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diff --git a/18304.txt b/18304.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ccbede0 --- /dev/null +++ b/18304.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18597 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of American Adventures, by Julian Street + +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: American Adventures + A Second Trip 'Abroad at home' + +Author: Julian Street + +Illustrator: Wallace Morgan + +Release Date: May 3, 2006 [EBook #18304] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN ADVENTURES *** + + + + +Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Charleston is the last stronghold of a unified American +upper class; the last remaining American city in which Madeira and Port +and _noblesse oblige_ are fully and widely understood, and are employed +according to the best traditions] + + + + +AMERICAN ADVENTURES + +A SECOND TRIP "ABROAD AT HOME" BY + +JULIAN STREET + + +WITH PICTORIAL SIDELIGHTS +BY +WALLACE MORGAN + + + + +NEW YORK +THE CENTURY CO. +1917 + + + + +Copyright, 1917, by +THE CENTURY CO. + +Copyright, 1916, 1917, by +P.F. COLLIER & SON, INC. + +_Published, November, 1917_ + + + + +TO MY AUNT +AND SECOND MOTHER + +JULIA ROSS LOW + + + + +FOREWORD + + +Though much has been written of the South, it seems to me that this part +of our country is less understood than any other part. Certainly the +South, itself, feels that this is true. Its relationship to the North +makes me think of nothing so much as that of a pretty, sensitive wife, +to a big, strong, amiable, if somewhat thick-skinned husband. These two +had one great quarrel which nearly resulted in divorce. He thought her +headstrong; she thought him overbearing. The quarrel made her ill; she +has been for some time recovering. But though they have settled their +difficulties and are living again in amity together, and though he, +man-like, has half forgotten that they ever quarreled at all, now that +peace reigns in the house again, _she_ has _not_ forgotten. There still +lingers in her mind the feeling that he never really understood her, +that he never understood her problems and her struggles, and that he +never will. And it seems to me further that, as is usually the case with +wives who consider themselves misunderstood, the fault is partly, but by +no means altogether, hers. He, upon one hand, is inclined to pass the +matter off with a: "There, there! It's all over now. Just be good and +forget it!" while she, in the depths of her heart, retains a little bit +of wistfulness, a little wounded feeling, which causes her to say to +herself: "Thank God our home was not broken up, but--I wish that he +could be a little more considerate, sometimes, in view of all that I +have suffered." + +For my part, I am the humble but devoted friend of the family. Having +known him first, having been from boyhood his companion, I may perhaps +have sympathized with him in the beginning. But since I have come to +know her, too, that is no longer so. And I do think I know her--proud, +sensitive, high-strung, generous, captivating beauty that she is! +Moreover, after the fashion of many another "friend of the family," I +have fallen in love with her. Loving her from afar, I send her as a +nosegay these chapters gathered in her own gardens. If some of the +flowers are of a kind for which she does not care, if some have thorns, +even if some are only weeds, I pray her to remember that from what was +growing in her gardens I was forced to make my choice, and to believe +that, whatever the defects of my bouquet, it is meant to be a bunch of +roses. + + J.S. +_October 1, 1917._ + + The Author makes his grateful acknowledgments to the old friends + and the new ones who assisted him upon this journey. And once more + he desires to express his gratitude to the friend and + fellow-traveler whose illustrations are far from being his only + contribution to this volume. + + --J.S. +New York, October, 1917. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +THE BORDERLAND + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I ON JOURNEYS THROUGH THE STATES 3 + + II A BALTIMORE EVENING 13 + + III WHERE THE CLIMATES MEET 27 + + IV TRIUMPHANT DEFEAT 38 + + V TERRAPIN AND THINGS 44 + + VI DOUGHOREGAN MANOR AND THE CARROLLS 53 + + VII A RARE OLD TOWN 69 + + VIII WE MEET THE HAMPTON GHOST 80 + + IX ARE WE STANDARDIZED? 89 + + X HARPER'S FERRY AND JOHN BROWN 97 + + XI THE VIRGINIAS AND THE WASHINGTONS 105 + + XII I RIDE A HORSE 117 + + XIII INTO THE OLD DOMINION 136 + + XIV CHARLOTTESVILLE AND MONTICELLO 150 + + XV THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 159 + + XVI FOX-HUNTING IN VIRGINIA 169 + + XVII "A CERTAIN PARTY" 186 + + XVIII THE LEGACY OF HATE 193 + + XIX "YOU-ALL" AND OTHER SECTIONAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS 203 + + XX IDIOMS AND ARISTOCRACY 214 + + XXI THE CONFEDERATE CAPITAL 222 + + XXII RANDOM RICHMOND NOTES 233 + + XXIII JEDGE CRUTCHFIELD'S COT 242 + + XXIV NORFOLK AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD 248 + + XXV COLONEL TAYLOR AND GENERAL LEE 258 + + +THE HEART OF THE SOUTH + + XXVI RALEIGH AND JOSEPHUS DANIELS 273 + + XXVII ITEMS FROM "THE OLD NORTH STATE" 285 + + XXVIII UNDER ST. MICHAEL'S CHIMES 296 + + XXIX HISTORY AND ARISTOCRACY 312 + + XXX POLITICS, A NEWSPAPER AND ST. CECILIA 326 + + XXXI "GULLA" AND THE BACK COUNTRY 338 + + XXXII OUT OF THE PAST 349 + + XXXIII ALIVE ATLANTA 356 + + XXXIV GEORGIA JOURNALISM 369 + + XXXV SOME ATLANTA INSTITUTIONS 384 + + XXXVI A BIT OF RURAL GEORGIA 392 + + XXXVII A YOUNG METROPOLIS 403 + +XXXVIII BUSY BIRMINGHAM 417 + + XXXIX AN ALLEGORY OF ACHIEVEMENT 426 + + XL THE ROAD TO ARCADY 440 + + XLI A MISSISSIPPI TOWN 447 + + XLII OLD TALES AND A NEW GAME 458 + + XLIII OUT OF THE LONG AGO 467 + + XLIV THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND HIM 474 + + XLV VICKSBURG OLD AND NEW 482 + + XLVI SHREDS AND PATCHES 494 + + XLVII THE BAFFLING MISSISSIPPI 500 + + XLVIII OLD RIVER DAYS 508 + + XLIX WHAT MEMPHIS HAS ENDURED 518 + + L MODERN MEMPHIS 535 + + +FARTHEST SOUTH + + LI BEAUTIFUL SAVANNAH 553 + + LII MISS "JAX" AND SOME FLORIDA GOSSIP 572 + + LIII PASSIONATE PALM BEACH 579 + + LIV ASSORTED AND RESORTED FLORIDA 595 + + LV A DAY IN MONTGOMERY 603 + + LVI THE CITY OF THE CREOLE 619 + + LVII HISTORY, THE CREOLE, AND HIS DUELS 629 + + LVIII FROM ANTIQUES TO PIRATES 648 + + LIX ANTOINE'S AND MARDI GRAS 663 + + LX FINALE 675 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + FACING PAGE +Charleston is the last stronghold of a unified American upper class; +the last remaining American city in which Madeira and Port and +_noblesse oblige_ are fully and widely understood, and are employed +according to the best traditions _Frontispiece_ + +"Railroad tickets!" said the baggageman with exaggerated patience 8 + +Can most travellers, I wonder, enjoy as I do a solitary walk, by +night, through the mysterious streets of a strange city? 17 + +Coming out of my slumber with the curious and unpleasant sense of +being stared at, I found his eyes fixed upon me 24 + +Mount Vernon Place is the centre of Baltimore 32 + +If she is shopping for a dinner party, she may order the costly and +aristocratic diamond-back terrapin, sacred in Baltimore as is the +Sacred Cod in Boston 48 + +Doughoregan Manor--the house was a buff-colored brick 65 + +I began to realize that there was no one coming 80 + +Harper's Ferry is an entrancing old town; a drowsy place piled up +beautifully yet carelessly upon terraced roads clinging to steep +hillsides 100 + +"What's the matter with him?" I asked, stopping 117 + +When I came down, dressed for riding, my companion was making a +drawing; the four young ladies were with him, none of them in riding +habits 124 + +Claymont Court is one of the old Washington houses 132 + +Chatham, the old Fitzhugh house, now the residence of Mark Sullivan 148 + +Monticello stands on a lofty hilltop, with vistas, between trees of +neighboring valleys, hills, and mountains 157 + +Like Venice, the University of Virginia should first be seen by +moonlight 168 + +One party was stationed on the top of an old-time mail-coach, +bearing the significant initials "F.F.V." 180 + +The Piedmont Hunt Race Meet 189 + +The Southern negro is the world's peasant supreme 200 + +The Country Club of Virginia, out to the west of Richmond 216 + +Judge Crutchfield 228 + +Negro women squatting upon boxes in old shadowy lofts stem the +tobacco leaves 237 + +The Judge: "What did he do, Mandy?" 244 + +Some genuine old-time New York ferryboats help to complete the +illusion that Norfolk is New York 253 + +"The Southern statesman who serves his section best, serves his +country best" 280 + +St. Philip's is the more beautiful for the open space before it 300 + +Opposite St. Philip's, a perfect example of the rude architecture of +an old French village 305 + +In the doorway and gates of the Smyth house, in Legare Street, I was +struck with a Venetian suggestion 316 + +Nor is the Charleston background a mere arras of recollection 320 + +Charleston has a stronger, deeper-rooted city entity than all the +cities of the Middle West rolled into one 328 + +The interior is the oldest looking thing in the United States--Goose +Creek Church 344 + +A reminder of the Chicago River--Atlanta 353 + +With the whole Metropolitan Orchestra playing dance music all night +long 368 + +The office buildings are city office buildings, and are sufficiently +numerous to look very much at home 376 + +The negro roof-garden, Odd Fellows' Building, Atlanta 385 + +I was never so conscious, as at the time of our visit to the Burge +Plantation, of the superlative soft sweetness of the spring 396 + +The planters cease their work 400 + +Birmingham--the thin veil of smoke from far-off iron furnaces +softens the city's serrated outlines 408 + +Birmingham practices unremittingly the pestilential habit of +"cutting in" at dances 424 + +Gigantic movements and mutations, Niagara-like noises, great bursts +of flame like falling fragments from the sun 437 + +A shaggy, unshaven, rawboned man, gray-haired and collarless, sat +near the window 444 + +Gaze upon the character called Daniel Voorhees Pike! 456 + +The houses were full of the suggestion of an easy-going home life +and an informal hospitality 465 + +Her hands looked very white and small against his dark coat 480 + +As water flows down the hills of Vicksburg to the river, so the +visitor's thoughts flow down to the great spectacular, mischievous, +dominating stream 485 + +Over the tenement roofs one catches sight of sundry other buildings +of a more self-respecting character 492 + +Vicksburg negroes 497 + +On some of the boats negro fish-markets are conducted 504 + +The old Klein house 512 + +Citizens go at midday to the square 520 + +Hanging in the air above the middle of the stream 536 + +These small parks give Savannah the quality which differentiates it +from all other American cities 556 + +The Thomas house, in Franklin Square 561 + +You will see them having tea, and dancing under the palm fronds of +the cocoanut grove 576 + +Cocktail hour at The Breakers 581 + +Nowhere is the sand more like a deep warm dust of yellow gold 588 + +The couples on the platform were "ragging" 600 + +Harness held together by that especial Providence which watches over +negro mending 613 + +It was a very jolly fair 616 + +The mysterious old Absinthe House, founded 1799 620 + +St. Anthony's Garden 632 + +Courtyard of the old Orleans Hotel 641 + +The little lady who sits behind the desk 656 + +The lights are always lowered at Antoine's when the spectacular Cafe +Boulot Diabolique is served 664 + +Passing between the brilliantly illuminated buildings, the Mardi +Gras parades are glorious sights for children from eight to eighty +years of age 672 + + + + +THE BORDERLAND + + O magnet-South! O glistening, perfumed South! + O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse and love! good and evil! + O all dear to me! + + WALT WHITMAN. + + + + +AMERICAN ADVENTURES + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ON JOURNEYS THROUGH THE STATES + + On journeys through the States we start, + ... We willing learners of all, teachers of all, lovers of all. + + We dwell a while in every city and town ... + + --WALT WHITMAN. + + + +Had my companion and I never crossed the continent together, had we +never gone "abroad at home," I might have curbed my impatience at the +beginning of our second voyage. But from the time we returned from our +first journey, after having spent some months in trying, as some one put +it, to "discover America," I felt the gnawings of excited appetite. The +vast sweep of the country continually suggested to me some great +delectable repast: a banquet spread for a hundred million guests; and +having discovered myself unable, in the time first allotted, to devour +more than part of it--a strip across the table, as it were, stretching +from New York on one side to San Francisco on the other--I have hungered +impatiently for more. Indeed, to be quite honest, I should like to try +to eat it all. + +Months before our actual departure for the South the day for leaving was +appointed; days before we fixed upon our train; hours before I bought my +ticket. And then, when my trunks had left the house, when my taxicab was +ordered and my faithful battered suitcase stood packed to bulging in the +hall, my companion, the Illustrator, telephoned to say that certain +drawings he must finish before leaving were not done, that he would be +unable to go with me that afternoon, as planned, but must wait until the +midnight train. + +Had the first leap been a long one I should have waited for him, but the +distance from New York to the other side of Mason and Dixon's Line is +short, and I knew that he would join me on the threshold of the South +next morning. Therefore I told him I would leave that afternoon as +originally proposed, and gave him, in excuse, every reason I could think +of, save the real one: namely, my impatience. I told him that I wished +to make the initial trip by day to avoid the discomforts of the sleeping +car, that I had engaged hotel accommodations for the night by wire, that +friends were coming down to see me off. + +Nor were these arguments without truth. I believe in telling the truth. +The truth is good enough for any one at any time--except, perhaps, when +there is a point to be carried, and even then some vestige of it should, +if convenient, be preserved. Thus, for example, it is quite true that I +prefer the conversation of my fellow travelers, dull though it may be, +to the stertorous sounds they make by night; so, too, if I had not +telegraphed for rooms, it was merely because I had forgotten to--and +that I remedied immediately; while as to the statement that friends were +to see me off, that was absolutely and literally accurate. Friends had, +indeed, signified their purpose to meet me at the station for last +farewells, and had, furthermore, remarked upon the very slight show of +enthusiasm with which I heard the news. + +The fact is, I do not like to be seen off. Least of all, do I like to be +seen off by those who are dear to me. If the thing must be done, I +prefer it to be done by strangers--committees from chambers of commerce +and the like, who have no interest in me save the hope that I will live +to write agreeably of their city--of the civic center, the fertilizer +works, and the charming new abattoir. Seeing me off for the most +practical of reasons, such gentlemen are invariably efficient. They +provide an equipage, and there have even been times when, in the final +hurried moments, they have helped me to jam the last things into my +trunks and bags. One of them politely takes my suitcase, another kindly +checks my baggage, and all in order that a third, who is usually the +secretary of the chamber of commerce, may regale me with inspiring +statistics concerning the population of "our city," the seating capacity +of the auditorium, the number of banks, the amount of their clearings, +and the quantity of belt buckles annually manufactured. When the train +is ready we exchange polite expressions of regret at parting: +expressions reminiscent of those little speeches which the King of +England and the Emperor of Germany used to make at parting in the old +days before they found each other out and began dropping high explosives +on each other's roofs. + +Such a committee, feeling no emotion (except perhaps relief) at seeing +me depart, may be useful. Not so with friends and loved ones. Useful as +they may be in the great crises of life, they are but disturbing +elements in the small ones. Those who would die for us seldom check our +trunks. + +By this I do not mean to imply that either of the two delightful +creatures who came to the Pennsylvania Terminal to bid me good-by would +die for me. That one has lived for me and that both attempt to regulate +my conduct is more than enough. Hardly had I alighted from my taxicab, +hardly had the redcap seized my suitcase, when, with sweet smiles and a +twinkling of daintily shod feet, they came. Fancy their having arrived +ahead of me! Fancy their having come like a pair of angels through the +rain to see me off! Enough to turn a man's head! It did turn mine; and I +noticed that, as they approached, the heads of other men were turning +too. + +Flattered to befuddlement, I greeted them and started with them +automatically in the direction of the concourse, forgetting entirely the +driver of my taxicab, who, however, took in the situation and set up a +great shout--whereat I returned hastily and overpaid him. + +This accomplished, I rejoined my companions and, with a radiant +dark-haired girl at one elbow and a blonde, equally delectable, at the +other, moved across the concourse. + +How gay they were as we strolled along! How amusing were their +prophecies of adventures destined to befall me in the South. Small +wonder that I took no thought of whither I was going. + +Presently, having reached the wall at the other side of the great +vaulted chamber, we stopped. + +"Which train, boss?" asked the porter who had meekly followed. + +Train? I had forgotten about trains. The mention of the subject +distracted my attention for the moment from the _Loreleien_, stirred my +drugged sense of duty, and reminded me that I had trunks to check. + +My suggestion that I leave them briefly for this purpose was lightly +brushed aside. + +"Oh, no!" they cried. "We shall go with you." + +I gave in at once--one always does with them--and inquired of the porter +the location of the baggage room. He looked somewhat fatigued as he +replied: + +"It's away back there where we come from, boss." + +It was a long walk; in a garden, with no train to catch, it would have +been delightful. + +"Got your tickets?" suggested the porter as we passed the row of grilled +windows. He had evidently concluded that I was irresponsible. + +As I had them, we continued on our way, and presently achieved the +baggage room, where they stood talking and laughing, telling me of the +morning's shopping expedition--hat-hunting, they called it--in the +rain. I fancy that we might have been there yet had not a baggageman, +perhaps divining that I had become a little bit distrait and that I had +business to transact, rapped smartly on the iron counter with his punch +and demanded: + +"Baggage checked?" + +Turning, not without reluctance, from a pair of violet eyes and a pair +of the most mysterious gray, I began to fumble in my pockets for the +claim checks. + +"How long shall you stay in Baltimore?" asked the girl with the gray +eyes. + +"Yes, indeed!" I answered, still searching for the checks. + +"That doesn't make sense," remarked the blue-eyed girl as I found the +checks and handed them to the baggageman. "She asked how long you'd stay +in Baltimore, and you said: 'Yes, indeed.'" + +"About a week I meant to say." + +"Oh, I don't believe a week will be enough," said Gray-eyes. + +"We can't stay longer," I declared. "We must keep pushing on. There are +so many places in the South to see." + +"My sister has just been there, and she--" + +"Where to?" demanded the insistent baggageman. + +"Why, Baltimore, of course," I said. Had he paid attention to our +conversation he might have known. + +"You were saying," reminded Violet-eyes, "that your sister--?" + +"She just came home from there, and says that--" + +"Railroad ticket!" said the baggageman with exaggerated patience. + +I began again to feel in various pockets. + +"She says," continued Gray-eyes, "that she never met more charming +people or had better things to eat. She loves the southern accent too." + +I don't know how the tickets got into my upper right vest pocket; I +never carry tickets there; but that is where I found them. + +"Do you like it?" asked the other girl of me. + +"Like what?" + +"Why, the southern accent." + +"Any valuation?" the baggageman demanded. + +"Yes," I answered them both at once. + +"Oh, you _do_?" cried Violet-eyes, incredulously. + +"Why, yes; I think--" + +"Put down the amount and sign here," the baggageman directed, pushing a +slip toward me and placing a pencil in my hand. + +I obeyed. The baggageman took the slip and went off to a little desk. I +judged that he had finished with me for the moment. + +"But don't you think," my fair inquisitor continued, "that the southern +girls pile on the accent awfully, because they know it pleases men?" + +"Perhaps," I said. "But then, what better reason could they have for +doing so?" + +"Listen to that!" she cried to her companion. "Did you ever hear such +egotism?" + +"He's nothing but a man," said Gray-eyes scornfully. "I wouldn't be a +man for--" + +"A dollar and eighty-five cents," declared the baggageman. + +I paid him. + +"I wouldn't be a man for anything!" my fair friend finished as we +started to move off. + +"I wouldn't have you one," I told her, opening the concourse door. + +"_Hay!_" shouted the baggageman. "Here's your ticket and your checks!" + +I returned, took them, and put them in my pocket. Again we proceeded +upon our way. I was glad to leave the baggageman. + +This time the porter meant to take no chances. + +"What train, boss?" he asked. + +"The Congressional Limited." + +"You got jus' four minutes." + +"Goodness!" cried Gray-eyes. + +"I thought," said Violet-eyes as we accelerated our pace, "that you +prided yourself on always having time to spare?" + +"Usually I do," I answered, "but in this case--" + +"What car?" the porter interrupted tactfully. + +Again I felt for my tickets. This time they were in my change pocket. I +can't imagine how I came to put them there. + +"But in this case--_what_?" The violet eyes looked threatening as their +owner put the question. + +"Seat seven, car three," I told the porter firmly as we approached the +gate. Then, turning to my dangerous and lovely cross-examiner: "In this +case I am unfortunate, for there is barely time to say good-by." + +There are several reasons why I don't believe in railway station kisses. +Kisses given in public are at best but skimpy little things, suggesting +the swift peck of a robin at a peach, whereas it is truer of kissing +than of many other forms of industry that what is worth doing at all is +worth doing well. Yet I knew that one of these enchantresses expected to +be kissed, and that the other very definitely didn't. Therefore I kissed +them both. + +Then I bolted toward the gate. + +"Tickets!" demanded the gateman, stopping me. + +At last I found them in the inside pocket of my overcoat. I don't know +how they got there. I never carry tickets in that pocket. + +As the train began to move I looked at my watch and, discovering it to +be three minutes fast, set it right. That is the sort of train the +Congressional Limited is. A moment later we were roaring through the +blackness of the Hudson River tunnel. + +There is something fine in the abruptness of the escape from New York +City by the Pennsylvania Railroad. From the time you enter the station +you are as good as gone. There is no progress between the city's +tenements, with untidy bedding airing in some windows and fat old +slatterns leaning out from others to survey the sordidness and squalor +of the streets below. A swift plunge into darkness, some thundering +moments, and your train glides out upon the wide wastes of the New +Jersey meadows. The city is gone. You are even in another State. Far, +far behind, bathed in glimmering haze which gives them the appearance of +palaces in a mirage, you may see the tops of New York's towering +sky-scrapers, dwarfed yet beautified by distance. Outside the wide car +window the advertising sign-boards pass to the rear in steady parade, +shrieking in strong color of whiskies, tobaccos, pills, chewing gums, +cough drops, flours, hams, hotels, soaps, socks, and shows. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A BALTIMORE EVENING + + I felt her presence by its spell of might, + Stoop o'er me from above; + The calm, majestic presence of the night, + As of the one I love. + + --LONGFELLOW. + + +Before I went to Baltimore I had but two definite impressions connected +with the place: the first was of a tunnel, filled with coal gas, through +which trains pass beneath the city; the second was that when a +southbound train left Baltimore the time had come to think of cleaning +up, preparatory to reaching Washington. + +Arriving at Baltimore after dark, one gathers an impression of an +adequate though not impressive Union Station from which one emerges to a +district of good asphalted streets, the main ones wide and well lighted. +The Baltimore street lamps are large and very brilliant single globes, +mounted upon the tops of substantial metal columns. I do not remember +having seen lamps of the same pattern in any other city. It is a good +pattern, but there is one thing about it which is not good at all, and +that is the way the street names are lettered upon the sides of the +globes. Though the lettering is not large, it is large enough to be +read easily in the daytime against the globe's white surface, but to try +to read it at night is like trying to read some little legend printed +upon a blinding noon-day sun. I noticed this particularly because I +spent my first evening in wandering alone about the streets of +Baltimore, and wished to keep track of my route in order that I might +the more readily find my way back to the hotel. + +Can most travelers, I wonder, enjoy as I do a solitary walk, by night, +through the mysterious streets of a strange city? Do they feel the same +detached yet keen interest in unfamiliar highways, homes, and human +beings, the same sense of being a wanderer from another world, a +"messenger from Mars," a Harun-al-Rashid, or, if not one of these, an +imaginative adventurer like Tartarin? Do they thrill at the sight of an +ill-lighted street leading into a no-man's-land of menacing dark +shadows; at the promise of a glowing window puncturing the blackness +here or there; at the invitation of some open doorway behind which +unilluminated blackness hangs, threatening and tempting? Do they rejoice +in streets the names of which they have not heard before? Do they--as I +do--delight in irregularity: in the curious forms of roofs and spires +against the sky; in streets which run up hill or down; or which, instead +of being straight, have jogs in them, or curves, or interesting +intersections, at which other streets dart off from them obliquely, as +though in a great hurry to get somewhere? Do they love to emerge from a +street which is narrow, dim, and deserted, upon one which is wide, +bright, and crowded; and do they also like to leave a brilliant street +and dive into the darkness of some somber byway? Does a long row of +lights lure them, block by block, toward distances unknown? Are they +tempted by the unfamiliar signs on passing street cars? Do they yearn to +board those cars and be transported by them into the mystic caverns of +the night? And when they see strangers who are evidently going somewhere +with some special purpose, do they wish to follow; to find out where +these beings are going, and why? Do they wish to trail them, let the +trail lead to a prize fight, to a church sociable, to a fire, to a +fashionable ball, or to the ends of the world? + +For the traveler who does not know such sensations and such impulses as +these--who has not at times indulged in the joy of yielding to an +inclination of at least mildly fantastic character--I am profoundly +sorry. The blind themselves are not so blind as those who, seeing with +the physical eye, lack the eye of imagination. + +Residence streets like Chase and Biddle, in the blocks near where they +cross Charles Street, midway on its course between the Union Station and +Mount Vernon Place, are at night, even more than by day, full of the +suggestion of comfortable and settled domesticity. Their brick houses, +standing wall to wall and close to the sidewalk, speak of honorable age, +and, in some cases of a fine and ancient dignity. One fancies that in +many of these houses the best of old mahogany may be found, or, if not +that, then at least the fairly old and quite creditable furniture of the +period of the sleigh-back bed, the haircloth-covered rosewood sofa, and +the tall, narrow mirror between the two front windows of the drawing +room. + +Through the glass panels of street doors and beneath half-drawn window +shades the early-evening wayfarer may perceive a feeble glow as of +illuminating gas turned low; but by ten o'clock these lights have begun +to disappear, indicating--or so, at all events, I chose to believe--that +certain old ladies wearing caps and black silk gowns with old lace +fichus held in place by ancient cameos, have proceeded slowly, +rustlingly, upstairs to bed, accompanied by their cats. + +At Cathedral Street, a block or two from Charles, Biddle Street performs +a jog, dashing off at a tangent from its former course, while Chase +Street not only jogs and turns at the corresponding intersection, but +does so again, where, at the next corner, it meets at once with Park +Avenue and Berkeley Street. After this it runs but a short way and dies, +as though exhausted by its own contortions. + +Here, in a region of malformed city blocks--some of them pentagonal, +some irregularly quadrangular, some wedge-shaped--Howard Street sets +forth upon its way, running first southwest as far as Richmond Street, +then turning south and becoming, by degrees, an important thoroughfare. + +Somewhere near the beginning of Howard Street my attention was arrested +by shadowy forms in a dark window: furniture, andirons, chinaware, and +weapons of obsolete design: unmistakable signs of a shop in which +antiquities were for sale. After making mental note of the location of +this shop, I proceeded on my way, keeping a sharp lookout for other like +establishments. Nor was I to be disappointed. These birds of a feather +bear out the truth of the proverb by flocking together in Howard Street, +as window displays, faintly visible, informed me. + +Since we have come naturally to the subject of antiques, let us pause +here, under a convenient lamp-post, and discuss the matter further. + +Baltimore--as I found out later--is probably the headquarters for the +South in this trade. It has at least one dealer of Fifth Avenue rank, +located on Charles Street, and a number of humbler dealers in and near +Howard Street. Among the latter, two in particular interested me. One of +these--his name is John A. Williar--I have learned to trust. Not only +did I make some purchases of him while I was in Baltimore, but I have +even gone so far, since leaving there, as to buy from him by mail, +accepting his assurance that some article which I have not seen is, +nevertheless, what I want, and that it is "worth the price." + +At the other antique shop which interested me I made no purchases. The +stock on hand was very large, and if those who exhibited it to me made +no mistakes in differentiating between genuine antiques and copies, the +assortment of ancient furniture on sale in that establishment, when I +was there, would rank among the great collections of the world. + +However, human judgment is not infallible, and antique dealers sometimes +make mistakes, offering, so to speak, "new lamps for old." The eyesight +of some dealers may not be so good as that of others; or perhaps one +dealer does not know so well as another the difference between, say, an +old English Chippendale chair and a New York reproduction; or again, +perhaps, some dealers may be innocently unaware that there exist, in +this land of ours, certain large establishments wherein are manufactured +most extraordinary modern copies of the furniture of long ago. I have +been in one of these manufactories, and have there seen chairs of +Chippendale and Sheraton design which, though fresh from the workman's +hands, looked older than the originals from which they had been +plagiarized; also I recall a Jacobean refectory table, the legs of which +appeared to have been eaten half away by time, but which had, in +reality, been "antiqued" with a stiff wire brush. I mention this +because, in my opinion, antique dealers have a right to know that such +factories exist. + +What curious differences there are between the customs of one trade and +those of another. Compare, for instance, the dealer in old furniture +with the dealer in old automobiles. The latter, far from pronouncing a +machine of which he wishes to dispose "a genuine antique," will assure +you--and not always with a strict regard for truth--that it is +"practically as good as new." Or compare the seller of antiques with the +horse dealer. Can you imagine the latter's taking you up to some +venerable quadruped--let alone a three-year-old--and discoursing upon +its merits in some such manner as the following: + +"This is the oldest and most historic horse that has ever come into my +possession. Just look at it, sir! The farmer of whom I bought it assured +me that it was brought over by his ancestors in the _Mayflower_. The +place where I found it was used as Washington's headquarters during the +Revolutionary War, and it is known that Washington himself frequently +sat on this very horse. It was a favorite of his. For he was a large man +and he liked a big, comfortable, deep-seated horse, well braced +underneath, and having strong arms, so that he could tilt it back +comfortably against the wall, with its front legs off the floor, and--" + +But no! That won't do. It appears I have gotten mixed. However, you know +what I meant to indicate. I merely meant to show that a horse dealer +wouldn't talk about a horse as an antique dealer would talk about a +chair. Even if the horse was once actually ridden by the Father of his +Country, the dealer won't stress the point. You can't get him to admit +that a horse has reached years of discretion, let alone that it is one +hundred and forty-five years old, or so. It is this difference between +the horse dealer and the dealer in antiques which keeps us in the dark +to-day as to exactly which horses Washington rode and which he didn't +ride; although we know every chair he ever sat in, and every bed he ever +slept in, and every house he ever stopped in, and how he is said to have +caught his death of cold. + +Having thus wandered afield, let me now resume my nocturnal walk. + +Proceeding down Howard Street to Franklin, I judged by the signs I saw +about me--the conglomerate assortment of theaters, hotels, rathskellers, +bars, and brilliantly lighted drug stores--that here was the center of +the city's nighttime life. + +Not far from this corner is the Academy, a very spacious and somewhat +ancient theater, and although the hour was late, into the Academy I went +with a ticket for standing room. + +Arriving during an intermission, I had a good view of the auditorium. It +is reminiscent, in its interior "decoration," of the recently torn-down +Wallack's Theater in New York. The balcony is supported, after the old +fashion, by posts, and there are boxes the tops of which are draped with +tasseled curtains. It is the kind of theater which suggests traditions, +dust, and the possibility of fire and panic. + +After looking about me for a time, I drew from my pocket a pamphlet +which I had picked up in the hotel, and began to gather information +about the "Monumental City," as Baltimore sometimes calls +itself--thereby misusing the word, since "monumental" means, in one +sense, "enduring," and in another "pertaining to or serving as a +monument": neither of which ideas it is intended, in this instance, to +convey. What Baltimore intends to indicate is, not that it pertains to +monuments, but that monuments pertain to it: that it is a city in which +many monuments have been erected--as is indeed the pleasing fact. My +pamphlet informed me that the first monument to Columbus and the first +to George Washington were here put up, and that among the city's other +monuments was one to Francis Scott Key. I had quite forgotten that it +was at Baltimore that Key wrote the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner," +and, as others may have done the same, it may be well here to recall the +details. + +In 1814, after the British had burned a number of Government buildings +in Washington, including "the President's palace" (as one of their +officers expressed it), they moved on Baltimore, making an attack by +land at North Point and a naval attack at Fort McHenry on Whetstone +Point in the estuary of the Patapsco River--here practically an arm of +Chesapeake Bay. Both attacks were repulsed. Having gone on the United +States cartel ship _Minden_ (used by the government in negotiating +exchanges of prisoners) to intercede for his friend, Dr. William Beanes, +of Upper Marlborough, Maryland, who was held captive on a British +vessel, Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry from the deck of +the _Minden_, and when he perceived "by the dawn's early light" that the +flag still flew over the fort, he was moved to write his famous poem. +Later it was printed and set to music; it was first sung in a restaurant +near the old Holliday Street Theater, but neither the restaurant nor the +theater exists to-day. It is sometimes stated that Key was himself a +prisoner, during the bombardment, on a British warship. That is a +mistake. + +By a curious coincidence, only a few minutes after my pamphlet had +reminded me of the origin of "The Star-Spangled Banner" here in +Baltimore, I heard the air played under circumstances very different +from any which could have been anticipated by the author of the poem, or +the composer who set it to music. + +The entertainment at the Academy that night was supplied by an elaborate +"show" of the burlesque variety known as "The Follies," and it so +happened that in the course of this hodgepodge of color, comedy, +scenery, song, and female anatomy, there was presented a "number" in +which actors, garbed and frescoed with intent to resemble rulers of +various lands, marched successively to the front of the stage, preceded +in each instance by a small but carefully selected guard wearing the +full-dress-uniform of Broadway Amazons. This uniform consists +principally of tights and high-heeled slippers, the different nations +being indicated, usually, by means of color combinations and various +types of soldiers' hats. No arms are presented save those provided by +nature. + +The King of Italy, the Emperor of Austria, the Czar, the Mikado, the +British Monarch, the President of France, the King of the Belgians, the +Kaiser (for the United States had not then entered the war), and, I +think, some others, put in an appearance, each accompanied by his +Paphian escort, his standard, and the appropriate national air. +Apprehending that this symbolic travesty must, almost inevitably, end in +a grand orgy of Yankee-Doodleism, I was impelled to flee the place +before the thing should happen. Yet a horrid fascination held me there +to watch the working up of "patriotic" sentiment by the old, cheap, +stage tricks. + +Presently, of course, the supreme moment came. When all the potentates +had taken their positions, right and left, with their silk-limbed +soldiery in double ranks behind them, there came into view upstage a +squad of little white-clad female naval officers, each, according to my +recollection, carrying the Stars and Stripes. As these marched forward +and deployed as skirmishers before the footlights, the orchestra struck +up "The Star-Spangled Banner," fortissimo, and with a liberal sounding +of the brasses. Upon this appeared at the back a counterfeit President +of the United States, guarded on either side by a female militia--or +were they perhaps secret-service agents?--in striking uniforms +consisting of pink fleshings partially draped with thin black lace. + +As this incongruous parade proceeded to the footlights, American flags +came into evidence, and, though I forget whether or not Columbia +appeared, I recollect that a beautiful young woman, habited in what +appeared to be a light pink union suit of unexceptionable cut and +material, appeared above the head of the pseudo-chief executive, +suspended at the end of a wire. Never having heard that it was White +House etiquette to hang young ladies on wires above the presidential +head, I consulted my program and thereby learned that this young lady +represented that species of poultry so popular always with the late +Secretary of State, Mr. Bryan, and so popular also at one time with the +President himself: namely, the Dove of Peace. + +The applause was thunderous. At the sound of "The Star-Spangled Banner" +a few members of the audience arose to their feet; others soon +followed--some of them apparently with reluctance--until at last the +entire house had risen. Meanwhile the members of the company lined up +before the footlights: the mock president smirking at the center, the +half-clad girls posing, the pink young lady dangling above, the band +blaring, the Stars and Stripes awave. It was a scene, in all, about as +conducive to genuine or creditable national pride as would be the scene +of a debauch in some fabulous harem. + +The difference between stupidity and satire lies, not infrequently, in +the intent with which a thing is done. Presented without essential +change upon the stage of a music hall in some foreign land, the scene +just described would, at that time, when we were playing a timid part +amongst the nations, have been accepted, not as a glorification of the +United States, but as having a precisely opposite significance. It would +have been taken for burlesque; burlesque upon our country, our +President, our national spirit, our peace policy, our army, and perhaps +also upon our women--and insulting burlesque at that. + +Some years since, it was found necessary to pass a law prohibiting the +use of the flag for advertising purposes. This law should be amended to +protect it also from the even more sordid and vulgarizing associations +to which it is not infrequently submitted on the American musical-comedy +stage. + + * * * * * + +In the morning, before I was awake, my companion arrived at the hotel, +and, going to his room, opened the door connecting it with mine. Coming +out of my slumber with that curious and not altogether pleasant sense of +being stared at, I found his eyes fixed upon me, and noticed immediately +about him the air of virtuous superiority which is assumed by all who +have risen early, whether they have done so by choice or have been +shaken awake. + +"Hello," I said. "Had breakfast?" + +"No. I thought we could breakfast together if you felt like getting up." + +Though the phraseology of this remark was unexceptionable, I knew what +it meant. What it really meant was: "Shame on you, lying there so lazy +after sunup! Look at _me_, all dressed and ready to begin!" + +I arose at once. + +For all that I don't like to get up early, it recalled old times, and +was very pleasant, to be away with him again upon our travels; to be in +a strange city and a strange hotel, preparing to set forth on +explorations. For he is the best, the most charming, the most observant +of companions, and also one of the most patient. + +That is one of his greatest qualities--his patience. Throughout our +other trip he always kept on being patient with me, no matter what I +did. Many a time instead of pushing me down an elevator shaft, drowning +me in my bath, or coming in at night and smothering me with a pillow, he +has merely sighed, dropped into a chair, and sat there shaking his head +and staring at me with a melancholy, ruminative, hopeless +expression--such an expression as may come into the face of a dumb man +when he looks at a waiter who has spilled an oyster cocktail on him. + +All this is good for me. It has a chastening effect. + +Therefore in a spirit happy yet not exuberant, eager yet controlled, +hopeful yet a little bit afraid, I dressed myself hurriedly, breakfasted +with him (eating ham and eggs because he approves of ham and eggs), and +after breakfast set out in his society to obtain what--despite my walk +of the night before--I felt was not alone my first real view of +Baltimore, but my first glimpse over the threshold of the South: into +the land of aristocracy and hospitality, of mules and mammies, of +plantations, porticos, and proud, flirtatious belles, of colonels, +cotton, chivalry, and colored cooking. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +WHERE THE CLIMATES MEET + + Here, where the climates meet, + That each may make the other's lack complete-- + + --SIDNEY LANIER. + + +Because Baltimore was built, like Rome, on seven hills, and because +trains run under it instead of through, the passing traveler sees but +little of the city, his view from the train window being restricted +first to a suburban district, then to a black tunnel, then to a glimpse +upward from the railway cut, in which the station stands. These facts, I +think, combine to leave upon his mind an impression which, if not +actually unfavorable, is at least negative; for certainly he has +obtained no just idea of the metropolis of Maryland. + +Let it be declared at the outset, then, that Baltimore is not in any +sense to be regarded as a suburb of Washington. Indeed, considering the +two merely as cities situated side by side, and eliminating the highly +specialized features of Washington, Baltimore becomes, according to the +standards by which American cities are usually compared, the more +important city of the two, being greater both in population and in +commerce. In this aspect Baltimore may, perhaps, be pictured as the +commercial half of Washington. And while Washington, as capital of the +United States, has certain physical and cosmopolitan advantages, not +only over Baltimore, but over every other city on this continent, it +must not be forgotten that, upon the other hand, every other city has +one vast advantage over Washington, namely, a comparative freedom from +politicians. To be sure, Congress did once move over to Baltimore and +sit there for several weeks, but that was in 1776, when the British +approached the Delaware in the days before the pork barrel was invented. + +As a city Baltimore has marked characteristics. Though south of Mason +and Dixon's Line, and though sometimes referred to as the "metropolis of +the South" (as is New Orleans also), it is in character neither a city +entirely northern nor entirely southern, but one which partakes of the +qualities of both; where, in the words of Sidney Lanier, "the climates +meet," and where northern and southern thought and custom meet, as well. +This has long been the case. Thus, although slaves were held in +Baltimore before the Civil War, a strong abolitionist society was formed +there during Washington's first Administration, and the sentiment of the +city was thereafter divided on the slavery question. Thus also, while +the two candidates of the divided Democratic party who ran against +Lincoln for the presidency in 1860 were nominated at Baltimore, Lincoln +himself was nominated there by the Union-Republican party in 1864. + +Speaking of the blending of North and South in Baltimore, you will, of +course, remember that the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment was attacked by a +mob as it passed through the city on the way to the Civil War. The +regiment arrived in Baltimore at the old President Street Station, which +was then the main station of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and which, now +used as a freight station, looks like an old war-time woodcut out of +_Harper's Weekly_. It was the custom in those days to hitch horses to +passenger coaches which were going through and draw them across town to +the Baltimore & Ohio Station; but when it was attempted thus to +transport the northern troops a mob gathered and blocked the Pratt +Street bridge over Jones's Falls, forcing the soldiers to leave the cars +and march through Pratt Street, along the water front, where they were +attacked. It is, however, a noteworthy fact that Mayor Brown of +Baltimore bravely preceded the troops and attempted to stop the rioting. +A few days later the city was occupied by northern troops, and the +warship _Harriet Lane_ anchored at a point off Calvert Street, whence +her guns commanded the business part of town. After this there was no +more serious trouble. Moreover, it will be remembered that though +Maryland was represented by regiments in both armies, the State, torn as +it was by conflicting feeling, nevertheless held to the Union. + +A pretty sequel to the historic attack on the Sixth Massachusetts +occurred when the same regiment passed through Baltimore in 1898, on its +way to the Spanish War. On this occasion it was "attacked" again in the +streets of the city, but the missiles thrown, instead of paving-stones +and bricks, were flowers. + +Continuing the category of contrasts, one may observe that while the +general appearance of Baltimore suggests a northern city rather than a +southern one--Philadelphia, for instance, rather than +Richmond--Baltimore society is strongly flavored with the tradition and +the soft pronunciation of the South; particularly of Virginia and the +"Eastern Shore." + +So, too, the city's position on the border line is reflected in its +handling of the negro. Of American cities, Washington has the largest +negro population, 94,446, New York and New Orleans follow with almost as +many, and Baltimore comes fourth with 84,749, according to the last +census. New York has one negro to every fifty-one whites, Philadelphia +one to every seventeen whites, Baltimore one to every six, Washington a +negro to every two and a half whites, and Richmond not quite two whites +to every negro. But, although Baltimore follows southern practice in +maintaining separate schools for negro children, and in segregating +negro residences to certain blocks, she follows northern practice in +casting a considerable negro vote at elections, and also in not +providing separate seats for negroes in her street cars. + +Have you ever noticed how cities sometimes seem to have their own +especial colors? Paris is white and green--even more so, I think, than +Washington. Chicago is gray; so is London usually, though I have seen +it buff at the beginning of a heavy fog. New York used to be a brown +sandstone city, but is now turning to one of cream-colored brick and +tile; Naples is brilliant with pink and blue and green and white and +yellow; while as for Baltimore, her old houses and her new are, as +Baedeker puts it, of "cheerful red brick"--not always, of course, but +often enough to establish the color of red brick as the city's +predominating hue. And with the red-brick houses--particularly the older +ones--go clean white marble steps, on the bottom one of which, at the +side, may usually be found an old-fashioned iron "scraper," doubtless +left over from the time (not very long ago) when the city pavements had +not reached their present excellence. + +The color of red brick is not confined to the center of the city, but +spreads to the suburbs, fashionable and unfashionable. At one margin of +the town I was shown solid blocks of pleasant red-brick houses which, I +was told, were occupied by workmen and their families, and were to be +had at a rental of from ten to twenty dollars a month. For though +Baltimore has a lower East Side which, like the lower East Side of New +York, encompasses the Ghetto and Italian quarter, she has not tenements +in the New York sense; one sees no tall, cheap flat houses draped with +fire escapes and built to make herding places for the poor. Many of the +houses in this section are instead the former homes of fashionables who +have moved to other quarters of the city--handsome old homesteads with +here and there a lovely, though battered, doorway sadly reminiscent of +an earlier elegance. So, also, red brick permeates the prosperous +suburbs, such as Roland Park and Guilford, where, in a sweetly rolling +country which lends itself to the arrangement of graceful winding roads +and softly contoured plantings, stand quantities of pleasing homes, +lately built, many of them colonial houses of red brick. Indeed, it +struck us that the only parts of Baltimore in which red brick was not +the dominant note were the downtown business section and Mount Vernon +Place. + +Mount Vernon Place is the center of Baltimore. Everything begins there, +including Baedeker, who, in his little red book, gives it the asterisk +of his approval, says that it "suggests Paris in its tasteful monuments +and surrounding buildings," and recommends the view from the top of the +Washington Monument. + +This monument, standing upon an eminence at the point where Charles and +Monument Streets would cross each other were not their courses +interrupted by the pleasing parked space of Mount Vernon Place, is a +gray stone column, surmounted by a figure of Washington--or, rather, by +the point of a lightning rod under which the figure stands. Other +monuments are known as this monument or that, but when "the monument" is +spoken of, the Washington Monument is inevitably meant. This is quite +natural, for it is not only the most simple and picturesque old monument +in Baltimore, but also the largest, the oldest, and the most +conspicuous: its proud head, rising high in air, having for nearly a +century dominated the city. One catches glimpses of it down this street +or that, or sees it from afar over the housetops; and sometimes, when +the column is concealed from view by intervening buildings, and only the +surmounting statue shows above them, one is struck by a sudden +apparition of the Father of his Country strolling fantastically upon +some distant roof. + +Though it may be true that Mount Vernon Place, with its symmetrical +parked center and its admirable bronzes (several of them by Barye), +suggests Paris, and though it is certainly true that it is more like a +Parisian square than a London square, nevertheless it is in reality an +American square--perhaps the finest of its kind in the United States. If +it were Parisian, it would have more trees and the surrounding buildings +would be uniform in color and in cornice height. It is perhaps as much +like Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia as any other, and that +resemblance is of the slightest, for Mount Vernon Place has a quality +altogether its own. It has no skyscrapers or semi-skyscrapers to throw +it out of balance; and though the structures which surround it are of +white stone, brown stone, and red brick, and of anything but homogeneous +architecture, nevertheless a comparative uniformity of height, a +universal solidity of construction, and a general grace about them, +combine to give the Place an air of equilibrium and dignity and +elegance. + +Including the Washington Monument, Baltimore has three lofty landmarks, +likely to be particularly noticed by the roving visitor. Of the +remaining two, one is the old brick shot-tower in the lower part of +town, which legend tells us was put up without the use of scaffolding +nearly a hundred years ago; while the other, a more modern, if less +modest structure, proudly surmounts a large commercial building and is +itself capped by the gigantic effigy of a bottle. This bottle is very +conspicuous because of its emplacement, because it revolves, and because +it is illuminated at night. You can never get away from it. + +One evening I asked a man what the bottle meant up there. + +"It's a memorial to Emerson," he told me. + +"Are they so fond of Emerson down here?" + +"I don't know as they are so all-fired fond of him," he answered. + +"But they _must_ be fond of him to put up such a big memorial. Why, even +in Boston, where he was born, they have no such memorial as that." + +"He put it up himself," said the man. + +That struck me as strange. It seemed somehow out of character with the +great philosopher. Also, I could not see why, if he did wish to raise a +memorial to himself, he had elected to fashion it in the form of a +bottle and put it on top of an office building. + +"I suppose there is some sort of symbolism about it?" I suggested. + +"Now you got it," approved the man. + +I gazed at the tower for a while in thought. Then I said: + +"Do you suppose that Emerson meant something like this: that human life +or, indeed, the soul, may be likened to the contents of a bottle; that +day by day we use up some portion of the contents--call it, if you like, +the nectar of existence--until the fluid of life runs low, and at last +is gone entirely, leaving only the husk, as it were--or, to make the +metaphor more perfect, the shell, or empty bottle: the container of what +Emerson himself called, if I recollect correctly, 'the soul that maketh +all'--do you suppose he meant to teach us some such thing as that?" + +The man looked a little confused by this deep and beautiful thought. + +"He _might_ of meant that," he said, somewhat dubiously. "But they tell +me Captain Emerson's a practical man, and I reckon what he _mainly_ +meant was that he made his money out of this-here Bromo Seltzer, and he +was darn glad of it, so he thought he'd put him up a big Bromo Seltzer +bottle as a kind of cross between a monument and an ad." + +If the bottle tower represents certain modern concepts of what is +suitable in architecture, it is nevertheless pleasant to record the fact +that many honorable old buildings--most of them residences--survive in +Baltimore, and that, because of their survival, the city looks older +than New York and fully as old as either Philadelphia or Boston. But in +this, appearances are misleading, for New York and Boston were a +century old, and Philadelphia half a century, when Baltimore was first +laid out as a town. Efforts to start a settlement near the city's +present site were, it is true, being made before William Penn and his +Quakers established Philadelphia, but a letter written in 1687 by +Charles Calvert, third Baron Baltimore, explains that: "The people there +[are] not affecting to build nere each other but soe as to have their +houses nere the watters for conveniencye of trade and their lands on +each side of and behynde their houses, by which it happens that in most +places there are not fifty houses in the space of thirty myles."[1] + +[1] From "Historic Towns of the Southern States." + +The difficulty experienced by the Barons Baltimore, Lords Proprietary of +Maryland, in building up communities in their demesne was not a local +problem, but one which confronted those interested in the development of +the entire portion of this continent now occupied by the Southern +States. Generally speaking, towns came into being more slowly in the +South than in the North, and it seems probable that one of the principal +reasons for this may be found in the fact that settlers throughout the +South lived generally at peace with the Indians, whereas the northern +settlers were obliged to congregate in towns for mutual protection. +Thus, in colonial days, while the many cities of New York and New +England were coming into being, the South was developing its vast and +isolated plantations. Farms on the St. Lawrence River and on the +Detroit River, where the French were settling, were very narrow and very +deep, the idea being to range the houses close together on the river +front; but on such rivers as the Potomac, the Rappahannock and the +James, no element of early fear is to be traced in the form of the broad +baronial plantations. + +Nevertheless, when Baltimore began at last to grow, she became a +prodigy, not only among American cities, but among the cities of the +world. Her first town directory was published in 1796, and she began the +next year as an incorporated city, with a mayor, a population of about +twenty thousand, and a curiously assorted early history containing such +odd items as that the first umbrella carried in the United States was +brought from India and unfurled in Baltimore in 1772; that the town had +for some time possessed such other useful articles as a fire engine, a +brick theater, a newspaper, and policemen; that the streets were lighted +with oil lamps; that such proud signs of metropolitanism as riot and +epidemic were not unknown; that before the Revolution bachelors were +taxed for the benefit of his Britannic Majesty; and that at fair time +the "lid was off," and the citizen or visitor who wished to get himself +arrested must needs be diligent indeed. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TRIUMPHANT DEFEAT + + There are some defeats more triumphant than victories. + + --MONTAIGNE. + + +Following the incorporation of the city, Baltimore grew much as Chicago +was destined to grow more than a century later; within less than thirty +years, when Chicago was a tiny village, Baltimore had become the third +city in the United States: a city of wealthy merchants engaged in an +extensive foreign trade; for in those days there was an American +merchant marine, and the swift, rakish Baltimore clippers were known the +seven seas over. + +The story of modern Baltimore is entirely unrelated to the city's early +history. It consists in a simple but inspiring record of regeneration +springing from disaster. It is the story of Chicago, of San Francisco, +of Galveston, of Dayton, and of many a smaller town: a cataclysm, a few +days of despair, a return of courage, and another beginning. + +Imagine yourself being tucked into bed one night by your valet or your +maid, as the case may be, calm in the feeling that all was secure: that +your business was returning a handsome income, that your stocks and +bonds were safe in the strong box, that the prosperity of your +descendants was assured. Then imagine ruin coming like lightning in the +night. In the morning you are poor. Your business, your investments, +your very hopes, are gone. Everything is wiped out. The labor of a +lifetime must be begun again. + +Such an experience was that of Baltimore in the fire of 1904. + +On the sickening morning following the conflagration two Baltimore men, +friends of mine, walked down Charles Street to a point as near the +ruined region as it was possible to go. + +"Well," said one, surveying the smoking crater, "what do you think of +it?" + +"Baltimore is gone," was the response. "We are off the map." + +How many citizens of Chicago, of San Francisco, of Galveston, of Dayton +have known the anguish of that first aftermath of hopelessness! How many +citizens of Baltimore knew it that day! And yet how bravely and with +what magic swiftness have these cities risen from their ruins! Was not +Rome burned? Was not London? And is it not, then, time for men to learn +from the history of other men and other cities that disaster does not +spell the end, but is oftentimes another name for opportunity? + +Always, after disaster to a city, come improvements, but because +disaster not only cleans the slate but simultaneously stuns the mind, a +portion of the opportunity is invariably lost. The task of rebuilding, +of widening a few streets, looks large enough to him who stands amidst +destruction--and there, consequently, improvement usually stops. That is +why the downtown boulevard system of Chicago has yet to be completed, in +spite of the fact that it might with little difficulty have been +completed after the Chicago fire (although it is only just to add that +city planning was almost an unknown art in America at that time); and +that also is why the hills of San Francisco are not terraced, as it was +suggested they should be after the fire, but remain to-day inaccessible +to frontal attack by even the maddest mountain goat of a taxi driver. + +These matters are not mentioned in the way of criticism: I have only +admiration for the devastated cities and for those who built them up +again. I call attention to lost opportunities with something like +reluctance, and only in the wish to emphasize the fact that our crippled +or destroyed cities do invariably rise again, and that if the next +American city to sustain disaster shall but have this simple lesson +learned in advance, it may thereby register a new high mark in municipal +intelligence and a new record among the rebuilt cities, by making more +sweet than any other city ever made them, the uses of adversity. + +The fire of 1904 found Baltimore a town of narrow highways, old +buildings, bad pavements, and open gutter drains. The streets were laid +in what is known as "southern cobble," which is the next thing to no +pavement at all, being made of irregular stones, large and small, laid +in the dirt and tamped down. For bumps and ruts there is no pavement in +the world to be compared with it. There were no city sewers. Outside a +few affluent neighborhoods, the citizens of which clubbed together to +build private sewers, the cesspool was in general use, while domestic +drainage emptied into the roadside gutters. These were made passable, at +crossings, by stepping stones, about the bases of which passed +interesting armadas of potato peelings, floating, upon wash days, in +water having the fine Mediterranean hue which comes from diluted +blueing. Everybody seemed to find the entire system adequate; for, it +was argued, the hilly contours of the city caused the drainage quickly +to be carried off, while as for typhoid and mosquitoes--well, there had +always been typhoid and mosquitoes, just as there had always been these +open gutters. It was all quite good enough. + +Then the fire. + +And then the upbuilding of the city--not only of the acres and acres +comprising the burned section, in which streets were widened and +skyscrapers arose where fire-traps had been--but outside the fire zone, +where sewers were put down and pavements laid. Nor was the change merely +physical. With the old buildings, the old spirit of _laissez faire_ went +up in smoke, and in the embers a municipal conscience was born. Almost +as though by the light of the flames which engulfed it, the city began +to see itself as it had never seen itself before: to take account of +stock, to plan broadly for the future. + +Nor has the new-born spirit died. Only last year an extensive red-light +district was closed effectively and once for all. Baltimore is to-day +free from flagrant commercialized vice. And if not quite all the old +cobble pavements and open-gutter drains have been eliminated, there are +but few of them left--left almost as though for purposes of +contrast--and the Baltimorean who takes you to the Ghetto and shows you +these ancient remnants may immediately thereafter escort you to the +Fallsway, where the other side of the picture is presented. + +The Fallsway is a brand-new boulevard of pleasing aspect, the peculiar +feature of which is that it is nothing more or less than a cover over +the top of Jones's Falls, which figured in the early history of +Baltimore as a water course, but which later came to figure as a great, +open, trunk sewer. + +Every one in Baltimore is proud of the Fallsway, but particularly so are +the city engineers who carried the work through. While in Baltimore I +had the pleasure of meeting one of these gentlemen, and I can assure you +that no young head of a family was ever more delighted with his new +cottage in a suburb, his wife, his children, his garden, and his collie +puppy, than was this engineer with his boulevard sewer. Like a lover, he +carried pictures of it in his pocket, and like a lover he would assure +you that it was "not like other sewers." Nor could he speak of it +without beginning to wish to take you out to see it--not merely for a +motor ride along the top of it, either. No, his hospitality did not +stop there. When _he_ invited you to a sewer he invited you _in_. And if +you went in with him, no one could make you come out until you wanted +to. + +As he told my companion and me of the three great tubes, the walks +beside them, the conduits for gas and electricity, and all the other +wonders of the place, I began to wish that we might go with him, for, +though we have been to a good many places together, this was something +new: it was the first time we had ever been invited to drop into a sewer +and make ourselves as much at home as though we lived there. + +My companion, however, seemed unsympathetic to the project. + +"Sewers, you know," he said, when I taxed him with indifference, "have +come to have a very definite place in both the literary and the graphic +arts. How do you propose to treat it?" + +"What do you mean?" + +"When you write about it: Are you going to write about it as a realist, +a mystic, or a romanticist?" + +I said I didn't know. + +"Well, a man who is going to write of a sewer _ought_ to know," he told +me severely. "You're not up to sewers yet. They're too big for you. If +you take my advice you'll keep out of the sewers for the present and +stick to the gutters." + +So I did. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +TERRAPIN AND THINGS + + +Baltimore society has a Maryland and Virginia base, but is seasoned with +families of Acadian descent, and with others descended from the +Pennsylvania Dutch--those "Dutch" who, by the way, are not Dutch at all, +being of Saxon and Bavarian extraction. Many Virginians settled in +Baltimore after the war, and it may be in part owing to this fact, that +fox-hunting with horse and hound, as practised for three centuries past +in England, and for nearly two centuries by Virginia's country +gentlemen, is carried on extensively in the neighborhood of Baltimore, +by the Green Spring Valley Hunt Club, the Elkridge Fox-Hunting Club and +some others--which brings me to the subject of clubs in general. + +The Baltimore Country Club, at Roland Park, just beyond the city limits, +has a large, well-set clubhouse, an active membership, and charming +rolling golf links, one peculiarity of the course being that a part of +the city's water-supply system has been utilized for hazards. + +The two characteristic clubs of the city itself, the Maryland Club and +the Baltimore Club, are known the country over. The former occupies a +position in Baltimore comparable with that of the Union Club in New +York, the Chicago Club in Chicago, or the Pacific Union in San +Francisco, and has to its credit at least one famous dish: Terrapin, +Maryland Club Style. + +The Baltimore Club is used by a younger group of men and has a +particularly pleasant home in a large mansion, formerly the residence of +the Abell family, long known in connection with that noteworthy old +sheet, the Baltimore "Sun," which, it may be remarked in passing, is +curiously referred to by many Baltimoreans, not as the "Sun," but as the +"Sun-paper." + +This odd item reminds me of another: In the Balti-telephone book I +chanced to notice under the letter "F" the entry: + +Fisher, Frank, of J. + +Upon inquiry I learned that the significance of this was that, there +being more than one gentleman of the name of Frank Fisher in the city, +this Mr. Frank Fisher added "of J" to his name (meaning "son of John") +for purposes of differentiation. I was informed further that this custom +is not uncommon in Baltimore, in cases where a name is duplicated, and I +was shown another example: that of Mr. John Fyfe Symington of S. + +A typically southern institution of long standing, and highly +characteristic of the social life of Baltimore, is the Bachelors' +Cotillion, one of the oldest dancing clubs in the country. During the +season this organization gives a series of some half-dozen balls which +are the events of the fashionable year. + +The organization and general character of the Bachelors' Cotillion is +not unlike that of the celebrated St. Cecilia Society of Charleston. The +cost of membership is so slight that almost any eligible young man can +easily afford it. There is, however, a long waiting-list. The club is +controlled by a board of governors, the members of which hold office for +life, and who, instead of being elected by the organization are selected +_in camera_ by the board itself, when vacancies occur. + +The balls given by this society are known as the Monday Germans, and at +these balls, which are held in the Lyric Theater, the city's debutantes +are presented to society. As in all southern cities, much is made of +debutantes in Baltimore. On the occasion of their first Monday German +all their friends send them flowers, and they appear flower-laden at the +ball, followed by their relatives who are freighted down with their +darlings' superfluous bouquets. The modern steps are danced at these +balls, but there are usually a few cotillion figures, albeit without +"favors." And perhaps the best part of it all is that the first ball of +the season, and the Christmas ball, end at one o'clock, and that all the +others end at midnight. That seems to me a humane arrangement, although +the opinion may only signify that I am growing old. + +Another very characteristic phase of Baltimore life, and of southern +life--at least in many cities--is that, instead of dealing with the +baker, and the grocer, and the fish-market man around the corner, all +Baltimore women go to the great market-sheds and do their own selecting +under what amounts to one great roof. + +The Lexington Market, to which my companion and I had the good fortune +to be taken by a Baltimore lady, is comparable, in its picturesqueness +with _Les Halles_ of Paris, or the fascinating market in Seattle, where +the Japanese pile up their fresh vegetables with such charming show of +taste. The great sheds cover three long blocks, and in the countless +stall-like shops which they contain may be found everything for the +table, including flowers to trim it and after-dinner sweets. I doubt +that any northern housewife knows such a market or such a profusion of +comestibles. In one stall may be purchased meat, in the next vegetables, +in the next fish, in the next bread and cake, in the next butter and +buttermilk, in the next fruit, or game, or flowers, or--at Christmas +time--tree trimmings. These stalls, with their contents, are duplicated +over and over again; and if your fair guide be shopping for a dinner +party, at which two men from out of town are to be initiated into the +delights of the Baltimore cuisine, she may order up the costly and +aristocratic _Malacoclemmys_, the diamond-back terrapin, sacred in +Baltimore as is the Sacred Cod himself in Boston. + +The admirable encyclopedia of Messrs. Funk & Wagnall's informs me that +"the diamond-back salt-water terrapin ... is caught in salt marshes +along the coast from New England to Texas, _the finest being those of +the Massachusetts and the northern coasts_." The italics are mine; and +upon the italicized passage I expect the mayor and town council of +Baltimore, or even the Government of the State of Maryland, to proceed +against Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls, whose valuable volumes should forthwith +be placed upon the State's _index expurgatorius_. + +Of a marketman I obtained the following lore concerning the tortoise of +the terrapin species: + +In the Baltimore markets four kinds of terrapin are sold--not counting +muskrat, which is sometimes disguised with sauce and sherry and served +as a substitute. The cheapest and toughest terrapin is known as the +"slider." Slightly superior to the "slider" is the "fat-back," +measuring, usually, about nine or ten inches in length, and costing, at +retail, fifty cents to a dollar, according to season and demand. +Somewhat better than the "fat-back," but of about the same size and +cost, is the "golden-stripe" terrapin; but all these are the merest poor +relations of the diamond-back. Some diamond-back terrapin are supplied +for the Baltimore market from North Carolina, but these, my marketman +assured me, are inferior to those of Chesapeake Bay. (Everything in, or +from, North Carolina seems to be inferior, according to the people of +the other Southern States.) + +Although there is a closed season for terrapin, the value of the +diamond-back causes him to be relentlessly hunted during the open +season, with the result that, like the delectable lobster, he is +passing. As the foolish lobster-fishermen of northern New England are +killing the goose--or, rather, the crustacean--that lays the golden +eggs, so are the terrapin hunters of the Chesapeake. Two or three +decades ago, lobster and terrapin alike were eaten in the regions of +their abundance as cheap food. One Baltimore lady told me that her +father's slaves, on an Eastern Shore plantation, used to eat terrapin. +Yet behold the cost of the precious diamond-back to-day! In his smaller +sizes, according to my marketman, he is worth about a dollar an inch, +while when grown to fair proportions he costs as much as a railroad +ticket from Baltimore to Chicago. And for my part I would about as soon +eat the ticket as the terrapin. + +Of a number of other odd items which help to give Baltimore distinct +flavor I find the following in my notebooks: + +There are good street railways; also 'bus lines operated by the United +Railways Company. Under the terms of its charter this company was +originally obliged to turn over to the city thirteen per cent. of its +gross income, to be expended upon the upkeep of parks. Of late years the +amount has been reduced to nine per cent. The parks are admirable. + +Freight rates from the west to Baltimore are, I am informed, enough +lower than freight rates to New York, Boston, or Philadelphia, to give +Baltimore a decided advantage as a point of export. Also she is +admirably situated as to sources of coal supply. (I do not care much +for the last two items, myself, but put them in to please the Chamber of +Commerce.) + + * * * * * + +It is the habit of my companion and myself, when visiting strange +cities, to ask for interesting eating-places of one sort or another. In +Baltimore there seems to be no choice but to take meals in +hotels--unless one may wish to go to the Dutch Tea room or the Woman's +Exchange for a shoppers' lunch, and to see (in the latter establishment) +great numbers of ladies sitting upon tall stools and eating at a +lunch-counter--a somewhat curious spectacle, perhaps, but neither +pleasing to the eye nor thrilling to the senses. + +The nearest thing to "character" which I found in a Baltimore +eating-place was at an establishment known as Kelly's Oyster House, a +place in a dark quarter of the town. It had the all-night look about it, +and the negro waiters showed themselves not unacquainted with certain of +the city's gilded youth. Kelly's is a sort of southern version of +"Jack's"--if you know Jack's. But I don't think Jack's has any flight of +stairs to fall down, such as Kelly's has. + +The dining rooms of the various hotels are considerably used, one +judges, by the citizens of Baltimore. The Kernan Hotel, which we visited +one night after the theater, looked like Broadway. Tables were crowded +together and there was dancing between them--and between mouthfuls. So, +too, at the Belvedere, which is used considerably by Baltimore's gay +and fashionable people. + +My companion and I stayed at the Belvedere and found it a good hotel, +albeit one which has, I think, become a shade too well accustomed to +being called good. Perhaps because of a city ordinance, perhaps because +the waiters want to go to bed, they have a trick, in the Belvedere +dining-room, during the cold weather, of opening the windows and +freezing out such dilatory supper-guests as would fain sit up and talk. +This is a system even more effective than the ancient one of mopping up +the floors, piling chairs upon the tables, and turning out enough lights +to make the room dull. A good post-midnight conversationalist--and +Baltimore is not without them--can stand mops, buckets, and dim lights, +but turn cold drafts upon his back and he gives up, sends for his coat, +buttons it about his paunch and goes sadly home. + +It is fitting that last of all should be mentioned the man who views you +with keen eye as you arrive in Baltimore, and who watches you depart. If +you are in Baltimore he knows it. And when you go away he knows that, +too. Also, during racing season, he knows whether you bet, and whether +you won or lost. He is always at the station and always at the race +track, and if you don't belong in Baltimore he is aware of it the +instant he sets eyes upon you, because he knows every man, woman, child, +and dog in Baltimore, and they all know him. If you are a Baltimorean +you are already aware that I refer to the sapient McNeal, policeman at +the Union Station. + +McNeal and Cardinal Gibbons are, I take it, the two preeminent figures +of the city. Their duties, I admit, are not alike, but each performs his +duties with discretion, with devotion, with distinction. The latter has +already celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of his nomination as +cardinal, but the former is well on the way toward his fortieth +anniversary as officer at the Union Station. + +McNeal is an artist. He loves his work. And when his day off comes and +he puts on citizen's clothing and goes out for a good time, where do you +suppose he goes? + +Why down to the station, of course, to talk things over with the man who +is relieving him! + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +DOUGHOREGAN MANOR AND THE CARROLLS + + +If I am to be honest about the South, and about myself--and I propose to +be--I must admit that, though I approached the fabled land in a most +friendly spirit, I had nevertheless become a little tired of the +southern family tree, the southern ancestral hall, and the old southern +negro servant of stage and story, and just a little skeptical about +them. Almost unconsciously, at first, I had begun to wonder whether, +instead of being things of actuality, they were not, rather, a mere set +of romantic trade-marks, so to speak; symbols signifying the South as +the butler with side whiskers signifies English comedy; as "Her" visit +to "His" rooms, in the third act, signifies English drama; or as double +doorways in a paneled "set" signify French farce. + +Furthermore, it had occurred to me that of persons of southern accent, +or merely southern extraction, whom I had encountered in the North, a +strangely high percentage were not only of "fine old southern family," +but of peculiarly tenacious purpose in respect to having the matter +understood. + +I cannot pretend to say when the "professional Southerner," as we know +him in New York, began to operate, nor shall I attempt to place the +literary blame for his existence--as Mark Twain attempted to place upon +Sir Walter Scott the blame for southern "chivalry," and almost for the +Civil War itself. Let me merely say, then, that I should not be +surprised to learn that "Colonel Carter of Cartersville"--that lovable +old fraud who did not mean to be a fraud at all, but whose naivete +passed the bounds of human credulity--was not far removed from the +bottom of the matter. + +In the tenor of these sentiments my companion shared--though I should +add that he complained bitterly about agreeing with me, saying that with +hats alike, and overcoats alike, and trunks alike, and suitcases alike, +we already resembled two members of a minstrel troupe, and that now +since we were beginning to think alike, through traveling so much +together, our friends would not be able to tell us apart when we got +home again--in spite of this he admitted to the same suspicion of the +South as I expressed. Wherefore we entered the region like a pair of +agnostics entering the great beyond: skeptical, but ready to be "shown." + +It was with the generous purpose of "showing" us that a Baltimore friend +of ours called for us one day with his motor car and was presently +wafting us over the good oiled roads of Maryland, through sweet, rolling +country, which seemed to have been made to be ridden over upon +horseback. + +It was autumn, but though the chill of northern autumn was in the air, +the coloring was not so high in key as in New York or New England, the +foliage being less brilliant, but rich with subtle harmonies of brown +and green, blending softly together as in a faded tapestry, and giving +the landscape an expression of brooding tenderness. + +After passing through Ellicott City, an old, shambling town quite out of +character with its new-sounding name, which has such a western ring to +it, we traversed for several miles the old Frederick Turnpike--formerly +a national highway between East and West--swooping up and down over a +series of little hills and vales, and at length turned off into a +private road winding through a venerable forest, which was like an old +Gothic cathedral with its pavement of brown leaves and its tree-trunk +columns, tall, gray, and slender. + +When we had progressed for perhaps a mile, we emerged upon a slight +eminence commanding a broad view of meadow and of woodland, and in turn +commanded by a great house. + +The house was of buff-colored brick. It was low and very long, with +wings extending from its central structure like beautiful arms flung +wide in welcome, and at the end of each a building like an ornament +balanced in an outstretched hand. The graceful central portico, rising +by several easy steps from the driveway level, the long line of cornice, +the window sashes, the delicate wooden railing surmounting the roof, the +charming little tower which so gracefully held its place above the +geometrical center of the house, the bell tower crowning one wing at its +extremity--all these were white. + +No combination of colors can be lovelier, in such a house, than +yellow-buff and white, provided they be brightened by some notes of +green; and these notes were not lacking, for several aged elms, +occupying symmetrical positions with regard to the house, seemed to gaze +down upon it with the adoration of a group of mothers, aunts, and +grandmothers, as they held their soft draperies protectively above it. +The green of the low terrace--called a "haha," supposedly with reference +to the mirth-provoking possibilities of an accidental step over the +edge--did not reach the base of the buff walls, but was lost in a fringe +of clustering shrubbery, from which patches of lustrous English ivy +clambered upward over the brick, to lay strong, mischievous fingers upon +the blinds of certain second-story windows. The blinds were of course +green; green blinds being as necessary to an American window as +eyelashes to an eye. + +Immediately before the portico and centering upon it the drive swung in +a spacious circle, from which there broke, at a point directly opposite +the portico, an avenue, straight and long as a rifle range, and lovely +as the loveliest of New England village greens. Down the middle of this +broad way, between grass borders each as wide as a great boulevard, and +double rows of patriarchal trees, ran a road which, in the old days, +continued straight to Annapolis, thirty or more miles away, where was +the town house of the builder of this manor. As it stands to-day the +avenue is less than half a mile long, but whatever its length, and +whether one look down it from the house, or up the gentle grade from the +far end, to where the converging lines of grass and foliage and sky melt +into the house, it has about it something of unreality, something of +enchantment, something of that quality one finds in the rhapsodic +landscapes of those poet painters who dream of distant shimmering +palaces and supernal vistas peopled by fauns and nymphs dancing amid the +trunks of giant trees whose luxuriant dark tops are contoured like the +cumulus white clouds floating above them. + +There is nothing "baronial," nothing arrogant, about Doughoregan Manor, +for though the house is noble, its nobility, consisting in spaciousness, +simplicity, and grace combined with age, fits well into what, it seems +to me, should be the architectural ideals of a republic. No house could +be freer of unessential embellishment; in detail it is plain almost to +severity; yet the full impression that it gives, far from being austere, +is of friendliness and hospitality. An approachable sort of house, a +"homelike" house, it is perhaps less "imposing" than some other +mansions, coeval with it, in Virginia, in Annapolis, and in Charleston; +and yet it is as impressive, in its own way, as Warwick Castle, or +Hurstmonceaux, or Loches, or Chinon, or Chenonceaux, or Heidelberg--not +that it is so vast, that it has glowering battlements, or that it stuns +the eye, but for precisely opposite reasons: because it is a consummate +expression of republican cultivation, of a fine old American home, and +of the fine old American gentleman who built it, and whose descendants +inhabit it to-day: Charles Carroll of Carrollton, last to survive of +those who signed the Declaration of Independence. + +The first Charles Carroll, known in the family as "the Settler," came +from Ireland in 1688, and became a great landowner in Maryland. He was a +highly educated gentleman and a Roman Catholic, as have also been his +descendants. He acted as agent for Lord Baltimore. + +His son, Charles Carroll of Annapolis, or "Breakneck Carroll" (so called +because he was killed by a fall from the steps of his house), built the +Carroll mansion at Annapolis, now the property of the Redemptionist +Order. + +The third and most famous member of the family was Charles Carroll of +Carrollton, "the Signer," builder of the manor house at +Doughoregan--which, by the way, derives its name from a combination of +the old Irish words _dough_, meaning "house" or "court," and _O'Ragan_, +meaning "of the King"; the whole being pronounced, as with a slight +brogue, "Doo-ray-gan," the accent falling on the middle syllable--this +Charles Carroll, "the Signer," most famous of his line, was +"Breakneck's" only son. When eight years old he was sent to France to be +educated by the Jesuits. He spent six years at Saint-Omer, one at +Rheims, two at the College of Louis le Grand, one at Bourges, where he +studied civil law, and after some further time in college in Paris went +to London, entered the Middle Temple and there worked at the common law +until his return to Maryland in 1765. + +Although Maryland was founded by the Roman Catholic Baron Baltimore on a +basis of religious toleration, the Church of England had later come to +be the established church in the British colonies in America, and Roman +Catholics were unjustly used, being disfranchised, taxed for the support +of the English Church, and denied the right to establish schools or +churches of their own, to celebrate the Mass, or to bear arms--the +bearing of arms having been "at that time the insignia of social +position and gentle breeding." + +Finding this situation well-nigh intolerable, Carroll of Carrollton, +already a man of great wealth, joined with his cousin, Father John +Carroll, who later became first Archbishop of Baltimore (for many years +the only Roman Catholic diocese in the United States, embracing all +States and Territories), in an appeal to the King of France for a grant +of land in what is now Arkansas, but was then a part of Louisiana, this +land to be used as a refuge for Roman Catholics and Jesuits, whom the +Carrolls proposed to lead thither precisely as Cecilius Calvert, Lord +Baltimore, had led them to Maryland to escape persecution. + +The Roman Catholics were not, however, by this time the only American +colonists who felt themselves abused; the whole country was chafing, and +the seeds of revolution were beginning to show their red sprouts. + +It might have been expected that Mr. Carroll, being the richest man in +the country, would hesitate at rebellion, but he did not. Unlike some of +our present-day citizens of foreign extraction, and in circumstances +involving not merely sentiment, but property and perhaps life, he showed +no tendency to split his Americanism, but boldly threw his noble old +cocked hat into the ring. Nor did he require a Roosevelt to make his +duty clear to him. + +In 1775 Mr. Carroll was a delegate to the Revolutionary Convention of +Maryland; in 1776 he went with three other commissioners (Benjamin +Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Father John Carroll) to try to induce the +Canadian colonies to join in the revolt; and soon after his return from +this unsuccessful journey he signed the Declaration of Independence. Of +the circumstances of the signing the late Robert C. Winthrop of Boston +gave the following description: + + "Will you sign?" said Hancock to Charles Carroll. + + "Most willingly," was the reply. + + "There goes two millions with the dash of a pen," says one of those + standing by; while another remarks: "Oh, Carroll, you will get off, + there are so many Charles Carrolls." + + And then we may see him stepping back to the desk and putting that + addition "of Carrollton" to his name, which will designate him + forever, and be a prouder title of nobility than those in the + peerage of Great Britain, which were afterward adorned by his + accomplished and fascinating granddaughters. + +Some doubt has been cast upon this tale by the fact that papers in +possession of the Carroll family prove that Mr. Carroll was wont to sign +as "of Carrollton" long before the Declaration. Further, it is recorded +that John H.B. Latrobe, Mr. Carroll's contemporaneous biographer, never +heard the story from the subject of his writings. + +Nevertheless, I believe that it is true, for it seems to me likely that +though Mr. Carroll used the subscription "of Carrollton" in conducting +his affairs at home, where there was chance for confusion between his +son Charles, his cousin Charles, and himself, he might well have been +inclined to omit it from a public document, as to the signers of which +there could be no confusion. Further, the fact that he never told the +story to Latrobe does not invalidate it, for as every man (and every +man's wife) knows, men do not remember to tell everything to their +wives, and it is still less likely that they tell everything to their +biographers. Further still, Mr. Winthrop visited Mr. Carroll just before +the latter's death, and as he certainly did not invent the story it +seems probable that he got it from "the Signer" himself. Last, I like +the story and intend to believe it anyway--which, it occurs to me, is +the best reason of all, and the one most resembling my reason for being +more or less Episcopalian and Republican. + +Latrobe tells us that Mr. Carroll was, in his old age, "a small, +attenuated old man, with a prominent nose and somewhat receding chin, +and small eyes that sparkled when he was interested in conversation. His +head was small and his hair white, rather long and silky, while his face +and forehead were seamed with wrinkles." + +From the same source, and others, we glean the information that he was a +charming and courteous gentleman, that he practised early rising and +early retiring, was regular at meals, and at morning and evening prayer +in the chapel, that he took cold baths and rode horseback, and that for +several hours each day he read the Greek, Latin, English, or French +classics. + +At the age of eighty-three he rode a horse in a procession in Baltimore, +carrying in one hand a copy of the Declaration of Independence; and six +years later, when by that strange freak of chance ex-Presidents Adams +and Jefferson died simultaneously on July 4, leaving Mr. Carroll the +last surviving signer of the Declaration, he took part in a memorial +parade and service in their memory. In 1826, at the age of eighty-nine, +he was elected a director of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, and +at the age of ninety he laid the foundation stone marking the +commencement of that railroad--the first important one in the United +States. We are told that at this time Mr. Carroll was erect in carriage +and that he could see and hear as well as most men. In 1832, having +lived to within five years of a full century, having been active in the +Revolution, having seen the War of 1812, he died less than thirty years +before the outbreak of the Civil War, and was buried in the chapel of +the manor house. + +This chapel, the like of which does not, so far as I know, exist in any +other American house, is the burial place of a number of the Carrolls. +It is used to-day, regular Sunday services being held for the people of +the neighborhood. An alcove to the south of the chancel contains seats +for members of the family, and has access to the main portion of the +house by a passageway which passes the bedroom known as the Cardinal's +room, a large chamber furnished with massive old pieces of mahogany and +decorated in red. This room has been occupied by Lafayette, by John +Carroll, cousin of "the Signer" and first archbishop of Baltimore, and +by Cardinal Gibbons. It is on the ground floor and its windows command +the series of terraces, with their plantings of old box, which slope +away to gardens more than a century old. + +Viewed in one light Doughoregan Manor is a monument, in another it is a +treasure house of ancient portraits and furniture and silver, but above +all it is a home. The beautifully proportioned dining-room, the wide +hall which passes through the house from the front portico to another +overlooking the terraces and gardens at the back, the old shadowy +library with its tree-calf bindings, the sunny breakfast room, the +spacious bedchambers with their four-posters and their cheerful +chintzes, the big bright shiny pantries and kitchens, all have that +pleasant, easy air which comes of being lived in, and which is never +attained in a "show place" which is merely a "show place" and nothing +more. No dining table at which great personages have dined in the past +has the charm of one the use of which has been steadily continued; no +old chair but is better for being sat in; no ancient Sheffield tea +service but gains immeasurably in charm from being used for tea to-day; +no old Venetian mirror but what is lovelier for reflecting the beauties +of the present as it reflected those of the past; no little old-time +crib but what is better for a modern baby in it. It is pleasant, +therefore, to report that, like all other things the house contains, the +crib at Doughoregan Manor was being used when we were there, for in it +rested the baby son of the house; by name Charles, and of his line the +ninth. Further, it may be observed that from his youthful parents, Mr. +and Mrs. Charles Bancroft Carroll, present master and mistress of the +place, Master Charles seemed to have inherited certain amiable traits. +Indeed, in some respects, he outdoes his parents. For example, where the +father and mother were cordial, the son chewed ruminatively upon his +fingers and fastened upon my companion a gaze not merely interested, but +expressive of enraptured astonishment. Likewise, though his parents +received us kindly, they did not crow and gurgle with delight; and +though, on our departure, they said that we might come again, they +neither waved their hands nor yet blew bubbles. + +Though the house has been "done over" four times, and though the +paneling was torn out of one room to make way for wall paper when wall +paper came into style, everything has now been restored, and the place +stands to-day to all intents and purposes exactly as it was. That so few +changes were ever made in it, that it weathered successfully, with its +contents, the disastrous period of Eastlake furniture and the American +mansard roof, is a great credit to the Carroll family, and it is +delightful to see such a house in the possession of those who can love +it as it deserves to be loved, and preserve it as it deserves to be +preserved. + +Mr. Charles Bancroft Carroll, who is a graduate of Annapolis and a +grandson of the late Governor John Lee Carroll of Maryland, now farms +some twenty-four hundred acres of the five or six thousand which +surround the manor house. He raises blooded cattle and horses, and, +though he rides with the Elkridge Hunt, also keeps his own pack and is +starting the Howard County Hounds, an organization that will hunt the +country around the manor, which is full of foxes. + +Of the innumerable family portraits contained in the house not a few are +valuable and almost all are pleasing. When I remarked upon the high +average of good looks among his progenitors, Mr. Carroll smiled in +agreement, saying: "Yes, I'm proud of these pictures of my ancestors; +most people's ancestors seem to have looked like the dickens." + +Among these noteworthy family portraits I recollect one of "the Signer" +as a boy, standing on the shore and watching a ship sail out to sea; one +of the three beautiful Caton sisters, his granddaughters, who lived at +Brooklandwood, in the Green Spring Valley, now the home of Mr. Isaac +Emerson; one of Charles Carroll of Homewood, son of "the Signer"; and +one of Governor John Lee Carroll, who was born at Homewood. + +The Caton sisters and Charles Carroll of Homewood supply to the Carroll +family archives that picturesqueness which the history of every old +family should possess; the former contributing beauty, the latter dash +and extravagance, those qualities so annoying in a living relative, but +so delightfully suggestive in an ancestor long defunct. If anything more +be needed to round out the composition, it is furnished by the ghosts of +Doughoregan Manor: an old housekeeper with jingling keys, and an +invisible coach, the wheels of which are heard upon the driveway before +the death of any member of the family. + +Of the Caton sisters there were four, but because one of them, Mrs. +McTavish, stayed at home and made the life of her grandfather happy, we +do not hear so much of her as of the other three, who were +internationally famous for their pulchritude, and were known in England +as "the Three American Graces." All three married British peers, one +becoming Marchioness of Wellesley, another Duchess of Leeds, while the +third became the wife of Lord Stafford, one of the noblemen embalmed in +verse by Fitz-Greene Halleck: + + Lord Stafford mines for coal and salt, + The Duke of Norfolk deals in malt, + The Douglas in red herrings. + +As for Charles Carroll of Homewood, he was handsome, charming, and +athletic, and, as indicated in letters written to him by his father, +caused that old gentleman a good deal of anxiety. It is said that at +one time--perhaps during some period of estrangment from his wealthy +parent--he acted as a fencing master in Baltimore. + +At the age of twenty-five he settled down--or let us hope he did--for he +married Harriet Chew, whose sister "Peggy," Mrs. John Eager Howard of +Baltimore, was a celebrated belle, and of whose own charm we may judge +by the fact that General Washington asked her to remain in the room +while he sat to Gilbert Stuart, declaring that her presence there would +cause his countenance to "wear its most agreeable expression." The +famous portrait painted under these felicitous conditions hung in the +White House when, in 1814, the British marched on Washington; but when +they took the city and burned the White House, the portrait did not +perish with it, for history records that Dolly Madison carried it to +safety, and along with it the original draft of the Declaration of +Independence. + +Charles Carroll of Homewood died before his father, "the Signer," but +the house, Homewood, which the latter built for his son and +daughter-in-law in 1809, stands to-day near the Baltimore city limits, +at the side of Charles Street Boulevard, amid pleasant modern houses, +many of which are of a design not out of harmony with the old mansion. +Though not comparable in size with the manor house at Doughoregan, +Homewood is an even more perfect house, being one of the finest examples +of Georgian architecture to be found in the entire country. The fate of +this house is hardly less fortunate than that of the paternal manor, +for, with its surrounding lands, it has come into the possession of +Johns Hopkins University. The fields of Homewood now form the campus and +grounds of that excellent seat of learning, and the trustees of the +university have not merely preserved the residence, using it as a +faculty club, but have had the inspiration to find in it the +architectural motif for the entire group of new college buildings, so +that the campus may be likened to a bracelet wrought as a setting for +this jewel of a house. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A RARE OLD TOWN + + +The drive from Baltimore to the sweet, slumbering city of Annapolis is +over a good road, but through barren country. Taken in the crisp days of +autumn, by a northern visitor sufficiently misguided to have supposed +that beyond Mason and Dixon's Line the winters are tropical it may prove +an uncomfortable drive--unless he be able to borrow a fur overcoat. It +was on this drive that my disillusionment concerning the fall and winter +climate of the South began, for, wearing two cloth overcoats, one over +the other, I yet suffered agonies from cold. The sun shone down upon the +open automobile in which we tore along, but its rays were no competitors +for the biting wind. Through lap robes, cloth caps, and successive +layers of clothing, and around the edges of goggles, fine little frozen +fangs found their way, like the pliable beaks of a race of gigantic, +fabulous mosquitoes from the Arctic regions. I have driven an open car +over the New England snows for miles in zero weather, and been warm by +comparison, because I was prepared. + +My former erroneous ideas as to the southern climate may be shared by +others, and it is therefore well, perhaps, to enlarge a little bit upon +the subject. Never, except during a winter passed in a stone +tile-floored villa on the island of Capri, whither I went to escape the +cold, have I been so conscious of it, as during fall, winter, and spring +in the South. + +In the hotels of the South one may keep warm in cold weather, but in +private homes it is not always possible to do so, for the popular +illusion that the "sunny South" is of a uniformly temperate climate in +the winter persists nowhere more violently than in the South itself. +Many a house in Virginia, let alone the other States farther down the +map, is without a furnace, and winter life in such houses, with their +ineffectual wood fires, is like life in a refrigerator tempered by the +glow of a safety match. As in Italy and Spain, so in the South it is +often warmer outdoors than in; more than once during my southern voyage +I was tempted to resume the habit, acquired in Capri, of wearing an +overcoat in the house and taking it off on going out into the sunshine. +True, in Capri we had roses blooming in the garden on Christmas Day, but +that circumstance, far from proving warmth, merely proved the hardiness +of roses. So, in the far South--excepting Florida and perhaps a strip of +the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama--the blooming of +flowers in the winter does not prove that "Palm Beach suits" and panama +hats invariably make a desirable uniform. + +Furthermore, I am inclined to believe that because some southern winter +days are warm and others cold, a Northerner feels cold in the South +more than he feels the corresponding temperature at home--on somewhat +the principle which caused the Italians who went with the Duke of the +Abruzzi on his polar expedition to withstand cold more successfully than +did the Scandinavians. + +Of the southern summer I have no experience, but I have been repeatedly +assured that certain of the southern beaches are nearly, if not quite, +as comfortable in hot weather as are those of New Jersey or Long Island, +while in numerous southern mountain retreats one may be fairly cool +through the hot months--a fact which spells fortune for the hotel +keepers of such high-perched resorts as Asheville, White Sulphur +Springs, and the Hot Springs of Virginia, who have their houses full of +Northerners in winter and Southerners in summer. + + * * * * * + +The experience of arrival in Annapolis, delightful in any weather and at +any time of year, gives one a satisfaction almost ecstatic after a cold, +windy automobile ride such as we had suffered. To ache for the shelter +of almost any town, or any sort of building, and, with such yearnings, +to arrive in this dreamy city, whose mild air seems to be compounded +from fresh winds off a glittering blue sea, arrested by the barricade of +ancient hospitable-looking houses, warmed by the glow of their sun-baked +red brick, and freighted with a ghostly fragrance, as from the phantoms +of the rose gardens of a century or two ago--to arrive, frigid and +forlorn in such a haven, to drink a cup of tea in the old Paca house +(now a hotel), is to experience heaven after purgatory. For there is no +town that I know whose very house fronts hold out to the stranger that +warm, old-fashioned welcome that Annapolis seems to give. + +The Paca house, which as a hotel has acquired the name Carvel Hall, is +the house that Winston Churchill had in mind as the Manners house, of +his novel "Richard Carvel." A good idea of the house, as it was, may be +obtained by visiting the Brice house, next door, for the two are almost +twins. When Mr. Churchill was a cadet at Annapolis, before the modern +part of the Carvel Hall hotel was built, there were the remains of +terraced gardens back of the old mansion, stepping down to an old spring +house, and a rivulet which flowed through the grounds was full of +watercress. The book describes a party at the house and in these +gardens. The Chase house on Maryland Avenue was the one Mr. Churchill +thought of as the home of Lionel Carvel, and he described the view from +upper windows of this house, over the Harwood house, across the way, to +the Severn. + +Annapolis, Baedeker tells me, was the first chartered city in the United +States, having been granted its charter by Queen Anne considerably more +than two centuries ago. It is, as every little boy and girl should know, +the capital of Maryland, and is built around a little hill upon the top +of which stands the old State House in which Washington surrendered his +commission and in which met the first Constitutional Convention. + +In its prime Annapolis was nearly as large a city as it is to-day, but +that is not saying a great deal, for at the present time it has not so +many inhabitants as Amarillo, Texas, or Brazil, Indiana. + +Nevertheless, the life of Annapolis in colonial days, and in the days +which followed them, was very brilliant, and we learn from the diary of +General Washington and from the writings of amazed Englishmen and +Frenchmen who visited the city in its period of glory that there were +dinners and balls night after night, that the theater was encouraged in +Annapolis more than in any other city, that the race meets compared with +English race meets both as to the quality of the horses and of the +fashionable attendance, that there were sixteen clubs, that the women of +the city were beautiful, charming, and superbly dressed, that slaves in +sumptuous liveries were to be seen about the streets, that certain +gentlemen paid calls in barges which were rowed by half a dozen or more +blacks, in uniform, and that the perpetual hospitality of the great +houses was gorgeous and extravagant. + +The houses hint of these things. If you have seen the best old brick +mansions of New England, and will imagine them more beautifully +proportioned, set off by balancing wings and having infinitely finer +details as to doorways, windows, porticos, and also as to wood carvings +and fixtures within--as, for instance, the beautiful silver latches and +hinges of the Chase house at Annapolis--you will gather something of the +flavor of these old Southern homes. For though such venerable mansions +as the Chase, Paca, Brice, Hammond, Ridout, and Bordley houses, in +Annapolis, are not without family resemblance to the best New England +colonial houses, the resemblance is of a kind to emphasize the +differences, not only between the mansions of the North and South, but +between the builders of them. The contrast is subtle, but marked. + +Your New England house, beautiful as it is, is stamped with austere +simplicity. The man who built it was probably a scholar but he was +almost certainly a Calvinist. He habited himself in black and was served +by serving maids, instead of slaves in livery. If a woman was not +flat-chested and forlorn, he was prone to regard her as the devil +masquerading for the downfall of man--and no doubt with some justice, +too. Night and morning he presided at family prayers, the purpose of +which was to impress upon his family and servants that to have a good +time was wicked, and that to be gay in this life meant hell-fire and +damnation in the next. + +Upon this pious person his cousin of Annapolis looked with something not +unlike contempt; for the latter, though he too was a scholar, possessed +the sort of scholarliness which takes into account beauty and the lore +of cosmopolitanism. He may have been religious or he may not have been, +but if religious he demanded something handsome, something stylish, in +his religion, as he did also in his residence, in his wife, his sons, +his daughters, his horses, coaches, dinners, wines, and slaves. He did +things with a flourish, and was not beset by a perpetual consciousness +and fear of hell. He approved of pretty women; he made love to them; he +married them; he was the father of them. His pretty daughters married +men who also admired pretty women, and became the mothers of other +pretty women, who became, in turn, the mothers and grandmothers of the +pretty women of the South to-day. + +Your old-time Annapolis gentleman's ideas of a republic were far indeed +from those now current, for he understood perfectly the difference +between a republic and a democracy--a difference which is not now so +well understood. He believed that the people should elect the heads of +the government, but he also believed that these heads should be elected +from his own class, and that, having voted, the people should go about +their business, trusting their betters to run the country as it should +be run. + +This, at least, is my picture of the old aristocrats of Maryland, +Virginia, and South Carolina, as conveyed to me by what I have seen of +their houses and possessions and what I have read of their mode of life. +They were the early princes of the Republic and by all odds its most +picturesque figures. + + * * * * * + +Very different from the spirit of appreciation and emulation shown by +the trustees of Johns Hopkins University with regard to the old house, +Homewood, in Baltimore, is that manifested in the architecture of the +Naval Academy at Annapolis, where, in a city fairly flooded with +examples of buildings, both beautiful and typically American, +architectural hints were ignored, and there were erected great stone +structures whose chief characteristics are size, solidity, and the look +of being "government property." The main buildings of the Academy, with +the exception of the chapel, suggest the sort of sublimated penitentiary +that Mr. Thomas Mott Osborne might, one fancies, construct under a +carte-blanche authorization, while the chapel, the huge dome of which is +visible to all the country round, makes one think of a monstrous wedding +cake fashioned in the form of a building and covered with white and +yellow frosting in ornamental patterns. + +This chapel, one imagines, may have been inspired by the Invalides in +Paris, but of the Invalides it falls far short. I know nothing of the +history of the building, but it is easy to believe that the original +intention may have been to place at the center of it, under the dome, a +great well, over the parapet of which might have been seen the +sarcophagus of John Paul Jones, in the crypt. One prefers to think that +the architect had some such plan; for the crypt, as at present arranged, +is hardly more than a dark cellar, approached by what seems to be a +flight of humble back stairs. To descend into it, and find there the +great marble coffin with its bronze dolphins, is not unlike going down +into the cellar of a residence and there discovering the family silver +reposing in the coal-bin. + +In this connection it is interesting to recall the fact that our +sometimes piratical and always brilliant Revolutionary naval hero died +in Paris, and that until a few years ago his resting place was unknown. +The reader will remember that while General Horace Porter was American +ambassador to France a search was instituted for the remains of John +Paul Jones, the greater part of the work having been conducted by +Colonel H. Baily Blanchard, then first secretary of the Embassy, +assisted by the ambassador and Mr. Henry Vignaud, dean of secretaries of +embassy. The resting place of Jones was finally discovered in an +abandoned cemetery in the city of Paris, over which houses had been +built. The body was contained in a leaden casket and was preserved in +alcohol so that identification was easily accomplished by means of a +contemporaneous likeness of Jones, and also by means of measurements +taken from Houdin's bust. The remains were accorded military honors in +Paris, and were brought to this country on a war vessel. + +Why the crypt at Annapolis is as it is, I do not know, but in my own +purely imaginary picture of what happened, I see the architect's plans +for a heroic display of Jones's tomb knocked on the head by some +"practical man," some worthy dunce in the Navy Department, whom I can +imagine as protesting: "But no! We can't take up space at the center of +the chapel for any such purpose. It must be floored over to make room +for pews. Otherwise where will the cadets sit?" + +So, although the grounds of the academy, with their lawns, and aged +trees, and squirrels, and cadets, are charming, and although the solemn +and industrious Baedeker assures me that the academy is the "chief lion" +of Annapolis, and although I know that it is a great school, and that we +need another like it in order properly to officer our navy, I prefer the +old town with its old houses, and old streets bearing such reminiscent +names as Hanover, Prince George, and Duke of Gloucester. + +For certain slang expressions used by cadets I am indebted to a member +of the corps. From this admiral-to-be I learn that a "bird" or "wazzo" +is a man or boy; that a "pap sheet" is a report covering delinquencies, +and that to "hit the pap" is to be reported for delinquency; that +"steam" is marine engineering, and to be "bilged for juice" is to fail +in examinations in electrical engineering--to get an "unsat," or +unsatisfactory mark, or even a "zip" or "swabo," which is a zero. Cadets +do not escort girls to dances, but "drag" them; a girl is a "drag," and +a "heavy drag" or "brick" is an unattractive girl who must be taken to a +dance. A "sleuth" or "jimmylegs" is a night watchman, and to be "ragged" +is to be caught. Mess-hall waiters are sometimes called "mokes," while +at other times the names of certain exalted dignitaries of the Navy +Department, or of the academy, are applied to them. + + * * * * * + +I shall never cease to regret that dread of the cold kept us from seeing +ancient Whitehall, a few miles from Annapolis, which was the residence +of Governor Horatio Sharpe, and is one of the finest of historic +American homes; nor shall I, on the other hand, ever cease to rejoice +that, in spite of cold we did, upon another day, visit Hampton, the rare +old mansion of the Ridgelys, of Maryland, which stands amid its own five +thousand acres some dozen miles or so to the north of Baltimore. The +Ridgelys were, it appears, the great Protestant land barons of this +region as the Carrolls were the great Catholics, and, like the Carrolls, +they remain to-day the proprietors of a vast estate and an incomparable +house. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WE MEET THE HAMPTON GHOST + + There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple; + If the ill spirit have so fair a house, + Good things will strive to dwell with 't. + + --THE TEMPEST. + + +Hampton is probably the largest of Maryland's old mansions, and the +beauty of it is more theatrical than the beauty of Doughoregan Manor; +for although the latter is the older of the two, the former is not only +spectacular by reason of its spaciousness, the delicacy of its +architectural details, and the splendor of its dreamlike terraced +gardens, but also for a look of beautiful, dignified, yet somehow tragic +age--a look which makes one think of a wonderful old lady; a belle of +the days of minuets and powdered wigs and patches; a woman no less +wonderful in her declining years than in her youth, but wonderful in +another way; a proud old aristocrat, erect and spirited to the last; her +bedchamber a storehouse of ivory lace and ancient jewelry, her memory a +storehouse of recollections, like chapters from romantic novels of the +days when all men were gallant, and all women beautiful: recollections +of journeys made in the old coach, which is still in the stable, though +its outriders have been buried in the slaves' burying ground these many +years; recollections of the opening of Hampton, when, as the story +goes, gay Captain Charles Ridgely, builder of the house, held a card +party in the attic to celebrate the event, while his wife, Rebecca +Dorsey Ridgely, a lady of religious turn, marked the occasion +simultaneously with a prayer-meeting in the drawing room; of the ball +given by the Ridgelys in honor of Charles Carroll's granddaughters, the +exquisite Caton sisters; of hunt meets here, long, long ago, and hunt +balls which succeeded them; of breakneck rides; of love-making in that +garden peopled with the ghosts of more than a century of lovers; of +duels fought at dawn. Of such vague, thrilling tales the old house seems +to whisper. + +Never, from the moment we turned into the tree-lined avenue, leading to +Hampton, from the moment when I saw the fox hounds rise resentfully out +of beds which they had dug in drifts of oak leaves in the drive, from +the moment when I stood beneath the stately portico and heard the bars +of the shuttered doors being flung back for our admittance--never, from +my first glimpse of the place, have I been able to dispel the sense of +unreality I felt while there, and which makes me feel, now, that Hampton +is not a house that I have seen, but one built by my imagination in the +course of a particularly charming and convincing dream. + +Stained glass windows bearing the Ridgely coat of arms flank the front +doorway, and likewise the opposing doorway at the end of the enormous +hall upon which one enters, and the light from these windows gives the +hall a subdued yet glowing illumination, so that there is something +spectral about the old chairs and the old portraits with which the walls +are solidly covered. There are portraits here by Gilbert Stuart and +other distinguished painters of times gone by, and I particularly +remember one large canvas showing a beautiful young woman in evening +dress, her hair hanging in curls beside her cheeks, her tapering fingers +touching the strings of a harp. She was young then; yet the portrait is +that of the great-grandmother, or great-great-grandmother, of present +Ridgelys, and she has lain long in the brick-walled family burying +ground below the garden. But there beneath the portrait stands the harp +on which she played. + +One might tell endlessly of paneling, of the delicate carving of mantels +and overmantels, of chairs, tables, desks, and sofas of Chippendale, +Hepplewhite, Phyfe and Sheraton, yet giving such an inventory one might +fail utterly to suggest the feeling of that great house, with its sense +of homelike emptiness, its wealth of old furniture and portraits, +blending together, in the dim light of a late October afternoon, to form +shadowy backgrounds for autumnal reverie, or for silent, solitary +listening--listening to the tales told by the soughing wind outside, to +the whisper of embers in the fireplace, the slow somber tick of the tall +clock telling of ages past and passing, the ghostly murmur of the old +house talking softly to itself. + +From the windows of the great dining-room one looks away toward Hampton +Gate, a favorite meeting place for the Elkridge Hunt, or, at another +angle, toward the stables where the hunters are kept, the old slave +cabins, and the overseer's house, with its bell tower--a house nearly +two hundred years old. But the library is perhaps the more natural +resting place for the guest, and it looks out over the garden, with its +enormous descending terraces, its geometrical walks and steps, its +beautiful old trees, and arbors of ancient box. Such terraces as these +were never built by paid labor. + +We were given tea in the library, our hostess at this function being a +young lady of five or six years--a granddaughter of Captain John +Ridgely, present master of Hampton--who, with her pink cheeks, her +serious eyes and demeanor, looked like a canvas by Sir Joshua come to +life, as she sat in a large chair and ate a large red apple. + +Nor did Bryan, Captain Ridgely's negro butler, fit less admirably into +the pervasive atmosphere of fiction which enveloped the place. In the +absence of his master, Bryan did the honors of the old house with a +style which was not "put on," because it did not have to be put +on--nature and a good bringing-up having supplied all needs in this +respect. There was about him none of that affectation of being a graven +image, which one so often notices in white butlers and footmen imported +from Europe by rich Americans, and which, of all shams, is one of the +most false and absurd, as carried out on both sides--for we pretend to +think these functionaries the deft mechanisms, incapable of thought, +that they pretend to be; yet all the time we know--and they know we +know--that they see and hear and think as we do, and that, moreover, +they are often enough observant cynics whose elaborate gentility is +assumed for hire, like the signboard of a sandwich man. + +Bryan was without these artificial graces. His manner, in showing us the +house, in telling us about the various portraits, indicated some true +appreciation of the place and of its contents; and the air he wore of +natural dignity and courtesy--of being at once acting-host and +servitor--constituted as graceful a performance in a not altogether easy +role as I have ever seen, and satisfied me, once for all, as to the +verity of legends concerning the admirable qualities of old-time negro +servants in the South. + +After tea, when fading twilight had deepened the shadows in the house, +we went up the stairway, past the landing with its window containing the +armorial bearings of the family in stained glass, and, achieving the +upper hall, crossed to a great bedchamber, the principal guest room, and +paused just inside the door. + +And now, because of what I am about to relate, I shall give the names of +those who were present. We were: Dr. Murray P. Brush, A.B., Ph.D., +acting Dean of Johns Hopkins University; Dr. John McF. Bergland of +Baltimore; my companion, Wallace Morgan, illustrator; and myself. + +The light had, by this time, melted to a mere faint grayness sifting +like mist through the many oblong panes of several large windows. +Nevertheless I could discern that it was a spacious room, and from the +color of it and certain shadowy lines upon the walls, I judged that it +was paneled to the ceiling in white-painted wood. I am under the +impression that it contained a fireplace, and that the great four-post +bed, standing to the right of the doorway, was placed upon a low +platform, a step or two above the floor--though of this I am not quite +certain, the bulk of the bed and the dim light having, perhaps, deceived +me. The rest of the furniture in the room was dark in color, and massed +in heavy vague spots against the lighter background of the walls. + +Directly before the door, at about the center of the wall against which +it was backed, stood something which loomed tall and dark, and which I +took to be either a gigantic clothespress or a closet built into the +room. Looking past the front of this obstruction, I saw one of the +windows; the piece of furniture was therefore exhibited sidewise, in +silhouette. + +I do not think that I had definitely thought of ghost stories before, +and I know that ghosts had not been spoken of, but as I looked into this +room, and reflected on the long series of persons who had occupied it, +and on where they were now, and on all the stories that the room must +have heard, there entered my mind thoughts of the supernatural. + +Having taken a step or two into the room, I was a little in advance of +my three friends, and as these fancies came strongly to me, I spoke over +my shoulder to one of them, who was at my right and a little behind me, +saying, half playfully: + +"There ought to be ghosts in a room like this." + +Hardly had I spoken when without a sound, and swinging very slowly, the +door of the large piece of furniture before me gently opened. My first +idea was that the thing must be a closet, built against the wall, with a +door at the back opening on a passageway, or into the next room, and +that the little girl whom we had met downstairs had opened it from the +other side and was coming in. + +I fully expected to see her enter. But she did not enter, for, as I +learned presently, she was in the nursery at the time. + +After waiting for an instant to see who was coming, I began to realize +that there was no one coming; that no one had opened the door; that, +like an actor picking up a cue, the door had begun to swing immediately +upon my saying the word "ghosts." + +The appropriateness of the coincidence was striking. I turned quickly to +my friends, who were in conversation behind me, and asked: + +"Speaking of ghosts--did you see that door open?" + +It is my recollection that none of them had seen it. Certainly not more +than one of them had, for I remember my feeling of disappointment that +any one present should have missed so strange a circumstance. Some one +may have asked what I had seen; at all events I was full of the idea, +and, indicating the open door, I began to tell what I had seen, +when--exactly as though the thing were done deliberately to +circumstantiate my story--with the slow, steady movement of a heavy door +pushed by a feeble hand, the other portal of the huge cabinet swung +open. + +This time all four of us were looking. + +Presently, as we moved across the wide hall to go downstairs again, +Bryan came from one of the other chambers, whither, I think, he had +carried the young lady's supper on a tray. + +"Are there supposed to be any ghosts in this house?" I asked him. + +Bryan showed his white teeth in the semi-darkness. Whether he believed +in ghosts or not, evidently he did not fear them. + +"Yes, sir," he said. "We're supposed to have a ghost here." + +"Where?" + +"In that room over there," he answered, indicating the bedroom from +which we had come. + +We listened attentively to Bryan while he told how the daughter of +Governor Swan had come to attend a ball at Hampton, and how she had died +in the four-post bed in that old shadowy guest room, and of how, since +then, she had been seen from time to time. + +"They's several people say they saw her," he finished. "She comes out +and combs her hair in front of the long mirror." + +However, as we drove back to Baltimore that evening, we repeatedly +assured one another that we did not believe in ghosts. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +ARE WE STANDARDIZED? + + +Almost all modern European critics of the United States agree in +complaining that our telephones and sleeping cars are objectionable, and +that we are "standardized" in everything. Their criticism of the +telephone seems to be that the state of perfection to which it has been +brought in this country causes it to be widely used, while their +disapproval of our sleeping cars is invariably based on the assumption +that they have no compartments--which is not the fact, since most of the +great transcontinental railroads do run compartment cars, and much +better ones than the best _wagons lits_, and since, also, all our +sleeping cars have drawing-rooms which are incomparably better than the +most comfortable European compartments. + +The charge of standardization will, however, bear a little thought. It +is true that most American cities have a general family +resemblance--that a business street in Atlanta or Memphis looks much +like a business street in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee, St. +Paul, Kansas City, or St. Louis--and that much the same thing may be +said of residence streets. Houses and office buildings in one city are +likely to resemble those of corresponding grade in another; the men who +live in the houses and go daily to the offices are also similar; so are +the trolley cars in which they journey to and fro; still more so the +Fords which many of them use; the clothing of one man is like that of +another, and all have similar conventions concerning the date at +which--without regard to temperature--straw hats should be discarded. +Their womenfolk, also, are more or less alike, as are the department +stores in which they shop and the dresses they buy. And the same is true +of their children, the costumes of those children, and the schools they +attend. + +Every American city has social groups corresponding to similar groups in +other cities. There is always the small, affluent group, made up of +people who keep butlers and several automobiles, and who travel +extensively. In this group there are always some snobs: ladies who give +much time to societies founded on ancestry, and have a Junkerish feeling +about "social leadership." + +Every city has also its "fast" group: people who consider themselves +"unconventional," who drink more than is good for them, and make much +noise. Some members of this group may belong to the first group, as +well, but in the fast group they have a following of well-dressed +hangers-on: unmarried men and women, youngish rather than young, who, +with little money, yet manage to dress well and to be seen eating and +drinking and dancing in public places. There is usually to be found in +this group a hectic widow or two--be it grass or sod--and a few pretty +girls who, having been given too much freedom at eighteen, begin to +wonder at twenty-eight, why, though they have always been "good +fellows," none of the dozens of men who take them about have married +them. To this aggregation drift also those restless husbands and wives +whose glances rove hopefully away from their mates, a few well-bred +drunkards, and a few men and women who are trying to forget things they +cannot forget. + +Then there is always the young married group--a nice group for the most +part--living in comfortable new houses or apartments, and keeping, +usually, both a small automobile and a baby carriage. They also go to +the Country Club on Saturday nights, leave their motors standing in the +drive, eat a lukewarm supper that tastes like papier-mache, and dance +themselves to wiltedness. + +Another group is entirely masculine, being made up of husbands of +various ages, their mutual bond being the downtown club to which they go +daily, and in which the subjects discussed are politics, golf, and the +evils of prohibition. To this group always belong the black-sheep +husbands who, after taking their wives to the Country Club, disappear +and remain away until they are sent for because it is time to go home, +when they come back shamefaced and scented with Scotch. + +Every American city has also what Don Marquis calls its "little group of +serious thinkers"--women, most of them--possessed of an ardent desire to +"keep abreast of the times." These women belong to clubs and literary +societies which are more serious than war. They are always reading +papers or attending lectures, and at these lectures they get a strange +assortment of "cultural" information and misinformation, delivered with +ghastly assurance by heterogeneous gentlemen in cutaway coats, who go +about and spout for pay. If you meet these ladies, and they suspect you +of being infested by the germs of "culture," they will open fire on you +with a "thought," about which you may detect a curious ghostly +fragrance, as of Alfred Noyes's lecture, last week, or of "the New +Republic" or the "Literary Digest." The most "liberal" of them may even +take "The Masses," precisely as people rather like them used to take +"The Philistine," a generation or two ago. Among the members of this +group are the women who work violently for suffrage--something in which +I personally believe, but which, merely because I believe in it, I do +not necessarily like to take in my coffee as a substitute for sugar, on +my bread as a substitute for butter, and in my ear as a substitute for +pleasant general conversation. + +I do not wish to seem to speak disparagingly of women of this type, for +they are doing good, and they will do more good when they have become +more accustomed to possessing minds. Having but recently discovered +their minds, they are playing with them enthusiastically, like children +who have just discovered their new toys on Christmas morning. It is +delightful to watch them. It is diverting to have them pop ideas at you +with that bright-eyed, efficient, assertive look which seems to say: +"See! I am a liberal woman--a woman of the new type. I meet men on their +own ground. Do you wish to talk of birth control, social hygiene, and +sex attraction? Or shall we reverse the order? Or shall I show you how +much I know about Brieux, and household economics, and Ellen Key, and +eugenics, and George Meredith, and post-impressionism, and "Roberts' +Rules of Order," and theosophy, and conditions in the Sixteenth Ward?" + +When one thinks of these city groups, and of mail-order houses, and +Fords, one may begin to fear it is indeed true that we are becoming +standardized, but when one lets one's mind drift over the country as the +eye drifts over a map; when one thinks of the quantities of modest, +thoughtful, gentle, generous, intelligent, sound American families which +are to be found in every city and every town, and thinks again, in a +twinkling, of sheriffs and mining-camp policemen in the Far West, of +boys going to Harvard, and other boys going to the University of Kansas, +others to the old Southern universities, so rich in tradition, and still +others to Annapolis or West Point; when one thinks of the snow +glittering on the Rocky Mountain wall, back of Denver; of sleepy little +towns drowsing in the sun beside the Mississippi; of Charles W. Eliot of +Cambridge, and Hy Gill of Seattle; of Dr. Lyman Abbott of New York and +Tom Watson of Georgia; of General Leonard Wood and Colonel William +Jennings Bryan; of ex-slaves living in their cabins behind Virginia +manor houses, and Filipino and Kanaka fishermen living in villages +built on stilts beside the bayous below New Orleans; of the dry salt +desert of Utah, and two great rivers meeting between green rocky hills, +at Harper's Ferry; of men working in offices at the top of the Woolworth +Building in New York, and other men working thousands of feet below the +ground, in the copper mines of Butte and the iron and coal mines of +Birmingham--when one thinks of these things one quickly ceases to fear +that the United States is standardized, and instead begins to fear that +few Americans will ever know the varied wonder of their country, and the +varied character of its inhabitants, their problems, hopes, and views. + +If I lived somewhere in the region of Boston, New York, or Philadelphia +and wished quickly to learn whether the country were really standardized +or not, I should get into my automobile--or into some one else's--and +take an autumn tour through Baltimore, past Doughoregan Manor, some +miles to the west of Baltimore, on to Frederick, Maryland (where they +dispute, quite justly, I believe, the truth of the Barbara Frietchie +legend), and thence "over the mountain wall" and down into the +northeastern corner of the most irregularly shaped State in the Union, +West Virginia. I should strike for Harper's Ferry, and from there run to +Charles Town, a few miles distant (where John Brown was tried and +executed for the Harper's Ferry raid), and after circulating about that +corner of the State, I should go down into Virginia by the good highway +which leads from Charles Town to Berryville--"Bur'v'l," they pronounce +it--and to "Winchester twenty miles away" (where they say that +Sheridan's Ride was nothing to make such a lot of talk about!), and then +back, by way of Berryville, and over the Blue Ridge Mountains into the +great fox-hunting counties of Virginia: Clark, Loudon, and Fauquier. +Here I should see a hunt meet or a race meet. There are many other +places to which I might go after that, but as I meant only to suggest an +easy little tour, I shall stop at this point, contenting myself with +saying that not far to the south is Charlottesville, where Jefferson +built that most beautiful of all universities, the University of +Virginia, and his wonderful house Monticello; that Staunton (pronounced +as without the "u"), where Woodrow Wilson was born, lies west of +Charlottesville, while Fredericksburg, where Washington's mother lived, +lies to the northeast. + +Some such trip as this I should take instead of a conventional New +England tour. And before starting I should buy a copy of Louise Closser +Hale's delightful book, "Into the Old Dominion." + +One beauty of the trip that I suggest is that it isn't all the same. In +one place you get a fair country hotel, in another an inn, and somewhere +along the way you may have to spend a night in a private house. Also, +though the roads through Maryland, and the part of West Virginia I speak +of, are generally good, my experience of Virginia roads, especially +through the mountains, leads me to conclude that in respect to highways +Virginia remains a backward State. But who wants to ride always over +oiled roads, always to hotels with marble lobbies, or big white porches +full of hungry-eyed young women, and old ladies, knitting? Only the +standardized tourist. And I am not addressing him. + +I am talking to the motorist who is not ossified in habit, who has a +love of strangeness and the picturesque--not only in scenery but in +houses and people and the kind of life those people lead. For it is +quite true that, as Professor Roland C. Usher said in his "Pan +Americanism," "the information in New York about Buenos Aires is more +extended, accurate, and contemporaneous than the notions in Maine about +Alabama.... Isolation is more a matter of time than of space, and common +interests are due to the ease of transportation and communication more +often than geographical location." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +HARPER'S FERRY AND JOHN BROWN + + Mad Old Brown, + Osawatomie Brown, + With his eighteen other crazy men, went in and took the town. + + --EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN. + + +Three States meet at Harper's Ferry, and the line dividing two of them +is indicated where it crosses the station platform. If you alight at the +rear end of the train, you are in Maryland; at the front, you are in +West Virginia. This I like. I have always liked important but invisible +boundaries--boundaries of states or, better yet, of countries. When I +cross them I am disposed to step high, as though not to trip upon them, +and then to pause with one foot in one land and one in another, trying +to imagine that I feel the division running through my body. + +Harper's Ferry is an entrancing old town; a drowsy place, piled up +beautifully, yet carelessly, upon terraced roads clinging to steep +hills, which slope on one side to the Potomac, on the other to the +Shenandoah, and come to a point, like the prow of a great ship, at the +confluence of the two. + +There is something foreign in the appearance of the place. Many times, +as I looked at old stone houses, a story or two high on one side, three +or four stories on the other, seeming to set their claws into the cliffs +and cling there for dear life, I thought of houses in Capri and Amalfi, +and in some towns in France; and again there were low cottages built of +blocks of shale covered with a thin veneer of white plaster showing the +outlines of the stones beneath, which, squatting down amid their trees +and flowers, resembled peasant cottages in Normandy or Brittany, or in +Ireland. + +It is a town in which to ramble for an hour, uphill, down and around; +stopping now to delight in a crumbling stone wall, tied together with +Kenilworth ivy; now to watch a woman making apple butter in a great iron +pot; now to see an old negro clamber slowly into his rickety wagon, take +up the rope reins, and start his skinny horse with the surprising words: +"Come hither!"; now to look at an old tangled garden, terraced rudely up +a hillside; now to read the sign, on a telegraph pole in the village, +bearing the frank threat: "If you Hitch your Horses Here they will be +Turned Loose." Now you will come upon a terraced road, at one side of +which stands an old house draped over the rocks in such a way as to +provide entrance from the ground level, on any one of three stories; or +an unexpected view down a steep roadway, or over ancient moss-grown +housetops to where, as an old book I found there puts it, "between two +ramparts, in a gorge of savage grandeur, the lordly Potomac takes to his +embrace the beautiful Shenandoah." + +The liaison between the rivers, described in this Rabelaisian manner by +the author of "The Annals of Harper's Ferry," has been going on for a +long time with all the brazen publicity of a love scene on a park bench. +I recommend the matter to the attention of the Society for the +Suppression of Vice, which once took action to prohibit a novel by Mr. +Theodore Dreiser. A great many people wish to read Mr. Dreiser's books +yet no one has to read them if he does not want to. But it is a +different matter with these rivers. Sensitive citizens of Harper's Ferry +and pure-minded passengers on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad are obliged +daily to witness what is going on. + +Before the days of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and of the +late Anthony Comstock, when we had no one to make it clear to us exactly +what was shocking, little was thought of the public scandal between the +Potomac and the Shenandoah. Thomas Jefferson seems to have rather liked +it; there is a point above the town, known as Jefferson's Rock, at +which, it is said, the author of the Declaration of Independence stood +and uttered a sentiment about the spectacle. Everybody in Harper's Ferry +agrees that Jefferson stood at Jefferson's Rock and said something +appropriate, and any one of them will try to tell you what he said, but +each version will be different. + +A young lady told me that he said: "This view is worth a trip across the +Atlantic Ocean." + +A young man in a blue felt hat of the fried-egg variety said that +Jefferson declared, with his well-known simplicity: "This is the +grandest view I ever seen." + +An old man who had to go through the tobacco chewer's pre-conversational +rite before replying to my question gave it as: "Pfst!--They ain't +nothin' in Europe ner Switzerland ner nowheres else, I reckon', to beat +this-here scenery." + +The man at the drug store quoted differently alleging the saying to have +been: "Europe has nothing on this": whereas the livery stable man's +version was: "This has that famous German river--the Rhine River don't +they call it?--skinned to death." + +Whatever Jefferson's remark was, there has been added to the spectacle +at Harper's Ferry, since his day, a new feature, which, could he have +but seen it, must have struck him forcibly, and might perhaps have +caused him to say more. + +At a lofty point upon the steep wall of Maryland Heights, across the +Potomac from the town, far, far up upon the side of the cliff, +commanding a view not only of both rivers, but of their meeting place +and their joint course below, and of the lovely contours of the Blue +Ridge Mountains, fading to smoky coloring in the remote distance, there +has, of late years, appeared the outline of a gigantic face, which looks +out from its emplacement like some Teutonic god in vast effigy, its huge +luxuriant mustaches pointing East and West as though in symbolism of the +conquest of a continent. A blue and yellow background, tempered somewhat +by the elements, serves to attract attention to the face and to the +legend which accompanies it, but the thing one sees above all else, the +thing one recognizes, is the face itself, with its look half tragic, +half resigned, yet always so inscrutable: for it is none other than the +beautiful brooding countenance of Gerhard Mennen, the talcum-powder +gentleman. + + * * * * * + +The great story of Harper's Ferry is of course the John Brown story. +Joseph I.C. Clarke, writing in the New York "Sun" of Sir Roger +Casement's execution for treason in connection with the Irish rebellion, +compared him with John Brown and also with Don Quixote. The spiritual +likeness between these three bearded figures is striking enough. All +were idealists; all were fanatics. Brown's ideal was a noble one--that +of freedom--but his manner of attempting to translate it into actuality +was that of a madman. He believed not only that the slaves should be +freed, but that the blood of slaveholders should be shed in atonement. +In "bleeding Kansas" he led the Ossawatomie massacre, and committed +cold-blooded murders under the delusion that the sword of the Lord was +in his hand. + +In October, 1859, Brown, who had for some time been living under an +assumed name in the neighborhood of Harper's Ferry, led a score of his +followers, some of them negroes, in a surprise attack upon the +Government arsenal at this place, capturing the watchmen and taking +possession of the buildings. It was his idea to get the weapons the +arsenal contained and give them to the slaves that they might rise and +free themselves. Before this plan could be executed, however, Brown and +his men were besieged in the armory, and here, after a day or two of +bloody fighting, with a number of deaths on both sides, he was captured +with his few surviving men, by Colonel (later General) Robert E. Lee, +whose aide, upon this occasion, was J.E.B. Stuart, later the Confederate +cavalry leader. Stuart had been in Kansas, and it was he who recognized +the leader of the raid as Brown of Ossawatomie. + +It is said that Brown's violent anti-slavery feeling was engendered by +his having seen, in his youth, a colored boy of about his own age +cruelly misused. He brooded over the wrongs of the blacks until, as some +students of his life believe, he became insane on this subject. His +utterances show that he was willing to give up his life and those of his +sons and other followers, if by such action he could merely draw +attention to the cause which had taken possession of his soul. In the +course of the fighting he saw his two sons mortally wounded, and was +himself stabbed and cut. Throughout the fight and his subsequent trial +at Charles Town he remained imperturbable; when taken to the gallows he +sat upon his coffin, in a wagon, and he not only mounted the scaffold +without a tremor, but actually stood there, apparently unmoved, for ten +or fifteen minutes, with the noose around his neck, while the troops +which had formed his escort were marched to their positions. + +A large number of troops were present at the execution, for it was then +believed in the South that the Brown raid was not the mere suicidal +stroke of an individual fanatic, but an organized movement on the part +of the Republican party; an effort to rescue Brown was therefore +apprehended. This idea was later shown to be a fallacy, Brown having +made his own plans, and been financed by a few northern friends, headed +by Gerrit Smith of New York. + +There has been a tendency in the North to make a saint of John Brown, +and in the South to make a devil of him. As a matter of fact he was a +poor, misguided zealot, with a wild light in his eye, who had set out to +do a frightful thing; for, bad though slavery was, its evils were not +comparable with the horrors which would have resulted from a slave +rebellion. + +It must be conceded, however, that those who would canonize John Brown +have upon their side a strange and impressive piece of evidence. The +jail where he was lodged in Charles Town and the courthouse where he was +tried, still stand, and it is the actual fact that, when the snow falls, +it always miraculously melts in a path which leads diagonally across the +street from the one to the other. That this is true I have unimpeachable +testimony. _Snow will not stand on the path by which John Brown crossed +back and forth from the jail to the court-house._ There will be snow +over all the rest of the street, but not on that path; there you can see +it melting. + +But, as with certain other "miracles," this one is not so difficult to +understand if you know how it is brought about. The courthouse is heated +from the jail, and the hot pipes run under the pavement. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE VIRGINIAS AND THE WASHINGTONS + + +In colonial times, and long thereafter, the present State of West +Virginia was a part of Virginia. Virginia, in the old days, used to have +no western borders to her most westerly counties, which, in theory, ran +out to infinity. As the western part of the State became settled, county +lines were drawn, and new counties were started farther back from the +coast. For this reason, towns which are now in Jefferson County, West +Virginia, used to be in that county of Virginia which lies to the east +of Jefferson County, and some towns have been in several different +counties in the course of their history. + +The people in the eastern part of West Virginia are, so far as I am +capable of judging, precisely like Virginians. The old houses, when +built, were in Virginia, the names of the people are Virginian names, +and customs and points of view are Virginian. Until I went there I was +not aware how very much this means. + +I do not know who wrote the school history I studied as a boy, but I do +know now that it was written by a lopsided historian, and that his +"lop," like that of many another of his kind, led him to enlarge upon +American naval and military victories, to minimize American defeats, to +give an impression that the all-important early colonies were those of +New England, and that the all-important one of them was Massachusetts. +From this bias I judge that the historian was a Boston man. It takes a +Bostonian to think in that way. They do it still. + +From my school history I gathered the idea that although Sir Walter +Raleigh and Captain John Smith were so foolish as to dally more or less +in the remote fastnesses of Virginia, and although there was a little +ineffectual settlement at Jamestown, all the important colonizing of +this country occurred in New England. I read about Peregrine White, but +not about Virginia Dare; I read much of Miles Standish, but nothing of +Christopher Newport; I read a great deal of the _Mayflower_, but not a +word of the _Susan Constant_. + +Yet Virginia Dare, if she lived, must have been nearing young ladyhood +when Peregrine White was born; Captain Christopher Newport passed the +Virginia capes when Miles Standish was hardly more than a youth, in +Lancashire; and the _Susan Constant_ landed the Jamestown settlers more +than a dozen years before the _Mayflower_ landed her shipload of eminent +furniture owners at Plymouth. Even Plymouth itself had been visited +years before by John Smith, and it was he, not the Pilgrims, who named +the place. + +I find that some boys, to-day, know these things. But though that fact +is encouraging, I am not writing for boys, but for their comparatively +ignorant parents. + +Not only did the first English colony establish itself in Virginia, and +the first known tobacco come from there--a point the importance of which +cannot be overstated--but the history of the Old Dominion is in every +way more romantic and heroic than that of any other State. The first +popular government existed there long before the Revolution, and at the +time of the break with the mother country Virginia was the most wealthy +and populous of the Colonies. Some historians say that slavery was first +introduced there when some Dutchmen sold to the colonists a shipload of +negroes, but I believe this point is disputed. The Declaration of +Independence was, of course, written by a Virginian, and made good by +the sword of one. The first President of the United States was a +Virginian, and so is the present Chief Executive. The whole of New +England has produced but four presidents; Ohio has produced six; but +Virginia has given us eight. The first British army to land on this +continent (Braddock's) landed in Virginia, and in that State our two +greatest wars were terminated by the surrenders of Cornwallis and of +Lee. And, last, the gallant Lee himself was a Virginian of the +Virginians--a son of the distinguished Henry Lee who said of Washington +that he was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of +his countrymen." + + * * * * * + +On the pleasant drive of perhaps a dozen miles, from Harper's Ferry to +Charles Town, I noticed here and there, at the roadside, pyramidal +stones, suggesting monuments, but bearing no inscription save that each +had a number. On inquiry I learned that these were indeed Confederate +monuments, but that to find out what they marked it was necessary to go +to the county courthouse at Charles Town and look up the numbers in a +book, of which there is but one copy. These monuments were set out three +or four years ago. They appeared suddenly, almost as though they had +grown overnight, and many people wondered, as I had, what they meant. + +"Eloise," one Charles Town young lady asked another, "what's that +monument out in front of your house with the number twenty-one on it?" + +"Oh," replied Eloise, "that's where all my suitors are buried." + + * * * * * + +One of the things which gives Jefferson County, West Virginia, its +Virginian flavor is the collection of fine old houses which adorn it. +Many of these houses are the homes of families bearing the name of +Washington, or having in their veins the blood of the Washingtons. It is +said that there is more Washington blood in Charles Town (which, by the +way, should not be confused with Charleston, capital of the same State), +than in any other place, if not in all the rest of the world together. +The nearest competitors to Charles Town in this respect are Westmoreland +County, Virginia, and the town of Kankakee, Illinois, where resides the +Spottswood Augustine Washington family, said to be the only Washington +group to have taken the Union side in the Civil War. It is rumored also +that all the Washingtons are Democrats, although that fact is hard to +reconcile, at the present time, with the statement that, among the five +thousand of them, there is but a single Federal officeholder. + +The settling of the Washingtons in Jefferson County, West Virginia, came +about through the fact that George Washington, when a youth of sixteen +or seventeen, became acquainted with that part of what was then +Virginia, through having gone to survey for Lord Fairfax, who had +acquired an enormous tract of land in the neighboring county of Clarke, +which is still in the mother State. To this estate, called Greenaway +Court, his lordship, it is recorded, came from England to isolate +himself because a woman with whom he was in love refused to marry him. + +In this general neighborhood George Washington lived for three years, +and local enthusiasts affirm that to his having drunk the +lime-impregnated waters of this valley was due his great stature. The +man who informed me of this theory had lived there aways. He was about +five feet three inches tall, and had drunk the waters all his +life--plain and otherwise. + +Washington's accounts of the region so interested his brothers that they +finally moved there, acquired large tracts of land, and built homes. +Charles Town, indeed, was laid out on the land of Charles Washington, +and was named for him, and there is evidence that George Washington, +who certainly gave the lines for the roads about the place, also laid +out the town. + +Another brother, John Augustine, left a large family, while Samuel, the +oldest, described as "a rollicking country squire," was several years +short of fifty when he died, but for all that had managed to marry five +times and to find, nevertheless, spare moments in which to lay out the +historic estate of Harewood, not far from Charles Town. It is said that +George Washington was his brother's partner in this enterprise, but +excepting in its interior, which is very beautiful, there is no sign, +about the building, of his graceful architectural touch. + +George Washington spent much time at Harewood, Lafayette and his son +visited there, and there the sprightly widow, Dolly Todd, married James +Madison. This wedding was attended by President Washington and his wife +and by many other national figures; the bride made the journey to +Harewood in Jefferson's coach, escorted by Madison and a group of his +friends on horseback, and history makes mention of a very large and very +gay company. + +This is all very well until you see Harewood; for, substantial though +the house is, with its two-foot stone walls, it has but five rooms: two +downstairs and three up. + +Where did they all sleep? + +The question was put by the practical young lady whom I accompanied to +Harewood, but the wife of the farmer to whom the place is rented could +only smile and shake her head. + +The bedroom now occupied by this farmer and his wife has doubtless been +occupied also by the first President of the United States and his wife, +the fourth President and his wife, by Lafayette, and by a King of +France--for Louis-Philippe, and his brothers, the Duc de Montpensier and +the Comte de Beaujolais, spent some time at Harewood during their period +of exile. + +Having read in an extract from the Baltimore "Sun" that Harewood, which +is still owned in the Washington family, was a place in which all +Washingtons took great and proper pride, that it was "the lodestone +which draws the wandering Washingtons back to the old haunts," I was +greatly shocked on visiting the house to see the shameful state of +dilapidation into which it has been allowed to pass. The porches and +steps have fallen down, the garden is a disreputable tangle, and the +graves in the yard are heaped with tumble-down stones about which the +cattle graze. The only parts of the building in good repair are those +parts which time has not yet succeeded in destroying. The drawing-room, +containing a mantelpiece given to Washington by Lafayette, and the +finest wood paneling I have seen in any American house, has held its own +fairly well, as has also the old stairway, imported by Washington from +England. But that these things are not in ruins, like the porches, is no +credit to the Washingtons who own the property to-day, and who, having +rented the place, actually leave family portraits hanging on the walls +to crack and rot through the cold winter. + +If there are indeed five thousand Washingtons, and if they are proud of +their descent, a good way for them to show it would be to contribute +twenty-five cents each to be expended on putting Harewood in respectable +condition. + +The last member of the Washington family to own Mount Vernon was John +Augustine Washington, of Charles Town, who sold the former home of his +distinguished collateral ancestor. This Mr. Washington was a Confederate +officer in the Civil War. He had a son named George, whose widow, if I +mistake not, is the Mrs. George Washington of Charles Town, of whom I +heard an amusing story. + +With another Charles Town lady this Mrs. Washington went to the +Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and the two attended the Fair together +on Washington Day. On this occasion Mrs. Washington made a purchase in +one of the buildings, and ordered it sent to her home in Charles Town. + +"What name?" asked the clerk. + +"Mrs. George Washington." + +The clerk concluded that she was joking. + +"I want your _real_ name," he insisted with a smile. + +"But," plaintively protested the gentle Mrs. Washington, "that is the +only name I _have_!" + + * * * * * + +One of the most charming of the old houses in the neighborhood of +Charles Town, and one of the few which is still occupied by the +descendants of its builder, is Piedmont, the residence of the Briscoe +family. It is a brick house, nearly a century and a half old, with a +lovely old portico, and it contains two of the most interesting relics I +saw on my entire journey in the South. The first of these is the wall +paper of the drawing-room, upon which is depicted, not in pattern, but +in a series of pictures with landscape backgrounds, various scenes +representing the adventures of Telemachus on his search for his father. +I remember having seen on the walls of the parlor of an old hotel at +South Berwick, Maine, some early wall paper of this character, but the +pictures on that paper were done in various shades of gray, whereas the +Piedmont wall paper is in many colors. The other relic is a letter which +Mrs. Briscoe drew from her desk quite as though it had been a note +received that morning from a friend. It was written on tough +buff-colored paper, and, though the ink was brown with age, the +handwriting was clear and legible and the paper was not broken at the +folds. It was dated "Odiham, Sept. 1st, 1633," and ran as follows: + + To Dr. John Briscoe, _Greetings_. + + Dear Sir: As the Privy Council have decided that I shall not be + disturbed or dispossessed of the charter granted by his + Majesty--the _Ark_ and Pinnace _Dove_ will sail from Gravesend + about the 1st of October, and if you are of the same mind as when I + conversed with you, I would be glad to have you join the colony. + + With high esteem, Your most obedient servant, + Cecilius Baltimore. + +This letter from the second Lord Baltimore refers to the historic voyage +which resulted in the first settlement of Maryland, thirteen years after +the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. As for Dr. Briscoe, to whom the +letter was written, he was one of the three hundred original colonists, +but after settling in St. Mary's, near the mouth of the Potomac, removed +to the place where his descendants still reside. + +Farther out in Jefferson County the motorist may pass through two +curious hamlets which, though not many miles from Charles Town, have the +air of being completely removed from the world. One of these was known, +many years ago, as Middleway, and later as Smithfield, but is now called +Clip--and for a curious reason. + +When the stagecoaches were running, the town was quite a place, as its +several good old houses indicate; but the railroads, when they were +built, ignored the town, but killed the stage lines, with the result +that the little settlement dried up. Even before this an old +plaster-covered house, still standing, became haunted. The witches who +resided in it developed the unpleasant custom of flying out at night and +cutting pieces from the clothing of passers-by. And that is how the town +came to be called Clip. + +A century or so ago, when the rudeness of the witches had long annoyed +the inhabitants of Clip, and had proved very detrimental to their +clothing, a Roman Catholic priest came along and told them that if they +would give him a certain field, he would rid them of the evil spirits. +This struck the worthy citizens of Clip as a good bargain; they gave the +priest his field (it is still known as the Priest's Field, and is now +used as a place for basket picnics) and forthwith the operations of the +witches ceased. So, at least, the story goes. + +Not far beyond Clip lies the hamlet of Leetown, taking its name from +that General Charles Lee who commanded an American army in the +Revolutionary War, but who was suspected by Washington of being a +traitor, and was finally court-martialed and cashiered from the army. +The old stone house which Lee built at Leetown, and in which he lived +after his disgrace, still remains. Instead of having partitions in his +house the old general lived in one large room, upon the floor of which +he made chalk marks to indicate different chambers. Here he dwelt +surrounded by innumerable dogs, and here he was frequently visited by +Generals Horatio Gates and Adam Stephen, who were neighbors and cronies +of his, and met at his house to drink wine and exchange stories. + +It is said that upon one of these occasions Lee got up and declared: + +"The county of Berkeley is to be congratulated upon having as citizens +three noted generals of the Revolution, each of whom was ignominiously +cashiered. You, Stephen, for getting drunk when you should have been +sober; you, Gates, for advancing when you should have retreated; and +your humble servant for retreating when he should have advanced." + +Lee was a turbulent, insubordinate, hard-drinking rascal, and nothing +could be more characteristic than the will, written in his own +handwriting, filed by the old reprobate with the clerk of the Berkeley +County Court, and expressing the following sentiments: + + I desire most earnestly that I may not be buried in any church or + churchyard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist + meeting house, for since I have resided in this county I have kept + so much bad company when living that I do not desire to continue it + when dead. + +During Lee's life there, Leetown was probably a livelier place than it +is to-day. Something of its present state may be gathered from the fact +that when a lady of my acquaintance stopped her motor there recently, +and asked some men what time it was, they stared blankly at her for a +moment, after which one of them said seriously: + +"We don't know. We don't have time here." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +I RIDE A HORSE + + And vaulted with such ease into his seat + As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds, + To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus + And witch the world with noble horsemanship. + + --KING HENRY IV. + + +Claymont Court, near Charles Town, the house in which my companion and I +were so fortunate as to be guests during our visit to this part of the +country, is one of the old Washington houses, having been built by +Bushrod Corbin Washington, a nephew of the first President. It is a +beautiful brick building, with courts at either end, the brick walls of +which, connecting with the house, extend its lines with peculiar grace, +and tie to the main structure the twin buildings which balance it, +according to the delightful fashion of early Virginia architecture. The +hexagonal brick tile of the front walk at Claymont Court, and the square +stone pavement of the portico, resemble exactly those at Mount Vernon, +and are said to have been imported at the same time; and it is believed +also that the Claymont box trees were brought over with those growing at +Mount Vernon. + +The estate was sold out of the Washington family in 1870, when it was +acquired by a Colonel March, who later sold it to a gentleman whose wild +performances at Claymont are not only remembered, but are commemorated +in the house. In the cellar, for instance, bricked up in a room barely +large enough to hold it, whence it cannot be removed except by tearing +down a heavy wall, stands a huge carved sideboard to which the young man +took a dislike, and which he therefore caused to be carried to the +cellar and immured, despite the protests of his family. It is said that +upon another occasion he conceived the picturesque idea of riding his +horse upstairs and hitching it to his bedpost; and that he did so is +witnessed by definite marks of horseshoes on the oak treads of the +stair. Later Frank R. Stockton purchased the place, and there he wrote +his story "The Captain of the Toll-Gate," which was published +posthumously. + +But in all its history this glorious old house has never been a happier +home, or a more interesting one, than it is to-day. For now it is the +residence of four young ladies, sisters, who, because of their divergent +tastes and their complete congeniality, continually suggest the fancy +that they have stepped out of a novel. One of them is the Efficient +Sister, who runs the automobile and the farm of two or three hundred +acres, sells the produce, keeps the accounts, and pays off the men; +another is the Domestic Sister, who conducts the admirable menage; +another is the Sociological and Artistic Sister, who draws and plays and +thinks about the masses; while the fourth is the Sprightly Sister Who +Likes to Dance. + +Never had my companion or I seen a more charming, a more varied +household, an establishment more self-contained, more complete in all +things from vegetables to brains. No need to leave the place for +anything. Yet if one wished to look about the country, there was the +motor, and there were the saddle horses in the stable--all of them +members of old Virginian families--and there were four equestrian young +ladies. + +"Would you-all like to ride to-day?" one of the sisters asked us at +breakfast. + +To my companion, horseback riding is comparatively a new thing. He had +taken it up a year before--partly because of appeals from me, partly +because of changes which he had begun to notice in his topography. +Compared with him I was a veteran horseman, for it was then a year and +three months since I had begun my riding lessons. + +I said that I would like to ride, but he declared that he must stay +behind and make a drawing. + +Sometimes, in the past, I had thought I would prefer to make my living +as a painter or an illustrator than as a writer, but at this juncture it +occurred to me that, though the writer's medium of expression is a less +agreeable one than that of the graphic artist, it is much pleasanter to +ride about with pretty girls than to sit alone and draw a picture of +their house. I began to feel sorry for my companion: the thought of our +riding gaily off, and leaving him at work, made him seem pathetic. My +appeals, however, made no impression upon his inflexible sense of duty, +and I soon ceased trying to persuade him to join us, and began to +speculate, instead, as to whether all four sisters would accompany me, +or whether only two or three of them would go--and if so, which. + +"What kind of horse do you like?" asked one. + +Such a question always troubles me. It is embarrassing. Imagine saying +to a young lady who likes to ride thoroughbred hunters across fields and +over ditches and fences: "I should like a handsome horse, one that will +cause me to appear to advantage, one that looks spirited but is in +reality tame." + +Such an admission would be out of character with the whole idea of +riding. One could hardly make it to one's most intimate male friend, let +alone to a girl who knows all about withers and hocks and pastern +joints, and talks about "paneled country," and takes the "Racing +Calendar." + +To such a young lady it is impossible to say: "I have ridden for a +little more than a year; the horses with which I am acquainted are +benevolent creatures from a riding school near Central Park; they go +around the reservoir twice, and return automatically, and they sigh +deeply when one mounts and again when one gets off." + +No; that sort of thing will not do at all; for the horse--besides having +been placed in a position more aristocratic than ever, through the +philanthropies of Henry Ford--is essentially "sporty." You must be a +"sport" or you must keep away from him. You must approach him with dash +or you must not approach him at all. And when a young lady inquires what +kind of horse you like, there is but one way to reply. + +"It doesn't matter at all," I answered. "Any horse will do for me." +Then, after a little pause, I added, as though it were merely an amusing +afterthought: "I suppose I shall be stiff after my ride. I haven't been +on a horse in nearly two months." + +"Then," said the sympathetic young lady, "you'll want an easy ride." + +"I suppose it _might_ be more sensible," I conceded. + +"Better give him the black mare," put in the Efficient Sister. + +"She hasn't been out lately," said the other. "You know how she acts +when she hasn't been ridden enough. He might not know just how to take +her. I was thinking of giving him 'Dr. Bell.'" + +"Dr. Bell's too gentle," said the Efficient Sister. + +"Which horse do you think you'd like?" the other asked me. "Dr. Bell has +plenty of life, but he's gentle. The black mare's a little bit flighty +at first, but if you can ride her she soon finds it out and settles +down." + +I want to ask: "What happens if she finds out that you _can't_ ride her? +What does she do then?" But I refrained. + +"She's never thrown anybody but a stable boy and a man who came up here +to visit--and neither one of them could ride worth a cent," said the +Efficient Sister. + +Meanwhile I had been thinking hard. + +"What color is Dr. Bell?" I asked. + +"He's a sorrel." + +"Then," I said, "I believe I'd rather ride Dr. Bell. I don't like black +horses. It is simply one of those peculiar aversions one gets." + +They seemed to accept this statement, and so the matter was agreeably +settled. + +When, at ten o'clock, I came down dressed for riding, my companion was +out in front of the house, making a drawing; the four young ladies were +with him, all seemingly enchanted with his work, and none of them in +riding habits. + +"Who's going with me?" I asked as I strolled toward them. + +They looked at one another inquiringly. Then the Efficient Sister said: +"I'd like to go, but this is pay day and I can't leave the place." + +"I have to go to town for some supplies," said the Domestic Sister. + +"I want to stay and watch this," said the Sociological and Artistic +Sister. (She made a gesture toward my companion, but I think she +referred to his drawing.) + +"I'm going away to a house party," said the Sprightly Sister who Likes +to Dance. "I must pack." + +"You can't get lost," said the Domestic Sister. + +"Even if you should," put in the Efficient Sister, "Dr. Bell would bring +you home." + +During this conversation my companion did not look up from his work, +neither did he speak; yet upon his back there was an expression of +derisive glee which made me hope, vindictively, that he would smudge his +drawing. However inscrutable his face, I have never known a man with a +back so expressive. + +"Here comes Dr. Bell," remarked the Sociological and Artistic Sister, as +a negro groom appeared leading the sorrel steed. + +"Well," I said, trying to speak debonairely as I started toward the +drive, "I'll be going." + +I wished to leave them where they were and go around to the other side +of the house to mount. I had noticed a stone block there and meant to +use it if no one but the groom were present; also I intended to tip the +groom and ask him a few casual questions about the ways of Dr. Bell. + +I might have managed this but for a sudden manifestation of interest on +the part of my companion. + +"Come on," he said to the young ladies, "let's go and see him off." It +seemed to me that he emphasized the word "off" unpleasantly. However I +tried to seem calm as we moved toward the drive. + +Dr. Bell had a bright brown eye; there was something alert in the gaze +with which he watched us moving toward him. However, to my great relief +he stood quite still while two of the sisters who preceded me by a few +steps, went up and patted him. Evidently he liked to be patted. I +decided that I would pat him also. + +I had approached him from the left and in order to mount I now found it +necessary to circle around, in front of him. I was determined that if +the horse would but remain stationary I should step up to him, speak to +him, give him a quick pat on the neck, gather the reins in my hand, +place my foot swiftly in the stirrup, take a good hop, and be on his +back before any one had time to notice. + +Dr. Bell, however, caused me to alter these plans; for though he had +stood docile as a dog while the sisters patted him, his manner underwent +a change on sight of me. I do not think this change was caused by any +personal dislike for me. I believe he would have done the same had any +stranger appeared before him in riding boots. The trouble was, probably, +that he had expected to be ridden by one of the young ladies, and was +shocked by the abrupt discovery that a total stranger was to ride him. +This is merely my surmise. I do not claim deep understanding of the +mental workings of any horse, for there is no logic about them or their +performances. They are like crafty lunatics, reasoning, if they reason +at all, in a manner too treacherous and devious for human comprehension. +Their very usefulness, the service they render man, is founded on their +own folly; were it not for that, man could not even catch them, let +alone force them to submit, like weak-minded giants, to his will. + +The fact is that, excepting barnyard fowls, the horse is the most +idiotic of all animals, and, pound for pound, even the miserable hen is +his intellectual superior. Indeed, if horses had brains no better than +those of hens, but proportionately larger, they would not be drawing +wagons, and carrying men upon their backs, but would be lecturing to +women's clubs, and holding chairs in universities, and writing essays on +the Development of the Short Story in America. + +Horse lovers, who are among the most prejudiced of all prejudiced +people, and who regard horses with an amiable but fatuous admiration +such as young parents have for their babies, will try to tell you that +these great creatures which they love are not mentally deficient. Ask +them why the horse, with his superior strength, submits to man, and they +will tell you that the horse's eye magnifies, and that, to the horse, +man consequently appears to be two or three times his actual size. + +Nonsense! There is but one reason for the yielding of the horse: he is +an utter fool. + +Everything proves him a fool. He will charge into battle, he will walk +cheerfully beside a precipice, he will break his back pulling a heavy +wagon, or break his leg or his neck in jumping a hurdle; yet he will go +into a frenzy of fright at the sight of a running child, a roadside +rock, or the shadow of a branch across the path, and not even a German +chancellor could shy as he will at a scrap of paper. + +As I passed in front of Dr. Bell he rolled his eyes at me horribly, and +rose upon his hind legs, almost upsetting the groom as he went up and +barely missing him with his fore feet as he brought them to earth again. + +"What's the matter with him?" I asked, stopping. + +"I guess he just feels good," said the Efficient Sister. + +"Yassuh, tha 's all," said the groom cheerfully. "_He's_ aw' right. +Gentle ath a lamb." + +As he made this statement, I took another step in the direction of the +horse, whereat he reared again. + +"_Well_, now!" said the groom, patting Dr. Bell upon the neck. "Feelin' +pretty good 's mawnin', is you? There, there!" + +Dr. Bell, however, paid little attention to his attendant, but gazed +steadily at me with an evil look. + +"Does he always do like that?" I asked the Domestic Sister. + +"I never saw him do it before," she said. + +"Maybe he doesn't admire the cut of your riding breeches," suggested my +companion. + +"Oh, no, suh," protested the groom. "It 's jes' his li'l way tryin' t' +tell you he likes de ladies t' ride him better 'n he likes de gemmen." + +"He means he doesn't want me to ride him?" + +"Yassuh, da 's jes' his li'l idee 't he 's got _now_. He be all right +once you in de saddle." + +"But how am I to get in the saddle if he keeps doing that?" + +"I hold 'im all right," said the groom. "You jes' get on 'im, suh. He +soon find out who 's boss." + +"I think he will," said my heartless companion. + +"Nevvah you feah, suh," the man said to me. "Ah knowed the minute Ah saw +yo' laigs 't you was a _horse_man. Yassuh! Ah says t' ole Gawge, Ah +says, 'Dat gemman's certain'y been 'n de cava'ry, he has, wid dem fine +crooked laigs o' hisn.'" + +"You should have told that to Dr. Bell, instead," suggested my +companion. + +At this every one laughed. Even the groom laughed a wheezy, cackling +negro laugh. The situation was becoming unbearable. Clearly I must try +to mount. Perhaps I should not succeed, but I must try. As I was +endeavoring to adjust my mind to this unpleasant fact the Efficient +Sister spoke. + +"That horse is going to be ridden," she said firmly, "if I have to go +upstairs and dress and ride him myself." + +That settled it. + +"Now you hold him down," I said to the groom, and stepped forward. + +As I did so Dr. Bell reared again, simultaneously drawing back sidewise +and turning his flank away from me, but this time the Efficient Sister +hit him with a crop she had found somewhere, and he came down hastily, +and began to dance a sort of double clog with all four feet. + +After several efforts I managed to get beside him. Gathering the reins +in my left hand I put my foot up swiftly, found the stirrup, and with a +hop, managed to board the beast. + +As I did so, the groom let him go. Both stirrups were short, but it was +too late to discuss that, for by the time I was adjusted to my seat we +had traveled, at a run, over a considerable part of the lawn and through +most of the flowerbeds. The shortness of the stirrups made me bounce, +and I had a feeling that I might do better to remove my feet from them +entirely, but as I had never ridden without stirrups I hesitated to try +it now. Therefore I merely dug my knees desperately into the saddle +flaps and awaited what should come, while endeavoring to check the +animal. He, however, kept his head down, which not only made it +difficult to stop him, but also gave me an unpleasant sense as of riding +on the cowcatcher of a locomotive with nothing but space in front of me. +Once, with a jerk, I managed to get his head up, but when I did that he +reared. I do not care for rearing. + +To add to my delight, one of the dogs now ran out and began to bark and +circle around us, jumping up at the horse's nose and nipping at his +heels. This brought on new activities, for now Dr. Bell not only reared +but elevated himself suddenly behind, to kick at the dog. However, there +was one good result. We stopped running and began to trot rapidly about +in circles, dodging the dog, and this finally brought us back toward the +house. + +"My stirrups are too short!" I shouted to the groom. + +"Ride oveh heah, suh," he called back. + +I tried to do it, but Dr. Bell continued to move in circles. At last, +however, the man managed to catch us by advancing with his hand +extended, as though offering a lump of sugar, at the same time talking +gently to my steed. Then, while my companion held the bit the negro +adjusted the stirrup leathers. I was glad of the breathing spell. I +wished that it took longer to adjust stirrups. + +"You'd better go out by the drive this time," said the Efficient Sister. + +"I intended to before," I told her, "but he didn't seem to understand +the signals." + +"You've got spurs on. Give him the spur." + +As a matter of fact, I had hesitated to give him the spur. It seemed to +me that he was annoyed with me anyway, and that the spur would only +serve to increase his prejudice. I wanted to rule him not by brute force +but by kindness. I wished that I could somehow make him know that I was +a regular subscriber to the S.P.C.A., that I loved children and animals +and all helpless creatures, both great and small, that I used the dumb +brutes gently and only asked in return that they do the same by me. But +how is one to communicate such humanitarian ideas to a big, stupid, +wilful, perverse, diabolical creature like a horse? + +I was determined that when we started again we should not run over the +lawn if I could possibly prevent it. Therefore I had the groom head the +horse down the drive, and the moment he released him, I touched Dr. Bell +with the spurs. The result was magical. He started on a run but kept in +the road where I wanted him to be, giving me, for the moment, a sense of +having something almost like control over him. At the foot of the drive +was a gate which I knew could be opened without dismounting, by pulling +a rope, and as no horse, unless quite out of his mind, will deliberately +run into a gate, I had reason to hope that Dr. Bell would stop when he +got there. Imagine my feelings, then, when on sight of the gate he not +only failed to slacken his pace, but actually dashed at it faster than +ever. Within a few feet of the barrier he seemed to pause momentarily, +hunching himself in a peculiar and alarming manner: then he arose, +sailed through the air like a swallow, came down beyond like a load of +trunks falling off from a truck, and galloped down the highway, +seemingly quite indifferent to the fact that the stirrups were flapping +at his sides and that I had moved from the saddle to a point near the +base of his neck. + +My position at the moment was one of considerable insecurity. By holding +on to his mane and wriggling backward I hoped to stay on, provided he +did not put down his head. If he did that, I was lost. Fortunately for +me, however, Dr. Bell did not realize with what ease he could have +dropped me at that moment, and by dint of cautious but eager gymnastics, +I managed to regain the saddle and the stirrups, although in doing so I +pricked him several times with the spurs, with the result that, though +he ran faster than ever for a time, he must have presently concluded +that I didn't care how fast he went; at all events, he slackened his +pace to a canter, from which, shortly, I managed to draw him down to a +trot and then to a walk. + +I am glad to say that not until now had we met any vehicle. Even while +he was running, even while I was engaged in maintaining a precarious +seat upon his neck, I had found time to hope fervently that we should +not encounter an automobile. I was afraid that he would jump it if we +did. + +Now, however, I saw a motor approaching. Dr. Bell saw it, too, and +pricked up his ears. Seizing the reins firmly in one hand, I waved with +the other, signalling to the motorist to stop, which he did, pulling out +into the ditch. Meanwhile I talked to Dr. Bell, patting him on the neck +and telling him to go on and not to be afraid, because it was all right. +Dr. Bell did go on. He went up to the front of the motor, past the side +of it, and on behind it, without showing the least sign of alarm. He did +not mind it at all. But the man in the motor minded. Annoyed with me for +having stopped him unnecessarily, he shouted something after me. But I +paid no attention to him. Under the circumstances, it seemed the only +thing to do. I might have gotten off; I might conceivably have beaten +him; but I never could have held the horse while doing it, or have +gotten on again. + +Presently, when I was changing the position of the reins, which were +hurting my fingers because I had gripped them so tight, I accidentally +shifted the gears in some way, so to speak, sending Dr. Bell off at a +pace which was neither a trot nor a canter, but which carried us along +at a sort of smooth, rapid glide. At first I took this gait to be a +swift trot, and attempted to post to it; then, as that did not work, I +sat still in the saddle and, finding the posture comfortable, concluded +that Dr. Bell must be single-footing. I had never single-footed before. +Just as I was beginning to like it, however, he changed to a trot, then +back to single-footing again, and so on, in a curious puzzling manner. + +Except for the changes of gait, we were now going on rather well, and I +had begun, for the first time, to feel a little security, when all of a +sudden he swerved off and galloped with me up a driveway leading toward +a white house which stood on a hill two or three hundred yards from the +road. Again I tried to stop him, but when I pulled on the reins he shook +his head savagely from side to side and snorted in a loud and +threatening manner. + +As we neared the house I saw that two ladies were sitting on the porch +regarding our approach with interest. I hoped that Dr. Bell would find +some way of keeping on past the house and into the fields, but he had no +such intention. Instead of going by, he swung around the circle before +the porch, and stopped at the steps, upon which the two ladies were +sitting. + +One of them was a white-haired woman of gentle mien; the other was a +girl of eighteen or twenty with pretty, mischievous eyes. + +Both the ladies looked up inquiringly as Dr. Bell and I stopped. + +I lifted my hat. It was the only thing I could think of to do at the +moment. At this they both nodded gravely. Then we sat and stared at one +another. + +"Well?" said the old lady, when the silence had become embarrassing. + +I felt that I must say something, so I remarked: "This is a very pretty +place you have here." + +At this, though the statement was quite true, they looked perplexed. + +"Is there any message?" asked the young woman, after another pause. + +"Oh, no," I answered lightly. "I was riding by and thought I'd take the +liberty of coming up and telling you--telling you that although I am a +Northerner and a stranger here, I love the South, the quaint old +Southern customs, the lovely old houses, the delicious waffles, the--" + +"That is very gratifying," said she "I am sorry to say we are all out of +waffles at present." + +"Oh, I don't want any now," I replied politely. + +"Well, if you don't mind my asking, what _do_ you want?" + +"I want," I said, desperately, "to see your groom for a moment, if +possible." + +"He's gone to town," she replied. "Is there anything I can do? I see +that your stirrup leather is twisted." With that she arose, came down, +removed my foot from the stirrup, in a businesslike manner, reversed the +iron, and put my foot back for me. + +I thanked her. + +"Anything else?" she asked, her wicked eye twinkling. + +"Perhaps," I ventured, "perhaps you know how to make a horse +single-foot?" + +"There are different ways," she said. "With Dr. Bell you might try using +the curb gently, working it from side to side." + +"I will," I said. "Thank you very much." + +"And," said the girl, "if he ever takes a notion to bolt with you, or to +go up to some house where you don't want him to go, just touch him with +the curb. That will fix him. He's very soft-bitted." + +"But I tried that," I protested. + +She looked at my reins, then shook her head. + +"No," she said, "you've got your curb rein and your snaffle rein mixed." + +"I am very much indebted to you," I said, as I changed the position of +the reins between my fingers. + +"Not at all," said she. "I hope you'll get safely back to the Claymont. +If you want to jump him, give him his head. He'll take off all right." + +"Thanks," I returned. "I don't want to jump him." + +Then lifting my hat and thanking her again, I wiggled the curb gently +from side to side, as directed, and departed, singlefooting comfortably. + +Dr. Bell and I got home very nicely. He wanted to jump the gate again, +but I checked him with the curb. After pulling the rope to open the gate +I must have got the reins mixed once more, for as I was nearing the +house, calm in the feeling that I had mastered the animal, and intent +upon cantering up to the porch in fine style, Dr. Bell swerved suddenly +off to the stable, went into the door, and, before I could stop him, +entered his stall. + +There I dismounted in absolute privacy. It was quite easy. I had only to +climb on to the partition and drop down into the next stall, which, by +good fortune, was vacant. + +With a single exception, this was the only riding I did in the South, +and on the one other occasion of which I speak I did not ride alone, but +had, surrounding me, the entire Eleventh United States Cavalry. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +INTO THE OLD DOMINION + + +When two men are traveling together on an equal footing, and it becomes +necessary to decide between two rooms in a hotel, how is the decision to +be made? Which man is to take the big, bright corner room, and which the +little room that faces on the court and is fragrant of the bakery below? +Or again, which man shall occupy the lower berth in a Pullman +drawing-room, and which shall try to sleep upon the shelf-like couch? Or +when there is but one lower left, which shall take the upper? If an +extra kit bag be required for the use of both, who shall pay for it and +own it at the journey's end? Who shall pay for this meal and who for +that? Or yet again, if there be but one cheap heavy overcoat in a shop, +and both desire to own that coat, which one shall have the right of +purchase? Who shall tip the bell boy for bringing up the bags, or the +porter for taking down the trunks? Who shall take home from a dance the +girl both want to take, and who shall escort the unattractive one who +resides in a remote suburb? + +Between two able-bodied men there is no uncomfortable complication of +politeness in such matters. On a brief journey there might be, but on a +long journey the thin veil of factitious courtesy is cast aside; each +wants his fair share of what is best and makes no pretense to the +contrary. + +Upon our first long journey together, some years ago, my companion and I +established a custom of settling all such questions by matching coins, +and we have maintained this habit ever since. Upon the whole it has +worked well. We have matched for everything except railroad fares and +hotel bills, and though fortune has sometimes favored one or the other +for a time, I believe that, had we kept accounts, we should find +ourselves to-day practically even. + +Our system of matching has some correlated customs. Now and then, for +instance, when one of us is unlucky and has been "stuck" for a series of +meals, the other, in partial reparation, will declare a "party." +Birthdays and holidays also call for parties, and sometimes there will +be a party for no particular reason other than that we feel like having +one. + +Two of our parties on this journey have been given in the basement cafe +of the Shoreham Hotel in Washington. Both were supper parties. The first +I gave in honor of my companion, for the reason that we both like the +Shoreham cafe, and that a party seemed to be about due. That party +brought on the other, which occurred a few nights later and was given by +us jointly in honor of a very beautiful and talented young actress. And +this one, we agree, was, in a way, the most amusing of all the parties +we have had together. + +It was early in the morning, when we were leaving the cafe after the +first party, that we encountered the lady who caused the second one. I +had never met her, but I was aware that my companion knew her, for he +talked about her in his sleep. She was having supper with a gentleman at +a table near the door, and had you seen her it would be unnecessary for +me to tell you that my companion stopped to speak to her, and that I +hung around until he introduced me. + +After we had stood beside her, for a time, talking and gazing down into +her beautiful world-wise eyes, the gentleman with whom she was supping +took pity upon us, and upon the waiters, whose passageway we blocked, +and invited us to sit down. + +It was doubly delightful to meet her there in Washington, for besides +being beautiful and celebrated, she had just come from New York and was +able to give us news of mutual friends, bringing us up to date on suits +for separation, alimony, and alienation of affections, on divorces and +remarriages, and all the little items one loses track of when one has +been away for a fortnight. + +"I shall be playing in Washington all this week," she said as we were +about to leave. "I hope that we may see each other again." + +Whom did she mean by "we"? True, she looked at my companion as she +spoke, but he was seated at one side of her and I at the other, and even +with such eyes as hers, she could not have looked at both of us at +once. Certainly the hope she had expressed was shared by me. _I_ hoped +that "we" might meet again, and it seemed to me desirable at the moment +that she should understand (and that my companion should be reminded) +that he and I were as Damon and Pythias, as Castor and Pollux, as +Pylades and Orestes, and all that sort of thing. Therefore I leaped +quickly at the word "we," and, before my companion had time to answer, +replied: + +"I hope so too." + +This brought her eyes to me. She looked surprised, I thought, but what +of that? Don't women like to be surprised? Don't they like men to be +strong, resolute, determined, like heroes in the moving pictures? Don't +they like to see a man handle matters with dash? I was determined to be +dashing. + +"We are off to Virginia to-morrow morning," I continued. "We are going +to Fredericksburg and Charlottesville, and into the fox-hunting country. +If we can get back here Saturday night let's have a party." + +I spoke of the hunting country debonairely. I did not care what she +thought my companion was going to the hunting country for, but I did not +wish her to think that I was going only to look on. On the contrary, I +desired her to suppose that I should presently be wearing a pair of +beautiful, slim-legged riding boots and a pink coat, and leaping a +thoroughbred mount over fences and gates. I wished her to believe me a +wild, reckless, devil of a fellow, and to worry throughout the week +lest I be killed in a fall from my horse, and she never see me +more--poor girl! + +That she felt such emotions I have since had reason to doubt. However, +the idea of a party after the play on Saturday night seemed to appeal to +her, and it was arranged that my companion and I should endeavor to get +back to Washington after the Piedmont Hunt races, which we were to +attend on Saturday afternoon, and that if we could get back we should +telegraph to her. + +We kept our agreement--but I shall come to that later. + + * * * * * + +Next morning we took train for Fredericksburg. + +The city manager who runs the town is a good housekeeper; his streets +are wide, pretty, and clean; and though there are many historic +buildings--including the home of Washington's mother and the house in +which Washington became a Mason--there are enough good new ones to give +the place a progressive look. + +In the days of the State's magnificence Fredericksburg was the center +for all this part of northeastern Virginia, and particularly for the +Rappahannock Valley; and from pre-Revolutionary times, when tobacco was +legal tender and ministers got roaring drunk, down to the Civil War, +there came rolling into the town the coaches of the great plantation +owners of the region, who used Fredericksburg as a headquarters for +drinking, gambling, and business. Among these probably the most famous +was "King" Carter, who not only owned miles upon miles of land and a +thousand slaves, but was the husband of five (successive) Mrs. Carters. + +Falmouth, a river town a mile above Fredericksburg, where a few +scattered houses stand to-day, was in early times a busy place. It is +said that the first flour mill in America stood there, and that one +Gordon, who made his money by shipping flour and tobacco direct from his +wharf to England, and bringing back bricks as ballast for his ships, was +the first American millionaire. + +Besides having known intimately such historic figures as Washington, +Monroe, and Robert E. Lee, and having been the scene of sanguinary +fighting in the Civil War, the neighborhood of Fredericksburg boasts the +birth-place of a man of whom I wish to speak briefly here, for the +reason that he was a great man, that he has been partially overlooked by +history, and that it is said in the South that the fame which should +justly be his has been deliberately withheld by historians and +politicians for the sole reason that as a naval officer he espoused the +southern cause in the Civil War. + +Every one who has heard of Robert Fulton, certainly every one who has +heard of S.F.B. Morse or Cyrus W. Field, ought also to have heard of +Matthew Fontaine Maury. But that is not the case. For myself, I must +confess that, until I visited Virginia, I was ignorant of the fact that +such a person had existed; nor have northern schoolboys, to whom I have +spoken of Maury, so much as heard his name. Yet there is no one living +in the United States, or in any civilized country, whose daily life is +not affected through the scientific researches and attainments of this +man. + +Maury's claim to fame rests on his eminent services to navigation and +meteorology. If Humboldt's work, published in 1817, was the first great +contribution to meteorological science, it remained for Maury to make +that science exact. + +While it is perhaps an exaggeration to say that Maury alone laid the +foundation for our present Weather Bureau, he certainly shares with +Professors Redfield, Espy, Loomis, Joseph Henry, Dr. Increase Lapham, +and others, the honor of having been one of the first to suggest the +feasibility of our present systematic storm warnings. + +Maury was born in 1806. When nineteen years of age he secured a +midshipman's warrant, and, as there was no naval academy at Annapolis +then, was immediately assigned to a man-of-war. Within six years he was +master of an American war vessel. Before starting on a voyage to the +Pacific he sought information on the winds and currents, and finding +that it was not available, determined himself to gather it for general +publication. This he did, issuing a book upon the subject. + +When a broken leg, the result of a stage-coach accident, caused his +retirement from active service at sea, he continued his studies, and, in +recognition of his services to navigation, was given charge of the Depot +of Charts and Instruments at Washington. There he found stored away the +log books of American naval vessels, and from the vast number of +observations they contained, began the compilation of the Wind and +Currents Charts known to all mariners. + +A monograph on Maury, issued by N.W. Ayer & Son, of Philadelphia, says +of these charts: + +"They were, at first, received with indifference and incredulity. +Finally, a Captain Jackson determined to trust the new chart absolutely. +As a result he made a round trip to Rio de Janeiro in the time often +required for the outward passage alone. Later, four clipper ships +started from New York for San Francisco, via Cape Horn. These vessels +arrived at their destination in the order determined by the degree of +fidelity with which they had followed the directions of Maury's charts. +The arrival of these ships in San Francisco marked, likewise, the +arrival of Maury's Wind and Currents Charts in the lasting favor of the +mariners of the world. The average voyage to San Francisco was reduced, +by use of the charts, from one hundred and eighty-three to one hundred +and thirty-five days, a saving of forty-eight days. + +"Soon after this, the ship _San Francisco_, with hundreds of United +States troops on board, foundered in an Atlantic hurricane. The rumor +reached port that there was need of help. Maury was called upon to +indicate her probable location. He set to work to show where the wind +and currents would combine to place a helpless wreck, and marked the +place with a blue pencil. There the relief was sent, and there the +survivors of the wreck were found. From that day to this, Maury's word +has been accepted without challenge by the matter-of-fact men of the +sea. + +"These charts, only a few in number, are among the most wonderful and +useful productions of the human mind. One of them combined the result of +1,159,353 separate observations on the force and direction of the wind, +and upward of 100,000 observations on the height of the barometer, at +sea. As the value of such observations was recognized, more of them were +made. Through the genius and devotion of one man, Commander Maury, every +ship became a floating observatory, keeping careful records of winds, +currents, limits of fogs, icebergs, rain areas, temperature, soundings, +etc., while every maritime nation of the world cooeperated in a work that +was to redound to the benefit of commerce and navigation, the increase +of knowledge, the good of all. + +"In 1853, at the instance of Commander Maury, the United States called +the celebrated Brussels Conference for the cooeperation of nations in +matters pertaining to maritime affairs. At this conference, Maury +advocated the extension of the system of meteorological observation to +the land, thus forming a weather bureau helpful to agriculture. This he +urged in papers and addresses to the close of his life. Our present +Weather Bureau and Signal Service are largely the outcome of his +perception and advocacy." + +Maury's "Physical Geography of the Sea," the work by which he is best +known, was published in 1855. He discovered, among other things, the +causes of the Gulf Stream, and the existence of the still-water plateau +of the North Atlantic which made possible the laying of the first cable. +Cyrus W. Field said, with reference to Maury's work in this connection: +"Maury furnished the brains, England gave the money, and I did the +work." + +Maury was decorated by many foreign governments but not by his own. +Owing, it is said, to his having taken up the Confederate cause, +national honors were withheld from him, not only during the remainder of +his life, but until 1916, when one of the large buildings at the Naval +Academy--the establishment of which, by the way, Maury was one of the +first to advocate--was named for him, and Congress passed a bill +appropriating funds for the erection of a monument to the "Pathfinder of +the Sea," in Washington. + +Maury died in 1873, one of the most loved and honored men in the State +of Virginia. + +It is recorded that, near the end, he asked his son: "Am I dragging my +anchors?" + +And when the latter replied in the affirmative, the father gave a brave +sailor's answer: + +"All's well," he said. + + * * * * * + +Across the river from Fredericksburg stands Chatham, the old Fitzhugh +house, one of the most charming of early Virginian mansions. Chatham was +built in 1728, and it is thought that the plans for it were drawn by +Sir Christopher Wren at the order of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and +sent by the latter to William Fitzhugh, who had been his classmate at +Eton and Oxford. Not only does the name of the house lend color to the +tale, but so do its proportions, which are very beautiful, reminding one +somewhat of those of Doughoregan Manor. Chatham, however, has the +advantage of being (as the Hon. Charles Augustus Murray wrote of it in +his quaint "Travels in North America," published in 1839) "situated on +an eminence commanding a view of the town, and of the bold, sweeping +course of the Rappahannoc." Murray also tells of the beautiful garden, +with its great box trees and its huge slave-built terraces, stepping +down to the water like a giant's stairway. + +In this house my companion and I were guests, and as I won the toss for +the choice of rooms, mine was the privilege of sleeping in the historic +west bedchamber, the principal guest room, and of opening my eyes, in +the morning, upon a lovely wall all paneled in white-painted wood. + +I shall always remember the delightful experience of awakening in that +room, so vast, dignified, and beautiful, and of lying there a little +drowsy, and thinking of those who had been there before me. This was the +room occupied by George and Martha Washington when they stopped for a +few days at Chatham on their wedding journey; this was the room occupied +by Madison, by Monroe, by Washington Irving, and by Robert E. Lee when +he visited Chatham and courted Mary Custis, who became his wife. And, +most wonderful of all to me, this was the room occupied by Lincoln when +he came to Fredericksburg to review the army, while Chatham was Union +headquarters, and the embattled Lee had headquarters in the old house +known as Brompton, still standing on Marye's Heights back of the river +and the town. It is said that Lee during the siege of Fredericksburg +never trained his guns on Chatham, because of his sentiment for the +place. As I lay there in the morning I wondered if Lee had been aware, +at the time, that Lincoln was under the roof of Chatham, and whether +Lincoln knew, when he slept in "my" room, that Washington and Lee had +both been there before him. + +War, I thought, not only makes strange bedfellows, but strange +combinations in the histories of bedrooms. + +Then the maid rapped for the second time upon my door, and though this +time I got up at once, my ruminations made me scandalously late for +breakfast. + +After breakfast came the motor, which was to take us to the +battlefields, its driver a thin dry-looking, dry-talking man, with the +air of one a little tired of the story he told to tourists day in and +day out, yet conscientiously resolved to go through with it. Before the +huge cemetery which overlooks the site of the most violent fighting that +occurred in the bloody and useless Battle of Fredericksburg, he paused +briefly; then drove us to the field of Chancellorsville, to that of the +Battles of the Wilderness, and finally to the region of Spottsylvania +Courthouse; and at each important spot he stopped and told us what had +happened there. He knew all about the Civil War, that man, and he had a +way of passing out his information with a calm assumption that his +hearers knew nothing about it whatever. This irritated my companion, who +also knows all about the War, having once passed three days in the +neighborhood of a Soldiers' Home. Consequently he kept cutting in, +supplying additional details--such, for instance, as that Stonewall +Jackson, who died in a house which the driver pointed out, was shot by +some of his own men, who took him for a Yankee as he was returning from +a reconnaissance. + +Either one of these competitive historians alone, I could have stood, +but the way they picked each other up, fighting the old-time battles +over again, got on my nerves. Besides, it was cold, and as I have taken +occasion to remark before, I do not like cold motor rides. Indeed, as I +think it over, it seems to me I do not like battlefields, either. At all +events, I became more and more morose as we traversed that bleak +Virginia landscape, and I am afraid that before the day was over I was +downright sulky. + +As we drove back to Fredericksburg and to the train which was to take us +to Charlottesville, my companion made remarks of a general character +about people who were trivial minded, and who didn't take a proper +interest in the scenes of great historical occurrences. When he had +continued for some time in this vein, I remarked feebly that I loved to +read about battles; but that, far from mitigating his severity, only +caused him to change his theme. He said that physical laziness was a +terrible thing because it not only made the body soft but by degrees +softened the brain, as well. He said that when people didn't want to see +battlefields, preferring to lie in bed and read about them, that was a +sign of the beginning of the end. + +On various occasions throughout the week he brought this subject up +again, and I was glad indeed when, as the time for our party with the +beautiful young actress, in Washington, drew near, he began to forget +about my shortcomings and think of more agreeable things. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CHARLOTTESVILLE AND MONTICELLO + + +When Virginians speak of "the university," they do not mean Harvard, +Princeton, Yale, or even Washington and Lee, but always the University +of Virginia, which is at Charlottesville. + +The city of Charlottesville, in its downtown parts, is no more and no +less dingy and dismal than many another town of six or seven thousand +inhabitants, be it North or South. It has a long main street, lined with +little shops and moving-picture shows, and the theatrical posters which +thrill one at first sight with hopes of evening entertainment, prove, on +inspection, to have survived long after the "show" they advertise has +come and gone, or else to presage the "show" that is coming for one +night, week after next. + +Nor is this scarcity of theatrical entertainment confined alone to small +towns of the South. Not all important stars and important theatrical +productions visit even the largest cities, for the South is not regarded +by theatrical managers as particularly profitable territory. It would be +interesting to know whether anaemia of the theater in the South, as well +as the falling off generally of theatergoing in lesser American +cities--usually attributed to the popularity and cheapness of the +"movies"--is not due in large measure to the folly of managers +themselves in sending out inferior companies. Any one who has seen a +theatrical entertainment in New York and seen it later "on the road" is +likely to be struck by the fact that even the larger American cities do +not always get the full New York cast, while smaller cities seldom if +ever get any part of it. The South suffers particularly in this respect. +The little "river shows," which arrive now and then in river towns, and +which are more or less characteristic of the South, have the excuse of +real picturesqueness, however bad the entertainment given, for the +players live and have their theater on flatboats, which tie up at the +wharf. But the plain fact about the ordinary little southern "road show" +is that it does not deserve to make money. + +The life of a poor player touring the South must be very wretched, for +generally, excepting in large cities, hotels are poor. Before we had +gone far upon our way, my companion and I learned to inquire carefully +in advance as to the best hotels, and when we found in any small city +one which was not a fire trap, and which was clean, we were surprised, +while if the service was fairly good, and the meals were not very bad, +we considered it a matter for rejoicing. + +We were advised to stop, in Charlottesville, at the New Gleason, and +when we alighted at the dingy old brick railroad station--a station +quite as unprepossessing as that at New Haven, Connecticut--we began to +feel that all was not for the best. A large gray horse hitched to the +hack in which we rode to the Gleason evidently felt the same, for at +first he balked, and later tried to run away. + +The hotel lobby was a perfect example of its kind. There were several +drummers writing at the little desks, and several more sitting idly in +chairs adjacent to brass cuspidors. All of them looked despondent with a +despondency suggesting pie for breakfast. Behind the desk was a +sleepy-looking old clerk who, as we arrived, was very busy over a +financial transaction involving change of ownership in a two-cent stamp. +This enterprise concluded, he assigned us rooms. + +Never have I wished to win the toss for rooms as I wished it when I saw +the two allotted to us, for though the larger one could not by a flight +of fancy be termed cheerful, the sight of the lesser chamber filled me +with thoughts of madness. + +Of course I lost. + +Never shall I forget that room. It was too small to accommodate my +trunks with any comfort, so I left them downstairs with the porter, +descending, now and then, to get such articles as I required. The +furniture, what there was of it, was of yellow pine; the top of the +dresser was scarred with the marks of many glasses and many bottles; the +lace window curtains were long, hard and of a wiry stiffness, and the +wall-paper was of a scrambled pattern all in bilious brown. During the +evening I persuaded my companion to walk with me through the town, and +once I got him out I kept him going on and on through shadowy streets +unknown to us, until, exhausted, he insisted upon returning to our +hostelry. I fancy that there are picturesque old houses on the outskirts +of the town, but with that wall paper and a terrible nostalgia occupying +my mind, I was in no state to judge of what was there. + +On reaching the hotel my companion went to bed, but I remained until +late in the office, writing letters, doing anything rather than go up to +my room. When at last I did ascend I planned to read, but the +arrangement of the light was bad, so presently I put it out and lay +there sleepless and miserable, thinking of foolish things that I have +said and done during a life rich with such items, and having chills and +fever over each separate recollection. How I drifted off to sleep at +last I do not know; all I remember is waking up next morning, leaping +out of bed and dressing in frantic haste to get out of my room. There +was but one thing in it which did not utterly offend the eye: that was +the steam pipe which ascended from floor to ceiling at one corner, and +which, being a simple, honest metal tube, was not objectionable. + +As we passed through the office on our way to breakfast, the bus man +entered, and in a loud, retarded chant proclaimed: "Train for the +South!" + +The impressive tones in which this announcement was delivered seemed to +call for a sudden stir, a rush for bags and coats, a general exodus, +but no one in the office moved, and I remember feeling sorry for the bus +man as he turned and went out in the midst of a crushing anti-climax. + +"I wonder," I said to my companion, "if anybody ever gets up and goes +when that man calls out the trains." + +"I don't believe so," he replied. "I don't think he calls trains for any +such purpose. He only warns people so they will expect to hear the +train, and not be frightened when it goes through." + + * * * * * + +Thomas Jefferson is most widely remembered, I suppose, as the author of +the Declaration of Independence, the third President, the purchaser of +Louisiana, and the unfortunate individual upon whom the Democratic party +casts the blame for its existence, precisely as the Republican party +blames itself on Washington and Lincoln--although the lamentable state +into which both parties have fallen is actually the fault of living men. + +It is significant, however, that of this trio of Jeffersonian items, +Jefferson himself selected but one to be included in the inscription +which he wrote for his tombstone--a modest obelisk on the grounds at +Monticello. The inscription mentions but three of his achievements: the +authorship of the Declaration, that of the Virginia statute for +religious freedom, and the fact that he was "Father of the University of +Virginia." + +Regardless of other accomplishments, the man who built the university +and the house at Monticello was great. It is more true of these +buildings than of any others I have seen that they are the +autobiography, in brick and stone, of their architect. To see them, to +see some of the exquisitely margined manuscript in Jefferson's clean +handwriting, preserved in the university library, and to read the +Declaration, is to gain a grasp of certain sides of Jefferson's nature +which can be achieved in no other way. + +Monticello stands on a lofty hilltop, with vistas, between trees, of +neighboring valleys, hills, and mountains. It is a supremely lovely +house, unlike any other, and, while it is too much to say that one would +recognize it as the house of the writer of the Declaration, it is not +too much to say that, once one does know it, one can trace a clear +affinity resulting from a common origin--an affinity much more apparent, +by the way, than may be traced between the work of Michelangelo on St. +Peter's at Rome, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and in his +"David." + +The introductory paragraph to the Declaration ascends into the body of +the document as gracefully and as certainly as the wide flights of easy +steps ascend to the doors of Monticello; the long and beautifully +balanced paragraph which follows, building word upon word and sentence +upon sentence into a central statement, has a form as definite and +graceful as that of the finely proportioned house; the numbered +paragraphs which follow, setting forth separate details, are like rooms +within the house, and--I have just come upon the coincidence with a +pleasant start such as might be felt by the discoverer of some complex +and important cipher--as there are twenty-seven of the numbered +paragraphs in the Declaration, so there are twenty-seven rooms in +Monticello. Last of all there are two little phrases in the Declaration +(the phrases stating that we shall hold our British brethren in future +as we hold the rest of mankind--"enemies in war; in peace, friends"), +which I would liken to the small twin buildings, one of them Jefferson's +office, the other that of the overseer, which stand on either side of +the lawn at Monticello, at some distance from the house. These office +buildings face, and balance upon each other, and upon the mansion, but +they are so much smaller that to put them there required daring, while +to make them "compose" (as painters say) with the great house, required +the almost superhuman sense of symmetry which Jefferson assuredly +possessed. + +The present owner of Monticello is Mr. Jefferson Monroe Levy, former +United States congressman from New York. Mr. Levy is a Democrat and a +bachelor, according to the Congressional Directory, which states further +that he inherited Monticello from an uncle, Commodore Uriah P. Levy, +U.S.N., and that the latter purchased the place in 1830 "at the +suggestion of President Jackson." + +Dorothy Dix, writing in "Good Housekeeping," tells a tale which I have +heard repeatedly of the acquisition of Monticello by Uriah Levy. Says +Miss Dix: + +"Monticello was sold to a stranger, and Jefferson's only daughter, Mrs. +Randolph, widowed and with eleven children, was left homeless.... A +subscription of three thousand dollars was raised ... to buy back the +house ... and this money was intrusted to a young relative of the +Jeffersons' to convey to Charlottesville. Traveling in the stagecoach +with the young man was Captain Uriah P. Levy, to whom he confided his +mission. The young man became intoxicated and dallied, but Captain Levy +hastened on to Charlottesville, and purchased Monticello for two +thousand five hundred dollars. The next day the repentant and sober +young man arrived and besought Captain Levy to take the three thousand +dollars ... and let Monticello go back to the Jefferson family. Captain +Levy refused to part with his bargain, but at his death he willed +Monticello to 'the people of the United States to be held as a memorial +of Thomas Jefferson'.... The Levy heirs contested the will, and it was +finally decided upon a technicality that 'the people of the United +States' was too indefinite a term to make the bequest binding, and the +estate passed into the hands of the Levys, and so to its present +owner...." + +In a biographical note upon the latter, the Congressional Directory +states that the house is "kept open to the public all the year." My +companion and I were admitted to the grounds, but were informed that, +though the building was unoccupied, no one was permitted to enter. While +we were in the vicinity of the house we were attended by one of the men +employed on the place, who told us that when people were allowed to +roam about at will, there had been much vandalism; ivy had been pulled +from the walls, shrubbery broken, pieces of brick chipped out of the +steps, and teeth knocked from the heads of the marble lions which flank +them. + +Of recent years there has been on foot a movement, launched, I believe, +by Mrs. Martin W. Littleton, of New York, to influence the Government to +purchase Monticello from its present owner. It is difficult to see +precisely how Mr. Levy could be forced to part with his property, if he +did not wish to. Nevertheless public sentiment on this subject has +become so strong that he has agreed to let the Government have +Monticello "at a price"--so, at least, I was informed in +Charlottesville. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA + + The opening of the University of Virginia was an event of prime + importance for the higher education in the whole country, and + really marks a new era. + + --CHARLES FORSTER SMITH. + + +Like Monticello, the buildings of the University of Virginia are those +of an intellectual, a classicist, a purist, and, like it, they might +have been austere but for the warmth of their red brick and the glow of +their white-columned porticos. But they are cheerful buildings, which, +individually and as a group, attain a geometrical yet soft perfection, a +supreme harmony of form and color. + +The principal buildings are grouped about a large campus, called the +Lawn, which is dominated by the rotunda, suggesting in its outlines the +Pantheon at Rome. From the rotunda, at either side, starts a +white-columned arcade connecting the various houses which are +distributed at graceful intervals along the margins of the rectangular +lawn, above which loom the tops of even rows of beautiful old trees. +Flanking the buildings of the lawn, and reached by brick walks which +pass between the famous serpentine walls (walls but one brick thick +which support themselves on the snake-fence principle, by progressing in +a series of reverse curves), are the "ranges": solid rows of one-story +student dormitories built of brick and fronted by colonnades which +command other lawns and other trees. + +With a single exception, restorations and additions to the university +have been made with reverence and taste, and the Brooks Museum, the one +architectural horror of the place, fortunately does not stand upon the +lawn. Since it is said that beauty could not exist were there not +ugliness for contrast, this building may have its uses; certainly, after +a glance at it, one looks back with renewed delight at the structures of +the central group. + +Most superb of all, always there hangs at night, above the buildings and +the tree-tops, a glorious full moon. At least I suppose it always hangs +there, for though it seemed to us very wonderful, every one else seemed +used to it. + +Like Venice, the University of Virginia should first be seen by +moonlight. There could not have been a finer moonlit night, I thought, +than that cold, crisp one upon which my companion stood for two hours +beside the rotunda, gazing at the lawn and drawing it, its frosty grass +and trees decked with diamonds, its white columns standing out softly +from their shadow backgrounds like phosphorescent ghosts in the luminous +blue darkness. Until I was nearly frozen I stayed there with him. That +drawing cost him one of the worst colds he ever had. + +The university ought to have, and has, many traditions, and life there +ought to be, and is, different from life in any other college. Jefferson +brought from Italy the men who carved the capitals of the columns (the +descendants of some of these Italian workmen live in Charlottesville +to-day), and when the columns were in place he brought from Europe the +professors to form the faculty, creating what was practically a small +English university in the United States. Never until, a dozen years ago, +Dr. E.A. Alderman became president, had there been such an office; +before that time the university had a rector, and the duties of +president were performed by a chairman of the faculty, elected by the +faculty from among its members. This was the first university to adopt +the elective system, permitting the students, as Jefferson wrote, +"uncontrolled choice in the lectures they shall attend," instead of +prescribing one course of reading for all. No less important, the +University of Virginia was the first college to introduce (1842) the +honor system, and still has the most complete honor system to be found +among American colleges. This system is an outgrowth of the Jeffersonian +idea of student self-government; under it each student signs, with +examination papers, a pledge that he has neither given nor received +assistance. That is found sufficient; students are not watched, nor need +they be. With time this system has been extended, so that it now covers +not only examinations, but many departments of college life, eliminating +professionalism in athletics and plagiarism in literary work, and +resulting in a delightful mutual confidence between the student body and +the faculty. + +Madison and Monroe were active members of the university's first board +of visitors; the first college Y.M.C.A. was started there; and among +many famous men who have attended the university may be mentioned Edgar +Allan Poe, Thomas Nelson Page, and Thomas Woodrow Wilson, whose name +appears thus upon the "University Magazine" for 1879-80, as one of its +three editors. The ill-starred Poe attended the university for only one +year, at the end of which time his adopted father, Mr. Allan, of +Richmond, withdrew him because of debts he had contracted while +acquiring his education in gambling and drinking champagne. Poe's former +room, No. 13 West Range, is now the office of the magazine. + +The clean, lovely manuscript in Jefferson's handwriting, of the first +Anglo-Saxon grammar written in the United States, is to be seen in the +university library; Jefferson was Vice-President of the United States +when he wrote it; he put Anglo-Saxon in the first curriculum of the +university, and it has been taught there ever since. In a note which is +a part of the manuscript, he advocates the study of Anglo-Saxon as an +introduction to modern English on the ground that though about half the +words in our present language are derived from Latin and Greek, these +being the scholarly words, the other half, the words we use most often, +are Anglo-Saxon. + +Before the war it was not uncommon for students at the university to +have their negro body servants with them, and it has occasionally +happened since that some young sprig of southern aristocracy has come +to college thus attended. + +Perhaps the most striking and characteristic feature of student life +to-day, from the point of view of the stray visitor, is the formal +attitude of students toward one another. There is no easy-going +casualness between them, no calling back and forth, no "hello," by way +of greeting. They pass each other on the walks either without speaking +(men have been punished at the university by being ignored by the entire +student body), or if they do greet each other the customary salutation +is "How are you, sir?" or "How are you, gentlemen?" First-year men are +expected to wear hats, and not to speak to upper classmen until they +have been spoken to; and, though there is no hazing at the university, +woe betide them if they do not heed these rules. + +In the early days of the university there was an effort to exercise +restraint over students, to make them account for their goings and +comings, and to prevent their going to taverns or betting upon horse +races. Also they were obliged to wear a uniform. The severity was so +great that they appealed to Jefferson, who sided with them. He, however, +died in the same year, and friction prevailed for perhaps a decade +longer, with many student disorders, culminating in the shooting of a +professor by a student. In 1840 the students were at last granted full +freedom, and two years later the honor system was adopted. + +During the university's first years young men from the far South, where +dueling was especially prevalent, did not come in large numbers to the +University of Virginia, but went, as a rule, to the northern colleges, +but about the middle of the century, as feeling between North and South +over taxation, States' Rights and slavery became more acute, these men +began to flock to the college at Charlottesville. Between 1850 and 1860 +the university almost doubled in size, and at about the same time there +developed a good deal of dueling between students. + +When the War ended many men who had gone into the Confederate army at +sixteen or seventeen years of age came to Charlottesville to complete +their education. The hard life of the army had made some of these into a +wild lot, and there was a great deal of gambling and drinking during +their time, and also after it, for several succeeding generations of +students looked up to the ex-soldiers as heroes, and carried on the +unfortunate traditions left by them at the university. In the nineties, +however, a change came, and though there is still some drinking and +gambling, it is doubtful whether such vices are now more prevalent at +the University of Virginia than at many other colleges. The honor system +has never been extended to cover these points. + +It is related that, in Poe's time, gambling became such a serious +obstacle to discipline and work that the university authorities set the +town marshal after a score or so of gambling students, Poe among them, +whereupon these students fled to the Ragged Mountains, near by, and +remained for two weeks, during which time Poe is said to have mightily +entertained them with stories and prophecies, including a forecast of +the Civil War, in which, he declared, two of the youths present would +fight on opposite sides. + +The Poe tradition is kept vigorously alive at the university. Not long +ago a member of the Raven Society, one of the rather too numerous +student organizations, discovered the burial place of Poe's mother, who +was an actress, and who died penniless in Richmond at the age of +twenty-four and was buried with the destitute. By a happy inspiration a +fund was raised among the students for the erection of a monument to +her--an example of fine and chivalrous sentiment on the part of these +young men, which, one feels, is somehow delicately intertwined with the +traditions of the honor system. + +The Poe professor of English at the university, when we were there, was +Dr. C. Alphonso Smith, who has since taken the professorship of English +at the United States Naval Academy. By a coincidence which has proved a +happy one for those who love the stories of the late Sidney Porter (O. +Henry), Dr. Smith grew up as a boy with Porter, in Greensboro, North +Carolina. Because of this, and also because of Dr. Smith's own gifts as +a writer and an analyst, it is peculiarly fitting that he should have +undertaken the work which has occupied him for several years past, the +result of which has recently been given to us in the form "The O. Henry +Biography." + +Dr. Smith was Roosevelt exchange professor at the University of Berlin +in 1910-11, holding the chair of American History and Institutions. +While occupying that professorship he met the Kaiser. + +"I talked with him twice," he said, "and upon the second occasion under +very delightful circumstances, for I was invited to dinner at the Palace +at Potsdam, and was the only guest, the Kaiser, Kaiserin, and Princess +Victoria Luise being present. + +"The Kaiser is, of course, a very magnetic man. His eyes are his most +remarkable feature. They are very large, brilliant, and sparkling, and +he rolls them in a manner most unusual. While he is always the king and +the soldier, he can be genial and charming. One might expect a man in +his position to be blase, but that, most of all, is what he is not. He +is like a boy in his vitality and vividness, and he has a great and +persistent intellectual curiosity. It is this, I think, which used to +cause him to be compared with Colonel Roosevelt. Both would like to know +all things, and both have had, and have exercised more, perhaps, than +any other two living men, the power to bring to themselves the central +figures in all manner of world events, and thus learn at first hand, +from acknowledged authorities, about the subjects that interest +them--which is to say, everything. + +"He frankly admired America. I don't mean that he said so for the sake +of courtesy to me, but that he has--or did have, then--an immense and +rather romantic interest in this country. A great many Germans used to +resent this trait in him. America held in his mind the same romantic +position that the idea of monarchy did in the minds of some of us. I +mean that the average American went for romance to stories of monarchy, +but that the Kaiser, being used to the monarchial idea, found his +romance over here. (I am, of course, speaking of him as he was five or +six years ago.) He wished to come to America, but was never able to do +so, since German law forbids it. And, perhaps because he could not come, +America was the more a sort of dream to him. + +"He asked me about some of the things in Berlin which I had noticed as +being different from things at home, and when I mentioned the way that +history was kept alive in the very streets of Berlin, his eyes danced, +and he said that was one of the things he had tried to accomplish by the +erection of the numerous monuments which have been placed in Berlin +during his reign. He told me of other means by which history was kept +alive in Germany: among them that every officer has to know in detail +the history of his regiment, and that German regiments always celebrate +the anniversaries of their great days. + +"He speaks English without an accent, though we might say that he spoke +it with an English accent. He told me that he had learned English before +he learned German, and had also caused his children to learn it first. +He reads Mark Twain, or had read him, and he enjoyed him, but he said +that when he met Mark Twain the latter had little or nothing to say, and +that it was only with the greatest difficulty that he got him to talk at +all. He subscribed, he told me, to 'Harper's Magazine,' and he was in +the habit of reading short stories aloud to his family, in English. He +admired the American short story, and I remember that he declared: 'The +Americans know how to plunge into a short story. We Germans are too +long-winded.'" + +When Professor Smith talks about the Kaiser, you say to yourself: "I +know that it is growing late, but I cannot bear to leave until I have +heard the rest of this"; when he drifts presently to O. Henry, you say +the same; and so it is always, no matter what his subject. At last, +however, the grandfather's clock in the hall below his study sends up a +stern message which is not to be mistaken, whereupon you arise +reluctantly from your comfortable chair, spill the cigar ashes out of +your lap onto the rug, dust off your clothing, and take your leave. Nor +is your regret at departing lessened by the fact that you must go to +your bilious-colored bedroom in the New Gleason, and that you will not +see the university, or Professor C. Alphonso Smith, or Mrs. Smith again, +because you are leaving upon the morrow. + +So it must always be with the itinerant illustrator and writer. They are +forever finding new and lovely scenes only to leave them; forever making +new and charming friends only to part with them, faring forth again into +the unknown. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +FOX-HUNTING IN VIRGINIA + + Better to hunt in fields for health unbought + Than fee the doctor for a nauseous draught. + The wise for cure on exercise depend; + God never made his work for man to mend. + + --DRYDEN. + + +It is my impression that the dining-car conductor on the Chesapeake & +Ohio train by which we left Charlottesville was puzzled when I asked his +name; but if he sees this and remembers the incident he will now know +that I did so because I wished here to mention him as a humane citizen. +His name is C.G. Mitchell, and he was so accommodating as to serve a +light meal, after hours, when he did not have to, to two hungry men who +needed it. If travel has taught my companion and me anything, it has +taught us that not all dining-car conductors are like that. Nor, I +judge, can all dining-car conductors play the violin, pleasantly, in off +hours, as does Mr. Mitchell. Better one merciful dining-car conductor +than twenty who wear white carnations at their left lapels, but wear no +hearts below them! + +The road by which we drove from the railroad into the fastnesses of +Loudon County, where, near the little settlement of Upperville, the race +meet of the Piedmont Hunt was to be held, suggested other times and +other manners, for though we rode in a motor car, and though we passed +another now and then, machines were far outnumbered by the horses which, +under saddle, or hitched to buggies, surreys, and carts of all +descriptions, were heading toward the meeting place. + +On these roads, one felt, the motor was an outsider; this was the +kingdom of the horse that we were visiting; soft dirt roads were there +for him to trot and gallop on, and fences of wood or stone, free from +barbed wire, were everywhere, for him to jump. + +Throughout the week we had looked forward to this day, and even more, +perhaps, to the party which, if we could get back to Washington that +night, was to follow it; wherefore the first thing we did on reaching a +place where information was obtainable was to inquire about facilities +for leaving. Herein my companion had the advantage of me, for there was +nothing to prevent his departing immediately after the races, whereas I +must remain behind for an hour or two, to learn something of fox-hunting +as practised in this region. + +By motoring immediately after the races to a neighboring town--Bluemont +if I remember rightly--and there taking an interurban trolley to some +other place, and changing cars, and going without his dinner, my +companion found that he could get to Washington by nine o'clock. My case +was different. Should I be delayed more than two hours I could not get +away at all that night, but must miss the much anticipated party +altogether; and, though my companion seemed to view this possibility +with perfect equanimity, my memories of the charming lady whom we were +to meet at the stage door, after the performance, were too clear to +permit of indifference in me. The trolley my companion meant to catch +was, however, the last one; my only hope, therefore, was to motor a +distance of perhaps a dozen miles, over roads which I was frankly told +were "middling to bad," and try to catch a train at The Plains station. +If I missed this train, I was lost, and must spend a solitary night in +such a room as I might be able to find in a strange village. That +possibility did not appeal to me. I began to wish that there was no such +thing as fox-hunting, or that, there being such a thing, I had chosen to +ignore it. + +"Now," said my companion cheerfully, "we'll telegraph her." + +At a telegraph office he seized the pencil and wrote the following +message: + + _Will call for you to-night after performance._ + +To this he signed his own name. + +"What about me?" I suggested, after glancing over his shoulder at the +message. + +"Oh, well," said he, "there's no use in going into all that in a +telegram. It's sufficient to let her know that one of us is coming." + +"But I proposed this party." + +"Well," he gave in, with an air of pained patience, "what shall I say, +then? Shall I add that you are unavoidably detained?" + +"Not by a jugful!" I returned. "Add that I hope to get there too, and +will make every effort to do so." + +He wrote it out, sighing as he did so. Then, by careful cutting, he got +it down to fourteen words. By that time the operator couldn't read it, +so he wrote it out again--gloomily. + +This accomplished, we matched coins to see who should pay for the +message. He lost. + +"All right!" he said. "I'll pay for it, but it's all foolishness to send +such a long telegram." + +"No," I returned, as we left the office and got into the machine, "it is +not foolishness. If I can make life a little brighter for a beautiful +woman, by adding a few words to a telegram, and sticking you for it, I +shall do it every time." + +He looked away over the fields and did not answer me. So we drove on in +silence to where stands the beautiful manor house called Huntland, which +is the residence of Mr. Joseph B. Thomas, M.F.H. of the Piedmont Hunt. + +There is, I have been told, no important hunt in the United States in +which the master of foxhounds is not the chief financial supporter, the +sport being a very costly one. Of American hunts, the Middlesex, in +Massachusetts, of which Mr. A. Henry Higginson is M.F.H., has the +reputation of being the best appointed. The Piedmont Hunt is, however, +one of the half dozen leading organizations of the kind, and it is +difficult indeed to imagine a finer. + +In a well-kept park near Mr. Thomas's house stand extensive +English-looking buildings of brick and stucco, which, viewed from a +distance, suggest a beautiful country house, and which, visited, teach +one that certain favored hounds and horses in this world live much +better than certain human beings. One building is given over to the +kennels, the other the stables; each has a large sunlit court, and each +is as beautiful and as clean as a fine house--a house full of trophies, +hunting equipment, and the pleasant smell of well-cared-for saddlery. In +a rolling meadow, not far distant, is the race course, all green turf, +and here, soon after luncheon, gathered an extraordinary diversified +crowd. + +For the most part the crowd was a fashionable one: men and women of the +type whose photographs appear in "Vogue" and "Vanity Fair," and whose +costumes were like fashion suggestions for "sport clothes" in those +publications. One party was stationed on the top of an old-time mail +coach, the boot of which bore the significant initials +"F.F.V."--standing, as even benighted Northerners must be aware, for +"First Families of Virginia"; others were in a line of motors and +heterogeneous horse-drawn vehicles, parked beside the course; and +scattered through the gathering, like brushmarks on an impressionist +canvas, one saw the brilliant color of pink coats. Handsome hunters +were being ridden or led about by negro grooms, and others kept +arriving, ridden in by farmers and breeders, while here and there one +saw a woman rider, her hair tightly drawn back under a mannish derby +hat, her figure slender and graceful in a severely-cut habit coat. +Jumbled together in a great green meadow under a sweet autumnal sun, +these things made a picture of what, I am persuaded, is the ultimate in +extravagant American country life. There was something, too, about this +blending of fashionables and farmers, which made me think of the +theater; for there is, in truth, a distinct note of histrionism about +many of the rich Americans who "go in for" elaborate ruralness, and +there is a touch of it very often, also, about "horsey" people. They +like to "look the part," and they dress it with no less care than they +exercise, at other seasons, in dressing the parts of opera-going +cosmopolites, or wealthy loungers at the beaches. In other words, these +fashionables had the overtrained New York look all over them, and the +local rustics set them off as effectively as the villainous young squire +of the Drury Lane melodrama is set off by contrast with honest old +Jasper, the miller, who wears a smock, and comes to the Great House to +beg the Young Master to "make an honest woman" of poor Rose, the fairest +lass in all Hampshire. + +About the races themselves there was something fascinatingly +nonprofessional. They bore the same relation to great races on great +tracks that a very fine performance of a play by amateurs might bear to +a professional performance. + +First came a two-mile steeplechase, with brush hurdles. Then, after a +couple of minor events, a four-mile point-to-point race for hunters +ridden by gentlemen in hunt uniform. This was as stiff a race for both +horses and riders as I have ever seen, and it was very picturesque to +watch the pink coats careering up hill and down dale, now over a tall +stone wall, now over a brook or a snake fence; and when a rider went +head over heels, and lay still upon the ground where he fell, while his +horse cantered along after the field, in that aimless and pathetic way +that riderless horses have, one had a real sensation--which was the +pleasanter for knowing, a few minutes later, that the horseman had only +broken an arm. + +Next was run a rollicking race for horses owned by farmers, and others, +whose land is hunted over by the Piedmont and Middleburg foxhounds; and +last occurred a great comedy event--a mule race, free for all, in which +one of the hunting men, in uniform, made such a handsome showing against +a rabble of white and colored boys, all of them yelling, all of them +beating their long-eared animals with sticks, that he would have won, +had he not deliberately pulled his mount and "thrown" the race. + +The last event was not yet finished when my companion, who had become +nervous about his interurban trolley, got into a machine to drive to +Bluemont. + +"Of course," he said as we parted, "we'll miss you to-night." + +"Oh," I said, "I hope not. I expect to get there." + +"I don't see how you can make it," said he. "You have a lot of material +to gather." + +"I shall work fast." + +"Well," said he, trying to speak like the voice of Conscience, "I hope +you won't forget your _duty_--that's all." + +"I proposed this party to-night. It is my duty to be there." + +"You didn't make any definite engagement," said he, "and, besides, your +first duty is to your editors and your readers." + +Having tossed me this disgusting thought, he departed in a cloud of +dust, leaving me sad and alone, but not yet altogether in despair. + +The last race over, I hastened to Mr. Thomas's house, which, by this +time, looked like an old English hunting print come to life, for it was +now crowded with pink coats. For most of the technical information +contained in this chapter I am indebted to various gentlemen whom I +encountered there. + +In Virginia--which is the oldest fox-hunting State in the Union, the +sport having been practised there for nearly two centuries--the words +"hunt" or "hunting" never by any chance apply to shooting, but always +refer to hunting the fox with horse and hounds. A "hunter" is not a man +but a horse; a huntsman is not a member of the hunt but a hunt-servant; +the "field" may be the terrain ridden over by the hunt, or it may be +the group of riders following the hounds--"hunt followers," "hunting +men," and "hunting women." + +The following items, from "Baily's Hunting Directory," a British annual, +give some idea of certain primary formalities and practicalities of +hunting: + + HINTS TO BEGINNERS + + Buy the best horses you can afford; but remember that a workably + sound horse, though blemished or a bit gone in the wind, will give + you plenty of fun, if you do not knock him about. + + Obey the Master's orders without argument; in the field he is + supreme. + + Hold up your hat if you view the fox away; do not halloa. If none + of the hunt servants see your uplifted hat, go and tell the nearest + of them. + + Ride fast at water; if hounds clear a brook a horse has a good + chance of doing so. Steady your horse and let him take his own pace + at big timber. + + Keep well away from hounds, and down wind of them at a check. The + steam from heated horses adds a fresh difficulty to recovery of + lost scent. Look out for signs that may indicate the whereabouts or + passing of the fox. Huddling sheep, staring cattle, chattering + magpies, circling rooks, may mean that they see, or have just seen, + the fox. + + Never lark over fences; it tires your horse needlessly and may + cause damage and annoy the farmer. + + Never take a short cut through a covert that is likely to be drawn + during the day; and keep well away from a covert that hounds are + drawing if you start for home before the day's sport is over, lest + you head the fox. + + Always await your turn at a gate or gap; do not try and push + forward in a crowd. + + If you follow a pilot, do not "ride in his pocket"; give him plenty + of room, say fifteen lengths, at fences, or if he falls you might + jump on him. + + If your horse kicks, tie a knot of red ribbon in his tail. N.B.--Do + not be guilty of using this "rogue's badge" for the sake of getting + room in a crowd, as some men have been known to do. + + If a man is down and in danger of being kicked, put your own saddle + over his head. + + + HINTS CONCERNING THE HUNTER + + It should be remembered that in the ordinary routine the horse is + fed three or four times a day. On a hunting day he gets one good + feed early in the morning and loses one or two feeds. Moreover, he + is doing hard work for hours together, with a weight on his back. + Carry a couple of forage biscuits in your pocket to give him during + the day. Also get off and relieve him of your weight when you can + do so. + + When he is brought home, put him in his stall or box, slack the + girths, take off the bridle and give him his gruel at once. Throw a + rug over his loins and pull his ears for a minute or two. + + An old horse needs more clothing than a young one. + + Condition is a matter of seasons, not of months; a horse in hard + condition can take without injury a fall that would disable a soft + one for weeks. + +In old times many of Virginia's country gentlemen kept their own packs, +but though some followed the hounds according to the English tradition, +there developed a less sportsmanlike style of hunting called +"hilltopping," under which the hunting men rode to an elevated point and +watched the hounds run the fox, without themselves attempting to follow +across country and be in at the kill. As a result, the fox was, if +caught, torn to pieces by the hounds, and the brush and head were +infrequently saved. + +Under the traditions of English fox-hunting--traditions the strictness +of which can hardly be exaggerated--"hilltopping" is a more than +doubtful sport, and, since organized fox-hunting in the United States is +taken entirely from the English idea, the practice is tabooed on +first-class hunting regions. + +The origin of hilltopping is, however, easily understood. The old +fox-hunters simply did not, as a rule, have horses adequate to negotiate +the country, hunters not having been developed to any great extent in +America in early times. + +The perfect type of hunter is of thoroughbred stock. By the term +"thoroughbred" horsemen do not mean highly bred horses of any kind, as +is sometimes supposed, but only running horses. All such horses come +originally of British stock, for it is in Great Britain that the breed +has been developed, although it traces back, through a number of +centuries, to a foundation of Arabian blood. I am informed that climatic +and other conditions in a certain part of Ireland are for some reason +peculiarly favorable to the development of hunters and that these +conditions are duplicated in the Piedmont section of Virginia, and +nowhere else in the whole world. Only the stanchest, bravest, fastest +type of horse is suited for hunting in Virginia, and for this reason the +more experienced riders to hounds prefer the thoroughbred, though +half-bred and three-quarter-bred horses are also used to some extent, +the thoroughbred often being too mettlesome, when he becomes excited, +for any but the best riders. The finest qualities of a horse are brought +out in hunting in the Piedmont section, for the pace here is very +fast--much faster than in England, though it should be added that in the +English hunting country there are more hedges than over here, and that +the jumps are, upon the whole, stiffer. + +The speed of the Piedmont Hunt and other hunts in Virginia is doubtless +due to the use of southern hounds, these being American hounds, smaller +and faster than English hounds, from which, however, they were +originally bred. The desirable qualities in a pack of hounds are +uniformity of type, substance, speed, and color. These points have to do +not only with the style of a pack, but also with its hunting quality. +Thus in the Piedmont pack they breed for a red hound with white +markings, so that the pack may have an individual appearance, but in all +packs a great effort is made to secure even speed, for a slow hound +lags, while a fast one becomes an individual hunter. The unusual hound +is therefore likely to be "drafted" from the pack. + +There has been a long controversy as to whether the English or American +type of hound is best suited for hunting in this country, and the matter +seems still to remain one of opinion. Probably the best English pack in +the United States is that of Mr. A. Henry Higginson. Some years since, +Mr. Higginson and Mr. Harry Worcester Smith, of Worcester, +Massachusetts, master of the Grafton pack, made a bet of $5000 a side, +each backing his own hounds, the question being that of the general +suitability of the American versus the English hound for American +country. The trials were made in the Piedmont region of Virginia, and +Mr. Smith's American hounds won the wager for him. + +In the last ten or twenty years hunting in the United States has been +organized under the Hunts Committee of the National Steeplechase +Association. Practically all the important hunting organizations are +members of this association, there being forty of these: eleven in +Virginia, nine in Pennsylvania, six in New York, four in Massachusetts, +three each in Maryland and New Jersey, and one each in Connecticut, +Vermont, Ohio, and Michigan--the Grosse Pointe Hounds, near Detroit, +being the most westerly of recognized hunts, although there is some +unrecognized hunting near Chicago. + +An idea of the comparative importance of hunting in the United States +and in England may be gathered from the fact that in England and Wales +alone there are more than 180 packs of foxhounds, 88 packs of beagles, +and 16 packs of staghounds, while Ireland and Scotland have many also. +The war, however, has struck hard at hunting in the British Isles. +Baily's Hunting Directory for 1915-16, says: + +"Hunting has given her best, for of those who have gone from the hunting +field to join the colors, the masters lead, as they have led in more +happy days, with a tale of over 80 per cent. of their number, the hunt +secretaries following with over 50 per cent., while the hunt servants +show over 30 per cent. No exact data are available to tell of the +multitude from the rank and file that has followed this magnificent +lead, excepting that from all the hunts there comes the same report, +that practically every man fit for service has responded to the call." + +It is estimated that 17,000 horses were drafted from hunting for the +cavalry in England at the beginning of the war; and it is to be noticed +that so soon after the outbreak as July, 1915, the "Directory" published +a list of names of well-known hunting men killed in action, which +occupied more than seven large pages printed in small type. + +Under the heading "Incidents of the 1914-15 Season" are to be found many +items of curious early war-time interest, a few of which I quote: + + Lady Stalbridge announces willingness to act as field master of the + South and West Wilts Hounds during her husband's absence in France. + + Lieutenant Charles Romer Williams took out to the front a pack of + beagles, with which the officers of the Second Cavalry Brigade + hoped to hunt Belgian hares. + + Capt. E.K. Bradbury, a member of the Cahir Harriers, earned the + V.C. at Nery, but died from wounds. + + The Grafton Hounds have seventy-six followers with the colors. + + Admiral Sir David Beatty, of North Sea fame, has a hunting box at + Brooksby Hall, in the Melton Mowbray country. + + Five members of the Crawley and Horsham Hounds have been killed, + three wounded, and two are missing. + + Quorn fields down to about 30, instead of 300 last season. + + Captain the Honorable R.B.F. Robertson (Twenty-first Lancers) a + prisoner of war. He took over the North Tipperary Hounds in May, + and, of course, did not get a chance to have any sport. + + We now learn that the French authorities have discouraged + fox-hunting behind the fighting lines. So did the Germans. One day + British hounds took up the scent on their own initiative. The usual + followers had bigger game afoot, and were in the thick of an + engagement. The Germans gained ground and occupied the kennels. + When the hounds returned from their chase and challenged the + intruders they were shot down one by one. + +Such is the lore I had acquired when the motor came for me; whereupon, +taking a few sandwiches to sustain me until supper time, I set forth +through the night by Ford, for the station at The Plains. + + * * * * * + +The publication of the larger part of the foregoing chapter on fox +hunting, in "Collier's Weekly," brought me a number of letters +containing hunting anecdotes. + +Mr. J.R. Smith of Martinsville, Virginia, calls my attention to marked +difference in character between the red fox and the gray. The red fox, +he says, depends upon his legs to elude the hounds, and will sometimes +lead the hunt twenty-five miles from the place where he gets up, but the +gray fox depends on cunning, and is more prone to run a few miles and +"tack." + +Mr. Smith tells the following story illustrative of the gray fox's +amazing artfulness: + +"We had started a fox on three different occasions," he writes, "running +him a warm chase for about four miles and losing him every time in a +sheep pasture. Finally we stationed a servant in that pasture to see +what became of the fox. We started him again and he took the same route +to the pasture. There the mystery was solved. The fox jumped on the back +of a large ram, which, in fright, ran off about half a mile. The fox +then jumped off and continued his run. When the hounds came up we urged +them on to the point where the fox dismounted, and soon had his brush." + + * * * * * + +Another correspondent calls my attention to the fact that, in Virginia, +hunting is not merely the sport of the rich, but that the farmers are +enthusiastic members of the field--sometimes at the expense of their +cattle and crops. He relates the following story illustrative of the +point of view of the sporting Virginia farmer: + +"A man from the Department of Agriculture came down into our section to +look over farms and give advice to farmers. He went to see one farmer +in my county and found that he had absolutely nothing growing, and that +his livestock consisted of three hunters and thirty-two couples of +hounds. The agricultural expert was scandalized. He told the farmer he +ought to begin at once to raise hogs. 'You can feed them what you feed +the dogs,' he said, 'and have good meat for your family aside from what +you sell.' + +"After hearing his visitor out, the farmer looked off across the country +and spat ruminatively. + +"'I ain't never seen no hawg that could catch a fox,' he said, and with +that turned and went into the barn, evidently regarding the matter as +closed. Clearly he did not share the view of the Irishman who dismissed +fox hunting with the remark that a fox was 'damned hard to catch and no +good when you got him.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +"A CERTAIN PARTY" + + Kind are her answers, + But her performance keeps no day; + Breaks time, as dancers + From their own music when they stray. + + Lost is our freedom + When we submit to women so: + Why do we need 'em + When, in their best, they work our woe? + + --THOMAS CAMPION. + + +The motor ride to The Plains was a cold and rough one. I remember that +we had to ford a stream or two, and that once, where the mud had been +churned up and made deep by the wheels of many vehicles, we almost +stuck. Excepting at the fords, the road was dusty, and the dust was kept +in circulation by the feet of countless saddle horses, on which men from +the country to the south of Upperville were riding home from the races. +All the way to The Plains our lights kept picking up these riders, +sometimes alone, sometimes in groups, all of them going our way, we +taking their dust until we overhauled them, then giving them ours. + +Dust was over me like a close-fitting gray veil when I reached the +railroad station only to find that the train was late. I had a magazine +in my bag, but the light in the waiting-room was poor, so I took a place +near the stove and gave myself up to anticipations of a bath, a +comfortable room, clean clothing, and a good supper with my +companion--and another companion much more beautiful. + +I tried to picture her as she would look. She would be in evening dress, +of course. After thinking over different colors, and trying them upon +her in my mind, I decided that her gown should be of a delicate pink, +and should be made of some frail, beautiful material which would float +about her like gossamer when she moved, and shimmer like the light of +dawn upon the dew. You know the sort of gown I mean: one of those gowns +upon which a man is afraid to lay his finger-tips lest the material melt +away beneath them; a gown which, he feels, was never touched by +seamstress of the human species, but was made by fairies out of woven +moonlight, star dust, afterglow, and the fragrance of flowers. Such a +gown upon a lovely woman is man's proof that woman is indeed the thing +which so often he believes her--that she is more goddess than earthly +being; for man knows well that he himself is earthly, and that a costume +made from such dream stuffs and placed on him, would not last out the +hour. He has but to look up at the stars to realize the infinity of +space, and, similarly, but to look at her in her evening gown to realize +the divinity of woman. + +And that is where she has him. For it isn't so! + +At last came the train--just the dingy train to stop at such a station. +I boarded it, found a seat, and continued to dream dreams as we rattled +on toward Washington. + +Even when I found myself walking through that great terminal by which +all railroads enter the capital, I hardly believed that I was there, nor +did I feel entirely myself until I had reached my room in the New +Willard. + +Having started my bath, I went and knocked upon the door of the near-by +room where the clerk had told me I should find my fellow traveler. + +"Oh," he said, without enthusiasm as he discovered me. "You're here, are +you?" + +He looked imposing and severe in his evening dress. I felt +correspondingly dirty and humble. + +"Yes," I replied meekly. "Any news?" + +"None," he replied. "I've reserved a table at Harvey's. They dance +there. At first they said there was not a table to be had--Saturday +night, you know--but I told them who was to be with us, and they changed +their minds." + +"Good. I'll be dressed in a little while. Silk hats?" + +He nodded. I returned to my own room. + +Less than an hour later, my toilet completed, I rejoined him, and +together we descended, in full regalia, to the lobby. + +"Shall we take a taxi?" he suggested, as we passed out of the side +entrance. + +"How far away is the theater?" + +"I don't know." + +We asked the carriage starter. He said it was only two or three blocks. + +"Let's walk," I said. + +"I don't feel like walking," he returned. + +We rode. + +The theater was just emptying when we arrived. + +"I suppose we'd better let the cab go?" I said. "There'll be quite a +while to wait while she's changing." + +"Better keep it," he disagreed. "Might not find another." + +We kept it. + +At the stage door there was confusion. Having completed its week in +Washington, the play was about to move elsewhere, and furniture was +already coming out into the narrow passage, and being piled up to be +taken on wagons to the train. It took us some time to find the doorman, +and it took the doorman--as it always does take doormen--a long, long +time to depart into the unknown region of dressing rooms, with the cards +we gave him, and a still longer time to return. + +"Says to wait," he grunted when he came back. + +Meanwhile more and more furniture had come out, menacing our shins and +our beautifully polished hats in passing, and leaving us less room in +which to stand. + +We waited. + +After ten minutes had passed, I remarked: + +"I wish we had let the taxi go." + +After twenty minutes I remarked: + +"I always feel like an idiot when I have to wait at a stage door." + +"I don't see why you do it, then," said he. + +"And I hate it worse when I'm in evening dress. I hate the way the +actors look at us, when they come out. They think we're a couple of +Johnnies." + +"And supposing they do?" + +I do not know how long this unsatisfactory dialogue might have continued +had not some one come to the inside of the stage door and spoken to the +doorman, whereat he indicated us with a gesture and said: + +"There they are." + +At this a woman emerged. The light was dim, but I saw that she wore no +hat and had on an apron. As she came toward us we advanced. + +"You wait for madame?" she asked, with the accent of a Frenchwoman. + +"Yes." + +"Madame receive your telegram only this afternoon," she said. "All week, +she say, she wait to hear. This morning she have receive a telegram from +Mr. Woods that say she mus' come to New York. She think you not coming, +so she say 'Yes.' Then she receive your message. She don't know where to +reach you. She can do nossing. She is desolated! She mus' fly to the +train. She is ver' sorry. She hope that maybe the gentlemans will be in +Baltimore nex' week? Yes?" + +"You mean she can't come to-night?" + +"Yes, monsieur. She cannot. She are fill with regret. She--" + +"Perhaps," said my companion, recovering, "we can drive her to the +train?" + +The maid, however, did not seem to wish to discuss this point. She shook +her head and said: + +"Madame ver' sorry she cannot come." + +"But I say," repeated my companion, "that we shall be delighted to drive +her to the train if she wishes." + +"She ver' sorry," persisted the maid negatively. + +"Oh, I see," he said. "Very well. Please say to her that we are sorry, +too." + +"Yes, monsieur." The maid retired. + +"I want something to eat," I remarked as we passed down the long +furniture-piled passage leading to the street. + +"So do I. We have that table at Harvey's." + +"I know; but--" + +"That's a fact," he put in. "I mentioned her name. We can't very well go +there without her." + +"And all dressed up like a pair of goats." + +"No." + +"There's always the hotel." + +"I don't want to go back there--not now." + +"Neither do I. Let's make it the Shoreham," I suggested as we emerged +upon the street. + +"All right." Then, looking across the sidewalk, he added: "There's that +damned taxi!" + +"Yes. We'll drive around there in it." + +"No," said he, "send it away. I don't feel like riding." + +We walked to the Shoreham. The cafe looked cheerful, as it always does. +We ordered an extensive supper. It was good. There were pretty women in +the room, but we looked at them with the austere eyes of disillusioned +men, and talked cynically of life. I cannot recall any of the things we +said, though I remember thinking at the time that both of us were being +rather brilliant, in an icy way. I suppose it was mainly about women. +That was to be expected. Women, indeed! What were women to us? Nothing! +And pretty women, least of all. Ah, pretty women! Pretty women!... Yes, +yes! + +I had ordered fruit to finish off the meal, and I remember that as the +dish was set upon the table, it occurred to me that we had made a very +pleasant party of it after all. + +"Do you know," I said, as I helped myself to some hothouse grapes, "I've +had a bully evening. It has been fine to sit here and have a party all +to ourselves. I'm not so sorry that she did not come!" + +Then I ate a grape or two. + +They were very handsome grapes, but they were sour. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE LEGACY OF HATE + + ... Immortal hate, + And courage never to submit or yield. + + --PARADISE LOST. + + +The last time I went abroad, a Briton on the boat told me a story about +an American tourist who asked an old English gardener how they made such +splendid lawns over there. + +"First we cut the grass," said the gardener, "and then we roll it. Then +we cut it, and then we roll it." + +"That's just what we do," said the American. + +"Ah," returned the gardener, "but over here we've been doing it five +hundred years!" + +In Liverpool another Englishman told me the same story. Three or four +others told it to me in London. In Kent I heard it twice, and in Sussex +five or six times. After going to Oxford and the Thames I lost count. + +In the South my companion and I had a similar experience with the story +about that daughter of the Confederacy who declared she had always +thought "damn Yankee" one word. In Maryland that story amused us, in +Virginia it seemed to lose a little of its edge, and we are proud to +this day because, in the far southern States, we managed to grin and +bear it. + +Doubtless the young lady likewise thought that "you-all" was one word. +However I refrained from suggesting that, lest it be taken for an +attempt at retaliation. And really there was no occasion to retaliate, +for the story was always told with good-humored appreciation not only of +the dig at "Yankees"--collectively all Northerners are "Yankees" in the +South--but also of the sweet absurdity of the "unreconstructed" point of +view. + +Speaking broadly of the South, I believe that there survives little real +bitterness over the Civil War and the destructive and grotesquely named +period of "reconstruction." When a southern belle of to-day damns +Yankees, she means by it, I judge, about as much, and about as little, +as she does by the kisses she gives young men who bear to her the +felicitous southern relationship of "kissing cousins." + +Even from old Confederate soldiers I heard no expressions of violent +feeling. They spoke gently, handsomely and often humorously of the war, +but never harshly. Real hate, I think, remains chiefly in one quarter: +in the hearts of some old ladies, the wives and widows of Confederate +soldiers--for there are but few mothers of the soldiers left. The wonder +is that more of the old ladies of the South have not held to their +resentment, for, as I have heard many a soldier say, women are the +greatest sufferers from war. One veteran said to me: "My arm was +shattered and had to be amputated at the shoulder. There was no +anesthetic. Of course I suffered, but I never suffered as my mother did +when she learned what I had endured." + +Be they haters of the North or not, the old ladies of the South are +among its chief glories, and it should be added that another of those +glories is the appreciation that the South has for the white-haired +heroines who are its mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers, and +the unfailing natural homage that it pays them. I do not mean by this +merely that children and grandchildren have been taught to treat their +elders with respect. I do not mean merely that they love them. The thing +of which I speak is beyond family feeling, beyond the respect of youth +for age. It is a strong, superb sentiment, something as great as it is +subtle, which floods the South, causing it to love and reverence its old +ladies collectively, and with a kind of national spirit, like the love +and reverence of a proud people for its flag. + +Among young men, I met many who told me, with suitable pride, of the +parts played by their fathers and uncles in the war. Of these only one +spoke with heat. He was a Georgian, and when I mentioned to him that, in +all my inquiries, I had heard of no cases of atrocious attacks upon +women by soldiers--such attacks as we heard of at the time of the German +invasion of Belgium and France--he replied with a great show of feeling +that I had been misinformed, and that many women had been outraged by +northern soldiers in the course of Sherman's march to the sea. At this +my heart sank, for I had treasured the belief that, despite the +roughness of war, unprotected women had generally been safe from the +soldiers of North and South alike. What was my relief, then, on later +receiving from this same young man a letter in which he declared that he +had been mistaken, and that after many inquiries in Georgia he had been +unable to learn of a single case of such crime. If it is indeed true +that such things did not occur in the Civil War--and I believe +confidently that it is true--then we have occasion, in the light of the +European War, to revise the popular belief that of all wars civil war is +the most horrible. + +The attitude of the modern South (the "New South" which, by the way, one +Southerner described to me as meaning "northern capital and smoke") +toward its own "unreconstructed" citizens, for all its sympathy and +tenderness, is not without a glint of gentle humor. More than once, when +my companion and I were received in southern homes with a cordiality +that precluded any thought of sectional feeling, we were nevertheless +warned by members of the younger generation--and their eyes would +twinkle as they said it--to "look out for mother; she's +unreconstructed." And you may be sure that when we were so warned we did +"look out." It was well to do so! For though the mother might be a frail +old lady, past seventy, with the face of an angel and the normal +demeanor of a saint, we could see her bridle, as we were presented to +her, over the thought there here were two Yankees in her +home--Yankees!--we could see the light come flashing up into her eyes +as they encountered ours, and could feel beneath the veil of her austere +civility the dagger points of an eternal enmity. By dint of self-control +on her part, and the utmost effort upon ours to be tactful, the +presentation ceremony was got over with, and after some formal speeches, +resembling those which, one fancies, may be exchanged by opposing +generals under a flag of truce, we would be rescued from her, removed +from the room, before her forbearance should be strained, by our +presence, to the point of breaking. A baleful look would follow us as we +withdrew, and we would retire with a better understanding of the flaming +spirit which, through that long, bloody conflict against overwhelming +odds in wealth, supplies, and men, sustained the South, and which at +last enabled it to accept defeat as nobly as it had accepted earlier +victories.... How one loves a gentle old lady who can hate like that! + +In this chapter, when it appeared originally, in "Collier's Weekly," I +made the statement that I had seldom spent an hour in conversation with +a Southerner without hearing some mention of the Civil War, and that I +had heard other Northerners remark upon this matter, and express +surprise at the tenacity with which the war holds its place in the +foreground of the southern mind. + +This, like many another of my southern observations, brought me letters +from readers of "Collier's," residing in the South. A great number of +the letters thus elicited, as well as comments made upon these chapters +by the southern press, have been of no small interest to me. On at +least one subject (the question discussed in the next chapter, as to +whether the expression "you-all" is ever used in the singular) my +correspondents have convinced me that my earlier statement was an error, +while on other subjects they have modified my views, and on still others +made my convictions more profound. Where it has been possible, and where +it has seemed, for one reason or another, to be worth while, I have +endeavored, while revising the story of my southern wanderings for this +book, to make note of the other fellow's point of view, especially in +cases where he disagrees with me. + +The following, then, is from a letter written on the stationery of +Washington and Lee University, and applies to certain statements +contained in this chapter: + + In 1813, Thomas Jefferson wrote to a newspaper publisher: "Were I + the publisher of a paper, instead of the usual division into + Foreign, Domestic, etc., I think I should distribute everything + under the following heads: 1. True. 2. Probable. 3. Wanting + confirmation. 4. Lies, and be careful in subsequent papers to + correct all errors in preceding ones." + + Allow me to suggest that your story might, under Mr. Jefferson's + category, be placed under "2." Perhaps you went to see "The Birth + of a Nation" before you wrote it. It has been my experience that my + acquaintances among the F.F.V.'s have been far more interested in + whether Boston or Brooklyn would win the pennant than in discussing + the Civil War. By the young men of the South the War was forgotten + long ago. + +This letter has caused me to wonder whether the frequency with which my +companion and I heard the Civil War discussed, may not, perhaps, have +been due, at least in part, to our own inquiries, resulting from the +consuming interest that we had in hearing of the War from those who +lived where it was fought. + +Yet, after all, it seems to me most natural that the South should +remember, while the North forgets. Not all Northerners were in the war. +But all Southerners were; if a boy was big enough to carry a gun, he +went. The North almost completely escaped invasion, and upon one +occasion when a southern army did march through northern territory, the +conduct of the invading troops toward the civilian population (the false +Barbara Frietchie legend to the contrary notwithstanding) was so +exemplary as to set a record which is probably unequaled in history.[2] +The South, upon the other hand, was constantly under invasion, and the +record of destruction wrought by northern armies in the valley of the +Shenandoah, on the March to the Sea, and in some other instances, is +writ in poverty and mourning unto this day. + +[2] See chapter on Colonel Taylor and General Lee. + +Thus, except politically, the North now feels not the least effect from +the war. But the South knew the terrors of invasion and the pangs of +conquest, and is only growing strong again after having been ruined--as +instanced by the fact, which I came across the other day, that the tax +returns from one of the southern States have, for the first time since +the Civil War, reached the point at which they stood when it began. + +So, very naturally, while the War has begun to take its place in the +northern mind along with the Revolutionary War, as something to be +studied in school under the heading "United States History," it has not, +in southern eyes, become altogether "book history," but is history that +lives--in swords hanging upon the walls of many homes, in old faded +letters, in sacks of worthless Confederate bills, in the ruins of great +houses, in lovingly preserved gray uniforms, in southern battle fields, +and in southern burial grounds where rows upon rows of tombstones, drawn +up in company front, stand like gray armies forever on parade. + +Small wonder if, amid its countless tragic memorials, the South does not +forget. The strange thing is that bitterness has gone so soon; that +remembering the agonies of war and the abuses of reconstruction, the +South does not to-day hate the North as violently as ever. If to err is +human, the North has, in its treatment of the South, richly proved its +humanness; and if forgiveness is divine, the South has, by the same +token, attained something like divinity. + +Had the numbskull North understood these things as it should have +understood them, there would not now be a solid Democratic South. + +Such rancor as remains is, I believe, strongest in the smaller towns in +those States which suffered the greatest hardships. I know, for +instance, of one lady, from a little city in Virginia, who refused to +enter the Massachusetts Building at the Chicago World's Fair, and there +are still to be found, in Virginia, ladies who do not leave their houses +on the Fourth of July because they prefer not to look upon the Stars and +Stripes. The Confederate flag is still, in a sense, the flag of the +South. Southerners love it as one loves a pressed flower from a mother's +bridal wreath. When the Eleventh Cavalry rode from Fort Oglethorpe, +Georgia, to Winchester, Virginia, a few years since, they saw many +Confederate flags, but only one Union flag, and that in the hands of a +negro child. However, war had not then broken out in Europe. It would be +different now. + +A Virginia lady told me of having gone to a dentist in Winchester, +Virginia, and having taken her little niece with her. The child watched +the dentist put a rubber dam in her aunt's mouth, and then, childlike, +began to ask questions. She was a northern child, and she had evidently +heard some one in the town speak of Sheridan's ride. + +"Auntie," she said, "was Sheridan a Northerner or a Southerner?" + +Owing to the rubber dam the aunt was unable to reply, but the dentist +answered for her. "He was a drunken Yankee!" he declared vehemently. + +When, later, the rubber dam was removed, the aunt protested. + +"Doctor," she reproved, "you should not have said such a thing to my +niece. She is from New York." + +"Then," returned the unrepentant dentist, "she has heard the truth for +once!" + +Doubtless this man was an inheritor of hate, like the descendants of one +uncompromisingly bitter old Southerner whose will, to be seen among the +records of the Hanover County courthouse, in Virginia, bequeaths to his +"children and grandchildren and their descendants throughout all future +generations, the bitter hatred and everlasting malignity of my heart and +soul against the Yankees, including all people north of Mason and +Dixon's line." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +"YOU-ALL" AND OTHER SECTIONAL MISUNDERSTANDINGS + + Let us make an honorable retreat. + + --AS YOU LIKE IT. + + +Those who write school histories and wish them adopted by southern +schools have to handle the Civil War with gloves. Such words as "rebel" +and "rebellion" are resented in the South, and the historian must go +softly in discussing slavery, though he may put on the loud pedal in +speaking of State Rights, the fact being that the South not only knows +now, but, as evidenced by the utterances of her leading men, from +Jefferson to Lee, knew long before the war that slavery was a great +curse; whereas, on the question of State Rights, including the +theoretical right to secede from the Union--this being the actual +question over which the South took up arms--there is much to be said on +the southern side. Colonel Robert Bingham, superintendent of the Bingham +School, Asheville, North Carolina, has made an exhaustive study of the +question of secession, and has set forth his findings in several +scholarly and temperately written booklets. + +Colonel Bingham proves absolutely, by quotation of their own words, +that the framers of the Constitution regarded that document as a +_compact_ between the several States. He shows that three of the States +(Virginia, New York, and Rhode Island) joined in this compact +_conditionally_, with the clear purpose of resuming their independent +sovereignty as States, should the general government use its power for +the oppression of the States; that up to the time of the Mexican War the +New England States contended for, not against, the right to secede; that +John Quincy Adams went so far as to negotiate with England with a view +to the secession of the New England States, because of Jefferson's +Embargo Act, and moreover that up to 1840 the United States Government +used as a textbook for cadets at West Point, Rawle's "View of the +Constitution," a book which teaches that the Union is dissoluble. Robert +E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, were, therefore, in all probability, given +this book as students at West Point, and consequently, if we would have +honest history, we must face the astonishing fact that there is evidence +to show _that they learned the doctrine of secession at the United +States Military Academy_. + +Colonel Bingham, who, it may be remarked, served with distinction in the +Confederate Army, has very kindly supplemented, in a letter to me, his +published statements. He writes: + + Secession was legal _theoretically_, but practically the conditions + on which the thirteen Independent Republics, covering a little + strip on the Atlantic coast, came to an agreement, could not + possibly be applied to the great inter-Oceanic Empire into which + these thirteen Independent Republics had developed. + + "Theory is a good horse in the stable, but may make an arrant jade + on the journey"--to paraphrase Goldsmith--and the only way in which + these irreconcilable differences could be settled was by bullet and + bayonet, which settled them right and finally. + +Once such matters as these are fully understood in the North, there will +be left but one grave issue between North and South, that issue being +over the question of whether or not Southerners, under any +circumstances, use the phrase "you-all" in the singular. + +"Whatever you write of the South," said our hostess at a dinner party in +Virginia, "don't make the mistake of representing any one from this paht +of the country, white oh black, educated oh ignorant, as saying +'you-all' meaning one person only." + +When I remarked mildly that it seemed to me I had often seen the phrase +so used in books, and heard it in plays, eight or ten southern ladies +and gentlemen at the table pounced upon me, all at once. "Yes!" they +agreed, with a kind of polite violence, "books and plays by Yankees!" + +"If," one of the gentlemen explained, "you write to a friend who has a +family, and say, according to the northern practice, 'I hope to see you +when you come to my town,' you write something which is really +ambiguous, since the word 'you' may refer only to your friend, or may +refer also to his family. Our southern 'you-all' makes it explicit." + +I told him that in the North we also used the word "all" in connection +with "you," though we accented the two evenly, and did not compound +them, but he seemed to believe that "you" followed by "all" belonged +exclusively to the South. + +The argument continued almost constantly throughout the meal. Not until +coffee was served did the subject seem to be exhausted. But it was not, +for after pouring a demi-tasse our hostess lifted a lump of sugar in the +tongs, and looking me directly in the eye inquired: "Do you-all take +sugah?" + +Undoubtedly it would have been wiser, and politer, to let this pass, but +the discussion had filled me with curiosity, not only because of my +interest in the localism, but also because of the amazing intensity with +which it had been discussed. + +"But," I exclaimed, "you just said 'you-all,' apparently addressing me. +Didn't you use it in the singular?" + +No sooner had I spoken than I was sorry. Every one looked disconcerted. +There was silence for a moment. I was very much ashamed. + +"Oh, no," she said at last. "When I said 'you-all' I meant you and Mr. +Morgan." (She pronounced it "Moh-gan," with a lovely drawl.) As she made +this statement, she blushed, poor lady! + +Being to blame for her discomfiture, I could not bear to see her blush, +and looked away, but only to catch the eye of my companion, and to read +in its evil gleam the thought: "Of course they use it in the singular. +But aren't you ashamed of having tripped up such a pretty creature on a +point of dialect?" + +Though my interest in the southern idiom had caused me to forget about +the sugar, my hostess had not forgotten. + +"Well," she said, still balancing the lump above the cup, and continuing +gamely to put the question in the same form, and to me: "Do you-all take +sugah, oh not?" + +I had no idea how my companion took his coffee, but it seemed to me that +tardy politeness now demanded that I tacitly--or at least +demi-tacitly--accede to the alleged plural intent of the question. +Therefore, I replied: "Mr. Morgan takes two lumps. I don't take any, +thanks." + +Late that night as we were returning to our hotel, my companion said to +me somewhat tartly: "In case such a thing comes up again, I wish you +would remember that sugar in my coffee makes me ill." + +"Well, why didn't you say so?" + +"Because," he returned, "I thought that you-all ought to do the +answering. It seemed best for me-all to keep quiet and try to look +plural under the singular conditions." + + * * * * * + +No single thing I ever wrote has brought to me so many letters, nor +letters so uniform in sentiment (albeit widely different in expression), +as the foregoing, seemingly unimportant tale, printed originally in +"Collier's Weekly." + +Some one has pointed out that various communities have "fighting words," +and as the letters poured in I began to realize that in discussing +"you-all" I had inadvertently hit upon a term which aroused the ire of +the South--or rather, that I had aroused ire by implying that the +expression is sometimes used in the singular--the Solid South to the +contrary notwithstanding. + +Never, upon any subject, have I known people to agree as my southern +correspondents did on this. The unanimity of their dissent was an +impressive thing. So was the violence some of them displayed. + +For a time, indeed, the heat with which they wrote, obscured the issue. +That is to say, most of them instead of explaining merely denied, and +added comments, more or less unflattering, concerning me. + +Wrote a lady from Lexington, Kentucky: + + I have lived in Kentucky all of my life, and have never yet heard + "you-all" used in the singular, not even among the negroes. My + grandparents and friends say they have never heard it, either. + + It was needless for you to tell your Virginia hostess that + "you-all" (meaning you and your friend) were Yankees. The fact that + you criticized her language proved it. Southern people pride + themselves on their tact, and no doubt, at the time, she was + struggling to conceal a smile because of some of your own + localisms. + +Many of the letters were more severe than this one, and most of them +made the point that I had been impolite to my hostess, and that, in all +probability, when she looked at me and asked, "Do you-all take sugah?" +she was playing a joke upon me, apropos the discussion which had +preceded the question. For example, this, from a gentleman of Pell City, +Alabama: + + My wife is the residuary legatee of Virginia's language, inherited, + acquired and affected varieties, including the vanishing _y_; + annihilated _g_; long-distance _a_, and irresistible drawl. + + To quell the unfortunate tumult that has arisen in our household as + a result of your last article in "Collier's" I am commanded to + advise you that the use of "you-all" in the singular is + absodamnlutely _non est factum_ in Virginia, save, perhaps, among + the hill people of the Blue Ridge. + + Also, take notice that when your hostess, with apparent + inadvertence, used the expression in connection with sugar in your + demi-tasse, the subsequent blush was due to your failure to catch + her witticism, ignorantly mistaking it for a lapse of hers. + + My wife was going to write to you herself, but I managed to divert + this cruel determination by promising to uphold the honor of the + Old Dominion. There is already too much blood being shed in the + world without spilling that of non-combatants as would have been + "you-all's" fate had she gone after you with a weapon more mighty + than the sword when in the hands of Mr. Wilson or an outraged + woman. + +In face of all this and much more, however, my conviction was unshaken. +I talked it over with my companion. He remembered the episode of the +dinner table exactly as I did. Moreover, I still had my notes, made in +the hotel that night. The lady looked at me. My companion was several +places removed from her at the other side of the table. How could she +have meant to include him? And how could she have expected me to say how +he took his after-dinner coffee? + +At last, to reassure myself, I wrote to the wisest, cleverest, most +trustworthy lady in the South, and asked her what it all meant. + +"Well," she wrote back from Atlanta, "I will tell you, but I am not sure +that you will understand me. The answer is: _She did, but she didn't_. +She looked at and spoke to you and, of course, by all rules of logic she +could not have been intending to make you Morg's keeper in the matter of +coffee dressing. _But_ she never would have said 'you-all' if Morg had +not been in her mind as joined with you. The response, according to her +thought-connotation, would have been from you _and_ from him." + +This was disconcerting. So was a letter, received in the same mail, from +a gentleman in Charleston: + + It is as plain as the nose on your face that you are not yet + convinced that we in the South _never_ use "you-all" with reference + to one person. The case you mentioned proves nothing at all. The + very fact that there were _two_ strangers present justified the use + of the expression; we continually use the expression in that way, + and in such cases we expect an answer from _both_ persons so + addressed. To illustrate: just a few days ago I "carried" two girls + into an "ice-cream parlor." After we were seated, I looked at the + one nearest me, and said: "Well, what will you-all have?" + + Physically we are so constructed that unless a person is cross-eyed + it is impossible to look at two persons at once; the mere fact that + I looked at the one nearest me did not mean that I was not + addressing both. I expected an answer from both, and I got it, too + (as is generally the case where ice-cream is concerned). + + The subject is one to which I have devoted the most careful + attention for many years. I have been so interested in it that + almost unconsciously, whenever I myself use the expression + "you-all," or hear any one else use it, I note whether it is + intended to refer to one or to more than one person. I have heard + thousands of persons, white, black and indifferent, use the + expression, and the only ones I have ever heard use it incorrectly + are what we might call "professional Southerners." For instance, + last week I went to a vaudeville show, and part of the performance + was given by two "black-face" comedians, calling themselves "The + Georgia Blossoms." Their dialect was excellent, with the single + exception that one of them _twice_ used the expression "you-all" + where it could not _possibly_ have meant more than one person. And + I no sooner heard it than I said to myself: "There is _one_ blossom + that never bloomed in Georgia!" + + Another instance is the following: I was once approached by a + beggar in Atlanta, who saluted me thus: "Say, mister, can't you-all + give me a nickel?" Had I been accompanied it would have been all + right, but I was alone, and there was no other person near me + except the hobo. Did I give him the nickel? I should say not! I + said to myself: "He is a damned Yankee trying to pass himself off + for a Southerner." + +Horrid glimmerings began to filter dimly through. And yet-- + +Next day came a letter calling my attention to an article, written years +ago by Joel Chandler Harris and Thomas Nelson Page, jointly, in which +they plead with northern writers not to misuse the disputed expression +by applying it in the singular. + +That was another shock. I felt conviction tottering.... But she _did_ +look at me.... She _didn't_ expect an answer from my companion.... + +And then behold! a missive from Mr. H.E. Jones, a member--and a worthy +one--of the Tallapoosa County Board of Education, and a resident of +Dadeville, Alabama. Mr. Jones' educational activities reach far beyond +Tallapoosa County, and far beyond the confines of his State, for he has +educated me. He has made me see the light. + +"I want to straighten you out," he wrote, kindly. "We never use +'you-all' in the singular. Not even the most ignorant do so. But, as you +know," (Ah, that was mercifully said!) "there are some peculiar, almost +unexplainable, shades of meaning in local idioms of speech, which are +not easy for a stranger to understand. I have a friend who was reared in +Milwaukee and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, who tells me +he would have argued the 'you-all' point with all comers for some years +following his taking up his residence here, but he is at this time as +ready as I to deny the allegation and 'chaw the alligator.' + +"When your young lady, in Virginia, asked, 'Do you-all take sugar?' she +mentally included Mr. Morgan, and perhaps all other Yankees. I would ask +my local grocer, 'Will you-all sell me some sugar this morning?' meaning +his establishment, collectively, although I addressed him personally; +but I would _not_ ask my only servant, 'Have you-all milked the cow?'" + +And that is the exact truth. + +I was absolutely wrong. And though, having printed the ghastly falsehood +in my original article, I can hardly hope now for absolution from the +outraged South, I can at least retract, as I hereby do, and can, +moreover, thank Mr. H.E. Jones, of Tallapoosa County, Alabama, for +having saved me from a double sin; for had he not given me the simple +illustration of the grocery store, I might have repeated, now, my +earlier misstatement. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +IDIOMS AND ARISTOCRACY + + +Southerners have told me that they can tell from what part of the South +a person comes, by his speech, just as an Easterner can distinguish, by +the same means a New Englander, a New Yorker, a Middle-Westerner, and a +Brooklynite. I cannot pretend to have become an authority upon southern +dialect, but it is obvious to me that the speech of New Orleans is +unlike that of Charleston, and that of Charleston unlike that of +Virginia. + +The chief characteristic of the Virginian dialect is the famous and +fascinating localism which Professor C. Alphonso Smith has called the +"vanishing _y_"--a _y_ sound which causes words like "car" and "garden" +to be pronounced "cyar" and "gyarden"--or, as Professor Smith prefers to +indicate it: "C^{y}ar" and "g^{y}arden." I am told that in years gone by +the "vanishing _y_" was common to all Virginians, but though it is still +common enough among members of the old generation, and is used also by +some young people--particularly, I fancy, young ladies, who realize its +fetching quality--there can be no doubt that it is, in both senses, +vanishing, and that not half the Virginians of the present day +pronounce "cigar" as "segyar," "carpet" as "cya'pet," and "Carter," as +"Cyahtah." + +In Virginia and many other parts of the South one hears such words as +"aunt" correctly pronounced with the broad _a_, and such words as "tube" +and "new" properly given the full _u_ sound (instead of "toobe," and +"noo," as in some parts of the North); but, on the other hand, while the +South gives the short _o_ sound in such words as "log" and "fog," it +invariably calls a dog a "dawg." "Your" is often pronounced "yore," +"sure" as "shore," and, not infrequently, "to" as "toe." + +The South also uses the word "carry" in a way that strikes Northerners +as strange. If a Southerner offers to "carry" you to the station, or +over his plantation, he does not signify that he intends to transport +you by means of physical strength, but that he will escort you. If he +"carries you to the run" you will find that the "run" is what +Northerners call a creek; if to the "branch," or "dreen," that is what +we call a brook. + +This use of the word "carry," far from being a corruption, is pure old +English, and is used in the Bible, and by Smollett, though it is amusing +to note that the "Georgia Gazetteer" for 1837, mentions as a lamentable +provincialism such an application of the word as "to _carry_ (instead of +_lead_) a horse to water." If the "Gazetteer" were indeed correct in +this, then the Book of Genesis contains an American provincialism. + +The customary use of the word in the North, as "to _carry_ a cane, or a +bag," is equally but no more correct than the southern usage. I am +informed by Mr. W.T. Hall, Editor of the Dothan (Alabama) "Eagle," that +the word used in his part of the country, as signifying "to bear on the +back, or shoulder," is "tote." "Tote" is a word not altogether unknown +in the North, and it has recently found its way into some dictionaries, +though the old "Georgia Gazetteer" disapproved of it. Even this word has +some excuse for being, in that it is a deformed member of a good family, +having come from the Latin, _tollit_, been transformed into the early +English "tolt," and thus into what I believe to be a purely American +word. + +Other expressions which struck me as being characteristic of the South +are "stop by," as for instance, "I will stop by for you," meaning, "I +will call for you in passing"; "don't guess," as "I don't guess I'll +come"; and "Yes indeedy!" which seems to be a kind of emphatic "Yes +indeed." + +"As I look back over the old South," said one white-haired Virginian, +"there were two things it was above. One was accounts and the other was +grammar. Tradesmen in prosperous neighborhoods were always in distress +because of the long credits, though gambling debts were, of course, +always punctiliously paid. As to the English spoken in old Virginia--and +indeed in the whole South--there is absolutely no doubt that its +softness and its peculiarities in pronunciation are due to the influence +of the negro voice and speech on the white race. Some of the young +people seem to wish to dispute this, but we older ones used to take the +view--half humorously, of course--that if a Southerner spoke perfect +English, it showed he wasn't a gentleman; "that he hadn't been raised +with niggers around him."" + +"Oh, you shouldn't tell him that!" broke in a lady who was present. + +"Why not?" demanded the old gentleman. + +"He'll print it!" she said. + +"Well," he answered, "ain't it true? What's the harm in it?" + +"There!" she exclaimed. "You said '_ain't_.' He'll print that Virginians +say 'ain't'!" + +"Well," he answered, "I reckon we do, don't we?" + +She laughed and gave up. "I remember," she told me, "the very spot on +the turnpike going out to Ripon, where I made up my mind to break myself +of saying 'ain't.' But I want to tell you that we are talking much +better English than we used to. Even the negroes are. You don't hear +many white people saying 'gwine' for 'going' any more, for instance, and +the young people don't say 'set' for 'sit' and 'git' for 'get,' as their +fathers did." + +"I've heard folks say, though," put in the old gentleman, "that they'd +ruther speak like a Virginian than speak correctly. The old talk was +pretty nice, after all. I don't hold to all these new improvements. +They've been going too far in this Commonwealth." + +"What have they been doing?" I asked. + +"Doing!" he returned, "Why, they're gradually taking the cuspidors out +of the church pews!" + +Before the question of dialect is dropped, it should be said that those +who do not believe the soft southern pronunciation is derived from +negroes, can make out an interesting case. If, they ask, the negro has +corrupted the English of the South, why is it that he has not also +corrupted the language of the West Indies--British and French? French +negroes speak like French persons of white blood, and British West +Indian negroes often speak the cockney dialect, without a trace of +"nigger." Moreover, it is pointed out that in southern countries, the +world over, there is a tendency to soften the harsh sounds of language, +to elide, and drop out consonants. The Andalusians speak a Spanish +comparable in many of its peculiarities with the English of our own +South, and the south-Italians exhibit similar dialectic traits. Nor do +the parallels between the north and south of Spain and Italy, and of the +United States, end there. The north-Italians and north-Spaniards are the +"Yankees" of their respective countries--the shrewd, cold business +people--whereas the south-Italians and south-Spaniards are more poetic, +more dashing, more temperamental. The merchants are of the north of +Spain, but the dancers and bull-fighters are Andalusians. And just as +our Americans of the North admire the lazy dialect of the South, so the +north-Spaniards admire the dialect of Andalusia, and even imitate it +because they think it has a fashionable sound--quite as British +fashionables cultivate the habit of dropping final _g_'s, as in +"huntin'" for "hunting." + +Virginia, more than any other State I know of, feels its entity as a +State. If you meet a Virginian traveling outside his State, and ask +where he is from, he will not mention the name of the city in which he +resides, but will reply: "I'm from Va'ginia." If, on the other hand, you +are in Virginia, and ask him the same question, he will proudly reply: +"I'm from Fauquier," or "I'm from Westmoreland," or whatever the name of +his county may be. The chances are, also, that his trunks and traveling +bags will be marked with his initials, followed not by the name of his +town, but by the abbreviation, "Va." + +I was told of one old unreconstructed Virginian who had to go to Boston +on business. The gentleman he went to see there was exceedingly polite +to him, asking him to his house, putting him up at his club, and showing +him innumerable courtesies. The old Confederate, writing to his wife, +indicated his amazement: "Although he is not a Virginian," he declared, +"I must confess that he lives like a gentleman." + +The name of his Bostonian acquaintance was John Quincy Adams. + +I heard this story from a northern lady who has a country place near a +small town in Virginia. In the North this lady's family is far from +being unknown, but in Virginia, she assured me, all persons originating +outside the State are looked upon as vague beings without "family." + +"They seem to think," she said, "that Northerners have no parents--that +they are made chemically." + +This does not imply, however, that well-bred Northerners are excluded +from society. Even if they are well off they may get into society; for +though money does not count in one's favor in such a town, it does not +count against one. The social requirement of the place is simple. If +people are "nice people," that is enough. + +Of course, however, it is one thing to be admitted to Virginia society +and another to belong to it by right. A case in point is that of a lady +visiting in a Virginia city who, while calling at the house of some +"F.F.V's," was asked by a little girl, the daughter of the house, where +she had been born. + +"Mawtha," said the little girl's mother, after the caller had departed, +"you must not ask people where they were bo'n. If they were bo'n in +Va'ginia they will tell you so without asking, and if they weren't bo'n +in Va'ginia it's very embarrassing." + +Some of the old families of the inner circle are in a tragic state of +decay, owing to inbreeding; others, in a more wholesome physical and +mental condition, are perpetually wrestling with the heritage of poverty +left over from the War--"too proud to whitewash and too poor to +paint"--clinging desperately to the old acres, and to the old houses +which are like beautiful, tired ancestral ghosts. + +Until a few years ago the one resource of Virginian gentlewomen in need +of funds was to take boarders, but more lately the daughters of +distinguished but poverty-stricken families have found that they may +work in offices. Thus, in the town of which I speak, several ladies who +are very much "in society," support themselves by entertaining "paying +guests," while others are stenographers. The former, I was told, by the +way, make it a practice to avoid first-hand business contacts with their +guests by sending them their bills through the mail, and requiring that +response be made by means of the same impersonal channel. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE CONFEDERATE CAPITAL + + The axis of the earth sticks out visibly through the centre of each + and every town or city. + + --OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. + + +Richmond is the Boston of Virginia; Norfolk its New York. The comparison +does not, of course, hold in all particulars, Richmond being, for +instance, larger than Norfolk, and not a seaport. Yet, on the other +hand, Boston manages, more than any seaport that I know of, to conceal +from the visitor the signs of its maritime life; wherefore Richmond +looks about as much like a port as does the familiar part of Boston. + +The houses on the principal residence streets of Richmond are not built +in such close ranks as Boston houses; they have more elbow-room; numbers +of them have yards and gardens; and there is not about Richmond houses +the Bostonian insistence upon red brick; nevertheless many houses of +both cities give off the same suggestion of having long been lived in by +the descendants of their builders. So, too, though the Capitol at +Richmond has little architectural resemblance to Boston's gold-domed +State House--the former having been copied by Thomas Jefferson from the +Maison Carree at Nimes, and being a better building than the +Massachusetts State House, and better placed--the two do, nevertheless, +suggest each other in their gray granite solidity. + +It is perhaps in the quality of solidity--architectural, commercial, +social, even spiritual--that Richmond and Boston are most alike. +Substantialness, conservatism, tradition, and prosperity rest like gray +mantles over both. + +Broad Street in Richmond is two or three times as wide as Granby Street, +Norfolk's chief shopping street, and for this reason, doubtless, its +traffic seems less, though I believe it is in fact greater. A fine +street to look upon at night, with its long, even rows of clustered +boulevard lights, and its bright windows, Broad Street in the daytime is +a disappointment, because, for all its fine spaciousness, it lacks good +buildings. I must confess, too, that I was disappointed in the +appearance of the women in the shopping crowds on Broad Street; for, as +every one knows, Richmond has been famous for its beauties. In vain I +looked for young women fitted to inherit the debutante mantles of such +nationally celebrated beauties as Miss Irene Langhorne (Mrs. Charles +Dana Gibson), Miss May Handy (Mrs. James Brown Potter), Miss Lizzie +Bridges (Mrs. Hobson), and Miss Sally Bruce (Mrs. Arthur B. Kinsolving). + +In the ten years between 1900 and 1910 the population of Richmond +increased 50 per cent. Her population by the last census was about +130,000, of which a third is colored. Norfolk's population is about +70,000, with approximately the same percentage of negroes. In both +cities there is much new building--offices downtown, and pretty new +brick homes in outlying suburban tracts. Likewise, in both, the charming +signs of other days are here and there to be seen. + +Richmond is again like its ancient enemy, Boston, in the wealth of its +historical associations, and I know of no city which gives the +respectful heed to its own history that Richmond does, and no State +which in this matter equals the State of Virginia. If Richmond was the +center of the South during the Civil War, Capitol Square was, as it is +to-day, the center of that center. In this square, in the shadow of +Jefferson's beautiful classic capitol building, which has the glowing +gray tone of one of those water colors done on tinted paper by Jules +Guerin, Confederate soldiers were mustered into service under Lee and +Jackson. Within the old building the Confederate Congress met, Aaron +Burr was tried for treason, and George Washington saw, in its present +position, his own statue by Houdon. Across the way from the square, +where the post office now stands, was the Treasury Building of the +Confederate States, and there Jefferson Davis appeared seven times, to +be tried for treason, only to have his case postponed by the Federal +Government, and finally dismissed. East of the square is the State +Library, containing a remarkable collection of portraits and documents, +including likenesses of all governors of Virginia from John Smith to +Tyler, a portrait of Pocahontas, and the bail bond of Jefferson Davis, +signed by Horace Greeley, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Gerrit Smith, and +seventeen other distinguished men of the day. To the west of the square +is old St. Paul's Church, with the pews of Lee and Davis. It was while +attending service in this church, on Sunday, April 2, 1865, that Davis +received Lee's telegram from Petersburg, saying that Richmond must be +evacuated. A block or two west of the church, in East Franklin Street, +is a former residence of Lee. It was given by the late Mrs. Joseph Bryan +and her sisters to the Virginia Historical Society, and is now, +appropriately enough, the home of that organization. + +In the old drawing room, now the office of the Historical Society, I +found Mr. William G. Stanard, the corresponding secretary, and from him +heard something of Lee's life there immediately after the War. + +By the Northerners in Richmond at that time, including the Federal +troops stationed in the city, Lee was of course respected and admired, +while by the whole South he was, and is to-day, adored. As for his own +ex-soldiers, they could not see him without emotion, and because of the +demonstrations which invariably attended his appearance on the Richmond +streets, he went out but little, passing much time upon the back porch +of the house. Here most of the familiar Brady photographs of him were +taken. Brady sent a young photographer to Richmond to get the +photographs. Lee was at first disposed to refuse to be taken, but his +family persuaded him to submit, on the ground that if there were any +impertinence in the request it was not the fault of the young man, and +that the latter might lose his position if he failed to obtain the +desired pictures. + +Finding the continued attention of the crowds too much for him, the +general left Richmond after two months, removing to a small house in +Cumberland County, on the James, and it was there that he was residing +when called to the presidency of Washington College--now Washington and +Lee University--at Lexington, Virginia. As is well known, he accepted +this offer, built up the institution, remained its president until the +time of his death, and now lies buried in the university chapel. + +To Mr. Stanard I am also indebted for the following information +regarding John Smith and Pocahontas: + +About a mile below Richmond, in what is now the brickyard region, there +used to stand the residence of the Mayo family, a place known as +Powhatan. This place has long been pointed out as the scene of the +saving of Smith by the Indian girl, but late research indicates that, +though Smith did come up the James to the present site of Richmond, his +capture by the Indians did not occur here, but in the vicinity of +Jamestown. Then Indians took him first to one of their villages on York +River, near the present site of West Point, Virginia, and thence to a +place, on the same stream, in the county of Gloucester, where the tribal +chief resided. I was under the impression that this worthy's name was +Powhatan, but Mr. Stanard declared "powhatan" was not a proper name, +but an Indian word meaning "chief." + +The Virginia Historical Society is satisfied that Smith was rescued by +Pocahontas at a point about nine miles from Williamsburg on the west +side of York River, but there are historians who contend that the whole +story of the rescue is a fiction. One of these is Dr. Albert Bushnell +Hart, of Harvard, who lists Smith among "Historical Liars." Virginians, +who regard Smith as one of their proudest historical possessions, are +somewhat disposed to resent this view, but it appears to me that there +is at least some ground for it. Matthew Page Andrews, another historian, +himself a Virginian, points out that many of our ideas of the Jamestown +colony have been obtained from Smith's history of the settlement, which +he wrote in England, some years after leaving Virginia. + +"From these accounts," says Mr. Andrews, "we get an unfavorable +impression of Smith's associates in the colony and of the management of +the men composing the popular or people's party in the London Company. +As we now know that this party in the London Company was composed of +very able and patriotic Englishmen, we are inclined to think that +Captain Smith not only overrated his achievement, but was very unjust to +his fellow-colonists and the Company." + +The story of the rescue of Smith by Pocahontas, with the strong +implication that the Indian girl was in love with him, comes to us from +Smith himself. We know that when Pocahontas was nineteen years of age +(seven years after the Smith rescue is said to have occurred), she +married John Rolfe--the first Englishman to begin the cultivation of the +tobacco plant. We know that she was taken to England, that she was +welcomed at court as a princess, that she had a son born in England, and +that she herself died there in 1617. We know also that her son, Thomas +Rolfe, settled in Virginia, and that through him a number of Virginians +trace descent from Pocahontas. (Mr. Andrews points out that in 1915 one +of these descendants became the wife of the President of the United +States.) + +But we know also that John Smith, brave and daring though he was, was +not above twisting and embroidering a tale to his own glorification. +While, therefore, it is too much to affirm that his rescue story is +false, it is well to remember that Pocahontas was but twelve years old +when the rescue is said to have occurred, and that Smith waited until +after she had become famous, and had died, to promulgate his romantic +story. + + * * * * * + +Immediately to the north of Capitol Square stands the City Hall, an ugly +building, in the cellar of which is the Police Court presided over by +the celebrated and highly entertaining Judge Crutchfield, otherwise +known as "One John" and "the Cadi"--of whom more presently. A few blocks +beyond the City Hall, in the old mansion at the corner of East Clay and +Twelfth Streets, which was the "White House of the Confederacy," the +official residence of Jefferson Davis during the war, is the +Confederate Museum--one of the most fascinating museums I ever visited. + +Not the least part of the charm of this museum is the fact that it is +not of great size, and that one may consequently visit it without +fatigue; but the chief fascination of the place is the dramatic +personalness of its exhibits. To me there is always something peculiarly +engaging about intimate relics of historic figures, and it is of such +relics that the greater part of the collection of the Confederate Museum +consists. In one show case, for example, are the saddle and bridle of +General Lee, and the uniform he wore when he surrendered. The effects of +General Joseph E. Johnston are shown in another case, and in still +another those of the picturesque J.E.B. Stuart, who, as here one may +see, loved the little touch of individuality and dash which came of +wearing a feather in a campaign hat. So also one learns something of +Stonewall Jackson when one sees in the cabinet, along with his old blue +hat and other possessions, the gold spurs which were given to him by the +ladies of Baltimore, beside the steel spurs that he _wore_. All +Jackson's personal effects were very simple. + +One of the most striking relics in the museum is the Great Seal of the +Confederacy, which was only returned to Richmond within the last few +years, after having been lost track of for nearly half a century--a +strange chapter in the annals of the Civil War. + +Records in the Library of Congress, including the Confederate state +papers purchased by the United States Government in 1872, of William J. +Bromwell, formerly a clerk in the Confederate State Department, brought +to light, a few years ago, the fact that the seal was in the possession +of Rear Admiral Thomas O. Selfridge, U.S.N., retired. + +At the time of the evacuation of Richmond, Bromwell carried off a number +of the Confederate state papers, and Mrs. Bromwell took charge of the +seal, transporting it through the lines in her bustle. When later, +through Colonel John T. Pickett, Bromwell sold the papers to the +Government, Rear Admiral Selfridge--then a captain--was the officer +assigned to go to Hamilton, Ontario, to inventory and receive them. It +is said that Pickett gave the seal to Selfridge at about this time, +first, however, having a duplicate made. This duplicate, or a copy of +it, was later offered for sale as the original, but was found to be +spurious. When examination of the Pickett papers by Gaillard Hunt, of +the Library of Congress, finally traced the original seal to Rear +Admiral Selfridge, an effort was made to buy it back. In 1912 three +Richmond gentlemen, Messrs. Eppa Hunton, Jr., William H. White and +Thomas P. Bryan, purchased the Seal of the admiral for three thousand +dollars, subject to proof of its authenticity. Mr. St. George Bryan and +Mr. William Gray, of Richmond, then took the seal to London, where the +makers are still well-known engravers. Here, by means of hall marks, the +identification was made complete. + +No less appealing than the relics of the deceased government and great +generals who are gone, are some of the humbler items connected with the +deaths of privates in the ranks of North and South alike. One of the +most pathetic was a small daguerreotype of a beautiful young girl. On a +card, beside the picture, is the story of it, so far as that story is +ever likely to be known: + + Picture found on the dead body of an unidentified Federal soldier. + + Presented by C.C. Calvert, Upperville, Va. + +"We have always hoped," said Miss Susan B. Harrison, house regent of the +museum, "that some day some one would come in and recognize this little +picture, and that it would find its way back to those who ought to have +it, and who might by this means at last discover what became of the +soldier who was dear to them." + +An even more tragic souvenir is a letter addressed to A.V. Montgomery, +Camden, Madison County, Mississippi, in which a mortally wounded soldier +of Confederacy bids a last good-by to his father. The letter was +originally inclosed with one from Lieutenant Ethelbert Fairfax, C.S.A., +informing the father that his son passed away soon after he had written. +The text, pitiful and heroic as it is, can give but the faintest idea of +the original, with its feeble, laborious writing, and the dark-brown +spots dappling the three sheets of paper where blood from the boy's +mangled shoulder dripped upon them while he wrote: + + Spotsylvania County, Va. + May 10, 1864. + + Dear Father: + + This is my last letter to you. I went into battle this evening as + courier for Gen'l Heth. I have been struck by a piece of shell and + my right shoulder is horribly mangled & I know death is inevitable. + I am very weak but I write to you because I know you would be + delighted to read a word from your dying son. I know death is near, + that I will die far from home and friends of my early youth, but I + have friends here, too, who are kind to me. My Friend Fairfax will + write you at my request and give you the particulars of my death. + My grave will be marked so that you may visit it if you desire to + do so, but it is optionary with you whether you let my remains rest + here or in Mississippi. I would like to rest in the graveyard with + my dear mother and brothers, but it is a matter of minor + importance. Let us all try to reunite in heaven. I pray my God to + forgive my sins & I feel that his promises are true, that he will + forgive me and save me. Give my love to all my friends. My strength + fails me. My horse & my equipments will be left for you. Again a + long farewell to you. May we meet in heaven. + + Your Dying Son, + J.R. Montgomery. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +RANDOM RICHMOND NOTES + + +Richmond may again be likened to Boston as a literary center. In an +article published some years ago in "Book News" Alice M. Tyler refers to +Colonel William Byrd, who founded Richmond in 1733, as the sprightliest +and most genial native American writer before Franklin. In the time of +Chief Justice Marshall, Richmond had a considerable group of novelists, +historians and essayists, but the great literary name connected with the +place is that of Edgar Allan Poe, who spent much of his boyhood in the +city and later edited the "Southern Literary Messenger." Matthew +Fontaine Maury, the great scientist, mentioned in an earlier chapter, +was, at another time, editor of the same periodical, as was also John +Reuben Thompson, "Poet of the Confederacy," who wrote, among other +poems, "Music in Camp," and who translated Gustave Nadaud's familiar +poem, "Carcassonne." + +Thomas Nelson Page made his home in Richmond for thirty years; Amelie +Rives was born there and still maintains her residence in Albemarle +County, Virginia, while among other writers of the present time +connected with the city either by birth or long association are, Henry +Sydnor Harrison, Mary Johnston, Ellen Glasgow, Marion Harland, Kate +Langley Bosher, James Branch Cabell, Edward Peple, dramatist, J.H. +Whitty, biographer of Poe, and Colonel W. Gordon McCabe, soldier, +historian, essayist, and local character--a gentleman upon whose +shoulders such imported expressions as _litterateur_, _bon viveur_, and +_raconteur_ alight as naturally as doves on friendly shoulders. + +Colonel McCabe is a link between present-day Richmond and the traditions +and associations of England. He was the friend of Lord Roberts, he +introduced Lord Tennyson to Bull Durham tobacco, and, as is fitting +under the circumstances, he speaks and writes of a hotel as "_an_ +hotel." + +Henry Sydnor Harrison did his first writing as book reviewer on the +Richmond "Times-Dispatch," of which paper he later became paragrapher +and daily poet, and still later editor in chief. It is commonly reported +in Richmond that the characters in his novel "Queed," the scenes of +which are laid in Richmond, were "drawn from life." I asked Mr. Harrison +about this. + +"When the book appeared," he said, "I was much embarrassed by the +disposition of Richmond people--human and natural, I suppose, when you +'know the author'--to identify all the imaginary persons with various +local characters. Some characteristics of the political boss in my story +were in a degree suggested by a local celebrity; Stewart Bryan is +indicated, in passing, as Stewart Byrd; and the bare bones of a historic +case, altered at will, were employed in another connection. But I think +I am stating the literal truth when I say that no figure in the book is +borrowed from life." + + * * * * * + +The recent residential development in Richmond has been to the west of +the city in the neighborhood of Monument Avenue, a fine double drive, +with a parked center, lined with substantial new homes, and having at +intervals monuments to southern heroes: Lee, Davis, and J.E.B. Stuart. + +The parks are on the outskirts of the city and, as in most other cities, +it is in these outlying regions that new homes are springing up, thanks +in no small degree to the automobile. The Country Club of Virginia is +out to the west of the town, in what is known as Westhampton, and is one +of the most charming clubs of its kind in the South or, indeed, in the +country. + +Richmond has one of the most beautiful and several of the most curious +cemeteries I have ever seen. Hollywood Cemetery stands upon rolling +bluffs overlooking the James, and under its majestic trees are the tombs +of many famous men, including James Monroe, John Tyler, Jefferson Davis +and Fitzhugh Lee. An inscription on the Davis monument, which was +erected by the widow and daughter of the President of the Confederacy, +describes him as "an American soldier and defender of the Constitution." +At the back of the pedestal is another inscription: + + PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATE + STATES OF AMERICA 1861-1865. +FAITHFUL TO ALL TRUSTS, A MARTYR + TO PRINCIPLE. + HE LIVED AND DIED THE MOST +CONSISTENT OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS + AND STATESMEN. + +It occasionally happens that, instead of having monuments because in +life they were famous, men are made famous after death, by the +inscriptions placed upon their tombstones. Such is the case with James +E. Valentine, a locomotive engineer killed in a collision many years +ago. The Valentine monument in Hollywood Cemetery is almost as well +known as the monuments erected in memory of the great, the reason for +this being embodied in the following verse adorning the stone: + + Until the brakes are turned on Time, + Life's throttle valve shut down, + He wakes to pilot in the crew + That wear the martyr's crown. + + On schedule time on upper grade + Along the homeward section, + He lands his train at God's roundhouse + The morn of resurrection. + + His time all full, no wages docked; + His name on God's pay roll. + And transportation through to Heaven, + A free pass for his soul. + +In the burial ground of old St. John's Church--the building in which +Patrick Henry delivered his "Give me Liberty or give me Death" +oration--are a number of old gravestones bearing strange inscriptions +which appeal to the imagination, and also, alas! elicit sad thoughts +concerning those who wrote the old-time gravestone doggerel. + +The custodian of the church is glad to indicate the interesting stones, +but is much more taken up with his own gift of oratory, as displayed +when, on getting visitors inside the church, he takes his place on the +spot where Patrick Henry stood, and delivers the famous oration. Having +done this to us--or perhaps it would seem more generous to say _for_ +us--the caretaker told us that many persons who had heard him had +declared that Patrick Henry himself would have had a hard time doing it +better. But when he threatened, for contrast, to deliver the oration as +a less gifted elocutionist might speak it, my companion, in whom I had +already observed signs of restlessness, interrupted with the statement +that we were late for an engagement, and fled from the place, followed +by me. + + * * * * * + +In certain parts of the city, often at a considerable distance from the +warehouse and factory sections, one may occasionally catch upon the +breeze the faint, spicy fragrance of tobacco; and should one trace these +pleasant scents to their sources, one would come to a region of +factories in which rich brown leaves are transformed into pipe tobacco, +plug tobacco, or cigarettes. In the simpler processes of this work, +negro men and women are employed, and these with their natural +picturesqueness of pose and costume, and their singing, in the setting +of an old shadowy loft, make a tobacco factory a fascinating place. In +one loft you will see negro men and boys handling the tobacco leaves +with pitchforks, much as farm hands handle hay; in another, negro women +squatting upon boxes, stemming the leaves, or "pulling up ends," their +black faces blending mysteriously with the dark shadows of beams and +rafters. Here the air is laden not only with the sweet tobacco smell, +mixed with a faint scent of licorice and of fruit, but is freighted also +with a fine brown dust which is revealed where bars of sunlight strike +in through the windows, and which seems, as it shifts and sparkles, to +be a visible expression of the smell. + +In the busy season "street niggers" are generally used for stemming, +which is, perhaps, the leading part of the tobacco industry in Richmond, +and these "street niggers," a wild yet childlike lot, who lead a +hand-to-mouth existence all year round, bring to the tobacco trade a +wealth of semi-barbaric color. To give us an idea of the character of a +Richmond "street nigger" the gentleman who took my companion and me +through the factory told us of having wanted a piece of light work done, +and having asked one of these negroes: "Want to earn a quarter?" + +To which the latter replied without moving from his comfortable place +beside a sun-baked brick wall: "No, boss, Ah _got_ a quahtah." + +The singing of the negroes is a great feature of the stemming department +in a tobacco factory. Some of the singers become locally famous; also, I +was told by the superintendent, they become independent, and for that +reason have frequently to be dismissed. The wonderful part of this +singing, aside from the fascinating harmonies made by the sweet, +untrained negro voices, is the utter lack of prearrangement that there +is about it. Now there will be silence in the loft; then there will come +a strange, half-savage cry from some dark corner, musical, yet seemingly +meaningless; soon a faint humming will begin, and will be taken up by +men and women all over the loft; the humming will swell into a chant to +which the workers rock as their black hands travel swiftly among the +brown leaves; then, presently, it will die away, and there will be +silence until they are again moved to song. + +From shadowy room to shadowy room, past great dark bins filled with the +leaves, past big black steaming vats, oozing sweet-smelling substances, +past moist fragrant barrels, always among the almost spectral forms of +negroes, treading out leaves with bare feet, working over great wicker +baskets stained to tobacco color, piling up wooden frames, or operating +the powerful hydraulic presses which convert the soft tobacco into plugs +of concrete hardness--so one goes on through the factory. The browns and +blacks of these interiors are the browns and blacks of etchings; the +color of the leaves, the old dark timbers, the black faces and hands, +and the ragged clothing, combined with the humming of negro voices, the +tobacco fragrance, and the golden dust upon the air, make an +indescribably complete harmony of shade, sound, and scent. + +The department in which the pipe tobacco is packed in tins is a very +different sort of place; here white labor is employed: a great many +girls seated side by side at benches working with great digital +dexterity: measuring out the tobacco, folding wax paper cartons, filling +them, and slipping them into the narrow tins, all at a rate of speed so +great as to defy the sight, giving a sense of fingers flickering above +the bench with a strange, almost supernatural sureness, like the fingers +of a magician who makes things disappear before your eyes; or like the +pictures in which post-impressionist and cubist painters attempt to +express motion. + +"May I speak to one of them?" I asked the superintendent. + +"Sure," said he. + +I went up to a young woman who was working, if anything, more rapidly +than the other girls at the same bench. + +"Can you think, while you are doing this?" I asked. + +"Yes," she replied, without looking up, while her fingers flashed on +ceaselessly. + +"About other things?" + +"Certainly." + +"How many cans do you fill in a day?" + +"About thirty-four to thirty-five hundred on the average." + +"May I ask your name?" She gave it. + +I took up one of the small identification slips which she put into each +package, and wrote her name upon the back of it. The number on the +slip--for the purpose of identifying the girl who packed the tin--was +220. Let the reader, therefore, be informed that if he smokes Edgeworth +Ready Rubbed, and finds in a tin a slip bearing that number, he has been +served by no less a person than Miss Katie Wise, of the astonishingly +speedy fingers. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +JEDGE CRUTCHFIELD'S CO'T + + Dar's a pow'ful rassle 'twix de Good en de Bad, + En de Bad's got de all-under holt; + En w'en de wuss come, she come i'on-clad, + En you hatter holt yo' bref fer de jolt. + + --UNCLE REMUS. + + +My companion and I had not traveled far into the South before we +discovered that our comfort was likely to be considerably enhanced if, +in hotels, we singled out an intelligent bell boy and, as far as +possible, let this one boy serve us. Our mainstay in the Jefferson Hotel +was Charles Jackson, No. 144, or, when Charles was "off," his "side +partner," whom we knew as Bob. + +Having one day noticed a negro in convict's stripes, but without a +guard, raking up leaves in Capitol Square, I asked Charles about the +matter. + +"Do they let the convicts go around unguarded?" I inquired. + +"They 's some of 'em can," said he. "Those is trustees." + +This talk of "trustees" led to other things and finally to a strong +recommendation, by Charles, of the Richmond Police Court, as a place of +entertainment. + +"Is it interesting?" I asked. + +"Inter-_resting_? Yes, _suh_! Judge Crutchfield he suttinly _is_. He +done chahge me twenty-six dollahs and fo'ty cents. My brothah, he got in +fight down street, heah. Some niggers set on him. I went to he'p him an' +p'leeceman got me. He say I was resistin' p'leece. I ain't resisted no +p'leece! No, _suh_! Not _me_! But Judge Crutchfield, you can't tell him +nothin'. 'Tain't no use to have a lawyer, nuther. Judge Crutchfield +don't want no lawyers in his co't. Like 's not he cha'ge you _mo'_ fo' +_havin'_ lawyer. Then you got pay lawyer, too. + +"Friend mine name Billy. One night Billy he wake up and heah some one +come pushin' in his house. He hollah: 'Who thar?' + +"Othah nigger he kep' pushin' on in. He say: 'This Gawge.' + +"Billy, he say: 'Git on out heah, niggah! Ain't no Gawge live heah!' + +"Othah niggah, he say: 'Don't make no diff'unce Gawge live heah o' not. +He sure comin' right in! Ain't nobody heah kin stop ol' Gawge! He eat +'em alive, Gawge do! He de boss of Jackson Ward. Bettah say yo' prayehs, +niggah, fo' yo' time--has--come!' + +"Billy he don't want hit nobody, but this-heah Gawge he drunk, an' Billy +_have_ t' hit 'im. Well, suh, what you think this Gawge done? He go have +Billy 'rested. _Yes_, suh! But you can't tell Judge Crutchfield nothin'. +Next mo'nin' in p'leece co't he say to Billy: 'I fine you twenty-five +dollahs, fo' hittin' this old gray-haihed man.' Yes, _suh_! 'at 's a way +Judge Crutchfield is. Can't tell _him_ nothin'. He jes' set up theh on +de bench, an' he chaw tobacco, an' he heah de cases, an' he spit, an' +evvy time he spit he spit a fine. Yes, _suh_! He spit like dis: 'Pfst! +Five dollahs!'--'Pfst! Ten dollahs!'--'Pfst! Fifteen dollahs!'--just how +he feel. He suttinly is some judge, 'at man." + +Encouraged by this account of police court justice as meted out to the +Richmond negro, my companion and I did visit Justice Crutchfield's +court. + +The room in the basement of the City Hall was crowded. All the benches +were occupied and many persons, white and black, were standing up. Among +the members of the audience--for the performance is more like a +vaudeville show with the judge as headliner than like a serious +tribunal--I noticed several actors and actresses from a company which +was playing in Richmond at the time--these doubtless drawn to the place +by the fact that Walter C. Kelly, billed in vaudeville as "The Virginia +Judge," is commonly reported to have taken Judge Crutchfield as a model +for his exceedingly amusing monologue. Mr. Kelly himself has, however, +told me that his inspiration came from hearing the late Judge J.D.G. +Brown, of Newport News, hold court. + +At the back of the room, in what appeared to be a sort of steel cage, +were assembled the prisoners, all of them, on this occasion, negroes; +while at the head of the chamber behind the usual police-court bulwark, +sat the judge--a white-haired, hook-nosed man of more than seventy, +peering over the top of his eyeglasses with a look of shrewd, merciless +divination. + +"William Taylor!" calls a court officer. + +A negro is brought from the cage to the bar of justice. He is a sad +spectacle, his face adorned with a long strip of surgeon's plaster. The +judge looks at him over his glasses. The hearing proceeds as follows: + +COURT OFFICER (to prisoner)--Get over there! (Prisoner obeys.) + +JUDGE CRUTCHFIELD--Sunday drunk--Five dollars. + +It is over. + +The next prisoner is already on his way to the bar. He is a short, wide +negro, very black and tattered. A large black negress, evidently his +consort, arises as witness against him. The case goes as follows: + +JUDGE CRUTCHFIELD--Drunk? + +THE WIFE (looking contemptuously at her spouse)--Drunk? Yass, Jedge, +drunk. _Always_ drunk. + +THE PRISONER (meekly)--I ain't been drunk, Jedge. + +THE JUDGE--Yes, you have. I can see you've got your sign up this +morning. (Looking toward cage at back of room): Make them niggers stop +talkin' back there! (To the wife): What did he do, Mandy? + +THE WIFE (angrily)--Jedge, he come bustin' in, and he come so fast he +untook the do' off'n de hinges; den 'e begins-- + +THE JUDGE (to the prisoner, sarcastically)--You wasn't drunk, eh? + +THE PRISONER (weakly)--I might of had a drink oh two. + +THE JUDGE (severely)--Was--you--_drunk_? + +THE PRISONER--No, suh, Jedge. Ah wasn't drunk. Ah don't think no man's +drunk s' long 's he can navigate, Jedge. I don't-- + +THE JUDGE--Oh, yes, he can be! He can navigate and navigate mighty +mean!--Ten dollars. + +(At this point an officer speaks in a low tone to the judge, evidently +interceding for the prisoner.) + +THE JUDGE (loudly)--No. That fine's very small. If it ain't worth ten +dollars to get drunk, it ain't worth nothing at all. Next case! + +(While the next prisoner is being brought up, the judge entertains his +audience with one of the humorous monologues for which he is famous, and +which, together with the summary "justice" he metes out, keeps ripples +of laughter running through the room): I'm going to get drunk myself, +some day, and see what it does to me. [Laughter.] Mebbe I'll take a +little cocaine, too. + +A NEGRO VOICE (from back of room, deep bass, and very fervent)--Oh, +_no-o-o_! Don't do dat, Jedge! [More laughter.] + +THE JUDGE--Where's that prisoner? If he was a Baptist, he wouldn't be so +slow. + +(The prisoner, a yellow negro, is brought to the bar. His trousers are +mended with a large safety pin and his other equipment is to match.) + +THE JUDGE (inspecting the prisoner sharply)--You ain't a Richmond +nigger. I can tell that to look at you. + +THE PRISONER--No, suh, Jedge. That's right. + +THE JUDGE--Where you from? You're from No'th Ca'lina, ain't you? + +THE PRISONER--Yas, suh, Jedge. + +THE JUDGE--Six months! + +(A great laugh rises from the courtroom at this. On inquiry we learn +that the "joke" depends upon the judge's well-known aversion for negroes +from North Carolina.) + +Only recently I have heard Walter C. Kelly as "The Virginia Judge." Save +for a certain gentle side which Mr. Kelly indicates, and of which I saw +no signs in Judge Crutchfield, I should say that, even though Judge +Crutchfield is not his model, the suggestion of him is strongly there. +Two of Mr. Kelly's "cases" are particularly reminiscent of the Richmond +Police Court. One is as follows: + +THE JUDGE--First case--Sadie Anderson. + +THE PRISONER--Yassir! That's me! + +THE JUDGE--Thirty days in jail. That's me! Next case. + +The other: + +THE JUDGE--What's your name? + +THE PRISONER--Sam Williams. + +THE JUDGE--How old are you, Sam? + +THE PRISONER--Just twenty-four. + +THE JUDGE--You'll be just twenty-five when you get out. Next case! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +NORFOLK AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD + + +Just as New York looks newer than Boston, but is actually older, Norfolk +looks newer than Richmond. Business and population grow in Richmond, but +you do not feel them growing as you do in Norfolk. You feel that +Richmond business men already have money, whereas in Norfolk there is +less old wealth and a great deal more scrambling for new dollars. Also +you feel that law and order count for more in Richmond than in Norfolk, +and that the strict prohibition law which not long ago became effective +in Virginia will be more easily enforced in the capital than in the +seaport. Norfolk, in short, likes the things New York likes. It likes +tall office buildings, and it dotes on the signs of commercial activity +by day and social activity by night. Furthermore, from the tops of some +of the high buildings the place actually looks like a miniature New +York: the Elizabeth River masquerading as the East River; Portsmouth, +with its navy yard, pretending to be Brooklyn, while some old-time New +York ferryboats, running between the two cities, assist in completing +the illusion. In the neighboring city of Newport News, Norfolk has its +equivalent for Jersey City and Hoboken, while Willoughby Spit protrudes +into Hampton Roads like Sandy Hook reduced to miniature. + +The principal shopping streets of Norfolk and Richmond are as unlike as +possible. Broad Street, Richmond, is very wide, and is never +overcrowded, whereas Granby Street, Norfolk (advertised by local +enthusiasts as "the livest street in Virginia," and appropriately +spanned, at close intervals, by arches of incandescent lights), is none +too wide for the traffic it carries, with the result that, during the +afternoon and evening, it is truly very much alive. To look upon it at +the crowded hours is to get a suggestion of a much larger city than +Norfolk actually is--a suggestion which is in part accounted for by the +fact that Norfolk's spending population, drawn from surrounding towns +and cities, is much greater than the number of its inhabitants. + +Norfolk's extraordinary growth in the last two or three decades may be +traced to several causes: to the fertility of the soil of the +surrounding region, which, intensively cultivated, produces rich +market-garden crops, making Norfolk a great shipping point for "truck"; +to the development of the trade in peanuts, which are grown in large +quantities in this corner of Virginia; to a great trade in oysters and +other sea-food, and to the continually increasing importance of the +Norfolk navy yard. + +In connection with the navy Norfolk has always figured prominently, +Hampton Roads having been a favorite naval rendezvous since the early +days of the American fleet. Now, however, it is announced that the cry +of our navy for a real naval base--something we have never had, though +all other important navies have them, Britain alone having three--has +been heard in Washington, and that Norfolk has been selected as the site +for a base. This is an important event not only for the Virginia +seaport, but for the United States. + +Farmers who think they are in a poor business will do well to +investigate Norfolk's recent history. The "trucking" industry of Norfolk +is said to amount in the aggregate to twelve or fourteen million dollars +annually, and many fortunes have been made from it. The pioneer +"trucker" of the region was Mr. Richard Cox. A good many years ago Mr. +Cox employed a German boy, a blacksmith by trade, named Henry Kern. Kern +finally branched out for himself. When, in 1915, he died, his real +estate holdings in Norfolk and Portsmouth were valued at two million +dollars, all of which had been made from garden truck. He was but one of +a considerable class of wealthy men whose fortunes have sprung from the +same source. + +Many of the truck farms have access to the water. The farmers bring +their produce to the city in their own boats, giving the port a +picturesque note. At Norfolk it is transferred to steamers which carry +it to New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Providence, Baltimore and +Washington. Lately a considerable amount of truck has been shipped west +by rail, as well. + +Hundreds of acres of ground in the vicinity of the city are under glass +and large crops of winter vegetables are raised. Kale and spinach are +being grown and harvested throughout the cold months; strawberries, +potatoes, beans, peas, cucumbers, cabbage, lettuce and other vegetables +follow through the spring and summer, running on into the fall, when the +corn crop becomes important. Corn is raised chiefly by the peanut +farmer, whose peanuts grow between his corn-rows. + +While the banks are "carrying" the peanut farmers, pending their fall +harvest, the activities of the "truckers" are at their height, so that +the money loaned to one class of agriculturist is replaced by the +deposits of the other class; and by the same token, of course, the +peanut farmers are depositing money in the banks when the "truckers" +want to borrow. This situation, one judges, is not found objectionable +by Norfolk and Portsmouth bankers, and I have been told that, as a +corollary, these banks have never been forced, even in times of dire +panic, to issue clearing house certificates, but have always paid cash. + +Norfolk has grown so fast and has so rapidly replaced the old with the +new, that the visitor must keep his eyes open if he would not miss +entirely such lovely souvenirs of an earlier and easier life, as still +remain. Who would imagine, seeing it to-day, that busy Granby Street had +ever been a street of fine residences? Yet a very few years have passed +since the old Newton, Tazwell, Dickson and Taylor residences surrendered +to advancing commerce and gave place to stores and office +buildings--the two last mentioned having been replaced by the Dickson +Building and the Taylor Building, erected less than fifteen years ago. + +Freemason Street is the highway which, more than any other, tells of +olden times. For though the downtown end of this lovely old thoroughfare +has lapsed into decay, many beautiful mansions, dating from long ago, +are to be seen a few blocks out from the busier portion of the city. +Among these should be mentioned the Whittle house, the H.N. Castle +house, and particularly the exquisite ivy-covered residence of Mr. +Barton Myers, at the corner of Bank Street. The city of Norfolk ought, I +think, to attempt to acquire this house and preserve it (using it +perhaps as a memorial museum to contain historical relics) to show what +has been, in Norfolk, as against what is, and to preach a silent sermon +on the high estate of beauty from which a fine old city may fall, in the +name of progress and commercial growth. + +To the credit of Norfolk be it said that old St. Paul's Church, with its +picturesque churchyard and tombs, is excellently cared for and properly +valued as a pre-Revolutionary relic. The church was built in 1730, and +was struck by a British cannon-ball when Lord Dunmore bombarded the +place in 1776. Baedeker tells me, however, that the cannon-ball now +resting in the indentation in the wall of the church is "not the +original." + +When I say that St. Paul's is properly valued I mean that many citizens +told my companion and me to be sure to visit. I observe, however--and I +take it as a sign of the times in Norfolk--that an extensive, +well-printed and much illustrated book on Norfolk, issued by the Chamber +of Commerce, contains pictures of banks, docks, breweries, mills, office +buildings, truck farms, peanut farms, battleships, clubhouses, hotels, +hospitals, factories, and innumerable new residences, but no picture of +the church, or of the lovely old homes of Freemason Street. Nor do I +find in the booklet any mention of the history of the city or the +surrounding region--although that region includes places of the greatest +beauty and interest: among them the glorious old manor houses of the +James River; the ancient and charming town of Williamsburg, second +capital of the Virginia colony, and seat of William and Mary College, +the oldest college in the United States excepting Harvard; Yorktown, +"Waterloo of the Revolution"; many important battlefields of the Civil +War; Hampton Institute, the famous negro industrial school at Hampton, +nearby; the lovely stretch of water on which the _Monitor_ met the +_Merrimac_[3]; the site of the first English settlement in America at +Jamestown, and, for mystery and desolation, the Dismal Swamp with Lake +Drummond at its heart. But then, I suppose it is natural that the +Chamber of Commerce mind should thrust aside such things in favor of the +mighty "goober," which is a thing of to-day, a thing for which Norfolk +is said to be the greatest of all markets. For is not history dead, and +is not the man who made a fortune out of a device for shelling peanuts +without causing the nuts to drop in two, still living? + +[3] The _Merrimac_, originally a Federal vessel of wooden construction, +was sunk by the Union forces when they abandoned Norfolk. A Confederate +captain, John M. Brooke, raised her, equipped her with a ram, and +covered her with boiler plate and railroad rails. She is called the +first ironclad. While she was being reconstructed John Ericsson was +building his _Monitor_ in New York. The turret was first used on this +vessel. It is worth noting that at the time of the engagement between +these two ships the _Monitor_ was not the property of the Federal +Government, but belonged to C.S. Bushnell, of New Haven, who built her +at his own expense, in spite of the opposition of the Navy Department of +that day. The Government paid for her long after the fight. It should +also be noted that the _Merrimac_ did not fight under that name, but as +a Confederate ship had been rechristened _Virginia_. The patriotic +action of Mr. Bushnell is recalled by the fact that, only recently, Mr. +Godfrey L. Cabot, of Boston, has agreed to furnish funds to build the +torpedoplane designed by Admiral Fiske as a weapon wherewith to attack +the German fleet within its defenses at Kiel. + +And yet the modernness on which Norfolk so evidently prides herself is +not something to be lightly valued. Fine schools, fine churches and +miles of pleasant, recently built homes are things for any American city +to rejoice in. Therefore Norfolk rejoices in Ghent, her chief modern +residence district, which is penetrated by arms of the Elizabeth River, +so that many of the houses in this part of the city look out upon pretty +lagoons, dotted over with all manner of pleasure craft. Less than twenty +years ago, the whole of what is now Ghent was a farm, and there are +other suburban settlements, such as Edgewater, Larchmont, Winona and +Lochhaven, out in the direction of Hampton Roads, which have grown up in +the last six or eight years. The Country Club of Norfolk, with a very +pleasing club-house on the water, and an eighteen-hole golf course, is +at Lochhaven, and the new naval base is, I believe, to be located +somewhat farther out, on the site of the Jamestown Exposition. + +Norfolk is well provided with nearby seaside recreation places, of which +probably the most attractive is Virginia Beach, facing the ocean. Ocean +View, so called, is on Chesapeake Bay, and there are summer cottage +colonies at Willoughby Spit and Cape Henry. On the bay side of Cape +Henry is Lynnhaven Inlet connecting Lynnhaven Bay and River with +Chesapeake Bay. From Lynnhaven Bay come the famous oysters of that name, +now to be had in most of the large cities of the East, but which seemed +to me to taste a little better at the Virginia Club, in Norfolk, than +oysters ever tasted anywhere. Perhaps that was because they were real +Lynnhavens, just as the Virginia Club's Smithfield ham is real +Smithfield ham from the little town of Smithfield, Virginia, a few miles +distant. On the bank of the Lynnhaven River is situated the Old Donation +farm with a ruined church, and an ancient dwelling house which was used +as the first courthouse in Princess Anne County; and not far distant +from this place is Witch Duck Point, where Grace Sherwood, after having +been three times tried, and finally convicted as a witch, was thrown +into the river. + +The several waterside places I have mentioned are more or less local in +character, but there is nothing local about Fortress Monroe, on Old +Point Comfort, just across Hampton Roads, which has for many years been +one of the most beautiful and highly individualized idling places on the +Atlantic Coast. + +The old moated fortress, the interior of which is more like some lovely +garden of the last century than a military post, remains an important +coast artillery station, and is a no less lovely spot now than when our +grandparents went there on their wedding journeys, stopping at the old +Hygiea Hotel, long since gone the way of old hotels. + +The huge Chamberlin Hotel, however, remains apparently unchanged, and is +to-day as spacious, comfortable and homelike as when our fathers and +mothers, or perhaps we ourselves, stopped there years ago. The +Chamberlin, indeed, seems to have the gift of perennial youth. I +remember a ball which was given there in honor of Admiral Sampson and +the officers of his fleet, after the Spanish War. The ballroom was so +full of naval and military uniforms that I, in my somber civilian +clothing, felt wan and lonely. Most of the evening I passed in modest +retirement, looking out upon the brilliant scene from behind a potted +palm. And yet, when my companion and I, now in our dotage, recently +visited the Chamberlin, there stood the same potted palm in the same +place. Or if it was not the same, it was one exactly like it. + +The Chamberlin is of course a great headquarters for army and navy +people, and we observed, moreover, that honeymooning couples continue to +infest it--for Fortress Monroe has long ranked with Washington and +Niagara Falls as a scene to be visited upon the wedding journey. + +There they all were, as of old: the young husband scowling behind his +newspaper and pretending to read and not to be thinking of his pretty +little wife across the breakfast table; the fat blonde bride being +continually photographed by her adoring mate--now leaning against a pile +on the pier, now seated on a wall, with her feet crossed, now standing +under a live-oak within the fortress; also there was the inevitable +young pair who simply couldn't keep their hands off from each other; we +came upon them constantly--in the sun-parlor, where she would be seated +on the arm of his chair, running her hand through his hair; wandering in +the eventide along the shore, with arms about each other, or going in to +meals, she leading him down the long corridor by his "ickle finger". + + * * * * * + +I recall that it was as we were going back to Norfolk from Old Point +Comfort, having dinner on a most excellent large steamer, running to +Norfolk and Cape Charles, that my companion remarked to me, out of a +clear sky, that he had made up his mind, once for all, that, come what +might, he would never, never, never get married. No, never! + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +COLONEL TAYLOR AND GENERAL LEE + + Forth from its scabbard all in vain + Bright flashed the sword of Lee; + 'Tis shrouded now in its sheath again, + It sleeps the sleep of our noble slain, + Defeated, yet without a stain, + Proudly and peacefully. + + --ABRAM J. RYAN. + + +Though I had often heard, before going into the South, of the devotion +of that section to the memory of General Robert E. Lee, I never fully +realized the extent of that devotion until I began to become a little +bit acquainted with Virginia. I remember being struck, while in Norfolk, +with the fact that portraits of General Lee were to be seen in many +offices and homes, much as one might expect, at the present time, to +find portraits of Joffre and Nivelle in the homes of France, or of Haig +in the homes of Britain. It is not enough to say that the memory of Lee +is to the South like that of Napoleon I to France, for it is more. The +feeling of France for Napoleon is one of admiration, of delight in a +national military genius, of hero-worship, but there is not intermingled +with it the quality of pure affection which fully justifies the use of +the word _love_, in characterizing the feeling of the South for its +great military leader--the man of whom Lord Wolseley said: "He was a +being apart and superior to all others in every way; a man with whom +none I ever knew, and very few of whom I ever read are worthy to be +compared; a man who was cast in a grander mould and made of finer metal +than all other men." + +Nor is this love surprising, for whereas Napoleon was a self-seeking +man, and one whose personal character was not altogether admirable in +other respects, and whereas he could hardly be said to typify France's +ideal of everything a gentleman should be, Lee sought nothing for +himself, was a man of great nobility of character, and was in perfection +a Virginia gentleman. At the end, moreover, where Napoleon's defeat was +that of an aspirant to conquest, glory and empire, Lee's defeat was that +of a cause, and the cause was regarded in the entire South as almost +holy, so that, in defeat, the South felt itself martyred, and came to +look upon its great general with a love and veneration unequaled in +history, and much more resembling the feeling of France for the +canonized Joan of Arc, than for the ambitious Corsican. + +When, therefore, my companion and I heard, while in Norfolk, that +Colonel Walter H. Taylor, president of the Marine Bank of that city, had +served through the Civil War on General Lee's staff, we naturally became +very anxious to meet him; and I am glad to say that Colonel Taylor, +though at the time indisposed and confined to his home, was so kind as +to receive us. + +He was seated in a large chair in his library, on the second floor of +his residence, a pleasant old-fashioned brick house at the corner of +York and Yarmouth Streets--a slender man, not very tall, I judged +(though I did not see him standing), not very strong at the moment, but +with nothing of the decrepitude of old age about him, for all his +seventy-seven years. Upon the contrary he was, in appearance and manner, +delightfully alert, with the sort of alertness which lends to some men +and women, regardless of their years, a suggestion of perpetual +youthfulness. Such alertness, in those who have lived a long time, is +most often the result of persistent intellectual activity, and the sign +of it is usually to be read in the eyes. Colonel Taylor's keen, dark, +observant, yet kindly eyes, were perhaps his finest feature, though, +indeed, all his features were fine, and his head, with its well-trimmed +white hair and mustache, was one of great distinction. + +Mrs. Taylor (of whom we had previously been warned to beware, because +she had not yet forgiven the "Yankees" for their sins) was also present: +a beautiful old lady of unquenchable spirit, in whose manner, though she +received us with politeness, we detected lurking danger. + +And why not? Do not women remember some things longer than men remember +them? Do not the sweethearts who stayed at home remember the continual +dull dread they suffered while the men they loved faced danger, whereas +the absent lovers were at least in part compensated for the risks they +ran, by the continual sense of high adventure and achievement? + +Mrs. Taylor was Miss Elizabeth Selden Saunders, daughter of Captain John +L. Saunders of Virginia, who died in 1860, in the service of his +country, a commander in the United States Navy. When the war broke out +Miss Saunders, wishing to serve the Confederate Government, became a +clerk in the Surgeon General's office, at Richmond, and there she +remained while Colonel Taylor, whose training at the Virginia Military +Institute, coupled with his native ability, made him valuable as an +officer, followed the fortunes of General Lee, part of the time as the +general's aide-de-camp, and the rest of the time as adjutant-general and +chief of staff of the Army of Northern Virginia, in which capacities he +was present at all general engagements of the army, under Lee. + +On April 2, 1865, when Lee's gallant but fast dwindling army, short of +supplies, and so reduced in numbers as to be no longer able to stand +against the powerful forces of Grant, was evacuating its lines at +Petersburg, when it was evident that the capital of the Confederacy was +about to fall, and the orders for retreat had been despatched by Colonel +Taylor, in his capacity as adjutant--then the colonel went to his +commander and asked for leave of absence over night, for the purpose of +going to Richmond and being married. He tells the story in his +exceedingly interesting and valuable book, "General Lee--His Campaigns +in Virginia": + + At the close of the day's work, when all was in readiness for the + evacuation of our lines under cover of the darkness of night, I + asked permission of General Lee to ride over to Richmond and to + rejoin him early the next morning, telling him that my mother and + sisters were in Richmond and that I would like to say good-by to + them, and that my sweetheart was there, and we had arranged, if + practicable, to be married that night. He expressed some surprise + at my entertaining such a purpose at that time, but when I + explained to him that the home of my bride-elect was in the enemy's + lines, that she was alone in Richmond and employed in one of the + departments of the government, and wished to follow the fortunes of + the Confederacy should our lines be reestablished farther South, he + promptly gave his assent to my plans. I galloped to the railroad + station, then at Dunlops, on the north side of the river, where I + found a locomotive and several cars, constituting the "ambulance + train," designed to carry to Richmond the last of the wounded of + our army requiring hospital treatment. I asked the agent if he had + another engine, when, pointing to one rapidly receding in the + direction of Richmond, he replied, "Yonder goes the only locomotive + we have besides the one attached to this train." Turning my horse + over to the courier who accompanied me, with directions to join me + in Richmond as soon as he could, I mounted the locomotive in + waiting, directed the engineer to detach it from the cars and to + proceed to overtake the engine ahead of us. It was what the sailors + call a stern chase and a long one. We did not overtake the other + locomotive until it had reached Falling Creek, about three-fourths + of the distance, when I transferred to it and sent the other back + to Petersburg. I reached Richmond without further incident, and + soon after midnight I was married to Elizabeth Selden Saunders.... + As will be readily understood, the occasion was not one of great + hilarity, though I was very happy; my eyes were the only dry ones + in the company.... + + The people of Richmond were greatly excited and in despair in the + contemplation of the abandonment of their beautiful city by our + troops. General Lee had for so long a time thwarted the designs of + his powerful adversaries for the capture of the city, and seemed so + unfailing and resourceful in his efforts to hold them at bay, that + the good people found it difficult to realize that he was compelled + at last to give way. There was universal gloom and despair at the + thought that at the next rising of the sun the detested Federal + soldiers would take possession of the city and occupy its streets. + The transportation companies were busily engaged in arranging for + the removal of the public stores and of the archives of the + government. A fire in the lower part of the city was fiercely + raging, and added greatly to the excitement. + + Somewhere near four o'clock on the morning of the 3d of April I + bade farewell to all my dear ones, and in company with my + brother-in-law, Colonel John S. Saunders, proceeded toward Mayo's + Bridge, which we crossed to the south side of the James, in the + lurid glare of the fire, and within the sound of several heavy + explosions that we took to be the final scene in the career of the + Confederate navy, then disappearing in smoke on the James River, + near Rockets. + +Before we departed from the colonel's library, which we felt obliged to +do much sooner than we wished to, owing to the condition of his health, +he called our attention to an oil portrait of his old commander, which +occupied the place of honor above the mantelpiece, and asked his +daughters to let us see his scrap-book, containing personal letters from +General Lee, Jefferson Davis, and other distinguished men, as well as +various war documents of unusual interest. + +We felt it a great privilege to handle these old letters and to read +them, and the charm of them was the greater for the affection in which +the general held Colonel Taylor, as evidenced by the tone in which he +wrote. To us it was a wonderful evening.... And it still seems to me +wonderful to think that I have met and talked with a man who issued +Lee's orders, who rode forth with Lee when he went to meet Grant in +conference at Appomattox, just before the surrender, who once slept +under the same blanket with Lee, who knew Lee as well perhaps as one man +can know another, and under conditions calculated to try men to the +utmost. + +As adjutant, Colonel Taylor took an active part in arranging details of +surrender and parole. He says: + + Each officer and soldier was furnished for his protection from + arrest or annoyance with a slip of paper containing his parole, + signed by his commander and countersigned by an officer of the + Federal army. + + I signed these paroles for all members of the staff, and when my + own case was reached I requested General Lee to sign mine, which I + have retained to the present time. + +This document, with Colonel Taylor's name and title in his own +handwriting, and the signature of General Lee, I am able to reproduce +here through the courtesy of the colonel's daughters, Mrs. William B. +Baldwin and Miss Taylor, of Norfolk. It is the only parole which was +signed personally by General Lee. + +[Illustration] + +On the back of the little slip, which is of about the size of a bank +check, is the countersignature of George H. Sharpe, Assistant Provost +Marshal general: + +[Illustration] + +Following his parole Colonel Taylor rode with General Lee to Richmond. +The general seemed to be in a philosophical frame of mind, but thought +much of the future. The subject of the surrender and its consequences +was about exhausted. The Colonel tells of one incident: + + On the route General Lee stopped for the night near the residence + of his brother, Mr. Carter Lee, in Powhatan County; and although + importuned by his brother to pass the night under his roof, the + general persisted in pitching his tent by the side of the road and + going into camp as usual. This continued self-denial can only be + explained upon the hypothesis that he desired to have his men know + that he shared their privations to the very last. + +This was perfectly in character with Lee. Throughout the War, we learn +from Colonel Taylor's book, the general used the army ration, and lived +the army life. He would not take up his quarters in a house, because he +wished to share the lot of his men, and also because he feared that, in +the event of the house falling into the hands of the enemy, the very +fact of its having been occupied by him might possibly cause its +destruction. It was only during the last year of the War, when his +health was somewhat impaired, that he consented sometimes to vary this +rule. + +Lee's chivalrous nature is well shown forth in his famous General +Orders, No. 73, issued at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, a few days before +Gettysburg. + +After congratulating the troops on their good conduct the general +continued as follows: + + There have, however, been instances of forgetfulness on the part of + some that they have in keeping the yet unsullied reputation of the + army, and that the duties exacted of us by civilization and + Christianity are not less obligatory in the country of the enemy + than in our own. + + The commanding general considers that no greater disgrace could + befall the army, and through it our whole people, than the + perpetration of the barbarous outrages upon the unarmed and + defenseless, and the wanton destruction of private property, that + have marked the course of the enemy in our own country. + + Such proceedings not only degrade the perpetrators and all + connected with them, but are subversive to the discipline and + efficiency of the army, and destructive of the ends of our present + movement. It must be remembered that we make war only upon armed + men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the wrongs our people + have suffered without lowering ourselves in the eyes of all whose + abhorrence has been excited by the atrocities of our enemies, and + offending against Him to whom vengeance belongeth, without whose + favor and support our efforts must all prove in vain. The + commanding general, therefore, earnestly exhorts the troops to + abstain with most scrupulous care from unnecessary or wanton injury + to private property, and he enjoins upon all officers to arrest and + bring to summary punishment all who shall in any way offend against + the orders on this subject. + + R.E. Lee, + General. + +Truly, a document to serve as a model for warriors of all future +generations, albeit one showing an utter lack of "Kultur"! + +Said Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts: "I doubt if a hostile +force ever advanced into an enemy's country, or fell back from it in +retreat, leaving behind it less cause of hate and bitterness than did +the Army of Northern Virginia in that memorable campaign." + +After the war, Colonel Taylor and his wife settled in Norfolk, where, +within a very short time, a United States grand jury indicted Jefferson +Davis and General Lee for treason--this, in the case of Lee, being in +direct violation of the terms of surrender. When Grant learned of the +shameful action of the grand jury he complained to Washington and caused +the proceedings against Lee to be dropped. + +In Colonel Taylor's scrap-book I found a letter written by Lee before +the indictment had been quashed, referring to the subject: + + Richmond, Va. + June 17, 1865. + + My dear Colonel: + + I am very much obliged to you for your letter of the 13th. I had + heard of the indictment by the grand jury at Norfolk, and made up + my mind to let the authorities take their course. I have no wish to + avoid any trial the government may order, and cannot flee. I hope + others may be unmolested, and that you at least may be undisturbed. + + I am sorry to hear that our returned soldiers cannot obtain + employment. Tell them they must all set to work, and if they cannot + do what they prefer, do what they can. Virginia wants all their + aid, all their support, and the presence of all her sons to sustain + and recuperate her. They must therefore put themselves in a + position to take part in her government, and not be deterred by + obstacles in their way. There is much to be done which they only + can do. + + Very truly yours, + R.E. Lee. + +As time went on, and the more gaping wounds began to heal, Colonel +Taylor's letters from the general took in many cases a lighter and +happier tone. After some years, when four daughters had been born to +Colonel and Mrs. Taylor, while yet they had no son, the general chaffed +them gently on the subject: "Give my congratulations to Mrs. Taylor," he +wrote. "Tell her I hope that when her fancy for girls is satisfied (mine +is exorbitant) she will begin upon the boys. We must have somebody to +work for them." + +One of the colonel's sons was present when I came upon this letter. + +"And you see," he smiled, "my father obeyed his old commander to the +last, for the next baby was a boy, and the next, and the next, and the +next, until there were as many boys as girls in our family." + + * * * * * + +Colonel Taylor died at his home in Norfolk, March 1, 1916, and on the +subsequent June 15, was followed by his wife. + +His death leaves but three members of Lee's staff surviving, namely, +Rev. Giles B. Cooke, of Portsmouth, Virginia, Inspector General; Major +Henry E. Young, of Charleston, South Carolina, Judge Advocate General; +and Colonel T.M.R. Talcott, of Richmond, Virginia, Aide-de-Camp. Of +these officers only the first two surrendered with General Lee, Colonel +Talcott having left the staff by promotion in 1863. + +Yes, two of them surrendered, but if we are to believe Charles Francis +Adams we cannot say that Lee and his forces were actually vanquished, +for as the Massachusetts soldier-author put it: + +"Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia never sustained defeat. Finally +succumbing to exhaustion, to the end they were not overthrown in +fight." + + + + +THE HEART OF THE SOUTH + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +RALEIGH AND JOSEPHUS DANIELS + + Jedge Crutchfield give de No'th Ca'lina nigger frown; + De mahkets says ouh tehapin am secon'-rate, + An' Mistuh Daniels, he call Raleigh his hum town. + --I wondah what kin be de mattuh wid ouh State? + + +Just as it is the fashion in the Middle West to speak jestingly of +Kansas, it is the fashion in the South to treat lightly the State of +North Carolina. And just as my companion and I, long ago, on another +voyage of discovery, were eager to get into Kansas and find out what +that fabulous Commonwealth was really like, so we became anxious, as we +heard the gossip about the "Old North State," to enter it and form our +own conclusions. The great drawback to an attempt to see North Carolina, +however, lies in the fact that North Carolina is, so to speak, spread +very thin. It has no great solid central city occupying a place in its +thoughts and its affairs corresponding to that occupied by Richmond, in +its relation to Virginia. Like Mississippi, it is a State of small towns +and small cities. Its metropolis, Charlotte, had, by the 1910 census, +less than 35,000 inhabitants; its seaport, Wilmington, a little more +than 25,000; its capital, Raleigh, less than 20,000; its beautiful +mountain resort, Asheville, fourth city in the State, less than 19,000. + +I hasten to add that the next census will undoubtedly show considerable +growth in all these cities. In Raleigh I found every one insistent on +this point. The town is growing; it is a going place; a great deal of +new building is in progress; and when you ask about the population, +progressive citizens are prepared to do much better by their city than +the census takers did, some years ago. They talk thirty thousand, +instead of twenty, and they are ready with astonishing statistics about +the number of students in the schools and colleges as compared with the +total population of the city--statistics showing that though Raleigh is +not large she is progressive. Which is quite true. + +I recollect that Judge Francis D. Winston, former Lieutenant Governor of +the State, United States District Attorney, and the most engaging +raconteur in the Carolinas, contributed a story to a discussion of +Raleigh's population, which occurred, one evening, at a dinner at the +Country Club. + +"A promoter," he said, "was once trying to borrow money on a boom town. +He went to a banker and showed him a map, not of what the town was, but +of what he claimed it was going to be. 'Here,' he said, 'is where the +town hall will stand. In this lot will be the opera house. Over here we +are going to have a beautiful park. And on this corner we are going to +erect a tall granite office building.' + +"'But,' said the banker, coldly, 'we lend money only on the basis of +population.' + +"'That's all right,' returned the promoter. 'Measured by any known +standard except an actual _count_, we have a population of two hundred +thousand.'" + +I shall not attempt to point this tale more than to recommend it to the +attention of the secretary of the Chamber of Commerce in every city in +the United States. + + * * * * * + +Raleigh is situated within seven miles of the exact center of North +Carolina. The land on which the city stands was purchased by the State, +in 1792, from a man named Joel Lane, whose former house still stands. +The town was then laid out in a one mile square, with the site selected +for the State Capitol directly at the center of it, and lots were sold +off by the State to individuals, the proceeds of these sales being used +to build the Capitol. As a result the parks, streets and sidewalks of +the original old town still belong to the State of North Carolina, and +the city has jurisdiction over them only by courtesy of the State +government. Raleigh has, of course, much outgrown its original +dimensions, and the government of the town, outside the original square +mile at the center, is as in other towns. + +While Raleigh has not the look of age which characterizes many old +southern cities, causing them to delight the eye and the imagination, +its broad streets have here and there a building old enough to remove +from the town any air of raw newness, and to make it a homelike looking +place. The sidewalks are wide; when we were in Raleigh those of the +principal streets were paved largely with soft-colored old red bricks, +which, however, were being taken up and replaced with cement. Not being +a resident of Raleigh, and consequently not having been obliged to tread +the rough brick pavements daily, I was sorry to witness this victory of +utility over beauty. + +One of the pleasant old buildings is the Yarborough Hotel, at which my +companion and I stayed. The Yarborough is an exceedingly good hotel for +a city of the size of Raleigh, especially, it may be added, when that +city is in the South. The Capitol, standing among trees in a small park, +also gathers a fine flavor from age. In one of the many simple dignified +apartments of this building my companion and I were introduced to the +gentleman who was governor of the State at the time of our visit. It +seemed to me that he had a look both worn and apprehensive, and that, +while we talked, he was waiting for something. I don't know how I +gathered this impression, but it came to me definitely. After we had +departed from the executive chamber I asked the gentleman who had taken +us there if the governor was ill. + +"No," he replied. "All our governors look like that after they have been +in office for a while." + +"From overwork?" + +"No, from an overworked jest--the jest about 'what the Governor of North +Carolina said to the Governor of South Carolina.' Every one who meets +the governor thinks of that joke and believes confidently that no one +has ever before thought of this application of it. So they all pull it +on him. For the first few months our governors stand it pretty well, but +after that they begin to break down. They feel they ought to smile, but +they can't. They begin to dread meeting strangers, and to show it in +their bearing. When in private life our governor had a very pleasant +expression, but like all the others, he has acquired, in office, the +expression of an iron dog." + +Raleigh's most widely-known citizen is Josephus Daniels, Secretary of +the Navy, and publisher of the Raleigh "News and Observer." This paper, +published in the morning, and the "Times," a rival paper, published in +the afternoon, are, I believe, the only dailies in the city. + +Mr. Daniels has been so much discussed that I was greatly interested in +hearing what Raleigh had to say of him. Every one knew him personally. +The men on his paper seemed to be very fond of him; others held various +opinions. + +In 1894 Mr. Daniels came from Washington, D.C., where he had been chief +clerk in the Department of the Interior, when Hoke Smith was Secretary, +and acquired the newspaper of which he has since been proprietor. In its +first years under Mr. Daniels, the paper is said to have gone through +severe financial struggles, and there is an amusing story current, about +the way the payroll was met upon one occasion. According to this tale, +the business manager of the paper came to Mr. Daniels, one day, and +informed him that he needed sixty dollars more to make the payroll, and +didn't know where he was going to get it. The only ready asset in sight, +it is related, was several cases of a patent medicine known as "Mrs. Joe +Persons' Remedy," which had been taken by the "News and Observer" in +payment for advertising space. Mr. Daniels had a few dollars, and his +business manager had a railroad pass. With these resources the latter +went out on the road and sold the patent medicine for enough to make up +the deficit. + +Until Mr. Daniels was appointed Secretary of the Navy he seems to have +been regarded by many citizens of Raleigh, as a good, earnest, +hard-working man, possessed of considerable personal magnetism and a +good political nose--a man who could scent how the pack was running, +take a short-cut, and presently appear to be leading. In other words an +opportunist. Though he has not much education, and though as a writer he +is far from polished, it is said that he has written powerful +editorials. "When his editorials have been good," said one gentleman, +"it is because he has been stirred up over something, and because he +manages sometimes to get into his writing the intensity of his own +personality." His office used to be, and still is, when he is in +Raleigh, a sort of political headquarters, and he used to be able to +write editorials while half a dozen politicians were sitting around his +desk, talking. + +With his paper he has done much good in the State, notably by fighting +consistently for prohibition and for greater public educational +advantages. The strong educational movement in North Carolina began with +a group of men chief among whom were the late Governor Charles B. +Aycock, called "the educational governor"; Dr. E.A. Alderman, who, +though president of the University of Virginia, is a North Carolinian +and was formerly president of the University of that State; Dr. Charles +D. McKeever who committed the State to the principle of higher education +for women, and other men of similar high purpose. A gentleman who was +far from an unqualified admirer of Mr. Daniels, told me that without his +aid the great educational advance which the state has certainly made of +recent years could hardly have been accomplished, and that the same +thing applies in the case of prohibition--which has been adopted in +North Carolina. + +"What sort of man is he?" I asked this gentleman. + +"He is the old type of Methodist," he said. "He is the kind of man who +believes that the whale swallowed Jonah. He has the same concept of +religion that he had as a child. I differ with his policies, his +politics, his mental methods, but I don't think anybody here doubts that +he is trying, not only to do the moral thing himself, but to force +others to adopt, as rules for public conduct, the exact code in which he +personally believes, and which he certainly follows. His mental +processes are often crude, yet he has much native shrewdness and the +ability to grasp situations as they arise. + +"He does not come of the aristocratic class, which probably accounts for +his failure, when he first became secretary, to perceive the necessity +for discipline in the navy, and the benefits of naval tradition. + +"He was an ardent follower--I might say swallower--of Bryan, gobbling +whole all of the "Great Commoner's" vagaries. It has been said, more or +less humorously, but doubtless with a foundation of fact, that he was +"Secretary of War in all of Bryan's cabinets." That shows where Bryan +placed him. Yet when Bryan broke with Wilson and made his exit from the +Cabinet, Daniels found it perfectly simple, apparently, to drop the +Bryanism which had, hitherto, been the very essence of his life, and +become a no less ardent supporter of the President. + +"When he was first taken into the cabinet he evidently regarded the +finer social amenities as matters of no consequence, or even as +effeminacies. He had but little sense of the fitness of things, and was, +in consequence, continually making _faux pas_; but he is observant; he +has learned a great deal in the course of his life as a cabinet member, +both as to his work in the Department, and as to the niceties of formal +social life." + +At the time of our visit to Raleigh I had not met Mr. Daniels, nor heard +him speak. Since that time I have heard him several times and have +talked with him. Also I have talked of him with a number of men who have +been thrown more or less closely in contact with him. As is well known, +naval officers detested him with peculiar unanimity. This was true up +to the time of our entering the War. Whether matters have changed +greatly since then I am unable to say. One officer, well known in the +navy, said to me quite seriously that he believed the navy would be +better off without its two best dreadnoughts if in losing them it could +also lose Mr. Daniels. Such sentiments were peculiarly unanimous among +officers. On the other hand, however, a high officer, who has been quite +close to the Secretary, informs me that it is indeed true that he has +improved as experience has come to him. This officer stated that when +Mr. Daniels first took office he seemed to be definitely antagonistic to +officers of the navy. "He appeared to suspect them of pulling political +wires and working in their own interests. That was in the days when he +seemed almost to encourage insubordination among the enlisted men, by +his attitude toward them, in contrast to his attitude towards their +superiors. Of course it was demoralizing to the service. But there has +been a marked change in the Secretary since Bryan left the Cabinet." +From several sources I have heard the same evidence. I never heard any +one say that Mr. Daniels was really an able Secretary of the Navy, but I +have heard many say that he improved. + +Personally he is a very likable man. His face is kind and gentle; his +features are interestingly irregular and there are heavy wrinkles about +his mouth and eyes--the former adding something to the already humorous +twinkle of the eyes. His voice has a _timbre_ reminding me of George M. +Cohan's voice. He is hardly an orator in the sense that Bryan is, yet he +is not without simple oratorical tricks--as for example a tremolo, as of +emotion, which I have heard him use in uttering such a phrase as "the +grea-_a-a-at_ Daniel _Web_-ster!" Also, he wears a low turnover collar +and a black string tie--a fact which would not be worth noting did these +not form a part of what amounts almost to a uniform worn by politicians +of more or less the Bryan type. Almost invariably there seems to be +something of the minister and something of the actor in such men. + +Once I asked one of the famous Washington correspondents what manner of +man Mr. Daniels was. + +"He's a man," he said, "that you'd like to go with on a hunting trip in +his native North Carolina. He would be a good companion and would have a +lot of funny stories. He is full of kind intentions. Had you known him +before the War, and had he liked you, and had you wished to take a ride +upon a battleship, he would be disposed to order up a battleship and +send you for a ride, even if, by doing so, he muddled up the fleet a +little. That would be in line with his fixing it for moving picture +people to act scenes on a battleship's deck--which he permitted. He saw +no reason why that was not proper, and the kind of people who admire him +most are those who, likewise, see no reason why it was not proper. The +great lack in his nature is that of personal dignity--or even the +dignity which should be his because of his position. If you are sitting +beside him and he is amiably disposed toward you, he may throw his arm +over your shoulder, or massage your knee while talking with you. + +"But if some friend of his were to go to him and convince him that he +lacked dignity, he is the kind of man who, in my judgment, would become +so much the worse. That is, if he attempted to attain dignity he would +not achieve it, but would merely grow arbitrary. That, to my mind, shows +his great ineradicable weakness, for it not only reveals him as a man +too little for his job, but prevents his comprehending the basic thing +upon which naval discipline is founded. Nevertheless, as a man you like +him. It is as Secretary of the Navy, and particularly as a War +Secretary, that you very definitely don't." + +Some time after our visit to Raleigh my companion and I heard Secretary +Daniels speak in Charleston. He told a funny story and talked +generalities about the navy. That was before the United States entered +the War. I do not know what he meant the speech for, but what it +actually was, was a speech against preparedness. So was the speech made +on the same occasion by Lemuel P. Padgett, chairman of the House +Committee on Naval Affairs. It was a disingenuous speech, a speech to +lull the country into confidence, a speech which, alone, should have +been sufficient to prove Mr. Padgett's unfitness to serve on that +committee. Mr. Daniels argued that "Germany's preparedness had not kept +Germany out of war"; that seemed enough, but there was one thing he +said which utterly dumbfounded me. It was this: + +"_The Southern statesman who serves his section best, serves the country +best._" + +Let the reader reflect for a moment upon such an utterance. Carried a +little farther what would it mean? Would it not be equally logical to +say that the man who serves himself best serves the country best? It is +the theory of narrow sectionalism, and by implication, at least, the +theory of individualism as well. And sectionalism and individualism are +two of the great curses of the United States. + +Compare with Mr. Daniels' words those of John Hay who, veiling fine +patriotism beneath a web of delicate humor, said: + +"_In my bewilderment of origin and experience I can only put on an +aspect of deep humility in any gathering of favorite sons, and confess +that I am nothing but an American._" + +Or again, compare with them the famous words of Patrick Henry: + +"_I am not a Virginian, but an American._" + +Clearly, one point of view or the other is wrong. Perhaps Mr. Daniels +has more light on sectional questions than had Patrick Henry or John +Hay. At all events, the Charleston audience applauded. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +ITEMS FROM "THE OLD NORTH STATE" + + +Two of the most interesting things we saw in Raleigh were the model jail +on the top floor of the new County Court House, where a lot of very +honest looking rustics were confined to await trial for making +"blockade" (otherwise moonshine) whisky, and the North Carolina Hall of +History, which occupies a floor in the fine new State Administration +Building, opposite the Capitol. At the head of the first stair landing +in the Administration Building is a memorial tablet to William Sidney +Porter ("O Henry"), who was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, with a +bust of the author, in relief, by Lorado Taft. Porter, it may be +mentioned, was a connection of Worth Bagley, the young ensign who was +the only American naval officer killed in the Spanish-American War. +Bagley was a brother of Mrs. Josephus Daniels. A monument to him stands +in the park before the Capitol. Aside from Porter, the only author well +known in our time whom I heard mentioned in connection with North +Carolina, was the Rev. Thomas Dixon, whose name is most familiar, +perhaps, in connection with the moving-picture called "The Birth of a +Nation," taken from one of his novels. Mr. Dixon was born in the town of +Shelby, North Carolina, and was for some years pastor of the Tabernacle +Baptist Church, Raleigh. + +The Hall of History, containing a great variety of State relics, is one +of the most fascinating museums I ever visited. Too much praise cannot +be given Colonel Fred A. Olds and Mr. Marshall De Lancey Haywood, of the +North Carolina Historical Society, for making it what it is. As with the +Confederate Museum in Richmond, so, here, it is impossible to give more +than a faint idea of the interest of the museum's contents. Among the +exhibits of which I made note, I shall, however, mention a few. There +was a letter written from Paris in the handwriting of John Paul Jones, +requesting a copy of the Constitution of North Carolina; there was the +Ku Klux warning issued to one Ben Turner of Northampton County; and +there was an old newspaper advertisement signed by James J. Selby, a +tailor, dated at Raleigh, June 24, 1824, offering a reward of ten +dollars for the capture and return of two runaways: "apprentice boys, +legally bound, named William and Andrew Johnson." The last named boy was +the same Andrew Johnson who later became a distinctly second-rate +President of the United States. Also there was a peculiarly tragic Civil +War memento, consisting of a note which was found clasped in the dead +hand of Colonel Isaac Avery, of the 6th North Carolina Regiment, who was +killed while commanding a brigade on the second day at Gettysburg. + + _Tell my father I died with my face to the enemy._ + +These words were written by the fallen officer with his left hand, his +right arm having been rendered useless by his mortal wound. For ink he +used his own life blood. + +Also in the museum may be seen the chart-book of Blackbeard, the pirate, +who, one of the curators of the museum informed me, was the same person +as Edward Teach. Blackbeard, who is commemorated in the name of +Blackbeard's Island, off the coast of South Georgia, met his fate when +he encountered a cruiser fitted out by Governor Spotswood of Virginia +and commanded by Lieutenant Maynard. Maynard found Blackbeard's ship at +Okracoke Inlet, on the North Carolina coast. Before he and his men could +board the pirate vessel the pirates came and boarded them. Severe +fighting ensued, but the pirates were defeated, Maynard himself killing +Blackbeard in single combat with swords. The legend around Okracoke is +that Blackbeard's bad fortune on this occasion came to him because of +the unlucky number of his matrimonial adventures, the story being that +he had thirteen wives. It is said also that his vanquishers cut off his +head and hung it at the yard-arm of their ship, throwing his body into +the sea, and that as soon as the body struck the water the head began to +call, "Come on, Edward!" whereupon the headless body swam three times +around the ship. Personally I think there may be some slight doubt about +the authenticity of this part of the story. For, while from one point of +view we might say that to swim about in such aimless fashion would be +the very thing a man without a head might do, yet from another point of +view the question arises: Would a man whose head had just been severed +from his body feel like taking such a long swim? + +And what a rich lot of other historic treasures! + +Did you know, for instance, that Flora Macdonald, the Scottish heroine, +who helped Prince Charles Edward to escape, dressed as a maidservant, +after the Battle of Culloden, in 1746, came to America with her husband +and many relatives just before the Revolutionary War and settled at +Cross Creek (now Fayetteville), North Carolina? When General Donald +Macdonald raised the Royal standard at the time of the Revolution, her +husband and many of her kinsmen joined him, and these were later +captured at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, in 1776, and taken as +prisoners to Philadelphia. Yes; and Flora Macdonald's garter-buckles are +now in the museum at Raleigh. + +A portrait of Captain James J. Waddell, C.S.N., who was a member of a +famous North Carolina family, recalls the story of his post-bellum +cruise, in command of the _Shenandoah_, when, not knowing that the War +was over, he preyed for months on Federal commerce in the South Seas. + +The museum of course contains many uniforms worn by distinguished +soldiers of the Confederacy and many old flags, among them one said to +be the original flag of the Confederacy. This flag was designed by Orren +R. Smith of Louisburg, North Carolina, and was made in that town. The +journals of the Confederate Congress show that countless designs for a +flag were submitted, that the Committee on a Flag reported that all +designs had been rejected and returned, the committee having adopted one +of its own; nevertheless Mr. Smith's claim to have designed the flag +finally adopted is so well supported that the Confederate Veterans, at +their General Reunion held in Richmond in 1915, passed a resolution +endorsing it. + +Also in the museum is the shot-riddled smokestack of the Confederate ram +_Albemarle_, which was built on the farm of Peter E. Smith, on Roanoke +River, and is said to have been the first vessel ever launched sidewise. +The _Albemarle_, after a glorious career, was sunk by Lieutenant +Cushing, U.S.N., in his famous exploit with a torpedo carried on a pole +at the bow of a launch. It will be remembered that the launch was sunk +by the shock and that only Cushing and one member of his crew survived, +swimming away under fire. + +North Carolina also claims--and not without some justice--that the first +English settlement on this continent was not that at Jamestown, but the +one made by Sir Walter Raleigh's expedition, under Amadas and Barlowe, +which landed at Roanoke Island, August 4, 1584, and remained there for +some weeks. The Jamestown Colony, say the North Carolinians, was merely +the first to _stick_. + +Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, across the sound from Roanoke Island, is the +site of the first flight of a man in an aeroplane, the Wright brothers +having tried out their first crude plane there, among the Kill-Devil +sand dunes. A part of the original plane is preserved in the museum. Nor +must I leave the museum without mentioning the bullet-riddled hat of +General W.R. Cox, and his gray military coat, with a blood-stained gash +in front, where a solid shell ripped across. General Cox's son, Mr. +Albert Cox, was with us in the museum when we stopped to look at this +grim souvenir. "It tore father open in front," he said, "spoiled a coat +which had cost him $550, Confederate, and damaged his watchchain. +Nevertheless he lived to take part in the last charge at Appomattox, and +the watchchain wasn't so badly spoiled but what, with the addition of +some new links, it could be worn." And he showed us where the chain, +which he himself was wearing at the time, had been repaired. + +I must say something, also, of the North Carolina College of Agriculture +and Mechanic Arts, an institution doing splendid work, and doing it +efficiently, both in its own buildings and through extension courses. +Fifty-two per cent. of the students at this college earn their way +through, either wholly or in part. And better yet, eighty-three per +cent. of the graduates stick to the practical work afterwards--an +unusually high record. + +The president of the college, Dr. D.H. Hill, is a son of the Confederate +general of the same name, who has been called "the Ironsides of the +South." + +There are a number of other important educational institutions in and +about Raleigh, and there is one which, if not important, is at all +events, a curio. This is "Latta University," consisting of a few flimsy +shacks in the negro village of Oberlin, on the outskirts of Raleigh. + +"Professor" Latta is one of the rare negroes who combines the habit with +white folks of the old fashioned southern darky, and the astuteness of +the "new issue" in high finance. Years ago he conceived the idea of +establishing a negro school near Raleigh, to which he gave the above +mentioned name. He had no funds, no credit and little or no education. +Nevertheless he had ideas, the central one of which was that New England +was the land of plenty. With the "university" in his head, and with a +miscellaneous collection of photographs, he managed to make a tour of +northern cities, and came back with his pockets lined. As a result he +procured a little land, put up frame buildings, gathered a few youths +about him, and was fully launched on his career as a university +president. + +So long as the money held out, Latta was content to drift along with his +school. When he came to the bottom of the bag he invested the last of +his savings in another ticket north and, armed with his title of +"president," made addresses to northern audiences and replenished his +finances with their contributions. + +Finally, as the great act of his career, Latta managed to get passage to +Europe and was gone for several months. When he came back he had added a +manuscript to his possessions: "The History of My Life and Work," which +he published, and which is one of the most curious volumes I have ever +seen. + +It is illustrated--largely with photographs of the author. One of the +pictures is entitled, "Rev. M.L. Latta when he first commenced to build +Latta University." This shows Latta with the tips of his fingers resting +on a small table. Another picture shows him posed with one hand raised +and the other resting on what is unmistakably the same little table. The +latter picture, however, has the caption, "Rev. M.L. Latta making a +speech in Pawtucket, R.I., at Y.M.C.A." Both pictures were all too +clearly taken in a photographer's studio. Another page shows us, "Rev. +M.L. Latta and three of his Admirable Presidents." In this case Latta +merely takes for himself the upper right-hand corner, the other eminent +persons pictured being ex-Presidents Roosevelt, McKinley and Cleveland. +The star illustration, however, is a "made up" picture, in which a +photograph of Latta, looking spick-and-span, has been pasted onto what +is very obviously a painted picture of a hall full of people in evening +dress, all of them gazing at Latta, who stands upon the stage, +dignified, suave, impressive, and all dressed-up by the brush of the +"re-toucher." This picture is called: "In the Auditorium at London, in +1894." Similar artfulness is shown in pictures of the "university" +buildings, where the same frame structure, photographed from opposite +ends, appears in one case as, "Young Ladies' Dormitory," and in the +other as, "Chapel and Young Men's Dormitory." + +In his autobiography, Latta tells how, in the course of getting his own +schooling, he raised money by teaching a district school during +vacation. He says: + + After paying my expenses, I had nearly a hundred dollars to return + to school with. When I returned I was able to dress very neatly + indeed, and the young ladies received me very cordially on the + green during social hour. Before I taught school it was a common + saying among the young ladies and young men "Latta"; but after I + returned with a hundred dollars it was "Mr. Latta" all over the + campus. I would hear the young ladies saying among themselves, "I + bet Mr. Latta will not go with you--he will correspond with me this + afternoon." I paid no attention to it. I said to myself, "Don't you + see what a hundred dollars will do?" + +In another place the Professor reveals how he came to write his book: +"Professor King, one of the teachers at Latta University said to me, 'If +I had done what you have done I would have wrote a history of my life +several years ago.'" + +The best part of the book, however, gives us Latta's account of his +doings in London: + + Just before I left the city of London I was invited by a + distinguished friend, a close relation to Queen Victoria, to make a + speech. He told me there would be a meeting in one of the large + halls in that city. I can't just think of the name of the hall. He + invited me to be present. The distinguished friend that I have just + mentioned presided over the meeting. There was an immense audience + present. If memory serves me right, I was the only Negro in the + hall. The gentleman came to me and asked if I would make a speech. + I told him I had already delivered one address, besides several + sermons I had preached, and I thought that I would not speak again + during my stay. I accepted the invitation, however, and spoke. + +The Professor then tells how he was introduced as one whose addresses +were "among the ablest ever delivered in London." Also he gives his +speech in full. Great events followed. His distinguished unnamed friend, +the "close relation of the Queen," came to him soon after, he says, and +asked him if he had "ever been to the palace." + +Continues Latta: + + He said to me, "If you will come over before you leave the city, + and call to see me, I will take you to the palace with me and + introduce you to the Queen." I told him I would do so, that I had + heard a good deal about the royal throne, and I would be very much + interested to see the palace. He said he thought I would, because + the government was very different from ours. + + I called at his residence as I had promised, and he went with me to + the palace. The Queen knew him, of course. He was received very + cordially. Everything shined so much like gold in the palace that I + had to stop and think where I was. He introduced me to the Queen, + and told her I was from North America. He told her that I spoke at + a meeting he presided over, and he enjoyed my speech very much. He + told her we had an immense audience, and all the people were well + pleased with the speech. The Queen said she was more than glad to + meet me, and she would have liked very much to have been present, + and heard the speech that her cousin said I made.... She told me + she hoped that would not be the last visit I would make to their + city. I shook hands with her and bade her good-bye. The + distinguished friend carried me and showed me the different + departments of the palace, and I bade him good-bye. + +In Raleigh, I think, they rather like Latta. It amuses them to see him +go north and get money, and it is said that he appreciates the situation +himself. He ought to. Not many southern negroes have such comfortable +homes as "Latta University's" best kept-up building--the residence of +the President. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +UNDER ST. MICHAEL'S CHIMES + + And where St. Michael's chimes + The fragrant hours exquisitely tell, + Making the world one loveliness, like a true poet's rhymes. + + --RICHARD WATSON GILDER. + + +It has been said--by Mrs. T.P. O'Connor, I think--that whereas +twenty-five letters of introduction for New York may produce one +invitation to dinner, one letter of introduction for Charleston will +produce twenty-five dinner invitations. If this be an exaggeration it +is, at least, exaggeration in the right direction; that is, along the +lines of truth. For though Charleston's famed "exclusiveness" is very +real, making letters of introduction very necessary to strangers +desiring to see something of the city's social life, such letters +produce, in Charleston, as Mrs. O'Connor suggests, results definite and +delightful. + +Immediately upon our arrival, my companion and I sent out several +letters we had brought with us, and presently calling cards began to +arrive for us at the hotel. Also there came courteous little notes, +delivered in most cases by hand, according to the old Charleston +custom--a custom surviving pleasantly from times when there were no +postal arrangements, but plenty of slaves to run errands. Even to this +day, I am told, invitations to Charleston's famous St. Cecilia balls are +delivered by hand. + +One of the notes we received revealed to us a characteristic custom of +the city. It contained an invitation to occupy places in the pew of a +distinguished family, at St. Michael's Church, on the approaching Sunday +morning. In order to realize the significance of such an invitation one +must understand that St. Michael's is to Charleston, socially, what St. +George's, Hanover Square, is to London. A beautiful old building, +surrounded by a historic burial ground and surmounted by a delicate +white spire containing fine chimes, it strongly suggests the +architectural touch of Sir Christopher Wren; but it is not by Wren, for +he died a number of years before 1752, when the cornerstone of St. +Michael's was laid. When the British left Charleston--or Charles Town, +as the name of the place stands in the early records--after occupying it +during the Revolutionary War, they took with them, to the horror of the +city, the bells of St. Michael's, and the church books. The silver, +however, was saved, having been concealed on a plantation some miles +from Charleston. Later the bells were returned. + +Pre-Revolutionary Charleston was divided into two parishes: St. +Michael's below Broad Street, and St. Philip's above. Under governmental +regulation citizens were not allowed to hold pews in both churches +unless they owned houses in both parishes. St. Michael's, being nearer +the battery, in which region are the finest old houses, had, perhaps, +the wealthier congregation, but St. Philip's is, to my mind, the more +beautiful church of the two, largely because of the open space before +it, and the graceful outward bend of Church Street in deference to the +projecting portico. + +When the Civil War broke out St. Philip's bells were melted and made +into cannon, but those of St. Michael's were left in place until +cannonballs from the blockading fleet struck the church, when they were +taken down and sent, together with the silver plate, to Columbia, South +Carolina, for safe-keeping. But Columbia was, as matters turned out, the +worst place to which they could have been sent. The silver was looted by +troops under Sherman, and the bells were destroyed when the city was +burned. The fragments were, however, collected and sent to England, +whence the bells originally came, and there they were recast. Their +music--perhaps the most characteristic of all the city's characteristic +sounds--has been called "the voice of Charleston." Of the silver only a +few fragments have been returned. One piece was found in a pawn shop in +New York, and another in a small town in Ohio. _Mais que voulez-vous? +C'est la guerre!_ + +In mentioning Charleston churches one becomes involved in a large +matter. In 1801, when St. Mary's, the first Roman Catholic church in the +city, was erected, there were already eighteen churches in existence, +among them the present Huguenot Church, at the corner of Church and +Queen Streets, which, though a very old building, is nevertheless the +second Huguenot Church to occupy the same site, the first, built in +1687, having been destroyed in the great conflagration of 1796, which +very nearly destroyed St. Philip's, as well. A number of the old +Huguenot families long ago became Episcopalians, and the descendants of +many of the early French settlers of Charleston, buried in the Huguenot +churchyard, are now parishioners of St. Michael's and St. Philip's. The +Huguenot Church in Charleston is the only church of this denomination in +America; its liturgy is translated from the French, and services are +held in French on the third Sunday of November, January and March. A +Unitarian Church was established in 1817, as an offshoot of the Scotch +Presbyterian Church, the old White Meeting House of which (built 1685, +used by the British as a granary, during the Revolution, and torn down +1806) gave Meeting Street its name. Early in the history of the +Unitarian Church, the home of which was a former Presbyterian Church +building, in Archdale Street, Dr. Samuel Gilman, a young minister from +Gloucester, Massachusetts, became its pastor. This was the same Dr. +Gilman who wrote "Fair Harvard." + + * * * * * + +In only one instance did the letters of introduction we sent out produce +a response of the kind one would not be surprised at receiving in some +rushing city of the North: a telephone call. A lady, not a native +Charlestonian, but one who has lived actively about the world, rang us +up, bade us welcome, and invited us to dinner. + +But she was a very modern sort of lady, as witness not only her use of +the telephone--an instrument which seems in Charleston almost an +anachronism; as, for that matter, the automobile does, too--but her +dinner hour, which was eight o'clock. Very few Charleston families dine +at night. Dinner invitations are usually for three, or perhaps half-past +three or four, in the afternoon, and there is a light supper in the +evening. I judge that this custom holds also in some other cities of the +region, for I remember calling at the office of a large investment +company in Wilmington, North Carolina, to find it wearing, at three in +the afternoon, the deserted look of a New York office between twelve and +one o'clock. Every one had gone home to dinner. Mr. W.D. Howells, in his +charming essay on Charleston, makes mention of this matter: + +"The place," he says, "has its own laws and usages, and does not trouble +itself to conform to those of other aristocracies. In London the best +society dines at eight o'clock, and in Madrid at nine, but in Charleston +it dines at four.... It makes morning calls as well as afternoon calls, +but as the summer approaches the midday heat must invite rather to the +airy leisure of the verandas, and the cool quiescence of interiors +darkened against the fly in the morning and the mosquito at +night-fall." + +The household fly is a year-round resident of Charleston, by grace of a +climate which permits--barely permits, at its coldest--the use of the +open surrey as a public vehicle in all seasons. Sometimes, during a +winter cold-snap, when a ride in a surrey is not a pleasant thing to +contemplate, when residents of old mansions have shut themselves into a +room or two heated by grate fires, then the fly seems to have +disappeared, but let the cold abate a little and out he comes again like +some rogue who, after brief and spurious penance, resumes the evil of +his ways. + +The stranger going to a humble Charleston house will find on the gate a +coiled spring at the end of which hangs a bell. By touching the spring +and causing the bell to jingle he makes his presence known. The larger +houses have upon their gates bell-pulls or buttons which cause bells to +ring within. This is true of all houses which have front gardens. The +garden gate constitutes, by custom, a barrier comparable in a degree +with the front door of a Northern house; a usage arising, doubtless, out +of the fact that almost all important Charleston houses have not only +gardens, but first and second story galleries, and that in hot weather +these galleries become, as it were, exterior rooms, in which no small +part of the family life goes on. Many Charleston houses have their +gardens to the rear, and themselves abut upon the sidewalk. Calling at +such houses, you ring at what seems to be an ordinary front door, but +when the door is opened you find yourself entering not upon a hall, but +upon an exterior gallery running to the full depth of the house, down +which you walk to the actual house door. In still other houses--and this +is true of some of the most notable mansions of the city, including the +Pringle, Huger, and Rhett houses--admittance is by a street door of the +normal sort, opening upon a hall, and the galleries and gardens are at +the side or back, the position of the galleries in relation to the house +depending upon what point of the compass the house faces, the desirable +thing being to get the breezes which are prevalently from the southwest +and the westward. + + * * * * * + +Charleston is very definitely two things: It is old, and it is a city. + +There is the story of a young lady who asked a stranger if he did not +consider it a unique town. + +He agreed that it was, and inquired whether she knew the derivation of +the word "unique." + +When she replied negatively he informed her that the word came from the +Latin _unus_, meaning "one," and _equus_, meaning "a horse"; otherwise +"a one-horse town." + +This tale, however, is a libel, for despite the general superstition of +chambers of commerce to the contrary, the estate of cityhood is not +necessarily a matter of population nor yet of commerce. That is one of +the things which, if we were unaware of it before, we may learn from +Charleston. Charleston is not great in population; it is not very great, +as seaports go, in trade. Were cities able to talk with one another as +men can, and as foolishly as men often do, I have no doubt that many a +hustling middle-western city would patronize Charleston, precisely as a +parvenue might patronize a professor of astronomy; nevertheless, +Charleston has a stronger, deeper-rooted city entity than all the cities +of the Middle West rolled into one. This is no exaggeration. Where +modern American cities strive to be like one another, Charleston strives +to be like nothing whatsoever. She does not have to strive to _be_ +something. She _is_ something. She understands what most other American +cities do not understand, and what, in view of our almost unrestricted +immigration laws, it seems the National Government cannot be made to +understand: namely, that mere numbers do not count for everything; that +there is the matter of quality of population to be considered. +Therefore, though Charleston's white population is no greater than that +of many a place which would own itself frankly a small town, Charleston +knows that by reason of the character of its population it is a great +city. And that is precisely the case. Charleston people are city people +_par excellence_. They have the virtues of city people, the vices of +city people, and the civilization and sophistication of those who reside +in the most aristocratic capitals. For that is another thing that +Charleston is; it is unqualifiedly the aristocratic capital of the +United States; the last stronghold of a unified American upper class; +the last remaining American city in which Madeira and Port and +_noblesse oblige_ are fully and widely understood, and are employed +according to the best traditions. + +I have been told of a lady who remarked that Charleston was "the biggest +little place" she ever saw. I say the same. The littleness of the place, +it is sometimes pointed out, is expressed by the "vast cousinship" which +constitutes Charleston society, but it is to my mind expressed much +better in the way bicyclists leave their machines leaning against the +curb at the busiest parts of main shopping streets. Its bigness, upon +the other hand, is expressed by the homes from which some of those +bicyclists come, by the cultivation which exists in those homes, and has +existed there for generations, by the amenities of life as they are +comprehended and observed, by the wealth of the city's tradition and the +richness of its background. Nor is that background a mere arras of +recollection. It exists everywhere in the wood and brick and stone of +ancient and beautiful buildings, in iron grilles and balconies +absolutely unrivaled in any other American city, and equaled only in +European cities most famous for their artistry in wrought iron. It +exists also in venerable institutions--the first orphanage established +in the United States; the William Enston Home; the Public Library, one +of the first and now one of the best libraries in the country; the art +museum, the St. Cecilia Society, and various old clubs. More intimately +it exists within innumerable old homes, which are treasure-houses of +fine old English and early American furniture and of +portraits--portraits by Sir Joshua, by Stuart, Copley, Trumbull, and +most of the other portrait painters who painted from the time the +Colonies began to become civilized to the time of the Civil War--among +them S.F.B. Morse, who, I believe it is not generally known, made a +considerable reputation as a portrait painter, in Charleston, before he +made himself a world figure by inventing the telegraph. + +Even without seeing these private treasures the visitor to Charleston +will see enough to convince him that Charleston is indeed +"unique"--though not in the sense implied in the story--that it is the +most intimately beautiful city upon the American continent. + +To call Charleston "unique," and immediately thereafter to liken it to +other places may seem paradoxical. These likenesses are, however, +evanescent. It is not that Charleston is actually like other places, but +that here in a church building, there in an old tile roof, wrought iron +gate, or narrow cobbled street, the visitor will find himself delicately +reminded of Old World towns and cities. Mr. Howells, for example, found +on the East Battery a faint suggestion of Venetian palaces, and in the +doorway and gates of the Smyth house, in Legare Street, I was struck, +also, with a Venetian suggestion so strange and subtle that I could not +quite account for it. At night some of the old narrow streets, between +Meeting Street and Bay, made me think of streets in the old part of +Paris, on the left bank of the Seine; or again I would stop before an +ancient brick house which was Flemish, or which--in the case of houses +diagonally opposite St. Philip's Church--exampled the rude architecture +of an old French village, stucco walls colored and chipped, red tile +roof and all. The busy part of King Street, on a Saturday night when the +fleet was in, made me think of Havana, and the bluejackets seemed to me, +for the moment, to be American sailors in a foreign port; and once, on +the same evening's walk, when I chanced to look to the westward across +Marion Square, I found myself transported to the central _place_ of a +Belgian city, with a slope-shouldered church across the way masquerading +as a _hotel de ville_, and the sidewalk lights at either side figuring +in my imagination as those of pleasant terrace cafes. So it was always. +The very hotel in which we stayed--the Charleston--is like no other +hotel in the United States, though it has about it something which +caused me to think of the old Southern, in St. Louis. Still, it is not +like the Southern. It is more like some old hotel in a provincial city +of France--large and white, with a pleasing unevenness of floor, and, +best of all, a great inner court which, in provincial France, might be a +_remise_, but is here a garden. If I mistake not, carriages and coaches +did in earlier times drive through the arched entrance, now the main +doorway, and into this courtyard, where passengers alighted and baggage +was taken down. The Planter's Hotel, now a ruin, opposite the Huguenot +Church, antedates all others in the city, and used to be the fashionable +gathering place for wealthy Carolinians and their families who came to +Charleston annually for the racing season. + +The fact that Charleston has a rather important art museum and that its +library is one of the four oldest town libraries in the country, no less +than the fact that the city was, in its day, a great racing center, +contribute to an understanding of the spirit of the place. The present +Charleston Library is not the first public library started in the city. +Not by any means! For it was founded as late as 1748, and the original +public library of Charleston was the first one of the kind in the +country, having been started about the beginning of the 18th century. +Old records of this library still exist, showing that citizens voted so +many skins to its support. Probably the most valuable possession of the +present library are its files of Charleston newspapers, dating from 1732 +to the present time, including three files covering the War of 1812, and +two covering the Civil War. These files are consulted by persons from +all over the United States, for historical material. The library has +recently moved into a good modern building. In the old building there +was a separate entrance at the back for ladies, and it is only lately +that ladies have been allowed full membership in the Library Society, +and have entered by the front door. The former custom, I suppose, +represented certain old-school sentiments as to "woman's place" such as +I find expressed in "Reminiscences of Charleston," by Charles Fraser, +published in 1854. Declares Mr. Fraser: + + The ambition for literary distinction is now very prevalent with + the sex. But without any disposition to undervalue their claims, + whenever I hear of a female traveler clambering the Alps, or + describing the classic grounds of Greece and Italy, publishing her + musings in the holy land, or revealing the mysteries of the harem, + I cannot but think that for every success obtained some appropriate + duty has been neglected. + + I except the poetess, for hers are the effusions of the heart and + the imagination, prompted by nature and uttered because they are + irrepressible. Many females travel for the purpose of writing and + publishing books--whilst Mrs. Heman's, Mrs. Osgood's, and Mrs. + Sigourney's volumes may be regarded as grateful offerings to the + muse in return for her inspiration. + +It is hard not to be irritated, even now, with the man who wrote that, +especially in view of the fact that the two most interesting books to +come out of the Carolinas of recent years are both by women: one of them +being "Charleston--the Place and the People," by Mrs. St. Julien +Ravenel, a volume any chapter of which is worth the whole of Mr. +Fraser's "Reminiscences," and the other "A Woman Rice-Planter," by +"Patience Pennington," otherwise Mrs. John Julius Pringle (nee Alston), +who lives on her plantation near Georgetown, South Carolina. + +The Carolina Jockey Club subscribed regularly to the support of the +library, and now that that club is no more, its chief memorial may be +said to rest there. This club was probably the first racing club in the +country, and it is interesting to note that the old cement pillars from +the Washington Race Course at Charleston were taken, when that course +was abandoned, and set up at the Belmont Park course, near New York. + +The turf history of Carolina began (according to the "South Carolina +Gazette," dated February 1, 1734) in that same year, on the first +Tuesday in February. One of the prizes was a saddle and bridle valued at +L20. The riders were white men and the course was a green at Charleston +Neck, near where the lower depot of the South Carolina Railroad now +stands. In a "History of the Turf in South Carolina," which I found in +the library, I learned that Mr. Daniel Ravenel bred fine horses on his +plantation, Wantoot, in St. John's Parish, as early as 1761, that Mr. +Frank Huger had imported an Arabian horse, and that many other gentlemen +were importing British running horses, and were engaged in breeding. The +book refers to the old York Course, later called the New Market Course. +A long search did not, however, enable me to establish the date on which +the Jockey Club was founded. It was clearly a going institution in 1792, +for under date of Wednesday, February 15, in that year, I found the +record of a race for the Jockey Club Purse--"four mile-heats--weight for +age--won by Mr. Lynch's _Foxhunter_, after a well contested race of four +heats, beating Mr. Sumter's _Ugly_, who won the first heat; Col. +Washington's _Rosetta_, who won the second heat; Capt. Alston's _Betsy +Baker_," etc., etc. + +The Civil War practically ended the Jockey Club, though a feeble effort +was, for a time, made to carry it on. In 1900 the club properties and +the funds remaining in the club treasury were transferred as an +endowment to the Charleston Library Society. The proceeds from this +endowment add to the library's income by about two thousand dollars +annually. Other items of interest in connection with the Carolina Jockey +Club are that Episcopal Church conventions used to be held in Charleston +during the racing season, so that the attending parsons might take in +the races; that the Jockey Club Ball used to be the great ball of the +Charleston season, as the second St. Cecilia Ball became later and now +is; that the Charleston Club, a most delightful club, founded in 1852, +was an outgrowth of the Jockey Club; and that the Jockey Club's old +Sherries, Ports and Madeiras went to New York where they were purchased +by Delmonico--among them a Calderon de la Barca Madeira of 1848, and a +Peter Domecq Sherry of 1818. + +Mr. S.A. Nies, one of the old employees of Delmonico's, tells me that +the Calderon de la Barca of the above mentioned year is all gone, but +that Delmonico's still has a few bottles of the same wine of the vintage +of 1851. + +"This wine," Mr. Nies said, "is listed on our wine card at $6.00 per +bottle. It is not the best Madeira that we have, although it is a very +fine one. Recently we served a bottle of Thompson's Auction Madeira, of +which the year is not recognizable on the label, but which to my +knowledge was an old wine forty years ago. This wine brought $25.00 a +bottle and was worth it. + +"The Peter Domecq Sherry of 1818 does not figure on our wine list as we +have but a few bottles left. It is $20.00 a bottle. + +"The prices brought to-day by old Madeiras and Sherries do not represent +their real values. One has but to look at the compound interest of +savings banks to realize that these wines should be selling at four +times the price they are; but unfortunately, since the advent of Scotch +whisky in the American market, the American palate seems to have +deteriorated, and if the wines were listed at the price they ought to +bring, we could not sell them. As it is, the demand for the very rare +old wines is irregular and infrequent. We keep them principally to +preserve our reputation; not for the money there is in it." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +HISTORY AND ARISTOCRACY + + The cool shade of aristocracy.... + + --SIR W.F.P. NAPIER. + + +Just now, when we are being unpleasantly awakened to the fact that our +vaunted American melting-pot has not been doing its work; when some of +us are perhaps wondering whether the quality of metal produced by the +crucible will ever be of the best; it is comforting to reflect that a +city whose history, traditions and great names are so completely +involved with Americanism in its highest forms, a city we think of as +ultra-American, is peculiarly a melting-pot product. + +The original Charleston colonists were English and Irish, sent out under +Colonel Sayle, in 1669, by the Lords Proprietors, to whom Charles II had +granted a tract of land in the New World, embracing the present States +of Georgia and North and South Carolina. These colonists touched at Port +Royal--where the Marine Barracks now are (and ought not to be)--but +settled on the west side of the Ashley River, across from where +Charleston stands. It was not until 1680 that they transferred their +settlement to the present site of the city, naming the place Charles +Town in honor of the King. In 1671 the colony contained 263 men able to +bear arms, 69 women and 59 children. In 1674, when New York was taken by +the English from the Dutch, a number of the latter moved down to the +Carolina colony. French Protestants had, at that time, already begun to +arrive, and more came after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in +1685. In 1680 Germans came. By 1684 there were four Huguenot settlements +in Carolina. In 1696 a Quaker was governor for a short time, and in the +same year a body of New Englanders arrived from Dorchester, +Massachusetts, establishing a town which they called Dorchester, near +the present town of Summerville, a few miles from Charleston. At that +time a number of Scottish immigrants had already arrived, though more +came in 1715 and 1745, after the defeat of the Highlanders. From 1730 to +1750 new colonists came from Switzerland, Holland and Germany. As early +as 1740 there were several Jewish families in Charleston, and some of +the oldest and most respected Jewish families in the United States still +reside there. Also, when the English drove the Acadians from Canada in +1755, twelve hundred of them immigrated to Carolina. By 1790, then, the +city had a population of a little more than 15,000, which was about half +the number of inhabitants then contained in the city of New York. In the +case of Charleston, however, more than one half her people, at that +time, were negroes, slavery having been introduced by Sir John Yeamans, +an early British governor. By 1850 the city had about 20,000 white +citizens and 23,000 blacks, and by 1880 some 7,500 more, of which +additional number two thirds were negroes. The present population is +estimated at 65,000, which makes Charleston a place of about the size of +Rockford, Illinois, Sioux City, Iowa, or Covington, Kentucky; but as, in +the case of Charleston, more than half this number is colored, +Charleston is, if the white population only is considered, a place of +approximately 30,000 inhabitants, or, roughly speaking, about the size +of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., or Colorado Springs, Colorado. + +In area, also, Charleston is small, covering less than four square +miles. This is due to the position of the city on a peninsula formed by +the convergence and confluence of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, which +meet at Charleston's beautiful Battery precisely as the Hudson River and +the East River meet at the Battery in New York. The shape of Charleston, +indeed, greatly resembles that of Manhattan Island, and though her +harbor and her rivers are neither so large nor so deep as those of the +port of New York, they are altogether adequate to a considerable +maritime activity. + +The Charleston Chamber of Commerce (which, like everything else in +Charleston dates from long ago, having been founded in 1748) quotes +President Taft as calling this port the most convenient one to Panama--a +statement which the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce is in position to +dispute. The fact remains, however, that Charleston's position on the +map justifies the Chamber of Commerce's alliterative designation of the +place as "The Plumb-line Port to Panama." This is so true that if +Charleston should one day be shaken loose from its moorings by an +earthquake--something not unknown there--and should fall due south upon +the map, it would choke up the mouth of the Canal, were not Cuba +interposed, to catch the debris. + +Before the Civil War, Charleston was the greatest cotton shipping port +of the country, and it still handles large amounts of cotton and rice. +Until a few years ago South Carolina was the chief rice producing State +in the Union, and history records that the first rice planted in the +Carolinas, if not in the country, was secured and sown by an early +governor of Carolina, Thomas Smith, who died in 1694. It may be noted in +passing that this Thomas Smith bore the title "Landgrave," the Lords +Proprietors, in their plan of government for the colony--which, by the +way, was drawn up by the philosopher Locke--having provided for a +colonial nobility with titles. The titles "Baron" and "Landgrave" were +hereditary in several Charleston families, and constitute, so far as I +know, the only purely American titles of nobility that ever existed. +Descendants of the old Landgraves still reside in Charleston, and in at +least one instance continue to use the word "Landgrave" in connection +with the family name. + +The prosperity of Charleston since the Civil War has depended more, +perhaps, than on any other single product, upon the trade in phosphate, +large deposits of which underlie this region. + +The real wonder of Charleston, the importance of the place among +American cities, cannot, however, be said to have resulted primarily +from commerce (though her commerce is growing), or from greatness of +population (though Charleston is the metropolis of the Carolinas), but +is involved with matters of history, tradition and beauty. The mantle of +greatness was assumed by this city in colonial times, and has never been +laid aside. Among the most distinguished early Americans were many +Charlestonians, and in not a few instances the old blood still endures +there, and even the old names: such names as Washington, Pinckney, Bull, +Pringle, Rutledge, Middleton, Drayton, Alston, Huger, Agassiz, Ravenel, +Izard, Gadsden, Rhett, Calhoun, Read, De Saussure, Lamar and Brawley, to +mention but a few. + + * * * * * + +Charleston's early history is rich in pirate stories of the most +thrilling moving-picture variety. Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet and other +disciples of the Jolly Roger preyed upon Charleston shipping. Bonnet +once held a Mr. Samuel Wragg of Charleston prisoner aboard his ship +threatening to send his head to the city unless the unfortunate man +should be ransomed--the demand being for medicines of various kinds. +Colonel Rhett, of Charleston, captured Bonnet and his ship after a +savage fight, but Bonnet soon after escaped from the city in woman's +clothing. Still later he was retaken, hanged, as he deserved to be, and +buried along with forty of his band at a point now covered by the +Battery Garden, that exquisite little park at the tip of the city, which +is the favorite promenade of Charlestonians. In another fight which +occurred just off Charleston bar, a crew of citizens under Governor +Robert Johnson defeated the pirate Richard Worley, who was killed in the +action, and captured his ship, which, when the hatches were opened +proved to be full of prisoners, thirty-six of them women. Even as late +as the period of the War of 1812--a war which did not affect Charleston +save in the way of destroying her shipping and causing poverty and +distress--a case of brutal piracy is recorded. The daughter of Aaron +Burr, Theodosia by name, was married to Governor Joseph Alston. After +her father's trial for high treason, when he was disgraced and broken, +she tried to comfort him, for the two were peculiarly devoted. Intending +to visit him she set sail from Charleston for New York in a ship which +was never heard from again. Somewhere I have read a description of the +distraught father's long vigils at New York, where he would stand gazing +out to sea long after all hope had been abandoned by others. Mrs. St. +Julien Ravenel tells us in her charming book, that thirty years later an +old sailor, dying in a village of the North Carolina coast, confessed +that he had been one of a pirate crew which had captured the ship and +compelled the passengers to walk the plank. This story is also given by +Charles Gayarre, who says the pirate chief was none other than Dominick +You, who fought under Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans, and is +buried in that city. The husband and father of Mrs. Alston were spared +the ghastly tale, Mrs. Ravenel says, since both were already in their +graves when the sailor's deathbed confession solved the mystery. + +In the Revolution, Charleston played an important part. Men of +Charleston were, of course, among the signers of the Declaration of +Independence. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who gave us the immortal +maxim: "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!" who was on +Washington's staff, was later Ambassador to France and president-general +of the Sons of the Cincinnati, was a Charlestonian of the +Charlestonians, and lies buried in St. Michael's. Such Revolutionary +names as Marion, Laurens, William Washington, Greene, Hampton, Moultrie +and Sumter are associated with the place, and two of these are reechoed +in the names of those famous forts in Charleston harbor on which +attention was fixed at the outbreak of the Civil War: Moultrie and +Sumter--the latter, target for the first shot fired in the conflict. + +Nearly thirty years before the Civil War, Charleston had distinguished +herself in the arts of peace by producing the first locomotive tried in +the United States, and by constructing the first consecutive hundred +miles of railroad ever built in the world, and now, with the War, she +distinguished herself by initiating other mechanical devices of very +different character--a semi-submersible torpedo boat and the first +submarine to torpedo a hostile war vessel. True, David Bushnell of +Connecticut did construct a crude sort of submarine during the +Revolutionary War, and succeeded in getting under a British ship with +the machine, but he was unable to fasten his charge of powder and his +effort consequently failed. Robert Fulton also experimented with +submarines, or "plunging boats" as he called them, and was encouraged +for a time by Napoleon I. The little _David_ of the Confederate navy is +sometimes referred to as the first submarine but the _David_ was not +actually an underwater boat, but a torpedo boat which could run awash, +with her funnels and upper works slightly out of water. She was a +cigar-shaped vessel thirty-three feet long, built of wood, propelled by +steam, and carrying her torpedo on a pole, forward. Dr. St. Julien +Ravenel of Charleston and Captain Theodore Stoney devised the craft, and +she was built by funds subscribed by Charleston merchants. In command of +Lieutenant W.T. Glassell, C.S.N., and with three other men aboard, she +torpedoed the United States ship _New Ironsides_, flagship of the fleet +blockading Charleston. The _New Ironsides_ was crippled, but not lost. +After this United States vessels blockading Charleston protected +themselves with booms. This resulted in the construction of an actual +undersea torpedo boat, the _Hunley_. This extraordinary vessel has been +spoken of as having had the appearance of a huge iron coffin, as well as +the attributes of one, for she proved a death-trap for successive crews +on three trial trips. As there were no electric motors or gasoline +engines in those days, she was run by hand, eight men crowded together +turning a crank-shaft which operated her propeller. After repeated +sinkings, she was raised, manned by new men, and sent forth again. +Finally, in Charleston harbor she succeeded in destroying the United +States man-o'-war _Housatonic_, but at the same time went down, herself, +drowning or suffocating all on board. A memorial drinking fountain on +the Battery, at the foot of Meeting Street, commemorates "the men of the +Confederate Army and Navy, first in marine warfare to employ torpedo +boats--1863-1865." On this memorial are given the names of sixteen men +who perished in torpedo attacks on the blockading fleet, among them +Horace L. Hunley, set down as inventor of the submarine boat. The names +of fourteen others who were lost are unknown. + + * * * * * + +Lord William Campbell, younger son of the Duke of Argyll, was British +governor at Charleston when the Revolution broke out. He had married a +Miss Izard, of Charleston, who brought him a dowry of fifty thousand +pounds, a large sum in those times. Their home was in a famous old house +which stands on Meeting Street, and it was from the back yard of this +house that Lord William fled in a rowboat to a British man-o'-war, when +it became evident that Charleston was no longer hospitable to +representatives of the Crown. Later his wife followed him to Great +Britain, where they remained. + +The Pringle House, as it is now called, formerly the Brewton house, +perhaps the most superb old residence in the city, was the headquarters +of General Sir Henry Clinton, after he had captured Charleston, and was +the residence of Lord Rawdon, the unpleasant British commander who +succeeded Clinton. Cornwallis lived outside the town at Drayton Hall, +which still stands, on the Ashley River. After his capture Cornwallis +was exchanged for Henry Laurens, a distinguished Charlestonian, who, +though he wept over the Declaration of Independence, was before long +president of the Continental Congress, and later went to France, where +he was associated with Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and John Adams in +negotiating the treaty of peace and independence for America. + +Mrs. Ravenel says in her book that Sherman destroyed all but one of the +superb old houses on the Ashley River, and when we consider that +Sherman's troops invested Charleston just before the end of the War, and +reflect upon the general's notorious "carelessness with fire," we have +cause for national rejoicing that Charleston, with its unmatched +buildings and their splendid contents, was not laid in ashes, as were +Atlanta and Columbia. Had Sherman burned Charleston it would be hard for +even a Yankee to forgive him. + +Even without the aid of the Northern general, the city has been able to +furnish disastrous conflagrations of her own, over a period of two +centuries and more, and I find in the quaint reminiscences of Charles +Fraser, already alluded to, a lamentation that, because of fires, many +of the old landmarks have disappeared, and the city is "losing its look +of picturesque antiquity." To make matters worse, there came, in 1886, +an earthquake, rendering seven eighths of the houses uninhabitable until +repairs aggregating some millions of dollars had been made. Up to the +time of the earthquake the old mansion from which Lord William Campbell +fled at the beginning of the Revolution, was adorned by a battlemented +roof. It is recorded that when the shock came, an Englishman was in the +house, and that in his eagerness to get outdoors he pushed others aside. +As he reached the front steps, however, the battlements came crashing +down. He was the one person from that house who perished, and his only +monument is the patch of comparatively new stone where the broken steps +have been repaired. + + * * * * * + +My companion and I achieved entrance to one of the famous old Charleston +houses which we had been particularly anxious to see, through the +kindness of a lady to whom we had a letter of introduction, who happened +to be a relative of the owner of the house. + +It seems necessary to explain, at this juncture, that in Charleston, +many proper names of foreign origin have been corrupted in +pronunciation. A few examples will suffice: The Dutch name Vanderhorst, +conspicuous in the early annals of the city, has come to be pronounced +"Van-Dross"; Legare, the name of another distinguished old family, +commemorated in the name of Legare Street, is pronounced "Legree"; De +Saussure has become "Dess-a-sore," with the accent on the first +syllable, and Prioleau is called "Pray-low." + +I was unaware of these matters when my companion and I visited the +ancient house I speak of. Though I had heard the name of the proprietor +of the mansion spoken many times, and recognized it as a distinguished +Charleston name, I had never seen it written; however, without having +given the matter much thought, I had, unfortunately, reached my own +conclusions as to how it was spelled. Still more unfortunately, while I +was delighting in the drawing-room of that wonderful old house, with the +portraits of ladies in powdered hair and men in cocked hats and periwigs +looking down upon me from the walls, I was impelled to reassure myself +as to the spelling of the name. Let us assume that the name sounded like +"Bowfee." That was not it but it will suffice for illustration. + +"I suppose," I said to our charming cicerone, "that the family name is +spelled 'B-o-w-f-e-e'?" + +I had no sooner spoken than I realized, with a sudden access of horror +what I had done. In guessing I had sinned, but in guessing wrong I had +ruined myself. All this came to me instantly and positively, as by a +psychic message of unparalleled definiteness from the dead ancestors +whose portraits hung upon the paneling. It was as though they had joined +in a great ghostly shout of execration, which was the more awful because +it was a silent shout that jarred upon the senses rather than the ear +drums. Then, before the lady replied, while the sound of my own voice +saying "B-o-w-f-e-e" seemed to reverberate through the apartment, I +suddenly comprehended the spirit of Charleston: understood that, +compared with Charleston, Boston is as a rough mining camp, while New +York hardly exists at all, being a mere miasma of vulgarity. + +There was a long silence, in which the lady to whom I had spoken gazed +from the window at the rainy twilight. Her silence, I am persuaded, was +not intended to rebuke me; she was not desirous of crushing me; she was +merely stunned. Indeed, when at last she spoke, there was in her tone +something of gentleness. + +"The name," she said, "is Beaufoy--B-e-a-u-f-o-y. It is of Huguenot +origin." + +Passionately I wished for an earthquake--one that might cause the floor +to open beneath me, or the roof to fall through and blot me from her +sight. How to get away?--that was my one thought. To cover my +embarrassment, I tried to make small-talk about a medallion of an +Emperor of France, which hung upon the paneling. The lady said it had +been given to an ancestor of the Beaufoys by the Emperor himself. That, +for some reason, seemed to make things rather worse. I wished I had not +dragged the Emperor into the conversation. + +"It is getting dark," I said. "It is time we were going." + +This the lady did not dispute. + +Of our actual farewells and exit from that house, I remember not a +detail, save that, as we departed, I knew that we should never see this +lady again; that for her I no longer existed, and that in my downfall I +had dragged my companion with me. The next thing I definitely recollect +is walking swiftly up Meeting Street beside him, in the rain and +darkness of late afternoon. All the way back to the hotel we strode side +by side in pregnant silence; neither did we speak as we ascended to our +rooms. + +Some time later, while I was dressing for dinner, he entered my +bedchamber. At the moment, as it happened, I was putting cuff-links into +a dress shirt. With this task I busied myself, dreading to look up. In +the meantime I felt his eyes fixed upon me. When the links were in, I +delayed meeting his gaze by buttoning the little button in one +sleeve-vent, above the cuff. + +"Do you mean to say you button those idiotic little buttons?" he +demanded. "I didn't know that anybody ever did that!" + +"I don't always," I answered apologetically. + +"I should hope not!" he returned. Then he continued: "Do you remember +where we are to be taken to-morrow?" + +"Yes," I said. "To the Pringle house." + +"Well," said he, "I just came in to ask you, as a favor, not to get off +any fanciful ideas that you may have thought up, about the way to spell +Pringle." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +POLITICS, A NEWSPAPER AND ST. CECILIA + + +Charleston is very definitely a part of South Carolina. That is not +always the case with a State and its chief city. It is not the case with +the State and the City of New York. New York City has about the same +relation to New York State as a goldpiece has to a large table-top on +one corner of which it lies. Charleston, on the other hand, harmonizes +into its state setting, as a beautiful ancient vase harmonizes into the +setting afforded by some rare old cabinet. Moreover, Charleston's +individuality amongst cities is more or less duplicated in South +Carolina's individuality amongst States. South Carolina is a State as +definitely marked--though in altogether different ways--as Kansas or +California. It is a State that does nothing by halves. It has +rattlesnakes larger and more venomous than other rattlesnakes, and it +has twice had the disgraceful Cole Blease, otherwise +"To-hell-with-the-Constitution" Blease, as governor. For senator it has +the old war-horse Tillman, a man so admired for his power that, in our +easy-going way, we almost forgive his dives into the pork-barrel. +Tillman has been to South Carolina more or less what the late Senator +Hale was to his section of New England. Hale grabbed a navy yard for +Kittery, Maine (the Portsmouth yard), where there never should have been +a navy yard; Tillman performed a like service, under like circumstances, +for Charleston. Both are purely political yards. Naval officers opposed +them, but were overridden by politicians, as so often happens. For in +time of peace the army and the navy are political footballs, and it is +only when war comes that the politicians cease kicking them about and +cry: "Now, football, turn into a cannon-ball, and save your country and +your country's flag!" For obviously, if the flag cannot be saved, the +politicians will be without a "starry banner" to gesture at and roar +about. + +Now, of course, with war upon us, any navy yard is a blessing, and the +Charleston yard is being used, as it should be, to the utmost. But in +time of peace the yard comes in for much criticism from the navy, the +contention being that it is not favorably located from a strategic point +of view, and that, owing to bars in the Cooper River, up which it is +situated, it cannot be entered by large ships. The point is also made +that while labor is cheaper at this yard than at any other, skilled +metal-workers are hard to get. Friends of the yard contend, upon the +other hand, that it is desirable because of its convenience to the +Caribbean Sea, where, according to naval theory, this country will some +day have to fight a battle in defense of the Panama Canal. The Pensacola +yard, it is pointed out, is exposed and can be bombarded, whereas the +Charleston yard is far enough inland to be safe from sea attack. As to +the channel, it is navigable for destroyers and other small +craft--though whether it would be so to a large destroyer which had been +injured and was drawing more water than usual, I do not know. The +practical situation of the navy, with regard to this and some of the +other political yards, is like that of some man who has been left a lot +of heterogeneous houses, scattered about town, none of them suited to +his purposes, and who is obliged to scatter his family amongst them as +best he can, or else abandon them and build a new house. We have been +following the former course, and are only now preparing to adopt the +latter, by establishing a naval base at Norfolk, as mentioned in an +earlier chapter. + +Charleston politics have been peculiar. Until a few years ago the +government of the city had long rested in the hands of a few old +families, among them the Gadsdens and the Rhetts. The overthrow of this +ancient and aristocratic rule by the election to the mayoralty of John +P. Grace, an alleged "friend of the people," was spoken of by the New +York "Sun," as being not a mere change in municipal government, but the +fall of a dynasty which had controlled the city politically, financially +and socially for a century and a half. Mr. Grace may be dismissed with +the remark that he supported Blease and that he is editor of the +recently founded Charleston "American," which I have heard called a +Hearst newspaper, and which certainly wears the Hearst look about it. + +On January 19, 1917, this newspaper printed a full account of the ball +of the St. Cecilia Society, Charleston's most sacred social +organization. Never before in the history of the St. Cecilia Society, +covering a period of a century and a half, had an account of one of its +balls, and the names of those attending, been printed. The publication +caused a great stir in the city and resulted in an editorial, said to +have been written by Grace, which appeared next day, and which reveals +something of Charleston tradition and something of Grace, as well. It +was headed "The Saint Cecilia Ball," and ran as follows: + + We carried on yesterday a full account of the famous Saint Cecilia + Ball. From the foundation of Charleston until the present moment it + has been regarded as an unwritten law that the annual events of + this ancient society shall not be touched upon. + + Of course it was permissible for the thirty-five thousand poor + white people of Charleston to talk about the Saint Cecilia, and to + indulge in the thrilling sensation that comes to the proverbial cat + when she looks at a queen. Some of them, moved by curiosity, even + ventured within half a block of the Hibernian Hall to observe from + afar the gay festivities. + + The press being forbidden to cover Saint Cecilia events, there grew + up in the vulgar mind weird stories of what went on behind the + scenes. While the Saint Cecilia has enjoyed the happy privilege of + journalistic silence, it has, therefore, correspondingly suffered + on the tongue of gossip. The truth is that we always knew that the + Saint Cecilia was just about the same as every other social + collection of human beings--a little gaiety flavored with a little + frivolity; nothing more, nothing less. + + There was a time when this society was the extreme limit of social + exclusiveness. It was an anachronism on American soil, a matter of + pure heredity, the right to membership in which was as fixed as + Median law, but transcendently above the median line. Now, however, + since the society, in keeping with the spirit of the age, has + relaxed its rules to admit from year to year (if, indeed, only a + few now and then) members whose blood is far from indigo, we think + it perfectly legitimate for the newspaper, which represents ALL + classes of people, to invade the quondam sanctity of its functions + which are now being OPENED to all classes. + +Following this, the editorial quoted from Don Seitz's book, telling how +the elder James Gordon Bennett was in the habit of mocking "events to +which he was not invited," and how, in 1840, he managed to get one of +his reporters into "Henry I Brevoort's fancy dress ball, the social +event of the period." The quotation from Mr. Seitz's book ends with the +following: "A far cry from this to 1894, when Ward McAlister, arbiter of +the '400' at Mrs. Astor's famous ball, became a leader on social topics +for the New York 'World.' It took many years for this umbrage at the +reporting of social events to wear off and make the reporter welcome. +Indeed, there is one place yet on the map where it is not even now +permitted to record a social event, though the editors and owners of +papers may be among those present. That is Charleston, South +Carolina...." + +The Charleston editor then resumes his own reflections in this wise: + + We regret to say, and it is the regret of our life, that we were + not one of the editors present at the Saint Cecilia. This, + therefore, relieves us of the implied condition to adhere any + longer to this silly and absurd custom which, in the language of + this great newspaper man, has made its last stand "on the map" at + Charleston. We are glad that we have forever nailed, in the opinion + of one hundred million ordinary people who make the American + nation, the absurdity that there is any social event so sacred, any + people so DIFFERENT from the rest of us poor human beings, that we + dare not speak of them. + +Just why private social events should be, as Mr. Grace seems to assume, +particularly the property of the press, it is somewhat difficult to +explain, unless we do so by accepting as fundamental the theory that the +press is justified in invading personal privacy purely in order to +pander, on the one hand to the new breed of vulgar rich which thrives on +"publicity," and on the other, to the breed of vulgar poor which enjoys +reading that supremest of American inanities, the "society page." + +What Mr. Seitz said in his book as to the reticence of Charleston +newspapers, where society is concerned, is, however, generally +true--amazingly so to one who has become hardened to the attitude of the +metropolitan press elsewhere. The society columns of Charleston papers +hardly ever print the names of the city's real aristocrats, and in the +past they have gone much farther than this, for they have been known to +suppress important news stories in which prominent citizens were +unpleasantly involved. It may be added that earthquakes are evidently +classed as members of the aristocracy, since occasional tremors felt in +the city are pointedly ignored by the press. Whether or not the paper +edited by the fearless Mr. Grace ignores these manifestations I am +unable to say. One can easily fancy his taking a courageous stand on +such a subject as well as upon social matters. Indeed, with a few slight +changes, his editorial upon the St. Cecilia ball, might be made to serve +equally well after an earthquake shock. He might say: + + The press being forbidden to cover earthquakes, there grew up in + the vulgar mind weird stories of what went on behind the scenes. + While the earthquakes have enjoyed the happy privilege of + journalistic silence, they have, therefore, correspondingly + suffered on the tongue of gossip. + +He could also make the point that since, "in keeping with the spirit of +the age," the earthquake shakes people "(if indeed only a few of them +now and then), whose blood is far from indigo, we think it perfectly +legitimate for the newspaper, which represents ALL classes of people, to +invade the quondam sanctity of its functions which are now being OPENED +to all classes." + +But of course, where the editor of such a paper is concerned, there is +always the element of natural delicacy and nicety of feeling to be +considered. Mr. Grace felt that because he was not present at the St. +Cecilia ball, he was free to print things about it. An earthquake would +not be like the St. Cecilia Society--it would not draw the line at Mr. +Grace. At a Charleston earthquake he would undoubtedly be present. The +question therefore arises: Having been PRESENT, might his AMOUR PROPRE +make him feel that to REPORT the event would not be altogether in GOOD +TASTE? + +The St. Cecilia Society began in 1737 with a concert given on St. +Cecilia's day, and continued for many years to give concerts at which +the musicians were both amateurs and professionals. Josiah Quincy, in +his "Journal," tells of having attended one of these concerts in 1773, +and speaks of the richness of the men's apparel, noting that there were +"many with swords on." + +When, in 1819, difficulty was experienced in obtaining performers, it +was proposed that a ball be held in place of a concert, and by 1822 the +society was definitely transformed from a musical to a dancing +organization, which it has remained ever since. + +The statement in the "American" editorial that St. Cecilia balls have +been the subject of scandalous gossip is, I believe, quite false, as is +also the statement that the balls are now "being opened to all classes." + +Mrs. Ravenel in her book tells how the organization is run. Members are +elected, and all are men, though the names of the ladies of a member's +household are placed on the club list. "Only death or removal from the +city erases them--change of fortune affects them not at all." A man +whose progenitors have belonged to the society is almost certain of +election, though there have been cases in which undesirables of good +family have been blackballed. Two blackballs are sufficient to cause the +rejection of a candidate. Men who are not of old Charleston stock are +carefully investigated before they can be elected, but of late years not +a few such, having been considered desirable, have become members. The +members elect officers and a board of managers, and these have entire +control of the society. Three balls are given each year, one in January +and two in February. Until a few years ago the hall in which the balls +are given was lighted by innumerable candelabra; only lately has +electricity been used. The society owns its own plate, damask, china and +glassware, and used to own a good stock of wines. Of late years, I +believe, wines have not been served, the beverage of the evening +consisting of coffee, hot and iced. The greatest decorum is observed at +the balls. Young ladies go invariably with chaperones; following each +dance there is a brief promenade, whereafter the young ladies are +returned to their duennas--who, if they be Charleston dowagers in +perfection, usually carry turkey-feather fans. Cards are filled months +in advance. As lately as the year 1912 every other dance was a square +dance; since then, however, I believe that square dances have gone the +way of candle-light. The society has an endowment and membership is +inexpensive, costing but fifteen dollars a year, including the three +balls. This enables young men starting in life to be members without +going into extravagance, and is in accord with the best social tradition +of Charleston, where the difference between an aristocracy and a +plutocracy is well understood. Most of the rules of the organization are +unwritten. One is that men shall not smoke on the premises during a +ball; another is that divorced persons shall not be members or guests of +the society. In this respect the St. Cecilia Society may be said, in +effect, to be applying, socially, the South Carolina law; for South +Carolina is the only State in the Union in which divorces are not +granted for any cause whatsoever. + +This reminds me that the State has an anti-tipping law. The Pullman +porter is required to hang up copies of the law in his car when it +enters South Carolina, and copies of it are displayed on the doors of +hotel bedrooms. The penalty for giving or receiving a tip is a fine of +from ten to one hundred dollars, or thirty days in jail. Perhaps the law +is observed. I know, at least, that no one offered me a tip while I was +in that State. + + * * * * * + +The old grandees of Charleston were usually sent to Oxford or Cambridge +for an education and English tradition still remains, I fancy, the +foundation for what Charleston social life is to-day. I thought at first +that Charlestonians spoke like the English, but later came to the +conclusion that there is in the pronunciation of some of them a quality +resembling a very faint brogue--a brogue such as might be possessed by a +cultivated Irishman who had moved to England in his boyhood, and had +been educated there. The "vanishing _y_" of tidewater Virginia is also +used by some Charlestonians, I am told, though I do not remember hearing +it. + +Generalizations on the subject of dialectic peculiarities are dangerous, +as I have good reason to know. Naturally, not all Charlestonians speak +alike. I should say, however, that the first _a_ in the words "Papa" +and "Mama" is frequently given a short sound, as _a_ in "hat"; also +that many one-syllable words are strung out into two. For instance, +"eight" is heard as "ay-et" ("ay" as in "gray"); "where" as "whey-uh," +or "way-uh," and "hair" as "hay-uh." "Why?" sometimes sounds like "Woi?" +Such words as "calm" and "palm" are sometimes given the short _a_: "cam" +and "pam"--which, of course, occurs elsewhere, too. The name "Ralph" is +pronounced as "Rafe" (_a_ as in "rate")--which I believe is Old English; +and the names "Saunders" and "Sanders" are pronounced exactly alike, +both being called "Sanders." Tomatoes are sometimes called "tomatters." +Two dishes I never heard of before are "Hopping John," which is rice +cooked with peas, and "Limping Kate," which is some other rice +combination. What we, in the North, call an "ice-cream freezer" becomes +in Charleston an "ice-cream _churn_." "Good morning" is the salutation +up to three P.M., whereas in other parts of the South "Good evening" is +said for the Northern "Good afternoon." Charlestonians speak of being +"parrot-toed"--not "pigeon-toed." Where, in the North, we would ask a +friend, "How are things out your way?" a Charlestonian may inquire, "How +are things out your _side_?" The expression "going out" means to go to +St. Cecilia Balls, and I have been told that it is never used in any +other way. That is, if a lady is asked: "Are you going out this winter?" +it means definitely, "Are you going to the St. Cecilia balls?" If you +heard it said that some one was "_on_ Mount Pleasant," you might +suppose that Mount Pleasant was an island; but it is not; it is a +village on the mainland across the Cooper River. And what is to me one +of the most curious expressions I ever heard is "do don't," as when a +lady called to her daughter, "Martha, _do_ don't slam that door again!" + +How generally these peculiarities crop out in the speech of Charleston I +cannot say. It occurs to me, however, that, assembled and catalogued in +this way, they may create the idea that slovenly English is generally +spoken in the city. If so they give an impression which I should not +wish to convey, since Charleston has no more peculiarities of language +than New York or Boston, and not nearly so many as a number of other +cities. Cultivated Charlestonians have, moreover, the finest voices I +have heard in any American city. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +"GULLA" AND THE BACK COUNTRY + + +The most extraordinary negro dialect I know of is the "gulla" (sometimes +spelled "gullah") of the rice plantation negroes of South Carolina and +of the islands off the South Carolina and Georgia coast. I believe that +the region of Charleston is headquarters for "gulla niggers," though I +have heard the argot spoken as far south as Sepeloe Island, off the town +of Darien, Georgia, near the Florida line. Gulla is such an extreme +dialect as to be almost a language by itself. Whence it came I do not +know, but I judge that it is a combination of English with the primitive +tongues of African tribes, just as the dialect of old Creole negroes, in +Louisiana, is a combination of African tribal tongues with French. + +A Charleston lady tells me that negroes on different rice +plantations--even on adjoining plantations--speak dialects which differ +somewhat, and I know of my own knowledge that thick gulla is almost +incomprehensible to white persons who have not learned, by long +practice, to understand it. + +A lady sent a gulla negro with a message to a friend. This is the +message as it was delivered: + +"Missis seh all dem turrah folk done come shum. Enty you duh gwine come +shum?" (To get the gulla effect the sounds should be uttered very +rapidly.) + +Translated, this means: "Mistress says all them other folks have come to +see her. Aren't you coming to see her?" + +"Shum" is a good gulla word. It means all kinds of things having to do +with seeing--_to see her_, _to see him_, _to see it_. Thus, "You shum, +enty?" may mean, _You see him_--_her_--or _it_? or _You see what +he_--_she_--or _it_--_is doing_, or _has done_? For gulla has no genders +and no tenses. "Enty" is a general question: _Aren't you? Didn't you? +Isn't it?_ etc. Another common gulla word is "Buckra" which means _a +white man of the upper class_, in contradistinction to a poor white. I +have known a negro to refer to "de frame o' de bud," meaning the +carcass, or frame, of a fowl. "Ay ain' day" means "They aren't (ain't) +there." + +A friend of mine who resided at Bluffton, South Carolina, has told me of +an old gulla fisherman who spoke in parables. + +A lady would ask him: "Have you any fish to-day?" To which, if replying +affirmatively, he would answer: "Missis, de gate open"; meaning, "The +door (of the 'car,' or fish-box) is open to you." If he had no fish he +would reply: "Missis, ebb-tide done tack (take) crick"; signifying: "The +tide has turned and it is too late to go to catch fish." This old man +called whisky "muhgundy smash," the term evidently derived from some +idea of the word "burgundy" combined with the word "mash." + +Here is a gulla dialect story, with a line-for-line translation. A train +has killed a cow, and a negro witness is being examined by a justice of +the peace: + +JUSTICE--Uncle John, did you see +what killed Sam's cow? + +NEGRO--Co'ose Uh shum. (Of) course I saw him. + +JUSTICE--What was it, Uncle +John? + +NEGRO--Dat black debble you-all (It was) that black devil you-all +runnin' tru we lan'. Nigga duh (are) running through our land. + (A) nigger (fireman) he +stan' deh, duh po' coal stands there (and) he pours coal +in eh stomach. into its stomach. +Buckra duh sit up on eh seat, (A) white man (engineer) + he sits up on his seat. +duh smoke eh cigah, an' ebry (and) he smokes his cigar, and every +tahme eh twis' eh tail eh run fasteh. time he twists its (engine's) tail it +An' runs faster. And +eh screams dis lak uh pantuh. Eben it screams just like a panther. Even +w'en eh git tuh de station, eh stan' when it gets to the station, it stands +tuh de station an' seh: "_Kyan_-stop! at the station and says: "_Can't_-stop! +_Kyan_-stop! _Kyan_-stop!" _Can't_-stop! _Can't_-stop!" + +Sam cow binna browse down deh Sam's cow was browsing down there +tuh Bull Head Crick. Eh ram eh to (at) Bull Head Creek. It (engine) + rammed its +nose innum, an' eh bussum wahde nose into it (the cow), and it + busted him wide +loose. Eh t'row eh intrus on de loose (open). It threw its entrails + on the +reyel on de cross-tie, an' clean-up rails, on the cross-ties, and clean up +on de tele_gram_ pole. on the telegraph pole. + +Mrs. Leiding (Harriette Kershaw Leiding), of Charleston, has done a fine +service to lovers of Old Charleston, and its ways, in collecting and +publishing in pamphlet form a number of the cries of the negro street +vendors. Of these I shall rob Mrs. Leiding's booklet of but one +example--the cry of a little negro boy, a peddler of shrimp ("swimp"), +who stood under a window in the early morning and sang: + +[Music: + +An' a Daw-try Daw! an' a swimp-y raw! an' a Daw-try Daw-try Daw-try Raw Swimp.] + +While on the subject of the Charleston negro I must not neglect two of +his superstitions. One is his belief that a two-dollar bill is unlucky. +The curse may be removed only by tearing off a corner of the bill. The +other is that it is unlucky to hand any one a pin. A Charleston lady +told me that when she was motoring and wished to pin her hat or her +veil, she could never get her negro chauffeur to hand her pins. Instead +he would stick them in the laprobe, or in the sleeve of his coat, whence +she could pick them out herself. Another lady told me of the case of an +old black slave who lived years ago on a plantation on the Santee River, +owned by her family. This slave, who was a very powerful, taciturn and +high-tempered man, had a curious habit of disappearing for about half an +hour each day. He would go into the swamp, and for many years no one +ever followed him, the other negroes being afraid to do so because of +his temper and his strength. At last, however, they did spy upon him and +discovered that in the swamp there stood a cypress tree on which were +strange rude carvings, before which he prostrated himself. No one ever +learned the exact significance of this, but it was assumed that the man +practised some barbaric form of worship, brought from Africa. + + * * * * * + +The country back of Charleston is very lovely and is rich in interest, +even though most of the houses on the old estates have been destroyed. +Drayton Hall, however, stands, and the old Drayton estate, Magnolia, not +far distant from the Hall (which was on another estate), has one of the +most famous gardens in the world. Seven persons touching fingertips can +barely encircle the trunks of some of the live-oaks at Magnolia; there +are camellias more than twenty feet high, and a rose tree nearly as +large, but the great glory of the garden is its huge azaleas--ninety-two +varieties, it is said--which, when they blossom in the spring, are so +wonderful that people make long journeys for no other purpose than to +see them. + +In "Harper's Magazine" for December, 1875, I find an account of the +gardens which were, at that time, far from new. The azaleas were then +twelve and thirteen feet tall; now, I am told, they reach to a height of +more than twenty feet, with a corresponding spread. + +"It is almost impossible," says the anonymous writer of the article, "to +give a Northerner any idea of the affluence of color in this garden when +its flowers are in bloom. Imagine a long walk with the moss-draped +live-oaks overhead, a fairy lake and a bridge in the distance, and on +each side the great fluffy masses of rose and pink and crimson, +reaching far above your head, thousands upon tens of thousands of +blossoms packed close together, with no green to mar the intensity of +their color, rounding out in swelling curves of bloom down to the turf +below, not pausing a few inches above it and showing bare stems or +trunk, but spreading over the velvet, and trailing out like the rich +robes of an empress. Stand on one side and look across the lawn; it is +like a mad artist's dream of hues; it is like the Arabian nights; eyes +that have never had color enough find here a full feast, and go away +satisfied at last. And with all their gorgeousness, the hues are +delicately mingled; the magic effect is produced not by unbroken banks +of crude reds, but by blended shades, like the rich Oriental patterns of +India shawls, which the European designers, with all their efforts, can +never imitate." + +Another remarkable garden, though not the equal of Magnolia, is at +Middleton Place, not many miles away, and still another is at the +pleasant winter resort town of Summerville, something more than twenty +miles above Charleston. The latter, called the Pinehurst Tea Garden, is +said to be the only tea garden in the United States. It is asserted that +the teas produced here are better than those of China and Japan, and are +equal to those of India. The Government is cooeperating with the owners +of this garden with a view to introducing tea planting in the country in +a large way. + +The finest grade of tea raised here is known as "Shelter Tea," and is +sold only at the gardens, the price being five dollars per pound. It is +a tea of the Assam species grown under shelters of wire mesh and pine +straw. This type of tea is known in Japan, where it originated, as +"sugar tea," because, owing to the fact that it is grown in the shade, +the sap of the bush, which is of starchy quality, is turned chemically +into sugar, giving the leaf an exceedingly delicate flavor. + +From the superintendent in charge of the gardens I learned something of +the bare facts of the tea growing industry. I had always been under the +impression that the name "pekoe" referred to a certain type of tea, but +he told me that the word is Chinese for "eyelash," and came to be used +because the tip leaves of tea bushes, when rolled and dried, resemble +eyelashes. These leaves--"pekoe tips"--make the most choice tea. The +second leaves make the tea called "orange pekoe," while the third leaves +produce a grade of tea called simply "pekoe." In China it is customary +to send three groups of children, successively, to pick the leaves, the +first group picking only the tips, the second group the second leaves, +and the third group the plain pekoe leaves. At the Pinehurst Tea Gardens +the picking is done by colored children, ranging from eight to fifteen +years of age. All the leaves are picked together and are later separated +by machinery. + +Summerville itself seems a lovely lazy town. It is the kind of place to +which I should like to retire in the winter if I had a book to write. +One could be very comfortable, and there would be no radical +distractions--unless one chanced to see the Most Beautiful Girl in the +World, who has been known to spend winters at that place. + +On the way from Charleston to Summerville, if you go by motor, you pass +The Oaks, an estate with a new colonial house standing where an ancient +mansion used to stand. A long avenue bordered by enormous live-oaks, +leading to this house, gives the place its name, and affords a truly +noble approach. Here, in Revolutionary times, Marion, "the Swamp Fox," +used to camp. + +Not far distant from the old gate at The Oaks is Goose Creek Church--the +most interesting church I have ever seen. The Parish of St. James, Goose +Creek, was established by act of the Assembly, November 30, 1706, and +the present church, a brick building of crudely simple architecture, was +built about 1713. The interior of the church, though in good condition, +is the oldest looking thing, I think, in the United States. The memorial +tablets in the walls, with their foreign names and antique lettering, +the curious old box pews, the odd little gallery at the back, the tall +pulpit, with its winding stair, above all the Royal Arms of Great +Britain done in relief on the chancel wall and brilliantly colored--all +these make Goose Creek Church more like some little Norman church in +England, than like anything one might reasonably expect to find on this +side of the world. + +Countless items of curious interest hang about the church and parish. +Michaux, the French botanist who came to this country in 1786, lived for +a time at Goose Creek. He brought with him the first four camellias +seen in the United States, planting them at Middleton Place above +Drayton Hall, where, I believe, they still stand, having reached a great +height. A British officer known as Mad Archy Campbell was married at +Goose Creek Church during the Revolution, under romantic circumstances. +Miss Paulina Phelps, a young lady of the parish, was a great beauty and +a great coquette, who amused herself alike with American and British +officers. Campbell met and fell desperately in love with her, and it is +said that she encouraged him, though without serious intent. One day he +induced her to go horseback-riding with him and on the ride made love to +her so vehemently that she was "intimidated into accepting him." They +rode to the rectory, and Campbell, meeting the rector, demanded that he +should marry them at once. The dominie replied that he would do so "with +the consent of the young lady and her mother," but Campbell proposed to +await no such formalities. Drawing his pistol he gave the minister the +choice of performing the ceremony then and there, or perishing. This +argument proved conclusive and the two were promptly wed. + +When Goose Creek was within the British lines it is said that the +minister proceeded, upon one occasion, to utter the prayer for the King +of England, in the Litany. At the end of the prayer there were no +"Amens," the congregation having been composed almost entirely, as the +story goes, of believers in American independence. Into the awkward +pause after the prayer one voice from the congregation was at last +injected. It was the voice of old Ralph Izard, saying heartily, not +"Amen," but "Good Lord, deliver us!" There is a tablet in the church to +the memory of this worthy. + +The story is told, also, of an old gentleman, a member of the +congregation in Revolutionary times, who informed the minister that if +he again read the prayer for the King he would throw his prayer-book at +his head. The minister took this for a jest, but when he began to read +the prayer on the following Sunday, he found that it was not, for sure +enough the prayer-book came hurtling through the air. Prayer-books were +heavier then than they are now, and it is said that as a result of this +episode, the minister refused to hold service thereafter. + +The church is not now used regularly, an occasional memorial service +only being held there. + + * * * * * + +Charleston is a hard place to leave. Wherever one may be going from +there, the change is likely to be for the worse. Nevertheless, it is +impossible to stay forever; so at last you muster up your resignation +and your resources, buy tickets, and reluctantly prepare to leave. If +you depart as we did, you go by rail, driving to the station in the +venerable bus of the Charleston Transfer Company--a conveyance which, +one judges, may be coeval with the city's oldest mansions. Little as we +wished to leave Charleston we did not wish to defer our departure +through any such banality as the unnecessary missing of a train. +Therefore as we waited for the bus, on the night of leaving, and as +train time drew nearer and nearer, with no sign of the lumbering old +vehicle, we became somewhat concerned. + +When the bus did come at last there was little time to spare; +nevertheless the conductor, an easygoing man of great volubility, +consumed some precious minutes in gossiping with the hotel porter, and +then with arranging and rearranging the baggage on the roof of the bus. +His manner was that of an amateur bus conductor, trying a new +experiment. After watching his performances for a time, looking +occasionally at my watch, by way of giving him a hint, I broke out into +expostulation at the unnecessary delay. + +"What's the matter?" asked the man in a gentle, almost grieved tone. + +"There's very little time!" I returned. "We don't wish to miss the +train." + +"Oh, all right," said the bus conductor, making more haste, as though +the information I had given him put a different face on matters +generally. + +Presently we started. After a time he collected our fares. I have +forgotten whether the amount was twenty-five or fifty cents. At all +events, as he took the money from my hand he said to me reassuringly: + +"Don't you worry, sir! If I don't get you to the train I'll give you +this money back. That's fair, ain't it?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +OUT OF THE PAST + + +By no means all the leading citizens of Atlanta were in a frame of mind +to welcome General Sherman when, ten or a dozen years after the Civil +War, he revisited the city. Captain Evan P. Howell, a former Confederate +officer, then publisher of the Atlanta "Constitution," was, however, not +one of the Atlantans who ignored the general's visit. Taking his young +son, Clark, he called upon the general at the old Kimball House (later +destroyed by fire), and had an interesting talk with him. Clark Howell, +who has since succeeded his father as publisher of the "Constitution," +was born while the latter was fighting at Chickamauga, and was +consequently old enough, at the time of the call on Sherman, to remember +much of what was said. He heard the general tell Captain Howell why he +had made such a point of taking Atlanta, and as Sherman's military +reasons for desiring possession of the Georgia city explain, to a large +extent, Atlanta's subsequent development, I shall quote them as Clark +Howell gave them to me. + +First however, it is perhaps worth while to remind the reader of the +bare circumstances preceding the fall of Atlanta. After the defeat of +the Confederate forces at Chattanooga, General Joseph E. Johnston's army +fell back slowly on Atlanta, much as the French fell back on Paris at +the beginning of the European War, shortening their own lines of +communication while those of the advancing Germans were being +continually attenuated. As the Germans kept after the French, Sherman +kept after Johnston; and as Joffre was beginning to be criticized for +failing to make a stand against the enemy, so was Johnston criticized as +he continued to retire without giving battle. One of the chief +differences between Joffre's retirement and Johnston's lies, however, in +the length of time consumed; for whereas the French retreat on Paris +covered a few days only, the Confederate retreat on Atlanta covered +weeks and months, giving the Confederate Government time to become +impatient with Johnston and finally to remove him from command before +the time arrived when, in his judgment, the stand against Sherman should +be made. Nor is it inconceivable that, had the French retreat lasted as +long as Johnston's, Joffre would have been removed and would have lost +the opportunity to justify his Fabian policy, as he did so gloriously at +the Battle of the Marne. + +Though Atlanta was, at the time of the war, a city of less than 10,000 +inhabitants, it was the chief base of supply for men and munitions in +the Far South. + +"When my father asked him why all his effort and power had been +centered, after Chickamauga, on the capture of Atlanta," said Clark +Howell, "I remember that General Sherman extended one hand with the +fingers spread apart, explaining the strategic situation by imagining +Atlanta as occupying a position where the wrist joins the hand, while +the thumb and fingers represented, successively, New Orleans, Mobile, +Savannah, Charleston, and Norfolk. 'If I held Atlanta,' he said, 'I was +only one day's journey from these chief cities of the South.'" + +In spite, therefore, of the assertion, which I have heard made, that the +prosperity of Atlanta is "founded on insurance premiums, coca-cola, and +hot air," it seems to me that it is founded on something very much more +solid. Nor do I refer to the layer of granite which underlies the city. +The prosperity of Atlanta is based upon the very feature which made its +capture seem to Sherman so desirable: its strategic position as a +central point in the Far South. + +Neither in Atlanta nor in any other part of Georgia is General Sherman +remembered with a feeling that can properly be described as +affectionate, though it may be added that Atlanta has good reason for +remembering him warmly. The burning of Atlanta by Sherman did not, +however, prove an unalloyed disaster, for the war came to an end soon +after, and the rebuilding of the city supplied work for thousands of +former Confederate soldiers, and also drew to Atlanta many of the strong +men who played leading parts in the subsequent commercial upbuilding of +the place: such men as the late General Alfred Austell, Captain James W. +English, and the three Inman brothers, Samuel, John, and Hugh--to +mention but a few names. The First National Bank, established by General +Austell, is, I believe, Atlanta's largest bank to-day, and was literally +the first national bank established in Georgia, if not in the whole +South, after the war. + +Woodrow Wilson was admitted to the bar in Atlanta, and, if I mistake +not, practised law in an office not far from that meeting place of +highways called Five Points. Here, at Five Points, two important trails +crossed, long before there was any Atlanta: the north-and-south trail +between Savannah and Ross's Landing, and the east-and-west trail, which +followed the old Indian trails between Charleston and New Orleans. When +people from this part of the country wished to go to Ohio, Indiana, or +the Mississippi Valley, they would take the old north-and-south trail to +Ross's Landing, follow the Tennessee River to where it empties into the +Ohio, near Paducah, Kentucky, and proceed thence to Mississippi. + +In the thirties, Atlanta--or rather the site of Atlanta, for the city +was not founded until 1840--was on the border of white civilization in +northern Georgia, all the country to the north of the Chattahoochee +River, which flows a few miles distant from the city, having belonged to +the Cherokee Indians, who had been moved there from Florida. Even in +those times the Cherokees were civilized, as Indians go, for they lived +in huts and practised agriculture. Of course, however, their +civilization was not comparable with that of the white man. If they had +been as civilized as he, they might have driven him out of Florida, +instead of having been themselves driven out, and they might have driven +him out of Georgia, too, instead of having been pushed on, as they were, +to the Indian Territory--eighteen thousand of them, under military +supervision, on boats from Ross's Landing--leaving the beautiful white +Cherokee rose, which grows wild and in great profusion, in the spring, +as almost their sole memorial on Georgia soil. + +As Georgia became settled the trails developed into wagon and stage +routes, and later they were followed, approximately, by the railroads. +After three railroads had reached Atlanta, the State of Georgia engaged +in what may have been the first adventure, in this country, along the +lines of government-owned railroads: namely, the building of the Western +& Atlantic, from Atlanta to Chattanooga, to form a link between the +lower South and the rapidly developing West. This road was built in the +forties, and it was along its line that Johnston retreated before +Sherman, from Chattanooga to Atlanta. Though it is now leased and +operated by the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad Company, it +is still owned by the State of Georgia. The lease, however, expires +soon, and (an interesting fact in view of the continued agitation in +other parts of the country for government ownership of corporations) +there is a strong sentiment in Georgia in favor of selling the railroad; +for it is estimated that, at a fair price, it would yield a sum +sufficient not only to wipe out the entire bonded indebtedness of the +State ($7,000,000), but to leave ten or twelve millions clear in the +State treasury. + + * * * * * + +At Roswell, Georgia, a sleepy little hamlet in the hills, not many miles +from Atlanta, stands Bulloch Hall, where Martha ("Mittie") Bulloch, +later Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, mother of the President, was born. +Roswell was originally settled, long ago, by people from Savannah, +Darien, and other towns of the flat, hot country near the coast, who +drove there in their carriages and remained during the summer. After a +time, however, three prosperous families--the Bullochs, Dunwoodys, and +Barrington Kings--made their permanent homes at Roswell. + +Bulloch Hall is one of those old white southern colonial houses the +whole front of which consists of a great pillared portico, in the Greek +style, giving a look of dignity and hospitality. Almost all such houses +are, as they should be, surrounded by fine old trees; those at Bulloch +Hall are especially fine: tall cedars, ancient white oaks, giant osage +oranges, and a pair of holly trees, one at either side of the walk near +the front door. + +Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., and Mittie Bulloch met here when they were +respectively seventeen and fifteen years of age. A half sister of Miss +Mittie had married a relative of the Roosevelts and gone from Roswell to +live in Philadelphia, and it was while visiting at her home that young +Roosevelt, hearing a great deal of the South, conceived a desire to go +there. This resulted in his first visit to Bulloch Hall, and his +meeting with Mittie Bulloch. On his return to the North he was sent +abroad, but two or three years later when he went again to visit his +relatives in Philadelphia, Miss Mittie was also a guest at their house, +and this time the two became engaged. + +Save that the Bulloch furniture is no longer there, the interior of the +old Georgia residence stands practically as it was when Theodore +Roosevelt and Mittie Bulloch were married in the dining room. Through +the center, from front to back, runs a wide hall, on either side of +which is a pair of spacious square rooms, each with a fireplace, each +with large windows looking out over the beautiful hilly country which +spreads all about. It is a lovely house in a lovely setting, and, though +the Bullochs reside there no longer, Miss Mittie Bulloch is not +forgotten in Roswell, for one of her bridesmaids, Miss Evelyn King, now +Mrs. Baker, still resides in Barrington Hall, not far distant from the +old Bulloch homestead. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +ALIVE ATLANTA + + +An army officer, a man of broad sympathies, familiar with the whole +United States, warned me before I went south that I must not judge the +South by northern standards. + +"On the side of picturesqueness and charm," he said, "the South can more +than hold its own against the rest of the country; likewise on the side +of office-holding and flowery oratory; but you must not expect southern +cities to have the energy you are accustomed to in the North." + +As to the picturesqueness, charm, officeholding, and oratory, I found +his judgments substantially correct, but though I did perceive a certain +lack of energy in some small cities, I should not call that trait a +leading one in the larger southern cities to-day. On the contrary, I was +impressed, in almost every large center that I visited, with the fact +that, in the South more, perhaps, than in any other part of the country, +a great awakening is in progress. The dormant period of the South is +past, and all manner of developments are everywhere in progress. Nor do +I know of any city which better exemplifies southern growth and progress +than Atlanta. + +My Baedeker, dated 1909, opens its description of Atlanta with the +statement that the German consul there is Dr. E. Zoepffel. I doubt +it--but let us pass over that. It describes Atlanta as "a prosperous +commercial and industrial city and an important railroad center, well +situated, 1030-1175 feet above the sea, enjoying a healthy and bracing +climate." That is true. Atlanta is, if I mistake not, the highest +important city east of Denver, and I believe her climate is in part +responsible for her energy, as it is also for the fact that her +vegetation is more like that of a northern than a southern city, elms +and maples rather than magnolias, being the trees of the Atlanta +streets. + +Baedeker gave Atlanta about 90,000 inhabitants in 1909, but the census +of 1910 jumped her up to more than 150,000, while the estimate of 1917 +in the "World Almanac" credits her with about 180,000. Moreover, in the +almanac's list of the largest cities of the earth, Atlanta comes +twentieth from the top. It is my duty, perhaps, to add that the list is +arranged alphabetically--which reminds me that some cynic has suggested +that there may have been an alphabetical arrangement of names, also, in +the celebrated list in which Abou Ben Adhem's "name led all the rest." +Nevertheless, it may be stated that, according to the almanac's +population figures, Atlanta is larger than the much more ancient city of +Athens (I refer to Athens, Greece; not Athens, Georgia), as well as such +considerable cities as Bari, Bochum, Graz, Kokand, and Omsk. Atlanta is, +in short, a city of about the size of Goteborg, and if she has not yet +achieved the dimensions of Baku, Belem, Changsha, Tashkent, or West Ham, +she is growing rapidly, and may some day surpass them all; yes, and even +that thriving metropolis, Yekaterinoslav. + +As to the "healthy and bracing climate," I know that Atlanta is cool and +lovely in the spring, and I am told that her prosperous families do not +make it a practice to absent themselves from home during the summer, +according to the custom of the corresponding class in many other cities, +northern as well as southern. + +Atlanta is one of the few large inland cities located neither upon a +river nor a lake. When the city was founded, the customs of life in +Georgia were such that no one ever dreamed that the State might some day +go dry. Having plenty of other things to drink, the early settlers gave +no thought to water. But, as time went on, and prohibition became a more +and more important issue, the citizens of Atlanta began to perceive +that, in emergency, the Chattahoochee River might, after all, have its +uses. Water was, consequently, piped from the river to the city, and is +now generally--albeit in some quarters mournfully--used. Though I am +informed by an expert in Indian languages that the Cherokee word +"chattahoochee" is short for "muddy," the water is filtered before it +reaches the city pipes, and is thoroughly palatable, whether taken plain +or mixed. + +Well-off though Atlanta is, she would esteem herself better off, in a +material sense at least, had she a navigable stream; for her chief +industrial drawback consists in railroad freight rates unmodified by +water competition. She has, to be sure, a number of factories, including +a Ford automobile plant, but she has not so many factories as her +strategic position, stated by General Sherman, would seem to justify, or +as her own industrial ambitions cause her to desire. For does not every +progressive American city yearn to bristle with factory chimneys, even +as a summer resort folder bristles with exclamation points? And is not +soot a measure of success? + +Atlanta's line of business is largely office business; many great +corporations have their headquarters or their general southern branches +in the city; one of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks is there, and there +are many strong banks. Indeed, I suppose Atlanta has more bankers, in +proportion to her population, than any other city in the United States. +Some of these bankers are active citizens and permanent residents of the +city; others have given up banking for the time being and are in +temporary residence at the Federal Penitentiary. + +The character of commerce carried on, naturally brings to Atlanta large +numbers of prosperous and able men--corporation officials, branch +managers, manufacturers' agents, and the like--who, with their families, +give Atlanta a somewhat individual social flavor. This class of +population also accounts for the fact that the enterprisingness so +characteristic of Atlanta is not the mere rough, ebullient spirit of "go +to it!" to be found in so many hustling cities of the Middle West and +West, but is, oftentimes, an informed and cultivated kind of +enterprisingness, which causes Atlanta not only to "do things," but to +do things showing vision, and, furthermore, to do them with an "air." + +This is illustrated in various ways. It is shown, for example, in +Atlanta's principal hotels, which are not small-town hotels, or +good-enough hotels, but would do credit to any city, however great. The +office buildings are city office buildings, and in the downtown section +they are sufficiently numerous to look very much at home, instead of +appearing a little bit exotic, self-conscious, and lonesome, as new +skyscrapers do in so many cities of Atlanta's size. Even the smoke with +which the skyscrapers are streaked is city smoke. Chicago herself could +hardly produce smoke of more metropolitan texture--certainly not on the +Lake Front, where the Illinois Central trains send up their black +clouds; for Atlanta's downtown smoke, like Chicago's, comes in large +part from railroads piercing the heart of the city. Where downtown +business streets cross the railroad tracks, the latter are depressed, +the highways passing above on steel bridges resembling the bridges over +the Chicago River. The railroad's right of way is, furthermore, just +about as wide as the Chicago River, and rows of smoke-stained brick +buildings turn their backs upon it, precisely as similar buildings turn +theirs upon Chicago's busy, narrow stream. I wonder if all travelers, +familiar with Chicago, are so persistently reminded of that portion of +the city which is near the river, as I was by that portion of Atlanta +abutting on the tracks by which the Seaboard Air Line enters the city. + +Generally speaking, railroads in the South have not been so prosperous +as leading roads in the North, and with the exception of the most +important through trains, their passenger equipment is, therefore, not +so good. The Seaboard Air Line, however, runs an all-steel train between +Atlanta and Birmingham which, in point of equipment, may be compared +with the best limited trains anywhere. The last car in this train, +instead of being part sleeping car and part observation car, is a +combination dining and observation car--a very pleasant arrangement, for +men are allowed to smoke in the observation end after dinner. This is, +to my mind, an improvement over the practice of most railroads, which +obliges men who wish to smoke to leave the ladies with whom they may be +traveling. All Seaboard dining cars offer, aside from regular a la carte +service, a sixty-cent dinner known as the "Blue Plate Special." This +dinner has many advantages over the usual dining-car repast. In the +first place, though it does not comprise bread and butter, coffee or +tea, or dessert, it provides an ample supply of meat and vegetables at a +moderate price. In the second place, though served at a fixed price, it +bears no resemblance to the old-style dining car table d'hote, but, upon +the contrary, looks and tastes like food. The food, furthermore, instead +of representing a great variety of viands served in microscopic helpings +on innumerable platters and "side dishes," comes on one great plate, +with recesses for vegetables. The "Blue Plate Special" furnishes, in +short, the chief items in a "good home meal." + +This is, perhaps, as convenient a place as any in which to speak of +certain points concerning various railroads in the South. The Central of +Georgia Railway, running between Atlanta and Savannah, instead of +operating Pullmans, has its own sleeping cars. This is the only railroad +I know of in the country on which the tenant of a lower berth, below an +unoccupied upper, may have the upper closed without paying for it. One +likes the Central of Georgia for this humane dispensation. The +locomotives of the Western & Atlantic carry as a distinguishing mark a +red band at the top of the smokestack. The Southern Railway assigns +engineers to individual engines, instead of "pooling power," as is the +practice, I believe, on many railroads. Because of this, engineers on +the Southern regard the locomotives to which they are regularly +assigned, as their personal property, and exercise their individual +taste in embellishing them. Brass bands, brass flagstaffs, brass eagles +over the headlight, and similar adornments are therefore often seen on +the engines of this road, giving the most elaborate of them a carnival +appearance, by contrast with the somber black to which most of us are +accustomed, and hinting that not all the individuality has been +unionized out of locomotive engineers--an impression heightened by the +Southern Railway's further pleasant custom of painting the names of its +older and more expert engineers upon the cabs of their locomotives. + + * * * * * + +Some cities are like lumbering old farm horses, plugging along a dusty +country road. When another horse overtakes them, if they be not +altogether wanting in spirit, they may be encouraged to jog a little +faster for a moment, stimulated by example. If, besides being stupid, +they are mean, then they want to kick or bite at the speedier animal +going by. Some cities are like that, too. If an energetic city overtakes +them, they are not spurred on to emulation, but lay back their ears, so +to speak. Again, there are tough, sturdy little cities like buckskin +ponies. There are skittish cities which seem to have been badly broken. +There are old cities with a worn-out kind of elegance, like that of +superannuated horses of good breed, hitched to an old-fashioned +barouche. There are bad, bucking cities, like Butte, Montana. And here +and there are cities, like Atlanta, reminding one of thoroughbred +hunters. There is a brave, sporting something in the spirit of Atlanta +which makes it rush courageously at big jumps, and clear them, and land +clean on the other side, and be off again. Like a thoroughbred, she +loves the chase. She goes in to win. She doesn't stop to worry about +whether she can win or not. She knows she will. And as the thoroughbred, +loving large and astonishing achievement, lacks the humbler virtues of +the reliable family carriage horse, Atlanta, it cannot be denied, has +"_les defauts de ses qualites_." For whereas, on the side of dashing +performance, Atlanta held a stock fair which, in one year, surpassed any +other held in the South, and secured the grand circuit of races, on the +other side she is careless about hospitals and charities; and whereas, +on the one side, she has raised millions for the building of two new +universities (which, by the way, would be much better as one great +university, but cannot be, because of sectarian domination), on the +other, she is deficient as to schools; and again, whereas she is the +only secondary city to have an annual season of Metropolitan grand opera +(and to make it pay!) she is behind many other cities, including her +neighbors, New Orleans and Savannah, in caring for the public health. + +I am by no means sure that the regular spring visit of the Metropolitan +Grand Opera Company may be taken as a sign that Atlanta is peculiarly a +music-loving community. Indeed, I was told by one Atlanta lady, herself +a musician, that the city did not contain more than a thousand persons +of real musical appreciation, that a number of these could not afford to +attend the operatic performances, and that opera week was, consequently, +in reality more an occasion of great social festivity than of devout +homage to art. + +"Our opera week," she told me, "bears the same relation to the life of +Atlanta as Mardi Gras does to that of New Orleans. It is an +advertisement for the city, and an excuse for every one to have a good +time. Every night after the performance there are suppers and dances, +which the opera stars attend. They always seem to enjoy coming here. +They act as though they were off on a picnic, skylarking about the +hotel, snap-shotting one another, and playing all manner of pranks. And, +of course, while they are here they own the town. Caruso draws his +little caricatures for the Atlanta girls, and Atlanta men have been +dazzled, in successive seasons, by such gorgeous beings as Geraldine +Farrar, Alma Gluck, and Maria Barrientos--not only across the footlights +of the auditorium, mind you, but at close range; as, for instance, at +dances at the Driving Club, with Chinese lanterns strung on the terrace, +a full moon above, and--one year--with the whole Metropolitan Orchestra +playing dance music all night long!" + +Another lady, endeavoring to picture to me the strain involved in the +week's gaieties, informed me that when it was all over she went for a +rest to New York, where she attended "a house party at the Waldorf"! + + * * * * * + +Of all Atlanta's undertakings, planned or accomplished, that which most +interested my companion and me was the one for turning a mountain into a +sculptured monument to the Confederacy. + +Sixteen miles to the east of the city the layer of granite which +underlies the region stuck its back up, so to speak, forming a great +smooth granite hump, known as Stone Mountain. This mountain is one of +America's natural wonders. In form it may be compared with a +round-backed fish, such as a whale or porpoise, lying on its belly, +partly imbedded in a beach, and some conception of its dimensions may be +gathered from the fact that from nose to tail it measures about two +miles, while the center of its back is as high as the Woolworth Building +in New York. Moreover, there is not a fissure in it; monoliths a +thousand feet long have been quarried from it; it is as solid as the +Solid South. + +The perpendicular streaks of light and dark gray and gray-green, made by +the elements upon the face of the rock, coupled with the waterfall-like +curve of that face, make one think of a sort of sublimated petrified +Niagara--a fancy enhanced, on windy days, by the roar of the gale-lashed +forest at the mountain's foot. + +The idea of turning the mountain into a Confederate memorial originated +with Mr. William H. Terrell of Atlanta. It was taken up with inspired +energy by Mrs. C. Helen Plane, an Atlanta lady, now eighty-seven years +of age, who is honorary president of the United Daughters of the +Confederacy and president of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association. +Mrs. Plane presented the memorial plan to Mr. Samuel H. Venable of +Venable Brothers, owners of the mountain, and Mr. Venable promptly +turned over the whole face of the mountain to the Memorial Association. +The exact form the memorial was to take had not at that time been +developed. Gutzon Borglum was, however, called in, and worked out a +stupendous idea, which he has since been commissioned to execute. On the +side of the mountain, about four hundred feet above the ground, a +roadway is to be gouged out of the granite. On this roadway will be +carved, in gigantic outlines, a Confederate army, headed by Lee and +Jackson on horseback. Other generals will follow, and will, in turn, be +followed by infantry, cavalry and artillery. The leading groups will be +in full relief and the equestrian figures will be fifty or more feet +tall. This means that the faces of the chief figures will measure almost +the height of a man. The figures to the rear of the long column will, +according to present plans, be in bas-relief, and the whole procession +will cover a strip perhaps a mile long, all of it carved out of the +solid mountainside. + +A considerable tract of forest land at the foot of the great rock has +already been dedicated as a park. Here, concealed by the trees, at a +point below the main group of figures, a temple, with thirteen columns +representing the thirteen Confederate States, is to be hewn out of the +mountain, to be used as a place for the safe-keeping of Confederate +relics and archives. + +Two million dollars is the sum spoken of to cover the total cost, and +one of the finest things about the plans for raising this money is that +contributions from the entire country are being accepted, so that not +only the South, but the whole nation, may have a share in the creation +of a memorial to that dead government which the South so poetically +adores, yet which it would not willingly resurrect, and in the +realization of a work resembling nothing so much as Kipling's conception +of the artist in heaven, who paints on "a ten-league canvas, with +brushes of comet's hair." + +Until the Stone Mountain Memorial is completed, Atlanta's most +celebrated monument will continue to be that of Jack Smith. The Jack +Smith monument stands in Oakland Cemetery, not over the grave of Jack +Smith, but over the grave that local character intends some day to +occupy. Mr. Smith is reputed to be rich. He built the downtown office +building known as "The House that Jack Built." As befits the owner of an +office building, he wears a silk hat, but a certain democratic +simplicity may be observed in the rest of his attire, especially about +the region of the neck, for though he apparently believes in the +convention concerning the wearing of collars, he has a prejudice against +the concealing of a portion of the collar by that useless and snobbish +adornment, the necktie. Each spring, I am informed, it is his custom to +visit his cemetery lot and inspect the statue of himself which a +commendable foresight has caused him to erect over his proposed final +resting place. It is said that upon the occasion of last season's vernal +visit he was annoyed at finding his effigy cravated by a vine which had +grown up and encircled the neck. This he caused to be removed; and it is +to be hoped that when, at last, his monument achieves its ultimate +purpose, those who care for the cemetery will see to it that leafy +tendrils be not permitted to mount to the marble collar of the figure, +to form a necktie, or to obscure the nobly sculptured collar button. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +GEORGIA JOURNALISM + + +In journalism Atlanta is far in advance of many cities of her size, +North or South. The Atlanta "Constitution," founded nearly half a +century ago, is one of the country's most distinguished newspapers. The +"Constitution" came into its greatest fame in the early eighties, when +Captain Evan P. Howell--the same Captain Howell who commanded a battery +at the battle of Peachtree Creek, in the defense of Atlanta, and who +later called, with his son, on General Sherman, as already +recorded--became its editor, and Henry W. Grady its managing editor. +Like William Allen White and Walt Mason of the Emporia (Kansas) +"Gazette," who work side by side, admire each other, but disagree on +every subject save that of the infallibility of the ground hog as a +weather prophet, Howell and Grady worked side by side and were devoted +friends, while disagreeing personally, and in print, on prohibition and +many other subjects. Grady would speak at prohibition rallies and, +sometimes on the same night, Howell would speak at anti-prohibition +rallies. In their speeches they would attack each other. The accounts of +these speeches, as well as conflicting articles written by the two, +would always appear in the "Constitution." + +Of the pair of public monuments to individuals which I remember having +seen in Atlanta, one was the pleasing memorial, in Piedmont Park, to +Sidney Lanier (who was peculiarly a Georgia poet, having been born in +Macon, in that State, and having written some of his most beautiful +lines under the spell of Georgia scenes), and the other the statue of +Henry W. Grady, which stands downtown in Marietta Street. + +The Grady monument--one regrets to say it--is less fortunate as a work +of art than as a deserved symbol of remembrance. Grady not only ought to +have a monument, but as one whose writings prove him to have been a man +of taste, he ought to have a better one than this poor mid-Victorian +thing, placed in the middle of a wide, busy street, with Fords parked +all day long about its base. + +Says the inscription: + + HE NEVER SOUGHT A PUBLIC OFFICE. + WHEN HE DIED HE WAS LITERALLY + LOVING A NATION INTO PEACE. + +On another side of the base is chiseled a characteristic extract from +one of Grady's speeches. This speech was made in 1899, in Boston, and +one hopes that it may have been heard by the late Charles Francis Adams, +who labored in Massachusetts for the cause of intersectional harmony, +just as Grady worked for it in Georgia. + + This hour [said Grady] little needs the loyalty that is loyal to + one section and yet holds the other in enduring suspicion and + estrangement. Give us the broad and perfect loyalty that loves and + trusts Georgia alike with Massachusetts--that knows no South, no + North, no East, no West; but endears with equal and patriotic love + every foot of our soil, every State in our Union. + +Grady could not only write and say stirring things; he could be witty. +He once spoke at a dinner of the New England Society, in New York, at +which General Sherman was also present. + +"Down in Georgia," he said, "we think of General Sherman as a great +general; but it seems to us he was a little careless with fire." + +Nor was Grady less brilliant as managing editor than upon the platform. +He had the kind of enterprise which made James Gordon Bennett such a +dashing figure in newspaper life, and the New York "Herald" such a +complete _news_paper--the kind of enterprise that charters special +trains, and at all hazards gets the story it is after. Back in the early +eighties Grady was running the Atlanta "Constitution" in just that way. +If a big story "broke" in any of the territory around Atlanta, Grady +would not wait upon train schedules, but would hire an engine and send +his men to the scene. Once, following a sensational murder, he learned +that the Birmingham "Age-Herald" had a big story dealing with +developments in the case. He wired the "Age-Herald" offering a large +price for the story. When his offer was refused Grady knew that if he +could not devise a way to get the story, Atlanta would be flooded next +day with "Age-Heralds" containing the "beat" on the "Constitution." He +at once chartered a locomotive and rushed two reporters and four +telegraph operators down the line toward Birmingham. At Aniston, +Alabama, the locomotive met the train which was bringing "Age-Heralds" +to Atlanta. A copy of the paper was secured. The "Constitution" men then +broke into a telegraph office and wired the whole story in to their +paper, with the result that the "Constitution" was out with it before +the Birmingham papers reached Atlanta. + +Atlanta was at that time a town of only about 40,000 inhabitants, but +the "Constitution," in the days of Howell and Grady, had a circulation +four times greater than the total population of the city--a situation +almost unheard of in journalism. Something of the breadth of its +influence may be gathered from the fact that in several counties in +Texas, where the law provided that whatever newspaper had the largest +circulation in the county should be the county organ, the county organ +was the Atlanta "Constitution." + +An Atlanta lady tells of having called upon Grady to complain about an +article which she did not think the "Constitution" should have printed. + +"Why did you put that objectionable article in your paper?" she asked +him. + +"Did you read it?" he inquired. + +"Yes, I did." + +"Then," said Grady, "that's why I put it there." + +Grady and Howell always ran a lively sporting department. Away back in +the days of bare-knuckle prize fights--such as those between Sullivan +and Ryan, and Sullivan and Kilrain--a "Constitution" reporter was always +at the ringside, no matter where the fight might take place. For a +newspaper in a town of forty or fifty thousand inhabitants, a large +percentage of them colored illiterates, this was real enterprise. + +A favorite claim of Grady's was that his reporters were the greatest +"leg artists" in the world. He used to organize walking matches for +reporters, offering large prizes and charging admission. This developed, +in the middle eighties, a general craze for such matches, and resulted +in the holding of many inter-city contests, in which teams, four men to +a side, took part. One of the "Constitution's" champion "leg artists" +was Sam W. Small, now an evangelist and member of the "flying squadron" +of the Anti-Saloon League of America. + +The most widely celebrated individual ever connected with the +"Constitution" was Joel Chandler Harris, many of whose "Uncle Remus" +stories--those negro folk tales still supreme in their field--appeared +originally in that paper. In view of Mr. Harris's achievement it is +pleasant to recall that there was paid to him during his life one of the +finest tributes that an author can receive. As with "Mr. Dooley" of our +day, he came, himself, to be affectionately referred to by the name of +the chief character in his works. "Uncle Remus" he was, and "Uncle +Remus" he will always be. Mr. Harris's eldest son, Julian, widely known +as a journalist, is said to have been the little boy to whom "Uncle +Remus" told his tales. + +Though there is, as yet, no public monument in Atlanta to Joel Chandler +Harris, the "Wren's Nest," his former home, at 214 Gordon Street, is +fittingly preserved as a memorial. Visitors may see the old letter box +fastened to a tree by the gate--that box in which a wren built her nest, +giving the house its name. It is a simple old house with the air of a +home about it, and the intimate possessions of the author lie about as +he left them. His bed is made up, his umbrella hangs upon the +mantelshelf, his old felt hat rests upon the rack, the photograph of his +friend James Whitcomb Riley looks down from the bedroom wall, and on the +table, by the window, stands his typewriter--the confidant first to know +his new productions. + +The presence of these personal belongings keeps alive the illusion that +"Uncle Remus" has merely stepped out for a little while--is hiding in +the garden, waiting for us to go away. It would be like him, for he was +among the most modest and retiring of men, as there are many amusing +anecdotes to indicate. Once when some one had persuaded him to attend a +large dinner in New York, they say, he got as far as New York, but as +the dinner hour approached could not bear to face the adulation awaiting +him, and incontinently fled back to Atlanta. + +Frank L. Stanton, poet laureate of Georgia, and of the "Constitution," +joined the "Constitution" staff through the efforts of Mr. Harris, one +of whose closest intimates he was. Speaking of Mr. Harris's gift for +negro dialect, Mr. Stanton told me that there was one negro exclamation +which "Uncle Remus" always wished to reproduce, but which he never quite +felt could be expressed, in writing, to those unfamiliar with the negro +at first hand: that is the exclamation of amazement, which has the +sound, "mmm--_mh!_"--the first syllable being long and the last sharp +and exclamatory. + +Mr. Stanton has for years conducted a column of verse and humorous +paragraphic comment, under the heading "Just from Georgia," on the +editorial page of the "Constitution." Some idea of the high estimation +in which he is held in his State is to be gathered from the fact that +"Frank L. Stanton Day" is annually celebrated in the Georgia schools. + +Mr. Stanton began his newspaper career as a country editor in the town +of Smithville, Georgia. Mr. Harris, then a member of the +"Constitution's" editorial staff, began reprinting in that journal +verses and paragraphs written by Stanton, with the result that the +Smithville paper became known all over the country. Later Stanton moved +to Rome, Georgia, becoming an editorial writer on a paper there--the +"Tribune," edited at that time by John Temple Graves, if I am not +mistaken. Still later he removed to Atlanta, joined the staff of the +"Constitution," and started the department which has now continued for +more than twenty-five years. + +Joel Chandler Harris used to tell a story about Stanton's first days in +the "Constitution" office. According to this story, the paper on which +Stanton had worked in Rome had not been prosperous, and salaries were +uncertain. When the business manager went out to try to raise money in +the town, he never returned without first reading the signals placed by +his assistant in the office window. If a red flag was shown, it +signified that a collector was waiting in the office. In that event the +business manager would not come in, but would circle about until the +collector became tired of waiting and departed--a circumstance indicated +by the withdrawal of the red flag and the substitution of a white one. +According to the story, as it was told to me, reporters on the paper +were seldom paid; if one of them made bold to ask for his salary, he was +likely to be discharged. It was from this uncertain existence that +Stanton was lured to the "Constitution" by an offer of $22.50 per week. +When he had been on the "Constitution" for three weeks Mr. Harris +discovered that he had drawn no salary. This surprised him--as indeed it +would any man who had had newspaper experience. + +"Stanton," he said, "you are the only newspaper man I have ever seen who +is so rich he doesn't need to draw his pay." + +But, as it turned out, Stanton was not so prosperous as Harris perhaps +supposed. He was down to his last dime, and had been wondering how he +could manage to get along; for his training on the Rome paper had +taught him never to ask for money lest he lose his job. + +"Well," he said to Harris, "I could use _some_ of my salary--if you're +sure it won't be any inconvenience?" + +Those familiar with the works of Mr. Stanton, Mr. Harris, and James +Whitcomb Riley, Indiana's great poet, will perceive that certain similar +tastes and feelings inform their writings, and will not be surprised to +learn, if not already aware of it, that the three were friends. Mr. +Stanton's only absence from Atlanta since he joined the "Constitution," +was on the occasion of a visit he paid Mr. Riley at the latter's home in +Indianapolis. The best of Stanton's work must have appealed to Riley, +for it contains not a little of the kindly, homely, humorous +truthfulness, and warmth of sentiment, of which Riley was himself such a +master. Among the most widely familiar verses of the Georgia poet are +those of his "Mighty Like a Rose," set to music by Ethelbert Nevin, and +"Just a-Wearying for You," with music by Carrie Jacobs Bond. "Money" is +a verse in hilarious key, which many will remember for the comical vigor +of the last three lines in its first stanza: + + When a fellow has spent + His last red cent + The world looks blue, you bet! + But give him a dollar + And you'll hear him holler: + "There's life in the old land yet!" + +Richly humorous though Stanton is, he can also reach the heart. The +former Governor of a Western State picked up Stanton's book, "Songs of +the Soil," and after reading "Hanging Bill Jones," and "A Tragedy," +therein, commuted the sentence of a man who was to have been executed +next day. One hopes the man deserved to escape. In another case an +individual who was about to commit suicide chanced to see in an old +newspaper Stanton's encouraging verses called "Keep a-Goin'," and was +stimulated by them to have a fresh try at life on earth instead of +elsewhere. + +Joel Chandler Harris wrote the introduction to "Songs of the Soil." +Other collections of Stanton's works are "Songs of Dixie Land," and +"Comes One With a Song." The danger in starting to quote from these +books--which, by the way, are chiefly made up of measures that appeared +originally in the "Constitution"--is that one does not like to stop. I +have, however, limited myself to but one more theft, and instead of +making my own choice, have left the selection to a friend of Mr. +Stanton's, who has suggested the lines entitled "A Poor Unfortunate": + + His hoss went dead, an' his mule went lame, + He lost six cows in a poker game; + A harricane come on a summer's day + An' carried the house whar he lived away, + Then a earthquake come when _that_ wuz gone + An' swallered the land that the house stood on! + An' the tax collector, he come roun' + An' charged him up fer the hole in the groun'! + An' the city marshal he come in view + An' said he wanted his street tax, too! + + Did he moan an' sigh? Did he set an' cry + An' cuss the harricane sweepin' by? + Did he grieve that his old friends failed to call + When the earthquake come and swallered all? + Never a word o' blame he said, + With all them troubles on top his head! + Not him! He climbed on top o' the hill + Whar stan'in' room wuz left him still, + An', barrin' his head, here's what he said: + "I reckon it's time to git up an' git, + But, Lord, I hain't had the measles yit!" + +Among those who have been on the staff of the "Constitution" and have +become widely known, may be mentioned the gifted Corra Harris, many of +whose stories have Georgia backgrounds, and who still keeps as a country +home in the State where she was born, a log cabin, known as "In the +Valley," at Pine Log, Georgia; also the perhaps equally (though +differently) talented Robert Adamson, whose administration as fire +commissioner of the City of New York was so able as to result in a +reduction of insurance rates. + +Atlanta reporters, it would seem, run to the New York Fire Department, +for Joseph Johnson, who preceded Mr. Adamson as commissioner, was once a +reporter on the Atlanta "Journal." The latter paper used to belong to +Hoke Smith. It was at one time edited by John Temple Graves, who later +edited the Atlanta "Georgian," and is now a member of the forces of +William Randolph Hearst, in New York. The late Jacques Futrelle, the +author, who went down with the _Titanic_, was a Georgian, and worked for +years on the "Journal." Don Marquis, one of the most brilliant American +newspaper "columnists," now in charge of the department known as "The +Sun Dial" on the New York "Evening Sun," was also at one time on the +"Journal," as was likewise Grantland Rice, America's most widely read +sporting writer. Lollie Belle Wiley, whose poetry has a distinct +southern quality, is, I believe, a member of the "Journal's" staff. As +the eminent Ty Cobb once wrote a book, it seems fair to mention him also +among Georgian authors, though so far as I know he never worked on an +Atlanta paper. And if Atlanta's three celebrated golfers have not +written for the papers, they have at least supplied the sporting page +with much material. Miss Alexa Sterling of Atlanta, a young lady under +twenty, is one of the best women golfers in the United States; Perry +Adair also figures in national golf, and Robert T. ("Bobby") Jones, Jr., +who was southern champion at the age of fourteen, is, perhaps, an +unprecedented marvel at the game--so at least my golfing friends inform +me. + +The continued militancy of the "Constitution," under the editorship of +Clark Howell, who sits in his father's old chair, with a bust of Grady +at his elbow, is evidenced not only by its frequent editorials against +lynching, but by its fearless campaign against another Georgia +specialty--the "paper colonel." The ranks of the "paper colonels" in +the South are chiefly made up of lawyers who "have been colonelized by +custom for no other reason than that they have led their clients to +victory in legal battles." Some of the real colonels have been objecting +to the paper kind, and the "Constitution" has bravely backed up the +objection. + +The liveliness of journalism in Georgia does not begin and end in +Atlanta. The Savannah "Morning News" has an able editorial page, and +there are many others in the State. Some of the small-town papers are, +moreover, well worth reading for that kind of breeziness which we +usually associate with the West rather than the South. Consider, for +example, the following, in which the Dahlonega (Georgia) "Nugget," +published up in the mountains, in the section where gold is mined, +discusses the failings of one Billie Adams, the editor's own son-in-law: + + On Saturday last, Billie Adams and his wife waylaid the public road + over on Crown Mountain, where this sorry piece of humanity stood + and cursed while his wife knocked down and beat her sister, Emma. + He is a son-in-law of ours, but if the Lord had anything to do with + him, He must have made a mistake and thought He was breathing the + breath of life into a dog. + + He is too lazy to work and lays around and waits for his wife to + get what she can procure on credit, until she can get nothing more + for him and the children to eat. Recently he claimed to be gone to + Tennessee in search of work. Upon hearing that his family had + nothing to eat, we had Carl Brooksher send over nearly four + dollars' worth of provisions. In he came and sat there and feasted + until every bite was gone. But this ends it with us. + + There are a lot of people who have sorry kinfolks, but in this + instance if there were prizes offered, we would certainly win the + first. + + Last year, thinking he would scare his mother-in-law and + sister-in-law off from where they live, so he could get the place, + he shot two holes through their window, turned their mule out of + the stable, and tried to run it into the bean patch, besides + hanging up a bunch of switches at the drawbars. Then their fence + was set afire twice. This is said to be the work of his wife. Then, + after carrying home meat, flour, lard, and vegetables to eat for + her mother and sister, he whipped the latter because she refused to + give him two of the wagon wheels. + + The city made a case against both for the whipping, and the wife, + although coming to town alone frequently during the day, brought + her baby and everything to the council room, plead guilty and was + fined one and costs. Billie didn't appear, but if he stays in this + country Marshal Wimpy will have him, when all these things will + come to light, both in the council chamber and grand jury room. + +The scandal of newspaperdom in Georgia is, of course, Tom Watson, who +publishes the "Jeffersonian"--a misnamed paper if there ever was one--in +the town of Thomson. Many years ago, when Edward P. Thomas, now +assistant to the president of the United States Steel Corporation, was a +little boy in Atlanta, complaining about having his ears washed; when +Theodore D. Rousseau, secretary to Mayor Mitchel of New York, was having +his early education drilled into him at the Ivy Street school; when +Ralph Peters, now president of the Long Island Railroad, had left +Atlanta and become a division superintendent on the Panhandle Road; when +the parents of Ivy Ledbetter Lee were wondering to what college they +would send him when he grew to be a big boy; when Robert Adamson was a +page in the Georgia Legislature--as long ago as that, Tom Watson was +waving his red head and prominent Adam's apple as a member of the State +House of Representatives. In the mad and merry days of Bryanism he +became a Populist Member of Congress. He was nominated for +vice-president, to run on the Populist ticket with Bryan. Later he ran +for president on the ticket of some unheard-of party, organized in +protest against the "conservatism" of the Populists. Watson's paper +reminds one of Brann and his "Iconoclast." Reading it, I have never been +able to discover what Watson was _for_. All I could find out was what he +was violently against--and that is almost everything. He is the wild ass +of Georgia journalism; the thistles of chaos are sweet in him, and order +in any department of life is a chestnut burr beneath his tail. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +SOME ATLANTA INSTITUTIONS + + +There has been great rejoicing in Atlanta over the raising of funds for +the establishment there of two new universities, Emory and Oglethorpe. +Emory was founded in 1914, as the result of a feud which developed in +Vanderbilt University, located at Nashville, Tennessee, over the +question as to whether the institution should be controlled by the Board +of Bishops of the southern Methodist Episcopal Church, or by the +University trustees, who were not so much interested in the development +of the sectarian side of the university. The fight was taken to the +courts where the trustees won. As a result, Methodist influence and +support were withdrawn from Vanderbilt, which thenceforward became a +non-sectarian college, and Emory was started--Atlanta having been +selected as its home because nearly a million and a half dollars was +raised in Atlanta to bring it there. + +Oglethorpe is to be a Presbyterian institution, and starts off with a +million dollars. + +This will give Atlanta three rather important colleges, since she +already has the technical branch of the University of Georgia, the main +establishment of which located at Athens, Georgia, is one of the oldest +state universities in the country, having been founded in 1801. (The +University of Tennessee is the oldest state university in the South. It +was founded in 1794. The University of Pennsylvania, dating from 1740, +is the oldest of all state universities. Harvard, founded in 1636, was +the first college established in the country; and the only other +American colleges which survive from the seventeenth century are William +and Mary, at Williamsburg, Virginia, established in 1693, and St. John's +College, at Annapolis, dating from 1696.) + +There is a tendency in some parts of the South to use the terms +"college" and "university" loosely. Some schools for white persons, +doing little if anything more than grammar and high-school work, are +called "colleges," and negro institutions doing similar work are +sometimes grandiloquently termed "universities." + +Atlanta has thirteen public schools for negroes, but no public high +school for them. There are, however, six large private educational +institutions for negroes in the city, doing high-school, college, or +graduate work, making Atlanta a great colored educational center. Of +these, Atlanta University, a non-sectarian co-educational college with a +white president (Mr. Edward T. Ware, whose father came from New England +and founded the institution in 1867), is, I believe, the oldest and +largest. It is very highly spoken of. Atlanta and Clark Universities are +the only two colored colleges in Atlanta listed in the "World Almanac's" +table of American universities and colleges. Clark also has a white man +as president. + +Spelman Seminary, a Baptist institution for colored girls, has a white +woman president, and is partially supported by Rockefeller money. +Morehouse College, for boys, has a colored president, an able man, is of +similar denomination and is also partially supported by Rockefeller +funds. Spelman and Morehouse are run separately, excepting in college +work, on which they combine. Both are said to be excellent. Morris Brown +University is not a university at all, but does grammar and high-school +work. It is officered and supported by colored people, all churches of +the African Methodist Episcopal denomination subscribing funds for its +maintenance. Gammon Theological Seminary is, I am informed, the one +adequately endowed educational establishment for negroes in Atlanta. It +would, of course, be a splendid thing if the best of these schools and +colleges could be combined. + +Citizens of Atlanta do not, generally, take the interest they ought to +take in these or other institutions for the benefit of negroes. To be +sure, most Southerners do not believe in higher education for negroes; +but, even allowing for that viewpoint, it is manifestly unfair that +white children should have public high schools and that negro children +should have none, but should be obliged to pay for their education above +the grammar grades. Perhaps there are people in Atlanta who believe that +even a high-school education is undesirable for the negro. That, +however, seems to me a pretty serious thing for one race to attempt to +decide for another--especially when the deciding race is not deeply and +sincerely interested in the uplift of the race over which it holds the +whip hand. Certainly intelligent people in the South believe in +industrial training for the negro, and equally certainly a negro high +school could give industrial training. + +Negroes are not admitted to Atlanta parks, nor are there any parks +exclusively for them. Until recently there was no contagious-disease +hospital to which negroes could be taken, and there is not now a +reformatory for colored girls in the State of Georgia. Neither is there +any provision whatsoever in the State for the care of feeble-minded +colored children. And there is one thing even worse to be said. Shameful +as are Georgia's frequent lynchings, shameful as is the State's +indifference to negro welfare, blacker yet is the law upon her statute +books making the "age of consent" _ten years_! Various women's +organizations, and individual women, have, for decades, worked to change +this law, but without success. The term "southern chivalry" must ring +mocking and derisive in the ears of Georgia legislators until this +disgrace is wiped out. Standing as it does, it means but one thing: that +in order to protect some white males in their depravity, the voters of +Georgia are satisfied to leave little girls, ten, eleven, twelve years +of age, and upward, white as well as colored, utterly unprotected by the +law in this regard. + +I have heard more than one woman in Georgia intimate that she would be +well pleased with a little less exterior "chivalry" and a little more +plain justice. Aside from their efforts to change the "age of consent" +law, leading women in the State have been working for compulsory +education, for the opening of the State University to women, for factory +inspection and decent child-labor laws. The question of child labor has +now been taken in hand by the National Government--as, of course, the +"age of consent" should also be--but in other respects but little +progress has been made in Georgia. + +From such cheerless items I turn gladly to a happier theme. + +As I have said elsewhere in this book, many colored people in Atlanta +are doing well in various ways. At Atlanta University I saw several +students whose fathers and mothers were graduates of the same +institution. Higher education for the negro has, thus, come into its +second generation. More prosperous negroes in Atlanta are doing social +settlement work among less fortunate members of their race, and have +started a free kindergarten for negro children. Many good people in +Atlanta are unaware of these facts, and I believe their judgment on the +entire negro question would be modified, at least in certain details, +were they merely to inform themselves upon various creditable negro +activities in the city. The northern stranger, attempting to ascertain +the truth about the negro and the negro problem, has to this extent the +advantage of the average Southerner: prejudice and indifference do not +prevent his going among the negroes to find out what they are doing for +themselves. + + * * * * * + +At various times in my life chance has thrown me into contact with +charities in great variety, and philanthropic work of many kinds. I have +seen theoretical charities, sentimental charities, silly charities, +pauperizing charities, wild-eyed charities, charities which did good, +and others which worked damage in the world; I have seen organized +charities splendidly run under difficult circumstances (as in the +Department of Charities under Commissioner Kingsbury, in New York City), +and I have seen other organized charities badly run at great expense; I +have seen charities conducted with the primary purpose of ministering to +the vanity of self-important individuals who like to say: "See all the +good that I am doing!" and I have seen other personal charities operated +(as in the case of the Rockefeller Foundation) with a perfectly +magnificent scope and effectiveness. + +Nevertheless, of all the charities I have seen, of all the efforts I +have witnessed to improve the condition of humanity, none has taken a +firmer hold upon my heart than the Leonard Street Orphans' Home, for +negro girls, in Atlanta. + +The home is a humble frame building which was used as a barracks by +northern troops stationed in Atlanta after the Civil War. In it reside +Miss Chadwick, her helpers, and about seventy little negro girls; and it +is an interesting fact that several of the helpers are young colored +women who, themselves brought up in the home and taught to be +self-supporting, have been drawn back to the place by homesickness. Was +ever before an orphan homesick for an orphans' home? + +Miss Chadwick is an Englishwoman. Coming out to America a good many +years ago, she somehow found Atlanta, and in Atlanta somehow found this +orphanage, which was then both figuratively and literally dropping to +pieces. Some one had to take hold of it, so Miss Chadwick did. How +successful she has been it is hard to convey in words. I do not mean +that she has succeeded in building up a great flourishing plant with a +big endowment and all sorts of improvements. Far from it. The home +stands on a tiny lot, the building is ramshackle and not nearly large +enough for its purpose, and sometimes it seems doubtful where the money +to keep it going will come from. Nevertheless the home is a hundred +times more successful than I could have believed a home for orphans, +colored or white, could be made, had I not seen it with my own eyes. Its +success lies not in material possessions or prosperity, not in the food +and shelter it provides to those who so pitifully needed it, but in the +fact that it is in the truest and finest sense a _home_, a place endowed +with the greatest blessings any home can have: contentment and +affection. What Miss Chadwick has provided is, in short, an institution +with a heart. + +How did she do it? That, like the other mystery of how she manages to +house those seventy small lively people in that little building, is +something which only Heaven and Miss Chadwick understand. + +But then, if you have ever visited the home and met Miss Chadwick, and +seen her with her children, you know that Heaven and Miss Chadwick +understand a lot of things the rest of us don't know about at all! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +A BIT OF RURAL GEORGIA + + To walk with the morning and watch its rose unfold; + To drowse with the noontide lulled in its heart of gold; + To lie with the night-time and dream the dreams of old. + + --MADISON CAWEIN. + + +A man I know studies as a hobby something which he calls "graphics"--the +term denoting the reaction of the mind to certain words. One of the +words he used in an experiment with me was "winter." When he said +"winter" there instantly came to me the picture of a snowstorm in +Quebec. I saw the front of the Hotel Frontenac at dusk through a mist of +driving snow. There were lights in the windows. A heavy wind was blowing +and as I leaned against it the front of my overcoat was plastered with +sticky white flakes. The streets and sidewalks were deep with snow, and +the only person besides myself in the vision was a sentry standing with +his gun in the lee of the vestibule outside the local militia +headquarters. + +If my friend were to come now and try me with the word "spring," I know +what picture it would call to mind. I should see the Burge plantation, +near Covington, Georgia: the simple old white house with its rose-clad +porch, or "gallery," its grove of tall trees, its carriage-house, its +well-house, and other minor dependencies clustering nearby like +chickens about a white hen, its background the rolling cottonfields, +their red soil glowing salmon-colored in the sun. For, as I was never so +conscious of the brutality of winter as in that evening snowstorm at +Quebec, I was never so conscious, as at the time of our visit to the +Burge plantation, of the superlative soft sweetness of the spring. + +In seasons, as in other things, we have our individual preferences. +Melancholy natures usually love autumn, with its colorings so like sweet +sad minor chords. But what kind of natures they are which rejoice in +spring, which feel that with each spring the gloomy past is blotted out, +and life, with all its opportunities, begins anew--what kind of natures +they are which recognize April instead of January as the beginning of +their year I shall not attempt to tell, for mine is such a nature, and +one must not act at once as subject and diagnostician. + +So long as I endure, spring can never come again without turning my +thoughts to northwestern Georgia; to the peculiar penetrating warmth +which passed through the clothing to the body and made one feel that one +was not surrounded by mere air, but was immersed in a dry bath of some +infinitely superior vapor, a vapor volatile, soothing, tonic, distilled, +it seemed, from the earth, from pine trees, tulip trees, balm-of-Gilead +trees, (or "bam" trees, as they call them), blossoming Judas trees, +Georgia crabapple, dogwood pink and white, peach blossom, wistaria, +sweet-shrub, dog violets, pansy violets, Cherokee roses, wild +honeysuckle and azalia, and the evanescent green of new treetops, all +carried in solution in the sunlight. By day the brilliant cardinal adds +his fine note of color and sound, but at night he is silent, and when +the moon comes out one hears the mockingbird and, it may be also, two +whippoorwills, one in the grove near the house, one in the woods across +the road, calling back and forth. Then one is tempted to step down from +the porch, and follow the voices of the birds into the vague recesses of +a night webbed with dark tree shadows outlined in blue moonlight. + +Small wonder it is, if, as report says, no houseparty on a southern +plantation is a success unless young couples become "sort of engaged," +and if in a region so provocative in springtime under a full moon, a +distinction is recognized between being merely "engaged," and being +engaged _to be married_. + +One Georgia belle we met, a sloe-eyed girl whose reputation not only for +beauty but for charm reached through the entire South, had, at the time +of our visit, recently become engaged in the more grave and permanent +sense. + +"How does it seem?" a girl friend asked her. + +"I feel," she answered, "like a man who has built up a large business +and is about to go into the hands of a receiver." + +Such ways as those girls have! Such voices! Such eyes! And such names, +too! Names which would not fit at all into a northern setting, +relatively so hard and unsentimental, but which, when one becomes +accustomed to them, take their place gracefully and harmoniously in the +southern picture. The South likes diminutives and combinations in its +women's names. Its Harriets, Franceses, Sarahs, and Marthas, become +Hatties, Fannies, Sallies and Patsies, and Patsy sometimes undergoes a +further transition and becomes Passie. Moreover, where these diminutives +have been passed down for several generations in a family, their origin +is sometimes lost sight of, and the diminutive becomes the actual +baptismal name. In one family of my acquaintance, for example, the name +Passie has long been handed down from mother to daughter. The original +great-grandmother Passie was christened Martha but was at first called +Patsy; then, because her black mammy was also named Patsy, the daughter +of the house came to be known, for purposes of differentiation, as +Passie, and when she married and had a daughter of her own, the child +was christened Passie. In this family the name May has more recently +been adopted as a middle name, and it is customary for familiars of the +youngest Passie, to address her not merely as Passie, but as Passie-May. +The inclusion of the second name, in this fashion, is another custom not +uncommon in the South. In Atlanta alone I heard of ladies habitually +referred to as Anna-Laura, Hattie-May, Lollie-Belle, Sally-Maud, +Nora-Belle, Mattie-Sue, Emma-Belle, Lottie-Belle, Susie-May, Lula-Belle, +Sallie-Fannie, Hattie-Fannie, Lou-Ellen, Allie-Lou, Clara-Belle, +Mary-Ella, and Hattie-Belle. Another young lady was known to her friends +as Jennie-D. + +The train from Atlanta set us down at Covington, Georgia, or rather at +the station which lies between the towns of Covington and Oxford--for +when this railroad was built neither town would allow it a right of way, +and to this day each is connected with the station by a street car line, +either line equipped with one diminutive car, a pair of disconsolate +mules, and a driver. Covington is the County seat, a quiet southern +town, part old, part new, with a look of rural prosperity about it. +Stopping at the postoffice to inquire for mail we saw this peremptory +sign displayed: + + When the window is down don't bang around and ask for a stamp or + two. + + --J.L. CALLAWAY, Postmaster. + +As the window was down we tiptoed out and went upon our way, driving +through Oxford before going to the plantation. This town was named for +Oxford, England, and is, like its namesake, a college town. A small and +very old Methodist educational institution, with a pretty though ragged +campus and fine trees, is all there is to Oxford, save a row of +ante-bellum houses. One of them, a pleasant white mansion, half +concealed by the huge magnolias which stand in its front yard, was at +one time the residence of General Longstreet. The old front gate, +hanging on a stone post, was made by the general with his own hands--and +well made, for it is to-day as good a gate as ever. Corra Harris lived +at one time in Oxford; her husband, Rev. Lundy H. Harris, having been a +professor at the college. + + * * * * * + +Though plantation life has necessarily changed since the war, I do not +believe that there is in the whole South a plantation where it has +changed less than on the Burge plantation. In appearance the place is +not as Sherman's men found it, for they tore down the fences and ruined +the beautiful old-fashioned garden, and neither has been replaced; nor, +of course, is it run, so far as practical affairs are concerned, as it +was before the War; that is to say, instead of being operated as a unit +of nine-hundred acres, it is now worked chiefly on shares, and is +divided up into "one mule farms" and "two mule farms," these being +tracts of about thirty and sixty acres, respectively, thirty acres being +approximately the area which can be worked by a man and a mule. + +Practically all the negroes on the place--perhaps a hundred in +number--are either former slaves of the Burge family, or the children, +grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of slaves who lived on the +plantation. That is one reason why the plantation is less changed in +spirit than are many others. The Burges were religious people, used +their slaves kindly, and brought them up well, so that the negroes on +the plantation to-day are respectable, and in some instances, exemplary +people, very different from the vagrant negro type which has developed +since the War, making labor conditions in some parts of the South +uncertain, and plantation life, in some sections, not safe for +unprotected women. + +The present proprietors of the Burge plantation are two ladies, +granddaughters of Mrs. Thomas Burge, who lived here, a widow, with a +little daughter, when General Sherman and his hosts came by. These +ladies frequently spend months at the plantation without male protectors +save only the good negroes of their own place, who look after them with +the most affectionate devotion. True, the ladies keep an ugly looking +but mild mannered bulldog, of which the negroes are generally afraid; +true also they carry a revolver when they drive about the country in +their motor, and keep revolvers handy in their rooms; but these +precautions are not taken, they told me, because of any doubts about the +men on their place, their one fear being of tramp negroes, passing by. + +Of their own negroes several are remarkable, particularly one old +couple, perfect examples of the fine ante-bellum type so much beloved in +the South, and so much regretted as it disappears. + +During the period of twenty years or more, while the owners were absent, +growing up and receiving their education, the whole place, indoors and +out, was in charge of Uncle George and Aunt Sidney. The two lived, and +still do live, in one wing of the house--over which Aunt Sidney presides +as housekeeper and cook, as her mother, Aunt Liddy, did before her. Aunt +Liddy died only a short time ago, aged several years over a hundred. +Uncle George supervises all the business of the plantation, as he has +done for thirty or forty years. He collects all rents, markets the crops +and receives the payments, makes purchases, pays bills, and keeps peace +between the tenants--nor could any human being be more honorable or +possess a finer, sweeter dignity. As for devotion, when the little girls +who were away returned after all the years as grown women, every ribbon, +every pin in that house was where it had been left, and the place was no +less neat than if the "white folks" had constantly remained there. + +Before Georgia went dry it was customary for negroes of the rougher sort +to get drunk in town every Saturday night. Drunken negroes would +consequently be passing by, all night, on their way to their homes, +yelling and (after the manner of their kind when intoxicated) shooting +their revolvers in the air. Every Saturday night, when the ladies were +at home, Uncle George would quietly take his gun and place himself on +the porch, remaining there until the last of the obstreperous wayfarers +had passed. + +Uncle Abe and Uncle Wiley are two other worthy and venerable men who +live in cabins on the place. Both were there when Sherman's army passed +upon its devastating way, and both were carried off, as were thousands +upon thousands of other negroes out of that wide belt across the State +of Georgia, which was overrun in the course of the March to the Sea. + +"Ah was goin' to mill wid de ox-caht," Uncle Abe told me, "when de +soljas dey kim 'long an' got me. Dey tol' me, 'Heah, nigga! Git out dat +caht, an' walk behin'. When _it_ moves _you_ move; when _it_ stops _you_ +stop!' An' like dat Ah walk all de way to Savannah [two hundred and +fifty miles]. Den, after dat, dey took us 'long up No'th--me an' ma +brotha Wiley, ovah deh." + +I asked him what regiment he went with. He said it was the Twenty-second +Indiana, and that Dr. Joe Stilwell, of that regiment, who came from a +place near Madison, Indiana ("Ah reckon de town was name Brownstown"), +was good to him. An officer whom he knew, he said, was Captain John +Snodgrass, and another Major Tom Shay. + +"All Ah was evvuh wo'ied about aftuh dey kim tuck me," he declared, "was +gittin' somep'n t' eat. Dat kinda put me on de wonduh, sometahmes, but +dey used us all right. Dr. Pegg--him dat did de practice on de +plantation befo' de Wah--he tol' de niggas dat de Yankees would put gags +in deh moufs an' lead 'em eroun' like dey wuz cattle. But deh wa' n't +like dat nohow. I b'longed to de Secon' Division, Thuhd B'gade, +Fou'teenth Co' [corps]. Cap'n Snodgrass, he got to be lieutenant-cuhnel. +He was de highes' man Ah evuh hel' any convuhsation wid, but I _saw_ all +de gennuls of dat ahmy." + +Uncle Wiley is older than Uncle Abe. He was already a grown man with +three children when taken away by some of Sherman's men. He told me he +was with the Fifty-second Ohio, and mentioned Captain Shepard. + +The two brothers got as far as Washington, D.C. + +"We got los' togedduh in de U.S. buildin' in dat city," said Uncle +Wiley. "De President of de U.S. right at dat tahme he was daid. He was +kill', Ah don' s'pose it wuz a week befo' we got to Wash'n, D.C." + +"How did you happen to come all the way back?" I asked. + +"Well-l," ruminated the old man, "home was always a-restin' on mah min'. +Ah kep' thinkin' 'bout home. So aftuh de Wah ceasted Ah jus' kim 'long +back." + +Many of the old plantation customs still survive. A little before noon +the bell is rung to summon the hands from the cotton fields. Over the +red plowed soil you hear a darky cry, a melodious "Oh-_oh_-oh!" as wild +and musical as the cries of the south-Italian olive gatherers. The +planters cease their work, mules stand still, traces are unhooked from +singletrees, and chain-ends thrown over the mules' backs; then the men +mount the animals and ride in to the midday meal, the women trudging +after. Those who rent land, or work on shares, go to their own cabins, +while those employed by the hour or by the day (the rate of pay is ten +cents an hour or seventy-five cents a day) come to the kitchen to be +fed. Nor is it customary to stop there at feeding negroes. As in the old +days, any negro who has come upon an errand or who has "stopped by" to +sell supplies, or for whatever purpose, expects to stay for "dinner," +and makes it a point to arrive about noon. Thus from sixteen to twenty +negroes are fed daily at the Burge plantation house. + +The old Christmas traditions are likewise kept up. On Christmas day the +negroes come flocking up to the house for their gifts. Their first +concern is to attempt to cry "Christmas gift!" to others, before it can +be said to them--for according to ancient custom the one who says the +words first must have a gift from the other. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +A YOUNG METROPOLIS + + +An observer approaching a strange city should be "neutral even in +thought." He may listen to what is said of the city, but he must not +permit his opinions to take form in advance; for, like other gossip, +gossip about cities is unreliable, and the casual stranger's estimate of +cities is not always founded upon broad appreciations. But though it is +unwise to judge of cities by what is said of them, it is perhaps worth +remarking that one may often judge of men by what they say of cities. + +I remember an American manufacturer, broken down by overwork, who, when +he looked at Pompeii, could think only of the wasted possibilities of +Vesuvius as a power plant, and I remember two traveling salesmen on a +southern railroad train who expressed scorn for the exquisite city of +Charleston because--they said--it is but a poor market place for +suspenders and barbers' supplies. There are those who think of Boston +only as headquarters of the shoe trade, others who think of it only in +the terms of culture, and still others who regard it solely as an abode +of negrophiles. + +In the case of the chief city of Alabama, however, my companion and I +noticed, as we journeyed through the South, that reports were +singularly in accord. Birmingham is too young to have any Civil War +history. Her history is the history of the steel industry in the South, +and one hears always of that: of the affluence of the city when the +industry is thriving, and hard times when it is not. One is invariably +told that Birmingham is not a southern city, but a northern city in the +South, and the chief glories of the place, aside from steel, are (if one +is to believe rumors current upon railroad trains and elsewhere), a +twenty-seven story building, Senator Oscar Underwood, the distinguished +Democratic leader, and the Tutwiler Hotel. Even in Atlanta it is +conceded that the Tutwiler is a good hotel, and when Atlanta admits that +anything in Birmingham is good it may be considered as established that +the thing is very, very good--for Birmingham and Atlanta view each other +with the same degree of cordiality as is exchanged between St. Louis and +Kansas City, Minneapolis and St. Paul, San Francisco and Los Angeles. + +Having been, in the course of our southern wanderings, in several very +bad hotels, and having heard the Tutwiler compared with Chicago's +Blackstone, my companion and I held eager anticipation of this hostelry. +Nor were our hopes dashed by a first glimpse of the city on the night of +our arrival. It was a modern-looking city--just the sort of city that +would have a fine new hotel. The railroad station through which we +passed after leaving the train was not the usual dingy little southern +station, but an admirable building, and the streets along which we +presently found ourselves gliding in an automobile hack, were wide, +smooth, and brightly illuminated by clustered boulevard lights. + +True, we had long since learned not to place too much reliance upon the +nocturnal aspects of cities. A city seen by night is like a woman +dressed for a ball. Darkness drapes itself about her as a black-velvet +evening gown, setting off, in place of neck and arms, the softly glowing +facades of marble buildings; lights are her diamond ornaments, and her +perfume is the cool fragrance of night air. Almost all cities, and +almost all women, look their best at night, and there are those which, +though beautiful by night, sink, in their daylight aspect, to utter +mediocrity. + +Presently our motor drew up before the entrance of the Tutwiler--a proud +entrance, all revolving doors and glitter and promise. A brisk bell boy +came running for our bags. The signs were of the best. + +The lobby, though spacious, was crowded; the decorations and equipment +were of that rich sumptuousness attained only in the latest and most +magnificent American hotels; there was music, and as we made our way +along we caught a glimpse, in passing, of an attractive supper room, +with small table-lights casting their soft radiance upon white shirt +fronts and the faces of pretty girls. In all it was a place to make glad +the heart of the weary traveler, and to cause him to wonder whether his +dress suit would be wrinkled when he took it from his trunk. + +Behind the imposing marble "desk" stood several impeccable clerks, and +to one of these I addressed myself, giving our names and mentioning the +fact that we had telegraphed for rooms. I am not sure that this young +man wore a braided cutaway and a white carnation; I only know that he +affected me as hotel clerks in braided cutaways and white carnations +always do. While I spoke he stood a little way back from the counter, +his chin up, his gaze barely missing the top of my hat, his nostrils +seeming to contract with that expression of dubiousness assumed by +delicate noses which sense, long before they encounter it, the aroma of +unworthiness. + +"Not a room in the house," he said. Then, as though to forestall further +parley, he turned and spoke with gracious lightness to one of his own +rank and occupation who, at the request of my companion, was +ascertaining whether letters were awaiting us. + +"But we telegraphed two days ago!" I protested desperately. + +"Can't help it. Hardware Convention. Everything taken." + +Over my shoulder I heard from my companion a sound, half sigh, half +groan, which echoed the cry of my own heart. + +"I felt this coming!" he murmured. "Didn't you notice all these people +with ribbons on them? There's never any room in a hotel where +everybody's wearing ribbons. It's like a horse show. They get the +ribbons and we get the gate." + +"Surely," I faltered, "you can let us have one small room?" + +"Impossible," he answered brightly. "We've turned away dozens of people +this evening." + +"Then," I said, abandoning hope, "perhaps you will suggest some other +hotel?" + +I once heard a woman, the most perfect parvenu I ever met, speak of her +poor relations in a tone exactly similar to that in which the clerk now +spoke the names of two hotels. Having spoken, he turned and passed +behind the partition at one end of the marble counter. + +My companion and I stood there for a moment looking despondently at each +other. Then, without a word, we retreated through that gorgeous lobby, +feeling like sad remnants of a defeated Yankee army. + +Again we motored through the bright streets, but only to successive +disappointments, for both hotels mentioned by the austere clerk were +"turning 'em away." Our chauffeur now came to our aid, mentioning +several small hotels, and in one of these, the Granada, we were at last +so fortunate as to find lodgings. + +"It begun to look like you'd have to put up at the Roden," the chauffeur +smiled as we took our bags out of the car and settled with him. + +"The Roden?" + +"Yes," he returned "Best ventilated hotel in the United States." + +Next day when the Hotel Roden was pointed out to us we appreciated the +witticism, for the Roden is--or was at the time of our visit--merely +the steel skeleton of a building which, we were informed, had for some +years stood unfinished owing to disagreements among those concerned with +its construction. + +As for the Granada, though a modest place, it was new and clean; the +clerk was amiable, the beds comfortable, and if our rooms were too small +to admit our trunks, they were, at all events, outside rooms, each with +a private bath, at a rate of $1 per day apiece. Never in any hotel have +I felt that I was getting so much for my money. + +Next morning, after breakfast, we set out to see the city. Having +repeatedly heard of Birmingham as the "Pittsburgh of the South," we +expected cold daylight to reveal the sooty signs of her industrialism, +but in this we were agreeably disappointed. By day as well as by night +the city is pleasing to the eye, and it is a fact worth noting that the +downtown buildings of Atlanta (which is not an industrial city) are +streaked and dirty, whereas those of Birmingham are clean--the reason +for this being that the mills and furnaces of Birmingham are far removed +from the heart of the town, whereas locomotives belch black smoke into +the very center of Atlanta's business and shopping district. + +Moreover, the metropolis of Alabama is better laid out than that of +Georgia. The streets of Birmingham are wide, and the business part of +the city, lying upon a flat terrain, is divided into large, even +squares. From this district the chief residence section mounts by easy, +graceful grades into the hills to the southward. Because of these +grades, and the curving drives which follow the contours of the hills, +and the vistas of the lower city, and the good modern houses, and the +lawns and trees and shrubbery and breezes, this Highlands region is +reminiscent of a similar residence district in Portland, Oregon--which +is to say that it is one of the most agreeable districts of the kind in +the United States. + +Well up on the hillside, Highland Avenue winds a charming course between +pleasant homes, with here and there a little residence park branching +off to one side, and here and there a small municipal park occupying an +angle formed by a sharp turn in the driveway; and if you follow the +street far enough you will presently see the house of the Birmingham +Country Club, standing upon its green hilltop, amidst rolling, partly +wooded golf links, above the road. + +Nor is the Country Club at the summit of this range of hills. Back of it +rise other roads, the most picturesque of them being Altamont Road, +which runs to the top of Red Mountain, reaching a height about +equivalent to that of the cornice line of Birmingham's tallest building. +The houses of this region are built on streets which, like some streets +of Portland, are terraced into the hillside, and the resident of an +upper block can almost look down the chimneys of his neighbors on the +block below. The view commanded from these mountain perches does not +suggest that the lower city runs up into the Highlands. It seems to be a +separate place, down in a distant valley, and the sense of its +remoteness is heightened by the thin veil of gray smoke which wafts from +the tall smokestacks of far-off iron furnaces, softening the serrated +outlines of the city and wrapping its tall buildings in the industrial +equivalent for autumn haze. + +At night the scene from the Highlands is even more spectacular, for at +brief intervals the blowing of a converter in some distant steel plant +illuminates the heavens with a great hot glow, like that which rises and +falls about the crater of a volcano in eruption. Thus the city's vast +affairs are kept before it by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in +a pillar of fire. Iron and steel dominate Birmingham's mind, activities +and life. The very ground of Red Mountain is red because of the iron ore +that it contains, and those who reside upon the charming slopes of this +hill do not own their land in fee simple, but subject always to the +mineral rights of mining companies. + +The only other industry of Birmingham which is to be compared, in +magnitude or efficiency, with the steel industry is that of "cutting in" +at dances. All through the South it is carried on, but whereas in such +cities as Memphis, New Orleans and Atlanta, men show a little mercy to +the stranger--realizing that, as he is presumably unacquainted with all +the ladies at a dance, he cannot retaliate in kind--Birmingham is +merciless and prosecutes the pestilential practice unremittingly, even +going so far as to apply the universal-service principle and call out +her highschool youths to carry on the work. Before I went to certain +dances in Birmingham I felt that high-school boys ought to be kept at +home at night, but after attending these dances I realized that such +restriction was altogether inadequate, and that the only way to deal +with them effectively would be to pickle them in vitriol. + +Where, in other cities of the South, I have managed to dance as much as +half a dance without interruption, I never danced more than twenty feet +with one partner in Birmingham. Nor did my companion. + +Our host was energetic in presenting us to ladies of infinite +pulchritude and State-wide terpsichorean reputation, but we would start +to tread a measure with them, only to have them swiftly snatched from us +by some spindle-necked, long-wristed, big-boned, bowl-eared high-school +youth, in a dinner suit which used to fit him when it was new, six +months ago. + +As we would start to dance the lady would say: + +"You-all ah strangehs, ahn't you?" + +We would reply that we were. + +"Wheh do you come from?" + +"New York." + +Then, because the Hardware Convention was being held in town at the +time, she would continue: + +"Ah reckon you-all ah hahdware men?" + +But that was as far as the conversation ever got. Just about the time +that she began to reckon we were hardware men a mandatory hand would be +laid upon us, and before we had time to defend ourselves against the +hardware charge, the lady would be wafted off in the arms of some +predatory youth who ought to have been at home considering _pons +asinorum_. + +Had we indeed been hardware men, and had we had our hardware with us, +they could have done with fewer teachers in the high schools of that +city after the night of our first dance in Birmingham. + + * * * * * + +Up in the hills, some miles back of the Country Club, on the banks of a +large artificial lake, stands the new clubhouse of the Birmingham Motor +and Country Club, and around the lake runs the club's +two-and-a-half-mile speedway. Elsewhere is the Roebuck Golf Club, the +links of which are admitted ("even in Atlanta!") to be excellent--the +one possible objection to the course of the Birmingham Country Club +being that it is suited only to play with irons. + +I mention these golfing matters not because they interest me, but +because they may interest you. I am not a golfer. I played the game for +two seasons; then I decided to try to lead a better life. The first time +I played I did quite well, but thence onward my game declined until, +toward the last, crowds would collect to hear me play. When I determined +to abandon the game I did not burn my clubs or break them up, according +to the usual custom, but instead gave them to a man upon whom I wished +to retaliate because his dog had bitten a member of my family. + +Small wonder that all golf clubs have extensive bars! It is not hard to +understand why men who realize that they have become incurable victims +of the insidious habit of golf should wish to drown the thought in +drink. But in Birmingham they can't do it--not, at least, at bars. +Alabama has beaten her public bars into soda fountains and quick-lunch +rooms, and though her club bars still look like real ones, the drinks +served are so soft that no splash occurs when reminiscent tears drop +into them. + +When we were in Alabama each citizen who so desired was allowed by law +to import from outside the State a small allotment of strong drink for +personal use, but the red tape involved in this procedure had already +discouraged all but the most ardent drinkers, and those found it next to +impossible, even by hoarding their "lonesome quarts," and pooling +supplies with their convivial friends, to provide sufficient alcoholic +drink for a "real party." + +We met in Birmingham but one gentleman whose cellars seemed to be well +stocked, and the tales of ingenuity and exertion by which he managed to +secure ample supplies of liquor were such as to lead us to believe that +this matter had become, with him, an occupation to which all other +business must give second place. + +It was this gentleman who told us that, since the State went dry, the +ancient form, "R.S.V.P.," on social invitations, had been revised to +"B.W.H.P.," signifying, "bring whisky in hip pocket." + +To the "B.W.H.P." habit he himself strictly adhered. One night, when we +chanced to meet him in a downtown club, he drew a flask from a hip +pocket, and invited us to "have something." + +"What is it?" asked my companion. + +"Scotch." + +When my companion had helped himself he passed the flask to me, but I +returned it to the owner, explaining that I did not drink Scotch whisky. + +"What do you drink?" he asked. + +"Bourbon." + +"Here it is," he returned, drawing a second flask from the other hip +pocket. + +How well, too, do I remember the long, delightful evening upon which my +companion and I sat in an Atlanta club with a group of the older +members, the week before Georgia went bone dry. There, as in Alabama +before 1915, there had been pretended prohibition, but now the bars of +leading clubs were being closed, and convivial men were looking into the +future with despair. One of the gentlemen was a justice of the Supreme +Court of the State, and I remember his wistful declaration that +prohibition would fall hardest upon the older men. + +"When a man is young," he said, "he can be lively and enjoy himself +without drinking, because he is full of animal spirits. But we older men +aren't bubbling over with liveliness. We can't dance, or don't want to, +and we lack the stimulus which comes of falling continually in love. My +great pleasure is to sit of an evening, here at a table in the cafe of +this club, conversing with my friends. That is where prohibition is +going to hurt me. I shall not see my old friends any more." + +The others protested at this somber view, but the judge gravely shook +his head, saying: "You don't believe me, but I know whereof I speak, for +I have been through something like this, in a minor way, before. A good +many years ago I was one of a little group of congenial men to organize +a small club. We had comfortable quarters, and we used to drop in at +night, much as we have been doing of late years here, and have the kind +of talks that are tonic to the soul. Of course we had liquor in the +club, but there came a time when, for some reason or other--I think it +was some trouble over a license--we closed our bar. We didn't think it +was going to make a great difference, but it did. The men began to stop +coming in, and before long the club ceased to exist. + +"It won't be like that here. This club will go on. But we won't come +here. We won't want to sit around a table, like this, and drink ginger +ale and sarsaparilla; and even if we do, the talk won't be so good. The +thing that makes me downcast is not that liquor is going, but that we +are really parting this week. + +"Every one knows that the abuse of drink does harm in the world, but +these pious prohibitionists are not of the temperament to understand how +alcohol ministers to the esthetic side of certain natures. It gives us +better companions and makes us better companions for others. It +stimulates our minds, enhances our appreciations, sharpens our wit, +loosens our tongues, and saves brilliant conversation from becoming a +lost art." + +My sympathies went out to the judge. It has always seemed to me a pity +that the liquor question has resolved itself into a fight between +extremists--for I think the wine and beer people might survive if they +were not tied up with the distillers, and I do not believe that any +considerable evil comes of drinking wine or beer. + +Nevertheless it must be apparent to every one who troubles to +investigate, that prohibition invariably works great good wherever it is +made effective. Take, for example, Birmingham. + +There was one year--I believe it was 1912--when there was an average of +more than one murder a day, for every working day in the year, in the +county in which Birmingham is located. On one famous Saturday night +there were nineteen felonious assaults (sixteen by negroes and three by +whites), from which about a dozen deaths resulted, two of those killed +having been policemen. + +All this has changed with prohibition. Killings are now comparatively +rare, arrests have diminished to less than a third of the former +average, whether for grave or petty offenses, and the receiving jail, +which was formerly packed like a pigpen every Saturday night, now stands +almost empty, while the city jail, which used continually to house from +120 to 150 offenders, has diminished its average population to 30 or +35. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +BUSY BIRMINGHAM + + +The fact that a man may shut off his motor and coast downhill from his +home to his office in the lower part of Birmingham, is not without +symbolism. Birmingham is all business. If I were to personify the place, +it would be in the likeness of a man I know--a big, powerful fellow with +an honest blue eye and an expression in which self-confidence, ambition, +and power are blended. Like Birmingham, this man is a little more than +forty years of age. Like Birmingham, he has built up a large business of +his own. And, like Birmingham, he is a little bit naive in his pride of +success. His life is divided between his office and his home, and it +would be difficult to say for which his devotion is the greater. He +talks business with his wife at breakfast and dinner, and on their +Sunday walks. He brings his papers home at night and goes over them with +her, for, though her specialty is bringing up the children, she is +deeply interested in his business and often makes suggestions which he +follows. This causes him to admire her intensely, which he would not +necessarily do were she merely a good wife and mother. + +He has no hobbies or pastimes. True, he plays golf, but with him golf is +not a diversion. He plays because he finds the exercise increases his +efficiency ("efficiency" is perhaps his favorite word), and because many +of his commercial associates are golfers, and he can talk business with +them on the links. + +His house is pleasant and stands upon a good-sized city lot. It is +filled with very shiny mahogany furniture and strong-colored portieres +and sofa cushions. It is rather more of a house than he requires, for +his tastes are simple, but he has a feeling that he ought to have a +large house, for the same reason that he and his wife ought to dress +expensively--that is, out of respect, as it were, to his business. + +One of his chief treasures is an automatic piano, upon which he rolls +off selections from Wagner's operas. He likes the music of the great +German because, as he has often told me, it stirs his imagination, +thereby helping him to solve business problems and make business plans. + +The thing he most abhors is general conversation, and he is never so +amusing--so pathetically and unconsciously amusing--as when trying to +take part in general conversation and at the same time to conceal the +writhings of his tortured spirit. There is but one thing which will +drive him to attempt the feat, and that is the necessity of making +himself agreeable to some man, or the wife of some man, from whom he +wishes to get business. + +The census of 1910 gave Birmingham a population of 132,000, and it is +estimated that since that time the population has increased by 50,000. +Birmingham not only knows that it is growing, but believes in trying to +make ready in advance for future growth. It gives one the impression +that it is rather ahead of its housing problems than behind them. Its +area, for instance, is about as great as that of Boston or Cleveland, +and its hotels may be compared with the hotels of those cities. If it +has not so many clubs as Atlanta, it has, at least, all the clubs it +needs; and if it has not so many skyscrapers as New York, it has several +which would fit nicely into the Wall Street district. Moreover, the tall +buildings of Birmingham lose nothing in height by contrast with the +older buildings, three or four stories high, which surround them, giving +the business district something of that look which hangs about a boy who +has outgrown his clothing. Nor are the vehicles and street crowds, +altogether in consonance, as yet, with the fine office buildings of the +city, for many of the motors standing at the curb have about them that +gray, rural look which comes of much mud and infrequent washing, and the +idlers who lean against the rich facades of granite and marble are +entirely out of the picture, for they look precisely like the idlers who +lean against the wooden posts of country railroad station platforms. + +Such curious contrasts as these may be noted everywhere. For instance, +Birmingham has been so busy paving the streets that it seems quite to +have forgotten to put up street signs. Also, not far from the majestic +Tutwiler Hotel, and the imposing apartment building called the Ridgely, +the front of which occupies a full block, is a park so ill kept that it +would be a disgrace to the city but for the obvious fact that the city +is growing and wide-awake, and will, of course, attend to the park when +it can find the time. Here are, I believe, the only public monuments +Birmingham contains. One is a Confederate monument in the form of an +obelisk, and the other two are statues erected in memory of Mary A. +Cahalan, for many years principal of the Powell School, and of William +Elias B. Davis, a distinguished surgeon. Workers in these fields are too +seldom honored in this way, and the spirit which prompted the erection +of these monuments is particularly creditable; sad to say, however, both +effigies are wretchedly placed and are in themselves exceedingly poor +things. Art is something, indeed, about which Birmingham has much to +learn. So far as I could discover, no such thing as an art museum has +been contemplated. But here again the critic should remember that, +whereas art is old, Birmingham is young. She is as yet in the stage of +development at which cities think not of art museums, but of municipal +auditoriums; and with the latter subject, at least, she is now +concerning herself. + +Even in the city's political life contrasts are not wanting, for though +the town is Republican in sentiment, it proves itself southern by voting +the Democratic ticket, and it is interesting to note further that the +commission by which it is governed had as one of its five members, when +we were there, a Socialist. + +Another curious and individual touch is contributed by the soda-fountain +lunch rooms which abound in the city, and which, I judge, arrived with +the disappearance of barroom lunch counters. In connection with many of +the downtown soda fountains there are cooking arrangements, and business +lunches are served. + +The roads leading out of the city in various directions have many +dangerous grade crossings, and accidents must be of common occurrence. +At all events, I have never known a city in which cemeteries and +undertaking establishments were so widely advertised. In the street +cars, for instance, I observed the cheerful placards of one Wallace +Johns, undertaker, who promises "all the attention you would expect from +a friend," and I was informed that Mr. Johns possesses business cards +(for restricted use only) bearing the gay legend: "I'll get you yet!" + +As to schools the city is well off. Dr. J.H. Phillips, superintendent of +public schools, has occupied his post probably as long as any school +superintendent in the country. He organized the city school system in +1883, beginning with seven teachers, as against 750 now employed. The +colored schools are reported to be better than in most southern cities. + +Of the general status of the negro in Birmingham I cannot speak with +authority. As in Atlanta, negroes are sometimes required to use separate +elevators in office buildings, and, as everywhere south of Washington, +the Birmingham street cars give one end to whites and the other to +negroes. But whereas negroes use the back of the car in Atlanta, they +use the front in Birmingham. It was attempted, at one time, to reverse +this order, for reasons having to do with draft and ventilation, but the +people of Birmingham had become accustomed to the existing arrangement +and objected to the change. "After all," one gentleman said to me, in +speaking of this matter, "it is not important which end of the car is +given to the nigger. The main point is that he must sit where he is +told." + +The means by which the negro vote is eliminated in various Southern +States are generally similar, though Alabama has, perhaps, been more +thorough in the matter than some other States. The importance of this +issue to the southern white man is very great, for if all negroes were +allowed to vote the control of certain States would be in negro hands. +To the Southerner such an idea is intolerable, and it is my confident +belief that if the State of Alabama were resettled by men from +Massachusetts, and the same problems were presented to those men, they +would be just as quick as the white Alabamans of to-day to find means to +suppress the negro vote. With all my heart I wish that such an exchange +of citizens might temporarily be effected, for when the immigrants from +Massachusetts moved back to their native New England, after an +experience of the black belt, they would take with them an +understanding of certain aspects of the negro problem which they have +never understood; an understanding which, had they possessed it sixty or +seventy years ago, might have brought about the freeing of slaves by +government purchase--a course which Lincoln advocated and which would +probably have prevented the Civil War, and thereby saved millions upon +millions of money, to say nothing of countless lives. Had they even +understood the problems of the South at the end of the Civil War, the +horrors of Reconstruction might have been avoided, and I cannot too +often reiterate that, but for Reconstruction we should not be perplexed, +to-day, by the unhappy, soggy mass of political inertia known as the +Solid South. + +I asked a former State official how the negro vote had been eliminated +in Alabama. "At first," he said, "we used to kill them to keep them from +voting; when we got sick of doing that we began to steal their ballots; +and when stealing their ballots got to troubling our consciences we +decided to handle the matter legally, fixing it so they couldn't vote." + +I inquired as to details. He explained. + +It seems that in 1901 a constitutional convention was held, at which it +was enacted that, in order to be eligible for life to vote, citizens +must register during the next two years. There were, however, certain +qualifications prescribed for registration. A man must be of good +character, and must have fought in a war, or be the descendant of a +person who had fought. This enactment, known as the "grandfather +clause," went far toward the elimination of the negro. As an additional +safeguard, however, an educational clause was added, but the educational +requirement did not become effective at once, as that would have made +illiterate whites ineligible as voters. Not until the latter were safely +registered under the "grandfather clause," was the educational clause +applied, and as, under this clause, the would-be voter must read and +write _to the satisfaction of his examiner_, the negro's chance to get +suffrage was still more reduced. + +The United States Supreme Court has, I believe, held that the +educational clause does not constitute race discrimination. + +As though the above measures were not sufficient, it is further required +that, in order to vote at November elections in Alabama, voters must pay +a small voluntary poll tax. This tax, however, must be paid each year +before February first--that is, about nine months before elections +actually take place. The negro has never been distinguished for his +foresightedness with a dollar, and, to make matters harder for him, this +tax is cumulative from the year 1901, so that a man who wishes to begin +to vote this year, and can qualify in other respects, must pay a tax +amounting to nearly twenty dollars. + +These measures give Alabama, as my informant put it, a "very exclusive +electorate." With a population of approximately two millions, the +greatest number of votes ever cast by the State was 125,000. Of this +number, 531 votes were those of negroes, "representing" a colored +population of 840,000! + +The gentleman who explained these matters also told me a story +illustrative of the old-time Southerner's attitude toward the negro in +politics. + +During Reconstruction, when Alabama's Legislature was about one-third +white and two-thirds negro, a fine old gentleman who had been a +slaveholder and was an experienced parliamentarian, was attempting to +preside over the Legislature. In this he experienced much difficulty, +his greatest _bete noir_ being a negro member, full of oratory, who +continually interrupted other speakers. + +Realizing that this was a part of the new order of things, the presiding +officer tried not to allow his irritation to get the better of him, and +to silence the objectionable man in parliamentary fashion. "The member +will kindly come to order!" he repeated over and over, rapping with his +gavel. "The member will kindly come to order!" + +After this had gone on for some time without effect, the old gentleman's +patience became exhausted. He laid down his gavel, arose to his feet, +glared at the irrepressible member, and, shaking his finger savagely, +shouted: "Sit down, you blankety-blank black blankety-blank!" + +Whereupon the negro dropped instantly to his seat and was no more heard +from. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +AN ALLEGORY OF ACHIEVEMENT + + +To visit Birmingham without seeing an iron and steel plant would be like +visiting Rome without seeing the Forum. Consequently my companion and I +made application for permission to go through the Tennessee Coal, Iron, +& Railroad Company's plant, at Ensley, on the outskirts of the city. +When the permission was refused us we attacked from another angle--using +influence--and were refused again. Next we called upon a high official +of the company, and (as we had, of course, done in making our previous +requests for admission to the plant) explained our errand. + +Though this gentleman received us with the utmost courtesy, he declared +that the company desired no publicity, and plainly indicated that he was +not disposed to let us into the plant. + +"I'll tell you what the trouble is," said my companion to me. "This +company is a part of the United States Steel Corporation, and in the old +muckraking days it was thoroughly raked. They think that we have come +down here full of passionate feeling over the poor, downtrodden +workingman and the great, greedy octopus." + +"What makes you think that?" + +"Well, we are a writer and an artist. Lots of writers and artists have +made good livings by teaching magazine readers that it is dishonest for +a corporation, or a corporation official, to prosper; that the way to +integrity is through insolvency; that the word 'company' is a term of +reproach, while 'corporation' is a foul epithet, and 'trust' blasphemy." + +"What shall we do?" + +"We must make it clear to these people," he said, "that we have no +mission. We must satisfy them that we are not reformers--that we didn't +come to dig out a red-hot story, but to see red-hot rails rolled out." + +Pursuing this course, we were successful. All that any official of the +company required of us was that we be open-minded. The position of the +company, when we came to understand it, was simply that it did not wish +to facilitate the work of men who came down with pencils, paper, and +preconceived "views," deliberately to play the great American game of +"swat the corporation." + + * * * * * + +Surely there is not in the world an industry which, for sheer pictorial +magnificence, rivals the modern manufacturing of steel. In the first +place, the scale of everything is inexpressibly stupendous. To speak of +a row of six blast furnaces, with mouths a hundred feet above the +ground, and chimneys rising perhaps another hundred feet above these +mouths, is not, perhaps, impressive, but to look at such a row of +furnaces, to see their fodder of ore, dolomite, and coke brought in by +train loads; to see it fed to them by the "skip"; to hear them roar +continually for more; to feel the savage heat generated within their +bodies; to be told in shouts, above the din, something of what is going +on inside these vast, voracious, savage monsters, and to see them +dripping their white-hot blood when they are picked by a long steel bar +in the hands of an atom of a man--this is to witness an almost +terrifying allegory of mankind's achievement. + +The gas generated by blast furnaces is used in part in the hot-blast +stoves--gigantic tanks from which hot air, at very high pressure, is +admitted to the furnaces themselves, and is also used to develop steam +for the blowing engines and other auxiliaries. In the furnaces the +molten iron, because of its greater specific gravity, settles to the +bottom, while the slag floats to the top. The slag, by the way, is not, +as I had supposed, altogether worthless, but is used for railroad +ballast and in the manufacture of cement. + +The molten iron drawn from the blast furnaces runs in glittering +rivulets (which, at a distance of twenty or thirty feet, burn the face +and the eyes), into ladle cars which are like a string of devils' soup +bowls, mounted on railroad trucks ready to be hauled away by a +locomotive and served at a banquet in hell. + +That is not what happens to them, however. The locomotive takes them to +another part of the plant, and their contents, still molten, is poured +into the mixers. These are gigantic caldrons as high as houses, which +stand in rows in an open-sided steel shed, and the chief purpose of them +is to keep the "soup" hot until it is required for the converters--when +it is again poured off into ladle cars and drawn away. + +The converters are in still another part of the grounds. They are huge, +pear-shaped retorts, resembling in their action those teakettles which +hang on stands and are poured by being tilted. But a million teakettles +could be lost in one converter, and the boiling water from a million +teakettles, poured into a converter, would be as one single drop of ice +water let fall into a red-hot stove. + +In the converters the metalloids--silicon, manganese, and carbon--are +burned out of the iron under a flaming heat which, by means of high air +pressure, is brought to a temperature of about 3400 degrees. It is the +blowing of these converters, and the occasional pouring of them, which +throws the Vesuvian glow upon the skies of Birmingham at night. The heat +they give off is beyond description. Several hundred feet away you feel +it smiting viciously upon your face, and the concrete flooring of the +huge shed in which they stand is so hot as to burn your feet through the +soles of your shoes. + +The most elaborate display of fireworks ever devised by Mr. Pain would +be but a poor thing compared with the spectacle presented when a +converter is poured. The whole world glows with golden heat, and is +filled with an explosion of brilliant sparks, and as the molten metal +passes out into the sunlight that light is by contrast so feeble that it +seems almost to cast a shadow over the white-hot vats of iron. + +Next come the tilting open-hearth furnaces, where the iron is subjected +to the action of lime at a very high temperature. This removes the +phosphorus and leaves a bath of commercially pure iron which is then +"teemed" into a hundred-ton ladle, wherein it is treated in such a way +as to give it the properties required in the finished steel. What these +properties may be, depends, of course, upon the purpose to which the +steel is to be put. Rails, for example, must, above all, resist +abrasion, and consequently have a higher carbon content than, say, +reinforcing bars for concrete work. To obtain various qualities in steel +are added carbon, ferro-manganese, or ferro-silicon in proportions +differing according to requirements. + +In the next process steel ingots are made. I lost track of the exact +detail of this, but I remember seeing the ingots riding about in their +own steel cars, turning to an orange color as they cooled, and I +remember seeing them pounded by a hammer that stood up in the air like +an elevated railroad station, and I know that pretty soon they got into +the blooming mill and were rolled out into "blooms," after which they +were handled by a huge contrivance like a thumb and forefinger of steel +which--though the blooms weigh five tons apiece--picked them up much as +you might pick up a stick of red candy. + +Still orange-hot, the blooms find their way to the rolling mill, where +they go dashing back and forth upon rollers and between rollers--the +latter working in pairs like the rollers of large wringers, squeezing +the blooms, in their successive passages, to greater length and greater +thinness, until at last they take the form of long, red, glowing rails; +after which they are sawed off, to the accompaniment of a spray of white +sparks, into rail lengths, and run outside to cool. And I may add that, +while there is more brilliant heat to be seen in many other departments +of the plant, there is no department in which the color is more +beautiful than in the piles of rails on the cooling beds--some of them +still red as they come from the rollers, others shading off to rose and +pink, and finally to their normal cold steel-gray. + +Presently along comes a great electromagnet; from somewhere in the sky +it drops down and touches the rails; when it rises bunches of them rise +with it, and, after sailing through the air, are gently deposited upon +flat cars. Here, even after the current is shut off, some of them may +try to stick to the magnet, as though fearing to go forth into the +world. If so, it gives them a little shake, whereupon they let go, and +it travels back to get more rails and load them on the cars. + +Iron ore, coal, and limestone, the three chief materials used in the +making of steel, are all found in the hills in the immediate vicinity of +Birmingham. I am told that there is no other place in the world where +the three exist so close together. That is an impressive fact, but one +grows so accustomed to impressive facts, while passing through this +plant, that one ceases to be impressed, becoming merely dazed. + +If I were asked to mention one especially striking item out of all that +welter, I should think of many things--things having to do with +vastness, with gigantic movements and mutations, with Niagara-like +noises, with great bursts of flame suggesting fallen fragments from the +sun itself--but above all I think that I should speak of the apparent +absence of men. + +There were some four thousand men in the plant, I believe, at the time +we were there, but excepting when a shift changed, and a great army +passed out through the gates, we never saw a crowd; indeed I hardly +think we saw a group of any size. Here and there two or three men would +be doing something--something which, probably, we did not understand; in +the window of a locomotive cab, or that of a traveling crane, we would +see a man; we kept passing men as we went along; and sometimes as we +looked from a high perch over the interior of one of the great sheds, we +would be vaguely conscious of men scattered about the place. But they +were very small and gray and inconspicuous dots upon the surface of +great things going on--going on, seemingly by themselves, with a sort of +mad, mechanical, majestic, molten sweep. + + * * * * * + +At this time, when the great efficient organization started by Bismarck +is being devoted entirely to destruction, it is interesting to recall +that the idea of industrial welfare work originated in Germany during +the period of Bismarckian reorganization. So, paradoxically, the very +forces which, on one hand, were building towards the new records for the +extinction of life established in the present war, were, upon the other +hand, developing plans for the safeguarding of life and for making it +worth living--plans which have enormously affected the industrial +existence of the civilized world. + +The broad theory of industrial welfare work was brought to this country +by engineers, chemists, and workmen who had resided in Germany; but, +where this work developed over there along cooeperative lines, it has +remained for Great Britain and the United States to work it out in a +more individualistic way. + +In this country welfare work has come as a logical part of the general +industrial development. The first step in this development was the +assembling of small, weak industrial units into large, powerful, +effective units--that is to say, the formation of great corporations and +trusts. The second step was the cooerdination of these great industrial +alliances for "efficiency." The third step was the achievement of +material success. + +When our great corporations were in their formative period, effort was +concentrated on making them successful, but with success came thoughts +of other things. It began to be seen, for example, that whereas the old +small employer of labor came into personal contact with his handful of +workmen, and could himself supervise their welfare, some plan must now +be devised for doing this work in a large, corporate way. + +Thus welfare work developed in the United States, and it is interesting +to observe, now, that many of our great corporations are finding time +and funds to expend upon purely aesthetic improvements, and that, in the +construction of the most modern American industrial plants, architects, +landscape gardeners, and engineering men work in cooeperation, so that, +instead of being lopsided, the developments are harmonious and +oftentimes beautiful. + +On work calculated to prevent accidents in mines, not only the Tennessee +Coal, Iron, & Railroad Company, but all the leading mining companies in +the State join for conference. As a result the number of accidents +steadily decreases. Nine years ago one man was killed, on an average, +for every 100,000 tons of iron ore raised. The record at the time of our +visit was one man to 450,000 tons. In the coal mines, where nine years +ago one man was killed for every 75,000 tons raised, the recent record +is one man for 650,000 tons. + +In 1914, 126 men were killed in the coal mines of Alabama. In 1915, +though the tonnage was about the same, this number was reduced to 63, +which was a record. All this is the result of safety work. + +"Aside from humane considerations," said an official of the Tennessee +Company, "this concern realizes that the man is the most valuable +machine it has." + +This gentleman was one of the ablest men we met in the South. While +taking us through the company's plant, and explaining to us the various +operations, he was interesting, but the real enthusiasm of the man did +not crop out until he took us to the company's villages and showed us +what was being done for the benefit of operatives and their families, +and, of course, for the benefit of the company as well--for he was a +corporation official of the modern school, and he knew that by +benefiting its men a corporation necessarily benefits itself. + +The story of the Tennessee Company's work among its employees, which +began about five years ago, some time after the company was taken over +by the United States Steel Corporation, is too great to be more than +touched on here. In the department of health thirty-six doctors, sixteen +nurses, and a squad of sanitary inspectors are employed. The department +of social science covers education, welfare, and horticulture. To me the +work of these departments was a revelation. Each camp has a first-rate +hospital, each has its schools and guildhall, and everything is run as +only an efficiently managed corporation can run things. + +The Docena Village is less like one's idea of a coal "camp" than of a +pretty suburban development, or a military post, with officers' houses +built around a parade. The grounds are well kept; there is a tennis +court with vine-clad trellises about it, a fine playground for children, +pretty brick walks, with splendid trees to shade them; and there is a +brick schoolhouse which is a better building, better equipped, better +lighted, and, above all, better ventilated than the schools I attended +in my boyhood. + +Near the school is the guildhall, which is used for religious services, +meetings, and entertainments. And best of all, perhaps, the houses are +not the rows of sad, unpainted cabins one remembers having seen in +western mining camps, but are pretty cottages, touched with a slight +architectural variety, and with little variations of color, so that each +home has individuality. + +The schools are financed partly by the company and partly by the parents +of the three thousand scholars. The teachers are, for the most part, +graduates of leading colleges--Smith, Wellesley, Vassar, the University +of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin--and educational work of great +variety is carried on, including instruction in English for foreign +employees, and domestic-science classes for women--separate +establishments, of course, for whites and blacks, for the color line is +drawn in southern mining camps as elsewhere. Negroes are, however, +better provided for by the corporation than by most southern +municipalities, both in the way of living conditions and of education. + +On the whole, I believe that a child who grows up in the Docena Village, +and is educated there, has actually a better chance than one who grows +up in most Alabama towns, or, for the matter of that, in towns in any +other State which has not compulsory education. Moreover, I doubt that +there is in all Alabama another kindergarten as truly charming as the +one we visited at Docena, or that there is, in the State, a schoolhouse +of the same size which is as perfect as the one we saw in that camp. + +In another camp old houses have been remodeled, giving practical +demonstration of what can be done in the way of making a hovel into a +pretty home by the intelligent use of a little lattice-work, a little +paint, and a few vines and flowers. Old boarding-houses in this +neighborhood have been converted into community houses, with +entertainment halls, shower baths, and other conveniences for the men +and their families. Thus tests are being made to discover whether it is +possible to encourage among certain classes of foreign laborers, whose +habits of life have not, to put it mildly, been of the tidiest, some +appreciation of the standard of civilization represented by clean, +pretty cottages, pleasant meeting houses, and shower baths. + +I have not told about the billiard tables, bowling alleys, and game +rooms of the clubs, nor about the model rooms fitted up to show +housewives how they may make their homes attractive at but slight +expense, nor about the annual medical examination of the children, nor +about the company dentists who charge their patients only for the cost +of gold actually used, nor about the fine company store at Edgewater +Mine, nor about the excellent meats supplied by the company butchers, +nor about the low prices of supplies, nor about the effort to +discourage employees from buying cheap furniture at high prices on the +installment plan, nor, above all, about the clean, decent, happy look of +the families we chanced to see. + +Even had I the space in which to tell of these things, it is perhaps +wiser that I refrain from doing so. For I am aware that in speaking +anything but ill of a great corporation I have scandalously outraged +precedent. Nor does it argue well for my powers of observation, or those +of my companion. I feel confident that where our limited visions +perceived only prosperity and contentment, certain of my brother +writers, and his brother illustrators would, in our places, have rent +the thin, vaporish veil of apparent corporate kindliness, and found such +foul shame, such hideous malignity, such grasping, grubby greed, such +despicable soul-destroying despotism, as to shock the simple nature of a +chief of the old-time Russian Secret Police. + +It shames me to think what my friend Lincoln Steffens could have done +had he but enjoyed my opportunities. It shames me to think what John +Reed or other gifted writers for "The Masses" could have done. And I +should think that Wallace Morgan would writhe with shame. For, where Art +Young would have seen heavy-jowled, pig-eyed Capital, in a silk hat and +a checked suit, whirling a cruel knout over the broad and noble (but +bent and shuddering) back of Labor--where Boardman Robinson would have +found a mother, her white, drawn face half hidden by the shoddy shawl +of black, to which cling the hands of her emaciated brood--what has +Wallace Morgan seen? + +A steel-plant in operation. A company steel-plant! A _corporation_ +steel-plant! A TRUST steel-plant. + +Yet never so much as a starving cat or a pile of garbage in the +foreground! + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +THE ROAD TO ARCADY + + +Before we saw the train which was to take us from Birmingham to +Columbus, Mississippi, we began to sense its quality. When we attempted +to purchase parlor car seats of the ticket agent at the Union Station +and were informed by him that our train carried no parlor car, it seemed +to us that his manner was touched with cynicism, and this impression was +confirmed by his reply to our further timid inquiry as to a dining car: + +"Where do you gentlemen reckon you're a-goin' to, anyhow?" + +Presently we passed through the gate and better understood the nature of +the ticket agent's thoughts. The train consisted of several untidy day +coaches, the first a Jim Crow car, the others for white people. The +negro car was already so full that many of its occupants had to stand in +the aisle, but this did not seem to trouble them, for all were gabbling +happily, and the impression one got, in glancing through the door, was +of many sets of handsome white teeth displayed in as many dark grinning +faces. There are innumerable things for which we cannot envy the negro, +but neither his teeth nor his good nature are among them. + +It was Saturday afternoon, and the two or three other cars, though not +overcrowded, were well filled with people from the neighboring mining +towns who were going home after having spent the morning shopping in the +city. Almost all our fellow passengers carried packages, many had +infants with them, and we were struck with the fact that the complexions +of these people suggested a diet of pie--fried pie, if there be such a +thing--that a peculiarly high percentage of them suffered from diseases +of the eye, and that the pervading smell of the car in which we sat was +of oranges, bananas, babies, and overheated adults. + +A young mother in the seat in front of us had with her three small +children, the youngest an infant in arms. She was feeding a banana to +the second child, who looked about two years old. Behind us a clean, +capable-looking woman talked in a broad Scottish dialect with another +housewife whose jargon was that of the mountaineers. + +The region through which the train presently began to wind its way was +green and hilly, and there were many stops at villages, all of them +mining camps apparently, made up of shabby little cabins scattered +helter-skelter upon the hillsides. In many of the cabin doorways mothers +lingered with their broods watching the train, and on all the station +platforms stood crowds of idlers--men, women, and children, negro and +white--many of the men stamped, by their coal-begrimed faces, their +stained overalls, and the lamps above the visors of their caps, as mine +workers. + +After a time my companion and I moved to the exceedingly dirty smoking +room at the end of the car, where we sat and listened to the homely +conversation of a group of men who seemed not only to know one another, +but to know the same people in towns along the line. Between stations +they gossiped, smoked, chewed, spat, and swore together like so many New +England crossroad sages, but when the train stopped they gave +encouraging attention to the droll performances of one of their number, +a shaggy, unshaven, rawboned man, of middle age, gray-haired and +collarless, who sat near the window and uttered convincing imitations of +the sounds made by chickens, roosters, pigs, goats, and crows. + +The platform crowds, the negroes in particular, were mystified and lured +by this animal chorus coming from a passenger coach. On hearing it they +would first gaze in astonishment at the car, then edge up to the windows +and doors, and peer in with eyes solemn, round, and wondering, only to +be more amazed than ever by the discovery that the car housed neither +bird nor beast. This bucolic comedy was repeated at every station until +we reached Wyatt, Alabama, where our gifted fellow traveler arose, +pointed his collar button toward the door, bade us farewell, and +departed, saying that he was going to "walk over to Democrat." + +Presently the conductor dropped in for a chat, in the course of which +he informed the assembly that a certain old lady in one of the towns +along the way had died the night before, whereupon our companions of the +smoking room, all of whom seemed to have known the old lady well, held a +protracted discussion of her history and traits. + +After a time my companion and I put in a few questions about the State +of Mississippi. Boiled down, the principal information we gathered was +as follows: + +By the 1910 census Mississippi had not one city of 25,000 inhabitants. +Meridian, with 23,000, was (and probably still is) her metropolis, with +Jackson and Vicksburg, cities of about 20,000 each, following. The +entire State has but fifteen cities having a population of 5000 or more, +so that, of a total of about a million and three-quarters of people in +the State (more than half of them colored), only about one-tenth live in +towns with a population of 5000 or over. + +After a little visit the conductor went away. Now and then a man would +leave us and get off at a station, or some new passenger would join our +group. Presently I found myself thinking about dinner, and asked a man +wearing an electric-blue cap if he knew what provision was made for the +evening meal. + +Before he could reply the train boy, who had come into the smoking room +a few minutes before, piped up. He was a train boy of a type I had +supposed extinct: the kind of train boy one might have encountered on +almost any second-rate train twenty years ago,--a bold, impudent young +smartaleck, full of insistent salesmanship and obnoxious conversation. +He declared that dinner was not to be had, and that the only sustenance +available en route consisted in the uninviting assortment of fruit, +nuts, candy, and sweet tepid beverages contained in his basket. + +Fortunately for us, the man we had addressed knew better. + +"What do you want to lie like that for, boy?" he demanded. "You know as +well as I do that the brakeman takes on five boxes of lunch at Covin." + +"Well," said the boy, with a grin, "I gotta sell things, ain't I? The +brakeman hadn't oughta have that graft anyhow. _I'd_ oughta have it. He +gets them lunches fer two bits and sells 'em for thirty-five cents." Far +from feeling abashed, he was pleased with himself. + +"Folks is funny people," remarked a man with a weather-beaten face who +sat in the corner seat, and seemed to be addressing no one in +particular. "I know a boy that's going to git hung some day. And when +they've got the noose rigged nice around his neck, and everything ready, +and the trap a-waitin' to be sprung, why, then that boy is goin' to be +so sorry for hisself that he won't hardly know what to do. He'll say: 'I +ain't never had no chance in life, I ain't. The world ain't never used +me right.' ... Yes, folks is funny people." + +After this soliloquy there occurred a brief silence in the smoking +room, and presently the train boy took up his basket and went upon his +way. + +"You say they take on the lunches at Covin now?" one of the passengers +asked of the man in the electric-blue cap. + +"Yes." + +"What's become of old man Whitney, over to Fayetteville?" + +"They used to git lunches off of him," replied the other, "but the old +man wasn't none too dependable. Now and then he'd oversleep, and folks +on the 5 A.M. out of Columbus was like to starve for breakfast." + +"Right smart shock-headed boy the old man's got," put in another. "The +old man gives 'im anything he wants. He wanted a motorcycle, and the old +man give 'im one. Then he wanted one of them hot-candy machines; they +cost about two hundred and fifty dollars, but the old man give it to 'im +just the same." + +"The kid went to San Francisco with it, didn't he?" asked the man with +the electric-blue cap. + +"He started to go there," replied the former speaker, "but he only got +as fur as Little Rock; then he come on back home, and the old man bought +'im a wireless-telegraph plant. Yeaup! That boy gets messages right outa +the air--from Washington, D.C., and Berlin, and every place. The +Govamunt don't allow 'im to tell you much of it. He tells a little, +though--just to give you a notion." + +So, through the five-hour ride the conversation ran. Several times the +talk drifted to politics and to the European War, but the politics +discussed were local and lopsided, and the war was all too clearly +regarded as something interesting but vague and remote. On the entire +journey not one word was spoken indicating that the people of this +section had the least grasp on any national question, or that they were +considering national questions, or that they realized what the war in +Europe is about--that it is a war for freedom and democracy, a war +against war, a war to prevent a few individuals from ever again plunging +the world into war. Nor, though the day of our entry into the war was +close at hand, had the idea that we might be forced to take part in the +conflict so much as occurred to any of them. + +They were not stupid people; on the contrary, some of them possessed a +homely and picturesque philosophy; but they were not informed, and the +reason they were not informed has to do with one of the chief needs of +our rural population--especially the rural population of the South. + +What they need is good newspapers. They need more world news and +national news in place of county news and local briefs. In the whole +South, moreover, there is need for general political news instead of +biased news written always from inside the Democratic party, and +sandwiched in between patent medicine advertisements. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +A MISSISSIPPI TOWN + + +It was dark when, after a journey of one hundred and twenty miles at the +rate of twenty miles an hour, we reached Columbus, a city which was +never intended to be a metropolis and which will never be one. + +Columbus is situated upon a bluff on the east bank of the Tombigbee +River, to the west of which is a very fertile lowland region, filled +with plantations, the owners of which, a century ago, founded the town +in order that their families might have churches, schools, and the +advantages of social life. As the town grew, a curious but entirely +natural community spirit developed; when a gas plant, water works, or +hotel was needed, prosperous citizens got together and financed the +enterprise, not so much for profit as for mutual comfort. + +In these ante bellum times the planters used to make annual journeys to +Mobile and New Orleans, going by boat on the Tombigbee and taking their +crops and their families with them. After selling their cotton and +enjoying themselves in the city, they would load supplies for the +ensuing year upon river boats and return to Columbus, where the supplies +were transferred to their vast attic storerooms. + +Though their only water transportation was to the southward, they did +not journey invariably in that direction, but sometimes made excursions +to such fashionable watering places as the Virginia Springs, or +Saratoga, to which they drove in their own carriages. + +When, in the early days of railroad building, the Mobile & Ohio Railroad +was being planned, the company proposed to include Columbus as one of +its main-line points and asked for a right of way through the town and a +cash bonus in consideration of the benefits Columbus would derive from +railroad service. Both requests were refused. The railroad company then +waived the bonus and attempted to obtain a right of way by purchase. But +to no purpose. The citizens would not sell. They did not want a +railroad. They were prosperous and healthy, and they contended that a +railroad would bring poor people and disease among them, besides killing +farm animals and causing runaways. The company was consequently forced +to make a new survey, and when the line was built it passed at a +distance of a dozen miles or more from the city. + +Gradually dawned the era of speed and impatience. People who had +hitherto been satisfied to make long journeys in horse-drawn vehicles, +and had refused the railroad a right of way, now began to complain of +the twelve-mile drive to the nearest station, and to suggest that the +company build a branch line into the town. But this time it was the +railroad's turn to say no, and Columbus was informed that if it wished a +branch line it could go ahead and build it at its own expense. This was +finally done at a cost of fifty thousand dollars. + +With the construction of the branch line, carriages fell into disuse and +dilapidation, and many an old barouche, landau, and brett passed into +the hands of the negro hackmen who were former slaves of the old +families. Among these ex-slaves the traditions of the first families of +Columbus were upheld long after the war, and it thus happened that when, +a few years since, a young New Yorker, arriving for a visit in the town, +alighted from his train, he was greeted by an ancient negro who, +indicating an equally ancient carriage, cried: "Hack, suh! Hack, suh! +Ain't nevah been rid in by none but the Billupses." + +Not every young man from the North would have understood this reference, +but by a coincidence it was at the residence of Mrs. Billups that this +one had come to visit. + +Neither as to hack nor habitation were my companion and I so fortunate +as the earlier visitor. Our conveyance was a Ford, and the driver warned +us, as we progressed through shadowy tree-bordered streets, that the +Gilmer Hotel was crowded with delegates who had come to attend the State +convention of the Order of the Eastern Star. Nor was his warning without +foundation. The wide old-fashioned lobby of the Gilmer was hung with the +colors of the Order and packed with Ladies of the Eastern Star and their +ecstatic families; we managed to make our way through the press only to +be told by the single worn-out clerk on duty that not a room was to be +had. + +Unlike the haughty clerk who had dismissed us from the Tutwiler Hotel in +Birmingham, the clerk at the Gilmer was not without the quality of +mercy. Overworked though he was, he began at once to telephone about the +town in an effort to secure us rooms. But if this led us to conclude +that our problem was thereby in effect solved, we discovered, after +listening to his brief telephonic conversations with a series of unseen +ladies, that the conclusion was premature. Though there were vacant +rooms in several private houses, strange stray males were not desired as +lodgers. + +Concerned as we were over our plight, my companion and I could not help +being aware that a young lady who had been standing at the desk when we +came in, and had since remained there, was taking kindly interest in the +situation. Nor, for the matter of that, could we help being aware, also, +that she was very pretty in her soft black dress and corsage of +narcissus. She did not speak to us; indeed, she hardly honored us with a +glance; but, despite her sweet circumspection, we sensed in some subtle +way that she was sorry for us, and were cheered thereby. + +After a time, when the clerk seemed to have reached the end of his +resources, the young lady hesitantly ventured some suggestions as to +other houses where rooms might possibly be had. These suggestions she +addressed entirely to the clerk--who, upon receiving them, did more +telephoning. + +"Have you tried Mrs. Eichelberger?" the young lady asked him, after +several more failures. + +He had not, but promptly did so. His conversation with Mrs. Eichelberger +started promisingly, but presently we heard him make the damning +admission he had been compelled repeatedly to make before: + +"No, ma'am. It's two men." + +Then, just as the last hope seemed to be fading, our angel of mercy +spoke again. + +"Wait!" she put in impulsively. "Tell her--tell her I recommend them." + +Thus informed, Mrs. Eichelberger became compliant; but when the details +were arranged, and we turned to thank our benefactor, she had fled. + +Mrs. Eichelberger's house was but a few blocks distant from the Gilmer. +She installed us in two large, comfortable rooms, remarking, as we +entered, that we had better hurry, as we were already late. + +"Late for what?" one of us asked. + +"Didn't you come for the senior dramatics?" + +"Senior dramatics where?" + +"At the I.I. and C." + +"What is the I.I. and C?" + +At this question a look of doubt, if not suspicion, crossed the lady's +face. + +"Where are you-all from?" she demanded. + +The statement that we came from New York seemed to explain +satisfactorily our ignorance of the I.I. and C. Evidently Mrs. +Eichelberger expected little of New Yorkers. The I.I. and C., she +explained, was the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College, +formerly known as the Female College, a State institution for young +women; and the senior dramatics were even then in progress in the +college chapel, just up the street. + +To the chapel, therefore, my companion and I repaired as rapidly as +might be, guided thither by frequent sounds of applause. + +From among the seniors standing guard in cap and gown at the chapel +door, the quick artistic eye of my companion selected a brown-eyed +auburn-haired young goddess as the one from whom tickets might most +appropriately be bought. Nor did he display thrift in the transaction. +Instead of buying modest quarter seats he magnificently purchased the +fifty-cent kind. + +The dazzling ticket seller, transformed to usher, now led us into the +crowded auditorium and down an aisle. A few rows from the stage she +stopped, and, fastening a frigid gaze upon two hapless young women who +were seated some distance in from the passageway, bade them emerge and +yield their place to us. + +Of course we instantly protested, albeit in whispers, as the play was +going on. But the beautiful Olympian lightly brushed aside our +objections. + +"They don't belong here," she declared loftily. "They're freshmen--and +they only bought quarter seats." + +Then, as the guilty pair seemed to hesitate, she summoned them with a +compelling gesture and the command: "Come out!" + +At this they arose meekly enough, whereupon we redoubled our protests. +But to no purpose. The Titian-tinted creature was relentless. Our pleas +figured no more in her scheme of things than if they had been babblings +in an unknown tongue. To add to our discomfiture, a large part of the +audience seemed to have perceived the nature of our dilemma, and was +giving us amused attention. + +It was a crisis; and in a crisis--especially one in which a member of +the so-called gentle sex is involved--I have learned to look to my +companion. He understands women. He has often told me so. And now, by +his action, he proved it. What he did was to turn and flee, and I fled +with him; nor did we pause until we were safely hidden away in humble +twenty-five cent seats at the rear of the chapel, in the shadow of the +overhanging gallery. + +It is not my intention to write an extended criticism of the +performance. For one thing, I witnessed only a fragment of it, and for +another, though I once acted for a brief period as dramatic critic on a +New York newspaper, I was advised by my managing editor to give up +dramatic criticism, and I have followed his advice. + +The scene evidently represented a room, its walls made of red screens +behind which rose the lofty pipes of the chapel organ. On a pedestal at +one side stood a bust of the Venus de Milo, while on the other hung an +engraving of a familiar picture which I believe is called "The Fates," +and which has the appearance of having been painted by some-one-or-other +like Leighton or Bouguereau or Harold Bell Wright. + +After we had given some attention to the play my companion remarked +that, from the dialect, he judged it to be "Uncle Tom's Cabin." I had +been told, however, that for certain reasons "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is +never played in the South; I therefore asked the young man in front of +me what play it was. He replied that it was Booth Tarkington and Harry +Leon Wilson's comedy, "The Man From Home," and as he made the statement +openly, I feel that I am violating no confidence in repeating what he +said--especially since his declaration was supported by the program +which he showed me. + +He was a pleasant young man. Perceiving that I was a stranger, he +volunteered the additional information that the masculine roles, as well +as the feminine ones, were being played by girls; and I trust that I +will not seem to be boasting of perspicacity when I declare that there +had already entered my mind a suspicion that such was indeed the case. + +Behold them! Gaze upon the character called Daniel Voorhees Pike! See +what long strides he takes, and with what pretty tiny feet! Observe the +manliness with which he thrusts his pink little hands deep in the +pockets of his--or somebody's--pantaloons! + +Look at the Grand Duke Vasili of Russia, his sweet oval face and rosy +mouth partly obscured by mustache and goatee of a most strange +wooliness. + +Observe the ineradicable daintiness of the Honorable Almeric St. Aubyn, +but more particularly attend to that villain of helpless loveliness, the +Earl of Hawcastle. The frightful life which, it is indicated, the Earl +has led, leaves no tell-tale marks upon his blooming countenance. His +only facial disfigurement consists in a mustache which, by reason of its +grand-ducal lanateness, seems to hint at a mysterious relationship +between the British and Russian noblemen. + +Take note, moreover, of the outlines of the players. If ever earl was +belted it was this one. If ever duke in evening dress revealed +delectable convexities of figure, it was this duke. If ever worthy male +from Indiana spoke in a soprano voice and was lithe, alluring, and +recurvous, she was Daniel Voorhees Pike. + +A young woman seated near us described to her escort the personal +characteristics of the various young ladies on the stage, and when we +heard her call one girl who played in a betrousered part, "a perfect +darling," we echoed inwardly the sentiment. All were darlings. And this +especial "perfect darling" appeared as well to be a "perfect +thirty-six." + +The Earl was my undoing. At a critical point in the unfolding of the +plot there was talk of his having been connected with a scandal in St. +Petersburg. This he attempted to deny, and though I am unable to quote +the exact words of his denial, the sound of it lingers sweetly in my +memory. Nor would the exact words, could I give them, convey, in print, +the quality of what was said, for the Earl, and all the rest, spoke in +the soft, melodious tones of Mississippi. + +"What you-all fussin' raound heah for, this mownin'?" That, perhaps, +conveys some sense of a line he spoke on entering. + +And when, in reply, one of the others mentioned the scandal at St. +Petersburg, the flavor of the Earl's retort, as its cooing tones remain +with me, was this: + +"Wha', honey! What you-all mean hintin' raound 'baout St. Petuhsbuhg? I +reckon you don' know what you talkin' 'baout! Ah nevuh was in that taown +in all ma bo'n days!" + +What followed I am unable to relate, for the Earl's speech caused me to +become emotional, and my companion, after informing me severely that I +was making myself conspicuous, removed me from the chapel. + +The auburn goddess was still on duty at the door as we went out. +Advancing, she placed in each of our hands a quarter. I regret to say +that, in my shaken state, I misinterpreted this action. + +"Oh, no! _Please!_" I protested, fearing that she thought we had not +enjoyed the performance, and was therefore returning our money. "It +really wasn't bad at all. We're only going because we have an +engagement." + +"Be quiet!" interrupted my companion in a savage undertone, jerking me +along by the arm. "It's only a rebate on the seats!" And without +allowing me a chance to set myself right he dragged me out. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +OLD TALES AND A NEW GAME + + +Mrs. Eichelberger supplied us merely with a place to sleep. For meals +she referred us to a lady who lived a few doors up the street. But when +in the morning we went, full of hunger and of hope, to the house of this +lady, we were coldly informed that breakfast was over, and were +recommended to the Bell Cafe, downtown. + +My companion and I are not of that robust breed which enjoys a bracing +walk before its morning coffee, and the fact that the streets of +Columbus charmed us, as we now saw them for the first time by daylight, +is proof enough of their quality. There is but little appetite for +beauty in an empty stomach. + +The streets were splendidly wide, and bordered with fine old trees, and +the houses, each in its own lawn, each with its vines and shrubs, were +full of the suggestion of an easy-going home life and an informal +hospitality. Most of them were of frame and in their architecture +illustrated the decadence of the eighties and nineties, but here or +there was a fine old brick homestead with a noble columned portico, or a +formal Georgian house, disposed among beautiful trees and gardens and +sheltered from the street by an ancient hedge of box. So, though +Columbus is, as I have indicated, not too easily reached by rail, and +though, as I have further indicated, walks before breakfast are not to +my taste, I am compelled to say that for both the journey and the walk I +felt repaid by the sight of some of the old houses--the Baldwin house, +the W.D. Humphries house, the J.O. Banks house, the old McLaren house, +the Kinnebrew house, the Thomas Hardy house, the J.M. Morgan house, with +its garden of lilies and roses, its giant magnolia trees and its huge +camellia bushes; and most of all, perhaps, for its Georgian beauty, the +mellow tone of its old brick, its rich tangle of southern growths, and +its associations, the venerable mansion of the late General Stephen D. +Lee, C.S.A.--now the property of the latter's only son, Mr. Blewett Lee, +general counsel of the Illinois Central Railroad, and a resident of +Chicago. + +It was apropos of our visit to the Lee house that I was told of a +dramatic and touching example of the rebirth of amity between North and +South. + +Stephen D. Lee it was who, as a young artillery officer attached to the +staff of General Beauregard, transmitted the actual order to fire on +Fort Sumter, the shot which began the war. Two years later, having been +promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general, the same Stephen D. Lee +participated in the defense of Vicksburg against the assaults of +Porter's gunboats from the river and of Grant's armies, which hemmed in +the hilled city on landward side, until at last, on the 4th of July, +1863, the place was surrendered, making Grant's fame secure. + +Years after, when the Government of the United States accepted a statue +of General Stephen D. Lee, to be placed upon the battle ground of +Vicksburg--now a national park--it was the late General Frederick Dent +Grant, son of the capturer of the city, who journeyed thither to unveil +the memorial to his father's former foe. And by a peculiarly gracious +and fitting set of circumstances it came about that when, in April last, +the ninety-fifth anniversary of the birth of U.S. Grant was celebrated +in his native city, Galena, Illinois, it was Blewett Lee, only son of +the general taken by Grant at Vicksburg, who journeyed to Galena and +there in a memorial address, returned the earlier compliment paid to the +memory of his own father by Grant's son. + + * * * * * + +Columbus may perhaps appreciate the charm of its old homes, but there is +evidence to show that it did not appreciate certain other weatherworn +structures of great beauty. I have seen photographs of an old Baptist +Church with a fine (and not at all Baptist-looking) portico and fluted +columns, which was torn down to make room for the present stupidly +commonplace Baptist church: and I have seen pictures of the beautiful +old town hall which was recently supplanted by an ignorantly ordinary +town building of yellow pressed brick. The destruction of these two +early buildings represents an irreparable loss to Columbus, and it is to +be hoped that the town will some day be sufficiently enlightened to +know that this is true and to regret that it did not restore and enlarge +them instead of tearing them down. + +Until a decade or two ago Columbus had, so far as I can learn, but four +streets possessing names: Main Street, Market Street, College Street, +and Catfish Alley, all other streets being known as "the street that +Mrs. Billups, or Mrs. Sykes, or Mrs. Humphries, or Mrs. Some-one-else +lives on." + +Market and Main are business streets--at least they are so where they +cross--and, like the other streets, are wide. They are lined with brick +buildings few if any of them more than three stories in height, and it +was in one of these buildings, on Main Street, that we found the Bell +Cafe--advertised as "the most exclusive cafe in the State." + +Being in search of breakfast rather than exclusiveness, we did not sit +at one of the tables, but at the long lunch counter, where we were +quickly served. + +After breakfast we felt strong enough to look at picture post cards, and +to that end visited first "Cheap Joe's" and then the shop of Mr. +Divilbis, where newspapers, magazines, sporting goods, cameras, and all +such things, are sold. Having viewed post cards picturing such scenes as +"Main Street looking north," "The 1st Baptist Church," and "Steamer +_America_, Tombigbee River," we were about to depart, when our attention +was drawn to a telephonic conversation which had started between Mr. +Divilbis's clerk and a customer who was thinking of going in for the +game of lawn tennis. The half of the conversation which was audible to +us proved entertaining, and we dallied, eavesdropping. + +The clerk began by recommending tennis. "Yes," he said, "that would be +very nice. Everybody is playing tennis now." + +But that got him into trouble, for after a pause he said: "I'm sorry I +can't tell you everything about it. I don't play tennis myself. Al could +tell you, though. He plays." + +Then, after a much longer pause: "Well, ma'am, you see, in a game of +lawn tennis everybody owns their own racquet." + +At this juncture a tall, thin man in what is known (excepting at Palm +Beach) as a "Palm Beach suit," entered the shop and the clerk asked his +inquisitor to hold the wire while he made some inquiries. After a long +conversation with the new arrival he returned to the telephone and +resumed his explanation. + +"Well, you see, they have a net, and one stands on one side and one on +the other--yes, ma'am, there _can_ be two on each side--and one serves. +What? Yes, he hits the ball over the net, and it has to go in the +opposite court on the other side, and then if that one doesn't send it +back--Yes, the court is marked with lines--why, that counts fifteen. The +next count is thirty. What? No, ma'am, I don't know why they count that +way. No, it's just the way they do in lawn tennis. If your opponent has +nothing, why, they call that 'love.' Yes, that's it--l-o-v-e--just the +same as when anybody's _in_ love. No, ma'am, I don't know why.... So +that's the way they count. + +"No, ma'am, the lines are boundaries. You have to stand in a certain +place and hit the ball in a certain place.... No, I don't mean that way. +You've got to hit it so it _lands_ in a certain place; and the one +that's playing against you has to hit it back in a certain place, and if +it goes in some _other_ place, then you can't play it any more. Oh, no! +Not all day. I mean that ends _that_ part, and you start over. You just +keep on doing like that." + +But though it was apparent that he considered his explanation complete, +the lady at the other end of the wire was evidently not yet satisfied, +and as he began to struggle with more questions we left the shop and +went to the Gilmer Hotel to see if any mail had come for us. + +The Gilmer was built by slave labor some years before the war, and was +in its day considered a very handsome edifice. Nor is it to-day an +unsatisfactory hotel for a town of the size of Columbus. Its old brick +walls are sturdy, and its rooms are of a fine spaciousness. Downstairs +it has been somewhat remodeled, but the large parlor on the second floor +is much as it was in the beginning, even to the great mirrors and the +carved furniture imported more than sixty years ago from France. Most of +the doors still have the old locks, and the window cords originally +installed were of such a quality that they have not had to be renewed. + +The Gilmer was still new when the Battle of Shiloh was fought, and +several thousand of the wounded were brought to Columbus. The hotel and +various other buildings, including that of the former Female Institute, +were converted into hospitals, as were also many private houses in the +town. + +Though there was never fighting at Columbus, the end of the war found +some fifteen hundred soldiers' graves in Friendship Cemetery, perhaps +twoscore of the number being those of Federals. The citizens were, at +this time, too poor and too broken in spirit to erect memorials, but +several ladies of Columbus made it their custom to visit the cemetery +and care for the graves of the Confederate dead. This movement, started +by individuals--Miss Matt Moreton, Mrs. J.T. Fontaine, and Mrs. Green T. +Hill--was soon taken up by other ladies of the place and resulted in a +determination to make the decoration of soldiers' graves an annual +occurrence. + +In an old copy of the "Mississippi Index," published at the time, may be +found an account of the solemn march of the women, young and old, to the +cemetery, on April 25, 1866--one year after Robert E. Lee's +surrender--and of the decoration of the graves not only of Confederate +but of Federal soldiers. It is the proud boast of Columbus that this +occasion constituted the first celebration of the now national +Decoration Day--or, as it is more properly called, Memorial Day. + +It should perhaps be said here that Columbus, Georgia, disputes the +claim of Columbus, Mississippi, as to Memorial Day. In the Georgia city +it is contended that the idea of decorating soldiers' graves originated +with Miss Lizzie Rutherford, later Mrs. Roswell Ellis, of that place. +The inscription of Mrs. Ellis' monument in Linwood Cemetery, Columbus, +Georgia, states that the idea of Memorial Day originated with her. + +It seems clear, however, that the same idea occurred to women in both +cities simultaneously, and that, while the actual celebration of the day +occurred in Columbus, Mississippi, one day earlier than in Columbus, +Georgia, the ladies of the latter city may have been first in suggesting +that Memorial Day be not a local celebration, but one in which the whole +South should take part. + +The incident of the first decoration of the graves of Union as well as +Confederate soldiers appears, however, to belong entirely to Columbus, +Mississippi, and it is certain that this exhibition of magnanimity +inspired F.W. Finch to write the famous poem, "The Blue and the Gray," +for when that poem was first published in the "Atlantic Monthly" for +September, 1867, it carried the following headnote: + + The women of Columbus, Miss., animated by noble sentiments, have + shown themselves impartial in their offerings to the memory of the + dead. They strewed flowers on the graves of the Confederate and of + the National soldiers. + +This episode becomes the more touching by reason of the fact that the +Columbus lady who initiated the movement to place flowers on the Union +graves, at a time when such action was sure to provoke much criticism in +the South, was Mrs. Augusta Murdock Sykes, herself the widow of a +Confederate soldier. + + So with an equal splendor + The morning sun rays fall, + With a touch impartially tender + On the blossoms blooming for all; + Under the sod and the dew, + Waiting the Judgment Day; + Broidered with gold the Blue; + Mellowed with gold the Gray. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +OUT OF THE LONG AGO + + +While local historians attempt to tangle up the exploration of De Soto +with the early history of this region, saying that De Soto "entered the +State of Mississippi near the site of Columbus," and that "he probably +crossed the Tombigbee River at this point," their conclusions are +largely the result of guesswork. But it is not guesswork to say that +when the Kentucky and Tennessee volunteers, going to the aid of Andrew +Jackson, at New Orleans, in 1814, cut a military road from Tuscumbia, +Alabama, to the Gulf, they passed over the site of Columbus, for the +road they cut remains to-day one of the principal highways of the +district as well as one of the chief streets of the town. + +More clearly defined, of course, are memories of the Civil War and of +Reconstruction, for there are many present-day residents of Columbus who +remember both. Among these is one of those wonderful, sweet, +high-spirited, and altogether fascinating ladies whom we call old only +because their hair is white and because a number of years have passed +over their heads--one of those glorious young old ladies in which the +South is, I think, richer than any other single section of the world. + +It was our good fortune to meet Mrs. John Billups, and to see some of +her treasured relics--among them the flag carried through the battles of +Monterey and Buena Vista by the First Mississippi Regiment, of which +Jefferson Davis was colonel, and in which her husband was a lieutenant; +and a crutch used by General Nathan Bedford Forrest when he was housed +at the Billups residence in Columbus, recovering from a wound. But +better yet it was to hear Mrs. Billups herself tell of the times when +the house in which she lived as a young woman, at Holly Springs, +Mississippi, was used as headquarters by General Grant. + +Mrs. Billups, who was a Miss Govan, was educated in Philadelphia and +Wilmington, and had many friends and relatives in the North. Her mother +was Mrs. Mary Govan of Holly Springs, and her brother's wife, who +resided with the Govans during the war, was a Miss Hawkes, a daughter of +the Rev. Francis L. Hawkes, then rector of St. Thomas's Church in New +York. All were, however, good Confederates. + +Mrs. Govan's house at Holly Springs was being used as a hospital when +Grant and his army marched, unresisted, into the town, and Mrs. Govan, +with her daughters and daughter-in-law, had already moved to the +residence of Colonel Harvey Walter, which is to this day a show place, +and is now the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Johnson of St. +Louis--Mrs. Johnson being Colonel Walter's daughter. + +This house was selected by Grant as his headquarters, and he resided +there for a considerable period. ("It seemed a mighty long time," says +Mrs. Billups.) With the general was Mrs. Grant and their son Jesse, as +well as Mrs. Grant's negro maid, Julia, who, Mrs. Grant told Mrs. +Billups, had been given to her, as a slave, by her father, Colonel Dent. +Mrs. Billups was under the impression that Julia was, at that time, +still a slave. At all events, she was treated as a slave. + +"We all liked the Grants," Mrs. Billups said. "He had very little to +say, but she was very sociable and used to come in and sit with us a +great deal. + +"One day the general took his family and part of his army and went to +Oxford, Mississippi, leaving Colonel Murphy in command at Holly Springs. +While Grant was away our Confederate General Van Dorn made a raid on +Holly Springs, capturing the town, tearing up the railroad, and +destroying the supplies of the Northern army. He just dashed in, did his +work, and dashed out again. + +"Some of his men came to the house and, knowing that it was Grant's +headquarters, wished to make a search. My mother was entirely willing +they should do so, but she knew that there were no papers in the house, +and assured the soldiers that if they did search they would find nothing +but Mrs. Grant's personal apparel--which she was sure they would not +wish to disturb. + +"That satisfied them and they went away. + +"Next morning back came Grant with his army. He rode up on horseback, +preceded by his bodyguard, and I remember that he looked worn and +worried. + +"As he dismounted he saw my sister-in-law, Mrs. Eaton Pugh Govan--the +one who was Miss Hawkes--standing on the gallery above. + +"He called up to her and said: 'Mrs. Govan, I suppose my sword is gone?' + +"'What sword, General?' she asked him. + +"'The sword that was presented to me by the army. I left it in my wife's +closet.' + +"Mrs. Govan was thunderstruck. + +"'I didn't know it was there,' she said. 'Oh! I should have been tempted +to send it to General Van Dorn if I had known that it was there!' + +"The next morning, as a reward to us for not having known that his sword +was there, the general gave us a protection paper explicitly forbidding +soldiers to enter the house." + +Of course the Govans, like all other citizens of invaded districts in +the South, buried their family plate before the "Yankees" came. + +Shortly after this had been accomplished--as they thought, secretly--the +Govans were preparing to entertain friends at dinner when a negro boy +who helped about the dining-room remarked innocently, in the presence of +Mrs. Govan and several of her servants: + +"Missus ain't gwine to have no fine table to-night, caze all de silvuh's +done buried in de strawbe'y patch." + +He had seen the old gardener "planting" the plate. + +Thereafter it was quietly decided in the family that the negroes had +better know nothing about the location of buried treasure. That night, +therefore, some gentlemen went out to the strawberry patch, disinterred +the silver, carried it to Colonel Walter's place, and there buried it +under the front walk. + +"And after Grant came," said Mrs. Billups, "we used to laugh as we +watched the Union sentries marching up and down that walk, right over +our plate." + + * * * * * + +Among the items not already mentioned, of which Columbus is proud, are +the facts that she has supplied two cabinet members within the past +decade--J.M. Dickinson, Taft's Secretary of War, and T.W. Gregory, +Wilson's Attorney General--and that J. Gano Johnson, breeder of famous +American saddle horses, has recently come from Kentucky and established +his Emerald Chief Stock Farm in Lowndes County, a short distance from +the town. + +But items like these, let me be frank to say, do not appeal to me as do +the picturesque old stories which cling about such a town. + +There is, for instance, the story of Alexander Keith McClung, famous +about the middle of the last century as a duellist and dandy. McClung +was a Virginian by birth, but while still a young man took up his +residence in Columbus. His father studied law under Thomas Jefferson and +was later conspicuous in Kentucky politics, and his mother was a sister +of Chief Justice John Marshall. In 1828, at the age of seventeen, +McClung became a midshipman in the navy, and though he remained in the +service but a year, he managed during that time to fight a duel with +another midshipman, who wounded him in the arm. At eighteen he fought a +duel near Frankfort, Kentucky, with his cousin James W. Marshall. His +third duel was with a lawyer named Allen, who resided in Jackson, +Mississippi. Allen was the challenger--as it is said McClung took pains +to see that his adversaries usually were, so that he might have the +choice of weapons, for he was very skillful with the pistol. In his duel +with Allen he specified that each was to be armed with four pistols and +a bowie knife, that they were to start eighty paces apart, and upon +signal were to advance, firing at will. At about thirty paces he shot +Allen through the brain. His fourth duel was with John Menifee, of +Vicksburg, and was fought in 1839, on the river bank, near that city, +with rifles at thirty yards. Some idea of the spirit in which duelling +was taken in those days may be gathered from the fact that the Vicksburg +Rifles, of which Menifee was an officer, turned out in full uniform to +see the fight. However they were doubly disappointed, for it was Menifee +and not McClung who died. It is said that a short time after this, one +of Menifee's brothers challenged McClung, who killed this brother, and +so on until he had killed all seven male members of the Menifee family. + +McClung fought gallantly in the Mexican War, as lieutenant-colonel of +the First Mississippi Regiment, of which Jefferson Davis was colonel. +Though he remained always a bachelor it is said that he had many love +affairs. He was a hard drinker, a flowery speaker, and a writer of +sentimental verse. It is said that in his later life he was exceedingly +unhappy, brooding over the lives he had taken in duels--fourteen in all. +His last poem was an "Invocation to Death," ending with the line: + + "Oh, Death, come soon! Come soon!" + +Shortly after writing it he shaved, dressed himself with the most +scrupulous care, and shot himself. This occurred March 23, 1855, in the +Eagle Hotel, North Capitol Street, Jackson, Mississippi. + +"To preserve the neatness and cleanliness of his attire after death +should have ensued," says Colonel R.W. Banks, "it is said he poured a +little water upon the floor to ascertain the direction the blood would +take when it flowed from the wound. Then, placing himself in proper +position, so that the gore would run from and not toward his body, he +placed the pistol to the right temple, pulled the trigger and death +quickly followed." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +THE GIRL HE LEFT BEHIND HIM + + +On our second evening in Columbus my companion and I returned to the +house, near our domicile, to which we had been sent by Mrs. Eichelberger +for our meals; but owing to a misunderstanding as to the dinner hour we +found ourselves again too late. The family, and the teachers from the +I.I. and C. who took meals there, were already coming out from dinner to +sit and chat on the steps in the twilight. + +We were disappointed, for we were tired of restaurants, and had counted +on a home meal that night; nor was our disappointment softened by the +fact that the lady whom we interviewed seemed to have no pity for us, +but dismissed us in a chilling manner, which hinted that, even had we +been in time for dinner, we should have been none too welcome at her +exclusive board. + +Crestfallen, we turned away and started once more in the direction of +the Belle Cafe. In the half light the street held for us a melancholy +loveliness. Above, the great trees made a dark, soft canopy; the air was +balmy and sweet with the scent of lilacs and roses; lights were +beginning to appear in windows along the way. Yet none of it was for +us. We were wanderers, condemned forever to walk through strange streets +whose homes we might not enter, and whose inhabitants we might not know. + +When we had proceeded in silence for a block or two, we perceived a +woman strolling toward us on the walk ahead. Nor was it yet so dark that +we could fail to notice, as we neared her, that she was very pretty in +her soft black dress and her corsage of narcissus--that, in short, she +was the young lady whom, though we were indebted to her for our rooms at +Mrs. Eichelberger's, we had not been able to thank. + +Now, of course, we stopped and told her of our gratitude. First my +companion told her of his. Then I told her of mine. Then we both told +her of our combined gratitude. And after each telling she assured us +sweetly that it was nothing--nothing at all. + +All this made quite a little conversation. She hoped that we were +comfortable. We assured her that we were. Then, because it seemed so +pleasant to be talking, on a balmy, flower-scented evening, with a +pretty girl wearing a soft black dress and a corsage of narcissus, we +branched out, telling her of our successive disappointments as to meals +in the house up the street. + +"Which house?" she asked. + +We described it. + +"That's where I live," said she. + +And to think we had twice been late! + +"_You_ live there?" + +"Yes. It was my elder sister whom you saw." Then we all smiled, for we +had spoken of the chill which had accompanied the rebuff. + +"Do you think your sister will let us come to-morrow for breakfast?" +ventured my companion. + +"If you're there by eight." + +"Because," he added, "breakfast is our last meal here." + +"You're going away?" + +"Yes. About noon." + +"Oh," she said. And we hoped the way she said it meant that she was just +the least bit sorry we were going. + +With that she started to move on again. + +"We'll see you at breakfast, then?" + +"Perhaps," she said in a casual tone, continuing on her way. + +"Not surely?" + +"Why not come and see?" The words were wafted back to us provocatively +upon the evening air. + +"We will! Good night." + +"Good night." + +We walked some little way in silence. + +"Eight o'clock!" murmured my companion presently in a reflective, rueful +tone. "We must turn in early." + +We did turn in early, and we should have been asleep early was it not +for the fact that among the chief wonders of Columbus must be ranked its +roosters--birds of a ghastly habit of nocturnal vocalism. + +But though these creatures interfered somewhat with our slumbers, and +though eight is an early hour for us, we reached the neighboring house +next morning five minutes ahead of time. And though the manner of the +elder sister was, as before, austere, that made no difference, for the +younger sister was there. + +After breakfast we dallied, chatting with her for a time; then a bell +began to toll, and my companion reminded me that I had an engagement to +visit the Industrial Institute and College before leaving. + +It was quite true. I had made the engagement the day before, but it had +been my distinct understanding that he was to accompany me; for if +anything disconcerts me it is to go alone to such a place. However sweet +girls may be as individuals, or in small groups, they are in the mass +diabolically cruel, and their cruelty is directed especially against +men. I know. I have walked up to a college building to pay a call, while +thirty girls, seated on the steps, played, sang, and whistled an inane +marching tune, with the rhythm of which my steps could not but keep +time. I have been the only man in a dining-room full of college girls. A +hundred of them put down their knives and forks with a clatter as I +entered, and a hundred pairs of mischievously solemn eyes followed my +every movement. Voluntarily to go through such experiences alone a man +must be in love. And certainly I was not in love with any girl at the +Industrial Institute. + +"We both have an engagement," I said. + +"I can't go," he returned. + +"Why not?" + +"I have two sketches to make before train time." + +"You're going to make me go over there _alone_?" + +"I don't care whether you go or not," he replied mercilessly. "You made +the engagement. I had nothing to do with it. But I am responsible for +the pictures." + +Perceiving that it was useless to argue with him, I reluctantly departed +and, not without misgivings, made my way to the Industrial Institute. + +I am thankful to say that there matters did not turn out so badly for me +as I had anticipated. I refused to visit classrooms, and contented +myself with gathering information. And since the going to gather this +information cost me such uneasiness, I do not propose to waste entirely +the fruits of my effort, but shall here record some of the facts that I +collected. + +The Industrial Institute and College is for girls of sixteen years or +over who are graduates of high schools. There are about 800 students +taking either the collegiate, normal, industrial, or musical courses, or +combination courses. This college, I was informed, was the first in the +country to offer industrial education to women. + +Most of the students come from families in modest circumstances, and +attend the college with the definite purpose of fitting themselves to +become self-supporting. The cost is very slight, the only regular +charge, aside from board and general living expenses, being a nominal +matriculation fee of $5. There is no charge for rooms in the large +dormitories connected with the college. Board, light, fuel, and laundry +are paid for cooeperatively, the average cost per student, for all these, +being about ten dollars a month--which sum also includes payment for a +lyceum ticket and for two hats per annum. Uniforms are worn by all, +these being very simple navy-blue suits with sailor hats. Seniors and +juniors wear cap and gown. All uniform requirements may be covered at a +cost of twenty dollars a year, and a girl who practices economy may get +through her college year at a total cost of about $125, though of course +some spend considerably more. + +Many students work their way, either wholly or in part. Thirty or forty +of them serve in the dining room, for which work they are allowed +sixty-five dollars a year. Others, who clean classrooms are allowed +fifty dollars a year, and still others earn various sums by assisting in +the library or reading room or by doing secretarial work. + +Unlike the other departments of the college, the musical department is +not a tax upon the State, but is entirely self-sustaining, each girl +paying for her own lessons. This department is under the direction of +Miss Weenonah Poindexter, to whose enthusiasm much if not all of its +success is due. Miss Poindexter began her work in 1894, as the college's +only piano teacher, giving lessons in the dormitories. Now she not only +has a splendid music hall and a number of assistants, but has succeeded +in making Columbus one of the recognized musical centers of the South, +by bringing there a series of the most distinguished artists: +Paderewski, Nordica, Schumann-Heinck, Gadski, Sembrich, Bispham, Albert +Spaulding, Maud Powell, Damrosch's Orchestra, and Sousa's Band. + +So much I had learned of the I.I. and C. when it came time for me to +flee to the train. My companion and I had already packed our suitcases, +and it had been arranged between us that, instead of consuming time by +trying to meet and drive together to the station, we should work +independently, joining each other at the train. + +I left the college in an automobile, stopping at Mrs. Eichelberger's +only long enough to get my suitcase. As I drove on past the next corner +I chanced to look up the intersecting street. There, by a lilac bush, +stood my companion. He was not alone. With him was a very pretty girl +wearing a soft black dress and a corsage of narcissus. But the corsage +was now smaller, by one flower, than it had been before, for, as I +sighted them, she was in the act of placing one of the blooms from her +bouquet in my companion's buttonhole. Her hands looked very white and +small against his dark coat, and I recall that he was gazing down at +them, and that his features were distorted by a sentimental smile. + +"Come on!" I called to him. + +He looked up. His expression was vague. + +"Go along," he returned. + +"Why don't you come with me now?" + +"I'll be there," he replied. "You buy the tickets and check the +baggage." And with that he turned his back. + +"Good-by," I called to the young lady. But she was looking up at him and +didn't seem to hear me. + + * * * * * + +My companion arrived at the station in an old hack, with horses at the +gallop. He was barely in time. + +When we were settled in the car, bowling along over the prairies toward +the little junction town of Artesia, I turned to him and inquired how +his work had gone that morning. But at that moment he caught sight, +through the car window, of some negroes sitting at a cabin door, and +exclaimed over their picturesqueness. + +I agreed. Then, as the train left them behind, I repeated my question: +"How did your work go?" + +"This is very fertile-looking country," said he. + +This time I did not reply, but asked: + +"Did you finish both sketches?" + +"No," he answered. "Not both. There wasn't time." + +"Let's see the one you did." + +"As a matter of fact," he returned, "I didn't do any. You know how it +is. Sometimes a fellow feels like drawing--sometimes he doesn't. Somehow +I didn't feel like it this morning." + +With that he lifted the lapel of his coat and, bending his head +downward, sniffed in a romantic manner at the sickeningly sweet flower +in his buttonhole. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +VICKSBURG OLD AND NEW + + +I should advise the traveler who is interested in cities not to enter +Vicksburg by the Alabama & Vicksburg Railroad, which has a dingy little +station in a sort of gulch, but by the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley +Railroad--a branch of the Illinois Central--which skirts the river bank +and flashes a large first impression of the city before the eyes of +alighting passengers. + +The station itself is a pretty brick colonial building, backed by a neat +if tiny park maintained by the railroad company, and facing the levee +(pronounce "_lev_-vy"), along which the tracks are laid. Beyond the +tracks untidy landing places are scattered along the water front, with +here and there a tall, awkward, stern-wheel river steamer tied up, +looking rather like an old-fashioned New Jersey seacoast hotel, covered +with porches and jimcrack carving, painted white, embellished with a +cupola and a pair of tall, thin smokestacks, and set adrift in its old +age to masquerade in maritime burlesque. + +At other points along the bank are moored a heterogeneous assortment of +shanty boats of an incredible and comic slouchiness. Some are nothing +but rafts made of water-soaked logs, bearing tiny shacks knocked +together out of driftwood and old patches of tin and canvas, but the +larger ones have barges, or the hulks of old launches, as their +foundation. These curious craft are moored in long lines to the +half-submerged willow and cottonwood trees along the bank, or to stakes +driven into the levee, or to the railroad ties, or to whatever objects, +ashore, may be made fast an old frayed rope or a piece of telephone +wire. Long, narrow planks, precariously propped, connect them with the +river bank, so that the men, women, children, dogs, and barnyard +creatures who inhabit them may pass to and fro. Some of the boats are +the homes of negro families, some of whites. On some, negro fish markets +are conducted, advertised by large catfish dangling from their posts and +railings. + +Whether fishing for market, for personal use, or merely for the sake of +having an occupation involving a minimum of effort, the residents of +shanty boats--particularly the negroes--seem to spend most of their days +seated in drowsy attitudes, with fish poles in their hands. Their eyes +fall shut, their heads nod in the sun, their lines lag in the muddy +water; life is uneventful, pleasant, and warm. + +When Porter's mortar fleet lay in the river, off Vicksburg, bombarding +the town, that river was the Mississippi, but though it looks the same +to-day as it did then, it is not the Mississippi now, but the Yazoo +River. This comes about through one of those freakish changes of course +for which the great stream has always been famous. + +In the old days Vicksburg was situated upon one of the loops of a large +letter "S" formed by the Mississippi, but in 1876 the river cut through +a section of land and eliminated the loop upon which the town stood. +Fortunately, however, the Yazoo emptied into the Mississippi above +Vicksburg, and it was found possible, by digging a canal, to divert the +latter river from its course and lead its waters into the loop left dry +by the whim of the greater stream. Thus the river life, out of which +Vicksburg was born, and without which the place would lose its +character, was retained, and the wicked old Mississippi, which has +played rough pranks on men and cities since men and cities first +appeared upon its banks, was for once circumvented. This is but one item +from the record of grotesque tricks wrought by changes in the river's +course: a record of farms located at night on one side of the stream, +and in the morning on the other; of large tracts of land transferred +from State to State by a sudden switch of this treacherous fluid line of +boundary; of river boats crashing by night into dry land where yesterday +a deep stream flowed; of towns built up on river trade, utterly +dependent upon the river, yet finding themselves suddenly deserted by +it, like wives whose husbands disappear, leaving them withering, +helpless, and in want. + +Where the upper Mississippi, above St. Louis, flows between tall bluffs +it attains a grandeur which one expects in mighty streams, but that is +not the part of the river which gets itself talked about in the +newspapers and in Congress, nor is it the part of the river one +involuntarily thinks of when the name Mississippi is mentioned. The +drama, the wonder, the mystery of the Mississippi are in the lower +river: the river of countless wooded islands, now standing high and dry, +now buried to the tree tops in swirling torrents of muddy water; the +river of black gnarled snags carried downstream to the Gulf with the +speed of motor boats; the river whose craft sail on a level with the +roofs of houses; the river of broken levees, of savage inundations. + +The upper river has a beauty which is like that of some lovely, stately, +placid, well-behaved blond wife. She is conventional and correct. You +always know where to find her. The lower river is a temperamental +mistress. At one moment she is all sweetness, smiles and playfulness; at +the next vivid and passionate. Even when she is at her loveliest there +is always the possibility of sudden fury: of her rising in a rage, +breaking the furniture, wrecking the house--yes, and perhaps winding her +wicked cold arms about you in a final destroying embrace. + +Being the "Gibraltar of the river" (albeit a Gibraltar of clay and not +of rock), Vicksburg does not suffer when floods come. Turn your back +upon the river, as you stand on the platform of the Yazoo & Mississippi +railroad station, and you may gather at a glance an impression of the +town piling up the hillside to the eastward. + +The first buildings, occupying the narrow shelf of land at the water's +edge, are small warehouses, negro eating houses, dilapidated little +steamship offices, and all manner of shacks in want of paint and +repairs. From the station Mulberry Street runs obliquely up the hillside +to the south. This street, which forms the main thoroughfare to the +station, used to be occupied by wholesale houses, but has more lately +been given over largely to a frankly and prominently exposed district of +commercialized vice--negro and white. Not only is it at the very door of +Vicksburg, but it parallels, and is but one block distant from, the +city's main street. + +Other streets, so steep as hardly to be passable, directly assault the +face of the hill, mounting abruptly to Washington Street, which runs on +a flat terrace at about the height of the top of the station roof, and +exposes to the view of the newly arrived traveler the unpainted wooden +backs of a number of frame buildings which, though they are but two or +three stories high in front, reach in some cases a height of five or six +stories at the rear, owing to the steepness of the hillside to which +they cling. The roof lines, side walls, windows, chimneys, galleries, +posts, and railings of these sad-looking structures are all +picturesquely out of plumb, and some idea of the general dilapidation +may be gathered from the fact that, one day, while my companion stood on +the station platform, drawing a picture of this scene, a brick chimney, +a portrait of which he had just completed, softly collapsed before our +eyes, for all the world like a sitter who, having held a pose too long, +faints from exhaustion. + +A brief inspection of the life on the galleries of these foul old fire +traps reveals them as negro tenements; and, though they front on the +main street of Vicksburg, it should be explained that about here begins +the "nigger end" of Washington Street--the more prosperous portion of +the downtown section lying to the southward, where substantial brick +office buildings may be seen. + +Between the ragged, bulging tenements above are occasional narrow gaps +through which are revealed cinematographic glimpses of street traffic; +and over the tenement roofs one catches sight of sundry other buildings, +these being of brick, and, though old, and in no way imposing, yet of a +more prosperous and self-respecting character than the nearer +structures. + +Altogether, the scene, though it is one to delight an etcher, is not of +a character to inspire hope in the heart of a humanitarian, or an expert +on sanitation or fire prevention. Nor, indeed, would it achieve +completeness, even on the artistic side, were it not for its crowning +feature. Far off, over the roofs and above them, making an apex to the +composition, and giving to the whole picture a background of beauty and +of ancient dignity, rises the graceful white-columned cupola of +Vicksburg's old stone courthouse, partially obscured by a feathery +green tree top, hinting of space and foliage upon the summit of the +hill. + + * * * * * + +Pamphlets on Vicksburg, issued by railroad companies for the enticement +of tourists, give most of their space to the story of the campaign +leading to Grant's siege of Vicksburg and to descriptions of the various +operations in the siege--the battlefield, now a national military park, +being considered the city's chief object of interest. + +Though I am not constitutionally enthusiastic about seeing battlefields, +I must admit that I found the field of Vicksburg engrossing. The siege +of a small city presents a comparatively simple and compact military +problem which is, therefore, comprehensible to the civilian mind, and in +addition to this the Vicksburg battlefield is splendidly preserved and +marked, so that the visitor may easily reconstruct the conflict. + +The park, which covers the fighting area, forms a loose crescent-shaped +strip over the hills which surround the city, its points abutting on the +river above and below. The chief drives of the park parallel each other, +the inner one, Confederate Avenue, following, as nearly as the hills +permit, the city's line of defense, while the other, Union Avenue, forms +an outer semicircle and follows, in a similar manner, the trenches of +the attacking forces. + +That the battlefield is so well preserved is due in part to man and in +part to Nature. Many of the hills of Warren County, in which Vicksburg +is situated, are composed of a curious soft limy clay, called marl, +which, normally, has not the solidity of soft chalk. Marse Harris +Dickson, who knows more about Vicksburg--and also about negroes, common +law, floods, funny stories, geology, and rivers--than any other man in +Mississippi, tells me that this marl was deposited by the river, in the +form of silt, centuries ago, and that it was later thrown up into hills +by volcanic action. He did not live in Vicksburg when this took place, +but deduces his facts from the discovery of the remains of shellfish in +the soil of the hills. + +Whatever its geological origin, this soil has some very strange +characteristics. In composition it is neither stone nor sand, but a +cross between the two--brown and brittle. One can easily crush it to +dust in one's hand, in which form it has about the consistency of talcum +powder, and it may be added that when this brown powder is seized by the +winds and whirled about, Vicksburg becomes one of the most mercilessly +dusty cities on this earth. + +On exposed slopes the marl washes very badly, forming great caving +gullies, but, curiously enough, where it is exposed perpendicularly it +does not wash, but slicks over on the outside, and stands almost as well +as soft sandstone, although you can readily dig into it with your +fingers. + +Many of the highways leading in and out of the city pass between tall +walls of this peculiar soil, through deep cuts which a visitor might +naturally take for the result of careful grading by the road builders; +but Marse Harris Dickson tells me that the cuts are entirely the result +of erosion wrought by a hundred years of wheeled traffic. + +So far as I know there is but one man who has witnessed this phenomenon +without being impressed. That man is Samuel Merwin. Merwin went down and +visited Marse Harris in Vicksburg, and saw all the sights. He was polite +about the battlefield, and the river, and the negro stories, and +everything else, until Marse Harris showed him how the highways had +eroded through the hills. That did not seem to impress him at all. +Moreover, instead of being tactful, he started telling about his trip to +China. In China, he said, there were similar formations, but, as the +civilization of China was much older than that of Vicksburg (fancy his +having said a thing like that!) the gorges over there had eroded to a +much greater extent. He said he had seen them three hundred feet deep. + +The more Marse Harris tried to get him to say something a little bit +complimentary about the Vicksburg erosions, the more Merwin boasted +about China. He declared that the Vicksburg erosions didn't amount to a +hill of beans compared with what he could show Marse Harris if Marse +Harris would go with him to a certain point on the banks of the Wa Choo, +in the province of Lang Pang Si. + +Evidently he harped on this until he touched not only his host's local +pride, but his pride of discovery. Before that, Marse Harris had been +content to stick around in Mississippi, with perhaps a little run down +to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, or up to Dogtail to see a break in the +levee, but after Merwin's talk about China he began to grow restless, +and it is generally said in Vicksburg that it was purely in order to +have something to tell Merwin about, the next time he saw him, that he +made his celebrated trip to the source of the Nile. As for Merwin, he +has never been invited back to Vicksburg, and it is to be observed that, +even to this day, Marse Harris, by nature of a sunny disposition, shows +signs of erosion of the spirit when China is mentioned. + +It is apropos the battlefield that I mention the peculiarities of the +soil. Had the bare ground been exposed to the rains of a few years, the +details of redoubts, trenches, gun positions, saps, and all other +military works would have melted away. Fortunately, however, there is a +kind of tough, strong-rooted grass, called Bermuda grass, indigenous to +that part of the country, and this grass quickly covered the +battlefield, holding the soil together so effectually that all outlines +are practically embalmed. So, although those in charge of the park have +contributed not a little to its preservation--putting old guns in their +former places, perpetuating saps with concrete work, and placing white +markers on the hillsides, to show how far up those hillsides the +assaulting Union troops made their way in various historic charges--it +is due most of all to Nature that the Vicksburg battlefield so well +explains itself. + +Could Grant and Pemberton look to-day upon the hills and valleys where +surged their six weeks' struggle for possession of the city, I doubt +that they would find any important landmark wanting, and it is certain +that they could not say, as Wellington did when he revisited Waterloo: +"They have spoiled my battlefield!" + +Besides the old guns and the markers, the field is dotted over with +observation towers and all manner of memorials. Of the latter, the +marble pantheon erected by the State of Illinois, and the beautiful +marble and bronze memorial structure of the State of Iowa, are probably +the finest. The marble column erected by Wisconsin carries at its summit +a great bronze effigy of "Old Abe," the famous eagle, mascot of the +Wisconsin troops. Guides to the battlefield are prone to relate to +visitors--especially, I suspect, those whose accents betray a Northern +origin--how "Old Abe," the bird of battle, went home and disgraced +himself, after the war, by his ungentlemanly action in laying a setting +of eggs. + +The handsomest monument to an individual which I saw upon the +battlefield was the admirable bronze bust of Major General Martin L. +Smith, C.S.A., and the one which appealed most to my imagination was +also a memorial to a Confederate soldier: Brigadier-General States +Rights Gist. Is there not something Roman in the thought that, thirty or +more years before the war, a southern father gave his new-born son that +name, dedicating him, as it were, to the cause of States Rights, and +that the son so dedicated gave his life in battle for that cause? The +name upon that stone made me better understand the depth of feeling that +existed in the South long years before the War, and gave me a clearer +comprehension of at least one reason why the South made such a gallant +fight. + + * * * * * + +Of more than fourscore national cemeteries in the United States, that +which stands among the hills and trees, overlooking the river, at the +northerly end of the military park, is one of the most beautiful, and +is, with the single exception of Arlington, the largest. It contains the +graves of nearly 17,000 Union soldiers lost in this +campaign--three-fourths of them "unknown"! + +It is interesting to note that, because the surrender of Pemberton to +Grant occurred on July 4, that date has, in this region, associations +less happy than attach to it elsewhere, and that the Fourth has not been +celebrated in Vicksburg since the Civil War, except by the negroes, who +have taken it for their especial holiday. This reminds me, also, of the +fact that, throughout the South, Christmas, instead of the Fourth of +July, is celebrated with fireworks. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +SHREDS AND PATCHES + + +It was Marse Harris Dickson who showed us the battlefield. As we were +driving along in the motor we overtook an old trudging negro, very +picturesque in his ragged clothing and battered soft hat. My companion +said that he would like to take a picture of this wayfarer, and asked +Marse Harris, who, as author of the "Old Reliable" stories, seemed best +fitted for the task, to arrange the matter. The automobile, having +passed the negro, was stopped to wait for him to catch up. Presently, as +he came by, Marse Harris addressed him in that friendly way Southerners +have with negroes. + +"Want your picture taken, old man?" he asked. + +To which the negro, still shuffling along, replied: + +"I ain't got no money." + +Marse Harris, knowing the workings of the negro mind, got the full +import of this reply at once, but I must confess that a moment passed +before I realized that the negro took us for itinerant photographers +looking for trade. + +With the possible exception of Irvin S. Cobb, I suppose Marse Harris has +the largest collection of negro character stories of any individual in +this country. And let me say, in this connection, that I know of no +better place than Vicksburg for the study of southern negro types. + +One day Marse Harris was passing by the jail. It was hot weather, and +the jail windows were open. Behind the bars of one window, looking down +upon the street, stood a negro prisoner. As Marse Harris passed this +window a negro wearing a large watch chain came by in the other +direction. His watch chain evidently caught the eye of the prisoner, who +spoke in a wistful tone, demanding: + +"What tahme is it, brotha?" + +"What foh you want t' know what tahme it is?" returned the other +sternly, as he continued upon his way. "You ain't goin' nowhere." + +Through Marse Harris I obtained a copy of a letter written by a negro +named Walter to Mr. W.H. Reeve of Vicksburg. Walter had looked out for +Mr. Reeve's live stock during a flood, and had certain ideas about what +should be done for him in consequence. I give the letter exactly as it +was written, merely inserting, parenthetically, a few explanatory words: + + _Mr. H W Reeve an bos dear sir I like to git me a par [pair] second + hand pance dont a fail or elce I will be dout [without] a pare to + go eny where so send me something. Dont a fail an send me a par of + youre pance [or] i will hafter go to work for somebody to git some. + I don't think you all is treating me right at all I stayed with + youre hogs in the water till the last tening [attending] to them + and I dont think that youre oder [ought to] fail me bout a pare old + pance_ + + WALTER + +Though I cannot see just why it should be so, it seemed to us that the +Vicksburg negroes were happier than those of any other place we visited. +Whether drowsing in the sun, walking the streets, doing a little stroke +of work, fishing, or sitting gabbling on the curbstone, they were upon +the whole as cheerful and as comical a lot of people as I ever saw. + +"Wha' you-all goin' to?" I heard a negro ask a group of mulatto women, +in clean starched gingham dresses, who went flouncing by him on the +street one Saturday afternoon. + +"Oh," returned one of the women, with the elaborate superiority of a +member of the class of idle rich, "we're just serenadin' 'round." + +"Serenading," as she used the word, meant a promenade about the town. + +Perhaps the happiness of the negro, here, has to do with the lazy life +of the river. The succulent catfish is easily obtainable for food, and +the wages of the roustabout--or "rouster," as he is called for +short--are good. + +The rouster, in his red undershirt, with a bale hook hung in his belt, +is a figure to fascinate the eye. When he works--which is to say, when +he is out of funds--he works hard. He will swing a two-hundred-pound +sack to his back and do fancy steps as he marches with it up the springy +gangplank to the river steamer's deck, uttering now and then a strange, +barbaric snatch of song. He has no home, no family, no responsibilities. +An ignorant deck hand can earn from forty to one hundred dollars a +month. Pay him off at the end of the trip, let him get ashore with his +money, and he is gone. Without deck hands the steamer cannot move. For +many years there has been known to river captains a simple way out of +this difficulty. Pay the rousters off a few hours before the end of the +trip. Say there are twenty of them, and that each is given twenty +dollars. They clear a space on deck and begin shooting craps. No one +interferes. By the time the trip ends most of the money has passed into +the hands of four or five; the rest are "broke" and therefore remain at +work. Yet despite the ingenuity of those who have the negro labor +problem to contend with, Marse Harris tells me that there have been +times when the levee was lined with steamers, full-loaded, but unable to +depart for want of a crew. Not that there was any lack of roustabouts in +town, but that, money being plentiful, they would not work. In such +times perishable freight rots and is thrown overboard. + +I am conscious of a tendency, in writing of Vicksburg, to dwell +continually upon the negro and the river for the reason that the two +form an enchanting background for the whole life of the place. This +should not, however, be taken to indicate that Vicksburg is not a city +of agreeable homes and pleasant society, or that its only +picturesqueness is to be found in the river and negro life. + +The point is that Vicksburg is a patchwork city. The National Park +Hotel, its chief hostelry, is an unusually good hotel for a city of +this size, and Washington Street, in the neighborhood of the hotel, has +the look of a busy city street; yet on the same square with the hotel, +on the street below, nearer the river, is an unwholesome negro +settlement. So it is all over the city; the "white folks" live on the +hills, while the "niggers" inhabit the adjacent bottoms. Nor is that the +only sense in which the town is patched together. Some of the most +charming of the city's old homes are tucked away where the visitor is +not likely to see them without deliberate search. Such a place, for +example, is the old Klein house, standing amid lawns and old-fashioned +gardens, on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi. This house was built +long before the railroad came to Vicksburg, cutting off its grounds from +the river. A patch in the paneling of the front door shows where a +cannon ball passed through at the time of the bombardment, and the ball +itself may still be seen embedded in the woodwork of one of the rooms +within. + +And there are other patches. Near the old courthouse, which rears itself +so handsomely at the summit of a series of terraces leading up from the +street, are a number of old sand roads which must be to-day almost as +they were in the heyday of the river's glory, when the region in which +the courthouse stands was the principal part of the city--the days of +heavy drinking and gambling, dueling, slave markets, and steamboat +races. These streets are not the streets of a city, but of a small town. +So, too, where Adams Street crosses Grove, it has the appearance of a +country lane, the road represented by a pair of wheel tracks running +through the grass; but Cherry Street, only a block distant, is built up +with city houses and has a good asphalt pavement and a trolley line. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +THE BAFFLING MISSISSIPPI + + +As inevitably as water flows down the hills of Vicksburg to the river, +the visitor's thoughts flow down always to the great spectacular, +historic, mischievous, dominating stream. + +Mark Twain, in that glorious book, "Life on the Mississippi," declared, +in speaking of the eternal problems of the Mississippi, that as there +are not enough citizens of Louisiana to take care of all the theories +about the river at the rate of one theory per individual, each citizen +has two theories. That is the case to-day as it was when Mark Twain was +a pilot. I have heard half a dozen prominent men, some of them +engineers, state their views as to what should be done. Each view seemed +sound, yet all were at variance. + +Consider, for example, that part of the river lying between Vicksburg +and the mouth. Here, quite aside from the problem as to the hands in +which river-control work should be vested--a very great problem in +itself--three separate and distinct physical problems are presented. + +From Vicksburg to Red River Landing there are swift currents which +deposit silt only at the edge of the bank, or on sand bars. From Red +River Landing to New Orleans the problem is different; here the channel +is much improved, and slow currents at the sides of the river, between +the natural river bank and the levee, deposit silt in the old "borrow +pits"--pits from which the earth was dug for the building of the +levees--filling them up, whereas, farther up the river, the borrow pits, +instead of filling up, are likely to scour, undermining the levee. From +New Orleans to the head of the Passes--these being the three main +channels by which the river empties into the Gulf--the banks between the +natural river bed and the levees build up with silt much more rapidly +than at any other point on the entire stream; here there are no sand +bars, and the banks cave very little. In this part of the river it is +not current, but wind, which forms the great problem, for the winds are +terrific at certain times of year, and when they blow violently against +the current, waves are formed which wash out the levees. + +This is the barest outline of three chief physical problems with which +river engineers must contend. There are countless others which have to +be met in various ways. In some places the water seeps through, under +the levee, and bubbles up, like a spring, from the ground outside. This, +if allowed to continue, soon undermines the levee and causes a break. +The method of fighting such a seepage is interesting. When the water +begins to bubble up, a hollow tower of sand-filled sacks is built up +about the place where it comes from the ground, and when this tower has +raised the level of the water within it to that of the river, the +pressure is of course removed, on the siphon principle. + +As river-control work is at present handled, there is no centralization +of authority, and friction, waste, and politics consequently play a +large part. + +Consider, for example, the situation in the State of Louisiana. Here +control is, broadly speaking, in the hands of three separate bodies: (1) +the United States army engineer, who disburses the money appropriated by +Congress for levees and bank revetment, working under direction of the +Mississippi River Commission; (2) the State Board of Engineers, which +disburses Louisiana State funds wherever it sees fit, and which, +incidentally, does not use, in its work, the same specifications as are +used by the Government; and (3) the local levee boards, of which there +are eight in Louisiana, one to each river parish--a parish being what is +elsewhere called a county. Each of these eight boards has authority as +to where parish money shall be spent within its district, and it may be +added that this last group (considering the eight boards as a unit) has +the largest sum to spend on river work. + +The result of this division of authority creates chaos, and has built up +a situation infinitely worse than was faced by General Goethals when +Congress attempted to divide control in the building of the Panama +Canal. It will be remembered that, in that case, a commission was +appointed, but that Roosevelt circumvented Congress by making General +Goethals head of the commission with full powers. + +While the canal was in course of construction, General Goethals appeared +before the Senate Committee on Commerce. When asked what he knew of +levee building and work on the Mississippi, he replied: + +"I don't know a single, solitary thing about the work on the Mississippi +except that it is being carried on under the annual appropriation +system. If we had that system to hamper us, the Panama Canal would not +be completed on time and within the estimate, as it will be. That system +leaves engineers in uncertainty as to how much they may plan to do in +the year ahead of them. Big works cannot be completed economically, +either as to time or money, unless the man who is making the plan can +proceed upon the theory that the money will be forthcoming as fast as he +can economically spend it." + +In view of the foregoing, I cannot myself claim to be free from river +theory. It seems to me clear that the Mississippi should be under +exclusive Federal control from source to mouth; that the various +commissions should be abolished, and that the whole matter should be in +the hands of the chief of United States Engineers, who would have ample +funds with which to carry on work of a permanent character. + +As one among countless items pointing to the need of Federal control, +consider the case of the Tensas Levee Board, one of the eight local +boards in Louisiana. This board does not build any levees whatsoever in +the State of Louisiana, but does all its work with Louisiana money, in +the State of Arkansas, where it has constructed, and maintains, +eighty-two miles of levees, protecting the northeastern corner of +Louisiana from floods which would originate in Arkansas. These same +levees, however, also protect large tracts of land in Arkansas, for +which protection the inhabitants of Arkansas do not pay one cent, +knowing that their Louisiana neighbors are forced, for their own safety, +to do the work. + +Cairo, Illinois, is the barometer of the river's rise and fall, the gage +at that point being used as the basis for estimates for the entire river +below Cairo. These estimates are made by computations which are so +accurate that Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans know, days or even +weeks in advance, when to expect high water, and within a few inches of +the precise height the floods will reach. + +Some years since, the United States engineer in charge of a river +district embracing a part of Louisiana, notified the local levee boards +that unusually high water might be expected on a certain date and that +several hundred miles of levees would have to be "capped" in order to +prevent overflow. The local boards in turn notified the planters, in +sections where capping was necessary. + +One of the planters so notified was an old Cajun--Cajun being a +corruption of the word "Acadian," denoting those persons of French +descent driven from Acadia, in Canada, by the British many years ago. +This old man did not believe that the river would rise as high as +predicted and was not disposed to cap his levee. + +"But," said the member of the local levee board, who interviewed him, +"the United States engineer says you will have to put two twelve-inch +planks, one above the other, on top of your levee, and back them with +earth, or else the water will come over." + +At last the old fellow consented. + +Presently the floods came. The water mounted, mounted, mounted. Soon it +was halfway up the lower plank; then it rose to the upper one. When it +reached the middle of that plank the Cajun became alarmed and called +upon the local levee board for help to raise the capping higher still. + +"No," said the local board member who had given him the original +warning, "that will not be necessary. I have just talked to the United +States engineer. He says the water will drop to-morrow." + +The old man was skeptical, however, and was not satisfied until the +board member agreed that in case the flood failed to abate next day, as +predicted, the board should do the extra capping. This settled, a nail +was driven into the upper plank to mark the water's height. + +Sure enough, on the following morning the river had dropped away from +the nail, and thereafter it continued to fall. + +After watching the decline for several days, the Cajun, very much +puzzled, called on his friend, the local levee board member, to talk the +matter over. + +"Say," he demanded, "what kinda man dis United States engineer is, +anyhow? Firs' he tell when de water comes. Den he tell jus' how high she +comes. Den he tell jus' when she's agoin' to fall. What kinda man is +dat, anyhow? Is he been one Voodoo?" + + * * * * * + +The spirit of the people of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana, who +live, in flood time, in the precarious safety afforded by the levees, is +characterized by the same optimistic fatalism that is to be found among +the inhabitants of the slopes of Vesuvius in time of eruption. + +One night, a good many years ago, I ascended Vesuvius at such a time, +and I remember well a talk I had with a man who gave me wine and sausage +in his house, far up on the mountain side, at about two o'clock that +morning. + +Seventeen streams of lava were already flowing down, and signs of +imminent disaster were at hand. + +"Aren't you afraid to stay here with your family?" I asked the man. + +"No," he replied. "Three times I have seen it worse than this. I have +lived here always, and"--with a good Italian smile--"it is evident, +signore, that I am still alive." + +Less than a week later I read in a newspaper that this man's house, +which was known as Casa Bianca, together with his vineyards and his +precious wine cellars, tunneled into the mountain side, had been +obliterated by a stream of lava. + +Precisely as he went about his affairs when destruction threatened, so +do the planters along the Mississippi. But there is this difference: +against Vesuvius no precaution can avail; whereas, in the case of a +Mississippi flood, foresight may save life and property. For instance, +many planters build mounds large enough to accommodate their barns, and +all their live stock. Likewise, when floods are coming, they construct +false floors in their houses, elevating their furniture above high-water +mark, so that, if the whole house is not carried away, they may return +to something less than utter ruin. It is the custom, also, to place +ladders against trees, in the branches of which provisions are kept in +time of danger, and to have skiffs, containing food and water, ready on +the galleries of the houses. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +OLD RIVER DAYS + + +Among the honored citizens of Vicksburg, at the time of our visit, were +a number of old steamboat men who knew the river in its golden days; +among them, Captain "Mose" Smith, Captain Tom Young, Captain W.S. +("Billy") Jones, and Captain S.H. Parisot--the latter probably the +oldest surviving Mississippi River captain. + +We were sent to see Captain Parisot at his house, where he received us +kindly, entertained us for an hour or more with reminiscences, and +showed us a most interesting collection of souvenirs of the river, +including photographs of famous boats, famous deck loads of cotton, and +famous characters: among the latter the celebrated rivals, Captain John +W. Cannon of the _Robert E. Lee_ and Captain Thomas P. Leathers of the +_Natchez_. Captain Parisot knew both these men well, and was himself +aboard the _Lee_ at the time of her famous race with the _Natchez_ from +New Orleans to St. Louis. + +"We left New Orleans 31/2 minutes ahead of the _Natchez_," said Captain +Parisot, "made the run to Vicksburg in 24 hours and 28 minutes, beat her +to Cairo by 1 hour and 12 minutes, and to St. Louis by more than 3 +hours." + +Captain Parisot's father was a soldier under Napoleon I, and moved to +Warren County, Mississippi, after having been wounded at Moscow. He +built, at the foot of Main Street, Vicksburg, the first brick house that +city had. + +"There was a law in France," said the captain, "that any citizen absent +from the country for thirty-five years lost all claim to property. My +father's people were pretty well off, so in '42 he started back, but he +was taken ill and died in New Orleans." + +Captain Parisot was born in 1828, and in 1847 began "learning the +river." In 1854 he became part owner of a boat, and three years later +purchased one of his own. + +"I bought her in Cincinnati," he said. Then, reflectively, he added: +"There was a good deal of drinking in those days. When I brought her +down on her first trip I had 183 tons of freight, and 500 barrels of +whisky, from Cincinnati, for one little country store--Barksdale & +McFarland's, at Yazoo City." + +"There was a good deal of gambling, too, wasn't there?" one of us +suggested. + +"There was indeed," smiled the old captain. "Every steamboat was a +gambling house, and there used to be big games before the war." + +"How big?" + +"Well," he returned, "as Captain Leathers once put it, it used to be +'nigger ante and plantation limit.' And that's no joke about playing for +niggers either. Those old planters would play for anything. I've known +people to get on a boat at Yazoo City to come to Vicksburg, and get in a +game, and never get off at Vicksburg at all--just go back to Yazoo; yes, +and come down again, to keep the game going. + +"There was a saloon called the Exchange near our house in Yazoo, and I +remember once my father got into a game, there, with a gambler named +Spence Thrift. That was before the war. Thrift was a terrible stiff +bluffer. When he got ready to clean up, he'd shove up his whole pile. +Well, he did that to my father. Thrift's pile was twenty-two hundred +dollars, and all my father had in front of him was eight hundred. But he +owned a young negro named Calvin, so he called Calvin, and told him: +'Here, boy! Jump up on the table.' That equalled the gambler's pile; and +it finished him--he threw down his hand, beaten. + +"Business in those times was done largely on friendship. It used to be +said that I 'owned' the Yazoo River when I was running my line. I knew +everybody up there. They were my friends, and they gave me their +business for that reason, and also because I brought the cotton down +here to Vicksburg, and reshipped it from here on, down the river. It was +considered an advantage to reship cotton because moving it from one boat +to another knocked the mud off the bales. + +"There used to be some enormous cargoes of cotton carried. The largest +boat on the river was the _Henry Frank_, owned by Frank Hicks of +Memphis. She ran between Memphis and New Orleans, and on one trip +carried 9226 bales. Those were the old-style bales, of course. They +weighed 425 to 450 pounds each, as against 550 to 600 pounds, which is +the weight of a bale to-day, now that powerful machinery is used to make +them. The heavy bale came into use partly to beat transportation +charges, as rates were not made by weight, but at so much per bale. + +"The land up the Yazoo belonged to the State, and the State sold it for +$1.25 per acre. The fellows that got up there first weren't any too +anxious to see new folks coming in and entering land. Used to try all +kinds of schemes to get them out. + +"There were two brothers up there named Parker. One of them was a +surveyor--we called him 'Baldy'--and the other was lumbering, getting +timber out of the cypress breaks and rafting it down. Almost all the +timber used from Vicksburg to New Orleans came out of there. + +"One time a man came up the Yazoo to take up land and went to stop with +Baldy Parker. When they sat down to dinner Baldy took some flour and +sprinkled it all over his meat. + +"'What's that?' asked the stranger. + +"'Quinine,' says Baldy. 'Haven't you got any?' + +"'No,' says the fellow; 'what would I want it for?' + +"'You'll find out if you go out there in the swamps,' Baldy tells him. +'It's full of malaria. We eat quinine on everything.' + +"The fellow was quiet through the rest of the meal. + +"Pretty soon they got up to go out, and Baldy took up a pair of +stovepipes. + +"'What do you do with them pipes?' asks the stranger. + +"'Wear 'em, of course,' says Baldy. 'Haven't you got any?' + +"'No,' says the fellow. 'What for?' + +"'Why,' says Baldy, 'the rattlesnakes out there will bite the legs right +off of you.' + +"With that the fellow had enough. He didn't go any farther, but turned +around and took the boat down the river." + +In all his years as captain and line owner on the river, Captain Parisot +never lost a vessel. "I never insured against sinking," he told us. +"Just against fire. But I got the best pilots I could hire. In all I +built twenty-seven steamboats. I had $150,000 worth of boats when I sold +my line in 1880. After I sold they did lose some boats." + +Later we saw Captain "Billy" Jones, a much younger man than Captain +Parisot, yet old enough to have known the river in its prime. Captain +Jones deserted the river years ago, and is now a golfer with a +prosperous banking business on the side. + +"Captain Parisot was right when he said business on the river was done +largely on friendship," said Captain Jones. "Also business used to be +turned down for the opposite reason. There was a historic case of that +in this town. + +"Captain Tom Leathers was in the habit of refusing to take freight on +the _Natchez_ if he didn't like the shipper or the consignee. For some +reason or other he had it in for the firm of Lamkin & Eggleston, +wholesale grocers here in Vicksburg, and declined their freight. They +sued him in the Circuit Court and got judgment. Leathers carried the +case to the Supreme Court, but the verdict was sustained and he had to +pay $2500 damages. He was furious. + +"'What's the use,' he said, 'of being a steamboat captain if you can't +tell people to go to hell?'" + +It is the lamentable fact, and I must face it, and so must you if you +intend to read on, that the language of the river was rough. At least +ninety-nine out of every hundred river stories are, therefore, not +printable in full. Either they must be vitiated by deletions, or +interpreted at certain points by blanks and "blanketys." As for me, I +prefer the blankety-blanks and I consider that this method of avoiding +the complete truth relieves me of all responsibility. And of course, if +that is so, it absolves, at the same time, good Captain "Billy" Jones, +or any one else who may have happened to tell me the stories. + +Both Leathers and Cannon were large, powerful men, and they always hated +each other. Leathers was never popular, for he was very arrogant, but he +had a great reputation for pushing the _Natchez_ through on time. Also, +such friends as he did have always stuck by him. + +Something of the feeling between the two old river characters is +revealed in the following story related by Captain Jones: + +"Ed Snodgrass, who lived in St. Joseph, La., was a friend of both Cannon +and Leathers. When the _Natchez_ would arrive at St. Joseph, he would go +and give Leathers news about Cannon, and when the _Lee_ came in he would +see Cannon and tell him about Leathers. + +"Well, one time Leathers was laid up with a carbuncle on his back, and +brought a doctor up on the boat with him. So, of course, Ed Snodgrass +told Cannon about it when he came along. + +"'A carbuncle, eh?' said Cannon. + +"'Yes,' said Ed. + +"'Well,' said Cannon, 'you tell the old blankety-blank-blank that I had +a brother--a bigger, stronger man than I am--and he had one o' them +things and died in two weeks.' + +"Soon after that Cannon made a misstep when backing the _Natchez_ out, +at Natchez, and fell, breaking his collar bone. Of course Ed Snodgrass +gave the news to Leathers when he came along. + +"'Huh!' said Leathers. 'His collar bone, eh? You tell the old +blankety-blank-blank that I wish it had been his blankety-blank neck!'" + +I asked Captain Jones for stories about gambling. + +"After the war," he said, "there weren't the big poker games there used +to be. Mostly we had sucker games then. There was a gambler named George +Duval who wrote a book--or, rather, he had somebody write it for him, +for he was a very ignorant fellow, and began his life calking the seams +of boats in a shipyard. He had a partner who was known as 'Jew Mose,' +who used to dress like a rich planter. He wore a broad-brimmed hat and a +very elegant tail coat, and was a big, handsome man. + +"After the boat left New Orleans, this 'Jew Mose' would disguise himself +with whiskers and goggles, go to the barber shop and lay out his game. +George Duval and a fellow called 'Canada Bill' were the cappers. They +would bring in suckers, get their money, and generally get off the boat +about Baton Rouge. + +"Once when I was a clerk on the _Robert E. Lee_, Duval got a young +fellow in tow, and the young fellow wanted to bet on the game, but he +had a friend with him, and his friend kept pulling him away. + +"Later, when Duval had given up the idea of getting this young fellow's +money, and closed up his game, he appeared in the social hall of the +boat with a small bag held up to his face. + +"Somebody asked him what was in the bag. + +"'It's hot salt,' he said. 'I've got a toothache, and a bag of hot salt +is the best thing in the world for toothache.' + +"Presently, when he went to his stateroom to get something, he left the +bag of salt on the stove to heat it up. While he was gone somebody +suggested, as a joke, that they dump out the salt and fill the bag with +ashes, instead. So they did it. And when Duval came back he held it up +to his face again, and seemed perfectly satisfied. + +"'How does it feel now?' one of the fellows asked. + +"'Fine,' said Duval. 'Hot salt is the best thing going.' + +"At that, the man who had prevented the young fellow from betting, down +in the barber shop, earlier in the day, offered to bet Duval a hundred +dollars that the bag didn't contain salt. + +"Duval took the bet and raised him back another hundred. But the man had +only fifty dollars left. However, another fellow, standing in the crowd, +put in the extra fifty to make two hundred dollars a side. + +"Then Duval opened the bag, and it _was_ salt. He had changed the bags, +and the fellows who worked up the trick were his cappers." + +One of the old-time river gamblers was an individual, blind in one eye, +known as "One-eyed Murphy." Murphy was an extremely artful manipulator +of cards, and made a business of cheating. One day, shortly after the +_Natchez_ had backed out from New Orleans and got under way, Marion +Knowles, a picturesque gentleman of the period, and one who had the +reputation of being polite even in the most trying circumstances, and no +matter how well he had dined, came in and stood for a time as a +spectator beside a table at which Murphy was playing poker with some +guileless planters. Mr. Knowles was not himself guileless, and very +shortly he perceived that the one-eyed gambler was dealing himself cards +from the bottom of the pack. Thereupon he drew his revolver from his +pocket and rapping with it on the table addressed the assembly: + +"Gentlemen," he said, speaking in courtly fashion, "I regret to say that +there is something wrong here. I will not call any names, neither will I +make any personal allusions. _But if it doesn't stop, damn me if I don't +shoot his other eye out!_" + +I cannot drop the river, and stories of river gambling, without +referring to one more tale which is a classic. It is a long story about +a big poker game, and to tell it properly one must know the exact words. +I do not know them, and therefore shall not attempt to tell the whole +story, but shall give you only the beginning. + +It is supposed to be told by a Virginian. + +"There was me," he says, "and another very distinguished gentleman from +Virginia and a gentleman from Kentucky, and a man from Ohio, and a +fellow from New York, and a blankety-blank from Boston--" + +That is all I know of the story, but I can guess who got the money in +that game. + +Can't you? + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX + +WHAT MEMPHIS HAS ENDURED + + +An article on Memphis, published in the year 1855, gives the population +of the place as about 13,000 (one quarter of the number slaves), and +calls Memphis "the most promising town in the Southwest." It predicts +that a railroad will some day connect Memphis with Little Rock, +Arkansas, and that a direct line between Memphis and Cincinnati may even +be constructed. This article begins the history of Memphis in the year +1820, when the place had 50 inhabitants. In 1840 the settlement had +grown to 1,700, and fifteen years thereafter it was almost eight times +that size. + +Your Memphian, however, is not at all content to date from 1820. He +begins the history of Memphis with the date May 8, 1541--a time when +Henry VIII was establishing new matrimonial records in England, when +Queen Elizabeth was a little girl, and Shakespeare, Bacon, Galileo and +Cromwell were yet unborn. For that was the date when a Spanish gentleman +bearing some personal resemblance to "Uncle Joe" Cannon--though he was +younger, had black hair and beard, was differently dressed and did not +chew long black cigars--arrived at the lower Chickasaw Bluffs, from +which the city of Memphis now overlooks the Mississippi River. This +gentleman was Hernando De Soto, and with his soldiers and horses he had +marched from Tampa Bay, Florida, hunting for El Dorado, but finding +instead, a lot of poor villages peopled by savages whom he killed in +large numbers, having been brought up to that sort of work by Pizarro, +under whom he served in the conquest of Peru. It seems to be well +established, through records left by De Soto's secretary, and other men +who were with him, and through landmarks mentioned by them, that De Soto +and his command camped where Memphis stands, crossed the Mississippi at +this point in boats which they built for the purpose, and marched on to +an Indian village situated on the mound, a few miles distant, which now +gives Mound City, Arkansas, its name. One hundred and thirty-two years +later Marquette passed by on his way down the river, and nine years +after him La Salle, but so far as is known, neither stopped at the site +of Memphis, though they must have noticed as they passed, that the river +is narrower here than at any point within hundreds of miles, and that +the Chickasaw Bluffs afford about as good a place for a settlement as +may be found along the reaches of the lower river, being high enough for +safety, and flat on top. The first white man known to have visited the +actual site of Memphis after De Soto, was De Bienville, the French +Governor of Louisiana, who came in 1739. De Bienville found the +Chickasaw village where De Soto had found it two centuries earlier; but +whereas De Soto managed to avoid battle with the inhabitants of this +particular village, De Bienville came to attack them. He fought them +near their village, was defeated, and retired to Mobile. + +Thus this part of the United States belonged first to Spain, and then to +France; but in 1762 France ceded it back to Spain, and in the year +following, Spain and France together ceded their territory in the +eastern part of the continent to England. The next change came with the +Revolution, when the United States came into being. The Spanish were, +however, still in possession of the vast territory of Louisiana, to the +west of the Mississippi. In 1795, Gayoso, Spanish Governor of Louisiana, +came across and built a fort on the east side of the river, but was +presently ousted by the United States. In 1820, as has been said, the +settlement of Memphis had begun, one of the early proprietors having +been Andrew Jackson. Some of the first settlers wished to name the place +Jackson, in honor of the general, but Jackson himself, it is said, +decided on the name Memphis, because the position of the town suggested +that of ancient Memphis, on the Nile. + +In 1857 Memphis got her first railroad--the Memphis & +Charleston--connecting her with Charleston, South Carolina. About the +time the road was completed there were severe financial panics which +held the city back; also there was trouble, as in so many other river +towns, with hordes of gamblers and desperadoes. Judge J.P. Young, in +his "History of Memphis," tells of an interesting episode of those +times. There were two professional gamblers, father and son, of the name +of Able. The father shot a man in a saloon brawl, and soon after, the +son committed a similar crime of violence. A great mob started to take +the younger Able out of jail and lynch him, but one firm citizen, +addressing them from the balcony of a hotel, persuaded them to desist. +Next day, however, there was a mass meeting to discuss the case of Able. +At this meeting the hotheads prevailed, and Able was taken from the jail +by a mob of three thousand men. When the noose was around his neck, and +he and his mother and sister were pleading that his life be spared, the +same man who had previously prevented mob action, stepped boldly up, cut +the rope from Abel's neck, and assisted him to fly, standing between him +and the mob, fighting the mob off, and finally getting Able back into +the jail. When the mob stormed the jail, furious at having been +circumvented by a single man, the same powerful figure appeared at the +jail door with a pistol, and, incredible though it seems, actually held +the mob at bay until it finally dispersed. This man was Nathan Bedford +Forrest, later the brilliant Confederate cavalry leader. Forrest and his +wife are buried in Memphis, in a square called Forrest Park, under a +fine equestrian monument, by C.H. Niehaus. + +Before the war Forrest was a member of the slave-dealing firm of Forrest +& Maples, of Memphis. Subjoined is a photographic reproduction of an +advertisement of this firm, which appeared in the Memphis City +Directory for 1855-6. + +[Illustration: + + CITY DIRECTORY. 251 + -------------------- + + #FORREST & MAPLES,# + #SLAVE DEALERS,# + + #87 Adams Street#, + Between Second and Third, + #MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE#, + + Have constantly on hand the best selected assortment of + + #FIELD HANDS, HOUSE SERVANTS & MECHANICS#, + at their Negro Mart, to be found in the city. They are daily + receiving from Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri, fresh supplies of + likely Young Negroes. + + #Negroes Sold on Commission#, + + and the highest market price always paid for good stock. Their Jail + is capable of containing Three Hundred, and for comfort, neatness + and safety, is the best arranged of any in the Union. Persons + wishing to purchase, are invited to examine their stock before + purchasing elsewhere. + + They have on hand at present, Fifty likely young Negroes, comprising + Field hands, Mechanics, House and Body Servants, &c. + +] + +When the Civil War loomed close, sentiment in Memphis was divided, but +at a call for troops for the Union, the State of Tennessee balked, and +soon after it seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy. Many +people believed, at that time, that if the entire South united, the +North would not dare fight. When the war came, however, Memphis knew +where she stood; it is said that no city of the same size (22,600) +furnished so many men to the Confederate armies. In 1862, when the Union +forces got control of the river to the north and the south of the city, +it became evident that Memphis was likely to be taken. A fleet of Union +gunboats came down and defeated the Confederate fleet in the river +before the city, while the populace lined the banks and looked on. The +city, being without military protection, then surrendered, and was +occupied by troops under Sherman. Nor, with the exception of one period +of a few hours' duration, did it ever again come under Confederate +control. That was when Forrest made his famous raid in 1864, an event +which exhibited not only the dash and hardihood of that intrepid leader, +but also his strategy and his sardonic humor. + +General A.J. Smith, with 13,000 Union soldiers was marching on the great +grain district of central Mississippi, and was forcing Forrest, who had +but 3,500 men, to the southward. Unable to meet Smith's force on +anything like equal terms, Forrest conceived the idea of making a "run +around the end" and striking at Memphis, which was Smith's base. Taking +1,500 picked men and horses, he executed a flanking movement over night, +and before Smith knew he was gone, came careering into Memphis at dawn +at the head of 500 galloping, yelling men--many of them Memphis boys. +There were some 7,000 Union troops in and about Memphis at this time, +but they were surprised out of their slumbers, and made no effective +resistance. The only part of Forrest's plan which miscarried was his +scheme to capture three leading Union officers, who were then stationed +in Memphis: Generals C.C. Washburn, S.A. Hurlbut and R.P. Buckland. +General Hurlbut's escape occurred by reason of the fact that instead of +having passed the night at the old Gayoso Hotel, where he made his +headquarters, he happened to be visiting a brother officer, elsewhere. +General Washburn was warned by a courier and made his escape in his +nightclothes and bare feet from the residence he occupied as +headquarters, running down alleys to the river, and thence along under +the bluff to the Union fortifications. Forrest's men found the general's +papers, uniform, hat, boots and sword in his bedroom, and also found +there Mrs. Washburn. The only things they failed to find were the +general's nightshirt and the general himself, who was inside it. General +Buckland also avoided capture by the narrowest margin. The soldiers +first went to the wrong house to look for him. That gave him time to +escape. + +It is recorded that, later in the day, under a flag of truce, Forrest +sent General Washburn his sword and clothing with a humorous message, +informing him, at the same time, that he had 600 Federal prisoners +without shoes or clothing, and that he would like supplies for them. +The supplies, we are told, were promptly forthcoming. + +Forrest waited until he was sure that news of the raid had been +telegraphed to General Smith in the field. Then he cut the wires. Smith +immediately came back toward Memphis with his army, which was what +Forrest desired him to do. The Confederates then retired from the +immediate vicinity of the city. + +Judge Young, in his history, reports that when General Hurlbut heard of +the raid he exclaimed, "There it goes again! They superseded me with +Washburn because I could not keep Forrest out of West Tennessee, and +Washburn cannot keep him out of his own bedroom!" + + * * * * * + +After the War there was corruption and carpet-bag rule in Memphis, and +Forrest was again to the fore, becoming "Grand Wizard" of the famous Ku +Klux Klan, the mysterious secret organization designed to intimidate +Scalawags, Carpet-baggers and negroes, whose arrogance had become +intolerable. General George W. Gordon prepared the oath and ritual for +the Klan, which was founded in the town of Pulaski, Giles County, +Tennessee. General Forrest took the oath in 1866, in Room 10 of the old +Maxwell House, at Nashville. + +It is my belief that the Ku Klux Klan has been a good deal maligned. +Many of its members were men of high type. I have been told, for +instance, that one southern gentleman who has since been in the cabinet +of a President of the United States, was active in the Ku Klux. I +withhold his name because the purposes of the Ku Klux Klan, and the +urgent need which called it into being, are not yet fully understood in +the North, and for the further reason that depredations committed by +other bodies were frequently charged to the Ku Klux, giving it a bad +name. So far as I can discover the Ku Klux endeavored to avoid violence +where it could be avoided. Its aim seems to have been to frighten +negroes and bad whites into behaving themselves or going away; though +sometimes, of course, bad characters had to be killed. It must be +remembered that the ballot was denied former Confederate soldiers for +quite a period after the War, that they were not allowed to possess +firearms, and that, at the same time, negro troops were quartered in the +South. In many parts of the South the government and the courts were in +the hands of third-rate Northerners (carpet-baggers) who had come down +to dominate the defeated section, and who used the Scalawags (disloyal +southern whites) and negroes for their own purposes. Obviously this was +outrageous, and equally obviously, a proud people, even though defeated, +could not endure it. The service performed by the Ku Klux Klan seems to +have been comparable with that rendered by the Vigilantes of early +western days. Something had to be done and the Klan did it. + +In 1869 General Forrest ordered the Klan to disband, which it did; but +owing to the fact that it was a secret organization, and that disguises +had been used, it was an easy matter for mobs, not actually associated +with the Ku Klux, to assume its costume and commit outrages in its name. + + * * * * * + +In writing of Raleigh I referred to the post-bellum activities of the +Confederate cruiser _Shenandoah_. Captain Dabney M. Scales, a +distinguished citizen of Memphis, was on the _Shenandoah_. Born in +Orange County, Virginia, in 1842, Captain Scales was appointed to the +Naval Academy by L.Q.C. Lamar. He was a classmate of Captain Clark, +later of the _Oregon_. When the war broke out, young Scales was in his +second year at the Academy, but like most of the other southern cadets +he resigned and offered his services to the South. When commissioned he +was the youngest naval officer in the Confederate service. Eight months +after the War was over, the _Shenandoah_ was still cruising in the South +Seas, looking for Federal merchantmen. In January 1866, somewhere south +of Australia, she overhauled the British bark _Baracouta_, taking her +for a Yankee man-o'-war flying the British flag as a ruse. Young Scales +was sent in command of a boarding party, and was informed by the skipper +of the _Baracouta_ that the Civil War had terminated months and months +ago. The _Shenandoah_ then made for Liverpool. In the meantime a Federal +court had ruled that her officers were guilty of piracy--a hanging +offense. Naturally, they did not dare return to the United States. Young +Scales went to Mexico and remained there two years before coming home. +When the Spanish War came, Captain Scales volunteered and was made +navigating officer of a naval vessel. At the time of our visit he was a +practising lawyer in Memphis, and was in command of Company A of the +Uniform Confederate Veterans, a body of old heroes who go out every now +and then and win the first prize for the best drilled organization +operating Hardee's tactics. + +Another distinguished citizen of Memphis who has lively recollections of +the Civil War, is the Right Reverend Thomas F. Gailor, Episcopal Bishop +of Tennessee. Bishop Gailor, who succeeded the famous Bishop Quintard, +is my ideal of everything an Episcopal bishop--or I might even say a +Church of England bishop--ought to be. The Episcopal Church seems to me +to have about it more "style" than most other churches, and an Episcopal +bishop ought not to look the ascetic. He ought to be well filled out, +well dressed, well fed. He ought to have a distinguished appearance, a +ruddy complexion, a good voice, and a lot of what we call +"humanness"--including humor. All these qualities Bishop Gailor has. + +In the bishop's study, in Memphis, hangs the sword of his father, Major +Frank M. Gailor, who commanded the 33rd Mississippi Regiment. Major +Gailor was killed while giving a drink of water to a wounded brother +officer, and that officer, though dying, directed a soldier to take the +Major's sword and see that it reached Mrs. Gailor, in Memphis, within +the Union lines. A young woman, a Confederate spy, took the sword, and +wearing it next her body, brought it through to Mrs. Gailor. Somehow or +other it became known that the widow had her husband's sword, and as the +possession of arms was prohibited to citizens, a corporal and guard were +sent to the house to search for it. They found it between the mattresses +of Mrs. Gailor's bed, and confiscated it. Mrs. Gailor then went with +another lady to see General Washburn. Her friend started a long harangue +upon the injustice which had been done, but Mrs. Gailor, seeing that the +General was becoming impatient, broke in saying: "General, soldiers came +to my house and took away my dead husband's sword. I can't use it, nor +can my little son. I want it back. You would want your boy to have your +sword, wouldn't you?" + +"Of course I would!" cried Washburn. "Thank God for a woman who can say +what she has to say, and be done with it!" + +The sword was returned. + +In the Spring of 1863, when Bishop Gailor was a child of about seven +years, he accompanied his mother on a journey by wagon from Memphis to +Jackson, Mississippi. The only other member of the party was a lady who +had driven in the same wagon from Jackson to Kentucky, to get the body +of her brother, a Confederate soldier who had been killed there. The +coffin containing the remains was carried in the wagon. When it was +known in Memphis that Mrs. Gailor was going through the lines, a great +many people came to her with letters which they wished to send to +friends. Mrs. Gailor sewed many of the letters into the clothing of the +little boy. ("I remember it well," said the bishop. "I felt like a +mummy.") Also one of Forrest's spies came with important papers, asking +if she would undertake to deliver them. Only by very clever manipulation +did Mrs. Gailor get the papers through, for everything was carefully +searched. After they had passed out of the northern lines they met one +of Forrest's pickets. Mrs. Gailor told him that she had papers for the +general, and before long Forrest rode up with his staff and received +them. Then the two women and the little boy, with their tragic burden in +the wagon, drove along on their two-hundred mile journey. And later, +when Jackson was bombarded, they were there. + +Before the war Major Gailor had been editor of the Memphis "Avalanche," +a paper which was suppressed when the Union troops took the town. After +the War the "Avalanche" was started up again, and had a stormy time of +it, because it criticized a Carpet-bag judge who had come to Memphis. In +1889 the "Avalanche" was consolidated with the "Appeal," another famous +ante-bellum journal, surviving to-day in the "Commercial-Appeal," a +strong newspaper, edited by one of the ablest journalists in the South, +Mr. C.P.J. Mooney. + +When Memphis was captured the "Appeal" would have been suppressed, as +the "Avalanche" was, had it been there. But when it became evident that +Memphis would fall, Mr. S.C. Toof (later a well-known book publisher) +who was then connected with the "Appeal," packed up the press and other +equipment and shipped them to Grenada, Mississippi, where Mr. B.F. Dill, +editor of the paper, continued to bring it out. When Grenada was +threatened, a few months later, Mr. Dill moved with his newspaper +equipment to Birmingham, where for a second time he resumed publication. +His next move was to Atlanta. There, when he could not get news-print, +he used wallpaper, or any sort of paper he could lay his hands on. When +Sherman took Atlanta the "Appeal" moved again, this time to Columbus, +Georgia, where, at last, it was captured, and its press destroyed. +Wherever it went it remained the "Memphis Daily Appeal," with +correspondents in all southern armies. No wonder a paper with such +vitality as that, has survived and become great! + +Poor Memphis! After the War she had Reconstruction to contend with; +after Reconstruction, financial difficulties; after that, pestilence. In +1873, when the population of the city was about 40,000, and there had +been a long period of hard times, yellow fever broke out. The condition +of the city was exceedingly unsanitary, and after the pestilence had +passed, was allowed to remain so, though at that time the origin of +yellow fever was, of course, not known, and it was assumed that the +disease resulted from lack of proper sanitation. + +In 1878 there was another yellow fever epidemic. The first case +developed August 2, but the news was suppressed until the middle of the +month, by which time a number of cases had come down. The day after the +news became known 22 new cases were reported. Terror spread through the +town. Hordes of people tried to flee at once. Families left their houses +with the doors wide open and silver standing on the sideboards. People +flocked to the trains; when they could not get seats they stood in the +aisles or clambered onto the roofs of the cars; if they could not get in +at car doors they climbed in through the windows, and sometimes, when +the father of a family was refused admittance to a crowded car, he would +force a way in for his wife and children at the pistol's point. + +In the first week of the panic there were 1,500 cases, with an average +of ten deaths daily; in the next week, 3,000 cases with fifty deaths +daily, and so on into September during which month there was an average +of 8,000 to 10,000 cases with about two hundred deaths a day. + +Not every one fled, however. Leading citizens remained, forming a relief +committee, and some brave helpers came from outside. Thus the sick and +needy were attended to, though of course many of the volunteers +contracted the disease and perished. + +Added to the epidemic there was, as so often happens in such +circumstances, an outbreak of thievery and other crime, which had to be +put down. It is related that in the height of the epidemic hardly any +one was seen upon the streets save an occasional nurse, doctor, or +other member of the relief committee; household pets starved to death +or fled the city; among the newspapers the staffs were so reduced that +only two or three men were left in each office, and in the case of the +"Appeal," but one, that one Colonel J.M. Keating, the proprietor, who +stuck to Memphis and for a time wrote, set up and printed the paper +without assistance, feeling that refugees must have news from the city. + +The next year the epidemic came again, but in less violent form, there +being, this time, but 2,000 cases. However the effect was cumulative. +Memphis dropped from a city of nearly 50,000 to one of 20,000 and the +reputation of the place was such that a bill was proposed in Congress to +purchase the ground on which the city stood and utterly destroy it as +unfit for human habitation. + +Stricken as she was, however, Memphis "came back." A great campaign for +sanitation was begun; city sewage-disposal was installed, and after a +few years, artesian wells were bored for a new water supply. And though, +as we now know, yellow fever does not come from the same sources as +typhoid, nevertheless the new sanitary measures did greatly reduce the +city's death rate. + +Memphis, like all other cities, has her troubles now and then, but since +the great pestilence there has never been a real disaster. The city has +grown and thriven. Indeed, she had become so used to growing fast that +when, in 1910, the Federal census gave her but 131,000, she indignantly +demanded a recount, for she had been talking to herself, and had +convinced herself that she had a great many more than that number of +inhabitants. However, the census was taken again, and the first count +proved accurate. + + + + +CHAPTER L + +MODERN MEMPHIS + + +To be charmed by the social side of a city, yet to find little to admire +in its physical aspect, is like knowing a brilliant and beautiful woman +whose housekeeping is not of the neatest. If one were compelled to +discuss such a woman, and wished to do so sympathetically but with +truth, one might avoid brutal comment on the condition of her rooms by +likening them to other rooms elsewhere: rooms which one knew to be +untidy, but which the innocent listener might not understand to be so. +By this device one may even appear to pay a compliment, while, in +reality, indicating the grim truth. In such a case, I, for example, +might say that this supposititious lady's rooms reminded me of those I +occupied on the second floor of the famous restaurant called Antoine's, +in New Orleans; whereupon the reader, knowing the high reputation of +Antoine's cuisine, and never having seen the apartments to which I +refer, might assume an implication very favorable. + +Let me say, then, that Memphis reminds me of St. Louis. Like St. Louis, +Memphis has charming society. Like St. Louis she has pretty girls. Like +St. Louis she is hospitable. And without particularizing too much, I +may say that her streets remind me of St. Louis streets, that many of +her houses remind me of St. Louis houses, and that her levee, with its +cobbled surface sloping down to the yellow, muddy Mississippi, the +bridges in the distance, the strange looking river steamers loading and +unloading below, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, is much like the St. +Louis levee. So, if the reader happens to be unfamiliar with the +physical appearance of St. Louis, he may, at all events, perceive that I +have likened Memphis to a much larger city--thus, (it seems fair to +suppose) paying Memphis a handsome tribute. + +Memphis has a definite self-given advantage over St. Louis in possessing +a pretty little park at the heart of the city, overlooking the river; +also she has the advantage of lying to the east of the great stream, +instead of to the west, so that, in late afternoon, when the sun +splashes down into the mysterious deserted reaches of the Arkansas +flats, across the way, sending splatterings of furious color across the +sky, one may seat oneself on a bench in the park and witness a +stupendous natural masterpiece. A sunset over the sea can be no more +wonderful than a sunset over this terrible, beautiful, inspiring, +enigmatic domineering flood. Or one may see the sunset from the +readingroom of the Cossitt Library, with its fine bay window commanding +the river almost as though it were the window of a pilot-house. + +The Cossitt Library is only one of several free libraries in the city. +There is, for example, a free library in connection with the Goodwyn +Institute, an establishment having an endowment of half a million +dollars, left to Memphis by the late William A. Goodwyn. The Goodwyn +Institute provides courses of free lectures, by well-known persons, on a +great variety of subjects. The library is designed to add to the +educational work. Books are not, however, loaned, as they are from the +Cossitt Library, an institution to which I found myself returning more +than once; now for a book, now to look at the interesting collection of +mound-builder relics contained in an upper room, now merely because it +is a place of such reposeful hospitality that I liked to make excuses to +go back. + +The library, a romanesque building of Michigan red sandstone, is by a +southern architect, but is in the style of Richardson, and is one of the +few buildings in that style which I have ever liked. It was given to +Memphis as a memorial to Frederick H. Cossitt, by his three daughters, +Mrs. A.D. Juilliard, Mrs. Thomas Stokes, and Mrs. George E. Dodge, all +of New York. Mr. Cossitt was born in Granby, Connecticut, but as a young +man moved South and in 1842 adopted Memphis as his home, residing there +until 1861. At the outbreak of the Civil War he made an amicable +division of his business with his partner, and removed to New York, +where he resided until the time of his death. Finding among his papers a +memorandum indicating that he had intended to endow a library in +Memphis, his daughters carried out his wish. + +Having already spoken of a number of Memphis' interesting citizens, I +find myself left with an ill-assorted trio of names yet to be mentioned, +because, different as they are, each of the three supplies a definite +part of the character of the city. First, then, Memphis has the honor of +possessing what not many of our cities possess: a man who stands high +among the world's artist-bookbinders. This gentleman is Mr. Otto Zahn, +executive head of the publishing house of S.C. Toof & Co. Mr. Zahn +himself has done some famous bindings, and books bound by him are to be +found in some of the finest private libraries in the land. Until a few +years ago he conducted an art-bindery in connection with the Toof +company's business, but it was unprofitable and finally had to be given +up. + +Second, to descend to a more popular form of art, but one from which the +revenue is far more certain, Memphis has, in W.C. Handy, a negro ragtime +composer whose dance tunes are widely known. Among his compositions may +be mentioned the "Memphis Blues," the "St. Louis Blues," "Mr. Crump," +and "Joe Turner." "Mr. Crump" is named in honor of a former mayor of +Memphis who was ousted for refusing to enforce the prohibition law; "Joe +Turner" is the name of a negro pianist who plays for Memphis to +dance--as Handy also does. Most of Handy's tunes are negro "rags" in +fox-trot time, and they are so effective that Memphis dances them +generally in preference to the one step. + +My third celebrity is of a more astounding type. While in Memphis I +called aboard the river steamer _Grand_, and had a talk with Mrs. Nettie +Johnson, who is captain of that craft. Some one told me that Mrs. +Johnson was the only woman steamboat captain in the world, but she +informed me that at Helena, Arkansas, there lives another Mrs. +Johnson--no relative of hers--who follows the same calling. + +The steamer _Grand_ is almost entirely a Johnson family affair. Mrs. +Johnson is captain; her husband, I.S. Johnson is pilot (though Mrs. +Johnson has, in addition to her master's license, a pilot's license, and +often takes the wheel); her elder son, Emery, is clerk; Emery's wife is +assistant clerk, while Arthur, the captain's younger son, is engineer. +Russell Johnson, Mrs. Johnson's grandson, is the only member of the +family I saw aboard the boat who does not take part in running it. +Russell was five years old when I met him, but that was nearly a year +ago, and by now he is probably chief steward, boatswain, or ship's +carpenter. + +The regular route of the _Grand_ is from Memphis to Mhoon's Landing, on +the Arkansas River, a round trip of 120 miles, with thirty landings. + +I asked Mrs. Johnson if she had ever been shipwrecked. Indeed she had! +Her former ship, the _Nettie Johnson_, struck thin ice one night in the +Arkansas River and went down. + +"What did you do?" I asked. + +"I reached after an iron ring," she replied, "and clumb on up into the +rigging. She went down about four-thirty A.M. and we stayed on her till +daylight; then we all swum ashore. I tell you it was cold! There was +icicles on my dress; my son Emery put his arms around me to keep me +warm, and his clothes froze onto mine." + +"How long a swim was it to shore?" I asked. + +"Oh," put in her husband, "it didn't amount to nothing. She was only +swimming about two minutes." + +This statement, however, was repudiated by the captain. "Two minutes, my +foot!" she flung back at her spouse. "It was more than that, all right!" + +Mrs. Johnson has done flood rescue work for the Government, with the +_Grand_. In the spring previous to our visit she rescued sixty families +from one plantation, besides towing barge-loads of provisions to various +points on the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers. + +Captaining and piloting a river boat are clearly good for the health. +Mrs. Johnson looks too young to be a grandmother. Her skin is clear, her +cheeks are rosy, her brown eyes flash and twinkle, her voice, somewhat +hoarse from shouting commands, is deep and strong, and her laugh is like +the hearty laugh of a big man. + +"Are you a suffragist?" I asked her. + +"Not on your life!" was her reply. + +"Now, what do you want to talk like that for?" objected her husband. +"You know women ought to be allowed to vote." + +"I don't think so," she returned firmly. + +At that her daughter-in-law, the assistant clerk of the _Grand_, took up +the cudgels. + +"Of course they ought to vote!" she insisted. "You know _you_ can do +just as good as a man can do!" + +"No," asseverated Captain Nettie. "Women ought to stay home and tend to +their families." + +"As you do?" I suggested, mischievously. + +"That's all right!" she flung back. "I stayed home and raised my family +until it was big enough to do its own navigating. Then I started in +steamboating. I had to have _something_ to do." + +But the daughter-in-law did not intend to let the woman suffrage issue +drop. + +"Do you mean to say," she demanded of Captain Nettie, "that you think +women haven't got as much sense as men?" + +"Sure I do!" the captain tossed back. "There never was a woman on earth +that had as much sense as the men. Take it from me, that's so. I know +what I'm talking about--and that's more than a half of these other women +do!" + +Then, as it was about time for the _Grand_ to cast off, Captain Nettie +terminated the interview by blowing the whistle; whereupon my companion +and I went ashore. + +One of the best boats on the river is the _Kate Adams_ and one of the +most delightful two-days' outings I can imagine would be to make the +round trip with her from Memphis to Arkansas City. But if I were seeking +rest I should not take the trip at the time when it is taken by a score +or more of Memphis young men and women, who, with their chaperones, and +with Handy to play their dance-music, make the _Kate Adams_ an extremely +lively craft on one round trip each year. + +Apropos of Arkansas, I am reminded that Memphis is not only the +metropolis of Tennessee, but is the big city of Arkansas and +Mississippi, as well. The Peabody Hotel in Memphis, a somewhat +old-fashioned hostelry, is a sort of Arkansas political headquarters, +and is sometimes humorously referred to as "Peabody township, Arkansas." +It is also used to a considerable extent by Mississippi politicians, as +well as by the local breed. The Peabody grill has a considerable +reputation for good cookery, and the Peabody bar, though it still looks +like a bar, serves only soft drinks, which are dispensed by female +"bartenders." The Gayoso hotel, named for the Spanish governor who +intruded upon Memphis territory for a time, stands where stood the old +Gayoso, which figured in Forrest's raid. The Gayoso made me think a +little of the old Victoria, in New York, torn down some years ago. The +newest hotel in town, at the time of our visit, was the Chicsa, an +establishment having a large and rather flamboyant office, and +considerably used, we were told, as a place for conventions. If I were +to go again to Memphis I should have a room at the Gayoso and go to the +Peabody for meals. + +The axis of the earth, which Oliver Wendell Holmes declared, "sticks out +visibly through the center of each and every town or city," sticks out +in Memphis at Court Square, which the good red Baedeker dismisses +briefly with the remark that it "contains a bust of General Andrew +Jackson and innumerable squirrels." This is not meant to indicate that +the squirrels are a part of the bust of Jackson. The two are separate +and distinct. So are the pigeons which alight on friendly hands and +shoulders as do other confident pigeons on Boston Common, and in the +Piazza San Marco, in Venice. + +I am always disposed to like the people of a city in which pigeons and +squirrels are tame. Every day, at noon, an old policeman, a former +Confederate soldier I believe he is, comes into the square with a basket +of corn. When he arrives all the pigeons see him and rush toward him in +a great flapping cloud, brushing past your face if you happen to be +walking across the square at the time. Nor is he the only one to feed +them. Numbers of citizens go at midday to the square, where they buy +popcorn and peanuts for the squirrels and pigeons--which, by the way, +are all members of old Memphis families, being descendants of other +squirrels and pigeons which lived in this same place before the Civil +War. One might suppose that the pigeons, being able to fly up to the +seventeenth floor windowsills of the Merchants' Exchange Building, where +men of the grain and hay bureau of the exchange are in the habit of +leaving corn for them, would prosper more than the squirrels, but that +is not the case for--and I regret to have to report such immorality--the +squirrels are in the habit of adding to the stores of peanuts which are +thrown to them, by thievery. Like rascally urchins they will watch the +peanut venders, and when their backs are turned, will make swift dashes +at the peanut stands, seizing nuts and scampering away again. Sometimes +the venders detect them, and give chase for a few steps, but that is +dangerous, for the minute the vender goes after one squirrel, others +rush up and steal more. It is saddening to find that even squirrels are +corrupted by metropolitan life! + +In reviewing my visit to Memphis I find myself, for once, kindly +disposed toward a Chamber of Commerce and Business Men's Club. I like +the Business Men's Club because, besides issuing pamphlets shrieking the +glory of the city, it has found time to do things much more worth +while--notably to bring to Memphis some of the great American +orchestras. + +A pamphlet issued by these organizations tells me that Memphis is the +largest cotton market in the country, the largest hardwood producing +market, the third largest grocery and jobbing market. + +Cotton is, indeed, much in evidence in the city. The streets in some +sections are full of strange little two-wheel drays, upon which three +bales are carried, and which display, in combination, those three +southern things having such perfect artistic affinity: the negro, the +mule, and the cotton bale. The vast modern cotton warehouses on the +outskirts of the city cover many acres of ground, and with their gravity +system of distribution for cotton bales, and their hydraulic compresses +in which the bales are squeezed to minimum size, to the accompaniment of +negro chants, are exceedingly interesting. + +The same pamphlet speaks also of the unusually large proportion of the +city's area which is given over to parks and playgrounds, and it seems +worth adding that though Memphis follows the general southern custom of +barring negroes--excepting, of course, nursemaids in charge of +children--from her parks, she has been so just as to provide a park for +negroes only. In this she stands ahead of most other southern cities. + +Memphis has the only bridge crossing the Mississippi below the mouth of +the Ohio. At the time of our visit a new bridge was being built very +near the old one, and an interesting experience of our trip was our +visit to this bridge, under the guidance of Mr. M.B. Case, a young +engineer in charge. + +On a great undertaking, such as this one, where the total cost mounts +into millions, the first work done is not on the proposed bridge itself, +but on the plant and equipment to be used in construction--derricks, +barges, concrete-mixers, air compressors for the caissons, small +engines, dump-cars and all manner of like things. This preparatory work +consumes some months. Caissons are then sunk far down beneath the river +bed. Caisson work is dangerous, and the insurance rate on "sand +hogs"--the men who work in the caissons--is very high. The scale of +wages, and of time, varies in proportion to the risk, which is according +to the depth at which work is being done. On this enterprise, for +example, men working from mean level to a depth of 50 feet received $3 +for an eight-hour day. From 50 to 70 feet they worked but six hours and +received $3.75. From 90 to 105 feet they worked in three shifts of one +hour each, and received $4.25. And while they were placing concrete to +seal the working chamber there was an additional allowance of fifty +cents a day. + +The chief danger of caisson work is the "bends," or "caisson disease." +In the caisson a man works under high air pressure. When he comes out, +the pressure on the fluids of the body is reduced, and this sometimes +causes the formation of a gas bubble in the vascular system. If this +bubble reaches a nerve-center it causes severe pain, similar to +neuralgia; if it gets to the brain it causes paralysis. Day after day +men will go into the caisson and come out without trouble, but sooner or +later from 2 to 8 per cent. of caisson workers are affected. Of 320 +"sand-hogs" who labored in the caissons of this bridge, three died of +paralysis, and of course a number of others had slight attacks of the +"bends," in one form or another. + +The bridge, when we visited it, was more than half completed. On the +Memphis side the approaches were almost ready, and the steel framework +of the bridge reached from the shore across the front pier, and was +being built out far beyond the pier, on the cantilever principle, +hanging in the air above the middle of the stream. By walking out on the +old bridge we could survey the extreme end of the new one, which was +being extended farther and farther, daily, by the addition of new steel +sections. There were then about 100 journeymen bridgemen on the +work--these being workmen of the class that erects steel skyscraper +frames--with some fifty apprentices and carpenters, and about twenty +common laborers. Bridgemen are among the highest paid of all workmen. In +New York, at that time, their wage was $6 for eight hours' work. Here it +was $4.50. Very few of the men had families with them in Memphis. They +are the soldiers of fortune among wage-earners, a wild, reckless, fine +looking lot of fellows, with good complexions like those of men in +training, and eyes like the eyes of aviators. No class of men in the +world, I suppose, have steadier nerves, think quicker, or react more +rapidly from stimulus to action, whether through sight or sound. They +have to be like that. For where other workmen pay for a mistake by loss +of a job, these men pay with life. Yet they will tell you that their +work is not dangerous. It is "just as safe as any other kind of +job"--that, although four of their number had already been lost from +this bridge alone. One went off the end of the structure with a derrick, +the boom of which he lowered before the anchor-bolts had been placed. +Two others fell. A fourth was struck by a falling timber. + +Once, while we were watching the men scrambling about upon the steel +members of the uncompleted cantilever arm, one of them thought something +was about to fall, and ran swiftly in, over a steel beam, toward the +body of the structure; whereafter, as nothing did fall, he was +unmercifully twitted by his fellow workers for having shown timidity. + +Many of the men working on this bridge had worked on the older structure +paralleling it. This was true not only of the laboring men, but of the +engineers. Ralph Modjeski, the consulting engineer at the head of the +work (he is, by the way, a son of Madame Modjeska), was chief +draughtsman when the earlier structure was designed; W.E. Angier, +assistant chief engineer in the present work, was a field engineer on +the first bridge, and it is interesting to know that, in constructing +the approach to the old bridge he unearthed a Spanish halbert which, it +is thought, may date from the time of De Soto. These bridge engineers +and bridgebuilders move in a large orbit. Their last job may have been +in Mexico, in the far West, or in India; their next may be in France. +Many of the men here, worked on the Blackwell's Island bridge, on the +Quebec bridge (which fell), on the Thebes bridge over the Mississippi, +twenty miles above Cairo, on the Vancouver and Portland bridges over the +Columbia and Willamette rivers, and on the great Oregon Trunk Railway +bridges. + +After standing for a time on the old bridge watching work on the new, +and shuddering, often enough, at the squirrel-like way in which the men +scampered about up there, so far above the water, we walked in and moved +out again upon the partially completed floor of the new bridge. Here it +was necessary to walk on railroad ties, with gaps, six or eight inches +wide, between them. Even had one tried, one could hardly have managed to +squeeze one's body through these chinks; to fall through was impossible; +nevertheless it gave me an uncomfortable feeling in the region of the +stomach to walk out there, seeing the river all the time between the +interstices. When we had progressed for some distance we came to a gap +where, for perhaps a yard, there were no ties--just open space, with the +muddy water shining cold and cruel below. The opening was only about as +wide as the hall of a small New York flat, and heaven knows that to step +across such a hall is easy enough. But this was not so easy. When we +came to the gap I stopped. Mr. Case, the young engineer, who loved all +bridges with a sort of holy passion, and loved this bridge in +particular, was talking as we went along. I liked to hear him talk. He +had been telling us how a thing that is to _be_ strong ought to _look_ +strong, too, and from that had got somehow to the topic of expansion and +contraction in bridges, with variations of temperature. "It isn't only +the steel bridges that do it," he said. "Stone arch bridges do it, too. +The crown of the arch rises and falls. The Greeks and Romans and +Egyptians knew that expansion and contraction occurred. They--" + +While talking he had gone across the gap, stepping lightly upon a +stringpiece probably a foot wide, and proceeding over the ties. Now, +however, he ceased speaking and looked back, for I was no longer beside +him. At the gap I had stopped. I intended to step across, but I did not +propose to do so without giving the matter the attention it seemed to me +to deserve. + +Mr. Case did not laugh at me. He came back and stood on the string-piece +where it crossed the opening, telling me to put my hand on his shoulder. +But I did not want to do that. I wanted to cross alone--when I got +ready. It took me perhaps two minutes to get ready. Then I stepped over. +It was, of course, absurdly easy. I had known it would be. But as we +walked along I kept thinking to myself: "I shall have to cross that +beastly place again when we come back," and I marveled the more at the +amazing steadiness of eye and mind and nerve that enables some men to go +continually prancing about over emptiness infinitely more engulfing than +that which had troubled and was troubling me. + +Returning I stepped across without physical hesitation. But after I had +crossed I continued to hate that gap. I hated it as I drove back to the +hotel, that afternoon, as I ate dinner that night, as I went to bed, and +in my dreams I continued to cross it, and to see the river waiting for +me, seeming to look up and leer and beckon. I woke up hating the gap in +the bridge as much as ever; I hated it down into the State of +Mississippi, and over into Georgia; and wherever I have gone since, I +have continued to hate it. Of course there isn't any gap there now. It +was covered long ago. Yet for me it still exists, like some obnoxious +person who, though actually dead, lives on in the minds of those who +knew him. + + + + +FARTHEST SOUTH + + + + +CHAPTER LI + +BEAUTIFUL SAVANNAH + + +How often it occurs that the great work a man set out originally to +accomplish, is lost sight of, by future generations, in contemplation of +other achievements of that man, which he himself regarded as of +secondary importance. + +In 1733, the year in which General Oglethorpe started his Georgia +colony, there were more than a hundred offenses for which a person might +be hanged in England; Oglethorpe's primary idea in founding the colony +was to provide a means of freeing debtors from prison, and giving them a +fresh start in life; yet it is as the man responsible for the laying out +of the beautiful city of Savannah, that Oglethorpe is probably most +widely remembered to-day. + +Oglethorpe was a first-rate soldier. He defeated a superior Spanish +force from Florida, and successfully resisted attacks from the Indians. +Also, he was a man whose ethical sense was in advance of his period. He +did not permit slavery in Georgia, and it was not adopted there until he +went back to England. In planning Savannah he was assisted by a +Charleston engineer named Bull, for whom the chief street of Savannah +is named. The place is laid out very simply; it has rectangular blocks +and wide roads, with small parks, or squares, at regular intervals. +There are some two dozen of these small parks, aside from one or two +larger parks, a parade ground, and numerous boulevards with double +roadways and parked centers, and the abundance of semi-tropical foliage +and of airy spaces, in Savannah, gives the city its most distinctive and +charming quality--the quality which differentiates it from all other +American cities. Originally these parks were used as market-places and +rallying points in case of Indian attack; now they serve the equally +utilitarian purposes of this age, having become charming public gardens +and playgrounds. One of them--not the most important one--is named +Oglethorpe Square; but the monument to Oglethorpe is placed elsewhere. + +Madison Square, Savannah, is relatively about as important as Madison +Square, New York, and though smaller than the latter, is much prettier. +It contains a monument to Sergeant Jasper, the Revolutionary hero who, +when the flag was shot down from Fort Moultrie, off Charleston, by the +British, flung it to the breeze again, under fire. Jasper was later +killed with the flag in his arms, in the French-American attempt to take +Savannah from the British. Monterey Square has a statue of Count +Pulaski, who also fell at the siege of Savannah. Another Revolutionary +hero remembered with a monument is General Nathanael Greene who, though +born in Rhode Island, moved after the war to Georgia where, in +recognition of his services, he was given an estate not far from +Savannah. "Mad" Anthony Wayne, a Pennsylvanian by birth, also accepted +an estate in Georgia and resided there after the Revolution. + +An interesting story attaches to Greene's settlement in Georgia. The +estate given to him was that known as Mulberry Grove, above the city, on +the Savannah River. The property had previously belonged to +Lieutenant-governor John Graham, but was confiscated because Graham was +a loyalist. Along with the property, Greene apparently took over the +Graham vault in Colonial Cemetery--now a city park, and a very +interesting one because of the old tombs and gravestones--and there he +was himself buried. After a while people forgot where Greene's remains +lay, and later, when it was decided to erect a monument to his memory in +Johnson Square, they couldn't find any Greene to put under it. However, +they went ahead and made the monument, and Lafayette laid the +cornerstone, when he visited Savannah in March, 1825. Greene's remains +were lost for 114 years. They did not come to light until 1902, when +some one thought of opening the Graham vault. Thereupon they were +removed and reinterred in their proper resting place beneath the +monument which had so long awaited them. That monument, by the way, was +not erected by Savannah people, or even by Southerners, but was paid for +by the legislature of the general's native Rhode Island. When the +remains were discovered, Rhode Island asked for them, but Savannah, +which had lost them, also wanted them. The matter was settled by a vote +of Greene's known descendants, who decided almost unanimously to leave +his remains in Savannah. + +The foundation of the general's former home at Mulberry Grove may still +be seen. It was in this house that Eli Whitney invented the cotton-gin. +Whitney was a tutor in the Greene family after the general's death, and +it was at the suggestion of Mrs. Greene that he started to try and make +"a machine to pick the seed out of cotton." It is said that Whitney's +first machine would do, in five hours, work which, if done by hand, +would take one man two years. This was, of course, an epoch-making +invention and caused enormous commercial growth in the South, where +cotton-gins are as common things as restaurants in the city of New York. +Which reminds me of a story. + +A northern man was visiting Mr. W.D. Pender, at Tarboro, North Carolina. +On the day of the guest's arrival Mr. Pender spoke to his cook, a negro +woman of the old order, telling her to hurry up the dinner, because he +wished to take his friend down to see the cotton-gin. "You know," he +explained, "this gentleman has never seen a cotton-gin." + +The cook looked at him in amazement. + +"Lor'! Mistuh Penduh," she exclaimed. "An' dat man _look_ like he was +edjacated!" + + * * * * * + +Another item in Savannah history is that John Wesley came over about +the middle of the eighteenth century to convert the Indians to +Christianity. It was not until after this attempt, when he returned to +England, that he began the great religious movement which led to the +founding of the Methodist Church. George Whitfield also preached in +Savannah. Evidently Wesley did not get very far with the savages who, it +may be imagined, were more responsive to the kind of "conversion" +attempted in South Carolina, by a French dancing-master, who went out +from Charleston in the early days and taught them the steps of the +stately minuet. + +Another great event in Savannah history was the departure from that +port, in 1819, of the _City of Savannah_, the first steamship to cross +the Atlantic. If I may make a suggestion to the city, it is that the +centennial of this event be celebrated, and that a memorial be erected. +Inspiration for such a memorial might perhaps be found in the simple and +charming monument, crowned by a galleon in bronze, which has been +erected in San Francisco, in memory of Robert Louis Stevenson. A ship in +bronze can be a glorious thing--which is more than can be said of a +bronze statesman in modern pantaloons. + + * * * * * + +More lately Savannah initiated another world-improvement: she was the +first city to abolish horses entirely from her fire department, +replacing them with automobile engines, hook-and-ladders, and +hose-carts. That is in line with what one would expect of Savannah, for +she is not only a progressive city, but is a great automobile city, +having several times been the scene of important international +automobile road races, including the Grand Prize and the Vanderbilt Cup. + +Nor is there want of other history. The Savannah Theater, though gutted +by fire and rebuilt, is the same theater that Joseph Jefferson owned and +managed for a time, in the fifties; in the house on Lafayette Square, +now occupied by Judge W.W. Lambdin, Robert E. Lee once stayed, and +Thackeray is said to have written there a part of "The Virginians." + +A sad thing was happening in Savannah when we were there. The Habersham +house, one of the loveliest old mansions of the city, was being torn +down to make room for a municipal auditorium. + +The first Habersham in America was a Royal Governor of Georgia. He had +three sons one of whom, Joseph, had, by the outbreak of the Revolution, +become a good enough American to join a band of young patriots who took +prisoner the British governor, Sir James Wright. The governor's house +was situated where the Telfair Academy now is. He was placed under +parole, but nevertheless fled to Bonaventure, the Tabnall estate, not +far from the city, where he was protected by friends until he could +escape to the British fleet, which then lay off Tybee Island at the +mouth of the Savannah River, some eighteen miles below the city. This +same Joseph Habersham, it is said, led a party which went out in 1775 +in skiffs--called _bateaux_ along this part of the coast--boarded the +British ship _Hinchenbroke_, lying at anchor in the river, and captured +her in a hand-to-hand conflict. Mr. Neyle Colquitt of Savannah, a +descendant of the Habershams, tells me that the powder taken from the +_Hinchenbroke_ was used at the Battle of Bunker Hill. After the war, in +which Joseph Habersham commanded a regiment of regulars, he was made +Postmaster General of the United States. The old house itself was built +by Archibald Bulloch, a progenitor of that Miss "Mittie" Bulloch who +later became Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., mother of the President. It +was designed by an English architect named Jay, who did a number of the +fine old houses of Savannah, which are almost without exception of the +Georgian period. Archibald Bulloch bought the lot on which he built the +house from Matthew McAllister, great-grandfather of Ward McAllister. +When sold by Bulloch it passed through several hands and finally came +into the possession of Robert Habersham, a son of Joseph. + +The old house was spacious and its interiors had a fine formality about +them. The staircase, fireplace and chandeliers were handsome, and there +was at the rear a charming oval room, the heavy mahogany doors of which +were curved to conform to the shape of the walls. To tear down such a +house was sacrilege--also it was a sacrilege hard to commit, for some of +the basement walls were fifteen feet thick, and of solid brick straight +through. + +Sherman's headquarters were on the Square, just south of the De Soto +Hotel, in the battlemented brick mansion which is the residence of +General Peter W. Meldrim, ex-president of the American Bar Association, +and former Mayor of Savannah. + +Among other old houses characteristic of Savannah, are the Scarborough +house, the Mackay house, the Thomas house in Franklin Square (also known +as the Owens house), in which Lafayette was entertained, and the Telfair +house, now the Telfair Academy. The Telfair and Thomas houses were built +by the architect who built the Habersham house, and it is to be hoped +that they will never go the way of the latter mansion. + +In 1810, about the time these houses were built, Savannah had 5,000 +inhabitants; by 1850 the population had trebled, and 1890 found it a +place of more than 40,000. Since then the city has grown with wholesome +rapidity, and attractive suburban districts have been developed. The +1910 census gives the population as 65,000, but the city talks +exuberantly of 90,000. Well, perhaps that is not an exaggerated claim. +Certainly it is a city to attract those who are free to live where they +please. In fall, winter and spring it leaves little to be desired. I +have been there three times, and I have never walked up Bull Street +without looking forward to the day when I could go there, rent an old +house full of beautiful mahogany, and pass a winter. Not even New +Orleans made me feel like that. I feel about New Orleans that it is a +place to visit rather than to settle down in. I want to go back to New +Orleans, but I do not want to stay more than a few weeks. I want to see +some people that I know, prowl about the French quarter, and have Jules +Alciatore turn me out a dinner; then I want to go away. So, too, I want +to go back to Atlanta--just to see some people. I want to stay there a +week or two. Also I want to go to St. Augustine when cold weather comes, +and bask in the warm sun, and breathe the soft air full of gold dust, +and feel indolent and happy as I watch the activities about the +excellent Ponce de Leon Hotel; but there are two cities in the South +that I dream of going to for a quiet happy winter of domesticity and +work, in a rented house--it must be the right house, too--and those +cities are, first Charleston; then Savannah. + +The Telfair Academy in the old Telfair mansion was left, by a member of +the family, to the city, to be used as a museum. Being somewhat +skeptical about museums in cities of the size of Savannah, not to say +much larger cities, especially when they are art museums, I very nearly +omitted a visit to this one. Had I done so I would have missed seeing +not only a number of exceedingly interesting historic treasures, but +what I believe to be the best public art collection contained in any +southern city. + +The museum does, to be sure, contain a number of old "tight" paintings +of the kind with which the country was deluged at the time of the +Chicago World's Fair, but upstairs there is a surprise in shape of an +exhibition of modern American paintings (the best paintings being +produced in the world to-day) showing brilliant selection. I was utterly +amazed when I found this collection. There were excellent canvases by +Childe Hassam, Ernest Lawson, George Bellows, and other living American +painters whose work, while it is becoming more and more widely +appreciated each year, is still beyond all but the most advanced and +discriminating buyers of paintings. I went into ecstasies over this +collection, and I said to myself: "Away down here in Savannah there is +some one buying better paintings for a little museum than the heads of +many of the big museums in the country have had sense enough or courage +enough to buy. This man ought to be 'discovered' and taken to some big +museum where his appreciation will be put to the greatest use." With +that I rushed downstairs, sought out the curator, and asked who had +purchased the modern American pictures. And then my bubble was pricked, +for who had they had, down there, buying their pictures for them, but +Gari Melchers! Naturally the pictures were good! + +In one room of the building, on the ground floor, is a collection of +fine old furniture, etc., which belonged to the Telfair family, +including two beautiful mantelpieces of black and white marble, some +cabinets, and a very curious and fascinating extension dining-table, +built of mahogany. The table is perfectly round, and the leaves, instead +of being added in the middle, are curved pieces, fitting around the +outer edge in two series, so that when extended to its full capacity the +table is still round. I have never seen another such table. + +Also I found many interesting old books and papers passed down from the +Telfairs. One of these was a ledger with records of slave sales. + +In a sale held Friday, October 14, 1774, Sir James Wright, the same +British governor who was presently put to flight, purchased four men, +five women, nine boys, and one girl, at a total cost of L820, or about +$3,280. Sir Patrick Houston bought two women at L90, or $450. The whole +day's sale disposed of thirty-five men, seventeen women, twenty-seven +boys and ten girls, at a grand total of L3206, or roughly between nine +and ten thousand dollars. + +The Telfairs were great planters. Among the papers was one headed "Rules +and Directions to be strictly attended to by all overseers at Thorn +Island Plantation." This plantation was on the North Carolina side of +the river, and was owned by Alexander Telfair, a brother of Miss Mary +Telfair who gave the Academy to the city. Dates which occur in the +papers stamp them as having been issued some time prior to 1837. Here +are some of the regulations: + + The allowance for every grown negro, let him or her be old and good + for nothing, and every young one that works in the field, is a peck + of corn a week and a pint of salt and a piece of meat not exceeding + fourteen pounds per month. + + No negro to have more than forty lashes, no matter what his crime. + + The suckling children and all small ones who do not work in the + field draw a half allowance of corn and salt. + + Any negro can have a ticket to go about the neighborhood, but cannot + leave it without a pass. No strangers allowed to come on the place + without a pass. + + The negroes to be tasked when the work allows it. I require a + reasonable day's work well done. The task to be regulated by the + state of the ground and the strength of the negro. + + All visiting between the Georgia plantation to be refused. [The + Telfairs owned another plantation on the Georgia side of the river.] + No one to get husbands or wives across the river. No night meeting + or preaching allowed on the place except on Saturday or Sunday + morning. + + If there is any fighting on the place whip all engaged in it, no + matter what may be the cause it may be covered with. + + In extreme cases of sickness employ a physician. After a dose of + castor oil is given, a dose of calomel, and blister applied, if no + relief, then send. + + My negroes are not allowed to plant cotton for themselves. + Everything else they may plant. Give them ticket to sell what they + make. + + I have no Driver (slave-driver). You are to task the negroes + yourself. They are responsible to you alone for work. + +Certain negroes are mentioned by name: + + Many persons are indebted to Elsey for attending upon their negroes. + I wish you to see them or send to them for the money. + + If Dolly is unable to return to cooking she must take charge of all + the little negroes. + + Pay Free Moses two dollars and a half for taking care of things left + at his landing. + +Bull Street, the fashionable street of the city, is a gem of a street, +despite the incursions made at not infrequent intervals, by +comparatively new, and often very ugly buildings. Every few blocks Bull +Street has to turn out of its course and make the circuit of one of the +small parks of which I have spoken, and this gives it charm and variety. +On this street stands the De Soto Hotel, which, when I first went to +Savannah, years ago, was by all odds the leading hostelry of the city. +It is one of those great rambling buildings with a big porch out in +front, an open court in back, and everything about it, including the +bedchambers, very spacious and rather old fashioned. Lately the Savannah +Hotel has been erected down at the business end of Bull Street. It is a +modern hotel of the more conventional commercial type. But even down +there, near the business part of town, it is not confronted by congested +cobbled streets and clanging trolley cars, but looks out upon one of the +squares, filled with magnolias, oaks and palms. But another time I +think I shall go back to the De Soto. + +The building of the Independent Presbyterian Church, on Bull Street, is +one of the most beautiful of its kind in the country, inside and out. It +reminds one of the old churches in Charleston, and it is gratifying to +know that though the old church which stood on this site (dedicated in +1819) burned in 1889, the congregation did not seize the opportunity to +replace it with a hideosity in lemon-yellow brick, but had the rare good +sense to duplicate the old church exactly, with the result that, though +a new building, it has all the dignity and simple beauty of an old one. + +Broughton Street, the shopping street, crosses Bull Street in the +downtown section, and looks ashamed of itself as it does so, for it is +about as commonplace a looking street as one may see. There is simply +nothing about it of distinction save its rather handsome name. + +Elsewhere, however, there are several skyscrapers, most of them good +looking buildings. It seemed to me also that I had never seen so many +banks as in Savannah, and I am told that it is, indeed, a great banking +city, and that the record of the Savannah banks for weathering financial +storms is very fine. On a good many corners where there are not banks +there are clubs, and some of these clubs are delightful and thoroughly +metropolitan in character. I know of no city in the North, having a +population corresponding to that of Charleston or of Savannah, which has +clubs comparable with the best clubs of these cities, or of New +Orleans. When it is considered that of the population of these southern +cities approximately one half, representing negroes, must be deducted in +considering the population from which eligibles must be drawn, the +excellence of southern clubs becomes remarkable in the extreme. +Savannah, by the way, holds one national record in the matter of clubs. +It had the first golf club founded in America. Exactly when the club was +founded I cannot say, but Mr. H.H. Bruen, of Savannah, has in his +possession an invitation to a golf club ball held in the old City Hall +in the year 1811. + +The commercial ascendancy of Savannah over Charleston is due largely to +natural causes. The port of Savannah drains exports from a larger and +richer territory than is tapped by Charleston, though new railroads are +greatly improving Charleston's situation in this respect. Savannah is a +shipping port for cotton from a vast part of the lower and central +South, and is also a great port for lumber, and the greatest port in the +world for "naval stores." I did not know what naval stores were when I +went to Savannah. The term conjured up in my mind pictures of piles of +rope, pulleys and anchors. But those are not naval stores. Naval stores +are gum products, such as resin and turpentine, which are obtained from +the long-leafed pines of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. +The traveler through these States cannot have failed to notice gashes on +the tree-trunks along the way. From these the resinous sap exudes and +is caught in cups, after which it is boiled, there in the woods, and +thus separated into turpentine, resin and pitch. Vast quantities of +these materials are stored on the great modern docks of Savannah. It is +said that owing to wasteful methods, the long-leafed pine forests are +being rapidly destroyed, and that this industry will die out before very +long because the eager grabbers of to-day's dollars, having no thought +for the future, fail to practise scientific forestry. + +All about Savannah, within easy reach by trolley, motor or boat, lie +pleasant retreats and interesting things to see. The roads of the +region, built by convict labor, are of the finest, and the convict +prison camps are worth a visit. In the Brown Farm camp, living +conditions are certainly more sanitary than in ninety nine out of a +hundred negro homes. The place fairly shines with cleanliness, and there +are many cases in which "regulars" at this camp are no sooner released +than they offend again with the deliberate purpose of carrying out what +may be termed a "back to the farm" movement. The color line is drawn in +southern jails and convict camps as elsewhere. White prisoners occupy +one barracks; negroes another. The food and accommodations for both is +the same. The only race discrimination I could discover was that when +white prisoners are punished by flogging, they are flogged with their +clothes on, whereas, with negroes, the back is exposed. The men in this +camp are minor offenders and wear khaki overalls in place of the stripes +in which the worse criminals, quartered in another camp, are dressed. +Strict discipline is maintained, but the life is wholesome. The men are +marched to work in the morning and back at night escorted by guards who +carry loaded shotguns, and who always have with them a pack of ugly +bloodhounds to be used in case escape is attempted. + + * * * * * + +All the drives in this region are extremely picturesque, for the +live-oak grows here at its best, and is to be seen everywhere, its trunk +often twenty or more feet in circumference, its wide-spreading branches +reaching out their tips to meet those of other trees of the same +species, so that sometimes the whole world seems to have a groined +ceiling of foliage, a ceiling which inevitably suggests a great shadowy +cathedral from whose airy arches hang long gray pennons of Spanish moss, +like faded, tattered battle-flags. + +On country roads you will come, now and then, upon a negro burial ground +of very curious character. There may be such negro cemeteries in the +upper Southern States, but if so I have never seen them. In this portion +of Georgia they are numerous, and their distinguishing mark consists in +the little piles of household effects with which every grave is covered. +I do not know whether this is done to propitiate ghosts and devils +(generally believed to "hant" these graveyards), or whether it is the +idea that the deceased can still find use for the assortment of +pitchers, bowls, cups, saucers, knives, forks, spoons, statuettes, +alarm-clocks, and heaven only knows what else, which were his treasured +earthly possessions. + +In Savannah, I have heard Commodore Tatnall, who used to live at +Bonaventure, credited with having originated the saying "Blood is +thicker than water," but I am inclined to believe that the Commodore +merely made apposite use of an old formula. The story is told of one of +the old Tatnalls that in the midst of a large dinner-party which he was +giving at his mansion at Bonaventure plantation, a servant entered and +informed him that the house was on fire. Whereupon the old thoroughbred, +instead of turning fireman, persisted in his role of host, ordering the +full dining-room equipment to be moved out upon the lawn, where the +company remained at dinner while the house burned down. + +Most of the old houses of the plantations on the river have long since +been destroyed. That at Whitehall was burned by the negroes when +Sherman's army came by, but the old trees and gardens still endure, +including a tall hedge of holly which is remarkable even in this +florescent region. The old plantation house at the Hermitage, approached +by a handsome avenue of live-oaks, is, I believe, the only one of those +ancient mansions which still stands, and it does not stand very +strongly, for, beautiful though it is in its abandonment and decay, it +is like some noble old gentleman dying alone in an attic, of age, +poverty and starvation--dying proudly as poor Charles Gayarre did in New +Orleans. + +The Hermitage has, I believe, no great history save what is written in +its old chipped walls of stucco-covered brick, and the slave-cabins +which still form a background for it. It is a story of baronial decay, +resulting, doubtless, from the termination of slavery. Hordes of negroes +of the "new issue" infest the old slave-cabins and on sight of visitors +rush out with almost violent demands for money, in return for which they +wish to sing. Their singing is, however, the poorest negro singing I +have ever heard. All the spontaneity, all the relish, all the vividness +which makes negro singing wonderful, has been removed, here, by the +fixed idea that singing is not a form of expression but a mere noise to +be given vent to for the purpose of extracting backsheesh. It is +saddening to witness the degradation, through what may be called +professionalism, of any great racial quality. These negroes, half +mendicant, half traders on the reputation of their race, express +professionalism in its lowest form. They are more pitiful than the +professional tarantella dancers who await the arrival of tourists, in +certain parts of southern Italy, as spiders await flies. + + + + +CHAPTER LII + +MISS "JAX" AND SOME FLORIDA GOSSIP + + "Or mebbe you 're intendin' of + Investments? Orange-plantin'? Pine? + Hotel? or Sanitarium? What above + This yea'th _can_ be your line?..." + + SIDNEY LANIER ("A FLORIDA GHOST.") + + +It is the boast of Jacksonville (known locally by the convenient +abbreviation "Jax") that it stands as the "Gate to Florida." But the +fact that a gate is something through which people pass--usually without +stopping--causes some anguish to an active Chamber of Commerce, which +has been known to send bands to the railway station to serenade tourists +in the hope of enticing them to alight. + +If I were to personify Jacksonville, it would be, I think, as an amiable +young woman, member of a domestic family, whose papa and mama had moved +to Florida from somewhere else--for it is as hard to find a native of +Jacksonville in that city as to find a native New Yorker in New York. +Miss Jacksonville's papa, as I conceive it, has prospered while daughter +has been growing up, and has bought for her a fine large house on a main +corner, where many people pass. Having reached maturity Miss +Jacksonville wishes to be in Florida society--to give, as it were, +house parties, like those of her neighbors, the other winter resorts. +She sees people passing her doors all winter long, and she says to +herself: "I must get some of these people to come in." + +To this end she brushes off the walk, lays a carpet on the steps, puts +flowers in the vases, orders up a lot of fancy food and drink (from the +very admirable Hotel Mason), turns on the lights and the Victor, leaves +the front door invitingly open, and hopes for the best. Soon people +begin to come in, but as she meets them she discovers that most of them +have come to see papa on business; only a few have come on her account. +They help themselves to sandwiches, look about the room, and listen to +what Miss Jacksonville has to say. + +Time passes. Nothing happens. She asks how they like the chairs. + +"Very comfortable," they assure her. + +"Do have some more to eat and drink," says she. + +"What is your history?" a guest asks her presently. + +"I haven't much history to speak of," she replies. "They tell me Andrew +Jackson had his territorial government about where my house stands, but +I don't know much about it. We don't care much about history in our +family." + +"What do you do with yourself?" + +"Oh, I keep house, and go occasionally to the Woman's Club, and in the +evenings father tells me about his business." + +"Very nice," says one guest, whom we shall picture as a desirable and +wealthy young man from the North. "Now let's do something. Do you play +or sing? Are you athletic? Do you go boating on the St. John's River? Do +you gamble? Can you make love?" + +"I dance a little and play a little golf out at the Florida Country +Club," she says, with but small signs of enthusiasm. "The thing I'm +really most interested in, though, is father's business. He lost a lot +of money in the fire of 1901, but he's made it all back and a lot more +besides." + +"What about surf-bathing?" asks the pleasure-seeking visitor, stifling a +yawn. + +"There's Atlantic Beach only eighteen miles from here. It's a wonderful +beach. Father's putting a million in improvements out there, but there's +no time to go there just now. However, if you'd like to, I can take you +down and show you the new docks he has built." + +"Oh, no, thanks," says the guest. "I don't care for docks--not, that is, +unless we can go boating." + +"I'm afraid we can't do that," says Miss Jacksonville. "We don't use the +river much for pleasure. I can't say just why, unless it is that every +one is too busy.... But please eat something more, and do have something +to drink. There's plenty for every one." + +"I must be running along," says the visitor. "I've been invited to call +at some other houses down the block. By the way, what is the name of +your neighbor next door?" + +"St. Augustine," says Jacksonville, with a little reluctance. "She is of +Spanish descent and sets great store by it. If you call there she'll +show you a lot of interesting old relics she has, but I assure you that +when it comes to commercial success her family isn't one-two-three with +papa." + +"Thanks," says the visitor, "but just at the moment commerce doesn't +appeal to me. Who lives beyond her?" + +Miss Jacksonville sighs. "There are some pleasant, rather attractive +people named Ormonde, beyond," she says, "and a lively family named +Daytona next door to them. Neither family is in business, like papa. +They just play all the time. Then come a number of modest places, and +after them, in the big yellow and white house with the palm trees all +around it--but I'd advise you to keep away from there! Yes, you'd better +go by that house. On the other side of it, in another lovely house, live +some nicer, simpler people named Miami. Or if you like fishing, you +might drop in on Mrs. Long-Key--she's wholesome and sweet, and goes out +every day to catch tarpon. Or, again, you might--" + +"What's the matter with the people in the big yellow and white house +surrounded by palm trees? Why shouldn't I go there?" asks the guest. + +"A young widow lives there," says Miss Jacksonville primly. "I don't +know much about her history, but she looks to me as though she had been +on the stage. She's frightfully frivolous--not at all one of our +representative people." + +"Ah!" says the visitor. "Is she pretty?" + +"Well," admits Miss Jacksonville, "I suppose she _is_--in a fast way. +But she's all rouged and she overdresses. Her bathing suits are too +short at the bottom and her evening gowns are too short at the top. Yes, +and even at that, she has a trick of letting the shoulder straps slip +off and pretending she doesn't know it has happened." + +"What's her name?" + +"Mrs. Palm-Beach." + +"Oh," says the visitor. "I've heard of her. She's always getting into +the papers. Tell me more." + +Miss Jacksonville purses her lips and raises her eyebrows. "Really," she +says, "I don't like to talk scandal." + +"Oh, come on! Do!" pleads the visitor. "Is she bad--bad and beautiful +and alluring?" + +"Judge for yourself," says Miss Jacksonville sharply. "She keeps that +enormous place of hers shut up except for about two months or so in the +winter, when she comes down gorgeously dressed, with more jewelry than +is worn by the rest of the neighborhood put together. Few Southerners go +to her house. It's full of rich people from all over the North." + +"Is she rich?" + +"You'd think so to look at her--especially if you didn't know where she +got her money. But she really hasn't much of her own. She's a grafter." + +"How does she manage it?" + +"Men give her money." + +"But why?" + +"Because she knows how to please the rich. She understands them. She +makes herself beautiful for them. She plays, and drinks, and gambles, +and dances with them, and goes riding with them in wheel chairs by +moonlight, and sits with them by the sea, and holds their hands, and +gets them sentimental. There's some scent she uses that is very +seductive--none of the rest of us have been able to find out exactly +what it is." + +"But how does she get their money?" + +"She never tells a hard-luck story--you can't get money out of the kind +she goes with, that way. She takes the other tack. She whispers to them, +and laughs with them, and fondles them, and makes them love her, and +when they love her she says: 'But dearie, be reasonable! Think how many +people love me! I like to have you here, you fat old darling with the +gold jingling in your pockets! but I can't let you sit with me unless +you pay. Yes, I'm expensive, I admit. But don't you love this scent I +wear? Don't you adore my tropical winter sea, my gardens, my palm trees, +my moonlight, and my music? They are all for you, dearie--so why +shouldn't you pay? Don't I take you from the northern cold and slush? +Haven't I built a siding for your private car, and made an anchorage for +your yacht? Don't I let you do as you please? Don't I keep you amused? +Don't you love to look at me? Don't I put my warm red lips to yours? +Well, then, dearie, what is all your money for?' ... That is her way of +talking to them! That is the sort of creature that she is!" + +"Shocking!" says the visitor, rising and looking for his hat "You say +hers is the third large house from here?" + +"Yes. Remember, she's as mercenary as can be!" + +"Thanks. I can take care of myself. If she's amusing that suits me. +Good-by." + +In the vestibule he pauses to count his money. + +"Jacksonville seems to be a nice girl," he says to himself as he hastens +down the block. "I imagine she might make a good wife and mother, and +that she'd help her husband on in business. However, I'm not thinking of +getting married and settling down in Florida. I'm out for some fun. I +think I'll run in and call upon Mrs. Palm-Beach." + + + + +CHAPTER LIII + +PASSIONATE PALM BEACH + + A very merry, dancing, drinking, + Laughing, quaffing and unthinking time. + + --DRYDEN. + + +Like all places in which idlers try to avoid finding out that they are +idle, Palm Beach has very definite customs as to where to go, and at +what time to go there. Excepting in its hours for going to bed and +getting up, it runs on schedule. The official day begins with the +bathing hour--half past eleven to half past twelve--when the two or +three thousand people from the pair of vast hotels assemble before the +casino on the beach. Golfers will, of course, be upon the links before +this hour; fishermen will be casting from the pier or will be out in +boats searching the sail fish--that being the "fashionable" fish at the +present time; ladies of excessive circumference will be panting rapidly +along the walks, their eyes holding that look of dreamy determination +which painters put into the eyes of martyrs, and which a fixed intention +to lose twenty pounds puts into the eyes of banting women. So, too, +certain gentlemen of swarthy skin make their way to the casino sun +parlor, where they disrobe and bake until the bathing hour. The object +of this practice is to acquire, as nearly as a white man may, the +complexion of a mulatto, and it is surprising to see how closely the +skins of some more ardent members of the "Browning Club," as this group +is called, match those of their chair boys. The underlying theory of the +"Browning Club" is that a triple-plated coat of tan, taken north in +March, advertises the wearer as having been at Palm Beach during the +entire winter, thus establishing him as a man not merely of means, but +of great endurance. + +The women of Palm Beach seem to be divided into two distinct schools of +thought on the subject of tanning. While none of them compete with the +radicals of the "Browning Club," one may nevertheless observe that, in +evening dress, many young ladies reveal upon their necks, shoulders, and +arms, stenciled outlines of the upper margins of their bathing suits. +Ladies of the opposing school, upon the contrary, guard the whiteness of +their skins as jealously as the men of the "Browning Club" guard their +blackness. Rather than be touched with tan, many ladies of the latter +group deny themselves the pleasures of the surf. The parasols beneath +which they arrive upon the sands are not lowered until they are safely +seated beneath the green and blue striped canvas tops of their beach +chairs, and it may be observed that even then they are additionally +fortified against the light, by wide black hats and thick dark veils +draped to mask their faces up to the eyes; "harem" veils, they call +them--the name, however, signifying nothing polygamous. + +A pleasant diversion at the beginning of the bathing hour occurs when +some mere one-horse millionaire from a Middle-Western town appears on +the beach with his family. He is newly arrived and is under the fond +delusion that he is as good as anybody else and that his money is as +good as any other person's money. Seeing the inviting rows of beach +chairs, he and his family plump into several of them. They are hardly +settled, however, when the man who attends to the beach chairs comes and +asks them to get out, saying that the chairs are reserved. + +The other thinks the man is lying like a head waiter, and demands to +know for whom the chairs are reserved. + +In reply the beach-chair man mentions, with suitable deference, the name +of Mrs. Hopkinson Skipkinson Jumpkinson-Jones. + +"Well," cries the Middle-Westerner, "Mrs. Jones isn't here yet, is she? +She can't use the chairs _now_, can she, if she isn't here?" + +Even without this evidence that he does not grasp at all, the +seriousness of the beach-chair situation, the fact that the uncouth +stranger has referred to Mrs. H.S. Jumpkinson-Jones merely as "Mrs. +Jones," brands him among the Palm Beach "regulars" who have overheard +him, as a barbarian of the barbarians. People in neighboring chairs at +once turn their backs upon him and glance at each other knowingly with +raised eyebrows. At this juncture, let us hope, the daughter of the +intruder manages to pry him loose; let us hope also that she takes him +aside and tells him what everybody ought to know: namely, that Mrs. H.S. +Jumpkinson-Jones has been a society leader ever since the "Journal" +published the full-page Sunday story about her having gold fillings put +in her Boston terrier's teeth. That was away back in 1913, just before +she was allowed to get her divorce from Royal Tewksbury Johnson III of +Paris, Newport, and New York. The day after the divorce she married her +present husband, and up to last year, when the respective wives of a +munitions millionaire and a moving-picture millionaire began to cut in +on her, no one thought of denying her claim to be the most wasteful +woman in Palm Beach. + +True, she may not come down to the beach to-day, but in that case it is +obviously proper that her chairs--including those of her dog and her +husband--remain magnificently vacant throughout the bathing hour. + +The lady is, however, likely to appear. She will be wearing one of the +seventy hats which, we have learned by the papers, she brought with her, +and a pint or so of her lesser pearls. Her dog--which is sometimes +served beside her at table at the Beach Club, and whose diet is the same +as her own, even to strawberries and cream followed by a demi +tasse--will be in attendance; and her husband, whose diet is even +richer, may also appear if he has recovered from his matutinal headache. +Here she will sit through the hour, gossiping with her friends, +watching the antics of several beautiful, dubious women, camp followers +of the rich, who add undoubted interest to the place; calling languidly +to her dog: "_Viens, Tou-tou! Viens vite!_" above all waiting patiently, +with crossed knees, for news-service photographers to come and take her +picture--a picture which, when we see it presently in "Vogue," "Vanity +Fair," or a Sunday newspaper, will present indisputable proof that Mrs. +H.S. Jumpkinson-Jones and the ladies sitting near her (also with legs +crossed) refrained from wearing bathing suits neither through excessive +modesty nor for fear of revealing deformity of limb. + +Many a Mrs. H.S. Jumpkinson-Jones has beaten her way to glory by the +Palm Beach route. Many of the names which sound vaguely familiar when +you read them in connection with the story of a jewel robbery, in lists +of "those present," or in an insinuating paragraph in the tattered copy +of "Town Topics" which you pick up, in lieu of reading matter, from the +table in your dentist's waiting room, first broke into the paradise of +the society column by way of this resort. For a woman with money and the +press-agent type of mind it is not a difficult thing to accomplish. One +must think of sensational things to do--invent a new fad in dress, or +send one's dog riding each day in a special wheel chair, or bring down +one's own private dancing instructor or golf instructor at $5,000 for +the season. Above all, one must be nice to the correspondents of +newspapers. Never must one forget to do that. Never must one imagine +oneself so securely placed in society columns that one may forget the +reporters who gave one that place. + +One lady who, for several seasons, figured extensively in the news from +Palm Beach, fell into this error. She thought herself safe, and altered +her manner toward newspaper folk. But, alas! thereupon they altered +their manner toward her. The press clippings sent by the bureau to which +she subscribed became fewer and fewer. Her sensational feats went +unnoticed. At last came a ball--one of the three big balls of the +season; a New York paper printed a list of names of persons who went to +the ball; a column of names in very small type. Lying in bed a few +mornings later she read through the names and came to the end without +finding her own. Thinking that she must have skipped it, she read the +names over again with great care. Then she sent for her husband, and he +read them. When it was clear to them both that her name was actually not +there, it is said she went into hysterics. At all events, her husband +came down in a rage and complained to the hotel management. But what +could the management do? What can they do? The woman is doomed. The Palm +Beach correspondents who "made" her have been snubbed by her and have +unanimously declared "thumbs down." It is theirs to give, but let no +climber be unmindful of the fact that it is also theirs to take away! + +As Mrs. H.S. Jumpkinson-Jones looks over the top of her harem veil she +may see a great glistening steam yacht, with rakish masts and funnel, +lying off the pier-head; and down on the sand she may see the young +master and mistress of that yacht: a modest, attractive pair, possessors +of one of the world's great fortunes, yet not nearly so elaborately +dressed, nor so insistent upon their "position," as the +Jumpkinson-Joneses. By raising the brim of her hat a trifle Mrs. H.S. +Jumpkinson-Jones may see, sweeping in glorious circles above the yacht, +the hydroplane which, when it left the edge of the beach a few minutes +since, blew back with its propeller a stinging storm of sand, and caused +skirts to snap like flags in a hundred-mile-an-hour hurricane; and in +that hydroplane she knows there is another multimillionaire. + +Near by, sitting disconsolately upon the sand, are the one-horse +Middle-Western millionaire with his wife and daughter--the three who +were ousted from her seats by the beach-chair man. Mrs. H.S. +Jumpkinson-Jones, like every one who has spent a season, let alone half +a dozen seasons, at Palm Beach, immediately recognizes the type. + +Father is the leading merchant of his town; mother the social arbiter; +daughter the regnant belle. Father definitely didn't wish to come here, +nor was mother anxious to, but daughter made them. Often she has read +the lists of prominent arrivals at Palm Beach and seen alluring pictures +of them taken on the sand. She has dreamed of the place, and in her +dreams has seemed to hear the call of Destiny. Who knows? may it not be +at Palm Beach that she will meet _him_?--the beautiful and wealthy +scion of a noble house who (so the fortune teller at the Elks' Club +bazaar told her) will rescue her from the narrow life at home, and +transport her, as his bride, into a world of wonder and delight, and +footmen in knee-breeches. Daughter insisted on Palm Beach. So mother got +a lot of pretty clothes for daughter, and father purchased several yards +of green and yellow railroad tickets, and off they went. They arrived at +Palm Beach. They walked the miles of green carpeted corridor. They were +dazed--as every one must be who sees them for the first time--at the +stunning size of the hotels. They looked upon the endless promenade of +other visitors. They went to the beach at bathing hour, to the cocoanut +grove at the time for tea and dancing, in wheel chairs through the +jungle trail and _Reve d'Ete_, to the waiters' cake walk in the +Poinciana dining room, to the concert at the Breakers, to the palm room, +and to the sea by moonlight; everywhere they went they saw people, +people, people: richly dressed people, gay people, people who knew +quantities of other people; yet among them all was not one single being +that they had ever seen before. After several days of this, father met a +man he knew--a business friend from Akron. A precious lot of good that +did! Why didn't father know the two young men who sat last night at the +next table in the dining room? Even those two would have done just now. +Clearly they had been mad to know her too, for they were likewise +feeling desolate. Perhaps mother can get father to scrape up an +acquaintance with them. But alas, before this plan can be set in motion, +the two young men have formed their own conclusions as to what Palm +Beach is like when you do not know anybody in the place. They have +departed. Next day, when mother enters daughter's room to say good +night, she finds her weeping; and next day, to father's infinite relief, +they start for home. So it has gone with many a bush-league belle. + +Even the Mrs. Jumpkinson-Joneses, satiated though they be with private +cars, press notices, and Palm Beach, can hardly fail to be sensible to +the almost delirious beauty of the scene at bathing hour. + +Nowhere is the sand more like a deep, warm dust of yellow gold; nowhere +is there a margin of the earth so splashed with spots of brilliant +color: sweaters, parasols, bathing suits, canvas shelters--blue, green, +purple, pink, yellow, orange, scarlet--vibrating together in the sharp +sunlight like brush marks on a high-keyed canvas by Sorolla; nowhere has +flesh such living, glittering beauty as the flesh of long, white, lovely +arms which flash out, cold and dripping, from the sea; nowhere does +water appear less like water, more like a flowing waste of liquid +emeralds and sapphires, held perpetually in cool solution and edged with +a thousand gleaming, flouncing strings of pearls. + +Over the beach lies a layer of people, formed in groups, some of them +costumed for the water, some for the shore; some of them known to the +great lady, many of them unknown to her. The groups are forever +shifting as their members rise and run down to the sea, or come back +shiny and dripping, to fling themselves again upon the warm sand, roll +in it, or stretch out in lazy comfort while their friends shovel it over +them with their hands. Now one group, or another, will rise and form a +grinning row while a snap-shot is taken; now they recline again; now +they scamper down to see the hydroplane come in; now they return, drop +to the sand, and idly watch women bathers tripping past them toward the +water. Here comes a girl in silken knickerbockers, with cuffs buttoning +over her stockings like the cuffs of riding breeches. Heads turn +simultaneously as she goes by. Here is a tomboy in a jockey cap; here +two women wearing over their bathing suits brilliant colored satin wraps +which flutter revealingly in the warm, fresh fragrant breeze. And now +comes the slender, aristocratic, foreign-looking beauty who wears +high-heeled slippers with her bathing costume, and steps gracefully to +the water's edge under the shade of a bright colored Japanese parasol. +It seems that every one must now be on the beach. But no! Here come the +three most wonderful of all: the three most watched, most talked about, +most spoiled, most coveted young women at Palm Beach. Their bathing +suits are charming: very short, high waisted, and cut at the top like +Empire evening gowns, showing lovely arms and shoulders. Hovering about +them, like flies about a box of sweets, yet also with something of the +jealous guardianship of watchdogs, is their usual escort of young +men--for though they know none of the fashionable women, their beauty +gives them a power of wide selection as to masculine society. + +One is a show girl, famous in the way such girls become famous in a New +York season, vastly prosperous (if one may judge by appearances), yet +with a prosperity founded upon the capitalization of youth and amazing +loveliness of person. The other two, less advertised, but hardly less +striking in appearance, have been nicknamed, for the convenience of the +gossips, "The Queen of Sheba," and "The Queen of the May." They too +suggest, somehow, association with the trivial stage, but it is said +that one of them--the slender wonderfully rounded one--has never had the +footlights in her face, but has been (in some respects, at least), a +model. + +Like the climbers, like the bush league belle, these girls, we judge, +brought definite ambitions with them to Palm Beach. Partly, no doubt, +they came for pleasure, but also one hears stories of successful +ventures made by men, on their behalf, at Beach Club tables, and of +costly rings and brooches which they now possess, although they did not +bring them with them. But after all, the sources from which come their +jeweled trinkets may only be surmised, whereas, to the success of their +desire for fun, the eyes and ears of the entire smiling beach bear +witness. Watch them as they clasp hands and run down to the water's +edge; see them prancing playfully where the waves die on the sand, while +devoted swains launch the floating mattress upon which it is their +custom to bask so picturesquely; see them now as they rush into the +green waves and mount the softly rocking thing; observe the gleam of +their white arms as, idly, they splash and paddle; note the languid +grace of their recumbence: chins on hands, heels waving lazily in air; +hear them squeal in inharmonious unison, as a young member of the +"Browning Club," makes as though to splatter them, or mischievously +threatens to overturn their unwieldy couchlike craft. Free from the +restriction of ideas about "society," about the "tradition" of Palm +Beach, about "convention," they seem to detect no difference between +this resort and certain summer beaches, more familiar to them, and at +the same time more used to boisterousness and cachinnation. They go +everywhere, these girls. You will see them having big cocktails, in a +little while, on the porch of the Breakers; you will see them having +tea, and dancing under the dry rustling palm fronds of the cocoanut +grove, when the colored electric lights begin to glow in the luminous +semi-tropical twilight; and you will see them, resplendent, at the Beach +Club, dining, or playing at the green-topped tables. + +The Beach Club has been for some time, I suppose, the last redoubt held +in this country by the forces of open, or semi-open gambling. Every now +and then one hears a rumor that it is to be stormed and taken by the +hosts of legislative piety, yet on it goes, upon its gilded way--a +place, it should be said, of orderly, spectacular distinction. The Beach +Club occupies a plain white house, low-spreading and unpretentious, but +fitted most agreeably within, and boasting a superb cuisine. Not every +one is admitted. Members have cards, and must be vouched for, formally, +by persons known to those who operate the place. Many of the quiet +pleasant people who, leading their own lives regardless of the splurging +going on about them, form the background of Palm Beach life--much as +"walking ladies and gentlemen" form the crowd in a spectacular +theatrical production--have never seen the inside of the Beach Club; and +I have little doubt that many visitors who drop in at Palm Beach for a +few days never so much as hear of it. It is not run for them, nor for +the "piker," nor for the needy clerk, but for the furious spenders. + +Let us therefore view the Beach Club only as an interesting adjunct to +Palm Beach life, and let us admit that, as such, it is altogether in the +picture. Let us, in short, seek, upon this brief excursion, not only to +recover from our case of grippe, but to recover also that sense of the +purely esthetic, without regard to moral issues, which we used to enjoy +some years ago, before our legislatures legislated virtue into us. Let +us soar, upon the wings of our checkbook, in one final flight to the +realms of unalloyed beauty. Let us, in considering this most +extravagantly passionate and passionately extravagant of American +resorts, be great artists, who are above morals. Let us refuse +pointblank to consider morals at all. For by so doing we may avoid +giving ourselves away. + + * * * * * + +The season wanes. Crowds on the beach grow thinner. Millionaires begin +to move their private cars from Palm Beach sidings, and depart for other +fashionable places farther north. Croupiers at the Beach Club stand idle +for an hour at a time, though ready to spin the wheel, invitingly, for +any one who saunters in. The shops hold cut-price sales. And we, +regarding somewhat sadly our white trousers, perceive that there does +not remain a single spotless pair. The girl in Mr. Foster's fruit store +has more leisure, now, and smiles agreeably as we pass upon our way to +the hotel dining-room. The waiter, likewise, is not pressed for time. + +"They was seven-hunduhd an' twe've folks heah yestahday," he says. "On'y +six-fohty-three to-day. Ah reckon they a-goin' t' close the Breakuhs day +aftuh t'-mo'w." + +Still the flowers bloom; still the place is beautiful; still the weather +is not uncomfortably warm. Nevertheless the season dies. And so it comes +about that we depart. + +The ride through Florida is tedious. The miles of palmettoes, with +leaves glittering like racks of bared cutlasses in the sun, the miles of +dark swamp, in which the cypresses seem to wade like dismal club-footed +men, the miles of live-oak strung with their sad tattered curtains of +Spanish moss, the miles of sandy waste, of pineapple and orange groves, +of pines with feathery palm-like tops, above all the sifting of fine +Florida dust, which covers everything inside the car as with a coat of +flour--these make you wish that you were North again. + +The train stops at a station. You get off to walk upon the platform. The +row of hackmen and hotel porters stand there, in gloomy silent defiance +of the rapidly approaching end of things, each holding a sign bearing +the name of some hotel. In another week the railway company may, if it +wishes, lift the ban on shouting hotel runners. Let them shout. There +will be nobody to hear. + +You buy a newspaper. + +Ah! What is this? "Great Blizzard in New York--Trains Late--Wires Down." + +You know what New York blizzards are. You picture the scenes being +enacted there to-day. You see the icy streets with horses falling down. +You see cyclonic clouds of snow whirl savagely around the corners of +high buildings, pelting the homegoing hoards, whirling them about, +throwing women down upon street crossings. You have a vision of the +muddy, slushy subway steps, and slimy platforms, packed with people, +their clothing caked with wet white spangles. You see them wedged, cross +and damp, into the trains, and hear them coughing into one another's +necks. You see emaciated tramps, pausing to gaze wanly into bakery +windows: men without overcoats, their collars turned up, their hands +deep in the pockets of their trousers, their heads bent against the +storm; you see them walk on to keep from freezing. You remember Roscoe +Conkling. That sort of thing can happen in a New York blizzard! Little +tattered newsboys, thinly clad, will die to-night upon cold corners. +Poor widows, lacking money to buy coal, are shuddering even now in +squalid tenements, and covering their wailing little ones with shoddy +blankets. + +"Horrible!" you say, sighing upon the balmy air. Then, with the sweetly +resigned philosophy of Palm Beach, you add: + +"Oh, well, what does it matter? _I'm_ in Florida anyhow. After all it is +a pretty good old world!" + + + + +CHAPTER LIV + +ASSORTED AND RESORTED FLORIDA + + "Some year or more ago, I s'pose, + I roamed from Maine to Floridy, + And,--see where them Palmettoes grows? + I bought that little key...." + + --SIDNEY LANIER ("A FLORIDA GHOST.") + + +Florida in winter comes near to being all things to all men. To all she +offers amusement plus her climate, and in no one section is the contrast +in what amusement constitutes, and costs, set forth more sharply than +where, on the west coast of the State, Belleair and St. Petersburg are +situated, side by side. + +The Hotel Belleview at Belleair compares favorably with any in the +State, and is peopled, during the cold months, with affluent golf +maniacs, for whom two fine courses have been laid out. + +When the pipes supplying water for the greens of his home course, at +Brook, Indiana, freeze, annually, George Ade, for instance, knows that, +instead of hibernating, it is time for him to take his white flannel +suits, hang them on the clothesline in the back yard until the fragrance +of the moth-ball has departed, pack them in his wardrobe trunk, and take +his winter flight to the Belleview. He knows that, at the Belleview, he +will meet hundreds of men and women who are suffering from the malady +with which he is afflicted. + +The conversation at Belleair is, so far as my companion and I could +learn, confined entirely to comparisons between different courses, +different kinds of clubs and balls, and different scores. Belleair turns +up its nose at Palm Beach. It considers the game of golf as played at +Palm Beach a trifling game, and it feels that the winter population of +Palm Beach wastes a lot of time talking about clothes and the stock +market when it might be discussing cleeks, midirons, and mashies. The +woman who thinks it essential to be blond whether she is blond or not, +and who regards Forty-second Street as the axle upon which the universe +turns, would be likely to die of ennui in a week at Belleair, whereas, +in Palm Beach, if she died in that time, it would probably be of +delight--with a possibility of alcoholism as a contributing cause. And +likewise, though Belleair has plutocrats in abundance, they are not +starred for their wealth, as are the Palm Beach millionaires, nor yet +for their social position, but are rated strictly according to their +club handicap. Hence it happens that if, speaking of a Palm Beach +millionaire, you ask: "How did he make it?" you will be told the story +of some combine of trusts, some political grafting, or some widely +advertised patent medicine; but if you ask in Belleair: "How did he make +it?" the answer is likely to be: "He made it in 4, with a cleek." + +Consider on the other hand, St. Petersburg, with its cheap hotels, its +boarding houses, its lunch rooms and cafeterias, and its winter +population of farmers and their wives from the North. The people you see +in St. Petersburg are identical with those you might see on market day +in a county town of Ohio or Indiana. Several thousands of them come +annually from several dozen States, and many a family of them lives +through the winter comfortably on less than some other families spend at +Belleair in a week, or at Palm Beach in a day. + +If I am any judge of the signs of happiness, there is plenty of it in +the hearts of those who winter at St. Petersburg. The city park is full +of contented people, most of them middle-aged or old. The women listen +to the band, and the men play checkers under the palmetto-thatched +shelter, or toss horseshoes on the greensward, at the sign of the +Sunshine Pleasure Club--an occupation which is St. Petersburg's +equivalent for Palm Beach's game of tossing chips on the green-topped +tables of a gambling house. And yet-- + +Is it always pleasant to be virtuous? Is it always delightful to be +where pious people, naive people, people who love simple pastimes, are +enjoying themselves? I am reminded of a talk I had with a negro whose +strong legs turned the pedals of a wheel chair in which my companion and +I rode one day through the Palm Beach jungle trail. It is a wonderful +place, that jungle, with its tangled trunks and vines and its green +foliage swimming in sifted sunlight; with its palms, palmettoes, ferns, +and climbing morning-glories, its banana trees, gnarled rubber banyans, +and wild mangoes--which are like trees growing upside down, digging +their spreading branches into the ground. For a time we forgot the +pedaling negro behind us, but a faint puffing sound on a slight up-grade +reminded us, presently, that our party was not of two, but three. When +the chair was running free again, one of us inquired of the chairman: + +"What would you do if you had a million dollars?" + +"Well, boss," replied the negro seriously, "Ah knows one thing Ah'd do. +No mattuh how much o' dis worl's goods Ah haid, Ah'd allus get mah +exuhcize." + +"That's wise," my companion replied. "What kind of exercise would you +take?" + +"Ah ain't nevvuh jest stedied dat out, boss," returned the man. "But it +sho' would be some kind o' exuhcize besides pushin' one o' dese-heah +chaihs." + +"When you weren't exercising would you go and have a good time?" + +"No, boss." + +"Why not?" + +"Well, boss, y' see Ah's a 'ligious man, Ah is." + +"But can't people who are religious have a good time?" + +"Oh," said the negro, "dey might have deh little pleasuhs now an' den, +but dey cain't hev no sich good times like othah folks kin. A man 't 's +a 'ligious man, he cain't hev no sich good times like Mistuh +Wahtuhbe'y's an' dem folks 'at was heah up to laist week. Ah was Mistuh +Wahtuhbe'y's chaih boy. He gimme ninety-two dollahs an' fifty cents +tips one week! Yassuh! Dat might be _cha'ity_ but 't ain't 'ligion. +Mistuh Dodge, his chaih boy's been a-wohkin' foh 'im six weeks. I 'spec' +Mistuh Dodge give dat boy fahve hund'ud dollahs if he give 'im a cent! +Mistuh Wahtuhbe'y's pahty, dey haid nineteen chaihs waitin' on 'em all +de time, jest foh t' drive 'em f'om de _ho-_tel to de club, an' de +casino. Dat cos' 'em nineteen hund'ud dollahs a week, and de boys, dey +ain't one o'em 'at git less'n hund'ud dolluhs fo' hisself. Dat's de kin' +o' gen'men Mistuh Wahtuhbe'y an' his pahty is. Ah's haid sev'ul gen'men +dis season dat ain't what you'd jes' say, 'ligious, but dey was, as +folks calls it, p'ofuse. Dey was one ol' gen'man heah two weeks, an' deh +was a young lady what he haid a attachment on, an' evvy evenin' 'e use' +t' take huh foh a wheel-chaih ride in de moonlight. Fuhst night Ah took +'em out he tuhn to me, an' he says: 'Look-a-heah, boy! You sho you knows +youah duties?' + +"'Yassuh, boss,' Ah tell 'im. 'Deed Ah does!' + +"'Den what is youah duties den?' sez 'e. + +"Ah say: 'Boss, de chaih boy's duties, dey's to be dumb, an' deef, an' +blin', an' dey cain't see nothin', an' dey cain't say nothin', an' dey +cain't heah nothin', and dey cain't--' + +"'Dass 'nuff,' he say. 'Ah sees you knows youah business. Heah's fiffy +dollahs.'" + +"Well," one of us asked presently, "what happened?" + +"Ah took 'em ridin' through de jungle trail, boss," he returned, +innocently. + +"What did they do?" + +"How does Ah know, boss? Di'n' Ah have ma eyes covuhed wi' dat fiffy +dollahs? Di'n' Ah have ma eahs stuff' wid it? Yassuh! An' Ah got ma +_mouf_ full o' it _yit_!" + +The chair boys, bell boys, waiters, barbers, porters, bartenders, +waitresses, chambermaids, manicures, and shop attendants one finds in +Palm Beach, Belleair, Miami, and many other winter resorts, are, +numerically, a not inconsiderable part of the season's population, and +the lives of these people who form a background of service, of which +many an affluent visitor is hardly conscious, parallel the lives of the +rich in a manner that is not without a note of caricature. + +When the rich go South so do the hordes that serve them; when the +Florida season begins to close and the rich move northward, the serving +population likewise begins to melt away; if you are in Palm Beach near +the season's end, and move up to St. Augustine, or Jacksonville, or +Augusta, or any one of a dozen other places, you are likely to +recognize, here and there, a waiter, a bell-boy, or a chambermaid whom +you tipped, some weeks earlier, preparatory to leaving a latitude +several degrees nearer the Equator. When you leave the Poinciana or the +Breakers at the season's close, your waiter may, for all you know, be in +the Jim Crow car, ahead, and when you go in to dinner at the Ponce de +Leon at St. Augustine, or the Mason at Jacksonville, you may discover +that he too has stopped off there for a few days, to gather in the +final tips. Nor must you fancy, when you depart for the North, that you +have seen the last of him. Next summer when you take a boat up the +Hudson, or go to Boston by the Fall River Line, or drop in at a hotel at +Saratoga, there he will be, like an old friend. The bartender who mixes +you a pick-me-up on the morning that you leave the Breakers, will be +ready to start you on the downward path, at the beginning of the summer, +at some Northern country club; the barber who cuts your hair at the +Royal Palm in Miami will be ready to perform a like service, later on, +at some hotel in the Adirondacks or the White Mountains; the neat +waitress who serves you at the Belleview at Belleair will appear before +you three or four months hence at the Griswold near New London; the +adept waiter from the Beach Club at Palm Beach will seem to you to look +like some one you have seen before when, presently, he places viands +before you at Sherry's, or the Ritz, or some fashionable restaurant in +London or Paris. Likewise, when you enter the barber shop of a large +hostelry just off the board walk in Atlantic City, next July, you will +find there, in the same generously ventilated shirt waist, the +manicurist who caused your nails to glisten so superbly in the Florida +sunlight; and if she has the memory for faces which is no small part of +a successful manicurist's stock in trade, she will remember you, and +where she saw you last, and will tell you just which of the young women +from "The Follies" and the Century Theater are to be seen upon the +beach that day, and whether they are wearing, here on the Jersey coast, +those same surprising bathing suits which, last February, caused blase +gentlemen basking upon the Florida sands to sit up, arise, say it was +time for one last dip before luncheon, and then, without seeming too +deliberate about it, follow the amazing nymphs in the direction of a +matchless sea--that sea which, as a background for these Broadway girls +in their long silken hosiery, takes on a tone of spectacular unreality, +like some fantastic marine back drop devised by Mr. Dillingham or Mr. +Ziegfeld. + + + + +CHAPTER LV + +A DAY IN MONTGOMERY + + I have walk'd in Alabama + My morning walk.... + + --WALT WHITMAN. + + +As I have remarked before, it is a long haul from the peninsula of +Florida to New Orleans. There are two ways to go. The route by way of +Pensacola, following the Gulf Coast, looks shorter on the map but is, I +believe, in point of time consumed, the longer way. My companion and I +were advised to go by way of Montgomery, Alabama--a long way around it +looked--where we were to change trains, catching a New Orleans-bound +express from the North. + +It was nearly midnight when, after a long tiresome journey, we arrived +in Alabama's capital, and after midnight when we reached the comfortable +if curiously called Hotel Gay-Teague, which is not named for an Indian +chief or a kissing game, but for two men who had to do with building it. + +We had heard that Montgomery was a quiet, sleepy old town, and had +expected to go immediately to bed on our arrival. What then was our +amazement at hearing, echoing through the wide street in front of the +hotel, the sound of strident ragtime. Investigation disclosed a gaudily +striped tent of considerable size set up in the street and illuminated +by those flaring naphtha lamps they use in circuses. Going over to the +tent, we learned that there was dancing within, whereupon we paid our +fifteen cents apiece and entered. I have forgotten what produced the +music--it may have been a mechanical piano or a hurdy-gurdy--but there +was music, and it was loud, and there was a platform laid over the +cobble-stones of the street, and on that platform ten or more couples +were "ragging," their shoulders working like the walking beams of +side-wheelers. The men were of that nondescript type one would expect to +see in a fifteen-cent dancing place, but the women were of curious +appearance, for all were dressed alike, the costume being a fringed +khaki suit with knee-length skirt, a bandana at the neck, and a +sombrero. On inquiry I learned that this was called a "cowgirl" costume. +The dances were very brief, and in the intervals between them most of +the dancers went to a "bar" at the end of the tent where (Alabama being +a dry State) the beverage called "coca-cola"--a habit as much as a +drink--was being served in whisky glasses. + +Unable to understand why this pageant of supposed western mining-camp +life should confront us in the streets of Alabama's capital, I made +inquiry of an amiable policeman who was on duty in the tent, and learned +that this was not a regular Montgomery institution, but one of the +attractions of a street fair which had invaded the city--the main body +of the fair being a block or two distant. + +These fairs, he said, travel about the country much as circuses do, +making arrangements in advance with various organizations in different +places to stand sponsor for them. + +Long after we were in our beds that night we were kept awake by the +sound of ragtime from the tent across the way. I arose next morning with +the feeling of one who has had insufficient sleep, and a glance at my +companion, who was already at table when I reached the hotel dining +room, informed me that he was suffering from a like complaint. I took my +seat opposite him in silence, and he acknowledged my presence with a nod +which he accomplished without looking up from his newspaper. + +After breakfast there arrived a pleasant gentleman who announced himself +as secretary of one of the city's commercial organizations. + +"We have a motor here," said the secretary, "and will show you points of +interest. Is there anything in particular you wish to see?" + +"I think," said my companion, "that it would be a good thing to see the +street fair." + +"Oh, no," said the secretary earnestly. "You don't want to see that. +There is nothing about it that is representative of Montgomery. It is +just a traveling show such as you might run into anywhere." + +"Yes," I said, "but we never _have_ run into one before, and here it +is." + +"I have said right along," declared the secretary, somberly, "that it +was a great mistake to bring this fair here at all. I don't think you +ought to pay any attention to it in your book. It will give people a +wrong impression of our city." + +"Do you think it will, if I explain that it is just a traveling fair?" + +"Yes. Wait until you see what we have to show you. We want you to +understand that Montgomery is a thriving metropolis, sir!" + +"What is there to see?" + +"Montgomery," he replied, "is known as 'The City of Sunshine.' It is +rich in history. It has superior hotels, picturesque highways, good +fishing and hunting, two golf courses, seven theaters, a number of +tennis courts, and unsurpassed artesian water. It has free factory +sites, the cheapest electric power rates in the United States, and is +the best-lighted city in the country." + +"We have some pretty fair street lighting in New York," interjected my +companion, who takes much pride in his home town. + +"I said '_one_ of the best lighted,'" replied the secretary. + +"What is the population?" + +"Montgomery," the other returned, "is typical of both the Old and the +New South. Though it may be called a modern model city, its wealth of +history and tradition are preserved with loving care by its myriad +inhabitants." + +"How many inhabitants?" + +"Roses and other flowers are in bloom here throughout the year," said +he. "Also there are six hundred miles of macadamized and picturesque +highways in Montgomery County. Indeed, this region is a motorist's +paradise." + +"How many people did you say?" + +"Montgomery," he answered, "is the trading center for a million +prosperous souls." + +At this my companion, who had been reading up Montgomery in a guidebook, +began to bristle with hidden knowledge. + +"You say there are a million people here?" he demanded. + +"Not right _here_," admitted the secretary. + +"Well, how many do you claim?" + +"Fifty-five thousand four hundred and ten." + +"Right _in_ the city?" + +"Well, in the trolley-car territory." + +"But in the city itself?" my companion insisted. + +The secretary was fairly cornered. "The 1910 census," he said, with a +smile, "gave us about forty thousand." + +"Thirty-eight thousand one hundred and thirty-six," corrected my +companion. He had not spent hours with the guidebook for nothing. + +When, presently, we got into the automobile, I gave another feeble +chirp about the fair, but the secretary was adamant, so we yielded +temporarily, and were whirled about the city. + + * * * * * + +Montgomery is a charming old town, not only by reason of the definite +things it has to show, but also because of a general rich suggestion of +old southern life. + +The day, by a fortunate chance, was Saturday, and everywhere we went we +encountered negroes driving in from the country to market, in their +rickety old wagons. On some wagons there would be four or five men and +women, and here and there one would be playing a musical instrument and +they would all be singing, while the creaking of the wagon came in with +an orchestral quality which seemed grotesquely suitable. The mules, too, +looked as though they ought to creak, and an inspection of the harness +suggested that it was held together, not so much by the string and wire +with which it was mended, as by the fingers of that especial Providence +which watches over all kinds of absurd repairs made by negroes, and +makes them hold for negroes, where they would not hold for white men. + +In an old buff-painted brick building standing on the corner of Commerce +and Bibb Streets, the Confederate Government had its first offices, and +from this building, if I mistake not, was sent the telegraphic order to +fire on Fort Sumter. Another historical building is the dilapidated +frame residence at the corner of Bibb and Lee Streets, which was the +first "White House of the Confederacy." This building is now a boarding +house, and is in a pathetic state of decay. But perhaps when Montgomery +gets up the energy to build a fine tourist hotel, or when outside +capital comes in and builds one, the old house will be furbished up to +provide a "sight" for visitors. + +There are several reasons why Montgomery would be a good place for a +large winter-resort hotel, and if I were a Montgomery "booster" I should +give less thought to free factory sites than to building up the town as +a winter stopping place for tourists. The town itself is picturesque and +attractive; as to railroads it is well situated (albeit the claim that +Montgomery is the "Gateway to Florida" strikes me as a little bit +exaggerated); the climate is delightful, and the surrounding country is +not only beautiful but fertile. Furthermore, there are already two golf +clubs--one for Jews and one for Gentiles--and the links are reputed to +be good. + +Unlike many southern cities of moderate size, Montgomery has well-paved +streets, and the better residence streets, being wide, and lined with +trees and pleasant houses, each in its own lawn, give a suggestion of an +agreeable home and social life--a suggestion which, by implication at +least, report substantiates: for it has been said that the chief +industry of Montgomery is that of raising beautiful young women to make +wives for the rich men of Birmingham. + +On such pleasant thoroughfares as South Perry Street, it may be noticed +that many of the newer houses have taken their architectural inspiration +from old ones, with the result that, though "originality" does not jump +out at the passer-by, as it does on so many streets, North and South, +which are lined with the heterogeneous homes of prosperous families, +there is an agreeable architectural harmony over the town. + +This is not, of course, invariably true, but it is truer, I think, in +Montgomery than in most other cities, and if Montgomery is defaced by +the funny little settlement called Bungalow City, that settlement is, at +least, upon the outskirts of the town. Bungalow City is without +exception the queerest real-estate development I ever saw. It consists +of several blocks of tiny houses, standing on tiny lots, the scale of +everything being so small as to suggest a play village for children. The +houses are, however, homes, and I was told that in some of them all +sorts of curious space-saving devices are installed--as, for instance, +tables and beds which can be folded into the walls. Not far from this +little settlement is an old house which used to be the home of Tweed, +New York's notorious political boss, who, it is said, used to spend much +time here. + +The chief lion of the city is the old State House, which stands on a +graceful eminence in a small well-kept park. Just as the New York State +Capitol is probably the most shamefully expensive structure of the kind +in the entire country, that of Alabama is, I fancy, the most creditably +inexpensive. Building and grounds cost $335,000. Moreover, the Capitol +of Alabama is a better-looking building than that of New York, for it is +without gingerbread trimmings, and has about it the air of honest +simplicity that an American State House ought to have. Of course it has +a dome, and of course it has a columned portico, but both are plain, and +there is a large clock, in a quaint box-like tower, over the peak of the +portico, which contributes to the building a curious touch of +individuality. At the center of the portico floor, under this clock, a +brass plate marks the spot where Jefferson Davis stood when he delivered +his inaugural address, February 18, 1861, and in the State Senate +Chamber, within--a fine simple room with a gallery of peculiar +grace--the Provisional Government of the Confederacy was organized. The +flag of the Confederacy was, I believe, adopted in this room, and was +first flung to the breeze from the Capitol building. + +It was past three in the afternoon when we left the State House, and we +had had no luncheon. + +"Now," said my companion as we returned to the automobile, "I think we +had better have something to eat, and then go to the fair." + +"But you were going to give up the fair," put in the secretary. + +"Oh, no," we said in chorus. + +"I have arranged about luncheon," he returned. "We will have it served +at the hotel in a short time. But first there are some important sights +I wish you to see." + +"Man shall not live by sights alone," objected my companion. "What are +you going to show us?" + +"We have a beautiful woman's college." + +"That," said my companion, "is the one thing that could tempt me. How +many beautiful women are there?" + +"It's not the women--it's the building," the secretary explained. + +"Then," said my companion firmly, "I think we'd better go and have our +lunch." + +It seemed to me time to back him up in this demand. By dint of +considerable insistence we persuaded our enthusiastic cicerone to drive +to the hotel, where we found a table already set for us. + +"I want to tell you," said the secretary as we sat down, "about the +agricultural progress this section has been making. Until recently our +farmers raised nothing but cotton; they didn't even feed themselves, but +lived largely on canned goods. But the boll weevil and the European War, +affecting the cotton crop and the cotton market as they did, forced the +farmers to wake up." + +The secretary talked interestingly on this subject for perhaps a quarter +of an hour, during which time we waited for luncheon to be served. + +"You see," he said, "our climate is such that it is possible to rotate +crops more than in most parts of the country. Cotton is now a surplus +crop with us, and our farmers are raising cattle, vegetables, and food +products." + +"Speaking of food products," said my companion, "I wonder if we could +hurry up the lunch?" + +"It will be along in a little while," soothed the secretary. Then he +returned to agriculture. + +Ten minutes more passed. I saw that my companion was becoming nervous. + +"I'm sorry to trouble you," he said at last, "but if we can't speed up +this luncheon, I don't see how I can wait. You see, we are leaving town +this evening, and I have an awful lot to do." + +"I'll step back and investigate," the secretary said, rising and moving +toward the kitchen door. + +When he was out of hearing, my companion leaned toward me. + +"I suspect this fellow!" he said. + +"What of?" + +"I think he's delaying us on purpose. He's a nice chap, but it's his +business to boost this town, and he's artful. He doesn't want us to see +the street fair. That's why he's stalling like this!" + +Now, however, the secretary returned, followed by a waiter bearing soup. + +The soup was fine, but it was succeeded by another long interval, during +which the secretary said some very, very beautiful things about the +charm of Montgomery life. However, it was clear to me that my companion +was not interested. After he had looked at his watch several times, and +drummed a long tattoo upon the table, he arose, declaring: + +"I can't wait another minute." + +"Sit down, my dear fellow," said the secretary in his most genial tone. +"I am having some special southern dishes prepared for you." + +"You're very kind," said my companion, "but I must get to work. It's +half-past four now; we are leaving in a few hours. It will take me an +hour to make my sketches, and the light will be failing pretty soon." + +"What are you going to sketch?" It seemed to me that there was +suppressed emotion in the secretary's voice as he asked the question. + +"Why, the street fair." + +"Surely, you're not going to _draw_ it?" + +"Why not?" + +"It's not representative of Montgomery. You ought to do something +representative! What pictures have you made here?" + +"I made one of those negroes driving in to market," said my companion, +"and one of the dancing cowgirls in the tent across the way--the ones +who kept us awake last night." + +"My God!" cried the secretary, turning to me. "You intend to print such +pictures and say that they represent the normal life of this city?" + +"No, I won't say anything about it." + +"But--" the secretary arose and looked wanly at the illustrator--"but +you haven't drawn any of our pretty homes! You didn't draw the golf +clubs--not either one of them! You didn't draw the State House, or the +Confederate Monument, or the Insane Asylum, or anything!" + +"I haven't had time." + +"Well, you have time now! I tell you what: We'll let this luncheon go. +I'll take you to the top of our tallest building, and you can draw a +panoramic bird's-eye view of the entire city. That will be worth while." + +My companion reached out, helped himself to a French roll, and put it in +his pocket. + +"No," he said. "I will not go to the top of a high building with you." + +"But why not?" + +"Because," he replied, "I am afraid you would try to push me off the +roof to prevent my drawing the street fair." + +I do not remember that the secretary denied having harbored such a plan. +At all events, he countermanded the remainder of the luncheon order and +departed with us. + +At the entrance of an office building he made one final desperate +appeal: "Just come up to the top floor and see the view!" + +But we stood firm, and he continued with us on our way. + +The fair was strung along both sides of a wide, cobbled street. It was +really a very jolly fair, with the usual lot of barkers and the usual +gaping crowd, plus many negroes, who stood fascinated before the highly +colored canvas signs outside the tents, with their bizarre pictures of +wild animals, snake charmers, "Nemo, the Malay Prince," and "The +Cigarette Fiend," pictured as a ghastly emaciated object with a blue +complexion, and billed as "Endorsed by the Anti-Cigarette League of +America." I wished to inquire why an anti-cigarette league should +indorse a cigarette fiend, but lack of time compelled us to press on, +leaving the apparent paradox unsolved. + +As we progressed between the tents and the booths with their catchpenny +"wheels of fortune," and ring-tossing enticements, the secretary +maintained a protesting silence. + +Near the end of the block we stopped to listen to a particularly +vociferous barker. I saw my companion take his pad from his pocket and +place it under his arm, while he sharpened a pencil. + +"Come!" cried the secretary. "Come across the square and let me show you +our beautiful bronze fountain. Draw that!" + +But my companion was already beginning to sketch. He was drawing the +barker and the crowd. + +Meanwhile an expression of horror came into the secretary's face. +Looking at him, I became conscience-stricken. + +"Come away," I said gently, taking him by the arm. "Don't watch him +draw. He draws wonderfully, but Art for Art's sake doesn't appeal to +you just now. The better he draws the worse it will make you feel. Let +me get your mind off all this. Let me take you over to the autodrome, +where we can see Mr. O.K. Hager and his beautiful sister, Miss Olive +Hager, the 'Two Daredevil Motorcyclists, in the Thrilling Race against +Death.' That will make you forget." + +"No," said the secretary, shaking his head with a despondency the very +sight of which made me sad; "I have letters to sign at the office." + +"And we have taken up your whole day!" + +"It has been a pleasure," he said kindly. "There is only one thing that +worries me. Those drawings are not going to represent what is typical of +Montgomery life. Not in the least!" + +There arose in me a sudden desire to comfort him. + +"How would it be," I suggested, "if I were to print that statement in my +book?" + +He looked at me in surprise. + +"But you couldn't very well do that, could you?" + +"Certainly," I replied. + +His face brightened. It was delightful to see the change come over him. + +"For that matter," I went on, "I might say even more. I could say that, +while I admire my companion as a man, and as an artist, he lacks +ingenuity in ordering breakfast. He always reads over the menu and then +orders a baked apple and scrambled eggs and bacon. Would you like me to +attack him on that line also?" + +"Oh, no," said the secretary. "Nothing of that kind. It's just about +these pictures. They aren't representative. If you'll say that, I'll be +more than satisfied." + +Presently we parted. + +"Don't forget!" he said as we shook hands in farewell. + +And I have not forgotten. Moreover, to give full measure, I am going to +ask the printer to set the statement in italics: + +_The drawings accompanying this chapter are not representative of what +is typical of Montgomery life._ + +With this statement my companion is in full accord. He admits that he +would have drawn the State House had there been no fair, to interfere. +But, as with certain items on the breakfast bill, street fairs are a +passion with him. And so they are with me. + + + + +CHAPTER LVI + +THE CITY OF THE CREOLE + + +When a poet, a painter, or a sculptor wishes to personify a city, why +does he invariably give it the feminine gender? Why is this so, even +though the city be named for a man, or for a masculine saint? And why is +it so in the case of commonplace cities, commercial cities, and ugly, +sordid cities? It is not difficult to understand why a beautiful, +sparkling city, like Washington or Paris, suggests a handsome woman, +richly gowned and bedecked with jewels, but it is hard to understand why +some other cities, far less pleasing, seem somehow to be stamped with +the qualities of woman-nature rather than man-nature. Is it perhaps +because the nature of all cities is so complicated? Is it because they +are volatile, changeful, baffling? Or is it only that they are the +mothers of great families of men? + +When I arrive in a strange city I feel as though I were making the +acquaintance of a woman of whom I have often heard. I am curious about +her. I am alert. I gaze at her eagerly, wondering if she is as I have +imagined her. I try to read her expression while listening to her voice. +I consider her raiment, noticing whether it is fine, whether it is good +only in spots, and whether it is well put together. I inspect the +important buildings, boulevards, parks, and monuments with which she is +jeweled, and judge by them not only of her prosperity, but of her sense +of beauty. Before long I have a distinct impression of her. Sometimes, +as with a woman, this first impression has to be revised; sometimes not. +Sometimes, on acquaintance, a single feature, or trait, becomes so +important in my eyes that all else seems inconsequential. A noble spirit +may cover physical defects; beauty may seem to compensate for weaknesses +of character. The spell of a beautiful city which is bad resembles the +spell of such a city's prototype among women. + +Some young growing cities are like young growing women of whom we think: +"She is as yet unformed, but she will fill out and become more charming +as she grows older." Or again we think: "She is somewhat dowdy and run +down at the heels but she is ambitious, and is replenishing her wardrobe +as she can afford it." One expects such failings in young cities, and +readily forgives them where there is wholesome promise for the future. +But where old cities become slovenly, the affair is different, for then +it means physical decay, and physical decay should never come to a +city--for a city is not only feminine, but should be immortal. The +symbol for every city should be a goddess, forever in her prime. + +Among southern cities Richmond is the _grande dame_; she is gray and +distinguished, and wears handsome old brocades and brooches. Richmond +is aquiline and crisp and has much "manner." But though Charleston is +actually the older, the wonderful beauty of the place, the softness of +the ancient architectural lines, the sweet scents wafting from walled +gardens, the warmth of color everywhere, gives the place that very +quality of immortal youth and loveliness which is so rare in cities, and +is so much to be desired. Charleston I might allegorize in the person of +a young woman I met there. I was in the drawing-room of a fine old +house; a beautifully proportioned room, paneled to the ceiling, hung +with family portraits and other old paintings, and furnished with +mahogany masterpieces a century and a half old. The girl lived in this +house. She was not exactly pretty, nor was her figure beautiful in the +usual sense; yet it was beautiful, all the same, with a sort of +long-limbed, supple, aristocratic aliveness. Most of all there was about +her a great fineness--the kind of fineness which seems to be the +expression of generations of fineness. She was the granddaughter of a +general in the Civil War, the great-granddaughter of an ambassador, the +great-great-granddaughter of a Revolutionary hero, and though one could +not but be thankful that she failed of striking resemblance to the +portraits of these admirable ancestors, nevertheless it seemed to me +that, had I not known definitely of their place in her family history, I +might almost have sensed them hovering behind her: a background, +nebulous and shadowy, out of which she had emerged. + +Memphis, upon the other hand, will always be to me a lively modern +debutante. I vision her as dancing--dancing to Handy's ragtime +music--all shoulders, neck, and arms, and tulle, and twenty-dollar satin +slippers. Atlanta, too, is young, vivid, affluent, altogether modern; +while as for Birmingham, she is pretty, but a little strident, a little +overdressed; touched a little with the amiability, and the other +qualities, of the _nouveau riche_. + +The beauty of New Orleans is of a different kind. She is a full-blown, +black-eyed, dreamy, drawly creature, opulent of figure, white of skin, +and red of lip. Like San Francisco she has Latin blood which makes her +love and preserve the carnival spirit; but she is more voluptuous than +San Francisco, for not only is she touched with the languor and the fire +of her climate, but she is without the virile blood of the forty-niner, +or the invigorating contact of the fresh Pacific wind. In my imaginary +picture I see her yawning at eleven in the morning, when her negro maid +brings black coffee to her bedside--such wonderful black +coffee!--whereas, at that hour, I conceive San Francisco as having long +been up and about her affairs. Even in the afternoon I fancy my New +Orleans beauty as a little bit relaxed. But at dinner she becomes alive, +and after dinner more alive, and by midnight she is like a flame. + +I must admit, however, that of late years New Orleans has developed a +perfect case of dual personality, and that, as often happens where there +is dual personality, one side of her nature seems altogether +incompatible with the other. The very new New Orleans has no +resemblance to the picture I have drawn; moreover, my picture is not her +favorite likeness of herself. She prefers more recent ones--pictures +showing the lines of determination which, within the last ten years have +stamped themselves upon her features, as she has fought and overcome the +defects of character which logically accompanied her peculiar, +temperamental type of charm. I, upon the other hand, am like some lover +who values most an older picture of the woman he adores. I admire her +for building character, but it is by her languorous beauty that I am +infatuated, and the portrait which most effectively displays that beauty +is the one for which I care. + +Her very failings were so much a part of her that they made us the more +sympathetic; she was too lovely to be greatly blamed for anything; +gazing into her eyes, we hardly noticed that there was dust under the +piano and in the corners; dining at her sumptuous table, we gave but +little thought to the fact that the cellar was damp, the house none too +healthy, and that there were mosquitoes and rats about the place; nor +did it seem to matter, in face of her allurements, that she was +shiftless, extravagant, improvident in the management of her affairs. If +these things were brought to our attention, we excused them on the +grounds of Latin blood and enervating climate. + +But if we excused her, she did not excuse herself. Without being shaken +awake by an earthquake, or forced to action by a devastating fire or +flood, she set to work, calmly and of her own volition, to reform her +character. + +First she cleaned house, providing good surface drainage, an excellent +filtered water supply from the river in place of her old +mosquito-breeding cisterns, and modern sewers in place of cesspools. She +killed rats by the hundreds of thousands, rat-proofed her buildings, and +thus, at one stroke, eliminated all fear of bubonic plague. She began to +take interest in the public schools, and soon trebled their advantages. +She concerned herself with the revision of repressive tax laws. She +secured one of the best street railway systems in the country. But, +perhaps most striking of all, she set to work to build scientifically +toward the realization of a gigantic dream. This dream embodies the +resumption by New Orleans of her old place as second seaport city. To +this end she is doing more than any other city to revive the commerce of +the Mississippi River, and is at the same time making a strong bid for +trade by way of the Panama Canal, as well as other sea traffic. She has +restored her forty miles of water front to the people, has built +municipal docks and warehouses at a cost of millions, and has so +perfectly cooerdinated her river-rail-sea traffic-handling agencies that +rates have been greatly reduced. Upon these, and related enterprises, +upward of a hundred millions are being spent, and the vast plan is +working out with such promise that one almost begins to fear lest New +Orleans become too much enamored of her new-found materialism--lest the +easy-going, pleasure-loving, fascinating Creole belle be transformed +into the much-less-rare and much-less-desirable business type of woman: +a woman whose letters, instead of being written in a fine French hand +and scented with the faint fragrance of vertivert, are typewritten upon +commercial paper; whose lips, instead of causing one to think of kisses, +are laden with the deadly cant of commerce; whose skin, instead of +seeming to be made of milk and rose leaves, is dappled with industrial +soot. + +Lord Chesterfield in one of his letters to his son, intimated that +beautiful women desire to be flattered upon their intelligence, while +intelligent women who are not altogether ugly like to be told that they +are beautiful. So with New Orleans. Speak of her individuality, her +picturesqueness, her gift of laughter, and she will listen with polite +ennui; but admire her commercial progress and she will hang upon your +words. Gaiety and charm are so much a part of her that she not only +takes them as a matter of course, but seems to doubt, sometimes, that +they are virtues. She is like some unusual and fascinating woman who, +instead of rejoicing because she is not like all other women, begins to +wonder if she ought not to be like them. Perhaps she is wrong to be gay? +Perhaps her carnival proves her frivolous? Perhaps she ought not to +continue to hold a carnival each year? + +Far to the north of New Orleans the city of St. Paul was afflicted, some +years since, by a similar agitation. It will be remembered that St. +Paul used to build an ice palace each year. People used to go to see it +as they go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Then came some believer in the +standardization of cities, advancing the idea that ice palaces +advertised St. Paul as a cold place. As a result they ceased to be +built. St. Paul threw away something which drew attention to her and +which gave her character. Moreover, I am told this mania went so far +that when folders were issued for the purpose of advertising the region, +they were designed to suggest the warmth and brilliance of the tropics. +Had St. Paul a bad climate, instead of a peculiarly fine one, we might +feel sympathetic tolerance for these performances, but a city which +enjoys cool summers and dry, bracing winters has no apologies to make +upon the score of climate, and only need apologize if she tries to make +us think that bananas and cocoanuts grow on sugar-maple trees. However, +in the last year or two, St. Paul has perceived the folly of her course, +and has resumed her annual carnival. + +In the case of New Orleans I cannot believe there is real danger that +the carnival will be given up. Instead, I believe that the business +enthusiasts will be appeased--as they were a year or two ago, for the +first time in carnival history--by the inclusion of an industrial +pageant glorifying the city's commercial renaissance. Also the New +Orleans newspapers soothe the spirit of the Association of Commerce, at +carnival time, by publishing items presumably furnished by that capable +organization, showing that business is going on as usual, that bank +clearings have not diminished during the festivities, and that, despite +the air of happiness that pervades the town, New Orleans is not really +beginning to have such a good time as a stranger might suppose from +superficial signs. With such concessions made to solemn visaged +commerce, is the carnival continued. + + * * * * * + +There are at least six cities on this continent which every one should +see. Every one should see New York because it is the largest city in the +world, and because it combines the magnificence, the wonder, the beauty, +the sordidness, and the shame of a great metropolis; every one should +see San Francisco because it is so vivid, so alive, so golden; every one +should see Washington, the clean, white splendor of which is like the +embodiment of a national dream; every one should see the old gray +granite city of Quebec, piled on its hill above the river like some +fortified town in France; every one should see the sweet and +aristocratic city of Charleston, which suggests a museum of tradition +and early American elegance; and of course every one should see New +Orleans. + +As to whether it is best to see the city in everyday attire, or masked +for the revels, that is a matter of taste, and perhaps of age as well. +To any one who loves cities, New Orleans is always good to see, while to +the lover of spectacles and fetes the carnival is also worth +seeing--once. The two are, however, hardly to be seen to advantage +simultaneously. To visit New Orleans in carnival time is like visiting +some fine old historic mansion when it is all in a flurry over a +fancy-dress ball. The furniture is moved, master, mistress and servants +are excited, the cook is overworked and is perhaps complaining a little, +and the brilliant costumes of the masquerade divert the eye of the +visitor so that he hardly knows what sort of house he is in. Attend the +ball if you like, but do not fail to revisit the house when normal +conditions have been restored; see the festivities of Mardi Gras if you +will, but do not fail to browse about old New Orleans and sit down at +her famous tables when her chefs have time to do their best. + + + + +CHAPTER LVII + +HISTORY, THE CREOLE, AND HIS DUELS + + +Canal Street is to New Orleans much more than Main Street is to Buffalo, +much more than Broad Street is to Philadelphia, much more than Broadway +and Fifth Avenue are to New York, for Canal Street divides New Orleans +as no other street divides an American city. It divides New Orleans as +the Seine divides Paris, and there is not more difference between the +right bank of the Seine and the Latin Quarter than between American New +Orleans and Creole New Orleans: between the newer part of the city and +the _vieux carre_. The sixty squares ("islets" according to the Creole +idiom, because each block was literally an islet in time of flood) which +comprise the old French town established in 1718 by the Sieur de +Bienville, are unlike the rest of the city not merely in architecture, +but in all respects. The street names change at Canal Street, the +highways become narrower as you enter the French quarter, and the +pavements are made of huge stone blocks brought over long ago as ballast +in sailing ships. Nor is the difference purely physical. For though they +will tell you that this part of the city is not so French and Spanish as +it used to be, that it has run down, that large parts of it have been +given over to Italians of the lower class, and to negroes, it remains +not only in appearance, but in custom, thought and character, the most +perfectly foreign little tract of land in the whole United States. Long +ago, under the French flag, it was a part of the Roman Catholic +bishopric of Quebec; later under the Spanish flag, a part of that of +Havana; and it is charming to trace in old buildings, names, and customs +the signs of this blended French and Spanish ancestry. + +La Salle, searching out a supposed route to China by way of the +Mississippi River, seems to have perceived what the New Orleans +Association of Commerce perceives to-day: that the control of the mouth +of the river ought to mean also the control of a vast part of the +continent. At all events, he took possession in 1682 in the name of the +French King, calling the river St. Louis and the country Louisiana. The +latter name persisted, but La Salle himself later rechristened the +river, giving it the name Colbert, thereby showing that in two attempts +he could not find a name one tenth as good as that already provided by +the savages. The "St. Louis River" might, from its name, be a fair-sized +stream, but "Colbert" sounds like the name of a river about twenty miles +long, forty feet wide at the mouth, and five feet deep at the very +middle. + +La Salle intended to build a fort at a point sixty leagues above the +mouth of the river, but his expedition met with disaster upon disaster, +until at last he was assassinated in Texas, when setting out on foot to +seek help from Canada. In 1699 came Iberville, the Canadian, exploring +the river and fixing on the site for the future city. Iberville +established settlements at old Biloxi (now Ocean Springs) and Mobile, +but before he had time to make a town at New Orleans he caught yellow +fever at Havana, and died there. It therefore remained for his brother, +Bienville, actually to establish the town, and New Orleans is +Bienville's city, just as Detroit is Cadillac's, and Cleveland General +Moses Cleveland's. + +Bienville's settlers were hardy pioneers from Canada, and presently we +find him writing to France: "Send me wives for my Canadians. They are +running in the woods after Indian girls." The priests also urged that +unless white wives could be sent out for the settlers, marriages with +Indians be sanctioned. + +Having now a considerable investment in Louisiana, France felt that a +request for wives for the colony was practical and legitimate. Louisiana +must have population. A bonus of so much per head was offered for +colonists, and hideous things ensued: servants, children, and helpless +women were kidnapped, and the occupants of hospitals, asylums, and +houses of correction were assembled and deported. Incidentally it will +be remembered that out of these black deeds flowered "the first +masterpiece of French literature which can properly be called a novel," +the Abbe Prevost's "Manon Lescaut," which has been dramatized and +redramatized, and which is the theme of operas by both Massenet and +Puccini. Though a grave alleged to be that of Manon used to be shown on +the outskirts of the city, there is doubt that such a person actually +existed, although those who wish to believe in a flesh-and-blood Manon +may perhaps take encouragement from the fact that the arrival in the +colony of a Chevalier des Grieux, in the year 1719, fourteen years +before the book appeared, has been established, and, further, that the +name of the Chevalier des Grieux may be seen upon a crumbling tomb in +one of the river parishes. + +When the girls arrived they were on inspection in the daytime, but at +night were carefully guarded by soldiers, in the house where they were +quartered together. Miss Grace King, in her delightful book, "New +Orleans, the Place and the People," tells us that in these times there +were never enough girls to fill the demand for wives, and that in one +instance two young bachelors proposed to fight over a very plain +girl--the last one left out of a shipload--but that the commandant +obliged them to settle their dispute by the more pacific means of +drawing lots. As the place became settled Ursuline sisters arrived and +established schools. And at last, a quarter of a century after the +landing of the first shipment of girls, the curious history of female +importations ended with the arrival of that famous band of sixty +demoiselles of respectable family and "authenticated spotless +reputation," who came to be taken as wives by only the more prosperous +young colonists of the better class. The earlier, less reputable girls +have come down to us by the name of "correction girls," but these later +arrivals--each furnished by the Company of the West with a casket +containing a trousseau--are known to this day as _les filles a la +cassette_, or "casket girls." + +A curious feature of this bit of history, as it applies to present-day +New Orleans, is that though one hears of many families that claim +descent from some nice, well-behaved "casket girl," one never by any +chance hears of a family claiming to be descended from a lady of the +other stock. When it is considered that the "correction girls" far +outnumbered their virtuous sisters of the casket, and ought, therefore, +by the law of averages, to have left a greater progeny, the matter +becomes stranger still, taking on a scientific interest. The explanation +must, however, be left to some mind more astute than mine--some mind +capable, perhaps, of unraveling also those other riddles of New Orleans +namely: Who was the mysterious chevalier who many years ago invented +that most delectable of _sucreries_, the praline, and whither did he +vanish? And how, although the refugee Duc d'Orleans (later Louis +Philippe of France) stayed but a short time in New Orleans, did he +manage to sleep in so many hundred beds, and in houses which were not +built until long after his departure? And why are so many of the signs, +over bars, restaurants, and shops, of that blue and white enamel one +associates with the signs of the Western Union Telegraph Company? And +why is the nickel as characteristic of New Orleans as is the silver +dollar of the farther Middle West, and gold coin of the Pacific +Slope--why, when one pays for a ten-cent purchase with a half-dollar, +does one receive eight nickels in change? Ah, but New Orleans is a +mysterious city! + +Once, when the French and English were fighting for the possession of +Canada and New Orleans was depending for protection on Swiss +mercenaries, the French officer in command of these troops disciplined +them by stripping them and tying them to trees, where they were a prey +to the terrible mosquitoes of the Gulf. One day they killed him and +fled, but some of them were captured. These were taken back to New +Orleans, court-martialed, and punished according to the regulations: +they were nailed alive to their coffins and sawed in two. + +Ceded to Spain by a secret clause in the Treaty of Paris, of which she +did not know until 1764, Louisiana could not believe the news. Even when +the Acadians, appeared, after having been so cruelly ejected from their +lands in what is now New Brunswick, Louisiana could not believe that +Louis XV would coldly cast off his loyal colony. The fact that he had +done so was not credited until a Spanish governor arrived. For three +years after, there was confusion. Then a strong force was sent from +Spain under Count O'Reilly, a man of Irish birth, but Spanish +allegiance, and the flag of Spain was raised. O'Reilly maintained +viceregal splendor; he invited leading citizens to a levee; here in his +own house he caused his soldiers to seize the group of prominent men who +had attempted to prevent the accomplishment of Spanish rule, and five +of these he presently caused to be shot as rebels. + +Spanish governors came and went. The people settled down. At one time +Padre Antonio de Sedella, a Spanish Capuchin, arrived with a commission +to establish in the city the Holy office of the Inquisition, but he was +discouraged and shipped back to Cadiz. Miss King tells us that when, +half a century later, the calaboose was demolished, secret dungeons +containing instruments of torture were discovered. + +On Good Friday, 1788, fire broke out, and as the priests refused to let +the bells be rung in warning, saying that all bells must be dumb on Good +Friday, the conflagration gained such headway that it could not be +checked, and a large part of the old French town was reduced to ashes. +Six years later another fire equally destructive, completed the work of +blotting out the French town, and the old New Orleans we now know is the +Spanish city which arose in its place: a city not of wood but of adobe +or brick, stuccoed and tinted, of arcaded walks, galleries, jalousies, +ponderous doors, and inner courts with carriage entrances from the +street, and, behind, the most charming and secluded gardens. Also, owing +to premiums offered by Baron Carondelet, the governor, tile roofs came +into vogue, so that the city became comparatively fireproof. Much of the +present-day charm of the old city is due also to the noble Andalusian, +Don Andreas Almonaster y Roxas, who having immigrated and made a great +fortune in the city, became its benefactor, building schools and other +public institutions, the picturesque old Cabildo, or town hall, which is +now a most fascinating museum, the cathedral, which adjoins the Cabildo, +and which, like it, faces Jackson Square, formerly the Place d'Armes. In +front of the altar of his cathedral Don Andreas is buried, and masses +are said, in perpetuity, for his soul. When the Don's young widow +remarried, she and her husband were pursued by a charivari lasting three +days and three nights--the most famous charivari in the history of a +city widely noted for these detestable functions. The Don's daughter, a +great heiress, became the Baronne Pontalba and resided in magnificence +in Paris, where she died, a very old woman, in 1874. + +In the Place d'Armes much of the early history of New Orleans, and +indeed, of Louisiana, was written. Here, and in the Cabildo, the +transfers from flag to flag took place, ending with the ceding of +Louisiana by Spain to France, and by France to the United States. At +this time New Orleans had about ten thousand inhabitants, most of the +whites being Creoles. + +Harris Dickson, who knows a great deal about New Orleans, declared in an +article published some years ago, that outside lower Louisiana the word +"Creole" is still misunderstood, and added this definition of the term: +"A person of mixed French and Spanish blood, born in Louisiana." As I +understand it, however, the blood need not necessarily be mixed, but may +be pure Spanish or pure French, or again, there may be some admixture +of English blood. The word itself was, I am informed, originally +Spanish, and signified an American descended from Spaniards; later it +got into the language of the French West Indies, whence it was imported, +to Louisiana, about the end of the eighteenth century, by refugees who +arrived in considerable numbers from San Domingo, after the revolution +of the blacks there. Thus, the early French settlers did not use the +word. + +If any misapprehension as to whether a Creole is a white person does +still exist, that misunderstanding is, I believe, to be traced to the +doors of an old-time cheap burlesque theater in Chicago, where the late +impresario, Sam T. Jack, put on a show in which mulatto women were +billed as "a galaxy of Creole beauties." This show traveled about the +country libeling the Creoles and doubtless causing many persons of that +class which attended Sam T. Jack's shows, to believe that "Creole" means +something like "quadroon." But when the show got to Baton Rouge the +manager was waited upon by a committee of citizens who said certain +things to him which caused him to give up his engagement there and +cancel any other engagements he had in the Creole country. + +True, one frequently hears references in New Orleans to "Creole +mammies," and "Creole negroes," but the word used in that sense merely +indicates a negro who has been the servant of Creoles, and who speaks +French--"gombo French" the curious dialect is called. Similarly one +hears of "Creole ponies"--these being ponies of the small, strong type +used by the Cajan farmers. According to the Louisiana dialect +Longfellow's "Evangeline" was a Cajan, the word being a corruption of +"Acadian." About a thousand of these unfortunate expatriates arrived in +New Orleans between 1765 and 1768. Within a century they had multiplied +to forty times that number, spreading over the entire western part of +the State. + +Much of the temperament, the gaiety, the sensitiveness of New Orleans +comes from the Creole. He was Latin enough to be a good deal of a +gambler, to love beautiful women, and on slight provocation to draw his +sword. + +The street names of New Orleans--not only those of the French Quarter, +but of the whole city--reflect his various tastes. Many of the streets +bear the names of historic figures of the French and Spanish regimes; +Rampart Street, formerly the rue des Ramparts marks, like the outer +boulevards of Paris, the line of the old city wall. Other streets were +given pretty feminine names by the old Creole gallants: Suzette, +Celeste, Estelle, Angelie, and the like. The devout doubtless had their +share in the naming of Religious Street, Nuns Street, Piety Street, +Assumption Street, and Amen Street. The taste for Greek and Roman +classicism which developed in France at the time of the Revolution, +found its way to Louisiana, and is reflected in New Orleans by streets +bearing the names of gods, demi gods, the muses and the graces. The +pronunciation given to some of these names is curious: Melpomene, +instead of being given four syllables is called Melpomeen; Calliope is +similarly Callioap; Euterpe, Euterp, and so on. This, however, is the +result not of ignorance, but of a slight corruption of the correct +French pronunciations, the Americans having taken their way of +pronouncing the names from the French. The Napoleonic wars are +commemorated in the names of Napoleon Avenue, and Austerlitz and Jena +Streets, and the visit of Lafayette in the naming for him of both a +street and an avenue. But perhaps the most striking names of all the old +ones were Mystery Street, Madman's Street, Love Street (Rue de l'Amour), +Goodchildren Street (Rue des Bons Enfants), and above all those two +streets in the Faubourg Marigny which old Bernard Marigny amused himself +by naming for two games of chance at which, it is said, he had lost a +fortune--namely Bagatelle and Craps--the latter not the game played with +dice, but an old-time game of cards. + +The French spoken by cultivated Creoles bears to the French of modern +France about the same relation as the current English of Virginia does +to that of England. Creole French is founded largely upon the French of +the seventeenth and early eighteenth century, just as many of the +so-called "Americanisms" of older parts of the country, including +Virginia and New England, are Elizabethan. The early English and French +colonists, coming to this country with the language of their times, +dropped, over here, into a linguistic backwater. In the mother +countries language continued to renew itself as it flowed along, by +elisions, by the adoption and legitimatizing of slang words (as for +instance the word "cab," to which Dean Swift objected on the ground that +it was slang for "cabriolet"), and by all the other means through which +our vocabularies are forever changing. But to the colonies these changes +were not carried, and such changes as occurred in the French and English +of America were, for the most part, separate and distinct (as exampled +by such Creole words as "banquette" for "sidewalk," in place of the +French word _trottoir_, and the word "baire," whence comes the American +term "mosquito bar.") The influence of colloquial French from Canada may +also be traced in New Orleans, and the language there was further +affected by the strange jargon spoken by the Creole negro--precisely as +the English dialect of negroes in other parts of the South may be said +to have affected the speech of all the Southern States. + +Between the dialect of the Louisiana Cajan and that of the French +Canadian of Quebec and northern New York there is a strong resemblance; +but the Creole negro language is a thing entirely apart, being made up, +it is said, partly from French and partly from African word sounds, just +as the "gulla" of the South Carolina coast is made up from African and +English. The one is no more intelligible to a Frenchman than the other +to a Londoner. The ignorant Creole negro wishing to say "I do not +understand," would not say "moi je ne comprends pas," but "mo pas +connais"; similarly for "I am going away," he does not say, "je m'en +vais," but "ma pe couri"; while for "I have a horse," instead of "j'ai +un cheval," he will put the statement, "me ganye choue." It is a dialect +lacking mood, tense, and grammar. + +To this day one may occasionally see in New Orleans and in other lower +river towns an old "mammy" wearing the bandanna headdress called a +_tignon_, which, toward the end of the eighteenth century, was made +compulsory for colored women in Louisiana. The need for some such +distinguishing racial badge was, it is said, twofold. Yellow sirens from +the French West Indies, flocking to New Orleans, were becoming +exceedingly conspicuous in dress and adornment; furthermore one hears +stories of wealthy white men, fathers of octoroon or quadroon girls, who +sent these illegitimate daughters abroad to be educated. The latter, one +learns from many sources, were very often beautiful in the extreme, as +were also the Domingan girls, and history is full of the tales of the +curious, wild, fashionably caparisoned, declasse circle of society, +which came to exist in New Orleans through the presence there of so many +alluring women of light color and equally light character. Some of these +women, it is said, could hardly be distinguished from brunette whites, +and it was largely for this reason that the _tignon_ was placed by law +upon the heads of all women having negro blood. + +No morsels from the history of old New Orleans are more suggestive to +the imagination than the hints we get from many sources of wildly +dissipated life centering around the notorious quadroon balls--or as +they were called in their day, _cordon bleu_ balls. An old guide book +informs me that the women who were the great attraction at these +functions were "probably the handsomest race of women in the world, and +were, besides, splendid dancers and finished dressers." Authorities seem +to agree that these balls were exceedingly popular among the young +Creole gentlemen, as well as with men visiting the city, and that duels, +resulting from quarrels over the women, were of common occurrence. If a +Creole had the choice of weapons slender swords called _colichemardes_ +were used, whereas pistols were almost invariably selected by Americans. +Duels with swords were often fought indoors, but when firearms were to +be employed the combatants repaired to one of the customary dueling +grounds. Under the fine old live oaks of the City Park--then out in the +country--it is said that as many as ten duels have been fought in a +single day. Duels having their beginnings at the quadroon balls were, +however, often fought in St. Anthony's Garden, for the ballroom was in a +building (now occupied by a sisterhood of colored nuns) which stands on +Orleans Street, near where it abuts against the Garden. This garden, +bearing the name of the saint whose temptations have been of such +conspicuous interest to painters of the nude, is not named for him so +much in his own right, as because he was the patron of that same Padre +Antonio de Sedella, already mentioned, who came to New Orleans to +institute the Inquisition, but who, after having been sent away by +Governor Miro, returned as a secular priest and became much beloved for +his good works. Padre Antonio lived in a hut near the garden, and it is +he who figures in Thomas Bailey Aldrich's story "Pere Antoine's Date +Palm." + +To the Creole, more than to any other source, may be traced the origin +of dueling in the United States, and no city in the country has such a +dueling history as New Orleans. The American took the practice from the +Latin and by the adoption of pistols made the duel a much more serious +thing than it had previously been, when swords were employed and first +blood usually constituted "satisfaction." Up to the time of the Civil +War the man who refused a challenge became a sort of outcast, and I have +been told that even to this day a duel is occasionally fought. Governor +Claiborne, first American governor of Louisiana, was a duelist, and his +monument--a family monument in the annex of the old Basin Street +division of St. Louis cemetery--bears upon one side an inscription in +memory of his brother-in-law, Micajah Lewis, "who fell in a duel, +January 14, 1804." + +Gayarre, in his history of Louisiana, tells a story of six young French +noblemen who, one night, paired off and fought for no reason whatever +save out of bravado. Two of them were killed. + +Two famous characters of New Orleans, about the middle of the last +century, were Major Joe Howell, a brother-in-law of Jefferson Davis, and +Major Henry, a dare-devil soldier of fortune who had filibustered in +Nicaragua and fought in the Mexican War. One day while drinking together +they quarreled, and as a result a duel was arranged to take place the +same afternoon. Henry kept on drinking, but Howell went to sleep and +slept until it was time to go to the dueling ground, when he took one +cocktail, and departed. + +Feeling that a duel over a disagreement the occasion for which neither +contestant could remember, was the height of folly, friends intervened, +and finally succeeded in getting Major Henry to say that the fight could +be called off if Howell would apologize. + +"For what?" he was asked. + +"Don't know and don't care," returned the old warrior. + +As Howell would not apologize, navy revolvers were produced and the two +faced each other, the understanding being that they should begin at ten +paces with six barrels loaded, firing at will and advancing. At the word +"Fire!" both shot and missed, but Howell cocked his revolver with his +right thumb and fired again immediately, wounding Henry in the arm. +Henry then fired and missed a second time, while Howell's third shot +struck his antagonist in the abdomen. Wounded as he was, Henry managed +to fire again, narrowly missing the other, who was not only a giant in +size, but was a conspicuous mark, owing to the white clothing which he +wore. At this Howell advanced a step and took steady aim, and he would +almost certainly have killed his opponent had not his own second +reached out and thrown his pistol up, sending the shot wild. This +occurred after the other side has cried "Stop!"--as it had been agreed +should be done in case either man was badly wounded. A foul was +consequently claimed, the seconds drew their pistols, and a general +battle was narrowly averted. After many weeks Henry recovered. + +A great number of historic duels were over politics. Such a one was the +fight which took place in 1843, between Mr. Hueston, editor of the Baton +Rouge "Gazette" and Mr. Alcee La Branche, a Creole gentleman who had +been speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives, and was running +for Congress. Mr. La Branche was one of the few public men in the State +who had never fought a duel, and in the course of a violent political +campaign, Hueston twitted him on this subject in the columns of the +"Gazette," trying to make him out a coward. Soon after the insulting +article appeared, the two men met in the billiard room of the old St. +Charles Hotel, and when La Branche demanded an apology, and was refused, +he struck Hueston with a cane, or a cue, and knocked him down. A duel +was, of course, arranged, the weapons selected being double-barreled +shotguns loaded with ball. At the first discharge Hueston's hat and coat +were punctured by bullets. He demanded a second exchange of shots, which +resulted about as before--his own shots going wild, while those of his +opponent narrowly missed him. Hueston, however, obstinately insisted +that the duel be continued, and the guns were loaded for the third +time. In the next discharge the editor received a scalp wound. It was +now agreed by all present that matters had gone far enough, but Hueston +remained obdurate in his intention to kill or be killed, and in the face +of violent protests, demanded that the guns again be loaded. The next +exchange of shots proved to be the last. Hueston let both barrels go +without effect, and fell to the ground shot through the lungs. Taken to +the Maison de Sante, he was in such agony that he begged a friend to +finish the work by shooting him through the head. Within a few hours he +was dead. + +The old guide book from which I gather these items cites, also, cases in +which duels were fought over trivial matters, such, for instance, as a +mildly hostile newspaper criticism of an operatic performance, and an +argument between a Creole and a Frenchman over the greatness of the +Mississippi River. + +Professor Brander Matthews tells me of an episode in which the wit +exhibited by a Creole lawyer, in the course of a case in a New Orleans +court, caused him to be challenged. The opposing counsel, likewise a +Creole, was a great dandy. He appeared in an immaculate white suit and +boiled shirt, but the weather was warm, and after he had spoken for +perhaps half an hour his shirt was wilted, and he asked an adjournment. +The adjournment over, he reappeared in a fresh shirt, but this too +wilted presently, whereupon another adjournment was taken. At the end of +this he again reappeared wearing a third fresh shirt, and in it managed +to complete his plea. + +It now became the other lawyer's turn. He arose and, speaking with the +utmost gravity, addressed the jury. + +"Gentlemen," he said (Professor Matthews tells it in French), "I shall +divide my speech into three shirts." He then announced: "First +shirt"--and made his first point. This accomplished, he paused briefly, +then proclaimed: "Second shirt," and followed with his second point. +Then: "Third and last shirt," and after completing his argument sat +down. The delighted jury gave him the verdict, but his witticism +involved him in a duel with the worsted advocate. The result of this +duel Professor Matthews does not tell, but if the wag's _colichemarde_ +was as swift and penetrating as his wit, we may surmise that his +opponent of the Code Napoleon and the code duello had a fourth shirt +spoiled. + + + + +CHAPTER LVIII + +FROM ANTIQUES TO PIRATES + + +The numerous antique shops of the French quarter, with their gray, +undulating floors and their piled-up, dusty litter of old furniture, +plate, glass, and china, and the equally numerous old book stores, with +their piles of French publications, their shadowy corners, their +pleasant ancient bindings and their stale smell, are peculiarly +reminiscent of similar establishments in Paris. + +That Eugene Field knew these shops well we have reason to know by at +least two of his poems. In one, "The Discreet Collector," he tells us +that: + + Down south there is a curio shop + Unknown to many men; + Thereat do I intend to stop + When I am South again; + The narrow street through which to go-- + Aha! I know it well! + And maybe you would like to know-- + But no--I will not tell! + +But later, when filled with remorse over his extravagance in "blowing +twenty dollars in by nine o'clock A.M.," he reveals the location of his +favorite establishment, saying: + + In Royal Street (near Conti) there's a lovely curio shop, + And there, one balmy fateful morn, it was my chance to stop-- + +So that, at least, is the neighborhood in which he learned that: + + The curio collector is so blindly lost in sin + That he doesn't spend his money--he simply blows it in! + +In his verses called "Doctor Sam," Field touched on another fascinating +side of Creole negro life: the mysterious beliefs and rites of +voodooism--or, as it is more often spelled, voudouism. + +Until a few years ago it used to be possible for a visitor with a "pull" +in New Orleans to see some of the voudou performances and to have "a +work made" for him, but the police have dealt so severely with those who +believe in this barbarous nonsense, that it is practised in these times +only with the utmost secrecy. + +Voudouism was brought by the early slaves from the Congo, but in +Louisiana the negroes--probably desiring to imitate the religion of +their white masters--appropriated some of the Roman Catholic saints and +made them subject to the Great Serpent, or _Grand Zombi_, who is the +voudou god. These saints, however, are given voudou names, St. Michael, +for example, being _Blanc Dani_, and St. Peter, _Papa Liba_. This +situation is the antithesis of that to be found in Brittany, where +Druidical beliefs, handed down for generations among the peasants, may +now be faintly traced running like on odd alien threads through the +strong fabric of Roman Catholicism. + +Voudouism is not, however, to be dignified by the name "religion." It is +superstition founded upon charms and hoodoos. It is witchcraft of the +maddest kind, involving the most hideous performances. Moreover, it is +said that a hoodoo is something of which a French negro is very much +afraid, and that his fear is justifiable, for the reason that the +throwing of a _wanga_, or curse, may also involve the administering of +subtle poisons made from herbs. + +Legend is rich with stories of Marie Le Veau, the voudou queen, who +lived long ago in New Orleans, and of love and death accomplished by +means of voudou charms. Charms are brought about in various ways. Among +these the burning of black candles, accompanied by certain performances, +brings evil upon those against whom a "work" is made, while blue candles +have to do with love charms. It may also be noted that "love powders" +can be purchased now-a-days in drug stores in New Orleans. + +In the days of long ago the great negro gathering place used to be Congo +Square--now Beauregard Square--and here, on Sunday nights, wild dances +used to occur--the "bamboula" and "calinda"--and sinister spells were +cast. Later the voudous went to more secluded spots on the shores of +Lake Pontchartrain, and on St. John's Eve, which is their great +occasion, many of the whites of the city used to go to the lake in hopes +of discovering a voudou seance, and being allowed to see it. A friend of +mine, who has seen several of these seances, says that they are +unbelievably weird and horrible. They will make a gombo, put a snake in +it, and then devour it, and they will wring a cat's neck and drink its +blood. And of course, along with these loathsome ceremonies, go +incantations, chants, dances, and frenzies, sometimes ending in +catalepsis. + +There are weird stories of white women of good family who have believed +in voudou, and have taken part in the rites; and there are other tales +of evil spells, such as that of the Creole bride of long ago, whose +affianced had been the lover of a quadroon girl, a hairdresser. The +hairdresser when she came to do the bride's hair for the wedding, gave +her a bouquet of flowers. The bride smelled the bouquet--and died at the +church door. + +It was, I think, in an old book store on Royal Street--or else on +Chartres--that I found the tattered guide book to which I referred in an +earlier chapter. It was "edited and compiled by several leading writers +of the New Orleans Press," and published in 1885, and it contains an +introductory recommendation by George W. Cable--which is about the +finest guarantee that a book on New Orleans can have. + +Mr. Cable, of course, more than all the rest of the people who have +written of New Orleans put together, placed the city definitely in +literature. And it is interesting, if somewhat saddening, to recall that +for lifting the city into the world of belles lettres, for adorning it +and preserving it in such volumes as "Old Creole Days," "The +Grandissimes," "Madame Delphine," and other valuable, truthful, and +charming works, he was roundly abused by his own fellow-townsmen. Far +from attacking Mr. Cable, New Orleans ought to build him a monument, and +I am glad to say that, though the monument is not there yet, the city +does seem to have come to its senses, and that the prophet is no longer +without honor in his own country. + +Some further leaves are added to the literary laurels of the city by +what Thomas Bailey Aldrich has written of it, and the wreath is made the +greater by the fact that in New Orleans was born "the only literary man +in New York," Professor Brander Matthews. + +Another distinguished name in letters, connected with the place, is that +of Lafcadio Hearn, who was at one time a reporter on a New Orleans +newspaper, and who not only wrote about the French quarter, but +collected many proverbs of the Creoles in a book which he called "Gombo +Zebes." In his little volume, "Chita," Hearn described the land of +lakes, bayous, and _chenieres_, which forms a strip between the city and +the Gulf, and which, with its wild birds, wild scenery, and wild storms, +and its extraordinary population of hunters and fishermen--Cajuns, +Italians, Japanese, Spanish, Kanakas, Filipinos, French, and half-breed +Indians, all intermarrying--is the strangest, most outlandish section of +this country I have ever visited. The Filipinos, who introduced shrimp +fishing in this region, building villages on stilts, like those of their +own islands, were not there when Hearn wrote "Chita," nor was Ludwig +raising diamond-back terrapin on Grand Isle, but the live-oaks, draped +with sad Spanish moss, lined the bayous as they do to-day, and the +alligators, turtles and snakes were there, and the tall marsh grass, so +like bamboo, fringed the banks as it does now, and water hyacinth +carpeted the pools, and the savage tropical storms came sweeping in, now +and then, from the Gulf, flooding the entire country, tearing everything +up by the roots, then receding, carrying the floating debris back with +them to the salt sea. One has to see what they call a "slight" storm, in +that country, to know what a great storm there must be. Hearn surely saw +storms there, for in "Chita" he describes with terrifying vividness that +historic tempest which, in 1856, obliterated, at one stroke, Last +Island, with its fashionable hotel and all the guests of that hotel. I +have seen a "little" thunderstorm in Barataria Bay and I do not want to +see a big one. I have seen brown men who, in the storm of 1915 (which +did a million dollars' worth of damage in New Orleans), floated about +the Baratarias for days, upon the roofs of houses, and I have seen +little children, half Italian, half Filipino, who were saved by being +carried by their parents into the branches of an old live-oak, where +they waited until good Horace Harvey, "the little father of the +Baratarias," came down there in his motor yacht, the _Destrehan_, +rescued them, warmed them, fed them, and gave them back to life. I was +told in New Orleans that there were ten seconds in that storm when the +wind reached a velocity of 140 miles per hour at the mouth of the +Mississippi, that it blew for four hours at the rate of 90 miles, and +that the lowest barometrical reading ever recorded in the United States +(28.11) was recorded in New Orleans during this hurricane. + +Of the summer climate of New Orleans I know nothing at first hand, and +judging from what people have told me, that is all I want to know. The +winter climate suited me very well while I was there, although the boast +that grass is green and roses bloom all the year round, does not imply +such intense heat as some people may suppose. Furthermore, I believe +that the thermometer has once or twice in the history of the city +dropped low enough to kill any ordinary rose, for a friend of mine told +me a story about some water pipes that froze and burst during an +unprecedented cold snap which occurred some years ago. He said that an +English colonel, whom he knew, was visiting the city at the time and +that, finding himself unable to get water in his bathtub, he sent out +for several cases of Apollinaris, and with true British phlegm proceeded +to empty them into the tub and get in among the bubbles. + +Still another figure having to do with literature, and also with the +history of New Orleans, is Jean Lafitte, known as a pirate, whose life +is said to have inspired Byron's poem, "The Corsair." There was a time, +long ago, when Lafitte, together with his brother, his doughty +lieutenant, Dominique You, and his rabble of Baratarians, caused New +Orleans a great deal of annoyance, but like many other doubtful +characters, they have, since their death, become entirely picturesque, +and the very idea that Lafitte was not a first-class blood-and-thunder +pirate is as distasteful to the people of New Orleans to-day, as his +being any kind of a near-pirate at all, used to be to their ancestors. +Nevertheless Frank R. Stockton, who made a great specialty of pirates, +says of Lafitte: "He never committed an act of piracy in his life; he +was [before he went to Barataria] a blacksmith, and knew no more about +sailing a ship or even the smallest kind of a boat than he knew about +the proper construction of a sonnet.... It is said of him that he was +never at sea but twice in his life: once when he came from France, and +once when he left this country, and on neither occasion did he sail +under the Jolly Roger." According to Stockton, Lafitte, when he gave up +his blacksmith shop (in which he is said to have made some of the fine +wrought iron balcony railings which still adorn the old town), and went +to Barataria, became nothing more nor less than a "fence" for pirates +and privateers, taking their booty, smuggling it up to New Orleans, and +selling it there on commission. + +But if the fact that he was not a gory-handed freebooter is against +Lafitte, there is one great thing in his favor. When the British were +making ready to attack New Orleans in 1814, they tried both to bribe and +to browbeat Lafitte into joining forces with them. As the American +government was planning, at this very time, a punitive expedition +against him, it would perhaps have seemed good policy for the +pseudo-pirate to have accepted the British offer, but what Lafitte did +was to go up and report the matter at New Orleans, giving the city the +first authentic information of the contemplated attack, and offering to +join with his men in the defense, in exchange for amnesty. + +A good many people, however, did not believe his story, and a good many +others thought it beneath the dignity of the government to treat with a +man of his dubious occupation. Therefore poor Lafitte was not listened +to, but, upon the contrary, only succeeded in stirring up trouble for +himself, for an expedition was immediately sent against him; his +settlement at Barataria--on the gulf, about forty miles below the +city--was demolished and the inhabitants driven to the woods and swamps. + +But in spite of this discouraging experience, Lafitte would not join the +British, and it came about that when the Battle of New Orleans was about +to be fought, Andrew Jackson, who had a short time before referred to +Lafitte and his men as a band of "hellish banditti," was glad to accept +their aid. Dominique You--with his fine pirate name--commanded a gun, +and the others fought according to the best piratical tradition. After +the battle was won, the Baratarians were pardoned by President Madison. +Incidentally it may be remarked here that the American line of defense +on the plains of Chalmette, below the city, had been indicated some +years before by the French General Moreau, hero of Hohenlinden, as the +proper strategic position for safeguarding New Orleans on the south. + +Even after he had been pardoned, Lafitte felt, not without some justice, +that he had been ill-used by the Americans, and because of this he +determined to leave the country. He set sail with a band of his +followers for other climes, but what became of them is not known. Some +think their ship went down in a storm which crossed the Gulf soon after +their departure; others believe that they reached Yucatan, and that +Lafitte died there. Whatever his fate, he did not improve it by +departing from New Orleans, for had he not done so he would, at the end, +have been given a handsome burial and a nice monument like that of +Dominique You--which may be seen to this day in the old cemetery on +Claiborne Avenue, between Iberville and St. Louis Streets. + +Having disposed of literary men and pirates, we now come in logical +sequence to composers and actors. Be it known, then, that E.H. Sothern +first raised, in the house at 79 Bienville Street, the voice which has +charmed us in the theater, and that Louis Gottschalk, composer of the +almost too well-known "Last Hope," was also born in New Orleans. + +The records of the opera and the theater might, in themselves, make a +chapter. As early as 1791 a French theatrical company played in New +Orleans, using halls, and in 1808 a theater was built in St. Philip +Street. It is said that the first play given in the city in English was +performed December 24, 1817, the play being "The Honey Moon," and the +manager Noah M. Ludlow; but it was not until some years later that the +English drama became a feature of the city's life, with the +establishment of a stock company under the management of James H. +Caldwell. Edwin Forrest appeared, in 1824, with Mr. Caldwell's company +at the Camp Street Theater, which he built on leaving the Orleans +Theater. The former was, when opened, out in the swamp, and people had +to walk to it from Canal Street on a narrow path of planks. It was the +first building in the city to be lighted by gas. + +The annals of the old St. Charles theater, called "old Drury," are rich +with history. Practically all our great players from 1835 until long +after the Civil War, appeared in this theater, and an old prompter's +book which, I believe, is still in existence, records, among many other +things, certain details of the appearance there, in 1852, of Junius +Brutus Booth, father of Edwin Booth, and mentions also that Joseph +Jefferson (Sr.) then a young man, was reprimanded for being noisy in his +dressing-room. + +New Orleans was, I believe, the first American city regularly to support +grand opera and to give it a home. For a great many years before 1859 +(in which year the present French Opera House on Bourbon Street was +built) there was a regular annual season of opera at the Orleans +Theater, long since destroyed. + +In the days of the city's operatic grandeur great singers used to visit +New Orleans before visiting New York, as witness, for example, the debut +at the French Opera House of Adelina Patti. Since the time of the Civil +War, however, the city has suffered a decline in this department of art. +Opera seasons have not been regular, and in spite of occasional attempts +to revive the old-time spirit, the ancient Opera House, with its brave +columned front, its cracking veneer of stucco, and its surrounding of +little vari-colored one story cafes and shops (which are themselves like +bits of operatic scenery), does not so much suggest to the imagination a +home of modern opera, as a mournful mortuary chapel haunted by the +ghosts of old half-forgotten composers: Herold, Spontini, Mehul, Varney; +old conductors, long since gone to dust: Prevost, John, Calabresi; old +arias of Meyerbeer, Auber, and Donizetti; and above all, by the ghosts +of pretty pirouetting ballerinas, and of great singers whose voices +have, these many years, been still. + +An old lady who knew Louisiana in the forties and fifties, has left +record of the fact that plantation negroes used to know and sing the +French operatic airs, just as the Italian peasants of to-day know and +sing the music of Puccini and Leoncavallo. But if opera no longer +reaches the negro, it cannot be said that it has failed to leave its +stamp on the French quarter. From open windows and doors, from little +shops and half-hidden courtyards, from shuttered second story galleries, +there comes floating to the ears of the wayfarer the sound of music. In +one house a piano is being played with dash; in another a child is +practising her scales; from still another comes a soprano voice, the sad +whistling of a flute, the tinkle of a guitar, or the anguished squeal of +a tortured violin. Never except in Naples have I heard, on one block, so +many musical instruments independently at work, as in some single blocks +of the _vieux carre_; and never anywhere have I seen a sign which struck +as more expressive of the industries of a locality, than that one which +I saw near the house of Mme. Lalurie, which read: "Odd Jobs Done, and +Music." + +The reason for this musical congestion is twofold. Not only is the +Creole a great lover of good light music, but the whole region for +blocks about the Opera House is populated by old musicians from the +opera's orchestra, and women, some middle aged, some old, who used to be +in the ballet or the chorus, and who not only keep alive the musical +tradition of the district, but pass it on to the younger generation. +Indeed there are almost as many places in the French quarter where music +may be heard, as where stories are told. + +In one street may be seen a house where the troubles with the Mafia +began. On a corner--the southeast corner of Royal and St. Peter--is +shown the house in which Cable's "'Sieur George" resided. This house is, +I believe, the same one which, when erected, caused people to move away +from its immediate neighborhood, for fear that its height would cause it +to fall down. It is a four story house--the first built in the city. At +the southeast corner of Royal and Hospital Streets stands that +"haunted" house of Mme. Lalaurie, who fled the town when indignation was +aroused because of devilish tortures she inflicted on her slaves. This +house is now an Italian tenement, but even in its decay it will be +recognized as a mansion which, in its day, was fit to house such guests +as Louis Philippe, Lafayette, and Ney. A guest even more distinguished +than these, was to have been housed in the mansion at the northeast +corner of St. Louis and Chartres Streets, for the Creoles had a plan to +rescue Napoleon from St. Helena and bring him here, and had this house +prepared to receive him. + +And are we to forget where Andrew Jackson was entertained before and +after the Battle of New Orleans--where General Beauregard, military idol +of the Creoles, resided--where Paul Morphy the "chess king" lived--where +General Butler took up his quarters when, in 1862, under the guns of +Farragut's fleet, the city surrendered--? Shall we fail to visit the +curious old tenements and stables surrounding the barnyard which once +was the _remise_ of the old Orleans Hotel? Shall we neglect old Metaire +cemetery, with its graves built above ground in the days when drainage +was less perfect? Shall we fail to go to the levee (pronounced "levvy") +and see the savage flood of the muddy Mississippi coursing toward the +gulf behind the embankment which alone saves the city from inundation? +Shall we ignore the French Market with its clean stalls piled with fresh +vegetables, sea food, and all manner of comestibles, including _file_ +for the glorious Creole gombo. Shall we not view the picturesque if +sinister old Absinthe House, dating from 1799, with its court and +stairway so full of mysterious suggestion, and its misty +paregoric-flavored beverage, containing opalescent dreams? Shall we not +go to Sazerac's for a cocktail, or to Ramos' for one of those delectable +gin-fizzes suggesting an Olympian soda-fountain drink? Are we to ignore +all these wonders of the city? + +Yes, for it is time to go to luncheon at Antoine's! + + + + +CHAPTER LIX + +ANTOINE'S AND MARDI GRAS + + +Antoine's is to me one of the four or five most satisfactory restaurants +in the United States,--two of the others being the Louisiane and +Galatoire's. But one has one's slight preferences in these things; and +just as I have a feeling that the cuisine of the Hotel St. Regis in New +York surpasses, just a little bit, that of any other eating place in the +city, I have a feeling about Antoine's in New Orleans. This is not, +perhaps, with me, altogether a culinary matter, for whereas I remember +delightful meals at the Louisiane and Galatoire's--meals which, indeed, +could hardly be surpassed--I lived for a week at Antoine's, and felt at +home there, and became peculiarly attached to the quaint, rambling old +restaurant, up stairs and down. + +Antoine's has never been "fixed up." The cafe makes one think of such +old Parisian restaurants as the Boeuf a la Mode, or the Tour d'Argent. +Far from being a showy place, it is utterly simple in its decorations +and equipment, but if there is in this country a restaurant more French +than Antoine's, I do not know where that restaurant is. + +Antoine Alciatore, founder of the establishment, departed nearly forty +years ago to the realms to which great chefs are ultimately taken. +Coming from France as a young man he established himself in a small cafe +opposite the slave market, where he proceeded to cook and let his +cooking speak for him. His dinde a la Talleyrand soon made him famous, +and he prospered, moving before long to the present building. His sons, +Jules and Fernand, were sent to Paris to learn at headquarters the best +traditions of the haute cuisine, doing service as apprentices in such +establishments as the Maison d'Or and Brabant's. Jules is now proprietor +of Antoine's, while Fernand is master of the Louisiane. + +The two brothers are of somewhat different type. Fernand is, above all, +a chef; I have never seen him outside his own kitchen. His son, Fernand +Jr., superintends the front part of the Louisiane, which he has +transformed into a place having the appearance of a New York restaurant. +The young man has made a successful bid for the fashionable patronage of +New Orleans, and there is dancing in the Louisiane in the evening. +Jules, upon the other hand, is perhaps more the director than his +brother Fernand--more the suave delightful host, less the man of cap and +apron. Jules loves to give parties--to astonish his guests with a +brilliant dinner and with his unrivaled grace as gerant. That he is able +to do these things no one is better aware than my companion and I, for +it was our good fortune to be accepted by Jules as friends and fellow +artists. + +Never while my companion and I lived at Antoine's did we escape the +feeling that we were not in the United States, but in some foreign land. +To go to his rooms he went upstairs, around a corner, down a few steps, +past a pantry, and a back stairway by which savory smells ascended from +the kitchen, along a latticed gallery overlooking a courtyard like that +of some inn in Segovia, along another gallery running at right angles to +the first and overlooking the same court, including the kitchen door and +the laundry, and finally to a chamber with French doors, a canopied bed, +and French windows opening upon a balcony that overlooked the side +street. His room was called "The Creole Yacht," while mine was the +"Maison Vert." + +I remember a room in that curious little hotel opposite the Cafe du +Dome, in Paris (the hotel in which it is said Whistler stayed when he +was a student), which almost exactly resembled my room at Antoine's, +even to the dust which was under the bed--until 'Genie got to work with +broom and brush. Moreover, connected with my room there was a bath which +actually had a _chaufbain_ to heat the water: one of those weird French +machines resembling the engine of a steam launch, which pops savagely +when you light the gas beneath it, and which, as you are always +expecting it to blow up and destroy you, converts the morning ablutions +from a perfunctory duty into a great adventure. + +Then too, there was Marie who has attended to the _linge_ at Antoine's +for the last fifty years, and who helped the gray-haired genial Eugenie +to "make proper the rooms." Ever since 'Genie--as she is called, for +short--came from her native Midi, she has been at Antoine's; and like +Francois--the gentle, kindly, white-mustached old waiter who, when we +were there, had just moved up to Antoine's after thirty-five years' +service at the Louisiane--'Genie is always ready with a smile; yes, even +in the rush of Mardi Gras! + +Antoine's does not set up to be a regular hotel, and we stopped there +because, during the carnival, all rooms in the large modern hotels +across Canal Street were taken. The carnival rush made room-service at +Antoine's a little slow, now and then; sometimes the bell would not be +answered when we rang for breakfast; or again, our morning coffee and +_croissants_ would be forty minutes on the way; sometimes we became a +little bit impatient--though we could never bring ourselves to say so to +such amiable servitors. As a result, when we were leaving the city for a +little trip, we determined to stay, on our return, at the Grunewald, a +hotel like any one of a hundred others in the United States--marble +lobbies, gold ceilings, rathskellers, cabaret shows, dancing, and page +boys wandering through the corridors and dining-rooms, calling in nasal, +sing-song voices: "_Mis_-ter _Shoss_-futt! _Mis_-ter _Ahm_-kaplopps! +_Mis_-ter _Praggle_-fiss! _Mis_-ter Blahms!" + +We did return and go to the Grunewald. But comfortable as we were made +there, we had to own to each other that we missed Antoine's. We missed +our curious old rooms. I even missed my _chaufbain_, and was bored at +the commonplace matutinal performance of turning on hot water without +preliminary experiments in marine engineering. We thought wistfully of +'Genie's patient smile, and of her daily assurance to us, when we went +out, that "when she had made the apartments she would render the key to +the bureau, _alors_,"--which is to say, leave the key at the office. We +yearned for the cafe, for good Francois, for the deliciously flavored +oysters cooked on the half-shell and served on a pan of hot rock-salt +which kept them warm; for the cold tomatoes _a la Jules Cesar_; for the +bisque of crayfish _a la Cardinal_; for the bouillibasse (which +Thackeray admitted was as good in New Orleans as in Marseilles, and +which Otis Skinner says is better); for the unrivaled gombo _a la +Creole_, and pompano _en Papillotte_, and pressed duck _a la Tour +d'Argent_, and orange Brulot, and the wonderful Cafe Brulot +Diabolique--that spiced coffee made in a silver bowl from which emerge +the blue flames of burning cognac, and in honor of which the lights of +the cafe are always temporarily dimmed. + +Nor least of all was it that we wished to see again the mother of Jules, +who sits back of the _caisse_ and takes in the money, like many another +good French wife and mother--a tiny little old lady more than +ninety-five years old, who came to New Orleans in 1840 as the bride of +the then young Antoine Alciatore. + +So we put on our hats and coats when evening came, and went back to +Antoine's for dinner, and as long as we were in New Orleans we kept on +going back. + +That is not to say, of course, that we did not go also to the Louisiane +and Galatoire's, or that we did not drop in for luncheon, sometimes, at +Brasco's, in Gravier Street, or at Kolb's, a more or less conventional +German restaurant in St. Charles Street; or that we failed to go out to +Tranchina's at Spanish Fort, on Lake Pontchartrain, or to the quainter +little place called Noy's where, we learned, Ernest Peixotto had been +but a short time before, gathering material for indigestion and an +article in "Scribner's Magazine." But when all is said and done there +remain the three restaurants of the old quarter. + +I should like to give some history of Galatoire's as well as of the +other two, but when I asked the _patron_ for the story of his +restaurant, he smiled, and with a shrug replied: "But Monsieur, the +story is in the food!" + +Do not expect any of these places to present the brilliant appearance of +distinguished New York restaurants. They are comparatively simple, all +of them, and are engaged not with soft carpets and gilt ceilings, but +with the art of cookery. + +I have been told that some of them have what may be termed "tourist +cooking," which is not their best, but if you know good food, and let +them know you know it, and if you visit them at any time except during +the carnival, then you have a right to expect in any one of these +establishments, a superb dinner. For as I once heard my friend Col. +Beverly Myles, one of the city's most distinguished _gourmets_, remark: +"To talk of 'tolerably good food' in a French restaurant is like +talking of 'a tolerably honest man.'" + +The carnival of Mardi Gras and the several days preceding, is one of +those things about which I feel as I do concerning Niagara Falls, and +gambling houses, and the red light district of Butte, Montana, and the +underground levels of a mine, and the world as seen from an aeroplane, +and the Quatres Arts ball, and a bull fight--I am glad to have seen it +once, but I have no desire to see it again. During the carnival my +companion and I enjoyed a period of sleepless gaiety. To be sure, we +went to bed every morning, but what is the use in doing that if you also +get up every morning? We went to the street pageants, we went to the +balls at the French Opera House, we saw the masking on the streets, and +when the carnival was finished we were finished, too. + +The great thing about the carnival, it seems to me, is that it bears the +relation to the life of the city, that a well-developed hobby does to +the life of an individual. It keeps the city young. It keeps it from +becoming pompous, from taking itself too seriously, from getting into a +rut. It stimulates not alone the young, but the grave and reverend +seigniors also, to give themselves up for a little while each year to +play, and moreover to use their imaginations in annually devising new +pageants and costumes. From this point of view such a carnival would be +a good thing for any city. + +But that is where the Latin spirit of New Orleans comes in, with its +pleasing combination of gaiety and restraint. You could not hold such a +carnival in every city. You could not do it in New York. For more +important even than the pageants and the balls, is the carnival frame of +mind. To hold a carnival such as New Orleans holds, a city must know how +to be lively and playful without becoming drunk, without breaking +barroom mirrors, upsetting tables, annoying women, thrusting "ticklers" +into people's faces, jostling, fighting, committing the thousand rough +vulgar excesses in which New York indulges every New Year's Eve, and in +which it would indulge to an even more disgusting extent under the +additional license of the mask. + +The carnival--_carne vale_, farewell flesh--which terminates with Mardi +Gras--"Fat Tuesday," or Shrove Tuesday, the day before the beginning of +Lent--comes down to us from pagan times by way of the Latin countries. +The "Cowbellions," a secret organization of Mobile, in 1831 elaborated +the idea of historical and legendary processions, and as early as 1837 +New Orleans held grotesque street parades. Twenty years later the +"Mystic Krewe," now known as "Comus," appeared from nowhere and +disappeared again. The success of Comus encouraged the formation of +other secret societies, each having its own parade and ball, and in +1872, Rex, King of the Carnival, entered his royal capital of New +Orleans in honor of the visit of the Grand Duke Alexis--who, by the way, +is one of countless notables who have feasted at Antoine's. + +The three leading carnival societies, Comus, Momus, and Proteus, are +understood to be connected with three of the city's four leading clubs, +all of which stand within easy range of one another on the uptown side +of Canal Street: the Boston Club (taking its name from an old card +game); the Pickwick (named for Dickens' genial gentleman, a statue of +whom stands in the lobby); the Louisiana, a young men's club; and the +Chess, Checkers and Whist Club. The latter association is, I believe, +the one that takes no part in the carnival. + +Each of the carnival organizations has its own King and Queen, and the +connection between certain clubs and certain carnival societies may be +guessed from the fact that the Comus Queen and Proteus Queen always +appear on the stand in front of the Pickwick Club, to witness their +respective parades, and that the Queen of the entire Carnival appears +with her maids of honor on the stand before the Boston Club upon the day +of Mardi Gras, to witness the triumphal entry and parade of Rex. As Rex +passes the club he sends her a bouquet--the official indication of her +queenship. That night she appears for the first time in the glory of her +royal robes at the Rex Ball, which is held in a large hall; and the +great event of the carnival, from a social standpoint, is the official +visit, on the same night, of Rex and his Queen, attended by their court, +to the King and Queen of Comus, at the Comus Ball, held in the Opera +House. + +Passing between the brilliantly illuminated flag-draped buildings, +under festoons of colored electric lights, the street parades, with +their spectacular colored floats, their bands, their negro +torch-bearers, their strangely costumed masked figures, throwing favors +into the dense crowds, are glorious sights for children ranging anywhere +from eight to eighty years of age. Public masking on the streets, on the +day of Mardi Gras, is also an amusing feature of the carnival. + +The balls, upon the other hand, are social events of great importance in +the city, and as spectacles they are peculiarly fine. Invitations to +these balls are greatly coveted, and the visitor to the city who would +attend them, must exert his "pull" some time in advance. The +invitations, by the way, are not sent by individuals, but by the +separate organizations, and even those young ladies who are so fortunate +as to have "call-outs"--cards inclosed with their invitations, +indicating that they are to be asked to dance, and may therefore have +seats on the ground floor--are not supposed to know from what man these +cards come. Ladies who have not received call-outs, and gentlemen who +are not members of the societies, are packed into the boxes and seats +above the parquet floor, and do not go upon the dancing floor until very +late in the evening. Throughout each ball the members of the society +giving the ball continue to wear their costumes and their masks, so that +ladies, called from their seats to dance, often find themselves treading +a measure with some gallant who speaks in a strange assumed voice, +striving to maintain the mystery of his identity. The ladies, upon the +other hand, are not in costume and are not masked; about them, there is +no more mystery than women always have about them. After each dance the +masker produces a present for his partner--usually a pretty bit of +jewelry. Etiquette not only allows, but insists, that a woman accept any +gift offered to her at a carnival ball, and it is said that by this +means many a young gentleman has succeeded in bestowing upon the lady of +his heart a piece of jewelry the value of which would make acceptance of +the gift impossible under other than carnival conditions. + +After the balls many of the younger couples go to the Louisiane and +Antoine's, to continue the dance, and as my room at Antoine's was +directly over one of the dancing rooms of the establishment, I might +make a shrewd guess as to how long they stayed up, after my companion +and I retired. + +Let it not be supposed that we retired early. I remember well the look +of the pale blue dawn of Ash Wednesday morning, and no less do I +remember a conversation with a gentleman I met at the Louisiane, just +before the dawn broke. I never saw him before and I have never seen him +since; nor do I know his name, or where he came from. I only know that +he was an agreeable, friendly person who did not wish to go to bed. + +When I said that I was going home he protested. + +"Don't do that!" he urged. "There's a nice French restaurant in this +town. I can't think of the name of it. Let's go there." + +"Well, how can we go if you don't know what place it is?" I asked, +intending to be discouraging. + +The young man looked dazed at this. Then his face brightened suddenly. + +"Oh, yes!" he cried. "I remember the name now! It's the Louisiane! Come +on! Let's get our coats an' go there!" + +"But," I said, "this is the Louisiane right here." + +The thought seemed to stagger him, for he swayed ever so slightly. + +"All right," he said, regarding me with great solemnity. "Let's go +there!" + + * * * * * + +I have wondered since if this same young man may not have been the one +who, returning to the St. Charles Hotel in the early hours of that sad +Ash Wednesday morning, was asked by the clerk, who gave him his key, +whether he wished to leave a call. + +"What day's this?" he inquired. + +"Wednesday," said the clerk. + +"All ri'," replied the other, moving toward the elevator. "Call me +Saturday." + + + + +CHAPTER LX + +FINALE + + Yonder the long horizon lies, and there by night and day + The old ships draw to home again, the young ships sail away; + And come I may, but go I must, and if men ask you why, + You may put the blame on the stars and the sun and the white road and + the sky! + + --GERALD GOULD. + + +It is good to look about the world; but always there comes a time when +the restless creature, man, having yielded to the call of the seas and +the stars and the sky, and gone a-journeying, begins to think of home +again. Even were home a less satisfactory, a less happy place than it +is, he would be bound to think of it after so long a journey as that +upon which my companion and I had spent so many months. For, just as it +is necessary for a locomotive to go every so often for an overhauling, +so it is necessary for the traveler to return to headquarters. The +fastenings of his wardrobe trunk are getting loose, and the side of it +has been stove in; his heels are running down in back, his watch needs +regulating, his umbrella-handle is coming loose, he is running out of +notebooks and pencils and has broken a blade of his knife in trying to +open a bottle with it (because he left his corkscrew in a hotel +somewhere along the way). His fountain pen has sprung a leak and +spoiled a waistcoat, his razors are dull, his strop is nicked, and he +has run out of the kind of cigarettes and cigars he likes. One lens of +his spectacles has gotten scratched, his mail has ceased to reach him, +his light suits are spotted, baggy and worn, and his winter suits are +becoming too heavy for comfort as the spring advances. His neckties are +getting stringy, he has hangnails and a cough; he never could fix his +own hangnails, and he cannot cure his cough because the bottle of +glycerine and wild cherry provided for just such an emergency by the +loved ones at home, got broken on the trip from Jacksonville to +Montgomery, and went dribbling down through the trunk, ruining his +reference books, three of his best shirts, and the only decent pair of +russet shoes he had left. The other shoes have been ruined in various +ways; one pair was spoiled in a possum hunt at Clinton, North +Carolina--and it was worth it, and worth the overcoat that was ruined at +the same time; two pairs of black shoes have been caked up with layers +and layers of sticky blacking, and one pair of russets was ruined by a +well intentioned negro lad in Memphis, who thought they would look +better painted red. His traveler's checks are running low and he is +continually afraid that, amid his constantly increasing piles of notes +and papers, he will lose the three books in each of which remains a few +feet of "yellow scrip"--the mileage of the South--which will take him on +his return journey as far as Washington. + +Nor is that all. The determining factor in his decision to go home lies +in the havoc wrought by a long succession of hotel laundries--laundries +which starch the bosoms of soft silk shirts, which mark the owner's name +in ink upon the hems of sheer linen handkerchiefs which already have +embroidered monograms, which rip holes in those handkerchiefs and then +fold them so that the holes are concealed until, some night, he whips +one confidently from the pocket of his dress suit, and reveals it +looking like a tattered battle-flag; laundries which leave long trails +of iron rust on shirt-bosoms, which rip out seams, tear off buttons, +squeeze out new standing collars to a saw-tooth edge, iron little pieces +of red and brown string into collars, cuffs, and especially into the +bosoms of dress shirts, and "finish" dress shirts and collars, not only +in the sense of ending their days of usefulness as fast as possible, but +also by making them shine like the interiors of glazed porcelain +bathtubs. But the greatest cruelty of the hotel laundry is to socks. It +is not that they do more damage to socks, than to other garments, but +that the laundry devil has been able to think of a greater variety of +means for the destruction of socks than for the destruction of any other +kind of garment. He begins by fastening to each sock a cloth-covered tin +tag, attached by means of prongs. On this tag he puts certain marks +which will mean nothing to the next laundry. The next laundry therefore +attaches other tin tags, either ripping off the old ones (leaving holes +where the prongs went through) or else letting them remain in place, so +that, after a while, the whole top of the sock is covered with tin, +making it an extraordinarily uncomfortable thing to wear, and a strange +thing to look at. There is still another way in which the laundry devil +tortures the sock-owner. He can find ways to shrink any sock that is not +made of solid heavy silk; and of course he can rip silk socks all to +pieces. He will take silk-and-wool socks of normal length, and in one +washing will so reduce them that you can hardly get your foot into them, +and that the upper margins of them come only about an inch above your +shoe-tops. People who have no business to do so, are thus enabled, when +you are seated, to see the tops of your socks and to amuse themselves by +counting the tin tags with which they are adorned. Also, the socks, +being so short, become better pullers than the garters, so that instead +of the garters holding the socks up, the socks pull the garters down. +This usually occurs as you are walking up the aisle in church, or in the +middle of a dance, and of course your garter manages to come unclasped, +into the bargain, and goes trailing after you, like a convict's ball and +chain. + +For a time you can stand this sort of thing, but presently you begin to +pine for the delicate washtub artistry of Amanda, at home; for vestments +which, when sent to the wash, do not come back riddled with holes, or +smelling as though they had been washed in carbolic acid, or in the tub +with a large fish. + +So, presently, you fold up your rags like the Arabs, fasten your +battered baggage shut as best you can, put it on a taxi, and head for +the railway station. No train ever looks so handsome as the home-bound +train you find there. No engineer ever looks so sturdy and capable, +leaning from the window of his cab, as the one who is to take you home. + +Up through the South you fly, past many places you have seen before, +past towns where you have friends whom you would like to see again--only +not now! Now nothing will do but home! Out of the region of magnolias, +palmettoes and live-oaks you pass into the region of pines, and out of +the region of pines into that of maples and elms. At last you come to +Washington.... Only a few hours longer! How satisfyingly the train slips +along! You are not conscious of curves, or even of turning wheels +beneath you. Your progress is like the swift glide of a flying sled. +Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Trenton. Nothing to do but look +from the car windows and rejoice. Not that you love the South less, but +that you love home more. + +"I wonder if we will ever go on such a trip as this again?" you say to +your companion. + +"I don't believe so," he replies. + +"It doesn't seem now as though we should," you return. "But do you +remember?--we talked the same way when we were coming home before. What +will it be two years hence?" + +"True," he says. "And of course there's Conan Doyle. He always thinks +he's never going to do it any more. But in a year or so Sherlock Holmes +pops out again, drawn by Freddy Steele, all over the cover of +'Collier's.' Not that your stuff is as good as Doyle's, but that the +general case is somewhat parallel." + +"Doyle has killed Holmes," you put in. + +"Yes," he agrees, "and several times you've almost killed me." + +Then as the train speeds scornfully through Newark, without stopping, he +catches sight of a vast concrete building--a warehouse of some kind, +apparently. + +"Look!" he cries. "Isn't it wonderful?" + +"That building?" + +"Not the building itself. The thought that we don't have to get off here +and go through it. Think what it would be like if we were on our +travels! There would be a lot of citizens in frock coats. Probably the +mayor would be there, too. They would drive us to that building, and +take us in, and then they would cry if we refused to go to the +fourteenth floor, where they keep the dried prunes." + +The train slips across the Jersey meadows and darts into the tunnel. + +"Now," he remarks hopefully, "we are really going to get home--if this +tunnel doesn't drop in on us." + +And when the train has emerged from the tunnel, and you have emerged +from the train, he says: "Now there's no doubt that we are going to get +home--unless we are smashed up in a taxi, on the way." + +And when the taxi stops at your front door, and you bid him farewell +before he continues on his way to his own front door, he says: "Now +you're going to get home for sure--unless the elevator drops." + +And when the elevator has not dropped, but has transported you in safety +to the door of your apartment, and you have searched out the old key, +and have unlocked the door, and entered, and found happiness within, +then you wonder to yourself as I once heard a little boy wonder, when he +had gone out of his own yard, and had found a number of large cans of +paint, and had upset them on himself: + +"I have a very happy home," he said, reflectively. "I wonder why I don't +seem to stay around it more?" + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: Charleston is the last stronghold of a unified American +upper class; the last remaining American city in which Madeira and Port +and _noblesse oblige_ are fully and widely understood, and are employed +according to the best traditions] + +[Illustration: "Railroad ticket!" said the baggageman with exaggerated +patience. I began to feel in various pockets] + +[Illustration: Can most travellers, I wonder, enjoy as I do a solitary +walk, by night, through the mysterious streets of a strange city?] + +[Illustration: Coming out of my slumber with the curious and unpleasant +sense of being stared at, I found his eyes fixed upon me] + +[Illustration: Mount Vernon Place is the centre of Baltimore. Everything +begins there, including Baedeker] + +[Illustration: If she is shopping for a dinner party, she may order the +costly and aristocratic diamond-back terrapin, sacred in Baltimore as is +the Sacred Cod in Boston] + +[Illustration: Doughoregan Manor--The house was of buff-colored brick. +It was low and very long, with wings extending from its central +structure like beautiful arms flung wide in welcome] + +[Illustration: I began to realize that there was no one coming; that no +one had opened the door; that it had begun to swing immediately upon my +saying the word "ghosts"] + +[Illustration: Harpers Ferry is an entrancing old town; a drowsy place +piled up beautifully yet carelessly upon terraced roads clinging to +steep hillsides] + +[Illustration: "What's the matter with him?" I asked, stopping] + +[Illustration: When I came down, dressed for riding, my companion was +making a drawing; the four young ladies were with him, none of them in +riding habits] + +[Illustration: Claymont Court is one of the old Washington houses. But +in all its history it has never been a happier home or a more +interesting one than it is to-day] + +[Illustration: Chatham, the old Fitzhugh house, now the residence of +Mark Sullivan. Washington, Madison, Monroe, Washington Irving, Lee and +Lincoln have known the shelter of its roof] + +[Illustration: Monticello stands on a lofty hilltop, with vistas, +between trees of neighboring valleys, hills, and mountains] + +[Illustration: Like Venice, the University of Virginia should first be +seen by moonlight] + +[Illustration: One party was stationed on the top of an old-time +mail-coach bearing the significant initials "F.F.V."] + +[Illustration: The Piedmont Hunt Race Meet--There is a distinct note of +histrionism about many of the rich Americans who "go in for" elaborate +ruralness, and there is a touch of it, also, about ultra-"horsey" +people] + +[Illustration: The southern negro is the world's peasant supreme] + +[Illustration: The Country Club of Virginia, out to the west of +Richmond, is one of the most charming clubs of its kind in the United +States] + +[Illustration: Judge Crutchfield--a white-haired, hook-nosed man of more +than seventy, peering over his eyeglasses with a look of shrewd, +merciless divination] + +[Illustration: Negro women squatting upon boxes in old shadowy lofts +stem the tobacco leaves] + +[Illustration: THE JUDGE: What did he do, Mandy? + +THE WIFE: Jedge, he come bustin' in, an' he come so fas' he untook de +do' off'n de hinges!] + +[Illustration: Some genuine old-time New York ferryboats help to +complete the illusion that Norfolk is New York] + +[Illustration: "The Southern Statesman who serves his section best, +serves the country best."] + +[Illustration: St. Philip's is the more beautiful for the open space +before it, and the graceful outward bend of Church Street in deference +to the projecting portico] + +[Illustration: Or, opposite St. Philip's, a perfect example of the rude +architecture of an old French village; stucco walls, tinted and chipped, +red tile roofs and all] + +[Illustration: In the doorway and gates of the Smyth house, in Legare +Street, I was struck with a Venetian suggestion] + +[Illustration: Nor is the Charleston background a mere arras of +recollection. It exists everywhere in the wood and brick and stone of +ancient and beautiful buildings, in iron grilles and balconies +unrivalled in any other American city....] + +[Illustration: Charleston has a stronger, deeper-rooted city entity than +all the cities of the middle west rolled into one] + +[Illustration: The interior is the oldest looking thing in the United +States--Goose Creek Church] + +[Illustration: A reminder of the Chicago River--Atlanta] + +[Illustration: With the whole Metropolitan Orchestra playing dance music +all night long] + +[Illustration: The office buildings are city office buildings, and are +sufficiently numerous to look very much at home] + +[Illustration: The negro roof-garden, Odd Fellows' Building, Atlanta] + +[Illustration: I was never so conscious, as at the time of our visit to +the Burge plantation, of the superlative soft sweetness of the spring] + +[Illustration: The planters cease their work] + +[Illustration: Birmingham--The thin veil of smoke from far-off iron +furnaces softens the city's serrated outlines] + +[Illustration: Birmingham practices unremittingly the pestilential habit +of "cutting in" at dances] + +[Illustration: Gigantic movements and mutations, Niagara-like noises, +great bursts of flame like fallen fragments from the sun] + +[Illustration: A shaggy, unshaven, rawboned man, gray-haired and +collarless, sat near the window and uttered convincing imitations of the +sounds made by chickens, roosters, pigs, goats and crows] + +[Illustration: Gaze upon the character called Daniel Voorhees Pike! +Observe the manliness with which he thrusts his pink little hands deep +in the pockets of his--or somebody's--pantaloons!] + +[Illustration: The houses were full of the suggestion of an easy-going +home life and an informal hospitality. (Back yard of the former home of +General Stephen D. Lee.)] + +[Illustration: Her hands looked very white and small against his dark +coat. He was gazing down at them, his features distorted by a shockingly +sentimental smile] + +[Illustration: As water flows down the hills of Vicksburg to the river, +so the visitor's thoughts flow down to the great spectacular, +mischievous, dominating stream] + +[Illustration: Over the tenement roofs one catches sight of sundry other +buildings of a more self-respecting character, and, far off, the cupola +of Vicksburg's old stone court house] + +[Illustration: Vicksburg negroes. Whether drowsing in the sun, doing a +little stroke of work, or sitting gabbling on the curbstone, they were +upon the whole as cheerful and comical a lot of people as I ever saw] + +[Illustration: In some of the boats negro fish-markets are conducted, +advertised by large catfish dangling from posts and railing] + +[Illustration: The old Klein house, standing amid lawns and +old-fashioned gardens on the bluff overlooking the river] + +[Illustration: Citizens go at midday to the square where they buy +popcorn for the squirrels and pigeons--Memphis] + +[Illustration: Hanging in the air above the middle of the stream] + +[Illustration: These small parks give Savannah a quality which +differentiates it from all other American cities] + +[Illustration: The Thomas House in Franklin Square in which Lafayette +was entertained] + +[Illustration: You will see them having tea, and dancing under the palm +fronds of the cocoanut grove, when the electric lights begin to glow in +the luminous semi-tropical twilight] + +[Illustration: Cocktail hour at The Breakers] + +[Illustration: Nowhere is the sand more like a deep warm dust of yellow +gold; nowhere is there a margin of the earth so splashed with spots of +brilliant color; nowhere is water less like water, more like a flowing +waste of liquid emeralds and sapphires edged with a thousand gleaming +flouncing strings of pearls] + +[Illustration: The couples on the platform were "ragging," their +shoulders working like the walking-beams of side-wheelers] + +[Illustration: Harness held together by that especial Providence which +watches over negro mendings] + +[Illustration: It was a very jolly fair, with the usual lot of barkers +and the usual gaping crowd] + +[Illustration: The mysterious old Absinthe House, founded 1799] + +[Illustration: St. Anthony's Garden, where duels originating at the +quadroon balls were fought] + +[Illustration: Courtyard of the old Orleans Hotel] + +[Illustration: The little lady who sits behind the desk is more than +ninety-five years old, and came to New Orleans as the bride of Antoine] + +[Illustration: The lights are always lowered at Antoine's when the +spectacular Cafe Boulot Diabolique is served] + +[Illustration: Passing between the brilliantly illuminated buildings, +under festoons of electric lights the Mardi Gras parades, with their +floats, their bands, their torch-bearers, their masked figures, are +glorious sights for children from eight to eighty years of age] + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes. + + Page 82: changed "Ridgleys" to "Ridgelys" (of present + Ridgelys) + + Page 83: changed "her serious, eyes" to "her serious + eyes" + + Page 138: Added missing word "we" (said as we were about + to leave) + + Page 161: removed hyphen from "one-course" (prescribed + one course) + + Page 169: changed "not" to "now" (now know that I did) + + Page 172: added missing quotation mark (such a long + telegram.") + + Page 209: changed "Virgina" to "Virginia" (in Virginia, + save,) + + Page 217: changed "it" to "in" (harm in it) + + Page 217: added missing quotation mark (raised with + niggers around him."") + + Page 245: removed superfluous quotation marks from end + of two lines (Yass, Jedge, drunk. _Always_ drunk.) + (he come so fast he untook the do' off'n + de hinges; den 'e begins--") + + Page 283: added missing quotation mark (you very + definitely don't.") + + Page 287: changed "Okrakoke" to "Ocracoke" (legend + around Okracoke) + + Page 295: changed "seem" to "see" (them to see him) + + Page 328: changed "new York" to "New York" (New York + "Sun,") + + Page 334: changed "coffe" to "coffee" (coffee, hot and + iced.) + + Page 355: changed "maried" to "married" (were married in + the dining room) + + Page 438: changed "corporaton" to "corporation" + (corporation I have scandalously) + + Page 449: changed "constructon" to "construction" (With + the construction) + + Page 450: changed "conversatons" to "conversations" and + "wth" to "with" (telephonic conversations with a) + + Page 453: changed "objectons" to "objections" (brushed + aside our objections.) + + Page 514: changed " to ' ("'Yes,' said Ed.) + + Page 518: added missing quotation mark (town in the + Southwest.") + + Page 521: changed "repreduction" to "reproduction" (is a + photographic reproduction) + + Page 527: changed "crusing" to "cruising" (was still + cruising in the South) + + Page 528: added missing word "a" (officer of a naval + vessel.) + + Page 532: changed "stading" to "standing" (and silver + standing on the) + + Page 538: added missing word "ago" (years ago he + conducted) + + Page 542: added missing quotation mark (innumerable + squirrels.") + + Page 590: changed "redout" to "redoubt" (last redoubt + held) + + Page 631: changed "hardly" to "hardy" (hardy pioneers + from Canada,) + + Page 640: added missing ) ("mosquito bar.") The) + + Page 649: changed "This, situation is" to "This + situation is" (This situation is) + + Page 649: changed "may" to "my" (it was my chance) + + Page 655: added missing quotation mark (the Jolly + Roger.") + + Page 657: changed "well-know" to "well-known" (too + well-known "Last) + + Page 669: changed "is" to "it" (that it bears the + relation) + + Page 670: changed "that" to "than" (even than the + pageants) + + Page 734: changed "coconut" to "cocoanut" in image + caption (palm fronds of the cocoanut grove,) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of American Adventures, by Julian Street + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERICAN ADVENTURES *** + +***** This file should be named 18304.txt or 18304.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/3/0/18304/ + +Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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