reality exceeds them all, I + say, Enough, dear Lord! I am not going beyond the truth when + I tell you that the short space it took me to read your last + letter gave me more pleasure than the total sum of all I have + enjoyed since the fatal 1st of January, 1841. Since then, it + seems to me, I should have been entirely happy, but for the + never absent idea that there is one still unhappy whom I have + contributed to make so. That still kills me. I cannot but + reproach myself for even wishing to be happy while she is + otherwise. She accompanied a large party on the railroad cars + to Jacksonville last Monday, and on her return spoke, so that + I heard of it, of having enjoyed the trip exceedingly. God be + praised for that." + +Evidently Lincoln was still unreconciled to his separation from Miss +Todd. In the summer of 1842, only three or four months after the above +letter was written, a clever ruse on the part of certain of their +friends threw the two unexpectedly together; and an understanding +of some kind evidently was come to, for during the season they met +secretly at the house of one of Lincoln's friends, Mr. Simeon Francis. +It was while these meetings were going on that a burlesque encounter +occurred between Lincoln and James Shields, for which Miss Todd was +partly responsible, and which no doubt gave just the touch of comedy +necessary to relieve their tragedy and restore them to a healthier +view of their relations. + + +THE LINCOLN AND SHIELDS DUEL. + +Among the Democratic officials then living in Springfield was one +James Shields, auditor of the State. He was a hot-headed, blustering +Irishman, not without ability, and certainly courageous; a good +politician, and, on the whole, a very well-liked man. However, the +swagger and noise with which he accompanied the execution of his +duties, and his habit of being continually on the defensive, made +him the butt of Whig ridicule. Nothing could have given greater +satisfaction to Lincoln and his friends than having an opponent who, +whenever they joked him, flew into a rage and challenged them to +fight. + +At the time when Lincoln was visiting Miss Todd at Mr. Francis's +house, the Whigs were much excited over the fact that the Democrats +had issued an order forbidding the payment of State taxes in State +bank-notes. The bank-notes were in fact practically worthless, for the +State finances were suffering a violent reaction from the extravagant +legislation of 1836 and 1837. One of the popular ways of attacking an +obnoxious political doctrine in that day was writing letters from some +imaginary backwoods settlement, setting forth in homely vernacular +the writer's views of the question, and showing how its application +affected his part of the world. These letters were really a rude form +of the "Bigelow Papers" or "Nasby Letters." Soon after the order +was issued by the Illinois officials demanding silver instead +of bank-notes in payment of taxes, Lincoln wrote a letter to a +Springfield paper from the "Lost Townships," signing it "Aunt +Rebecca." In it he described the plight to which the new order had +brought the neighborhood, and he intimated that the only reason for +issuing such an order was that the State officers might have their +salaries paid in silver. Shields was ridiculed unmercifully in the +letter for his vanity and his gallantry. + +It happened that there were several young women in Springfield who +had received rather too pronounced attention from Mr. Shields, and +who were glad to see him tormented. Among them were Miss Todd and her +friend Miss Julia Jayne. Lincoln's letter from the "Lost Townships" +was such a success that they followed it up with one in which "Aunt +Rebecca" proposed to the gallant auditor, and a few days later they +published some very bad verses, signed "Cathleen," celebrating the +wedding.[1] + +Springfield was highly entertained, less by the verses than by the +fury of Shields. He would have satisfaction, he said, and he sent a +friend, one General Whitesides, to the paper, to ask for the name of +the writer of the communications. The editor, in a quandary, went to +Lincoln, who, unwilling that Miss Todd and Miss Jayne should figure +in the affair, ordered that his own name be given as the author of +letters and poem. This was only about ten days after the first letter +had appeared, on September 2d, and Lincoln left Springfield in a day +or two for a long trip on the circuit. He was at Tremont when, on +the morning of the seventeenth, two of his friends, E.H. Merryman and +William Butler, drove up hastily. Shields and his friend Whitesides +were behind, they said, the irate Irishman vowing that he would +challenge Lincoln. They, knowing that Lincoln was "unpractised both +as to diplomacy and weapons," had started as soon as they had learned +that Shields had left Springfield, had passed him in the night, and +were there to see Lincoln through. + +It was not long before Shields and Whitesides arrived, and soon +Lincoln received a note in which the indignant auditor said: "I +will take the liberty of requiring a full, positive, and absolute +retraction of all offensive allusions used by you in these +communications in relation to my private character and standing as a +man, as an apology for the insults conveyed in them. This may prevent +consequences which no one will regret more than myself." + +Lincoln immediately replied that, since Shields had not stopped to +inquire whether he really was the author of the articles, had not +pointed out what was offensive in them, had assumed facts and hinted +at consequences, he could not submit to answer the note. Shields wrote +again, but Lincoln simply replied that he could receive nothing but a +withdrawal of the first note or a challenge. To this he steadily +held, even refusing to answer the question as to the authorship of the +letters, which Shields finally put. It was inconsistent with his honor +to negotiate for peace with Mr. Shields, he said, unless Mr. Shields +withdrew his former offensive letter. Seconds were immediately named: +Whitesides by Shields, Merryman by Lincoln; and though they talked of +peace, Whitesides declared he could not mention it to his principal. +"He would challenge me next, and as soon cut my throat as not." + +This was on the nineteenth, and that night the party returned to +Springfield. But in someway the affair had leaked out, and fearing +arrest, Lincoln and Merryman left town the next morning. The +instructions were left with Butler. If Shields would withdraw his +first note, and write another asking if Lincoln was the author of the +offensive articles, and, if so, asking for gentlemanly satisfaction, +then Lincoln had prepared a letter explaining the whole affair. If +Shields would not do this, there was nothing to do but fight. Lincoln +left the following preliminaries for the duel: + + "_First._ Weapons: Cavalry broadswords of the largest size, + precisely equal in all respects, and such as now used by the + cavalry company at Jacksonville. + + "_Second_. Position: A plank ten feet long, and from nine to + twelve inches broad, to be firmly fixed on edge on the ground, + as the line between us, which neither is to pass his foot over + on forfeit of his life. Next, a line drawn on the ground on + either side of said plank and parallel with it, each at the + distance of the whole length of the sword and three feet + additional from the plank; and the passing of his own such + line by either party during the fight shall be deemed a + surrender of the contest. + + "_Third_. Time: On Thursday evening at five o'clock, if you + can get it so; but in no case to be at a greater distance of + time than Friday evening at five o'clock. + + "_Fourth_. Place: Within three miles of Alton, on the opposite + side of the river, the particular spot to be agreed upon by + you." + +As Mr. Shields refused to withdraw his first note, the entire party +started for the rendezvous across the Mississippi. Lincoln and +Merryman drove together in a dilapidated old buggy, in the bottom of +which rattled a number of broadswords. It was the morning of the 22d +of September when the duellists arrived in the town. There are people +still living in Alton who remember their coming. "The party arrived +about the middle of the morning," says Mr. Edward Levis,[2] "and soon +crossed the river to a sand-bar which at the time was, by reason +of the low water, a part of the Missouri mainland. The means of +conveyance was an old horse-ferry that was operated by a man named +Chapman. The weapons were in the keeping of the friends of the +principals, and no care was taken to conceal them; in fact, they were +openly displayed. Naturally, there was a great desire among the male +population to attend the duel, but the managers of the affair would +not permit any but their own party to board the ferry-boat. Skiffs +were very scarce, and but a few could avail themselves of the +opportunity in this way. I had to content myself with standing on the +levee and watching proceedings at long range." + +The party had scarcely reached the sand-bar before they were joined by +some unexpected friends. Lincoln and Merryman, on their way to Alton, +had stopped at White Hall for dinner. Across the street from the hotel +lived Mr. Elijah Lott, an acquaintance of Merryman's. Mr. Lott was not +long in finding out what was on foot, and as soon as the duellists had +departed, he drove to Carrollton, where he knew that Colonel John J. +Hardin and several other friends of Lincoln were attending court, and +warned them of the trouble. Hardin and one or two others immediately +started for Alton. They arrived in time to calm Shields, and to aid +the seconds in adjusting matters "with honor to all concerned." + +That the duellists returned in good spirits is evident from Mr. +Levis's reminiscences: "It was not very long," says he, "until the +boat was seen returning to Alton. As it drew near I saw what was +presumably a mortally wounded man lying on the bow of the boat. His +shirt appeared to be bathed in blood. I distinguished Jacob Smith, a +constable, fanning the supposed victim vigorously. The people on the +bank held their breath in suspense, and guesses were freely made as +to which of the two men had been so terribly wounded. But suspense was +soon turned to chagrin and relief when it transpired that the supposed +candidate for another world was nothing more nor less than a log +covered with a red shirt. This ruse had been resorted to in order to +fool the people on the levee; and it worked to perfection. Lincoln +and Shields came off the boat together, chatting in a nonchalant and +pleasant manner." + + +MARRIAGE OF LINCOLN AND MISS TODD. + +The Lincoln-Shields duel had so many farcical features, and Miss Todd +had unwittingly been so much to blame for it, that one can easily see +that it might have had considerable influence on the relations of the +two young people. However that may be, something had made Mr. Lincoln +feel that he could renew his engagement. Early in October, not a +fortnight after the duel, he wrote Speed: "You have now been the +husband of a lovely woman nearly eight months. That you are happier +now than the day you married her I well know, for without you would +not be living. But I have your word for it, too, and the returning +elasticity of spirits which is manifested in your letters. But I want +to ask a close question: Are you now in feelings as well as judgment +glad that you are married as you are?" + +We do not know Speed's answer, nor the final struggle of the man's +heart. We only know that on November 4, 1842, Lincoln was married, the +wedding being almost impromptu. Mrs. Dr. Brown, Miss Todd's cousin, in +the same letter quoted from above, describes the wedding: + +"One morning, bright and early, my cousin came down in her excited, +impetuous way, and said to my father: 'Uncle, you must go up and tell +my sister that Mr. Lincoln and I are to be married this evening,' and +to me: 'Get on your bonnet and go with me to get my gloves, shoes, +etc., and then to Mr. Edwards's.' When we reached there we found some +excitement over a wedding being sprung upon them so suddenly. However, +my father, in his lovely, pacific way, 'poured oil upon the waters,' +and we thought everything was 'ship-shape,' when Mrs. Edwards +laughingly said: 'How fortunately you selected this evening, for +the Episcopal Sewing Society is to meet here, and my supper is all +ordered.' + +"But that comfortable little arrangement would not hold, as Mary +declared she would not make a spectacle for gossiping ladies to gaze +upon and talk about; there had already been too much talk about her. +Then my father was despatched to tell Mr. Lincoln that the wedding +would be deferred until the next evening. Clergyman, attendants and +intimate friends were notified, and on Friday evening, in the midst of +a small circle of friends, with the elements doing their worst in the +way of rain, this singular courtship culminated in marriage. This I +know to be literally true, as I was one of her bridesmaids, Miss Jayne +(afterwards Mrs. Lyman Trumbull) and Miss Rodney being the others." + + * * * * * + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Charles Lamb, now passing his declining years +quietly on his farm, a dozen miles from Springfield, Illinois, was a +compositor on the "Sangamo Journal" from 1836 to 1843, and it was +he who put into type the poem by "Cathleen," which, with the "Lost +Townships" letters, led General Shields to challenge Lincoln. "This +poem," says Mr. Lamb, "was written by Mary Todd and Julia Jayne, +afterward the wife of Senator Lyman Trumbull. After I had set up the +poem, I took the copy from the hook and put it into my pocket. When +Lincoln was informed by Simeon Francis, the editor of the 'Journal,' +that Shields had demanded the name of the author of the verses, he +came around to the office and asked for the copy. I produced it, and +he picked up a pen and wrote his name across the top of the page. +This, of course, meant that he assumed the responsibility for +the production. I retained this copy until a few years ago, when, +unhappily, it was destroyed. My recollection is that the 'Lost +Townships' letters were set up by Mr. Francis himself. Mr. Lincoln was +a frequent contributor to the 'Journal,' and it usually fell to my lot +to set up his contributions."--_J. McCan Davis._] + +[Footnote 2: Interview with Mr. Edward Levis made for this Magazine.] + + + + +"PHROSO." + +A TALE OF BRAVE DEEDS AND PERILOUS VENTURES. + +BY ANTHONY HOPE, AUTHOR OF "THE PRISONER OF ZENDA," ETC. + + +CHAPTER I. + +A LONG THING ENDING IN POULOS. + +_Quot homines, tot sententiæ_; so many men, so many fancies. My fancy +was for an island. Perhaps boyhood's glamour hung still round sea-girt +rocks, and "faery lands forlorn" still beckoned me; perhaps I felt +that London was too full, the Highlands rather fuller, the Swiss +mountains most insufferably crowded of them all. "Money can buy +company," and it can buy retirement. The latter service I asked now of +the moderate wealth with which my poor cousin Tom's death had endowed +me. Everybody was good enough to suppose that I rejoiced at Tom's +death, whereas I was particularly sorry for it, and was not consoled +even by the prospects of the island. My friends understood this wish +for an island as little as they appreciated my feelings about poor +Tom. Beatrice was most emphatic in declaring that "a horrid little +island" had no charms for her, and that she would never set foot +in it. This declaration was rather annoying, because I had imagined +myself spending my honeymoon with Beatrice on the island; but life is +not all honeymoon, and I decided to have the island none the less. +In the first place, I was not to be married for a year. Mrs. Kennett +Hipgrave had insisted on this delay in order that we might be sure +that we knew our own hearts. And as I may say without unfairness +that Mrs. Hipgrave was to a considerable degree responsible for the +engagement--she asserted the fact herself with much pride--I thought +that she had a right to some voice in the date of the marriage. +Moreover, the postponement gave me exactly time to go over and settle +affairs in the island. + +For I had bought it. It cost me seven thousand five hundred and fifty +pounds--rather a fancy price, but I could not haggle with the old +lord--half to be paid to the lord's bankers in London, and the second +half to him in Neopalia, when he delivered possession to me. The +Turkish government had sanctioned the sale, and I had agreed to pay +a hundred pounds yearly as tribute. This sum, I was entitled, in my +turn, to levy on the inhabitants. + +"In fact, my dear lord," said old Mason to me when I called on him in +Lincoln's Inn Fields, "the whole affair is settled. I congratulate you +on having got just what was your whim. You are over a hundred miles +from the nearest land--Rhodes, you see." (He laid a map before me.) +"You are off the steamship tracks; the Austrian Lloyds to Alexandria +leave you far to the northeast. You are equally remote from any +submarine cable; here on the southwest, from Alexandria to Candia, is +the nearest. You will have to fetch your letters--" + +"I shouldn't think of doing such a thing," said I, indignantly. + +"Then you'll only get them once in three months. Neopalia is extremely +rugged and picturesque. It is nine miles long and five broad; it +grows cotton, wine, oil, and a little corn. The people are quite +unsophisticated, but very good-hearted--" + +"And," said I, "there are only three hundred and seventy of them, all +told. I really think I shall do very well there." + +"I have no doubt you will. By the way, treat the old gentleman kindly. +He is terribly cut up at having to sell. 'My dear island,' he writes, +'is second to my dead son's honor, and to nothing else.' His son, you +know, Lord Wheatley, was a bad lot, a very bad lot indeed." + +"He left a lot of unpaid debts, didn't he?" + +"Yes, gambling debts. He spent his time knocking about Paris +and London with his cousin Constantine, by no means an improving +companion, if report speaks truly. And your money is to pay the debts, +you know." + +"Poor old chap," said I. I sympathized with him in the loss of his +island. + +"Here's the house, you see," said Mason, turning to the map, and +dismissing the sorrows of the old lord of Neopalia. "About the middle +of the island, nearly a thousand feet above the sea. I'm afraid it's a +tumble-down old place, and will swallow a lot of money without looking +much better for the dose. To put it into repair for the reception of +the future Lady Wheatley would cost--" + +"The future Lady Wheatley says she won't go there on any account," I +interrupted. + +"But, my very dear lord," cried he, aghast, "if she won't--" + +"She won't, and there's an end of it, Mr. Mason. Well, good day. I'm +to have possession in a month?" + +"In a month to the very day--on the seventh of May." + +"All right, I shall be there to take it;" and escaping from the legal +quarter, I made my way to my sister's house in Cavendish Square. She +had a party, and I was bound to go by brotherly duty. As luck would +have it, however, I was rewarded for my virtue (and if that's not +luck in this huddle-muddle world, I don't know what is): the Turkish +ambassador dropped in, and presently James came and took me up to him. +My brother-in-law, James Cardew, is always anxious that I should know +the right people. The pasha received me with great kindness. + +"You are the purchaser of Neopalia, aren't you?" he asked, after a +little conversation. "The matter came before me officially." + +"I'm much obliged," said I, "for your ready consent to the transfer." + +"Oh, it's nothing to us. In fact, our tribute, such as it is, will be +safer. Well, I'm sure I hope you'll settle in comfortably." + +"Oh, I shall be all right. I know the Greeks very well, you know; been +there a lot, and, of course, I talk the tongue, because I spent two +years hunting antiquities in the Morea and some of the islands." + +The pasha stroked his beard as he observed in a calm tone: + +"The last time a Stefanopoulos tried to sell Neopalia the people +killed him, and turned the purchaser--he was a Frenchman, a Baron +d'Ezonville--adrift in an open boat, with nothing on but his shirt." + +"Good heavens! Was that recently?" + +"No; two hundred years ago. But it's a conservative part of the world, +you know." And his excellency smiled. + +"They were described to me as good-hearted folk," said I; +"unsophisticated, of course, but good-hearted." + +"They think that the island is theirs, you see," he explained, "and +that the lord has no business to sell it. They may be good-hearted, +Lord Wheatley, but they are tenacious of their rights." + +"But they can't have any rights," I expostulated. + +"None at all," he assented. "But a man is never so tenacious of his +rights as when he hasn't any. However, _autres temps, autres moeurs_. +I don't suppose you'll have any trouble of that kind. Certainly, I +hope not, my dear lord." + +"Surely your government will see to that?" I suggested. + +His excellency looked at me; then, although by nature a grave man, he +gave a low, humorous chuckle, and regarded me with visible amusement. + +"Oh, of course, you can rely on that, Lord Wheatley," said he. + +"That is a diplomatic assurance, your excellency?" I ventured to +suggest, with a smile. + +"It is unofficial," said he, "but as binding as if it were official. +Our governor in that part of the world is a very active man--yes, a +decidedly active man." + +The only result of this conversation was that, when I was buying my +sporting guns in St. James's Street the next day, I purchased a couple +of pairs of revolvers at the same time. It is well to be on the safe +side; and although I attached little importance to the bygone outrage +of which the ambassador spoke, I did not suppose that the police +service would be very efficient. In fact, I thought it prudent to be +ready for any trouble that the Old World notions of the Neopalians +might occasion. But in my heart I meant to be very popular with them; +for I cherished the generous design of paying the whole tribute out of +my own pocket, and of disestablishing in Neopalia what seems to be +the only institution in no danger of such treatment here--the +tax-gatherer. If they understood that intention of mine, they would +hardly be so shortsighted as to set me adrift in my shirt like +a second Baron d'Ezonville, or so unjust as to kill poor old +Stefanopoulos as they had killed his ancestor. Besides, as I comforted +myself by repeating, they were a good-hearted race; unsophisticated, +of course, but thoroughly good-hearted. + +My cousin, young Denny Swinton, was to dine with me that evening at +the Optimum. Denny (which is short for Dennis) was the only member of +the family who thoroughly sympathized with me about Neopalia. He was +wild with interest in the island, and I looked forward to telling him +all I had heard about it. I knew he would listen, for he was to go +with me and help me to take possession. The boy had almost wept on my +neck when I asked him to come; he had just left Woolwich, and was not +to join his regiment for six months. He was thus, as he put it, "at a +loose end," and succeeded in persuading his parents that he ought to +learn modern Greek. General Swinton was rather cold about the project; +he said that Denny had spent ten years on ancient Greek, and knew +nothing about it, and would not probably learn much of the newer sort +in three months; but his wife thought it would be a nice trip for +Denny. Well, it turned out to be a very nice trip for Denny; but if +Mrs. Swinton had known--however, if it comes to that, I might just as +well exclaim, "If I had known, myself!" + +Denny had taken a table next but one to the west end of the room, and +was drumming his fingers impatiently on the cloth when I entered. He +wanted both his dinner and the latest news about Neopalia; so I sat +down and made haste to satisfy him in both respects. Travelling with +equal steps through the two matters, we had reached the first _entrée_ +and the fate of the murdered Stefanopoulos (which Denny, for some +reason, declared was "a lark") when two people came in and sat down at +the table beyond ours and next to the wall, where two chairs had been +tilted up in token of preëngagement. The man--for the pair were man +and woman--was tall and powerfully built; his complexion was dark, and +he had good, regular features; he looked, also, as if he had a bit of +temper somewhere about him. I was conscious of having seen him before, +and suddenly recollected that by a curious chance I had run up against +him twice in St. James's Street that very day. The lady was handsome; +she had an Italian cast of face, and moved with much grace. Her manner +was rather elaborate, and when she spoke to the waiter, I detected a +pronounced foreign accent. Taken altogether, they were a remarkable +couple, and presented a distinguished appearance. I believe I am not +a conceited man, but I could not help wondering whether their thoughts +paid me a similar compliment, for I certainly detected both of them +casting more than one curious glance toward our table; and when the +man whispered once to a waiter, I was sure that I formed the subject +of his question. Perhaps he, also, remembered our two encounters. + +"I wonder if there's any chance of a row?" said Denny, in a tone that +sounded wistful. "Going to take anybody with you, Charlie?" + +"Only Watkins. I must have him; he always knows where everything is; +and I've told Hogvardt, my old dragoman, to meet us in Rhodes. He'll +talk their own language to the beggars, you know." + +"But he's a German, isn't he?" + +"He thinks so," I answered. "He's not certain, you know. Anyhow, he +chatters Greek like a parrot. He's a pretty good man in a row, too. +But there won't be a row, you know." + +"I suppose there won't," admitted Denny, ruefully. + +"For my own part," said I meekly, "as I'm going there to be quiet, I +hope there won't." + +In the interest of conversation I had forgotten our neighbors; but +now, a lull occurring in Denny's questions and surmises, I heard the +lady's voice. She began a sentence--and began it in Greek! That was a +little unexpected; but it was more strange that her companion cut her +short, saying very peremptorily, "Don't talk Greek; talk Italian." +This he said in Italian, and I, though no great hand at that language, +understood so much. Now why shouldn't the lady talk Greek, if Greek +were the language that came naturally to her tongue? It would be +as good a shield against idle listeners as most languages--unless, +indeed, I, who was known to be an amateur of Greece and Greek things, +were looked upon as a possible listener. Recollecting the glances +which I had detected, recollecting again those chance meetings, I +ventured on a covert gaze at the lady. Her handsome face expressed a +mixture of anger, alarm, and entreaty. The man was speaking to her now +in low, urgent tones; he raised his hand once and brought it down +on the table as though to emphasize some declaration--perhaps some +promise--which he was making. She regarded him with half angry, +distrustful eyes. He seemed to repeat his words; and she flung at +him, in a tone that suddenly grew louder, and in words that I could +translate: "Enough! I'll see to that. I shall come too!" + +Her heat stirred no answering fire in him. He dropped his emphatic +manner, shrugged a tolerant "As you will," with eloquent shoulders, +smiled at her, and, reaching across the table, patted her hand. She +held it up before his eyes, and with the other hand pointed at a ring +on her finger. + +"Yes, yes, my dearest," said he; and he was about to say more, when, +glancing round, he caught my gaze retreating in hasty confusion to +my plate. I dared not look up again, but I felt his scowl on me. I +suppose that I deserved punishment for my eavesdropping. + +"And when can we get off, Charlie?" asked Denny, in his clear young +voice. My thoughts had wandered from him, and I paused for a moment, +as a man does when a question takes him unawares. There was silence +at the next table also. The fancy seemed absurd; but it occurred to me +that there also my answer was being waited for. Well, they could know +if they liked; it was no secret. + +"In a fortnight," said I. "We'll travel easily, and get thereon the +seventh of next month; that's the day on which I'm entitled to take +over my kingdom. We shall go to Rhodes. Hogvardt will have bought me a +little yacht, and then--good-by to all this!" And a great longing +for solitude and a natural life came over me as I looked round on the +gilded cornices, the gilded mirrors, the gilded flower-vases, and the +highly gilded company of the Optimum. + +I was roused from my pleasant dream by a high, vivacious voice, which +I knew very well. Looking up, I saw Miss Hipgrave, her mother, and +young Bennett Hamlyn standing before me. I disliked young Hamlyn, but +he was always very civil to me. + +"Why, how early you two have dined!" cried Beatrice. "You're at the +savory, aren't you? We've only just come." + +"Are you going to dine?" I asked, rising. "Take this table; we're just +off." + +"Well, we may as well, mayn't we?" said my _fiancée_. "Sorry you're +going though. Oh, yes, we're going to dine with Mr. Bennett +Hamlyn. That's what you're for, isn't it, Mr. Hamlyn? Why, he's not +listening!" + +He was not, strange to say, listening, although, as a rule, he +listened to Beatrice with infinite attention and the most deferential +of smiles. But just now he was engaged in returning a bow which our +neighbor at the next table had bestowed on him. The lady there had +risen already, and was making for the door. The man lingered and +looked at Hamlyn, seeming inclined to back up his bow with a few +words of greeting. Hamlyn's air was not, however, encouraging, and the +stranger contented himself with a nod and a careless "How are you?" +and with that followed his companion. Hamlyn turned round, conscious +that he had neglected Beatrice's remark, and full of penitence for his +momentary neglect. + +"I beg your pardon," said he, with an apologetic smile. + +"Oh," answered she, "I was only saying that men like you were invented +to give dinners; you're a sort of automatic feeding-machine. You ought +to stand open all day. Really, I often miss you at lunch time." + +"My dear Beatrice!" said Mrs. Kennett Hipgrave, with that peculiar +lift of her brows that meant, "How naughty the dear child is! Oh, but +how clever!" + +"It's all right," said Hamlyn, meekly. "I'm awfully happy to give you +a dinner, anyhow, Miss Beatrice." + +Now, I had nothing to say on this subject, but I thought I would just +make this remark: + +"Miss Hipgrave," said I, "is very fond of a dinner." + +Beatrice laughed. She understood my little correction. + +"He doesn't know any better, do you?" said she, pleasantly, to Hamlyn. +"We shall civilize him in time, though. Then I believe he'll be nicer +than you, Charlie. I really do. You're--" + +"I shall be uncivilized by then," said I. + +"Oh, that wretched island!" cried Beatrice. "You're really going?" + +"Most undoubtedly. By the way, Hamlyn, who's your friend?" + +Surely this was an innocent enough question; but little Hamlyn went +red from the edge of his clipped whisker on the right to the edge of +his mathematically equal whisker on the left. + +"Friend!" said he, in an angry tone. "He's not a friend of mine. I +only met him on the Riviera." + +"That," I admitted, "does not, happily, constitute in itself a +friendship." + +"And he won a hundred louis of me in the train between Cannes and +Monte Carlo." + +"Not bad going, that," observed Denny, in an approving tone. + +"Is he, then, _un grec_?" asked Mrs. Hipgrave, who loves a scrap of +French. + +"In both senses, I believe," answered Hamlyn, viciously. + +"And what's his name?" said I. + +"Really, I don't recollect," said Hamlyn, rather petulantly. + +"It doesn't matter," observed Beatrice, attacking her oysters, which +had now made their appearance. + +"My dear Beatrice," I remonstrated, "you are the most charming +creature in the world, but not the only one. You mean that it doesn't +matter to you." + +"Oh, don't be tiresome. It doesn't matter to you, either, you know. Do +go away, and leave me to dine in peace." + +"Half a minute," said Hamlyn. "I thought I'd got it just now, but it's +gone again. Look here, though; I believe it's one of those long things +that end in 'poulos.'" + +"Oh, it ends in 'poulos,' does it?" said I, in a meditative tone. + +"My dear Charlie," said Beatrice, "I shall end in Bedlam, if you're so +very tedious. What in the world I shall do when I'm married, I don't +know." + +"My dearest!" said Mrs. Hipgrave; and a stage direction might add: +"Business with brows, as before." + +"'Poulos'?" I repeated. + +"Could it be Constantinopoulos?" asked Hamlyn, with a nervous +deference to my Hellenic learning. + +"It might, conceivably," I hazarded, "be Constantine Stefanopoulos." + +"Then," said Hamlyn, "I shouldn't wonder if it was. Anyhow, the less +you see of him, Wheatley, the better. Take my word for that." + +"But," I objected--and I must admit that I have a habit of thinking +that everybody follows my train of thought--"it's such a small place +that, if he goes, I should be almost bound to meet him." + +"What's such a small place?" cried Beatrice, with emphasized despair. + +"Why, Neopalia, of course," said I. + +"Why should anybody except you be so insane as to go there?" she +asked. + +"If he's the man I think, he comes from there," I explained, as I rose +for the last time; for I had been getting up to go, and sitting down +again, several times. + +"Then he'll think twice before he goes back," pronounced Beatrice, +decisively; she was irreconcilable about my poor island. + +Denny and I walked off together. As we went he observed: + +"I suppose that chap's got no end of money?" + +"Stefan--?" I began. + +"No, no. Hang it, you're as bad as Miss Hipgrave says. I mean Bennett +Hamlyn." + +"Oh, yes, absolutely no end to it, I believe." + +Denny looked sagacious. + +"He's very free with his dinners," he observed. + +"Don't let's worry about it," I suggested, taking his arm. I was not +worried about it myself. Indeed, for the moment, my island monopolized +my mind, and my attachment to Beatrice was not of such a romantic +character as to make me ready to be jealous on slight grounds. Mrs. +Hipgrave said the engagement was based on "general suitability." Now +it is difficult to be very passionate over that. + +"If you don't mind, I don't," said Denny, reasonably. + +"That's right. It's only a little way Beatrice--" I stopped abruptly. +We were now on the steps outside the restaurant, and I had just +perceived a scrap of paper lying on the mosaic pavement. I stooped +down and picked it up. It proved to be a fragment torn from the menu +card. I turned it over. + +"Hullo, what's this?" said I, searching for my eyeglass, which was, as +usual, somewhere in the small of my back. + +Denny gave me the glass, and I read what was written on the back. It +was written in Greek, and it ran thus: + +"By way of Rhodes--small yacht there--arrive seventh." + +I turned the piece of paper over in my hand. I drew a conclusion or +two. One was that my tall neighbor was named Stefanopoulos; another, +that he had made good use of his ears--better than I had made of mine; +for a third, I guessed that he would go to Neopalia; for a fourth, I +fancied that Neopalia was the place to which the lady had declared +she would accompany him. Then I fell to wondering why all these things +should be so--why he wished to remember the route of my journey, +the date of my arrival, and the fact that I meant to hire a yacht. +Finally, those two chance encounters, taken with the rest, assumed a +more interesting complexion. + +"When you've done with that bit of paper," observed Denny, in a tone +expressive of exaggerated patience, "we might as well go on, old +fellow." + +"All right. I've done with it--for the present," said I. And I took +the liberty of slipping Mr. Constantine Stefanopoulos's memorandum +into my pocket. + +The general result of the evening was to increase most distinctly my +interest in Neopalia. I went to bed, still thinking of my purchase, +and I recollect that the last thing which came into my head before I +went to sleep was, "What did she mean by pointing to the ring?" + +Well, I found an answer to that later on. + + +CHAPTER II. + +A CONSERVATIVE COUNTRY. + +Until the moment of our parting came, I had no idea that Beatrice +Hipgrave felt my going at all. She was not in the habit of displaying +emotion, and I was much surprised at the reluctance with which she +separated from me. So far, however, was she from reproaching me, +that she took all the blame upon herself, saying that if she had been +kinder and nicer to me, I should never have thought about my island. +In this she was quite wrong; but when I told her so, and assured her +that I had no fault to find with her behavior, I was met by an almost +passionate assertion of her unworthiness, and an entreaty that I +should not spend on her a love that she did not deserve. Her abasement +and penitence compelled me to show, and indeed to feel, a good deal +of tenderness for her. She was pathetic and pretty in her unusual +earnestness and unexplained distress. I went the length of offering +to put off my expedition until after our wedding; and, although she +besought me to do nothing of the kind, I believe we might in the end +have arranged matters on this footing had we been left to ourselves. +But Mrs. Hipgrave saw fit to intrude on our interview at this point, +and she at once pooh-poohed the notion, declaring that I should be +better out of the way for a few months. Beatrice did not resist her +mother's conclusion; but when we were alone again, she became very +agitated, begging me always to think well of her, and asking if I were +really attached to her. I did not understand this mood, which was very +unlike her usual manner, but I responded with a hearty and warm avowal +of confidence in her; and I met her questions as to my own feelings +by pledging my word very solemnly that absence should, so far as I was +concerned, make no difference, and that she might rely implicitly on +my faithful affection. This assurance seemed to give her very little +comfort, although I repeated it more than once; and when I left her, I +was in a state of some perplexity, for I could not follow the bent +of her thoughts, nor appreciate the feelings that moved her. I was, +however, considerably touched, and upbraided myself for not having +hitherto done justice to the depth and sincerity of nature which +underlay her external frivolity. I expressed this self-condemnation to +Denny Swinton, but he met it very coldly, and would not be drawn +into any discussion of the subject. Denny was not wont to conceal +his opinions, and had never pretended to be enthusiastic about my +engagement. This attitude of his had not troubled me before, but I was +annoyed at it now, and I retaliated by asseverating my affection for +Beatrice in terms of even exaggerated emphasis, and her's for me with +no less vehemence. + +These troubles and perplexities vanished before the zest and interest +which our preparations and start excited. Denny and I were like a pair +of schoolboys off for a holiday, and spent hours in forecasting what +we should do and how we should fare in the island. These speculations +were extremely amusing, but in the long run they were proved to be, +one and all, wide of the mark. Had I known Neopalia then as well as +I came to know it afterward, I should have recognized the futility of +attempting to prophesy what would happen there. As it was, we spun our +cobwebs merrily all the way to Rhodes, where we arrived without event +and without accident. There we picked up Hogvardt, and embarked in the +smart little steam yacht which he had hired for me. A day or two was +spent in arranging our stores and buying what more we wanted, for we +could not expect to be able to procure anything in Neopalia. I was +rather surprised to find no letter for me from the old lord, but I had +no thought of waiting for a formal invitation, and pressed on the hour +of departure as much as I could. Here, also, I saw the first of my new +subjects, Hogvardt having engaged a couple of men who had come to him, +saying they were from Neopalia and were anxious to work their passage +back. I was delighted to have them, and fell at once to studying them +with immense attention. They were fine, tall, capable-looking fellows, +and they, too, with ourselves, made a crew more than large enough for +our little boat; for both Denny and I would make ourselves useful on +board, and Hogvardt could do something of everything on land or water, +whilst Watkins acted as cook and steward. The Neopalians were, as they +stated, in answer to my questions, brothers; their names were Spiro +and Demetri, and they informed us that their family had served the +lords of Neopalia for many generations. Hearing this, I was less +inclined to resent the undeniable reserve and even surliness with +which they met my advances. I made allowance for their hereditary +attachment to the outgoing family; and their natural want of +cordiality toward the intruder did not prevent me from plying them +with many questions concerning my predecessors on the throne of the +island. My perseverance was ill rewarded, but I succeeded in learning +that the only member of the family on the island, besides the old +lord, was a girl whom they called "the Lady Euphrosyne," the daughter +of the lord's brother, who was dead. Next I asked after my friend of +the Optimum restaurant, Constantine. He was this lady's cousin once +or twice removed--I did not make out the exact degree of kinship--but +Demetri hastened to inform me that he came very seldom to the island, +and had not been there for two years. + +"And he is not expected there now?" I asked. + +"He was not when we left, my lord," answered Demetri, and it seemed +to me that he threw an inquiring glance at his brother, who added +hastily: + +"What should we poor men know of the Lord Constantine's doings?" + +"Do you know where he is now?" I asked. + +"No, my lord," they answered together, and with great emphasis. + +I cannot deny that something struck me as peculiar in their manner, +but when I mentioned my impression to Denny, he scoffed at me. + +"You've been reading old Byron again," he said, scornfully. "Do you +think they're corsairs?" + +Well, a man is not a fool simply because he reads Byron, and I +maintained my opinion that the brothers were embarrassed at my +questions. Moreover, I caught Spiro, the more truculent-looking of the +pair, scowling at me more than once when he did not know I had my eye +on him. + +These little mysteries, however, did nothing but add sauce to my +delight as we sprang over the blue waters; and my joy was complete +when, on the morning of the day I had appointed, the seventh of May, +Denny cried "Land," and, looking over the starboard bow, I saw the +cloud on the sea that was Neopalia. Day came bright and glorious, and +as we drew nearer to our enchanted isle, we distinguished its features +and conformation. The coast was rocky, save where a small harbor +opened to the sea; and the rocks ran up from the coast, rising higher +and higher, till they culminated in a quite respectable peak in the +centre. The telescope showed cultivated ground and vineyards, mingled +with woods, on the slopes of the mountain; and about half way up, +sheltered on three sides, backed by thick woods, and commanding a +splendid sea view, stood an old, gray, battlemented house. + +"There's my house!" I cried, in natural exultation, pointing with my +finger. It was a moment in my life--a moment to mark. + +"Hurrah!" cried Denny, throwing up his hat in sympathy. + +Demetri was standing near, and met this ebullition with a grim smile. + +"I hope my lord will find the house comfortable," said he. + +"We shall soon make it comfortable," said Hogvardt. "I dare say it's +half a ruin now." + +"It is good enough now for a Stefanopoulos," said the fellow, with +a surly frown. The inference we were meant to draw was plain even to +incivility. + +At five o'clock in the evening we entered the harbor of Neopalia and +brought up alongside a rather crazy wooden jetty that ran some +fifty feet out from the shore. Our arrival appeared to create great +excitement. Men, women, and children came running down the narrow, +steep street which climbed up the hill from the harbor. We heard +shrill cries, and a hundred fingers were pointed at us. We landed; +nobody came forward to greet us. I looked round, and saw no one who +could be the old lord; but I perceived a stout man who wore an air of +importance, and, walking up to him, I asked him very politely if he +would be so good as to direct me to the inn, for I had discovered from +Demetri that there was a modest house where we could lodge that night, +and I was too much in love with my island to think of sleeping on +board the yacht. The stout man looked at Denny and me; then he looked +at Demetri and Spiro, who stood near us, smiling their usual grim +smile. And he answered my question by another, a rather abrupt one: +"What do you want, sir?" And he slightly lifted his tasselled cap and +replaced it on his head. + +"I want to know the way to the inn," I answered. + +"You have come to visit Neopalia?" he asked. + +A number of people had gathered round us now, and all fixed their eyes +on my face. + +"Oh," I said carelessly, "I am the purchaser of the island, you know. +I have come to take possession." + +Nobody spoke. Perfect silence reigned for half a minute. + +"I hope we shall get on well together," I said, with my pleasantest +smile. + +Still no answer came. The people round still stared. + +At last the stout man, altogether ignoring my friendly advances, said, +curtly: + +"I keep the inn. Come. I will take you to it." + +He turned and led the way up the street. We followed, the people +making a lane for us, and still regarding us with stony stares. Denny +gave expression to my feelings, as well as his own: + +"It can hardly be described as an ovation," he observed. + +"Surly brutes," muttered Hogvardt. + +"It is not the way to receive his lordship," agreed Watkins, more in +sorrow than in anger. Watkins had very high ideas of the deference due +to "his lordship." + +The fat innkeeper walked ahead. I quickened my pace and overtook him. + +"The people do not seem very pleased to see me," I remarked. + +He shook his head, but made no answer. Then he stopped before a +substantial house. We followed him in, and he led us up-stairs to a +large room. It overlooked the street, but, somewhat to my surprise, +the windows were heavily barred. The door also was massive, and had +large bolts inside and out. + +"You take good care of your houses, my friend," said Denny, with a +laugh. + +"We like to keep what we have, in Neopalia," said he. + +I asked him if he would provide us with a meal, and, assenting +gruffly, he left us alone. The food was some time in coming, and we +stood at the window, peering through our prison bars. Our high spirits +were dashed by the unfriendly reception; my island should have been +more gracious, it was so beautiful. + +"However, it's a better welcome than we should have got two hundred +years ago," I said, with a laugh, trying to make the best of the +matter. + +Dinner, which the landlord brought in himself, cheered us again, and +we lingered over it till dusk began to fall, discussing whether I +ought to visit the lord, or whether, seeing that he had not come to +receive me, my dignity did not demand that I should await his visit; +and it was on this latter course that we finally decided. + +"But he'll hardly come to-night," said Denny, jumping up. "I wonder if +there are any decent beds here!" + +Hogvardt and Watkins had, by my directions, sat down with us; and the +former was now smoking his pipe at the window, while Watkins was busy +overhauling our luggage. We had brought light bags, the rods, guns, +and other smaller articles. The rest was in the yacht. Hearing beds +mentioned, Watkins shook his head in dismal presage, saying: + +"We had better sleep on board, my lord." + +"Not I! What, leave the island, now we've got here? No, Watkins!" + +"Very good, my lord," said Watkins, impassively. + +A sudden call came from Hogvardt, and I joined him at the window. + +The scene outside was indeed remarkable. In the narrow, paved street, +gloomy now in the failing light; there must have been fifty or sixty +men standing in a circle, surrounded by an outer fringe of women +and children; and in the centre stood our landlord, his burly figure +swaying to and fro, as he poured out a low-voiced but vehement +harangue. Sometimes he pointed toward us, oftener along the ascending +road that led to the interior. I could not hear a word he said, but +presently all his auditors raised their hands toward heaven. I saw +that the hands held, some guns, some clubs, some knives; and all the +men cried with furious energy: "_Nai, nai!_" ("Yes, yes!") And then +the whole body--and the greater part of the grown men on the island +must have been present--started off, in compact array, up the road, +the innkeeper at their head. By his side walked another man, whom I +had not noticed before, and who wore an ordinary suit of tweeds, but +carried himself with an assumption of much dignity. His face I did not +see. + +"Well, what's the meaning of that?" I exclaimed, looking down on the +street, empty now, save for groups of white-clothed women, who talked +eagerly to one another, gesticulating, and pointing now toward our +inn, now toward where the men had gone. + +"Perhaps it's their parliament," suggested Denny. "Or perhaps they've +repented of their rudeness, and are going to erect a triumphal arch." + +These conjectures being obviously ironical, did not assist the matter, +although they amused their author. + +"Anyhow," said I, "I should like to investigate the thing. Suppose we +go for a stroll?" + +The proposal was accepted at once. We put on our hats, took sticks, +and prepared to go. Then I glanced at the luggage. + +"Since I was so foolish as to waste my money on revolvers," said I, +with an inquiring glance at Hogvardt. + +"The evening air will not hurt them," said he; and we each stowed +a revolver in our pockets. We felt, I think, rather ashamed of our +timidity, but the Neopalians certainly looked rough customers. Then I +turned the handle of the door. The door did not open. I pulled hard at +it. Then I looked at my companions. + +"Queer," said Denny, and he began to whistle. + +Hogvardt got the little lantern, which he always had handy, and +carefully inspected the door. + +"Locked," he announced, "and bolted top and bottom. A solid door, +too!" and he struck it with his hand. Then he crossed to the window, +and looked at the bolts; and finally he said to me: "I don't think we +can have our walk, my lord." + +Well, I burst out laughing. The thing was too absurd. Under cover of +our animated talk the landlord must have bolted us in. The bars made +the window no use. A skilled burglar might have beaten those bolts, +and a battering-ram would, no doubt, have smashed the door; we had +neither burglar nor ram. + +"We are caught, my boy," said Denny. "Nicely caught. But what's the +game?" + +I had asked myself that question already, but had found no answer. To +tell the truth, I was wondering whether Neopalia was going to turn out +as conservative a country as the Turkish ambassador had hinted. It was +Watkins who suggested an answer. + +"I imagine, my lord," said he, "that the natives [Watkins always +called the Neopalians "natives"] have gone to speak to the gentleman +who sold the island to your lordship." + +"Gad!" said Denny, "I hope it will be a pleasant interview." + +Hogvardt's broad, good-humored face had assumed an anxious look. He +knew something about the people of these islands; so did I. + +"Trouble, is it?" I asked him. + +"I'm afraid so," he answered; and then we turned to the window +again, except Denny, who wasted some energy and made a useless din by +battering at the door, till we beseeched him to let it alone. + +There we sat for nearly two hours. Darkness fell, the women had ceased +their gossiping, but still stood about the street, and in the doorways +of the house. + +It was nine o'clock before matters showed any progress. Then came +shouts from the road above us, the flash of torches, the tread of +men's feet in a quick, triumphant march. Then the stalwart figures of +the picturesque fellows, with their white kilts gleaming through the +darkness, came again into sight, seeming wilder and more imposing +in the alternating glare and gloom of the torches and the deepening +night. The man in tweeds was no longer visible. Our innkeeper +was alone in front. And all, as they marched, sang loudly a rude, +barbarous sort of chant, repeating it again and again; and the women +and children crowded out to meet the men, catching up the refrain in +shrill voices, till the whole air seemed full of it. And so martial +and inspiring was the rude tune that our feet began to beat in time +with it, and I felt the blood quicken in my veins. I have tried to +put the words of it into English, in a shape as rough, I fear, as the +rough original. Here it is: + + "Ours is the land! + Death to the hand + That filches the land! + Dead is that hand, + Ours is the land! + Forever we hold it. + Dead's he that sold it! + Ours is the land. + Dead is the hand!" + +Again and again they hurled forth the defiant words, until they +stopped at last opposite the inn, with one final, long-drawn shout of +savage triumph. + +"Well, this is a go!" said Denny, drawing a long breath. "What are the +beggars up to?" + +"What have they been up to?" I asked; for I doubted not that the song +we had heard had been chanted over a dead Stefanopoulos two hundred +years before. + +At this age of the world the idea seemed absurd, preposterous, +horrible. But there was no law nearer than Rhodes, and there only +Turk's law. The only law here was the law of the Stefanopouloi, and if +that law lost its force by the crime of the hand that should wield it, +why, strange things might happen even to-day in Neopalia. And we were +caught like rats in a trap in the inn! + +"I do not see," remarked old Hogvardt, laying a hand on my shoulders, +"any harm in loading our revolvers, my lord." + +I did not see any harm in it either, and we all followed Hogvardt's +advice, and also filled our pockets with cartridges. I was +determined--I think we were all determined--not to be bullied by these +islanders and their skull-and-crossbones ditty. + +A quarter of an hour passed, and there came a knock at the door, while +the bolts were shot back. + +"I shall go out," said I, springing to my feet. + +The door opened, and the face of a lad appeared. + +"Vlacho, the innkeeper, bids you descend," said he; and then, catching +sight, perhaps, of our revolvers, he turned and ran down-stairs again +at his best speed. Following him, we came to the door of the inn. It +was ringed round with men, and directly opposite to us stood Vlacho. +When he saw me, he commanded silence with his hand, and addressed me +in the following surprising style: + +"The Lady Euphrosyne, of her grace, bids you depart in peace. Go, +then, to your boat, and depart, thanking God for his mercy." + +"Wait a bit, my man," said I. "Where is the lord of the island?" + +"Did you not know that he died a week ago?" asked Vlacho, with +apparent surprise. + +"Died!" we exclaimed, one and all. + +"Yes, sir. The Lady Euphrosyne, lady of Neopalia, bids you go." + +"What did he die of?" + +"Of a fever," said Vlacho, gravely. And several of the men round him +nodded their heads, and murmured, in no less grave assent: "Yes, of a +fever." + +"I am very sorry for it," said I. "But as he sold the island to me +before he died, I don't see what the lady, with all respect to her, +has got to do with it. Nor do I know what this rabble is doing about +the door. Send them away." + +This attempt at hauteur was most decidedly thrown away. Vlacho seemed +not to hear what I said. He pointed with his finger toward the harbor. + +"There lies your boat. Demetri and Spiro cannot go with you, but you +will be able to manage her yourselves. Listen, now! Till six in the +morning you are free to go. If you are found in Neopalia one minute +after, you will never go. Think and be wise." And he and all the rest +of them, as though one spring moved them, wheeled round, and marched +off up the hill again, breaking out into the old chant when they had +gone about a hundred yards; and we were left alone in the doorway of +the inn, looking, I must admit, rather blank. + +Up-stairs again we went, and I sat down by the window and looked +out on the night. It was very dark, and seemed darker now that the +gleaming torches were gone. Not a soul was to be seen. The islanders, +having put matters on a clear footing, were gone to bed. I sat +thinking. Presently Denny came to me, and put his hand on my shoulder. + +"Going to cave in, Charlie?" he asked. + +"My dear Denny," said I, "I wish you were at home with your mother." + +He smiled and repeated, "Going to cave in, old chap?" + +"No, by Jove, I'm not!" cried I, leaping up. "They've had my money, +and I'm going to have the island." + +"Take the yacht, my lord," counselled Hogvardt, "and come back with +enough force from Rhodes." + +Well, that was sense; my impulse was nonsense. We four could not +conquer the island. I swallowed my pride. + +"So be it," said I. "But, look here; it's only just twelve. We might +have a look round before we go. I want to see the place, you know." +For I was very sorely vexed at being turned out of my island. + +Hogvardt grumbled a little at this, but here I overruled him. We took +our revolvers again, left the inn, and struck straight up the road. +For nearly a mile we mounted, the way becoming steeper with every +step. Then there was a sudden turn off the main road. + +"That will lead to the house," said Hogvardt, who had studied the map +of Neopalia very carefully. + +"Then we'll have a look at the house. Show us a light, Hogvardt. It's +precious dark." + +Hogvardt opened his lantern, and cast its light in the way. But +suddenly he extinguished it again, and drew us close in to the rocks +that edged the road. We saw coming toward us in the darkness two +figures. They rode small horses. Their faces could not be seen; but as +they passed our silent, motionless forms, one said in a clear, sweet, +girlish voice: + +"Surely they will go?" + +"Ay, they'll go, or pay the penalty," said the other voice, and at +the sound of it I started. For it was the voice of my neighbor in the +restaurant, Constantine Stefanopoulos. + +"I shall be near at hand, sleeping in the town," said the girl's +voice, "and the people will listen to me." + +"The people will kill them, if they do not go," we heard Constantine +answer, in tones that witnessed no great horror at the idea. Then the +couple disappeared in the darkness. + +"On to the house!" I cried in sudden excitement. For I was angry now, +angry at the utter, humbling scorn with which they treated me. + +Another ten minutes' groping brought us in front of the old gray house +which we had seen from the sea. We walked boldly up to it. The door +stood open. We went in, and found ourselves in a large hall. The +wooden floor was carpeted, here and there, with mats and skins. A +long table ran down the middle. The walls were decorated with mediæval +armor and weapons. The windows were but narrow slits, the walls +massive and deep. The door was a ponderous, iron-bound affair, that +shamed even the stout doors of our inn. I called loudly, "Is any one +here?" Nobody answered. The servants must have been drawn off to the +town by the excitement of the procession and the singing; or perhaps +there were no servants. I could not tell. I sat down in a large +armchair by the table. I enjoyed the sense of proprietorship. Denny +sat on the table by me, dangling his legs. For a long while none of us +spoke. Then I exclaimed, suddenly: + +"By heaven! why shouldn't we see it through?" And I rose and put my +hands against the massive door, and closed and bolted it, saying, "Let +them open that at six o'clock in the morning." + +"Hurrah!" cried Denny, leaping down from his table, on fire with +excitement in a moment. + +I faced Hogvardt. He shook his head, but he smiled. Watkins stood by, +with his usual imperturbability. He wanted to know what his lordship +decided, that was all; and when I said nothing more, he asked: + +"Then your lordship will sleep here to-night?" + +"I'll stay here to-night, anyhow, Watkins," said I. "I'm not going to +be driven out of my own island by anybody!" + +And I brought my fist down with a crash on the table. And then, to our +amazement, we heard--from somewhere in the dark recesses of the hall, +where the faint light of Hogvardt's lantern did not reach--a low, but +distinct, groan, as of some one in pain. Watkins shuddered; Hogvardt +looked rather uncomfortable; Denny and I listened eagerly. Again the +groan came. I seized the lantern from Hogvardt's hand, and rushed in +the direction of the sound. There, in the corner of the hall, on +a couch, covered with a rug, lay an old man in an uneasy attitude, +groaning now and then, and turning restlessly. And by his side sat an +old serving-woman in weary, heavy slumber. In a moment I guessed the +truth--part of the truth. + +"He's not dead of that fever yet," said I. + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE FEVER OF NEOPALIA. + +I looked for a moment on the old man's pale, clean-cut, aristocratic +face; then I shook his attendant vigorously by the arm. She awoke with +a start. + +"What does this mean?" I demanded. "Who is he?" + +"Heaven help us, who are you?" she cried, leaping up in alarm. Indeed, +we four, with our eager, fierce faces, may have looked disquieting +enough. + +"I am Lord Wheatley; these are my friends," I answered in brisk, sharp +tones. + +"What, it is you, then--?" A wondering gaze ended her question. + +"Yes, yes, it is I. I have bought the island. We came out for a walk +and--" + +"But he will kill you, if he finds you here." + +"He? Who?" + +"Ah, pardon, my lord--they will kill you, they--the people--the men of +the island." + +I gazed at her sternly. She shrank back in confusion. And I spoke at a +venture, yet in a well-grounded hazard: + +"You mean that Constantine Stefanopoulos will kill me?" + +"Ah, hush!" she cried. "He may be here! He may be anywhere!" + +"He may thank his stars he's not here," said I grimly, for my blood +was up. "Attend, woman! Who is this?" + +"It is the lord of the island, my lord," she answered. "Alas, and +he is wounded, I fear, to death. And yet I fell asleep. But I was so +weary." + +"Wounded--by whom?" + +Her face suddenly became vacant and expressionless. + +"I do not know, my lord. It happened in the crowd. It was a mistake. +My dear lord had yielded what they asked. Yet some one--no, by heaven, +my lord, I do not know whom--stabbed him! And he cannot live." + +"Tell me the whole thing," I commanded. + +"They came up here, my lord, all of them--Vlacho and all, and with +them my Lord Constantine. And the Lady Euphrosyne was away; she is +often away, down on the rocks by the sea, watching the waves. And they +came and said that a man had landed who claimed our island as his--a +man of your name, my lord. And when my dear lord said he had sold the +island to save the honor of his house and race, they were furious, and +Vlacho raised the death chant that One-eyed Alexander the Bard wrote +on the death of Stefan Stefanopoulos long ago. And they came near with +knives, demanding that my dear lord should send away the stranger; for +the men of Neopalia were not to be bought and sold like bullocks or +like pigs. At first my lord would not yield; and they swore they would +kill the stranger and my lord also. Then they pressed closer. Vlacho +was hard on him with drawn knife, and the Lord Constantine stood by +him, praying him to yield, and Constantine drew his own knife, saying +to Vlacho that he must fight him also before he killed the old lord. +But at that Vlacho smiled--and then--and then--ah, my dear lord!" + +For a moment her voice broke, and sobs supplanted words. But she drew +herself up, and, after a glance at the old man, whom her vehement +speech had not availed to waken, she went on: + +"And then those behind cried out that there was enough talk. Would he +yield or would he die? And they rushed forward, pressing the nearest +against him. And he, an old man, frail and feeble--yet once he was +as brave a man as any--cried, in his weak tones: 'Enough, friends, I +yield; I--' And they fell back. But my lord stood for an instant; then +he set his hand to his side, and swayed and tottered and fell, and the +blood ran from his side. And the Lord Constantine fell on his knees +beside him, crying: 'Who stabbed him?' And Vlacho smiled grimly, and +the others looked at one another. And I, who had run out from the +doorway whence I had seen it all, knelt by my lord and stanched the +blood. Then Vlacho said, fixing his eyes straight and keen on the Lord +Constantine, 'It was not I, my lord,' 'Nor I, by heaven!' cried the +Lord Constantine; and he rose to his feet, demanding: 'Who struck the +blow?' But none answered, and he went on: 'Nay, if it were in error, +if it were because he would not yield, speak! There shall be pardon,' +But Vlacho, hearing this, turned himself round and faced them all, +saying: 'Did he not sell us like oxen and like pigs?' and he broke +into the death chant, and they all raised the chant, none caring any +more who had struck the blow. And Lord Constantine--" The impetuous +flow of the old woman's story was frozen to sudden silence. + +"Well, and Lord Constantine?" said I, in low, stern tones, that +quivered with excitement; and I felt Denny's hand, that was on my arm, +jump up and down. "And Constantine, woman?" + +"Nay, he did nothing," said she. "He talked with Vlacho a while, and +then they went away, and he bade me tend my lord, and went himself +to seek the Lady Euphrosyne. And presently he came back with her. Her +eyes were red, and she wept afresh when she saw my poor lord, for she +loved him. And she sat by him till Constantine came and told her that +you would not go, and that you and your friends would be killed if +you did not go. And then, weeping to leave my lord, she went, praying +heaven she might find him alive when she returned. 'I must go,' she +said to me; 'for though it is a shameful thing that the island should +have been sold, yet these men must be persuaded to go away and not +meet death. Kiss him for me if he awakes.' Thus she went, and left +me with my lord, and I fear he will die." And she ended in a burst of +sobbing. + +For a moment there was silence. Then I said again: + +"Who struck the blow, woman? Who struck the blow?" + +She shrank from me as though I had struck her. "I do not know, I do +not know," she moaned. + +Then a thing happened that seemed strange and awful in the gloomy, +dark hall. For the stricken man opened his eyes, his lips moved, and +he groaned: "Constantine! You, Constantine!" and the old woman's eyes +met mine for a moment, and fell to the ground again. + +"Why--why, Constantine?" moaned the wounded man. "I had yielded--I had +yielded, Constantine. I would have sent them--" His words ceased, his +eyes closed, his lips met again, but met only to part. A moment later +his jaw dropped. The old lord of Neopalia was dead. + +Then I, carried away by anger and by hatred of the man who, for a +reason I did not yet understand, had struck so foul a blow against his +kinsman and an old man, did a thing so rash that it seems to me now, +when I consider it in the cold light of the past, a mad deed. Yet then +I could do nothing else; and Denny's face, aye, and the eyes of the +others, too, told me that they were with me. + +"Compose this old man's body," I said, "and we will watch it. And do +you go and tell this Constantine Stefanopoulos that I know his crime, +that I know who struck that blow, and that what I know all men shall +know, and that I will not rest day nor night until he has paid the +penalty of this murder. And tell him I swore this on the honor of an +English gentleman." + +"And say I swore it, too!" cried Denny; and Hogvardt and Watkins, not +making bold to speak, ranged up close to me; and I knew that they also +meant what I meant. + +The old woman looked at me with searching eyes. + +"You are a bold man, my lord," said she. + +"I see nothing to be afraid of up to now," said I. "Such courage as +is needed to tell a scoundrel what I think of him, I believe I can +claim." + +"But he will never let you go now. You would go to Rhodes, and tell +his--tell what you say of him." + +"Yes, and farther than Rhodes, if need be. He shall die for it as sure +as I live." + +A thousand men might have tried in vain to persuade me; the treachery +of Constantine had fired my heart and driven out all opposing motives. + +"Do as I bid you," said I, sternly, "and waste no time on it. We will +watch here by the old man till you return." + +"My lord," she replied, "you run on your own death. And you are young, +and the young man by you is yet younger." + +"We are not dead yet," said Denny; and I had never seen him look as +he did then; for the gayety was out of his face, and he spoke from +between stern-set lips. + +She raised her hands toward heaven--whether in prayer or in +lamentation, I do not know. We turned away and left her to her sad +offices, and going back to our places, waited there till dawn began to +break, and from the narrow windows we saw the gray crests of the waves +dancing and frolicking in the early dawn. As I watched them the old +woman was by my elbow. + +"It is done, my lord," said she. "Are you still of the same mind?" + +"Still of the same," said I. + +"It is death--death for you all," she said; and without more she went +to the great door. Hogvardt opened it for her, and she walked away +down the road, between the high rocks that bounded the path on either +side. Then we went and carried the old man to a room that opened off +the hall, and, returning, stood in the doorway, cooling our brows in +the fresh, early air. And while we stood, Hogvardt said suddenly: + +"It is five o'clock." + +"Then we have only an hour to live," said I, smiling, "if we do not +make for the yacht." + +"You're not going back to the yacht, my lord?" + +"I'm puzzled," I admitted. "If we go this ruffian will escape. And if +we don't go--" + +"Why, we," Hogvardt ended for me, "may not escape." + +I saw that Hogvardt's sense of responsibility was heavy; he always +regarded himself as the shepherd, his employers as the sheep. I +believe this attitude of his confirmed my destiny, for I said, without +hesitation: + +"Oh, we'll chance that. When they know what a villain the fellow is, +they'll turn against him. Besides, we said we'd wait here." + +Denny seized on my last words with alacrity. When you are determined +to do a rash thing, there is great comfort in feeling that you are +already committed to it by some previous act or promise. + +"So we did," he cried. "Then that settles it, Hogvardt." + +"His lordship certainly expressed that intention," observed Watkins, +appearing at this moment with a large loaf of bread and a great +pitcher of milk. I eyed these viands. + +"I bought the house and its contents," said I. "Come along." + +Watkins's further researches produced a large chunk of native cheese; +and when he had set this down, he remarked: + +"In a pen behind the house, close to the kitchen windows, there are +two goats; and your lordship sees there, on the right of the front +door, two cows tethered." + +I began to laugh, Watkins was so wise and solemn. + +"We can stand a siege, you mean?" I asked. "Well, I hope it won't come +to that." + +Hogvardt rose, and began to move round the hall, examining the weapons +that decorated the walls. From time to time he grunted disapprovingly; +the guns were useless, rusted, out of date, and there was no +ammunition for them. But when he had almost completed his circuit, +he gave an exclamation of satisfaction, and came to me, holding an +excellent modern rifle and a large cartridge case. + +"See!" he grunted, in huge satisfaction. "C.S. on the stock, I suspect +you can guess whose it is, my lord." + +"This is very thoughtful of Constantine," observed Denny, who was +employing himself in cutting imaginary lemons in two with a fine +damascened scimiter that he had taken from the wall. + +"As for the cows," said I, "perhaps they will carry them off." + +"I think not," said Hogvardt, taking an aim with the rifle through the +window. + +I looked at my watch. It was five minutes past six. + +"Well, we can't go now," said I. "It's settled. What a comfort!" I +wonder if I had ever in my heart meant to go! + +The next hour passed very quietly. We sat smoking pipes and cigars, +and talking in subdued tones. The recollection of the dead man in +the adjoining room sobered the excitement to which our position would +otherwise have given occasion. Indeed, I suppose that I, at least, who +had led the rest into this _imbroglio_ through my whim, should have +been utterly overwhelmed by the burden on me. But I was not. Perhaps +Hogvardt's assumption of responsibility relieved me; perhaps I was too +full of anger against Constantine to think of the risks we ourselves +ran; and I was more than half persuaded that the revelation of what he +had done would rob him of his power to hurt us. Moreover, if I might +judge from the words I heard on the road, we had on our side an ally +of uncertain, but probably considerable, power, in the sweet-voiced +girl whom the old woman called the Lady Euphrosyne; and she would not +support her uncle's murderer even though he were her cousin. + +Presently Watkins carried me off to view his pen of goats, and, having +passed through the lofty, flagged kitchen, I found myself in a sort of +compound formed by the rocks. The ground had been levelled for a few +yards, and the cliffs rose straight to the height of ten or twelve +feet; from the top of this artificial bank they ran again, in wooded +slopes, toward the peak of the mountain. I followed their course +with my eye, and five hundred or more feet above us, just beneath the +summit, I perceived a little wooden _chalet_ or bungalow. Blue smoke +issued from the chimneys, and, even while we looked, a figure came out +of the door and stood still in front of it, apparently looking down +toward the house. + +"It's a woman," I pronounced. + +"Yes, my lord. A peasant's wife, I suppose." + +"I dare say," said I. But I soon doubted Watkins's opinion--in the +first place, because the woman's dress did not look like that of +a peasant woman; and, secondly, because she went into the house, +appeared again, and levelled at us what was, if I mistook not, a large +pair of binocular glasses. Now, such things were not likely to be +in the possession of the peasants of Neopalia. Then she suddenly +retreated, and through the silence of those still slopes we heard the +door of the cottage closed with violence. + +"She doesn't seem to like the look of us," said I. + +"Possibly," suggested Watkins, with deference, "she did not expect to +see your lordship here." + +"I should think that's very likely, Watkins," said I. + +I was recalled from the survey of my new domains--my satisfaction in +the thought that they were mine survived all the disturbing features +of the situation--by a call from Denny. In response to it I hurried +back to the hall, and found him at the window, with Constantine's +rifle rested on the sill. + +"I could pick him off pat," said Denny, laughingly, and he pointed to +a figure which was approaching the house. It was a man riding a stout +pony. When he came within about two hundred yards of the house he +stopped, took a leisurely look, and then waved a white handkerchief. + +"The laws of war must be observed," said I, smiling. "This is a +flag of truce." And I opened the door, stepped out, and waved my +handkerchief in return. The man, reassured, began to mop his brow with +the flag of truce, and put his pony to a trot. I now perceived him to +be the innkeeper Vlacho, and a moment later he reined up beside me, +giving an angry jerk at his pony's bridle. + +"I have searched the island for you," he cried. "I am weary and hot. +How came you here?" + +I explained to him briefly how I had chanced to take possession of my +house, and added, significantly: + +"But has no message come to you from me?" + +He smiled with equal meaning as he answered: + +"No. An old woman came to speak to a gentleman who is in the village." + +"Yes, to Constantine Stefanopoulos," said I with a nod. + +"Well, then, if you will, to the Lord Constantine," he admitted, with +a careless shrug; "but her message was for his ear only. He took her +aside, and they talked alone." + +"You know what she said, though." + +"That is between my Lord Constantine and me." + +"And the young lady knows it, I hope--the Lady Euphrosyne?" + +Vlacho smiled broadly. + +"We could not distress her with such a silly tale," he answered; and +he leant down toward me. "Nobody has heard the message but the lord +and one man he told it to; and nobody will. If that old woman spoke, +she--well, she knows, and will not speak." + +"And you back up this murderer?" I cried. + +"Murderer?" he repeated, questioningly. "Indeed, sir, it was an +accident, done in hot blood. It was the old man's fault, because he +tried to sell the island." + +"He did sell the island," I corrected. "And a good many other people +will hear of what happened to him." + +He looked at me again, smiling. + +"If you shouted in the hearing of every man in Neopalia, what would +they do?" he asked, scornfully. + +"Well, I should hope," I returned, "that they'd hang Constantine to +the tallest tree you've got here." + +"They would do this," he said, with a nod; and he began to sing softly +the chant I had heard the night before. + +I was disgusted at his savagery, but I said coolly: + +"And the lady?" + +"The lady believes what she is told, and will do as her cousin bids +her. Is she not his affianced wife?" + +"The deuce she is!" I cried in amazement, fixing a keen scrutiny on +Vlacho's face. The face told me nothing. + +"Certainly," he said, gently. "And they will rule the island +together." + +"Will they, though?" said I. I was becoming rather annoyed. "There are +one or two obstacles in the way of that. First, it's my island." + +He shrugged his shoulders again. "That," he seemed to say, "is not +worth answering." But I had a second shot in the locker for him, and +I let him have it for what it was worth. I knew it might be worth +nothing, but I tried it. + +"And secondly," I observed, "how many wives does Constantine propose +to have?" + +A hit! A hit! A palpable hit! I could have sung in glee. The fellow +was dumb-founded. He turned red, bit his lip, scowled fiercely. + +"What do you mean?" he blurted out, with an attempt at blustering +defiance. + +"Never mind what I mean. Something, perhaps, that the Lady Euphrosyne +might care to know. And now, my man, what do you want of me?" + +He recovered his composure, and stated his errand with his old, cool +assurance; but the cloud of vexation still hung heavy on his brow. + +"On behalf of the lady of the island--" he began. + +"Or shall we say her cousin?" I interrupted. + +"Which you will," he answered, as though it were not worth while to +wear the mask any longer. "On behalf, then, of my Lord Constantine, I +am to offer you safe passage to your boat, and a return of the money +you have paid." + +"How's he going to pay that?" + +"He will pay it in a year, and give you security meanwhile." + +"And the condition is that I give up the island?" I asked; and I began +to think that perhaps I owed it to my companions to acquiesce in this +proposal, however distasteful it might be to me. + +"Yes," said Vlacho; "and there is one other small condition, which +will not trouble you." + +"And what's that? You're rich in conditions." + +"You are lucky to be offered any. It is that you mind your own +business." + +"I came here for the purpose," I observed. + +"And that you undertake, for yourself and your companions, on your +word of honor, to speak not a word of what has passed in the island, +or of the affairs of the Lord Constantine." + +"And if I won't give my word?" + +"The yacht is in our hands; Demetri and Spiro are our men; there will +be no ship here for two months." + +The fellow paused, smiling at me. I took the liberty of ending his +period for him. + +"And there is," I said, returning the smile, "as we know by now, a +particularly sudden and fatal form of fever in the island." + +"Certainly; you may chance to find that out," said he. + +"But is there no antidote?" I asked; and I showed him the butt of my +revolver in the pocket of my coat. + +"It may keep it off for a day or two; not longer. You have the bottle +there, but most of the drug is with your baggage at the inn." + +His parable was true enough; we had only two or three dozen cartridges +apiece. + +"But there is plenty of food for Constantine's rifle," said I, +pointing to the muzzle of it, which protruded from the window. + +He suddenly became impatient. + +"Your answer, sir?" he demanded, peremptorily. + +"Here it is," said I. "I'll keep the island, and I'll see Constantine +hanged." + +"So be it, so be it!" he cried. "You are warned; so be it!" and +without another word he turned his pony and trotted rapidly off down +the road. And I went back to the house, feeling, I must confess, not +in the best of spirits. But when my friends heard all that had passed, +they applauded me, and we made up our minds to "see it through," as +Denny said. + +That day passed quietly. At noon we carried the old lord out of his +house, having wrapped him in a sheet, and we dug for him as good a +grave as we could, in a little patch of ground that lay outside the +windows of his own chapel, a small erection at the west end of the +house. There he must lie for the moment. This sad work done, we came +back, and--so swift are life's changes--we killed a goat for dinner, +and watched Watkins dress it. Thus the afternoon wore away, and when +evening came we ate our goat flesh, and Hogvardt milked our cows, and +we sat down to consider the position of the garrison. + +But the evening was hot, and we adjourned out of doors, grouping +ourselves on the broad marble pavement in front of the door. +Hogvardt had just begun to expound a very elaborate scheme of escape, +depending, so far as I could make out, on our reaching the other side +of the island, and finding there a boat, which we had no reason to +suppose would be there, when Denny raised his hand, saying, "Hark!" + +From the direction of the village and the harbor came the sound of a +horn, blown long and shrill, and echoed back in strange, protracted +shrieks and groans from the hillside behind us; and following on the +blast, we heard, low in the distance and indistinct, yet rising and +falling, and rising again in savage defiance and exultation, the death +chant that One-eyed Alexander the Bard had made on the death of +Stefan Stefanopoulos two hundred years ago. For a few minutes we sat +listening, and I do not think that any of us were very comfortable. +Then I rose to my feet, and I said: + +"Hogvardt, old fellow, I fancy that scheme of yours must wait a +little. Unless I'm very much mistaken, we're going to have a lively +evening." + +Well, and then we shook hands all round, and went in, and bolted the +door, and sat down to wait. We heard the death chant through the walls +now, for it was coming nearer. + +(_To be continued._) + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration: A BROOK IN THE DEPARTMENT OF VAR, FRANCE. FROM A +PAINTING BY HENRI HARPIGNIES. + +In the galleries of the Luxembourg, Paris. First exhibited at the +Salon of 1888.] + + + + +A CENTURY OF PAINTING. + +NOTES DESCRIPTIVE AND CRITICAL.--COROT AND THE MODERN PASTORAL.--THE +MEN OF 1830.--ROUSSEAU, DIAZ, DUPRÉ, AND DAUBIGNY.--FOUR FIGURE +PAINTERS OF DIFFERING AIMS. + +BY WILL H. LOW. + + +"Pictures?" boasted Turner. "Give me canvas, colors, a room to work +in, _with a door that will lock_, and it is not difficult to paint +pictures!" This was the spirit of the older men, against which +Constable rose in his might. It was the legacy of the past; the +principle, or the lack of it, which permitted Titian (in a picture now +in the National Gallery, London) to paint the shadows of his figures +falling away from the spectator into the picture, and _towards_ the +setting sun in the background. The return to nature, however, was not +accomplished at once. It is doubtful, indeed, if a painter can ever +arrive at a respectable technical achievement without imbibing certain +conventions which prevent complete submission to nature; absolute +_naïveté_ thus becoming only theoretically possible. Constable, with +all his independence, dared not throw over all received canons of art. +And Géricault, while daring to paint a modern theme, daring still more +to embody it in forms plausibly like average humanity, and refusing to +place on a raft in mid-ocean a carefully chosen assortment of antique +statues, still did not think, apparently, that the heavily marked +shadows prevalent throughout his picture were never seen under the +far-reaching arch of the sky, but fell from a studio window. Nor do +the early pictures by Corot free themselves from the influences of the +academy at once. In the studies which he bequeathed to the Louvre--two +tiny canvases on which are depicted the Coliseum and the Castle of St. +Angelo at Rome--the conventional picking out of detail, the painting +of separate objects by themselves, without due relation to each other, +is the effect of early study; and it is only in the as yet timid +reaching for effect of light and atmosphere that we feel the Corot of +the future. These studies were painted in 1826; and as late as 1835 +the same influences are manifest in the "Hagar and Ishmael in the +Desert," a historical landscape of the kind dear to the academies, +but saved and made of interest by the native qualities of the painter +struggling to the surface. + +Jean Baptiste Camille Corot was born in Paris, July 28, 1796. His +father was originally a barber; but, marrying a dressmaker, he joined +forces with his wife to such effect that they became the fashionable +house of their time; and a "dress from Corot's" found its place in the +comedies of the early part of the century, very much as the name of +Worth has been potent in later days. The youth's distaste for business +(certain unfortunate experiences in selling olive-colored cloth +leading directly thereto) at length vanquished the parents' opposition +to his choice of a career; and after a solemn family conclave, it was +decided that he was to have an allowance of three hundred dollars a +year, and be free to follow his own inclinations. Procuring materials +for work, Corot sat him down the same day on the bank of the Seine, +almost under the windows of his father's shop, and began to paint. It +is prettily related that one of the shop-women, Mademoiselle Rose by +name, was the only person of his _entourage_ who sympathized with the +young fellow, and who came to look at his work to encourage him. Late +in life the good Corot said: "Look at my first study; the colors are +still bright, the hour and day remain fixed on the canvas; and only +the other day Mademoiselle Rose came to see me; and, alas, the old +maid and the old man, how faded they are!" + +[Illustration: JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT. AFTER A PHOTOGRAPH FROM +LIFE. + +This portrait represents "good Papa Corot," as he was universally +known, at work out of doors.] + +It was Corot's good fortune to meet at the start a young landscape +painter, Michallon, who had lately returned from Rome, where he had +gone after winning the prize for historical landscape, which then +formed part of the curriculum of the École des Beaux Arts. Michallon +died in 1824, when only twenty-eight years old, too soon to have shown +the fruits of an independent spirit which had already revolted against +the trammels of the school. Desiring to save Corot from the mistakes +which he had himself made, he adjured him to remain _naïf_, to paint +nature as he saw it, and to disregard the counsels of those who were +for the moment in authority. Gentle, almost timid by nature, having +met so far in life with little but disapproval, Corot disregarded his +friend's advice at first, and placed himself under the guidance of +Victor Bertin, a painter then in vogue, and, needless to say, deeply +imbued with scholastic tradition. In his company Corot made his first +voyage to Italy, in 1825, and thus came for the first time under the +true classic influence. The lessons taught in the school of nature, +where Claude had studied, were those best fitted for the temperament +of Corot, who has been called "a child of the eighteenth century, +grown in the midst of that imitation of antiquity so ardent, and so +often unintelligent, where the Directory copied Athens, and the Empire +forced itself to imitate Rome." It is a curious and interesting fact +that when, as in this case, the spirit of classicism reveals itself +anew, its never-dying influence can be the motive for work as +fresh and modern as that of Corot. It is also true that the rigid +enforcement of the study of drawing was a healthy influence on Corot's +early life. All the pictures of his early period show the most minute +attention to form and modelling; and when he had finally rid himself +of the hard manner which it entailed, there remained the substratum of +a constructive basis upon which his freer brush played at will. + +[Illustration: A BY-PATH. FROM A PAINTING BY JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE +COROT. + +One of Corot's later works, and treated with greater freedom than the +earlier.] + +Many years, however, Corot was to wait before the memorable day when +he bewailed that his complete collection of works had been spoiled, he +having sold a picture. Living on his modest income, which his father +doubled when, in 1846, the son was given the cross of the Legion of +Honor, he was happy with his two loves, nature and painting. Little +by little he gained a reputation among the artists, especially when, +after 1835, on his return from a second voyage to Italy, he found +that the true country of the artist is his native country. After +that period his works are nearly all French in subject, many of them +painted in the environs of Paris; though, with his Theocritan spirit, +he could see the fountain of Jouvence in the woods of Sèvres, and for +him the classic nymph dwelt by the pond at Ville d'Avray. His life was +long--he died February 22, 1875--and completely filled with his work. + +After Corot's death, there was exhibited at the École des Beaux Arts +in Paris a collection of several hundred of his pictures, and then, +perhaps for the first time, the genius of the man was profoundly felt. +To those who were inclined to undervalue the pure, sweet spirit which +shone through his work, and to complain of the representation of a +world in which no breeze stronger than a zephyr blew, in which the +birds always sang, and the shepherd piped to a flock unconscious +of the existence of wolves, there were shown efforts in so many and +various directions as to forever silence their reproach of monotony, +so often directed against Corot's work. There were landscapes, showing +the gradual emancipation, due to the most sincere study of nature, +hard and precise, in the early period; vaporous and filled with +suggestion, as the sentiment of the day and hour represented became +important to the painter, and his technical mastery became more +certain in later years. There were figures, none too well drawn from +the point of view of David or Ingres, but serving, to a painter whose +interest in atmospheric problems never ceased, as objects around +which the luminous light of day played, and which were bathed in +circumambient air. + +[Illustration: EARLY MORNING. JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT. + +From a painting now in the Louvre. One of the best known of the works +of the master, executed during the transitional period, when he still +gave great attention to detail. The original is remarkable for its +sense of dewy freshness.] + +[Illustration: DIANA'S BATH. JEAN BAPTISTE CAMILLE COROT. + +From a painting in the Museum at Bordeaux.] + +[Illustration: A SHALLOW RIVER. FROM A PAINTING BY THÉODORE ROUSSEAU.] + +With all this variety, however, the true value of Corot's work lies in +the expression of the spirit of the man himself. It is often possible, +and it is always theoretically desirable, to separate the personality +of a painter from his production in any critical consideration of his +achievement. It is at least only fair to believe that the light which +shines from so many canvases is the true expression of many a life +which is clouded to our superficial view. With Corot, however, it +is impossible to make this separation. Every added detail of his +life--and they are so numerous that in the difficulty of a choice they +must remain unrecorded here--gives a new perception of his work. A +youthful Virgilian spirit to the day of his death, as old at his +birth as the classic source from which he sprang, he invented a method +essentially his own, in which to express his new-old message. In our +work-a-day, materialistic age, like a thrush singing in a boiler-shop, +he is the quiet but triumphant vindication of the truth that all +great art has its roots firmly implanted in the earth of Hellenic +civilization, though its expression may be, as in Corot's case, +through an art unknown to the Greeks, and even, as in the case of +the one greater man of this century than Corot--Millet--by the +presentation of types which the beauty-loving sons of Hellas disdained +to represent. + +Millet's work must be considered later in these papers, but it +is useful here to make this passing comment, that with Corot he +represents what is best in our modern art; that the greatest quality +of our modern art is its steadfast reliance on nature; and that, +paradoxical as it may seem, they are alike in taking only that from +nature which is serviceable to the clarity of their expression, being +in this both at odds with the common practice of modern painting, +which usually adopts a more servile attitude towards nature. Corot +painted out of doors constantly; but in the maturity of his art his +work was only based upon the scene before him, a practice dangerous to +the student, and fraught with difficulty to the master. In the fever +of production; in the almost childish joy which the long neglected +painter felt when dealers and collectors besieged his door; and, +finally, in the necessity which arose for large sums of money to carry +on works of charity, which were his only dissipation, and which it +was his pride to sustain without impairing the patrimony which in +the course of time he had inherited, and which he left intact to his +relatives, Corot undoubtedly weakened his legacy to the future by +over-production. In addition, his work became the prey of unscrupulous +dealers (as there is nothing easier to imitate superficially than a +Corot), and the mediocre pictures signed by his name are not always of +his workmanship. Such works apart, his art has given us a message from +the purest source of poetry and painting, couched in a language which +is thoroughly of our time; and in this year, which is the centenary of +his birth, it can be said that no other painter of the century, save +the graver Millet, has held fast that which was good in the art of the +past, and so enriched it by added truth and beauty as Corot. It +was fitting that when he lay dying as cheerfully as he had lived, +contented that he had "had good parents and good friends," beautiful +landscapes flitted before his eyes, "more beautiful than painting." +On the morning of February 22, 1875, his servant urged him to eat +to sustain his strength; but he gently shook his head, saying: "Papa +Corot will breakfast in heaven to-day." + +[Illustration: THE EDGE OF THE FOREST (FONTAINEBLEAU). FROM A PAINTING +BY THÉODORE ROUSSEAU.] + +Eighteen years before, on December 22, 1867, there had died at +Barbizon, Théodore Rousseau, who, born in Paris, July 15, 1812, had +been the leader of the revolution in landscape painting, in which we +to-day count Corot, Daubigny, Dupré, Troyon, Diaz, Jacque, and others +who, with our mania for classification, we call the "Barbizon school." +The fact that these men, more than any painters before their time, +had, by direct study from nature, developed strongly individual +characteristics, makes this title, localized as it is by the name of a +village with which a number of them had slight, if any, connection, +a misnomer. The French name for the group, "the men of 1830," is more +correct; for it was about that time that their influence in the Salon +began to be felt, as a result of the pictorial invasion of Constable. +Lacking the poetic feeling of Corot, and more realistic in his aims, +though not always in result, Rousseau met with instant success when +he exhibited for the first time at the Salon in 1834. His picture, +"Felled Trees, Forest of Compiègne," received a medal, and was +purchased by the Due d'Orleans. The following year the jury, presided +over by Watelet, a justly forgotten painter, refused Rousseau's +pictures, and from that time until 1849, when the overthrow of Louis +Philippe had opened the Salon doors to all comers, no picture by +Rousseau was exhibited at the Salon. + +[Illustration: ON THE RIVER OISE. FROM A PAINTING BY CHARLES FRANÇOIS +DAUBIGNY. + +A typical French river, with the familiar figures of peasant women +washing linen in the stream. Probably painted during one of the +voyages of his house-boat studio "Le Bottin," in which the painter +passed many summers.] + +[Illustration: THE STORMY SEA. FROM A PAINTING BY JULES DUPRÉ. + +This powerful picture gives an idea of the dramatic force of one who +has been fitly termed a symphonic painter.] + +[Illustration: A SUNLIT GLADE. FROM A PAINTING BY LÉON GERMAIN +PELOUSE. + +A remarkable rendering of intricate detail without sacrifice of +general effect, this picture, nevertheless, gives somewhat the +impression of a photograph from nature.] + +In the meantime, however, Rousseau's fame had grown, fostered by the +more advanced critics of the time. He lived at Barbizon, on the border +of the forest of Fontainebleau; and, basing his work on the most +uncompromising study of nature, his pictures bore an impress of simple +truth, which to our latter-day vision seems so obvious and easily +understood that nothing could show more clearly the depth of error +into which his opponents had fallen than the systematic rejection +of his work for so many years. He was by nature a leader, and in his +country home he was soon joined by Millet and Charles Jacque, while in +Paris he had the hearty support of Delacroix and his followers of the +Romantic school. While forced by circumstances to find allies in these +men, Rousseau had, however, but little of the imaginative temperament. +He was, above all, the close student of natural phenomena. He sat, +an impartial recorder of the phases of nature's triumphal procession. +Early and late, in the fields, among the rocks, or under the trees +of the forest, his cunning hand noted an innumerable variety of facts +which before him, through ignorance or disdain, the landscape painter +had never seen. It is but fair to say that, like all pioneers in the +untrodden fields of art, his means of expression at times failed to +keep pace with his intention. His work is occasionally overburdened +with detail, through the embarrassment of riches which nature poured +at his feet. Then, heir to the processes of painting of former +generations, it seemed to him necessary to endow nature with a warmth +of coloring, an abuse of the richer tones of the palette, which we may +presume he would have discarded but for the fact already noted, that +a painter carries through his earthly pilgrimage a baggage of +early-formed habits difficult to throw off _en route_. The belief that +color to be beautiful must of necessity be warm, rich, and deep in +tone was shared by all painters of Rousseau's time, and lingers still +in the minds of many, despite the fact that nature has created the +tea-rose as well as the orange. When, however, Rousseau was completely +successful--as, for instance, in the "Hoar-frost," in the Walters +gallery in Baltimore--the reward of his painstaking methods was +measurably great. In such works as this the rendition of effect, the +certainty of modelling, the sustained power throughout the work, +lift it beyond mere transcription of fact into the realm of typical +creations which appear more true than average reality. + +[Illustration: A SHEPHERD AND HIS FLOCK. FROM A PAINTING BY CHARLES +ÉMILE JACQUE. + +A typical example of the master, solidly painted, though, as was often +his habit, somewhat forced in effect.] + +Of the life of Rousseau as the head of the little colony of painters +who for longer or shorter periods resided at Barbizon, much could +be said if space permitted. It is pleasant to think that the more +prosperous Rousseau helped with purse and influence his comrades, and +that, by nature sad and irritable, he was always considerate of them +in the many discussions which took place. Corot, ill at ease in the +revolutionary atmosphere, made an occasional appearance. Diaz, he of +meridional extraction, turbulent and emphatic, stamped his wooden leg, +and was as illogical in debate as in painting. Charles Jacque, with +the keen smile and the facility for absorbing ideas from the best of +them; Ziem even, who painted Venice for some years in the shades of +Fontainebleau; Dupré, whose nature expresses itself in deep sunsets +gleaming through the oaks of the forest; Daubigny, the youngest of the +group, and the more immediate forerunner of landscape as it is to-day, +then winning his first success; Decamps, who later sometimes left +the Imperial Court, domiciled for the moment at the palace of +Fontainebleau, and brought his personality of a great painter who +failed through lack of elementary instruction, among them; Daumier, +the great caricaturist, and possibly greater painter, but for the +engrossing character of the work which first fell in his way--all +these and more made up the constantly shifting group. The first +innkeeper of the place and his wife, whose hyphenated name, +Luniot-Ganne, commemorated their union, kept for many years on the +walls, the panels of the doors, and on odd cabinets and bits of +furniture, _souvenirs_ of the passage of all these men, in the shape +of sketches made by their hands. This little museum, created in +sportive mood, bore all these names and many more, those of men, often +celebrated, who from sympathy or curiosity visited the place. Millet +was in life, as in art, somewhat apart in the later years; but he was +the consistent friend of Rousseau, whose life closed in the darkness +of a disordered mind. + +[Illustration: "THE MAN WITH THE LEATHERN BELT." PORTRAIT OF GUSTAVE +COURBET AS A YOUNG MAN, BY HIMSELF. + +From the original, in the Louvre.] + +Narcisco Virgilio Diaz de la Peña was the noble name of him who, born +at Bordeaux in 1807, the son of a Spanish refugee, died at Mentone, +November 18, 1876. Left an orphan when very young, he drifted to +Paris, and found work, painting on china, in the manufactory at +Sèvres. Here he met Dupré, employed like himself; and in their work in +other fields it is not fanciful to feel the influence of the delight +in rich translucent color, of the tones employed with over-emphasis +on the surface of _faïence_. After a bitter acquaintance with poverty, +Diaz produced work which brought him great popularity. The earlier +pictures were studies in the forest of Fontainebleau, whose venerable +tree-trunks, moss-grown; whose lichen-covered rocks, and gleaming +pools reflecting the sky, he rendered with force of color and strength +of effect. Gradually he began to attempt the figure, which in his +hands never attained a higher plane than an assemblage of charming +though artificial color; and these little _bouquets_, which +superficially imitated Correggio, Da Vinci, or Prud'hon, as the fancy +seized the painter, bathed in a color that is undeniably agreeable, +were and are to this day loved by the collector. Of a whimsical +temperament, Diaz was the life of artist gatherings; and his facility +in work, and its popularity, gave him the means of doing many generous +acts, the memory of which lives. But of the group of men of his time, +he has exercised, perhaps, the least influence. + +[Illustration: THE STONE-BREAKERS. FROM A PAINTING BY GUSTAVE COURBET. + +One of Courbet's early pictures, which, when exhibited at the Salon, +excited considerable discussion, certain adverse critics finding in it +an appeal to the socialistic elements. It represents a scene common in +France, where stones are piled by the roadsides, to be broken up for +repairing the route.] + +Jules Dupré rises to a higher plane. But his work, freed from the +colder academical bondage, is pitched in a key of color which takes us +to a world where the sun shines through smoke; where the clouds float +heavily, filled with inky vapors; and the light shoots from behind the +trees explosively. It is a grave, rhythmic world, however; and if it +lacks the dewy atmosphere of Corot, it has an intensity which the more +sanely balanced painter seldom reached. Dupré, born at Nantes in 1812, +and dying near Paris, at the village of L'Isle-Adam, in 1889, made +his first important exhibit at the Salon in 1835, after a visit +to England, where he met Constable. This picture, "Environs of +Southampton," was typical of the work he was to do. A long waste of +land near the sea, the middle distance in deepest shadow, and richly +colored storm-clouds racing overhead; the foreground in sunlight, +enhanced by the artificial contrast of the rest of the picture; a +wooden dyke on which, together with two white horses near by, the +gleam of sunlight falls almost with a sound, so intensified is all the +effect, make up the picture. Dupré's work is generally keyed up to +the highest possible pitch, and it is no little merit that, with the +constant insistence on this note, it is seldom or never theatrical. + +Constant Troyon, from sympathy of aim, is commonly included in this +group, although it was gradually, and after success achieved in +landscape, that his more powerful cattle pictures were produced, which +alone entitle him to the place. Born at Sèvres in 1810, where his +father was employed at the manufactory of porcelain, he was thrown in +contact with Dupré and Diaz. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1832, +and for nearly twenty years was known as a landscape painter. His work +at that time was eclectic, sufficiently in touch with Rousseau, whose +acquaintance he had made, to be of interest, but never revolutionary +enough to alarm the academical juries of the Salon. In 1849, after +a visit to Holland, he turned his attention to animal painting, and +became in that field the first of his time. In common with his quondam +comrades in the porcelain manufactory, Troyon delighted in warmth and +richness of tone and color; but in the rendering of the texture and +color of cattle the quality availed him greatly, and as objects in his +foreground the landscape environment gained in depth by its judicious +use. Troyon will be chiefly remembered by the pictures painted from +1846 to 1858. The later years of his life, until his death in 1865, +were passed with a clouded intellect. + +[Illustration: THE GOOD SAMARITAN. FROM A PAINTING BY THÉODULE RIBOT. + +From the Salon of 1870; now in the Luxembourg. The story of the man +who went down to Jericho and fell among thieves is here treated as a +pretext for a forcible effect of light and shade, though it is also a +novel and dramatic presentation of the scene.] + +The youngest of the group proper was Charles François Daubigny, who +was born in Paris in 1817, and died there in 1878. He was the son of +a well-known miniature painter, and passed his youth in the country, +where he imbibed the love for simple nature which he afterwards +rendered with less of fervor than Rousseau, with less poetry than +either Corot or Dupré; but, in his way, with as much or more of truth. +His task was easier. In the progress which landscape painting had +made, there were hosts of younger painters, each adding a particle +of truth, each making an advance in technical skill and daring, +and Daubigny profited by it all. Corot, it is true, had never been +afflicted with the preoccupation of combining the freshness of nature +with the _patine_ with which ages had embrowned the old gallery +pictures; but Daubigny, looking at nature with a more literal eye than +Corot, ran a gamut of color greater than he. It was Daubigny who said +of Corot, in envious admiration: "He puts nothing on the canvas, and +everything is there." His own more prosaic nature took delight in +enregistering a greater number of facts. Floating quietly down the +rivers of France in a house-boat, he diligently reproduced the sedgy +banks, the low-lying distances the poplars and clumps of trees lining +the shore, and reflected in the waters. He painted the "Springtime," +now in the Louvre, with lush grass growing thick around the apple +trees in blossom; with tender greens, soft, fleecy clouds, and the +moist, humid atmosphere of France; without preoccupation of rich +color, of "brown sauce," of "low tone," of the thousand and one +conventions which have enfeebled the work of men stronger than he. +Thus he fills a middle place between the men who made an honest effort +at painting nature as they saw and felt it, but could not altogether +rid themselves of their early education, and the lawless band who, +with the purple banner of impressionism, now riot joyously in the +fields, with brave show of gleaming color, and fearless attempt to +enlist science in their ranks. + +[Illustration: SERVANT AT THE FOUNTAIN. FROM A PAINTING BY FRANÇOIS +SAINT BONVIN. + +From the Salon of 1863; now in the Luxembourg galleries. A quiet +scene, essentially French from the type of the woman to the "fountain" +of red copper so often seen in French kitchens, it recalls the work +of the old Holland masters, and proves that, in our day, and with +material near at hand, one can be thoroughly modern, and yet claim +kinship with the great painters of the past.] + +It is to these latter that the future must look, and it can do so with +confidence. In all the license which runs ahead of progress there +is less danger than resides in stagnation. The men of 1830, who by +ungrateful youths are now derided, had their turn at derision, and +extravagances were committed in their name, according to the +beliefs of their time. They carried their work, however, to its full +completion, and it remains the greatest achievement of this century +in painting, the greatest in landscape art of all time. What the +next century may bring is undoubtedly foreshadowed in the work of +impressionistic tendency. It has the merit of being a new direction, +one as yet hardly opened before us, but more hopeful, despite certain +excesses, than it would be to see the men of our time settle down to +an imitation of the works, however great, of those men of 1830. The +immediate effect of their example was and can still be seen in the +works of men too numerous to be enregistered here. + +[Illustration: AN UNHAPPY FAMILY. FROM A PAINTING BY NICOLAS FRANÇOIS +OCTAVE TASSAERT. + +In the Luxembourg catalogue, to which museum the picture came from +the Salon of 1850, is printed a long quotation from Lamennais's "Les +Paroles d'un Croyant" (The Words of a Believer), an emphatic work, +of great popularity about the time that the picture was painted. The +women represented, having fallen into poverty, are suffering from cold +and hunger, the obvious end of the tragedy being explained by these +words, "Shortly after there were seen two forms, luminous like souls, +which took their flight towards Heaven." The picture, like much of +Tassaert's work, affords an instance of misguided and morbid talent.] + +In Henri Harpignies, a living painter, though now aged, the influence +is felt in the careful attention to form throughout the landscape. +The delicate branching of trees is depicted in his work with accuracy +tempered by a sense of the beauty of line, which prevents it from +becoming photographic. Léon Germain Pelouse, who was born at Pierrelay +in 1838, and died in Paris, 1891, carried somewhat the same qualities +to excess. His pictures, though undeniably excellent, are marred by +the dangerous facility which degenerates into mere virtuosity. +Charles Jacque, who was born in 1813, and lived until 1894, was of the +original group living for many years in Barbizon. He was, perhaps, of +less original mind than any of the others, but was gifted with a power +of assimilation which enabled him to form an eclectic style that is +now recognized as his own. His pictures are many in number and varied +in character, though his somewhat stereotyped pictures of sheep, done +in the later years of his life, are best known. + +The limits of space render it difficult to make even a summary +enumeration of certain tendencies in figure painting which marked the +years of the growth of this great landscape school. Gustave Courbet +(born at Ornans in 1819, died in Switzerland, 1877), who might be +classed both as a figure and a landscape painter, would demand by +right a longer consideration than can be here given. Of his career as +a champion of realism, as a past master in the peculiarly modern art +of keeping one's self before the public, culminating in his connection +with the Commune in Paris in 1871, and the destruction of the column +in the Place Vendôme, there could be much to say. Courbet was, as +a painter, a powerful individuality; of more force, however, as a +painter of the superficial envelope than of the deeper qualities which +nature makes pictorial at the bidding of one of finer fibre. His claim +to be considered modern can be contested, inasmuch as it was only in +subject that his work was novel. In manner of painting he was of a +time long past, of a school of greater masters than he showed himself +to be. With this reserve, however, as a vigorous painter, both of the +figure and landscape, he is interesting; and as one of the first to +look about him and find his subjects in our daily life, his work will +live. + +Curiously enough, the revival of the art of another epoch in the case +of Saint Bonvin remained absolutely modern. By nature or by choice +this painter (born at Vaugirard, near Paris, in 1817, and dying at +St. Germain-en-Laye in 1887) is a modern Pieter de Hooghe; and as +the Dutch masters addressed themselves to a painstaking and sincere +representation of the life about them, in like manner Bonvin, bringing +to his work much the same qualities, choosing as his subjects quiet +interiors, with the life of the family pursuing its even tenor (or the +still more placid progress of conventual life, like the "Ave Maria +in the Convent of Aramont," in the Luxembourg), remains himself while +resembling his prototypes. It is instructive to look at his "Servant +at the Fountain," reproduced here, compare it with many of the +pictures of familiar life like those of Wilkie, Webster, or Mulready, +published last month, and note the unconsciousness of the work before +us. + +The work of a painter equally able, though suffering somewhat as +representing an art with which we moderns have little sympathy, falls +into comparison here, and undoubtedly loses by it. The unfortunate +painter, Octave Tassaert, who was born in Paris in 1800, and lived +there, undergoing constant privation, until he voluntarily ended his +life in 1874, possibly found consolation for his hard lot in depicting +scenes like that entitled "An Unhappy Family." + +The lesson of the art of the men considered here is that of direct +inspiration of nature, of reliance on native qualities rather than +those acquired; and the impulse given by them has continued in force +until to day. We have before us, as a consequence, two strongly +defined tendencies which will control the future of painting. The +first and strongest, for the moment, is the impressionistic tendency, +with its negation of any pictorial qualities other than those based on +direct study from objects actually existing. This would, if carried +to a logical conclusion, eliminate the imaginative quality, and render +the painter a human photographic camera. The other tendency is that +which has existed since art was born, and which, though temporarily +and justly ignored in periods when it is necessary to recreate a +technical standard, always comes to the surface when men have learned +their trade as painters. It is the desire to create; the instinct +which impels one to use the language given him to express thought. The +two tendencies are not incompatible; and in the end the artist will +arise who, with certainty of expression, will express thought. + + + + +"SOLDIER AN' SAILOR TOO." + +BY RUDYARD KIPLING, + +AUTHOR OF "BARRACK-ROOM BALLADS," "THE JUNGLE BOOK," ETC. + + +As I was spittin' into the Ditch aboard o' the "Crocodile," +I seed a man on a man-o'-war got up in the Reg'lars' style. +'E was scrapin' the paint from off of 'er plates, an' I sez to 'im: + "Oo are you?" +Sez 'e: "I'm a Jolly--'er Majesty's Jolly--soldier an' sailor too!" + _Now 'is work begins by Gawd knows when, and 'is work is never + through-- + 'E isn't one o' the Regular line, nor 'e isn't one of the crew-- + 'E's a kind of a giddy herumfrodite--soldier an' sailor too_! + +An' after I met 'im all over the world, a-doin' all kinds o' things, +Like landin' 'isself with a Gatling-gun to talk to them 'eathen kings; +'E sleeps in an 'ammick instead of a cot, an' 'e drills with the deck + on a slue, +An' 'e sweats like a Jolly--'er Majesty's Jolly--soldier an' sailor too! + _For there isn't a job on the top o' the earth the beggar don't + know--nor do! + You can leave 'im at night on a bald man's 'ead to paddle 'is own + canoe; + 'E's a sort of a bloomin' cosmopolot--soldier an' sailor too_. + +We've fought 'em on trooper, we've fought em in dock, an' drunk with + 'em in betweens, +When they called us the sea-sick scull'ry maids, an' we called 'em the + Ass Marines; +But when we was down for a double fatigue, from Woolwich to Bernardmyo, +We sent for the Jollies--'er Majesty's Jollies--soldier an' sailor too! + _They think for 'emselves, an they steal for 'emselves, an' they never + ask what's to do, + But they're camped an fed an' they're up an' fed before our bugle's + blew. + Ho! they ain't no limpin procrastitutes--soldier an' sailor too_! + +You may say we are fond of an 'arness cut or 'ootin' in barrick-yards, +Or startin' a Board School mutiny along o' the Onion Guards; +But once in a while we can finish in style for the ends of the earth to + view, +The same as the Jollies--'er Majesty's Jollies--soldier an' sailor too. + _They come of our lot, they was brothers to us, they was beggars we'd + met and knew; + Yes, barrin' an inch in the chest an' the arms, they was doubles o' + me and you, + For they weren't no special chrysanthemums--soldier an' sailor too_. + +To take your chance in the thick of a rush with firing all about +Is nothing so bad when you've cover to 'and, and leave an' likin' to + shout; +But to stand an' be still to the "Birken'ead" drill is a damn tough + bullet to chew, +And they done it, the Jollies--'er Majesty's Jollies--soldier an' + sailor too. + _Their work was done when it 'adn't begun, they was younger nor me an + you; + Their choice it was plain between drownin in 'eaps an bein mashed by + the screw, + An' they stood an' was still to the "Birken'ead" drill, soldier an + sailor too_! + +We're most of us liars, we're 'arf of us thieves, an' the rest are as + rank as can be, +But once in a while we can finish in style (which I 'ope it won't + 'appen to me); +But it makes you think better o' you an' your friends an' the work you + may 'ave to do +When you think o' the sinkin' "Victorier's" Jollies--soldier an' sailor + too. + _Now there isn't no room for to say you don't know--they 'ave settled + it plain and true-- + That whether it's Widow or whether it's ship, Victorier's work is to + do, + As they done it, the Jollies--'er Majesty's Jollies--soldier an sailor + too_! + +[Illustration] + + + + +RACHEL. + +BY MRS. E.V. WILSON, + +AUTHOR OF "BARBARY," "A BLIZZARD," AND OTHER STORIES. + + +It was the middle of a short December afternoon. From the scholars in +the little log school-house in the Stillman district rose a buzzing +sound as they bent over their desks, intent on books or mischief, as +the case might be. The teacher, a good-looking young man of twenty or +thereabouts, was busy with a class in arithmetic when a shrill voice +called out: + +"Teacher, Rachel Stillman's readin' a story-book." + +"Bring the book to me," said the teacher quietly; and the delinquent, +a girl of about fourteen, slowly rose and, walking to him, placed a +much-worn volume in his hands. + +"Why," he said, glancing at the open page, "it is 'The Pilgrim's +Progress.' No wonder you are interested. But you must not read it +during school hours." + +The child lifted to his face a pair of large blue eyes, beautiful with +timid wistfulness, as she replied: + +"I know I oughtn't, sir, but I wanted to see how they got out of +Doubting Castle so bad." + +He smiled. "I will give you the book after school; then you can read +it at home." + +"Oh, no," she whispered; "father won't let me read story-books." + +"He surely would not object to this," answered the young teacher; "but +I will keep it until recess to-morrow, and, never fear, Christian and +Hopeful will outwit the giant yet." + +The wistful eyes brightened, and, with a grateful smile, Rachel +returned to her desk. + +"First class in spelling, take your places," called the teacher. + +Rachel belonged to this class, as did all the larger scholars, among +whom was her brother, Thomas, two years her elder. The teacher had +promised a prize at the end of the term to the member of the class +obtaining the greatest number of head marks, and consequently a good +deal of interest was taken in the lessons. + +Rachel had been at the head of the class the evening before; therefore +she now took her station at its foot. Tom, her brother, now was +head, and for some time no change in position was made. But finally +"somebody blundered," and Rachel, who was one of the good spellers, +went up in the long line. Presently another word was missed, and now +Rachel walked to the head. Tom pushed her spitefully. + +"Another mark, Rachel," said the teacher, "for that is the end of the +lesson." + +The class resumed their seats, and, a few minutes after, school was +dismissed for the day. + +"Good-evening," said the teacher, as Rachel and a younger sister, +a pretty, delicate child, passed him at the door. "Now, no worrying +about Christian, Rachel." + +"I won't," she laughed. "I guess he'll get out. Didn't he stand up to +old Apollyon?" + +"Like a good fellow," was the reply. "Hope I'll come off as well." + +She looked at him inquiringly, but he had turned toward his desk, and +the sisters set out on their half-mile walk home. + +Let us precede them and see what manner of home it is to which these +children belong. + +The farm is a large one, the buildings substantial, and everything has +a prosperous, well-to-do look. Mr. Stillman, the owner of these broad +acres and the father of these three, Tom, Rachel, and Susy, as well +as of three more girls and another stalwart son, is a stout, +comfortable-looking man of forty-five or fifty. A glance at his close, +thin lips and keen gray eyes would convince an observant person that +he would make it very uncomfortable for any one in his power who might +differ from him in opinion or dispute his authority. Just now he is +chatting pleasantly with his hired man, and pays no attention to the +children, who pass him on the way to the house. + +Indoors Mrs. Stillman, a slender, fair-haired woman, who looks as if +she felt she owed the world an apology for living in it, is preparing +supper, assisted by her two daughters, Elizabeth, a sad-faced woman +of twenty-four, and Margaret, a girl of eighteen, with her father's +determined mouth and chin and her mother's large blue eyes and fair +hair. The clock struck five as the school-girls entered the kitchen, +a large room which in winter did duty as dining-room as well as +cooking-room. + +"Run in the sitting-room, girls, and get warm," said the mother. +"Supper is almost ready." + +"Oh, we're not cold; are we, Susy? I got another head mark, mother," +said Rachel. + +The mother smiled. "I hope you or Tom will get the prize. Where is +he?" She was interrupted by a stamping of feet as the door was thrown +open and Mr. Stillman, followed by the hired man and Tom, entered the +room. + +"Supper is ready," said Mrs. Stillman. "We were just going to call +you." + +"Well, I guess it will keep till we're ready," answered her husband, +roughly. "Rachel, get some water; the bucket's empty, of course. +Margaret, where's the wash-basin? Nothing in its place, as usual. Pity +there wasn't two or three more girls lazyin' around!" + +Nobody replied to this tirade. The hired man picked up the basin, +Margaret handed a towel, Rachel brought the water, and soon the family +were gathered around the well-spread table. + +"I tell you," said Mr. Stillman, after a few mouthfuls of the savory +food had apparently put him in a better humor, "I think we'll have +fine weather for hog-killin' next week, and I never did have a finer +lot of hogs." + +"Oh, father," said Margaret, "don't butcher next week. Friday is +Christmas day and--" + +"Christmas!" interrupted her father. "Well, we always butcher +Christmas week, don't we?" + +"Yes, I know," she said, her lips trembling in spite of her effort +to control herself. "But we never have enjoyed the holidays, and I +thought maybe this year you--" + +"We will do this year as we always have," broke in the father, +angrily. "I suppose", with a look at his wife from which she shrank +as from a blow, "this is one of your plans to have your girls gadding +over the country." + +"Mother never said anything about it," said Margaret, her temper +getting the better of her; "but nobody else takes Christmas times to +do their hardest and dirtiest work." + +"Will you hush?" thundered the father. "What do I care what anybody +else does? I am master here." + +No one spoke again. The assertion could not be denied. He was master, +and well his wife and daughters knew it. + +Poor Mrs. Stillman! Two fortunate baby girls had died a few weeks +after their birth, and the tears that fell over the little coffins +were not half so bitter as those she shed when first she held their +innocent faces to her heart. When on this evening the father had shown +his authority, the two elder daughters rose from the table, and taking +a couple of large buckets, went quietly out to the barnyard, and +proceeded to milk the half dozen cows awaiting them. + +It was nearly dark and very cold; but no word was spoken except to the +animals, as the girls hurried through the work and hastened back +to the kitchen, where Rachel and the mother were clearing away +the supper-table and making the needful preparations for the early +breakfast. + +When all was finished the mother and daughters entered the large room +adjoining the kitchen, which served as sitting-room for the family and +bed-room for the parents, Mr. Stillman not permitting a fire kept +in any other room in the house. Mrs. Stillman sat down with her +knitting-work as close in the corner as possible; Elizabeth brought +in a large basket of rags, and she and Margaret were soon busy sewing +strips and winding balls for a carpet. The younger children were +absorbed in their lessons at the table, where the father sat reading +his newspaper. + +All were silent, for to have spoken while father was reading would +have been an unforgivable offence. At last, however, Mr. Stillman +lifted his eyes from the paper, and addressing Tom, said: "Well, how +did you get along at school to-day?" + +"Oh, first rate," said the boy; but that lost head mark rankled in his +mind, and he added, "Rachel was called up by the teacher." + +"How was that, Rachel?" said her father sharply. Poor girl!--deep in +the mysteries of long division, she did not hear him. + +"Rachel," he repeated, "what were you called up in school for to-day?" + +She glanced reproachfully at Tom. "I read a little in 'The Pilgrim's +Progress,' father. It's not a story-book--" + +"Never mind what it is. I send you to school to study, and you're not +to touch any but your school-books." + +"May I bring it home?" she faltered. + +"Bring it home, indeed! No, miss. I guess you can find enough to do at +home. Not another word more, or you will stay at home for good." + +The child bent over her slate; but tears would come, and at last a sob +burst forth. + +"Clear out to bed, Rachel," said her father angrily. "I want no +snivelling here." + +Upstairs, in the cold, dark room, what bitter thoughts surged through +the childish brain! + +Mr. Stillman loved his wife and children. He wanted them to be happy, +but in his way. He must choose their pleasures. If they could not be +satisfied with what he chose for them, it was not his fault; it was +their perversity. And as no two souls are alike, the attempt to fit a +number of them by the same pattern necessarily caused suffering to the +souls undergoing the operation. + +Mrs. Stillman's sensitive organization was completely crushed; her +eldest daughter's nearly so. Martha, the second daughter, had escaped +by marrying a clever young man, who first pitied, then loved the +daughter of his employer, and persuaded her to elope with him, +assuring her of a happier home than she had with her father. + +The marriage angered Mr. Stillman greatly, and all intercourse with +the disobedient daughter was forbidden. + +Margaret, the third daughter, also rebelled at the fitting process; +and having a goodly portion of her father's determination, many were +the sharp words that passed between them. + +So far Rachel and Susan had given no trouble. He ordered them about +as he did his dumb animals, and with no more regard to their feelings. +With his sons it was different. They would be men some day. They must +be treated with some consideration. At an early age, John, two years +older than Elizabeth, was given a share in the stock and land to +cultivate; so that when, at the age of twenty-four, he married, he had +a "right good start in the world." + +But his sister toiled early and late, washing, ironing, milking, +churning, baking, nursing the younger children, sharing her mother's +labors, and paid as her mother was--with her board and a scanty, +grudgingly given wardrobe. She was now twenty-four, and had never +had a five-dollar bill to spend as she pleased in her life--for that +matter, neither had the mother. There are many Mr. Stillmans, "Are +they honest men?" If father and son have the right to be paid for +their labor, have not the mother and daughter? I leave the question +with you. + +Rachel carried a heavy heart to school next morning. The tinker's +wonderful allegory to her was very real, and to leave her hero in that +awful dungeon was almost more than she could bear. When at recess the +teacher offered her the book, she did not take it. + +"Father said," she began--then sobs choked her utterance. He +understood, and after a moment's silence said: "I am interested in +Christian as well as you, Rachel, and if you will sit here I will read +to you." In all her after life Rachel never forgot these readings at +intermission, which were continued not only until Christian reached +the Celestial city, but until Christiana and the children completed +their wonderful journey to the same place. Her gratitude to her young +teacher would certainly have become love had she been a few years +older. As it was, when in March the term closed, not even the prize as +the best speller--a beautiful copy of "Pilgrim's Progress"--consoled +her for the cessation of school. + +As for the teacher, he was glad the winter's work--which had been +undertaken and conscientiously carried through solely for the purpose +of obtaining means to pursue the study of his profession--was over. +He liked some of his scholars very much, Rachel especially; she was +so interested in her studies, so intelligent and grateful, that when, +with eyes swimming in tears, she bade him good-by, he felt a moment's +sorrow at leaving her, and comforted her by telling her what a good +girl she had been and that he would not forget her. + +"You ought to have seen Rache an' Suse cry when old Gray bid us +good-by," said Tom that evening at home. + +"Did you cry?" asked Margaret. + +"Guess not! Glad school's out; an' I'm never goin' any more." + +"I wouldn't if I were you, bub," said Margaret; "you know enough now." +She always called him "bub" when she wanted to vex him, "But old Gray, +as you call him, will be somebody yet, see if he don't." + +The entrance of Mr. Stillman closed the conversation, and Tom went +out, banging the door after him. No wonder Margaret was getting +ill-natured. + +The winter was a long, dull season at Stillman's. Even her enjoyment +at the few social gatherings she was permitted to attend in the +neighborhood was marred by the knowledge that she could not entertain +her young friends in return. She had attempted once to fix up the +"spare room" and have a fire for some company, but her father had +peremptorily forbidden it. "I'd like to know," he said, "why the +settin'-room ain't good enough! If your company is too nice to be with +the rest of the family they can stay away, miss." + +And "they" generally did stay away after one visit. Mr. Stillman was +not a success as a host, young people thought; and a young minister +who came home from meeting one Sunday with Elizabeth was so completely +abashed by the cool reception he met that not even the daughter's +pleading eyes could persuade him to remain in her father's presence. A +few weeks after, he went to a distant appointment; and Elizabeth's sad +face grew sadder than ever. + +Jim Lansing, the son of a widow who managed a farm and two grown sons +with equal skill, was more successful. He usually brought his mother +with him; and, while she entertained Mr. and Mrs. Stillman, Jim, the +girls, and the carpet rags escaped to the kitchen. + +But spring was near, and Margaret thought: "He can't keep us out of +the spare room in summer; and, besides, we can be out-of-doors." + +June came, with her blue skies, her singing birds, her wealth of +beauty. But there was no time at Stillman's to enjoy it. A larger crop +than usual had been put in, and extra hands employed, but not in the +house. Why, there were five women, counting frail little ten-year-old +Susy as one, and poor, delicate Mrs. Stillman as another! What extra +help could they need, although washing and cooking must be done for +all the men? You see, "hands" could be got much cheaper if they were +boarded--and what else had the women to do? + +It was true, mother was not as strong as she used to be; but she did +not complain. She was only more shadowy and quiet; and Mr. Stillman +told his daughters to "stir around" themselves, and not let their +mother do all the work. + +"Oh, dear," said Margaret one morning, as she and Rachel were bending +over the wash-tubs, while Susy labored at the heavy churning and the +mother and Elizabeth were preparing dinner. "I wish we could go to the +picnic on the Fourth; everybody's going." + +"Maybe we can," said Rachel, hopefully. "I heard father say the wheat +was late this year, and he did not believe it would do to cut before +the sixth. And oh, Margaret, I heard him say your calf would bring at +least ten dollars; and if he gives you the money, you can get a new +white dress and give me your old one. It is lots too small for you." + +Margaret laughed. "Yes," she said; "father said if I could raise the +calf I might have it. Didn't I have a time with it, though, it was so +near dead! Of course I will fix my old dress up for you--that is, if +I get the money. Sometimes I think father's queer; he did not give +Elizabeth the money when he sold that colt he had given her." And both +girls were silent. + +Out in the barnyard, as the girls worked, Mr. Stillman and Tom were +putting the pretty calf in the wagon preparatory to taking it to the +butcher in the town a few miles distant. When the girls went in to +dinner the men had finished theirs, and were lounging in the shady +yard enjoying their nooning. + +As they were about to sit down at the table, Mr. Stillman handed +Margaret a package, saying, "There's your share of that spotted calf, +Margaret." + +"My share!" she exclaimed. "Why, you gave me the calf; you had no +right to it." + +As she spoke she opened the package and unrolled a piece of cheap +lawn--yellow ground dotted with blue. She flung it angrily on the +floor, and ran out of the room. + +Mr. Stillman turned to Rachel after a moment of dumb amazement, and +said: "You can have the dress, Rachel. I'll teach Margaret a lesson." + +"I don't want it," she said. "You had no right to take Margaret's +money. You did give her the calf, and when you sold Tom's pig you gave +him his money." + +"Nice girls you're raising, mother," said Mr. Stillman to his +frightened wife. "They'll be turning us out of doors next. You pick up +that lawn, miss." + +Rachel did so. As she folded it, he went on: "That calf was mine. I +only meant to pay her for caring for it." + +"You should have told her so, then," said his daughter, facing him +with eyes keen as his own; "but you told her if she could raise it she +might have it, and, of course, she believed you." + +He raised his hand as if to strike her; then, as she did not move or +drop her eyes, he turned and left the room. + +July came, but the Stillman girls did not go to the picnic. Tom and +the "hands" did; and Mrs. Lansing and her boys stopped at Stillman's +on their way and offered the girls seats in their wagon. But Mr. +Stillman said his women had to get ready for the harvest hands who +were coming next day, and Margaret said to Rachel bitterly: "We +have no decent clothes to go in anyhow." And there was much washing, +ironing, cooking, and churning done as the days went on. No wonder +Mrs. Stillman grew paler and weaker, until even her husband noticed +it, and brought her a bottle of bitters, and told the girls to "keep +mother out of the kitchen," which they indeed tried to do. But how +could the mother rest when there was so much to do? The girls could +not manage as she could, and Elizabeth seemed "so poorly;" for the +patient elder daughter, as the summer dragged along, had a pitifully +hopeless look on her pale face, and went about listlessly, as if life +had lost all interest for her. + +At last there came a morning when the mother did not rise for +breakfast. + +"Hadn't we better send for Dr. Lewis, father?" said Elizabeth. + +"Oh, no; your mother did not sleep much, it was so hot last night. +She'll be up directly. You keep her out of the kitchen, and see you +have dinner on time. We want to finish to-day, for I expect we'll have +a storm, from the feel of the air." + +Noon came. Dinner for a dozen hungry men was on the table, and still +Mrs. Stillman was in bed. While the men were eating, Rachel slipped +in to her mother. She was awake, but her flushed face and wild, bright +eyes startled the girl. + +"Oh, mother!" she cried, "you are very sick; you must have the +doctor." + +"No, dear," the mother answered; "father is too busy now. I'll be +better after awhile. You go help wait on the table." + +Rachel returned to the dining-room. "Take that fly-brush, Rachel," +said her father. "Susy's no account; she's too lazy to keep it going." + +Poor, tired little Susy, who had done a large churning that morning, +crimsoned to the roots of her hair as she handed Rachel the brush and +hurried out of the room. + +When dinner was over Mr. Stillman glared into the room where his wife +lay. "She is asleep," he said. "I guess she's all right." + +"She hasn't eaten a thing to-day," said Rachel. "Hadn't she better +have the doctor?" + +"Well," said her father, impatiently, "if she's no better in the +morning, I'll send for him;" and he went back to the field. + +Rachel went for Mrs. Lansing, for she and her sisters grew frightened +as the mother's fever increased. When that good woman came she saw at +once the serious condition of her friend. + +"I saw Dr. Lewis coming down the road in his buggy as I came," she +said. "One of you hurry out and stop him." + +When, about five o'clock, the rain began to fall in torrents, Mr. +Stillman had the satisfaction of seeing the last load of grain driven +inside the barn door; and, taking off his hat, he wiped the moisture +from his face, saying: "Well, boys, we beat the rain; and I don't care +if it pours down now." + +He walked toward the house, and, to his surprise, saw the well-known +figure of Dr. Lewis on the front porch. "Driven in by the rain," he +thought. "I'll get him to give mother a little medicine." + +"How are you, doctor?" he said, as he stepped upon the porch. "Lucky +getting my wheat in, wasn't I?" + +"Very," said the doctor, gravely; "but I am sorry to say I find Mrs. +Stillman a very sick woman. You should have sent for me long ago." The +husband was startled. + +"Why," he said, "she has been going about until to-day. I guess it's +this weather has made her so weak. She can't be very sick." + +The physician was silent for a moment; then he said: "If there is not +a change for the better soon, I fear she will live but a few days. I +cannot understand how she has kept up;" and he turned and went into +the sick-room. + +For once the men at Stillman's ate a cold supper and did the milking. +Mrs. Lansing took things into her own capable hands. John and his wife +were sent for and came, and Jim Lansing quietly hitched up a team and +went for Martha and her husband--poor Martha, who had not seen her +mother for more than a year! + +All night Mr. Stillman watched by the bedside or walked up and down +the long back porch. It could not be she would die--his wife. It +was the hot weather; she was just weak and tired. That was it, Mr. +Stillman--worn out, tired; and rest was coming. When Martha came, the +mother who had so longed for her did not recognize her. + +"Mother, only speak to me!" cried the daughter in anguish; but the +mother looked at her with dimming eyes that saw no more of earth, +and muttered as she turned upon her couch, "Hurry, girls, it's nearly +noon. Hurry! Father will be angry if he has to wait." + +Then she grew quiet; only her restless hands, which her daughters +vainly strove to hold, kept reaching out as if to grasp that unknown +land she was so soon to enter; and before the sun was high in the +morning Mrs. Stillman had found rest. + +Her husband was stunned. With haggard face he bent over his dead. +"If I had known," he said. "Oh, my wife, if I had known, I would have +taken better care of you." + +Ah, Mr. Stillman, you are not the only one who with remorseful heart +cries, "If I had only known, if I had only known!" + +Life went on as usual at Stillman's after the mother had left them. +For a while the father was kinder, but as time went on the old habit +was resumed. Elizabeth went mechanically about her work, and her +father did not notice her evidently failing health. Her quietness was +a relief to him; for Margaret was growing more defiant toward him, and +quarrelled constantly with Tom, who, now that his mother's influence +was withdrawn, became more and more meddlesome and overbearing in his +conduct toward his sisters. The summer following Mrs. Stillman's death +Mrs. Lansing's eldest son, Frank, took unto himself a wife; and +late in the fall the neighborhood was electrified by the unexpected +marriage of Mrs. Lansing and Mr. Stillman. Her boys, on learning her +intention, had remonstrated; but she said: "You boys do not need me, +and these girls do. Think of a young girl like Rachel saying, 'God had +nothing to do with my mother's death. It was hard work killed her!' +And when I tried to tell her of His goodness to His creatures, she +said: 'Yes; He is good enough to men. All He cares for women is to +create them for men's convenience,' And then there's little Susy, with +a face like her mother's. Why, it just haunts me!" + +"Well," said Jim, "things are in a bad fix over there; but it isn't +Susy's face that haunts me, by any means." + +His mother laughed. "I shall take care of Margaret," she said; "she +and Elizabeth need some one to look after them. They are being worked +to death." + +Four years have slipped over the heads of the Stillmans--years well +improved by Rachel and Susy at the academy in the town near their +father's farm; years which gave Margaret's happiness into Jim +Lansing's keeping, and made Jim a young man of whom his sisters were +extremely proud. Even Elizabeth's sad face looks as if life might be +worth living; for, under the second wife, life at Stillman's had taken +on a different color. The spare room is a pretty sitting-room for the +young folks. + +"We don't want them always with us," says Mrs. Stillman, as she shows +her husband the change she has made; for one of her peculiarities is +that she manages her household affairs as she thinks best, taking it +for granted that her husband will approve. As for Rachel, she enjoyed +the change for the better; but now, to the bitter feeling which she +cherished toward her father, was added a touch of contempt "See," +she thought, "how he can be flattered into doing things; if my mother +could have managed him so, she might have lived." + +Rachel was mistaken; the new wife did not manoeuvre or flatter, she +simply took her proper place as mistress of the house--not as a sort +of upper servant, to be snubbed or praised at the master's humor. + +Another summer had been added to Rachel's years when, one evening, +Tom came home from town, and entering the dining-room, where she was +preparing the table for supper, exclaimed: "Rachel, do you remember +old Gray, as I used to call him, who taught our school the winter +before mother died?" + +"Yes," she said, "I remember him. Mother liked him." + +"Well, I met him in town to-day. He's on that Sanders case. He knew me +right off, and he's coming out here this evening; so fix up nice and +be looking your sweetest. They say he's smart. I heard some of the old +lawyers talking about him." And Tom caught his sister about the waist +and waltzed her out on the porch. + +"Rachel," said Susy, as in their own room the girls were dressing +after supper, "you are very hard to please to-night and you seem +nervous. What ails you?" + +Rachel smiled. "I am thinking of old days, that is all," she said. But +she entered the little parlor, where Tom and the guest were seated, in +a perfectly self-possessed manner, saying, as she held out her hand: + +"Good-evening, teacher. How goes the battle with Apollyon?" + +And the young lawyer sprang to his feet, exclaiming: "Rachel! is it +possible?" and he retained her hand and looked into her eyes so long +that Susy, who had followed her into the room, and Tom declared that +he fell in love then and there. However that may be, it is certain Mr. +Gray showed a wonderful interest in Stillman's district. The trial in +progress at Meywood was tedious, but his patience did not give out; +and when some of the lawyers proposed to hold night sessions of +court he objected earnestly, saying: "It would be too hard on the old +judge." + +But all things must end, and the case was at last decided in favor +of Mr. Gray's client. As Rachel congratulated him on his victory, he +said, with a look that brought the color to her face: + +"How long must I stay in Doubting Castle, Rachel?" + +"Why, dear me," she answered, saucily, "I did not think a promising +young lawyer, as father calls you, ever got into such a dismal place!" + +Then Susy came in, and the young man bade her good-by, but he +whispered promise of speedy return to Rachel, and as he travelled +homeward those wonderful eyes of hers seemed to haunt him. + +"Who would have thought," he said to himself, "she could have become +such a woman? No wonder I could not find a girl to suit me when she +has been my ideal." + +You see, he was trying to persuade himself he had thought of her ever +since that term of school; and it may be, unknown to himself, those +eyes had held him. At any rate, he says they did; and when, time after +time, they drew him back to Stillman's, he at last made Rachel believe +it, and with the little key of promise she delivered him from Doubting +Castle. + +Let us take one more look, two years later, at the Stillman homestead. +There is a family gathering, and all the girls are present--Martha +and Margaret, with their sturdy boys and rosy girls; Rachel, with her +baby; and Susy, a gay young aunt, flits to and fro, playing with and +teasing the little ones. Elizabeth, with unwonted brightness in her +eyes, looks on, enjoying the merriment. + +"Doesn't it seem odd," whispers Margaret, "that Lizzie's minister +should come back after all these years." + +"Yes," answers Rachel, in the same low tone. "I am so glad. She seems +so happy." + +The husbands are all present in the evening, and the old house is full +of light and gayety. Rachel slips upstairs to put baby to bed; and as +she sits in the room where so many miserable hours of her childhood +were spent, her tears fall, thinking of herself and the dear, patient +mother, who had suffered and died; and the old bitterness rises in her +heart. Baby stirs and she hushes him, then lays him gently in the old +cradle, and goes downstairs. Some impulse prompts her to enter the +sitting-room instead of the parlor, where she thinks the family are +all gathered. + +As she opens the door she sees her father sitting, as of old, by the +table on which the lamp is burning, and she half turns to go out; +but something in his attitude touches her. He is not reading, for the +newspaper lies untouched--he is looking at something in his hand. + +She notices how gray his hair is, and how age is tracing lines on his +face. "Are you feeling sick, father?" she asks. + +"Oh, no," he says. "Look here, Rachel;" and he hands her a faded +daguerreotype of her mother taken when she was a fair young bride. "I +was thinking about her." + +"How much like Susy," she said, with tears falling on the lovely face. + +"Yes, only she was prettier," he answers. "I have been thinking of her +so much lately, Rachel. I am going to do something that would please +her. I have bought that pretty little place of Perry's, and I will put +Martha and her husband on it. Dick's a good industrious fellow; but +it's hard to make anything on a rented farm, and Martha's worried too +much. You don't think any of the children will object?" and he looked +anxiously in her face. + +"Object? Why, they will be glad, father!" And dropping her head on his +shoulder, she puts her arm around him for the first time in her life; +and as she slips the little daguerreotype in his hand a sweet peace +fills her heart and she thinks: "The bitterness is gone, and love +fills its place." After awhile she joins the group in the parlor. They +are singing to Susy's accompaniment on the organ. + +"Sing 'Coronation,' Susy," she says, as she sits down beside her +husband and glances lovingly in his face. + +"What is it?" he whispers. "You are unusually happy." + +"Yes," she answers. "I have had a vision of the land of Beulah, where +Love is king." + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTERS FROM A LIFE. + +BY ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS, + +AUTHOR OF "THE GATES AJAR," "A SINGULAR LIFE," ETC. + +THE BURNING OF THE PEMBERTON MILLS.--THE STORY OF "THE TENTH OF +JANUARY."--WHITTIER AND HIGGINSON.--THE WRITING AND PUBLICATION OF +"THE GATES AJAR." + + +The town of Lawrence was three miles and a half from Andover. Up to +the year 1860 we had considered Lawrence chiefly in the light of a +place to drive to. To the girlish resources which could, in those +days, only include a trip to Boston at the call of some fate too vast +to be expected more than two or three times a year, Lawrence offered +consolations in the shape of dry goods and restaurant ice-cream, and +a slow, delicious drive in the family carryall through sand flats and +pine woods, and past the largest bed of the sweetest violets that +ever dared the blasts of a New England spring. To the pages of the +gazetteer Lawrence would have been known as a manufacturing town +of importance. Upon the map of our young fancy the great mills were +sketched in lightly; we looked up from the restaurant ice-cream to see +the "hands" pour out for dinner, a dark and restless, but a +patient, throng; used, in those days, to standing eleven hours and a +quarter--women and girls--at their looms, six days of the week, and +making no audible complaints; for socialism had not reached Lawrence, +and anarchy was content to bray in distant parts of the geography at +which the factory people had not arrived when they left school. + +Sometimes we counted the great mills as we drove up Essex +Street--having come over the bridge by the roaring dam that tamed +the proud Merrimac to spinning cotton--Pacific, Atlantic, Washington, +Pemberton; but this was an idle, æsthetic pleasure. We did not think +about the mill-people; they seemed as far from us as the coal-miners +of a vague West, or the down-gatherers on the crags of shores whose +names we did not think it worth while to remember. One January +evening, we were forced to think about the mills with curdling horror +that no one living in that locality when the tragedy happened will +forget. + +At five o'clock the Pemberton Mills, all hands being at the time on +duty, without a tremor of warning, sank to the ground. + +At the erection of the factory a pillar with a defective core had +passed careless inspectors. In technical language, the core had +"floated" an eighth of an inch from its position. The weak spot in the +too thin wall of the pillar had bided its time, and yielded. The roof, +the walls, the machinery, fell upon seven hundred and fifty living +men and women, and buried them. Most of these were rescued; but +eighty-eight were killed. As the night came on, those watchers on +Andover Hill who could not join the rescuing parties, saw a strange +and fearful light at the north. + +Where we were used to watching the beautiful belt of the lighted mills +blaze,--a zone of laughing fire from east to west, upon the horizon +bar,--a red and awful glare went up. The mill had taken fire. A +lantern, overturned in the hands of a man who was groping to save an +imprisoned life, had flashed to the cotton, or the wool, or the +oil with which the ruins were saturated. One of the historic +conflagrations of New England resulted. + +With blanching cheeks we listened to the whispers that told us how the +mill-girls, caught in the ruins beyond hope of escape, began to sing. +They were used to singing, poor things, at their looms--mill-girls +always are--and their young souls took courage from the familiar sound +of one another's voices. They sang the hymns and songs which they had +learned in the schools and churches. No classical strains, no "music +for music's sake," ascended from that furnace; no ditty of love or +frolic; but the plain, religious outcries of the people: "Heaven is my +home," "Jesus, lover of my soul," and "Shall we gather at the river?" +Voice after voice dropped. The fire raced on. A few brave girls sang +still: + + "Shall we gather at the river, + There to walk and worship ever?" + +But the startled Merrimac rolled by, red as blood beneath the glare of +the burning mills, and it was left to the fire and the river to finish +the chorus. + +At the time this tragedy occurred, I felt my share of its horror, +like other people; but no more than that. My brother, being of the +privileged sex, was sent over to see the scene; but I was not allowed +to go. + +Years after, I cannot say just how many, the half-effaced negative +came back to form under the chemical of some new perception of the +significance of human tragedy. + +It occurred to me to use the event as the basis of a story. To this +end I set forth to study the subject. I had heard nothing in those +days about "material," and conscience in the use of it, and little +enough about art. We did not talk about realism then. Of critical +phraseology I knew nothing; and of critical standards only what I had +observed by reading the best fiction. Poor novels and stories I +did not read. I do not remember being forbidden them; but, by that +parental art finer than denial, they were absent from my convenience. + +It needed no instruction in the canons of art, however, to teach me +that to do a good thing, one must work hard for it. So I gave the best +part of a month to the study of the Pemberton Mill tragedy, driving to +Lawrence, and investigating every possible avenue of information left +at that too long remove of time which might give the data. I visited +the rebuilt mills, and studied the machinery. I consulted engineers +and officials and physicians, newspaper men, and persons who had been +in the mill at the time of its fall. I scoured the files of old local +papers, and from these I took certain portions of names, actually +involved in the catastrophe; though, of course, fictitiously used. +When there was nothing left for me to learn upon the subject, I came +home and wrote a little story called "The Tenth of January," and sent +it to the "Atlantic Monthly," where it appeared in due time. + +This story is of more interest to its author than it can possibly +be now to any reader, because it distinctly marked for me the first +recognition which I received from literary people. + +Whittier, the poet, wrote me his first letter, after having read +this story. It was soon followed by a kind note from Colonel Thomas +Wentworth Higginson. Both these distinguished men said the pleasant +thing which goes so far towards keeping the courage of young writers +above sinking point, and which, to a self-distrustful nature, may be +little less than a life-preserver. Both have done similar kindness to +many other beginners in our calling; but none of these can have been +more grateful for it, or more glad to say so, across this long width +of time, than the writer of "The Tenth of January." + +It was a defective enough little story, crude and young; I never +glance at it without longing to write it over; but I cannot read it, +to this day, without that tingling and numbness down one's spine and +through the top of one's head, which exceptional tragedy must produce +in any sensitive organization; nor can I ever trust myself to hear +it read by professional elocutionists. I attribute the success of +the story entirely to the historic and unusual character of the +catastrophe on whose movement it was built. + +Of journalism, strictly speaking, I did nothing. But I often wrote for +weekly denominational papers, to which I contributed those strictly +secular articles so popular with the religious public. My main +impression of them now, is a pleasant sense of sitting out in the +apple-trees in the wonderful Andover Junes, and "noticing" new +books-with which Boston publishers kept me supplied. For whatever +reason, the weeklies gave me all I could do at this sort of thing. In +its course I formed some pleasant acquaintances; among others that of +Jean Ingelow. I have never seen this poet, whom I honor now as much as +I admired then; but charming little notes, and books of her own, with +her autograph, reached me from time to time for years. I remember +when "The Gates Ajar" appeared, that she frankly called it "Your most +strange book." + +This brings me to say: I have been so often and so urgently asked to +publish some account of the history of this book, that perhaps I need +crave no pardon of whatever readers these papers may command, for +giving more of our space to the subject than it would otherwise occur +to one to do to a book so long behind the day. + +Of what we know as literary ambition, I believe myself to have been +as destitute at that time as any girl who ever put pen to paper. I was +absorbed in thought and feeling as far removed from the usual class +of emotions or motives which move men and women to write, as Wachusett +was from the June lilies burning beside the moonlit cross in my +father's garden. Literary ambition is a good thing to possess; and I +do not at all suggest that I was superior to it, but simply apart from +it. Of its pangs and ecstasies I knew little, and thought less. + +I have been asked, possibly a thousand times, whether I looked upon +that little book as in any sense the result of inspiration, whether +what is called spiritualistic, or of any other sort. I have always +promptly said "No," to this question. Yet sometimes I wonder if that +convenient monosyllable in deed and truth covers the whole case. + +When I remember just how the book came to be, perceive the +consequences of its being, and recall the complete unconsciousness of +the young author as to their probable nature, there are moments when I +am fain to answer the question by asking another: "What do we mean by +inspiration?" + +That book grew so naturally, it was so inevitable, it was so +unpremeditated, it came so plainly from that something not one's self +which makes for uses in which one's self is extinguished, that there +are times when it seems to me as if I had no more to do with the +writing of it than the bough through which the wind cries, or the wave +by means of which the tide rises. + +The angel said unto me "Write!" and I wrote. + +It is impossible to remember how or when the idea of the book first +visited me. Its publication bears the date of 1869. My impressions are +that it may have been towards the close of 1864 that the work began; +for there was work in it, more than its imperfect and youthful +character might lead one ignorant of the art of book-making to +suppose. + +It was not until 1863 that I left school, being then just about at +my nineteenth birthday. It is probable that the magazine stories +and Sunday-school books and hack work occupied from one to two years +without interruption; but I have no more temperament for dates in my +own affairs than I have for those of history. At the most, I could +not have been far from twenty when the book was written; possibly +approaching twenty-one. + +At that time, it will be remembered, our country was dark with +sorrowing women. The regiments came home, but the mourners went about +the streets. + +The Grand Review passed through Washington; four hundred thousand +ghosts of murdered men kept invisible march to the drum-beats, and +lifted to the stained and tattered flags the proud and unreturned gaze +of the dead who have died in their glory. + +Our gayest scenes were black with crape. The drawn faces of bereaved +wife, mother, sister, and widowed girl showed piteously everywhere. +Gray-haired parents knelt at the grave of the boy whose enviable +fortune it was to be brought home in time to die in his mother's room. +Towards the nameless mounds of Arlington, of Gettysburg, and the rest, +the yearning of desolated homes went out in those waves of anguish +which seem to choke the very air that the happier and more fortunate +must breathe. + +Is there not an actual occult force in the existence of a general +grief? It swells to a tide whose invisible flow covers all the little +resistance of common, human joyousness. It is like a material miasma. +The gayest man breathes it, if he breathe at all; and the most +superficial cannot escape it. + +Into that great world of woe my little book stole forth, trembling. So +far as I can remember having had any "object" at all in its creation, +I wished to say something that would comfort some few--I did not think +at all about comforting many, not daring to suppose that incredible +privilege possible--of the women whose misery crowded the land. The +smoke of their torment ascended, and the sky was blackened by it. I do +not think I thought so much about the suffering of men--the fathers, +the brothers, the sons--bereft; but the women--the helpless, +outnumbering, unconsulted women; they whom war trampled down, without +a choice or protest; the patient, limited, domestic women, who thought +little, but loved much, and, loving, had lost all--to them I would +have spoken. + +For it came to seem to me, as I pondered these things in my own heart, +that even the best and kindest forms of our prevailing beliefs had +nothing to say to an afflicted woman that could help her much. Creeds +and commentaries and sermons were made by men. What tenderest of men +knows how to comfort his own daughter when her heart is broken? What +can the doctrines do for the desolated by death? They were chains of +rusty iron, eating into raw hearts. The prayer of the preacher were +not much better; it sounded like the language of an unknown race to +a despairing girl. Listen to the hymn. It falls like icicles on snow. +Or, if it happen to be one of the old genuine outcries of the Church, +sprung from real human anguish or hope, it maddens the listener, and +she flees from it, too sore a thing to bear the touch of holy music. + +At this time, be it said, I had no interest at all in any especial +movement for the peculiar needs of women as a class. I was reared in +circles which did not concern themselves with what we should probably +have called agitators. I was taught the old ideas of womanhood, in the +old way, and had not to any important extent begun to resent them. + +Perhaps I am wrong here. Individually, I may have begun to recoil from +them, but only in a purely selfish, personal way, beyond which I had +evolved neither theory nor conscience; much less the smallest tendency +towards sympathy with any public movement of the question. + +In the course of two or three years spent in exceptional solitude, +I had read a good deal in the direction of my ruling thoughts and +feeling, and came to the writing of my little book, not ignorant of +what had been written for and by the mourning. The results of this +reading, of course, went into the book, and seemed to me, at the time, +by far the most useful part of it. + +How the book grew, who can say? More of nature than of purpose, +surely. It moved like a tear or a sigh or a prayer. In a sense I +scarcely knew that I wrote it. Yet it signified labor and time, crude +and young as it looks to me now; and often as I have wondered, from +my soul, why it has known the history that it has, I have at least +a certain respect for it, myself, in that it did not represent +shiftlessness or sloth, but steady and conscientious toil. There was +not a page in it which had not been subjected to such study as the +writer then knew how to offer to her manuscripts. + +Every sentence had received the best attention which it was in the +power of my inexperience and youth to give. I wrote and rewrote. The +book was revised so many times that I could have said it by heart. +The process of forming and writing "The Gates Ajar" lasted, I think, +nearly two years. + +I had no study or place to myself in those days; only the little room +whose one window looked upon the garden cross, and which it was not +expected would be warmed in winter. + +The room contained no chimney, and, until I was sixteen, no fire for +any purpose. At that time, it being supposed that some delicacy of the +lungs had threatened serious results, my father, who always moved the +sods beneath him and the skies above him to care for a sick child, had +managed to insert a little stove into the room, to soften its chill +when needed. But I did not have consumption, only life; and one was +not expected to burn wood all day for private convenience in our +furnace-heated house. Was there not the great dining-room where the +children studied? + +It was not so long since I, too, had learned my lessons off the +dining-room table, or in the corner by the register, that it should +occur to any member of the family that these opportunities for privacy +could not answer my needs. + +Equally, it did not occur to me to ask for any abnormal luxuries. I +therefore made the best of my conditions, though I do remember sorely +longing for quiet. + +This, at that time, in that house, it was impossible for me to +compass. There was a growing family of noisy boys--four of them--of +whom I was the only sister, as I was the oldest child. When the baby +did not cry (I have always maintained that the baby cried pretty +steadily both day and night, but this is a point upon which their +mother and I have affectionately agreed to differ), the boys were +shouting about the grounds, chasing each other through the large +house, up and down the cellar stairs, and through the wide halls, +a whirlwind of vigor and fun. They were merry, healthy boys, and +everything was done to keep them so. I sometimes doubt if there are +any happier children growing anywhere than the boys and girls of +Andover used to be. I was very fond of the boys, and cherished no +objection to their privileges in the house. But when one went down, on +a cold day, to the register, to write one's chapter on the nature of +amusements in the life to come, and found the dining-room neatly +laid out in the form of a church congregation, to which a certain +proportion of brothers were enthusiastically performing the duties of +an active pastor and parish, the environment was a definite check to +inspiration. + +I wonder if all Andover boys played at preaching? It certainly was the +one sport in our house which never satiated. + +Coming in one day, I remember, struggling with certain hopeless +purposes of my own, for an afternoon's work, I found the dining-room +chairs all nicely set in the order of pews; a table, ornamented +with Bible and hymn-books, confronted them; behind it, on a cricket, +towered the bigger brother, loudly holding forth. The little brother +represented the audience--it was usually the little one who was forced +to play this duller _rôle_--and, with open mouth, and with wriggling +feet turned in on the rounds of the chair, absorbed as much +exhortation as he could suffer. + +"My text, brethren," said the little minister, "is, 'Suffer the little +children to come unto me.' + +"My subject is, _God; Joseph; and Moses in the bulrushes_!" + +Discouraged by the alarming breadth of the little preacher's topic, I +fled up-stairs again. There an inspiration did, indeed, strike me; +for I remembered an old fur cape, or _pelisse_, of my mother's, out +of fashion, but the warmer for that; and straightway I got me into it, +and curled up, with my papers, on the chilly bed in the cold room, and +went to work. + +It seems to me that a good part of "The Gates Ajar" was written in +that old fur cape. Often I stole up into the attic, or into some +unfrequented closet, to escape the noise of the house, while at work. +I remember, too, writing sometimes in the barn, on the haymow. The +book extended over a wide domestic topography. + +I hasten to say that no person was to blame for inconveniences of +whose existence I had never complained. Doubtless something would have +been done to relieve them had I asked for it; or if the idea that my +work could ever be of any consequence had occurred to any of us. Why +should it? The girl who is never "domestic" is trial enough at her +best. She cannot cook; she will not sew. She washes dishes Mondays and +Tuesdays under protest, while the nurse and parlor maid are called +off from their natural avocations, and dusts the drawing-room with +obedient resentment. She sits cutting out underclothes in the March +vacations, when all the schools are closed, and when the heavy wagons +from the distant farming region stick in the bottomless Andover mud in +front of the professor's house. The big front door is opened, and the +dismal, creaking sounds come in. + +The kind and conscientious new mother, to whom I owe many other gentle +lessons more valuable than this, teaches how necessary to a lady's +education is a neat needle. The girl does not deny this elemental +fact; but her eyes wander away to the cold sky above the Andover +mud, with passionate entreaty. To this day I cannot hear the thick +chu-chunk! of heavy wheels on March mud without a sudden mechanical +echo of that wild, young outcry: "Must I cut out underclothes forever? +Must I go on tucking the broken end of the thread into the nick in the +spool? Is _this_ LIFE?" + +I am more than conscious that I could not have been an easy girl to +"bring up," and am sure that for whatever little difficulties beset +the earlier time of my ventures as a writer, no person was in any +fault. They were doubtless good for me, in their way. We all know that +some of the greatest of brain-workers have selected the poorest and +barest of spots in which to study. Luxury and bric-a-brac come to easy +natures or in easy years. The energy that very early learns to conquer +difficulty is always worth its price. + +I used, later, to hear in Boston the story of the gentleman who once +took a friend to see the room of his son at Harvard College. The +friend was a man of plain life, but of rich mental achievement. He +glanced at the Persian rugs and costly draperies of the boy's quarters +in silence. + +"Well," cried the fond father, "don't you think my son has a pretty +room?" + +"Sir," said the visitor, with gentle candor, "_you'll never raise a +scholar on that carpet._" + +Out of my discomforts, which were small enough, grew one thing for +which I have all my life been grateful--the formation of fixed habits +of work. + +I have seldom waited for inspiration before setting about a task to +be done. Life is too short for that. Broken health has too often +interrupted a regimen of study which ought to have been more +continuous; but, so far as I may venture to offer an opinion from +personal experience, I should say that the writers who would be wise +to play hide and seek with their own moods are few. + +According to my custom, I said nothing (so far as I can remember) to +any person about the book. + +It cannot be said that I had any hope of success with it; or that, +in my most irrational dreams, anything like the consequences of its +publication ever occurred to my fancy. But I did distinctly understand +that I had set forth upon a venture totally dissimilar to the safe and +respectable careers of my dozen Sunday-school books. + +I was asked only the other day why it was that, having such a rare +critic at first hand as my father, I did not more often submit my +manuscripts to his judgment. It would be difficult to say precisely +why. The professor of rhetoric was a very busy man; and at that time +the illness which condemned him to thirty years of invalid suffering +was beginning to make itself manifest. I can remember more often +throwing down my pen to fly out and beg the children to be quiet in +the garden while the sleepless man struggled for a few moments' rest +in the daytime; or stealing on tiptoe to his locked door, at any hour +of the night, to listen for signs of sudden illness or need of help; +these things come back more easily than the desire to burden him with +what I wrote. + +Yet perhaps that abnormal pride, whose existence I have admitted, had +quite as much to do with this restraint. + +When a thing was published, then quickly to him with it! His sympathy +and interest were unfailing, and his criticism only too gentle; though +it could be a sword of flame when he chose to smite. + +Unknown to himself I had dedicated "The Gates Ajar" to him. In this +dedication there was a slip in good English, or, at least, in such +English as the professor wrote and spoke. I had used the word "nears" +as a verb, instead of its proper synonym, "approaches." He read the +dedication quietly, thanked me tenderly for it, and said nothing. It +was left for me to find out my blunder for myself, as I did, in due +time. He had not the heart to tell me of it then. Nor did he insinuate +his consciousness that the dedication might seem to involve him--as it +did in certain citadels of stupidity--in the views of the book. + +The story was sent to its publishers, Messrs. Ticknor and Fields, and +leisurely awaited their verdict. As I had written somewhat for their +magazines, "The Atlantic" and "Our Young Folks," I did not come as +quite a stranger. Still, the fate of the book hung upon a delicate +scale. It was two years from the time the story went to its publishers +before it appeared between covers. How much of this period the author +was kept in suspense I cannot remember; but, I think, some time. + +I have the impression that the disposal of the book, so far as that +firm went, wavered for a while upon the decision of one man, whose +wife shared the reading of the manuscript. "Take it," she said at +last, decidedly; and the fiat went forth. The lady afterwards became +a personal friend, and I hope I may not forfeit the treasure of her +affection by this late and public recognition of the pleasant part she +bore in the fortunes of my life. + +The book was accepted, and still this piece of good luck did not make +my head spin. I had lived among book-makers too much to expect +the miracle. I went soberly back to my hack work, and on with my +Sunday-school books. + +One autumn day the customary package of gift copies of the new book +made its way to Andover Hill; but: I opened it without elation, the +experience being so far from my first of its kind. The usual note +of thanks was returned to the publishers, and quiet fell again. +Unconscious of either hope or fear, I kept on about my business, +and the new book was the last thing on earth with which I concerned +myself. + +One morning, not many weeks after its publication, I received a letter +from Mr. James T. Fields. He, who was the quickest of men to do a +kindness, and surest to give to young writers the encouraging word for +which they had not hope enough to listen, had hurried himself to break +to me the news. + +"Your book is moving grandly," so he wrote. "It has already reached +a sale of four thousand copies. We take pleasure in sending you--" He +enclosed a check for six hundred dollars, the largest sum on which I +had ever set my startled eyes. It would not, by my contract, have been +due me for six months or more to come. + +The little act was like him, and like the courteous and generous house +on whose list I have worked for thirty years. + +[Illustration] + + + + +EDITORIAL NOTES. + + +TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR SHORT STORIES. + +We find considerable difficulty in getting the two hundred first-class +short stories that we require each year. We are delighted to be able +to publish so many stories by eminent authors, but we should like to +get more good stories from writers whose fame is yet to be made. We +therefore announce a liberal policy in regard to payment, and invite +contributions from every one who can write a good story. The scale +of payment will be such as to please every contributor, whether he is +famous or not. + +We need every year about fifty stories of from four to six thousand +words in length; about one hundred stories of from two to three +thousand words in length, and not less than fifty stories a year for +young people, about two thousand words in length. Of these stories +thirty or forty are for McCLURE'S MAGAZINE, and the remainder are +for the newspaper syndicates controlled by the publishers of this +magazine. + +A regular manuscript department has been established by the editors, +and it is the intention to report upon every manuscript within a week +after it is received. We also welcome contributions to every branch of +literature represented in the magazine. + + +THE McCLURE'S "EARLY LIFE OF LINCOLN." + +This volume contains all the articles published in the first +four Lincoln numbers of McCLURE'S MAGAZINE (November to February, +inclusive). These numbers, although repeatedly reprinted, are now out +of print, and the "Early Life of Lincoln" was published mainly to meet +a demand we could not fill with the magazine. It contains a great deal +more, both in text and pictures, than appeared in the magazine. It is +mailed to any address for fifty cents; or for one dollar, if bound +in cloth. We intend having our own plant, to reprint the March and +subsequent numbers whenever necessary. + + +THE McCLURE'S NEW "LIFE OF GRANT." + +We have been greatly surprised, in preparing our new "Life of Grant," +to find so much new and valuable material, especially about Grant's +earlier life. No more fascinating and dramatic story has ever been +lived. We have been especially fortunate in securing the collaboration +of Mr. Hamlin Garland to write this life of Grant. Mr. Garland was +selected for this work for two reasons--first, he has always loved and +admired Grant; second, he is familiar in general with the conditions +of life in the middle West, and is especially qualified to tell the +truth both in color and fact. The tastes and training of a realistic +novelist are an admirable equipment for a biographer, provided the +hero of his story and his environment appeal to the novelist. + +_We propose to publish the best Life of Grant ever written._ + +We have collected a great quantity of pictures and other +illustrations, and we ask our friends to help us as they are helping +us in our "Life of Lincoln." Every one who has a contribution, either +in picture or incident, to our knowledge of this great man ought to +bring it before the two or three million readers that McCLURE'S will +have when we begin to publish the "Life of Grant" next November. + + +NEW PICTURES OF LINCOLN. + +Almost every week we add to our collection of Lincoln pictures. Many +of these ambrotypes and photographs are of the greatest value in +adding to our knowledge of Lincoln. We hope to reach one hundred +before the end of the year. We had only fifty portraits last November. +We have eighty now. + + +THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND PRACTICAL ARTS. + +Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, was the scene of one of the most +important of the debates between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas. The +debate took place on a platform at the east end of the main college +building. At this memorable debate the students carried a banner on +which was inscribed "Knox for Lincoln." In April, 1860, before he was +nominated for the Presidency, Knox College conferred the degree of +LL.D. on Abraham Lincoln. At their recent midwinter meeting, the board +of trustees unanimously voted to establish a memorial to Lincoln; and +this memorial will be the scientific department of Knox College, and +will be called "The Abraham Lincoln School of Science and Practical +Arts." + +The founders of this magazine are all alumni of Knox College, and are +particularly pleased at this action of their alma mater. Knox College +affords a splendid opportunity to young men and women of limited +means. The editors of this magazine can afford to pay the living +expenses and tuition for one year at this college of any young man or +woman who secures five hundred subscribers, as proposed and explained +on the second advertising page of this number of the magazine. + +The editors of McCLURE'S MAGAZINE are thoroughly acquainted with Knox +College, and can recommend it, knowing that students who go there will +live under the best possible influences and receive a sound education. +All inquiries should be addressed to the president, John Finley, Knox +College, Galesburg, Illinois. + + +THE HOUSE IN WHICH LINCOLN'S PARENTS WERE MARRIED.--A CORRECTION. + +The picture of the house in which Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks +were married, printed in McCLURE'S MAGAZINE for November, 1895, was +credited by mistake to the Oldroyd collection. The photograph from +which the reproduction was made came from the Oldroyd collection; +but this photograph is, we are informed, from a negative now in +the possession of Mr. A.D. Miller of Brazil, Indiana, and credit is +therefore due to Mr. Miller. + + + +[Note: The Table of Contents and the list of illustrations were added + by the transcriber.] + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14663 *** |