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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14842-8.txt b/14842-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e867e0 --- /dev/null +++ b/14842-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9074 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature +and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: January 30, 2005 [EBook #14842] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE + +OF + +_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE._ + + + +SEPTEMBER, 1880. + + + +EKONIAH SCRUB: AMONG FLORIDA LAKES + +[Illustration: THE FORD.] + +[Note: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by J.B. +LIPPINCOTT & Co., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at +Washington.] + + + +"And if you do get lost after that, it's no great matter," said the +county clerk, folding up his map, "for then all you've got to do is to +find William Townsend and inquire." + +He had been giving us the itinerary for our "cross-country" journey, by +way of the Lakes, to Ekoniah Scrub. How many of all the Florida +tourists know where that is? I wonder. Or even _what_ it is--the +strange amphibious land which goes on from year to year +"developing"--the solid ground into marshy "parrairas," the prairies +into lakes, bright, sparkling sapphires which Nature is threading, one +by one, year by year, upon her emerald chaplet of forest borderland? +How many of them all have guessed that close at hand, hidden away amid +the shadows of the scrub-oaks, lies her laboratory, where any day they +may steal in upon her at her work and catch a world a-making? + +There are three individuals who know a little more about it now than +they did a few weeks since--three, or shall we not rather say four? For +who shall say that Barney gained less from the excursion than the +Artist, the Scribe and the Small Boy who were his fellow-travellers? +That Barney became a party to the expedition in the character, so to +speak, of a lay-brother, expected to perform the servile labor of the +establishment while his superiors were worshipping at Nature's shrines, +in nowise detracted from his improvement of the bright spring holiday. +It was, indeed, upon the Small Boy who beat the mule, rather than upon +the mule that drew the wagon, that the fatigues of the expedition fell. +"He just glimpses around at me with his old eyeball," says the Small +Boy, exasperate, throwing away his broken cudgel, "and that's all the +good it does." + +We knew nothing more of Ekoniah when we set out upon our journey than +that it was the old home of an Indian tribe in the long-ago days before +primeval forest had given place to the second growth of "scrub," and +that it was a region unknown to the Northern tourist. It lies to the +south-west of Magnolia, our point of departure on the St. John's River, +but at first our route lay westerly, that it might include the +lake-country of the Ridge. + +"It's a pretty kentry," said a friendly "Cracker," of whom, despite the +county clerk's itinerary, we were fain to ask the way within two hours +after starting--"a right pretty kentry, but it's all alike. You'll be +tired of it afore you're done gone halfway." + +Is he blind, our friend the Cracker? Already, in the very outset of our +journey, we have beheld such varied beauties as have steeped our souls +in joy. After weeks of rainless weather the morning had been showery, +and on our setting forth at noon we had found the world new washed and +decked for our coming. Birds were singing, rainbows glancing, in +quivering, water-laden trees; flowers were shimmering in the sunshine; +the young growth was springing up glorious from the blackness of +desolating winter fires. Such tender tones of pink and gray! such +fiery-hearted reds and browns and olive-greens! such misty vagueness in +the shadows! such brilliance in the sunlight that melted through the +openings of the woods! "All alike," indeed! No "accidents" of rock or +hill are here, but oh the grandeur of those far-sweeping curves of +undulating surface! the mystery of those endless aisles of +solemn-whispering pines! the glory of color, intense and fiery, which +breathes into every object a throbbing, living soul! + +For hours we journeyed through the forest, always in the centre of a +vast circle of scattered pines, upon the outer edge of which the trees +grew dense and dark, stretching away into infinity. Our road wandered +in and out among the prostrate victims of many a summer tempest: now we +were winding around dark "bays" of sweet-gum and magnolia; now skirting +circular ponds of delicate young cypress; now crossing narrow +"branches" sunk deep in impenetrable "hummocks" of close-crowded oak +and ash and maple, thick-matted with vines and undergrowth; now pausing +to gather orchis and pitcher-plants and sun-kisses and andromeda; now +fording the broad bend of Peter's Creek where it flows, sapphire in the +sunshine, out from the moss-draped live-oaks between high banks of red +and yellow clays and soft gray sand, to lose itself in a tangle of +flowering shrubs; now losing and finding our way among the intricate +cross-roads that lead by Bradley's Creek and Darbin Savage's tramway +and the "new-blazed road" of the county clerk's itinerary. Suddenly the +sky grew dark: thunder began to roll, and--were we in the right road? +It seemed suspiciously well travelled, for now we called to mind that +Middleburg was nigh at hand, and thither we had been warned _not_ to +go. + +There was a house in the distance, the second we had seen since leaving +the "settle_ments_" near the river. And there we learned that we were +right and wrong: it _was_ the Middleburg road. After receiving sundry +lucid directions respecting a "blind road" and an "old field," we +turned away. How dark it was growing! how weirdly soughed the wind +among the pine tops! how bodingly the thunder growled afar! There came +a great slow drop: another, and suddenly, with swiftly-rushing sound, +the rain was upon us, drenching us all at once before waterproofs and +umbrellas could be made available. + +[Illustration: "NOT ALL THE BLANDISHMENTS OF THE SMALL BOY AVAILED."] + +It was then that Barney showed the greatness of his soul. In the +confusion of the moment we had run afoul of a stout young oak, which +obstinately menaced the integrity of our axle. It was only possible to +back out of the predicament, but Barney scorned the thought of retreat. +Not all the blandishments of the Small Boy, whether brought to bear in +the form of entreaties, remonstrances, jerks or threats, availed: +Barney stood unmoved, and the hatchet was our only resource. How that +mule's eye twinkled as from time to time he cast a backward glance upon +the Small Boy wrestling with a dull hatchet and a sturdy young +scrub-oak under the pelting rain, amid lightning-flash and +thunder-peal, needs a more graphic pen than mine to describe. A +better-drenched biped than climbed into the wagon at the close of this +episode, or a more thoroughly-satisfied quadruped than jogged along +before him, it would be difficult to find. + +As suddenly as they had come up the clouds rolled away, and sunlight +flamed out from the west--so suddenly that it caught the rain halfway +and filled the air with tremulous rainbow hues. Then burst out afresh +the songs of birds, sweet scents thrilled up from flower and shrub, the +very earth was fragrant, and fresh, resinous odors exhaled from every +tree. The sun sank down in gold and purple glory and night swept over +the dark woods. Myriad fireflies flitted round, insects chirped in +every hollow, the whippoorwill called from the distant thicket, the +night-hawk circled in the open glade. A cheerful sound of cow-bells +broke the noisy stillness, the forest opened upon a row of dark +buildings and darker orange trees, and barking of dogs and kindly +voices told us that rest was at hand. + +No words can do justice to the hospitality of Floridians, whether +native or foreign. We were now to begin an experience which was to last +us through our entire journey. Here we were, a wandering company of +who-knows-what, arriving hungry, drenched and unexpected long after the +supper-hour, and our mere appearance was the "open sesame" to all the +treasures of house and barn. Not knowing what our hap might be, we had +gone provided with blankets and food, but both proved to be superfluous +wherever we could find a house. Bad might be the best it afforded, but +the best was at our service. At K----'s Ferry it was decidedly _not_ +bad. Abundance reigned there, though in a quaint old fashion, and very +soon after our arrival we were warming and drying ourselves before a +cheerful fire, while from the kitchen came most heartening sounds and +smells, as of fizzling ham and bubbling coffee. + +Never was seen a prettier place than this as we beheld it by the +morrow's light. The house stands on a high bluff, worthy the name of +hill, which slopes steeply but greenly down to the South Prong of Black +Creek, better deserving the name of river than many a stream which +boasts the designation. We crossed it upon a boom, pausing midway in +sudden astonishment at the lovely view. A long reach of exquisitely +pure water, bordered by the dense overhanging foliage of its high +banks, stretched away to where, a mile below us, a sudden bend hid its +lower course from view, and on the high green bluff which closed the +vista were seen the white house and venerable overarching trees of some +old estate. The morning air was crisp and pure; every leaf and twig +stood out with clean-cut distinctness, to be mirrored with startling +clearness in the stream; the sky was cloudless: no greater contrast +could be imagined from the tender sweetness of yesterday. The birds, +exhilarated by the sparkle in the air, sang with a rollicking +abandonment quite contagious: the very kids and goats on the crags +above the road caught the infection and frisked about, tinkling their +bells and joining most unmelodiously in the song; while Barney, +crossing the creek upon a flatboat, lifted up a tuneful voice in the +chorus. + +We turned aside from our route to visit Whitesville, the beautiful old +home of Judge B----. It is a noble great mansion, with broad double +doors opening from every side of a wide hall, and standing in the midst +of a wild garden luxuriant with flowers and shrubs and vines, and with +a magnificent ivy climbing to the top of a tall blasted tree at the +gate. "I came to this place from New Haven in '29," its owner told +us--"sailed from New York to Darien, Georgia, in a sloop, and from +there in a sail-boat to this very spot. I prospected all about: bought +a little pony, and rode him--well, five thousand miles after I began to +keep count. Finally, I came back and settled here." + +"Were you never troubled by Indians?" we asked. + +"Well, they put a fort here in the Indian war, the government +did--right here, where you see the china trees." It was a beautiful +green slope beside the house, with five great pride-of-Indias in a row +and a glimpse of the creek through the thickets at the foot. "There +never was any engagement here, though. The Indians had a camp over +there at K----'s, where you came from, but they all went away to the +Nation after a while." + +"Did you stay here through the civil war?" + +"Oh yes. I never took any part in the troubles, but the folks all +suspected and watched me. They knew I was a Union man. One day a +Federal regiment came along and wanted to buy corn and fodder. The men +drew up on the green, and the colonel rode up to the door. 'Colonel,' +says I, 'I can't _sell_ you anything, but I believe the keys are in the +corn-barn and stable doors: I can't hinder your taking anything by +force.' He understood, and took pretty well what he wanted. Afterward +he came and urged me to take a voucher, but I wouldn't do that. By and +by the Confederates came around and accused me of selling to the +Federals, but they couldn't prove anything against me." + +"There used to be Confederate head-quarters up there at K----'s?" we +asked. + +"Oh yes, and the Federals had it too. General Birney was there for a +while. One day, just after he came, a lot of 'em came over here. One of +my boys was lying very sick in that front chamber just then--the one +you know, the county clerk. Well, an orderly rode up to the door and +called out, 'Here, you damned old rebel, the general wants you.'--'I +don't answer to that name,' said I.--'You don't?'--'No, I +don't.'--'What! ain't you a rebel?'--' I don't answer to that name,' +said I.--'Well, consider yourself my prisoner,' says he; so I walked up +there with him. Judge Price was at head-quarters just then, and he knew +me well. It seems that the general had heard that I kept a regular +rebel commissariat, sending stores to them secretly. Well, when the +judge had told him who I was, the general wrote me a pass at once, and +then asked, 'Is there anything I can do for you?'--'General,' said I, +'my son lies very sick. I should like to see the last of him, and beg +to be permitted to retire.'--'Is that so?' said the general. 'Would you +like me to send you a doctor?' I accepted, and he sent me two. He came +up afterward, and found that his men had torn down the fences, broken +open the store and dragged out goods, set the oil and molasses running, +and done great damage--about four thousand dollars' worth, we +estimated. You see, they thought it was a rebel commissariat. When he +came into the house he asked my wife if she could give him supper. +'General,' said she, 'you have taken away my cooks: if you will send +for your own, I shall be very happy to get supper for you.' He did so, +and spent the night here, sleeping in one of the chambers while his +officers lay all over the piazzas. Next day they all rode away, quite +satisfied, I guess. There were several skirmishes about here afterward, +and we have some pieces of bombs in the house now that fell in the +yard." + +[Illustration: LAKE BEDFORD.] + +The judge pressed us to stay and dine, but we had arranged for a gypsy +dinner in the woods and were anxious to push on. Push on! How Barney +would smile could he hear the word! He never did anything half so +energetic as to push: he did not even pull. + +So we bade farewell to our genial host and started westwardly again. We +were now upon the high land of the Ridge, the backbone of the State, +and though, perhaps, hardly ninety feet above the sea, the air had all +the exhilarating freshness of great altitudes. All through the week +which followed we felt its tonic inspiration and seemed to drink in +intoxicating draughts of health and spirits, and never more than during +the fifteen-mile drive between Black Creek and Kingsley's Pond. + +Kingsley's Pond, the highest body of water in the State, is the first +of a long succession of lakes which, lying between the St. John's and +the railway, have only lately been, as it were, discovered by the +Northerner. It is perfectly circular in form, being precisely two miles +across in every direction. Like all the lakes of Florida, it is of +immense depth, and its waters are so transparent that the white sand at +the bottom may be seen glistening like stars. In common with the other +waters of this region, it is surrounded by a hard beach of white sand, +rising gradually up to a beautifully-wooded slope, being quite free +from the marshes which too often render the lakes of Florida +unapproachable. + +One of the Northern colonies which within the last two years have +discovered this delightful region has settled on the shores of +Kingsley's Pond. Although an infant of only twenty months, the village +has made excellent growth and gives promise of a bright future. Farming +is not largely followed, the principal industry of these and the other +Northern colonists being orange-culture--a business to which the +climate is wonderfully propitious, the dry, pure air of this district +being alike free from excessive summer heats and from the frosts which +are occasionally disastrous to groves situated on lower ground in the +same latitude. + +Though there are few native Floridians in this part of the country, the +neighborhood of the lake rejoices in the possession of a Cracker +doctress of wondrous powers. Who but her knows that chapter in the book +of Daniel the reading of which stays the flowing of blood, or that +other chapter potent to extinguish forest-fires? One does not need a +long residence in the State to learn to appreciate the good-fortune of +the Lakers in this particular. + +Not far from the village, on the western shore of the pond, lives the +one "old settler." He met us with the hearty welcome which we had +learned almost to look for as a right, and sitting on his front piazza +in the shade of his orange trees, gladdening our eyes with the view of +his vine-embowered pigpen, we listened to the legend of the pond: + +"Yes, I've lived yere four-and-twenty year, but I done kim to Floridy +nigh on forty year ago: walked yere from Georgy to jine the Injun war. +I done found this place a-scoutin' about, and when I got married I kim +yere to settle. The Yankee folks wants to change the name o' the pond +to Summit Lake and one thing or 'nother, but I allays votes square agin +it every time, and allays will. You see, hit don't ought to be changed. +I don't mind the _pond_ part: they mought call it lake ef they think it +sounds better, but Kingsley's it _has_ to be. K-i-n-g-l-e-s-l-e-y: +that, I take it, is the prompt way to spell the name of the man as +named it, and that's the name it has to have. You see hit was this +a-way: Kingsley were a mail-rider--leastways, express--in the _old_ +Injun wartime, I dunno how long ago. They was a fort on the pond them +days, over on the south side. Wal, Kingsley were a-comin' down toward +the fort from the no'th when he thort he see an Injun. He looked +behind, and, sure enough, there they was, a-closin' in on him. He +looked ahead agin. Shore's you're bo'hn there was a double row on +'em--better'n a hunderd--on all two sides of the trail. He hadn't a +minit to study, and jist one thing to do, and he done hit. He jist +clapped spurs to his critter and made for the pond. He knowed what they +wanted of him"--confidentially and solemnly: "it were their intention +to ketch him and scalp him alive, you know. Wal, they follered him to +the pond, a-whoopin' and a-yellin' all the way, makin' shore on him. +When he got to the pond he rid right in, the Injuns a'ter him, but his +critter soon began to gin out. When he see that he jist gethered up his +kit and jumped into the water, and swum for dear life. Two mile good +that feller swum, and saved his kit and musket. The Injuns got his +critter, but you never see nothin' so mad as they was to see him git +off that a-way. The soldiers at the fort was a-watchin' all the time. +They run down to meet him: they see he looked kinder foolish as he swum +in, and as soon as he struck the shore he jist flung himself on the +sand, and laid for half an hour athout openin' his eyes or speakin'. +Then he done riz right up and toted his kit to the commander, and axed +to hev the pond named a'ter him. The commander said it mought be so, +and so hit was; and so it _has_ to be, I says, and allays will." + +[Illustration: TWIN LAKE.] + +It would be impossible to detail the exquisite and varied beauty of the +way between Kingsley's Pond and Ekoniah Scrub. Through the fair +primeval forest we wandered, following the old Alachua Trail, the very +name of which enhanced the charm of the present scene by calling up +thrilling fancies of the past; for this is the famous Indian war-path +from the hunting-grounds of the interior to the settlements on the +frontier, and may well be the oldest and the most adventure-fraught +thoroughfare in the United States. We could hardly persuade ourselves +that we were not passing through some magnificent old estate--of late, +perhaps, somewhat fallen into neglect--so perfect was the lawn-like +smoothness of the grassy uplands, so rhythmical were the undulations of +the slopes, so majestic the natural avenues of enormous oaks, so +admirable the diversity of hill and dell, knoll and glade, shrubbery +and lawn, forest and park, interspersed with frequent sheets of +water--Blue Pond, rivalling the sky in color; Sandhill Pond, deep set +among high wooded slopes, with picturesque log mill and house; Magnolia +Lake, with its flawless mirror; Crystal, of more than crystal +clearness, with gorgeous sunset memories and sweet recollections of +kindly hospitalities in the two homes which crown its twin heights; +Bedford and Brooklyn Lakes, with log cottages beneath clustering trees; +Minnie Lake, and its great alligator sleeping on a log; starry +Lily-Pad; and Osceola's Punch-bowl, deep enough, and none too large, to +hold the potations of a Worthy; Twin Lakes, scarce divided by the +island in their midst; Double Pond, low sunk in the green forest slope, +a perfect circle bisected by a wooded ridge; Geneva Lake, dotted with +islands and beautiful with shining orange-groves;--always among the +lawns and glades, the forest-slopes and aisles of pines, with sough of +wind and song of bird, and fragrant wild perfumes. Always with bright +"bits" of life between the long, grand silences--a group of men faring +on foot across the pine level; a rosy, bareheaded girl--the only girl +in the place--searching for calves in the dingle, who gave us flowers +and told us the road with the sweet, lingering cadence of the South in +her velvet voice; two men riding by turns the mule that bore their +sacks of corn to mill; two boys carrying a great cross-cut saw along a +sloping lakeside, a noble Newfoundland dog frisking beside them; the +fleet bay horse and erect military figure of our host at Crystal Lake +guiding us among the intricacies of the Lake Colony. Always with sunny +memories of happy hours--gypsy dinners beside golden-watered "branch" +or sapphire lake; the cheery half hour in the log house on the hill +above the little grist-mill, with the bright young Philadelphians who +have here cast in their lot; the abundant feast in the farm-house under +the orange trees, and the "old-time" stories of the after-dinner hour; +the pleasant days at Crystal Lake, where our first day's drenching +resulted so happily in a slight illness that detained us in that lovely +spot, and showed us, in the new colony lately settled on this and the +adjacent lakes, how refinement and cultivation, lending elegance to +rude toil and harsh privation, may realize even Utopian dreams. + +The great farm on Geneva Lake was the first old plantation which we had +seen since leaving Kingsley's, and this lies on the outskirts of +Ekoniah Scrub, which has long been settled by native Floridians or +Georgians. "Hit ain't a farmin' kentry, above there on the sandhills," +said our host of the thrifty old farm on Lake Geneva. "It's fine for +oranges an' bananas, but the Scrub's better for plantin'. Talk about +oranges! Look a' that tree afore you! A sour tree hit were--right smart +big, too--but four year ago I sawed it off near the ground and stuck in +five buds. That tree is done borne three craps a'ready--fifteen oranges +the second year from the bud, a hundred and fifty the third, and last +year we picked eight hundred off her. Seedlin's? Anybody mought hev +fruit seven year from the seed, but they must take care o' the trees to +do it. Look a' them trees by the fence: eight year old, them is. Some +of 'em bore the sixth year: every one on 'em is sot full now--full +enough for young trees. + +"Yes, that's right smart good orange-land up there in the sandhills. +Forty year ago, when I kim yere, they was nothin' but wild critters in +that lake kentry, as the Yankee folks calls it: all kind o' varmints +they was--bears, tigers, panthers, cats and all kinds. Right smart +huntin' they was, and 'tain't so bad now. They's rabbits and 'coons and +'possums, sure enough, and deer too; and--Cats? Why, cats is plenty, +but they ain't no 'count. + +"I niver hunted much myself, but I've heerd an old man tell--Higgins by +name. Ef you could find him and could get him _right_, he'd tell you +right smart o' stories about varmints, and Injuns too. I've heerd him +tell how he went out with some puppies one time to larn 'em to hunt +bear. He heerd one o' the puppies a-screechin', and kase he didn't want +to lose him he run up. The screechin' come from a sort o' scrub, and he +got clost up afore he see it was a she-bear and two cubs. The bear had +the puppy, but when she see Higgins she dropped hit and made for him. +Now, you know, a bear ain't like no varmint nor cow-beast; hit don't go +'round under the trees, but jest makes a road for itself over the +scrub. Higgins hadn't no time to take aim, and ef he'd 'a missed he was +gone, sure 'nough; so he jest drawred his knife, and when she riz up to +clutch him he stuck her plum in the heart. Killed her, dead. + +"No, I never had no trouble with Injuns. They was all gone to the +Nation when I settled yere, but I see Billy Bow-legs onct, and Jumper, +too. I was ago-in' through the woods, and I met a keert with three men +in it. Two on 'em was kinder dark-lookin', but I never thort much of +that till the man that was drivin' stopped and axed me ef I knowed who +he had in behind. It was them two chiefs, sure 'nough: right +good-lookin' fellers they was, too." + +We had left the sandhills of the Ridge, and had reached the borders of +the Scrub, but there was yet another of the new Northern settlements to +visit. It lay a few miles beyond Geneva Lake, in the flat woods to the +south of Santa Fé Lake, the largest and best known of the group. + +Who does not know the dreary flat-woods villages of the South, with +their decaying log cabins and hopelessly unfinished frame houses--with +their white roads, ankle-deep in sand, wandering disconsolately among +fallen trees and palmetto scrub and blackened stumps? Melrose is like +them all, but with a difference. The decaying cabins, new two years +ago, are deserted in favor of the great frame houses, which, unfinished +indeed, have yet a determined air, as if they meant to be finished some +day. The sandy roads are alive with long trains of heavy log-trucks or +lighter freight-wagons; there are men actually buying things in the +three stores; there is a school, with live children playing before the +door; there are saw- and grist-mills buzzing noisily; there is a +post-office, which connects us with the outer world as we receive our +waiting letters; there is a stir of enterprise in the air which speaks +quite plainly of Chicago and the Northern States, whence have come the +colonists; there is talk of a railroad to the St. John's on the east, +and of a canal which shall connect the lakes with one another and with +the railway on the west; there is a really good hotel, where we spend +the night in unanticipated luxury upon a breezy eminence overlooking +the silver sheet of Santa Fé Lake, which stretches away for miles to +the north and eastward. + +[Illustration: ALDERMAN'S, ON GENEVA LAKE.] + +The morrow was almost spent while we lingered in the neighborhood of +the lake. The road makes a wide circuit to avoid its far-reaching arms +and bays: only here and there are glimpses of the water seen through +the trees and cart-tracks leading off to exquisite points of view upon +its banks. We are in the flat woods again--palmetto-clumps under the +pine trees, pitcher-plants and orchis in the low spots, violets and +pinguicula beside the ditches, vetches and lupines and pawpaw and the +trailing mimosa in the sand. The park-like character of the woods is +gone. Still, there are here and there gentle undulations upon which the +long lines of western sunlight slope away; the lake gleams silvery +through the trees; the air is pure and sparkling as in high altitudes. + +It was evening before we could leave the lakeside and plunge into the +dense new growth which adds to the ancient name of Ekoniah the modern +appellation of "Scrub." Amid its close-crowding thickets night came +upon us speedily. How hospitably we were received in the bare new +"homestead" of Parson H----; how generously our hosts relinquished +their one "barred" bed and passed a night of horror exposed to the fury +of myriad mosquitos, whose songs of triumph we heard from our own +protected pillows; how basely Barney requited all this kindness by +breaking into the corn-crib and "stuffing himself as full as a +sausage," as the Small Boy reported,--may not here be dwelt upon. + +The early morning was exquisite. Soft mists veiled all the glorious +colors; great spider-webs, strung thick with diamonds, stretched from +tree to tree; a little "pot-hole" pond of lilies exhaled sweet odors; +the lark's ecstatic song thrilled down from upper air. There was a +gentle hill before us, and halfway up a view to the right of a broad +lake, with the log huts of a "settle_ment_" on the high bank. The sun +has drunk up all the mists, and shines bright upon the soft gray satin +of the girdled pine trees in the clearing; flowers are crowding +everywhere--orange milkweed, purple phlox, creamy pawpaw, azure +bluebells, spotted foxgloves, rose-tinted daisies, brown-eyed +coreopsias and unknown flowers of palest blue. Butterflies flit +noiselessly among them, and mocking-birds sing loud in the leafy +screens above. A red-headed woodpecker taps upon a resounding tree and +screams in exultation as he seizes his prey. + +We skirted Viola Lake, cresting the high hill, and descending to a +shaded valley where the lapping waters plashed upon the roadside: then +mounted another hill, among thick clustering oaks and giant pines, to +where three lakes are seen spreading broadly out upon a grassy plain +between high wooded slopes. And these are Ekoniah! Twenty years ago a +tiny rivulet, wandering through broad prairies; eight years later a +wider stream, already beginning to encroach upon the grassy borderland; +now a chain of ever-broadening lakes, already drawing near to the hills +which frame in the widespread plain. Famous grazing-lands these were +once, the favored haunts of cattle-drovers, more famous hunting-grounds +in older days, before firm prairie had given place to watery savanna. +There were Indian villages upon the heights above and bloody battles in +the plains below. But who shall tell the story of those days? The +Indians are gone; the cattle-drovers have followed them to the far +South; the new settler of twenty years ago cared nothing for +antiquities or for the legends of an older time. The dead past is +buried: even the sonorous old Indian name has been softened down to +Etonia: be it the happy lot of this chronicler to rescue it from +oblivion! + +The lakes of the lately-traversed "Lake Region," frequent as they had +been, were as nothing to those of Ekoniah Scrub. The road rose and fell +over a succession of low hills, each ascent gained discovering a new +sheet of water to right, to left or before us, deep sunk among +thick-clustering trees. At rare intervals the forest would fall away on +either hand, opening up a wide view of cultivated fields, sweeping +grandly down in long stripes of tender green to the billowy verdure of +the broad savanna, where silvery-sparkling lakes lay imbedded and great +round "hummocks" of dark trees uprose like islands in the grassy sea. +In the distance would be barren slopes of rich dark red and silvery +gray, swelling upward to the far dim mystery of pine woods and the blue +arch above. + +We ate our dinner beside Lake Rosa, a circular basin of clearest water +rippling and dimpling under the soft breeze. Toward evening we found +the ford, which a paralytic old woman sitting in a sunny corner of a +farm-house piazza had indicated to us as "right pretty." Pretty it was, +indeed, as we came down to it through the most luxuriant of hummocks of +transparent-foliaged sweet-gums and shining-leaved magnolias with one +great creamy flower. "Right pretty" it was, too, in the old woman's +meaning of the word, for Barney drew us through in safety, scarce up to +his knees in the transparent water which reflected so perfectly every +flower and leaf of the dense water-growth. The road beyond was cut +through an arch of close-meeting trees, and farther on it skirted a +broad lake, which already, in its slow, sure, upward progress, had +covered the roadway and was reaching even to the fence which bounds the +field above. In this field is a large mound, never investigated, +although the farmer who owns the property says he has no doubt that it +is the site of an Indian village, for the plough turns up in the fields +around not only arrow-heads, but fragments of pottery and household +utensils. It was not our good-fortune to obtain any of those relics, as +they have not been preserved, and this was the only mound of any extent +which we saw. Such mounds are said, however, to be not infrequent in +this district, and Indian relics are found everywhere. + +As we drove along the hillside we began to notice frequent basin-like +depressions of greater or less size, always perfectly circular, always +with the same saucer-shaped dip, always without crack or fissure, yet +appearing to have been formed by a gradual receding of the +substructure, reminding one of the depression in the sand of an +hour-glass or of the grain in a hopper. Many of these concaves were +dry; others had a little water in the bottom; all of them had trees +growing here and there, quite undisturbed, whether in the water or not; +and there was no one who had cared to note how long a time had elapsed +since they had begun their "decline and fall." There is little doubt, +however, that the future traveller will find them developed into lakes, +as, indeed, we found one here and there upon the hilltops. + +[Illustration: "THE ONLY GIRL IN THE PLACE."] + +How many times we got lost among the lakes and "pot-holes," the fallen +trees and thickets of Ekoniah Scrub, it would be tedious to relate. How +many times we came down to the prairie-level, and, fearful to trust +ourselves upon the treacherous, billowy green, were forced to "try +back" for a new road along the hillside, it would be difficult to say. +The county clerk's itinerary had ended here, and William Townsend +proved to be less ubiquitous than we had been led to expect. Thus it +was that night came down upon us one evening before we had reached a +place of shelter--suddenly, in the thick scrub, not lingeringly, as in +the long forest glades of the lake country. For an hour we pushed on, +trusting now to Barney's sagacity, now to the pioneering abilities of +Artist and Scribe, who marched in the van. Fireflies flitted about, +their unusual brilliancy often cheating us into the fond hope that +shelter was at hand. The ignes-fatui in the valley below often added to +the deception, and after many disappointments we were about to spread +our blankets upon the earth and prepare for a night's rest _al fresco_ +when we heard a distant cow-call. Clear and melodious as the far-off +"Ranz des Vaches" it broke upon the stillness, gladdening all our +hearts. How we answered it, how we hastened over logs and through +thickets in the direction of answering voices and glancing lights--no +ignes-fatui now--how we were met halfway by an entire family whom we +had aroused, and with what astonishment we heard ourselves addressed by +name,--can better be imagined than described. By the happiest of +chances we had come upon the home of some people whom we had casually +met upon the St. John's River only a few weeks before, and our dearest +and oldest friends could not have welcomed us more cordially or have +been more gladly met by us. + +In the early morning we heard again, between sleeping and waking, the +musical cow-call. It echoed among the hills and over the lakes: there +were the tinkling of bells, the pattering of hoofs, the eager, +impatient sounds of a herd of cattle glad of morning freedom. It was +like a dream of Switzerland. And, hastening out, we found the dream but +vivified by the intense purity of the air surcharged with ozone, the +exquisite clearness of the outlines of the hills, the sparkling +brightness of the lakes in the valley, the freshness of glory and +beauty which overspread all like a world new made. + +One of the great events of that day was a desperate fight between two +chameleons in a low oak-scrub on the hilltop. The little creatures +attacked each other with such fury, with such rapid changes of color +from gray to green and from green to brown, with such unexpected +mutations of shape from long and slender to short and squat, with such +sudden dartings out and angry flamings of the transparent membrane +beneath the throat, with such swift springs and flights and glancings +to and fro, as were wonderful to see. It seemed as though both must +succumb to the fierce scratchings and clawings; and when at last one +got the entire head of his adversary in his mouth and proceeded +deliberately to chew it up, we thought that the last act in the tragedy +was at hand. The Small Boy made a stealthy step forward with a view to +a capture, when, presto! change! two chameleons with heads intact were +calmly gazing down upon us with that placid look of their kind which +seemed to assure us that fighting was the last act of which they were +capable. + +That day, too, is memorable for the charming scenes it brought us, +impossible for the pencil to reproduce with all their sweet +accessories. We have found the ford at last, where the blue ribbon of +the stream lies across the white sand of our road. The prairie +stretches out broad and green with many circular islets of tree-mounds +in the ocean-like expanse. The winding road beyond the ford leads, +between cultivated fields on one side and the tree-bordered prairie on +the other, up to the low horizon, where soft white thunderheads are +heaped in the hazy blue. The tinkling of cow-bells comes sweetly over +the sea of grass; slow wavelets sob softly in the sedges of the stream; +fish glance through the water; a duck flies up on swiftly-whirring +wing. A great moss-draped live-oak leans over the stream, and the +perfume of the tender grapes which crown it floats toward us on the +air. + +Again, after we have climbed the hill to Swan Lake, and have dined +beside Half-moon Pond, and have "laid our course," as the sailors say, +by our map and the sun, straight through the Scrub to visit Lake Ella, +we come out upon the heights above Lake Hutchinson. The dark greens of +the foreground soften into deep-blue shadows in the middle distance. +Lake Hutchinson sparkles, a vivid sapphire, against the distant +silvery-gray of Lake Geneva, while far away the low blue hills melt, +range behind range, into the pale-blue sky. + +[Illustration: SANTA FÉ LAKE.] + +Our faces were turned homeward, but there were yet many miles of the +Ekoniah country running to northward on the east of the Ridge, and +lakes and lakes and lakes among the scrub-clothed hills. A new feature +had become apparent in many of them: a low reef of marsh entirely +encircling the inner waters and separating them from a still outer +lagoon, reminding us, with a difference, of coral-reefs encircling +lakes in mid-ocean. The shores of these lakes were not marshy, but firm +and hard, like the lakes of the hilltops, with the same smooth +forest-slope surrounding. Is a reverse process going on here, we +wondered, from that we have seen in the prairies, and are these sheets +of water to change slowly into marsh, and so to firm land again? There +are a number of such lakes as these, and on the heights above one of +the largest, which they have called Bethel, a family of Canadian +emigrants have recently "taken up a homestead." + +There was still another chain of prairie-lakes, the "Old Field Ponds," +stretching north and south on our right, and as we wound around them, +plashing now and again through the slowly-encroaching water, we had +'Gator-bone Pond upon our right. The loneliness of the scene was +indescribable: for hours we had been winding in and out among the still +lagoons or climbing and descending the ever-steeper, darker hills. +Night was drawing on; stealthy mists came creeping grayly up from the +endless Old Field Ponds; fireflies and glow-worms and will-o'-the-wisps +danced and glowered amid the intense blackness; frogs croaked, +mosquitos shrilled, owls hooted; Barney's usual deliberate progress +became a snail's pace, which hinted plainly at blankets and the +oat-sack,--when, all at once, a bonfire flamed up from a distant +height, and the sagacious quadruped quickened his pace along the steep +hill-road. + +A very pandemonium of sounds saluted our ears as we emerged from the +forest--lowings and roarings and shriekings of fighting cattle, wild +hoots from hoarse masculine throats, the shrill tones of a woman's +angry voice, the discordant notes of an accordion, the shuffle of heavy +dancing feet. We had but happened upon a band of cow-hunters returning +homeward with their spoils, and the fightings of their imprisoned +cattle were only less frightful than their own wild orgies. If we had +often before been reminded of Italian skies and of the freshness and +brightness of Swiss mountain-air, now thoughts of the Black Forest, +with all of weird or horrible that we had ever read of that storied +country, rushed to our minds--robber-haunted mills, murderous inns, +treacherous hosts, "terribly-strange beds." Not that we apprehended +real danger, but to our unfranchised and infant minds the chills and +fevers which mayhap lurked in the mist-clothed forest, or even a +wandering "cat," seemed less to be dreaded than the wild bacchanals who +surrounded us. We would fain have returned, but it was too late. Barney +was already in the power of unseen hands, which had seized upon him in +the darkness; an old virago had ordered us into the house; and when we +had declined to partake of the relics of a feast which strewed the +table, we were ignominiously consigned to a den of a lean-to opening +upon the piazza. A "terribly-strange bed" indeed was the old +four-poster, which swayed and shrieked at the slightest touch, and +myriad the enemies which there lay in wait for our blood. We were not +murdered, however, nor did our unseen foes--as had once been predicted +by a Cracker friend--_quite_ "eat us plum up, bodaciously alive." In +the early morning we fled, though not until we had seen how beautiful a +home the old plantation once had been. These were not Crackers among +whom we had passed the night, but the "native and best." Not a fair +specimen of this class, surely, but such as here and there, in the +remoter corners of the South, are breeding such troubles as may well +become a grave problem to the statesman--the legitimate outgrowth of +the old régime. War-orphaned, untutored, unrestrained, contemning +legitimate authority, spending the intervals of jail-life in wild +revels and wilder crimes,--such were the men in whose ruined home we +had passed the night. + +There was yet one more morning among the gorgeous-foliaged +"scrub-hills," one more gypsy meal by a lakeside, one more genial +welcome to a hospitable Cracker board, and we were at home again in the +wide sea of pines which stretches to the St. John's. In the ten days of +our journey we had seen, within a tract of land some thirty miles long +by forty in breadth, more than fifty isolated lakes and three +prairie-chains; had visited four enterprising Northern colonies and +numerous thrifty Southern farms; had found an air clear and +invigorating as that of Switzerland, soft and balmy as in the tropics, +while the gorgeous colorings of tree and flower, of water and sky, were +like a dream of the Orient. + +"But there!" said the Small Boy, stopping suddenly with a +half-unbuckled strap of Barney's harness in his hand: "we forgot one +thing, after all: never found William Townsend!"--LOUISE SEYMOUR +HOUGHTON. + + + + +CANOEING ON THE HIGH MISSISSIPPI. + + +CONCLUDING PAPER. + + +[Illustration: A LYNX STIRS UP THE CAMP.] + +Itasca Lake was first seen of white men by William Morrison, an old +trader, in 1804. Several expeditions attempted to find the source of +the Great River, but the region was not explored till 1832--by +Schoolcraft, who regarded himself as the discoverer of Itasca. Much +interesting matter concerning the lake and its vicinity has been +written by Schoolcraft, Beltrami and Nicollet, but the exceeding +difficulty of reaching it, and the absence of any other inducements +thither than a spirit of adventure and curiosity, make visitors to its +solitudes few and far between. Itasca is fed in all by six small +streams, each too insignificant to be called the river's source. It has +three arms--one to the south-east, about three and a half miles long, +fed by a small brook of clear and lively water; one to the south-west, +about two miles and a half long, fed by the five small streams already +described; and one reaching northward to the outlet, about two and a +half miles. These unite in a central portion about one mile square. The +arms are from one-fourth of a mile to one mile wide, and the lake's +extreme length is about seven miles. Its water is clear and warm. July +thirteenth, when the temperature of the air was 76°, the water in the +largest arm of the lake varied between 74° and 80°. We saw no springs +nor evidences of them, and the water's temperature indicates that it +receives nothing from below. Still, it is sweet and pure to the taste +and bright and sparkling to the eye. Careful soundings gave a depth +varying between fourteen and a half and twenty-six feet. The only +island is that named by Schoolcraft after himself in 1832. It is in the +central body of the lake, and commands a partial view of each arm. It +is about one hundred and fifty feet wide by three hundred feet long, +varying in height from its water-line to twenty-five feet, and is +thickly timbered with maple, elm, oak and a thicket of bushes. + +On Tuesday morning, July 14, at six o'clock, we paddled away from the +island to the foot of the lake. The outlet is entirely obscured by +reeds and wild rice, through which the water converges in almost +imperceptible current toward the river's first definite banks. This +screen penetrated, I stopped the Kleiner Fritz in mid-stream and +accurately measured width, depth and current. I found the width twenty +feet, the depth on either side of my canoe as she pointed down the +stream thirty-one inches, and the speed of the current two and +one-tenth miles to the hour. The first four miles of the infant's +course is swift and crooked, over a bed of red sand and gravel, thickly +interspersed with mussel and other small shells, and bordered with +reeds. Through these, at two points, we beat our way on foot, dragging +the canoes through unmade channels. Indeed, nearly all of these first +four miles demanded frequent leaps from the boats to direct their swift +and crooked course, until we came to a stretch of savanna country, +through which the river washes its way in serpentine windings for nine +miles with a gentle current from thirty to sixty feet wide, bordered by +high grass, bearing the appearance and having the even depth of a +canal. An easy, monotonous paddle through these broad meadows brought +us to the head of the first rapids, the scene of our two days' upward +struggle. These rapids extend about twelve miles as the river runs, +alternating between rattling, rocky plunges and swift, smooth water, +for the most part through a densely-wooded ravine cleft through low but +abrupt hills, and as lonely and cheerless as the heart of Africa. The +solitude is of that sort which takes hold upon the very soul and weaves +about it hues of the sombrest cast. From our parting with the Indians +on first reaching the river we had neither seen nor heard a human +being, nor were there save here and there remote traces of man's hand. +No men dwell there: nothing invites men there. A few birds and fewer +animals hold absolute dominion. Wandering there, one's senses become +intensely alert. But for the hoot of the owl, the caw of the crow, the +scream of the eagle, the infrequent twitter of small birds, the mighty +but subdued roar of insects, the rush of water over the rocks and the +sigh and sough of the wind among the pines, the lonely wanderer has no +sign of aught but the rank and dank vegetation and a gloomy, oppressive +plodding on and on, without an instant's relief in the sights and +sounds of human life. We entered upon the descent of the rapids in no +very cheerful mood. + +The downward way was easier, and we had cleared away, in the upward +struggle, such obstructions as were within our control. Still, we +travelled slowly and wearily, and came out of our first day's homeward +work wet and worn into a camp in the high grass a good twenty miles +from the start of the morning. We drew the canoes from the water, made +our beds of blankets inside, lashed our paddles to the masts for +ridge-poles, thatched our little cabins with our rubber blankets, hung +our mosquito-bars beneath, then cooked and ate under the flare of our +camp-fire, and sought our canoe-beds for that sweet sleep which comes +of weariness of body, but not of mind, under the bright stars and +broad-faced moon shining with unwonted clearness in that clear air. + +The night proved very cool. Our outer garments, wet from so much +leaping in and out of the canoes, and rolled up for storage on the +decks over night, were found in the early morning frozen stiff, and had +to be thawed before we could unroll them. The thermometer registered +33° after six o'clock, and frost lay upon all our surroundings. + +For two and a half days our course was down a stream winding gracefully +through a broad region of savanna country, occasionally varied by the +crossing of low sandy ridges beautifully graved by lofty yellow pines. +In the savannas the shores are made of black soil drifted in, and +forming, with the dense mass of grass-roots, a tough compound in which +the earthy and vegetable parts are about equal, while the tall grass, +growing perpendicularly from the shore, makes a stretch of walls on +either side, the monotony of which becomes at last so tiresome that a +twenty-feet hill, a boulder as large as a bushel basket or a tree of +unusual size or kind becomes specially interesting. Standing on tiptoe +in the canoes, we could see nothing before or around us but a boundless +meadow, with here and there a clump of pines, and before and behind the +serpent-like creepings of the river. The only physical life to be seen +was in the countless ducks, chiefly of the teal and mallard varieties, +a few small birds and the fish--lake-trout, grass-bass, pickerel and +sturgeon--constantly darting under and around us or poised motionless +in water so clear that every fin and scale was seen at depths of six +and eight feet. The ducks were exceedingly wild--something not easily +accounted for in that untroubled and uninhabited country; but we were +readily able to reinforce our staple supplies with juicy birds and +flaky fish broiled over a lively fire or baked under the glowing coals. + +[Illustration: A BLOW ON BALL CLUB LAKE.] + +By noon of Friday, the 18th, we had come to an average width in the +river of eighty feet and a sluggish flow of six feet in depth. We +halted for our lunch at the mouth of the South (or Plantagenian) Fork +of the Mississippi, up which Schoolcraft's party pursued its way to +Itasca Lake. Thence a short run brought us suddenly upon Lake +Marquette, a lovely sheet of water with clearly-defined and solid +shores, about one mile by two in extent, exactly across the centre of +which the river has entrance and exit. Beyond this, a short mile +brought us to the sandy beaches of Bemidji Lake, the first considerable +body of water in our downward travel, and about one hundred and +twenty-five miles, as the river winds, from Itasca. The real name of +the lake, as used by the Indians and whites adjacent, is Benidjigemah, +meaning "across the lake," and Bemidji is frequently known as Traverse +Lake. It is a lovely, unbroken expanse, about seven miles long and four +miles wide. Its shores are of beautiful white sand, gravel and +boulders, reaching back to open pine-groved bluffs. Our shore-searchers +found agate, topaz, carnelian, etc. Our approach to Bemidji had been +invested with special interest as the first unmistakable landmark in +our lonely wanderings, and as the home of one man--a half-breed--the +only human being who has a home above Cass Lake. We found his hut, but +not himself, at the river's outlet. The lodge is neatly built of bark. +It was surrounded by good patches of corn, potatoes, wheat, beans and +wild raspberries. There is a stable for a horse and a cow, and all +about were the conventional traps of a civilized biped who lives upon a +blending of wit, woodcraft and industry. We greatly wished to see this +hermit, whose nearest neighbors are thirty miles away. His dog welcomed +us with all the passion of canine hunger and days of isolation, but the +master was gone to Leech Lake, as we afterward found from his Cass Lake +neighbors. The wind favored a sail across the lake--a welcome variation +from our hitherto entirely muscular propulsion--so we rigged our spars +and canvas, drifted smoothly out into the trough of the lively but not +angry waves, and swept swiftly across the clear, bright little sea. The +white caps dashed over our decks and a few sharp puffs half careened +our little ships, but the crossing was safely and quickly made. It was +yet only mid-afternoon, but we had paddled steadily and made good +progress nearly four days; so we went into early camp on a bluff +overlooking the entire lake, did our first washing of travel-stained +garments, brought up epistolary arrearages, caught two fine lake-trout +for our next breakfast and went to sound sleep in the +nine-and-a-half-o'clock twilight. + +We had been advised that we should need guides in finding our exits +from the lakes, which were obscured by reeds and wild rice. But no +guide was to be had, and we easily found our own way. The river at the +outlet of Bemidji Lake is about one hundred and fifty feet wide, very +shallow, and runs swiftly over a bed of large gravel and boulders +thickly grown with aquatic grass and weeds. We had gone but a little +way when a rattling ahead told of near proximity to swift and rough +water, down which we danced at a speed perilous to the boats, but not +to our personal safety. The river was unusually low, so that the many +bouldery rapids which otherwise would have been welcome were now only +the vexatious hints of what might have been. The shallow foam dashed +down each rocky ledge without channel or choice, and whichever way we +went we soon wished we had gone another. The rocks were too many for +evasion, and the swift current caught our keels upon their half-sunken +heads, which held us fast in imminent peril of a swamp or a capsize, +our only safety lying in open eyes, quick and skilful use of the paddle +or a sudden leap overboard at a critical instant. Added to these +difficulties, a gusty head wind and lively showers obscured the +boulders and the few open channels. So we went on all the forenoon, +hampered by our ponchos, poling, drifting, paddling and peering our +way, blinded by wind and rain, till we came to the last of these +labyrinths, liveliest and most treacherous of all. We were soaked, and +only dreaded an upset for our provisions and equipments. The rapid was +long, rough, swift, crooked. The Kleiner Fritz led the way into the +swirl, and was caught, a hundred feet down, hard and fast by her +bow-keel, swung around against another boulder at her stern, and was +pinned fast in no sort of danger, the water boiling under and around +her, while her captain sat at his leisure as under the inevitable, with +a don't-care-a-dash-ative procrastination of the not-to-be-avoided jump +overboard and wade for deeper water. The Betsy D., following closely, +passed the Fritz with a rush which narrowly escaped the impalement of +the one by the other's sharp nose, struck, hung for a moment, while the +water dashed over her decks and around her manhole, then washed loose +and went onward safely to still water. The Fritz, solid as the +Pyramids, beckoned the Hattie to come on without awaiting the +questionable time of the latter's release; so the namesake of the +hazel-eyed and brown-haired Indiana girl came into the boil and bubble, +sailed gayly by the troubles of the others, was gliding on toward quiet +seas under her skipper's gleeful whoops, when, bang! went her bow upon +a rock, from which a moment's work freed her: tz-z-z-z-z-zip crunched +her copper nails over another just under water, whence she went bumping +and crunching, her captain's prudent and energetic guidance knocking +his flag one way and his wooden hatch the other, till finally his +troubles were behind him. Then the Fritz began to stir. Her commander +went overboard and released her, then leaped astride her deck and +paddled cautiously down the rift and slowly down the quieter water +below, howling through the pelting rain, + + "Then let the world wag along as it will: + We'll be gay and happy still," + +until he came upon his comrades--one stumbling about over the blackened +roots of grass and underbrush from a recent fire in search of wood for +our needed noon-day blaze; the other with wet matches and birch bark, +and imprecations for which there was ample justification, vainly +seeking that without which hot coffee and broiled bacon cannot be. The +Kleiner Fritz's haversack supplied dry matches, fire began to snap, +coffee boiled, bacon sputtered on the ends of willow rods, hard tack +was set out for each man, and we sat upon our heels for lunch under the +weeping skies and willows, comparing notes and experiences. + +[Illustration: PEKAGEMA FALLS.] + +Thence, three hours through monotonous savanna and steady rain brought +us to the uppermost bay of Cass Lake, and unexpectedly upon a +straggling Indian village. We bore down upon it with yells, and there +came tumbling out from birch lodges and bark cabins the first human +beings we had seen for more than ten days, in all the ages, sizes, +tints, costumes and shades of filth known to the Chippewas of the +interior wilderness. At first they were a little shy of us, but we got +into a stumbling conversation with the only man of the whole lot who +wore breeches or could compass a little English, and soon the dirty, +laughing, wondering, chattering gang came down to inspect us and our, +to them, marvellous craft, and to fully enjoy what was perhaps the most +interesting event in many a long month of their uneventful lives. Then +we paddled across the bay, or upper lake, out into the broader swells +of Cass Lake itself, pulled four miles across to the northernmost point +of Colcaspi, or Grand Island, and made our second Saturday night's camp +upon its white sands at or very near the spot where Schoolcraft and his +party had encamped in July, forty-seven years before. The landward side +of the beautiful beach is skirted by an almost impenetrable jungle. We +had frequently seen traces, old and new, of deer, moose, bears and +smaller animals, but had seen none of the animals themselves save one +fine deer, and our sleep had been wholly undisturbed by prowlers; so we +sank to rest on Grand Island with no fears of invasion. At midnight the +occupant of the Kleiner Fritz was aroused by a scratching upon the side +of the canoe and low, whining howls. He partially arose, confused and +half asleep, in doubt as to the character of his disturber, which went +forward, climbed upon the deck and confronted him through the narrow +gable of his rubber roof with a pair of fiery eyes, which to his +startled imagination seemed like the blazing of a comet in duplicate. +The owner of the eyes was at arm's length, with nothing but a +mosquito-bar intervening. Then the eyes suddenly disappeared, and the +scratching and howling were renewed in a determined and partially +successful effort to get between the overlapping rubber blankets to the +captain of the Fritz. This movement was defeated by a quick grasp of +the edges of the blankets, and while the animal was snarling and pawing +at the shielded fist of his intended victim lusty shouts went out for +the camp to arouse and see what the enemy might be, as the Fritz was +unwilling to uncover to his unknown assailant. The Hattie's skipper, +hard by, saw that something unusual was on hand, peered out, and so +increased the uproar as to draw the adversary's attack. Then the Betsy +bore down upon us all just as the hungry and persistent beast was +crouching for a leap at the Hattie's jugular, the loud bang of a Parker +rifle rang out upon the stillness, and a fine, muscular lynx lay dead +at the Cincinnati Nimrod's feet. The animal's trail showed that he had +prowled around our bacon and hard tack in contempt, had inspected the +Betsy's commander as he lay on the sand in his blanket and under a huge +yellow mosquito-bar, but had evidently concluded that any man who could +snore as that man usually did was not a good subject for attack, and so +came on down the beach in search of blood less formidably defended. We +renewed our fire, examined our dead disturber, and turned in again to +sound sleep under the assuring suggestion of the Cincinnati man that, +whatever else the jungle might hide, two cannon-balls rarely enter the +same hole. + +Our heavy and late slumber was broken by the laugh and chatter of two +Indian women and a child, who in a bark canoe a little way from shore +were regarding our camp in noisy curiosity. My blanket suddenly thrown +aside and a good-morning in English took them by surprise, and they +paddled away vigorously toward a group of lodges some four miles across +the lake. In the glorious sunset of a restful Sunday we crossed the +glassy lake to its outlet, taking two fine lake-trout of four pounds as +we went, and glided out of as beautiful a lake as sun and moon shine +upon into the swift, steady, deep current of what for the first time in +its long way Gulfward bears the full dignity of a river. Its green +banks are some two hundred feet apart. The water has a regular depth of +from five to six feet, and all the way to Lake Winnibegoshish affords +an unbroken channel for a medium-sized Western steamer. The shores, +alternating between low, firm, grass-grown earth and benches of +luxuriant green twenty feet high, grown over with open groves of fine +yellow pines, were so beautiful and regular that we could hardly +persuade ourselves that we should not see, as we rounded the graceful +curves, some fine old mansion of which these turfed knolls and charming +groves seemed the elegant lawns and parks. Our fleet unanimously voted +the river between Cass and Winnibegoshish Lakes the most beautiful of +all its upper course. + +[Illustration: BARN BLUFF (C., M. & ST. P. R.R.).] + +We began our second week upon the Mississippi with a breakfast of baked +lake-trout, slapjacks, maple syrup and coffee, which embodied the +culinary skill of the entire fleet: then started for Winnibegoshish in +the height of good spirits and physical vigor. In one of our easy, +five-miles-an-hour swings around the graceful curves we were met by a +duck flying close over our heads with noisy quacks. A little farther we +came upon the cause of the bird's lively flight in an Indian boy, not +above nine years old, paddling a large birch canoe, over the gunwale of +which peeped the muzzle of a sanguinary-looking old shot-gun. The +diminutive sportsman was for a moment dashed by our sudden and novel +appearance, but, from the way he urged his canoe and from the +determined set of his dirty face, we had small room to doubt the +ultimate fate of the flying mallard. Another curve brought us in sight +of the home of the little savage, where a dozen Indians, in all stages +of nudity, were encamped upon a high bluff. A concerted whoop from our +fleet brought all of them from their smoky lodges, and we swept by +under their wondering eyes and exclamations. Then the high land was +left behind, and half an hour between low meadows brought us out upon +the yellow sands and heaving swells of Lake Winnibegoshish, the largest +in the Mississippi chain, the dimensions of which, including its lovely +north-eastern bay, are about eleven by thirteen miles. The name +signifies "miserable dirty water lake," but save a faint tinge of brown +its waters are as pure and sparkling as those of any of the upper +lakes. Our entrance upon Winnibegoshish was under a driving storm of +wind and mist, against which we paddled three miles to Duck Point, a +slender finger of wooded sand and boulder reaching half a mile out, at +whose junction with the main land is a miserable village of most +villainous-looking Indians. One man alone could speak a little English, +and through him we negotiated for replenishing our provisions. +Meantime, the storm freshened and embargoed an eight-mile journey +across an open and boiling sea; so we paddled to the outermost joint +upon the jutting finger for a bivouac under the trees, waiting the +hoped-for lull of wind and wave at sunset. The smoke of our fire +invited to our camp the hungry natives, who dogged us at every turn all +the long afternoon, in squads of all numbers under twenty, and of all +ages between two and seventy. One club-footed and club-handed fellow of +forbidding visage protested with hand and head that he neither spoke +nor understood our vernacular. Later, he sidled up to the Hattie's +skipper and said in an earnest _sotto voce_, "Gib me dime." Denied the +dime, he intimated to the Betsy that he doted on bacon, of which we +were each broiling a slice. The Betsy's captain was bent upon securing +an Indian fish-spear, and he pantomimed to the twinkling eyes of the +copper-skin that he would invest a generous chunk of bacon in barbed +iron. The Indian strode back to his village, and soon returned with the +spear, which he transferred to the Betsy's stores. + +The conventional Indian maiden besieged the bachelor two-thirds of our +expedition with all the wiles that could be embodied in a comely and +clean-calicoed charmer up in the twenties, who finally bore away from +the Betsy's private stores a fan of stunning colors and other odds and +ends of a St. Paul notion-store; while the guileless commander of the +Hattie, whose cumulative years should have taught him better, and whose +thinly-clad brain-shelter and disreputable attempt at sailor costume +should have blunted all feminine javelins, surrendered to the ugliest +old septuagenarian in the village, and sent her heart away rejoicing in +the ownership of a policeman's whistle courted by her leering eyes and +already smirched by her dirty lips, together with a stock of tea, +crackers and bacon for which her expanded corporosity evinced no +imminent need. At last rid of our importunate acquaintances, we turned +in for a sleep, which we resolved should be broken at the first moment, +dark or light, when we might cross the lake. Before daylight the +Betsy's resonant call awoke us, and in the earliest gray we paddled out +upon a heavy but not foaming sea, and after two and a half hours of +monotonous splashing in the trough of the waves landed for breakfast on +the eastern shore, whence we crossed a lovely bay and passed out once +more upon the river. + +A mile on our way we came to the prettiest of the many Indian +burying-grounds which we saw now and then. Formerly, the Indians +deposited their dead upon rude scaffolds well up in the air. Now they +seek high ground and place the bodies of the departed in shallow +graves, over which they build little wooden houses a foot or two high +with gabled roofs, and mark each with a white flag raised upon a pole a +few feet above the sleeper's head. In this neighborhood we inquired of +a stalwart brave concerning our proximity to a portage by means of +which a short walk over to a small lake near the head of Ball Club Lake +and a pull of six miles down the latter would bring us out again into +the river, and save a tedious voyage of twenty-five to thirty miles +through a broad savanna. The Indian in his old birch canoe joined our +fleet, and led us to the beginning of the portage near the foot of +Little Winnipeg Lake. We had carried two canoes and all the baggage +over to the water on the other side of a sandy ridge, leaving only the +Kleiner Fritz to be brought, when our guide and packer, with a +preliminary grunt, said "Money?" inquiring how much we intended to pay +him. He had worked hard for four hours, for which we tried to tell him +that we should pay him one dollar when he should bring over the +remaining canoe; but we could not make him understand what a dollar +was. We then laid down, one after another, four silver quarter-dollars +and two bars of tobacco; whereupon he gave a satisfied grunt and an +affirmative nod, disappeared in the forest, and in less than an hour +returned with the Fritz upon his steaming shoulders, having covered +more than three miles in the round trip. + +As we pulled out upon Ball Club Lake a gentle stern wind bade us hoist +our canvas for an easy and pleasant sail of six or seven miles down to +the open river. We glided out gayly before a gentle breeze, and sailed +restfully over the little rippling waves, our speed increasing, though +we hardly noted the signs of a gale driving after us over the hills +behind. The Hattie was leading well over to the port shore, the Fritz +bearing straight down the middle, with the Betsy on the starboard +quarter, when the storm struck us with a vigor that increased with each +gust. The black clouds swished over our heads, seemingly almost within +reach of our paddles. The sails tugged at the sheets with tiresome +strength. The canoes now plunged into a wave at the bows and were now +swept by others astern, as they rushed forward like mettlesome colts or +hung poised upon or within a rolling swell, until, with the increasing +gale, the roaring waves dashed entirely over decks and men. The Hattie +bore away to leeward and rode the gale finely, but at last prudence +bade the furling of her sail. Expecting no such blow the Fritz had not +taken the precaution to arrange her rubber apron for keeping out the +waves from her manhole, and now, between holding the sheet, steering +and watching the gusty wind, neither hand nor eye could be spared for +defensive preparations; so her skipper struck sail and paddled for the +westward shore, with the Betsy lunging and plunging close behind. We on +the windward side sought the smoother water within the reeds, and drove +along rapidly under bare poles, out of sight of the Hattie, separated +at nightfall by miles of raging sea. We rode before the wind to the +foot of the lake, where we were confronted by the alternative of a +toilsome and unsafe paddle around the coast against the storm's full +force, or camping in mutual anxiety as to the fate of the unseen +party--a by no means pleasant sedative for a night's rest upon wild and +uninhabited shores. We decided upon the pull, and labored on, now upon +the easy swells within the reeds, and then tossing upon the crests in +open places, until at last a whirling column of smoke a mile ahead gave +us assurance of the Hattie's safety. The reunited fleet paddled down +into the Mississippi, enlivening the darkness until we could find +camping-ground beyond the marshes by a comparison of storm-experiences +and congratulations that we had escaped the bottom of the lake. + +[Illustration: CHURCH AMONG THE PINES (BRAINERD).] + +Late in the afternoon of the next day, after a monotonous pull through +the interminable windings of Eagle Nest Savanna, we swept around a +curve of high tillable land upon the uppermost farm cultivated by +whites, eighteen miles above Pekagema Falls, and one hundred and +seventy miles by river beyond the Northern Pacific Railroad. Thomas +Smith and his partner, farming, herding and lumbering at the mouth of +Vermilion River, were the first white men we had seen since July 6, +seventeen days, and with them we enjoyed a chat in straight English. +Nine miles below we camped at River Camp, the second farm downward, +where we were kindly supplied with vegetables and with fresh milk, +which seemed to us then like the nectar of the gods. Thursday, 24th, we +reached Pekagema Falls, a wild pitch of some twenty feet, with rapids +above and below, down which the strong volume of the river plunges with +terrible force in picturesque beauty. A carry around the falls and +three miles of paddling brought us to Grand Rapids, and we rushed like +the wind into the whirl and boil of its upper ledge, down the steep and +crooked incline for two hundred yards, out of which we shot up to the +bank under a little group of houses where Warren Potter and Knox & +Wakefield conduct the uppermost post-office and stores upon the river. +We speedily closed our partly-completed letters and posted them for a +pack-mail upon an Indian's back sixty-five miles to Aitkin, while we +should follow the tortuous river thither for one hundred and fifty +miles. We had hoped for a rest and lift hence to Aitkin upon the good +steamboat City of Aitkin, which makes a few lonely trips each spring +and fall, but the low water had prevented her return from her last +voyage, made ten days before our arrival. Our stores replenished, after +two hours of rest we started again in a driving rain, and under the +hearty _bon voyage_ of a dozen frontiersmen and Indians shot the two +lively lower ledges of Grand Rapids, and came out on smooth water, +whose sluggish flow, broken by a very few rifts, bore us thence one +hundred and fifty miles to the next white settlement at Aitkin. The +entire distance lies through low bottom-lands heavily timbered, and our +course was drearily monotonous. We left Grand Rapids at mid-afternoon +of Thursday, July 24, and camped on Friday night four miles below Swan +River. Late on Saturday we passed Sandy Lake River--where formerly were +a large Indian population and an important trading-post, founded and +for many years conducted by Mr. Aitkin, who was prominently identified +with the early history of that region, and is now commemorated in the +town and county bearing his name, but where now remain only one or two +deserted cabins and a few Indian graves, over which white flags were +flapping in the sultry breeze--and camped two miles below. Monday's +afternoon brought us to Aitkin, so that we had covered one hundred and +fifty miles of sluggish channel, at low summer tide, in three working +days. We had been four weeks beyond possibility of home-tidings, and we +swooped down upon the disciple of Morse in that far-away village with +work that kept him clicking for an hour. We were handsomely taken in by +Warren Potter, a pioneer and an active and intelligent factor in the +business of that region, in whose tasteful home we for the first time +in a month sat down and ate in Christian fashion under a civilized +roof. Having lost a week in the farther wilderness, we decided to take +the rail to Minneapolis, that we might enjoy the beautiful river thence +to Lake Pepin, yet reach our homes within the appointed time. Half a +day was enjoyed at Brainerd, the junction of the Northern Pacific main +line with the St. Paul branch, and the most important town between Lake +Superior and the Missouri. It is beautifully built and picturesquely +scattered among the pines upon the Mississippi's eastern bank, not far +above Crow Wing River. Thence we were carried over the splendid +railway, passing the now abandoned Fort Ripley, winding along or near +to the river and across the wheat-fields, through the busy and +beautiful city of mills, below St. Anthony's roar and down the dancing +rapids to a pleasant island-camp between the green-and-gray bluffs that +bind Minneapolis to Minnehaha--the first really fine scenery this side +of Itasca's solitude. A delightful paddle under a bright morning sun +and over swift, clear water carried us to the little brook whose +laughter, three-quarters of a mile up a deep ravine, has been sent by +Longfellow rippling outward to all the world. We rounded the great +white-faced sand-rock that marks the outlet, paddled as far as we might +up the quiet stream, beached the canoes under the shade of the willows, +walked a little way up the brook, past a deserted mill, under cool +shadows of rock and wood, and enjoyed for half an hour the simple, +seductive charms of the "Laughing Water." Then we tramped back to our +boats, floated down under the old walls of Fort Snelling and between +the chalk-white cliffs which line the broadening river, until we came +in sight of St. Paul's roofs and spires, and soon were enjoying the +thoughtful care and generous hospitality of the Minnesota Boat Club. +Another day's close brought us to Red Wing, backgrounded by the green +bluffs and reddened cliffs of its bold hills. One more pull down the +now broad and islanded stream carried us to Lake Pepin, one of the +loveliest mirrors that reflects the sun, and to Frontenac's white +beach. The keels of the Fritz, the Betsy and the Hattie crunched the +sands at the end of their long journey, the boats were shunted back +upon the railway, and their weary owners were soon dozing in restful +forgetfulness upon the couches of the unsurpassed Chicago, Milwaukee +and St. Paul line. + +[Illustration: END OF VOYAGE (FRONTENAC, LAKE PEPIN).] + +Beyond reasonable doubt, our party is the only one that ever pushed its +way by boat up the entire course of the farther-most Mississippi. +Beyond any question, our canoes were the first wooden boats that ever +traversed those waters. Schoolcraft, in 1832, came all the way down the +upper river without portages, but he had very high water and many +helpers, in spite of which one of his birch canoes was wrecked. The +correspondent of a New York newspaper claimed the complete trip in his +canoe some five years ago, but his own guide and others told us that +his Dolly Varden never was above Brainerd, and that his portages above +were frequent. So we may well feel an honest pride in our Rushton-built +Rob Roys and our hard knocks, and may remember with pardonable +gratification that upon our own feet and keels we have penetrated the +solitudes lying around the source of the world's most remarkable river, +where no men live and where, probably, not more than two-score white +men have ever been.--A.H. SIEGFRIED. + + + + +ADAM AND EVE. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +By the time Reuben May entered the little town of Looe he had come to a +decision about his movements and how he should carry out his plan of +getting back to London. Not by going with Captain Triggs, for the +monotonous inaction of a sailing voyage would now be insupportable to +him, but by walking as far as he could, and now and then, whenever it +was possible, endeavoring to get a cheap lift on the road. His first +step must therefore be to inform Triggs of his decision, and to do this +he must get back to Plymouth, a distance from Looe of some fifteen or +sixteen miles. + +In going through Looe that morning he had stopped for a few minutes at +a small inn which stood not far from the beach; and having now crossed +the river which divides West from East Looe, he began looking about for +this house, intending to get some refreshments, to rest for an hour or +so, and then proceed on his journey. + +Already the town-clock was striking six, and Reuben calculated that if +he started between nine and ten he should have time to take another +good rest on the road--which he had already once that day +traversed--and reach Plymouth Barbican, where the Mary Jane lay, by +daybreak. + +The inn found, he ordered his meal and informed the landlady of his +intention. + +"Why, do 'ee stop here till mornin', then," exclaimed the large-hearted +Cornish woman. "If 'tis the matter o' the money," she added, eying him +critically, "that's hinderin' 'ee from it, it needn't to, for I'll see +us don't have no quarrel 'bout the price o' the bed." + +Reuben assured her that choice, not necessity, impelled his onward +footsteps; and, thus satisfied, she bade him "Take and lie down on the +settle there inside the bar-parlor; for," she added, "'less 'tis the +sergeant over fra Liskeard 'tain't likely you'll be disturbed no ways; +and I shall be in and out to see you'm all right." + +Reuben stretched himself out, and, overcome by the excitement and +fatigue of the day, was soon asleep and dreaming of those happier times +when he and Eve had walked as friends together. Suddenly some one +seemed to speak her name, and though the name at once wove itself into +the movement of the dream, the external sound had aroused the sleeper, +and he opened his eyes to see three men sitting near talking over their +grog. + +With just enough consciousness to allow of his noticing that one was a +soldier and the other two were sailors, Reuben looked for a minute, +then closed his eyes, and was again sinking back into sleep when the +name of Eve was repeated, and this time with such effect that all +Reuben's senses seemed to quicken into life, and, cautiously opening +his eyes, so as to look without being observed, he saw that it was the +soldier who was speaking. + +"Young chap, thinks I," he was saying, "you little fancy there's one so +near who's got your sweetheart's seal dangling to his fob;" and with an +air of self-satisfied vanity he held out for inspection a curious +little seal which Reuben at once recognized as the same which he +himself had given to Eve. + +The unexpected sight came upon him with such surprise that, had not the +height of the little table served as a screen to shelter him from view, +his sudden movement must have betrayed his wakefulness. + +"He's a nice one for any woman to be tied to, he is!" replied the +younger of the two sailors. "Why, the only time as I ever had what you +may call a fair look at un was one night in to the King o' Proosia's, +and there he was dealing out his soft sawder to little Nancy Lagassick +as if he couldn't live a minute out o' her sight." + +"That's about it," laughed the soldier. "He's one of your own sort +there: you Jacks are all alike, with a wife in every port. However," he +added--and as he spoke he gave a complacent stroke to his good-looking +face--"he may thank his stars that a matter of seven miles or so lays +between his pretty Eve and Captain Van Courtland's troop, or there'd +have been a cutting-out expedition that, saving the presence of those I +speak before"--and he gave a most exasperating wink--"might have proved +a trifle more successful than such things have of late." + +"Here, I say," said the sailor, flaming up at this ill-timed +jocularity, "p'ra'ps you'll tell me what 'tis you're drivin' at; for +I've got to hear of it if you, or any o' your cloth either, ever made a +find yet. You're mighty 'cute 'bout other folks, though when the +spirits was under yer very noses, and you searched the houses through +'twas knowed to be stowed in, you couldn't lay hold on a single cask. +'Tis true we mayn't have nabbed the men, but by jingo if 't has come to +us bein' made fools of by the women!" + +"There, now, stash it there!" said his older comrade, who had no wish +to see a quarrel ensue. "So far as I can see, there's no cause for +bounce 'twixt either o' us; though only you give us a chance of getting +near to them, sergeant," he said, turning to the soldier, "and I'll +promise you shall make it all square with this pretty lass you fancy +while her lover's cutting capers under Tyburn tree." + +"'A chance?'" repeated his companion, despondingly: "where's it to come +from, and the only one we'd got cut away from under us by those Hart +chaps?" + +"How so? where's the Hart off to, then?" asked the sergeant. + +"Off to Port Mellint," said the man addressed. "Nothing but a hoax, I +fancy, but still she was bound to go;" and so saying he tossed off the +remainder of his grog and began making a movement, saying, as he did +so, to his somewhat quarrelsomely-disposed shipmate, "Here, I say, +Bill, come 'long down to the rendezvoos with me, and if there's nothin' +up for to-night what d'ye say to stepping round to Paddy Burke's? He's +asked us to come ever so many times, you know." + +"Paddy Burke?" said the sergeant. "What! do you know him? Why, if +you're going there, I'll step so far with you." + +"Well, we're bound for the rendezvoos first," said the sailor. + +"All right! I can find plenty to do while you're in there." + +"Then come along;" and, only stopping to exchange a few words in +passing with the landlady, out they all went, and Reuben was left +alone, a prey to the thoughts which now came crowding into his mind. + +For a few minutes he sat with his arms resting on the table as if +communing with himself: then, starting up as if filled with a sudden +resolve, he went out and asked the landlady a few commonplace +questions, and finally inquired whereabouts and in what direction did +the rendezvous lie. + +"Close down by the bridge, the first house after you pass the second +turning. Why?" she said: "be 'ee wanting to see anybody there?" + +"No," said Reuben: "I only heard the fellows that came in there talking +about the rendezvous, and I wondered whether I'd passed it." + +"Why, iss, o' course you did, comin' in. 'Tis the house with the flag +stream-in' over the doorways." + +Reuben waited for no further information. He said something about not +knowing it was so late, bade the landlady a rather abrupt farewell, and +went his way. + +Down the narrow street he hurried, turned a corner, and found himself +in front of the house indicated, outside which all was dark. Nobody +near, and, with the exception of himself, not a soul to be seen. +Inside, he could hear voices, and the more plainly from the top sash of +the window being a little way open. By the help of the iron stanchion +driven in to support the flagstaff he managed to get up, steady himself +on the window-sill and take a survey of the room. Several men were in +it, and among them the two he had already seen, one of whom was +speaking to a person whom, from his uniform, Reuben took to be an +officer. + +The sight apparently decided what he had before hesitated about, and +getting; down he took from his pocket a slip of paper--one he had +provided in case he should want to leave a message for Eve--and rapidly +wrote on it these words: "The Lottery is expected at Polperro tonight. +They will land at Down End as soon as the tide will let them get near." + +Folding this, he once more mounted the window-sill, tossed the paper +into the room, lingered for but an instant to see that it was picked +up, then jumped down, ran with all speed, and was soon lost amid the +darkness which surrounded him. + +As he hurried from the house an echo seemed to carry to his ears the +shout which greeted this surprise--a surprise which set every one +talking at once, each one speaking and no one listening. Some were for +going, some for staying away, some for treating it as a serious matter, +others for taking it as a joke. + +At length the officer called "Silence!" and after a pause, addressing +the men present in a few words, he said that however it might turn out +he considered that he should only be doing his duty by ordering the +boats to proceed to the place named and see what amount of truth there +was in this somewhat mysterious manoeuvre. If it was nothing but a hoax +they must bear to have the laugh once more turned against them; but +should it turn out the truth! The buzz which greeted this bare +supposition showed how favorably his decision was regarded, and the +absent men were ordered to be summoned without delay. Everything was +got ready as quickly as possible, and in a little over an hour two +boats started, fully equipped and manned, to lie in ambush near the +coast midway between Looe and Polperro. + +While Fate, in the shape of Reuben May, had been hastening events +toward a disastrous climax, the course of circumstances in Polperro had +not gone altogether smoothly. To Eve's vexation, because of the +impossibility of speaking of her late encounter with Reuben May, she +found on her return home that during her absence Mrs. Tucker had +arrived, with the rare and unappreciated announcement that she had come +to stop and have her tea with them. The example set by Mrs. Tucker was +followed by an invitation to two or three other elderly friends, so +that between her hospitality and her excitement Joan had no opportunity +of noticing any undue change in Eve's manner or appearance. Two or +three remarks were made on her pale face and abstracted air, but this +more by the way of teasing than anything else; while Joan, remembering +the suppressed anxiety she was most probably trying to subdue, +endeavored to come to her aid and assist in turning away this +over-scrutiny of her tell-tale appearance. + +The opportunity thus afforded by silence gave time for reflection, and +Eve, who had never been quite straightforward or very explicit about +herself and Reuben May, now began to hesitate. Perhaps, after all, it +would be better to say nothing, for Joan was certain to ask questions +which, without betraying the annoyance she had undergone, Eve hardly +saw her way to answering. Again, it was not impossible but that +Reuben's anger might relent, and if so he would most probably seek +another interview, in which to beg her pardon. + +In her heart Eve hoped and believed this would be the case; for, +indignantly as she had defied Reuben's scorn and flung back his +reproaches, they had been each a separate sting to her, and she longed +for the chance to be afforded Reuben of seeing how immeasurably above +the general run of men was the one she had chosen. + +"Here, I say, Eve!" exclaimed Joan, as she came in-doors from bidding +good-bye to the last departure: "come bear a hand and let's set the +place all straight: I can't abide the men's coming home to find us all +in a muddle." + +Eve turned to with a good will, and the girls soon had the satisfaction +of seeing the room look as bright and cheery as they desired. + +"Let's see--ten minutes past 'leben," said Joan, looking at the clock. +"I don't see how 'tis possible for 'em to venture in 'fore wan, 'less +'tis to Yallow Rock, and they'd hardly try that. What do 'ee say, Eve? +Shall we run up out to cliff, top o' Talland lane, and see if us can +see any signs of 'em?" + +"Oh do, Joan!" + +And, throwing their cloaks over them, off they set. + +"Here, give me your hand," said Joan as they reached the gate and +entered upon the path which Eve had last trod with Adam by her side. "I +knaw the path better than you, and 'tis a bit narrow for a pitch-dark +night like this. Take care: we'm come to the watter. That's right. Now +up we goes till we get atop, and then we'll have a good look round us." + +Thus instructed, Eve managed to get on, and, stumbling up by Joan's +side, they quickly reached the narrow line of level which seemed to +overhang the depths below. + +"We couldn't see them if they were there," said Eve, turning to Joan, +who was still peering into the darkness. + +"No, 'tis blacker than I thought," said Joan cheerily: "that's ever so +much help to 'em, and--Hooray! the fires is out! Do 'ee see, Eve? There +ain't a spark o' nothin' nowheres. Ole Jonathan's hoaxed 'em fine this +time: the gawpuses have sooked it all in, and, I'll be bound, raced off +so fast as wind and tide 'ud carry 'em." + +"Then they're sure to come now?" said Eve excitedly. + +"Certain," said Joan. "They've seed the fires put out, and knaw it +means the bait's swallowed and the cruiser is off. I shouldn't wonder a +bit if they'm close in shore, only waitin' for the tide to give 'em a +proper draw o' water, so that they may send the kegs over." + +"Should we go on a bit farther," said Eve, "and get down the hill by +the Warren stile? We might meet some of 'em, perhaps." + +"Better not," said Joan. "To tell 'ee the truth, 'tis best to make our +way home so quick as can, for I wudn't say us 'ull have 'em back +quicker than I thought." + +"Then let's make haste," exclaimed Eve, giving her hand to Joan, while +she turned her head to take a farewell glance in the direction where it +was probable the vessel was now waiting. "Oh, Joan! what's that?" For a +fiery arrow had seemed to shoot along the darkness, and in quick +succession came another and another. + +Joan did not answer, but she seemed to catch her breath, and, clutching +hold of Eve, she made a spring up on to the wall over which they had +before been looking. And now a succession of sharp cracks were heard, +then the tongues of fire darted through the air, and again all was +gloom. + +"O Lord!" groaned Joan, "I hope 'tain't nothin's gone wrong with 'em." + +In an instant Eve had scrambled up by her side: "What can it be? what +could go wrong, Joan?" + +But Joan's whole attention seemed now centred on the opposite cliff, +from where, a little below Hard Head, after a few minutes' watching, +Eve saw a blue light burning: this was answered by another lower down, +then a rocket was sent up, at sight of which Joan clasped her hands and +cried, "Awn, 'tis they! 'tis they! Lord save 'em! Lord help 'em! They +cursed hounds have surely played 'em false." + +"What! not taken them, Joan?" + +"They won't be taken," she said fiercely. "Do you think, unless 'twas +over their dead bodies, they'd ever let king's men stand masters on the +Lottery's deck?" + +Eve's heart died within her, and with one rush every detail of the +lawless life seemed to come before her. + +"There they go again!" cried Joan; and this time, by the sound, she +knew their position was altered to the westward and somewhat nearer to +land. "Lord send they mayn't knaw their course!" she continued: "'tis +but a point or two on, and they'll surely touch the Steeple Reef.--Awh, +you blidthirsty cowards! I wish I'd the pitchin' of every man of 'ee +overboards: 'tis precious little mercy you'd get from me. And the +blessed sawls to be caught in yer snarin' traps close into home, +anighst their very doors, too!--Eve, I must go and see what they means +to do for 'em. They'll never suffer to see 'em butchered whilst there's +a man in Polperro to go out and help 'em." + +Forgetting in her terror all the difficulties she had before seen in +the path, Eve managed to keep up with Joan, whose flying footsteps +never stayed until she found herself in front of a long building close +under shelter of the Peak which had been named as a sort of +assembling-place in case of danger. + +"'Tis they?" Joan called out in breathless agony, pushing her way +through the crowd of men now hastening up from all directions toward +the captain of the Cleopatra. + +"I'm feared so;" and his grave face bespoke how fraught with anxiety +his fears were. + +"What can it be, d'ee think?" + +"Can't tell noways. They who brought us word saw the Hart sail, and +steady watch has been kept up, so that us knaws her ain't back." + +"You manes to do somethin' for 'em?" said Joan. + +"Never fear but us'll do what us can, though that's mighty little, I +can tell 'ee, Joan." + +Joan gave an impatient groan. Her thorough comprehension of their +danger and its possible consequences lent activity to her distress, +while Eve, with nothing more tangible than the knowledge that a +terrible danger was near, seemed the prey to indefinite horrors which +took away from her every sense but the sense of suffering. + +By this time the whole place was astir, people running to this point +and that, asking questions, listening to rumors, hazarding a hundred +conjectures, each more wild than the other. A couple of boats had been +manned, ready to row round by the cliff. One party had gone toward the +Warren, another to Yellow Rock. All were filled with the keenest desire +not only to aid their comrades, but to be revenged on those who had +snared them into this cunningly-devised pitfall. But amid all this zeal +arose the question, What could they do? + +Absolutely nothing, for by this time the firing had ceased, the contest +was apparently over, and around them impenetrable darkness again +reigned supreme. To show any lights by which some point of land should +be discovered might only serve as a beacon to the enemy. To send out a +boat might be to run it into their very jaws, for surely, were +assistance needed, those on board the Lottery would know that by this +time trusty friends were anxiously watching, waiting for but the +slightest signal to be given to risk life and limb in their service. + +The wisest thing to be done was to put everything in order for a sudden +call, and then sit down and patiently abide the result. This decision +being put into effect, the excited crowd began to thin, and before +long, with the exception of those who could render assistance, very few +lookers-on remained. Joan had lingered till the last, and then, urged +by the possibility that many of her house-comforts might be needed, she +hurried home to join Eve, who had gone before her. + +With their minds running upon all the varied accidents of a fight, the +girls, without exchanging a word of their separate fears, got ready +what each fancied might prove the best remedy, until, nothing more +being left to do, they sat down, one on each side of the fire, and +counted the minutes by which time dragged out this weary watching into +hours. + +"Couldn't 'ee say a few hymns or somethin', Eve?" Joan said at length, +with a hope of breaking this dreadful monotony. + +Eve shook her head. + +"No?" said Joan disappointedly. "I thought you might ha' knowed o' +some." Then, after another pause, struck by a happier suggestion, she +said, "S'pose us was to get down the big Bible and read a bit, eh? What +do 'ee say?" + +But Eve only shook her head again. "No," she said, in a hard, dry +voice: "I couldn't read the Bible now." + +"Couldn't 'ee?" sighed Joan. "Then, after all, it don't seem that +religion and that's much of a comfort. By what I'd heard," she added, +"I thought 'twas made o' purpose for folks to lay hold on in times o' +trouble." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +It was close upon three o'clock: Joan had fallen into an uneasy doze +and Eve was beginning to nod, when a rattle of the latch made them both +start up. + +"It can't be! Iss, it is, though!" screamed Joan, rushing forward to +meet Adam, who caught both the girls in a close embrace. + +"Uncle? uncle?" Joan cried. + +"All safe," said Adam, releasing her while he strained Eve closer to +his heart. "We're all back safe and sound, and, saving Tom Braddon and +Israel Rickard, without a scratch 'pon any of us." + +"Thank God!" sighed Eve, while Joan, verily jumping for joy, cried, +"But where be they to, eh, Adam? I must rin, wherever 'tis, and see +'em, and make sure of it with my awn eyes." + +"I left them down to quay with the rest: they're all together there," +said Adam, unwilling to lose the opportunity of securing a few minutes +alone with Eve, and yet unable to command his voice so that it should +sound in its ordinary tone. + +The jar in it caught Joan's quick ear, and, turning, she said, "Why, +whatever have 'ee bin about, then? What's the manin' of it all? Did +they play 'ee false, or how?" + +Adam gave a puzzled shake of the head. "You know quite as much about it +as I do," he said. "We started, and got on fair and right enough so far +as Down End, and I was for at once dropping out the kegs, as had been +agreed upon to do, at Sandy Bottom--" + +"Well?" said Joan. + +"Yes, 'twould ha' been well if we'd done it. Instead of which, no +sooner was the fires seen to be out--meaning, as all thought, that the +Hart was safe off--than nothing would do but we must go on to Yellow +Rock, which meant waiting for over an hour till the tide served for +it." + +"But you never gived in to 'em, Adam?" + +"Gived in?" he repeated bitterly. "After Jerrem had once put the +thought into their heads you might so well have tried to turn stone +walls as get either one to lay a finger on anything. They wanted to +know what was the good o' taking the trouble to sink the kegs overboard +when by just waitin' we could store all safe in the caves along there, +under cliff." + +"Most half drunk, I s'pose?" said Joan. + +"By Jove! then they'd pretty soon something to make 'em sober," replied +Adam grimly; "for in little more than half an hour we spied the two +boats comin' up behind us, and 'fore they was well caught sight of +they'd opened out fire." + +"And had 'ee got to return it?" asked Joan. + +"Not till they were close up we didn't, and then I b'lieve the sight of +us would have been enough; only, as usual, Mr. Jerrem must be on the +contrary, and let fly a shot that knocked down the bow-oar of the +foremost boat like a nine-pin. That got up their blood a bit, and then +at it our chaps went, tooth and nail--such a scrimmage as hasn't been +seen hereabouts since the Happy-go-Lucky was took and Welland shot in +her." + +"Lord save us! However did 'ee manage to get off so well?" said Joan. + +"Get off?" he said. "Why, we could have made a clean sweep of the whole +lot, and all the cry against me now is that I kept 'em from doing it. +The fools! not to see that our best chance is to do nothing more than +defend ourselves, and not run our necks into a noose by taking life +while there's any help for it!" + +"Was the man shot dead that Jerrem fired at?" asked Eve. + +"No, I hope not; or, if so, we haven't heard the last of it, for, +depend on it, this new officer, Buller, he's an ugly customer to deal +with, and won't take things quite so easy as old Ravens used to do." + +"You'll be faintin' for somethin' to eat," said Joan, moving toward the +kitchen. + +"No, I ain't," said Adam, laying a detaining hand upon her. "I couldn't +touch a thing: I want to be a bit quiet, that's all. My head seems all +of a miz-maze like." + +"Then I'll just run down and see uncle," said Joan, "and try and +persuade un to come home alongs, shall I?" + +Adam gave an expressive movement of his face. "You can try," he said, +"but you haven't got much chance o' bringin' him, poor old chap! He +thinks, like the rest of 'em, that they've done a fine night's work, +and they must keep it up by drinking to blood and glory. I only hope it +may end there, but if it doesn't, whatever comes, Jerrem's the one +who's got to answer for it all." + +While he was saying these words Adam was pulling off his jacket, and +now went to the kitchen to find some water with which to remove the +black and dirt from his begrimed face and hands. + +Eve hastened to assist him, but not before Joan had managed, by laying +her finger on her lip, to attract her attention. "For goodness +gracious' sake," she whispered, "don't 'ee brathe no word 'bout the +letter to un: there'd be worse than murder 'twixt 'em now." + +Eve nodded an assurance of silence, and, opening the door, Joan went +out into the street, already alive with people, most of them bent on +the same errand as herself, anxious to hear the incidents of the fight +confirmed by the testimony of the principal actors. + +The gathering-point was the sail-house behind the Peak, and thither, in +company with several friends, Joan made her way, and soon found herself +hailed with delight by Uncle Zebedee and Jerrem, both of whom were by +this time primed up to giving the most extraordinary and vivid accounts +of the fight, every detail of which was entirely corroborated by those +who had been present and those who had been absent; for the constant +demand made on the keg of spirits which, in honor of the _victory_, old +Zebedee had insisted on having broached there, was beginning to take +effect, so that the greater portion of the listeners were now turned +into talkers, and thus it was impossible to tell those who had seen +from those who had heard; and the wrangling, laughter, disputes and +congratulations made such a hubbub of confusion that the room seemed +for the time turned into a very pandemonium. + +Only one thing all gave hearty assent to: that was that Jerrem was the +hero on whom the merit of triumph rested, for if he hadn't fired that +first shot ten to one but they should have listened to somebody whom, +in deference to Zebedee, they refrained from naming, and indicated by a +nod in his direction, and let the white-livered scoundrels sneak off +with the boast that the Polperro men were afraid to give fight to them. +Afraid! Why, they were afraid of nothing, not they! They'd give chase +to the Hart, board the Looe cutter, swamp the boats, and utterly rout +and destroy the whole excise department: the more bloodthirsty the +resolution proposed, the louder was it greeted. + +The spirit of lawless riot seemed suddenly let loose among them, and +men who were usually kind-hearted and--after their rough +fashion--tenderly-disposed seemed turned into devils whose delight was +in violence and whose pleasure was excess. + +While this revelry was growing more fast and furious below Adam was +still sitting quietly at home, with Eve by his side using her every art +to dispel the gloom by which her lover's spirits were clouded--not so +much on account of the recent fight, for Adam apprehended no such great +score of danger on that head. It was true that of late such frays had +been of rare occurrence, yet many had taken place before, and with +disastrous results, and yet the chief actors in them still lived to +tell the tale; so that it was not altogether that which disturbed him, +although it greatly added to his former moodiness, which had originally +sprung out of the growing distaste to the life he led. + +The inaction of the time spent in dodging about, with nothing to occupy +him, nothing to interest him, had turned Adam's thoughts inward, and +made him determine to have done with these ventures, in which, except +as far as the gain went, he really had nothing in common with the +companions who took part in them. But, as he very well knew, it was far +easier to take this resolution in thought than it was to put it into +action. Once let the idea of his leaving them get abroad, and +difficulties would confront him whichever way he turned: obstacles +would block his path and suspicion dodge his footsteps. + +His comrades, though not very far-seeing men, were quite sharp enough +to estimate the danger of losing sight of one who was in possession of +all their secrets, and who could at any moment lay his finger upon +every hiding-place in their district. + +Adam himself had often listened to--and, in company with others, +silently commended--a story told of years gone by, when a brother of +the owner of the Stamp and Go, one Herkles Johns, had been pressed into +the king's service, and had there acquitted himself so gallantly that +on his return a commission had been offered to him, which he, longing +to take, accepted under condition of getting leave to see his native +place again. With the foreboding that the change of circumstances would +not be well received, he seized the opportunity occasioned by the joy +of his return to speak of the commission as a reward offered to him, +and asked the advice of those around as to whether he had not best +accept it. Opposition met him on every side. "What!" they said, "of his +own free will put himself in a place where some day he might be forced +to seize his father's vessel or swear away the lives of those he had +been born among?" The bare idea was inadmissible; and when, from asking +advice, he grew into giving his opinion, and finally into announcing +his decision, an ominous silence fell on those who heard him; and, +though he was unmolested during his stay, and permitted to leave his +former home, he was never known to reach his ship, aboard which his +mysterious disappearance was much talked of, and inquiries set afloat +to find out the reason of his absence; but among those whose name he +bore, and whose confidence he had shared, he seemed to be utterly +forgotten. His name was never mentioned nor his fate inquired into; and +Adam, remembering that he had seen the justice of this treatment, felt +the full force of its reasoning now applied to his own case, and his +heart sank before the difficulties in which he found himself entangled. + +Even to Eve he could not open out his mind clearly, for, unless to one +born and bred among them, the dangers and interests of the free-traders +were matters quite beyond comprehension; so that now, when Eve was +pleading, with all her powers of persuasion, that for her sake Adam +would give up this life of reckless daring, the seemingly deaf ear he +turned to her entreaties was dulled through perplexity, and not, as she +believed, from obstinacy. + +Eve, in her turn, could not be thoroughly explicit. There was a +skeleton cupboard, the key of which she was hiding from Adam's sight; +for it was not entirely "for her sake" she desired him to abandon his +present occupation: it was because, in the anxiety she had recently +undergone, in the terror which had been forced upon her, the glaze of +security had been roughly dispelled, and the life in all its +lawlessness and violence had stood forth before her. The warnings and +denunciations which only a few hours before, when Reuben May had +uttered them, she had laughed to scorn as idle words, now rang in her +ears like a fatal knell: the rope he had said would hang them all was +then a sieve of unsown hemp, since sprung up, and now the fatal cord +which dangled dangerously near. + +The secret thoughts of each fell like a shadow between them: an +invisible hand seemed to thrust them asunder, and, in spite of the love +they both felt, both were equally conscious of a want of that entire +sympathy which is the keystone to perfect union. + +"You _were_ very glad to see me come back to you, Eve?" Adam asked, as, +tired of waiting for Joan, Eve at length decided to sit up no longer. + +"Glad, Adam? Why do you ask?" + +"I can't tell," he said, "I s'pose it's this confounded upset of +everything that makes me feel as I do feel--as if," he added, passing +his hand over his forehead, "I hadn't a bit of trust or hope or comfort +in anything in the world." + +"I know exactly," said Eve. "That's just as I felt when we were waiting +for you to come back. Joan asked if we should read the Bible, but I +said no, I couldn't: I felt too wicked for that." + +"Wicked?" said Adam. "Why, what should make you feel wicked?" + +Eve hesitated. Should she unburden her heart and confess to him all the +fears and scruples which made it feel so heavy and ill at ease? A +moment's indecision, and the opportunity lost, she said in a dejected +tone, "Oh, I cannot tell; only that I suppose such thoughts come to all +of us sometimes." + +Adam looked at her, but Eve's eyes were averted; and, seeing how pale +and troubled was the expression on her face, he said, "You are +over-tired: all this turmoil has been too much for you. Go off now and +try to get some sleep. Yes, don't stay up longer," he added, seeing +that she hesitated. "I shall be glad of some rest myself, and to-morrow +we shall find things looking better than they seem to do now." + +Once alone, Adam reseated himself and sat gazing abstractedly into the +fire: then with an effort he seemed to try and shake his senses +together, to step out of himself and put his mind into a working order +of thought, so that he might weigh and sift the occurrences of these +recent events. + +The first question which had flashed into everybody's mind was, What +had led to this sudden attack? Had they been betrayed? and if so, Who +had betrayed them? Could it be Jonathan? Though the thought was at once +negatived, no other outsider knew of their intended movements. Of +course the matter had been discussed--as all matters were discussed and +voted for or against--among the crew; but to doubt either of them was +to doubt one's self, and any fear of betrayal among themselves was +unknown. The amount of baseness such a suspicion would imply was too +great to be incurred even in thought. What, then, could have led to +this surprise? Had their movements been watched, and this decoy of the +cutter only swallowed with the view of throwing them off their guard? + +Adam was lost in speculation, from which he was aroused by the door +being softly opened and Joan coming in. "Why, Adam, I thought to find +'ee in bed," she said. "Come, now, you must be dreadful tired." Then, +sitting down to loosen her hood, she added with a sigh, "I stayed down +there so long as I could, till I saw 'twasn't no good, so I comed away +home and left 'em. 'Tis best way, I b'lieve." + +"I knew 'twas no good your going," said Adam hopelessly. "I saw before +I left 'em what they'd made up their minds to." + +"Well, perhaps there's a little excuse this time," said Joan, not +willing to blame those who were so dear to her; "but, Adam," she broke +out, while her face bespoke her keen appreciation of his superiority, +"why can't th' others be like you, awh, my dear? How different things +'ud be if they only was!" + +Adam shook his head. "Oh, don't wish 'em like me," he said. "I often +wish I could take my pleasure in the same things and in the same way +that they do: I should be much happier, I b'lieve." + +"No, now, don't 'ee say that." + +"Why, what good has it done that I'm otherwise?" + +"Why, ever so much--more than you'll ever know, by a good bit. I +needn't go no further than my awnself to tell 'ee that. P'r'aps you +mayn't think it, but I've bin kep' fra doin' ever so many things by the +thought o' 'What'll Adam say?' and with the glass in my hand I've set +it down untasted, thinkin' to myself, 'Now you'm actin' agen Adam's +wish, you knaw.'" + +Adam smiled as he gave her a little shake of the hand. + +"That's how 'tis, you see," she continued: "you'm doin' good without +knawin' of it." Then, turning her dark eyes wistfully upon him, she +asked, "Do 'ee ever think a bit 'pon poor Joan while you'm away, Adam? +Come, now, you mustn't shove off from me altogether, you knaw: you must +leave me a dinkey little corner to squeeze into by." + +Adam clasped her hand tighter. "Oh, Joan," he said, "I'd give the whole +world to see my way clearer than I do now: I often wish that I could +take you all off to some place far away and begin life over again." + +"Awh!" said Joan in a tone of sympathy to which her heart did not very +cordially respond, "that 'ud be a capital job, that would; but you +ain't manin' away from Polperro?" + +"Yes, far away. I've bin thinkin' about it for a good bit: don't you +remember I said something o' the sort to father a little time back?" + +"Iss, but I didn't knaw there was any more sense to your words than to +threaten un, like. Awh, my dear!" she said with a decided shake of the +head, "that 'ud never do: don't 'ee get hold o' such a thought as that. +Turn your back upon the place? Why, whatever 'ud they be about to let +'ee do it?" + +Joan's words only echoed Adam's own thoughts: still, he tried to combat +them by saying, "I don't see why any one should try to interfere with +what I might choose to do: what odds could it make to them?" + +"Odds?" repeated Joan. "Why, you'd hold all their lives in your wan +hand. Only ax yourself the question, Where's either one of 'em you'd +like to see take hisself off nobody knows why or where?" + +Adam could find no satisfactory reply to this argument: he therefore +changed the subject by saying, "I wish I could fathom this last +business. 'Tis a good deal out o' the course o' plain sailing. So far +as I know by, there wasn't a living soul but Jonathan who could have +said what was up for to-night." + +"Jonathan's right enough," said Joan decidedly. "I should feel a good +deal more mistrust 'bout some of 'em lettin' their tongues rin too +fast." + +"There was nobody to let them run fast to," said Adam. + +"Then there's the writin'," said Joan, trying to discover if Adam knew +anything about Jerrem's letter. + +Adam shook his head. "'Tisn't nothing o' that sort," he said. "I don't +know that, beyond Jerrem and me, either o' the others know how to +write; and I said particular that I should send no word by speech or +letter, and the rest must do the same; and Jonathan would ha' told me +if they'd broke through in any way, for I put the question to him 'fore +he shoved off." + +"Oh, did 'ee?" said Joan, turning her eyes away, while into her heart +there crept a suspicion of Jonathan's perfect honesty. Was it possible +that his love of money might have led him to betray his old friends? +Joan's fears were aroused. "'Tis a poor job of it," she said, +anxiously. "I wish to goodness 't had happened to any o' the rest, so +long as you and uncle was out of it." + +"And not Jerrem?" said Adam, with a feeble attempt at his old teasing. + +"Awh, Jerrem's sure to fall 'pon his feet, throw un which way you +will," said Joan. "Besides, if he didn't"--and she turned a look of +reproach on Adam--"Jerrem ain't you, Adam, nor uncle neither. I don't +deny that I don't love Jerrem dearly, 'cos I do"--and for an instant +her voice seemed to wrestle with the rush of tears which streamed from +her eyes as she sobbed--"but for you or uncle, why, I'd shed my heart's +blood like watter--iss that I would, and not think 'twas any such great +thing, neither." + +"There's no need to tell me that," said Adam, whose heart, softened by +his love for Eve, had grown very tender toward Joan. "Nobody knows you +better than I do. There isn't another woman in the whole world I'd +trust with the things I'd trust you with, Joan." + +"There's a dear!" said Joan, recovering herself. "It does me good to +hear 'ee spake like that. 'Tis such a time since I had a word with 'ee +that I began to feel I don't know how-wise." + +"Well, yes," said Adam, smiling, "'tis a bravish spell since you and me +were together by our own two selves. But I declare your talk's done me +more good than anything I've had to-day. I feel ever so much better now +than I did before." + +Joan was about to answer, when a sound made them both start and stand +for a moment listening. + +"'Tis gone, whatever it was," said Adam, taking a step forward. "I +don't hear nothing now, do you?" + +Joan pushed back the door leading to the stairs. "No," she said: "I +reckon 'twas nothin' but the boards. Howiver, 'tis time I went, or I +shall be wakin' up Eve. Her's a poor sleeper in general, but, what with +wan thing and 'nother, I 'spects her's reg'lar wornout, poor sawl! +to-night." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +Wornout and tired as she felt when she went up stairs, Eve's mind was +so excited by the day's adventures that she found it impossible to lull +her sharpened senses into anything like repose, and after hearing Joan +come in she lay tossing and restless, wondering why it was she did not +come up, and what could possibly be the cause of her stopping so long +below. + +As time went on her impatience grew into anxiety, which in its turn +became suspicion, until, unable longer to restrain herself, she got up, +and, after listening with some evident surprise at the stair-head, +cautiously stole down the stairs and peeped, through the chink left by +the ill-fitting hinge of the door, into the room. + +"There isn't another woman in the whole world I'd trust with the things +I'd trust you with, Joan," Adam was saying. Eve bent a trifle farther +forward. "You've done me more good than anything I've had to-day. I +feel ever so much better now than I did before." + +An involuntary movement, giving a different balance to her position, +made the stairs creak, and to avoid detection Eve had to make a hasty +retreat and hurry back, so that when Joan came up stairs it was to find +her apparently in such a profound sleep that there was little reason to +fear any sound she might make would arouse her; but long after Joan had +sunk to rest, and even Adam had forgotten his troubles and anxieties, +Eve nourished and fed the canker of jealousy which had crept into her +heart--a jealousy not directed toward Joan, but turned upon Adam for +recalling to her mind that old grievance of not giving her his full +trust. + +At another time these speeches would not have come with half the +importance: it would have been merely a vexation which a few sharp +words would have exploded and put an end to. But now, combined with the +untoward circumstances of situation--for Eve could not confess herself +a listener--was the fact that her nerves, her senses and her conscience +seemed strained to a point which made each feather-weight appear a +burden. + +Filled with that smart of wounded love whose sweetest balm revenge +seems to supply, Eve lay awake until the gray light of day had filled +the room, and then, from sheer exhaustion, she fell into a doze which +gradually deepened into a heavy sleep, so that when she again opened +her eyes the sun was shining full and strong. + +Starting up, she looked round for Joan, but Joan had been up for a +couple of hours and more. She had arisen very stealthily, creeping +about with the hope that Eve would not be disturbed by her movements, +for Adam's great desire was that Eve's feelings should be in no way +outraged by discovering either in Uncle Zebedee or in Jerrem traces of +the previous night's debauch; and this, by Joan's help, was managed so +well that when Eve made her appearance she was told that Uncle Zebedee, +tired like herself, was not yet awake, while Jerrem, brisked up by +several nips of raw spirit, was lounging about in a state of lassitude +and depression which might very well be attributed to reaction and +fatigue. + +Perhaps if Eve could have known that Adam was not present she would +have toned down the amount of cordiality she threw into her greeting of +Jerrem--a greeting he accepted with such a happy adjustment of pleasure +and gratitude that to have shown a difference on the score of Adam's +absence would have been to step back into their former unpleasant +footing. + +"Adam's gone out," said Jerrem in answer to the inquiring look Eve was +sending round the kitchen. + +"Oh, I wasn't looking for Adam," said Eve, while the rush of vexed +color denied the assertion: "I was wondering where Joan could be." + +"She was in here a minute ago," said Jerrem, "telling me 'twas a shame +to be idlin' about so." + +"Why, are you still busy?" said Eve. + +"No, nothin' to speak of but what 'ull wait--and fit it should--till +I'd spoken to you, Eve. I ain't like one who's got the chance o' comin' +when he's minded to," he added, "or the grass wouldn't ha' had much +chance o' growin' under my feet after once they felt the shore. No, +now, don't look put out with me: I ain't goin' to ask ye to listen to +nothin' you don't want to hear. I've tried to see the folly o' that +while I've bin away, and 'tis all done with and pitched overboard; and +that's what made me write that letter, 'cos I wanted us two to be like +what we used to be, you know." + +"I wish you hadn't written that letter, though," said Eve, only half +inclined to credit Jerrem's assertions. + +"Well, as things have turned out, so do I," said Jerrem, who, although +he did not confess it to himself, would have given all he possessed to +feel quite certain Eve would keep his secret. "You see, it's so awkard +like, when everybody's tryin' to ferret out how this affair came about. +You didn't happen to mention it to nobody, I s'pose?" and he turned a +keen glance of inquiry toward Eve. + +"Me mention it?" said Eve: "I should think not! Joan can tell you how +angry we both were, for of course we knew that unless Adam had some +good cause he wouldn't have wished it kept so secret." + +"And do you think I should have quitted a word to any livin' soul but +yourself?" exclaimed Jerrem. "I haven't much sense in your eyes, I +know, Eve, but you might give me credit o' knowing who's to be trusted +and who isn't." + +"What's that about trustin'?" said Joan, who now made her appearance. +"I tell 'ee what 'tis, Mr. Jerrem, you'm not to be trusted anyhows. +Why, what could 'ee ha' bin thinkin' of to go sendin' that letter you +did, after Adam had spoke to 'ee all? There'd be a purty set-out of it, +you knaw, Jerrem, if the thing was to get winded about. I, for wan, +shouldn't thank 'ee, I can tell 'ee, for gettin' my name mixed up with +it, and me made nothin' better than a cat's-paw of." + +"Who's goin' to wind it about?" said Jerrem, throwing his arm round her +and drawing her coaxingly toward him. "You ain't, and I ain't, and I'll +answer for it Eve ain't; and so long as we three keep our tongues +atween our teeth, who'll be the wiser--eh?" + +"Awh, that's all very fine," returned Joan, far from mollified, "but +there's a somebody hasn't a-kept their tongues silent; and who it can +be beats me to tell. Did Jonathan knaw for certain 'bout the landin'? +or was it only guess-work with un?" + +"I ain't sure; but Jonathan's safe enough," said Jerrem, "and so's the +rest too. 'Twarn't through no blabbin', take my word for that: 'twas a +reg'lar right-down set scheme from beginnin' to end, and that's why I +should ha' liked to ha' give 'em a payin'-out that they wouldn't ha' +forgot in a hurry. I'd ha' scored their reckonin' for 'em, I can tell +*'eel" + +"Awh! iss, I dare say," said Joan with scornful contempt: "you allays +think you knaws better than they you'm bound to listen to. +Howsomedever, when all's said and done, I shall finish with the same I +began with--that you'd no right to send that letter." + +"Well, you've told me that afore," said Jerrem sullenly. + +"Iss, and now I tells 'ee behind," retorted Joan, "and to front and to +back, and round all the sides--so there!" + +"Oh, all right!" said Jerrem: "have your talk out: it don't matter to +me;" and he threw himself down on the settle with apparent unconcern, +taking from his breast-pocket a letter which he carefully +unfolded.--"Did you know that I'd got a letter gived me to Guernsey, +Eve," he said--"one they'd ha' kept waitin' there for months for me?" + +Eve looked up, and, to her vexation, saw Jerrem reading the letter +which on her first arrival she had written: the back of it was turned +toward her, so as to ostentatiously display the two splotches of red +sealing-wax. + +"Why, you doan't mane to say you've a-got _he?_" exclaimed Joan, her +anger completely giving way to her amazement. "Well, I never! after all +this long whiles, and us a-tryin' to stop un, too!--Eve, do 'ee see +he's got the letter you writ, kisses and all?" + +"Joan!" exclaimed Eve in a tone of mingled reproof and annoyance, while +Jerrem made a feint of pressing the impressions to his lips, casting +the while a look in Eve's direction, which Joan intercepting, she said, +"Awh! iss I would, seeing they'm so much mine as Eve's, and you doan't +know t'other from which." + +"That's all you can tell," said Jerrem. + +"Iss, and all you can tell, too," replied Joan; adding, as the frown on +his face betokened rising anger, "There, my dear, you'd best step +inside wi' me and get a drop more o' your mornin's physic, I reckon." + +"Physic?" growled Jerrem. "I don't want no physic--leastwise, no more +than I've had from you already." + +"Glad to hear it," said Joan. "When you change your mind--which, depend +on it, 'ull be afore long--you'll find me close to hand.--I must make +up a few somethin's for this evenin'," she said, addressing Eve, "in +case any of 'em drops in. Adam's gone off," she added, "I don't know +where, nor he neither till his work's done." + +"Might just as well have saved hisself the trouble," growled Jerrem. + +"No, now, he mightn't," replied Joan. "There's spurrits enough to wan +place and t'other to float a Injyman in, and the sooner 'tis got the +rids of the better, for 'twill be more by luck than good management if +all they kegs is got away unseen." + +"Oh, of course Adam's perfect," sneered Jerrem. Then, catching sight of +Eve's face as he watched Joan go into the kitchen, he added with a +desponding sigh, "I only wish I was; but the world's made for some: I +s'pose the more they have the more they get." + +Eve did not answer: perhaps she had not heard, as she was just now +engaged in shifting her position so as to escape the dazzling rays of +the sun, which came pouring down on her head. The movement seemed to +awaken her to a sense of the day's unusual brightness, and, getting up, +she went to the window and looked out. "Isn't it like summer?" she +said, speaking more to herself than to Jerrem. "I really must say I +should like to have gone somewhere for a walk." + +The words, simple in themselves, flung in their tone a whole volume of +reproach at Adam, for to Eve's exacting mind there could be no +necessity urgent enough to take Adam away without ever seeing her or +leaving a message for her. + +"Well, come out with me," said Jerrem: "there's nothin' I should like +better than a bit of a stroll. I'd got it in my head before you spoke." + +Eve hesitated. + +"P'r'aps you'm thinkin' Adam 'ud blame 'ee for it?" + +"Oh dear, no, I'm not: I'm not quite such a slave to Adam's opinion as +that. Besides," she added, feeling she was speaking, with undue +asperity, "surely everybody may go for a walk without being blamed by +anybody for it: at all events, I mean to go." + +"That's right," said Jerrem.--"Here, I say, Joan, me and Eve's goin' +out for a little." + +"Goin' out? Where to?" said Joan, coming forward toward the door, to +which he had advanced. + +"Oh, round about for a bit--by Chapel Rock and out that ways." + +"Well, if you goes with her, mind you comes back with her. D'ee hear, +now?--Don't 'ee trust un out o' yer sight, Eve, my dear--not further +than you can see un, nor so far if you can help it." + +"You mind yer own business," said Jerrem. + +"If you was to do that you'd stay at home, then," said Joan, dropping +her voice; "but that's you all over, tryin' to put your finger into +somebody's else's pie.--I doubt whether 'twill over-please Adam +either," she added, coming back from watching them down the street; +"but, there! if he and Eve's to sail in one boat, the sooner he learns +'twon't always be his turn to handle the tiller the better." + + * * * * * + +It was getting on for three o'clock when Adam, having completed all the +business he could accomplish on that day, was returning home. He had +been to the few gentlemen's houses near, had visited most of the large +farms around, and had found a good many customers ready to relieve him +of a considerable portion of the spirit which, by reason of their +living so near at hand, would thus evade much of the danger attendant +on a more distant transfer. + +Every one had heard of the recent attack on the Lottery, and much +sympathy was expressed and many congratulations were tendered on +account of their happy escape. + +Adam was a general favorite, looked up to and respected as an honest, +straight-forward fellow; and so little condemnation was felt against +the trade carried on that the very magistrate consented to take a +portion of the goods, and saw no breach of his office in the admonition +he gave to keep a sharp lookout against these new-comers, who seemed +somewhat over-inclined to show their teeth. + +Adam spoke freely of the anxiety he felt as to the result of the +encounter, but very few seemed to share it. Most of them considered +that, having escaped, with the exception of strengthened vigilance no +further notice would be taken, so that his mind was considerably +relieved about the matter, and his heart felt lighter and his pace more +brisk in returning than when in the morning he had set out on his +errand. + +His last visit had been to Lizzen, and thence, instead of going back by +the road, he struck across to the cliff by a narrow path known to him, +and which would save him some considerable distance. + +The day was perfect--the sky cloudless, the sea tranquil: the young +verdure of the crag-crowned cliffs lay bathed in soft sunshine. For a +moment Adam paused, struck by the air of quiet calm which overspread +everything around. Not a breath of wind seemed abroad, not a sail in +sight, not a sound to be heard. A few scattered sheep were lazily +feeding near; below them a man was tilling a fresh-cleared patch of +ground; far away beyond two figures were standing side by side. + +Involuntarily, Adam's eyes rested on these two, and while he gazed upon +them there sprang up into his heart the wish that Eve was here. He +wanted her--wanted to remind her of the promise she had given him +before they parted, the promise that on his return she would no longer +delay, but tell him the day on which he might claim her for his wife. A +minute more, and with all speed he was making a straight cut across the +*cliff-side. Disregarding the path, he scrambled over the projections +of rock and trampled down the furze, with only one thought in his +mind--how soon he could reach home. + +"Where's Eve, Joan?" he asked as, having looked through two of the +rooms, he came, still in breathless haste, into the outer kitchen, +where Joan was now busily engaged in baking her cakes. + +"Ain't her outside nowheres?" said Joan, wiping her face with her apron +to conceal its expression. + +"No, I can't see her." + +"Awh, then, I reckon they'm not come in yet;" and by this time she had +recovered herself sufficiently to turn round and answer with +indifference. + +"Who's they?" said Adam quickly. + +"Why, her went out for a bit of a stroll with Jerrem. They--" + +But Adam interrupted her. "Jerrem?" he exclaimed. "Why should she go +out with Jerrem?" + +"Awh, he's right enough now," said Joan. "He's so sober as a judge, or +I wouldn't ha' suffered 'en anighst her. Eve thought she should like a +bit of a walk, and he offered to go with her; and I was very glad of it +too, for Tabithy wanted to sandy the floors, so their room was better +for we than their company." + +"'Tis very strange," said Adam, "that Eve can't see how she puts me out +by goin' off any way like this with Jerrem. I won't have it," he added, +with rising anger, "and if she's to be my wife she sha'n't do it, +either; so she'd best choose between us before things go too far." + +"Awh, don't 'ee take it like that," said Joan soothingly. "'Twasn't +done with no manin' in it. Her hadn't any more thought o' vexin' 'ee +than a babby; nor I neither, so far as that goes, or I should ha' put a +stopper on it, you may be sure. Why, go and meet 'em. They'm only out +by Chapel Rock: they left word where they was goin' a-purpose." + +A little mollified by this, Adam said, "I don't tell Eve everything, +but Jerrem and I haven't pulled together for a long time, and the more +we see o' one another the worse it is, and the less I want him to have +anything to say to Eve. He's always carryin' on some game or 'nother. +When we were at Guernsey he made a reg'lar set-out of it 'bout some +letter that came there to him. Well, who could that have been from? +Nobody we know anything about, or he'd have said so. Besides, who +should want to write to him, or what business had he to go blabbin' +about which place we were bound for? I haven't seen all the soundings +o' that affair clear yet, but I mean to. I ain't goin' to be 'jammed in +a clench like Jackson' for Jerrem nor nobody else." + +Joan made no answer. She seemed to be engaged in turning her crock +round, and while bending down she said, "Well, I should go after 'em if +I was you. They'm sure not to be very far off, and I'll get tea ready +while you'm gone." + +Adam moved away. Somewhat reluctant to go, he lingered about the rooms +for some time, making up his mind what he should do. He could not help +being haunted by an idea that the two people he had seen standing were +Eve and Jerrem. It was a suspicion which angered him beyond measure, +and after once letting it come before him it rankled so sorely that he +determined to satisfy himself, and therefore started off down the +street, past the quay and up by the steps. + +"Here, where be goin' to?" called out a voice behind him. + +Without stopping Adam turned his head. "Oh, Poll, is that you?" he +said. + +"Iss." + +"Have ye seen Eve pass this way? I think she'd got Jerrem with her." + +"S'pose if I have?" said Poll, with whom Adam was no favorite: "they +doesn't want you. You stay where you be now. I hates to see anybody +a-spilin' sport like that." + +With no very pleasant remark on the old woman Adam turned to go on. + +"Awh, you may rin," she cried, "but you woan't catch up they. They was +bound for Nolan Point, and they's past there long afore now." + +Then the two he had seen were they! An indescribable feeling of +jealousy stung Adam, and, giving way to his temper in a volley of oaths +against old Poll, he turned back, repassed her and went toward home, +while she stood enjoying his discomfiture, laughing heartily at it as +she called out, "I hears 'ee. Swear away! I don't mind yer cusses, not +I. Better hear they than be deef." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +"Joan, you needn't expect me till you see me"--Joan turned quickly +round to see Adam at the door, looking angry and determined--"and you +can tell Eve from me that as it seems all one to her whatever companion +she has, I don't see any need for forcing myself where I am told I +should only be one in the way." + +"Adam--" But the door was already slammed, and Joan again left in +possession of the kitchen.--"Now, there 'tis," she said in a tone of +vexation, "just as I thought: a reg'lar piece o' work made all out o' +nothin'. Drabbit the maid! If her's got the man her wants, why can't +her study un a bit? But somehow there's bin a crooked stick lyin' in +her path all day to-day: her's nipped about somethin', I'm positive +sure o' that; and they all just come home too, and everythin', and now +to be at daggers--drawn with one 'nother! 'Tis terrible, 'tis." + +Joan's reflections, interrupted by the necessary attention which her +cakes and pasties made upon her, lasted over some considerable time, +and they had not yet come to an end when two of the principal objects +of them presented themselves before her. "Why, wherever have 'ee bin +to?" she said peevishly. "Whatever made 'ee stay away like this +for--actin' so foolish, when you knaws, both of 'ee, what a poor temper +Adam's got if anythin' goes contrary with un?" + +Jerrem shrugged his shoulders, while Eve, at once assuming an injured +air for such an unmerited attack, said, "Really, Joan, I don't know +what you mean. Old Poll Potter has just been telling us that Adam came +flying and fuming up her way, wanting to know if she'd seen us, and +then, when she said where we'd gone to, he used the most dreadful +language to her--I'm sure I don't know for what reason. He chose to go +out without me this morning." + +"But that was 'bout business," said Joan. + +"Oh, business!" repeated Eve. "Business is a very convenient word when +you don't want to tell a person what your real errand is. Not that I +want to pry into Adam's secrets--far from it. He's quite welcome to +keep what he likes from me, only I'd rather he wouldn't tell me half +things. I like to know all or none." + +Joan looked mystified, and Jerrem, seeing she did not know what to say, +came to the rescue. "I'm sure I'm very vexed if I've been the cause of +anything o' this, Eve," he said humbly. + +"You needn't be at all vexed: it's nothing at all to do with you. You +asked me to go, and I said yes: if I hadn't wanted to go I should have +said no. Any one would think I'd committed a crime, instead of taking a +simple walk, with no other fault than not happening to return home at +the very same minute that it suited Adam to come back at." + +"But how is it he's a seed you if you haven't a seed he?" said Joan, +fairly puzzled by this game of cross-purposes. "He came home all right +'nuf, and then went off to see whereabouts he could find 'ee to; and +'bout quarter'n hour after back he comes in a reg'lar pelt, and says, +'You tell Eve,' he says, 'that I'm not goin' to foace myself where I'm +told I sha'n't be wanted.' Awh, my dear, he'd seed 'ee somewheres," she +continued in answer to Eve's shrug of bewilderment: "I could tell that +so soon as iver I'd clapped eyes on un." + +"And where's he off to now?" said Eve, determined to have an immediate +settlement of her wrongs. + +"I can't tell: he just flung they words at me and was gone." + +Eve said no more, but with the apparent intention of taking off her hat +went up stairs, while Joan, bidding Jerrem go and see if Uncle Zebedee +was roused up yet, returned to her previous occupation of preparing the +tea. When it was ready she called out, "Come 'long, Eve;" but no answer +was returned. "Tay's ready, my dear." Still no reply.--"She can't ha' +gone out agen?" thought Joan, mounting the stairs to ascertain the +cause of the silence, which was soon explained by the sight of Eve +flung down on the bed, with her head buried in the pillow.--"Now, +whatever be doin' this for?" exclaimed Joan, bending down and +discovering that Eve was sobbing as if her heart would break. "Awh, +doan't cry now, there's a dear: 't 'ull all come straight agen. Why, +now, you'll see Adam 'ull be back in no time. 'Twas only through bein' +baulked when he'd a come back o' purpose to take 'ee out." + +"How was I to know that?" sobbed Eve. + +"No, o' course you didn't, and that's what I told un. But, lors! 'tis +in the nature o' men to be jealous o' one 'nother, and with Adam more +partickler o' Jerrem; so for the future you must humor un a bit, 'cos +there's things atwixt they two you doan't know nothin' of, and so can't +allays tell when the shoe's pinchin' most." + +"I often think whether Adam and me will be happy together," said Eve, +sitting up and drying her eyes. "I'm willing to give in, but I won't be +trampled upon." + +"And he won't want to trample 'pon 'ee, neither. Only you study un a +bit, and you'll soon learn the measure o' Adam's foot. Why, 'tis only +to see un lookin' at 'ee to tell how he loves 'ee;" and Joan +successfully kept down a rising sigh as she added, "Lors! he wouldn't +let a fly pitch 'pon 'ee if he could help it." + +"If he'd seen us before he came in first he'd have surely told you?" +said Eve. + +"Awh, he hadn't seen 'ee then," said Joan, "'cos, though he was a bit +vexed, he wasn't in no temper. 'Twas after he went out the second time +that he must have cast eyes on 'ee some way. Jerrem wasn't up to none +of his nonsense, was he?" she asked. '"Cos I knaws what Jerrem is. He +don't think no more o' givin' 'ee a kiss or that than he does o' +noddin' his head or crookin' his elbaw; and if Adam caught un at that, +it 'ud be enough for he." + +Eve shook her head. "Jerrem never takes none of those liberties with +me," she said: "he knows I won't allow him to. The whole of the time we +did nothing but talk and walk along till we came to a nice place, and +then we stayed for a little while looking at the view together, and +after that came back." + +"'Tis more than I can make out, then," said Joan, "'cos, though I +wondered when you set off whether Adam would 'zactly relish your bein' +with Jerrem, I never thought 'twould put un out like this." + +"It makes me feel so miserable!" said Eve, trying to keep back her +tears; "for oh, Joan"--and she threw her arms round Joan's neck--"I do +love him very dearly!" + +"Iss, my dear, I knaws you do," returned Joan soothingly, "and he loves +you too." + +"Then why can't we always feel the same, Joan, and be comfortable and +kind and pleasant to one another?" + +"Oh lors! that 'ud be a reg'lar milk-and-watter set-out o' it. No, so +long as you doan't carry on too far on the wan tack I likes a bit of a +breeze now and then: it freshens 'ee up and puts new life into 'ee. But +here, come along down now, and when Adam comes back seem as if nothin' +had happened, and p'r'aps seein' you make so light of it 'ull make un +forget all about it." + +So advised, Eve dried her eyes and smoothed down her ruffled +appearance, and in a short time joined the party below, which now +included Uncle Zebedee, Barnabas Tadd and Zeke Teague, who had brought +word that the Hart had only that morning returned to Fowey, entirely +ignorant of the skirmish which had taken place between the Looe boats +and the Lottery, and that, though it was reported that the man shot had +been shot dead, nothing was known for certain, as it seemed that the +men of Looe station were not over-anxious to have the thing talked +about. + +"I should think they wasn't, neither," chuckled Uncle Zebedee. +"Sneakin', cowardly lot! they was game enough whiles they was creepin' +up behind, but, lors! so soon as us shawed our faces, and they seed +they'd got men to dale with, there was another tale to tell, and no +mistake. I much doubt whether or no wan amongst 'em had ever smelt +powder afore our Jerrem here let 'em have a sniff o' his mixin'. 'Tis +my belief--and I ha'n't a got a doubt on the matter, neither--that if +he hadn't let fly when he did they'd ha' drawed off and gone away +boastin' that they'd got the best o' it." + +"Well, and more's the pity you didn't let 'em, then," said Joan. "I +would, I knaw. Safe bind's safe find, and you can never tell when +fightin' begins where 'tis goin' to end to." + +"It shouldn't ha' ended where it did if I'd had my way," said Jerrem. + +"Awh, well! there, never mind," said old Zebedee. "You'll have a chance +agen, never fear, and then we must make 'ee capen. How'd that plaze +'ee, eh?" + +Jerrem's face bespoke his satisfaction. "Take care I don't hold 'ee to +yer word," he said, laughing. "I've got witnesses, mind, to prove it: +here's Barnabas here, and Zeke Teague, and they won't say me nay, I'll +wager--will 'ee, lads?" + +"Wa-all, bide a bit, bide a bit," said Zebedee, winking in appreciation +of this joke. "There'll be two or three o' the oldsters drap in durin' +the ebenin', and then us 'll have a bit of a jaw together on it, and +weigh sides on the matter." + +As Uncle Zebedee anticipated, the evening brought a goodly number of +visitors, who, one after another, came dropping in until the +sitting-room was pretty well filled, and it was as much as Eve and Joan +could manage to see that each one was comfortably seated and provided +for. + +There were the captains of the three vessels, with a portion of the +crew of each, several men belonging to the place--all more or less +mixed up with the ventures--and of course the crew of the Lottery, by +no means yet tired of having their story listened to and their +adventure discussed. Adam's absence was felt to be a great relief, and +each one inwardly voted it as a proof that Adam himself saw that he'd +altogether made a missment and gone nigh to damage the whole concern. +Many a jerk of the head or the thumb accompanied a whisper that "he'd a +tooked hisself off," and drew forth the response that "'twas the proper +line to pursoo;" and, feeling they had no fear of interruption, they +resigned themselves to enjoyment and settled down to jollity, in the +very midst of which Adam made his appearance. But the time was passed +when his presence or his absence could in any way affect them, and, +instead of the uncomfortable silence which at an earlier stage might +have fallen upon the party, his entrance was now only the occasion of +hard hits and rough jokes, which Adam, seeing the influence under which +they were made, tried to bear with all the temper he could command. + +"Don't 'ee take no notice of 'em," said Joan, bending over him to set +down some fresh glasses. "They ain't worth yer anger, not one among +'em. I've kept Eve out of it so much as I could, and after now there +won't be no need for her to come in agen; so you go outside there. +Her's a waitin' to have a word with 'ee." + +"Then wait she may," said Adam: "I'm goin' to stop where I am.--Here, +father," he cried, "pass the liquor this way. Come, push the grog +about. Last come first served, you know." + +The heartiness with which this was said caused considerable +astonishment. + +"Iss, iss, lad," said old Zebedee, his face glowing under the effects +of hot punch and the efforts of hospitality. "That's well said. Set to +with a will, and you'll catch us up yet." + +During the laughter called forth by this challenge, Joan took another +opportunity of speaking. "Why, what be 'bout, Adam?" she said, seeing +how unlike his speech and action were to his usual self. "Doan't 'ee go +and cut off your naws to spite yer face, now. Eve's close by here. +Her's as sorry as anythin', her is: her wouldn't ha' gone out for +twenty pounds if her'd knawed it." + +"I wish you'd hold yer tongue," said Adam: "I've told you I'm goin' to +stop here. Be off with you, now!" + +But Joan, bent on striving to keep him from an excess to which she saw +exasperation was goading him, made one more effort. "Awh, Adam," she +said, "do 'ee come now. Eve--" + +"Eve be--" + +But before the word had well escaped his lips Joan's hand was clapped +over his mouth. Too late, for Eve had come up behind them, and as Adam +turned his head to shake Joan off he found himself face to face before +her, and the look of outraged love she fixed upon him made his heart +quail within him. What could he do? what should he say? Nothing now, +for before he could gather up his senses she had passed by him and was +gone. + +A sickening feeling came over Adam, and he could barely put his lips to +the glass which, in order to avert attention, he had caught up and +raised to his mouth. At a blow all the resolutions he had forced +himself to were upset and scattered, for he had returned with the +reckless determination of plunging into whatever dissipation chanced to +be going on. + +He had roamed about, angry and tormented, until the climax of passion +was succeeded by an overpowering sense of gloom, to get away from which +he had determined to abandon himself, and, flinging all restraint +aside, sink down to that level over which the better part of his nature +had vainly tried to soar. But now, in the feeling of degradation which +Eve's eyes had flashed upon him, the grossness of these excesses came +freshly before him, and the knowledge that even in thought he had +entertained them made him feel lowered in his own eyes; and if in his +eyes, how must he look in hers? + +Without a movement he knew every time that she entered the room: he +heard her exchange words with some of those present, applaud a song of +Barnabas Tadd's, answer a question of Uncle Zebedee's, and, sharpest +thorn of all, stand behind Jerrem's chair, talking to him while some of +the roughest hits were being made at his own mistaken judgment in +holding back those who were ready to have "sunk the Looe boats and all +aboard 'em." + +In the anguish of his heart Adam could have cried aloud. It seemed to +him that until now he had never tasted the bitterness of love nor +smarted under the sharp tooth of jealousy. There were lapses when, +sending a covert look across the table, those around him faded away and +only Eve and Jerrem stood before him, and while he gazed a harsh, +discordant laugh would break the spell, and, starting, he would find +that it was his own voice which had jarred upon his ear. His head +seemed on fire, his senses confused. Turning his eyes upon the tumbler +of grog which he had poured out, he could hardly credit that it still +stood all but untasted before him. A noisy song with a rollicking +chorus was being sung, and for a moment Adam shut his eyes, trying to +recollect himself. All in vain: everything seemed jumbled and mixed +together. + +Suddenly, in the midst of the clamor, a noise outside was heard. The +door was burst violently open and as violently shut again by Jonathan, +who, throwing himself with all his force against it, cried out, "They'm +comin'! they'm after 'ee--close by--the sodjers. You'm trapped!" And, +exhausted and overcome by exertion and excitement, his tall form swayed +to and fro, and then fell back in a death-like swoon upon the floor. + +_The Author of "Dorothy Fox."_ + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +A VILLEGGIATURA IN ASISI. + + +To most travellers a visit to Asisi is a flying visit. They drive over +from Perugia or up from the railway station, and if, besides San +Francesco and Santa Chiara, they see the cathedral and San Damiano, +they believe themselves to have exhausted the sights of the town. The +beautiful front of what was once a temple of Minerva can be seen in +passing through the piazza in which it stands: the departing visitors +glance back at the city from the plain, and--"Buona notte, Asisi!" + +Yet this town, as well as most Italian _paesi_, would reward a more +lengthened stay, and, unlike many of them, a refined life is possible +here. A person at once studiously and economically inclined might do +much worse than commit himself to spend several months in the city of +St. Francis. We did so last year, on the same principle that made us in +childhood prefer the cherries that the birds had pecked, finding them +the sweetest. We had heard Asisi abused: it was out of the world, it +was desperately dull and there was nothing to eat. We therefore sent +and engaged an apartment for the summer, and our confidence was not +betrayed. + +Perhaps the hotels are not good: we have never tried them. But the +market is excellent for a mountain-city, and in the autumn figs and +grapes are cheap and abundant. There are apartments to be let, and +servants to be had who, with a little instruction, soon learn to cook +in a civilized manner. + +We have a fancy that there is a different moral atmosphere in a town +surrounded by olive trees and one set in vineyards, the former being +more sober and reserved, the latter more joyous and expansive. The +latter may, indeed, carry its spirit too far--like the little city of +Zagorolo near Rome, where the inhabitants are noted at the same time +for the strength and excellence of their wines and for the +quarrelsomeness of their dispositions. Palestrina, a little way off on +the hillside, with a flowing skirt of vines all about it, breathes +laughter in its very air. One may sit in Bernardini's--known to all +visitors to the city of Fortune--and hear the travellers who come there +laugh over mishaps which they would have growled over anywhere else. +The comparison might be made of many other towns. + +Asisi is set in a world of olives. They swing like smoke from a censer +all through the corn and grain of the plain; they roll up the hills and +mountains, climbing the almost perpendicular heights like goats; they +crawl through the ravines; they cover the tiny plateaus set between the +crowded hills; and plantations of slim young trees are set through the +city, bending like long feathers and turning a soft silver as the wind +passes over them. It is delightful to walk under the olive trees in +early summer, when they hang full of strings of tiny cream-colored +blossoms. In winter these blossoms will have changed to a small black +fruit. The trees are as rugged as the roughest old apple trees, and +many of them are supported only on a hollow half-circle of trunk or on +two or three mere sticks. One wonders how these slender fragments of +trunk can support that spreading weight above, especially in wind and +tempest, and how that wealth of blossom and fruit can draw sufficient +sustenance through such narrow and splintered channels; but the olive +is tough, and the oil that runs in its veins for blood keeps it ever +vigorous. + +True to my fancy--which, indeed, it helped to nourish--Asisi is a +serious town. It has even an air of gentle melancholy, which is not, +however, depressing, but which inclines to thoughtfulness and study. +Travellers are familiar with its aspect--the crowning citadel with the +ring of green turf between it and the city, which stretches across the +shoulders of the mountain, row above row of gray houses, with the +magnificent pile of the church and convent of St. Francis at its +western extremity, clasped to the steep rock with a hold that an +earthquake could scarcely loosen. Three long streets stretch from east +to west, the central one a very respectable street, clean, well-paved, +and delightfully quiet. You may sit in a window there and hear nothing +the livelong day but the drip of a fountain and the screaming of clouds +of swallows, which are, without exception, the most impudent birds that +can be imagined. Annoyed one day by the persistent "peeping" of a +swallow that had perched in a nook just outside my window, I leaned out +and frightened him away with my handkerchief. He darted down to a +little olive-plantation below, and a minute after up came a score or +two of swallows and began flying round in a circle directly before my +window, screaming like little demons. Now and then one would dart out +of the circle and make a vicious dip toward my face, with the evident +wish to peck my eyes out, so that I was glad to draw back. It reminded +me of the famous circular battery which attacked one of the Confederate +forts during our civil war, and it was quite as well managed. + +The _vetturino_ whom we took from the station up to the town on our +arrival told me, when I gave my address, that the Sor Filomena had gone +away from Asisi, and I had better go to the hotel Leone. I insisted on +being taken to the Sor Filomena's house. He replied that the house was +closed, and renewed his recommendations of the Leone. After the +inevitable combat we succeeded in having ourselves set down at our +lodgings, where Sor Filomena's rosy face appeared at the open door. + +"Why did you tell such a lie?" I asked of the unblushing vetturino, +using the rough word _bugia_. + +He looked insulted: "I have not told a bugia." + +With a philosophical desire for information I repeated the question, +using the milder word _mensogna_. He drew himself up, looked virtuous +and declared that he had not told a mensogna. + +"Why, then," I asked, "have you said one thing for another?" + +It was just what he wanted. He immediately began a profuse verbal +explanation of why one thing was sometimes better to say than another, +why one was truer than another, and so mixed up his _una cosa_ and _un' +altra cosa_ as to put me quite _hors de combat_, and send me into the +house with the impression that I ought to be ashamed of myself for +having told somebody a lie. It brought to my mind one of my father's +favorite quotations: "Some things can be done as well as some other +things." + +I was shown to my room, which was rough, as all rooms in Asisi are, but +large and high. As Sor Filomena said, it had _un' aria signorile_ in +spite of the coarse brick floor and the ugly doors and lumpy walls. +Some large dauby old paintings gave a color to the dimness, there were +a fine old oak secretary black with age, a real bishop's carved stool +with a red cushion laid on it, and a long window opening on to a view +of the wide plain with its circling mountains and its many cities and +_paesetti_--Perugia shining white from the neighboring hill; Spello and +Spoleto standing out in bold profile in the opposite direction; +Montefalco lying like a gray pile of rocks on a southern hilltop; the +village and church of Santa Maria degli Angeli nestled like a flock of +cloves in the plain; and half a dozen others. + +I ordered writing-table and chair to be set before the window, and +enthroned upon the bishop's tabouret an unabridged Worcester--this +being probably his first visit to Asisi--and I was immediately at home. + +The servant, Maria, whose maternal grandmother was a countess, was +making some last arrangements in the room. + +"Come and see what a beautiful new moon there is," I said to her. + +She came to the window and looked toward the west. "That isn't the +moon: it is a star," she said, fixing her eyes upon Venus. + +It was quite characteristic of her class. They all think _forestieri_ +do not know the moon from a star. + +I pointed lower down, to where an ecstatic crescent was melting in the +sunset gold. + +She gazed at it a moment, then said: "It is beautiful: I never noticed +it before. I never look at the sky except to see what the weather is to +be. It is for you signori to look at beautiful things, not for us +_poveretti_.--Do you see the sky in America?" she asked presently. + +I assured her that we do, and that the sun, moon and stars shine in it +just as here in Italy. + +She was greatly puzzled. "I thought that America was under ground," she +said. + +I remembered Galileo and held my peace. Besides, in these days of +universal knowledge, when we hear scientific terms lisped by infant +lips, it is refreshing to see an example of fine old-fashioned +ignorance. Yet this woman had better manners than are to be found in +most drawing-rooms, a sweet, courteous dignity, and in matters which +came within her personal knowledge great good sense and judgment. Only +she had never learned that from the centre of the earth all directions +are up. + +Of course a stranger's first visit in Asisi is to the basilica of San +Francesco, and, though I had seen it before, I lost no time in renewing +my acquaintance with it. This church is not only the jewel of Asisi, +but one of the most precious of Italy. It is among churches what a +person of genius is in a crowd. The rich marbles one sees elsewhere +suggest the mechanic in their arrangement, and one grows almost tired +of them; but here the soul of Art and Faith has poured itself out, +covering all the wide walls, the ceilings, the sides of arches, the +ribs of groinings--every foot of space, in short--with life and color; +and how much more precious is one of those solemn pearly faces than a +panel of alabaster or the most cunning mosaic of marbles! In the upper +church alone there are twenty-two large frescoes of Cimabue and thirty +of Giotto. Over these pours the light from fourteen large colored +windows, unimpeded by side-aisles. When the sun beats upon these +windows the church seems to be filled with a transparent mist softly +tinted with a thousand rich hues. The deep-blue, star-sown vault +sparkles and the figures on the walls become a vision. + +The upper church has been in danger of losing its beautiful choir, a +marvel of carving and _intarsio_, which Cavalcasella, inspector of fine +arts in Italy, removed for the odd reason that it was a work of the +fourteenth century, while the church was of the thirteenth, and to be +in perfect keeping should have a stone choir. I have not learned +whether this hyper-purist will require of the congregation a +thirteenth-century costume when the church is again open for service. + +These beautiful stalls, one hundred and two in number, are now placed +for safe-keeping in what was the infirmary of the adjoining college. +Possibly, when the work going on _pian piano_ in the church is +completed, they may be restored to their original place. Their sombre +richness would show well in that radiant atmosphere. + +The work in the church is, however, well done, and was greatly needed, +for those precious frescoes were gradually going to decay. No touch of +pencil is allowed: the work is one of preservation merely, and is being +conducted with the greatest care. The loosened _intonaco_ is found by +tapping lightly on the wall: plaster is then slipped underneath and the +painting firmly pressed to its place. At first _gesso_ was used, but it +was found not to answer the purpose. Every smallest fragment of +painting is saved, and the blank spaces are filled in with plaster +which is painted a light gray. This freshens and throws out the +adjoining colors. + +It is customary to call the lower church "devotional." With many, a +dark church is always devotional. I should rather call it sympathetic. +Every sort of mood may here find itself reflected, and the sinner be as +much at home as the saint. Anger and hate may hide as well as devotion: +the artist may dream, the weary may rest, the stupid doze. The only +objects which ever seemed to me utterly incongruous there were a brisk +company of hurried tourists, red-covered guidebook in hand, clattering +with sharp-sounding boot-heels up the dim nave and talking with sharp, +loud voices at the very steps of the altar where people were kneeling +at the most solemn moment of the mass. But even these invariably soften +their tones and their movements after a while. + +This church has always some pleasant surprise for the frequent visitor. +The morning light shows one picture, the evening light another: the +sunrise adorns this window, the sunset that. There is no hour from dawn +to dark in which some gem of ancient painting does not look its best, +while little noticed, if seen at all, at other hours. Some are seen by +a reflected light; others, when the church is so dark that one may +stumble against a person in the nave, gather to themselves the dim and +scattered rays like an aureole, from which they look out with soft +distinctness; and there are others, again, upon which a sun-ray, +finding a narrow passage through arch after arch, alights with a sudden +momentary glory that is almost startling. + +It is a fascinating place, that middle church--never light, but always +traversed by some varying illumination which is ever lost in shadows. +And in those shadows how much may lurk of present material beauty and +of beautiful memory! Here, before the chapel of St. Louis, Raphael +lingered, learning the frescoed Sibyls of its vault so by heart that he +almost reproduced them afterward in the Pace at Rome--that dear Raphael +who did not fear being called a plagiarist, his soul was so full of +beauty, and he so transfigured whatever he touched with that suave +pencil of his that seemed to have been clipped in light for a color. +And where did the feet of Michael Angelo rest when he stood in the +transept and praised that Crucifixion painted on the wall? One might +expect that the stones would have been conscious of the Orpheus they +supported. + +In the college adjoining the church there were a year ago but fifteen +monks, and no others are admitted. When these fifteen shall be dead the +convent--_Sacro Collegio_ they call it--will pass entirely into the +hands of the government, which now uses the greater part of it for a +school for the sons of poor teachers, who are sent here from all parts +of Italy. + +Accompanied by a professor of the college, we went over that part of +the building not appropriated to the monks. It is a little town in +itself, and has something of the variety and contrasts of a town. To go +from the vast refectory to that upper part of the building called the +Ghetto, with its interminable low and narrow corridor and lines of +little chambers, is to see the two extremes of which building is +capable. + +Without intending to write a statistical article, I may give a few of +the dimensions we took note of. The refectory is one hundred and ninety +feet long and forty wide, and is capable of seating at table five +hundred persons. The tables run around the room, with a single row of +seats against the wall, and are served from the centre of the hall. +Quite across one end extends a painting of the Last Supper. At one side +is a tiny pulpit, from which in the old time one would read aloud while +the monks ate. + +The infirmary and rooms used for storing articles in ordinary use +occupy twenty large chambers. The five elementary school-rooms are each +fifty feet square, the kitchen is eighty-three feet square, and the +fencing-hall and garden adjoining contain together over sixty-six +hundred square feet. The cistern under the cloister is of nearly the +same size. + +There is water in profusion--in the court, the kitchen, the boys' +wash-rooms, wherever it can be needed. In the entry from the principal +court is an odd fourteenth-century fountain which is a perfect +calendar. It is set against the wall, and is in twelve compartments, +answering to the twelve months of the year. In the frieze above are +carved roses, red stone on a white ground--in some compartments thirty, +in others thirty-one, answering to the days of the month. All the +fountains are made of the crimson-and-white stone of Asisi, which is +seen everywhere about the city--in vases for holy water, in pavements, +in garden-walls, in the foundations of houses. The stone, a red +sandstone, is found in plenty in the adjoining mountains, and has a +rich, soft crimson hue with irregular lines of white. But it is very +hard to work, and could scarcely be made to pay the expense of the +necessary machinery. + +"For what I should have to pay for a bath of red marble, about one +hundred lire (twenty dollars)," said the Count B---- to me, "I could +buy a bath of Carrara." + +"Baths of crimson marble and of Carrara!" I thought, and remembered +with an involuntary shudder my dear native zinc. + +But to return to the Sacro Collegio. In one of the immense labyrinthine +cellars is a _botte_ for wine capable of containing five thousand +litri. There, it is said--I know not how truly--once a year, when the +botte was emptied, came four of the spiritual fathers of the college +above, with a table and chairs, and played a certain game of cards, +which was one of their simple amusements. Whether this meeting was +intended as an exorcism of any evil influences which might threaten the +new must about to be put in, or a mild bacchanalian tribute to the +empty space from which they had drawn so much comfort and cheerfulness +during the year, or whether the wine left some fine perfume behind it +which they wished to inhale, tradition saith not. Maybe the fathers +never went there, and the story is merely _ben trovato_. + +In the school of design we admired a copy of some of the carving of the +choir of the cathedral of Asisi. The leaves were remarkably crisp and +all the lines full of life. My guide told me that this choir and the +famous one of St. Peter's in Perugia were designed by the same artist, +but that of Perugia was executed by another and more timid hand, while +this of Asisi was carved by the artist himself. + +Our last visit in the college was to the grand _loggia_--finer than +anything of the kind I have seen in Italy except the Loggia del +Paradiso of Monte Casino, which is open, while this of San Francesco is +closed. The grandeur of this loggia, with its lofty arches and long +perspective, is in harmony with the magnificence of the view to be seen +from it. Seated there, on the stone divan that runs the whole length of +the colonnade, I listened a while to the very interesting talk of my +companion. This gentleman, Professor Cristofani, is said to be one of +the most learned men in Umbria, and has studied so thoroughly his +native province as to be an authority on all that concerns its history +and antiquities. A native of Asisi, he has devoted himself especially +to that city, and his _Storia di Asisi_ and _Guida di Asisi_ are +monuments of learned and patient research. He has written also a +history of San Damiano which has lately been translated in England. + +The government took possession of this church and convent of San +Damiano, the first home of St. Clara and her companions, and proposed +establishing there a school of arts and trades; but Lord Ripon +persuaded them to sell the property to him, and in his turn presented +it to the _frati_ from whom it had been taken. It is a rough place, but +interesting in memories. + +"I have a book _in petto_," the professor said, "which will, I think, +be more valuable and interesting than the others. I have collected +material for a history of the church and convent of St. Francis, and +shall write it as soon as I have time. I should be glad if it could be +illustrated." + +While he spoke my imagination was already turning over the leaves of a +history of that stately monument, around which clusters so much of +Middle-Age story, and looking at copies of forms and faces which to +remember is a dream of rainbows and angels. There should be that quaint +Madonna who points her thumb over her shoulder at St. Francis while she +asks her Son to bless him, and the three saints and the Madonna of the +north transept, and the pictures at the entrance of the chapel of San +Martino, and the vault of the chapel of St. Louis, and a thousand other +lovely things. + +And, "Signor Professore," I said eagerly, "how I should like to +translate that work, pictures and all, into English!" + +He cordially consented, with many compliments. + +As we left the loggia he pointed to the arch opposite the +entrance-door. "That is the arch of suicides," he said: "more than one +man has thrown himself down that precipice." + +We were joined by a Benedictine monk as we went but, who proposed that +we should go up the campanile. It is pleasant to visit the bells of a +famous or favorite church. It is like seeing a poet whose songs we have +heard, and pleasanter in some respects; for while the poet may mantle +himself in commonplace at our approach, like Olympus in clouds, one can +always waken the spirit of song in these airy singers. + +The way up this campanile is very rough, a mere gravelly path, and one +can only maintain his footing by holding a rope that runs all the way +up, following the four sides. Reaching the large chamber at the top, we +paid our respects to the seven bells, whose intricate changes I had so +many times tried to follow. Their ringing is a puzzle. In the middle +hung the melancholy _campanone_, with a silvery soprano by its side--a +very Dante and Beatrice among bells. + +We stayed to hear the noon Angelus strike, and while the last stroke +was still booming around the great bell I took a step toward it and +stretched my hand out. + +I was instantly snatched backward, with a profusion of excuses. + +"It is said," the professor explained, "that if a bell be touched, even +with the finger-tip, while ringing, it will instantly break. I do not +know if it be true, but it is worth guarding against." + +It was indeed! A fine appetite I should have had for my breakfast, at +that moment awaiting me, if I had had to reflect over it that the great +bell of the great basilica of St. Francis of Asisi had that very +morning been cracked into pieces by my fore finger! What visions of +horrified crowds of _Asisinati_, of black storms of newspaper items, of +censuring gossip the world over, would have come between me and that +purple pigeon smothered in rice which Maria had promised me! The pope +himself would have known me individually out of the cloud of his +subjects, and have frowned upon my image. And how it would have been +whispered behind me to the end of my days, "That is the lady who broke +the great bell of St. Francis"! But I had not broken it, and it still +hangs sound and strong, to send its melancholy sweet music out to meet +the centuries as they roll in storm and sunshine over the eastern +mountains. Let us be thankful for the evils which might have happened +and did not. + +I cannot resist the temptation to relate a little incident concerning +this same learned Professor Cristofani, it struck me as so quaint. He +is a poor man--literature, and even teaching, do not pay very well in +Italian paesi--and he has a family. Cheaply as servants may be +employed, he could not afford one, and his wife was not very well. Last +summer the _Alpinisti_ visited Asisi, and some of the principal +members, having an introduction to him, wished to visit him. Their stay +in Asisi was short, and, being sunrise-and-mountain-top people, they +made their call at six o'clock in the morning on their way to the top +of Mount Asio, from which Asisi takes its name, and, I may here add, +the correct spelling of its name, which I have followed. A servant from +the Leone Hotel showed the visitors to the house, and very stupidly +knocked at the kitchen-door. A loud "_Avanti!_" from within answered +the knock. The door was opened by the guide, revealing a tableau. The +professor, with his shirt-sleeves rolled up and an apron tied on, was +earnestly kneading a mass of dough preparatory to sending it to the +baker's oven, where everybody bakes their bread, and his pretty blonde +young daughter was making coffee at the kitchen fire. + +"Well, I am a poor man, and my wife was sick," he said afterward, in +telling the story, with a sad smile in his eyes, which are as blue and +almost as blind as violets. + +These stories awaken a laugh only at the time, but gain a certain +sublimity when years have gilded them--like that one of St. +Bonaventura, which this reminds us of: When the two legates sent by the +pope of that time to carry the scarlet beretta of a cardinal to St. +Bonaventura set out in search of him, they were obliged to follow him +to a little Franciscan convent at a short distance from Florence, where +he had retired for devotion and to practise for a while the humble +rules of his order. As these two dignified prelates came solemnly +around an angle of the building they glanced through the open +kitchen-window, and were astonished to see the personage they sought +engaged in washing the supper-dishes. He accosted them with perfect +calmness, and, learning their errand, requested them to hang the hat in +a tree near by till he should have finished washing the dishes. They +complied, and the pots and pans and plates having been attended to, the +whole community adjourned to the chapel and the saint received the +dignity of prince of the Church. + +The eight days' festa of Corpus Domini opened in Asisi with one of the +most exquisite sights I have ever seen, the procession of the cathedral +as it passed from San Francesco through Via Superba on its return to +the cathedral. We took our places in a window reserved for us, and +waited. There all was quiet and deserted. The air was perfumed by +sprigs of green which each one had strewn before his own house. One +living creature alone was visible--a little boy who knelt in the middle +of the street and carefully placed small yellow flowers in the form of +an immense sunflower chalked out on the pavement. Here and there, in +some stairway-window, a shrine had been prepared, with its Madonna, +lamp and flowers. It was near noon of a bright June day, but the houses +were so high that the sun struck only on the upper stories of the north +side of the street. All below was in that transparent shadow wherein +objects look like pictures of themselves or like reflections in clear +water. The whole street was indeed a picture, with its gray houses set +in irregular lines, and as distinct in character as a line of men and +women would have been. On the building opposite our window was an +inscription telling that Metastasio had lived there--on another a date, +1419. + +In 1419, when they piled the stones of that wall, Christopher Columbus +was not born, yet the basilica of St. Francis had been built more than +one hundred and fifty years; and on such a June day as this the +Asisinati leaned from their windows to see a Corpus Domini procession +come up the street, just as they were now doing. It came through the +fragrant silence and clear shadow like a vision. I could not restrain +an exclamation of surprise and delight, for I had not dreamed of +anything so beautiful. The procession would have been striking +anywhere, but shut in as it was between the soft gray of the opposite +stone houses, with the green-sprinkled street beneath and the glorious +blue above, it was as wonderful as if, looking down into clear deeps of +water, one should see the passing of some pageant of an enchanted city +buried deep in the crystalline waves centuries ago. There was nothing +here but the procession, leisurely occupying the whole street, treading +out faint odors without raising a particle of dust. The crowd that in +other places always obscures and spoils such a display here followed on +behind. The leisureliness of an Italian religious procession is +something delicious, as well as the way they have of forming hollow +squares and leaving the middle of the street sacred to the grander +dignities. + +The members of the different societies wore long robes of red, blue or +of gray trimmed with red, and had small three-cornered pieces of the +material of the robe suspended by a string at the back of the neck, to +be drawn up over the head if necessary. The arms of the societies were +embroidered on the breast or shoulder, and each one had its great +painted banner of Madonna or saint and a magnificent crucifix with a +veil as rich as gold, silver, silk and embroidery could make it. There +were the white _camicie_ half covering the brown robes of long-bearded, +bare-ankled Cappuccini, and sheets of silver and gold in the vestments +of the other clergy. + +Presently the canopy borne over the Host appeared, with the +incense-bearers walking backward before it and swinging out faint +clouds of smoke: the voices of the choir grew audible, singing the +_Pange lingua_, and everybody knelt. In a few minutes all was over. + +There was a fair in connection with this feast, the most notable part +of which was dishes of all sorts set on tables or spread on the grass +of the pleasant piazza of St. Peter's, the Benedictine church, with no +roof over but the sky. The brown and yellow-green earthenware for +kitchen use would have delighted any housekeeper. We bought some tiny +saucepans with covers, and capable of holding a small teacupful, for a +cent each. Italian housekeepers make great use of earthen saucepans and +jars for cooking. One scarcely ever sees tin--iron almost never. In +rich houses copper is much used, but brown ware is seen everywhere. + +The next notable festa, and the great feast of Asisi, is the Pardon, +called variously the Pardon of Asisi, the Pardon of St. Francis and the +Porziuncola. + +In the old times, and particularly when this indulgence could be +obtained only in Asisi, the concourse of people was so great that there +were not roofs to cover them, and many slept in the open air. But since +the favor has been extended to other churches, as well as from other +reasons, the number is greatly diminished, and consists chiefly of +people in _villeggiatura_ near by and of a few hundred Neapolitan +peasants, who with undiminished fervor come to obtain the Pardon, and +whose singular performance, called _gran ruota_ (the great wheel), +everybody goes to see. + +The Catholic reader will know that this Pardon can be obtained only +from vespers of the first to vespers of the second day of August, and +that while in every other church communion is a necessary condition, it +is sufficient to merely pass through the chapel of the Porziuncola, for +which St. Francis obtained the indulgence from Pope Honorius. + +There is a large fair in connection with this festa--merchandise of all +sorts in the piazza and corso, and a cattle-fair in the upper part of +the town. The long white road stretching from Asisi to Santa Maria +degli Angeli in the plain was quite black with _contadini_ coming up +with their goods in the early dawn, and a sound of hoofs and of many +feet told that the procession was passing the house. There were carts +full of produce, men leading white and dove-colored cattle, and women +with large round baskets on their heads. These baskets contained live +fowl. In one a large melancholy turkey meditated on his approaching +fate: in another, two of lighter disposition swung their long necks +about and viewed the scene. One of these baskets was as pretty as the +blackbird pie of famous memory. In it sat eight chickens of an age to +make their début on the platter, all settled into a fluffy, soft-gray +cushion, out of which their little heads and necks and half-raised +wings peeped and turned and fluttered in a manner that testified to the +agitation of their spirits. The woman carrying this basket would have +made a pretty caryatid, chickens and all, so straight was she, so +robust her shoulders and so full and regular the oval of her face. + +The cattle were superb--some immensely large, others delicately small, +and all with such long, slim, pointed horns as made one shrink. Those +strong, high-lifted heads carried their weapons like unsheathed +scymitars. Red cords were twined across their foreheads from horn to +horn, and red tassels swung beside their faces. This procession passed +in almost entire silence, with only a pattering of hoofs that sounded +like heavy rain. + +Presently appeared a light wagon in which sat alone a large fleshy +woman, who had quite the expression of one making a triumphal entry +into the city. Her black hair was elaborately dressed in braids +fastened with gold pins and in short curls on the forehead, and was +lightly covered with a black lace veil. Her dress was a sky-blue silk, +with a lace shawl carefully draped over the wide shoulders. Her hands +were loaded with rings and her neck with gold chains, and a large +medallion swung over two large brooches. There was a smile of conscious +superiority on her coarsely-handsome face as she glanced over the +contadini, who humbly made way for her. A small, meek, well-dressed man +who walked beside the wagon seemed to be the proprietor of its +occupant, and to be somewhat oppressed by his good fortune. There was +no room for him in the wagon. It occurred to me that this might be an +avatar of the old woman of Banbury Cross. + +The crowd thinned away like rain that from a heavy shower falls only in +scattered drops, and I was about turning from the window when my eyes +fell upon a beautiful bit of color across the way, standing out, as so +much Italian color does, against the background of a gray stone wall. +It was an odd, slim cone, something over five feet high, made of grass +and clover sprinkled through with burning poppies. I was just thinking +that this verdure must be fastened to a pole set into the ground when +it began to move. The fresh, long grass waved, the poppies glowed like +live coals when blown upon, two slim brown feet and ankles appeared +under the green fringe, and the dimpled elbow of a slim brown arm +peeped out above. Nothing else human was visible as this figure walked +away up the street toward the fair. Poor Ruth! She had neither cows, +pigs nor chickens, but she came with such riches as she could glean at +the roadside from bountiful Nature, clothed and covered from the top of +her invisible head down to her well-turned ankles in a garment as fair +as fancy could weave. + +Later, Count B---- came to take me to the cattle-fair, where we found +the upper piazza all a drift of shaded snow at one side with cows and +oxen, and at the other a shining chestnut-color with horses and +donkeys. We walked among these creatures, my companion warding away +from me their long horns and telling me some little items of bovine +character which may be known the world over, but which were new to me. +Some cattle are women-haters, he said, and in a country where women +have so much to do with the cattle that was a great defect. The buyer +detected the flaw in this way: he passed his hand slowly down the +creature's back from the neck to the tail: then a woman would do the +same. If the animal made any difference between the two or looked round +at the woman, he would not buy. They try them also when they are eating +in the stall. If the animal looks round when it is eating at the person +who is approaching, it is ill-natured. + +We went then to see the old theatre, where plays used to be performed +on great occasions. It was a large circle of stone wall, a miniature of +the old amphi-theatre of the Roman Forum, with the sky for a roof. But +now a vegetable-garden grows where the spectacle once was seen, and +along the walls where the audience sat and gazed deep-hued wallflowers +bloom and delicate jasmine-vines hang out their white stars. + +Farther on is an old city-gate, which, unfortunately, was to be torn +down to make way for a new road. Those gates are veritable pictures, +with their beautiful round arches and the niche with its fresco +underneath. This porta preserved perfectly in the crimson stone the +smooth slide down which the suspended gate slipped at night or in times +of danger. + +Returning through the piazza, I saw the balcony of a public building +draped with red satin, and a flag hung out in it. While this flag was +out, Count B---- said, no creature which was sold could be returned to +the seller, no matter what flaw might be discovered in it after the +bargain was concluded. It was then the time to get rid of women-hating +cows and oxen and "made-up" horses. + +In the afternoon we went to the church of St. Francis to see the +_piccola ruota_ of the Neapolitan peasants, which is apparently a +rehearsal for the _gran ruota_ to be performed in the Porziuncola the +day following. These people were all gone, when we reached the church, +to follow a relic-bearing procession of Franciscans to the little +chapel built over the spot where St. Francis was born, and the +spectators took advantage of the opportunity to range themselves about +the walls and wherever they could find places. We were scarcely in the +seats offered us in the choir when a murmur of subdued exclamations, a +trampling of many feet and a cloud of dust that filled the vestibule +announced the return of the procession. The gates of the iron grating +which shut off the chancel and transepts from the nave were opened to +admit the monks with their relic, and closed immediately to exclude the +crowd. After the short function was ended they were again opened, and +the crowd rushed in and began to run around the altar. + +These people were all poor: many were old and had to be held up and +helped along by a younger person at either side. The women wore +handkerchiefs on their heads, and many wore those sandals made of a +piece of leather tied up over the foot with strings which give these +peasants their popular name of _sciusciari_, an imitative word derived +from the scuffling sound of the sandals in walking. They hurried +eagerly on, hustling each other, murmuring prayers and ejaculations, +and seemed quite unconscious of the crowd of persons who had come there +to stare, perhaps to laugh, at them. The Asisinati looked on without +taking any part, and with a curiosity not unmingled with contempt. "The +Neapolitans are so material!" they say. + +These repeated circlings of the altar, I was told, are intended as so +many visits, each time they go round having the value of a visit. Many +of these people seek the Pardon not only for themselves, but for +friends who are unable to come. The absent confess and communicate at +their parish church at home, and unite their intention with that of the +person who makes the visit for them. + +My _padrona di casa_ told me an anecdote in illustration of this +materialism of the Neapolitans, which the Asisinati are anxious not to +be thought to share: On the first of August several years before, she +said, when the church of St. Francis was full of people waiting around +the confessionals, a man at one of them was observed to be disputing +with the priest inside. Pressed so closely as they were, many might +excuse themselves for being aware that the penitent was refusing to +agree to the penance imposed by the priest, who consequently declined +to give him absolution. The priest cut the dispute short by closing the +wicket and addressing himself to the penitent at the other side. The +man left his place and wandered disconsolately about the church, +followed by many curious eyes, for not to listen in silent submission +to the penance imposed by the priest is a rare scandal. After a while +he seemed to have resolved on a compromise, but it was no longer +possible to obtain his place in advance of the crowd, where each one +waited his turn. He took a post, therefore, directly opposite the front +of the confessional, as near as he could get, but with half the width +of the nave between, and waited till the priest should be visible. The +moment came when the confessor, turning from one penitent to another, +was seen from the front. The man leaned eagerly forward, and throwing +out his right hand with three fingers extended, as if playing _morra_, +called out, "Quello del casotiello, volete farlo per tre?" ("You in the +confessional there, will you do it for three?") (These peasants call +the confessional _casotiello_.) Whether the bargain related to a number +of prayers to be said, a number of visits or of masses, does not +concern us. + +The next afternoon we went down to Santa Maria degli Angeli in the +plain, the very penetralia of the Pardon. Those who have visited this +church know that the little chapel of the Porziuncola, which is +enclosed in its midst like the heart in a body, has two doors--one at +the lower end, the other at the upper right corner. It is very dim +except when its altar is blazing with candles and its hanging lamps +lighted. As we have already said, a visit to this chapel or merely +passing through it, for a person who has confessed, satisfies the +outward conditions of the Pardon. + +In the gran ruota which we were about to witness the Neapolitans +entered in an unbroken line at the lower door, passed out without +stopping at the upper, ran down the side-aisle of the church and out of +the door, in again at the great door, up the nave, and again through +the chapel, repeating this over and over for fifteen or twenty minutes. +While they make the wheel no one else enters the chapel: all are +spectators. + +It was for these poor people the supreme moment. They had come from +afar at an expense which they could ill afford; they had endured +fatigue, perhaps hunger; and they had been mocked at. But, so far, they +had accomplished their task. They had confessed their sins with all the +fervor and sincerity of which they were capable, had visited the +birthplace, the home, the basilica and the distant mountain-retreat of +St. Francis, and they had gathered the miraculous yellow fennel-flowers +of the mountain. Now they were to receive the Pardon. The chains of +hell had fallen from them in confession: at the moment of entering the +chapel the bonds of Purgatory would also be loosened, and if they +should drop dead there, or die before having committed another sin, +they would fly straight to heaven as larks into the morning sky. No +passing from a miserable present to a miserable Purgatory, but +unimaginable bliss in an instant. Their ideal bliss might not be the +highest which the human mind is capable of conceiving, but it was the +highest that they could conceive, and their souls strained blindly +upward to that point where imagination faints against the thrilling +cord with which the body holds the spirit in tether. To these people +heaven was not a mere theological expression, a vague place which might +or might not be: it was as real as the bay and the sky of Naples and +the smoking volcano that nursed for ever their sense of unknown +terrors. It was as real as the poppies in their grass and the oranges +ripening on their trees. Maria Santissima, in her white robe and the +blue mantle where they could count the creases, was there, with ever +the vision of a Babe in her arms, and Gesů, the arms of whose cross +should fall into folds of a glorious garment about his naked crucified +form, in sleeves to his hands, in folds about his feet and raised into +a crown about his head. Into this blessed company no earthly pain could +enter to destroy their delights. Cold and hunger and the dagger's point +could never find them more, nor sickness rack them, nor betrayal set +their blood in a poisoned flame, nor earthquakes chill them with +terror. Lying in that heavenly sunshine, with fruit-laden boughs within +reach and heaps of gold beside them if they should wish for it, they +could laugh at Vesuvius licking in vain with its fiery tongue toward +them, and at the black clouds heavy with hail that would spread ruin +over the fields far away from these celestial vineyards and the waving +grain of Paradise. + +Exalted by such visions, what to them were the gazing crowd and their +own rags and squalor? They entered the Porziuncola singing: they came +out at the side-door transfigured, and silent except for some +breathless "Maria!" or "Gesů!" Their arms were thrown upward, their +glowing black eyes were upraised, their thin swarthy faces burned with +a vivid scarlet, their white teeth glittered between the parted lips. +Round and round they went like a great water-wheel that revolves in sun +and shadow, and the spray it tossed up as it issued from the +Porziuncola was rapture, the fiery spray of the soul. + +At last all remained outside the chapel, making two long lines from +either side the door down the nave to the open air, their faces ever +toward the chapel. Then they began to sing in voices as clear and sweet +as a chorus of birds. Not a harsh note was there. They sang some hymn +that had come down to them from other generations as the robins and the +bobo-links drop their songs down to future nestlings, and ever a +long-drawn note stretched bright and steady from one stanza to another. +So singing, they stepped slowly backward, always gazing steadily at the +lighted altar of the Porziuncola, visible through the door, and, +stepping backward and singing, they slowly drew themselves out of the +church, and the Pardon for them was over. + +But though Asisi is not without its notable sights, the chief pleasures +there are quiet ones. A walk down through the olive trees to the dry +bed of the torrent Tescio will please one who is accustomed to rivers +which never leave their beds. One strays among the rocks and pebbles +that the rushing waters have brought down from the mountains, and +stands dryshod under the arches of the bridges, with something of the +feeling excited by visiting a deserted house; with the difference that +the Undine people are sure to come rushing down from the mountains +again some day. There one searches out charming little nooks which +would make the loveliest of pictures. There was one in the Via del +Terz' Ordine which was a sweet bit of color. Two rows of stone houses +facing on other streets turn their backs to this, and shade it to a +soft twilight, till it seems a corridor with a high blue ceiling rather +than a street. There it lies forgotten. No one passes through it or +looks into it. In one spot the tall houses are separated by a rod or so +of high garden-wall with an arch in the middle of it, and under the +arch is a door. Over this arch climbs a rose-vine with dropping +clusters of tiny pink roses that lean on the stone, hang down into the +shadow or lift and melt into the liquid, dazzling blue of the sky. +Except the roses and the sky all is a gray shadow. It reminds one of +some lovely picture of the Madonna with clustering cherub faces about +her head, and you think it would not be discordant with the scene if a +miraculous figure should steal into sight under that arch. It is one of +the charms of Italy that it can always fitly frame whatever picture +your imagination may paint. + +One finds a pleasant and cultivated society there too. One of my most +highly-esteemed visitors was the _canonico priore_ of the cathedral, +whose father had been an officer in the guard of the First Napoleon. A +pious and dignified elderly man, this prelate is not too grave to be +sometimes amusing as well as instructive. In his youth he had the +privilege of being intimate with Cardinal Mezzofanti, who apparently +took a fancy to the young Locatelli--"Tommassino" he called him, which +is a musical way of saying Tommy. At length he offered to give him +lessons in Greek. Full of proud delight at such a privilege, the +student went with his books for the first lesson, and was most kindly +received. + +"Listen, Tommassino!" the cardinal said, turning over the leaves of a +great folio. "Here is a magnificent passage of St. Chrysostom's;" and +he read it out enthusiastically in fine, sonorous Greek. + +"But I do not understand what it means," said the pupil. + +"To be sure;" and the savant at once translated the passage into +musical Italian, and pointed out its beauties of thought and +expression. And so on, passage after passage, but never a word of +grammar. + +Another time it was another of the Fathers or a heathen poet or a +chapter from the Bible read, translated and commented upon; but never +from first to last did Tommassino learn to conjugate a verb or form a +sentence from his learned professor. + +"Mezzofanti," the prior said, "was as good as he was learned. He lived +simply, would not have been known from a common priest by his dress in +the street, and visited the sick like a parish priest." + +Just at the foot of the hill on which Asisi is built a farm-school was +established a few years ago, the first director being the Benedictine +abate Lisi, a nobleman by birth and a farmer-monk by choice. His death +a year or two ago was deeply regretted. To this establishment boys are +sent, instead of to prison, after their first conviction for an offence +against the law. We saw this school on a former visit to Asisi, and +were much amused to see the tall, raw-boned abate stride about in his +long black robe, which some of his motions threatened to rend from top +to bottom. Clergymen habituated to the wearing of the long robe +acquire, little by little, a restrained step and carriage, somewhat +like a woman's, so that in ordinary masculine dress they may be +discovered by their walk: one would say that they walk like women +dressed in men's garments. The free stride in a narrow petticoat is +almost comical. + +On this occasion we had a new exemplification of the almost incredible +riches of Italy, for the abate Lisi's house was crowded with objects +dug up in digging cellars and drains and in cultivating the farm, +though there had been no intention to excavate and the owner was rather +embarrassed than otherwise by the riches he had acquired. Ancient coins +of many different nations, fragments of exquisite architectural +carving, statuary and household utensils, loaded shelves, tables and +drawers. Italy would seem to be wrought of such like a coral-reef, down +to its very foundations in the deep. + +The abate had no utopian ideas concerning his work, though he heartily +devoted his life to it. "These boys," he said, "will go out +contadini--still thieves, if you will--but they will limit themselves +to stealing a third out of their master's portion of the produce." + +In Asisi we learned to understand what we may call atmospheric +politics, and it confirmed our former opinion that the Italian people +do not care a fig who governs them if only they are well fed. When they +are hungry they rebel, and the only freedom they covet is freedom from +the pangs of hunger. They are equally well pleased with the pope or +with "Vittorio," as they called him, if their simple meal is always +within reach; and if on feast-days they can have a chicken, red wine +instead of white, and a _dolce_, their contentment rises to enthusiasm. + +A drought or a destructive rain is therefore to be feared by any +government, especially if there be malcontents to make use of it. There +was quite a severe drought in Asisi last summer, and loud and deep were +the imprecations we heard against the government. As the vines withered +and the corn shrank, so withered and shrank the king and his ministers +in the esteem of these poor people. Count Bindangoli told me that they +very much feared some democratic demonstration, and that they were +anxiously looking forward to the winter. In vain for weeks we looked +over to Perugia for rain (rain comes to Asisi only from that +direction). In vain were prayers in the churches, processions and +promises. We saw the gray showers sail around the horizon, heard their +far-off thunders, saw the lightning zigzag down through the slanting +torrents, and almost saw the hills grow green under them. The only +tempests we had were those we saw brooding on the brows of scowling +contadini. They talked openly of a republic, they were sick of the +devouring taxes, they regretted the papacy: there was certainly danger +of some "scompiglio," my padrone di casa assured me. + +At length, after long weeks of waiting, Perugia disappeared in a gray +deluge: the rain came marching like an army across the plain toward us; +its first scattered drops printed the dust, its sheets of water +drenched the windows, its small torrents rushed down the steep streets. +The mountains grew dim and almost disappeared: we were shut in with +hope and a fresh delight. Then the deluge settled into a gentle rain, +under which the grapes swelled out their globes, the corn rustled with +a fuller growth and the hearts of men grew content. The king and his +ministers also budded out into new beauty, and flourished in popular +esteem like the green bay tree, and the republic was quenched--till the +next drought. + +_The Author of "Signor Monaldini's Niece._" + + + + +HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE, + + +TWO PAPERS.--I. + +[Illustration: THE RACE-COURSE AT LONGCHAMPS.] + +The passion for horse-racing, which for more than two centuries has +made the sport a national one in England, cannot be said to exist in +France, and the introduction of this "pastime of princes" into the +latter country has been of comparatively recent date. Mention, it is +true, has been found of races on the plain of Les Sablons as early as +1776, and in the next year a sweepstakes of forty horses, followed by +one of as many asses, was run at Fontainebleau in the presence of the +court. But it is not until 1783 that one meets with the semblance of an +organization, and this as a mere caprice of certain grandees, who +affected an English style in everything, and who thought to introduce +the customs of the English turf along with the _chapeau Anglais_ and +the riding-coat. It was notably the comte d'Artois (afterward Charles +X.), the duc de Chartres (Philippe Égalité), the marquis de Conflans +and the prince de Guéménée who fancied themselves obliged, in their +character of Anglomaniacs, to patronize the race-course; but the public +of that time, to whom this imitation of English manners was not only an +absurdity, but almost a treason against the state, gave but a cold +reception to the attempted innovation. Racing, too, from its very +nature, found itself in direct conflict with all the traditions of the +ancient school of equitation, and it encountered from the beginning the +severe censure and opposition of horsemen accustomed to the measured +paces of the _manége_, whose highest art consisted in consuming a whole +hour in achieving at a gallop the length of the terrace of St. Germain. +The professors of this equestrian minuet, as solemn and formal in the +saddle as was the dancer Dupré in the ballets of the period, predicted +the speedy decay of the old system of horsemanship and the extinction +of the native breed of horses if France should allow her soil to be +invaded by foreign thoroughbreds with their English jockeys and +trainers. The first French sportsmen--to use the word in its limited +sense--thus found themselves not only unsupported by public opinion, +but alone in the midst of an actively-hostile community, and no one can +say how the unequal contest might have ended had not the graver events +of the Revolution intervened to put an end, for a time at least, not +only to the luxurious pleasures, but to all the hopes and ambitions, of +the noble class of idlers. + +The wars with England that followed retarded for a quarter of a century +the introduction of racing into France. The first ministerial ordinance +in which the words _pur sang_ occur is that of the 3d of March, 1833, +signed by Louis Philippe and countersigned by Adolphe Thiers, +establishing a register of the thoroughbreds existing in France--in +other words, a national _stud-book_, by which name it is universally +known. The following year witnessed the foundation of the celebrated +Society for the Encouragement of the Improvement of Breeds of French +Horses, more easily recognized under the familiar title of the "Jockey +Club." The first report of this society exposed the deplorable +condition of all the races of horses in the country, exhausted as they +had been by the frightful draughts made upon them in the imperial wars, +and concluded by urging the necessity of the creation of a pure native +stock, of which the best individuals, to be selected by trial of their +qualities of speed and endurance upon the track, should be devoted to +reproduction. This was the doctrine which had been practically applied +in England, and which had there produced in less than a century the +most important and valuable results. France had but to follow the +example of her neighbor, and, borrowing from the English stock of +thoroughbreds, to establish a regular system of races as the means of +developing and improving the breed of horses upon her own soil. + +This reasoning seemed logical enough, but the administration of the +_Haras_, or breeding-stables--which is in France a branch of the civil +service--opposed this innovation, and contended that the only pure type +of horse was the primitive Arab, and that every departure from this +resulted in the production of an animal more or less degenerate and +debased. The reply of the Jockey Club was, that the English +thoroughbred is, in fact, nothing else than a pure Arab, modified only +by the influences of climate and treatment, and that it would be much +wiser and easier to profit by a result already obtained than to +undertake to retrace, with all its difficulties and delays, the same +road that England had taken a century to travel. + +The experience gained since 1833 has shown that the conclusions of the +Jockey Club were right, but the evidence of facts and of the results +obtained has not yet brought the discussion to a close. The +administration of the Haras still keeps up its opposition to the +raising of thoroughbreds, and will no doubt continue to do so for some +time to come, so tenacious is the hold of routine--or, as the +Englishman might say, of red tape--upon the official mind in France, +whether the question be one of finance, of war or of the breeding of +horses. + +But it is not only against the ill-will of the administration that the +Jockey Club has had to struggle during all these years: it has had also +to contend with the still more disheartening indifference of the public +in the matter of racing. There is no disputing the fact that the +genuine lover of the horse, the _homme de cheval_--or, if I may be +forgiven a bit of slang for the sake of its expressiveness, the +_horsey_ man, whether he be coachman or groom, jockey or trainer--is +not in France a genuine product of the soil, as he seems to be in +England. Look at the difference between the cabman of London and his +brother of Paris, if there be enough affinity between them to justify +this term of relationship. The one drives his horse, the other seems to +be driven by his. In London the driver of an omnibus has the air of a +gentleman managing a four-in-hand: in Paris the imbecile who holds the +reins looks like a workman who has been hired by the day to do a job +that he doesn't understand. So pronounced is this antipathy--for it is +more than indifference--of the genuine man of the people toward all +things pertaining to the horse that, notwithstanding all the +encouragements that for nearly half a century have been lavishly +offered for the purpose of developing a public taste in this direction, +not a single jockey or trainer who can properly be called a Frenchman +has thus far made his appearance. All the men and boys employed in the +racing-stables are of English origin, though many, perhaps most, of +them have been born in France; but the purity of their English blood, +so important in their profession, is as jealously preserved by +consanguineous marriages as is that of the noble animals in their +charge. It was an absolute necessity for the early turfmen of France to +import the Anglo-Saxon man with the Anglo-Arabian horse if they would +bring to a creditable conclusion the programme of 1833. And during all +the long period that has since elapsed what courage and patience, what +determined will, to say nothing of the prodigious expenditure of money, +have been shown by the founders of the race-course in France and by +their successors! Their perseverance has had its reward, indeed, in the +brilliancy of the results obtained, but there is still due to them an +ampler tribute of recognition than they have yet received, and it will +be a grateful duty to dwell for a while upon the history of the Jockey +Club. + +Of its fourteen original members but two survive, the duc de Nemours +and M. Ernest Leroy. The other twelve were His Royal Highness the duc +d'Orléans, M. Rieussec, who was killed by the infernal machine of +Fieschi, the comte de Cambis, equerry to the duc d'Orléans, Count +Demidoff, Fasquel, the chevalier de Machado, the prince de la Moskowa, +M. de Normandie, Lord Henry Seymour, Achille Delamarre, Charles Lafitte +and Caccia. To these fourteen gentlemen were soon added others of the +highest rank or of the first position in the aristocratic world of +Paris. People began to talk with bated breath of the Jockey Club and of +its doings, and strange stories were whispered of the habits of some of +its distinguished members. The eccentricities of Count Demidoff and of +Major Frazer, the obstreperous fooleries of Lord Henry Seymour, the +studied extravagances of Comte d'Alton-Shee, created in the public mind +the impression that the club was nothing less than a sort of infernal +pit, peopled by wicked dandies like Balzac's De Marsay, Maxime de +Trailles, Rastignac, etc. Even the box of the club at the opera was +dubbed with the uncanny nickname _loge infernale_, and the talk of the +town ran upon the frightful sums lost and won every night at the tables +of the exclusive _cercle_, while the nocturnal passer-by pointed with a +shudder to the windows of the first floor at the corner of the Rue de +Grammont and the Boulevard, glimmering until morning dawn with a light +altogether satanic. The truth must be confessed that _jeunesse dorée_ +of the period affected a style somewhat "loud." There was exaggeration +in everything--in literature--for it was the epoch of the great +romantic impulse--in art, in politics: what wonder, then, that the +distractions of high life should over-pass the boundaries of good +taste, and even of propriety? The Jockey Club in the time of Louis +Philippe did but recall the good old days of Brookes's and of White's, +of the two Foxes, of George Selwyn and of Sheridan. But how changed is +all this! There is not to-day in Paris, perhaps in the world, a more +sedate, reputable and in every sense temperate club than the "Jockey." +It concerns itself only with racing, the legitimate object of its +foundation, and nothing else is discussed in its salons, if we except +one room, which under the Empire was baptized "The Camp of Châlons," +for the reason that it had come to be reserved for the use of the old +soldiers, who met there to talk over incidents of army life. Baccarat, +that scourge of Parisian clubs, is forbidden, and lovers of play are +obliged to content themselves with a harmless rubber of whist. As one +black ball in six is sufficient to exclude a candidate--or, to use the +official euphemism, to cause his "postponement"--it is not difficult +for the coterie that controls the club to keep it clear of all noisy, +or even of merely too conspicuous, individuality. Lord Henry Seymour +would be "pilled" to-day by a probably unanimous vote. A candidate may +enjoy all the advantages of wealth and position, he may have the entrée +to all the salons, and may even be a member of clubs as exclusive as +the Union and the Pommes-de-Terre, and yet he may find himself unable +to gain admission to the Jockey. Any excess of notoriety, any marked +personal eccentricity, would surely place him under the ban. Scions of +ancient families, who have had the wisdom to spend in the country and +with their parents the three or four years succeeding their college +life, would have a much better chance of admission than a leader of +fashion such as I have described. The illustrious General de Charette; +M. Soubeyran, at that time governor of the _Crédit foncier_ of France; +the young Henry Say, brother-in-law of the prince A. de Broglie, rich +and accomplished, and the owner, moreover, of a fine racing-stable; +together with many other gentlemen whose private lives were above +suspicion,--have been blackballed for the simple reason that they were +too widely known. As to foreigners, let them avoid the mortification of +certain defeat by abstaining from offering themselves, unless indeed +they should happen to be the possessors of a great historic name or +should occupy in their own country a position out of the reach of +ordinary mortals. This careful exclusion of all originality and +diversity has, by degrees, communicated to the club a complexion +somewhat negative and colorless, but at the same time, it must be +admitted, of the most perfect distinction. The most influential +members, although generally very wealthy, live in Paris with but few of +the external signs of luxury, and devote their incomes to home comforts +and to the improvement of their estates. If one should happen to meet +on the Champs Élysées a mail-coach or a _daumont_ [an open carriage, +the French name of which has been adopted by the English, like +_landau_, etc. It is drawn by two horses driven abreast, and each +mounted by a postilion. The nearest English equivalent is a +"victoria."] that makes the promenaders turn and look back, or if there +be an _avant-scčne_ at the Variétés or the Palais Royal that serves as +a point of attraction for all the lorgnettes of the theatre, one may be +quite sure that the owners of these brilliant turnouts and the +occupants of this envied box are not members of the club--"_the_ Club," +_par excellence_, for thus is it spoken of in Paris. It is considered +quite correct at the club to devote one's self to the raising of cattle +and sheep, as the comtes de Bouvillé, de Béhague, de Hauteserre and +others have done with such success, and one may even follow the example +of the comte de Falloux, the eloquent Academician, in emblazoning with +one's arms a pen of fat pigs at a competitive show, without in the +least derogating from one's dignity. One may also sell the wine from +one's vineyards and the iron from one's furnaces--for the iron industry +is in France looked upon as a sort of heritage of the nobility--but to +get money by any other means than those I have indicated would be +considered in the worst possible taste. On the other hand, it is +permitted to any member of the club to lose as much money as he pleases +without loss of the respect of his fellows, and the surest way to +arrive at this result is to undertake the breeding and running of +horses. + +As to the external appearance and bearing of the perfect clubman, it is +very much that of Disraeli's hero, "who could hardly be called a dandy +or a beau. There was nothing in his dress, though some mysterious +arrangement in his costume--some rare simplicity, some curious +happiness--always made him distinguished: there was nothing, however, +in his dress, which could account for the influence that he exercised +over the manners of his contemporaries;" and it is probably a fact that +a member of the club is never noticed by passers on the street on +account of anything in his dress or appearance. In short, the club +seems to have adopted for its motto _Sancta simplicitas_, and the +descendants of the old nobility of France, excluded as they practically +are to-day from all public employment save that of the army, seem +determined to live amongst themselves, in tranquillity and retirement, +in such a way as to attract the least possible notice from the press or +from the crowd. Their portraits never find their way into the +illustrated papers, and no penny-a-liner ventures to make them the +subject of a biographical sketch: indeed, any one rash enough to seek +to tread upon this forbidden ground would find himself met at the +threshold by a dignified but very decided refusal of all information +and material necessary to his undertaking. + +As an illustration of the care taken by the ruling spirits of the club +to preserve the attitude which they have assumed toward the public, it +may be worth mentioning that Isabelle, who for a long time enjoyed the +distinction of serving the club as its accredited flower-girl, and who +in that capacity used to hold herself in readiness every evening in her +velvet tub at the foot of the staircase of the splendid apartments at +the corner of the Boulevard and the Rue Scribe--the present location of +the club--was dismissed for no other reason than that she had become +too extensively known to the gay world of Paris. Excluded from the +sacred paddock on the race-course, she is to-day compelled to content +herself on great occasions with selling her flowers on the public turf +from a pretty basket-wagon drawn by a pair of coquettish black ponies, +or "toy" ponies in the language of the day. + +Notwithstanding the magnificence of the present quarters of the club to +which I have referred, one cannot help regretting that, unlike the +Agricultural Society and the Club of the Champs Élysés, it is obliged +to confine itself to one story of the building--the first floor, +according to continental enumeration--though the rental of this floor +alone amounts to some three hundred thousand francs a year. + +The committee on races, composed of fifteen members (founders) and +fifteen associate members--the latter elected every year by the +founders--represents the club in all that concerns its finances and +property, votes the budget, the programme of all races and the +conditions of the prizes, and not only legislates in making the laws +that govern the course, but acts also as judge in deciding questions +that may arise under the code that it has established. And as a +legislative body it has its hands almost as full as that of the state, +for the budget of the society grows from year to year as rapidly as the +nation's, and there are now forty-nine turfs for which it is +responsible or to which it has extended its protection. The presidency +of the committee, after having been held for many years by the lamented +Vicomte Daru, passed on his death last year to M. Auguste Lupin, the +oldest proprietor of race-horses in France. To M. Lupin, moreover, +belongs the honor of being the first breeder in France who has beaten +the English in their own country by gaining the Goodwood Cup in 1855 +with Jouvence--success that was renewed by his horse Dollar in 1864. M. +Lupin, who had six times won the Jockey Club Purse (the French Derby) +and twice the Grand Prix de Paris, occupies very much the same position +in France that Lord Falmouth holds in England, and, like him, he never +bets. His colors, black jacket and red cap, are exceedingly popular, +and received even more than their wonted share of applause in the year +1875, the most brilliant season in the history of his stables, when he +carried off all the best prizes with St. Cyr, Salvator and Almanza. His +stud, which has numbered amongst its stallions the Baron, Dollar and +the Flying Dutchman, is at Vaucresson, near Versailles. His +training-stables are at La Croix, St. Ouen. + +Of the remaining members of the committee on races, the best known are +the prince de la Moskowa, the comte A. de Noailles, Henry Delamarre, +Comte Frédéric de Lagrange, Comte A. des Cars, J. Mackenzie-Grieves, +Comte H. de Turtot, the duc de Fitz-James, Baron Shickler, the prince +A. d'Aremberg, Prince Joachim Murat, Comte Roederer, the marquis de +Lauriston, Baron Gustave de Rothschild, E. Fould and the comtes de St. +Sauveur, de Kergorlay and de Juigné. Most of these gentlemen run their +horses, or have done so, and the list will be found to comprise, with +two or three exceptions, the principal turfmen of France. The comte de +Juigné and the prince d'Aremberg, both very rich, and much liked in +Paris, have formed a partnership in turf matters, and the colors they +have adopted, yellow and red stripes for the jacket, with black cap, +are always warmly welcomed. In 1873, with Montargis, they won the +Cambridgeshire Stakes, which were last year carried off by the American +horse Parole, and in 1877 they renewed the exploit with Jongleur. The +count, on this latter occasion, had taken no pains to conceal the +merits of his horse, but, on the contrary, had spoken openly of what he +believed to be his chances, and had even advised the betting public to +risk their money upon him. As the English were giving forty to one +against him, the consequence of M. de Juigné's friendly counsel was +that the morning after the race saw a perfect shower of gold descending +upon Paris, the English guineas falling even into the white caps held +out with eager hands by the scullions of the cafés that line the +Boulevard. One well-known restaurateur, Catelain, of the Restaurant +Helder on the Boulevard des Italiens, pocketed a million of francs, and +testified his satisfaction, if not his gratitude, by forthwith +baptizing a new dish with the name of the winning horse. The comte de +Juigné himself cleared three millions, and many members of the club +were made the richer by sums ranging from one hundred to one hundred +and fifty thousand francs. The marquis de Castellane, an habitual +gambler, who happened to have put only a couple of hundred louis on the +horse, could not hide his chagrin that his venture had returned him but +a hundred and sixty thousand francs. Jongleur won the French Derby (one +hundred and three thousand francs) in 1877, besides thirteen other +important races. He was unfortunately killed while galloping in his +paddock in September, 1878. + +The Scotch jacket and white cap of the duc de Fitz-James, owner of the +fine La Sorie stud, and the same colors, worn by the jockeys of the duc +de Fézenzac, have won but few of the prizes of the turf, and another +nobleman, the comte de Berteux (green jacket, red cap) is noted for the +incredible persistency of his bad luck. M. Édouard Fould, whose mount +is known by the jackets hooped with yellow and black and caps of the +latter color, is the proprietor of the well-known D'Ibos stud at the +foot of the Pyrenees, one of the largest and best-ordered +establishments of the kind in France; and it is to him and to his +uncle, the late Achille Fould, that the South owes in a great degree +the breeding and development of the thoroughbred horse. M. Delâtre +(green jacket and cap) raises every year, at La Celle St. Cloud, some +twenty yearlings, of which he keeps but three or four, selling the rest +at Tattersall's, Rue Beaujon, to the highest bidder. They generally +bring about six thousand francs a head, on an average. + +The feeling against Germany after the war led to a proposition to expel +from the club all members belonging to that country; and it was only +the liking and sympathy felt for one of them, Baron Schickler, a very +wealthy lover of the turf and for a long time resident in France, which +caused a rejection of the motion. Baron Schickler, however, has +nominally retired from the turf since 1870, and his horses are now run +under the pseudonyme of Davis. His colors are white for the jacket, +with red sleeves and cherry cap. Another member, Mr. A. de Montgomery, +the excellent Norman breeder and the fortunate owner of La Toucques and +of Fervaques, has also given up racing under his own name, and devotes +himself exclusively to the oversight of the Rothschild stables. The +good-fortune which the mere possession of this distinguished name would +seem sufficient to ensure has not followed the colors of Baron Gustave +de Rothschild in the racing field, where his blue jackets and yellow +caps have not been the first to reach the winning-post in the contests +for the most important prizes. He buys, nevertheless, the best mares +and the finest stallions, and he has to-day, in his excellent stud at +Meautry, the illustrious Boďard, who had won, before he came into the +baron's possession, the Ascot Cup of 1873 and the Grand Prix de Paris. +The Rothschild training-stables are at Chantilly. Boďard, as well as +Vermont, another of the grandest horses ever foaled in France, and a +winner also of the Grand Prix de Paris, was formerly in possession of +M. Henry Delamarre, who in the days of the Empire enjoyed a short +period of most remarkable success, having won the French Derby no less +than three times within four years. His choice of colors was a maroon +jacket with red sleeves and black cap. He had some lesser triumphs last +year, at the autumn meeting in the Bois de Boulogne, where his mare +Reine Claude won the Prix du Moulin by two lengths, his horse Vicomte, +who up to that time had been running so badly, taking the Prix +d'Automne, while the second prize of the same name was carried off by +Clélié, thus gaining for the Delamarre stables three races out of the +five contested on that day. All M. Delamarre's horses come from the +Bois-Roussel stud, belonging to Comte Roederer. + +There remain to be mentioned, amongst the number of gentlemen who are +in the habit of entering their horses for races in France, a Belgian, +the comte de Meeüs, one of whose horses was the favorite in the race +last mentioned, and though beaten, as often happens with favorites, he +and other animals from the same stables have this year carried away +several of the provincial prizes; M.L. André, owner of this season's +winners of the steeple-chase handicap known as the Prix de Pontoise and +of several hurdle-races; M.A. de Borda, who was unsuccessful in the +present year in three at least of the races in which he had entered; +M.E. de la Charme, who in June, 1879, took the Grand Prix du +Conseil-Général (handicap) at Lyons, and in September won at Vincennes +the hurdle-race Prix de Charenton; the marquis de Caumont-Laforce, +whose colors were first this summer at Moulins in the Prix du +Conseil-Général, and in the third Criterium at Fontainebleau, as well +as in the grand handicap at Beauvais last July; M.P. Aumont, who has +been not without some good luck in the provinces during the past +season; M. Moreau-Chaslon, whose successes of late have hardly been in +proportion to his numerous entries, though he won the last Prix des +Villas at Vésinet, the Prix du Jockey Club (three thousand francs) at +Châlons-sur-Saône and the Prix du Mont-Valérien at the Bois de +Boulogne; and, to bring to an end our long list of devotees of the +turf, we add the name of M. Ephrussi, who, amongst the numerous races +in which he has entered horses in 1879, has been victorious in not a +few--for instance, in the steeple-chase handicap at La Marche, called +the Prix de Clairefontaine, in L'Express at Fontainebleau, in the Prix +de Neuilly at the Bois de Boulogne, and in the handicap for the Prix +des Écuries at Chantilly, as well as in a race for gentlemen riders +only at Maison-Lafitte. Besides these and others, he gained last August +the Jockey Club Prize (five thousand francs) at Châlons-sur-Saône, the +Prix de Louray at Déauville for the like amount, another of the same +figures at Vichy, and the six thousand francs of the Grand Prix du +Havre. Most of the gentlemen last named are the owners of a +comparatively small number of horses, which are, perhaps without +exception, entrusted to the care of the famous trainer Henry Jennings +of La Croix, St. Ouen, near Compičgne. + +Henry Jennings is a character. His low, broad-brimmed beaver--which has +gained him the sobriquet of "Old Hat"--pulled well down over a +square-built head, the old-fashioned high cravat in which his neck is +buried to the ears, the big shoes ensconced in clumsy gaiters, give him +more the air of a Yorkshire gentleman-farmer of the old school than of +a man whose home since his earliest youth has been in France. He is one +of the most original figures in the motley scene as he goes his rounds +in the paddock, mysterious and knowing, very sparing of his words, and +responding only in monosyllables even to the questions of his patrons, +while he whispers in the ears of his jockeys the final instructions +which many an interested spectator would give something to hear. +Beginning his career in the service of the prince de Beauvan, from +which he passed first to that of the duc de Morny and afterward to that +of the comte de Lagrange, he is now a public trainer upon his own +account, with more than a hundred horses under his care. No one has +devoted more intelligent study to the education of the racer or shown a +more intuitive knowledge of his nature and of his needs. It was he who +first threw off the shackles of ancient custom by which a horse during +the period of training was kept in such an unnatural condition, by +means of drugs and sweatings, that at the end of his term of probation +he was a pitiful object to behold. The pictures and engravings of +twenty years ago bear witness to the degree of "wasting" to which a +horse was reduced on the eve of a race, and the caricatures of the +period are hardly over-drawn when they exhibit to us the ghost of an +animal mounted by a phantom jockey. When people saw that Jennings was +able to bring to the winning-post horses in good condition, whose +training had been based upon nothing but regular work, they at first +looked on in astonishment, but afterward found their profit in +imitating his example. Under this rational system it has been proved +that the animal gains in power and endurance while he loses nothing in +speed. The same intrepid trainer has ventured upon another innovation. +Impressed with the inconveniences of shoeing, and annoyed by the +difficulty of finding a skilful smith in moving from one place to +another in the country, he conceived the idea of letting his horses go +shoeless, both during training and on the track; and, despite all that +could be urged against the practice his horses' feet are in excellent +condition. His many successes on the turf have not, however, been +crowned, as yet, by the Grand Prix de Paris, though in 1877 he thought +to realize the dream of his ambition with Jongleur, whom he had trained +and whom he loved like a son; and when the noble horse was beaten by an +outsider, St Christopher, "Old Hat" could not control an exhibition of +ill-humor as amusing as it was touching. When Jongleur died Jennings +wept for perhaps the first time in his life, and he was still unable to +restrain his tears when he described the tortures of the poor beast as +he struck his head against the sides of his box in the agonies of +lockjaw. + +Let us close our list--in which, however, we have endeavored to +enumerate only the principal figures upon the French turf--with two +names; and first that of the young Edmond Blanc, heir to the immense +fortune gained by his late father as director of the famous +gaming-tables of Monaco. The latter, like a prudent parent, forbade his +son to race or to play, and Edmond, obeying the letter of the law--at +least during the lifetime of his father--was known, if known at all +upon the course, under the pseudonyme of James. At present, however, he +is the owner of an important stud and stable which are constantly +increasing, and which bid fair before long to take rank amongst the +principal establishments in the country. Waggish tongues have whispered +that when he had to make choice of colors he naturally inclined to +"rouge et noir," but finding these already appropriated by M. Lupin, +the representative of "trente et quarante" was forced to content +himself with tints more brilliant perhaps, but less suggestive. But let +him laugh who wins. The annals of the turf for 1879 inscribe the name +of M. Blanc as winner of the Grand Prix de Paris. It was his mare, +Nubienne, who first reached the winning-post by a neck in a field of +eleven horses, M. Fould's Saltéador being second, with barely a head +between him and the third, Flavio II., belonging to the comte Frédéric +de Lagrange. + +This latter proprietor, the most celebrated of all--in the sense of +being the most widely known and the most talked about--I have reserved +for the end of my catalogue. Comte de Lagrange made his début upon the +turf in the year 1857, now more than twenty years ago, by buying +outright the great stable of M. Alexander Aumont, which boasted at that +time amongst its distinguished ornaments the famous Monarque, who had, +before passing into the hands of his new owner, gained eight races in +eight run, and who, under the colors of the comte, almost repeated the +feat by winning eight in nine; and of these two were the Goodwood Cup +and the Newmarket Handicap. Afterward, at the Dangu stud, he achieved a +fame of another sort, but in the eyes of horsemen perhaps still more +important. Never has sire transmitted to his colts his own best +qualities with such certainty and regularity. Hospodar, Le Mandarin, +Trocadéro were amongst his invaluable gifts to the comte, but his +crowning glory is the paternity of the illustrious Gladiateur, the +Eclipse of modern times. Gladiateur, said the baron d'Étreilly, recalls +Monarque as one hundred recalls ten. There were the very same lines, +the same length of clean muscular neck well set on the same deep and +grandly-placed shoulders, the same arching of the loins, the same +contour of hips and quarters, but all in proportions so colossal that +every one who saw him, no matter how indifferent to horseflesh in +general, remained transfixed in admiration of a living machine of such +gigantic power. + +The first appearance of Gladiateur upon the race-course was at the +Newmarket autumn meeting of 1864, where he won the Clearwell Stakes, +beating a field of twelve horses. He was kept sufficiently "shady," +however, during the winter to enable his owner to make some +advantageous bets upon him, though it required careful management to +conceal his extraordinary powers. His training remains a legend in the +annals of the stables of Royal-Lieu, where the jockeys will tell you +how he completely knocked all the other horses out of time, and how two +or three of the very best put in relay to wait upon him were not enough +to cover the distance. Fille-de-l'Air herself had to be sacrificed, and +it was in one of these terrible gallops that she finished her career as +a runner. Mandarin alone stood out, but even he, they say, showed such +mortal terror of the trial that when he was led out to accompany his +redoubtable brother he trembled from head to foot, bathed in sweat. In +1865, Gladiateur gained the two thousand guineas and the Derby at +Epsom, and for the first time the blue ribbon was borne away from the +English. "When Gladiateur runs," said the English papers at this time, +"the other horses hardly seem to move." The next month he ran for the +Grand Prix de Paris. His jockey, Harry Grimshaw, had the coquetry to +keep him in the rear of the field almost to the end, as if he were +taking a gallop for exercise, and when Vertugadin reached the last turn +the favorite, some eight lengths behind, seemed to have forgotten that +he was in the race at all. The public had made up its mind that it had +been cheated, when all at once the great horse, coming up with a rush, +passed all his rivals at a bound, to resume at their head his former +easy and tranquil pace. There had not been even a contest: Gladiateur +had merely put himself on his legs, and all had been said. These three +victories brought in to Comte de Lagrange the sum of four hundred and +forty-one thousand seven hundred and twenty-five francs, to say nothing +of the bets. Gladiateur afterward won the race of six thousand mčtres +(two miles fourteen furlongs) which now bears his name, and also the +Great St. Leger at Doncaster. He was beaten but once--in the +Cambridgeshire, where he was weighted at a positively absurd figure, +and when, moreover, the track was excessively heavy. After his +retirement from the turf he was sold in 1871 for breeding purposes in +England for two hundred thousand francs, and died in 1876. + +Like M. Fould and several other brethren of the turf, Comte de Lagrange +felt the discouragements of the Franco-German war, and sold all his +horses to M. Lefčvre. Fortunately, however, he had retained in his stud +at Dangu a splendid lot of breeding-mares, and with these he has since +been able to reconstruct a stable of the first order, though the effort +has cost him a very considerable sum. Indeed, he himself admits that to +cover expenses he would have to make as much as thirty thousand pounds +every year. Four times victorious in the French Derby before 1870, he +has since repeated this success for two successive years--in 1878 with +Insulaire, and in 1879 with Zut. His colors (blue jacket with red +sleeves and a red cap) are as well known in England as in his own +country. Within the last six years he has three times won the Oaks at +Epsom with Regalia, Reine and Camelia, the Goodwood Cup with Flageolet, +the two thousand guineas and the Middlepark and Dewhurst Plates with +Chamant. On the 12th of June, last year, at Ascot, he gained two races +out of three, and in the third one of his horses came in second. + +But the count is by no means always a winner, nor does he always win +with the horse that, by all signs, ought to be the victor. He has +somehow acquired, whether justly or not, the reputation of being a +"knowing hand" upon the turf, and all turfmen will understand what is +implied in the term, whether of good or of evil. His stable has been +called a "surprise-box," which simply means that the "horse carrying +the first colors does not always carry the money;" that people who +think they know the merits of his horses frequently lose a good deal by +the unexpected turn of affairs upon the track; and that the count, in +short, manages to take care of himself in exercising the undoubted +right of an owner, as by rule established, to win if he can with any +one of the horses that he may have running together for any given +event. Nothing dishonorable, according to the laws of the turf, has +ever been proved, nor perhaps even been charged, against him; but as +one of his countrymen, from whom I have just now quoted, remarks, "He +is fond of showing to demonstration that a man does not keep two +hundred horses in training just to amuse the gallery." + +These repeated triumphs, as well as the not less frequent ones of MM. +Lefčvre, Lupin and de Juigné, have naturally set the English +a-thinking. They have to admit that the time has passed when their +handicappers could contemptuously give a French horse weights in his +favor, and a party headed by Lords Falmouth, Hardwicke and Vivian and +Sir John Astley of the London Jockey Club has been formed with the +object of bringing about some modifications of the international code. + +A war of words has ensued between Admiral Rous and Viscount Daru, the +respective presidents of the two societies, in the course of which the +admiral has urged that as English horses are admitted to only two races +in France, the Grand Prix de Paris and the D[/e]auville Cup, while +French horses are at liberty to enter upon any course in England, it is +quite time that a reciprocity of privileges were recognized, and that +racers be put upon an equal footing in the two countries. Not at all, +replies M. Daru; and for this reason: there are three times as many +race-horses in England as in France, and the small number of the latter +would bring down the value of the French prizes to next to nothing if +the stakes are based, as they are in England, upon the sum-total of the +entries. In France the government, the encouragement societies, the +towns, the railway companies, all have to help to make up the purses, +and often with very considerable sums. Would it be fair to let in +English horses in the proportion of, say, three to one--supposing the +value of the horses to be equal--to carry off two-thirds of these +subscriptions? To this the Englishman answers, not without a show of +reason, that if the foreign horses should come into France in any great +numbers this very circumstance would make the entrance-moneys a +sufficient remuneration to the winner, and that the government, the +Jockey Club and the rest would be relieved from a continuance of their +subventions. The discussion is still kept up, and it is not unlikely +that the successors of MM. Rous and Daru will keep on exchanging notes +for some years without coming nearer to a solution than the diplomats +have come to a settlement of the Eastern Question. + +I have said that the Jockey Club of Paris grants subventions to the +racing societies of the provinces, which it takes under its patronage +to the number of about forty-five, but it undertakes the actual +direction of the races at only three places--namely, Chantilly, +Fontainebleau and Déauville-sur-Mer--besides those of Paris. Up to +1856, the Paris races were run on the Champ de Mars, where the track +was too hard and the turns were very sharp and awkward. In the +last-mentioned year the city ceded to the Société d'Encouragement the +open field at Longchamps, lying between the western limit of the Bois +de Boulogne and the river Seine. The ground measures about sixty-six +hectares in superficial area, and this ample space has permitted the +laying out of several tracks of different lengths and of varying form, +and has avoided any necessity for sharp turns. The whole race-course is +well sodded, and the ground is as good as artificially-made ground can +be. It is kept up and improved by yearly outlays, and these very +considerable expenses are confided to Mr. J. Mackenzie-Grieves, so well +known for his horsemanship to all the promenaders of the Bois. + +The race-course at Longchamps enjoys advantages of situation and +surroundings superior, beyond all question, to those of any other in +the world. The approaches to it from Paris are by an uninterrupted +succession of the most charming drives--the Champs Élysées, the grand +avenue of the Bois de Boulogne, and finally through the lovely shaded +alleys of the Bois. Arrived at the Cascade, made famous by the attempt +of Berezowski upon the life of the czar in 1867, the eye takes in at a +glance the whole of the vast space devoted to the race-course, +overlooked to the right by a picturesque windmill and an ancient +ivy-mantled tower, and at the farther extremity by the stands for +spectators. To the left the view stretches over the rich undulating +hills of S[\e]vres and of Meudon, strewn with pretty villas and towers +and steeples, and rests in the dim distance upon the blue horizon of +Les Verriéres. + +The elegant central stand or tribune, of brick and stone, is reserved +for the chief of the state. In the time of the last presidency it was +almost always occupied by the marshal, a great lover of horses, and by +his little court; but his successor, M. Grévy, whose sporting +propensities are satisfied by a game of billiards or a day's shooting +with his pointers, generally waives his privilege in favor of the +members of the diplomatic corps. + +The stand to the left of the track is the official tribune, very gay +and attractive in the days of the Empire, when it was filled by the +members of the municipal council of Paris and their families, but +to-day rather a blot upon the picture, the wives of the Republican +ćdiles belonging to a lower--though, in this case, a newer--stratum of +society than did their imperial predecessors. The Jockey Club reserves +for itself the first stand to the right, from which all women are +rigorously excluded. The female element, however, is represented upon +the lower ranges of benches, though the ladies belonging to the more +exclusive circles of fashion prefer a simple chair upon the gravel of +the paddock. It is there, at the foot of the club-stand, that may be +seen any Sunday in spring, expanding under the rays of the vernal sun, +the fresh toilettes that have bloomed but yesterday, or it may be this +very morning, in the conservatories of Worth and Laferričre. The +butterflies of this garden of sweets are the jaunty hats whose tender +wings of azure or of rose have but just unfolded themselves to the +light of day. My figure of "butterfly hats" has been ventured upon in +the hope that it may be found somewhat newer than that of the +"gentlemen butterflies" which the reporters of the press have chased so +often and so long that the down is quite rubbed from its wings, to say +nothing of the superior fitness of the comparison in the present case. +In fact, the gentlemen do but very rarely flutter from flower to flower +within the sacred confines of the paddock, but are much more apt to +betake themselves in crowds to the less showy parterre of the +betting-ground, where, under the shadow of the famous chestnut tree, +such enormous wagers are laid, and especially do they congregate in the +neighborhood of the tall narrow slates set up by such well-known +bookmakers as Wright, Valentine and Saffery. + +Each successive year sees an increase in the number of betters, who +contribute indirectly, by means of subscriptions to the races, a very +important proportion of the budget of the Jockey Club. But if any one +should imagine from this constant growth of receipts that the taste for +racing is extending in France, and is likely to become national, he +would be making a great mistake: what is growing, and with alarming +rapidity, is the passion for gambling, for the indulgence of which the +"improvement of the breed of horses" is but a convenient and +sufficiently transparent veil. Whether the money of the player rolls +around the green carpet of the race-course or upon that of M. Blanc at +Monte Carlo, the impulse that keeps it in motion is the same, and the +book-maker's slate is as dangerous as the roulette-table. The manager +of the one piles up a fortune as surely as the director of the other, +and in both cases the money seems to be made with an almost +mathematical certainty and regularity. They tell of one day--that of +the Grand Prix of 1877--when Saffery, the Steel of the French turf and +the leviathan of bookmakers, cleared as much as fifty thousand dollars. +Wright, Valentine, Morris and many more make in proportion to their +outlay. Four or five years ago these worthies had open offices on the +Rue de Choiseul and the Boulevard des Italiens, where betting on the +English and French races went on night and day; but the police, +following the lead of that of London, stepped in to put an end to this +traffic in contraband goods, and the shops for the sale of this sort of +merchandise are now shut up. But if all this has been done, and if even +those great _voitures de poules_ which once made the most picturesque +ornament of the turf, have been banished out of sight, it has been +impossible to uproot the practice of betting, which has more devotees +to-day than ever before. It has been discovered in other countries than +France that the only way to deal with an ineradicable evil is to check +its growth, and an attempt to prohibit pool-selling a year or two ago +in one of the States of this Union only resulted in the adoption of an +ingenious evasion whereby the _pictures_ of the horses entered were +sold at auction--a practice which is, if I am not misinformed, still +kept up. The same fiction, under another form, is to be seen to-day in +France. In order to bet openly one has to buy an entrance--ticket to +the paddock, which costs him twenty francs, whereas the general entry +to the grounds is but one franc, and any one found betting outside the +enclosure or _enceinte_ of the stables is liable to arrest. The police, +no doubt, are willing to accept the theory that a man who can afford to +pay twenty francs for a little square of rose- or yellow-tinted paper +is rich enough to be allowed to indulge in any other extravagant freaks +that he pleases. + +But with all the numerous bets that are made, and the excitement and +interest, that must necessarily be aroused, there is nothing of the +turbulent and uproarious demonstration so characteristic of the English +race-course. The "rough" element is kept away from the French turf, +partly because it would find its surroundings there uncongenial with +its tastes, and partly by the small entrance-fee required; and one is +thus spared at Longchamps the sight of those specimens of the various +forms of human misery and degradation that offend the eye at Epsom and +infest even the more aristocratic meetings of Ascot and Goodwood. At +the French races, too, one never hears the shrieks and howls of an +English crowd, save perhaps when in some very important contest the +favorite is beaten, and even then the yells come from English throats: +it is the bookmakers' song of victory. A stranger at Longchamps would +perceive at once that racing has no hold upon the popular heart, and +that, so far as it is an amusement at all apart from the gambling +spirit evoked, it is merely the hobby and pastime of a certain number +of idle gentlemen. As to the great mass of spectators, who are not +interested in the betting, they go to Longchamps as they would go to +any place where uniforms and pretty toilettes and fine carriages are to +be seen; for the Parisian, as one of them has well said, "never misses +a review, and he goes to the races, although he understands nothing +about them: the horses scarcely interest him at all. But there he is +because he must do as 'all Paris' does: he even tries to master a few +words of the barbarous jargon which it is considered _bon-ton_ to speak +at these places, for it seems that the French language, so rich, so +flexible, so accurate, is insufficient to express the relations and +affinities between man and the horse." + +The _enceinte du pesage_, often called in vulgar English "the +betting-ring," or the enclosure mentioned above to which holders of +twenty-franc tickets are admitted, at Longchamps is scrupulously +guarded by the stewards of the Jockey Club from the invasion of the +_demi-monde_--a term that I employ in the sense in which it is +understood to-day, and not in that which it bore twenty years ago. A +woman of this demi-monde, which the younger Dumas has defined as that +"community of married women of whom one never sees the husbands," may +enter the paddock if she appears upon the arm of a gentleman, but the +really objectionable element is obliged to confine itself to the +five-franc stands or to wander over the public lawns. Some of the +fashionable actresses of the day and the best-known _belles-petites_ +may be seen sunning themselves in their victorias or their +"eight-springs" by the side of the track in front of the stands, but +this is not from any interest that they feel in the performances of Zut +or of Rayon d'Or, but simply because to make the "return from the +races" it is necessary to have been to them, and every woman of any +pretension to fashion, no matter what "world" she may belong to, must +be seen in the gay procession that wends its way through the splendid +avenue on the return from Longchamps. + +The great day at Longchamps, that crowns the Parisian season like the +"bouquet" at the end of a long series of fire-works, is the +international fęte of the Grand Prix de Paris, run for the first time +in 1863. It is open to entire horses and to fillies of all breeds and +of all countries, three-year-olds, and of the prize, one hundred +thousand francs, half is given by the city of Paris and half by the +five great railway companies. It was the late duc de Morny who first +persuaded the municipal council and the administrations of the railways +to make this annual appropriation; ail of which, together with the +entries, a thousand francs each, goes to the winner, after deducting +ten thousand francs given to the second horse and five thousand to the +third. Last year the amount won by Nubienne, carrying fifty-three and a +half kilogrammes, was one hundred and forty-one thousand nine hundred +and seventy-five francs, and the time made was three minutes +thirty-three seconds on a track of three thousand mčtres--one mile +seven furlongs, or three furlongs longer than that of the Derby at +Epsom. + +The fixing of Sunday for this international contest has aroused the +prejudices of the English, and has been the occasion of a long +correspondence between Admiral Rous and Viscount Daru, but the +committee on races has refused to change the day, contending, with +reason, that the French people cannot be expected to exchange their +usages for those of a foreign country. Although it is understood that +Queen Victoria has formally forbidden the prince of Wales to assist at +these profane solemnities, this interdict has not prevented the +appearance there of some of the principal personages of England, and we +have several times noticed the presence of the dukes of St. Albans, +Argyll, Beaufort and Hamilton, the marquis of Westminster and Lords +Powlett, Howard and Falmouth; though the last, be it said, is believed +to be influenced by his respect for the day in his refusal to run his +horses in France. + +Those who remember the foundation of the Grand Prix will recall the +extraordinary excitement of the occasion, when the whole population of +Paris, as one of the enemies of the new system of racing said, turned +out as they would to a capital execution or the drawing of a grand +lottery or the ascension of a monster balloon: the next day the name of +the winner was in everybody's mouth, and there was but one great man in +the universe for that day at least--he who had conceived the idea of +the Grand Prix de Paris. The receipts on this occasion amounted to +eighty-one thousand francs: last year they were two hundred and forty +thousand. I subjoin a list of the winners from 1863 to 1879, inclusive: + + Years. Horses. Owners. Nationality. + + 1863 The Ranger H. Savile English. + 1864 Vermont H. Delamarre French. + 1865 Gladiateur Comte F. de Lagrange French. + 1866 Ceylon Duke of Beaufort English. + 1867 Feryacques A. de Montgomery French. + 1868 The Earl Marquis of Hastings English. + 1869 Glaneur A. Lupin French. + 1870 Sornette Major Fridolin (Ch. French. + Lafitte) + 1871 (Not run). + 1872 Cremorne H. Savile English. + 1873 Boďard H. Delamarre French. + 1874 Trent W.R. Marshall English. + 1875 Salvator A. Lupin French. + 1876 Kisber Baltazzi Hungarian. + 1877 St. Christophe Comte F. de Lagrange French. + 1878 Thurio Prince Soltikoff Russian. + 1879 Nubienne Edmond Blanc French. + +It will be seen by this list that the superiority of the English-bred +horse over the French is far from being established. Of sixteen races, +the English have gained but five, [Since this article was written the +Grand Prix has again been won (June, 1880) by an English horse, Robert +the Devil.] while they have been three times second and four times +third, and in 1875 their three representatives came in last. The winner +of the Epsom Derby has been beaten several times, as in the case, +amongst others, of Blair Athol by Vermont and Doncaster by Boďard. The +winners of the two chief prizes of last year were a French, an English +and an Hungarian horse--Gladiateur, Cremorne and Kisber. It may be +remarked also that the winner of the French Derby, as it is called, +which is run at Chantilly a fortnight earlier, is almost never the +gainer of the Grand Prix, the only exceptions having been Boďard and +Salvator. This result is no doubt the consequence of the system of +training too long in vogue in France, and upheld by Tom Jennings and +the Carters, which consists in bringing a horse to the post in the +maximum of his condition upon a given day and for a given event. The +animal can never be in better state, and if he does not win the race +for which he has been specially prepared, it is because he is not good +enough: he cannot be made to do any better than he has done. But if it +is hard to bring a horse to this culminating point of training, it is +still more difficult to keep him there, even for a period of a few +days. Training has been compared to the sides of a triangle: when one +has reached the apex one must perforce begin to descend. It being, +then, impossible that the animal should support for any length of time +the extreme tension of his whole organism that perfect training +supposes, it but very rarely happens that the horse prepared according +to this system--for the French Derby, for example--can be maintained in +such a condition as to enable him to win the Epsom Derby or the Grand +Prix de Paris. We have heretofore referred to the reaction against this +practice of excessive training, and to the efforts of Henry Jennings in +the direction of a reform--efforts which within the last few years have +been crowned with great success. + +But we must now return to the Grand Prix. An invalid who had been +forbidden by his doctor to read the newspapers for several months, and +who should chance to make his first promenade on the Boulevards on the +eve of the Grand Prix, would know at a glance that something +extraordinary was about to happen. At every step he would meet the +unmistakable garb that announces the Englishman on his travels--at +every turn he would hear the language of Shakespeare and of Mr. +Labouchere adorned with a good deal of horse-talk. Coney's Cosmopolitan +Bar, Rue Scribe, is full on this day of betters and bookmakers, and +possibly of Englishmen of a higher rank, whilst its silver +_gril_--which is not of silver, however, but polished so bright as +almost to look like it--smokes with the broiling steak, and the gin +cocktails and brandy-and-soda flow unceasingly. Toward midnight, +especially--after the Salon des Courses has closed its doors--is +Coney's to be seen in its glory. The circus of the Champs Élysées, +where Saturday is the favorite day, makes on this particular Saturday +its largest receipts in the year; the Jardin Mabille is packed; the +very hackney-coachmen wear the independent, half-insolent look that +they have had since morning and will have till the evening of the next +day--unfailing sign in Paris that some great spectacle is impending; +milliners and dressmakers are out of their wits; the world has gone +mad. The restaurant-waiters and the barbers of the Boulevard may +condescend, if you happen to be a regular customer and given to +tipping, to enlighten you on the chances of the respective horses. The +most knowing in these matters are supposed to be Pierre, the host of +the Grand Café, right under the rooms of the Jockey Club, and the +rotund Henry, keeper of the Restaurant Bignon, Avenue de l'Opéra, the +confidant of certain turfmen, who may favor him with invaluable hints +if their _salmis_ of woodcocks should have been a success or their +_cotelette double_ be done to a turn. Charles, of the Café Durand, +Place de la Madeleine, and Henry, the barber of the Boulevard des +Italiens, are also posted in the quotations and keep themselves well +informed. + +On Sunday morning by ten o'clock the Bois de Boulogne is filled with +pedestrians, who take their breakfast on the grass to while away the +time of waiting. The restaurants Madrid and the Cascade, where the +tables are spread amidst flowers and shaded by trees--a feature that is +duly remembered in the bills, like an _hors d'oeuvre_--are turning +visitors away. Toward half-past two the enclosure of the paddock is +absolutely full: not a vacant chair is to be found, and a fearful +consumption of iced champagne begins at the buffet. For, strange to +say, the weather is always fine on this day, and the Encouragement +Society is as notorious for its good-luck in this respect as the +Skating Club and the Steeple-chase Society are for quite the opposite. +By degrees--and perhaps helped by the champagne--the vast throng will +be observed, as the supreme moment approaches, to depart from its +habitually staid and calm demeanor, and finally to show some signs of +enthusiasm, though without growing in the least noisy and turbulent, +like that at Epsom on the Derby Day. Once in a year, however, I as the +French say, doesn't make a custom, and the Parisian crowd, to quote its +own expression, "croit que c'est arrivé." The applause, in case the +winner is a French horse, comes from patriotic motives: if he happens +to be English it is given from a feeling of courtesy; and the crowd +having done its duty in either case, the famous "return," that has +often furnished a subject for the painter, begins. And a wondrous sight +it is. Up to six o'clock the innumerable carriages continue to defile +upon the several routes that lead to the city, forming a procession of +which the head touches the Place de la Concorde, whilst the extremity +still reaches to the tribunes of Longchamps. And when evening comes on, +and bets are settled, and heated brains seek to prolong the day's +excitement far into the night, such haunts as the Mabille grow so noisy +that the police is generally obliged to interfere. There was a time +when, on these occasions, that jolly nobleman, the duke of Hamilton, +then a prominent figure on the French turf, did not disdain to lead his +followers to the battle in person, and to practise the noble art of +boxing upon all comers, whether policemen or bookmakers. But these +deeds of former days are now but traditions: His Grace has married, +which is said to have taught him wisdom, and the bookmakers have grown +into millionaires, with a sense of the gravity becoming their +position.--L. LEJEUNE. + + + + +MRS. PINCKNEY'S GOVERNESS + + +The short October day had come to an end. It had been one of those +soft, misty, delicious days common enough at this season of the year. +The gathering darkness perplexed the young girl who, without maid or +escort of any kind, stood peering through the gloom at the little +way-station. Discouraged, apparently, at the result of her search, she +entered the station-house, and inquired, in rather a depressed voice, +if they knew whether Mrs. Pinckney had sent a carriage or vehicle of +any kind for her: "she was expected," she added. + +Youth and good looks are naturally effective, and the young Irishman in +authority there, Michael Redmond, was by no means insensible to their +influence. He darted out with an air of alacrity, returning, however, +almost immediately with the depressing information that Mrs. Pinckney's +carriage was not there. "She went herself to the city this morning, +madam," he said, with an effort at consolation. "Perhaps in her absence +the servants have forgotten--" Here he paused. + +"It is very unfortunate," she murmured, evidently not accustomed to +such emergencies. Nature, however, although ill-seconded by her +previous life, had given her both courage and decision. "Is there +nothing here which I can hire? is there nobody to drive me to Mrs. +Pinckney's?" + +"I'll see, madam," returned the young man. + +Why he used the term "madam," which was undoubtedly misplaced, toward +so youthful a person, is only to be explained by an idea he had of +exaggerated respect, a kind of protection apparently to her loneliness +and helplessness. + +He darted headlong out again into the darkness. "There is a boy here +with an open wagon, madam," returning almost as quickly as he went out. +"It is not an elegant conveyance, but--" and he hesitated--"it is the +only one." + +"Oh, it will do, thank you: anything will do which can carry me to the +house. Is there room for my trunk?" + +Michael with strong, serviceable arms swung the trunk lightly into the +wagon. She was already seated, the boy, who was to drive, beside her. + +"Oh, thank you." She drew a diminutive purse from her travelling-bag, +and was evidently about to recompense him when something in his manner +deterred her. She thanked him again, for gracious words fell lightly +and easily from her lips, and the little vehicle went rattling out upon +the road. + +Mrs. Pinckney's house was four or five miles from the station: the boy +drove at a furious pace, and it was by good luck rather than by good +guidance that no catastrophe occurred. The beautiful day was succeeded +by a cloudy evening: neither moon nor stars were visible, and as they +passed through the avenue leading to the house, under the branches of +magnificent old trees, large drops of rain began to fall. The light +which shone through the open door revealed camp-chairs still standing +on the lawn, and children's toys were scattered over the veranda. The +boy's rough feet as he carried in her trunk annihilated the face of a +smart French doll, and Miss Featherstone's dress caught on, and was +torn by, a nail in a dilapidated rocking-horse. The light came from a +picturesque-looking lamp which hung from an arch in the centre of a +broad, low hall. She rang the bell: the sound reverberated through the +house, yet no one came. The boy, who had stood the trunk on end, +growing impatient, rang again: they heard voices, hubbub and confusion, +children's cries, servants summoned, a man speaking very volubly in +French. Then very imperfect English sentences were shouted in a kind of +despair. The door was divided in the middle, with a large brass knocker +as an appendage to the upper half. Miss Featherstone, growing anxious +and impatient, sounded this vigorously, which brought a maid, who had +evidently quite lost her head, to the door. + +"This is Mrs. Pinckney's?" said the young girl in prompt, cheerful +tones. "I am Miss Featherstone, the governess, whom Mrs. Pinckney +expects." + +"Yes, ma'am," replied the servant in an absent, distracted manner. + +"Marie!" shrieked the French voice in shrill tones of alarm and anger. + +"Please, miss, I must go. Do come in and sit down: I'll send +somebody--" + +"Marie! Marie!--Where is that _vilaine femme?"_ + +At the second summons she fled, leaving Miss Featherstone and the boy, +standing with her trunk on his shoulders, on the threshold. + +The young girl walked in, sat down in a large leathern chair, and was +taking out her purse to pay her driver when a little fat man, with a +very red face and bushy black hair, came flying through the hall, +carrying a child in his arms. He was followed by two or three sobbing +children and the girl whom Miss Featherstone had already seen. "My dear +mees," he said, never stopping until he reached the governess, "see +this leetle enfant, this cher petit Henri. He has already one +contortion--spasm--what you call it?--and I fear he goes to have one +other. Ma chčre mademoiselle, have you some experience? Is it that you +know what we shall do?" + +The child lay pale and unconscious in the arms of the distressed little +foreigner. Miss Featherstone tore off her gloves; her purse, unheeded, +fell on the floor; she led the way into the nearest room, which proved +to be the dining-room, the helpless group following. "Bring a tub of +hot water for his feet," she said in calm, decided tones. She was +seated, and had taken the child in her arms.--"Now, monsieur"--to the +Frenchman--"will you be kind enough to give me some ice from that +pitcher on the sideboard behind you?" + +She drew a delicate little handkerchief from her pocket, and, putting +pieces of ice in it, held it to the child's head. "Some one," she +continued, "take off his shoes and stockings." + +Her composure restored a degree of order, although no one seemed to +have recovered their senses sufficiently to obey her as to the child's +shoes. The boy who had acted as her driver knelt down and proceeded to +accomplish it. When the poor little feet were up to the knees in hot +water and the child was evidently reviving, she said, "The doctor +should be sent for immediately. As this boy has a horse and wagon at +the door, it would be best to send him. What is the name of your family +physician?" + +"Doctor Harris." + +"You know where he lives?" + +"Oh yes, ma'am, very well." + +"Stop a moment: some one write a line, so that there shall be no +mistake." + +The foreigner flung up his hands with a gesture of despair. "It is so +difficile for me to write l'Anglais--" he began. + +With the child lying on her left arm she opened her bag with her +right--the little driver, the most collected person besides herself of +the party, holding it up to her--found a scrap of paper and a pencil +and wrote a brief, urgent appeal to the physician to come immediately, +mentioning that the mother was from home, and signing herself "Laura +Featherstone, governess." + +Sooner than she would have believed possible Doctor Harris appeared: he +came in his own gig, the little driver who had been so active in the +events of the evening vanishing entirely from the scene, and, as it was +afterward remembered, in the confusion without his douceur. + +Doctor Harris, a comparatively young man, was cheerful and reassuring. +"There will probably be no recurrence of the convulsions," he said, +examining the child, who was sleeping tranquilly in the young girl's +arms; "but what was the exciting cause? what has he been eating?" + +"I find him with a grand heap of the raisins and the nuts," replied the +French tutor excitedly. "Madame goes to town this morning and takes la +bonne pour s'en servir--le pauvre enfant est abandonné, voilŕ tout!" +Gesticulating with much vehemence, he sat down at the conclusion as if +exhausted by his efforts. + +"What has been done for the child?" asked the physician in a cautious +whisper. + +The little Frenchman rose; his eyes flashed; he waved his fat, short +arms toward Miss Featherstone: "Cette chčre mademoiselle, she is one +angel from the sky: she do it all," with increased animation and +violence--"ice for his head, hot water for his feet. I could not tink, +I was so *_accablé_" + +This vehement declamation not being calculated to ensure the patient's +slumbers, Doctor Harris ordered the little fellow to be undressed and +put to bed immediately. "I should like to see you, my dear young lady, +when you are at leisure," he said as Miss Featherstone rose, still with +the child in her arms, and was following the maid to the nursery: "I +have directions to leave in case of a recurrence. However, I don't +think there will be any return of the convulsions," he added. + +The maid, reduced to helplessness by terror, looked on while Miss +Featherstone undressed the sleeping boy. She laid him in the bed, +ordered the servant to sit by his side until her return, put the candle +on the floor so that it would not shine in his face, and went out to +meet the doctor. + +"Who will be with the child during the night?" was his first query. + +"_Hčlas!_ I do not know," cried the foreigner with a gesture of +despair. + +"If there is no one else to take care of him I will," replied the young +girl cheerfully. + +"It is infâme!" said the tutor.--"Cette chčre mademoiselle has but +arrived: she is weary. Parbleu! she must be hungry. Why not somebody +tink of dis?--My dear mees, have you had dinner? Non? J'en etais sűr," +with a groan. + +Mr. Brown--for that was the tutor's very English name--was so dramatic +in the expression of his good feeling that Miss Featherstone could not +repress a smile as she turned to the physician, and, taking out her +pencil and a little memorandum-book, said, "If you'll give me +directions, Doctor Harris, I think that I'm perfectly competent to take +care of the child." + +Doctor Harris, who was gallant and a bachelor, made a whispered +remonstrance referring to her fatigue, but she replied gravely, "I am +in perfect health, and it never makes me ill to sit up with a sick +person: I have had experience." Some painful remembrance evidently +agitated her, for her voice suddenly failed. + +They were interrupted by the sound of carriage-wheels rolling rapidly +up the avenue. + +"Voici madame!" cried Mr. Brown, who flew to the door to hand Mrs. +Pinckney out. + +He had taken the earliest opportunity to enlighten her as to the +child's illness, for they heard her exclaim, "I know it: oh, I have +heard of it! Where is the doctor?" + +Mrs. Pinckney was tall and slight: she had blonde hair, large, +beautiful eyes--they were blue--and regular features. In short, she was +exceedingly pretty: so thought Doctor Harris, and he made many salaams +before her. + +"Oh, doctor," she exclaimed, rushing up to him and grasping his arm, +"is there any danger? Tell me, is there any danger?" + +"Not the slightest, ma'am," he replied promptly. + +She wouldn't be reassured: "But why not? Convulsions are so serious, +they are so terrible! I had a relative who was ruined for life by +epilepsy: he was a handsome fellow, but he lost good looks, mind, +everything. Oh, Doctor Harris, don't tell me that my poor little Harry +is to have epilepsy!" She had the art of puckering her forehead into a +thousand wrinkles, yet looking lovely in spite of it. + +"I certainly shall not tell you anything of the kind," said the doctor +with a reassuring smile, "for it wouldn't be true; but who is the +relative who had epilepsy?" + +"Oh, a nephew of my husband, and he had a dreadful fall. He fell out of +a second-story window: it was in the country, and rather a low house, +but it finished him, poor fellow! Oh, doctor, sit down: I am tired to +death, and this news has so upset me! Will you assure me, upon your +honor, that my child will never have epilepsy?" + +"Sincerely, Mrs. Pinckney, I don't think there is the least danger; but +you must be careful as to what he eats. Nuts and raisins are not a +particularly wholesome diet for a child three years old." + +She looked about inquiringly, and did not seem the least surprised as +her eye fell on Miss Featherstone. + +The tutor, still irate from his alarm, exclaimed, "You take la bonne, +madame. I am occupy with mes élčves: then I am not in his care." + +Mrs. Pinckney, who was not an irritable woman, took no notice of this +implied reproach: "What is to be done with him to-night, Doctor Harris? +Can you sleep here?" As he shook his head, "You'll come the first thing +in the morning? Oh, doctor, can I go to bed and sleep comfortably? Do +you assure me that there is not the slightest danger of a recurrence of +those dreadful spasms?" + +When the distressed mother spoke of sleeping comfortably a smile, which +all his admiration for the fair widow could not restrain, flickered +over Doctor Harris's face: "I was about to give this young lady"--and +he turned to Miss Featherstone--"directions for the night, as we didn't +expect you home: she has been very kind and efficient, and was going to +take care of the child; but now--" + +He was interrupted by Mrs. Pinckney crossing the room, seizing Miss +Featherstone's hand and kissing her with effusion: "My dear Miss +Featherstone--your name is Featherstone, is it not?--I have no words to +thank you sufficiently." + +"Oh, the chčre mees!" burst forth the little Frenchman. "I was so full +of frighten I not know what to do, which way to turn myself; and she, +so calm, so _smooth_," he said, hesitating for a word, and apparently +discomfited when he found it--"she take the helm, she issue the orders: +every one obey, and the child is saved." After this peroration he +glanced around as if for applause. + +"I was about to say," resumed Doctor Harris, "that, now that the nurse +has returned, Miss Featherstone, who has been travelling all day, had +better have some dinner and be sent to bed." + +"Oh, certainly," replied Mrs. Pinckney; "and now that I'm so much +relieved I'd like some dinner myself.--Mr, Brown, do you know what +prospects there are of our having any dinner?" + +The tutor shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands with a +deprecatory gesture: "I know not, my dear madame. Les enfants et moi, +we have our dinner at two o'clock: we did not comprehend that madame +would return to-night," as a happy apologetic afterthought. + +Mrs. Pinckney glanced at a little watch which she took from her belt: +"Twelve o'clock, but the servants probably have not gone to bed."--She +rang the bell. "Mary," to a maid who entered, "tell the cook to make +some tea and send in cold chicken or beef--whatever is left from +dinner." + +"I think the fire is out, Mrs. Pinckney," the servant hesitatingly +replied. + +"Oh, no matter: let her get a few chips and make a fire: I _must_ have +my tea."--Doctor Harris rose. "Oh, doctor, don't go until you have +taken one more look at my darling." + +The nursery was on the same floor. Mrs. Pinckney insisted on kissing +the child, much to the physician's annoyance. He checked her, and +carefully refrained from talking himself while in the room. As he was +taking leave at the front door she repeated, "Now, doctor, you're sure +I can be comfortable--that I can go to bed and go to sleep? Tell me +positively"--and she looked earnestly in his face--"that the child will +never have another convulsion." + +He laughed, and bent an admiring tender, gaze on the pretty mother, who +stood appealingly before him: "My dear Mrs. Pinckney, I cannot swear +positively that Harry will never have another convulsion, particularly +if he is allowed to eat nuts and raisins _ad libitum_: however, with +ordinary care I don't think it at all probable."--"Is it possible," he +reflected as he drove home, "that I want to marry that woman, selfish +and inconsiderate as she is? Why, she would have let the governess, a +perfect stranger, sit up with the child if I hadn't interfered! She is +awfully pretty, though. I can't help liking her: then, her money would +be a comfortable addition to my professional emoluments." + +Although the hot, strong tea was very grateful in her exhausted +condition, this, with the very excitements of the day, kept Miss +Featherstone awake the brief remainder of the night. She breakfasted +the following morning with the children and their tutor. To her great +surprise, little Harry, looking pale and wan, was at the table. + +"Madame is too ill to rise," Mr. Brown announced in his very best +English, "and the bonne is attending her. Will this dear mees take the +head of the table and us oblige by pouring out the coffee?" + +Miss Featherstone cheerfully acceded, and left her own breakfast +cooling while she coaxed and consoled the little invalid, who was quite +fretful after his last night's experiences. She was making an attempt +to eat something herself when Mrs. Pinckney sent for her, and, as there +was no one to take care of the child, she carried him in her arms to +his mother's room. + +"Good-morning, Miss Featherstone;" and she devoured the curly-headed +boy with kisses. Mrs. Pinckney, reclining on large pillows, looked +prettier than ever. No degree of negligence affected her appearance: +her light, curling, slightly-dishevelled hair and delicate, clear skin +were the more attractive under conditions which would be fatal to many +women. "Sit down, Miss Featherstone.--Adčle!" calling to the nurse, +"you must take dear little Harry away: I want to talk to Miss +Featherstone. Be very careful of him: don't let him eat or over-fatigue +himself. And, Adčle, after lunch come and help me dress: I think I +should feel better for a drive.--Don't you think I should feel better +for a drive, Miss Featherstone? I'm in miserable health," she added as +the door closed on the nurse and child, "I've had so much trouble. I've +lost my husband--he died of consumption"--she seized her +pocket-handkerchief and began to cry: "I was alone, except for +servants, with him at St. Augustine. I think his family were very +inconsiderate. I wrote letter after letter, telling them of his +condition and begging and imploring them to come to my assistance; but +no one came. I had just left him for a few hours to get a little +rest--I was so worn out with anxiety and the responsibility--and he +died--alone--with his nurse--" Sobs choked her voice. + +Miss Featherstone rose and kissed her: it was a way she had of +comforting. Mrs. Pinckney received the caress graciously, and pressed +her hand. + +"Then my income is not nearly so large as it was," she resumed, "and +I'm obliged to practise a great deal of economy. I've discharged my +maid, and share the children's nurse with them, and Adčle is growing +quite discontented with double duty. I parted with Baptiste also: it +was a frightful sacrifice, for he was just a perfect butler. I'm always +having economy talked at me by my husband's family, and I hate it!" +with a discontented sigh. "I had a house in New York," she continued, +"which they urged me to give up. They said I couldn't afford to keep +both, and it was better for the children to keep the country-house, and +that here on the river it would be easy to get to town. I'm +extravagantly fond of going to the theatre and opera, and have had in a +great measure to relinquish it. I went even when I was in mourning: the +doctors said I must be amused. We'll go sometimes this winter +together," she added coaxingly. "Well, now, Miss Featherstone, as to +your rôle of governess: I don't feel as if you were to be anything but +my nice new friend, you were so kind last night to my dear little +Harry. You teach the common English branches and the rudiments of +Latin, French and music? Mr. Brown--is it not an odd name for such a +thorough Frenchman? but his father was English, although he was born +and educated in France--Mr. Brown teaches them Latin and French at +present, but I don't know how long I shall keep him; so you'll be +relieved of that. I shall want you to act as a friend in the +household--I'm so much of an invalid--sit at the head of the table +occasionally, and give orders to the servants." + +Miss Featherstone looked slightly perplexed. Her duties as governess +were mingling in a distracting manner with those of housekeeper. + +"The children are so young," Mrs. Pinckney said apologetically, "they +can't be kept at their lessons from morning till night. Rose is eleven, +Alfred nine, Dick seven. Harry might possibly learn his alphabet, but I +doubt it. You can arrange the hours and studies to suit yourself; and I +want you to govern and manage the children--relieve me in that way as +much as possible. I hope you'll be very comfortable and happy in my +house, Miss Featherstone. If there is anything out of the way in your +room or anywhere else, let me know. I'm sure we shall be good friends;" +and with a hearty, affectionate kiss she dismissed the governess. + +As Miss Featherstone descended the stairs she met Doctor Harris, +gallant and gay, with a rose in his buttonhole, followed by the nurse +and child, on a visit of reassurance to the fair mother. + +Nothing is truer than that homely old proverb, "The lame and the lazy +are always provided for;" and Mrs. Pinckney was provided for +effectually when she lit upon Miss Featherstone. Just before Christmas +the governess was summoned to an interview with Mrs. Pinckney, who was, +as usual, in bed: "Oh, my dear Miss Featherstone, I'm in despair--ill +again. Christmas coming, and my husband's brother, Colonel Pinckney, is +on his way to make us a visit. If there's any one I feel nervous and +fidgety before, it is Colonel Pinckney: he seems to look you through +and see all your faults and weaknesses: at least, he does mine, and he +makes me see them too, which I don't like one bit. I do the best I can: +I'm in such miserable health, and have had so much to break me down. +Did you ever know any one, dear Miss Featherstone, who had had so much +trouble?--my husband's death and all." + +The young girl did not reply. Visions of her own lonely home rose +before her--her mother fading slowly away under an accumulation of +misfortunes; her only brother shot in the Union army; her father +sinking into almost a dishonored grave through hopeless liabilities +brought on indirectly by the war; she, petted and idolized, the only +remaining member of the family, seeking her daily bread and finding a +pittance by working among strangers. She hung her head and had not a +word with which to reply. + +"I dare say you've had troubles of your own," exclaimed Mrs. Pinckney. +"Of course you have, or you wouldn't be here, you dear creature! It is +well for me that you are here, though," kissing her affectionately. +"Now, everything must be just right when this haughty, fastidious +brother-in-law of mine comes. He isn't apt to find fault, but I am +conscious that he is secretly criticising my dress, my dinners, the +gaucheries of the servants, my moral qualities, even the way I turn my +sentences. I shouldn't mind trying to talk my very best English if he +were not prying into my motives: it is difficult to be on one's guard +in every direction," with a sigh. + +"I should think he'd be very disagreeable," said Miss Featherstone. + +"No:" the _no_ was hesitating. "He is dangerously attractive: at least +he attracts me. I'm all the time wondering what he is thinking, which +keeps me perpetually thinking of him. He is a Southerner, you know, and +was in the army; so you must be very careful,'my dear mees,' as Mr. +Brown says, not to come out with your 'truly loyal' sentiments: he +won't like them." + +"I don't care whether he likes them or not." Miss Featherstone's face +was crimson: it was the first spark of temper she had shown since she +came into the house. + +Mrs. Pinckney looked at her in surprise, then laughed: "I'm delighted +to see something human about you: I thought you were a saint." + +"By no manner of means," returned the governess curtly. + +"I shall warn Dick not to get upon the subject of the war," was the +note that Mrs. Pinckney, inconsequent as she generally was, made of the +scene.--"But I'm forgetting why I sent for you," she said aloud. "I +want you to go to town and buy Christmas presents and quantities of +things to eat and drink. I was going myself, but I never can count upon +a day as to being well with any certainty," with rather an ostentatious +sigh. "I've made out a list: there's plenty of money, isn't there?" + +Miss Featherstone had the care of the money and accounts: "Yes," +hesitatingly; "that is--" + +"No matter," interrupted Mrs. Pinckney. "I have accounts at hosts of +places. The carriage is ordered to take you to the station: will you be +ready, dear, at ten o'clock?" + +Miss Featherstone looked at her watch and hurried to her room. + +It was snowing when she returned from New York: great flakes fell on +her as she stepped, loaded with bundles, out of the carriage. The +children met her with joyful whoops at the front door: "Oh, here's +clear little Miss Featherstone, and we know she's got our Christmas +presents.--You can't deny it. Hurrah!" + +They dragged her into the dining-room, where the table, decked with +flowers, was handsomely arranged for dinner. A blazing wood-fire roared +on the hearth: in front of it stood a tall, handsome man with a +military air. He was dark, with brilliant eyes, a certain regularity of +features, and, as his passport declared, his hair was dark brown and +curly. Colonel Pinckney looked haughty and impenetrable, as his +sister-in-law had described him. Mrs. Pinckney, exquisitely dressed, +reclined in a large chair by the corner of the fireplace: she held up a +pretty fan to screen her face from the heat, and was talking gayly to +her brother-in-law. At a table in a corner Mr. Brown, by the light of a +large lamp, was endeavoring, with great difficulty, to read an English +paper. + +"Oh, mamma, see poor little Miss Featherstone loaded down with boxes +and bundles!" shrieked the children, dragging her up to the fire. + +"Dear children, do go and get Adčle to take them," said their +mother.--"Here, Mary," to a servant who entered, "carry these packages +up to my dressing-room.--There are more in the carriage?" in reply to a +remark of Miss Featherstone.--"Adčle," to her maid, who stood at the +door, "bring in everything you find in the carriage." + +Two or three weeks passed, and Colonel Pinckney made no sign of +departure. In spite of his unsocial tendencies, he drove and dined out +with his sister-in-law, for many nice people chose this winter to +remain at their country-houses. He took long walks by himself, and made +inroads into the school-room, for he was very fond of the children. +Mrs. Pinckney was less frequently indisposed, and exerted herself in a +measure to entertain him. She never, by any accident, occupied herself, +and was one morning lying back in a large chair by a coal-fire in the +library, her little idle hands resting on her lap, when Colonel +Pinckney, who had been examining the books on the shelves which lined +the room, assumed his usual position, with his back to the fire, and +startled his sister-in-law by exclaiming, "Where did you get your white +slave, Virginia?"--Mrs. Pinckney looked bewildered--"this young girl +who fills so many places in the house? She appears to be nurse, +housekeeper, governess and maid-of-all-work in one." + +"My dear Dick, what do you mean?" exclaimed Mrs. Pinckney with some +indignation. "Do you think I impose upon Miss Featherstone? I love her +dearly. Then my delicate health, and you know I'm obliged to be +economical." + +Colonel Pinckney made a movement of impatience and almost disgust., +"How much do you pay her?" he abruptly exclaimed, turning his flashing +eyes upon his companion. + +"How angry you look! how you frighten me!" said Mrs. Pinckney, who had +a trick of coming out with everything she thought. "I pay her"--and she +stammered--"two hundred dollars a year." + +"The devil!" he exclaimed. "I beg your pardon, Virginia, but I can +hardly believe it. What an absurd compensation for all that girl does! +Why, one of your dresses frequently costs more than that: I see your +bills, you know." + +"I'm very sorry you do if this is the use you make of your knowledge," +replied Mrs. Pinckney in an injured tone. "She is in mourning, and does +not require many dresses: besides, Richard, no one preaches economy to +me more than you do. I'm sick of the very word," petulantly. + +"What position, really, is she supposed to occupy?" + +"She is the governess," said Mrs. Pinckney in a sulky tone. + +"Now listen, Virginia. I have seen that young girl darning stockings in +the school-room and at the same time hearing the children's lessons; I +have seen her arrange the dinner-table, with the children clinging to +her skirts; I have seen her with the keys, giving out the stores; I +know she keeps your accounts; and I can readily comprehend where those +clear, well-expressed letters came from, although signed by you, which +I have frequently received in my character of guardian and executor." + +"You certainly don't think I meant to deceive you as to the letters?" + +"Oh no," replied her brother-in-law: "I don't think you in the least +deceitful, Virginia;" and in his own mind reflected, "'Hypocrisy is the +homage which vice pays to virtue.'" + +Nobody likes hypocrisy, to be sure, but Mrs. Pinckney did not take the +trouble to veil her peccadilloes. Easy and indolent as she was, being +now thoroughly roused by his thinly-veiled contempt, she endeavored to +be disagreeable in her turn. With the most innocent air in the world +she exclaimed, "I declare, Dick, I believe you're in love with Miss +Featherstone, although you like fair women--" + +"And she is dark," he interrupted. + +"Regular features--" + +"And her dear little nose is slightly _retroussče_; but you cannot +deny, Virginia, that she has a most captivating air." + +"I'm fond of her, but I do not think her captivating." Mrs. Pinckney +was now thoroughly out of temper. She was not naturally envious, but +she could be roused to envy. "And so you're in love with her?" +satirically. + +"How can I help it?" he returned with a mocking air. "She has +magnificent eyes, a bewildering smile: then she has that _je ne sais +quoi_, as our foreign friend would say. There is no defining it, there +is no assuming it. To conclude, I consider Miss Featherstone +dangerously attractive." + +"Just what I told her you were," returned Mrs. Pinckney, who saw he was +trying to tease her, and had recovered by this time her equanimity. In +spite of his phlegm he looked interested. "You'd better take care and +make no reference to the war, for she is furiously loyal, I can tell +you," said Mrs. Pinckney, recalling the conversation. "Since when have +you been in love with her?" + +"From the very first moment I saw her, when she entered the +dining-room, her cheeks brilliant from the cold, her lovely eyes, +blinded by the light, peering through their long lashes, a little +becoming embarrassment in her air as she saw your humble servant--laden +down with your bundles, and your children, as usual, clinging to her +skirts." + +"Dick, how disagreeable you are!" and Mrs. Pinckney began to pout +again. + +"We are all her lovers," he maliciously continued--"all the men +here--Doctor Harris, Mr. Brown and--" he bowed expressively. + +"Doctor Harris?" exclaimed his sister-in-law. This defection cut her to +the heart. + +"The day my namesake and godchild, little Dick, was ill I went to the +nursery, as in duty bound: you know how fond I am of that child. There +was Miss Featherstone, not the nurse, interested and concerned, sitting +by the patient. There was Doctor Harris, interested and absorbed with +Miss Featherstone. His looks were unmistakable: I saw it at a glance. +And as for Mr. Brown, he raves about this 'dear mees' or 'cette chčre +mademoiselle' by the hour together. She carried his heart by storm the +first time he saw her, as she did mine." + +"How far does your admiration lead you? Do you wish any assistance from +me?" + +"As you please: I am indifferent," he returned, shrugging his +shoulders. "Seriously, Virginia--I say this in my character of guardian +and adviser-general to the family--I think what you give her is a +beggarly pittance in return for all she does, and I suggest that you +raise her salary." + +Miss Featherstone, although prejudiced at first against Colonel +Pinckney, grew by degrees to like him. His manner to her was grave and +respectful; he carried off the children, quite conveniently sometimes, +when she was almost worn out with fatigue; and the air of friendly +interest with which his dark eyes rested upon her was in a manner +comforting. Their little interviews, although she was unconscious of +it, gave zest to her life. + +One cold morning, as she sat before breakfast with little Harry on her +lap, warming his hands before the dining-room fire, Colonel Pinckney +exclaimed, "Miss Featherstone, did you have the care of that child last +night?" + +"Yes," as she pressed the fat little hands in hers. + +"And dressed him this morning?" + +"Why, yes. Colonel Pinckney, excuse me: why shouldn't I?" + +"Virginia is the most selfish human being I ever knew in my life," he +burst forth. "You, after working like a slave during the day, cannot +even have your night's rest undisturbed. I'll speak to her, and insist +upon it that this state of things shall not continue any longer." + +Miss Featherstone looked annoyed: "Mr. Pinckney"--she never would, if +she remembered it, call him "Colonel"--"I beg that you will do nothing +of the kind. Mrs. Pinckney is quite ill with a cold: she can scarcely +speak above a whisper, and she required Adčle's services during the +night. I volunteered--it was my own arrangement--sleeping with the +child," eagerly. + +"Oh yes," he returned, "you are remarkably well suited to each +other--you and Virginia: you give, and she takes," sarcastically. +"Listen, Miss Featherstone. I have known that woman twelve years--it is +exactly twelve years since my unfortunate brother married her--and in +all that time I never knew her consider but one human being, and that +was herself." + +"Indeed, you're very much mistaken, Colonel--that is, Mr.--Pinckney, as +far as I am concerned. Mrs. Pinckney is really very kind to me. I am +exceedingly fond of her, but I cannot bear to see things going wrong, +and when I can I make them right. Mrs. Pinckney is in delicate health." + +"That's all nonsense," he interrupted. "She spends her time studying +her sensations. If she were poor she'd have something better to do. I +think you are doing wrong morally, Miss Featherstone. You are +encouraging her in idleness and selfishness by taking her duties and +bearing them on your young shoulders.--Now, Harry, come here," to that +small individual, who slowly and unwillingly descended from the +governess's lap: "leave Miss Featherstone, my young friend, to pour out +the coffee and eat her own breakfast. Adčle is with mamma, is she? +Well, Uncle Dick will give Harry his breakfast." + +The cold was intense the following day, yet Miss Featherstone, well +muffled up, was on her way to the hall-door, where the sleigh was +waiting to take her to the station. + +"Forgive me," exclaimed Colonel Pinckney, who waylaid her, much to her +annoyance, "but what are you going to do for the family now?" + +"I am going to New York to get a cook," she replied with a decided air. + +"Do you know the state of the thermometer?" + +"I don't care anything about it," with some obstinacy, tugging at the +button of her glove. + +"But I do," he said. "Now, Miss Featherstone, while I'm here I am +master of the house, and if it's necessary to go to town it's I that am +going--to use Pat's vernacular--and not you. Give me directions, and +I'll follow them implicitly." + +"So Dick went, did he?" said Mrs. Pinckney. She was propped up in bed +with large pillows: Miss Featherstone, still in her bonnet, sat by her +side. + +"Yes: it was very kind, for I don't know what would have become of the +children all day, poor things! and you sick." + +Mrs. Pinckney glanced searchingly at her. "Dick is very kind when he +pleases, and exceedingly efficient," returned the invalid: "I've no +doubt he'll bring back a capital cook." + +"I had a great prejudice against Mr. Pinckney," said Miss Featherstone, +slowly smoothing out her gloves, "but I confess it has vanished, there +is something so straightforward and manly about him; and he certainly +is very kind." + +"He does not flatter you at all?" + +"Oh no; and that is one reason I like him. I detest the gallant, tender +manner which many men affect toward women." + +"Doctor Harris, for instance?" + +"Well, Doctor Harris, for instance," returned Miss Featherstone, +smiling, and blushing a little. + +"Doctor Harris has certainly made love to her, and Dick as certainly +hasn't. I wonder--oh, how I wonder!--whether he was in earnest the +other day?" Her large blue eyes were fixed scrutinizingly on the +governess, although she thought, not said, these things. "He thinks you +do a great deal too much in the house, and was quite abusive to me +about it: he actually swore when he discovered the amount of your +salary. Now, my dear Miss Featherstone, you may name your own price: +I'll give you anything you ask, for no amount of money can represent +the comfort you are to me." + +"I don't want one cent more than I at present receive," replied the +governess, kissing her fondly. + +A few days after Colonel Pinckney--a self-constituted committee, +apparently, for the prevention of cruelty to governesses--surprised +Miss Featherstone in the school-room. She was seated before the fire in +a low chair, little Harry, who was fretful from a cold, lying on her +lap, the other children clustered around her. As he softly opened the +door he heard these words: "'Blondine,' replied the fairy Bienveillante +sadly,' no matter what you see or hear, do not lose courage or hope.'" +As she told the story in low, drowsy tones she was also mending the +heel of a little stocking. + +"It is abominable!" the colonel cried: "you are worn out with fatigue: +I hear it in your voice. I called you a 'white slave' to Virginia: +nothing is truer. You've today given out supplies from the store-room, +you were in the kitchen a long time with the new cook, you set the +lunch-table--don't deny it, for I saw you--besides taking care of the +children and hearing their lessons." + +"While Mrs. Pinckney is ill this is absolutely necessary," she returned +with decision: "of course it makes some confusion having a new cook--" + +"Children," he interrupted, "this séance is to be broken up: scamper +off to Adčle to get ready: I'll ask mamma to let you drive to the +station in the coupé to meet Mr. Brown: there will certainly be room +for such little folks.--And as to you, Miss Featherstone, as head of +the house _pro tem_. I order you to put on your hat and cloak and walk +in the garden for a while with me: the paths are quite hard and dry." + +"Mamma! mamma! we are to drive to the station: Uncle Dick says so," +shrieked the children, breaking up a delicious little doze into which +Mrs. Pinckney had fallen while Adčle sat at her sewing in the darkened +room. + +"Is Uncle Dick going with you?" + +"No, he is going to walk in the garden with Miss Featherstone." + +Mrs. Pinckney felt quite cross: "He is positively insolent, ordering +things about in this way, interrupting my nap and all. What, under +Heaven, should I do without her if he is in earnest about Miss +Featherstone?" + +If she could have heard what Colonel Pinckney was saying in the garden +she would have been still crosser. + +"I want to enlighten you a little as to my fair sister-in-law," he +began after a few commonplaces. + +"Oh, please don't, Colonel Pinckney"--unconsciously she was sliding +into the "Colonel." "I'd much rather you wouldn't. I think--" and she +hesitated. + +"What do you think?" + +"Why"--and she looked embarrassed--"I am afraid I shall not love Mrs. +Pinckney as well if you analyze and show up all her little weaknesses. +We could none of us bear it," she continued warmly. "Remember that +line-- + + Be to her faults a little blind. + +I like to love people, and feel like a woman in some novel I've read: +'Long and deeply let me be beguiled with regard to the infirmities of +those I love.'" + +"You're an angel!" he cried. + +Miss Featherstone looked startled and annoyed. + +Colonel Pinckney, with much self-possession, recovered himself +immediately. "We all know it," he continued jestingly--"Mr. Brown, the +children, servants and all; but, in spite of this, you shall not be +imposed upon. Now, I wish to give you a résumé of Mrs. Pinckney's +life--" + +"Oh, Colonel Pinckney! when we are under her roof!" + +"It is a shelter bought with my father's money," he returned. "But you +must and shall hear me: it is necessary. She is the incarnation of +selfishness: in a young person it could go no further. One can pardon +anything rather than selfishness. She entirely exhausted our charity +during poor Harry's long illness. She travelled with every comfort that +money could give: she had her maid, Harry had his man, the children +were left with my mother. One winter they went to Nassau, the next to +the south of France: from both places she wrote such despairing letters +that my poor old father and mother were nearly beside themselves. It +was like the explosion of a bomb-shell in the household when a letter +came from Virginia. Sometimes I used to read and suppress them: they +were filled with shrieks and lamentations. Harry was in a rapid +decline; the mental torture was more than she could bear; some one must +come immediately out to her, etc. The first winter my eldest brother +went, to the serious injury of his business: he is a lawyer. I went +when they were in Europe, my wound not yet healed. By George! Harry +looked in better health than I: every one thought I was the invalid. +The doctor was called in immediately, who said I had endangered my life +by the expedition. I found out my lady had been to balls and on +excursions all the time she was writing those harrowing letters." + +"Is it possible," said Miss Featherstone, "that you think Mrs. Pinckney +is false--that she deliberately tells untruths?" + +"Not a bit of it," interrupted Colonel Pinckney. "She loves to complain +and make herself an object of sympathy. Poor Harry, of course, had a +constant cough, and whenever he took cold all his distressing symptoms +were aggravated: then she'd write her letters. By the time they were +received he would be pretty well again. You can see for yourself what +she is: she sends for Doctor Harris, has Adčle sleep on a mattress on +the floor in her room, leaving little Harry to keep you awake all +night--a fine preparation for the drudgery of the next day--then toward +evening she rises, makes a beautiful toilette, and drives with me +several miles to a dinner-party. Not a month ago, you remember, this +occurred when we went to Judge Lawrence's. To go back to my poor +brother: let me tell you what happened from her crying wolf so often. +The next winter they went to St. Augustine: we live in Virginia, you +know. A few weeks after their arrival the alarming letters began and +continued to appear. I took it upon myself to suppress most of them, +for really I had grown scarcely to believe a word she said with regard +to her husband, and, as I am sanguine, thought poor Harry would +overcome the disease, as our father had before him, and live to a good +old age. One morning, however, a telegram came: he was dead!" Colonel +Pinckney could scarcely speak. Recovering himself a little, he +continued in husky tones: "He died alone with his nurse: Virginia, +taking care of herself as usual, was in another room asleep." + +"I wonder what they are talking about?" thought Mrs. Pinckney, twisting +her pretty neck in all directions so she could see them from her bed. +Their two heads were close together: he was speaking earnestly, and +Miss Featherstone's eyes were on the ground. + +Mrs. Pinckney dressed and went down to dinner, although she had not +quite recovered the use of her voice. "Dick," she whispered, "it was a +fine move, your sending the children away this afternoon, so that you +could have Miss Featherstone all to yourself. Did you come to the +point?" + +"No, but I will one of these days: I am preparing her mind," he added +mischievously. + +As time went on a vague uneasiness seized the young governess. She +imagined Mrs. Pinckney was growing cool in her manner toward her: +certainly, Doctor Harris, who was constantly at the house, was becoming +importunate in his attentions. Once she looked up suddenly at as +prosaic a place as the dinner-table. Colonel Pinckney was gazing both +ardently and admiringly upon her. "Certainly I must be losing my senses +to imagine these men in love with me: it's preposterous." + +Mr. Brown put the matter at rest, as far as he was concerned, for one +day, as she returned from a walk, he accosted her on the veranda, and +with a series of the most violent grimaces and gesticulations, his eyes +flashing, his face working in every possible direction, he told her +that he was _dčsolč_: his life depended upon her. He was so odd and +absurd in his avowal that she burst out laughing: then, as she beheld +an indignant, inquiring expression on his honest red countenance, she +grew frightened, sank on a seat and wept hysterically. This encouraged +him: he sat down beside her and exclaimed, "Dear mees"--and he peered +at her blandly--"your life is empty: so is mine. Let it be for me--oh, +so beautiful!"--and he spread out his little fat hands with +rapture--"to comfort and console one heavenly existence, _ensemble."_ +He placed a hand on each stout knee and gazed benignly down upon her. + +She hung her head as sheepishly as if she returned the little +foreigner's affection--afraid of wounding him, she was speechless--when +at this unlucky moment Colonel Pinckney, coming suddenly round the +house, walked up the steps. She saw him glance at her--Mr. Brown's back +was toward him--and a smile he evidently couldn't restrain stole over +his face. + +"Oh, Mr. Brown, I'm so sorry!" she found courage at length to say. "You +are very kind--you've always been kind to me from the moment I entered +the house--but indeed you must never speak on this subject again." She +shook hands with him in her embarrassment, apparently as a proof of +friendship, then ran into the house. + +"Virginia, what do you think has happened to me?" cried Colonel +Pinckney, bursting into his sister-in-law's room, which he seldom +invaded. "Yesterday, as I came up the steps, I surprised Mr. Brown, who +was offering himself--bad English, poverty and all--to Miss +Featherstone. This minute--by George!--I stumbled into the dining-room, +and there is Doctor Harris going through the same performance." + +"Sit down and tell me all about it," exclaimed Mrs. Pinckney, her +curiosity overcoming her pique. + +"Each time," continued Colonel Pinckney, "the lover's back was turned +toward me, while I had a most distinct view of Miss Featherstone, who +was blushing, hanging her head and looking as distressed as possible, +poor little soul!" + +"Why! won't she accept the doctor?" said Mrs. Pinckney with animation. + +"It didn't look like it. I couldn't hear what he said, but his back had +a hopeless expression. Did you know that she came from one of the best +families in Philadelphia, that most aristocratic of cities, and that +they were very wealthy? Her only brother was killed in the war, and she +is the sole unfortunate survivor." + +"She might do many a worse thing than marry Doctor Harris: he is well +educated and a gentleman." + +"She could do a better thing, and that is to marry me," exclaimed the +colonel. "I'm going to give her a chance, and will tell you the result +immediately. I wonder who'll stumble in upon my wooing?" and with +mirthful eyes he darted out of the room. + +"I never knew a man so changed," soliloquized Mrs. Pinckney. "He used +to be haughty and reserved: now he talks a great deal, uses slang +expressions and romps and plays with the children like any ordinary +mortal. One can never tell whether he is in earnest or not. I don't +believe he'd have told me if he'd really meant to offer himself." + +A day or two afterward Miss Featherstone had occasion to go to town. It +was exceedingly inconvenient, for she was needed everywhere as usual, +but gloves and boots must be replenished, even by impecunious heroines. +As she came down Colonel Pinckney handed her into the carriage and +followed her. She felt a little annoyed, but supposed he was driving +only to the station: however, he sent the coachman home, and when the +cars came up he entered and took his seat beside her. + +"You look depressed, Miss Featherstone: I hope that my going to New +York meets with your approbation? I've been neglecting a thousand +necessary matters, and the pleasure of your company to-day gave me the +necessary incentive." + +He was so frank as to his motives that Miss Featherstone laid aside her +reserve in a measure, and became communicative. "Everything has +changed, Colonel Pinckney," she said with a sigh. "Mrs. Pinckney has +grown decidedly cool, and I think you have opened my eyes so that I +don't love her quite as much as I did. I am sorry: I should rather have +been blind. Then--" She paused, feeling that her confidences must go no +further. + +"Then," he continued, "it makes it very embarrassing that the tutor and +family physician should both have fallen in love with you." + +"I think of leaving," she continued, neither admitting nor +contradicting his assertion. "Forgive me: you have spoken from the best +motives, but I think you have made trouble," she added hesitatingly. +"Mrs. Pinckney is now continually on the alert to prevent my working; +she will no longer let little Harry sleep in my room; she orders the +dinner for the first time since I've been in the house; the children +are swooped off by Adčle as soon as their school-hours are over; and +everything is odd, strange and uncomfortable. I think I must go away. I +wrote an advertisement to put in the papers: perhaps you could do it +for me?" she said timidly: "I dread going to the offices." + +"Certainly," he replied courteously, and put it in his pocket. + +Colonel Pinckney appeared to share her depression, and he sat for some +time silent: then he said in an agitated voice, "It will be a sorrowful +day for that house when you leave it: I never knew such a +transformation as you have effected. Until this winter my only +associations with it have been of dirt, gloom and disorder: the +children were neglected and fretful, the dinners shocking and ill +served; and this with an army of servants and money spent _ad libitum_. +Now, on the contrary, the rooms are fresh, cheerful and agreeable; +there are pleasant odors, bright fires, attractive meals; the children +perfect both in appearance and manner; and all this owing to the +influence--perhaps I ought to say labors--of one young, inexperienced +girl. I've always imagined I disliked efficient women: I've changed my +mind. When I was young a fair, indolent creature, always well dressed +and smiling, was my beau ideal: now a brunette, bright and +energetic--some one who never thinks of herself, but is making +everybody else happy and comfortable--this is my present divinity." He +smiled tenderly upon her. + +Miss Featherstone endeavored to shake off her embarrassment. He was a +frank, kind-hearted man, entirely unlike his sister-in-law's idea of +him, with an exaggerated gratitude for her exertions in his brother's +family. She would not be so silly as to imagine every man was being +transformed into a lover. "You are kinder to me than I deserve," she +said, then changed the conversation. + +She expected to meet him as she took the train to return, but he was +nowhere to be seen. He did not even appear when the train stopped, and +she had a solitary drive to the house. + +"Did you know that Dick had gone?" said Mrs. Pinckney at the +dinner-table, levelling scrutinizing glances from her lovely blue eyes. + +"No," answered the governess with sudden depression and embarrassment: +"he said nothing about leaving this morning. You know Colonel Pinckney +went to New York in the train that I did." + +"You didn't see him after your arrival?" + +"No: he put me on a car and left me." + +"I suspect it was an after-thought," said Mrs. Pinckney. "I had a +telegram, directing me to send on his travelling-bag by express: the +rest of his luggage was to be left until further orders.--Is it +possible that she has refused him?" thought Mrs. Pinckney behind her +fan. She was occupying her usual seat by the fire: Miss Featherstone +was in a low chair, with Harry on her lap, the other children hanging +about her. She was telling them a story, but they were not as well +entertained as usual. The young governess was unlike herself to-night, +and little touches, dramatic effects and gay inflections of the voice +were lacking. + +A month passed, and nothing had been heard from Colonel Pinckney. "He +might have written just one line," said his sister-in-law querulously. +She was in her favorite position, propped up by pillows on the bed, +Miss Featherstone at her side waiting to receive orders, for gradually +all her old duties had been permitted to slip back into her willing +hands. "Certainly he seemed to enjoy himself when he was here; yet not +one line of thanks or remembrance have I received. I heard," she said +mysteriously, "that Dick was very devoted to Miss Livingstone at +Saratoga last summer--there's no end to the women who have been in love +with _him_: perhaps this sudden move has something to do with her. +Nothing but a great emergency can excuse him," petulantly. + +That day, for the first time, the children wearied Miss Featherstone, +and she carried them in a body to Adčle, saying that she had a violent +headache and was going out in the garden for a walk. As she paced +slowly up and down the tears fell over her pale cheeks. The only window +from which she could be seen was Mrs. Pinckney's, and that lady, she +knew, was too much absorbed in her own sensations to give her a +thought. "How I despise myself!" she murmured, "how degraded I am in my +own eyes! Can I ever recover my self-respect? I'm so miserable that I +should like to die because Colonel Pinckney has left the house, +and"--she hesitated--"because his sister-in-law thinks he was drawn +away by Miss Livingstone, Oh!"--and she groaned and clasped her hands +frantically together--"and all this agony for a man who has never +uttered a word of love to me!" Here a remembrance of his whole air and +manner rather contradicted this thought. "Everything wearies me: I am +actually impatient of the children, and when Mrs. Pinckney wails and +complains I can scarcely listen with decency. I want to burst out upon +her and say, 'You silly, tiresome woman! you have had your dream of +love and your husband; you have still four dear children; you have a +home, plenty of money, hosts of friends, besides youth and good looks; +while I am--oh, how desolate!'" + +This imaginary attack upon Mrs. Pinckney seemed to comfort her +somewhat, for she dried her tears and tried to form a plan of action: +"He evidently didn't put my advertisement in the paper, for I've looked +in vain for it. I must go away where I shall never see Colonel Pinckney +again. I'll stifle, throttle, this miserable love, and endeavor once +more to be enduring and courageous." + +Just then the house-door opened: some one walked down the veranda steps +and came rapidly in her direction. + +"I have been looking everywhere for you," cried Colonel Pinckney; and +he seized both her hands: "no one seemed to know where you had gone." + +The bright color rose in her cheeks, and in spite of her resolve her +eyes beamed with delight. She murmured inarticulately that she had told +Adčle, then relapsed into silence. + +"I have to implore your forgiveness for neglecting to obey as to the +advertisement, but the truth is----" and he hesitated--"I have a plan. +It may not meet with your concurrence," he added, "but I wished to +submit it before you made other and irrevocable arrangements." + +"You have thought of some position for me?" she forced herself to say, +all the bloom and delight vanishing from her face. + +"Yes. I know an individual who wants precisely such a person as you +are, for--a wife." + +"Colonel Pinckney!" she exclaimed indignantly. + +"Do forgive me, dear Miss Featherstone. I am such a confounded +poltroon"--and he seized her hands again--"that I dare not risk my +fate; but that person is"--and he looked down upon her, his heart +beating so violently that he could scarcely speak--"that person +is--myself!" + +Of what happened then Mrs. Pinckney, roused by her brother-in-law's +return, was cognizant, for actually, in the open air, with her blue +eyes bent eagerly upon them, he clasped the governess in his arms. "It +is a fact accomplished!" cried the fair widow with a sigh, and sank +back upon her pillows. + + + + +THE HOME OF THE GENTIANS. + + There is a lonesome hamlet of the dead + Spread on a high ridge, up above a lake-- + A quiet meadow-slope, unfrequented, + Where in the wind a thousand wild flowers shake. + + But most of all, the delicate gentian here, + Serenely blue as the sweet eyes of Hope, + Doth prosper in th' untroubled atmosphere, + Where wide its fringčd eyelids love to ope. + + You cannot set a foot upon the ground + On warm September noons, in this old croft, + But there some satiny blossom crushed is found, + Swift springing up to look again aloft. + + Prized! sung of poets! sought for singly where + Adventurous feet may hardly dare to climb! + Here, scattered lavishly and without care, + In all the sweet luxuriance of their prime. + + Ah! how the yellow-thighed, brown-coated bee + Dives prodigally into those blue deeps + Of glistening, odorless satin fair to see, + And soon forgetting wherefore, trancčd, sleeps! + + And how the golden butterflies skim over, + And poise, all fondly, on these lifted lips, + Leaving the riches of the sweet red clover + For the blue gentians' fine and fairy tips! + + Beautiful wildlings, proud, refined and shy! + Mysteries ye are, have been, and yet shall be: + The secrets of your being in ye lie, + And no man yet hath found their hidden key. + + Might we not laugh at our world's vaunted lore, + For ever boasting, "This, and this, I know"? + Not all the science of its hard-won store + Can make one single fringčd gentian grow. + --HOWARD GLYNDON. + + + + +NEWPORT A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. + + +There is a magnetism in places which has as strong and subtle a potency +as that which belongs to certain persons. Newport, Rhode Island, is not +an inapt example of the class of which I speak. The wonderful mildness +of the air, coupled with its exhilarating qualities; the fertility of +the soil, which throws tropical vegetation over the stern realism of +crag and precipice; the mixture of the wildest features of Nature with +its softest and most intoxicating influences,--all these anomalies, +unexplained even by the proximity of the itself inexplicable Gulf +Stream, combine to form a perfect and most desirable whole. Nor is this +description over-colored or the offshoot of the latter-day caprice that +has made of the place a fashionable resort. The very name of the State +suggests that of a classic island famed for its atmosphere; and as +Verrazano, writing in 1524, compares Block Island to Rhodes, it is +possible that hence arose its title. Neal in 1717, and the Abbé Robin +in 1771, both speak of Newport as the Paradise of New England, and +endorse its Indian appellation, Aquidneck, or the Isle of Peace. +Berkeley, dean of Derry, who came here in 1729 full of zealous but +utopian plans of proselytism, writes of it that "the climate is warmer +than Italy, and far preferable to Bermuda" (his original destination). +Indeed, it is to the good man's enthusiasm for Newport that we owe his +burst of poetical prophecy, "Westward the course of empire takes its +way." + +If the staid and reverend Berkeley, he whom Swift, writing to Lord +Carteret, recommends as "one of the first men in the kingdom for +learning and virtue," and of whom Pope exclaims, "To Berkeley every +virtue under heaven," found here this fascination, what wonder that +more excitable pilgrims of Latin blood made of it a Mecca? The French +particularly came often to Newport in early colonial days, and have +left jottings of their stay and the pleasure it afforded them. Monsieur +de Crčvecoeur visited it in 1772, and found delight in its natural +beauties. He notes the bay and harbor, the approach to which he +considers remarkably fine, and admires the acacia and plane trees which +line the roads, all of which, unfortunately, were destroyed during the +Revolution. The young attaché of the French legation of to-day, who +chafes at the diplomatic duties which delay his shaking off the dust of +Washington for the delights of Newport, hardly comprehends how much +heredity has to do with his appreciation of it. He does not stop to +think, as he sips his post-prandial coffee at Hartman's window, of the +line of French chivalry that a century ago made their favorite +promenade by the spot where he now sits. His mind, running on Mrs. +A----'s ball or Mrs. B----'s lawn-tennis, is far from dreaming of the +irresistible De Lauzun, the gallant De Fersen, a fugitive from the love +of a queen, but destined to serve her as lackey in her need, the two +handsome Viosmenils, the baron Cromot du Bourg, the duc de Deux-Ponts, +or any of the brilliant cortége of a bygone day. But what memories the +mere enumeration of their names brings up! Rank and valor were the +heritage of all of them, an heroic but unhappy end the fate of most. +Who can say that the aroma of their presence does not still linger +round the old town, up and down the narrow streets where they passed +with gay jests and clanking sword, or in the quaint mansions, still +peeping out from behind century-old hedges, where they left the record +of their graces in the heart of their host and of their loves on his +window-pane? What can be pleasanter than for the American pen to linger +over the page of history that chronicles the generous sympathy which +brought this fine flower of France to our shores? Where is the heart, +even in our cynical nineteenth century, which holds enthusiasm an +anachronism, that does not thrill at the recollection of the chivalry +that quitted the luxury and revels of Versailles to dare the dangers of +an ocean-voyage (then no ten-day pleasure-trip) for a cause that still +hung in the balances of success? Viewed practically, the help offered +was even more deserving of praise. The French are not an adventurous +nation: they are not fond of travelling. Hugo says Paris is the world, +and to the average Frenchman it embodies the world it comprises: it +_is_ the world. Expatriated, he would rather dwell, like the poet, on a +barren island within sight of the shores of France than seek or find +new worlds to conquer. It must therefore be conceded that the sentiment +which brought us our allies in 1780 was a hearty one, nor had they +encouragement from the example of others; for, although La Fayette, +young and full of ardor, had fired the hearts of his compatriots, and +made it the fashion to help us even before the alliance in 1778, yet +the expedition of that year under the comte d'Estaing had been an utter +failure. There was, however, a strong incentive which brought the young +nobles of the time to us, and that was the one which the old +philosopher declared to be at the bottom of every case--a woman. In +this particular instance the prestige was heightened by the fact that +she was also a queen. Marie Antoinette was then at the zenith of her +beauty and power. The timid, shrinking dauphiness, forced to the arms +of an unwilling husband, himself a mere cipher, had expanded into a +fascinating woman, reigning triumphantly over the court and the +affections of her vacillating spouse. The birth, after years of +wedlock, of several children completed her conquest and gave her the +dominion she craved, and she now threw her influence unreservedly into +the balance for the American colonies, little dreaming she was therein +laying the first stone toward her own ruin. + +On the 6th of February, 1778, the treaty between the United States and +France was signed, followed in July of the same year by a declaration +from the king protecting neutral ships, although bound for hostile +ports and carrying contraband goods. Meanwhile, on the 13th of April, +the French fleet had sailed from Toulon under the command of D'Estaing, +who had with him on the Languedoc, his flagship, a regularly appointed +envoy, Girard de Rayneville, who had full power to recognize the +independence of the States, Silas Deane, one of the American +commissioners, and such well-known officers as the comte de la +Motte-Piquet, the Bailli de Suffren, De Guichen, D'Orvilliers, De +Grasse and others. The history of this first expedition is a short and +disastrous one. The voyage was long, owing to the ships being unequally +matched in speed, and it was ninety days after leaving Toulon before +they anchored in Delaware Bay. D'Estaing had hoped to surprise Lord +Howe, who was guarding the mouth of the Delaware to strengthen the +position of Sir Henry Clinton at Philadelphia, but when the fleet +arrived Clinton had evacuated Philadelphia, and was in the harbor of +New York. Here the French admiral followed him, but, finding no pilots +at Sandy Hook willing to take him over the bar, he on Washington's +recommendation proceeded to Rhode Island to co-operate with Sullivan, +who was in command of the army there, which was divided into two +brigades under Generals Greene and La Fayette. On the 29th of July, +1778, the French fleet appeared off Newport, to the delight of the +inhabitants, who were suffering from the English occupation, and saw in +prospect an end to their troubles. But, alas! their joy was premature. +Sullivan was so slow in moving that the moment for action was lost. +Lord Howe, having received reinforcements, appeared off Point Judith, +where D'Estaing tried to meet and give him battle; but a hurricane +coming up, both fleets were obliged to spend their energies in saving +themselves from destruction, and before the storm passed the French +ships were so scattered that all hope of success had to be abandoned. +D'Estaing found himself on the 13th of August separated from his +convoy, and his ship, Le Languedoc, bereft of rudder and masts, forced +to an encounter with three English vessels. His fleet rallied round +him, but it was too late after a disastrous action to do anything but +repair damages: in fact, Lord Howe had already reached Sandy Hook. +D'Estaing appeared off Newport on the 20th to announce that he should +be obliged by instructions to go to Boston for provisions and water, +and thus ended the first visit of the French to Newport, to the dismay +of the inhabitants. Sullivan criticised D'Estaing severely, but was +obliged by La Fayette to retract: indeed, it is a question whether the +fault of failure lay in Sullivan's procrastination or in want of +judgment on the part of the French commander, who nevertheless, on his +return to France, interested himself to induce the government to send +out twelve thousand men to America. La Fayette also, through his +friendship with Vergennes, exerted himself toward the same end, the +proposition being not unfavorably received by the government, which +merely demurred as to the number of troops required. Before leaving +France, however, La Fayette had secured full consent to the expedition, +and on him devolved the grateful task of bearing to Congress and +Washington the news of the co-operation of that country. The fleet was +prepared at Brest, and was placed under Admiral de Ternay, the command +of the troops being given to the comte de Rochambeau, not through court +favor, but in consideration of the affection of the army for him. + +Jean Baptiste de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau and marshal of France, was +born in Vendôme in 1725. At sixteen he served under the maréchal de +Broglie, was afterward aide to the duc d'Orléans, and distinguished +himself in the battles of Crevelt, Minden, Closterkamp and Corbach, +being seriously wounded several times. A thorough soldier, Rochambeau +possessed not only courage, but a clear, practical eye, accompanied by +foresight and judgment. His memoirs show him to have taken more kindly +to the camp than the court, and outside of war to have been fond of the +sports of a country gentleman. His appearance in Trumbull's picture of +the surrender of Cornwallis shows us more of a Cincinnatus than of an +Alexander. He was reserved in his manner, even with his officers, and +De Fersen, writing to his father, complains of it, acknowledging, +however, that it was shown less with him than with others. Later on he +does Rochambeau justice, and says: "His example had its effect on the +army, and the severe orders he gave restrained everybody and enforced +that discipline which was the admiration of the Americans and of the +English who witnessed it. The wise, prudent and simple conduct of M. de +Rochambeau has done more to conciliate America to us than the gain of +four battles." + +With this representative soldier of his time came so fine a showing of +the noblesse of France, fresh from the most brilliant court of Europe, +that they are worth a short description. They are interesting, if from +nothing else, from the fact that they are the men who appear on the +page of history one day steeped in the enervating luxury and intrigue +of Versailles and Marly, the next fighting and dying with the courage +of the lionhearted Henri de la Rochejaquelin in Vendée, leaving as an +epitaph on their whole generation the words of the Chouan chief, +"Allons chercher l'ennemi! Si je recule, tuez moi; si j'avance, suivez +moi; si je meurs, vengez moi!" Never even in Napoleon's campaigns, +where each man had as incentive a name and fortune to carve, was there +such a race of soldiers as these same aristocrats. + +First and foremost, let us mention Armand Louis de Gontaut, duc de +Lauzun, the duc de Biron of the Vendée. He was the gayest gallant of +the time, and whether with the Polish princess Czartoriski, the +beautiful Lady Sarah Bunbury--George III.'s admiration as he saw her +making hay at Holland House--Mesdames de Stainville and de Coig and the +rollicking actresses of the Comédie Française, or Mrs. Robinson (the +prince of Wales's "Perdita,"), seems to have had universal success. We +except the record that gives him the love of Marie Antoinette. To him +was entrusted in this expedition the legion that bore his name, with +Count Arthur Dillon as coadjutor. The maréchals-de-camp were the two +brothers Viosmenil, celebrated for their beauty, and the marquis de +Chastelleux, a member of the Institute and possessed of some literary +merit. He had written a piece called _La Félicité publique_, which drew +from the wits of the day the following epigram: + + Ŕ Chastelleux la place académique: + Qu' a-t-il donc fait? Un livre bien conçu. + Vous l'appelez _La Félicité publique_; + Le public fut heureux, car il n'en a rien su. + +He printed twenty-four impressions of his travels in America by the aid +of a printing-press on the squadron, the first record of a book having +been published privately in the colonies. The aides of De Rochambeau +were the handsome Swede Count de Fersen, the marquis de Vauban, Charles +de Lamette (who fought a famous duel in the Bois de Boulogne with the +duc de Castries), De Dumas and De Laubedičres: De Tarli was intendant. +The list of officers comprised such historic names as those of the +marquis de Laval-Montmorenci, the duc de Deux-Ponts (colonel of the +regiment raised in Alsace that bore his name), his two brothers, +Vicomte de Chartres, De Custine, D'Olonne, De Montesquieu and the +vicomte de Noailles. The last named had, as ambassador to England, the +task entrusted to him of bearing to Lord Weymouth the news of the +French alliance with America. + +The fleet which appeared off Newport on the 11th of July, 1780, +comprised seven ships of the line--the Duc de Bourgogne, Neptune, +Conquérant, Provence, Eveillé, Jason and Ardent--the frigates +Surveillante, Amazone and Gentille, the corvette Fantasque (which was a +hospital-ship) and the cutter La Guępe. There were thirty-two +transports with the expeditionary corps of five thousand men. Admiral +de Ternay, wisely profiting by D'Estaing's experience, lost no time in +reaching his destination. He was welcomed by the sight of the French +flag planted both on Point Judith and Newport Point, this being the +signal agreed on with La Fayette that all was well. Only a few days +later he would have been intercepted by an English squadron, Admiral +Graves having sailed from Portsmouth early in the season, intending to +prevent the French reaching Newport, but his plans were deranged by the +bad weather. The squadron entered the beautiful harbor of Newport with +flying flags and pennons bright with the golden fleur-de-lys of France. + +From the earliest days of the colony Newport had taken a prominent +place in its history. Its natural advantages had early singled it out +for both commercial and social distinction. One of the first governors, +Coddington, was its original settler. An openly-avowed freedom from +prejudice was among the first declared principles of Rhode Island. +Quakers and Jews were gladly received, and while the former brought +with them the temperance and moderation peculiar to their tenets, the +latter grafted on Newport commerce the spirit of enterprise which made +the town celebrated in colonial annals for its prosperity and +importance. The Jewish merchants were men of good origin, fine presence +and character. They were many of them of high birth in Spain and +Portugal, and they have bequeathed to posterity a record of stately +hospitality and unblemished integrity. The names of Lopez, Riviera, +Seixas and Touro are honored and respected still in their former home, +and the fine arch that towers over the gay promenade of to-day gives +entrance to their last resting-place, so solemn and so majestic a home +of the dead that it drew from the Nestor of American poets a stirring +apostrophe to the manes of the dead sons of Israel. The fine harbor and +bay of Newport soon attracted commerce from all nations, which heaped +its wharves with riches and made princes and magnates of its +merchants--a position they seemed born to sustain. The Overings, +Bannisters, Malbones and Redwoods kept open house and exercised lavish +hospitality--witness, as told by the Newport _Herald_ of June 7, 1766, +the story of Colonel Godfrey Malbone's feast on the lawn of his burning +mansion, so fine an edifice that its cost had been a hundred thousand +dollars in 1744; but the house taking fire at the time he had invited +guests to dinner, he thus feasted rather than disappoint them, and all +through the long summer night they held high revel and pledged each +other in jovial toasts while the flames of the burning building +illumined these Sardanapalian orgies. Year after year added to the +importance of this city by the sea: year after year the Indies poured +into its warehouses the riches with which Newport, out of its +abundance, dowered New York, Boston and Hartford and ornamented and +enriched the stately homes of its merchants. There is, however, one +blot on its scutcheon--one which darkens the picture of this prosperity +and the means that helped make it--and that is the slave-trade. Yes, +the town which was to give birth to William Ellery Channing was one of +the first to become interested in this baleful traffic. It is true it +was denounced by the Legislature, which as early as 1652 made it penal +to hold slaves, yet statistics show that between 1730 and 1752 the +return cargoes of all ships from the West Indies consisted of them. The +slave-trade of Newport bore fruit in other evils. At this time there +were no less than forty distilleries at work, and this rum, exported to +Africa, bought and brought home the human freight. However, in 1774 the +importation was prohibited, and all male children born after 1784 were +declared to be free. + +Nowhere was there a more courtly and elegant society than in Newport. +The rules of etiquette were rigorously adhered to, and there was no +jesting on so sacred a topic as the honor and respect due to those whom +the good rector of Trinity was wont to allude to as moving in higher +spheres. De Ségur a year or two later says of it: "Other parts of +America were only beautiful by anticipation, but Rhode Island was +complete. Newport, well and regularly built, contained a numerous +population, whose happiness was indicated by its prosperity. It offered +delightful circles composed of enlightened men and modest and handsome +women, whose talents heightened their personal attractions." To-day, +Newport is the rendezvous of the best society of the land. Handsome +women and clever men meet and greet there, but can the society be more +distinguished than, from this description, it must have been a century +ago? We wonder if the stately dames who in the eighteenth century held +court here would quite approve of the _laissez-aller_ of modern +intercourse. The youth of to-day, whose highest praise for his fair +partner of the cotillon is often that she is "an awfully good fellow," +has little kinship with his ancestor, who used to wait at the +street-corner to see the object of his devotion go by under the convoy +of her father and mother and a couple of faithful colored footmen, +thinking himself happy meanwhile if his divinity gave him a shy glance. +The gay girl of the period, who scampers in her pony chaise down the +avenue from one engagement to the other, and whose most sacred +confidence is apt to be that she adores horses and loves "pottering +about the stable," is, with all her charms, quite different from the +blushing little beauty of 1780, who in powdered hair, quilted petticoat +and high, red-heeled shoes gave her lover a modest little glance at the +street-corner, thinking it a most delicious and unforeseen bit of +romance to have a lover at all. But other times other manners, and +nineteenth-century men and women are no doubt as charming in their way +as were our pretty ancestresses and their gallants of a century ago. + +The prosperity of Newport received a check from the Revolution. The +English occupation resulted in a vandalism that destroyed the fine +mansions, turned public buildings, and even Trinity Church, into +barracks for the soldiers and stables for their horses, laid waste the +country, cut down the trees and obliterated the landmarks. Thus the +French found it, and they were welcomed as possible deliverers and +defenders from the English rule. Rochambeau and his staff reached +Newport in the frigate Hermione on the afternoon of the 11th of July, +and the next day the troops were landed, many of them being ill and all +in need of rest after the long voyage and cramped quarters. The forts +were put in possession of the French, who proceeded to remodel them +into a better condition to resist a siege. General Heath, hearing at +Providence the news of the arrival of the fleet, came down to Newport +to greet Rochambeau, whom he met on shore, going afterward on board the +Duc de Bourgogne to see the admiral, who in return saluted the town +with thirteen guns. On the evening of the 12th Rochambeau dined with +General Heath, a grand illumination of the town taking place afterward, +and each day saw some new festivity to welcome the guests who had made +the American cause their own. The army had been stationed across the +island guarding the town, the right toward the ships and the left upon +the sea, Rochambeau thus carefully covering the position of his vessels +by the batteries. Everything was _en fęte_. The people were delighted +with the manners and courtly polish of the French. Robin says of the +discipline insisted on at Newport, "The officers employed politeness +and amenity, the common soldiers became mild, circumspect and +moderate." The French at Newport were no longer the frivolous race, +presumptuous, noisy, full of fatuity, they were reputed to be. They +lived quietly and retired, limiting their society to their hosts, to +whom every day they became dearer. These young nobles of birth and +fortune, to whom a sojourn at court must have given a taste for +dissipation and luxury, were the first to set an example of frugality +and simplicity of life. They showed themselves affable, popular, as if +they had never lived but with men who were on an equality. Every one +was won, even the Tories, and their departure saddened even more than +their arrival had alarmed. Rochambeau also alludes to the discipline of +the army, and says: "It was due to the zeal of the generals and +superior officers, and above all to the goodwill of the soldiers. It +contributed not a little to make the State of Rhode Island acquiesce in +the proposition I made it, to repair at our expense the mansions which +the English had mutilated, so that they might serve as barracks for the +soldiers if the inhabitants would lodge the officers. We spent twenty +thousand crowns in repairing the houses, and left in the place many +marks of the generosity of France toward its allies." + +We have before us an old plan of Newport in 1777, and a list of the +officers' hosts. We find the general quartered at 302 New lane, corner +of Clark and Mary streets. Its proprietor, William Hunter, was +president of the Eastern Navy Board at Boston and an earnest upholder +of the rights of the colonies. The gallant and all-conquering Lauzun +was at the widow Deborah Hunter's, No. 264 Thames street. Mrs. Hunter +was the mother of two charming daughters, whom Lauzun eulogizes in his +journal. His praise has been often quoted, yet it is worth repeating, +as it shows this Lovelace in a new and pleasing light. He says: "Mrs. +Hunter is a widow of thirty-six who has two daughters, whom she has +well brought up. She conceived a friendship for me, and I was treated +like one of the family. I passed my time there. I was ill, and she took +care of me. I was not in love with the Misses Hunter, but had they been +my sisters I could not have been fonder of them." The two Viosmenils +and their aides were at Joseph Wanton's, in Thames street. The Wantons +had been governors of Rhode Island from 1732: Joseph Wanton was the +last governor under the Crown. He is described as wearing a large white +wig with three curls--one falling down his back and one forward over +each shoulder. De Chastelleux lodged with Captain Maudsly, at No. 91 +Spring street; De Choisy at Jacob Riviera's in Water street; the +marquis de Laval and the vicomte de Noailles at Thomas Robinson's, in +Water street; the marquis de Custine, the commander of the regiment +Saintonge, at Joseph Durfey's, 312 Griffin street; Colonel Malbone +entertained Lieutenant-Colonel de Querenel at No. 83 Thames street; +while Colonel John Malbone was the host of the commandant Desandrouins, +the colonel of the engineers, at No. 28 of the same street; William +Coggeshall of No. 135 Thames street had the baron de Turpin and De +Plancher for guests; De Fersen and the marquis de Darnas were at the +house of Robert Stevens, and De Laubedičres and Baron de Closen at that +of Henry Potter, both in New lane; Madame McKay, 115 Lewis street, +quartered De Lintz and Montesquieu; Joseph Antony, at 339 Spring +street, Dumas; and Edward Hazard, of 271 Lewis street, the two +D'Olonnes. Admiral de Ternay was much on his ship, but lodged at +Colonel Wanton's in Water street; his captains, De la Chaise and +Destouches, were at Abraham Redwood's, 78 Thames street. + +On the 21st of July, Admirals Graves and Arbuthnot arrived off the +harbor with eleven vessels--one of ninety, six of seventy-four, three +of sixty-four, and one of fifty guns. The following day the number was +increased to nineteen, and from this time the French squadron was +effectually blockaded in Newport. Although doubt seems to have been +felt by some as to the good intentions of the French army, the general +feeling on their arrival was one of joy. On Sunday, the 15th, the +intelligence became known in Philadelphia, where Congress was then +sitting. Washington ordered the soldiers to wear a black-and-white +cockade as a symbol of the alliance, the American cockade being black +and the French white, but seems withal to have felt nervous and +impatient for some decisive action. He sent La Fayette to Newport to +urge Rochambeau to make an attack on New York, but the latter replied +that he expected from the admiral de Guichen, who commanded the West +India squadron, five ships of war, and declined to take any steps until +his army was in better condition. La Fayette, who was young and full of +ardor, was hardly pleased with Rochambeau's caution, but apologized for +his impetuosity on the ground of disliking to see the French troops +shut up in Newport while there was so much to be done. To this +Rochambeau replied that he had an experience of forty years, and that +of fifteen thousand men who had been killed and wounded under his +orders he could not reproach himself with the loss of a single person +killed on his account. He desired, however, a personal interview with +Washington--a request which from some reason the commander-in-chief did +not seem anxious to grant. There was at times a coolness in the +relations between Rochambeau and Washington, arising perhaps from a +different estimate of La Fayette; but the cloud, if there was any, was +never very perceptible or of any long duration. On the 21st of August a +committee of the General Assembly of the State, at that time in session +at Newport, presented Rochambeau and De Ternay with a formal address of +welcome. De Rochambeau's reply was full of manliness and good-will. He +said, "The French troops are restrained by the strictest discipline, +and, acting under General Washington, will live with the Americans as +their brethren. I assure the General Assembly that as brethren not only +my life, but the lives of the troops under my command, are entirely +devoted to their service." This frank avowal dissipated a fear felt by +some that the French might have some ulterior motive in coming to the +assistance of the colonies. + +It is not to be supposed that the belles of Newport were indifferent to +the advent of these fascinating French paladins, or that the gallant +Gauls were unmoved by the beauty and grace of the Newport women. With +one accord they joined in admiration of their fair hostesses, not only +for their charms of face and figure, but for the purity and innocence +of their characters, which made a deep impression on these Sybarites, +accustomed as they were to the atmosphere of intrigue and vice peculiar +to the French court of the day. We find the record of this enthusiasm +in the letters and journals of the officers, but for a picture of the +special belles of the time there is none more correct than that +furnished by the prince de Broglie and the comte de Ségur, who visited +Newport the following year. They note particularly Miss Champlin, the +daughter of a rich merchant who lived at No. 119 Thames street. Mr. +Champlin had large shipping interests, which he managed with great +enterprise. At his house De Broglie was introduced by De Vauban, who as +aide to De Rochambeau had met all the Newport notables, and the prince +writes: "Mr. Champlin was known for his wealth, but more for the lovely +face of his daughter. She was not in the room when we entered, but +appeared a moment after. She had beautiful eyes, an agreeable mouth, a +lovely face, a fine figure, a pretty foot, and the general effect was +attractive. She added to these advantages that of being charmingly +_coiffée_ in the Paris style, besides which she spoke and understood +our language." Of the Hunters, Lauzun's hostesses, De Broglie says: +"The elder, without being regularly handsome, had a noble appearance +and an aristocratic air. She was graceful, intellectual and refined. +Her toilette was as finished as Miss Champlin's, but she was not as +fresh, in spite of what De Fersen said. The younger, Nancy Hunter, is +not so modish, but a perfect rosebud. Her character is gay: she is +always laughing, and has beautiful teeth--a thing not common in +America." But Vauban, who on this occasion acted as master of +ceremonies, promised the prince a greater treat for the morrow, and +took him on that day to a house on the corner of Touro street and the +Park, where they found a serious and silent old gentleman, who received +them without compliment or raising his hat and answered their questions +in monosyllables. The lively Frenchmen would have made a short visit +had not the door opened and a young girl entered; and here De Broglie's +own raptures must speak: "It was Minerva herself who had exchanged her +warlike vestments for the charms of a simple shepherdess. She was the +daughter of a Shaking Quaker. Her headdress was a simple cap of fine +muslin plaited and passed round her head, which gave Polly the effect +of the Holy Virgin." Yes, this was Polly Lawton (or Leighton), the very +pearl of Newport beauties, of whom the prince says in continuation: +"She enchanted us all, and, though evidently a little conscious of it, +was not at all sorry to please those whom she graciously called her +friends. I confess that this seductive Lawton appeared to me a +_chef-d'oeuvre_ of Nature, and in recalling her image I am tempted to +write a book against the finery, the factitious graces and the coquetry +of many ladies whom the world admires." Ségur says: "She was a nymph +rather than a woman, and had the most graceful figure and beautiful +form possible. Her eyes appeared to reflect as in a mirror the meekness +and purity of her mind and the goodness of her heart." Polly chides the +count, according to the rules of her faith, for coming in obedience to +the king, against the command of God, to make war. "What could I reply +to such an angel?" says the entranced Frenchman, "for she seemed to me +a celestial being. Certainly, had I not been married and happy in my +own country I should, while coming to defend the liberty of the +Americans, have lost my own at the feet of Polly Lawton." We fear the +comtesse de Ségur would hardly have relished her lord's raptures over +the pretty Quakeress, and would have quite approved of Rochambeau's +order which sent him back to his post. + +Among this bevy of Continental beauties, to whom we may add the names +of the lovely Miss Redwood--to whose charms sailors in the street would +doff their hats, holding them low till she had passed--the two Miss +Ellerys, Miss Sylven, Miss Brinley, Miss Robinson and others, it is not +wonderful that the French officers bore patiently the enforced +blockade. They indulged in constant festivities, to which they invited +their fair enslavers. A deputation of Indians, numbering nineteen and +consisting of members of the Tuscarora, Caghnawgas and Oneida tribes, +visited the camp on the 2d of August. They were cordially received by +Rochambeau, who gave them a dinner at which they were reported to have +behaved well. After dining with General Heath they performed their +war-dance, which was a novel and interesting sight to the French +officers. As a return for this entertainment the French army gave a +grand review, preceded by firing of cannon. The sight must have been a +fine one. The regiments were among the flower of European chivalry, +some of them of historical celebrity, such as the regiment of Auvergne, +whose motto was "_Sans tache_" and one of whose captains, the famous +D'Assas, is said to have saved a whole brigade at the expense of his +life, crying, as he saw the enemy approaching on his unsuspecting +comrades, "Ŕ moi Auvergne! voilŕ les ennemis!" and fell dead. The +uniforms of the troops were most effective. The officers wore white +cockades and the colors of their regiments faced with white cloth. The +Bourbonnais regiment was in black and red, Saintonge in white and +green, Deux-Ponts in white; the Soissonnais wore pink facings and +grenadier caps with pink and white plumes, while the artillery were in +blue with red facings. The savages were delighted with the pageant, but +in spite of its splendor expressed more astonishment at seeing trees +loaded with fruit hanging over tents which the soldiers had occupied +for months than at anything else. They took their departure in +September, being presented with blankets and other gifts by Rochambeau. + +Perhaps the finest display was that which celebrated the French king's +birthday on Friday, the 25th of August. The ships were decorated with +the flags of all nations during the day and brilliantly illuminated at +night. High mass was celebrated on the flag-ship, after which a number +of salutes were fired. The town joined in the festivity. The bells of +Trinity were rung and the inhabitants decorated their houses with +flags. The autumn was spent in agreeable pastimes, but with the +approach of winter it became necessary to put the army into comfortable +quarters. The houses which Rochambeau had offered to repair were ready, +and the regiments were installed in them; the State-House, which had +been used as a hospital by the English, was put to the same use by the +French; and an upper room in it was fitted up as a chapel, where masses +were said for the sick and dying by the ábbe de Glesnon, the chaplain +of the expedition. The list of the dead was soon to include no less a +person than Admiral de Ternay. He was taken ill of a fever early in +December, and brought on shore to the Hunter house, where he died on +the 15th, being buried with great pomp in Trinity churchyard on the +following day. The coffin was carried through the streets by sailors: +nine priests followed, chanting a requiem for the departed hero. The +tomb placed over the remains by order of Louis XVI. in 1785 having +become injured by the ravages of time, the United States government in +1873, with the co-operation of the marquis de Noailles, then French +minister, had it moved into the vestibule of the church, placing a +granite slab over the tomb. One of Rochambeau's aides ascribes the +admiral's death to chagrin at having let five English ships escape him +in an encounter. + +The winter passed slowly. Rochambeau ordered a large hall to be built +as a place of meeting for his officers, but it was not completed until +nearly spring. Meanwhile, the Frenchmen gave occasionally a handsome +ball to the American ladies, such as that of which, in January, the +officers of the regiment De Deux-Ponts were the hosts, and one given by +the handsome Viosmenils on the anniversary of the signing of the treaty +of alliance, February 6, 1781. But the crowning festivity of the French +stay in Newport took place in March, when Washington visited it for the +purpose of witnessing the departure of an expedition comprising part of +the French fleet under Destouches, which was to co-operate with La +Fayette on the Chesapeake. The barge of the French admiral was sent for +the American chief, and he crossed the bay from the Connecticut shore, +landing at Barney's Ferry on the corner of Long Wharf and Washington +street. The sight must have been an imposing one--the beautiful harbor +of Newport full of stately ships of war and gay pleasure-craft, the +French troops drawn up in a close line, three deep, on either side from +the ferry-house up Long Wharf and Washington street to Clarke street, +where it turned at a right angle and continued to Rochambeau's +head-quarters, while the inhabitants, wild with enthusiasm, crowded the +wharves and quays to see the two commanders meet. Both were men of fine +and stately presence: Washington was in the full prime of his imposing +manhood, the very picture of a nation's chief; the French marshal was +covered with brilliant decorations, and stood with doffed hat to +welcome the hero of Valley Forge. In the evening the town was +brilliantly illuminated, and, as at that time many of the people were +very poor, the town council ordered that candles should be distributed +to all who were not well off enough to buy them, so that every house +might have lights in its windows. The procession on this occasion was +led by thirty boys bearing candles fixed on staffs: Washington and De +Rochambeau followed, and behind them came a concourse of citizens. The +night was clear and there was not a breath to fan the torches. The +brilliant cortége marched through the principal streets, and then +returned to the Vernon house, corner of Clarke and Mary streets, where +Washington and Rochambeau were quartered. Washington waited on the +door-step until all the officers and his friends had entered the house, +and then turning to the boys who had acted as torch-bearers thanked +them for their services. It may be believed that these young patriots +felt well repaid. The French officers were much impressed with the +looks and bearing of the American chief. De Fersen, writing to his +father, says: "His fine and majestic countenance, at the same time +honest and sweet, answers perfectly to his moral qualities. He has the +air of a hero. He is very reserved and speaks little, but is polite and +frank. There is an air of sadness about him which is not unbecoming, +but renders him more interesting." A few evenings after the French gave +a grand ball to Washington, which he opened with the beautiful Miss +Champlin, at whose house he had taken tea on that evening. The gallant +Frenchmen seized the instruments from the band and themselves played +the music of the minuet "A Successful Campaign" for a couple +representing so much beauty and valor. The entertainment was given in +Mrs. Cowley's assembly-rooms in Church street, and Desoteux, +aide-de-camp to Baron Viosmenil, had charge of the decorations. An +eye-witness says of the ball: "The room was ornamented in an exceeding +splendid manner, and the judicious arrangement of the various +decorations exhibited a sight beautiful beyond expression, and showed +the great taste and delicacy of M. de Zoteux, one of Viosmenil's aides. +A superb collation was served, and the ceremonies of the evening were +conducted with so much propriety and elegance that they gave the +highest satisfaction." + +Perhaps it would be interesting to the participants of the gay Newport +cotillons of to-day to know the names of the dances with which the +company regaled themselves a hundred years ago. They were "The Stony +Point" (so named in honor of General Wayne), "Miss McDonald's Reel," "A +Trip to Carlisle," "Freemason's Jig" and "The Faithful Shepherd." As +Benoni Peckham, the fashionable hair-dresser of the day, advertises in +the Newport _Mercury_ a "large assortment of braids, commodes, cushions +and curls for the occasion," we may guess that the belles of Newport +made elaborate toilettes. One of them, writing to a friend in New York, +speaks of a dress she had worn at some festivity which probably was not +unlike many at Washington's ball. "I had," she says, "a most stiff and +lustrous petticoat of daffodil-colored lutestring, with flowered gown +and sleeves lined with crimson. My cap was of gauze raised high in +front, with doublings of red and bows of the same, and was sent me +direct by the bark Fortune from England." So it seems the Newport +beauties did not disdain the exports of the mother-country they were at +war with. A few nights later the citizens gave a ball in honor of the +two heroes. + +The visit of the French to Newport terminated soon after this fęte. +Washington and Rochambeau, it is said, planned in the Vernon house an +attack on New York, and in May the vicomte de Rochambeau brought to his +father from France the news of the sailing from Brest, under Admiral de +Grasse, of a large squadron laden with supplies and reinforcements. The +restrictions imposed on him by De Sartines were removed, and the new +ministry sent him full powers to act. He therefore determined upon an +immediate move, for his troops were becoming demoralized through long +inactivity. After a conference with Washington at Weathersfield a +summer campaign was resolved upon, and, returning to Newport, +Rochambeau proceeded to make arrangements for it. The troops began to +move on the 10th of June, almost a year from the date of their arrival. +A farewell dinner was given on the Due de Bourgogne to which about +sixty Newport people were asked. The next day the whole army left camp +and marched to Providence, so ending a sojourn which, although not +productive of positive advantage, will long remain a brilliant page in +the history of Newport. + +A few words on the after fate of these gay Frenchmen. The story is not +a bright one. The times that tried men's souls were at hand, and many +of them fell victims. The comte de Rochambeau, made a marshal by Louis +XVI., narrowly escaped death under Robespierre. In 1803 Napoleon gave +him a pension and the grand cross of the Legion of Honor: he died in +1807. Lauzun perished on the scaffold, sentenced by the Tribunal in +January, 1794. The night before his death he was calm, slept and ate +well. When the jailer came for him he was eating his breakfast. He +said, "Citizen, permit me to finish." Then, offering him a glass, he +said, "Take this wine: you need strength for such a trade as you ply." +D'Estaing, on his return from America, was commander at Grenada. He +became a member of the Assembly of Notables, but being suspected by the +Terrorists was guillotined on the 29th of April, 1793. The vicomte de +Rochambeau was killed at the battle of Leipsic; Berthier became +military confidant to Napoleon, was made marshal of France and murdered +at Bamberg; the comte de Viosmenil was made marshal at the Restoration; +his brother the marquis was wounded and died, defending the royal +family; the comte de Darnas, who helped their flight, barely escaped +with his life; Fersen was killed in a riot at Stockholm; the comte +Christian de Deux-Ponts was captured by Nelson while on a +boat-excursion at Porto Cavallo: Nelson generously released him on +learning who he was; Desoteux, the master of ceremonies of the Newport +assembly, became the celebrated Chouan chief in Vendée; Dumas was +president of the Assembly, general of division, fought at Waterloo and +took a high rank in the constitutional monarchy of 1830. With what +interest and sympathy must the Newport belles have watched the career +of their quondam admirers! How must the tragic fate of some of them +have saddened friendly hearts beyond the ocean they had once traversed +as deliverers! The lot of the fair danseuses of the French balls at +Newport was in most cases the ordinary one, and yet the record of their +loves and their graces leaves a gracious fragrance amid their former +haunts in the city by the sea. In the old streets and peeping from the +quaint latticed windows we can with a little imagination see their +graceful figures and fair faces, or find in the Newport drawing-rooms +their pictured likenesses on the wall or in the persons of their +descendants, often no less piquante and attractive than the dames of +1780. Miss Champlin married, and until lately her grandson was living +in the old house, the home of five successive generations; her brother, +Christopher Champlin, married the beautiful Miss Redwood; one of the +Miss Ellerys took for a husband William Channing and became the mother +of a famous son; her granddaughter was the wife of Washington Allston; +the Miss Hunters married abroad--one the comte de Cardignan, the other +Mr. Falconet, a Naples banker. + +We pass over the sad fate of Newport for years following the +Revolution--the misery and dilapidation that succeeded its former +prosperity. We turn from the picture which a later French traveller, +Brissot de Warville, draws of its poverty and desolation in 1788 to +look at the renaissance, the rejuvenation that rescued this historic +spot from oblivion. To-day lines of villas and stately mansions have +uplifted themselves on the avenues, and gay crowds throng the streets. +The shadowy forms of a past generation may still haunt the scenes of +their former triumphs, but must rejoice over the life and light that +nineteenth-century revels have dowered them with. The world rolls on, +and brings in its course new actors, new scenes, a new drop-curtain, +but men and women are always men and women. The loves, hopes, fears, +disappointments or triumphs of to-day,--these, if nothing else, link us +to a past generation. The idler on the club piazza, if not a Lauzun or +Fersen, may no doubt arouse himself as nobly in a grand question of +right or wrong (have we not seen it in our own generation?), unsheathe +his sword and become, like Lytton's hero, "now heard of, the first on +the wall:" the pretty belle of the afternoon fęte, may she not have the +same heart of steel and a spirit as true as that of some +eighteenth-century ancestress? There is room, then, even in this +historic spot, for the gay modern cortęge, for the life, the light, the +prosperity and pleasure which embalm old memories and keep a centennial +on the shrines where the youth and chivalry of a century ago lived, +loved and have left the subtle odor of past adventure to add a +mysterious but not unlovely fragrance to present experience.--FRANCES +PIERREPONT NORTH. + + + + +STUDIES IN THE SLUMS + + + +V.--DIET AND ITS DOINGS. + + +Later and more scientific investigations have tended to confirm the +truth of the rather broad statement made by Buckle in his _History of +Civilization_, that rice and potatoes have done more to establish +pauperism than any and all causes besides. A food easily procured, +sufficiently palatable to ensure no dissatisfaction, and demanding no +ingenuity of preparation, would seem the ideal diet, the promised rest +for weary housekeepers and anxious political economists; but the latter +class at least have found their work made double and treble by the +results of such diet, while social reformers--above all, the advocates +of total abstinence--are discovering that till varied and savory food +and drink are provided the mass of the people will and must crave the +stimulant given by alcoholic drinks. + +National dietaries and their results on character and life, fascinating +as the investigation is, have no place in the present paper, the design +of which is simply to show the existing state of the food-question +among the poor. Of these, poor Irish form far the larger proportion, a +German or French pauper being almost an anomaly. Thrift seems the +birthright of both the French and German peasant, as well as of the +middle class, and their careful habits, joined to the better rate of +wages in America, soon make them prosperous and well-to-do citizens. It +is in the tenement-houses that we must seek for the mass of the poor, +and it is in the tenement-houses that we find the causes which, +combined, are making of the generation now coming up a terror in the +present and a promise of future evil beyond man's power to reckon. They +are a class apart, retaining all the most brutal characteristics of the +Irish peasant at home, but without the redeeming light-heartedness, the +tender impulses and strong affections of that most perplexing people. +Sullen, malicious, conscienceless, with no capacity for enjoyment save +in drink and the lowest forms of debauchery, they are filling our +prisons and reformatories, marching in an ever-increasing army through +the quiet country, and making a reign of terror wherever their +footsteps are heard. With a little added intelligence they become +Socialists, doing their heartiest to ruin the institutions by which +they live. The Socialistic leader knows well with what he deals, and +can sound every chord of jealousy and suspicion and revenge lying open +to his touch. On the rich lies the whole responsibility of want and +disease and crime. Equalize property, and these three dark shadows flee +fast before the sunshine of prosperity. Character, intelligence, common +decencies and common virtues have nothing to do with present +conditions, and the ardent leveller of class-distinctions counts as his +enemy any one who seeks to give the poor a truer knowledge of how far +their earnings may be made to go toward securing better food or less +pestilent homes. + +Yet foul air and overcrowding would be less fatal in their results were +food understood. The well-filled stomach gives strange powers of +resistance to the body, and nothing shows this more strongly than the +myriad cases of children and infants who are taken from the +tenement-houses to the sanitariums at Bath or Rockaway. A week or two +of pure air and plenty of milk gives a look almost of health to +children who have been brought there often with glazed eyes and +pinched, ghastly little faces. Air has meant half, but many mothers +have been persuaded to give milk or oatmeal porridge instead of weak +tea and bread poisoned with alum, and have found the child's strength +become a permanent and not temporary fact. + +That these children are alive at all, that fatherhood and motherhood +are allowed to be the right of drunkards and criminals of every grade, +is a problem whose present solution passes any human power, but which +all lovers of their kind must sooner or later face. In the mean time +the children are with us, born to inheritances that tax every power +good men and women can bring to bear. Hopeless as the outlook often +seems, salvation for the future of the masses lies in these children. +Not in a teaching which gives them merely the power to grasp at the +mass of sensational reading, which fixes every wretched tendency and +blights every seed of good, but in a practical training which shall +give the boys trades and force their restless hands and mischievous +minds to occupations that may ensure an honest living, while the girls +find work from which, with few fortunate exceptions, they are still +debarred. + +The American distaste for domestic service seems to be shared in even +greater degree by the children of foreigners born in this country and +to a certain extent Americanized. The mothers have usually been +servants, and still "go out to days' work," but, no matter how numerous +the family, such life for any daughter is despised and discouraged from +the beginning. Work in a bag-factory or any one of the thousand, but to +the employés profitless, industries of a great city is eagerly sought, +and hardships cheerfully endured which if enforced by a mistress would +lead to a riot. To be a shop-girl seems the highest ambition. To have +dress and hair and expression a frowsy and pitiful copy of the latest +Fifth Avenue ridiculousness, to flirt with shop-boys as feeble-minded +and brainless as themselves, and to marry as quickly as possible, are +the aims of all. Then come more wretched, thriftless, ill-managed +homes, and their natural results in drunken husbands and vicious +children; and so the round goes on, the circle widening year by year +till its circumference touches every class in society, and would make +our great cities almost what sober country-folk believe them--"seas of +iniquity." + +Happily, to know an evil is to have taken the first step in its +eradication. The work only recently begun--the past five years having +seen its growth from a very humble and insignificant beginning to its +present promising proportions--holds the solution of at least one +equation of the problem. To have made cooking and industrial training +the fashion is to have cleared away at a leap the thorny underbrush and +tangled growth on that Debatable Ground, the best education for the +poor, and to find one's feet firmly set in a way leading to a Promised +Land to which every believer in the new system is an accredited guide. +That cooking-schools and the knowledge of cheap and savory preparation +of food must soon have their effect on the percentage of drunkards no +one can question; but with them, save indirectly, this present paper +does not deal, its object being rather to show what "daily bread" means +to the lower classes of New York, the same showing applying with almost +equal force to the working poor of any large town throughout the +country. Knowledge of this sort must come from patient waiting and +watching as one can, rather than from any systematized observation. The +poor resent bitterly, and with justice, any apparent interference or +spying, and only as one comes to know them well can anything but the +most outside details of life be obtained. In the matter of food there +is an especial touchiness and testiness, every woman being convinced +that to cook well is the birthright of all women. I have found the same +conviction as solidly implanted in far higher grades of society, and it +may be classed as one of the most firmly-seated of popular delusions +that every woman keeps house as instinctively and surely when her time +comes as a duck takes to water. + +Such was the faith of Norah Boylan, tenant of half the third floor in a +tenement-house whose location need not be given a "model +tenement-house," six stories high and swarming from basement to attic, +forty children making it hideous with the screaming and wrangling of +incessant fights, while in and over all rested the penetrating, +sickening "tenement-house smell," not to be drowned by steam of washing +or scent of food. Norah's tongue was ready with the complaint all +tongues made in 1878--hard times; and she faced me now with hands on +her hips and a generally belligerent expression: "An' shure, ma'am, you +know yourself it's only a dollar a day he's been earnin' this many a +day, an' thankful enough to get that, wid Mike overhead wearin' his +tongue out wid askin' for work here an' there an' everywhere. An' +how'll we live on that, an' the rint due reg'lar, an' the agent poppin' +in his ugly face an' off wid the bit o' money, no matter how bare the +dish is? Bad cess to him! but I'd like to have him hungered once an' +know how it feels. If I hadn't the washin' we'd be on the street this +day." + +"What do you live on, Norah?" + +"Is it 'live'? Thin I could hardly say. It's mate an' petatys an' tea, +an' Pat will have his glass. He's sober enough--not like Mike, that's +off on his sprees every month; but now we don't be gettin' the same as +we used. Pat says there's that cravin' in him that only the whiskey 'll +stop. It's tin dollars a month for the rooms, an' that's two an' a half +a week steady; an' there's only seven an' a half left for the five +mouths that must be fed, an' the fire an' all, for I can't get more'n +the four dollars for me washin'. It's the mate you must have to put +strength in ye, an' Pat would be havin' it three times a day, an' now +it's but once he can; an' that's why he's after the whiskey. The +children an' meself has tay, an' it's all that keeps us up." + +"How do you cook your meat, Norah?" + +Norah looked at me suspiciously: "Shure, the bit we get don't take +long. I puts it in the pan an' lets it fry till we're ready. Poor folks +can't have much roastin' nor fine doin's. An' by that token it's time +it was on now, if you won't mind, ma'am. The children 'll be in from +school, an' they must eat an' get back." + +"I am going in a few moments, Norah. Go right on." + +Norah moved aside her boiler, drew a frying-pan from her closet, put in +a lump of fat and laid in a piece of coarse beef some two pounds in +weight. A loaf of bread came next, and was cut up, the peculiar white +indicating plainly what share alum had had in making the lightness to +which she called my attention. A handful of tea went into the tall tin +teapot, which was filled from the kettle at the back of the stove. + +"That isn't boiling water, is it?" I ventured. + +"It'll boil fast enough," Norah answered indifferently as she pulled +open the draughts, and soon had the top of the stove red hot. The steak +lay in its bed of fat, scorching peacefully, while the tea boiled, +giving off a rank and herby smell. + +"Pat doesn't get home to dinner, then, Norah?" + +"There's times he does, but mostly not. They'd like a hot bite an' sup, +but it's too far off. There's five goes from here together, an' a +pailful for each--bread an' coffee mostly, an' a bit o' bacon for some. +It's a hot supper I used to be gettin' him, but the times is too hard, +an' we're lucky if we can have our tea an' bread, an' molasses maybe +for the children. Many's the day I wish myself back in old Ireland." + +As she talked the children came rushing up the stairs, Norah the +second, pale-faced and slender, leading the way; and I took my leave, +burning to speak, yet knowing it useless. Fried boot-heel would have +been as nourishing and as tooth-some as that steak, and boiled +boot-heel as desirable and far less harmful a drink, yet any word of +suggestion would have roused the quick Irish temper to fever-heat. + +"It's Norah can cook equal to myself," Norah had said with pride as she +emptied the black and smoking mass into a dish; and these methods +certainly cannot be said to be difficult to follow. + +There is no conservatism like the conservatism of ignorance, yet in +this case want of knowledge there certainly was not. Norah had lived +for two years before her marriage with a family the mistress of which +had taught her patiently and indefatigably till she became able to set +a fairly-cooked meal upon the table, but the knowledge acquired then +seemed to have been laid aside as having no connection with her own +life. I have seen the same thing--though, happily, only in exceptional +cases--among educated Indians, girls who had spent years in the schools +at Faribault or under the direct training of missionaries reverting on +marriage to old wigwam habits, and content to eat the parched corn and +boiled dog of their early experience. The same law holds in full force +among many of the Irish, who, no matter how well trained or how +exacting in their demand for varied food while servants, quickly lose +the desire, and allow only a certain fixed order from which it is +wellnigh impossible to move them. + +In this case, tolerably well-to-do at first, hard times had brought +them to this swarming tenement-house, from the various rooms of which, +as I passed down the stairs, came the same odor of burning fat and the +rank steam of long-boiled coffee or tea. My errand had been to find the +address of a little shop-girl, a niece of Norah's, a child who had been +educated at one of the ward schools, and whom no power could induce to +take a place as waitress or chambermaid. To stand twelve or fourteen +hours behind the counter of a Grand street store met her ideas of +gentility and of personal freedom far better than yielding to the +requirements of a mistress; and the six dollars a week went in cheap +finery till the hard times forced her to make it part of the family +fund. Then sore trouble came. The father had died, the mother was in +hospital, from which she was never likely to come out, and Katy, thrown +utterly on her own resources, had found her six dollars all inadequate +to the demands her habits made, and, frightened and perplexed, went +from one cheap boarding-house to another, four or five girls clubbing +together to pay for the wretched room they called home, and still +striving to keep up the appearance necessary for their position. Cheap +jewelry, banged hair and a dress modelled after the latest extremity of +fashion were the ambition of each and all, but neither jewelry nor +puffs and ruffles had been sufficient to keep off the attack of +pneumonia through which these same girls had nursed her, sitting up +turn by turn at night, and taking her duty by day that the place might +still be kept open for her. + +Katy's cheeks were flushed and an ominous cough still lingered, but she +spoke cheerfully: "It's my last day in: I can go to-morrow. It's the +beef-tea has done it, I do believe. Did you know Maria brought it to me +every day? I don't know what I'll do without it." + +"Learn to make it yourself, Katy." + +"Me?" and Katy laughed incredulously. "When would I get time? and what +would I make it on? We don't have a fire but Sundays, and only a show +of one then. And I don't want it, either: I ain't used to it." + +"What do you live on, Katy?" + +"Why, we did have breakfast and tea here--coffee and meat for +breakfast, and bread and butter and tea for supper. I get a cream-cake +or some drop-cakes for dinner, but for a good while I've just paid a +dollar a week for my share of the room, and bought something for +breakfast--'most always a pie. You can get a splendid pie for five +cents, and a pretty good one for three; and it's plenty too. That's the +way the girls in the bag-factory do. They don't get but three dollars a +week, and it takes seventy-five cents for their room, so they haven't +got anything for board. Mary Jones says she's settled on pie, because +it stays by better'n anything, and once in a while she goes down to +Fulton Market and has some coffee. I do too, but it spoils you for next +day. You keep thinking how'd you'd like a cup when the chills go +crawling all over you, but it's no use." + +"Couldn't it be made in the store? The girls could club together, and +it would cost much less than your pies and candy. The gas is always +burning, and you could have a little water-boiler." + +"You don't know much about stores to think that. Why, Mr. Levy watches +like a cat to see we don't eat peanuts or candy: we're fined if he +catches us. I've a good mind to take board at the 'Home,' only I should +hate to be bossed 'round, and you can't get in very often, either, it's +so crowded. But I don't mind so much now, for you see"--Katy's pale +cheeks grew pink--"Jim and I don't mean to wait long. He has ten +dollars a week, and we can manage on that. He says he's 'most poisoned +with the stuff his boarding-house keeper gives him, and he wants me to +keep house. I just laugh. That's a servant-girl's work: 'tain't mine." + +The old story. I had seen "Jim," and knew him as rather a +sensible-looking young fellow for an East Side clerk in a cheap store. +What sort of future could lie before them? What help could come from +this untrained child, herself helpless and with too limited +intelligence to understand what demand the new life made upon her? and +could any way be found to open her eyes and make her desire better +knowledge? + +Busy with this always fresh problem, I had come to a side street +leading to the market from which two or three small groceries draw +their supplies, and stopped for a moment to look at the flabby, +half-decayed vegetables, the coarse beef and measly-looking pork from +which comes the sickly, heavy smell preceding positive putrefaction. + +"Look away! Get the sense of it all," said a brisk voice behind me--a +voice I knew well as that of one who gave days, and often nights, to +work in these very streets. "Did you see that tall woman with the big +basket and a face like a chimney-swallow? She runs a boarding-house +'round on Madison street, and this is the stuff she feeds them on. Poor +wretch! She has a drunken husband and three drinking sons. She means +well, would like to do better by her boarders, but there is rent and +gas and wear and tear of all sorts, and she buys bob veal and stale +fish and rotten vegetables and alum bread, trying to make the ends +meet. I've been there and tasted the messes that come to her table, and +I would drink too if forced to live on them. She's got sense, a +little--enough not to fly in a rage when I told her the food was enough +to make a drunkard of every man in the house. 'I can't help it,' she +said, crying. 'I've only just so much money, and the girl spoils most +of what I do get.'--'Cook yourself,' I said.--'I can't,' she answered: +'I don't know any better than the girl. I'll do anything you say.' I am +not a cook: I could not tell her anything. 'Go to cooking-school,' I +said: 'it'll pay you.'--'I've neither time nor money,' she said; and +there it ended. What's to be done? I've just come round the market. It +is dinner-time, and I think every other man was eating pie. The same +money might have bought him a bowl of strong soup or a plate of savory +and nourishing stew, if there had been anybody with sense enough to +provide it. Up and down, in and out, wherever I go, I see that cooks +are the missionaries needed. Come in here a moment." + +I followed up the steps of a "Home" for sailors, planned to give them a +refuge from the traps known as "sailors' boarding-houses." The long +dining-room we entered was spotlessly clean, and some thirty men were +dining. I looked for a moment as my friend spoke with some one sitting +at the head of the table, then passed out. + +"You saw," he said, "plenty of food, and all clean as a whistle, but +what sort? Steak fried to a crisp, soggy potatoes, underdone cabbage +and pork, bread rank with alum, and coffee whose only merit is warmth. +Those men are filled, but not fed. The bread alone is condensed +dyspepsia. In an hour the weaker stomachs will have what they call 'a +goneness.' They will crave something, and poor R---- will have half a +dozen of them half drunk or wholly so on his hands by night. He will +pray and exhort, and bundle them up to the Mission if he can, and cry +as he tells me how they will give way and yield to the devil whether or +no. And so it goes. Women must get hold of this thing. It's the first +item in your temperance crusade, and till the people have better food +there is no law or influence that can make them give up drinking. I +wouldn't if I were they." + +Here the talk ended. My impetuous friend disappeared around a corner, +and I went my way, a little surer than before of the fact which was +already so distinct a belief it needed no new foundations, that better +food will and must mean better living. Hard times are passing, but none +the less is there still the imperative demand for wider knowledge of +what food those hard-earned dollars shall buy. Philanthropists may urge +what reforms they will--less crowding, purer air, better sanitary +regulations--but this question of food underlies all. The knowledge +that is broad enough to ensure good food is broad enough to mean better +living in all ways; and not till such knowledge is the property of all +women can we look for the "emancipation" from some of the deepest evils +that curse the life of woman in the slums and out. Toward that end all +women who long to help, yet see no outlook, may work, and with its full +recognition will come the day for which we wait--a day whose faint dawn +even now flushes the east and gives promise, dim yet sure, of the +slowly-nearing light, holding even when most clouded the certainty of + + Purer manners, nobler laws. + --HELEN CAMPBELL. + + + + +DELECTATIO PISCATORIA. + +THE UPPER KENNEBEC. + + From the great mere set round with sunbright mountains + Full born the river leaps, + Dashing the crystal of a thousand fountains + Down its romantic steeps. + + 'Tis now a torrent whose untamed endeavor + Is eager for the sea, + Angry that rock or reef should hinder ever + Its frantic liberty. + + Then, for a space, a lake and river blended, + It sleeps with tranquil breast, + As if its haste and rage at last were ended, + And all it sought was rest. + + In spicy woodpaths by its rapids straying, + I hear, with lingering feet, + Its liquid organ and the treetops playing + Te Deums strangely sweet. + + I break the covert: pictured far emerges + On the enraptured sight + The arrowy flow, green isles, a cascade's surges, + Foam-flaked in rosy light, + + Still pools, and purples of the sleepy sedges, + The skyward forest-wall, + Old sorrowing pines and hazy mountain-ledges, + And soft blue over all. + + O golden hours of summer's precious leisure! + From care and toil apart + Fresh drawn, I taste the angler's gentle pleasure + With friend of equal heart. + + Trout leap and glitter, and the wild duck flutters + Where beds of lilies blow: + A loon his long, weird lamentation utters, + And Echo feels his woe. + + We see in hemlock shade the reedy shallow, + Where, screened by dusky leaves, + The guileless moose comes down to browse and wallow + On still balsamic eves. + + The great blue heron starts as if we sought her, + On pinions of surprise, + And to our lure the darlings of the water + In pink and crimson rise. + + Still gliding on, how throng the sweet romances + Of Youth's enchanted land! + A lordly eagle, as our bark advances, + Glares on us, sad and grand. + + Onward we float where mellow sunset glory + Streams o'er the lakelet's breast, + And every ripple tells a golden story + Of the transfigured west. + + Onward, into the evening's calm and beauty, + To camp and sleep we go: + Thrice bless'd are lives, in tasks of love and duty, + That end in such a glow! + --HORATIO NELSON POWERS. + + + + +THE RUIN OF ME. + + + +(TOLD BY A YOUNG MARRIED MAN.) + + +I am Poverty scuffing about in old shoes and rubbers. I _was_ one of +those who, at a good salary, think up smart things to put around in the +corners of the Chicago _Times_. When every newspaper, from the London +_Punch_ down, was making jokes about Elihu Burritt's _Sanskrit for the +Fireside_, it was I who beat them all by saying in solid nonpareil, +"The best way to learn Sanskrit is to board in a family of +Sanskritters." It was I who said, "Let the Communists carry pistols: +they may shoot each other;" and, "Sara Bernhardt's children are +articles of _virtu_." + +_O quam me delectat_ Sara Bernhardt! I love such diversified, such +picturesque gifts. Sculpture, painting, acting, writing! This is why I +loved Lydia, who was an adept at numberless arts and accomplishments. +She was a brunette with a clear, cream-tinged skin, red cheeks, rolling +black eyes, ripe velvety lips, and hair of a beautiful hue and rich +lustre--raven black, yet purple as the pigeon's wing in the sun. I +believe it is true that dark people belong to the pre-historic races: +centuries of sunlight are fused in their glowing complexion. Blondes +are beautiful--both the rosy ones with pinkish eyelids and warm golden +locks, and the pale ones with ash-colored hair, gray eyes and dark +brows and lashes--but a florid brunette excels them all. + +In seeing Lydia you would make the mistake that you usually make in +judging girls: entering among them, you think their attitudes proclaim +their traits. For instance, you take the most giggling one for a +simpleton, but afterward learn that she is a good scholar and has +accepted the Greek chair in a Western college, and looking again you +see she has a strong frame, a capable head and large bright eyes. Lydia +dressed in the mode, wore the high-heeled shoes that give such a dainty +look to the foot and gait, and came into a room with a great effusion +of fashionableness; yet she was not in the least what she seemed. She +had a great deal of what is more pleasing than mere appearance, and +that is character. She was ambitious and energetic. She did tatting +when she did nothing else--said it concealed her lack of repose and +liability to fidget. She was able to draw _la quintessence de tout_: +she could make a mountain-spring of a mole-hill. She also had a touch +of temper: those who are perfectly amiable are nothing else. + +I was a youth blue-eyed and fair of face, tall, thin and having a +complying spirit that has been--But let me not anticipate. The race +after fashion ever wearied me--I shall stop early at some +standing-collar or heavy-neckcloth period--and I never cared much for +money--could live with it or without it, desiring "this man's art or +that man's scope" rather than his cash. There is such a great majority +of poor folks, I expected to be one of them; still, I had a taste for +honesty, asked favors of nobody, considered the least debt a +degradation, and thought myself better than most rich people. I was of +the family and the religion of Plato, who peddled oil to pay his +expenses while travelling in Egypt. + +We discover in others what they most wish to hide: therefore I early +discovered that Lydia's mother, who had a large girl-family, and who +knew that the supply of some one to love greatly exceeds the demand, +was anxious to secure me as a son-in-law. I was glad of it, for, let +poets and novelists say what they will, the young fellow who marries +with the approval of friends drifts happily on, while the rash boy who +weds against the good sense of his elders is dragged bleeding along a +rough way. So I married Lydia, and began life in gladness and content. +I liked her family and they liked me. It puzzles me to see how the +English mother-in-law, who is a grum-voiced, dogmatic and belligerent +person with a jointure to bequeath, came to be engrafted on our +literature. The inoffensive delicacy of an American elderly woman +forbids her the rôle of her British sister. Our mother-in-law troubles +are mostly confined to our low foreign population. Neither have we a +character similar to the silly, spiteful, dried-up old maid of English +literature and its American imitations, our spinsters being generally +stout and jolly personages and rather over-fond of children. My +mother-in-law was very nice, and we were the best of friends. + +Rich relations, as a general thing, are abominable: the mere possession +of one sometimes makes a person disagreeable. Show the person with a +rich cousin the most secluded cot among mountains, and, "Oh, you should +see my cousin's house on Michigan Avenue!" is the reply; or a beautiful +room speaking the noble quality of its occupant, and, "Call that nice? +You should see my cousin's house on Michigan Avenue!" is remarked. But +Lydia's rich relations, the Stenes of Chicago, appeared to be +exceptions. They were very clannish people, fond of their own kin to +the last degree. They came from Michigan, and were of the old colony +stock, regular Yankee-Doodle folks, the older ones and many of the +younger ones still using New England idioms and quaint phrases that +came long ago from the East--yes, from the holts of old England's +Suffolk perhaps. You could not persuade one of them to call jelly +anything but "jell" or a repast anything but a "meal of victuals," and +they said "dooty" and "roomor" and "noos" and "clawg," and sometimes +would pop out "his'n" and "her'n." Several of the Stenes had been in +business thirty years in metropolitan Chicago, yet they spoke in the +twang of a Yankee hill-country. The women of the family were famous +housekeepers--too neat to keep a cat lest there might be a cat hair on +the carpet, and never liking visitors unless there was a dreadful note +of preparation, and then they received grandly. To show Lydia their +good-will, they gave her profuse wedding-presents and a splendid +trousseau. On my side I bought a neat cottage, paying cash down--all +the money I had. It was one of a square of cottages principally +occupied by young married people having plenty of children, and a +joyous crew they were. Our street had a broad roadway and flagged +sidewalks edged with neat turf in which fine trees were growing, and +was lined with beautiful homes of varied architecture, suggesting +charming interiors. A row of tall, "high-stoop" New York houses with +dark stone trimmings stood next to a row of English basements of +tuck-pointed brick, and next to them was a range of houses of light, +cheerful Joliet stone, with awnings at the windows and carriage-steps +as clean as gravestones. Then came an old cottage fixed up nobby, then +a comfortable old wooden mansion, then a splendid dwelling in the style +of the fifteenth century, and after that the palace of a railway +grandee. Here and there on a corner stood a Gothic church. All day +well-dressed people trod our pavements and beautiful carriages rolled +by our windows. Our cottage was my ideal of perfection: it had few +rooms, but those spacious. We had no sitting-room. Let me see: what +does that word suggest to my mind? A table heaped with stale +newspapers, a stand piled with sewing, a darned carpet, scratched +furniture and fly-specked wall-paper. + +Lydia's presents filled our house. All were Eastlake and in good taste, +the colors sage-green, pumpkin-yellow and ginger-brown, dashed with +splashes of peacock feathers and Japanese fans. The vases were +straddle-legged and pot-bellied Asiatic shapes. Dragons in bronze and +ivory, sticky-looking faďence and glittering majolica, stood in the +corners. Silk embroideries representing the stork--a scrawny bird with +a scalp-lock at the back of its neck, looking like a mosquito when +flying--and porcelain landscapes out of drawing, like a child's first +attempts, peopled by individuals with the expression of having their +hair pulled, hung 'twixt our dados and friezes. Lydia's young-lady +friends gave her their works in oil or water-colors done in a fine, +free-hand style that may one day form a school of its own. Our Chicago +girls are people of _nous_. Their talk is "fluent as the flight of a +swallow:" their manners are delightful--American manners must be +excellent, so many Englishmen marry American girls. Their playing makes +us glad the seven poor strings of the old musicians have been +multiplied to seven times seven: no Chicago girl is a musician unless +she has the masters at her finger-tips. And they are readers too. You +would suppose, judging from the papers, that our Chicagoans are +inordinately fond of reading about the indiscretions of rustic wives, +and are given to a perusal of the news in startling headlines: but such +is not the fact. We are great readers of the distinguished magazines +and of first-rate books, and our taste for art is keen. When we go +abroad we don't care so much for mountains and rivers--they are like +potatoes and pork to a man who is visiting: we have them at home--but +we _are_ after art. Ruskin says no people can be great in art unless it +lives among beautiful natural objects; which is hard on us Chicago +folks. If we had any mountainous or rocky tracts we should not live in +them. If we possessed a Mount Vesuvius we should use it for getting up +bogus eruptions to draw tourists to our hotels, and we should tap the +foot of the mountain to draw off the lava for our streets. + +Lydia's finery had a subduing effect upon me, who had bounded my +aspirations to what was distinctly within my grasp--namely, things + + Plain, but not sordid--though not splendid, clean. + +Lydia was an expert housekeeper. "I love a little house that I can +clean all over," said she. She would have liked a Roman villa made of +polished marble, that could be scrubbed from top to bottom, or a house +of the melted and dyed cobble-stones that some genius has promised to +give us. Her china-closet was a picture, with platters in rows and cups +hanging on little brass hooks under the shelves. Our whole house was +exquisite, and became quite renowned for its elegance and charm. +Lydia's exuberant vitality was attractive: her relations and friends +liked to come there. Some of our friends were of the high, haughty, +tone-y sort, which would have been well enough if we had not incurred +debts in our housekeeping. + + What and how great the merit and the art + To live on little with a thankful heart! + +Lydia's rich uncle, Nathan Stene, gave us a bookcase that caused my +heart to sink with an appalling premonition at its first appearance, it +was so huge and high. How we got it into our parlor without cutting off +the top and bottom words cannot explain. That bookcase was my first +step toward ruin. I had a good many books--not of scientific but of +delightful literature, the best works of the best authors--and my books +were as shabby as Charles Lamb's library. There never were such +dilapidated volumes as my De Quinceys. Lydia had _Young Mrs. Jardine_ +and lots of other + + Stickjaw pudding that tires the chin, + With the marmalade spread ever so thin; + +and her books were new-looking. She said mine looked disgustingly dirty +in our new bookcase, so I had them rebound; and this was my next step +toward ruin. Lydia wanted a long peacock-feather duster to dust the top +of the bookcase. I bought that. Our only long tablecloth was a damask, +engarlanded and diapered and resplendent with a colored border +warranted to wash. I had to buy napkins to go with it. I bought a +butter-knife to match a solid silver butter-dish, and a set of +individual salt-spoons to match salt-cellars, and nut-picks and +crackers to match something else. Moreover, there was a magnificent +opera-glass that required to be matched with theatre-going--_not_ as I +was wont to go, in an old overcoat having its pockets stuffed with old +playbills. But why enumerate? + +On the strength of her wedding-presents Lydia became a gladiatrix in +the arena of society. She already belonged to three clubs: she joined +four more--Private Theatrical, a History of Art, a Conversation and a +Suffrage Club. I myself belong to but one, the Cremation Club--am an +officer in that: I split kindlings. As the bordered tablecloth was +suitable for lunch-parties, Lydia entertained her friends at an hour +when I was about town looking up paragraphs, but I have no doubt she +carried it off bravely, and their discussions were as important as +those of a poultry convention on the question of feathers or no +feathers on chickens' legs. + +At this time I found that great feasts make small comforts scarce. +Often, on coming home and finding Lydia out, I had Ionic hours alone, +when I refreshed myself with the great shouting, cheering and laughter +of the Greek armies and people that gladden our dull hearts even now, +and for want of anything better I regaled myself on the feasts offered +by Machaon (first Scotchman) in the _Iliad_, and by Nestor, on the +table with azure feet and in the goblet with four handles and four +feet, with gold turtles drinking at the brim from the handles. Or I +supped with Achilles while Patroclus turned the meat on the bed of +wide, glowing embers and the tent brightened in the blaze. Once, when I +was seeking something for that newspaper bore, Woman's Sphere, I +lunched with the Suffragists. Each character of the Suffrage Club was +as clear as a figure cut on a sapphire. The president, a matron of +sixty wearing waving gray hair and dressed in black, with plenty of +white lace under her chin, had the air of a woman used to command a +large family and accustomed to plenty of money and to good society. Her +voice was the agreeable barytone of her years, its thin tones entirely +gone, and her good English was like gentle music: nevertheless, an +occasional strong tone or gesture revealed her determined will. The +Suffragists were handsomely dressed, were self-possessed and +appreciative of each other's company, and were of all ages, one being a +plain young girl quietly looking on and enjoying the world more than a +self-wrapped belle is capable of doing. + +But to my tale, which is to me more absorbing than _Rob Roy, Robinson +Crusoe_ and _Boots at the Swan_ combined. Of all our visitors I +preferred Uncle Nathan Stene. Not that I liked him personally. He was +the typical rich man: I should know he was rich wherever I met him. +There are thousands like him: they despise me utterly. Uncle Nathan had +a scorn for poor people. He disdained whole States that gave him a bad +market, and regarded young fellows who smoke and go to the theatre as +beggars' dogs. He was of middle height, with reddish complexion, sandy +hair and eyebrows, quick, sharp gray eyes, and features of a short, +clean, close aquiline cut, with thin, dry lips--a man of iron, pig +iron. When young he might have been facetious, but he had concentrated +his energies entirely on money, till there was nothing left to go in +other directions, and his humor was now as sombre as the grin of a +hanged man. He had self-conceit, which is a talent when combined with +some other qualities. Doctor Johnson's observation, that to make money +requires talents, is true: a dull man cannot do it. Uncle Nate had to +remember thirty thousand articles in his business of wholesale +druggist. He was a perfect devil-fish for sucking the goodness from +every business he was concerned in--banking, railroading, and so on. He +belonged to the Chicago Board of Trade, and was particularly useful in +getting those fellows in Indianapolis on a string, sending the wheat +up, up, until the Hoosiers had made a few hundred thousands, and then, +when they thought they were going to make millions, letting it down and +scooping them. My habit of listening intently to Uncle Nate's +telegrammatic style of talk caused him to like me. I resembled King +Lear: I talked with those who were wise, and said little, and Nathan's +aphorisms about trade and politics made good paragraphs when boiled +down to the crisp cracklins. + +While I worked and Lydia entertained we were waltzing like the wind +down to ruin. No use to cry, "Ho! great gods! Hilloa! you're wanted +here!" On we went. + +Worrying over pecuniary affairs gradually sapped my mind. To lose one's +eyes or all one's relations, or to be bitten by a mad dog, will not +unhinge the brain so completely as pecuniary anxiety. My paragraphs, +spite of Nate's verbum saps., lost their originality. I resigned my +post on the _Times_. I became the collector on commission of certain +rents of Uncle Nathan's. Whoso collects rents in Chicago tenements +should know how to box or else to run: I could do neither. I got little +or nothing out of the devils and devillets, my respected uncle's +tenants. He had a genius for the despatch of business: I had none; +therefore he concluded I was an ass, and wondered how he came to be +pleased with me. Oh, 'tis a good thing to know what you can do, and to +do that, and know what you cannot do, and leave that alone. Dull as +weeds of Lethe was my task. 'Twas terrible! I thought it would never +end. No greater misery could be imagined than what I endured in +Nathan's service. + +One morning of those days I picked up a note in Lydia's writing hastily +scrawled as follows: "I have discovered your retreat: I must see you. +At seven o'clock wave the lamp three times across the window if all is +well." + +In my undecided way I pinned the note to the blue silk pincushion on +Lydia's dressing-case. I had a sudden jealous suspicion of an +acquaintance of ours, a furiously-striking English +traveller--"Bone-Boiler to the Queen" or something--who had a long, +silky, sweeping moustache blowing about in the wind, and parted his +hair "sissy." But I went to work all the same. + +That day Uncle Nate was a worse screw than ever. "How is it you never +hit a clam?" asked he. + +"Your tenants have nothing, so I get nothing," I replied. + +"Nonsense! They must have something. Drunken loafers are driving about +in livery-rigs everywhere--sure sign of prosperity." + +"Your people are not out," I said. + +"They sit around the house reading yesterday's newspapers." + +"They can't get work," said I. + +"Everybody that wants to work is in the ditch now-a-days: _that_ I +_know_" said the old man. + +"Some are sick." + +"They are well enough to walk three miles to a brewery after a free +drink." + +"Some are too young to work." + +"Hah! what's the use of having a parcel of young ones to be poor +relations to the rest of the world?" asked he. + +"Some are positively starving," said I. + +"What of that? You have to let them starve. Five hundred thousand +starved in India last year, a country overrun with sacred snakes and +animals of all sorts that they might have eaten. Three millions starved +in China, and they tore up their English railway, the only thing that +could save them. What are you going to do about it? Starving! Bet they +are wallowing in the theatre every night," said Nathan. + +"The theatre with Lawrence Barrett! I wish they might see anything so +elevating. Perhaps _Othello_ might make some impression on them, such a +stupendous temperance lecture it is!" I groaned. + +"If _you_ would leave the theatre alone you wouldn't be quite so short +as you are now," asserted Uncle Nate, almost popping open with +contempt. + +"'Short,' man! 'Short' in your throat!" shouted I, forgetting myself. + +"Yes, short; and it's my opinion you've shorted me in this business." + +I could not kick our uncle out of his premises, so I got out myself, +not to return; and I left in debt to him as well as to the rest of the +world. I went homeward. Though it was August, a cold wind blew from the +lake, whipping the large, flapping leaves of the castor-bean plants in +the front yards to rags. I quaffed the lake in the wet wind. "No +wonder," I thought, "we're three parts water: our world is." A young +fellow on the street-car platform smoked a cigar that smelled like +pigweed, cabbage-stalks and other garden rubbish burning, and made me +sick. He enjoyed it, though: in fact, all, including the street-car +driver himself, were on that day more than usually engaged in the +intense enjoyment of being Chicagoans. All but me, miserable. The very +windows and pavements of our streets, being clean and cold, sent a +chill to my bones. + +When I reached home Lydia was pinning on her habergeon, her neck-armor +of ribbons and lace, before the mirror. "What is this?" I asked, +pointing to the suspicious note, still pinned to the cushion. + +"That's the note that has to be found in my room in the play of _Lost +in London_," she answered, turning the great lamps of her eyes on mine. + +As I had nothing to say to this, I went and lay down on the sofa before +the parlor-fire. Though a grate in January is a poor affair--I never +knew any human being who really depended on one in winter to speak in +praise of it--on a cool August day it is delicious. I fell into a warm +doze before the fire, then into a series of agreeable naps. When Lydia +said supper was ready I did not want any, and at bedtime I was too +stiff to move easily. + +After this, during several weeks, my bedchamber became to me a place +full of sweet dreams and rest and quiet breathing. Luxurious +indifference, a pleasure in hearing the crickets in the grass of the +midsummer gardens, and voices talking afar--a satisfaction in seeing +the polished walnut, marble and china and plenteous linen towels of my +washstand, my altar to Hebe, and in seeing through a window, + + While day sank or mounted higher, + The light, aërial gallery, golden railed, + Burn like a fringe of fire + +on some remote palace of the city. These and other sensations of +malarial fever occupied me for a while. In half dreams I then enjoyed +the minutest details of life in an old farm-house that had been my +home, or walked through a picture-gallery I had once frequented, seeing +each picture strangely perfect and splendidly limned. Light diet and +keeping quiet--which every Westerner knows to be the cure of this +fever--cured me. I came forth looking like a _swairth_, one of those +words marked "obs." in the dictionary--means phantom of a person about +to die. It ought to be revived; so here goes--_swairth_. + + Leaden before, my eyes were dross of lead. + +I was pale and lank, but things had settled themselves in my mind: I +had gone back to my old ideas of honor and freedom; my mind was made +up. + +"Well, Lydia," said I, "you wanted to manage: you were bound to wear +the breeches. As you make your pants, so you must sit in them." + +"You awful man!" said she. + +"Now I will manage," said I. + +"Indeed! Nothing would please me better," said she. + +"I will sell our house and all that's in it, and get out of debt," said +I. + +"You mean to be one of the lower classes and wear old rags," she +exclaimed. + +"We have no class-distinctions but the Saving Class and the Wasting +Class. I shall be of the first class. As to clothes, they are +despicable," I replied. + +"People who despise clothes can't get any." + +"Well, I've done all I'm going to do toward developing the West, which +consists in getting into debt, as far as I can see." + +When an able woman submits she submits completely. Lydia put our house +in order. I filled the streets with dodgers advertising our sale. I +have not been a paragraphist for nothing: the sale was a success. I +paid a part of my debts, and gave notes for the rest that will keep my +future poor. I started in again on the _Times'_ city force. To board I +hate: it's a chicken's life--roosting on a perch, coming down to eat +and then going back to roost. So I got a little domicile in "The +Patch." When the teakettle has begun to spend the evening the new cheap +wallpaper, the whitewash and the soapsuds with which the floor has been +scrubbed emit peculiar odors. + +"It smells poor-folksy here," says Lydia. + +"All the better!" say I. + --MARY DEAN. + + + + +SHORT STUDIES IN THE PICTURESQUE. + + +Although our American climate, with its fierce and pitiless extremes of +temperature, will never give the lush meadows and lawns of moist +England, yet in the splendid and fiery lustres of its autumn forests, +in its gorgeous sunsets and sunrises and in the wild beauty of its +hills and mountains there is that which makes an English Midland +landscape seem tame in comparison. The rapid changes of temperature in +summer and the sudden rising of vast masses of heated air produce +cloud-structures of the most imposing description, especially huge, +irregular cumulus clouds that float in equilibrium above us like +colossal icebergs, airy mountain-ranges or tottering battlemented +towers and "looming bastions fringed with fire." + + Yon clouds are big with flame, and not with rain, + Massed on the marvellous heaven in splendid pyres, + Whereon ethereal genii, half in pain + And half in triumph, light their mystic fires. + +The brilliant deep-blue Italian skies of the Middle and Southern States +are full of poetry, and will repay the most careful and prolonged +study. I have seen, far up in the zenith, silvery fringes of cirrus +clouds forming and melting away at the same moment and in the same +place, ethereal and evanescent as a dream, easel-studies of Nature. +Sometimes the clouds take the form of most airily-delicate brown crape, +"hatchelled" on the sky in minute lines and limnings. Now the sky looks +like a sweet silver-azure ceiling, the blue peeping here and there +through tender masses of silver frosting. The skies of the New England +coast States are filled, during a large part of spring, summer and +autumn, with a white and dreamy haze, and do not produce +cloud-phenomena on such an imposing scale as the more brilliant skies +of the interior. I shall never forget a vast and glowing sunset-scene I +once witnessed in the Ohio Valley. It lasted but a few moments, but +what a spectacle! The setting sun was throwing his golden light over +the intensely green earth, and suffusing the irregular masses of clouds +now with a tender rosy light and now with delicate saffron. All along +the eastern horizon extended a black-blue cloud-curtain of about twenty +degrees in height, across which played the zigzag gold of the +lightning. Overhead hung the gigantic ring of a complete rainbow (a +rare phenomenon), looking like the iridescent rim of some vast sun that +had shot from its orbit and was rapidly nearing our earth. In the north +the while slept the sweet blue sky in peace. What a phantasmagoria of +splendor, "the magic-lantern of Nature"! What a rich contrast of +color!--the black and the gold, the green, saffron, rose and azure, and +the whole crowned with a rainbow garland of glowing flowers. I felt +assured that no sunset of Italy or Greece could fling upon the sky more +costly pictures than these. + +The delicacy and accuracy of touch exhibited in _The Scarlet Letter_ +and in _Oldport Days_ can hardly be appreciated to the full by those +who are unacquainted with certain mellow and crumbling towns and +hamlets of the New England coast, especially of the warm south coast. +Soft mists rise in summer like "rich distilled perfumes" from the warm +Gulf Stream off Long Island Sound and drift landward in invisible airy +volumes. Suddenly, as at a given signal, the sky becomes troubled, +grows dun: trembling dew-specks glister upon the leaves, and in a few +moments the gray fog starts out of the air on every side and clings to +tree, crag and house like shroud to corpse. It is this warm moisture +that gives to the south-coast hamlets their mellow tint. I have +especially in mind at this moment one romantic village whose stout old +yeoman elms hold their protecting foliage-shields over many a gray +mansion as rich in tradition as the House of the Seven Gables, and only +awaiting the touch of some wizard hand to become immortalized. The +prevailing tint of these old houses, and of everything that a lichen +can take hold of, is a sage-gray. There seems to be something in the +sea-breezes unusually favorable to the growth of lichens, and they hold +high carnival everywhere, growing in riotous exuberance on every tree +and rock and fence. I saw whole board fences so thickly tufted and +bearded with a rich, particolored mosaic of lichens that from +base-board to cope-board there was scarcely a square foot of the +original wood to be seen. On any hazy Indian-summer afternoon, if you +look down the wide, irregular main street, lined with its mighty elms +and gambrel-roofed houses, all seems wrapped in a dim gray atmosphere +of antiquity, like that surrounding Poe's House of Usher, only not +ghostly as that is. It is a strange _je ne sais quoi_ that eludes +description, as if houses and trees stood at the bottom of a sea of +visible heat. + +Whatever of picturesqueness an English hamlet has, this American one +has. It has its wealthy hereditary aristocracy, its small farmers or +squires and its peasants, its ruins and haunted houses, its traditions +of savages and of the great men who have honored it with their +presence. The town, moreover, is set off by a framework of the most +enchanting and varied scenery--river, streamlet, ocean, lighthouse, +hills with flower-and-grass-tufted crags, and forests, while on any +summer's day one may see, far away and "sown in a wrinkle of the +monstrous hill," some neighboring village with its graceful spire of +purest white gleaming and flaming in the hot sunshine, like marble set +in a foil of malachite. + +A window of my room looked out upon a crystal stream that wound down +through the salt-meadows to the sea, and twice a day, under the +influence of the seemingly-mysterious systole and diastole of the +tides, spread out into a wide-glittering lake and anon crept back again +into its sinuous bed. This water was as fickle and wanton and +many-mooded as a coquettish girl. Now its translucent glassy surface is +unruffled by a single wrinkle, and in its brilliant depths every +minutest feature of yonder drifting hay-barge is weirdly mirrored. I +look out again, and the face of the water is working with rage under +the lashing of the wind: at the same time its face seems white with +fear, and its ghostly arms are tossing, now in defiance and now in +piteous appeal. But now, as I gaze, the winds in their uncouth gambols +tear a huge rent in the cloud-tent they had raised over the earth, and +in the sweet blue beyond appears the calm and smiling face of the sun. +Before its glance the wind-phantoms slink away in fear and the now +quiet streamlet smiles through its tears. + +The stiff formality and the ridiculous solemnity of the old Puritan +times still linger about these secluded New England hamlets. But each +winter a huge Christmas tree is set up in the church of the village I +have mentioned, and loaded with presents. The winter I was there I went +to see the distribution. Recollecting the delightful Christmas days of +my own childhood, I was anticipating great pleasure. Of course I was +going to look in on a scene of childish joy, of shouting and laughing, +and eating of candy and pop-corn in unlimited quantities. Memories of +the stories of Hans Andersen and the Grimm brothers were floating +through my mind as I crunched the crisp snow under my feet on my way to +the church. I remembered the rapture of those Christmas mornings at +home, when we children stole down stairs by candlelight to the warm +room filled with the aromatic perfume of the Christmas tree, that stood +there resplendent with presents from old Santa Claus--Noah's arks, +mimic landscapes, dolls, sleds, colored cornucopias bursting with +bonbons, and especially those books of fairy-tales from whose rich +creamy pages exhaled a most divine and musty fragrance. Ah, the memory +of our childhood's hours! what is it but that enchanted lake of the +Arabian tale, from whose quiet depths we are ever and anon drawing up +in our nets some magic colored fish? Well, I reached the church. The +children, dressed in their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes, were sitting +in the high-backed pews in solemn silence, while a reverend gentleman +was delivering a solemn exhortation to gratitude and goodness. Another +followed. "Very well, gentlemen," thought I, "but now please to retire +and give up the field to these children." But no. The superintendent of +the Sunday-school now advanced: the children marched up one by one, as +their names were called, and received their presents from him. Some of +them came very near grinning (poor things!), but in general they looked +as if they were going to their execution. When all was done _the +meeting was dismissed_! + +Sauntering through the streets of this village, and making note of the +quaint idiosyncrasies and irregularities of character and manner +displayed by its humbler folk, I thought of the sentiment which Thoreau +so exquisitely expresses in his _Week_: "The forms of beauty fall +naturally around him who is in the performance of his proper work, as +the curled shavings drop from the plane and borings cluster round the +auger." Picturesqueness characterizes the New England white laborer, as +it does the Southern black laborer: especially is this true of those +who have emigrated from Europe when of adult age, and have been unable +to lay aside the picturesque features of their Old-World life. + +One winter evening I discovered, a few miles from the village, one of +this class: he was, on the whole, the strangest human being whom it has +ever been my fortune to meet. About dusk I found myself some distance +away from the village, near the great bridge that spans the river where +it debouches into the sea. The water was heaving in long, slow swells. +A deep silence had fallen over the earth. The evening red was reflected +in the sea in rich blood dye, while the colored lights of the bridge +and the lighthouse glowed and burned in the deep, here writhing along +the waves like long golden and crimson sea-serpents, and there shooting +down long streamers of light into the waves, to serve, I fancied, as +hanging lamps for that vast black, star-bespangled abyss of the sky, +that weird sunken dome, that inverted world, over which the water lay +stretched out like thin, translucent red glass, and to look down into +whose immeasurable and dizzy depths thrilled me both with pleasure and +a kind of terror--that vague feeling of pain which the sublime always +excites in the mind. + +I crossed the bridge and wandered along the opposite side of the river +by a lonely path. Suddenly I saw smoke curling up from a small recess +of the beach. It was a full mile from any human habitation known to me, +and I hesitated for a moment about advancing upon such a place at dusk, +especially as the winter was one of the gloomiest in the period of our +long financial depression. However, I decided to go on. Several +overturned fishing-boats lay upon the beach, with a net drying upon one +of them. A few clamshells were scattered about, and near the door of a +small cabin lay a pile of split kindlings. The cabin was considerably +smaller in size than an English railway-carriage, and nestled under the +overhanging bank of the river. No human being was visible at first. But +presently I detected by the red glow of his pipe a man in the interior +of the cabin. I sat down on a boat, not venturing to approach nearer +and beard the old lion in his lair. But on his inviting me to come in I +went up to the door. It was, however, only a meaningless form of speech +that led him to say "Come in," for it would hardly have been possible +to get into a cabin only five feet wide, with the man himself sitting +by a large rusty stove right over against the door. He placed a +bootjack in the doorway for me to sit down upon. There was no window in +the cabin. Firkins of fish were piled up along the sides of the +interior, and in the dim background I saw a rude framework covered with +straw which served as a bed. + +And now for the human being there. The most noticeable peculiarity +about the strange old hermit was an enormous wen which hung down from +the front part of his neck. This wen was fully as large as a man's +head. Long yellow hair hung over his shoulders, and a huge red beard +reached to the middle of his breast-- + + His beard a foot before him, and his hair + A yard behind. + +His moustache alone showed signs of the scissors: he had there cleared +a path through the russet jungle of his beard, that an entrance might +be had to the inner man. The eyes that looked out from this thicket of +hair had not that hard, dangerous, angry look that experience of such +persons had taught me to expect, but they expressed loneliness. He told +of the high tides of the month of January in a certain year, when the +water rose so as to enter his cabin and ponderous cakes of ice were +knocking and grinding against its sides in the night. We talked of +fish. He spoke of fyke-nets and drag-nets and warp-lines, and of +eel-spearing through the ice. He took especial delight in telling me +how the snow in winter was swept away from his door in a clean circle +by the broom of some friendly wind. "It is the wind that does it," said +he with touching naďveté. It almost seemed to the poor old man's lonely +heart like a special favor on the part of the wind, like a tender +feeling and relenting on the part of the icy-hearted winter wind for +him in his solitude and sadness as he lay there cast out on the +desolate shore of the world, deformed and shattered in health-- + + Gleich einer Leiche + Die grollend ausgeworfen das Meer-- + + "Like a corpse which the bellowing sea + has cast out." + +Strange life! O utter barrenness of existence! A pipe, a fire, fish, +rags and a bed of straw. God pity thee! God pity thee, thou poor +stricken deer! Take heart, man, take heart! Be brave, and dash away the +bitter tear. Look up from the lowly cabin-door into the solemn night +with its golden-burning stars, and even the loosened harp-strings of +thy shattered old frame will vibrate and tremble to the eternal +melodies that thrill through the mystic All: "God is in his heaven." + +Dickens and Hawthorne have each written of canal-life in America, the +one in a satirico-humorous way, the other sympathetically. People side +with one or the other according as their disposition is active and +restless or indolent and epicurean. I fight under the banner of +Hawthorne in defence of the canal. The following sketch of one of the +old picturesque Pennsylvania canals may be called a vignette, for it is +a fragment without definite border or setting. But admirers of Dickens +are respectfully requested to note that it is no mere fancy sketch of a +poetic mind, but was drawn from Nature, every bit of it. + +The first and most novel sensation I experienced was that of the quiet +and seemingly mysterious gliding movement of the boat. Ever and anon we +passed through a lock. How strange and thrilling the feeling, to stand +on the deck and see yourself slowly sinking into the great mossy box, +and then to see the great valves of the lock slowly open, disclosing +what seemed a new land and fresh vistas of green landscape! It was like +the opening of the gates of the future (I pleased myself with fancying) +to my triumphant progress. Gate after gate swung back its ponderous +valves: I was Habib advancing from isle to isle of the enchanted sea. I +uttered the word of power, and the huge unwieldy gates of opposition +swung back with sullen and unwilling deference, compelled to respect +the talisman I held. But hark! Hear the sweet notes of the supper-horn +floating through the cool gloom of twilight as the tired reapers trudge +home with their grain-cradles swung over their shoulders. Listen to the +tinkling mule-bells on the tow-path, see the bright crimson tassels of +the bridles, and the gayly-decorated boats, their cabin-roofs adorned +with pots of herbs and flowers. + +As we glide down the canal, ever and anon we see some empty returning +boat (called "light boat" in the technical canal phrase) rounding a +curve before us, It comes nearer: the horses walk the same tow-path: +how _are_ the boats to pass without confusion? Ah, the riddle is +solved. Our captain (who holds the helm while the boy, his assistant, +is down in the cabin preparing supper) calls out suddenly, at the last +moment, "Whoa!" The well-trained horses instantly stop; the momentum of +the boat carries it on; the rope slackens, disappears in the water, +except at the two ends; the approaching horses step over it, and the +approaching boat glides over it. When the approaching "light boat" has +passed nearly or entirely over the rope our captain shouts to his +horses to go on: the rope tightens, and all is as before. + +The parts of the canal lying between the locks are called "levels." On +long levels we could often see one or two boats far ahead of us and +going in the same direction. Nothing could be prettier than the thin +blue streamer of wood-smoke trailing out from the stovepipe of the +cabin-roof against the bright green of the foliage along the banks. It +told us the cheery news that the fragrant coffee or tea was a-making in +the cozy little cabin below. And now, when supper is done, the captain +brings up his guitar and plays sweet plaintive airs as we glide through +the quiet evening shadows. Night deepens: the stars come out one by +one, and are reflected in the smooth dark water below in dreamy, dusky +splendor. We brush the dew from the heavy foliage as we pass along. +Lithe alders and heavy vines trail in the cool flood, and the fresh +evening air is filled with grateful harvest-scents and the perfume of +unseen flowers. And now our pretty painted lamp-board is fixed in its +place in the bow. The bright lamp throws its rich golden splendor +before us. The lamp is hid from us by the board which holds it. We +stand behind in the dark, and watch the overhanging sprays of foliage +making strange, grotesque shadows that move fantastically and sport and +clutch and writhe like wanton fiends, while the solid banks of foliage +themselves, reflected in the water below, look, one fancies, like +hanging gardens in the weird world to which the water is but a window, +and far, far down upon whose dusky floor the flowers are golden stars. + +The canal over which I am now conducting my readers is one of the +oldest in the country. For many miles it is cut out of the solid rock, +following the windings of the river and clinging close to the contours +of the hills. The particolored rocks jut out in great square blocks, +which, in summer, are usually tufted with grass or flowers. There is an +indescribable air of coziness and safety about the amphibious life one +leads on such a canal. You can here snap your fingers at the terrors of +the cruel water. Here the mocking waves cannot "curl their monstrous +heads" as on the sea, when with blind fury they dash against the +helpless ship their ponderous and shapeless forms, while sailors and +passengers alike are every moment expecting the final stroke that shall +sink them beneath the waves. On the canal you cannot be drowned, on the +canal you cannot be wrecked. The shore is so delightfully near! You +exult in the friendly companionship of the rocky wall that towers above +you, and in the assuring presence of the flowers and shrubs that cling +there or reach out to you their thin elvish hands. You feel that here +untamed Nature (that great wolf) cannot get her claws upon you. Upon +this thread of water you are soothed by the thought that you are under +the friendly and beneficent protection of man. + +About nine or ten o'clock each evening the boats tie up at some lock. +At all of these locks there are refreshment-stands and neat taverns of +which the traveller must avail himself, since there are no +accommodations for visitors on the boats. On the fourth day, wishing to +vary my experience, I boarded another boat. Her deck was the very model +of neatness. Verily the spirit of either a Yankee housewife or a Dutch +vrow must have presided over that boat and tyrannized over the poor +wretches who managed it. Black Care seemed to sit continually upon +their brows. They were living scrubbing-brushes. They were scrub-mad. +From morn to dewy eve they scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, and +doubtless in their dreams they still scrubbed on. The crew consisted of +a man and his wife, their boy and an old uncle of the boy. I found, to +my delight, that the boy was a very communicative young gentleman, +flowing freely in talk without any pumping on my part. The various +quaint technical phrases which I learned from him shall now be imparted +to the reader. The _berme_, or _heel-path_, is the side of the canal +opposite the tow-path; _basins_ are small coves in the canal where +boats may lie over; _stop-lock_, a sort of quay; the _bit_, a +timber-head at the bow of the boat. _Snub her!_ is a phrase of command, +meaning, "Tie the boat to a post on the bank." _Pipe-poles_ are +steering-poles. The _stern pile_ (of coal on this canal) is in a large +crib near the stern and just in front of the cabin, and is placed in +this particular part of the long and unwieldy boat in order to make her +obey the helm better. _Timber-heads_ project above the deck to "snub" +lines on. _Tow-posts_ are short upright posts near the bow, to which +the tow-line is fastened. The _combings_ are the pieces the hatches +rest on and surround the hold in an oval form. The _wale-plank_ is the +edge of the deck, projecting out over the water like a welt around the +entire circumference of the boat. + +It may surprise many persons to learn that on the tablelands of the +Alleghany Mountains there are still thousands of square miles of virgin +forests of hemlock and pine through which roam bears and deer in +considerable numbers. The hemlock trees are rapidly succumbing, +however, to the axe of the lumberman and the bark-peeler. Bark-peeling +is the great industry there, almost every mountain-hollow along the +lines of the few railways that have penetrated the region in +Pennsylvania having its tannery in active operation. This tanning +business, by the way, is in a very prosperous condition, owing to the +foreign demand for the liquor extracted from the bark as well as to the +steadiness of the leather market. There is a primitive freshness in the +life of the mountaineers and lumbermen of the Alleghanies like that of +the mining regions of the far West. There is a sprinkling of Canadians +among the lumbermen, and as a whole they are the most honest, +good-natured, childlike set of men in existence. They are the true +priests of those high and dim-green temple-aisles--priests of Nature +one might call them. The cabins of the bark-peelers are made of rough, +sweet-smelling hemlock planks. The smell of the hemlock bark is fresh +and tonical, and appetizing in the highest degree. The men eat fabulous +quantities of food: some require five meals a day. I well remember my +first meal in a mountain hemlock shanty. Imagine a long table of +unpainted boards with X-shaped legs, and along each side of the table +benches for seats. Let there be upon the table three large bowls of +black sugar, here and there towering stacks of white bread (the slices +an inch thick at least), and beside each cover a teacup and saucer, a +huge bowl filled to the brim with steaming-hot apple-sauce, together +with a bowl of the same dimensions containing beans. Now blow the +supper-horn, and hearken to the far halloo from the mountain-side. +Twenty blowzed and bearded men, ravenous and wild-eyed with hunger, +presently file into the room. They sit down: there is an awful and +solemn silence--they are evidently impressed with the momentous +importance of the occasion. You find your face growing long; you think +of funerals; make a timid and humble remark which you hope will be +acceptable and within the range of their comprehension. No answer: you +evidently have their pity. No word breaks the sullen silence, except an +occasional request to pass something, uttered with an effort as if the +speaker had the lockjaw. The meal is bolted with frightful rapidity, +generally in five or six minutes. I remember that I was considerably +scared and dazed, on my first acquaintance with these mountain-fauns, +at seeing such a systematic snatching and grabbing, such a ferocious +plying of knives and forks and rattling of cups, by those huge-limbed, +brawny, whiskered fellows. + +It is difficult to describe the perennial beauty of the hemlock trees, +with their dark, rich foliage-masses and aromatic odor. It seems a +sacrilege to destroy them so ruthlessly. When stripped of their bark +and stained with the dark-red sap, they look like fallen giants spoiled +of their armor, lying there prone and white-naked, as if there had been +a battle of the giants and the gods. These giants were perfumed, it +seems. Their huge green plumes are now withered and torn, and their red +blood oozes slowly from their bodies in thin and trickling streams. You +think of Ossian's heroes, of Thor and his hammer, of the Anakim or of +the steeple-high Brobdignagian cavalry, and almost expect to hear +groans issuing from the colossal trunks that cumber the ground on every +side. + +Everything is on a large scale in these mighty forests. The horizon of +your life noiselessly widens, rolls gradually back into immeasurable +distances, and "deepens on and up." There is elasticity and stretch in +your thoughts. If you have read Richter, his towering, godlike dreams +of time and eternity here find their fit interpretation. He had his +Fichtelgebirge, and you have your hemlock mountains. Life seems heroic +once more: you exult in existence, and fondly think that here you could +be happy for ever. To live far away from the cruel, hurrying world in a +sweet little hamlet you wot of, sunk in the heart of the mountains at +the bottom of a deep, mossy mountain-chalice--a chalice of richest +chasing and filled with the pure wine of God, the mountain-air; to live +there during the long summer days; to stand in the flush of dawn with +bared head and inhale the fragrance of the dew-drenched grass and the +scarlet balsams; to walk with hushed step through the wide forests, +communing with the powerful sylvan spirits that labor there, watching +with what miraculous delicacy of touch their unseen fingers weave the +rich fantastic shrouds of fern and moss that deck the dead and fallen +trees or anon give to the living their faint and mottled tints of green +and gray;--to live thus through the summer hours, and through autumn, +winter, spring watch the unrolling of the gorgeous scroll of +Time,--this, you think, were living to some purpose!--WILLIAM SLOANE +KENNEDY. + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + + + +THE PARIS SALON OF 1880. + + +The Salon (official) catalogue contains this year 696 pages. There are +3957 paintings exhibited; 2085 designs, sketches in charcoal and +watercolors; 30 engravings on stone, etc.; 111 designs for +architecture; 46 specimens of lithography; 701 pieces of sculpture; 305 +eaux-fortes; and 54 specimens of monumental art--in all 7280 objects. +Though we all thought last year that the number of paintings exhibited +was immense, this year the number is 917 more. Alas for the poor +critics! How many an additional ache that implies for them! Still, as +we have a cozy reading-room at the Palais de l'Industrie--an innovation +of this season for the benefit of those who get tired of looking at the +pictures and wish to "take a rest"--the weary critic may enter and take +a seat (if he can find one unoccupied, which is highly improbable), and +there write out his "notes," as I am doing at this moment. + +While standing in front of a charming picture by Dagnan-Bouveret (_Un +Accident_), I felt a soft arm brush gently against mine, and glancing +down recognized the capricious Sara Bernhardt. Yes, Sara was there, +leaning on the arm of Mr. Stevens, the Belgian painter who is credited +with finishing Sara's paintings, and followed by her son Maurice and a +little retinue of admirers, mostly young men--artists and actors--and +stared at with persistency by all who saw her pass. "There goes +Bernhardt!" "Did you see Bernhardt?" were the remarks on all sides. Her +head, which bore itself as if quite unaware that a suit for three +hundred and fifty thousand francs damages was suspended over it like +the sword of Damocles, was covered with a mass of rich auburn-colored +hair. She is as changeable as a chameleon in the matter of her hair: I +never see her twice with the same colored _chevelure_. + +The Salon this year contains at least four _good_--one might almost say +_great_--pictures. Of these four, the one to which popular opinion +seems to award the _grande médaille d'honneur_, is Bastien-Lepage's +_Jeanne d'Arc_. This large painting (3-15/100 mčtres by 3-45/100 +mčtres) represents the Maid at the moment when, seeing the vision of +the Virgin, she is inspired to go forth and save her country. A +peasant-girl, strong and muscular, she leans against a tree, her face +uplifted to heaven and aglow with a noble inspiration. The cottage in +the background, the trees and weeds in the middle distance, the +distribution of light and the subdued tones of this impressive picture, +are all excellent. Some critics object to the artist's perspective, but +I fancy that is a bit of hypercriticism. + +Then comes Fernand Cormon's _Flight of Cain_, suggested by Victor +Hugo's lines: + + Lorsqu' avec ses enfants couverts de peaux de bętes, + Échevelé, livide au milieu des tempętes, + Caďn se fut enfui de devant Jéhovah. + +This canvas is one of the largest in the Salon--4 by 7 mčtres. The +chief figures are grandly painted and the whole picture is very +impressive. + +Alphonse Alexis Morot's _Good Samaritan_ is an exceedingly strong +picture. The Samaritan is represented holding upon his own beast the +poor maltreated Jew and walking by his side. The figure-painting is +wonderful in its vigor and _verve_. + +The fourth picture is Alexandre Cabanel's _Phčdre_. The source of the +artist's inspiration was the well-known passage from Euripides: +"Consumed upon a bed of grief, Phčdre shuts herself up in her palace, +and with a thin veil envelops her blonde head. It is now the third day +that her body has partaken of no nourishment: attacked by a concealed +ill, she longs to put an end to her sad fate." Phčdre, as she lies +wishing only for death as a surcease of sorrow, gazed upon with +solicitude by her pitying attendants, is a vivid picture of +all-consuming grief. The decorative work of the bed and the wall is +chaste and classic. + +Of the minor pictures, that of Dagnan-Bouveret, _Un Accident_, is one +of the best. It is indeed a rare picture in the excellence of its +execution in every detail. A boy has been badly wounded in the wrist by +some accident, and the surgeon is engaged in dressing the injured part. +The dirty foot of the boy as it peeps out beneath the chair, shod in a +rough sabot which fails to conceal its grime, the bowl standing on the +table half full of blood and water while the wrist is now being +skilfully bandaged by the surgeon, whose operations are watched with +great solicitude by the group of sympathetic relatives,--all these +features give a living interest to this painting which is unusual. The +red, grimy hands of the old mother of the boy are very faithfully +painted. The expression on the lad's face of heroic endurance and a +determination not to cry in any case is touching. + +As for Mademoiselle Sara Bernhardt's _La Jeune Fille et la Mort_--a +veiled skeleton coming up behind a young girl and touching her on the +shoulder--it would attract little attention if it had not been signed +by the flighty (and lately _fleeing_) actress. The verses underneath +the picture are the best part of it: + + La Mort glisse en son ręve, et tout bas: + "Viens," dit elle, + "L'Amour c'est l'éphémčre, et je suis l'immortelle." + +The great names--Meissonier, Gérôme, Munkacsy, Madrazo, +Berne-Bellecour, Détaille, De Neuville, Rosa Bonheur, Flameng, +etc.--are conspicuous this year by their absence from the catalogue of +the Salon. It is whispered that the reason Munkacsy does not exhibit is +because the administration of the Beaux-Arts saw fit to place the +pictures by foreign artists separately in the Galérie des Étrangers. An +"impressionist" artist-friend of mine--Miss Cassatt, the sister of +Vice-President Cassatt of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company--says that +the reason these distinguished artists do not exhibit any more is that +they are disgusted with the way in which the Salon is conducted by +Edmond Turquet, the present sous-secrétaire aux Beaux-Arts, and the +very unfair acts committed in the awarding of medals, admission of +pictures, etc. + +M. Jean Jacques Henner's _La Fontaine_ is a true Correggio in delicacy +and clearness of tone. His treatment of the flesh is peculiar, and much +envied by many a Paris artist. In this picture the nymph, leaning over +the fountain, is dressed in a very inexpensive costume--in fact, the +same fashion that Mother Eve introduced into Eden. There in the placid +water the beautiful creature contemplates the reflection of her face, +and seems to breathe, with all her being, those charming lines of +Lafenestre: + + Heure silencieuse, oů la nymphe se penche + Sur la source des bois qui lui sert de miroir, + Et ręve en regardant mourir sa forme blanche + Dans l'eau pâle oů descend le mystčre du soir. + +Gustave Jacquet's _Le Minuet_ is one of those pictures which fascinate +and draw us back again and again. A rarely-beautiful girl is dancing +the minuet, surrounded by a group of her friends, beautiful blonde +girls and a fair-haired young man. The costumes are perfectly +exquisite, yet there is not too much _chiffonnerie_ in the picture. +There is a remarkable effect of depth in the painting of the figure of +the dancing girl, especially at the feet and at the bottom of her +skirt. Perhaps the only criticism that could fairly be passed upon M. +Jacquet's picture is that there is too much of mere "prettiness" about +his principal figures. + +A curious feature in this year's exhibition is that there are three +pictures of the assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday, two of +which are hung in the same room. There are also three paintings +representing a scene from Victor Hugo's _Histoire d'un Crime_, +"L'enfant avait reçu deux balles dans la tęte." The child is +represented in Henry Gervex's picture as being lifted up by his +friends, who are examining the poor little wounded, bleeding head. It +is powerful in composition and a very thrilling, realistic picture. The +other two representations of this subject are by Paul Langlois and Paul +Robert. + +Gustave Courtois's _Dante and Virgil in Hell: The Circle of the +Traitors to their Country_, is a picture very much studied by all the +artists who visit the Salon because of its strange landscape, its +wonderful effect of the glacial formations and its marvellous effects +of color. Benjamin Constant's _Les Derniers Rebelles_ is one of the +best efforts of this artist, so fruitful in scenes drawn from Morocco +and Egyptian life. He has depicted the sultan going forth in great +splendor from the gates of the city of Morocco, surrounded by his army +and courtiers, and before him are brought, either dead or alive, all +the principal chiefs of the revolted tribes. There is much that is +noble in the composition, and the coloring is perfect. + +The arrangement of the pictures this year is not altogether +satisfactory to the artists. A radical change has been made--grouping +all the _hors-concours_ men by themselves, and all the foreigners by +themselves, and crowding about one thousand pictures out of doors into +the corridors which run around the garden of the Palais de l'Industrie. +A friend of mine saw a French artist mount a stepladder and +deliberately cut out of the frame his picture and carry it away with +him, because it was so badly hung. + +The _Illustrated Catalogue_ of the Salon is a somewhat remarkable work. +It is specially noticeable for the very curious English translations of +the titles of some of the paintings. For instance, the title of Gabriel +Boutel's picture, _Bonne ŕ tout faire_--a soldier seated with a baby in +his arms--is rendered, _Maid for anything_(!). _Pričre ŕ Saint Janvier_ +is rendered _Prayer_ AT _Saint Januarious_. _Le Cabaret du Pot d'Étain_ +is translated _The Tavern of the Brass_ POT (instead of _Pewter Mug_). +Ed. Morin's _Promenade en Marne_ is _A_ F_rip on the Marne!_ Our friend +from Boston, Edwin Lord Weeks, is mentioned as "LORD" Edwin Weeks! But +the best of all is _La Cruche cassée_, translated _The Broken_ PIG! The +title of another picture is (in the catalogue) _Good-bye, Swee_L +_hart!_ + +Out of the 3957 oil paintings exhibited, our country is represented by +113 pictures, the productions of 83 Americans. Then we claim 13 of the +aquarelle painters, and there are in addition 11 natives of the United +States who exhibit designs in charcoal, _sanguine_, _gouache_, and +paintings on either porcelain or faďence; also 7 sculptors--in all, 114 +of our compatriots whose works are in the present Salon. New York +claims the lion's share of these artists, 40 being accredited to that +State. Of the remainder, 18 are from Boston, 13 from Philadelphia, 6 +from New Orleans, 3 from Chicago, 2 from Toledo, 2 from San Francisco, +etc. etc. + +I think it will be generally admitted that the only really strong +pictures exhibited by the American artists are John S. Sargent's +portrait of Madame Pailleron (wife of the author of _L'Étincelle_) and +his _Fumée d'Ambre Gris_; Henry Mosler's _Toilette de Noce_; D.R. +Knight's _Une Halte_; Miss Gardner's _Priscilla the Puritan_; F.A. +Bridgman's _Habitation Arabe ŕ Biskra_; Charles E. DuBois's _Autumn +Evening on Lake Neuchâtel_; and Edwin L. Weeks's _Embarkment of the +Camels_ and _Gateway of an Old Fondak in the Holy City of Sallée_ +(Morocco)--both of which were sold immediately after the opening. Of +course there are several other good pictures by our compatriots, and +some that possess great merit. But the ones indicated above are the +only ones which (excepting Picknell's two landscapes, _Sur le Bord du +Marais_ and _La Route de Concarneau_) have called forth any special +notice from French critics or in any way attracted much of the public +attention thus far. Mr. Sargent is a surprise and a wonder to even his +master, Carolus Duran, whose portrait, painted by Sargent, attracted +great attention in the Salon of last year and received an "honorable +mention." He has painted this year a full-length in the open air, +producing a very sunny, strong out-door effect. The hands attract much +praise, but opinions vary as to the face. His _Fumée d'Ambre Gris_ +represents a woman of Tangiers engaged in perfuming her clothing with +the fumes from a lamp in which ambergris is burning. The white robes of +the woman set off against a pearly-gray background, the rising smoke, +the curiously-tinted finger-nails of the woman, and the rich rug on +which the lamp stands, combine to make a very notable and curious +picture. + +Miss Elizabeth J. Gardner of New Hampshire has two excellent pictures +in the Salon--_Priscilla the Puritan_ and _The Water's Edge_. They are +both well hung, as indeed are most of our American artists' +contributions to this exhibition. Out of the 111 pictures in oils sent +in by the Americans, I can recall 46 which are hung "on the line," and +there may be even more. This is certainly treating our countrymen very +fairly. Miss Gardner's _Au Bord de l'Eau_ represents two young girls +standing at the edge of a pond, the one reaching down to pluck a +water-lily, and the other supporting her by clasping her waist. There +is great purity in the tones of this picture, and, though lacking +somewhat in action, the coloring and drawing are both admirable. + +The most notable piece of statuary in the Salon, the work of an +American, is Saint-Gaudens's statue of Admiral Farragut. Mr. +Saint-Gaudens, who is a native of New York, received about two years +ago from one hundred gentlemen of that city, who had subscribed the +necessary funds, a commission to make a statue of the great sailor. It +is to be placed in Madison Square, New York. The pedestal is to be of +granite, having at its base a large seat, on the back of which will be +an inscription mentioning the important events in the life of the hero. +The statue, of bronze, represents Farragut in a standing posture, a +little larger than life-size. It is now being cast, and will be ready +to be placed in position within two months. Mr. Saint-Gaudens is now at +work on a statue of Richard Robert Randall, the founder of the Sailors' +Snug Harbor on Staten Island, in front of which institution this statue +is to be placed. This sculptor has also nearly completed his cast of +the figures intended to ornament the mausoleum of Ex-Senator E.D. +Morgan (of New York), about to be erected at Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. +Saint-Gaudens intends removing his atelier from Paris to New York in +June, and will hereafter be permanently located in that city, where he +will be an important addition to the art-movement in our own country. + +The catalogue numbers, names and birthplaces of the Americans who +exhibit this year are here given: + +OIL PAINTINGS. + + + 103. Audra, Rosémond Casimir, New Orleans, La. + 127. Bacon, Henry, Boston, Mass. + 139. Baird, William, Chicago. + 142, 143. Baker, Miss Ellen K., Buffalo. + 193. Bayard, Miss Kate, New York. + 220, 221. Beckwith, Arthur, New York. + 329. Bierstadt, Albert, New York. + 344. Bispham, Henry C., Philadelphia, Pa. + 355, 356. Blackman, Walter, Chicago. + 362. Blashfield, Edwin H., New York. + 380. Boggs, Frank Myers, New York. + 490, 491. Bridgman, Frederic D., Alabama. + 519, 520. Brown, Walter Francis, Rhode Island. + 742. Cheret-Lauchaume de Gavarmy, J.L., New Orleans. + 823, 824. Coffin, Wm. Anderson, Allegheny City. + 841. Collins, Alfred Q., Boston, Mass. + 844. Comans, Mrs. Charlotte B., New York. + 855. Conant, Miss Cornelia, New York. + 866. Copeland, Alfred Bryant, Boston. + 890. Correja, Henry, New York. + 893, 894. Corson, Miss Helen, Philadelphia. + 933, 934. Cox, Kenyon, Warren, O. + 965, 966. Daniel, George, New York. +1009. Davis, John Steeple, New York. +1089. Delport, J.S., New York. +1132, 1133. Deschamps, Mme. Camille, New York. +2096. DeLancey, William, New York. +1155. Dessommes, Edmond, New Orleans. +1161. Desvarreux-Larpenteur, Jas., St. Paul, Minn. +1199. Dillon, Henry, San Francisco, Cal. +1234, 1235. Dubois, Charles Edward, New York. +1381. Faller, Miss Emily, New York. +1426. Flagg, Charles Noël, Brooklyn, N.Y. +1537, 1538. Gardner, Miss Elizabeth J., New Hampshire. +1559. Gault, Alfred de, New Orleans, La. +1569, 1570. Gay, Walter, Boston. +1614. Gilman, Ben Ferris, Salem, Mass. +1693, 1694. Gregory, J. Eliot, New York. +1796. Harrison, Thomas Alexander, Philadelphia. +1799, 1800. Healy, George P.A., Boston. +1801, 1802. Heaton, Augustus G., Philadelphia. +1835, 1836. Herpin-Masseras, Madame Marguerite, Boston, Mass. +1851, 1852. Hilliard, William H., Boston. +1853. Hinckley, Robert, Boston. +1859. Hlasko, Miss Annie, Philadelphia. + 387. Jones, Bolton, Baltimore, Md. +2011. Knight, Daniel Ridgeway, Philadelphia. +2337. Lippincott, William H., Philadelphia. +2364. Loomis, Chester, Syracuse, N.Y. +2513. Mason, Louis Gage, Boston. +2556, 2557. May, Edward Harrison, New York. +2666. Mitchell, John Ames, New York. +2730. Morgan, Charles W., Philadelphia. +2738. Mortimer, Stanley, New York. +2739, 2740. Mosler, Henry, Cincinnati, O. +2741. Moss, Charles E., Charloe, Kansas(?). +2742, 2743. Moss, Frank, Philadelphia. +2760. Mowbray, Henry S., Alexandria, Egypt (of American parentage). +2780. Neal, David, Lowell, Mass. +2789. Nicholls, Burr H., Buffalo, N.Y. +2823. Obermiller, Miss Louisa, Toledo, O. +2878, 2879. Parker, Stephen Hills, New York. +2895. Pattison, James William, Boston. (Mr. Pattison exhibits also an + aquarelle.) +2944. Perkins, Miss Fanny A., New York. +3014, 3015. Picknell, W.L., Boston, Mass. +3147, 3148. Ramsey, Milne, Philadelphia. +3177. Reilly, John Louis, New York. +3284. Robinson, Theodore, Irasburg. +3428, 3429. Sargent, John S., Philadelphia. +3525. Shonborn, Lewis, Nemora. +3578. Stone, Miss Marie L., New York. +3579. Strain, Daniel, Cincinnati, O. +3584. Swift, Clement. +3606. Teka, Madame E., Boston, Mass. +3695. Tuckerman, Ernest, New York. +3697. Tuttle, C.F., Ohio. +5850. Vogel, Miss Christine, New Orleans. +3879. Walker, Henry, Boston. +3891, 3892. Weeks, Edwin Lord, Boston. +3900, 3901. Welch, Thaddeus, Laporte, Ind. +3908, 3909. Williams, Frederic D., Boston. +3921. Woodward, Wilbur W., Indiana. +3923. Wright, Marian Loďs. + + + +DESIGNS, AQUARELLES, PORCELAINS, ETC. + + +4101. Berend, Edward, New York. +4182, 4183. Boker, Miss Orleana V., New York. +4187, 4188. Boni, Mrs. Marie Louise. +4370. Chauncey, Mrs. Lucy, New York. +4399, 4400. Clark, George, New York. +4462. Crocker, Miss Sallie S., Portland, Me. +4474, 4475. Dana, Charles E., Wilkes-Barre, Pa. +4578. Dixey, Mrs. Ellen S., Boston. +4586. Donohoe, Eliza, Buffalo, N.Y. +4686. Faquani, Miss Nina, New York. +4688. Faller, Miss Emily, New York. +4855. Goodridge, Miss S.M. +4867. Greatorex, Miss Eleanor E., New York. +4868, 4869. Greatorex, Miss Kathleen, New York. +4927. Hardie, Robert G. +4953. Heuston, Miss Emma L., Sacramento, Cal. +5384. Merrill, Mrs. Emma F.R., New York. +5396. Mezzara, Mrs. Rosine, New York. +5562. Pering, Miss Cornelia. +5914. Tompkins, Miss Clementina, Washington. +6008, 6009. Volkmar, Charles, Baltimore. +6015. Walker, Miss Sophia A. +6028. Wheeler, Miss Mary, Concord. +6029, 6030. Whidden, W.M., Boston. + + + +SCULPTURE. + + +6081. Bartlett, Paul, New Haven. +6136. Boyle, John, Philadelphia. +6276. Donoghue, John, Chicago. +6312, 6313. Ezekiel, Moses, Richmond. +6371. Gould, Thomas Ridgway, Boston. +6534. Mezzara, Joseph, New York. +6661, 6662. Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, New York + --J.J.R. + + + + +A PLOT FOR AN HISTORICAL NOVEL. + + +In Hawthorne's _American Note-Book_, among his memoranda, into which he +conscientiously put every scrap and detail which might be useful in his +writings, is an allusion to the "Grey Property Case," a lawsuit which +held the Pennsylvania courts for more than half a century, and turned +upon a curious story which will be new to some readers and may have +slipped from the recollection of others. It belongs to the history of +Mifflin, Juniata county, first settled by Scotch-Irish colonists in +1749. Two of the four men who claimed some land and built a fort had +the name of Grey, and the narrative concerns the younger of these two +brothers, John Grey. One morning in August, 1756, he left his wife and +children at the fort and set out on an expedition to Carlisle. He was +returning when he had an encounter with a bear, and was detained on the +mountain-road for several hours. This probably preserved his life, for +when he reached the settlement he found that the fort had just been +burned by the Indians, and that every person in it had either been +killed or taken prisoner. Among the latter were Grey's wife and his +child, a beautiful little girl of three years old. Grey was an +affectionate husband and father, and he was almost heartbroken by this +catastrophe. Fired with longing for revenge, he joined Colonel +Armstrong's expedition in September against the Indian settlement at +Kittanning on the Ohio, with some hope that his wife and child might be +found among the captives whom, it was rumored, the Indians had carried +there. Colonel Armstrong's onslaught was successful: he succeeded in +burning the village, killed about fifty savages and rescued eleven +white prisoners. Grey gained no information, however, about his family, +and, sick and exhausted by the disappointment and the fatigues of the +campaign, went home to die. He left a will bequeathing one-half of his +farm to his wife and one-half to his child if they returned from +captivity. In case his child should never be given up or should not +survive him, he gave her half of the estate to his sister, who had a +claim against him, having lent him money. + +The rumor was true that the Indians had first carried Mrs. Grey and her +little daughter to Kittanning, but afterward, for greater security, +they were given over to the French commander at Fort Duquesne. They +were confined there for a time, then carried into Canada. About a year +later Mrs. Grey had a chance to escape. She concealed herself among the +skins in the sledge of a fur-trader, and was thus able to elude +pursuit. She left her child behind her in captivity, and after passing +through a variety of adventures returned to Tuscarora Valley, and, +finding her husband dead, proved his will and took possession of her +half of his property. Grey's sister was disposed to assert her claim to +the other portion, but Mrs. Grey always maintained that her little +daughter Jane was alive, and would sooner or later, after the French +and Indian wars were ended, be released and sent back. In 1764 a treaty +was made with the Indians enforcing a general surrender of all their +white captives. A number of stolen children were brought to +Philadelphia to be identified by their friends and relations, and Mrs. +Grey (who in the mean time had married a Mr. Williams) made the journey +to this city in the hope of claiming her little daughter Jane. Seven +years had passed since Mrs. Williams had seen the child, who might be +expected to have grown out of her remembrance. But, even taking this +into consideration, there seemed at first to be none of the children +who in the least respect answered the description of the lost girl. +Mrs. Grey probably longed to find her daughter for affection's sake. +But there was besides a powerful motive to induce her, inasmuch as she +wished to get possession of the other half of her husband's property, +which must otherwise be forfeited to his sister, Mrs. James Grey. One +of the captive children, apparently about the same age as the lost +Jane, had found no one to recognize her. Mrs. Williams determined to +take this girl and substitute her for her own, and put an end to Mrs. +James Grey's claim. She did so, and brought up the stranger for her own +child. The Grey property thus passed wholly into the possession of Mrs. +Williams. The girl grew up rough, awkward and ugly, incapable of +refinement and even gross in her morals. She finally married a minister +by the name of Gillespie. + +Meanwhile, the heirs of Mrs. James Grey had gained some sort of +information which led them to suspect that the returned girl was no +relation of their uncle John Grey, and in 1789 they brought a lawsuit +to recover their mother's half of the property. By this time endless +complications had arisen. Mrs. Williams was dead: her half of her first +husband's farm had been bequeathed to her second husband's kindred, and +was now in part held by them and in part had been bought by half a +dozen others. The supposed daughter, Mrs. Gillespie, had died, as had +her husband, and their share had passed to his relations. It had become +almost impossible for the most astute lawyers to find beginning, middle +or end to the claims which were set forth. Plenty of evidence was +collected to show that Mrs. Williams had substituted a stranger for her +own child, and the decision finally rested on this, and the property +was given up to the heirs of Mrs. James Grey. This did not happen, +however, until 1834, when few or none of the original litigants +remained. + +The real little Jane Grey, so it was said, was brought up in a good +family who adopted her, and afterward married well and had children, +residing near Sir William Johnson's place in Central New York.--L.W. + + + + +THE MISERIES OF CAMPING OUT. + + +My dear cousin Laura: So you are thinking about camping out, and want +my opinion as to whether the spot we chose for our trout-fishing in +June is a suitable place for ladies to go? I should give a decided +negative. My brother takes his wife and his sister usually, although he +fortunately left them at home last time. I think they must have to +"make believe" a good deal to think it fun. I am certain that had they +been with us they would have been forced to exercise their largest +powers of imagination. We set out in fine weather, but entered the +woods in a driving snowstorm, and enjoyed a forty-six-mile drive over a +road that has, I must say this for it, not been known to be so bad for +years. We came back in a pelting rain. We made our camp in a snowstorm, +and the wood was wet and would not burn, and our tent was damp and +would not dry. We fished in a boat on the lake, swept by cold winds +until we were chilled to the bone and our hands were so stiff we could +not hold the rods. My brother had a "chill" the first night in camp. I +had indigestion from eating things fried in pork fat from the first +meal until I got a civilized repast at Frank's house in New York. I was +bounced sore. My nose was peeled by sun and cold. My lips were +decorated by three large cold-sores. My hands bled constantly from a +combination of chap and sunburn. I made up my mind if I ever got safely +out of those woods it would be several years at least before I could be +persuaded to enter them again. The scenery _is_ lovely, but one cannot +enjoy it. The fishing _is_ good, but it is hard work, and my own +opinion is that there is altogether "too much pork for a shilling" in +the whole business. Talk about being "ten miles from a lemon"! Try +forty-six miles from a lemon over a corduroy road. At first we had cold +weather, hence no black flies or mosquitos. When warm weather came on +again we had both of them, and our experience was that the snowstorm +was preferable. The black flies made the day unendurable, and the +mosquitos made the night as well as the day a wasting misery. We had +them everywhere--in the hut, in the tent, at the table, on the lake, in +the woods. No smudge or lotion discourages them; oil of tar is their +delight, camphor they revel in; buzzing, singing, biting continually +are their pastime. They are a galling curse--a nuisance which no words +can describe. A lady _might_ go through all this if she had perfect +health and the endurance under punishment of a prize-fighter. Your +party may travel all those weary miles and strike a fortunate week of +pleasant weather, but you may, and more likely will, have a week when +it will rain dismally straight through without stopping. We found, on +looking up the statistics, that in an average season out of every +twenty-two days eighteen will always be stormy, lowering and dismal. +No, don't camp out unless you can make up your mind beforehand to every +kind of discomfort and inconvenience to mar all that is beautiful and +all that is pleasing. I speak of course of the localities I have known +in my three several attempts. _They say_ it is different in other parts +of the region. But when you have plank roads and first-class hotels and +all the modern conveniences, I don't call that going into the woods and +camping out. The real thing is not very much fun except in the +retrospect, when you can thank your stars that you got out alive. For +the greater part it is a snare and a delusion. But if you still pine +for the forests and streams and the free out-of-door life, I don't wish +to discourage you, and you know I never give advice. + + Your affectionate cousin, F.G. + + + + +UNREFORMED SPELLING. + + +A little note has come to me which gives an entertaining glimpse of the +average ability of a class. "John Stubbs × his mark" is obviously +"low-watermark," but there are levels between that and high-school +possibilities which we cannot often measure. The note is written on +fair white paper and had a white envelope. The writer is American, the +wife of a fisherman, and about thirty years old, though the handwriting +is like that of the old ladies of our grandmothers' time. It is given +of course, in the full sense, _literatim_, and is offered for the +encouragement--or the despair--of the Spelling Reform Association. The +little touch of pathos makes one read with respect: + + + June the 2. +Dear Madam + +Will you pleas to enclose the 100 dollars in an envelope, so that the +little boy wont loose it: the little dog was too years old the first of +May: and my babey too the 24 of April, they have always ben together +and he is verey intelegent indead and you can learn him eneything you +would wish to fealing asuared he will receve everey kindness you have +the best wishes of + Mrs. Hattie ----. + +Perhaps it is well to add, the "100" means ten. The hero is a black +Skye, long-haired, plume-tailed and soft-eyed. What his views were upon +removal from the back alley of his youth to a well-appointed though by +no means luxurious home he never said, but his investigation was +comically thorough, winding up in dumb amaze at the discovery of +himself in a long mirror. His experience of feminine humanity being +limited to the variety that rolls its sleeves above its elbows and +comports itself accordingly, he bitterly resented good clothes, +transferred his affections to the housemaids, and only much coaxing and +much sugar could win his heart for his new mistress. + +"The little boy" had dubbed him "Penny," which hardly suited his silken +attire and his little haughty, imperious ways; so, though the children +will still call him "Penny-wise" and "Four Farthings," the mistress +finds nothing less than "Pendennis" due to his dignity.--C.B.M. + + + + +OUR NEW VISITORS. + + +I should like to have Mr. Burroughs or some of our naturalists write +one of their pleasant papers and explain the mystery of the +wood-thrush's advent in our gardens and upon our lawns. Until a year +ago the wood-thrush was not one of the birds which ever raised its note +in our pleasure-grounds. We heard them in the woods, and looked at +them, when we intruded upon their privacy, with that sort of shyness +with which we watch strangers. We knew their "wood-notes wild," and +admired their plumage, but they did not inspire the same feeling as +their cousin the robin. But a year ago all at once here was the thrush. +Nobody could tell when he came, how he came or why he came. It seemed +an accident, for there was but one pair: it was as if through innocence +or ignorance, instead of building their nests in their old chosen +haunts, they had wandered away and lost themselves in the spacious +grounds of a gentleman's country-seat. They had no dismay, no doubts, +however: they took possession of the lawn with the utmost boldness. +They were rarely out of sight, hopping from morning until night about +the turf, flying from tree to tree with their impulsive movements, more +graceful than the robins. They were never silent, uttering perpetually +their mellow flute-like cry and singing their simple but ecstatic +melody. + +That was last year; and this year, 1880, the thrushes are everywhere in +this Connecticut village by the Sound. Their orange-and-tawny backs +gleam in the sunshine from morning until night. There are numbers of +them. Their manners are very marked. They have quite the air of +conquerors. All the other birds yield them precedence, and they +positively domineer over the pugnacious little English sparrow, who is +content to keep in the background and watch his chance when +feeding-time comes. + +And of all the curious things about them, what seems most inexplicable +is their tameness. They have no mistrust, but eye you with an +intelligent, knowing look while bringing their young to feed within +half a dozen feet of you. They perch on the croquet-arches in the midst +of a noisy game. They sing directly over your head with the utmost +spirit and vivacity, hardly ceasing all the forenoon, and again +bursting out toward evening and maintaining their song until every +other bird's lay is hushed in the twilight. White of Selborne would +have delighted in such a freak on the part of these pretty gay +strangers, who have left secluded swampy haunts, the deep dells where +the blackberries twine and the daisies and clover blossom, for our +close-cut lawns and elm- and willow-shaded nooks.--A.T. + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + +Alexander Pope. By Leslie Stephen. (English Men-of-Letters Series.) New +York: Harper & Brothers. + +The interest of this series, which increases rather than diminishes--as +one might have feared would be the case--with each succeeding volume, +lies very much in the fact that the list of writers, almost as long and +varied as that of the subjects, is a representative one. It comprises +men who have won distinction in different departments--as novelists, +historians, scholars, scientific expounders--but who here meet in the +common field of biographical criticism and work together under the same +limitations and conditions. Hence their performances give us not so +much a measure of their individual powers as of the tone of thought and +intellectual depth of the class to which they belong. However diverse +their abilities and special fields of observation or research, their +general range of knowledge, methods of study and ideas of life are very +much the same. They are collectively "men of culture," as the writers +of Queen Anne's time were "wits," and it is the qualities associated +with that term, rather than any distinct gifts or characteristics, that +are here called into play. Mr. Trollope's _Thackeray_ was perhaps an +exception--a black spot on the otherwise immaculate whiteness. In a +different way the general effect would have been still more seriously +impaired if Mr. Ruskin's co-operation had been invited. The +outcroppings of a vulgar egotism might indicate a substratum necessary +to be taken into account, but it would have been a clear loss of labor +to follow the leadings of any eccentric vein. One might wonder at the +absence of Mr. Matthew Arnold, the high priest of culture; but we have +to remember that Mr. Arnold is solicitous to stand apart, that he holds +up ideals which he is careful to inform us are not those of his time, +and that he is fastidious in selecting a point of view where he cannot +be jostled, with perspectives to which no vision but his own can +accommodate itself. His culture may represent that of the future, but +certainly does not typify that of the present. + +Mr. Leslie Stephen, on the contrary, might very well stand as a type of +his class both in its positive and negative qualities. He, more than +any of his confrčres, is a product of culture. Unlike the greater +number of them, he has no special talent, or pet object of enthusiasm, +or erratic tendencies. He is a trained critic, and is "nothing if not +critical." His coolness is a real coolness, not the effect of any +"toning down" for the occasion, as we may suspect to have been the case +with Mr. Froude and Mr. Goldwin Smith. His knowledge is accurate, his +judgments are sound, his taste is seldom at fault, his style is +faultless and colorless, he never attempts what he is unable to do well +and without any appearance of strain. Though he may have given more +attention to the literature of the eighteenth century than to that of +any other period, one feels that he might safely have been entrusted +with the preparation of any volume of this series. It was probably from +a sense of fitness, not by mere chance, that he was selected to write +the initial volume, which pitched the key for those that were to +follow, and that so far he is the only writer who has been called upon +for a second contribution. + +His task in the present instance has been much less easy and simple +than that which he before undertook. In the case of Johnson he had only +to select and condense from material so copious and authentic as left +no question of fact or problem of criticism unsettled. Pope's career, +on the other hand, after all the research that has been spent upon it, +is full of obscurities; his character, while it invites, seems to +evade, analysis; even his rank and exact position in literature cannot +be said to be conclusively determined. It is needless to say that Mr. +Stephen has been diligent and skilful in examining and summarizing +whatever facts relating to his subject have been brought to light by +recent or early investigation; that he weighs all the evidence with +strict impartiality, and, when it is insufficient, is content to +suspend judgment without resorting to conjecture; or that his views +both on points of conduct and literary questions, if not marked by any +striking originality, show clear and vigorous thinking and are stated +in a way that provokes no impatience or captious dissent. The interest +of the narrative is well sustained, and the general impression left by +it that of a report made by an expert on documents that needed to be +thoroughly sifted in order that the issues which had been raised might +be succinctly set forth and fully apprehended. Further than this Mr. +Stephen does not pretend to go. His report is preliminary, not final. +No matter previously left uncertain is here determined. Instead of an +added knowledge, we are only made more sensible of our former +ignorance. Pope's figure, far from coming more distinctly into view, +seems to have receded and grown more vague. Certain traits have perhaps +been made more noticeable than before, but those essential elements of +character which would define, explain, reconcile, and enable us to +conceive the combination as a unit, have eluded observation. + +This is, of course, a natural result of the gaps and contradictions in +the evidence, the lack especially of those minute details which are not +only necessary links, but often the most suggestive features, in a +record of facts or delineation of character. And if it be urged that a +deeper insight would have in some measure supplied this deficiency, the +answer can only be that we have no right to expect from any man the +exercise of powers which he does not possess or affect to +possess--powers which, in a case like this, would need to be of the +finest and rarest kind. We may, however, fairly regret that Mr. Stephen +has not availed himself of a resource that lay within his reach for +making the accessories of his picture more brilliant and effective, +with the possible incidental result of throwing a stronger light on the +principal figure. Whatever else may be debated about Pope, no one would +deny that he was pre-eminently the man of his time--not only its most +conspicuous figure, but the very embodiment of its ideals. He suited it +and it suited him. Hence the fulness and in a certain sense perfection +of his work, the fact that he has given his name to an epoch as well as +a school, and consequently the important place which he still retains +in the history of literature. Men who were certainly not his inferiors +in intellectual power lived in the same age, partook of its influence +and contributed to its achievements; but they were not so thoroughly at +home in it: their best qualities were stunted, rather than developed, +by its soil and atmosphere. Dryden, one may safely say, would have been +greater had he lived earlier, Fielding had he lived later. But one +cannot imagine Pope thriving in any other air or producing equal work +under different influences. The qualities most esteemed by his +contemporaries he possessed in a superlative degree; his limitations +were common to the society in which he moved, and neither he nor it was +conscious of them as such; consequently, what would have been +impediments to a different nature were to his means of free and +spontaneous action. And not only does he represent the ideas of his +age, but he depicted its types and manners. In this respect he is the +link between the comic dramatists and the novelists, between Congreve +and Fielding. The wits, the beaux, the fine ladies, the Grub Street +drudges of the reign of Anne, whatever be the fidelity or other merits +of the portraitures, are more familiar to us in the satires of Pope +than as reflected in any other mirror. For these reasons Pope is one of +the last men who can be studied to advantage from a single point of +view or in a detached position. We need to understand not only his +personal relations but his general affinities with the men and events +of his time--of that world, at least, of which he was the centre. True, +the period is better known to readers generally than almost any other. +But it is not a copious accumulation of facts or a labored +analysis--for which there would have been no space--that we miss in Mr. +Stephen's book, but such groupings and irradiating touches as might +have given us a vivid glimpse, if only a glimpse, of the whole field. +Yet in lamenting that this much is not given us we are perhaps making +the mistake before noticed, of demanding from a given source what it +could not supply. We are driven back, therefore, on the reflection how +much the slightest things in art depend on inspiration, on original +power--how immeasurable the distance is between the man of culture and +the man of genius. + +Samuel Lover: A Biographical Sketch. With Selections from his Writings +and Correspondence. By Andrew James Symington. New York: Harper & +Brothers. + +The memory of so genial and popular a writer as Lover ought to be kept +as green as possible, and Mr. Symington has done well to embody his +Loveriana in a short life of the Irish humorist. The new material +brought forth is slender, consisting simply of a few letters and ten +short poems, not of his best; but it was worth publishing, and Mr. +Symington has the advantage, in treating of Lover, of writing from +personal knowledge. He has rather slurred over the earlier part of +Lover's career, apparently from a fear of trespassing on the preserves +of a longer biography previously published; which is a pity, as his +sketch will have most interest for readers who come fresh to the +subject. Even those whose curiosity in regard to the writer has not +been stirred by reading his works may get a very good idea of them from +the selections printed here. The book is not a critical study: it +enters into no details or analysis of Lover's character. It is simply a +hurried outline of his life, interspersed with songs and stories which +go a good way to make up for the meagreness of personal anecdote, and +ending with some friendly letters and short notes written by Lover +during the last few years of his life and addressed to Mr. Symington. +Most of these letters were written in poor health from the Isle of +Wight or Jersey, to which places he was sent by the doctors. They are +not of the brilliant or gossipy order, but they are admirable in their +good colloquial English and cheerful, unaffected style. Lover was a man +of great activity of mind, combined with warm affections. His +life-story was not very romantic, but it was a wholesome and pleasant +one. When young he was deeply attached to an English girl, with whom, +though they were separated (Mr. Symington does not say from what +cause), he maintained through life a warm friendship. The young lady +married, and Lover consoled himself and was married twice, each time, +it appears, very happily. His letters contain many little domestic +allusions, reporting his own occupations and those of "the good little +wife" at their fireside in Kent or away at the shore, where they look +back with regret to their own country-house. Lover had a warm +attachment to home, the house as well as the inmates. "I cannot tell +you," he writes from the Isle of Wight, "how much I have been put off +my balance by my exile from my own house. For a time one is willing to +make, for health's sake, a sacrifice of domestic comfort and give up +the pleasant habits one can indulge in in one's own home; but to lead +for months and months a lodging-house life is very miserable: it +benumbs the best of our faculties; the edge of enjoyment is blunted. +Music is sweeter within the compass of your own walls; the book is +pleasanter taken from the familiar shelf of your own library; in one's +own studio the habit of happy occupation has made an atmosphere that +has a charm in it." + +Gifted with a rare variety of talents, Lover heartily enjoyed the +exercise of each, and found his chief pleasure in their development. He +worked incessantly at painting, writing or musical composition--worked +for love of the work, not from uneasy effort or outside pressure. In +this respect he presents a happy contrast to his fellow-countryman and +brother-humorist Charles Lever, whose biography, published some months +ago, left a painful impression on the mind in its view of a man of +genuine talent and attractive qualities living in a feverish way and +writing constantly against his inclination, too often below his powers. +As writers the two stand side by side. Lover had more versatility of +talent, taking him partly outside the field of literature. He made the +most of his powers: nothing which he has written gives the idea that he +might have done it better. He was a poet, which Lever was not, and had +an easy command of versification and language. His songs, while they +show no high poetic qualities, are excellent of their kind, and his +facility in turning an impromptu verse is shown in this scrap from the +book before us in praise of a friend and physician: + + Whene'er your vitality + Is feeble in quality, + And you fear a fatality + May end the strife, + Then Dr. Joe Dickson + Is the man I would fix on + For putting new wicks on + The lamp of life. + +In his stories Lover relied less on drollery of incident and indulged +more in play upon words than Lever, but the humor of both is +essentially of the same kind and drawn from the same source. Compared +with much of our American humor, it has a spontaneousness, and above +all a lovable quality, that ours lacks. The boy who has laughed over +_Lorrequer_ and _Handy Andy_ is apt to look back at them not merely +with amusement, but with a feeling of _camaraderie_ and even +tenderness. He has laughed with them as well as at them--has somehow +gained through the laughter a glimpse of the writer which inspires +liking and respect. + +New England Bygones. By E.H. Arr. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. + +E.H. Arr has produced a very pleasant book by a simple effort of +memory. By letting the mind's eye travel back carefully and vigilantly +over the scenes of a youth passed in a rural part of New England, and +taking notes of its journey, she has made a graphic picture of life in +that corner of the country forty years ago. Not a few men and women who +were "raised" there have carried away, bit for bit, the same +reminiscences, so exactly does one New England landscape resemble +another, in details of foreground at least. The same description of +orchard, stone walls or old well will fit any farm in Maine or +Massachusetts, and fond recollection sniffs the same odor of sputtering +doughnuts through the kitchen-door, whether it carries one back to the +Green hills or the White. Recollections are alike, but impressions +differ, one class of minds retaining the sense of bareness and gloom +which is so continually insisted upon in some New England books, and +others, as in the book before us, dwelling lovingly upon the wholesome +flavor, pungent yet mellow, which gives New England country life a +distinctive charm unlike anything else either in this or the +mother-country. Even the Sunday is pleasant to look back upon to E.H. +Arr; which is probably one instance of the fact that retrospective +pleasure is sometimes totally disproportionate to present enjoyment. + +The author is more successful in her treatment of landscape than of +figures. Her village people are shown too much under one aspect: she +possesses none of the humor which dares to take the most opposite +traits, the grotesque and the beautiful alike, and blend them in a +sound, artistic whole. Her characters are evidently drawn from life, +but we miss the many little touches which would make them alive. An +essay on "Old Trees" contains some of the best work in the book, with +its charming sketch of an old orchard, bringing to view the twisted +trees and even the irregularities of the ground, and to the palate a +sharp after-taste of yellowing apples picked up from tufts of matted +grass. After all, the New England of the writer's bygones does not +differ essentially from the New England of to-day, though a more vivid +study of life would perhaps have brought out more contrasts between the +two. + + + + +_Books Received_. + + +Homo Sum: A Novel. By Georg Ebers. From the German by Clara Bell. New +York: William S. Gottsberger. + +Unto the Third and Fourth Generation: A Study. By Helen Campbell. New +York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert. + +Allaooddeen, a Tragedy, and Other Poems. By the author of "Constance," +etc. London: Smith, Elder & Co. + +Third-Term Politics: A Lecture. By Horace White. New York: Independent +Republican Association. + +The American Bicycler. By Charles E. Pratt. Illustrated. Boston: Press +of Rockwell & Churchill. + +Alva Vine; or, Art _versus_ Duty. By Henri Gordon. New York: American +News Company. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular +Literature and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 14842-8.txt or 14842-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/8/4/14842/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Keith M. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/14842-8.zip b/14842-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8936d35 --- /dev/null +++ b/14842-8.zip diff --git a/14842.txt b/14842.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d46c86 --- /dev/null +++ b/14842.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9074 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature +and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: January 30, 2005 [EBook #14842] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE + +OF + +_POPULAR LITERATURE AND SCIENCE._ + + + +SEPTEMBER, 1880. + + + +EKONIAH SCRUB: AMONG FLORIDA LAKES + +[Illustration: THE FORD.] + +[Note: Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by J.B. +LIPPINCOTT & Co., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at +Washington.] + + + +"And if you do get lost after that, it's no great matter," said the +county clerk, folding up his map, "for then all you've got to do is to +find William Townsend and inquire." + +He had been giving us the itinerary for our "cross-country" journey, by +way of the Lakes, to Ekoniah Scrub. How many of all the Florida +tourists know where that is? I wonder. Or even _what_ it is--the +strange amphibious land which goes on from year to year +"developing"--the solid ground into marshy "parrairas," the prairies +into lakes, bright, sparkling sapphires which Nature is threading, one +by one, year by year, upon her emerald chaplet of forest borderland? +How many of them all have guessed that close at hand, hidden away amid +the shadows of the scrub-oaks, lies her laboratory, where any day they +may steal in upon her at her work and catch a world a-making? + +There are three individuals who know a little more about it now than +they did a few weeks since--three, or shall we not rather say four? For +who shall say that Barney gained less from the excursion than the +Artist, the Scribe and the Small Boy who were his fellow-travellers? +That Barney became a party to the expedition in the character, so to +speak, of a lay-brother, expected to perform the servile labor of the +establishment while his superiors were worshipping at Nature's shrines, +in nowise detracted from his improvement of the bright spring holiday. +It was, indeed, upon the Small Boy who beat the mule, rather than upon +the mule that drew the wagon, that the fatigues of the expedition fell. +"He just glimpses around at me with his old eyeball," says the Small +Boy, exasperate, throwing away his broken cudgel, "and that's all the +good it does." + +We knew nothing more of Ekoniah when we set out upon our journey than +that it was the old home of an Indian tribe in the long-ago days before +primeval forest had given place to the second growth of "scrub," and +that it was a region unknown to the Northern tourist. It lies to the +south-west of Magnolia, our point of departure on the St. John's River, +but at first our route lay westerly, that it might include the +lake-country of the Ridge. + +"It's a pretty kentry," said a friendly "Cracker," of whom, despite the +county clerk's itinerary, we were fain to ask the way within two hours +after starting--"a right pretty kentry, but it's all alike. You'll be +tired of it afore you're done gone halfway." + +Is he blind, our friend the Cracker? Already, in the very outset of our +journey, we have beheld such varied beauties as have steeped our souls +in joy. After weeks of rainless weather the morning had been showery, +and on our setting forth at noon we had found the world new washed and +decked for our coming. Birds were singing, rainbows glancing, in +quivering, water-laden trees; flowers were shimmering in the sunshine; +the young growth was springing up glorious from the blackness of +desolating winter fires. Such tender tones of pink and gray! such +fiery-hearted reds and browns and olive-greens! such misty vagueness in +the shadows! such brilliance in the sunlight that melted through the +openings of the woods! "All alike," indeed! No "accidents" of rock or +hill are here, but oh the grandeur of those far-sweeping curves of +undulating surface! the mystery of those endless aisles of +solemn-whispering pines! the glory of color, intense and fiery, which +breathes into every object a throbbing, living soul! + +For hours we journeyed through the forest, always in the centre of a +vast circle of scattered pines, upon the outer edge of which the trees +grew dense and dark, stretching away into infinity. Our road wandered +in and out among the prostrate victims of many a summer tempest: now we +were winding around dark "bays" of sweet-gum and magnolia; now skirting +circular ponds of delicate young cypress; now crossing narrow +"branches" sunk deep in impenetrable "hummocks" of close-crowded oak +and ash and maple, thick-matted with vines and undergrowth; now pausing +to gather orchis and pitcher-plants and sun-kisses and andromeda; now +fording the broad bend of Peter's Creek where it flows, sapphire in the +sunshine, out from the moss-draped live-oaks between high banks of red +and yellow clays and soft gray sand, to lose itself in a tangle of +flowering shrubs; now losing and finding our way among the intricate +cross-roads that lead by Bradley's Creek and Darbin Savage's tramway +and the "new-blazed road" of the county clerk's itinerary. Suddenly the +sky grew dark: thunder began to roll, and--were we in the right road? +It seemed suspiciously well travelled, for now we called to mind that +Middleburg was nigh at hand, and thither we had been warned _not_ to +go. + +There was a house in the distance, the second we had seen since leaving +the "settle_ments_" near the river. And there we learned that we were +right and wrong: it _was_ the Middleburg road. After receiving sundry +lucid directions respecting a "blind road" and an "old field," we +turned away. How dark it was growing! how weirdly soughed the wind +among the pine tops! how bodingly the thunder growled afar! There came +a great slow drop: another, and suddenly, with swiftly-rushing sound, +the rain was upon us, drenching us all at once before waterproofs and +umbrellas could be made available. + +[Illustration: "NOT ALL THE BLANDISHMENTS OF THE SMALL BOY AVAILED."] + +It was then that Barney showed the greatness of his soul. In the +confusion of the moment we had run afoul of a stout young oak, which +obstinately menaced the integrity of our axle. It was only possible to +back out of the predicament, but Barney scorned the thought of retreat. +Not all the blandishments of the Small Boy, whether brought to bear in +the form of entreaties, remonstrances, jerks or threats, availed: +Barney stood unmoved, and the hatchet was our only resource. How that +mule's eye twinkled as from time to time he cast a backward glance upon +the Small Boy wrestling with a dull hatchet and a sturdy young +scrub-oak under the pelting rain, amid lightning-flash and +thunder-peal, needs a more graphic pen than mine to describe. A +better-drenched biped than climbed into the wagon at the close of this +episode, or a more thoroughly-satisfied quadruped than jogged along +before him, it would be difficult to find. + +As suddenly as they had come up the clouds rolled away, and sunlight +flamed out from the west--so suddenly that it caught the rain halfway +and filled the air with tremulous rainbow hues. Then burst out afresh +the songs of birds, sweet scents thrilled up from flower and shrub, the +very earth was fragrant, and fresh, resinous odors exhaled from every +tree. The sun sank down in gold and purple glory and night swept over +the dark woods. Myriad fireflies flitted round, insects chirped in +every hollow, the whippoorwill called from the distant thicket, the +night-hawk circled in the open glade. A cheerful sound of cow-bells +broke the noisy stillness, the forest opened upon a row of dark +buildings and darker orange trees, and barking of dogs and kindly +voices told us that rest was at hand. + +No words can do justice to the hospitality of Floridians, whether +native or foreign. We were now to begin an experience which was to last +us through our entire journey. Here we were, a wandering company of +who-knows-what, arriving hungry, drenched and unexpected long after the +supper-hour, and our mere appearance was the "open sesame" to all the +treasures of house and barn. Not knowing what our hap might be, we had +gone provided with blankets and food, but both proved to be superfluous +wherever we could find a house. Bad might be the best it afforded, but +the best was at our service. At K----'s Ferry it was decidedly _not_ +bad. Abundance reigned there, though in a quaint old fashion, and very +soon after our arrival we were warming and drying ourselves before a +cheerful fire, while from the kitchen came most heartening sounds and +smells, as of fizzling ham and bubbling coffee. + +Never was seen a prettier place than this as we beheld it by the +morrow's light. The house stands on a high bluff, worthy the name of +hill, which slopes steeply but greenly down to the South Prong of Black +Creek, better deserving the name of river than many a stream which +boasts the designation. We crossed it upon a boom, pausing midway in +sudden astonishment at the lovely view. A long reach of exquisitely +pure water, bordered by the dense overhanging foliage of its high +banks, stretched away to where, a mile below us, a sudden bend hid its +lower course from view, and on the high green bluff which closed the +vista were seen the white house and venerable overarching trees of some +old estate. The morning air was crisp and pure; every leaf and twig +stood out with clean-cut distinctness, to be mirrored with startling +clearness in the stream; the sky was cloudless: no greater contrast +could be imagined from the tender sweetness of yesterday. The birds, +exhilarated by the sparkle in the air, sang with a rollicking +abandonment quite contagious: the very kids and goats on the crags +above the road caught the infection and frisked about, tinkling their +bells and joining most unmelodiously in the song; while Barney, +crossing the creek upon a flatboat, lifted up a tuneful voice in the +chorus. + +We turned aside from our route to visit Whitesville, the beautiful old +home of Judge B----. It is a noble great mansion, with broad double +doors opening from every side of a wide hall, and standing in the midst +of a wild garden luxuriant with flowers and shrubs and vines, and with +a magnificent ivy climbing to the top of a tall blasted tree at the +gate. "I came to this place from New Haven in '29," its owner told +us--"sailed from New York to Darien, Georgia, in a sloop, and from +there in a sail-boat to this very spot. I prospected all about: bought +a little pony, and rode him--well, five thousand miles after I began to +keep count. Finally, I came back and settled here." + +"Were you never troubled by Indians?" we asked. + +"Well, they put a fort here in the Indian war, the government +did--right here, where you see the china trees." It was a beautiful +green slope beside the house, with five great pride-of-Indias in a row +and a glimpse of the creek through the thickets at the foot. "There +never was any engagement here, though. The Indians had a camp over +there at K----'s, where you came from, but they all went away to the +Nation after a while." + +"Did you stay here through the civil war?" + +"Oh yes. I never took any part in the troubles, but the folks all +suspected and watched me. They knew I was a Union man. One day a +Federal regiment came along and wanted to buy corn and fodder. The men +drew up on the green, and the colonel rode up to the door. 'Colonel,' +says I, 'I can't _sell_ you anything, but I believe the keys are in the +corn-barn and stable doors: I can't hinder your taking anything by +force.' He understood, and took pretty well what he wanted. Afterward +he came and urged me to take a voucher, but I wouldn't do that. By and +by the Confederates came around and accused me of selling to the +Federals, but they couldn't prove anything against me." + +"There used to be Confederate head-quarters up there at K----'s?" we +asked. + +"Oh yes, and the Federals had it too. General Birney was there for a +while. One day, just after he came, a lot of 'em came over here. One of +my boys was lying very sick in that front chamber just then--the one +you know, the county clerk. Well, an orderly rode up to the door and +called out, 'Here, you damned old rebel, the general wants you.'--'I +don't answer to that name,' said I.--'You don't?'--'No, I +don't.'--'What! ain't you a rebel?'--' I don't answer to that name,' +said I.--'Well, consider yourself my prisoner,' says he; so I walked up +there with him. Judge Price was at head-quarters just then, and he knew +me well. It seems that the general had heard that I kept a regular +rebel commissariat, sending stores to them secretly. Well, when the +judge had told him who I was, the general wrote me a pass at once, and +then asked, 'Is there anything I can do for you?'--'General,' said I, +'my son lies very sick. I should like to see the last of him, and beg +to be permitted to retire.'--'Is that so?' said the general. 'Would you +like me to send you a doctor?' I accepted, and he sent me two. He came +up afterward, and found that his men had torn down the fences, broken +open the store and dragged out goods, set the oil and molasses running, +and done great damage--about four thousand dollars' worth, we +estimated. You see, they thought it was a rebel commissariat. When he +came into the house he asked my wife if she could give him supper. +'General,' said she, 'you have taken away my cooks: if you will send +for your own, I shall be very happy to get supper for you.' He did so, +and spent the night here, sleeping in one of the chambers while his +officers lay all over the piazzas. Next day they all rode away, quite +satisfied, I guess. There were several skirmishes about here afterward, +and we have some pieces of bombs in the house now that fell in the +yard." + +[Illustration: LAKE BEDFORD.] + +The judge pressed us to stay and dine, but we had arranged for a gypsy +dinner in the woods and were anxious to push on. Push on! How Barney +would smile could he hear the word! He never did anything half so +energetic as to push: he did not even pull. + +So we bade farewell to our genial host and started westwardly again. We +were now upon the high land of the Ridge, the backbone of the State, +and though, perhaps, hardly ninety feet above the sea, the air had all +the exhilarating freshness of great altitudes. All through the week +which followed we felt its tonic inspiration and seemed to drink in +intoxicating draughts of health and spirits, and never more than during +the fifteen-mile drive between Black Creek and Kingsley's Pond. + +Kingsley's Pond, the highest body of water in the State, is the first +of a long succession of lakes which, lying between the St. John's and +the railway, have only lately been, as it were, discovered by the +Northerner. It is perfectly circular in form, being precisely two miles +across in every direction. Like all the lakes of Florida, it is of +immense depth, and its waters are so transparent that the white sand at +the bottom may be seen glistening like stars. In common with the other +waters of this region, it is surrounded by a hard beach of white sand, +rising gradually up to a beautifully-wooded slope, being quite free +from the marshes which too often render the lakes of Florida +unapproachable. + +One of the Northern colonies which within the last two years have +discovered this delightful region has settled on the shores of +Kingsley's Pond. Although an infant of only twenty months, the village +has made excellent growth and gives promise of a bright future. Farming +is not largely followed, the principal industry of these and the other +Northern colonists being orange-culture--a business to which the +climate is wonderfully propitious, the dry, pure air of this district +being alike free from excessive summer heats and from the frosts which +are occasionally disastrous to groves situated on lower ground in the +same latitude. + +Though there are few native Floridians in this part of the country, the +neighborhood of the lake rejoices in the possession of a Cracker +doctress of wondrous powers. Who but her knows that chapter in the book +of Daniel the reading of which stays the flowing of blood, or that +other chapter potent to extinguish forest-fires? One does not need a +long residence in the State to learn to appreciate the good-fortune of +the Lakers in this particular. + +Not far from the village, on the western shore of the pond, lives the +one "old settler." He met us with the hearty welcome which we had +learned almost to look for as a right, and sitting on his front piazza +in the shade of his orange trees, gladdening our eyes with the view of +his vine-embowered pigpen, we listened to the legend of the pond: + +"Yes, I've lived yere four-and-twenty year, but I done kim to Floridy +nigh on forty year ago: walked yere from Georgy to jine the Injun war. +I done found this place a-scoutin' about, and when I got married I kim +yere to settle. The Yankee folks wants to change the name o' the pond +to Summit Lake and one thing or 'nother, but I allays votes square agin +it every time, and allays will. You see, hit don't ought to be changed. +I don't mind the _pond_ part: they mought call it lake ef they think it +sounds better, but Kingsley's it _has_ to be. K-i-n-g-l-e-s-l-e-y: +that, I take it, is the prompt way to spell the name of the man as +named it, and that's the name it has to have. You see hit was this +a-way: Kingsley were a mail-rider--leastways, express--in the _old_ +Injun wartime, I dunno how long ago. They was a fort on the pond them +days, over on the south side. Wal, Kingsley were a-comin' down toward +the fort from the no'th when he thort he see an Injun. He looked +behind, and, sure enough, there they was, a-closin' in on him. He +looked ahead agin. Shore's you're bo'hn there was a double row on +'em--better'n a hunderd--on all two sides of the trail. He hadn't a +minit to study, and jist one thing to do, and he done hit. He jist +clapped spurs to his critter and made for the pond. He knowed what they +wanted of him"--confidentially and solemnly: "it were their intention +to ketch him and scalp him alive, you know. Wal, they follered him to +the pond, a-whoopin' and a-yellin' all the way, makin' shore on him. +When he got to the pond he rid right in, the Injuns a'ter him, but his +critter soon began to gin out. When he see that he jist gethered up his +kit and jumped into the water, and swum for dear life. Two mile good +that feller swum, and saved his kit and musket. The Injuns got his +critter, but you never see nothin' so mad as they was to see him git +off that a-way. The soldiers at the fort was a-watchin' all the time. +They run down to meet him: they see he looked kinder foolish as he swum +in, and as soon as he struck the shore he jist flung himself on the +sand, and laid for half an hour athout openin' his eyes or speakin'. +Then he done riz right up and toted his kit to the commander, and axed +to hev the pond named a'ter him. The commander said it mought be so, +and so hit was; and so it _has_ to be, I says, and allays will." + +[Illustration: TWIN LAKE.] + +It would be impossible to detail the exquisite and varied beauty of the +way between Kingsley's Pond and Ekoniah Scrub. Through the fair +primeval forest we wandered, following the old Alachua Trail, the very +name of which enhanced the charm of the present scene by calling up +thrilling fancies of the past; for this is the famous Indian war-path +from the hunting-grounds of the interior to the settlements on the +frontier, and may well be the oldest and the most adventure-fraught +thoroughfare in the United States. We could hardly persuade ourselves +that we were not passing through some magnificent old estate--of late, +perhaps, somewhat fallen into neglect--so perfect was the lawn-like +smoothness of the grassy uplands, so rhythmical were the undulations of +the slopes, so majestic the natural avenues of enormous oaks, so +admirable the diversity of hill and dell, knoll and glade, shrubbery +and lawn, forest and park, interspersed with frequent sheets of +water--Blue Pond, rivalling the sky in color; Sandhill Pond, deep set +among high wooded slopes, with picturesque log mill and house; Magnolia +Lake, with its flawless mirror; Crystal, of more than crystal +clearness, with gorgeous sunset memories and sweet recollections of +kindly hospitalities in the two homes which crown its twin heights; +Bedford and Brooklyn Lakes, with log cottages beneath clustering trees; +Minnie Lake, and its great alligator sleeping on a log; starry +Lily-Pad; and Osceola's Punch-bowl, deep enough, and none too large, to +hold the potations of a Worthy; Twin Lakes, scarce divided by the +island in their midst; Double Pond, low sunk in the green forest slope, +a perfect circle bisected by a wooded ridge; Geneva Lake, dotted with +islands and beautiful with shining orange-groves;--always among the +lawns and glades, the forest-slopes and aisles of pines, with sough of +wind and song of bird, and fragrant wild perfumes. Always with bright +"bits" of life between the long, grand silences--a group of men faring +on foot across the pine level; a rosy, bareheaded girl--the only girl +in the place--searching for calves in the dingle, who gave us flowers +and told us the road with the sweet, lingering cadence of the South in +her velvet voice; two men riding by turns the mule that bore their +sacks of corn to mill; two boys carrying a great cross-cut saw along a +sloping lakeside, a noble Newfoundland dog frisking beside them; the +fleet bay horse and erect military figure of our host at Crystal Lake +guiding us among the intricacies of the Lake Colony. Always with sunny +memories of happy hours--gypsy dinners beside golden-watered "branch" +or sapphire lake; the cheery half hour in the log house on the hill +above the little grist-mill, with the bright young Philadelphians who +have here cast in their lot; the abundant feast in the farm-house under +the orange trees, and the "old-time" stories of the after-dinner hour; +the pleasant days at Crystal Lake, where our first day's drenching +resulted so happily in a slight illness that detained us in that lovely +spot, and showed us, in the new colony lately settled on this and the +adjacent lakes, how refinement and cultivation, lending elegance to +rude toil and harsh privation, may realize even Utopian dreams. + +The great farm on Geneva Lake was the first old plantation which we had +seen since leaving Kingsley's, and this lies on the outskirts of +Ekoniah Scrub, which has long been settled by native Floridians or +Georgians. "Hit ain't a farmin' kentry, above there on the sandhills," +said our host of the thrifty old farm on Lake Geneva. "It's fine for +oranges an' bananas, but the Scrub's better for plantin'. Talk about +oranges! Look a' that tree afore you! A sour tree hit were--right smart +big, too--but four year ago I sawed it off near the ground and stuck in +five buds. That tree is done borne three craps a'ready--fifteen oranges +the second year from the bud, a hundred and fifty the third, and last +year we picked eight hundred off her. Seedlin's? Anybody mought hev +fruit seven year from the seed, but they must take care o' the trees to +do it. Look a' them trees by the fence: eight year old, them is. Some +of 'em bore the sixth year: every one on 'em is sot full now--full +enough for young trees. + +"Yes, that's right smart good orange-land up there in the sandhills. +Forty year ago, when I kim yere, they was nothin' but wild critters in +that lake kentry, as the Yankee folks calls it: all kind o' varmints +they was--bears, tigers, panthers, cats and all kinds. Right smart +huntin' they was, and 'tain't so bad now. They's rabbits and 'coons and +'possums, sure enough, and deer too; and--Cats? Why, cats is plenty, +but they ain't no 'count. + +"I niver hunted much myself, but I've heerd an old man tell--Higgins by +name. Ef you could find him and could get him _right_, he'd tell you +right smart o' stories about varmints, and Injuns too. I've heerd him +tell how he went out with some puppies one time to larn 'em to hunt +bear. He heerd one o' the puppies a-screechin', and kase he didn't want +to lose him he run up. The screechin' come from a sort o' scrub, and he +got clost up afore he see it was a she-bear and two cubs. The bear had +the puppy, but when she see Higgins she dropped hit and made for him. +Now, you know, a bear ain't like no varmint nor cow-beast; hit don't go +'round under the trees, but jest makes a road for itself over the +scrub. Higgins hadn't no time to take aim, and ef he'd 'a missed he was +gone, sure 'nough; so he jest drawred his knife, and when she riz up to +clutch him he stuck her plum in the heart. Killed her, dead. + +"No, I never had no trouble with Injuns. They was all gone to the +Nation when I settled yere, but I see Billy Bow-legs onct, and Jumper, +too. I was ago-in' through the woods, and I met a keert with three men +in it. Two on 'em was kinder dark-lookin', but I never thort much of +that till the man that was drivin' stopped and axed me ef I knowed who +he had in behind. It was them two chiefs, sure 'nough: right +good-lookin' fellers they was, too." + +We had left the sandhills of the Ridge, and had reached the borders of +the Scrub, but there was yet another of the new Northern settlements to +visit. It lay a few miles beyond Geneva Lake, in the flat woods to the +south of Santa Fe Lake, the largest and best known of the group. + +Who does not know the dreary flat-woods villages of the South, with +their decaying log cabins and hopelessly unfinished frame houses--with +their white roads, ankle-deep in sand, wandering disconsolately among +fallen trees and palmetto scrub and blackened stumps? Melrose is like +them all, but with a difference. The decaying cabins, new two years +ago, are deserted in favor of the great frame houses, which, unfinished +indeed, have yet a determined air, as if they meant to be finished some +day. The sandy roads are alive with long trains of heavy log-trucks or +lighter freight-wagons; there are men actually buying things in the +three stores; there is a school, with live children playing before the +door; there are saw- and grist-mills buzzing noisily; there is a +post-office, which connects us with the outer world as we receive our +waiting letters; there is a stir of enterprise in the air which speaks +quite plainly of Chicago and the Northern States, whence have come the +colonists; there is talk of a railroad to the St. John's on the east, +and of a canal which shall connect the lakes with one another and with +the railway on the west; there is a really good hotel, where we spend +the night in unanticipated luxury upon a breezy eminence overlooking +the silver sheet of Santa Fe Lake, which stretches away for miles to +the north and eastward. + +[Illustration: ALDERMAN'S, ON GENEVA LAKE.] + +The morrow was almost spent while we lingered in the neighborhood of +the lake. The road makes a wide circuit to avoid its far-reaching arms +and bays: only here and there are glimpses of the water seen through +the trees and cart-tracks leading off to exquisite points of view upon +its banks. We are in the flat woods again--palmetto-clumps under the +pine trees, pitcher-plants and orchis in the low spots, violets and +pinguicula beside the ditches, vetches and lupines and pawpaw and the +trailing mimosa in the sand. The park-like character of the woods is +gone. Still, there are here and there gentle undulations upon which the +long lines of western sunlight slope away; the lake gleams silvery +through the trees; the air is pure and sparkling as in high altitudes. + +It was evening before we could leave the lakeside and plunge into the +dense new growth which adds to the ancient name of Ekoniah the modern +appellation of "Scrub." Amid its close-crowding thickets night came +upon us speedily. How hospitably we were received in the bare new +"homestead" of Parson H----; how generously our hosts relinquished +their one "barred" bed and passed a night of horror exposed to the fury +of myriad mosquitos, whose songs of triumph we heard from our own +protected pillows; how basely Barney requited all this kindness by +breaking into the corn-crib and "stuffing himself as full as a +sausage," as the Small Boy reported,--may not here be dwelt upon. + +The early morning was exquisite. Soft mists veiled all the glorious +colors; great spider-webs, strung thick with diamonds, stretched from +tree to tree; a little "pot-hole" pond of lilies exhaled sweet odors; +the lark's ecstatic song thrilled down from upper air. There was a +gentle hill before us, and halfway up a view to the right of a broad +lake, with the log huts of a "settle_ment_" on the high bank. The sun +has drunk up all the mists, and shines bright upon the soft gray satin +of the girdled pine trees in the clearing; flowers are crowding +everywhere--orange milkweed, purple phlox, creamy pawpaw, azure +bluebells, spotted foxgloves, rose-tinted daisies, brown-eyed +coreopsias and unknown flowers of palest blue. Butterflies flit +noiselessly among them, and mocking-birds sing loud in the leafy +screens above. A red-headed woodpecker taps upon a resounding tree and +screams in exultation as he seizes his prey. + +We skirted Viola Lake, cresting the high hill, and descending to a +shaded valley where the lapping waters plashed upon the roadside: then +mounted another hill, among thick clustering oaks and giant pines, to +where three lakes are seen spreading broadly out upon a grassy plain +between high wooded slopes. And these are Ekoniah! Twenty years ago a +tiny rivulet, wandering through broad prairies; eight years later a +wider stream, already beginning to encroach upon the grassy borderland; +now a chain of ever-broadening lakes, already drawing near to the hills +which frame in the widespread plain. Famous grazing-lands these were +once, the favored haunts of cattle-drovers, more famous hunting-grounds +in older days, before firm prairie had given place to watery savanna. +There were Indian villages upon the heights above and bloody battles in +the plains below. But who shall tell the story of those days? The +Indians are gone; the cattle-drovers have followed them to the far +South; the new settler of twenty years ago cared nothing for +antiquities or for the legends of an older time. The dead past is +buried: even the sonorous old Indian name has been softened down to +Etonia: be it the happy lot of this chronicler to rescue it from +oblivion! + +The lakes of the lately-traversed "Lake Region," frequent as they had +been, were as nothing to those of Ekoniah Scrub. The road rose and fell +over a succession of low hills, each ascent gained discovering a new +sheet of water to right, to left or before us, deep sunk among +thick-clustering trees. At rare intervals the forest would fall away on +either hand, opening up a wide view of cultivated fields, sweeping +grandly down in long stripes of tender green to the billowy verdure of +the broad savanna, where silvery-sparkling lakes lay imbedded and great +round "hummocks" of dark trees uprose like islands in the grassy sea. +In the distance would be barren slopes of rich dark red and silvery +gray, swelling upward to the far dim mystery of pine woods and the blue +arch above. + +We ate our dinner beside Lake Rosa, a circular basin of clearest water +rippling and dimpling under the soft breeze. Toward evening we found +the ford, which a paralytic old woman sitting in a sunny corner of a +farm-house piazza had indicated to us as "right pretty." Pretty it was, +indeed, as we came down to it through the most luxuriant of hummocks of +transparent-foliaged sweet-gums and shining-leaved magnolias with one +great creamy flower. "Right pretty" it was, too, in the old woman's +meaning of the word, for Barney drew us through in safety, scarce up to +his knees in the transparent water which reflected so perfectly every +flower and leaf of the dense water-growth. The road beyond was cut +through an arch of close-meeting trees, and farther on it skirted a +broad lake, which already, in its slow, sure, upward progress, had +covered the roadway and was reaching even to the fence which bounds the +field above. In this field is a large mound, never investigated, +although the farmer who owns the property says he has no doubt that it +is the site of an Indian village, for the plough turns up in the fields +around not only arrow-heads, but fragments of pottery and household +utensils. It was not our good-fortune to obtain any of those relics, as +they have not been preserved, and this was the only mound of any extent +which we saw. Such mounds are said, however, to be not infrequent in +this district, and Indian relics are found everywhere. + +As we drove along the hillside we began to notice frequent basin-like +depressions of greater or less size, always perfectly circular, always +with the same saucer-shaped dip, always without crack or fissure, yet +appearing to have been formed by a gradual receding of the +substructure, reminding one of the depression in the sand of an +hour-glass or of the grain in a hopper. Many of these concaves were +dry; others had a little water in the bottom; all of them had trees +growing here and there, quite undisturbed, whether in the water or not; +and there was no one who had cared to note how long a time had elapsed +since they had begun their "decline and fall." There is little doubt, +however, that the future traveller will find them developed into lakes, +as, indeed, we found one here and there upon the hilltops. + +[Illustration: "THE ONLY GIRL IN THE PLACE."] + +How many times we got lost among the lakes and "pot-holes," the fallen +trees and thickets of Ekoniah Scrub, it would be tedious to relate. How +many times we came down to the prairie-level, and, fearful to trust +ourselves upon the treacherous, billowy green, were forced to "try +back" for a new road along the hillside, it would be difficult to say. +The county clerk's itinerary had ended here, and William Townsend +proved to be less ubiquitous than we had been led to expect. Thus it +was that night came down upon us one evening before we had reached a +place of shelter--suddenly, in the thick scrub, not lingeringly, as in +the long forest glades of the lake country. For an hour we pushed on, +trusting now to Barney's sagacity, now to the pioneering abilities of +Artist and Scribe, who marched in the van. Fireflies flitted about, +their unusual brilliancy often cheating us into the fond hope that +shelter was at hand. The ignes-fatui in the valley below often added to +the deception, and after many disappointments we were about to spread +our blankets upon the earth and prepare for a night's rest _al fresco_ +when we heard a distant cow-call. Clear and melodious as the far-off +"Ranz des Vaches" it broke upon the stillness, gladdening all our +hearts. How we answered it, how we hastened over logs and through +thickets in the direction of answering voices and glancing lights--no +ignes-fatui now--how we were met halfway by an entire family whom we +had aroused, and with what astonishment we heard ourselves addressed by +name,--can better be imagined than described. By the happiest of +chances we had come upon the home of some people whom we had casually +met upon the St. John's River only a few weeks before, and our dearest +and oldest friends could not have welcomed us more cordially or have +been more gladly met by us. + +In the early morning we heard again, between sleeping and waking, the +musical cow-call. It echoed among the hills and over the lakes: there +were the tinkling of bells, the pattering of hoofs, the eager, +impatient sounds of a herd of cattle glad of morning freedom. It was +like a dream of Switzerland. And, hastening out, we found the dream but +vivified by the intense purity of the air surcharged with ozone, the +exquisite clearness of the outlines of the hills, the sparkling +brightness of the lakes in the valley, the freshness of glory and +beauty which overspread all like a world new made. + +One of the great events of that day was a desperate fight between two +chameleons in a low oak-scrub on the hilltop. The little creatures +attacked each other with such fury, with such rapid changes of color +from gray to green and from green to brown, with such unexpected +mutations of shape from long and slender to short and squat, with such +sudden dartings out and angry flamings of the transparent membrane +beneath the throat, with such swift springs and flights and glancings +to and fro, as were wonderful to see. It seemed as though both must +succumb to the fierce scratchings and clawings; and when at last one +got the entire head of his adversary in his mouth and proceeded +deliberately to chew it up, we thought that the last act in the tragedy +was at hand. The Small Boy made a stealthy step forward with a view to +a capture, when, presto! change! two chameleons with heads intact were +calmly gazing down upon us with that placid look of their kind which +seemed to assure us that fighting was the last act of which they were +capable. + +That day, too, is memorable for the charming scenes it brought us, +impossible for the pencil to reproduce with all their sweet +accessories. We have found the ford at last, where the blue ribbon of +the stream lies across the white sand of our road. The prairie +stretches out broad and green with many circular islets of tree-mounds +in the ocean-like expanse. The winding road beyond the ford leads, +between cultivated fields on one side and the tree-bordered prairie on +the other, up to the low horizon, where soft white thunderheads are +heaped in the hazy blue. The tinkling of cow-bells comes sweetly over +the sea of grass; slow wavelets sob softly in the sedges of the stream; +fish glance through the water; a duck flies up on swiftly-whirring +wing. A great moss-draped live-oak leans over the stream, and the +perfume of the tender grapes which crown it floats toward us on the +air. + +Again, after we have climbed the hill to Swan Lake, and have dined +beside Half-moon Pond, and have "laid our course," as the sailors say, +by our map and the sun, straight through the Scrub to visit Lake Ella, +we come out upon the heights above Lake Hutchinson. The dark greens of +the foreground soften into deep-blue shadows in the middle distance. +Lake Hutchinson sparkles, a vivid sapphire, against the distant +silvery-gray of Lake Geneva, while far away the low blue hills melt, +range behind range, into the pale-blue sky. + +[Illustration: SANTA FE LAKE.] + +Our faces were turned homeward, but there were yet many miles of the +Ekoniah country running to northward on the east of the Ridge, and +lakes and lakes and lakes among the scrub-clothed hills. A new feature +had become apparent in many of them: a low reef of marsh entirely +encircling the inner waters and separating them from a still outer +lagoon, reminding us, with a difference, of coral-reefs encircling +lakes in mid-ocean. The shores of these lakes were not marshy, but firm +and hard, like the lakes of the hilltops, with the same smooth +forest-slope surrounding. Is a reverse process going on here, we +wondered, from that we have seen in the prairies, and are these sheets +of water to change slowly into marsh, and so to firm land again? There +are a number of such lakes as these, and on the heights above one of +the largest, which they have called Bethel, a family of Canadian +emigrants have recently "taken up a homestead." + +There was still another chain of prairie-lakes, the "Old Field Ponds," +stretching north and south on our right, and as we wound around them, +plashing now and again through the slowly-encroaching water, we had +'Gator-bone Pond upon our right. The loneliness of the scene was +indescribable: for hours we had been winding in and out among the still +lagoons or climbing and descending the ever-steeper, darker hills. +Night was drawing on; stealthy mists came creeping grayly up from the +endless Old Field Ponds; fireflies and glow-worms and will-o'-the-wisps +danced and glowered amid the intense blackness; frogs croaked, +mosquitos shrilled, owls hooted; Barney's usual deliberate progress +became a snail's pace, which hinted plainly at blankets and the +oat-sack,--when, all at once, a bonfire flamed up from a distant +height, and the sagacious quadruped quickened his pace along the steep +hill-road. + +A very pandemonium of sounds saluted our ears as we emerged from the +forest--lowings and roarings and shriekings of fighting cattle, wild +hoots from hoarse masculine throats, the shrill tones of a woman's +angry voice, the discordant notes of an accordion, the shuffle of heavy +dancing feet. We had but happened upon a band of cow-hunters returning +homeward with their spoils, and the fightings of their imprisoned +cattle were only less frightful than their own wild orgies. If we had +often before been reminded of Italian skies and of the freshness and +brightness of Swiss mountain-air, now thoughts of the Black Forest, +with all of weird or horrible that we had ever read of that storied +country, rushed to our minds--robber-haunted mills, murderous inns, +treacherous hosts, "terribly-strange beds." Not that we apprehended +real danger, but to our unfranchised and infant minds the chills and +fevers which mayhap lurked in the mist-clothed forest, or even a +wandering "cat," seemed less to be dreaded than the wild bacchanals who +surrounded us. We would fain have returned, but it was too late. Barney +was already in the power of unseen hands, which had seized upon him in +the darkness; an old virago had ordered us into the house; and when we +had declined to partake of the relics of a feast which strewed the +table, we were ignominiously consigned to a den of a lean-to opening +upon the piazza. A "terribly-strange bed" indeed was the old +four-poster, which swayed and shrieked at the slightest touch, and +myriad the enemies which there lay in wait for our blood. We were not +murdered, however, nor did our unseen foes--as had once been predicted +by a Cracker friend--_quite_ "eat us plum up, bodaciously alive." In +the early morning we fled, though not until we had seen how beautiful a +home the old plantation once had been. These were not Crackers among +whom we had passed the night, but the "native and best." Not a fair +specimen of this class, surely, but such as here and there, in the +remoter corners of the South, are breeding such troubles as may well +become a grave problem to the statesman--the legitimate outgrowth of +the old regime. War-orphaned, untutored, unrestrained, contemning +legitimate authority, spending the intervals of jail-life in wild +revels and wilder crimes,--such were the men in whose ruined home we +had passed the night. + +There was yet one more morning among the gorgeous-foliaged +"scrub-hills," one more gypsy meal by a lakeside, one more genial +welcome to a hospitable Cracker board, and we were at home again in the +wide sea of pines which stretches to the St. John's. In the ten days of +our journey we had seen, within a tract of land some thirty miles long +by forty in breadth, more than fifty isolated lakes and three +prairie-chains; had visited four enterprising Northern colonies and +numerous thrifty Southern farms; had found an air clear and +invigorating as that of Switzerland, soft and balmy as in the tropics, +while the gorgeous colorings of tree and flower, of water and sky, were +like a dream of the Orient. + +"But there!" said the Small Boy, stopping suddenly with a +half-unbuckled strap of Barney's harness in his hand: "we forgot one +thing, after all: never found William Townsend!"--LOUISE SEYMOUR +HOUGHTON. + + + + +CANOEING ON THE HIGH MISSISSIPPI. + + +CONCLUDING PAPER. + + +[Illustration: A LYNX STIRS UP THE CAMP.] + +Itasca Lake was first seen of white men by William Morrison, an old +trader, in 1804. Several expeditions attempted to find the source of +the Great River, but the region was not explored till 1832--by +Schoolcraft, who regarded himself as the discoverer of Itasca. Much +interesting matter concerning the lake and its vicinity has been +written by Schoolcraft, Beltrami and Nicollet, but the exceeding +difficulty of reaching it, and the absence of any other inducements +thither than a spirit of adventure and curiosity, make visitors to its +solitudes few and far between. Itasca is fed in all by six small +streams, each too insignificant to be called the river's source. It has +three arms--one to the south-east, about three and a half miles long, +fed by a small brook of clear and lively water; one to the south-west, +about two miles and a half long, fed by the five small streams already +described; and one reaching northward to the outlet, about two and a +half miles. These unite in a central portion about one mile square. The +arms are from one-fourth of a mile to one mile wide, and the lake's +extreme length is about seven miles. Its water is clear and warm. July +thirteenth, when the temperature of the air was 76 deg., the water in the +largest arm of the lake varied between 74 deg. and 80 deg.. We saw no springs +nor evidences of them, and the water's temperature indicates that it +receives nothing from below. Still, it is sweet and pure to the taste +and bright and sparkling to the eye. Careful soundings gave a depth +varying between fourteen and a half and twenty-six feet. The only +island is that named by Schoolcraft after himself in 1832. It is in the +central body of the lake, and commands a partial view of each arm. It +is about one hundred and fifty feet wide by three hundred feet long, +varying in height from its water-line to twenty-five feet, and is +thickly timbered with maple, elm, oak and a thicket of bushes. + +On Tuesday morning, July 14, at six o'clock, we paddled away from the +island to the foot of the lake. The outlet is entirely obscured by +reeds and wild rice, through which the water converges in almost +imperceptible current toward the river's first definite banks. This +screen penetrated, I stopped the Kleiner Fritz in mid-stream and +accurately measured width, depth and current. I found the width twenty +feet, the depth on either side of my canoe as she pointed down the +stream thirty-one inches, and the speed of the current two and +one-tenth miles to the hour. The first four miles of the infant's +course is swift and crooked, over a bed of red sand and gravel, thickly +interspersed with mussel and other small shells, and bordered with +reeds. Through these, at two points, we beat our way on foot, dragging +the canoes through unmade channels. Indeed, nearly all of these first +four miles demanded frequent leaps from the boats to direct their swift +and crooked course, until we came to a stretch of savanna country, +through which the river washes its way in serpentine windings for nine +miles with a gentle current from thirty to sixty feet wide, bordered by +high grass, bearing the appearance and having the even depth of a +canal. An easy, monotonous paddle through these broad meadows brought +us to the head of the first rapids, the scene of our two days' upward +struggle. These rapids extend about twelve miles as the river runs, +alternating between rattling, rocky plunges and swift, smooth water, +for the most part through a densely-wooded ravine cleft through low but +abrupt hills, and as lonely and cheerless as the heart of Africa. The +solitude is of that sort which takes hold upon the very soul and weaves +about it hues of the sombrest cast. From our parting with the Indians +on first reaching the river we had neither seen nor heard a human +being, nor were there save here and there remote traces of man's hand. +No men dwell there: nothing invites men there. A few birds and fewer +animals hold absolute dominion. Wandering there, one's senses become +intensely alert. But for the hoot of the owl, the caw of the crow, the +scream of the eagle, the infrequent twitter of small birds, the mighty +but subdued roar of insects, the rush of water over the rocks and the +sigh and sough of the wind among the pines, the lonely wanderer has no +sign of aught but the rank and dank vegetation and a gloomy, oppressive +plodding on and on, without an instant's relief in the sights and +sounds of human life. We entered upon the descent of the rapids in no +very cheerful mood. + +The downward way was easier, and we had cleared away, in the upward +struggle, such obstructions as were within our control. Still, we +travelled slowly and wearily, and came out of our first day's homeward +work wet and worn into a camp in the high grass a good twenty miles +from the start of the morning. We drew the canoes from the water, made +our beds of blankets inside, lashed our paddles to the masts for +ridge-poles, thatched our little cabins with our rubber blankets, hung +our mosquito-bars beneath, then cooked and ate under the flare of our +camp-fire, and sought our canoe-beds for that sweet sleep which comes +of weariness of body, but not of mind, under the bright stars and +broad-faced moon shining with unwonted clearness in that clear air. + +The night proved very cool. Our outer garments, wet from so much +leaping in and out of the canoes, and rolled up for storage on the +decks over night, were found in the early morning frozen stiff, and had +to be thawed before we could unroll them. The thermometer registered +33 deg. after six o'clock, and frost lay upon all our surroundings. + +For two and a half days our course was down a stream winding gracefully +through a broad region of savanna country, occasionally varied by the +crossing of low sandy ridges beautifully graved by lofty yellow pines. +In the savannas the shores are made of black soil drifted in, and +forming, with the dense mass of grass-roots, a tough compound in which +the earthy and vegetable parts are about equal, while the tall grass, +growing perpendicularly from the shore, makes a stretch of walls on +either side, the monotony of which becomes at last so tiresome that a +twenty-feet hill, a boulder as large as a bushel basket or a tree of +unusual size or kind becomes specially interesting. Standing on tiptoe +in the canoes, we could see nothing before or around us but a boundless +meadow, with here and there a clump of pines, and before and behind the +serpent-like creepings of the river. The only physical life to be seen +was in the countless ducks, chiefly of the teal and mallard varieties, +a few small birds and the fish--lake-trout, grass-bass, pickerel and +sturgeon--constantly darting under and around us or poised motionless +in water so clear that every fin and scale was seen at depths of six +and eight feet. The ducks were exceedingly wild--something not easily +accounted for in that untroubled and uninhabited country; but we were +readily able to reinforce our staple supplies with juicy birds and +flaky fish broiled over a lively fire or baked under the glowing coals. + +[Illustration: A BLOW ON BALL CLUB LAKE.] + +By noon of Friday, the 18th, we had come to an average width in the +river of eighty feet and a sluggish flow of six feet in depth. We +halted for our lunch at the mouth of the South (or Plantagenian) Fork +of the Mississippi, up which Schoolcraft's party pursued its way to +Itasca Lake. Thence a short run brought us suddenly upon Lake +Marquette, a lovely sheet of water with clearly-defined and solid +shores, about one mile by two in extent, exactly across the centre of +which the river has entrance and exit. Beyond this, a short mile +brought us to the sandy beaches of Bemidji Lake, the first considerable +body of water in our downward travel, and about one hundred and +twenty-five miles, as the river winds, from Itasca. The real name of +the lake, as used by the Indians and whites adjacent, is Benidjigemah, +meaning "across the lake," and Bemidji is frequently known as Traverse +Lake. It is a lovely, unbroken expanse, about seven miles long and four +miles wide. Its shores are of beautiful white sand, gravel and +boulders, reaching back to open pine-groved bluffs. Our shore-searchers +found agate, topaz, carnelian, etc. Our approach to Bemidji had been +invested with special interest as the first unmistakable landmark in +our lonely wanderings, and as the home of one man--a half-breed--the +only human being who has a home above Cass Lake. We found his hut, but +not himself, at the river's outlet. The lodge is neatly built of bark. +It was surrounded by good patches of corn, potatoes, wheat, beans and +wild raspberries. There is a stable for a horse and a cow, and all +about were the conventional traps of a civilized biped who lives upon a +blending of wit, woodcraft and industry. We greatly wished to see this +hermit, whose nearest neighbors are thirty miles away. His dog welcomed +us with all the passion of canine hunger and days of isolation, but the +master was gone to Leech Lake, as we afterward found from his Cass Lake +neighbors. The wind favored a sail across the lake--a welcome variation +from our hitherto entirely muscular propulsion--so we rigged our spars +and canvas, drifted smoothly out into the trough of the lively but not +angry waves, and swept swiftly across the clear, bright little sea. The +white caps dashed over our decks and a few sharp puffs half careened +our little ships, but the crossing was safely and quickly made. It was +yet only mid-afternoon, but we had paddled steadily and made good +progress nearly four days; so we went into early camp on a bluff +overlooking the entire lake, did our first washing of travel-stained +garments, brought up epistolary arrearages, caught two fine lake-trout +for our next breakfast and went to sound sleep in the +nine-and-a-half-o'clock twilight. + +We had been advised that we should need guides in finding our exits +from the lakes, which were obscured by reeds and wild rice. But no +guide was to be had, and we easily found our own way. The river at the +outlet of Bemidji Lake is about one hundred and fifty feet wide, very +shallow, and runs swiftly over a bed of large gravel and boulders +thickly grown with aquatic grass and weeds. We had gone but a little +way when a rattling ahead told of near proximity to swift and rough +water, down which we danced at a speed perilous to the boats, but not +to our personal safety. The river was unusually low, so that the many +bouldery rapids which otherwise would have been welcome were now only +the vexatious hints of what might have been. The shallow foam dashed +down each rocky ledge without channel or choice, and whichever way we +went we soon wished we had gone another. The rocks were too many for +evasion, and the swift current caught our keels upon their half-sunken +heads, which held us fast in imminent peril of a swamp or a capsize, +our only safety lying in open eyes, quick and skilful use of the paddle +or a sudden leap overboard at a critical instant. Added to these +difficulties, a gusty head wind and lively showers obscured the +boulders and the few open channels. So we went on all the forenoon, +hampered by our ponchos, poling, drifting, paddling and peering our +way, blinded by wind and rain, till we came to the last of these +labyrinths, liveliest and most treacherous of all. We were soaked, and +only dreaded an upset for our provisions and equipments. The rapid was +long, rough, swift, crooked. The Kleiner Fritz led the way into the +swirl, and was caught, a hundred feet down, hard and fast by her +bow-keel, swung around against another boulder at her stern, and was +pinned fast in no sort of danger, the water boiling under and around +her, while her captain sat at his leisure as under the inevitable, with +a don't-care-a-dash-ative procrastination of the not-to-be-avoided jump +overboard and wade for deeper water. The Betsy D., following closely, +passed the Fritz with a rush which narrowly escaped the impalement of +the one by the other's sharp nose, struck, hung for a moment, while the +water dashed over her decks and around her manhole, then washed loose +and went onward safely to still water. The Fritz, solid as the +Pyramids, beckoned the Hattie to come on without awaiting the +questionable time of the latter's release; so the namesake of the +hazel-eyed and brown-haired Indiana girl came into the boil and bubble, +sailed gayly by the troubles of the others, was gliding on toward quiet +seas under her skipper's gleeful whoops, when, bang! went her bow upon +a rock, from which a moment's work freed her: tz-z-z-z-z-zip crunched +her copper nails over another just under water, whence she went bumping +and crunching, her captain's prudent and energetic guidance knocking +his flag one way and his wooden hatch the other, till finally his +troubles were behind him. Then the Fritz began to stir. Her commander +went overboard and released her, then leaped astride her deck and +paddled cautiously down the rift and slowly down the quieter water +below, howling through the pelting rain, + + "Then let the world wag along as it will: + We'll be gay and happy still," + +until he came upon his comrades--one stumbling about over the blackened +roots of grass and underbrush from a recent fire in search of wood for +our needed noon-day blaze; the other with wet matches and birch bark, +and imprecations for which there was ample justification, vainly +seeking that without which hot coffee and broiled bacon cannot be. The +Kleiner Fritz's haversack supplied dry matches, fire began to snap, +coffee boiled, bacon sputtered on the ends of willow rods, hard tack +was set out for each man, and we sat upon our heels for lunch under the +weeping skies and willows, comparing notes and experiences. + +[Illustration: PEKAGEMA FALLS.] + +Thence, three hours through monotonous savanna and steady rain brought +us to the uppermost bay of Cass Lake, and unexpectedly upon a +straggling Indian village. We bore down upon it with yells, and there +came tumbling out from birch lodges and bark cabins the first human +beings we had seen for more than ten days, in all the ages, sizes, +tints, costumes and shades of filth known to the Chippewas of the +interior wilderness. At first they were a little shy of us, but we got +into a stumbling conversation with the only man of the whole lot who +wore breeches or could compass a little English, and soon the dirty, +laughing, wondering, chattering gang came down to inspect us and our, +to them, marvellous craft, and to fully enjoy what was perhaps the most +interesting event in many a long month of their uneventful lives. Then +we paddled across the bay, or upper lake, out into the broader swells +of Cass Lake itself, pulled four miles across to the northernmost point +of Colcaspi, or Grand Island, and made our second Saturday night's camp +upon its white sands at or very near the spot where Schoolcraft and his +party had encamped in July, forty-seven years before. The landward side +of the beautiful beach is skirted by an almost impenetrable jungle. We +had frequently seen traces, old and new, of deer, moose, bears and +smaller animals, but had seen none of the animals themselves save one +fine deer, and our sleep had been wholly undisturbed by prowlers; so we +sank to rest on Grand Island with no fears of invasion. At midnight the +occupant of the Kleiner Fritz was aroused by a scratching upon the side +of the canoe and low, whining howls. He partially arose, confused and +half asleep, in doubt as to the character of his disturber, which went +forward, climbed upon the deck and confronted him through the narrow +gable of his rubber roof with a pair of fiery eyes, which to his +startled imagination seemed like the blazing of a comet in duplicate. +The owner of the eyes was at arm's length, with nothing but a +mosquito-bar intervening. Then the eyes suddenly disappeared, and the +scratching and howling were renewed in a determined and partially +successful effort to get between the overlapping rubber blankets to the +captain of the Fritz. This movement was defeated by a quick grasp of +the edges of the blankets, and while the animal was snarling and pawing +at the shielded fist of his intended victim lusty shouts went out for +the camp to arouse and see what the enemy might be, as the Fritz was +unwilling to uncover to his unknown assailant. The Hattie's skipper, +hard by, saw that something unusual was on hand, peered out, and so +increased the uproar as to draw the adversary's attack. Then the Betsy +bore down upon us all just as the hungry and persistent beast was +crouching for a leap at the Hattie's jugular, the loud bang of a Parker +rifle rang out upon the stillness, and a fine, muscular lynx lay dead +at the Cincinnati Nimrod's feet. The animal's trail showed that he had +prowled around our bacon and hard tack in contempt, had inspected the +Betsy's commander as he lay on the sand in his blanket and under a huge +yellow mosquito-bar, but had evidently concluded that any man who could +snore as that man usually did was not a good subject for attack, and so +came on down the beach in search of blood less formidably defended. We +renewed our fire, examined our dead disturber, and turned in again to +sound sleep under the assuring suggestion of the Cincinnati man that, +whatever else the jungle might hide, two cannon-balls rarely enter the +same hole. + +Our heavy and late slumber was broken by the laugh and chatter of two +Indian women and a child, who in a bark canoe a little way from shore +were regarding our camp in noisy curiosity. My blanket suddenly thrown +aside and a good-morning in English took them by surprise, and they +paddled away vigorously toward a group of lodges some four miles across +the lake. In the glorious sunset of a restful Sunday we crossed the +glassy lake to its outlet, taking two fine lake-trout of four pounds as +we went, and glided out of as beautiful a lake as sun and moon shine +upon into the swift, steady, deep current of what for the first time in +its long way Gulfward bears the full dignity of a river. Its green +banks are some two hundred feet apart. The water has a regular depth of +from five to six feet, and all the way to Lake Winnibegoshish affords +an unbroken channel for a medium-sized Western steamer. The shores, +alternating between low, firm, grass-grown earth and benches of +luxuriant green twenty feet high, grown over with open groves of fine +yellow pines, were so beautiful and regular that we could hardly +persuade ourselves that we should not see, as we rounded the graceful +curves, some fine old mansion of which these turfed knolls and charming +groves seemed the elegant lawns and parks. Our fleet unanimously voted +the river between Cass and Winnibegoshish Lakes the most beautiful of +all its upper course. + +[Illustration: BARN BLUFF (C., M. & ST. P. R.R.).] + +We began our second week upon the Mississippi with a breakfast of baked +lake-trout, slapjacks, maple syrup and coffee, which embodied the +culinary skill of the entire fleet: then started for Winnibegoshish in +the height of good spirits and physical vigor. In one of our easy, +five-miles-an-hour swings around the graceful curves we were met by a +duck flying close over our heads with noisy quacks. A little farther we +came upon the cause of the bird's lively flight in an Indian boy, not +above nine years old, paddling a large birch canoe, over the gunwale of +which peeped the muzzle of a sanguinary-looking old shot-gun. The +diminutive sportsman was for a moment dashed by our sudden and novel +appearance, but, from the way he urged his canoe and from the +determined set of his dirty face, we had small room to doubt the +ultimate fate of the flying mallard. Another curve brought us in sight +of the home of the little savage, where a dozen Indians, in all stages +of nudity, were encamped upon a high bluff. A concerted whoop from our +fleet brought all of them from their smoky lodges, and we swept by +under their wondering eyes and exclamations. Then the high land was +left behind, and half an hour between low meadows brought us out upon +the yellow sands and heaving swells of Lake Winnibegoshish, the largest +in the Mississippi chain, the dimensions of which, including its lovely +north-eastern bay, are about eleven by thirteen miles. The name +signifies "miserable dirty water lake," but save a faint tinge of brown +its waters are as pure and sparkling as those of any of the upper +lakes. Our entrance upon Winnibegoshish was under a driving storm of +wind and mist, against which we paddled three miles to Duck Point, a +slender finger of wooded sand and boulder reaching half a mile out, at +whose junction with the main land is a miserable village of most +villainous-looking Indians. One man alone could speak a little English, +and through him we negotiated for replenishing our provisions. +Meantime, the storm freshened and embargoed an eight-mile journey +across an open and boiling sea; so we paddled to the outermost joint +upon the jutting finger for a bivouac under the trees, waiting the +hoped-for lull of wind and wave at sunset. The smoke of our fire +invited to our camp the hungry natives, who dogged us at every turn all +the long afternoon, in squads of all numbers under twenty, and of all +ages between two and seventy. One club-footed and club-handed fellow of +forbidding visage protested with hand and head that he neither spoke +nor understood our vernacular. Later, he sidled up to the Hattie's +skipper and said in an earnest _sotto voce_, "Gib me dime." Denied the +dime, he intimated to the Betsy that he doted on bacon, of which we +were each broiling a slice. The Betsy's captain was bent upon securing +an Indian fish-spear, and he pantomimed to the twinkling eyes of the +copper-skin that he would invest a generous chunk of bacon in barbed +iron. The Indian strode back to his village, and soon returned with the +spear, which he transferred to the Betsy's stores. + +The conventional Indian maiden besieged the bachelor two-thirds of our +expedition with all the wiles that could be embodied in a comely and +clean-calicoed charmer up in the twenties, who finally bore away from +the Betsy's private stores a fan of stunning colors and other odds and +ends of a St. Paul notion-store; while the guileless commander of the +Hattie, whose cumulative years should have taught him better, and whose +thinly-clad brain-shelter and disreputable attempt at sailor costume +should have blunted all feminine javelins, surrendered to the ugliest +old septuagenarian in the village, and sent her heart away rejoicing in +the ownership of a policeman's whistle courted by her leering eyes and +already smirched by her dirty lips, together with a stock of tea, +crackers and bacon for which her expanded corporosity evinced no +imminent need. At last rid of our importunate acquaintances, we turned +in for a sleep, which we resolved should be broken at the first moment, +dark or light, when we might cross the lake. Before daylight the +Betsy's resonant call awoke us, and in the earliest gray we paddled out +upon a heavy but not foaming sea, and after two and a half hours of +monotonous splashing in the trough of the waves landed for breakfast on +the eastern shore, whence we crossed a lovely bay and passed out once +more upon the river. + +A mile on our way we came to the prettiest of the many Indian +burying-grounds which we saw now and then. Formerly, the Indians +deposited their dead upon rude scaffolds well up in the air. Now they +seek high ground and place the bodies of the departed in shallow +graves, over which they build little wooden houses a foot or two high +with gabled roofs, and mark each with a white flag raised upon a pole a +few feet above the sleeper's head. In this neighborhood we inquired of +a stalwart brave concerning our proximity to a portage by means of +which a short walk over to a small lake near the head of Ball Club Lake +and a pull of six miles down the latter would bring us out again into +the river, and save a tedious voyage of twenty-five to thirty miles +through a broad savanna. The Indian in his old birch canoe joined our +fleet, and led us to the beginning of the portage near the foot of +Little Winnipeg Lake. We had carried two canoes and all the baggage +over to the water on the other side of a sandy ridge, leaving only the +Kleiner Fritz to be brought, when our guide and packer, with a +preliminary grunt, said "Money?" inquiring how much we intended to pay +him. He had worked hard for four hours, for which we tried to tell him +that we should pay him one dollar when he should bring over the +remaining canoe; but we could not make him understand what a dollar +was. We then laid down, one after another, four silver quarter-dollars +and two bars of tobacco; whereupon he gave a satisfied grunt and an +affirmative nod, disappeared in the forest, and in less than an hour +returned with the Fritz upon his steaming shoulders, having covered +more than three miles in the round trip. + +As we pulled out upon Ball Club Lake a gentle stern wind bade us hoist +our canvas for an easy and pleasant sail of six or seven miles down to +the open river. We glided out gayly before a gentle breeze, and sailed +restfully over the little rippling waves, our speed increasing, though +we hardly noted the signs of a gale driving after us over the hills +behind. The Hattie was leading well over to the port shore, the Fritz +bearing straight down the middle, with the Betsy on the starboard +quarter, when the storm struck us with a vigor that increased with each +gust. The black clouds swished over our heads, seemingly almost within +reach of our paddles. The sails tugged at the sheets with tiresome +strength. The canoes now plunged into a wave at the bows and were now +swept by others astern, as they rushed forward like mettlesome colts or +hung poised upon or within a rolling swell, until, with the increasing +gale, the roaring waves dashed entirely over decks and men. The Hattie +bore away to leeward and rode the gale finely, but at last prudence +bade the furling of her sail. Expecting no such blow the Fritz had not +taken the precaution to arrange her rubber apron for keeping out the +waves from her manhole, and now, between holding the sheet, steering +and watching the gusty wind, neither hand nor eye could be spared for +defensive preparations; so her skipper struck sail and paddled for the +westward shore, with the Betsy lunging and plunging close behind. We on +the windward side sought the smoother water within the reeds, and drove +along rapidly under bare poles, out of sight of the Hattie, separated +at nightfall by miles of raging sea. We rode before the wind to the +foot of the lake, where we were confronted by the alternative of a +toilsome and unsafe paddle around the coast against the storm's full +force, or camping in mutual anxiety as to the fate of the unseen +party--a by no means pleasant sedative for a night's rest upon wild and +uninhabited shores. We decided upon the pull, and labored on, now upon +the easy swells within the reeds, and then tossing upon the crests in +open places, until at last a whirling column of smoke a mile ahead gave +us assurance of the Hattie's safety. The reunited fleet paddled down +into the Mississippi, enlivening the darkness until we could find +camping-ground beyond the marshes by a comparison of storm-experiences +and congratulations that we had escaped the bottom of the lake. + +[Illustration: CHURCH AMONG THE PINES (BRAINERD).] + +Late in the afternoon of the next day, after a monotonous pull through +the interminable windings of Eagle Nest Savanna, we swept around a +curve of high tillable land upon the uppermost farm cultivated by +whites, eighteen miles above Pekagema Falls, and one hundred and +seventy miles by river beyond the Northern Pacific Railroad. Thomas +Smith and his partner, farming, herding and lumbering at the mouth of +Vermilion River, were the first white men we had seen since July 6, +seventeen days, and with them we enjoyed a chat in straight English. +Nine miles below we camped at River Camp, the second farm downward, +where we were kindly supplied with vegetables and with fresh milk, +which seemed to us then like the nectar of the gods. Thursday, 24th, we +reached Pekagema Falls, a wild pitch of some twenty feet, with rapids +above and below, down which the strong volume of the river plunges with +terrible force in picturesque beauty. A carry around the falls and +three miles of paddling brought us to Grand Rapids, and we rushed like +the wind into the whirl and boil of its upper ledge, down the steep and +crooked incline for two hundred yards, out of which we shot up to the +bank under a little group of houses where Warren Potter and Knox & +Wakefield conduct the uppermost post-office and stores upon the river. +We speedily closed our partly-completed letters and posted them for a +pack-mail upon an Indian's back sixty-five miles to Aitkin, while we +should follow the tortuous river thither for one hundred and fifty +miles. We had hoped for a rest and lift hence to Aitkin upon the good +steamboat City of Aitkin, which makes a few lonely trips each spring +and fall, but the low water had prevented her return from her last +voyage, made ten days before our arrival. Our stores replenished, after +two hours of rest we started again in a driving rain, and under the +hearty _bon voyage_ of a dozen frontiersmen and Indians shot the two +lively lower ledges of Grand Rapids, and came out on smooth water, +whose sluggish flow, broken by a very few rifts, bore us thence one +hundred and fifty miles to the next white settlement at Aitkin. The +entire distance lies through low bottom-lands heavily timbered, and our +course was drearily monotonous. We left Grand Rapids at mid-afternoon +of Thursday, July 24, and camped on Friday night four miles below Swan +River. Late on Saturday we passed Sandy Lake River--where formerly were +a large Indian population and an important trading-post, founded and +for many years conducted by Mr. Aitkin, who was prominently identified +with the early history of that region, and is now commemorated in the +town and county bearing his name, but where now remain only one or two +deserted cabins and a few Indian graves, over which white flags were +flapping in the sultry breeze--and camped two miles below. Monday's +afternoon brought us to Aitkin, so that we had covered one hundred and +fifty miles of sluggish channel, at low summer tide, in three working +days. We had been four weeks beyond possibility of home-tidings, and we +swooped down upon the disciple of Morse in that far-away village with +work that kept him clicking for an hour. We were handsomely taken in by +Warren Potter, a pioneer and an active and intelligent factor in the +business of that region, in whose tasteful home we for the first time +in a month sat down and ate in Christian fashion under a civilized +roof. Having lost a week in the farther wilderness, we decided to take +the rail to Minneapolis, that we might enjoy the beautiful river thence +to Lake Pepin, yet reach our homes within the appointed time. Half a +day was enjoyed at Brainerd, the junction of the Northern Pacific main +line with the St. Paul branch, and the most important town between Lake +Superior and the Missouri. It is beautifully built and picturesquely +scattered among the pines upon the Mississippi's eastern bank, not far +above Crow Wing River. Thence we were carried over the splendid +railway, passing the now abandoned Fort Ripley, winding along or near +to the river and across the wheat-fields, through the busy and +beautiful city of mills, below St. Anthony's roar and down the dancing +rapids to a pleasant island-camp between the green-and-gray bluffs that +bind Minneapolis to Minnehaha--the first really fine scenery this side +of Itasca's solitude. A delightful paddle under a bright morning sun +and over swift, clear water carried us to the little brook whose +laughter, three-quarters of a mile up a deep ravine, has been sent by +Longfellow rippling outward to all the world. We rounded the great +white-faced sand-rock that marks the outlet, paddled as far as we might +up the quiet stream, beached the canoes under the shade of the willows, +walked a little way up the brook, past a deserted mill, under cool +shadows of rock and wood, and enjoyed for half an hour the simple, +seductive charms of the "Laughing Water." Then we tramped back to our +boats, floated down under the old walls of Fort Snelling and between +the chalk-white cliffs which line the broadening river, until we came +in sight of St. Paul's roofs and spires, and soon were enjoying the +thoughtful care and generous hospitality of the Minnesota Boat Club. +Another day's close brought us to Red Wing, backgrounded by the green +bluffs and reddened cliffs of its bold hills. One more pull down the +now broad and islanded stream carried us to Lake Pepin, one of the +loveliest mirrors that reflects the sun, and to Frontenac's white +beach. The keels of the Fritz, the Betsy and the Hattie crunched the +sands at the end of their long journey, the boats were shunted back +upon the railway, and their weary owners were soon dozing in restful +forgetfulness upon the couches of the unsurpassed Chicago, Milwaukee +and St. Paul line. + +[Illustration: END OF VOYAGE (FRONTENAC, LAKE PEPIN).] + +Beyond reasonable doubt, our party is the only one that ever pushed its +way by boat up the entire course of the farther-most Mississippi. +Beyond any question, our canoes were the first wooden boats that ever +traversed those waters. Schoolcraft, in 1832, came all the way down the +upper river without portages, but he had very high water and many +helpers, in spite of which one of his birch canoes was wrecked. The +correspondent of a New York newspaper claimed the complete trip in his +canoe some five years ago, but his own guide and others told us that +his Dolly Varden never was above Brainerd, and that his portages above +were frequent. So we may well feel an honest pride in our Rushton-built +Rob Roys and our hard knocks, and may remember with pardonable +gratification that upon our own feet and keels we have penetrated the +solitudes lying around the source of the world's most remarkable river, +where no men live and where, probably, not more than two-score white +men have ever been.--A.H. SIEGFRIED. + + + + +ADAM AND EVE. + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +By the time Reuben May entered the little town of Looe he had come to a +decision about his movements and how he should carry out his plan of +getting back to London. Not by going with Captain Triggs, for the +monotonous inaction of a sailing voyage would now be insupportable to +him, but by walking as far as he could, and now and then, whenever it +was possible, endeavoring to get a cheap lift on the road. His first +step must therefore be to inform Triggs of his decision, and to do this +he must get back to Plymouth, a distance from Looe of some fifteen or +sixteen miles. + +In going through Looe that morning he had stopped for a few minutes at +a small inn which stood not far from the beach; and having now crossed +the river which divides West from East Looe, he began looking about for +this house, intending to get some refreshments, to rest for an hour or +so, and then proceed on his journey. + +Already the town-clock was striking six, and Reuben calculated that if +he started between nine and ten he should have time to take another +good rest on the road--which he had already once that day +traversed--and reach Plymouth Barbican, where the Mary Jane lay, by +daybreak. + +The inn found, he ordered his meal and informed the landlady of his +intention. + +"Why, do 'ee stop here till mornin', then," exclaimed the large-hearted +Cornish woman. "If 'tis the matter o' the money," she added, eying him +critically, "that's hinderin' 'ee from it, it needn't to, for I'll see +us don't have no quarrel 'bout the price o' the bed." + +Reuben assured her that choice, not necessity, impelled his onward +footsteps; and, thus satisfied, she bade him "Take and lie down on the +settle there inside the bar-parlor; for," she added, "'less 'tis the +sergeant over fra Liskeard 'tain't likely you'll be disturbed no ways; +and I shall be in and out to see you'm all right." + +Reuben stretched himself out, and, overcome by the excitement and +fatigue of the day, was soon asleep and dreaming of those happier times +when he and Eve had walked as friends together. Suddenly some one +seemed to speak her name, and though the name at once wove itself into +the movement of the dream, the external sound had aroused the sleeper, +and he opened his eyes to see three men sitting near talking over their +grog. + +With just enough consciousness to allow of his noticing that one was a +soldier and the other two were sailors, Reuben looked for a minute, +then closed his eyes, and was again sinking back into sleep when the +name of Eve was repeated, and this time with such effect that all +Reuben's senses seemed to quicken into life, and, cautiously opening +his eyes, so as to look without being observed, he saw that it was the +soldier who was speaking. + +"Young chap, thinks I," he was saying, "you little fancy there's one so +near who's got your sweetheart's seal dangling to his fob;" and with an +air of self-satisfied vanity he held out for inspection a curious +little seal which Reuben at once recognized as the same which he +himself had given to Eve. + +The unexpected sight came upon him with such surprise that, had not the +height of the little table served as a screen to shelter him from view, +his sudden movement must have betrayed his wakefulness. + +"He's a nice one for any woman to be tied to, he is!" replied the +younger of the two sailors. "Why, the only time as I ever had what you +may call a fair look at un was one night in to the King o' Proosia's, +and there he was dealing out his soft sawder to little Nancy Lagassick +as if he couldn't live a minute out o' her sight." + +"That's about it," laughed the soldier. "He's one of your own sort +there: you Jacks are all alike, with a wife in every port. However," he +added--and as he spoke he gave a complacent stroke to his good-looking +face--"he may thank his stars that a matter of seven miles or so lays +between his pretty Eve and Captain Van Courtland's troop, or there'd +have been a cutting-out expedition that, saving the presence of those I +speak before"--and he gave a most exasperating wink--"might have proved +a trifle more successful than such things have of late." + +"Here, I say," said the sailor, flaming up at this ill-timed +jocularity, "p'ra'ps you'll tell me what 'tis you're drivin' at; for +I've got to hear of it if you, or any o' your cloth either, ever made a +find yet. You're mighty 'cute 'bout other folks, though when the +spirits was under yer very noses, and you searched the houses through +'twas knowed to be stowed in, you couldn't lay hold on a single cask. +'Tis true we mayn't have nabbed the men, but by jingo if 't has come to +us bein' made fools of by the women!" + +"There, now, stash it there!" said his older comrade, who had no wish +to see a quarrel ensue. "So far as I can see, there's no cause for +bounce 'twixt either o' us; though only you give us a chance of getting +near to them, sergeant," he said, turning to the soldier, "and I'll +promise you shall make it all square with this pretty lass you fancy +while her lover's cutting capers under Tyburn tree." + +"'A chance?'" repeated his companion, despondingly: "where's it to come +from, and the only one we'd got cut away from under us by those Hart +chaps?" + +"How so? where's the Hart off to, then?" asked the sergeant. + +"Off to Port Mellint," said the man addressed. "Nothing but a hoax, I +fancy, but still she was bound to go;" and so saying he tossed off the +remainder of his grog and began making a movement, saying, as he did +so, to his somewhat quarrelsomely-disposed shipmate, "Here, I say, +Bill, come 'long down to the rendezvoos with me, and if there's nothin' +up for to-night what d'ye say to stepping round to Paddy Burke's? He's +asked us to come ever so many times, you know." + +"Paddy Burke?" said the sergeant. "What! do you know him? Why, if +you're going there, I'll step so far with you." + +"Well, we're bound for the rendezvoos first," said the sailor. + +"All right! I can find plenty to do while you're in there." + +"Then come along;" and, only stopping to exchange a few words in +passing with the landlady, out they all went, and Reuben was left +alone, a prey to the thoughts which now came crowding into his mind. + +For a few minutes he sat with his arms resting on the table as if +communing with himself: then, starting up as if filled with a sudden +resolve, he went out and asked the landlady a few commonplace +questions, and finally inquired whereabouts and in what direction did +the rendezvous lie. + +"Close down by the bridge, the first house after you pass the second +turning. Why?" she said: "be 'ee wanting to see anybody there?" + +"No," said Reuben: "I only heard the fellows that came in there talking +about the rendezvous, and I wondered whether I'd passed it." + +"Why, iss, o' course you did, comin' in. 'Tis the house with the flag +stream-in' over the doorways." + +Reuben waited for no further information. He said something about not +knowing it was so late, bade the landlady a rather abrupt farewell, and +went his way. + +Down the narrow street he hurried, turned a corner, and found himself +in front of the house indicated, outside which all was dark. Nobody +near, and, with the exception of himself, not a soul to be seen. +Inside, he could hear voices, and the more plainly from the top sash of +the window being a little way open. By the help of the iron stanchion +driven in to support the flagstaff he managed to get up, steady himself +on the window-sill and take a survey of the room. Several men were in +it, and among them the two he had already seen, one of whom was +speaking to a person whom, from his uniform, Reuben took to be an +officer. + +The sight apparently decided what he had before hesitated about, and +getting; down he took from his pocket a slip of paper--one he had +provided in case he should want to leave a message for Eve--and rapidly +wrote on it these words: "The Lottery is expected at Polperro tonight. +They will land at Down End as soon as the tide will let them get near." + +Folding this, he once more mounted the window-sill, tossed the paper +into the room, lingered for but an instant to see that it was picked +up, then jumped down, ran with all speed, and was soon lost amid the +darkness which surrounded him. + +As he hurried from the house an echo seemed to carry to his ears the +shout which greeted this surprise--a surprise which set every one +talking at once, each one speaking and no one listening. Some were for +going, some for staying away, some for treating it as a serious matter, +others for taking it as a joke. + +At length the officer called "Silence!" and after a pause, addressing +the men present in a few words, he said that however it might turn out +he considered that he should only be doing his duty by ordering the +boats to proceed to the place named and see what amount of truth there +was in this somewhat mysterious manoeuvre. If it was nothing but a hoax +they must bear to have the laugh once more turned against them; but +should it turn out the truth! The buzz which greeted this bare +supposition showed how favorably his decision was regarded, and the +absent men were ordered to be summoned without delay. Everything was +got ready as quickly as possible, and in a little over an hour two +boats started, fully equipped and manned, to lie in ambush near the +coast midway between Looe and Polperro. + +While Fate, in the shape of Reuben May, had been hastening events +toward a disastrous climax, the course of circumstances in Polperro had +not gone altogether smoothly. To Eve's vexation, because of the +impossibility of speaking of her late encounter with Reuben May, she +found on her return home that during her absence Mrs. Tucker had +arrived, with the rare and unappreciated announcement that she had come +to stop and have her tea with them. The example set by Mrs. Tucker was +followed by an invitation to two or three other elderly friends, so +that between her hospitality and her excitement Joan had no opportunity +of noticing any undue change in Eve's manner or appearance. Two or +three remarks were made on her pale face and abstracted air, but this +more by the way of teasing than anything else; while Joan, remembering +the suppressed anxiety she was most probably trying to subdue, +endeavored to come to her aid and assist in turning away this +over-scrutiny of her tell-tale appearance. + +The opportunity thus afforded by silence gave time for reflection, and +Eve, who had never been quite straightforward or very explicit about +herself and Reuben May, now began to hesitate. Perhaps, after all, it +would be better to say nothing, for Joan was certain to ask questions +which, without betraying the annoyance she had undergone, Eve hardly +saw her way to answering. Again, it was not impossible but that +Reuben's anger might relent, and if so he would most probably seek +another interview, in which to beg her pardon. + +In her heart Eve hoped and believed this would be the case; for, +indignantly as she had defied Reuben's scorn and flung back his +reproaches, they had been each a separate sting to her, and she longed +for the chance to be afforded Reuben of seeing how immeasurably above +the general run of men was the one she had chosen. + +"Here, I say, Eve!" exclaimed Joan, as she came in-doors from bidding +good-bye to the last departure: "come bear a hand and let's set the +place all straight: I can't abide the men's coming home to find us all +in a muddle." + +Eve turned to with a good will, and the girls soon had the satisfaction +of seeing the room look as bright and cheery as they desired. + +"Let's see--ten minutes past 'leben," said Joan, looking at the clock. +"I don't see how 'tis possible for 'em to venture in 'fore wan, 'less +'tis to Yallow Rock, and they'd hardly try that. What do 'ee say, Eve? +Shall we run up out to cliff, top o' Talland lane, and see if us can +see any signs of 'em?" + +"Oh do, Joan!" + +And, throwing their cloaks over them, off they set. + +"Here, give me your hand," said Joan as they reached the gate and +entered upon the path which Eve had last trod with Adam by her side. "I +knaw the path better than you, and 'tis a bit narrow for a pitch-dark +night like this. Take care: we'm come to the watter. That's right. Now +up we goes till we get atop, and then we'll have a good look round us." + +Thus instructed, Eve managed to get on, and, stumbling up by Joan's +side, they quickly reached the narrow line of level which seemed to +overhang the depths below. + +"We couldn't see them if they were there," said Eve, turning to Joan, +who was still peering into the darkness. + +"No, 'tis blacker than I thought," said Joan cheerily: "that's ever so +much help to 'em, and--Hooray! the fires is out! Do 'ee see, Eve? There +ain't a spark o' nothin' nowheres. Ole Jonathan's hoaxed 'em fine this +time: the gawpuses have sooked it all in, and, I'll be bound, raced off +so fast as wind and tide 'ud carry 'em." + +"Then they're sure to come now?" said Eve excitedly. + +"Certain," said Joan. "They've seed the fires put out, and knaw it +means the bait's swallowed and the cruiser is off. I shouldn't wonder a +bit if they'm close in shore, only waitin' for the tide to give 'em a +proper draw o' water, so that they may send the kegs over." + +"Should we go on a bit farther," said Eve, "and get down the hill by +the Warren stile? We might meet some of 'em, perhaps." + +"Better not," said Joan. "To tell 'ee the truth, 'tis best to make our +way home so quick as can, for I wudn't say us 'ull have 'em back +quicker than I thought." + +"Then let's make haste," exclaimed Eve, giving her hand to Joan, while +she turned her head to take a farewell glance in the direction where it +was probable the vessel was now waiting. "Oh, Joan! what's that?" For a +fiery arrow had seemed to shoot along the darkness, and in quick +succession came another and another. + +Joan did not answer, but she seemed to catch her breath, and, clutching +hold of Eve, she made a spring up on to the wall over which they had +before been looking. And now a succession of sharp cracks were heard, +then the tongues of fire darted through the air, and again all was +gloom. + +"O Lord!" groaned Joan, "I hope 'tain't nothin's gone wrong with 'em." + +In an instant Eve had scrambled up by her side: "What can it be? what +could go wrong, Joan?" + +But Joan's whole attention seemed now centred on the opposite cliff, +from where, a little below Hard Head, after a few minutes' watching, +Eve saw a blue light burning: this was answered by another lower down, +then a rocket was sent up, at sight of which Joan clasped her hands and +cried, "Awn, 'tis they! 'tis they! Lord save 'em! Lord help 'em! They +cursed hounds have surely played 'em false." + +"What! not taken them, Joan?" + +"They won't be taken," she said fiercely. "Do you think, unless 'twas +over their dead bodies, they'd ever let king's men stand masters on the +Lottery's deck?" + +Eve's heart died within her, and with one rush every detail of the +lawless life seemed to come before her. + +"There they go again!" cried Joan; and this time, by the sound, she +knew their position was altered to the westward and somewhat nearer to +land. "Lord send they mayn't knaw their course!" she continued: "'tis +but a point or two on, and they'll surely touch the Steeple Reef.--Awh, +you blidthirsty cowards! I wish I'd the pitchin' of every man of 'ee +overboards: 'tis precious little mercy you'd get from me. And the +blessed sawls to be caught in yer snarin' traps close into home, +anighst their very doors, too!--Eve, I must go and see what they means +to do for 'em. They'll never suffer to see 'em butchered whilst there's +a man in Polperro to go out and help 'em." + +Forgetting in her terror all the difficulties she had before seen in +the path, Eve managed to keep up with Joan, whose flying footsteps +never stayed until she found herself in front of a long building close +under shelter of the Peak which had been named as a sort of +assembling-place in case of danger. + +"'Tis they?" Joan called out in breathless agony, pushing her way +through the crowd of men now hastening up from all directions toward +the captain of the Cleopatra. + +"I'm feared so;" and his grave face bespoke how fraught with anxiety +his fears were. + +"What can it be, d'ee think?" + +"Can't tell noways. They who brought us word saw the Hart sail, and +steady watch has been kept up, so that us knaws her ain't back." + +"You manes to do somethin' for 'em?" said Joan. + +"Never fear but us'll do what us can, though that's mighty little, I +can tell 'ee, Joan." + +Joan gave an impatient groan. Her thorough comprehension of their +danger and its possible consequences lent activity to her distress, +while Eve, with nothing more tangible than the knowledge that a +terrible danger was near, seemed the prey to indefinite horrors which +took away from her every sense but the sense of suffering. + +By this time the whole place was astir, people running to this point +and that, asking questions, listening to rumors, hazarding a hundred +conjectures, each more wild than the other. A couple of boats had been +manned, ready to row round by the cliff. One party had gone toward the +Warren, another to Yellow Rock. All were filled with the keenest desire +not only to aid their comrades, but to be revenged on those who had +snared them into this cunningly-devised pitfall. But amid all this zeal +arose the question, What could they do? + +Absolutely nothing, for by this time the firing had ceased, the contest +was apparently over, and around them impenetrable darkness again +reigned supreme. To show any lights by which some point of land should +be discovered might only serve as a beacon to the enemy. To send out a +boat might be to run it into their very jaws, for surely, were +assistance needed, those on board the Lottery would know that by this +time trusty friends were anxiously watching, waiting for but the +slightest signal to be given to risk life and limb in their service. + +The wisest thing to be done was to put everything in order for a sudden +call, and then sit down and patiently abide the result. This decision +being put into effect, the excited crowd began to thin, and before +long, with the exception of those who could render assistance, very few +lookers-on remained. Joan had lingered till the last, and then, urged +by the possibility that many of her house-comforts might be needed, she +hurried home to join Eve, who had gone before her. + +With their minds running upon all the varied accidents of a fight, the +girls, without exchanging a word of their separate fears, got ready +what each fancied might prove the best remedy, until, nothing more +being left to do, they sat down, one on each side of the fire, and +counted the minutes by which time dragged out this weary watching into +hours. + +"Couldn't 'ee say a few hymns or somethin', Eve?" Joan said at length, +with a hope of breaking this dreadful monotony. + +Eve shook her head. + +"No?" said Joan disappointedly. "I thought you might ha' knowed o' +some." Then, after another pause, struck by a happier suggestion, she +said, "S'pose us was to get down the big Bible and read a bit, eh? What +do 'ee say?" + +But Eve only shook her head again. "No," she said, in a hard, dry +voice: "I couldn't read the Bible now." + +"Couldn't 'ee?" sighed Joan. "Then, after all, it don't seem that +religion and that's much of a comfort. By what I'd heard," she added, +"I thought 'twas made o' purpose for folks to lay hold on in times o' +trouble." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +It was close upon three o'clock: Joan had fallen into an uneasy doze +and Eve was beginning to nod, when a rattle of the latch made them both +start up. + +"It can't be! Iss, it is, though!" screamed Joan, rushing forward to +meet Adam, who caught both the girls in a close embrace. + +"Uncle? uncle?" Joan cried. + +"All safe," said Adam, releasing her while he strained Eve closer to +his heart. "We're all back safe and sound, and, saving Tom Braddon and +Israel Rickard, without a scratch 'pon any of us." + +"Thank God!" sighed Eve, while Joan, verily jumping for joy, cried, +"But where be they to, eh, Adam? I must rin, wherever 'tis, and see +'em, and make sure of it with my awn eyes." + +"I left them down to quay with the rest: they're all together there," +said Adam, unwilling to lose the opportunity of securing a few minutes +alone with Eve, and yet unable to command his voice so that it should +sound in its ordinary tone. + +The jar in it caught Joan's quick ear, and, turning, she said, "Why, +whatever have 'ee bin about, then? What's the manin' of it all? Did +they play 'ee false, or how?" + +Adam gave a puzzled shake of the head. "You know quite as much about it +as I do," he said. "We started, and got on fair and right enough so far +as Down End, and I was for at once dropping out the kegs, as had been +agreed upon to do, at Sandy Bottom--" + +"Well?" said Joan. + +"Yes, 'twould ha' been well if we'd done it. Instead of which, no +sooner was the fires seen to be out--meaning, as all thought, that the +Hart was safe off--than nothing would do but we must go on to Yellow +Rock, which meant waiting for over an hour till the tide served for +it." + +"But you never gived in to 'em, Adam?" + +"Gived in?" he repeated bitterly. "After Jerrem had once put the +thought into their heads you might so well have tried to turn stone +walls as get either one to lay a finger on anything. They wanted to +know what was the good o' taking the trouble to sink the kegs overboard +when by just waitin' we could store all safe in the caves along there, +under cliff." + +"Most half drunk, I s'pose?" said Joan. + +"By Jove! then they'd pretty soon something to make 'em sober," replied +Adam grimly; "for in little more than half an hour we spied the two +boats comin' up behind us, and 'fore they was well caught sight of +they'd opened out fire." + +"And had 'ee got to return it?" asked Joan. + +"Not till they were close up we didn't, and then I b'lieve the sight of +us would have been enough; only, as usual, Mr. Jerrem must be on the +contrary, and let fly a shot that knocked down the bow-oar of the +foremost boat like a nine-pin. That got up their blood a bit, and then +at it our chaps went, tooth and nail--such a scrimmage as hasn't been +seen hereabouts since the Happy-go-Lucky was took and Welland shot in +her." + +"Lord save us! However did 'ee manage to get off so well?" said Joan. + +"Get off?" he said. "Why, we could have made a clean sweep of the whole +lot, and all the cry against me now is that I kept 'em from doing it. +The fools! not to see that our best chance is to do nothing more than +defend ourselves, and not run our necks into a noose by taking life +while there's any help for it!" + +"Was the man shot dead that Jerrem fired at?" asked Eve. + +"No, I hope not; or, if so, we haven't heard the last of it, for, +depend on it, this new officer, Buller, he's an ugly customer to deal +with, and won't take things quite so easy as old Ravens used to do." + +"You'll be faintin' for somethin' to eat," said Joan, moving toward the +kitchen. + +"No, I ain't," said Adam, laying a detaining hand upon her. "I couldn't +touch a thing: I want to be a bit quiet, that's all. My head seems all +of a miz-maze like." + +"Then I'll just run down and see uncle," said Joan, "and try and +persuade un to come home alongs, shall I?" + +Adam gave an expressive movement of his face. "You can try," he said, +"but you haven't got much chance o' bringin' him, poor old chap! He +thinks, like the rest of 'em, that they've done a fine night's work, +and they must keep it up by drinking to blood and glory. I only hope it +may end there, but if it doesn't, whatever comes, Jerrem's the one +who's got to answer for it all." + +While he was saying these words Adam was pulling off his jacket, and +now went to the kitchen to find some water with which to remove the +black and dirt from his begrimed face and hands. + +Eve hastened to assist him, but not before Joan had managed, by laying +her finger on her lip, to attract her attention. "For goodness +gracious' sake," she whispered, "don't 'ee brathe no word 'bout the +letter to un: there'd be worse than murder 'twixt 'em now." + +Eve nodded an assurance of silence, and, opening the door, Joan went +out into the street, already alive with people, most of them bent on +the same errand as herself, anxious to hear the incidents of the fight +confirmed by the testimony of the principal actors. + +The gathering-point was the sail-house behind the Peak, and thither, in +company with several friends, Joan made her way, and soon found herself +hailed with delight by Uncle Zebedee and Jerrem, both of whom were by +this time primed up to giving the most extraordinary and vivid accounts +of the fight, every detail of which was entirely corroborated by those +who had been present and those who had been absent; for the constant +demand made on the keg of spirits which, in honor of the _victory_, old +Zebedee had insisted on having broached there, was beginning to take +effect, so that the greater portion of the listeners were now turned +into talkers, and thus it was impossible to tell those who had seen +from those who had heard; and the wrangling, laughter, disputes and +congratulations made such a hubbub of confusion that the room seemed +for the time turned into a very pandemonium. + +Only one thing all gave hearty assent to: that was that Jerrem was the +hero on whom the merit of triumph rested, for if he hadn't fired that +first shot ten to one but they should have listened to somebody whom, +in deference to Zebedee, they refrained from naming, and indicated by a +nod in his direction, and let the white-livered scoundrels sneak off +with the boast that the Polperro men were afraid to give fight to them. +Afraid! Why, they were afraid of nothing, not they! They'd give chase +to the Hart, board the Looe cutter, swamp the boats, and utterly rout +and destroy the whole excise department: the more bloodthirsty the +resolution proposed, the louder was it greeted. + +The spirit of lawless riot seemed suddenly let loose among them, and +men who were usually kind-hearted and--after their rough +fashion--tenderly-disposed seemed turned into devils whose delight was +in violence and whose pleasure was excess. + +While this revelry was growing more fast and furious below Adam was +still sitting quietly at home, with Eve by his side using her every art +to dispel the gloom by which her lover's spirits were clouded--not so +much on account of the recent fight, for Adam apprehended no such great +score of danger on that head. It was true that of late such frays had +been of rare occurrence, yet many had taken place before, and with +disastrous results, and yet the chief actors in them still lived to +tell the tale; so that it was not altogether that which disturbed him, +although it greatly added to his former moodiness, which had originally +sprung out of the growing distaste to the life he led. + +The inaction of the time spent in dodging about, with nothing to occupy +him, nothing to interest him, had turned Adam's thoughts inward, and +made him determine to have done with these ventures, in which, except +as far as the gain went, he really had nothing in common with the +companions who took part in them. But, as he very well knew, it was far +easier to take this resolution in thought than it was to put it into +action. Once let the idea of his leaving them get abroad, and +difficulties would confront him whichever way he turned: obstacles +would block his path and suspicion dodge his footsteps. + +His comrades, though not very far-seeing men, were quite sharp enough +to estimate the danger of losing sight of one who was in possession of +all their secrets, and who could at any moment lay his finger upon +every hiding-place in their district. + +Adam himself had often listened to--and, in company with others, +silently commended--a story told of years gone by, when a brother of +the owner of the Stamp and Go, one Herkles Johns, had been pressed into +the king's service, and had there acquitted himself so gallantly that +on his return a commission had been offered to him, which he, longing +to take, accepted under condition of getting leave to see his native +place again. With the foreboding that the change of circumstances would +not be well received, he seized the opportunity occasioned by the joy +of his return to speak of the commission as a reward offered to him, +and asked the advice of those around as to whether he had not best +accept it. Opposition met him on every side. "What!" they said, "of his +own free will put himself in a place where some day he might be forced +to seize his father's vessel or swear away the lives of those he had +been born among?" The bare idea was inadmissible; and when, from asking +advice, he grew into giving his opinion, and finally into announcing +his decision, an ominous silence fell on those who heard him; and, +though he was unmolested during his stay, and permitted to leave his +former home, he was never known to reach his ship, aboard which his +mysterious disappearance was much talked of, and inquiries set afloat +to find out the reason of his absence; but among those whose name he +bore, and whose confidence he had shared, he seemed to be utterly +forgotten. His name was never mentioned nor his fate inquired into; and +Adam, remembering that he had seen the justice of this treatment, felt +the full force of its reasoning now applied to his own case, and his +heart sank before the difficulties in which he found himself entangled. + +Even to Eve he could not open out his mind clearly, for, unless to one +born and bred among them, the dangers and interests of the free-traders +were matters quite beyond comprehension; so that now, when Eve was +pleading, with all her powers of persuasion, that for her sake Adam +would give up this life of reckless daring, the seemingly deaf ear he +turned to her entreaties was dulled through perplexity, and not, as she +believed, from obstinacy. + +Eve, in her turn, could not be thoroughly explicit. There was a +skeleton cupboard, the key of which she was hiding from Adam's sight; +for it was not entirely "for her sake" she desired him to abandon his +present occupation: it was because, in the anxiety she had recently +undergone, in the terror which had been forced upon her, the glaze of +security had been roughly dispelled, and the life in all its +lawlessness and violence had stood forth before her. The warnings and +denunciations which only a few hours before, when Reuben May had +uttered them, she had laughed to scorn as idle words, now rang in her +ears like a fatal knell: the rope he had said would hang them all was +then a sieve of unsown hemp, since sprung up, and now the fatal cord +which dangled dangerously near. + +The secret thoughts of each fell like a shadow between them: an +invisible hand seemed to thrust them asunder, and, in spite of the love +they both felt, both were equally conscious of a want of that entire +sympathy which is the keystone to perfect union. + +"You _were_ very glad to see me come back to you, Eve?" Adam asked, as, +tired of waiting for Joan, Eve at length decided to sit up no longer. + +"Glad, Adam? Why do you ask?" + +"I can't tell," he said, "I s'pose it's this confounded upset of +everything that makes me feel as I do feel--as if," he added, passing +his hand over his forehead, "I hadn't a bit of trust or hope or comfort +in anything in the world." + +"I know exactly," said Eve. "That's just as I felt when we were waiting +for you to come back. Joan asked if we should read the Bible, but I +said no, I couldn't: I felt too wicked for that." + +"Wicked?" said Adam. "Why, what should make you feel wicked?" + +Eve hesitated. Should she unburden her heart and confess to him all the +fears and scruples which made it feel so heavy and ill at ease? A +moment's indecision, and the opportunity lost, she said in a dejected +tone, "Oh, I cannot tell; only that I suppose such thoughts come to all +of us sometimes." + +Adam looked at her, but Eve's eyes were averted; and, seeing how pale +and troubled was the expression on her face, he said, "You are +over-tired: all this turmoil has been too much for you. Go off now and +try to get some sleep. Yes, don't stay up longer," he added, seeing +that she hesitated. "I shall be glad of some rest myself, and to-morrow +we shall find things looking better than they seem to do now." + +Once alone, Adam reseated himself and sat gazing abstractedly into the +fire: then with an effort he seemed to try and shake his senses +together, to step out of himself and put his mind into a working order +of thought, so that he might weigh and sift the occurrences of these +recent events. + +The first question which had flashed into everybody's mind was, What +had led to this sudden attack? Had they been betrayed? and if so, Who +had betrayed them? Could it be Jonathan? Though the thought was at once +negatived, no other outsider knew of their intended movements. Of +course the matter had been discussed--as all matters were discussed and +voted for or against--among the crew; but to doubt either of them was +to doubt one's self, and any fear of betrayal among themselves was +unknown. The amount of baseness such a suspicion would imply was too +great to be incurred even in thought. What, then, could have led to +this surprise? Had their movements been watched, and this decoy of the +cutter only swallowed with the view of throwing them off their guard? + +Adam was lost in speculation, from which he was aroused by the door +being softly opened and Joan coming in. "Why, Adam, I thought to find +'ee in bed," she said. "Come, now, you must be dreadful tired." Then, +sitting down to loosen her hood, she added with a sigh, "I stayed down +there so long as I could, till I saw 'twasn't no good, so I comed away +home and left 'em. 'Tis best way, I b'lieve." + +"I knew 'twas no good your going," said Adam hopelessly. "I saw before +I left 'em what they'd made up their minds to." + +"Well, perhaps there's a little excuse this time," said Joan, not +willing to blame those who were so dear to her; "but, Adam," she broke +out, while her face bespoke her keen appreciation of his superiority, +"why can't th' others be like you, awh, my dear? How different things +'ud be if they only was!" + +Adam shook his head. "Oh, don't wish 'em like me," he said. "I often +wish I could take my pleasure in the same things and in the same way +that they do: I should be much happier, I b'lieve." + +"No, now, don't 'ee say that." + +"Why, what good has it done that I'm otherwise?" + +"Why, ever so much--more than you'll ever know, by a good bit. I +needn't go no further than my awnself to tell 'ee that. P'r'aps you +mayn't think it, but I've bin kep' fra doin' ever so many things by the +thought o' 'What'll Adam say?' and with the glass in my hand I've set +it down untasted, thinkin' to myself, 'Now you'm actin' agen Adam's +wish, you knaw.'" + +Adam smiled as he gave her a little shake of the hand. + +"That's how 'tis, you see," she continued: "you'm doin' good without +knawin' of it." Then, turning her dark eyes wistfully upon him, she +asked, "Do 'ee ever think a bit 'pon poor Joan while you'm away, Adam? +Come, now, you mustn't shove off from me altogether, you knaw: you must +leave me a dinkey little corner to squeeze into by." + +Adam clasped her hand tighter. "Oh, Joan," he said, "I'd give the whole +world to see my way clearer than I do now: I often wish that I could +take you all off to some place far away and begin life over again." + +"Awh!" said Joan in a tone of sympathy to which her heart did not very +cordially respond, "that 'ud be a capital job, that would; but you +ain't manin' away from Polperro?" + +"Yes, far away. I've bin thinkin' about it for a good bit: don't you +remember I said something o' the sort to father a little time back?" + +"Iss, but I didn't knaw there was any more sense to your words than to +threaten un, like. Awh, my dear!" she said with a decided shake of the +head, "that 'ud never do: don't 'ee get hold o' such a thought as that. +Turn your back upon the place? Why, whatever 'ud they be about to let +'ee do it?" + +Joan's words only echoed Adam's own thoughts: still, he tried to combat +them by saying, "I don't see why any one should try to interfere with +what I might choose to do: what odds could it make to them?" + +"Odds?" repeated Joan. "Why, you'd hold all their lives in your wan +hand. Only ax yourself the question, Where's either one of 'em you'd +like to see take hisself off nobody knows why or where?" + +Adam could find no satisfactory reply to this argument: he therefore +changed the subject by saying, "I wish I could fathom this last +business. 'Tis a good deal out o' the course o' plain sailing. So far +as I know by, there wasn't a living soul but Jonathan who could have +said what was up for to-night." + +"Jonathan's right enough," said Joan decidedly. "I should feel a good +deal more mistrust 'bout some of 'em lettin' their tongues rin too +fast." + +"There was nobody to let them run fast to," said Adam. + +"Then there's the writin'," said Joan, trying to discover if Adam knew +anything about Jerrem's letter. + +Adam shook his head. "'Tisn't nothing o' that sort," he said. "I don't +know that, beyond Jerrem and me, either o' the others know how to +write; and I said particular that I should send no word by speech or +letter, and the rest must do the same; and Jonathan would ha' told me +if they'd broke through in any way, for I put the question to him 'fore +he shoved off." + +"Oh, did 'ee?" said Joan, turning her eyes away, while into her heart +there crept a suspicion of Jonathan's perfect honesty. Was it possible +that his love of money might have led him to betray his old friends? +Joan's fears were aroused. "'Tis a poor job of it," she said, +anxiously. "I wish to goodness 't had happened to any o' the rest, so +long as you and uncle was out of it." + +"And not Jerrem?" said Adam, with a feeble attempt at his old teasing. + +"Awh, Jerrem's sure to fall 'pon his feet, throw un which way you +will," said Joan. "Besides, if he didn't"--and she turned a look of +reproach on Adam--"Jerrem ain't you, Adam, nor uncle neither. I don't +deny that I don't love Jerrem dearly, 'cos I do"--and for an instant +her voice seemed to wrestle with the rush of tears which streamed from +her eyes as she sobbed--"but for you or uncle, why, I'd shed my heart's +blood like watter--iss that I would, and not think 'twas any such great +thing, neither." + +"There's no need to tell me that," said Adam, whose heart, softened by +his love for Eve, had grown very tender toward Joan. "Nobody knows you +better than I do. There isn't another woman in the whole world I'd +trust with the things I'd trust you with, Joan." + +"There's a dear!" said Joan, recovering herself. "It does me good to +hear 'ee spake like that. 'Tis such a time since I had a word with 'ee +that I began to feel I don't know how-wise." + +"Well, yes," said Adam, smiling, "'tis a bravish spell since you and me +were together by our own two selves. But I declare your talk's done me +more good than anything I've had to-day. I feel ever so much better now +than I did before." + +Joan was about to answer, when a sound made them both start and stand +for a moment listening. + +"'Tis gone, whatever it was," said Adam, taking a step forward. "I +don't hear nothing now, do you?" + +Joan pushed back the door leading to the stairs. "No," she said: "I +reckon 'twas nothin' but the boards. Howiver, 'tis time I went, or I +shall be wakin' up Eve. Her's a poor sleeper in general, but, what with +wan thing and 'nother, I 'spects her's reg'lar wornout, poor sawl! +to-night." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +Wornout and tired as she felt when she went up stairs, Eve's mind was +so excited by the day's adventures that she found it impossible to lull +her sharpened senses into anything like repose, and after hearing Joan +come in she lay tossing and restless, wondering why it was she did not +come up, and what could possibly be the cause of her stopping so long +below. + +As time went on her impatience grew into anxiety, which in its turn +became suspicion, until, unable longer to restrain herself, she got up, +and, after listening with some evident surprise at the stair-head, +cautiously stole down the stairs and peeped, through the chink left by +the ill-fitting hinge of the door, into the room. + +"There isn't another woman in the whole world I'd trust with the things +I'd trust you with, Joan," Adam was saying. Eve bent a trifle farther +forward. "You've done me more good than anything I've had to-day. I +feel ever so much better now than I did before." + +An involuntary movement, giving a different balance to her position, +made the stairs creak, and to avoid detection Eve had to make a hasty +retreat and hurry back, so that when Joan came up stairs it was to find +her apparently in such a profound sleep that there was little reason to +fear any sound she might make would arouse her; but long after Joan had +sunk to rest, and even Adam had forgotten his troubles and anxieties, +Eve nourished and fed the canker of jealousy which had crept into her +heart--a jealousy not directed toward Joan, but turned upon Adam for +recalling to her mind that old grievance of not giving her his full +trust. + +At another time these speeches would not have come with half the +importance: it would have been merely a vexation which a few sharp +words would have exploded and put an end to. But now, combined with the +untoward circumstances of situation--for Eve could not confess herself +a listener--was the fact that her nerves, her senses and her conscience +seemed strained to a point which made each feather-weight appear a +burden. + +Filled with that smart of wounded love whose sweetest balm revenge +seems to supply, Eve lay awake until the gray light of day had filled +the room, and then, from sheer exhaustion, she fell into a doze which +gradually deepened into a heavy sleep, so that when she again opened +her eyes the sun was shining full and strong. + +Starting up, she looked round for Joan, but Joan had been up for a +couple of hours and more. She had arisen very stealthily, creeping +about with the hope that Eve would not be disturbed by her movements, +for Adam's great desire was that Eve's feelings should be in no way +outraged by discovering either in Uncle Zebedee or in Jerrem traces of +the previous night's debauch; and this, by Joan's help, was managed so +well that when Eve made her appearance she was told that Uncle Zebedee, +tired like herself, was not yet awake, while Jerrem, brisked up by +several nips of raw spirit, was lounging about in a state of lassitude +and depression which might very well be attributed to reaction and +fatigue. + +Perhaps if Eve could have known that Adam was not present she would +have toned down the amount of cordiality she threw into her greeting of +Jerrem--a greeting he accepted with such a happy adjustment of pleasure +and gratitude that to have shown a difference on the score of Adam's +absence would have been to step back into their former unpleasant +footing. + +"Adam's gone out," said Jerrem in answer to the inquiring look Eve was +sending round the kitchen. + +"Oh, I wasn't looking for Adam," said Eve, while the rush of vexed +color denied the assertion: "I was wondering where Joan could be." + +"She was in here a minute ago," said Jerrem, "telling me 'twas a shame +to be idlin' about so." + +"Why, are you still busy?" said Eve. + +"No, nothin' to speak of but what 'ull wait--and fit it should--till +I'd spoken to you, Eve. I ain't like one who's got the chance o' comin' +when he's minded to," he added, "or the grass wouldn't ha' had much +chance o' growin' under my feet after once they felt the shore. No, +now, don't look put out with me: I ain't goin' to ask ye to listen to +nothin' you don't want to hear. I've tried to see the folly o' that +while I've bin away, and 'tis all done with and pitched overboard; and +that's what made me write that letter, 'cos I wanted us two to be like +what we used to be, you know." + +"I wish you hadn't written that letter, though," said Eve, only half +inclined to credit Jerrem's assertions. + +"Well, as things have turned out, so do I," said Jerrem, who, although +he did not confess it to himself, would have given all he possessed to +feel quite certain Eve would keep his secret. "You see, it's so awkard +like, when everybody's tryin' to ferret out how this affair came about. +You didn't happen to mention it to nobody, I s'pose?" and he turned a +keen glance of inquiry toward Eve. + +"Me mention it?" said Eve: "I should think not! Joan can tell you how +angry we both were, for of course we knew that unless Adam had some +good cause he wouldn't have wished it kept so secret." + +"And do you think I should have quitted a word to any livin' soul but +yourself?" exclaimed Jerrem. "I haven't much sense in your eyes, I +know, Eve, but you might give me credit o' knowing who's to be trusted +and who isn't." + +"What's that about trustin'?" said Joan, who now made her appearance. +"I tell 'ee what 'tis, Mr. Jerrem, you'm not to be trusted anyhows. +Why, what could 'ee ha' bin thinkin' of to go sendin' that letter you +did, after Adam had spoke to 'ee all? There'd be a purty set-out of it, +you knaw, Jerrem, if the thing was to get winded about. I, for wan, +shouldn't thank 'ee, I can tell 'ee, for gettin' my name mixed up with +it, and me made nothin' better than a cat's-paw of." + +"Who's goin' to wind it about?" said Jerrem, throwing his arm round her +and drawing her coaxingly toward him. "You ain't, and I ain't, and I'll +answer for it Eve ain't; and so long as we three keep our tongues +atween our teeth, who'll be the wiser--eh?" + +"Awh, that's all very fine," returned Joan, far from mollified, "but +there's a somebody hasn't a-kept their tongues silent; and who it can +be beats me to tell. Did Jonathan knaw for certain 'bout the landin'? +or was it only guess-work with un?" + +"I ain't sure; but Jonathan's safe enough," said Jerrem, "and so's the +rest too. 'Twarn't through no blabbin', take my word for that: 'twas a +reg'lar right-down set scheme from beginnin' to end, and that's why I +should ha' liked to ha' give 'em a payin'-out that they wouldn't ha' +forgot in a hurry. I'd ha' scored their reckonin' for 'em, I can tell +*'eel" + +"Awh! iss, I dare say," said Joan with scornful contempt: "you allays +think you knaws better than they you'm bound to listen to. +Howsomedever, when all's said and done, I shall finish with the same I +began with--that you'd no right to send that letter." + +"Well, you've told me that afore," said Jerrem sullenly. + +"Iss, and now I tells 'ee behind," retorted Joan, "and to front and to +back, and round all the sides--so there!" + +"Oh, all right!" said Jerrem: "have your talk out: it don't matter to +me;" and he threw himself down on the settle with apparent unconcern, +taking from his breast-pocket a letter which he carefully +unfolded.--"Did you know that I'd got a letter gived me to Guernsey, +Eve," he said--"one they'd ha' kept waitin' there for months for me?" + +Eve looked up, and, to her vexation, saw Jerrem reading the letter +which on her first arrival she had written: the back of it was turned +toward her, so as to ostentatiously display the two splotches of red +sealing-wax. + +"Why, you doan't mane to say you've a-got _he?_" exclaimed Joan, her +anger completely giving way to her amazement. "Well, I never! after all +this long whiles, and us a-tryin' to stop un, too!--Eve, do 'ee see +he's got the letter you writ, kisses and all?" + +"Joan!" exclaimed Eve in a tone of mingled reproof and annoyance, while +Jerrem made a feint of pressing the impressions to his lips, casting +the while a look in Eve's direction, which Joan intercepting, she said, +"Awh! iss I would, seeing they'm so much mine as Eve's, and you doan't +know t'other from which." + +"That's all you can tell," said Jerrem. + +"Iss, and all you can tell, too," replied Joan; adding, as the frown on +his face betokened rising anger, "There, my dear, you'd best step +inside wi' me and get a drop more o' your mornin's physic, I reckon." + +"Physic?" growled Jerrem. "I don't want no physic--leastwise, no more +than I've had from you already." + +"Glad to hear it," said Joan. "When you change your mind--which, depend +on it, 'ull be afore long--you'll find me close to hand.--I must make +up a few somethin's for this evenin'," she said, addressing Eve, "in +case any of 'em drops in. Adam's gone off," she added, "I don't know +where, nor he neither till his work's done." + +"Might just as well have saved hisself the trouble," growled Jerrem. + +"No, now, he mightn't," replied Joan. "There's spurrits enough to wan +place and t'other to float a Injyman in, and the sooner 'tis got the +rids of the better, for 'twill be more by luck than good management if +all they kegs is got away unseen." + +"Oh, of course Adam's perfect," sneered Jerrem. Then, catching sight of +Eve's face as he watched Joan go into the kitchen, he added with a +desponding sigh, "I only wish I was; but the world's made for some: I +s'pose the more they have the more they get." + +Eve did not answer: perhaps she had not heard, as she was just now +engaged in shifting her position so as to escape the dazzling rays of +the sun, which came pouring down on her head. The movement seemed to +awaken her to a sense of the day's unusual brightness, and, getting up, +she went to the window and looked out. "Isn't it like summer?" she +said, speaking more to herself than to Jerrem. "I really must say I +should like to have gone somewhere for a walk." + +The words, simple in themselves, flung in their tone a whole volume of +reproach at Adam, for to Eve's exacting mind there could be no +necessity urgent enough to take Adam away without ever seeing her or +leaving a message for her. + +"Well, come out with me," said Jerrem: "there's nothin' I should like +better than a bit of a stroll. I'd got it in my head before you spoke." + +Eve hesitated. + +"P'r'aps you'm thinkin' Adam 'ud blame 'ee for it?" + +"Oh dear, no, I'm not: I'm not quite such a slave to Adam's opinion as +that. Besides," she added, feeling she was speaking, with undue +asperity, "surely everybody may go for a walk without being blamed by +anybody for it: at all events, I mean to go." + +"That's right," said Jerrem.--"Here, I say, Joan, me and Eve's goin' +out for a little." + +"Goin' out? Where to?" said Joan, coming forward toward the door, to +which he had advanced. + +"Oh, round about for a bit--by Chapel Rock and out that ways." + +"Well, if you goes with her, mind you comes back with her. D'ee hear, +now?--Don't 'ee trust un out o' yer sight, Eve, my dear--not further +than you can see un, nor so far if you can help it." + +"You mind yer own business," said Jerrem. + +"If you was to do that you'd stay at home, then," said Joan, dropping +her voice; "but that's you all over, tryin' to put your finger into +somebody's else's pie.--I doubt whether 'twill over-please Adam +either," she added, coming back from watching them down the street; +"but, there! if he and Eve's to sail in one boat, the sooner he learns +'twon't always be his turn to handle the tiller the better." + + * * * * * + +It was getting on for three o'clock when Adam, having completed all the +business he could accomplish on that day, was returning home. He had +been to the few gentlemen's houses near, had visited most of the large +farms around, and had found a good many customers ready to relieve him +of a considerable portion of the spirit which, by reason of their +living so near at hand, would thus evade much of the danger attendant +on a more distant transfer. + +Every one had heard of the recent attack on the Lottery, and much +sympathy was expressed and many congratulations were tendered on +account of their happy escape. + +Adam was a general favorite, looked up to and respected as an honest, +straight-forward fellow; and so little condemnation was felt against +the trade carried on that the very magistrate consented to take a +portion of the goods, and saw no breach of his office in the admonition +he gave to keep a sharp lookout against these new-comers, who seemed +somewhat over-inclined to show their teeth. + +Adam spoke freely of the anxiety he felt as to the result of the +encounter, but very few seemed to share it. Most of them considered +that, having escaped, with the exception of strengthened vigilance no +further notice would be taken, so that his mind was considerably +relieved about the matter, and his heart felt lighter and his pace more +brisk in returning than when in the morning he had set out on his +errand. + +His last visit had been to Lizzen, and thence, instead of going back by +the road, he struck across to the cliff by a narrow path known to him, +and which would save him some considerable distance. + +The day was perfect--the sky cloudless, the sea tranquil: the young +verdure of the crag-crowned cliffs lay bathed in soft sunshine. For a +moment Adam paused, struck by the air of quiet calm which overspread +everything around. Not a breath of wind seemed abroad, not a sail in +sight, not a sound to be heard. A few scattered sheep were lazily +feeding near; below them a man was tilling a fresh-cleared patch of +ground; far away beyond two figures were standing side by side. + +Involuntarily, Adam's eyes rested on these two, and while he gazed upon +them there sprang up into his heart the wish that Eve was here. He +wanted her--wanted to remind her of the promise she had given him +before they parted, the promise that on his return she would no longer +delay, but tell him the day on which he might claim her for his wife. A +minute more, and with all speed he was making a straight cut across the +*cliff-side. Disregarding the path, he scrambled over the projections +of rock and trampled down the furze, with only one thought in his +mind--how soon he could reach home. + +"Where's Eve, Joan?" he asked as, having looked through two of the +rooms, he came, still in breathless haste, into the outer kitchen, +where Joan was now busily engaged in baking her cakes. + +"Ain't her outside nowheres?" said Joan, wiping her face with her apron +to conceal its expression. + +"No, I can't see her." + +"Awh, then, I reckon they'm not come in yet;" and by this time she had +recovered herself sufficiently to turn round and answer with +indifference. + +"Who's they?" said Adam quickly. + +"Why, her went out for a bit of a stroll with Jerrem. They--" + +But Adam interrupted her. "Jerrem?" he exclaimed. "Why should she go +out with Jerrem?" + +"Awh, he's right enough now," said Joan. "He's so sober as a judge, or +I wouldn't ha' suffered 'en anighst her. Eve thought she should like a +bit of a walk, and he offered to go with her; and I was very glad of it +too, for Tabithy wanted to sandy the floors, so their room was better +for we than their company." + +"'Tis very strange," said Adam, "that Eve can't see how she puts me out +by goin' off any way like this with Jerrem. I won't have it," he added, +with rising anger, "and if she's to be my wife she sha'n't do it, +either; so she'd best choose between us before things go too far." + +"Awh, don't 'ee take it like that," said Joan soothingly. "'Twasn't +done with no manin' in it. Her hadn't any more thought o' vexin' 'ee +than a babby; nor I neither, so far as that goes, or I should ha' put a +stopper on it, you may be sure. Why, go and meet 'em. They'm only out +by Chapel Rock: they left word where they was goin' a-purpose." + +A little mollified by this, Adam said, "I don't tell Eve everything, +but Jerrem and I haven't pulled together for a long time, and the more +we see o' one another the worse it is, and the less I want him to have +anything to say to Eve. He's always carryin' on some game or 'nother. +When we were at Guernsey he made a reg'lar set-out of it 'bout some +letter that came there to him. Well, who could that have been from? +Nobody we know anything about, or he'd have said so. Besides, who +should want to write to him, or what business had he to go blabbin' +about which place we were bound for? I haven't seen all the soundings +o' that affair clear yet, but I mean to. I ain't goin' to be 'jammed in +a clench like Jackson' for Jerrem nor nobody else." + +Joan made no answer. She seemed to be engaged in turning her crock +round, and while bending down she said, "Well, I should go after 'em if +I was you. They'm sure not to be very far off, and I'll get tea ready +while you'm gone." + +Adam moved away. Somewhat reluctant to go, he lingered about the rooms +for some time, making up his mind what he should do. He could not help +being haunted by an idea that the two people he had seen standing were +Eve and Jerrem. It was a suspicion which angered him beyond measure, +and after once letting it come before him it rankled so sorely that he +determined to satisfy himself, and therefore started off down the +street, past the quay and up by the steps. + +"Here, where be goin' to?" called out a voice behind him. + +Without stopping Adam turned his head. "Oh, Poll, is that you?" he +said. + +"Iss." + +"Have ye seen Eve pass this way? I think she'd got Jerrem with her." + +"S'pose if I have?" said Poll, with whom Adam was no favorite: "they +doesn't want you. You stay where you be now. I hates to see anybody +a-spilin' sport like that." + +With no very pleasant remark on the old woman Adam turned to go on. + +"Awh, you may rin," she cried, "but you woan't catch up they. They was +bound for Nolan Point, and they's past there long afore now." + +Then the two he had seen were they! An indescribable feeling of +jealousy stung Adam, and, giving way to his temper in a volley of oaths +against old Poll, he turned back, repassed her and went toward home, +while she stood enjoying his discomfiture, laughing heartily at it as +she called out, "I hears 'ee. Swear away! I don't mind yer cusses, not +I. Better hear they than be deef." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +"Joan, you needn't expect me till you see me"--Joan turned quickly +round to see Adam at the door, looking angry and determined--"and you +can tell Eve from me that as it seems all one to her whatever companion +she has, I don't see any need for forcing myself where I am told I +should only be one in the way." + +"Adam--" But the door was already slammed, and Joan again left in +possession of the kitchen.--"Now, there 'tis," she said in a tone of +vexation, "just as I thought: a reg'lar piece o' work made all out o' +nothin'. Drabbit the maid! If her's got the man her wants, why can't +her study un a bit? But somehow there's bin a crooked stick lyin' in +her path all day to-day: her's nipped about somethin', I'm positive +sure o' that; and they all just come home too, and everythin', and now +to be at daggers--drawn with one 'nother! 'Tis terrible, 'tis." + +Joan's reflections, interrupted by the necessary attention which her +cakes and pasties made upon her, lasted over some considerable time, +and they had not yet come to an end when two of the principal objects +of them presented themselves before her. "Why, wherever have 'ee bin +to?" she said peevishly. "Whatever made 'ee stay away like this +for--actin' so foolish, when you knaws, both of 'ee, what a poor temper +Adam's got if anythin' goes contrary with un?" + +Jerrem shrugged his shoulders, while Eve, at once assuming an injured +air for such an unmerited attack, said, "Really, Joan, I don't know +what you mean. Old Poll Potter has just been telling us that Adam came +flying and fuming up her way, wanting to know if she'd seen us, and +then, when she said where we'd gone to, he used the most dreadful +language to her--I'm sure I don't know for what reason. He chose to go +out without me this morning." + +"But that was 'bout business," said Joan. + +"Oh, business!" repeated Eve. "Business is a very convenient word when +you don't want to tell a person what your real errand is. Not that I +want to pry into Adam's secrets--far from it. He's quite welcome to +keep what he likes from me, only I'd rather he wouldn't tell me half +things. I like to know all or none." + +Joan looked mystified, and Jerrem, seeing she did not know what to say, +came to the rescue. "I'm sure I'm very vexed if I've been the cause of +anything o' this, Eve," he said humbly. + +"You needn't be at all vexed: it's nothing at all to do with you. You +asked me to go, and I said yes: if I hadn't wanted to go I should have +said no. Any one would think I'd committed a crime, instead of taking a +simple walk, with no other fault than not happening to return home at +the very same minute that it suited Adam to come back at." + +"But how is it he's a seed you if you haven't a seed he?" said Joan, +fairly puzzled by this game of cross-purposes. "He came home all right +'nuf, and then went off to see whereabouts he could find 'ee to; and +'bout quarter'n hour after back he comes in a reg'lar pelt, and says, +'You tell Eve,' he says, 'that I'm not goin' to foace myself where I'm +told I sha'n't be wanted.' Awh, my dear, he'd seed 'ee somewheres," she +continued in answer to Eve's shrug of bewilderment: "I could tell that +so soon as iver I'd clapped eyes on un." + +"And where's he off to now?" said Eve, determined to have an immediate +settlement of her wrongs. + +"I can't tell: he just flung they words at me and was gone." + +Eve said no more, but with the apparent intention of taking off her hat +went up stairs, while Joan, bidding Jerrem go and see if Uncle Zebedee +was roused up yet, returned to her previous occupation of preparing the +tea. When it was ready she called out, "Come 'long, Eve;" but no answer +was returned. "Tay's ready, my dear." Still no reply.--"She can't ha' +gone out agen?" thought Joan, mounting the stairs to ascertain the +cause of the silence, which was soon explained by the sight of Eve +flung down on the bed, with her head buried in the pillow.--"Now, +whatever be doin' this for?" exclaimed Joan, bending down and +discovering that Eve was sobbing as if her heart would break. "Awh, +doan't cry now, there's a dear: 't 'ull all come straight agen. Why, +now, you'll see Adam 'ull be back in no time. 'Twas only through bein' +baulked when he'd a come back o' purpose to take 'ee out." + +"How was I to know that?" sobbed Eve. + +"No, o' course you didn't, and that's what I told un. But, lors! 'tis +in the nature o' men to be jealous o' one 'nother, and with Adam more +partickler o' Jerrem; so for the future you must humor un a bit, 'cos +there's things atwixt they two you doan't know nothin' of, and so can't +allays tell when the shoe's pinchin' most." + +"I often think whether Adam and me will be happy together," said Eve, +sitting up and drying her eyes. "I'm willing to give in, but I won't be +trampled upon." + +"And he won't want to trample 'pon 'ee, neither. Only you study un a +bit, and you'll soon learn the measure o' Adam's foot. Why, 'tis only +to see un lookin' at 'ee to tell how he loves 'ee;" and Joan +successfully kept down a rising sigh as she added, "Lors! he wouldn't +let a fly pitch 'pon 'ee if he could help it." + +"If he'd seen us before he came in first he'd have surely told you?" +said Eve. + +"Awh, he hadn't seen 'ee then," said Joan, "'cos, though he was a bit +vexed, he wasn't in no temper. 'Twas after he went out the second time +that he must have cast eyes on 'ee some way. Jerrem wasn't up to none +of his nonsense, was he?" she asked. '"Cos I knaws what Jerrem is. He +don't think no more o' givin' 'ee a kiss or that than he does o' +noddin' his head or crookin' his elbaw; and if Adam caught un at that, +it 'ud be enough for he." + +Eve shook her head. "Jerrem never takes none of those liberties with +me," she said: "he knows I won't allow him to. The whole of the time we +did nothing but talk and walk along till we came to a nice place, and +then we stayed for a little while looking at the view together, and +after that came back." + +"'Tis more than I can make out, then," said Joan, "'cos, though I +wondered when you set off whether Adam would 'zactly relish your bein' +with Jerrem, I never thought 'twould put un out like this." + +"It makes me feel so miserable!" said Eve, trying to keep back her +tears; "for oh, Joan"--and she threw her arms round Joan's neck--"I do +love him very dearly!" + +"Iss, my dear, I knaws you do," returned Joan soothingly, "and he loves +you too." + +"Then why can't we always feel the same, Joan, and be comfortable and +kind and pleasant to one another?" + +"Oh lors! that 'ud be a reg'lar milk-and-watter set-out o' it. No, so +long as you doan't carry on too far on the wan tack I likes a bit of a +breeze now and then: it freshens 'ee up and puts new life into 'ee. But +here, come along down now, and when Adam comes back seem as if nothin' +had happened, and p'r'aps seein' you make so light of it 'ull make un +forget all about it." + +So advised, Eve dried her eyes and smoothed down her ruffled +appearance, and in a short time joined the party below, which now +included Uncle Zebedee, Barnabas Tadd and Zeke Teague, who had brought +word that the Hart had only that morning returned to Fowey, entirely +ignorant of the skirmish which had taken place between the Looe boats +and the Lottery, and that, though it was reported that the man shot had +been shot dead, nothing was known for certain, as it seemed that the +men of Looe station were not over-anxious to have the thing talked +about. + +"I should think they wasn't, neither," chuckled Uncle Zebedee. +"Sneakin', cowardly lot! they was game enough whiles they was creepin' +up behind, but, lors! so soon as us shawed our faces, and they seed +they'd got men to dale with, there was another tale to tell, and no +mistake. I much doubt whether or no wan amongst 'em had ever smelt +powder afore our Jerrem here let 'em have a sniff o' his mixin'. 'Tis +my belief--and I ha'n't a got a doubt on the matter, neither--that if +he hadn't let fly when he did they'd ha' drawed off and gone away +boastin' that they'd got the best o' it." + +"Well, and more's the pity you didn't let 'em, then," said Joan. "I +would, I knaw. Safe bind's safe find, and you can never tell when +fightin' begins where 'tis goin' to end to." + +"It shouldn't ha' ended where it did if I'd had my way," said Jerrem. + +"Awh, well! there, never mind," said old Zebedee. "You'll have a chance +agen, never fear, and then we must make 'ee capen. How'd that plaze +'ee, eh?" + +Jerrem's face bespoke his satisfaction. "Take care I don't hold 'ee to +yer word," he said, laughing. "I've got witnesses, mind, to prove it: +here's Barnabas here, and Zeke Teague, and they won't say me nay, I'll +wager--will 'ee, lads?" + +"Wa-all, bide a bit, bide a bit," said Zebedee, winking in appreciation +of this joke. "There'll be two or three o' the oldsters drap in durin' +the ebenin', and then us 'll have a bit of a jaw together on it, and +weigh sides on the matter." + +As Uncle Zebedee anticipated, the evening brought a goodly number of +visitors, who, one after another, came dropping in until the +sitting-room was pretty well filled, and it was as much as Eve and Joan +could manage to see that each one was comfortably seated and provided +for. + +There were the captains of the three vessels, with a portion of the +crew of each, several men belonging to the place--all more or less +mixed up with the ventures--and of course the crew of the Lottery, by +no means yet tired of having their story listened to and their +adventure discussed. Adam's absence was felt to be a great relief, and +each one inwardly voted it as a proof that Adam himself saw that he'd +altogether made a missment and gone nigh to damage the whole concern. +Many a jerk of the head or the thumb accompanied a whisper that "he'd a +tooked hisself off," and drew forth the response that "'twas the proper +line to pursoo;" and, feeling they had no fear of interruption, they +resigned themselves to enjoyment and settled down to jollity, in the +very midst of which Adam made his appearance. But the time was passed +when his presence or his absence could in any way affect them, and, +instead of the uncomfortable silence which at an earlier stage might +have fallen upon the party, his entrance was now only the occasion of +hard hits and rough jokes, which Adam, seeing the influence under which +they were made, tried to bear with all the temper he could command. + +"Don't 'ee take no notice of 'em," said Joan, bending over him to set +down some fresh glasses. "They ain't worth yer anger, not one among +'em. I've kept Eve out of it so much as I could, and after now there +won't be no need for her to come in agen; so you go outside there. +Her's a waitin' to have a word with 'ee." + +"Then wait she may," said Adam: "I'm goin' to stop where I am.--Here, +father," he cried, "pass the liquor this way. Come, push the grog +about. Last come first served, you know." + +The heartiness with which this was said caused considerable +astonishment. + +"Iss, iss, lad," said old Zebedee, his face glowing under the effects +of hot punch and the efforts of hospitality. "That's well said. Set to +with a will, and you'll catch us up yet." + +During the laughter called forth by this challenge, Joan took another +opportunity of speaking. "Why, what be 'bout, Adam?" she said, seeing +how unlike his speech and action were to his usual self. "Doan't 'ee go +and cut off your naws to spite yer face, now. Eve's close by here. +Her's as sorry as anythin', her is: her wouldn't ha' gone out for +twenty pounds if her'd knawed it." + +"I wish you'd hold yer tongue," said Adam: "I've told you I'm goin' to +stop here. Be off with you, now!" + +But Joan, bent on striving to keep him from an excess to which she saw +exasperation was goading him, made one more effort. "Awh, Adam," she +said, "do 'ee come now. Eve--" + +"Eve be--" + +But before the word had well escaped his lips Joan's hand was clapped +over his mouth. Too late, for Eve had come up behind them, and as Adam +turned his head to shake Joan off he found himself face to face before +her, and the look of outraged love she fixed upon him made his heart +quail within him. What could he do? what should he say? Nothing now, +for before he could gather up his senses she had passed by him and was +gone. + +A sickening feeling came over Adam, and he could barely put his lips to +the glass which, in order to avert attention, he had caught up and +raised to his mouth. At a blow all the resolutions he had forced +himself to were upset and scattered, for he had returned with the +reckless determination of plunging into whatever dissipation chanced to +be going on. + +He had roamed about, angry and tormented, until the climax of passion +was succeeded by an overpowering sense of gloom, to get away from which +he had determined to abandon himself, and, flinging all restraint +aside, sink down to that level over which the better part of his nature +had vainly tried to soar. But now, in the feeling of degradation which +Eve's eyes had flashed upon him, the grossness of these excesses came +freshly before him, and the knowledge that even in thought he had +entertained them made him feel lowered in his own eyes; and if in his +eyes, how must he look in hers? + +Without a movement he knew every time that she entered the room: he +heard her exchange words with some of those present, applaud a song of +Barnabas Tadd's, answer a question of Uncle Zebedee's, and, sharpest +thorn of all, stand behind Jerrem's chair, talking to him while some of +the roughest hits were being made at his own mistaken judgment in +holding back those who were ready to have "sunk the Looe boats and all +aboard 'em." + +In the anguish of his heart Adam could have cried aloud. It seemed to +him that until now he had never tasted the bitterness of love nor +smarted under the sharp tooth of jealousy. There were lapses when, +sending a covert look across the table, those around him faded away and +only Eve and Jerrem stood before him, and while he gazed a harsh, +discordant laugh would break the spell, and, starting, he would find +that it was his own voice which had jarred upon his ear. His head +seemed on fire, his senses confused. Turning his eyes upon the tumbler +of grog which he had poured out, he could hardly credit that it still +stood all but untasted before him. A noisy song with a rollicking +chorus was being sung, and for a moment Adam shut his eyes, trying to +recollect himself. All in vain: everything seemed jumbled and mixed +together. + +Suddenly, in the midst of the clamor, a noise outside was heard. The +door was burst violently open and as violently shut again by Jonathan, +who, throwing himself with all his force against it, cried out, "They'm +comin'! they'm after 'ee--close by--the sodjers. You'm trapped!" And, +exhausted and overcome by exertion and excitement, his tall form swayed +to and fro, and then fell back in a death-like swoon upon the floor. + +_The Author of "Dorothy Fox."_ + +[TO BE CONTINUED.] + + + + +A VILLEGGIATURA IN ASISI. + + +To most travellers a visit to Asisi is a flying visit. They drive over +from Perugia or up from the railway station, and if, besides San +Francesco and Santa Chiara, they see the cathedral and San Damiano, +they believe themselves to have exhausted the sights of the town. The +beautiful front of what was once a temple of Minerva can be seen in +passing through the piazza in which it stands: the departing visitors +glance back at the city from the plain, and--"Buona notte, Asisi!" + +Yet this town, as well as most Italian _paesi_, would reward a more +lengthened stay, and, unlike many of them, a refined life is possible +here. A person at once studiously and economically inclined might do +much worse than commit himself to spend several months in the city of +St. Francis. We did so last year, on the same principle that made us in +childhood prefer the cherries that the birds had pecked, finding them +the sweetest. We had heard Asisi abused: it was out of the world, it +was desperately dull and there was nothing to eat. We therefore sent +and engaged an apartment for the summer, and our confidence was not +betrayed. + +Perhaps the hotels are not good: we have never tried them. But the +market is excellent for a mountain-city, and in the autumn figs and +grapes are cheap and abundant. There are apartments to be let, and +servants to be had who, with a little instruction, soon learn to cook +in a civilized manner. + +We have a fancy that there is a different moral atmosphere in a town +surrounded by olive trees and one set in vineyards, the former being +more sober and reserved, the latter more joyous and expansive. The +latter may, indeed, carry its spirit too far--like the little city of +Zagorolo near Rome, where the inhabitants are noted at the same time +for the strength and excellence of their wines and for the +quarrelsomeness of their dispositions. Palestrina, a little way off on +the hillside, with a flowing skirt of vines all about it, breathes +laughter in its very air. One may sit in Bernardini's--known to all +visitors to the city of Fortune--and hear the travellers who come there +laugh over mishaps which they would have growled over anywhere else. +The comparison might be made of many other towns. + +Asisi is set in a world of olives. They swing like smoke from a censer +all through the corn and grain of the plain; they roll up the hills and +mountains, climbing the almost perpendicular heights like goats; they +crawl through the ravines; they cover the tiny plateaus set between the +crowded hills; and plantations of slim young trees are set through the +city, bending like long feathers and turning a soft silver as the wind +passes over them. It is delightful to walk under the olive trees in +early summer, when they hang full of strings of tiny cream-colored +blossoms. In winter these blossoms will have changed to a small black +fruit. The trees are as rugged as the roughest old apple trees, and +many of them are supported only on a hollow half-circle of trunk or on +two or three mere sticks. One wonders how these slender fragments of +trunk can support that spreading weight above, especially in wind and +tempest, and how that wealth of blossom and fruit can draw sufficient +sustenance through such narrow and splintered channels; but the olive +is tough, and the oil that runs in its veins for blood keeps it ever +vigorous. + +True to my fancy--which, indeed, it helped to nourish--Asisi is a +serious town. It has even an air of gentle melancholy, which is not, +however, depressing, but which inclines to thoughtfulness and study. +Travellers are familiar with its aspect--the crowning citadel with the +ring of green turf between it and the city, which stretches across the +shoulders of the mountain, row above row of gray houses, with the +magnificent pile of the church and convent of St. Francis at its +western extremity, clasped to the steep rock with a hold that an +earthquake could scarcely loosen. Three long streets stretch from east +to west, the central one a very respectable street, clean, well-paved, +and delightfully quiet. You may sit in a window there and hear nothing +the livelong day but the drip of a fountain and the screaming of clouds +of swallows, which are, without exception, the most impudent birds that +can be imagined. Annoyed one day by the persistent "peeping" of a +swallow that had perched in a nook just outside my window, I leaned out +and frightened him away with my handkerchief. He darted down to a +little olive-plantation below, and a minute after up came a score or +two of swallows and began flying round in a circle directly before my +window, screaming like little demons. Now and then one would dart out +of the circle and make a vicious dip toward my face, with the evident +wish to peck my eyes out, so that I was glad to draw back. It reminded +me of the famous circular battery which attacked one of the Confederate +forts during our civil war, and it was quite as well managed. + +The _vetturino_ whom we took from the station up to the town on our +arrival told me, when I gave my address, that the Sor Filomena had gone +away from Asisi, and I had better go to the hotel Leone. I insisted on +being taken to the Sor Filomena's house. He replied that the house was +closed, and renewed his recommendations of the Leone. After the +inevitable combat we succeeded in having ourselves set down at our +lodgings, where Sor Filomena's rosy face appeared at the open door. + +"Why did you tell such a lie?" I asked of the unblushing vetturino, +using the rough word _bugia_. + +He looked insulted: "I have not told a bugia." + +With a philosophical desire for information I repeated the question, +using the milder word _mensogna_. He drew himself up, looked virtuous +and declared that he had not told a mensogna. + +"Why, then," I asked, "have you said one thing for another?" + +It was just what he wanted. He immediately began a profuse verbal +explanation of why one thing was sometimes better to say than another, +why one was truer than another, and so mixed up his _una cosa_ and _un' +altra cosa_ as to put me quite _hors de combat_, and send me into the +house with the impression that I ought to be ashamed of myself for +having told somebody a lie. It brought to my mind one of my father's +favorite quotations: "Some things can be done as well as some other +things." + +I was shown to my room, which was rough, as all rooms in Asisi are, but +large and high. As Sor Filomena said, it had _un' aria signorile_ in +spite of the coarse brick floor and the ugly doors and lumpy walls. +Some large dauby old paintings gave a color to the dimness, there were +a fine old oak secretary black with age, a real bishop's carved stool +with a red cushion laid on it, and a long window opening on to a view +of the wide plain with its circling mountains and its many cities and +_paesetti_--Perugia shining white from the neighboring hill; Spello and +Spoleto standing out in bold profile in the opposite direction; +Montefalco lying like a gray pile of rocks on a southern hilltop; the +village and church of Santa Maria degli Angeli nestled like a flock of +cloves in the plain; and half a dozen others. + +I ordered writing-table and chair to be set before the window, and +enthroned upon the bishop's tabouret an unabridged Worcester--this +being probably his first visit to Asisi--and I was immediately at home. + +The servant, Maria, whose maternal grandmother was a countess, was +making some last arrangements in the room. + +"Come and see what a beautiful new moon there is," I said to her. + +She came to the window and looked toward the west. "That isn't the +moon: it is a star," she said, fixing her eyes upon Venus. + +It was quite characteristic of her class. They all think _forestieri_ +do not know the moon from a star. + +I pointed lower down, to where an ecstatic crescent was melting in the +sunset gold. + +She gazed at it a moment, then said: "It is beautiful: I never noticed +it before. I never look at the sky except to see what the weather is to +be. It is for you signori to look at beautiful things, not for us +_poveretti_.--Do you see the sky in America?" she asked presently. + +I assured her that we do, and that the sun, moon and stars shine in it +just as here in Italy. + +She was greatly puzzled. "I thought that America was under ground," she +said. + +I remembered Galileo and held my peace. Besides, in these days of +universal knowledge, when we hear scientific terms lisped by infant +lips, it is refreshing to see an example of fine old-fashioned +ignorance. Yet this woman had better manners than are to be found in +most drawing-rooms, a sweet, courteous dignity, and in matters which +came within her personal knowledge great good sense and judgment. Only +she had never learned that from the centre of the earth all directions +are up. + +Of course a stranger's first visit in Asisi is to the basilica of San +Francesco, and, though I had seen it before, I lost no time in renewing +my acquaintance with it. This church is not only the jewel of Asisi, +but one of the most precious of Italy. It is among churches what a +person of genius is in a crowd. The rich marbles one sees elsewhere +suggest the mechanic in their arrangement, and one grows almost tired +of them; but here the soul of Art and Faith has poured itself out, +covering all the wide walls, the ceilings, the sides of arches, the +ribs of groinings--every foot of space, in short--with life and color; +and how much more precious is one of those solemn pearly faces than a +panel of alabaster or the most cunning mosaic of marbles! In the upper +church alone there are twenty-two large frescoes of Cimabue and thirty +of Giotto. Over these pours the light from fourteen large colored +windows, unimpeded by side-aisles. When the sun beats upon these +windows the church seems to be filled with a transparent mist softly +tinted with a thousand rich hues. The deep-blue, star-sown vault +sparkles and the figures on the walls become a vision. + +The upper church has been in danger of losing its beautiful choir, a +marvel of carving and _intarsio_, which Cavalcasella, inspector of fine +arts in Italy, removed for the odd reason that it was a work of the +fourteenth century, while the church was of the thirteenth, and to be +in perfect keeping should have a stone choir. I have not learned +whether this hyper-purist will require of the congregation a +thirteenth-century costume when the church is again open for service. + +These beautiful stalls, one hundred and two in number, are now placed +for safe-keeping in what was the infirmary of the adjoining college. +Possibly, when the work going on _pian piano_ in the church is +completed, they may be restored to their original place. Their sombre +richness would show well in that radiant atmosphere. + +The work in the church is, however, well done, and was greatly needed, +for those precious frescoes were gradually going to decay. No touch of +pencil is allowed: the work is one of preservation merely, and is being +conducted with the greatest care. The loosened _intonaco_ is found by +tapping lightly on the wall: plaster is then slipped underneath and the +painting firmly pressed to its place. At first _gesso_ was used, but it +was found not to answer the purpose. Every smallest fragment of +painting is saved, and the blank spaces are filled in with plaster +which is painted a light gray. This freshens and throws out the +adjoining colors. + +It is customary to call the lower church "devotional." With many, a +dark church is always devotional. I should rather call it sympathetic. +Every sort of mood may here find itself reflected, and the sinner be as +much at home as the saint. Anger and hate may hide as well as devotion: +the artist may dream, the weary may rest, the stupid doze. The only +objects which ever seemed to me utterly incongruous there were a brisk +company of hurried tourists, red-covered guidebook in hand, clattering +with sharp-sounding boot-heels up the dim nave and talking with sharp, +loud voices at the very steps of the altar where people were kneeling +at the most solemn moment of the mass. But even these invariably soften +their tones and their movements after a while. + +This church has always some pleasant surprise for the frequent visitor. +The morning light shows one picture, the evening light another: the +sunrise adorns this window, the sunset that. There is no hour from dawn +to dark in which some gem of ancient painting does not look its best, +while little noticed, if seen at all, at other hours. Some are seen by +a reflected light; others, when the church is so dark that one may +stumble against a person in the nave, gather to themselves the dim and +scattered rays like an aureole, from which they look out with soft +distinctness; and there are others, again, upon which a sun-ray, +finding a narrow passage through arch after arch, alights with a sudden +momentary glory that is almost startling. + +It is a fascinating place, that middle church--never light, but always +traversed by some varying illumination which is ever lost in shadows. +And in those shadows how much may lurk of present material beauty and +of beautiful memory! Here, before the chapel of St. Louis, Raphael +lingered, learning the frescoed Sibyls of its vault so by heart that he +almost reproduced them afterward in the Pace at Rome--that dear Raphael +who did not fear being called a plagiarist, his soul was so full of +beauty, and he so transfigured whatever he touched with that suave +pencil of his that seemed to have been clipped in light for a color. +And where did the feet of Michael Angelo rest when he stood in the +transept and praised that Crucifixion painted on the wall? One might +expect that the stones would have been conscious of the Orpheus they +supported. + +In the college adjoining the church there were a year ago but fifteen +monks, and no others are admitted. When these fifteen shall be dead the +convent--_Sacro Collegio_ they call it--will pass entirely into the +hands of the government, which now uses the greater part of it for a +school for the sons of poor teachers, who are sent here from all parts +of Italy. + +Accompanied by a professor of the college, we went over that part of +the building not appropriated to the monks. It is a little town in +itself, and has something of the variety and contrasts of a town. To go +from the vast refectory to that upper part of the building called the +Ghetto, with its interminable low and narrow corridor and lines of +little chambers, is to see the two extremes of which building is +capable. + +Without intending to write a statistical article, I may give a few of +the dimensions we took note of. The refectory is one hundred and ninety +feet long and forty wide, and is capable of seating at table five +hundred persons. The tables run around the room, with a single row of +seats against the wall, and are served from the centre of the hall. +Quite across one end extends a painting of the Last Supper. At one side +is a tiny pulpit, from which in the old time one would read aloud while +the monks ate. + +The infirmary and rooms used for storing articles in ordinary use +occupy twenty large chambers. The five elementary school-rooms are each +fifty feet square, the kitchen is eighty-three feet square, and the +fencing-hall and garden adjoining contain together over sixty-six +hundred square feet. The cistern under the cloister is of nearly the +same size. + +There is water in profusion--in the court, the kitchen, the boys' +wash-rooms, wherever it can be needed. In the entry from the principal +court is an odd fourteenth-century fountain which is a perfect +calendar. It is set against the wall, and is in twelve compartments, +answering to the twelve months of the year. In the frieze above are +carved roses, red stone on a white ground--in some compartments thirty, +in others thirty-one, answering to the days of the month. All the +fountains are made of the crimson-and-white stone of Asisi, which is +seen everywhere about the city--in vases for holy water, in pavements, +in garden-walls, in the foundations of houses. The stone, a red +sandstone, is found in plenty in the adjoining mountains, and has a +rich, soft crimson hue with irregular lines of white. But it is very +hard to work, and could scarcely be made to pay the expense of the +necessary machinery. + +"For what I should have to pay for a bath of red marble, about one +hundred lire (twenty dollars)," said the Count B---- to me, "I could +buy a bath of Carrara." + +"Baths of crimson marble and of Carrara!" I thought, and remembered +with an involuntary shudder my dear native zinc. + +But to return to the Sacro Collegio. In one of the immense labyrinthine +cellars is a _botte_ for wine capable of containing five thousand +litri. There, it is said--I know not how truly--once a year, when the +botte was emptied, came four of the spiritual fathers of the college +above, with a table and chairs, and played a certain game of cards, +which was one of their simple amusements. Whether this meeting was +intended as an exorcism of any evil influences which might threaten the +new must about to be put in, or a mild bacchanalian tribute to the +empty space from which they had drawn so much comfort and cheerfulness +during the year, or whether the wine left some fine perfume behind it +which they wished to inhale, tradition saith not. Maybe the fathers +never went there, and the story is merely _ben trovato_. + +In the school of design we admired a copy of some of the carving of the +choir of the cathedral of Asisi. The leaves were remarkably crisp and +all the lines full of life. My guide told me that this choir and the +famous one of St. Peter's in Perugia were designed by the same artist, +but that of Perugia was executed by another and more timid hand, while +this of Asisi was carved by the artist himself. + +Our last visit in the college was to the grand _loggia_--finer than +anything of the kind I have seen in Italy except the Loggia del +Paradiso of Monte Casino, which is open, while this of San Francesco is +closed. The grandeur of this loggia, with its lofty arches and long +perspective, is in harmony with the magnificence of the view to be seen +from it. Seated there, on the stone divan that runs the whole length of +the colonnade, I listened a while to the very interesting talk of my +companion. This gentleman, Professor Cristofani, is said to be one of +the most learned men in Umbria, and has studied so thoroughly his +native province as to be an authority on all that concerns its history +and antiquities. A native of Asisi, he has devoted himself especially +to that city, and his _Storia di Asisi_ and _Guida di Asisi_ are +monuments of learned and patient research. He has written also a +history of San Damiano which has lately been translated in England. + +The government took possession of this church and convent of San +Damiano, the first home of St. Clara and her companions, and proposed +establishing there a school of arts and trades; but Lord Ripon +persuaded them to sell the property to him, and in his turn presented +it to the _frati_ from whom it had been taken. It is a rough place, but +interesting in memories. + +"I have a book _in petto_," the professor said, "which will, I think, +be more valuable and interesting than the others. I have collected +material for a history of the church and convent of St. Francis, and +shall write it as soon as I have time. I should be glad if it could be +illustrated." + +While he spoke my imagination was already turning over the leaves of a +history of that stately monument, around which clusters so much of +Middle-Age story, and looking at copies of forms and faces which to +remember is a dream of rainbows and angels. There should be that quaint +Madonna who points her thumb over her shoulder at St. Francis while she +asks her Son to bless him, and the three saints and the Madonna of the +north transept, and the pictures at the entrance of the chapel of San +Martino, and the vault of the chapel of St. Louis, and a thousand other +lovely things. + +And, "Signor Professore," I said eagerly, "how I should like to +translate that work, pictures and all, into English!" + +He cordially consented, with many compliments. + +As we left the loggia he pointed to the arch opposite the +entrance-door. "That is the arch of suicides," he said: "more than one +man has thrown himself down that precipice." + +We were joined by a Benedictine monk as we went but, who proposed that +we should go up the campanile. It is pleasant to visit the bells of a +famous or favorite church. It is like seeing a poet whose songs we have +heard, and pleasanter in some respects; for while the poet may mantle +himself in commonplace at our approach, like Olympus in clouds, one can +always waken the spirit of song in these airy singers. + +The way up this campanile is very rough, a mere gravelly path, and one +can only maintain his footing by holding a rope that runs all the way +up, following the four sides. Reaching the large chamber at the top, we +paid our respects to the seven bells, whose intricate changes I had so +many times tried to follow. Their ringing is a puzzle. In the middle +hung the melancholy _campanone_, with a silvery soprano by its side--a +very Dante and Beatrice among bells. + +We stayed to hear the noon Angelus strike, and while the last stroke +was still booming around the great bell I took a step toward it and +stretched my hand out. + +I was instantly snatched backward, with a profusion of excuses. + +"It is said," the professor explained, "that if a bell be touched, even +with the finger-tip, while ringing, it will instantly break. I do not +know if it be true, but it is worth guarding against." + +It was indeed! A fine appetite I should have had for my breakfast, at +that moment awaiting me, if I had had to reflect over it that the great +bell of the great basilica of St. Francis of Asisi had that very +morning been cracked into pieces by my fore finger! What visions of +horrified crowds of _Asisinati_, of black storms of newspaper items, of +censuring gossip the world over, would have come between me and that +purple pigeon smothered in rice which Maria had promised me! The pope +himself would have known me individually out of the cloud of his +subjects, and have frowned upon my image. And how it would have been +whispered behind me to the end of my days, "That is the lady who broke +the great bell of St. Francis"! But I had not broken it, and it still +hangs sound and strong, to send its melancholy sweet music out to meet +the centuries as they roll in storm and sunshine over the eastern +mountains. Let us be thankful for the evils which might have happened +and did not. + +I cannot resist the temptation to relate a little incident concerning +this same learned Professor Cristofani, it struck me as so quaint. He +is a poor man--literature, and even teaching, do not pay very well in +Italian paesi--and he has a family. Cheaply as servants may be +employed, he could not afford one, and his wife was not very well. Last +summer the _Alpinisti_ visited Asisi, and some of the principal +members, having an introduction to him, wished to visit him. Their stay +in Asisi was short, and, being sunrise-and-mountain-top people, they +made their call at six o'clock in the morning on their way to the top +of Mount Asio, from which Asisi takes its name, and, I may here add, +the correct spelling of its name, which I have followed. A servant from +the Leone Hotel showed the visitors to the house, and very stupidly +knocked at the kitchen-door. A loud "_Avanti!_" from within answered +the knock. The door was opened by the guide, revealing a tableau. The +professor, with his shirt-sleeves rolled up and an apron tied on, was +earnestly kneading a mass of dough preparatory to sending it to the +baker's oven, where everybody bakes their bread, and his pretty blonde +young daughter was making coffee at the kitchen fire. + +"Well, I am a poor man, and my wife was sick," he said afterward, in +telling the story, with a sad smile in his eyes, which are as blue and +almost as blind as violets. + +These stories awaken a laugh only at the time, but gain a certain +sublimity when years have gilded them--like that one of St. +Bonaventura, which this reminds us of: When the two legates sent by the +pope of that time to carry the scarlet beretta of a cardinal to St. +Bonaventura set out in search of him, they were obliged to follow him +to a little Franciscan convent at a short distance from Florence, where +he had retired for devotion and to practise for a while the humble +rules of his order. As these two dignified prelates came solemnly +around an angle of the building they glanced through the open +kitchen-window, and were astonished to see the personage they sought +engaged in washing the supper-dishes. He accosted them with perfect +calmness, and, learning their errand, requested them to hang the hat in +a tree near by till he should have finished washing the dishes. They +complied, and the pots and pans and plates having been attended to, the +whole community adjourned to the chapel and the saint received the +dignity of prince of the Church. + +The eight days' festa of Corpus Domini opened in Asisi with one of the +most exquisite sights I have ever seen, the procession of the cathedral +as it passed from San Francesco through Via Superba on its return to +the cathedral. We took our places in a window reserved for us, and +waited. There all was quiet and deserted. The air was perfumed by +sprigs of green which each one had strewn before his own house. One +living creature alone was visible--a little boy who knelt in the middle +of the street and carefully placed small yellow flowers in the form of +an immense sunflower chalked out on the pavement. Here and there, in +some stairway-window, a shrine had been prepared, with its Madonna, +lamp and flowers. It was near noon of a bright June day, but the houses +were so high that the sun struck only on the upper stories of the north +side of the street. All below was in that transparent shadow wherein +objects look like pictures of themselves or like reflections in clear +water. The whole street was indeed a picture, with its gray houses set +in irregular lines, and as distinct in character as a line of men and +women would have been. On the building opposite our window was an +inscription telling that Metastasio had lived there--on another a date, +1419. + +In 1419, when they piled the stones of that wall, Christopher Columbus +was not born, yet the basilica of St. Francis had been built more than +one hundred and fifty years; and on such a June day as this the +Asisinati leaned from their windows to see a Corpus Domini procession +come up the street, just as they were now doing. It came through the +fragrant silence and clear shadow like a vision. I could not restrain +an exclamation of surprise and delight, for I had not dreamed of +anything so beautiful. The procession would have been striking +anywhere, but shut in as it was between the soft gray of the opposite +stone houses, with the green-sprinkled street beneath and the glorious +blue above, it was as wonderful as if, looking down into clear deeps of +water, one should see the passing of some pageant of an enchanted city +buried deep in the crystalline waves centuries ago. There was nothing +here but the procession, leisurely occupying the whole street, treading +out faint odors without raising a particle of dust. The crowd that in +other places always obscures and spoils such a display here followed on +behind. The leisureliness of an Italian religious procession is +something delicious, as well as the way they have of forming hollow +squares and leaving the middle of the street sacred to the grander +dignities. + +The members of the different societies wore long robes of red, blue or +of gray trimmed with red, and had small three-cornered pieces of the +material of the robe suspended by a string at the back of the neck, to +be drawn up over the head if necessary. The arms of the societies were +embroidered on the breast or shoulder, and each one had its great +painted banner of Madonna or saint and a magnificent crucifix with a +veil as rich as gold, silver, silk and embroidery could make it. There +were the white _camicie_ half covering the brown robes of long-bearded, +bare-ankled Cappuccini, and sheets of silver and gold in the vestments +of the other clergy. + +Presently the canopy borne over the Host appeared, with the +incense-bearers walking backward before it and swinging out faint +clouds of smoke: the voices of the choir grew audible, singing the +_Pange lingua_, and everybody knelt. In a few minutes all was over. + +There was a fair in connection with this feast, the most notable part +of which was dishes of all sorts set on tables or spread on the grass +of the pleasant piazza of St. Peter's, the Benedictine church, with no +roof over but the sky. The brown and yellow-green earthenware for +kitchen use would have delighted any housekeeper. We bought some tiny +saucepans with covers, and capable of holding a small teacupful, for a +cent each. Italian housekeepers make great use of earthen saucepans and +jars for cooking. One scarcely ever sees tin--iron almost never. In +rich houses copper is much used, but brown ware is seen everywhere. + +The next notable festa, and the great feast of Asisi, is the Pardon, +called variously the Pardon of Asisi, the Pardon of St. Francis and the +Porziuncola. + +In the old times, and particularly when this indulgence could be +obtained only in Asisi, the concourse of people was so great that there +were not roofs to cover them, and many slept in the open air. But since +the favor has been extended to other churches, as well as from other +reasons, the number is greatly diminished, and consists chiefly of +people in _villeggiatura_ near by and of a few hundred Neapolitan +peasants, who with undiminished fervor come to obtain the Pardon, and +whose singular performance, called _gran ruota_ (the great wheel), +everybody goes to see. + +The Catholic reader will know that this Pardon can be obtained only +from vespers of the first to vespers of the second day of August, and +that while in every other church communion is a necessary condition, it +is sufficient to merely pass through the chapel of the Porziuncola, for +which St. Francis obtained the indulgence from Pope Honorius. + +There is a large fair in connection with this festa--merchandise of all +sorts in the piazza and corso, and a cattle-fair in the upper part of +the town. The long white road stretching from Asisi to Santa Maria +degli Angeli in the plain was quite black with _contadini_ coming up +with their goods in the early dawn, and a sound of hoofs and of many +feet told that the procession was passing the house. There were carts +full of produce, men leading white and dove-colored cattle, and women +with large round baskets on their heads. These baskets contained live +fowl. In one a large melancholy turkey meditated on his approaching +fate: in another, two of lighter disposition swung their long necks +about and viewed the scene. One of these baskets was as pretty as the +blackbird pie of famous memory. In it sat eight chickens of an age to +make their debut on the platter, all settled into a fluffy, soft-gray +cushion, out of which their little heads and necks and half-raised +wings peeped and turned and fluttered in a manner that testified to the +agitation of their spirits. The woman carrying this basket would have +made a pretty caryatid, chickens and all, so straight was she, so +robust her shoulders and so full and regular the oval of her face. + +The cattle were superb--some immensely large, others delicately small, +and all with such long, slim, pointed horns as made one shrink. Those +strong, high-lifted heads carried their weapons like unsheathed +scymitars. Red cords were twined across their foreheads from horn to +horn, and red tassels swung beside their faces. This procession passed +in almost entire silence, with only a pattering of hoofs that sounded +like heavy rain. + +Presently appeared a light wagon in which sat alone a large fleshy +woman, who had quite the expression of one making a triumphal entry +into the city. Her black hair was elaborately dressed in braids +fastened with gold pins and in short curls on the forehead, and was +lightly covered with a black lace veil. Her dress was a sky-blue silk, +with a lace shawl carefully draped over the wide shoulders. Her hands +were loaded with rings and her neck with gold chains, and a large +medallion swung over two large brooches. There was a smile of conscious +superiority on her coarsely-handsome face as she glanced over the +contadini, who humbly made way for her. A small, meek, well-dressed man +who walked beside the wagon seemed to be the proprietor of its +occupant, and to be somewhat oppressed by his good fortune. There was +no room for him in the wagon. It occurred to me that this might be an +avatar of the old woman of Banbury Cross. + +The crowd thinned away like rain that from a heavy shower falls only in +scattered drops, and I was about turning from the window when my eyes +fell upon a beautiful bit of color across the way, standing out, as so +much Italian color does, against the background of a gray stone wall. +It was an odd, slim cone, something over five feet high, made of grass +and clover sprinkled through with burning poppies. I was just thinking +that this verdure must be fastened to a pole set into the ground when +it began to move. The fresh, long grass waved, the poppies glowed like +live coals when blown upon, two slim brown feet and ankles appeared +under the green fringe, and the dimpled elbow of a slim brown arm +peeped out above. Nothing else human was visible as this figure walked +away up the street toward the fair. Poor Ruth! She had neither cows, +pigs nor chickens, but she came with such riches as she could glean at +the roadside from bountiful Nature, clothed and covered from the top of +her invisible head down to her well-turned ankles in a garment as fair +as fancy could weave. + +Later, Count B---- came to take me to the cattle-fair, where we found +the upper piazza all a drift of shaded snow at one side with cows and +oxen, and at the other a shining chestnut-color with horses and +donkeys. We walked among these creatures, my companion warding away +from me their long horns and telling me some little items of bovine +character which may be known the world over, but which were new to me. +Some cattle are women-haters, he said, and in a country where women +have so much to do with the cattle that was a great defect. The buyer +detected the flaw in this way: he passed his hand slowly down the +creature's back from the neck to the tail: then a woman would do the +same. If the animal made any difference between the two or looked round +at the woman, he would not buy. They try them also when they are eating +in the stall. If the animal looks round when it is eating at the person +who is approaching, it is ill-natured. + +We went then to see the old theatre, where plays used to be performed +on great occasions. It was a large circle of stone wall, a miniature of +the old amphi-theatre of the Roman Forum, with the sky for a roof. But +now a vegetable-garden grows where the spectacle once was seen, and +along the walls where the audience sat and gazed deep-hued wallflowers +bloom and delicate jasmine-vines hang out their white stars. + +Farther on is an old city-gate, which, unfortunately, was to be torn +down to make way for a new road. Those gates are veritable pictures, +with their beautiful round arches and the niche with its fresco +underneath. This porta preserved perfectly in the crimson stone the +smooth slide down which the suspended gate slipped at night or in times +of danger. + +Returning through the piazza, I saw the balcony of a public building +draped with red satin, and a flag hung out in it. While this flag was +out, Count B---- said, no creature which was sold could be returned to +the seller, no matter what flaw might be discovered in it after the +bargain was concluded. It was then the time to get rid of women-hating +cows and oxen and "made-up" horses. + +In the afternoon we went to the church of St. Francis to see the +_piccola ruota_ of the Neapolitan peasants, which is apparently a +rehearsal for the _gran ruota_ to be performed in the Porziuncola the +day following. These people were all gone, when we reached the church, +to follow a relic-bearing procession of Franciscans to the little +chapel built over the spot where St. Francis was born, and the +spectators took advantage of the opportunity to range themselves about +the walls and wherever they could find places. We were scarcely in the +seats offered us in the choir when a murmur of subdued exclamations, a +trampling of many feet and a cloud of dust that filled the vestibule +announced the return of the procession. The gates of the iron grating +which shut off the chancel and transepts from the nave were opened to +admit the monks with their relic, and closed immediately to exclude the +crowd. After the short function was ended they were again opened, and +the crowd rushed in and began to run around the altar. + +These people were all poor: many were old and had to be held up and +helped along by a younger person at either side. The women wore +handkerchiefs on their heads, and many wore those sandals made of a +piece of leather tied up over the foot with strings which give these +peasants their popular name of _sciusciari_, an imitative word derived +from the scuffling sound of the sandals in walking. They hurried +eagerly on, hustling each other, murmuring prayers and ejaculations, +and seemed quite unconscious of the crowd of persons who had come there +to stare, perhaps to laugh, at them. The Asisinati looked on without +taking any part, and with a curiosity not unmingled with contempt. "The +Neapolitans are so material!" they say. + +These repeated circlings of the altar, I was told, are intended as so +many visits, each time they go round having the value of a visit. Many +of these people seek the Pardon not only for themselves, but for +friends who are unable to come. The absent confess and communicate at +their parish church at home, and unite their intention with that of the +person who makes the visit for them. + +My _padrona di casa_ told me an anecdote in illustration of this +materialism of the Neapolitans, which the Asisinati are anxious not to +be thought to share: On the first of August several years before, she +said, when the church of St. Francis was full of people waiting around +the confessionals, a man at one of them was observed to be disputing +with the priest inside. Pressed so closely as they were, many might +excuse themselves for being aware that the penitent was refusing to +agree to the penance imposed by the priest, who consequently declined +to give him absolution. The priest cut the dispute short by closing the +wicket and addressing himself to the penitent at the other side. The +man left his place and wandered disconsolately about the church, +followed by many curious eyes, for not to listen in silent submission +to the penance imposed by the priest is a rare scandal. After a while +he seemed to have resolved on a compromise, but it was no longer +possible to obtain his place in advance of the crowd, where each one +waited his turn. He took a post, therefore, directly opposite the front +of the confessional, as near as he could get, but with half the width +of the nave between, and waited till the priest should be visible. The +moment came when the confessor, turning from one penitent to another, +was seen from the front. The man leaned eagerly forward, and throwing +out his right hand with three fingers extended, as if playing _morra_, +called out, "Quello del casotiello, volete farlo per tre?" ("You in the +confessional there, will you do it for three?") (These peasants call +the confessional _casotiello_.) Whether the bargain related to a number +of prayers to be said, a number of visits or of masses, does not +concern us. + +The next afternoon we went down to Santa Maria degli Angeli in the +plain, the very penetralia of the Pardon. Those who have visited this +church know that the little chapel of the Porziuncola, which is +enclosed in its midst like the heart in a body, has two doors--one at +the lower end, the other at the upper right corner. It is very dim +except when its altar is blazing with candles and its hanging lamps +lighted. As we have already said, a visit to this chapel or merely +passing through it, for a person who has confessed, satisfies the +outward conditions of the Pardon. + +In the gran ruota which we were about to witness the Neapolitans +entered in an unbroken line at the lower door, passed out without +stopping at the upper, ran down the side-aisle of the church and out of +the door, in again at the great door, up the nave, and again through +the chapel, repeating this over and over for fifteen or twenty minutes. +While they make the wheel no one else enters the chapel: all are +spectators. + +It was for these poor people the supreme moment. They had come from +afar at an expense which they could ill afford; they had endured +fatigue, perhaps hunger; and they had been mocked at. But, so far, they +had accomplished their task. They had confessed their sins with all the +fervor and sincerity of which they were capable, had visited the +birthplace, the home, the basilica and the distant mountain-retreat of +St. Francis, and they had gathered the miraculous yellow fennel-flowers +of the mountain. Now they were to receive the Pardon. The chains of +hell had fallen from them in confession: at the moment of entering the +chapel the bonds of Purgatory would also be loosened, and if they +should drop dead there, or die before having committed another sin, +they would fly straight to heaven as larks into the morning sky. No +passing from a miserable present to a miserable Purgatory, but +unimaginable bliss in an instant. Their ideal bliss might not be the +highest which the human mind is capable of conceiving, but it was the +highest that they could conceive, and their souls strained blindly +upward to that point where imagination faints against the thrilling +cord with which the body holds the spirit in tether. To these people +heaven was not a mere theological expression, a vague place which might +or might not be: it was as real as the bay and the sky of Naples and +the smoking volcano that nursed for ever their sense of unknown +terrors. It was as real as the poppies in their grass and the oranges +ripening on their trees. Maria Santissima, in her white robe and the +blue mantle where they could count the creases, was there, with ever +the vision of a Babe in her arms, and Gesu, the arms of whose cross +should fall into folds of a glorious garment about his naked crucified +form, in sleeves to his hands, in folds about his feet and raised into +a crown about his head. Into this blessed company no earthly pain could +enter to destroy their delights. Cold and hunger and the dagger's point +could never find them more, nor sickness rack them, nor betrayal set +their blood in a poisoned flame, nor earthquakes chill them with +terror. Lying in that heavenly sunshine, with fruit-laden boughs within +reach and heaps of gold beside them if they should wish for it, they +could laugh at Vesuvius licking in vain with its fiery tongue toward +them, and at the black clouds heavy with hail that would spread ruin +over the fields far away from these celestial vineyards and the waving +grain of Paradise. + +Exalted by such visions, what to them were the gazing crowd and their +own rags and squalor? They entered the Porziuncola singing: they came +out at the side-door transfigured, and silent except for some +breathless "Maria!" or "Gesu!" Their arms were thrown upward, their +glowing black eyes were upraised, their thin swarthy faces burned with +a vivid scarlet, their white teeth glittered between the parted lips. +Round and round they went like a great water-wheel that revolves in sun +and shadow, and the spray it tossed up as it issued from the +Porziuncola was rapture, the fiery spray of the soul. + +At last all remained outside the chapel, making two long lines from +either side the door down the nave to the open air, their faces ever +toward the chapel. Then they began to sing in voices as clear and sweet +as a chorus of birds. Not a harsh note was there. They sang some hymn +that had come down to them from other generations as the robins and the +bobo-links drop their songs down to future nestlings, and ever a +long-drawn note stretched bright and steady from one stanza to another. +So singing, they stepped slowly backward, always gazing steadily at the +lighted altar of the Porziuncola, visible through the door, and, +stepping backward and singing, they slowly drew themselves out of the +church, and the Pardon for them was over. + +But though Asisi is not without its notable sights, the chief pleasures +there are quiet ones. A walk down through the olive trees to the dry +bed of the torrent Tescio will please one who is accustomed to rivers +which never leave their beds. One strays among the rocks and pebbles +that the rushing waters have brought down from the mountains, and +stands dryshod under the arches of the bridges, with something of the +feeling excited by visiting a deserted house; with the difference that +the Undine people are sure to come rushing down from the mountains +again some day. There one searches out charming little nooks which +would make the loveliest of pictures. There was one in the Via del +Terz' Ordine which was a sweet bit of color. Two rows of stone houses +facing on other streets turn their backs to this, and shade it to a +soft twilight, till it seems a corridor with a high blue ceiling rather +than a street. There it lies forgotten. No one passes through it or +looks into it. In one spot the tall houses are separated by a rod or so +of high garden-wall with an arch in the middle of it, and under the +arch is a door. Over this arch climbs a rose-vine with dropping +clusters of tiny pink roses that lean on the stone, hang down into the +shadow or lift and melt into the liquid, dazzling blue of the sky. +Except the roses and the sky all is a gray shadow. It reminds one of +some lovely picture of the Madonna with clustering cherub faces about +her head, and you think it would not be discordant with the scene if a +miraculous figure should steal into sight under that arch. It is one of +the charms of Italy that it can always fitly frame whatever picture +your imagination may paint. + +One finds a pleasant and cultivated society there too. One of my most +highly-esteemed visitors was the _canonico priore_ of the cathedral, +whose father had been an officer in the guard of the First Napoleon. A +pious and dignified elderly man, this prelate is not too grave to be +sometimes amusing as well as instructive. In his youth he had the +privilege of being intimate with Cardinal Mezzofanti, who apparently +took a fancy to the young Locatelli--"Tommassino" he called him, which +is a musical way of saying Tommy. At length he offered to give him +lessons in Greek. Full of proud delight at such a privilege, the +student went with his books for the first lesson, and was most kindly +received. + +"Listen, Tommassino!" the cardinal said, turning over the leaves of a +great folio. "Here is a magnificent passage of St. Chrysostom's;" and +he read it out enthusiastically in fine, sonorous Greek. + +"But I do not understand what it means," said the pupil. + +"To be sure;" and the savant at once translated the passage into +musical Italian, and pointed out its beauties of thought and +expression. And so on, passage after passage, but never a word of +grammar. + +Another time it was another of the Fathers or a heathen poet or a +chapter from the Bible read, translated and commented upon; but never +from first to last did Tommassino learn to conjugate a verb or form a +sentence from his learned professor. + +"Mezzofanti," the prior said, "was as good as he was learned. He lived +simply, would not have been known from a common priest by his dress in +the street, and visited the sick like a parish priest." + +Just at the foot of the hill on which Asisi is built a farm-school was +established a few years ago, the first director being the Benedictine +abate Lisi, a nobleman by birth and a farmer-monk by choice. His death +a year or two ago was deeply regretted. To this establishment boys are +sent, instead of to prison, after their first conviction for an offence +against the law. We saw this school on a former visit to Asisi, and +were much amused to see the tall, raw-boned abate stride about in his +long black robe, which some of his motions threatened to rend from top +to bottom. Clergymen habituated to the wearing of the long robe +acquire, little by little, a restrained step and carriage, somewhat +like a woman's, so that in ordinary masculine dress they may be +discovered by their walk: one would say that they walk like women +dressed in men's garments. The free stride in a narrow petticoat is +almost comical. + +On this occasion we had a new exemplification of the almost incredible +riches of Italy, for the abate Lisi's house was crowded with objects +dug up in digging cellars and drains and in cultivating the farm, +though there had been no intention to excavate and the owner was rather +embarrassed than otherwise by the riches he had acquired. Ancient coins +of many different nations, fragments of exquisite architectural +carving, statuary and household utensils, loaded shelves, tables and +drawers. Italy would seem to be wrought of such like a coral-reef, down +to its very foundations in the deep. + +The abate had no utopian ideas concerning his work, though he heartily +devoted his life to it. "These boys," he said, "will go out +contadini--still thieves, if you will--but they will limit themselves +to stealing a third out of their master's portion of the produce." + +In Asisi we learned to understand what we may call atmospheric +politics, and it confirmed our former opinion that the Italian people +do not care a fig who governs them if only they are well fed. When they +are hungry they rebel, and the only freedom they covet is freedom from +the pangs of hunger. They are equally well pleased with the pope or +with "Vittorio," as they called him, if their simple meal is always +within reach; and if on feast-days they can have a chicken, red wine +instead of white, and a _dolce_, their contentment rises to enthusiasm. + +A drought or a destructive rain is therefore to be feared by any +government, especially if there be malcontents to make use of it. There +was quite a severe drought in Asisi last summer, and loud and deep were +the imprecations we heard against the government. As the vines withered +and the corn shrank, so withered and shrank the king and his ministers +in the esteem of these poor people. Count Bindangoli told me that they +very much feared some democratic demonstration, and that they were +anxiously looking forward to the winter. In vain for weeks we looked +over to Perugia for rain (rain comes to Asisi only from that +direction). In vain were prayers in the churches, processions and +promises. We saw the gray showers sail around the horizon, heard their +far-off thunders, saw the lightning zigzag down through the slanting +torrents, and almost saw the hills grow green under them. The only +tempests we had were those we saw brooding on the brows of scowling +contadini. They talked openly of a republic, they were sick of the +devouring taxes, they regretted the papacy: there was certainly danger +of some "scompiglio," my padrone di casa assured me. + +At length, after long weeks of waiting, Perugia disappeared in a gray +deluge: the rain came marching like an army across the plain toward us; +its first scattered drops printed the dust, its sheets of water +drenched the windows, its small torrents rushed down the steep streets. +The mountains grew dim and almost disappeared: we were shut in with +hope and a fresh delight. Then the deluge settled into a gentle rain, +under which the grapes swelled out their globes, the corn rustled with +a fuller growth and the hearts of men grew content. The king and his +ministers also budded out into new beauty, and flourished in popular +esteem like the green bay tree, and the republic was quenched--till the +next drought. + +_The Author of "Signor Monaldini's Niece._" + + + + +HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE, + + +TWO PAPERS.--I. + +[Illustration: THE RACE-COURSE AT LONGCHAMPS.] + +The passion for horse-racing, which for more than two centuries has +made the sport a national one in England, cannot be said to exist in +France, and the introduction of this "pastime of princes" into the +latter country has been of comparatively recent date. Mention, it is +true, has been found of races on the plain of Les Sablons as early as +1776, and in the next year a sweepstakes of forty horses, followed by +one of as many asses, was run at Fontainebleau in the presence of the +court. But it is not until 1783 that one meets with the semblance of an +organization, and this as a mere caprice of certain grandees, who +affected an English style in everything, and who thought to introduce +the customs of the English turf along with the _chapeau Anglais_ and +the riding-coat. It was notably the comte d'Artois (afterward Charles +X.), the duc de Chartres (Philippe Egalite), the marquis de Conflans +and the prince de Guemenee who fancied themselves obliged, in their +character of Anglomaniacs, to patronize the race-course; but the public +of that time, to whom this imitation of English manners was not only an +absurdity, but almost a treason against the state, gave but a cold +reception to the attempted innovation. Racing, too, from its very +nature, found itself in direct conflict with all the traditions of the +ancient school of equitation, and it encountered from the beginning the +severe censure and opposition of horsemen accustomed to the measured +paces of the _manege_, whose highest art consisted in consuming a whole +hour in achieving at a gallop the length of the terrace of St. Germain. +The professors of this equestrian minuet, as solemn and formal in the +saddle as was the dancer Dupre in the ballets of the period, predicted +the speedy decay of the old system of horsemanship and the extinction +of the native breed of horses if France should allow her soil to be +invaded by foreign thoroughbreds with their English jockeys and +trainers. The first French sportsmen--to use the word in its limited +sense--thus found themselves not only unsupported by public opinion, +but alone in the midst of an actively-hostile community, and no one can +say how the unequal contest might have ended had not the graver events +of the Revolution intervened to put an end, for a time at least, not +only to the luxurious pleasures, but to all the hopes and ambitions, of +the noble class of idlers. + +The wars with England that followed retarded for a quarter of a century +the introduction of racing into France. The first ministerial ordinance +in which the words _pur sang_ occur is that of the 3d of March, 1833, +signed by Louis Philippe and countersigned by Adolphe Thiers, +establishing a register of the thoroughbreds existing in France--in +other words, a national _stud-book_, by which name it is universally +known. The following year witnessed the foundation of the celebrated +Society for the Encouragement of the Improvement of Breeds of French +Horses, more easily recognized under the familiar title of the "Jockey +Club." The first report of this society exposed the deplorable +condition of all the races of horses in the country, exhausted as they +had been by the frightful draughts made upon them in the imperial wars, +and concluded by urging the necessity of the creation of a pure native +stock, of which the best individuals, to be selected by trial of their +qualities of speed and endurance upon the track, should be devoted to +reproduction. This was the doctrine which had been practically applied +in England, and which had there produced in less than a century the +most important and valuable results. France had but to follow the +example of her neighbor, and, borrowing from the English stock of +thoroughbreds, to establish a regular system of races as the means of +developing and improving the breed of horses upon her own soil. + +This reasoning seemed logical enough, but the administration of the +_Haras_, or breeding-stables--which is in France a branch of the civil +service--opposed this innovation, and contended that the only pure type +of horse was the primitive Arab, and that every departure from this +resulted in the production of an animal more or less degenerate and +debased. The reply of the Jockey Club was, that the English +thoroughbred is, in fact, nothing else than a pure Arab, modified only +by the influences of climate and treatment, and that it would be much +wiser and easier to profit by a result already obtained than to +undertake to retrace, with all its difficulties and delays, the same +road that England had taken a century to travel. + +The experience gained since 1833 has shown that the conclusions of the +Jockey Club were right, but the evidence of facts and of the results +obtained has not yet brought the discussion to a close. The +administration of the Haras still keeps up its opposition to the +raising of thoroughbreds, and will no doubt continue to do so for some +time to come, so tenacious is the hold of routine--or, as the +Englishman might say, of red tape--upon the official mind in France, +whether the question be one of finance, of war or of the breeding of +horses. + +But it is not only against the ill-will of the administration that the +Jockey Club has had to struggle during all these years: it has had also +to contend with the still more disheartening indifference of the public +in the matter of racing. There is no disputing the fact that the +genuine lover of the horse, the _homme de cheval_--or, if I may be +forgiven a bit of slang for the sake of its expressiveness, the +_horsey_ man, whether he be coachman or groom, jockey or trainer--is +not in France a genuine product of the soil, as he seems to be in +England. Look at the difference between the cabman of London and his +brother of Paris, if there be enough affinity between them to justify +this term of relationship. The one drives his horse, the other seems to +be driven by his. In London the driver of an omnibus has the air of a +gentleman managing a four-in-hand: in Paris the imbecile who holds the +reins looks like a workman who has been hired by the day to do a job +that he doesn't understand. So pronounced is this antipathy--for it is +more than indifference--of the genuine man of the people toward all +things pertaining to the horse that, notwithstanding all the +encouragements that for nearly half a century have been lavishly +offered for the purpose of developing a public taste in this direction, +not a single jockey or trainer who can properly be called a Frenchman +has thus far made his appearance. All the men and boys employed in the +racing-stables are of English origin, though many, perhaps most, of +them have been born in France; but the purity of their English blood, +so important in their profession, is as jealously preserved by +consanguineous marriages as is that of the noble animals in their +charge. It was an absolute necessity for the early turfmen of France to +import the Anglo-Saxon man with the Anglo-Arabian horse if they would +bring to a creditable conclusion the programme of 1833. And during all +the long period that has since elapsed what courage and patience, what +determined will, to say nothing of the prodigious expenditure of money, +have been shown by the founders of the race-course in France and by +their successors! Their perseverance has had its reward, indeed, in the +brilliancy of the results obtained, but there is still due to them an +ampler tribute of recognition than they have yet received, and it will +be a grateful duty to dwell for a while upon the history of the Jockey +Club. + +Of its fourteen original members but two survive, the duc de Nemours +and M. Ernest Leroy. The other twelve were His Royal Highness the duc +d'Orleans, M. Rieussec, who was killed by the infernal machine of +Fieschi, the comte de Cambis, equerry to the duc d'Orleans, Count +Demidoff, Fasquel, the chevalier de Machado, the prince de la Moskowa, +M. de Normandie, Lord Henry Seymour, Achille Delamarre, Charles Lafitte +and Caccia. To these fourteen gentlemen were soon added others of the +highest rank or of the first position in the aristocratic world of +Paris. People began to talk with bated breath of the Jockey Club and of +its doings, and strange stories were whispered of the habits of some of +its distinguished members. The eccentricities of Count Demidoff and of +Major Frazer, the obstreperous fooleries of Lord Henry Seymour, the +studied extravagances of Comte d'Alton-Shee, created in the public mind +the impression that the club was nothing less than a sort of infernal +pit, peopled by wicked dandies like Balzac's De Marsay, Maxime de +Trailles, Rastignac, etc. Even the box of the club at the opera was +dubbed with the uncanny nickname _loge infernale_, and the talk of the +town ran upon the frightful sums lost and won every night at the tables +of the exclusive _cercle_, while the nocturnal passer-by pointed with a +shudder to the windows of the first floor at the corner of the Rue de +Grammont and the Boulevard, glimmering until morning dawn with a light +altogether satanic. The truth must be confessed that _jeunesse doree_ +of the period affected a style somewhat "loud." There was exaggeration +in everything--in literature--for it was the epoch of the great +romantic impulse--in art, in politics: what wonder, then, that the +distractions of high life should over-pass the boundaries of good +taste, and even of propriety? The Jockey Club in the time of Louis +Philippe did but recall the good old days of Brookes's and of White's, +of the two Foxes, of George Selwyn and of Sheridan. But how changed is +all this! There is not to-day in Paris, perhaps in the world, a more +sedate, reputable and in every sense temperate club than the "Jockey." +It concerns itself only with racing, the legitimate object of its +foundation, and nothing else is discussed in its salons, if we except +one room, which under the Empire was baptized "The Camp of Chalons," +for the reason that it had come to be reserved for the use of the old +soldiers, who met there to talk over incidents of army life. Baccarat, +that scourge of Parisian clubs, is forbidden, and lovers of play are +obliged to content themselves with a harmless rubber of whist. As one +black ball in six is sufficient to exclude a candidate--or, to use the +official euphemism, to cause his "postponement"--it is not difficult +for the coterie that controls the club to keep it clear of all noisy, +or even of merely too conspicuous, individuality. Lord Henry Seymour +would be "pilled" to-day by a probably unanimous vote. A candidate may +enjoy all the advantages of wealth and position, he may have the entree +to all the salons, and may even be a member of clubs as exclusive as +the Union and the Pommes-de-Terre, and yet he may find himself unable +to gain admission to the Jockey. Any excess of notoriety, any marked +personal eccentricity, would surely place him under the ban. Scions of +ancient families, who have had the wisdom to spend in the country and +with their parents the three or four years succeeding their college +life, would have a much better chance of admission than a leader of +fashion such as I have described. The illustrious General de Charette; +M. Soubeyran, at that time governor of the _Credit foncier_ of France; +the young Henry Say, brother-in-law of the prince A. de Broglie, rich +and accomplished, and the owner, moreover, of a fine racing-stable; +together with many other gentlemen whose private lives were above +suspicion,--have been blackballed for the simple reason that they were +too widely known. As to foreigners, let them avoid the mortification of +certain defeat by abstaining from offering themselves, unless indeed +they should happen to be the possessors of a great historic name or +should occupy in their own country a position out of the reach of +ordinary mortals. This careful exclusion of all originality and +diversity has, by degrees, communicated to the club a complexion +somewhat negative and colorless, but at the same time, it must be +admitted, of the most perfect distinction. The most influential +members, although generally very wealthy, live in Paris with but few of +the external signs of luxury, and devote their incomes to home comforts +and to the improvement of their estates. If one should happen to meet +on the Champs Elysees a mail-coach or a _daumont_ [an open carriage, +the French name of which has been adopted by the English, like +_landau_, etc. It is drawn by two horses driven abreast, and each +mounted by a postilion. The nearest English equivalent is a +"victoria."] that makes the promenaders turn and look back, or if there +be an _avant-scene_ at the Varietes or the Palais Royal that serves as +a point of attraction for all the lorgnettes of the theatre, one may be +quite sure that the owners of these brilliant turnouts and the +occupants of this envied box are not members of the club--"_the_ Club," +_par excellence_, for thus is it spoken of in Paris. It is considered +quite correct at the club to devote one's self to the raising of cattle +and sheep, as the comtes de Bouville, de Behague, de Hauteserre and +others have done with such success, and one may even follow the example +of the comte de Falloux, the eloquent Academician, in emblazoning with +one's arms a pen of fat pigs at a competitive show, without in the +least derogating from one's dignity. One may also sell the wine from +one's vineyards and the iron from one's furnaces--for the iron industry +is in France looked upon as a sort of heritage of the nobility--but to +get money by any other means than those I have indicated would be +considered in the worst possible taste. On the other hand, it is +permitted to any member of the club to lose as much money as he pleases +without loss of the respect of his fellows, and the surest way to +arrive at this result is to undertake the breeding and running of +horses. + +As to the external appearance and bearing of the perfect clubman, it is +very much that of Disraeli's hero, "who could hardly be called a dandy +or a beau. There was nothing in his dress, though some mysterious +arrangement in his costume--some rare simplicity, some curious +happiness--always made him distinguished: there was nothing, however, +in his dress, which could account for the influence that he exercised +over the manners of his contemporaries;" and it is probably a fact that +a member of the club is never noticed by passers on the street on +account of anything in his dress or appearance. In short, the club +seems to have adopted for its motto _Sancta simplicitas_, and the +descendants of the old nobility of France, excluded as they practically +are to-day from all public employment save that of the army, seem +determined to live amongst themselves, in tranquillity and retirement, +in such a way as to attract the least possible notice from the press or +from the crowd. Their portraits never find their way into the +illustrated papers, and no penny-a-liner ventures to make them the +subject of a biographical sketch: indeed, any one rash enough to seek +to tread upon this forbidden ground would find himself met at the +threshold by a dignified but very decided refusal of all information +and material necessary to his undertaking. + +As an illustration of the care taken by the ruling spirits of the club +to preserve the attitude which they have assumed toward the public, it +may be worth mentioning that Isabelle, who for a long time enjoyed the +distinction of serving the club as its accredited flower-girl, and who +in that capacity used to hold herself in readiness every evening in her +velvet tub at the foot of the staircase of the splendid apartments at +the corner of the Boulevard and the Rue Scribe--the present location of +the club--was dismissed for no other reason than that she had become +too extensively known to the gay world of Paris. Excluded from the +sacred paddock on the race-course, she is to-day compelled to content +herself on great occasions with selling her flowers on the public turf +from a pretty basket-wagon drawn by a pair of coquettish black ponies, +or "toy" ponies in the language of the day. + +Notwithstanding the magnificence of the present quarters of the club to +which I have referred, one cannot help regretting that, unlike the +Agricultural Society and the Club of the Champs Elyses, it is obliged +to confine itself to one story of the building--the first floor, +according to continental enumeration--though the rental of this floor +alone amounts to some three hundred thousand francs a year. + +The committee on races, composed of fifteen members (founders) and +fifteen associate members--the latter elected every year by the +founders--represents the club in all that concerns its finances and +property, votes the budget, the programme of all races and the +conditions of the prizes, and not only legislates in making the laws +that govern the course, but acts also as judge in deciding questions +that may arise under the code that it has established. And as a +legislative body it has its hands almost as full as that of the state, +for the budget of the society grows from year to year as rapidly as the +nation's, and there are now forty-nine turfs for which it is +responsible or to which it has extended its protection. The presidency +of the committee, after having been held for many years by the lamented +Vicomte Daru, passed on his death last year to M. Auguste Lupin, the +oldest proprietor of race-horses in France. To M. Lupin, moreover, +belongs the honor of being the first breeder in France who has beaten +the English in their own country by gaining the Goodwood Cup in 1855 +with Jouvence--success that was renewed by his horse Dollar in 1864. M. +Lupin, who had six times won the Jockey Club Purse (the French Derby) +and twice the Grand Prix de Paris, occupies very much the same position +in France that Lord Falmouth holds in England, and, like him, he never +bets. His colors, black jacket and red cap, are exceedingly popular, +and received even more than their wonted share of applause in the year +1875, the most brilliant season in the history of his stables, when he +carried off all the best prizes with St. Cyr, Salvator and Almanza. His +stud, which has numbered amongst its stallions the Baron, Dollar and +the Flying Dutchman, is at Vaucresson, near Versailles. His +training-stables are at La Croix, St. Ouen. + +Of the remaining members of the committee on races, the best known are +the prince de la Moskowa, the comte A. de Noailles, Henry Delamarre, +Comte Frederic de Lagrange, Comte A. des Cars, J. Mackenzie-Grieves, +Comte H. de Turtot, the duc de Fitz-James, Baron Shickler, the prince +A. d'Aremberg, Prince Joachim Murat, Comte Roederer, the marquis de +Lauriston, Baron Gustave de Rothschild, E. Fould and the comtes de St. +Sauveur, de Kergorlay and de Juigne. Most of these gentlemen run their +horses, or have done so, and the list will be found to comprise, with +two or three exceptions, the principal turfmen of France. The comte de +Juigne and the prince d'Aremberg, both very rich, and much liked in +Paris, have formed a partnership in turf matters, and the colors they +have adopted, yellow and red stripes for the jacket, with black cap, +are always warmly welcomed. In 1873, with Montargis, they won the +Cambridgeshire Stakes, which were last year carried off by the American +horse Parole, and in 1877 they renewed the exploit with Jongleur. The +count, on this latter occasion, had taken no pains to conceal the +merits of his horse, but, on the contrary, had spoken openly of what he +believed to be his chances, and had even advised the betting public to +risk their money upon him. As the English were giving forty to one +against him, the consequence of M. de Juigne's friendly counsel was +that the morning after the race saw a perfect shower of gold descending +upon Paris, the English guineas falling even into the white caps held +out with eager hands by the scullions of the cafes that line the +Boulevard. One well-known restaurateur, Catelain, of the Restaurant +Helder on the Boulevard des Italiens, pocketed a million of francs, and +testified his satisfaction, if not his gratitude, by forthwith +baptizing a new dish with the name of the winning horse. The comte de +Juigne himself cleared three millions, and many members of the club +were made the richer by sums ranging from one hundred to one hundred +and fifty thousand francs. The marquis de Castellane, an habitual +gambler, who happened to have put only a couple of hundred louis on the +horse, could not hide his chagrin that his venture had returned him but +a hundred and sixty thousand francs. Jongleur won the French Derby (one +hundred and three thousand francs) in 1877, besides thirteen other +important races. He was unfortunately killed while galloping in his +paddock in September, 1878. + +The Scotch jacket and white cap of the duc de Fitz-James, owner of the +fine La Sorie stud, and the same colors, worn by the jockeys of the duc +de Fezenzac, have won but few of the prizes of the turf, and another +nobleman, the comte de Berteux (green jacket, red cap) is noted for the +incredible persistency of his bad luck. M. Edouard Fould, whose mount +is known by the jackets hooped with yellow and black and caps of the +latter color, is the proprietor of the well-known D'Ibos stud at the +foot of the Pyrenees, one of the largest and best-ordered +establishments of the kind in France; and it is to him and to his +uncle, the late Achille Fould, that the South owes in a great degree +the breeding and development of the thoroughbred horse. M. Delatre +(green jacket and cap) raises every year, at La Celle St. Cloud, some +twenty yearlings, of which he keeps but three or four, selling the rest +at Tattersall's, Rue Beaujon, to the highest bidder. They generally +bring about six thousand francs a head, on an average. + +The feeling against Germany after the war led to a proposition to expel +from the club all members belonging to that country; and it was only +the liking and sympathy felt for one of them, Baron Schickler, a very +wealthy lover of the turf and for a long time resident in France, which +caused a rejection of the motion. Baron Schickler, however, has +nominally retired from the turf since 1870, and his horses are now run +under the pseudonyme of Davis. His colors are white for the jacket, +with red sleeves and cherry cap. Another member, Mr. A. de Montgomery, +the excellent Norman breeder and the fortunate owner of La Toucques and +of Fervaques, has also given up racing under his own name, and devotes +himself exclusively to the oversight of the Rothschild stables. The +good-fortune which the mere possession of this distinguished name would +seem sufficient to ensure has not followed the colors of Baron Gustave +de Rothschild in the racing field, where his blue jackets and yellow +caps have not been the first to reach the winning-post in the contests +for the most important prizes. He buys, nevertheless, the best mares +and the finest stallions, and he has to-day, in his excellent stud at +Meautry, the illustrious Boiard, who had won, before he came into the +baron's possession, the Ascot Cup of 1873 and the Grand Prix de Paris. +The Rothschild training-stables are at Chantilly. Boiard, as well as +Vermont, another of the grandest horses ever foaled in France, and a +winner also of the Grand Prix de Paris, was formerly in possession of +M. Henry Delamarre, who in the days of the Empire enjoyed a short +period of most remarkable success, having won the French Derby no less +than three times within four years. His choice of colors was a maroon +jacket with red sleeves and black cap. He had some lesser triumphs last +year, at the autumn meeting in the Bois de Boulogne, where his mare +Reine Claude won the Prix du Moulin by two lengths, his horse Vicomte, +who up to that time had been running so badly, taking the Prix +d'Automne, while the second prize of the same name was carried off by +Clelie, thus gaining for the Delamarre stables three races out of the +five contested on that day. All M. Delamarre's horses come from the +Bois-Roussel stud, belonging to Comte Roederer. + +There remain to be mentioned, amongst the number of gentlemen who are +in the habit of entering their horses for races in France, a Belgian, +the comte de Meeues, one of whose horses was the favorite in the race +last mentioned, and though beaten, as often happens with favorites, he +and other animals from the same stables have this year carried away +several of the provincial prizes; M.L. Andre, owner of this season's +winners of the steeple-chase handicap known as the Prix de Pontoise and +of several hurdle-races; M.A. de Borda, who was unsuccessful in the +present year in three at least of the races in which he had entered; +M.E. de la Charme, who in June, 1879, took the Grand Prix du +Conseil-General (handicap) at Lyons, and in September won at Vincennes +the hurdle-race Prix de Charenton; the marquis de Caumont-Laforce, +whose colors were first this summer at Moulins in the Prix du +Conseil-General, and in the third Criterium at Fontainebleau, as well +as in the grand handicap at Beauvais last July; M.P. Aumont, who has +been not without some good luck in the provinces during the past +season; M. Moreau-Chaslon, whose successes of late have hardly been in +proportion to his numerous entries, though he won the last Prix des +Villas at Vesinet, the Prix du Jockey Club (three thousand francs) at +Chalons-sur-Saone and the Prix du Mont-Valerien at the Bois de +Boulogne; and, to bring to an end our long list of devotees of the +turf, we add the name of M. Ephrussi, who, amongst the numerous races +in which he has entered horses in 1879, has been victorious in not a +few--for instance, in the steeple-chase handicap at La Marche, called +the Prix de Clairefontaine, in L'Express at Fontainebleau, in the Prix +de Neuilly at the Bois de Boulogne, and in the handicap for the Prix +des Ecuries at Chantilly, as well as in a race for gentlemen riders +only at Maison-Lafitte. Besides these and others, he gained last August +the Jockey Club Prize (five thousand francs) at Chalons-sur-Saone, the +Prix de Louray at Deauville for the like amount, another of the same +figures at Vichy, and the six thousand francs of the Grand Prix du +Havre. Most of the gentlemen last named are the owners of a +comparatively small number of horses, which are, perhaps without +exception, entrusted to the care of the famous trainer Henry Jennings +of La Croix, St. Ouen, near Compiegne. + +Henry Jennings is a character. His low, broad-brimmed beaver--which has +gained him the sobriquet of "Old Hat"--pulled well down over a +square-built head, the old-fashioned high cravat in which his neck is +buried to the ears, the big shoes ensconced in clumsy gaiters, give him +more the air of a Yorkshire gentleman-farmer of the old school than of +a man whose home since his earliest youth has been in France. He is one +of the most original figures in the motley scene as he goes his rounds +in the paddock, mysterious and knowing, very sparing of his words, and +responding only in monosyllables even to the questions of his patrons, +while he whispers in the ears of his jockeys the final instructions +which many an interested spectator would give something to hear. +Beginning his career in the service of the prince de Beauvan, from +which he passed first to that of the duc de Morny and afterward to that +of the comte de Lagrange, he is now a public trainer upon his own +account, with more than a hundred horses under his care. No one has +devoted more intelligent study to the education of the racer or shown a +more intuitive knowledge of his nature and of his needs. It was he who +first threw off the shackles of ancient custom by which a horse during +the period of training was kept in such an unnatural condition, by +means of drugs and sweatings, that at the end of his term of probation +he was a pitiful object to behold. The pictures and engravings of +twenty years ago bear witness to the degree of "wasting" to which a +horse was reduced on the eve of a race, and the caricatures of the +period are hardly over-drawn when they exhibit to us the ghost of an +animal mounted by a phantom jockey. When people saw that Jennings was +able to bring to the winning-post horses in good condition, whose +training had been based upon nothing but regular work, they at first +looked on in astonishment, but afterward found their profit in +imitating his example. Under this rational system it has been proved +that the animal gains in power and endurance while he loses nothing in +speed. The same intrepid trainer has ventured upon another innovation. +Impressed with the inconveniences of shoeing, and annoyed by the +difficulty of finding a skilful smith in moving from one place to +another in the country, he conceived the idea of letting his horses go +shoeless, both during training and on the track; and, despite all that +could be urged against the practice his horses' feet are in excellent +condition. His many successes on the turf have not, however, been +crowned, as yet, by the Grand Prix de Paris, though in 1877 he thought +to realize the dream of his ambition with Jongleur, whom he had trained +and whom he loved like a son; and when the noble horse was beaten by an +outsider, St Christopher, "Old Hat" could not control an exhibition of +ill-humor as amusing as it was touching. When Jongleur died Jennings +wept for perhaps the first time in his life, and he was still unable to +restrain his tears when he described the tortures of the poor beast as +he struck his head against the sides of his box in the agonies of +lockjaw. + +Let us close our list--in which, however, we have endeavored to +enumerate only the principal figures upon the French turf--with two +names; and first that of the young Edmond Blanc, heir to the immense +fortune gained by his late father as director of the famous +gaming-tables of Monaco. The latter, like a prudent parent, forbade his +son to race or to play, and Edmond, obeying the letter of the law--at +least during the lifetime of his father--was known, if known at all +upon the course, under the pseudonyme of James. At present, however, he +is the owner of an important stud and stable which are constantly +increasing, and which bid fair before long to take rank amongst the +principal establishments in the country. Waggish tongues have whispered +that when he had to make choice of colors he naturally inclined to +"rouge et noir," but finding these already appropriated by M. Lupin, +the representative of "trente et quarante" was forced to content +himself with tints more brilliant perhaps, but less suggestive. But let +him laugh who wins. The annals of the turf for 1879 inscribe the name +of M. Blanc as winner of the Grand Prix de Paris. It was his mare, +Nubienne, who first reached the winning-post by a neck in a field of +eleven horses, M. Fould's Salteador being second, with barely a head +between him and the third, Flavio II., belonging to the comte Frederic +de Lagrange. + +This latter proprietor, the most celebrated of all--in the sense of +being the most widely known and the most talked about--I have reserved +for the end of my catalogue. Comte de Lagrange made his debut upon the +turf in the year 1857, now more than twenty years ago, by buying +outright the great stable of M. Alexander Aumont, which boasted at that +time amongst its distinguished ornaments the famous Monarque, who had, +before passing into the hands of his new owner, gained eight races in +eight run, and who, under the colors of the comte, almost repeated the +feat by winning eight in nine; and of these two were the Goodwood Cup +and the Newmarket Handicap. Afterward, at the Dangu stud, he achieved a +fame of another sort, but in the eyes of horsemen perhaps still more +important. Never has sire transmitted to his colts his own best +qualities with such certainty and regularity. Hospodar, Le Mandarin, +Trocadero were amongst his invaluable gifts to the comte, but his +crowning glory is the paternity of the illustrious Gladiateur, the +Eclipse of modern times. Gladiateur, said the baron d'Etreilly, recalls +Monarque as one hundred recalls ten. There were the very same lines, +the same length of clean muscular neck well set on the same deep and +grandly-placed shoulders, the same arching of the loins, the same +contour of hips and quarters, but all in proportions so colossal that +every one who saw him, no matter how indifferent to horseflesh in +general, remained transfixed in admiration of a living machine of such +gigantic power. + +The first appearance of Gladiateur upon the race-course was at the +Newmarket autumn meeting of 1864, where he won the Clearwell Stakes, +beating a field of twelve horses. He was kept sufficiently "shady," +however, during the winter to enable his owner to make some +advantageous bets upon him, though it required careful management to +conceal his extraordinary powers. His training remains a legend in the +annals of the stables of Royal-Lieu, where the jockeys will tell you +how he completely knocked all the other horses out of time, and how two +or three of the very best put in relay to wait upon him were not enough +to cover the distance. Fille-de-l'Air herself had to be sacrificed, and +it was in one of these terrible gallops that she finished her career as +a runner. Mandarin alone stood out, but even he, they say, showed such +mortal terror of the trial that when he was led out to accompany his +redoubtable brother he trembled from head to foot, bathed in sweat. In +1865, Gladiateur gained the two thousand guineas and the Derby at +Epsom, and for the first time the blue ribbon was borne away from the +English. "When Gladiateur runs," said the English papers at this time, +"the other horses hardly seem to move." The next month he ran for the +Grand Prix de Paris. His jockey, Harry Grimshaw, had the coquetry to +keep him in the rear of the field almost to the end, as if he were +taking a gallop for exercise, and when Vertugadin reached the last turn +the favorite, some eight lengths behind, seemed to have forgotten that +he was in the race at all. The public had made up its mind that it had +been cheated, when all at once the great horse, coming up with a rush, +passed all his rivals at a bound, to resume at their head his former +easy and tranquil pace. There had not been even a contest: Gladiateur +had merely put himself on his legs, and all had been said. These three +victories brought in to Comte de Lagrange the sum of four hundred and +forty-one thousand seven hundred and twenty-five francs, to say nothing +of the bets. Gladiateur afterward won the race of six thousand metres +(two miles fourteen furlongs) which now bears his name, and also the +Great St. Leger at Doncaster. He was beaten but once--in the +Cambridgeshire, where he was weighted at a positively absurd figure, +and when, moreover, the track was excessively heavy. After his +retirement from the turf he was sold in 1871 for breeding purposes in +England for two hundred thousand francs, and died in 1876. + +Like M. Fould and several other brethren of the turf, Comte de Lagrange +felt the discouragements of the Franco-German war, and sold all his +horses to M. Lefevre. Fortunately, however, he had retained in his stud +at Dangu a splendid lot of breeding-mares, and with these he has since +been able to reconstruct a stable of the first order, though the effort +has cost him a very considerable sum. Indeed, he himself admits that to +cover expenses he would have to make as much as thirty thousand pounds +every year. Four times victorious in the French Derby before 1870, he +has since repeated this success for two successive years--in 1878 with +Insulaire, and in 1879 with Zut. His colors (blue jacket with red +sleeves and a red cap) are as well known in England as in his own +country. Within the last six years he has three times won the Oaks at +Epsom with Regalia, Reine and Camelia, the Goodwood Cup with Flageolet, +the two thousand guineas and the Middlepark and Dewhurst Plates with +Chamant. On the 12th of June, last year, at Ascot, he gained two races +out of three, and in the third one of his horses came in second. + +But the count is by no means always a winner, nor does he always win +with the horse that, by all signs, ought to be the victor. He has +somehow acquired, whether justly or not, the reputation of being a +"knowing hand" upon the turf, and all turfmen will understand what is +implied in the term, whether of good or of evil. His stable has been +called a "surprise-box," which simply means that the "horse carrying +the first colors does not always carry the money;" that people who +think they know the merits of his horses frequently lose a good deal by +the unexpected turn of affairs upon the track; and that the count, in +short, manages to take care of himself in exercising the undoubted +right of an owner, as by rule established, to win if he can with any +one of the horses that he may have running together for any given +event. Nothing dishonorable, according to the laws of the turf, has +ever been proved, nor perhaps even been charged, against him; but as +one of his countrymen, from whom I have just now quoted, remarks, "He +is fond of showing to demonstration that a man does not keep two +hundred horses in training just to amuse the gallery." + +These repeated triumphs, as well as the not less frequent ones of MM. +Lefevre, Lupin and de Juigne, have naturally set the English +a-thinking. They have to admit that the time has passed when their +handicappers could contemptuously give a French horse weights in his +favor, and a party headed by Lords Falmouth, Hardwicke and Vivian and +Sir John Astley of the London Jockey Club has been formed with the +object of bringing about some modifications of the international code. + +A war of words has ensued between Admiral Rous and Viscount Daru, the +respective presidents of the two societies, in the course of which the +admiral has urged that as English horses are admitted to only two races +in France, the Grand Prix de Paris and the D[/e]auville Cup, while +French horses are at liberty to enter upon any course in England, it is +quite time that a reciprocity of privileges were recognized, and that +racers be put upon an equal footing in the two countries. Not at all, +replies M. Daru; and for this reason: there are three times as many +race-horses in England as in France, and the small number of the latter +would bring down the value of the French prizes to next to nothing if +the stakes are based, as they are in England, upon the sum-total of the +entries. In France the government, the encouragement societies, the +towns, the railway companies, all have to help to make up the purses, +and often with very considerable sums. Would it be fair to let in +English horses in the proportion of, say, three to one--supposing the +value of the horses to be equal--to carry off two-thirds of these +subscriptions? To this the Englishman answers, not without a show of +reason, that if the foreign horses should come into France in any great +numbers this very circumstance would make the entrance-moneys a +sufficient remuneration to the winner, and that the government, the +Jockey Club and the rest would be relieved from a continuance of their +subventions. The discussion is still kept up, and it is not unlikely +that the successors of MM. Rous and Daru will keep on exchanging notes +for some years without coming nearer to a solution than the diplomats +have come to a settlement of the Eastern Question. + +I have said that the Jockey Club of Paris grants subventions to the +racing societies of the provinces, which it takes under its patronage +to the number of about forty-five, but it undertakes the actual +direction of the races at only three places--namely, Chantilly, +Fontainebleau and Deauville-sur-Mer--besides those of Paris. Up to +1856, the Paris races were run on the Champ de Mars, where the track +was too hard and the turns were very sharp and awkward. In the +last-mentioned year the city ceded to the Societe d'Encouragement the +open field at Longchamps, lying between the western limit of the Bois +de Boulogne and the river Seine. The ground measures about sixty-six +hectares in superficial area, and this ample space has permitted the +laying out of several tracks of different lengths and of varying form, +and has avoided any necessity for sharp turns. The whole race-course is +well sodded, and the ground is as good as artificially-made ground can +be. It is kept up and improved by yearly outlays, and these very +considerable expenses are confided to Mr. J. Mackenzie-Grieves, so well +known for his horsemanship to all the promenaders of the Bois. + +The race-course at Longchamps enjoys advantages of situation and +surroundings superior, beyond all question, to those of any other in +the world. The approaches to it from Paris are by an uninterrupted +succession of the most charming drives--the Champs Elysees, the grand +avenue of the Bois de Boulogne, and finally through the lovely shaded +alleys of the Bois. Arrived at the Cascade, made famous by the attempt +of Berezowski upon the life of the czar in 1867, the eye takes in at a +glance the whole of the vast space devoted to the race-course, +overlooked to the right by a picturesque windmill and an ancient +ivy-mantled tower, and at the farther extremity by the stands for +spectators. To the left the view stretches over the rich undulating +hills of S[\e]vres and of Meudon, strewn with pretty villas and towers +and steeples, and rests in the dim distance upon the blue horizon of +Les Verrieres. + +The elegant central stand or tribune, of brick and stone, is reserved +for the chief of the state. In the time of the last presidency it was +almost always occupied by the marshal, a great lover of horses, and by +his little court; but his successor, M. Grevy, whose sporting +propensities are satisfied by a game of billiards or a day's shooting +with his pointers, generally waives his privilege in favor of the +members of the diplomatic corps. + +The stand to the left of the track is the official tribune, very gay +and attractive in the days of the Empire, when it was filled by the +members of the municipal council of Paris and their families, but +to-day rather a blot upon the picture, the wives of the Republican +aediles belonging to a lower--though, in this case, a newer--stratum of +society than did their imperial predecessors. The Jockey Club reserves +for itself the first stand to the right, from which all women are +rigorously excluded. The female element, however, is represented upon +the lower ranges of benches, though the ladies belonging to the more +exclusive circles of fashion prefer a simple chair upon the gravel of +the paddock. It is there, at the foot of the club-stand, that may be +seen any Sunday in spring, expanding under the rays of the vernal sun, +the fresh toilettes that have bloomed but yesterday, or it may be this +very morning, in the conservatories of Worth and Laferriere. The +butterflies of this garden of sweets are the jaunty hats whose tender +wings of azure or of rose have but just unfolded themselves to the +light of day. My figure of "butterfly hats" has been ventured upon in +the hope that it may be found somewhat newer than that of the +"gentlemen butterflies" which the reporters of the press have chased so +often and so long that the down is quite rubbed from its wings, to say +nothing of the superior fitness of the comparison in the present case. +In fact, the gentlemen do but very rarely flutter from flower to flower +within the sacred confines of the paddock, but are much more apt to +betake themselves in crowds to the less showy parterre of the +betting-ground, where, under the shadow of the famous chestnut tree, +such enormous wagers are laid, and especially do they congregate in the +neighborhood of the tall narrow slates set up by such well-known +bookmakers as Wright, Valentine and Saffery. + +Each successive year sees an increase in the number of betters, who +contribute indirectly, by means of subscriptions to the races, a very +important proportion of the budget of the Jockey Club. But if any one +should imagine from this constant growth of receipts that the taste for +racing is extending in France, and is likely to become national, he +would be making a great mistake: what is growing, and with alarming +rapidity, is the passion for gambling, for the indulgence of which the +"improvement of the breed of horses" is but a convenient and +sufficiently transparent veil. Whether the money of the player rolls +around the green carpet of the race-course or upon that of M. Blanc at +Monte Carlo, the impulse that keeps it in motion is the same, and the +book-maker's slate is as dangerous as the roulette-table. The manager +of the one piles up a fortune as surely as the director of the other, +and in both cases the money seems to be made with an almost +mathematical certainty and regularity. They tell of one day--that of +the Grand Prix of 1877--when Saffery, the Steel of the French turf and +the leviathan of bookmakers, cleared as much as fifty thousand dollars. +Wright, Valentine, Morris and many more make in proportion to their +outlay. Four or five years ago these worthies had open offices on the +Rue de Choiseul and the Boulevard des Italiens, where betting on the +English and French races went on night and day; but the police, +following the lead of that of London, stepped in to put an end to this +traffic in contraband goods, and the shops for the sale of this sort of +merchandise are now shut up. But if all this has been done, and if even +those great _voitures de poules_ which once made the most picturesque +ornament of the turf, have been banished out of sight, it has been +impossible to uproot the practice of betting, which has more devotees +to-day than ever before. It has been discovered in other countries than +France that the only way to deal with an ineradicable evil is to check +its growth, and an attempt to prohibit pool-selling a year or two ago +in one of the States of this Union only resulted in the adoption of an +ingenious evasion whereby the _pictures_ of the horses entered were +sold at auction--a practice which is, if I am not misinformed, still +kept up. The same fiction, under another form, is to be seen to-day in +France. In order to bet openly one has to buy an entrance--ticket to +the paddock, which costs him twenty francs, whereas the general entry +to the grounds is but one franc, and any one found betting outside the +enclosure or _enceinte_ of the stables is liable to arrest. The police, +no doubt, are willing to accept the theory that a man who can afford to +pay twenty francs for a little square of rose- or yellow-tinted paper +is rich enough to be allowed to indulge in any other extravagant freaks +that he pleases. + +But with all the numerous bets that are made, and the excitement and +interest, that must necessarily be aroused, there is nothing of the +turbulent and uproarious demonstration so characteristic of the English +race-course. The "rough" element is kept away from the French turf, +partly because it would find its surroundings there uncongenial with +its tastes, and partly by the small entrance-fee required; and one is +thus spared at Longchamps the sight of those specimens of the various +forms of human misery and degradation that offend the eye at Epsom and +infest even the more aristocratic meetings of Ascot and Goodwood. At +the French races, too, one never hears the shrieks and howls of an +English crowd, save perhaps when in some very important contest the +favorite is beaten, and even then the yells come from English throats: +it is the bookmakers' song of victory. A stranger at Longchamps would +perceive at once that racing has no hold upon the popular heart, and +that, so far as it is an amusement at all apart from the gambling +spirit evoked, it is merely the hobby and pastime of a certain number +of idle gentlemen. As to the great mass of spectators, who are not +interested in the betting, they go to Longchamps as they would go to +any place where uniforms and pretty toilettes and fine carriages are to +be seen; for the Parisian, as one of them has well said, "never misses +a review, and he goes to the races, although he understands nothing +about them: the horses scarcely interest him at all. But there he is +because he must do as 'all Paris' does: he even tries to master a few +words of the barbarous jargon which it is considered _bon-ton_ to speak +at these places, for it seems that the French language, so rich, so +flexible, so accurate, is insufficient to express the relations and +affinities between man and the horse." + +The _enceinte du pesage_, often called in vulgar English "the +betting-ring," or the enclosure mentioned above to which holders of +twenty-franc tickets are admitted, at Longchamps is scrupulously +guarded by the stewards of the Jockey Club from the invasion of the +_demi-monde_--a term that I employ in the sense in which it is +understood to-day, and not in that which it bore twenty years ago. A +woman of this demi-monde, which the younger Dumas has defined as that +"community of married women of whom one never sees the husbands," may +enter the paddock if she appears upon the arm of a gentleman, but the +really objectionable element is obliged to confine itself to the +five-franc stands or to wander over the public lawns. Some of the +fashionable actresses of the day and the best-known _belles-petites_ +may be seen sunning themselves in their victorias or their +"eight-springs" by the side of the track in front of the stands, but +this is not from any interest that they feel in the performances of Zut +or of Rayon d'Or, but simply because to make the "return from the +races" it is necessary to have been to them, and every woman of any +pretension to fashion, no matter what "world" she may belong to, must +be seen in the gay procession that wends its way through the splendid +avenue on the return from Longchamps. + +The great day at Longchamps, that crowns the Parisian season like the +"bouquet" at the end of a long series of fire-works, is the +international fete of the Grand Prix de Paris, run for the first time +in 1863. It is open to entire horses and to fillies of all breeds and +of all countries, three-year-olds, and of the prize, one hundred +thousand francs, half is given by the city of Paris and half by the +five great railway companies. It was the late duc de Morny who first +persuaded the municipal council and the administrations of the railways +to make this annual appropriation; ail of which, together with the +entries, a thousand francs each, goes to the winner, after deducting +ten thousand francs given to the second horse and five thousand to the +third. Last year the amount won by Nubienne, carrying fifty-three and a +half kilogrammes, was one hundred and forty-one thousand nine hundred +and seventy-five francs, and the time made was three minutes +thirty-three seconds on a track of three thousand metres--one mile +seven furlongs, or three furlongs longer than that of the Derby at +Epsom. + +The fixing of Sunday for this international contest has aroused the +prejudices of the English, and has been the occasion of a long +correspondence between Admiral Rous and Viscount Daru, but the +committee on races has refused to change the day, contending, with +reason, that the French people cannot be expected to exchange their +usages for those of a foreign country. Although it is understood that +Queen Victoria has formally forbidden the prince of Wales to assist at +these profane solemnities, this interdict has not prevented the +appearance there of some of the principal personages of England, and we +have several times noticed the presence of the dukes of St. Albans, +Argyll, Beaufort and Hamilton, the marquis of Westminster and Lords +Powlett, Howard and Falmouth; though the last, be it said, is believed +to be influenced by his respect for the day in his refusal to run his +horses in France. + +Those who remember the foundation of the Grand Prix will recall the +extraordinary excitement of the occasion, when the whole population of +Paris, as one of the enemies of the new system of racing said, turned +out as they would to a capital execution or the drawing of a grand +lottery or the ascension of a monster balloon: the next day the name of +the winner was in everybody's mouth, and there was but one great man in +the universe for that day at least--he who had conceived the idea of +the Grand Prix de Paris. The receipts on this occasion amounted to +eighty-one thousand francs: last year they were two hundred and forty +thousand. I subjoin a list of the winners from 1863 to 1879, inclusive: + + Years. Horses. Owners. Nationality. + + 1863 The Ranger H. Savile English. + 1864 Vermont H. Delamarre French. + 1865 Gladiateur Comte F. de Lagrange French. + 1866 Ceylon Duke of Beaufort English. + 1867 Feryacques A. de Montgomery French. + 1868 The Earl Marquis of Hastings English. + 1869 Glaneur A. Lupin French. + 1870 Sornette Major Fridolin (Ch. French. + Lafitte) + 1871 (Not run). + 1872 Cremorne H. Savile English. + 1873 Boiard H. Delamarre French. + 1874 Trent W.R. Marshall English. + 1875 Salvator A. Lupin French. + 1876 Kisber Baltazzi Hungarian. + 1877 St. Christophe Comte F. de Lagrange French. + 1878 Thurio Prince Soltikoff Russian. + 1879 Nubienne Edmond Blanc French. + +It will be seen by this list that the superiority of the English-bred +horse over the French is far from being established. Of sixteen races, +the English have gained but five, [Since this article was written the +Grand Prix has again been won (June, 1880) by an English horse, Robert +the Devil.] while they have been three times second and four times +third, and in 1875 their three representatives came in last. The winner +of the Epsom Derby has been beaten several times, as in the case, +amongst others, of Blair Athol by Vermont and Doncaster by Boiard. The +winners of the two chief prizes of last year were a French, an English +and an Hungarian horse--Gladiateur, Cremorne and Kisber. It may be +remarked also that the winner of the French Derby, as it is called, +which is run at Chantilly a fortnight earlier, is almost never the +gainer of the Grand Prix, the only exceptions having been Boiard and +Salvator. This result is no doubt the consequence of the system of +training too long in vogue in France, and upheld by Tom Jennings and +the Carters, which consists in bringing a horse to the post in the +maximum of his condition upon a given day and for a given event. The +animal can never be in better state, and if he does not win the race +for which he has been specially prepared, it is because he is not good +enough: he cannot be made to do any better than he has done. But if it +is hard to bring a horse to this culminating point of training, it is +still more difficult to keep him there, even for a period of a few +days. Training has been compared to the sides of a triangle: when one +has reached the apex one must perforce begin to descend. It being, +then, impossible that the animal should support for any length of time +the extreme tension of his whole organism that perfect training +supposes, it but very rarely happens that the horse prepared according +to this system--for the French Derby, for example--can be maintained in +such a condition as to enable him to win the Epsom Derby or the Grand +Prix de Paris. We have heretofore referred to the reaction against this +practice of excessive training, and to the efforts of Henry Jennings in +the direction of a reform--efforts which within the last few years have +been crowned with great success. + +But we must now return to the Grand Prix. An invalid who had been +forbidden by his doctor to read the newspapers for several months, and +who should chance to make his first promenade on the Boulevards on the +eve of the Grand Prix, would know at a glance that something +extraordinary was about to happen. At every step he would meet the +unmistakable garb that announces the Englishman on his travels--at +every turn he would hear the language of Shakespeare and of Mr. +Labouchere adorned with a good deal of horse-talk. Coney's Cosmopolitan +Bar, Rue Scribe, is full on this day of betters and bookmakers, and +possibly of Englishmen of a higher rank, whilst its silver +_gril_--which is not of silver, however, but polished so bright as +almost to look like it--smokes with the broiling steak, and the gin +cocktails and brandy-and-soda flow unceasingly. Toward midnight, +especially--after the Salon des Courses has closed its doors--is +Coney's to be seen in its glory. The circus of the Champs Elysees, +where Saturday is the favorite day, makes on this particular Saturday +its largest receipts in the year; the Jardin Mabille is packed; the +very hackney-coachmen wear the independent, half-insolent look that +they have had since morning and will have till the evening of the next +day--unfailing sign in Paris that some great spectacle is impending; +milliners and dressmakers are out of their wits; the world has gone +mad. The restaurant-waiters and the barbers of the Boulevard may +condescend, if you happen to be a regular customer and given to +tipping, to enlighten you on the chances of the respective horses. The +most knowing in these matters are supposed to be Pierre, the host of +the Grand Cafe, right under the rooms of the Jockey Club, and the +rotund Henry, keeper of the Restaurant Bignon, Avenue de l'Opera, the +confidant of certain turfmen, who may favor him with invaluable hints +if their _salmis_ of woodcocks should have been a success or their +_cotelette double_ be done to a turn. Charles, of the Cafe Durand, +Place de la Madeleine, and Henry, the barber of the Boulevard des +Italiens, are also posted in the quotations and keep themselves well +informed. + +On Sunday morning by ten o'clock the Bois de Boulogne is filled with +pedestrians, who take their breakfast on the grass to while away the +time of waiting. The restaurants Madrid and the Cascade, where the +tables are spread amidst flowers and shaded by trees--a feature that is +duly remembered in the bills, like an _hors d'oeuvre_--are turning +visitors away. Toward half-past two the enclosure of the paddock is +absolutely full: not a vacant chair is to be found, and a fearful +consumption of iced champagne begins at the buffet. For, strange to +say, the weather is always fine on this day, and the Encouragement +Society is as notorious for its good-luck in this respect as the +Skating Club and the Steeple-chase Society are for quite the opposite. +By degrees--and perhaps helped by the champagne--the vast throng will +be observed, as the supreme moment approaches, to depart from its +habitually staid and calm demeanor, and finally to show some signs of +enthusiasm, though without growing in the least noisy and turbulent, +like that at Epsom on the Derby Day. Once in a year, however, I as the +French say, doesn't make a custom, and the Parisian crowd, to quote its +own expression, "croit que c'est arrive." The applause, in case the +winner is a French horse, comes from patriotic motives: if he happens +to be English it is given from a feeling of courtesy; and the crowd +having done its duty in either case, the famous "return," that has +often furnished a subject for the painter, begins. And a wondrous sight +it is. Up to six o'clock the innumerable carriages continue to defile +upon the several routes that lead to the city, forming a procession of +which the head touches the Place de la Concorde, whilst the extremity +still reaches to the tribunes of Longchamps. And when evening comes on, +and bets are settled, and heated brains seek to prolong the day's +excitement far into the night, such haunts as the Mabille grow so noisy +that the police is generally obliged to interfere. There was a time +when, on these occasions, that jolly nobleman, the duke of Hamilton, +then a prominent figure on the French turf, did not disdain to lead his +followers to the battle in person, and to practise the noble art of +boxing upon all comers, whether policemen or bookmakers. But these +deeds of former days are now but traditions: His Grace has married, +which is said to have taught him wisdom, and the bookmakers have grown +into millionaires, with a sense of the gravity becoming their +position.--L. LEJEUNE. + + + + +MRS. PINCKNEY'S GOVERNESS + + +The short October day had come to an end. It had been one of those +soft, misty, delicious days common enough at this season of the year. +The gathering darkness perplexed the young girl who, without maid or +escort of any kind, stood peering through the gloom at the little +way-station. Discouraged, apparently, at the result of her search, she +entered the station-house, and inquired, in rather a depressed voice, +if they knew whether Mrs. Pinckney had sent a carriage or vehicle of +any kind for her: "she was expected," she added. + +Youth and good looks are naturally effective, and the young Irishman in +authority there, Michael Redmond, was by no means insensible to their +influence. He darted out with an air of alacrity, returning, however, +almost immediately with the depressing information that Mrs. Pinckney's +carriage was not there. "She went herself to the city this morning, +madam," he said, with an effort at consolation. "Perhaps in her absence +the servants have forgotten--" Here he paused. + +"It is very unfortunate," she murmured, evidently not accustomed to +such emergencies. Nature, however, although ill-seconded by her +previous life, had given her both courage and decision. "Is there +nothing here which I can hire? is there nobody to drive me to Mrs. +Pinckney's?" + +"I'll see, madam," returned the young man. + +Why he used the term "madam," which was undoubtedly misplaced, toward +so youthful a person, is only to be explained by an idea he had of +exaggerated respect, a kind of protection apparently to her loneliness +and helplessness. + +He darted headlong out again into the darkness. "There is a boy here +with an open wagon, madam," returning almost as quickly as he went out. +"It is not an elegant conveyance, but--" and he hesitated--"it is the +only one." + +"Oh, it will do, thank you: anything will do which can carry me to the +house. Is there room for my trunk?" + +Michael with strong, serviceable arms swung the trunk lightly into the +wagon. She was already seated, the boy, who was to drive, beside her. + +"Oh, thank you." She drew a diminutive purse from her travelling-bag, +and was evidently about to recompense him when something in his manner +deterred her. She thanked him again, for gracious words fell lightly +and easily from her lips, and the little vehicle went rattling out upon +the road. + +Mrs. Pinckney's house was four or five miles from the station: the boy +drove at a furious pace, and it was by good luck rather than by good +guidance that no catastrophe occurred. The beautiful day was succeeded +by a cloudy evening: neither moon nor stars were visible, and as they +passed through the avenue leading to the house, under the branches of +magnificent old trees, large drops of rain began to fall. The light +which shone through the open door revealed camp-chairs still standing +on the lawn, and children's toys were scattered over the veranda. The +boy's rough feet as he carried in her trunk annihilated the face of a +smart French doll, and Miss Featherstone's dress caught on, and was +torn by, a nail in a dilapidated rocking-horse. The light came from a +picturesque-looking lamp which hung from an arch in the centre of a +broad, low hall. She rang the bell: the sound reverberated through the +house, yet no one came. The boy, who had stood the trunk on end, +growing impatient, rang again: they heard voices, hubbub and confusion, +children's cries, servants summoned, a man speaking very volubly in +French. Then very imperfect English sentences were shouted in a kind of +despair. The door was divided in the middle, with a large brass knocker +as an appendage to the upper half. Miss Featherstone, growing anxious +and impatient, sounded this vigorously, which brought a maid, who had +evidently quite lost her head, to the door. + +"This is Mrs. Pinckney's?" said the young girl in prompt, cheerful +tones. "I am Miss Featherstone, the governess, whom Mrs. Pinckney +expects." + +"Yes, ma'am," replied the servant in an absent, distracted manner. + +"Marie!" shrieked the French voice in shrill tones of alarm and anger. + +"Please, miss, I must go. Do come in and sit down: I'll send +somebody--" + +"Marie! Marie!--Where is that _vilaine femme?"_ + +At the second summons she fled, leaving Miss Featherstone and the boy, +standing with her trunk on his shoulders, on the threshold. + +The young girl walked in, sat down in a large leathern chair, and was +taking out her purse to pay her driver when a little fat man, with a +very red face and bushy black hair, came flying through the hall, +carrying a child in his arms. He was followed by two or three sobbing +children and the girl whom Miss Featherstone had already seen. "My dear +mees," he said, never stopping until he reached the governess, "see +this leetle enfant, this cher petit Henri. He has already one +contortion--spasm--what you call it?--and I fear he goes to have one +other. Ma chere mademoiselle, have you some experience? Is it that you +know what we shall do?" + +The child lay pale and unconscious in the arms of the distressed little +foreigner. Miss Featherstone tore off her gloves; her purse, unheeded, +fell on the floor; she led the way into the nearest room, which proved +to be the dining-room, the helpless group following. "Bring a tub of +hot water for his feet," she said in calm, decided tones. She was +seated, and had taken the child in her arms.--"Now, monsieur"--to the +Frenchman--"will you be kind enough to give me some ice from that +pitcher on the sideboard behind you?" + +She drew a delicate little handkerchief from her pocket, and, putting +pieces of ice in it, held it to the child's head. "Some one," she +continued, "take off his shoes and stockings." + +Her composure restored a degree of order, although no one seemed to +have recovered their senses sufficiently to obey her as to the child's +shoes. The boy who had acted as her driver knelt down and proceeded to +accomplish it. When the poor little feet were up to the knees in hot +water and the child was evidently reviving, she said, "The doctor +should be sent for immediately. As this boy has a horse and wagon at +the door, it would be best to send him. What is the name of your family +physician?" + +"Doctor Harris." + +"You know where he lives?" + +"Oh yes, ma'am, very well." + +"Stop a moment: some one write a line, so that there shall be no +mistake." + +The foreigner flung up his hands with a gesture of despair. "It is so +difficile for me to write l'Anglais--" he began. + +With the child lying on her left arm she opened her bag with her +right--the little driver, the most collected person besides herself of +the party, holding it up to her--found a scrap of paper and a pencil +and wrote a brief, urgent appeal to the physician to come immediately, +mentioning that the mother was from home, and signing herself "Laura +Featherstone, governess." + +Sooner than she would have believed possible Doctor Harris appeared: he +came in his own gig, the little driver who had been so active in the +events of the evening vanishing entirely from the scene, and, as it was +afterward remembered, in the confusion without his douceur. + +Doctor Harris, a comparatively young man, was cheerful and reassuring. +"There will probably be no recurrence of the convulsions," he said, +examining the child, who was sleeping tranquilly in the young girl's +arms; "but what was the exciting cause? what has he been eating?" + +"I find him with a grand heap of the raisins and the nuts," replied the +French tutor excitedly. "Madame goes to town this morning and takes la +bonne pour s'en servir--le pauvre enfant est abandonne, voila tout!" +Gesticulating with much vehemence, he sat down at the conclusion as if +exhausted by his efforts. + +"What has been done for the child?" asked the physician in a cautious +whisper. + +The little Frenchman rose; his eyes flashed; he waved his fat, short +arms toward Miss Featherstone: "Cette chere mademoiselle, she is one +angel from the sky: she do it all," with increased animation and +violence--"ice for his head, hot water for his feet. I could not tink, +I was so *_accable_" + +This vehement declamation not being calculated to ensure the patient's +slumbers, Doctor Harris ordered the little fellow to be undressed and +put to bed immediately. "I should like to see you, my dear young lady, +when you are at leisure," he said as Miss Featherstone rose, still with +the child in her arms, and was following the maid to the nursery: "I +have directions to leave in case of a recurrence. However, I don't +think there will be any return of the convulsions," he added. + +The maid, reduced to helplessness by terror, looked on while Miss +Featherstone undressed the sleeping boy. She laid him in the bed, +ordered the servant to sit by his side until her return, put the candle +on the floor so that it would not shine in his face, and went out to +meet the doctor. + +"Who will be with the child during the night?" was his first query. + +"_Helas!_ I do not know," cried the foreigner with a gesture of +despair. + +"If there is no one else to take care of him I will," replied the young +girl cheerfully. + +"It is infame!" said the tutor.--"Cette chere mademoiselle has but +arrived: she is weary. Parbleu! she must be hungry. Why not somebody +tink of dis?--My dear mees, have you had dinner? Non? J'en etais sur," +with a groan. + +Mr. Brown--for that was the tutor's very English name--was so dramatic +in the expression of his good feeling that Miss Featherstone could not +repress a smile as she turned to the physician, and, taking out her +pencil and a little memorandum-book, said, "If you'll give me +directions, Doctor Harris, I think that I'm perfectly competent to take +care of the child." + +Doctor Harris, who was gallant and a bachelor, made a whispered +remonstrance referring to her fatigue, but she replied gravely, "I am +in perfect health, and it never makes me ill to sit up with a sick +person: I have had experience." Some painful remembrance evidently +agitated her, for her voice suddenly failed. + +They were interrupted by the sound of carriage-wheels rolling rapidly +up the avenue. + +"Voici madame!" cried Mr. Brown, who flew to the door to hand Mrs. +Pinckney out. + +He had taken the earliest opportunity to enlighten her as to the +child's illness, for they heard her exclaim, "I know it: oh, I have +heard of it! Where is the doctor?" + +Mrs. Pinckney was tall and slight: she had blonde hair, large, +beautiful eyes--they were blue--and regular features. In short, she was +exceedingly pretty: so thought Doctor Harris, and he made many salaams +before her. + +"Oh, doctor," she exclaimed, rushing up to him and grasping his arm, +"is there any danger? Tell me, is there any danger?" + +"Not the slightest, ma'am," he replied promptly. + +She wouldn't be reassured: "But why not? Convulsions are so serious, +they are so terrible! I had a relative who was ruined for life by +epilepsy: he was a handsome fellow, but he lost good looks, mind, +everything. Oh, Doctor Harris, don't tell me that my poor little Harry +is to have epilepsy!" She had the art of puckering her forehead into a +thousand wrinkles, yet looking lovely in spite of it. + +"I certainly shall not tell you anything of the kind," said the doctor +with a reassuring smile, "for it wouldn't be true; but who is the +relative who had epilepsy?" + +"Oh, a nephew of my husband, and he had a dreadful fall. He fell out of +a second-story window: it was in the country, and rather a low house, +but it finished him, poor fellow! Oh, doctor, sit down: I am tired to +death, and this news has so upset me! Will you assure me, upon your +honor, that my child will never have epilepsy?" + +"Sincerely, Mrs. Pinckney, I don't think there is the least danger; but +you must be careful as to what he eats. Nuts and raisins are not a +particularly wholesome diet for a child three years old." + +She looked about inquiringly, and did not seem the least surprised as +her eye fell on Miss Featherstone. + +The tutor, still irate from his alarm, exclaimed, "You take la bonne, +madame. I am occupy with mes eleves: then I am not in his care." + +Mrs. Pinckney, who was not an irritable woman, took no notice of this +implied reproach: "What is to be done with him to-night, Doctor Harris? +Can you sleep here?" As he shook his head, "You'll come the first thing +in the morning? Oh, doctor, can I go to bed and sleep comfortably? Do +you assure me that there is not the slightest danger of a recurrence of +those dreadful spasms?" + +When the distressed mother spoke of sleeping comfortably a smile, which +all his admiration for the fair widow could not restrain, flickered +over Doctor Harris's face: "I was about to give this young lady"--and +he turned to Miss Featherstone--"directions for the night, as we didn't +expect you home: she has been very kind and efficient, and was going to +take care of the child; but now--" + +He was interrupted by Mrs. Pinckney crossing the room, seizing Miss +Featherstone's hand and kissing her with effusion: "My dear Miss +Featherstone--your name is Featherstone, is it not?--I have no words to +thank you sufficiently." + +"Oh, the chere mees!" burst forth the little Frenchman. "I was so full +of frighten I not know what to do, which way to turn myself; and she, +so calm, so _smooth_," he said, hesitating for a word, and apparently +discomfited when he found it--"she take the helm, she issue the orders: +every one obey, and the child is saved." After this peroration he +glanced around as if for applause. + +"I was about to say," resumed Doctor Harris, "that, now that the nurse +has returned, Miss Featherstone, who has been travelling all day, had +better have some dinner and be sent to bed." + +"Oh, certainly," replied Mrs. Pinckney; "and now that I'm so much +relieved I'd like some dinner myself.--Mr, Brown, do you know what +prospects there are of our having any dinner?" + +The tutor shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands with a +deprecatory gesture: "I know not, my dear madame. Les enfants et moi, +we have our dinner at two o'clock: we did not comprehend that madame +would return to-night," as a happy apologetic afterthought. + +Mrs. Pinckney glanced at a little watch which she took from her belt: +"Twelve o'clock, but the servants probably have not gone to bed."--She +rang the bell. "Mary," to a maid who entered, "tell the cook to make +some tea and send in cold chicken or beef--whatever is left from +dinner." + +"I think the fire is out, Mrs. Pinckney," the servant hesitatingly +replied. + +"Oh, no matter: let her get a few chips and make a fire: I _must_ have +my tea."--Doctor Harris rose. "Oh, doctor, don't go until you have +taken one more look at my darling." + +The nursery was on the same floor. Mrs. Pinckney insisted on kissing +the child, much to the physician's annoyance. He checked her, and +carefully refrained from talking himself while in the room. As he was +taking leave at the front door she repeated, "Now, doctor, you're sure +I can be comfortable--that I can go to bed and go to sleep? Tell me +positively"--and she looked earnestly in his face--"that the child will +never have another convulsion." + +He laughed, and bent an admiring tender, gaze on the pretty mother, who +stood appealingly before him: "My dear Mrs. Pinckney, I cannot swear +positively that Harry will never have another convulsion, particularly +if he is allowed to eat nuts and raisins _ad libitum_: however, with +ordinary care I don't think it at all probable."--"Is it possible," he +reflected as he drove home, "that I want to marry that woman, selfish +and inconsiderate as she is? Why, she would have let the governess, a +perfect stranger, sit up with the child if I hadn't interfered! She is +awfully pretty, though. I can't help liking her: then, her money would +be a comfortable addition to my professional emoluments." + +Although the hot, strong tea was very grateful in her exhausted +condition, this, with the very excitements of the day, kept Miss +Featherstone awake the brief remainder of the night. She breakfasted +the following morning with the children and their tutor. To her great +surprise, little Harry, looking pale and wan, was at the table. + +"Madame is too ill to rise," Mr. Brown announced in his very best +English, "and the bonne is attending her. Will this dear mees take the +head of the table and us oblige by pouring out the coffee?" + +Miss Featherstone cheerfully acceded, and left her own breakfast +cooling while she coaxed and consoled the little invalid, who was quite +fretful after his last night's experiences. She was making an attempt +to eat something herself when Mrs. Pinckney sent for her, and, as there +was no one to take care of the child, she carried him in her arms to +his mother's room. + +"Good-morning, Miss Featherstone;" and she devoured the curly-headed +boy with kisses. Mrs. Pinckney, reclining on large pillows, looked +prettier than ever. No degree of negligence affected her appearance: +her light, curling, slightly-dishevelled hair and delicate, clear skin +were the more attractive under conditions which would be fatal to many +women. "Sit down, Miss Featherstone.--Adele!" calling to the nurse, +"you must take dear little Harry away: I want to talk to Miss +Featherstone. Be very careful of him: don't let him eat or over-fatigue +himself. And, Adele, after lunch come and help me dress: I think I +should feel better for a drive.--Don't you think I should feel better +for a drive, Miss Featherstone? I'm in miserable health," she added as +the door closed on the nurse and child, "I've had so much trouble. I've +lost my husband--he died of consumption"--she seized her +pocket-handkerchief and began to cry: "I was alone, except for +servants, with him at St. Augustine. I think his family were very +inconsiderate. I wrote letter after letter, telling them of his +condition and begging and imploring them to come to my assistance; but +no one came. I had just left him for a few hours to get a little +rest--I was so worn out with anxiety and the responsibility--and he +died--alone--with his nurse--" Sobs choked her voice. + +Miss Featherstone rose and kissed her: it was a way she had of +comforting. Mrs. Pinckney received the caress graciously, and pressed +her hand. + +"Then my income is not nearly so large as it was," she resumed, "and +I'm obliged to practise a great deal of economy. I've discharged my +maid, and share the children's nurse with them, and Adele is growing +quite discontented with double duty. I parted with Baptiste also: it +was a frightful sacrifice, for he was just a perfect butler. I'm always +having economy talked at me by my husband's family, and I hate it!" +with a discontented sigh. "I had a house in New York," she continued, +"which they urged me to give up. They said I couldn't afford to keep +both, and it was better for the children to keep the country-house, and +that here on the river it would be easy to get to town. I'm +extravagantly fond of going to the theatre and opera, and have had in a +great measure to relinquish it. I went even when I was in mourning: the +doctors said I must be amused. We'll go sometimes this winter +together," she added coaxingly. "Well, now, Miss Featherstone, as to +your role of governess: I don't feel as if you were to be anything but +my nice new friend, you were so kind last night to my dear little +Harry. You teach the common English branches and the rudiments of +Latin, French and music? Mr. Brown--is it not an odd name for such a +thorough Frenchman? but his father was English, although he was born +and educated in France--Mr. Brown teaches them Latin and French at +present, but I don't know how long I shall keep him; so you'll be +relieved of that. I shall want you to act as a friend in the +household--I'm so much of an invalid--sit at the head of the table +occasionally, and give orders to the servants." + +Miss Featherstone looked slightly perplexed. Her duties as governess +were mingling in a distracting manner with those of housekeeper. + +"The children are so young," Mrs. Pinckney said apologetically, "they +can't be kept at their lessons from morning till night. Rose is eleven, +Alfred nine, Dick seven. Harry might possibly learn his alphabet, but I +doubt it. You can arrange the hours and studies to suit yourself; and I +want you to govern and manage the children--relieve me in that way as +much as possible. I hope you'll be very comfortable and happy in my +house, Miss Featherstone. If there is anything out of the way in your +room or anywhere else, let me know. I'm sure we shall be good friends;" +and with a hearty, affectionate kiss she dismissed the governess. + +As Miss Featherstone descended the stairs she met Doctor Harris, +gallant and gay, with a rose in his buttonhole, followed by the nurse +and child, on a visit of reassurance to the fair mother. + +Nothing is truer than that homely old proverb, "The lame and the lazy +are always provided for;" and Mrs. Pinckney was provided for +effectually when she lit upon Miss Featherstone. Just before Christmas +the governess was summoned to an interview with Mrs. Pinckney, who was, +as usual, in bed: "Oh, my dear Miss Featherstone, I'm in despair--ill +again. Christmas coming, and my husband's brother, Colonel Pinckney, is +on his way to make us a visit. If there's any one I feel nervous and +fidgety before, it is Colonel Pinckney: he seems to look you through +and see all your faults and weaknesses: at least, he does mine, and he +makes me see them too, which I don't like one bit. I do the best I can: +I'm in such miserable health, and have had so much to break me down. +Did you ever know any one, dear Miss Featherstone, who had had so much +trouble?--my husband's death and all." + +The young girl did not reply. Visions of her own lonely home rose +before her--her mother fading slowly away under an accumulation of +misfortunes; her only brother shot in the Union army; her father +sinking into almost a dishonored grave through hopeless liabilities +brought on indirectly by the war; she, petted and idolized, the only +remaining member of the family, seeking her daily bread and finding a +pittance by working among strangers. She hung her head and had not a +word with which to reply. + +"I dare say you've had troubles of your own," exclaimed Mrs. Pinckney. +"Of course you have, or you wouldn't be here, you dear creature! It is +well for me that you are here, though," kissing her affectionately. +"Now, everything must be just right when this haughty, fastidious +brother-in-law of mine comes. He isn't apt to find fault, but I am +conscious that he is secretly criticising my dress, my dinners, the +gaucheries of the servants, my moral qualities, even the way I turn my +sentences. I shouldn't mind trying to talk my very best English if he +were not prying into my motives: it is difficult to be on one's guard +in every direction," with a sigh. + +"I should think he'd be very disagreeable," said Miss Featherstone. + +"No:" the _no_ was hesitating. "He is dangerously attractive: at least +he attracts me. I'm all the time wondering what he is thinking, which +keeps me perpetually thinking of him. He is a Southerner, you know, and +was in the army; so you must be very careful,'my dear mees,' as Mr. +Brown says, not to come out with your 'truly loyal' sentiments: he +won't like them." + +"I don't care whether he likes them or not." Miss Featherstone's face +was crimson: it was the first spark of temper she had shown since she +came into the house. + +Mrs. Pinckney looked at her in surprise, then laughed: "I'm delighted +to see something human about you: I thought you were a saint." + +"By no manner of means," returned the governess curtly. + +"I shall warn Dick not to get upon the subject of the war," was the +note that Mrs. Pinckney, inconsequent as she generally was, made of the +scene.--"But I'm forgetting why I sent for you," she said aloud. "I +want you to go to town and buy Christmas presents and quantities of +things to eat and drink. I was going myself, but I never can count upon +a day as to being well with any certainty," with rather an ostentatious +sigh. "I've made out a list: there's plenty of money, isn't there?" + +Miss Featherstone had the care of the money and accounts: "Yes," +hesitatingly; "that is--" + +"No matter," interrupted Mrs. Pinckney. "I have accounts at hosts of +places. The carriage is ordered to take you to the station: will you be +ready, dear, at ten o'clock?" + +Miss Featherstone looked at her watch and hurried to her room. + +It was snowing when she returned from New York: great flakes fell on +her as she stepped, loaded with bundles, out of the carriage. The +children met her with joyful whoops at the front door: "Oh, here's +clear little Miss Featherstone, and we know she's got our Christmas +presents.--You can't deny it. Hurrah!" + +They dragged her into the dining-room, where the table, decked with +flowers, was handsomely arranged for dinner. A blazing wood-fire roared +on the hearth: in front of it stood a tall, handsome man with a +military air. He was dark, with brilliant eyes, a certain regularity of +features, and, as his passport declared, his hair was dark brown and +curly. Colonel Pinckney looked haughty and impenetrable, as his +sister-in-law had described him. Mrs. Pinckney, exquisitely dressed, +reclined in a large chair by the corner of the fireplace: she held up a +pretty fan to screen her face from the heat, and was talking gayly to +her brother-in-law. At a table in a corner Mr. Brown, by the light of a +large lamp, was endeavoring, with great difficulty, to read an English +paper. + +"Oh, mamma, see poor little Miss Featherstone loaded down with boxes +and bundles!" shrieked the children, dragging her up to the fire. + +"Dear children, do go and get Adele to take them," said their +mother.--"Here, Mary," to a servant who entered, "carry these packages +up to my dressing-room.--There are more in the carriage?" in reply to a +remark of Miss Featherstone.--"Adele," to her maid, who stood at the +door, "bring in everything you find in the carriage." + +Two or three weeks passed, and Colonel Pinckney made no sign of +departure. In spite of his unsocial tendencies, he drove and dined out +with his sister-in-law, for many nice people chose this winter to +remain at their country-houses. He took long walks by himself, and made +inroads into the school-room, for he was very fond of the children. +Mrs. Pinckney was less frequently indisposed, and exerted herself in a +measure to entertain him. She never, by any accident, occupied herself, +and was one morning lying back in a large chair by a coal-fire in the +library, her little idle hands resting on her lap, when Colonel +Pinckney, who had been examining the books on the shelves which lined +the room, assumed his usual position, with his back to the fire, and +startled his sister-in-law by exclaiming, "Where did you get your white +slave, Virginia?"--Mrs. Pinckney looked bewildered--"this young girl +who fills so many places in the house? She appears to be nurse, +housekeeper, governess and maid-of-all-work in one." + +"My dear Dick, what do you mean?" exclaimed Mrs. Pinckney with some +indignation. "Do you think I impose upon Miss Featherstone? I love her +dearly. Then my delicate health, and you know I'm obliged to be +economical." + +Colonel Pinckney made a movement of impatience and almost disgust., +"How much do you pay her?" he abruptly exclaimed, turning his flashing +eyes upon his companion. + +"How angry you look! how you frighten me!" said Mrs. Pinckney, who had +a trick of coming out with everything she thought. "I pay her"--and she +stammered--"two hundred dollars a year." + +"The devil!" he exclaimed. "I beg your pardon, Virginia, but I can +hardly believe it. What an absurd compensation for all that girl does! +Why, one of your dresses frequently costs more than that: I see your +bills, you know." + +"I'm very sorry you do if this is the use you make of your knowledge," +replied Mrs. Pinckney in an injured tone. "She is in mourning, and does +not require many dresses: besides, Richard, no one preaches economy to +me more than you do. I'm sick of the very word," petulantly. + +"What position, really, is she supposed to occupy?" + +"She is the governess," said Mrs. Pinckney in a sulky tone. + +"Now listen, Virginia. I have seen that young girl darning stockings in +the school-room and at the same time hearing the children's lessons; I +have seen her arrange the dinner-table, with the children clinging to +her skirts; I have seen her with the keys, giving out the stores; I +know she keeps your accounts; and I can readily comprehend where those +clear, well-expressed letters came from, although signed by you, which +I have frequently received in my character of guardian and executor." + +"You certainly don't think I meant to deceive you as to the letters?" + +"Oh no," replied her brother-in-law: "I don't think you in the least +deceitful, Virginia;" and in his own mind reflected, "'Hypocrisy is the +homage which vice pays to virtue.'" + +Nobody likes hypocrisy, to be sure, but Mrs. Pinckney did not take the +trouble to veil her peccadilloes. Easy and indolent as she was, being +now thoroughly roused by his thinly-veiled contempt, she endeavored to +be disagreeable in her turn. With the most innocent air in the world +she exclaimed, "I declare, Dick, I believe you're in love with Miss +Featherstone, although you like fair women--" + +"And she is dark," he interrupted. + +"Regular features--" + +"And her dear little nose is slightly _retroussee_; but you cannot +deny, Virginia, that she has a most captivating air." + +"I'm fond of her, but I do not think her captivating." Mrs. Pinckney +was now thoroughly out of temper. She was not naturally envious, but +she could be roused to envy. "And so you're in love with her?" +satirically. + +"How can I help it?" he returned with a mocking air. "She has +magnificent eyes, a bewildering smile: then she has that _je ne sais +quoi_, as our foreign friend would say. There is no defining it, there +is no assuming it. To conclude, I consider Miss Featherstone +dangerously attractive." + +"Just what I told her you were," returned Mrs. Pinckney, who saw he was +trying to tease her, and had recovered by this time her equanimity. In +spite of his phlegm he looked interested. "You'd better take care and +make no reference to the war, for she is furiously loyal, I can tell +you," said Mrs. Pinckney, recalling the conversation. "Since when have +you been in love with her?" + +"From the very first moment I saw her, when she entered the +dining-room, her cheeks brilliant from the cold, her lovely eyes, +blinded by the light, peering through their long lashes, a little +becoming embarrassment in her air as she saw your humble servant--laden +down with your bundles, and your children, as usual, clinging to her +skirts." + +"Dick, how disagreeable you are!" and Mrs. Pinckney began to pout +again. + +"We are all her lovers," he maliciously continued--"all the men +here--Doctor Harris, Mr. Brown and--" he bowed expressively. + +"Doctor Harris?" exclaimed his sister-in-law. This defection cut her to +the heart. + +"The day my namesake and godchild, little Dick, was ill I went to the +nursery, as in duty bound: you know how fond I am of that child. There +was Miss Featherstone, not the nurse, interested and concerned, sitting +by the patient. There was Doctor Harris, interested and absorbed with +Miss Featherstone. His looks were unmistakable: I saw it at a glance. +And as for Mr. Brown, he raves about this 'dear mees' or 'cette chere +mademoiselle' by the hour together. She carried his heart by storm the +first time he saw her, as she did mine." + +"How far does your admiration lead you? Do you wish any assistance from +me?" + +"As you please: I am indifferent," he returned, shrugging his +shoulders. "Seriously, Virginia--I say this in my character of guardian +and adviser-general to the family--I think what you give her is a +beggarly pittance in return for all she does, and I suggest that you +raise her salary." + +Miss Featherstone, although prejudiced at first against Colonel +Pinckney, grew by degrees to like him. His manner to her was grave and +respectful; he carried off the children, quite conveniently sometimes, +when she was almost worn out with fatigue; and the air of friendly +interest with which his dark eyes rested upon her was in a manner +comforting. Their little interviews, although she was unconscious of +it, gave zest to her life. + +One cold morning, as she sat before breakfast with little Harry on her +lap, warming his hands before the dining-room fire, Colonel Pinckney +exclaimed, "Miss Featherstone, did you have the care of that child last +night?" + +"Yes," as she pressed the fat little hands in hers. + +"And dressed him this morning?" + +"Why, yes. Colonel Pinckney, excuse me: why shouldn't I?" + +"Virginia is the most selfish human being I ever knew in my life," he +burst forth. "You, after working like a slave during the day, cannot +even have your night's rest undisturbed. I'll speak to her, and insist +upon it that this state of things shall not continue any longer." + +Miss Featherstone looked annoyed: "Mr. Pinckney"--she never would, if +she remembered it, call him "Colonel"--"I beg that you will do nothing +of the kind. Mrs. Pinckney is quite ill with a cold: she can scarcely +speak above a whisper, and she required Adele's services during the +night. I volunteered--it was my own arrangement--sleeping with the +child," eagerly. + +"Oh yes," he returned, "you are remarkably well suited to each +other--you and Virginia: you give, and she takes," sarcastically. +"Listen, Miss Featherstone. I have known that woman twelve years--it is +exactly twelve years since my unfortunate brother married her--and in +all that time I never knew her consider but one human being, and that +was herself." + +"Indeed, you're very much mistaken, Colonel--that is, Mr.--Pinckney, as +far as I am concerned. Mrs. Pinckney is really very kind to me. I am +exceedingly fond of her, but I cannot bear to see things going wrong, +and when I can I make them right. Mrs. Pinckney is in delicate health." + +"That's all nonsense," he interrupted. "She spends her time studying +her sensations. If she were poor she'd have something better to do. I +think you are doing wrong morally, Miss Featherstone. You are +encouraging her in idleness and selfishness by taking her duties and +bearing them on your young shoulders.--Now, Harry, come here," to that +small individual, who slowly and unwillingly descended from the +governess's lap: "leave Miss Featherstone, my young friend, to pour out +the coffee and eat her own breakfast. Adele is with mamma, is she? +Well, Uncle Dick will give Harry his breakfast." + +The cold was intense the following day, yet Miss Featherstone, well +muffled up, was on her way to the hall-door, where the sleigh was +waiting to take her to the station. + +"Forgive me," exclaimed Colonel Pinckney, who waylaid her, much to her +annoyance, "but what are you going to do for the family now?" + +"I am going to New York to get a cook," she replied with a decided air. + +"Do you know the state of the thermometer?" + +"I don't care anything about it," with some obstinacy, tugging at the +button of her glove. + +"But I do," he said. "Now, Miss Featherstone, while I'm here I am +master of the house, and if it's necessary to go to town it's I that am +going--to use Pat's vernacular--and not you. Give me directions, and +I'll follow them implicitly." + +"So Dick went, did he?" said Mrs. Pinckney. She was propped up in bed +with large pillows: Miss Featherstone, still in her bonnet, sat by her +side. + +"Yes: it was very kind, for I don't know what would have become of the +children all day, poor things! and you sick." + +Mrs. Pinckney glanced searchingly at her. "Dick is very kind when he +pleases, and exceedingly efficient," returned the invalid: "I've no +doubt he'll bring back a capital cook." + +"I had a great prejudice against Mr. Pinckney," said Miss Featherstone, +slowly smoothing out her gloves, "but I confess it has vanished, there +is something so straightforward and manly about him; and he certainly +is very kind." + +"He does not flatter you at all?" + +"Oh no; and that is one reason I like him. I detest the gallant, tender +manner which many men affect toward women." + +"Doctor Harris, for instance?" + +"Well, Doctor Harris, for instance," returned Miss Featherstone, +smiling, and blushing a little. + +"Doctor Harris has certainly made love to her, and Dick as certainly +hasn't. I wonder--oh, how I wonder!--whether he was in earnest the +other day?" Her large blue eyes were fixed scrutinizingly on the +governess, although she thought, not said, these things. "He thinks you +do a great deal too much in the house, and was quite abusive to me +about it: he actually swore when he discovered the amount of your +salary. Now, my dear Miss Featherstone, you may name your own price: +I'll give you anything you ask, for no amount of money can represent +the comfort you are to me." + +"I don't want one cent more than I at present receive," replied the +governess, kissing her fondly. + +A few days after Colonel Pinckney--a self-constituted committee, +apparently, for the prevention of cruelty to governesses--surprised +Miss Featherstone in the school-room. She was seated before the fire in +a low chair, little Harry, who was fretful from a cold, lying on her +lap, the other children clustered around her. As he softly opened the +door he heard these words: "'Blondine,' replied the fairy Bienveillante +sadly,' no matter what you see or hear, do not lose courage or hope.'" +As she told the story in low, drowsy tones she was also mending the +heel of a little stocking. + +"It is abominable!" the colonel cried: "you are worn out with fatigue: +I hear it in your voice. I called you a 'white slave' to Virginia: +nothing is truer. You've today given out supplies from the store-room, +you were in the kitchen a long time with the new cook, you set the +lunch-table--don't deny it, for I saw you--besides taking care of the +children and hearing their lessons." + +"While Mrs. Pinckney is ill this is absolutely necessary," she returned +with decision: "of course it makes some confusion having a new cook--" + +"Children," he interrupted, "this seance is to be broken up: scamper +off to Adele to get ready: I'll ask mamma to let you drive to the +station in the coupe to meet Mr. Brown: there will certainly be room +for such little folks.--And as to you, Miss Featherstone, as head of +the house _pro tem_. I order you to put on your hat and cloak and walk +in the garden for a while with me: the paths are quite hard and dry." + +"Mamma! mamma! we are to drive to the station: Uncle Dick says so," +shrieked the children, breaking up a delicious little doze into which +Mrs. Pinckney had fallen while Adele sat at her sewing in the darkened +room. + +"Is Uncle Dick going with you?" + +"No, he is going to walk in the garden with Miss Featherstone." + +Mrs. Pinckney felt quite cross: "He is positively insolent, ordering +things about in this way, interrupting my nap and all. What, under +Heaven, should I do without her if he is in earnest about Miss +Featherstone?" + +If she could have heard what Colonel Pinckney was saying in the garden +she would have been still crosser. + +"I want to enlighten you a little as to my fair sister-in-law," he +began after a few commonplaces. + +"Oh, please don't, Colonel Pinckney"--unconsciously she was sliding +into the "Colonel." "I'd much rather you wouldn't. I think--" and she +hesitated. + +"What do you think?" + +"Why"--and she looked embarrassed--"I am afraid I shall not love Mrs. +Pinckney as well if you analyze and show up all her little weaknesses. +We could none of us bear it," she continued warmly. "Remember that +line-- + + Be to her faults a little blind. + +I like to love people, and feel like a woman in some novel I've read: +'Long and deeply let me be beguiled with regard to the infirmities of +those I love.'" + +"You're an angel!" he cried. + +Miss Featherstone looked startled and annoyed. + +Colonel Pinckney, with much self-possession, recovered himself +immediately. "We all know it," he continued jestingly--"Mr. Brown, the +children, servants and all; but, in spite of this, you shall not be +imposed upon. Now, I wish to give you a resume of Mrs. Pinckney's +life--" + +"Oh, Colonel Pinckney! when we are under her roof!" + +"It is a shelter bought with my father's money," he returned. "But you +must and shall hear me: it is necessary. She is the incarnation of +selfishness: in a young person it could go no further. One can pardon +anything rather than selfishness. She entirely exhausted our charity +during poor Harry's long illness. She travelled with every comfort that +money could give: she had her maid, Harry had his man, the children +were left with my mother. One winter they went to Nassau, the next to +the south of France: from both places she wrote such despairing letters +that my poor old father and mother were nearly beside themselves. It +was like the explosion of a bomb-shell in the household when a letter +came from Virginia. Sometimes I used to read and suppress them: they +were filled with shrieks and lamentations. Harry was in a rapid +decline; the mental torture was more than she could bear; some one must +come immediately out to her, etc. The first winter my eldest brother +went, to the serious injury of his business: he is a lawyer. I went +when they were in Europe, my wound not yet healed. By George! Harry +looked in better health than I: every one thought I was the invalid. +The doctor was called in immediately, who said I had endangered my life +by the expedition. I found out my lady had been to balls and on +excursions all the time she was writing those harrowing letters." + +"Is it possible," said Miss Featherstone, "that you think Mrs. Pinckney +is false--that she deliberately tells untruths?" + +"Not a bit of it," interrupted Colonel Pinckney. "She loves to complain +and make herself an object of sympathy. Poor Harry, of course, had a +constant cough, and whenever he took cold all his distressing symptoms +were aggravated: then she'd write her letters. By the time they were +received he would be pretty well again. You can see for yourself what +she is: she sends for Doctor Harris, has Adele sleep on a mattress on +the floor in her room, leaving little Harry to keep you awake all +night--a fine preparation for the drudgery of the next day--then toward +evening she rises, makes a beautiful toilette, and drives with me +several miles to a dinner-party. Not a month ago, you remember, this +occurred when we went to Judge Lawrence's. To go back to my poor +brother: let me tell you what happened from her crying wolf so often. +The next winter they went to St. Augustine: we live in Virginia, you +know. A few weeks after their arrival the alarming letters began and +continued to appear. I took it upon myself to suppress most of them, +for really I had grown scarcely to believe a word she said with regard +to her husband, and, as I am sanguine, thought poor Harry would +overcome the disease, as our father had before him, and live to a good +old age. One morning, however, a telegram came: he was dead!" Colonel +Pinckney could scarcely speak. Recovering himself a little, he +continued in husky tones: "He died alone with his nurse: Virginia, +taking care of herself as usual, was in another room asleep." + +"I wonder what they are talking about?" thought Mrs. Pinckney, twisting +her pretty neck in all directions so she could see them from her bed. +Their two heads were close together: he was speaking earnestly, and +Miss Featherstone's eyes were on the ground. + +Mrs. Pinckney dressed and went down to dinner, although she had not +quite recovered the use of her voice. "Dick," she whispered, "it was a +fine move, your sending the children away this afternoon, so that you +could have Miss Featherstone all to yourself. Did you come to the +point?" + +"No, but I will one of these days: I am preparing her mind," he added +mischievously. + +As time went on a vague uneasiness seized the young governess. She +imagined Mrs. Pinckney was growing cool in her manner toward her: +certainly, Doctor Harris, who was constantly at the house, was becoming +importunate in his attentions. Once she looked up suddenly at as +prosaic a place as the dinner-table. Colonel Pinckney was gazing both +ardently and admiringly upon her. "Certainly I must be losing my senses +to imagine these men in love with me: it's preposterous." + +Mr. Brown put the matter at rest, as far as he was concerned, for one +day, as she returned from a walk, he accosted her on the veranda, and +with a series of the most violent grimaces and gesticulations, his eyes +flashing, his face working in every possible direction, he told her +that he was _desole_: his life depended upon her. He was so odd and +absurd in his avowal that she burst out laughing: then, as she beheld +an indignant, inquiring expression on his honest red countenance, she +grew frightened, sank on a seat and wept hysterically. This encouraged +him: he sat down beside her and exclaimed, "Dear mees"--and he peered +at her blandly--"your life is empty: so is mine. Let it be for me--oh, +so beautiful!"--and he spread out his little fat hands with +rapture--"to comfort and console one heavenly existence, _ensemble."_ +He placed a hand on each stout knee and gazed benignly down upon her. + +She hung her head as sheepishly as if she returned the little +foreigner's affection--afraid of wounding him, she was speechless--when +at this unlucky moment Colonel Pinckney, coming suddenly round the +house, walked up the steps. She saw him glance at her--Mr. Brown's back +was toward him--and a smile he evidently couldn't restrain stole over +his face. + +"Oh, Mr. Brown, I'm so sorry!" she found courage at length to say. "You +are very kind--you've always been kind to me from the moment I entered +the house--but indeed you must never speak on this subject again." She +shook hands with him in her embarrassment, apparently as a proof of +friendship, then ran into the house. + +"Virginia, what do you think has happened to me?" cried Colonel +Pinckney, bursting into his sister-in-law's room, which he seldom +invaded. "Yesterday, as I came up the steps, I surprised Mr. Brown, who +was offering himself--bad English, poverty and all--to Miss +Featherstone. This minute--by George!--I stumbled into the dining-room, +and there is Doctor Harris going through the same performance." + +"Sit down and tell me all about it," exclaimed Mrs. Pinckney, her +curiosity overcoming her pique. + +"Each time," continued Colonel Pinckney, "the lover's back was turned +toward me, while I had a most distinct view of Miss Featherstone, who +was blushing, hanging her head and looking as distressed as possible, +poor little soul!" + +"Why! won't she accept the doctor?" said Mrs. Pinckney with animation. + +"It didn't look like it. I couldn't hear what he said, but his back had +a hopeless expression. Did you know that she came from one of the best +families in Philadelphia, that most aristocratic of cities, and that +they were very wealthy? Her only brother was killed in the war, and she +is the sole unfortunate survivor." + +"She might do many a worse thing than marry Doctor Harris: he is well +educated and a gentleman." + +"She could do a better thing, and that is to marry me," exclaimed the +colonel. "I'm going to give her a chance, and will tell you the result +immediately. I wonder who'll stumble in upon my wooing?" and with +mirthful eyes he darted out of the room. + +"I never knew a man so changed," soliloquized Mrs. Pinckney. "He used +to be haughty and reserved: now he talks a great deal, uses slang +expressions and romps and plays with the children like any ordinary +mortal. One can never tell whether he is in earnest or not. I don't +believe he'd have told me if he'd really meant to offer himself." + +A day or two afterward Miss Featherstone had occasion to go to town. It +was exceedingly inconvenient, for she was needed everywhere as usual, +but gloves and boots must be replenished, even by impecunious heroines. +As she came down Colonel Pinckney handed her into the carriage and +followed her. She felt a little annoyed, but supposed he was driving +only to the station: however, he sent the coachman home, and when the +cars came up he entered and took his seat beside her. + +"You look depressed, Miss Featherstone: I hope that my going to New +York meets with your approbation? I've been neglecting a thousand +necessary matters, and the pleasure of your company to-day gave me the +necessary incentive." + +He was so frank as to his motives that Miss Featherstone laid aside her +reserve in a measure, and became communicative. "Everything has +changed, Colonel Pinckney," she said with a sigh. "Mrs. Pinckney has +grown decidedly cool, and I think you have opened my eyes so that I +don't love her quite as much as I did. I am sorry: I should rather have +been blind. Then--" She paused, feeling that her confidences must go no +further. + +"Then," he continued, "it makes it very embarrassing that the tutor and +family physician should both have fallen in love with you." + +"I think of leaving," she continued, neither admitting nor +contradicting his assertion. "Forgive me: you have spoken from the best +motives, but I think you have made trouble," she added hesitatingly. +"Mrs. Pinckney is now continually on the alert to prevent my working; +she will no longer let little Harry sleep in my room; she orders the +dinner for the first time since I've been in the house; the children +are swooped off by Adele as soon as their school-hours are over; and +everything is odd, strange and uncomfortable. I think I must go away. I +wrote an advertisement to put in the papers: perhaps you could do it +for me?" she said timidly: "I dread going to the offices." + +"Certainly," he replied courteously, and put it in his pocket. + +Colonel Pinckney appeared to share her depression, and he sat for some +time silent: then he said in an agitated voice, "It will be a sorrowful +day for that house when you leave it: I never knew such a +transformation as you have effected. Until this winter my only +associations with it have been of dirt, gloom and disorder: the +children were neglected and fretful, the dinners shocking and ill +served; and this with an army of servants and money spent _ad libitum_. +Now, on the contrary, the rooms are fresh, cheerful and agreeable; +there are pleasant odors, bright fires, attractive meals; the children +perfect both in appearance and manner; and all this owing to the +influence--perhaps I ought to say labors--of one young, inexperienced +girl. I've always imagined I disliked efficient women: I've changed my +mind. When I was young a fair, indolent creature, always well dressed +and smiling, was my beau ideal: now a brunette, bright and +energetic--some one who never thinks of herself, but is making +everybody else happy and comfortable--this is my present divinity." He +smiled tenderly upon her. + +Miss Featherstone endeavored to shake off her embarrassment. He was a +frank, kind-hearted man, entirely unlike his sister-in-law's idea of +him, with an exaggerated gratitude for her exertions in his brother's +family. She would not be so silly as to imagine every man was being +transformed into a lover. "You are kinder to me than I deserve," she +said, then changed the conversation. + +She expected to meet him as she took the train to return, but he was +nowhere to be seen. He did not even appear when the train stopped, and +she had a solitary drive to the house. + +"Did you know that Dick had gone?" said Mrs. Pinckney at the +dinner-table, levelling scrutinizing glances from her lovely blue eyes. + +"No," answered the governess with sudden depression and embarrassment: +"he said nothing about leaving this morning. You know Colonel Pinckney +went to New York in the train that I did." + +"You didn't see him after your arrival?" + +"No: he put me on a car and left me." + +"I suspect it was an after-thought," said Mrs. Pinckney. "I had a +telegram, directing me to send on his travelling-bag by express: the +rest of his luggage was to be left until further orders.--Is it +possible that she has refused him?" thought Mrs. Pinckney behind her +fan. She was occupying her usual seat by the fire: Miss Featherstone +was in a low chair, with Harry on her lap, the other children hanging +about her. She was telling them a story, but they were not as well +entertained as usual. The young governess was unlike herself to-night, +and little touches, dramatic effects and gay inflections of the voice +were lacking. + +A month passed, and nothing had been heard from Colonel Pinckney. "He +might have written just one line," said his sister-in-law querulously. +She was in her favorite position, propped up by pillows on the bed, +Miss Featherstone at her side waiting to receive orders, for gradually +all her old duties had been permitted to slip back into her willing +hands. "Certainly he seemed to enjoy himself when he was here; yet not +one line of thanks or remembrance have I received. I heard," she said +mysteriously, "that Dick was very devoted to Miss Livingstone at +Saratoga last summer--there's no end to the women who have been in love +with _him_: perhaps this sudden move has something to do with her. +Nothing but a great emergency can excuse him," petulantly. + +That day, for the first time, the children wearied Miss Featherstone, +and she carried them in a body to Adele, saying that she had a violent +headache and was going out in the garden for a walk. As she paced +slowly up and down the tears fell over her pale cheeks. The only window +from which she could be seen was Mrs. Pinckney's, and that lady, she +knew, was too much absorbed in her own sensations to give her a +thought. "How I despise myself!" she murmured, "how degraded I am in my +own eyes! Can I ever recover my self-respect? I'm so miserable that I +should like to die because Colonel Pinckney has left the house, +and"--she hesitated--"because his sister-in-law thinks he was drawn +away by Miss Livingstone, Oh!"--and she groaned and clasped her hands +frantically together--"and all this agony for a man who has never +uttered a word of love to me!" Here a remembrance of his whole air and +manner rather contradicted this thought. "Everything wearies me: I am +actually impatient of the children, and when Mrs. Pinckney wails and +complains I can scarcely listen with decency. I want to burst out upon +her and say, 'You silly, tiresome woman! you have had your dream of +love and your husband; you have still four dear children; you have a +home, plenty of money, hosts of friends, besides youth and good looks; +while I am--oh, how desolate!'" + +This imaginary attack upon Mrs. Pinckney seemed to comfort her +somewhat, for she dried her tears and tried to form a plan of action: +"He evidently didn't put my advertisement in the paper, for I've looked +in vain for it. I must go away where I shall never see Colonel Pinckney +again. I'll stifle, throttle, this miserable love, and endeavor once +more to be enduring and courageous." + +Just then the house-door opened: some one walked down the veranda steps +and came rapidly in her direction. + +"I have been looking everywhere for you," cried Colonel Pinckney; and +he seized both her hands: "no one seemed to know where you had gone." + +The bright color rose in her cheeks, and in spite of her resolve her +eyes beamed with delight. She murmured inarticulately that she had told +Adele, then relapsed into silence. + +"I have to implore your forgiveness for neglecting to obey as to the +advertisement, but the truth is----" and he hesitated--"I have a plan. +It may not meet with your concurrence," he added, "but I wished to +submit it before you made other and irrevocable arrangements." + +"You have thought of some position for me?" she forced herself to say, +all the bloom and delight vanishing from her face. + +"Yes. I know an individual who wants precisely such a person as you +are, for--a wife." + +"Colonel Pinckney!" she exclaimed indignantly. + +"Do forgive me, dear Miss Featherstone. I am such a confounded +poltroon"--and he seized her hands again--"that I dare not risk my +fate; but that person is"--and he looked down upon her, his heart +beating so violently that he could scarcely speak--"that person +is--myself!" + +Of what happened then Mrs. Pinckney, roused by her brother-in-law's +return, was cognizant, for actually, in the open air, with her blue +eyes bent eagerly upon them, he clasped the governess in his arms. "It +is a fact accomplished!" cried the fair widow with a sigh, and sank +back upon her pillows. + + + + +THE HOME OF THE GENTIANS. + + There is a lonesome hamlet of the dead + Spread on a high ridge, up above a lake-- + A quiet meadow-slope, unfrequented, + Where in the wind a thousand wild flowers shake. + + But most of all, the delicate gentian here, + Serenely blue as the sweet eyes of Hope, + Doth prosper in th' untroubled atmosphere, + Where wide its fringed eyelids love to ope. + + You cannot set a foot upon the ground + On warm September noons, in this old croft, + But there some satiny blossom crushed is found, + Swift springing up to look again aloft. + + Prized! sung of poets! sought for singly where + Adventurous feet may hardly dare to climb! + Here, scattered lavishly and without care, + In all the sweet luxuriance of their prime. + + Ah! how the yellow-thighed, brown-coated bee + Dives prodigally into those blue deeps + Of glistening, odorless satin fair to see, + And soon forgetting wherefore, tranced, sleeps! + + And how the golden butterflies skim over, + And poise, all fondly, on these lifted lips, + Leaving the riches of the sweet red clover + For the blue gentians' fine and fairy tips! + + Beautiful wildlings, proud, refined and shy! + Mysteries ye are, have been, and yet shall be: + The secrets of your being in ye lie, + And no man yet hath found their hidden key. + + Might we not laugh at our world's vaunted lore, + For ever boasting, "This, and this, I know"? + Not all the science of its hard-won store + Can make one single fringed gentian grow. + --HOWARD GLYNDON. + + + + +NEWPORT A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. + + +There is a magnetism in places which has as strong and subtle a potency +as that which belongs to certain persons. Newport, Rhode Island, is not +an inapt example of the class of which I speak. The wonderful mildness +of the air, coupled with its exhilarating qualities; the fertility of +the soil, which throws tropical vegetation over the stern realism of +crag and precipice; the mixture of the wildest features of Nature with +its softest and most intoxicating influences,--all these anomalies, +unexplained even by the proximity of the itself inexplicable Gulf +Stream, combine to form a perfect and most desirable whole. Nor is this +description over-colored or the offshoot of the latter-day caprice that +has made of the place a fashionable resort. The very name of the State +suggests that of a classic island famed for its atmosphere; and as +Verrazano, writing in 1524, compares Block Island to Rhodes, it is +possible that hence arose its title. Neal in 1717, and the Abbe Robin +in 1771, both speak of Newport as the Paradise of New England, and +endorse its Indian appellation, Aquidneck, or the Isle of Peace. +Berkeley, dean of Derry, who came here in 1729 full of zealous but +utopian plans of proselytism, writes of it that "the climate is warmer +than Italy, and far preferable to Bermuda" (his original destination). +Indeed, it is to the good man's enthusiasm for Newport that we owe his +burst of poetical prophecy, "Westward the course of empire takes its +way." + +If the staid and reverend Berkeley, he whom Swift, writing to Lord +Carteret, recommends as "one of the first men in the kingdom for +learning and virtue," and of whom Pope exclaims, "To Berkeley every +virtue under heaven," found here this fascination, what wonder that +more excitable pilgrims of Latin blood made of it a Mecca? The French +particularly came often to Newport in early colonial days, and have +left jottings of their stay and the pleasure it afforded them. Monsieur +de Crevecoeur visited it in 1772, and found delight in its natural +beauties. He notes the bay and harbor, the approach to which he +considers remarkably fine, and admires the acacia and plane trees which +line the roads, all of which, unfortunately, were destroyed during the +Revolution. The young attache of the French legation of to-day, who +chafes at the diplomatic duties which delay his shaking off the dust of +Washington for the delights of Newport, hardly comprehends how much +heredity has to do with his appreciation of it. He does not stop to +think, as he sips his post-prandial coffee at Hartman's window, of the +line of French chivalry that a century ago made their favorite +promenade by the spot where he now sits. His mind, running on Mrs. +A----'s ball or Mrs. B----'s lawn-tennis, is far from dreaming of the +irresistible De Lauzun, the gallant De Fersen, a fugitive from the love +of a queen, but destined to serve her as lackey in her need, the two +handsome Viosmenils, the baron Cromot du Bourg, the duc de Deux-Ponts, +or any of the brilliant cortege of a bygone day. But what memories the +mere enumeration of their names brings up! Rank and valor were the +heritage of all of them, an heroic but unhappy end the fate of most. +Who can say that the aroma of their presence does not still linger +round the old town, up and down the narrow streets where they passed +with gay jests and clanking sword, or in the quaint mansions, still +peeping out from behind century-old hedges, where they left the record +of their graces in the heart of their host and of their loves on his +window-pane? What can be pleasanter than for the American pen to linger +over the page of history that chronicles the generous sympathy which +brought this fine flower of France to our shores? Where is the heart, +even in our cynical nineteenth century, which holds enthusiasm an +anachronism, that does not thrill at the recollection of the chivalry +that quitted the luxury and revels of Versailles to dare the dangers of +an ocean-voyage (then no ten-day pleasure-trip) for a cause that still +hung in the balances of success? Viewed practically, the help offered +was even more deserving of praise. The French are not an adventurous +nation: they are not fond of travelling. Hugo says Paris is the world, +and to the average Frenchman it embodies the world it comprises: it +_is_ the world. Expatriated, he would rather dwell, like the poet, on a +barren island within sight of the shores of France than seek or find +new worlds to conquer. It must therefore be conceded that the sentiment +which brought us our allies in 1780 was a hearty one, nor had they +encouragement from the example of others; for, although La Fayette, +young and full of ardor, had fired the hearts of his compatriots, and +made it the fashion to help us even before the alliance in 1778, yet +the expedition of that year under the comte d'Estaing had been an utter +failure. There was, however, a strong incentive which brought the young +nobles of the time to us, and that was the one which the old +philosopher declared to be at the bottom of every case--a woman. In +this particular instance the prestige was heightened by the fact that +she was also a queen. Marie Antoinette was then at the zenith of her +beauty and power. The timid, shrinking dauphiness, forced to the arms +of an unwilling husband, himself a mere cipher, had expanded into a +fascinating woman, reigning triumphantly over the court and the +affections of her vacillating spouse. The birth, after years of +wedlock, of several children completed her conquest and gave her the +dominion she craved, and she now threw her influence unreservedly into +the balance for the American colonies, little dreaming she was therein +laying the first stone toward her own ruin. + +On the 6th of February, 1778, the treaty between the United States and +France was signed, followed in July of the same year by a declaration +from the king protecting neutral ships, although bound for hostile +ports and carrying contraband goods. Meanwhile, on the 13th of April, +the French fleet had sailed from Toulon under the command of D'Estaing, +who had with him on the Languedoc, his flagship, a regularly appointed +envoy, Girard de Rayneville, who had full power to recognize the +independence of the States, Silas Deane, one of the American +commissioners, and such well-known officers as the comte de la +Motte-Piquet, the Bailli de Suffren, De Guichen, D'Orvilliers, De +Grasse and others. The history of this first expedition is a short and +disastrous one. The voyage was long, owing to the ships being unequally +matched in speed, and it was ninety days after leaving Toulon before +they anchored in Delaware Bay. D'Estaing had hoped to surprise Lord +Howe, who was guarding the mouth of the Delaware to strengthen the +position of Sir Henry Clinton at Philadelphia, but when the fleet +arrived Clinton had evacuated Philadelphia, and was in the harbor of +New York. Here the French admiral followed him, but, finding no pilots +at Sandy Hook willing to take him over the bar, he on Washington's +recommendation proceeded to Rhode Island to co-operate with Sullivan, +who was in command of the army there, which was divided into two +brigades under Generals Greene and La Fayette. On the 29th of July, +1778, the French fleet appeared off Newport, to the delight of the +inhabitants, who were suffering from the English occupation, and saw in +prospect an end to their troubles. But, alas! their joy was premature. +Sullivan was so slow in moving that the moment for action was lost. +Lord Howe, having received reinforcements, appeared off Point Judith, +where D'Estaing tried to meet and give him battle; but a hurricane +coming up, both fleets were obliged to spend their energies in saving +themselves from destruction, and before the storm passed the French +ships were so scattered that all hope of success had to be abandoned. +D'Estaing found himself on the 13th of August separated from his +convoy, and his ship, Le Languedoc, bereft of rudder and masts, forced +to an encounter with three English vessels. His fleet rallied round +him, but it was too late after a disastrous action to do anything but +repair damages: in fact, Lord Howe had already reached Sandy Hook. +D'Estaing appeared off Newport on the 20th to announce that he should +be obliged by instructions to go to Boston for provisions and water, +and thus ended the first visit of the French to Newport, to the dismay +of the inhabitants. Sullivan criticised D'Estaing severely, but was +obliged by La Fayette to retract: indeed, it is a question whether the +fault of failure lay in Sullivan's procrastination or in want of +judgment on the part of the French commander, who nevertheless, on his +return to France, interested himself to induce the government to send +out twelve thousand men to America. La Fayette also, through his +friendship with Vergennes, exerted himself toward the same end, the +proposition being not unfavorably received by the government, which +merely demurred as to the number of troops required. Before leaving +France, however, La Fayette had secured full consent to the expedition, +and on him devolved the grateful task of bearing to Congress and +Washington the news of the co-operation of that country. The fleet was +prepared at Brest, and was placed under Admiral de Ternay, the command +of the troops being given to the comte de Rochambeau, not through court +favor, but in consideration of the affection of the army for him. + +Jean Baptiste de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau and marshal of France, was +born in Vendome in 1725. At sixteen he served under the marechal de +Broglie, was afterward aide to the duc d'Orleans, and distinguished +himself in the battles of Crevelt, Minden, Closterkamp and Corbach, +being seriously wounded several times. A thorough soldier, Rochambeau +possessed not only courage, but a clear, practical eye, accompanied by +foresight and judgment. His memoirs show him to have taken more kindly +to the camp than the court, and outside of war to have been fond of the +sports of a country gentleman. His appearance in Trumbull's picture of +the surrender of Cornwallis shows us more of a Cincinnatus than of an +Alexander. He was reserved in his manner, even with his officers, and +De Fersen, writing to his father, complains of it, acknowledging, +however, that it was shown less with him than with others. Later on he +does Rochambeau justice, and says: "His example had its effect on the +army, and the severe orders he gave restrained everybody and enforced +that discipline which was the admiration of the Americans and of the +English who witnessed it. The wise, prudent and simple conduct of M. de +Rochambeau has done more to conciliate America to us than the gain of +four battles." + +With this representative soldier of his time came so fine a showing of +the noblesse of France, fresh from the most brilliant court of Europe, +that they are worth a short description. They are interesting, if from +nothing else, from the fact that they are the men who appear on the +page of history one day steeped in the enervating luxury and intrigue +of Versailles and Marly, the next fighting and dying with the courage +of the lionhearted Henri de la Rochejaquelin in Vendee, leaving as an +epitaph on their whole generation the words of the Chouan chief, +"Allons chercher l'ennemi! Si je recule, tuez moi; si j'avance, suivez +moi; si je meurs, vengez moi!" Never even in Napoleon's campaigns, +where each man had as incentive a name and fortune to carve, was there +such a race of soldiers as these same aristocrats. + +First and foremost, let us mention Armand Louis de Gontaut, duc de +Lauzun, the duc de Biron of the Vendee. He was the gayest gallant of +the time, and whether with the Polish princess Czartoriski, the +beautiful Lady Sarah Bunbury--George III.'s admiration as he saw her +making hay at Holland House--Mesdames de Stainville and de Coig and the +rollicking actresses of the Comedie Francaise, or Mrs. Robinson (the +prince of Wales's "Perdita,"), seems to have had universal success. We +except the record that gives him the love of Marie Antoinette. To him +was entrusted in this expedition the legion that bore his name, with +Count Arthur Dillon as coadjutor. The marechals-de-camp were the two +brothers Viosmenil, celebrated for their beauty, and the marquis de +Chastelleux, a member of the Institute and possessed of some literary +merit. He had written a piece called _La Felicite publique_, which drew +from the wits of the day the following epigram: + + A Chastelleux la place academique: + Qu' a-t-il donc fait? Un livre bien concu. + Vous l'appelez _La Felicite publique_; + Le public fut heureux, car il n'en a rien su. + +He printed twenty-four impressions of his travels in America by the aid +of a printing-press on the squadron, the first record of a book having +been published privately in the colonies. The aides of De Rochambeau +were the handsome Swede Count de Fersen, the marquis de Vauban, Charles +de Lamette (who fought a famous duel in the Bois de Boulogne with the +duc de Castries), De Dumas and De Laubedieres: De Tarli was intendant. +The list of officers comprised such historic names as those of the +marquis de Laval-Montmorenci, the duc de Deux-Ponts (colonel of the +regiment raised in Alsace that bore his name), his two brothers, +Vicomte de Chartres, De Custine, D'Olonne, De Montesquieu and the +vicomte de Noailles. The last named had, as ambassador to England, the +task entrusted to him of bearing to Lord Weymouth the news of the +French alliance with America. + +The fleet which appeared off Newport on the 11th of July, 1780, +comprised seven ships of the line--the Duc de Bourgogne, Neptune, +Conquerant, Provence, Eveille, Jason and Ardent--the frigates +Surveillante, Amazone and Gentille, the corvette Fantasque (which was a +hospital-ship) and the cutter La Guepe. There were thirty-two +transports with the expeditionary corps of five thousand men. Admiral +de Ternay, wisely profiting by D'Estaing's experience, lost no time in +reaching his destination. He was welcomed by the sight of the French +flag planted both on Point Judith and Newport Point, this being the +signal agreed on with La Fayette that all was well. Only a few days +later he would have been intercepted by an English squadron, Admiral +Graves having sailed from Portsmouth early in the season, intending to +prevent the French reaching Newport, but his plans were deranged by the +bad weather. The squadron entered the beautiful harbor of Newport with +flying flags and pennons bright with the golden fleur-de-lys of France. + +From the earliest days of the colony Newport had taken a prominent +place in its history. Its natural advantages had early singled it out +for both commercial and social distinction. One of the first governors, +Coddington, was its original settler. An openly-avowed freedom from +prejudice was among the first declared principles of Rhode Island. +Quakers and Jews were gladly received, and while the former brought +with them the temperance and moderation peculiar to their tenets, the +latter grafted on Newport commerce the spirit of enterprise which made +the town celebrated in colonial annals for its prosperity and +importance. The Jewish merchants were men of good origin, fine presence +and character. They were many of them of high birth in Spain and +Portugal, and they have bequeathed to posterity a record of stately +hospitality and unblemished integrity. The names of Lopez, Riviera, +Seixas and Touro are honored and respected still in their former home, +and the fine arch that towers over the gay promenade of to-day gives +entrance to their last resting-place, so solemn and so majestic a home +of the dead that it drew from the Nestor of American poets a stirring +apostrophe to the manes of the dead sons of Israel. The fine harbor and +bay of Newport soon attracted commerce from all nations, which heaped +its wharves with riches and made princes and magnates of its +merchants--a position they seemed born to sustain. The Overings, +Bannisters, Malbones and Redwoods kept open house and exercised lavish +hospitality--witness, as told by the Newport _Herald_ of June 7, 1766, +the story of Colonel Godfrey Malbone's feast on the lawn of his burning +mansion, so fine an edifice that its cost had been a hundred thousand +dollars in 1744; but the house taking fire at the time he had invited +guests to dinner, he thus feasted rather than disappoint them, and all +through the long summer night they held high revel and pledged each +other in jovial toasts while the flames of the burning building +illumined these Sardanapalian orgies. Year after year added to the +importance of this city by the sea: year after year the Indies poured +into its warehouses the riches with which Newport, out of its +abundance, dowered New York, Boston and Hartford and ornamented and +enriched the stately homes of its merchants. There is, however, one +blot on its scutcheon--one which darkens the picture of this prosperity +and the means that helped make it--and that is the slave-trade. Yes, +the town which was to give birth to William Ellery Channing was one of +the first to become interested in this baleful traffic. It is true it +was denounced by the Legislature, which as early as 1652 made it penal +to hold slaves, yet statistics show that between 1730 and 1752 the +return cargoes of all ships from the West Indies consisted of them. The +slave-trade of Newport bore fruit in other evils. At this time there +were no less than forty distilleries at work, and this rum, exported to +Africa, bought and brought home the human freight. However, in 1774 the +importation was prohibited, and all male children born after 1784 were +declared to be free. + +Nowhere was there a more courtly and elegant society than in Newport. +The rules of etiquette were rigorously adhered to, and there was no +jesting on so sacred a topic as the honor and respect due to those whom +the good rector of Trinity was wont to allude to as moving in higher +spheres. De Segur a year or two later says of it: "Other parts of +America were only beautiful by anticipation, but Rhode Island was +complete. Newport, well and regularly built, contained a numerous +population, whose happiness was indicated by its prosperity. It offered +delightful circles composed of enlightened men and modest and handsome +women, whose talents heightened their personal attractions." To-day, +Newport is the rendezvous of the best society of the land. Handsome +women and clever men meet and greet there, but can the society be more +distinguished than, from this description, it must have been a century +ago? We wonder if the stately dames who in the eighteenth century held +court here would quite approve of the _laissez-aller_ of modern +intercourse. The youth of to-day, whose highest praise for his fair +partner of the cotillon is often that she is "an awfully good fellow," +has little kinship with his ancestor, who used to wait at the +street-corner to see the object of his devotion go by under the convoy +of her father and mother and a couple of faithful colored footmen, +thinking himself happy meanwhile if his divinity gave him a shy glance. +The gay girl of the period, who scampers in her pony chaise down the +avenue from one engagement to the other, and whose most sacred +confidence is apt to be that she adores horses and loves "pottering +about the stable," is, with all her charms, quite different from the +blushing little beauty of 1780, who in powdered hair, quilted petticoat +and high, red-heeled shoes gave her lover a modest little glance at the +street-corner, thinking it a most delicious and unforeseen bit of +romance to have a lover at all. But other times other manners, and +nineteenth-century men and women are no doubt as charming in their way +as were our pretty ancestresses and their gallants of a century ago. + +The prosperity of Newport received a check from the Revolution. The +English occupation resulted in a vandalism that destroyed the fine +mansions, turned public buildings, and even Trinity Church, into +barracks for the soldiers and stables for their horses, laid waste the +country, cut down the trees and obliterated the landmarks. Thus the +French found it, and they were welcomed as possible deliverers and +defenders from the English rule. Rochambeau and his staff reached +Newport in the frigate Hermione on the afternoon of the 11th of July, +and the next day the troops were landed, many of them being ill and all +in need of rest after the long voyage and cramped quarters. The forts +were put in possession of the French, who proceeded to remodel them +into a better condition to resist a siege. General Heath, hearing at +Providence the news of the arrival of the fleet, came down to Newport +to greet Rochambeau, whom he met on shore, going afterward on board the +Duc de Bourgogne to see the admiral, who in return saluted the town +with thirteen guns. On the evening of the 12th Rochambeau dined with +General Heath, a grand illumination of the town taking place afterward, +and each day saw some new festivity to welcome the guests who had made +the American cause their own. The army had been stationed across the +island guarding the town, the right toward the ships and the left upon +the sea, Rochambeau thus carefully covering the position of his vessels +by the batteries. Everything was _en fete_. The people were delighted +with the manners and courtly polish of the French. Robin says of the +discipline insisted on at Newport, "The officers employed politeness +and amenity, the common soldiers became mild, circumspect and +moderate." The French at Newport were no longer the frivolous race, +presumptuous, noisy, full of fatuity, they were reputed to be. They +lived quietly and retired, limiting their society to their hosts, to +whom every day they became dearer. These young nobles of birth and +fortune, to whom a sojourn at court must have given a taste for +dissipation and luxury, were the first to set an example of frugality +and simplicity of life. They showed themselves affable, popular, as if +they had never lived but with men who were on an equality. Every one +was won, even the Tories, and their departure saddened even more than +their arrival had alarmed. Rochambeau also alludes to the discipline of +the army, and says: "It was due to the zeal of the generals and +superior officers, and above all to the goodwill of the soldiers. It +contributed not a little to make the State of Rhode Island acquiesce in +the proposition I made it, to repair at our expense the mansions which +the English had mutilated, so that they might serve as barracks for the +soldiers if the inhabitants would lodge the officers. We spent twenty +thousand crowns in repairing the houses, and left in the place many +marks of the generosity of France toward its allies." + +We have before us an old plan of Newport in 1777, and a list of the +officers' hosts. We find the general quartered at 302 New lane, corner +of Clark and Mary streets. Its proprietor, William Hunter, was +president of the Eastern Navy Board at Boston and an earnest upholder +of the rights of the colonies. The gallant and all-conquering Lauzun +was at the widow Deborah Hunter's, No. 264 Thames street. Mrs. Hunter +was the mother of two charming daughters, whom Lauzun eulogizes in his +journal. His praise has been often quoted, yet it is worth repeating, +as it shows this Lovelace in a new and pleasing light. He says: "Mrs. +Hunter is a widow of thirty-six who has two daughters, whom she has +well brought up. She conceived a friendship for me, and I was treated +like one of the family. I passed my time there. I was ill, and she took +care of me. I was not in love with the Misses Hunter, but had they been +my sisters I could not have been fonder of them." The two Viosmenils +and their aides were at Joseph Wanton's, in Thames street. The Wantons +had been governors of Rhode Island from 1732: Joseph Wanton was the +last governor under the Crown. He is described as wearing a large white +wig with three curls--one falling down his back and one forward over +each shoulder. De Chastelleux lodged with Captain Maudsly, at No. 91 +Spring street; De Choisy at Jacob Riviera's in Water street; the +marquis de Laval and the vicomte de Noailles at Thomas Robinson's, in +Water street; the marquis de Custine, the commander of the regiment +Saintonge, at Joseph Durfey's, 312 Griffin street; Colonel Malbone +entertained Lieutenant-Colonel de Querenel at No. 83 Thames street; +while Colonel John Malbone was the host of the commandant Desandrouins, +the colonel of the engineers, at No. 28 of the same street; William +Coggeshall of No. 135 Thames street had the baron de Turpin and De +Plancher for guests; De Fersen and the marquis de Darnas were at the +house of Robert Stevens, and De Laubedieres and Baron de Closen at that +of Henry Potter, both in New lane; Madame McKay, 115 Lewis street, +quartered De Lintz and Montesquieu; Joseph Antony, at 339 Spring +street, Dumas; and Edward Hazard, of 271 Lewis street, the two +D'Olonnes. Admiral de Ternay was much on his ship, but lodged at +Colonel Wanton's in Water street; his captains, De la Chaise and +Destouches, were at Abraham Redwood's, 78 Thames street. + +On the 21st of July, Admirals Graves and Arbuthnot arrived off the +harbor with eleven vessels--one of ninety, six of seventy-four, three +of sixty-four, and one of fifty guns. The following day the number was +increased to nineteen, and from this time the French squadron was +effectually blockaded in Newport. Although doubt seems to have been +felt by some as to the good intentions of the French army, the general +feeling on their arrival was one of joy. On Sunday, the 15th, the +intelligence became known in Philadelphia, where Congress was then +sitting. Washington ordered the soldiers to wear a black-and-white +cockade as a symbol of the alliance, the American cockade being black +and the French white, but seems withal to have felt nervous and +impatient for some decisive action. He sent La Fayette to Newport to +urge Rochambeau to make an attack on New York, but the latter replied +that he expected from the admiral de Guichen, who commanded the West +India squadron, five ships of war, and declined to take any steps until +his army was in better condition. La Fayette, who was young and full of +ardor, was hardly pleased with Rochambeau's caution, but apologized for +his impetuosity on the ground of disliking to see the French troops +shut up in Newport while there was so much to be done. To this +Rochambeau replied that he had an experience of forty years, and that +of fifteen thousand men who had been killed and wounded under his +orders he could not reproach himself with the loss of a single person +killed on his account. He desired, however, a personal interview with +Washington--a request which from some reason the commander-in-chief did +not seem anxious to grant. There was at times a coolness in the +relations between Rochambeau and Washington, arising perhaps from a +different estimate of La Fayette; but the cloud, if there was any, was +never very perceptible or of any long duration. On the 21st of August a +committee of the General Assembly of the State, at that time in session +at Newport, presented Rochambeau and De Ternay with a formal address of +welcome. De Rochambeau's reply was full of manliness and good-will. He +said, "The French troops are restrained by the strictest discipline, +and, acting under General Washington, will live with the Americans as +their brethren. I assure the General Assembly that as brethren not only +my life, but the lives of the troops under my command, are entirely +devoted to their service." This frank avowal dissipated a fear felt by +some that the French might have some ulterior motive in coming to the +assistance of the colonies. + +It is not to be supposed that the belles of Newport were indifferent to +the advent of these fascinating French paladins, or that the gallant +Gauls were unmoved by the beauty and grace of the Newport women. With +one accord they joined in admiration of their fair hostesses, not only +for their charms of face and figure, but for the purity and innocence +of their characters, which made a deep impression on these Sybarites, +accustomed as they were to the atmosphere of intrigue and vice peculiar +to the French court of the day. We find the record of this enthusiasm +in the letters and journals of the officers, but for a picture of the +special belles of the time there is none more correct than that +furnished by the prince de Broglie and the comte de Segur, who visited +Newport the following year. They note particularly Miss Champlin, the +daughter of a rich merchant who lived at No. 119 Thames street. Mr. +Champlin had large shipping interests, which he managed with great +enterprise. At his house De Broglie was introduced by De Vauban, who as +aide to De Rochambeau had met all the Newport notables, and the prince +writes: "Mr. Champlin was known for his wealth, but more for the lovely +face of his daughter. She was not in the room when we entered, but +appeared a moment after. She had beautiful eyes, an agreeable mouth, a +lovely face, a fine figure, a pretty foot, and the general effect was +attractive. She added to these advantages that of being charmingly +_coiffee_ in the Paris style, besides which she spoke and understood +our language." Of the Hunters, Lauzun's hostesses, De Broglie says: +"The elder, without being regularly handsome, had a noble appearance +and an aristocratic air. She was graceful, intellectual and refined. +Her toilette was as finished as Miss Champlin's, but she was not as +fresh, in spite of what De Fersen said. The younger, Nancy Hunter, is +not so modish, but a perfect rosebud. Her character is gay: she is +always laughing, and has beautiful teeth--a thing not common in +America." But Vauban, who on this occasion acted as master of +ceremonies, promised the prince a greater treat for the morrow, and +took him on that day to a house on the corner of Touro street and the +Park, where they found a serious and silent old gentleman, who received +them without compliment or raising his hat and answered their questions +in monosyllables. The lively Frenchmen would have made a short visit +had not the door opened and a young girl entered; and here De Broglie's +own raptures must speak: "It was Minerva herself who had exchanged her +warlike vestments for the charms of a simple shepherdess. She was the +daughter of a Shaking Quaker. Her headdress was a simple cap of fine +muslin plaited and passed round her head, which gave Polly the effect +of the Holy Virgin." Yes, this was Polly Lawton (or Leighton), the very +pearl of Newport beauties, of whom the prince says in continuation: +"She enchanted us all, and, though evidently a little conscious of it, +was not at all sorry to please those whom she graciously called her +friends. I confess that this seductive Lawton appeared to me a +_chef-d'oeuvre_ of Nature, and in recalling her image I am tempted to +write a book against the finery, the factitious graces and the coquetry +of many ladies whom the world admires." Segur says: "She was a nymph +rather than a woman, and had the most graceful figure and beautiful +form possible. Her eyes appeared to reflect as in a mirror the meekness +and purity of her mind and the goodness of her heart." Polly chides the +count, according to the rules of her faith, for coming in obedience to +the king, against the command of God, to make war. "What could I reply +to such an angel?" says the entranced Frenchman, "for she seemed to me +a celestial being. Certainly, had I not been married and happy in my +own country I should, while coming to defend the liberty of the +Americans, have lost my own at the feet of Polly Lawton." We fear the +comtesse de Segur would hardly have relished her lord's raptures over +the pretty Quakeress, and would have quite approved of Rochambeau's +order which sent him back to his post. + +Among this bevy of Continental beauties, to whom we may add the names +of the lovely Miss Redwood--to whose charms sailors in the street would +doff their hats, holding them low till she had passed--the two Miss +Ellerys, Miss Sylven, Miss Brinley, Miss Robinson and others, it is not +wonderful that the French officers bore patiently the enforced +blockade. They indulged in constant festivities, to which they invited +their fair enslavers. A deputation of Indians, numbering nineteen and +consisting of members of the Tuscarora, Caghnawgas and Oneida tribes, +visited the camp on the 2d of August. They were cordially received by +Rochambeau, who gave them a dinner at which they were reported to have +behaved well. After dining with General Heath they performed their +war-dance, which was a novel and interesting sight to the French +officers. As a return for this entertainment the French army gave a +grand review, preceded by firing of cannon. The sight must have been a +fine one. The regiments were among the flower of European chivalry, +some of them of historical celebrity, such as the regiment of Auvergne, +whose motto was "_Sans tache_" and one of whose captains, the famous +D'Assas, is said to have saved a whole brigade at the expense of his +life, crying, as he saw the enemy approaching on his unsuspecting +comrades, "A moi Auvergne! voila les ennemis!" and fell dead. The +uniforms of the troops were most effective. The officers wore white +cockades and the colors of their regiments faced with white cloth. The +Bourbonnais regiment was in black and red, Saintonge in white and +green, Deux-Ponts in white; the Soissonnais wore pink facings and +grenadier caps with pink and white plumes, while the artillery were in +blue with red facings. The savages were delighted with the pageant, but +in spite of its splendor expressed more astonishment at seeing trees +loaded with fruit hanging over tents which the soldiers had occupied +for months than at anything else. They took their departure in +September, being presented with blankets and other gifts by Rochambeau. + +Perhaps the finest display was that which celebrated the French king's +birthday on Friday, the 25th of August. The ships were decorated with +the flags of all nations during the day and brilliantly illuminated at +night. High mass was celebrated on the flag-ship, after which a number +of salutes were fired. The town joined in the festivity. The bells of +Trinity were rung and the inhabitants decorated their houses with +flags. The autumn was spent in agreeable pastimes, but with the +approach of winter it became necessary to put the army into comfortable +quarters. The houses which Rochambeau had offered to repair were ready, +and the regiments were installed in them; the State-House, which had +been used as a hospital by the English, was put to the same use by the +French; and an upper room in it was fitted up as a chapel, where masses +were said for the sick and dying by the abbe de Glesnon, the chaplain +of the expedition. The list of the dead was soon to include no less a +person than Admiral de Ternay. He was taken ill of a fever early in +December, and brought on shore to the Hunter house, where he died on +the 15th, being buried with great pomp in Trinity churchyard on the +following day. The coffin was carried through the streets by sailors: +nine priests followed, chanting a requiem for the departed hero. The +tomb placed over the remains by order of Louis XVI. in 1785 having +become injured by the ravages of time, the United States government in +1873, with the co-operation of the marquis de Noailles, then French +minister, had it moved into the vestibule of the church, placing a +granite slab over the tomb. One of Rochambeau's aides ascribes the +admiral's death to chagrin at having let five English ships escape him +in an encounter. + +The winter passed slowly. Rochambeau ordered a large hall to be built +as a place of meeting for his officers, but it was not completed until +nearly spring. Meanwhile, the Frenchmen gave occasionally a handsome +ball to the American ladies, such as that of which, in January, the +officers of the regiment De Deux-Ponts were the hosts, and one given by +the handsome Viosmenils on the anniversary of the signing of the treaty +of alliance, February 6, 1781. But the crowning festivity of the French +stay in Newport took place in March, when Washington visited it for the +purpose of witnessing the departure of an expedition comprising part of +the French fleet under Destouches, which was to co-operate with La +Fayette on the Chesapeake. The barge of the French admiral was sent for +the American chief, and he crossed the bay from the Connecticut shore, +landing at Barney's Ferry on the corner of Long Wharf and Washington +street. The sight must have been an imposing one--the beautiful harbor +of Newport full of stately ships of war and gay pleasure-craft, the +French troops drawn up in a close line, three deep, on either side from +the ferry-house up Long Wharf and Washington street to Clarke street, +where it turned at a right angle and continued to Rochambeau's +head-quarters, while the inhabitants, wild with enthusiasm, crowded the +wharves and quays to see the two commanders meet. Both were men of fine +and stately presence: Washington was in the full prime of his imposing +manhood, the very picture of a nation's chief; the French marshal was +covered with brilliant decorations, and stood with doffed hat to +welcome the hero of Valley Forge. In the evening the town was +brilliantly illuminated, and, as at that time many of the people were +very poor, the town council ordered that candles should be distributed +to all who were not well off enough to buy them, so that every house +might have lights in its windows. The procession on this occasion was +led by thirty boys bearing candles fixed on staffs: Washington and De +Rochambeau followed, and behind them came a concourse of citizens. The +night was clear and there was not a breath to fan the torches. The +brilliant cortege marched through the principal streets, and then +returned to the Vernon house, corner of Clarke and Mary streets, where +Washington and Rochambeau were quartered. Washington waited on the +door-step until all the officers and his friends had entered the house, +and then turning to the boys who had acted as torch-bearers thanked +them for their services. It may be believed that these young patriots +felt well repaid. The French officers were much impressed with the +looks and bearing of the American chief. De Fersen, writing to his +father, says: "His fine and majestic countenance, at the same time +honest and sweet, answers perfectly to his moral qualities. He has the +air of a hero. He is very reserved and speaks little, but is polite and +frank. There is an air of sadness about him which is not unbecoming, +but renders him more interesting." A few evenings after the French gave +a grand ball to Washington, which he opened with the beautiful Miss +Champlin, at whose house he had taken tea on that evening. The gallant +Frenchmen seized the instruments from the band and themselves played +the music of the minuet "A Successful Campaign" for a couple +representing so much beauty and valor. The entertainment was given in +Mrs. Cowley's assembly-rooms in Church street, and Desoteux, +aide-de-camp to Baron Viosmenil, had charge of the decorations. An +eye-witness says of the ball: "The room was ornamented in an exceeding +splendid manner, and the judicious arrangement of the various +decorations exhibited a sight beautiful beyond expression, and showed +the great taste and delicacy of M. de Zoteux, one of Viosmenil's aides. +A superb collation was served, and the ceremonies of the evening were +conducted with so much propriety and elegance that they gave the +highest satisfaction." + +Perhaps it would be interesting to the participants of the gay Newport +cotillons of to-day to know the names of the dances with which the +company regaled themselves a hundred years ago. They were "The Stony +Point" (so named in honor of General Wayne), "Miss McDonald's Reel," "A +Trip to Carlisle," "Freemason's Jig" and "The Faithful Shepherd." As +Benoni Peckham, the fashionable hair-dresser of the day, advertises in +the Newport _Mercury_ a "large assortment of braids, commodes, cushions +and curls for the occasion," we may guess that the belles of Newport +made elaborate toilettes. One of them, writing to a friend in New York, +speaks of a dress she had worn at some festivity which probably was not +unlike many at Washington's ball. "I had," she says, "a most stiff and +lustrous petticoat of daffodil-colored lutestring, with flowered gown +and sleeves lined with crimson. My cap was of gauze raised high in +front, with doublings of red and bows of the same, and was sent me +direct by the bark Fortune from England." So it seems the Newport +beauties did not disdain the exports of the mother-country they were at +war with. A few nights later the citizens gave a ball in honor of the +two heroes. + +The visit of the French to Newport terminated soon after this fete. +Washington and Rochambeau, it is said, planned in the Vernon house an +attack on New York, and in May the vicomte de Rochambeau brought to his +father from France the news of the sailing from Brest, under Admiral de +Grasse, of a large squadron laden with supplies and reinforcements. The +restrictions imposed on him by De Sartines were removed, and the new +ministry sent him full powers to act. He therefore determined upon an +immediate move, for his troops were becoming demoralized through long +inactivity. After a conference with Washington at Weathersfield a +summer campaign was resolved upon, and, returning to Newport, +Rochambeau proceeded to make arrangements for it. The troops began to +move on the 10th of June, almost a year from the date of their arrival. +A farewell dinner was given on the Due de Bourgogne to which about +sixty Newport people were asked. The next day the whole army left camp +and marched to Providence, so ending a sojourn which, although not +productive of positive advantage, will long remain a brilliant page in +the history of Newport. + +A few words on the after fate of these gay Frenchmen. The story is not +a bright one. The times that tried men's souls were at hand, and many +of them fell victims. The comte de Rochambeau, made a marshal by Louis +XVI., narrowly escaped death under Robespierre. In 1803 Napoleon gave +him a pension and the grand cross of the Legion of Honor: he died in +1807. Lauzun perished on the scaffold, sentenced by the Tribunal in +January, 1794. The night before his death he was calm, slept and ate +well. When the jailer came for him he was eating his breakfast. He +said, "Citizen, permit me to finish." Then, offering him a glass, he +said, "Take this wine: you need strength for such a trade as you ply." +D'Estaing, on his return from America, was commander at Grenada. He +became a member of the Assembly of Notables, but being suspected by the +Terrorists was guillotined on the 29th of April, 1793. The vicomte de +Rochambeau was killed at the battle of Leipsic; Berthier became +military confidant to Napoleon, was made marshal of France and murdered +at Bamberg; the comte de Viosmenil was made marshal at the Restoration; +his brother the marquis was wounded and died, defending the royal +family; the comte de Darnas, who helped their flight, barely escaped +with his life; Fersen was killed in a riot at Stockholm; the comte +Christian de Deux-Ponts was captured by Nelson while on a +boat-excursion at Porto Cavallo: Nelson generously released him on +learning who he was; Desoteux, the master of ceremonies of the Newport +assembly, became the celebrated Chouan chief in Vendee; Dumas was +president of the Assembly, general of division, fought at Waterloo and +took a high rank in the constitutional monarchy of 1830. With what +interest and sympathy must the Newport belles have watched the career +of their quondam admirers! How must the tragic fate of some of them +have saddened friendly hearts beyond the ocean they had once traversed +as deliverers! The lot of the fair danseuses of the French balls at +Newport was in most cases the ordinary one, and yet the record of their +loves and their graces leaves a gracious fragrance amid their former +haunts in the city by the sea. In the old streets and peeping from the +quaint latticed windows we can with a little imagination see their +graceful figures and fair faces, or find in the Newport drawing-rooms +their pictured likenesses on the wall or in the persons of their +descendants, often no less piquante and attractive than the dames of +1780. Miss Champlin married, and until lately her grandson was living +in the old house, the home of five successive generations; her brother, +Christopher Champlin, married the beautiful Miss Redwood; one of the +Miss Ellerys took for a husband William Channing and became the mother +of a famous son; her granddaughter was the wife of Washington Allston; +the Miss Hunters married abroad--one the comte de Cardignan, the other +Mr. Falconet, a Naples banker. + +We pass over the sad fate of Newport for years following the +Revolution--the misery and dilapidation that succeeded its former +prosperity. We turn from the picture which a later French traveller, +Brissot de Warville, draws of its poverty and desolation in 1788 to +look at the renaissance, the rejuvenation that rescued this historic +spot from oblivion. To-day lines of villas and stately mansions have +uplifted themselves on the avenues, and gay crowds throng the streets. +The shadowy forms of a past generation may still haunt the scenes of +their former triumphs, but must rejoice over the life and light that +nineteenth-century revels have dowered them with. The world rolls on, +and brings in its course new actors, new scenes, a new drop-curtain, +but men and women are always men and women. The loves, hopes, fears, +disappointments or triumphs of to-day,--these, if nothing else, link us +to a past generation. The idler on the club piazza, if not a Lauzun or +Fersen, may no doubt arouse himself as nobly in a grand question of +right or wrong (have we not seen it in our own generation?), unsheathe +his sword and become, like Lytton's hero, "now heard of, the first on +the wall:" the pretty belle of the afternoon fete, may she not have the +same heart of steel and a spirit as true as that of some +eighteenth-century ancestress? There is room, then, even in this +historic spot, for the gay modern cortege, for the life, the light, the +prosperity and pleasure which embalm old memories and keep a centennial +on the shrines where the youth and chivalry of a century ago lived, +loved and have left the subtle odor of past adventure to add a +mysterious but not unlovely fragrance to present experience.--FRANCES +PIERREPONT NORTH. + + + + +STUDIES IN THE SLUMS + + + +V.--DIET AND ITS DOINGS. + + +Later and more scientific investigations have tended to confirm the +truth of the rather broad statement made by Buckle in his _History of +Civilization_, that rice and potatoes have done more to establish +pauperism than any and all causes besides. A food easily procured, +sufficiently palatable to ensure no dissatisfaction, and demanding no +ingenuity of preparation, would seem the ideal diet, the promised rest +for weary housekeepers and anxious political economists; but the latter +class at least have found their work made double and treble by the +results of such diet, while social reformers--above all, the advocates +of total abstinence--are discovering that till varied and savory food +and drink are provided the mass of the people will and must crave the +stimulant given by alcoholic drinks. + +National dietaries and their results on character and life, fascinating +as the investigation is, have no place in the present paper, the design +of which is simply to show the existing state of the food-question +among the poor. Of these, poor Irish form far the larger proportion, a +German or French pauper being almost an anomaly. Thrift seems the +birthright of both the French and German peasant, as well as of the +middle class, and their careful habits, joined to the better rate of +wages in America, soon make them prosperous and well-to-do citizens. It +is in the tenement-houses that we must seek for the mass of the poor, +and it is in the tenement-houses that we find the causes which, +combined, are making of the generation now coming up a terror in the +present and a promise of future evil beyond man's power to reckon. They +are a class apart, retaining all the most brutal characteristics of the +Irish peasant at home, but without the redeeming light-heartedness, the +tender impulses and strong affections of that most perplexing people. +Sullen, malicious, conscienceless, with no capacity for enjoyment save +in drink and the lowest forms of debauchery, they are filling our +prisons and reformatories, marching in an ever-increasing army through +the quiet country, and making a reign of terror wherever their +footsteps are heard. With a little added intelligence they become +Socialists, doing their heartiest to ruin the institutions by which +they live. The Socialistic leader knows well with what he deals, and +can sound every chord of jealousy and suspicion and revenge lying open +to his touch. On the rich lies the whole responsibility of want and +disease and crime. Equalize property, and these three dark shadows flee +fast before the sunshine of prosperity. Character, intelligence, common +decencies and common virtues have nothing to do with present +conditions, and the ardent leveller of class-distinctions counts as his +enemy any one who seeks to give the poor a truer knowledge of how far +their earnings may be made to go toward securing better food or less +pestilent homes. + +Yet foul air and overcrowding would be less fatal in their results were +food understood. The well-filled stomach gives strange powers of +resistance to the body, and nothing shows this more strongly than the +myriad cases of children and infants who are taken from the +tenement-houses to the sanitariums at Bath or Rockaway. A week or two +of pure air and plenty of milk gives a look almost of health to +children who have been brought there often with glazed eyes and +pinched, ghastly little faces. Air has meant half, but many mothers +have been persuaded to give milk or oatmeal porridge instead of weak +tea and bread poisoned with alum, and have found the child's strength +become a permanent and not temporary fact. + +That these children are alive at all, that fatherhood and motherhood +are allowed to be the right of drunkards and criminals of every grade, +is a problem whose present solution passes any human power, but which +all lovers of their kind must sooner or later face. In the mean time +the children are with us, born to inheritances that tax every power +good men and women can bring to bear. Hopeless as the outlook often +seems, salvation for the future of the masses lies in these children. +Not in a teaching which gives them merely the power to grasp at the +mass of sensational reading, which fixes every wretched tendency and +blights every seed of good, but in a practical training which shall +give the boys trades and force their restless hands and mischievous +minds to occupations that may ensure an honest living, while the girls +find work from which, with few fortunate exceptions, they are still +debarred. + +The American distaste for domestic service seems to be shared in even +greater degree by the children of foreigners born in this country and +to a certain extent Americanized. The mothers have usually been +servants, and still "go out to days' work," but, no matter how numerous +the family, such life for any daughter is despised and discouraged from +the beginning. Work in a bag-factory or any one of the thousand, but to +the employes profitless, industries of a great city is eagerly sought, +and hardships cheerfully endured which if enforced by a mistress would +lead to a riot. To be a shop-girl seems the highest ambition. To have +dress and hair and expression a frowsy and pitiful copy of the latest +Fifth Avenue ridiculousness, to flirt with shop-boys as feeble-minded +and brainless as themselves, and to marry as quickly as possible, are +the aims of all. Then come more wretched, thriftless, ill-managed +homes, and their natural results in drunken husbands and vicious +children; and so the round goes on, the circle widening year by year +till its circumference touches every class in society, and would make +our great cities almost what sober country-folk believe them--"seas of +iniquity." + +Happily, to know an evil is to have taken the first step in its +eradication. The work only recently begun--the past five years having +seen its growth from a very humble and insignificant beginning to its +present promising proportions--holds the solution of at least one +equation of the problem. To have made cooking and industrial training +the fashion is to have cleared away at a leap the thorny underbrush and +tangled growth on that Debatable Ground, the best education for the +poor, and to find one's feet firmly set in a way leading to a Promised +Land to which every believer in the new system is an accredited guide. +That cooking-schools and the knowledge of cheap and savory preparation +of food must soon have their effect on the percentage of drunkards no +one can question; but with them, save indirectly, this present paper +does not deal, its object being rather to show what "daily bread" means +to the lower classes of New York, the same showing applying with almost +equal force to the working poor of any large town throughout the +country. Knowledge of this sort must come from patient waiting and +watching as one can, rather than from any systematized observation. The +poor resent bitterly, and with justice, any apparent interference or +spying, and only as one comes to know them well can anything but the +most outside details of life be obtained. In the matter of food there +is an especial touchiness and testiness, every woman being convinced +that to cook well is the birthright of all women. I have found the same +conviction as solidly implanted in far higher grades of society, and it +may be classed as one of the most firmly-seated of popular delusions +that every woman keeps house as instinctively and surely when her time +comes as a duck takes to water. + +Such was the faith of Norah Boylan, tenant of half the third floor in a +tenement-house whose location need not be given a "model +tenement-house," six stories high and swarming from basement to attic, +forty children making it hideous with the screaming and wrangling of +incessant fights, while in and over all rested the penetrating, +sickening "tenement-house smell," not to be drowned by steam of washing +or scent of food. Norah's tongue was ready with the complaint all +tongues made in 1878--hard times; and she faced me now with hands on +her hips and a generally belligerent expression: "An' shure, ma'am, you +know yourself it's only a dollar a day he's been earnin' this many a +day, an' thankful enough to get that, wid Mike overhead wearin' his +tongue out wid askin' for work here an' there an' everywhere. An' +how'll we live on that, an' the rint due reg'lar, an' the agent poppin' +in his ugly face an' off wid the bit o' money, no matter how bare the +dish is? Bad cess to him! but I'd like to have him hungered once an' +know how it feels. If I hadn't the washin' we'd be on the street this +day." + +"What do you live on, Norah?" + +"Is it 'live'? Thin I could hardly say. It's mate an' petatys an' tea, +an' Pat will have his glass. He's sober enough--not like Mike, that's +off on his sprees every month; but now we don't be gettin' the same as +we used. Pat says there's that cravin' in him that only the whiskey 'll +stop. It's tin dollars a month for the rooms, an' that's two an' a half +a week steady; an' there's only seven an' a half left for the five +mouths that must be fed, an' the fire an' all, for I can't get more'n +the four dollars for me washin'. It's the mate you must have to put +strength in ye, an' Pat would be havin' it three times a day, an' now +it's but once he can; an' that's why he's after the whiskey. The +children an' meself has tay, an' it's all that keeps us up." + +"How do you cook your meat, Norah?" + +Norah looked at me suspiciously: "Shure, the bit we get don't take +long. I puts it in the pan an' lets it fry till we're ready. Poor folks +can't have much roastin' nor fine doin's. An' by that token it's time +it was on now, if you won't mind, ma'am. The children 'll be in from +school, an' they must eat an' get back." + +"I am going in a few moments, Norah. Go right on." + +Norah moved aside her boiler, drew a frying-pan from her closet, put in +a lump of fat and laid in a piece of coarse beef some two pounds in +weight. A loaf of bread came next, and was cut up, the peculiar white +indicating plainly what share alum had had in making the lightness to +which she called my attention. A handful of tea went into the tall tin +teapot, which was filled from the kettle at the back of the stove. + +"That isn't boiling water, is it?" I ventured. + +"It'll boil fast enough," Norah answered indifferently as she pulled +open the draughts, and soon had the top of the stove red hot. The steak +lay in its bed of fat, scorching peacefully, while the tea boiled, +giving off a rank and herby smell. + +"Pat doesn't get home to dinner, then, Norah?" + +"There's times he does, but mostly not. They'd like a hot bite an' sup, +but it's too far off. There's five goes from here together, an' a +pailful for each--bread an' coffee mostly, an' a bit o' bacon for some. +It's a hot supper I used to be gettin' him, but the times is too hard, +an' we're lucky if we can have our tea an' bread, an' molasses maybe +for the children. Many's the day I wish myself back in old Ireland." + +As she talked the children came rushing up the stairs, Norah the +second, pale-faced and slender, leading the way; and I took my leave, +burning to speak, yet knowing it useless. Fried boot-heel would have +been as nourishing and as tooth-some as that steak, and boiled +boot-heel as desirable and far less harmful a drink, yet any word of +suggestion would have roused the quick Irish temper to fever-heat. + +"It's Norah can cook equal to myself," Norah had said with pride as she +emptied the black and smoking mass into a dish; and these methods +certainly cannot be said to be difficult to follow. + +There is no conservatism like the conservatism of ignorance, yet in +this case want of knowledge there certainly was not. Norah had lived +for two years before her marriage with a family the mistress of which +had taught her patiently and indefatigably till she became able to set +a fairly-cooked meal upon the table, but the knowledge acquired then +seemed to have been laid aside as having no connection with her own +life. I have seen the same thing--though, happily, only in exceptional +cases--among educated Indians, girls who had spent years in the schools +at Faribault or under the direct training of missionaries reverting on +marriage to old wigwam habits, and content to eat the parched corn and +boiled dog of their early experience. The same law holds in full force +among many of the Irish, who, no matter how well trained or how +exacting in their demand for varied food while servants, quickly lose +the desire, and allow only a certain fixed order from which it is +wellnigh impossible to move them. + +In this case, tolerably well-to-do at first, hard times had brought +them to this swarming tenement-house, from the various rooms of which, +as I passed down the stairs, came the same odor of burning fat and the +rank steam of long-boiled coffee or tea. My errand had been to find the +address of a little shop-girl, a niece of Norah's, a child who had been +educated at one of the ward schools, and whom no power could induce to +take a place as waitress or chambermaid. To stand twelve or fourteen +hours behind the counter of a Grand street store met her ideas of +gentility and of personal freedom far better than yielding to the +requirements of a mistress; and the six dollars a week went in cheap +finery till the hard times forced her to make it part of the family +fund. Then sore trouble came. The father had died, the mother was in +hospital, from which she was never likely to come out, and Katy, thrown +utterly on her own resources, had found her six dollars all inadequate +to the demands her habits made, and, frightened and perplexed, went +from one cheap boarding-house to another, four or five girls clubbing +together to pay for the wretched room they called home, and still +striving to keep up the appearance necessary for their position. Cheap +jewelry, banged hair and a dress modelled after the latest extremity of +fashion were the ambition of each and all, but neither jewelry nor +puffs and ruffles had been sufficient to keep off the attack of +pneumonia through which these same girls had nursed her, sitting up +turn by turn at night, and taking her duty by day that the place might +still be kept open for her. + +Katy's cheeks were flushed and an ominous cough still lingered, but she +spoke cheerfully: "It's my last day in: I can go to-morrow. It's the +beef-tea has done it, I do believe. Did you know Maria brought it to me +every day? I don't know what I'll do without it." + +"Learn to make it yourself, Katy." + +"Me?" and Katy laughed incredulously. "When would I get time? and what +would I make it on? We don't have a fire but Sundays, and only a show +of one then. And I don't want it, either: I ain't used to it." + +"What do you live on, Katy?" + +"Why, we did have breakfast and tea here--coffee and meat for +breakfast, and bread and butter and tea for supper. I get a cream-cake +or some drop-cakes for dinner, but for a good while I've just paid a +dollar a week for my share of the room, and bought something for +breakfast--'most always a pie. You can get a splendid pie for five +cents, and a pretty good one for three; and it's plenty too. That's the +way the girls in the bag-factory do. They don't get but three dollars a +week, and it takes seventy-five cents for their room, so they haven't +got anything for board. Mary Jones says she's settled on pie, because +it stays by better'n anything, and once in a while she goes down to +Fulton Market and has some coffee. I do too, but it spoils you for next +day. You keep thinking how'd you'd like a cup when the chills go +crawling all over you, but it's no use." + +"Couldn't it be made in the store? The girls could club together, and +it would cost much less than your pies and candy. The gas is always +burning, and you could have a little water-boiler." + +"You don't know much about stores to think that. Why, Mr. Levy watches +like a cat to see we don't eat peanuts or candy: we're fined if he +catches us. I've a good mind to take board at the 'Home,' only I should +hate to be bossed 'round, and you can't get in very often, either, it's +so crowded. But I don't mind so much now, for you see"--Katy's pale +cheeks grew pink--"Jim and I don't mean to wait long. He has ten +dollars a week, and we can manage on that. He says he's 'most poisoned +with the stuff his boarding-house keeper gives him, and he wants me to +keep house. I just laugh. That's a servant-girl's work: 'tain't mine." + +The old story. I had seen "Jim," and knew him as rather a +sensible-looking young fellow for an East Side clerk in a cheap store. +What sort of future could lie before them? What help could come from +this untrained child, herself helpless and with too limited +intelligence to understand what demand the new life made upon her? and +could any way be found to open her eyes and make her desire better +knowledge? + +Busy with this always fresh problem, I had come to a side street +leading to the market from which two or three small groceries draw +their supplies, and stopped for a moment to look at the flabby, +half-decayed vegetables, the coarse beef and measly-looking pork from +which comes the sickly, heavy smell preceding positive putrefaction. + +"Look away! Get the sense of it all," said a brisk voice behind me--a +voice I knew well as that of one who gave days, and often nights, to +work in these very streets. "Did you see that tall woman with the big +basket and a face like a chimney-swallow? She runs a boarding-house +'round on Madison street, and this is the stuff she feeds them on. Poor +wretch! She has a drunken husband and three drinking sons. She means +well, would like to do better by her boarders, but there is rent and +gas and wear and tear of all sorts, and she buys bob veal and stale +fish and rotten vegetables and alum bread, trying to make the ends +meet. I've been there and tasted the messes that come to her table, and +I would drink too if forced to live on them. She's got sense, a +little--enough not to fly in a rage when I told her the food was enough +to make a drunkard of every man in the house. 'I can't help it,' she +said, crying. 'I've only just so much money, and the girl spoils most +of what I do get.'--'Cook yourself,' I said.--'I can't,' she answered: +'I don't know any better than the girl. I'll do anything you say.' I am +not a cook: I could not tell her anything. 'Go to cooking-school,' I +said: 'it'll pay you.'--'I've neither time nor money,' she said; and +there it ended. What's to be done? I've just come round the market. It +is dinner-time, and I think every other man was eating pie. The same +money might have bought him a bowl of strong soup or a plate of savory +and nourishing stew, if there had been anybody with sense enough to +provide it. Up and down, in and out, wherever I go, I see that cooks +are the missionaries needed. Come in here a moment." + +I followed up the steps of a "Home" for sailors, planned to give them a +refuge from the traps known as "sailors' boarding-houses." The long +dining-room we entered was spotlessly clean, and some thirty men were +dining. I looked for a moment as my friend spoke with some one sitting +at the head of the table, then passed out. + +"You saw," he said, "plenty of food, and all clean as a whistle, but +what sort? Steak fried to a crisp, soggy potatoes, underdone cabbage +and pork, bread rank with alum, and coffee whose only merit is warmth. +Those men are filled, but not fed. The bread alone is condensed +dyspepsia. In an hour the weaker stomachs will have what they call 'a +goneness.' They will crave something, and poor R---- will have half a +dozen of them half drunk or wholly so on his hands by night. He will +pray and exhort, and bundle them up to the Mission if he can, and cry +as he tells me how they will give way and yield to the devil whether or +no. And so it goes. Women must get hold of this thing. It's the first +item in your temperance crusade, and till the people have better food +there is no law or influence that can make them give up drinking. I +wouldn't if I were they." + +Here the talk ended. My impetuous friend disappeared around a corner, +and I went my way, a little surer than before of the fact which was +already so distinct a belief it needed no new foundations, that better +food will and must mean better living. Hard times are passing, but none +the less is there still the imperative demand for wider knowledge of +what food those hard-earned dollars shall buy. Philanthropists may urge +what reforms they will--less crowding, purer air, better sanitary +regulations--but this question of food underlies all. The knowledge +that is broad enough to ensure good food is broad enough to mean better +living in all ways; and not till such knowledge is the property of all +women can we look for the "emancipation" from some of the deepest evils +that curse the life of woman in the slums and out. Toward that end all +women who long to help, yet see no outlook, may work, and with its full +recognition will come the day for which we wait--a day whose faint dawn +even now flushes the east and gives promise, dim yet sure, of the +slowly-nearing light, holding even when most clouded the certainty of + + Purer manners, nobler laws. + --HELEN CAMPBELL. + + + + +DELECTATIO PISCATORIA. + +THE UPPER KENNEBEC. + + From the great mere set round with sunbright mountains + Full born the river leaps, + Dashing the crystal of a thousand fountains + Down its romantic steeps. + + 'Tis now a torrent whose untamed endeavor + Is eager for the sea, + Angry that rock or reef should hinder ever + Its frantic liberty. + + Then, for a space, a lake and river blended, + It sleeps with tranquil breast, + As if its haste and rage at last were ended, + And all it sought was rest. + + In spicy woodpaths by its rapids straying, + I hear, with lingering feet, + Its liquid organ and the treetops playing + Te Deums strangely sweet. + + I break the covert: pictured far emerges + On the enraptured sight + The arrowy flow, green isles, a cascade's surges, + Foam-flaked in rosy light, + + Still pools, and purples of the sleepy sedges, + The skyward forest-wall, + Old sorrowing pines and hazy mountain-ledges, + And soft blue over all. + + O golden hours of summer's precious leisure! + From care and toil apart + Fresh drawn, I taste the angler's gentle pleasure + With friend of equal heart. + + Trout leap and glitter, and the wild duck flutters + Where beds of lilies blow: + A loon his long, weird lamentation utters, + And Echo feels his woe. + + We see in hemlock shade the reedy shallow, + Where, screened by dusky leaves, + The guileless moose comes down to browse and wallow + On still balsamic eves. + + The great blue heron starts as if we sought her, + On pinions of surprise, + And to our lure the darlings of the water + In pink and crimson rise. + + Still gliding on, how throng the sweet romances + Of Youth's enchanted land! + A lordly eagle, as our bark advances, + Glares on us, sad and grand. + + Onward we float where mellow sunset glory + Streams o'er the lakelet's breast, + And every ripple tells a golden story + Of the transfigured west. + + Onward, into the evening's calm and beauty, + To camp and sleep we go: + Thrice bless'd are lives, in tasks of love and duty, + That end in such a glow! + --HORATIO NELSON POWERS. + + + + +THE RUIN OF ME. + + + +(TOLD BY A YOUNG MARRIED MAN.) + + +I am Poverty scuffing about in old shoes and rubbers. I _was_ one of +those who, at a good salary, think up smart things to put around in the +corners of the Chicago _Times_. When every newspaper, from the London +_Punch_ down, was making jokes about Elihu Burritt's _Sanskrit for the +Fireside_, it was I who beat them all by saying in solid nonpareil, +"The best way to learn Sanskrit is to board in a family of +Sanskritters." It was I who said, "Let the Communists carry pistols: +they may shoot each other;" and, "Sara Bernhardt's children are +articles of _virtu_." + +_O quam me delectat_ Sara Bernhardt! I love such diversified, such +picturesque gifts. Sculpture, painting, acting, writing! This is why I +loved Lydia, who was an adept at numberless arts and accomplishments. +She was a brunette with a clear, cream-tinged skin, red cheeks, rolling +black eyes, ripe velvety lips, and hair of a beautiful hue and rich +lustre--raven black, yet purple as the pigeon's wing in the sun. I +believe it is true that dark people belong to the pre-historic races: +centuries of sunlight are fused in their glowing complexion. Blondes +are beautiful--both the rosy ones with pinkish eyelids and warm golden +locks, and the pale ones with ash-colored hair, gray eyes and dark +brows and lashes--but a florid brunette excels them all. + +In seeing Lydia you would make the mistake that you usually make in +judging girls: entering among them, you think their attitudes proclaim +their traits. For instance, you take the most giggling one for a +simpleton, but afterward learn that she is a good scholar and has +accepted the Greek chair in a Western college, and looking again you +see she has a strong frame, a capable head and large bright eyes. Lydia +dressed in the mode, wore the high-heeled shoes that give such a dainty +look to the foot and gait, and came into a room with a great effusion +of fashionableness; yet she was not in the least what she seemed. She +had a great deal of what is more pleasing than mere appearance, and +that is character. She was ambitious and energetic. She did tatting +when she did nothing else--said it concealed her lack of repose and +liability to fidget. She was able to draw _la quintessence de tout_: +she could make a mountain-spring of a mole-hill. She also had a touch +of temper: those who are perfectly amiable are nothing else. + +I was a youth blue-eyed and fair of face, tall, thin and having a +complying spirit that has been--But let me not anticipate. The race +after fashion ever wearied me--I shall stop early at some +standing-collar or heavy-neckcloth period--and I never cared much for +money--could live with it or without it, desiring "this man's art or +that man's scope" rather than his cash. There is such a great majority +of poor folks, I expected to be one of them; still, I had a taste for +honesty, asked favors of nobody, considered the least debt a +degradation, and thought myself better than most rich people. I was of +the family and the religion of Plato, who peddled oil to pay his +expenses while travelling in Egypt. + +We discover in others what they most wish to hide: therefore I early +discovered that Lydia's mother, who had a large girl-family, and who +knew that the supply of some one to love greatly exceeds the demand, +was anxious to secure me as a son-in-law. I was glad of it, for, let +poets and novelists say what they will, the young fellow who marries +with the approval of friends drifts happily on, while the rash boy who +weds against the good sense of his elders is dragged bleeding along a +rough way. So I married Lydia, and began life in gladness and content. +I liked her family and they liked me. It puzzles me to see how the +English mother-in-law, who is a grum-voiced, dogmatic and belligerent +person with a jointure to bequeath, came to be engrafted on our +literature. The inoffensive delicacy of an American elderly woman +forbids her the role of her British sister. Our mother-in-law troubles +are mostly confined to our low foreign population. Neither have we a +character similar to the silly, spiteful, dried-up old maid of English +literature and its American imitations, our spinsters being generally +stout and jolly personages and rather over-fond of children. My +mother-in-law was very nice, and we were the best of friends. + +Rich relations, as a general thing, are abominable: the mere possession +of one sometimes makes a person disagreeable. Show the person with a +rich cousin the most secluded cot among mountains, and, "Oh, you should +see my cousin's house on Michigan Avenue!" is the reply; or a beautiful +room speaking the noble quality of its occupant, and, "Call that nice? +You should see my cousin's house on Michigan Avenue!" is remarked. But +Lydia's rich relations, the Stenes of Chicago, appeared to be +exceptions. They were very clannish people, fond of their own kin to +the last degree. They came from Michigan, and were of the old colony +stock, regular Yankee-Doodle folks, the older ones and many of the +younger ones still using New England idioms and quaint phrases that +came long ago from the East--yes, from the holts of old England's +Suffolk perhaps. You could not persuade one of them to call jelly +anything but "jell" or a repast anything but a "meal of victuals," and +they said "dooty" and "roomor" and "noos" and "clawg," and sometimes +would pop out "his'n" and "her'n." Several of the Stenes had been in +business thirty years in metropolitan Chicago, yet they spoke in the +twang of a Yankee hill-country. The women of the family were famous +housekeepers--too neat to keep a cat lest there might be a cat hair on +the carpet, and never liking visitors unless there was a dreadful note +of preparation, and then they received grandly. To show Lydia their +good-will, they gave her profuse wedding-presents and a splendid +trousseau. On my side I bought a neat cottage, paying cash down--all +the money I had. It was one of a square of cottages principally +occupied by young married people having plenty of children, and a +joyous crew they were. Our street had a broad roadway and flagged +sidewalks edged with neat turf in which fine trees were growing, and +was lined with beautiful homes of varied architecture, suggesting +charming interiors. A row of tall, "high-stoop" New York houses with +dark stone trimmings stood next to a row of English basements of +tuck-pointed brick, and next to them was a range of houses of light, +cheerful Joliet stone, with awnings at the windows and carriage-steps +as clean as gravestones. Then came an old cottage fixed up nobby, then +a comfortable old wooden mansion, then a splendid dwelling in the style +of the fifteenth century, and after that the palace of a railway +grandee. Here and there on a corner stood a Gothic church. All day +well-dressed people trod our pavements and beautiful carriages rolled +by our windows. Our cottage was my ideal of perfection: it had few +rooms, but those spacious. We had no sitting-room. Let me see: what +does that word suggest to my mind? A table heaped with stale +newspapers, a stand piled with sewing, a darned carpet, scratched +furniture and fly-specked wall-paper. + +Lydia's presents filled our house. All were Eastlake and in good taste, +the colors sage-green, pumpkin-yellow and ginger-brown, dashed with +splashes of peacock feathers and Japanese fans. The vases were +straddle-legged and pot-bellied Asiatic shapes. Dragons in bronze and +ivory, sticky-looking faience and glittering majolica, stood in the +corners. Silk embroideries representing the stork--a scrawny bird with +a scalp-lock at the back of its neck, looking like a mosquito when +flying--and porcelain landscapes out of drawing, like a child's first +attempts, peopled by individuals with the expression of having their +hair pulled, hung 'twixt our dados and friezes. Lydia's young-lady +friends gave her their works in oil or water-colors done in a fine, +free-hand style that may one day form a school of its own. Our Chicago +girls are people of _nous_. Their talk is "fluent as the flight of a +swallow:" their manners are delightful--American manners must be +excellent, so many Englishmen marry American girls. Their playing makes +us glad the seven poor strings of the old musicians have been +multiplied to seven times seven: no Chicago girl is a musician unless +she has the masters at her finger-tips. And they are readers too. You +would suppose, judging from the papers, that our Chicagoans are +inordinately fond of reading about the indiscretions of rustic wives, +and are given to a perusal of the news in startling headlines: but such +is not the fact. We are great readers of the distinguished magazines +and of first-rate books, and our taste for art is keen. When we go +abroad we don't care so much for mountains and rivers--they are like +potatoes and pork to a man who is visiting: we have them at home--but +we _are_ after art. Ruskin says no people can be great in art unless it +lives among beautiful natural objects; which is hard on us Chicago +folks. If we had any mountainous or rocky tracts we should not live in +them. If we possessed a Mount Vesuvius we should use it for getting up +bogus eruptions to draw tourists to our hotels, and we should tap the +foot of the mountain to draw off the lava for our streets. + +Lydia's finery had a subduing effect upon me, who had bounded my +aspirations to what was distinctly within my grasp--namely, things + + Plain, but not sordid--though not splendid, clean. + +Lydia was an expert housekeeper. "I love a little house that I can +clean all over," said she. She would have liked a Roman villa made of +polished marble, that could be scrubbed from top to bottom, or a house +of the melted and dyed cobble-stones that some genius has promised to +give us. Her china-closet was a picture, with platters in rows and cups +hanging on little brass hooks under the shelves. Our whole house was +exquisite, and became quite renowned for its elegance and charm. +Lydia's exuberant vitality was attractive: her relations and friends +liked to come there. Some of our friends were of the high, haughty, +tone-y sort, which would have been well enough if we had not incurred +debts in our housekeeping. + + What and how great the merit and the art + To live on little with a thankful heart! + +Lydia's rich uncle, Nathan Stene, gave us a bookcase that caused my +heart to sink with an appalling premonition at its first appearance, it +was so huge and high. How we got it into our parlor without cutting off +the top and bottom words cannot explain. That bookcase was my first +step toward ruin. I had a good many books--not of scientific but of +delightful literature, the best works of the best authors--and my books +were as shabby as Charles Lamb's library. There never were such +dilapidated volumes as my De Quinceys. Lydia had _Young Mrs. Jardine_ +and lots of other + + Stickjaw pudding that tires the chin, + With the marmalade spread ever so thin; + +and her books were new-looking. She said mine looked disgustingly dirty +in our new bookcase, so I had them rebound; and this was my next step +toward ruin. Lydia wanted a long peacock-feather duster to dust the top +of the bookcase. I bought that. Our only long tablecloth was a damask, +engarlanded and diapered and resplendent with a colored border +warranted to wash. I had to buy napkins to go with it. I bought a +butter-knife to match a solid silver butter-dish, and a set of +individual salt-spoons to match salt-cellars, and nut-picks and +crackers to match something else. Moreover, there was a magnificent +opera-glass that required to be matched with theatre-going--_not_ as I +was wont to go, in an old overcoat having its pockets stuffed with old +playbills. But why enumerate? + +On the strength of her wedding-presents Lydia became a gladiatrix in +the arena of society. She already belonged to three clubs: she joined +four more--Private Theatrical, a History of Art, a Conversation and a +Suffrage Club. I myself belong to but one, the Cremation Club--am an +officer in that: I split kindlings. As the bordered tablecloth was +suitable for lunch-parties, Lydia entertained her friends at an hour +when I was about town looking up paragraphs, but I have no doubt she +carried it off bravely, and their discussions were as important as +those of a poultry convention on the question of feathers or no +feathers on chickens' legs. + +At this time I found that great feasts make small comforts scarce. +Often, on coming home and finding Lydia out, I had Ionic hours alone, +when I refreshed myself with the great shouting, cheering and laughter +of the Greek armies and people that gladden our dull hearts even now, +and for want of anything better I regaled myself on the feasts offered +by Machaon (first Scotchman) in the _Iliad_, and by Nestor, on the +table with azure feet and in the goblet with four handles and four +feet, with gold turtles drinking at the brim from the handles. Or I +supped with Achilles while Patroclus turned the meat on the bed of +wide, glowing embers and the tent brightened in the blaze. Once, when I +was seeking something for that newspaper bore, Woman's Sphere, I +lunched with the Suffragists. Each character of the Suffrage Club was +as clear as a figure cut on a sapphire. The president, a matron of +sixty wearing waving gray hair and dressed in black, with plenty of +white lace under her chin, had the air of a woman used to command a +large family and accustomed to plenty of money and to good society. Her +voice was the agreeable barytone of her years, its thin tones entirely +gone, and her good English was like gentle music: nevertheless, an +occasional strong tone or gesture revealed her determined will. The +Suffragists were handsomely dressed, were self-possessed and +appreciative of each other's company, and were of all ages, one being a +plain young girl quietly looking on and enjoying the world more than a +self-wrapped belle is capable of doing. + +But to my tale, which is to me more absorbing than _Rob Roy, Robinson +Crusoe_ and _Boots at the Swan_ combined. Of all our visitors I +preferred Uncle Nathan Stene. Not that I liked him personally. He was +the typical rich man: I should know he was rich wherever I met him. +There are thousands like him: they despise me utterly. Uncle Nathan had +a scorn for poor people. He disdained whole States that gave him a bad +market, and regarded young fellows who smoke and go to the theatre as +beggars' dogs. He was of middle height, with reddish complexion, sandy +hair and eyebrows, quick, sharp gray eyes, and features of a short, +clean, close aquiline cut, with thin, dry lips--a man of iron, pig +iron. When young he might have been facetious, but he had concentrated +his energies entirely on money, till there was nothing left to go in +other directions, and his humor was now as sombre as the grin of a +hanged man. He had self-conceit, which is a talent when combined with +some other qualities. Doctor Johnson's observation, that to make money +requires talents, is true: a dull man cannot do it. Uncle Nate had to +remember thirty thousand articles in his business of wholesale +druggist. He was a perfect devil-fish for sucking the goodness from +every business he was concerned in--banking, railroading, and so on. He +belonged to the Chicago Board of Trade, and was particularly useful in +getting those fellows in Indianapolis on a string, sending the wheat +up, up, until the Hoosiers had made a few hundred thousands, and then, +when they thought they were going to make millions, letting it down and +scooping them. My habit of listening intently to Uncle Nate's +telegrammatic style of talk caused him to like me. I resembled King +Lear: I talked with those who were wise, and said little, and Nathan's +aphorisms about trade and politics made good paragraphs when boiled +down to the crisp cracklins. + +While I worked and Lydia entertained we were waltzing like the wind +down to ruin. No use to cry, "Ho! great gods! Hilloa! you're wanted +here!" On we went. + +Worrying over pecuniary affairs gradually sapped my mind. To lose one's +eyes or all one's relations, or to be bitten by a mad dog, will not +unhinge the brain so completely as pecuniary anxiety. My paragraphs, +spite of Nate's verbum saps., lost their originality. I resigned my +post on the _Times_. I became the collector on commission of certain +rents of Uncle Nathan's. Whoso collects rents in Chicago tenements +should know how to box or else to run: I could do neither. I got little +or nothing out of the devils and devillets, my respected uncle's +tenants. He had a genius for the despatch of business: I had none; +therefore he concluded I was an ass, and wondered how he came to be +pleased with me. Oh, 'tis a good thing to know what you can do, and to +do that, and know what you cannot do, and leave that alone. Dull as +weeds of Lethe was my task. 'Twas terrible! I thought it would never +end. No greater misery could be imagined than what I endured in +Nathan's service. + +One morning of those days I picked up a note in Lydia's writing hastily +scrawled as follows: "I have discovered your retreat: I must see you. +At seven o'clock wave the lamp three times across the window if all is +well." + +In my undecided way I pinned the note to the blue silk pincushion on +Lydia's dressing-case. I had a sudden jealous suspicion of an +acquaintance of ours, a furiously-striking English +traveller--"Bone-Boiler to the Queen" or something--who had a long, +silky, sweeping moustache blowing about in the wind, and parted his +hair "sissy." But I went to work all the same. + +That day Uncle Nate was a worse screw than ever. "How is it you never +hit a clam?" asked he. + +"Your tenants have nothing, so I get nothing," I replied. + +"Nonsense! They must have something. Drunken loafers are driving about +in livery-rigs everywhere--sure sign of prosperity." + +"Your people are not out," I said. + +"They sit around the house reading yesterday's newspapers." + +"They can't get work," said I. + +"Everybody that wants to work is in the ditch now-a-days: _that_ I +_know_" said the old man. + +"Some are sick." + +"They are well enough to walk three miles to a brewery after a free +drink." + +"Some are too young to work." + +"Hah! what's the use of having a parcel of young ones to be poor +relations to the rest of the world?" asked he. + +"Some are positively starving," said I. + +"What of that? You have to let them starve. Five hundred thousand +starved in India last year, a country overrun with sacred snakes and +animals of all sorts that they might have eaten. Three millions starved +in China, and they tore up their English railway, the only thing that +could save them. What are you going to do about it? Starving! Bet they +are wallowing in the theatre every night," said Nathan. + +"The theatre with Lawrence Barrett! I wish they might see anything so +elevating. Perhaps _Othello_ might make some impression on them, such a +stupendous temperance lecture it is!" I groaned. + +"If _you_ would leave the theatre alone you wouldn't be quite so short +as you are now," asserted Uncle Nate, almost popping open with +contempt. + +"'Short,' man! 'Short' in your throat!" shouted I, forgetting myself. + +"Yes, short; and it's my opinion you've shorted me in this business." + +I could not kick our uncle out of his premises, so I got out myself, +not to return; and I left in debt to him as well as to the rest of the +world. I went homeward. Though it was August, a cold wind blew from the +lake, whipping the large, flapping leaves of the castor-bean plants in +the front yards to rags. I quaffed the lake in the wet wind. "No +wonder," I thought, "we're three parts water: our world is." A young +fellow on the street-car platform smoked a cigar that smelled like +pigweed, cabbage-stalks and other garden rubbish burning, and made me +sick. He enjoyed it, though: in fact, all, including the street-car +driver himself, were on that day more than usually engaged in the +intense enjoyment of being Chicagoans. All but me, miserable. The very +windows and pavements of our streets, being clean and cold, sent a +chill to my bones. + +When I reached home Lydia was pinning on her habergeon, her neck-armor +of ribbons and lace, before the mirror. "What is this?" I asked, +pointing to the suspicious note, still pinned to the cushion. + +"That's the note that has to be found in my room in the play of _Lost +in London_," she answered, turning the great lamps of her eyes on mine. + +As I had nothing to say to this, I went and lay down on the sofa before +the parlor-fire. Though a grate in January is a poor affair--I never +knew any human being who really depended on one in winter to speak in +praise of it--on a cool August day it is delicious. I fell into a warm +doze before the fire, then into a series of agreeable naps. When Lydia +said supper was ready I did not want any, and at bedtime I was too +stiff to move easily. + +After this, during several weeks, my bedchamber became to me a place +full of sweet dreams and rest and quiet breathing. Luxurious +indifference, a pleasure in hearing the crickets in the grass of the +midsummer gardens, and voices talking afar--a satisfaction in seeing +the polished walnut, marble and china and plenteous linen towels of my +washstand, my altar to Hebe, and in seeing through a window, + + While day sank or mounted higher, + The light, aerial gallery, golden railed, + Burn like a fringe of fire + +on some remote palace of the city. These and other sensations of +malarial fever occupied me for a while. In half dreams I then enjoyed +the minutest details of life in an old farm-house that had been my +home, or walked through a picture-gallery I had once frequented, seeing +each picture strangely perfect and splendidly limned. Light diet and +keeping quiet--which every Westerner knows to be the cure of this +fever--cured me. I came forth looking like a _swairth_, one of those +words marked "obs." in the dictionary--means phantom of a person about +to die. It ought to be revived; so here goes--_swairth_. + + Leaden before, my eyes were dross of lead. + +I was pale and lank, but things had settled themselves in my mind: I +had gone back to my old ideas of honor and freedom; my mind was made +up. + +"Well, Lydia," said I, "you wanted to manage: you were bound to wear +the breeches. As you make your pants, so you must sit in them." + +"You awful man!" said she. + +"Now I will manage," said I. + +"Indeed! Nothing would please me better," said she. + +"I will sell our house and all that's in it, and get out of debt," said +I. + +"You mean to be one of the lower classes and wear old rags," she +exclaimed. + +"We have no class-distinctions but the Saving Class and the Wasting +Class. I shall be of the first class. As to clothes, they are +despicable," I replied. + +"People who despise clothes can't get any." + +"Well, I've done all I'm going to do toward developing the West, which +consists in getting into debt, as far as I can see." + +When an able woman submits she submits completely. Lydia put our house +in order. I filled the streets with dodgers advertising our sale. I +have not been a paragraphist for nothing: the sale was a success. I +paid a part of my debts, and gave notes for the rest that will keep my +future poor. I started in again on the _Times'_ city force. To board I +hate: it's a chicken's life--roosting on a perch, coming down to eat +and then going back to roost. So I got a little domicile in "The +Patch." When the teakettle has begun to spend the evening the new cheap +wallpaper, the whitewash and the soapsuds with which the floor has been +scrubbed emit peculiar odors. + +"It smells poor-folksy here," says Lydia. + +"All the better!" say I. + --MARY DEAN. + + + + +SHORT STUDIES IN THE PICTURESQUE. + + +Although our American climate, with its fierce and pitiless extremes of +temperature, will never give the lush meadows and lawns of moist +England, yet in the splendid and fiery lustres of its autumn forests, +in its gorgeous sunsets and sunrises and in the wild beauty of its +hills and mountains there is that which makes an English Midland +landscape seem tame in comparison. The rapid changes of temperature in +summer and the sudden rising of vast masses of heated air produce +cloud-structures of the most imposing description, especially huge, +irregular cumulus clouds that float in equilibrium above us like +colossal icebergs, airy mountain-ranges or tottering battlemented +towers and "looming bastions fringed with fire." + + Yon clouds are big with flame, and not with rain, + Massed on the marvellous heaven in splendid pyres, + Whereon ethereal genii, half in pain + And half in triumph, light their mystic fires. + +The brilliant deep-blue Italian skies of the Middle and Southern States +are full of poetry, and will repay the most careful and prolonged +study. I have seen, far up in the zenith, silvery fringes of cirrus +clouds forming and melting away at the same moment and in the same +place, ethereal and evanescent as a dream, easel-studies of Nature. +Sometimes the clouds take the form of most airily-delicate brown crape, +"hatchelled" on the sky in minute lines and limnings. Now the sky looks +like a sweet silver-azure ceiling, the blue peeping here and there +through tender masses of silver frosting. The skies of the New England +coast States are filled, during a large part of spring, summer and +autumn, with a white and dreamy haze, and do not produce +cloud-phenomena on such an imposing scale as the more brilliant skies +of the interior. I shall never forget a vast and glowing sunset-scene I +once witnessed in the Ohio Valley. It lasted but a few moments, but +what a spectacle! The setting sun was throwing his golden light over +the intensely green earth, and suffusing the irregular masses of clouds +now with a tender rosy light and now with delicate saffron. All along +the eastern horizon extended a black-blue cloud-curtain of about twenty +degrees in height, across which played the zigzag gold of the +lightning. Overhead hung the gigantic ring of a complete rainbow (a +rare phenomenon), looking like the iridescent rim of some vast sun that +had shot from its orbit and was rapidly nearing our earth. In the north +the while slept the sweet blue sky in peace. What a phantasmagoria of +splendor, "the magic-lantern of Nature"! What a rich contrast of +color!--the black and the gold, the green, saffron, rose and azure, and +the whole crowned with a rainbow garland of glowing flowers. I felt +assured that no sunset of Italy or Greece could fling upon the sky more +costly pictures than these. + +The delicacy and accuracy of touch exhibited in _The Scarlet Letter_ +and in _Oldport Days_ can hardly be appreciated to the full by those +who are unacquainted with certain mellow and crumbling towns and +hamlets of the New England coast, especially of the warm south coast. +Soft mists rise in summer like "rich distilled perfumes" from the warm +Gulf Stream off Long Island Sound and drift landward in invisible airy +volumes. Suddenly, as at a given signal, the sky becomes troubled, +grows dun: trembling dew-specks glister upon the leaves, and in a few +moments the gray fog starts out of the air on every side and clings to +tree, crag and house like shroud to corpse. It is this warm moisture +that gives to the south-coast hamlets their mellow tint. I have +especially in mind at this moment one romantic village whose stout old +yeoman elms hold their protecting foliage-shields over many a gray +mansion as rich in tradition as the House of the Seven Gables, and only +awaiting the touch of some wizard hand to become immortalized. The +prevailing tint of these old houses, and of everything that a lichen +can take hold of, is a sage-gray. There seems to be something in the +sea-breezes unusually favorable to the growth of lichens, and they hold +high carnival everywhere, growing in riotous exuberance on every tree +and rock and fence. I saw whole board fences so thickly tufted and +bearded with a rich, particolored mosaic of lichens that from +base-board to cope-board there was scarcely a square foot of the +original wood to be seen. On any hazy Indian-summer afternoon, if you +look down the wide, irregular main street, lined with its mighty elms +and gambrel-roofed houses, all seems wrapped in a dim gray atmosphere +of antiquity, like that surrounding Poe's House of Usher, only not +ghostly as that is. It is a strange _je ne sais quoi_ that eludes +description, as if houses and trees stood at the bottom of a sea of +visible heat. + +Whatever of picturesqueness an English hamlet has, this American one +has. It has its wealthy hereditary aristocracy, its small farmers or +squires and its peasants, its ruins and haunted houses, its traditions +of savages and of the great men who have honored it with their +presence. The town, moreover, is set off by a framework of the most +enchanting and varied scenery--river, streamlet, ocean, lighthouse, +hills with flower-and-grass-tufted crags, and forests, while on any +summer's day one may see, far away and "sown in a wrinkle of the +monstrous hill," some neighboring village with its graceful spire of +purest white gleaming and flaming in the hot sunshine, like marble set +in a foil of malachite. + +A window of my room looked out upon a crystal stream that wound down +through the salt-meadows to the sea, and twice a day, under the +influence of the seemingly-mysterious systole and diastole of the +tides, spread out into a wide-glittering lake and anon crept back again +into its sinuous bed. This water was as fickle and wanton and +many-mooded as a coquettish girl. Now its translucent glassy surface is +unruffled by a single wrinkle, and in its brilliant depths every +minutest feature of yonder drifting hay-barge is weirdly mirrored. I +look out again, and the face of the water is working with rage under +the lashing of the wind: at the same time its face seems white with +fear, and its ghostly arms are tossing, now in defiance and now in +piteous appeal. But now, as I gaze, the winds in their uncouth gambols +tear a huge rent in the cloud-tent they had raised over the earth, and +in the sweet blue beyond appears the calm and smiling face of the sun. +Before its glance the wind-phantoms slink away in fear and the now +quiet streamlet smiles through its tears. + +The stiff formality and the ridiculous solemnity of the old Puritan +times still linger about these secluded New England hamlets. But each +winter a huge Christmas tree is set up in the church of the village I +have mentioned, and loaded with presents. The winter I was there I went +to see the distribution. Recollecting the delightful Christmas days of +my own childhood, I was anticipating great pleasure. Of course I was +going to look in on a scene of childish joy, of shouting and laughing, +and eating of candy and pop-corn in unlimited quantities. Memories of +the stories of Hans Andersen and the Grimm brothers were floating +through my mind as I crunched the crisp snow under my feet on my way to +the church. I remembered the rapture of those Christmas mornings at +home, when we children stole down stairs by candlelight to the warm +room filled with the aromatic perfume of the Christmas tree, that stood +there resplendent with presents from old Santa Claus--Noah's arks, +mimic landscapes, dolls, sleds, colored cornucopias bursting with +bonbons, and especially those books of fairy-tales from whose rich +creamy pages exhaled a most divine and musty fragrance. Ah, the memory +of our childhood's hours! what is it but that enchanted lake of the +Arabian tale, from whose quiet depths we are ever and anon drawing up +in our nets some magic colored fish? Well, I reached the church. The +children, dressed in their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes, were sitting +in the high-backed pews in solemn silence, while a reverend gentleman +was delivering a solemn exhortation to gratitude and goodness. Another +followed. "Very well, gentlemen," thought I, "but now please to retire +and give up the field to these children." But no. The superintendent of +the Sunday-school now advanced: the children marched up one by one, as +their names were called, and received their presents from him. Some of +them came very near grinning (poor things!), but in general they looked +as if they were going to their execution. When all was done _the +meeting was dismissed_! + +Sauntering through the streets of this village, and making note of the +quaint idiosyncrasies and irregularities of character and manner +displayed by its humbler folk, I thought of the sentiment which Thoreau +so exquisitely expresses in his _Week_: "The forms of beauty fall +naturally around him who is in the performance of his proper work, as +the curled shavings drop from the plane and borings cluster round the +auger." Picturesqueness characterizes the New England white laborer, as +it does the Southern black laborer: especially is this true of those +who have emigrated from Europe when of adult age, and have been unable +to lay aside the picturesque features of their Old-World life. + +One winter evening I discovered, a few miles from the village, one of +this class: he was, on the whole, the strangest human being whom it has +ever been my fortune to meet. About dusk I found myself some distance +away from the village, near the great bridge that spans the river where +it debouches into the sea. The water was heaving in long, slow swells. +A deep silence had fallen over the earth. The evening red was reflected +in the sea in rich blood dye, while the colored lights of the bridge +and the lighthouse glowed and burned in the deep, here writhing along +the waves like long golden and crimson sea-serpents, and there shooting +down long streamers of light into the waves, to serve, I fancied, as +hanging lamps for that vast black, star-bespangled abyss of the sky, +that weird sunken dome, that inverted world, over which the water lay +stretched out like thin, translucent red glass, and to look down into +whose immeasurable and dizzy depths thrilled me both with pleasure and +a kind of terror--that vague feeling of pain which the sublime always +excites in the mind. + +I crossed the bridge and wandered along the opposite side of the river +by a lonely path. Suddenly I saw smoke curling up from a small recess +of the beach. It was a full mile from any human habitation known to me, +and I hesitated for a moment about advancing upon such a place at dusk, +especially as the winter was one of the gloomiest in the period of our +long financial depression. However, I decided to go on. Several +overturned fishing-boats lay upon the beach, with a net drying upon one +of them. A few clamshells were scattered about, and near the door of a +small cabin lay a pile of split kindlings. The cabin was considerably +smaller in size than an English railway-carriage, and nestled under the +overhanging bank of the river. No human being was visible at first. But +presently I detected by the red glow of his pipe a man in the interior +of the cabin. I sat down on a boat, not venturing to approach nearer +and beard the old lion in his lair. But on his inviting me to come in I +went up to the door. It was, however, only a meaningless form of speech +that led him to say "Come in," for it would hardly have been possible +to get into a cabin only five feet wide, with the man himself sitting +by a large rusty stove right over against the door. He placed a +bootjack in the doorway for me to sit down upon. There was no window in +the cabin. Firkins of fish were piled up along the sides of the +interior, and in the dim background I saw a rude framework covered with +straw which served as a bed. + +And now for the human being there. The most noticeable peculiarity +about the strange old hermit was an enormous wen which hung down from +the front part of his neck. This wen was fully as large as a man's +head. Long yellow hair hung over his shoulders, and a huge red beard +reached to the middle of his breast-- + + His beard a foot before him, and his hair + A yard behind. + +His moustache alone showed signs of the scissors: he had there cleared +a path through the russet jungle of his beard, that an entrance might +be had to the inner man. The eyes that looked out from this thicket of +hair had not that hard, dangerous, angry look that experience of such +persons had taught me to expect, but they expressed loneliness. He told +of the high tides of the month of January in a certain year, when the +water rose so as to enter his cabin and ponderous cakes of ice were +knocking and grinding against its sides in the night. We talked of +fish. He spoke of fyke-nets and drag-nets and warp-lines, and of +eel-spearing through the ice. He took especial delight in telling me +how the snow in winter was swept away from his door in a clean circle +by the broom of some friendly wind. "It is the wind that does it," said +he with touching naivete. It almost seemed to the poor old man's lonely +heart like a special favor on the part of the wind, like a tender +feeling and relenting on the part of the icy-hearted winter wind for +him in his solitude and sadness as he lay there cast out on the +desolate shore of the world, deformed and shattered in health-- + + Gleich einer Leiche + Die grollend ausgeworfen das Meer-- + + "Like a corpse which the bellowing sea + has cast out." + +Strange life! O utter barrenness of existence! A pipe, a fire, fish, +rags and a bed of straw. God pity thee! God pity thee, thou poor +stricken deer! Take heart, man, take heart! Be brave, and dash away the +bitter tear. Look up from the lowly cabin-door into the solemn night +with its golden-burning stars, and even the loosened harp-strings of +thy shattered old frame will vibrate and tremble to the eternal +melodies that thrill through the mystic All: "God is in his heaven." + +Dickens and Hawthorne have each written of canal-life in America, the +one in a satirico-humorous way, the other sympathetically. People side +with one or the other according as their disposition is active and +restless or indolent and epicurean. I fight under the banner of +Hawthorne in defence of the canal. The following sketch of one of the +old picturesque Pennsylvania canals may be called a vignette, for it is +a fragment without definite border or setting. But admirers of Dickens +are respectfully requested to note that it is no mere fancy sketch of a +poetic mind, but was drawn from Nature, every bit of it. + +The first and most novel sensation I experienced was that of the quiet +and seemingly mysterious gliding movement of the boat. Ever and anon we +passed through a lock. How strange and thrilling the feeling, to stand +on the deck and see yourself slowly sinking into the great mossy box, +and then to see the great valves of the lock slowly open, disclosing +what seemed a new land and fresh vistas of green landscape! It was like +the opening of the gates of the future (I pleased myself with fancying) +to my triumphant progress. Gate after gate swung back its ponderous +valves: I was Habib advancing from isle to isle of the enchanted sea. I +uttered the word of power, and the huge unwieldy gates of opposition +swung back with sullen and unwilling deference, compelled to respect +the talisman I held. But hark! Hear the sweet notes of the supper-horn +floating through the cool gloom of twilight as the tired reapers trudge +home with their grain-cradles swung over their shoulders. Listen to the +tinkling mule-bells on the tow-path, see the bright crimson tassels of +the bridles, and the gayly-decorated boats, their cabin-roofs adorned +with pots of herbs and flowers. + +As we glide down the canal, ever and anon we see some empty returning +boat (called "light boat" in the technical canal phrase) rounding a +curve before us, It comes nearer: the horses walk the same tow-path: +how _are_ the boats to pass without confusion? Ah, the riddle is +solved. Our captain (who holds the helm while the boy, his assistant, +is down in the cabin preparing supper) calls out suddenly, at the last +moment, "Whoa!" The well-trained horses instantly stop; the momentum of +the boat carries it on; the rope slackens, disappears in the water, +except at the two ends; the approaching horses step over it, and the +approaching boat glides over it. When the approaching "light boat" has +passed nearly or entirely over the rope our captain shouts to his +horses to go on: the rope tightens, and all is as before. + +The parts of the canal lying between the locks are called "levels." On +long levels we could often see one or two boats far ahead of us and +going in the same direction. Nothing could be prettier than the thin +blue streamer of wood-smoke trailing out from the stovepipe of the +cabin-roof against the bright green of the foliage along the banks. It +told us the cheery news that the fragrant coffee or tea was a-making in +the cozy little cabin below. And now, when supper is done, the captain +brings up his guitar and plays sweet plaintive airs as we glide through +the quiet evening shadows. Night deepens: the stars come out one by +one, and are reflected in the smooth dark water below in dreamy, dusky +splendor. We brush the dew from the heavy foliage as we pass along. +Lithe alders and heavy vines trail in the cool flood, and the fresh +evening air is filled with grateful harvest-scents and the perfume of +unseen flowers. And now our pretty painted lamp-board is fixed in its +place in the bow. The bright lamp throws its rich golden splendor +before us. The lamp is hid from us by the board which holds it. We +stand behind in the dark, and watch the overhanging sprays of foliage +making strange, grotesque shadows that move fantastically and sport and +clutch and writhe like wanton fiends, while the solid banks of foliage +themselves, reflected in the water below, look, one fancies, like +hanging gardens in the weird world to which the water is but a window, +and far, far down upon whose dusky floor the flowers are golden stars. + +The canal over which I am now conducting my readers is one of the +oldest in the country. For many miles it is cut out of the solid rock, +following the windings of the river and clinging close to the contours +of the hills. The particolored rocks jut out in great square blocks, +which, in summer, are usually tufted with grass or flowers. There is an +indescribable air of coziness and safety about the amphibious life one +leads on such a canal. You can here snap your fingers at the terrors of +the cruel water. Here the mocking waves cannot "curl their monstrous +heads" as on the sea, when with blind fury they dash against the +helpless ship their ponderous and shapeless forms, while sailors and +passengers alike are every moment expecting the final stroke that shall +sink them beneath the waves. On the canal you cannot be drowned, on the +canal you cannot be wrecked. The shore is so delightfully near! You +exult in the friendly companionship of the rocky wall that towers above +you, and in the assuring presence of the flowers and shrubs that cling +there or reach out to you their thin elvish hands. You feel that here +untamed Nature (that great wolf) cannot get her claws upon you. Upon +this thread of water you are soothed by the thought that you are under +the friendly and beneficent protection of man. + +About nine or ten o'clock each evening the boats tie up at some lock. +At all of these locks there are refreshment-stands and neat taverns of +which the traveller must avail himself, since there are no +accommodations for visitors on the boats. On the fourth day, wishing to +vary my experience, I boarded another boat. Her deck was the very model +of neatness. Verily the spirit of either a Yankee housewife or a Dutch +vrow must have presided over that boat and tyrannized over the poor +wretches who managed it. Black Care seemed to sit continually upon +their brows. They were living scrubbing-brushes. They were scrub-mad. +From morn to dewy eve they scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, and +doubtless in their dreams they still scrubbed on. The crew consisted of +a man and his wife, their boy and an old uncle of the boy. I found, to +my delight, that the boy was a very communicative young gentleman, +flowing freely in talk without any pumping on my part. The various +quaint technical phrases which I learned from him shall now be imparted +to the reader. The _berme_, or _heel-path_, is the side of the canal +opposite the tow-path; _basins_ are small coves in the canal where +boats may lie over; _stop-lock_, a sort of quay; the _bit_, a +timber-head at the bow of the boat. _Snub her!_ is a phrase of command, +meaning, "Tie the boat to a post on the bank." _Pipe-poles_ are +steering-poles. The _stern pile_ (of coal on this canal) is in a large +crib near the stern and just in front of the cabin, and is placed in +this particular part of the long and unwieldy boat in order to make her +obey the helm better. _Timber-heads_ project above the deck to "snub" +lines on. _Tow-posts_ are short upright posts near the bow, to which +the tow-line is fastened. The _combings_ are the pieces the hatches +rest on and surround the hold in an oval form. The _wale-plank_ is the +edge of the deck, projecting out over the water like a welt around the +entire circumference of the boat. + +It may surprise many persons to learn that on the tablelands of the +Alleghany Mountains there are still thousands of square miles of virgin +forests of hemlock and pine through which roam bears and deer in +considerable numbers. The hemlock trees are rapidly succumbing, +however, to the axe of the lumberman and the bark-peeler. Bark-peeling +is the great industry there, almost every mountain-hollow along the +lines of the few railways that have penetrated the region in +Pennsylvania having its tannery in active operation. This tanning +business, by the way, is in a very prosperous condition, owing to the +foreign demand for the liquor extracted from the bark as well as to the +steadiness of the leather market. There is a primitive freshness in the +life of the mountaineers and lumbermen of the Alleghanies like that of +the mining regions of the far West. There is a sprinkling of Canadians +among the lumbermen, and as a whole they are the most honest, +good-natured, childlike set of men in existence. They are the true +priests of those high and dim-green temple-aisles--priests of Nature +one might call them. The cabins of the bark-peelers are made of rough, +sweet-smelling hemlock planks. The smell of the hemlock bark is fresh +and tonical, and appetizing in the highest degree. The men eat fabulous +quantities of food: some require five meals a day. I well remember my +first meal in a mountain hemlock shanty. Imagine a long table of +unpainted boards with X-shaped legs, and along each side of the table +benches for seats. Let there be upon the table three large bowls of +black sugar, here and there towering stacks of white bread (the slices +an inch thick at least), and beside each cover a teacup and saucer, a +huge bowl filled to the brim with steaming-hot apple-sauce, together +with a bowl of the same dimensions containing beans. Now blow the +supper-horn, and hearken to the far halloo from the mountain-side. +Twenty blowzed and bearded men, ravenous and wild-eyed with hunger, +presently file into the room. They sit down: there is an awful and +solemn silence--they are evidently impressed with the momentous +importance of the occasion. You find your face growing long; you think +of funerals; make a timid and humble remark which you hope will be +acceptable and within the range of their comprehension. No answer: you +evidently have their pity. No word breaks the sullen silence, except an +occasional request to pass something, uttered with an effort as if the +speaker had the lockjaw. The meal is bolted with frightful rapidity, +generally in five or six minutes. I remember that I was considerably +scared and dazed, on my first acquaintance with these mountain-fauns, +at seeing such a systematic snatching and grabbing, such a ferocious +plying of knives and forks and rattling of cups, by those huge-limbed, +brawny, whiskered fellows. + +It is difficult to describe the perennial beauty of the hemlock trees, +with their dark, rich foliage-masses and aromatic odor. It seems a +sacrilege to destroy them so ruthlessly. When stripped of their bark +and stained with the dark-red sap, they look like fallen giants spoiled +of their armor, lying there prone and white-naked, as if there had been +a battle of the giants and the gods. These giants were perfumed, it +seems. Their huge green plumes are now withered and torn, and their red +blood oozes slowly from their bodies in thin and trickling streams. You +think of Ossian's heroes, of Thor and his hammer, of the Anakim or of +the steeple-high Brobdignagian cavalry, and almost expect to hear +groans issuing from the colossal trunks that cumber the ground on every +side. + +Everything is on a large scale in these mighty forests. The horizon of +your life noiselessly widens, rolls gradually back into immeasurable +distances, and "deepens on and up." There is elasticity and stretch in +your thoughts. If you have read Richter, his towering, godlike dreams +of time and eternity here find their fit interpretation. He had his +Fichtelgebirge, and you have your hemlock mountains. Life seems heroic +once more: you exult in existence, and fondly think that here you could +be happy for ever. To live far away from the cruel, hurrying world in a +sweet little hamlet you wot of, sunk in the heart of the mountains at +the bottom of a deep, mossy mountain-chalice--a chalice of richest +chasing and filled with the pure wine of God, the mountain-air; to live +there during the long summer days; to stand in the flush of dawn with +bared head and inhale the fragrance of the dew-drenched grass and the +scarlet balsams; to walk with hushed step through the wide forests, +communing with the powerful sylvan spirits that labor there, watching +with what miraculous delicacy of touch their unseen fingers weave the +rich fantastic shrouds of fern and moss that deck the dead and fallen +trees or anon give to the living their faint and mottled tints of green +and gray;--to live thus through the summer hours, and through autumn, +winter, spring watch the unrolling of the gorgeous scroll of +Time,--this, you think, were living to some purpose!--WILLIAM SLOANE +KENNEDY. + + + + +OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. + + + +THE PARIS SALON OF 1880. + + +The Salon (official) catalogue contains this year 696 pages. There are +3957 paintings exhibited; 2085 designs, sketches in charcoal and +watercolors; 30 engravings on stone, etc.; 111 designs for +architecture; 46 specimens of lithography; 701 pieces of sculpture; 305 +eaux-fortes; and 54 specimens of monumental art--in all 7280 objects. +Though we all thought last year that the number of paintings exhibited +was immense, this year the number is 917 more. Alas for the poor +critics! How many an additional ache that implies for them! Still, as +we have a cozy reading-room at the Palais de l'Industrie--an innovation +of this season for the benefit of those who get tired of looking at the +pictures and wish to "take a rest"--the weary critic may enter and take +a seat (if he can find one unoccupied, which is highly improbable), and +there write out his "notes," as I am doing at this moment. + +While standing in front of a charming picture by Dagnan-Bouveret (_Un +Accident_), I felt a soft arm brush gently against mine, and glancing +down recognized the capricious Sara Bernhardt. Yes, Sara was there, +leaning on the arm of Mr. Stevens, the Belgian painter who is credited +with finishing Sara's paintings, and followed by her son Maurice and a +little retinue of admirers, mostly young men--artists and actors--and +stared at with persistency by all who saw her pass. "There goes +Bernhardt!" "Did you see Bernhardt?" were the remarks on all sides. Her +head, which bore itself as if quite unaware that a suit for three +hundred and fifty thousand francs damages was suspended over it like +the sword of Damocles, was covered with a mass of rich auburn-colored +hair. She is as changeable as a chameleon in the matter of her hair: I +never see her twice with the same colored _chevelure_. + +The Salon this year contains at least four _good_--one might almost say +_great_--pictures. Of these four, the one to which popular opinion +seems to award the _grande medaille d'honneur_, is Bastien-Lepage's +_Jeanne d'Arc_. This large painting (3-15/100 metres by 3-45/100 +metres) represents the Maid at the moment when, seeing the vision of +the Virgin, she is inspired to go forth and save her country. A +peasant-girl, strong and muscular, she leans against a tree, her face +uplifted to heaven and aglow with a noble inspiration. The cottage in +the background, the trees and weeds in the middle distance, the +distribution of light and the subdued tones of this impressive picture, +are all excellent. Some critics object to the artist's perspective, but +I fancy that is a bit of hypercriticism. + +Then comes Fernand Cormon's _Flight of Cain_, suggested by Victor +Hugo's lines: + + Lorsqu' avec ses enfants couverts de peaux de betes, + Echevele, livide au milieu des tempetes, + Cain se fut enfui de devant Jehovah. + +This canvas is one of the largest in the Salon--4 by 7 metres. The +chief figures are grandly painted and the whole picture is very +impressive. + +Alphonse Alexis Morot's _Good Samaritan_ is an exceedingly strong +picture. The Samaritan is represented holding upon his own beast the +poor maltreated Jew and walking by his side. The figure-painting is +wonderful in its vigor and _verve_. + +The fourth picture is Alexandre Cabanel's _Phedre_. The source of the +artist's inspiration was the well-known passage from Euripides: +"Consumed upon a bed of grief, Phedre shuts herself up in her palace, +and with a thin veil envelops her blonde head. It is now the third day +that her body has partaken of no nourishment: attacked by a concealed +ill, she longs to put an end to her sad fate." Phedre, as she lies +wishing only for death as a surcease of sorrow, gazed upon with +solicitude by her pitying attendants, is a vivid picture of +all-consuming grief. The decorative work of the bed and the wall is +chaste and classic. + +Of the minor pictures, that of Dagnan-Bouveret, _Un Accident_, is one +of the best. It is indeed a rare picture in the excellence of its +execution in every detail. A boy has been badly wounded in the wrist by +some accident, and the surgeon is engaged in dressing the injured part. +The dirty foot of the boy as it peeps out beneath the chair, shod in a +rough sabot which fails to conceal its grime, the bowl standing on the +table half full of blood and water while the wrist is now being +skilfully bandaged by the surgeon, whose operations are watched with +great solicitude by the group of sympathetic relatives,--all these +features give a living interest to this painting which is unusual. The +red, grimy hands of the old mother of the boy are very faithfully +painted. The expression on the lad's face of heroic endurance and a +determination not to cry in any case is touching. + +As for Mademoiselle Sara Bernhardt's _La Jeune Fille et la Mort_--a +veiled skeleton coming up behind a young girl and touching her on the +shoulder--it would attract little attention if it had not been signed +by the flighty (and lately _fleeing_) actress. The verses underneath +the picture are the best part of it: + + La Mort glisse en son reve, et tout bas: + "Viens," dit elle, + "L'Amour c'est l'ephemere, et je suis l'immortelle." + +The great names--Meissonier, Gerome, Munkacsy, Madrazo, +Berne-Bellecour, Detaille, De Neuville, Rosa Bonheur, Flameng, +etc.--are conspicuous this year by their absence from the catalogue of +the Salon. It is whispered that the reason Munkacsy does not exhibit is +because the administration of the Beaux-Arts saw fit to place the +pictures by foreign artists separately in the Galerie des Etrangers. An +"impressionist" artist-friend of mine--Miss Cassatt, the sister of +Vice-President Cassatt of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company--says that +the reason these distinguished artists do not exhibit any more is that +they are disgusted with the way in which the Salon is conducted by +Edmond Turquet, the present sous-secretaire aux Beaux-Arts, and the +very unfair acts committed in the awarding of medals, admission of +pictures, etc. + +M. Jean Jacques Henner's _La Fontaine_ is a true Correggio in delicacy +and clearness of tone. His treatment of the flesh is peculiar, and much +envied by many a Paris artist. In this picture the nymph, leaning over +the fountain, is dressed in a very inexpensive costume--in fact, the +same fashion that Mother Eve introduced into Eden. There in the placid +water the beautiful creature contemplates the reflection of her face, +and seems to breathe, with all her being, those charming lines of +Lafenestre: + + Heure silencieuse, ou la nymphe se penche + Sur la source des bois qui lui sert de miroir, + Et reve en regardant mourir sa forme blanche + Dans l'eau pale ou descend le mystere du soir. + +Gustave Jacquet's _Le Minuet_ is one of those pictures which fascinate +and draw us back again and again. A rarely-beautiful girl is dancing +the minuet, surrounded by a group of her friends, beautiful blonde +girls and a fair-haired young man. The costumes are perfectly +exquisite, yet there is not too much _chiffonnerie_ in the picture. +There is a remarkable effect of depth in the painting of the figure of +the dancing girl, especially at the feet and at the bottom of her +skirt. Perhaps the only criticism that could fairly be passed upon M. +Jacquet's picture is that there is too much of mere "prettiness" about +his principal figures. + +A curious feature in this year's exhibition is that there are three +pictures of the assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday, two of +which are hung in the same room. There are also three paintings +representing a scene from Victor Hugo's _Histoire d'un Crime_, +"L'enfant avait recu deux balles dans la tete." The child is +represented in Henry Gervex's picture as being lifted up by his +friends, who are examining the poor little wounded, bleeding head. It +is powerful in composition and a very thrilling, realistic picture. The +other two representations of this subject are by Paul Langlois and Paul +Robert. + +Gustave Courtois's _Dante and Virgil in Hell: The Circle of the +Traitors to their Country_, is a picture very much studied by all the +artists who visit the Salon because of its strange landscape, its +wonderful effect of the glacial formations and its marvellous effects +of color. Benjamin Constant's _Les Derniers Rebelles_ is one of the +best efforts of this artist, so fruitful in scenes drawn from Morocco +and Egyptian life. He has depicted the sultan going forth in great +splendor from the gates of the city of Morocco, surrounded by his army +and courtiers, and before him are brought, either dead or alive, all +the principal chiefs of the revolted tribes. There is much that is +noble in the composition, and the coloring is perfect. + +The arrangement of the pictures this year is not altogether +satisfactory to the artists. A radical change has been made--grouping +all the _hors-concours_ men by themselves, and all the foreigners by +themselves, and crowding about one thousand pictures out of doors into +the corridors which run around the garden of the Palais de l'Industrie. +A friend of mine saw a French artist mount a stepladder and +deliberately cut out of the frame his picture and carry it away with +him, because it was so badly hung. + +The _Illustrated Catalogue_ of the Salon is a somewhat remarkable work. +It is specially noticeable for the very curious English translations of +the titles of some of the paintings. For instance, the title of Gabriel +Boutel's picture, _Bonne a tout faire_--a soldier seated with a baby in +his arms--is rendered, _Maid for anything_(!). _Priere a Saint Janvier_ +is rendered _Prayer_ AT _Saint Januarious_. _Le Cabaret du Pot d'Etain_ +is translated _The Tavern of the Brass_ POT (instead of _Pewter Mug_). +Ed. Morin's _Promenade en Marne_ is _A_ F_rip on the Marne!_ Our friend +from Boston, Edwin Lord Weeks, is mentioned as "LORD" Edwin Weeks! But +the best of all is _La Cruche cassee_, translated _The Broken_ PIG! The +title of another picture is (in the catalogue) _Good-bye, Swee_L +_hart!_ + +Out of the 3957 oil paintings exhibited, our country is represented by +113 pictures, the productions of 83 Americans. Then we claim 13 of the +aquarelle painters, and there are in addition 11 natives of the United +States who exhibit designs in charcoal, _sanguine_, _gouache_, and +paintings on either porcelain or faience; also 7 sculptors--in all, 114 +of our compatriots whose works are in the present Salon. New York +claims the lion's share of these artists, 40 being accredited to that +State. Of the remainder, 18 are from Boston, 13 from Philadelphia, 6 +from New Orleans, 3 from Chicago, 2 from Toledo, 2 from San Francisco, +etc. etc. + +I think it will be generally admitted that the only really strong +pictures exhibited by the American artists are John S. Sargent's +portrait of Madame Pailleron (wife of the author of _L'Etincelle_) and +his _Fumee d'Ambre Gris_; Henry Mosler's _Toilette de Noce_; D.R. +Knight's _Une Halte_; Miss Gardner's _Priscilla the Puritan_; F.A. +Bridgman's _Habitation Arabe a Biskra_; Charles E. DuBois's _Autumn +Evening on Lake Neuchatel_; and Edwin L. Weeks's _Embarkment of the +Camels_ and _Gateway of an Old Fondak in the Holy City of Sallee_ +(Morocco)--both of which were sold immediately after the opening. Of +course there are several other good pictures by our compatriots, and +some that possess great merit. But the ones indicated above are the +only ones which (excepting Picknell's two landscapes, _Sur le Bord du +Marais_ and _La Route de Concarneau_) have called forth any special +notice from French critics or in any way attracted much of the public +attention thus far. Mr. Sargent is a surprise and a wonder to even his +master, Carolus Duran, whose portrait, painted by Sargent, attracted +great attention in the Salon of last year and received an "honorable +mention." He has painted this year a full-length in the open air, +producing a very sunny, strong out-door effect. The hands attract much +praise, but opinions vary as to the face. His _Fumee d'Ambre Gris_ +represents a woman of Tangiers engaged in perfuming her clothing with +the fumes from a lamp in which ambergris is burning. The white robes of +the woman set off against a pearly-gray background, the rising smoke, +the curiously-tinted finger-nails of the woman, and the rich rug on +which the lamp stands, combine to make a very notable and curious +picture. + +Miss Elizabeth J. Gardner of New Hampshire has two excellent pictures +in the Salon--_Priscilla the Puritan_ and _The Water's Edge_. They are +both well hung, as indeed are most of our American artists' +contributions to this exhibition. Out of the 111 pictures in oils sent +in by the Americans, I can recall 46 which are hung "on the line," and +there may be even more. This is certainly treating our countrymen very +fairly. Miss Gardner's _Au Bord de l'Eau_ represents two young girls +standing at the edge of a pond, the one reaching down to pluck a +water-lily, and the other supporting her by clasping her waist. There +is great purity in the tones of this picture, and, though lacking +somewhat in action, the coloring and drawing are both admirable. + +The most notable piece of statuary in the Salon, the work of an +American, is Saint-Gaudens's statue of Admiral Farragut. Mr. +Saint-Gaudens, who is a native of New York, received about two years +ago from one hundred gentlemen of that city, who had subscribed the +necessary funds, a commission to make a statue of the great sailor. It +is to be placed in Madison Square, New York. The pedestal is to be of +granite, having at its base a large seat, on the back of which will be +an inscription mentioning the important events in the life of the hero. +The statue, of bronze, represents Farragut in a standing posture, a +little larger than life-size. It is now being cast, and will be ready +to be placed in position within two months. Mr. Saint-Gaudens is now at +work on a statue of Richard Robert Randall, the founder of the Sailors' +Snug Harbor on Staten Island, in front of which institution this statue +is to be placed. This sculptor has also nearly completed his cast of +the figures intended to ornament the mausoleum of Ex-Senator E.D. +Morgan (of New York), about to be erected at Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. +Saint-Gaudens intends removing his atelier from Paris to New York in +June, and will hereafter be permanently located in that city, where he +will be an important addition to the art-movement in our own country. + +The catalogue numbers, names and birthplaces of the Americans who +exhibit this year are here given: + +OIL PAINTINGS. + + + 103. Audra, Rosemond Casimir, New Orleans, La. + 127. Bacon, Henry, Boston, Mass. + 139. Baird, William, Chicago. + 142, 143. Baker, Miss Ellen K., Buffalo. + 193. Bayard, Miss Kate, New York. + 220, 221. Beckwith, Arthur, New York. + 329. Bierstadt, Albert, New York. + 344. Bispham, Henry C., Philadelphia, Pa. + 355, 356. Blackman, Walter, Chicago. + 362. Blashfield, Edwin H., New York. + 380. Boggs, Frank Myers, New York. + 490, 491. Bridgman, Frederic D., Alabama. + 519, 520. Brown, Walter Francis, Rhode Island. + 742. Cheret-Lauchaume de Gavarmy, J.L., New Orleans. + 823, 824. Coffin, Wm. Anderson, Allegheny City. + 841. Collins, Alfred Q., Boston, Mass. + 844. Comans, Mrs. Charlotte B., New York. + 855. Conant, Miss Cornelia, New York. + 866. Copeland, Alfred Bryant, Boston. + 890. Correja, Henry, New York. + 893, 894. Corson, Miss Helen, Philadelphia. + 933, 934. Cox, Kenyon, Warren, O. + 965, 966. Daniel, George, New York. +1009. Davis, John Steeple, New York. +1089. Delport, J.S., New York. +1132, 1133. Deschamps, Mme. Camille, New York. +2096. DeLancey, William, New York. +1155. Dessommes, Edmond, New Orleans. +1161. Desvarreux-Larpenteur, Jas., St. Paul, Minn. +1199. Dillon, Henry, San Francisco, Cal. +1234, 1235. Dubois, Charles Edward, New York. +1381. Faller, Miss Emily, New York. +1426. Flagg, Charles Noel, Brooklyn, N.Y. +1537, 1538. Gardner, Miss Elizabeth J., New Hampshire. +1559. Gault, Alfred de, New Orleans, La. +1569, 1570. Gay, Walter, Boston. +1614. Gilman, Ben Ferris, Salem, Mass. +1693, 1694. Gregory, J. Eliot, New York. +1796. Harrison, Thomas Alexander, Philadelphia. +1799, 1800. Healy, George P.A., Boston. +1801, 1802. Heaton, Augustus G., Philadelphia. +1835, 1836. Herpin-Masseras, Madame Marguerite, Boston, Mass. +1851, 1852. Hilliard, William H., Boston. +1853. Hinckley, Robert, Boston. +1859. Hlasko, Miss Annie, Philadelphia. + 387. Jones, Bolton, Baltimore, Md. +2011. Knight, Daniel Ridgeway, Philadelphia. +2337. Lippincott, William H., Philadelphia. +2364. Loomis, Chester, Syracuse, N.Y. +2513. Mason, Louis Gage, Boston. +2556, 2557. May, Edward Harrison, New York. +2666. Mitchell, John Ames, New York. +2730. Morgan, Charles W., Philadelphia. +2738. Mortimer, Stanley, New York. +2739, 2740. Mosler, Henry, Cincinnati, O. +2741. Moss, Charles E., Charloe, Kansas(?). +2742, 2743. Moss, Frank, Philadelphia. +2760. Mowbray, Henry S., Alexandria, Egypt (of American parentage). +2780. Neal, David, Lowell, Mass. +2789. Nicholls, Burr H., Buffalo, N.Y. +2823. Obermiller, Miss Louisa, Toledo, O. +2878, 2879. Parker, Stephen Hills, New York. +2895. Pattison, James William, Boston. (Mr. Pattison exhibits also an + aquarelle.) +2944. Perkins, Miss Fanny A., New York. +3014, 3015. Picknell, W.L., Boston, Mass. +3147, 3148. Ramsey, Milne, Philadelphia. +3177. Reilly, John Louis, New York. +3284. Robinson, Theodore, Irasburg. +3428, 3429. Sargent, John S., Philadelphia. +3525. Shonborn, Lewis, Nemora. +3578. Stone, Miss Marie L., New York. +3579. Strain, Daniel, Cincinnati, O. +3584. Swift, Clement. +3606. Teka, Madame E., Boston, Mass. +3695. Tuckerman, Ernest, New York. +3697. Tuttle, C.F., Ohio. +5850. Vogel, Miss Christine, New Orleans. +3879. Walker, Henry, Boston. +3891, 3892. Weeks, Edwin Lord, Boston. +3900, 3901. Welch, Thaddeus, Laporte, Ind. +3908, 3909. Williams, Frederic D., Boston. +3921. Woodward, Wilbur W., Indiana. +3923. Wright, Marian Lois. + + + +DESIGNS, AQUARELLES, PORCELAINS, ETC. + + +4101. Berend, Edward, New York. +4182, 4183. Boker, Miss Orleana V., New York. +4187, 4188. Boni, Mrs. Marie Louise. +4370. Chauncey, Mrs. Lucy, New York. +4399, 4400. Clark, George, New York. +4462. Crocker, Miss Sallie S., Portland, Me. +4474, 4475. Dana, Charles E., Wilkes-Barre, Pa. +4578. Dixey, Mrs. Ellen S., Boston. +4586. Donohoe, Eliza, Buffalo, N.Y. +4686. Faquani, Miss Nina, New York. +4688. Faller, Miss Emily, New York. +4855. Goodridge, Miss S.M. +4867. Greatorex, Miss Eleanor E., New York. +4868, 4869. Greatorex, Miss Kathleen, New York. +4927. Hardie, Robert G. +4953. Heuston, Miss Emma L., Sacramento, Cal. +5384. Merrill, Mrs. Emma F.R., New York. +5396. Mezzara, Mrs. Rosine, New York. +5562. Pering, Miss Cornelia. +5914. Tompkins, Miss Clementina, Washington. +6008, 6009. Volkmar, Charles, Baltimore. +6015. Walker, Miss Sophia A. +6028. Wheeler, Miss Mary, Concord. +6029, 6030. Whidden, W.M., Boston. + + + +SCULPTURE. + + +6081. Bartlett, Paul, New Haven. +6136. Boyle, John, Philadelphia. +6276. Donoghue, John, Chicago. +6312, 6313. Ezekiel, Moses, Richmond. +6371. Gould, Thomas Ridgway, Boston. +6534. Mezzara, Joseph, New York. +6661, 6662. Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, New York + --J.J.R. + + + + +A PLOT FOR AN HISTORICAL NOVEL. + + +In Hawthorne's _American Note-Book_, among his memoranda, into which he +conscientiously put every scrap and detail which might be useful in his +writings, is an allusion to the "Grey Property Case," a lawsuit which +held the Pennsylvania courts for more than half a century, and turned +upon a curious story which will be new to some readers and may have +slipped from the recollection of others. It belongs to the history of +Mifflin, Juniata county, first settled by Scotch-Irish colonists in +1749. Two of the four men who claimed some land and built a fort had +the name of Grey, and the narrative concerns the younger of these two +brothers, John Grey. One morning in August, 1756, he left his wife and +children at the fort and set out on an expedition to Carlisle. He was +returning when he had an encounter with a bear, and was detained on the +mountain-road for several hours. This probably preserved his life, for +when he reached the settlement he found that the fort had just been +burned by the Indians, and that every person in it had either been +killed or taken prisoner. Among the latter were Grey's wife and his +child, a beautiful little girl of three years old. Grey was an +affectionate husband and father, and he was almost heartbroken by this +catastrophe. Fired with longing for revenge, he joined Colonel +Armstrong's expedition in September against the Indian settlement at +Kittanning on the Ohio, with some hope that his wife and child might be +found among the captives whom, it was rumored, the Indians had carried +there. Colonel Armstrong's onslaught was successful: he succeeded in +burning the village, killed about fifty savages and rescued eleven +white prisoners. Grey gained no information, however, about his family, +and, sick and exhausted by the disappointment and the fatigues of the +campaign, went home to die. He left a will bequeathing one-half of his +farm to his wife and one-half to his child if they returned from +captivity. In case his child should never be given up or should not +survive him, he gave her half of the estate to his sister, who had a +claim against him, having lent him money. + +The rumor was true that the Indians had first carried Mrs. Grey and her +little daughter to Kittanning, but afterward, for greater security, +they were given over to the French commander at Fort Duquesne. They +were confined there for a time, then carried into Canada. About a year +later Mrs. Grey had a chance to escape. She concealed herself among the +skins in the sledge of a fur-trader, and was thus able to elude +pursuit. She left her child behind her in captivity, and after passing +through a variety of adventures returned to Tuscarora Valley, and, +finding her husband dead, proved his will and took possession of her +half of his property. Grey's sister was disposed to assert her claim to +the other portion, but Mrs. Grey always maintained that her little +daughter Jane was alive, and would sooner or later, after the French +and Indian wars were ended, be released and sent back. In 1764 a treaty +was made with the Indians enforcing a general surrender of all their +white captives. A number of stolen children were brought to +Philadelphia to be identified by their friends and relations, and Mrs. +Grey (who in the mean time had married a Mr. Williams) made the journey +to this city in the hope of claiming her little daughter Jane. Seven +years had passed since Mrs. Williams had seen the child, who might be +expected to have grown out of her remembrance. But, even taking this +into consideration, there seemed at first to be none of the children +who in the least respect answered the description of the lost girl. +Mrs. Grey probably longed to find her daughter for affection's sake. +But there was besides a powerful motive to induce her, inasmuch as she +wished to get possession of the other half of her husband's property, +which must otherwise be forfeited to his sister, Mrs. James Grey. One +of the captive children, apparently about the same age as the lost +Jane, had found no one to recognize her. Mrs. Williams determined to +take this girl and substitute her for her own, and put an end to Mrs. +James Grey's claim. She did so, and brought up the stranger for her own +child. The Grey property thus passed wholly into the possession of Mrs. +Williams. The girl grew up rough, awkward and ugly, incapable of +refinement and even gross in her morals. She finally married a minister +by the name of Gillespie. + +Meanwhile, the heirs of Mrs. James Grey had gained some sort of +information which led them to suspect that the returned girl was no +relation of their uncle John Grey, and in 1789 they brought a lawsuit +to recover their mother's half of the property. By this time endless +complications had arisen. Mrs. Williams was dead: her half of her first +husband's farm had been bequeathed to her second husband's kindred, and +was now in part held by them and in part had been bought by half a +dozen others. The supposed daughter, Mrs. Gillespie, had died, as had +her husband, and their share had passed to his relations. It had become +almost impossible for the most astute lawyers to find beginning, middle +or end to the claims which were set forth. Plenty of evidence was +collected to show that Mrs. Williams had substituted a stranger for her +own child, and the decision finally rested on this, and the property +was given up to the heirs of Mrs. James Grey. This did not happen, +however, until 1834, when few or none of the original litigants +remained. + +The real little Jane Grey, so it was said, was brought up in a good +family who adopted her, and afterward married well and had children, +residing near Sir William Johnson's place in Central New York.--L.W. + + + + +THE MISERIES OF CAMPING OUT. + + +My dear cousin Laura: So you are thinking about camping out, and want +my opinion as to whether the spot we chose for our trout-fishing in +June is a suitable place for ladies to go? I should give a decided +negative. My brother takes his wife and his sister usually, although he +fortunately left them at home last time. I think they must have to +"make believe" a good deal to think it fun. I am certain that had they +been with us they would have been forced to exercise their largest +powers of imagination. We set out in fine weather, but entered the +woods in a driving snowstorm, and enjoyed a forty-six-mile drive over a +road that has, I must say this for it, not been known to be so bad for +years. We came back in a pelting rain. We made our camp in a snowstorm, +and the wood was wet and would not burn, and our tent was damp and +would not dry. We fished in a boat on the lake, swept by cold winds +until we were chilled to the bone and our hands were so stiff we could +not hold the rods. My brother had a "chill" the first night in camp. I +had indigestion from eating things fried in pork fat from the first +meal until I got a civilized repast at Frank's house in New York. I was +bounced sore. My nose was peeled by sun and cold. My lips were +decorated by three large cold-sores. My hands bled constantly from a +combination of chap and sunburn. I made up my mind if I ever got safely +out of those woods it would be several years at least before I could be +persuaded to enter them again. The scenery _is_ lovely, but one cannot +enjoy it. The fishing _is_ good, but it is hard work, and my own +opinion is that there is altogether "too much pork for a shilling" in +the whole business. Talk about being "ten miles from a lemon"! Try +forty-six miles from a lemon over a corduroy road. At first we had cold +weather, hence no black flies or mosquitos. When warm weather came on +again we had both of them, and our experience was that the snowstorm +was preferable. The black flies made the day unendurable, and the +mosquitos made the night as well as the day a wasting misery. We had +them everywhere--in the hut, in the tent, at the table, on the lake, in +the woods. No smudge or lotion discourages them; oil of tar is their +delight, camphor they revel in; buzzing, singing, biting continually +are their pastime. They are a galling curse--a nuisance which no words +can describe. A lady _might_ go through all this if she had perfect +health and the endurance under punishment of a prize-fighter. Your +party may travel all those weary miles and strike a fortunate week of +pleasant weather, but you may, and more likely will, have a week when +it will rain dismally straight through without stopping. We found, on +looking up the statistics, that in an average season out of every +twenty-two days eighteen will always be stormy, lowering and dismal. +No, don't camp out unless you can make up your mind beforehand to every +kind of discomfort and inconvenience to mar all that is beautiful and +all that is pleasing. I speak of course of the localities I have known +in my three several attempts. _They say_ it is different in other parts +of the region. But when you have plank roads and first-class hotels and +all the modern conveniences, I don't call that going into the woods and +camping out. The real thing is not very much fun except in the +retrospect, when you can thank your stars that you got out alive. For +the greater part it is a snare and a delusion. But if you still pine +for the forests and streams and the free out-of-door life, I don't wish +to discourage you, and you know I never give advice. + + Your affectionate cousin, F.G. + + + + +UNREFORMED SPELLING. + + +A little note has come to me which gives an entertaining glimpse of the +average ability of a class. "John Stubbs x his mark" is obviously +"low-watermark," but there are levels between that and high-school +possibilities which we cannot often measure. The note is written on +fair white paper and had a white envelope. The writer is American, the +wife of a fisherman, and about thirty years old, though the handwriting +is like that of the old ladies of our grandmothers' time. It is given +of course, in the full sense, _literatim_, and is offered for the +encouragement--or the despair--of the Spelling Reform Association. The +little touch of pathos makes one read with respect: + + + June the 2. +Dear Madam + +Will you pleas to enclose the 100 dollars in an envelope, so that the +little boy wont loose it: the little dog was too years old the first of +May: and my babey too the 24 of April, they have always ben together +and he is verey intelegent indead and you can learn him eneything you +would wish to fealing asuared he will receve everey kindness you have +the best wishes of + Mrs. Hattie ----. + +Perhaps it is well to add, the "100" means ten. The hero is a black +Skye, long-haired, plume-tailed and soft-eyed. What his views were upon +removal from the back alley of his youth to a well-appointed though by +no means luxurious home he never said, but his investigation was +comically thorough, winding up in dumb amaze at the discovery of +himself in a long mirror. His experience of feminine humanity being +limited to the variety that rolls its sleeves above its elbows and +comports itself accordingly, he bitterly resented good clothes, +transferred his affections to the housemaids, and only much coaxing and +much sugar could win his heart for his new mistress. + +"The little boy" had dubbed him "Penny," which hardly suited his silken +attire and his little haughty, imperious ways; so, though the children +will still call him "Penny-wise" and "Four Farthings," the mistress +finds nothing less than "Pendennis" due to his dignity.--C.B.M. + + + + +OUR NEW VISITORS. + + +I should like to have Mr. Burroughs or some of our naturalists write +one of their pleasant papers and explain the mystery of the +wood-thrush's advent in our gardens and upon our lawns. Until a year +ago the wood-thrush was not one of the birds which ever raised its note +in our pleasure-grounds. We heard them in the woods, and looked at +them, when we intruded upon their privacy, with that sort of shyness +with which we watch strangers. We knew their "wood-notes wild," and +admired their plumage, but they did not inspire the same feeling as +their cousin the robin. But a year ago all at once here was the thrush. +Nobody could tell when he came, how he came or why he came. It seemed +an accident, for there was but one pair: it was as if through innocence +or ignorance, instead of building their nests in their old chosen +haunts, they had wandered away and lost themselves in the spacious +grounds of a gentleman's country-seat. They had no dismay, no doubts, +however: they took possession of the lawn with the utmost boldness. +They were rarely out of sight, hopping from morning until night about +the turf, flying from tree to tree with their impulsive movements, more +graceful than the robins. They were never silent, uttering perpetually +their mellow flute-like cry and singing their simple but ecstatic +melody. + +That was last year; and this year, 1880, the thrushes are everywhere in +this Connecticut village by the Sound. Their orange-and-tawny backs +gleam in the sunshine from morning until night. There are numbers of +them. Their manners are very marked. They have quite the air of +conquerors. All the other birds yield them precedence, and they +positively domineer over the pugnacious little English sparrow, who is +content to keep in the background and watch his chance when +feeding-time comes. + +And of all the curious things about them, what seems most inexplicable +is their tameness. They have no mistrust, but eye you with an +intelligent, knowing look while bringing their young to feed within +half a dozen feet of you. They perch on the croquet-arches in the midst +of a noisy game. They sing directly over your head with the utmost +spirit and vivacity, hardly ceasing all the forenoon, and again +bursting out toward evening and maintaining their song until every +other bird's lay is hushed in the twilight. White of Selborne would +have delighted in such a freak on the part of these pretty gay +strangers, who have left secluded swampy haunts, the deep dells where +the blackberries twine and the daisies and clover blossom, for our +close-cut lawns and elm- and willow-shaded nooks.--A.T. + + + + +LITERATURE OF THE DAY. + + +Alexander Pope. By Leslie Stephen. (English Men-of-Letters Series.) New +York: Harper & Brothers. + +The interest of this series, which increases rather than diminishes--as +one might have feared would be the case--with each succeeding volume, +lies very much in the fact that the list of writers, almost as long and +varied as that of the subjects, is a representative one. It comprises +men who have won distinction in different departments--as novelists, +historians, scholars, scientific expounders--but who here meet in the +common field of biographical criticism and work together under the same +limitations and conditions. Hence their performances give us not so +much a measure of their individual powers as of the tone of thought and +intellectual depth of the class to which they belong. However diverse +their abilities and special fields of observation or research, their +general range of knowledge, methods of study and ideas of life are very +much the same. They are collectively "men of culture," as the writers +of Queen Anne's time were "wits," and it is the qualities associated +with that term, rather than any distinct gifts or characteristics, that +are here called into play. Mr. Trollope's _Thackeray_ was perhaps an +exception--a black spot on the otherwise immaculate whiteness. In a +different way the general effect would have been still more seriously +impaired if Mr. Ruskin's co-operation had been invited. The +outcroppings of a vulgar egotism might indicate a substratum necessary +to be taken into account, but it would have been a clear loss of labor +to follow the leadings of any eccentric vein. One might wonder at the +absence of Mr. Matthew Arnold, the high priest of culture; but we have +to remember that Mr. Arnold is solicitous to stand apart, that he holds +up ideals which he is careful to inform us are not those of his time, +and that he is fastidious in selecting a point of view where he cannot +be jostled, with perspectives to which no vision but his own can +accommodate itself. His culture may represent that of the future, but +certainly does not typify that of the present. + +Mr. Leslie Stephen, on the contrary, might very well stand as a type of +his class both in its positive and negative qualities. He, more than +any of his confreres, is a product of culture. Unlike the greater +number of them, he has no special talent, or pet object of enthusiasm, +or erratic tendencies. He is a trained critic, and is "nothing if not +critical." His coolness is a real coolness, not the effect of any +"toning down" for the occasion, as we may suspect to have been the case +with Mr. Froude and Mr. Goldwin Smith. His knowledge is accurate, his +judgments are sound, his taste is seldom at fault, his style is +faultless and colorless, he never attempts what he is unable to do well +and without any appearance of strain. Though he may have given more +attention to the literature of the eighteenth century than to that of +any other period, one feels that he might safely have been entrusted +with the preparation of any volume of this series. It was probably from +a sense of fitness, not by mere chance, that he was selected to write +the initial volume, which pitched the key for those that were to +follow, and that so far he is the only writer who has been called upon +for a second contribution. + +His task in the present instance has been much less easy and simple +than that which he before undertook. In the case of Johnson he had only +to select and condense from material so copious and authentic as left +no question of fact or problem of criticism unsettled. Pope's career, +on the other hand, after all the research that has been spent upon it, +is full of obscurities; his character, while it invites, seems to +evade, analysis; even his rank and exact position in literature cannot +be said to be conclusively determined. It is needless to say that Mr. +Stephen has been diligent and skilful in examining and summarizing +whatever facts relating to his subject have been brought to light by +recent or early investigation; that he weighs all the evidence with +strict impartiality, and, when it is insufficient, is content to +suspend judgment without resorting to conjecture; or that his views +both on points of conduct and literary questions, if not marked by any +striking originality, show clear and vigorous thinking and are stated +in a way that provokes no impatience or captious dissent. The interest +of the narrative is well sustained, and the general impression left by +it that of a report made by an expert on documents that needed to be +thoroughly sifted in order that the issues which had been raised might +be succinctly set forth and fully apprehended. Further than this Mr. +Stephen does not pretend to go. His report is preliminary, not final. +No matter previously left uncertain is here determined. Instead of an +added knowledge, we are only made more sensible of our former +ignorance. Pope's figure, far from coming more distinctly into view, +seems to have receded and grown more vague. Certain traits have perhaps +been made more noticeable than before, but those essential elements of +character which would define, explain, reconcile, and enable us to +conceive the combination as a unit, have eluded observation. + +This is, of course, a natural result of the gaps and contradictions in +the evidence, the lack especially of those minute details which are not +only necessary links, but often the most suggestive features, in a +record of facts or delineation of character. And if it be urged that a +deeper insight would have in some measure supplied this deficiency, the +answer can only be that we have no right to expect from any man the +exercise of powers which he does not possess or affect to +possess--powers which, in a case like this, would need to be of the +finest and rarest kind. We may, however, fairly regret that Mr. Stephen +has not availed himself of a resource that lay within his reach for +making the accessories of his picture more brilliant and effective, +with the possible incidental result of throwing a stronger light on the +principal figure. Whatever else may be debated about Pope, no one would +deny that he was pre-eminently the man of his time--not only its most +conspicuous figure, but the very embodiment of its ideals. He suited it +and it suited him. Hence the fulness and in a certain sense perfection +of his work, the fact that he has given his name to an epoch as well as +a school, and consequently the important place which he still retains +in the history of literature. Men who were certainly not his inferiors +in intellectual power lived in the same age, partook of its influence +and contributed to its achievements; but they were not so thoroughly at +home in it: their best qualities were stunted, rather than developed, +by its soil and atmosphere. Dryden, one may safely say, would have been +greater had he lived earlier, Fielding had he lived later. But one +cannot imagine Pope thriving in any other air or producing equal work +under different influences. The qualities most esteemed by his +contemporaries he possessed in a superlative degree; his limitations +were common to the society in which he moved, and neither he nor it was +conscious of them as such; consequently, what would have been +impediments to a different nature were to his means of free and +spontaneous action. And not only does he represent the ideas of his +age, but he depicted its types and manners. In this respect he is the +link between the comic dramatists and the novelists, between Congreve +and Fielding. The wits, the beaux, the fine ladies, the Grub Street +drudges of the reign of Anne, whatever be the fidelity or other merits +of the portraitures, are more familiar to us in the satires of Pope +than as reflected in any other mirror. For these reasons Pope is one of +the last men who can be studied to advantage from a single point of +view or in a detached position. We need to understand not only his +personal relations but his general affinities with the men and events +of his time--of that world, at least, of which he was the centre. True, +the period is better known to readers generally than almost any other. +But it is not a copious accumulation of facts or a labored +analysis--for which there would have been no space--that we miss in Mr. +Stephen's book, but such groupings and irradiating touches as might +have given us a vivid glimpse, if only a glimpse, of the whole field. +Yet in lamenting that this much is not given us we are perhaps making +the mistake before noticed, of demanding from a given source what it +could not supply. We are driven back, therefore, on the reflection how +much the slightest things in art depend on inspiration, on original +power--how immeasurable the distance is between the man of culture and +the man of genius. + +Samuel Lover: A Biographical Sketch. With Selections from his Writings +and Correspondence. By Andrew James Symington. New York: Harper & +Brothers. + +The memory of so genial and popular a writer as Lover ought to be kept +as green as possible, and Mr. Symington has done well to embody his +Loveriana in a short life of the Irish humorist. The new material +brought forth is slender, consisting simply of a few letters and ten +short poems, not of his best; but it was worth publishing, and Mr. +Symington has the advantage, in treating of Lover, of writing from +personal knowledge. He has rather slurred over the earlier part of +Lover's career, apparently from a fear of trespassing on the preserves +of a longer biography previously published; which is a pity, as his +sketch will have most interest for readers who come fresh to the +subject. Even those whose curiosity in regard to the writer has not +been stirred by reading his works may get a very good idea of them from +the selections printed here. The book is not a critical study: it +enters into no details or analysis of Lover's character. It is simply a +hurried outline of his life, interspersed with songs and stories which +go a good way to make up for the meagreness of personal anecdote, and +ending with some friendly letters and short notes written by Lover +during the last few years of his life and addressed to Mr. Symington. +Most of these letters were written in poor health from the Isle of +Wight or Jersey, to which places he was sent by the doctors. They are +not of the brilliant or gossipy order, but they are admirable in their +good colloquial English and cheerful, unaffected style. Lover was a man +of great activity of mind, combined with warm affections. His +life-story was not very romantic, but it was a wholesome and pleasant +one. When young he was deeply attached to an English girl, with whom, +though they were separated (Mr. Symington does not say from what +cause), he maintained through life a warm friendship. The young lady +married, and Lover consoled himself and was married twice, each time, +it appears, very happily. His letters contain many little domestic +allusions, reporting his own occupations and those of "the good little +wife" at their fireside in Kent or away at the shore, where they look +back with regret to their own country-house. Lover had a warm +attachment to home, the house as well as the inmates. "I cannot tell +you," he writes from the Isle of Wight, "how much I have been put off +my balance by my exile from my own house. For a time one is willing to +make, for health's sake, a sacrifice of domestic comfort and give up +the pleasant habits one can indulge in in one's own home; but to lead +for months and months a lodging-house life is very miserable: it +benumbs the best of our faculties; the edge of enjoyment is blunted. +Music is sweeter within the compass of your own walls; the book is +pleasanter taken from the familiar shelf of your own library; in one's +own studio the habit of happy occupation has made an atmosphere that +has a charm in it." + +Gifted with a rare variety of talents, Lover heartily enjoyed the +exercise of each, and found his chief pleasure in their development. He +worked incessantly at painting, writing or musical composition--worked +for love of the work, not from uneasy effort or outside pressure. In +this respect he presents a happy contrast to his fellow-countryman and +brother-humorist Charles Lever, whose biography, published some months +ago, left a painful impression on the mind in its view of a man of +genuine talent and attractive qualities living in a feverish way and +writing constantly against his inclination, too often below his powers. +As writers the two stand side by side. Lover had more versatility of +talent, taking him partly outside the field of literature. He made the +most of his powers: nothing which he has written gives the idea that he +might have done it better. He was a poet, which Lever was not, and had +an easy command of versification and language. His songs, while they +show no high poetic qualities, are excellent of their kind, and his +facility in turning an impromptu verse is shown in this scrap from the +book before us in praise of a friend and physician: + + Whene'er your vitality + Is feeble in quality, + And you fear a fatality + May end the strife, + Then Dr. Joe Dickson + Is the man I would fix on + For putting new wicks on + The lamp of life. + +In his stories Lover relied less on drollery of incident and indulged +more in play upon words than Lever, but the humor of both is +essentially of the same kind and drawn from the same source. Compared +with much of our American humor, it has a spontaneousness, and above +all a lovable quality, that ours lacks. The boy who has laughed over +_Lorrequer_ and _Handy Andy_ is apt to look back at them not merely +with amusement, but with a feeling of _camaraderie_ and even +tenderness. He has laughed with them as well as at them--has somehow +gained through the laughter a glimpse of the writer which inspires +liking and respect. + +New England Bygones. By E.H. Arr. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co. + +E.H. Arr has produced a very pleasant book by a simple effort of +memory. By letting the mind's eye travel back carefully and vigilantly +over the scenes of a youth passed in a rural part of New England, and +taking notes of its journey, she has made a graphic picture of life in +that corner of the country forty years ago. Not a few men and women who +were "raised" there have carried away, bit for bit, the same +reminiscences, so exactly does one New England landscape resemble +another, in details of foreground at least. The same description of +orchard, stone walls or old well will fit any farm in Maine or +Massachusetts, and fond recollection sniffs the same odor of sputtering +doughnuts through the kitchen-door, whether it carries one back to the +Green hills or the White. Recollections are alike, but impressions +differ, one class of minds retaining the sense of bareness and gloom +which is so continually insisted upon in some New England books, and +others, as in the book before us, dwelling lovingly upon the wholesome +flavor, pungent yet mellow, which gives New England country life a +distinctive charm unlike anything else either in this or the +mother-country. Even the Sunday is pleasant to look back upon to E.H. +Arr; which is probably one instance of the fact that retrospective +pleasure is sometimes totally disproportionate to present enjoyment. + +The author is more successful in her treatment of landscape than of +figures. Her village people are shown too much under one aspect: she +possesses none of the humor which dares to take the most opposite +traits, the grotesque and the beautiful alike, and blend them in a +sound, artistic whole. Her characters are evidently drawn from life, +but we miss the many little touches which would make them alive. An +essay on "Old Trees" contains some of the best work in the book, with +its charming sketch of an old orchard, bringing to view the twisted +trees and even the irregularities of the ground, and to the palate a +sharp after-taste of yellowing apples picked up from tufts of matted +grass. After all, the New England of the writer's bygones does not +differ essentially from the New England of to-day, though a more vivid +study of life would perhaps have brought out more contrasts between the +two. + + + + +_Books Received_. + + +Homo Sum: A Novel. By Georg Ebers. From the German by Clara Bell. New +York: William S. Gottsberger. + +Unto the Third and Fourth Generation: A Study. By Helen Campbell. New +York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert. + +Allaooddeen, a Tragedy, and Other Poems. By the author of "Constance," +etc. London: Smith, Elder & Co. + +Third-Term Politics: A Lecture. By Horace White. New York: Independent +Republican Association. + +The American Bicycler. By Charles E. Pratt. Illustrated. Boston: Press +of Rockwell & Churchill. + +Alva Vine; or, Art _versus_ Duty. By Henri Gordon. New York: American +News Company. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lippincott's Magazine of Popular +Literature and Science, Vol. 26, September 1880, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIPPINCOTT'S MAGAZINE *** + +***** This file should be named 14842.txt or 14842.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/8/4/14842/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Keith M. 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